Chapter Text
The train thundered down the tracks as Alice injected the Mountain Dew-looking shit into Rain’s arm. “I don’t want to be one of those things, babe,” Rain remarked, troubled. “Walking around, without a soul.”
“You won’t,” Alice assured her, gently kissing her.
“When the time comes… you’ll take care of it,” Rain told her. “Do the right thing, remember?”
“I promise, if you turn into a soulless monster, I’ll put you down,” Alice assured her, and they shared another kiss. Alice handed the injector off to Matt, who proceeded to retreat over to Kaplan as fast as he could.
Over by the controls, Matt gave the two women a fearful look, unsure if another fucking weird magic storm-thing would arise anytime they kissed. “Did you… see anything between them earlier?” he asked Kaplan, injecting him with a dose of the antivirus.
Kaplan grunted when the needle entered his arm, then glanced over at them kissing. “Oh yeah, good for them,” he said, smiling. “I didn’t really think Rain would respond to… that aggressive of a pursuit, but they look happy enough.”
“No, I mean… electrical discharge? Wind? Flying?” Matt shook his head upon Kaplan’s blank stare of confusion. Kaplan obviously hadn’t seen anything. “Never mind.” He was afraid to bring it up to Alice and Rain themselves; as the seemingly only witness, part of him was afraid that he was going crazy. And part of him was afraid that he was, in fact, perfectly sane, and that, uh, magic was apparently fucking real. What was he going do with THAT information? What even could he do?
Rain undid the band of her watch and gave it to Alice. “Here,” she said. Eight minutes were left.
“Oh, a gift! How sweet!” Alice said. She bit her lip, nervous, butterflies suddenly stampeding through her stomach. Was she really going to do this now? She hid her left hand in her right and clandestinely slid off Spence’s ring from where she’d slid it on next to hers. “Rain Ocampo, I know I’ve only known you a few hours, and we’ve been in love for twenty minutes, but it already feels like you’re an inseparable part of me.”
“Alice, what are you…” Rain asked.
Alice held up a hand, cutting her off. “I know that we don’t have any guarantees, that we could both be dead or worse within minutes, but isn’t that life regardless? What does it matter if one of us succumbs to a disease, or if we get trapped in here, or, shit, hit by a car or something? Doesn’t it only matter that we loved one another as fully and unabashedly as we could?”
“Of course it does, but —” Rain began, but found the words stopping short in her mouth when Alice got down on one knee.
“Rain Ocampo, will you marry me?” Alice asked, holding out Spence’s ring.
Tears of happiness began streaming down Rain’s face as she took the ring. “Yes, a thousand fucking times yes!” She slid it onto her finger — a perfect fit — and once again grasped Alice and exchanged a passionate kiss with her. (Matt again flinched upon seeing this, haha).
Once Matt saw that supernatural fireworks were again not forthcoming, he allowed himself to relax against the wall of the train — and got scored by the claws of the super-licker for his effort, as it climbed around on the outside of the train, seeking entry.
“What the hell’s going on back there?!” Kaplan called out.
“Get us the fuck out of here!” Matt shouted.
“Any faster, we’re gonna come off the rails!” Kaplan pointed out.
“Not that going fast would do shit, since it’s ON THE TRAIN!” Alice pointed out, trying to track the creature with the gun. Thinking of every horror movie she could remember, she darted forward and grabbed Kaplan, yanking him into the passenger compartment, away from the door that was RIGHT THERE.
“Hey, I need to monitor —” Kaplan was cut off as the super-licker peeled off the door and angrily swiped its claw into the empty space where he’d just sat.
“Yeah, you were about to monitor the inside of that fucking thing’s stomach,” Alice pointed out. “Stay the fuck down!” Matt came up and locked the entry into the control booth, keeping the monster from getting to them. Alice listened to the clanging as it clambered back out and on top of the train, while Matt noticed the rear door was also unsecured. He darted to the end of the compartment and locked it, but it was a futile gesture, as the super-licker simply knocked the door off its hinges with one blow, sending Matt flying.
