Leon was in the office area; he crouched down by the wounded officer "You were just one of several…promising…new recruits! Chief - Irons, arranged the funds and…authorized your training, but…" "Take it easy!" Leon said gently before the officer continued "It seems it was just a ploy…a distraction, he was in on everything...the whole time!" Leon just listened to him quickly brushing his fringe back over his head "…I guess it looks like your welcome party has been…cancelled!" Leon looked around at the sorry state of the place, ransacked desk drawers, a furry half eaten sandwich on a paper plate, half a dozen party hats and spray cans, tainted by bloody smears and the stench of an officers corpse propped up in the corner. A banner hung over the desk "WELCOME, LEON!". The poor guy went down partying, the smell of his rotting corpse stifling the air, Leon could think of worse ways to go out. Marvin Brannagh, the name that it said on the officer's identity clip, had tried to help other surviving cops rustle up what they could on the police Chief Irons, after the tip-off from STARS and plan some kind of exit out of town. Completely unaware, the shit storm about to land on Raccoon Cities doorstep. He put his hand on Leon's shoulder

"No-one saw it coming until the first reported attack in the city, then the whole place was walled in by the military. It was all part of their plan…some of the S.T.A.R.S members, Chris…and a few others left… to get the truth out, but no-one…would believe them!" He moaned from the pain and shortness of breath, Leon assessed the mans injuries, an apparent bite wound around his upper waist, had bled out into his work shirt "This looks bad". Leon thought snatching an old towel from the chair behind him and covered Marvin's wound "No, I…don't, think I can move, just leave me, I'm done!" "This is a serious wound, you medical attention, I'm not leaving you down here!" Marvin not in much of a position to argue, let him dress the wound.

"You should get out of here... the station isn't safe!" - "I have to find someone…" he looked at Leon for a minute before struggling to reach into his blue shirts breast pocket and took out a small white and blue card "Here… take this key card with you… it might still work, use it to open up the other doors, find your friends and get out of here!" - "But…" - "Just go!" Marvin snapped, using what little strength he could muster to point his gun at Leon again "…Fine, but I'm coming back for you!" Leon said as he stood up again, he walked over to the doors "Just hang in there!".

Grahams wandered around the main lobby, like everywhere else in the station, the place likely raided during the panic, file folders and documents slung across the desks carelessly, a scattering of bullet casings on the floor! A trolley jack sat by the reception desk with stacked chairs while the floor was cleaned, and someone's police jacket was slung over the back of one of the swivel chairs behind the reception desk. The printer spewed an endless stream of graph sheets, until the ink cartridges were bone dry. He went around the desk to take a closer look at the print outs, majority of it illegible, momentarily distracted by the faint sound helicopter blades.

He frowned for a minute as he began to realize what the pages were saying, it was a distress message that appeared in binary code, the addressee it was faxed to, was an unknown. "What's that?" Grahams almost jumped out of his skin as he turned around to see Leon "Thank god…I ... I don't know, it's all in gibberish." His answer seemed blunt like he was hiding something, slinging the useless pile over the desk "Looks like the other officers, are long gone. We should get back to finding Claire and your friend" Grahams simply nodded "C'mon, we better keep moving." The lobby seemed to boom an empty nothingness and gave a constant feeling of unease as if something could happen at any moment, there was an unusual rumbling coming from the next room and the door which was already left open lead into the next corridor into the main string of offices.

The rumbling grew louder as they came into the next hall; a floor buffer had been left outside the door leading into one of the private offices, the thing was still on and almost tripping over the tangled wire Leon pulled the plug from its socket. With that there was resumed silence, allowing Leon to continue with his investigation observing the vast main stream of offices trying to picture a normal working environment on a typical busy day. The lights were still on which, brightly lit up the whole office floor, Power generator hasn't shorted out, there must have been some activity through here within the last forty-eight or so hours Leon subtly putting his deduction skills to work "Where are they all? Where could they go?" Grahams thought to himself for a moment growing wary of the impending silence overwhelming them both "I'm not sure they did!" Leon replied as he kept a sharp eye and careful footing!

Numerous commemorative plaques sat on the left wall going the whole way across, city had it's fair share of well respected officers, Leon paused for a minute hearing what sounded like rustling, akin to automatic doors opening and shutting "Where's that coming from?" - "Wait!" Leon reached down for his gun, squatting forward tilting his head slightly, readying for whatever surprise was around the corner. The incessant clattering grew louder as they closed in, toward the end of hall exposing the sharp turn right through glass sheet walls, revealing a series of offices. There was a slight deformity in the floor inside the lift, something had locked the elevator onto this floor causing the doors to malfunction. Leon crept cautiously toward the lift doors before peering inside, the lights flickered and buzzed erratically and one bloody hand print smack on the back wall. He looked up to see the emergency hatch, also destroyed, didn't think it was wise to step inside given its current state, in case the whole thing collapsed. The pair moved on, silently, cutting through the office floor and toward the next set opposite. In the next area, a large printer and copier sat partitioned from the rest of the room, on the other side were a number of odd sized desks. They had found themselves in the custody room, normally bustling with activity, now just messy desks filled with telephones and computer terminals all in complete disarray, but not a single officer in sight.

