Her fists clenched. "Out. Of. My way."

"He's gone, Claire. But the rest of them might not be. We have to make sure we don't get ambushed again, or his whole sacrifice will have been pointless."

Claire hated that she was being sensible. …Kendo… "I…I just…"

"Search the room."

"What?!"

"If you want to survive, keep yourself busy. There's time for tears when the nightmare's over."

She turned her back on the other woman. "I can't believe how cold you are."

"I'm also alive. And if you don't mind, I'd like to stay that way."

Claire started walking towards the other side of the room to start searching there; whatever could get her some breathing room for a little while. What the hell's the point of surviving this monster-filled nightmare if we turn into monsters ourselves?

With the darkroom having nothing more to offer for the time being, the two men resumed their search. The only places in the corridor outside the darkroom they hadn't checked yet were the restrooms.

"Do we really have to?"

"Yes, Dante. For all we know, they're full of critical items."

"Oh, they're full of somethin', all right…"

The state inside the men's room was…well…not good. Several corpses littered the tiled floor, and altogether there was probably only about a square foot that hadn't been covered in blood or worse. Leon had been hopeful about a pistol that he saw sticking out of the sink, until he got closer and saw it overflowing with water. Hopelessly rusted from all the water. Well, I tried.

BANG!

Leon jumped about a foot into the air before whirling around. His red-coated companion was standing above one of the corpses, a pistol clutched in his hand. "What was that?! Another one of those things?"

"Nah. But we better not take any chances." He then walked to the next body, crouching and placing a finger on its wrist; with a small nod, he stood back up and pointed his pistol again. BANG!

"Would you stop wasting ammo?! They're dead. That won't change anything."

"Okay, show of hands, who here has dealt with zombies before?" He raised his own hand into the air, staring at Leon, who hadn't moved. "Exactly. Lesson three: unless it melts or you blast its brains out, assume it's alive. You have no idea how many people screw that one up…"

"Okay, I hear you," Leon grumbled, holding his hands up in defeat and wondering just how many of these rules he was expected to remember. He waited until the other man had finished shooting the motionless bodies before resuming his search. Nothing seemed worthwhile, and he was about to give up entirely when he spotted something. "Here we go!" He handed the potted herb to Dante.

He sighed. "Another one of those damn things? Can't you just stuff it in the box?"

"If we need recovery, I don't want to have to travel a mile for it. Keep items of immediate importance on your immediate person. Rule four for the R.P.D."

Dante rolled his eyes, stuffing the yellow plant in his coat. "You're not even keeping it on your immediate person; you'll just come cryin' to me whenever you get hurt. I'm not a walking vending machine."

"You're right; a vending machine would have more personality."

"Oh, please. Between the two of us, you've got way less personality."

Leon smirked. "Oh, is that right?"

"I'd find more personality in a…" His mind grasped wildly for a descriptor. "…a…I dunno, a giant block of…tofu."

"…Tofu."

"Yeah. With Jill's hat," he added as an afterthought.

"This coming from the Human Woodchipper? Oh, sorry…the Mostly Human Woodchipper."

"Hey, the ladies love me."

"And who says they don't love me?" Leon countered with a triumphant grin. And then he realized: he was currently in the bathroom of a police station, surrounded by corpses, zombies, and monsters, arguing with an unkillable man about which one of them was more popular. "You know…there are better places to have this conversation. Let's get outta here; other crap to take care of." He heard a chuckle behind him. "That was not intentional."

Nero and Kyrie, meanwhile (the…C team?), had elected to enter the door at the far end of the corridor. It lead them straight into another one. But the hallway was now a murky tan rather than faded blue, with the windows lining its far side so heavily boarded up that a moth probably couldn't get through them, much less a zombie.

It was also empty, and that didn't sit well with Nero at all. "Stay vigilant. It's too quiet here; I don't like it," he said in a low whisper.

"What should I stay vigilant for?" Kyrie whispered back.

"Could be anything. Maybe a flicker of movement, maybe a strange sound, maybe-"

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Like that?"

"Yeah, just like that," the Holy Knight muttered, cautiously leading them around the first bend of the corridor. The thumping noise sounded like it was coming from further ahead, but there was another bend coming up. "Hang back for a sec; I'll scout it out." He crept forward to the next turn, slowly peering around the corner. What the hell would make that kind of-

He jumped backwards, two giant fists crashing down onto where he'd been. He drew Red Queen in a smooth motion, fixing his opponent with a smirk. "Hello to you too, tall bald and ugly." The green-coated man trudged towards him, his heavy footfalls making the thumping sound they'd heard earlier. "Kyrie, get back to the door! I'll slice this thing to pieces."

