A/N - Are you ready for this? Brace yourselves now.
Welcome to the final chapter of Part II. And here I thought this whole story would only be 100k. DAMN! That was a huge underestimate...
Chapter 35
Dirty Tricks
The sawing of the cicadas abruptly stopped, and it nearly scared the piss out of her. A few minutes later, the annoying creatures again filled the silence with their incessant droning. In spite of the dull ache the creatures' noise gave her delicate ears, Anise breathed a sigh of relief. She and Buck had learned over the trip to, and then from NYC, that sometimes their silence heralded the arrival of a hungry T-mutant.
Fucking bugs.
They had even made their way into her nightmares. She turned back to the manual pump that drew water up from the farm's well. Feeling the sweat drip down her back, she primed the pump until the water began to flow. Quickly enough, the trough beneath it sparkled with clear water, and the lever settled back to its resting position.
A bucket was filled and its contents poured over the sweating woman. The cold water set her to shivering despite the blazing heat of the Kansas sun. Around her feet, the concrete on which the trough rested began to steam. The scent of hot pavement brought up a memory of a public swimming pool and Anise's first crush on a girl.
"That looks like it feels good." From somewhere relatively close, Alice's soft voice drew her friend from her daydreams.
Drenched from head to toe, in more than just sweat now, Anise smiled. "Oh, it does." She wiped liquid and soaked hair from her eyes, looking for the sneaky blonde. Her eyes found her crouched in the barn's opening to the hay loft, half-hidden by shadows. Alice had tried many times over the past week to sneak up on Anise, who had informed her that she wasn't a cat, but good luck anyway.
Alice had a streak of mischief as deep as the former lab rat's and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge that Anise's mutant ears provided. Once, she had been successful, scaring Anise while she had been buried up to her elbows in engine grease, and crowed with laughter when the top of her head banged into the hood. After that, Anise had demanded Alice help her with the repairs, which meant the mechanic made her own life easier by getting the engine out of the vehicle, care of Alice's superhuman strength. She insisted Alice always be nearby, on hand to battle frozen bolts that Anise would have used an impact drill to remove if she had electricity, and to replace the engine when it was time.
Normally, she would have had Buck by her side to act as a second pair of hands, but as soon as he discovered how sisterly the two women were, unless Anise specifically asked for help, he made himself scarce, keeping out of their mischief warily looked to see if anything was hidden in the blonde's hands. "What, no slingshot today?" Being pelted by little rocks yesterday, dry chicken shit the day before, and dried up corn the day before that had been Alice's latest game.
"Bobby demanded it back." They shared a grin, and Alice dropped down from her high perch.
Sudden clarity flared in Anise's head. "You knew that I was the prankster back in the Hive."
Thrown by the tangent, Alice fumbled her landing and nearly face-planted. "What?"
"You knew that I painted the raccoon that terrorized the shopping mall."
Maybe if Anise hadn't spent the last week in close quarters with the blonde, she might have missed the little smile tugging on her crooked lips. "I don't know what you're talking about, Spice."
"You sneaky bitch. Did you not tell Spence just to watch him squirm? Or were you living vicariously through me?"
The smile erupted across the blonde's lips, and her eyes lit up. Giggling, Alice threw her hands out in surrender. "You caught me. It was a little of both."
"How the hell did you end up going into security?"
"I had a lot of experience with the law. It was either juvie or community service. I like guns better than orange jumpsuits."
"No wonder you were going to steal the T-virus for Lisa."
"How did you... Your hearing, of course."
"Perfect eavesdropper. I do it even I'm not trying."
Still smiling, Alice gestured at the filth covering Anise. "How's the rebuild going, grease monkey?"
Anise groaned at the referral to the engine rebuild that she had been working on. If she had a choice about it, she would have put her effort into a different vehicle. As it was, the storms, decay, and nature's zeal for green things in strange places over the past years had decimated any other choices. The stupid thing wasn't completely worn, simply had a few leaks from worn gaskets and the like. Leaks that she would have ignored years ago, but now insisted on fixing before traipsing about zombie country. Once she had pulled the engine, she had discovered a few nasty surprises that made her glad she had gone the extra mile. Blowing a piston while punching the gas, running from T-virus mutants was not her idea of a good day. Better to spend a little time in a relatively safe place, than take the unnecessary risk. She liked the idea of making it back to Haven and running water.
