Makin' Moves
"Uh, Marvin, we've got a situation here."
Leon's voice halts your raging thoughts in place, and when you look to your left you see that Leon's speaking into the walkie talkie he was given.
"We're surrounded by zombies!"
The response is only silence.
"Marvin! Do you copy? Marvin?!"
Still, there is no reply from the police Lieutenant, and this draws a curse from the rookie; god, please don't let him be dead.
"We need to get out of here..." You say after some time, looking around the clearing for anything that may prove useful.
A bright red handle draws your eye as you swivel your head looking for whatever, and when you approach you see that it's a pair of bolt cutters.
Why are those here? Who knows. Are you gonna need them? Definitely.
You speed over and pick them up, slightly underestimating how heavy they'd be as you grab them, and are pleased to find that they're intact and fully functional; jack pot.
"Leon, look."
Upon your call, said man directs his attention towards you and your new bolt cutters.
A smile tugs at the corners of his lips when he sees your discovery and your excited face, and when he speaks on it his voice is as warm as his small grin, "Now that is a great find."
His praise makes you feel light and fluttery inside (even if it's just a small thing) for some unknown reason, and, surprisingly enough, it's a nice feeling.
You offer up the bolt cutters to him, figuring they'd be more useful in his hands than yours, and he accepts them readily, his fingers brushing lightly against yours during the exchange which makes your heart jump in your chest.
"W-We should get out of here." You mumble after a few beats of silence, directing your eyes elsewhere to avoid his piercing blue gaze.
"Yeah, let me just make sure we aren't leaving anything behind first."
Sounds reasonable enough.
You nod your head and turn your head left and right, searching for any signs of things you guys may want to use, and notice something on top of one of the oil drums beneath the stairs.
You point it out to Leon, and it turns out that it's some more bullets for his gun (since you have yet to shoot off any of yours) which he readily shoves into one of his hip pouches.
Other than the bolt cutters and bullets, there is nothing of interest in the courtyard area, so you two turn to the only other door down on this level to go back inside.
As it turns out, the door is chained shut with a set of silver and yellow links; luckily, you found some bolt cutters.
Leon snaps the chains and has the door open in seconds, though he doesn't just burst through guns ablaze; he pushes the entrance open carefully, slowly, and looks for any signs of a threat before stepping inside.
Instantly, you both recognize the room you've just entered.
You can hear faint groans and growls coming from the door just to your right, but you aren't sure if they're from the poor officer you met when you first got here, or if it belongs to one of those freaks who killed him.
It feels like your is heart clenching in your chest, grief for the man you didn't even know wounding you from the inside out, but you choose not to show it.
The brunet rookie cop strides quickly past the small office area and steps in front of another chained door, lifting the bolt cutters up so he can chop through those as well, and you follow closely behind.
When the links separate and crash to the floor, a loud, slightly echoing 'clang' resounds through the room and down the hall; it seems much louder than it actually is because of your close proximity to the source, but you don't want to stick around incase something else happens to catch the noise.
The door is just as loud as it creaks open and slams shut again, but this noise is much more noticeable.
As if on a cue one of the zombified people in front of you rises to their feet and staggers towards Leon, but his hands are full and his gun is still clasped into its' holster.
You only have a split second to respond to the quickly approaching monster, but you do it in kind; you whip the gun you were given out from the waistband of your pants and take a shot at it, fighting against the recoil of the gun which makes you strike the side of the head instead of its' forehead.
The thing staggers back when your bullet grazes its' head, and this distraction gives Leon enough time to retrieve his own weapon and shoot it down.
All the commotion catches the attention of one of those things outside, and so it begins to slam against the window in a desperate attempt to get in.
"We better hurry." Leon sighs, going straight towards some sort of bomb thing resting on a lone desk off to the left. "Good shot."
"He was only a few feet away... I still kinda missed."
He doesn't say anything to that right away, but after a few moments he breaks his silence. "You're just being modest."
