The air whips about us on the deck of the Umbrella Corporations boat. The Helicopters had been beaten off, it seemed too easy though. There were so many, before they could even attack we turned our artillery onto them, but before we could really sink our teeth into the villains they all at once left.
“They must be plotting something.” I said in a morose tone as my blue eyes scanned the oceans ahead of me. We had decided to leave as soon as possible. We couldn’t stay in one place for too long. A computer expert and others were busy looking over the ship and Chris was working with some other men and woman trying to organise places for people to stay. The Umbrella people on the boat couldn’t be trusted, we killed those who fought, although there were people who came peacefully and we set them out on a lifeboat forcing them to go. None of them could be trusted. Claire Redfield stands by me also looking out at the sea. I can see her thinking behind her eyes that she was trying to figure things out.
“True, that was… way… way too easy.” She slowly looks at me as she speaks and her head shakes slowly from side to side. She glances out again at the ocean before looking back at me and catching my eye again. “They must have a reason for allowing us to go. Something more sinister or cruel may be up their sleeve.”
“I don’t know. I wish that I did.” I look out onto the deck. So many people, so many survivors. I felt a surge to protect every one of them. But how could I, if Umbrella has still got such a huge arsenal up their sleeve?
We look into each other’s eyes for a moment, there is a spark, a connection and I know we both want the same thing. As ruthless as I can be, I don’t want to see innocent people die just because of the god damn Umbrella Corporation. The greedy bastards won’t stop until either the world is destroyed beyond compare, or until they themselves have been ultimately and finally wiped off the face of the planet. Whichever came first.
Claire is about to say something when her brother Chris Redfield comes over to us calling out; “hey ladies.”
I look over at the roguish man and glance at Claire and note how she still stiffens slightly. She has no memory of Chris being her brother. And I think a part of her still doesn’t believe it. She nods her head in greeting then asks; “So what have we found out about the boat?”
“Well there is certainly plenty of room. Once we had all those umbrella soldiers and guards kicked out we have found that the living quarters below deck are of a reasonable standard. We’ve got some of the computer experts, Darren is the name of the main guy, we have them working on figuring out how the ship works and trying to hack through all the systems. We have a lot of the codes disabled and then re-configured at the moment. Living quarters mostly have the same five-digit code of 34972.”
“We have to be careful. I want to have a look at some of the work being done and Alice needs to have medical attention.”
I’m listening intently to the discussion weighing down all the facts. I snap my head looking at Claire when she says the last part. “What? But I’m fine.”
“You’ve taken a few blows. You have no more super-natural powers to make sure you don’t fall ill or get infected with anything you should go to the medical bay, where ever it is that that is, and you should go and have a check-up.”
I’m about to argue until that is, Chris interrupts. “Claire is right. It will be better this way. Listen, go to the medical bay, once you’re done there go to the control room of the ship. There you can join a meeting that has been arranged, Darren, Claire, you and I will be the only ones there and then we can figure out what to do.”
I’m reluctant to go. I wanted to see first-hand what it is that this Darren was doing. I wanted to know what was going on. How could I go get some check up like a child?!
Claire tells her brother to start heading away without her. I have turned my back on him and lean on the side of the boat looking out. Claire stands closer to me and puts a hand on my arm. I feel my heartbeat quicken, although I do not know why, and I turn my face toward the other woman. “Please, won’t you do it for me at least, you’re the one that I trust most here, I don’t want to see you get ill.”
I feel my cheeks begin to warm at the sincerity of her voice and hope that I’m not blushing, before my face can get any more red I quickly nod my head. “Yeah, yeah, okay. I will then.” My voice is low and with my submission I see Claire smile with gratitude that I have taken her advice. She goes to draw back but then before she does she leans forward pressing her lips to my cheek. I’m left dumbfounded and she withdraws quickly as if even she had only just registered what she had done. She smile and pats my arm before drawing back and saying as the wind pulled at her hair.
“I’ll see you soon.” Then she goes.
But all that I could think, all that I could process was; “soft.”
I touch the place that I had been kissed and then snap out of it looking at the paper. I had better go. The sooner this was over with the sooner I could get to that meeting.