It took her a moment to respond. "All right."

"I won't be long." Nero stared at the being before him in disappointment. Is this the best they've got? People plus zombie virus equals slightly bigger zombie people? Heh, whatever. He brought his blade down in a casual stroke.

CLANG

…Okay, that's new! He was so startled that he only started to dodge the giant's incoming punch at the last moment; it only managed to catch him with half of the fist, but even that was enough to make him stagger backwards.

It seems that our opponent is resistant to close combat, Sir Nero Ascalon informed him.

It's just Nero, and I can see that! He managed to duck under the next two swings, and then saw his opportunity. He focused his strength into a vicious uppercut with the Devil Bringer. To his disappointment, it only managed to take his enemy slightly off balance. Still…

He flipped Red Queen over in his left hand, holding it in a reverse grip as he stabbed downward and reached into his coat with the Devil Bringer. His enemy didn't roar in pain like he'd expected, which was odd, considering that his blade had impaled the giant's right foot. Wasting no time, he drew Blue Rose with his glowing hand, taking as much time as he dared to funnel energy from the Devil Bringer into it before it fired. The empowered double shot knocked the green-coated giant several feet back until he crashed into a wall. For a few tense moments, Nero waited for the counterattack.

…And then the giant slowly fell to its knees, wobbling slightly before crashing down the rest of the way.

He returned Red Queen to his back, but didn't dare let his guard down. He transferred Blue Rose to his left hand, keeping it trained on his downed enemy the whole time. No way he's dead. That was too easy.

Without demonic blood, I cannot sense its fate either way. Shall you check its vitals?

And have it spring up and break my arm? No thanks; I'm in no hurry to wear a sling again.

If I may, Sir Nero-

Nero he thought stubbornly.

My apologies, Sir Nero. But might I suggest removing its head?

He seriously considered the idea for a moment. It could help…and it certainly couldn't hurt…could it?

"Nero? Is it over?"

He turned around, seeing Kyrie approaching from behind the other corner. "For now, I guess." Who knows what its blood does when exposed to the air, or if it could just grow another head or something. It's not moving; we'll just have to watch it until we leave.

Are you certain? Leaving it unchecked could-

This is the choice I've made. If I'm wrong, I'll accept the consequences then. But if we want to escape, we'll have to make sure we act decisively. Second-guessing just costs twice the effort to stay in the same spot.

Very well.

Having found little of note in the room they'd been searching (aside from a few stray shotgun shells and a duplicate security card for the main hall), it came time for the moment that both Claire and Lady had been dreading; returning through the hall to continue their search.

There was no scream that came from the broken door this time. And as they rounded the corner, it was hard to say which one of the two wanted to see the aftermath less.

The remains of several Lickers were scattered around the hallway; two were missing their heads entirely, and the rest had had random limbs shredded by the force of the blast. Claire gazed at the tattered shirt around the body in the middle, the only means of distinguishing what had been their friend from the monsters he had protected them from. She noticed a small capsule lying next to it; it'd been the thing Kendo had found in the S.T.A.R.S. office. She crouched down, retrieving it with some reluctance. Whatever is on here, we wouldn't have found this without you. Goodbye, Kendo. I hope

A loud slamming noise made Claire jump. She spun around to see Lady removing the bayonet of her rocket launcher from one of the heads of the Licker corpses. Or rather…what HAD been the head. "What is wrong with you?!"

"What he did for us was a noble thing. I'm not blind to that. But the worst insult to his memory would be giving any of these things the chance to make his sacrifice be in vain." Having said that, she walked to the next one, repeating the process without hesitation. "There. Let's go." Lady marched towards the door; Claire muttered something, but she ignored it. As she approached the entrance to the secretary's office, she cast a glance at what was left of Kendo. With an almost unnoticeable sigh, she turned the doorknob, blinking slightly more than usual…

Back with our gentlemen pair, their backtracking had led them into a kind of operations planning room. Several chairs were lined up in haphazard rows, blackboards were covered in half-finished chalk diagrams and notes, and there were too many cigarette butts scattered around to count. Seeing them ignited the craving in Leon, just as he'd feared. No. You've kicked that habit, and you're not going back. Not even in this...zombie apocalypse, or whatever it is. He clenched his teeth, forcing himself to ignore that itch.

…Which was about the time his headache came back. Great.

"You gonna be okay there, pal?" the too-smug voice called to him.

"Peachy," he said in as flippant a tone as he could manage. "Hundred thousand plus in this town, probably all of them zombies or worse, and I'm stuck with a half-demon who punches his way through every problem. Yep; just peachy."

