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~"This infected freak doesn't need food! But maybe you can convince her to have dinner with you, if you're on the menu." ~
Alice looked up to the man, who had appeared next to their seats. He had short hair, a stubbly beard and stature of a boxer or wrestler. To his left and right stood two other men, who looked like matches next to him. The blonde's eyes drifted from these men to Rain's face. She saw that the dark eyes of the other woman hardened, but she stayed calm at the insult. The dark haired woman just took a sip from her glass before she spoke, not caring to look at them.
"Don't you guys have something to do, aside from standing here like buffoons talking shit?" she asked.
"Talking shit? We're just here to warn the new girl that she should stay away from you, like everyone should do with some sense in their brains. What definitely doesn't apply to your little crazy friend!", the man said, while his two friends nodded in agreement. Rain's look changed from hard to dangerous at the comment as she looked up right into the man's eyes.
"If you have a problem with me, so be it. But leave Sam out of this, or..."
"...Or what? You do the same thing you did to Soren's brother?", the man offered, his deep voice dripping with contempt. Rain rose from her seat at hearing this and Alice followed her.
The blonde, who choose to first watch this interaction in silence, was curious now. Even if she disliked these men at first glance, she wanted to know what been going on, because the name Soren was mentioned. Diago told her before, that this Soren guy really hates Rain. The fact that she's infected, to be more correctly and that there was an incident which had triggered this hate. But Diago didn't tell her what and now this man said that it's something about Sorens brother.
"Listen, and listen closely Jack: You don't know anything about what happened back then, neither does Soren or anyone else, so shut up!", Rain told him, her voice as dangerous as the look in her eyes.
"What happened?", Rains head turned to look at Alice, who asked the question. The latin was about to answer but Jack cut her off before she could do so.
"A very good question you just came up with, blondie. She killed Soren's little brother." Alice looked at Rain with curiosity.
"Why?", she asked her.
"Look, I..."
"She wanted a bite of human flesh, like every one of her kind!", Jack cut in again and Alice looked at Rain in disbelief.
"I don't have to hear this bullshit any longer. Come on, let's go.", with that the latin woman turned to leave the bar and Alice followed quietly, observing the other woman. She saw again this rage in those dark eyes, her fists and jaw clenched together hardly in order to stay calm.
"Yeah, leave and go to your rotten friends out there!" Jack shouted after them and Alice heard him spitting.
Rain just stopped dead in her tracks as something wet hit her right underarm, the one with the visible bite marks. Her stop was so abruptly, that Alice took one more step, before she came to a stop and turned back to the other women. She looked into the dark eyes and saw immediately, that this was the end of the line for the other woman. Rain went to the counter without a word, to grab a towel the barman usually used to dry the glasses.
"I need this for a second...", she said to the barman, who just gave an uneasy nod as if he sensed nothing good.
"Thanks.", with that she turned to Jack and approached him, drying off his spit from her arm until she was standing before him with a little distance, glaring up at him since he was bigger than her.
"What?", he asked, rolling his shoulders in an attempt to get ready to fight if she should try something.
Rain just threw the towel in his direction. He saw the move coming, but guessed it was a punch. The flying towel blocked his sight for a second and irritated him that he just tried to punch the woman uncontrolled with his left fist. Rain blocked this with her right arm, and then she ducked a little, while taking a step forward to get a closer to him. Jacks side was now a wide open for her and she smashed her other fist right into his left ribcage. The power of the hit took the man by surprise and he howled in pain as he stumbled back, trying to hold his balance. Another pained sound escaped him, as Rain hit the same spot again with a blow of her right this time, which followed directly after her first hit. Right after that she rose in a swift motion from her ducked position, using the move to rise her left again to smack Jack's nose. A final roundhouse kick, which hit his jaw, kicked the man out of his feet and sending him hard to the ground.
Jack lay dizzy on the floor, holding his bloody nose as Rain saw up to his two friends who stared at her in shock. She rolled her eyes annoyed at their staring so she went off to the entrance, just to find another problem: Rodrigo.
Rodrigo was almost the right hand of Nathan. Rain knew him for a long time now and this guy saved her dozen times. He was one of the few people she respected and who were on her side. But right know she really couldn't use him appearing here out of nowhere. But then again, this mess would've come out sooner or later. Rodrigo observed the scene and looked at the man on the floor.
"Help him up and bring him to the infirmary. I deal with the rest...", he said to the two shocked men, who immediately hurried to do as he said. After they had left the bar, Rodrigo looked at Rain with an inscrutable look.
"Even if he might have deserved it... I think you have some explaining to do."