The monster roared and leapt into the middle of the train car. Alice, cool as a cucumber, let fly a round right into its exposed brain matter. But it didn’t seem to… MATTER, LOLOLOL… as the creature had no noticeable reaction to the impact. Shots two and three only served to get its attention, and it shot out its prehensile tongue, wrapping it firmly around one of her boots. “Thank God my feet dressed as the Matrix for Halloween,” she said aloud, confusing Matt and Kaplan. The creature gave its tongue a tug and she dropped the gun, finding herself desperately clinging to the floor grating for dear life.
Matt shook off the confusion, grabbed the suspended bundle of pipes hanging in the middle of the subway car, and let out a battle cry as he pushed them forward on their pulley thing (or whatever it’s called), knocking the creature away from Alice. The impact dislodged the pipes, sending them all clattering loose from the bundling (and Alice spared a brief second to wonder why they had been transported in such a haphazard way, that shit HAD to be an OSHA violation or something).
The super-licker shot its tongue out again, barely missing Alice’s head as she threw herself down. She seized one of the free pipes and slapped it down, pinning the tongue in place, then she grabbed a second pipe — a corner piece, judging by the sharp angle it ended in — and brought it down, impaling the tongue and trapping it against the grating.
“Open the doors!” Alice called out. She turned and saw Rain standing there. “Rain, baby, open the floor door things!”
Rain didn’t respond. Her skin had gone pale and the color had drained out of her eyes. Matt hesitated and Rain surged forward, hungry. Matt struggled with her for a moment, then shoved her backwards.
“Fucking bullshit!” Alice roared. She saw Matt raise his pistol and shook her head, rejecting what Matt was about to do. She leapt forward, plucked the pistol from his grasp, and spun him around to the pipe. “Hold that in!” she demanded. Matt quickly seized the pipe and pushed it back into the grating, the creature having almost jerked it free.
“Alice, you know what you have to do,” Kaplan said from his position on the ground.
“Yeah, I do,” Alice said. She tossed him the pistol. “You and Matt clear out of here alone. Make sure you get both of us, alright?” Kaplan looked at the gun in his lap, then up at Alice with no small amount of horror. “Sorry, Kaps,” she said with a shrug. She turned to Rain and wished she had the time to explain how she couldn’t bring herself to shoot the woman she loved. The thought that she might still be in there somewhere, even if it was an existence of suffering unending, made the idea of shooting her unthinkable. Sure, it meant Alice was a coward and a liar and a promise-breaker, but she’d happily let Rain feast on her innards if it meant they got to stay together forever in some capacity.
She shoved Rain to the compartment wall. Before she hit the switch, before Kaplan shot them both, she wanted one last kiss. Unmindful of Rain’s snapping teeth, she once again cradled the woman’s head and pulled it towards her for the last taste of love.
When their lips collided, there was no great fanfare. It wasn’t a tumultuous outpouring like their first kiss less than an hour ago. No, it was the briefest sensation, akin to a tiny spark of static electricity. Alice then felt Rain’s cool lips close onto her own and prepared for the pain of having her lips bitten off. But they weren’t — Rain’s mouth consumed Alice’s, but because she hungered for passion, not human flesh. Alice pulled away from the kiss and stared unbelievingly at her dead lover.
“Graaaaarz,” Rain moaned.
“I love you too,” Alice muttered back, tears of joy streaming down her face.
“OPEN THE FUCKING TRAPDOORS!” Matt screamed, interrupting their tender moment. Rude!
Rain looked at the super-licker struggling to free itself and immediately understood. She turned and slammed her fist into the door release button, ensuring that the super-licker had a real DRAG of a time, lololol.
