𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐏𝐄𝐑 | 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋 𝟐

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

| LOUNGE |

I grabbed my face where the licker had slashed my cheek - I was sure to have a few big scars there now. My face was bleeding from how sharp its nails were.
Leon and I barely had enough time to reach for our heavy guns before the licker leaped for another attack, I shot it back with my shotgun - the sound echoing in the room around us, making our ears ring. The next sound was the sound of fire - Leon had shot a fire round at the stupid creature. It cried out in agony, clawing at the walls while it died slowly. "..And stay dead. You stupid fucker." I grunted, Leon seemed to be bleeding too - though it was my on his face. It was his shoulder where Annette had shot him earlier this night. "Are you alright?", Leon surely was quick to check on me - not even himself. "No, I'll be fine, what about you? Does your shoulder hurt?" "Very..but I'll be fine. Here, let me patch you up.", I could hear the desperation in the man's voice - I feared what he had seen of my face - I didn't fight it, I sat down on the cold floor with my back to the wall, legs to my chest. "Work your magic on me, Leon."
He nodded and got down, he grabbed the gauze and other medical supplies he needed.
First he made sure to clean my wounds, the blood was still coming but there wasn't anything we had that could put a stop to it besides Leon putting pressure - but he didn't, I thought I was just because he didn't want to hurt me. He cleaned the blood up as best as he could, next he disinfected the wounds, then put gauze on my cheek and taped it in place. "There, soilder. You're doing great." He patted my shoulder, flashing a smile to me. "Thank you Leon, truthfully..what would I do without you?" I smiled back, even in my moments of agony, I couldn't help but feel happy - I was happy I got to share moments like this with Leon, it made me still feel human after everything we'd been through this night.
Leon inched closer to my face, my eyes softened once I realized what he was doing - he was finally making the first move. His right hand reached my cheek to cup it gently, we stared into each others eyes..and just in that moment, it felt as though the whole world had stopped moving - everyone went silent, the birds, the bees, the bears, any human still breathing had stopped. It was just him and I in this moment of lunacy. We closed our eyes at the same moment, and let it happen. Leaning into eachother, our lips clasped together - moving in sync with the other, we fit together like two puzzle pieces. My hand reached up to cup Leon's cheek with my left hand, just to make the moment even better.
A few minutes later, the two of us broke apart and stared into our eyes. His eyes - they pierced through me, like a icy winter night like a snowstorm. I'm sure I looked crazy just from the way I was looking at him - but I couldn't help it. I had fallen in love in this very moment, but no - I had fallen in love with him from the very second I met him. It had only taken me so long to realize this. A blush crept onto both of our cheeks, my face burning up. We completely pulled apart now, and I cleaned my throat. "Mind helping me up?", He shook his head and grabbed my hands to pull me up. We stood there for a few moments, just looking at eachother again. "If we can't get out of here to take Umbrella down, promise me - we can make it for the two of us." I whispered to him, i probably sounded like a lunatic - realistically I had only known him for a few short hours - and here I was begging him to continue his life - my life, our lives — just so we could be together in the aftermath of this hellish event. "I promise."
My eyes widened when I heard the two words fall from his mouth, I just nodded. He insisted on walking in front of me from now on, so we wouldn't have anymore scares, though I wasn't scared for me anymore - just him. Who knows what could just leap out and grab him. But I don't fight back, I couldn't - I was in a battle I was sure to lose with him.
He opened the door - immediately we were flashed with a red light in a small room, it looked like a mini waiting room of some sort, but I wasn't sure.
He walked through the door at the end of the hallway, I was right behind him. We walked up a few flights of stairs and into a new room. We heard growling coming from it, he aimed his pistol, I had mine at the ready.
He shot one bullet at the female zombie, her head exploded and her body fell limp to the ground. "Nice shot." I patted his shoulder, I couldn't see his reaction since he didn't turn to face me, he just kept walking. We searched the room, we found a Signal Modulator and some bullets laying around the room. "Maybe we can turn the power on with this.", He held it up for me to see "Let's try it.", I smiled at him, arms by my side with my pistol in hand. He nodded and handed it to me. It was my job to hold it while he walked in front, in case something jumped at us.
We made our way back to the lounge, the bodies we had previously saw were now standing up and walking towards us. Leon quickly took care of them, none of 'em even came close to us, he had single handily taken care of about 3 zombies with a pistol. "You're amazing..holy shit, you took care of them all by yourself!", I praised Leon - he definitely deserved it after the creatures he just took down singlehanded. "Thank you.", He smiled at me and pointed at the machine on the wall, "Try that device on that." I nodded and walked over, he followed closely behind me like a guard dog.
On the wall it said 'MURF' and I tried lining up the device with the murf, eventually I got it and placed it against the battery on the wall, it worked and the lights turned on. I took the device back, quickly turning to look at Leon with a smile. "It worked!" I walked closer and high-fived him, he returned it. "Alright, let's go cool this and get that wristband." I nodded at him. We back tracked to the hall with the lickers and went into the low-temp testing lab.

| LOW-TEMP TESTING LAB |

Leon and I walked into the room, there were tons of rows with computers where people had worked, we walked into the testing lab, I grabbed the cartridge and placed it into the machine. The machine began to cool it. "Holy shit..it's freezing in here." "You got that right..", Leon and I were freezing our asses off. Eventually the cooling process was complete and I was able to grab the cartidge. "Alright, let's get this shit over with."
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HIIII! I'm on a writing streak for you guys, BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER!!! I enjoyed writing it, thank you for all the support. I can't wait for this story to end and to be able to continue my writing work with Valentina!!! 💜