A/N: Hey, hope everyone's been having a great week. I've been really, really busy this week, waaaaay too many tests. Rain1657 has brought something to my attention: Claire didn't ever work for S.T.A.R.S. So, yeah, that's obviously a minor mistake. Please take it into stride, it shouldn't affect the story too much...

Claire was cut off by screams from the room next to us. Our eyes met for a split second before both of us jumped to our feet and ran out of the door.

"Claire! Weapons! We need weapons!"

"They're in the next room!" Both of us dashed from the bed room and into the next room. It was a small hallway. Sure enough there was my shotgun, the Sig, and a few other pieces of weaponry. I grabbed the shotgun, Claire grabbed the Sig. I glanced at her and she nodded once. I threw open the door and walked inside. It was chaos. A few people were huddled in a

corner. Sherry sat on the floor, her hands over her eyes. I could hear other people coming from above but they wouldn't be here quickly enough. There was a Licker in the building and it had brought friends. It had already killed one person, someone I didn't recognize. The Licker had paused, in the throes of mutation. Already spines were emerging from its skin. Leveling the shotgun, I didn't give it a chance to finish. Its head exploded, the body slumping to the floor in a mess of gore and blood. The second Licker turned and roared a death-challenge at me before lunging at Sherry. No way was it getting to the little girl. I flung myself across the room but Rain and Chris beat me to it. Rain threw herself to the ground, coming up a roll and pushing Sherry out of the way. Sherry squealed as she slid. The sight was almost comical, except for the creature bearing down on Rain, who was weaponless. The Licker opened its mouth, revealing row after row of razor sharp built-for-shredding teeth.

"My, what big teeth you have," I heard her say. Again, I fought the urge to laugh. Chris had scooped up Sherry, getting her out of the way. Even as the thing was trapping Rain, who now lay on her back, its lizard-like tongue, for which it was named, lashed out, grabbing my foot.

"Rain!" I yelled and threw the shotgun. She caught it one-handed, cocked it and pulled the

trigger. Now the Licker was pissed. It picked me up with its tongue, half its face blown apart, and threw me, head first, into the very convenient brick wall. I slumped for a second, dazed as the third Licker leapt from its place on the brick wall and landed in front of me. Claire unloaded the Sig into the Licker. They were hollow-point rounds which made wonderful fist sized holes in the monster. I flipped back onto my feet and kicked the Licker in the face. Meanwhile, Rain was hitting the creature in the face with the butt of the shotgun, which it didn't seem to like very much. Finally, gunfire erupted from around us, bullets tearing what was left of both creatures into shredded pulp. Reinforcements had arrived. Rain's people, each holding a weapon of some kind, burst into the room, firing carefully so as not to hit any of the humans.

Rain got to her feet, nodding at the other people in the room. Our eyes met briefly and I knew what she was saying: thanks. I also knew her personality wouldn't let her say that word out loud. I turned to Claire. "Nice shootin', Tex," I said with a smile and a country accent.

Claire smiled in return and clicked the safety on.

A/N:

So this was my attempt at action. Hopefully, it didn't fail miserably, lol. Next chapter will be important to those of you who've been trying to figure out what's up with Rain. Want to know what the heck I'm talking about? Review, review, review. And if you want something to do: REVIEW!

Jelena