Disclaimer – Nope still not owning Resident Evil only Carter.

Map out your future,

But do it in pencil,

The Road Ahead is as long as you make it,

Make it worth the trip

Jon Bon Jovi

XXX

"Alaska!" Claire called out not hiding the obvious disbelief that she was feeling, "You have any idea what kind of journey that would be?"

"Yeah," Carter scoffed standing beside the military graded transport truck fiddling with his fingerless gloves, "A long one."

Claire whipped her head around to face the young man standing outside of the truck they had all been sitting in. She gave him a death glare; earning and innocent look in response. Who the hell had even invited him to the conversation? If she found out who had she made a mental note to throttle them.

"Look all were saying is that it might be a good idea," Mikey spoke up before anything physical would erupt between the male new comer and the leader of their convoy.

"Mikey listen to what you're saying-" Claire was cut off when Chase decided to speak up.

"This clearly states that there is no infection, it's our best chance Claire." Chase hesitated when the death glare that had been on the young man only moments before was suddenly thrust upon him.

"But Alaska," she shook her head, "There were over fifty of us now there are less than thirty of us; the chances of half of us making it to Alaska alive are thin."

"But it's worth a try." Carter spoke up once more this time earning everyone's attention as heads inside the vehicle turned to face him, "Think about it, hope fades when people start dying." That was one thing he could be absolutely sure about – hope dies when everything starts going wrong.

Alice nodded before speaking, "People need renewed hope." It was hoarse from lack of voice use but it was sincere.

Claire turned to face the blonde who stared intently back. If Claire looked close enough she could almost see the pleading in the blonde's eyes for her to agree. She let a small sigh escape her lips before letting her gaze drift from the blonde to the sun setting outside in the barren wasteland of desert. "The convoy will decide."

Carter took a step back away from the truck as the occupants filed out but not without a nod towards their leader. "Well that's a step in the right direction," he glanced away almost immediately and regretted the words the moment they left his lips. The death glare on him was intensifying and for the first time he actually felt as if the woman could kill him – and just by looking at him.

"These people trust me with their lives," Claire spoke up breaking the sudden silence that had enveloped them while softening her glare. She looked down at the floor of the back of the transporter, she had barely known the two people she was currently sharing breathing room with and already she felt comfortable in their presence.

"The convoy may need you to lean on but who do you lean on?"Carter asked rhetorically.

"Everybody needs somebody to lean on," Alice whispered as she blinked a few times somewhat shocked at the words that had left her mouth.

Carter glanced between the two women, who were currently lost in thought as they stared at each other. If anybody else had bear witness to what was happening in the truck it may have been mistaken for the women being in love with each other just from the way they looked at each other. Carter knew better, he could read people it was necessary for what he did, they weren't in love maybe not right now but there was a certain trust and need for one another that they were both fighting against. He pushed himself away from the truck the moment the convoy survivors started swarming the around the back of the transporter.

Claire diverted her gaze away from the blonde slowly and pointed it towards her convoy, "There's something I need to ask you." She watched the faces glance around at one another, Carter and Alice were both right they were losing hope and maybe they did need it renewed. "A decision that is too big for me to make alone." She glanced around the crowd finally setting her gaze on Kmart who shifted from foot to foot. "There is a chance there are survivors."

"Where?"

It was almost a whisper but Claire heard it and directed her attention to the man who asked, "Alaska." She replied before continuing, "There is a chance that the infection hasn't reached that far. But we don't know for sure," She made sure to make point of that last bit of the sentence. "Now we have a choice we can continue as we are or we can head for Alaska. For Alaska?" she asked watching Kmart's hand go up first followed by the rest of the convoy. She was proud of the teen, at first she had been adamant to keep her distance from everyone and had been scared but slowly she had started opening up to her and Kmart began trusting again. "Alaska," she nodded agreeing.

Carter watched the convoy disperse getting ready to spend their last night at the motel – if it had been him after the crow attack he would have been out of there faster than lightning. He held up his hand towards Claire helping her out of the vehicle and giving a small nod towards her before holding out his hand to the blonde as well.

Claire shot down the sudden spark of annoyance which could be construed as jealousy when Carter had grabbed Alice's hand and helped the blonde woman out of the truck. She knew he was just being polite, he acted arrogant and all know-it-all but small things like these showed that there was still chivalry in a dying world.

"I hope you right," Claire shot towards Alice.

Alice picked up the tone of aggravation in the redheads voice but a look towards the woman showed there was no anger only hope. That was all she could, better yet would ask for, the woman looked like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders and all she wanted to do was to take away some of it, if not all of it. She fought back the smile beginning to form on her lips at the signs of hope in the younger woman's eyes.

