The main street in the huge city was just a long antagonizing block away. A pile of smashed cars filled the streets and I covered my burning face. Some were on fire. As the flames blinded me I walked past towards the next street sign hoping to make sure I was on the right path. Seeing this side of town really told me how sheltered my life was. I had lived here all these years and not once had I been on this road. Everything revolved around home and school. came to a barricade of cars, so lifting myself on the hood I crawled over a police car. Immediately after I continued forward, stepping over a helmet.

My foot hit something hard and I tripped, landing on the cold hard cement. Rubbing the dirty palms of my hands together my eyes darted back and saw a helmet that I had missed. A body not with the helmet was laying a couple feet away with no head. I held back a gag. The head was probably in the helmet. Gross. Bodies laid around me all in the same uniform and I stared at them wide-eyed. I was in a cop graveyard.

Scrambling to my cold feet I watched as they all seemed to stare into my sole. The eyes were full of accusation and guilt. A hand shot up and grabbed my wrist giving me a heart attack. They all began to jump up as if they had never died. The blood ran from their wounds with every movement they made. Slowly backing up I held my weapon up and cut ones chest. It stumbled back but slowly came back for me along with the others. One lurched at me and I dropped to the grounds cutting its heels. That got it to the ground in a heartbeat. It's hand grasped my leg. I gave up and took off in a dead run, literally. They all began to move stunningly faster after me the farther away I got.

Breathing heavily I ran down the dark road, my eyes scanning the area for cover. The pawn shop was on this street, it just had to be-for my sake. Everything looked like a death trap. A dead end waiting to happen. The light post down one alley hung over a steel door. Looking back, the horde following me had gotten bigger, I ran down to try to open it.

The rusty, old door sat there against the wall, leading somewhere safe hopefully. Running to it I grabbed the handle and began to pry the metal open. "Common," I muttered. "Common!"

It screeched open and I hurried through. It took a lot but I finally forced it closed behind me, the zombies hitting against it in defeat. Loud scratchy noises came from the other side, followed by loud crashes. They seemed pretty strong for dead people. Backing up, my eyes slowly scanned the room I was in. It was a storeroom for bakery goods. My back met the wall behind me and I felt for a door handle. My hand immediately hit something and I pulled the door open and ran through hoping to not be followed.

I quickly turned around and hurried across the floor behind the counter, seeing the stacked chairs and cleaned off tables. Moving towards the front of the bakery, I went around the table and checked back for monsters one more meaningless time. Not looking where I was going I ran into something and fell back onto the hard floor. My head was dizzy and my butt hurt. I rubbed my aching face and looked up to see a woman on the floor in front of me. She wore a red-pink vest with a black tee-shirt and jeans. Her hair was up in a ponytail and the medium length hair was brown with a red tint to it. She rubbed her shoulder and looked up at me.

Picking ourselves up we stared at each other for a couple seconds. She was easily a half a foot taller than me, making about five-six-ish. I looked like a total shrimp compared to her.

"Sorry about that!" I said, apologizing first, "I was running from those things out there and I guess I wasn't paying attention." She brushed her bangs out of her face. "Oh no, it's fine!" She said holding out her hand. "I'm Claire, Claire Redfield."

I gladly took her hand, "Shaylin."

After roughly dusting our clothes off, she looked at my tattered shirt. Holding my hands up in defense I told her about the nightmarish graveyard incident. Her clothes were sparkling next to mine. Nodding she began to explain why she was in Raccoon City in the first place. She had taken her motorcycle and drove all the way here to find her brother, Chris. He was a STARS member and hasn't been heard from in a while. I remembered seeing that name on Timmy's paper this morning, and apparently last she heard he was investigation a nearby mountain area.

"Oh?" I asked, making sure I heard her correctly, she nodded. I wonder if she even knew about their suspension...

"Yeah," She said, then sighed. "I tried contacting our family, then his partner Jill's family. But neither of them has heard a word from either."

