CLAIRE

Chilled to the bone

I stood looking up at the huge architectural miscarriage that was the Burkitt Mental Asylum. It looked like somebody had taken a few concrete blocks and had taken a jackhammer to them and put windows in as an afterthought.
As I stared up into the pouring rain, I could see the peak of the highest building, and at the electricity cables that ran from other parts of the city to power the building, presumably. The sign above the main entrance, which was a gate with a small security hut, read 'BURKITT MENTAL ASYLUM' - So at least my intuition had been correct.
I wiped some hair off my brow, and slowly walked across the tarmac road in front, my boots making faint splashing noises in the puddles that were spotted around the main entrance, like a moat being used as a method of defence against intruders.
I ran and ducked silently into the shadow beneath the window of the security hut. Hopefully the night watchman hadn't seen me. I was surprised to see the lack of guards patrolling. Were they all zombies already?
I couldn't hear the night watchman saying or doing anything. Since I was crouched, I gently levered myself up just that little bit higher to the window.
The guard stood there, his back to me. He was wearing a black jacket and the cap that belonged to most night watchmen...I was surprised he hadn't heard me running through the puddles.
Then, as I watched, he turned slightly to the left, as if he'd seen something to his immediate left. I then saw why he probably hadn't heard me, and it was only the knowledge that I had to be silent that prevented me from shrieking.
His face had partially disintegrated, his skin was practically sliding off his flesh, and large gashes were clearly visible in his cheek and temple. His mouth looked as if somebody had been at it with a razor sharp mincer, most of his teeth were clearly visible - even through the holes in his cheeks.
I could only see one of his eyes, but it had that unmistakeable cloudy look of all zombies.
Should I kill him, at least 'him' was the term I was using for this zombie, or should I take advantage of the fact that he can't see me and I should just sneak on by.
I chose the latter, and crawled across the damp ground to the fence. Damn, I'd have to open the gate to get through...and in order to open the gate I had to press the security switch in the security hut- DAMN! It had made things twice as complicated.
I considered climbing over the fence, but since I didn't have any wire cutters that wasn't an option. What a good start Claire, I thought, good start.
Setting off the alarm was also a risk, and there was a high chance of there still being humans inside to hear the alarm go off - But they'd probably be occupied with any zombies inside, so I decided to take the risk of smashing the window out. I stood up, and using the butt of the rifle, I slammed it into the glass. The window cracked slightly. The zombie slowly turned around to look at me. I hit it again, the glass cracked again. I gathered up all of my strength, and whacked it once again.
There was a crack as a few shards of glass fell away, and as I brought back the shotgun for a final hit, the zombie lurched towards the screen. The butt struck the glass for the final time, and the window imploded, forcing shards of glass deep into the zombie's face, and such was the force I hit the window with, the butt of the gun smacked the zombie's face, smashing part of the skull.
I drew back the gun, and gently dipped the bloodied end of the rifle into a puddle, wiping it with a damp newspaper stuck to the wall. The zombie wasn't quite dead, but it hadn't far to go. I pulled the trigger only once, and the bullet blasted into its skull directly between the eyes. It gasped once, and then fell back.
I breathed, and climbed in through the shattered window. Obviously the alarm had been disconnected or something.
Inside, I searched the desk. There were some papers, a dirty magazine, a diary and, underneath a few candy bar wrappers, was a red button.
They couldn't make it any easier for me, I thought, punching the button. No codes, no security cards - A big red button. I wondered who funded their security systems, as I began to climb out of the window - before I turned back to the door, set into the wall.
I suddenly felt very, very stupid.
Then, I realised there was no reason to feel stupid as I realised the door had three or four planks sealing it to the wall. No matter how hard I tried, very little would open that door, unless I blew it open with my shotgun - Which was a waste of ammo, so why not stroll in through the front gates?
The gates had swung open by this point, so I walked straight through. I had dropped the stealth element for now, there was nobody to hide from really. I was walking across the park towards the main doors, when I heard a moan. More than that, I heard a chorus of moans.
I turned, to see four zombies lurching in through the gates.
Then, I heard more moans from my left and right, and I spun my head from left to right as I saw four or five more approaching from both my left and right.
I ran for the doors, and as I did so, I heard a low growl. I turned my head as I ran, and a vaguely canine shape hared across the ground, in hot pursuit. I was spurred on faster than ever, and I could feel my heartbeat pick up once again as I knew that there was a flesh-hungry dog chasing me. I wasn't horrendously worried about the zombies, they were slow and unwieldy - But the dogs were a different story. The dogs were faster, tougher and more difficult to kill, yet they retained the same bloodthirsty instinct that all T-Virus carriers had.
I ran to the doors, which were supposedly automatic - No, they were locked. I was beginning to panic, sweat was beginning to run down my face onto the rest of my body and I could hear the dog ever nearer, ever faster. I was fighting panic when the dog growled loudly, and leapt as I turned and ducked. As I ducked, the creature sailed directly over my head into the glass of the automatic door - Which cracked into a spiderweb as the creature hit it, bouncing off, blood squirting from various parts of its body as it fell on the floor. I seized the opportunity. I pulled out one of my semi-automatics, and fired a shot at the spiderweb of broken glass, which shattered instantly. I jumped through the whole, and into the main lobby. But the creature wasn't dead yet, I turned to see it get up again, and it ran across the black and white tiled floor, growling as it prepared to jump at me.
But this time I was ready.
I had my Remington loaded, and as it leapt at me, I fired a single shot directly into its body. The shot blasted into its chest, blasting off a few of its ribs and effectively pureeing its guts, which spilled out onto the floor as the creature let out a high pitched yelp as it collapsed to the floor, twitching. Then I heard the moaning zombies lurching towards the door, and I knew I had to act fast.


