*Preview Progress of....* Two Survivors Together- Resident Evil Two Remake- For Z

*No smut appears as of yet in this story, slowburn one. Everyone is over eighteen,etc.

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Chapter One- Welcome To Raccoon City

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'They say when you're arriving inside of the big city from out of a smaller town to be careful yet don't be afraid that the residents there will bite. Oh boy, was I wrong in that assumption when driving past the city limit sign just outside the gas station saying "Welcome to Raccoon City" not two hours ago? If nothing else, at least I met a cute guy, one who was a survivor like me and perhaps the only shred of hope I have for enduring this nightmare on my journey to find my brother....' 

-Claire Redfield-

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From a certain woman's Point of View-

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Driving past the last city limit scene displaying the speed limit for the freeway leading into town was a lone individual riding at a fast yet steadily moderated speed atop a Harley Davidson Motorcycle. The night was dark and the air was moist with the shallow rainfall that came with small gusts of wind. Everything from the road to the horizon of lights bleeding into the city was becoming harder to see despite how much closer she was getting to the entrance of Raccoon City. She revved the handlebars a bit more as she sped up just a bit longer, remembering to make a phone call once she found a phone booth somewhere, but a quick look at her gas gauge motivated her to do something else in a hurry as the rainy wind rushed past her cheeks.

'Hm, shit, guess I'd better go ahead and put gas in. I was really not paying attention to that gauge, wasn't I?  It's a good thing I see a gas station just ahead. I need to make a phone call quickly so that I'm not worried about it and I could also go for a snack too on top of putting in some gas.' She thought to herself and continued speeding toward the gas station she saw with the dimly lit sign saying 'Mizoil' gas station on the side of the road over to the right.

The woman started reducing her speed on the motorcycle and slowed to a crawl when pulling into the driveway and parking the motorcycle next to a random gas pump station. The fluorescent lights of the covering canopy were on and the store's windows showed some display of lighting inside yet...something was amiss as she had kicked out the kickstand when looking around. She was a fairly tall yet modestly fit young woman with a slightly slender figure, but her feminine grace peeked through her pair of skintight jeans and trendy red ladies' jacket. 

She pulled up her motorcycle helmet and undid the latches before taking it off completely, freeing her chestnut hair done in its ponytail hanging at the back of her head with two wavy bangs dripping down the sides of her forehead. Her goggles came off with it, showcasing her beguiling blueish-green eyes as she flossed a hand through the side of her head, letting out a soft breath when taking in her surroundings. She was a very attractive young woman of college age, sporting fairly light skin with a smooth complexion and supple red lips that went well with her cute appearance. She unzipped part of her red jacket, letting it split down the middle to the collarbone, showing off her dark tank top with a necklace pendant worn around her neck.

"Hm, it is late right now, maybe there's only a skeleton crew of one guy running the place. Still....this place is a freaking mess, even for a gas station." She said to herself as she got off her bike and took the keys into her hand, pocketing them into her right back pocket and proceeding over to the phone booth she saw a few feet away.

Walking over and opening it, casting a curious glance at her surroundings again when noticing a parked police car close by, one that was left with its lights on. This made Claire Redfield perk an eyebrow in slight suspicion, but she ultimately shrugged off her thoughts when placing just enough change into the phone booth coin slot. Picking up the receiver and dialing in a certain number back 'home' where she came from, the girl waited for the ringing to follow as she brushed a wet lock of hair out from in front of her face.

Rrrring....rrrrinng...rrriing...click!

..

"Hello?" Another girl's voice spoke up from the other line and Claire leaned into the receiver closely with a friendly smile on her face.

"Hey Elza, I'm here, kinda...I've made it just fine and am at a gas station right now. So no need to worry about little old me, okay?  Your college roommate hasn't gotten lost or kidnapped by strange men...yet.~" Claire said into the phone, hearing a deep sigh of relief from the other woman.

