For those of you not versed in what an MRE is, it is a Meal, Ready-to-Eat. A field ration commonly used by the U.S. armed forces. I've had a few before, and I have to admit that at the end of the world that's probably gonna be gourmet. :)

Chapter 18: Father Time

The trio stopped for lunch in the afternoon. When Alice got out of the Hummer she was hit by an instant chill. She looked up, though there were few clouds in the sky a massive cold front was sweeping through the area. The blonde could tell the temperature was approaching freezing. Her tight, long sleeve shirt wasn't doing much to keep out the icy breeze, but Alice wasn't ready to break out her winter coat. Claire and K-mart had other ideas. They dressed for the cold; then set out to have lunch.

Claire grabbed an MRE and handed it K-mart; then she took one for herself.

Just like every meal before Claire offered Alice food. "You hungry?"

Alice watched Claire's head tilt to the side, the way it did when she was concerned.

Unlike every meal however, the blonde actually decided to accept it. She was tired, too tired. Alice could no longer deny the energy food gave her. If she was honest with herself, in the beginning eating made her feel human so she avoided it. Then it turned into a form of punishment. Like all self-destructive habits she couldn't keep it up. Claire's worried interest wouldn't let her.

"Yeah," Alice responded, and Claire handed her the MRE with a smile.

The blonde looked down at the brown package to read it, but her eyes suddenly couldn't focus. Her vision pulsated between being clear and blurry. She shook her head, and rubbed at her eyes.

Claire noticed her strange action, and called out to her. "Alice?"

The blonde didn't respond she was too busy trying to place the fear in her gut. At first she thought her fading sight was from exhaustion, but then she heard something on the wind. She wasn't sure if her hearing was off as well until she made out the distinct sound of buffeted air. Alice dropped the MRE, and looked at Claire's fuzzy silhouette.

She had no idea if Claire was looking at her not, but it didn't matter. Her voice would get the message across just as well as the pained look on her face would. Alice began to walk backwards into the field behind her, but her muscles were already starting to contract against her will.

"Go. Claire – Run!"

Alice's ears were just fine; Claire's panicked voice confirmed it.

"What? What's wrong?"

The redhead's silhouette was gone from Alice's sight, but not because Claire had left. There was no longer any mistaking it; the noise was a mass of propeller blades slicing the atmosphere to bits. Her failing senses and faulty control could only result from one thing.

Umbrella had found her at last.

"Umbrella," Alice choked out, it was becoming harder and harder for her to speak. "Go, Claire…please…leave me."

The blonde's vision returned in an instant, but she was frozen in place. The Hummer was still parked on the road; Claire and K-mart were still standing next to it. Alice's sight was fixed on them. Not again – not like this, Alice's thought were torture, but they were the only thing she still had power over.

A black tiltrotor aircraft erupted from behind a thick cloud, and Alice watched the two survivors startle at its loud appearance. It was flanked on either side by two more Ospreys, but Claire wasn't leaving. The redhead was running right for her. NO! Damn it, Claire. I told you to leave.

Alice had fought this before; she was determined to fight it again – to break the hold on her before she suffered through the heartbreak that killing Claire and K-mart would cause her. Really it would be much worse than that. When Alice thought about it there were no words, only immense pain.

The airships passed over Alice's head, kicking up all kinds of dust and debris. Claire was pulling on her arm, but the blonde didn't move.

"Alice! Snap out of it!"

I'm trying, I'm trying. The blonde turned around, and for an instant Alice thought she'd done it. She was wrong; her feet began to move towards the landing Ospreys. Her pace was swift as she walked through the field. Claire was standing in front of her, hands placed firmly on her shoulders and feet planted, but it didn't stop her in the slightest. Why won't you just leave me?

Claire continued to yell at her. "Fight it damn it!"

When the aircrafts touched down the engines were cut, and a torrent of Umbrella soldiers poured from the open hatches. Alice was desperately trying to remember how she freed herself the first time. She remembered shooting everyone, getting in the vehicle, and then – anger. Alice had become enraged. If she could tap into her fury she was sure she could regain command. She went straight for the big guns. You will kill Claire unless you fight this! You want her blood on your hands?

Rage should have been enough, but the thought of killing Claire wasn't working. The signal from the satellite was much stronger than last time. The blonde was tired; fighting the control signal was taking its toll. Perhaps had she been eating and sleeping like she was supposed to she would have the strength, but as it was Alice was too weak. It was possible that only the real action of murder would free her now. All the thinking did was amount to horrible torment.

Alice wished she could look down to see the redhead because in her mind she'd already given up. She wanted a last look into the woman's eyes then rethought it. If her full attention was given to Claire it would be because Umbrella commanded the blonde to kill her. Alice focused instead on the feel of Claire's hands on her shoulders. They were so warm. Warm and real.

She'd been going about it the wrong way. The thought of Claire's murder wouldn't free her, but the thought of never being able to embrace Claire again – while heartbreaking, was slowly raising the heat of her blood to a boil.

The soldiers suddenly pulled Claire off Alice as another group ran past her. The blonde assumed it was to collect K-mart. Claire tried to fight back; she managed to free her pistol, but they wrestled it from her grip. She was completely subdued a moment later after a soldier twisted her arm around her back, and with a kick to the back of her legs brought her to her knees.

Claire begged as the soldier held her wrists together, and placed a zip-tie around them both. "Alice – please!"