I ran behind the receptionist's desk, ignoring the plaintive moans of the zombies as they lurched ever nearer, and instead focused myself on the receptionist's register. The pages were slightly crinkled, and I could see the brown stains where she had obviously spilled some coffee but had mopped it up, probably not even bothering to mention the incident to anybody.
It was, thank god, in alphabetical order, so I flicked through the pages until I found 'K'
K...Kane...Kareen...Kennedy!
There were three Kennedy's, an Iain, a Jack...and a Leon.
I tapped his name, and drew my finger across the page to his room number. Let's see...East Wing, Room 30.
I heard the crunch of broken glass as the zombies lurched in through the doorway, and realised that I would absolutely have to move.
I made a mental note of the wing and room, and checked under the counter for anything else of interest.
No...A bottle of soda, some candy wrappers, cup of cold coffee...waitasec, there were some keys!
I checked the labels attached to them.
West wing, north wing, east wing...I took them all and bundled them into my pocket. You never know when you'll need a key or two.
The zombies were getting closer, so I ran to the back of the lobby, where there were three locked double-glazed doors.
I ran immediately over to the door labelled EAST WING, and inserted the key into the lock. I jerked it furiously, and pushed it open
Jumping inside, I slammed the door behind me with a clang. Staring ahead of me, I was suddenly aware of the cold.
I shivered, and I rubbed my arms, looking around the dim corridor. The windows along the side had been smashed, large gaping, jagged holes letting in an icy cold breeze that had sprung up. I walked slowly in the faint bluish light of the moon, glass shards crunching beneath my feet. Anything could happen, I thought, anything at all. There were several, fairly ordinary looking doors lining the corridor. I tried a few of the doors. All of them were unlocked, and all of them contained janitorial tools or some equipment.
I turned to the left at the joint of the L-shaped corridor, and whipping out my two semi-automatics in a defensive stance. Nothing. I could hear the sounds of a man talking on the floor above.
Could it be...I tried not to get my hopes up, but I couldn't help running down the corridor towards the door that would give me entry to the East Wing. As I reached the door, I suddenly felt something wet smack into my head.
Out of instinct and pure irritation, I turned my head upwards...and nearly had a stroke.
The hissing licker clung to the ceiling in much the same way one of the vile creatures had in Raccoon City. I HATED lickers. I leapt backwards, the tongue of the creature whipping out at me, at which I fired both of my weapons. Soon, the creature lay dead on the ground in a pool of blood, letting off one of its trademark death squeals as it died.
I looked onwards. In here somewhere, was Leon.
I promised myself that I wouldn't stop until I had found him.

LEON

The nuthouse is no more

I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. It was a hobby I had taken up quite a lot lately, since I had little else to do. I knew this though - In the five days I had been incarcerated, something had gone very, very wrong.
It was probably the third day I began to get hints. The fact my attendants were changed four or five times due to them feeling 'decidedly unwell' gave me some kind of suspicion.
"Terman's gone home" Blissix had explained to me as he brought me my food "Said he was feelin' sick"
I made no comment, even though I wanted to ask him if the guy had been feeling itchy, or had been talking about food rather more than he should. Instead, I just lay there. At nights, my hands were strapped and so were my feet.
It was evening now, and I'd had the restraints put on, although they were secured by small padlocks which to me seemed a little over the top.

