Chapter 33: Ridding the World of Evil
Claire's outcry resounded in Alice's ears as her chest seized in fear. Wesker released his hostage and the redhead collapsed to the ground. Chris opened fire on the man but he avoided the bullets and moved in to attack. Alice dropped her gun in shock and sprinted for the younger woman. The brunette fell on her knees; her heart beating out of her ribcage as she brought her lover into her arms.
Crimson fluid poured from the wound like a spring. The brunette put pressure on Claire's chest with a shaking hand, but the warm liquid continued to seep past her clenched fingers.
"Alice." The redhead's voice was overflowing with pain.
The taller woman tore her gaze away from her blood-covered hand to meet green eyes, and said like a reflex, "You-you're going to be fine, baby." The fight between Chris and Wesker raged behind the pair.
Claire pooled all her strength to smile for Alice. "Since when do you call me baby?"
"Since I realized how much I love you."
"I could get used to hearing that," the younger woman responded, trying to continue the banter to keep Alice from noticing the hurt and desperation that filled her body with every ounce of fluid that left.
"Then you'll hear it forever. Baby – don't leave me." The redhead may have been able to pull the anxiety from her voice, but Alice couldn't and it broke Claire's bleeding heart.
Alice would've given anything to trade places with her dying lover. She wanted to cry out; to scream to anyone who would listen, but the words were thick in her throat because she knew they would alter nothing.
The brunette was holding her, but Claire wanted to feel more of her before she couldn't feel anything at all. She weakly pulled at the hand Alice was using to keep pressure on the wound.
The taller woman hesitated in withdrawing her hand, the only thing prolonging the redhead's life, but Alice saw the need in Claire and did the hardest thing she could've ever done – she surrendered to Claire's fate. Alice clasped the younger woman's hand and entwined their fingers, smearing the lifeblood into the hopeless embrace.
The brunette promised herself that Claire would not feel the pain of her death. She would kiss it away. Alice gazed into the redhead's eyes trying to instill a peace that she herself was far from feeling. With the hand holding Claire's head in her lap, Alice rubbed the back of her neck soothingly and closed her eyes as she brought her mouth near her lover's. She trembled as she kissed Claire's paling lips one last time. Alice put every ounce of herself into the action; sorrow and torment were taken over by devotion and love.
Claire responded willingly to the intimacy of the touch…until she stilled beneath Alice's lips and her body relaxed with finality. The redhead's grip went slack, but Alice kept their fingers interlocked.
The brunette lightly brushed their noses together as she pulled her face away. Alice looked up without seeing; tears streaked down her face unnoticed as she let out a guttural sob that tore her insides to pieces. She used every last bit of air in her lungs during the outburst and it left her dizzy. Had the motion not been involuntary, she wouldn't have taken another breath.
Alice looked at Claire's face. Death was supposed to be horrible and ugly. That's what the brunette had been surrounded with for years; nothing but bloody, rotting, disgusting corpses. But there was serenity to her lover's beautiful features, and if Alice didn't know better she would've said Claire was asleep.
Claire – wake up, Alice thought, I need to see those green eyes. Please.
Malevolent laughter filled Alice's ears, and it came from the man who had pulled the trigger on her lover. The brunette moved to set Claire's body down as gently as she could. She took hold of Claire's forsaken pistol and stood to face Wesker. The brunette snarled with uncontained wrath at the sight of him, and the semiautomatic shook in her grip as every muscle in her body tensed with rage. Her ribs and arm throbbed, but she was numb to the pain.
Chris took one look at his fallen sister and yelled, "You fucking BASTARD!"
The man charged Wesker, and took a swing at him but he blocked the blow. Alice fired at his head as she ran at him; he dodged the shots as well. Chris brought his pistol up, but Wesker dropped to the ground and kicked his legs out from under him. The brunette joined the fight with a booted foot right to Wesker's chin. The man staggered back, surprised at the landed hit. Before he could even retaliate Alice shot him directly in the face.
Wesker fell backwards like a ragdoll and for a moment Alice thought it was over, but then the tentacle shifted on Wesker's neck again, and the glove on his right hand was ripped away by a mass of the black forms that erupted and continued to shred his leather coat all the way up to his shoulder. The bullet hole grew new flesh and bone, and Wesker opened his exposed eye. He stood and looked at his mutated arm in disbelief.
"What have you done to me?" he raved.
Chris jumped on to Wesker's back and tried to choke him in the crook of his elbow. Wesker was only momentarily subdued. He used his human arm to pull Chris off his back, held the man in front of him, and the black mass of writhing tentacles grew to surround Chris and crush him. Alice fired half the clip into Wesker's body and he finally dropped his captive.
Wesker turned on Alice as Chris sputtered at his feet. The transformed man stepped right onto Chris's back as he walked to her. The brunette was about to fire again, but Wesker's altered limb knocked the gun from her hand; then his human arm punched her in the face. Blood spilled from Alice's mouth at the blow, and he grabbed her by the hair. Alice sneered and Wesker used his mutated fist to shovel hook her in the stomach. The pain exploded behind her eyes; she was certain that her ribs were truly broken now.
The man threw her to the ground, and kicked her hard in the gut sending her rolling across the floor. When she stilled, Claire's pistol was within her reach. She reached out wearily and took a hold of it. The brunette brought her arms in to raise her herself from the white tile. The exertion left her breathless and she teetered as her gag reflex was triggered. Alice coughed up pink blood, and halfheartedly wiped the frothy liquid from mouth with the hand holding Claire's gun. The pain to remain standing was excruciating.
