Luther just stood in his cabin and looked at his arms, flexing them. His body didn't look different, but it felt different. The pain that crippled him just minutes before had been gone in an instant. He was starting to wonder if it even happened.

Claire shifted uneasily from side to side, not sure what to do. She gave Alice a look of plea to help her out. K-Mart seemed to notice Claire's uneasiness as well, and couldn't help but join in. Pretty much making the situation worse and more awkward.

Alice could see why Claire was uncomfortable. Especially when then person other than herself happened to have superhuman strength and used it against the survivors. That being Jill.

Alice cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "Claire why don't you take K-Mart and go find Chris? Tell him what happened and that Luther is just fine."

Claire opened her mouth, getting ready to protest and argue with Alice but stopped. "Fine. Let's go K-Mart."

The teen nodded and followed the redhead out of the cabin and they both veered to the right in search of Chris.

Luther stared at Alice, waiting for an answer or explanation for what was happening. Alice sighed before plopping down on to his bed, her hand brushing away the loose hair that fell on her face.

"Luther, are you hiding something from me? I need to know what it is that you aren't telling me. It has been bothering me because I still have this feeling that I know you in some way."

Luther averted his eyes from her face back to the floor."Look….Alice."

"No. I need the truth. Especially when neither I, nor the others on the ship know you that well. I need answers to your sketchy past."

"What I have told you already is all that you need to know Alice. I was a former basketball player and that is all." What Luther wasn't telling her was that he led two lives in the past. One he was too ashamed to admit just yet.

"Luther that is bullshit! I need to know how the fuck you managed to bond with the virus and when you were infected!" Alice was losing her cool. She needed answers not only to satisfy her own questions, but to make sure that Luther was even trustworthy.

Luther paced back and forth before throwing his arms up in defeat. He turned, and sat and leaned his back on the wall opposite of Alice. A good distance between the two, but now they were face to face. They sat in silence for a bit, both looking at each other. If someone had entered the room at that moment, they would have thought the two were having a staring competition just now.

Luther exhaled loudly. "I can't hide it anymore. I'll tell you what I think may be the cause of me being infected. I know I look familiar to you now. Believe me. Since the time you crash landed that plane on the roof, I have been racking my brain to figure out why you look so familiar."

Alice nodded, encouraging him to continue on. She had to know. Even if what he was about to tell her was bad.

XXXXxxxxXXXX

Jill moved her hands upward to Chris' face, only to be stopped by the chains that bound her wrists. She frowned and glared at her bindings, as if she could burn a hole through them by just staring at it.

"Mind telling me why the hell I am like this? I would love to know," Jill asked. Anger seeped in her words.

Chris sighed and looked away. "It's sort of a long story and I guess you haven't exactly remembered everything."

"Well I certainly don't remember doing something so bad that you would have me cuffed."

"You might not remember but we do Jill. At the time it wasn't exactly your fault but we have to take precautions," Claire exclaimed as she walked in the room with K-Mart at her side.

Jill could feel her heart beat faster. What did she do? Why couldn't she remember certain things? Jill looked at the women in front of her. She had no idea who the woman was. "And just who the fuck are you?"

"His sister," Claire calmly replied while pointing her finger at Chris.

Chris mentally sighed. If anything, Jill's attitude and demeanor was still the same. She was the tough chick that didn't let anything get in her way. He could already see future fighting between Valentine and his sister Claire. Just lovely.

XXXXxxxxXXXX

"Before this Apocalypse happened I had been drafted in to play pro basketball for a top notch team." Alice noticed a smile on Luther's face as he talked. "It had always been my dream to play for the NBA and I was getting my chance." The smile was replaced with a sad frown. "But before my first game I was in a car accident. It left me with a broken leg and right arm. I knew that despite the injuries being unavoidable, my chances of playing were shot. No way were they going to keep a player that was already injured."

Alice felt sorry for Luther. She knew all too well that dreams could be crushed, because the world was cruel. Back before zombies were rampant, it was survival of the fittest in business and now it's still not really different in a sense. Because it still ends up being survival of the fittest, but now, it had to do with literally life and death.

"I know you think a big old tough looking guy like me could never cry. Well waking up in the hospital knowing I wouldn't be able to do what I worked for all my life made me cry. It made me angry, and frustrated." Luther clenched his hands into fists. "That day an Umbrella worker, cofounder of the hospital chain and pharmaceuticals department, gave me an offer that was hard to refuse."

