Raccoon City

Raccoon City, Pennsylvania

September 26, 2018 –

A Cabin in the Woods

For Claire, the fall of the Apple Inn wouldn't be nearly as fast.

She knew she had to get moving here. Chris was out there. She had to find him.

The only way to find her brother was to start looking. She couldn't do that in this "safe haven." She had to keep going. Even if she was so tired she could barely stand.

Deciding to check on her jacket, Claire left the little room and moved down the hall to the linen one. It was warmer inside, the sound of dryers tossing wet clothes was almost soothing. She found her jacket hanging up while it air dried, nicely washed and carefully hand cleaned by some considerate person at the Inn. Someone hadn't yet mended the broken zipper, but she could do that herself when she had a minute. Her hands touched the buttery red leather and trembled, pissing her off.

Really? Her mind taunted her. This is when you lose it? You've lived, girl, you're alive. Get it the fuck together and stop spazzing out.

She put her face in the clean leather and breathed, picturing her brother. She was clutching her mother's pillow, refusing to let go. She wouldn't get in the Jeep to leave their house. She wouldn't go. She wanted to stay there and die with them.

And he said, "Claire, it's not goodbye here. It's not the end. It's a new beginning. It's not easy. It's just the way it is. Sometimes? You just have to get up and keep going. That's the only way to stay alive."

Was "staying alive" all there was in anymore? Was that all that was left?

There was a small sound of the door opening and she turned to look over her shoulder. Admittedly, he looked fucking good in a white button down shirt, that little gray vest and the red tie, a shoulder holster, and jeans. The tie was loose at the unbuttoned collar, the sleeves pushed up his nicely muscled forearms. He looked - what? Like a PI or something in a Humphrey Bogart movie. It suited him almost as well as the tattered uniform he'd left behind when they'd found safety here.

His hair was wet and slicked back off his face.

His neck was ringed in bruises and his hair looked dark damp and sorta plastered to his head like it was. It gave the illusion of being short and left that stunning face pale and tired. He'd had someone stitch up his left eyebrow at some point because he had a tiny butterfly bandage over it and another at his hairline. He had the start of a pretty good black eye and two scratches near that perfect little cleft in his chin.

She was stupid, mooning over some butt chin guy. Stupid.

He shifted, lifting a hand as if he'd touch her, and then letting it drop. His hair tumbled over one eye, dripping water onto his white shoulder. "...you ok?"

She wasn't. She was so tired. She was so scared. She was almost defeated. But she couldn't give up. Chris was out there. She felt that in her goddamn bones.

And she whispered, "...I miss my brother."

Well...that was just...that-that was just lame, wasn't it? Admitting her weakness to the hot cop that nearly killed her, arrested her, and kept popping up to taunt her with his butt chin. Lame to be weak by such a dork... the same dork that almost died saving her. That carried her to safety while she panicked. That never asked for her thanks and refused to leave her side.

That cop. The wonderful creature. Who'd humped on top of another girl calling her name.

Sympathetically, he hesitantly took her arm above the elbow. "I'm sorry, Claire. We'll find him. I won't stop until we find him. I promise."

Yeah...that cop. That one. Who was so loyal it was hurting her to be around him.

She shook her head, scanning his face in the small room. "...damn it, Leon. Why are you like that?"

He blinked, shaking his head at her. "I don't understand."

"I know you don't. Which is why it's so much worse...I lied."

He scanned her face, looking more confused. "You don't miss your brother?"

She shook her head, she turned and gripped two handfuls of that white shirt, "That's not-I didn't...I'm screwing this up..."

His heart kinda lodged in his throat and he murmured, "Just say it, Claire."

And she hissed, "I know I've been kinda nuts. I want to explain."

"It's ok. It's been a shitty night man. Seriously."

"Yeah. But it's worse for me."

He tilted his head at her, looking sympathetic, "Yeah. Because of your brother."

"Yeah...and because I like you too..damn you."

Hoarsely, he queried, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I can't stop seeing blood. Help me. Ok? Help me."

There was a soft racket of clothes as she pushed him back against the wall. A shirt was unceremoniously ripped off a hanger and hit his face, tumbling to the floor. It only took a handful of seconds for the blood in his head to hit his groin and make him insane.

Apparently, he'd lied. He was still going to picture her face. He was also, apparently, going to kiss it.

His hands headed straight for her ass, cupping it to drag her against him and rub. She shifted hers to his face to bring him to her. A shirt fell on her face and he missed her mouth. Instead, he went for her neck.

