[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 598 - Turning Them Into Our Own

James stared at the gun barrel leveled at him. That absolute, crushing pressure left him in a daze.

He knew perfectly well that the dense barrage of fire moments ago hadn't managed to scratch this man. What came next would be a one-sided massacre.

"Cease fire."

James roared the order and threw down his MP5 Submachine Gun.

"We surrender!"

Weapons clattered to the ground.

"We give up." He raised both hands.

Rain bit down hard, seething, but watching James she understood well enough. Continuing to fight was suicide.

JD was so terrified he couldn't hold his gun. He just dropped it, clasped both hands over his head, and crouched down.

Kaplan and the rest followed. Weapons discarded, knees on the floor.

"A wise choice." Leon stepped forward at an unhurried pace.

He understood these Umbrella special forces operatives well enough. They were wretched souls, every last one of them. Sent here by Umbrella Corporation to die.

Still, a verbal surrender in the apocalypse was worth less than toilet paper. The moment you turned your back, you'd eat a knife.

What he needed right now were dogs of absolute obedience.

Leon stopped in front of James. Less than 2 meters away.

He gave his tactical pants leg a light shake.

Several plump black Leeches slid out from the trouser leg without a sound.

These Leeches had fed on Leon's blood. They had already become terrifyingly mutated carriers, each one independently controlled by Leon's brainwaves.

Leon's brain issued the command.

The Leeches snapped off the ground.

BLACK LIGHTNING. They lunged straight at the completely unprepared operatives before anyone could react.

James couldn't even make out what those things were.

He only felt an extremely sharp, piercing pain on the side of his neck.

"Ah." He clutched his neck and stumbled back two steps.

Rain, JD, Kaplan — they all cried out at almost the exact same moment.

The black Leeches bit through skin with ease and burrowed directly inside.

"What did you do to us!" Rain glared at Leon with fury, hand reaching for the fixed blade strapped to her thigh.

Her hand never touched the handle. Her entire body locked up.

Leon stood where he was and watched them in silence.

The mutation was instantaneous.

The operatives' muscles began twitching and spasming, utterly beyond their control. The virus was forcibly rewriting their genetic chains, pulling them one by one into Leon's Mutant Network.

Chris Redfield stared from behind, his eyes wide.

He kept his gun raised, watching the sudden turn of events with visible unease.

"Leon, this..." Chris swallowed.

"Relax." Leon didn't even turn his head. "Just making them one of our own."

The entire process lasted less than half a minute.

James's body stopped convulsing.

He slowly straightened up. Those eyes that had been sharp with wariness now carried something else entirely: absolute, unconditional submission. The way he looked at Leon was no longer how one looks at an enemy. It was how one looks at a god whose word cannot be defied.

Rain and JD and the others straightened up one by one after him.

They retrieved their weapons from the ground and stood before Leon in perfect unison. Not a single thought of resistance remained. Only Leon's directives.

This was the absolute authority of the hive's master.

Leon looked over his newly absorbed elite unit with quiet satisfaction.

"From this moment on, you report directly to me." His voice was even.

James nodded without hesitation.

"Yes, sir."

No stiffness in the tone. No performance. Pure, genuine obedience from somewhere deep in the core of him.

Alice stood at the back, her face a mask of bewilderment.

She didn't understand what had just happened. A few black worms burrowed into people's bodies, and these mercenaries, arrogant and domineering just moments ago, had simply become obedient little puppets waiting for orders?

This was deeply wrong.

"They... what happened to them?" She couldn't help herself. She turned to Jill Valentine.

Jill shrugged.

"That's what happens when you get on Leon's bad side."

Leon turned around.

"James. Report your current mission."

James snapped to attention.

"Sir, our mission is to enter the Red Queen's main control room, reboot the system, assess the situation inside the base, and recover any experimental data of value."

"Good." Leon nodded. "Route plan?"

"We need to pass through Dining Room B, enter the corridor of the central control zone, and then we can reach the mainframe." James answered without hesitation. "Once we're there, we ask the Red Queen. She'll tell us everything that happened here."

The corridor.

That word dragged up an image Leon hadn't forgotten. Bodies shredded to pieces. Chunks of meat scattered across polished floor.

In the original story, this entire special forces team had been sliced apart by lasers in that corridor.

But they were his people now. No point sending them to die for nothing.

"Lead the way." Leon waved a hand.

James turned immediately, Rain and Kaplan falling in beside him as they pushed forward to clear the path ahead.

The group moved out in full force toward the corridor.

They came to a stop before a massive alloy door. Heavy. Sealed. The only passage leading to the Red Queen's main control room.

Locked shut.

Kaplan unslung the equipment from his back without a word and began connecting to the combination lock.

"It'll take a bit of time." His fingers flew across the keypad.

➤ Next: Unlucky Matt