Aftermath

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Chapter Three

Claire Redfield looked down Sherry Birkin, who lay asleep beside her. Almost as soon as they drove away from the train yard, Sherry passed right out, and Claire was inclined to let her sleep. The poor girl deserved a rest. She gently brushed Sherry’s hair from her face and smiled, then leaned back and watched as the Arklay Forest passed by outside the truck’s windows.

They had been driving for about half an hour, according to her digital clock on the truck’s dashboard, just following the train tracks through the forest. Claire wasn’t sure where the tracks led, but once they made it through the mountains they had to reach some other city soon. Although exactly what they were going to do when they reached it, Claire had no idea.

Seated on the other side of Sherry was Leon Kennedy, driving the truck quietly, keeping his eyes sharp for anything in front of them. Claire felt that he must have been running on some bottomless reserve of stamina, because he didn’t even look tired. After everything that they had been through, Leon was still awake and alert, on the lookout for any new obstacles or dangers. He had not calmed down or relaxed since they left the city behind them. Claire didn’t know how he did it. It was a good thing that he was driving, because Claire probably would have fallen asleep at the wheel.

She must have been smiling, because Leon glanced at her and said, “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” she said softly. “It’s just you, that’s all.”

“What about me?”

“I don’t know, you just look so serious. We made it out alive, you know. You can relax now.”

Leon shook his head. “No, not yet. I’ll relax when we’re completely out of this forest and in protective custody someplace. I’ll relax when we are far, far away from Raccoon City.”

“I don’t think any zombies are going to chase us down out here.”

“There’s more than zombies out tonight.”

Claire admitted that he had a point, but she still didn’t think anything was going to come after them. They might not be in a completely safe place yet, but they were on their way. She didn’t think they were in any more danger.

“I think we’ll be fine. You just worry too much. You’re such a boy scout,” she said, and then giggled at herself.

“I was a boy scout, as a matter of fact,” Leon replied, deadpan.

“Why am I not surprised? You must have earned all the merit badges.”

“Yeah,” Leon said. “In fact, they’ll have to make a new merit badge for me now. A badge for escaping a zombie infestation.”

Claire laughed, even though it wasn’t that funny. It just felt good to be able to laugh at something. She hadn’t been able to laugh much in the last 24 hours. Sherry rustled beside her and mumbled something, but her eyes remained closed and she soon returned to sleep.

What were they going to do now? Could they just go straight to the police and tell them what happened? Or maybe go the local FBI office instead of local police? And what would they tell them? “Hello, we just escaped from a nearby city that is infested with the undead?” Claire couldn’t help but think they would be committed to a mental ward. But they had to tell the authorities somehow.

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

Leon rubbed his cheek thoughtfully. “I’ve been thinking about that. The first thing we have to do is find out what people already know. Check the news, read the paper, figure out what information is already out there.”

“There have to be other survivors, right?”

“I certainly hope so, but I think that Umbrella found most of them and took them away. They had blocks on all the roads, remember? There might not be any other survivors who made it out of the city who aren’t in Umbrella’s custody.”

“Yeah,” Claire agreed, looking out the window, thinking to herself. “I hadn’t thought of that. But people have to know something is wrong if they blocked the roads.”

“I think they must have jammed all phone signals too,” Leon said. “They couldn’t risk anyone calling out. That would cause a lot of questions. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the local cities around here are investigating already, trying to figure out what’s going on. So first, we have to figure out what they already know about the epidemic.”

“And if they don’t know anything about it? What do we tell them?”

Leon shrugged. “I don’t know yet.”

“You’ll think of something,” Claire said supportively.

And she knew that he would. Ever since she had first met him, Leon had always known what to do. Claire could not even count the number of questions she’d asked him, how many times she had not known what to do or where to go, and depended on Leon to solve their problems. He always figured out what to do next. How many times had she pestered and nagged at him? Thinking back, she realized how much a pest she must have been, always bothering him with questions. Sherry did too, but she was only a child.

But Leon never snapped at them, never got angry, never got frustrated. He never once lost his temper or lost hope, he never once failed them. Claire didn’t know how he managed to handle all the stress he must have felt. He didn’t ask to be their leader, but he accepted the responsibility without complaint. Claire knew that if she had not met Leon, she would be dead right now. Leon saved her life half a dozen times, and never once asked for anything in return, not even a simple thank you. It was time for her to give him one.

“Thank you,” Claire said softly.

Leon glanced at her. “For what?”