Another very obvious hint was given to me by the fact that on the lunchtime of the third day, I was being taken out for my exercise. It had been a freezing morning, and wearing hospital clothes that's not a pleasant complaint.
I was walking slowly, melancholy - I had little to live for, so my pace matched my mood.
Samson and some other guy called Dauberman were taking me for exercise, and I was looking out over the city - Which seemed somewhat darker than usual, even though I could see people walking the streets.
I turned to my left, and saw another pair of attendant's walk past, taking another inmate for a walk. I got a five second look at the inmate's face before I felt my blood freeze. The man's face was...Well, either he was suffering from an extreme case of eczema on his face, or...I didn't need to finish the answer, and the sections of torn open skin on his head where he'd been scratching finished the sentence for me.
"Oh god..." I muttered, craning my head to see him as the attendants walked past
"Now, now Leon..." one of the attendants said kindly "...We can't have you mixing with the other inmates"
Oh, so we were on first name terms were we?!
"Look, I've got to get out of here!" I insisted "That guy's infected"
"Aren't we all" I could detect the patronising element in his voice.
"I'm serious!!" I snapped "Look, if that guy was to even get near any of you guys, you'll all become zombies"
"I guess we'll prove that point when we come to it"
I knew that at that point that we were all going to die - There was no stopping the virus now. It had got into the institution. My greatest worry now was if I was infected.
What if I was?
I'd never be able to go near Claire again - But by then I'd probably be a bloodthirsty zombie.
Thankfully, I didn't think I was infected. I'd found out why later, but at that point I couldn't do anything.
Could you if you were held by hand AND ankle restraints?
I could hear the sound outside. I could hear the sounds of dogs howling, the glory of the hunt.
The glory of the kill.
I shuddered. The virus was in the city too - And if Claire had been stupid enough to come and rescue me...
I felt a sudden pang of fear and rage, and I desperately jerked at the restraints that held me down, but after about twenty seconds, I gave up.
I heard distant zombie moans. By the fifth night, which was now, the creatures were everywhere. I hadn't left my room since yesterday, and I presumed that everybody had now succumbed to the virus.
No weapon, no clothes...no hope.
I was just about ready to drift off into sleep, when there was a rattle, and it turned to the door only to see Samson wrench open the door and slam it behind him. He leaned against the wall, panting.
He turned to me, eyes wide with fear.
"What did you say the name of that virus was again?"
I nearly laughed.
Only now he believed me?! Only now?! People never learn, I reflected. I held in the laugh, and instead said
"The T-Virus - Surprised you're still alive"
"Leon" he knelt beside me "How did you know?"
"I've known for nearly two years" I replied "During which time I've been attacked, shot, infected, burned, had leg broken, been shot again and been stung by a giant scorpion"
"Why?"
"Do you have any idea what it's like to have a dear friend killed by a T-Virus creature? Or to find out your dad spent his last moments as a mutant blob with mandibles, tentacles and a horrible eye?"
"No"
"THAT'S why I've been fighting - To destroy Umbrella Incorporated, to bring them down no matter what the cost"
Samson exhaled.
"Why wasn't anything done?" he muttered.
"Umbrella couldn't give a rats ass about anybody, not even its employees - You've been betrayed by your financiers. They want to bring down this town, and take everybody with it"
He clenched his fists.
"I...can't..." he sagged "I'm sorry..."
"Never mind now, but we've got to get out of here"
He looked at me.
"I don't have the key to your restraints, Leon"
I stared, hard into his features.
"What?"
"I'm sorry..." he turned away to leave, before he turned back to me.
"Sorry?! That's all you can say?!"
He grasped my hand, as if making a final friendly goodbye, except I felt a strange cold sensation as he pressed an object into my palm.
"That's all I can do. Good luck"
Samson threw open the door, and ran out.
I looked at my hand.
A paperclip, twisted into a two pronged device.
I had spent many hours in the summer being taught how to pick locks by Jill, hours and hours spent practising over and over again.
Now was my chance to put that into practice.
I inserted it into the lock.
As best I could with one hand, I fiddled as best I could with the lock, cursing whenever I got it wrong or got the wire stuck.
It took maybe fifteen minutes. I was just giving up hope when there was a click, and the padlock dropped off. Victory. I shook off the restraint, and used my other hand to unlock my other hand, and after that the rest was easy. Soon I was free, and I sat up, stretching my joints. When I felt I had loosened up sufficiently, I walked out into the corridor.
It was quiet...I could hear shuffling, though. I knew what that meant. I instinctively reached down to my side, hoping to pull out my gun...But I suddenly remembered I hadn't had a weapon by my side for more than a week.
Zombies around, and you've got no gun.
Congratulations Kennedy, you've screwed this one up.
I looked around, just able to keep calm. Then, I saw it. Sealed behind triple thick glass was a fire axe.
I could get it, if...
I saw a fire extinguisher lying not far from it, and I quickly ran up to it, and picked up its weight.
I brought it as hard as I could against the glass. It cracked, and I did it again. It cracked further. With one last bash, the glass gave way, and I hauled out the fire axe, testing its weight in my hands. It'd do for now, until I could get some kind of a gun.
I tiptoed down the corridor, wincing as I felt my feet treading on broken glass.
Broken glass? Four floors up?!
Waitasec...
I heard an ominous cawing. I looked down the corridor, to see the shadows move. To my horror, I saw that it wasn't a large shadow - it was a flock of crows.
'Flock' was a stupidly cute word to use for the demonic creatures that stared at me.
I ran back, only to see them take off like jets from their home-base, and flap towards me. I swung the axe as the first one came near, I missed by nearly two feet.
I swung back, this time the axe hit something and there was a screech as a bird was splattered against the wall with a large axe wound in its body.
I swung the axe furiously, as if it would stop the birds flying towards me. I gave up and ran, chased by the monstrous birds. There was a metal door at the end of the corridor, and I ran through, slamming it shut behind me. It instantly locked, and I leaned against it, sighing with relief.
I could hear the creatures furiously beating their wings and stabbing their beaks, but I was safe. For now at any rate, they could never get through metal.
I walked on, looking around at the corridor. It was another part of the inmate level - Which meant that at least a few of them would still be alive. I was just about to check it out, when three doors burst open. My heart skipped a beat as I saw three zombies, one attendant and two inmates lurch towards me, arms stretched out in the ever familiar stance that the undead adopted.
I swung the fire axe as the first one got near, the axe-head buried itself deep in its jaw, before I swung again and with a horrible cracking and squelching, the axe tore up through its face. I pulled out the axe as the creature dropped down dead, and prepared for the next one. This time, I aimed for its neck. Since it had only just become a zombie, the bone was not yet incredibly brittle, so it took two hits before the head finally toppled off its shoulders, blood spilling down its body as it slumped beside its compatriot.
The third zombie I dealt with by rolling between its decaying legs, and whacking it hard in the back. I heard a crack, and I was just able to pull out the axe as the zombie staggered towards one of the broken windows, and toppled out.
There was a distant, and almost comical splat.
I tried not to think about the mess outside, although I could foresee the undead hordes gathering to feed on its corpse...I tried not to think about it any further than that.
I didn't quite know what had happened, although I was under the suspicion that the electrics were down. The place was unusually deserted, although I could hear the plaintive moans of zombified patients, beating futilely on the insides of their locked cell doors.