**^**
I had a few cuts and bruises, but nothing serious. I knew it had been a waste of time. I actually even got lost trying to get there. But I must say my mind was pre-occupied while I wandered about the boat. I try to smile at the people I walk pass and am stopped every once and a while by people with an enquiry or two; they obviously recognised me as one of the “leaders” if you would even call me that. I tried to answer what I knew and listened to everyone. But at the same time I had to cut some people off. I needed to get to that meeting on time. I couldn’t be dilly dallying, so I made my way to the room where the meeting was held and I pushed on the solid door. Revealing that everybody else was already present. I look about the room and lay eyes on Darren he has a screen on the table and I nod at Claire and then Chris. I walk over and look onto the table seeing the schematics of the ship laid out before me. “So what have I missed?”
“Introductions for one thing, this here is Darren. Darren, Alice.”
I said hello and shook hands with a man who wore thick rimmed glasses. He had dark hair that had a fringe which swept across his forehead he muttered a ‘hi’ in return and pushed up his glasses.
“So what’s this then?”
Chris smiled. “We’ve gotten into the system and are able to see the cameras of nearly every room in the ship.”
“Yeah, it seems Darren was once a hacker back in the old world.”
Darren just smiled awkwardly then bought up camera angles on the table top.
“Alright, tell me what you know.”
We go over all the camera angles of the ship, some of it disgusts me. There are experiments contained in some rooms and we discuss boarding and who is going to have different duties. It takes quite a few hours to sort out jobs for people. Chris and Darren go to find the first people who have been assigned to guard duties so far telling Claire and I to go off and get some well-earned sleep. I frown and stop Chris before he can go. “But, wait, I haven’t been told. Where am I going to be sleeping?”
“What? Claire didn’t tell you? You and her will be sharing a room.” He gives a nod of his head before heading off leaving me speechless. Claire is behind me and I am thankful for that. It means she cannot see my expression, or my face that was growing warm again. I take a breath steadying myself before I turn back and look over at Claire. She avoids my eye-contact which I try to gain and walks along the length of the table running her hand along its smooth surface. She looks up then, and smiles as if nothing had happened earlier up on the deck. “Well, let’s go then.”
I sigh, and then follow Claire; I walk swiftly to catch up with the other woman and soon I’m easily following her stride. We both walk rather quietly, our heavy shoes echoing a little on the floor. I decide to break the silence. “So why do we have to share a room exactly? Has it to do with the shortage of available rooms?”
“Yeah, exactly. In fact as you heard back in the meeting, with everybody freely walking about the ship we’re practically near full capacity. I mean, Umbrella did not expect to have an increasing amount of people living on their ships. They planned on holding everybody captive in those capsules.”
I nodded my head continuing on, “and so, we’re going to have trouble saving other survivors if we haven’t the space.”
“True, this is why we are already taking early precautions. There are about thirty rooms free. Those who are able to share we have got sharing.”
“Like you and I?”
“Y-yes. I mean. I thought that you’d agree with it because of the situation and-”
“No, no, I do its okay.”
“Um, yeah, but we will be sharing a bed.”
“Why’s that?” I keep my voice cool and level. But my heart is already playing up and I chance a glance at Claire. She looks at me too and then loses her nerve and shrugs before looking forward.
“I didn’t think you’d mind.” She finishes the sentence with a shrug to one side and then she looks at me once again. “Do you?”
I shake my head and look ahead. “No. Not at all.”
“Good.” We arrive at the rooms’ door and Claire pumps in the five digit code. She waves her hand in invitation for me to be the first one in and I smile a bit and slip past her into the small room. There is a desk and chair in the left corner on the back wall, everything is bolted securely. My eyes immediately dart to the bed and I don’t know whether or not I want to sigh in relief in the fact that the bed we would share was a double and not a single like I had thought it’d be.
“Is there any particular side you like?”
I shrug. “No, you?”
She gives me a coy smile then winks. “Well then, in that case I dibs the left side.” I’m taken aback by the flirtatious words and a short laugh comes out.
