Rating: PG-13, may be switched to R later
Disclaimers: I don't own Resident Evil or anything else in my stories with a copyright.
Author's Notes: This idea popped into my head at 4:28 in the morning, after I abandoned all thought of sleeping before my 9:20 a.m. class. It's about a few… friends of the survivors from the games, namely the S.T.A.R.S., Leon, and Carlos (I haven't gotten to play anything not on PS1 or DreamCast; damn poverty!).
Prologue
The glow of the computer monitor was the only light shining in the cramped apartment on the outskirts of Paris. Leon S. Kennedy sat before the computer screen, wearing a white tank T-shirt and dark blue boxers, tiredly brushing his dark blond hair from his eyes as he sipped his coffee, surfing the Internet.
The Internet had always been a favorite pastime of Leon's, and it had become a useful tool since his time in Raccoon City, fighting both Umbrella and severe boredom. At the moment, however, it was providing him with nothing interesting, much to his irritation. If he couldn't sleep, he wanted to at least do something fun.
Bored, he typed a web address for a page about an area in the Arklay Mountains. He rarely looked in on Arklay any more, as it tended to induce feelings of anger and homesickness. Still, there wasn't much happening in France at three in the morning, and when his mind wandered, it usually went back to his parents and his friends in the area…
Leon suddenly sat bolt upright, his eye having caught on a news article at the bottom of the page. "Former Raccoon City Teacher Survives Vicious Attack," he muttered allowed. "Morgan Watkins… that name…"
It didn't take long for him to place. Sherry Birken, the little girl he and Claire Redfield had helped rescue from Raccoon City, had talked about a teacher named Miss Watkins, who told them to call her Morgan. She had been Sherry's favorite teacher.
It wasn't Morgan Watkins, or the title of the article, that had attracted his attention, however. It was the words "Umbrella, Inc."
Leon double-clicked the link to the full-length article and quickly scanned it. The police had been called to investigate a noise disturbance made by the frantic barking of Watkins's dog. When they arrived, they found out Watkins was being beaten to death inside her home and the two officers forced the door open. The assailants fled, shooting one of the cops in the leg and the other in the collar bone. Watkins was now alleging that her attackers were demanding information on the whereabouts of Sherry Birken, a former student thought to have perished in the destruction of Raccoon City…
Leon's mind
was reeling. He had hoped Umbrella
would never find out Sherry was still alive.
Numerous people had seen Sherry, but he hadn't thought anyone would have
recognized her or overheard her name.
Umbrella obviously knew; you didn't send people to rough up and maybe
kill someone's favorite teacher if you thought the girl was dead. What was Umbrella doing? Why would they care if the kid was still
alive? How much could she know if her
parents and all their work had been taken out by a nuclear warhead? Had they connected her to—?
Claire.
"Shit," Leon exclaimed. That had to be it. They knew Claire was still alive, and now they wanted to find her and her brother. Probably the rest of them, too. If they knew the daughter of William and Annette Birken had escaped Raccoon City's destruction with Claire…
"The Rockfort incident," a voice behind Leon whispered, making him jump.
Leon spun, his hand automatically moving from the computer mouse to the H & K VP70, his nine-millimeter handgun, beside it.
Chris Redfield stood behind him, staring over his shoulder at the computer screen. He didn't even glance down at Leon, who relaxed and set the gun back down gently. "You couldn't sleep either," Leon said. It wasn't a question. Seven people lived in this cramped two-bedroom apartment—Barry Burton, Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliviera, Rebecca Chambers, Chris, Leon and Claire—and on any given night, at least one of them couldn't sleep or woke up screaming. Usually, considering her recent ordeal at Rockfort Island, it was Claire who woke up screaming the most, but today she had slept soundly and Leon had thought himself the only one awake.
Chris didn't answer Leon's observation. "They know Claire made it out, then," Chris said dully. "They know she and I are still alive. Which I figured, considering Wesker—" Chris nearly spat the word— "made it out of that hell hole too. Apparently Umbrella wants revenge a bit more than I figured they would."
Leon swallowed, staring up at the bland expression on Chris's face. "Maybe they just want to find the G-Virus. Or Sherry," he said, trying to put a hopeful note into his voice.
Chris laughed bitterly. "Don't try to make me feel better, man, especially not with that line," he said ruefully. "Sherry is staying with Barry's family. If they caught her, they'd catch us all eventually. Barry's wife probably knows a few things, and I don't know if I could stop Barry from repossessing his wife and kids should anything happen to them." He sighed. "I'm not sure I'd want to stop him, anyway."
Leon nodded. He hadn't really thought about the phrase before he'd said it. Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily. "So. What do we do, Fearless Leader?"
Chris sighed. "Do some more research. In half an hour, I want enough to wake everyone up, get it?"