This didn't make me feel any better as I turned the corner. I jumped back, seeing Neals, the sadist who'd beaten me on my first day in, standing there looking pale and trembling.
"W-w-what are those things?!" he asked me, in a quavering voice.
"Zombies" I replied, with undisguised contempt.
He looked at me, fear filling his eyes. I wanted to laugh, show how pitiful he'd become from the huge, unemotional savage he'd been before. But it wasn't right. Even to an animal such as this, I couldn't laugh in this situation, it would be morally wrong.
I tried to prevent myself from punching him, and in a restrained manner I said
"Are there any other survivors?"
"I-I-I don't know! I've been running from those creatures!"
I breathed.
"So where exactly have you been?"
"Downstairs! I-I-"
He looked around, panic-stricken.
"I don't know what's going on!! I just want to get out of here!!" he then wailed "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!"
I grabbed his shirt.
"Listen to me" I hissed "I'd happily beat you to a pulp, but I have control over my instincts - So listen to me right now"
The man went silent, looking at me.
"I want you to find any other survivors, try to find an offensive weapon of some kind and try to keep out of the way of any zombies. If all goes well, meet me at the Director's office"
"Why are you helping me?" he asked.
"Because when it's human's versus Umbrella's virus carriers, then we're allies" I glared at him "But don't think for one moment that I've forgiven you for beating me earlier this week"
The man was pale, and he nodded.
"Are you sure you didn't see anybody alive downstairs?"
"Well..." the man licked his lips "Nobody alive, I saw a couple of zombies coming into the lobby - Oh, but I did see a woman enter the east wing"
"A woman?" I stared at him intently "What did she look like?"
"I only saw her for a few seconds! I-"
"WHAT DID SHE LOOK LIKE?!"
"Brown ponytail! Looked like she was carrying a gun, wore a red jacket!"
I outwardly sighed, but I could barely contain my joy. It was Claire, I just knew it was. She was the only person I knew who'd try something like this.
What puzzled me was how did she find me?
"Okay" I said "You better go. See you later"
He nodded, and ran off down the left corridor of the T-Junction we'd been standing at, leaving me alone.
I had to find Claire, before she did anything foolish. I ran down the tiled corridor, hope growing inside me as I came across a few zombies with large bloody holes in their chests - Not the usual reaction to a zombie, you would be the first to notice, but since the fatal wounds seemed to have been made by a shell blast from a Remington 120, an exact model of which Chris had bought Claire for her protection only recently...But then again there could be thousands of people who owned a Remington 120.
I ran down the corridor, skidding in a spilled puddle from a mop bucket that nearly twisted my ankle. I cursed, and got up. I realised that I was standing right in front of a metal door, and I realised that it wasn't a cell. It was the filing room, where they kept patient records and transport forms etcetera.
I was considering walking on, when I heard a crack behind me. I turned to see a wooden door being split down the middle. As I watched, a long crack spread over the wooden surface with appropriate tearing noises, and I stepped back as half of the wood exploded outwards, splinters scattering on the floor - To reveal seven zombies who had just busted in from the west wing!
Why weren't all the doors made out of consistent materials? I thought, backing away from the decaying hordes. The asylum was an architectural disaster, it was being remodelled and renewed every ten minutes, and the east wing was one of the oldest parts of the whole hospital. I only knew this because of a talk I'd had with Blissix sometime on the third day, who had instructed me on the history of the asylum. He'd been giving me my meals solitarily as they always did to me.
Now I was free, but not necessarily safer.
I backed up against the door, and felt the handle prod my backside.
I wrenched the handle down, nearly fell backwards into the room and slammed the door. I could hear them beat the door, moaning pathetically as they tried to get through - Although they seemed to lose interest after about thirty seconds.
I turned around, and looked around the room I was in. It was a fairly small room, and this wasn't helped by the fact it was almost choc-a-bloc with shelves and cabinets filled with files, all bulging.
I walked to the first out of the four aisles, treading on hundreds of pieces of paper littering the floor. Obviously keeping the records wasn't that important to the staff.
I stepped forwards again.
Click
A gun was pointed at my head. It was mostly dark, so I was unable to see my attacker. I turned very slowly...
"Claire?!"
Claire lowered her semi-automatic, and her face burst into a relieved smile.
"Leon!!"
I embraced her as hard as I could have; I squeezed her warm body close, her face buried in my neck, my face breathing in the smell of her beautiful chestnut hair.
"Claire! You silly, silly girl! You came to rescue me...putting your life in danger for me..."
"I had to" she whispered "I couldn't leave you in a mental asylum, I love you too much"
"Claire, oh god..." I was on the verge of tears "...I've missed you so much...and god I do love you"
"I've missed you too"
I kissed her on the lips, our first full kiss for a while. We stood there, passionately kissing for maybe five minutes, before we broke off, grinning like puppies.
"How did you know where to find me?" I asked, still holding her.
"One of Chris's contacts, said a contact of his saw you being taken to Burkitt"
"Really? I better thank Chris for that..." I gently stroked her hair "How's Sherry and the others?"
"They're fine!" Claire replied "Chris and Sherry are in a hotel across town, everybody else is back in New York, and they're all fine too"
"And...Steve and Ada?"
"Fine" she whispered, smiling encouragingly.
I looked around the room, as if surveying a city.
"This building's infested" I said "I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't much different in town"
"It isn't" Claire admitted "The whole town's like hell on earth, half of the population is zombified, the other half's either on the way to becoming zombies, or they're running away from the Umbrella creatures attacking them"
"Umbrella's here already?" I asked.
"The T-Virus got around pretty fast" Claire said "We arrived here about four or five hours ago, and it wasn't that bad then - The whole place has gone to hell"
"Or hell's come to us" I said, nodding.
"I've seen a licker and some zombie dogs, but apart from that, there isn't that much else in the way of Umbrella's mutant menagerie"
I nodded again. She looked my nightshirt up and down, a little bemused.
"Cold?"
"I'm goddamn freezing" I admitted, grinning "Let's try and find my proper clothes at some point, they keep them in the storage locker-room, there's one not far from here"
"I guess you've been around this hospital enough to know, huh?"
"Let's just say I'm getting used to it"
I looked around again, as if I was expecting something to happen.
"How did you get here anyway?" I asked, my questions would continue.
"Took the elevator, I got out onto this floor and I heard some guy running around, so I decided to shelter in here until he'd gone"
That would be Neals, I thought.
"Well, if we're going to stand any chance at getting out of here, I'm gonna need my clothes...It's frigging cold in here"
She nodded, smiling.
"Let's see what we can do about that - Where'd they put your clothes?"
"They keep patients stuff in the locker-rooms, there's one for every wing, makes stuff less confusing"
Claire looked around the files
"Although it couldn't be any less confusing than this" she remarked.
I ran my hand down a row of files, stuffed with papers.
"It might be useful to try and work out how the T-Virus escaped in the first place, I still don't know how they did it"
It was more of an insatiable curiosity more than anything else, but Claire nodded, agreeing.
"Do you know where to look?" she asked.
"Let's look at patient records, delivery forms and other ways they could have infected everybody here - If we find something suspicious, this could have been how they infected the entire city"
"Right" she said, and hauled out a pile of files, stacking them on the floor before beginning to flick through the papers inside.

