SAVEGUARD ⟼ leon s. kennedy

iv. previous encounters

"Clear," Leon confirms as he emerges back out from the walk-in food storage unit.

I'm so grateful to see him again, even though he had only been in there for less than a minute.

"What happened to this ship?" I ask, mostly to myself.

He doesn't reply. Instead, he points his flashlight at the walk-in freezer, large enough to be an entire room on its own.

"It must smell horrible in there," I say, attempting to make anything resembling a conversation. Stuck on an almost-deserted ship, and my only companion is someone who talks like he has a finite amount of words.

He holds a finger up, signalling me to shut up. His brows are furrowed. "Keep your voice down," he whispers, and points to the freezer's handle. It's jiggling, up and down, up and down, the sound getting louder every few seconds, the intensity increasing.

Out of reflex, I aim my gun at the doors. Leon nods and readies his gun too, and together we approach it, shoulder to shoulder.

"Get behind me," he says quietly, and I hesitate. He must have seen my reluctance in my eyes, because he steps in front of me. "I told you to do what I say."

I step back, but keep my aim trained on the doors, check over my shoulder to make sure we're in the clear, and then take position behind him.

He inhales, and then, so quick I almost don't have time to register his movement, he kicks the door open, his foot breaking off the door handle.

"Stay there," he tells me, and I mumble a quiet, okay.

He steps into the freezer, checks left and right, his flashlight steady. He takes a few more steps into the walk-in, and my pulse starts to go cold at the sight of his light fading away. I can hear my heartbeat in my head, louder than the ringing in my ears. I try to breathe, to at least steady my aim in case I need to shoot.

But standing here alone in this kitchen, fear has frozen my legs to the floor, frozen the joints in my limbs, the thoughts in my brain.

All I can think of is Leon not coming back out again, and I'll be here, alone. Forgotten to rot away in a decaying ship.

After a few seconds, or minutes, I hear the sound I had been dreading.

It strikes me right in my chest, the heat of the shock allowing me to break free of my frozen stance. A gunshot, followed by another, and another, and then I hear Leon curse, and a few more gunshots.

"Leon?" I stammer.

"Stay back!" He says from inside.

I swallow, and walk a little bit closer, morbid curiosity hijacking my system. I flash my light inside, but I can't see anything, and then, Leon is running out, and he grabs me by the arm dragging me away from the walk-in before I've even had a chance to see anything.

"Keep up," he breathes, and we run out of the kitchen, back to the claustrophobic corridor. I follow him blindly, not really sure how I'm running. My body is on auto-pilot, and at that moment, I would've jumped straight into the ocean if he asked me to.

He turns a corner before I have time to process his sharp turn, and he reaches back and pulls me by the back of my backpack, into a side-room. Inside, I realise we're at the bottom of a narrow, one-storey stairwell. The emergency light is on, an imposing, hellish red.

"What was that about?" I start.

"Fuck," he says, and runs his gloved fingers through his hair. It flops back down again, covering his brow. "I knew it."