Rebecca's thumb scrolled down following a short list of words on a skinny pad of post-it notes. " Hmm.I have that..and that." Pointing to each lid of jars that sat on red child's seat of her cart. The store was empty, being early in the morning, a few carts being pushed by humming older ladies, humming their bouncy songs. Rebecca walked by an empty aisle, the tapping of her boots echoed on the tiled floor. She fingered some boxes on a shelf her height. Rows and rows of red and yellow, the regular dinner supplies. She wasn't much of a cook, so she grabbed some instant white rice. She tossed it in her cart next to a bag of frozen chicken. With a heavy exhale of breath, "Alright, that's ready." and headed for the front of the store with her cart
Only one register was open with a wiry teenaged boy behind it. Rebecca pushed her cart behind a small old woman wearing a flowery print dress. The line wasn't long but every line always has that one person with a cart full of food trying to decide which of the same kind of cheese to put back. "Good morning dear!" turning around to face Rebecca the older woman looking up to her with a wide smile. "I don't see many young people doing grocery shopping this early. Come to think of it I've never seen you around here before." With a half laugh, she looked down to the cheery older lady, "Good morning, ma'am, I just moved here a few days ago. I'm trying to get things settled as quickly as possible." The older lady rubbed her index finger under her lip "Mmhmm, I see. It's nice to see someone who isn't lazy around here." she chuckled, "Where are you from dear?" With a hesitant stuttered "oh.." Rebecca answered. "Well, somewhere up north, I needed to leave that place, too much going on and such." Rebecca leaned on her arms on the cart's handle. "Home giving you some problems ey? That's why I left my home when I was young. Of course I'm not young anymore so I live here" The woman let out a laugh, and Rebecca followed with a softer chuckle.
"Ma'am please choose already!" the teenaged cashier groaned slumping his head in his hand, supported by his elbow on weight counter. He mindlessly scanned can after can of soup, wishing the woman would make a decision with her final stacks of food. "Oh! I'll just go with the diet soda." the woman finally concluded. "A trip to the grocery store shouldn't be a quest!" he thought. With that, the cashier scanned the soda, and hurriedly bagged it, tossing it in the woman's cart. "Please...come again." he said taking the money she held out for him. She left and the older lady moved up and began taking her few items out of the cart and the boy scanned in a steady pace. "To buy Diet Coke or to not buy Diet Coke, that is the question!" the older lady recited. Rebecca chuckled, funny yet true, as this woman caused her to stay in the grocery store longer then she wanted. The boy bagged the lady's things and set it in her cart. "Have a nice day ma'am." She smiled at him, giving him her money. Then she turned around before leaving "I hope I get to know you better dear, enjoy your new home." Rebecca looked down at the softly smiling woman, and smiled back. "Thank you, I will." She left.
Rebecca was next and pushed her cart and the teenaged cashier greeted her as she took out her groceries of tonight's chicken dinner. She thought as he scanned the food, about moving to a new home. A sunny, warm place, where it feels safe to life, unlike Raccoon City. A new start to try and forget what happened to her team, her friends. "How could something like that happen in this time? It doesn't seem real..and to almost die. I almost did, if I was alone." Rebecca stared strait unblinking with her thought not noticing her surroundings. "Miss?. Miss?" the cashier asked, and with a shake of her head her mind came back. "Oh I'm sorry." "Are you Okay?" he asked her again with concern. "Huh?..Yes I'm fine, I sort of zoned out." His concern left and a small smile replaced it "It's 23.55, miss." Rebecca reached in her cart for a small purse, opened it and took out some crumpled dollar bills and some change. She counted it, and had just enough for her groceries, "Here it is." handing the cashier her money. "Thank you." and took it and rang it on his cash register. He handed her, her bag and pushed the cart back into its corral himself. "Enjoy your day miss." Rebecca nodded to him and walked to the store's automatic doors.
