Author's note: Wow the reviews are just pilling up like crazy! I got back from my trip late thursday night with one hell of a cold, but full of some new story ideas..its amazing what such simple things can do to you. Anyways I've been thinking a lot about this story and what direction I will be taking it in and a lot more ideas have sprung up mu hu ha ha! This chapter would've been up earlier but fanfiction wouldn't allow me to log in, so I appologize. Anyways here's the big 20, have fun!

What new friends will the day bring?
One for one thousand acquainted.
What new home will the night bring?
When it all comes down you just throw the bones.
On the way I saw five hours of sleep but your fire makes it all worth while.
On the way I wrote words for you to keep.
On the way, I saw myself.
Lost myself along the way.

"6 to 8" By: Afi (A Fire Inside)

How long is the night?

Chapter 20

A roadside surprise

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Ashley picked up her pace as she ran through the halls of an abandoned building filled with artifacts.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The noises were getting closer and closer. Ashley turned a corner and came to a dead end. She whirled around and looked for somewhere to hide, anywhere that offered her protection from that, that monster.

Ashley was so content on escaping that she failed to notice the gold painted statue that stood before her. Ashley colided with it head on and bounced to the ground in pain.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Now she knew that the thing was directly behind her. She could hear its disfigured feet moving across the royal red carpet floor. Ashley stood up on unsteady legs and ran once again.

This time she came into a circular room. Multiple paintings hung off the wall, all of which looked funny to Ashley as she quickly passed by them all and into a different one.

This room was dimly lit. There were old artifacts incased by glass everywhere you turned. The corners of the room were pitch black, the perfect hiding place for the thing that was hot on her trail.

Ashley froze when she heard the thing make a moaing noise, a noise that was full of pain and sorrow. She cleared her thoughts and let her eyes dart from one dark corner to the next to make sure nothing was hiding in them. Just when she thought that it was dead or something, she heard the noises again. This time they were even closer.

DRIP. DRIP. DRIP.

Ashley began to back up and stopped when her back brushed up against a glass case. She quickly snapped her head around and screamed.

The blood shot eyes of the thing bore into her. Crimson liquid dripped from its mouth full of crimson colored teeth. The skin complexion was deathly pale and the dead, black veins were clearly visible under it. The thing wore tattered clothes, clothes that once used to be a business suit, but now were torn and blood died. The thing was plastered up against the glass that Ashley had backed into and was now staring blankly at its prey.

Ashley turned around and ran. She tripped over her feet and fell face first into the ground. She recovered quickly and dashed head long to the other room that had a door in it.

She passed by several displays, but didn't even bother to pay any attention to them as she tried her best to reach the door before the monster got her.

Ashley spotted the door and she ran across another spacey room. As she neared the door though, she noticed that something was blocking the way. Ashley ran straight ahead and stopped dead when she saw who exactly it was.

It was Leon.

"W-what are you doing!" She screamed, her eyes wide in fear.

Leon didn't answer. He turned around and shut the door behind him, locking Ashley in the room with the monster that was hungry for flesh, her flesh.

She had no clue where the monster was now. Ashley ran around the room, frantic and desperate to find a way out. She saw a hallway that she hadn't noticed before and went directly down it.

Ashley rounded the corner.

The monster was there and extended its mouth and took a bite out of Ashley's neck, causing her to topple overin pain.

Everything went black...

September 25th, 2004

Ashley sprang out of her bed, cold sweat pouring down the side of her face. She reached up to her neck and rubbed it, making sure that there was no bite mark. She ran a hand through her hair and laid back down into her fluffy, white pillows.

It had only been a dream.

Ashley reached for the blankets that she had kicked off the bed and covered herself up. She looked to the side, towards her night stand and caught a glimpse of the alarm clock.

It was only two in the morning.

Ashley grumbled and closed her eyes.

It had been fifteen days since they had arrived at the small town that was filled with the countless survivors of the viral outbreak. Jill had welcomed them all and even gave them each their own houses, each one beside one another. The days were long and extremely slow. Barret had helped out a lot with the defense system of the nameless town and taught the able fighters how to strike down a enemy in a group or alone. Ashley just watched everyone try to straighten out their lives and helped clean out the houses that weren't filled with blood and rotting bodies. As for Leon, he would go down the town's meeting hall and discus the problems that the town faced alongside Jill and the other concil members. He was getting bored of this place and often had a far away look in his eyes from time to time.

