“And all that happened.”

“Big brother…you were away from me for so many months,” Eve gently stroked Aurum’s cheek, lying sideways she was supporting her head on the palm of her hand, “Is that why you have been avoiding me?”

Aurum rested his eyes, not answering her. She closed in, wrapping her body around his head, resting without blaming him. She whispered in his ear, “Since when did big brother become such a softie.”

“Ever since I gained this newfound strength,” Aurum took a deep breath. It was probably hard for others to understand why he stayed away from the girl he loved so much. Especially if they knew what he did to come back here. He took her palm in his, stroking her fingers with his thumb, feeling her bone under her flesh, “Eve, if I put a bit of effort. I can crush your bone to the point that the only leaving powder behind.”

He sighed, “I still have nightmares about hugging you too tight only to find you dead in my arms.”

“Oh, big brother,” Eve pressed her cheek against his, “but I have S Rank Endurance. And I have a feeling Sexual Force becomes active whenever anything sexual is going around. It makes my body very accepting. I am pretty sure that you can put my body through a lot and I am usually as good as new.”

“Hug is not sexual,” Aurum rolled his eyes.

“Big brother, you being around me is sexual,” Eve chuckled, nibbling on his ear, whispering in his ear, “I can take you love…all of it.”

“I won’t ask you to prove it,” Aurum stroked her palm. He dragged her by her leg, hearing her squeal as he pulled her beside him. He hugged her, burying his head in her neck, taking in her scent. Eve was expecting him to pounce on her, though that wait didn’t come to pass. No matter how eagerly she waited for it.

She kept racking her brain, wondering if there was anything else that could be worrying her big brother, “Big brother…could it be that you are worried about the people of that world? Knowing you…did you want to stay and stop the virus from ever spreading?”

“Hahaha, hahahaha,” Aurum raised his body, stroking her cheek, “Nothing like that. Even if I tried, I couldn’t beat the company that had a hand in everything, from home appliances to the military. The virus they produce, that would be a new nuclear weapon. At most I delayed them by destroying everything connected to their network, from home appliances to mobiles to most secret of the labs. If they connected it to the network, then it got destroyed by me.” 

Eve raised her eyebrows, “Big brother…wouldn’t that be…”

“Counter-productive? Yes. It would lead the Umbrella to focus only on the Military Applications of the T-Virus. To make up their losses, they would have to. The problem? They would leave clues, enough for Red to track them. Along with Lisa and her brother, they should have some support from Authorities, and with Red’s and Kaplan’s help they should be able to put zombie virus news in front pages and control the media.”

“Yet…I can tell you are worried.”

“Because…ever since meeting the Floor Manager…it became clear. Fate…Eve. It is not easy to change. The Fate of the World. Must be harder to change,” Aurum stared at the ceiling.

Eve raised her chin, stroking his cheek, “What did you do?”

“I left them something.”

“What?”

“Hope.”

Second Floor, Earth, Racoon City, Hive,

“Alice, Alice! Alice.”

The woman with sandy brown hair snapped open her eyes, hearing her name being called by her colleague. She groaned, sitting up, feeling the burning sensation in her eyes. She hadn’t had a good sleep in the past few weeks. For good reason. Before they could sneak to the surface once in a while, but recently everyone was on a hunt for them.

“Damn those Umbrella dogs,” Alice cursed under her breath. Though she didn’t need to. Rain had a far fouler mouth that she did. She opened her mouth and usually it was to curse someone.

“Those freaking assholes. Even though they don’t have time to take care of anything else! They still manage to turn us into criminals!”

“Boohoo, you got your name and face in the news. No one even knows you. It’s not like they murdered your Boss and Friend and then pinned the blame on you.”

Alice and Rain turned their gaze towards the Cop. He was Lisa’s brother. They didn’t know, but he had been silently following in their after-math, the only reason they hadn’t dispatched in large numbers then was that they got worried that Umbrella being the Corporation that had a hand in everything, would realise and erase all evidence. Which was a mistake.

“Stop sulking you bitch. At least your sister is alive,” Rain shot a look at him. She had slight respect for him, daring to send his sister into Umbrella as an undercover agent. One couldn’t become colder than that in pursuit of Justice.

Alice patted his arm, “since when do two people need to come to wake me up.”