"No, really, I just got lucky." You genuinely have no experience shooting a real weapon; yeah, your aim isn't bad, but you definitely weren't ready for the recoil that small gun had in it.
This time he doesn't respond.
You go ahead and round the desks in search of useful items and find a couple of things (like some gunpowder and a weird electrical fuse part-thingy), and Leon discovers this wheel, valve thing in the office on the left side of the office.
What these things are doing here, you don't know; but you do know that they may come in handy sooner or later.
"Here, Leon, give me that red valve thing. I'll hold it." You offer once he emerges from the office with it in hand, figuring that it's better off in your drawstring than one of his flimsy hip pouches. You wouldn't want it to throw his balance off, after all.
He shoots you a skeptical look and tightens his hold on it, pursing his lips in a way that tells you he's probably gonna argue.
"You don't need to. I can carry it."
Your nose wrinkles distastefully at his hesitation, and your tone portrays it too, "I know you can but you don't need to. I can put it in my bag."
"Yes, but-" He begins, only to be cut off by you.
"Just give me the freaking valve, Leon."
It seems your snappish tone convinced him, for he, albeit reluctantly, hands it over and pockets the blue and black bomb looking thing he already had.
"Thank you." You don't know why you're the one thanking him, but you don't retract your thanks regardless.
Shattering glass gathers both of your attentions after this silly little exchange, and it turns out that the thing banging on the window finally got its' way.
Leon scurries away from the scene and makes a beeline for the door, calling for you to hurry up after him as he shoves away the file-stacked chair flimsily barricading the double doors that lead to this room.
Something slams into the doors as soon as Leon removes the chair from its' place, and then a larger officer comes shambling through.
He's bloody and very much undead, but so is the person who just broke into the office.
Leon raises his firearm and takes two shots at it, meanwhile you turn and shoot at the one coming at you from behind.
Your companion manages to knock the officer who burst through the door and you kept the one from the window busy long enough for you both to escape and find that the hallway leads to the metal shutter you initially crawled through when you first got here.
It's at that moment that you remember Marvin jammed it shut with his foot to kill the monster trying to literally eat Leon, but before the panic can settle in, your eyes catch onto the little electrical box pressed up against the wall next to it.
The metal box is missing a cylindrical electronic part- a cylindrical electronic part that you just so happen to have tucked away in your pocket.
"Damn it!" Leon curses, hitting the wall next to the electrical box to vent his frustrations.
Right, you probably should've mentioned what you found.
You slip the part out of your pocket and step in front of the little mental box, clicking the missing piece into place without a word.
The metal shutter begins to rise as soon as the part is returned to its' previous resting place, and then you're both home free.
"Oh, thank Jesus..." He breathes once you're both out of the murder hall, reloading his gun while you turn back and try to close it again.
The switch, lever thing doesn't work, so it looks like the shutter will remain open.
"You didn't tell me you found one of those things."
There are no signs of anger or malice in his voice or expression, but still it makes you feel slightly guilty since he really thought you guys might be trapped down there.
"I'm so sorry," you blurt out, reaching up to card your fingers through your hair, "It really just slipped my mind! I should've said something."
He looks taken aback almost by your outburst of apologies and regrets, and then he cracks a smile and manages a laugh (something that confuses and slightly irritates you), "I'm not mad. I was going to compliment you."
Oh...
That's embarrassing.
You choose to hold your tongue and just dip your head, avoiding his gaze now as your face warms and your teeth worry at your bottom lip.
"Hey, don't worry about it." All signs of teasing amusement are replaced with what seems like embarrassment of his own - does he feel bad for making you freak out a bit? - but he doesn't outwardly mention it. "We should go check on Marvin."
Fuck, he's right.
Marvin never replied to Leon's distress call via walkie talkie, a very concerning sign, and as soon as you're reminded of this you take off towards the cot where you last saw him.
Leon begins to protest, but it falls upon deaf ears, for in seconds you're running up to the wounded man.
