September 26th, 9:27 a.m., R.P.D. Bell Tower, Raccoon City.
The bell tower was a temporary sanctuary amidst the chaos that had engulfed the most recent hour. Claire's thoughts raced as she considered the new information from Carlos. Her worry for Leon was palpable, and the revelation that Jill might be infected...
The dichotomy of duty yanked her in two different ways. Pulling and stretching at her consciousness until it was almost too much. A decision would have to be made soon. One that she would have to live with for the rest of her life if they made it out of this.
And that's what life had become in the event of survival, hadn't it?
Choices that one made and ones they didn't.
Once, in her early life, she'd blamed herself for what she hadn't been able to do for her mother.
The one she hadn't been able to save.
But not this time.
This time she had a choice in the matter.
This time she had options.
Plans forming, Claire's eyes slid toward the children as Ada shifted in front of them.
"We have a way out, but we need to make it outside," Claire said, her voice edged with determination. "We need to connect with Robert Kendo and get everyone out of here. But first, we have to regroup with Leon. He might need our help."
Ada's cool demeanor remained intact, though her eyes darted towards the door as if expecting an unwelcome guest. The loud stomping they'd heard earlier had come to a stop before they suddenly began to fade away.
The Asian-American woman finally spoke, "We can plan as much as you like, but I've come to find that plans go south in situations like these. You know my thoughts on escape."
Yes, Claire surmised silently, Ada had made her intentions for the sewer known, but it couldn't be the route she herself went. Too many ways for that plan to go wrong. At least with the children beside her it could.
Thinking for a moment, Claire turned her attention to Sherry and Liam. "Go grab everything and put it into the pack we gave you. Start getting ready, okay, sweetie?"
Sherry, still clutching Liam, nodded; her young face filled with a mix of fear and trust. Claire couldn't help but admire the resilience of these children who had been thrust into a nightmare they didn't deserve.
Turning back to Ada, Claire took a deep breath and said, "I have good information that the water is what contaminated the city's population." Although she wouldn't give up Sebastian's full information, she understood it was time to share portions of it. "The sewers, as you're so apt to go trouncing around in shit, is more than a bad idea."
"Good information?" Ada tilted her head and stepped forward to look into Claire's eyes, her countenance was confident and unperturbed by the odds around them. "There hasn't been good information in this city for a few days now."
"And where exactly do you get your information?" Claire questioned, turning slightly when Sherry walked back up, struggling with the full scope of a sling and a backpack with their remaining food supplies. Kneeling to help outfit the child, Claire continued in a more layered way of speaking. "You seem to know something about what's happening here."
"Anyone paying attention to the greater details in the city would know where to look." The clicking of Ada's heels led her back toward the door, a firearm pulled into her hands once more as she waited for the three of them. "Doesn't matter much, we're out of time as it is."
"Mhm," Claire hummed in response, managing a smile at Sherry as she finished with the last portion of the sling. "When the danger abates, I wonder what you'll do to account for the game of brinkmanship you play, Ada."
Ada's gaze sharpened on her then; one intelligent woman recognizing the other.
"Are we going to find Leon?" Sherry asked, not quite understanding the growing tension between the two older women.
"Sure are," Claire promised, rising to her feet while still holding Ada's look for a moment. "Stay behind Ada and me. If something happens behind us, let me know, but you don't step in front of me for any reason other than danger from behind, alright?"
"Okay, Claire," Sherry promised softly, her soft features turning up toward hers.
With Ada leading the way, they left the relative safety of the bell tower and ventured back into the dimly lit walkway of the third-floor hall.
As they walked, Claire couldn't shake the distrust she had for the woman in red. Her mysterious knowledge of the underground escape route raised questions.
And there were already too many questions to deal with for one lifetime.
The group moved cautiously through the labyrinthine building, Claire's senses on high alert as her body aptly reminded her of her own injuries sustained throughout the last few hours. The distant roars of monstrous creatures echoed through the halls, and the stench of death and decay hung in the air.
The door on the second floor of the library was still smashed through and Ada was wise enough to keep her gun loosely trained in the direction as Claire's eyes scanned the expanse for new threats. Both of them could hear the moans of the dead that had been let in earlier. None of them had wandered this far yet…but one wrong noise—
And Liam began to cry.
