[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 529 - Marcus and William Meet Again

Atlanta Prison, top floor of the Administration Building.

The showerhead sprayed warm water, sluicing black blood scabs and sticky mud off Leon's body and down the drain.

Steam thickened in the cramped bathroom.

Three rounds. He washed three times, until every trace of that blood-stench was gone. Then Leon wiped his face, shut off the valve, and stood there a moment in the quiet.

He changed into a clean black pullover, pulled on tactical pants, and walked barefoot to the sofa.

The door lock clicked.

Ada pushed it open and came in.

She'd already swapped out the tactical suit she'd ruined in the sewage pipe. Now she had on a loose men's dress shirt, hem barely covering her thighs, hair still dripping. Whatever sharp edge she carried as an Agent had been completely steamed away. What was left was pure, unapologetic laziness.

"All cleaned up?"

Leon picked up the lighter from the table and lit a cigarette without answering.

Ada tossed a waterproof sealed bag onto the coffee table.

"Good stuff."

"John's core hard drive."

Leon picked it up.

This trip to the Arklay Mountains had paid off almost embarrassingly well. He'd gotten a T-02 Tyrant for free, a walking piece of heavy labor, and walked away with a genius scientist and a core data archive on top of that. With these, the prison's tech development could leap forward by several years at minimum.

"Has that lunatic William been settled in?" Leon asked.

"Rick took him down to the Underground Laboratory." Ada leaned back against the sofa, eyes resting on Leon. "You're really going to put William and Marcus under the same roof?"

"Those two were at each other's throats back in the day. You're not worried they'll blow up your basement?"

"They won't." Leon flicked ash off the cigarette.

"Both of them are Mutants now. Serving me is their base code. They won't fight."

At the same time.

The ventilation fan in the Underground Laboratory droned its single, flat note.

William stood by the door, staring at the scrawny old man in the corner fiddling with a petri dish.

That familiar white lab coat. That neurotic, twitchy rhythm.

Even after all these years, William recognized him immediately. His old superior. His former teacher.

James Marcus.

Elder of the Umbrella Corporation, founding architect of the Progenitor Virus, and the unlucky bastard he and Albert Wesker had personally sent to hell.

Candice stood between them with her clipboard, gaze moving back and forth across the two men. She was a smart woman. She felt the wrongness in the air before she could name it, so she picked up her coffee cup without a word and walked into the inner sterile room.

Leaving the space to these two relics of a dead era.

Marcus slid the glass dropper back into its rack and turned around.

His deeply lined face held no anger. No red-eyed hatred at the sight of an old enemy. He simply looked William up and down, taking in the clothes caked with mud and unidentified bloodstains.

"What are you doing here?" Marcus dragged over a rolling stool and sat down, idly smoothing his coat hem. "What — couldn't stick it out at the Umbrella Corporation anymore?"

William swallowed.

He found he didn't even have the courage to meet Marcus's eyes. His gaze dropped to the legs of the lab bench instead.

"Marcus... I..."

"What happened back then — I was wrong."

A hollow apology. In this world that ate people alive, that kind of thing was worth less than used toilet paper.

Marcus let out a long sigh.

"Alright. Drop that look, like your own father just died."

He waved a hand, his tone carrying the unhurried drawl of the American South.

"We're on the same boat now. What's the point of dredging up the past? Does it get us a bowl of hot soup? Two extra bullets?"

William stiffened.

He'd braced for cold mockery. For the kind of sarcasm that cuts slow and deep.

Nothing?

Marcus fished a crumpled cigarette out of his pocket. Swiped from Merle's stash.

"I spent ten years soaking in the sewers. I've had time to work through a few things."

He looked at the cigarette, his voice going distant.

"I know. When you and Wesker killed me back then, it wasn't personal."

"That was a workplace purge ordered directly from the top of the Umbrella Corporation."

William's jaw tightened.

Marcus held the cigarette between two fingers and pointed toward the ceiling.

"At its core, the whole thing was Spencer. That old fox wanted absolute power, so he ran a clean sweep of anyone in his way. He'd had enough of me, his own partner, who carried more weight than he did in virology."

"You and Wesker were just two chess pieces executing the order." Marcus paused. He raised his eyes and looked directly at William. "Honestly? I don't resent you two. I'm just angry."

"Angry about what?" William said, before he could stop himself.

"I had high hopes for you both — and you still swallowed Spencer's garbage!" Marcus slapped his thigh, voice jumping a full octave. "What did he promise you? Go on."

"He told you to kill me, and you'd inherit my position. Take over every research resource in the Arklay Mountains. Clear path to the core board of directors." Marcus's eyes stayed locked on him. "That about right?"

William's cheeks went red.

Being called out to his face, by his own former mentor, for greed he'd carried quietly for decades, felt worse than a Walker bite.

➤ Next: Still Not Giving Up on Rebekah