Author's note:
So we see this is more of a sweet and simple little fic. No great drama. No dark torture for our hero and his friend. This is how I always see Leon and Claire, friends—maybe more—and FUNNY. They are funny. I keep losing my way in my other fics. I get the drama and the dark and forget that he was FUNNY. Bad funny. But who played RE4 and didn't laugh at how awful he was? He was great. Let's go with it. Suspend that disbelief when reading it and enjoy it.
Slainte!
….
II: The Woman in Red, The Dude in the Trench Coat, and the Eyeball in the Shoulder: WHAT?
ALEA IACTA EST
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." – Edgar Allen Poe
:::::::::::::::::::::::::TWO::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Raccoon City, 1998
The dude in the trench coat was a scary mofo. He chased them down the hallway while they ran. They hit the far door, burst free, and kept running. Meanwhile, the windows with the boards? Yeah, they were shit city.
Crap.
Bogus corn.
The windows burst and boards creaked and split and bodies just came pouring into to try to eat them. Claire screamed, Leon stomped one into the ground, and they started leaping like Olympic hurdlers. They burst into the next room. It was a conference room or a lecture hall or something.
Claire ran down the stairs and Leon followed her.
"You been here?"
Leon shook his head, "Nope! First day remember?"
"Didn't you come here to interview?"
"Yeah. ONCE. I met the police chief, I shot some shit, I took a test. THAT was it!"
"Fail!"
"And then some! You ever visit?"
"Not this place. This is the room where Chris took naps. That's all I know!" They turned left and went out the door. They were in another hallway. They raced down it and there they were fucked.
Screwed.
And scared.
A helicopter had taken a nose dive and burst into the roof and wall where it was now lodged, sorta desperately. It just…sat there, burning and stinking. The dead pilot was flopped out of the broken windshield, roasted and blackened. It smelled like burnt hair and armpit or something. It was bad.
There was a half sagging door to one side. Leon hit with his shoulder.
And the dude in the trench coat walked right into the hallway. He ducked, he walked. He was the perfect psycho killer. He just walked after them and wasn't in a hurry. He looked bored.
"FUCK!
Leon agreed with Claire.
He hit the door again and it was locked. He put his boot to it. It shivered. He grabbed her, "Kick it until it opens."
"What?"
"I'll hold this asshole here. KICK THE DOOR!"
She started kicking. Leon pulled his pistol. Ok, his brain said, this is target practice. Just do it. And he did it. He just started firing.
That ugly face jerked, jerked, and burst with blood. But it kept on coming. And grabbed his around the throat. It lifted him, shook him, and smashed him into the wall. He kept right on going through the wall.
He burst into the next room, an office of some kind, and hit the far wall there. He came down, half dead? Or something. It hurt. The pain lanced into his chest and had him rolling to his side.
Claire cried, "LOOK OUT!"
And he rolled. The fist smashed where he'd been. And would have decimated him.
He got to his feet and over turned the desk beside him. The next fist smashed the desk into splinters and screams of metal joints. Holy shit. There was such a thing as being outclassed, outassed, and screwed. This was that moment. He couldn't see how it could get worse.
And then the thing punched him in the face.
Pop. He got his arm up, sorta, and blocked the blow a little. Which probably saved him a broken nose and swallowing his own god damn teeth. But it felt like being donkey kicked by a horse from hell anyway. He went down, felt dizzy, and waited to die.
And Claire was on its back. She leapt on it, giving a warrior's whoop of battle, and shot it in the back of the head at close range. It teeter tottered, it stumbled. And Leon yelled, "TIMBER!"
He rolled, rolled, and down it came. It smashed face first into the floor beside him and was still.
Claire leapt off at the last second and he made an OOMPH as she landed on top of him. She looked at him where he lay on the floor. And grinned.
"I saved you."
"Seems that way."
"You are a bit clumsy huh?"
Well that was insulting, kinda. He was pretty agile. Hand to god, he was good. He was. He was just scared stupid and facing something the size of an elephant. It was going to be his time to shine soon, he was sure of it.
