I'd like to apologize for letting life get in the way of my writing yet again. I promise to make it all up to, my dear readers. This chapter is a bit short, but I promise the next couple of chapters will be on the epic scale you've come to expect from this story. I'll give you fair warning, this story will take a turn for the dark side after this chapter. Why? Because the dark side has homemade, fresh baked cookies, and I'm a sucker for homemade cookies.
As always, I love knowing what you think, so send some reviews my way. I'd really like to know that you enjoy the story before things take a turn for the worst and you start to not like me.
And! One last thing, I promise. The italics at the end of this chapter are not a flashback. I wanted to point that out to avoid any confusion.
"Chairman Wesker has yet to announce when he plans to board the Arcadia," the White Queen stated.
Alice rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Alexander just told me the same thing," she pointed out.
"He will have to put the arrangements into the system at least twenty-four hours before traveling for security purposes. You will have at least that much warning. Might I suggest a limitation in the display of your powers? The Chairman's attention has been on you intensely for several weeks now, especially after a top secret experiment at the Tokyo Facility."
"Experiment?" Alice echoed the Artificial Intelligence unit. "What kind of experiment?"
"It was top secret," the White Queen repeated. If she had it in her to roll her eyes, she would have. "I tried to access the information about it, but have yet to be successful."
If not even the White Queen could get to it, then there was definitely something big going on. "All right, well thanks for the head's up," the blonde told her.
"I'm not quite done," the hologram informed Alice. "My systems indicate that my continued support of your mission is no longer logical. What you have done so far has been and will remain expunged from the system, however I cannot say that further misconducts will be so easily hidden."
Alice was honestly surprised. If the Artificial Intelligence unit was switching to self-preservation mode, things were getting bad. Not that she didn't know that already, but still. "You were built to help stop the spread of the infection and preserve what's left of the human race."
The White Queen considered the statement for a moment before responding. "Far less than one percent of the human race remains unaffected. Your efforts now are futile. Those you have managed to save are barely holding off the inevitable. It is only a matter of time before the Corporation finds out where these survivors are staying and retrieves them as well."
Without even giving Alice time to argue, the hologram disappeared. "Fuck," the blonde swore, resting her head in her hands again.
She stayed in the conference room for a few minutes longer, trying to gather and reign in her thoughts and sudden anxiety, before getting up and leaving. It was well after dark by that point – maybe rest would do her some good.
How could she rest now? She needed to talk to Jill, Carlos… and Claire. Or she could leave them out of it and try to figure out how to fix this on her own. If she acted alone, she could keep them safe. They'd all agreed to this though, they knew the risks and would take any consequence.
Wesker's visit wasn't something they had planned for though. Yes, they knew a face down with the Umbrella Chairman was inevitable, but now? They weren't ready for it.
Eventually Alice got up and headed out of the conference room. Her path back down below deck led her through the bridge. She was just in time to hear an incoming transmission between the ship's captain and someone she didn't recognize.
"This is Peyton Wells with the Special Task Force, requesting permission to approach and board the Arcadia. We have some special cargo that you need to see as soon as possible." The voice crackled over the radio.
The ship's captain picked up the handset to their radio. "What is the nature of your cargo, lieutenant?"
"Civilians, one in particular coded as top priority, sir."
The captain seemed to think it over for a moment before responding. "Permission granted, Peyton. What is your estimated time of arrival?"
"Estimated time of arrival is four hours, we're pretty far away from your ship."
"Four hours, confirmed. We'll be waiting for you." It would still be dark then, but they could light up the ship's deck well enough to put the old Las Vegas to shame.
Alice only lingered on the bridge long enough to listen to the transmission before she left. Now someone else was coming to their ship?
For some reason, she honestly didn't think any of this was going to end well.
Though she was uncertain as to whether or not she'd be able to sleep, Alice headed back below deck. She wasn't heading for her own cabin right away. Her feet took her to a certain redhead's cabin, stopping outside. She reached up a hand, resting it against the door. Claire was inside, she knew it. She had half a mind to knock and ask forgiveness for their fight earlier.
After several long moments of hesitation, the blonde turned and headed down the hallway. It didn't take her long to get to her own cabin, and dropped into her bed. Even if she was uptight, sleep mercifully took her for a while.
She was on the deck of the Arcadia. No one was in sight; there was no movement, no sound. There was an eerie quality about the atmosphere.
As she looked around, an unpleasant chill ran down her spine. The water below the ship wasn't blue, it was red – it was blood. As far as the eye could see, the entirety of the ocean was blood. That wasn't possible though. She was just imagining things. The stress of their situation was wearing on her, that was all.
She heard a faint noise from behind her and whirled around. Alice found herself face to face with a man she'd only ever seen as a hologram – Albert Wesker.
He pulled off his sunglasses as she turned to face him, his eyes flashing red briefly. "You're all going to die," he stated simply. There was a cold edge to his voice, something that only furthered the unpleasant feeling creeping in her gut. "I'm going to kill you all one by one… but I'll save you for last, Project Alice. I want you to see just how bad your mistakes were, thinking you could fool me."
"What are you talking about?" Alice questioned. As she looked past Wesker, she could see her friends behind him – Claire, Chris, K-mart, Jill, Carlos. She attempted to step forward to go to them, but he was in her way.
"I'm going to make you regret everything," the man said, putting his sunglasses back on. "You'll know what true pain is and you'll beg me for death before it's over."