Alice's head shot up at the word of Umbrella. She hated the corporation now with every fiber of her own being.

"The guy told me they could fix my broken bones fast and get me back into playing. Maybe not for my first game, but for the second one at least."

Luther looked into Alice's blue green eyes before going on with the story. "I didn't believe it at first. I mean how could they fix my mangled leg in two weeks? The femur is the biggest bone in the body and mine was broken."

"But they ended up convincing you that they could right?" Alice asked.

Luther nodded. "Yea. That they were working on a new medicine that could reverse and increase healing and regeneration of cells in the body. I asked what the side effects were and what the catch to it all was."

"Let me guess. They told you it was fairly new and nothing bad would happen. That it would work and it would be free as long as you did something for them."

"Exactly. I could get the vaccine as long as I chose to work for them while playing basketball. That I would basically get Umbrella's combat training on the side as well as being a guinea pig for their experiments." Luther gave a short sigh. "At that time I told myself I had nothing to lose anyway. So I joined them and they swore me into secrecy of the product."

Alice's throat felt dry. She had her answer. He was a former employee of Umbrella. Just like she had been, but he just didn't know that. Or maybe he did.

"So I guess now you can hate me all you want and just get rid of me. If I had known Umbrella was like this back then I would have never accepted the offer."

"So that is why you seem so familiar to me now," Alice muttered, completely disregarding what Luther had just said.

"What?" Luther asked. Making sure he heard her correctly.

Alice walked up to Luther and offered her his hand. She helped him get up from his sitting position on the floor."I worked for the Umbrella Corporation as well. I remember seeing you plenty of times."

Luther gave Alice a confused look. "I don't understand."

"I guess you better hear my story now. Maybe then you won't think I am so heroic and good after all." Alice motioned him to sit on the bed as she stood. "I use to work in a high tech facility called the Hive. It was the center of control for the Umbrella Corporation and I was head of security…"

For over an hour Alice recalled the events of what happened. How she worked with Spence in a fake marriage, how she hid the hives existence, how the Red Queen went homicidal and killed over five hundred employees. How she had memory loss and how she went down into the Hive with One and his team, only to learn the truth of her fake husband and escape with a guy named Matt.

Alice shivered at the thought of it all. She hated remembering it and she hated being a part of it all. She didn't even continue with the story of Raccoon City and how she herself came to be infected. It was too much to talk about at the moment.

Alice froze as Luther's arm wrapped around her shoulder. She leaned in to the half embrace, as it was comforting.

Luther just stroked Alice's arm to comfort her. Alice needed a friend, maybe something even more. "No matter how tough you are on the outside, you are still human Alice. And humans are still always vulnerable to emotion. I'm telling you that it's alright to let it out once and awhile."

Alice let out a huge exhale. Like she had been holding it in the entire time she described what happened. "I guess you're right about that Luther," she muttered. Alice put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "But you tell anyone about this and I will beat the hell out of you."

Luther smirked. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. But imagine the look on Claire and Chris's face if they knew you could be so un-Alice like. Giving me a hug and-"

Luther was interrupted by an elbow blow to the stomach from Alice. She smirked because she made her point that Luther was in no way going to mess with her.

"I think we better go and head over to where Claire is," Alice stated as she removed herself from Luther's hug. Alice enjoyed his embrace but knew other things were a top priority and they needed attention. One being to find Claire and trade shifts so that she and her brother could get some much needed rest.

"Lead the way then," Luther said while opening the door for Alice. He smirked as she walked past him. Alice was indeed a special person.

K-Mart stood at the entrance of Jill's room and peered from side to side as if she were a security guard looking for something out of the ordinary. Alice gave a tiny smile toward the teen as she approached her. "Alice!Luther!"

"Well don't you seem a little cheery today," Luther told K-Mart.

"Yea you are missing out. Claire and Jill were having quite the talk. I had to leave the room because the tension was just so thick in there. It was like smothering me. I have no idea how Chris is managing to keep the two at peace and-"

Luther put his hand on top of K-Marts head before telling her, "Whoa. Slow down there, you are talking so fast I don't even know if Alice could hear what you just said. And you know she notices everything."

Alice glared at Luther before averting her attention to K-Mart. "Jill is awake?"

"Yea."