She refilled the bucket and fished out pumice soap from its little hiding spot in the weatherproof cabinet by the pump. Scrubbing the day's grease and filth from her hands and arms, she replied. "Slowly. Aggravating. If I didn't have that manual, I wouldn't have a clue what I was doing. The lack of pneumatic tools and having to hunt down parts isn't helping matters. The Suburban and your bike were so much easier."
"Wasn't the SUV in perfect condition?" Alice scooped water with her hands and splashed her face. She tugged a handkerchief from her pocket, soaked it, and dripped the refreshing coolness onto her neck.
"Besides needing a tune-up. Yea."
"Lazy wimp."
"Damn skippy."
"I miss air conditioning." Alice bemoaned as she soaked her cloth again. Dripping more water onto her baked flesh, she squatted in the shade provided by Anise's tall frame.
Narrowing her eyes, Anise used her knee to shove Alice, catching her off guard and throwing her to her butt. "I am not a sun shade."
A tinkling laugh responded. "Oh, but I beg to differ." Most of Alice's folded body fit inside the shadow cast by Anise. The tall woman snorted and went back to washing.
"You're helping me with the truck starting tomorrow morning."
"What?" Alice protested. "I told you that the only thing I know about cars is how to check the fluids and change a tire. I thought lifting the engine and breaking screws loose was enough help."
"I don't care. Sometimes I need another pair of slender fingers to get in the little places. And yours would be much more useful than those housewives we're keeping company with." Shaking her head, she wondered at how much more 'fifties nuclear family, the woman's natural place is in the kitchen' she could take before she blew a gasket when one of the women suggested she simply let the men take care of the cars. Like hell she'd let those mechanically illiterate fools touch her engines.
"You just don't want to be stuck with their company. Do they still think I'm your lover?"
"Probably."
Alice sighed. "I don't understand. The undead walk the Earth, eat their relatives and neighbors, yet they hang on to their medieval bigotry. I'm not sure which is more disappointing, their fear of our abilities, or the fear that a lesbian might flirt with a married woman."
Anise glared at the soap suds, thinking of the demons she had helped Padmé wrestle with and scrubbed harder.
"It's amazing that they agreed to join you and Buck and go to Haven."
Gnawing on her cheek, Anise refrained from calling Alice on having left herself out of the equation. They had argued about Alice joining them repeatedly, yet the blonde still insisted it was too dangerous. Umbrella was still following her. Anise shivered, remembering the feeling of being stalked back in Chicago, being hunted in NYC, and trailed on the road since then. "Typical ingrates." The cicadas stopped their noisome song and Anise tried to ignore it. Except... She tilted her head and pivoted around.
Alice frowned at her and checked her watch, glanced over her shoulder, skyward, looked back at Anise. "What?"
"Uh..."
A hand was already curled around the pistol on her hip. "I don't sense anything."
There had been something, if she could just... The cicadas started back up. Pain in the ass nature. "I don't know. I thought I heard something."
Anise shrugged, and Alice frowned until the first woman cupped a double handful of water and soaked the second with it. Squeals of laughter punctuated the rest of the afternoon.
Later that evening, the group was lounging on the wraparound porch sipping tea and watching the sun dip into the tree line. Anise had her long frame stretched on the wide railing, one leg dangling, her back against a support pole. The families were close together, talking about the day's chores, packing for Haven, and Bobby asking why fireflies butts' glowed. Buck was leaning on the rail beside Anise. Their last companion sat apart, as always, looking out at the world.
Buck was studying Alice's profile very intently, his lips pursed and brow furrowed. "What are you thinking buddy?" Anise asked.
"She answers questions you don't ask out loud," was whispered back in that low whisper meant only for her ears.
"Does she?" Also keeping her voice low, Anise thought about it and realized he was right. "Huh. Maybe it's got something to do with her super brain."
"But she only does it with you." Buck frowned. "You seem to read her really well too."
"Like how you and I behave?"
With her back to them, Alice probably couldn't hear their conversation over the cicadas, her hearing wasn't half as spectacular as Anise's. At least she had a monopoly on one super power, Anise joked to herself. But, why the hell was she absolutely positive that Alice knew what they were talking about anyway?
"Maybe."
Anise sucked on her cheek. Alice turned around and looked at her, then Buck. She swallowed the last of her tea and got up, saying something about checking the perimeter, by which she meant she would be up all night walking the fence line. Walking, because the horses shied away from her, and she them. Buck sipped his own drink, and Anise was left to ponder if it was the T-virus making sleep less necessary or insomnia that kept Alice awake at night.
