[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 528 - Detour

All in all, this trip had been damn profitable.

One T-02 Tyrant, a scientist who could develop the G-Virus, and a hard drive packed with core data.

And of course, there was the passenger in the co-pilot seat. Well, Ada on the scorpion's back.

Ada was finally home. No more running around out there.

"Let's crouch down and read the situation first."

Leon patted the Scorpion King's carapace.

The massive creature dropped immediately, its giant pincers kissing the ground, coming to a halt behind the cover of several abandoned long-haul buses.

The main highway ahead had been completely cut off.

The northern exit of Fort Benning.

Multiple layers of crisscrossed razor wire stretched across the road. Behind sandbag machine gun nests sat several M2 heavies, with two Stryker Armored Vehicles blocking the intersection, one on each side.

"Looks like someone doesn't want us getting home easy."

Leon's eyes narrowed, working over the defensive line.

Ada swept the tangled hair out of her face and fixed her gaze on the military markings painted on those Armored Vehicles.

"Can't be certain it's aimed at us specifically." Her voice dropped low.

"Umbrella Corporation executives are best at throwing money at problems."

"Wesker took a serious beating this time. He'll pressure Fort Benning — right now the soldiers are the only ones with the muscle to lock down an entire region."

"Promise them some Vaccine doses or a few supply crates, get these guys out here to block the roads. They'd do it without blinking."

"So what do we do?" Rebekah poked her head out.

She glanced back at the Tyrant standing there like a lost dog.

"Should we have it smash us a path?"

William had gone quiet for once.

He sat hunched on the scorpion's back, staring at the heavy machine gun nests in the distance, swallowing hard.

He knew exactly what that meant.

No matter how tough the T-02's muscles were, concentrated fire from.50 caliber armor-piercing rounds would grind it down.

Leon rubbed his chin.

Charge straight through?

Getting out of the Spencer Mansion had already cost him two Tyrants, sacrificed to buy time, they were almost certainly dead by now. On the road back he'd dropped two more to distract the pursuers.

This was the last one. And he still needed it back home as head of security.

No point grinding against these soldiers over a blocked road.

Got to keep at least one, right?

Head of security if nothing else. Research subject if it came to that.

"Fort Benning's perimeter is massive. No matter how many troops they have, they can only plug a few main roads."

Leon shifted his gaze to the rolling hills stretching out on the right.

"They can't seal the whole state into an iron barrel."

He patted the scorpion's head.

"We reroute. Through Manchester. Their blockade will have gaps."

Manchester was a small town wedged between hills and forest.

No garrison, no strategic value. By now it was probably nothing but a few hundred starving Walkers.

The Scorpion King changed course, its massive body swallowed by the darkness of the open wilderness.

The T-02 Tyrant fell in behind, each footfall heavy and deliberate.

The scenery along the way was monotonous and bleak.

Abandoned gas stations. Rusted-out pickups. Bloodstained clothes scattered across the asphalt.

Every now and then a stray Walker caught the scent of living humans and stumbled out of the brush.

Leon didn't bother directing anyone. Before those Walkers could even get their mouths open, the Tyrant's boot connected and sent them flying.

William watched this in silence, something complicated moving behind his eyes.

His crowning achievement. The ultimate bioweapon. Out here playing garbage collector.

"You just use it like this?" He finally couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"What else?" Leon didn't even turn around. "Put it in a suit and send it to Wall Street?"

Ada laughed softly beside him.

"William, you'll have to get used to this."

"Leon's core principle is that everything gets used to its fullest."

"Simply put — whatever job needs doing, it does."

The detour ate several hours.

By the time pale light began bleeding into the eastern sky, the outline of Manchester appeared on the horizon.

The town's main street was a solid jam of abandoned cars.

Leon didn't slow the Scorpion King.

The six-legged creature walked straight over the rooftops and kept moving.

The noise drew Walkers from all over town. They poured out in a mob.

Leon didn't even glance at them.

