Chapter 1

Laya cried out as the zombie lunged at her face. Her handgun, fresh out of bullets, was lifted before her face defensively. Unexpectedly, a single gunshot broke the silence of the night. She gasped as blood sprayed over her face and raised arms. Turning her head, she gazed at her rescuer. He wore a police outfit, and was carrying a gun, much like her own. His silvery blonde hair fell into his eye on the right side of his face, and his light blue eyes were pronounced in the moonlight. The blue shirt embroidered with 'R.P.D.' hinted at lean muscle, and lots of it. He offered her a hand.

"You okay?" his voice was dark and low.

"Yeah, I think," She answered, allowing him to pull her up, "Thanks."

"No problem."

She shook her own chestnut hair out of her eyes, and glanced around. A girl was with him. Her red hair was pulled up in a ponytail, short and a purple red. Her blue eyes, darker than the man's, shone with life. No chance either was infected.

"Leon S. Kennedy." The man introduced himself.

"Laya D. Markl." She answered, mocking his slightly arrogant tone; very annoyed.

"Claire Redfeild." His company introduced herself, a smile on her face at Laya's tone.

"Have you two been traveling with each other long?"

"No. We just met a little while ago." Claire answered me.

"Can I tag along? There's safety in numbers." she persuaded a little, smiling.

"Three isn't much for 'numbers'." Leon commented on her word choice.

"Be quiet!" she scolded, annoyed by him.

"Sure." Claire smiled at her.

Laya took an instant liking to the girl, but though he was extremely attractive, Leon was an asshole.

"So, are you trying to pick fights with undead, or escape the city with brains intact?" Claire asked Laya, her face curious.

"I'm mostly trying to stay intelligent, with a side of escape. I rather decided I liked my already half dead mind when I realized it deteriorated with a single bite. You?" She asked, smiling.

"I'm trying to find my brother, and Leon's escaping with as many survivors he can." Claire responded.

"Sorry to interrupt your chitchat, but more are coming." Leon pointed to the entryway of the alley Laya had found herself in. Zombies were limping and ambling their way towards the trio.

"Come on, we can do what I was going to before he showed up and I ran out of ammo." Laya explained, deftly motioning to the zombie Leon killed a minute ago.

"You ran out of ammo?" Leon asked dryly as Laya shoved the gun into the waistband of her jeans, and backed up to the opposite side of the alley, then, while nodding her head, she ran and jumped up to grab the fire escape dangling midway between the ground and second story balcony of the apartment building they were standing by. Her weight dragging it down, when it hit the ground she ran up the stairs, followed by Claire and Leon. After all three were clear, she started hoisting the stairs back up to the level they were on. Leon went to the other side of the stairs and helped her.

"Here, take it." Claire captured Laya's attention when she had finished pulling up the stairs, and tossed the young girl a box of handgun ammunition. Grinning, she nodded her thanks, reloading her gun's clip.

Then she reverted her attention back to the apartment they were standing in front of. The door was sliding glass, and Laya didn't bother to open it. Raising her leg, she kicked the glass in, shattering the door into fragments that lay on the fire escape and the inside carpet. Then taking a step in, she swung her gun around the open doorway, from side to side, searching for zombies. A groan sounded to her left, whipping around, she shot the head of a woman, blood spattering everything. Another zombie.

"Search for anything of use, might want to grab a snack too. Keep your eyes and ears open, and your guns loaded." Then she commended to start searching drawers and cabinets. Leon and Claire followed her lead.

"What the-?" she jerked her hand back and stared at the creepy fuzzy thing lying in the drawer.

Leon was at her side a moment later, and when he saw it, his turn was just as quizzical.

Claire joined them at the drawer, "It's a rat."

"That is not a rat. I have seen rats, I have owned rats, and they do not look like that!" Laya emphasized the "not". Very distinctly.

"So then what do you propose it is, 'cause I have no idea either." A voice spoke out of the darkness.

