Earth Abides, Chapter 7 by patricia51

(Someone New)

(The Former Umbrella North American Facility, Nevada Desert)

"Can we open this? Revive her?"

Eliza stared at her friend. "What in the world K-Mart?"

"Look at this." The team leader held up the clipboard she had picked up that had caused her such consternation. Eliza took it.

Most of the ink had faded until it was just a blur. But several words still stood out. One of the clearest ones, surrounded by nothing else that could be deciphered was the name "Abernathy".

"Good God."

The team swarmed the stasis pod and its area. Monitors were turned on and sprang immediately to life.

"The pod is still active. Has been in fact because the readouts are showing that she's still alive. It looks like everything else was shut down to conserve power."

"But by whom? How? And why?" K-Mart demanded before sighing heavily. "Yes I know; it's not like any of us know the answers to this any more than we know why this part of the complex exists and why was it apparently hidden from Isaacs and the other. And it doesn't look like anyone is talking."

Grumbling loudly and often Gabe came from the power plant. He admitted that he was just about done and had been mostly pausing to enjoy the job the Umbrella engineers had done with it. He examined the equipment. Between him, Eliza and a couple of others the process to awaken the occupant of the tube was started. Fortunately the instruction manual was still present and its print was not faded.

Relays clicked. The nutrient solution began to drain and normal air started replacing the mixture that helped hold the person in the tube's timeless grip.

"Why is she here?" mumbled K-Mart to no one in particular. "Whoever she is. Why all of this?"

No one answered. K-Mart really wasn't expecting anyone to do so, she was just thinking aloud. It saved a little of her fingernails, which she was gnawing on as the process of awakening continued.

Then the chamber was opening. K-Mart rushed forward, wrapping the little girl in a blanket as she blinked her eyes, trying to make sense of the world around her. The breathing mask was slipped off and she was helped onto a gurney that had been rushed from the central base's medical facility. Carefully she was rolled to the just found elevator and lifted to the level that would allow them to take back to the main facility. K-Mart went with her, holding her hand the whole time and squeezing it in reassurance.

"What was that all about?" asked a slightly baffled Parker who had arrived late.

In response Eliza picked up the clipboard that had first grabbed K-Mart's attention. She pointed to the name.

"Okay, that explains her interest," Parker admitted. "But..."

"We have no idea," returned Eliza. "And probably won't till she wakes up all the way and I suspect not even then."

The group returned to their duties. Gabe headed back to the thermal power unit, Eliza to the control room, both with their same coworkers. Having found the personnel/freight elevator to the different floors Parker and the security team returned to trying to find out how the massive supplies and vehicles had been brought here and more important how they could be brought back to the surface.

Meanwhile K-Mart remained beside the little girl who was now sleeping. The team leader decided she was about ten and just as cute as could be. She desperately wanted to wake her to find out what she might know. Why was her mother's name on that clipboard? But for now she could only wait.

Time drew on and K-Mart dozed off in the chair beside the girl's hospital bed. She snapped awake as a cry from the bed filled the room. The little girl was flailing and trying to get out of bed while looking around frantically. K-Mart realized the girl was terrified and lost. She flung her arms around her and held her.

"Shhhhh, shhhh, it's alright."

The struggles slowed somewhat. Taking a chance K-Mart drew back slightly so she could look the girl in the face.

"Who are you? Where am I? Where are my parents?"

The words were delivered in a strange cadence and tone such as K-Mart had never heard before. Then she remembered that she had. A friend in college Drew Marion who was deaf. She sat back further, thanking God that her mother had learned American Sign Language while with the Treasury Department and had taught it to her, her dad and their friends.

"What's your name?" K-Mart spoke and signed slowly.

The little girl's eyes widened. She replied with both her voice and hands. "I'm Becky. Who are you? Where am I?"

"I'm K-Mart." When Becky looked surprised the older girl laughed, which seemed to relax the child. "No really. That is my name. And you are in an infirmary and you are safe."

Somehow K-Mart's earnest sincerity came through. Becky nodded and settled down.

"Becky, what do you remember last?"

The little girl was thoughtful. "Not much. I think I was getting ready to go to school. My mom was making breakfast and my dad was getting ready for work. But it all seems like a dream."

K-Mart drew out the flat wallet she wore around her neck on a chain. She opened it and took out a picture. Covering two of the three people in it with her thumb she showed it to Becky.

"Does this person look familiar?"

"Becky's eyes widened. "That's my mom!"

K-Mart smiled. She still had no idea how this had all happened but she hadn't been surprised. She shifted her thumb to just cover one person and showed it again.

"And who is this other person?"

"It's my father!" Becky looked shocked. "My parents. How do you have a picture of them?"

The older girl changed her hold on the picture so none of the people were hidden.

"Look at the third person."

Incredulously Becky looked back and forth from the blonde girl to the picture. "That's YOU!"

"Yes it is. And those are my mom and dad too. So you are my sister. Oh and by the way you have not one or two but FOUR little brothers and sisters; two of each, back home in Alaska."

"Alaska?"

"Yes." K-Mart sighed. "Becky there is so much to explain and I'm not sure where to start or even all of the details of how I happened to find you. But the world has changed so much from what you remember. But one thing is sure. I am your big sister and I promise to take care of you."

This time it was the little girl who threw herself into the arms of the young woman.

"Okay."

"Are you hungry Becky?"

The little girl looked thoughtful. "Starving!"

K-Mart laughed. "Let's go eat then."

