Just breath, Alina. You can do this. Marvin told me to stay where I was nearly a few hours ago but never returned. Where the hell was he? I stayed put underneath the desk at the front of the main hall after hearing zombie groans nearby. There was more than one in the area, which made it worse because if I needed an escape route, both were blocked. Also, any slight noise alerted them meaning I couldn't move at all.

All I thought about were my parents. Thank God, they lived in New York and not Racoon City anymore. I imagined how panicked both were, wondering if I was even alive. I wanted to call them and tell them I was alive, but all the phones died in the station. Marvin told me if he could find a way to contact them inside the station, he would tell them I was fine but with him not returning, I wondered if he was even alive to begin with.

I took out a small photograph of my parents and me in Central Park on New Year's Eve last year. That was the last time I saw them before having to return to Racoon City from holidays. I loved my job, and even though I worked there for about two years, my experience had been wonderful. Still, there were times when I missed my family. I tucked the photo in my jacket's pocket to keep it safe.

"Hello? Is anybody here?" a voice called out. I lifted my head from my knees. Someone came in at last. Was it over? Was I saved? I crawled from underneath the front desk and into the view of a police officer. He aimed his gun at me, firing past my head.

I ducked, hiding underneath the desk again. Shit. What now? "Please, don't shoot me! I'm not infected!" I begged him.

"Come out slowly," the officer said in a soft yet domineering tone. I stood up slowly as he said, my hands up in the air. The police officer was in his early twenties, and I did not recognize him at all. "Are you hurt?"

Shaking my head, I replied, "No."

"Who are you? And why are you here?"

He didn't know. Did he work here in the police station or was he lying to me? "My name is Alina. I worked here as a receptionist." I lowered my arms, and crossed them, without trying to look intimidating. The last thing I wanted was to piss off the man with the gun. "What about you? What's your name?"

"Leon Kennedy."

My eyes widened as I remembered hearing the name repeatedly throughout my time here, especially in the last few weeks. "Leon Kennedy? You're the recruit everyone here kept talking about." It was all I ever heard – even Chief Irons spoke about him and his record in a good light. And Chief Irons never talked about anyone like that.

He nodded. "It was supposed to be my first day last week but… I received an odd message telling me not to come in." Leon brushed his hand through his light blonde hair. "What exactly happened here?"

"You don't… You never heard?" Where to even begin? Even as a receptionist, the amount of talk officers did when they thought I wouldn't hear was incredible. The worst part was how I experienced it for myself, watching as the infected tore the living apart. "It's some sort of virus that infects people. Turns them into zombies."

Leon looked back to the front doors. "So that's what they were."

"They are still out there? I thought it would have died down by now."

"Was chased by a few of those things outside." He finally put away his pistol into the holster on his pants. "Is anyone alive other than you?"

"Marvin Branagh is here. But he left an hour ago and told me to hide."

There was a camera set up on a monitor opposite the reception desk. He clicked on the recording, watching as a tall, muscular infected with a hat walked slowly toward the camera. The infected man was not like other zombies, it was stronger and could tear multiple people apart with its bare hands. I unfortunately witnessed that when multiple cops tried shooting it down. Marvin called him Tyrant. With one swoop, punched the cam, turning off the recording. "Something tells me, he's not a cop," Leon said, closing the monitor.

"He most definitely is not," I said. "Stay clear of him. He is not to be messed with."

"Noted."

A loud groan from what was a zombie made us both alert. I stayed close to him as he had his gun out again. The zombie came out of nowhere, attacking him but Leon kicked it and shot the zombie in the head. It rose again as Leon had its back turned. "Behind you!" I exclaimed. He turned around, dropping his knife as the zombie got into a struggle with him. I picked the knife up, stabbing it in the back.

The zombie fell to the floor, twitching before it was about to get up once more until Leon shot it in the head. I was still holding the knife, shocked by what just happened. Leon turned to me. "Hey – are you okay?"

"Y-yeah. I just… hadn't killed one before." I trembled with the knife in my hands until Leon gently released my grasp from the knife and took it. His hands were surprisingly soft and warm.

"That could have ended worse. Thank you."

I nodded in response, averting my eyes at the dead zombie who was in a police uniform. It had been a person once, and I killed them. My chest tightened. I could hear wheezing in between breaths. I dropped to the floor, trying to breathe properly but instead, I kept on coughing. Shit, shit. No. Not now. "What's wrong?" Leon asked.

I tried opening my mouth to speak. "In…haler." I pointed to the chest of items Marvin had me stash inside. Leon opened the container, handing me the inhaler. I did a few puffs from it, immediately feeling better. "I have asthma," I said to him. "I haven't had an attack until now, but I still bring the inhaler with me everywhere."

"Keep it with you," he urged me. "How long will it last for?"

"It's a new prescription, so for quite a while."

He helped me up. "Let's look around the main hall," he suggested. "Stay close to me."

"I don't know if there's a way out," I said.

"There has to be."

We searched separately but in proximity. He called me over after a while, pointing to the statue in front of us. But it was not the statue itself he referred to, but what was below it. Three round slots, as if you were supposed to put something in and receive a prize. I looked up at the statue, which was a lady in ancient Roman clothing holding a flag, very reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty. I had seen it a million times over two years and never once saw those slots before or I never noticed them.

I kept on looking further, finding a notebook on a chair set up near the statue. A drawing of three medallions – a unicorn, a maiden, and a Lion underneath the sketch of the statue. I showed Leon the journal. "Is there… a secret passage?" he asked me.

I shrugged. "Not to my knowledge. Looking for medallions seems like a waste of time."

"Maybe, but what if it's useful?"

