*Insert clever and witty comment here* Except that I have nothing clever or witty to say. Oh well, sucks for me. Well, except that nothing I use as a line break is working right now, and I don't know why. So bear with me. I'm a little mad, because that means that transitions to different times in the story are going to look weird as hell.

Anyways, enjoy.
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Wake Up

How long had it been: Two, three hours? Leon didn't know. All he was aware of right now was a horrible pain in his neck. He should have at least used the bed in the apartment before he went to sleep. That way he could have woken up without an annoying ache.

Leon slowly got to his feet, listening to his joints pop and wiping the sleep out of his eyes. He knew he was still in this apartment, and that he had killed a zombie not too long ago. He also knew that he would have to move soon if he wanted to get out. There was no use in staying in the building for too much longer.

The last thing he remembered was crying, which was odd. He had never actually cried over grief or fear before. And maybe it was because he was still trying to wake up, but he didn't really feel anything anymore. It was like everything had been repressed after he had fallen asleep. Was this his way of getting back in control of the situation? He didn't know, but he decided not to question it.

Leon checked to make sure he still had his service pistol on him, which he did. Now all he had to do was get the hell out of here. That was a lot easier said than done though, because he didn't know what awaited him out there. Especially now that several hours had passed since he had actually taken the time to look out there.

That made him think for a minute. What time was it right now? From what Leon could see there wasn't a clock visible from where he was sitting, so he decided to go look in the bedroom. Walking to the bedroom, he was reminded of his recent kill; the zombie that had almost made him lunch. He quickly looked away to avoid vomiting from the mess he had created.

Leon got to the bedroom and saw that it was currently 6:00 pm. Wow, time really flies, he thought. It hadn't even been noon when he had fallen asleep…had it? He was pretty sure that it was early when he went to sleep, meaning he had been asleep for quite some time.

Leon walked out of the bedroom and to the front door. If he were going to escape to another apartment, he would have to check the surroundings before going out. He opened the door just a crack, to see what awaited him. He was surprised to see nothing. No corpses littered the hallway, which meant that they had all gotten up and walked away, but they weren't walking around the hallway either. This meant that they had all gone somewhere else, presumably downstairs.

Leon took out his pistol and slowly opened the door. There could still be a couple of them outside his range of vision, so he wanted to be prepared for a surprise attack. But there wasn't a sneak attack, because like he had seen, there was nothing on this floor. This both surprised and relieved Leon. At least now he could make a bit more progress without having to fight for his life.

Leon went to the stairwell at the end of the hallway and walked down, holding his pistol out in front of him just in case he did run into something. But there was no trouble going down to the next floor. There was also nothing on the third floor either. Leon was starting to think his luck had finally turned around.

Strolling down to the second floor, he saw a zombie lingering at the other end of the hallway. Leon stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't need the thing hearing him, so he carefully made his way down the corridor, trying the locks on the apartments as he went by. All of the ones he went by were locked, and Leon soon found himself in a predicament. Halfway down, Leon stumbled over his feet and fell. Hitting the ground, he cursed under his breath. He knew that the zombie would hear him, and it was only a matter of time before it would come running.

He got up and saw the thing lumbering towards him. This one was missing a large chunk of its arm, probably a bite victim. Leon almost felt sympathetic towards it, but he knew what he had to do. He started to look around for a door that was maybe left open, and saw exactly that. Someone had their door open just a little, and was peeking out at him. When Leon noticed the person, they quickly shut and locked their door.

Leon ran over to the door and started knocking on it. He looked down the hall and saw that the zombie was getting closer with its slow, lumbering walk. He turned back to the door and started knocking harder. "Whoever's in there please let me in! I'm not infected, I swear!" Leon thought about begging, but decided that it might not work.

"Can't do that son, sorry." It sounded like an older man, and he obviously wasn't going to let Leon in.

"Sir, please, let me in, one of them is coming down the hall," Leon was begging now.

"I said no, sorry," said the man.

"DAMMIT OPEN UP!" Leon screamed at the unseen man. The zombie was within punching distance now, so Leon grabbed his gun and prepared to shoot it.

"Fine then, I'll let you in," said the man. The door opened and Leon quickly entered and closed the door. He took a few breaths to gather his nerves. "I'm sorry I yelled, but you have to understand one of them was about to get me," Leon said noticeably shaken by the experience. He turned around to see who had saved him, and was greeted with a pistol to the face.

"You have ten seconds to prove that you aren't infected, or I'm gonna splatter your brains all over my wall," said the unknown man, never taking his eye off of Leon.

Leon almost pissed himself at this. "A-Alright, just hold on," he stuttered out. Leon pulled up his sleeves and showed the man. "See? No bites."

"Take your shirt off," the man was obviously not pleased with just those results.

Leon took off his shirt and slowly spun around in a circle. "Are you happy now?"

The man carefully looked Leon over, making sure he was free of bites. After the inspection, he said, "now your pants."

Leon was dumbfounded by this statement. The man saw the look Leon had on his face, and replied to it with, "Unless you want to be out there with that thing, then be my guest. But if you want to stay here, take off the pants."