Some moments later they sat together in Nathaniel's office. The leader didn't approve things like fights within the colony. Especially if they involved Rain. After the death of Soren's brother the situation heated up enough and he has a hard time to convince some people, that even if Rain was infected, she was one of them and not of the brainless monsters out there. He couldn't use any things which Soren could use against Rain staying in the colony. Aside from the fact, that Nathan was on friend terms with her, she was very important for all of them even if there's a risk.
"... I agree with you that his behavior wasn't any good, but you just send Jack to the infirmary!" Nathan said.
"I held back.", was the short answer.
"You broke his nose and two ribs...", Rodrigo mentioned, who looked through report Sam brought a few seconds ago.
"Well... actually we're not quite sure if the ribs are broken. They could be only cracked a little.", Sam pointed out to Rains defense.
"See, I held back.", Rain said approvingly, that Sam had to giggle, even Alice had to smile a little at this respond.
"You're not helping yourself with this, Rain.", Nathan informed her, what got him an annoyed sigh of the woman.
"I'm sorry, but I have to arrest you for this. Just as long as I will have to deal with the consequences which would surly come after your little fight."
"What? That's bullshit!" Sam protested loudly.
"Come on, Nathan you can't be serious! Others are in a fight more often and don't get arrested. They just get stupid things to do and you throw me into a cage?" Rain pointed out and got up from her seat.
"You know it's a different case with you after what had happened with Soren's brother.", the leader tried to explain, ignoring Sam's outburst. He really didn't want to do this to Rain, but he had to.
"Perfect!", Rain cursed. She looked to the side where Alice stood the whole time, watching the scene. The blonde had tried to defend her too, after Nathan asked her to tell her version of the events at the bar. She looked back at Rain and the latino woman broke the eye contact in annoyance.
"Just fucking perfect!"
-X-
"I can't believe it: I'm gone for a few hours and you got yourself arrested?...", Diago sighed after he came to the jail area to visit Rain. She was imprisoned at the small police department of the train station. The woman didn't respond. She just sat on the bed in her jail, throwing an old tennis ball on the floor, that it hit the opposite wall and then flew back for her to catch it.
"Okay, scratch that: I can believe it...", the man corrected his previous sentence as he saw the angry look in Rains eyes.
"It clearly wasn't her fault. This Jackass started it. Alice confirmed that, right?..." Sam defended the imprisoned woman and turned to the blonde as Alice approached them.
It was maybe one hour after the incident at the bar and after Rain went to the jail area. Alice stayed at Nathans office after she was gone. The leader asked her a few more questions about what had happened and told her if something like this would happen again, she should to try to calm Rain down. After she was done the blonde went back to check on Claire until K-Mart and Chris came back. Alice was curious so she went off after they told them what had happened to visit Rain.
"Yeah, the guy provoked her and as far as I can see it, she responded correctly.", Alice said, stopping a few feet away from the prison Rain was in. Maybe she herself wouldn't have beaten the man up right away, but nevertheless she thought that this guy just asked for a lesson and the latin woman simply taught it to him. Pretty efficient, if someone would have asked Alice.
"See, Rain 'responded correctly'!", quoted Sam, while piercing Diago's eyes with hers. The older guy raised both hands in defense.
"Jeez! Whatever... we have things to do, see you later Rain...", he said and looked to the quiet woman behind the bars. The only sound he got in respond was the constant bom-bom-tshk from the ball Rain was playing with.
"See you later!", Sam waved to the man and looked back to her imprisoned friend.
"With 'we' I meant both of us, girl!", Diago growled a little, grapping Sam at the neck collar of her jacket and just drawing her with him.
"Awww~, come on! This isn't fair!", the girl protested but letting herself get drawn past Alice out of the main entrance of the jail area.
Alice had to smile a little, watching the two of them leaving, but after they were out of sight she focused on the prison Rain was in. The blonde got to the bars with a few steps and looked to the woman behind them. After a few seconds of silence Rain caught the ball, not throwing it again, just staring to the wall before her.
"What did I told you about the staring-thing?", came her harsh voice, so that Alice looked abruptly at anything but the dark haired woman.
"Sorry...", the blonde muttered.
"As far as I knew you, you're here for a reason?...", Rain guessed, finally looking to the other woman.
"I have a question, maybe some more."
"Thought so. Then spill.", Alice raised an eyebrow at this answer, looking back to her.
"You're okay with this? It seems that you don't like you're current situation. I could come back later.", the blonde pointed out, because as far as Alice knew the latino woman wouldn't win an award for the most talkative person. Especially behind bars, she guessed.
"Just because you ask questions didn't mean I'm going to answer them.", Rain said and smirked a little to her, what caused Alice to do the same in respond. Something in the look Rain gave her, told her it would be okay if she would ask.
