Chapter ten:
They found a two-person plane and flew back to the States. After landing in Oregon, they tried to raise the convoy on their radios. They didn't get anything at first, so they tried again when they flew into California. The convoy was not far from the coast, south of San Franciso. They got their coordinates and started to fly towards them, yet they were also receiving transmissions from an unknown origin.
"Alice, it's that message again. The one from 'Arcadia' saying they're broadcasting for survivors," Jill said.
Alice hummed. "Is there a way to respond?"
"No. It's on the emergency broadcast system. One-way transmission. They're saying they have food and shelter. No infection. What is 'Arcadia'? Is it a town?"
"I'm not sure. Let's find the convoy first."
They landed beside a stretch of abandoned highway. An hour later, they saw the familiar vehicles of Claire's convoy rolling towards them. They had barely stopped when Angie leapt out and ran to embrace Jill and Alice. She was thrilled to see them.
"How'd it go? Did you destroy Umbrella?" Angie asked.
"We did some damage. I don't think they're gone, but we'll see," Alice returned. "How are you? You look okay."
"Doubting that I did my duty?" Carlos playfully asked as he approached.
Alice laughed. "No. I didn't doubt you for a second. It's good to see you."
"It's good to see you too," Carlos returned with a grin Jill didn't appreciate. Jill put her arm around Alice's waist with a stern expression. He rolled his eyes at that. "Hello, Jill."
"Carlos," Jill returned lightheartedly. "Hey, have you been hearing those transmissions?"
He nodded. "From Arcadia. We were talking about checking them out. From what we can gather, it's a boat. It's somewhere near Avila Beach, about twenty miles south of here."
"A boat?" Alice repeated.
"Yeah. They must be working along the coast, picking up survivors. We've been hearing their transmissions since we got to California a month ago. We were focused on getting supplies from the San Fransico Bay area, but now that we've resupplied we thought we'd look into it."
Jill liked the sound of that. "Why don't we fly down with you? Maybe we can get a closer look at the boat from the air."
"Perfect. I'll let Claire know," Carlos agreed.
Angie hugged Alice and Jill one more time before rejoining the convoy. Alice and Jill walked towards the plane. Alice held a chiding tone. "One of these days, you're going to have to get over the fact that Carlos is a friend of mine."
"Hey, he's my friend too. I just don't like it when other people start eyeing you. I mean, you're you…so I can't blame them. But I don't have to like it either."
Alice laughed and climbed aboard their aircraft. Jill got in the back and listened again at the transmission. It was too good to be true, she felt. "I have a bad feeling, Alice. No infection, food, shelter—it's perfect, and nothing in this world is perfect."
"I don't know, Jill. You're pretty close to perfect."
"Aw, all these years and apocalypse later, and you can still make me blush."
As they neared Avila Beach, Alice and Jill flew close to the ocean. Jill spotted a huge ship with Arcadia written on the side. There was some movement on the deck by a crew, though that was all. It seemed like a sparsely populated deck for a ship so large. If they had been picking up survivors for at least a month, there either weren't many, or they were below.
"I see some movement. Not a lot," Jill said.
Alice looked down and noticed the same thing. "There aren't many people on there."
"It doesn't feel right to me, honey. Not one bit."
"Let's set down on the beach and talk to the others."
Alice landed in an old parking lot by the beach. Carlos and Claire left their vehicles for a closer look. Alice and Jill joined them. Carlos asked first. "Did you see anything?"
"Just a few people working on the deck," Alice answered.
Claire hummed. "What do you think, Carlos?"
"I think the convoy has been doing all right, but we're running out of road. Eventually, we won't have anywhere else to go. It would be good to make some friends who have a big boat," Carlos said.
Jill, again, expressed her concern. "It seems too good to be true, Carlos. I don't trust it."
"I say we send a small group to check things out," Carlos disputed. "The rest can stay with the convoy."
"It doesn't hurt to look," Alice agreed. She saw Jill's expression and took her hand. "He's right. We're going to run out of places to go. The boat is here now. If we can make a connection for now or later, that's a good thing."
Jill sighed. "Fine, but a small group."
"I'll go," Carlos volunteered. "I can drag L.J. along. He's getting too comfortable. We'll stay in radio contact at all times. Tell Mikey to keep the channel open. You should stay. If something happens, those people need you."
Claire was going to offer to go along, but Carlos had a point. Those were her people on that convoy. "Sounds like a plan. I'll tell L.J. the good news."
"We need a boat to get over there," Alice pointed out.
Jill gestured to an abandoned dock down the beach. "There's a dinghy just down there."
"What the hell, man? I was sleeping and Claire comes to tell me you volunteered my ass for some motherfuckin' recon mission?" L.J. grumbled as he walked over. He smiled at Jill and Alice. "Well, hey. Look who's back."
"The team is back together again," Carlos dryly said. "C'mon. Let's take that boat."
The four of them climbed aboard the small boat and headed towards Arcadia. They climbed aboard to find a handful of men, going about their duties. One of the men stopped and pointed at them. "Hey, where'd you come from?"
"We heard the transmissions," Carlos explained.
"Oh, yeah. The transmissions. Come on down below. We'll get you something to eat," the man said.
"We aren't hungry. We were hoping to talk to the captain of this boat," Alice returned.
The man had a nervous laugh. "He's down below too. Let's go talk to him."