"Hush that baby up," Ada called out softly, peering into the main hall.
"Yeah, kids don't work that way," Claire uttered as she glanced back toward the children. Sherry had begun to rock the child, but it was too late to conceal their position. "But I'll let him know your thoughts."
The shuffling sounds of footsteps were already coming closer toward the broken library door.
Gunshots echoed out loudly, and Claire stepped in front of the children just as she noted Ada to step to the side of the doorframe.
"Ada!" Leon's voice called out from across the hall.
"Leon?" Claire called, voice cracking a bit.
"Claire! Come on, we have to get out of here."
Ada had also stepped out into the hall as Leon spoke once more, and Claire observed her cool detachment of lifting the gun once to pick off the last zombie wandering around the front doors.
Looking primarily unchanged from when she saw him last, Claire took note of Leon's sweaty features, the line of drying and clotting blood at his neckline. Most of all, she noticed how he brushed past Ada and headed straight for her and the children.
As Leon touched her upper arm and took stock of Sherry and Liam behind her, he met her gaze evenly as he said, "We gotta move, we have new problems."
"Yeah, we do. Carlos radioed," Claire filled in as they all began to walk toward the front doors. She was quick to cover the details that the mercenary had given her.
"Jill's infected?" Leon asked in what Claire thought may be disbelief.
She couldn't blame them. Even if Leon had only known the former S.T.A.R.S. operative for a few hours, no one would be able to deny the woman's capability.
His handsome features turned to worry as she delivered the news about Jill's last status. His gaze kept darting toward the broken shutter he had most likely emerged through.
The landscape of the police station had changed so much in the last few hours…
"Sherr—y!" A distorted yell came from beyond the destroyed shutters as they reached the doors.
"What was—" Claire began before the young girl startled beside her.
"No time," Leon instructed, putting a hand behind Sherry's back, and taking up the rear of their group. "Lead us out, Ada."
Ada gave a single nod up ahead. She hadn't said much since the library. Nor did she look too concerned at the news of Jill, or anything beyond. She was a woman detached from their current predicament and she didn't glance back at any of them before she stepped out into the cobbled area of the precinct's courtyard.
Hands lifted toward them from the shambling creatures that took note of the movement, and before Claire could call out, Ada lifted her firearm and began to fire with precision. Heeled feet were stepping through the pockets of the creatures and soon the woman in red was making her way forward without waiting.
Claire lost sight of Ada before too long.
A loud crash sounded off behind them and that's when Sherry began to scream.
"Claire!" Leon's voice yelled out before his own weapon was thundering behind them. "Don't look, Sherry. Just keep going. Just keep—" Round after round of the shotgun erupted behind her.
Danger on the road ahead, danger on the road behind.
Without turning to see what had come behind them, Claire lent her trust toward Leon in the rear and allowed her handgun to jump in a controlled fashion within her grip as she fired. The looming dead ahead of them didn't care what was happening in the police station, and neither could she at this moment. She couldn't look back.
There was nowhere left for them to go but forward.
As another zombie went down, the children were both screaming at what she couldn't see behind them. The next creature fell into a group of others coming, and Claire was dimly aware of the tiny hands that clutched around her waist.
Something heavy crashed to the floor behind her when Claire took her third enemy down, her eyes squinting into the light of the new day.
But there were too many to continue forward…and now they would be trapped.
"Claire," Sherry sobbed at her side. "Claire, it's my… my—"
"Redfield!" a voice called out from somewhere beyond the chorus of moans.
"I can't hold this much longer," Leon called out from behind her.
A yowling cry followed his admission.
As if in a dream, bullets began to rain through the mob in front of them all. The controlled gunfire was dealt in a cone around Claire and the children, careful not to hit too close to any of them. Leaving Claire to continue to drop the infected right in front of them.
Left and right, bodies fell to the ground, reaching hands only inches from them as Claire stared at the new havoc layered before the precinct.
A group of men were running toward them from the street.
Upturned faces with grim determination of a dead city around them.
And it was then Claire saw Robert Kendo leading the charge before more faces became clear.
