[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 478 - Another Self — What Was Lost

Leon said nothing more.

Was it their fault? Honestly?

No.

They didn't know anything. They were just two ordinary people trying to do the right thing.

But Ashley was lying on an operating table right now, her life hanging by a thread, and that was undeniably connected to their good intentions.

If you really wanted to trace the thread back, it led here.

If they hadn't saved Leon, Shawn would have found him. Leon would have made it back to the prison in one piece, and Ashley would never have gone looking for him. Would never have touched that goddamn Solar Stairway.

Sometimes this fucked-up world just didn't play fair.

Leon knew that. He understood right from wrong. There was no one to blame.

He leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes, letting the truck's jolts on the broken road travel up through his skull.

"Um... I'm sorry."

Lilly's voice broke the silence. Her hands were tight on the steering wheel.

"I really didn't know things would get this bad. I just... I..."

"It's not your fault."

Leon cut her off without opening his eyes.

"I still need to thank you and your sister for pulling me out."

He paused. The exhaustion in his voice wasn't something he could hide anymore.

"As for why I snapped at Meghan — what was in that syringe is dangerous. Extremely dangerous."

"You're not one of us, so I can't tell you what it is."

"With something like this, the less you know, the longer you live."

Lilly's lips moved. No words came out.

There was no blame in Leon's voice. Just distance — the kind that kept people a thousand miles away without raising its voice.

That was worse than being screamed at.

"I'll drive as fast as I can," she said quietly. "Get you to that prison sooner."

"Call it... making amends."

"You don't need to make amends for anything." Leon's voice was barely there.

"You saved me. Once I'm back, I'll have someone send supplies to you. That was my promise before, and it stands."

Then nothing.

Lilly closed her mouth and focused on the road.

The engine's roar filled the cab, monotonous, almost hypnotic.

Trees and ruins blurred past the window, dissolving into smears of color that meant nothing.

Leon's consciousness began to drift.

He was just so tired.

Since the battle at the Management Training Facility, his nerves hadn't loosened once. Maneuvering around Hunters. Fighting the Leech Queen until his arms gave out. Taking Ada's blade. Soaking in that freezing underground river for god knows how long.

His body had been past its limit for a while now.

And then Ashley.

Ashley had finished the job.

He felt himself float. The truck's shuddering grew distant.

He opened his eyes.

He was still in the pickup. The truck was still moving.

But the person behind the wheel wasn't Lilly.

It was him.

Another Leon, wearing the exact same clothes, sitting in the driver's seat with his face turned sideways. He wasn't watching the road. He was watching Leon. Cold eyes. A sneer that had already seen through everything there was to see.

"Why didn't you just lie there by the river and wait for Shawn to come get you?"

The voice was identical to his own. It just had a chill underneath it that his didn't.

"I..."

Leon opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

"When they dragged you out of the water, did you feel anything?" The other him tilted his head. "Or were you just sleeping like a dead pig?"

"Why are you always like this? You've pulled through every other time. Why couldn't you hold on for one more minute?"

"Were you really that short? You fucking bastard."

"Couldn't you have pushed just a little longer?"

"I was tired." Leon finally managed a few words, like a man presenting his defense.

The other Leon smiled. Pure contempt.

"Save it. You already know."

"You gave up. You assumed someone would come for you. You burned the time. You dropped your guard."

"All you had to do was stay sharp. Find a concealed position. You knew Daryl could track you down."

"But you wouldn't move one more step. Wouldn't pull yourself together. So you lay there like a pig that had slept itself to death, and two idiots stumbled over you and dragged you out."

"That's on you. All of it."

The other Leon laughed softly.

"And the prison. Wallace pulls out a heavy machine gun and you hadn't bothered to scout it out first? The Black boss. The mercenary. Those people died because you were sloppy."

"Atlanta. You wanted to get close to Amy and Andrea, wanted a taste, and you knew Amy would cause trouble. But you had the anti-shark suit, so you deliberately let her into the scouting team. Nearly got someone killed. You lecherous, scheming piece of garbage."

"Lee Mi-ju. After you took the prison, why didn't you immediately send people out to collect supplies and bring her family in? Her mother wouldn't have had to die."

"Ashley and Shawn were your most trusted people. You only needed to send one of them. One. And Lee Mi-ju's mother would still be alive. But you were afraid the prisoners would get restless. You wanted your absolute grip on that prison. So you kept them both close, and that woman died because of it. You murderer."

"The nursing home. Don't pretend I don't know what you were thinking. You didn't want the dead weight. So you handed the dirty work to someone else and kept your hands clean, kept your image intact." A pause. "Hypocrite."

"And Murphy. You tore through the CDC to get your hands on that ability. Burned it to the ground. Humanity's last hope, and you destroyed it. If you'd never gone in, that place would still be standing..."

Leon started to fight back.

Then the face changed.

He watched it happen. The cold mask in the driver's seat softened, warped, rearranged itself into something else entirely. Something that had been carved into him so deep it would never come out.

Ashley.

She was wearing the gray prison uniform. Hair slightly disheveled. Eyes red. She looked at him without moving, without speaking, just looked at him with that quiet, bottomless patience.

"Why didn't you come back safe?"

Her voice held no accusation. Just a grief so simple it broke something.

"You promised me."

"I'm sorry." Leon's chest caved in. He couldn't get a full breath. "It's all my fault."

Ashley nodded.

"I know it is."

A beat.

"But it's too late now."

He watched her face change.

The color drained first, skin going ashen, then gray, then slack. Her eyes filmed over, whites swallowed by something clouded and dead. Her lips drew back from her teeth, exposing pale, bare gums.

She had become a walker.

"No — No!"

Leon lurched backward and slammed into the car door, back hitting metal hard.

Instinct made him look up at the rearview mirror.

What stared back at him wasn't his own terrified face.

It was the same ashen gray. The same rot. The same filmed-over, sightless eyes.

A walker's face.

His face.

➤ Next: Dehumanization — Tears Unshed