PROMPT 2: RACCOON CITY/DEATH ISLAND

Synopsis: A late-night drive brought out a lot of emotions for Leon.

#not beta read

"Suck...driving, my ass."

Leon petulantly muttered between gritted teeth.

"Look who's sleeping now."

He shifted his sight from the road and glanced at the sleeping figure in the passenger seat next to him. He snorted at the sight of Claire's sleeping form.

Her head propped by the door, chin tucked up with mouth slightly open. He was certain he heard her snore. Or maybe just the noise from the jeep he was driving. She seemed to be sleeping soundly by the looks of it, even the moving vehicle shifted side to side following the curve of the road.

They were both on their way to make an appearance at Sherry's graduation day of becoming an agent. Claire was adamant about joining along even though her schedule was booked full in these three months. She managed to squeeze in the historic event (as she called it) in her hectic schedule. He, on the other hand, was still stuck on desk duty from nine to five until further notice. Therefore, he volunteered to fetch Claire from the airport and drive in there.

He turned down the volume of the radio, hoping to give a more comfortable environment for her to sleep in. He glanced again in Claire's direction and his eyebrow furrowed in concern. Her head was hanging forward, slightly swaying. He reached out and tried to push his head to the headrest. His only intention was to prevent her from having neck pain once she woke up. But she returned to the same previous position. Determinedly, he tried one more time. With one hand on the steering wheel and eyes back and forth from the road, he ended up pushing her head propped back to the door.

"That will do." Leon decided maybe the position suited her best. Then, he trained his focus on his driving again. The darkness of the night, the lack of traffic on the road, and the low white noise coming from the radio created a sentimental feeling for him as they brought back the memories of when he first met the very beautiful woman next to him and the sweet young woman whom like a daughter to them.

-*-

"Don't shoot!" said Claire.

Leon yelled, "Get down!", and fired directly straight toward the assailant as it dropped dead on the ground by two bullets in the head.

He stepped outside, scanning around, and asked, "You alright?"

Claire huffed air; trying to catch her breath. "Yeah, I think so... Thanks.", she answered as she turned to Leon.

"You can thank me later when we're safe." There was agitation in his voice. He motioned his head in the direction in front, to give Claire a hint of what was about to come next.

"Holy shit...", said Claire, looking at a horde of lifeless corpses staggered slowly towards them.

Both of them have their firearms drawn to the danger, with slow steps backing up toward the door of the building that Leon's just exited. Unexpectedly, their bodies jolted slightly due to the banging coming from whatever creature on the other side. Another screeching was heard. They both kept shifting their gun indecisively toward the front and the back.

We trapped. Shit. Then, Leon decided it was time to move. "Come on!", he directed Claire to follow him.

Ducking carefully from the corpses that started attacking them viciously, they made their way forward and Leon yelled to Claire as he reached the nearest car.

"Get in!"

Claire scuffled with one of the corpses; he found relief when she managed to escape from the situation. He was grateful that the car engine had already started.

As soon as Claire safely got into the car; looking at Claire, and said, "Hold on!". He shifted the gear to reverse hastily and ramped the throttle pedal. The car roared as it moved in reverse. Then, he maneuvered it to a clear path and revved the engine to move forward as he made their escape. He looked back through the rear windshield just to be sure that whatever things that attacking them stayed there.

Once his eyes were on the road, Claire asked in distress. "What the hell is going on?"

He glanced at Claire and noticed that she was warily looking outside again, "I don't know... Hopefully, they will have answers at the police station."

"Wait.. you're a cop?" The surprised tone in her voice matched the look she expressing.

He nodded nonchalantly, "Yeah... Leon Kennedy." Looking at her, he got a glimpse of her eyes thanks to the brief light from the road lamps. It's blue. His eyes shifted back to the road. "You are...?"

"Claire...Claire Redfield", she replied.

"Live around here?", he asked just to relax the mood. He tried to strike up a conversation in the hope he did not mess it up. Their eyes met for a moment.

"No. Looking for my brother. He's a cop too." Still a distress in her voice.

"Well, it's a good thing we found each other.", said Leon, trying to share his relief with her. Is that a rational thing to say? He then quickly added, "I don't know what to expect anymore..." Nice save. And Claire's only response was to just hummed ambiguously.

