Maybe it was being close to Leon in proximity that made me feel safe. He was right about staying together despite how exhausted my body felt, I couldn't stay behind and hoped nothing went wrong. "What are we looking for again?" I asked. We made it out of the prison part of the parking garage.

"The power panel in the jail is broken. There was a note about custom power panel parts. In the generator room."

"Do you think… Marvin is still alive?"

"Not sure. I mean, he doesn't seem like the type to let himself die."

In the Main Hall, it was quiet. I didn't find Marvin in the same spot we last left him. Did he leave or find a way out? Leon had his gun out. "Alina, behind you!" he exclaimed. I looked behind. It was Marvin a zombie, stumbling toward me. He growled loudly, reaching for me with his arms. I backed away before he got me.

"Please don't shoot him," I begged Leon, covering my eyes at Marvin's visage. Just like the others, his face drooped, the dead skin peeling off and turning grey.

"I may not have a choice," he said, backing away as Marvin slowly walked to us. Come on, Marvin. Please don't do this. He was too far gone, and any pleas would fall on deaf ears. Leon dodged him the best he could but eventually, Marvin got too close, and Leon had to pull the trigger. Several times. I would have said my goodbyes to him, but since he was a zombie, I decided against it.

We went to the top floor to the storage room, which had another door leading outside to a balcony in the pouring rain. The helicopter crash barred our way from entry as the fire was too big. Leon climbed down the ladder, which broke off and he fell onto the ground – hard. "Are you okay?!" I called out from above.

He rolled over onto his side, standing up. "I'm fine but now there's no way for you to come down."

Fuck. "What – what do we do?" I asked.

"Stay in the storage room. I'll come find you there when I find the power panel parts." It was a little hard to hear him from the rain. "You can do it. Just stay where you are and talk on the radio if you need me." He went around the corner, disappearing from my sight.

I stood there for a moment, before turning to hide inside the storage room. I stayed quiet in a corner behind a few boxes. I could hear zombies raging outside the room which made me worried. "Everything okay?" Leon asked via the radio.

"Yeah. All good on my end so far," I said, lowering my voice in case the zombies heard me.

"The fire is gone now. I got through."

"Good," I said. My heartbeat started quickening.

"You, okay?"

I didn't want him to know I was terrified. "Don't worry about me, Leon," I said.

"Trust me, you'll be fine. I'm almost at the main hall." I heard the creaking of metal and a gasp on his end. "Jesus Christ!"

"What? What is it?!"

There was a slight pause. "Sorry, I can't explain right now. Something is chasing me."

"What is chasing you?"

No answer. Only static.

Damnit! I thought, rubbing my temples. I heard loud thumps on the floor below me but no gunfire. Was it Birkin? Did he find us from the sewers? My mind went crazy trying to think of all the possibilities. Marvin told me to stay put when the zombies invaded the police station, and he ended up bitten by a zombie. But what could I do? There was no ammo in the gun Leon gave me because I wasted it on the fight with Birkin.

"Please be okay," I whispered. I kept the radio on in case he said something to me.

I sat there, continuing to try and reach Leon but each time I heard static on the other end. There was nothing in the storage room… at least nothing I could use to help him out. I looked around at all of the old antiques, wondering what they were even doing in a police station of all places.

I tried focusing on other things, like keeping myself alive for one. Be safe out there, Leon, I think, as I close my eyes, trying to envision a world where Raccoon City was not invaded by zombies. Assuming that it was the only city not swarmed by zombies in the first place. Because of this, all my friends who worked here with me were probably dead. Including my ex-boyfriend, Ivan, who quit a few months prior. He worked as my superior, directly above me as head administrator.

I never remembered my time with Ivan, my ex-boyfriend, with fondness. The way he made me feel horrible when I glanced at another guy, but he could flirt with any girl he pleased. Not only out of work but at work as well. The few friends I had dubbed him Ivan the Terrible, after the Tsar of Russia in 1547. The way Leon treated me as a friend was ten times better than how Ivan treated me.

"Alina?" Leon's voice said over the static. "Are you there?"

Pushing those thoughts away, I answer the radio call immediately, "Yeah, I'm here. Are you okay?"

"I think I lost him." That sounded vague. "Remember what we saw on the screen when we first met? The large creature that destroyed the camera?"

