I am updating... a miracle of miracles.
I finally have an idea where this is going.
Enjoy...
Nevada Desert
They rounded the curve, the tanker and the truck driving side by side. He felt Alice's eyes on him and he briefly glanced at her. Through the metal grates and the grime of both windows, they locked eyes, his assuring her that she would survive this because that's what she was, a fighter.
Hers wished for a different outcome, because he was a good man, and there was so little of them left in their world.
He pulled past her and drove into the mess of undead. "Wish I had a smoke."
He plowed through them, outfitted metal planks taking them out as they moved the tanker back and forth, still, it was not enough, and he felt the wheel turn too far over. He was thrown to the side as the tanker fell sideways and skidded across the desert floor.
He looked up and noticed a white wrapper sticking out of the sun visor. He reached for it. "Well, I'll be damned," he muttered as he pulled out a perfectly intact joint. "L.J., you sneaky son of a bitch."
Carlos felt around for a light grateful that at least he would be high when he was blown sky high. He chuckled to himself. Alice would not have approved, but Nikolai would have laughed. The undead growling grew louder as the tanker itself was rocked back and forth by all the ones crawling onto it.
He looked up as they managed to remove the grating on the window and lots of hands began to reach in, searching for their meal. "Oh, hell."
Thankfully he'd found the lighter that had fallen from his hand in the crash, and he hurriedly lit the fuse of the dynamite beside him, he looked once more at the hands reaching in and lit up his joint. He took one good long puff and exhaled, calmness washing over him.
Then the door he'd been leaning up against fell into a dark hole. A metal trapdoor had opened up beneath him, he didn't have time to utter a word as he fell down a dark long tunnel. The door disappeared and the explosion on the other side of it rocked the metal tube he was now sliding down.
"What a hell of a ride," he said as a sudden turn, flipped him around and he was knocked out cold.
There was a lot of screaming and running. He didn't know where he was, he tried to move his arms, but he was definitely restrained.
He heard more fighting and finally silence. The monitors above him showed a young girl dressed in white speaking with Alice and another woman. He tried to say something but a mask over his face prevented any such noise. A woman arrived, she was clearly a doctor and was checking his vitals, she looked so familiar.
The woman injected something into him, and he winced. "Don't worry, this will take care of that nasty mutation. You're very lucky, the higher-ups are interested in you." The woman once more looked at a camera feed. "We need to go before Project Alice notices us."
She rolled Carlos onto a truck with the help of another man. "How are we going to get out of here? They took the chopper," the man said.
"Do you think this corporation only has one chopper?"
"Right," said the man. "She's going to be pissed when she finds out he's alive." The man said.
"Kaplan, do your job and stop questioning everything," Riley said.
"Whatever."
Carlos was driven down a series of tunnels that no doubt stretched beneath Las Vegas, he tried to figure out where they were, but he lost consciousness several times and eventually gave up trying to figure out where he was. "How much longer?" Riley asked checking his vitals again.
"How is he?" Kaplan said turning into a side tunnel with a freight elevator at the end of it.
"He hasn't turned, and it looks like he's coming around."
"Good cause we are here."
"Thank God, I'm sick of being underground."
Kaplan drove the car to the doors of the elevator and pressed a few items on his keypad. The doors opened and he drove the car in. "Where are we going?"
Riley climbed into the front seat, "Umbrella Prime."
The doors opened onto an underground mall parking lot. "We got to hurry, I'm sure we made some noise," Kaplan said.
They left the car and half dragged, half carried Carlos into another elevator, this one went all the way to the roof. The doors opened onto a helipad complete with a waiting helicopter and two more armed escorts.
They dragged him onto the chopper and took off just as a few undead made their way onto the roof. Riley took a gun and shot the closest ones.
"We should be there in a couple of hours."
Umbrella Prime
It was bright white, gleaming white, like everything had been recently built and painted. He glanced around and experimentally tried to raise or move his arms; both were held very well. The man and woman from earlier, Kaplan and Riley, they called each other were busy prepping syringes of various sizes and with substances of all types.
"We really going to do this?" Kaplan said.
"Do we have a choice?" Riley replied.
"He's going to be worse than us, I at least remember some stuff." Kaplan said.
"Yeah, and how great has that been. Nothing like knowing that you're not real and that the real Kaplan was pulled apart. Wished they had wiped all our memories." Riley muttered.
"'Don't worry too much, they'll kill us after this, we are only clones." Kaplan said with a note of bitterness.
Just then the director walked in, and Riley and Kaplan stood at attention, "Aw Mr. Olivera what a pleasure to meet you, I'm glad you're awake now. Couldn't let you sleep until you helped with our little experiment. Let's see how much humanity is still left in old Alice." Wesker said eyes gleaming behind the sunglasses.
Carlos stared at him, promising murder if he ever got lose.
"No no, let's not look at your savior like that. If it weren't for me, you'd been part of the Nevada desert right about now. A little gratitude would be much better and maybe, I'll let you see your precious Alice one more time."
Carlos muttered something but the gag stopped him from telling Wesker exactly what Alice would do if she saw him one last time.
"Yes, it seems Alice was quite damaged by your death. Let's help her out, yes." He turned away from Carlos and turned to Riley. "Wipe it all, I don't need him trying to side with her, he must be made completely over. Let's see if she can kill him."
Carlos shook on the bed, but Riley and Kaplan held him down. Kaplan whispered. "It's better this way, I'm sorry."
