6

Okay, close your eyes," Claire said as she turned Leon's head and fished a small aerosol can out of her pack. "It's probably gonna sting a little..." She stated, and directed the spray just over the cut. He was lucky. The cut was shallow, but any higher and the horrid thing could have blinded him. She felt Leon flinch under her hand when the air from the spray hit the wound, but he didn't make a sound. Something in his expression concerned her. "Leon! What's up?"

He turned his eyes toward her. "That thing…" he sighed. "It broke my skin… What if the saliva-"

"No!" Claire suddenly interrupted. "That thing wasn't a zombie... it's not infected." She swallowed, suddenly unsure. "Besides," she continued, "our poor, unfortunate friend over there had a hell of a chunk taken out of him by that thing, and he hasn't turned…"

"Yeah…" Leon trailed off, not looking fully convinced. He then took her hand. "Just promise me one thing, Claire," he said, meeting her gaze. "If I do turn, don't hesitate to put me down."

Claire placed her other hand on top of his. "Don't worry," she soothed, trying to banish the horror of the thought. "I know how to take care of guys who try to plant an unwanted hickey…"

Leon smirked and said, "I can believe it…" He started forward again into the darkness. "You certainly know how to handle yourself in a bad situation. Most of the girls I know would have buckled under the pressure by now."

"Yeah, well…I'm not like most girls." Claire smiled, and pushed on.

After making their way cautiously through the maze of corridors, and taking down a few more of the undead, they came upon stairs leading up to the second and third floors of the building. Thankfully, they hadn't encountered any more of the dog-lizard-things.

Leon directed the beam of his flashlight upward toward the high ceiling, just to be sure, and then turned it off to conserve the battery. "Okay," he sighed. "The second floor first?"

"Yeah," Claire replied. "Let's check out the S.T.A.R.S. office, then we can go and get the second medallion from the top floor."

Leon started a slow ascent up the stairs. "Didn't you mention three medallions?" he queried, "Where's the third?"

"Yeah, about that," Claire replied as she looked back over her shoulder and scanned the darkness for threats. Another white flash from the windows filled the corridor with light for a brief second. "I flipped through the book, but all that's written is 'moved from the library for repairs: big question mark.'"

"Great..." Leon sighed under his breath. He knew from a previous visit that the Raccoon Police Station was pretty large...and he really didn't fancy having to search it high and low with whatever, unknown monsters might still be lurking in the darkness. Seeing their way ahead blocked, Leon pushed a door to his right open slowly.

Claire said "Maybe Marvin will know -wow-" but trailed off when she saw the devastation in the shower room; it looked like a bomb had gone off. "What the hell happened in here?" she said

"I'd hate to imagine," Leon replied, as he scanned the doorway inside and the large hole just beyond. "But it looks like we can get through here...just need to shut off the steam." He moved to the wheel, and turned it off.

Claire said absently, "I hope whatever made that hole isn't another, flesh-eating beast,"

"You and me both," Leon replied, as he took steady steps over the rubble "If my memory serves me right, then we should be able to get to the S.T.A.R.S office through here"

Claire followed, saying "Lead the wa-" When she cut herself off and grabbed Leon's arm, stopping him. She looked urgently into his eyes, which must have been as alert as hers. "Do you hear that?" she questioned.

Leon strained his ears over the dying rumble of thunder and rain; he thought he could hear...

"Footsteps" he replied quietly.

The pair remained still for a moment, listening, until finally the menacing sound was lost in the rain as it beat against the building.

Claire looked worriedly at Leon and swallowed. "Why do I get the feeling that those footsteps didn't belong to a survivor?"

Leon gave a slight nod in agreement, his eyes not leaving the door they had entered through. "I'm gonna have to agree. It sounded like they belonged to something much bigger than us..."

Claire pushed onward. "Let's not stick around to find out who or what it was," she said hastily, "I've had enough surprises for one night."

The pair entered another darkened corridor. Shattered windows let in the rain, which blew like a torrent, while the flooring beneath their feet pooled with shallow puddles.

