“BOOOOM—!” The water-treatment core behind them exploded completely.
Scalding fire and boiling wastewater surged through the narrow freight-elevator passage in pursuit.
Leon never looked back.
His left arm clamped around Rebecca’s waist like an iron band, shielding her against his side, while his right hand carried the broad Doorstop greatsword one-handed.
“Hold on!” Leon shouted.
Ahead, the once-wide passage had been mostly blocked by collapsed rubble, leaving only a jagged, irregular gap with twisted rebar jutting through the air.
“Leon!
It’s blocked!” Rebecca shouted from the crook of his arm, instinctively hunching her shoulders.
“Not completely!” Leon’s military boot slammed down, spraying gravel.
He didn’t slow.
He accelerated straight toward the obstruction.
He leveled the black-steel greatsword in front of him.
“BANG!” The weight of the full black armor, multiplied by his running momentum, crashed into the blockage.
The sword smashed apart the stones in front of him.
Two thick lengths of rebar bent across the gap shrieked as the newly sharpened black-steel edge met them, then snapped under brute force.
“Head down!” Leon twisted sideways and shouldered through a warped steel door jammed in its frame.
Door and hinges tore free together and sailed into the wreckage ahead.
Pinned under his arm, Rebecca could just see over his shoulder.
“Left!
Keep left!
The load-bearing wall on the right is cracked!” she shouted, turning herself into an improvised navigation system.
Leon changed direction hard, his boots scraping sparks from the floor.
“The contractors on this dump absolutely cut corners!” he shouted while smashing through debris.
“There isn’t one decent piece of rebar in these load-bearing walls.
It’s all cheap garbage!” “Is that really what you should be worrying about right now?!” Rebecca yelled.
“Ahead!
Watch the ceiling!” As soon as she said it, something cracked overhead.
A huge section of structural ceiling, tangled with rusted pipes, came crashing down.
There was nowhere to dodge.
Leon stopped dead and kicked one foot against the wall to brace himself.
He shoved Rebecca into the protected corner beside a support column, then turned his back to the falling slab.
“BOOM—!” The massive chunk of concrete slammed into the high-carbon-steel plate across his back.
Leon grunted.
His knees dipped, his boots cracked the floor beneath them, and the concrete shattered across his armor in a shower of sparks.
“Leon!” Rebecca cried.
“Not dead.” Leon straightened through clenched teeth and shook chunks of stone from his shoulders.
He scooped Rebecca back under his arm.
“When we get out of here, I’m sending Umbrella Legal a demand letter.
Emotional damages included!” The passage ahead ended completely.
The only route left was a vertical shaft leading to the surface, and its iron ladder had already been twisted into scrap.
The rising water had reached their calves, while fire climbed the shaft from below.
“There’s no ladder!” Rebecca stared at the bare wall.
Leon said nothing.
He drove the greatsword into the shaft wall, wedging the broad blade deep between the bricks.
Using it as a temporary foothold, he held Rebecca with his left arm and hooked his right hand around a length of exposed rebar jutting from the wall.
His arm muscles contracted.
Black armor rasped against masonry as he hung from the shaft wall and began climbing by hand.
“Grab my armor,” Leon called down.
Rebecca clung to the edge of his chest plate, tucking her legs in as tightly as possible so she wouldn’t add unnecessary drag.
Leon ignored the sharp rubble and rising heat.
He gripped a crack with his right hand, hauled himself upward, then pulled the sword free and stabbed it into the wall again at a higher point.
Each effort filled the iron helmet with the sound of his heavy breathing.
The explosions below came closer and closer.
The heat nearly reached the soles of their boots.
Above them, a faint line of daylight showed through an iron ventilation grille.
“We’re almost there!” Rebecca looked up.
Leon ripped the sword free, drove from the waist, and lunged upward.
He didn’t bother trying to push the heavy grille open with his hands.
He rammed it with his iron helmet instead.
“CLANG!” The heavy iron screen disguised as an exhaust vent tore free, cartwheeled through the air, and landed in the grass.
Leon hooked one hand over the lip of the shaft and hauled himself up.