Lord. She was burning up.

His hands shifted to the back of her thighs and picked her up. Impressed, she let him, looping her legs around his waist as he walked the to the dryer. He set her on it and stepped between.

Claire gripped his face, rubbing their mouths together, and she gasped, "Kiss me, ok? Kiss me, Kennedy. Now."

"Right. Shit. Ok." He cupped her face and pulled it up to him to lay a kiss on him that would blow the top of her head off and the door opened beside them.

They let go of each other and Claire rolled off the dryer, putting her face in her hands.

The person rounded the narrow corner and found just Claire. Leon was hidden in the clothes. It was just a woman looking to wash her children's things. She moved to a washer, soundlessly. Her face was all bruises and stitches. What had she lived through?

Jesus. This was a place of survival. Claire felt the shame of knowing she'd made it about fucking. What kind of whore was she!?

But it was more simple than that. She knew that too. She'd diverted her pain to pleasure. Was it really so wrong? She wanted to see anything but the blood. Anything.

She turned her head to say something and found him gone. He'd apparently felt the same way. She put her face back in her hands and shivered. She was just leaving the linen room when he snatched her wrist.

Surprised, she let him drag her two doors down and tug her inside. It was dark in his room. Was he alone? She didn't know. She didn't ask. Her heart was beating so hard.

She opened her mouth to beg him to take her - and he said, "I don't want to be alone tonight."

Shit. SHIT. Her heart wasn't just beating hard, it was kinda beating for him. She gripped his arms, running her hands up and down them, and whispered, "...me either."

He led her to the bed. They both knew they could rip off their clothes and fuck on it. They could do that.

But they laid down together with him curled against her back. He clutched her close and she hugged his arm around her. Apparently, there were things they needed tonight more than an orgasm.

She whispered, "What if he's dead? What will I do?"

Leon whispered back, "Honor him...and survive."

A good answer. A scary answer. She kept his arm pressed to her belly denying it.

And they fell asleep just holding on to each other.

September 27, 2018

"Leon, wake up!"

He did. Instantly. His eyes popped open as he rolled to his feet.

Claire had thrown on a men's dress shirt in white over her tank top. She had even left a little tie loosely knotted in a flair for fashion that fit her. She looked like a nice compliment to him - not that it mattered.

Because she hissed, "You smell that?"

He did. He did smell it. The Apple Inn was on fire.

She gripped his hand and dragged him to the window of their room. They were on the third floor, so jumping down wasn't an option here, but going out the fire escape might be. Sadly for them, the fire escape wasn't out their window. It was four windows down from them.

Leon touched the door knob to their room. It wasn't yet hot, telling him they could probably get out the door and maybe to that fire escape. He started to open the door and Yoko burst in, gasping. "Hurry!"

They did. No one asked a single question. They just went out the door into the acrid stench of smoke and destruction.

Fire had climbed from wallpaper to single. It had left a smoldering, cracking, destructive walk of roasting floor boards between them and the bend in the hallway to the length of hallway where room 304 waited. Leon gripped Yoko's arm and commanded, above the roar of flames, "We need to get to the fire escape! Grab the comforter off the bed in there! HURRY!"

Yoko hurried into the room, grabbing the heavy down comforter at his instruction. He gripped it and looped it over himself. Without a word, Yoko and Claire tucked in against his sides. They huddled under the comforter, moving over the firey floorboards, quick as bunnies. They still felt the heat but the comforter saved them the burn of cast off energy.

They had to drop the comforter the moment they were through the thick of it and run. It smoldered behind them, lighting the wall on fire as it went up. There was a loud WHOOOSH of wallpaper and paint likely still full of lead turning into a blaze of glory, and Leon kicked open the door to 304. The zombie beyond was hit by the door and staggered.

Leon followed him into the room and kicked, sending him sprawling into the open bathroom. He slammed the door on the zombie and shouted, "Help me block the door."

Claire threw the comforter from the bed onto the floor and sealed the smoke from beneath it. He said, "Get in the closet while I open the window! If it creates a draft, it'll kill me quickly but you'll be able to get out after that."

Claire shook her head and he shouted, "Please, Claire! Just do it!"

Yoko tugged her into the closet and Leon ran to the window. They waited, Claire feeling sick as she anticipated the boom of the room exploding with flames and him burning alive, and he called, "Let's go! NOW!"

They raced out of the closet, Yoko almost leaping out the window to the wrought iron balcony. She started down, hurrying, and the clang on her shoes was muffled by the sirens, the screams, and the sound of burning hope. Claire followed her, jumping levels as they went.

