Resident Evil 2 Remake Novel: Claire's Story.

Chapter Two: Mizoil Gas Station.

Previously in the last chapter.

"No!" The truck driver mourned, feeling his breathing become quicker and frantic. "No…no…no…" He sped-walked towards the down woman, kneeled on one knee and reach out to lift an arm up to feel a pulse, but couldn't feel anything, much to the truck driver's great horror and sorrow.

Letting go of the arm he lifted to inspect for a pulse, the truck driver stood up from the road, looked at the woman's dead body for a few moments before turning around and began to hyperventilate, while taking off his baseball cap to reveal a bald head with side hair connecting to his beard. "What do I do? What am I going to do?!'

Because the truck driver was panicking on what to do during this accidental run-over kill situation, he did not notice the women he ran into was slowly getting back up from the road, her upper body limped froward and eyes staring at his unsuspecting back…

(In the Present)

On another lonely dark road with heavy rain pouring downwards, a Harley motorcycle was driving forward with the rider focusing on the road, not the slightest bit bothered about getting soaked by the rain. Said rider was a pretty young woman who looked to be in her late teens. She had long, brown hair with a loose ponytail in the back and two bangs framing her face, which was concealed by a white helmet, fair skin and blue eyes.

The young woman wore a long-sleeve biker jacket, red in color and zipped up halfway to reveal a black sleeveless shirt underneath, blue jeans, a dark brown belt that held up two pouches and leather brown boots. She also had a brown gun strap wrapped around her right leg, which held her gun – an SLS 60, 9mm five shot revolver – and a metal feather with a light blue gem necklace around her neck.

This young woman was Claire Redfield, the younger sister of Chris Redfield.

Ever since their parents died during a car accident, Claire and Chris forged a very strong sibling bond to the point they can trust, comfort and look out for each other. This bond had not only healed their broken hearts after learning about their parents' demise but made them mature for their age and they vow to make their parents proud instead of lazing around.

And Chris and Claire indeed made their parents proud.

Chris went to join the U.S Air Force after getting the necessary educational requirements where he received flight training for both planes and helicopters, gun training and hand-to-hand combat training with knives. He also befriended a man named Barry Burton, who became a close family friend to him and Claire, the latter accepting the older man with welcome arms after meeting him the first time.

Unfortunately, due to his rebellious attitude of not following direct orders from his superiors, Chris got discharged from the Air Force and was left without a job. That changed when Barry convinced him to join the Special Tactics and Rescue Service – S.T.A.R.S for short – in the Raccoon City Police Department, also known as the R.P.D. Chris was skeptical of joining a special law enforcement at first since being a police officer wasn't the same as a member in the Air Force, but after solving a number of difficult cases, he decided to join the Special Tactics and Rescue Service.

Claire, on the other hand, went to a university after high school where she developed an interest in motorcycle customization, given the fact she owns two motorcycles with one currently being worked on. When Chris joined S.T.A.R.S in the R.P.D, she would occasionally visit him to learn hand-to-hand combat training and firearms training, while becoming great friends with Jill Valentine, who is also great friends with Chris, even becoming partners with him during cases.

Life had been good for the Redfield siblings.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end.

For the last few weeks between working on her motorcycle and college, Claire hasn't heard anything from her older brother, and she was starting to become worried. She knew he can take care of himself, given the training he received from the Air Force, but she just couldn't help it; their parents had died during a car accident and Claire feared of losing the only family member she had left. Chris was special to her. If she lost him, she would be greatly heartbroken and won't have the strength to carry on.

Claire had tried calling Chris a few times whenever she wasn't busy with college and her motorcycle to see how he is doing, but he wouldn't answer. It made her think he could be busy with work, so she decided to try calling Jill or Barry, but they wouldn't answer as well. This made the young Redfield sibling greatly frustrated but more worried. Why was no one, including her older brother, answering her calls? Had something terrible happened in Raccoon City? She deserves to know because her older brother was there, doing something that's making him not answering the phone calls.

