L.J.'s borrowed Toyota didn't fit the group of seven. He leaned against its hood and lit himself a rollie, deciding he would act as the lookout while Jill worked on starting up the R.P.D. van. Alice, Rain, and Carlos cleared the cages from the back. Terri filmed.

"My old man used to tell me that being able to hotwire a car is an essential life skill," Jill shared with Angie, who was watching her work from the front passenger seat.

"I've seen people do this stuff in movies. Isn't it bad?"

"Usually, yeah, but this an emergency. Besides, nobody will be missing this come morning. Trust me."

Angie scooted closer to the center console, attempting to get a better view. "How do you know which wires to use?"

"I'm already familiar with these vans. See, these red ones are for power." With a glove taken off the dead driver, Jill twisted the exposed ends together. The headlights and radio turned on. "They get the electronics going. The brown one connects to the starter. You touch these together like this." She sparked the wires and revved a couple of times, successfully getting the steady rumbling of the engine to fill the air. "Easy."

The second the sound reached his ears, L.J. jogged over. "I call dibs on driving!"

Jill wasn't going to argue. She didn't care. She turned to Angie. "You stay up here. Put your belt on."

Angie clicked her seatbelt into place. Jill hopped out of the front and joined the others at the back.

"Hey, try not to hit anything on the way over. Unless you have to," Carlos said.

"Man, don't be a pill." L.J. stamped out his rollie and climbed into the driver's seat. "I swerved outta the way on time!"

Carlos shook his head good-naturedly. As he got into the back with everyone else, he muttered under his breath, "Wish I had a smoke right now." The van's doors were broken, so he did his best to keep them somewhat closed by tying the sleeves of Terri's discarded blazer around the handles.

Jill knocked twice on the plexiglass separating the front of the vehicle from the back. "We're good to go."

L.J.'s reply came slightly muffled. "Alright, cool." He hit the gas. They were off to the evac site.

As Jill sat, she pulled a pack of cigarettes from a utility pouch and proffered one to Carlos. He gave a silent "Oo" and took it.

"Appreciate it."

The box moved toward Alice. She nodded in an expression of gratitude and accepted the offer.

Then, over to Terri, who quickly waved it off. "Oh, I don't smoke."

Finally, to Rain. There was a single cigarette left. "Do you?"

The doors rattled violently with the motion of L.J.'s turn. Brief glimpses of the ruined streets showed through the gap between them. Rain had to think about it for a second. "Yeah."

"Take it. I need to be cut off for tonight before this shit turns me into a chain smoker, anyway."

A beat passed. Rain did, trying and failing to read Jill. "Thanks."

Terri decided to pick up where her recording had been left off. "So, you were saying this T-virus basically brings the dead back to life?"

"It reanimates dead cells, yes." Alice got her lighter back from Carlos and passed it to Rain. "In living humans, the results are more... unpredictable. It can cause uncontrollable mutation."

Rain could feel Jill's eyes. She pretended that she didn't.

"Or it can help her walk again." Alice gestured in Angie's direction. "If it's kept in check with the antivirus. The cellular growth is enough to regenerate her but not enough to cause further mutation."

Carlos leaned forward, listening with rapt attention. "So Angie's infected, as well as you and Rain?"

"Yeah."

L.J. groaned and dragged his hand over his face. "I don't really understand none of this. What makes the difference between people who turn into ugly assholes and people who stay normal-ish?"

"I suppose it's all up to chance. Kind of like a genetic lottery."

"And you both contracted the virus from being bitten?" Terri asked.

"If I did—or if I was scratched, I couldn't show you. It'd be healed already. Seems it's sped that process up for me."

"I was wondering what happened to that sling you had on earlier," Carlos commented.

"I didn't need it anymore."

"I still have mine," Rain said.

"Ooh, can I?" Terri lifted her camera, hopeful. The barely concealed excitement in her voice made Rain shoot her an unamused glare, but the former reporter did not falter even slightly.

Rain sighed. "Sure. Whatever." She removed her hand from where it was casually placed over the mark on her arm. Offering her jacket up to staunch Nicholai's bleeding had been an automatic impulse for her, and once things were over, she elected to leave it behind. Regardless of whether or not the coppery smell permeating the fabric would've pushed her right back over the edge she was trying to keep away from, she wouldn't have put the thing back on. Sopping wet with a dead man's blood? No thanks. Yeah, she had wanted to cover her arms, but everyone in the car now knew she was infected. There was no point.

Terri wasted no time getting closer and zooming in on the scar. Rain hated having the camera lens on her. It was like an ogling eye, and with its stare, she was being regarded as some sort of fucked up creature.

'Well... you kinda are now, aren't you?' Rain took a long drag. If Terri's film was released after the end of this whole ordeal, the feeling would undoubtedly worsen. The public deserved to know what Umbrella's morally questionable experiments had led to, though. And if Rain's contribution to that kept people away from her, that would evidently be a good thing. After a moment's hesitation, she tugged her bandana all the way down, exposing the more severe scar on the side of her neck. "I have another bite here. There's also one on my hand, but I'm not taking all these bandages and shit off."

"Whoa."

Jill leaned back. "So those aren't for cuts."

With effort, Rain flexed her fingers. The answer could have been a simple no, but as she looked down at the red dressings, she started to flounder a bit internally.

Just before her pause crossed the threshold of being too long, Alice took her hand. "She did hurt herself," she responded vaguely, examining the amount of staining around her fingers and knuckles. "...You know, I'm thinking that you have to heal like I do." She briefly met Rain's eyes before her attention drifted down to her lips. The splits there, that is. "But a lot slower because it doesn't make any sense that only the bites closed up quickly."

"A whole lotta things about me don't make sense right now."

"Check. What about those injection sites?"

Rain scrubbed some of the dry blood off her forearm. There was no injury underneath. "Huh. Guess you're right." Not a negative, at least.

"We're coming up on our ticket out, everybody." L.J. increased his speed.

Rain gazed past the plexiglass and through the windshield. If she had to hazard a guess, she would assume the modernistic rotunda partially encircled by two curved, towering glass-fronted buildings was city hall.

Alice's hold on her tightened.