In the courtyard, a cop yelled at them, "Go! Hurry! Follow the others! Out through the garden entrance into the park!"

The wind carried her name. She was sure of it. She spun back, looking for the voice. But it didn't matter. How many Claire's were there in the world? She was now just desperate for any sign of Chris.

Enough to believe the wind.

They ran for it, not pausing, not stopping. The world ran with them. It was a mess. It was mass hysteria...and it was failing. The second they turned into the park, Leon heard the screaming.

A woman was yanking on her child, who was being eaten by a pack of dogs in a horrendous tableau of death. The child was long dead, but she wouldn't give up. There was blood and chunks of body parts everywhere as they devoured him and came for her.

Leon jerked both women down the bike path before the dogs saw them. They heard people screaming and begging for help as they ran. They didn't stop. He let the guilt push him into a flat out run with Yoko and Claire beside him.

They cut left and ran up an embankment when a handful of undead shambled toward them soaked in old blood. Yoko scrambled and Leon jerked her backpack, tossing her the rest of the way. They ran across the main concourse, the clock tower looming above them like a perverted Big Ben. It was smoking, it was sagging to one side - someone had battled in that damn thing and nearly destroyed it.

They were almost to the street when the sound of a motorfiring up had him grabbing both women to drag them to a stop...as the thing that had killed Brad Vickers turned the corner into the dull light from the moon. Claire stopped running so fast that she fell on her butt and scrambled back. Yoko turned and ran the other way.

Leon and Claire took up the charge after her as the thing lifted it's weaponized arm on them and it cut loose. It blasted the ground like a .50 caliber atop a tank. Claire screamed and Leon shoved her to the right. The bullets cut the grass up where she'd been, tossing chunks of sod and dirt into the air. They followed Yoko into the forest at a neck breaking pace.

The trees closed around them as they ran and Claire caught a stitch in her side first. She staggered, Leon grabbed her arm and kept her up, and they kept going.

There was no way to know if it was still coming. The sound of its machine gun fire was growing further away as they ran. It had likely engaged the cops still in the park.

They ran for what seemed forever before Claire knew she couldn't run anymore. She was in shape, but she wasn't that in shape. She just wasn't.

Claire gasped, sharply, "I gotta stop! I'm gonna hurl!"

And Yoko shouted, "THERE!"

There was a small cabin overgrown by trees at the bend in the path. They ran toward it and Yoko kicked it twice until it opened. Claire hurried through and collapsed to her hands and knees and Leon closed the door.

The cabin was sparse, mostly empty. Just a bed, an old wooden stove, and a very angry man in dirty overalls standing beside a shovel. There was a sound of surprise and they were staring down the barrel of a big gun.

The man behind it was older than dirt. He looked like father time with no hair and agespots. He was so old he was probably around when Eisenhower was President.

He said, in a strong accent, "Geeet out of my hut."

German? Russian? What was that?

Claire gasped, "Please...Please...we can't. Not yet. That thing out there -"

"I know about that thing out there. It is here for cops. I am not cops. I am just me. I am park janitor. I am not cops."

Leon lifted his hands, showing himself unarmed. His guns was still in the holster on his thigh. "Sir. Please. I promise we'll leave just as soon as the coast is clear. I promise."

The man dropped the hammer on his big .44 Magnum. "You will leave now. Get out. This eez my house."

Yoko whispered, "But we'll die..."

"I don't care about that. I am safe here. You are not welcome. Go to the bridge and back into the city. Get out."

Leon opened his mouth to argue and the glass window beside them shivered. The man turned the big gun on it and the window shattered. It blew apart like someone had thrown a bomb. It rained chunks and shrapnel down on them as Yoko shouted in surprise and Claire covered her head.

A bee the size of a pitbull came through the window.

It buzzed so loudly, its wings flapped so strongly that it churned up tornados of dust and wind, and it angled toward the man with the magnum. He shouted, "I VILL KILL YOU ALOT!"

He shot, the bee took the bullet, and it drove its foot long stinger into his face as it attacked.

The stinger sank into his eye. He screamed so high and loud that it made the back of Leon's neck hurt and Yoko grabbed for the bee with a shout of fear. Claire screamed, "YOKO! DON'T!"

The bee turned on the small girl and Leon hit it broad side with the shovel. The clang of metal filled the room, the bee was thrown into the wall like he'd just swung for home, and the buzzing was cut off. He shouted, "We can't stay here! We have to go for that bridge! Claire?"

