Alice gulped and licked her lips. She wasn't sure her plan was the best, having come up with it in the course of about ten seconds… but she wanted to get every one of her new friends out of Raccoon, alive and as well as could be. That meant making some sacrifices.

"I'm willing to turn myself in," Alice said in an even of a tone as she could manage. "But I have a few conditions."

"…Alright, I'm listening." This should be good, Wesker thought.

"All my friends get to leave Raccoon City and are dropped off, uh, wherever. Someplace safe where they can get away. Umbrella doesn't pursue them or anything. Jill, Carlos, Chad, LJ, Terri, and Matt." Alice held her breath.

Wesker considered this for a moment. "I think we can accommodate… most of those. But I think it would be best if Mr. Addison remained under the… custody… of Umbrella."

"Why?" Alice asked. "As a fighting machine, he's completely useless."

"So I've gathered — I've been following events in Raccoon quite closely — but that's precisely why we need to keep him. Mr. Addison has been… unduly altered, and it falls upon Umbrella to tend to his medical needs for the foreseeable future. That seems fair, doesn't it?" Translation: Matt's mutant ass is proof beyond the shadow of a doubt that Umbrella is up to some Extremely Heinous Shit, so it behooves us to keep him under wraps for the rest of his natural life.

Alice glanced over to Matt and could feel a few loose tears escaping her eyes. No, it did not sound fair to condemn Matt to Umbrella's capricious mercies once again, where they might very well end up torturing him and experimenting on him even further. But hey, at least they'd both be lab rats. She wasn't sending him off alone. "Yeah, that seems fair."

Wesker waited a moment. "…Any other conditions, Alice?"

"Oh, yeah, duh!" Alice said, chuckling. "Yeah, can you tell me if Raccoon was an accident? Because there were corpses coming out of the fucking ground in a graveyard, and that shit ain't legit with what I know of how the T-virus operates."

"Ah." Wesker took off his ubiquitous sunglasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Fucking Cain opening the fucking Hive like a fucking idiot. That part was definitely an accident. The real plan was supposed to be initialized in a matter of months, and now he'd had to scramble to get everything ready for the disease's inevitable spreading out from the doomed city. Thank God high command had already sequestered themselves in cryogenic storage in the Hive, although if he needed to get into there or if something happened and they needed to leave, it'd be months before the radiation dissipated to a safe enough level to do so. A few more months, and the human race would have been eradicated, very orderly and neatly, in under a year. Now… now, it might take a few years. Maybe longer.

Wesker couldn't make hide nor hair of zombies digging their way out of the graveyard, though. He made a mental note to ask the Red Queen about it at a later date. Could be a useful path for future research — a zombie that could burrow through the ground…

All that had went through Wesker's head in less than a moment "No, Miss Abernathy, Umbrella did not deliberately cause the outbreak in Raccoon City. And we have nothing to do with the undead disinterring themselves. I promise you."

"Right…" Alice wasn't sure if she believed him, but as Cain had pointed out earlier, why would he lie? "Last condition: Charles Ashford is dead, and his daughter needs help."

"I saw. My condolences to his daughter," Wesker responded.

"Thanks. My condition is that Umbrella needs to take her in and look after her. She has some kind of degenerative medical condition that the T-virus keeps in check, her dad infected her with it or something, I don't know the nitty gritty of it all. All I want from you guys is to keep her happy and healthy and, well, help keep her condition managed, okay?"

Wesker's lips formed a grin, parting just barely enough to let a sliver of his teeth show through. Charles Ashford, you sly bastard, doping your own daughter with the T-virus. It would have warranted disciplinary action if he hadn't been killed, but he still felt respect for the wheelchair-bound doctor rise nonetheless. "We can do that," he finally said.

"One more thing…" Alice said. "I want a fucking raise. Take whatever my paycheck is, and… shit, times it by ten. You assholes have put me through so much bullshit."

Wesker couldn't help but chuckle. "You know what, Alice, sure. In fact, why not times it by twenty?" It's not like money would be worth anything by the end of the year.

"Sounds good!" Alice said. "So, we're good?"

"We're good, Alice. Get your friends onto the helicopter, when they land they'll have cars waiting for them, and a little spending money to help them get on their feet. And you, Mr. Addison, and young Miss Ashford will continue on to an Umbrella facility."