As the creature burst into flames, Rain wondered when, exactly, it had breached the train car. Had she passed out for a moment? She idly examined her hand, still clenched into a fist from slamming it onto the release button. It was deathly pale. She opened and closed the hand several times and thought about how she was starting to feel a little better. Did that mean the antivirus was working? She didn’t feel cold anymore. Then Alice took her hand and her lover’s skin felt blazing hot in comparison. For a heartbeat she considered that Alice had somehow become feverish — infected with the T-virus, perhaps, or some other germ that was in the ‘corpsewater’ she’d repeatedly fussed about — then realized that the ‘heartbeat’ was lasting a lot longer than it ought to. She tried letting all the air out of her lungs in order to hold her breath, but realized she hadn’t breathed any in since telling Alice that she loved her moments ago. She consciously contracted her diaphragm, air filling her lungs, and she spoke.
“Frrl bv dzzd,” Rain said.
Actually hearing her mouth attempt to utter the words ‘Am I dead’ clinched it. And seeing the fearful looks coming from Matt and Kaplan clinched it even more. Kaplan was pointing a gun right at her, the barrel shaking from nervousness.
Alice turned to Rain and smiled. “Well, love, I think you may have technically shuffled off the mortal coil, but you’re… well, you’re still you.” Tears of happiness streamed down her face. “No soulless monster in sight!”
“Alice, what are you talking about? She’s a zombie, she’ll attack us at any moment!” Kaplan said.
“Oh shut the fuck up, Kappers,” Alice dismissed, grabbing the gun from him before he hurt somebody. “Get back into the control room so we don’t derail this bad boy.” Kaplan got up and returned to the control room, giving Rain a wide berth and a suspicious glare. “And don’t give Rain that suspicious glare, it’s hurting her feelings!”
Rain looked at Alice in shock. How could Alice have known that? “Mmmmrrrrhm?” she vocalized.
“I don’t know,” Alice said. “I guess I can understand you through the power of True Love.” She smiled and kissed Rain, who couldn’t help but to smile into the kiss and return it.
Matt cautiously approached the two of them. “Earlier, in the lab, when you two kissed for the first time, I saw… something…” He quickly explained what he’d seen. “So… what do you think?”
Alice nodded. “Yeah, that tracks.” She smiled at Rain. “I guess if our love transcends literal death itself, then souls and soulmates are 100% confirmed. We’ll get to live happily ever after, my love!”
Rain smiled and allowed herself to feel happy — forced it to flow through her, in fact. She knew she was a walking apocalypse, and much as she loved Alice, couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t someday accidentally infect someone else. Maybe Alice was already infected, though something told Rain that whatever supernatural whammy had been laid on them protected Alice from contracting it from her. But there was no way it was a universal barrier for all. So she kept reinforcing those happy, positive feelings as the subway train rolled to a stop at the mansion end of the line, not wanting Alice to pick up on what she intended to do within a few short moments.
She watched Matt help Kaplan out of the train car, across the station, and up the steps. Alice was trailing along behind them, sample case under one arm, glancing back every few moments at Rain with an encouraging smile. Rain did follow along… up until she reached the foot of the stairs. The last few seconds on the clock ticked down, and the thick blast doors began to descend, casting a shadow on the stairs. Alice, already at the top of them, turned back, realized Rain was nowhere near the staircase, was in fact standing behind the blast doors as they rolled down, and let the case fall as she screamed and made a break for the stairs.
“It’s too late!” Matt screamed, leaving Kaplan (who could at least stand on his own) to grab Alice before she could try to get to Rain, barely managing to grab her. “You’d be trapped with her!”
“But I’d be WITH HER!” Alice shrieked, anguished beyond reason.
“Arrrv ppppo,” Rain called out, a few seconds before the doors cut them off. Translated: I know that this hurts you, Alice, but the idea that I could someday infect someone and bring this horror to someone else is too horrible to allow to happen. This is the only way.
Alice understood. She respected Rain’s decision. It hurt like hell, and she still shoved Matt aside and banged on the blast doors with her bare fists like she could just knock them down if she tried hard enough, but she eventually accepted it. Before going back up the stairs, she closed her eyes and mentally focused on their connection. She poured all the love she could muster through it, unsure if she’d ever get another chance to do so, and added a message alongside: “I will break back into there someday, mark my words. This isn’t goodbye forever.”
