7. The Good Soldier

Umbrella's Langley facility

Albert Wesker is sitting at his desk, he's got a folder in his hands and he's reading the pages in silence. In front of his desk, there's an Asian woman, she's gazing at him with boredom, like she's got better things to do.

"As I told you," She's saying with an exasperated voice. "You can call me later, when you've finished it." She can barely conceal her disdain for this man in front of her.

Silence.

Wesker is still looking at the pages. She really hates this man. The only reason she's still working for him is because of the substantial pay she earns and because sometimes the tasks he gets for her are somewhat challenging.

"And you're completely sure nothing can break this shield?"

The woman sighs; she's getting bored of this problem with the connection within the hemispheres. She doesn't like this kind of task, she's more interested in stealing stuff for the corporation. Still she answers with a steady voice. "Yes, nothing can break through."

Wesker just nods, turning the page.

Out of nowhere, a red light illuminates both their faces, at first the woman takes a defensive position but when she looks at her side, she relaxes her muscles.

"Chairman Wesker," A female child voice interrupts the silence of the room.

The Asian woman sighs with resignation, still not quite used to the dramatic appearance of the AI that controls the building and all other buildings of the corporation.

This time Wesker raises his eyes to the hologram that is formed next to the Asian woman, he notices her move away, obviously uncomfortable with its presence. The corners of his mouth move upwards in a sneer. The woman does not physically react to this, but in her mind she plays out the scene of her choking the life from him.

"Yes?" He says to the hologram.

"You asked me to report on any talk to be given within the company regarding plans against the corporation." The hologram girl says, her voice sweet and inexpressive at the same time.

The Asian woman's eyes opened wide. "You've been spying on the employees?"

Wesker just smiles. "It's an obvious thing to do my dear Ada, you cannot trust anyone in this place, much less these days" He says, emphasizing his words moving the folder in his hand.

"And you send your pet to do it?" She says, nodding her head towards the hologram.

Wesker just smiles, again. "Am I picking up a little jealousy here?"

Ada rolls her eyes, but says nothing.

"There was a conversation 2 hours ago in the Zurich facility," The Red Queen continues "I have it stored in my memory."

Wesker smiles, moving in his chair. "Well let's see it shall we?"

The hologram girl nods and goes to a screen, suddenly the image of two men in an office could be seen. Looking closer, Wesker can see that it is Oswell Spencer's office, where he and his co-worker Birkin are speaking.

"All the things this woman can do." Birkin is moving around the office. "She's gone, and Hunk ... Hunk's dead! My God, Spencer. How can you be so calm? Knowing… knowing that this woman knows all that we have planned over the virus! How you can be so calm if she can take all this and turn it against us?"

Sitting at his desk Spencer looks tired. "The fact that I'm not bursting into nerves like you, doesn't means I'm not worried, Birkin, you need to calm down"

But Birkin is still moving around. "Calm down? If Wesker finds out ... if anyone realizes what we try to do here ..."

"No one is going to notice." This time Spencer stands up, anger mars his calm features. "So long as you control those nerves and don't screw everything!"

"But ..."

"The plan is still active." Spencer interrupts. "Steal the damn virus, sell it on the black market and disappear ... it's simple ..."

"Not so simple after what happened in the Hive!"

Spencer sighs, covering his temples with his hands, massaging them "We had nothing to do with it."

"But it can happen again?" Birkin is not giving up.

"Damn it Birkin, then what do you suggest we do?"

Birkin stops pacing around for the first time since the recording started.

"I will not be calm until we have this woman." He says. "I suggest we send another one."

"That's enough." Wesker says, and the recording stops.

"Black Market, huh?" Ada muses. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

Wesker ignores her, sitting there in silence, while Ada sits at the chair that's in front of the desk, amused.

"Mr Wesker?" The AI says. "Should I send a Unit to extract them?"

Wesker shakes his head. "No, let them think we know nothing but continue watching them. And let them send someone else, we can use all this in our benefit."

Ada says nothing, she will never trust this technology.