Leon reluctantly did as he was told. He certainly didn't like undressing in front of other men, but he didn't like being with zombies even more. He was in his boxers now, slowly spinning around to prove he wasn't bitten. After another inspection, the man said, "Alright, you're fine. You can put your damn clothes back on."

Leon let out a sigh of relief. After he had put his clothes back on, he walked over to where the man was now sitting. The living room, with enough furnishings to fill a full sized living room in an actual house. It was all bland furniture, but it still looked good considering it was just a drab apartment.

The man looked at Leon. "Hey sorry about all of that. It's just that since all of this shit started, you can't trust anyone. I just had to be sure, you know? Anyways, the name's Mark."

Leon stared back. "Leon. And yeah, I know what you mean."

Mark seemed to be in his mid-fifty's. He had gray-black hair, blue eyes, and a slightly stocky build. Leon could tell that he was pretty new in the city, because he had somewhat of a southern accent when he spoke.

There was silence for a while, and then Leon decided to speak up: "So, why didn't you leave with the rest of the people that got out?" he asked.

Mark looked at Leon with what almost looked like a saddened expression on his face. He sighed, "Well, when I saw all of those people getting killed, I figured it would be a good idea to stay inside my apartment. You know, make myself unseen. If they don't know you exist, they aren't going to go after you. I keep my kitchen pretty well stocked, so I can live here for a little while before I have to actually move. And when I do, I'll just climb right out on to the fire escape. Surprisingly, none of the creatures are on it. But if one just so happens to make its way out there, it won't be coming in here, I put a bunch of shit in front of the window to make sure it wouldn't get in."

Climbing out of the fire escape, now why hadn't he thought of that? It must have been because he was too busy panicking to actually realize it was an available escape route. He looked over to Mark's fortifications and saw that he had actually done a good job. There were plenty of heavy objects in front of that window. It would probably take more than a few zombies to knock them over.

"Hey buddy, you awake?" Mark was up in Leon's face now.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm here." Leon's mind must have been miles away.

"Heh, you didn't hear my question did you? I asked why you were still around."

Leon sighed. "I just woke up to it," he replied, "nothing special. The night before, everything is ok. I wake up this morning, and there're dead bodies in the hallway. I was too freaked out to even remember that there was a fire escape." He chuckled at this. "But I guess that's a good thing now, since I've found another survivor. You know, strength in numbers and all."

Mark nodded. "True. Very true indeed. Say, this may come off as a bit weird, but do you have a weapon on you by chance?"

Leon pulled out his pistol and showed it to Mark. He took the gun from Leon and examined it before giving back. "Alright," he said, "I just wanted to make sure. No use in working together if nobody can defend themselves."

Leon holstered his weapon. "Yeah, I guess."

Mark studied Leon carefully. "You don't seem all that nervous before. Tell me Leon, have you gone through something like this before?"

Leon snapped right to attention. "Yeah," he said, "I have."

"Well then, tell me all about it," Mark said, leaning back on his sofa.

So that's what Leon did. He told Mark all about what happened at Raccoon city. He told him how it had been his first day on the job. He told him all about what Umbrella had done to the citizens of the city. He told him how he had barely escaped the forsaken city before it had gotten nuked. Leon didn't really like telling this story, but it didn't look like they were going anywhere any time soon. And besides, Mark listened well. The man was leaned forward in his seat, absorbing Leon's story.

When Leon finished, Mark stood up and went over to the window. Looking out to the street below, he said, "Well Leon, you seem to have some experience with shit like this. So what do you think we should do?"

Somehow, Leon knew that question was coming. Though, he had already thought of something as he was telling his story. "Simple, we get out of this building. We're gonna need a car though. Travelling these streets on foot will pretty much be suicide unless we're in a car. The thing is, I walk to work every day, so I don't have one."

Mark turned around, grinning. "Well, I guess it's a good thing I have one then."

A few hours later, they were prepared. They had laid out a plan that, while not perfect, would serve well for the situation at hand. The two survivors were currently carrying any provisions they could hold while still maneuvering well enough to fight off zombies. Stocked up and ready to go, their plan was simple: Get the hell out of here and to Mark's car.

Luckily, they wouldn't have to go down to the street in order to get in his car. There was a parking garage connected to the apartment building. A hallway connected the two buildings together, and the door going to the garage was in the lobby. Leon still didn't know what was all down there, but at least he didn't have to walk around the street where he would be an easy target for these things.

Mark opened the door, and Leon stepped out. Gun raised, he quickly turned from left to right to make sure nothing would pounce on them as soon as they started walking. The zombie that had attacked him earlier was now all the way on the other side of the corridor; away from the stairwell, and their ultimate exit.

Leon motioned for Mark to follow, and he did so. Quietly shutting the door as to not alarm the zombie, Mark kept an eye on it just to make sure it didn't notice. With the door shut, they now made their way to the stairwell. They took light steps, and made sure they didn't shake the food they had with them too much. Before they had left, Leon had suggested using the bed sheets as carrying cases. Paper and plastic bags would make too much noise. Nevertheless, they didn't need things dropping out and causing noise.

