Yawning was very inconvenient while driving. It made his eyes water and reminded him of the exhaustion hanging off his body. Five hours in the driver's seat had turned his ass into an overstuffed pin cushion. The rock music whispering from his stereo kept his head from hitting the steering wheel, but his eyelids were getting heavier with every mile marker he passed. He didn't remember Raccoon City being this long of a drive the last time he was here. Must be the time of day, or night, as it were. He yawned again, jaw cracking, and he shook his head to wake himself up. Come on, Leon. You're nearly there, he encouraged. Just a little further.

The glow of the Mizoil Gas Station glared at him through his windshield and he nearly sighed in relief. Maybe a quick pit stop was what he needed to survive the rest of the trip. He glanced quickly at his gas gage. A bit of fuel wouldn't hurt either.

Pulling smoothly into an empty space, Leon killed the engine, cutting off the music and headlights. He groaned and stretched, feeling the vertebrae in his lower back pop back into place. He rubbed the tension out of his neck before stepping out. The rain was a quiet pitter-patter against the concrete and steel of the gas station. Grabbing the diesel nozzle, he took a survey of the area.

"No one's around?"

The place was essentially dead. Not a soul in sight. Even the small convenience store attached to the station was dark. He knew it was late, but there should at least be someone manning the store, even at this hour. A police cruiser sat idle in the center of the gas station parking lot, it's passenger door wide open. "That's weird."

The sound of shattering glass drew his attention to the seemingly deserted store. Seems someone was here after all. This was raising all kinds of red flags for him and his inner cop urged him to investigate. He stepped around his Jeep and spotted splotched of red dotting the concrete heading toward the front of the store. Uh oh. Those little red flags morphed into flashing neon-red lights and claxons. Something was seriously wrong here.

Leon pulled open his Jeep and reached across his seat for the glove box. Popping it open, he grasped the holstered H&K VP70M. Better safe than sorry. After making sure it was securely strapped to his hip, he proceeded to the store.

The front door was unlocked, and he opened it cautiously. "Hello? Anybody here?" Silence. The store was nearly pitch black. A single beam of light stretched across the littered floor from the dropped flashlight at his feet. He picked it up and scanned the surrounding area. The floor was cover in knocked over products, broken glass, and blood. Where was everyone? The uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach had him speaking out loud, "Something's not right."

A muffled bang and voices drifted from somewhere to his right. It seems the assailants were still somewhere in the building. Spying a door that seemed to lead to a rear storage room, he moved towards it, hoping to hear or see something that gave him a clue of what was going on here. The knob resisted his attempts to turn it. He tried to peer through the tiny window, but it limited his view to a shelving unit and a flickering light bulb. He could still hear the muffled grunts of a scuffle but had no way of getting inside to help.

Sighing, he turned back and spotted someone hunched against the wall by the freezer door. He lifted the light and the first thing he noticed was that the man was dressed in some kind of uniform. An employee maybe? The second thing was the blood staining his shirt and the floor surrounding him. Breath hitching in concern, Leon jogged over and knelt next to him. "You alright?" Ragged gasps were his only answer. The man had his hand pressed against the side of his neck, where Leon assumed the wound was. The bleeding seemed to have stopped. A bloodied hand pointed toward the opened freezer door, shaking as the gesture took what little strength the man had. Giving the man another once over, Leon nodded and stood. "Don't move, I'll be back for you." The traumatized employee didn't bother to respond.

Cool air drifted from the open doorway and Leon grateful to have his windbreaker. The corridor wasn't as nearly dark as the main store as tiny lights guided the way to an ajar door at the end. Stacks of frozen or chilled produce lined the walls. He heard the tell-tale sound of the heavy freezer door locking behind him and he tried not to be irritated that the injured employee had cut off his only visible escape route. Swallowing down the nervousness that wanted to rise, he continued down the cold hallway. He had trained for situations like this. All he had to do was trust his instincts and follow procedure. Everything was going to be fine.

