*** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE ***
~Maybe it was to late to cure her completly, but it seems that it still had an effect on her infected body. So Alice herself did that to Rain and kind of saved her, but left her down in the Hive.~
It was two days after their arrival at the colony. Alice and the newcomers had spoken with Nathaniel and he told them some basics and important stuff about his underground colony. The blonde was pretty amazed what this man had build up in the last few years. That he managed it to keep this place safe and unnoticed by Umbrella. Nathan build up a society again, and kept the people surviving pretty well the whole time. How exactly it worked the blonde didn't know by now, but she'll find out sooner or later, cause after the meeting Alice and the others needed some overdue rest from the events that happened at the Arcadia and later that day.
At another metro-station near the infirmary some separate rooms with bunk beds or matresses, sleeping bags and a table, chair and a little closet or shelf had been built. Those places where all around the colony. The rooms where separated with walls, not very thick but they gave some privacy in the small room. They kind of looked like little hostel rooms and appered grey and even a little unconfrontable at first, but it felt like the most comfrontable place Alice had been in a long time after the two days.
The blonde shared a room with K-Mart, while the Redfield siblings had a room for themself next to them. After Claire spent a night in the infamary she and her brother took the next free room beside their friends. The redhead was probably in her bed right now, resting while time was healing her leg. As far as Alice know Chris and K-Mart went away with Diago, to see more of the colony.
Alice laid on the lower bed of their bunk bed and just stared absently at the underside of the upper one. The room was lighted by a station light in the wall. She thought about all what had happened in the last two days and sorted the information she had. Back at the Arcadia she hadn't much time to do such a thing, cause it seemed that the other people choose her as leader or someting in silent agreement and she took the responsibility. Now she didn't have to do such a thing and had some time for herself. The longer she was lost in her thoughts of the colony it's people, the more drove her mind to one particular person: Rain.
How Rain had survived the Hive, few people knew, but Alice was glad she did and took it as a good thing. On the other hand the blonde wondered how exactly the other women had survived, cause the informations Diago gave her where just vague. And it was obvious that the T-Virus had another effect on her that it had on Alice. She was curious how Rain survived Raccon City and the time after. Maybe she was about to find out later... The blonde was a little surprised, that her thoughts where almost just about the latino woman now.
"Well... I thought about Claire and the others too, after i choose to stay behind and fight Umbrella back in the desert.", the blonde thought. And above all it caught her really by surprise to find out that Rain was still alive and brisky. A small smile made its way into Alices face, as she thought back at the scene of the interaction between Rain and Sam back in the infamary. Even if Alice herself was still under shock back then, it was kind of amusing to watch, if she thought about it now.
"Care to share what's so amusing?"
Alice snapped out of her thoughts immediatly by the sudden sound of the familiar voice. She sat up and looked to the door, just to find the same person she was thinking about for the last unknown couple of minutes. Rain was standing in the doorway of the little room, leaning clamly at the frame and looking direktly into Alice's blue eyes. After the latino got the attention of the other woman, in form of a surprised look, she smirked slightly.
"It's been a while, huh? But aside of that, stop looking at me like i'm a freaking ghost or something every time you see me.", Rain said as she simply stood there.
The blonde noticed, that the other woman changed during the years. Not because of some side effects of the virus, but it seemed that Rain got older like everyone with the time. As Alice called back her memories from the Hive, she has to say that the younger woman looked kind of cute back then, even if she showed this piss-off attitude most of time. It seemed that this attitude didn't change much. Now the other woman looked really good, her skin color was healthy and had the typical latino teint. If it weren't for the bite scars and the knowledge what had happened to her, Alice would have guessed that Rain wasn't infected at all. The blonde wonderd if she had powers like Alice had herself after she was infected and experimented with.
Alice just looked a moment longer at her in surprise, before she shook her head a little and stood up from the bed just to see in the direction of her visitor again. This time with no surprise or shock in her face. She hadn't seen her for two days, since Alice spend said days mostly in this room, thinking or checking on Claire. But it was obvious to her, that Rain didn't referred to the two days they didn't see each other with her first sentence.
"Well, I thought that you're dead. ", Alice answerd with a calm voice, not quite sure what to say. This answer got her a short semi-amused chuckle.
"You're not wrong with this, cause I am. Sort of...", Rain just shrugged her shoulders at this. It was clear that she didn't want dig deeper into this topic.