Interior Hostel de la Prix. Reception.

Claire's dropping off the keys for the room in the front desk. The owner is there, still looking bored, not paying much attention to his surroundings. He takes the keys not looking at Claire as Alice appears in the room, moving down the stairs, red bag dangling from one hand and backpack on her back. She's pulling out the car keys from her front pocket while Claire heads for the door, that's when she senses something.

"Stop." Her body stiffens.

"What?" Claire turns around expectantly.

Something doesn't feel right. "Something is wrong." She whispers.

Claire looks at her blankly, but Alice is still looking around, searching for something. The man behind the desk lifts his gaze, finally paying attention and looking at both women in amusement. He's used to weird costumers, couple fights and other stuff but this is something new.

Alice is not sure what's wrong yet, but she can feel the danger.

"Get in the basement." She speaks clearly to the owner.

The man snorts. "S'cuse me?"

"Get everyone down in the basement." She yells and then she looks at Claire, who doesn't need a second warning and is moving towards the man.

"The hell are you talking about?" The man says.

"You're in danger. Everyone in this building is."

"Who the fuck…?"

"Look sir, we don't have time to explain, just please, get in the basement." Claire says apologetically.

"But…"

Alice didn't let the man finish speaking, she glides over the desk and quickly moves to the basement door.

"Miss, you cannot ..."

Alice is grabbing the man and throwing him through the door and slamming it behind her, smashing the handle. From the other side she can hear the man yelling.

"Alice what's going on?" Claire says but the only reply she got is Alice throwing her the red bag. "Alice!" She yells.

No answer. Alice is too busy, reaching under the check-in desk, coming up with an old shot gun. Claire wants to ask how in the hell she knew that there was a gun under the desk but she knows she wouldn't get an answer. Alice is pulling open a drawer, filling her pockets with shells.

"Ok. Now you're scaring me." Claire says.

"I'm scaring myself." Alice mumbles while she's moving away from the front door, towards the back door of the hostel. "There's someone here."

"Who is it? Who's out there?"

"Dunno, stay here." She says, giving Claire a warning gaze.

She kicks open the door and walks out pointing the gun forward, ready to shoot, but the small courtyard is empty, she looks around.

"Alice…" Claire is at her back. "Are you…?"

RATATATATA

Alice turns back to Claire, running as fast as she can, grabbing Claire's arm and throwing them both under the staircase.

Windows start to explode and a man enters the room coming from the courtyard. Alice gets up quickly and aims a kick at the man, who loses his balance for a second, giving them both women time to slip through broken glasses and furniture until they reach the door, they're running across the little courtyard to a wall. Alice climbs it up with superhuman speed, reaching down to help Claire, whose jump was less effective. Both are swinging their legs over the wall as the man approaches and shoots, missing Alice's head by a millimeter.

"GO!" Alice yells and Claire lets go, falling to the other side of the wall.

Alice stays on the wall, shooting at the man twice, giving Claire time to run clear. The wall is completely shredded. As Alice takes off running, reloading on the fly, the man is climbing the wall rapidly behind them.

Alice turns around while running, their persecutor is just vaulting the wall, she fires twice but the spray is too wide from her distance. Windows are shattered to both sides of her, she missed him, he stumbles but keeps going as blood runs down his face.

RATATATATA

Alice is desperately trying to think. She's reloading her almost useless gun, as she reaches Claire running through a maze of alleys, looking for a way to get out.

RATATATATA

Flower pots explode around them, they take left, right, right, left… a labyrinth of alleys. People scream around them, but they keep running. A staircase, climbing another wall, sliding, falling, crashing to the ground…

"There!" Claire shouts.

There's a large window at their right, and it's open. They step through and find themselves in a restaurant bathroom. Alice closes the window behind her. Both catching their breath.

"Did… did we… lose him?" Claire chokes the words out. Alice shakes her head, tucking the gun under her coat.

"We have to keep moving." The blonde says as she moves to the door. She opens it and they both step into a Chinese restaurant filled with people.

