Meeting Phoenix (Part 3) (Patreon)

Leon x Phoenix

Words: 2,097

Contains: blood, zombies, killing, angst.

Immediately after seeing the young lady, Leon swings his rifle to hang behind him. Kneeling down to see if the woman was alright, he gently places a hand on her chilled skin, being in cold storage would do that to you.
"Are you alright?" Leon asks, the girl turning her head to look up hearing his foreign accent. The right side of her face covered in blood, her left hand moving from her ear to a wound on her right bicep.
"I thought you were a zombie..." She answers as tears well up in her eyes, her body trembles from how cold she is.

"You're gonna be alright." Leon assures as he stands up turning to Richard still standing behind him, his voice in a hushed whisper. "She's been bitten, but we're gonna try to get her out of here. Just be prepared to shoot when she turns."
Richard nods and looks down to the young lady.
"I'll find her a blanket." He replies to Leon's order. Walking back from where they had just come from, entering one of the hospital rooms to grab a white blanket from a bed.
While that happens, Leon kneels back down in front of the young woman. Pulling out a bandage from one of the pouches on his belt, he begins to gently wrap her wounded arm.
"Am I going to turn into one of those things?" She sobs, tears streaming down her face as she looks into Leon's ice blue eyes. Leon wasn't too sure how to put it, so he was just straight with her.
"Yes... But we'll do everything we can to get you out of here."
The young lady nods, wiping her face with the back of her left wrist, trying not to get blood in her eyes.

"Back.." Richard says walking at a hurried pace, holding out the blanket to Leon who takes is from him and wraps it around the young lady, holding it together at her chest. Leon helps her to her feet then gently, with a hand on her back, pushes her towards Richard who in turn wraps his arms around her in an attempt to comfort and give her some of his own body warmth.
Leon empties a box of other glass vials, looking for the flu shot that was marked by a bright orange sticky note. Placing them inside the box he pulls out a small roll of tape to seal the box up for the journey back.
"Do we have everything?" Richard asks as he watches Leon look for somewhere to put the box.
"I can hold it." The young lady offers, seeing the American struggle with storage.
Looking to the patient he looks back to the box in his hands then gives a nod, handing it over to her.
"This is very important. Do not, under any circumstances, drop or loose this." He insists letting it go once she had her own grip on it.
She nods. "Jessica..."
Leon frowns slightly then lifts his head in understanding as it clicks in his head.
"I'm Leon, this is Richard." He answers, flicking a glance to the Army man and giving a nod in response to his question asked moments before.

Leon reaches behind himself to grab his rifle once again and holds it to his right side, hand tight around the grip, his index finger leaning against the trigger guard. Leading the three of them back down the hallway towards the front entrance, Leon keeps silent, his ears on high alert while his eyes scan every inch of the hallways. Walking past the group of zombies they had killed, Jessica stops walking to bend down at the feet of one body. She removes the thongs from his feet and drops them to the ground, slipping her own feet into the straps. Gripping the strap between her big and second toe.
"You okay?" Richard asks, surprised by the sudden stopping and bending down of the young lady, his hand grips onto his gun not sure if she was turning. He couldn't see what she was doing, the blanket over her shoulders obscuring the small movements of removing the shoes.
"Yeah.. He's not gonna need these thongs anymore." She states.

Leon had turned around hearing Richard ask if she was okay, slightly taken aback by her actions, a small smile could be seen turning up one side of his mouth in amusement. "We should keep moving." He encourages, looking around the corner he was standing at, seeing the entrance of the hospital at the end of the hallway.
Both Aussies nod and close the small gap between them and the American Agent.

"What happened? How did all of this happen?" Jessica asks quietly, not wanting to alert any nearby zombies to their position.

"We have been told a virus could have been in the flu shots." Richard explains.

"Flu shots? But I had a flu shot.. Damn it.. You should just shoot me now, I don't want to turn into a zombie."

"We're not gonna shoot you." Leon insists, he could feel Richard's gaze burning a hole in the back of his head after saying it. He wants to give this girl hope, a fighting chance, or maybe that was just cruel? Either way he doesn't want to shoot a still alive and cognitively functioning human.

"Fine... Where are we heading then?" She asks as they make their way out of the hospital and into the fresh, cool outside air. Looking around Leon pulls out the map from his back pocket and unfolds it, pointing to the camp.
"Here."

"Oh! That's at the start of my street." She explains. Leon nods glad she knew her way around. "I have one request, though. It's on the way." Jessica asks looking from one taller man to the other.
Richard looks to Leon as he was the one in charge here. Leon seeing the look he received from Richard gives Jessica a nod. "Sure, what is it?"
"My friend's house. Can we just pop in to make sure she's okay?"

