Burning Up

Thought You'd Never Answer

"How are you holding up? Nothing new happening?"

Alice kept her gaze firmly locked on the sidewalk ahead of them. She mimicked the low volume of Rain's voice. "Nope. You? I can practically hear you thinking from here."

Rain waited for a second before asking, "...Did I know who I was working for?"

"Not fully, no. You and your teammates weren't high enough clearance." Alice slowly exhaled. "I knew, though. I was one of the security officers in charge of guarding the Hive's entrance."

Rain was seated on a metal folding chair in a bland, small-ish, cold meeting space. J.D. occupied the spot to her right, and a stern-faced woman with brown hair in a small bun was to her left. Behind them were more chairs. J.D.'s knee was fighting with Rain's to take up the gap between them. It was something they often did when seated next to each other, and the action had become a mindless one. Their attention was on the person speaking.

"—in the event that the Hive is breached, the Red Queen goes offline, malfunctions, or some other crisis occurs. Chief Abernathy is one of two officers stationed at the entrance, and..." An exasperated sigh. "Goddamnit, where the hell is Parks?"

"Running late, as per usual." A safe voice. Safe and familiar, but slightly off. Sharper. Alice? Someone in an expensive coat with a head of short blonde hair stood. Definitely Alice. She strode to the front of the room. "We'll start without him." When she turned to face everyone, Rain thought that her face seemed different as well. It was quite...

Blank. Blank in an off-putting kind of way, rather than the stoic, "I don't want you to know what I'm thinking" way that Rain was more used to her wearing.

She had never seen this woman before.

"Right before everything went down," Alice continued, cutting through Rain's thoughts, "I decided to try and help a mole that managed to infiltrate the Hive. We were going to expose their real research, but Spence became privy to the plan and decided to throw a wrench in. He had his own goals in mind."

"Spence..."

The room was flooded with a foot of water. Rain was sitting on the raised entryway, fighting to maintain consciousness. She felt like complete and utter shit. Her vision had started to deteriorate, but she could tell that the man in blue standing beside her was Matt, and the woman in front of her petting her damp hair was Alice.

"I won't take any part in this."

"Okay, but you can't just..." There was a third person. A weasely guy that Rain could vaguely recall. He was aiming a gun in their direction. "You can't just wash your hands of this. We work for the same company. You knew what they did."

"He was your boyfriend, right? Husband? Whatever."

"Yeah. Emphasis on was."

"I was trying to stop them."

"No." A chuckle. The weapon swung toward Matt. "You really think that people like him will ever change anything? No. Nothing ever changes."

"What changed?"

"Well, the whole betrayal and leaving us to die thing was kind of a turn-off."