"Jesus, Claire, you had me worried sick. It's been nearly a whole day since I last heard from you. For crying out loud, you can't blame me for being worried since..you're you...and you always get into trouble. I take it you're on the hunt for Chris then? You should know that just because he hasn't contacted you in weeks doesn't mean anything. He's a special-ops guy, right? It's only natural." The other woman's voice said into the line, making Claire frown slightly as she turned her head to look in the direction of Raccoon city in the distance then look at the messy gas station that left her with a small sense of unease.

"Yeah well, it's unusual for him. He never misses a check-up with me, even on a mission. Besides, I want to surprise him by stopping by his workplace and embarrassing him in front of all of his coworkers. What adorable little sister wouldn't do that for her tough-as-nails older brother? He practically raised me and, I just have a feeling is all. Once I'm all good here, I'll be on my way back in no time at all, so don't grow any gray hair worrying about me. It is like you're my mother, I already have Chris for that since..we don't have any parents to speak of. So relax.~" Claire added.

"I'm not growing any grey hair, I'm younger than you, bitch. Anyway, good luck on that front then, hope you get your fill embarrassing him and checking up on him before you head back. Preferably during a sunny day since I hear it's very rainy over there. I'll be whipping up a batch of your favorite kind of pizza as soon as I hear back from you okay? Stay out of trouble, Claire.~"

Claire rolled her eyes playfully and let out a giggle.

"Sounds good, I'm just going to find Chris and I'll be back, Elza. Later, will probably call back in a day or two. Keep that pizza ready for me when I head back. Byeee...~" Claire bade farewell into the phone receiver before hanging it back into place and walking out of the booth with a perky smile on her face. "Since when do I always get into trouble? Oh ye of little faith, Elza.~

Casting a look around as she walked toward the gas station store, noticing that literally nobody was around despite hearing some odd noises in the distance.

"Hello?" Claire asked nobody in particular as she grew increasingly concerned. Walking up to the front door, she pushed it open and noticed that the entire interior was completely darkened as though a storm hit the power supply and created a blackout. "Hello...? Anybody here?"

Bringing out her survival flashlight from her side pocket, Claire turned it on and started tracking it around the scenery with growing wariness. Once the light showed her more, she saw that everything was a mess with shelves knocked over and various things scattered around the ground. It was almost as if a riot happened yet...there was nothing missing from the shelves.

'Okay...this looks unsettling...' She thought to herself before walking even further and noticing a few splotches of what appeared to be blood on the floor. Claire's eyes widened a bit as she swallowed the lump in her throat, dismissing the messiness of red as something else. 'That...could be a hot sauce or something else, no reason to assume it's blood now....'

Taking a few steps further in and making the flashlight illuminate this and that, Claire felt her heart become stricken a bit with shock when she saw the Gas Station attendant himself resting against the side of a cooler wall keeping a hand pressed into his bloodied neck.

"Oh my god! Are you okay...? What happened here...?!" She asked gently with a growing alarm, hearing only slightly ragged breathing coming from him as he kept nursing his wound. He was a bald, tanned-skinned man wearing an employee uniform who wouldn't look up to meet Claire's eyes when he pointed to the backroom over to his left with his finger. 'Alright, shit just got real. Something did happen here...and I'm going to find out what and help however I can.  Fuck, I wasn't expecting to come into this kind of thing when showing up outside of the city.'

Claire cast a look in the direction of the stock room and quickly gestured for the man to remain calm as she became alert.

"Wait here, I'll go check it out." She said in affirmation before walking through the doorway leading into the backside interior of the gas station. Her light was kept steady in her hand as she noticed more mess in the form of various beer cans strewn across the floor.

Taking a few steps further, Claire noticed the door all the way in back appearing opened, but halfway down the hallway she heard a loud shutting sound from behind.

!

Twisting her head around and rushing back to her entry point, she saw that the door she walked in through had closed in on her.

"Hey..! What the hell..!? Did you just lock the door on me...!?" She yelled out, briefly slamming her right fist on the surface, but to no avail. Claire didn't know what to make of this as she turned around to continue heading back down the aisle leading to the only opened door she saw. 'Really hope that wasn't intentional, but if it was...why would he do that?'