Alice's grip tightens around the gun under her coat as they both walk out the bathroom, trying to look as calm as possible, towards the front door of the crowded restaurant.

Claire reaches for the handle and opens the door to the street. They are at the exterior of a commercial street, and the street is burgeoning with life. As soon as they are out they notice the sound of sirens, they look at each other and Alice just nods to a police car that's approaching, Claire gets the message and both head down the street, blending in.

It seems like they are out of trouble, still walking through the crowded street, hurrying when several screams interrupt the normal movement of the street. The man comes out of a building, there's no time to hide because he's seen them and he's firing.

Alice tackles Claire to the ground behind a car.

RATATATATA

The gunfire is literally shredding the car, but Alice is moving towards him.

"Alice! What are you doing?!"

Alice shoots two of the last four rounds she got, trying to mislead her attacker to gain her enough time to get closer for close combat. The man ducks behind cars on the other side, and Alice is running towards him, grabbing the destroyed muffler of the car that Claire is hiding behind, swinging it with all her strength and crushing it against the man's back, the man lands head first into the pavement, she turns pulling up the shotgun ready to shoot him but he kicks it out of her hands, it clatters to the ground.

He stands up, they both look at the gun, realizing there's no chance for either one of them to get it, they look at each other and Alice smiles smugly as a ruthless fight breaks out.

The man throws the first punch straight to Alice's temple, but she easily dodges, he doesn't wait and throws a jab to her jaw, Alice ducks and using the momentum of her move she gives a knee high blow to his gut , the air shoots out of him as he stumbles black holding his stomach. He recovers quickly and just as it looks like the fight will continue...

BAM!

He drops to the ground dead, behind him Claire is holding the still smoking shotgun.

Alice lifts her gaze from the corpse, raising an eyebrow she looks at Claire questioning.

"We don't have time for this… morbid entertainment of yours." She says, directly at Alice, smiling.

Alice just laughs, standing at her feet while Claire is moving quickly away from the scene.

They both run fast through streets, ducking down alleys and finding themselves on a main street as they head back towards Claire's car. As they walk past a store with several televisions in the window, the news is reporting that several unexplained deaths occurred in the last few days in the UK.

Alice moves quickly to the drive seat, while Claire is in the passenger seat, they don't pay attention to the news, too bad because the news reports that hundreds of people have been admitted to hospital with undiagnosed symptoms.

Alice starts the car just as the television announces that the local health authorities believe it to be an epidemic similar to the Ebola virus and that the UK government is debating whether to announce a state of emergency.

Another cheap motel Alice thinks as she steps inside the room. It was strange, but there weren't many cops around, and none of them appeared to be in pursuit of them.

"Umbrella is behind this." Were the first words from Claire and Alice had nodded her agreement.

The man who had come to kill them was now lying dead behind an old ford, all his belongings with him, except his guns and a small backpack, similar to the one Hunk carried. These were liberated by Alice as they had left the scene.

Their current room was just like the previous one, two beds, a desk with a chair, a shelf and a bathroom.

All of Alice's adrenaline has left her system and she collapses into the chair with a gasp, bringing her hand to her right shoulder she feels the moisture on her fingers. Pulling her fingers up, she sees blood. "Shit." She quickly removes her jersey, and the movement sends a painful cramp through her arm. A thin line of blood runs through her white blouse. "Shit."

Claire looks over at her. "What's wrong?" Alice is looking pissed; she shows Claire her bloody hand, moving up the hem of her blouse sleeve with her other hand.

"He shot you?" Claire is at her side in no time, looking at Alice's wound. "That son of a bitch shot you."

"I… I didn't'… I don't know how it happened." Alice muses.

"We need to take out the bullet." Claire says and Alice just nods, moving towards the bed that's closer to the bathroom.

Alice sits on the bottom of the bed, raising her legs up placing them Indian style. She is angry. She cannot believe she didn't feel that before, it may have been due to the adrenaline rush she was having, a combination of the attack and the necessity of getting somewhere safe as fast as possible, but now that her body was relaxing she could definitely feel the pain and annoyance.

