Escape, for a distressful separation

“We don’t have the firepower to kill this thing. It’s too dangerous!” Leon checked the remaining silver bullets in the clip, shook his head with profound resignation.

“Yeah...You might be right.” Claire nodded but didn’t dare to take her eyes off the tentacle monster.

After confirming the passage was clear behind them, Leon aimed at the monster’s leg and fired. The silver bullet blasted its leg off in an instant and it fell to the ground, painfully screaming. Taking the chance, Claire and Leon successively ran into the passage.

By instinct, Leon punched a red button on the wall and noticed the doorway behind them was closing up. As it was shutting, the creature’s horrific scream faded and went silent afterwards. Looked like they have got rid of it, for now.

Where they arrived was a secret room surrounded by bookshelves, medals, photos and all kinds of artworks. On one of the desks was a small replica of the police station. Going through the other door they found an elevator, probably leading to the underground facility where Claire noted on the map.

It’s funny that such a small room, with nothing useful inside, was the only place that could give them an inner sense of safety tonight. If it weren't for everything else, Leon would really want to rest here for a while, and Claire would definitely agree. But they couldn’t.

“Let’s go.” Leon went ahead to check the elevator. Nothing unusual, it seemed.

“Sure.” Claire followed. She was anxiously looking at the panel when the elevator was taking them down.

They reached an underground staircase where they confirmed that the door on the lower stair was locked, so the only other way was a passage on the middle stair. With caution they proceeded, but immediately they heard someone running on the grids above them. Judging by the size of the shadow cast by the light, it’s safe to assume that it was a little child.

“Sherry? Is that you?” Claire yelled excitedly at the figure.

“Claire!” Sherry knelt down on the grids and sounded happily, “You made it!”

“Yeah! Can you get over here?” Claire smiled too as she saw sherry was alive and unharmed.

“I...I don’t think so. I’ll go ahead to find a way down!” Before finishing the sentence she started to run.

“Be careful!” Claire looked worriedly as the shadow disappeared at the next corner.

“Sherry, huh?” Leon chuckled at the scene, “How energetic.”

“I’ll introduce you later. Come on.” She rushed forward, hoping to catch up with Sherry.

“OK.” He shrugged and followed.

Going deeper they arrived at the machinery room, where Leon believed to be hosting the independent power supply of the station. Claire was several meters ahead of him and catching Sherry from a vent on the ceiling, when a scary, distorted growl echoed in the whole room. Just when the three of them was wondering what that was, a giant monster, crushing the grids above, dropped between Leon and Claire.

“Jesus!” Leon strategically backed up a few steps and pointed his gun at it, while Claire was shielding Sherry behind her. Sherry was shocked to see the monster, more than usual, and couldn’t say a word.

The monster, by the look of it, was a blonde man in a white coat, whose right side of body has undergone a gruesome mutation that, its right arm was twice the size of a normal person’s and has a reddish skin tone. What’s the most horrific was a large blood-red eye opening on its shoulder. It was crying, sounded like in pain. Using a iron pipe in its mutated hand, it smashed the platform where it was standing on and completely destroyed it, dropping both itself and Leon to the lower platform.

“Leon!” Claire worriedly grabbed her gun and tried to help. However, if she joined the fight she would have to leave Sherry here alone and scared. What should she do?

“No! Get Sherry out of here!” Leon waved at them, while standing up and distancing himself from the monster, “I’ll be fine!”

“Are you sure?” Claire frowned, realizing there wasn’t a really right choice for her here.

“I promised you we’ll make it out alive, didn’t I? Now just go!” Avoiding the monster’s attack, Leon hid deeper into the maze of steam pipes and machines.

“You’d better catch up hurry!” Resolved, Claire held the hand of Sherry tightly and left with her.

After passing through the corridor they reached the entrance of another tunnel. Claire hasn’t seen any branch path along the way, so this must be the way out. Sherry was still shivering and hasn’t said a word since that monster showed up. Noticing this, Claire crouched down and ran her fingers through Sherry's smooth hair.

“Hey...Are you alright?” She smiled at the little girl.

“Claire...That monster...” Sherry couldn’t finish the sentence and ran into her arms, sobbing slightly.

“It’s OK, it’s OK...” Claire gently cradled her head.

