Claire walks up to the door for her dorm room, leaning against it ready to open the door as soon as Steve got against the opposing wall ready to storm the room. They have to be quick though – there are so many zombies around the campus that there is less chance of escape than on Rockfort.

Claire grabs the door handle and turns it, slow enough for her to catch her breath before going in. She has to not stall long enough for the un-dead on this floor to get to them, but she has to stall for just long enough to prepare for what she might see beyond the squeaking wooden door. She looks over at Steve as he gives her a slight nod, his eyes filled with wonder and compassion. In the moment she take to look at him, she wonders about what he must have gone through, what Umbrella must have done to him over the past nine months, and about how they managed to heel his wound and bring him back from near-death. She knows that Umbrella is a multi-billion dollar company, but where could they have gotten that sort of technology?

But the thing that eats away at her most is what he must have found out. About Chris, Umbrella, Umbrella's sister company, Wesker, Birkin, and even the S.T.A.R.S Teams and the Raccoon Incident. Surely if he escaped, he read up on everything. Or, what he could before having to run. Did he find out anything about her? About the loss of her parents? What happened to Chris? How Sherry and Leon were doing? About what they did to him? Or, even, about how his loss broke her? How the whole Umbrella thing and the reality of the un-dead and other creatures she fought against are real, shattered her?

The fact that he changed quite a lot in that time amazes Claire. From being a 17 year old kid who lost his mother and father at Umbrella's hand, to being an 18 year old man who escaped from the people who took everything from him. She thinks about it for a second, trying to sort through her thoughts. But she doesn't have time.

She is already opening the door.

Time seems to slow as Claire hears the squeak and creak of the hinges protest and age. Steve goes past her, running into the room and scanning it for anything. He turns back to Claire and nods at her to show that there is nothing in there. She walks in, hearing the door close behind her, causing her to curse and spin round. It had shut on its own.

She hears a cry of horror from behind her, turning to see Steve struggling against a zombie. She doesn't think, and just runs into the creature, taking them both down to the ground. Claire almost gets bitten as they crash into the thinly carpeted floor, and she hears the extremely loud crack and pop of her left shoulder as it comes out of its socket.

The same shoulder Leon was shot in back in Raccoon. The thought strikes her so suddenly, she feels winded.

She rolls off the creature, trying to get out of its reach. But Steve's already getting the thing to its feet and dragging it into the en suite. He slams the door shut. Claire slowly stands up and passes Steve one of the dining chairs, watching as he places it against the door handle. He looks back at her for a moment, his eyes filled with concern and empathy.

'Roommate?' he asks, moving away from the door slightly. All Claire can do is nod, sitting on one of the un-made beds. The shock of seeing her roommate like that has put Claire in to a precariously shocked state. She went through worse in Raccoon City and Rockfort. But her roommate Chelsea was the only one she felt close to; the only one she felt like she could talk to. Leon is in a state over 1000km away, and she has no clue where Sherry could be. Everybody else she knew was dead or missing. Claire had wanted so much to move to Washington and see Leon and Sherry, or to Florida to see Chris.

But she has been stuck in Iowa the whole time, not far from the site of Raccoon City in Southern Minnesota. It has been cut off from the rest of the world, and now Umbrella is still investigating the radioactive depths. It seems odd to continue investigating nothing. Claire is slightly puzzled at why they are still looking and why they haven't sent White Umbrella to do their dirty work – they always do. Wesker must be running a pretty tight shift their. Or White umbrella have finally been uncovered.

But if they don't get out of here, she'll never find out. She stops thinking and tries to control her breathing. She has to get them out of here. She need s to go back to the dark place she never thought she'd go back to, just to get them out of this thing. Just like she did back on Rockfort, she had to get them out.

'We should really put that shoulder back in place,' Steve says, sitting down on the bed next to her. To think, he would have next been so kind when we'd first met, even in the circumstances. Claire smiles at the thought, and Steve smiles slightly too, happy to finally see her happy at whatever-it-is she's thinking. 'What?'

'Nothing,' Claire smiles further. There's a sudden scraping sound and a blinding pain from her left shoulder. She cries out, but as soon as the pain dulls, she playfully pushes Steve. 'You bastard.' She smiles again.

'We'd better go.' Steve stops smiling and grabs Claire's hand, realising that they have to get out. They run out of the room, leaving the scratching zombie behind in the en suite.