I shrugged, "You guess is better than mine." She leaned back against the hard wall and stared at the tile floor.

"So, what got you in this mess?" She asked.

"Well," I began, not sure what to say. "I go to the high school here in the city as a sophomore. We did have a plan originally. Today after school a cop had us go to the gate which was the main entrance into the north side of the city. My mom works at the chemical plant, so she was already there-"

"Us?" She asked, crossing her feet. I nodded.

"Yeah, my friends, Miley and Timmy, they were with me. The virus had got to the gate by the time we got there and all hell broke loose. My friend, he lost his family in the incident and Miley's haven't been found yet. We would be looking, but the numerous walking undead outside put us at a disadvantage." I explained, she nodded.

"Where are they now?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, we had a disagreement and decided this would be best."

Claire smiled sweetly, "Doesn't sound like the best choice now, does it?" I shook my head, "Not at all."

We laughed a bit and I picked my knife up off the floor. "Did you say your parents worked for the chemical plant?"

"Yeah, my mom does."

"What about your father?"

"He left when I was a baby." I said, trying to make it sound like nothing.

"I'm sorry." She said, wishing she hadn't opened her mouth.

I waved my hand frantically in the air, "No! It's fine, she left me and my friends at the gate alone, but I still hope that she will be there once I get out." She looked at me with confusion.

"Doesn't it make you mad?"

"It wasn't on purpose." I gave her an assuring smile. "It's probably just some big misunderstanding."

The girl smiled at me and my sadness faded. She seemed to have a kind, nurturing personality about her. I didn't know who she was, yet I felt like I could tell her anything and she'd listen. As I glanced out the front window of the store a sense of relief came over me. It was like a safe room. No monsters or evil entities trying to kill us. It's nice to talk with someone who isn't trying to be protective all the time. Having a friend like that seems great and it's kind of sad to see what I've been missing out on.

"Your friends and you had a fight?" She asked folding her arms, I nodded my head. "Just a disagreement. Miley always thinks I need help with everything like I'm a child, but I know she means well. And Timmy, he just doesn't know how to control his feelings. All these years he's been keeping them inside. When it builds up enough stress he finally blows up taking it out on anything around him. So when he's bursting with joy on the outside, there could be a storm raging on the inside." I said, thinking back to our fight earlier. She nodded and got back on her feet.

"Well, how about you stay with me until this is over?" She asked.

I shrugged. "Well-"

There was a head tossing crash above us and the lights shattered letting zombies collapse endlessly to the floor around us. I jumped back as one grabbed at my foot and Claire pulled my hand before one could land on me. Stumbling back she caught my arms keeping me from falling. Quickly thanking her I regained my balance and took out my knife. She did the same and stabbed one in the face as it charged for her. One grabbed my foot and I did the same. An epic fail has always been my thing.

The knife tapped the head and I froze. Back there I killed a person without thought; just a flinch of the finger. But with my bare hands? What makes it so different? For some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to kill it. Claire shouted and I felt a firm grip on my shoulder. Sucking in a breath I swung myself around and cut it across the face. Claire met up with it and stabbed its head. I gasped. Eventually I would haft to kill one.

And there's no difference between a gun and a knife.

"There's too many!" She said backing up, "I'll distract them, you run."

I shook my head, "But I can't just leave you-"

"Yes you can! I'll be fine." She insisted, then took a chair and knocked an armless zombie over. Several came stumbling at her and she pulled out her gun and shot them down. They glanced up and started crawling towards her. She kicked at them and their necks let out muffled cracks. She looked over at me, "Shaylin, it's not safe! You need to go...NOW!" I backed up until I hit another door, feeling around I found the handle.

"Claire!" Her blue-gray eyes shot over and met mine. "Shoot them in the head!" I advised, then pulled open the door open and hurried out of the room.