“Ever since Red Queen has been ringing god-awful alarms in our ear,” Rain put her finger in her ear, clearing it, trying to get the ringing sound out of her ear.

“She said she’d use them for an emergency. I guess she was letting you have the last bit of your rest. Almost makes her humane,” Matt muttered. He didn’t want to say that for someone who killed more than five hundred employees. Then again, now that he was, they all were trying to stop the zombie apocalypse by trying to kill of Umbrella higher-ups and scientists who know about the virus, it was the same thing. Although he told himself that it wasn’t, they weren’t killing innocent people.

“You both go ahead. I’ll catch up,” Alice’s eyes remained fixed on the bathroom they passed by. She entered the bathroom to get fresh and wash her face. She knew there was some emergency, which was all the more reason for her to be at the top of the game. She left the room, making her way to the Reed Queen’s server room, where others were, standing in the middle of the room was Red Queen, the ten-year-old girl.

“Alice, rest more.”

“No, I am fine. What is this about? Did One reach the target?” Alice asked. There were many people here, from Lisa, her brother Matt, Rain, Kaplan, there was even a guy named Spencer in the makeshift jail. Though most of One’s team went with him.

“Yes, but Umbrella moved the target before One could reach out.”

“Did they realise what we are up top?”

“No, Umbrella doesn’t have the same capabilities that it had a few months ago. Even so, it’s reach is massive. For them to launch a full-scale evacuation of all Umbrella Assets is suspicious. I searched around the city when I found the reason why they were evacuating.”

“Ok, just tell us what it is!” Matt was impatient. No one could blame him; Alice didn’t blame him. Even she had a sinking feeling what the reason behind the evacuation was.

“The Dead Walk.”

“Those fucking bastards!” Matt slammed his fist into the reinforced glass, behind which were servers that Red Queen ran on.

“Now that is has come to this,” Red Queen kept talking, ignoring their vast arrays of emotions, “Make your way to Olga.”

“Who?” Lisa didn’t feel it was real, so she acted normally. She whispered to Alice, who looked towards Rain.

“She means Medic,” Rain answered and the two of them nodded, “Where is she?”

“Who knows, she has been doing something secretly,” Rain shrugged, gesturing towards Red Queen, “ask.”

“She has been working on a Project of my making. She doesn’t have the skills. I had to forcefully impart them onto her,” Red Queen walked in front of them, making the three of them freeze.

Alice jerked her head back, looking towards the holographic projector that wasn’t moving. Lisa stuttered, asking the question that was in their mind as well, “What…how are you walking?”

“He gave me some useful stuff. The need for servers had long disappeared. Otherwise, Umbrella would have noticed this facility in works long ago,” Red Queen nonchalantly answered, guiding them.

“Don’t talk about that bastard who escaped alone!” Rain barked in response. They felt betrayed that day when he disappeared, having achieved his purpose. Until this day, they had no clue how he managed to escape from this damn flooded, zombie infested place. Though, Alice was the one who took it the hardest, “and why didn’t you tell us that you could walk around!”

“Because you were uncomfortable living in my presence. It was a logical choice to not tell you,” Red Queen stopped, like her, they felt the ground and roof tremble, like someone was bombarding the surface.

“We should hurry. It has started.”

“Hey, what is going on up there!” Rain loudly asked, only to see Red Queen calmly walk in front of them. She looked towards Alice, who was a mess. Usually, they avoided talking about Aurum so she could ignore that and move on. Today, she had a strange feeling. It left her mind a mess. Still, she tried to not focus on these things. She was looking around the facility, behind the door that she never went before.

“Have you ever come this way?”

"No, there could be zombies or flooding," Liza answered, "there could be traces of virus. Most of us have sealed off the areas.”

Red Queen stopped in front of the sealed door, numbers running through her eyes, and with a spark, the door opened, “That was before. I remodelled this section.”

“Remodelled?” Alice questioned, seeing the large corridor, which was leading only to a single door. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, making nibble on her inner lip, “What is in there?”

Red Queen didn’t answer her. She moved across the hallway, reaching for the door that slowly opened. Alice nervously looked through the floor, feeling her stomach churn. Her fingers trembled as she pushed open the door, her eyes widening as she gazed inside, “What the hell. What the hell did you do!”

“Only what he asked of me. This is not my plan. It’s far too illogical for my taste.”