In the main hall, Gwen wandered down the stairs and saw Marvin's attention glued to the laptop. He didn't even hear her footsteps as she walked down the stairwell. Noticing this, the woman walked over to the lieutenant and placed her hand on his shoulder. "How're you holding up?"
"Not good," Marvin grunted in response. "Where's Leon?"
"He's-" The library door opened and revealed the man himself. "Right there."
Leon walked down the stairs and joined the others. Marvin typed away on the laptop and pulled the recording from one of the many cameras located around the station. "There you are... Come here, take a look."
Leon peered down at the screen and saw someone on the camera feed. He smiled once he recognized who it was. "Yes! I knew she'd make it."
"You know her?" Marvin asked.
Leon nodded. "Yeah, name's Claire. I came into town with her."
"Wait," Gwen interrupted. "Claire as in Claire Redfield?"
"Yeah. You know her?" The blonde asked.
"I don't know her personally, but I do know her brother. He works here in the S.T.A.R.S. Office on the second floor." Gwen turned her gaze from Leon to Marvin. "Isn't he on vacation?"
The lieutenant nodded. "Somewhere in Europe."
"She'll be glad to know he isn't caught up in this mess," Leon said.
"You can get to that courtyard through the second floor... east side," Marvin groaned, pressing his hand against his wound. "Gwen knows the way."
"We're on it," Leon nodded. "Thanks, Lieutenant."
"Before we meet up with Claire, we'll wrap your arm," Gwen quickly spoke up.
"And your hand," Leon retorted.
"And my hand," she repeated with a small smile.
They headed to the front desk where Gwen grabbed the gauze and went to tend to Leon's almost healed arm. Before she could wrap the wound to make it look more convincing, Leon grabbed her wrist to stop her. "Let me wrap your hand first."
She nodded in understanding and handed the gauze to him. Leon gently took her hand with his free one and carefully wrapped it around her injured palm. Gwen winced when the fabric made contact with her cut, but she fought through the small wave of pain so Leon could finish. He noticed her painful expression and apologized. "Sorry."
"No need to apologize. It's not your fault I cut myself." In actuality, Gwen chose to use the superb healing properties in her blood to help with Leon's injury since she cared dearly for him. She prayed he wouldn't figure out about her blood and call her a monster or leave her by herself. If he left for good, she'd have no one left in this world.
"Gwen?" Leon called out, her silence worrying him.
The archivist blinked a few times, realizing she had spaced out for a few seconds. "Sorry, did you say something?"
"No, just worried about how quiet you were. The only time you're this quiet is if there's something on your mind. What's wrong?" He finished wrapping her hand and passed her the remainder of the gauze.
"Oh," she accepted the gauze and tended to his nearly healed arm. "Just... random thoughts that plague my mind."
"Like what?" He asked, wondering what could be racing through her mind.
"If we're gonna survive this or end up being eaten alive." It wasn't exactly what she had been worrying about, but it was a thought that she couldn't fend off. The image of her being alive while zombies bit into her flesh terrified her. It was one of the reasons why she no longer could sleep since the outbreak. In total, she's only had a couple hours of sleep in the past three days.
The moment Gwen finished patching up Leon, he turned around to face her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "We will make it out of this, Gwen. I promise."
Leon's kind words chased away her doubt, but the fear remained. "Out of all the promises you've made me in the four years I've known you, you still have yet to break one. What's your secret?"
"Secret?" He questioned.
"Yeah. How are you able to keep all these promises?"
"They're easier to keep if the one you promised is someone you care about," he responded.
Gwen's eyes widened at his honest answer. "You care about me that deeply?"
"Why wouldn't I? We're friends, Gwen."
The woman smiled at him. "Well, let's keep your record going. We've got two more medallions to find and we also need to meet up with Claire."
"Did you grab the book from the library?"
Gwen gasped in realization. "I completely forgot!" Without another word, she stormed up the stairs and back into the library. Leon smiled in amusement at her sudden mood change and watched as she scrambled up the stairwell, nearly tripping over her own feet.
A few minutes passed and Leon suddenly heard a loud bang from the library. Wondering what it was, he headed up the stairs and into the library. Inside, he found Gwen slumped against the door beside the stairwell. "What was that noise?"
