I'm sorry for the late update. And sorry for the near month long wait. Writers block smacked me silly for a while there. Thank you to everybody who reviewed. Thank you to my awesome beta, UnwantedSlag, you are fuck-awesome!

EnTeR dIsClAiMeR hErE: I don't own anything, promise :)

I was listening to music when I wrote this, and a certain song got my attention. Bitter Taste ~ Three Days Grace. Somehow it just felt fitting with all the drama in this chapter.

*This one goes out to Shevvy, Belle, Chris and Nikky. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to continue this story. You guys are amazing, and I'm way happy that you are all in my life. MWAHZ!

A/N: Anything written in Italics is the thoughts of said character.

So here goes, enjoy!

Chapter 9

'Nothing makes any sort of sense anymore. Blacking out, random flashes of memories, raging hormones of a teenage girl. The damn need to temp these people, just to see how far I could push them before they start threatening to blow my head off of my shoulders. Great Alice, you're talking to yourself again. Snap out of it Skippy!' Alice shook her head, looking back up at Chris, who seemingly hasn't taken his eyes off her.

Leon and his merry men had the doors open and were fiddling between themselves. Freaked out, of course. Anybody within 5 feet of them could smell it. Alice glanced at Chris. He had a look on his face that she couldn't decipher. And staring at him wasn't helping either. She wanted to talk about what the hell had happened, but the look he gave her earlier simply said that they will discuss it later. Away from prying ears and eyes, so to speak.

Later wasn't an option when you feel like you are going out of your mind, but who was Alice to complain? He had left his sister, not knowing when or even if he would see her again. And here she was, complaining like a little child because she wasn't getting her way. Alice was sure she was pouting. 'Pouting? God Alice, how old are you?'

Leon spoke up, suggesting that they get a move on. It was getting dark quickly and neither Leon nor his men liked being out in this hell hole during the dark. Who could blame them though?

DC was creepy looking even during the day. The undead were wandering around aimlessly, looking for a spot of meat. It looked like an atomic bomb had gone off. Debris scattered everywhere. The city looked pale and dead for all intent and purposes. Well, to be honest it is pale and dead. Nothing much moved anymore, rendering the once beautiful city, dull and lifeless so to speak. 'Zombies don't count as those that are still alive, do they?'

"Come on." Chris whispered, pulling Alice to walk beside him. She kept her head up when they passed the unmerry men. There was simply no way that she would feel guilty, or even think of showing remorse for her actions, even if she didn't really understand or remember them all fully. She was proud, bordering on stubborn even. But it's not like she was going to change that aspect of her life now.

Stepping into the elevator reminded Alice a bit like the elevators the facility in Vegas used. Those thoughts brought with them shudders. Carlos, LJ, Claire and K-Mart. Isaacs really deserved the hand he was dealt. The elevator started moving, causing Leon's men to ready their weapons.

"What are you doing?" Alice glared at herself internally for asking such an idiotic question. 'What does it look like they are doing you idiot?'

Shrugging, Leon simply replied. "We got a few reports that the undead had gone underground to get at us. Figure they smelled us in here, so they came in. that's why we keep it locked and also why nobody comes out here unless they are escorted." He didn't even bother to look back at her when he spoke. 'Prick.' Alice thought.

Alice nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. They do have an amazing sense of smell those bastards." Chris said, he didn't bother to look at Leon either, pulling his weapon out instead, inspecting it slightly.

Leon chuckled and nodded in agreement. 'Men.' The elevator came to a stop a few seconds later. The place was stripped bare. Wires were hanging loosely from the ceiling, metal was stripped from the walls, but the floor remained intact. Obviously the floors were still intact. Can't be looking where to put your feet when you are running for your life. This fact made Alice laugh a little. Getting a strange look from the men around her, Alice rolled her eyes and attempted to explain.

"Carlos always said never to be the fastest runner, just be faster than the guy in front of you. And in here, the floors are intact, so that could be rather easy. I happen to run faster than all of you." Alice concluded. Both Chris and Leon chuckled.

"Your girl her has a twisted sense of humor Redfield." Neither Alice nor Chris said anything. 'Your girl' sounded good to both of them, but that would never be revealed by either of them. Ever.