Carrying Rebecca with him, he rolled out onto the grassy cliffside of the Arklay Mountains.
The instant they cleared the shaft, a world-shaking explosion erupted behind them.
The underground facility collapsed completely.
A violent blast of black smoke surged from the shaft, flattening the surrounding grass in one direction.
The ground shook.
Where the Executive Training School had stood, the earth sank into a vast smoking crater.
Morning sunlight filtered through the canopy and fell across them.
“Haa…” The two of them sprawled across dew-covered grass.
Leon was roasting inside the armor.
Repeated maximal exertion had left him breathing hard.
He ripped off the dirt-caked iron helmet and tossed it into the grass beside him.
His hands went to his collar.
He released the metal clasps on either side of the chest plate and pulled the heavy front armor open enough to gulp down fresh air.
His blond hair was soaked through with sweat and plastered messily across his forehead.
He shook his head hard, flinging droplets away.
Rebecca lay two paces away, chest heaving.
Her green tactical vest was smeared with mud and black blood, and several new abrasions marked her cheeks.
But after only a few breaths, she scrambled upright.
Without bothering to clean herself, she went straight to Leon.
“Turn around.” She immediately started tugging at the armor on his shoulder.
“What for?” Leon glanced back at her.
“Checking for internal injuries.” Rebecca wasted no words.
She pressed a palm against the part of his back plate that had taken the falling slab and carefully felt along the points where the impact would have transferred beneath the armor.
“That section of ceiling was huge.
Even with the armor, the shock could have injured your organs.” She pressed along both sides of his spine.
“Does it hurt here?
Any sharp pain when you breathe?” “A little sore, but nothing’s broken.” Leon let her work while looking back at the smoking crater.
“That landlord sure makes a lot of noise when a tenant moves out.
It’s making my ears ring.” Rebecca wasn’t remotely in the mood to laugh.
Her expression stayed tight as she worked from the back plate down along his ribs.
Only after confirming that his breathing was steady and there were no abnormal sounds from his chest did she finally relax.
She dropped onto the grass beside him and let out a long breath.
The nerves she’d kept wound tight all night finally snapped loose.
“Don’t move.” Rebecca set the shotgun within reach and pulled a can of first-aid spray and half a roll of clean bandage from the tactical pouch on her thigh.
She shuffled closer on her knees until she was almost against him.
Leon loosened his collar, revealing a bleeding cut along the side of his neck where a piece of rubble had caught him.
Rebecca pressed the nozzle, coating the wound in a fine mist of medication.
Leon looked down, took the military canteen from his belt, unscrewed the cap, and offered it to her.
“Want some?” Rebecca paused, accepted the canteen, tipped her head back, and drank almost half of it in deep gulps.
Only then did a little color return to her cracked lips.
She handed it back but didn’t move away.
She stayed where she was and looked at him.
Morning sunlight touched her face, picking out fine hairs and streaks of grime.
Her expression was completely sincere.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“If it weren’t for you, I’d have died in there a long time ago.” On the train, against the leech monster, and during the collapse of the shaft just now—without this black-armored lunatic, she never would have made it this far.
Leon took the canteen and drained the rest.
He wiped the water from his chin and waved the thanks away.
“Protecting civilians is a cop’s job.” He tapped the plate over his chest.
“But since I technically crossed jurisdictions to do it, you owe me a good cup of coffee when we get back.” Rebecca blinked.
She stared at the man who had just smashed a giant monster with a sword and headbutted an iron grate, now solemnly bargaining with her over one cup of coffee.
“Pfft.” She couldn’t hold it back.
She laughed.
That small laugh dissolved the last of the tension between them.
Still smiling, Rebecca tucked the bandage back into her tactical pouch.
“All right.” She nodded.
“If we make it back to Raccoon City safely, coffee’s on me.
As much sugar as you want.” “Black coffee,” Leon corrected.
“Sugar slows down your draw.” They looked at each other and smiled.
Beside the smoking ruins, something solid had formed between them: trust.
Leon leaned back against the tree behind him.
A morning breeze moved through the woods, carrying the smell of soil and leaves.