This chapter is a little interesting. It took me awhile to think up. Please read and respond! ^^ Thank you!

We were back on the streets of Raccoon city, and a bitter tang was forever present in my throat. I didn't recognize it. The emotion was strong in my mouth and mind, but I couldn't identify it for the life of me. Not that it was worth very much anyways.

"So, Taigun, how did you hear those zombies?" Rachel inquired, and I looked towards the girl, curious as well.

"It doesn't matter to you." She shot nastily to my cousin.

"It might. You could have something worse than Laya and be a danger to us all!" Rachel shouted, her temper snapping.

The two had been going at it since Taigun joined our little party. They couldn't stop. But Rachel's last comment pissed me off.

"Worse than me?" I asked calmly, though the tang in my mouth was receding, making way for the hot anger engulfing my body. "Rachel, do you know the extent of my virus? What it will cause to me?"

I have a temper, and my virus is a sensitive spot.

"No Laya, I don't know the extent of your disease."my cousin replied cruelly "So tell us what you are going through. Make it so we know what we are risking our lives for." Rachel was shouting now. "Did you realize that Laya? That, if you have an attack in the middle of a fight, we could die trying to save you? Or were you too caught up in your own misery to think of it?" She had never shouted at me before, and her words sent shock and pain into my body. My face crumpled, revealing my hurt.

"Rachel, what's wrong?" I asked quietly. The anger had left, and I was cold with my fear. Fear... the name of the tang in my throat. The one thing I hated more than Umbrella, and yet now it was my friend. Now it comforted me, and whispered that I was human, which I hadn't felt in a long time.

"You Laya! You are what is wrong! You think of yourself and nothing else! Even with zombies and things running around, you think only of yourself!"

"I'm sorry." I whispered painfully, tears in my eyes as I absorbed her hateful words. Taigun, Claire and Leon were all staring now. "I am a burden, so I will leave. Taking a shaky breath, the tears spilling over, I turned and walked away.

"No, you are not." A hand wrapped around my wrist. I knew the voice, but turned my head around anyway. Leon was glaring at me, his determination bright in his eyes.

"Let go." I whispered. When he started dragging me towards the others, I twisted to get out of his grasp, but Rachel approached me before I succeeded. She wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tight.

"I'm sorry Laya! I didn't mean it! I snapped, but you're not a burden. I love you Laya, and I am so sorry." I embraced her, accepting her obviously sincere apology, and she started crying into my shoulder. I pushed her back so I could look at her, my tears dried.

"Let's get out of here before I have another attack okay? Let's leave this apocalyptic hellhole!" Turning my attention to the others, I asked, "Agree?"

Leon and Claire smiled at me. Leon nodded, and Claire answered "Sounds good to me." Taigun smiled back, "Oh, I don't know, I kind of liked it here." She said sarcastically.

So we continued on to find the edges of the nightmarish Raccoon City, but a nagging feeling dragged at me, whispering to me that something wasn't right. We hadn't seen anything since we escaped our last rest point, and it was silent now. Where were the zombies?

A slight noise pricked the edges of my hearing, from in front of us. My fear increased as the sound did. I still couldn't recognize it though, still to faint. I stopped walking, cocking my head to listen.

"Stay here." I told the others, and then started jogging towards it. Footsteps followed me, and Leon appeared, predictably, at my side.

"What do you hear?" he asked me quietly.

"I'm still not sure." And I started running faster. He increased speed with me, matching me pace for pace. Usually I would have been pleased, but right now, I was trying to control my growing dread, for I was starting to realize what the sound was.

A horde of zombies was moving toward us.

Stretching my legs, I increased speed, racing to see if I was wrong, and hoping with all I had I wasn't. Leon was beside me until now. He started falling behind as I used my extra strength, which failed me when I got about 30 yards ahead. Terror weakened my legs, and I fell to my knees when I heard the moans of the undead clearly.

"Damn it all." I was whispering when Leon finally caught up.

"What is it?" he gasped.

"Too many to fight, way too many to fight." I sighed, defeated.

"So we have to out run them." He said flatly. I looked up at him with raised eyebrows, cynical.

"Run to where Leon? We don't know where the edge of the city is."

"We keep running until we're out. They can't chase us forever, can they?" he responded.

"Leon, that's putting Claire, Rachel and Taigun in danger, do you really want to do that?" I was hopeless there was nothing we could do. Except…Whispering, I proposed my suggestion.

"I can leave, and lead them away."

"No, you won't. At least not alone Laya, I won't let you do it. I'll come too."

"No! Then I'll be risking your life too." And then, whispering, I added "and I'd never forgive myself if I got you killed."

He put his hand on my shoulder and squatted down to meet my eyes. "Hey. If I'm killed, it's my fault, I want to do this." then he remembered the others. "We can't split up with them though..." he muttered.

I didnt want him to go, but I always had a problem with being alone, and this new task scared the hell out of me, driving me to extremes in my fear of aloneness.

