Maps

Claire and Leon head back up to the secret hallway behind the chief's office. They stop for a minute, standing against the wall and listening for any sign of Tyrant. No sounds. Leon opens up the wall, peeking inside. It's nowhere in sight. With the coast clear, they enter the chief's office.

"I think it's best if we stay together," Claire states as they walk towards the center of the room, "Lats thing we need is one of us trying to sneak around that thing and the other person suddenly screaming through the radio,"

"Yeah, that sounds best," Leon nods, "Let's see how we can get to the clock tower," Leon pulls out a map from one of his pockets and unfolds it onto the table, "Oh, sweet, looks like the room above us leads directly to the hallway that's connected to the clock tower...it's locked, isn't it?"

"Yup,"

"Alright, let's find, another way. There's a door over here, and that leads to, the library, that's not too far from him, and with the shutter open it's practically a straight path,"

"Great, let's get moving then," Claire walks over and grabs the large gear of the table. Leon raises an eyebrow.

"Pretty sure we're gonna need this. I mean, clock tower, gears, there's bound to be one or two missing," Leon folds his arms, trying to think of something to say, but can't. He then shrugs and nods his head while tilting it partly sideways.

"Well, how about I carry it? That way you don't tire yourself out, I could use the training anyways," He asks with a smile.

"You sound like my brother," Claire replies, "And, no thanks. This thing really works well as a blunt weapon,"

"Oh, uh, okay. Just, stay behind me then, please," Claire nods and they walk up to the broken doorway. Leon peeks over the corner, checking for the Tyrant. Nothing in sight, they walk out into the hall, both of them trying to walk as quietly as possible. They walk down the hall, turning right, and then left. They head over to the spade door on the right, entering the east waiting room. They enter the main hall, the large open room that was once a place of somewhat ease, now feeling like they're out in the open and exposed.

As they turn right and make their way down the walkway, heavy footsteps suddenly start to faintly echo. They quickly look around the room, and see the black boots of the Tyrant in the west reception room down on the first floor. Leon and Claire both quickly step behind pillars. They can hear it's footsteps get louder as it enters the room, then there's a sudden dead silence. Their heartbeats suddenly get louder, sounding like they might give away their position. The footsteps resume, then a door down below is opened, and the footsteps fade away. They don't resume breathing until the door closes.

They ease up, both of them glancing over the sides of the pillars, checking to see if it's actually gone. They're relieved to see it is. They make their way down the walkway, turning left and walking past the lion statue, then make another left down the opposite walkway. They enter the library, all the zombies in this room are dead luckily. They head up the stairs, but stop as they start to make their way to the other side of the room. The walkway against the back wall, just above the moveable bookshelves, is broken too. There's no way across.

"How the hell are we suppose to get over there?" Claire asks. Something catches Leon's eyes.

"The bookshelves," He replies, "They're the perfect height, if we can move them in place, we can use them to get to the other side, come on," The two of them head back downstairs over to the bookshelves. Three of them are left of the hole, and one is to the right. Leon grabs the one on the right, and pulls it into place. As he walks over to the ones on the left, he realizes the right most one, has a car jack lifting it up, preventing him from moving it.

"The damn lever is gone," Leon states as he kicks the thing with his boot, "There's no way I can get it down without it,"

"Damnit," Claire mutters, "Where the hell could it be?"

"I recognize this brand, the lever has a bright yellow base, it looks like a cube. You wouldn't have happen to see anything like that at all, have you?"

"No," Claire shakes her head, "It's probably in some room we haven't been in before,"

"Alright, let's check the maps," They head over to the other side of the room, Leon pulling the maps out onto one of the tables, Claire placing the gear down next to it, "Okay, so," Leon pulls out a sharpie from one of the jacket pockets, "I've been, here, here, and here," He puts little tally marks on several rooms on the various floors, "Where have you been?" He holds the sharpie out to her. She accepts it and walks in front of the map as Leon takes a step to the side.

"Let's see, I've been, here, here, and here," She puts tallies on other rooms, leaving just two rooms. The linen room, which is connected to the upper west hallway where the S.T.A.R.S office is, and the records room, which is downstairs with two entrances. One connected to the lower west hallway, and the back room behind the operation's room.

"We should probably check the linen room first since it's right here," Leon says, "Then we can go through the west office to get to the operation's room,"

"I think that's where the Tyrant went though," Claire responds, "It'd be safer to go through this entrance in the west hall,"

"I, wouldn't be so sure," Leon argues, "There's several broken windows in that hall, I had to run through because zombies were climbing through them into it,"

"...Yeah, let's go with your plan. Since we're coming back here, I'll leave the gear here,"

"Alright,"

Leon rolls up the maps and puts them away before they enter the room with the unicorn statue. Entering the upper west hallway, the door to the linen room is just a few feet away to the right. A diamond symbol is on it. Claire unlocks the door and they go inside. Washers and Dryers line most of the walls. A drying rack sits to the left of the door with some clothes still hanging on it. A shirt with heavy blood stains sits on top of one of the washers. The jack lever isn't there. As they head for the door back into the hall, they hear faint footsteps once again. They stand still as the footsteps slowly get closer and closer.

Claire and Leon draw their guns as the footsteps near the door.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Then pass them. The door leading to the room with the unicorn statue opens up. There's more footsteps. Then it closes. They wait a couple seconds before heading to the door and making sure the coast is clear. They step out into the hallway, and as they start walking down it, the door to the linen room closes with a loud click. They both freeze for a second before turning around to the door the Tyrant had gone through. To their demise, it starts to open, and the Tyrant leans down to look through, seeing them.

"Run!" Claire cries before they book it. They quickly turn the corner, running down the hall. They don't even flinch when they walk past the broken window and rain flies into their faces. They run down the hall, the Tyrant just now turning the corner. They can hear it start to pick up its pace as they run into the locker room. They hurry through the showers. As they reach the other locker room the door to the upper west hallway opens up. They hurry back into the hallway, and hurry down the stairs.

As they reach the bottom of the stairs, high-pitched screams fill the air.