"I have my moments."
They looked at each other from inches away. She looked at his mouth. He thought, DERP, and she said, "I'm gonna kiss you."
"Yeah. Let's do that."
It was a good kiss this time. Smooth. Kinda soft. And sweet. It also hurt like a sumbitch. Right down his battered face. He winced. "Ouch."
"That bad?"
"Nope. That part was really great. The fist in the face before? That part sucked."
"You're starting to bruise."
"Awesome. Not such a hot face now huh?"
"No. Still kinda hot." Claire helped him to his feet. He stumbled a little and she put her arm around his waist for a minute.
"Thanks."
"Sure. You're so brave. Are you usually brave? Or is it just trying to impress me?"
"Seems to be instinctual. Should I run? Probably. But I pictured you splattered on the wall and I didn't like that. So I figured, fuck it. Let's fight."
Oh. She liked that. She looked at his face. His nose was swollen and kinda purple. She thought he was the cutest thing she'd ever seen.
"Hero."
"Hardly. I think I peed myself a little."
And now she laughed. And he laughed. It felt really good to do it. A little voice came down to them, "He'll get back up. You should run away!"
They looked up at the ducts. Claire yelled, "Come out! We'll help you!"
"I can't! He's following me. So you have to go away now ok? He'll kill you. You have to run away. Go find the Chief's office. There's a way through there to the lab."
"The lab?"
"It's where my mommy worked. Where my daddy worked. Go through there ok? And get away from here."
"Who ARE you?" Leon was trying to pinpoint where she was exactly in the ducts. But it echoed and was impossible.
"I'm Sherry."
"Sherry? I'm Claire. Claire Redfield. I will protect you. This is Leon Kennedy. He's a cop. Come down here and let us help you."
That tiny voice said, "I can't. It will keep coming for me. Please run. Don't try to find me."
They heard her little footsteps running away.
Claire glanced at his face. Leon shrugged. "We should go to the office. It might have the answers about what happened here."
"Ok." They looked at the door out of the little room they were in. "This way?"
"I actually know the way to Iron's office. So yeah." They moved, quietly, through the door and into the hallway. It was thick and hot in the hallway. Clearly this was spill off from the burning chopper left behind them.
Claire and Leon moved down the narrow hallway together. She glanced at his face as they walked. "Sorry about your face."
"No worries. It's not the first or the last time someone's going to deck me, so I'll live."
Claire took his hand and held it. He smiled a little and held her hand. He kept his pistol loose but ready in the other one. She did the same. Since he was left handed and she was right handed, it worked for them.
At the door to Iron's office, she said, "This is like the weirdest kinda date I've ever been on."
"Is this a date?"
"It's something. I dig you."
Leon nodded, grinning. "I dig you too. You're a saucy chic with a dirty mouth. I like it."
"You're a clumsy hot ass cop with awesome hair who is noble and self sacrificing. How can I NOT like that?"
"The eternal riddle. Let's find that little girl and get the hell out of this dump."
"Deal." She opened the door to the office.
Now this is the moment in a good story where our heroes are given a glimpse into the horrors that will come later. There was a dead body there waiting for them. Because the secret chamber behind Iron's office was wide open to reveal it. They didn't have to find any jewels or any keys or do any puzzles or anything. It was kinda great. (Though not nearly as fun).
The dead body was very dead. But not zombie undead. It was just dead. And looked like it had a big dark stain on its belly. Clearly it had been gutted. It was a girl, who'd once been pretty before she'd died.
Irons, a fat and ugly man with a mustache and wandering lecherous eye, looked to Claire first. "There you are. They sent you to tempt me then? You are a sexy little thing. They knew that Beth was dead. They knew I would need another to replace her. You came."
Claire glanced at Leon. He lifted a brow.
"Chief? I'm Leon Kennedy. I think we're in danger here. I think you should come with us to get out of here."
"No. I won't be leaving. Kennedy? Kennedy…" He considered, pacing by the dead body, "You are new?"
