Claire fired.
The shot cracked through the garage and came back off concrete and steel. The shape in front of her jerked, staggered, didn't drop.
She fired again.
It went down.
Behind it, more movement — shapes pulling themselves upright, turning toward the sound.
She backed toward the nearest column and reloaded by feel. Magazine seated. Hands not steady but working.
A low wet sound cut across the space.
Not the dead. Faster.
She turned.
The dog hit the ground at a full sprint.
She fired. Missed. Fired again — caught it in the shoulder. It didn't slow.
It leapt.
She got her arm up. The impact drove her spine into the column, teeth snapping inches from her face, and she drove the knife up once, hard, into the side of its neck.
The weight collapsed into her. She shoved it off, gun coming back up —
More of them. Two, three, moving between the cars in the dark.
And behind them, the dead. Closing the distance they didn't need to hurry to close.
She backed toward the garage door.
Metal. Closed.
She fired twice. One dropped. The other kept coming —
Her back hit the door. No room left.
Another rushed from the left — she fired, stepped sideways, missed —
A shot punched through from the other side of the door.
The thing in front of her snapped back and dropped.
She froze.
Another shot. Lower. Through the seam at the bottom.
"Claire—!"
Leon.
Something hit the door from outside. Hard. Twice.
"Card—!" Ben's voice, somewhere past the gap.
Claire moved toward the panel, keeping her back off the shapes still closing. A hand pushed through at the bottom — Ben forcing the card through the seam. She grabbed it. Slammed it into the reader.
Nothing.
"Come on—"
Impact behind her. Close.
She pulled it out. Made herself slow down. Tried again.
The panel blinked.
A click.
The door jumped — then started grinding upward. Slow.
Claire didn't wait. She dropped and pushed through the gap the moment it cleared enough space.
Leon shifted, covering the opening as she came through. A shape lunged for the gap — he put it down before it crossed the threshold.
"Go," he said.
They went.
Cold air hit hard after the garage — sharp, carrying smoke and something worse underneath it, something that had been sitting in the street long enough to become part of it. The space felt too open. Too much sky.
They ran until nothing followed, until the street widened enough that stopping didn't feel like dying, and then Claire's legs made the decision for her. She slowed. Turned back. Gun still up, chest pulling too fast.
Leon was right there.
She looked at him for one second.
"The man and the girl," she said. "Did they come out?"
"No."
"They didn't pass you?"
"No. We heard the shots." A pause. "We came in."
"He took her." The words came out too fast. "Sherry. I moved ahead to clear the path and—" She shook her head once, hard. "Half a second. He had a gun on her before I saw him move."
Leon's expression didn't change. "You see him."
"Older. Heavy. He was just there." She looked at her own hands for a second. "He took my gun. Tied me. Then gone."
Silence.
Ben shifted his weight. "…Sherry." He said it carefully, like he was checking something. "Last name."
Claire looked at him. "Birkin."
Ben let out a slow breath through his nose. Looked away. "That's not good."
Leon said it quietly, almost to himself. "Birkin."
"Yeah," Ben said.
Claire looked between them. "What."
Ben rubbed the back of his neck. "Her parents. Both deep in Umbrella. Lead researchers." He paused. "Her father — William Birkin. He's the one who developed it. The G-virus."
Claire held his gaze. "Developed what."
"Something that makes the T-virus look like a head cold." He didn't say it like a punchline. "Yeah."
She looked at Leon. He didn't add anything.
"Where would Irons take her," she said.
Ben thought for a second. "Orphanage. East side of the district." He looked up. "But that's not the point. If he took the girl, he's not keeping her. He's using her." A beat. "Annette Birkin is still out there somewhere. Irons knows it. The kid is leverage."
Claire went still.
Then — "I'm going."
Leon stepped forward. "Hold on—"
"We don't have time—"
"We don't have enough to go in blind—"
"She doesn't have time." Quieter, which was worse. "I'm not standing here while he—"
She stopped herself.
Behind them, Kendo adjusted his grip on Emma. She wasn't holding steady anymore. He didn't say anything about it. Just shifted her weight and waited.
"We move," he said.
Ben nodded once. "Orphanage is east." He looked at Kendo. "You know that side?"
"Well enough."
Leon looked at Ada.
She hadn't moved through any of it. Just watching, the way she always watched — like she was reading something a few steps ahead of where everyone else was looking.
"If Irons is involved," she said, "it doesn't end at the orphanage."
Claire didn't look at her. "I'll handle that when I get there."
"You'll handle it faster if you know where she actually is."
That landed. Claire's jaw tightened, but she didn't fire back.
Leon stepped into it. "You go for Sherry. We go down. If she's not there, we find where she is." He held Claire's gaze. "You don't lose the trail. We don't lose ours."
She held his gaze.
Didn't like it.
But it was right and that was the worst part about it.
"…Fine," she said. "Don't be slow."
"Not planning to."
He glanced down at Hope.
"You should go with them," he said. Quiet. Careful with it.
Hope didn't move.
A second passed.
Then she stepped closer — not toward Claire, not toward the exit.
Toward him.
Her hand caught his sleeve. That was all. Didn't let go.
Leon didn't pull away.
Claire saw it. Understood it. Didn't make anything of it.
"…Right," she said.
Kendo was already moving. "Now."
Meryl fell in without being asked — she'd been close the whole time, saying nothing, watching everything, missing less than she let on. Claire took one last look at Leon.
"Don't be late."
"You either."
She turned. Moved.
Ben pushed ahead to lead, checking corners, running the route he knew just well enough to be useful. Kendo matched pace, Emma against his shoulder. Meryl close behind. Fast — before the city found the gap and closed it again.
Kendo drew level with Claire without slowing.
"Take this."
He pushed something into her hand without looking at her.
Rounds. Not many. Enough.
She closed her fingers around them.
"Thanks."
He didn't answer. Didn't need to.
Claire didn't look back. The orphanage was ahead and Sherry was there or she wasn't and standing still didn't change which one it was.
She moved.
Leon watched until they were gone.
Hope hadn't let go of his sleeve.
Ada turned first.
Leon nodded.
They moved back the way they'd come — toward Kendo's shop, toward the dark, toward whatever was waiting underneath the city.
________________________________________________
Special thank you to Hoshino_chan for the power stone 🙏