Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Resident Evil or any of the main Characters. I just borrowed them for a while.

Epilogue

Alice sighed in relief as she sunk back into the cushioned bench on the deck of their house hoping to enjoy a few minutes of peace as she watched the moon and stars spread their light over the ocean. She had been up before sunrise that morning to lead a hunting team into the surrounding hills to try and replenish the colony's supply of fresh meat. A task that normally would be considered tiring to anyone was made even more so with the addition of several new hunters to their groups they could get the job done quicker. So she had spent the last fourteen hours trying to teach the young teens the ins and outs of hunting. It had been a long day. Hell, she couldn't help but think it had been a long five years and that was only including the time they had been on the island.

With a sigh she let her mind wonder back over all they had accomplished. Four days after their last raid the Arcadia was close enough for the Osprey to reach the island without too much trouble. Leaving Chris and Luther in charge, Claire and John had flown the council members, William and some of his group, as well as Jill, Alice, and K-mart to take an aerial tour of the island. The island had been more densely covered in trees than Alice had remembered but everything else had been as she described.

While more trees meant more wood, it also meant that William's estimates had also been off and it would take more time to clear the land than they thought. They were also happy to see signs of wildlife along with rivers and waterfall fed pools. It would mean plenty of water for them to drink. When they returned to the Arcadia and reported their findings, it lead to a giant celebration. Everyone was so happy that things had been as Alice reported and that no one cared about the amount of work ahead of them. The last two days of the journey had been tedious for all of them, but it was with a great sigh of relief that loaded up the first boats with people and supplies as they made their way to shore.

It took them the entire first day to bring all the people to the island; each boat load carried enough tents, food, and water for the people in it. It was crowded and both Alice and Claire knew that tempers would become short when they all settled down for their first night. They could only hope that everyone would be able to make the best of it.

That first morning after making sure everyone was fed; the first order of business was to bring over enough food supplies and necessities to last them for a while. They would rotate out a small group of men on the ship every three days who would be responsible for guarding their supplies and keeping a look out for trouble. While Claire helped organize temporary storage for the supplies with tarps and several storage tents, Alice took a group of men back to begin bringing over the building supplies which were housed in another storage tent. That had taken them the rest of the day.

By sunrise the next morning every able person was broken into groups and put to work by clearing trees, some with two person saws and some with axes. The trees were tied up and dragged by groups of men to a small clearing where they were split, chopped, sanded, and stacked. The older ladies who were helping with that began their own projects with making sheets, cloth doors, and other things they would need when the time came. The children were put to work in various ways, helping where they could, but everyone worked and everyone was thankful for the mild temperatures.

It took them two months to clear enough trees and create enough wood before they had a large enough space in which to start building. Another group broke off then to start construction on the first few buildings. Once the storage buildings were complete and the Colony Hall was built, they moved all of their supplies from the ship to the island. It had slowed down the process of clearing the land for a while because it took a large chunk of their man power to help break down and remove all the necessary furniture and supplies. Instead of wasting gas on running the boats back and forth a pier was built and the Arcadia was brought as close as possible and all of the supplies were unloaded that way.

They cleared it out of anything they thought they might use, tables, chairs, beds, and desks all had to broken down to get out of doors and then would have to be reassembled later. Once it was stripped the Council approved Chris' request and he set out with a group of twenty men to procure a new boat, more supplies, and to look for survivors.

After three months the community dorms were completed and the colonist happily moved all the small children and older adults in doors. They were still sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags, but at least it was a roof over their head and it cleared up some space for those still on the beach.

Every few weeks they would get rain and Alice could remember the celebration that occurred the first time it happened. Most of them feared that they would never see rain again. After the dorms were complete they began working on the houses. The colonists had insisted that the first house to be built would be Alice and Claire's. The two women had argued, but in the end they lost the fight and so their house became the first one built.

It was placed on the very edge of the clearing with one side facing the trees and the other overlooking the ocean. It consisted of one large family room that was open to the kitchen, then three smaller bedrooms, and one small storage room. The windows were opened but shutters could be dropped when it rained and the side of the house that faced the ocean contained a covered porch.

Both women knew that it was more luxurious than the other houses would probably be, but the joy they witnessed when the people of Phoenix Island showed it to them made them accept the inevitable. They were even more surprised to find it already containing the furniture that had been taken from the captain's quarters on Arcadia. Claire had cried when she saw that and hugged each person she could get her hands on.

Three months after his departure, six since they first arrived, Chris returned with two different ships, 200 new survivors, and tons of supplies. Work had stopped the next day while everyone celebrated their success and welcomed the new members to their colony. The following day everything went back to normal and the new colonists picked up tools and began to help.

It took nearly a year before all the houses were complete and they could start focusing on other projects. The school house was constructed, beds built for the dorms, more land cleared, and the soil turned and aerated for crops.

K-Mart had her hands full figuring out how to run everything possible with the solar chargers and solar panels. Frank had been right during that first raid. They would never have electricity in the houses but they did have movies every Friday night, which were run with solar powered computers and projectors. She was happy to move in with Claire and Alice when the house was finished and she continued to develop first her friendship and then a relationship with Cassandra. A year ago the two had married and moved into a recently vacated house right next door to Alice and Claire.

