Chapter Text
The welcome party. Lots of smiling faces, the other officers clapping the new rookie on the back in their excitement. Beers, sodas, and all sorts of snacks—a little Welcome Leon! sign in bubbled letters hung above the desks. Lieutenant Branagh had smiled at him warmly, handing him a hand-written note. Leon had taken it with an unabashed expression of excitement, reading it before he broke into a bright grin.
Everything was going dark. He could feel something warm dripping down his chin, could feel the cold tile against his cheek. What was happening? What had happened? He couldn’t seem to remember.
“Welcome to the team, rookie,” the lieutenant had greeted, his hand firm against Leon’s shoulder. The other officers had gathered around him, all smiles and bright lights and a general good vibe of good things to come.
“Rookie!” A small, distorted voice, sounding far away. As if he was underwater, and the person calling for him was above it and unable to pull him up again. That’s right. That’s how he had gotten here.
He had wanted to help his fellow officer. He hoped he had helped. He couldn’t tell, and that light was fading fast, just out of his grasp. Truly, how had things ended this way for him?
~
Leon was drifting. He could distantly hear groans and footsteps, but it was like he was wading through tar, and thoroughly unable to open his eyes. He could feel the crisp air hitting his face, could feel his dead weight pressed on the ground with that sticky sensation down the front of his uniform, sticking him to the floor.
Then, something happened; a shift in the air. It was slight, like tension snapping… and then he heard it. Clearly. Like the tarry sea had parted, allowing him to hear his environment more clearly, even in the darkness.
Footsteps. Hurried, panicked, the muffled sound of someone cursing under their breath. Then, the sound of gunshots. More groaning, but instead of it being muffled it echoed off the walls, surrounding him, and the sounds of that innocent; who sounded afraid.
Who probably needed help.
Slowly, Leon’s eyelids fluttered. Everything was so dark, but it wasn’t the pitch blackness he had been swimming in anymore. It was the kind of dark that came with a stormy night and a powerless building. Something—no, someone—ran past him, and he slowly pushed himself up from the ground.
He heard a guttural scream, and the sound of a body hitting the floor. He turned his head up, his empty gaze trying to focus in the dark. He could see someone struggling on the ground, one of the officers of the R.P.D. pinning her down. He staggered up, his limbs heavy, then stumbled towards the two.
“Shit! No, no—!” The woman hissed, doing her best to fight off the zombie who had her pinned to the floor. With a growl that surprised even him, Leon lunged forward, seizing the other zombie in a very poorly done tackle. One that had gotten the job done nonetheless.
The woman kicked at the zombie who had her pinned, scrambling backward before using the wall as a support, she staggered to stand, pulling her pistol out and aiming it at the two zombies. Leon ignored the click of the barrel, digging his teeth into the flesh of the other officer.
He was hungry.
Claire was mortified, to say the least. To say the most? She had never seen a zombie tackle another zombie like that. Nor had she seen one rip into another one so viscerally, so carnally. She had seen the zombies feasting on flesh, sure, but the flesh hadn’t been actively another zombie when they decided they needed the snack.
She swallowed the lump in her throat, adjusting her grip on her handgun minutely, flashlight trained on the mess of dirty blonde hair that was the only thing she could see of the zombie who had tackled the zombie who had pinned her down. The sickening sound of crunching and meat assaulted her ears, and she gagged.
The zombie, seemingly done with his meal, slowly turned his gaze up. He almost looked like a lost puppy with the way he looked at her, his mouth dripping with blood.
Claire’s grip tightened on the flashlight until her knuckles turned white. Had he… saved her? Was that his intention? It sure seemed like it had been, especially in the moment, and especially now, seeing as how he remained crouched on the ground by the dead body of the other zombie without making a single move to lunge at her next.
Her throat felt like sandpaper. She took a deep, shuddering breath, before she spoke. “You just… saved me…?” She studied him, furrowing her brows. “But… but you’re a…”
She couldn’t finish the sentence. The zombie boy just stared at her, his pale eyes blank. After a moment, his head tilted in the smallest, most impossible way—once again reminding her of a puppy. A weirdly friendly? Undead? …but a puppy nonetheless.