Doubt clouded Alice's mind as Wesker marched over to her; he grew taller with every step as his confidence mounted. I can't beat him. She'd thought she had nothing left to lose, but there was one more thing out of her reach – vengeance. Wesker's mouth opened slowly to display his stretching forceps. He was a mere three feet from her now. But I can keep him from what he desires, and maybe…Chris can…
Alice tried to pretend her actions were noble; tried to pretend that she didn't know it would stop the pain of losing Claire. The redhead's drying blood, mixed with her own, made her skin stick to the grip of the semiautomatic as she strengthened her hold on it. All those clones, all her physical and mental abilities, and it still hadn't mattered. The best way to rid this world of evil…was to rid the world of Alice herself. With her blood out of the equation, Wesker would continue to mutate uncontrollably; then and only then could Chris succeed where she had failed. She brought a gun to her temple a second time.
Wesker's internal demon immediately withdrew and he screamed in disbelief.
"NO!"
The brunette placed a finger on the cold trigger when everything seemed to still. Wesker's lightning-fast movement was slowed to little more than centimeters a second. His hand was left reaching out to dislodge the gun.
'Alice.' The voice was inside Alice's head, but it wasn't her own. It was lighter; more feminine.
Please don't stop me, the brunette thought and was answered softly.
'I don't want you to do this.'
Alice had recognized the voice before, but only now did she realize who it belonged to.
Claire? She knew it was impossible. Claire was dead, but she heard the redhead like she was standing right next to her. It didn't matter to Alice that it was probably just her imagination; that she was more than likely staging the entire thing. The words brought out her resolve like a phoenix. In all her years, Alice had never felt stronger than she did at this moment. It was born of equal parts rage and tranquility as she transcended the binds of ultimate surrender.
Time built back up its pace while Alice repurposed the last bullet in the weapon. She swiftly unfolded her arm at the elbow, extending her range, and aimed the gun straight for Wesker's nearing face.
Wesker never saw the move coming, even though the projectile entered the space directly between his eyes. The force of the close-range shot sent his head backwards with a vicious jerk as the bullet exploded out the back of his brain. The slide of Claire's semiautomatic remained locked back as Wesker dropped like a stone, but Alice knew he was just seconds from rising again.
She only had to avoid him until his mutation was complete, and it seemed that every time he died it sped up the process. The brunette let the empty weapon fall as Chris approached her, a driven look in his eyes, and handed Alice her unused shotgun. She took the firearm without a word and they both turned to face Wesker, guns at the ready.
This time when Wesker regenerated, his other arm and torso were covered in dark tentacles. The squirming mass tore and pierced through every seam of his clothes making his coat fall from his body completely and his pants rip in several places.
He lashed out at them with a limb of tentacles, but they both ducked the sweeping blow. His mutated form had drained him of his speed and he could no longer avoid the bullets being emptied from Chris's gun. Chris shot Wesker twice in the shoulder and then had to dodge as the man swung again.
Alice had only two shots; she would have to make them count. Wesker charged Chris and the ex-project dropped to a crouch and tripped Wesker as he passed her, intent on using her first shell to blow his brains out. The brute tumbled to the ground and rolled just in time to avoid Alice's quarter-filled slug. A few coins pierced his neck, but the majority took a chunk out of the tile where Wesker's head had been a second before.
The brunette placed her finger on the second trigger of the shotgun, but would have to wait for a better opening to use it. Wesker was back on his feet; he shuddered once and then turned to face Alice. His uncovered eye was pitch black and surrounded by writhing tentacles making his face completely unrecognizable; Alice knew that he was the head of the Umbrella Corporation no longer.
The beast shot his tentacles out, but she sidestepped them and they flew past her. The brunette couldn't move out of the way on their return however. The mutated limb grabbed her around the torso as the brute pulled her to him. The pressure on Alice's ribcage was unbearable, and she was becoming faint from pain and lack of air. Chris shot into the creature and the force around Alice's chest lessened enough for her to catch a breath. She was too close to shoot him, so she brought her shotgun back and smacked him across the face with a satisfying show of force. The fiend cried out with an inhuman voice and dropped Alice to recover from the blow.
Alice used all the effort she could muster to rise again; it wasn't enough. She was stuck on her hands and knees until Chris reached down, and gently took a hold of her shoulder and arm. He lifted her with a tenderness befitting his sister and Alice was back on her feet. They turned to face the man that was once Wesker as the monster brought up both of his limbs to attack them.
Chris sighted in his pistol as Alice did likewise with her shotgun. He spoke with intensity.
"I don't think so."
Alice pulled the last trigger on her weapon; expelling her final shot right into the beast's face and Chris opened fire as well. The quarters shredded through the mutated face taking with them chunks of flesh both black and pink, and Chris's first bullet entered dead center into his forehead. The adversary plummeted to the ground and was still. The brunette waited a moment to see if it was truly over; the black tentacles never moved again.
The resolution that had filled Alice during the battle, abandoned her the second Wesker fell to the floor, dead. She suddenly found herself collapsing as well. Alice's body rejected her control and she relented. Her legs caved and she dropped to her knees, then to her hands, and finally onto her stomach. Chris was instantly at her side and lifted her up into his arms as he kneeled on the tile. More blood poured from her lips as she heard K-mart's frantic voice. The teen was crying out and Chris was trying to soothe her, but none of it mattered to Alice – all she wanted was to see Claire. She turned her head and her blue eyes searched the area around her until they settled on the redhead.
An image came unbidden to her mind; it was Claire sitting on the edge of a boat, tugging on the collar of her red vest as her hair was swept up in the wind. Claire took her gaze from the teal water and looked lovingly at the brunette as her lips turned upwards into a sweet smile.
My debt is finally paid. Alice let her eyes fall closed. Claire…
Deep breath, everyone. This is not the end; there is one more chapter to go. I promise if you stick with me you will not be disappointed. Feedback (as always) is greatly desired and appreciated.