[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 511 - Deciding to Escape with Rebekah

"Surprised?"

Ada watched Rebekah's reaction, amused.

"You're from the prison. You should know Ashley, Dawn, and the others. Now do you believe me?"

Seeing that Ada could actually rattle off a string of names and knew their habits, Rebekah felt the last of her tension leave her.

"That day you saw me stab Leon — you thought I was trying to kill him."

Rebekah nodded stiffly.

She had witnessed that moment. It had been eating at her ever since.

She had spent the whole time after writing Ada off as a cold-blooded killer.

"That was a performance. For Wesker." Ada's tone dropped to something flat and cold. Just saying the name turned her stomach.

"Wesker has decided Leon is an uncontrollable variable. He's been looking for an excuse to remove him."

"If I hadn't taken the contract, Wesker would have sent a cleanup squad. And a cleanup squad doesn't leave loose ends."

"My blade avoided every vital point. The whole point was to make him look critically wounded and fool the surveillance feed."

Rebekah absorbed all of it. The realization spread slowly across her face.

So that was it.

This woman wasn't a cold-blooded killer. She was just protecting Leon in her own way.

"You... you really are Leon's..."

Rebekah stumbled over the words, an involuntary flush climbing her cheeks.

"What else?"

"Why would I spend 2 months rotting in that hellhole Atlanta if I wasn't?"

Ada rolled her eyes.

Rebekah exhaled, long and slow, and her shoulders finally dropped. She leaned back against the wall. The stone that had been sitting on her chest for weeks hit the floor.

"I won't tell anyone. Anyone here, I mean."

"You'd better keep your mouth shut." Ada's voice carried a clear warning. "Wesker has ears everywhere. If word gets out, it's not just you and me — Leon will have a serious problem too."

Rebekah nodded over and over, looking exactly like a student who'd been caught doing something wrong.

"I swear."

"So." Ada's eyes settled on her. "You said you want to go find him?"

"Yeah. I can't stay here anymore. Every night I have nightmares. I dream I'm thrown into one of those tanks, locked in with the monsters."

Rebekah's voice wavered. Her eyes were going red at the edges.

Ada looked at this small girl and saw something rare in her. Real innocence. The kind that had no business surviving in a place like this.

The fact that it had was almost a miracle.

Rebekah smiled suddenly.

"Leon is a good man. In the basement, if it weren't for him, I'd have been eaten alive."

"Alright. I don't need to hear that." Ada got to her feet, crossed to the wardrobe, and started pulling out clothes she could move in.

"I'm leaving too."

"Wesker's patience is gone. He gave me an ultimatum."

"If I don't walk out of here now, my next address is a specimen jar."

Rebekah's eyes lit up. The fear from a moment ago evaporated completely.

"You're taking me with you?"

"Don't get excited yet." Ada pulled on a black tactical vest, shrugged the leather jacket over it, and seated the Glock in the drop holster strapped to her outer thigh.

She'd decided she was sleeping in this kit. Uncomfortable, yes. But it would save her time tomorrow.

"Taking you along is a liability."

"But if I leave you here, Wesker will pry something out of you eventually."

"For Leon's sake, I don't have a choice."

Rebekah didn't care at all about being called a liability. If it meant getting out of this place, she'd answer to anything.

"When do we leave?" she asked.

"Not tonight." Ada ejected the magazine, checked the rounds, and seated it again. "The mansion's security runs at maximum at night. The corridors are loaded with infrared and the Tyrants have full patrol routes."

"Tomorrow, daytime. John has a major experiment scheduled. Security will be concentrated on sublevel three. That's our window."

Rebekah nodded.

"Here's the route."

"We go through the ventilation ducts to bypass the main surveillance room."

"John's lab is on sublevel three. But next door, there's a decommissioned sewage outlet. It runs straight through to the river channel behind the mountain."

"It's filthy." Ada drew a rough map on the table with her finger. "But it's the only dead zone the Tyrants don't patrol."

"Do we have to hold our breath and swim?" Rebekah asked, her voice tight.

"No swimming. But you'll have to handle the smell and whatever mutated water rats you bump into on the way."

"If getting dirty is a dealbreaker, now's the time to say so."

"It isn't." Rebekah shook her head.

"Tonight you stay in this room. Don't go anywhere." Ada pointed at the sofa. "Sleep there. Don't make noise."

"Once we walk out that door tomorrow, your life is in my hands."

Rebekah sat on the sofa and pulled her knees to her chest, watching Ada move around the room.

She realized, looking at her, that this woman in a tactical vest was more reliable than every fully armed guard in the mansion combined.

"Ada. Thank you."

Ada stopped.

She turned and looked at the girl folded up on the sofa.

"Don't thank me yet."

"Whether we actually make it out of these woods is still a coin flip."

"Umbrella's hunters are not amateurs."

"Thank me when we're out. If we're out."

She walked to the window and pulled the curtain open just enough to look through. The darkness outside had no bottom to it.

Wind moved through the trees. A low, dry rustle.

Leon, you bastard.

I've burned every bridge I had.

If you don't treat me right, I swear — even if I turn into one of those disgusting walkers, I will crawl the whole way to Atlanta just to bite you.

She let the curtain fall and pressed the last 2 spare magazines into the tactical pouch at her waist.

Tomorrow was going to be a hard fight.

➤ Next: The Connection Strengthens Again