Even still, when he moved to stand, Claire took an uncertain step back. The zombie boy groaned, his gaze leaving Claire for only a second to dart down onto the dead body. His gaze lifted again, and he took a slow, staggering step toward Claire.
Claire raised her gun defensively, leveling the zombie boy with a lethal I will shoot you glare, her brain trying to even process what had happened. Okay, sure, maybe the zombie boy had saved her. But for what purpose? She wondered if he was intelligent enough to—
A shriek sounded from behind her, and she instinctively moved out of the way. Zombie boy, however, shrieked louder and lunged for the would-be assailant. As Claire whipped around and watched zombie boy rip into yet another zombie, it was cemented in her mind; he was trying to save her. Once could’ve possibly been a fluke, but twice? That would be a coincidence that even she couldn’t predict.
The sounds of zombie boy eating the other zombie still made her gag, and it was honestly a surprise she didn’t immediately throw up her lunch at the sickly sounds. She swallowed the bile building up in her throat, nodding to the zombie boy. “Th…thank you. For that. For saving me.”
Zombie boy paused in mid-bite, slowly turning his head to her. There was something about his gaze, something that screamed that he was happy to help. Weirdly enough, Claire felt compelled to stay with this zombie boy.
So, she did the only thing she could think to do. She stepped closer to the zombie boy, holding her hand out to him like an offering.
Zombie boy grunted softly, glancing at the dead body he had been eating on before his hand slowly reached to meet Claire’s. His skin was startling cool to the touch, and he seemed surprised at the feeling of their contact. He still pulled himself up, tilting his head at Claire once again, as if to ask “what now?”
Claire wasn’t sure. She had come to the station in search of Chris, so logically, what should she do now? So far her search for him had been a dead end, so she was just trying to find the way out after gaining that notebook from the only officer she had found alive… before he died right in front of her. Likely the same way zombie boy had probably died in front of his fellow officers.
A tug on her arm jolted her back into the present, and she looked at the zombie boy. He was looking off into the distance, trying to move towards something unknown. The only thing stopping him from wandering off was their joined hands.
Claire took a deep, self-assuring breath. Right, okay. They’d get out of this first. Find all the medallions. Go through that statue. She could bring zombie boy and the Lieutenant and potentially find a way to help the two of them.
She began to move back towards the main hall. Zombie boy stumbled for a moment behind her before he found his footing, his cold hand still in her grasp loosely as he followed. He seemed calm, making only small noises every once in a while as they walked together.
They made their way back through the west office, and zombie boy seemed to sense something and stopped. The sudden stop made Claire pause, turning to look at zombie boy. His gaze was faraway, bloody drool dripping down his chin as he tilted his head back slightly.
Claire’s gaze followed to where his gaze sat, stuttering to a stop on the sign. She had briefly taken note of it the first time she had come through, but she hadn’t really seen it. The bubbled letters proclaimed a welcome, bright in the dim light of the room.
“Welcome Leon,” Claire breathed. Zombie boy’s head snapped to her, his attention suddenly on her. His hand twitched in her grasp, and his mouth opened, but no sound came out. It took her a moment before she looked at him, really looked at him.
Under the grime and blood, his face was youthful. He couldn’t be that much older than Claire was. “Leon?” She said again, as if testing the name on her tongue as well as a theory.
Zombie boy groaned at her softly, his head tilting in that now familiar way. Leon. His name was Leon. This welcome sign was for him. “Oh…” was all Claire said. It’s all she could say. All she could manage to say.
There was a pang of pain that went through her heart. Something about this scene… painted a very sad picture. She gently squeezed Leon’s hand, then gently tugged him toward her. “I’m sorry,” she said gently. “I’m sure it was fun, at least.”
Leon flicked his gaze back to the sign, before he focused his gaze elsewhere. With him fully engaged elsewhere, Claire began to walk again, up the stairs and out the door into the main hall.
Marvin’s head jolted up to watch her as she passed by, only glancing at Leon before he looked back at Claire. In a moment, he had twisted his head back to Leon, fully doing a double-take. “The… rookie?” He muttered softly, leveling a look at Claire. His pistol was on the seat beside him, and he reached for it.
“Wait!” Claire held up her free hand, stepping between Marvin and Leon. Marvin gave her an exasperated look.
“That is a monster. It doesn’t matter who he used to be, he’s—” Marvin started, holding the gun up and attempting to aim it past Claire.
“He saved me,” Claire spat out, “Twice.”
Marvin’s words died on his tongue, his eyes going so wide they almost popped out of his head. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then settled on closing his mouth, his brows furrowed in thought. The hand covering the wound on his stomach twitched, and he shook his head. “Doesn’t matter… he’s still one of them.”
Click.
“I’m not going to let you hurt him. He hasn’t done anything wrong, and I don’t think he will. How many times have you heard of a zombie helping someone who wasn’t infected? Hm?” Claire let go of Leon’s hand, clenching her fists at her side. “I don’t know what happened to you, or how you ended up bitten, but you’re not shooting him.”
Marvin’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t look like he believed her, but Claire refused to step down. They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, before Marvin sighed. He lowered the gun, carefully uncocking it. “You’re responsible if he turns on you.”
Claire smiled wryly. “I know. But I’m Chris’ sister, remember? I know what I’m doing, and what I’m getting myself into.”
Marvin scoffed softly, shaking his head. His gaze drifted to Leon, and he looked distant and sad. “You take good care of the rookie,” he said quietly. He looked like he wanted to say more, but he set his gun down on the seat beside him and leaned back once more.
Claire nodded softly, turning to Leon and taking his hand in hers again. His gaze was distantly focused on the lieutenant. Claire gently redirected him, pulling him up the stairs. As they walked, she pulled the small notebook out of her jacket pocket and flipped it open. She had two of the medallions already, and she knew where the last one was, she just needed a detonator to get to it.
She pushed the door to the library open, peeking inside. Some of the zombies that she had already shot on her way through the first time were sprawled on the floor, making no moves. Claire knew somewhat better than to trust it.
This was, after all, a zombie apocalypse. The whole thing with zombies is that they didn’t die. Claire turned back. Leon was directly behind her, their bodies colliding as she turned and moved without thinking. Leon staggered slightly, a low and confused rumble escaping him.
“Sorry,” Claire stated hurriedly. “I forgot you were there. We can’t go this way, we need to find another way around.”
Leon, slightly dazed, shook his head slightly. Claire just gently squeezed his hand. “C’mon.” She stepped around him, making her way back down the stairs. If she remembered correctly, the evidence room was probably the room that was chained off in that room at the end of the first hallway she had gone through when she entered the station.
She really hoped so, anyways. She had spent way too much time in the station, coming up empty at almost every turn in her search for Chris. And if he was here, either he’d be one of the zombies, or they’d all surely be slaughtered, right?
Yeah, it was better that she didn’t think about her brother. Especially not while holding Leon’s hand. He had made a slightly disgruntled noise when her hand had grasped his much tighter than her previous grip, prompting her to loosen it again. Another apology to the zombie boy.
Just keep walking. Walking through the open shutter, through the little waiting room, and into the hallway. Something about the air had shifted, felt more wrong than it had before. Prickles of goosebumps made way down the back of Claire’s neck and arms. She stepped over the corpses of the zombies, slowing her gait only slightly as she moved.
The trip down the hallway proved uneventful, though Claire wondered why exactly it was that she was feeling more unease than before. A part of her brain shrugged it off, but the more logical part was suspicious. For the moment, it has been fine. That has to be good enough.
There was a clatter as Claire clipped the chains on the door, putting the bolt cutters away once more before she turned to Leon. In the time she had let him go to cut the chains, he had wandered over to one of the corpses, dropping to his knees beside them. A sickening crunch broke through the stillness, and Claire hurried over.
“Leon! Spit that out!” She hissed, grabbing his shoulder. His head turned to her lazily, his dead gaze on her as he chewed on the flesh. She covered her mouth with her free hand, just barely holding back the bile.
“Spit it out,” she tried again, her voice cracking. Leon stared at her for a moment longer before his jaw went slack, dropping open enough for the now chewed-up flesh to drop out and onto the ground. Bloody drool quickly followed, running down his chin in somewhat clean lines.
Okay, so he had listened to her. That was good. She adjusted her hand to grip under his arm, pulling him up to stand with her. “Good job,” she praised. He seemed to brighten at that, his posture perking up ever so slightly.
Claire slipped her hand back into Leon’s, pointedly ignoring the soft squish of fresh blood caking her hand. Instead, she focused on her path, pushing into the room. There, on a desk only a few feet away, sat the detonator. It was illuminated under the desk lamp, and she stepped up to it.
“If this isn’t a trap, I’d be surprised.” Claire muttered to no one in particular, though Leon did respond with a soft grunt. She picked up the detonator, turning it over in her hands as she examined it. She paused at the back, sighing. “It’s missing the battery.”
It made sense that the detonator didn’t have the battery, but where could the battery even be? Claire guessed that if she just looked around, she’d eventually come across it. She shoved the detonator into one of her hip pouches and moved on. She did have the valve for the upstairs locker room, so she could get to the other side of the steam.
Glancing at Leon before turning this time, she swiftly moved to dodge around him before he was tugged after her. He groaned in a vaguely confused way, but didn’t stop otherwise.
Running all over the station grew very tiring very quickly. It hadn’t been so bad the first few times, but it had gotten exponentially worse the more she had to do it. Adding the zombie she was dragging around didn’t exactly make the walk harder, but he did continuously attempt to wander away from her.
Having him there did offer some comfort in the situation, though. Every zombie groan she heard no longer had her paranoid and looking every which way to find it. If Leon tensed, that’s when she’d worry, but for the most part the zombies had been in front of her. A few shots to the head from her pistol easily knocked them into a daze.
“Okay, stay here for a second.” Claire told Leon, leveling him with a look. He swayed slightly, tilting his head. Claire watched him for a moment before she turned away, pulling the valve out and connecting it before she turned it. The steam dispersed, stopping completely once she turned the valve fully.
In the locker room, there were at least three zombies. The one closest to her shrieked, holding its arms out and lunging forward. Claire quickly back stepped and turned, dodging out of the way. She looked for Leon, only to find empty space.
She cursed under her breath, pulling out her gun and reloading it. She shot the zombies, causing them all to stagger. With a quick turn, she sprinted out of the room, looking down the dark hallway. Leon was halfway down the stairs, his gaze nowhere in particular.
Claire made her way to him, gently grabbing his shoulder. “Hey,” she said, watching him. His head turned to her, his dead gaze flicking over her face before his lips twitched up into what seemed like a smile. “What did I say about staying put?”
Leon tilted his head back slightly, his bangs falling into his eyes. He didn’t reply, and Claire knew she didn’t expect him to. She just moved her hand into his, pulling him back up the stairs and to the locker room once more.
The zombies had all collapsed on the floor, and Claire slowly stepped over the corpses, watching them warily. She lifted her flashlight from the corpses, freezing in her tracks when she saw the body slumped on the bench. She gently squeezed Leon’s hand, taking a nervous breath.
She slowly stepped forward, eyes trained on the body. When she hit the threshold of a door, the body slumped forward and fell to the floor. When they didn’t try to get up or even groan, Claire released a breath of relief. She continued to walk as normal, putting the flashlight in the crook of her neck and leaning her head on it as she searched the lockers.
Satisfied with her search, she pulled the flashlight from where it rested and pushed the next door open. The sounds of the rain slamming into the windows drowned out all the sounds of her and Leon’s footsteps, and she slowly stepped forward. The same unsettling energy she had felt in the lower hallway was also present here, but stronger somehow.
Claire moved forward, walking further down the hallway. It was faint, but she could hear the sound of something ripping into flesh. She panned her flashlight forward as much as she could, squinting as if that would help her to see any better in the blackness.
A soft hiss echoed down the hall, and Claire finally saw it; a creature. It wasn’t turned toward her, and it didn’t even seem to be aware of her. Leon groaned softly, and the creature flinched, a clicking sound emanating from it as it turned around.
“What the fuck…”
Look out for those creepy fucks that look like they got skinned alive, she remembered reading. Lickers, we call ‘em. Blind as bats, but their hearing more than makes up for it. Oh. That’s what that note had meant. She slowly swept the flashlight away from the licker, looking for a way out of the hallway. She could see the outline of a doorframe, and she moved toward it.