Rain rested her forehead against the metal of the blast doors, absorbing every last speck of Alice’s message. Already she longed to be back in the other woman’s arms, already she was second-guessing herself. She channeled a message of her own back: “If you can do it and ensure I’m not a threat to anyone, ever, I’ll knock these damn doors down myself.”
She turned away from the blast doors and looked back at the train. What would she do with herself now? It seemed she had all the time in the world. The Hive still housed hundreds of undead much less fortunate than her. She recalled the axe, which should still be laying on the floor of the train. Apart from that one, there were probably a lot more scattered throughout the facility, and innumerable other implements she could improvise into a weapon besides. (To say nothing of the weapons cache they had left in the Red Queen’s antechamber). Being a zombie herself, the others would most likely pay no attention to her.
Rain smirked. With nothing else to look forward to, she definitely had time to kill.
***
Epilogue:
Alice led Matt and Kaplan back into the mansion, her heart aching fiercely. Once she beat the big badass and cleared out the Hive, she was supposed to win, wasn’t she? Where was her fat reward and two tickets to a honeymoon destination? What the hell was this? It wasn’t supposed to end this way.
It stank like rotten meat, an odor she’d become far too acquainted with.
She glanced over and realized Matt had some big ol’ gashes on his arm from the super licker. “Oh, asshole, thanks for reminding me you almost had your arm torn off,” she snapped. She led him over to a dining room table loaded with fancy-ass place settings, set down the sample case, and started prepping the needle gun thingy.
“I wonder if we should have blown up the Hive,” Kaplan idly said out loud.
“Would have been cool,” Alice admitted. “Probably better than leaving hundreds of walking corpses just hanging out under a major city, to be honest. Too bad we don’t have any bombs.”
“Oh, but we did,” Kaplan said.
Alice froze, needle almost ready to pierce Matt’s skin. “…What? Motherfucker, WHAT?”
“We… did?” Kaplan repeated. “A few dozen pounds’ worth. More than enough to bring the place down.”
Alice very calmly set the injector down on the table in front of Matt. She didn’t want to have any sharp objects in her hand for this conversation. “Kaplan… is that a first name or a last name?”
“Last name. My first name is Chad.” Kaplan looked uneasy as he answered.
“Chad, right.” Alice nodded. “Well, Chad, could you do me a huge favor and tell me where all the bombs are now?”
“In the Red Queen’s antechamber,” Kaplan said. “It was too much for just the five of us to carry, so it got left there.”
Alice pinched her lips together really tightly. “And… not once… not FUCKING once… did it ever run through your nerdy little noggin that having a shitload of bombs might actually be a good idea? That bringing that place down around our ears was a better long-term solution for the planet than just fucking leaving it laying around like a booby trap?”
“…It was a very tense, confusing time,” Kaplan said, trying to defend himself.
Alice opened her mouth and began laying on a torrent of verbal abuse, peppered with more profanity than most of us say in a lifetime. She called into question his hygiene, his parentage, insinuated he was sexually attracted to mannequins, and Kaplan just stood there and took it, understanding he’d fucked up, and also understanding that Alice was just venting about the shitty hand her and Rain had been dealt.
Matt’s injury suddenly sent shockwaves of pain through him, and he clutched at it in agony. “A… a little help?” he grimaced out. Neither Alice nor Kaplan heard him. He attempted to reach for the antivirus, but the pain was overwhelming and he fumbled it, the injector falling to the floor with a clatter.
Alice and Kaplan finally noticed him and she cut her tirade short, but it was too late. Within seconds, men in immaculately white biohazard suits were streaming into the mansion, separating the three of them, Alice fighting valiantly, but in vain. They lifted Matt up, carted him out, and tossed him onto a stretcher. Everything was so bright, and he wasn’t sure if it was because they’d set up floodlights or his senses were failing him. The last thing he heard as he watched tendrils emerge from his gashes was one of the scientists uttering: “I want him in the Nemesis program.”