To Kendo's left and right, a man in a Arklay County Sheriff's Department uniform and—
"Captain Moon," Claire uttered, noticing one of her fire captains.
"Go, Claire!" Leon called out behind her.
"Come on," Claire's focus ripped away to grab Sherry's hand, the young girl was crying uncontrollably as she stared at what Leon was dealing with.
"Holy shit," Claire faintly heard one of the men in front of her utter when she herself took in what Leon had been keeping at bay.
A man—if one could call him that still—kneeled inside the great hall of the police station. His shirt was missing, and much like she'd seen earlier, a bubbling mass of tissue had contorted the man's upper half into something not entirely human. His facial features were grotesque, but more than that, was the great eye that swiveled in madness as fluid leaked from the shots Leon had placed within it.
"Out of the way, Redfield!" Kendo commanded, lifting the shotgun in his hands. The men beside him followed suit.
Leon was beside her once more, his stuttered breath in her ears as he ushered Claire and the children forward, out of the line of fire.
"Broke into the wrong damn station, didn't ya, ya bastard!?" Kendo yelled before the four men began to fire.
"Sherr-y!" the guttural cry followed suit once more.
"Is he saying…?" Claire uttered as she held Sherry and Liam at her side.
"Daddy…." Sherry sobbed into Claire's jacket sleeve. "Oh, no…daddy, please no."
"Shit," Leon uttered, barely heard over the gunfire that stuttered the faltering steps of Sherry Birkin's father.
Jill Valentine stumbled through the winding streets of Raccoon City, her vision blurred and her shoulder throbbing with pain. The parasitic-like tentacle had pierced her flesh, injecting something vile into her bloodstream. She could feel it spreading; the infection taking root. Worst of all, she knew that time was running out.
The relentless pursuit of the tyrant echoed behind her, its thunderous footsteps shaking the ground. It had survived the rocket blast, its regenerative abilities far beyond anything she had encountered before. Even still, Jill wasn't going down without a fight.
As she turned a corner, her eyes scanned the surroundings for any possible escape route. The once-familiar streets of her city were still a maze of chaos and destruction, even in the light of day.
Jill knew that the odds were stacked against her, but she could offer time for the others and that's what she'd do.
She couldn't let Raccoon City fall without a fight. Not without people to tell the story. Not without knowing that someone could find the justice she failed to get upon her return from the Arklay mountains. With grim determination, she continued her half-sprint through the ruined streets, leading the pursuing tyrant further and further away from the others.
The creature's relentless pursuit never wavered, its monstrous form a constant threat. It was specifically slower than it had been, due to its injuries, but so was she.
As she darted through the debris-strewn alleyways, Jill's sharp eyes caught a glimmer of something unusual. It reflected sunlight off a metallic surface, and she followed it instinctively. Turning into a narrow alley, she found herself facing a discarded, damaged vehicle.
The vehicle was battered and overturned, but what caught Jill's attention was the twisted metal frame that had once held a large-caliber machine gun mounted on a military Humvee. It was partially intact, and the idea struck her like a lightning bolt.
The tyrant was relentless, but even it couldn't withstand a hail of high-caliber bullets at close range. Needing to lure the creature into a confined space where she could set up an ambush, Jill began to plan.
With every ounce of strength she had left, she sprinted through the tiny alley toward the opening of the next street where a blue truck bed peeked out from the curb.
The tyrant pursued her relentlessly, its roars of rage echoing harshly. Jill reached the designated spot and realized she would need to slow the tyrant down if she hoped to reach the Humvee in time.
As the tyrant charged toward her, Jill opened fire, the deafening roar of the shotgun filling the air. Bullets tore through the creature's flesh, and it howled in rage, but it didn't stop.
Continuing to fire, her heart pounding as her vision began to fail her with a wave of dizziness. She knew she couldn't keep this up for long. The tyrant was getting closer, its massive form almost upon her.
"Richard Aiken," Jill declared like an insult—Like this creature was responsible for what befell her men.
And to a point, it was. At least, the men and women who had created this creature were.
Umbrella.
Pumping the shotgun, Jill continued as she fired, "Edward Dewey."
The tyrant stumbled at her close-range shot.