“For everything. For saving my life. For saving both our lives.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” Leon said, shrugging it off.

“Yes, I do,” Claire insisted. She felt a tightness in her chest, and realized that her eyes were filling with tears. “You didn’t have to stay with me and Sherry. You could have run away and saved yourself at any time, but you stayed with us, even right at the end. When that monster cornered us on the platform, you … you tried to protect us. You could have tried to save yourself, but you didn’t leave even when we were all going to die ...”

She choked and felt tears spill down her cheeks, wiping them away with the back of her hand, pushing back the urge to break down into sobs.

Leon reached out his hand and she fumbled for it, gripping it tightly. She wiped her eyes and cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure.

“I don’t think I’m a hero,” Leon said quietly. “I just try to do the right thing. If I was really a hero then I could have saved everyone. I could have saved Ada, and that woman we found in the lab, and I could have saved the Chief of Police, and those Umbrella soldiers I ran into before I met you. A hero would have saved all of them. But I’m just a regular guy.”

“You saved me and you saved Sherry,” Claire said with a sad smile. “That makes you a pretty big hero to me.”

“You saved my life too, and you saved Sherry as well. So I guess we’re both heroes.”

“Then Sherry is a hero too, isn’t she?”

Leon smiled and looked down at the sleeping child in between them. “She’s the biggest hero of all. She’s braver and stronger than both of us put together.”

Claire wiped her eyes again and sighed, letting Leon’s hand slip free from hers. She rested her head against the seat and put her hands in her lap, and Leon returned both hands to the steering wheel and focused his attention on the dark stretch of railroad tracks in front of them.

“What are we going to do when this is all over?” Claire asked. “I don’t know if I can ever go back to a normal life after this.”

“Well, my career in law enforcement ended before it even began,” Leon said. “I think I might go back to the military after this is all over. I think they could use someone with my experience.”

“What branch of the service were you in?” Claire asked.

“The Rangers,” Leon said with some pride.

She smiled. “My brother Chris was in the Air Force. I thought about enlisting too, I thought it might be cool to drive tanks.”

“What do you do for a living?” Leon asked. “It’s funny that we’ve spent all day together, and I really don’t know anything about you.”

“We haven’t exactly had time to sit and talk about our lives,” Claire said with a chuckle. “Maybe now’s a good time to get to know each other. Anyway, I work in a real estate office right now. I’ve been meaning to go back to college and maybe become a teacher.”

“What subject?”

“Oh, I don’t know. English, I guess. That sounds easy.”

Leon laughed and said, “Sounds pretty hard to me. I almost failed English in high school once. They tried to make me read Moby Dick and I just couldn’t handle it.”

“Got any family?” Claire asked.

“Other than my parents, not really. I’m an only child and my folks live in Florida. My dad owns a couple of pizza restaurants down there. What about you?”

“My parents live in Virginia. Chris is my only sibling, and him and me are pretty close, I guess. I’m not married or anything, and I guess you aren’t either.”

“No, not married,” Leon said, shaking his head.

“No girlfriend?”

“Not at the moment.”

“You and I should go out sometime,” Claire said casually.

Leon grinned and looked at her curiously. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“Yeah,” Claire said. “I think I am. When this is all over, we should go out for dinner and actually get to know each other. We can have a real conversation without worrying about monsters sneaking up behind us.”

“I think I’d like that,” Leon said. “You got yourself a date.”

Claire smiled and was going to respond, when a light flashed up ahead of them on the train tracks, distracting them. Leon took his foot off the gas just as more lights popped into view, and then suddenly a pair of huge flood lights burst on, illuminating the entire area. Leon hit the brakes and the truck skidded to a halt on the stones.

“Leon,” Claire said nervously.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said.

All around them, Umbrella soldiers appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, wielding assault rifles. Leon instinctively raised his hands, and Claire did the same. The soldiers surrounded the truck, standing well away from it, and a loud voice boomed out from a megaphone somewhere.

“Please exit the vehicle,” the voice said calmly. “Keep your hands in the air. If you do not follow my orders, you will be shot.”

“Oh my God,” Claire whispered.

“Just do what he says,” Leon said quickly, pushing open his door.

Claire shook Sherry awake and she sat up sleepily, blinking against the bright lights shining through the windshield. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Where are we?”

“It’s okay, Sherry,” Claire said nervously, opening her door as well. “We’re safe, but we have to get out of the truck now.” She got out and pulled Sherry free, setting her down in the grass.

