SAVEGUARD ⟼ leon s. kennedy

lxi. operation casket

ｌｅｏｎ

Leon's head spins and spins.

He cannot lose you. He cannot think about Ada. He cannot bear being responsible for Helena's death.

He cannot keep track of all the feelings that are rushing through his mind, his chest.

So instead, he does what he has been trained to do: he shuts it all off.

I'm sorry, Clementine, he thinks. This is for your own good.

"Leon!" Helena shouts, shining her dim flashlight in his face. "Look alive will you?!"

Leon snaps out of his thoughts, his mind suddenly clear and empty, and in a matter of nanoseconds, has his gun whipped out and aimed at the looming bodies ahead of him. He hadn't even realised they were there; that he had been looking at them; but he was so glad his body had acted out of instinct.

Bodies were rising out of their crypts. Undead in various forms of decay. Some half skeletons, some with skin perfectly intact.

All of them bloodthirsty.

He shoots a few as he and Helena run and delve lower into the pits of this catacomb system, as he tries not to think about how he's putting all of his trust in this woman, and how the other half of his soul is being trusted with Ada.

Ada.

Why can't he seem to get rid of that woman?

His training kicks in as he feels his brain being overshadowed by thoughts he doesn't want to think right now, and he closes his eyes for a split second, to focus.

He needs to focus.

Together, they run, shooting any body that dares creep too close. His magazines are feeling lighter and lighter, his ammunition running out, but he cannot think about that.

He cannot think.

Just focus on the tunnel in front of him.

"This tunnel leads to a staircase," Helena is saying, as her running slows down to catch her breath. "The staircase leads to a crypt entrance, which is—"

Leon cuts her off. "Will Ada know how to get there?"

"How the hell should I know that?" Helena grunts. She looks like she's about to tell Leon off, but he feels her eyes roam his face, and then he sees her expression soften, like she's telling herself to back off. "I'm sure there is more than one way out of here. Clementine will be fine. You seem like you trust that Ada woman."

"I do." Leon feels his jaw tighten. "Against my better judgement."

Helena sighs. "We won't leave anyone behind. I promise you."

○

ｃｌｅｍｅｎｔｉｎｅ

Ada is running up these stairs like oxygen isn't something she needs in her lungs. I clamber after her, my chest on fire, trying to catch up to her.

She's doing this in heels. With a crossbow on her back.

"Hurry up," she says sharply, a storey or two on top of me.

I pause for a second, bent over almost hyperventilating. I'm not as fit as these people. But I don't want to die here.

When I look behind me, down across the multiple levels of staircases, a small part of my heart is expecting to see Leon's blonde head running towards me, relief on his face. But my mind knows he and Helena went in the opposite direction, and that makes my heart sink.