project: eden | leon kennedy

▪︎ Chapter 4 ▪︎

She thought he was capable of shooting another infected on his own while she tried to figure out the panel. Maybe if she could pop off the lid on its side she would do something with the wires like she had seen on TV. There was that IT guy at Umbrella, Stevie who liked to show her cool wires and shit she didn't understand half of it. But he was passionate about it and he wasn't that bad at first. But then he started taking her way of not ignoring him as a sign of interest.

And Stevie was 18 years older than her, already started balding, and smelled like onions. Stevie may be friendly enough but he definitely wasn't her type.

"Fuck!" a loud yell caused her head to snap up, getting ripped from her thoughts. She looked around, momentarily forgetting where the blond gone but the sounds of struggle and loud growling made her blood freeze.

Leaping away from the control panel, Thea hurried towards the noise, her eyes widening at the scene in front of her. Leon was on his back, and what looked like a rabid Doberman tried to rip into his throat. His gun was several feet away, probably knocked out of his hand when the dog jumped him. He tried his best to keep the dog away from him, but a particular snap of its jaw got way too close to his neck.

Fighting through the sudden shock, Thea readied her gun in her hand, the shake of her hand and adrenaline pumping in her veins making her sight not so steady. For a moment she thought about what if she would hit Leon instead of the dog, but there was no time to hesitate. If she won't act now, the dog will tear him apart.

Thea pulled the trigger, the recoil hurting her busted arm, earning a hiss out of her. She watched the dog fall atop Leon, a groan leaving him as he struggled to push the body off his. Thea stared wide-eyed at the dog, its hazy and cloudy eyes staring right back at her. There was a chunk of its skin that was missing, it looked like a bite mark. Leon easily could've been sporting one of those, too, if she didn't act fast enough.

"I thought you were going to shoot me for a second," Leon tilted his head back, still laying on the floor as he tried to catch his breath and process what happened.

Thea let her arm fall beside her, forcing her eyes to drift to the boy laying a few feet in front of her. He looked a little shaken up and there was blood on his clothes, even a few specks of blood on the side of his cheek, but the easy smirk on his face made all of that fall behind.

"It did cross my mind," Thea mumbled, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Leon snorted at her comment. He almost just died but she always found the time and place to make a comment like that.

A loud growl broke their little moment, causing Thea to aim her gun once again at the dog while Leon rolled to catch his weapon, aiming it with a flash of lightning. Still, neither of them was fast enough to put a bullet in the dog's head as another gunshot ripped through the parking lot. The dog fell back to the ground, now a hole in its head and bits of brains scattered on the concrete. Still, Thea watched as its mouth twitched a few times more like it just didn't want to stay dead.

"Who is that?" Leon bellowed as he aimed his gun at the shadow standing several feet away from them, sending a look to Thea.

It obviously said Get behind me, but Thea wasn't the woman to cower behind a man. So she stepped forward, aiming her gun with one hand, a sharp look on her features. She barely heard Leon let out an exhausted sigh at her action, because whenever you said something to Thea Keller, naturally she will do the opposite. Especially when it was Leon who said something.

He was pretty sure if he would try to save her life she would jump off a bridge instead, just to spite him.

The mysterious person emerged from the dark shadows, revealing themselves to be a woman. She had short dark hair and a tan trenchcoat hiding her figure, while a pair of dark sunglasses hid her features. Thea raised a brow at her appearance: it was dark enough down here, why would she choose to rock sunglasses? She looked badass as she mirrored her pose, aiming her gun straight at Leon as she stepped closer, her high heels clanking against the floor softly.

"Lower it," the woman commanded in a cold voice, turning her head pointedly at Thea while still aiming at the boy on the floor.

"You first," Thea nodded towards her, tightening her grip on her gun. Even if she managed to blow Leon's brains out, she would take the mystery woman down in a heartbeat.

With a sigh, the woman reached into the pocket of her coat, Thea's shoulder stiffening as she watched. She was ready to pull the trigger as she caught Kennedy tensing up as well, suddenly the image of his dead body on the floor was not so pleasant. He was her only way out of here, he knew this place better than she did. If he happened to die here, her way out ticket would die with him.

But at the sight of an FBI badge, her eyes narrowed. Thea haven't seen many FBI agents but none of them looked like her. Her green eyes went to Leon, not sure what she should do. She was still open to shooting the woman, they didn't know her. But seemingly Kennedy ignored the weight of her gaze, lowering his weapon. Thea rolled her eyes.

This bitch will die for his naivety one day. And she will watch it laughing her ass off because she told him so.

"Surprised you made it this far," the woman remarked, clearly not impressed by their survival skills. They made a face at her, watching as the woman in the trenchcoat turned on her heel and started walking away from them.

Thea followed the woman, leaving Leon to himself to get himself off the floor. He was a big boy, she was sure he could do that.

"What does the FBI do here?" Thea wondered aloud, her gun hanging low in her hand. The woman didn't even stop to look at them.

"Sorry. That information's classified," she said, but her tone clearly lacked any real emotion as she continued to walk away from them.

"Where are you going?" Leon spoke up from beside Thea, concern mixing with confusion in his tone as he looked at the short-haired woman. This finally caught the woman's attention, making her turn around and face them.

"Do yourself a favor: stop asking questions and get the hell out of here," and with that, she was off to god-knows-what where. Thea's lips pursued together in frustration, her finger twitching on her gun. She hated when she got ignored, her mother ignored her basically her whole life. It made a pit in her stomach and question everything in her life whenever somebody ignored her, and she didn't like that one bit.

"If I shoot her leg she won't be able to walk away from us anymore," Thea offered, keeping her eyes trained on the woman's back.

"We're not shooting anyone!" Leon whisper-yelled at her, his eyes widening in disbelief. The girl next to him just shrugged her shoulders, knowing that she was right. She always was.

"Fine, be that way," Thea mumbled, making her way toward the direction she saw the woman disappear. The lack of footsteps behind her made her roll her eyes. "If you don't hurry up I'll leave your ass!"

"Always ordering me around, Dorothy," he sneered, and with a few long strides, he was already on her side. The need to punch him in the face grew with each insufferable second, but she settled on punching him in the arm where she knew he already has a bruise from falling over. A hiss left him as he put some space between them, soothing a hand over his bicep, sending a sharp glare at the girl. She may be small but she had one hell of a punch.

"Call me Dorothy again and see what happens, Scotty," her voice was coated with honey, seeped through with venom. It was tricky, really: one wrong move and she may put a bullet in him. The look in her eyes was challenging.

"Your threats don't scare me, Eden."

"Then why are you backing away?"

"Let's just find out where she went," Leon took the lead, flicking on his flashlight as they pushed through a door, dark hallways greeting them back. The dark perfectly concealed the shit-eating grin that tugged at her lips.

God, she loved making grown men scared.