Issue 0 (GSRC)/First Meeting

== Synopsis ==
While stopping at a gas station to collect some fuel, Leon and Claire wind up finding a disturbing discovery alongside Sheriff Daniel Cortini.
== Plot ==
"They were almost eaten!?" Daniel Cortini muttered to himself in disbelief, repeating what the operator said from the radio in his cruiser.
Daniel, being a member of the Arklay Count Sheriff Department for several years now, often dealt with small situations such as over-speeding or disturbances.
However, over the last three weeks, over twenty people were murdered in the woods near the booming city that was Raccoon. Various news articles Daniel remembered reading said "Cannibal on the loose", "Horror strikes again" and "Criminal still not caught", really creepy shit if you asked him.
Normally this would have been dismissed as an animal attack, but with more and more bodies being discovered nearly every couple of days, it could not be dismissed as any animal attack Daniel ever read about, the states the bodies of the victims were left in, looked like they were partly eaten with several having their stomachs ripped apart and intestines splattered all over the ground, like something had ripped into the stomach and began to eat on the victims intestines, the detail which shook Daniel to the core was, that the victims had been alive during the whole thing before dying of both the heavy blood loss and shock.
Right now, Daniel sat in his police cruiser at one of the Mizoil Gas Stations located outside Raccoon, staring at the steering wheel in silence. Inhaling a large intake of air to calm his nerves, he grabbed his flashlight from the side door and unbuckled his seat belt.
Exiting the car, he began to walk towards to the small store, quickly noticing the lights were out and there was no sign of any employees. Holding the flashlight in his left hand and pulling out his Broom Hc sidearm, he shone the light around the store, noticing several items had been knocked down as if there had been a struggled between two people.
Daniel cleared his throat and called out, "Hello?, this is officer Daniel Cortini of the Arklay County Sheriff's Deparment, I received a call about a disturbance, is there anyone there?". 
Little did Daniel know, he was going to be in for a very long night.
A lone jeep drove down the empty road as the rain continued to fall heavily. Inside was Leon Kennedy, a recent police academy graduate on his way to Raccoon City.
It was odd, he was suppose to be already in Raccoon last week but a mysterious phone call warning him not to enter the city, did it have something to do with those mysterious murders in the Arklay mountains where groups of people where attacked and partly eaten?.
A few days later, Leon decided to ignore the warning, packing up his jeep and drove all the way and not stopping until he reached Raccoon. 
However, suddenly a small orange light popped on, a sign that the jeep was running low on gas. Thankfully he noticed a gas station was up ahead and decided to pull in.
Parking next to a fuel pump, Leon stopped the jeep and took off his seatbelt, taking the keys with him and shutting off the engine. 
Grabbing the pump, Leon began glance around the area, noticing how quiet and empty the area was, he also saw an empty police cruiser, parked and facing the entrance to the store.
"No one's around, that's weird?" Leon muttered to himself, suddenly a loud noise coming from the store caught his attention, "Huh?".
Getting unnerved by the silence, Leon placed the pump back and opened the drivers side door of his jeep and grabbed his Matilda firearm and stuffed it into his pocket.
As he began to walk over to the store, a strong smell caught the attention of his nose. Glancing downwards to his feet, Leon's eyes widen in shock and gave a sharp gasp, almost tripping over his feet and falling onto his back. 
On the ground was a messy puddle and a trail of footprints leading to the store's entrance, but what was most eye-catching was that the puddle was a dark red liquid, liquid which was none other than blood.
'What the hell!, I-Is that blood!?' Leon thought, the bad feeling he felt in his stomach became a bit heavier. Walking around the pool of blood, Leon walked up to the door and peaked through the glass.
The room was pitch black in darkness, not a single soul was seen. Leon took a deep breath and placed his hand onto the handle, slowly pushing it forward and then entered.
"Hello?, Is anyone there!?" Leon called out, several seconds passed and not a single voice answered, giving a sigh of dismay, Leon noticed a flashlight on the ground in front of him.
Bending down, Leon grabbed it and turned it own, the beam of the light flickered to life. The beam coming from the small item showed several items scattered all over the floor as well as the bloody footprints as well as a small splatter of blood on the floor.
'Somethings not right here!' Leon thought grimly, the emptiness of the area already uneased him enough but with the large amount of blood on the floor leading from outside into the store. Suddenly several loud thuds made Leon sharply look up, the noise itself seemed to have been coming from the storage room.
Moving down one of the isles, Leon saw a metal door wide open, as well as a figure clutching the left side of their neck, which seemed to be bleeding. The figure was a bald male, wearing an employees uniform, a large trail of blood leaked from the wound and down most of the shirt.
Walking over to the man, Leon noticed a named tag, Jerry, it read. The man, Jerry, silent hissed and panted heavily in pain, it was clear to Leon, whoever caused that neck wound had to have been strong.
"Are you alright!?" Leon asked in concern.
Jerry didn't respond but lifted his right arm and pointed to the open space which would have been behind the metal door.
