Starting Over Again (Book 1: Leon Kennedy)

Chapter 19: Betrayal

THE THREE HAD BEEN FIGHTING William for what felt like hours. Justine ran away from William when he raised his claw to attack her, missing her by a couple of inches. She fired a couple of shots on the eye on its leg, making it fall on its knee as a bunch of tumor-like eyes came out on its chest.

"Felt that, did you? How about some more!" Justine taunts as she unloaded the magazine of her handgun on the monster. She kept her glare at the monster, the image of Luca's lifeless body flashing in her mind. She was determined on killing this monster.

This thing has got to go down Justine thought. The monster turned its attention to Justine, roaring as it stalked towards her. She pulled out a grenade and pulled its pin, throwing it at the monster as she ran away from it again. The grande exploded at the feet of it, knocking it down on the machine behind it, causing a bigger explosion. William's mutated body began to get engulfed in flames, screeching as it struggled to get up. Seconds later its body stopped moving and went limp. The three gathered together as they stared at the body, trying to catch their breaths.

"Good riddance," Claire mumbles.

"TARGET NEUTRALIZED: THE BOTTOM LEVEL ELEVATOR IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR USE." A robotic voice echoed in the room. Seconds later they hear a loud ding coming from the end of the room. The three walked towards the elevator, and Leon pressed the button. The three stepped off of it when they got to the top and stepped out of the west area. They were heading close to the close to the emergency elevator when they saw Ada near the emergency elevator.

"Oh good, you guys are okay, I was getting worried!" Ada calls out, "Please tell me you have it."

"I do, actually—" Leon then lifts his hand up as he stops his movement, the two women with him following his movement. "—right here," He lightly shakes it with his thumb and index finger.

"All right, let me see it." Ada holds out her hand as she limped closer to them. All four of them standing on the same bridge that leads to the west area.

"There's something I have to know first," Leon states as he puts down his hand that was holding the virus sample.

"What?" Ada was getting impatient.

"Annette said you weren't F.B.I.," Leon replied, a frown plastered on his face as he looked at the woman in front of them. 

Ada puts her hand down and stops walking. She chuckles, pulling out her gun and aiming it at Leon, and he does the same. "Oh, Leon,"

"We don't have time for this!" Claire mumbles in frustration, "We have to get to Sherry!" The bridge began to sway. All four of them tried to balance themselves as parts of the ceiling began to fall.

"Watch out!" Claire pushes Justine out of the way as giant debris from the roof nearly fell on them, cutting the bridge in half. The bridge had begun to fall apart part-by-part, making Claire and Justine rush towards the Elevator Platform.

Justine stops, "Wait, where—" Justine looks behind her to see Leon holding onto Ada. Nearly half of the bridge had already fallen, and the ones that Leon and Ada on were hanging on loosely.

"I have to get to Sherry!" Claire says and runs off before Justine could say another word to her. She turns her attention back to Leon and Ada. Justine tried to step closer and help but the bridge began to tremble. Justine's heart was thumping erratically, she knew that the bridge wouldn't hold on for long. Ada's eyes land on hers before Leon's. Ada says something to Leon and as she talks Justine notices that her hands were already slipping from Leon's hold.

A gasp left Justine's lips as Ada fell into what looked like a bottomless pit, her heart, stopping for a second. The bridge began to further collapse. Leon got up and quickly stepped off of the bridge at a couple of seconds before it fully fell into the bottomless pit under them. Justine saw the sadness in Leon's eyes as he stared down in the pit.

She gently held Leon's arm making him turn his head to her, "You did what you could."

A robotic voice began to echo in the room, "WARNING: TEN MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION."

Leon sighs, "...Let's get out of here." And at that same time, Claire had come back with Sherry, the swelling and irritation on her face were gone. The four of them quickly rushed inside the open elevator and Claire pressed a button. They stared at what was happening around them; what looked like a generator was slowly catching fire, massive debris falling from above them.

Despite the chaos that was happening, they managed to relax and catch their breath. Justine toyed with the ring on her thumb, certain happy memories of her and Luca flashing in her mind. She doesn't know if she was ever going to be able to move on from this, but she knew deep down that's what he would want for her. She was going to keep on fighting for him.

"Hey," Leon softly calls her attention. He was standing next to her, a frown etched on his face. "Are you okay?"

She turns to him. "Yeah," Justine replied, "Yeah, why?"

"You're... crying," Justine's hand goes to her face and she feels the wet tears on her cheeks.

"Oh," She quickly wipes the tears off with her sleeves, "I didn't realize."

"Do you... want to talk about it?" He asks.

"Maybe when we're out of here," Was Justine's reply.