"I'm ok! I swear! Let's go!"

The man on the ground was still twitching and seizing. His face had erupted with bulbous bursting pustules. They were like hematomas of infection scattered around his ruined eye socket. The bulging pockets of rot encroached on the other side of his face and made him look like the Elephant man. He just kept...screaming.

Claire grabbed the doorknob and Leon called, "Wait! Wait."

He drove the shovel into the face of the dying man. Yoko squeaked in horror. Claire gasped. It was brutal, it was, but it was mercy. It was mercy. No one deserved to die that way. This was a gift.

The shovel bisected his ruined face in a crunch of bone and brains. It scooped the top from the bottom in a jagged diagonal gash. Leon shouted, "GO!"

And they left him behind in a pool of green pus and white mucous. His face had burst with all those pockets like pimples popped in tandem. It stunk in the cabin of rotten eggs and burning hair. Claire gagged as they hit the path outside and heard the bees.

Yoko was ahead of them and up the path toward the narrow bridge. They could hear the water that meant it crossed the river. The second they hit the old planks, the drop off was massive. It rushed toward the lower edges of nothing. It was all tossing water and splattering mist where it struck the rocks in a waterfall. It might have been pretty - if they weren't running for their lives.

Halfway across, a big mutated man waited. He was a pus filled nightmare like the man in the cabin. He grabbed at Yoko and she ducked, shoving with her shoulder. His bulk hit the ropes that suspended the bridge over certain death and he flipped over, tumbling into the darkness. A bee made a lunge for Yoko as she stumbled to gain her feet with the impact of shoving him, and Leon took it out of the sky with the dead man's magnum.

The big gun bucked, he nearly went over bracing on the rickety bridge, but the shot blew the thing into two parts. It followed the dead man into the waterfall.

Claire glanced over her shoulder and shook her head. He was fucking incredible with that gun. He'd have made one heck of a cop if he'd had the chance.

But he was now far behind them since he'd stopped to brace and shoot. They hit the edge of the bridge and climbed up the other side, racing into the dull light that looked like the street beyond it. The path brought them out on the courtyard by the hospital.

A handful of soldiers were there, shouting directions. They were being forced toward the hospital. Claire fought against them, shouting, "WAIT! We left someone! He's coming! Wait! LEON!"

She didn't see him come out from the path. They ushered her into the hospital and the commotion was everywhere. There was no chance to stop. She was moved down a narrow walk with men shoving her and Yoko in front of her glancing back.

They were pushed past a group of grieving children and a couple of dead bodies on cots. She might not have noticed, but clutched in the hand of one beneath the sheet was the medal his parent's had given him after he'd graduated flight school. St. Christopher - patron saint of long travels and protection. She might have thought it wasn't him. It was a common enough medal...save for the engraving on the back.

"C- Fly safe. Fly true. Fly home."

Claire jerked against the man pulling her. "STOP! You hear me!? I said let me go!"

She grabbed the medal as they pulled her passed the body. The sheet shifted and she could see the dark hair sticking out the top. She could see the edge of the uniform - gray and ugly peagreen. The S.T.A.R.S. badge winked at her as the sheet slipped...and she could see the bullet holes.

The corpse was riddled in them.

The thing that hunted S.T.A.R.S. had found her brother. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible. It didn't make any sense.

She fought like a lion now, shouting, "NO! No! Chris! CHRIS!? NO!"

No.

He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be.

"CHRIS!"

They didn't care. They shoved her into an elevator with a handful of other people. When she fought against them, they grabbed her and held her still. She shouted, "That's my brother back there!"

"There are no survivors back there, miss. Relax or we'll have to put you down."

"LET GO! Are you fucking stupid!? I need to see him! Get your hands off me!" She shoved and twisted. She dropped a shoulder and fought. "Leon!? Where is Leon!?"

And someone stuck a needle in her neck. Yoko shouted now too, "HEY! Don't! Get OFF her!"

She clutched for the other girl, gasping, "Please...it can't be him. I can't...Yoko! That's my...that's..find Leon..tell him..to find Chris..Yoko..."

Yoko tried to hold on to her, crying softly, "I'll find him Chris. I'll find him. I swear. I'll find Leon."

The dark ate her world, tossing Claire into the roll of it. Bastards, they'd hit her with something to put her down. Bastards. She needed to find her brother.

She needed to find Leon. She needed-

She tumbled forward into the dark.