"Joseph Frost." Jill had just enough energy to stumble back in a dodge to avoid the mighty fist that swung for her side.
"Enrico Marini." Flesh blasted away from the already grin-like face of her enemy. Purple fluid was pouring from its wounds as it stumbled.
And still, Jill named her men, "Kenneth Sullivan!"
Her boot knocked a trash can in its path as Jill backed up into the blue truck parked on the street. She wouldn't be able to make it to the Humvee.
"Forest Speyer!" she roared.
Limping now, the tyrant was still coming for her, but its mouth opened in a weak roar as it fell to one knee. The eyes of madness meeting the ones she bore in wrath.
As consciousness began to slip away, Jill couldn't help but smile as she slid down the truck's frame and clutched the empty shotgun.
The city was falling, but Jill Valentine would not yield.
Breathing nearly as heavy as her, her nemesis had not yet risen again when she heard the distant sound somewhere behind it.
Barking.
The dead in the area were being lured in closer and closer by her firefight, but a short figure glimmered in the sunlight as it snarled.
Brown and tan fur lit in the light as K9 Officer Roy lunged in and out of reaching hands.
"No," Jill uttered softly as her ass finally met the ground, her back against the wheel of the truck.
Loyal to the end, Roy had sought her out.
Before long, his fuzzy shape trotted to her, eyes seeking hers for the command as he remained in a guarding stance around her, barking as the zombies made their way closer and closer. Even the tyrant watched it with half-slitted eyes as it remained in its heavy kneel, attempting to recover.
"Roy," Jill whispered, the shotgun tumbling from her grasp before she laid a hand upon her chest.
The animal responded immediately, his cool snout pushing into her hands as her breaths became heavy.
"Run, boy," she uttered, not able to put the force in her voice, nor remember the signal to tell him to leave.
But Roy didn't run, instead his hackles rose as he chose to guard his last master.
"Please…" She couldn't stop her tears, unashamed of how they came at last.
For her men, for her city, for the things she couldn't change, and for this animal who stood by her in the last moments.
The rustle of leather caught in Jill's ears as she clutched the dog to her chest, and she knew the tyrant was finally rising once more.
"Please, run, Roy," she sobbed, not willing to have the dog's life on her long list of failures.
In the midst of the auditory onslaught, individual gunshots suddenly discerned themselves from somewhere distant. The sharp snaps of each round being discharged merged into a seamless progression, creating a dissonant song. It was the sound of power and peril, a manifestation of force that left Jill's hazy vision squinting to make out the figure making its way from beyond the tyrant.
The tyrant's furious roar vibrated through her clenched teeth, but all Jill could do was hold onto her dog, consciousness slipping away as she heard booted footfalls making their way to her.
"Jill!"
Roy's whine touched in her ears as she slumped backwards, fur clenched in her fingers like a lifeline.
And Jill Valentine knew nothing more.
Traversing Raccoon City in the sunlight wasn't much of a different experience for Hunk. He'd seen similar sights in his history, and it was to be expected for a man in his position and proclaimed profession. It didn't make it any easier, however. Despite how detached he kept himself from each teammate that fell, and each area of society affected by the conglomeration that employed him, it never really got much easier.
But Umbrella kept paying him well, and he kept showing up.
Ducking into the alleyway up ahead, the rattle of something in his side pouch made him pause as he leaned up against the brick wall and glanced out at the infected moving down his current connecting street. A glove hand touched the item making noise, and his thoughts stuttered on the pill bottle that was outlined there.
"Take those every six hours. The story of the medic and the military dog wouldn't be as interesting if you died too soon."
The man known as Death felt the small sardonic smile pulling at the corner of his mouth from beneath the mask before he could think about suppressing it.
Now there was an individual who left a true mark.
Hunk had met plenty of people in his life, admittedly not the most reliable kinds, considering the atmosphere, but he hadn't quite met anyone like the little medic in that garage.
The one who'd risked her life to save him as he lay recovering from his exhaustion in that car while she fought the mutated infected that some of his men had referred to as a 'licker'.
It had been in his every intention to allow the civilian to perish to the Licker—He'd barely been conscious as he watched her through the windshield of his chosen hiding spot.