The closer she got, the more scuffling noises she heard till she reached the supply room and her flashlight showed upon the sight of the owner of the police car outside holding back some pale-looking man. He was a police officer that patrols the borders of the city and he was struggling with all of his might against something...that didn't look entirely human to Claire.

"Hey..! Are you okay..? I'm..here to help..!" She called out to him when shining her flashlight on them both, only urging the man to continue holding back the assailant who was gargling like some kind of monster when the officer turned his head back to Claire in urgency.

"Stay back..! I can handle this..! Seriously, don't get too close..! This--aaaghghh!" The man had tried calling out while holding out his arm, only for the monstrous-looking person he was wrestling against to overpower him by tackling him to the ground! Time felt like it froze for Claire as the pale-skinned person let out a monstrous gurgling noise not even remotely human as it sunk its teeth into the man's neck, tearing open red strips of exposed flesh on sight!

"Get off him! Get off him right now!!" She yelled out and prepared to kick the assailant's face in when he turned his head up from the unmoving lump of flesh that used to be the police officer's neck. He was unmoving and bleeding out all over the floor like a freshly cut cattle in a slaughterhouse. 

"Uugarrgghghahhh......!" The formerly human creature with ghost-white eyes, rotten pale flesh, and whose maw was dripping with blood gargled dangerously at Claire.

'Holy shit...what the hell did I just walk into here?' Claire let that fear drain into her soul a bit before she realized her need to protect herself out of preservation, reaching back into the gun holster around her left back pocket to pull out a gun. Her brother Chris had always stressed the dangers of the city and the outside world in general for women like her and trained Claire how to handle firearms for self-defense. Pulling out what appeared to be a classic six-shot handgun and loading it in the blink of an eye, Claire aimed shakily at the monstrous person now staggering toward her. "Don't come any closer..! I mean it...! Step back or else I'll...!"

"Uurraggghhghhh...arggghahhh..gghhgh!" The creature, formerly a human and formerly a man, gargled nonsensically like a deranged monster when sauntering over to Claire with it's rotten teeth out ready to chomp down on her flesh. 

Bracing herself and pulling down on the trigger, Claire squeezed it firmly and let out a couple of shots.

Loud, explosive gunfire echoed out from inside the room as bullets flew into the creature's head...! Thick splashes of blood gushed out yet it was still standing, albeit wobbling a little after being staggered by the force of those bullets. Claire fearfully took a couple of steps back and kept her aim focused solely on its head, noticing that the two shots didn't exactly land near its brain, only in other parts of its face that were non-vital.

The creature let out another bestial growl of gurgling blood before trying to lunge at Claire again, only for her to squeeze the trigger one last time which sent a third bullet straight into the direct center of its cranium causing a mess of brain chunks to fly out into the wall behind it.

!

"Graagghhhh---!" The 'Zombie' fell to the floor dead, unmoving and Claire was still feeling her heart racing with panic as she began to navigate the stock room in a hurry to get out.

"Okay..! Wow...I just killed a guy, albeit a monstrous...zombified guy...after seeing him kill a state trooper in front of me...! Fuck me....what the hell did I just do...?" Claire asked aloud to herself in disbelief, still reeling from the shock and sight of what she saw after hurrying past their unmoving bodies. She found another door, perhaps leading out into the back and into the outside, but when she grabbed the handle and tried opening it, she found that it was locked. 'Damnit..! Gotta find a key..and quick... before something else shows up..! Where is it now...? Ah..! There..!'

She feared for her life yet kept the gun ready as she sprinted over to an opened supply cabinet on the other side of the room, showing her the backdoor key and quickly grabbing it. Casting one last look at the unmoving body of the cop, Claire pushed back the fear of vomit into her mouth as she hurried past his body again to unlock the door. Her hands were shaking as she twisted the latch open, pushing into the other side of the interior of the gas station where she was prior. It was the other end from when she first got in and found the same kind of chaotic mess greeting her again as well as something else that pushed its way out from behind a toppled shelf.

!

"Uurraaarrghghhhhh!!" Another zombie came out with its bloodied, mutilated face as it was once a dark-skinned man now messy with blood and torn clothing. He immediately tried grabbing Claire by the shoulders before she could hoist her gun up and shoot.