"I tried to break the lock, but it didn't work," she sighed, resting her head against the door.
"Gwen, we'll find another way to the unicorn statue. Don't worry about it now. You've got the book?"
Gwen raised the book to show him. "Yes."
"Then, let's head to the east side of the building. We need to meet up with Claire."
The archivist felt a small tingle of jealousy at how desperate Leon seemed to reunite with Claire. She knew they had only met today, but love at first sight is a real thing. She decided to not let her jealousy show and sighed in defeat. "You're right. Let's get going."
Gwen refused to meet Leon's gaze as she passed him, clutching the red book to her chest as if it would keep her from drowning in her jealousy. Unbeknownst to the archivist, she was an open book to Leon. After the four years they've known each other, minus the two they were apart, he was able to read her expression easily. He followed behind Gwen as she walked through the spade door and to the waiting room that was adjacent to the library on the second floor. The silence between them was suffocating and he wasn't sure how to break it.
In the waiting room, Leon used the spade key to unlock the door leading to the east hallway. He cracked open the door, scanning the hallway for any zombies. "It's clear."
"Good," Gwen sighs, relieved to know the hallway was void of walking corpses.
They stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind them. Leon noticed the art room down the hall and decided to check it out before heading to the courtyard. The duo stepped into the art room and saw the pieces of art the museum had left behind. In the back was the statue from the photo and its arm laid on a table beside it.
"Wow," Gwen gasped. "They left a lot behind. Surprised no one has come to claim it since this place became a police station." She grabbed the stone hand and slid the red book into it, then reattached the appendage to the statue. A clicking sound was heard when the arm was in the correct position and the hand holding the scepter opened.
Confused, Gwen took the scepter and examined it. She saw a switch on the side and pushed it up. The jewel inside the scepter fell out, falling to the floor. Leon picked up the red gem and eyed it closely. "Why would we need this?"
"Not sure, but we can hang on to it if it's important. Find anything else?"
"Weapons locker keycard. I remember seeing it in safety deposit room. We'll have to go back and grab what's inside."
"I'm sure we'll have to go back that way eventually," Gwen stated.
They left the art room and headed down the hall. When they turned the corner, the sound of a helicopter was heard and then a loud crash that shook the building. "Did a helicopter just crash into the building?" Gwen asked.
"Sounded like it," Leon said.
They reached the fire escape and stepped out into the cold downpour. Leon spotted the helicopter that crashed into the station and saw it was a rescue chopper when he used his flashlight to survey the crashed copter. "It's a police chopper. Wonder what made him lose control."
"Kinda ironic, in a sense," Gwen said.
"Hey! Leon?!"
The two turned around and peered down at the courtyard. Leon leaned over the railing with a relieved smile. "Claire! Hold on! We'll be right down!"
"Okay!" Claire yelled back.
Leon rushed down the stairs while Gwen took a leisure stroll down them, not wishing to slip on the wet metal on the way down. "Claire... It is so nice to see you," she heard Leon say.
"How're you doing? That helicopter just came out of nowhere," Claire responded as Gwen reached the bottom of the slippery stairwell.
Leon grasped the wired gate, his smile as prominent as ever. "Yeah... We're in one piece."
Claire glanced down at his outfit. "I'm guessing you don't have a key in one of those fancy pockets?"
Leon shook his head." Unfortunately, no... But, how're you doing?"
Gwen felt herself cringe at the awkward atmosphere around the two as she stood a few feet away. She kept her lips sealed as Claire leaned against the gate. "You know, just surviving."
"That's good. I learned something about your brother." Leon turned towards Gwen and gestured her to stand beside him. "Claire, this is Gwen, my friend. She works at the station and knows your brother."
The auburn-haired woman's eyes filled with hope as she gazed at Gwen. "You know my brother?"
Gwen nodded. "Yeah, Chris works here in the S.T.A.R.S. department. He's currently on vacation in Europe."
Claire gasped at the news. "Europe? Well, at least I know he's safe. Thanks for telling me, Gwen. Leon did say you were sweet."