We were there for maybe half an hour, reading through files, throwing irrelevant paperwork away...There was nothing, we'd wasted our time.
"Ah!" I turned to Claire, to see her triumphantly remove a slip of paper from a file "I think this could be important"
I walked over to her.
"What is it?"
"Delivery form! Dated..." she looked at the date printed on it "...A week ago"
"Two days before I arrived" I muttered "Okay..."
We looked at it. It was a form requesting two interesting items - The first was for canisters of what was classified as GAS5X of which ten crates of cylinders were required.
The next item was T001.
It didn't take much to guess exactly what that was.
"Deliberate infection?" Claire whispered.
"Seems like it" I replied.
"So...now we know that...what do we do?"
"I suggest we find the director's office - He probably keeps a record of everything that goes on...but first..."
I shivered.
"Let's get my clothes back first"


The locker-room was down the corridor and round the corner, and after studying the serial number printed on the tag attached to my ankle, I located the correct box containing my clothes.
God it was a relief to be back in normal clothes again, you have no idea.
Once I was changed again, and I was wearing my own boots again, we set off to try and find the director's office.
I knew where it was, I'd traversed the lonely corridors of Burkitt Mental Asylum enough - true, it was only five days, but when you haven't got much else to do, you memorise the layout of the place.
We walked straight into a group of zombies when we got there, four were bent over a body, gorging hungrily on their kill.
I swallowed, seeing that the body belonged to Neals. I should, or could have felt pity. But I felt nothing.
It was at that point I suddenly realised I didn't have a gun, only the axe which I'd salvaged a little while ago.
"Leon" Claire said, turning to me "Catch!"
I caught something metal and quite heavy in my hands.
It was my magnum. I grinned.
"Fully loaded?"
"Four extra clips in here" she said, patting a pouch in her vest.
I smiled, and raised my magnum as the first zombies came close, Claire whipped out her shotgun.
Two magnum bullets and two shotgun blows made short work of the undead creatures, skulls shattering in explosions of red as they collapsed to the floor.
"Well" Claire said "At least you haven't lost your touch"
I grinned, and then pinched her bottom, she yelped and turned to me with a grin, but her voice was mockingly scornful, and more than a little coy.
"Leon! THAT was uncalled for" she said.
"Like you said, I haven't lost my touch" I said, grinning.

The office was just how I remembered it - Pink and uncomfortable. Malone wasn't in.
"Look's like the director's out" Claire remarked, scanning the desk "Does he keep a record book?"
"Might have a diary" I replied, throwing scrap paper onto the floor as I tried to search for the illusive diary.
I found it at the bottom of the pile, a red and leather bound book, fitting for a rich man of Malone's position.
I opened it, and scoured it for the date for a week ago.

SATURDAY

Umbrella are making yet more impossible calls to my office, they've told me about this 'master plan' of theirs, which will result in the destruction of Burkitt - They sent me two deliveries, both of which I requested storage in the basement for now. The first is a shipment of Umbrella's new gas - It's odourless, and less harmless to the system, but it is more flammable. It's going to replace our old gas system in a month - At least that's the cover story. I was told to store all the canisters in various positions around the ground floor. The gas, when compressed, is highly explosive, and can be very, very dangerous. The second is a large quantity of the T-Virus. I was told that providing I avoided any of the local water supplies and never ate anything from the canteen, I should stay uninfected.
Umbrella have told me that I'll be a rich man if I can pull this off. They're sending in choppers in a week to extract all Umbrella associates - Although there is another squad going in to rescue civilians. I can't wait. I hate this god-damned place.

MONDAY

Quiet day. I wonder if Umbrella are really going to rescue civilians? Seems a little weird to me...

TUESDAY

The Asylum picked up a man called Leon S. Kennedy, specifically brought here by Umbrella to be 'contained'
He babbled about the T-Virus, and knew a worrying amount of information. I guess I'll found out what Umbrella have planned for him.

The next few entries were irrelevant - Apart from yesterday's entry...

FRIDAY

I can't believe it. I am betrayed. Umbrella have infected me and everybody with the virus - I always thought it was a little odd that they'd be so keen on paying me. I'll be...something different tomorrow. Early this morning, I opened a couple of the gas cylinders scattered around the building. A single spark, and the other canisters will go up, and so will the building.
A fitting finish. A blaze of glory. As soon as the electricity malfunctions, or somebody lights a cigarette, the whole building will catch fire.
This is my last entry. Goodbye world, you've sucked all the way.