"Aahh..! G-g-get off of me...! Guguhhh!" She screeched out in terror, using all her strength to ward him off and prevent him from sinking those rotten teeth into her flesh. With all the force she could muster, she brought her right foot up to push him back down after kicking him square in the stomach with enough force to topple him..! 

Just then, the gas station clerk from earlier, the one who had been bitten in the neck, sauntered after Claire from behind with his arms outstretched and maw wide open. She initially let out a shriek in terror, feeling her heart race after he had managed to grab onto her arms from behind to prevent her from turning around, his rotten teeth were exposed and he was about to sink them into her exposed neck when Claire pivoted the gun enough from inside of her right hand to fire off a backshot into his face.

pop!

Out came the bullet and through his temple from the side it went, causing the zombified clerk to fall back and falter enough for Claire to get free and elbow him in the face. With a loud 'crunch' of her elbow meeting rotten flesh and bone, she caused the zombie to fall back entirely and hurried on through the store to the front door exit in a mad rush.

"This is a freaking nightmare..! I gotta get out of here! I gotta hurry and get the hell out of this place...!" Claire said to herself, feeling her heart racing a mile a minute as she rushed past the middle of the store, only for another zombie to come out from behind a toppled shelf in an attempt to attack her. 

Rraaggghhghhh!" It let out the usual growl of something inhumane and monstrous that had formerly been human when trying to grab Claire through the wire shelf, but to no avail. She quickly brushed it off as she made a beeline for the door, running as fast as she could while the creature stumbled clumsily onto the floor behind her.

Claire was running for her life with her left hand reaching for the door's push handle when all of a sudden, it bolted open from the other side....revealing a non-zombified man about her age with a gun of his own pointed north past her head.

!

"Aah...! W-w-wait, don't shoot..!" She instinctively said out of instinct despite feeling the rush of terror flow through her body as well as a glimmer of hope.

"Get down..!" He yelled out at her, causing Claire to duck immediately in haste just in time for another zombie behind her to get shot square in the face through its brain by the newcomer's handgun. She felt a small wave of relief at first when she saw that it was dead and was immediately helped up by the man and quickly led out of the gas station with her grun firmly held in her right hand.

"W-we gotta get out of here..!" She let out, casting a brief look into his eyes and feeling her chest stir a bit because she saw not only his boyish good looks up close but also unwavering courage in the face of this honest-to-god nightmare made flesh. Things were still intense and in a panic of chaos as she was out in front of the store beside him. 'Good news, I'm not bitten and I didn't waste too many bullets fighting for my life back there and then fleeing for it, but bad news...is still all of this...! I have no idea what's happening or why...! B-but at least, there's someone here with me. Someone..who just saved my life...and maybe can help me deal with this nightmare a little better...'

He turned his head to her, keeping himself in alert mode in their briefest moments of peace.

"You alright?" He asked in a confident yet somewhat shaky voice as he eyes a few dozen more 'visitor's converging on the gas station from all around.

"Y-yeah...I think so...thanks.~" Claire replied, feeling truly and immensely grateful '

She saw him looking ahead at a sight most horrific which made her silently choke up in fight. All around them were zombies from every direction converging on their location and boxing them in one staggered step at a time.

"You thank me later when we're safe...." He said, gesturing to all their new 'friends' coming to greet them with rotten teeth and bloodied jaws, making Claire worry even more when she looked back and saw one of the zombies inside the store clawing at the windowed surface with a mutilated face chomping at the sight of her. 

"Shit..! W-what do we do now..!?" She asked aloud in a panic and the man, whose name she didn't know yet, gestured for her to hurry along with him as he made a path toward the police car left unattended.

"Come on..! Get in..!" He urged, rushing past one zombie and elbowing it hard in the face before kicking it down to clear his path. Claire gathered up all the courage she had and hurried to the car as well, outmaneuvering one zombie only to run into another before smashing the butt of her gun square its face and throwing it to the side. She used all her strength doing that as she saw him get in, quickly placing herself in the passenger side of the police vehicle when they closed the doors and he had started up the car. 