The Tyrant pushed to the front and kept pace. Whatever stepped into its path got swatted aside.

The whole scene was deeply, profoundly wrong.

A man riding a mutant giant scorpion, Umbrella Corporation's ultimate bioweapon walking at his heel, strolling openly down the middle of a town's main street.

Those Walkers didn't even qualify as an appetizer anymore.

Nine in the morning. Sunlight burned through the last of the mist.

On the distant horizon, a massive gray-black complex rose out of the earth.

West Georgia Correctional Facility.

As they closed the distance, William's jaw dropped further and further. First time he'd ever seen this place up close.

This wasn't a prison.

This was a fortress.

Watchtowers studded the top of the high walls, each one mounting a heavy machine gun. Standing at the base, William had to tilt his head all the way back just to find the top.

20 meters out from the walls, a wide strip of ground had been cleared and leveled.

Several hundred Walkers were working the dirt with tools, digging, scraping, steadily deepening and widening what would clearly become a moat.

A handful of Mutants circled the perimeter on patrol.

When a Walker hit its physical limit, the Mutants pulled it out of the line and walked it to a pool, where leeches finished the job.

"Good God." William rubbed his eyes. He thought he was hallucinating.

"Those Walkers... are working?"

He forgot to breathe.

He was a mad scientist. He knew that about himself.

But whoever built this place was ten thousand times crazier than him.

"Using Walkers as a labor force — this violates everything we know. T-Virus infectees don't have this level of coordination. It's not possible!"

"Common sense doesn't apply here." Leon dropped off the scorpion's back and rolled his shoulders out.

He walked up to the T-02 and patted its thick, vein-corded thigh.

"Go on. That open ground is yours now. Go dig."

The Tyrant rumbled low in its throat and lumbered off without argument.

The gates ground slowly open.

Rick stood in the entrance with an assault rifle, Shane and Merle flanking him.

They looked at the gray-white giant already shoveling dirt outside. Then they looked at the enormous black scorpion.

All three men's eyes twitched at the same time.

So Leon had actually found the Scorpion King.

"Almost forgot, I'll ping you the location later. I stashed a car out there. Send someone to bring it back when you get a chance."

Leon walked up.

"How's everything I left you with?"

"The moat layout is locked in. Now it's just widening, deepening, and running the water channel."

Rick put his rifle away. His eyes moved across Ada and Rebekah, then settled on William.

"Who's this?"

"New hire."

"The one in the lab coat is William. He's a researcher. Take him down to the underground lab to find Marcus."

Rick nodded and signaled Shane.

William was still processing the last half hour when Shane grabbed his arm and walked him inside.

"Let go of me! I can walk!" He pulled twice, then gave up and sighed.

Inside the prison walls, everything was ordered and purposeful.

Survivors worked the greenhouse beds, turning soil and planting vegetables. Others were patching up and reinforcing vehicles. A few were actually firing clay bricks.

No panic here. Everyone had a job. Everyone was doing it.

Ada walked beside Leon and took it all in. Something flickered in her eyes, brief, but real.

"I was only gone a little while. It turned into all this?"

"What did you expect?" Leon cracked his neck. "You know who's running things."

"I'm going to shower and get the blood smell off me. Come by my room after, show me everything you brought out of the Spencer Mansion."

Across the facility, in the underground laboratory.

Candice had her face pressed to a microscope. She heard the door and didn't look up.

"Blood sample goes on the table."

"I think there's been a mix-up. I'm looking for someone named Candice." William leaned through the doorway.

Rick had dropped him off and already gone.

Candice paused. She lifted her head.

"That's me. You're William Birkin?"

"Leon notified me just now."

In the corner, Marcus glanced up from a rack of samples and registered the new arrival.

These two, who had once been colleagues, rivals, lovers, and enemies, were meeting again. Down here, in an underground lab at the end of the world, in the most absurd reunion imaginable.

➤ Next: Marcus and William Meet Again