The little girl reminded Claire of herself. When she was younger, she used to cry in Chris’ arms, too, sometimes due to some scary things. She would always feel warm when her older sibling just being there for her.

“Don’t worry. I’m here.” She said softly.

“I know...Thank you, Claire.” Sherry looked up at her with teary eyes.

“Come on. Let’s keep going.” She stood up and held her hand again.

“OK.” Sherry nodded lovely and followed her into the tunnel.

“So you kept talking about your mom before...Where’s your dad?” She asked curiously as they were walking in the dark, never-ending tunnel.

“He, um...worked with my mom but...” Sherry looked down at the ground with sadness, but also a bit determination, “He’s gone.”

“Wow...Both of my parents are gone - it’s just me and my brother.” Claire sighed.

“Oh...I’m sorry...” Sherry said awkwardly and blushed.

“Don’t be. It means we’ve got something in common and...That’s a good thing, right?” Claire replied optimistically. She felt like she’s Sherry’s older sister now. She must protect her and spare her from further horror.

The walk was long and boring, but with a little sense of direction, Claire thought they were heading north, already far away from the police station. After a few minutes they finally reached the end of the tunnel where a door was in front of them. Going through it, they arrived at an underground garage. Most of the cars parking in here have the Umbrella logo, the pharmaceutical company, on them, which made her feel uneasy.

The gate of the garage was locked. She tried to lift it with Sherry with brute **** but failed.

“Sherry?” A male voice came from the shadows behind them.

Claire stood up and noticed a fat man coming at them. He was clean and his eyes were not red, showing him not a vampire. She lowered her guard as she hasn’t seen many living human tonight, which was proved to be a wrong move later. Sherry, however, was not as surprised, as if she knew the man.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you, Sherry...Brave little girl to leave your house in the middle of this mess...” The man quickly pulled out his gun and pointed it at Claire, “On the ground, hands behind your head.”

“You can’t be serious...”

Before Claire could do anything else the man positively replied with a shot to the car behind her.

“On the ground. Now.”

Claire has no other option but to obey. She slowly put her hands behind her head as she cursing the bad luck she had. Pointed by a gun, this is the third time tonight, she complained to herself. The fat guy, with a contented smile, threw a handcuff to Sherry and asked her to tie Claire’s hands.

“Why are you doing this?” Sherry asked confusedly.

“Shut up. Tie her.” Seeing Sherry still not moving, the man approached Claire and held the gun against her head, showing absolute dominance in this situation, “OK, then. You tie her up now, or she dies.”

Scared, Sherry grabbed the handcuff on the ground and did as he said.

“What’s this all about?” Claire confronted him without fear.

“Child endangerment, for starters.” He scoffed at her while using a key card to unlock the gate, “Sherry, come here.”

“What are you gonna do to her?” She tried hard to oppress her anger.

“None of your fucking business.” He didn’t even look at her.

“If you hurt her, I swear to god, my brother is S.T.A.R.S. and I will fucking-”

Before she could finish she was brutally kicked at the stomach and fell to the ground, curling up in pain.

“Sherry, get over here!” Tired of Sherry’s disobedience, he knelt down to grab the back of Claire’s head, pointing the gun at her throat, “What’s your name? What’s your fucking name!”

“Claire!” She answered with her teeth gritted.

“Sherry, you come with me now, or say goodbye to Claire!”

“OK, OK! I’ll go...” Sherry helplessly ran to his side, “You better be taking me to my mom.”

“Absolutely.”

“Don’t listen to him! He’s full of shit!” Claire sat up to make a stance, only to be struck down again. However, it was at this moment, she saw a piece of broken glass on the ground.

“Stop hurting her! please!” Sherry cried in despair.

“Don’t tell me how to do my job.” The man forcefully grabbed her arm and took her outside.

“Stop! Let me go! Let me go!” Sherry kept resisting but her strength was nothing near the man. During her struggle, a golden pendant dropped from her pocket.

“Obviously, nobody taught you manners! We’ll fix that. Oh yes, we will.” The man calmly pressed the button and closed the gate behind him.

By the time Claire broke the handcuff with the glass and stood up, the gate was completely shut and Sherry was beyond her reach. She furiously, but helplessly, kicked on the gate and shouted.

“I’LL GET YOU, YOU FUCKER!”