"Hey, it's up to us to take out Umbrella."

Claire just stood for a moment, staring at Leon. Was he serious? She paused a moment, reflecting on the hellish events they just lived through.

All I wanted to do was make sure my brother was okay.

He had called her earlier in the week, letting her know what was going on. Skimming over the details, he told her that a mission had gone wrong and the result was the suspension of S.T.A.R.S. He wanted to make sure that whatever she heard, about him or about what was going on in Raccoon, she would know none of it was true.

He didn't want to get me to know anything, to get involved. Big brother wanted to protect me, be the hero yet again. Why couldn't he have just told me? He had to know I wouldn't stay away. Why couldn't he have warned me?!

Finding a the diner open at that time of night was a stroke of luck; at least she had thought so. She found the undead cook eating the decomposing waitress, and then everything went to hell. She tried to escape, only to be surrounded by more zombies; if she hadn't run into Leon at the exit, she wouldn't have even made it out of the diner.

They made their way to the police station only to get separated by a massive explosion by a runaway tanker. Then it was the house of horrors as she got in the station and ran into some bioengineered freak that was almost dropped on her head. Dodging Mr. X, zombies, and the horrid creatures with no skin and long tongues, she had found Sherry and traveled through the station. Corrupt Police Chief Irons made an appearance, but he was extremely unstable and turned out to have been working for Umbrella. Before he could kill her, he met an untimely demise. Claire had then tried to make her way through some sewers which ended up leading to an underground lab. She lost Sherry for a time, but met her mother who proved to be more than a little psychotic. Escaping from her once, Claire and Sherry happened upon her later that evening after her mother apparently suffered a fatal wound. Sherry had a few seconds to say goodbye before the facility's self-destruct system had been activated. Then there was the fight with the unstoppable Mr. X - who was more than a little ticked that she had made him take a half gainer into a vat of melted steel. If it wasn't for the help of some mysterious stranger and an AK-47, she surely would have been shredded right there. She was able to start the train moving and she thanked God that Leon happened to get down there just in time to jump on.

She looked at Leon. He was looking back at her, with that silly, stupid, idealistic grin of his as if everything was under control. How can things be all right? She saw him standing a bit lopsided as he held his right arm to his body in an attempt to slow the bleeding through the make-shift bandage. His right arm just hung there, barely holding a grip around the battered 9 mm. The blue riot armor that had been so crisp and clean when she had first run into him at the diner was now dingy and tattered, and covered in the guts of a creature she couldn't quite identify. She didn't know what he had faced on his own. There was a woman he had mentioned when Claire had found him delirious in an underground hallway after being shot , but since she wasn't here with them the worst could be assumed. Then there was the mysterious mass of muscle and tentacles on the train that he had gone off to fight. He was still alive, but he looked like hell.

She herself wasn't any better off, between her battle with the monstrous Mr. X and trudging through the sewers with Sherry, she was fit for quarantine herself.

Sherry.

She knelt down and held the little girl at arms length, checking her over. Thankfully she had made it through the night with nothing more than a few scratches. Claire half smiled and met Sherry's eyes again, only to feel sorrow at the fact that the real wounds that Sherry had suffered tonight were not visible. She stood and looked back at their emergency exit from Raccoon City, the charred, crumbled pile of cement and steel that had once been a tunnel. Somewhere in that wreck were the bodies of Sherry's parents.

Closing her eyes, Claire wished to be anywhere but here. She wished that Umbrella had not come to this city. That the residents were asleep in their beds, about to rise for work like any other day. That Leon was pulling into town as an unsuspecting recipient of a surprise welcome party. That she was standing at Chris's front door, giving her brother a big hug. The way it should be.

But it's not, she reminded herself. No use hoping otherwise. She stepped back, away from Leon and Sherry and took a long, good look at the ruins of the city. It will never be that way again. And now Chris was gone, off to find Umbrella's headquarters -

"Claire?" Leon asked. She turned towards him and saw that he had stepped towards her, placing his good hand on her shoulder. Concern poured from his face and she realized she didn't know all that happened to him last night that almost kept him from reaching the train. So many wounds, all caused by Umbrella.