"We should get settled in for the night," Claire nodded towards Alice before turning and walking away.

"I wonder if she's usually like that or if it's just a facade," Carter curiously watched the redhead walk away. He had spotted the small cringe in the corner of his eye from the redhead when he had helped Alice out of the transporter and to say he was surprised when her attitude changed was an understatement.

Alice shook her head before following in the footsteps of the redhead. She had finally diverted her path away from Claire's, walking across the sand and making her way over towards the empty campfire that had been left a light. She watched the sun finish its last dip behind the sand dunes turning the last bit of light into dark. She knew night was deadlier than day, people spent all day on alert and ready for something to jump out at them and then night came and people where exhausted, they'd let their guard down to get sleep in the comfort of darkness and one thing she knew...letting your guard down was bad.

Claire leant against the yellow hummer, letting her eyes drift over the remaining convoy members, her eyes finally resting on Alice. The blonde had shown up and lit the skies up in blazing fire; the firestorm had consumed the skies and saved her convoy. Of course there were whispers about whether or not they should keep the blonde with them but honestly Claire couldn't understand what was wrong with keeping the blonde in their convoy.

"You know they say staring is rude," Carter held up his gloved hands defensively as the redhead shot him a warning glare, "Hey that's what I hear." He gave a small shrug leaning behind the redhead against the yellow hummer.

"Do you need something?" Claire asked quickly and slightly agitated as she looked away from Carter setting her gaze onto Otto as he handed out the last supply of food.

"I don't need anything from you or any of you!" He shot back quickly earning himself a curious glance from the redhead and causing him to divert his gaze away from the woman.

"We had enough to feed the children but there isn't enough for the adults," Carlos's voice broke the silence and earned Claire's attention.

Carter watched the redhead sigh; he gave a small roll of his eyes in exasperation. Couldn't these people do anything themselves? "I've got food," he spoke up feeling the two sets of eyes fall on him.

"No you've already done enough for the convoy," Claire shook her head refusing the assistance of the younger man.

That's right he had done his fair share for the convoy by risking his own sweet life by getting on that damn mounted flamethrower, which was way more than his fair share. "Look I'm one person and I'm not going to eat the amount of food that is in my car."

Claire watched Carter, she was good at reading people but she was having a hell of a time reading Carter he seemed to show no emotion about anything he said as if he wouldn't care if a giant chasm opened up beneath him and swallowed him whole. She turned to face Carlos who gave a small shrug of his shoulders, "Fine but only enough to sustain us for the night we'll find more tomorrow." She turned back to Carter making sure he knew she wasn't ungrateful but at the same time she wasn't going to take anymore than needed.

Carter gave a small shrug before moving over towards his car stopping when he realized Claire and the other man had yet to follow him. "You're not going to expect me to carry them to you because if you are you've got another thing coming."

Claire shook her head before starting to follow the young man feeling Carlos fall in step beside her, "So do you have a destination in mind?" Claire asked breaking the small uncomfortable silence.

"Right now my car," he smiled turning back to Claire to give her a smirk, "Does anyone really have a destination?" He kept the smirk on his face as he pulled open the door of his car and pulled back the front seat before leaning into the back of his car.

"Not really you just keep driving," Carlos spoke up holding out his arms as a cardboard box was placed in them.

"Exactly you keep driving in hope that one day you'll run into safety but then as the roads drag on, the days get longer, the nights shorter, sleep comes less and less and the people around you start dying one by one you begin to think...is there anything left fighting for in this world." Carter turned his head towards Claire, his statement directly aimed at the leader of the convoy as he placed another box on top of first that the older man was holding.

Claire searched the younger mans eyes for any underlying message in the words he had said. She knew there was something to what he was saying just by the way he had directed the statement to her. She shifted from foot to foot as Carlos slowly made his way over to Otto while struggling with the boxes of tin food. "What do you mean by that?" She asked directly.

Carter pushed his seat back up before shutting the door. He turned to face the redhead before grinning once again. "If I told you what fun would that be for me," he watched the young woman give him a death glare causing him to suddenly feel uneasy about being in the woman's presence alone.

Claire gave her head one more shake, "You know since you invited yourself to the conversation about Alaska I suppose you'll invite yourself to the meeting tonight?" She raised an eyebrow making sure he knew the question was rhetorical and that he was going to come whether or not he liked it.

He had to fight back the urge to reply with a sarcastic remark, "You got it commando." He nodded with a salute before turning back to his car the moment the death glare returned. He knew the meeting was to explain where they would pick up supplies and gas for the journey to Alaska and he knew they weren't going to like the answer.

Next Chapter up shortly.