“I can live with that.” I sling off one of the gun holsters from my shoulder and then the other. I begin unloading my gear on the right side of the bed close to where I can reach it I hope. Claire, I can see from the corner of my eye, puts her gun away in a draw. I continue unloading my weapons and chance another glance to see what Claire was doing now. But I glance at the wrong moment and when I look over I watch the smooth flowing motion of my friend and ally removing her shirt.
I look right back at the bed and the ship rocks slightly and I stumble in clumsiness as I begin to take off my vest. “C-Claire?”
“Yes?”
I look back and she has put her shirt into the same draw as her gun, I see her place the gun on top of the shirt and she looks over at me. I immediately feel my face warm up and I look away turning my back to her again. “Nothing,” I say too fast, “nothing.” I repeat.
I bite my lip and am wondering what was wrong with me. What were these emotions and feelings of attraction all of a sudden? I jolt a little when my arm is touched I turn my head looking to see Claire standing close to me, her head tilted a little and eyebrows arched up just a bit as she looks into my eyes. “Nothing? Are you sure?”
I feel my heart rate pick up and try my best to calm it. I swallow before nodding. “Yeah, I mean, I was just…going to ask..”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do know. Tell me?”
I take in a breath steeling myself. “I was just going to ask why you kissed me. Up on the deck…”
“…It was just on your cheek.”
“You just nearly missed my lips.”
There is a silence between us. As the conversation had taken place I had built up enough nerve to turn a full one eighty and face Claire as we spoke. The silence between us drags on a little longer. We hold eye contact for a little and when my lower lip trembles I turn and face away a little, still paying attention to Claire from the corner of my eyes.
She slowly comes in even closer to me, and suddenly the atmosphere turns more intimate. She places a hand flat on my abdomen and her eyes look at my body with hidden hunger glimmering in their depths. “Would you prefer it, if I didn’t miss, Alice?”
I’m suddenly struck dumb with fear. Make me face off a horde of the undead, make me charge head-first into a building that is about to be blown to smithereens to retrieve something or someone. I can do that, but to confront these emotions in me, which have only just begun to rise, that has me weak at the knees and I don’t even know why. My breathing has shallowed and when Claire looks at me with deep blue eyes and a face that is framed by red-brown hair I close my mouth lick my lips and struggle to keep the beat of my heart regular. She reads me like a book and sees through my nervousness, she boldly pushes me back on the bed.
“Claire, we can’t.” I find my voice, and although my body screams for more contact and my heart shouts for Claire’s, my voice speaks up against their wishes.
Her face is close to mine and her breath is warm and sweet, I sense her lips close to mine and despite my words my body has an immediate reaction to her being so close and I lean forward. Our lips almost connect and Claire moves with the sway of the ship pulling her lips away from mine. Our breathing is laboured a little on both ends and Claire’s hands explore up roaming over my chest and slips under the vest to slowly begin to slip it off. I sway and when the ship moves again I find that I stumble back onto the bed more, Claire stays close, with her eyes on mine. She crawls on the bed some more her knee resting between my legs as she asks, “why not?”
“I…I…” I cannot really think of any reason, my mind is beginning to cloud over with a lust like none other and Claire takes advantage of my lack of speech and joins our lips at last in a kiss. Her flavour is unlike any man that I have kissed in the past, it unbalances me and I find that I start to kiss back before I can stop myself. But I pull myself out of the fire and the heated kiss slows. “Claire.”
“You could stop me.” She says in a husky voice that sends a shiver down my spine, she slides the vest down my arms and her face is in the crook of my neck and her lips brush my skin. “You’re able to beat up anybody, you’re a fighter, if you didn’t want this,” She kisses a soft spot behind my ear and my shoulders hunch a little. “If you did not want this, you could easily stop me. Tell me not to touch you,” she comes closer and her knee brushes up into in between my legs brushing against my inner thigh. “Push me away if that is what you <i>want</i> to do.” She begins to unbutton my shirt kissing skin as it is slowly revealed. I cannot withhold a shiver of delight that crawls across my shoulders and travels down my back loosening my muscles as it goes. My head lolls backward and my jaw slackens as the last of the buttons are undone and I feel Claires breath on the skin of my chest, her long hair tickling the soft flesh as she tasted my skin with those soft lush lips. “So, you must <i>want</i> this then. To be touched.” All her words were a whispered husky hush that was intoxicating; soon it was too much for me to take and I was helping Claire to get me out of the leather vest and my shirt, once they were out of the way I seize control topping the other woman. I urge her to move up on the bed kissing her passionately. I push her back onto the pillow and crawl over her straddling her.