"You're right," said Claire. "We have to stop Umbrella." She then looked down, saying sadly "and we have to find my brother, Chris."

Leon place a finger under her chin and lifted her head up so she was looking at him, "We'll find him," he smiled, "and we'll make it through this." His eyes seem so tired, she thought, yet he's ready to start again. So full of hope. She looked down and sighed, trying to release a little frustration and looked back up at Leon, smiling this time.

"You're right, we will."

Leon smiled at this. She felt a twinge of hope herself now. If he could be so positive, she can try to.

-------------------------------------------------

She's getting more confident now, he thought. When they had first escaped the explosion of the train, she had looked like she wasn't going to make it. He could tell.

I'm sure the same look had been on my face when Ada...

No. He can't do this. Not now.

Composing himself, he looked back over at Claire. She'll be okay. We'll all be okay, he thought. But his gaze drifted over to Sherry who was standing there, staring back at the city. She had lost her parents today. Leon had met her mother, Annette, for a brief moment, where she had told him about Ada. Annette seemed a bit obsessive about the work William Berkin, her husband, had been doing for Umbrella. She lost her life trying to keep the results of his testing from Umbrella's hands. William had fallen victim to his own work and it was Leon who had killed Sherry's father, though he had ceased being human long before Leon had delivered the final blow.

Leon shifted the Eagle in his grip as he thought, trying to focus on the situation at hand. He needed to remember his training, assess the situation. The would-be enforcer glanced back at his city of the dead. Okay, so accessing this situation would risk any sane person's mental health, he just needed to stick to the basics. Reinforcements were needed to contain this biohazard before it spread; Leon was thankful for the fact the city was so remote in this respect. Placing his left hand over the sticky opening in his shoulder, he noticed that Claire had several wounds that could probably use some stitching. Next order of business was to get out of here and too a hospital. He looked at his motley crew and smirked at their sorry appearance.

Not bad for having gone to hell and back.

"All right, let's get out of here," Leon said, unable to keep the tiredness out of his voice. This is just way too much for a first day.

Claire nodded and took Sherry's hand, walking forward to stand next to Leon. But as they started out, Claire paused. "I don't think we should go this way. These tracks are from Umbrella's laboratory, and wherever they lead, Umbrella is there."

Leon thought about that for a second as he watched the tracks disappear into the early morning horizon. "You're right," he nodded and looked around at their surroundings.

"The main highway into Raccoon is in that direction," he indicated with a slight nod to his left, then looked down at his gun. "We need an ammunition check before we go though. While finding the facility's escape route was handy, the area around the city itself is bound to be compromised." He popped out his clip and counted the rounds; seven left in that clip, and one full one still his belt. The shotgun had two shells and he had only six beyond that. "How are you set?"

He watched as Claire did an inventory check. "I've got 8 left in the 9 mm. The chief's gun has 3 left and two speed loads. Only about a quarter clip left in the machine gun though."

"The chief's gun? You saw the chief?" Leon asked, a little panicked now. Though his time talking to the arrogant reporter Ben had been short, Ben had informed him on the Umbrella corruption embedded deep in the precinct. If Claire had run into him...

"He was a very bad man."

Leon looked in the direction the small voice had come from. Sherry stood there, glaring back a him with a hard, bitter look that no 8-year-old should ever have to wear. Sherry stared at him a few seconds more with that cold stare before walking over and hugging Claire's leg. Claire's expression softened as she looked down at the scared girl, placing a gentle hand on her head.

Leon nodded. They were here now, the chief wasn't. No doubt he got what he deserved. He slapped the clip back in his Eagle and cocked it. "Let's move out."

Claire watched Leon turn and walk of the tracks, heading east. Looking down at Sherry, Claire grasped the outreaching hand and followed Leon. Their progress was slow and silent. It just seemed that there was so much to talk about but it was easier not to talk about any of it. She didn't want to relive such a horrible night so close to just surviving it. But they were almost safe, right? They were just out of the city and it was nearing dawn - someone on the outside had to have realized that there was something rotten in the town of Raccoon. Help should already be on the way.