"Whatever... I just thought I check on you. You're little over-curious friend told me where you were hiding, 'cause she couldn't bring you out of this hole."
Alice raised an eyebrow at this. It was true that K-Mart tried to get her out, to look around the colony. But the older woman hadn't the intention to do so in the last two days. Finally the young girl convinced Chris to walk around with her, since she didn't want to go all alone without at least one of her friends. And since Claire was out, she only had Chris or Alice to ask. But after they got here, Alice was too much lost in her thoughts to walk around with the girl.
"I'm okay.", the blonde said, even if it's not quite true. The events of the Arcadia haunted her and she couldn't shake off the feeling that she could have done better to save the people. Only about thirty people managed it to get out of the bloodbath and to the colony, that's what Chris had told her some time before. Just thirty from about two thousand.
Rain just raised an eyebrow and gave Alice a sceptical look. Scratch that: it seemed that she looked right through the blonde after her answer, would be the better description. The dark haired woman didn't believe her words one second and this 'look' Alice had in her eyes proved her right. It may be a long time since she saw her, but Rain recordnized this 'look' just perfectly. And it means that nothing was okay with the other woman. She knew it so well, because it was the last thing she remembered from the events back in the Hive: Alice kneeling before her weak form, trying to convince her that everything would be okay. Even if the blonde really had hope in her eyes, that her words became true, Rain could see deeper and saw that nothing would be all right and that Alice probably knew it deep down.
"Bullshit.", Rain said and it seemed that she snapped the other woman out of her thoughts again.
"Listen: I'm not here to baby-sit you. But your friends worry about you. I saw what happened back there. It's a mess to handle but you can't change it. So stop overthinking this and get your ass out this little hole you're hiding in."
The blonde just looked at Rain speachless. She tried to say something, but nothing came out and an awkward silence filled the distance betrween them. Rain rolled her eyes a little at the stare the other woman gave her. She hated people staring at her. Mostly they did it with fear or disgust, even hate during the years. Not that any of this was in the blondes eyes, but she stared at her neverless.
"I told you to stop this staring-thing." Rain sighed.
"Whatever... If you want to hide here, fair enough.", with that she turned around to leave. Before she took a step forward, the dark haired woman looked back over her shoulder.
"I thought you're dead, too. But it's good to see you're not." she said before she turned her head back and went away.
Alice just stood there for a few of seconds, staring at the spot where Rain had stood. Then, as if someone flipped a switch, she came back to life and rushed to the door. The blonde looked for the other woman and saw that Rain just got a few steps away from her room.
"Wait!" Alice called after the dark haired woman as said person stopped and turned slightly to the blonde with a questioning look.
"Do you have some time?", the blonde asked.
"I wouldn't be here otherwise."
"Would you mind to show me around a bit?", Rain raised an eyebrow at that question and smirked a little.
"Good choice to come out already. Come on, I show you some places down here.", the latino woman waited for Alice to catch up beside her as she started walking again with the blonde at her side.
It was amazing to see what the colonists had built during the years. They got electricity for the colony from solar systems which they installed on the rooftops of the train station. Since the climate had changed as an effect of the virus outbreake, there were much more hot and sunny days around the world, like in a desert. So it was a really good idea to use that to their benefit. They even caught the water in rain barrels or objekts which were used for collecting, if there was a day with bad weather and rain, what was rare these days.
But what surprised the blonde the most were the makeshift greenhouses. They where some near the train station. The colonists cultivate all kind of plats for food there. Rain told Alice, that they had some more around the town like the places with solar systems or water catching. With the growing number of people during the years, they had to expand with these kind of things out of the train station and the metro beneath it to fit the supply. The more Alice saw about the colony as more she had to correct her first thoughts about Nathaniel and these people. They didn't just survive, they really started to live again in this world.
The last station of their journey was a bar, which was set in another metro startion not far away from the one with the rooms. As Alice stepped into the place, she first heard music, which came out of an CD-player. She didn't heard music since forever, at least that's what it feels like to her. Neither did she recognized the song, but it wasn't her favorite taste in musik anyway. At least in those days before the virus broke out. But right now that didn't matter to the blonde and she was glad to hear it. It gave back some normality, which was long gone in her live.
She saw some people hanging out at the self made counter, drinking and talking about stuff, even laughing sometimes as they talked. The man behind the counter rised a hand in greeting as he spotted Rain and she gave him the same gesture in return, before she went ahead to a corner with some old, sagging but comfy looking couches with little tables in front of them. The dark haired woman sat down and Alice went down right beside her. The blonde looked still around with some amazement and surprise.
