Author's Note: Hello everyone! Sorry for the extreme delay but I've been having kind of a writer's block and my laptop broke a while ago so I couldn't write anything even if I wanted to. Thankfully, got it back now and I didn't lose any of my files.

Anyways, thank you all for the lovely reviews (I try to always reply to them) and the favorites! I really appreciate it.

Sorry it's kind of short but it's all I could come up with right now without sounding redundant. Hope you like it! Leave me a review if you'd like. :]


Chapter Seven: Trapped

The radio beeped at the most inappropriate time. It was just their luck that they'd been trying to contact the others for a while now, but they somehow decided to reply when they were standing face to face with a monster.

"Shit! Run!" Leon yelled.

The colossal being stared at them with its protruding red eyes and charged at them, making their attempts at escape seem futile.

"Tell Chris we're kinda busy right now!" Claire attempted to make the situation seem a bit humorous, but that was the only thing it wasn't. If she was a pessimist she would say they were pretty much done for, but she knew they had faced bigger and scarier… things.

The creature lunged at Leon and threw him on the floor, separating him from Claire. It darted towards his position, but Leon was fast enough to roll on his back and avoid its possibly fatal blow.

Claire took advantage of the fact that it was busy with Leon and managed to shoot a couple of bullets at it. They didn't seem to affect it in any way. Some strange colored blood started leaking from the wounds she inflicted. She had to get closer.

Leon was doing a really good job evading its attacks, but he wasn't going to keep doing that for long. It outmatched him in both speed and strength.

"Claire, shoot it!"

I'm trying to! She closed the distance and took a good shot at its head. That seemed to get its attention,and it turned to her. There was no display of emotion on its distorted face, but Claire knew it was angry. She tried to keep calm and took a few steps backwards as she kept shooting at it. Leon joined in and shot it from the side, but the bullets didn't even make it cringe. From an awfully close distance, it threw its monstrous arm to her and its fist met her stomach. She winced, let out a choked shriek, and fell on her back.

Leon ran to her and tried to get its attention. He took out his knife and started slicing it wherever he could. It was no surprise that the monster noticed, and it turned to him again and rammed him into a wall.

"No!" Claire tried to shout, but the pain in her stomach was too intense. She struggled to get back on her feet as she uselessly watched the monster attack Leon. He screamed, and she saw blood dropping on the floor, blood she hoped wasn't Leon's. She shot at the monster again with shaky hands, but nothing could get it off her partner. Seeing no other option, she ran towards it, grabbed a chair on the way and smashed it on its back.

It dropped Leon and threw Claire on the floor. It was too powerful, almost invincible. They both panted and looked like shit. They were tired and scratched and bruised. And pretty soon, they would be dead, too.

Leon grunted and tried to get on his feet. "Claire, shoot it in the eyes!"

She let go of all the doomed thoughts and took a deep breath as she aimed her gun at it. She couldn't miss. Here goes. She let the breath out and pulled the trigger. The monster immediately staggered back and brought its hand to cover its bloody eye. It growled like a wild animal, but the sound was much deeper than that. It dropped to its knees for a few seconds, and after it stopped screaming, it got back up almost effortlessly. She had to get the other eye, too, or they didn't stand a chance. She pulled the trigger but the gun just clicked. She would never make it in time to reload and shoot before it came at her.

Leon was shooting from the back but it was useless. "No, no!" He screamed and tried to get up but there was no time.

Claire closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable pain, but it never came. She opened them and saw the monster dropping to its knees instead, as if some invisible force had bumped into it. She looked to the right and saw Steve standing in front of it, holding its heart that he had ripped right out of its chest. He stood there holding it and watched the creature's body sprawl on the floor as he dropped it.

"S-Steve?" What in the hell was that? How could be so strong?

Leon just looked at Steve in shock. "Wh-what?"

Steve stood steady, red eyes forward, body still. He didn't look human at all.

"Is it really you?" Claire asked.

Steve turned to her, looking right at her for the first time in years. But it wasn't the same.

"Is it?" he said.

"Who are you?" Leon was kneeling on the floor. He tried to get up but he grunted and gave up. "Why did you help us?"

Steve ignored him and looked straight ahead again. It was as if he was staring out in space.

"I asked you a question!" Leon aimed his gun at him.

"Steve?" Claire said his name again to get his attention.

"You know him?" Leon said.

Claire nodded. "What's going on, Steve? You're supposed to be dead."

He tilted his head. "Is that right?" His voice held a sarcastic tone which made it seem so different and unfamiliar.

Claire shook her head. She couldn't make sense of anything. His superhuman strength resembled Wesker's, and that made her fear that he was probably infected with the virus, which also made him a direct target to be eliminated. It was all too much to take in.