For the first time in over a year the blonde wanted to apologize. I'm sorry.

K-mart was silent but struggling when the soldiers walked her past Alice. They commanded her to kneel next to Claire.

The blonde halted before them all as the last man emerged from the Osprey in front of her. He was older than Alice remembered and without his lab coat, but his British accent could not be mistaken.

"Project Alice, reunited at last," Dr. Isaacs greeted with a sadistic grin.

If Alice could, she would've snarled. In the doctor's hands was a touch screen computer panel. It was clearly the device being used to give her commands.

Isaacs turned to give his soldiers orders. Alice couldn't move her eyes to count, but she knew the number of them approached the high fifties at least.

"Keep your guns on the other two." Claire and K-mart's bodies were sprinkled with bright red dots from the laser sights on the submachine guns, and Isaacs continued to explain. "Project Alice is not a threat so long as we have something she wants."

Not a threat? Alice considered. He's right, even if I free myself I'll be hesitant to attack if it could mean their deaths.

"Get them out of here," Isaacs continued. "Now."

A solider grabbed each of the captives, and moved them roughly to an Osprey as a third of the entire squad joined them. The remaining soldiers turned to keep their guns aimed at Alice. She was still working on her rage, but she was afraid she would be too late. The aircraft's engine started quickly. Alice was struck again by wind and the sound of propeller blades dicing the air.

She heard one final scream from the redhead. It was full of every bit of the anguish she needed to be consumed by wrath.

"Alice!"

Her vision was freed first, but she didn't move her eyes at all. She needed Isaacs to believe he still had dominion over her. The Osprey carrying Claire and K-mart had already taken off. She could do nothing to save them, the only way to bring the aircraft down now was to break a propeller and crash it. Alice could however solve her problem of losing control once and for all. She would need all the focus she could muster to extend her range and disable the satellite.

Alice's mind stilled, and she sent her conscious upward as her head flooded with pressure. She wasn't sure how long it had taken, but she could almost feel the cold of space and then the electrical impulses that ran through the circuitry of the machine orbiting above her. The blonde hoped Isaacs could not see her eyes dilalting. As the one-time Head of Security, she knew there was a chip that if broken would render the satellite useless. All it would take was one little crack, and she would be free. The plastic began to warp with the stress she put on it until it fractured.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Alice was able to take a breath of her own freewill.

Isaacs was focused on his panel, his face went from confident to confused, and Alice could hold her smirk back no longer. Before she could think of the consequences she turned her head to look at the soldiers on Isaacs's right side. In an instant five of them collapsed to the ground dead. She'd tried to sever the spinal column of more of them, but her strength was comprised.

Isaacs yelled out, "stop!"

Alice's nose bled as she looked at Isaacs. She tried to focus on him, but her mind wouldn't let her. She was past exhausted.

"Kill us, and you'll never see the other two again."

The blonde thought for a moment. The aircraft was long gone, and she had no idea of its destination. Killing everyone here right now might not be a death warrant for Claire and K-mart, but it would certainly make finding them a near impossible task.

Isaacs was right, and he knew it. "I always knew your compassion would be your downfall. Even though it seems you decommissioned the satellite, your love for others will keep you in my grasp this time. I promise they won't be harmed," Isaacs met her eyes as he threatened her, "as long as you cooperate. If you're insolent or fail to do anything I ask I'll have one of them killed…and not tell you which."

This was why Alice was so against becoming attached. Forming relationships formed weakness. Her mind couldn't help but play out the scenario that one of them was dead, and she didn't know which. K-mart's death would all but kill Claire, and Claire's death would all but kill her. Alice dropped her voice an octave to warn the man.

"I swear to you doctor – you may have escaped the first massacre, but if you hurt them you won't escape the second."

He was unfazed. "Surrender your weapons."

A small contingency of soldiers came to take her handguns, but Alice just grinned like a cat as she withdrew them. She pulled them out of the holster on her lower back, but kept them in her hands, ready to fire.

"You know as well as I do, that I can't give you all of them."

"Yes," Isaacs answered, "but use any of your special talents and the consequences will be yours and yours alone."

He played on her guilt recently aggravated by the reemergence of fault she placed on herself for the outbreak, and it worked. Alice bent her head in submission as she flipped the guns over in her hands so that they were hanging by the trigger guard from her fingers. The soldiers relieved her of the weapons.

"Time to go home Project Alice."

As much as Alice hated Isaacs and what he'd done to her, the way he addressed her was almost like a warm caress. The title he'd given her reminded Alice that she was not a part of humanity, and that – in a truly sick way – was comforting.

She autonomously moved to the Osprey Isaacs himself was walking into. Alice couldn't help the sentiment of irony. She was finally feeling human again on the last stretch of her journey with Claire and K-mart, but it was the results of that same task that would probably strip her of it forever. Umbrella would use the two survivors to keep her a slave. The self-imposed slavery was only good so long as she cared about what happened to the pair. If her humanity failed her at any time it would be Claire and K-mart's death, but her freedom and revenge.

Alice sat in one of the metal seats. The soldiers were positioned as far away from her as they could be. They all diverted their gaze, but Isaacs, who was sitting across from her, stared intently. The blonde could tell that the father of her superior condition was bristling with inquires, but he remained quiet the entire flight.

Oh man, stuff just got REAL.