After a few more weeks of trying to get in touch with Chris, which all ended in failure, Claire decided to see what was going on in Raccoon City herself, the place she liked visiting during the weekends and the place her older brother worked as a special law enforcement.

That's why Claire was currently driving on the lonely dark road in the heavy rain; to find her older brother who had not been answering her calls. It was like he had just vanished off the face of the Earth. The last time Claire heard from him was in August 1998, it is now September 30, 1998.

As Claire continued to drive on the lonely dark road with the heavy rain beating down on her, the lights of a gas station caught her eye. She didn't need gas for her bike since it's quite full, but she needed to use the phone service to call her best friend, Anna, and let her know she's almost at Raccoon City. After getting close enough to the gas station and parking her bike in the driveway, Claire went over to the phone booth, enter it and put in some change in the service before dialing Anna's number.

Moments later, a female voice spoke on the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Anna, it's me, Claire," Claire said in the receiver.

"Claire! It's good to hear your voice after a few hours!" Anna exclaimed, happy to hear her friend. "Are you almost at Raccoon City?"

"Yeah, I'm almost there," Claire replied. "I just stop by at a gas station to call you and let you know."

"Good, I was getting worried you didn't make it."

"You know me, Anna, I'll be fine."

"I do know, Claire, I'm just being concerned," Anna stated, resisting the urge to start scolding Claire for being unconcerned. "I still don't like the fact you're driving towards a big city alone where there are assholes and perverts waiting for a hot, young college girl to take advantage of just to see your older brother who hasn't been answering your calls. It's not worth it, even though I do want to know why he hasn't been answering your calls as well.'

"We've been over this before," Claire said, her voice a bit curt. This wasn't the first time she and Anna argue about going to Raccoon City and see what was going on. It started in mid-September. "I have to see what made Chris stop answering my calls personally. If I don't hear the story from him, then I would never get it and I don't want to keep waiting any more. I need to know why Chris stop answering my calls."

Anna sighed, knowing how determined and stubborn Claire can be when it comes to her older brother. Once her mind's made up with something, there's nothing you can do to change it. Period. Stubbornness and determination are the Redfield traits. "Alright, I may not like it, but I won't stop you from heading to Raccoon City, even though you are almost there. I really hope you find Chris, Claire."

"Thanks, Anna," Claire said, smiling at the support her friend was giving her, despite not approving of going to Raccoon City alone. "I'll be back as soon as I find him."

"But be careful out there. Just because you received hand-to-hand combat training and firearms training from your older brother, it doesn't mean you're invincible, so don't get cocky. Also, make sure to keep an eye on your surroundings. You never know someone could get the jump on you."

"Don't worry, I will. But I gotta go."

"Bye, Claire, and good luck on your search."

A moment later, the phone call ended.

"Why does anyone think I'm going to get in trouble?" Claire asked with an amused smile on her face, exiting the phone booth after putting the receiver back to its proper place. She doesn't go looking for trouble, she's an innocent girl.

Crash!

"Hmm?" Claire's amused smile, along with the thoughts of not looking for trouble, vanished as she turned her head towards the convenience store when she heard the sound of breaking glass. "What the?" The college student kept her gaze on the store, unsure what to do. But after a moment, she took a took a few steps forward towards the store. "Hello?"

Claire knew she shouldn't be investigating a crime scene since it's meant for the R.P.D and she wasn't a police officer, but she didn't care as she wanted to know what was going on. When she arrived at the gas station moments ago, she was surprised to see the place completely deserted without a single soul within sight, which made the situation odd. The oddness increased when Claire spotted an abandon police car parked in the driveway with its right door ajar, interior lights on and engine running, making her wonder where the officer was.

After hearing the crash sound in the convenience store, however, Claire guessed the officer to the abandoned police car was inside and restraining the thug who tried to rob it. He or she would probably need some help.

With determination pumping in her veins, Claire walked towards the convenience store's entrance and, after a moment of steeling herself for what she's about to discover, slowly opened the door.