After stumbling for three fourths of a mile over the cold uneven farmland ground, Claire walked up next to Leon, stopping where he stood. He was looking that the landscaped slope ahead of them. She recognized it as the drop off just left of the road going into Raccoon. The slope itself was rather steep, and once ascended a person would be about 30 feet above where they now stood. It did seem rather strange for just a steep hill to be made right next to a major road, but it had been done to keep the rainfall off the road and directed to the field below - or so Claire understood. Whatever the reason, the hill that any other day would seem like a nice, brisk climbing exercise now seemed no less than a mountain to the wounded and weary travelers. Glancing to each side she saw the incline continued far into the distance; there was no easy way around this.

"You two up for this?" Leon asked, nodding his head towards the looming obstacle.

"Yup," Sherry responded, with an almost cheerful tone to her voice. Claire let go of her hand and patter her on the back, hoping to encourage this new mood a bit more, then looked over at Leon. He was breathing slightly heavily, holding his arm a bit tighter against his body than before. The pain has to be killing him, she thought. Now that they've been out in the open air long enough, the bitter coldness of the remaining night for this time of year had caused her muscles to stiffen, and for the hundredth time tonight she wished she had chosen her wardrobe better. She could only imagine how sore Leon was getting. How much longer could he pretend that he was holding together?

"I'm just wondering if we should rest first," she mentioned, staring at his arm. He took on a quizzical look for a moment, then his gaze when from her to the object of her attention. Immediately he let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head.

"Oh no, don't worry about me, I'm fine," he stated defensively.

"I didn't say you couldn't, Claire clarified. God knows we've all proved that by the fact we're still breathing, but you don't need to push yourself now. We're all victims here, you don't have to protect us." Claire saw for a split second his expression softened from the determined look he'd been wearing for a while, but then it quickly reverted to the "in-control" mask he was comfortable wearing.

"I - we cannot afford to wait. The virus already has a several day head start on us. You and I both just drove into it, into the nightmare," Leon said as he hung his head, reminded of the time he finally realized what was going on in the silent city. He shook his head, either in latent denial, or to rid himself of the memories. He looked back at Claire, and Sherry, remembering where he was. "Right now there are zombies roaming around in the forests all around Raccoon. We have to get help before they get too far, or before another unsuspecting victim drives straight into downtown Raccoon." Letting out a deep breath, he looked up at the impending incline and said with newfound conviction, "We have to get help for any survivors that are left."

Leon walked to the slope and leaned forward, reaching up with his good arm and digging his fingers into cold dirt. Time to put my money where my mouth is, he thought. Claire was right, his arm did hurt. It hurt a lot; and that's when he didn't have to take a breath. Now he had to climb? Any other day he wouldn't have thought twice about it, it was a hill. Just a stupid hill.

Gritting his teeth, he reach up with his right hand, feeling the pain from his shoulder shoot through him like he was getting shot all over again. Worse actually, his body couldn't understand why he was climbing up a hill the chilly early morning instead of resting in a warm bed, so now it fought this excursion with every breath he took. With only a slightly audible grunt, he manage to pull himself up so he was once again gripping the hillside with his good arm. Secure in his current position, he turned his head just enough to see Claire, "See? No problem, let's get going."

Claire just stood there with her arms crossed, shaking her head. He didn't think she would have believe him, but she let him get away with his machoism anyway; he silently thanked her for that. She uncrossed her arms and touched Sherry's back, "Okay Sherry, your turn." Leon would have liked to watch to make sure they got a good start, but he was starting to break a sweat from the strain and decided the sooner this was over the better. Feeling the pain tingling in his finger tips once again, he took his next step upward.

When Leon finally felt the flat ground that marked his destination, he let out a huge sigh, which was actually more a painful grunt of relief. He pulled himself up over the top and turned over, staring up at the lightening sky for a moment. The cold dew that covered the grass was slowly soaking his uniform, but he took comfort in the fact that for the first time tonight he was getting covered in something other than another some creature's innards or sewage. After a few seconds, he sat up from his too short of a break and stood, looking down at the other two climbers.