Knowing that Jerry meant that his attacker was in the storage area, Leon nodded his head and began to walk into the storage room, but he glanced at Jerry first saying "Don't move, I'll be back for you." He reassured, getting a small nod from Jerry before the man flinched in pain and clutched his neck tighter.
Walking down the small backroom, Leon heard the noise has died down somewhat and noticed the storage room door had been left open a small fraction. 
Arriving at the door, Leon heard a male voice talk to someone else, possibly the deputy who arrived earlier, slowly opening the door Leon shone his light on two male figures near the backwall, both of them seemed to be struggling with each other.
"Stop moving!" Daniel ordered to the man in a growl, the man was rather strong and Daniel didn't want risk him getting free and harming more people like he did the store clerk.
Leon decided to make himself known, "Officer, do you need any help?" he asked.
Daniel turned his head over his shoulder in surprise, having not expected Leon to suddenly walk in, holding both of the struggling man's arms behind his back, Daniel faced Leon and held his right hand out to prevent from approaching any closer.
"Stand back, sir, I got this" Daniel reassured.
However, this turned out to be his undoing, since Daniel was paying more attention to Leon, the man with a sudden boost of strength, escaped out of the deputy's grip. Daniel fell onto his back and the man fell on top of him, both men struggled against the other.
Leon quickly pulled out his Matilda and aimed at the man, who was more interested in attacking Daniel, who was barley able to restrain the man from hurting him. "Get off him!" Leon ordered, but the man ignored it, still trying to attacked the pinned deputy in his grip.
Click
Leon undid the safety and aimed to the exposed position of the man's chest, "Last warning!, Get off of him or I'll shoot!" Leon yelled. Yet despite the threat, the man did not seem to listen and continued to struggle with Daniel.
Bang
The gunshot was so sudden, Leon almost dropped the Matilda, completely startled. The man flew backwards onto the ground, landing on his back, allowing Daniel to sit up and catch his breath.
Leon lowered his arms and exhaled a shaky breath, he then turned towards Daniel, "A-Are you okay Officer?" he asked, shook up by the fact he had to kill someone before he could even reach Raccoon.
Daniel turned his head over towards his savior, panting heavily at the close save, "Y-Yeah, I-I'm alright" Daniel reassured "Thanks for the save". Leon gave a simple nod and offered his hand to the downed officer, who accepted it and was pulled back onto his feet.
Suddenly a groan was heard coming from the man, Daniel and Leon both turned in the direction and the sight of the man climbing back onto his knees despite the trail of blood leaving from what would have been a fatal wound had their eyes wide open in shock and disbelief.
"W-Wha-What the hell!" Leon gasped "How's that possible, that gunshot should've killed him!", he quickly aimed his Matilda with Daniel pulling out his Broom Hc handgun, both men aiming at the man slowly limping towards them.
Bang
Leon fired his Matilda again, which struck the man's left stomach.
Bang
This time, Daniel pulled the trigger and struck the mans chest.
Bang, Bang, Bang
Leon fired two more shots while Daniel fired another, all three shots at different points on the man's chest, but yet he still continued to move forward as he wasn't shot.
Bang
Daniel fired once more, this time striking the man in the head, the attacker falling onto the ground, unmoving and blood pooling out around the wound.
Both Leon and Daniel panted heavily as they eyed the corpse in front of them. When it seemed that the man wasn't going to get up, they both lowered their shoulders in relief.
"W-What the hell just happened!" Leon rhetorically asked as he panted "There's no way anyone can survive that many shots and shrug them off like they were nothing!".
Daniel, who bent down to take a closer look at the corpse, began to notice strange details about the man, the most appealing was a bite mark on the man's neck.
Leon noticing Daniel's silence walked over and saw the bite mark, "Is that a bite mark on his neck?" Leon asked, his eyes raising open out of surprise.
"Looks like it" Daniel confirmed, his eyes narrowed in suspicion "But this something far different from anything I ever dealt with"
A short silence befell the two before Leon spoke up again.
"What do we do now?" Leon asked.
Daniel rose to his feet and faced the other man, "First things first, we need to get outta here and report this, hopefully we'll get more details, because this case is starting sound similar to those murders"
"Murders, like the ones happening outside Raccoon?" Leon asked, Daniel nodded his head, but before the deputy could say more.
Smash, Slam
Two different noises suddenly echoed through the building, the first sounded like a large metal object hitting the floor while the other sounded like the metal door Leon used to enter the backroom. To make matters worse, loud growls, moans and snarls were heard coming from the locket metal door.
"Shit!, there's more of things!" Leon cursed.
Daniel silently clicked his teeth in annoyance as he looked down, however, a small object on the floor near his feet caught his attention, bending down and picking it up, Daniel noticed it was a small set of keys, no doubt belonging to last employee who must've dropped them prior to his arrival.
Grabbing his Broom Hc, Daniel ejected his current clip and placed a new clip inside. Releasing an exhale, Daniel turned his attention back to Leon.
