[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 468 - Ashley's Breakdown — Heartbreak

The prison's main walls were finished now. The gate had been replaced with a massive iron door. From the outside, there was nothing left to mark it as a prison at all.

When Shawn Greene and Abraham appeared at the entrance, caked in mud and exhaustion, carrying that incubator between them, Ashley was the first one through the crowd.

She shoved past Shawn Greene without a word, her eyes tearing through the group behind him.

Nothing.

That familiar figure, the one who always walked at the front, wasn't there.

"Where's Leon?"

Shawn Greene opened his mouth. Closed it. Couldn't find the words.

Abraham, that iron tower of a man, turned his head away and refused to meet her eyes.

What was he supposed to say?

That they'd lost Leon?

He didn't have the guts to open his mouth.

"I'm asking you. Where is Leon!"

The silence told her something. Ashley's voice cracked upward. She grabbed Shawn Greene by the collar with both hands.

"Where did he go? Where's Rebekah? Where is everyone else?"

"Ashley, just calm down—"

"Calm down?" She laughed. Tears were rolling down her face in thick drops.

"How the hell am I supposed to calm down! Tell me. Did he go off and do something stupid by himself again, just like last time?"

"He promised me! He promised me!"

"Say something!"

She pounded on Shawn Greene's chest like she'd lost her mind. It barely registered. That much force wouldn't have scratched an itch on him.

Rick came up from behind and laid a hand gently on her arm.

"Ashley."

His voice came out rough.

"Don't panic yet. Leon — he's just missing."

"He fell into an underground river. Got swept away."

"We searched the bank. Found tire tracks. He might have been carried downstream."

"Daryl Dixon's already gone to track him. He's the best hunter we have. He'll find him."

Ashley went still.

If Leon were alive, he'd come back on his own. He wouldn't need anyone to find him.

There were only two reasons he hadn't.

The first: he'd already turned. Wandering out there somewhere as a Walker.

The second: someone had him. Held down, unable to break free.

Neither one was something she could live with.

The wildness in her face drained away, piece by piece, until there was nothing left. Just blankness.

She let go. Stumbled back two steps.

"No..."

"That's not possible..."

She shook her head, like she could physically dislodge the news if she tried hard enough.

"He's messing with me. Right? He loves watching me freak out. He's hiding somewhere right now, watching me..."

She looked around as she said it, scanning every corner.

But the prison only gave her back silent faces. Nothing else.

"Waaah—!"

Ashley broke.

She dropped to the ground and curled herself into a ball, sobbing so hard she couldn't breathe, each cry tearing out of her like something being ripped loose from the inside.

The people around her stayed quiet. Nobody knew what to say.

Boss Mouse dropped his head, sick with guilt.

If it weren't for him, Leon would still be fine.

It took a long time before her crying faded.

Ashley pushed herself up off the ground. Wiped her face. Whatever expression she'd had was gone now, replaced by nothing at all.

She didn't say a word. She turned and walked toward her room.

BANG!

The door slammed shut. Then the lock.

Rick exhaled slowly. He knew that door wasn't opening again anytime soon.

He could only hope Daryl Dixon found something fast.

He turned and took the incubator from T-Dog's hands.

"I'm going to Candice."

---

The lab burned bright.

Candice stood at the bench in her white coat, facing a row of instruments, brow furrowed hard.

When Rick set the incubator down in front of her and repeated what Rebekah had said about it, her eyes lit up.

"This is... the Stairway of the Sun?"

She didn't ask about Leon. Every bit of her attention locked onto that strange, beautiful flower like nothing else existed.

"Leon paid for it with his life." Rick's voice was flat and heavy.

Candice's hand paused.

She looked up at him.

"What does that mean?"

Rick gave her the short version of what happened.

"We don't know if he's dead or alive."

Candice listened to the end. Then she smiled.

"Don't write him off yet."

"He's not dead."

"What?" Rick stared.

"I said Leon is still alive."

"I'm a mutant he transformed. My genetic sequence carries his marker, think of it as a foundational link at the base level."

"If he died, the virus inside me would immediately spiral out of control. I'd turn into a mindless monster within minutes."

She turned to face him.

"Look at me."

"I'm perfectly fine."

Rick looked at her. At those eyes, steady and calm in a way that shouldn't have been possible. The weight he'd been carrying in his chest since they got back finally, slowly, came down.

Alive.

As long as he was alive, there was still a chance.

"This flower..."

Candice turned back to the incubator. Her eyes carried the particular hunger that only lived in scientists when they were standing on the edge of something.

"The energy stored in it is beyond anything I expected. It doesn't just strengthen genes." She paused. "It can repair them. Defects at the genetic level."

She looked at Rick and said the thing that hit him like a fist.

"I might be able to use it to fix Leon's defect."

Rick's mind went blank for a second.

Leon's defect. The one that was steadily stripping away his humanity, bit by bit, until eventually there'd be nothing left but instinct and appetite. That defect. This could fix it?

If Candice could actually,

"I need time."

She cut through his thoughts.

"An absolutely quiet environment. No interruptions. From anyone."

"Understood." Rick nodded. "Whatever you need, tell me."

He turned and left.

Candice pulled her goggles back on.

Her world narrowed down to that single mysterious flower.

She knew this was probably the only thing she could do for him right now. He was gone, but as long as he was alive, she had to move fast. Do the work. So that when Leon came back, it would be ready.

What she didn't notice was the tiny leech that had slipped along her blind spot to the floor, sliding silently through the drain and disappearing inside.

---

In a corner of the farm, Maggie stopped working.

She gripped the hoe in her hands, staring out at nothing.

Since she'd heard the news, she hadn't spoken a word. All day. Hadn't eaten. Hadn't drunk anything.

Hershel walked over slowly, carrying a plate with a sandwich and a glass of milk.

"Eat something, child." He held it out to her.

Maggie shook her head and didn't take it.

"He's going to be fine." Hershel's voice was soft. "Rick said Candice confirmed it. He's still alive."

"Alive." Maggie finally spoke. The word came out hollow.

"So what if she says he's alive?"

"He fell into a river. He was already badly hurt. God knows where he is now. God knows if that's still true."

"Have you forgotten who we're talking about?" Hershel set the plate down on a nearby stump.

"Everything in this world has been trying to kill him since day one. And look, he's always come back."

"This time won't be any different."

Maggie went quiet.

Right. He's Leon.

The man who used to sit alone on the farmhouse roof at night, smoking in the dark, watching the stars like he had all the time in the world.

The tears came again, whether she wanted them to or not.

Hershel didn't push. He reached out and rested his hand gently on her shoulder.

"Believe in him, Maggie."

"The way he's always believed in us."

➤ Next: The Appallingly Low Success Rate of the Solar Stairway