SPOILER WARNING FOR FINAL CHAPTER! SOME WORD FOR WORD DIALOG! I DO NOT OWN RESIDENT EVIL THE MOVIES OR THE GAMES I JUST HAVE A SHIP AND A DREAM AND IT LIVES IN FANFICTION!

For so long calm moments were few and far between, and the moments themselves were always short. Alice had stopped searching for calm moments. It suited her better to just go with the flow of things. No matter how chaotic the flow was. Fighting and running, only stopping to reload every now and then, she slept seldom and had come accustomed to finding places to sleep during the day. High places. Trees, the roof of a house, and the occasional secluded car if she found herself lucky enough to find such a luxury; However, when the infected started to mutate into more diabolical, and adaptable killing machines, Alice couldn't help but squander every moment of peace she got with looking over her shoulder, and never being able to sleep for more than twenty minutes at a time before startling awake at the first sound she heard. Ten years was such a long time, and having not many chances to think about the month or year made Alice feel like it all took place within a month, but also within one hundred years. She could be thirty nine, or she could be one hundred and thirty nine. The latter felt more real to her.

After releasing the antivirus It took only hours to wipe out anything infected within five miles.

Alice was effected partially by the antivirus killing her infected cells, and passed out. She thought she would die, having been told that throughout the past two days. This would have made her upset, knowing that she would die beside over one thousand dead infected, and two more not zombified, but braindead Dr. Isaacs', but instead She woke up a bit later with Claire Redfield hovering over her. Her vision was blurry, and at first she thought she might have died, but Alice didn't believe in an afterlife. If there was any chance of a heaven that would mean there was a hell, and Alice really could not fathom a place more terrible than the place she endured for a better portion of the new millenia. Not to mention Claire Redfield wasn't dead, so she wouldn't be in any heaven right now hovering over her.

"Claire? What?" Alice blinked repeatedly. "I'm not dead.."

Kneeling down Claire took Alice's head, and cradled it in her lap. "You're not dead. It's okay you're not dead."

Alice laid there until her sight returned. "What happened.."

Claire tucked some of her red hair behind her ear and looked into Alice's eyes with a teary smile. "You did it. You saved us. I don't know why you're still alive but you are."

"The Red Queen, she gave me this." Claire said handing Alice a small metal object in the shape of an octagon. Alice attempted to grab for the object with her left hand.

"Oh Fuck.. Alice your hand!" Claire reached out and tentatively took Alice's hand by the wrist. Gently as to not disturb it too much.

Alice stared blankly at her pointer finger and thumb. Which was all she could see poking out of her glove, except for the quarter thick sized bit of her middle finger, the other two were severed just about where the knuckle was. "Shit.. Those aren't going to grow back.." she sighed, and pulled of the glove. She took a sharp inhalation of air. Her fingers (what was left of them) throbbed. They ached, and it radiated through her hand, and up her arm.

Claire scrambled over to Dr. Isaacs and ripped off a long strip of his shirt. It was cleaner than anything she was wearing.

"Here let me. This will have to do for now but we will find you something else. I promise." Claire said. She seemed a bit shaken, but wrapped up Alice's hand with quick ease. It didn't come as much of a surprise. Everyone is a bit of a medic nowadays.

Alice winced slightly and held up her good hand for some assistance.

"Thank you. Damn. I literally almost made it out of all of this without losing a limb. " Claire helped the other woman to her feet. Alice wobbled a minute.

"God I feel like I weigh a thousand pounds…" Alice huffed.

Claire held onto her friend tightly "It's probably from the blood loss, and i'm sure that antivirus had something to contribute to it."

Alice found her footing, and took a deep breath. Besides the smell of a thousand plus corpses she couldn't help but smell like the air was cleaner somehow. Alice looked down by chance, and saw the body of Isaacs. She brought up her boot and drove it down into his ribs repeatedly.

"FUCK YOU!. FUCK. YOU. YOU. EVIL. MOTHER. FUCKER!" She wheezed out the last two words, and reached for the large rock behind her to steady herself. She was fatigued, and she was thirsty. She felt human again.

Claire handed Alice the small device and took a seat on a protruding rock. A little amused by Alice's show of anger.

Alice took a deep breath and sat the metal octagon on the rock, and pressed the button on the side.

The object ticked to life and the Red Queen came to life in front of her in the form of a red hologram.

"What happened?" Alice asked.

"When Isaacs died I could bring myself back online, and stop the attacks on the remaining settlements around the world. You saved them." Said the Red Queen.