Claire looks concerned. "I'm gonna need something to take it out and… and we need gauze, shit… and something to clean it… " She's babbling.

"Claire…" Alice raises her voice, so Claire can hear her over her own. The redhead just stops, glancing at her "It's ok, there's an emergency kit in the backpack were you can find everything we need."

This seems to have soothed Claire's nerves because now she's moving quickly, but relaxed towards the other bed.

Alice smiles to herself. "You can handle and shoot a man with a shotgun." She says. "And not freak out"

"Your point?" Claire muses, opening the backpack.

"That when I'm hurt and bleeding, you completely lose it?" Alice teases, wiggling her eyebrows. "It must be love."

Claire just snorts, still looking for the kit; she's making a mess of it, pulling all the bag's contents around until she finds the small kit.

"Shut up Alice." She says smiling at her.

Alice smiles. "There's a bottle of Scotch in the red bag." She points at it.

Claire threw her a questioning look with one eyebrow up as she heads towards the backpack. "That's why it was so fucking heavy."

"Thought it may be handy." Alice mutters closing her eyes.

Claire gives the bottle to her as she moves into the bathroom to wash her hands. Alice takes a couple of swigs.

"You know how to do it?" She is feeling a little better, calmer as the liquor runs though her body and her mind.

"Eh… yeah, I know the basics, my mother was a nurse and when I was a kid she used to teach me this kind of stuff…" She's in the room again, biting her lower lip. "We never covered bullet wounds, but I watched enough TV."

"That's good enough for me." Alice says giving her an encouraging glance.

They both look at each other, Alice just lifts a questioning eyebrow, because Claire is not moving, she's standing right in front of her, still biting at her lower lip.

"What are you doing?"

"Preparing myself?"

Alice smiles. "You can do it."

Claire stays there still looking at Alice's arm. "Ok." She finally says moving towards Alice. "Um, we're gonna have to, um, your blouse, I have to take it off." She blushes furiously.

"Not going to take me to dinner first? What kind of girl do you think I am?" Alice laughs, earning a glare from the still blushing Claire. Alice shudders slightly when Claire helps her move her arm out of her blouse.

"Sorry…" Claire is feeling kind of jumpy. She's moving Alice's blouse up with trembling fingers.

"Hey, it's ok. I trust you." Apparently Alice has taken her nervousness for fear of removing the bullet, Claire however is not sure that this is the real reason.

Claire is moving the Scotch to Alice's side. Looking at her apologizing in advance of what she's about to do. The blonde just nods. Due the lack of sterilizer the only option they have is the booze.

Claire could feel Alice's body become rigid with the pain, but the woman doesn't make a sound as the liquid falls on her wound. Claire carefully applies a piece of gauze, trying to clean it as best she can before grabbing the tweezers.

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

She digs into the flesh with the tweezers trying to locate the slug, when she hears the metal clash; she opens the blades to get a sure hold. She starts pulling out the piece of metal as Alice shudders again; taking a couple more swigs from the bottle with her other hand.

Claire is having problems with the bullet, because after several attempts she still fails to remove it. Neither of them spoke for almost 5 minutes. Alice just taking swigs from the bottle, feeling better with every gulp and Claire is just swearing under her breath, getting more annoyed each time the bullet slipped from her grasp.

"I swear… I would kill that motherfucker if ... well, If I hadn't already." Claire murmurs.

Alice giggles, and Claire lifts up her gaze surprised at the sound; looking at the bottle then at Alice who is smiling a little too much, then again at the bottle.

"Jesus, Alice," She says furrowing her brow. "You took almost half of the fucking bottle!"

"You really love that word don't you?" Alice asks curiously.

Claire snorts, turning her attention to the wound again. "You're one of a kind, you know that?"

Alice giggles again, taking another swig of the bottle. Claire is still digging for the bullet, her red hair leaning down in a curtain, Alice looks up to Claire reclining over her, she's so close that she can smell her, she closes her eyes feeling dizzy, the smell of her own blood and the alcohol invading her nose. She feels like she's starting to fall sleep, but suddenly images from her past assault her.