The inside of the convenience store was completely dark and empty; not a single sound filled the air, which made it seemed like it was a haunted place. Despite finding this odder than before and a bit unsettling, Claire pushed through.

"Hello? Anybody here?" Claire called out in the completely empty convenience store, taking a few steps forward. She got no reply in response. Spotting a lit flashlight on the ground, the college student bent down on one knee to pick it up before holding it upwards to get a look at her surroundings.

The convenience store's interior was a bit of a mess; some utensils from the shelves were scattered around or knocked over and there were blood splatters on the ground. This made Claire nervous, and she wondered what made blood spatters to appear. "Hello?"

Standing up with the flashlight in her grip, Claire began exploring the inside of the dark convenience store, moving slowly and carefully since she didn't want anyone to get the jump on her. As she explored, she could hear the faint sounds of struggling somewhere in the back and a pained breathing near her.

Wait…pained breathing?

Claire paused in her exploration after thinking about that before speed walking where the pained breathing was coming from. It didn't take her long to find the source of the pained breathing and what she saw caused her eyes to widen, as well as releasing a gasp.

Sitting on the floor and against the wall was the gas station's attendant who was a plump, bald head middle-aged man. He wore a blue short-sleeved shirt, black slacks and brown shoes. He was currently holding onto the left side of his neck with his left hand, which seemed to be bleeding.

"Are you okay?!" Claire exclaimed, rushing over to the gas station's attendant and kneeling next to him. Looking closely, there was a fatal wound on his neck with blood profusely leaking out. Claire could tell it was bad. This man needed to get medical attention immediately or else he's going to die from blood loss.

Unfortunately, while Claire did learn medical attention in college, she couldn't provide it on the gas station attendant since she didn't bring the necessary equipment, including bandages. She could only pray the man doesn't aggravate the wound and keep still until she calls an ambulance or finds a medical kit.

The attendant of the gas station didn't reply, except breathing heavily and letting out pain hisses whenever he moves his upper body. But he did, however, raised his right arm up, which the fingers are covered in blood, to point at an open door near him and Claire, who looked over to see it leads into the backroom. It didn't take a genius to tell her the attendant wanted her to enter through the door. "Wait here, I'll check it out."

Giving the gas station attendant one last worried look, Claire stood up and entered through the door that leads into the backroom. Like the store, the backroom was completely dark, but it had a right hallway with another door at the end, which stood ajar like the abandoned police car parked in the driveway. There was also a light bulb above the door, providing some bits of light.

Claire had moved a few steps in the backroom when suddenly, the door she enter through closed with a bang before the locking mechanism triggered, indicating she was locked in.

"Hey! What the hell?!" Claire exclaimed, turning back towards the door and began to bang on it with her free fist. "Why'd you locked me in here?! Open the door!" After a few moments of banging on the door, which was still locked, and shouting at the gas station attendant to reopen it, the college gave up with another bang to the door before resuming walking in the dark hallway.

The faint sounds of struggling from before became louder and louder as Claire got closer to the end of the hallway. Upon reaching the ajar door, she became unsure for a moment before steeling herself once again and slowly edging the door to open, holding the flashlight up to illuminate light.

The door Claire opened led her into a medium-sized office, which was completely dark like the store and the hallway. There was barely enough room to move around, due to the numerous stacked shelves with many supplies, but there were some pathways to walk through. However, Claire didn't notice this as she was currently busy looking at the source responsible for the loud sounds of struggling.

On the other side of the medium-sized office, two individuals were struggling against each other. The first individual was the officer to the abandon police car parked in the gas station's driveway. The second individual was another man, but his back was facing Claire, so she couldn't a look at him. The strangest thing about the second man was that he kept making growling noises. What kind of person makes such sounds? Was the guy trying to act like an animal?

"I said hold still!" The officer ordered, letting out effort grunts from shoving the second man against the wall. He was trying to get handcuffs on him.

"Excuse me, is everything okay?" Claire asked, announcing her presence and entering the medium-sized office.