Alice sighed in relief. "Why am I still alive?"

"The antivirus only destroyed the T-virus within your body. It didn't harm the healthy cells. You are now free of infection." The Red Queen displayed photos of the antivirus working on simulated cells.

Alice blinked confused. "I thought I would die. You, and Alicia. You both lied to me."

"We had to to know if you were willing to make the sacrifice. To give up your life for others. This was something no one at Umbrella would have done." The Red Queen said. Alice didn't argue. She didn't agree with the methodology of it, but she knew that the AI was correct. No one at Umbrella would ever have given up their sanctuary for the greater good.

"Alicia marcus was right about you." Red Queen said before Alice could reply. "You were better than all of them."

Alice shook her head in disbelief. "I was one of them. I was created by Umbrella. Just an instrument to them."

"No you became something more than they ever could have anticipated. And in turn became more human than they ever could be." The Red Queen, despite being a holographic AI, seemed to exhibit signs of humanity. "..and you have one more step to make."

"What do you mean?" Alice said a little apprehensive. She wasn't used to not being in the know. These situations always ended with her being ambushed.

The Red Queen flickered out of sight and the small device opened and within emerged a contact lense. Then over million images, and videos whirled around Alice in holographic imagery. All moments of the Red Queen's life, of Alicia's life. Of hers.

"Before she died Alicia downloaded all her memories for you. To give you the childhood you never had, and combine it with the woman she could never become." The Voice of the AI was heard over the images. Alice was in shock. Tears erupted from her eyes, and she looked through the images at Claire, her only remaining friend.

"Thank you for getting this to me." Alice sniffled, and wiped her tear away.

Claire, who also teared up a bit, looked up at Alice with surprise. "I honestly didn't know what it was. I didn't know you were still alive, but yea of course you're welcome." She took Alice's good hand into her own without another word.

"So where do we go from here?" The redhead asked.

Alice sat down next to Claire. The two of them sitting there looked like they had just been through hell, and bought a timeshare. "Well, I need to get back to Washington DC. There is someone I need to go back for."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "Who? Someone I know?"

Alice looked down at her boot that were torn to hell, and almost worn all through the souls. "No actually. I promise you haven't"

The Device still sitting on the rock clicked back to life and enclosed the memory lense within it.

"For later. Also Alice, The old mansion, should you seek refuge is still standing on the outskirts of the blast radius. If you still remember how to get there I can unlock and open the security doors to the train depot once you arrive. The mansion itself is not in the best shape, but the military bunkers beneath it should be more that satisfactory."

Wait so access to all the resources? Had they not been touched? Claire asked, coming to her feet.

"A military shelter? That means weapons, right?" Alice asked as a follow up question.

The Red Queen's hologram came back into sight. "The number of infected on that side of the city was too much for the Umbrella soldiers to handle at the time ranging into the thousands due to the large amount of subdivisions. It was prime multiplying grounds for the virus. Now that the antivirus has been released it should reach that side of town in less than an hour, so yes the bunkers should still be in perfectly new order, and all resources should be ready for use. Showers, Food, a place to sleep, and most important, artillery. You'll have no problem getting in, OR out."

It took more time than it should have to get out of the crater, but with Alice's bum hand she managed as well as she could. Claire grabbed the other woman's hand and pulled her up over the ledge and the both stopped for a rest.

"Thanks. My motorbike should still be parked outside the settlement. Should still have nearly full battery." Alice said silently praising Umbrella for using electric energy. "Once we have that it should be only about ten minutes or so to the mansion."

Claire laughed under her breath. "..So, a mansion, huh?"

"Okay look I was a security officer for Umbrella, the ONLY reason I was allowed to live there was so I could have a fake husband, and protect the north west entrance to the HIVE." Alice said playfully. "Was I trained to be a killing machine that knows seven different fighting styles, and was almost cloned to make other highly trained killing machines? Yes. Did I happen to get to live in the lap of luxury on the dime of the company that was in charge of said cloning? Also yes."

Alice smiled at Claire, who laughed at her joke. Alice wondered if Alicia was a funny person in her day, or maybe Alice was different. Maybe she possessed some traits that were all her own.

Regardless, Alice found it made her happy to have someone as a companion. Far too many times she was alone, or feared not being alone because everyone she ended up with either died or couldn't keep up and left… and then probably died. The only person to ever really keep up was Claire. She could hold her own. The little that Alice did know about her made it obvious that she really didn't need anyone to save her, rather it was her that did all the saving. She most likely was the one to start the convoy that Alice met back in Nevada. Carlos was there, but there was no mistaking that Claire ran the tight ship. There was something so freeing about having someone else around who could take charge.

