[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 588 - Finding the Entrance

For Alice, everything right now felt absolutely terrible.

She slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry at first, her head splitting with pain.

She tried to sit up.

"God..."

She muttered through gritted teeth. Her mind was a complete blank.

She didn't know her own name. She didn't know why she was lying here.

Whatever memories she'd once had were wiped clean by something brutal, leaving not even the faintest residue behind.

Her vision gradually came into focus. Alice took in her surroundings.

A living room furnished in considerable luxury.

Expensive oil paintings on the walls, a crystal chandelier, and pale light filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows nearby.

Then she noticed something wrong with her own body.

She snapped her head down.

She wasn't wearing anything at all — only a large men's tactical jacket draped loosely over her waist and abdomen.

Alice grabbed the jacket's edge and yanked it upward in one sharp motion, pressing it hard against her chest.

She turned her head in alarm.

A man was sitting in the single armchair across from her.

Leon sat with his legs crossed, his eyes calmly taking her in.

Alice's entire body went rigid, her breathing quickening.

Even with her mind completely empty, the instinctive wariness that came with sensing danger was still carved into her muscles.

"Stay back."

Alice shrank further into the sofa, her gaze sharp with suspicion.

Leon pulled the corner of his mouth into a slight smirk. He reached over to the coffee table and picked up a bundle of fabric.

It was clothing he'd casually grabbed from the wardrobe in the master bedroom upstairs, a conspicuous red silk slip dress and a set of underwear.

"Relax."

His tone was completely flat. He raised his hand and tossed the bundle directly at Alice with casual indifference.

"Put these on."

Leon leaned back in his chair.

"We can't exactly keep communicating like this."

Alice glanced at the clothes by her legs, then looked back up, staring hard at him.

"Turn around."

She bit her lower lip, her face set with obvious resistance.

Leon had absolutely no intention of looking away.

He pulled out his cigarette pack, shook one free, and bit it between his lips.

"Listen."

"I don't have the leisure to play gentleman with you."

Leon drew a long drag.

"Either you put your clothes on right now, in front of me."

"Or you walk with me wrapped in that jacket and barefoot."

"Your choice."

His tone left Alice no room to negotiate.

Alice glared at him.

This man radiated an intensely dangerous pressure. Her instincts told her that provoking him would do her absolutely no good right now.

She took a deep breath.

And released the jacket.

It slid away.

That incomparably perfect body was fully exposed to the open air.

This was a woman who, even under the most demanding scrutiny, could not be faulted on a single point.

Taut, dynamic muscle lines. A flat abdomen with clearly defined abs. Skin fair and firm, her legs impossibly long in a way that felt almost unfair.

This was unquestionably the kind of figure that could drive countless people mad on a world-class runway.

Leon leaned back in the sofa and watched quietly.

Any normal man would be incapable of remaining unmoved by a woman of this caliber.

Leon was flesh and blood. He knew how to appreciate this kind of pure physical beauty.

Alice was deeply uncomfortable under his gaze.

Her movements were very quick, carrying a trace of flustered urgency. She put on her underwear, pulled the red silk dress over herself.

The size fit with startling precision.

The slender straps traced the lines of her collarbones, and the hem fell right at mid-thigh, perfectly showcasing her long legs.

She sat down, shoved her feet into the black knee-high boots, and laced them up fast.

She stood, trying to smooth out her disheveled short golden hair.

Leon watched her utterly unaffected movements and couldn't help raising an eyebrow.

Any other girl who woke up in a total blackout and completely naked, even if she didn't scream and fall apart, would at least break down in tears.

The pain in her head surged back. Alice winced and pressed her fingers to her temple.

"Who exactly are you?"

Alice looked Leon directly in the eyes.

"And where is this place?"

She urgently needed answers to fill the terrifying voids in her mind.

Leon stood up.

He walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and casually parted the blinds with two fingers, glancing outside at the desolate, abandoned factory grounds.

"My name is Leon."

He turned his head and looked at Alice's bewildered face.

"As for this place."

"This is a secret base belonging to a bastard pharmaceutical company."

"And you, my friend."

Leon pointed at Alice with the two fingers holding his cigarette.

"You haven't just lost your memories. You've even forgotten just how dangerous a problem you actually are."

Alice froze.

A problem?

She looked down at her own hands. Ten fingers, slender and fair, no grotesque claws, no scales. A perfectly normal pair of human hands.

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

Alice shook her head, her eyes full of resistance.

"I just feel like my head hurts."

"Listen. I'm not interested in whatever mush is currently filling your brain."

Leon leaned slightly forward.

"The reality is that both you and I are surviving in a world full of Walkers, and this place is ten thousand times more dangerous than what's outside."

"You can choose to keep standing here in a daze and wait for those cleaners to come slice you up for research."