I closed the book.
"So...That's it I guess. They spread the virus around the patients, who in turn attacked their attendants and so on and so on..."
"And when they went home they attacked others, who in turn attacked other people etcetera etcetera"
I nodded.
"Now we know - I say that we should get out of here"
We left the office quickly, walking down the tiled corridor towards the elevator doors directly in front of us.
I walked up to the lift doors, and pressed the recall button.
There was a hum...Then there was the screech of metal, and the doors opened.
No lift. Just the empty shaft.
I leaned inside, and looked up.
"Oh brother"
The lift was stuck.
I looked down into the darkness below, and saw some light where it spilled into the shaft from the corridor below.
"Are there any stairs?" Claire asked.
"Nah. Safety"
She nodded, and looked down.
"It's funny I-"
There was an ominous FZZT.
I looked down. A power cable had burst loose, and was hanging down the shaft...ready to short circuit...the gas...
"Claire" I whispered "The gas"
We looked at each other in horror.
"RUN!!!" I yelled, and just as we turned back - The wire sparked.
It didn't begin with a bang, it sounded more like a large animal clearing its throat underwater.
WHUMPH.
The ball of fire rose up the elevator at an incredible speed, and as we ran, the fireball exploded out into the corridor, flames spilling out to the sides as its main force powered down the corridor. The firewall chased us down the corridor as we ran, I could feel its searing heat at my back and its vicious grumbling as it tried to catch up. We skidded around the corner, and the inferno smacked into the wall, the fireball itself burning out - But the building was now on fire. And the fire was now impossible to put out. The building was mostly glass and concrete, but there was wood in its structure somewhere. The corridor was burning, the floor was like grass on fire and the window-frames and roof were alight too.
Then, the entire building shook as canisters exploded everywhere on the ground floor - That single spark was all it needed. We ran to the window, and as we looked down the windows on the ground floor burst outwards, fire shooting outwards and upwards, licking the walls of the building.
The building rumbled again, as further canisters exploded. I had to close my eyes, the heat from the fire on this floor was too much.
We ran back, heads turned away from the blaze as we ran to a safe zone.
"Somehow..." Claire said "...I don't think escape is an option"
"Are there any other escape routes?"
"How should I know? I only went up the elevator"
I sighed.
"No emergency exits, they're all on the ground floor - Who designed this goddamned building?"
We looked at each other.
"What about the roof? Any way off of that?"
I thought.
"Uh..."
"Waitasec..." Claire thought "There's a cable leading off the roof of the building...the highest part I mean - Think we could use that?"
I looked at Claire. Sometimes, she was so unbelievably brilliant I could just kiss her on the spot.
"It's brilliant, and it's stupid...and it's the only plan we've got"
"What do you mean it's stupid?!" she asked, incredulously. I kissed her.
"I was joking" I said, soothingly.

Burn, Burkitt, Burn!

Our plan was to get up to the highest tower's roof, but considering we had fifteen floors to cover for this to work, we still had a lot of ground to cover. From what we discovered as we took the stairs up, the fire was spreading quickly. Too quickly.
Flames were already starting to engulf the fifth floor as we ran up to the sixth, and we could already smell the smoke from that fire as we ran up to floor seven.
Unfortunately, after floor seven, there was a problem.
"Ach!" Claire looked at the decapitated stairs up to floor eight "Somebody's been hacking up the stairs!"
The stairs, while being metal, had been torn apart by something - Whether or not it was an Umbrella creature we didn't know. One thing was for sure, we wouldn't be able to use those stairs.
Due to our current record of improvisation, coming up with a solution wasn't incredibly difficult.
"Okay" I said "If the lifts are out due to the fire, then their cables should still be there, right?"
Claire nodded at me slowly.
"I think I can see what you're getting at" she replied.
"Good" I said "So let's do it!"

There was only one lift that wasn't surrounded by a fiery inferno, so we tried that lift. The lift doors had been wedged open, blood leaked down its doors and we tried not to look as we edged through onto the narrow ledge just before the lift shaft. The cable was attached fairly rigidly to the lift, whose roof was right in front of us, and at walking level.
While I wasn't entirely sure how safe it was, it was the only escape exit we had. Very gingerly, I stepped out onto the top of the elevator. I looked at Claire, who stepped out too. There was a metallic groan, and I held my breath. No, it held.
I put on my gloves, and looked up.
"Not that much of a climb" I said "And the doors are open on floor eight, at least that's something"
This was at least true, the lift doors to floor eight were wide open. Perfect.
I grasped the cable with my hands, and began to shin up. I felt the rough metal cable scrape against my pants as I hauled myself up. I could feel the strain on my hands as I pulled myself higher. Soon, I was level with the open lift doors. It wasn't that much of a jump, but I didn't want to miss. I took a deep breath, and made a jump for it. My top half landed in corridor outside the doors, my legs dangling, desperately trying to get a foothold on the wall. I clawed on the smooth tiles of the floor, and somehow...I was able to drag myself up onto the floor. I lay panting for a moment, before I leaned over to look down. Claire was shinning up herself, and I watched as she drew level, and leapt herself. She found herself immediately in the same position I had been in, but I hauled her in.
"Well, at least we did that..." Claire panted.
"Come on" I stood up "Let's get up to the roof"
We walked down the corridor, there was no hurry at the moment, the fire still had another few floors to burn through, so we were safe at least for the moment. Around the corner, we came to a closed door.
In the corner, just adjacent to the door lay a man. A dead man, but not a zombie. We looked over his body, he had been gnawed all over by zombies, maybe even dogs, but either way, he was smeared with blood, his lopsided head the characteristic last facial position of the dead man. His bloodied hand clasped a small piece of paper - a piece of paper he'd obviously given his life to protect.
I gently took it from his hands, silently praying before we looked at the piece of paper.

We've been up here for a few days now. We know we're not going to escape - There's nowhere to escape to. We've decided to take out all the infected creatures in one go...We've sealed all the doors to the lower levels...It's going to be good to know that very soon this place will just be a pile of embers...

