Chapter Text
If Claire had ever been desperate for her brother's help, it was now. She could feel hot tears mingling with the blood on her face, but it meant nothing to her; not when her body was trembling with the overwhelming effort she was exerting to keep the body in her arms propped up against her.
"It's okay, Leon." Claire stumbled beneath her companion's dead weight. "We're almost there. It's okay."
Leon's head lolled against Claire's shoulder. If it weren't for the soft, yet rapid breaths he was sucking in, she might have thought he were dead. She looked over her shoulder, having learnt hours ago that nothing really stayed dead in Raccoon City, and if they didn't hurry, they might just be the exception.
Claire could see the train from where they stood. The countdown from overhead should have been deafening, but had become a background static she was faintly aware of, but paid no heed to.
"Claire!"
Claire looked down at her side. She felt Sherry's small fingers let go of her jacket. If she couldn't get Leon to the train in time, maybe Sherry could… "Sherry, go ahead!"
Sherry obeyed. Claire slipped on blood that had dribbled down Leon's arm and dripped off the tips of his twitching fingers. She couldn't stop replaying in her mind what that titan had done to him before she'd arrived.
There was no doubt in her mind that had she been even a second later, Leon would be dead.
The countdown had become meaningless to Claire. She couldn't differentiate between ten seconds and one minute; all she knew was that there was still time, and even with Leon's boots dragging along the concrete, they had a chance.
The train grew closer and closer. Sherry waved desperately at them, calling for her to hurry. When Claire would look back at the moment, she'd realise she truly had no idea how much time they'd had left when she'd gotten Leon onto the train and laid him down, doing her best to stop the blood from gushing out of several wounds so large, she'd almost thought there was no chance Leon would survive.
But Leon had held on, and with every mile the train travelled further away from that living hell they’d endured, he looked more and more like a corpse as the blood drained from his body and stained the cold metal of the ground instead.
Claire didn’t know where the train had stopped. She didn’t know where they were as she threw his arm over her shoulders and dragged him through the dust, desperate for someone to stop on the side of the road and help them.
She had no idea how she’d managed to flag down a truck driver and convince him to take them to the nearest hospital; the sight of them, bloodied and hurt and dying was surely a reason to lock the doors and drive faster.
The nurses rushed Leon in for treatment, leaving Claire and Sherry in the waiting room. She held Sherry in her arms, protective, fearful of the infection having potentially spread. Despite knowing her phone was long gone, caught up in the destruction of Raccoon City, she continued to pat her pocket in search of it.
A single tear rolled down Claire's cheek. She still didn't know where her brother was, but she would have sold her soul for him to be there with her, hugging her with his strong, protective arms and assuring her that he would never let anything happen to her.