Author Note: Continuation to Secret's and Flies that starts three months after the end. Love, betrayal, suspense and action are on the menu for this story as we watch our favourite band of Umbrella renegades give it their all too hopefully bring a final end to their hellish lifestyle. To do that, assistance will be required for some, unconventional characters...

I do not own the characters & this will be very different from any RE movie and/or video game plot (to date)

Please read & review as you wish!

B.

Update 15-June-2016: Thank-you for all the avid readers/comments/predictions/thoughts & ideas :) I appreciate it all! Thank-you for sticking with this story for 15 chapters to see how the plot plays out for Alice, Claire and the rest of the group. I hope to not disappoint with this ending.

Without further adieu, I hope everyone is ready for the final installment with our band of misfits!

Those passages n italics are lyrics to Plumbs song "I Want You Here". It is a great song and is very fitting for this chapter.

Chapter 15

I fucked up and I fucked up bad.

A month had passed since the events at the Pentagon. The Red Queen's dead, her bio weapons became kamikazes after the fall of their creator. At this point Wesker's probably dead from whatever serum the Red Queen infected him with, and the Umbrella Corporation ceases to exist. I wonder if Ada finally shed a tear at his death, not that I will ever see her again, or anyone else that I grew to think of as family.

I never looked back, not even once to see the anger in Chris's eyes or the sorrow in Jill's. It wasn't worth it. There was no way I could bring her back, no way to change what happened. Claire was dead and myself being a partied to her funeral would just make everything worse. Chris was right all along, I was a threat, a loose cannon, and now because of me his sister was dead.

Even from the grave, Umbrella had one more nail to shove into my proverbial coffin.

An ache
So deep
That I
Can hardly breathe
This pain
Can't be imagined
Will it ever heal?

Silence. That's all I'm surrounded by constantly, that and the ocean waves lapping against the shore to the Caribbean island I escaped too. The silence is more unnerving than the countless nights I slept with one eye open. The scraps of the human race still rustle the leaves of the palm trees surrounding my hut from time to time. As much as I want to put down my weapons and accept the gruesome, poetic justice from their diseased filled mouths, I cannot. I slice and dice, fire bullets and stab with sharpened sticks because killing them is just enough to keep me grounded in the present.

Your hand
So small
Held a strand of my hair
So strong
All I could do
Was keep believing
Was that enough?

I dream of you constantly. Every time I close my eyes I see your electric smile and piercing green eyes. I remember how apprehensive you were on adding me to your crew and maybe if you actually listened to your gut you'd still be alive today. I remember when we first confessed our love for each other, our first kiss, the first time we made love, and it was just as magical as our last. I wear the necklace you coveted, the one thing you were able to keep hold of from your life before, close to my heart. It's my way of keeping you alive, it's all I have now.

I never saw any of them again. None of them bothered to come after me, to hunt me down and kill me like the problem child they always believed me to be. I don't know if I should be counting my blessings or not. One thing I do know is that if the human race has any chance in rebuilding, I should be as far away as possible.

I wanna scream
Is this a dream?
How could this happen,
Happen to me?
This isn't fair
This nightmare
This kind of torture
I just can't bear
I want you here

Everything I've ever done was to keep you safe, was to give you a chance at a real life, at something more than fighting the undead and praying you'll be able to see the next sunrise or sunset. You deserved better, you deserved so much more and I was the one to take it all away from you. I hate that our last interaction was that of anger, of one where were were both not ourselves. The guilt I feel for what I did, no matter how accidental it was, will never leave me. I wear it like a superhero wears a cape. It suffocates me at night, tangles my daily thoughts, and has become a noose consistently tied around my neck.

There is only one way to get rid of it once and for all…one way for me to finally be free…

I waited so long
For you to come
Then you were here
And now you're gone
I was not prepared
For you to leave me
Oh this is misery

One shot, that's all that's loaded in the magazine to my pistol, my trusty friend since the beginning of this nightmare. The sun's setting over the ocean, and it's a beautiful shade of red and orange that reminds me of your hair, especially when the sun hits it just right. The water's calm, gently lapping around my knees, my cargo pants soaked, as the smell of salt strong.

I was wrong to be a survivor for this long. I was wrong to be the one to save the human race. I should have died down in the Hive, I should have died in Raccoon City, in Nevada, Japan, Russia, and finally Washington. You will be the last person to take my spot on the chopping block. So many people, so many innocent, young balls of light have gone dark at my feet and for what? For me to survive, for me to rebuild the earth. That was never my job, never what I wanted.

All I ever wanted was you, and now you're gone somewhere that is free of this and it's time I join you there.

It's time we are finally, once and for all, eternally together.

I love you,

An ache
So deep
That I
Can hardly breathe

Fin

Like I said, I hope not to disappoint! I welcome all opinions, questions, comments, etc. on this chapter and the story as a whole. To give you a bit of my rationale for how the events in the story played out, I from the bottom of my heart love Claire and Alice together. However, having a fairy tale ending was just not what the characters were telling me as the plot developed on paper and in my mind. This is the proper outcome that they wanted and I, as the author, am just a vessel to give my characters what they want!

I'm taking a hiatus from writing fanfiction for awhile, not because I don't have any ideas flying around my head (Trust me I always do!), but I need to focus on my own fictional writing, including the editing for my manuscript that I am looking to get published.

Thank-you all for your support, for sticking with the story even if it was veering down a scary, sad path. I write not only for myself, but for you guys too!

Peace

B.