Present Time
Lounging on several blankets in the bed of the truck, Rain glanced back into the cab, catching sight of Austin passed out, stretched along the entire seat. With a sigh she returned to surveying their surroundings, pistol resting easily against her leg. They were parked in the middle of a flat, open field, far away from anything that could conceal another being. It was times like these when she was glad to be a light sleeper, she couldn't help but to wake up periodically to check the surroundings throughout the night. Her body seemed to need less rest now than it had before, and she figured it was probably a side effect of whatever experiments Umbrella had done to her.
She studied their quiet surroundings, not seeing anything out of the usual. Not that she had expected to. On a raid at a hardware store, she had found countless boxes of bubble wrap, which she had taken to strategically encircling the car at a thirty foot radius when they stopped for the night. If for some reason her innate 'danger sensor' (as she had started calling it) didn't go off, the cracking of the bubble wrap would wake her up instantly.
It was a rather weak fail-safe, but so far it had been successful, as she recalled two nights ago when an infected dog had wandered across their location.
It was shot dead before it made it another five feet closer. And that had been at a run. Austin had jerked awake with a shout at the crack of the gun; Rain hoped he would get used to it soon.
It wasn't going to change.
After deeming the area as clear, she laid back down, staring up at the cloudless sky. It was only a minute before she managed to doze off again, slipping blissfully into the darkness of her mind.
She woke up three more times before morning broke. When the sun rose, she folded up the blankets, shoving them into the tool chest. Retrieving the bubble wrap, she carefully rolled that up as well, storing it in a heavy, plastic chest that had also been fitted into the bed of the truck. Done, she clambered into the truck, waking the boy up as well. With a drowsy smile of greeting, Austin sat up, pulling his own blanket closer to himself as he leaned against the door, still tired. He dozed off again as Rain drove back to the road.
It was eery, she admitted, seeing so few people around anymore. It had been little over two weeks since the pair had fled Indiana, and since then they had come across entirely too few uninfected. It was as if the entire country had become a ghost nation. From what she had gathered, people were either holing themselves up wherever they could, or they too were on the move, entire families packed into one vehicle. Idly Rain couldn't help but to wonder what was happening in the rest of the world - there were no more news stations or news papers. There was still internet, thanks to Umbrella, but not a lot of power sources to charge computers to use.
At least, not a lot for civilians. Rain had no doubt that somewhere in this country there were folks from Umbrella who still lived in their own little safe worlds, completely unconcerned with the ruins that the rest of the world was slowly decaying to around them.
With a sigh she focused on the road again. After having, reluctantly on her part, stopped at Austin's house (only to find it abandoned, as she figured it would have been), the boy had become rather withdrawn as they headed back out. From Illinois, they had gone southwest, hitting California eventually. Rain didn't know what they were driving to, but it was better than staying in one place.
From California they had gone up the coast, sticking to rural areas to get gas and supplies as cities were teeming with undead. Last night they had stopped somewhere between Idaho and Montana, Rain wasn't sure at this point. It was just road.
Now they were driving down a two-lane highway, headed back east, browned grass stretched on either side, until mountains and trees took over in the distance. Blinking Rain's eyes scanned the road, looking for any signs of trouble. She squinted, seeing something moving up ahead near the side of the road. A person, she realized. Probably infected, it wasn't uncommon. She didn't let off the accelerator, gradually coming up to the figure, who seemed to be walking heavily.
Faded, dirty pants, tan boots and a brown pack was all she could see, but that wasn't too unusual. Even the figure turning towards the approaching sound wasn't unusual for an undead. When a sweater clad arm lifted, however, thumb up, Rain blinked with surprise.
Uninfected.
She slowed, pulling up along side the figure, inspecting them closely before she motioned for Austin to roll down his window. The boy complied.
"Have you been bitten or scratched?"
Under a dirty green patrol cap, decorated with various pins and patches, the person's head tilted, face shadowed.
"By what?"
"Anything that would have attacked you."
The person shook their head.
"Where you going?"
"Wherever you can take me. That way," the person pointed in the direction they had been traveling.
Rain shared a look with Austin, who shrugged his shoulders at her silent question.
"Get in."
The stranger's face lifted slightly, revealing a set of straight white teeth as they smiled. They swung their pack off their shoulders, putting it in the bed of the truck before climbing in, Austin moving to the middle seat to allow for room.
"It's impossible to get anyone to stop," the person said in lieu of thanks, pulling off their hat. It was a woman, in her late teens Rain guessed. Light brown hair, having been held back by the cap, was short, and fell down to frame her face. Her eyes were an olive green.
"I can imagine," Rain said dryly, as they started back on the road, feeling no need to go faster then the speed limit. It's not like they had anywhere to be.
"Where are y'all headed?" the girl asked.
"Dunno," Rain answered, as Austin studied their new companion in silence. "Away."
The girl nodded at the statement.
"I know what you mean. I'm Sarge. Well, that's what most people call me."
"I'm Austin," the boy finally spoke, breaking his silence. "She's Rain."
"Do you know what's happening to everyone?" the girl asked. "I mean, I haven't caught a piece of news in weeks since I hit the road, been avoiding people for the most part, but some crazy stuff is going down."
Rain shot her a weird look.
"You haven't heard about the virus?"
"Virus?"
