Starting Over Again (Book 1: Leon Kennedy)

Chapter 7: A Nightmare Begins.

DAYS HAVE PASSED BY SINCE Jill got suspended, Justine has also been seeing cars parked from the other side of the road in front of their shared apartment. It wouldn't be suspicious if only the cars did not look identical to one another. Justine wondered why the incident in the Arklay Mountains did not make it to mainstream news, instead, the city now banned hiking within the mountains.

Justine was in a cab on the way back to the apartment. It was a long day, and she wanted to do nothing but sleep. Justine had her eyes on her phone, replying to a message Jill sent her when the car came to a halt after hitting someone who just crossed the road on a green light. The next thing that happened was so sudden, a bright light came in her peripheral vision and the next thing she knows is that her head hurts after slamming herself on the front seat. Justine groaned as she sat up, her vision slightly blurry.

Everything was so loud outside; sounds of guns being fired and people screaming. Justine pushes the door on her left, crawling out of the car. She places her hands on the roof of the car for support as she went to check the driver, he was out cold, shards of glass buried in his face. Justine checked for a pulse but couldn't find any.

She looked around and froze at the view in front of her, a bunch of cars was crashed onto each other, some in flames. People were running away from each other because of those... things.

What the fuck are those?  Justine thought as she began to run as fast as she could, not wanting to be near those ugly things. Their faces looked like it was ripped apart, their skin pale and eyes white. They snarled while they lunged towards people.

They looked like old, mutilated, corpses.

"EVERYONE IS ADVISED TO PLEASE EVACUATE TO THE RACCOON CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT, FREE FOOD AND MEDICINAL CARE WILL BE PROVIDED TO THOSE WHO NEED IT! WE ARE—" Was blaring from somewhere. Justine knew that the R.P.D. is a safe place, but she needed to head back home to Jill. She left her phone back at the cab and she decided to not go back for it since it was too dangerous. She reached the R.P.D. and when she was about to walk past it a cop blocked her way, and they wouldn't let her through no matter how much she pleaded so she just went to the Police Department. A staff saw her and attended to her, making her sit on a makeshift bed near the giant statue in the middle of the hall. There were other people there too, somewhere knocked out cold white the others were clutching their wounds. The muttering made Justine's headache worse. The staff gave her some water and pills for the pain and Justine thanks the lady before she walked off. Justine popped a pill in her mouth and gulped it down with water. She sets the bottle down and sighs.

She needed to know where Jill is, and with each second that passed by it made her even more worried.

"Justine?" She looks up and sees Leon looking at her with a frown on his face.

"Oh, hey Leon."

"What happened to you?" Leon sits next to her and Justine scoots away a little so Leon could sit comfortably. Leon's hand reaches out to the bandage on your head and his thumb gently grazes over it. "That looks bad."

"Feels a lot better, really, thanks to those pills the medic. gave me," Justine replies. "What happened? What the hell are those things outside?"

"No one knows." Leon shrugs. "They all just came out of nowhere... we don't know what to do and right now we're losing a lot of men because of those things." He sounded afraid, and for Justine, he had every right to be. He was only in his job for a couple of months. He was too inexperienced for things like this.

Everyone in this room is.

"SIR! GET OFF OF HER!" Someone shouts and it was followed by a snarl. Justine never heard a sound like that before, and it made her skin crawl. Justine stood up and went to see what the locomotion was all about.

The scene in front of her shocked her, making her gasp at what she was seeing.

It was a disheveled man, his skin pale and his clothes covered in blood. He had a chunk of meat in his mouth. Despite the male cop near the scene firing bullets at the disheveled man, it didn't faze it. Instead, it lunged itself to the cop and tackled it to the ground.

Justine was horrified, frozen on her feet. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Someone held her hand and pulled her away from the scene, she just then realized that it was Leon, and he ran upstairs while he held her hand, to a door with a spade symbol on it. The library was empty, there were scattered books and papers on the ground. Leon realizes that he was still holding her hand so he quickly lets go of her, a blush creeping on both of their faces.

"Sorry," Leon blurts out, scratching the back of his neck as he did so.

"I-its fine," Justine replied, not wanting to make the situation awkward. Someone slammed on the door, and it was followed by an animalistic snarl.

"Oh, god," Justine mumbled with fear as she stared at the door.

"Shit! This way!" Leon nods his head to the side before running and Justine follows him. They went through a door which was next through a plight of stairs and they ended up in a small room with a unicorn statue in it. From there, they could hear the locomotion downstairs: people screaming and guns being fired. Then they went through another door, passing by another one in the halls with a diamond symbol in front of it. Leon opened the door to the S.T.A.R.S. Office and stepped inside, checking if there was anyone there. When it was clear, he let Justine in first before him.

"Wait here, I have to go back downstairs and help them." Leon was about to head out of the room but her hand reached out to his arm, stopping him.

"But... it's too dangerous, what if you get hurt or..." She didn't like being alone in a room, it made her paranoid because of what she experienced back when she was still studying.

Leon reassures her, "I'll be back for you. All right? I promise." Hesitant, Justine let go of him and he walks out of the room.

Be careful, Leon. Justine thought as she stared at the door. Justine went to the office that was on her left, there were old-looking paintings on the wall, and in front of her was a huge symbol of S.T.A.R.S., along with a couple of certificates and plaques dedicated to the 'Captain', as Jill called him.

Something popped up in Justine's mind, what did she mean about Doctor Wesker being involved in the Arklay Mountain Incident? And where is he? She puts her thoughts aside and went to his table, looking for anything that she can use to defend herself in case the worst happens. She opened the bottom drawer and spotted an unopened wooden box. It felt heavy. Justine set it on the table and shut the drawer with her feet. She opens the box and there was a gun in it, it looked new. Unfortunately, the magazine was empty.

She opened another drawer and found some bullets. Saying a 'thank you' in her head, she was about to close it until her eyes caught a very familiar piece of jewelry.

How on earth... Justine picked up the bracelet and looked at it. The charms that were attached to it looked well kept and taken care of. It still had its lustrous color. I lost this when I was a sophomore in college...