Starting Over Again (Book 1: Leon Kennedy)

Chapter 11: Finding A Way Out

"HEY, I'M NOT DONE TALKING to you!" Leon calls after the mysterious lady, following her as she walked through a door at the upper left corner of the room.

"Leon!" Justine called out but it was too late, he had already gone after her.

She then turns her attention to Luca who was leaning against the shaft, his hand on the gash on his rib. "Are you okay?" Justine was about to approach him but he nods and leans away from the shaft.

"Yeah, stings a little but nothing serious. Let's go after them." The pair went through the door where Leon had followed the lady, and it leads them to a row of prison cells. The people in each cell were infected. They walked through a gate and at the end of the room, they saw Leon talking to a survivor inside a cell. The lady was nowhere to be seen. The two approached Leon, who had a frown on his face.

"I can't do that, I have to talk to the chief first," Leon explains to the prisoner.

"Irons? He's probably someone dinner by now! Look—" The man raises something in the air, it looked like an ID. "—This is your only ticket out of here, so maybe we can help each other out—" Loud footsteps began to echo in the room, though they couldn't pinpoint where it exactly comes from. "—Shit! It's coming!"

"What? What's coming?" Leon asks as he held on one of the bars.

Where is that sound coming from? And what the hell is it? Justine thought as she looked around.

"C'mon man, you need this!" The man in the cell was beginning to sound frantic, "Just get me the fuck out of here—agh!" A hand busted through the wall that the man was leaning on, grabbing his face.

"Oh, Jesus!" Justine gasped in horror as the hand lifted the man in the air before squeezing his face. The three stared at the body as the hand let go of the man, the body slumping on the ground, eyes wide open and lifeless.

"What the fuck?" Was all Justine managed to say before they heard the sound of someone's footsteps heading towards them. Justine quickly turned, raising the gun she was holding and aiming at whoever it was.

"It's just me, so you can put that thing away," The lady says in a nonchalant tone as she walked past Justine, who slowly put the gun down. The lady looked in the cell, and at that same time, Leon began to explain himself "I... It all happened so quick..."

"Damn it!" The lady cussed. She then turned her attention to Leon, "I told you to get out of here, wouldn't want to end up like Ben now, do you?"

"You knew him?" Leon asks.

"He was an informant. Had information that was of use to my investigation," She was about to leave but Leon stopped her.

"Hey! You can't keep walking away from us!" Leon harshly pulled on the lady's arm making Justine quickly stepped in, pulling his hand from her.

"Calm down, Leon, you don't need to handle her like that." Justine reminds him.

"You know what," The lady joins in the conversation, "Find a way out Leon, and then I'll talk," She then turns and walks away, all while saying, "Name's Ada!"

"All right then," Leon spoke, making Justine's head turn to him. He was looking at the corpse in the cell. "We need to get that key card. I looked at the panel near the cell, it's missing a few parts."

"Then let's go look for it, we don't have any time to waste," Justine responds. "Here," She hands Leon his gun and he takes it from her, checking the magazine. The proceeded to leave the prison area and went to another door, it leads them to another dark hallway. There was a door at the end of the hall ahead of them, and on their left was a longer, narrower, and darker hallway. And as they trudged within the hall, they heard another faint howl coming from the narrow hallway.

"Really? I think I'm starting to hate dogs now..." Justine mumbles as she kept her eyes peeled. There wasn't any ammo left on her gun so she had to rely on the combat knife that she had found. They first went to check the door at the end of the hallway and it leads them to a shooting range. They scoured the area and took the bullets that they can and then proceeded to the other hallway. Justine loaded her gun and aimed it ahead of her as they walked. They stepped inside the room and saw zombified dogs in their cages, snarling and barking at the trio. She wasn't going to take any risks of the dogs breaking out so she took advantage of the situation and killed them. It gave her a small feeling of safety.

They stepped out of the room and they ended up in another hallway. The end of it was sealed with a shaft while ahead of them was a heavy-duty door.

'MORGUE' was written in front of it. Justin walked ahead of the two and opened the door to the room. The moment she stepped inside, a strong smell of various embalming fluids had hit her nose. A smell she had gotten used to because of her job. The other two though... she couldn't say the same.

"Ugh, Jesus!" Leon gagged but still stepped inside nonetheless. Justine spotted a cadaver in the middle of the room, and next to it was an open folder containing some files. She walked towards it, lifting it in the air with one hand as she read it. It talked about how the victim, who she assumed, was the man on the bed who was a known kleptomaniac. She set the folder down and saw that his hand was holding something. She pulled out the item that was slightly sticking out; it was a key with a diamond handle.

Fancy. Justine thought. She turned to Leon and showed him the key. "I remember seeing a door somewhere in the RPD with this symbol on it."

"Yeah, me too. C'mon, pretty sure we won't need anything else from here." Leon was dying to get out of the room, the smell was nauseating, it was too much for him. It felt like the stench was burning his lungs.