Chapter 3
Claire looked at the blue keycard in her hand; the keycard Marvin had given to her. Without so much as a whimper, the dying officer had given her the thing she needed to unlock the doors of the station, and hopefully unlock her freedom.
But he had also given her something even more valuable than the tiny key... Information. Her brother, Chris, had left Raccoon City days ago. He didn't have to go through this nightmare that she was currently residing in.
Claire had put the code into the computer and she could hear all the electronic locks unlocking one by one. She tucked the little card into her pockets, which were still barely large enough to contain the card. Just the price she paid for wearing her favorite cut off shorts. Claire made her way to the double doors she had tried earlier.
She tucked some of her bangs behind an ear and sighed. The door was the only way to move forward at the moment. Claire moved her shoulders and popped her back a little, the tightness and ache was getting to her. She may have ran track in middle school, but running from monsters was a whole other level!
Her still trembling hand reached for one of the door handles and it turned smoothly, letting the wooden barrier open to reveal the switchboard room.
Which was infested with more zombies.
Panic kicked Claire's mind into action. She raised her gun and started to shoot at the inhuman beings. One by one they fell with a satisfying thud. Blood slowly gurgling from the bullet hole that now festooned their foreheads.
I'm so glad Chris taught me how to use a gun...
She would have to tell him how wrong she was for telling him that she would never have the need to use a gun or a knife. But the over protective brother would never listen. He even started the basics on a grenade launcher! When in the life of Claire Redfield would she EVER have the need to use a grenade launcher? Next thing you know, she'll be using a rocket launcher and destroying everything in site. Which wouldn't be a bad thing at the moment, actually.
The brunette walked past the switch board room and around the wooden panel that was blocking the door on the other side.
As she was walking, her right hip bumped into a small table that was randomly placed there. Her hand instinctively gripped the affected area and she looked down at the table- it had a small key hole on the single drawer. For some reason, as if it were God's calling: she had a lock pick with her.
How convenient! Thank you, Jill!
The youngest Redfield placed the pick in the lock and listened to the harmonic sound of the lock opening. She pulled opened the drawer and there was a weird can of something in there.
"First aid spray, huh? Might as well take it."
Claire looked around and didn't have anywhere to actually place the cylinder of spray. She walked over to the glass barrier of the switch board office and headed over to the small table that was beside it.
She picked up the table and threw it into the glass, shattering the whole pane and making the shards cover the floor and counter. Then she pushed the huge trunk up to the counter and used it as a boost to get inside the office.
No one was inside, and luckily the coat rack where the female employees hung their purses was right beside it.
Now, Claire Redfield wouldn't call herself a thief, but she surely did take all of them off of that rack and started to unload their contents. She needed something to carry bullets, and one for papers, and one for keys or whatever she found. Why not take all four and call it a day. Of course, they had to be stylish and match her outfit, so she only took those four that went perfectly with her clothing. Claire was a girl, after-all.
The purses were poured out onto the floor, and the only things Claire kept were the keys- just in case- and the wallets- never knew if she'd need money if she survived.
She felt guilty about taking the money, but she didn't know if she would ever need it. And she doubted that the receptionists were going to use them also, so why not? So after strapping the bags to her- two on each side- she placed the can of spray in a bag and headed back around the wooden panel.
Her eyes lifted up and suddenly pins and needles pricked at her spine. She could have sworn she saw something crawl across the window! It was something like an inside-out spider?
Claire fumbled for the bow gun she had strapped to her back and made sure it was full of bolts before she even dreamed about opening that door to the right. Hopefully the 'thing' or whatever it was, would just pass by. Or maybe it was just a figment of her imagination.
Since Chris wasn't here, she could only rely on Leon, which at the moment was no where in sight.
Maybe he's just a little late...
The youngest Redfield gathered up all the strength she had a few minutes later and opened the looming door slowly. Her teeth were sunk in deep into her bottom lip, nearly drawing blood from the bite. Her eyes went side to side, but she heard nothing. But she could definitely hear something...
It was a drip, almost like a leaky faucet,
Drip... Drip... Drip...
It was perpetual; constant; it never stopped. All it did was drip.
Claire made her way down the dirty hall slowly. At the end she saw some loose wires sparking from what looked like a button pad. She noticed that the metal shutters were only a fourth down on the tall windows, leaving them wide open to something breaking through.
As she got closer to the keypad with the wires, her eyes noticed the pebble- like pieces of glass on the floor, signifying that something broke inside the R.P.D. instead of out. Or maybe it was someone?
Leon?...
Drip... Drip... Drip...
The noise was really getting to her and she finally rounded the corner, seeing a decapitated corpse of a police officer on the ground. Thankfully, it didn't have the same uniform on him like Leon wore. His seemed to be different from all the others, maybe Leon was part of the secret police? Then why would she worry so much about his capabilities if he was so skilled?
Because he's a rookie at it's his first day on the job, Claire?
That was probably a deciding factor.
As she looked at the puddle of blood around the dead officer, she noticed how the blood would ripple from a drip.
DRIP DRIP DRIP DRIP DRIP DRIP-
The blood seemed to be pouring now and she looked up and froze. Not one scream could come out of her mouth when she saw the inside-out monster. Time had slowed down in a matter of hours in her mind; the fear, clutching and squeezing her beating heart until it was almost still.
The monster's tongue seemed to roll out of it's mouth; it curled and slid like a snake over land. The sockets where eyeballs were supposed to be, were empty, but bone marrow protruded from the sockets making a cylinder in each eyeless hole.
Long claws came out from each digit, piercingly long, not doubt what decapitated the officer what was by her feet. Claire also noticed it's brain was also on the outside of it's body, it was pulsating has it sat on it's skull-less cranium. While she watched, saliva was dripping out of it's mouth, it's razor sharp teeth glistened as it looked at it's next meal.
Claire didn't know what happened next, the monster lunging onto the ground by her feet, or her finger pulling repeatedly on the trigger of the bow gun as she aimed at the thing while it fell.
But she didn't stop, she kept shooting the arrows into the monster as it tried to swipe at her legs with it's long talons. She leapt back again and kept firing until her bow gun ran empty. But, luckily for her, the inside-out monster flung onto it's back and started to make horrible screeching noises. It's arms and legs kicked into the air like a turtle being trapped on it's back in it's shell.
After it finally laid still, Claire noticed that it's brain stopped pulsating and twitching.
"Oh God... Oh Jesus-fuck! What was that thing?"
Claire's veins were pumping with adrenaline as she looked at the dead body of the monster, she killed it, but she also lost a lot of her ammo. She had no bolts left, just hand gun bullets. She she walked past the corpse, she noticed a red light and then a little potted plant beside it.
Maybe it's those medicinal herbs Chris told me about?... That, or it's pot.
With a shrug of her shoulders, she picked the little herb and placed it in one of the purses she had on her side. If it was one thing or the other, it'd definitely have uses for her either way.
Claire felt sweat trickle down her forehead and the back of her neck. What wouldn't she give for a nice, hot, bath right now. She tucked her auburn locks behind her ear again- which felt like the millionth time tonight- and made her way through the door at the end of the hall and sighed.
Would she ever get out? Would she ever survive this horrible nightmare?
A/N: Woah. Quick update! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes :D This one wasn't written by drunk Hobohunter this time, but I hope it was good!
The licker scene always (And still does) creep me out when I play RE2. But, I will definitely add my MOST FAVORITE licker scene in this story. I will make a hint:
"It's a magic mirror."
Think about it, friends. Most scariest part in RE2, that gets me every time, and that says something!
Thank you ArthasvsLeon for being my beta! 8:3 You're the best!