"First day."
"Shitty first day kid."
"You're telling me."
Irons glanced at Claire again. "You are here to replace Beth?"
"…uh…no. I'm here to find Jill Valentine. Do you know her?"
That was the wrong thing to say. The already mad Irons, one look in those priggish eyes in that piggy face told them he was nuttier than a fruit cake, was driven insane from that. "VALENTINE!? VALENTINE AND REDFIELD!? THOSE TWO SUMBITCHES! LIARS! FOOlS! THEY DID THIS!"
Claire looked at Leon. He shrugged.
"Shut up! You old goat! My brother didn't do this! I'm starting to think YOU did it!"
"REEEEDDDFIELLLLLD!" It was a horrid cry. Awful. It shook the room and shook the walls. And Chief Irons hit a button the wall. The dead body on the floor fell through an opening that had started. And Irons rushed them.
Claire squeaked and jumped aside as he tried to grab her. Leon? Well he hooked a right at the fat police chief, caught him in the face, drove a knee into his fat belly and kicked. The kick hit him in the hip and spun him around. Irons staggered, roaring, and fell down into the opening.
He yelled as he fell and made a crash somewhere down below when he hit.
They looked at each other.
Claire said, "What the fudge is happening here?"
"I have no clue. It feels surreal."
"Right? I was playing pool yesterday and trying to get Derek in my Biology class to ask me out."
"Did he?"
"No."
"His loss."
Claire chuckled. "He wasn't nearly as flipping cute as you anyway."
Leon winked at her. He started to say something flirty or stupid or lame and the sound of something roaring made them show each wide, wide, wide eyes.
Something burst out of the opening where Iron's had fallen. It was like a disgusting poop with big blobby eyes. It had long, long arms that dragged the floor and one of them was holding the dead body of "Beth". It was wearing what had started life as Iron's clothes but were ripped and ruined. It was the color of good red earth and resembled a poop and something from Alien. It roared from a stingy little mouth filled with sharp, jagged teeth.
"Whafuck?" Leon shouted.
Whafuck was rapidly becoming their battle cry. They split apart as it threw the dead body at them. Poor Beth. She smacked the wall between them and splatted, throwing blood and slop all around her. She squished to the floor and squelched, broken.
They started to fire at the poop that had been Chief Irons. He roared, humping around the room like a twisted hunchback. He swung at them and Leon grabbed Claire to throw her to the floor. He took the hit and went up and out, coming down atop the dead body. Disgusting, he rolled away.
Claire fired into the blobby eyes, running away when it smashed an arm to the floor where she'd been standing. Leon rolled, missing the next swipe, and Claire jerked him to his feet. They flanked it, splitting its focus. It tried to grab him and Claire shot it in the ass.
It spun back and Leon jumped on its back. Claire tossed her knife up to him and he scrambled like a sloppy rock climber up its nasty hump. She shot it again in the face and got knocked down for her efforts. Leon drove her big knife right into the top of its head. Two arms up, full speed, he smashed it down into the brain of it and jerked. It bucked, tossing him around. He held onto the hilt of the knife like a person riding rodeo. It shook him around and spun around. His legs were catching wind but his hands held on.
He grabbed the knife and ripped it clean. He went spinning and hit the wall, sliding down it. Claire stood in front of him, aiming her gun.
But the poop that had been Irons was done for. It reeled, it raged, it hit the far wall and collapsed onto its face. Deadsville. The silence was very loud now.
Leon got to his feet, shaking his head. "What is happening in this dump?"
"Pretty sure I have NO idea. It's bad though. Real bad. I'm thinking we're gonna find the answers down there."
They both looked down into the darkness. And then at each other. And then down into the hole again.
Leon said, "I don't want to go down there."
Claire laughed, softly, "Me either. But what choice is there?"
"Exactly. I'll go first." He moved and climbed down the ladder. Brave kid, Claire mused, as she followed his cute ass down the ladder. He caught her at the bottom as she leapt off and set her beside him.
