"That's the second one..." Nicholai lowered his flare as it fizzled out, feeling a mix of hopelessness and frustration settling in his gut as he watched another Umbrella helicopter pass them by. "How do they not see us?"

"I'm starting to get the feeling that they do," Carlos told him, rooting through the abandoned ambulance they had come across for medical supplies.

"What do you mean?"

"They don't care about evacuating us. We're assets, Nicholai. Expendable assets. And we've just been expended."

"No... That's—"

"I know." Carlos heaved a sigh, ripping open a fresh gauze pad. "Get over here so I can bandage that wound."

Nicholai dropped the flare into a puddle and limped his way over. He had gotten a nasty bite on the leg from a monster he mistakenly thought he killed earlier. It burned and itched like nothing else. "What the hell are we going to do?"

"Christ, this still hasn't stopped bleeding? Hold this." As Carlos began to wrap some clean bandages around the injury, Nicholai held the pad in place. "I don't know. Guess we're gonna have to find our own way out of here."

"Better get working on that now then, eh?"

Once Carlos was finished, he and Nicholai continued making their way down the ruined street.

Tires screeched in the distance.

Suddenly, a black car whipped around the corner, speeding straight toward them.

With mere seconds to spare, the two U.B.C.S. soldiers leaped out of the path of the vehicle, which came to a screeching halt shortly after. A guy wearing a fedora popped his head out of the driver's side window. "Oh, my bad. Thought you guys were those things."

"Yeah," Carlos huffed out a slightly pained chuckle as he picked himself up out of the pile of garbage he landed in, "we're not."

"Damn, those are some big ass guns. What's with the uniforms?" You people military?"

"We're with the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service."

"Uh-huh... and they only sent two of you motherfuckers down here? That's some nonsense right there." The man rested his arm on his open window, far too casual for what was going on. "Sorry for trying to go all GTA on your asses." He stuck his hand out. "Lloyd Jefferson Wade, but you can call me L.J. on account of the informal situation."

Not exactly the case. Umbrella hadn't sent them down, Carlos had disobeyed orders and entered the fray in an attempt to help a civilian. And there had been three of them, but they lost Yuri in the chaos earlier. He didn't say that, though, just shook L.J.'s hand and introduced himself and Nicholai.

"Look, I don't normally hand out free rides, but if you two don't mind watching my back for me, I guess I wouldn't mind."

They considered the offer.

"We'll be able to cover ground much faster this way," Nicholai pointed out, so they decided to accept and climbed into the back.

"Alright, let's get a move on." L.J. slammed on the gas. His passengers scrambled to get their seatbelts on.

Seemingly sharing the same train of thought Carlos had a few minutes ago, Nicholai told him, "Hope Yuri's alright."

"Yeah, me too."

A cell phone sitting in the cupholder began to ring.

The journey to Angela's school was not proving to be an easy one. The group had to expend a good amount of ammunition on the infected, and now they were all either running low or completely out. Terri had gotten dangerously close to being zombie food so many times that everyone else had saved her at least once, Yuri was continuing to deteriorate (as well as steadily growing more agitated about their situation), and the number of cuts, bruises, and scrapes between the six of them had sharply increased.

Rain was seriously starting to struggle with focusing. She kept sticking her hands up her sleeves and raking her nails over her arms.

"You're going to make yourself bleed again if you don't let up."

"My skin won't stop crawling. It's pissing me off."

"Well, you don't need to use your nails." Alice reached over and placed a hand on top of Rain's, making her stop. Even through the fabric of her jacket, Alice could feel how warm she was. Like she had been back in the hospital when they first ran into each other again. "Pat where it itches instead, okay?"

They came up on the Arklay Overpass, which, thankfully, seemed to be a dead zone. They earned themselves another breather at least two mobs ago and were fully ready to take it.

"This is ridiculous!" Yuri threw his empty rifle to the ground in frustration, causing the others to stop and turn their attention toward him.

"Hey, we're nearly there," Alice told him. "Don't give up now."

"There probably isn't even a way out of the city, and this Ashford is just stringing us along, watching us on the cameras like it's some sort of sick game! We're all as good as dead."

"Cut that shit out, man. We can make it."

He laughed. It was a quick, wavering sound. "That's easy for you to say." Slightly unsteady, Yuri began to close the distance between himself and Rain. "You're not infected. You don't understand."

"I understand more than you could ever know, and freaking out isn't going to do jack. You might even make it worse." Rain firmly planted a hand on his chest, stopping him when he was less than a foot away. "Now, you better get your head back on straight and get outta my face because I am not somebody you want to fuck with." With a single sharp movement, she pushed him back. He staggered but managed to keep his footing.

"Guys..." Jill said.

"Who do you think you are?"

"We don't got time for this," Peyton cut in.

"Back off."

"Stop it, Yuri," Alice warned.

"Are you an expert on the virus or something?"

"Guys!"

Things quickly erupted into a full-blown argument, intermixed with Alice, Jill, and Peyton's attempts to de-escalate things.

Yuri got closer to Rain.

Once more, she shoved him away.

When he tried a third time, he decided to throw a punch. His fist connected with Rain's face and her head snapped to the side. Following a gasp from Terri, the silence was sudden and tense.

Rain went completely still.

"Rain...? You alright?" Alice hesitantly reached for her, and she abruptly jerked away from the touch, righting herself with a quiet crack from her neck. She reached up to pull her bandana down. Blood was running from her nose. She swiped her tongue across her top lip to get rid of it.

Then, she growled, and that was when Alice knew they were screwed.

Rain lunged at Yuri, knocking him to the concrete and pinning him there. Grabbing a fistful of his blond hair, she craned his head back and tore his throat open with her teeth. He let out a burbling cry.

"Oh my god!" Terri shrieked.

Jill and Peyton drew their weapons.

"Don't shoot!" Alice sprung after her.

"Don't shoot?" Peyton stared, wide-eyed. "The fuck do you mean don't shoot?!"

Alice hooked her arms around Rain's and locked her hands behind her head, putting her in a full grappling hold as she pulled her off. The other woman thrashed about as hard as she could. "She's-she's not a zombie!"

"Do you not see her right now?" He pulled back the hammer. "Alice, let go of her so we can—"

"No!" Alice spun so that the barrels were aimed at her back rather than Rain's front. Rain seemed to finally find leverage then, kicking against the edge of a roadblock and upsetting Alice's balance. The back of her heel hit the edge of the sidewalk, which then caused her to stumble even more and collide with the railing. She felt the both of them begin to tilt backward.

Jill, Peyton, and Terri watched, mute with shock, as Alice and Rain fell over the side of the overpass.

On the ground, Yuri stopped moving.