Chapter 25
“It’s too dark. I don’t see anything.”
Leon looked through the narrow opening and saw nothing but a dark hallway. Hanging onto the ladder beside him, Claire was looking through in the other direction but couldn’t see any more than he could. The elevator doors at the top of the shaft were only pulled open a few inches, just in case something dangerous lay beyond.
“Who knows what’s out there?” Claire said.
“Doesn’t matter. We can’t stay in here,” Leon said, peering into the darkness. He listened but heard nothing. If there were any zombies, they would have been attracted by their voices.
Ada’s voice came from below them. “Are we going to stay here all night or what?”
“If you’re so anxious to leave, why don’t you go first?” Claire said harshly. “If you run into any danger, don’t worry. We’ll be right behind you.”
“Fine, I’ll go first,” Ada said, and climbed up past Sherry, who clutched the edge of the ladder nervously, glancing down to the bottom of the shaft far beneath them. Ada climbed up beside Leon and shouldered her way past him to push the elevator doors open a bit farther.
“I’ll yell if I see anything,” Ada said with a smirk, and lifted herself onto the ledge to slide herself out easily.
“Sure you will,” Claire said.
“Come on,” Leon said. “Let’s all just go.”
Ada crawled through the doors and stood up in the darkness, the only light coming from the dim yellow lights along the inside of the elevator shaft. She looked up and down the hallway but the entire area was pitch dark. Leon climbed out after her and looked around as well. They were inside some kind of office building, judging by the plain elevator and the tile floors.
“Worried about my safety?” Ada said in a low voice. Leon could barely see her in the darkness; she was little more than an outlined shadow.
“The only weapon you have is that grenade launcher,” Leon replied. “If you run into anything, that might be overkill. So I might as well come with you.”
“Give me a gun, then.”
“We don’t have any to spare.”
“How many rounds do you have left?”
“Eight, I think.”
“What about your girlfriend?”
Claire stood up next to them, having crawled out. “My name is Claire, and I’m not his girlfriend. And I have three shells left.” She knelt over to help Sherry climb through the doors as well, so all four of them were in the hallway.
“Well, I have two rounds left in this thing,” Ada said, patting the launcher hanging off her shoulder. “So I guess we’re just about ready to take on an army, aren’t we?”
Together, they headed down the hallway, keeping close to each other. Sherry held Claire’s hand tightly, but said nothing. The only noise they heard was their own footsteps on the tile floor and the sound of their own nervous breathing. Except for Ada, who walked confidently forward, as if there was nothing to fear.
Their eyes adjusted to the darkness, and they were able to make out dim light coming from ahead of them.
“How did you make it down there, anyway?” Leon asked her. “You must have followed us from the police station, right? But we left a hundred zombies behind us. How did you get past them?”
“After I ditched you I went back upstairs,” Ada explained casually. “But the way was blocked, so I headed back downstairs and found all those zombies. I shot a grenade into the crowd to spread them out and went down into the basement. I didn’t know you went that way until I saw your footprints in the dust.”
“That leads to my next question. You never told me who you were.”
“You didn’t ask me nicely enough.”
“You didn’t exactly give me a chance to,” Leon said. “As I remember, you punched me in the face and kicked me in the stomach last time.”
“Yeah, well, sorry about that,” Ada said insincerely.
“So who are you?”
“My name’s Ada Wong.”
“You’re military?”
“Why would you think that?” Ada asked, her voice neutral.
“You carry yourself like a soldier,” Leon said. “The way you hold a gun. You know hand-to-hand combat. And you asked me how many rounds I had. Most civilians call them bullets instead of rounds.”
“Well, I guess that means you must be in the military?” Ada asked.
“Army Ranger,” Leon said.
They came to the end of the hallway and saw some windows ahead of them, silvery twilight shining into the open foyer and reflecting off the floor. Claire breathed a sigh of relief when they saw doors up ahead, past a reception area and a short lobby.
“Thank God,” Claire said to herself. She squeezed Sherry’s hand reassuringly and said, “It looks like we made it out. Now all we have to do is find out where we are and we can figure out a way to leave the city.”
“I think that’s easier said than done,” Leon said. He held out his arm to stop her and then knelt down as if to take a short rest. He pointed out the lobby and to the doors. “Looks like we’re not alone.”
Just outside the door, there was a zombie standing unsteadily. It looked like an old man in a business suit, but it was too dark to make out any details. The zombie wavered on its feet as if a stiff wind would knock it over, and did not notice them.
“Are you going to shoot it?” Claire asked.
“There’s probably more of them out there,” Leon said. “I don’t want to attract any unwanted attention.”
“We don’t have to go out the front door. Maybe we can find another way out.”
Leon glanced back down the pitch black corridor and shook his head. “Not without turning the lights on. Come on, let’s try to get closer.”
They crept through the foyer to the main lobby and hid behind the receptionist’s desk. Claire wrapped her arm around Sherry protectively and peeked over the top of the desk. Through the doors, they could see a front walkway and part of a parking lot in front of the building, and streetlights behind that. There was only one zombie that they could see.
Ada crouched down and peered out from around the desk. Leon knelt behind her and looked out as well. He drew his pistol and checked to make sure the safety was off. He glanced back at Claire and Sherry but said nothing to them just yet. Sherry had not spoken in awhile, but now was not the time to point that out.
“I don’t see anything else,” Ada whispered. “Here, give me your gun and I’ll take that one out.”
“Not likely,” Leon said. He stood up a bit and rested his arms on the desktop, taking careful aim at the zombie. He squeezed the trigger and let off one shot. The gunshot sounded far too loud in the quiet stillness. There was the tinkle of broken glass and the zombie toppled to the ground, its head smacking wetly on the pavement.