It made me nervous looking for anything in the station in its current state. I dared not stray far from the main hall the past two days after the first time I encountered those damn zombies. But if it got us out of here, then who was I to complain? Leon seemed to know what he was doing despite being a rookie.

Leon headed to the East Hall, where Marvin had written "keep out" on the door. He turned it on, lifted the door, and crawled on the ground with only part of his body going through searching with his flashlight. He went through and signaled for me to come in as well. Nervously, I got on my knees, crawling on the dirty floor with dried blood. As we went further down the hall toward the East Office, I noticed the floor was… wet with water. The sprinklers might have gone off.

He pulled back a large cabinet that had toppled over blocking our path. As soon, as we were clear to go through, I stopped… staring down at the blood splattered all over the floor and the wall, the remains of the intestines of the unfortunate victim in the post-mortem. "Jesus," Leon muttered, in disgust.

"Open up! Hurry! Open up!" a frantic man shouted from one of the rooms. "Open this goddamn door!"

I recognized that voice. Officer Elliot. I opened the door, with Leon behind me. "Elliot?!" I exclaimed, shocked to hear he was alive.

"Alina is that you?" Elliot sounded rather surprised. I saw him almost every day I worked at the police station, and even though our contact was minimal – he was still friendly with me, saying good morning at the start of the shift. I recalled he gave me his lunch when I forgot mine once, and I never forgot it.

"Yeah, it is. We're going to get you out!" I look to Leon. "Help me with this door." The two of us lifted the door, hearing Elliot groaning in agony.

"Help me please!" Elliot exclaimed.

Leon reached for him underneath the door, while I still held it up. "Gimme your hand," Leon said calmly. He pulled Elliot out halfway with both hands until I heard a zombie groaning from behind the door. I couldn't even react in time as blood splattered from Elliot's body. Leon tried pulling him away and it seemed like he would but only half of his body went through. His other half had been torn apart from him. I dropped the door, covering my mouth and unable to scream.

"Fuck," I muttered, staring down at Elliot's body.

Leon grabbed my hand. "We need to get out of here." He opened the door, only for a zombie to push through it, grabbing onto him. He kicked it out of the way, still holding onto my hand as we rushed out of the East Office. "Don't stop running! Keep moving!" The zombie – more zombies were chasing us down the hall, as I tried not slipping into the water.

He held the door to the Main Hall open enough for me to slip under. I went first, hearing the zombies close. When it was his turn, I pulled him through, but he was being dragged back. I held his hands tightly, trying to help him onto the other side. The force was far too strong, and I believed Leon might die like Elliot did if I didn't do something.

Just then, someone behind me, pulled Leon through completely, kicking the zombie back and shutting the door on its head, crushing its skull. "Marvin!" I said and noticed he was holding onto his stomach, with blood seeping through his hands.

"Alina? I told you to stay here!"

"I-I know, but you weren't coming back."

"I ran into trouble," Marvin said. He looked at Leon, breathing heavily. "You two are safe… for now."

Leon nodded. "Thanks."

"Marvin Branagh. And I guess you know Alina, as well."

"Leon Kennedy, and I do. We ran into each other here." He was still catching his breath. "There was another office… I-I couldn't… I couldn't…"

Marvin helped him up to his feet. "I'm sure you did what you could, Leon."

"It was Elliot," I said, still remembering the shriek in his voice when he was being torn apart.

"That damned idiot. I told him not to go anywhere, too, but in the chaos, I guess my authority slipped through the cracks."

I shook my head. "You tried your best." I look down at his wound. "What happened?"

"Those bloody zombies happened," Marvin retorted, groaning in pain. "They are everywhere." I helped him toward a waiting bench behind one of the hospital curtains officers to help with people who were infected. "I couldn't call your parents. There's no phone available here. I'm sorry."

"I figured," I said shrugging, even though in the back of my mind I wanted to reach them so badly.

"Does anyone know who started this?" Leon asked.

Marvin opened the small laptop beside him. "Not a clue. But honestly, all you need to know is that this place will eat you alive if you aren't careful."

Leon reloaded his gun as if he had done it a million times. "Yeah… well, I was supposed to start last week, and I got a call to stay away. I wish I'd come here sooner."

"You're here now, Leon, that's all that matters." Marvin began looking through the journal I found earlier, flipping through its pages until he got to the part with the statue sketch. "Elliot's book," he said, shaking his head as if he didn't believe it. "Claims there's an underground passage."

"There is one?" I asked.

"If you believe in myths, sure."

"That's good news. We can get you to a hospital," Leon said.

He shook his head. "No, no. I'm not the priority here."

"Lieutenant, I'm not just going to leave you here –"

"I'm giving you an order, rookie!" Marvin shouted at him, which made me jump a little. "You save yourself first, and Alina as well. I'd come with you but I would just slow you down."

He handed Leon a combat knife. "I can't take this –"

Marvin shook his head once again at Leon's unwillingness. "Stop." Leon hesitated again but took it anyway. Marvin held onto it before allowing Leon to take it. "And don't make my mistake. If you see one of those things – uniform or not – you do not hesitate. You take it out… or you run. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

Marvin sat back down, his face contorting in agony as he held onto his wound. "I could at least look for… a first aid kit," I said to him. "Or bandages."

"Don't spend your resources on that," he replied, a bit more gently with me than he was with Leon. "You need to get back to your parents. Do not go your separate ways and always stay close to each other. Please."

I barely knew him at all, but he seemed like my best bet to get out of Raccoon City. I just wonder what fate had in store for both of us. I just knew whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

A|N: I will stray from the story but at the same time - there will be similarities. That being said, should I still have Ada Wong make an appearance in the story as well?