The officer restraining the second man turned around upon hearing Claire's voice and raised an arm up in a halting manner. "Stay back, ma'am, I got this."

Unfortunately for the officer, taking his eyes off the second man and presenting a hand up proved to be an extremely grave mistake. The second man took advantage of the officer's distraction by turning around with a loud growl and using a surge of strength to knock off him, along with himself, off balance. The two fell on the ground with the officer below who let out a scream and the second man on top of him.

"Oh, my god!" Claire shouted in horror when the second man bite into the officer's neck, causing him to scream in pain and a gush of blood to spill out. Sick sounds of flesh being torn and screams of pain filled the medium-sized office as the second man continued to bite into the officer's neck.

"Help me…" The dying officer moaned weakly, struggling to get the second man off him, but his actions proven to be useless. The second man had a strong grip on him, making it impossible to escape, and he lost a large amount of blood. It didn't take very long for the officer to give his last dying breath as he died from blood loss and getting his neck bitten by the second man.

"Get off him!" Claire shouted, continuing to watch the goring scene in front of her in horror. "I said GET OFF HIM RIGHT NOW!"

If the officer getting bitten into the neck was horrifying, it was nothing compared when the second man pulled a chunk of flesh away from the neck and began to chew on it noisily, almost making Claire throw up from seeing something so disgusting. The scene reminded her of those horror movies she watched with her friends but…this wasn't a horror movie; it was real life.

What made the situation worse than before was that Claire had a terrible feeling the second man was something that shouldn't be possible or exist at all. The idea itself was absurd, laughable even…but she wasn't laughing. She just hoped what she had been thinking about was very wrong.

Suddenly, the man who killed the officer let out a growl as he finally noticed a presence in the office, making him look up at the illuminate light and that was when Claire finally got a chance to look at the face, which made her gasp in horror, while confirming the terrible feeling she had. Said face she's looking at looked like a human, but it's not, given how decay it is with white pasty skin. Crimson blood was splattered all over the mouth with some dripping onto the floor and the lips had already been ripped away, revealing the teeth. Milky white eyes stared back at horrified blue ones.

This man was no longer a human being, but a zombie. A real life living dead zombie. Not a comic book zombie, not a movie zombie, not even a dress up zombie, just a real-life zombie.

"Don't come any closer!" Claire ordered, quickly drawing her handgun from her gun strap and aimed it at the zombie who rose to its feet. Her firearms training was so good she could hold a flashlight and shoot a gun at the same time.

The zombie ignored the warning and slowly made its way towards Claire, arms outstretched to grab her, while leaving behind the dead body it killed a moment ago. Seeing that no words or warning could convince the zombie to stop, which was quite stupid of her to even consider since it would never listen to a person like in the movies, Claire aimed her gun and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Spat!

The gunshot was perfect, landing in-between the zombie's eyes, causing the head to snap backwards and making it stop in its tracks…but it didn't go down or die Claire expected. In fact, the gunshot only momentarily stunned the zombie before its head move back to the previous position with blood oozing down from the wound and resumed its slow pace."Shit! I forgot it takes more bullets to take down zombies!"

Realizing she would need to fire more bullets to take the zombie down but must make sure her aim is perfect since she doesn't have much ammo, Claire focused her said aim onto the head and fired three precise shots, while moving backwards to avoid the outstretched arms. The first shot didn't do anything, only making the zombie let out angry growls, which made Claire nervous – she didn't think angry growls can exist from zombies – the second stunning it once again but the third finally made the zombie fall backwards on the ground with a thud.

The moment the zombie fell backwards on the ground after taking four bullets in the head, Claire let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding, a light layer of sweat dripping down her face, which she wiped it away with the back of her jacket sleeve. She had never thought in her life she would ever encounter a living zombie at a gas station's convenience store. Again, the idea of facing zombies was absurd and laughable, but Claire wasn't laughing…she was horrified.

