Resident Evil Rebirth Ch. 01

Still winded, the clone skidded across the plaiting as if it were in fact a lake of ice, and Wesker didn't wait for her to recover before firing a volley. Sparks ignited as the heavy rounds ricochet off the floor and walls as every shoot missed the free sailing clone by a hair's breadth until she finally collided with the wall. Seeing his chance, Wesker levelled his eagle for the final shot when another shot rang out like the bolt of lightning in a thunderstorm as a bullet slammed into Wesker's shoulder, spoiling his aim and giving the clone time to take cover.

Alice was back in the fight. With USP-9 raised and Wesker in her sights, she fired a perfect shot that ripped into Wesker's shoulder and made him stagger. However he regarded the wound like it was nothing, so she fired again, and then again. Nothing could explain it but although her aim was still spot on, Wesker would dodge the bullet at the last moment, his super human speed taking him from one spot to the next in the blink of an eye. And each time he did, he came at her, appearing closer and until he was almost atop her, and then he was on her.

In the merest instant he went from firing at her sheltering clone to suddenly running at her full gallop, every well worked muscle in his body practically a quiver as came at her in a thunderous burst of kinetic energy. Moving too swiftly for her to focus, he slammed past her defences and rammed a shovel hook punch to her gut that her eyes widen and spittle fly from her parted lips as she grunted in agony. Still caught in his vortex of motion, Wesker dropped to one knee and suddenly swept his leg around, taking her legs out from under her as he came back up in the midst of a reverse round house with his opposite leg. The blow caught her aerial form across the ribs and tossed her heavily against the wall.

"No!" The clone cried, emerging from her shelter with the second sword drawn and clearly with a mind to come to her weakened sire's defence. Her stupidity made Wesker smirk; only a fool brought a knife to a gun fight. He turned without warning, the smoking Eagle pistol levelled and ready as he blasted off a round that would take her head off. Only she suddenly dived forward, rolling across the floor in a tight ball as the bullet passed harmlessly over her. Unmoved by her prowess, he corrected his aim and fired again as she rose up. A flash of silver burnt in the darkness and then her sword was there, cutting across the bullet's path before it could touch her and slicing the round in two.

The separate halves of the bullet flew in opposite directions as the clone curled up to her full height, the impossible sharp Katana spiralling around her in a deadly helix as she stepped forward and then whirled the sword down. Wesker darted round the descending blade but his gun was empty, the magazine spent in that last hail of fire, so instead he stepped through with a punch that hit with such force it pulverised her ribs and ripped through her chest cavity. Blood gushed from the clone's lips as the blow broke her lungs and destroyed her heart before tearing from her back in a grisly shower of gore.

Already dead, the clone hung their limp and unmoving as the look of triumph crossed Wesker's face; that had been all too easy. When the sword slipped from her lifeless fingers, he tossed the ruined corpse aside, regarding the bloodied form with a look one might usually reserve for something less than human before turning back to Alice. Near comatose, the stricken woman could only struggle for breath as she returned a look that was vibrant with hatred. It was time they ended this tiresome game.

He was upon her in an instant, standing over her exhausted body like some grim spectre of death. An ominous click rang out as he shoved his last clip inside the gun before pressing the weapon against her forehead. "Now where were we?" He asked mindfully, unable to resist taunting her before finally putting her out of his misery. "Ah yes, I believe I was about to kill you."

"Wait..." Alice gasped, blood touching her lips as she tried to form the words. "Please wait."

"Last words?" Wesker asked smugly, more than a little amused by the concept. "Or do you feel like begging for your life, I am a generous man you know."

Alice would have laughed if she could must the energy. She wasn't afraid to die, everyone has die sooner or later and she'd had her taste of it enough to know death couldn't possibly be as bad as what her life had become. In truth she was only pissed off that she wouldn't live long enough to see this beast pay for his crimes. But as much as it made her stomach turn to admit it, she did owe him something. "Thank you."

"For killing you?"

"No..."Alice gasped, the pain in her side only growing worse as she tried to speak. "For making me human again."

"My pleasure..." Wesker said before beginning to squeeze the magnum's trigger. Suddenly an alarm began to sound, filling the bomber with its harsh song and drawing Wesker's attention back to the cockpit. What he saw made that infernal smirk vanish.

