[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 516 - Start Making Trouble
9:45 AM.
Ventilation ducts, second basement level, Spencer Mansion.
The conditions were brutal.
Dust drilled straight into the nostrils.
Ada crawled ahead, elbows bracing against the sheet metal.
Rebekah followed behind, holding her breath, trying not to make a sound.
"I've already started."
Ada's voice came through directly inside Leon's mind.
Leon steadied his breathing.
"Got it. I'll make as much noise as possible — try to pull everyone upstairs."
"Stay safe."
The link cut.
Outside, at the Spencer Mansion's main gate.
Four fully armed mercenaries walked the line behind the iron fence, zombie dogs on leashes, sweeping back and forth on patrol.
Leon walked out of the thick fog blanketing the slope.
No attempt to conceal his approach. No hunting for blind spots.
His entire body was covered in Leeches. He carried the Remington Shotgun in one hand and dragged a large blue plastic barrel with the other, his boots crunching loud and steady on the gravel path.
"Halt! Who goes there!"
The guard on the Watchtower spotted him immediately.
Leon didn't stop.
He walked straight up to the iron gate and set the barrel down.
"Open fire!"
The guard commander's bellow cut through the fog.
5.56mm rounds from the tower crisscrossed into a solid net, blanketing the area where Leon stood. Dirt erupted. Sparks scattered.
The gunfire stopped. Smoke drifted.
Leon stood exactly where he had been.
A few rounds had punched through some of the Leeches clinging to his body. They hadn't even grazed his skin.
The Leeches were armor now. Any that died, new ones replaced.
Leon cracked his neck.
"My turn."
He kicked the blue plastic barrel over.
The lid blew off. A black, viscous mass surged out across the ground.
Not liquid. Hungry Mutant Leeches.
The instant they hit the ground, they moved. Fast. Pouring through the gate's gaps, swarming up the walls in a black tide.
The zombie dogs charged forward, barking hard, teeth bared. They never got a bite in. The swarm swallowed them whole.
Not even a whimper. Seconds later, only a few stark white dog skeletons remained where the animals had stood.
The guards on the Watchtower panicked.
They swept rifle fire along the top of the wall. It didn't matter. There were too many.
The swarm flowed up the support struts and poured into the tower. The sound that followed, that soft, wet rustling of teeth working through flesh and bone, made the skin crawl.
Leon didn't spare the screaming guards a glance.
He stepped up to the iron gate and gripped the edges with both hands.
All ten fingers locked in.
Metal screamed.
The hydraulic rods snapped. He tore the gate apart with his bare hands, wrenching a gap half a meter wide. He turned sideways and squeezed through into the Spencer Mansion's main courtyard.
A shrill alarm cut loose.
Red emergency lights strobed.
A mechanical female voice came over the PA: "Level One Lockdown."
"Perimeter defense failure detected. All security personnel, assemble in the main hall."
"Non-combat personnel, evacuate to designated safe zones."
"Repeat..."
Chaos.
Total chaos.
Underground Level Three.
John stood in front of a projector, palms slick with sweat.
Several Umbrella Corporation executives sat in the rows below, waiting for him to finish briefing the latest progress on the gene mapping.
The alarm killed the briefing.
The door slammed open. A security team poured into the conference room.
"Experiment canceled! Everyone evacuate immediately! Situation upstairs!"
The executives went pale. Security herded them out fast.
John lunged for the hard drive loaded with his core data.
Two security personnel caught him, one on each arm.
"No time, sir. Director Wesker has ordered priority on personnel survival. Move, now!"
He didn't even get the chance to struggle. They dragged him straight out of the lab.
Damn it. Everything he'd built was in there.
These researchers were all competing against each other. Results went only to designated project heads. The last thing he wanted was his work landing in someone else's hands. He knew exactly how many people had their eyes on what he'd found. That included the people sitting in the same building.
"Researcher John — did William get out?"
John was in no mood. Who the hell cared whether he made it out.
"No idea. Probably ran the moment the alarm hit."
Under 3 minutes. The previously packed Underground Level Three was completely empty.
Except for one person, in the adjacent main laboratory.
William Birkin hadn't moved.
The man had noise-canceling headphones clamped over his ears, hunched over a tablet, eyes locked onto the gray-white Tyrant floating in Cultivation Tank No. 1, lips moving steadily as he recorded data under his breath.
The ventilation shaft's louvered cover exploded inward.
Ada landed soft. She turned and caught Rebekah as she dropped through after her.
The corridor was empty in both directions.
Red lights kept spinning.
Ada moved to John's laboratory. The door wasn't locked.
The hard drive was still sitting in the machine.
Her eyes lit up. She pulled it free, sealed it into a waterproof bag, and tucked it into the tactical pouch at her waist.
Real treasure. Leon couldn't miss this.
And none of it would have been possible without the chaos Leon was raining down up above. Without that, they'd never have gotten within reach of it.
The two of them turned toward the sewage outlet to withdraw.
They passed the main laboratory.
The glass door was open.
Ada stopped. She looked inside.
➤ Next: Take the Man Along Too