It was fortunate that Leon had experience tracking a target amidst the chaos. The attacks had unleashed panic in the population. People were running and screaming from side to side, and Leon thought he saw several members of TerraSave moving from side to side.

He was glad that, at least, there were no signs of other B.O.W.s besides the one that had attacked them at the main street. That was good news.

Leon looked around, searching for any traces of the men in black suits, suddenly his phone rang, and Leon quickly answered.

"Hunnigan."

"Leon," the woman greeted him, "How are things over there?"

"Not as good as I'd like," Leon answered, "Did you find anything useful?"

"Not good news, I am afraid," Hunnigan sighed, "the terrorist group responsible for this attack and Ms. Redfield's kidnapping call themselves Arcana. It's a small terrorist group that works under Neo-umbrella."

"I expected Neo-umbrella to be no more. I can't believe they're still providing them with monsters."

"Yes, after the incident in China, we thought the organization had died away with Simmons and Radames, but it seems we were wrong. I've sent the report to the higher-ups."

"Yeah, good to know. I'll worry about Neo-umbrella later. They aren't our top problem now," Leon said, "Claire getting kidnapped is. Any idea of why they would target her?"

There was a short pause as Leon dodged a group of panicked citizens that ran in the opposite direction.

"Unfortunately, no, but I'll let you know if something comes up."

"Well, thanks."

"Sounds like a mess over there."

"Nothing I haven't seen before," Lin said, "not that many hostiles yet."

"I've got reports of hostiles incoming, but compared to other cases, it seems rather calm."

That was odd, Leon thought. Terrorist groups didn't shine for their consideration of innocent citizens, and he had to admit that comparing the current situation to what he'd lived other times before, it wasn't as bad as it could get.

"Leon, I found your target. They are heading to a building located north of your current position. It's an office building."

"Yeah, I think I just saw them," Leon said, watching the black-suited men walk into a large building across him.

"Good luck, Leon, and be careful."

"Yeah, thanks."

Leon pushed his phone back into his pocket and made his way to the building. The first thing he heard upon entering the lobby was a wave of gunfire, screaming, and grunting. The sounds were familiar, and they were enough for Leon to have an idea of what to expect later.

The zombies were the same kind he had faced in Tall Oaks: violent, nasty, and annoying, but not too hard to dispatch. The problem was that they were fast spreaders, which turned them into an infinite annoyance.

"Shit, " Leon groaned, shooting several zombies as he chased the group, "I hope Claire is ok."

Leon looked around the destruction and the pile of dead monsters he was leaving behind him.

"Claire is surely going to love this when she sees it," Leon said bitterly.

Claire would be furious. He could almost picture her indignation look in his thoughts, and he unavoidably smirked.

"Leon, do you copy?"

"Yeah, I am here."

"I identified an aircraft moving steadily to your position."

"An aircraft?" Leon grunted, "so they're extracting Claire from here."

"Yes, the air is most likely their escape route."

"Huh, then, they will head to the highest extraction point, the rooftop. Thanks, Hunnigan."

Leon shot his upcoming enemies without issues and made his way to the roof. He caught up with the kidnappers on the fifth floor. Four men from the original group were still alive, and he had to give them their credit. They weren't the usual bunch of amateur fighters.

Claire was still unconscious and, in addition to the way the men were carrying her like a sack of potatoes, the fact that she'd not woken up yet bothered Leon.

"Stop there," Leon shouted once they reached the roof.

"What the fuck?" the man holding Claire groaned.

"Isn't that one of the guys from earlier?"

"He caught up with us?"

"Shut up, you two!" the one holding Claire shouted. He pulled out his gun and aimed at Leon.

Leon smirked and jumped aside, taking cover. The fire exchange was intense. The agent had to be cautious where he aimed. Claire was in a vulnerable position, and the last thing he wanted was shooting her by mistake.

The kidnappers were losing focus. The anxiety and the stress, caused by the screams and roars that came from below, were making them uneasy.

Suddenly, one of the men let out a screech. Claire had woken up, and she had managed to kick him, making him drop her.