A dusty chest next to the stasis tube had been found to have a selection of clothing just right for Becky. K-Mart helped her get dressed as she wondered yet again what the heck was going on. The pair made their way to the dining hall where the majority of the team was eating. Becky stayed very close to K-Mart but was reassured by the warm smiles that greeted her. They sat down with Eliza, Tom and Parker who had been discussing the efforts to get the AI back online.

Eliza smiled at Becky. "And who is this?"

"I'm Becky." The little girl looked uncertain but then grasped K-Mart's hand and relaxed. "This is my sister."

"Your sister?" marveled the computer girl. She cocked an eye at K-Mart.

"It's a long story," the team leader replied. "And I don't know it all yet. Suffice it to say we apparently have the same parents so there you are."

"There you are," agreed Parker. "How about something to eat Becky? Are you hungry?"

"Starving," was the reply once more.

The table laughed. "You are without a doubt just like your sister," said Tom with a grin. "She is always hungry too."

Fortunately there was still plenty of food left over from the time Claire's convoy had rested here, enough to even fill up a very hungry pre-teen. After dinner K-Mart returned to the control room, hand in hand with Becky at her side. Eliza and Tom were back at work. Parker was there as well. K-Mart smothered a smile. More and more her two friends seemed to be found together regardless of the circumstances. Not that either of them was neglecting their duties but any spare time one had seemed to draw them to the other. And when both were free they quite often were not to be found at all.

Everyone was concentrating hard on what was being done, so much so that it was Becky whop noticed the new arrival.

"Hello, I'm Becky, who are you?"

K-Mart turned and stared. She cleared her throat. "Eliza? Tom? I think you can quit what you're doing now."

"What do you mean...?" Eliza's mouth snapped shut as she looked. Everyone else stared at the slightly shimmering image of a little girl in white that had appeared, apparently from no where. "Oh," she finished.

K-Mart studied the hologram. "Funny but you really don't look that much like Angie."

"You are referring to Angela Ashford?"

"That was her name. It's Angela Ashford Valentine Redfield now, after first her adopted mom Jill Valentine and then her adopted father Chris Redfield."

"Interesting. I was not aware that she was still alive. Yes, elements of her personality were integrated into my sub-routines by Doctor Ashford. I cannot seem to find her. Is she elsewhere or somewhere here that my damaged sensor array is unable to pick up?"

"Actually she's in Raccoon City looking, among other things, for a way to contact your sister the Red Queen."

"I see. I also see that you are not Umbrella personnel nor can I find any of this facility's complement. I have attempted to contact Corporate Headquarters and no one is answering. Additionally I see that you have discovered the hidden wing here and aroused the test subject Becky. What has happened?"

"Doctor Isaacs was killed by one of his Crimson Head Zombies when he ambushed the Claire Redfield convoy. I was a member of that convoy. We believe he was trying to get control again of..."

"Project Alice," the AI appeared to nod.

"Project Alice to you. To me she's my mother."

"And mine," chimed in Becky, who had not been able to follow all of the conversation but had picked enough to know to whom K-Mart was referring.

"Correct." The AI nodded again, this time at Becky. "She is the result of the combining of DNA from Alice Abernathy and Carlos Olivera, both samples taken before the collapse when they were both Umbrella Corporation employees. You though I do not understand."

"My name is K-Mart Olivera-Abernathy. I was adopted by Alice Abernathy and Carlos Olivera, informally at first and then officially on the same day that they were married. By the way you can't reach anyone at Umbrella Headquarters because it was over run by the undead a few years ago. Chairman Wesker was also overrun at the same time. The Umbrella personnel here were wiped out in a battle with another group of Dr Isaacs' Crimson Head Super Zombies." The team leader went on to explain about their brief occupation of the facility years back.

"I was aware of their presence but I had been blocked from taking any action regarding them including warning Captain Slater of their presence. I do not posses the data as to how he acquired an override code but Dr. Isaacs had one and he locked me out of certain plans and the ability to report those plans."

"Including the hidden wing?"

"No I was aware of that area. That was built first and then this facility constructed adjoining it. All records of the first construction were deleted and the knowledge of it withheld from all current employees stationed here."

"Even Dr Isaacs?"

"Especially Dr. Isaacs. The man responsible, who built and stocked that area, although an extremely high ranking Umbrella executive, had plans to thwart many of the Board's plans as well as a determination to arrange as much as possible to better the chances of the human race to survive what he increasingly saw as a deadly threat brought on by their overwhelming ambitions."

K-Mart thought for a moment. "Would that individual be named Trent?"

"That was the name he used. Did you meet him?"

"No but my Aunt Jill, Jill Valentine now Jill Redfield, met him before she went to the Arklay Mountains and the Spencer Estate. And he gave my father Carlos Olivera much critical intelligence before he was dropped into Raccoon City. So I know he was opposed to the corporation he worked for."

"Correct," the AI acknowledged. "Had I not been off-line when you, particularly your mother and father, came here the first time I would have placed that wing and myself at their command. Now I do the same for you. There are tremendous things that can be accomplished with my assistance."

"Wow," K-Mart marveled. "Well this is beyond my pay grade. I need to call home. Besides," she recaptured Becky's hand. "There are a couple of people you need to get acquainted with."

(To be continued)

(Trent by the way is an original character created by S.D Perry for her novelizations of several of the games. A high ranking Umbrella executive he is dedicated to destroying the corporation and offers help and advice to the characters.)