"Oh, good. Nothin' to worry about, then."

If it wouldn't have made his headache worse, he'd have rolled his eyes at that. "Search the room; if there's anything left behind, we could use it." He made his way towards the podium by the blackboards, rummaging through a stack of reports. He could see a blur of red out of the corner of his eye sauntering towards the back room as he happened upon a report that looked promising. It was detailing the R.P.D.'s efforts to stem the tide of zombies, but didn't have anything pertaining to his situation until the last page. Let's see…"Three additional people killed upon the appearance of an (as of yet) unknown creature." Hmm…"missing skin"…"large claws"…"lance-like tongue". Sounds like our old friend from upstairs. They named it "Licker", huh? Fitting. "Currently developing countermeasures to this threat and"…it just cuts off there. Damn. He tucked the report into his pockets and decided to check up on Dante, heading to the back room as well. "Found anything?"

"Yep." He gestured to a painting on the wall. As soon as he saw it, Leon felt his skin crawl. The painting was very well done, true, but it was of a nude woman being burnt at the stake; if he didn't know any better, he could have sworn it was a photograph. The title placard read "A sacrifice to Hell's fire." "Tell me, Leon, what's crap like this doing in a police station?"

"I dunno. I'd heard stories about the Chief being an art buff, but this is just…"

Dante nodded. "Well, let's get this over with." He placed his hand over the painting, tapping lightly in several places. With a nod, he reached up and ripped the whole thing off the wall. Behind it was an odd mechanism that was beyond Leon's understanding; the giant red gem in the middle, however, looked familiar. "At least we're getting compensated." The man in red pocketed the gemstone, and, with a look of contempt, kicked the painting into a jumble of tangled chairs. They left the room without a word.

Outside it, Leon was taking them back in the direction of the stairs by the darkroom, saying he wanted to check on the door by the statues again. Something was bothering him about that particular door; it had no keyhole, and yet they'd been locked out of wherever it went. They returned to the area (the center bust still missing its hand), and this time, the door opened easily. "That's strange…you think someone went through here before us?"

His companion seemed to ponder the question. "No seal…but no key…maybe she-?" he mumbled. Finally, Leon could see him come to a conclusion. "Must've been. They probably locked the door behind them to keep from bein' snacked on, and when they doubled back, they unlocked it."

"But if they'd doubled back, why didn't we bump into them?"

He shrugged, but in his mind the connection was easy to make. He'd been taken to a pocket dimension for the Blue Orb fragment, and she must have gone down the stairs while he was occupied. Assuming it was Lady, of course, but who else could it be?

…Besides Nero. Or Kyrie. Or the girl that Leon had mentioned.

This is so much simpler when the things I need to protect are behind me and the things I need to kill are ahead of me. Can't we do that for a while?

"Uh, Dante? Hello?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here."

"I sure hope so. I'm opening the door now." Both of them filed through, quickly noticing something disconcerting about the next corridor. It was empty.

"The S.T.A.R.S. office," Leon noted with relief. "We should be able to find something useful there."

Dante glanced around them, frowning. This was too easy…WAY too easy. Was it a trap? Or had the one responsible for locking the door cleaned it out for them? "…Yeah."

The two of them entered the office, looking around with interest. Much to their disappointment, however, there were no helpful objects on the desks to be claimed. Leon sighed. "Well, I suppose this place must've been cleaned out already." He turned to ask Dante his opinion, but the other man was no longer at his side. Puzzled, he looked wildly around the room for his wayward partner. It didn't take long, though. The white-haired man was standing in the middle of the desks, looking at them with a sort of sad fondness. Leon quietly left him to it, searching the communications section at the back of the office.

To his relief, two portable radios were sitting in their power cradle, the solid lights assuring him they were fully charged. He clipped them onto his belt, turning to the weapons locker next. He was happy to find the doors swinging open easily, and overjoyed to see a Desert Eagle sitting placidly on one of the shelves. He gave it a once-over, ejecting the magazine and counting the rounds before setting it aside and checking the slide and trigger pull. The weapon was in peak condition, and there was a full magazine just waiting to be reunited with it. Maybe someone up there likes me after all; better not waste these! He slid the clip back in, setting the gun down once more to pull a shoulder holster from inside the locker. I'm more a fan of hip holsters, strictly speaking, but beggars can't be choosers. He attached the holster, stowed away his new weapon, and then nodded happily. Things were definitely looking up, especially if he could find more rounds for his new friend.

He turned back to Dante. The man was looking over one desk in particular now. His eyes seemed to glaze over somewhat as they swept the desk, but they came to an abrupt stop once they'd found a blue object perched right on the edge.

