Well… this is going to be it for Won't Forget You. It was a good run while we had it, but right now I'm taking a break from writing – Judgment and I just need a little vacation. You have plenty of other entertaining writers out there to keep you happy while I fade into the shadows for a while. Keep an eye on my profile page, I'll make sure to keep you as up to date as possible on what I'm doing, what I'm working on, when I think I'll get back to writing, etc.

Secondly, some of you stalkers – ahem, readers – are really freakin' awesome. Thank you.

And lastly, even while I'm off the writing scene for a while, I welcome all messages from my readers – hate mail about another hiatus, love mail/marriage proposals, random acts of awesomeness, I think you get the idea here. I'll still be around, just not actively writing – unless by some freak accident I get eaten by storms while out chasing them (tornado alley is a fantastic place to live during spring and early summer).

So, until next time dear kiddies… I bid you adieu. While I'm gone, I expect you to give the love you'd normally give me to the other great RE fanfic authors out there.

Part 2: War is the Answer

Time to set the record straight
As of now the end begins
I want to laugh but there's no joke
Motherfucker, war is the answer

"Alice isn't coming?" K-mart asked as Claire stormed to the front of the Hummer and got in with an irritated huff.

"No," the redhead answered. "She's not coming. She's going to try and get herself killed." The SUV's engine roared to life, seeming to growl a little louder in response to its owner's aggravated state.

The teen fell silent after that, looking in the side mirror to watch the fading figure. Alice was supposed to stay, they'd been looking after each other since the blonde stumbled into her life bloodied and broken.

Claire grabbed her radio as she got her vehicle going again. She spoke into the device as she checked the mirror to make sure the others were falling in line. "We're heading north, guys."

There were a few moments of silence before Mikey's voice crackled back over the radio to her. "North? What's north?"

"Alaska, and hopefully somewhere safe to stay," Claire answered.

#

Alice only glanced over her shoulder once as she left the convoy. She did regret her words, because she knew they hurt Claire. It had been necessary though. This was a mission she had to do on her own; she couldn't have the redhead or any of the others from the convoy coming with her.

As she trudged through the sand, she wondered if she really had cared about the redhead. If she did… would it have been so easy to say those things? Would it have been so easy to break the other woman's heart?

Sometimes, you have to destroy something perfect to make it beautiful, the blonde thought to herself. They had fit so easily together, it had been as close to perfect as anyone could hope for. Now it was beautiful – she broke them to save Claire, likely sacrificing herself in the process.

She never considered the cost to the redhead though.

"Stop thinking," she eventually told herself. It didn't matter that she was talking to herself, it was a distraction. "Nothing good ever comes of it."

Her thinking and conversation had to be put on hold soon enough. She came upon a ridge and saw a crumbling weather station down below. Knowing Umbrella, that was just a cover. It had to be. Alice was absolutely certain that the building was just an entrance to a large complex. The intact fence and few straggling undead gave her more proof than she needed.

Before descending the ridge, she glanced back in the direction she'd come one last time. "I won't forget you, Claire," she promised the air.

The blonde turned and picked her way down the ridge. There was no point in trying to be stealthy about it. Umbrella was probably watching her trek across the sands toward them. She was confident in her ability to take whatever they threw at her – she'd managed so far.

Thankfully, she didn't have to worry about the undead that were hanging around. Their motor functions were already severely hindered. The fence didn't even offer a challenge. Instead of breaking it open and letting the few straggling undead in, she simply leapt the fence in a single bound.

Landing on her feet, she honestly expected immediate gunfire, bombs… something. There was nothing to greet her though – just the silence broken by guttural groans of the undead she'd left on the other side of the barrier. She would have felt better if she'd jumped into a trap, but she pressed forward.

Alice headed for the building, noticing signs of fairly recent activity at once. There were several sets of foot prints and even tire tracks – this was definitely a facility and it was still active.

The inside of the building was underwhelming, especially considering the mansion she'd been living in not so long ago. Apparently after the end of the world, the corporation didn't have to uphold appearances anymore. It was still fairly clean inside, some stray sand and dust in places but not nearly enough for the place to be convincingly abandoned for well over a year.

As she stepped forward, the table in the middle of the room split in half and even the floor pulled apart. In place of it, a platform elevator appeared. Now the blonde was getting a little apprehensive. The situation was just too quiet. She had yet to see a single person and that was making her paranoia skyrocket.

Still, she removed a pistol from the bag over her shoulder and stepped onto the elevator. There was a very simple control pad on the side and after a moment's contemplation, she hit the button to go down.

When the platform began its descent, the floor shut overhead and lights turned on sections at a time to illuminate the way down. Alice had no idea what would be waiting at the bottom and while claustrophobia had never been a problem for her, she didn't like being in this confined space – it was more the threat of the unknown than actually being in the elevator shaft.

It seemed like the ride down took an eternity, but she was well aware how big the facility likely was. She'd end up stories below ground, right in the middle of an Umbrella run lab… thinking back, she decided this was definitely not one of her smartest plans. It was done now.