Late one night, or maybe more accurately really freaking early one morning, the two climbed the roof of the animals' barn and watched the clouds drift over the stars. Alice's story since the Hive spilled out, filling the hours until dawn. She had not exactly died after the helicopter crashed in the Arklay Mountains. The T-virus had kept her alive, though barely. Their fellow Raccoon City survivors had showed up at the Detroit facility looking like Umbrella officials, sweeping Alice away from a place of experimental delight. A more powerful strain of the T-virus had been introduced to her system, which had kickstarted her cellular regeneration and instigated the telekinetic powers.
After a run-in with an Umbrella squad resulted in Angie's death, at which time Anise had choked on her tea, coughing, spitting, and wiping away tears. Alice continued when Anise could breathe again. When they fought their way back to Chicago and found Keeper Labs abandoned, but yet another, probably the eighth, Umbrella task force waiting for them, Alice had understood that somehow the company was following her. She had left, struck out on her own, fighting Umbrella and their escaped virus at every turn. Eventually, she had learned that she was being tracked by satellite, broke into a facility and downloaded the trajectories. Since then, she had been staying away from people and avoiding the flight paths of the far-away spies.
In between the quietly spoken memories, Anise could hear blank spots, sense important details left out. Though the lone wolf of a woman had promised to tell Anise everything, she had definitely left some unexplained bits that Anise knew was hiding behind Alice's quiet smiles and expressive eyes. She did not push it, settling for the stories that were shared, unwilling to press even when the wondering made her brain itch feverishly. Even when she noticed that Alice did answer questions Anise never spoke, because, well, and this was the part that Anise really was hung up on, she knew that Alice simply wasn't ready to have those conversations.
She was sitting beside Alice when that thought clicked in her head. Their eyes met, and Alice's expression was the most timid and vulnerable thing Anise had ever witnessed on the strong woman. Ready to burst with the questions multiplying bunny-fast in her head, Anise jumped at the request from Bobby's mom to help with dinner.
The next day, the Bayberrys slaughtered one of their older cows. Everyone ate fresh, tasty steaks grilled over an open fire and pretended for one evening that they were enjoying a normal American backyard barbeque. There was even a dessert made from spring berries. The rest of the meat was later dried into jerky and stored away. Every day was practically a feast, given that the Bayberrys no longer needed to prepare for the winter, only the trip to Haven.
If only the fine hairs on her next would settle the hell down so she could enjoy the rather carefree atmosphere the Kansas natives exuded when they forgot that they didn't like gays. Anise was twitchy enough that it set Buck to looking his shoulder constantly as well, and Alice seemed as uncomfortable as they were. They worked as fast as they could to finish the truck's repairs, make both farmer vehicles zombie-resistant, and prepare the animals' trailers as well. Eyeing the vehicles in the starlight, Anise punched a wall and went to talk to Alice.
She found her a half mile from the house, sitting in a tree near one of the repaired fence sections. "No."
"Umbrella is after me already. The T-mutants seem attracted by my deliciousness. Adding you to the mix can only improve our chances of getting everyone and the animals home alive." Anise repeated her argument.
Alice repeated her own. "It's not worth the risk. I'm not safe to be around."
"No one is anymore."
It was a fresh point to the argument, and it had Alice looking down to her.
"I know you can't always control your powers, Ali." Anise toed the ground, remembering the night she had woken up to the sounds of tree limbs snapping and learning that Alice had caused it in her sleep. Luckily, she had been napping in aforementioned tree at the time instead of the house. The Bayberrys didn't notice until a few days later and attributed it to the tornado. Anise had not disabused them of that notion, which had earned a small grin from Alice.
"Sometimes I wonder if my blood actually attracts the T-virus, and that's why we always seem to run into the scariest fucking shit." A breath, and her eyes focused sharply on her friend. "But I know that my other gifts and talents outweigh that danger, because shit's gonna find people anyway. At least when I'm around, I can help defend against it."
"But you aren't a danger by simply being." Alice whispered.