"That's my Claire," Leon smirked to himself.

He saw Claire roll away from the men and tried to get up. She seemed a little unbalanced, but Leon attributed it to having just woken up. The men looked thrown by her sudden awakening, and Leon used that opportunity to get out from his hiding spot and reach for the woman as he shot the men.

He pulled a, still confused Claire, behind a concrete block and took cover with her.

"L-Leon?" Claire groaned with surprise.

"Hey, again. Are you ok?"

"Y-yeah," she answered, rubbing her head, "What's going on?"

"Long story," Leon told her, punching the man that tried to catch her again.

The woman looked around her, confused, almost as if she wasn't processing the events. That was odd since Claire was usually fast to catch on to things. Leon was going to ask Claire if she was alright once more, but he never got to voice the question.

Suddenly, Leon heard a thunderous noise. The agent looked up and saw in horror as a helicopter got attacked by several flying B.O.W.s. The chopper lost stability and began to move erratically in the air, trying to get rid of the monsters that had trapped it.

One of the creatures destroyed the blades of the helicopter, and it began to fall towards them.

"Shit."

Leon turned to Claire, who was rubbing her head again. The agent picked her up, much to Claire's shock, and rushed away as fast as he could, but unfortunately, there was not much that he could do to run away from a burnt, falling chopper.

The crash was strong enough to make the whole building shake violently; debris burst flying around them, and Leon automatically shielded Claire from the damage.

Amid the chaos, they both rolled on the ground from the impact. Leon looked at his friend, letting out a painful groan. Claire was struggling, and he tried to reach out for her, but before he could, he felt a hard hit behind him, and everything went black.

Her head hurt like hell. That was the first thought that crossed Claire's mind as she regained her senses. Her surroundings were dark, and she felt the unfamiliar rocky ground under her hand.

"Great," Claire sighed, grabbing her head and feeling a little dizzy, "Why do I always end up in these places?"

The auburn headed looked around, ignoring the dizziness and the need to throw up that she was feeling. It was dark, damp, and for what she could tell, it looked like she was in some cave or tunnel. Claire sat up, resting her back against a near wall. It took her some minutes to put her thoughts back in order. Her memories were chaotic. She remembered fighting with some unknown men in the Command Room, and then, she had a blackout. Her last memories were of Leon, fire, pain, and a lot of noise. Wait, Leon?

"Leon?" she asked, trying to stand up.

There was no answer, and Claire looked around, concerned. She was sure she'd seen Leon. He had been with her before, and his current absence made Claire worry.

She tried to stand up so that she could search the area for her friend, but a wave of dizziness staggered her. The bastards had probably hit her head, and she'd not be surprised if she had a concussion. She needed to recover a little before she could think of moving.

"Leon? Are you there?" she called into the darkness, but no answer again.

He is an agent. He is going to be alright.

Claire took a deep breath, letting the oxygen fill her lungs and reach her head. The headache was annoying, but she could handle it. The pain wasn't enough to hinder her. She took some minutes to calm down and clear her head as much as she could.

"Fantastic," Claire sighed, "knowing my luck, I am probably in another experimental facility. I'll need a weapon if that's the case."

It took her some more minutes to be able to see. Her vision was still slightly blurry, but it was enough for her to move without issues.

Claire navigated herself through the darkness, using the wall as a guide. The terrain wasn't friendly to navigate, especially in the dark. Claire stumbled several times on the uneven ground; the last thing she needed now was to fall and damage her head even more.

It was too quiet for her taste, silent as death, and in her experience, dead things rarely stayed like that in these circumstances.

I am technically useless right now.

Claire wasn't in the best of shapes. Her vision was unreliable, her movements were slow and clumsy due to her headache, even her balance was giving her problems, and to top all that, she was weaponless. Her only hope was that there wouldn't be any enemies on her way out of the tunnel. She tried calling for Leon a couple of times, but the lack of replies made her assume that the agent was not anywhere around.

She knew Leon. If he were there, he'd find his way and meet her, eventually.