"Dante?" Leon asked as the other man picked up the item.

He let out a long sigh, and a few seconds later, set the beret back down. "It's nothing," he said in a toneless voice. "…Nice gun."

"Thanks. A little work and it might pack more punch than yours."

"In your dreams." A flicker of a grin crossed his face before it disappeared into a frown again.

"No, seriously," he prodded, not willing to give up so soon. "Maybe I'll even paint it blue or something. Can't let you have the most interesting guns, after all."

"Hah!" The laugh seemed to surprise the both of them. "Yeah, whatever. And just what would you name it? 'Steel Sapphire'?"

"You know, that's not a bad idea…"

Our lady duo (that is, a duo of ladies rather than a duo of Ladies) had returned to the second floor of the main hall. Determined to put their new key to use, Claire led them back down the ladder and through the reception room again. The very first door was quickly unlocked by the key (which Claire had dubbed the Spade key, due to the shape of its head).

Inside they found an evidence room crammed full of old reports and documents; unfortunately, there was no confiscated ammo. According to one of the papers Lady shuffled through, they'd been moved to a safe somewhere on the east side of the first floor. She tossed the paper aside, trekking further into the room. There was an object on a high shelf, but she'd never get it on her own. She looked around for a ladder or a set of stairs, but there was none. Not to mention, the ceiling didn't look remotely safe enough to use her bayonet as a tether. With the last of her excuses gone, she had no choice. "Claire. I need your help."

Claire tore her gaze from a locked cabinet to look at her accomplice. "What is it?"

She pointed up towards the shelf. "If I give you a boost, can you get that?" She nodded immediately, if a bit coldly, and Lady knelt down, lifting her up until Claire called out her success. She set the other woman down, looking at their newest item. "A crank?"

"Never know when we might need it, I guess," Claire noted. She threaded it through one of the belt loops of her shorts. It was incredibly awkward to accomplish, but it worked in the end, and better yet didn't restrict her movement. They left, continuing their purposeful trek.

Their next stop was an operations room in the corridor where they'd fought the human-looking thing in the green coat. Apart from the remains of a painting in the back room, there was nothing of interest. To neither of their surprise, their giant foe was not where they'd left him. Disappointed, they pressed onward nonetheless.

Next was the stairs outside the darkroom. They made a quick stop so that Claire could begin developing the film they'd retrieved. It wouldn't be ready for some time, so they left it where it was and continued upstairs…

The instant they'd left the S.T.A.R.S. office, two things happened that caught Leon's immediate and full attention. The first was that they were surrounded by somewhere between seven and ten zombies in police attire. That was bad, but Leon was less worried about it than the second thing. The second thing that caught his attention was a scream.

A girl's scream.

A little girl's scream.

"Help me!" he heard from the far end of the corridor. His ears just managed to catch the sound of little footsteps before the undead began to close in on him.

"Dante! The right!" Leon yelled. He didn't waste time to see if his teammate had understood him, instead snapping off shots from his handgun at the zombies that were between him and where the scream had come from. "Hang on, we're going to rescue you!" Dante's pistols rang out nearly in time with his; he could only hope they wouldn't be too late.

The last of the undead fell, and he heard Dante's gunfire cease. "Come on!" They ran to the other end of the corridor, and Leon flung the door open. The two of them dashed into the room, and Leon barely had time to register some kind of break room with branching corridors when he heard a gasp from one end of the room.

A little girl had fallen backwards, doing her best to shuffle away from them in pure terror. "N-no! Don't hurt me!" She stumbled to her feet and ran into one of the corridors at top speed.

"Hey! Wait!"

Lady and Claire went still at the same moment.

"That was a girl's scream," Claire said, shocked.

Rapid gunfire sounded out.

"We've got to help!"

"Wait!" Lady snapped. "We can't get ahead of ourselves again! Check your angles and-"

"I'm not letting anyone else die!" Claire snapped. "Especially not a little girl!" She raced ahead, paying no heed to the protests of her companion.

"Reckless idiot!" Lady snapped, racing after her.

Claire vaulted over the statues, throwing open the door and dashing through the corridor beyond, darting around the fallen forms of zombies. "You'd rather leave a little girl lost in a place like this?!" she shot back. "When her mother could be dead?!"

Her stride didn't slow, but she felt as if she'd been struck in the gut. Her mother…mother…dead?

The girl just managed to duck under his grasp, sliding forwards in a desperate crawl and wiggling through the hole in the bottom of a door before he could alter his course. He would've cursed if he hadn't needed to catch his breath so badly. As he did, however, something glittered from where the young girl had disappeared. He picked it up, examining it; it was a key with some sort of pink gemstone in a diamond shape at the top. Leon tucked the key away, glad he'd at least have something that could help.

