[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 615 - Unwelcome

Kaya walked to the table and picked up an iron pot.

"In the Arctic, when this happens, the only way to survive is to strip down completely and use another person's body heat to force your core temperature back up."

"That's the most basic rule of Arctic survival."

"I was saving your life. Understand? Idiot."

She stirred the pot twice with a wooden spoon, then ladled out a bowl of paste that smelled deeply, disturbingly fishy.

Walked straight to the bedside and held it out to Simon.

Simon froze.

He stared at the bowl. Then at Kaya's face — completely, unabashedly calm.

His brain finally caught up.

He wasn't dead.

This wasn't heaven.

He'd been forcibly dragged back from the edge by this polar native.

He swallowed and took the wooden bowl, a little awkwardly.

Damn. That's awkward.

And, weirdly, kind of disappointing.

What a shame.

What exactly was a shame — well, probably only he knew that.

"So... thanks, I guess."

Simon felt vaguely like he was in the wrong here. She had saved his life.

But thinking back on what Kaya had just done, he still felt a little off about it.

"Though I suppose we've gotten pretty well acquainted."

Simon deployed his signature wasteland humor, trying to dissolve the bizarre atmosphere hanging over the room.

"Your bedside manner is a little enthusiastic, don't you think."

Kaya let out a short, derisive laugh.

She crossed her arms and looked him up and down. Her gaze moved with deliberate, critical slowness over his under-exercised arms and his not-particularly-impressive chest.

"Stop flattering yourself."

Her tone was pure contempt.

"You don't even have a decent muscle on that body."

"I doubt you could hunt a single seal."

"A scrawny man like you? Completely beneath my notice."

"You're weaker than the most feeble man in our entire tribe."

She gave him one last dismissive glance.

"If you weren't the only living person to show up in the past year, I wouldn't have wasted my body heat warming up a sack of bones that was half-frozen stiff."

Those words hit like a blade, methodically and cheerfully grinding Simon's dignity as a man straight into the permafrost.

Simon nearly choked.

"Sack of bones?"

His eyes went wide.

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"I am the technical core running the largest communications hub in North America."

"Two lines of code. That's all it takes me to reboot the entire satellite network."

"Hunt seals? That's beneath me. I operate on brainpower."

Kaya ignored every word of it.

She turned, walked back to the table, and sat down beside the old man.

"Out here in the Arctic, brainpower won't fill your stomach."

The old man nodded — apparently in full agreement.

He cut off a chunk of blackened jerky with his hunting knife and shoved it into his mouth, chewing with some effort.

"Kid."

He fixed his eyes on Simon and spoke.

"Those three dogs of yours are something else."

"Sleek coats. Solid builds."

"If they hadn't kept lying on top of you to block the wind, you never would've lasted until we found you."

The word dogs hit Simon like a live wire.

He threw back the corner of his blanket immediately.

Not caring about what he might be exposing, he craned his neck and scanned every corner of the cabin.

"Hey, guys!"

No barking. No familiar silhouettes anywhere.

Simon's heart shot straight into his throat.

He stared at the old man working through his jerky.

Then he looked at the bowl of fishy paste Kaya had handed him.

A deeply ugly thought detonated in his skull.

This was the Arctic wasteland. Food was desperate. Supplies were almost nothing.

3 big, healthy dogs were an almost unimaginably valuable mobile meat supply.

"You..."

Simon's hands were shaking.

"What did you do to my dogs?"

He locked onto the old man, and something rare broke through in his eyes, a cold, hard menace that had no business being on his face.

He was a tech guy. No question. Under Leon, he was usually the most easygoing person in any room.

But those three dogs were the only family he had in this lonely, frozen corner of the world.

The old man looked at Simon's expression, the face of someone ready to go down swinging, and grinned.

"Relax."

He pointed toward the heavy front door with his hunting knife.

"They're outside eating."

"Yesterday, those three dogs of yours worked damn hard dragging you back here."

The tension snapped out of Simon all at once.

He hauled himself out of bed. His left shin was still swollen, but nothing was broken, severe soft tissue bruising, nothing worse. He limped to the wooden door, pulled back the heavy locking bar, and a wall of polar cold poured instantly through the gap.

Outside in the snow, 3 large dogs were gathered around the carcass of an enormous walrus, tearing furiously at the frozen meat.

The Husky spotted Simon first. It stopped mid-bite, tail already going, and lunged, two thick front paws landing squarely on Simon's chest. It pressed its fluffy head against his face, insistent and warm.

The Alaskan and the Samoyed came barreling over a second later, circling him in happy, chaotic loops.

Simon dropped to a crouch, not caring about the ice and snow soaking through his knees, and pulled all three massive heads in tight against him.

"Well done, guys."

His eyes stung.

"I knew you wouldn't leave me behind."

Kaya leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching.

"When you're done," she said, with zero patience in her voice, "get back inside and close the damn door. We spent days collecting that firewood. I'm not letting you freeze it all out, idiot."

Simon gave the Husky one last pat, got to his feet, and stepped back inside. He wrestled the heavy log door shut behind him, cutting off the killing cold.

He dragged his injured leg back to the bed and sat down.

Kaya pulled a battered wooden stool over and dropped onto it across from him.

"Blizzards usually run 2 to 3 days."

"Once the wind stops, take your dogs and go."

"The food we have won't stretch to feed four extra mouths."

Simon spread his hands, the picture of innocence.

"Hey. Don't be like that."

"I didn't come to the Arctic for a vacation. I'm here on a mission."

➤ Next: The Inuit Girl Who Had Never Seen the World