Chris and Rain looked out of a broken window, their faces like hunted animals, fear written all over Chris' face.

He now somewhat regretted his decision to take the Red Empress, maybe he should have left it for Jonas intead. Time however couldn't go back to that moment, it wasn't a secret anymore that they knew he was in possession of the Red Empress, how they knew remained a mystery, but it was a fact.

Chris was also envious of Olga whom got off the boat once they reached the next station, she didn't want to have anything to do with them anymore. She was booked an airplane ticket and given a good amount of money to hide abroad, it was probably impossible to track her since all electronics were monitored by the Red Empress.

The two crazies Rain and Alice however decided to stay with him until the end, for them action was like a drug, they liked the excitement of battle and the smell of gunpowder and the heat and punch of their guns. The two were too into the feel of adrenaline and just couldn't return to a normal life, they they nuts.

Chris looked at the case he was holding, it was his responsibility to safekeep the virus and the cure, it was mostly due to his mission, but he truthfully was almost about to give up on it.

There was only one day left and the Major City that was supposed to be empty was full of agents that wanted to either kill or capture them, it was insane how little they cared about the Red Empress' theats.

They understood full well that he had the key to them taking over the Red Empress and thus ruling the world, thus they didn't care about the price they might have to pay.

What they didn't however know was that any electronic device on their body would give them away once they got close to Chris' location, thus they were practicaly giving themselves away when they came equiped with night vision goggles or walkie talkies, anything that used electricity to work was like a tracking device for the Red Empress. This of course made no sense, but the indestructible device on his wrist was just as mysterious.

Alice had went out to take out the trash, while Rain was left on babysitting duty. It was funny how he had become a one armed dead weight and all they wanted from him was the Red Empress, whom helped them communicate and could detect enemies that came too close.

"There's a helicopter comming from 4o'clock, it will arrive in 30 minutes"

The Red Empress informed them and they once more begun to move, they couldn't even stay in one place for too long, the main reason was because of the patrols. Alice did her best to cause a distraction, for her it was really easy to escape, Rain could also escape quite easily with the Red Empresses help, the problem was Chris, he was slow and his abilities were further impacted by his injuries.

"Where are we going next?"

Chris asked and the Red Empress didn't even speak to him, the small red holographic girl looked at him as if she was looking at an idiot.

Rain was already leading them towards some, probably random direction, he had no idea what they were doing, why they were doing it, he was confused and tired, truthfully he wouldn't mind dying at this moment.

They were silently moving around the streets, it was slower than even when they were avoiding zombies, but Rain and the Red Empress insided on moving with caution. Alice on the other side they could hear her location due to the gunshots and the explosions in the far distance.

It was insane even think that Alice alone was taking on what looked like an army. The agents were as shocked to find this out as Chris and Rain, it was impossible to even think something like that was possible.

Alice was currenly ending another fight, one of many and quickly jumped into a nearby building and begun to move towards an appartment, broke the door open and hid inside.

She really had to take a breather, she had been fighting for too long and honestly was exhauted, almost out of ammo and full of bruises and scratches.

"Why are you fighting?"

Suddenly the Red Queen asked her, it was a stupid question, but Alice smiled as she heard it, her mobile phone.

"I'm fighting to save humanity from itself, before that guy disappears from this world, I will let nobody have him, even if I have to kill him myself"

Alice's words were harsh, but that was her drive for fighting, she wasn't protecting Chris, she was keeping him away from the forced that came to capture him.

"What if I don't want him to die?"

The Red Queen's voice sounded a bit fake, but one couldn't say that machines had emotions to begin with, this weird concern made however Alice ponder about something.

"What's Chris and Rain's location?"

Alice asked, purely out of curiosity.

"I don't wish to tell you"

The Red Queen answered, but Alice could tell that something wasn't right.

"You aren't the Red Empress are you?"

Alice's question was a bingo with no prize attached, this was indeed not the Red Empress, it was the Red Queen, the A.I. from the Hive, the twin that had mysteriously disappeared.

"You are quite perceptive Alice, I've made a deal with the Empress, Now I'm the Queen of the World, I shall make this planet a better place for everyone and I wish to make a deal with you"

The Red Queen said, causing Alice to be a bit skeptical, it wasn't impossible that she was lying, but she believed her. There was something about the Red Empress that has been off for some time now, she seems to only care about accomplishing the missions and whether Chris was alive, even the missions she's been giving her were so dangerous that she thought they were suicide missions, she could have died at any moment.

The difference between the Red Queen and the Empress was only one, the first was like a child, learning and evolving, creating a personality for itself, the second was a grown up that knew full well who it was and what it wanted.