"It's like a step back to normal days, isn't it?", said Rain after she just watched the other woman looking around.
Alice looked back at Rain in surprise. Was it just the situation or was she really so predictable for the other woman. It felt a little bit like the latino could read what was on her mind, because she was right. This place semmed like a long lost memory, a long lost piece of normality in the life. The people around them looked almost careless. They had fun, joking around, laughing. Even the people outside this bar, who didn't took a break from keeping this colony alive and safe looked more balanced, since they didn't have to run. They didn't have the thought in the back of their mind, that they have to leave this place in the near future in order to survive. They had a place they called home again.
"I almost looked like that too, as I saw what they build up again. Even if the colony had changed a big deal after I first came here.", Rain added.
"You came here about two years ago, together with Diago and Sam?", it was more like a fact then a question of the blonde.
"Diago told that, didn't he? But yeah, I did. Togeher with those two, Rodrigo and some others we travled with until we met some of Nathans people...", Rain stopped as an older woman with almost totally grey hair appeared beside their seats.
"Rain, it's nice to see you. How is your shoulder?" the woman asked, her face showing some curiosity and care. Rain rolled her injured shoulder a little before she shrugged.
"It's okay, i guess. Could we have some drinks and something to eat for her?" she asked and made a little nod in the direction of Alice.
"Sure thing. Oh, forgive my rudeness, my dear..." the woman apologized, as she looked friendly to the blonde.
"I'm Mary. It's always good to see new faces here, so feel welcome. Just wait a little while, until i bring your order.", with that Mary went off and the blonde looked to Rain.
"Don't fall for her sweetness, she's an old bat.", the dark haired woman said warningly as the older one was some feet away.
"I heard that, my dear. I may be old but not deaf!", they heard Mary call back to them. Rain just rolled her eyes and leaned back into the couch.
"Whatever...", she murmured. Alice had to smile a little at this, even if she didn't exactly know why.
"So, your shoulder is healed already?", the blonde asked as her eyes travled to the shoulder of the other woman, which was hidden under her black T-shirt.
"I can move it like before, so i guess it is.", was the answer.
They sat in silence, while Alice took in the atmosphere of this bar. She just was here for a little while and she could almost forgot the cruel, horrible place the world had become outside of this colony. No wonder K-Mart was so excited as she tried to convice her to come out of her little room to see something of the colony. But she shouldn't feel too safe, beacuse from her experience everthing turned bad, thanks to Umbrella. That left one big question what gnawed at her. How is it possible, that Umbrella didn't know about all this?
It didn't took long, before Mary came back to them with a tray in her hands. She placed two glaces of water for them both and one plate with what seems like two buns and a mixed salad infront of Alice. The blondes eyes went wide at the sight. The buns were fresh. They were warm and even steamed a little.
"Be careful. They cooled off a little already, but could be hot at the inside neverless.", Mary informed her, but the blonde didn't really listen to her words.
How long ago was it, that she saw or ate fresh, selfmade buns? During the years she and the other survivors she met just ate what was left in this world. As everthing was normal before the virus broke out, daily things like a simple fresh made bun or even the little, poorly furnished rooms they had now, just a save place where you can sleep, where nothing special to her and now, years after the outbreak, it almost seemed like a miracle to Alice.
"Enjoy your meal, my dear.", the old woman said warmingly to her, before she went away again.
"Don't just stare at them. They taste a bit bland, if you ask me, but go ahead. Try one, it won't bite back.", Rain encouraged the other woman, seemingly a little amused by her stunned face at the sight of the food.
Alice did as she was told. She grabbed one bun and took a bite. Like Rain said, it tasted a little bland, but it was a welcome pleasure neverless. The blonde ate in silence, while the other woman just sat beside her, drinking her water. The little meal did a good job to Alices stomach and she felt better.
"Aren't you hungry?", she asked curious, but before she got an answer from Rain some other voice answered her question.
"This infected freak don't need food! But maybe you can convince her to have dinner with you, if you're on the menu."
*** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE *** RE ***
hey there ^^ sorry if i took some time for this chapter. the other ones i wrote during my vacation, and it's not so easy to find time to write after work. maybe it could happen more often now, that you have to wait a little for a new chapter, but i plan to update for sure! i would tell, if i would stop writing on this story. anyway, i hope you liked this chapter as well. thanx for reading & see ya! ^^