The first thing he felt was pain. Pain all over his body. Not excruciating pain or pain that would weaken him in any way, but pain strong enough to be a clear signal from his body that something was wrong.
He couldn't open his eyes, the noise around him was muffled, and he had a hard time breathing.
He was motionless. He tried to move his limbs, but could not. His head was a mess and throbbing. He remembers being taken away by those men in black. He remembers getting into one of those black vehicles and being taken for miles to an unknown place.
Until someone hit him on the back of the head.
The noise, muffled before, hit him all at once, making him grunt from the brightness that burned his eyes, although they were still closed. His body, once heavy and motionless, became light, and he almost fell from the sudden freedom.
The pain was gone, and in its place was nausea. Instinctively he grabbed hold of the first thing he could. The side of the research capsule in which he had found himself a few moments ago.
"Hm, amazing. There are signs of the virus still in your body, but on such a small scale that you can hardly notice it. It's likely impossible for the virus to act." A male voice caught Leon's attention, who only grunted in response.
Beside him, a man of slightly advanced age in a white lab coat approached with a folder and pen in hand.
"I think you will be an important part of our work, Mr. Kennedy. Follow me." The doctor said, and Leon, still stunned, could hear his footsteps moving away.
Asshole, didn't he realize that he was still nauseous?
Not caring about the after, Leon leaned back in the capsule and took a few deep breaths until he fully recovered. Opening his eyes, he looked at that dead-colored research lab. There were a few people around, but they were all wearing lab coats, masks, and doing things that seemed too important to pay attention to him. They wanted and were eager to do some tests on him because he was immune to the T-virus.
Not far away, that doctor who was standing near a door was staring at him with a neutral look. Leon even hoped that this guy was annoyed deep down.
Sighing, he straightened his posture and walked calmly towards the doctor, who, seeing him approaching, turned and opened the door to leave the room.
Leon hated that place. That room, those hallways, everything resembled Umbrella's underground laboratory and uncomfortable memories, to say the least, made his head hurt even more.
"Where are we going?" He asked in a hoarse voice, putting his hand to his throat and only then realizing how thirsty he was. "Jesus, couldn't they just blindfold me or something?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't control what the soldiers or my superiors do. You're still alive, even though you're technically infected. So consider yourself lucky." The doctor said, and Leon just rolled his eyes.
"Yes, very lucky, until you guys showed up and ruined everything." He said bitterly, not being able to control that frustration he felt, over everything.
Damn, he and Claire were thinking about the future. A future that was uncertain, arduous, and in which they certainly wouldn't be able to be completely normal, but a future just the same. Only in the end to leave both her and Sherry alone on a deserted road with only a fucking note. They wouldn't even let him give them the money he had.
Leon bowed his head slightly as he remembered this, feeling his anger returning again.
"Not everything in life turns out the way we want it to, Mr. Kennedy. Too bad," the doctor said, but the ironic tone in his voice only made Leon more angry.
Well, he would have to get used to that, however, it was the deal he made. He works for them, and they leave those two girls alone and in hiding. Easier said than done, of course, but it was better than watching them die.
After some walking, in which Leon made sure to keep his eyes always on the ground so as not to awaken more memories and distressing sensations, they finally reach an office farther away.
A simple office for such a... "fancy" place, so to speak.
"Have a seat, please." The doctor said, and Leon did, with a bitter feeling on his tongue for obeying what that guy asked, but he just ignored it.
"Well, the rest of the information will be given to you by the same man who brought you here. But for now, I will tell you the state of your body and its changes caused by the virus." The doctor said, entailing a confused look from the young policeman. Oh, ex-cop.
"Changes? What do you mean? I don't... feel different." Leon said, and the doctor placed his folder on the table in front of him.
"Well, it would be worrisome if you actually felt those differences. And it's exactly because you don't feel anything that you're special." The doctor sat in the chair at the head of the table, grabbing some files from the drawer beside him. "You see, the T-virus is extremely powerful. A scratch, no matter how small, is already enough to infect you. Knowing your experience in Raccoon, I say you've seen it first hand." The doctor said, beginning to write something on some blank files.
"However, there are individuals like you who are naturally immune to T-viruses. About only 10%, even less, of the world's population. An extremely rare number." The doctor said, and Leon just crossed his arms as he listened intently without saying a word.
