Head to the S.T.A.R.S. office

Determined to get out alive, Claire runs quickly through the police station. Not only does she reunite with Leon, she comes across a scared, little girl.

Chapter 3 - Hide From The Dead

The west hallway was less messy but the sound of wind and rain kept roaring, which made her uneasy. With every shaking steps Claire feared that some monsters would grab her from the broken windows and have a feast on her.

Turning around the next corner she gasped in horror. A skinless, brain-exposed monster was crawling on the ground, licking everything near it with its long, sharp tongue. The moment it heard her gasp, it let out low growls and slowly came towards her.

Claire pulled her pistol but soon realized that the monster did not fully notice her. It didn’t have eyes. Perhaps it relied on its hearing to track the prey? Working on this assumption she tried to sneak past the monster but failed as it was completely blocking the hallway.

It was at this moment she heard a shotgun blast not far from here, and so did the licker. Distracted by the sound it jumped onto the ceiling and tried to locate the source. Seconds later another blast came through and the monster quickly climbed towards it. Seeing the monster disappeared into the darkness, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Was it Leon? She thought. She could only hope for his best.

Knowing such monsters existed in the station, she paced her every step quietly until she reached the operations room. She saw a chained door on the other side of the room, but that’s not her priority now. She climb over the broken window to get into the other side of the hallway and immediately saw a licker lying on the ground, with its head blown into pieces. That must be Leon’s doing, she nodded with a smirk.

She carefully traversed the hallway, avoiding the licker that was searching for the killer of its own kind on the ceiling, and made it to the second floor. The buzz noises caught her attention and drawn her into the shower room. She could do nothing to the high temperature steam now but she noticed a locked wardrobe, which looked exactly like the photo she found on the corpse. Rolling the code to “CAP” she successfully took off the padlock and found a valve handle inside.

Well...this is too good to be true, she shrugged her shoulders.

By switching off the steam she got in the corridor. The glasses of the windows were shattered and the heavy rain was splashing inside, which was making her chilled. Luckily the office door wasn’t locked so she quickly slipped inside and closed it behind her.

The lights in the office were still on. Looked like everybody left in a hurry. Oddly there were only a few desks in the room, however she heard the S.T.A.R.S. team had a dozen members. Something must’ve happened and that must be why her brother hasn’t been contacting her all this time. Claire located Chris’ desk and found a letter on it. Hoping to find whatever clue her brother left behind, she opened the letter.

Actually that was a letter from Chris to the other members, stating that he was on a vacation in Europe, dating a hot chick with a large umbrella, that sort of things.

Jill, if Claire tries to contact you, please let her know I'm OK.

Chris Redfield, August 29

The last sentence was the only one that made sense and did sound like Chris. She stared at the letter, frowning. Could it be some kind of coded message? Whatever it could be, that meant Chris has been in Europe since at least a month ago, so he couldn’t be in the city when this incident happened. That’s good news. That meant right now she didn’t need to think about her brother’s safety and could focus on getting the fuck out of this place.

After grabbing some ammo and a grenade on the desk, she loaded the pistol and left the office. The moment she opened the door, she heard a fearful scream. A scared, blonde little girl barely escaped the grab of a vampire and turned the corner. The vampire, probably a SWAT member, was wearing a set of Kevlar bulletproof vest and helmet. It growled at the girl and chased her.

“Hey! Wait!” She yelled and quickly followed.

Catching up she saw the little girl climbing into the ventilation shaft at the end of the hallway and disappearing from view. And the vampire, heard her yelling, was turning around and focusing on her.

“That’s not good.” Claire fired but the bullet bounced off its helmet.

By shooting its legs she managed to slow it down but not a lot. It quickly regenerated and kept approaching. The only chance for her was to shoot from its jaw to temporarily destroy its brain to stop it, but she couldn’t aim that precisely in a long distance in the dark. She could run away, of course, but thinking of the little girl’s safety sharpened her mind.

“Come on...” She backed up to the corridor to take advantage of the lightning light outside the windows, prepared herself and waited for it to come closer.

But the monster suddenly accelerated and lunged at her, which caught her off guard, and knocked her down on the floor. She tried to aim but with a powerful sweep the vampire disarmed her. It growled at her with its eyes flashing lustful lights under the helmet.

“Fuck! Let go of me!” With the help of the empty grenade launcher, Claire tried desperately to hold the vampire back but it was too hard for her to fight against its strength and weight.

Its sharp fangs were approaching her neck every second. She could smell its vile breath, which was making her feel disgusted and fear.

“Damn...it...” With her remaining strength she kept assessing the situation.

The pistol was lying on the floor on her right. She could reach for it but it would be too dangerous, even though it’s just one or two seconds, for her to hold the monster back with one single hand. Any carelessness might be an invitation for it to feast on her.

She could play safe and keep struggling, but her fate would be sealed the moment she was exhausted and completely outmatched.

The vampire roared with what sounded like a laughter and continued pushing down, as if it knew it was on the upper hand here. Staring at the juicy meal within it reach, it couldn’t stop its saliva dripping down on Claire’s neck.

There’s not much time left. What mattered was to act.