Stepping on the black rimmed mat, the double doors opened with a mechanical hum. In an instant she walked out, the shade and cool air from the grocery store was replaced with sticky, humid air of summer, and the white yellow light of the sun right above her. Rebecca shaded her eyes with one hand held up to her eyebrows and searched for a specific car in the small lot. "There it is." spotting her blue Corvette parked by itself a few rows away. She walked, and soon enough the heat bothered her. "What a change Florida is..I shouldn't have worn heavy pants." commenting to herself. Eventually she reached her car and peered inside. In the driver's side was a man with spiked brown hair sleeping on his side facing the passenger seat. "Chris fell asleep with the AC on again." She tried the door's handle, locked. Then she tapped the glass with her knuckles, "Chris wake up!" The man didn't stir from his comfortable position. Knocking repeatedly didn't work, but with one loud slap of her open hand, she struck the window, "Chris!" Right after, he sat up strait and turned to his window looking at the woman pointing to the door lock. He bent over his side with his outstretched arm and unlocked the passenger door. Rebecca opened the door and quickly sat down with her bag of groceries in her lap. "This feels much nicer then out there." with a relived sigh. "I'm sorry Rebecca, I guess I kinda dozed off, hehe." With a half laugh and smile she replied "It's okay. The line took longer then I thought." "I see." Chris said smiling at Rebecca quickly, he turned his already inserted key, started the car, and backed out of the space. "Really Rebecca, you get up this early to do your grocery shopping? It's way too early, and muggy." "I like getting things done early, and besides, it gets much hotter in the afternoon." said Rebecca, shifting the items in her bag. Their car drove though a large neighborhood, tall trees blocked the sunlight, leaving shadows of leaves glide over the hood of the car. Rebecca looked outside her window, they weren't driving fast, but it seemed sidewalks full of children running and playing in their small pools and sprinklers whizzed by in a blur. A few minutes later, Chris slowed down and pulled the car into a driveway of a one-story apartment complex. "We're here." he said, reaching a parking spot and turning off the car. Rebecca nodded her head, acknowledging, and they both stepped out of the blue car.
"Let me carry that." Chris reached for the bag in Rebecca's arms and took it before Rebecca could answer. They walked on the shaded walkway of the building to the last door on the far right, Rebecca's door. Taking out her key, she unlocked the door, and walked inside. She walked to a large window near a bed, and opened the curtain, and light poured in the dark room. Rebecca walked back to where Chris was in the kitchen, he sat the bag on a small white dining table, and she helped him put away her things. "Chicken dinner?" he asked. "Yes, I bought some fresh vegitables to make it with, Id thought I'd make something nice to eat." "That sounds pretty good" said Chris, shutting the refrigerator door. Rebecca walked over to a pile of stacked boxes near the entrance door and folded her arms loosely together. "Hey, I'll help finish unpacking your furniture, and set up the dressers." Chris walked to her. "Okay, Chris." she said rather softly, looking towards the window. He sensed something was bothering her, and he put his hand on her shoulder. "Is something wrong Rebecca?" She looked up, and met eyes with a worried Chris Redfield. "No, no I'm fine, I'm just getting used to this new area, the heat." "Oh, I see." he said, noticeably disappointed. "Chris..Chris do you think we'll get back to normal, our live I mean. Like, before that..happend and we had ambitions to make a difference and passion in helping people, and careers and.." She stopped and looked down with a drawn sigh. "Hey.." Chris leaned his face closer to hers, "I promise things will get better. This was a good decision for you to move here." Lifting her head, she looked back at Chris. "I'm going to help you." he gave her a soft smile. "Thank you Chris." and gave a smile back. He took a breath and let go of Rebecca with a step back. "I have to be somewhere soon. I'll drive back down here in a few days to see you again okay?" "Okay, see you then." Chris grabbed a hanging jacked from a chair and tossed it over his shoulder, heading toward the door. Rebecca's safety went through his mind. She didn't have any close family to be with her, and his promise to himself was to watch over her and make sure she's okay. A promise made right before escaping Spencer Mansion. "I'll make her life better...everyone's better." he said to himself before walking out her apartment door and looking back at Rebecca one more time before he left for good..
Rebecca walked to her half opened door to shut it. Right then was the mail carrier standing there with a stack of mail. "Good morning miss." the mail carrier said with a happy voice. "Good morning." He handed her a small stack of envelopes, "I believe these are yours." A small laugh escaped her mouth and took her mail. "Why..thank you." "No problem miss!" he replied and left to his next delivery.
Walking inside, she shut the door behind her, and sat the small stack of mail on her table. Pulling out a chair and sat down with a yawn, "Maybe I woke up too early, I'm sleepy." Her fingers slipped inside the stack and pulled out one at a time each envelope. "Junk mail, how could I have junk mail when I just moved here?" Getting up, Rebecca grabbed her mail and walked to her bed, crawled ontop and sat on a pillow. She took a pink robe and pulled it over her head and hunched over the envelopes, she opened one. "One from the Medical School of Florida..." Rebecca skimmed the letter with enthusiastic hope, it slowly diminished by the time she reached the middle of the letter. A heavy sigh of disappointment, she laid the letter down gently. "How can I continue?" questioning aloud. Taking the rest of the unread mail, she set it on the small dresser next to her bed, closed the curtain behind the bed, and laid down. The robe felt soft on her skin under her head, and laid with eyes half open. The sound of the neighbor's wind chimes could be faintly heard through the bedroom window. The peaceful sound of a summer morning. Rebecca crinkled the sheets of her bed in her hand, half thinking of many things. Her life then, and now. An excited new medic in an elite police team of her hometown. Rebecca had studied relentlessly in her classes, hoping for a break and soon it comes. Chosen the best and trained hard, she couldn't let her new team down. Who would have thought that the police force she was apart of was nothing more then a mere experiment and that it would cost her friends' and many others lives. Rebecca sighed with a whimper, "Everyone's life changed after that..or just, ended." A feeling of regret that she couldn't help her comrades, but also that she herself was in the same predicament. She wouldn't have thought that an ex-con would be the one to save her life. He would help her to escape the fate of many, because of Umbrella. She never saw that man again, he drifted out of her life, he had to, and she had to make sure it stayed that way, by signing his own death certificate and close his case, freeing him. Billy would be safe, it was the least Rebecca could do. Her thoughts of Billy wandered into many questions as she drifted off to sleep, mostly of where he was now, if it had worked.
