[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 423 - As Long As You Haven't Eaten People, Everything's Negotiable

"Because I had no choice."

Gareth pressed both hands against his head, like he was trying to keep it from splitting open.

"Robert and his crew — they don't look like good people. Not even close."

"Brutish faces. Eyes like wolves. Any sane person takes one look and crosses the street."

"But me..."

He laughed at himself. It looked worse than crying.

"Me, my little brother, my mom. We look... harmless."

"So Robert made me a deal."

"I go out. I use this goddamn face of mine to lure desperate survivors back to him."

"As long as I bring back enough people. Enough food. He guarantees he won't touch my family."

"My mom. Alex. Everyone I give a damn about — they get to live."

He raised his head. Those red, swollen eyes locked onto Leon and didn't let go.

"You know what?"

"Every time I looked at those people, the ones I'd spun around with my lies, the ones who were so damn grateful to me, I wanted to puke."

"But I couldn't."

"Because I knew. If I stopped, the next one tied to the butcher block with his leg meat carved off would be my little brother Alex."

"The next one those animals dragged into a shipping container would be my mom."

Silence swallowed the woods.

Harming strangers to save your own. Some people found that repulsive. Some found it completely reasonable.

Shawn Greene, for instance.

He'd been standing behind Leon this whole time, not saying a word.

He looked at the man on his knees in the snow and felt nothing close to contempt.

He even understood.

If it were him.

If Leon were ever in danger, and the only way out was someone else's life.

He wouldn't hesitate for a second.

He'd go further than Gareth. More ruthless. More savage.

He wouldn't lose one second of sleep over whether the ones sacrificed were pitiful or innocent.

If it saved Leon, he'd burn all of Atlanta to ash.

What he believed was right. That made it right.

In this shit world, what did right and wrong even mean anymore?

Survive. Protect the people you cared about. That was the only truth that still held.

Glenn Rhee was the opposite.

When it came to something like this, the kid kept his own line. He'd still fight like hell to save someone, but not like this. He'd find another way. He might put his own life on the table for Leon without blinking, but he'd never spend an innocent person's life to do it.

You couldn't say Shawn Greene was right. You couldn't say Glenn Rhee was right either.

It was one of those things with no clean answer.

Like a burning building. A cat and a child. The cat is yours, can't run, hurt leg. The child is a stranger, no connection to you. You can only save one.

From a moral standpoint, the answer is obvious. Save the person.

But is that really what happens?

Take away the social pressure, the watchful eyes. In their gut, most people have already made their choice.

"We were too good before."

Gareth's voice had gone distant, like he was talking to himself from somewhere far away.

"We thought if you were good to people, they'd be good back."

"We were wrong."

"In this world, if you don't become the butcher, you're the lamb."

"I won't make that mistake again."

"I—"

"Did you eat it?"

Leon's voice cut across him, flat and clean, stopping the dark philosophy before it could fully take shape.

Gareth blinked.

"What?"

"I'm asking you." Leon stepped forward and crouched down, putting himself at eye level. "The human flesh. Did you eat it?"

Gareth's body jerked like he'd been shocked.

He shook his head, fast and frantic.

"No. I didn't. I swear."

"The ones they kept penned up, none of us ate it."

"Robert's crew, once they had better options, they stopped caring about moldy bread and expired cans."

"They kept all the meat for themselves."

"We ate the same as before. Normal food. Grain."

Leon looked at him without moving.

His interrogation ability made lying nearly impossible, and his heightened senses swept every detail, each heartbeat, each flicker of muscle in the face, with absolute clarity.

Good.

The kid wasn't lying.

Leon filed that away.

This timeline's Gareth hadn't gone completely rotten yet. He was barely past the starting line on the road to becoming something worse.

A few more days. A few more rounds of Robert's crew grinding him down, scraping away what little humanity he had left.

He'd have ended up exactly like the source material: broken by despair, killing Robert, and stepping into the dead man's shoes as something far more savage.

But right now? The timing was perfect.

The naivety was gone. The beast's hide hadn't gone on yet.

That gap, that precise, narrow window, was exactly what Leon needed. People caught in it were the most worth saving.

And the most useful.

Leon let the ability drop.

He stood, pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, shook one out, and held it toward Gareth.

"Take it."

Gareth reached up with a trembling hand and took it.

Leon lit it for him.

Gareth pulled hard. Too hard, he hadn't smoked in too long. The harsh smoke hit his throat like a fist and he broke into a coughing fit, eyes watering.

The cigarette burned down fast.

When it was done, that heart of his, the one that had been hammering against his ribs for God knows how long, finally settled.

He didn't know who this man was.

But he knew one thing. He wasn't anything like Robert.

"What do you want from me?"

He finally got the question out. The one that mattered.

"What do you think?"

Leon threw it back.

Something shifted in Gareth's eyes. Slow, then steady.

A light catching in the dark.

Vengeance.

He understood what Leon and his people were here to do.

"I can help you."

Each word deliberate, like he was pressing them into the ground.

"I know every hidden sentry position at Terminus. I know their rotation schedule."

"I know where they keep the armory. I know which container that bastard Robert sleeps in."

"I know the slaughter room. I know which rail car they use to hold the captives."

"I can help you take every last one of them down."

"Good."

Leon smiled.

He liked dealing with smart people.

He reached down and held out his hand.

"Get up."

Gareth stared at it.

A beat passed.

Then he grabbed it.

Leon hauled him up out of the snow in one clean pull.

"Welcome aboard." He brushed the snow off Gareth's shoulder. "But not yet."

"Right now, there's something you need to do for me."

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