Leon dropped his gun, and half-turned towards Claire. "We're here" he said quietly, indicating the sign next to the door. Leon opened the door cautiously, glad that the room was well-lit. He did a quick sweep of the large office space, and Claire quickly followed him inside. She spotted Chris' desk immediately after noticing his favourite jacket hanging nearby. She walked up to it, and ran a hand down the arm.

He went on vacation, but left this behind? Something isn't right...

"You okay?"

Claire turned to Leon's voice. "I don't know," she replied. "When I told you earlier that I'd found my brother, well, I found out that he was actually on vacation..."

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" Leon asked, "At least he's safe."

"That's what I thought," Claire answered "But, something just doesn't seem right..."

Leon pushed a hand through his hair. "You know your brother better than I do, but you might be overthinking things. I mean, with the night we're having, our every sense is going to be in overdrive."

Claire crossed her arms, saying, "You think I'm being paranoid?"

"No," Leon stated, "What I'm trying to say is maybe don't give yourself more worry than you need to"

Claire looked again at Chris' jacket. Leon was right. She wouldn't be able to survive this nightmare if her head wasn't completely in the game.

Leon placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to see if I can break into that gun locker." He stated with a nod. "Take a look around. Maybe you'll find something that will put your mind at ease."

Claire nodded back with a forced smile, and started searching Chris' desk. After a thorough search, Claire found nothing more that could give any information about her brother's sudden disappearance. So she decided to make her way over to where Leon was trying to gain access to the gun locker via a small PC. "No luck getting in there then?" she questioned, as she sat herself down on the desk

Leon sighed and leaned forward onto his hands. "It needs a key card, or a code...or something," He sighed again and made his way towards the locked door, giving it another pull and a frustrated kick. "Shame," Leon smirked. "That baby had my name on it."

Claire's gaze followed his to the lightning hawk magnum, which was hanging just inside. "Yeah, that'll pack a helluva punch," she stated. "But the noise from that thing would pull in zombies for miles..."

"True," Leon agreed, impressed that his new friend seemed to have good knowledge about firearms. "Still, I'd feel safer having it on hand, especially if we find ourselves in a sticky situation..."

Claire pushed herself off the desk and said, "Well, wishing isn't going to change the fact that there's a steel door blocking your way. Let's find those medallions and get the hell out of here!"

Leon took one last frustrated look at the powerful weapon, and then followed Claire as she made her way towards the exit.

The pair made their way back to the stairway, climbing the steps cautiously to the third floor. A narrow passageway led into what looked like an attic. After a quick search, the pair spotted a statue in the far corner. It was behind a row of bars that had been broken on the right-hand side. Inside, piled around the statue lay several officer's bodies.

Claire looked at the corpses piled around the broken bars"It looks like they were caged up in here." She trailed off.

"Maybe they turned." Leon replied, shining his flashlight on the mass of bodies.

Claire noticed a piece of paper on a desk to her right. "Or maybe not..." she stated as her eyes took in the written words. Claire passed the letter to Leon, and he began reading. "The fuck...?" he said under his breath.

"Someone caged these people up like animals!" Claire seethed. "And to make matters worse, it sounds like it was someone in charge! Don't tell me we have to worry about crazy cops as well as zombies…"

Leon cast the letter aside, and made his way towards the second statue. "Lets just get the hell out of here..." he said.

Claire followed, and as she watched him turn the small dials on the statue, the sound of claws scraping against metal above caught her attention. "Leon!" she whispered urgently, as he took the medallion and placed it in his pocket.

"I know," he whispered back as his eyes shot to the ceiling. "It sounds like it's inside the ventilation system."

A screech caused the pair to suddenly flinch. Then, they heard the claws move rapidly across the floor above and suddenly stop. After a minute, Leon moved steadily forward. Keeping his pistol trained on a dark hole in the ceiling above.

"Is it gone?" Claire whispered from behind, raising her own firearm slightly.

Leon didn't get a chance to answer her; he chose instead to open fire after a huge, red mass fell through the hole with a hissing sound.