You look over the Lieutenants pained, exhausted profile with miserable worry, seeing just how drained he is from everything that's happened thus far.
The blood has completely soaked through his blue police shirt, and it's staining his hands crimson and leaking down onto the couch and floor. At this point, he's lost so much blood that it's only a matter of when he dies now, not if.
This realization breaks your heart, but you say nothing of it and just call his name softly.
"I'm still alive." Is all he says, wheezing and coughing after he pushes the words out through gritted teeth.
"We just wanted to check on you..." You whisper as Leon moves to stand next to you.
Somehow you keep a straight, unworried face during the short little exchange, and you're immensely proud of yourself for that.
Marvin doesn't respond verbally or physically, so you and Leon take that as your cue to leave him to his own devices.
"What's our next move?" You ask after you're out of earshot of Marvin (so as to not disturb his much needed rest).
As if he were waiting for you to ask this question, he whips out the keycard he found in that art, statue room and brandishes it to you with a hint of a smile, "We have a shotgun waiting for us in the safety deposit room."
Oh, you forgot about that.
"Right, good idea."
Leon smiles proudly at your mini compliment and pockets the keycard once again, flicking his head towards the spade door leading to the west office you guys explored earlier. "Let's go this way."
You, of course, have no qualms with his preferred route, so you nod your head and allow him to lead the way.
The both of you speed through Leon's 'would've-been office' and go across the hall from the room into the safety deposit area, and it's there where Leon retrieves the shotgun and its' shells.
While he does that, you return the button he found to the 2 spot on the terminal and type in 102 and 208.
Shotgun shells and some gunpowder is the fruit of your minimal labor and when you offer them to Leon, he's just as thrilled about it.
"How many shots have you got now?" You question after he finishes loading the gun and pockets the box of bullets.
He pumps the fore-end of the shotgun to get it ready for firing, then he replies, "12 total for right now. Hope we find more."
Well, given the horribly complicated layout of supplies in this godforsaken place, you have no doubt that you will come across some more.
"What should we do now?"
It seems your question is one he himself was mulling over, because he whips out the maps and sorts through them in search of a new course of action.
After a few moments of him glancing over the maps, he refolds them and shoves them back in his back pocket. He looks at you and states decisively, "The mens locker room is what that valve handle goes to, so we can go there next."
"Alright. Which way should we go to get there?" Having a game plan before acting is the smartest thing you can do, and you're sure that he would agree.
"We'll go through the Library. It's the most direct path." He sounds confident, so you're inclined to believe that he's right.
You nod your assent and readjust your bag on your back, not moving to go anywhere since you aren't quite sure where the library is.
He takes you back to the main hall and up the grand stairs to the left, leading you all the way to an unlocked spade door.
This is probably the first spade door he opened while you were cooped up in the dark room which would be why you didn't know about it.
Inside of the library is scattered books and quite a few dead bodies. There is a set of stairs to your left that lead up to some catwalk thing and a door along that wall as well, but the thing that really draws your attention is the crunching and munching of one of those zombie people just on the other side of the bookshelves.
You try to ignore the wet sounds skin and flesh being ripped away from the body of whoever the thing is eating, though it's not an easy feat.
Leon moves around to the front of the stairs and waits for you to join him, and once you're by his side he places his hand on the small of your back and urges you up the stairs first, eyeing the undead wandering around looking for something to satisfy their insatiable hunger for human flesh.
You climb the steps hastily and make it to the top in just a few moments.
The light-haired officer takes the lead again once you're both on the libraries upper floor and heads straight for a lone door on the far wall, his gun holstered and his flashlight out and ready for use.
The door swings open without any issue like all the others, but this satisfying little fact doesn't even register since there's a fucking body hanging out of a hole in the ceiling.
There's blood on the hands and its' body is completely limp; Leon doesn't even react to seeing it, so you can only assume that it was already there (which also means that it's dead-dead).
