Resident Evil_ Extinction - Keith R. A. DeCandido [77]
But she would not tell him about Angie. She hadn’t told anyone the truth about Angie.
And then there was what had just happened that morning. Isaacs had turned her into as much of a monster as Matt had become, never mind that she at least looked the same on the outside. How could she let herself be around people—worse, be around people she cared about—when she didn’t even know what she was? The one person who could answer that question was also the one person she could never allow herself to get near.
“I’m better out there alone, okay?”
“You’re better alone.” Carlos shook his head. Obviously, it wasn’t okay.
“It’s just safer if I’m not around people.”
Now Carlos did smile. “So why’d you come back?”
Trying to match Kmart’s shrug, she said, “I lost my ride.”
“That all?” Carlos prompted.
“That’s all,” Alice said, refusing to rise to the bait. “And I was out of smokes.”
Carlos actually laughed at that. “Then you definitely came to the wrong place.”
She burst out laughing, too, and they both just let loose with several seconds’ worth of giggling, even falling into an embrace. Alice hugged him tightly for a second, not realizing until now just how long it had been since she’d had affectionate human contact. Hell, the only contact of any kind she’d had lately had been the pawing she’d gotten in Salt Lake City by those nutbars in the KLKB station.
After a few seconds, she broke the embrace. “Carlos,” she said with as much finality as she could muster, “I can’t stay.” She didn’t add, no matter how much I want to.
Then that nagging feeling came back. Had her watch been broken during her trek from her camp? Or had her psychic whammy screwed it up?
“What time is it?” she asked Carlos.
Carlos blinked. “Time? I don’t even know what year it is.” Looking around, he saw a man in a cowboy hat walking near an Enco fuel truck. “Chase! Time?”
Glancing at his wrist, the man in the cowboy hat called back, “Well, Carlos, it’s 12:14. You got someplace you gotta be?”
Looking at her own wrist, Alice saw that it also read 12:14. She looked up at the sky one more time, then let out a long breath. The satellite wouldn’t be coming around for a while yet.
Shaking her head, she muttered, “Getting paranoid. I’m gonna go for a walk, okay?”
Carlos nodded. “I need to take care of some stuff. For one thing, we might even be able to give you a ride.” Alice had a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, and Carlos walked off.
After watching his retreating form for a moment, Alice started walking through the camp. Several children pulled the same act they had in the motel, staring at her and pointing and whispering. Alice marveled at the very notion of being a legend of some kind. She’d garnered a reputation in Security Division at Umbrella—Ass-Kicking Alice, they’d called her—but this was several orders of magnitude weirder.
Claire intercepted her as she passed a Hummer. “Got a minute?”
Alice nodded.
“We’re all grateful for you helping us out—”
Knowing there was a but after that, Alice cut her off. “But how long am I going to stay?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Claire said quickly. “We really are grateful. But people saw what you did. They’re a little scared.”
Now Alice was starting to understand why this woman was the leader. Where Carlos was using sentiment to argue for Alice staying, Claire was using practicality to argue for her quick departure. The latter was far more becoming of a leader.
In response, she said, “I don’t blame them. People have a habit of dying around me.”
Sourly, Claire said, “Not just you.” She glanced at the ten graves, then looked back at Alice. “You want to explain what happened earlier?”
Alice sighed. “Wish I could. They did something to me. Something I can’t explain, can’t control.” Alice assumed she didn’t have to explain who “they” were. At this point, Umbrella’s crimes had been lain bare to the world. Sadly, the world had bigger problems than prosecuting those crimes.
Looking around at the camp, Alice went on: “So I don’t blame these people for being scared. Truth is, I’m scared myself.”
Claire stared