"Rachel is excellent at fighting. We kind of fell in with the wrong crowd in middle school, gangsters and such. She got really good at fighting, and with a gun in her hand she's unstoppable. As long as theyre not alone too long, they'll be fine. Besides, I dont think Taigun's normal. I think she' like me."

I had taken away my last argument against his coming with me. He would come whether I liked it or not.

We ran back to the others. I knew what I was going to say. I was going to lie.

"I'm still not sure what it was, Leon and I are going to go look, but it may take awhile. Go ahead and keep moving. We'll catch up later. Okay?"

Rachel looked dissatisfied and unhappy, but Claire and Taigun didn't suspect anything. Turning, Leon and I left again to face impossible odds.

We ran until out of sight of the others, then walked. Leon was close to my side, which comforted me, and I started to calm down as I listened to his heart, my terror fading as I started to plan what we could do.

"Leon, how about…" and we started discussing possible strategies for facing them and still surviving.

We decided on a plan that was, at this point, to see what we were up against, then re-discuss. Intricate, right?

About ten minutes later, we knew we were getting close. Leon could hear them, which wasn't unbelievable really, the zombies were pretty loud.

"Remember the plan?" Leon asked me seriously, looking at me hard.

"Of course, we came up with it a minute ago Leon." I sounded kind of annoyed, and felt guilty because of it. I instantly regretted it. "Sorry, I'm scared that's all." I apologized to him.

"Its fine, I am too." I started at his words, for some reason it never hit me that he could be scared too. He seemed so calm all the time; I hadn't realized that all of us were scared. Suddenly Rachel's words didn't seem too far off from the truth, maybe I was a self-centered bitch.

We were standing still, a little less than a foot away from each other. Taking a deep breath, I took a step so I was in front of him. "Leon, we aren't that far now. I want you to promise me something." I waited for his answer, staring seriously into his eyes. He nodded.

"Okay Laya." Wow, my name sounded good in his dark voice, and I paused for a moment, etching it into my memory. Wait, why was I doing that? Did I care that much?

"Leon, if I have an attack while were leading them away,-" I didn't get a chance to finish, he cut me off.

"That won't-"

I interrupted back, my voice sharp, "Listen please Leon! If I have an attack, you can't risk yourself to try to inject me okay? Promise me Leon!"

"How are you going to do that? Doesnt Rachel have your serum?"

"Of course not. Meeting her was unexpected. Its right here. Back to my question, do you promise?" I pointed to one of my pouches on my belt as I spoke.

He stared at me for a moment, then with dark, heavy blue eyes he nodded.

I sighed, relieved that he at least wouldn't die because of my problem. Because if he was turned into a zombie, I wouldn't have the strength to kill him. I felt a growing affection for the cop.

I tured and started walking. "Will that be tall enough?" I asked him, pointing the tallest building in the immediate area, about five stories.

"Should be." he answered.

" Then let's go." I opened the door to the old hotel.

Inside was disturbingly dark and extensively creepy. Rubble littered the lobby, and dead fish were next to a blood-stained counter. We decided to climb to the top floor, as I refused to trust the elevator. We quickly got to the stairs, nothing much to see in the abandoned hallways but litter, dust and the occasional potted plant lying on the floor. I was tired, and ready to sit down by the time we reached the roof.

On the roof, I was completely unprepared for the sight that befell me. Bits of bodies and a sea of drying blood encrusted the roof. Zombies were leaning over a cadaver, feasting on the flesh. One turned and noticed us. I shuddered violently, even though our lives weren't safe. I turned away from the mess and retched off the side of the building as Leon took care of the undead. He shot the corpse for good measure.

When he finished, he held my hair away from my face for a moment, though I was finished. I wiped my mouth and whispered hoarsely "I'm okay."

I knew that he realized it was a lie, so I switched subjects.

"Lets scout shall we?"

"Where are they?" he asked, for though his ears could roughly hear the march of the undead, they couldnt pinpoint the direction of the sound. So I walked to the east side of the building, and looked. It wasnt that hard to spot them. We were on the tallest building for a little ways and could see over the others. We had gotten closer than I thought. I sighed heavily, then turned to him.

"There is way to many. We wont be able to fight them, unless we can somehow snipe most with a few handguns."

"So what do you suggest we do?" his face was grave. He realized the seriousness of the situation.

"Scour the building, and try to find a rifle quickly I guess. If we dont have any luck, we take out as many as we can, then run like hell." he contemplated it for a moment. I noticed the dull fear in his eyes, and knew it was reflected in my own green ones.

"Lets look then." he decided. I smiled through my terror, wondering what would happen next.

Finished. Was it okay? Better than the last chapter? Please tell me what you thought, as I am anxious for my reader's views. I know that wasnt much of an ending, but this is a really long chapter! Thanks to those who have read my fanfic this far! I hope you stay! ^^