Part II

Flying? Where the hell had she learned to fly? School? No, brother. Pilot. Yes that's it, her brother was a pilot. Her brother. Max shook her head as she opened her eyes. Her mind was a whirlwind of questions that she kept asking herself. Some she could answer and some she couldn't. Some she could answer included that they were driving in a stolen ambulance.

One that still left her puzzled was how easily they'd gotten away from the hospital and with the ambulance. Though now that she thought about it again, with the 'disaster' at Raccoon City, emergency vehicles were probably going unquestioned. Besides, who the hell steals an ambulance? LJ.

She sat up; her abdomen aching and the stitches stretching; she held on to them for a moment and looked over at Kaplan who was sleeping on the gurney. Her eyes found Angela who was sitting in the 'Captain's chair' just head of it. Her head leaned on the hard plastic cupboard and she looked terribly uncomfortable. Her eyes switched over to the driver; Carlos was driving and LJ was occupying the seat next to him. He let out another snore and Carlos laughed softly. To her right both Jill and Rain were sleeping on the bench. Jill leaned against the 'EMT net', eyes closed and one hand holding Angela's. Rain's back was perfectly upright and her head drooped low and her chin touched her chest.

With a smile, she carefully positioned Rain a little more comfortably on the bench; she used one of the thermal blankets as a pillow for her. Carefully, she made her way toward the front while holding on to the bar for support. She sat on the center part between the front of the cab and the back.

Carlos turned to look at her and flashed her a smile.

"How long we been driving?"

"Almost a day, you've been out since you hit the bench," she smiled slightly and shrugged. He looked at the gauges and sighed.

"Need gas again, you'd think these things wouldn't need as much."

"This is an older ambulance, doesn't even have the safety hatch beneath the gurney." Max yawned and stretched for a moment before stopping suddenly at the pain in her abdomen.

"You know your ambulances," she nodded for a moment before raising her shirt. The gauze over the stitches was slowly turning red from blood.

"Used to be an EMT back in California, before working for Umbrella," she carefully pulled her shirt back down before Carlos could notice the bleeding. Slowly he nodded before pulling into a gas station.

"Think we gotta worry about our credit ratings anymore? Now that we're on the run and all?" Max shook her head and Carlos pulled out a credit card with his name on it. He pumped gas and sent Max in to get some food and water. Of course a gas station isn't a source of valuable nutritious items so they'd have to make to with cheese popcorn, peanuts, water, and some cheap circus peanuts.

"Ooh, circus peanuts, my favorite," Carlos chuckled as she opened the bag for him. He ate a few and made a face. Max tried to eat a couple of peanuts before gagging; she handed them to Carlos who ate a few before putting the bag down and saving the rest for the others.

Jill was the next person to wake up; she took the water and popcorn that Max offered her right away and thanked her. She ate a bit before drinking some of the water. It seemed to be an unspoken fact that they needed to conserve what supplies they had. They drove into a city on a suggestion of Jill's. She directed them toward a news-station where she left the camera in hopes of getting the story out there.

They pulled in to another store and bought a few hundred bucks worth of canned foods, water, crackers, and cigarettes. Carlos' reasoning was that it was as good a time as any to start smoking.

Max accepted his reasoning with a shrug and they carried the supplies out into the ambulance. The others had woken up by then and they assisted with sticking as much supplies where they would fit as possible. They ate a meal of cold ravioli and corn. Max was proud of Angela as she hadn't complained once unlike a grumbling LJ who muttered about steak and baked potatoes.

Angela finished her half of a can of corn with a smile and looked up at Max, who'd been sharing with her. Max cast her eyes around and slowly pulled out a candy bar; Angela's eyes lit up as Max winked and handed it to her. She held a finger up to her lips to tell her not to tell anyone about it. Angela nodded and took a bite with a smile on her face.

Max could feel eyes on her and she looked up to see Rain watching her; she blushed a little and shrugged when Rain raised an eyebrow.

"Where are we even going?" LJ was driving now, and Carlos directed him to pull over.

"That's a good question. Umbrella's going to be looking for us. Especially now that we've leaked the story," Jill shifted in her seat before putting the blanket over Angela who smiled at her.

"Well, where are we now?" Carlos turned the computer screen toward him and tapped a few buttons.

"Somewhere near Kalamazoo," Carlos tapped a few more buttons before shutting it off.

"We've mainly been driving just trying to avoid anyone who could recognize us."

"Detroit."

They all paused and turned to look at Max as if she was crazy.

"Detroit's a big city, there's a lot of people there," Jill shook her head and sighed in frustration.

"Exactly. It's a big city. We're less likely to be recognized or spotted. And even if we were, we could find some place to hide."

"And Canada is right there, just in case," Rain was following Max's idea and she nodded.

"Detroit it is then," LJ turned the ambulance back on. They sped toward Detroit and got there within two hours thanks to LJ occasionally flashing the lights and sirens to get through traffic faster.

They sought out an abandoned car factory that they could hide in. They had enough supplies to last them at least a little while.