"I need you alive." Steve said, and without another word, he disappeared as fast as she could blink.

"W-wait!" She held out her hand, but it was too late. He was gone before she even had time to speak.

"What the hell is going on?" Leon asked. He was still kneeling on the floor with a hand pressed to his shoulder. He slowly got to his feet and walked to Claire. He offered his hand to help her up, and she gladly took it. She almost dropped to the floor as she felt her knees go numb, but Leon put his arms around her waist and helped her stand.

"Thanks." He let her go but she held on to his arm a little longer to make sure she could stand up straight. Her stomach ached from the blow, and the fall from before didn't help much.

"Was that Steve Burnside?"

Claire nodded.

"What the hell? How is it possible?"

"I'm just as confused as you are."

"What did he mean by 'I need you alive'? You think he meant you?"

"I have no idea. All I know is that it wasn't Steve. He was nothing like that. Something's happened to him."

Apparently something very bad. After the showdown with Alexia, Wesker took his body. He said he wanted it for the Veronica Virus,but she never thought he would be able to bring him back to life. In some twisted way, she hoped he would so she could see him again, but on the other hand, compared to the awful things he would have done –and probably had- he was better off dead.

"Did you see his eyes?" Leon said.

"Red."

Leon nodded. "He's definitely infected."

"I know."

"We need to go after him."

"What? Why?"

"Because he's probably the one pulling the strings here. He's our target, Claire." Leon made a point very seriously for Claire to understand.

"We can't kill him, Leon."

"We'll see when it comes to that." Claire didn't like that thought, and Leon seemed to notice. "Can you walk?"

She still was feeling a little sore. Putting any additional strain on herself would be unwise in this situation. "Leon, you saw what he did to that thing that almost killed us. If he could take out something so powerful so quickly, he could kill us with a snap of his fingers."

Leon nodded. He seemed to understand that. "Alright, we'll meet up with the others and go after him."

"Do you think we can rest for a bit first?"

He nodded again. "I could use a break." He smiled and put his arm around her shoulder. He helped her walk to the far corner and lie there. It was always best to have your back to wall.

"I'll barricade the doors." He went to the door the monster had previously blocked, grabbed a few chairs and stacked them against the door along with two tables. Once he was done, he went to the other door, the one that led to the zombie-filled corridor. The barricade was still holding, so he didn't tamper with it. He walked back to Claire and sat next to her by the wall.

Claire sighed and rested her head against the wall. "This isn't what I signed up for."

"It never is."

Claire nodded and sighed. Every time she got involved in such a mess, she would always flirt with death. She had gotten lucky so far but she wondered how lucky a person can get. One of these days, luck wouldn't be on her side. She didn't want to die and if she did, she didn't want to die like this; served as dinner to a zombie.

"Leon?"

He turned his head a bit to look at her.

"Do you ever wonder how different our lives would be if the Raccoon City incident never happened? If nothing ever happened?"

He let out a small laugh. "Everything would be different. But you know what, Claire? Be it Raccoon City or any other place in the world, it wouldn't stop. If it wasn't us, it would be other people."

"Is it too selfish of me to wish it happened to other people?" She felt horrible for saying this. It was a terrible wish but a very human one nevertheless.

"No." Leon smiled and squeezed the hand that had been resting on her thigh. "But I don't."

"You wouldn't want to live a normal life?"

"Yeah but if it wasn't for all this, I wouldn't be the person I am today. And I... I wouldn't have met you." He shrugged.

Claire turned to look at him. She didn't really have a reply to that. It made her heart flutter a bit, so she only smiled. It meant so much coming from him. He considered her an important person in his life, and she felt the same about him, but she couldn't tell if it was just that. Thinking about a normal life without Leon, or any of the people she met, she knew that things would be better, but something would still be missing. She imagined having a family, maybe kids, too. And Chris; she couldn't really picture him at all, because she couldn't remember him before all this mess. Even since their parents died, Chris took all the responsibility, and his job always took the best of him. He even went missing, and she had to go look for him. That was when she met Leon. Thinking about this, she believed that everything happened for a reason.

It wasn't of any use thinking about another life. The past would never change, and even if it was possible, she didn't know if she would want to change it after all.

Leon turned to her, probably troubled because she was being too quiet. "I wouldn't mind meeting you under different circumstances though."

Claire laughed. "Yeah, me neither." She thought about it for a moment and smiled. "Things would be very different, don't you think?" She didn't know what she was implying, but she let herself say it anyway, leaving its interpretation up to him.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and brought her closer to him. "Yeah. Very." He let her rest her head on his shoulder. "Take a few minutes, and I'll wake you up when we have to go."

Claire nodded and quickly drifted into a light sleep.