Honestly, this room that he takes you through seems to be the messiest, dirtiest, and most pungent room in the entire station thus far.
It smells like Death died in here, and looks like a blood tornado passed through, but you're only in this gross ass room for a little bit; he takes you through another door that leads to another dirty hallway where he then directs you to the right and down to yet another door.
All these twisting and turning hallways are beginning really to get on your nerves, especially since they all have their own odd smells that you're slowly (and unfortunately) getting used to.
This place is hell.
You and Leon go through another book filled area and down two sets of stairs so you're on level 2F. It holds a metal shutter, the mens locker room, and a few other areas that aren't pertinent to your current objective.
Leon shoves the door open and steps over a dead body splayed across the floor; and you follow suit and try your hardest not to stare at the deceased officer.
You busy yourself with removing your drawstring bag so you can retrieve the valve handle - which you do - and offer it up to Leon.
You stand by and watch idly as he inserts it into the wall, cranking the handle to the right until it turns off the pressurized vapor that shoots out of a pipe in the wall.
The steam disperses and evaporates into nothing and reveals a barely standing shower room with a huge hole in the wall.
Said hole leads to an open space (most likely the room one over which was blocked off with a barricade).
There's stuff all over the bathrooms' counter, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other hygiene products, and the leaky pipes and shower-heads make a horrible racket when compared to the silence you were both getting used to in this awful place.
Honestly, you're not sure if you prefer the white noise or not.
On the one hand, it provides a veil of quiet that hides your footsteps and labored breathing from nearby nasties, and it also distracts you from your raging thoughts and those tiny noises that sound like something but are actually nothing; but on the other hand, you can no longer hear said 'nasties' either, and it only puts you both all the more on edge.
It's an unimportant conundrum that your fearful mind made up in wake of this ever familiar silence, or at least that's what you're telling yourself (the importance of something like silence is actually much greater than you'd like to think, but that's just because the thought of your life depending on something so minuscule is pretty alarming).
You look inside each of the shower stalls as Leon moves ahead with his gun and flashlight at the ready, but only one of you actually finds anything even remotely 'interesting'.
You hear your companion intake a sharp breath and stop his shuffling forward, and when you step over and peek around him, you see the reason why he's suddenly so tense and cautious.
On the other side of the doorway, just through the seemingly exploded wall of the mens bathroom, is a hunched over man dressed all in dark blue (another janitor, you're assuming).
From what you can see, he appears to be dead, but whether he's dead-dead remains to be seen.
While Leon inches closer to the, most likely dead body, you peer briefly into the other shower stalls to make sure there's nothing waiting around there for your backs to be turned, but nothing pans out from it.
The body slumps forward and crashes to the ground suddenly, and it startles both of you; however, he doesn't physically flinch like you do.
"Jesus Christ-!" You whisper yell, turning your attention away from the showers and towards the collapsed dead man.
Neither of you move for approximately 10 seconds, and when he doesn't rise or move, you both relax.
You release a breath you didn't even know you were holding and ease the tension in your shoulders, watching skeptically as he toes at it to ensure that it's 100% not going to get up again - and it doesn't.
"It's dead." He assures you finally, looking back at you with an attempt at a smile.
Even when he's forcing a smile that comes out as more of a grimace, he's still handsome; a thought that you most definitely should not be entertaining.
A small internal shove is enough to expel those unwanted thoughts from your brain, and it leaves clarity and more 'appropriate' thoughts in its' place.
There's a hint of hesitation to your reply, but it's not necessarily because you don't trust his judgement; you just never know with these things. "Okay..."
“Come on, let’s keep moving.” He steps away from the body and heads towards the door, pausing and waiting for you to join his side.
Immediately you return to his side, and once you do he pushes open the door cautiously and looks around.
Nothing jumps out at you right away, so you follow him out into yet another dark and empty hallway.
You see some shotgun shells on the small seat ahead of you, and while you would normally rush right forward to collect them, instead this time you reach up and tug on his sleeve, opening your mouth to point it out.
