Chapter thirteen:
A day later, the following crew boarded one of the aircraft: Alice, Jill, Carlos, Claire, Chris, and Angie. They left an unhappy L.J. and Mikey in charge, and they charted a course that would get them to Raccoon City without going too close to Washington DC. The only entrance Alice knew of was the one in the mansion. Though it had been sealed, they had plenty of explosives to clear a path to the train tunnel. They could traverse it on foot, Alice figured.
When they arrived at the mansion, and set down in a nearby clearing, they were ready for an onslaught of zombies. Instead, they found a sea of corpses on the front lawn. Alice moved between the bodies, past the statues in the garden, towards the front of the house with tears in her eyes. It was so much like the nightmare that she felt bumps raise on her skin.
She stopped walking near the column-lined entrance to the house. Jill wandered up to her and put a soft hand on her elbow. It jolted Alice as Jill spoke quietly. "Alice? What is it?"
"My nightmare," Alice muttered with a single tear falling. "It isn't exactly the same, but it's close."
"Let's get inside, okay? Before we have any visitors," Jill suggested.
The group moved into the mansion. Alice went to the mirrors and worked to open the entrance. Once it was open, they were met with the rubble that was left after the explosives had closed the entrance. Carlos and Chris worked to set explosives to open a hole in the debris while Jill found Alice and Spence's wedding photograph. She walked to Alice, waggling it in the air.
"Someone didn't tell me they were fucking married once," Jill said.
Alice smirked. "It was fake. Like a lot of what happened between me and him."
"Oh, but there was a you and him?" Jill challenged.
"Ladies, can you save this for later? We need to detonate," Carlos called out.
They moved to a safe distance with the others as Carlos and Chris detonated the charges. A rough hole was made, granting them entry. The path to the train tunnel was difficult, as they had to move rubble around and place several more charges to clear room. Once they made it to the tunnel, they moved towards The Hive on foot. Even with their flashlights, it was hard to see in the dark.
After an hour, they had reached the entrance to The Hive. Alice readied her gun with a word of warning. "Be ready. The last time I was here, it wasn't pretty."
In The Hive, there was still some power. They had enough light to see, yet the place seemed abandoned. They passed places Alice remembered, yet some things had changed. The water was no longer flooding the laboratories. It had either dried or been pumped out. So far, they hadn't encountered anything or anyone.
They took a few turns and entered a side of the structure Alice had not been in before. Soon, they came to a door that caused Alice to stop in place. The image of Dr. Isaacs flashed in her eyes. She was about to tell Jill to wait, but Jill had already opened the door. They had found the personal office of Dr. Isaacs. The doctor was seated at his desk, watching them on his security cameras.
"Well, well, well…look who's come back after all these years," Dr. Isaacs said.
Alice shook her head in disbelief. "We killed you. You mutated and we killed you."
"Did you?" he asked.
She quickly realized the truth. "Your clone. I killed your clone. Of course. No wonder I kept seeing you in my dreams. You weren't really dead."
"You've dreamt of me? How flattering. I see you brought some friends. Our former security chief, Jill Valentine. The late Dr. Ashford's daughter, Angela. One of Umbrella's top soldiers, Olivera. And the Redfields. Famous in their own circles for the trouble they've caused. This is quite the reunion, but most untimely. You should be in Washington with the others."
"We decided not to trust Wesker," Alice answered.
Dr. Isaacs chuckled. "No, I suppose you had no reason to. And smart you are. Wesker had no intention of helping those people. He still works for me. In fact, he'll be here soon. I sent for him the second you blasted your way through the mansion. I've let you get this far for only one reason: Curiosity. Why did you decide to come back to The Hive?"
"We're here for the cure," Alice replied.
"Ah, and who says there's one?" Dr. Isaacs asked.
Angie stepped forward. "I do. My daddy told me."
"Sweet child, your daddy has been dead for years," Dr. Isaacs retorted.
"That doesn't change that he told me there's a cure, and I know it's true," Angie spat.
Dr. Isaacs smirked smugly. "Maybe there is. But we won't be releasing it until every last person on this planet is dead. We're paving the way for a new world. It was always our plan to release the T-virus to wipe out civilization as we knew it, but our timetable was drastically changed by the little incident that happened here and on the surface."
"You wanted this to happen?" Carlos asked.
"Bastard," Jill hissed. "You wiped out everyone."
"No. Not yet. There are some pesky survivors. We were hoping to draw them in, all the rotten eggs in a single basket, but obviously we missed some. We'll go looking for them after we've dealt with you," Dr. Isaacs said.
Claire readied her gun. "Like hell you will."
"Six against one, Isaacs," Alice commented. "Not good odds for you."
"Wrong. Six against two," Isaacs replied. "I did say Wesker was on his way."
Wesker entered the office from a different door, and he immediately opened fire. Chris was hit in the shoulder, but everyone else withdrew before they could be hit. In the hallway, they discussed the plan.
"How the fuck do we kill Wesker? We've blown him up, shot him, stabbed him…" Jill grumbled.
"We can bury him down here with Isaacs," Alice declared. "Our focus needs to be the cure. It has to be here somewhere. Let's find it and then get to the surface. We can leave some explosives for Wesker and Isaacs. Enough to make the whole place cave in on their heads."
"I like that plan. We have plenty of explosives," Carlos agreed.
Claire watched Wesker's bullets come down the hall. "He's coming. Where would the cure be?"
"Somewhere protected from the rest of the facility. Like a safe or a chamber," Alice guessed.
"Is there a way we can check the computer? Find the schematics?" Jill suggested.
Alice scowled. "The computer down here is a serious bitch. She isn't going to help us."
"That's where you're wrong," the Red Queen's voice said from speakers in the cameras. "Go to the administrative section down the hall. Quickly. Wesker is coming."
Alice didn't trust the computer, but Wesker was indeed coming. The group moved to the administrative section at the end of the hall. Carlos and Jill barricaded the door while Claire tended to Chris' shoulder. Alice and Angie went to the computer. The Red Queen's face appeared.
"I am unable to stop Dr. Isaacs and Wesker due to my programming, but I can also not allow innocent people to die—"
"And yet you killed everyone down here," Alice hissed.
The computer went on. "I was following the most logical course of action at the time. I could not allow the virus to spread, knowing what it could do. Just as I cannot allow Wesker and Dr. Isaacs to eliminate the survivors. For that reason, I will help you with your mission and escape. The cure is in a chamber two floors down. You will require the following code to open the test chamber."
Alice memorized the location and the code. She then glared at the monitor. "You better not betray us. Let's move."
They slipped through a side door and made the trek to the chamber. The cure was inside, behind glass doors. Alice entered the code, and the glass doors opened. She got the cure and prepared to leave.
Of course, it could not be so simple. Wesker found them and came running into the room. With several perfectly timed blows, he sent everyone—except Alice—flying backwards. He sent them all into the glass chamber, which he then locked.
Alice was left on the outside. She tried to enter the code, but Wesker shot the power supply to the doors. He had that smug expression. "You won't be able to get them out of there now, Alice."
She looked and saw little vents in the floor raising up. Jill was pounding on the glass and Alice's heart was racing. Everyone she cared about was in that chamber, and it was about to fill with gas.
"You're going to lose them all," Wesker taunted. "Then, you'll be alone."
Alice was facing her worst nightmare.