"Great!" Alice said, forcing enthusiasm. She realized she still had Cain pinned against her. "Oh, what do I do with Cain here?"

"Whatever you like," Wesker said, sounding bored. "He is no longer an employee of the Umbrella Corporation. Feel free to inform him of this fact in any manner of your choosing." Wesker pursed his lips. "Oh, before I let you go, one more thing. Who's the rooftop sniper?"

"You tell me," Alice responded. "The only person I've talked to on the phone since waking up in the hospital was Chuck."

"Mhm." Wesker contemplated her statement. It rang true… but more in the literal sense, like she was somehow dodging answering it in full. Oh well. Whoever it was up on the rooftop, the missile would be launched in a matter of minutes. Unless they could grow wings and fly, they'd be obliterated in a very short amount of time. Let Alice have this secret. "Well, Alice, it's been a pleasure dealing with you, but I suggest you get moving if you want to live longer than half an hour or so." He cut the line.

Alice let Cain tumble to the ground. He looked up at her, then to the rest of his men. "What are you all waiting for?" he demanded. "Shoot her!" None of them complied — they'd gotten their new marching orders already. Instead, several of them moved to cut the survivors' bindings and escorted them onto the helicopter. One of them gently picked up Angie, still crying over her deceased father. "What are you fucking idiots doing?" he shouted

Alice squatted down next to Cain. "Cain, there comes a time in every man's life when they have to learn how to walk away from things." She made an exaggerated show of looking at an imaginary watch on her wrist. "And given how much time until the nuke arrives, I'd highly recommend upgrading that to a run." She gave him a pat on the head.

"Wesker will —" he began.

"Wesker wanted me to tell you that, in regards to your employment, they've chosen to go in another direction." Alice shrugged. "Guess they don't look too kindly on fuckups of your magnitude. You have my sympathies!" Her playful little smile vanished. "But you don't have my ride."

"Oh shit," he uttered, starting to crawl away.

The survivors and a few of the soldiers all piled onto the transport helicopter. The gunships touched down long enough for the remaining soldiers to grab onto the sides of the crafts before lifting off again. Alice stood at the entrance of the transport helicopter, watching Cain struggle to make it somewhere, anywhere, that offered even a modicum of shelter. "Keep it up, Cain!" she called out. "And hey, if you need any help, I'm sure you can ask your brother Abel!"

"Oh, like I haven't fucking heard that one before!" he screamed, furious beyond belief. He continued slowly crawling forward another few seconds before Dr. Ashford's teeth sank into his ankle, Angie's father having reanimated into a zombie… somehow.

"Ooh, that's gotta smart," Alice said, waving as the door closed and the big craft's rotors began spinning. She went and sat down next to Angie, who'd saved her a seat.

"My daddy's dead," Angie said quietly.

"Yeah, I saw," Alice said, taking one of her hands and holding it. "Hey, you said your daddy wasn't dosing himself with the T-virus," Alice asked. "How do you suppose he became a zombie?" Angie refused to look her in the face. Alice wondered what she'd find if she pulled up the kid's sleeve. Maybe a few hastily self-inflicted scratches, just enough to draw blood? She didn't know if Ashford had died immediately or had lived just long enough to whisper the idea into Angie's ear. She hoped Angie had just come up with the idea on her own; the thought that, in his last moments, Charles Ashford had chosen to weaponize his daughter's blood and his own corpse just made her feel so unbelievably sick. She could ask Angie… and Angie would likely tell her the truth… but Alice felt it best to let this particular sleeping dog lie.

"You okay, babe?" Alice sent, fighting the urge to go into her Professor X pose.

"Yeah," Rain acknowledged, which was a lie. Alice had kept their connection open during the entire phone call, sending her everything that had been said. Rain felt like Alice was making a huge mistake, felt like they could have taken all the Umbrella goons and gone into hiding… but where would that have left Angie? Alice had told her how many doses of the antivirus they had left. Where were they going to get more? There was zero guarantee they would be able to find somebody who could successfully analyze and synthesize it in the scant number of days they'd have before the infection would no longer be restrained. Rain knew that letting a little girl die or worse was not an option at all, doubly so for Alice. Still… "It's just all bullshit," she opined. "If we're supposed to be soulmates and shit, why is this all so damned hard?"