Parking lot.
"That's it?" Claire queried.
"Apparently."
"Fail."
"Yep."
There was a bunch of cars and the sad remnants of what had been a stand off between the living and the dead. Bodies were three deep and stinking with being burnt where they lay. The Mayor was there, deader than Moses, and dispatched by a bullet between the eyes. Someone had killed the Mayor.
"Shit." Claire whispered. "Shit."
"That about covers it."
And the growling started. They turned, slowly. Three dogs were there watching them. Dogs? No. Not exactly. But kinda. They were rotting dogs. The skin and muscle had split and run red with blood and infection. You could see naked muscle and bone and sinew in their popped open flesh. Their faces had started to decay and showed gums and elongated teeth. Their mouths had split back enough with erosion to look like ugly sneers on their spittle flecked countenances.
"Gross."
Leon laughed. He just laughed. She was so calm. Who was this girl? She was the coolest chic in the world. She just didn't flinch. She rolled with it.
"I hate dogs." Claire said and fired on the first one. It yelped, fell to the side, and twitched.
The second one rushed them. Leon shot it, it stumbled, went head over ass and skidded along the ground. The third one leapt atop the hood of a car, jumped out of the way when Claire shot it, and rushed at them. So not entirely stupid.
Leon aimed at it and another one jumped on him. It took him to the ground, growling and snapping at his face. He panicked, lost his marbles, and could do nothing but try to keep it from eating him. His gloved hands slipped into the nasty flesh on its neck, peeling it back like a rotting banana. GROSS.
It made a dive for his face and Claire shot it, twice. She shot it in the side of its growling head.
It yelped and fell left, twitching.
He rose, shuddering.
They turned and there was a girl running at them. A girl. She yelled, "Look out!"
And they ducked as one burst over their heads toward her. She waited, this girl, and spun a roundhouse kick. She took it out in midair. It yelped, scrambling on the ground, and she put a round right into its face.
Silence.
Leon looked at her. She was beautiful. Asian and wearing a red dress and dark panty hose. She had on high heels and she made him feel funny in his pants.
He stared at her.
She stared back.
And finally spoke, "Is he retarded or something?'
Claire nudged him with her elbow. "Wake up, hotshot."
Leon shook his head. He said, "Who are you?"
"I'm Ada Wong. Who are you?"
"I'm Claire Redfield." Claire eyed her. She didn't like her. "Bad news" was written all over her. She was tall, which was annoying, beautiful and deadly clearly which was a pain in the ass. And she did NOT like Leon looking at her like that.
Ada said, "What about you handsome?"
"I'm Leon. Leon Kennedy." He offered her a hand. Smirking, Ada shook it. She winked at him a little.
Claire pursed her lips. "What are you doing down here, Ada Wong?"
Ada studied her. She didn't like the girl. The girl was a pain. The handsome boy cop? An idiot. Clearly. And probably easy enough to lead around by his dumb stick.
"Looking for my boyfriend, John. He's a researcher. He was here last I heard. I came…there was…it was over run. I have to find him." She put on her damsel in distress hat for show. Leon fell for it. Claire? She narrowed her eyes.
"Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
"I'm Asian. Clearly I do marital arts."
Claire snorted out a laugh. "That is stereotyping."
"Not if you're Asian." Ada met Leon's eyes. "You want to help me find him?"
Leon blinked. Claire elbowed him in the gut. He oomphed and gave her a glare. She answered Ada, quietly, "We're looking for a little girl. You seen her?"
"No. I've found a way through there." She pointed to the far doors. "I think it's the kennels. The thing is? I found a map that says the path to the lab where John worked is through there. I don't have the key."
Claire moved to the door. Leon said, "This key?"
They all looked at him. He grinned. "Iron's had it."
Ada winked at him, "What a guy you are."
Claire gnashed her teeth a little. He was so stupid. She was playing him. Surely he knew that.