"I remember."

"Well, that is what's chasing me. It also killed Ben."

"The same creature killed him. I thought that might have been William Birkin."

"No. Something else entirely."

I sighed. This was terrible. "Did you find the parts yet?"

"I found one. The other is on the top floor by the clock tower." That sounded like a long way to go for an electrical part. Why were they so far from each other? "How are you holding up over there?"

Not good, I thought, but I didn't need to give him more to worry about if that thing was chasing him. "Staying here in the same spot I've been in for the last few hours." It had only been two hours and I tried occupying my mind with something other than worrying about him. He's a trained cop – he can do this.

"I'm almost done, okay? I will find you as soon as I get the last part."

"Okay. Stay in contact."

"I will."

Just focus on staying alive. Don't worry about anything else.I inhaled deeply, pushing all negative thoughts away for the time being.

I waited for what seemed like an eternity but was probably another hour, before I heard the door creak open. I didn't want to risk looking to see what came in. They were rather loud footsteps, and their movement sounded a bit strange. I stayed perfectly still, hoping whatever was in the storage room did not hear me.

"Alina, I found the last part. I'm going your way now," Leon said over the radio.

Whatever was in the room heard the radio and started heading towards me. I crawled away until I realized I was at its feet. It was a zombie.

Of course, it was. I backed away, trying to stand up and run but it chased after me around the storage room. I threw random objects at it which made the zombie stumble a bit but having ammo in my gun would have helped even more. I went around the room, trying to keep it occupied until Leon found me.

The door was pushed open, and I heard someone telling me to duck. I did and watched as the zombie fell to the ground, twitching from the bullet in its skull. "You have incredible timing," I said, breathing heavily. "That's what… the 2nd time you've saved me?"

He smiled at me. "Well, it's pretty easy to save you."

I laughed a little.

"Now that I retrieved the parts, we can finally get the parking pass."

It was a huge relief to hear that. "And then leave this damn place for good."

"That's the plan."

We made it back to the jail cell, where Leon put in the two electrical parts for the door to open. When it did, he took the parking pass from Ben's desecrated body. We can go home, I think. I can see my parents again. There was something else on his body though – a tape recorder. Leon knelt, pressing play on the recorder. It was Ben's interview with Anette Birkin. He was trying to ask her questions about the G-Virus but Anette shut him down quickly. Ben also mentioned something about a rumor that goes to an underground lab.

"An underground lab?" I said after the recording stopped. "Is that real?"

"Yeah, just what are they after?" Leon said, sighing, as he stood up. "Let's get out of here. We can deal with that later."

Just as he said that an alarm went off. I heard Leon curse, and we started running as quickly as possible out of the area and into the parking garage. Unfortunately, the noise attracted a lot of zombies our way, which we didn't bother fighting off. As we entered the parking garage, the wall beside us crumbled, and in came Tyrant.

It all happened so fast…

Tyrant grabbed Leon by the neck, lifting him in the air. "Leon!" I screamed, rushing to his aid, but the monster swatted me away, causing me to fall to the floor – hard. My vision was blurry as I watched Leon struggle. I had to do something but what? He was losing breath and wouldn't be alive for much longer.

A car's engine revved behind us, its light temporarily distracting Tyrant. With a lot of speed, it hit Tyrant, trapping him in between a wall and the car. With that, Leon fell to the ground free of his grasp. The car was no mere vehicle, as it belonged to SWAT. Who was in there? I didn't have time to think about it, I limped toward Leon who was coughing, his hands on his throat.

I rushed to him. He was okay, but distressed by what just occurred. I helped him up, while he still coughed and watched the door to the SWAT vehicle open.

Ada.

"This is getting old," she said, walking past us. "Saving your asses – that's twice."

Leon rolled his eyes, clearing his throat. "I didn't realize you were keeping score."

She turned around. "Look this isn't a game!" She looked at him. "I take it you have the keycard."

"Yeah… and this," Leon showed her the recorder. "I was hoping you could explain what's on it."

She shrugged. "Maybe… after I hear it. Let's get out of here."

"Thank you for saving us," I said to her, trying to keep up. My leg was hurting after being thrown to the ground by Tyrant but hopefully, it would heal up soon.

