A. N: The next chapter of ultimate doom! Mwahaha!

Chapter: FOUR
Eight hours earlier…

The chaos was getting worse. The Pineridge police were being called in nearly everyday on reports of assault, battery, and murder. It would appear that the whole of Pineridge had gone insane. There had even been one gruesome report of when the police arrested a man for murdering his two four-year olds, the man broke right out of the handcuffs, and tore the officer's throat out with his bare hands.

William Miller sat down in his easy chair, pondering the epidemic of chaos that had engulfed the once-tranquil little town. To him, this seemed like a cross between the outbreak at Raccoon City, and the much more recent Los Illuminados Incident in Spain, but intensified. There were some parts of town where you could see the bodies piled up on the streets, being devoured by insects and scavengers. This occurred only in the interior of Pineridge, where there are the most people. The less populated part of town, the area that bordered Starcrest Forest, had only just begun to experience the horror. The people there could, more or less, lead normal lives. The strange thing, though, was that according to the news, the exterior of the town didn't even know anything was wrong towards the center. It was all over the news in Starcest, but Pineridge's exterior knew nothing.

Miller lived in the center of town, where, at this point, the only way to stay safe was to stay indoors. Locking doors, windows, and basically anything and everything that a person could possibly use to get through.

The greatest danger was that you couldn't tell who was affected and who wasn't. One minute, you could be talking to your friend. The next minute, they would be strangling the life out of you. Miller remembered only a couple hours ago when he, along with dozens of other people had first fallen victim to this 'virus.' He remembered smacking a young man across the head with his cane and knocking him into the ground. Something was familiar about the man, but Miller couldn't remember what. From the way he reacted to the attack, Miller figured he was a police officer and had gone through heavy training.

It wasn't anyone that he knew, but Miller had the strange feeling that he had seen him before. Perhaps it was in passing, or maybe Miller had seen him on the news.

Hold on, Miller thought, I know where I've seen him before. It was from the news. That's Leon, Leon Kennedy!

That presented a possibility of why these uprising were occurring. Perhaps Leon was real target all along. The reason for all the deaths may have been that the people were getting in between the Victims—that's what Miller called them—and Leon. Now the question for Miller was why were they after Leon? Miller thought of an explanation; what if they were infected with Las Plagas? What if they're Ganados? Miller shoved that thought aside. The Las Plagas parasite couldn't have come so far. Also, the man behind the Los Illuminados incident was dead, so there would no one to control the Plagas.

What was a man like Leon Kennedy doing in a place like Pineridge, anyway? That incident happened right as Miller had been on his way to Pappy's House of Flapjacks. He didn't care for the food there but it was a quiet place for him to just relax and think. For some reason the employees never seemed to mind that he never bought any food.

Miller's biggest concern now, was that Leon wasn't in town. He had fled to Starcrest Forest, trying to escape from the mob of Victims chasing after him. Why the, were the attacks only occurring on the interior of the town, even further away from the forest? It just didn't make sense. Instead of this horrific nightmare, why wasn't the population suddenly disappearing into the forest? The only explanation that Miller could think of was that there were Victims in the forest as well. The Victims in town didn't know what to do since Leon was gone, so they just went wild.

From the hell that had broken loose in Pineridge, Miller reckoned that Leon should watch his step if he hoped to get out alive.

Present time…

Alexander stared questioningly at the man who claimed to be Leon Kennedy, the man who had rescued Ashley in the first place. From what had been happening, he didn't know who to trust. This guy could be a fake or worse, one of the demented people who had tried to kill him and Ashley before. Before anyone could speak, Ashley ran out from the truck, towards the man.

"What are you doing!?" Alexander shouted, "I told you to stay in the—"

"Leon!"

Ashley ran up to the Jeep and held Leon in an embrace through the open window.

"Ashley! Is that really you?" He turned to look at Alexander, "I swear, if you even laid a finger on her, I'll break your bones!"

"Jeez, calm down! I never even touched her. Ashley, is this really Leon Kennedy? For all I know, this is some clever trap set up for us by those freaks."