Her stunning chest rises and falls with heavy breaths and her long hair spreads out on the clean white linen. “Okay, so let’s say you’re right.” I smile suddenly feeling a growing excitement from within me. “Seeing that I am so strong,” I lean over Claire as I bring my breath under control. “Then doesn’t that mean that I should be the one dominating?”
“Oh? That’s the way that you see it then?” She takes my arms and tries to turn the table again, we struggle with one another and in the end she wins me over. But only because she catches my lips in a kiss just as I almost had her, she slipped her tongue into the crevice of my mouth and pushed her leg between mine and rubbed my centre softly, then caught me off guard by flipping me, making herself top me once again. “Well, well, well. It would appear that, that is not the case.” She giggles, and I realise that this is the first time ever that I have heard her make such a feminine or girly noise since I first met her. She leans down and kisses me softly. She kisses me again and again all the kisses short and sweet. She’d move away before I had a chance to make the kiss go deeper, then with frustration I bring her down slamming her mouth into mine in a forceful and deep fiery kiss that burned from somewhere deep within me. I feel her reach behind my back and she unclasps my bra not breaking the kiss as she tosses it aside. I pull her down so she lies on top of me and feel her chest warm against mine. She presses to me hard rubbing our chests together voluptuously as our kiss begins to feel more and more fierier with every heated second soon we are both gasping for air, but the kiss has sparked a hunger from within me, a hunger which refused to go on unequalled. And it seemed that the same went for Claire who began to pull down my tight pants. After that it did not take too long for all the clothes to be removed. My body was hot all over and so was Claire’s. Our tongues were tied for the millionth time since the first and Claire slipped her hand down my body and cupped my womanhood in her hand, rubbing it teasingly as she bit gently and pulled on my lower lip making me gasp then moan. I thrusted my hips slowly grinding myself into her hand as she massaged my clit with her thumb. Our lips part and I kick my head back my eyes hut and mouth agape in delight. She slips a single finger into me slowly and my legs squeeze shut a little holding her arm and keeping it in place between my legs. She kisses down my neck and makes her way to one on my breasts which she then takes into her mouth and suckles on pulling on the nub erotically; opening my legs and making me cradle her head to my chest. My hands grip her hair and she bites making my back arch. Pain I was used to, hell, I’d be in trouble if I squeaked or squealed at a scraped knee in this day and age. But never in a sexual way had I received “pain” as sexual attention from anyone. I never knew how gratifying that it was; until now. She ups the antic slipping in a second finger. Claire’s mouth returns to my mouth and we share a heated kiss, our tongues slipping against each other’s, I wanted to taste every bit of her mouth, her lips, oh, god! Her tongue! But she soon abandons my mouth for my other breast pleasuring that to an equal measure to my other. Soon, my heart is pounding so hard that I know that all must be able to hear it, all over the ship, it is a regular but <i>fast</i> beat that thrummed in my chest. Claire kissed her way down, by this time she had already inserted three fingers and was thrusting into my hot and pulsing centre in a rhythm which matched the thrusting of my eager hips. I was so close to orgasm, I had felt my legs quivering, in a way that they never had before. She knew it too, Claire removed the fingers dragging her nails nearly thrusting me off the edge into the abyss of bliss right then. But then her lips touched my lips down there, her tongue gave a long lingering stroke, then I truly was lost. Time passed fast, but it passed slow at the same time, in fact time was an irrelevant factor that I forgot all together. All I know is that it felt, so, so good. Amazing in fact, I came at least twice, and she cleaned me up both times. Once the excitement was over I lay on my back taking slow shallow breaths, little tremors of the experience tumbling and tripping over me tiredly. Claire came up at last licking her lips. Her legs entwine with mine and we lay together, I embrace her in a close hold closing my eyes. “That was amazing.”
“You were amazing.”
We shared a warm sleepy kiss, then my eyes would not stay open no longer, and I fell asleep.