They moved together into the kennels. The kennels were rank and awful. They were dank and musty and dark and smelled like wet dog and rotting meat. Claire shuddered and they moved down the hallway. At the bend in the hallway, a voice said, "You found me!"
There was a guy in one of the locked kennels. He was tall and handsome with a ponytail and a dirty white shirt on. He was sitting on the bed there, watching them. "You here to rescue me?"
Leon answered, "…sure?"
"No way. What's this? A rookie? A hell's angel? And what? A pharmaceutical rep?"
Ada Wong chuckled, "Ben Bertolucci."
"How'd you know that?"
"Your picture is always with your stories in the paper."
"Oh." Bertolucci studied them, "I'm not coming out there. I'm safe in here. Safe. Those things can't get me. I have plenty of food. Come back with the SWAT team or something."
"Mr. Bertolucci, I need to find John. He's my boyfriend. He works in the lab. Where is he?"
She really needed to silence Bertolucci. It was part of her mission. She needed to put him down. But she couldn't do it with Doofy the Handsome Dumb Cop and Angry Biker Bitch standing guard. She had to get rid of them.
"The lab is through the manhole in the corner there. But you'll never find him. The lab was over run first. You know why? They did it. They released this shit. They all knew about it. Irons? He was in on it. And the STARS. And Umbrella. They leaked it. They left it. They ran away. Fuckers."
Claire shook her head. "Not STARS. Nope. Liar."
She turned away to go to the manhole cover. Bertolucci snorted at her. "Believe me or not, girl. I don't care. I have proof. I'm gonna send it when I get out of this dump. So I don't care if you believe me. The world will. And that's where my Nobel Prize is waiting."
Ada opened her mouth to say something and a pink poop with teeth came through the window above the kennel. She watched it. It flopped and plopped onto the floor near Bertolucci. He made a sound and stepped away from it. It was like a nasty baby eel in slimey pink and red. It looked like something that burst out of the chest of people in Alien. It shrieked and squealed as it flooped around on the floor.
Leon tried to shoot it and missed. It flopped over to Bertolucci and climbed up his body. He screamed, trying to jerk it off of him. They could do nothing but watch is chewed its way through his body. Horrified, they all watched it splatter blood and break bone. It munched, he screamed, the crack and pop of bone and breaking was so loud it was awful. Blood gushed, from his eyes and nose and mouth. And it was inside his body, nestling in him or something like a disgusting Luke Skywalker inside the tonton on Hoth.
Leon shot the body. It jerked, flopped and was still.
Ada turned away toward the manhole.
Claire and Leon stood staring at the nasty dead body. They glanced at each other. And the body of Ben Bertolucci flopped. Leon shot it, reflexively. It didn't care. It burst apart like a thrown water balloon. Blood sprayed in a thick red wash. They covered their faces and Bertolucci's body fell to the floor. The pink baby poop was now the size of a raccoon. It squealed and shot between the bars toward them.
Claire shouted, Leon shot at it and missed. It darted fast and furious away from them, flipping and flopping and zipping down the hallway. They'd both danced away from it like it was…well…a slimy pink poop with teeth.
The manhole was open, Bertolucci was deader than disco, and Wong was long gone. What a night they were having. Claire put her tongue in her cheek, "Your girlfriend just flew the coop, rookie."
Leon blinked and smirked. "Jealous?"
"Don't be a hoser. She's shady and all kinds of stupid. Remember that when you're chasing after her perfect ass."
"She seems smart enough. She survived right?"
"So did a little girl."
"Good point."
They stared down the manhole. Claire looked at him. He looked back. And finally she said, "Ladies first this time."
Down she went. It was dark at the bottom of the ladder. She dropped down and was ankle deep in water that smelled stagnant and felt oily to the touch. She sniffed and it smelled like wet dog and as—
Leon jumped down basically on top of her.
Claire grunted, tossed to the side. He grabbed her in the mostly dark tunnel they were in and exclaimed, "Sorry! Shit!"
He held her upright. Claire gave him a dirty look in the darkness. And someone hit the emergency lights. Probably Ada Wong wherever she'd run off to.