Gwen's sapphire eyes widened. "He told you about me?"
Claire nodded with a smirk. "Oh, yeah. On the way into the city, he talked about you."
"I'm standing right here, ladies," Leon said.
"We know, Leon. We girls just love to gossip regardless of who's in the room," Claire snickered.
"Too true," Gwen snorted with laughter.
Suddenly, the helicopter that crashed into the station exploded, triggering the alarms and alerting everyone and everything in the vicinity. "Dammit," Leon cursed. "You know what that means."
"Yeah..." Claire grudgingly sighs, reaching for her handgun. "Dinner time."
The sound of zombies slamming against the fence behind Claire caused Gwen to take a few steps away from the wired gate. Two zombies in the courtyard reanimated as they lifted their bodies and slowly stood up. "Claire, I think you should go," Leon said, glaring at the approaching corpses.
"Don't worry about me, Leon. You take care of yourself and Gwen," the auburn-haired woman said.
The corpses flung their bodies against the fence, resulting in the metal structure to sway. From the scene, they knew the fence wasn't going to hold them back. "Claire, you need to go-now!" Leon shouted.
Claire nodded and had her pistol at the ready. Before she left the courtyard, she turned to face Leon and Gwen. "Hey... Let's get through this. All of us."
"Be careful out there, Claire," Gwen said.
The auburn-haired woman smiled at her. "I will. Make sure to keep Leon in check for me."
The archivist couldn't help but laugh. "I will."
Claire stormed off, leaving Leon and Gwen in the rain. The zombies in the courtyard spotted them and dragged their bodies over to the wired gate. They threw their bodies against the wiring, groaning and hissing as they tried to get to the duo.
Leon contacted Marvin over the radio, wondering what to do. "Uh, Marvin. We've got a situation here. We're surrounded by zombies." The blonde waited for the lieutenant to respond, but all he heard was static. "Marvin! Do you copy? Marvin?!"
"Oh, no," Gwen gasped, knowing the only reason why Marvin wouldn't respond to Leon's desperate shouting. "The bite..."
"Dammit!" Leon cursed.
Gwen placed a hand on Leon's shoulder. "We need to go. Who knows how long this gate will last."
"Yeah, saw some bolt cutters by the door. We can use that to cut the chain on the door." He grabbed the bolt cutters, cut the chain, and opened the door.
The moment they reentered the building through the fire exit, the window shattered and a zombie crawled through. Gwen reacted quicker than Leon and whipped out her pistol, delivering a single shot to the head. The corpse's body flopped against the tile floor, blood pooling around its head from the bullet hole.
Leon suddenly grabbed Gwen and pulled her away from the door leading to the watchman's room as it flew open, another monster trudging out of the room with a groan. The officer grabbed his pistol and shot it a few times in the head before it was completely lifeless. He released Gwen and eyed the broken window. "We need to board that up."
"I'll check the watchman's room if there's any spare boards." Gwen entered the small room to search while Leon used the bolt cutters to cut a chain off another door. He pushed open the door and saw it was another office. One zombie stood on the other side of the room, its blue uniform covered in blood. Without alerting it, Leon closed the door and called out to his friend. "Gwen, find anything?" When he received no response, he peered through the opening in the wall. "Gwen?"
Taking a closer look, Leon saw Gwen's back facing him. She didn't move an inch as she was staring down at something. He opened the door and stepped into the room, slowly beginning to approach the woman. No reaction came from the archivist as Leon placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. He followed her melancholic gaze to the body on the floor. It had been the officer he tried to save earlier.
"I should've went with him..." Gwen murmured, her tone low and brimming with pain.
Leon couldn't stand seeing Gwen so defeated as if she'd given up on living. He didn't respond with words but with action. He turned her body so she was facing him and immediately took her smaller form into his arms. Gwen wrapped her arms around Leon's torso and clutched onto the back of his vest, resting her head against his chest as he combed his fingers through her inky locks. "You can't keep blaming yourself."
"I know, but maybe I could've prevented it," she sniffled.
Their moment was interrupted when the metal shutter rattled and they heard the familiars wails of the dead. Leon and Gwen pulled away from each other and quietly left the room and headed into the east office.