Chapter 3

Almost Dead

Rain stalked between the rows of containers, her gun aimed steadily ahead of her. Anise watched the woman, and her eyes drifted from long black braid to that muscled derriere. The soldier oozed sexy confidence, and her body was taut and beautiful, even hidden by all that gear and cloth. Anise smiled at the sight, thinking of how she couldn't help admiring such a fine female specimen.

The metal rang again, reminding her of the dismal present. Her smile disappeared. Anise craned to see beyond the other woman. Rain disappeared in the distance, then immediately cried out, "JD! We got a survivor!" The commando's voice grew soft talking to whoever it was. "It's okay, we're here to help."

Anise was stumped. The Red Queen had said that she was the only one left alive. Was she lied to? Who could it be?

JD was already moving in the direction that Rain had gone, his prisoner following on his heel. Anise rolled over and hopped down to the floor. She wanted to see too, but remained out of sight. A rasping moan reached her hears and she couldn't yet see, so she mounted another box to gain a vantage point. What Anise saw made her knees weak, and she almost fell off.

It was her friend Terri, from another project. They almost always had lunch together and had gotten Anise for her birthday a box of exotic dark chocolate that she had had imported from France.

The two women were very close. Anise was privy to most everything about Terri's life, her sweet husband, her infant kids she sometimes babysat. Terri knew almost everything about Anise, her parents, a brother, awful dates with women that never panned out. She had not once asked why Anise never left Raccoon City. She had just accepted Anise as she was. They were friends despite the Umbrella-enforced secrets they kept from each other.

Terri never appeared anywhere without meticulous makeup, a smile full of sparkly teeth, freshly ironed clothes, and easy demeanor. Yet now, her lab coat was stained and rumpled, her complexion was pale and sickly, her gums were discolored, and she was snarling. The woman looked like absolute shit. There was something definitely wrong with her. Anise whimpered at the thought of what could have caused Terri's awful makeover.

Biting Rain's hand and ripping out a chunk, being shoved off, and coming back for seconds stole away any remnant of hope from Anise. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the cage, watching as Rain wrestled with a deranged Terri. JD appeared and Rain yelled at him, "Get her off of me before I stab her ass!"

Numb, Anise watched as JD yanked Terri off of his angry squadmate.

"Stay down, I'm warning you. Stay. Down." JD was aiming his gun at the scientist. He shot her in one leg and looked up to see her reaction. Terri's body flinched and started moving toward him again. So he shot the other leg. That also failed to stop the woman. He gaped at her, then started to empty his magazine into her chest. Terri kept upright until Rain whipped up her own heavy gun and opened fire. The force of the impacts lifted Terri off her feet and sent her flying backward.

JD's thick black eyebrows practically disappeared into his curly hair. "I shot her five times." He squeaked. "How is she still standing?"

"Bitch ain't standing now," Rain still managed to sound bored, if slightly irritated. She repositioned her gun on its strap so she could take out a bandage to wrap her bleeding hand.

Anise wanted to take that bandage, wrap it around the arrogant commando's neck and strangle her. That bitch was her friend! Terri was a sweet woman. No one ever called her a bitch. Rain had the nerve to kill her friend and call her names? Anise was outraged and shocked. It was easier than thinking about why Terri had taken mortal wounds and ignored them. It was too awful. The idea that... No. She was angry at Rain.

Spence, Alice, and a man in uniform chose that moment to appear. They had been running and were panting lightly.

"What was all the shooting?" The faintly sweating commando asked.

Rain responded dryly, "We found a survivor."

"And you shot him?" The man's voice shot up an octave, his boyish face frowning.

Anise registered his shock, perceived that the squad's mission wasn't to finish the Red Queen's killing spree. Not that it had stopped that bitch Rain from killing Terri.

"She was crazed. She bit me." Rain held up her bandaged hand, blood already soaking through the gauze.

"She's gone." Everyone turned to look at JD. He pointed to where Terri's body should be.

No. No. No! Anise whimpered. Her worst nightmares had come to life. Her friend wasn't quite dead.

Half listening while she scanned the area for Terri's errant body, she heard them discuss the coagulated blood on the ground. The blood that was from the scientist's wounds. Someone explained how it wasn't possible for someone alive to bleed coagulated blood. Only dead people's blood was clotted and gooey like that. She heard the growing chorus of raspy moaning just as she spotted Terri's body stumbling around a dozen yards away. Tears blurred Anise's vision. She cursed the Umbrella commandos for not shooting Terri in the head.

Anise blinked and wiped at her wet eyes. At a glance, she saw that the small group and herself were surrounded by moaning, awful versions of her friends, coworkers, and acquaintances from the Hive. They were all infected by the T-virus, dead, but not quite down for the count. And they were hungry. Irrationally, unstoppably hungry. Anise flicked her eyes back to Terri, who was once again approaching Rain. "You better fucking shoot her in the head this time," she whispered.

Rain gaped at the approaching woman, her body riddled with bullet holes she did not notice. Only intense training and experience must have brought her hands up to grasp Terri's jaw and head and twist.

SNAP. Snap. CRUNCH. POP.

Anise heard every ligament that tore and every bone that broke. Her stomach threatened mutiny again as her friend went down. She managed to keep control of her stomach with the knowledge that Terri would not rise again. The only survivor of the Hive closed her eyes and decided not to kill Rain. The squad opened fire on the approaching infected, and everything after became a blur.

Chaos reigned. The infected were suddenly everywhere. Their hungry mouths reached for fresh meat. Anise could see the squad holding their own and nodded in satisfaction. The poor, unarmed civilians, however, were barely dodging arms and teeth. Anise had to help. She'd be damned if she watched some poor victim get eaten alive when she could do something. Anise grabbed her only weapon and literally jumped into the fray.