I looked at Claire.
"Doesn't sound good"
"No" she agreed "That's true"
We looked cautiously at the door. We were taking a risk, who could know what lay beyond the door.
Ah, hell.
I wrenched the handle, and we both stepped inside.
The first and most obvious element of the new environment as the door slammed behind us, was the smell.
"Jeez..." Claire wrinkled her nose "...What is that smell?"
I sniffed it. It was familiar. Very, very familiar.
As we walked on, the answer came to mind.
A horrible thought entered my mind, as it did at the same time with Claire.
We stopped, and very slowly turned to look at each other.
"Gas" we said, in unison. Not the odourless stuff from downstairs, but good old industrial gas.
Knowing that only a few floors below there was a raging fire and that we were standing on a floor full of gas sealed off from the rest of the building - it was barely worth thinking about.
"I think our chances have just been halved" Claire said, flatly "So let's get moving"
I tried not to breathe in the gas as we ran up the flights of stairs, up floor nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen - all of the levels were saturated with gas.
On floor fourteen, I looked out of the window and downwards. Floor seven was completely engulfed - Not long to go.
"Look!" Claire pointed out another flight of steps, which led off from the corridor. At the top was a metal door labelled 'ROOF'
Neither of us needed any prompting, we hammered up the steps and burst out into the fresh air of the late night. We gasped, breathing proper air as opposed to gas was definitely a change.
We ran to the edge of the building. Looking down, the fire didn't appear to have made any progress, although we could see glowing orange embers down in the city where fires were starting up. A police siren howled mournfully in the night, the death-knell of Burkitt.
Wind blew Claire's hair across her face, which she threw back so she could see better.
"Whaddya think?" I asked, turning to look at the cable that led to a building half as large, the wire attached to two generators on either side. The rain was coming down quite hard now, I could feel it on my hair as Claire turned to look at me.
"I think we need to reconsider - We haven't got time to climb across that cable"
I looked at it again, and realised that she was absolutely right - It would be physically impossible for us to climb the length of the cable in the short amount of time we had.
"Okay" I said, let's try to find something to help us"
The roof was large, but it didn't take us long to find a walk in storage cabinet just next to the generator.
Inside was a collection of seemingly useless equipment - Buckets and sponges, cleaning fluids etcetera. It was cleaning equipment for the window cleaners so that they knew exactly where to get it. There was also some cable there, rope, a harness and other such paraphernalia piled disorganised on the floor.
"Hey..." Claire said "....do you think this may come in useful?"
She picked up the harness, which I studied carefully.
I remembered summer camps, I remembered being taught how to-
"Zipwire" I said, grinning.
"Pardon?"
"I know it's a long shot, but that cables actually quite steep, right? If we gave ourselves a good push we could zipwire over to the other building"
She grinned, and shook her head.
"It's absolutely insane..." then she looked at me and kissed me on the cheek "...But it's a very good idea"

Soon we were ready. Claire used her Remington 120 to incapacitate the electricity generator, which with a buzz and a moan ceased to work.
I clipped the harness to the wire as we stood on the ledge of the building.
Since there was only the one, we were going together.
I strapped myself in, at Claire's insistence, and Claire sat on my lap. I wrapped my arms around her right, securing two parts of the multi-stringed harness to her body.
"For insurance" I said, touching her cheek.
She smiled.
"Ready for the ultimate thrill ride?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world" I replied, grinning.
Claire propped her feet on the parapet, and pushed us off, wrapping her legs around me as we slid off the roof.
The zipwire was a little slow at first, but it went faster and faster as we shot further down. I was aware we were practically in mid-air, so I clung onto Claire with all the strength in me.
Don't even think that your arms are going to get tired, Kennedy
I could hear the furious grating of the clip on the wire as we shot down its length, so I said to Claire.
"When do you think-?"
She never finished the sentence.
The explosion was one of the loudest I had ever heard. 'Boom' was woefully inadequate for the screaming explosion that blasted our ears. I turned my head, and watched in horrified awe as floor by floor, the windows and concrete exploded outwards spectacularly, and I felt the heat of the fire as the inferno exploded out with the glass.
The explosions raced up the building, and I watched as the fire lifted the roof off the building and the orange fireball thumped up into the night sky like a rising phoenix, wreckage being blown outwards from the sheer force of the explosion. The room was now a glowing orange carcass, flames of hell engulfing its entire top half.
Suddenly, I felt an agonising pain as some small shards of glass buried themselves in the back of my neck, and I cried out in pain as I felt some blood leak down onto my collar, but my cry was lost in the din.
"Leon!" Claire said, loudly "Unclip the wire!"
I looked forwards to see that if I didn't unclip it, we'd hit the opposite wall hard enough for us both to be turned into human pizzas.
I pulled the release catch, and then suddenly both of us were falling. We crashed through the wet wood of a roof-shed, and then with a 'Flump' sound, we landed on a soft surface, a few old mattresses covered by a tarpaulin.
We looked up for a moment.
"WE DID IT!" Claire crowed, and I joined in too, our cries of triumph and joy echoing through the shed.
Claire sat astride me, and looked down at me, pouting.
She looked more beautiful than I'd ever seen her, and she leaned down onto me.
"We've got a while" she said, softly "Why don't we-?"
I rolled my eyes.
"Why don't we wait until later, okay?" I kissed her on the forehead "I'll make up for it then, I promise you"
She smiled, and rolled off me.
We stood up, and then checked out the shed. It was large, rain sodden and smelled like somebody had been leaving garbage out for hours and hours.
I tried not to think about the smell as I looked around the mess in the shed. It was filled with planks, barrels and other related hardware.
Claire and I walked together towards the exit out onto the roof, footsteps clicking softly on the concrete floor beneath our feet.
I could sense...Something was wrong.
I heard the tiniest of tiny sounds...
As if on instinct, I pulled out my magnum and pointed it to my left.
"Well, well, well..." A voice said "You're one of the only people to had sneaked up on me like that"
The person stepped out of the shadows, hands up. He was dressed in black, an Umbrella logo stencilled on his shoulder. He was a big man, and although his face was a strong one, it wasn't a particularly sinister or unpleasant face.
I kept my ground though as he stepped closer, forehead practically on the tip of my weapon.
"You're obviously good...Although..." he said, and his hand was a blur, before I felt something metal press against my side "...You can make your fair share of mistakes too, huh?"
"Who are you?" Claire said, withdrawing her weapon.
"Before you say anything, yes, I am with Umbrella, but no I am not here to capture any viruses or steal info, okay? I'm here to find as many civilians as I can, and then get out...Ok?"
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" I asked, coldly.
"Why would I bother making anything up? Besides, I'm only a lieutenant - It's the supervisors who know any other orders we have"
We both relaxed, all of us holstering our weapons.
"So...Who are you?" Claire asked.
The man pulled out a cigar from his breast pocket, and lit the end, taking a deep breath before expelling the smoke in a long puff.
"They call me Mr. Death"
"Your real name" I said, arms folded.
He shrugged, and then smiled.
"Hunk" he said, simply "Agent Hunk"

