Major interruptions that are a combination of work, holidays and university have prevented me from putting any new chapters up, don't fret I didn't leave you all hanging though, many thanks to LongLiveOlivera4Eva for leaving a review and always to Alice it' s Raining for your never ending support and comments!

Chapter Twenty Four

As the sun slowly went down and the blazing heat faded, the night began to claim the desert.

The pitch black surroundings meant nothing to Alice as she trudged through the cooling sands. All of her senses were on alert, searching for any threats. But coming across other hostile people was a low priority for Alice. Minus her Harley made tracking the convoy harder, not that she could easily see where the line of armoured vehicles had been.

Before the sun had set Alice had drifted away from the tire tracks in the sand and took to the dunes, climbing them with an almost childish amusement. Twice during the day the 'sight hack' was enabled, her vision would turn to a light shade of blue and mission objectives would scroll across as through to remind Alice her true reason for being out there. Not that I need to be reminded, the Winterstone bitch is the reason I've slowed down! Alice thought angrily. She couldn't believe how the little lab brat and her two pets had not only lost her in the maze of tunnels but also made sure she'd be stranded for a long time. Still I would've done the same thing to my enemy if not a little more drastic.

Thinking about Alyssa's actions made Alice smile. Despite the girl denying her 'killer instinct' she had no choice when it could determine survival or death. So much potential yet it's wasted because the lab brat wants to play hero! She should know the risks in revealing such power but Alyssa's always been weak, get her away from her protective beasts and rebel friends and she easily falls.

The sound of loud laughter that drifted up from behind a nearby sand dune shattered Alice's thoughts and made her stop. Quickly striding up the hill of sand Alice first thought that she'd somehow caught up with the convoy though when peering down at the small group of men gathered around a roaring bonfire she felt mildly disappointed. They wouldn't stop anyway; the carriers or any other desert dweller would slaughter them Alice thought as she eyed the group below her. Before leaving she'd heard a rumour floating about which mentioned a group of creatures known as the Infected though seeming as Alice had never seen any living members to suggest that were a threat she easily dismissed such gabble.

Parked away from the men was an assortment of vehicles that were covered in metal spikes and large guns. But the one thing that caught Alice's attention were the three Harley Davidsons sitting next to a modified mini tank. The motorbikes were the only vehicles that had been left the way they were save for the single black bike having a flag sticking out of the back with a picture of a clenched gloved fist.

Seeing the bikes made Alice grin and she slowly slid down the sand dune. Like some kind of desert wraith Alice darted across the darkened terrain. When entering the camp her senses were bombarded with a variety of scents that were all unbearable, different kinds of alcohol, urine, sweat and burnt rubber. Passing by the spiked van the door it suddenly flew open and a man stepped out chuckling to himself while pulling on a pair of filthy jeans.

"Don't worry babe plenty of Big Mick coming your way later but first I gotta take a piss" the man said gruffly.

Under normal circumstances Alice would've avoided any contact when entering an enemy establishment so as not to raise the alarm to any patrolling sentries but already her anger was at it's highest point and needed to be quelled. Not to mention that Big Mick was coming straight towards where she was hiding and smelt just as bad as he acted.

"Hey whoa what the…?" Big Mick spluttered before Alice darted out from the shadows, grabbed him by the throat and started to squeeze tightly.

As Big Mick's neck bones began to break, his body began to twitch in a last death spasm. Soon the shaking stopped and dropping the greasy corpse to the ground Alice peered into the van to see a half naked girl gagged and tied to a bed. The girl only stared back at Alice with frightened eyes, who knew how much torment she'd had to endure while Big Mick had been alive. The girl however wasn't her prime objective so she walked past the van ignoring the muffled screams. Glancing towards the campfire she saw the other occupants still seated around it, the kill had so far gone unnoticed and hopefully it would stay like that.

Locating the three bikes Alice approached them and circled around the trio. She already knew the black bike would do, it had an interesting crossbow on the front handle bars as an accessory, but her smile faded when seeing there were no keys in any of the bike's ignition. Hearing the jingling of metal made Alice turn around to see a fat heavily muscled man standing a few feet away holding a set of keys.

