Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil

And so it continues . . .

Claire woke to darkness and an empty space beside her. She thought she'd only been asleep for a few hours but couldn't be sure. She splayed her arm across the other side of the bed and noticed the coldness that had seeped in there. Alice must have been gone for awhile. She turned over to fall asleep again but now that she was awake all the worries came back.

She was responsible for these people and the duty was heavy on her shoulders. She got out of bed and pulled on her clothes. She planned on maybe heading to the control room and relieving whoever was on shift. She hoped she'd run into Alice on the way.

As she walked the hallways she noticed the familiar sensation of been watched. She had become so used to it that it barely registered anymore. Whenever she had that feeling she knew Alice was close by. The thought was always comforting and it helped to relieve some of the fear that Claire could never quite shake. When she reached the control room she heard voices inside. She walked in to find Chris and K-mart sitting at the small table that still took up half the space. They were laughing at some joke Chris had made and Claire hoped that K-mart kept herself more guarded this time round. She had attached herself to Carlos whilst in the convoy and had been all the more devastated for it when he'd sacrificed himself for them.

'What are you doing up? You've already done a shift.' Chris asked when he noticed her.

'Couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd be useful.' She dropped into a chair beside K-mart, 'Now that I'm here though we may as well talk about our plans for the future.' She rubbed her face, trying to push tiredness away.

'What about Alice and Luther?' K-mart asked.

'Well we can just go over basics.'

They didn't get far into talking strategy though as the conversation drifted towards what they hoped they'd find and fantasises they entertained whilst thinking of a permanent home. Nothing practical was set and once the shift was over Claire was definitely tired enough to fall asleep no matter what.

Claire woke again but this time to bright sunlight coming through the porthole and into her room and warm arms wrapped around her. She smiled and turned in the embrace to see soft grey eyes watching her.

'When did you get in?' she closed her eyes again and buried her face into a hard but warm shoulder.

'Not long ago. Your late night excursions must have tired you out because you didn't notice at all.' The voice was low and rough, which made Claire wonder what Alice had been thinking about whilst watching her sleep. She began to get an idea as calloused hands slid under her shirt and glided their way up her side. She shivered at the contact and pulled herself closer to the brunette beside her. Alice rolled over a bit so she was half lying on the redhead and began kissing her way up Claire's neck till she reached her lips. She traced the redhead's bottom lip with her tongue until her mouth eagerly opened. Claire felt the anticipation curl in her stomach and her body begin to tingle. She pulled Alice's hips closer to her own then ran her hands up her back. She was just about to pull the brunette's shirt off when there was a knock at the door.

'Claire, we're gathering in the control room in five minutes.' Chris called from the other side of the door. Alice pulled back and looked at her in exasperation.

'Okay, I'll be right there.' She waited till he left then asked Alice, 'Are you going to join us?' She pulled her closer and kissed her trying to persuade her physically to stay with her. When they broke apart Alice was smiling and Claire wondered if she knew what she'd been trying to do.

'Yes, I want to be there for this one. This close to the coast we'll finally have something interesting to talk about.' She got up and pulled her boots on. Before she walked to the door she paused to look down at her lover splayed on the bed. It was nearly impossible for her to turn away from the sight but she knew that if she stayed she wouldn't allow either of them to leave.

Claire was the last one to arrive. The inner circle still only consisted of Chris, Luther, K-mart, herself and Alice. It had been the group's unanimous decision to keep it this way; they all suffered from trust issues; besides most of the survivors were content to let themselves be led to safety.

Everyone, except Alice, was seated around the small table. The woman in question was, instead, leaning against the console, removed from the group slightly as she always seemed to be.

Claire moved to the head of the table and began, in her usual no nonsense speech.

'Okay, so we know what we want to achieve here. The questions on the table are; do we want to set ashore early and trek it further inland until we find a suitable village? Do we even want to go inland? Or do we travel as far as possible by sea and hope we don't run into any problems like sand bars as we get closer to the islands?' Chris was the first to answer predictably.

'The settling closer to the sea option seems to be safer in my opinion but it might be more convenient if we find somewhere more inland so that we can explore the land further.' He leaned forward, 'And as for how far we travel by sea, I think at least 500 miles from the Canadian border should be enough to escape any fringes of infection.' They all nodded in agreement.

'What about what happens when we find a place?' K-mart asked, 'We're going to need to find food and clean water. The supplies on the ship aren't going to last forever.' No one had a definite answer, so after a few vague suggestions Claire eventually said they'd have to figure it out when they got there. At that moment Alice spoke up for the first time.

'What happens when we find other people? If Alaska has escaped infection, wouldn't that mean there will still be people living in the towns, out in the countryside; anywhere.' Everyone turned to her.

'Well can't we just join with them?' K-mart asked, 'I mean, we're all survivors. They'd be happy to have more people.' She concluded, but the adults didn't look as happy with her theory as she felt they should.

'K-mart, when people have survived this long it usually means they've stocked up on supplies and formed their own little community. Those kinds of people wouldn't like a bunch of strangers wandering in and using up their food and equipment.' Luther explained.

'Where will we find a deserted town then?' she demanded.

'Oh, don't worry, there will be ghost towns enough for us. Not everyone is rational enough to realise the safety to be found in numbers.' Alice replied grimly. The mood in the room darkened at her words. Claire moved from the head of the table to go lean beside her on the counter. She kept an inch of distance between them but was still hyper aware of Alice's warmth, so close.

'So we head over 500 passed the border, find an empty town on the coast and work out supplies as soon as possible.' She summed up. They all nodded agreement and didn't mention the basic nature of their plan and its reliance on pure luck. Sometimes it was easier to think optimistically.

Thanks to those who reviewed, and I don't use beta so flames are welcome, so long as it's constructive and not mindless critisism :)

-B