When she had initially opened the door to the abandoned cruiser, her lilting voice had reached his ears easily, even through the mask.
And even when she closed the cruiser door to face the monster, her presence had left an aroma—that mark.
Some kind of scent of a soap or lotion had lingered in that car while he watched her through half slit eyes. A twisting plan formed in his mind without true thought as he waited for her fall to the creature. Her clothes alluded to the possibility that she wasn't an officer, but even if she was, Hunk hadn't much expectation that any member of the police force would be able to withstand the infectees.
But she had.
He watched her while she laid on her back, drove that knife up into the creature's skull, and he'd watched her conquer death and walk out alive.
And even as he had approached her from behind, he'd felt it growing for her then…
Finding her again in that boiler room had been a stroke of luck. The noise from the machines had made it difficult for him to hear from the command on his radio, but he'd been moving around the back area to find a stronger signal when he heard her shouting to the child.
"Run, Sherry! Run!"
So far, he'd encountered a few survivors upon his search for extraction and he truly didn't care to alter whatever path of fate was before them. This was war and survival was their responsibility.
But Claire…
Hunk had bypassed that fearful child holding the baby and he'd glanced down at that grating to watch her fight for her life once more.
Only this time it wasn't the creation of a monster he knew all too well.
It had been something much worse than that.
Chief Brian Irons had been listed as a person of interest in his security files. The U.S.S. kept tabs on many different people, and in the end they'd determined that Brian Irons' fate could find him falling with his own city, however, had any of the teams come across him, they also had strict orders to silence the poor excuse for a politician.
Tossing Brian Irons off Claire had just been part of his job, he'd told himself.
The begrudging anger that he'd used to snap the man's neck was just part of the skills he'd possessed to get the job done, he'd surmise later. Learning that she protected the daughter of the man his men had accidentally killed had been an altogether different matter.
His inability to kill Claire was just a default of interest that fueled a part of his brain he'd soon forget when the mission was done…or so he thought.
He'd told her his first name; the one no one ever dared to use anymore…and he felt it continue to grow for her.
His respect.
Claire Redfield had faced him in that garage and called his humanity forth in a way that hadn't been present for a very long time. Hunk couldn't even remember the last time someone had patched him up that wasn't the infirmary doc back at the base.
Through her small interactions, he'd watched the small woman stitch his skin back together and pull responses out of him that were more honest than anything he could remember.
The simple way she challenged him had somehow earned something he didn't give easily.
Hunk had found respect for the little medic with wings on her back and the power of an archangel in her eyes.
Encountering that male cop earlier had been a product of that respect, and one of his indicators that he might be a little compromised when it came to her.
But some part of Hunk wanted her to survive; wanted her to live so he may encounter her again.
She owed him a boon after all…
Snapping back into his thoughts in real time, his gloved hand was still touching the pill bottle in his pocket. Hunk blew out an audible breath that was muffled by the mask before he turned to continue on to his new extraction destination.
In his compromised thoughts, the U.S.S. Alpha Team Leader failed to see the eyes that watched him from a balcony above.
And the curling smile on the person's face as they slipped through the darkness to follow after him.
"Redfield! Move!" Kendo's voice broke through Claire Redfield's thoughts as the path before them became clear.
Claire Redfield, with her arm around Sherry and Liam as the distraught preteen called for her father, pushed forward in the warring night's many revelations.
The girl's father.
The monstrous form that was the elder Birkin was down in front of the doors of the police station, as were the many bodies of the undead.
But they weren't safe, not by a long shot. The many swaying bodies of the city's population were still converging on them, and time was no longer theirs in those moments. They needed to keep going.
"The railcar," Kendo continued, finally at Claire's side now as he touched her arm. "It's still moving. We need to get on it."
"Lead the way," Claire uttered in greeting, her tired features lit in the morning as Leon crowded in beside her.
The group of them were beginning to push away from the building now. Move away from the precinct and down the street where the distant moving railcar traversed at a slow speed.
Captain Joseph Moon and the two other Arklay County Sheriff's Department men were taking shots at the dead that got too close.
"In, in!" Kendo called as the railcar door slid open to reveal the worried faces looking out from within.
More survivors.