"Lookin for these darlin'?" he drawled while shaking the keys again. "I don't know where the hell you came from but no one steals from The Gauntlet, tell you what though instead of riding a machine how about you go for a ride on something that'll really get your blood pumping"

By now Alice was not just mildly annoyed that she had been interrupted she was extremely pissed off, she had no time to play with twisted biker perverts and the more time wasted here the further the convoy was getting away.

The man was suddenly joined by two other men who stumbled out of the darkness, one clutching a beer can while his partner was engrossed in scratching under his hairy armpit.

"Hey Ruddy Ron ya fat shit gimme some time with the toy you said I could have her after Big Mick was done" Beer Holder shouted out.

Arm Pit Scratcher only stared back at Alice with his mouth open and elbowed Beer Holder, "Oi check out what Ron's been keepin' from us, this one's got better tits then the other we caught"

As the two drunks stumbled forward Alice quickly pulled out her shotgun and levelled it at the men causing them to stop. She then made eye contact with Ron and held out her left hand, "The keys if you please, I won't ask you again"

Ron only laughed loudly and shoved the two drunks aside, "Well, well the kitten has claws but don't think you can order me around, bet you've never fired that thing before"

Before Alice could answer several other dirty-faced men ran up to Ron breathing heavily.

"Ron its Big Mick! Someone killed him, his face is blue and his eyes are poppin' out of his head!" one man cried out.

Alice only laughed causing the entire group to look up, "That was only for starters unless you boys want to give me a real challenge"

Ron's face turned a bright shade of red as he jabbed a thick sausage like index finger towards Alice, "Kill that bitch, gut her and bring me her head!"

Beer Holder and Arm Pit Scratcher had found their feet again and resumed their ogling while chuckling quietly to themselves as each took out a small switchblade. They were in fact the first to go, the blast fired from the shotgun catching them both, they fell back, splattering blood and shredded internal organs onto the sand.

One man came towards her with a large jagged knife in his mouth but a simple 'suggestion' from Alice caused the man to fall back, the thick blade now embedded deep within his skull.

Taking out her twin blades Alice moved too fast for the fat gang members to even notice as she cut, stabbed and sliced through arms, legs and any other obstacle that obscured her vision. When the last body fell back she was disappointed that there hadn't been any more victims for her swords. It hadn't even occurred to Alice that her arms, face and trench coat were now drenched in blood from her slain enemies.

Turning back towards the bikes she heard someone gasp. Snapping back to the sound Alice saw Ron attempting to stand on an injured knee, sometime during the chaos he'd been cut by one of the swords. Now he stared back towards a gore-splattered horror that had cut his entire gang to ribbons in a matter of minutes. Yet Ron still had his hunting knife and slowly taking it out from it's small hidden scabbard was preparing to make one final stand.

Sensing the movement Alice quickly snapped the flagpole from the black Harley and hurled it towards Ron. The pointed end tore straight through the fat man's chest causing him to fall back onto the sand. Walking around the mass of contorted bodies Alice approached Ron and plucked the bloodstained keys from his twitching hands, going through the large key chain she wrenched a single key loose before tossing the rest aside. Ron tried to speak but a slow dribble of blood came out instead.

"You should have given me the keys when I asked Ron instead of trying to kill me" Alice taunted. She then leaned in closer, "I hope the crows come in and peck out your eyes, I think you'd enjoy that" turning away Alice smiled to herself and left the dying Ron as she made her way towards the spiked van. Ignoring the girl's screams and weak struggles Alice managed to cut the girl loose from the bed. Without saying a word she then left the half naked girl alone and strode back outside.

Hearing soft footsteps behind her made Alice realize that the girl had followed her and for a brief moment contemplated shooting her but pushed the thought aside. Turning back to watch the girl pick her way across the campsite with her wide eyes and quiet sobbing noises reminded Alice of a puppy that had been separated from it's mother. The girl looked up towards Alice and tried to speak but only managed to utter a pathetic little squeak. Again her hand went to the Uzi on her left side but she resisted the urge. No use wasting bullets on unnecessary bodies might need them later, anyway she's as good as dead out here, the Infected will soon pick up her scent.

Approaching the black Harley, Alice took out the single key and put it into the ignition. Taking one last look at the girl who was now in a huddled heap on the ground Alice started the engine and sped out of the camp. She had a lot of distance to cover and no time to waste.