RE: Inclination

A/N: Oh the comics…

May 2006

In room 1201, Leon was talking with Townland. Claire shifted so that her back was pressed to the wall next to the doorframe, and tried to slow the race of her pulse. The steady thrum of it seemed to reverberate through her chest. It would not do to be distracted, and that sort of physical thing could be distracting. She kept her eyes on the hallway, watching. Leon could be trusted to make the room secure. And Townland… Townland was a survivor. He was always a survivor, but it didn't make him a desirable companion in survival. If it came down to it, she would rather she and Leon survived the island… a terrible sentiment, perhaps, but an honest one. She would rather make it off safe and sound than help the cause of the outbreak move to another carefree locale.

Her thoughts were heavy, and loud in her head. She was barely listening to what was being said. At first their voices were low, but then Townland's raised. "It's a protest! A protest against one of the survivors telling the truth! The government doesn't want to admit that Raccoon City was a mistake… your people hound me wherever I go, and then… and then they show up. I've been running for years. I tried using different names, tried…"

Even to Claire it sounded fake. There was a growl that she was certain must be coming from Leon… "Don't give me that bull." He wasn't yelling. But it did sound like Leon was taking this fairly personal.

There was the noise of a blow.

Claire winced a little at that.

"They come by plane," Townland's whimpering voice said, slightly muffled. Claire wondered if he was holding a hand to the part of his face that Leon had hit, or if Leon had punched him in the gut. "They always come by plane. I can't take planes anymore. And now you've opened the door to me!"

Townland must have lunged at Leon, Claire reasoned, because Leon came staggering back into the hallway with the man gripping the straps of his shoulder holster. "You can't leave me like this!"

The cool demeanor that Claire had come to associate with Leon's ability to process this sort of a situation was firmly in place, despite almost grappling with the stranger in the hotel hallway. He gripped Townland by the forearms and narrowed his eyes at him.

"That's entirely up to her," Leon said. He didn't use her name. Claire was puzzled at that. Maybe he didn't want anyone to know… or maybe he was just being cautious.

Townland's head snapped around, his eyes shifted and they latched on Claire. His hands released Leon's straps. The way he was looking at her made her distinctly uncomfortable. His eyes… they were so similar to the eyes of an infected… of a zombie. He started to lurch towards her, and as he did his smell wafted in her direction. It was strange. Too strong, like he'd bathed in whatever he was scented with. Claire leaned away, but Leon grabbed Townland and threw him across the hall. Townland hit the wall next to the door opposite his and fell to the floor.

The puzzle pieces snapped together. Things she had just noticed, reports she'd heard previously. Leon's eyes were trained on the man slumped against the door. Claire glanced at him, and then back down to the Brit that he'd thrown like a feather pillow. "He looks infected," Claire said, following Leon's lead and training her gun on him.

"He always has," Leon replied.

Claire tilted her blue eyes to Leon when he said that. She was curious, then. "Is he infected?"

"Of course I'm not infected! Just don't leave me here!" Townland snapped, righting himself so he was propped with a bit more dignity against the wall. He didn't make a move towards either of them, glancing warily between the guns they were pointing at him.

Leon's glanced at Claire, a questioning look in his eye. It was easy to read what he was asking. Should we take him with us? She knew it was that question because there was a tension to his upper lip that she always associated with him knowing he wouldn't like the answer he got. And he wouldn't, especially this time. If Townland wasn't infected… even if Claire would rather the two of them got out safely… if he wasn't that kind of threat…

Claire nodded.

"Fine," Leon said, though his voice sounded somewhat sour to Claire's knowing ears, "but if you start screaming hysterically, I'm shooting you myself."

Unsure if he truly meant that or not, Claire cleared her throat and motioned with her head back down the hall towards the end that had the stairwell in it. One survivor or none, they still had to check the other half of the hallway on the way out. Leon nodded, and started moving forward. Townland scrambled to his feet. Claire made sure to keep the man in her peripheral vision as she kept her gun sighted behind them.

"Do I get a gun?" the man asked.