"Or you can get moving."

Alice gripped the hem of her dress tightly.

She knew she had no leverage. She had no choice but to comply.

Just then, heavy footsteps sounded from the corridor.

Chris Redfield shouldered the solid wood double doors open with a rough shove.

He was drenched in sweat, his tactical backpack set down somewhere along the way.

"I've searched the entire first floor."

Chris Redfield strode up to Leon and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Kitchen, study, storeroom."

"God, I even tore apart half of that fancy fireplace."

"Nothing."

"The floors on this level are all solid marble — there's absolutely no hidden trapdoor leading down."

Right after, Jill Valentine and Ada came in from outside.

"I also went around the entire perimeter of the villa."

Jill Valentine reported.

"Aside from a flat lawn and a dried-up swimming pool, there was nothing — no entrance, not even a ventilation pipe."

Ada walked over to the sofa and gave Alice, now in the red dress, a cold, appraising look.

Even she was caught off guard by this woman's figure.

That wild, explosive beauty was a complete opposite to her own cool, distinctly Eastern elegance.

Ada turned her gaze to Leon.

"Can this new trophy of yours provide any useful leads?"

Leon stubbed his cigarette out in the crystal ashtray on the coffee table.

He looked at Alice.

"There must be a space below."

Leon's mind moved quickly.

A train that goes directly underground.

Where exactly was the entrance hidden?

Alice looked at these fully armed people who had suddenly come barging in. Their gear and bearing were exactly like a special operations team heading into battle.

Her gaze swept across the group before settling back on Leon.

"What exactly are you looking for?"

Her tone turned urgent.

"What underground? What entrance?"

The pain in her head grew worse. Fragmented images began flashing wildly through her mind.

People in white lab coats. Blue reagent vials. The piercing shriek of alarms.

Leon didn't answer.

He crossed the room to the large Persian rug at the center of the living room, crouched down, and forcefully lifted one corner.

Underneath: the same smooth, reflective marble tile.

He stood up, his brow furrowing slightly.

This didn't make sense.

The coordinates Simon had given could not possibly be wrong. The core of the jamming field was directly beneath this villa.

If there was no elevator inside leading straight underground, then the entrance had to be somewhere conspicuous yet easy to overlook.

"Damn it, who the hell are you people!"

Alice pressed her hands over her head in pain and dropped into a crouch on the floor.

Those flashing images made it hard to breathe.

"This place is definitely somewhere bad."

She gritted her teeth and looked up at Leon.

"My head is full of terrifying images..."

"A massive fan. A long corridor..."

"And..."

Alice's eyes flew wide with horror.

Leon snapped his head around.

Two strides closed the distance. He grabbed her by the shoulders.

"And what?"

His eyes locked onto hers.

"Tell me everything you've managed to remember. Every detail."

Alice was yanked to her feet by the rough grip and gasped in great heaving breaths.

"A mirror..."

"I saw a huge full-length mirror..."

"Right... right behind the door..."

Leon reacted instantly.

He released her, spun around, and headed for the main entrance.

When they'd kicked the doors open and rushed in earlier, they'd shoved one of the double doors flat against the wall.

He walked up to it.

Behind the door, unmistakably inset into the wall, was a tall full-length mirror.

In the rush of entry, everyone's attention had been on searching the room. Nobody had noticed this pane of glass behind the door.

Chris Redfield walked over with his rifle up.

"Is something wrong with this mirror?"

Leon didn't answer.

He raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist.

BANG!

A brutal direct punch straight into the center of the mirror.

The glass shattered with a crash, scattering across the floor.

Everyone raised their weapons.

Behind the full-length mirror was no wall panel. It was a heavy metal security door, fitted with an intricate circular electronic lock panel.

"Damn."

Chris Redfield swore.

"These tech-obsessed bastards have a serious obsessive-compulsive streak — they actually built the hidden door right behind the front door!"

Ada moved forward, her decoder connecting directly to the panel.

"Cracking it will take time. At least 10 minutes."

Alice stared blankly at the metal door. The stabbing pain in her head abruptly vanished, replaced by an extraordinarily strange sense of familiarity.

Her feet began to move on their own, carrying her toward the door.

Leon watched her. He made no move to stop her.

Alice raised her hand naturally.

Her fingers moved across the complex cipher panel, pressing the keys in rapid sequence.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The smooth run of tones echoed through the living room.

No hesitation. No conscious thought. It came entirely from instinct buried deep in her muscles, the numerical combination entered itself as if from nowhere.

Click.

The indicator light flipped from red to green.

A dull hiss of depressurization sounded.

A cold draft surged from behind the door, lifting Alice's short golden hair.

There was no light beyond it. Only a deep passage, extending downward.

Leon gave a satisfied nod.

This was the place.

➤ Next: Believe It or Not