The world was lit in an eerie red light. And they were both staring into the eye…eyes…lots and lots of eyes of an ENORMOUS tarantula. It scrambled on the wall directly beside them. Claire squeaked, Leon raised his gun to shoot it, and another one spit…acid…or something disgusting at them from the ceiling. He shoved her instead. Leon Kennedy shoved her over in the water. She went backward, went under the dirty water, and choked. But the acid struck where she'd been and didn't burn her.
So there was that.
She came up sputtering to the flash of his muzzle in the red lighting.
And a bloated, fat, hairy body splashed into the water a foot from her. Claire shouted as the water splashed in her face and the dead giant spider twitched and curled up right there next to her. She scrambled away, gasping.
Leon took care of the other one while she ran away from a third one that was spitting acid everywhere. She ducked left, rolled right, and finally spun back to fire at it. She shot it clean in its nasty fat belly. It skittered and shivered, making a chittering sound as it ran away. Leon peppered it with more shots and it finally made a squelching sound as it pulled free from the wall and plopped into the water to join its dead brothers.
Leon and Claire shuddered and leapt up into the outcropping across from them. They went through a steel door and into the next chamber. The sewers, clearly. And a large, rotating, disgusting fan was spinning there. It was ventilation, obviously, and was currently moving slow enough they could…probably…slide in between the blades.
There were gross pods stuck to the walls. They looked like cocoons. They were just sitting there shivering and shaking. Like they'd start…hatching…any….minute.
And so they did. They split, popping with an odiferous stench that made one think of fart after a long day of denial. It was burritos and beer and wet ass. A horribly stench. And tiny bugs kept popping out to give chase as they ran. Leon, agile as hell, ducked between the blades and came out the other side. Claire frozen, afraid, as the blades whirled around. They'd hack her in half if she hesitated.
The bugs got in her hair, she screamed loudly, and fell into the path of the blades. Leon shouted her name, grabbed her, and jerked her free of the rotating death a second before she was turned into a Claire sandwich. He batted the nasty bugs from her hair while she shuddered.
"All done?"
"Yeah. You're good."
"Thanks. Whafuck?"
"I know."
They moved down the ladder to the next level of the ventilation duct. And they were crossing over what was clearly the power supply area for the station. The water beneath, the bridge across, the door opposite, it was leading them somewhere. So they kept on going.
The floor was metal and holey. You could see down into the churning water. It was a perilous fall and probably an instant death. The best case scenario? You were swept off into the grinding gears at the far side of the water, resulting in a complete ripped to pieces end. Broken bones and blood and gurgling horror.
Claire said, "Scary."
Leon turned back to her. The breeze caught his hair, shifting it around his face. That face, she mused, gorgeous. "You ok? I know it's a big drop right? Scary as shit. I'm a good swimmer but that looks like the worlds worst undertow. Pretty sure we'd be dead in minutes."
She grabbed his vest. He looked at her face, thought, derp, and she moved to kiss him. This girl, he thought wildly, she was always trying to kiss him at the worst times. Because the fat pink poop from Bertolucci's cell exploded out of the water.
It flopped and plodded with a metallic whine onto the walkway near the power supply. It squealed, squishing and wiggling. It might have been cute…if it didn't have a mouth full of bloody teeth and they hadn't seen it eat into and OUT OF Bertolucci an hour before. And if it wasn't growing to be the size of a small bus as they stood there, horrified, and trapped in awe of it.
Now it was the size of a great white shark. It roared as it leapt and came down, shaking the walkway beneath them. They stumbled, grabbed each other, and glanced at it. Claire said, "You got that Magnum?"
"You bet."
"Blow that fucker away."
It was a good idea. He pulled it and it was airborne, screaming and flying like a fat, pink, disgusting and hungry blob. It landed, knocking Claire completely off the walkway. Leon watched her hit the water and turned back to the pink blob.
