Chapter Two
How It All Began
Chris briefly stopped at a corner to make sure that Eleanor was okay before he checked the surrounding area for any immediate threats. Once he was satisfied that they weren't in any danger he let himself fall into the wall for support.
"Are you okay?"
Eleanor was caught off guard for a second, this was the first time he'd spoke a word to her since they had left that office and began their treacherous run through the streets of the city to somewhere safe. She looked up at him for a second to judge his expression before replying to the question, his face looked concerned for her and she instantly felt at ease again.
"Yeah I'm fine, what about you?"
He looked down at her young dirty face, her eyes were watching his every motion and he noticed that her eyes shone like diamonds, a clear and perfect blue and that her hair fell over her shoulders and tucked away behind her right ear, her hair was a dark brown that seemed to shine as the wind blew through it. For a few minutes he was stunned that he'd not noticed her natural beauty even after she'd been through so much trauma, his face began burning as he realised that he was completely lost in her beauty and he turned away quickly. What the hell is wrong with you Chris, he thought to himself as he tried to compose his face again.
"Yeah I'm fine, here take these you must be hungry and thirsty after all that" Chris had pulled a red can from his bag along with a couple of energy bars and a packet of crisps and handed them to her. She looked up at him again in amazement and smiled.
"Thank you, I'm starving." She ripped the packets open and began munching away happily, then opened the can and began to drink deeply till the can was then empty. Chris watched her for a few seconds before he began on his drink and snacks.
"I'm just going to do a quick parameter check if you can manage for a minute on your own?" She looked up at him and smiled.
"I'm sure I'll be okay for a few minutes, I'm not a child that you need to babysit you know." He smiled back before zipping his bag back up and placing it next to her.
"Just in case something happens, you've got the supplies you need then,"
"I trust you to come back in one piece, like you said Chris, it takes more than a few dead bodies to take you down," She winked as she finished her sentence and went back to eating her snacks.
Chris pulled the safety off on his gun and cocked it before heading off, he was ducking behind nearby vehicles as cover all the time his eyes darting from left to right looking out for any movement. With all this moving around thoughts of Eleanor kept running through his head, was he just attracted to her because she was the only survivor that he'd encountered or was he actually attracted to her on another level.
Thinking of her made him nervous and he couldn't concentrate on the task at hand properly so he stopped for a minute behind an abandoned cop car to take a breather, there wasn't a soul in sight anywhere near where they were and he just couldn't understand why.
Chris slumped down by the car to have a bit of a rest before he headed back to Eleanor, he wanted to clear his head of these feelings before confronting her again but every time he tried to erase the feelings her saw that face look up at him, he saw those eyes see right through him and his heart began to melt again. It's like taking in a lost puppy, you just can't stay focussed and you can't say no to them. He sighed as he pulled himself back to his feet to have a look around. As he cast his eyes over the area he didn't see anything moving, all he saw was abandoned vehicles, rubbish and fire. Satisfied that he was safe he took a casual walk back to where he left Eleanor mulling over in his head his feelings and how that would now affect him and his actions in the upcoming hours, days, maybe months. He wasn't sure how long this whole thing would last he just knew that he had to survive it.
As he turned the corner back to where Eleanor was he noticed that she had fallen asleep with her knees tucked into her body and his bag under her head as a make shift pillow. He smiled and shook his head, Poor soul is shattered. Quietly he walked across to her and placed his arms around her to pick her up, he pulled the bag up and placed it on his back and smiled at her peaceful face. Definitely like taking in a lost puppy.
There was a shop he remembered just around the corner from where they had stopped and the door was unlocked, he'd checked for any signs of life or death and hadn't found any so assumed it was as good as any place for a chance of rest. As he placed Eleanor on the counter gently to pull some blankets off of a shelf he noticed that she had a silver cross around her neck, Well maybe I should start being religious, clearly it's helped her out. He smiled to himself as he thought about her dressed in her Sunday bests sitting inside a church praying to a God that she could never possibly see, he didn't understand religion because he'd never believed in anything that he couldn't see with his own eyes but had always thought it took a weak person to rely on something or someone else to help solve your problems in life.
Once he had finished making a comfy spot with some blankets he walked back over to Eleanor and picked her up again, he then rested her down gently and pulled one of the blankets over the top of her and smiled. At least one of us can get some shut eye. He pulled up a chair and faced it towards where she was sleeping peacefully and sat down on it. He watched as her eyelids flickered and her fingers and lips began to twitch and smiled to himself. It's nice seeing a peaceful dream from such a pretty woman after all that they have been through, I wonder what she's actually dreaming about...
A couple of hours had roughly passed since he had dozed off and he only began stirring because of a shuffling noise coming from inside the shop. Instinctively he drew his weapon and went into defensive mode, when he looked across at where Eleanor was asleep he noticed that she was no longer there. Jumping out of his seat he began darting his eyes back and forth calling out her name.
"Calm down cow boy, just went to the toilet." Chris sighed out of relief and withdrew his weapon back to it's holster before sitting back down.