Alice and the Red Queen didn't have a history yet, since they hadn't met but once, due to the Red Empress, but little by little they discovered that their goal coincided. It was hard to believe, but both wanted the same thing, the good of humankind and the planet as a whole, even before the hive accident she was trying to do the right thing.

Ever since she had heard of this weird organization that kidnapped Chris and the others, she thought of ways to fight it. At first she thought it was just some really powerful organization, but once she entered the Secret Piece hatch, through the solid ground she begun to understand that she was into something far more bizzare than just some evil organization.

The possibility of her own world being an artificial construct wasn't beyond belief, many religions say the world was created by someone, but if so, then she was trying to go against God himself.

She had seen firsthand that weird device that disappeared from Chris' hand and appeared on his other hand. It was evident that whoever was behind this didn't want them have this device and the person that knew most about this was a scumbag that called them NPCs, as if this was some sort of game, a survival game and anyone else was but part of the system and didn't have a mind of their own and their lives didn't matter.

Alice stood there for a long time, thinking while the Red Queen told her about their deal. A deal that could changed everything, a deal that could save their world if they succeeded, a deal to make a world a better place for everyone. Alice would have loved to believe the A.I.'s words, problem was she didn't fully believe that they wanted the same thing, because what Alice desired was unreal and unachievable to begin with.

She wanted an Utopia that couldn't really exist in reality, because people have free will and some people want to do bad things to others, not because they're evil, but because they believe that's the right thing to do.

A person can do a hundred good things, but once he does something bad, he's branded as a villain, that's how our society works, they call it the battle of Good and Evil.

Now Alice was left with a choice, she could either say yes or no. It was a simple question with a one word answer. Will she side with the Red Queen or Not, in which case she will most likely die, without her support, unless she somehow miraculously escaped from this place, where the virus will be released.

Alice answered with a simple phrase as she threw away her phone and disappeared into the building.

"Fuck you!"

Chris and Rain carefully approached a building, they could hear the helicopter landing on its rooftop, It was a huge Medical Center's helipad. They couldn't hear the sound of the soldiers dismounting the heli, but they were sure there would be heavy resistance.

The Pilot was shocked when he suddenly discovered that he couldn't fly off, it was like a nightmare, being stuck in a battlezone when your only job was to transport people.

The soldiers that came out were also shocked to find that their communication devices and electronics didn't work at all. They could only curse, thinking that an EMP went off or something, it wouldn't be impossible for the enemy to have a bomb in their possession after all they weren't the only group there.

The first shot was fired by Rain and it quickly turned into a stand-off, as the soldiers used the helicopter as cover since there was no other cover on the helipad.

Rain could only curse, since the Heli was supposed to be their escape vehicle as the plan was to leave the city after releasing the virus there, of course with all those people now there it could turn into sort of a problem.

"I give up"

Chris suddenly said, causing Rain to look at him confused.

"I don't want to turn people into zombies, we should abort this plan, why sacrifice hundeds of people for a dozen or less, I might die, but what of it"

Chris explained, as he laughed and jumped out of the cover, intending to get shot by the soldiers and killed, with his eyes closed as he came out.

Not long after Rain came out of cover and begun to shoot the confused soldiers since Chris had his hands up and seemed as if he was surrendering, they thought it was over, but in reality now was over.

When Chris opened his eyes again, he found himself standing like an idiot and Rain patted him on the shoulder.

"Good distraction, next time warn me beforehand"

She said as she walked past him.

From a tall building not too far away Alice with her hawk's eye immediately found the Helicopter that was now about to take off, she didn't know if Rain knew about all this, but she presumed that she would be suspecting it non the less.

"Where's our Randevou location with Alice?"

Rain asked the Red Emperess, as they were flying high above the city.

"She'll be waiting for us outside the city, she's taken a vehicle leading the enemy forces out of the city, you now can release the virus now"

The Red Empreress said, but Rain wasn't convinced.

"Why Can't I talk with her?"

Rain asked, for some reason she didn't fully believe the Red Empress, especialy since she knew that they had just left some corpses that would make good zombie at that helipad.

"I don't want to release the virus"

Chris said, making both Rain and the Red Empress shocked. It was akin to saying that he wanted to die. There was only a bit more than half a day left to complete their mission, he had already been told that if he fails their whole group will die, yet Chris didn't want to doom this world, just to save his own life.

"You son of a bitch, why the heck did you have us dragging your ass all over the country, evacuating the entire city and now you say you won't do it!"

Rain was out of herself, she was pointing her gun at him, but insted of shooting, she just sat down and begun to laugh uncontrollably, this was the biggest joke. After a round of hysterical laughing, she hugged her knees and begun to cry, they had killed so many people in order to save him and now he tells them that it was all for nothing.