Since Chris was gone from the island looking for survivors so often, the two women were able to finally have the house to themselves. Chris would return every six months and his group would stay for a week or so and then leave again, sometimes with the same men, sometimes with others. He seemed happy with his nomadic lifestyle and Alice knew it was because he still couldn't fully accept that she was in his sister's life to stay.

Claire didn't let it bother her and always welcomed him to stay in their house when he returned. When he returned he would always bring as many supplies as possible and sometimes he would bring more survivors. They were always welcomed and so far had all taken on their fair share. He had also helped a group of a hundred settle in Alaska when they choose to remain on the main land and afterwards was joined by nearly 400 more. He would now check on them each time they went out and they would always send some men to help in any raids.

Luther had taken over control of the Community Hall and it was a big hit. There were always plenty of young teens and older women around who wanted to help in cooking food for the colony. The kids always served their time in serving the food and cleaning up afterwards. On an average Luther served at least 1,500 people per meal, the rest choosing to eat in their own kitchens. He'd finally given up his anger over the Claire and Alice situation and was finally dating a woman named Maxine. No wedding was in sight but the two seemed happy together.
Jill and Sarah had gotten together and married two years into the colony's establishment. They took up residence in a house across and three doors down from their friends and it wasn't unusual for the three couples to share a dinner together.

So far they hadn't seen nor heard anything from or about Umbrella but Alice wouldn't count them out yet. They would be back it was only a matter of time. But until they came Jill was helping Alice with the training of the island's law enforcement and military reserve, but she had readily agreed to take on the duties of seeing to the colony's law enforcement. They had experienced their fair share of trouble, but so far nothing that couldn't be resolved with damages being paid or sometimes in the new jail house. Neither woman was looking forward till the time when they had to figure out how to punish someone for a serious crime.

The sound of children laughing as they made their way home for dinner reminded Alice just how much they were growing. Couples had started marrying and new children were being born. The first was born 2 years ago and since then they had welcomed twenty-five newborns into their folds, but as good as most things were, not everything was well.

They had lost people. Nearly one-hundred of their original numbers were gone. They'd lost some to accidents while they were building; some had been lost in raids to the still overwhelming numbers of undead and some had been lost to the dangers of the island. They had encountered poisonous snakes, spiders, and other insects whose venom was deadly. Two deaths still impacted Alice, Claire, K-mart, and Cassandra greatly as they had only happened a few months ago.

Jessica and her new husband Mark were close friends with the K-mart and Cassandra and as such had come to see Alice and Claire as family. They were so excited when they found out that they were expecting their first child. They couldn't stop beaming for weeks and then tragedy struck when Mark was bitten by a snake during a hunting trip. The venom had killed him before they could ever make it back to the village.

As a result, Jessica was devastated and Alice and Claire were terrified that she would lose the babies. She'd managed to hang on long enough to give birth to twins, a boy and girl but she too had died when her body simply gave out during the births and it had been a fight for Sarah and Cassandra to save the children.

"Hey you." Her wife's voice shook her from her thoughts. "Can you help me, please?"

Alice jumped to her feet and smiled at her wife as she immediately took custody of one of the little bundles in Claire's arms. She leaned in to kiss her wife deeply before leading her to the bench to sit down. Sitting down next to her, Claire immediately leaned into Alice's warm body as Alice adjusted her hold on the precious bundle in her arms. "Hi there." She whispered as she ran her finger down her sleeping son's cheek. "How's my little man this evening?"

"He missed you today, baby and so did I." Claire said, turning her head and finding her wife's lips again, kissing her deeply, and pouring all her love into the contact. They continued to kiss until their daughter's fussing in Claire's arms caught their attention. "And so did she, didn't you baby-girl." Claire said smiling down at their daughter.

Claire and Alice had resigned themselves to never having biological children. Neither of them wanted to take the chance of spreading their DNA or blood to an innocent child, unsure of what problems it may cause. Even if that wasn't the case, Claire would never consider having sex with a man to conceive a child and Alice would never ask her to. But when Jessica passed away neither woman thought twice about petitioning to the council for permission to adopt the new born twins.

The day that they officially brought home Matthew James Abernathy-Redfield and Angela Michelle Abernathy-Redfield was the best day of their lives and even now, with many sleepless nights down the road they didn't regret their decision.

"Did you ever think that we would end up here, together like this?" Claire asked softly as to not wake the sleeping infants.

"If you had asked me before I met you if I could ever see myself married to such a wonderful woman with two amazing kids and an extended family, I would have laughed at you." Alice admitted. "I was so lost for so long after what Umbrella did to me. I felt like I had lost my humanity, my reason for living, and then I met you."

She turned her head and gently kissed her wife again. "You gave me back my humanity. You gave me back my reason for fighting and for living. You gave me back my heart and soul. I think I knew after our first night together that somehow we would eventually end up here together like this and I thank whatever deity might be listening every day that I was lucky enough to find your love."

"I love you, Claire." Alice said with all the sincerity she had. "I love you and our children and I will do everything in my power to show you day after day just how much I love you."

"I love you too, Alice." Claire said with tears in her eyes. Laying her head on her wife's shoulder and pulling her daughter close she whispered again, "I love you too."

The End.