'How the hell did a living zombie came back from the dead?' Claire thought, wanting to know that million-dollar question as she stared at the downed zombie. 'It shouldn't be possible at all. Nothing can bring the dead back to the land of living, not even those stupid lighting pole tricks in the movies. But apparently, something did manage to bring the dead back to the land of living. The question is…how?'

Unfortunately, Claire needed to put her question on hold because she needed to find a way out of the backroom since there could be a chance the zombie might get back up, so she quickly sidestepped the body, enter the medium-sized office and took the first pathway she saw, which led her to a door that will take back into the main part of the convenience store, but there was a problem with the said door.

The door was locked.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Claire screeched, giving the door a harsh kick with her foot, which didn't do anything. "This door is locked as well?!" She was tempted to shoot the lock but didn't want to waste the single bullet in her gun, which she needed to refill with the extra ammo she brought with her. After quickly doing that, Claire remembered spotting another pathway when she entered the office the second time, so she backtracked her steps, spotted the pathway at the end of the room and walked in it to see a couple shelves, a desk at the end, a couple bikini-clad super model posters – the posters made Claire snort in amusement – and a key rack with a lone key hanging.

"This key better worked on that door, otherwise I'm going to be extremely pissed," Claire stated with promise vengeance as she grabbed the key from the key rack. Once in her possession, she made her towards the locked door, inserted the key in and turned said key, hoping it would work like she said, otherwise she's going to be pissed.

Click!

'Yes! It worked!' Claire thought cheerfully when the door became unlocked instead of locked. 'I thought for sure the key won't work and I would have to crawl through the refrigerator doors to escape the backroom' While the idea will let her escape the backroom and be back in the main part of the convenience store, Claire didn't want to be near the zombie where she thinks it's dead. There might be a chance it might get back up. Without wasting any more time, Claire entered through the door she unlocked before shutting it and slumping against it with a sigh of relief. 'Now that I'm out of the backroom, it's time for me to leave this place and call the R.P.D to let the officers know about-'

Crash!

Claire's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a mighty crash, making her jump and release a startled scream. Recovering herself, she pointed her flashlight in the direction where the crash came from and what she saw made her freeze.

The source of the mighty crash came from a big cart for moving boxes around being knocked over, but the cart wasn't made Claire freeze. It was the person on top of the cart, a very familiar, yet different, person she killed a few moments ago…and a person who was struggling to stand up.

"Another zombie?!" Claire exclaimed, pulling out her handgun and aimed it at the zombie who was still on top of the cart it recently knocked over, which blocked her path to the entrance door. "Where the hell did you come from?!" Claire had no idea where this zombie came from when she first entered the store, but just when she was about to fire at it, a growling sound came from her right, forcing her to look over and see the gas station attendant who was now a zombie walking slowly towards her with arms outstretched. "Shit! You're of them as well?!"

Claire's observation question to the recently turned gas station attendant was replied with a loud growl and a sudden lunged, forcing her to do two rolls. The first one was to avoid the lunged attack and the second one was to dive into the middle aisle to put some distance between the human and the zombie. Claire mentally thanked Chris for the hand-to-hand training.

After putting some distance between her and the zombie, Claire immediately stood up and ran to the other side of the store where she took a left. From there, she took another left that would lead her to the entrance door, but there was another zombie behind a shelf, trying to knock it down so that it can be with its fellow undead.

"No, you don't!" Claire exclaimed, running towards the entrance door right as the zombie knocked the shelf over. She got through in time, but the close call of nearly colliding with the shelf almost made her lose her balance. Quickly regaining said balance, the college student made her way towards the entrance door, but someone got there before her and opened the door.

The person that opened the door to convenience store revealed to be a handsome young man who was very human like Claire and looked to be in his early twenties. He had short, dirty-blond hair with fringes on the side of his eyes, fair skin and blue eyes. He wore a navy-blue button shirt with a white shirt underneath, a long-sleeved jacket, blue jeans and white sneakers. The young man was currently pointing his handgun at Claire.

"Whoa, don't shoot!" Claire exclaimed, raising her hands in the air upon spotting the gun being aimed at her, unaware a zombie was right behind her. But not the young man.