Moving off the elevator, Leon instructed his mean to take point. 'Move slowly and be certain' were the exact words he used. Moving down the corridor at a slow pace that annoyed Alice highly, Chris pushed Alice in front of him, mumbling something that if she was going to save the world, he wouldn't be the guy that got her killed. That resulted in a scoffing from the front and a semi-blush from Alice. Her ears were the only things that blushed. In fact, they turned a faint shade of pink.

"Right, central control room in up ahead. Move quickly, we don't know if they have gotten in yet, okay?" Alice nodded and pulled her gun out. Moving up the next few corridors quickly, Alice noted that this facility resembled the Hive a little too much.

Thinking quickly, Alice reached her hand out to touch Leon's arm to grab his attention. "Leon, does this facility have a research area?" Leon looked back and replied in a whisper. "Yes, it does. Why you wanna know?" Alice stiffened a little and stopped abruptly.

"They might have an original vial of the T-virus, or at least have some information on the combinations Jill mentioned." Alice turned to Chris, needing him to understand this to confirm her point.

"Well, DC was the last to fall. You may be right, though I doubt they have a vial, they may have information up to the day the crew was killed." Chris whispered back. Alice nodded and looked to Leon, silently asking for permission to take a slight detour.

"Well then, let's go missy. I'll send the boys up. We'll head there soon enough, just a slight detour." Leon nodded and took point after informing the unmerry men of the change in plans. He said something to the point of 'watch your backs' and 'stay safe'. Moving to the research area, Alice noted that this too resembled the Hive. 'Creepy.' She thought.

None of the labs were flooded though. Can't say it's a good thing just yet though. They reached the computer rooms easily and quickly enough. No zombies. Just means they aren't inside just yet. This makes them more dangerous, not knowing when or where they will pop out. An image of a zombie Jack-In-A-Box popped into Alice's head. Stifling a chuckle, Alice shook her head. 'Yeah, twisted.'

They reached a rather large steel door. A worn label said 'Intake Area', which was code for 'Anything about all the illegal stuff we do is stored in here.' Leon and Chris fiddled with the door, and pulled it open after a few minutes. Alice took note of the silence, ignoring the huffing and puffing coming from behind her. Finally pulling the door open, Leon ushered them inside, flicking the light switch, bathing the room in a bright and extremely white glow.

"Here you go sugar. Do your thing." Leon nodded toward a haggard looking chair. Alice moved to sit down, but stopped. "You need to check the other rooms. There is a sealed chamber where the virus would have been held. We need to check it." Turning on her heel, Alice was stopped by Chris' hand on her arm.

"I'll go. You stay here. See what you can find." Chris nothing but ordered. Scowling slightly, Alice nodded, letting Chris usher her back toward the computer.

"You both go. It'll go quicker. And before you complain, mother, I'll be fine. I have a gun. And I do know how to use it." Chris gave Alice a worried look, but agreed reluctantly. The look he was wearing was not pleasant. He looked like a man heading to his death, willingly, none the less.

"Lock the door when we leave, okay?" Leon said, turning to leave. Chris gave Alice's hand a gentle squeeze and followed Leon out into the corridor where they split up. Alice pushed the door to close it, and eyed the chair again. Sighing she sat down.

After a few difficulties getting into the system, Alice smiled when the files she wanted opened. Skipping most of pretty much everything, paying attention to Biological weaponry specifically, she only went looking for files pertaining to the T-virus and its proverbial "babies". Resisting the urge to break something, Alice instead opened the Nemesis file.

Photos of Matt's transformation flew onto the screen. She noted that he was fully turned within a month. The process was slowed down by massive amounts of drugs so that Umbrella scientists could study his transformation. By the end the only thing she could recognize in the photos was Matt's eyes. They were clear blue. A sad looking blue, but it held a sparkle to them. Like a child when he or she were up to no good.

Something else however caught Alice's attention. The serum derived from Matt. Umbrella was planning on breeding more of Nemesis, like rabbits in heat. The only information Alice could gather was that a combination of Nemesis' blood, the original T-virus and her blood were being experimented on, to see if it was possible to create a super-human from the serum. Nothing further was mentioned on the subject, signaling that the crew must have died before any more data could be retrieved. Alice noted the date of the last transmission. It coincided with the last of the messages from Arcadia.