Death has a new name

"Mr Death, huh?" Claire asked "I think I'll stick with Hunk"
"Me too" I said, nodding.
"So..." he leaned against the wall "Who are you exactly, and why did you 'drop in'"
We ignored the pun, and proceeded to tell him the story as to how I had been committed, and Claire came to rescue me.
"I came here with Chris and Sherry" Claire explained "And I'm afraid that if we don't hurry, they'll be killed"
I nodded, although I was a little surprised to hear that Sherry and Chris were in Burkitt at all.
"Right, so I think we oughta get back to them" I turned to Hunk again "It just depends what your stance on the situation is Mr. Hunk - Are you going to stand with Umbrella, or are you going to join us and not stick a gun in our backs when the time comes?"
He was incredibly laid back about the whole affair, he appeared to consider my question for a while, before turning back to me. He shrugged.
"I'll stay with you - I haven't got much else to do, and besides - You can give me a hand rescuing civilians"
"Good" I said "But remember, any funny business - and we will not hesitate to shoot you"
"Slap me up against the wall and bring out the firing squad" Hunk quipped.
Somehow, I just knew that wouldn't be the last of his 'humorous' quips.
"Okay then" I said, walking towards the door, and motioning for Claire and Hunk to follow "Are we going?"

The street below was in absolute chaos as we forced our way out of the building onto the streets. The building itself had a substantial collection of zombies lurching around on all of the floors.
Hunk proved how able a fighter he was to us, with an Uzi he had slung around his shoulder he was able to dispose of zombies fairly quickly-and casually.
On the second floor, he'd been standing in the corridor, watching a zombie I'd just shot, when another came up behind him.
I was about to yell 'Look out!' when he casually flicked his hunting knife backwards into the zombies face, sinking it up to the hilt into its decayed flesh.
Claire and I looked on disgusted, as the zombie slumped down behind him. We'd killed zombies before (You've probably noticed) - But the sheer casualness of the whole thing was almost overwhelming.
He looked at us, as if he'd barely noticed.
"What?" he asked.
Nobody said anything.

The street was a raging warzone when we arrived down, despite the drenched roads and sidewalks - the buildings were fiery carcasses, flames licking the heavens as we looked around. Wrecked cars lay on their sides, and others were crunched up against the walls, windscreens smashed into spiderweb's and the bonnet crunched up like tinfoil. A truck lay on its side, most of its mass engulfed in flames, and out of its fiery wreckage crawled numerous flaming zombies, moaning and wailing plaintively.
"Now to find Chris and Sherry" Claire said, stepping out into the water washed street, shimmering with colour slightly because of leaking petrol.
"Why don't we take my vehicle?" Hunk suggested "It's parked around the corner, providing it hasn't blown up or been driven into"
Claire and I looked at each other. While we weren't prepared to fully trust Hunk yet, the chances of us getting to wherever Chris and Sherry were waiting on foot were so absurdly remote that we would have jumped at the chance of getting into a car.
He was already taking the lead, not waiting for our answer, and so we ran after him as he ran down the sidewalk, gracefully side-stepping lurching undead as he ran down the side of the building and turned the corner.
"I don't know if we should really trust the guy" Claire pointed out as we ran towards the corner.
"Well, if he's got a vehicle we can at least latch on to for now, then we can just hang around and if and when he makes a move on us, we split"
Claire nodded as we ran.
We skidded to a halt as we heard an engine roar - and then a sleek, black jeep drove out from behind the building and pulled up with a screech of brakes.
Hunk leaned out of the window, and grinned.
"Need a lift?"
"Yeah" I said, and Claire and I leapt onto the back of the jeep, which took off in a spray of water.
Claire and I clung to the back of the jeep as Hunk accelerated down the rain sodden road, and lurched worryingly to the left as Hunk snapped the jeep into a turn so sharp that it nearly hurled us off.
I glared into the cab.
"Could you please omit the fancy stunts, Hunk?!"
He didn't turn back to me, but said anyway
"You gotta live dangerous to survive, Leon"
I gritted my teeth as Hunk took the jeep into another ridiculous turn, hugging the corner of a building before Hunk took us up onto the inner-city highway.
"Where is you wanted to go?!" Hunk called back.
"Hotel Paradis!" Claire replied.
"Okay - Hold on!" Hunk said, and we seemed to go faster as the jeep tore across the empty highway, swerving to avoid crashed cars and other vehicles. There were various squelching sounds as Hunk brought the speeding vehicle straight into several unfortunate zombies as he powered down the highway.
"What have Umbrella got in mind for this place anyhow?" I yelled at Hunk in the gale.
"I don't know!" he called back "They said something about Operation Omega, but I have no idea what that is!"
Claire and I exchanged worried glances.
Operation Omega?
The knowledge that Omega was Latin for 'End' didn't make us feel any better.

END OF PART TWO

Part three coming soon!