"Get down!" The young man ordered, getting Claire to comply with the order right as the zombie behind her lunged, only for it to get shot in the head by the young man and fall backwards with a thud.

Claire looked behind her to see the down zombie and her eyes widened. 'Holy fuck, that was close. I almost became zombie food. If it wasn't for that guy, I would've died.'

"We gotta get out of here!" Claire exclaimed, standing up from the ground and sped walking towards the door where the young man is who nodded his head in agreement. The two exit outside and stand side by side, the entrance door closing behind them.

"You alright?" The young man asked, raising his gun up and looking at the area in front of him after stepping outside.

"Yeah, I think so…" Claire said, quickly checking to see if there were any injuries on her. There were none. "Thanks."

"You can thank me later when we're safe," The young man gave Claire a brief glance before nodding his head towards the direction he had been staring at.

"Holy shit…" Claire breathed out.

The once completely deserted gas station was filled with numerous zombies that were slowly walking towards Claire and the young man, letting out loud moans or growls as they walked. As the zombies made their way towards Claire and the young man, both thinking furiously to come up with a plan to escape since they don't have the ammo to take all the zombies out, they were startled when a zombie suddenly alerted its presence by banging on the entrance door and letting out loud groans.

The young man spotted the abandoned police car, which the engine was still running, and got an idea. "Come on! Get inside the police car!" Claire nodded, seeing the young man's plan. Together, the two dodged the incoming zombies and got inside the police car. The young man was in the driver's seat and Claire was in the passenger seat.

"Hold on!" The young man ordered after turning the car on, shifting the gear handle into reverse before backing up the police car. Once it was out of the driveway, he shifted the gear handle once again into drive and pressed down hard on the gas pedal, making the tires screech loudly as it started driving full speed. Soon, Claire and the young man were on the lonely dark road and driving fast, away from the gas station, away from the zombies.

"What the hell is going on?" Claire asked a few moments later, looking at the rearview mirrors before turning to look at the young man.

"I don't know," The young man replied, focusing on driving for a bit before looking at Claire, who turned back to look at the rearview windows. "Hopefully, they have answers at the police station."

"Wait, you're a cop?" Claire asked in surprise, turning to stare back at the young man. He doesn't look like a cop, given he was wearing normal clothes instead of a police outfit.

"Yeah, Leon Kennedy. You are?"

"Claire, Claire Redfield."

There was silence between Leon and Claire for a bit as they were thinking about the zombie encounter at the gas station before the former broke it. "Live around here?" It may sound like a get-to-know-you kind of thing, but it was actually trying to get information.

"No," Claire replied, shaking her head a bit. "Looking for my brother, Chris Redfield. He's a cop, too."

"Well, it's a good thing we found each other," Leon stated, turning to stare at the road. "I don't know what to expect anymore…"

As Leon and Claire continued to drive on the lonely dark road in the police officer's car, they passed by a sign that said, "Welcome to Raccoon City, Home of Umbrella."

And done! That is the ending of the second chapter in Claire's story! Even though It's exactly the same as Leon's chapter, I did add more words and different sentences, so I assure you that the chapter is different than Leon's. I even added some of the words I wrote in this chapter onto that chapter.

Also, if you guys are wondering about the phone call conversation Claire had, it's because there is a letter in the game that explains about her having a best friend and telling her not to travel alone to Raccoon City just to find Chris. Anna is an OC character I owned.

The conversation I wrote in this chapter wasn't what I had in mind of writing at first since I didn't even think I would have to write that conversation, despite me saying I would write the exact same detail from the game, but after writing a few sentences, which I liked, I decided to write the conversation. I also wrote some of the contents of the best friend letter into conversation because I wanted Claire to be prepared for the viral outbreak that's going to happen in the next chapter, which I haven't got started on yet. But I will.

Anyways, here is the next chapter for this story and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Write a review if you like this story and enjoy the chapter.

Next Chapter: The City of the Dead.