Setting Sherry in with Liam in her arms, Claire ran alongside the machinery before climbing into the slowly moving locomotive before the men followed shortly behind. Hands on Sherry's shoulders and slightly out of breath, Claire looked on at the faces that occupied the seats within the rail car. Several other civilians, and another shaken sheriff's department officer.
"Holy shit," a man called standing, taking in Claire and the children.
"That was close," Captain Moon said from somewhere behind her, drawing her attention before she turned. "Too close, Redfield."
With tears in her eyes, Claire stepped into the arms of one of her fire captains who had trained her beside the rest of the men in her memory.
"It's good to see you, captain," Claire admitted in earnest as the side of her face pressed into his chest from the hug.
Claire could feel the older man nod above her, silent as if he didn't know how to equate the nightmare they had all been handling for days.
"It all…" Captain Moon spoke then, letting her go to step back and look into her face. "Happened too fast for us to see fully. I was found by the sheriff's department pretty quickly but…" He dragged a hand down his face.
"Yeah, I know," Claire agreed, keeping her hand on his arm to give a squeeze.
"Mr. Moon?" Sherry's weak and tear-filled voice reached Claire's ears before she stepped back.
Captain Moon stooped his tall height into a kneel as he beheld Sherry next.
It was then that Claire remembered what Sherry said when they'd first met in that tiny room.
Her friend Macy had a father who was a firefighter.
Macy Moon, who was Captain Moon's daughter.
Macy, who was absent from his own side. More than likely lost to the city's downfall.
Watching Sherry collapse into Captain Moon's arms, Claire surveyed the tears leaking from her superior's eyes and crest into that bushy mustache he was known for.
Kendo's wife, Tina, and his own daughter, Emma, were watching from a few seats over. Tina, who'd been at plenty of gatherings for Chris' work parties, gave Claire a gentle wave as she held her daughter in her lap.
Claire thought she should feel fortunate in these moments. Seeing the people standing around them. Alive.
But she could only think of the loss.
"Jill Valentine," she uttered then, turning toward the men of the sheriff's department and Kendo.
A collective look of pain seemed to be shared with the men as they all shifted uncomfortably.
"She bought us time," one of the men in the Arklay County Sheriff's Department uniform called. She'd later learn that his name was Everett. "She held the line so that we might make it here to you."
Beside him, the Sheriff himself gave a nod. Daniel, Claire thought his name was. Daniel's eyes looked red from tears he'd already shed. He stood like a man gutted against the odds.
The windows of the railcar allowed the sunlight to pour in. It touched the many tired faces surrounding them all, and it should have been a happy sight. It should have been their moment for victory as the railcar made its way to where they needed to meet the military.
It should have felt like salvation.
"I need a radio," Claire uttered through the dim chatter happening around them. She could feel Leon's gaze on her face as she looked around for the request to be met.
Sheriff Daniel Cortini stepped closer, his large hand holding one out as he held her eyes.
Turning the volume up, Claire began to hail the man with the answers she needed.
The answers to the decision beginning to make a pathway in her mind.
"Carlos," Claire said into the device. "This is Claire Redfield, come in."
Silence.
The silence felt as long as it did when Briggs had first called into dispatch all those nights ago.
She hailed again, knuckles tightening.
Nothing.
Leon's hand was warm on her back, and when Claire looked over at him, his eyes were kind as he communicated his support for her silently. He understood what she was doing.
What she had to know.
Sherry was still tucked into the arms of Captain Moon when Claire's tears blurred her vision. The captain was gently cooing at Liam the preteen held and it should have all felt like a victory.
But not without Jill Valentine.
"Claire?" The radio cracked to life in her hands.
Carlos' voice came through. Strong but tired.
"Carlos," she responded. "Where are you?"
"I got her, Claire." A dog barked in the background. Carlos sounded out of breath. "I'm headed to the hospital."
Leaning against Leon's hand, Claire caught Captain Moon lifting his head to connect his gaze with hers.
A look she knew all too well.
The hospitals had been hit first, becoming oversaturated with the early onset of the illness; as most hospitals were in any event of mass tragedy. The two of them personally knew how congested the local medical scene was prior to the fall of the city.
The hospital would be a death trap. More so, there wouldn't be much in the way of reversing this. Not without a miracle.