Finally, the elevator slowed and the shaft opened into a large open space. She actually came out right in the middle of the lab. It was like a blast from the past: there were people working around her as if nothing at all was wrong. None of them even seemed to notice her presence. People in lab coats and others in suits worked at computers or over microscopes or discussed something on a clipboard – for a moment she thought she was back in the Detroit or Raccoon City facility.

After the temporary shock, Alice stepped off of the elevator. She watched the others in the lab with unrestrained suspicion, but none of them so much as acknowledged her presence. Either she'd completely mastered the stealth thing without even knowing it or they were far too prepared for her arrival. Something told her it was the latter.

Her assumption was proven right as a familiar voice greeted her. "Project Alice, you finally found your way home," Dr. Isaacs stated smugly.

She slowly turned to face him, incredibly pleased to find it was actually the man and not just a cheap projection. "I thought you'd be here, so I dropped in for a quick visit," she replied.

"Quick? I don't think you'll be leaving anytime soon," the doctor informed her. With a motion of his hand, several heavily armed guards surrounded Alice on three sides, disarming her.

The blonde couldn't say she was surprised. They took her guns, but she was still a weapon herself. "If you think you're going to do anything else to me, you are sorely mistaken."

"For now, I just want to show you what we've been working on. I think you'll find it most intriguing. I've had to do a great deal of improvisation since you broke out of our Detroit facility." The doctor waved his hand once more and two guards took Alice by the arms to lead her after Isaacs as he turned and walked down a nearby hall.

She really didn't appreciate the escort, but Alice followed anyway. She wanted to know what the good doctor had been up to since she escaped.

They didn't go very far down the hall. Isaacs stopped and pushed a few buttons on a keypad, a door opening in response. Inside, the room was absolutely dark. "Inside," he instructed. The guards didn't give her much of a choice, pushing the blonde inside.

Alice turned to see the door slide back in place and what had once been white walls shifted, turning completely translucent as the lights flickered on. What she found waiting for her in the room was not what she expected – several copies of herself.

It was completely surreal and for a moment, Alice didn't trust what her eyes were telling her that she was seeing. Surely this was some sort of mistake. There was no way that Umbrella could clone her, but then again more impossible things than that had happened.

She wasn't given any time to figure it out, because one of the clones to her left came at her swinging. She ducked under the attack and then was forced to maneuver to the side as she heard another of the clones come at her from the opposite side. Alice grabbed an incoming fist, shoving the clone back before tripping another that came after her.

"You don't have to do this," she tried to reason with them.

The doctor's voice filtered into the room via an intercom. "I'm afraid they do. You may be able to resist your neural dampener, but I took a much more direct approach in keeping control of them."

Alice swore lowly, taking a hit that knocked her several feet back and to the ground. The copies were practically as strong as she was - which wasn't something that she had expected. They were just as fast too and with half a dozen of them moving in, she knew she was actually in a bit of trouble.

She flipped back up to her feet, blocking the first two attacks and countering a third with a kick to the gut. Before she had time to prepare for the next round, a clone got in behind her and kicked one of her legs out from underneath her and another delivered a nasty right hook to the side of her face. The punch drove her back to the ground and more than one foot connected with her stomach and chest – the final kick driving her back into the wall hard enough to crack it.

Alice knew this was turning out to be a very bad situation. Half a dozen copies of her that had the same strength and speed definitely outmatched her. She simply wasn't going to win this way. As the clones pressed in on her, she spit out a mouthful of blood and pushed herself up off the ground. This time, she was more precise in blocking the incoming attacks, taking as little damage as possible from the copies.

Isaacs wasn't going to beat her into submission that easily. She still had one up on all of these clones – she was the original Alice, nothing could ever own up to that.

Mustering the will and determination as she defended herself, Alice's pupils dilated and she unleashed a telekinetic blast that literally shook the entire facility. The clones were tossed back like ragdolls, shattering the glass wall and spiraling back until heavy, solid objects broke their flights.

Dr. Isaacs and several others had been plowed over in the blast. In fact, there only seemed to be one person left on their feet in the whole facility - Alice.

She stepped forward, the rubble of the cracked floor crunching underneath her boots. The mental blast had taken a lot out of her but sheer force of will kept her going. She heard movement ahead – a couple of the clones were already getting back on their feet and arming themselves with large pieces of debris.

"This isn't funny anymore," she informed them. The first rushed at her with a broken chunk of ceiling, intention of bashing her head in with it. Alice ducked under the attack, bringing her fist up into the copy's gut as she stepped forward. Without giving the other any reaction time, she got behind the clone, reached up, and snapped the copy's neck.

There was absolutely nothing that could explain the feeling of killing someone that looked exactly like her.

She wasn't given time to try and put words to what she was feeling. The other clone was moving in fast. Alice dropped down and swept her leg around, knocking the clone off her feet. Without missing a beat Alice grabbed a large chunk of broken glass, turned, and drove the sharp object into the clone's chest.

She could honestly feel her brain at work, trying to fathom how she could literally be killing herself. It wasn't getting very far though.

