A/N: This is the last chapter, however this is NOT the last part of the story. There will be an epilogue to follow, to send closure for this fiction. Honestly, I feel I've picked this back up, and have gotten lovely words of praise from numerous fans. So, keep the reviews coming, and keep reading! Next on the docket after this fiction is finished will be Resident Evil: Retribution!

Chapter Nine: Oh, the Sun Will Shine Again

"Alice, what are you doing?" The convoy leader questioned as she noted the other woman was going through her things stacked in the back of the Hummer. It was early morning, the sun just beginning to peek out from the horizon, clouds still hovering low in the sky in shades of dark grey over the desert.

"I need to leave." came Alice's distant reply.

"Leave! What do you mean, 'leave'?" Claire asked again, pressing the subject. Alice continued to work on putting her holsters back on while in the empty backseat.

"I said I had to put Rain to rest."

"I thought you meant figuratively!"

"No." Alice said curtly, and then grabbed the door handle about to leave the truck.

"It's the middle of the night!"

"So?" Alice paused before exiting the truck, boots hitting the desert sand with a crunch. She shut the door moderately hard without realising the thud it made. With an irritated sigh, Claire jumped out, shoving her hat over her messy red hair. She pursued the other woman, grabbing her by the shoulder.

"Then let me go with you."

Alice stopped again, not facing Claire. "This isn't something you need to abandon the convoy for."

"We have nowhere else to go, and I'm sick of this desert." Alice turned around, slightly baffled.

"You want to risk using up all your fuel to follow me and go to Michigan to find one infected who used to be a human I loved?"

"Alice, after saving my convoy, saving my people from utter extinction, I can't repay you enough. If you go…"

"You don't have to repay me." The blonde said coldly once more. Enough was enough, and she began picking up the pace once more, trudging through the sand, her boots creaking. Claire huffed, and ran to catch up again.

"God dammit, Alice! Stop!" She called, not caring if the convoy heard them and woke from their slumbers.

"For what?" Alice growled back, whipping around. The trail of her duster coat followed her swift motion, and settled around her knees once again. "I only came for the bleak hope that maybe I had imagined Rain was dead, that it was all some sick fucking nightmare that I had to shove her out of that truck!" Alice snapped, stepping right up into Claire's space now. "Don't you even try to get yourself this involved with me! Don't you even dare!" Alice's hoarse voice came out in a harsh growl. Claire however, stood her ground.

"My people have been dying long before you showed up! Sickness, lack of food and nutrition… infection itself! You saved us all, Alice, and now you're just going to leave? To put down an old friend for good?"

"She was more than that." Alice's nostrils flared. "What didn't you understand when I said I loved her, huh?" The blonde had hair hanging in front of her blue-green irises, watching Claire's every movement, every twitch in every muscle. After hearing Alice's voice and tone change, she knew the other woman was telling the truth. It was much more than just a close friendship. This Rain woman and Alice had been lovers. Claire inhaled deeply, finally meeting Alice's intense gaze.

"Go then." She said softly, putting her hand on Alice's arm. "But Alice?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me you'll come back. If another attack happens, I don't know if we'll survive it." Claire answered, glancing over the soon to be rising convoy members."Please." Alice stepped away from Claire's touch on her arm, decisions running their benefits and costs in her mind. She took a few steps heading north before stopping, glancing over her shoulder at the younger woman.

"I'll see what I can do. Until then," She replied, giving a soft salute. Once she turned however, she never once looked back. She had a mission to complete; her priorities were to find Rain first and foremost. As for the convoy, she wasn't sure. She felt no incline to return, at least, not for a while.

Alice spent no time stopping for the night, not when she had no need to. Her body didn't feel tired, her stomach didn't feel hungry, and she barely felt thirsty, if at all. With her mind focused on finding Rain, she could only count the days until she would get to the small Michigan town where everything had gone down in the first place. Being lucky enough to find a worn down two-door car with just a quarter of a tank was good enough to travel across the rest of the mid-west, and after a week of travelling, she had forgotten the faces of the convoy, and only had Rain's image in her head.

Once Alice had left the convoy almost as quickly as she had come, Claire wondered if at any point the dirty blonde would turn around and come back. She figured, however, that the woman's conviction was strong as her fighting ability was against the undead; irrefutable. Those ocean blue and green eyes had left a burning hole in Claire's subconscious, wondering what she was up to, or how far she had made it. The convoy itself had been slow moving, now with only twenty-five people, including the teen girl nicknamed K-mart that Claire had taken in under her wing after having a sweet spot for the young, orphaned girl.

"Do you think she'll ever come back?" K-mart piped up during the late evening when the convoy had set up camp for the night. Claire was with her feet up on the dashboard of the Hummer, hat down over her eyes. She was trying to sleep, but was failing miserably. Giving up until later, Claire sat up, lifting her ball cap.

"I don't know."

"Why did she leave anyway? You haven't said a word about Alice since she left that one night."

"K," Claire sighed. "She had… unfinished business to attend to."

"Is that what she said or are you just paraphrasing it?" Claire furrowed her auburn brows.

"Didn't think fourteen year olds knew such big words."

"I'm fifteen, and that's what happens when you're stuck with a dictionary to read. So," K-mart pressed on. "Are you just making that up or what?"

"No, she … lost someone to the infection, someone she didn't have the chance to… to put down."

"Oh," K-mart's face fell, her brown eyes glancing out the window. "So why go back now when they're probably either gone somewhere else?"

"I don't know, K-mart. Never got to ask Alice. All I know is that it was a person she loved." Claire sighed again, trying to fix her hair. She'd give anything for a hair tie to tie it back into a pony tail to keep it out of her face once in a while.

"Oh." K-mart repeated her answer once more, fiddling with the dictionary in her hand. "Do you think we'll survive this, Claire?"

"I don't know, K-mart. I really don't know…"

Reaching Michigan after a week and a half of travelling part by car, and the rest by foot, Alice had made it to the small town near Flint where she and Rain had spent their last night together so many years ago. Things hadn't really changed, besides the fact that everything including vegetation and the rivers had dried up. As opposed to sand, there were patches of dirt where patches of grass used to line the edges of people's driveways, and in the parks, playgrounds stood, eerily lifeless. Alice came across a park swing set, creaking in the tiny breeze. Her guns remained holstered; her blood didn't sense any infected in the nearby vicinity. It was strange; at least the undead in cities usually walked around until weather wore them away. Could the undead die from starvation? It seemed unlikely in Alice's mind.

Continuing through the town, she began to hear the all too familiar groans of the undead. Instead of drawing her two Para-Ordinance Nite Tac .45 calibre pistols, she stuck for the fifteen inch curved kukri blades. Silence was always better; the gunshots always attracted more of them by the horde. The blades glinted in the soft sunlight that was filtering in through overcast clouds, providing enough heat that she was able to withstand, but not too much that it caused a sweat. Finding Rain as one of the undead would provide to be difficult, especially with the growing numbers. However, Alice as determined as she was, would kill every single one in order to spend a few minutes with Rain before putting her down.

Every. Single. One.