"Well, at least I'll get some friendly company," she sighed, "but first things first. I need to get out of here."

Claire's sight was getting used to the dark, but her dizziness was complicating things in many ways. Suddenly, Claire heard a loud howl in the distance, and a chill ran down her spine. She hated it when she was right; her hopes of having an easy way out crumbled in seconds. There was something in there, most likely a mutant monster, ready to tear her into pieces at any possible chance. A fight was unavoidable, but if she had to fight, she hoped to have at least a chance to defend herself, and to do that, she needed a weapon.

Claire rushed her pace, hoping that she was on the right track. After some stressing moments of silences and darkness, the tunnel finally opened up, and she caught the smell of grass and damp soil. She had made it outside. The fresh air and the view of the sky sparkled with stars made her feel better both physically and mentally.

"Right, this isn't time to feel relieved," Claire admonished herself. "I am still unarmed, lost, and most likely surrounded by vicious foes. I need to move."

Claire looked around here. At least, the light from the stars and moon allowed her a better look at her surroundings. Judging by the appearance of the sky, Claire could tell she had to be somewhere very far from the city. The sky looked beautiful, and that could only mean that the light pollution in the place was minimal.

After scanning around her for a bit, she noticed some lights in the distance. There were insignificant, and Claire guessed that it had to be a village or a small town. If her situation were like her previous misadventures, the place would probably be crawling with undead things, and god knew what other mutants. In other words, heading to a human settlement in her current situation screamed "bad idea" in capital letters. However, just like the place was the best place to find nasty creatures, it was also a place where she would most likely find weapons and other useful things.

It was a dangerous bet for all she cared, she had little to lose, and besides, it wasn't the first time she'd found herself in a place infested by zombie-mutant creatures.

The young woman found a trail that, she guessed, would lead to the settlement and followed it cautiously. She walked for some minutes, and she, surprisingly, didn't encounter any foes. However, she wasn't entirely sure of whether that was good or bad.

"No monsters," Claire said, frowning with distrust, "Now, I call that suspicious."

Claire had dealt with enough zombie outbreaks already to know that zombies were never quiet. A town hit by a virus meant lots of infected people, and lots of infected people meant lots of hostiles.

"Why is it so empty?" Claire asked softly.

Looks can be deceiving.

Claire made her way into town cautiously. Just because there were no monsters in sight didn't mean they weren't nearby. She reached town after some minutes of walking through the vegetation. Her walk gave her a chance to do some recognizance of her surroundings.

Claire entered town cautiously, and as soon as she had set a step there, a stinging pain pierced through her skull, causing her to hive. The ache brought a series of disjointed and blurred visions that Claire quickly associated with her nightmares.

"Ag," she groaned, "why am I getting flashbacks from that damn place right now?"

The village was different from the one Sushestvivanie, so she wasn't sure what had triggered the memories.

Claire looked around her. Unlike the Russian town, which had looked like no one had lived in it for ages, this village still looked lived in despite the lack of population.

"Right, the question now is what happened to the people," Claire muttered, "Ok, Claire. Pull yourself together. We need to get weapons."

Claire walked around carefully, peeking inside the house through the windows. The place seemed frozen in time. It was a typical scenario that Claire had gotten used to finding. People must have gotten suddenly infected, and amid the chaos, everyone had abandoned what they were doing without looking back.

Claire sighed with sadness as she searched for supplies amid the chaos inside the houses. The bloodstains she found on several confirmed her fears regarding the locals. Most likely, there were no healthy people left in the place.

Claire found an old hunting rifle in one of the houses, and after searching a little more, she found ammo, a knife, and a sturdy chain. She had no idea if the chain could be useful, but hell, she would take it anyway.

Claire noticed a slight movement from the corner of her eye. It'd been fast, a white blur that she wasn't able to discern.

"Hello?" she said cautiously, "anyone there?"

No answer. Claire's grip on the old rifle tightened. She looked around, almost holding her breath. The complete silence around her made her extremely uneasy. There were no birds, no insects, nothing, which in nature's language only meant one thing. There was a predator nearby.

ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

Claire started to regret her complaints about the lack of noise. That roar was something she wished she had not heard. It sounded distant, so at least Claire might have a chance to avoid the confrontation. She didn't know what waited for her out there and her supplies were not infinite.

"Time to play stealthy," she said, moving out of the house carefully.

Claire reached the street, and to her annoyance, she found her path blocked by unfriendly looking villagers. She made a quick diagnosis on their appearance and quickly concluded that they were not T-virus infected, but they had to have something.

"Alright, not sure I should be happy about that," she said, aiming her rifle at the hostiles and shooting them with perfect aim.

"Purplish-gray skin; dilated, bloodshot eyes and inhuman vocalization," Claire listed, shooting the approaching enemies, "Reasoning still intact."

The hostiles weren't moving randomly. Even though their actions didn't move under intellectual reasoning, there was some thought behind them.

"They still hold some reason," Claire realized."That cuts down the list of possible pathogens..."

She alternated her attacks between gunshots and using the knives. She still wanted to save ammo as much as she could. Surprisingly, handling these guys was being a lot easier than she expected, and that was starting to worry her. For the third time in the day, she hated when she was right.

A howl cut through the air, making Claire shiver. To her horror, she saw how a deformed creature appeared out of nowhere and launched in her direction. She reacted mechanically and jumped out of the street, taking cover behind a pile of wooden boxes.

Claire had never seen any creature like that, but she guessed that this was one of Neo-Umbrella's new toys. The monster was humanoid, but its body was elongated and ghoulish thin. The skin was pale, and part of the tissue was decaying and falling in pieces. Claire noted that aside from an unnatural big mouth, there were no other features on the creature's face.

The creature grabbed a bunch of the villagers with its elongated arms and brought them to its mouth.

Is it eating them? That's new.

The BOWs created from variations of the progenitor virus needed fresh DNA to stabilize. That was the reason why they would attack people and eat them. Usually, the monsters would not feed on fellow creatures. Then again, this guy probably did not mind about freshness, and his only interest was dinner. She'd have to hurry, or she'd end up as dessert.

Taking advantage of the chaos, she dodged the villagers and ran off. Confronting this thing now would only bring her into an early death, and wise people knew when to retreat.

Unfortunately, her escape would not be easy, and she cursed as she sliced the throats of a couple of villagers as she ran past them. Her head was starting to hurt again, and she could tell that the dizziness was coming back.

Her run came to an abrupt stop when another deformed creature appeared in front of her. Once more, it seemed to be a new one monster, but unlike the other one she'd seen, it was smaller and more human-like.

"Oh, come on. Give me a break."

Claire shot the monster a couple of times only to find that, to her dismay, it did nothing. Its decaying skin was sturdier than it looked. Suddenly, a loud growl made her look back, and she groaned. The bigger guy had caught up with her, too, which meant that they had cornered her. Cursing her luck, Claire looked around, trying to come up with a plan. She ran into what seemed to be a storage shack. If she was lucky enough, maybe she could find something useful.

"Fuel tanks," Claire said, looking around her, "Ok, I am not going to ask why they keep this here. Well, this will come in handy, now, how do I use them without killing myself in the process?"

Claire was trying to formulate a plan when the shriek and the sound of wood breaking startled her. The smallest monster had managed to enter the cellar. The creature shook its head as if trying to track its prey.

Shit.

Claire looked around her in a panic. She saw a window nearby, and she made a run to it. The monster chased after her, howling horribly. Claire jumped through the glass, spinning at the last second, and shot her rifle into the closest tank. The result was instantaneous. The barrel exploded, creating a chain reaction of fire and destruction. The wave of the explosion hit Claire directly, and the woman flew a couple of meters into the woods that surrounded the town. She rolled down the hill, hitting her head, face, and limbs against rocks and wood before falling into a ditch filled with plants. The pain in her head had become so strong that she barely had time to realize what had happened before she lost consciousness.