Sorry this update took a little longer than the others. I blame Black Ops for that - it's just so damn addictive. I thought it interesting that this story is told in a similar fashion to the game; the audience gets bits from the past and present at the same time.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm really looking forward to the next one. It should be pretty epic. Hopefully this will hold you over until then.
As always: love it, hate it? Let me know.
Alice was incredibly subdued that day. She always was after being subjected to more of Dr. Isaacs' tests. Claire hated that she was forced to let the blonde go through that, but they had to keep their cover. They'd made a mutual decision – after quite a bit of debating - to keep things as tightly under wraps as possible.
It had taken some persuasion on Claire's part to convince Alice that they needed to keep things quiet between themselves. It was safer for them that way.
Stopping Umbrella was their top priority. Someone had to keep operating to ensure it happened. This way, if one of them was found out, they other could keep going with the mission.
They were back at the Nevada Hive facility, waiting for a mobile base of operations to be finished. As she expected, Claire found Alice in her cabin. Being the middle of the day, the rest of the corridor was abandoned.
The room was dark; light filtered in when the redhead opened the door, but was extinguished again when she shut and locked the door behind herself. She'd caught sight of her companion in the bed, and made her way over to lay down as well.
"Hey," Alice greeted, sounding groggy.
"How are you feeling?" Claire inquired.
"Tired," the blonde answered, moving much closer to the younger woman.
Claire couldn't help but smile, wrapping her arms around Alice. "I could tell. It's the middle of the day and you're in bed."
The blonde muttered something completely incoherent in response. Claire held her that much closer, running a hand up and down Alice's arm in a soothing manner. They spent quite a bit of time just laying there together.
"Do you ever wonder where we'd be if not in this mess?" the redhead finally broke their silence.
"No," Alice said without having to think about it.
"Never?" Claire was actually surprised by the quick answer.
"Never. No matter how bad things are, if none of it happened… I wouldn't have you," Alice explained.
They were back up before the sun even considered making its presence over the horizon. Alice and Claire grudgingly rose from the comfort of the bed they rarely had the chance to share. The two didn't want to give themselves away for fear that it could and would likely be used against them.
So they were up before everyone else so they could vacate Alice's cabin together and not get caught. By the time they got up to the deck, the first rays of light were stretching across the sky. The air was thick and heavy with the smell of rain. Though it was still fairly dark, they could make out the storm clouds to the west.
"I guess it's going to rain," Claire observed.
"Maybe just a little," Alice quipped playfully.
Now that the sun was starting to rise, so was the rest of the crew. This was always the most annoying part of the day, when their precious time together was cut off. Alice was getting tired of having to sneak in her time with Claire – so much so that she was on the verge of ending things with Umbrella just to have the redhead to herself. It was selfish, yes, but completely reasonable in her head.
Almost as if on cue, Luther appeared on the stairs leading up to the bridge. "Claire! Come on up here for a few minutes!" he called down.
Alice was glaring daggers at the man. If she wanted to, she could end him from right where she stood. "Easy," she heard Claire warning her. "I can't believe you even think that he's any sort of competition." The possessive nature of her lover was actually quite amusing at times.
"I don't like the way he looks at you," Alice sulked, crossing her arms over her chest. "He's lucky that he's still alive after interrupting us so many times."
"Don't worry, you don't have any competition. I'll find you later," Claire promised before heading up to the bridge.
Alice wasn't alone on the deck for long. "We've located another pocket of survivors," Alexander said from beside her.
She glanced over at him, seeming quite indifferent. "And you need us to go round them up?" she asked.
"They are holed up in the Baltimore convention center," the man explained, showing her a few aerial photos taken by their satellites. "There are very large biohazard numbers surrounding the facility. Rain and I will be accompanying you and your team for the mission.
That was great, just great. It was the last thing Alice and the others needed. They were going to have to do this one by the book – and that meant nabbing the survivors. She absolutely hated when she had to give in to Umbrella's orders. "We'd be happy to have you along," she lied with a nod.
"Rain is prepping a team to leave now. I expect you and agents Olivera and Valentine in the aircraft bay within ten minutes," Alexander informed her before turning to walk away.
This was definitely not the way Alice wanted to start off her day. She quickly went to retrieve the other agents, less they feel the wrath of Alexander Slater – and Umbrella's CEOs by extension.
"Do they not know it's too fucking early for something like this?" Jill grumbled under her breath as the three headed for the aircraft bay.
"What? Didn't get enough beauty sleep?" Carlos teased the woman. That little jibe earned him a hard slap on the arm.
"Come on, we're wasting time," Alexander called out as soon as he caught sight of them. He and Rain were waiting by one of the prepped helicopters.
"Oh good, babysitters," Carlos muttered as they approached.
"You'll be riding with us," Alexander stated, motioning them into the chopper. "Two helicopters will carry the rest of the team behind us."
They all boarded the helicopter and were off of the Arcadia in no time. "The first objective when we hit the ground is to punch a hole in the infected mass. The second objective is to collect the survivors from within the convention center and bring them back to the Arcadia," Rain told them.
"We aren't children, we know how to do our job," Alice replied.
The other woman quirked a brow. "Yeah? You managed to fuck up your last four missions. I figure the clearer your mission parameters are, the less chance of another fuck up," she said.
The tension was palpable as the two stared each other down. Alice only backed off when Carlos – who was sitting beside her – gave her a faint nudge with his elbow. "Let's save that energy for the mission, yeah?" he suggested. "It'd be hard enough if it was fighting through an infected horde just to fight some more survivors, but look." He gestured out of the helicopter.
The storm that they had observed earlier was a monster, and they were flying right into the heart of it to get to their target. Brilliant white flashes of light against a black backdrop seemed to be a dark omen for their mission.