Sherry was scaling quickly, graced with the gift of youth and the absence of major injury. As soon as she got within reach, Leon reached down with his left hand and hoisted her over the top, leading her away from the potential risk of a terrible roll downhill. Once she was a safe distance away, he walked back to the drop off in time to see Claire's hand grabbing the ground as she made her way up the final few feet. Leon again reached down and offered his good arm to her, but she just looked at him with tired and determined eyes, refusing the hand. "I should be the one helping you," she grumbled.

Leon just smiled slightly, "It's good to see I'm not the only stubborn one here." He stood and watched as Claire pulled herself onto the flat ground and stood up, dusting herself off. She glanced at Leon and gave him a sarcastic "Bite me" smirk before heading over to Sherry.

Feeling a wave of light-headedness pass over him, Leon checked his bandage and found that the wound was bleeding again, to no great surprise. He held his grimy hand against the wound hoping a little pressure would stop the bleeding as he walked over to Claire and Sherry.

In the distance he heard what vaguely sounded like the fire of a AK-47 coming from the city. They were now about a mile from Raccoon, standing on the shoulder of the main road, which was barely more than a faded and cracked strip of cement badly in need of repaving. On the opposite side of the road was the beginnings of the Raccoon Forest, complete with some of the tallest sycamores you'd ever seen. Leon eyed one of the trees that had a Chevy Blazer wrapped around it. The car looked like it had tried making a hurried escape from the madness, but instead there were parts of what looked like one of those grotesque dogs Leon had encountered before scattered around the skid marks leading up the the Blazer.

Was it considered roadkill if it was dead before it was hit?

Not funny. Nothing about this whole incident was funny. Not far from the blazer was a little green Neon that had pulled off on the shoulder with the driver's side wide open. Down the road a ways was a red truck just stopped dead in the middle of the road with it's turn signal on and the windshield spider webbed. It was like that the whole length of road in both directions. People trying to flee and were either infected with the G-virus or attacked by victims who had already succumbed to the infectious monstrosity. Leon said a silent prayer of thanks for that fact that the disease was mercifully fast - acting. If the incubation period had been any longer, someone who was infected could have made it to the next town, or even further. With the way things turned out, it would be near impossible for anything that possessed sentient thought to have made it more than a mile or two out of town once infected.

Leon looked down at Sherry, who was holding tight to Claire's hand. Looking at Claire's expression, he could almost feel the unease that she was radiating. "What's wrong, Claire?" he asked, knowing it wasn't the obvious answer.

She shook her head slightly, quiet for a moment before answering. "It's just - something's just not right," she said softly. Leon stood puzzled for a moment over such a vague comment, looking around for himself. The sky was slowly brightening as it was nearing sunrise, casting a soft orange glow over the still bodies and cars. The silence was a blanket over everything, the woods themselves were thick with it.

That's when the strangeness sank over Leon as well.

One thing that had concerned him on their way here was running into more of the creatures they had fought all night. The road littered with dozens of zombie corpses verified that they had begun wandering away from Raccoon looking for more warm blood, but there was no movement anywhere. No wandering zombies. No rustling in the dark of the woods. Nothing.

A little off to his left, Leon saw a stopped red Cavalier with a body hanging out the driver side window. He walked over to it, the crunching of gravel under his boots almost deafening now that he was so aware of the stillness. As he approached, he noticed that the body of the female driver had the tell-tale glazed over eyes, indicating that the virus had claimed another victim.

The skin on the head was blotty and pale, and a clear liquid looked like it was secreting from the skin. Bending over a little, Leon was able to get a better look at the face. The lips were chapped and bloody from there they were torn, and the mouth itself was ripped wide halfway across the cheek, gaped open so that it was stuck in a wicked smile. But what struck him as odd was not the body, but the holes in the body.

And the door.

And the entire front right side of the car.

They were bullet holes. Someone had been here with some serious firepower and took out each and every one of the zombies, he noted while glancing around at the bullet riddled bodies and vehicles surrounding them. Someone headed towards Raccoon City.