It was nothing, just fragments. They said it happened to the first few clones until they perfected it. He was the first of hundreds. He watched over the filling room. Saw how another Carlos cloned was put in work pants and white shirt. Another Alice clone in pajamas, saw how the girl was placed between them. The jolt as all three wore woken up. Over and over.
Always just in time to fight the monsters as the little one called them. They drowned, they were shot, once Alice was strangled right in front of the child then Carlos and the girl were bitten by the hoard that broke into the home.
Each scenario more awful than the last and yet he felt nothing but boredom. The clones were human, they didn't stand a chance. They were better than all the other test couples though. Rain and Kaplan never made it past the cul de sac. One and Riley made it out once and they were gunned down before they could breach the outer wall. It was all very routine.
He left the viewing room and made his patrol, the tunnels were empty for the most part, once in a while staff would walk by him, eyes down and scribbling on a clipboard. He ran into himself several more times. It was unusual but the white queen had made too many clones and had let a few loose to roam as security, it seemed like a game to her, and he frankly couldn't care why she did what she did.
Rain walked past him, Nikolai beside her, both with the same bored expression that was probably on his face.
Then it was breached, and he saw clone Alice see real Alice and the fun started. She was confused and angry, it moved something in him. He saw a desert on fire...crows dropping around him. He shook his head and ran to meet the threat head on. They deployed the original team that taken HIVE beneath Raccoon City, the higher ups wanted to see how much they could trip up Alice.
It worked and Carlos One saw her start as seeing all the familiar faces, intact, alive and very much willing to shoot her and the child. She'd taken the child, that was a hiccup nobody had counted on. He wondered briefly if she'd seen the facility that made her little clone family. Then she had looked at him, the girl had signed to her, that was new, normally the child was fine, surprising that they had added a disability.
"Shoot to kill," One growled and they all cocked their guns. Ada had stepped out beside her, and the bullets had flown, Jill shot without a single expression on her face, they all followed suit. Alice, the real one was impressive. "Nobody's that good..." echoed in his head.
"Carlos no!" another voice bounced around in his head.
He came back to his sense just in time to pull another clone in front of him and take the bullet shot from Alice herself. She ran and he chased. The facility was breaking down around him, he heard the water before he saw it. Not liking his chances but given no other choice he jumped into a series of tunnels that ran up opposite the main tunnel, he found a service ladder and clung to the metal rungs as the water did its best to drown him. He saw some of his doubles be swept up and hung on even tighter.
A latch popped above him, and he was hoisted up by Nikolai. "I almost let you die."
"Thanks for not."
"We are comrades, yes." Nikolai said clasping Carlos' hand and dragging him up.
"Yeah. Then let's get the hell out of here."
They ran through another set of tunnels and were met by the white queen. "You're late."
"Got lost." Carlos said.
The hologram nodded, "hurry, the transport will be leaving soon, you will be needed."
Carlos and Nikolai climbed aboard the chopper, "look at that, she's still alive."
They pressed their faces to the windows and watched as Alice and Rain circled each other, it was a brutal fight, Jill was also involved. Alice was getting beat. "They won't kill her right?"
"You care?" Nikolai asked.
"You missed..."
"Carlos...I."
"Forget it," he said roughly.
They kissed, he felt her sunburned lips, wrapped his arms around her strong but delicate frame.
"Carlos?" Nikolai said again.
"What?"
Wesker looked at him. "What's going on?
"Something very interesting Mr. Olivera." He summoned the queen and looked at him and nodded.
"Sorry!" he heard his comrade say and Carlos pulled the hypodermic needle from his neck.
"Nikolai..." Carlos gasped.
"Very interesting." Wesker said.
White House Bunker - Training Garden
"You know what Jill said told me the first time she met me?"
"Nobody's that good."
"Exactly."
Carlos came out of his reverie and glanced at Alice, he'd have to tell her and Jill how he'd come to be the real Carlos and not some clone as they had all believed at some point but for now, they had to focus on Becky.
"I'll get her," he said and went to his daughter.
She put the safety on and climbed off the little tower she'd been laying on. "Daddy did you see?" she signed.
He nodded and tried to smile but it didn't reach his eyes.
"Are you mad?" She motioned to him.
"No," he said and shook his head. He pulled her into his arms, and she wrapped her small arms around him the gun dangling from her hand.
Alice came up to them and took it from her. "You did so well," Alice signed.
"I beat Aunt Jill."
"I know but that's enough practice for now." Alice signed again.
Becky pouted but allowed her mother and father to lead her away. The queen stopped them both. "You have a difficult decision to make, and you will not be given much time, I'll need an answer soon."
"Yes." Carlos and Alice said at the same time.
"You don't know the question."
"You will keep Becky as safe as can be."
"She must be trained; the chairman demands it." The White Queen said.
"Yes, she will be by us. Her parents and I expect you not to interfere. She will not be enhanced. Do we make ourselves clear."
"She is already enhanced, it's only a matter of time before it manifests itself. It was done to all of you prior to entering this facility, it's how you were allowed in here."
"You people never learn, some things never change." Jill said from behind them.
"You will all be made to serve and there will be more of you made as needed and that is not negotiable," the White Queen replied and disappeared, the quartet was left looking at each other.
"Does that mean that Becky will be able to hear?" Carlos asked.
"Probably but their enhancements come with side effects." Alice said darkly caressing the soft hair of their daughter.
The girl looked up at the three adults, eyes briefly shifting from Alice blue to Umbrella red. It was beginning.