Of course, from the way Ada acted, and from everything he saw in that damn city, he knew that his case was somewhat rare, to say the least.
"Your case is even more interesting. All the viruses that have been produced by Umbrella that we are aware of so far were used, as a base, the T-virus, which is the main virus used by them, which in turn came from the progenitor virus. And it is this immunity that has kept you from suffering a horrible death by having small residues of the G-virus infiltrate your body." The doctor said, and Leon blinked a few times in confusion.
"Ahm, what? I wasn't infected with the G-virus."
"No. But you have faced William Birkin on several occasions, no?" The doctor asked, and although Leon didn't answer explicitly, the doctor already knew the answer. "Let me say it again. Any scratch, any contact with some infected tissue, will also infect you. The blood, the sweat, the pus, the saliva... you came in contact with all of that when you faced William Birkin. We found residues of the G-virus in your body as well."
"But... but aren't only people compatible with the virus who can get infected?"
"Without suffering a gruesome death and coming into direct contact with the virus, yes. In that case, they turn into something that is not human and the more mass they ingest, the more they mutate. In your case, the contact, although very small and not direct, would be enough to kill you. But your body resisted. While you are with us, we will do some tests and blood collection. We plan to make your body even stronger, even more resistant."
"Whoa, whoa, so you are saying that I will be a lab rat now?"
"You will face similar things to those in Raccoon, what do you think will happen if you are infected with a stronger variation? If you come into direct contact with some virus? This is not a game. It's not like you're going to face creatures beyond human imagination, come into contact with infected blood and residue, and come out with nothing but scratches." The doctor said, getting up with his briefcase in hand and walking over to a locker in the corner of the office.
"If you feel so uncomfortable, think of it as a flu shot." Leon rolled his eyes. As if the flu would turn people into indestructible monsters.
"Not to mention, we need your antibodies for vaccines. As I said, the T-virus is Umbrella's main virus. Our goal is to wipe out all these viruses, all the research, everything Umbrella related, and we will spare no resources." The doctor said, now in a more serious manner in which he made Leon look at him with extra attention.
"You seem to have a history with Umbrella." He said, and the doctor sighed.
"That's because we do. My superiors will explain it in more detail. I just wanted to brief you on the basics. You will have physical and mental checks every week during your training. And once a month when you are ready for field work." The doctor said, walking to the office door and opening it. He then turned to Leon, looking at him without saying a word. The young man, however, understood that quickly and stood up, attempting to leave the office.
"Oh, and Mr. Leon?" The doctor called out to him, and before he could get too far away, he turned around. "I know you are frustrated with all of this, I can see it. But know that despite all of this, your work will save lives. Your blood can save entire infected regions. Think about it. Umbrella must be destroyed." The doctor said, with the same seriousness as before.
Leon stared at him for a moment. He was really frustrated, but after all he had been through, and now with a clearer mind and more information that he didn't have before, he could find something good in all of this.
He could come to peace with it all. The same cop who wanted to make a difference was still there, after all, and the thought that he could actually do something great like save entire areas made the young cop a little excited.
It was like an internal conflict. A part of him was afraid to get used to it. Fear and suspicion that these people would not do what they promised and were just an organization similar to Umbrella that would be using him for their own benefit. The other, was happy that he could have a positive impact on people's lives.
Leon only replied with a nod, before turning and walking down the long corridor towards a double door ahead.
As soon as he stepped through the door, he ran into two men dressed in suits. Security guards, but different from those men who had led him there.
"Mr. Kennedy, follow us, please." One of the men said, not waiting for an answer and already turning to go on his way.
Leon, with no choices, just followed them in silence. It wasn't long before they reached an elevator.
They entered, and only then did Leon realize how big that place was, by the dozens of floors presented
"Where are we, exactly?" He asked, not being able to contain some of his curiosity. For a few moments, both security guards just ignored him, until one of them turned slightly toward him.
"Underground." He replied, and Leon blinked a few times. Well, he already suspected that this was the case, but it was a very vague answer.
Nevertheless, he just kept quiet, it was rather obvious how unwilling the two security guards were to talk to him.