"Neither are you." Crickets chirped, filling the air with their noise while the women stared at each other. "What if you hadn't shown up in time to kill that demon child, huh? It wasn't attacking me because you were near, not at all, but it didn't eat me because you were. Get us to Montana. Sleep away from camp and when I'm awake to keep an ear out. We need you Alice, don't abandon us now." She knew it was a dirty trick, had disliked it when Tanya had used it on her, yet she was willing to do it to get the help she needed. And it was the truth.
Alice was quiet and returned her eyes to the outside world.
Frowning in the direction of Alice's attention, Anise felt a sudden jolt, heard what sounded like something very, very heavy thump down. The crickets grew quiet. Not only the ones around them, but as far as Anise could hear. Worried, Anise checked her friend for signs that she sensed something. Alice was already looking at Anise, body tensed, gun in hand, and asking, "What do you hear?"
Shaking her head, Anise sank into a crouch, senses straining to hear whatever had silenced the crickets. To the north and west, the night creatures' songs returned, and hesitantly, so did the south's. To the east, their songs' return was hesitant and incomplete. Anise climbed the tree, darted across the bough pointing toward the fence, and jumped the distance to the other side, smoothly followed by Alice. Both moved in quiet harmony away from the fence on the eastern border of the property.
Each of their unique senses told a story that pieced together quickly. Both women notice the strong scent of diesel and gun oil. Twinges that told Alice something T-virus scary was in their path. Sounds of heavy boots, people breathing, and harshly whispered orders through radios Anise couldn't quite make out.
It had to be Umbrella. Pain in the ass idiots. "Think they're here to capture or test us?"
"Does it matter?"
Probably not. Anise wished she had Buck at her side with his rifle. Her fingers touched the handle of the machete she had found in one of the barns, sharpened, oiled, and had been wearing on her belt in lieu of an ax. Buck had questioned her change in weapon, and Anise still wasn't sure if it was a good fit, but every time she thought of the fight with the lion, she knew she would have rather had the machete's long thin blade instead of the ax's clunky wedge. Her other hand traced the hilt of her Ruger.
"We should try to take out as many as we can before we use our guns." Alice whispered. In the darkness that had ceased to be quite so dark for Anise, she saw Alice looking at her, waiting for her to take lead. Anise thought about what Buck had mentioned. She canted her head and rubbed her neck, sighed, drew her machete, and slunk forward, her friend on her heels.
Less than a mile from the fence, they had slit the throats of three armored Umbrella perimeter guards and settled near a paved road where several dozen uniforms milled about, stacks of crates, most opened, their equipment scattered about or being distributed to the waiting goons. Lights were kept to a minimum, using soft red to illuminate what they needed. Orders were quiet, given through radios when distance would have required a raised voice. They were definitely getting ready for an assault, and their preparations were designed to prevent the enhanced women from noticing were they on the other side of the fence.
Anise thanked Alice for being such an elusive hermit, always wandering to the farthest reaches of the farm to patrol. Said woman touched her arm and pointed to two giant blocks on the edges of the Umbrella site. They were freight containers, like the ones she'd seen loaded on the barges that chugged on the Missouri River and gathered like maggots on meat outside St. Louis, clogging the Mississippi. From both of them came unsettling noises, and one clunked, tipping slightly, clunked, tipped the other way.
"Not good." Alice whispered. Her companion could not agree more. "If we can find who has the controls, if it isn't in the hands of a nearby facility, we can prevent those things from being opened."
Anise shook her head. "Someone just said something about hoping that HQ waited until they were out of the way before letting the dogs out."
"I hope they're just dogs."
Grip tightening on her machete, Anise started thinking about how many she could kill before they started shooting. Beside her, Alice's fingers twitched. A soft twang sounded, odd enough from the noises of the mercs gearing up that Anise noticed a split second before a long stick with a poofy end appeared in a goon's chest, and he dropped to his knees, clutching at his new addition. Four more sprouted the same deadly growths before the first gargled his last breath. Anise realized that the growths were arrows, fired by two expert archers.
Yells and orderly chaos, swept through the contingent. Flashes of dazzling gunfire blossomed among them and from outside their perimeter. Almost completely, the goons were surrounded by attackers. Only their western flank remained secure, and slowly, their backs turned toward it.
The two enhanced women exchanged glances and joined whoever was crazy enough to attack a group of armored Umbrella commandos. Staying with their original idea of not using guns, they carved through a dozen goons before the gunfire started aiming at them. By then, it was too late and not enough, because they danced around the bullets and killed them anyway. An explosion from one of the containers blew the women over, and both blinked heavily as they regained their feet.