Right now Leon was sitting on the couch inside his place and sorting through maps of the local area. From time to time Barret would come over and they would discus what they were going to doonce they left. But after a couple of days the visits stopped and Leon saw less and less of both Ashley and Barret. Now he felt that he would be on this mission alone, he thought that he was the only one who really cared about bringing Wesker down. And so far he had proved himself right.

On night when he was at the meeting hall sitting beside Jill, he had asked her what they should do about Wesker and she had just ignored his question, although Leon could have sworn that she looked puzzled by it every since it was asked.

Another problem was that damn virus. Another member of the town had caught it from cleaning out one of the houses and had fallen ill. Leon had went to go visit the poor man, but left the room when the man had suddenly leapt up from the hospital bed and lunged at him.

The man had become a monster.

Along with the virus Leon had spotted several figures skirtting the town every once in a while. There was no doubt that they were spies. Leon had informed the concil members about it, but they turned him away and that was when Leon stopped attending the meetings and began to focus more and more on how they could bring Wesker down and some how get Ada back.

That was another issue, but Leon didn't want to think about it at the moment.

When his eyes became sore after reading maps for six hours straight, Leon placed the papers on the coffee table that sat infront of him and walked into the kitchen where he poured himself a glass of water and went to the front door once he was finished it.

Leon put his shoes on and his jacket and walked through the door and onto the empty streets.

The night air was warm. The quiet hum of the insects could be heard everywhere and the lamp posts were shinning brightly. As Leon walked by Barret's house he noticed that the lights were still on and went up to the front door and knocked three times.

Barret answered the door.

"Hello Leon."

"Mind if I come in?"

Barret held open the door and Leon stepped in.

There were multiple maps scattered on the floor and all over the couch and chairs that were in the living room. Leon glanced down at one and was surprised to see that they were all the maps that he had given Barret and that Barret was planning out stuff just like he was.

"I haven't forgotten, you know," Barret said as he placed a cup of coffee down beside Leon where he had placed himself on the couch. "We ought to be leaving soon, before it's too late."

"Yeah."

"So what have you been doing this whole time, I haven't seen much of you lately."

"Things to attend to that aren't of any importance to me anymore. I was planning out a travel route with the maps that we were provided." Leon took a sip from the cup and put it down. He then picked up one of the maps that they had been currently working on and held it in front of him. "What do you suppose is the best way to go?"

"It'll be hard to make a sneak attack with all those damn spys running around." Leon nodded in agreement. "So we'll have to just work with what we got for now."

"And what is that? From the looks of it not too many people are willing to help."

"That's because you haven't been around. You should ask that Jill lady what she thinks and ask for assistance."

"I'll do that tomorrow when I-"

"I think you should do that now. Wouldn't it be better if we left first thing in the morning?"

"And what about Ashley?"

"She can decide what she wants to do when the time comes," Barret answered.

Leon nodded in silent agreement and put the empty coffee cup back in the kitchen. When he finished talking to Barret about the next day, Leon put his shoes back on and walked further down the streets and into a more secured area.

By the looks of it the concil members were still having a meeting. Leon knew if they were there then Jill had to be present also. He walked up the pathway and up to the big double doors that were painyed a dark brown color. Leon pushed them open and walked down the hallway until he found the room where the concil members were.

They all sat in chairs around a long, slender oak table. They didn't notice Leon so he coughed to get their attention. Once all eyes were focused on him Leon spotted Jill and called her outside of the room so they wouldn't be interupted by the other concil members.

"What is it?" Jill asked.

"I am asking for you to assist us in the mission that we have yet to finish."

"You mean the whole Wesker ordeal?"

"We need more force, we don't have enough people to help us." Leon looked at Jill, waiting for her reply.

"I do not want to endanger the lives of all these people who survived yet another viral outbreak, I was placed on this concil for a reason you know."

"Forget the damn concil!" Leon narrowed his eyes. "Don't you want to bring Wesker down? Or do you want every single one of these people to turn into blood thirsty monsters?"

"Listen!" Jill yelled at Leon. "I want to bring him down as much as you do but its hopeless. What chance do we stand against him anyways?"

"And I thought you were the same Jill Valentine who escaped Raccoon City and the old mansion." Leon turned around and began to walk away.

"Just shut up! I have to make sure these people are safe, not put them in anymore danger you uncaring bastard."

"You aren't doing them any good by sitting on your ass discussing nothing, while the virus grows and will soon take over this place within no time! It's either kill Wesker, destroy the virus, or stay here and be killed by him. How caring is that?" Leon spun around on his heel and walked out of the building and went back to his house where he tossed his jacket to the side and began to stock up on supplies and gather new ammo for his guns.

