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

Chapter 19: Nuke me once...

After a few lungfuls of air, I finally stood to my full height. My heartbeat was still wild in my chest, still coming down from the few long moments I thought I was going to lose Leon forever. I cast the thought away, locking it in an iron cage in the back of my mind where it would rot until only the bones remained.

"Ready?" Leon asked. His eyes glimmered with concern, like he wasn't the one that was just eight feet from teeth longer than my forearm. I nodded, grabbing hold of Helena to help her walk towards the door set in the ancient carved stone. Leon led us, water still coming off him in thick droplets as we made our way down the path.

We stopped at the door, my eyes instantly registering the lack of doorknobs. Leon pushed his palms into the door, but they didn't move an inch in return.

"What about those?" Helena said, pointing to the short levers on either side of the door, hidden by the sheet of vines clinging to the moist wall. I swung my head out from under her arm, leaving her in front of the door as I went for the lever on the right.

Leon and I exchanged a nod before yanking down on the levers in perfect unison. Nothing happened for a few heartbeats, but an ancient clicking echoed in the tunnel. I moved back toward Helena, ready for the door to split open and hopefully deliver a breath of clean night air. The clicking continued, rumbling like a storm cloud overhead.

"Come on," I pleaded. As if in response, rock shifted somewhere in the room behind. I didn't even get a chance to turn and get a full look at the hatch in the ceiling before a torrent of water blasted through the new opening. The doors in front of us clicked open just as the tidal wave slammed into us, leaving no time to move before we were thrown through the opening.

I yelped as a scream ripped from Helena. Water peppered my face as we slid down the ancient version of a water slide. The moss and algae clinging to the surface was the only barrier between our skin and jagged rock.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I cursed, my heart beating a chaotic symphony as we were at the mercy of the slide. My outstretched hand gripped Helena's arm, dragging her close as she continued to holler and cling to my jacket. I looked at Leon who had a twisted smile carved into his features, like he was somehow enjoying what can only be described as Satan's slip n' slide.

Freak.

The tunnel began to lose its incline, leveling out to whatever new area it was throwing us into. I wrapped a second arm around Helena as we were thrown up again and tossed into the night sky.

There was a single second of relief. We were out–free of the zombies, pools and mutated sharks but that relief quickly twisted into panic as we lost momentum and began dropping. My stomach jumped into my throat as Helena belted again. Moonlight danced across the surface of the lake beneath us, waiting with open arms as we drew closer and closer. I didn't get a chance to look for Leon before we slammed into the water's surface.

Bubbles caressed my face with feather light kisses as they floated to the surface over our heads. The moon swayed and bobbed overhead, curling a finger in summons. I kicked through the torrent, following the rising bubbles of air with Helena in tow. We breached the surface, taking our first breath of crisp night air.

"Holy shit," Helena coughed, tossing up the water that had found its way into her lungs.

"Leon," I called out, spitting up water and kicking to stay above the surface.

He surfaced a few yards away, his hair clinging to his chiseled face. I could only admire his features for a second before something shot through the air far above our heads, ripping through the quiet sky on its way towards the city.

Another second passed before orange and yellow swallowed the night sky. The boom came a few short seconds later, the sound beating against the memories of that dreadful night. The cloud grew, devouring the city with devastating efficiency.