Laya whirled with Leon and Claire; all had their guns pointed to the voice. A girl stepped into the moonlight, and flicked a switch on the wall. She had silvery hair, not blonde, but not the gray of old people. Her lavender eyes were smiling and she grinned at Laya.

"Hey Lay." Rachel LaBordeau grinned at the chestnut haired girl.

"Rach?" she asked, her green eyes narrowed as she analyzed her cousin.

"So how'd you get yourself in this mess?"

"It doesn't matter. I need to shower." And Laya then walked through the apartment to find the bathroom.

"You're taking a shower?" Leon asked as Laya walked through the now lit room they were standing in. Besides the bloody zombie, it was a fairly well decorated room. It was simple, with cabinets on both walls and halls on each side.

"Yup. Haven't showered since I left my own apartment, and have been splattered in gore." She turned to him as she said it, and he clearly saw her red-brown hair, sticky and unnaturally twisted with dried blood. Small bits of skin and more dried blood coated her bare arm and pant legs.

She turned and walked into a small bathroom, though from where he was standing, Leon could still see a shower. He frowned, muttered "hurry up" so no one in the room could hear it, and continued searching the room. The shower turned on a minute later, and was only on for about ten minutes. By then he was finished with his search, and sitting on a couch by Claire and Rachel, who were still trying to figure out what was in the drawer. Moments later, the door opened and Laya walked out in a towel. Her hair shone a bright chestnut, red highlights brightly reflecting the meager light.

"Can I borrow some clothes?" she asked her cousin.

"Of course you can Laya." Rachel stood up, and no one seemed to notice that Leon was still looking at Laya's curvy figure under the towel. But right before the two girls disappeared around the corner, Laya turned her head to him a little bit, and raised an eyebrow, smiling.

Rachel emerged before Laya, who was wearing a tight black tube top and a short pleated black skirt. A gold band was wrapped around her bicep, and a knife handle showed from the top of her thigh-high black leather boots that clung to every smooth dip in her long dancer's legs. Black suspenders wrapped over her shoulders, attached to her belt slung over the shirt, and had holsters on either side, another on the large black belt, next to some pouches filled with ammo. All the holsters were filled.

Wandering his gaze to hers, Leon also noticed Laya's bright green eyes contrasting with the blue eye-shadow spread over her eyes. She was giving him the same look she had while leaving the room. One eyebrow raised, her pretty red lips pulled into a smile.

"Let's go, I'm ready if you are." She said to them.

"You coming Rach?" Claire asked the pretty lavender-eyed girl.

"Sure, why not, you guys are the main characters, you need comic relief." She grinned at the three staring at her.

"Rachel watches too many movies and ran into a wall when she was two."Laya explained to Leon and Claire, who were staring at Rachel like she was insane. This was a distinct possibility at this point.

"Obviously." Leon commented.

Laya smiled, but a split second later her expression grew serious.

"How are we getting out? We can't go the way we came in, and the other side of the building is another building attached, but their cut off completely from one another. So, we have to go through the main entrance, or the fire escape is it."

"Why not the main entrance, it shouldn't be to bad."Claire asked.

"Because a family of six lived on the ground floor, and none of them have retained humanity. I already tried to escape, and, they're slow, so I tried to out run them and tripped. I fell on some broken glass; it totally ripped my leg up. I bled all over the floor while trying to escape back up here. They aren't going anywhere outside anytime soon. This was yesterday." Rachel revealed.

"Are you okay?" Laya asked, and when Rach nodded her head, Laya continued, "I think we have enough bullets if we go, but I don't know about how many will be outside. Any hypothesis?" she addressed Leon and Claire.

"No idea, the amounts change so quickly,…"Claire offered.

"Same here, when we were there earlier, there were only a few, but with seeing us and making such a fuss, I don't know what to expect."Leon was shaking his head as he answered her.

"Then lets find out shall we?" Laya smiled.