Everyone held their breath for a few moments, but no other zombies appeared to investigate the shot. After a minute or so, Ada stood up straight and adjusted the launcher on her shoulder. She brushed her hair out of her face and looked down at Leon.
“Are you coming?” she asked sarcastically, and walked out into the lobby.
Leon got up after her, jamming the gun into his belt. Before Ada made it halfway to the doors, Leon caught up with her and grabbed her arm, turning her around to face him.
Ada narrowed her eyes and looked down at Leon’s hand before staring him in the face, the blueish light reflecting through the windows making her eyes seem to glow.
“Let go of my arm,” she said darkly.
Leon stared right back in her eyes, his other hand balled into a fist. “Before we go any farther,” he said, “I think we need to get one thing straight. I’m not about to let you use anyone as bait again, is that clear? If you want to stay with us, then we work together. That means no running off and leaving us behind at the first sign of trouble. If that’s going to be a problem, then we can split up right now.”
“Let go of my arm,” Ada said again.
Instead, Leon squeezed tighter. “Do we understand each other?”
“Still upset that I left you behind earlier?”
“Not me,” Leon said. “Claire and Sherry. When that monster attacked them, you ran off on purpose. How does it feel to abandon a little girl like that?”
Ada leaned closer to Leon, so that their faces were only inches apart. “I will to do whatever I have to in order to survive,” she said, her voice as cold as ice. “I’m not going to apologize for anything. You want to be some kind of knight in shining armor, you go right ahead. But I’m not going to die for anyone.”
“Maybe I should have left you in that elevator.”
“Maybe you should have,” Ada agreed coldly. “What about that blonde chick that was shooting at us? Looks like you left her behind too.”
“She’s dead.”
“Well, it’s a shame that you didn’t get to save her.”
Claire stepped in between them and forcefully pushed them apart. Leon let go of Ada’s arm but did not take his eyes off her face. Ada calmly brushed off her sleeve, as if wiping off Leon’s touch.
“Stop it,” Claire snapped, looking at them. “Both of you.”
Sherry walked up next to Claire. She looked tired, worn-out from their frantic escape and everything else that had happened. Her arms hung limply at her sides, as if she didn’t have the energy to hold them up.
“Can we go now, please?” she asked tiredly, directing the question at Leon. “I don’t want to stay here. I don’t think it’s safe.”
Leon looked outside, but the coast was still clear. Their gunshot had not attracted any more zombies.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Let’s hurry and get moving.”
Outside, the sky was a dark midnight blue, and the partial moon gave very little light. The air was eerily still, and there was no sound at all. The city was as silent as the grave. Leon went outside first, followed by the others, and they walked down the front walkway to the curb and then out to the street.
There was a small park across the street with a playground made of brightly colored plastic pieces, lit up by numerous lamp posts. There were some oak trees lined along the sidewalk, sending complex shadows across the avenue. Along the street were some small businesses, with residential homes across the street on the other side of the park. Unlike many of the other places that Leon and Claire had seen so far, there were no cars blocking the road, and little other evidence of the infection. The street looked calm and safe, and for just a moment, they felt as if they had escaped the horrors of the city, as if this one small neighborhood had been spared the infection.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” Leon asked Claire. “You know the city a lot better than I do.”
“I don’t live here, remember?” Claire asked, looking at the street signs. “I just come here sometimes to visit my brother. I don’t recognize any of these street names.”
“What about you?” Leon asked Ada.
Ada crossed her arms and shook her head. “No, sorry,” she said, for the first time sounding as if she actually meant it. “I’m not from around here either.”
“Do you know where we are, Sherry?” Claire asked. “You’re the only one of us who actually lives in Raccoon City.”
Sherry shook her head. “No, I don’t know this place. I’m sorry.”
Leon walked out into the street, looking both ways out of habit, as if he expected cars to drive down the street at any moment. “Let’s just walk this way,” he suggested. “Maybe we’ll find a major street.”
They headed off in a random direction, walking in between the playground and the houses, going at an easy pace. All four of them were tired, and Leon didn’t see any reason to hurry. For the moment, they took it slow, happy to be relatively safe.
Claire walked up beside Leon and said quietly, “What happened to the other woman? Who was she?”
Sherry was walking a few steps away, not listening to them, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. But Leon didn’t dare tell the truth. He couldn’t put Sherry through that, not after all she’d been through already. Knowing that her mother was so close and died so horribly was more than she could bear. It would be better if she just remained ignorant of what happened. For all she knew, her parents were already gone, and Leon wanted to keep it that way.
“She worked for Umbrella and was hiding down there,” he said simply. “She shot at me and Ada because she thought we were zombies. I chased after her, but ...”
“But what?”
“That creature got her,” Leon said after a pause. “It killed her. There was nothing I could do. I barely managed to get away myself.”
Claire looked down and was silent for a few seconds. “What was her name?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Leon lied. “She didn’t tell me.”
“Jesus,” Claire whispered. “She survived that long by herself and got killed just when we got there. How horrible is that? She could have joined us. It’s like she got killed right when she could have been rescued.”
“Yeah,” Leon agreed.
He glanced back at Sherry, who was fiddling with the edge of her school skirt absentmindedly as she walked. Once again, he was amazed that a young girl like her could have survived on her own in the midst of all this chaos. She had more courage than all the rest of them put together, he thought. Whatever strength she was drawing on that kept her going, Leon hoped that she had enough of it left. Because getting out of the city would not be easy.
But whatever else happened, he was determined that Sherry would never learn the truth about her parents. That was one secret he was going to take to his grave.