"Loo-"
CRASH.
Before you finish your sentence there's a crash and an ungodly screech that you hadn't heard yet tonight.
Immediately Leon slaps a hand over your mouth, grabs you by the waist, and silently drags you off to the side where the vending machine is.
Your eyes are wide with fear and everything in your body screams at you to run but you know that, that would only mean death.
What you can only describe as a skinless mutant jumps to the wall next to where you two were just standing, another one of those hellish screeches emitting from it's peeled back lips as it appears to search for whatever just came through the door.
His fingertips press harder into your side, tucking you further into his side with his gun pointed at the ground but still ready to be shot.
Neither of you move, hell you barely even breathe, as it turns its' head back and fourth and slowly walks back along the way it came.
Slowly and quietly Leon releases you from his strong iron-like grip and brings a finger up to his lips, signaling for you to remain quiet.
You nod once to show you understand, looking at him with those same wide eyes because you don't want to see that abomination crawling around just behind him.
What do you do now? There's no way he expects you to...
Before that thought finishes itself, he does the worst thing imaginable.
Leon crouches and slowly creeps towards it, turning his head slightly and flicking his head in the same direction.
It's almost as if he's dealt with this before.
Despite wanting to stay put and never move ever again, you begin to take careful steps towards him and follow along in a crouched position also.
The moment only lasts about a minute as you two creep a little ways down the hall and enter a door just to the left, but each second felt like an eternity. What if you alert it? What will it do to you? What even is it? It's nothing like the other monsters you've seen up until now.
Once you're both safe in the other room, another office space, you stagger a few feet away and turn to look at him wildly.
"What the ever loving fuck was that thing?" You exclaim, not realizing until just now that you're shivering from anxiousness.
Guilt washes over his face the moment you ask that question, confirming your suspicion that he's encountered that thing before. "I... I'm not entirely sure. I found a note about it earlier, it called it a Licker. Said that it responds to sound only because it's blind."
You're silent for a time as you think over his explanation, asking cautiously after, "Why didn't you tell me...?"
"I-!" He cuts himself off and looks down at the ground, that same worried expression tugging at his mouth, "I don't know... I didn't want to scare you more than you already were. I assumed that maybe we wouldn't run in to any more."
"Any more!?"
Silence.
"I may have run into one while you were developing film in the red room."
You don't even know how to respond to his admission.
"But I killed that one. W-With the shotgun. I thought it was the only one." He sounds genuine as he explains the circumstance, and while you don't necessarily like that he kept it from you, you understand why he kept it from you.
Leon's piercing eyes are on you once again, looking at you expectantly as he awaits your response.
A sigh leaves you, before you step forward and pull him into a tight hug. "You should've told me... but I can understand why you didn't."
You feel rather than hear him relax, clearly relieved that you've forgiven him.
"I'm sorry." He grumbles, wrapping you up in his arms in return.
It's a sweet moment that temporarily allows you to forget the hellhole you're currently living through, but it all comes to an end when you catch yourself getting a little too comfortable snuggling against your apocalypse companion.
You're the first one to pull away, coughing awkwardly and looking around the room to busy yourself as he too gets back into game mode.
"According to the map, this is the S.T.A.R.S. Office." Leon says after reholstering his gun. "Let's look around here for supplies."
Your only response is a curt nod, and the two of you get to work. All the while you're trying to get the thought of that skinless monster out of your head.
There were a bunch of things in this STARZ office that were of use, including ammo, a battery, and a bunch of files for you guys to peep on. There was also a really cool looking gun locked away in an internal armory inside, one that required authentication to open.
The two of you finished up in there, and in no time you were ready to head back out.
Your hesitation to rejoin that motherfucker in the hallway was present all over your face, something that makes Leon's heart pang painfully.
"Are you ready to go back out there?" His voice is soft when he asks, a thought that snaps you out of your anxious thoughts.
He's over here risking everything to help you constantly, you need to get over yourself.
