A Sickly Sweet Reverie (Leon Kennedy X OC) [BOOK 3]

Chapter 3: Presidentially screwed

I caught up to Leon as we hit the edge of the school. Car alarms blared in the distance, and the occasional scream split through the night air along with the rumble of a brewing storm. The cool summer breeze hit my face as we rounded a corner, heading straight for the gate at the edge of the courtyard.

Leon burst into the courtyard. The bustling staff was nowhere to be seen, and the tables and decorations for the event hung limply from their perches, replaced by still bodies. I rushed toward the closest fallen figure, kneeling down on the grass to flip them on their back.

"Can you hear me?" I asked, pressing two fingers into their neck to look for a pulse. Nothing but cold flesh greeted me.

"What the hell happened...?" I whispered, looking at the other corpses illuminated under the glow of string lights.

"The President," Leon beckoned, darting toward the Northern building adorned with two matching American flags.

I rose to my feet, storming after him. My eyes caught on the metal partition as I passed, on the corpses of the two secret service members from earlier.

Fuck.

I raced after Leon, letting him blindly guide me through the rooms, each one dotted with the bodies of staff, professors and students.

Leon turned into a room at the end of an ornate hallway, and a female cry split the quiet.

"Stay back!"

I darted into the room after him. It was a mess, overturned desk and chairs with random bits of glass from a vase and books dotted the floors. In the center of the chaos was a woman, gun raised as she backed away from a figure converging on her.

The figure raised his arms, the back of his neck covered in a blotchy red rash that culminated into a few bloody blisters.

My jaw dropped. I recognize his suit, the back of his head– everyone in America does. President Adam Benford.

Leon rounded the edge of the room, his gun drawn. He could see his face now, and Leon's expression dropped.

"Stay right where you are," he called, his fingers twitching on the grip of his gun. "Mr. President!" Leon yelled.

The noise snagged his attention, making Benford turn slightly to face him and making the edge of his face visible to me in the far corner. Gore dripped from his mouth, the same rash spread across his face to form a textured mess and his eyes– his eyes. The typical forest green had gone foggy, clouded by a layer of milky white and ringed with deep crimson. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and droplets of blood dripped from his lash line.

I recoiled, shock immobilizing me as I watched Benford turn his attention back to the woman and continue his approach.

"Don't make me do this," Leon ground out as Benford raised his arms, now just a few feet from his target.

I tried to move, to spare Leon from this hardship and do what needed to be done myself– but my body didn't listen. I was frozen, like I was that same wide eyed cop from all those years ago.

Benford lunged forward. Leon yelled, pulling the trigger a single time before the President crumpled to the ground at the woman's feet. Thick silence pressed in on us. For a few long seconds all that sounded was the echo of our own ragged breaths.

Leon stepped forward, his gun still in his grasp as he stopped to stare down at the President's body like he was having trouble believing what he'd just done. The President is dead, a zombie.

"This is all my fault," The woman took in a shattered breath, making both Leon and I look at her. "I– I did this."

"What are you talking about?" Leon growled, stepping toward her.