Waking Up From a Nightmare

[¤Amy Grace¤]

"My name is Alice. I worked for the Umbrella Corporation...."

She'd probably watched that video back a thousand times or more to the point where she dreamed about it.

"Amy, wake up," a soft voice said to her and she sat up slowly rubbing her eyes and looked around the room, someone was standing at the door and motioned for her to follow. Amy got up and grabbed a shirt off the chair next to her desk and slid it on, she exited the room and saw the person down the hall motioning for her again and she followed.

When she turned the corner there was bright lights and a room surrounded by close circuit monitors, "I was head of security at a secret high tech facility called The Hive..."

Alice's face appeared on each screen, it was different every time, some her hair was different, others she was wounded, others she was just older and younger. Amy saw the person standing beyond the monitors and they motioned and stepped through another door, she followed, the wall to her right illuminated with Alice's face, "there was an incident, a virus escaped and everybody died. Trouble was... they didn’t stay dead..."

She pushed into the room, the door was left cracked and the person was standing with their back to her, she slowly turned and it was Alice, "The T-virus reanimated their bodies. But I survived..."

"I survived..."

"I..."

"...Survived..."

Alice dashed forward grabbing Amy by the shoulders, her skin was decayed, her eyes sunken in, her teeth rotting and she could feel the bite around her throat.

---

Amy's eyes opened and she was staring at the ceiling, almost an inch from it, when her mind clicked back in she let out a yell as she fell eight feet to her bed landing on it and bounced rolling to her right her feet met the floor and she threw the blanket to the side running to the bathroom where she turned on the cold water stopped the sink from draining, she looked at herself in the mirror and over her shoulder she saw her iDroid was blinking with a missed message.

"Droid, play the last recording," Amy said as she grabbed a wash cloth and dipped it in the water and began to wash the sweat off her face, neck and chest.

Adam's voice played, it caught her attention, he struggled with his words as if he was in pain, "Hey kiddo, it’s me… I messed up... Looks like this is the end of the line for me… and this time I’m not going to be able to have a last minute miracle bail out either. I knew this day was coming eventually, so I’m glad I got to see you and talk with you at least once before it did… Now’s as good a time as any to tell ya this to where you can actually hear it. Should’ve done this a while ago… Maybe things would’ve gone different if I had… I love you Amy. Always have and always will from the first day we met… Promise me… you won’t blame yourself for what happened, don’t try and seek out revenge or anything like that. Just do you and live you hear? Have a good life… We’ll all be watching and cheering you on… from where ever we are."

Amy was looking at herself in the mirror as the message played, her expression hadn't changed through the entire thing but then a single tear ran down her right cheek and she let out a yell and slammed her fist into the sink shattering it. There was noise from the other room and John kicked the door in and came around the corner peeking into the bathroom.

She looked back at him and the iDroid clicked, another message began playing, a voice she didn't recognize.

"I got this frequency number from Chamber's records, I'm going to give you a little advice and recommend you wipe all your records and change contact details or else hunting you is going to be a lot easier than I want it to be. Sorry about your friend, he's being delivered to the RPD. I'll give you the day, don't make this easy."

John began typing on something on his hip, it played in a robotic voice, "are you okay?"

"No," Amy said pushing past him and began fumbling through her clothing dressing herself, "tell Marcus to get me in contact with Nine. I need a favor."

"O.. K.."

---

It was around 7 in the morning or so when she stepped onto the street and began walking to the RPD, she used a secure channel on her iDroid and sent a text to her new friend at the RPD: I need to see him.

[«Wraith»]

Another few minutes and a text came back. "I'm not going to lie to you... that not really a good idea." However Amy would actually get a call from a number, should she pick up a somewhat gruff sounding voice came over the phone. "I got this number from a mutual acquaintance of ours, currently the head of STARS. This is Barry Burton, is this who I think it is?" He asked waited for a moment, "We just received his body not even a couple hours ago, if you are who I think you are, come into the station near the rear entrance by Kendo's. I'll meet you there and let you in."

[¤Amy Grace¤]

She didn't answer, she let it go to voice mail and checked it as she walked, Burton was a name she was familiar with because of Jill and Chris. When she had a thing with Chris he filled her in on every person on the STARS team from back in the day and said that Burton was one of the good guys, even after all these years she still trusted him...

Amy crossed the street and walked the sidewalk and stood at the corner by Kendo's and recalled the number and simply said, "I'm here," before disconnecting and waiting.