Sherry held up her hand to block the light and stared out at the crowd of soldiers. Claire stood protectively next to her, while Leon stepped to the front of the truck, keeping his hands in plain sight.

“Congratulations,” a man said as he stepped into view. He was a very tall man in an Umbrella uniform, with dark brown skin and a bald head that gleamed in the light from the floods. He folded his hands behind his back and looked across at the three of them. “You are the first survivors we have seen here. I am glad that you made it out of the city.” He spoke in a clipped African accent and smiled genially at them, although the other soldiers did not lower their weapons.

“Are we under arrest?” Leon asked.

“Do we look like police officers?” the man said with a chuckle. “Forgive me, but we cannot afford to take chances, now can we? We must be assured that you are not carrying any trace of the disease. I’m sure you understand.”

He gestured at his men and they finally lowered their weapons. He then waved at Claire and Sherry and stepped aside, motioning for them to walk ahead. They didn’t know what else to do, so they followed instructions and walked along the tracks in the direction of the flood lights.

“My name is Captain Dosu Obasanjo,” the Umbrella commander said as he walked behind them. “I’m sure you have questions, but sadly, I cannot answer them for you. My job here is to take survivors into our custody and begin their decontamination process. After that, you will be sent to a nearby facility where you will receive further treatment.”

“And then what?” Leon asked.

Obasanjo shrugged theatrically. “I’m afraid I cannot answer that. I have not been given that much information. Please, continue forward. The decontamination tent is just ahead.”

“What kind of decontamination?” Claire asked worriedly. Sherry clutched her side for dear life, keeping her eyes looking straight forward.

“It is a series of cleaning agents,” Obasanjo said with a friendly smile. “It will remove any trace of contaminants from your skin and hair.”

“But we’re not infected with the virus,” Claire said.

“I believe you, but you may still carry it unknowingly on your clothing or skin. Before we release you, we must be certain that all traces of the disease are gone.”

Obasanjo made it sound very simple and easy, but Claire had a terrible feeling about what was about to happen. There were three large white tents set up along the tree line, brightly illuminated by the flood lights, with several men wearing white hazard suits loitering out front. The Umbrella soldiers accompanied them all the way to the tents, guns at the ready the entire time. Claire could not imagine what they were trying to prevent; did they honestly think one of them might try to run away? An escort of one or two armed soldiers would have been enough to keep anyone in line, there was no need to send an army along with them.

One of the hazard suits approached them. Inside was a woman who appeared to be in her forties or fifties, but it was hard to tell. She looked weary and short-tempered, and jerked her arm at the nearest tent. “You, in there,” she said to Leon, and then pointed at the other tents. “You two, over there.”

“Why are we being separated?” Leon asked immediately.

“The decontamination must be done individually,” Obasanjo answered from behind them. “One person per tent. For privacy reasons.”

“Privacy?” Claire said.

The woman in the hazard suit glared at them. “Just get in the damn tent.”

“Fine,” Leon said, turning to look at Claire and Sherry. “I guess I’ll see you in a little bit.”

“Yeah,” Claire said uncertainly, as Leon entered the first tent, the woman following after him.

Sherry, her hands trembling slightly on Claire’s arm, looked up at her. “I don’t like this,” she said in a strained voice.

“I don’t like it either,” Claire agreed, “but I don’t think we have a choice.”

“That is correct,” Obasanjo said pleasantly. “You don’t have a choice, so please continue. I promise you will be reunited once the decontamination is complete.”

Claire and Sherry walked over to the next tent, the armed soldiers escorting them, with Captain Obasanjo walking a few paces behind. His friendly, polite behavior was probably intended to reassure her and make her feel safe, but it was having almost the exact opposite effect. She had no reason to trust him, especially since he was acting helpful and friendly while still ordering his men point their guns at her. It did not exactly foster a sense of safety.

Three more people in hazard suits came out to direct them inside. “Come with me,” a young man said, and then gestured at Sherry. “She can use the other one.”

Sherry immediately gripped Claire’s arm harder and pressed up next to her, and Claire held her protectively, shaking her head, “No way, we stay together.”

“I don’t think so. You’re not in charge here. You’re coming with me and she’s going over there, and that’s all there is to it.”

“No!” Sherry cried, grabbing onto Claire even tighter.

“She’s just a girl!” Claire snapped.

“Grab her,” the man said.

The two others in hazard suits came up and grabbed Claire’s arms, pulling her away from Sherry. Another hazard suit appeared behind them and grabbed Sherry, yanking her back. She wailed and screamed, swinging her arms and kicking her feet. “Claire!”

