An unexpected reunion (S1)

Leon wakes up in the sewer and can’t remember what happened after he was shot by Annette. Where is Ada? He needs to pick up her trail and chase after her. Yet, a strange thirst is growing inside him.

Chapter 8 - What Lies Beyond ****

Leon slowly woke up and shivered. He felt cold but he thought it was because he lost too much blood from the wound on his shoulder. Speaking of which, it has stopped bleeding and didn’t hurt anymore.

It was when he looked to the side that he saw Ada’s coat lying on the floor and noticed her absence.

“Ada...Ada!? Where are you!?” He looked around but couldn’t find the woman.

He memory blurred as he didn’t remember what happened after he was shot by Annette. Did Ada go on to chase her alone? That’s too dangerous.

Leon decided to go after Ada and got up. He felt minor pains all over the body but they were getting better. The wound didn’t annoy him as much as he thought and he was alright to use his guns as usual. That’s good enough.

He also felt very thirsty, which was a typical symptom of losing too much blood. Although, judging by where he was, there was not any drinkable water around for him to quench the thirst. He sighed helplessly and moved on.

To look for Ada, the best bet was to go to the monitor room to find out where she was. The heavy door Annette escape through was locked, so the only way out was by taking the elevator around the corner.

Following the directions on the wall, he reached the upper waterway of the east district. And by sliding down a slope, he came to the middle waterway.

“That’s a pleasant smell...” Leon pinched his nose while traversing all kinds of garbage.

It didn’t even surprise him that the sewer system was infested with vampires, too, most of which were sewer workers and Umbrella employees. He couldn’t move as fast in the water as he could on solid ground to avoid the undead, so he got himself prepared.

However, the vampires here were much less aggressive to him than those in the police station. Most of them pretty much ignored him, which greatly confused him.

“What the hell...” Leon was surprised when a vampire worker just walked past him. Was it him, or were there something wrong with the vampires in the sewer system?

But he didn’t have time for such questions. After turning around the next corner, he found a staircase and went to the middle level of the east district. He was above a cable car platform and the control room was just ahead.

“A cable car...interesting.” He saw the Umbrella icon on one side of the cable car and wondered where it led to.

The control room was in complete darkness, but he quickly adapted to it. On the desk he found a copy of Emails to the Umbrella HQ. The sender indicated that the NEST, probably the codename for the HQ, has been contaminated with the virus and the failsafe system did not activate.

“So the virus outbreak...initially happened in the Umbrella HQ?” He was wondering what exactly happened?

With those questions kept in mind, he continued searching the area. By climbing down several ladders, he finally reached the monitor room. He approached the monitors and checked every available areas in the sewer, however, still couldn’t find Ada.

“Damn it...” Leon punched on the panel and stepped back. Guessed he had to blindly search the sewer now.

He turned around and headed towards the door of the room, thinking of Ada all the time.

He didn’t notice that among all the monitors, there was one monitoring the room he was in, and there was no one on the screen.

Outside the room was the treatment pool, on which there was a platform bridge and Leon just lowered it by pulling down a handle on the panel. He went to check the cable car first, but the door remained shut as the synthetic female voice noticed him “ID wristband required for cable car entry”. He had totally no idea what that was.

Though it was not in vain. He found a T-bar valve handle on a desk next to the cable car, which could be used to open some of the shutters that he saw along the way. Maybe they could lead him to something useful.

Going through the middle waterway, he went back and opened a shutter that led him to the work room in the upper waterway. He unlocked the door from inside the work room and opened, but immediately he realized that someone was in front of him.

By instinct he grabbed the Matilda and aimed at the figure, while the other one was also pointing a gun at him. But when they saw each other, the tension disappeared.

“Claire? You’re OK!” Leon was surprised and happy to see the girl.

“Leon? Is that...really you?” Claire slowly lowered her pistol and looked at him in disbelief. Her voice was faint and he could hear a bit of sadness in it.

“Who else could I be?” Leon smiled and looked behind her, “Where is the little girl?”

Claire sheathed her gun and just walked up to him, hugged him tightly and buried her face in his chest in silence. Leon felt a bit embarrassed and didn’t know what to do. He could guess what Claire had endured and comfort her, but that wouldn’t make anything better.

Suddenly, he smelled something fragrant coming from his front, which was strange given that they were in this stinking sewer system. Was Claire using some kind of perfume? He didn’t notice that before.

But of course, he never had the chance to get this close to her before.

He was going to hug her and pat her head, but it was at this moment that Claire released him and stepped back. He blushed and kept their distance.

“I’m sorry...” Claire’s voice trembled, “It’s just...so good to see you alive.”

“Me too.” Leon nodded.

“By the way, what are you doing in here?” Claire was trying to put up a smile and asked.

“Long story. I am looking for an FBI agent named Ada who knew what Umbrella had done.” Leon shrugged casually, “What about you?”

“Sherry and I were attacked by that monster, the one we encountered in the underground facility of the police station. We took an elevator but the monster crashed it and we fell in here.” Claire relived the horrible scene in her mind and shivered, “We were separated after that.”

Leon frowned and started to think. The situation was worse than he thought. Not only Ada and Sherry were both missing, but that monster followed them here, too? There was no guarantee that he could fight off it and survive again.

“Listen, Claire, this place is far more dangerous than the police station. I think we should stick together.” Leon made up his mind, “Let’s find Sherry first, then we try to figure out where Ada goes.”

“That’s a good idea.” Claire breathed a sigh of relief.

“I checked the monitors before and couldn’t find anyone. If it’s Sherry we’re talking about, I bet she would be hiding somewhere.” Leon looked at the map that he just grabbed outside the monitor room, “Here. The middle district. All the waterways and pipelines converge in there. We should check there first.”

“Yeah.” Claire nodded optimistically and the duo set off.

Things became different as the hungry vampires on the way started to lunge at them again, mostly at Claire. Leon and Claire had to shoot their way out when there were too much of them.

During a fierce fight, a bullet hit the metal pipe behind a vampire, bounced back and scratched Claire’s arm. It wasn’t until the battle was over that she noticed her arm bleeding. Luckily, the wound was shallow and she should be fine.

“Huh. Who said the jacket is lucky?” Claire looked at the hole on the red jacket and smiled.

Leon stared at the drop of blood on the ground, and his vision immediately was painted in red. The fragrant scent was becoming more and more appealing to him. He has never felt this kind of thirst and all he wanted was to drink.

He lifted his head up and saw a tall drink of red water standing in front of him. That was where the delicious smell came from. That was what he craved the most.

The red water was reaching out a small branch of itself, with something metallic attached at the end of it. He could hear some noises coming from the top of the water, but he found that really annoying.

The center of the red water had something pumping, once to twice a second, and all the sweet honey were flowing out from there, melting into the water, making it extremely aromatic. How could such nectar exist and he had never had a taste of it? And the rhythmical pumping sound...it was the most beautiful music he had heard in the world.

Leon was thirsty. He was already salivating and could feel a mysterious pain coming from his upper jaw. His teeth, or more precisely, his canines, were itching.

And those, were also typical symptoms of losing too much blood, right?

Anyway, he bet this wonderful stream of red water could satiate the thirst...