The other clones were up and on their feet, but Alice dispatched them as well – each falling a little easier than the one before. Anyone else that had been in the facility had either high tailed it out or was in the process of doing so. They never expected the blonde to be able to best the clones or cause so much damage to the complex.

Dr. Isaacs was still there, however. He wasn't going anywhere – not when his precious project was so close at hand. "Project Alice… there's no need for more senseless violence."

Alice turned at the sound of the doctor's voice, frowning when she faced him. He seemed different somehow – actually, it seemed like his muscle mass was building. The lab coat he had on and clothes beneath were stretching and starting to tear. "What have you done?" she asked.

"Me? Oh, this is all your doing, my dear," the doctor informed her. He reached up with one hand and ripped off what was left of the lab coat. "Your little telekinetic stunt… when the glass shattered, it injured several people. Then the clones flying through it, I suppose the chances of blood contamination were incredibly slim, but I could always count on you."

Now Alice understood. If Isaacs had been injured and one of the bleeding clones hit him, there was a chance that their blood had mingled. It seemed like that was exactly what had happened. "Enjoy it while it lasts – before I kill you."

Isaacs scoffed at her, now ripping off his shredded shirt. At the rate he was growing, the blonde wondered if he actually had the upper hand. "I think I was wrong about the future… you aren't it. I am the future."

"You won't get to see the future," Alice told him before unleashing another telekinetic blast.

The doctor was knocked back several feet, but he stopped himself. He regained his footing and rooted himself. "That's not going to work," he said before rushing the blonde.

His bulk was slowing him down a great deal, for which Alice was very thankful. She dropped down as the doctor swung his hulking arm around and attempted to kick out his knee on her way back up. The attack didn't work – he didn't even budge. He swung back the other way and Alice sidestepped to avoid him, failing at another counterattack.

The two went back and forth with neither of them landing a truly successful attack for what seemed like ages. Alice was at a complete loss. Whatever she threw at Isaacs bothered him about as much as a mosquito bite. She was beginning to wonder if his uncontrollable mutation was too much for her to handle, but thankfully she wouldn't have to answer that for herself. They fought all across the lab, destroying anything and everything that was in their way.

As he swung his arm around again, there was a sickening sound that was similar to something being ripped apart. The noise was quickly drowned out by Isaacs howling in pain. Alice didn't know what had happened until she stepped back and saw him cradling his arm with his other hand – there was a large gash running up the length of his left arm, from his wrist to his shoulder. Blood flowed freely from the wound and as he attempted to stop it, a similar gash opened up on his other arm.

The infection was literally tearing him apart.

Alice watched in twisted fascination as his bulging muscles became too much for his skin to contain. If he wasn't growing at such a rate, it wouldn't have been a problem. But considering how quickly and how much his skin was being forced to stretch, his body couldn't handle it.

The gashes were widening the more that Isaacs moved and others were opening up across his body. His pained cries of agony fell on deaf ears – as far as Alice was concerned, he deserved what he was getting. He was part of what created the virus, he took humanity away from her - it was some sort of poetic justice to be destroyed by his own creation.

The more breathing room that the mutations were allowed – in the form of splitting skin – the faster they worked. In the midst of Isaacs' agony, Alice could hear bones popping out of place and shattering.

Even when the bellowing stopped and all that was left was a bleeding heap of mangled flesh on the floor, the mutations continued. The T-virus was an incredibly powerful thing – she could only imagine what would happen if someone was contaminated with her blood. Or would it happen at all? It wasn't something she was willing to find out.

To prevent any further incidents and considering the virus was infamous for re-animating the dead, Alice walked to the nearest working computer terminal and disabled the facility's sprinkler system. After that, it only took her a few minutes to create a suitable mass of flammable objects and light it all ablaze.

Rather than burning down to the ground, this facility would burn up to it. Alice would have nothing left behind – especially if Isaacs didn't stay down. She went through other areas of the facility and started more fires, making sure anything ignitable was well within reach of the flames. If this place was going to burn, she had to do it properly.

When her work was done and she finally made it back to the surface, the sun was long gone. The stars overhead were her only source of light and she was suddenly very glad that she'd left the fence intact. After the fighting and arson, Alice was honestly tired. She couldn't stay anywhere near the facility – there was no telling what all had been down below the surface, but she knew the threat of large scale explosions was very real. The last thing she needed was to be blown up too.

She'd have to start from scratch again – she had only brought weapons with her and those were lost somewhere down below the surface. That thought didn't bother her though. Nothing bothered her at the moment. Instead of feeling satisfaction or remorse or… anything really, she just felt empty.

Claire was right. Revenge – geared inward or outward – was a poison. Just as deadly as that venom was an unwarranted need for redemption. Combined, the two had taken everything out of the blonde.

It was true, she got what she wanted – she saw Isaacs' death for what he'd done to her and to the world. But considering that had been her drive for so long, she was now at a loss as to what reason she had to continue moving forward. There was a certain redhead that deserved an apology, but after the way they'd parted Alice knew that the other woman would want nothing to do with her.

Maybe someday she'd gather the courage to head northward and see if the convoy made it to safety.