After a while, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Leon ran his eyes down the long white corridor ahead, with several rooms in which he couldn't see exactly what they were.
The place looked like a maze. Corridor after corridor they followed, until finally they came to an iron door that led to a secluded and locked room.
As soon as they entered, Leon soon realized that it was an interrogation room, and sighed loudly when the two security guards grabbed him and dragged him to the table.
They forced him to sit down, and without any prior word, handcuffed his hands. Hmpf, as if he could do anything in that situation.
The two walked away and the door was opened again. Leon stared coldly at the man in the suit and gloves who approached. Now, looking at him more closely, without guns and flashlights pointed at his head, he could notice a little more about the appearance of the man who had practically kidnapped him.
He had short blond hair, light blue eyes, was tall, and had fair skin. He had a good physique, although he was nowhere near as big as the two security guards next to him.
"Mister Leon. I hope you woke up more willing to cooperate." The man said, taking a seat in the chair in front of the young man, who just laughed in disdain.
"Ah, sure, I'm more than happy to be forced to work for you. Hm, do you even care how I feel?"
"Actually, no. But I still need to be polite." The man said, and Leon nonetheless appreciated the honesty. He was not wrong in hating that guy then. "Enough talk. Listen carefully and try not to interrupt me. You will start your training first thing in the morning, but first, I need to explain a few things to you." The man said with his neutral tone as he straightened up in his chair.
"A while back, a man named Oswell Spencer conducted some experiments on children in an attempt to create a race of gods. A race that would be superior to humans in every way. A project called the 'Wesker plan'. They adopted children from all over the world and experimented with the progenitor virus. A virus that could create very intelligent superhumans. Superior to any human or animal in the world." The man explained, running a hand over his hair and placing his arms on the table shortly after.
Leon just listened, not even looking away.
"All you need to know is that this experiment caused the death of thousands of children. Of that number, only three survived the experiments, causing a differentiation between them and the rest of humanity. One of those children is a man that you, as a Raccoon city police officer, may have heard of. Albert Wesker." Leon arched his eyebrows slightly in surprise.
"The captain of S.T.A.R.S.?!"
"Exactly. Wesker tricked Spencer and killed him by saying he was the chosen one to become a God and lead the new world into the next stage of evolution. He has the goal of causing a mass extinction in favor of that evolution. It wasn't just Raccoon who was served as an experiment."
"What?! There were other cities?!"
"Not exactly. Raccoon was the largest of the incidents and the most destructive. But several facilities, places isolated from people's eyes, were also a target. And despite Wesker's plans, Umbrella is not the only one with these viruses in possession. Many samples have been sold on the black market." The man said, leaning his back against the chair and crossing his arms.
"Black market? Then anyone can make what happened in Raccoon happen again." Leon said, and the man, in response, just nodded.
"That's where we come in. Our job is to find and destroy these viruses along with anything related. We were going to do the same with you and those girls but, well, here we are."
"...You mentioned, when you found us, that there are people in the government who want these viruses for power." Leon said, and the man, again, nodded.
"Our own government was a black market customer. Our government is corrupt. A part of it is controlled by Umbrella. That is exactly why our existence is... a secret." The man held up one arm behind him and one of the security guards handed him a laptop. The man then placed the laptop on the table and turned the screen toward Leon.
"We have information on all the incidents involving these viruses all over the planet. Everything that happened, all the composition of the viruses. All the mutations, all the victims. These viruses get stronger and stronger. Umbrella does more and more experiments and more and more discoveries and creations of different viruses." The man said, but Leon could barely understand what he was talking about.
The young man's attention was on the pictures of dead people on the laptop screen. Bodies in states so deformed it was hard to tell if they were people or not. Situations so horrible that they reminded him of the police station in Raccoon. The things he saw.
And also, things he didn't see, because at no time in Raccoon city did he see a baby with the chest literally open and signs of infection all over the body. That particular photo made his stomach turn as the baby's lifeless gray eyes were staring directly into the camera.
He felt as if the child was looking at him, silently begging for mercy.
Jesus.
"That's what these viruses do. They are not to help mankind. They are to destroy it. Being honest with you, I'm still tempted to send a team to kill those two girls." Leon, this time, glared at him and sent the man an ugly look.