A few hours later.
The once sunny skies of the small town, turned to one giant black cloud that covered any sunlight and replaced it with rain and thunder. Rebecca turned over in her sleep, a light groan came out as she pulled the covers over herself. The rain beat hard on the glass windows and the wind howled. A sudden flash of light lit up her room and a crash of thunder shook as it struck nearby, Rebecca jolted out of sleep panting. Her arm reached for the nearby lamp and stumbled to turn it on, rubbing her eyes with her fingers, the lamp clicked and it was on. "I hate that!" With a loud groan from the thunder that had sent her heartbeat racing suddenly. She put her head in her hands and rubbed her forehead, and sighed softly. Another loud sound startled her, but it was the phone. "It's probably Chris." she said reaching for the ringing phone. She put the receiver to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Miss Chambers I assume?"
"Yes?...Who is this?"
"You may call me Howard. You have worked for Raccoon City Police?"
"What? Why do you want to know?"
"More specifically, the Special Tactics And Rescue Service. Am I right?"
"..Yes.." Rebecca grew anxious but he had her curiosity.
""Miss Chambers, I know of the..horrible events that Umbrella has caused that city, the outbreak of the T-Virus, the outbreak in Spencer Mansion..and of course Umbrella's Training Facility."
"How do you..." Her mind was puzzled, why would he be calling to say this?
"I am more interested in the Training Facility. Something important to me was in that building and you were there last. Well, you and someone else." Rebecca knew he meant Billy, but she couldn't give a response to him.
"That...Tyrant you two killed..I needed that Tyrant.." he paused, "But Billy Coen has something of mine. I want it back."
"He's dead!" Rebecca quickly answered, and stopped.
"That death certificate, yes I know he died when his MP van crashed, right?" The man paused again before bursting out, " And he's alive! I know he's alive!" He lowered his voice back down again, "I know he's alive Rebecca, he's close to me. Umbrella's research wants him back, but more importantly, I do."
"No! Wait!" The phone clicked dead, he was gone.
Rebecca dropped the phone, stunned. A phone call out of nothing and suddenly its Umbrella again. "How could he have known..?" Her eyes turned toward her dresser where the phone was, and the stack of unread mail. She grabbed one, and glanced at it, something caught her eye. She looked at the envelope, and rubbed her thumb across the address. "Billy Coen.." turning it around, she opened the envelope, and pulled out the letter.
Dear Rebecca,
It's me Billy. I know it was a kind of deal not to contact each other since we last met, but I need to tell you some things. I moved out to Spain and hid low for a while right after I left Raccoon. I tracked down the report you filled out about me, the van, and my death. I know longer have anyone after me. But, another thing has come up that I know you should know. Here in Barcelona, another small Umbrella Facility has popped up, and they are passing themselves as a Cosmetics Facility from a TV interview I saw a few days ago. Here's a couple of pictures I've taken of the building and what I could get inside. I don't know yet if they are planning anything so far, but I plan to watch them and see what happens. I know this information will be useful for you and some of your contacts. Please be careful and alert Rebecca.
I haven't forgot about you, Rebecca.
Billy Coen
"I haven't forgotten you either." she said quietly to herself, folding the note back. Rebecca sat on her bed in silence, looking at the letter and thinking. The rain outside was calming down, the lightning outside stopped, but it was still pouring heavily. "I just can't let them do this." Her eyes shut tight and quickly stood up, she rushed to her dresser across the room, opening a drawer and pulling out a notepad and a pen. Rebecca wrote for a few minutes and tore off the note and left it on her dresser, folded. Then she wrote "Chris" on the backside and set the pen down. Running back to her bedside, she took out a large duffle bag and grabbed her leather coat from its rack. Putting on the jacket and throwing the bag over her shoulder, Rebecca ran to her door and outside into the rainy night.