"I can't see why not, but the whole town has been evacuated." Leon explains. He steps beside Jessica, giving Richard a look over her head that he'll stand by her side. He could see the nervousness in Richard's eyes as he stood beside her, his right hand white knuckling the handle of his rifle.
"Lead the way." Leon says, letting Jessica take the lead.
He keeps an eye on her as he stands between her and Richard still following behind.

-----*30 Minutes of slow walking*-----

Jessica leads the two men straight down the road, this being the second time traversing it, but this time she leads them down another street, still heading in the direction of the camp. Once making a slight left then right she leads them down another street stopping in front of a house.
She had been looking at all the cars crashed, smashed and some houses in tatters from the destruction caused by infected trying to get out of their homes. Leon keeping an eye on here the entire time, thoughts of his own running through his head. From his experience, being bitten is an almost instant transformation into the infected. The amount of tried blood and blood in general on her, indicates she's had that bite wound for hours now. Plus she had been injected with the flu shot, so why? Why has she not turned yet?
Leon is pulled from his thoughts when she stops in front of a house, the windows smashed and a car driven into the living room of the house. She runs up the sloped driveway and pushes open the door left ajar. "Wait!" Leon calls reaching for her a second too late to stop her from running towards the house.

"Emma?!" Jessica calls hoping there isn't a response, the house seems empty but it didn't matter with the amount of blood on the walls. She knows something had gone down in here. Walking slowly through the house, Richard and Leon hurry in behind her.
"In here.." Calls another female's voice and Jessica's heart drops into her stomach, rushing through the house and to Emma's room where she heard the voice call from.
Freezing after opening the door, Jessica's eyes were wide seeing her friend huddled under a desk in the corner of the room. Blood covers the carpet, the slightly younger female clutching at her neck.
"Hey.." She says as Jessica walks over and kneels down beside her friend, Both men walking into the room. Leon shone his torch into the room and onto Emma under her desk, making her state visible to Jessica.
"Shit, you'll be okay.. How long have you been here like this?" She asks placing the box Leon had entrusted her with to the ground, pushing both hands to her friend's neck.

"I dunno.. 10 minutes? Maybe longer.." Emma replies as she squints from the bright light suddenly lighting up the room.
"We can get her out of here as well, right?" Jessica asks turning to the men standing behind her and in the doorway.
"Let me have a look." Leon says kneeling down beside Jessica, looking at her friend who had dark sunken eyes. Her blonde, straight hair stained red from her own blood, the veins running up her neck and face prominent with a dark colouring under her naturally pale, but now even more so, skin. "She's turning. There's not much time for her." He explains placing a hand on Jessica's upper back.

"What? No! She was bitten only a few minutes ago. I was bitten yesterday, how can she not have much time?!" Jessica asks, her voice full of concern, confusion and anger that Leon isn't going to help.
"I don't have an answer for you." Leon responds pulling Matilda from the holster on his right hip, flicking off the safety and pulling the slide back with a click.
Jessica looks to her friend who had closed her eyes, she notices Emma's breathing, constricted with a gurgle to each inhale.
"It's fine.. I can feel something happening to me." Emma assures her friend. Jessica takes her hand holding it tight.

"Richard, take Jessica." Leon instructs not wanting her to see him shoot her friend. He could see she was suffering and could switch any second.
"No... I'm staying by her side." Jessica denies and Richard looks to Leon for confirmation.
Giving Richard a nod Leon stands up and aims his gun at Emma's head, Jessica placing a hand over her right ear so it won't be so loud.
He finds it hard to pull the trigger, the gun very subtly trembling in his hand. Richard saw this and turns around hearing a shuffling from the entrance of the house, seeing silhouettes walking down the hall towards them.
"Leon.. We have company." He warns, training his rifle on the swaying shadows.
Just as Richard had given the warning, Emma lunges forwards towards Jessica, Leon's handgun ringing out as he shoots her in the head, causing her to go limp.
Jessica lets out a sobbed cry still holding her friends hand.
Leon's attention turns to the zombies now coming towards them.

Once Richard sees them properly he can very clearly see they are zombies and unloads his rounds into the three heads, all falling to the ground.
"We need to get going.." Richard warns turning to Leon, Jessica still kneeling beside her friend's body.
Nodding, Leon takes the box beside Jessica and scoops her up in his arms, following Richard out of the house seeing infected walking around in the street.
"Just go.." Leon orders as he takes the lead, Jessica still in his arms, silent and leaning into his chest.
Richard follows making sure the zombies don't charge and they round a corner to continue on towards camp.
Once making it to the end of the road they were currently on, they could see the fencing and Army encampment in the far distance to the left.
"Finally.." Richard sighs with relief as he could see the end in sight.

Leon picks up the pace as he sees a jeep making it's way towards them so it won't take them the extra 10 minutes of walking. He was silent as he climbs onto the back of the jeep after sitting Jessica on there first, hopping up and placing an arm around her for stability and comfort. He knew exactly what she was going through, both with the horror of the situation as well as seeing a loved one being killed in front of her.