When he wasn't babbling, Claire thought, his accent was more apparent. It wasn't the warm sort of accent one might associate with a famous comedian or a dashing movie character, but rather the pinched voice of a snooty professor mixed with a smokers' rasp… or maybe something else… a threatening cough? Either way, Claire's mind could come up with much better British people to be listening to.

"No chance," Leon replied. Claire glanced sidelong at him, choosing to wonder what Leon would sound like with a British accent rather than pay attention to Townland's words.

The bank of elevators was situated in the middle of the floor, mirroring the centralized placement in the lobby, and they were nearing them. Townland kept asking questions, his voice a straining loud whisper that Claire ignored to keep the guttural hiss from making the hair stand up on the back of her neck.

At least he was taking Leon's words seriously. As the three of them were passing the elevators, the man stopped talking altogether. He stopped moving. Claire, facing backwards, noticed it first.

"Hey," Claire said, calling to stop Leon's progress. If he hadn't used her name… she hadn't heard him tell his name to Townland either. Not that it would matter, if the man lived through this and wanted to identify Leon, the facial scar would do that quicker than a last name.

Leon paused and glanced behind them at Townland. "What are you doing? Hurry up."

"The indicator light… it's coming up."

Claire made a move for Townland, to grab him, to pull him along, to do anything. She could guess what would come out of the elevator. Some poor person had gotten trapped in it with one of the infected, and…

Townland… according to what she'd read, anyway, had no reason to be fascinated by a situation like this. Townland had been in situations like this one before, he'd seen this sort of thing. Hadn't he worked for Umbrella? What was so damned fascinating now?

Leon was just behind her. She was almost to Townland when the chime announced the elevator. The doors opened, and the stench proceeded the infected, but only by a moment. Intent on Townland, Claire darted forward to grab him by the collar.

The sticky scent of the infected quickly filled the wide section of the hall around the bank of elevators, and Claire was glad there had been no breakfast for her. It always made her nauseous, that scent.

Behind her she could hear two shots as Leon took care of the zombies that were issuing from the elevator. Townland was shaking and laughing manically. He was muttering between his laughter, and it was only audible to Claire as she took him by the collar.

"…they can't see it… they can't… if they get too close… ha ha haahaaahaa… none of them will…"

"Look out!" Leon shouted. "The other elevator!"

Staring at Townland, Claire ignored Leon's shout for the moment. She gripped Townland's shirt and gave him a shake. "We can't see what?"

There was another ding. The second elevator arrived. Turning her head slightly, Claire saw the doors sliding open. She shoved Townland back and turned to point her gun at the opening metal doors. The first of noise out of the elevator was a scream. However long whatever it had been was trapped in the elevator, it wasn't feeling well by that point. The doors stopped opening, as though damaged, with only a few inches of space between them.

"Come on!" Leon's voice snapped.

Firing off two shots into the opening doors at whatever thrashed behind them, Claire didn't need any incentive to follow his suggestion. She jumped over the fallen body of one of the zombies and headed for the end of the hall. The screaming or the gunshots before should have alerted any other survivors that there were people alive and in the hall working on a way out. If no one else wanted to come, there was no point trying to force them. And there was nothing holding them inside the rooms, otherwise.

No, that wasn't true.

There was fear.

As Claire reached Leon's side, he started to move backwards quickly as well. He skipped backwards two steps before turning to run along side of her. The stairwell doors stood tauntingly far from them.

It would be a lie to say that she didn't feel fear herself. Claire knew what it was, she was familiar with it. The difference was that instead of crippling her like a concrete corset, it was a reminder to her not to get distracted. Fear told Claire to check in different directions, to hold her arm steady before firing… to keep running, even if she was tired.

Probably a good thing she wasn't tired yet.

Behind her, Claire could hear whatever was trapped in the elevator as it bashed against the doors. The creature in that elevator was winning. It would be out soon.

Claire made it to the door first and jerked it open, throwing it so that it would be open long enough for Leon to pass through, and pressed her back to the wall beside it. If anything were following Leon, she'd stop it. She leveled the gun at head height of the entrance.