The rain drowned out her footsteps, but the licker was crawling up the wall, hissing as its head twisted. Claire grabbed the handle of the door, the flashlight bumping into the wood. The licker tensed and shrieked then, bony claws clattering against the ceiling as it moved towards her.
“Shit!” Claire shoved the door open, practically falling into the room. Leon was dragged in roughly behind her, and she let his hand go to slam her body into the door. The licker shrieked indignantly outside, Claire’s entire body getting jolted by it slamming into the door.
Claire planted her feet, pushing against the door with her full body weight. The licker tried slamming into the door a few more times before growling animalistically. There was the faint sound of rain and those claws clacking across the floor and away from the room. She let out a deep breath, sliding down the door and onto the ground.
“Are you okay?” She asked Leon breathlessly. She turned her head to look at him. He was staggering to move, dropping to the ground in front of her. His face was mere inches from hers now, and she could feel her stomach drop.
Leon’s mouth opened, though no sound came out aside from a soft groan. Claire clutched at her chest, trying to slow down her breathing. “No, no. I’m okay. I’m okay. It’s okay.”
Things were hardly okay, but they would likely stay ‘not okay’ until she left this place. For now, all she could do was try to calm down. Leon backed off slightly, sitting back on his legs.
They sat like that for a while, until Claire sat up. She was using the door as a support, using it to pull herself back up and onto her feet. Leon tilted his head up, his gaze never leaving her. Claire held out her hand to him, pulling him up to stand with her when he took it.
Not releasing his hand, Claire turned back to the door. She could tell she was in some kind of office from the surroundings. It all clicked into place when she saw the insignia carved into the door. Special Tactics and Rescue Service. S.T.A.R.S. The best place to find anything at all on her brother and his whereabouts.
Claire turned around, moving across the room with purpose. She stopped when she saw the jacket on the wall, moving closer to touch it. Chris had left their matching jackets here… but why? She frowned, a part of her thinking the worst. He got caught in this apocalypse. He was gone.
She shook those thoughts out of her head, looking over the desks. There was nobody here. Not a single S.T.A.R.S. uniform to be found, not a single body of the team anywhere in the office. It was eerie, to say the least, but it gave her hope. She continued her search, looking over the desks and even wagering a glance into the Captain’s office. There was one place left that she hadn’t searched yet, but the computer was asking for some kind of authorization.
With a grumble and a mental note to return if she found anything of use, she trudged back into the Captain’s office. There was a battery on the desk, and Claire immediately grabbed it up. She finally released Leon’s hand again, pulling the detonator out of her pocket. This was all she needed to blow that c4 blocking off the last medallion.
Then they’d be home free, she hoped. Claire pulled the grenade launcher off her back, going for the door. Leon’s footsteps padded behind her, but she still glanced back to make sure he was following her. His gaze was intently ahead, focused on the door. Claire braced herself against it, straining her ears to hear out in the hallway.
Only the sounds of the rain pattering against the windows greeted her. She pursed her lips, her grip tightening minutely on her weapon. She checked on how much ammo she had, sucking in a sharp breath through her teeth. Hopefully a licker died easily to these flame rounds. She leaned off the door, opening it slowly.
She was greeted only by pitch darkness, turning her flashlight on and sweeping it over the hall. The licker was nowhere to be seen. She tentatively stepped out of the S.T.A.R.S. office, doing another sweep of the entire hallway. Nothing but the rain greeted her.
“Okay…” she whispered, turning to Leon. “We gotta be quiet, okay, buddy? Be really quiet for me.”
Leon’s only reply was a slight, barely noticeable nod. He wiped at his mouth, following behind Claire closely as she fully stepped out and into the hallway. The licker didn’t immediately show up, so Claire moved forward, going for the end of the hallway.
Despite the multitude of corpses, none of them got up. Whether that was because of the licker or because Claire wasn’t disturbing them, she wasn’t sure. She turned the corner, inhaling sharply. The licker was on the wall, facing her direction, its mouth opening and closing as it hissed.
It didn’t react to Claire’s breath, nor did it react when Leon bumped into Claire after not realizing she was stopped. He groaned a soft apology, and Claire just held up her hand before adjusting her grip on the grenade launcher. She could see another door at the end of the hall.
That’s where they needed to go. Maybe she wouldn’t need the grenade launcher after all. She side-stepped, slowly moving past the licker. Leon continued to follow her, his hand resting on her shoulder. She didn’t know when he had done that, honestly. Probably after he had run into her.
The door had a little lock on it, which Claire turned with a soft click resounding. She winced, glancing back at the licker. The licker was on the floor now, but still mostly oblivious to their presence. She pushed the door open, motioning with her head for Leon to go through first.
Leon, catching the hint, slipped through the doorway quietly. Claire followed, closing the door with none of the previous quietness. She heard the shriek, but the door never rattled. She turned back to Leon, looking at him curiously. She had seen how quiet zombies could be, but Leon’s stealth had taken the cake.
Leon tilted his head at her, his eyes portraying a questioning look. Claire shook her head, turning for the other door. “We got lucky, you know. Basically right beside the medallion.”
Leon’s eyes twitched and narrowed into suspicion. It was barely noticeable, and Claire’s brows arched. Maybe she was just seeing things, stress-induced nonsense. There was no way Leon had narrowed his eyes on her.
“Come on. Nearly home-free, and out of this hellhole, I hope.” Claire held out her hand to Leon, who looked at it for an uncomfortable amount of time before he took it. As weird as that was, Claire didn’t have time to think about it. She moved through the library, eyeing the corpses that otherwise didn’t move.
By the time they made it to the c4, Claire had let go of Leon’s hand to put the battery in the detonator and connect it to the c4 and start the countdown. The countdown was much shorter than she had expected, and she barely made it behind the bookshelves before the loud explosion rang out.
Leon, however, lurched forward, slamming into the ground face-first. Claire crouched down to help him, flinching when she heard that unsettling shriek. Leon was struggling to push himself up with his arms, shaking his head as if trying to clear it.
Claire grabbed his shoulder, slinging his arm over her shoulder before she got up, lifting him along with her. He groaned, his head slumping back when they stood up straight. “Sorry, bud. We have to hurry.” Claire told him, adjusting her grip on his wrist.
He made another sound of discontent, staggering as Claire moved for the gap in the bars. She released him against the wall, jogging over to the statue before pulling the little notebook out to consult it.
The same loud clacking that had accompanied the last licker’s movements rang out, and Leon slowly turned his head in the direction of the sound. A licker dropped from a hole in the ceiling, hissing as it approached the gap. It paused and began to move its head as if sniffing at the air, its claws clacking against the floor louder as they were slammed down.
Leon took a small step away, his nose wrinkling. He looked back to Claire, who was still looking in the book, her brows furrowed as she turned the symbols. Leon turned back to the licker, who was getting dangerously close to passing through the gap. The gap that led into this small room, where this innocent girl was standing and trying to solve something he knew not of.
What he did know was that he needed to protect her. With what, he wasn’t sure. The others didn’t seem to fare well against these creatures, and he surmised that he wouldn’t either in a normal situation. The fact that the creature didn’t have any noticeable eyes did change that situation.
Leon planted his feet, flexing his hands at his sides. The thing was mostly bones, but there was some muscle mixed into that. And he could clearly see a brain too. There was something he could try…
Claire clicked the symbols into place, jolting when she heard the shrieking. She shut the notebook, whirling her head to the source of the commotion. Her jaw nearly hit the ground when she saw Leon, straddling a licker’s back, his hands and mouth tearing into its brain.
“Leon!” Claire shrieked, shoving the notebook back into her back pocket. “What the hell are you doing?! Spit that out! Stop!” She slung the grenade launcher over her shoulder and into her arms, aiming it at the two.
The licker struggled, Claire watching in horror as it was thrashing around and trying to remove the zombie. The zombie who didn’t listen this time, his gaze hard and determined as he continued to ravage the brain. The licker shrieked louder, more indignant, before it fell back on its stomach, its arm outstretched one last time before it fell limp.
Leon pulled himself away, turning his head up. Despite the blood dripping from his hands and down his chin, his lips twitched into a grin. A soft one, one that had Claire retching. She turned away, the contents of her stomach and bile littering the ground beside the statue. She dry heaved, holding onto the solid block of the puzzle to keep herself from collapsing.
