Escape, for a fateful encounter

“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.

Leon, while having the chance, rapidly fired at the monster’s head and its giant eye on the shoulder. The latter hit was more effective as the monster paused to swing blindly at the thin air, but not fatal. Leon noticed that the silver bullet was burning the tissue around where it hit like it did to the vampires or the tentacle creature. A bold theory came to his mind - this thing, was not mutated by the same virus that turned people into vampires, but something else.

He switched back to normal bullets and keep shooting. The stray bullets, however, damaged the steam pipes around this place, making it more and more smoky. One time the monster even hid in the steams and made a surprise attack. Luckily, Leon evaded it in time, and took the chance to make a close-range shotgun blast.

Having taken severe damages, the monster was driven back to the edge of the platform, when a final shot from the Matilda pierced it giant eye and shut it. The monster kept painfully screaming “HELP ME” when it was losing balance and fell off.

“What the hell was that thing...” Leon looked down but could see nothing through the darkness below.

Just when he was wondering how to get back up there, a ladder was dropped down.

“Claire?” He asked cautiously, but no one answered. It it was not Claire, that could only mean someone else was here and watching him for this whole time.

With no other option, he climbed up the ladder and found himself near the operators room. However, looking at the surroundings, he realized that he couldn’t return to the room where Claire and Sherry were. They must have found another way out over there. Once again alone, Leon took a deep breath and continued searching the exit.

Going through the room he found another ladder, which led him into the parking garage of the station, exactly the same as described in Elliot’s notebook. The gate, however, required a key card to open.

Leon was so focusing on the gate that he didn’t notice a bloodied, red-eyed dog approaching him, until it was too late. The vampire dog lunged at him and pinned him on the ground, trying to bite him with its overgrown canine teeth. Leon was desperately holding its head and failed to grabbed his dropped pistol.

The dog was getting the upper hand as it was much stronger than usual and Leon was nearly exhausted after the fight before. When it was about to win, a bullet broke the balance by punching through its neck. Losing control of its body, the dog collapsed.

“Hey.” A calm, female voice came from afar.

“Who’s there?” Confused, Leon saw a figure standing in the darkness, holding a gun.

“Stay sharp.” The lady spoke, remaining cool and collected.

The vampire dog started to twitch. Leon swiftly grabbed his pistol and blasted its head off. When everything was settled, he aimed at the woman who was approaching. The woman with short, black hair, wearing a pair of sunglasses and a cream-colored windbreaker, was also pointing her gun at him.

“Lower it.” The woman took an identification out of a pocket, “FBI.”

“Sorry...” Feeling relieved, Leon lowered the gun and sighed, “Thank you...”

Regenerating, the vampire dog twitched again as it grew back half of its head. The woman fired again and shot through its brain this time, burning it into ashes.

“...for your help.” Leon was shocked at the scene. That was silver bullet, right?

“Surprised you made it this far.” The FBI agent looked at him, without any notable emotion on her face, and turned around to leave.

“FBI, huh? What’s going on here?” Leon asked curiously while standing up.

“Sorry. That information’s classified.” The woman didn’t even face him when she replied.

“Where are you going?” He kept asking.

Seemed to be tired of the young and annoying police officer, the FBI agent turned around and took off her sunglasses. Though the light was dim in the garage, Leon could clearly see every aspect of this charming, captivating Asian face. He felt his soul almost lost as he saw the pair of bright and beautiful black eyes of hers.

“Do yourself a favor: stop asking questions and get the hell out of here.” She said while gazing into his eyes.

“What was this suppose to mean?” He looked confused. The air was becoming more and more heavy every second.

By another question from him the woman was confused, too. On her face he saw bafflement and astonishment. In no time she put on her sunglasses again and left without another word. The moment they broke the eye contact, Leon felt like a heavy load was taken off his mind and the air was clear again.

What was that...He couldn’t stop asking himself.