"You killed the brother of Soren... Why?", the blonde asked, serious now.
"He was infected." was the short answer and Rain looked back to the grey wall, toying with the ball between her fingers. Alice immediately sensed that even if Rain had expected this question, she really don't like to talk about it. But she guessed that there was more to know, so she went on.
"So, some Infected bit him?"
"Possible.", this raised the suspicion of the blonde.
"What's this supposed to mean?"
"It means that nobody, including me, knows if it was some infected.", Rain answered and stopped toying with the ball, lying it down beside her onto the bed. After a short pause she went on.
"We were on a mission to clean a place down the metro for some new stuff. He and I were cut from our group, 'cause a tunnel crashed. I got my head hit really badly during the crash down... I don't quite know anything what had happen after that. But after I came back to my senses Soren's brother was standing before me, bitten and infected. I had no choice. A moment after I shot him, Soren and the others found us. You can guess what the first came to his mind, since no infected was around except me."
"You mean it could have been you?" Alice said in disbelieve after Rains story.
"Sometimes my brain breaks down. You know it's like switching into infected mode. I can't remember anything of what I've done or how long it lasted after I got my mind back. But I act like every other infected during this time, that's for sure."
Alice looked at her stunned. Now it was clear, why Soren and some others where consistently against Rain. From what she knew the situation, the latin woman was in back then, really wasn't good for her and her image as 'good-infected'. It seemed that she bit this man, if no other infected was around. But they didn't have clear evidence it was her. Only the fact, that Rain was alone with the man. On the other hand Rain didn't have one for her defense, too.
"Look, I would gladly tell you that it definitely wasn't me, but I'm not sure." the dark haired woman said kind of harsh.
Alice could see this anger which was in Rains eyes almost every time clearly again. The blonde had noticed that it strongly was visible whenever it comes to Rain and her infection. And suddenly it hit her where this rage in the other woman's eyes came from and was aimed at. Against herself, her infection. It wasn't just Soren or some others who hated Rain for being infected. Rain hated this fact herself. And the blonde could understand why. The knowing to be able to infect others and being incapable to stop it would've built up a self-hate and guilt in the blonde, too.
Alice herself felt pretty uneasy with knowing she was infected. However, her case and Rain's seemed to be very different. She never had the problem to lose her mind like this. But because of her infected state she avoided people and if it wouldn't have been for Carlos and Claire back then, it would have stayed this way, though it looked like Rain had chosen the opposite way, even with this mind problem.
"Don't get me wrong, but why do you stay with people if there is a chance you could become one of the others?", Alice didn't mean to insult the woman. She really felt glad that they had met each other again after such a long time where she thought the Rain was dead, but if Alice herself would be in Rains situation, she would certainly not stay with other people.
"Mostly for two reasons. For myself, 'cause being around people helps me to... let's say to stay myself. And for the others, 'cause I'm useful to save their asses."
"So most of them accept you, because you're trained in combat?" Alice didn't really believed this.
"Nope. First of all: They didn't accept me. They tolerate me, cause I'm useful. I'm able to sense other infected if they're around."
This sounded like a very good reason to keep her here. As Alice thought back she was able to sense Nemesis, too. But he was definitely a special infected. That Rain could sense every infected person or creature, like she said she could, was pretty impressive and very important to keep these people save down here.
But there was one other question that dug on the blonde's mind. Alice didn't know if she should ask this and suspected that she wouldn't get an answer, but she asked anyway.
"Did you ever bit a person and truly know it was you?"
Rain looked back to the wall again, staying quiet. It took a little while in which she looked like if she weighed whether she should respond or not. As it seemed to Alice that this apparently was a question Rain wouldn't answer, she heard the other woman sigh quietly before she looked back to the blonde.
"Yeah, I did. Even if I can't remember doing it, there is no doubt it wasn't me. I bet in my off-times I bit more people than I would like to admit..." this sounded like a huge confession of guilt no one ever wanted to take.
"Why are you so sure it was you?", this got Alice a very non-amused and harsh laugh from the dark haired woman, who looked right into the blondes eyes again with a stabbing glare.
"Believe me, with your hands and clothes covered in red and the taste of blood in your mouth there is little chance it was some other freak out there!"
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thanx again for waiting for me updating the story ^^ this time i have to say special thanx to damn unique, that she played the beta for this chapter. so, thank you that you had the time to do it. ^^
well, maybe you all noticed yourself by now that there was next to nothing zombie-action in this story. there will be definitely, but my main focus is on the people and their relationships and survival in this zombied world at the first time, which would last some more chapters. you know, i will try to have some plot in my story not just zombie shooting the RE afterlife for example.
see ya! ^^