Ivan knelt down and stepped on the head of a mercenary that was lucky, or rather unlucky, enough to survive the previous onslaught. The man’s eyes shined hope and plea for mercy, but Ivan ignored it. A bullet sent him to join his brothers.

“Jean should be here by now,” He moved his foot off the body. “that is, if she’s coming…” He trailed off but started again when Xia gave no response. “As much as I trust her, there is a possibility she will not be joining us.”

The woman stood still. Behind her, a man with one arm slowly pulled out a sidearm. A fragment of hope appeared in his eyes, but before he could pull the trigger Xia turned around with a pistol in her grip.

Following the gunshot ranged, Xia finally came up with a response.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean? We need to bring t-virus to the outside world. As far as we know Jean might be helping Carl slaughter every undead in The Hive! Our entire plan may be lost because of the foolishness of one girl!” He said rather emotionally.

Xia smirked and tapped her watch. Ivan would be a fool to think she really trusted someone else to complete a part this important. Immediately, a few zombie bodies appeared out of nowhere. As soon as they hit the ground, the t-virus they contained started to contaminate the dead mercenaries.

“As I said, it doesn’t matter.”

Within the mansion.

One of the infected, Warner, suddenly collapsed.

The team has already left the train and was walking through the mansion. Out of the eight survivors, five were injured. This significantly slowed down their speed.

Addison frowned and wanted to check on him, but Alice grabbed onto his arm and held him back. The man threw the blonde a questioning look before realizing Alice probably saved his life.

The mercenary rose again, only not as a human being.

“The anti-virus didn’t work.” Carl stated the painful fact. His gradually growing symptoms have suggested that a while ago, but he was subconsciously denying it. Yet the brutal truth simply smashed its way in front of Carl and laughed at his face.

The newly turned zombie roared and charged at Alice. The latter expertly took out her pistol and shot the zombie in the head, killing it. They have encountered more than enough zombies in the past hours to be able to kill their kind with their eyes closed.

The enemy was dead, but the scene was silent for a while. The corpse of the zombie was still warm, constantly reminding them of the terrible fate of half the team. Rain silently held onto JD’s hand, offering some comfort. Even soldiers as experienced with battle as they were were afraid of dying. Soldiers were human too. It was only common nature for human beings to fear death.

Carl stood silently. He hadn’t been himself ever since he took the anti-virus and nothing changed. The fact that he knew he was going to die was enough to crush his spirit. After all, a few hours ago he was still a college student. What happened in that several hours changed him a lot, but it wasn't enough to make him someone that could face death with a smile.

Alice touched the wound on her arm. It still stung, but stinging was all it did. There was no burning feeling. There was no dizziness. There was nothing but the pain the wound itself brought.

“I’m not feeling anything wrong.” She suddenly said.

“What?” Rain looked at Alice. The strong woman was clearly hurt, but she was trying to cover it. Rain wasn’t the type that would turn and cry when she was sad. She would start cursing and fighting until the end.

“I am not experiencing any symptoms.” Alice repeated. “Everyone else scratched is getting all tired and slow, but I am not feeling any of that. In fact, I feel better than ever.”

The rest of the team looked at her, confused. What was special was Alice that made her impervious to this virus deadly to everyone else?

“Do you know what that means?” Alice scanned the rest of the team person to person. “It means this virus is not affecting me, at least not negatively. It’s like my body has somehow adapted the virus.”

Addison frowned. “It’s possible, but...”

“But what?” Rain asked impatiently.

“But we don’t know if we can use it to our advantage.” Carl voiced out the concern. There was no hope at all in his eyes as Alice informed the team of her discovery. He knew Umbrella has spent all its resources trying to find a way to combine human body and t-virus with Alice, but all the attempts have failed. There was no way a couple soldiers on a tight schedule could accomplish what armies of scientists with the most advanced gadgets couldn’t achieve in years. They were already doomed.

“Doesn’t matter. We’re trying it.” Rain decided. It wasn’t her personality to just give up and let her friends die. The medic was the first casualty, but the rest of the team have taken her equipment. Among the equipment were devices for a certain purpose. She took out a few syringes and needles.

“What are you doing?”

“Transferring blood. Hopefully whatever in it can...fuck the science!” Rain cursed and walked to Alice. Everyone knew she was getting desperate over an impossible plan. There was no scientific proof that this plan even had a fragment of a chance of working. However, they also knew Rain needed something to hang on to. If she tried to help and JD died anyways, at least she could tell herself she tried.

The blonde held her arm out and didn’t falter as the female mercenary took some blood from her and injected it into JD. Jean stood up and did a similar thing. A syringe full of Alice’s blood, she returned to Carl and held her hand out. Her arms were wounded before, but they were treated and wrapped up on the train ride here. The bleeding has stopped.

“Give me your arm.” She demanded.

Carl smirked. “We both know it won’t work. If some blood from Alice can revert the virus then she would’ve used it multiple times in the original history. That didn’t happen, which means it will not work here either. I am a dead man.” He just looked at Jean’s arms and realized she was infected as well. “I’m sorry.”

That was when Jean snapped. Out of nowhere, the girl that was so nice and strong snapped.

“Carl…” She paused when she realized she didn’t know Carl’s last name. Doesn’t matter. “What the hell is wrong with you?” She looked at Carl. The man turned away in shame. “The Carl I knew took down an armed thug and a licker to save a friend. He saved three lives even when everyone else stood by and watched. That Carl, the Carl I know, is too strong to be defeated by a little virus.” She handed him the syringe in her hand.

“And even if there is no more hope, that Carl will fight a way out or die trying.”

Carl smiled weakly before taking the syringe and stabbing it into his left arm. Pushing the blood inside, he couldn’t deny that he had a fraction of a fragment of hope within him. However, before the blood could come into effect, a wave of dizziness suddenly washed over him. He knew his time was up. He was a dead man. Collapsing on the ground, he closed his eyes, tired but satisfied.

At least he tried. He failed and the result was the same, but at least he tried. That’s all that mattered.

Normally speaking the blood transfer would accomplish absolutely nothing and both JD and Carl would die in pain, but this was not a normal situation. It was never a normal situation when someone had a guardian angel, devil, watching over him.

This was why, a few hours later, Carl woke up and found himself still human.