The clone's first sword, which he had so carelessly swatted aside, was stuck in the AI's control panel, shutting the autopilot off. Too make matters worse without the programme to guide it, the bomber had been steadily losing altitude, throwing it on a collision course with the snow-capped peaks of Mount Fuji. At the ship's present speed it would be only a matter of moments until they crashed. Forgetting Alice in lour of the much greater danger, Wesker turned away from the exhausted woman and made a desperate, life or death dash to the cockpit. Despite his incredible speed however, Wesker arrived at the controls too late to save them, instead he got to watch in horror as the bomber's nose collided with the rock face before a monstrous ball of flames suddenly reached out and consumed him.

In the cockpit, Alice felt the collision jar the ship's metal skeleton before the roar of the protesting metal almost deafened her, and then she was air born. Hurled forward as the bomber was tossed about wildly across the mountain face, she had just enough time to hear her Wesker's agonized scream before a great fire ball exploded in front of her and devoured over half the ship. Then suddenly all went back as her head struck something hard and she fell into a great void of blackness.

****************

It must have been the cold that roused Alice. It was a very cold morning and the icy winds crept across her body like Death's chilling embrace. Barely conscious but still alive, her eyes fluttered open but her brain was still too shell-shocked from the blast to discern anything other than a bright light. Perhaps she was dead, but if this was heaven, why was it so cold?

In the distance she could hear a flock of Bush Warblers singing their song; it was a peaceful tune and an enjoyable contrast to the usual melancholy of her life as bit by bit, her senses gradually returned. At first her world view was just a blurry collage of indifferent colours and shapes, but then it was sharpened and defined as fresh colours blossomed and bloomed until she saw everything clearly.

The morning sky had turned from deep violet to a deep cerulean blue as the sun rose ever higher in its arch; the day had worn on some time since she had fallen unconscious. The landscaping was mostly dark rock but the brittle skeletons of a few dozen trees were scattered around her and she could just see the ruin of Tokyo in the distance, its remains still smoking from the blast. All around her broken pieces of metal burned, the fires warming her slightly against the freezing winds that blow across the rocky face of Mount Fuji. Not far away, the broken wreck of the bomber was still burning, the once magnificent armaments turned black as ash as it lay crippled and broken on the mountain side. Without a doubt, she'd been lucky this time.

There was no way Wesker could have survived, but every one of her instincts told her she had to confirm the kill, that that bastard was too wily a beast to leave up to mere conjecture. She had to be sure, to see his burnt husk with her own two eyes, before believing him to be dead for sure.

Resolute in her decision, Alice reluctantly got to her feet, staggering slightly as she momentarily lost balance. Her body was heavier than it should have been, and the sudden movement caused her head to throb painfully; it was obviously going to take a while for her to get reacquainted with being human again.

In her concussion hindered state, the climb down to the wreck was steep and dangerous. The rocky ground was treacherous under her boots and winds that were approaching gale force threatened to throw her to the ground with every unsure step she took. It was a precarious journey and one that seemed to take forever as she methodically worked her way down the valley to the bomber.

Despite its once illustrious armour plating, little remained of the ship but scrap metal; its major components having either been destroyed by the gunfire or eaten away by the fiercely raging flames. Its wings were gone, torn away in the crash, and whatever remained of the engines could be seen burning on the outskirts of the crash site. Only the main compartment had remained largely intact, but whatever remained of the cockpit had been buried beneath the rocks while the mangled tail was almost standing vertical.

It towered over her and the surrounding rocks but Alice could just make out a thick column of dark smoke rising from its base and as she approached, treading as carefully as she dared over the lose stones, she found a crack just large enough for her to squeeze through. It was a tight fit but miraculously she managed to get through, her Lycra bodysuit protecting her skin from any jagged pieces of metal that might have reached out to claim her as she passed before stepping into the chocking blackness of the cargo bay.

Lit only by faint traces of ghost light and thick with the unrelenting smoke, the cargo bay proved to be as inhospitable as the mountain side it rested on. Coughing violently, Alice had to cover her nose and mouth to keep from suffocating in the pool of noxious gas and the smoke was so dense, she could barely see her hand in front of her face and so was forced to rely on fractured memories to navigate her way through the cloud. However, even when she was clearing the veil's depths, the fragments of ghost light offered her little assistance. Reaching into her belt, she quickly equipped herself with a small torch that flooded the ruined ship with a brilliant beam of light when activated. Narrow but powerful; the beam of light confirmed Alice's first assumption that the Cargo bay was empty.

Sweeping the light across the cargo bay, Alice suddenly felt her breath catch in her throat as the beam fell on something that was neither part of the wall or floor. It might have once been a body but the carbonised remnants had been burned and blackened beyond all recognition.