The man cared little, however; his eyes remained serious and cold.
"We have a deal."
"I know, and that is only why they are alive. We are desperate. It's not like we can take ordinary people for this kind of work. So we don't have many trained agents for the field." The man again put his arms on the table and leaned his body slightly forward, looking deep into the eyes of Leon, who did not look away.
"I know you were just a cop. But Mister Leon, your whole world is about to change. In fact, I dare say your world changed the moment you stepped foot in raccoon. The things you will do... the things you will see... are not for everyone. But keep in mind that, what you are doing, will be essential for humanity." The man stood up and, from one of his pockets, took out a key as he approached Leon, still maintaining eye contact.
"To say that your training will be rigorous is an understatement. You won't survive if you don't give it all you've got. This place is not for people of weak will." He removed Leon's handcuffs and put the key back in his pocket. "But from what I saw in those videos, I don't think I'll have to worry about that."
"... During training... will I be able to see how Claire and Sherry are doing?" Leon asked, somewhat hesitantly, actually, because inside he didn't want to hear that he would stop seeing the two girls for the rest of his life.
The man, for his part, took a moment to answer.
"...As I said, we will watch them. Yes. Occasionally you will be allowed to give them a brief glimpse... through a computer screen, of course." The man said, and Leon sighed slightly.
Part of him was glad that he could at least see them again. Another part was frustrated by the way he would have to do it.
Well, at least it was better than nothing.
"Your training will begin tomorrow morning. Get ready." The man said as he left the room. However, before he left, he stopped and turned around, facing the young ex-cop again.
"And one more thing, Mr. Kennedy. My name is William Wesker." He said, and Leon's eyes widened in surprise. "I am one of the three surviving children. But unlike Albert, and my sister, Alex, I do not share the same goals. It's no wonder Spencer and my brother, Albert, saw me as a failure. I hope we can be great allies." Wlliam said, and then finally turning and leaving the room.
Leon blinked a few times, somewhat lost, surprised, even shocked. It was a lot of information to digest, and the thought that the S.T.A.R.S. captain who could have been his captain in the future was an experiment that wished for the extinction of the human race drove him to the brink of madness.
"Follow us, please. We will take you to your room." One of the security guards said, bringing him out of his thoughts.
Leon, still dazed by the rain of information, slowly stood up and made his way to the exit, where he followed the security guards without paying attention to where he was going. His confused mind was elsewhere.
Claire and Sherry were walking aimlessly along the deserted road. The little girl held tightly onto the big girl's hand. Their steps were slow, imprecise, and both had a defeated expression on their faces.
Everything was going so well. Despite all the uncertainties, there was hope for a good future. That was until they woke up alone in the middle of nowhere.
At first Claire was stunned. In a lot of pain, but stunned. Still confused. But soon everything made a little more sense, and she didn't know if this was a bad dream or if reality was playing tricks on her mind.
She looked around, no sign of Leon. The two girls shouted his name. They both looked for him in the middle of nowhere with palpable concern and even agony on their faces at not seeing him beside them. And they both felt worse than dirt when Sherry found a small note written "sorry" in her pants pocket.
Horrible, that's how they felt. Both of them couldn't remember anything from the night before. They only remembered that they were in a car, with Leon driving towards the nearest town until he stopped at a certain point. At the moment he stops, however, they fell asleep.
It was not difficult to understand what happened. Neither of them really wanted to think about the possibility, and frankly, both of them doubted, deep down, that Leon had abandoned them while they were sleeping. He wasn't that kind of guy. It was impossible, not after all they had been through.
Not after everything he himself had done for them.
Hell, that kiss hadn't been fake. It was real, and she clung to that with all her strength. But at the same time, what happened?
That was the thing... they couldn't remember.
Claire felt that something was missing. She wasn't remembering something important. Hell, it was hard to concentrate on her memories when she felt horrible. Her body felt strange, heavier. Fuck, she felt like she had fallen off a motorcycle at least a hundred miles an hour.
The moment she woke up was the worst of all. She felt as if her flesh was falling away from her bones. The side of her neck burned like it was on fire and she couldn't even scream.
It was the same with Sherry.
