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It's been nearly a decade, and Alice still finds herself thinking of Rain.
She doesn't have the time for this.
Right now, as she's done more than once before, she's marching toward my death. Throughout the years, it's something she's gotten used to doing. But this is guaranteed to be her final go-around, so she's making the time.
She doesn't know if there's any sort of life after death. Any outside of the poor excuse for one Umbrella allowed to be released into the world, that is. Every time she's stood at the edge of her grave, she's found only nothingness looking back at her. Maybe things would be different if she properly laid in it, though, if the virus and Umbrella didn't always pull her away before long.
If there is, she hopes Rain found herself in it. After all of her bravery and selflessness, after holding on for so long in the face of the infection and the infected, she deserved more than to end up dead when they were so close to making it out.
If Alice forgets everything for a moment, if she ignores the seconds steadily ticking down on her wristwatch, she can see a different watch with a different time displayed on it. It's the very same one Rain wore when they first entered this place with the others, the same one she gave to Alice in her last moments.
(You know, when she woke up later in the hospital, alongside everything else, she was pissed that they had taken it off her. That was all she had left of Rain.)
The Hive isn't dark anymore. All of its surfaces aren't caked beneath layers of dirt that have found their way in from the crater that used to be Raccoon City. The air isn't stale.
Instead, it's brightly lit. Things are clean, sleek, and clinical. There's a distinctly medicinal smell permeating the space. It makes Alice sick now.
She's not wearing a tank top, jeans, and military webbing. She's wearing a red dress.
Figures dressed in black are getting off the train with their weapons raised, scanning their surroundings. Rain's there, walking not too far ahead of Alice with a fistful of Matt's button-down in her hand as she tells him to move faster. Alice still doesn't know what the hell's going on. Spence keeps glancing at her. She has an odd feeling.
Then, it's hours later, and she's returning to this same place. Matt is carrying Rain because, despite her multiple stubborn attempts to keep walking, she simply can't anymore. Alice tries to swallow down her worry and increase her pace. The antivirus is right fucking there.
Spence is waiting for her. Or rather, what's left of him. She doesn't hesitate to take care of him so she can get that cure.
If she strains her eyes against the darkness, she can make out something resting on the platform not too far away. It might be him. She doesn't bother to check. She doesn't want to. Instead, she heads for the train.
There's a small gap between the double doors. She hooks her fingers in and starts pulling. They groan and resist, but eventually give way to her efforts. She can make out another vague shape resting against the far wall of the car. My breath catches in my throat.
"Rain?" she murmured, reaching for the right-angle flashlight clipped to the front of her vest. "Is that you?"
Rain doesn't respond. Of course she doesn't. Why would she? It's not really her. Not anymore. Just what remains. Alice hesitates to turn her light on.
She sees dead bodies every day. Ones left mangled by both men and monsters, ones that continue to roam among them, ones that have her face, friends, strangers... She's even seen Rain's. More than once. Still, reluctance grips her for a moment. In the end, she decides to turn the light on.
All she finds are bones. Nothing but a skeleton in a tattered black shirt, pants, and boots sitting slumped. When she walks closer, she takes notice of the hole in the skull.
She wishes she could see Rain's dark eyes again, wishes she could hear her voice. But if this is all she can get, she'll take it. She just wants to sit with her before she goes.
Maybe in another life, fate was kinder to them. Maybe things didn't start and end here for both of them.