They must have either gotten in very right, or very wrong, judging by Jill and Wesker. Wesker was injured when he took the serum. Alice guessed that Jill was used as a lab rat, and then turned into an obedient little puppy. That's why they were hording survivors. They were going to be their lab rats. Alice deduced from the notes, made by Wesker himself, that after the experiments, test subjects would be released back 'Into the wild' as he put it.

Seeing a file labeled 'Project Alice', Alice jumped at the opportunity to open it. A picture of a pale purple vial and her face jumped on the screen. Apparently Alice's serum was used to accelerate healing, hearing, sight, agility, etc. Basically, making whoever was injected by it, just like Alice. The mixture of her blood into the serum made sure that the virus adapted to the blood of the person, not killing the unfortunate sucker that had been injected with the serum, and turning them into mad cow, er, zombie things.

A loud banging on the door made Alice jump. Running to the door, and pulling it open as fast as she could when she saw Leon. "Where's Cri- Oh my God. Chris!" Chris was hanging onto Leon for dear life. His arms and his neck were bitten into. Looking up, Alice could see a bundle of emotions in his eyes. He knew he was done for.

Pulling him over onto her own shoulders, Alice led Chris to the shabby chair, sitting him down. Without even asking what happened, Leon filled her in on his own accord. "I was over in medical when I heard a crash. Now I knew Redfield wouldn't make so much noise if he knew that there were, uh, undesirables in the area. So I ran as fast as I could, and not a moment later I heard shots. But when I got there he was already bitten. We finished the fuckers off, but he was too weak to walk back on his own, so I sort of carried him." Leon was already pacing behind her.

"Fuck!" Leon yelled suddenly and falling onto his ass next to the door.

"I found this though." Chris said finally after Leon had stopped hi tirade, holding up a pale purple vial. Alice's eyes grew noticeably and snatched it out of Chris' hand, examining it. She started cradling the vial like it was her lifeline. Like it was a delicate china set, and she was the bull in the store.

"You could have asked you know. Just because I'm dying doesn't mean that you can lose your manners all of a sudden Alice." Alice held up her hand to silence him and jumped into telling Leon and Chris what she had found out. Not sparing even the goriest of details. Alice explained about the serum, holding it up gingerly, and told them what it would mean.

Alice fiddled with her thumbs, mumbling loud enough to be heard, but not looking up just yet. "I don't think there are any side effects. I never got any after I got out of the Raccoon City Hospital. I just felt a few physical changes. Like the virus was moving around in my arms. I could see what looked like chunks moving around on my arms and legs. It wasn't painful, just a strange pulling sensation and a weird tingle." Alice seemed to be thinking for a moment. She glanced at Chris, he was staring at the wall. His face was a blank mask.

Alice laid her hand on Chris' knee, staring at his shoes. At some point during the exchange of information, Alice had seated herself by Chris' feet. Chris started coughing, spitting out blood. Alice clutched the vial closer to her chest, jumping up quickly, tugging on Chris' arm gingerly, afraid that she could hurt him somehow.

"We have to hurry. We don't have much time. You are not going to die on me, you hear me?" Alice stared longingly at Chris, willing him, begging him to understand her pleas.

"Leon-"But before Alice could even finish her sentence, Chris cut her off.

"No." Chris said simply. "We don't know if it'll even work. And I for one don't trust Umbrella." He was growing noticeably weaker by the minute.

"I do. On this, I do." Alice looked at Chris pleadingly. "Please." She whispered finally. Moving closer to him, holding his head between her hands, pulling his head up and forcing his eyes to meet hers. "I'm not losing you Chris." Alice whispered.

Alice could see the doubt in his eyes. He was afraid. Not of dying, but afraid of becoming one of those things they were running from. Like Rain, he repeatedly expressed that he never wanted to be like one of those things. He would rather die. And now, when he could live, he was plainly choosing death.

Alice closed the small gap between them and kissed Chris softly. Pouring the affection she felt for Matt, the love for Carlos and her need and her otherwise undetermined emotions toward Chris himself into that one kiss. She was willing him to understand, saying things she couldn't form words for. Saying things they could never say in public.