Something had definitely happened the night before. But no matter how hard she tried to convince herself of this, that feeling of abandonment wouldn't leave her. And it probably wouldn't leave her until she met Leon again.
The walk went on in silence, each stuck in their own thoughts, and deep down, none of them really wanted to talk about what might have happened.
Perhaps fear that their words, even if only thoughts, theories and disbeliefs, would become true.
Not to mention that at the moment Claire had another goal.
A few hours of walking, and both finally arrived in a town they didn't care to know the name of. Claire's plan was to get Chris on the phone. Hell, it didn't even have to be him, maybe some college friends or acquaintances from her town.
But everything became a little difficult when one was paranoid that at any moment a zombie would appear from some dark alley. Or that some skinless creature would appear on a random wall.
Damn, she almost screamed when she saw a man walking in front of her. Her hands went instinctively to her waist, intending to reach for her weapons.
Weapons that she no longer had with her. Wherever Leon had gone, he took it.
Walking through that city, seeing those people, alive, talking to each other without knowing the horror that was literally hours away did not make her as relieved as she thought. Far from it.
She, for the first time, felt like an outsider. As if she didn't belong there, with those people.
As if she wasn't the same as them.
Sherry seemed to feel the same way since with each person that passed near the two of them, the little girl squeezed tighter against Claire's arm.
And it was there that, deep in her being, the young woman realized that maybe she couldn't be normal.
She could go with her head held high into a police station infested with nearly indestructible creatures inside an infested city, but she was afraid to take a step into the busy center of that small town.
Perhaps she simply didn't know how to react to normalcy anymore after that night.
Or, perhaps, the companion she trusted with her life was no longer there to help her. And like it or not, that trust was affected by his sudden disappearance.
Not only that, but soon, she was faced with another problem. Money. How would she call Chris or anyone else without money?
Great, she would now have to ask for money.
Fantastic.
Claire had to really take a deep breath for this. God, that was so odd.
It was as if if she looked at a person's face for more than a few seconds, that person's face would deform right in front of her eyes, and the characteristic smell of death would follow along with zombies all around her.
How could anyone move on after something like Raccoon?
"Excuse me?" She stopped letting her mind dominate her actions and decided to act at once.
In front of her stood a man of a slightly older age. A man she could not maintain eye contact with for more than two seconds, before her mind again made that man's face take on a more grayish tint and his mouth get stained with blood.
"I'm sorry... sorry to bother you, but..." She stammered, her hands shaking a little bit. But what was that? Was she that affected? "Would you have some spare change so I could make a call? I was in an accident and... well, I'm in a place I've never been before." She said all at once after taking a deep breath, forcing herself to look deep into that man's eyes.
This was no Redfield thing.
The man didn't even seem to notice her nervousness. Something she mentally thanked him for.
"Oh, sorry miss, but the phones are out. The lines are cut." The man said, and Claire blinked a few times in confusion and mild surprise.
"What?"
"Apparently, something happened in raccoon. TV, radio, phones, everything is out." The man said, and Claire lowered her head in a sigh. Of course it had to do with Raccoon.
She wanted to think about that city as little as possible. At the moment, she had other concerns.
Like where the two of them would spend the night that day, for example.
"Oh, thank you. Do you... can you tell where... where there's a hotel around here? Any place to... spend the night?"
"Sure. Just follow that street, after three corners, turn left. You'll have a hotel right in front of you, you can't miss it." The man said, and Claire noticed that he was looking at her a little strangely, something that made her somewhat uncomfortable, but which she made an effort to try to disguise. "Do you have any money?"
"Ah... ah, I... no. I don't." She confessed, scratching the back of her neck in some nervousness.
And she couldn't help but be surprised to see the man take his wallet from the back pocket of his pants.
"Oh, no, no, you don't have to-"
"Drop it. It's obvious you two have nowhere to go. Look at the state of you two. I won't ask, because clearly you don't want to say. Here, the hotel is not one of the best, so it's pretty cheap. You can buy some food too." The man said, handing Claire $60.
The young woman looked at the money sympathetically and appreciatively, feeling bad for feeling all that discomfort and all that distrust for the man.
"I... thank you, sir. Really." The man just nodded in response, also nodding to Sherry, before he continued on his way.
