[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 480 - Tie Me Up

"No..."

He snapped his hand up and drove his fist into the nearest tree trunk.

BANG!

The skin split. Blood welled up and ran down his knuckles. He didn't feel it.

Lilly flinched back two steps, startled by the sudden violence.

She stared at Leon's mangled hand. At his twisted face. And something clicked into place, this man was fighting a war she had absolutely no way to understand.

A war against himself.

"Get the bandages out of your medical kit."

"And rope. Anything you can use to tie someone up."

"What are you going to do?" Lilly asked.

"Do what I say!" Leon whipped his head toward her, and for the first time something flickered in those eyes.

Blood-red. Madness and desperation wound together.

"Move!"

Lilly stopped hesitating. She sprinted back to the vehicle and tore through her medical kit with shaking hands.

One roll of bandages. One roll of medical tape for securing splints.

"That's everything?"

"That's everything!"

"Not enough." Leon shook his head. His gaze swept the interior of the truck and landed on the seatbelts.

He walked over, pulled the combat knife from his Tactical Vest, yanked a seatbelt taut, and sliced cleanly through it at the base. Then the second one. Two clean cuts.

He dropped the seatbelts and the bandages at Lilly's feet.

"Tie me up."

Lilly went still.

"What?"

"I said tie me up."

Each word came out deliberate, separate. His breathing was getting heavier by the second.

"Use everything you've got. Tie me to that tree."

He pointed at the one he'd just hit.

"I... why would I—"

"Because I'm about to lose control." The veins on Leon's forehead were standing out like cords. His fists were clenched so hard his arms were shaking. "I don't know what I'm going to turn into. I might hurt you."

"So if you don't want to find out what that looks like, you'd better tie me down first."

Lilly looked at him. This was the same man who had pressed a gun to her head not long ago, who had threatened her in the ugliest possible way.

And now he was asking her to tie him up.

So he wouldn't hurt her.

"I, "

"Stop wasting time!"

A low snarl ripped out of him. He grabbed Lilly by the arm and hauled her in front of the tree.

"Now. Right now."

He put his back to the trunk and shoved both wrists toward her.

Lilly looked at his bloodshot eyes. She pressed her teeth together, bent down, and picked up the seatbelts.

She wound the tough nylon straps around his wrists, loop after loop, pulling each pass as tight as she could. Then she reached behind the tree and tied the hardest, most stubborn knot she knew.

"The tape too!" Leon ordered.

Lilly tore open the medical tape and wrapped it around his wrists like it was free, layer after layer until the roll was nearly gone.

She stepped back and looked at what she'd done. The man was lashed firmly to the tree. Something unnameable churned in her chest.

"Now." Leon's breathing was ragged. He closed his eyes, like he was dragging up everything he had left. "Get back in the truck. Lock the doors."

"Don't worry about the walkers. Just stay inside."

"Whatever happens next — whatever you hear, whatever you see, however much pain I'm in — don't react. Play dead. Do not come out."

"And if... if I break free." He paused. "Drive. Full speed. Run me down."

Lilly's pupils contracted.

"Are you out of your mind?"

Leon's whole body began to shake.

"Get out of here!"

That last roar went through her like a current.

She didn't wait another second. She turned and ran, threw herself into the pickup, slammed the door, and hammered the lock down.

Through the dust-filmed window, she watched him.

The sky was bleeding toward dark.

Leon's shaking stopped.

His head dropped. He went completely still.

Lilly's heart lodged in her throat.

Then Leon raised his head.

Slowly.

Every trace of struggle was gone from his face.

His eyes had finished the change. They were an animal's eyes now. Utterly without mercy. Stripped of anything human.

He looked straight at Lilly through the windshield.

And then, very slowly, the corner of his mouth pulled back.

The smile that spread across his face made her skin crawl.

He started to pull.

"UGH, AAHH,!"

The sound that came out of him was not a human sound. It tore up from somewhere deep in his chest and hit the night air like something wild and cornered.

The muscles across his body surged, pressing against the fabric of his clothes until the seams looked ready to give.

The arms pinned by the seatbelts went rigid. Veins rose along them like ropes. He wrenched outward with a force that had no business coming from a man.

CREAK!

The nylon pulled bar-straight and let out a strained, suffering groan.

Lilly's hand flew to her mouth. She stiffened, a fear with no name seizing her chest.

She understood now. Why he'd made her do this.

And she understood what he'd meant by monster.

Then.

Two blinding beams punched out of the darkness at the far end of the road, tearing the night wide open.

Engines roaring.

A modified military Humvee and a string of heavy trucks, bearing down fast.

➤ Next: The Miserable Rescue