September 26, 2004

The day was gloomy. Gray clouds drifted around the sky and seemed to hang only over the little town. The sun was nothing but a circle of a lighter shade of gray behind the clouds. The air was moist and the smell of rain was on the air.

Ashley was looking out of her living room window when she saw that both Leon and Barret were loading several things into the back of a black truck. She watched as Leon threw some guns in the back, along with many other weapons. It then dawned on Ashley of what exactly they were doing.

They were going to leave today.

Ashley grabbed a couple bags and stuffed them with clothes and food. She ran into her room and found a gun that had been given to her upon their arrival to this town. Ashley finished gathering everything she needed and went to go turn off as much stuff as she could. When that was all done she shoved her new pairs of shoes (surprise, surprise) and ran out the door towards the truck.

"Wait! Wait for me!" Ashley ran down the sidewalk and halted just infront of Leon and Barret. She threw her bags down and let out a sigh. "I'm coming with you."

"Put your stuff in the back," Barret said, "and don't forget to bring lots of ammo."

"I brought all I could find."

Every day Ashley would take some time off to practice shooting her gun, but she never got used to it and whenever she would fire the gun, she would jump and her ears would ring for days on end.

Leon put all of Ashley's stuff in the back of the truck and went in to start the vehicle up. "Are you guys getting inor what?"

When everyone was in Leon drove down the empty streets and made his way over to the gravel road that lead them towards Raccoon City. As they neared it Leon saw a crowd of people waving to them and vehicles loaded with bags and heavy looking weapons.

"Looks like we'll be having some company," Barret said from his spot in the passenger's seat.

Leon stopped the truck when he saw Jill. He rolled down the window and she began to speak.

"I told them not to go, but they insisted that they should. There was nothing I could do to stop them," and with that she turned around and was lost from Leon's sight as she walked into the crowd of people.

Leon stepped on the gas and looked at the side view mirror to see at least six other trucks full of people following close behind, all of them honking their horns to the cheering crowd.

As a couple of hours passed the clouds cleared up. In the distance Leon could see the tiny outline of the Arklay Mountains. They became a little more clearer to see as they drove down the gravel road that had been cleared off by the people that lived in the town.

They passed several burnt down cities and from time to time they would spot a limping figure heading towards them, but it would always be brought down by one of the people in the trucks following Leon, Barret and Ashley.

The undead became more common as they drove ahead. It seemed like the T-virus had been set here more than anywhere else. There were multiple times when one of the undead zombies would lunge at the trucks, but would be ran over by the vehicle that it was trying to attack. Pretty soon there were hoards of zombies moving all in one direction, Leon noted.

They were going to Raccoon City.

Now everyone had to be careful because the zombies were now getting in the way of their route. The trucks would have to swerve around them, if not just run them over or hit them with the side of their vehicles so they wouldn't fly up and smash the windsheild.

Ashley was sitting in the back seat of the truck and was looking out the window and becoming very nervous because of the sudden stunt in the zombie apperance. She was beginning to twirl a piece of her hair between her fingers to try to calm herself down, but it wasn't working at all. She screamed when one launched itself against her window.

"Get a gun and shoot it," Leon commanded.

Ashley fumbled around and finally found her gun. She rolled down the window with shakey hands and aimed the gun at the undead monster. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. The zombie fell to the ground and a thud noise could be heard as the truck behind them ran over its corpse.

When Leon was sure that the zombie was gone he focused on the road ahead. The zombies weren't in the way anymore. As he drove on Leon saw a group of them advancing on a figure that was already fighting off several others.

"Stop!" Leon said to the other drivers. He jumped out of the truck and ran towards the group of zombies, striking them down one by one with his hand gun. When he reached the thing the zombies were after he noticed that it was a person that didn't even havea single scratch on them. Then Leon noticed something else.

He knew that person.

Leon smiled and helped the man straighten himself out.

"Haven't seen you for a while, Michael."

Reviewer responses:

Riyougi: Thanks for the review! I'll try to update this story as much as I can and I'm glad you like my story.

KhasKlwn: I'm happy you like the name of the virus, I thought it was pretty good considering the fact that nothing else popped into my head. And don't worry Wesker will more than likely get his ass kicked, heh heh heh.

crazygirl306: That's okay if you haven't reviewed for a while, I'm used to that. Thanks for the review!

Tia: Thanks for the review :D Sorry I couldn't put this up when I wanted to but fanfiction wouldn't let me :shakes fist: