Claire Redfield parked the Harley and swung her leg off. She pulled her red helmet off and shook out her hair, which had matted slightly with the helmet being on for so long. Stretching, Claire tucked the helmet under her arm, today all she had wanted nothing more than was to have a long road trip… Just her and her Harley Davidson. Claire had stopped at a gas station, not for fuel but just for a break and a rest from the thrum of the bike.

Pulling off her leather gloves Claire walked through the door of the tiny store. As she walked by the kiosk, the clerk looked up from his puzzle book just long enough to leer at her and then return to the book. Sighing, Claire started looking for the pay phones, her cell phone had decided to die on her a few miles back and she needed to check in with Chris. She spotted them in the corner of the store and walked to them as she fished a quarter out of her pocket.

Her red leather boots made a soft tapping noise on the floor as she stopped and stuck a quarter into the slot. She punched in Chris's number and waited, listening to the phone's dull ring. Hearing the phone pick up Claire felt warmth wash over her as she expected her brother to answer. Instead, she got the monotone voice Chris always used for his answering machine. The excitement Claire had felt at hearing Chris's voice evaporated. And feeling disappointed Claire left a message telling him where she was and when to expect her at the meet up point.

"Shit!" Claire spat once she had finished. Feeling vaguely angry, she slammed the phone back into the cradle. After tapping her foot irritably for a few seconds, Claire strode over to the fridge next to the kiosk and grabbed a soda. The clerk, some how sensing now was not the time to try and cadge another look at Claire's backside told her to have a nice day as she walked out, then returned to his puzzle book.

Outside in the parking lot, Claire collapsed down onto a bench and looked around bored, as she drank her soda. Here she was, in the middle of nowhere. Driving up to Malone in upstate New York, once there she would meet up with Chris and together they were going to cross over the border into Canada. Chris' latest intelligence had indicated that Umbrella's new base was being constructed there and he wanted to take it out as soon as was humanly possible.

Claire had wanted to travel with Chris to Canada together, but he had wanted to talk to Jill before they went there. So she agreed to meet him there, plus it gave her the chance to be alone with her thoughts and try to figure where her life had seemed to descend into such a mess. It had sounded like a good idea at the time, but now all Claire could focus on was the horrors she had recently endured; an undead apocalypse in Raccoon City, the insanity of Alexia, the death of Steve, and manipulations of Wesker. Not to mention feeling a bit jealous of Jill and how badly her brother had wanted to talk to her.

So now Claire was stuck. With nothing to do but drink her soda (all the while wishing it was a beer), and hop back on the Harley.

Two hours later…

Claire watched the sun start to set through the visor of her helmet as the wind whistled past her. Tired and her arms and back aching from being on the bike for hours, Claire made it a point to head for the first motel she could find. And when she saw the neon sign for a roadside motel in the distance Claire pushed the bike faster and quickly pulled over in the car park. A sign next to the door told her she was on the outskirts of Watertown.

Nearly there…

However, being as tired as she was what Claire didn't see was the unmarked van parked in the corner of the lot.

Inside this van, a team of trained Umbrella "employees" were watching her, each armed to the teeth with the latest that Umbrella's Weaponry division had to offer

Not taking his eyes off Claire one of the team spoke into a receiver. "The target is in sight control. Pick up in progress. Do we have a go?" a frosty female voice answered. "Confirmed. You have a go. See you at mother base."