As Claire, and Alice rounded another block they couldn't help but feel strange.

No infected. No biohazards. Nothing.

"Let's not take this for granted?" Claire asked. It was an honest question. Something so innocent behind Claire's eyes, and Alice couldn't help but go against her natural responses.

"Everything is going to be different. I for one am tired of killing things." Claire nodded in agreement. Alice knew that there fighting wasn't over, and that other threats loom just out of sight. For right now though, they could put their guard down, if only for today.

The farther the two women walked away from the crater the less destruction filled the streets and the buildings became more whole. Most of the smaller ones only falling under the category of dilapidated rather than bomb stricken.

"Over there." Alice said pointing to the Hotel that once had been home to Claire, and the rest of her settlement, and under a tarp and some cleverly placed wood and stones, the bike.

They made a B-line towards the bike. Claire almost having to pick up a jogging pace to keep up with Alice. Injured or not, she knew that her companion was a force to be reckoned with.

"Speaking of fake husbands.." Claire began "I am really sorry that.. That Doc was working for Umbrella all along. I feel so stupid for not picking up on it."

This caught Alice off guard. "Nothing to be sorry for. You didn't know. Everyone needs someone to lean on. He was that person for a while, and honestly he must have been a pretty good actor. If anyone could spot bullshit from a mile away, it's you."

"I guess everyone needs someone to lean on but you, huh? Every Time I have run into you you've been alone." Claire bent down to start picking up rucks from the tarp. She noticed her counterpart had gone quiet.

Alice stared off into some distant place beyond Raccoon City. "I..Really was never alone by choice. You as well as I know that survival of the fittest was the ONLY way to get by. Most of the time… no, every time, I was the fittest, and you really can't save everyone."

Claire knew that nothing more needed to be said. She could say sorry again for dredging up old wounds but it wasn't needed. Alice didn't hold grudges. They were both in the same spot, with different, yet similar pasts.

The motorbike started up without a spudder. "I am so glad that worked." Alice said.

"What do you mean?" Claire asked.

"Well before, when I tried to use this thing it gave me one good shock. I'm surprised it didn't fry me up. I wasn't allowed to use it." Alice motioned to the thumb scanner. I had to cut off a man's hand to use it. " Don't touch it until I can assign you one okay? Or maybe we can just find a car."

Claire nodded and mounted the bike behind Alice. She held on tightly around the other womans waist, and Alice pulled back on the throttle. The bike was fast. Faster than most anything Claire had ridden. She could appreciate the way Alice maneuvered through the wasted city. It also helped that Alice knew where she was going despite not having been here for to years.

The Drive was Quick. Just under ten minutes like Alice had said.

The mansion was enormous. It had some pillars missing from the architecture out front, and the windows were blown out, but as they rolled up the long driveway Alice was reminded of just how nice the place had been.

Alice let Claire dismount first, then she did, and they both walked the bike up to the front door where it was covered by a stone walkway with high arches.

Inside the house, Alice recognized the wood paneling on the walls and the marble floors along with the god awful wall paper that she always hated. A lot of it was torn away by weather, and possible fires from looters.

Alice lead Claire through a large dining room , and right up to a seven foot glass mirror.

The Device in Alice's utility pocket started to glow and she took it out. The AI's voice came through.

"Unlocking main entrance gate. Through the station and you first left you will reach stairs. You are on floor 140. You need to descend to floor 129 to reach the bunker. The comm room is where you can find me. Thats floor 133. Because of the massive damage to the Hive, this wing of Umbrella is only running off of 2 generators. The elevators don't work and the only room I can efficiently communicate through is on floor 133 nearest to the power source. You should have full power and functionality to your rooms."

The monstrously large doors opened to reveal a long staircase. Both women descended. Inside the found remains of a Licker. Most likely the one Alice had left down here ten years prior. They quickly passed it and moved into the hall with the staircase. 22 floors down their refuge awaited. Claire pushed open the door, and they began their descent.

I AM WORKING ON CHAPTER 2 NOW. I REALLY HOPE THAT IT WAS ENJOYABLE AT LEAST FOR A FIRST CHAPTER. I'M JUST SETTING THINGS UP. IF THERE ARE ANY SUGGESTIONS OR CRITIQUES FEEL FREE TO COMMENT. THANKS! PS I PROMISE THE SECOND CHAPTER TO BE MUCH LONGER.