After Matt's vitals flatlined, Alice cried. Rain heard it before she saw it. The moment she turned to look at the other woman, Alice wrapped her arms around her. She must not have been thinking too clearly when she did it. It was quick. Almost like a first instinct.

Rip her throat open, a voice in Rain's head told her. Tear it out.

She forced the urges aside the best she could and let the hug happen, holding her firmly in return but keeping her head awkwardly craned as far away as she could.

"I'm sorry. Oh, Matt, I'm—I'm so sorry..."

Rain kept quiet, a whisper of grief flitting through her for the man who was almost nothing but a face in her mind. A face painted with panic on a speeding train, contorted in pain on a tile floor, then cut open and altered on an operating table. Forcibly.

When they finally left the hospital, it was just the two of them.

In the relatively short time since they had been taken by Umbrella, a disaster seemed to have unfolded. Down both ends of the darkening street, wreckage stretched as far as the eye could see. Alongside debris, various abandoned vehicles crowded the road. Police cruisers, news vans, and the sort of cars you'd see your next-door neighbors driving. Fires burned in the distance. There wasn't a living soul in sight.

"...Things weren't this fucked up before, were they?"

"No. Definitely not," Alice answered, the strength in her voice already firmly snapped back into place. She grabbed a copy of The Raccoon City Times from a shattered newspaper box.

THE DEAD WALK! HORROR IN RACCOON! MORE VICTIMS DEAD. — Scores of undead roam the city... Underneath the headline, a black-and-white picture of a crowd of zombies shambling toward the photographer was printed. There was also a small map showing where the outbreaks were most concentrated. If Alice had found this in the mansion after waking up on the shower floor, she was certain she would have thought it was a gag. Now, it just gave her a sinking feeling. The virus escaped.

"We can't stay here."

"What makes you say that?" Rain muttered sarcastically.

Alice tossed the paper aside, silently hoping that the quiet was because most of the citizens managed to evacuate.

They walked until the sun set in its entirety. That was when they encountered their first zombie. Rain only realized it was there because it was close enough for her to get that unpleasant tingling in her skull. It limped across a cracked parking lot, unaware of their presence.

They wanted it to remain that way, so they kept going and stuck to the shadows.

They were making decent progress toward the south side when Rain stopped abruptly, one hand grasping Alice's far shoulder and the other landing on her back. Before Alice even got the chance to ask what was wrong, pain exploded behind her eyes and surged throughout her body. It was enough to make her double over. If not for Rain, she would have collapsed to the tarmac entirely. She had been set alight. Insects were crawling beneath her skin.

Rain could do nothing but let her ride it out. It probably only lasted three minutes, but it felt like an eternity for Alice.

...

"Take them to the Raccoon City facility. I want them quarantined. Those two? Close observation."

"Prepare for exposure."

"Up the dosage. Just do it."

...

"...y.

"Hey... can ...ou ...hear me?

"You alright?"

Alice didn't notice the death grip she had on Rain's arm until she was in the process of releasing it. In between ragged breaths, she asked, "You knew that was coming, didn't you?"

"Not really. Just knew something was off."

Alice peeled off a gauze pad she taped to her wrist earlier. The injection site it had been covering was gone. Completely healed. A strange sensation slowly flooded into her brain, and she started to pick up on a vague feeling of sameness radiating from Rain. They shared a look.

"You've got whatever I have..." As the realization fully dawned on Rain, she pulled away like she thought that she had given it to Alice.

"It's not because of you," Alice assured. "I think."

Rain stared at her with raised eyebrows.

"Listen, the Hive—the place we came from, it was full of the infected. I didn't get bitten, but I was grabbed a lot. I bet I was scratched and didn't even notice. That's all it takes." Alice straightened up, still reeling internally. She hadn't felt any symptoms when they were down there, but there was a very real possibility that she ended up with the virus in her system, even if it was on a very minor level. And then... and then when she was in quarantine, Umbrella had done something to her. Tampered with her. The resurfacing memories were more than fuzzy, but they were clear enough for her to know that concretely. She swallowed. "Let's keep moving."

"Wait. We oughta make a couple of pit stops. Check it."

Alice followed Rain's gaze. Not too far away was Arukas Thrift and a few doors down from that, Gun Shop Kendo. Clothes and weapons. Exactly what they needed.

They broke into Arukas.

Rain abandoned her lab coat and sheets in favor of some green cargo pants, a plain white T-shirt, and black boots. Although they appeared old, she figured it might've been a bad idea to leave her bites on display with everything going on. The bandages concealed her hand well enough. She threw on a black bomber jacket for her arm, and as for her neck...

She eyed a rack of bandanas. That would work well enough. It'd also cover her nose and mouth. She snagged a random one, which ended up being red. 'Like Alice's dress.' Rain shifted her attention over to the opposite end of the store, where the other woman had found herself a similarly colored tanktop, washed-out grey jeans, a black leather overcoat, and a pair of boots. She was combing her fingers through her hair, turning her side part into a middle part so that the shaved section was hidden. Her tongue was poking out between her teeth and there was a look of intense concentration on her face. In contrast to the generally cool vibes she had been giving off, the expression was rather goofy on her. She eventually noticed Rain in the reflection of the small mirror she was using.

"Ready?" she asked, the corner of her lips briefly ticking up. Rain gave her a nod, suppressing the urge to return the slight smile. It wasn't like Alice would've been able to see it with the bandana, anyway.

With its shattered windows, Kendo's was far easier to get into. It was no surprise that the shop had already been pilfered. They picked through what remained, managing to come away with a sawed-off shotgun, a Tomcat, a couple of Samurai Edges, and enough ammo to last them for the time being. Not too bad.

Rain already knew that she knew how to handle a firearm, but it didn't prepare her for just how familiar a pistol felt in her hand.

"You remember how to use that?"

Rain made a show of expertly twirling the weapon around her trigger finger before sliding it neatly into her new holster.

"I'll take that as a yes."