Chapter 11 - The Unspoken Agreement

Kaplan was in a daze wondering where all the zombies were coming from. The zombies should have shown up on his sensors a long time ago, but it seemed The Red Queen had the last laugh in the end.

Rain was already too irritated to care about sparing Kaplan's feelings. She approached Kaplan, pinning him against a wall as she looked directly into his eyes.

"This is your fucking fault for shutting the damn computer off," she yelled.

Several zombies patrolled The Hive, Alice and Zeel dodged confrontations using Zeel's superb hearing.

Still, the number of zombies present on each floor was substantially less than the number of employees it would take to maintain The Hive.

"The zombies here are just a fraction of the total amount of employees in The Hive," Zeel said.

"What are the chances of the others not being turned into zombies?" Alice asked.

"Highly unlikely," Zeel replied.

Alice and Zeel continued their walk in silence. The question still hanged in the air - where are the rest of the zombies?

Alice and Zeel walk around The Hive, more like a couple taking a tour than two people running for their lives.

There was not much stress on Zeel due to his superb fighting capabilities, and Alice was infected by Zeel's calm atmosphere.

Coming around the corner, Alice pulled the two guns from her leg brace and aimed at Zeel.

*Pop*

*Pop*

Two shots were fired in Zeel's direction.

Zeel considered killing Alice at the moment she pointed her guns at him but quickly dismissed the idea.

The trajectory of the bullets was not aimed directly at him. Either Alice was an incredibly bad shot or she was aiming at something else entirely.

Plop

Plop

Two zombies behind Zeel fell to the ground, the grey matter from their brain staining the wall at the rear.

"You seem sure I wasn't aiming at you," Alice said.

She expected that Zeel would flinch or jump out of the way, but he seemed calm the entire time.

"What can I say? I have faith in you" Zeel replied.

Though, his tense muscles told Alice a different story.

"Faith huh?" Alice replied with a smirk playing across her face aware of the fact that people like Zeel would never leave survival up to faith.

Alice and Zeel continued to navigate their way through the corridors. They stumbled upon cages that were ripped open but opted to ignore them completely.

Alice and Zeel were equally careful. They were not the types of people to try and investigate what type of beast could rip open a steel cage. It was better to move away from the location of the incident as soon as possible.

Their steps became evermore cautious as they continued. Zeel could feel his intuition blaring up for the first time since entering The Hive.

It was not a severe warning though, so he judged that whatever it was, should not be a major threat to his life.

Suddenly, Zeel smelled the scent of an animal's decaying flesh.

Alice felt the situation worsen and immediately went on alert.

Several dogs entered the corridor, staring intently at Alice and Zeel.

Alice immediately emptied her clip inside the dogs. They were surprisingly fast for their disfigured nature.

Zeel's daggers took care of the dogs that managed to slip past Alice's defenses. Zeel's perception of time slowed as his dagger decapitated zombie-dogs left and right.

After killing the last of the zombie-dogs, Zeel walked over to Alice.

"You handle yourself well," he complimented.

Alice shrugged "Not as well as you did,"

The rest of the searching was done in relative silence. There were no more words needed between Alice and Zeel, an unspoken understanding had begun to grow between them.

Later, Zeel and Alice stumbled onto a panicking Matt.

He was backing away from a female zombie with dread edged onto his face.

Zeel didn't think twice to pull out his dagger the zombie's brains out, all over Matt's face.

Alice, on the other hand, held her head in pain as several memories replayed in her mind.

∞∞∞

"Lisa? I can help you get the virus. I have access to security codes, surveillance plans, the works."

"But?"

"But there's gonna be a price."

"Name it."

∞∞∞

"You bastard!" Matt bellowed running towards Zeel in an attempt to take revenge.

Zeel could tell that Matt and the zombie he killed had similar facial features. The anatomical structure of their bones also coincided somewhat. It was not difficult for Zeel to conclude they were siblings.

However, Matt's outburst of rage was not successful. Zeel slapped Matt across the floor and walked over to Matt with a dagger in his hand.

Alice wanted to restrain Zeel but chose not to in the end.

Holding his dagger against Matt's neck, Zeel was tempted to slit his throat but held back.

"You're a useless piece of trash, talk one more time so I can slit your throat.

You couldn't even protect your sister. Only an idiot would think they could bring down a corporation like Umbrella with publicity," Zeel said.

While he was chastising Matt, Zeel also felt grateful for Catherine, his sister. Catherine was a bad-ass so the chances of someone killing her were minimal at best.

Matt calmed his agitated mind under Zeel's intense gaze.

"Corporations like Umbrella think they're above the law. But they're not. There are hundreds of thousands of us who think the same... all over the world.

Some of us provide information... others give their support. Some take more direct action. Like you. If your friends had been a little more thorough... they would've seen right through my false ID.

Then all the red flags would've gone off-- Quantico, NSA, ViCAP, all the rest. There's no way I could've infiltrated the Hive," Matt stated as tears leaked from his eyes.

"So you sent your sister," Alice asked with scorn in her tone.

"We needed something concrete. Anything to expose Umbrella to the press. Proof of the research that was going on down here," Matt said choking back his sobs.

Zeel exited the room, he couldn't care less about Matt's emotional trauma. Still, Zeel saw it fit to logically explain the flaw in Matt's plan.

"Your message was going to do nothing since the Umbrella Corporation would silence you one way or another before you could even open your mouth," he said.

"My sister was going to smuggle out... a sample of the virus they were developing," Matt said ignoring Zeel.

"So how was she going to make it out of here?" Alice asked clearly intrigued at the prospect of someone taking down the Umbrella Corporation.

"She had contact within The Hive, someone I never met. They had access to security codes, surveillance, everything she needed," Matt said with a little anger in his voice.

Hate evident for the potential betrayer of his beloved sister.

"So why didn't she make it?" Alice asked.

The person Matt was talking about was most likely herself and though Alice didn't view herself as the type to betray, she still had to be sure.

"Maybe she trusted the wrong person. Maybe they set her up. Kept the virus for themselves. Do you know how much the T-virus would be worth on the open market?" Matt said as he looked around and then at Alice, then at Zeel waiting by the door.

"It would be worth the world to the right people since literally, the world would be at stake if what we are seeing here is any indication," Zeel replied.

Matt nodded at Zeel's statement.

Zeel turned to Alice to emphasize how dangerous the T-virus was.

"This virus is beyond anything I have ever seen, and it seems to have an ancient feel to it while also being enhanced by modern science.

If this could kill humans of the past, then it will be able to kill you weaker versions of those humans," Zeel said, pointing at Matt to illustrate his point.