[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 591 - Spence Parks

The train screamed through the deep underground tunnel.

Emergency lights stuttered inside the carriages, pulling everyone's shadows long then snapping them short again.

Chris raised his rifle and crept toward the rear of the train along the narrow aisle.

Every inch of this place was wrong. He kept his alertness dialed all the way up.

"Leon, I'm going to check the rear carriages."

The car they'd boarded was only the front section. Whatever was behind it, they hadn't touched yet.

Leon nodded. Chris moved to the junction of the third carriage and shoved the sliding door open hard.

His gaze swept the rows of empty seats, then settled on the floor at the far end.

Someone was lying there.

Chris brought the rifle up instantly, muzzle trained on the figure.

"Hey — don't move!"

No reaction. Not even a finger twitch.

He moved forward and prodded the figure's shoulder with his boot.

Male. Chest still rising and falling. Out cold.

Chris keyed his radio.

"Leon, there's a situation back here. You'd better come see this yourself."

A beat.

"I've got a living person."

In the forward carriage, Leon heard it and was already on his feet. He cut a look at Jill.

"Stay here. Watch her." He tilted his chin toward Alice in the corner.

Alice stood up.

"I'm coming with you."

She held Leon's eyes. She needed to know everything about this place, needed it badly enough that it showed.

Leon didn't bother arguing. He turned and tilted his head: keep up.

Ada fell in behind him.

The group pushed through two carriages and found Chris waiting.

He stepped aside. Everyone's eyes dropped to the face on the floor.

Short black hair. Sharp, deep-set features. A faint scrape at the corner of his mouth.

Alice crouched closer and stared at the man's face for several seconds.

Her brow knitted hard.

The familiarity hit her like a physical force, stronger than anything the villa had triggered. Fragments churned up from somewhere in the back of her mind.

The photograph. The couple in it.

This was the "husband."

"I know him." Alice pointed down at the man.

She looked at Leon.

"He's the man from the photo. The one with me."

Leon stepped over and looked down at that face.

Spence Parks.

He knew exactly who this was.

On the surface, Spence had lived with Alice in the mansion as her fake husband, cover for the Hive's entrance. That was his official story.

The reality was different.

He was a senior administrator at Umbrella Corporation's Raccoon City division. Specifically responsible for the security of the Hive Underground Laboratory.

And the man most responsible for all of this.

This bastard had slipped into the lab for money, stolen the T-Virus sample and the anti-virus serum, and on his way out had deliberately smashed a T-Virus canister inside a ventilation duct.

The blue reagent hit the air.

The virus spread through the entire Hive.

The Red Queen initiated her purge. Every researcher locked inside, every single one, turned into something else.

And Spence himself hadn't made it out clean. He'd inhaled the nerve toxin while running, and dropped unconscious right here on the train to the surface.

Leon looked at him.

And smiled.

A big fish.

Not for what he knew. For what he was carrying. Those virus samples, extraordinarily valuable, almost impossible to replace, were somewhere on this train right now.

"Wake him up." Leon looked at Ada.

Ada stepped forward and drove a kick straight into his chest.

Spence's body jolted. He sucked in a ragged breath, eyes wrenching open, and immediately folded into a violent coughing fit. He got both hands under himself and tried to push up off the floor.

Chris put a boot on his shoulder and slammed him back down.

Spence stared up at the ring of armed strangers. His eyes found Alice.

"Where..." He was still gasping. "Where is this?"

His face was completely blank. The panic in his eyes wasn't performed.

Leon could read it clearly. The nerve toxin had done its job.

Same as Alice. Short-term memory, gone. He had absolutely no idea what he'd done.

Ada crouched and grabbed him by the collar, hauling his upper body off the floor.

"Don't play dumb." Her voice was flat and cold. "What's your name?"

Spence swallowed. Shook his head hard.

"I don't know." The words came out forced, teeth tight. "My head is completely empty. I don't even know how I got here."

His eyes found Alice again, latching on like she was the only solid thing in the room.

"You — I feel like I know you. We know each other, right?"

Alice looked at him and took half a step back.

She was already drowning in doubt about her own identity. This so-called fake husband wasn't going to help with that.

But she noticed his hand.

He was wearing a ring. Same style as hers.

Alice eased back another step, slipped her hand behind her back, and quietly worked the ring off her finger.

She still didn't know who to trust, herself, or the man who was her husband in name only.

Leon didn't waste any more time on it.

There was nothing to get from him right now. The man couldn't answer a single question that mattered. They'd have to wait for the nerve toxin to fully clear his system, and that was going to take hours.

Leon didn't have hours.

➤ Next: Finding the Hiding Spot