Cranking noises alerted Anise to the second container's imminent disclosure. "Alice."
Shotgun in hand, Alice kicked a goon at her feet, breaking ribs and puncturing a lung that deflated with a whoosh, leading to gasping and sputtering that Anise ignored as she brushed smoldering ashes from her shirt and hair. She grinned. Whoever these strangers were, she liked them already.
Cranking noises came from the remaining container, and Anise tensed, wondering if it would blow up or if whatever was inside...
A shrieking roar covered the noises of the dying, the clanking, and stopped the last pepper of gunfire. Bursting through the half open doors, sending one twirling through the air, the container's contents sped right up to a quaking goon, her body's innards sprayed the ground as two huge claws split her in thirds. Anise could barely make the thing out, it moved so quickly, and all she really saw were claws and shining teeth. The screams of dying commandos filled her ears.
The gunfire returned with a vengeance, ripping into the monster and making it angry. On the other side of the darkness, fresh screams erupted. "Ah fuck." Anise muttered, blinked, and realized that Alice was nowhere to be seen. Her shotgun reported near the yelling.
Abruptly, Alice was running at Anise at a speed she could barely follow, the monster blurring right behind her. Then they were past her, and Anise was in a different position than she thought she started in, looking at her bloody machete, wondering what the hell had happened. Wet thumps rolled away from her, and Alice's heavy breathing was loud in the sudden quiet.
"Holy damn!" Anise squeaked, eyes wide, trying to understand how the monster's head was still trying to snap at Alice's ankles. With an annoyed expression, Alice leveled her shotgun at the head and fired. The jaw still attempted its gross efforts, and Alice's expression faltered, a bit of fear showing through.
Anise stomped up to the thing and hacked at it until it resembled ground beef. Spitting viscous blood from her mouth and wiping strands of it from her eyes, she bared her teeth in a humorless smile. "Get up from that."
"You've got a little something on your face." Alice deadpanned. Anise flicked goop at her. "You do too."
Out of the shadows, stepped forward scraggly looking men and women. In their hands were various guns, and across their bodies were strapped other weapons and mismatched armor. Shin guards, football helmets, Kevlar vests, military gear, name it, and someone was wearing it. A grinning male strode up fearlessly, scruffy beard and snarled hair sticking out in random directions. His odor reached Anise before his amiably offered hand.
"You must be Anise and Alice. Damn, but it's an honor to finally meet you two. I'm Will."
Unable to deny his friendly enthusiasm, Anise grinned back and shook his hand. "Anyone who opens unprovoked fire on Umbrella is someone I'd glad to meet."
Laughing, he offered his greeting to Alice, who accepted it quietly.
Beside a dusty highway in Nebraska's panhandle, Buck caught Anise's eye after dinner, face drawn, dark circles under his eyes, and expressed what had been troubling him for several weeks, explained why he'd had trouble sleeping. "What if the only traitor wasn't Briggs?"
Anise stared at him for a long time, scenarios and heartbreaking thoughts tumbling in an uncoordinated dance in the ballroom of her mind. She clenched her teeth, shoved the thoughts aside, and growled. "Then we'll just have to deal with it when we get back home."
Alice withdrew from the crowd, kept even more to herself, and tried to avoid Anise as well. The Hive's infamous troublemaker would have nothing of the sort, often hunting the elusive woman down to sit beside, or on, demanding conversation and attention, making sure that Alice had at least a weekly dose of pleasant human interaction. It earned her a few sticky things tangled in her hair, a snake in her backpack, and polka dot bruises from the various things Alice borrowed Bobby's slingshot to peg Anise with.
Twenty miles from Haven, three miles before they were supposed to meet their escort, Alice pulled her bike to the side of the road. Instead of passing her, every vehicle behind stopped as well.
"You're really not going to join us." Buck pouted as a handful of others stepped out to join the little crowd around Alice.
The woman looked at Anise, who looked back without comment. Several others, including Bobby and his mother, surprisingly, made last ditch efforts to convince Alice to stay. A half hour and Alice's decision remained as anti-social as ever. Three hugs and a shy smile later, and only the siblings remained. Buck stomped over to Alice and wrapped her in one of his famous bear hugs, squeezing for all he was worth and whispering affectionate wishes for safe travels. Then it was only the two enhanced women, staring at each other.
"Don't you even want to come up for a cup of coffee?" Anise smiled at her little joke.