Pulling back slowly, Alice pressed her forehead against Chris'. "Please." She whispered again. 'Please'. Pulling back fully, Alice looked at Chris again.

Closing his eyes, Chris only gave a small nod. Alice injected him almost immediately, looking into his eyes the entire time. Chris took in a long breath. Sucking it in like it was likely to be his last. Leon looked at Alice worriedly. Without speaking, Alice could feel his fear. Leon and Chris know each other. They worked together a few years ago. They weren't close, but any kind of acquaintance nowadays seemed to be regarded as a best friend.

"How are you feeling?" Leon asked in a quiet voice, almost as if he was afraid that talking in a normal voice would cause Chris to shatter and fall apart.

Scratching his arm lightly, Chris looked at Leon. "Feeling okay. Well, as okay as I could be." Coughing again and spitting blood out somewhere onto the carpet and looked back to Alice. For a few minutes they made small talk. Alice had sunk to the floor next to Chris again. One of her fingers threaded into two of his. Chris started to slump in the chair a bit.

"Might fall asleep for a minute or two. If I, you know." Chris motioned with his hand waving around in the air. "One to the head, okay?" Chris took his gun out of its holster and gave it to Leon, almost as if he wouldn't let himself to allow his death fall onto Alice's shoulders.

Grabbing his hand fully, Alice gave Chris a small smile. "I'll be here when you wake up." Smiling fully and holding up her other hand. "Scouts honor." Leon sniggered and Chris chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah wise ass." Alice kept smiling as Chris fully slumped on the chair. Not letting go of his hand once, Alice looked at Leon. He looked as if he had stuck his head into a bee's nest. He was getting panicked. Panic wasn't going to help. But Alice could understand it. Leon needed to be worried if the serum didn't work and Chris turned into a meat lover and wanted to chow down on one of them before he could be, er, "put down" as he so colorfully put it.

"What happened? What do we do?" He asked. Alice could hear the fear in his voice. He wasn't even trying to mask it by this point.

"Now we wait." Alice whispered. 'Now we wait.' Alice thought as she bit down on her bottom lip.

Gently stroking Chris' fingers, Alice started praying. Not that she was ever religious, but she had to believe that something higher than Umbrella was in control now. She couldn't lose him now. She just found him. She couldn't even tell him how she felt, even if she didn't know fully herself. But he needed to live. He had to. He simply had to.

A few hours passed, less and less words were spoken between Leon and Alice. No use in getting to know each other. They didn't need to know each other's favorite color, movie or food. There were trivial things they talked about, like things they miss from before. Funny things they used to do to pass the time. Even casually landing on careers, even though Alice hated talking about her years with Umbrella, she shared a few things. She mostly shared a few tidbits from the Hive incident, Raccoon City and the entire end of the world fiasco.

Chris had grown a little cold, his body temperature dropping a little, but not drastically. But then, as all semi-good things always come to an end, Chris began to stir slightly. Leon reached over to Alice, pulling her to her feet, and moving them both back against the big steel door.

Both Alice and Leon took out their guns, releasing the safety and getting ready to shoot. Ignoring the pang in her chest at the fact that she was getting ready to shoot Chris, Alice stood closer, just as Chris' eyes snapped open.

Chris stood up from the chair, knocking it back by the force of his sudden movement. He took a step closer, eyeing Alice and Leon before flashing his teeth. He looked feral, like a predator stalking his pray. But that's exactly what the undead were. 'They are predators. Resorting back to the most primitive of needs. The need to feed.' Alice shook her head, repeating the Red Queens words to herself. Chris hadn't moved, and this made Alice both hopeful and fearful, her fear however was taking over at the moment.

"Chris?" Alice whispered. His eyes had snapped to Alice as soon as she spoke, causing him to take a step in her direction.

Yeah, all semi-good things had come to an end. A very shitty end.

*A/C*

I had a difficult time writing this one, but as soon as I got into it, it got easier at time went on. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. You guys are fuck-awesome!

And I'm pimping my other story. I just started writing it, so be gentle. It's called 'Reality Killed the Video Star'. Please check it out, and feel free to throw bricks at me if you don't like it. Yet again, Reviews = Happy Dance :D