"Thank me when we're out," Ada replied dryly.

Leon inserted the parking pass into the machine. The garage shutter door opened. "You okay?" he asked me.

"My leg hurts but I can walk."

He placed an arm around my shoulder to help me walk better. I could tell he was hurt too, maybe even more than I was. I liked being close to him, relinquishing the fact that he was alive and well after yet another terrible incident.

On our way out of the garage, Ada listened to the recording. She looked back at us once. "So, how did you two find each other?"

"He found me under the reception desk," I said to her.

"Lucky you," she said, with a hint of a smile. She glanced downwards at the road, which had a huge hole in it that went from one end of the strip to the other. "Roads out. Going through that gun shop looks like the only way." I looked up at the red words on the shop 'Gun Shop Kendo'. A place I never heard about until now. How convenient.

Ada managed to unlock the door with a lockpick. How? I don't know.

Inside of the gun shop was an absolute mess. Shelves were toppled over – garbage piles were hovered over each other. Leon handed me more ammo he found in the store, showing how to put it in the pistol I had. I tried to follow his instructions, with his hands guiding me. My cheeks burned, as his hands touched mine briefly.

"Don't move!" a man said, pointing a shotgun at us.

I stayed still, unable to move. Leon shook his head. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Please don't hurt us," I said, my voice trembling.

"I said DON'T MOVE!" the man shouted.

"I'm just passing through," Leon said calmly. "I'm going to ask you to lower that weapon."

"Like hell you are! You're going to turn around and go back out the way you came in."

From behind the man, I saw what looked like a little girl. "Dad?" she whispered, collapsing to the ground. She was in pain her arm bleeding out of her clothing.

"Emma!" the man exclaimed, lowering his gun and rushing to her. "The bite has gotten worse. Shit!"

"Drop it!" Ada said her pistol right at his back. She sees the little girl, Emma, and points it at her instead. She wasn't going to shoot a kid!

"Ada, don't," I said. "Put the gun down. His daughter is hurt."

When she didn't listen to me, I put myself in front of her. She almost seemed shocked by it. "Step aside. We need to terminate her before she turns."

"No. She's a child for god's sake! We can still save her."

Her eyes were steeled cold, glaring at me. "This is no time to play savior. There is no cure for the virus."

"It's not your decision to make." I walked over to Emma carefully. "Hey there. Is your name Emma?"

She nodded. "Y-Yes. Who are you?"

"I'm Alina. Can you tell me what happened?" I asked her.

"Monsters bit me," she whispered, tearing up. "It hurts so much."

"We're – I will help you, Emma."

"That won't be necessary," her father said to me, picking his daughter up into his arms.

Ada lowered her gun.

"Daddy…?" Emma said, still in pain.

"Yeah, Emmie. Daddy's here. I'm here okay?" The man knelt at her eye level. "Those fuckin' things outside… look what they did to us." He turned to Leon. "You're a cop. You're supposed to know something – how did this happen?! HUH?! She was our sweet little angel…" Leon didn't say anything.

"Mommy…?" Emma whispered.

"Mommy's sleeping, honey, okay? And I'm gonna put you to bed too, okay?" He carried her in his arms, turning to us before he shut the door. "Just go… Just give us some privacy."

Leon shook his head at Ada. "You know, it's one thing to keep the truth from me! But why him?!" A loud shot from a gun made me jump. I covered my mouth, wondering if the man had killed his daughter. "I want to find out what's happening here. And stop whoever's behind it. Helping people like them… that's why I joined the force." I listened carefully to his speech, realizing his true reason for joining was admirable – to want to help people out is incredible and it seems like I rarely saw much of that nowadays.

I wish I could be as helpful as him. Doing something, I loved that required helping people even if it didn't mean police work.

"My mission is to take down Umbrella's entire operation. We may not make it out."

"Whatever it takes to save this city… count me in."

Raccoon City was my birth town. I couldn't leave it knowing it still needed help, and if I could help prevent it from happening to more towns and cities, then it'd be worth it. "So will I," I said.

"Are you sure?" Ada said to me, raising an eyebrow. "Because it will only get harder from here."

She wasn't wrong. It would get harder but now was not the time to be scared. "I am sure."

Ada nodded, and the three of us continued through the gun shop.