[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 476 - The Neutralizer — Tears Unshed

Over the radio, Rick's voice sounded like something was lodged in his throat, cutting in and out.

Leon's heart dropped.

"Rick? Stop mumbling. Talk!"

His grip on the communicator tightened without thinking.

"Damn it, why are you acting like a scared little girl? Say something!"

From the other end, Leon heard Shane's signature roar, tangled up with other people shouting in the background.

Something happened.

Something had happened at the prison.

Possibilities flashed through his mind. Had Walkers breached the walls? Had a new enemy shown up at the gate?

No. What could actually go wrong at the prison? To be safe, Ashley had even dismissed the Walkers they'd been using for labor. Short of a full assault from Fort Benning soldiers, nothing should have gone wrong.

Could it be that Rick's group hadn't covered their tracks well enough on the way back, and Wesker had traced them home? That Umbrella Corporation had come for payback?

Impossible. Rick was always careful. The man would circle the block 800 times before heading home.

Then a loud, brash voice muscled its way onto the line.

"Boss! Boss!"

"It's Merle. Damn it, don't panic. I'll handle this!"

Merle.

That bastard's voice was impossible to mistake.

"Rick's dragging his feet like a damn woman. Let me tell you instead."

"Ashley, she..."

Merle paused, clearly trying to organize his thoughts.

That had never been his strong suit.

"She ate that goddamn flower!"

Leon's head buzzed.

Ate it?

What did he mean, ate it?

Ate what?

"Spit it out, Merle!"

"That thing — the Solar Stairway!"

Merle hollered from the other end.

"She stole a petal from the lab and swallowed it whole! And she left a letter saying you'd been kidnapped by Umbrella Corporation. Said she was going to find you herself!"

"She's barely hanging on now. Candice is working on her. The scene is — damn — her face looks like hell, her whole body's burning up!"

"Shane, why the hell are you hitting me? Am I lying?"

"Oh, okay, I get it..."

"Leon, don't panic, okay? Ashley's situation is stable right now, it's under control. We already sent people to come get you. Don't rush, don't do anything stupid, just get back to the prison in one piece..."

Leon felt his skull expand.

That stupid woman. To find him, she'd actually swallowed the Solar Stairway.

His eyes went red.

"This is Candice. Calm down. You need to calm down."

Candice's voice cut through the earpiece.

"Don't worry, Leon. It's lucky Ashley only ate a small piece. The damage is significant, but it's a thousand times better than swallowing the whole plant."

"And didn't Rebecca leave something behind before she went?"

"That neutralizer she made specifically for you, I've already administered it to Ashley. The situation is genuinely stabilized. For now."

Candice was under his control. She wouldn't lie to him.

As long as she doesn't die...

Leon leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and hauled in one ragged breath after another.

...

Prison. The laboratory.

The scene was worse than Merle had made it sound.

Ashley lay on the operating table, her body still twitching in small, rhythmic spasms.

Her skin had gone an unnatural, feverish red. Bluish-black veins crawled up her face and neck like cracks spreading through porcelain.

Candice had just pushed a pale blue serum into her IV line.

It was the viral neutralizer Rebecca had stayed up developing before she left, synthesized from Leon's blood samples.

Intended for Leon's worst-case scenario. Nobody had expected Ashley to be the first one to need it.

The serum went in and Ashley's violent convulsions gradually eased. Her temperature began, slowly, to fall.

"How is she?"

Rick stood nearby. His voice came out rough, like his throat had swollen shut.

"Temporarily suppressed."

Candice wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her own complexion wasn't much better than Ashley's.

"Her immune system is still teetering between total collapse and restructuring. The neutralizer pulled her back from the edge."

She looked at the unconscious figure on the table. Her expression was hard to read.

"But it's not a permanent fix. Her baseline is too weak. Her body fundamentally can't handle what's happening to it."

"Now it's up to her."

Candice stripped off her gloves and dropped them in the medical waste bin.

"Either her body adapts to this force and completes a..." She paused, searching for the word. "An evolution. I don't even know how else to describe it."

"Or, "

She stopped again. Then she said it.

"Her body gives out entirely. And there's nothing left but something no one would recognize."

...

Leon set the communicator down.

The room went dead quiet.

Lilly stood a short distance away, watching him. A moment ago he had looked like an enraged lion. Now he was perfectly still, like a statue carved out of stone.

She took a step back without meaning to.

Leon couldn't get enough air into his lungs.

Ashley. Fearless, stubborn, one-track-minded Ashley. The moment she found out he was missing, there was no version of events where she stayed in the prison and waited quietly for news.

She would find him herself. That was the only move she knew how to make.

She must have decided the others wouldn't try hard enough. Didn't trust anyone to care the way she did. So she went around them and did it herself.

Even if it killed her.

A 5% survival rate.

Leon's jaw tightened until he could hear his teeth grinding.

Lilly stood frozen, hands and feet gone cold.

She hadn't caught every word, but she'd caught enough to piece together a truth that made her stomach drop.

A woman named Ashley.

Some kind of flower.

Because they'd saved Leon, the people looking for Leon couldn't find him. And then that woman, trying to find him on her own, had gotten herself hurt...

She had saved one person and might have gotten another one killed.

The thought spread through her like ice water.

A guilt she had no name for rose up from somewhere deep and pressed the breath out of her chest.

"How long?"

Leon's voice broke the silence.

Rick's voice came back heavy and flat.

"3 hours, at most. We'll take the fastest vehicle. Daryl and the others are already heading back. They'll meet up with us on the road."

"Too slow."

"I'm leaving now."

Leon turned around. His eyes were shot through with red.

"Do you have a vehicle?" He looked at Lilly.

The look on his face startled her. She nodded before she'd even thought about it.

"Yes, a pickup, out behind the house."

"Let me borrow the keys. I'll make it right when this is over."

Leon held out his hand.

Lilly hesitated.

Outside the door, Tara had heard everything. She stood at the threshold, tight with nerves, not moving.

➤ Next: Lilly's Inexplicable Guilt