Raccoon city had been so bad that she had forgotten that there were many people who were still very kind, and not trash like Irons, or that woman they met at the police station.
Or even Le...
Wait... was she really going to think that of him?
Sure, she had no idea where he was, or why he left them, but... still.
They wouldn't be there if it weren't for him, so she would think highly of him. Even if part of her was hating him for disappearing like that.
Fuck...
Claire clutched, without realizing it, Sherry's hand as they walked and hurried on, feeling her throat close and her eyes grow moist.
She didn't want to cry. And she definitely didn't want to cry in the middle of all those people.
It wasn't exactly difficult to find the hotel the man had talked about. Much less reserving a room.
The hard part was having to climb all those stairs because of the broken elevator, walking down the empty hallway, and opening the door to her room without tears streaming down her face.
She closed the door with some force and leaned her back against the wall, putting both hands on her face and letting herself slide to the floor.
What the hell... what was she supposed to do?
What was going on?
Where the fuck was Leon?
He was fine. At least she remembered seeing him okay.
He said he would stay with them until the end, no chance he would have just left them.
Something had happened. Something must have happened.
He wouldn't leave them... he simply wouldn't.
Then why the hell wasn't he there?
Sherry watched Claire cry for a few moments, also feeling her eyes getting wet. She had been holding back the crying for that whole time precisely because she didn't want to upset Claire.
Without saying a word or making a sound, she sat down next to the young woman and rested her head on her shoulder. Claire immediately opened her arms and hugged the little girl, who hugged her back.
Raccoon left a deep mark on both of them, for sure. And after that, neither of them could sleep without knowing exactly where the other was. Leon, of course, was a great concern to both of them who felt they owed a lot to him. And simply not seeing him around and having no idea where he was hurt.
It hurt much more than either of them could imagine. It hurt in worry and... and anger.
Anger... they are so fucking angry with him.
Days went by, things were still the same. The phone was still off. The radio and TV were still off.
In this time the money ran out and both were forced to sleep on the street. Usually in private places because Claire knew that no one, apart from the security guards, of course, would pass by. And, well, security guards were a lot easier to evade than one of those monsters.
But when things looked like they were not going to get better, the anger in each of them grew. As the days went by, the more frustrated they became, the angrier their thoughts became, to the point that they no longer cared what happened to him.
Or at least they tried to tell themselves that they didn't care and tried hard to forget, to put it behind them. Although none of them could do that completely.
No matter what they did or how much time passed, Leon would always remain in their minds as the man who saved their lives... and then, just then, abandoned them alone on a deserted road with nothing but a note.
But they both had a little hope, a little happiness when Chris finally found them, in front of the small city park where they were trying to look for a ride.
Claire couldn't be more relieved in that situation, and most of all, she couldn't be happier to see him again, and above all, well.
He took them to their parents' home. This house had been left to Claire, since Chris rarely went back there outside of his vacations.
And it was there that he learned about everything that had happened. It was there that Claire told him everything, from the time she went to Raccoon, from the meeting with Leon and Sherry, to the moment he left them on the side of the road.
And of course the older Redfield had been irritated. Actually, irritated was an understatement. But at least he was happy that Claire and Sherry were okay.
More days passed.
It wasn't long before he became attached to the little girl.
Chris decided to stay with them for a while. They both knew it wouldn't be forever, but it was better than being alone, and he helped them a lot to try and get back to normal. Even though he seemed preoccupied with something and occasionally went out to talk about something with someone.
But honestly, neither Claire nor Sherry wanted to think about it too much.
And, well, that was the thing, because as a soldier, and as someone who had been through something similar on his mission, he knew that the last thing they would be would be normal.
At the moment, Claire was upstairs in her house, sitting on her bed staring at nothing. She had gotten into the habit of doing that, standing in the same place for a long time without doing anything in particular.
Her mind wandered through several theories, several situations and explanations for which would serve to explain the disappearance of a certain rookie cop. As they were also going back to Raccoon and the things she had seen.
Neither she nor Sherry had been able to sleep properly, nightmares made them wake up in the middle of the night. Occasionally Sherry would sleep next to her, and while it didn't help completely, they slept a little better together.
Chris even offered to sleep with them, or at least in the same room, but, well... Redfield pride.