Zombies from all over were trying to surround them and claw at their windows till he put the car in reverse and sped back over a few of them in the process of leaving the gas station driveway, making Claire hear more than a few sickening crunching noises of flesh meets pavement as he shifts into 'Drive' and proceeds to speed the hell out of there...granting them safety for the time being. She looked back and bade goodbye to her beloved motorcycle and 'hello' to the new world of nightmarish zombie-infested hell she unwittingly found herself in when looking for her brother.

'If I wasn't sure before that something horrible was going on, now I'm one hundred percent sure that Chris might be in danger with all this going on. I can't even begin to describe what I saw and I still can't believe it completely, but....fucking A...this is....something I'm going to have to do everything I can to survive. At least...I'm not alone, thank goodness I ran into this guy right here. Hm, he's pretty easy on the eyes too if I'm being honest...' Claire thought to herself, taking a moment to calm her chest and let out a series of steady breaths as the winds blew past the car. "W-what the hell is going on? I just g-g-got here..when all of this suddenly happened to me...what with the store clerk and the...other law enforcement officer I saw back in that gas station..getting his neck chewed out like a slab of meat...ugh...!"

She was scared, that was no lie, but Claire was braving it regardless. All of it was made easier just by having a companion with her who was capable yet also hardly as rattled as she made herself appear to be. She hoped she didn't come off as too terrified in front of him for a reason, not wanting to be thought of as a burden in case things get crazy again.

Keeping his eyes on the road and shaking his head to her question, the man spoke up with a calm and collected voice that betrayed the nervousness he felt rattling his system.

"I don't know.... hopefully they'll have some answers at the police station. I just barely got here myself..when seeing all of this." He answered, making Claire perk an eyebrow and do a quick scan of his body to see if he had any noticeable decorations befitting that of a police officer after he just admitted to being one.

"W-wait, you're a cop?" She inquired in surprise, realizing he was wearing mostly casual clothing and no uniform. The man relaxed a bit and nodded his head with a friendly smile when answering her, taking the time to look at her from the side which made Claire's heart lurch from inside of her chest a little. She was sure it was just residual shock from the terror she felt back at the gas station, but part of it was that she was finding this man increasingly attractive the longer she spent with him. 

"Yeah, first day on the job if you can believe it. Never imagined I'd stumble upon this kind of situation. The name's Leon Kennedy. You are...?~" He introduced with a relaxed grin, making her smile a bit as well as she introduced herself. 

"Claire-Claire Redfield.~" She introduced, taking his right hand after he relaxed his grip on the wheel a bit to shake it, making Claire's heart lurch inside of her chest a little more till she let go. Despite the chaos and horror she just faced, it felt oddly normal and uplifting to have Leon Kennedy in her life right now as supporting backup. "Pleasure to meet you, wish it was under better circumstances. Heh.~"

"Haha, yeah. Had it been any normal day where two people come to a gas station to fill up, I think we'd be exchanging pleasantries over freeze-dried burritos or a cup of coffee or something. I'm glad I'm not alone in this whacked-out nightmare place, I don't even know what to believe anymore after seeing walking corpses come to life."  Leon exchanged, making Claire grin slyly as she nodded in understanding, completely feeling relatable to the experience he just described. "So you live around here?"

"No, actually I'm here looking for my brother. He's a cop like you." Claire revealed, looking directly at him with a focus on his side and trying to hide the blush appearing on her face. 

"Oh really? It's a good thing we found each other then, I don't know what to expect anymore." Leon added as he continued driving through the rain and tried resisting the urge to stare at Claire from the side as well. In his eyes, she was a very attractive girl who could handle a gun and was, in a sense, a kindred spirit to him as they were both fellow survivors in this nightmare. 

"Yeah, it's a good thing indeed, and I'm totally with you there, Leon. I....just hope Chris is alright and that we all get out of this alive. Let's watch each other's backs, okay?~" Claire said with a hopeful smile, still feeling morose despair in light of the situation yet she was able to hold onto a shred of hope now that she met Leon.