She looked back at him a little, then ahead and down, her blue eyes seeming to search the back of her hands, which were resting on the window cill. "Chris..." she shook her head a little, not saying anything else.

"...? ... What...? What about Chris...?" he took a step towards her a little, worried a bit. He had been wanting to know the entire time, but Claire seemed pained by thinking about him. What happened?

"He... was killed..." she closed her eyes. "I managed to take Umbrella down... but they took him with them..." She almost felt a sharp pain in her chest as she thought about what happened.

He felt his legs give out, managing to pull a chair up under him and fall into the chair. He couldn't believe it. After all Claire did to try to find him... after all these years of fighting Umbrella... he lost his fight. He had no brothers of his own, so he could only know a small bit of how his friend felt. He couldn't, though, ask her what happened. Just thinking about him seemed to hurt.

"They tried to take both Chris and I out... but while I was away, they got to him first." She held her arms up and out slightly, looking at them. "He died in my arms..." She clenched her fists, gritting her teeth and hitting the windowcill with her fists. "We were so close... we were so damn close..." she relaxed her fists and looked down. "But they weren't going to die without taking one of us with them..." She put her arm on the window, above her head, her forehead resting against the glass as a tear streamed down her cheek. She glanced back slightly when she felt arms around her. He was hugging her gently. "After that..." she managed to reagain her composure enough to continue, "I knew I had to find you. I know there are a few members of Umbrella left... I didn't want them to find you and get to you before I could... like they did with Chris..."

"I see..." he sighed lightly, pulling back from her a little. He wasn't sure what else to say.

She turned around, looking at him. "I can't lose anyone else I care about... I won't let them take anyone else..."

He put his hand on her cheek lightly, "I know..." He tried to smile, to reassure her that everything was ok, but he couldn't. He knew she would see right through it.

She turned her head away slightly, then wiped her face with the back of her hand. He could see that she had scars on her face, that she had used powder makeup on to cover it. He could see clearly a scar down her eye. It was long, at least three inches, and went straight down her eye, but it wasn't on her eyelid... which ment whatever it was that caused the scar had caught her eye as well, but her eye seemed normal.

"...?" He gently reached up to touch the scar, causing her to flinch a little. "...What...happend...?" he asked. It looked like a bad wound when it was new.

"I reacted a half a second too late... a knife caught me straight down my eye... Back at the last Umbrella facility..." She answered with a sigh. She left out a few details of everything that happened, but she couldn't let him know it all. She also failed to mention the fact that since the blade actually caught her eye instead of her eyelid, she was blind in that eye. She couldn't tell him...

He looked at her face, gently stroking her cheek. "...you've been through hell...apparently..." He shook his head alittle.

"We both have, if you remember correctly..." she responded slyly, kissing him on the cheek lightly.

"Yeah..." he put his arms around her. He figured she lost the sight in her eye... there was no way she could see through it, if the blade caught her there. But he didn't want to mention it. He looked at her a little, seeing her rest her head on his shoulder. He smiled. He was glad he was with her again.

"...?" she listened closely, before whispering in his ear. "There's movement outside on the right side... I think it's more of those guys..."

He didn't make a move, but he glanced that way a little. He could see four villagers. He slowly reached up under his jacket, taking out his long bowie knife. He looked back to her, taking a few steps back, using slow movements. He spun the knife around slightly, getting ready for their attack. As soon as they burst in, he heard rapid gun shots. He blinked a few times, looking towards Claire a little, who had one gun out, aimed at the now vacant air where the villagers had stood. Looking back to her once more, he threw the knife at her, it passing her cheek very closely, and stabbing into the face of a villager who had been sneaking up on her.

Claire glanced back, blinking as she saw the villager drop dead. She looked back at him, smirking a bit. "Seems we've both gotten better since the Raccoon incident." She went up to him, kissing him lightly. "Come on... we'd better get a move on before more of them come."

He nodded, walking past her and kneeling at the dead villager's body, yanking his knife from its forehead. He wiped the blood off of it and slid it back in its sheath. He felt her standing close behind him. He stood up, turning towards her again.

"So... what's the president's daughter doing way out here?" She looked to him after having taken a glance around. She knew there was more to what was going on than what met the eye. The villagers were strange, and the place gave her the creeps.

"Someone kidnapped her... someone from this village, I'm guessing... When I first got here, I ran up to a house and tried to talk to one of them... but as you can kinda tell... I didn't get a very warm welcome..." he rubbed the back of his neck a little.

"Yeah... they don't seem very friendly..." she pulled her other gun out, spinning them both once before looking out the door, going through it and looking outside. She held her guns at her side, but ready.

"The two guys that brought me here were killed by the villagers... and the bridge is out..." he then stopped following her, realizing something, which hit him like a ton of bricks. How the hell did she get there?

"Something wrong?" she stopped walking and looked back at him questionably.

"I just thought of something... how did you get here...?" he looked at her. The bridge was out, so he couldn't figure out how she could get there.

"Oh... I took a small helicopter... I hid it when I got here... there should be enough room for you and the girl too..." she ran the back of her hand across her forehead a little. "So come on... let's get going..." she started walking again, glancing back and seeing him start following her again. "So you've just been working for the government all these years?" she glanced back at him again.

"Not really... for about the first year after I got your email about being stuck on that island, I was just wandering. Well, one day, I got a call to meet a man in a small diner like place... and things just took off from there, I guess..." he ran his hand through his hair a little. He didn't really understand it all, himself.

"So you have no idea where the girl is...?" she finally said after a few minutes, and after a few villagers were killed. She had to think of something to break the long silence that would have ensued.

"There were some reports that she was last seen near a some sort of church. Other than that..." he sighed heavily, "no..."

"I see..." she sighed, shaking her head. She looked around, then up to a two story house beside of her. She crouched slightly, leaping up and grabbing onto the edge of the roof, pulling herself up onto the roof, standing up fully. She looked around a little, for the church. All she saw were the tops of tall trees.

He blinked a little, watching her. She's changed alot since he last saw her. She was more fit, and agile. But how could all of this happen in just four years? Even he wasn't that good yet. What exactly happened all of these years, other than what he told her? "See anything?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, just trees..." she sighed, looking down at him. She lept down off of the roof (causing him to flinch, thinking that she would hurt herself when she hit the ground), landing in a slightly crouched position, inches from him.

He relaxed a bit when she landed safely. "I guess we'd better just keep going down this path..." he looked towards the path ahead.

Once they started walking again, silence fell. They didn't know what to talk about, or what to say. It was an awkward silence, to say the least. Finally, they came to a gate, which had a strange insignia on it. They both stopped, looking at it. "That's odd..." Claire traced her fingers over it. "We should go through it?" she glanced to him, seeing him nod his head. She pushed on it, finding that it was heavy, but she didn't have much trouble with it. It creaked loudly, dirt and dust falling off of it as it moved. "Egh... just what we need, a creepy, creaking gate..." she muttered when she opened it fully. She saw a long path ahead of them that curved a bit. She glanced over to him, seeing him walk past her, heading down the path.