The bangs, thuds, and grunts got louder as he got closer.

"Stop moving". Pushing open the door, Leon trained his flashlight on the backs of one of the assailants. Tan shirt with a badge sewn into the sleeve revealed the identity of a local sheriff's deputy. He was struggling to restrain a large, growling man against the far wall. Leon suspected the man had to be drunk or high or something to be producing all those weird, animalistic noises.

"Officer, you need help?" Leon called, trying to get a better understanding of the situation he had just walked into.

The deputy's attention shifted to him as he stepped through the doorway. "Stay back, sir. I got this." Taking his hand of the suspect to motion at Leon to stay back ended up being a fatal mistake. The tide turned so quickly that Leon didn't have a second to react as the suspect ripped away from the officer's grip and forced the man to the ground.

"Hey!" Leon shouted as the assailant sank his teeth into the officer's neck. He wrestled with his gun, trying to get it out of the holster. "Hey! Get off him, right now!"

"Help me!" The officer begged before choking on his own blood.

"What the fuck?!" His gun finally came free, but Leon was frozen with horror as he watched the man rip the officer's throat out with his teeth. The ragged piece of soft tissue dripped a deep red from the grasp of his bony, exposed jaw. Leon was sure he could have counted every single one of his teeth. Rotting, paper-thin skin stretched and tore as he feasted on the mangled, raw flesh. Leon's mind flashed to all those stupid horror movies his brothers would watch on Friday nights with their dates. The girls would scream and cling to them whenever one of those shuffling movie-magic monsters appeared on the screen. The monsters in those films matched this man to a T, with dead eyes, rotting wounds, and the insatiable need to feed. The only difference now was that this wasn't a horror movie.

Those milky white eyes locked on to him and he felt all his breath leave his lungs. It staggered to his feet, snapping Leon back to reality and he quickly raised his gun. "Freeze!" He shouted, praying that his first assessment was wrong, and the man would listen to him. No such luck. "I'll shoot!" It kept coming. He pulled the trigger. The bullet hit true, forcing the man's head back and making it stagger into a shelf. The contents rattled but the man wasn't. The cop part of him that flinched at the thought of firing on a civilian stared in horrified astonishment at the gaping hole in the man's head. It didn't seem to care that a portion of its skull and brain matter now coated the cans of preserved goods next to him. A shot like that should have put him down. Hell, it should have killed him. But it just kept moving, fixated on sinking its teeth into Leon next. This thing wasn't human. Not anymore.

Firing once, twice, the creature finally collapsed next to its forgotten meal. Leon just stood there, desperately trying to remember how to breathe. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. He stepped forward slowly, trying to keep his footsteps from making a sound that might wake the creature up. He kept his gun trained on it as he knelt next to the officer. Instinct had him checking the body for a pulse, but the gaping hole in his neck and the pool of blood slowly forming around him said that he wouldn't find one.

Leon leaned toward the creature, trying to get a better view of it. It definitely seemed like something a proper Hollywood horror blockbuster would produce, complete with matted hair and ratty clothes. Pieces of it were torn from its body as if something else had been feeding on it. The skin was sloughing off in places that he had only seen during advanced stages of decay.

What really got to him though, was the smell. He could have pretended that all of this was movie magic, but the smell kept him rooted in reality. The stench coming off the body was unlike anything he had ever smelt before. His stomach rolled, and he pressed his hand against his nose, willing himself not to be sick. He was now grateful that he hadn't eaten in a while.

Swallowing thickly, Leon rose and moved around the two bodies. There was a second door that he suspected lead back out to the store and he tried the handle. Locked. Shit. There had to be a key in here somewhere. His eyes landed on the corpses. The thought of digging through the squishy, gore-coated pockets sent his stomach tumbling again. Uh…he'll check the rest of the room first. The flashlight's beam roamed over the shelves and tables. A security box caught his eye from between the shelves with a single key hanging from its hooks.