It led to the shop next door, which ended up being another cafe. I heard a bang and ducked behind the counter as Claire came running in with one zombie chasing her. Out the corner of her eye she looked at me and winked. The zombie turned and started coming towards me and I stabbed it in the shoulder and the knife stuck. She pulled the empty gun up and kicked its side catching its unwanted gaze. When it slowly turned towards her she began to scream.

"Come on! Come and get me!" She yelled.

Taking out a knife she stabbed its arm, missing the head by a couple inches. She began to move the knife in a wavy pattern towards the man. The knife slit across the neck. Taking the chance I yanked mine out and pushed it over the counter. Everything was going good until it took off for her. With a moan it followed her movements towards the door and she ran through. I shut my eyes and prayed she didn't meet a zombie army. She screamed.

"Wait!" She screamed, holding her high hands up, "Don't shoot!"

A loud bang followed and something hit the ground. Tightening my shut eyes I refused to look mortified and scared. The sound made me jump, startling the life out of me. I peaked over the counter to see who got her, but the zombie had fallen. I looked out the window.

"Move!" She ordered and flung a pocket knife at a man. This knife was prettier, more decorated, so scratch that. It was not a simple pocket knife. The man moved just in time for it to go past him and it hit the zombie square in the head. Letting out a groan it collapsed on its back and the moving ceased. What's strange, is that my mom never taught me to fight like this. This is what she said she was teaching me.

"I never thought this stuff my brother taught me would work." she said walking over to retrieve the knife.

"STARS? A special force issue huh?" The man asked examining it.

"That's why I'm here, to find him." She held out her hand. "I'm Claire Redfield."

He kindly took it, "Leon Kennedy."

I jumped up with a gasp and my head hit the pan that was hanging above me. I am so stupid! It was so inexcusably obvious! I should've known once I heard his voice that he was the police man from earlier. They jumped and aimed their twin guns at the flames on the other side of the street. I quickly ducked behind the window. "Ughh!" I rubbed my hand over the large bump now on my head. Shit.

Gun shots rang outside from each direction as the groans and growls of the undead grew louder. I peeked over and saw torn to shreds zombies surrounding them from every direction. I watched them back up trying to think of a plan. They took off around the corner leaving me behind all alone and the group of the undead followed them slowly. The horde began to fall as Leon and Claire ran through them again and headed in the other direction.

Once the area was completely clear I hopped over the counter, avoiding the pans this time, and walked out the door. The flames heat began to hurt my face, I took in a breath and turned around. The exhale came out in a series of coughs. "Nope, not even gunna."

I jogged away from the raging flames, "Probably shouldn't have done that."

My lungs got that tickling sensation and I let out a series of rough coughs. The smoke was too much to handle. If I were to die because of air poisoning instead of a zombie bite, that's be pretty strange. A black piece of ash fell onto my arm and I jerked my arm away. It left a burn the size of a quarter in its place. I winced and looked around trying to find out where I was.

The only way out ended up being the trashed up way Leon and Claire went. Even though that was the last way I wanted to go, it was the only option with the huge fire. I had no choice. Making my way carefully around the corner I saw that they had quickly disappeared and gone in a different direction. Sighing, I tried to relax. The gate is forever closed and the other side of town is flooded with dead people. I would die in a millisecond. But hey, I would rather die trying then die endlessly waiting around.

The street got darker as I tiptoed down. The wind sent a chill down my spine and soon I came to a crossroad. A street to my right is where the moans and growls were coming from, but it was light up with tons of streetlights. The left was quiet, and I liked that, but it was covered in total darkness. Knowing I would regret this awful decision, I went left.

"My knife." I muttered, feeling the tightness in my pants as I reached in the pocket. Taking it out I held it tightly in my hands, the ally got darker.

I walked around the corner and saw an outlet that was blocked by a car, full of dog cages. A tiny light bulb lit up the quiet alley and a walkway above with a cut short ladder appeared above. It led into the building next to me. I walked down to the car. I could try to drive but it might end up doing more damage than it's worth.

The light began to flicker.

"No!"

The light went out as a growl echoed behind me and I froze in fear.

"Shit."