Disclaimer: I don't own Capcom, or any of the characters created by them.
This storyline is following two years after the Resident Evil: Degeneration Movie - read it up on Claire Redfield's wiki profile if you don't know it ^_^.
Enjoy!
→For it is only through personal reflection,
That we can now choose our destiny;
... Our next adventure;
... And the future we will embrace.
-Kit McCallum
Life is a precious thing, something you can't just waste. This is one thing I have realised over the years I have been battling, fighting, with the dead, and I could never give up, even if everything inside me told me too. The feelings I have felt have been structured and destroyed by hate and rage, created by a man, a man whose name I don't dare speak of, for it sends the burst of madness and anger within me - the one who killed Steve, diminishing part of my life with it. That, I can never face.
It had been two years since the Harvardville incident, and I'm still an active member of the Terrasave unit, an organisation that promotes and supports human rights, but since the accident we've been keeping the organisation quiet, if anyone knew that a member of it was involved with the airport and zombies incident, there's a possibility we could be shut down, for reasons which are unjustified. For these two years, I still haven't found myself; I don't know why I am here, or how I manage to keep on surviving. I don't know anyone anymore, and the people I did know are long gone, and so I've found that I've lost parts of myself in them – and now I feel empty, and lost. The only beings that seem to understand me are my cat & my brother, but since Chris joined the BSAA, it's just been me and the Siamese.
I recoiled from the memory of the incident, so much pain and lost there, I can't face it. I quickly jumped up from the sofa, grabbed my old jacket and headed out the door, at times like this my apartment doesn't seem like home, and so I found every excuse to get out of it.
Manhattan, to me, is the city that never sleeps, forever lit by the core of lights and it surrounds the city, even though it may not be a safe city, I still see the light as a protection veil when I walk through it. I didn't realise how untrue that was that night.
The movie store was still open; and renting a movie seemed like my escape at the time. I opened the door, happily hearing the familiar chink of the bell against the glass, and then stared upon the rows of films and DVDs. I didn't know titles, so I just grabbed one with an action cover and went straight to the till. I placed it down on the counter and looked up to the Cashier, his face was blatantly worried and his eyes glinted as I looked at them, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion, he then looked very quickly to his left and then back to me, and I stared in his direction.
In the slightly illuminated corner of the store, lit by the soda fridges and the light outside was a faint dark figure, my heart stuttered as I realised he was holding a handgun, pointing towards the Cashier's skull. I hastily looked back at him, while he put one of his hands up, and the other in the till, pulling out wads of money and then handing them to the figure; the figure sniggered and grabbed the notes. I hoped that would be it, but that's when I heard the gunshot, I had heard many before, but this had a shattering sense to it.
"Argh!" The Cashier screamed, clutching his abdomen and falling to his knees, I didn't notice that the mugger had split and ran away; my only focus was to save the injured man. Within second's blood pooled out within his fingers, and it began to drip on the floor, forming circles of the dark liquid. I put my hand on his shoulder as soon as I jumped over the till, catching my leg on the side and swearing as it did so. I could feel the tension of his muscles in his shoulder, "Press on it, otherwise you'll lose a lot of blood" I placed my hand on the gun wound, and put pressure against it. He whimpered loudly as I pressed on it harder and harder, but somehow the blood wouldn't seize and slow, I just kept feeling the warm, wet liquid pouring onto my hands. He gave his final breath, and died while I was trying to save him, the gasping truth couldn't escape me here. As I looked at him, with a gut wrenching realisation I saw that there were two gun wounds; one probably punctured his lung, the other stomach.
Nothing...this was the emotion I felt the next day, after hours of a session with the police and then Terrasave getting involved, saying that I couldn't of possibly of 'forgot' to ring the police or the ambulance, nor did I 'accidentally' not notice the other wound. Of course this is all true, I forgot to ring services and I only tried to stop blood gushing out of one would, not two. Terrasave dropped me, saying I was a risk to their organisation and I had to accept that there was no turning back.
I was angry with myself; I didn't have the courage to fight the murderer, even though I have put the gun to many heads before, and even when I don't have a gun I still find a way to stop them – when another being is in danger, I stop them.
I had no emotion, and that is what scared me the most – I was like the incurable that I had fought all those years ago, only to serve a purpose, to rescue or to kill the killer, and last night I did neither.
Through the night, I didn't sleep, I remembered the Harvardville incident. And what Leon said, his words echoed through my head;
You're a rescuer, not a fighter like me and your brother
I needed help, and Leon was the only person who I knew could help me – I will find him, no matter what it takes.