Alice merely shook her head and sighed. "If I ever learn to control it, I'll come back."
"And if you don't, are you going to spend the rest of your life alone?"
"If you never find Rain, will you keep yourself from falling for anyone else?"
Their staredown grew heated. Anise's teeth gnawed at her cheek until she looked away. The anger faded. "One day at a time."
"I'm grateful for your friendship, your trust. And Buck's."
Again, their gazes met.
"Even if you haven't installed an 'on-off' switch on that power of your's the next time we meet, I'm dragging your ass back with me."
The corners of Alice's lips lifted with quiet amusement. "It would be fun to see you try." Anise closed the distance and embraced her fellow freak, who whispered in her ear. "If I see her out there, I know where to send her."
Anise refused to show her teary face to the world and kept it buried in Alice's hair for several minutes. The shorter woman made no move to hurry the departure either, and when they finally separated, she wiped the tears away before their owner could. "Alice..."
"The world would be a dark place without your influence, Anise." Alice stroked her friend's cheek. "Goodbye," was choked out, echoing unforgettable dreams.
"Safe travels." Anise refused to say goodbye. A dampness in green eyes said that Alice knew her stubborn friend would not repeat the permanent sounding farewell. She mounted her bike, gunned the engine, and turned back the way they had come. Soon enough, or maybe far too quickly, a bend in the road hid her from sight, and the rumble of the exhaust was dulled by the rugged terrain.
Sighing, the rebel leader returned to her own vehicle and led her merry band of fighters home, where she was greeting by more hugging, crying, and surprises.
Awesome surprises like how if there was a traitor in Haven, he or she had not invited death and destruction into the place she now thought of as home. The Council now included over a dozen members, representing Havenites and their various needs, wants, and desires. Tanya was on the Council as lab geek representative, several babies had been born and conceived, and Denny had lobbied for a school to be started. It included education like one would find in any school, but also self-defense, first-aid, and orienteering instruction for life beyond the protective stone walls of Haven. Bruce Banner had remembered her and curled up in her lap the moment she sat down. Morrison was now head of Haven's security, and had made sure that Anise's room was there waiting for her return.
Fresh air, though tinged by the stench of zombies that invariably lined the fences, was easy to get to and well-guarded by rotating and vigilant patrols. The park that Buck had envisioned so long ago was a flower dotted reality. Instead of being trapped underground, Haven's herds and flocks, bolstered by the creatures from Kansas and a handful from other places, had access to sunlight as well. An entire acre reclaimed from the zombies just for them. Also heavily guarded with fencing, netting to keep out infected flying things, and sturdy shelters.
There were not a lot, but enough negative surprises to dull the colorful homecoming. Several had died from an epidemic of the flu over the winter, including Louise. Doc Brandon immediately noticed the color difference in Anise's eyes and insisted that she present herself for a full blood workup and tests in the morning. They were out of chocolate. Morrison was in charge because Captain Dough had lived up to Anise's private nickname for him during a break-in by Umbrella controlled mutants, which had maimed several people and killed three others. Foreman was among them.
After the Doc's morning session, she paid her respects to the dead, running her fingers over their names that had been carved into Haven's entrance hall. There were no graves, as the dead had been burned, the ashes scattered in the fields. Anise was not ashamed of the liquid that ran freely down her face and dripped to her feet. She laid her forehead to the cool stone and remembered the people she had lost.
"Hey, Spice?" Denny was walking toward her from the elevator. The woman lifted her head and regarded him. He held up her old Frisbee. "Wanna play?"
And just like that, the darkness lifted, sad lines replaced by her dimpled smile and twinkling eyes. "Damn skippy. Who's getting their asses kicked today?"
"Anyone who will face you, me, and Buck together." Laughing with him, she lifted the kid to her back and strode to where her friends were waiting.
Home. Never thought it'd be a hole in the ground, but that's where her oddball, glued-together, children's finger paint mosaic of a family was. That was where home was supposed to be right? Where the heart is. Some of her family was still missing. Her cranky soldier, mutant sister, and infuriating Raccoon City survivors weren't there. Not yet. She would find them again, drag their asses home with her, maybe even bring a few more lost souls back to her little rebel base.
"Eat your heart out, Skywalker." She muttered.
"What?"
"Nothin."
Denny was quiet for a breath. "I'm glad you made it back."
"Thanks, little man. Me too."