Trusty screwdriver, with its sharply broken shaft, became lodged in the skull of a man that had asked her out once. Her momentum carried them both to the ground. Gracefully, she rose from her crouch to dispatch another infected pinning Alice to a cage. The Chief of Security blinked in surprise at her sudden rescue. Alice offered her a small grin before engaging another of the undead mob.

"Bash their heads," Anise yelled. "Or break their necks." A sickening crack responded, and Anise risked a glance over to see Alice slamming a head into unforgiving steel. Awesome. She knew there was a reason that she liked the blonde chief. Aside from her ass.

The two women stayed close until Anise spied an ax on the ground. She couldn't resist the chance of a better weapon than her sadly broken screwdriver. Like a knife, she threw the tool into an infected snarling between herself and the ax. She dove for the hefty weapon and came up swinging. That homophobic bitch didn't need her head anymore. It bounced away, disappearing into the carnage.

Spying Alice again, she made her way toward the woman. Anise gasped when Alice fell from sight. When the chief came back up, pulling the man in blue with her, Anise's breath came back. The man rubbed his raw wrists, must have lost the handcuffs. Good for him. She axed a few infected blocking her way to the living people. Alice and the man both jumped at her appearance, startled and confused by a stranger coming their way, but not trying to eat them. "You're real." The man gaped.

Alice's gaze swung to him. "Matt, do you know her?"

He shook his head. "No, but I saw her earlier, hiding."

That answered that. She avoided answering the questions she could see in their eyes. "Yea, hi. I'm Anise. Let's get the fuck out of here." Anise jerked her head in the direction of possible safety. The commandos were nowhere to be seen, though they could hear gunfire and screaming from the other end of the room. Anise headed in the direction of the nearest door. It would lead up to the labs and eventually to freedom.

Jogging through the cages, her bag lightly bouncing on her hip, the ax ready in her hands, she quickly left the infected behind. Once, she looked back and Alice was still behind her. Matt had disappeared. Damn. She continued on through empty hallways and offices until she made it to a familiar lab. Somewhere along the way she had lost Alice too.

"Well, shit." She grumbled when she noticed. Being alone sucked. Shoving the unpleasant idea from her thoughts, she focused on the more practical. Thirst was making her saliva thick and unpleasant, and that lone Snickers bar had been hours ago. Her body demanded, and it wanted sustenance. Now.

Anise ransacked her personal fridge. From it, she pulled the remains of her birthday dinner spaghetti, apples, the chocolates from Terri, water, and a dozen juices. Knowing her meal could be interrupted at any time, she locked herself in the small room. She washed her hands and face of filth before shoveling food in her mouth. The T-virus wasn't a threat to Project Afterthought's prize subject, so infected blood wasn't a threat to her life, but that didn't mean that she wanted to eat goopy blood and brain matter with her awesome spaghetti. She coiled spaghetti around her fork and sucked it down. So good.

Her ramped up metabolism was such a hindrance sometimes. Anise grumbled silently about how she was stuck in a horrific situation that had her weeping like a schoolgirl and chopping the heads off of her friends, and her damn stomach was hungry. She ate two apples on top of the spaghetti, then guzzled a pint of pineapple juice. Sated, she stuffed her bag full of food and the rest of her liquids. Never knew how long she'd be stuck underground; her stomach ruled before achy shoulders from a heavy bag. She indulged in her decadent chocolates and silently said goodbye to Terri.

The sound of gunfire pulled her from her reverie. It was close. Really close. That meant someone was alive, and there were infected nearby too. Anise popped another chocolate in her mouth, grabbed her gory ax, and peered through the glass windows before poking her head out the door.

Scanning the corridor, she saw one dead man stumble toward her. She thought about his name, then shook herself and buried the ax between his eyes. The crunch and slurping as she pulled the blade out gave her stomach cause to rebel. The woman swallowed, hurriedly turning away. Looking up, she flinched at seeing another person suddenly close. Her ax was swinging again before she recognized Alice.

Luckily, the security operative had fast reflexes. She ducked and sidestepped, bringing up her empty hands. "Stop!" Alice was shaken, her eyes wide and frightened.

"Sorry, Alice," Anise muttered, shouldering the weapon. It was embarrassing that someone had managed to sneak up on her, with her awesome hearing. She felt her cheeks heat up with a blush. "Did you hear the gunfire?"

"Yea. That was me."

Anise raised an eyebrow in question. The other woman didn't indulge her with the story. "Okay..." She shifted awkwardly.

Alice met her eyes, and seemed to steady herself before asking, "You called me Alice. Am I supposed to know you?"

Taken aback, Anise blinked a few times before responding. "Um. Yes. No. Not really. We talked once. Couple years ago."

"My name is Alice?"

"Yes." Anise looked away. She couldn't meet the intense gaze anymore. Her eyes shifted around the area. Nothing was moving and no questionable sounds reached her ears. She felt Alice's continued stare and looked back up.

"I think I remember your face." Anise's heart plummeted. She did not want to be recognized, dammit. She wanted out of this hell hole. If Umbrella's upper management found out she was more than a useful lab assistant or that Project Afterthought existed, well shit. They wouldn't want her in the public's hands. It could ruin their profit margin. The morons in charge would keep her as company property, and she would never see the surface again. Anise liked sunshine and trees and grass and kitties and playing Frisbee in the park too much for that to happen.

"How did you survive?"

Dammit. Questions bred like rabbits in everyone's heads.