"Hey" Daniel spoke up, causing Leon to face him, lifting his hand with the keys in it "When I open the door, we make a break for my car and get the hell out of here, that good with you?"
Leon nodded "Better than nothing" He commented, his grip tightening around the handle of the Matilda.
Daniel walked over to the door and placed the keys inside, a faint click reached his ears and he placed his left hand on the handle while he turned off the safety for his Broom Hc with his right hand. Glancing over at Leon, the two men nodded at each other and Daniel slammed the door open with all his might.
Inside there were three more men, their appearance was just like the man from earlier. Daniel didn't waste anytime and quickly shot the closet one in the head, having noted that headshots kill whatever those things were. In the far back corner, Leon noticed the employee earlier, Jerry, rise to his knees, his skin grey and eyes white, and began to limp towards the direction of the two men.
However, a second gunshot from Daniel's gun snapped Leon back to reality, shaking his head Leon ran towards the door, he gave a quick glance of Daniel aiming his gun while backing up slowly, his back facing Leon's back. Leon turned his attention back to his front and reached the door.
The door to the store suddenly burst open and there stood a woman with brown hair, her eyes widen when she saw Leon aim his Matilda in her direction.
"Don't shoot!" The woman said, however, unbeknownst to her, Leon was actually aiming at the limping man behind her.
"GET DOWN!" Leon shouted, the woman did as she was told and crouched down, the man growled hungrily as he reached to grab Leon.
Bang
Leon pulled the trigger and the man fell backwards onto the ground, a bullet hole in his forehead.
Moving outside, Leon lowered his gun and glanced towards the woman, who stood back up and much too Leon's surprise, pulled out an SLS 60 revolver from her jacket pocket, aiming at the large group of approaching figures.
"You alright?" Leon asked, as he also aimed at the approaching group.
The woman nodded "Yeah, I think so-"
But before she could say more...
Bang
The woman jumped at the gunshot just as Daniel burst out of the building a second later, before slamming his back on the door, one of the men from inside, who was missing his nose thanks to the outside lighting, began slamming his fist onto the glass.
"Holy shit!" The woman cursed, paling at the sight of the man's missing nose and bloodied face.
"Damnit these bastards don't give up do they?" Daniel growled as he aimed his Broom Hc at the large group.
Leon, glanced around and noticed the police cruiser, thankfully there was a quick path for them to avoid getting close to the approaching group of creatures.
"Quick!, get to the car!" Leon shouted and took off into a sprint, the woman and Daniel running right behind him.
The three quick got to the police cruiser, Leon ran to the drivers seat while the woman jumped into the passenger seat, Daniel slammed open the back passenger door and dove inside before quickly closing it, just as one of the closer creature began to pound on the door and window.
Leon quickly turned the ignition and the engine roared to life, he changed the gear to reverse and hit the accelerator, the cruiser backed up and ran over several of the creatures, before Leon shifted the gear back to drive and the cruiser raced away from the gas station, the creatures becoming smaller and smaller the farther the trio got.
Several minutes passed by and an air of silence filled the car before the woman broke it.
"What in the hell is going on, what were those things?" The woman asked, shaking her head in disbelief at what had just occurred not even ten minutes ago.
"I don't know" Was Leon could say before he changed the subject "Hopefully, they'll have some answers at the police station in Raccoon"
The woman looked at Leon in surprise, "Wait, you're a cop" she asked, looking up and down at Leon's appearance in his casual clothing.
"Yeah, Leon Kennedy" Leon introduced himself, glancing over at the woman without taking his eyes off the road "And you are...?"
"Claire-Claire Redfield" The woman, now known as Claire, reviled.
In the back, Daniel sat up and looked at the two occupants in the front seats, "Officer Daniel Cortini of the Arklay County Sheriff's Department at your service" he greeted, before leaning backwards into the seat and releasing a long sigh as he rubbed his face with his right hand "Christ I don't paid enough for this type of shit"
Leon glanced in the rear-view mirror before turning his attention back to Claire, "So do you live around he?" he asked.
Claire shook her head negatively, "No, I'm looking for my brother Chris. He's a cop like you two" She reviled.
"Well it's a good thing we all found each other" Leon said "Because I don't know what to expect any more".
Daniel sighed and looked out of right-side window, "Why do I get the feeling it's gonna be a long night" he muttered.
== Credits ==
* Leon Kennedy
* Claire Redfield
* Daniel Cortini
* Jerry (No Lines)
== Deaths ==
* Jerry (Alive)
* Around 20 Unnamed People (Confirmed fate)
* Many Unnamed People (Alive; 4 Zombified)
== Trivia ==
* First appearance of Leon Kennedy.
* First appearance of Claire Redfield.
* First appearance of Daniel Cortini.
* First (And last) appearance of Jerry. (Alive and Zombified)
* First mention of Chris Redfield.
Category:The Ghost Survivors of Raccoon City
Category:Chapters (GSRC)