Rain paused, studying the girl closely. Before the television stations shut down, they had broadcasted about the strange infection that was spreading through the country like wildfire. Sarge seemed honestly confused, however.
"The Umbrella Corporation was working on a virus to reanimate dead cells," she said finally, after a moment of contemplation. "To help people with degenerative cellular diseases and stuff like that, let them be able to walk again. Anyhow, something went wrong. When it gets into your system, it attacks your body from the inside, killing you. Then it reanimates the cells."
Both Sarge and Austin, who still hadn't known what was going on, stared at her.
"So what, everyone who caught this virus is dead now?"
Rain nodded.
"Reanimated, with limited motor skills and the most basic need for survival."
"Sustenance," the brunette breathed, connecting the pieces from what she had seen for the brief periods of time she had interacted with someone else. Rain's nod was grim this time.
"Which means they're drawn to anything alive, mainly people. If they so much as scratch you, the virus spreads. You die, then become one of them."
"What do we do about it?"
Rain glanced at her. "We keep moving. If we stop for extended periods of time, they're bound to find us. What's your story?"
The girl blinked at the sudden change of topic, before shrugging.
"I was in the army," she gestured to her pants, which Rain finally registered as desert fatigues. "My unit got back from Afghan last month. People had already started going crazy, the virus I guess. We got back to post and they were already making us leave. No discharges, no new assignments, they just said to go. Didn't even collect our supplies or anything. I waited for a couple of days, totally lost. Then I scavenged around post, which was pretty much empty by then, packed my bag and headed out. Public transportation was already stopping, and I don't have a car or anything, so I've been on foot."
"Army, huh? That why they call you Sarge?"
The girl grinned. "Well that's how it started. I didn't actually become a sergeant until last year, but my last name is Sargero, so they shortened that pretty early on."
"Where you headed?"
Sarge shrugged again.
"New York. I grew up in the foster system, so the only family I have is my sister. We're not close at all, she's seven years older and an up and coming fashion designer. But we're on good terms, I figured when I got there I could stay with her for a bit until I figured out what to do. I guess that's not an option now."
Rain shook her head.
"The big cities were the first to go - they're swarming with infected. You either got out or..."
She trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence. Sarge was nodding solemnly as she stared out the window.
"So what was your job?" Rain asked, breaking the silence after a bit.
Sarge glanced over.
"Medic. I still got my kit with me. Found another, and a few survival packs. Other than that just some food, extra clothes, and an ammo can."
"Ammo can?"
"Got my Beretta. A couple knives."
"Where were you stationed?"
"California."
The older woman paused.
"You were stationed in Cali, and you're headed to New York...what the hell are you doing so far north?"
The girl shrugged.
"Despite having spent the last year in the desert, I figured if it was just going to be myself then it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try and cross one in the middle of the summer," she replied, referring to the southwestern states. "So then I decided to go around it all together. It's not like I'm in a hurry to get anywhere."
That made sense, Rain decided.
"So you were overseas for a year?"
Sarge nodded.
"Second deployment."
"Second? How old are you?"
"Twenty-two. I've been in for five years."
"Twenty-two?" Rain asked flatly. "You don't look a day over 17."
"I get that a lot," Sarge retorted. "Usually followed by 'oh, don't worry, it's a good thing, you're so lucky'."
Rain snorted, deciding that Sarge would fit right in. The ride continued with minimal chatter.
So sorry for the wait! I know it's short, and there's no Alice in this chapter, but I've been in a strong 'apathy for writing' funk and yeah, I got tired of this just sitting around. Life's been...well life. Class is crazy still, and work, and family stuff...its just not always fun. Or conductive for writing. BUT! In our time apart, I managed to buy the Resident Evil books (the movie based books, because there are not e-books about the normal ones yet, unfortunately), and they give me a bit of creative ideas to work with in this journey...the author of course changed some details (which makes sense, I mean, why write out a movie word for word, scene for scene? You can just watch the movie and save many hours), and perhaps got some things wrong (or at least...what I think is wrong XD I'm hoping it's just some creative liberty on his part), but they weren't too bad a read. And like I said, loaded with ideas and possibilities. I may not use some, or even any of them, but it's fun to look at everything from a different perspective.
AND (tangent time), has anyone else read the newest info on the projected fifth movie? Because, WTF! According to the rumors (and I always maintain some skepticism, although some of the Afterlife rumors were pretty accurate...and these came from close to the source), Chris, Claire, and K-Mart won't be making an appearance because they get 'kidnapped' by Umbrella, and thus the movie is about them trying to be found (which is a cool story line, I'll admit, but I'm kinda biased against it, because I have this insanely large girl-crush on Ali Larter. She was actually the reason I even started watching these movies - I saw the third one first, and then I worked my way back. Now I've seen all four several times, and they grew on me). But! That's not even the WTF part. You see, according to the rumors (I lurked on the Resident Evil: Retribution page on IMDb), they're in someway bringing back Carlos, One, and RAIN! Blows your mind, doesn't it? And, it's also being said that there is potential for all of the characters to be reunited (hello, a sixth movie too?). Now that sounds like an epic story line - Alice, both Redfields, Leon (fifth movie), Jill, Luther (Carlos? One? Rain?) and whichever other video game characters show up, all verses Umbrella. My money's on the survivors. Now we just gotta wait five years for the two of them to come out.
- Shannon Riley