In her mind, she is no longer in the old motel room. Her mind is being transported to a train station, this time her memories are different, there are no fast images from her life, this time it is like if she's there and still she knows she's dreaming. People walk around, absorbed in their own business, no one pays her attention. She looks up, there's a sign dangling from the ceiling, a sign that tells her that she's in the Zurich train station, or at least her mind is.

Her eyes capture a familiar figure walking towards her, she cannot remember the name of this man but she's sure it's one of her many coworkers. The man walks past her, without recognizing her, not even knowing she's there, he's moving to a nearby door, one that has a sign of "authorized personnel only", the man looks at his sides, both ways, making sure no one is looking, apparently he doesn't realize that Alice is walking toward him while he's pushing the door, disappearing behind it.

Alice is about to follow but when she starts to push the handle everything around her starts to twist, she's closing her eyes, hoping her mind will let her go to the motel room again, when she open her eyes she's not in the train station anymore but inside a subway platform.

Around her, people walk; several of them dressed like any other businessman, but most of them are dressed in black uniforms and carrying weapons. Alice is moving to one of these people, on his chest a red and white coat is sewn on his bulletproof vest.

Alice sighs, yet no one around knows she is there."Umbrella," She mutters to herself, starting to remember. "Umbrella Zurich facility."

She's looking around, her eyes wide open. "This is the way they enter the building."

"What did you say?"

Blue eyes snap open. Alice looks around the motel room and Claire's still at her side, struggling with the bullet. "Ah ha!" Claire exclaims with joy, as the bullet finally comes out of the wound. She grabs the bottle back from Alice as she applies a little more of it to the wound. "Sorry." She mutters.

"It's ok. Don't worry… it doesn't hurt anymore." Alice says, looking at her but thinking about what just happened.

"I bet it doesn't." Claire smirks, not lifting her gaze from the other woman's shoulder, she is removing the blood that has dried and stuck around the wound with a piece of gauze. "What did you say?"

Claire's completely focused on what she's doing and that why she's not aware that Alice is looking at her weirdly.

"Claire I…" Alice starts. "Uhmm… I…" She mutters.

This time Claire lifts her gaze, her face so close that Alice can't help but think how beautiful she looks."You what?"

"I… I'm not sure" She says looking at Claire right in the eye, still feeling the buzz from the alcohol.

"What's wrong?" Claire says, but Alice is looking at her in a way that Claire can't decipher at all.

Alice's mind is a jumble of thoughts, the memories are still fresh in her mind, her brain asking her what to do with them, but the liquor is still in her system, making her not really care about what just happened in her mind, forcing all her attention to the woman in front, who looks intently at the open wound, cleaning it as gently as possible.

"Thanks." She whispers and Claire can feel her breath caressing her face.

Claire is blushing again. "For what?" She manages to speak, biting her lower lip.

There's a pause. As if Alice is thinking whether to say her thoughts aloud or not.

"That's the second time you did that thing with your lip Claire." She finally says, gazing at Claire's lips. "It's driving me crazy."

Alice's warm breath is sending shock waves through Claire's limbs. Her eyes go wide and her blush deepens.

"I think the booze is working." She says still mesmerized by the look on the other woman's face. She tries to move but her body won't respond. "What did you thank me for?"

Alice smiles and Claire feels like a thousand clichéd butterflies took flight in her stomach.

"For staying with me." Alice says, moving her hand and running her thumb over Claire's palm.

"You really are drunk." She's trying to ignore the trail of fire Alice's hand has sent shooting up her arm.

"Maybe." Alice whispers, moving even closer to her friend. "But it takes the pain away."

Claire wants to keep her eyes open but Alice's gaze is so intense she's struggling to do so, she can see that Alice is moving forward really slowly still looking intensely and Claire is not breathing properly, she's barely breathing; her head is not working at all, everything inside of her tells her to go away, that this is dangerous, that she needs to hurry up and find Chris and that this is not going to help her at all but Alice's lips are mere millimeters from hers.