Alice noisily opened the door and into the room, successfully grabbing the other three people's attention.

"Alice?" Jill asked.

"It's me," Alice whispered all the while walking to the bedside of Jill's. Effectively ignoring the other two people in the room.

Chris mouthed to Claire to get out of the room and let Alice and Jill have some privacy to talk. Claire narrowed her eyes at him but finally agreed and followed him out.

"I don't know what to say to you," Jill said as she stared at the blond in front of her. "Claire told me what happened on the top of the ship…and I'm sorr-"

"No. Don't be Jill. You weren't you back there and it was Umbrella's fault," Alice replied simply.

"I have been trying to remember but it's hard to. It's like my memory is all fuzzy except for tid bits. Like I remember we escaped Raccoon City and who you are, and I remember Carlos, Angie, and what happened to Peyton." Jill closed her eyes for a moment. It still hurt to think of her close friend who had turned zombie and how she had to shoot him.

Jill opened her eyes quickly at the feeling of her arm being tugged. Alice was taking off the cuffs and binds. "No way in hell are you a danger to us."

Jill smirked. "Yea you are still a step ahead of me. Remember how I told you that I'm good, but not that good. Well it still applies like it does back then."

Alice took a seat in the wooden chair by the bed. "I'll have to admit you are a worthy opponent know with those powers."

Jill grabbed her hair, noticing the different color and length of it. "I don't know how this all happened. I can't even tell if I turned myself in to Umbrella or was captured. It's so confusing not to know."

Alice rolled her eyes. "You didn't willingly turn yourself in to Umbrella Jill. Trust me. From all that I remember you hated their guts the same as I do."

Luther walked in to the room to check up on the two women.

Jill squinted a bit in his direction, as if to get a better look at him. That of which seemed a bit ridiculous to Alice as she knew Jill's eyesight was enhanced just like hers.

"LJ? You sure look different from last time I saw you. You look taller and, well, better looking."

Luther tilted his head and stared at the women. He was confused.

Alice let out a full out laugh before answering Jill. "That isn't LJ. His name is Luther. Luther West."

Jill gave Alice a death glare. "Well my bad. This memory loss isn't helping any. How are LJ your man Carlos doing anyway?"

Alice's poker face of an expression slipped and her body instantly tensed. Jill could see the sadness and pain in Alice's face. It didn't go unnoticed by Luther either.

"They…didn't make it. LJ was bitten and ended up biting Carlos. Carlos saved the convoy by getting us into the fenced in Umbrella facility so that we could grab a helicopter to fly to Alaska. I guess I have a lot of stories to tell you later on so that it all makes sense."

Jill was silent as was Alice. It hurt to think that the remaining from their original little group that escaped Raccoon City was now dead. Alice was just glad that Jill didn't ask about Angela. She wouldn't be able to tell her the horrible truth of what happened to the little girl.

Trying to change the subject or at least lighten the dark mood, Luther cut in to break the silence. "It's been a long day for all of us. I came in to tell you that dinner is being served at the cafeteria."

Jill studied the man in front of her. He was a tall African American man with an athletic physique and well groomed facial hair with a clean shaved head. She smiled a bit as she noticed how the man looked at Alice. His eyes portrayed a sense of caring and concern as he looked at Alice.

"Sounds good to me. Jill?"

"I don't know if I should be around people right now. " Jill responded. Back when Jill was In S.T.A.R.S she enjoyed the work. Loved the fact that she was serving her city and helping people out. But now, thanks to Umbrella, they had taken that last piece of enjoyment out of her life. The survivors wouldn't think of her as an ally or leader or anything. No, she would be an outcast.

"How about I just bring both of you food then?" Luther asked kindly. He didn't really have much else to do.

"Please," Alice replied.

Luther smirked. "Oh now you are being nicer. What a change in attitude since we were trapped on land."

Alice chased him out the room after his little comment. He was just like LJ in the joking manor, but nice and caring like Matt and Carlos had been. He was a mixture of all the wonderful people she had known.

"Ya know. Of all the memories I can actually remember of you Alice. None of them had you smiling like you are now," Jill remarked.

Alice just shook her head at Jill, but the smile was still plastered on her face.


I decided that I had needed to put up a chapter to make up for the time I've missed updating this story. I hope this chapter is enjoyable and that hopefully everyone had a good Thanksgiving :)