"I don't know," Alice admitted. "I love you more than anything, and we'll make this work. I guess it's just going to be more long-distance for now, huh?"

"Yeah," Rain admitted. She began breaking down the sniper rifle and packing it away in the case. It had a strap so she could wear it on her back, and it was a damn fine gun that she didn't want to lose if she didn't have to. "For you, it's worth it. It's worth anything."

The helicopter lifted into the air. "You should get your cute little undead buns moving now, love," she sent.

"On it. Love you." Rain clipped the rope to her belt and proceeded to do that sick-ass Running Down The Side Of The Building stunt that Alice did in the movie. She ran past Cain (stopping only to kick his teeth in, as he was still alive and screaming whilst Ashford gnawed on him), hopped the barricade, got behind the wheel of the bus, gunned the motor, and (grateful the others hadn't parked it facing a wall or something) peeled out, headed as far out from the city center as possible. 5 KT was comparatively small, but she still wanted to put as much room between her and the blast as possible. (At least she (probably) didn't have to worry about the radiation).

XXX

Several minutes into the flight, a bright light briefly filled the inside of the helicopter, coming from all the craft's windows, and Alice flinched. Rain gave her a mental thumbs up and griped about having had to duck into a sewer pipe. Alice chuckled and just let herself relax and enjoy these last few minutes with her friends. They would be landing soon, undoubtedly, and Alice would have to tell them exactly what deal she'd made in a very short, very awkward conversation.

There was one thing she could do, at least. She leaned in close to Angie. "Hey sweetie, I'm thirsty. Can you give me some Mountain Dew from your lunchbox? I'd also like to give some Mountain Dew to Jill, so she can, uh, enjoy it, and tell other people how great Mountain Dew is."

Angie narrowed her eyes, trying to puzzle out the message hidden between the lines. Her eyes lit up when she got where Alice was going with it, and proceeded to open her lunchbox. (None of the Umbrella goons were paying attention, anyway — who cares about some kid giving her drink away?) She grabbed two vials of the antivirus and slipped them into Alice's waiting hand. She'd hand them off to Jill when they landed, and she hoped it would take the sting off the shitty hand they'd been dealt.

Something told her Jill and co. would be needing it.

XXXXXXXXXX

And that's a wrap! Alice and friends have survived the Apocalypse, but only because our heroine made a deal with the devil! Gasp! Won't this completely change the course of the entire rest of the series? Well, the first chapter of Rain, it's Aliceing should already be up, so you can go find out yourself! But before you go off and do that, even if you skip these notes (Doust, you stink!), be sure and read the last one for an important message.

Seriously, how are Alice and her band of merry folks supposed to take care of Angie in the movies? She has a limited amount of the anti-virus, and what'll they do when that runs out? It's not like any of them know any biochemists who can just whip up some more antivirus at the drop of a hat. Chaos Goblin Alice instantly recognized that as a Big Freaking Problem, and really, that was the only solution that ensures Angie's continued survival.

Taken at face value, Chuck Ashford coming back to life makes no sense. He was never infected! Not by himself, and not by a zombie! The only explanation is if Angie bled a little into her daddy's gunshot wound, which is some cold shit for a middle schooler to pull off, let me tell you.

And alas! Once more Rain and Alice have been denied their happy ending! What kind of a sick bastard am I? Sorry, you two crazy kids, but you've got miles of metaphorical broken glass to crawl through if you want a shot at that happy ending, hahaha.

That brings me to my final note: These first two stories have been, for the most part, non-stop laugh fests. This is my warning that Rain, it's Aliceing is, in fact, going to be very light on the laughs and extremely heavy on the angst. It will not be a light-hearted feel-good comedy (which is something I once said about Avengers: Infinity War, hahahaha). There will be a number of serious themes present, and I strongly encourage you to thoroughly read the beginning-of-chapter notes to acquaint yourself with potentially triggering topics which may be present.

If this is all sounding a little much, I don't blame you. If you really want, you can wait until I start posting AIR 4, since I can assure you that things will once more take a turn for the light-hearted in that one. If you can endure, though, I hope you'll find the next entry in this series enjoyable, even without the whimsiness the first two entries have had.