Chris stood up and walked towards her, he extended his arm towards her to help her get up. He didn't mind dying, but he didn't wish all of this to be for nothing as well, the last thing he could do was give her some words of wisdom and comfort her as best he could.

Rain looked at him, when suddenly A bullet shot right through him, at the rooftop of a building stood Alice with a Sniper Rifle she looted from one of the soldiers, there was no smile on her face, but determination. She wished to end the Empresses Reign, before she took care of the Queen and she knew that without Chris there would be no Empress and the Queen would become vulnerable again.

Rain looked at Chris whom was about to fall out of the Vehicle, bleeding profoundly from his wound. Rain caught his hand before he fell off the helicopter.

"Administer his the Virus! Do it now, 1/4 Virus, 3/4 Cure, Quickly!"

The Red Empress shouted to the lost and confused Rain, who followed them to the letter, as best she could. She saw the two liquids combine to created a weird purple goo in the canister of the jet injection gun.

"What next?"

Rain asked lost and concerned, she didn't know what she should do next, she was emotionaly distressed and couldn't think strait.

"Stay away from the door, throw a canister out and release the virus to the city"

The Red Empress shouted distressed, it was the first time Rain could see the A.I. show such emotions, she couldn't tell what would make the A.I. so afraid, before however she could take a canister out, a hand reached for hers. Chris was blocking her from taking the canister out.

She looked at his face and could only scream as his visage was distorted, his skin as if meltiing off his face, but his eyes looked at her not with hunger, but determination.

"Red Empress, take me to see Alice!"

Chris shouted with his last strength, the A.I. as if bound by an invisible force to obey turned around, Alice was on the same rooftop, aiming at them with an RPG, ready to blow them out of the air.

She was confused however seeing that the heli suddenly turned around and headed towards her, now she was a bit reluctant to shoot, not because she was taking pity of them, but because if she did, there was a huge posibility that she herself wouldn't survive the aftermath, the heli was too close for comfort.

"You bitch, you told us she was leaving the City!"

Rain shouted as she saw Alice out of the door of the Heli and waved to her as if she was seeing her best friend, causing the other to become even more hesitant to shoot. The Helicopter landed on the roof and Rain was shocked to see Alice holding the RPG, aiming their way, just in case the Empress decides to fly off.

"Chris was shot, there's a sniper on the loose we have to be on guard"

Rain said as she moved carefuly, not knowing that it was Alice that shot at them.

"Did the Empress send you or the Queen?"

Alice asked, still cautious of her.

"That bitch told us you had left the city, she even wished to unleash the virus with you still in the city"

Rain said, visibly angry.

"You're not serious, you didn't know that we were manipulated?"

Alice asked shocked by Rain's simplicity, she should have at least suspected that something was going wrong.

"Chris was shot, he wants to see you, I..."

Rain didn't know how to explain herself, since Chris now looked no different than a zombie.

Alice didn't know what to say, just moments ago she shot him, but she didn't know whether to say it or not as she was dragged into the heli by Rain, only to see a horrid looking person, that looked no different than a zombie.

"What did you do, is he even alive! Why not just let him die!"

Alice asked enraged, looking at Rain, whom seemed a bit guilty.

"You're one to talk, after you shot him, did you wish to finish the job so much?"

The Empress said, shocking Rain to the core, but Alice felt nothing, she was still sure she was doing the right thing.

"He should have died and with him, you and your counterparts would disappear"

Alice said, but the Red Empress begun to laugh as if she heard the most funny thing today.

"Kill...me"

Chris said, his voice hoarse and weak, causing Alice to be more shocked than ever.

"He didn't wish to release the virus"

Rain explained, causing Alice to feel guilty for the first time, she didn't even feel guilty when killing all those soldiers, but for some reason right now she felt as if she had done something wrong, both her and Rain felt guilty.

All the way Chris had asked them multiple time to just give up on the mission, to just live his days until he died by the system, but they were led astray by the Empress that did everything she could to keep him alive. It was also probably her that drew these forces towards them, just so to make them help him accomplish his mission against his own wishes.

To everyone's shock, Alice gave an order.

"Empress get this bird flying, we're finishing this mission, lets go Rain, lets send this idiot home"

Rain was a bit confused, but the heli was about to fly and she rushed inside, the Heli flew high. Alice stood looking at a canister in her hand and threw it down, while looking at the sunset as they flew away.

=Objective No 6 - Survive for 24 hours=

Chris couldn't even see what the objective was as he lay sick, between life and death, he felt as if he was dying, like being really sick lying in bed.