[«Wraith»]

Like he said Burton was there waiting and the gate to the underground parking garage was open. "Follow me." He replied as he lead her through the garage and towards the area that the morgue was in. "They brought him in late last night but I got word of it when I clocked in today." He opened the door to the morgue and signed a paper on a clip board handing it over to the mortician as they were lead to the container holding the body. "You need to prepare yourself, he wasn't exactly treated the best." Barry warned as he opened the tray revealing Adam's dead body, the signs of a fight were still there bruising sticking out easily from from the cold white flesh of the corpse. His face still had the cuts and his chest was caved in from the cavity left from the round that finished the job.

"Never thought I'd see 'em like this..." Barry had a brief stint with Adam when he was younger on the west coast sometime after he was apprehended by himself and at the time B.S.A.A. Operative Claire Redfield. "These were brought in with the body." He replied handing her a plastic bag with his stuff, mostly his dirt and blood soaked clothes, a wallet, his old K-bar knife that he had gotten on his 16th birthday from Carlos and a picture of the old group together similar to the one on her IDroid. "I'll give you some time alone," He finally said nodding at the mortician and leaving the room with him.

[¤Amy Grace¤]

Amy followed and listened, she wasn't really in a talking mood, she wanted to get to know Barry but at the same time now wasn't the time for that. When he showed her Adam's corpse her expression narrowed and she frowned, she had to see it for herself to believe it but here it was, the reason she was going to turn this city up side down and cripple the government. There were things Alice once said to her about Sears and his role as President and what she'd do to him if she had the power to do so, there was a very large difference between her and Alice though, Alice would froth at the mouth over what Amy could accomplish now.

"Had to go out with a bang didn't you," Amy finally said, her voice was choked up at first but she got her shit together after the first few words, there was no place for getting emotional right now, "I would do anything right now to turn back the clock to 2005 and do this all over again."

She opened the plastic bag and took out his wallet pocketing it, then the knife slipping it between her belt and jeans and finally pulled out the picture. She noticed something on the back when she had pulled it out and looked at it, "2007, White Rabbit. 13:67 never forget."

"Chambers, you sly mother fucker," Amy said with a smirk, the enemy just handed her the one thing she needed and he didn't even know it, Amy pocketed the picture and dropped the bag on a counter, all the was left was Adam's clothes, she stepped over to him and bent forward kissing his forehead.

"I will always love you," Amy said putting her hand on his cheek, a tear dripped off her cheek onto his and she turned away and exited the room, "thank you."

[«Wraith»]

Barry nodded, escorting her back out of the garage and onto the street out in the open. He took a moment before finally speaking up. "I'm willing to turn a blind eye to somethings that are going to come. But we're still going to have to keep up appearances. I don't care if it was legal or warranted in whatever way the media wants to spin it. You make sure you get the bastard who did this, and make that son of a bitch pay." He didn't know Adam all that well, but Claire did and when he had to tell her the news he was both saddened and angered over the hurt she was put through, that same feeling he felt right now looking at Amy. He handed her a slip of paper with his number on and walked back heading back into the police station.

[¤Amy Grace¤]

"They don't get to walk away from this in one piece," Amy coldly replied to Burton and took his number, Amy walked straight through the doors of Kendo's gun shop, "Nico, I need a gun."

Nico popped her head from the back, "got it done for you this morning."

---

She sat down a wrapped up pistol and unwrapped it, "this beauty is a play on your old 45, it's no longer a colt style but I'm sure you'll get over that real quick like when you see what this puppy can do. Come."

Nico lead her around the back to a firing range and handed over the robust pistol, "I picked this sucker up off Hellsing and reworked it, it's bulky but I think you can handle it."

"This is Alucards 454," Amy said holding it.

"Damn straight it is, might as well deck the Maiden of Revolution out in iconic weapons to send a message to those fuckers," Nico said slapping her on the ass as she crossed over behind her and Amy squeezed the trigger, the slide slammed back and the round went down range blowing straight through the metal target dropping it.

"It's no longer a 454, I repurposed the inner barrel and mechanisms to use a .500 smith and wesson magnum round, I'm not doing anything fancy with them so don't be surprised if you shoot a vamp and he screams for ten minutes while he bleeds to death instead of just ashing," Nico said and Amy pulled the trigger again this time ready for the recoil.

"Six rounds in the mag one in the chamber, seven total, if you can't kill something with seven bullets then I assume it's a bad mother fucker," Nico said and motioned for Amy by snapping next to her face to get her attention and the two walked back into the other room, Nico pulled out a holster, "custom reverse fit, you'll be drawing that puppy like a sword from your left hip, I don't think you can draw it off your same hip it's too fucking long."

"Nico, this is amazing," Amy said to her, "what do I owe you."

"A better life," Nico replied, her cheerful smile was gone, "all of my friends are dying around me, all of your friends are dying around you. You owe me nothing if you can promise to bury these mother fuckers."

They hugged and Amy exited the shop, she shot a text to Redgrave: Are you free to talk?