"No, Alexander, it's really Leon," Ashley said, "I'd never forget that face."

Alexander still wasn't so sure. His days in the force told him that it wasn't hard to change your appearance. This guy could just be a very good actor. He could be real, but Alexander wanted some proof before he was ready to believe anything. For now, though, he just decided to go along with it. Hopefully, he would be proven wrong.

"Assuming she's right and you really are who you say you are, what are you doing here? You seem to be a bit of a celebrity right now so why are you in a boring place like this?"

"You're a police officer," Leon observed, "I can see your badge. You can't tell me you've never wanted a break. You can only take so much before you snap. I came here to get away for a while, all though; it seems like I may have chosen the wrong place. On my first day here, a mob of deranged citizens assaults me. I high-tailed it to the forest, but things haven't really been too much easier from there. Maybe we can get out of this together."

"Yeah, maybe," Alexander said after a brief silence, "If we do that, then we'll need a place to set up camp. It's nearly midnight and we'll all need rest if we're going to be fighting. Of course, someone will have to be keeping watch at all times. And you're right; I'm a police officer. My name is Alexander Brown"

"Okay, agreed," Leon responded, "we need to find someplace to spend the night. I know there's a river nearby. I passed it a while back and should be able to find it again. It will supply us with food. We should get moving now, before we're all too tired to move."

Alexander didn't like being told what to do. He was generally his own man, doing what he thought was the right thing. He tried to push the annoyance out of his mind, thinking it was just because he was tired and irritable.

"Okay. You lead the way then."

They got into their respective vehicles and left to find the river and camp out.

Only five minutes had passed before Leon stopped and announced that they had reached the river. It was very dark and Alexander could barely even see. He fumbled around in his jacket for a flashlight. Fortunately, he had not dropped it since his run-in with that logger and the two punks that had been attacking Ashley. Hoping that it still had battery power in it, Alexander pressed the button to turn the light on. It was still bright as ever and Alexander began to search for a place to set up tents. That old truck may have been a clunker, but it had all the supplies they needed. Alexander had never been very religious but the supplies in that truck felt like a gift from the Lord.

"Hey! Somebody help me put up this tent."

Leon came over to help Alexander put up the tent. Before long, they were finished and ready to rest for the night. Ashley was over by Alexander's truck, looking at the supplies they had.

"Hey, Ashley, Leon called, "the tent is set up now. We can sleep."

"Unfortunately," Alexander began, "it's the only one so we'll all be cramped in like one big happy family!"

Alexander's sarcasm was almost visible. He didn't much like having to share the small tent with two other people. Then he remembered that they were going to take watch in shifts, in case they were attacked during the night.

"I'll take the first shift," Leon offered, "You two, get some sleep."

What a goody two shoes, Alexander thought as he crawled into the tent. The supply boxes in the truck included sleeping bags, and Alexander had already laid them out on the floor of the tent.

"In two hours, wake me up for my shift," Alexander told Leon as he crawled inside his sleeping bag.

Aside from the sounds of birds in the trees and the occasional rustle in the grass, all was silent. This was a bad thing for Alexander as it led him to dwell on unpleasant thoughts. Why did Alexander have to kill those two people? He had definitely learned enough moves in training to dodge and evade his way out of trouble. Instead, he had shot two people and ended their lives. Sure, they may have been victims of whatever had been going through the town, but they were also real people.

That's what I can call them: Victims.

It wasn't long after that Ashley had entered the tent and began to crawl into her own sleeping bag.

"Well, Ashley, here we are: the scummy outdoors. Nah, I'm just kidding you. I love camping. Although it was camping that got me into this mess in first place. I got lost on a trailhead and ended getting lost in this forest. That's when this hell began for me."

From outside the tent, Alexander heard Leon shouting, "Alexander, Ashley, wake up! We have company! The bad kind."

A. N: Sorry about the length. The next ones will be longer as usual. Also, I'll try to update much faster. Don't forget to review!