One could only imagine what horrors lead to such chaos, and the tragic end to the poor souls trapped inside "Jesus...By the looks of this place, the whole building was compromised" Grahams pondering with uncertainty almost leapt out of his own body when suddenly a can was kicked outside, several shadows stumbling into one another as they grew closer. The door shut with a small click, and Leon was about to reach down for his radio, but only felt the cold leather strap of his jeans holster. "Shit." Leon could kick himself, realizing he must have misplaced it in one of the other areas during their search "What?" Grahams asked. "The radio." Leon replied feeling down the other side of his waist, relieved the gun was still there at least, and pulled it out, locking sights onto the doors readily, before a sweeping exit into the north-side. Most of the rooms were small single offices or large shared ones with only a few inside, the place glowed from some of the still lit desk lamps. Reaching the end of the corridor they saw only one closed door a few feet opposite, and though the place seemed quiet, Leon took precautions.

The door slowly creaked open, as the pair stood in the door frame assessing the area before entering. Another of many rooms, seemingly lifeless apart from the gentle hum from a photocopying machine sitting on a table in a corner of the end office, his head snapped around after what sounded like a loud slam. Leon brought around his gun and aimed its nose toward the far door in front, suddenly again *BANG* this time from behind Leon who quickly shifted clock-wise in effort to hone in on its sources "What was that?" Grahams asked nervously, with slight frustration to his tone. Leon glared at the door before his eyes gradually focused down toward the door knob as it slowly began to turn, and the door bumping and banging as it shook.

His gun fixed directly on the door, trying to work things out in his head, the knob wobbling and clicking as the door was being forced their way, Graham speechless turned around to face the other door which also wobbled frantically before the noise abruptly ceased. Leon still staring at the door in front paused and felt the cold sensation of fear shoot up through his body as the knob was gradually released with a click; an utterly terrified Grahams thought it wise to stay close to Leon. As they stood for a moment to observe and make sure they were alone in the hall, a small camera sitting in the corner of the ceiling above them. Their motions were caught in black and white before the camera colorized gradually and and listened to distorted voices as the audio adjusted. As Leon adjusted his finger on the guns trigger the camera zoomed in and scoped out his body outlined boldly, assessing his level of threat, before switching its view and focusing its attention on something inside one of the other rooms, a shape just managed to slip out of surveillance whilst the camera moved up and down revolving its lens.

Meanwhile back in the abandoned streets of down town a familiar figure wandered in and out of several cars amidst the burning wreckage's in the near distance, she slipped her hand around the holster strapped onto the left side of her waist just before her radio bleeped "...This is Chambers, who is this?" Rebecca asked after grabbing the radio from her belt, there was nothing except static on the other end but you could just barely hear a voice coming through "Hello this is Officer Rebecca Chambers come in…" still she had nothing "Damn it!" she cursed looking ahead she saw the lights coming from the precinct building several blocks ahead before, turning around for a moment and saw a hardware store, convenient.

The bell above the door jingled as she entered and looked around to make sure there was no unwanted company lurking about, her holster button clicking as she pulled out her Beretta placing it atop the clerks' desk while she went to gather supplies. Several clothes racks were searched through, nothing too fancy or bright, the S.T.A.R.S rookie planned to keep a low profile, knowing by now she'd probably be on Umbrellas radar. She picked out some low key, practical attire, black T, pants, a vest over it, tying a bandanna around an arm and strapping up child size work boots. Putting caution to the wind, Rebecca threw her elbow into the glass cabin, in order to grab the custom Beretta, a S.T.A.R.S favorite and took several boxes of 9mils. Shoving the gun tightly into her holster, she stripped off her S.T.A.R.S vest and threw it aside, retrieving only the gun belt, stocking it with bullets. The officer was ready, strapping the belt around her waist, before heading for the door, catching the service ringer overhead on her way out, the young officers next plan was getting to the police station!

Mark and Claire wandered through the next chunk of the hall which, was a fairly short walk and quickly lead them both into the next room, welcomed by the blue stare from rows of tall steel file drawers. "We can get through to the main lobby here?" - "How do you know?" - "Some of us used to work with the precinct, there's another office through that door, leading straight back to it!" Claire nodded in comprehension, following him toward the door which, easy enough then suddenly, there was a noise coming from the other side of the room. Mark kept his locked on the file drawers, and signaled Claire to stay put while he went to go and see who or what was on the other side. The turn mere inches away but it seemed to last longer, and felt his heart jump, experiencing a flash of the same fear he felt back in his Na-am tour, hiding in fox holes. In an instant he jumped out only to find nobody was on the other side, suddenly they heard the noise again, an incessant shuffling.

