No more tears - Leon Kennedy

Chapter 17

"Thanks for the ride, Ada..." I expressed as I watched her pull what seemed to be a rocket launcher from the back of the helicopter, which raised a few more questions.

Then, she rummaged through her pocket and handed me what looked like a memory card. I furrowed my brows slightly, initially thinking it wasn't meant for me.

"It's your turn to do your part now." she declared in a slightly weary tone as she forced the gesture and placed the card in the palm of my hand, immediately setting off on her way.

Far more intrigued by the new object in my possession than my companion, I inserted the card with my other hand into my phone. As I checked its contents, no sound came out of my mouth anymore.

But why...!

But she was already gone when I snapped out of my reverie and wanted to ask her. In the blink of an eye, she was gone.

And yet, she had just given me a slew of evidence demonstrating both Simmons' guilt and Leon and Helena's innocence like that. Just like that.

I clenched my fists, feeling tears welling up in my eyes for a brief moment as I replayed the seven years of suffering I had endured in my mind's eye.

Maybe I was too emotional at the moment, but when I laid my eyes on an elevator, in which two people strongly resembling the duo I had lost were standing, I couldn't help but think back to the conversation I had with Ada, about Leon.

"Am I brave enough for all of this?" I ended up thinking aloud, letting out a heavy sigh.

But when that same elevator exploded and began to plummet into the abyss of flames below, I understood that it was anything but time to dawdle.

So, without even knowing why, I began to sprint across the roof, sprinting again and again until I reached the stairs at the other end.

"I can do this, I can do this!!" I yelled, with all my energy and determination, as I raced down the steps of that endless staircase, ignoring and blazing through everything that came my way, including the infected.

As I emerged from the stairwell and saw Leon, and Helena, both seated on what appeared to be a catwalk at the edge of collapse and what appeared to be another mutation of Simmons, I caught my breath, finally letting myself fall, after a few long moments of pain, along the nearest wall, with a taste of blood settling in the back of my throat.

Yet, I didn't take my eyes off them for a single second and began to pray, over and over again, despite my hatred for religion, to manage to get up and help them until all I could hear were the beats of my own heart and the fading screams in my mind.

After a few long minutes of respite, I finally got up, slightly dazed, and resumed my walk toward Leon and Helena, only to realize that I hadn't come down from the right place and that a huge chasm separated us.

Frustration taking over, I grabbed my phone and immediately dialed Leon's number, feeling a strange panic taking hold of me when I realized that after seven years of separation, I still knew his number by heart.

Yet another sign in Ada's favor, it seemed.

"Leon? Are you okay?" I ended up asking as soon as I heard him pick up, not even giving him a chance to consider speaking.

"Could be better, but we're good... We're at the Quad Tower, where are you?" He responded as my smile faded, realizing that I was the only one who noticed.

"I see you!! I'm to your right, do you see me too?" I asked him back as I raised my left hand in the air, hopping up and down in hopes that he would see me.