“Let me go, God damn it!” Claire shouted, fighting them, but they held her arms fast and pulled her away.

“Stop!” Captain Obasanjo bellowed. His voice was like a rifle shot, and everyone immediately froze in place as if by hypnotic command. Obasanjo strode forward and snapped, “I am in charge here, is that understood?”

The man in the hazard suit reluctantly nodded, “Yes.”

“There is no need for violence,” Obasanjo said, glancing over at Claire. “I apologize, miss. However, you will see that it is necessary to separate you. Again, I promise that you will be together again shortly.”

Sherry was crying, and the hazard suit held her with both hands to keep her from running away. Obasanjo walked over to her and knelt down, although he still remained several feet away, and looked at her with a gentle, concerned expression.

“What is your name, little girl?” he asked.

Sherry wiped her face with a shaking hand and whispered, “Sherry.”

“Sherry, you must be a very strong and brave girl. You are one of the only children I have seen that made it out of the city. You must be very brave to have lived through that. Well, I must ask you to be very brave one more time. You must let these men do their job, Sherry. It is very important. I give you my word that once the decontamination is complete, you can be with your friends again. It will not take very long, but it must be done. Can you do that for me, Sherry?”

Sherry didn’t give him an answer, but she seemed to calm down a little bit. Obasanjo smiled and nodded to the hazard suit, who then relaxed his grip on Sherry. Instead of fighting against him again, she allowed him to escort her to the last tent, although she looked over her shoulder at Claire the entire time.

“Thank you for that,” Claire said softly.

“Do not thank me,” Obasanjo said, his voice carrying a trace of remorse. “I should warn you that the decontamination process is not a pleasant one.”

Claire was then led inside the tent, and its entrance was zipped up by another person in a white hazard suit. Claire was shocked to see almost a dozen hazard suits in the tent already, standing around and looking at her curiously. Large white fluorescent lights hung from the top of the tent, making the whole interior shine a blinding white. The front half of the tent had several long tables with computers and other strange equipment she did not recognize, and the back half was basically empty. There was an open area with hard plastic flooring and a drain in the middle. Since the tent was not a permanent structure, Claire guessed that the drain led to a transportable pump somewhere outside, but the presence of the drain itself made Claire very nervous.

One of the suits came up to her, and Claire saw that it was an older man wearing glasses with thick black frames. Like all the others, only his face was visible inside the large helmet of his suit. He cleared his throat and said, “My name is Dr. Howard. I assume that Captain Obasanjo gave you some indication of what the decontamination involves?”

“He said that you used cleaning agents to remove any trace of the virus that I might be carrying,” Claire said.

“Yes, that’s part of it.” He hesitated, as if waiting for a response, but Claire didn’t know what to say to him. After a few seconds, Dr. Howard shifted his stance uncomfortably and said, “Ma’am, you’ll have to remove your clothing.”

Claire stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“You’ll have to take your clothes off. Everything, even any jewelry you might –”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Claire said. “I’m not taking my clothes off. If you want to decontaminate me, you can do it with my clothes on.”

“I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. We cannot do this if you are clothed.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then you will never leave this tent.”

Claire wanted to snap at him, but she suddenly felt the crushing weight of her situation sinking in, like an oncoming thunderstorm. She was surrounded by a dozen people, and she couldn’t possibly fight them. If they were going to force her, then they could do it. And even if she managed to get out of the tent, then what? Face off against fifty armed soldiers with automatic weapons? Her legs suddenly felt weak, and she felt light-headed, as if she was going to faint.

“I’m very sorry,” Howard said, and she believed he was actually telling the truth. “It has to be this way. We will not risk the possibility of the disease spreading outside of the city. You must understand how deadly serious this is.”

“Okay, okay,” Claire said in a weak voice. “What about my clothes, then? Will I get them back, or are you just going to burn them?”

“If you want to keep these clothes, then we’ll do our best to get them back to you.”

Claire closed her eyes and stepped out into the middle of the tent, away from the hazard suits, and removed all of her clothes, dropping them into a small pile. Her boots, her black jeans, and her pink sleeveless jacket. Then her black t-shirt and her socks and underwear. She didn’t have any jewelry like a necklace or earrings; the only other thing she wore was the scrunchie that tied her hair. She pulled it off and dropped it on top of the pile and stepped onto the plastic platform with the drain, keeping her back to the others. She covered herself with her hands, feeling foolish for doing so, but she could not just face them like this. She had to maintain a shred of her dignity.