"One of the platoons," Carlos continued, voice broken up by heavy panting. "Was sent to retrieve one of the Umbrella doctors holed up in the local hospital. They were going to meet at the Saint Michael's Clock tower."
Sebastian, the military man with the mask, had told her some of this, back in the garage. Back when he'd told her of the chopper that would be leaving from there.
"He was working on something, the doctor. I think it was a cure. I don't know for sure but… It's my only chance to save her and I gotta take it."
"Loyal until the end," Kendo uttered beside Claire, drawing her eyes. "I'll be damned."
With the decision made, Claire responded back after Carlos' pause, "I'm coming, Carlos. Just get her there."
"You can't go back out there," Tina called, clutching her daughter, Emma.
"Claire…" Captain Moon piped up next, his eyes conflicted as the railcar rocked them all in the back-and-forth motion of its momentum.
Carlos didn't respond after the last transmission. Whether he disagreed with it, or welcomed it, his voice wasn't forthcoming.
"I can't leave her," Claire said then, looking at Leon beside her. "Not Jill. Not if there's a chance. Not if—"
"You're not going alone," Leon interrupted, and not bothering to try to talk her out of it.
The eyes in the railcar were all looking at her then. Fear and uncertainty mixing with each stare.
"Captain Moon, I need you to watch over Sherry and—" Claire began.
"I got it, Redfield," he answered, releasing Sherry to step toward her.
"No, you can't!" Sherry sobbed, not lost on the ministrations that would come next. "You promised you would stay with me! You promised you'd be there when this was all over!"
Squatting down in the railcar, Claire felt it all hit her then.
The duty in her life that pulled her every which way.
When she opened her arms, the young blonde child threw herself into them, sobbing at a fate they'd all been dealt in the last few hours.
"I will be there," Claire vowed, hand threading into the back of the child's school uniform as she gripped her tightly. "I will come back. You'll be safe with Captain Moon, alright? Promise me you'll listen to him."
One of Sherry's arms had thrown itself around Claire's shoulders, but as Claire turned her head, she saw the young girl's other hand clutching at the one beside her. Onto Leon's police vest.
Onto the family that she'd found in a nightmare.
Liam, still in the sling around Sherry's shoulders, was looking up between them, his tiny hand fisting indiscriminately at Claire's jacket. His fearful gaze looking up into hers along with Sherry's.
"It will be okay," Claire whispered as she clutched both of the children close. Tears slipped down her face at the promises she didn't know if she could keep.
"Then…then you have to take this." Sherry was pulling back from the hug, scrubbing away the hair stuck to her face before her tiny hands went to an item around her neck. A necklace with a pendant attached.
"You should keep—" Claire tried as the young girl fumbled it with her hands.
"My mom said it was good luck," Sherry barreled over her words, pushing it into Claire's hands before she could fully deny the child. "I took it from her jewelry box before I ran—B-Before I left Martha and came here." Sherry opened the pendant and within a tiny portrait unfolded before Claire's eyes.
With Sherry in the middle, on either side of her was a story that should have been set in stone.
Two loving parents who smiled into the camera, both of their hands set upon a slightly younger version of Sherry. Shared blonde crowns and the blue eyes amongst them, Sherry was a wonderful blend of her mother's beauty and her father's soft looks.
"I made it to the police station, and I found you. So, I think it is lucky." Sherry sniffed as she looked up into Claire's eyes then. "It will keep you safe, and then you can give it back to me when you come back, okay? Both of you." Her young gaze switched over to Leon.
And Leon kneeled down beside Claire next, his face kind as he too looked at the pendant and considered the child they had both sworn to protect.
Claire knew they should go with her. Protecting her and Liam until they reached the outskirts of the city, but the depth of duty found that she had multiple promises to keep, and the last thing she would do was drag a child through it. Not when she could send the children to safety.
The rounded pendant was weighty in her hold and nearly enveloped her appendage as she held in one hand. The surrounding shell of the metal pendant bulkier in the back. It thumped against her chest when Claire pulled it up to her neck. Leon's fingers pulled the clasps from hers and he helped to secure it quickly.
Sherry was giving a watery smile when Claire and Leon both stood up and looked at the rest of the train car.