He had killed a licker. A fucking licker, with his bare hands. And he had looked at her, pride shining in his glossed over eyes. She swallowed, hard, trying to catch her breath or make sense of anything.
Think, think, think, she scolded herself. She closed her eyes, taking as many deep breaths as she could to slow her breathing back down. She heard the sounds of Leon’s movements, but she didn’t open her eyes nor did she even turn her head.
Something wet and sticky grabbed onto her arm, and she let out a yelp, flinching to attention. Leon was standing uncomfortably close to her, his hand on her arm, a concerned expression on his face.
Claire swallowed again. She still felt sick, but her stomach was empty. She searched his eyes for something, her hand closing into a fist against the stone. “Don’t—” she furrowed her brows, trying to relax her nerves. “Don’t do that again.”
Leon’s brows furrowed slightly, and the concern melted into confusion. “You were trying to help me,” Claire clarified, watching Leon’s eyes. There was that slight shimmer to them again. “Don’t do it that way. You could’ve gotten seriously hurt, or both of us killed.”
Leon frowned, his grip looser as he visibly deflated. Claire, after mustering up her courage and forcing the bile back down her throat, gently grabbed his hand. He easily let her arm go, allowing her to hold his hand fully in her own hand. “I appreciate it,” she didn’t let the eye contact fail, “just be more careful. That’s a fair thing to ask, isn’t it?”
A slow, uncertain nod in reply. Leon looked back at the licker’s body. Claire gently squeezed his hand, then released it. She moved around the statue and picked the medallion out of the slot it had released from.
Making it back to the big statue in the main hall had been a fairly easy walk, after Claire had put down a few other zombies on her way through. She hadn’t a clue where they had all come from, but her guess was that the explosion had caught all of their attention and had made them gather. A minor inconvenience at best.
Claire slotted the last medallion into place, stepping back as the lower part of the statue shifted and moved. She turned to Marvin, who was currently being watched over by Leon. As if he’d vanish if he looked away for any amount of time.
She’d help him, too. He had helped her throughout her journey here. She took a few steps toward him, pausing beside Leon. “Hey, lieutenant. Lieutenant!” She called out.
With a growl that sounded like the other zombies did, Marvin jolted up, his gaze distant as he blinked. “What?” He muttered, turning his hand up to them.
“We found the way out. I can get you both out of here, and then we can find a cure, and—”
Marvin was shaking his head before she was halfway through her sentence. “No, no, it’s too late for me.” He replied, his hand flexing on his wound. “You two go ahead. Get out of here. Find that cure.”
“But lieutenant,” Claire tried, her hand going to Leon’s shoulder. “Look at him. He’s helped me, is helping me. Why wouldn’t you?”
Marvin looked at Leon, his gaze softening. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s the exception. He’s a good-hearted kid. And the only one who hasn’t turned aggressive. I’m not going to risk it.” He rested his free hand on the pistol of his gun as he looked back at Claire. “You get out of here, Claire. You take that boy and you run and you do not look back. Got it?”
Claire wanted to argue more, but Marvin’s hand tightened around the grip of the pistol, his gaze hard as he stared at her. It was a thinly-veiled threat, a threat to pull the gun on both her and Leon if she continued to argue and try to bring him with.
Claire’s hand tightened on Leon’s shoulder, though he didn’t react. His gaze only looked sadly at the lieutenant. “Okay.” Claire relented, tugging at Leon’s shoulder. It gave, his upper body twisting slightly. “Let’s go, Leon.”
Leon groaned, a soft and sad noise, his gaze still trained on Marvin. “That’s an order, rookie,” Marvin almost snarled. Leon clenched his fists, but relented, turning to face Claire. Claire moved her hand down from his shoulder to take his hand, and they walked through the small doorway.
A few steps later, and they were in some kind of small office, the entrance sealing itself back off with a thunk. Claire looked at Leon, and he looked at her. There was a certain sense of knowing between them. They weren’t turning back now, and wouldn’t be able to even if they wanted.
“Come on,” Claire mumbled. “We have to get out of here.”