Mark gazed upon the sight of a woman, huddled down in the far corner, fearful and jittery, she noticed him before looking left motioning for him to do the same. There, his light gradually shifted revealing the zombie kneeled over a body, turning its attention to him, bloody mouthed and snarling then *BANG* The creature fell back with a bullet through the skull. The woman slowly stood up, hesitant and shaken up before practically falling into his arms, thanking the well built fellow "Oh my god, I didn't think there was anyone left." "What's going on?" Claire gasped hearing gunfire and came to see what happened, noticing the two corpses laying on the floor "Elizabeth!" an unfamiliar voice called out from the hall, before a police woman appeared in the doorway, equally dumb struck at the sight of them both. Tucking her fringe over her left ear she looked at them as she slipped the hefty gun back into her waist holster "Who the hell, are you?"

Leon took a step over turned up chair as both he and Grahams wandered through the rest of the offices on the west wing, all power seemed to have failed here as the place was almost pitch black with only obscured light from the street lamps. Leon reached into his jacket pocket and took out a small torch, twisting the head it clicked on providing little extra light, revealing the pile of office furniture propped up completely cutting off whatever was on the other side. It surrounded the inner office Leon noticed as he walked past it, things were beginning to get eerily quiet again, Leon felt a twinge in his chest from the frustratingly silent atmosphere "There's nobody here." Graham looked at Leon as he turned around to return glances "Leon!" A shape lurked in through the door frame and crept up behind Leon grabbing him tightly, trying to bite his shoulder; Leon struggled with the crazed officer who snarled and growled snapping at his jugular fighting back with his grubby blood stained fingers.

"Grahams!" Leon called out for Grahams who siezed up with fear; Leon looked around for something to hit the zombie with, managing to free pry the creature off before emptying his magazine. Taken aback for a moment, but non the worse for wear, suddenly the officer stood up again with an angry expression showing his filthy teeth snarling "What the hell?" The transfer cop thought, forced to shoot him again but the bullets seemed to do little other than annoy him. Again Leon let off a round but the creature seemed unaffected, a final round to the temple sent the officer crashing to his knees. Leon somewhat surprised, turned seeing a fearful Grahams looking back "Are...you okay?" He asked as Leon brushed himself off "Yeah...Thanks for the help." Graham turned submissive, sensing anger beneath Leon's sarcasm "Sorry i just..." - "It's fine".

A smoking hole in the man's head as Leon examined him for a moment and noticing that his blood was milky yellow in color with a gel like consistancy "This is weird..." - "What?" Graham's asked "His blood is already coagulated..How is that possible?" - "After what we've seen tonight, you still have trouble believe zombies are real?" Grahams asked, suddenly interrupted "Huh?" More zombies stumbled in through the doorway but were quickly met with gunfire, bullets flying everywhere "Up there!" Grahams motioned Leon to head for the staircase "Go, go!" Leon urged as he hurried behind him shooting back momentarily to keep the slobbering officers and blood faced perps away from the stairs.

Reaching the next floor they rushed down the corridor, the walls and floor blurring together in their hurry, then into the first open room they thought was safe quickly slamming the door shut. Leon ran a hand through his hair brushing it back and, straightened his jacket. There were heavy breaths as both Leon and Grahams searched frantically for something to lock or at least block the door with "Help me move this." Leon a requested after clicking the lock inward and grabbed the strong and hefty desk to push in front of the door with Grahams help "Should be okay here for now!" Assuming these things outside didn't know how to pick locks or use blunt objects! Turning around Leon noticed the communications array set up in the far corner of the room and eight desks situated around it, neatly fashioned partitioned from one another "A radio!" "This must be the S.T.A.R.S office."

Grahams had a thought whilst he observed the place in surprise; files and papers stacked neatly in trays and folders, staff plaques, a calendar, as well as various recruitment posters on the wall. On one of the desks sat a family photo next to a revolver and a small scattering of spent bullet cases. Near another, a medics kit hooked on the wall next to a set of lockers, the largest desk sat far center back of the room swamped in files, documents and photographs of police recruits and psychological profiles, probably assessments for the selection process to become S.T.A.R.S. Some of the desk lamps were lit and created a warm glow , the subtle light reflecting across the black and white checkered floor; and the incredible city view peering back at them through the blinders. Things seemed to have quietened down out in the hall, turning their attention back to the door again before looking at each other.