"Why can't he come up here?" Jill asked. "It's a beautiful day. It'd be nice for him to get some fresh sea air."
"He's busy," the man returned. "Just come down below and we'll talk."
Jill and Alice exchanged glances. In a flash, they pulled their guns and shot the man in front of them. Carlos and L.J. couldn't believe it. Carlos let out a squeak. "What'd you do that for?"
"Look to your left," Jill answered.
The other men on the boat turned towards them, and they all had the Umbrella logo pinned to their shirts. They pulled guns on Alice, Jill, Carlos and L.J. Carlos and L.J. handled the men closest to them, and Alice and Jill handled the ones coming up from below.
"It's Umbrella. They must be using this boat to lure people in for some reason," Jill said.
"We need to see what's below," Alice declared.
L.J. shook his head. "Ain't no way in hell! If that guy was trying to get us down there, we do not want to go down there. We don't."
"If they've been picking people up, there could be people who need our help down there," Carlos replied.
"Radio the convoy. Tell them not to come out here. If we're not back in an hour, they should keep moving," Alice said.
Carlos was on it. "Claire, Mikey, it's Olivera. The boat is a trap. Do not under any circumstances come out here. If we aren't back in an hour, keep moving. It's Umbrella. We're going to see if anyone needs our help."
"Roger that. Keep us informed when you can," Claire's voice returned.
Alice, Jill, Carlos, and L.J. moved inside the boat. Jill bumped Alice's shoulder. "I told you it was too good to be true."
"You did. Good call. Take the left. I'll take the right."
They came to a large, white room that seemed to be empty. Carlos paused. "Where is everyone?"
Alice looked down at the floor. "I think they're under us."
"They are. Look," Jill said as she found the electronic tablet. She scrolled through the names and pictures. "They have almost two thousand people on this boat. They're here because Umbrella wants to use them in experiments."
"Let's free them," Alice said.
Before Jill could purge the statis chambers, the crew of the ship had arrived. They opened fire. Alice, Jill, Carlos, and L.J. returned fire. Alice and Jill looked over at each other and nodded. They went into action, shooting, slashing, and breaking necks. Carlos' deadly aim was on point, and even L.J. was hitting his targets. The Umbrella troops who remained panicked and withdrew to the lifeboats.
They heard someone clapping, slowly, from somewhere nearby. When they turned to look, they saw Albert Wesker and his two infected dogs. They were obediently sitting on either side of him. "Well, I must say you put on a good show."
"Wesker," Alice growled.
"Yes, how nice to see you again too," Wesker returned. "I see you found my ship. You again are making my life unnecessarily difficult. So, I will make your life short."
He gestured to his dogs. One ran at Carlos while the other ran at L.J. Alice and Jill opened fire on Wesker. He moved in a way that avoided their bullets. Alice tried to take him on with hand-to-hand combat, but he struck her with so much force that she flew across the room. Jill ran to Alice's side.
"Are you okay?" Jill asked.
"Yeah. I'll be better when we kill him, though."
Carlos and L.J. were managing against the dogs, whose heads had now split open, so Alice and Jill focused on Wesker. Yet, even when Alice landed a blade directly in Wesker's head, he pulled it out like it was nothing. Soon, tentacle-like appendages were coming from his mouth and reaching towards Alice and Jill.
Alice pulled a shotgun from the sheath on her back and shot Wesker directly in the mouth. It blew out the back of his head, and he fell to the floor. At that time, Carlos had successfully killed the dog that was attacking him, and he had killed the one that was about to attack L.J. That allowed for Carlos and L.J. to join Jill and Alice.
"Did you get him?" Carlos asked.
As Wesker started to sit up, Alice sighed. "Nope. I guess not."
Carlos and L.J. stepped forward, each shooting Wesker directly in the chest. For a moment, Jill disappeared. Alice started to freak out, wondering where Jill had gone. She returned a minute or two later, right when Carlos and L.J. were out of ammunition. They all stood over Wesker, waiting to see if he was truly dead. When he didn't seem to move, they believed they were successful.
Alice turned into Jill's arms. "Where'd you go? You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Sorry. I was just checking something. We should release all these test subjects," Jill said.
They worked to release the test subjects while L.J. and Carlos went to check the deck of the ship. They wanted to ensure no other Umbrella soldiers or workers were lingering about. When Jill and Alice had released the last person, they turned around to see that Wesker's body was gone. They heard some terrible slurping noises from the next room, where Wesker had dragged himself along with the body of an Umbrella soldier. After ingesting the human flesh, he was healing himself.
"Where does he think he's going?" Alice asked. Then, she heard the sound of an Umbrella aircraft. "Oh, great."
"No, let's go to the deck," Jill replied.
"The deck?"
"Trust me."
They went to the upper deck with the freed humans to see Wesker trying to escape in one of the aircraft. He didn't get very far. The aircraft exploded in the air. Alice laughed and now understood where Jill had gone.
"That was beautiful," Alice said. "You think of everything, don't you?"
Jill shrugged. "I just remembered how he tried to run in Tokyo. I wanted to be sure something was in place in case he tried to run again. I'm just glad he went into the one with the bomb. There are a bunch of aircraft down there."
Carlos came onto the deck from the bridge of the ship. "I think we have a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Alice asked.
Carlos pointed at the sky. Countless Umbrella aircraft were approaching. "A big problem."