Swiftly they made their way to the condemned place, Raccoon City. Their whole drive was quiet. A lot of things came into their mind, for sure - on what happening here, what had been attacking them, why they turned so violent, and more importantly how they were not dead. These questions were in their head, as the radio broadcasted announcements for safe shelter at the police station.

Claire broke the silence, expressing her bewilderment at how chaotic the city had become. "Oh my god, this is so unreal..."

Leon glanced at her and took heed of how dispirited she was to the situation. "The police station is not much further. They'll know something.", said Leon in a convincing manner.

"Yeah...but what if we're the only ones? What if there's no survivor-", Claire retorted pessimistically.

Leon shook his head and cut her. Their eyes met again. He tried to respond without sounding offensive, "No. There are survivors." He focused on his driving again. "It's a big city... there has to be."

Leon swallowed the lump in his throat. He did not know, he just said to comfort her or to comfort himself. Claire looked at him in disbelief and pursed her lips. He could only squirm in his seat. His driving came to a stop when they reached the area that had been barricaded by the concrete road barrier.

Freeing himself from the seat belt, he said "Looks like we walking from here." Claire did not respond to him, still casting her view outside through the window. His first thought was maybe she was still displeased with their disagreement earlier. But then she shifted nervously in her seat, trying to make out what was happening outside. So, he peeked at her line of sight.

"More like running.", she said. Then, they saw a group of undead stop munching the mutilated body on the pavement after noticing their arrival and treaded at a quick pace towards them.

Upon seeing what she had just seen, he replied in agreement. "Yeah. Good call."

Without a second passed, the undead shoved the exterior of the car at Leon's side. He yelped in surprise.

"Jesus Christ!", Claire screamed, when the same thing happened on her side. The car rocked uncontrollably due to the pushing and shoving by the undeads. That caught the attention of others and they started moving in their direction.

Between shaky breath Claire directed, "Leon, we gotta back up!"

As the car started to shake more violently, he tried to do as he had been told. When they were looking back through the rear windshield, they saw a bright light moving rapidly toward them.

"What the-!?" Panic in her voice now.

"Holy shit!", when he realized a tanker was about to run them at full speed.

He commanded, "Claire, get out." When he saw trepidation in her eyes and her hesitation to move, he repeated in a slightly raised voice, "Get out NOW!"

They both started shoving their shoulder to the door to make it open. However, their actions seem futile because of the increased number of undeads that have been pushing from outside.

Claire yelled, "I can't!" The light was getting brighter and brighter indicating that the tanker was coming closer. Leon glanced from the rearview mirror, and yelled "HOLD ON!"

Gritting his teeth, hand gripping the steering wheel, he braced himself for the impact that was about to happen. Claire did the same.

And then came a loud bang. The tanker had collided with some of the disabled cars by the road and continuously skidded as it rammed violently into their car. Leon's body launched forward and his grips on the steering wheel-

-*-

Suddenly, something heavy hit him in the inner part of his elbow, inevitably making him pull the steering wheel to the right. And, he realized it was Claire's sleepy head dropped to his side. Due to that, it straight away got Leon back to the present time.

"Fuck me, Claire!"

He tried to take control of the jeep from swiveling. His knuckles turned white as he strengthened his grip on the steering wheel. With huffing breath, he swallowed his nerve down his throat.

Claire woke up, surprised. "What?! What's going on?" Clueless, she asked. She was also huffing air because of the commotion.

His face felt hot when he caught on to what he just said. He was lucky that it was dark that Claire missed his beet-red face.

"Umm..."

She rubbed his eyes and looked at him. "Did you say something?"

With quick thinking, he answered, "Nothing, it's just a dear crossing the road."

Both hands gripping her seatbelt, Claire looked back as if she could catch a glimpse of the animal. "Oh yeah? You okay?", she asked quizzically.

"Yeah. No worry. Just...just go back to sleep." He motioned his hand in an assuring manner, ushering her to lay back on the seat again.

"Um...okay. Just let me know when you start to feel tired and wanna switch.", said Claire; she was trying to get comfortable to continue sleeping again.

"Yes, Ma'am." At last, Leon let out his relief. In the moment later, he shook his head with an amusing smile.

That could've been worse.

Notes:

I have trouble finding a plot for this. Hope this one works.