"Not bad for a kid," Dante muttered in admiration.

"Even so, we shouldn't just ignore her." Whoever that little girl was, she didn't have a gun or any sort of weapon that he'd seen. And with all the things running around this building already, that didn't bode well for her chances of survival. "I sure hope we can find her again."

Claire stopped abruptly when the door past the S.T.A.R.S. office was locked. "If this doesn't work, I'll kick it down," she growled as she turned the Spade Key. To her relief, it did work after all. Lady followed her into the room, their guns drawn and their eyes in motion.

A man was trudging towards them. Lady prepared to aim her pistol, but relaxed when she saw that he was flanked by Dante.

"Leon!" Claire called in relief. She ran over, throwing her arms around him.

"Claire-oof! Hah…good to see you too. Glad you made it."

"Friend of yours?" Lady asked, amused.

Claire let him go. "He saved my life when I got to this town. I was hoping he'd be all right." She looked at Dante. "Who's your friend, Leon?"

"Dante. Pleased to meet ya," he said, shaking her hand.

"Wait…you know my brother, don't you?"

Dante looked at Lady for help. "Chris," she explained.

"You bet. He's an all right guy. Why do you ask?" The most fleeting of worried looks crossed his face. "He doin' okay?"

She sighed. "That's what I came here to find out. But it looks like he's long gone. And now we're all stuck here."

"Not to be rude, but this can wait. We are in the middle of a city crawling with zombies, after all," Lady pointed out.

"You're right," Leon agreed. "Claire, have you found any clues on how to escape?"

She went through her pockets. "I've found a few things here and there, but besides the keys I don't know which ones will help. How about you?"

The two of them began filling each other in and going through each other's items. Dante, meanwhile, had made his way over to Lady. "Holdin' up okay?"

"More or less. We lost someone," she said quietly, looking downward. "A man that joined us at a gun shop before we got to the station. And…Brad didn't make it, either."

"…We'll make 'em pay, Lady. We'll get everyone else out that we can, and then we'll torch everything. Bigger than last time; no room for error."

She knew what he was doing, but felt better all the same. "Any injuries?"

"Nope. You?"

"None yet, but I wonder how long that will last." She stifled a yawn. "I'm still worn out from our last little adventure. Any sign of Nero or Kyrie?"

He shook his head. "Not yet, but they had to have come with us. That Mar guy pulled us all away."

"I think you're right. I haven't found any reference to them returning with Jill and the others, and none of the zombies we've come across have been sliced up."

"Same here, other than the work of yours truly. Let's try to get them and get the hell out, before we start slipping up."

She gave him a surprised look. "Well well, Dante…are you actually admitting there's something too difficult for you?"

"According to Leon, this town's got a population somewhere around a hundred K, plus."

"…Holy shit," she breathed.

"So yeah, a bit more than the mansion. Even if those were all the standard people-eaters…and after what we've seen, there's at least a few nastier ones…"

"I can vouch for that…"

"I don't think I can wipe that many out all in one nonstop go untouched. Give me a couple naps, and no problem, sure, but I can't cut through a whole city in a single night. Not without taking a few bites or scratches."

She nodded. "Right. That's the last thing we need right now."

Claire and Leon had finished their discussion, and began trading items. "Say, Leon, have you seen a little girl running around here?" Claire asked, handing him a box of shotgun shells.

"Yeah, Dante and I just missed her before you got here," he replied, handing her a small stone object that was square and blue. "She crawled through a little hole in that hallway," he said, pointing a thumb behind him and passing her a case of acid grenades.

"Hmm…well, I'm glad that she's resourceful, but it's still too dangerous to let her wander around like that," she said thoughtfully, accepting a box of 9mm rounds from him. "Let's try to look for her, so we can all escape safely."

He nodded. "You got it. Oh, but before I forget…" He pulled two radios from his belt. "I grabbed these from the S.T.A.R.S. office. They're too short-distance to call for help, but they should let us keep in touch in case something comes up." He handed one to Claire. "Now…how should we split up?"

CHAPTER END

Hello again everyone! I was planning on having this done by the first of February...and then Chinese New Year...and then Valentine's Day...yeah...this one took a little longer than I would've liked, but here it is. As always, please let me know if I've made any errors, be it in proofreading or plot, and I'll fix them right away.

I was wondering...how would you like the groups to be split up? I'm curious to know what you think.

Whatever the case, I love to hear from all of you, whether by review or PM. :-) Stay awesome, and see you next time!