Deputy Jason Everett insisted that he come along, but Claire wouldn't hear of it when she silenced his offer with a look.
"You all need to make it back to the rest of the group," Leon answered first, taking the extra weapons that Kendo handed over to him from a duffle bag he'd held around his torso. "This can't all be for nothing, and we'll need every person to tell the story of what happened here in this city. Get these survivors out. Get these children out."
Captain Moon was pulling at Claire's elbow when he looked down at her next. Sage eyes considering what she and Leon were about to do.
"You know the odds, Redfield," he said quietly.
"I do." Claire was trying to wipe the continuous tears from her face in haste.
"I'll watch these children, you have my word, but you know the timeline as well as I do." Captain Moon continued.
If they weren't at the Southern entrance to the city by 10:00 a.m., there was no guarantee for how they would get out. The military platoon helping them would change shifts.
"I know," Claire bade softly.
Captain Moon's fingers slid down her arm and touched the bracelet that Briggs had given her just before he passed. An understanding lived in that gaze. The fire captain understood what it could mean that she was wearing it.
It seemed like Claire was collecting a lot of jewelry this week.
The pendant caught in the sunlight when she turned away.
Equipped with the radio, new weaponry shared from Kendo, and their devotion, Claire stood with Leon near the now opened Railcar door as they passed slowly down the tracks. The sun was climbing higher into the sky as they both looked on and what they needed to head back into.
From their position, the railcar door faced the downtown area.
Within the metallic cocoon of the railcar, a contemplative silence lived in these last moments with the group. The early morning sky painted a delicate display of pastel hues, a stark contradiction to the unfolding tragedy beneath it.
From the distal view, the downtown area, once a bustling heart, now lay draped in desolation. The streets were remnants of their former grandeur, snaked through the city like scars etched by an unseen hand of a virus. Buildings stood as haunted tombs, their skeletal frames whispering tales of abandonment and despair from fires that had continued throughout the nights.
Wisps of smoke lingered in the air, reluctant to disperse despite the wind and rain that had fallen for the last few days.
When Claire met Leon's determined gaze, a profound understanding passed silently.
As the sun continued its ascent, its warmth offered a deceptive comfort.
"You don't have to come with me," Claire offered, knowing immediately that Leon would follow her through hell and back.
"What part of never leaving you again was hard for you to understand?" Leon returned before his hand touched hers.
She squeezed his hand and gave a steady smile.
"I told you already, sweetheart" Leon continued, bracing his other hand on the railcar door frame. "We're gonna make it. Both of us."
His warm smile was so certain before Leon jumped off first.
And Claire followed.
The arms of the dead reached for them, but side by side, they both ran and ducked toward the alley way that held the least resistance.
The railcar rattled further and further away as the two souls ventured forth, where the undead shadows around them only grew.
Heavy steps punctuated its movement through the last of the police station as keen, black eyes surveyed the bodies swaying around the main hall. The T-00 paused near the large statue of the maiden as it computed the faces wavering in from the doors.
The leather of its garment squeaked as a mighty fist knocked aside a shambling and wailing, female carrier as it moved.
No targets.
It had lost its hat in the earlier altercation, and the nearly greyish, white dome of its skull seemed to transition to pale bone as it stepped out into the morning light.
Scanning…
Scanning…
Primary objectives were secured in the landing zone. The protocol indicated it was to expand its scanning perimeter.
And so, it walked.
Pressing through the many bodies that wailed around it in the streets, glass and debris crunched underfoot as it made its way through the wreckage.
Scanning…
No targets.
The virus carrier had enough of its primordial senses to understand the T-00 was not a viable carrier. The other carriers in the street ignored it completely as it continued its uninterrupted journey further and further away from the police station.
Soon, after traveling for so long, a flash of hurried movement caught in its side vision, its face turning slowly to follow the action.
Scanning…
Two figures sprinted down one of the streets ahead. Female. Male. Civilian. Police Officer.
Instructions flashed across its mind as its senses honed in.
Primary target located. Pursue. Primary target located. Pursue.
And so, it did.
It began to follow, and it would not stop.
Primary target located. Pursue. Primary target located. Pursue.