[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 592 - Finding the Hiding Spot

"Search the train."

Leon stood and gave the order.

"What?" Chris blinked.

"He has something we need." Leon's eyes moved to the metal storage lockers along the wall.

"Something extremely important."

Chris didn't ask anything else. He got to work.

Ada released Spence, shoved him to the ground as an afterthought, and joined the search.

They tore the last car apart from top to bottom.

They even got on their hands and knees to check the gaps under the seats.

Nothing.

Jill came walking up from the front, gun up.

"Checked the first two cars. Not a single decent case anywhere." She shook her head.

Dust. That was all they had to show for it.

Chris yanked open a seat drawer, irritation leaking into his movements.

"Are you sure the thing is actually on the train?" He turned to look at Leon.

Leon stood at the window, watching the darkness streak past outside. He was certain. Spence had brought the case onto this train — he'd grabbed that silver metal briefcase and bolted straight into the station. But the gas had dropped him before he could clear the mansion.

The thing was still nearby.

Not inside the car.

Which meant outside it.

Leon turned it over in his mind.

The structure of this type of train wasn't complicated. Interior passenger compartment, mechanical chassis underneath, and the thick metal footplates on the car's sides near the couplings. It was an engineering train. The undercarriage would have hidden compartments — standard issue for stowing maintenance tools and spare parts.

Suspended outside the car doors, hanging in open air.

"Stop the train," Leon said.

Ada moved immediately to the driver's console at the front and hauled down the brake lever.

The wheels screamed against the rails.

SPARKS erupted in every direction.

The train ground forward on sheer momentum, coasting several hundred meters before it finally settled to a stop in the middle of the tunnel.

Leon didn't bother with words. He pulled the side door open and dropped down.

The pale light spilling from the car door was all he had. He crouched and began working along the underside of the train.

Chris jumped down behind him, sweeping the Tactical Flashlight between the rails and the frame.

Leon moved to the gap beneath the coupling where the two cars met. He crouched lower, palm moving along the rust-resistant armor plating on the undercarriage.

There.

On the inside of the left-side chassis suspension, his fingers found a cold metal pull ring.

The spot was nearly invisible. Unless you were flat on the rails looking straight up, you'd never know the compartment was there.

Leon locked his grip and yanked hard.

Click.

A rectangular metal panel swung down.

Nestled inside was a silver metal briefcase, unmistakable, impossible to miss.

The surface of the case bore the familiar red-and-white umbrella logo of Umbrella.

"Found it."

Leon pulled the heavy case free with one hand.

Chris came over and looked at it.

"What the hell is this? Worth all that effort just to hide it down there?" he asked.

Leon carried the case back up into the car and set it on an empty seat.

Ada, Jill, and Alice all crowded in close.

Even Spence, just now hauling himself off the floor, went wide-eyed the moment he saw it. His memory was gone, but something in him reacted anyway. His pupils contracted on pure instinct.

Leon didn't open it yet. He tapped 2 fingers lightly on the combination lock.

A specific code or fingerprint. That was the only way in.

"Crack it." He tilted his head toward Ada.

Ada stepped forward, produced her compact decoder, connected it to the case's interface, and her fingers went to work on the keypad.

30 seconds.

The case clicked.

Ada pressed the clasps on both sides and lifted the lid.

The car went quiet.

Every set of eyes locked onto what was inside.

2 layers of precision anti-shock foam, upper and lower, each holding several spiral glass vials arranged in clean, tight rows.

The upper layer: a deep, unsettling blue. The color was beautiful in a profoundly wrong way, gorgeous and wrong all at once, radiating something dark underneath the surface.

The lower layer: a clear, calm green.

"What is this?" Alice stared at the blue vials. That gnawing unease was back, rising in her chest.

Leon reached in and lifted one of the blue vials with careful fingers.

"Enhanced T-Virus serum."

He said it in a completely flat tone. A name that could send the entire world into a frenzy.

"3 generations ahead of Marcus's strain."

Alice had been injected with this exact variant. It had unlocked her telekinesis, pushed her until she could exert influence on a space station in orbit, placed her somewhere well outside the boundaries of human. Terrifyingly powerful.

"The green vials are antiviral serum." Leon set the blue one back.

Chris pulled in a sharp breath. He couldn't take his eyes off the green vials.

"That's the cure? The one that turns those things outside back into people?" He pushed forward, urgent.

Leon snapped the case shut.

"You're getting ahead of yourself." He didn't soften it. "This blocks viral replication inside the body, but only in the early stages of infection."

"If the target's cerebral cortex has already died and they've turned into a Walker, this stuff does absolutely nothing."

Jill's grip tightened on her shotgun. Her gaze slid over to Spence on the floor.

"So this bastard is the one who stole the virus." Her voice went cold. "He's the one who started all of this?"

Spence backed into the corner.

He'd lost his memory. But the words virus and theft hit something deep and animal in him. Panic flooded through him on reflex.

"No — it wasn't me!"

He shook his head violently, scrambling backward on all fours.

"I keep telling you, I don't remember anything! You can't blame someone who has no idea what happened!"

Leon looked down at him.

Not a trace of sympathy in his eyes.

This piece of garbage had smashed the T-Virus containers for money. Gotten every researcher in the Hive killed. Let the virus loose on the world after that. In the original story he was the one responsible for all of it.

Things were different now, multiple universes folded together, realities merged, but the Walkers outside had already been infected with the Wildfire Virus. Stack the T-Virus on top of that, and humanity was in for a genuinely spectacular time.

Leon would not leave this kind of filth breathing.

BANG!

No hesitation. He drove his boot straight into Spence's chest.

The muffled crack of bone split the air. Spence didn't even get a scream out, just a mouthful of blood, and then he was folded on the floor.

The force had been enormous. Multiple ribs gone. Internal organs taking the kind of damage that didn't leave room for negotiation.

Alice cried out.

She clapped both hands over her mouth and stared at Leon like she was seeing him for the first time.

"He's lost his memory! He can't even fight back!" she shouted.

Whatever else he was, he was still her husband in name. Until this was sorted out, she didn't want him hurt.

Leon walked over and stood above Spence, watching him twitch.

"Losing his memory doesn't erase what he did." Leon's voice was ice.

"He personally smashed open the containers holding the T-Virus. Sent it through the ventilation system and into every corner of the lab."

He turned his head and looked Alice straight in the eyes.

"Hundreds of people were trapped underground because of his greed. Turned into things that eat people."

A beat.

"Letting him die this clean is practically a mercy."

➤ Next: Nipped in the Bud