“We have to apply a solution first,” Howard said from behind her. “It may feel a little cold. You’ll have to turn around so that the solution covers you completely.”

As soon as he was finished talking, Claire heard the splash of liquid and then it ran across the floor to the drain, pooling around her bare feet. It was cold, but Claire did not have time to complain, as they quickly raised the spray so that it splashed across her legs and up her back, spraying from a hose although the pressure was not very high. Claire did as she was told and slowly turned around so that the spray splashed across her front as well, and soaked into her hair, leaving her dripping and shivering once they were done spraying her.

“This is the cleanser,” Howard said. “It will sting. I recommend that you keep your eyes very tightly closed.”

When they hit her with the cleaning spray, Claire let out a gasp of pain. It felt like they were blasting her with hydrochloric acid. She groaned and leaned over, gritting her teeth as the corrosive spray splashed down her arms and legs and then across her torso. She gave up any attempts to cover herself, and used her hands to block the spray from hitting her directly in the face, opening her mouth long enough to squeak and squeal in pain. The spray lasted longer than the other one, seemingly lasting for hours. Her whole body throbbed and stung in pain, and when it was finally over, she managed to pry her eyes open to look down at her skin. She expected it to be red and raw, but surprisingly, it didn’t appear to have burned or scalded her at all, despite the pain.

“Close your eyes again,” Howard said. “I’m sorry, but this one will be much worse.”

Claire turned away as they sprayed her with the next cleanser, and as soon as it struck her back and legs, she let out a shriek of pain, almost falling over. It was like being sprayed with boiling oil, the pain so bad she could barely stand. There were two people spraying her this time, one on each side, so that she couldn’t escape the agonizing spray as it splashed all over her body. She cried out in pain and shrunk down to her knees, the spray blasting into her hair and dripping down her face, burning her every moment. She curled herself in a protective ball and slumped down onto the plastic, crying in pain and praying that it would stop, but it kept going as they continued to spray her, making sure that the cleanser covered her completely. It felt like she was being flayed alive, every inch of her exposed skin burning in pain.

Finally, after an eternity, it stopped. A few seconds later, they sprayed her lightly with something else, but this time it didn’t burn. Claire realized it was simply water, washing away the cleansing solution. She got onto her hands and knees and then stood up somewhat unsteadily, gasping in relief as the corrosive cleaner was washed away. She leaned forward to let them spray her hair, making sure that she was rinsed completely clean.

When that was done, one of them handed her a white towel. But when she took it, she realized it wasn’t fabric or cloth, it was more like a soft, semi-transparent paper. She was thankful for it just the same, and wrapped it around herself like a towel, brushing her dripping hair back behind her head. Claire realized why Obasanjo told her not to thank him. As bad as it was for her, Claire did not even want to think about how bad it must be for Sherry. She wanted to hate Umbrella for it, for forcing people to submit to such an indignity after they had already gone through such terrible events in the city.

But deep down, she knew that it was a necessary evil. It just seemed cruel and malicious to do the decontamination in such a degrading way; surely there were easier, less invasive ways to ensure that the disease was not being spread out of the city. And Sherry was still just a child. Performing the decontamination on her was almost unconscionable.

“So that’s it?” she said, her voice still weak. “It’s over?”

“Unfortunately not,” Howard said, helping her step away from the platform. “But the worst part is done. We still have to do a full body scan as final test to make sure that you are fully decontaminated. After that, you’ll be done.”

“And then what?”

“Well, you’ll probably be sent to one of the recovery centers for further treatment, counseling, rehabilitation, that sort of thing. But once you leave here, you are free to do as you wish.”

“What about clothes?”

“Oh, we have some clothes for you to change into. Just simple pants and shirts, like medical scrubs. Once we’re finished processing your personal clothes, you can have them back as well if you want.”

They instructed her to lie down on a white table and scanned her with a device that looked like an X-ray machine. She didn’t know exactly what they were scanning her with, and she didn’t much care, she just wanted out. But after the cleaning spray, she was too tired to offer much resistance. She desperately wanted to go to sleep.

“I thought you handled the decontamination rather well, if I may say so,” Howard commented as he watched a pair of monitors displaying the scan results. “We’ve had a few people that fared much worse. A few of them screamed and begged for us to stop and could not stop crying afterward. Not that I blame them, of course. I may have done the same in their position. But you suffered it much better than some others.”

“Yeah, well,” Claire muttered. “It’s not the worst thing that’s happened to me today.”

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