[«Wraith»]

There was a response back eventually; "I'll be on lunch break in five." the text read, about five minutes later Redgrave could be seen walking by the gunshop across the shop heading somewhere. He was just getting off of shift when they brought the body bag in earlier and he hadn't put two and two together until later that day when he clocked in and over heard Barry and Jill talking. He himself checked out the body and sure enough it was the Old Man. He still hadn't told Aya though, he wasn't sure how she'd exactly handle it, though his face was already being plastered over all the news stations and his death was being reported as celebratory news.

Even the papers were in on it, 'Wanted B.O.W. Adam Kurgan, 39, dead' 'last surviving white rabbit terrorist dies at 40' and of course, 'known threat hiding as long time resident for 4 years finally brought to justice.' He'd read all the articles and it pissed him off how they slandered his name and dragged it through the mud. The things he must've gone through in his life, all of them to give everyone the chance they had now and this is how he was treated.

"He died in the wrong era, if it was any other time he'd of been a fuckin' hero." He said shaking his head. He'd been in his own thoughts until he realized Amy was right there, probably staring at him for how long he didn't know.

[¤Amy Grace¤]

"He died on his own terms," Amy said to Redgrave, "fighting like the old days. I don't think he honestly ever really enjoyed fighting as much as it seemed but he used to say it was the one thing he was good at, and well, there's always a bigger fish.... I think that's a quote from a movie."

She motioned for him to walk with her, "two questions, first off what is going to happen to his bar, and secondly, are you hungry?"

[«Wraith»]

"I could eat." He replied before shrugging, "I don't know honestly, probably shut down or something." He said quietly, "Though a lot of us were planning to hold a small thing there tonight for him. Just his regulars and friends you know? So if anyone who knew him back then is still around let them know." He fell quiet again, "What are you going to do?" He asked lowly as they walked, he figured he'd let her figure out where they were going to go eat.

[¤Amy Grace¤]

She chose a small sushi bar off the main road as they walked, "I'm sure I can get some people together, I'll send out a message, I did get told I have the day so I'm going to assume that means I don't have a target painted on my back yet... And if I do and they attack the bar tonight... well let's be honest, they'd all probably enjoy the chance for revenge."

They were seated and menus put down but Amy already started ordering without looking at the menu, once again she was reading the menu off across the room, "California roll, Unagi Donburi, and a tempura crab stick, can I get a side of spicy mayo as well?"

[«Wraith»]

"They'd be idiots if they did." He replied simply, "If anyone from those days are still around, it'd just be a massacre." He was pretty surprised by her choice considering this was his usual place for his lunch break and they already knew him and his order by face. "Just the usual." He replied as he sat down with Amy. "Please tell me you're not going to do anything stupid or Illegal." He asked, almost pleading in a way. "Like don't get me wrong, technically the guy was my uncle and I want to help but it's gotta be by the book ya know? It's not like it was back in your day when you could just hunt someone down and kill them in the streets."

[¤Amy Grace¤]

"Funny thing about how things were then and are now," Amy said, "society has changed but people haven't."

She took the picture out of her pocket, "here, look at the back. 13:67 never forget, in those days we used a lot of fake bible things, if we needed to hide a frequency like 140.15, we'd simply write 14:15. Codec numbers were pretty easy to solve, basically if there was a 0 after the first numbers it would be removed so 14:15, but if the number was 141.12 it would become 14:12 followed by a cryptic verse like, 'there is only one god'."

"Given that 13:67 isn't followed by anything cryptic the frequency is 130.67."

The waitress came back to the table setting down their food another followed behind setting down two glasses of water.

[«Wraith»]

"Wait what?" He asked both slightly amused and bewildered. "Why the need for crazy things like that?" This obvious came someone who never grew up in a time period back when only Umbrella were the only ones with unbreakable encryption tech which took three or four genius level hackers to break. Thankfully Redgrave would never live in a time when he needed that level of secrecy just to get a simple contact or talk to someone over long distance.

As soon as the food came he thanked the waitress and grabbed a pair of chop sticks before handing a pair to Amy. "Please tell me you know how to use these." He went about picking up a piece and dunking it in soy sauce before popping it in his mouth.

[¤Amy Grace¤]

"Simple, you can make a phone call anywhere in the world in 2006 and Umbrella would swarm your location the moment they knew it was you, instead we used codecs, it was military tech given to us by David Pliskin, well not him exactly but he was the one who got us in contact with the people who set it up for us. Basically you could make encrypted calls directly to a person without worrying about hacking in. Granted, this techs old now and has probably been figured out, that's beside the point."

He asked if she knew how to use chop sticks but she simply looked over at hers and they slipped out the red packaging and snapped on the table and she picked them up, "of course I do."

Amy set out on a war against her California roll.