"Sorry, just a little paranoid is all,"
"It's cool, how did we get here? I remember being in the street waiting for you to come back and then... nothing,"
"You fell asleep, I picked you up and brought you here because you look shattered." He laughed as she rubbed her eyes.
"Wow, I must of really been out of it because I'm usually a light sleeper." She laughed and walked back towards where Chris was sat. "Do you want to have a lie down, it couldn't of been comfortable sleeping in that chair, I'll keep watch for you."
"Nah it's okay I'm alright now, thirsty or hungry?"
"Always" She laughed as she moved closer to where he was sat. Chris shifted nervously in his chair the closer she got to him.
"Are you feeling okay Chris?" He was stunned for a moment as he stared blankly at the delicate way her lips moved and how her eyebrows bunched up into a cute concerned face. "Hello?" Suddenly he snapped out of it and flushed bright red.
"Sorry, I was zoning out for a minute there. Help yourself my bag is over there where you were sleeping, thought you might have been comfier with a pillow."
"Oh, thanks that is really sweet of you,"
As she knelt down and leant over to rummage through the bag Chris couldn't help but stare at her body, it was slender and nicely shaped, Like a goddess' body would be, he thought to himself. He could barely keep his eyes off her as he watched her body move in rhythm to her every action. Without even noticing she had turned her body around to ask him something and realised that he was staring so adoringly at her and she flushed bright red.
"Do you want anything from the bag Chris?" He snapped his eyes up to meet hers and flushed red.
"Sorry, I don't mean to stare, I'm okay for food at the moment could I just have a drink please?"
"Yeah sure, probably used to looking at guys and their bulking muscles not fragile little girls who get you in trouble." She walked back over to him with a can in her hand and offered it to him, as he went to take the can from her hand his hand rested on her hand for a few seconds, So delicate and soft. He blushed again and took his hand away and grabbed the can.
"Sorry again, and I'm not used to seeing bulking muscles the people I worked with weren't all male and weren't all built."
"What happened to the people you worked with?" Chris' face fell as he began remembering the awful things that had happened to him so far.
"Most of them were killed by those creatures, if not all of them." Eleanor crouched down in front of him and stared intently at his face with that cute concerned face he liked so much, she placed her hands on his knees.
"It's okay if you would rather not talk about it, I understand if it's too painful. I am more mature than I make out most of the time." She smiled at him as he raised his face to look at her. That face again, the way she pulls her eyebrows in, the way her face dimples when she smiles, the way her lips curl with such beauty and how her eyes seem to see through to my soul. Without even thinking Chris leant into her and rested his lips against hers. Once he'd thought about what he had done he pulled away quickly and tried to focus his eyes somewhere else as he spoke.
"I'm so sorry, that was inappropriate of me,"
He started to look nervous and sweat was beginning to form on his brow as he began panicking. His eyes couldn't fall upon hers again so that he could witness that horror at his actions. She was silent for minutes which felt like hours to him so he looked at her face, Shock? He studied her face, she was shocked there was no anger, no look of horror, no look of violation just pure shock plastered as clear as day all over her face.
"Are you.. okay Eleanor?"
"I'm shocked, just shocked is all." She stumbled back off her heels and landed on her backside, her face still a mask of shock.
"Why so shocked?"
"You kissed me. I wasn't expecting it, I'm a kid when most people look at me, nobody takes me seriously, not even my family took me seriously but you, you kissed me. Why?"
"Why wouldn't I? Is there something wrong with you?"
"You're Chris Redfield. You're fit, in shape and the best looking person I have ever seen and me, well I'm 19, clumsy, average in looks and build, there has to be more survivors than just me and you so why don't you wait for someone more suited to you?"
"More suited to me? Chris Redfield is my name not a title Eleanor, and you shouldn't put yourself down as if you are below me or something," He reached his hand forwards to pull her closer but she pulled her arm back before he could get to her. He sighed as he stood up and leant down towards her, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to her feet. Tilting her chin up with his right hand he gazed deeply into her piercing blue eyes and smiled.
"You are beautiful in more ways than you can imagine, ever since I met you I've done nothing but subconsciously moved with your every movement, thought about every possible way you could be separated from me and battled those situations in my head to ensure that you would always be safe and by my side. This isn't because you're the first survivor I've met, this is something beyond that. When you look at me, she care and it feels like you can see right through to my soul, the only other person who has that effect on me is my sister..." My sister... I still haven't found her yet, he thought to himself as he shifted his gaze from Eleanor he noticed her arms wrap around him and her push her body close against his.
Eleanor rested her face against his chest and listened closely to his heart beat and smiled to herself. He's nervous and I'm supposed to be the young one. She laughed at her inside comment to herself and smiled before looking back up towards Chris' face.
"Tell me about your family Chris, and your sister who you feel so strongly for,"
"You make it sound like some weird love but it's not like that, me and my sister have always been close. Started when my dad died, he was a cop like yours. When my dad died I was 13, she was 11 and my mom couldn't handle all the grief and bringing up 2 children so I helped her out. Then my mom fell ill when I was 17 so I tried to help her as much as I could, tried to ease her pain and suffering. She died a year later and then I took over legal guardianship of my sister and we just grew closer and closer. She didn't want me to go away to the Spencer Mansion, she said she had a bad feeling. I've been searching for her since I've been back but haven't seen or heard from her yet."