"Yes! W-We just have to be quiet, I can do that." You confirm, though you're still not fully convinced that it's just that easy.
A smile pulls at Leon's lips despite the damn near hopeless situation, heart warmed by the way you're trying to stay strong. "Yeah, that's all we have to do. I have enough bullets to take it out, I think, too if it down to it."
That actually does help ease your worries a bit.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
And without further stalling, Leon goes to the door and opens it slowly, looking down the hallway to get an idea of where the monster is.
Only, he doesn't see or hear it.
He tilts his head questioningly, then steps further out into the hall with you hot on his tail.
Leon looks at you, and you look back at him, and watch as his gaze slides from your face to up above your head.
Your heart drops, you know what that means, and all thoughts disappear from your head in an instant.
It's pure silence.
Then you hear shuffling, and a pungent smell attacks your nostrils as that bulbous, grotesque head lowers right next to your own.
You can't help yourself, so you start turning your head to peek.
Only before you look, Leon waves his hands rapidly and points at his face when your sight slips over to him instead.
Despite everything, he smiles when you look at him, although its more of a grimace, and looks you right in the eyes. His gaze tells you to look at only him, to ignore what's hovering right next to your face and focus in on him.
And you do, for the most part, staring right at his slightly sweaty and very anxious expression until the so-called 'Licker' retreats and crawls back towards the shower room.
You breathe a sigh of relief, you even see Leon throw his head back and take a second, but the moment can't last too long as you're both still sharing a space with the worst creation ever to waltz the earth.
By some miracle you both manage to make it to the locked door on the opposite side of the hallway, one which Leon swiftly unlocks with the hand lock.
You both enter the room, and just like that you feel like you can breathe again.
With quick feet you scurry away from the door and to the middle of the room, taking a second to relax and no throw up.
"You did it." Leon breathes after a moment, a genuine smile gracing his pretty face.
You nod once, but all you can think about is how you regret wasting your hug card in that STARZ room when right now you're really needing one. "I guess I did. I won't lie, I was about 3 seconds away from crying."
"I could tell..." Realizing that sounds bad, he adds, "I wouldn't have let anything happen to you though. We would've been okay."
Who knows for sure, but you believe him regardless.
"Come on, lets get out of here."
And with that, you both head towards the other door in this odd small room.
Leon seem to know where he's going, for he opens the door and rushes with you through the library, once again. It's like you guys went in one huge loop.
All the starving corpses are still here, just laying and waiting to attack something, but you two run through fast enough that they don't even get the chance to get up. Luckily.
"What do we do now?" You inquire once you're both back in the main hall, walking down the steps back towards the resting Marvin. "We have two of the medallions, but I don't even know where to begin looking for the last one."
"Actually..." Leon begins, pulling the map from his pocket, "It's in the room we passed through earlier. I was looking for a detonator to break into the cell it's locked in, and I found it a bit earlier."
Once again he seems like he's not saying something.
"What?"
"What?" He repeats.
"What aren't you saying."
He seems taken aback, then sheepish, "Well... I was hoping you'd maybe stay here while I go get the last medallion." You open your mouth to protest, but he cuts you off. "I know you want to stay with me, but it's going to be especially dangerous this time. There's going to be an explosion which isn't good itself, but if we add that to the fact that noise attracts basically every monster there is to know? I just... I need to know you're safe. And I think being here is the best way to ensure that."
You see his point, although you don't necessarily want to. It makes sense. One person is easier to protect than two, but you could have his back just like he has yours.
"Leon..."
"Please, I don't know what I'll do if something happens to you."
His honesty is so raw and sudden that it makes you both pause, and it wears away at your resolve.
"I-I guess... I could sit this one out."
Happiness sparkles in his lovely blue eyes the moment you concede, his hands coming up to rest on your shoulders, "Thank you."
You dip your head and look down at your toes, trying to actually be okay with it even if it still makes you anxious.
"I'll be here when you get back."