Bingo.

Stepping carefully as to not hit the bodies, he retrieved the key and hurried back to the door. A hungry growl had him spinning sharply to see the rotting corpse slowly rising to its feet. "No way," Leon gasped, "This can't be!" He had shot the guy! Three times! In the head! This wasn't happening. His gun came back up and shot again, sending that thing back to the floor.

Time to go.

He nearly fumbled the key while trying to shove it into the lock. With a faint click came sweet, sweet freedom and he didn't hesitate to throw the door open. A crash to his left sent another one of those things face-first into the floor next to him and he nearly jumped out of his skin. He wanted to run and get as far away from this place as possible, but his brain reminded him of the injured store employee. He turned and spotted the man standing from his crouch. But something was wrong. He was stumbling and swaying and groaning with the same animalistic hunger as the creature in the storage room. He had become one of those things.

Fight-or-flight kicked in and Leon bolted down the center aisle, avoiding the two creatures. More began to enter the fray as one nearly knocked a shelving unit into him as he passed. The front door was five feet ahead.

Flight switched to fight as a body burst through his only exit and his gun raised automatically. "Don't shoot!" She cried hands raised with a small revolver in her right. This girl spoke to him and moved with all the grace and fluidity of the living. She was alive. The body coming up behind her, however, was not.

"Get down!" She obeyed without question.

A single shot exploded through the creature's skull and it dropped like a puppet with cut strings. He took a cautionary glance behind him before joining the girl outside. "You alright?" He asked stopping next to her.

"Yeah, I think so." She replied turning to look at him. "Thanks."

"You can thank me later when we're safe." He nodded to the growing horde of undead steadily, surrounding them. How were there so many now when the place was completely deserted before?

"Holy shit." The woman whispered in horror, and Leon couldn't help but agree. They couldn't fight them all. He didn't have enough bullets for that and there was no way the girl's tiny revolver held more than five rounds. They both nearly screamed as a loud bang behind them revealed that another one from inside had reached the front door. This is was becoming very bad, very fast. If he didn't do something quick, they both were going to become zombie food. Remembering the abandoned police car, his eyes snapped to it. The horde hadn't completely boxed them in yet. They could make it. Hopefully, this girl was fast.

"Come on!" He nodded toward the car and the girl seemed to understand. They both rushed for the vehicle. One lunged for him, attempting to get those filly hands on him, but he side-stepped and ducked underneath its sweeping arms. He reached the driver's side and threw open the door.

"Get in!" He cried as the girl shoved another away.

The minute he heard the door slam shut, he put it in reverse. "Hold on!" He gunned it. Tires squealed, the car spun a one-eighty before Leon put her back in drive and shot for the road, leaving the dead infested gas station behind.

Leon had barely breathed out a sigh of relief when the girl started speaking. "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know." He answered honestly. "Hopefully they'll have some answers at the police station."

The girl looked shocked. "Wait, you're a cop?"

"Yeah, Leon Kennedy. You are?" He gave her a once over. Taking in the dark jeans and a ruby red leather jacket. Dark hair was pulled back into a functional ponytail with bangs loose around her face. She looked young, like a college student fresh out of high school. A girl like her really shouldn't be by herself at night. Though, he had a feeling she could take care of herself if that move she pulled at the gas station was anything to go by.

"Claire. Claire Redfield." She kept glancing nervously out the window and he followed her example by continuously checking the rearview mirrors. Nothing seemed to be chasing them…so far.

"You live around here?" He asked trying to shake off the dread that was building in his chest.

"No, looking for my brother. He's a cop too."

"Well, it's a good thing we found each other. I don't know what to expect anymore."

They lapsed into a tense silence as the car sped down the highway, passing a large sign. 'Welcome to Raccoon City. Home of Umbrella.'

Well, this certainly wasn't the welcome he had been expecting.