"Oh my, do you think she's okay?" There is that concerned face again, yet she doesn't want to talk about her life.
"I taught my sister well, plus she had also just finished her training to be a S.T.A.R.S member to, she's alive I can feel it inside me. I just need to find her."
Eleanor looked into Chris' eyes and smiled fondly at him. He's such an amazing person, I'd of loved to have a brother like that. Thinking about her family she pushed her face down into his chest and began weeping, she hadn't really had a chance to grieve over her lost family, she hadn't been able to save them or her friends.
"What's the matter?"
"You talking so fondly of your sister and believing she's still alive, it made me think about my family and how I couldn't save them, how I just stood there and watched them die needlessly, I saw my friends die, and I couldn't save a single one of them. I haven't had any time to grieve over my lost family and friends and how helpless I was. I'm just lost, numb." Chris wrapped his arms around her tightly and rested his chin on the top of her head.
"It's not your fault, you couldn't of saved them. You weren't prepared for any of this. Cry, let it all out because at least the pain is a reminder that you're still alive."
"So did you discover why all those murders were happening up at the mansion?"
"I did, and I lost a lot of good people up there too due to Umbrella." Chris' face suddenly turned to anger and his teeth began to grind on each other. "My team's leader was a double agent for them, he tried to ensure that we all died there."
"What happened to him?"
"He was killed, killed by one of Umbrella's creations. It's kind of ironic when you think about it, he was sent in to trap us there to get killed and ended up dying himself by the hands of his own boss."
"So what happened?"
"We were sent in to investigate mysterious deaths on the outskirts of Raccoon City, we thought the mansion was abandoned, it was supposed to be. We got there and we were searching the area when we were attacked by these dogs but they were like no dog I'd ever seen, they were infected so we ran to the mansion and began looking around in there. We found members of the first team dead, half eaten, we found documents about experiments that were being carried out by Umbrella, illegal experiments. We got separated from our captain and we thought he was dead, we found awful things there, some creatures that were more exposed to the virus than those that are here in the city. Wesker had double crossed us, his mission was to recover the documents and lock us there with those creatures to die. We escaped the mansion but when we got back to the city it was already crawling with undead. We were ambushed once we arrived back, the pilot got killed, a good man who didn't deserve it, Barry, Rebecca and Jill. Well I'm not even sure what happened to them guys, I'm not sure if they're dead or alive, we all ran in opposite directions for safety. I haven't seen or heard from them since we got back I just hope that they have found some safety somewhere. Rebecca wasn't much older than you are, she was a medic for the Alpha team, her team was killed by those creatures. She was a good person, scared but a good person." He buried his face in Eleanor's hair and gripped her tightly.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry to hear. I'm sure they're doing fine Chris they might have even run into your sister and are with her now looking for you."
"You're probably right you know, Jill was stubborn she wouldn't of gone out just like that and if she'd found my sister she'd be helping as much as she could to try and find me. She was my partner after all and she knows I'd search for her if I thought there was even the slightest chance she was still alive."
Chris moved backwards towards the chair and released Eleanor and sat down. He seemed to stare off into nowhere for a few minutes lost deep in thought so she just left him to it. So much had happened to him and he was still searching endlessly for his sister, he just knew she was still alive and deep down he knew that Jill was still alive and if she was then she would have somehow found his sister, of that he was positive about.
"We can rest here for a bit longer, there was nothing outside when I checked before we entered, plus I can't see anything through the window at the moment so this part of the city must literally be deserted." She smiled and moved back towards him.
"Are you sure you don't want to rest? It would help me a lot if you didn't pass out from exhaustion if we need to make a quick escape you know." She laughed as she reached her hand out to touch his face, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his lap wrapping his arms around her and resting his lips on the side of her face gently.
"Lie with me? It makes me less paranoid if you're where I can feel you." She smiled at him and planted her lips gently on his, she then wrapped her arms around his neck loosely as she caressed his lips with hers.
"Okay cow boy I could probably do with some extra few winks myself to keep me alert."
Chris smiled as he swung her body around into his arms and then stood up. He moved towards the blankets and placed her down softly then moved down towards her. He pulled her body into his and grazed his lips against her delicate mouth and wrapped his arms around her tightly. They smiled at each other before Eleanor rested her face down on the bag and stared into his big brown eyes.
"I never thought I'd be here with you at this moment in time with your arms wrapped around me, this is the safest I've felt in days."
He smiled at her and caressed her lips with his own moving his arms down her body and pulling her as close as he could to his own body. He carefully moved his hands all over her body feeling every part with just gentleness and marvelled at how beautiful her eyes shone as the light danced across them.
I could lie like this for days as long as she was tightly and soundly wrapped up in my arms. He thought to himself whilst he brushed his fingers through her soft hair. Eleanor yawned and smiled as Chris continued to comb his fingers through her hair smiling, he could see her eyes were slowly flickering to a close and not long after she had dropped sound asleep in his arms he was soon to follow. So this is what it's like to feel for someone else, to have someone else to hold and who cares about you, I could get used to this.