Giving up, Claire's eyes screw shut as Alice is moving her head forward, crashing their lips together. Both woman not thinking about anything else but this moment.

And when their lips finally meet Claire feels her whole body reacting to it, the way her stomach felt before is nothing compared with what she's feeling right now. Her mind is completely filled with all the sensations Alice's lips are provoking in her. Alice's kiss is slow and hesitant at first, just moving her lips against Claire's gently.

Alice's not so sure if she's stepping over the line so she pulls away a bit, waiting, looking at Claire measuring her actions, she feels like the air is heavy around them, she starts pulling away ready to apologize but then Claire is reaching out a tentative hand towards her face, just moving the tip of her thumb along her lower lip, smiling, Alice smiles too, sighing in relief when she feels that Claire is not pushing her away, instead she's dipping her head forward.

All her hesitation disappears as she moves her head forward, meeting Claire's lips again, this time kissing her more firmly yet so sweet that Claire feels like her whole body is lighting up.

Claire's hands move instinctively to Alice's cheeks brushing her fingertips along the blonde's jaw when she feels her bottom lip slip tenderly between Alice's teeth and she can feel that Alice is smiling as her hands wander along her arms, touching her lightly leaving trails of fire in Claire's skin.

The kiss becomes increasingly intimate as Alice is pushing her a bit towards the bed, letting her body collide with Claire's, still kissing her slowly and gently while Claire's body is shivering wildly when she feels the length of Alice laying so graciously and smoothly along hers, placing only the proper weight for their bodies to fit in all the right places but not enough to quell Claire with her body.

An almost inaudible sigh escapes Claire's lips as Alice deepens the kiss, parting her lips and moving her mouth more solidly against hers, driving her completely out of her mind. Claire's arm reaches up to wrap around the back of Alice's neck pulling her down into the kiss even more.

But then a painful sigh crosses the room. Claire's eyes snap open as she feels Alice pulling away, looking at her with fear in her eyes, grabbing her own arm. Her violent movement causes her body to fall backwards off of the bed, to the floor. Claire's struggling to move, taking a sitting position in the bed, not understanding a thing about what just happened, she moves tentatively to the bottom of the bed, wondering if Alice was just uncoordinated when a strangled cry leaves Alice's parted lips, she's in a fetal position on the floor, moaning in pain.

"What the…?" Claire is on her feet, trying to move closer to Alice, but the sight of Alice's arm stops her. "Oh my God."

She cannot believe what she is looking at; obviously neither can Alice, because she's watching with horror as a bump is moving under the skin across her biceps.

Alice is sitting on the floor, her teeth clamped shut, trying not to scream. The liquors effect on her is long gone, Claire is stunned, not knowing what to do, she quickly drops to the floor next to Alice, watching her arm in disbelief.

A broken cry leaves Alice's parted lips as the lumpy thing moves up to her shoulder traveling quickly through her wound, Claire watches as the wound closes itself before her eyes, healing the flesh inhumanly fast, almost as soon as it had appeared in her body is was gone. Alice's eyes closed in pain, and before Claire can help, Alice's upper body falls down to the floor.

Claire is speechless, she's starting to panic when Alice's eyes snap open. As soon as she starts getting up Claire is by her side.

"Are you OK?"

"I... I think so." She says, sitting up. "How did I…?

"You passed out." Claire is explaining, helping her move her to the bed and giving her a glass of water.

Alice is gulping the contents down. "Thanks."

"Alice what… what was that?" She says looking the other woman straight in the eye.

"I need to get to an Umbrella facility; I need to know what they did to me." Alice explains.

The room descends into silence.

"I… I had a dream… another one… I know where I need to go." Alice whispers. "There's a secret entrance in the Zurich train station, an entrance just for Umbrella employees"

Claire is looking at her in awe.

"The entrance is not completely controlled; it is easy to slip in, if I'm correct there's a panel after that door, where you have to access a code. An underground train connects the platform to the interior of the building. I think I can easily go undetected."

Disclaimer: Same as chapter 1.