The 0714 Files: File #1 Inferno (Remake 2)

Chapter 46

Minutes before

I'm shivering uncontrollably when I regain consciousness despite whatever blanket's been thrown on me.

It takes me a minute to open my eyes, my ears and nose are the first to pick up my surroundings. There's a thudding of a fan going at a medium pace to my right, a stale smell hangs in the air, and it's humid. It's at the third realization that I notice my back is wet from the condensation on a wall I'm leaning against.

A metallic smell of blood reaches my nose last. "Leon!" Madeleine's voice echoes in my head and at that my eyes peek open.

Seconds tick by and I don't hear her or Ada. The light in the room is bright and a few seconds pass before I can open them fully. Trying to avoid aggravating my blurry eyesight.

Scanning the room yields nothing, just like I'd assumed in my half-asleep state. There's nobody here. "Madeleine?" I call out, feeling stupid for doing so. I don't think either are anywhere nearby, calling for her won't achieve anything. But where are they? I know they were both with me when I passed out.

"Ada?" I call next, still receiving no answer. What did I expect exactly when it's probably been five minutes since I've woken up and there's been no evidence of anyone here but me?

They were here. I know they were. Which leaves me more confused why I'm sitting all alone in this room with... Ada's trench coat in my lap. That's the blanket I'd felt on me when I first awoke. She must've taken it off and thrown it on after...

That's when what previously had been only a dull pain in my left shoulder roars in intensity as worse than anything else I'd ever experienced. Even when I broke my wrist when I was younger when I fell during gym class and landed on it wrong.

Glimpsing to my left, I recognize a cool draft is ghosting over my bare arms and I see the bloodied white gauze wrapped around my shoulder. Must've taken my shirt off while treating it.

To my side I see the long sleeve I'd been wearing under my uniform. I'd been shot by Annette. I remember that now too, and how Ada chased her.

Then I remember I'd leapt just in time to catch the bullet fired by Annette so she didn't.

The sequential blood loss of being shot has left me freezing and with a lightheaded, nearly dizzy feeling. Probably the first thing I need to do after escaping this place is find a hospital and eat. The first time I'd planned for Madeleine, but it looks like now I'll be doing the same for myself.

A small groan in the back of my throat, in order to find either woman or get out of here I have to get up first. If I can at least do that and make it out of here without passing out then I'm already one step further ahead than I was a second ago.

Bracing my right hand against the wall, I grit my teeth and push up with a grunt as pain from my left shoulder protests against the movement.

I don't know if I should be firing Mathilda with this injury, but I'm not in a position to choose not to. Not with no one else around to aid me, perhaps I could try firing with just my right hand.

Let's come across a zombie first or god knows what else, and then decide. I have to figure out where the hell Madeleine and Ada disappeared to before either ends up hurt, or worse. Especially Madeleine with the state she's already in, being anywhere alone is dangerous for her. Dangerous for me too, but I worry more for her. I don't trust her to fare well by herself with the injuries to her ribs.

Shouldn't I be worrying about Ada too? I should. She'd slipped my mind though.

"Dammit," I grumble, grabbing my bullet vest when I see it lying beside the undershirt. Painfully donning it before retrieving Mathilda from my holster and checking my left, spotting nothing that says somebody went that way. Though there's quite a bit of debris on the floor, metal it looks like.