They got to the stairs without any issues. The zombie down at the other end was still turned away from them, oblivious to what was happening behind it. The two survivors proceeded down the stairs, ever cautious of noise. When they had decided that they were a good distance away from the zombie, they relaxed a little. Leon let out a sigh of relief. It was as if he had been holding that one breath in the entire time.

They were at the first floor landing now. Here, there was a series of hallways that ultimately lead to the Lobby. Leon couldn't hear any of the moans that the zombies generally made, so he took this as a good sign. He was still cautious though. If one got cocky, they usually ended up dead. That's just how it seemed to work.

The survivors slowly made their way to the lobby, ever so slowly. Leon was trying to pay attention, but all he could hear was the audible thudding in his ears. It was as if his heart was trying to jump out of his chest. He didn't know the last time he had been so scared of something. He hadn't even been this scared in raccoon city.

But he trudged on with Mark close behind. They would be coming upon the lobby soon, so Mark drew his gun and held it out in front of him, waiting for a zombie to cross his path. Leon did the same thing while repositioning the sacks of food on his arms. There was some audible moaning now, but nothing too severe. It didn't seem like there was a lot of them.

Well, that was wrong.

As they entered the lobby, they discovered where all of the apartment's residents had gone. Here they were, aimlessly wandering around the lobby of the building. Not all of them were currently here, but a good number of them were. Leon estimated that there were about 40 in all. 40 of them just standing here, motionless, waiting for a hapless meal to walk by.

Mark gave out a startled, "OH FUCK!" as he rounded the corner. Leon slapped his hand over the man's mouth, but it was already too late. The zombies had heard him, and were now shambling towards them. Both of them were completely frozen in place. Leon darted his eyes around for a path to the garage, and Mark stood there and whimpered.

Leon saw that the receptionist's desk was clear in the space behind it, so he grabbed Mark's arm and started running over that way. Leon pushed the stunned man behind there before running behind the desk himself. Hopefully, Leon thought, they'll come behind here. The zombies did start funneling to the area they were in, but a few remained on the other side. They were waiting for the survivors to come out from behind the desk.

Once the zombies had made considerable progress towards them, Leon vaulted himself over the desk. He was about to run off towards the garage, but realized that he had dropped the food he was holding, and that Mark was still standing behind the desk. "Shit," Leon muttered under his breath. He turned around and grabbed the food first; he knew how to hotwire a car if he needed to, his first instinct was self-preservation. After he had saved the food, he decided to save Mark. "Goddammit Mark, snap out of it!" Leon screamed this to Mark as he dragged the stunned man over the desk. When he was back on the ground, he finally came back to his senses.

They sprinted over to the door leading to the parking garage. There were a few zombies in the way, but they were easily taken care of with a bullet to the skull. Mark threw the door open and they ran down the hall. The zombies were ambitious though, and followed behind. The survivors made good distance between them, but there were more zombies when they got to the garage. Coming out of the corridor, Leon was attacked by a zombie. It pulled him to the ground and attempted a bite.

But the zombie's maw only caught his shirt's sleeve. Ripping it away, Leon realized how close he just came to becoming one of them. Leon kicked the thing off of him and sprayed its brains all over the concrete. He stood back up and resumed following Mark to his car. "Are you okay?" Mark asked, worried.

"Yeah, it didn't bite me," replied Leon, visibly shaken by the experience. He was rubbing his arm where the zombie had taken a bite of the shirt. He was still pretty shaken; this was just to make himself calm down. People didn't realize how nerve racking an encounter like that really was to a person.

They maneuvered their way through the garage, dodging zombies and trying not to get cornered. It was hard, because it seemed like all of the residents that weren't in the lobby were in here. But at least it was a larger area to move around with. Trying to do this with the same number of zombies back in the lobby would have been suicide. They eventually got to Mark's car, a 2008 Ford Fusion. Leon smiled. He knew a car like this was reliable. Well, as long as it had gas in it at least.

Mark pulled out his keys and started to fumble with the lock. Leon kept an eye on the space behind him, making sure nothing would attack him. Unfortunately, something did decide to attack him. A zombie lumbered out from behind a car and started to make its way towards them.

"Mark, you can hurry up with that lock any day now!" Leon yelled, panicking.

"Yeah yeah, I got it!" replied Mark.

Since Mark didn't have the remote unlocking unit with him, he had to fumble with an actual key. He finally got it opened, and unlocked the door for Leon to get in. Leon quickly opened the door and got inside, slamming the door behind him. The zombie was a second too slow. It flopped itself against the window and clawed, trying to get inside.

Leon let out a sigh of relief. "Alright, now step on it," he told Mark.

Mark nodded and started the ignition. The car sprang to life, and Mark drove out of the garage. When they were on the street, he asked Leon, "What do we do now?"

"Simple," replied Leon, "we look for other survivors."