Chris' heavy footsteps were not enough to get Claire out of her thoughts, and the older Redfield stared at her for a while, sighing with a certain amount of regret. It pained him to see his sister like that, so... lost. It reminded him of the state she had been in when they lost their parents. Only somehow even worse, given the things that had happened to her in that damned city.
Taking large but slow steps, he approached Claire and sat down next to her, noticing her move a little in reaction and being aware of his presence, but she didn't look in his direction.
"...You know, I wish I had something to say to you, the same way I did when our parents died." He began, his deep voice making her body tremble. It was almost strange to think that such an authoritative voice that caused so much respect could sound so velvety to her. "The only thing I can say is, nothing will get better if you stay like this."
Claire sighed, lowering her head and hiding her face behind her arms for a few moments.
"Unfortunately, Claire, you're going to have to learn to live with it. Just like you learned to live without our folks. You have friends, go out for a while. You, me, and Sherry can catch a movie together. Something normal, you know? Something to forget, even for a little while, all that." Chris said, and Claire laughed humorlessly.
Normal... even that word sounded weird to her. As much as hearing the fearsome Chris Redfield speak as meekly as he did now.
"Did it work for you?" she asked, lifting her face and looking him deep in the eyes.
"Yes. Jill helped me a lot to deal with all this. Barry helped me. After all, I didn't just stay home reliving it again and again, it just makes it worse."
"... I know. But... it's hard to just think that the person you trusted so much would abandon you. I think that's what makes me the worst right now." Chris sighed.
"Claire, maybe you just didn't know the guy and you trusted him too much. I told you-"
"You said that in times of crisis a man shows his true nature. And I told you that he saved both me, and Sherry, more than once. He wouldn't do that to just walk away afterwards. But for me to think that, and not know where he is or what happened to him, just makes me feel worse." Chris scratched the back of his neck.
This was a bit complicated. It wasn't like it was an ordinary rejection or something ordinary.
"Okay, fine, but you have to stop making this your priority, okay? That Leon saved your life, and you should live it with or without him. Even Sherry is getting better...I think." Claire smiled, even though she didn't find it funny.
"She fakes it pretty well. She's as broken as I am."
"But at least she tries to change that. She calls me to play, to draw, to watch a movie on TV. If a little 12-year-old girl can make the effort to move on you can too. That party you mentioned months ago is coming up, isn't it? Since you are leaving college, it would be nice to go there. Seeing your friends one more time will do you good. Before that, we can go see Rambo." Chris said, and Claire arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I know, I said terminator was better... and I hate rambo, but Sherry really wants to see rambo 2."
"You could have said no."
"I... couldn't." Claire smiled, still with an arched eyebrow. "I just couldn't, she... reminds me of you as a child." He said, and they were both silent for a few moments.
"How did you find us?" Claire asked, something in which she had been curious for too long and simply didn't remember, and didn't want, to ask earlier.
"I... got an email. Someone anonymous saying where you guys were. It was weird, at first I didn't believe it because I had to do many things, go to many places that didn't make sense. At one point I even had to change vehicles and use what looked like a disguise." He propped his arms on his legs.
"Well, I guess that makes sense. From the things you have told me, you, and especially Sherry, should keep what happened a secret." Chris said, but although Claire had heard, her mind was elsewhere.
The hope inside her made her think. Leon disappeared, days later, Chris shows up via an anonymous e-mail. Maybe it wasn't just coincidence.
But again, what did she know?
She sighed. Ah, she just wanted to forget all that now.
"You know... I think I'm up for a movie." She said, and Chris smiled lightly at her.
"Well, that's great. Now we just have to convince Sherry that Terminator is better." Chris said as he stood up, and Claire couldn't help but give a slight smile.
"Hey... what do you think about us getting a dog?" Claire asked, and Chris made a confused face.
"Ahm, the dog would be more yours than mine, since I barely have time to come over. But I'd rather not, why?"
"Oh, come on. A dog would be nice.
"Why this dog idea now? You never wanted one before."
"Yeah, I know. But, I think it would be good company... like you said, you don't stay long."
"And that's why you want a dog? To replace me?" she smiled.
"Sort of. I mean... I guess I could name him Christopher." Chris grimaced.
"Oh hell nah!"