The 0714 Files: File #1 Inferno (Remake 2)

Chapter 45

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Claire grits behind me with a fury on par to what I feel myself, and I turn around to see her staring at Sherry now. The hand on her shoulder tightens like she's trying to reassure the girl in her arms who can barely lift her head off Claire's shoulder long enough to look at her. "Sherry, don't you worry. I will get you whatever you need, okay?"

The way she looks at that little girl, like she's the sole thing to exist. That's how important her safety is to Claire, and at the weak fluttering of her heartbeat when I'd pressed my fingers to her carotid a few minutes ago. She has every right to feel that way. Sherry's sick, and if we can't find a way to help her. She's going to die.

I'll be damned if I lose another child after Emma. After all the others I'd never met but know they're gone, or the one I did see out on the road the morning after the huge pile up. Covered in blood and eating corpses as her father remained inconsolable for days until he too turned.

Sherry. Her name... wasn't that thing in the basement shouting that at Leon and I when we fought it? How could it have possibly known her?

Disregarding the thought for now and taking a step closer. Sherry had mumbled the name "Claire" before she'd been picked up. A name that would be too coincidental to come across an entirely different person in this outbreak with the same name. Come to think of it, the blue eyes, the nose, and even with the feminine aspects as her jaw, she looks a lot like Chris. This must be Claire. She looks like the pixelated person witnessed on the security camera.

"I'll help," and her bright blue eyes meet mine. I simply nod as an act of sincerity; I want her to believe me and trust I mean nothing but honesty. "My name's Madeleine. I was with Leon, but we got separated in here. We tried looking for you in the station," her brows come together at my spew of information, "I worked with your brother in S.T.A.R.S...." I stop for a second when I realize I'm giving too much to process at once. Quietly, "Are you... are you Claire?" I want to confirm that her features are similar to Chris's. I need to hear that this is his sister and I can get her out safe now.

She nods after my mess of an introduction, "I am... You're the woman he found on the road," she states.

I swallow, feeling like that moment was a hundred years ago, "Yeah."

The look in her eyes says she trusts me, lifting a heavy burden from my heart. "Your bag has the S.T.A.R.S. logo printed on it. Figured you'd either raided their room or worked there." Taking a deep breath to calm herself I'm sure, "Alright. Right now, we have to get to the cable car. We gotta get to that lab Annette spoke of," she determines. The simple act reminds me a lot of Chris. How sure he was about everything leading to the night Bravo team disappeared.

Our attention's turn to the doorway, we stare out for a second into the desolate room. The flickering of red and orange from a window to a room is seen in front of us. Answering the previous question of where the smoke is coming from.

There's a pained grimace from Sherry and we're gawking at her in earnest while I step closer to the pair. "Claire..." her lips tremble, another shiver wracks through her body. "Why are you helping me?"

Claire's eyes flit to mine and I imagine we both share the same expression of grief at such an innocent but heartbreaking question, because there's a deeper meaning to it. Why would two strangers go more out of their way for her when not even her own mother would? Her own mother abandoned her for her job... "To stop William," is what she'd said exactly.

I ponder for a second her reaction to seeing me in that hallway. Her eyes went wide like seeing me spooked her, and mine did too because I knew I'd seen her.