It opened its nasty mouth to eat him and he fired two shots from the .44 right into its gaping maw. It gulped, its roar cut short. Leon holstered the Magnum and drew his pistol. He put three rounds into it and it slapped him. He held on, launched up into the ceiling. He held on and shot it again as it tried to shake him loose. It put him into its bleeding mouth, he figured he was dead, and someone was shooting it. It was Claire, trapped in the water against the wall, inches from the grinding gears of death…she was firing on it.
Leon rolled a little, aimed down his arm, and shot it right its piggy eyes.
It threw him out. He came down in the water, went under, and fought against the tide. He heard it scream and flop in after them. Well shit…SHIT. It grabbed him, he rolled, and Claire screamed, "LEON!"
He flipped over, avoided teeth in his face, and caught the knife she threw him. It was coming down with more instinct than thought. He drove it into the blob and again…and again for good measure. Blood stained pink through the water around them. Leon rolled under it, lost his breath as the water whipped and slapped him around, and came up to drive his boots into its face. It grabbed him, she slashed it, and kicked off it like a diving board.
It worked. Like a charm. The blob lost its grip on him and was jerked free into the rushing tide. It hit the gears beside Claire and was devoured, bursting in a rush and gush of blob and bloody chunks. They sprayed everywhere like an acid rain of crap and filth. Plopping and flopping permeated the air and was finally washed away in the tide. Leon was jerked after it now and Claire grabbed him as he got close to the gears. She jerked him over and against her. He was smashed against her and the undertow shoved his body flat to hers to pin them both to the wall.
They weren't dead. But they were screwed. They couldn't fight the water to get out and eventually they'd lose the ability to keep standing here too. What could they possibly do?
A little voice yelled, so soft over the din and roar of the water, "HERE! GRAB THIS!"
It was the little girl they'd seen. She was throwing a rope down to them from the ventilation duct above the water where she was hiding. "GO ON! HURRY!"
Leon grabbed it first and Claire's hand second. He jerked, putting his ass behind it, and threw her up the wall. She grabbed the line like a mountain climber and started up. He was after her, rappelling with a surprising amount of skill. Let's hear it for eight grade gym, he mused, and teaching me to climb ropes.
They reached the ventilation shaft and the little girl helped them in. Breathless, exhausted the two of them leaned on opposite sides of the round tunnel, relearning how to not be afraid. The little girl looked at Leon and said, "You were a hero."
Leon shook his head, "No. Just a guy versus a blob."
Claire answered, "Who are you honey?"
"I'm Sherry Birkin. I'm sorry about before. I wanted to trust you. But I didn't know if I could. But you fought that thing…you killed it."
Leon quipped, "Luck, I assure you. I'm not that good."
Sherry shifted a little. She was adorable with a little upturned nose and big blue eyes. Her blonde hair was wet but looked well kept. Her dress was dirty but expensive. Someone had loved and taken care of this little girl.
"Can we help you find your mommy and daddy?"
Sherry looked at Claire. "I don't know. They were never home before anyway. I don't think they're still alive. At least…I know my daddy is dead."
"I'm so sorry."
Claire hugged her and Sherry held on. "Why don't we find your mommy and go from there? Ok?"
Sherry nodded.
Leon glanced to the end of the duct. "You know the way to the lab, Sherry?"
Sherry considered this. "Yes. But…they won't let us escape. My daddy…he's still here."
She whispered it, frightening. She whispered it in a voice you'd hear in the movies to signify horror. She was terrified.
"Is he a zombie?" Claire asked, gently.
"No…no. He's something else."
Leon lifted his brows, "Like what?"
And something, somewhere, started roaring. It was horrible and frightening and so loud that the duct shivered around them. Sherry squealed, in fear, and ran down the tunnel away from them.
"Sherry! WAIT!"
And the roaring came again, "SHERRRRRRRYYYYY!"
Leon and Claire locked eyes, terrified, and started running after her. They could hear the squeal and scream of metal. Whatever it was? It was in the power supply room where they'd been. They followed Sherry down the tunnel and hoped to HELL it couldn't fit in after them.