Unable to tell if it was Wesker's smouldering corpse or just another ill shaped rock, she crept forward, trying to be mindful as she did of whatever might be underfoot. The charred remains reeked with the pungent odder of burning flesh and Alice had to fight against gagging as she reached out. Hot to touch, the effigy began to crumble under her fingers and it only just held together as she rolled it over.

"No..." Alice whispered disbelievingly as she stared down at a face that, despite being half burnt away, was almost the mirror image of her own. Horrified by the sight of her murdered clone's remains, she staggered back and in doing so, almost lost her footing as she tripped on something that had been half hidden on the floor. Whirling around with her torch levelled, she was relieved to find it was just her USP-9.

Reaching down to reclaim the Heckler & Koch, Alice felt a strange sense of ease filling her. It had once belonged to Carlos Olivera, before his death in the Nevada desert he'd taken her aside and given it to her and made her promise to use it to bring down Umbrella. It was the last thing she had to remember the only man she'd ever loved. Preoccupied with her former Lover's gun, Alice never noticed the moving darkness or the heavy thuds of approaching footfalls.

"It seems I underestimated you Alice," The voice cut through her harmonica moment like the crack of a gunshot and Alice raised the gun in the voice's direction before angling the torch towards it. The bright beam revealed something that was far from concerting. "Even as a human, your abilities far exceed the expectations of Dr. Isaacs."

Albert Wesker was standing in the buried cockpit's doorway, unfortunately alive though for what it mattered, he looked like he'd seen better days. His normal slick blond hair was dirty and dishevelled, his tailored uniform rumpled and torn, and burns of varying degree tarnished his once flawless skin. Yet despite it all, his shades seemed untouched by the explosion and the crash; some bastards just have all the luck.

"I'm only just getting started!" She said hotly, not really sure what else to say.

Things were not looking good. Although Alice had got Wesker in her sights, her USP-9 only had one round left and given the bastard's speed, she may as well hurl the whole gun at him for all the good that one shot would do her. He on the other hand, had her out classed in every fashion and a Desert Eagle that was fully loaded and practically calling for her blood. Yes, things were bad, and if she didn't find a way to even the odds, she'd by lying dead beside her clone before she can pull even pull the tiger...

Then she saw it, the answer to the greatest question ever asked, lying on the floor beside her clone's charred body. The sword's blade reflected the torch light, telling Alice exactly where it lay, partly submerged beneath debris between Wesker and the clone's effigy. It was quite a distance; there was no way she'd make it without a distraction.

"Now...now Alice there's no reason for us to be enemies. With Excella's death, I find myself in need of a partner, someone to rule the world by my side..." Wesker said, his burnt lip twitching as if her were about to smile at the thought. Only Alice wasn't interested.

"Go to hell!" She yelled before suddenly pulling back her arm and hurling the torch at Wesker. Turning over and over, the device shot through the air like a rock as its blinding beam of light illuminated every corner of the Cargo Bay, yet he didn't so much as bat an eye lash. In a practised motion, he made to swipe the torch from the sky but Alice beat him to the punch. Raising her gun as her heart pounded loudly in her chest, she aimed for the base of the light beam before firing her last round.

An explosion of light erupted in the Cargo bay, sending a blinding flash through the darkness as shards of glass and metal rocketed in all directions. Wesker recoiled in shock, momentarily stunned as the deadly fragments sliced into his face and Alice didn't hesitate to take advantage of his distraction by leaping to the side and making an all or nothing dash for the sword. Relying purely on memory once more, she jumped over her replica's body before throwing her hand out in a desperate grab for the weapon, her heart jumping in excitement when she felt the metal collide heavily with her palm.

"You'll pay for that!" Wesker growled murderously, taking his hand away from his face long enough to turn to where he knew his prey would be. He didn't know why she hadn't fled the ship, and in truth he didn't care. All he cared about now was making the bitch pay for what she had done to his face and with murderous intent he advanced just as Alice swung the sword. Too late, he realised the danger when the shimmer of sharpened steel slashed across his throat and laid his neck open all the way to the bone.

"That was for you Carlos." Alice said, watching victorious as Wesker clutched at his open throat in an effort to stop the blood flow before dropping his gun and falling to the ground in a steadily growing pool of bloodied muck.

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, she felt her knees give way and she collapsed weakly as her body began to tremble with happy sobs. It was finally over.