[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 579 - Reunion

You search and search and find nothing, then it falls into your lap without any effort at all.

The search party had barely been sent out, and the little girl had ridden straight through the front gate in Lilly's vehicle on her own.

Leon strode over.

Tara and Lilly saw him coming and immediately straightened up.

"Mr. Leon."

Lilly spoke first, her tone touched with reverence.

"We meet again — I have to thank you for the supplies you gave us last time."

Leon exchanged a few brief pleasantries.

His gaze moved past Lilly and landed on the girl in the red motorcycle jacket, then settled on Sherry's face beside her.

Sherry shrank under the tall man's presence.

She shrank behind Claire, both small hands clutching tight to Claire's sleeve.

Claire immediately stepped half a pace forward, putting herself between Sherry and Leon.

Leon tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Relax, Red Jacket." His tone was easy. "This little girl is the daughter of one of my researchers. My people have been looking for her for a long time."

Claire froze.

The daughter of a researcher?

She looked down at Sherry.

"You know my dad?"

The moment her father was mentioned, Sherry poked half her head out from behind Claire, eyes going wide as saucers.

"I don't just know him," Leon said, looking at her. "Your father is in the Underground Laboratory right now. He talks about going outside to find you every single day."

Sherry instantly pulled her head back.

Just hearing the word "basement" frightened her now.

Right at that moment, 3 modified Ford pickup trucks roared into the yard.

The door of the first truck was shoved open hard.

Chris Redfield jumped out, pulling off his gloves while shouting back at the survivors in the truck bed.

"Unload that cement to Block B! Separate the building materials!"

He turned and started toward the Administration Building.

His gaze swept casually across the yard, passing over the registration area for new arrivals.

Chris stopped dead.

He stared at the girl in the red motorcycle jacket.

That familiar ponytail.

His breathing stalled for half a second. His mind went blank.

Claire.

How was she here?

Claire had already heard that rough voice.

She spun around.

The second she recognized the man in the camouflage tactical vest, built like a bull, she dropped her bag on the spot.

She charged forward.

Chris opened his arms on instinct.

"Claire, God, you actually—"

He never finished.

Claire swung her fist and drove it straight into his chest.

She hadn't held anything back.

"You bastard!" Her eyes went completely red, tears spilling down without any warning.

She grabbed onto him with both hands.

"Where the hell did you disappear to!"

"Your phone was off! I couldn't find you anywhere!"

"The whole world outside is full of things that eat people, do you have any idea — I thought you were dead!"

She screamed it at him, then landed another punch on his shoulder.

Chris let her hit him. He didn't flinch, didn't dodge.

He reached out with those thick arms and pulled her in hard.

"I'm sorry." He said it fast. "I'm fine. I'm alive."

His broad hand pressed against the back of her head, holding her there.

Nearby, Jill Valentine and Daryl Dixon had both stopped unloading.

They stared at the scene, dumbstruck.

This girl in the red jacket was Chris's sister?

Claire struggled twice against his arms, then shoved him away.

She raised the back of her hand and scrubbed her face roughly, eyes burning with anger.

"Why didn't you contact me?" She fixed her eyes on his. "Even one message saying you were still alive. That's all it would have taken."

"Do you have any idea, I rode a motorcycle from another city looking for you."

Chris dropped his head.

He glanced at Leon standing a short distance away, then looked back at her.

"I couldn't contact you." He drew a slow breath. "I got pulled into something extremely dangerous. Ten times more dangerous than those things outside."

He lowered his voice. Dead serious.

"The Umbrella Corporation, they have mutant organisms, biological weapons. I was going to make those people pay for what they've done. But if I'd contacted you and couldn't beat them, they would have followed the trail straight back to you." He paused. "Dragging you into this, that would have been what actually killed me."

He grabbed her by both shoulders.

"I was going to come get you once it was over. Why do you have to be this stubborn?"

Claire didn't calm down. She got angrier.

She knocked his hands off.

"Am I not a person too!" She pointed at herself. "I don't care about the Umbrella Corporation! I don't care about biological weapons!"

"We're brother and sister. What is there we can't face together?"

"You think leaving me in that apartment, watching monsters through the window every day, eating through stockpiled food, you think that's protecting me?"

The stubbornness in her eyes stung him.

He opened his mouth and found nothing to say.

Claire had never been someone who needed to hide behind anyone. Her resilience was even fiercer than he'd imagined. He just hadn't wanted her to have to stand alone and carry any of it.

"I can shoot. I can kill Walkers."

"Stop treating me like a child who needs your protection!"

Chris looked at his fuming sister.

Then, slowly, the corner of his mouth pulled up.

He opened his arms again and crushed her in a bear hug.

"Okay." He patted her on the back. "You're not a kid anymore. From now on, wherever I go, you go. I will never leave you behind."

Claire broke into a tearful smile and hugged him back with everything she had.

Leon stood off to the side and watched the whole thing play out.

Then he turned to Dawn, who was handling logistics behind him.

"Go to the second basement level," he said. "Tell William Birkin to come up right now. His daughter is here waiting for him."

Dawn nodded and took off at a run toward the underground passage.

Lilly and Tara walked over with Meghan a moment later. They had clearly worked out who Sherry was.

Sometimes luck just worked that way.

Less than 5 minutes passed.

William Birkin hadn't even taken off his lab coat.

He came surging up from underground at a stumbling run, half-scrambling, like his legs couldn't keep up with the rest of him. His hair was a mess. His eyes were red. He burst out of the passage and swept the yard frantically with his gaze.

When he found the dirty little girl standing beside Claire, his knees gave out.

He dropped straight to the ground, hands pressing into the dirt, lips trembling so hard he could barely form the word.

"Sherry..."

His voice had completely broken.

Sherry stared at the man kneeling in the dirt.

He looked haggard. Unshaven. Worn down to almost nothing.

But he was her father. The one she had been thinking about every single day.

"Daddy!"

She pulled free of Claire's hand and ran toward him as fast as her legs could carry her.

William opened his arms wide.

The two of them, one large, one small, came together in the center of the yard and held on tight.

➤ Next: The G-Virus Is Ours