Leon and Claire were unaware of what had transpired in the parking lot or of the conversation between Lear and Ada. At this moment, they were dealing with a strange occurrence.
After Lear left, Claire proposed that she and Leon investigate the West Area and the second floor, with Alyssa staying in the Main Hall temporarily. This was because the Main Hall was relatively safe, and with Alyssa stationed there, they could receive timely support in case of any emergencies.
Alyssa hesitated briefly but ultimately accepted this arrangement. She continued investigating the bodies of the Tyrant and Licker in the Main Hall, while Claire and Leon left the hall via the second floor corridor of the West Wing. They gathered useful supplies along the way while searching for traces of Ben Bertolucci.
In the Library, they saw corpses of zombies and police officers everywhere, interspersed with several civilian bodies. Seeing these bodies made their hearts sink even more.
"It looks like there was a fierce struggle here. But I wasn't here at that time." Leon's voice carried regret and self-blame.
Claire patted his shoulder and softly said, "Your colleagues were very brave. Even until the last moment, they didn't give up."
Leon nodded silently without speaking, only tightening his grip on his pistol until his knuckles turned slightly white.
Throughout their journey, they didn't encounter any active zombies. Lieutenant Marvin had once led a team to systematically clear the West Wing second floor, and with the Tyrant wreaking havoc afterward, they could hardly find a few intact corpses now.
The two quickly descended the stairs to West 1F.
Most of the windows on the first floor were shattered. A bone-chilling cold wind carrying rainwater blew in through the windows, causing Leon and Claire to shiver involuntarily.
Just as Claire was about to continue forward exploration, intermittent thumping sounds suddenly came from the room beside them. Leon immediately reached out to stop Claire, making a cautious gesture for silence and pointing to the room below the stairs.
Understanding immediately, Claire slowly raised her pistol, held her breath, and quietly moved to the doorway alongside Leon, one on each side. Leon made a signal, and the next moment, Claire abruptly kicked open the door. Both of them rushed inside.
This was originally the Police Station's darkroom for developing photos. The room's lighting was dim, with several corpses lying in the corners—some wearing Police uniforms, others ordinary citizens.
That eerie thumping sound was coming from the inner room. Leon signaled Claire to stay vigilant at the door while he, holding his pistol, slowly approached the inner room step by step.
As the distance narrowed, he saw a zombie facing away from him, using its head to bang against the wall.
Upon hearing Leon's approaching sounds, this zombie slowly turned around. The moment Leon saw its front side, even though he was prepared, his heart still jolted with shock. This zombie had a large hole torn open on its chest, as if something had burst out from inside.
During this brief moment of stunned hesitation, the zombie roared and lunged violently toward Leon.
Seeing this, Claire at the doorway decisively pulled the trigger, directly shooting and killing the zombie. She quickly walked into the inner room, patted Leon, and asked.
"What happened?"
But before she finished speaking, Claire's gaze fell on the zombie with its chest and abdomen torn wide open.
Claire's eyes twitched, and she exclaimed in surprise, "Did we walk onto the wrong set? Alien?"
Leon shook his head grimly, "Not sure, but something definitely crawled out of this poor guy."
They were silent for a moment, then Leon spoke first.
"Whatever that thing is, let's leave here first, go back to the Main Hall and tell Alyssa, so she can be more prepared."
Claire nodded, and the two headed toward the Main Hall.
As they passed the Police officer's office, Claire suddenly grabbed Leon's arm, raised her hand pointing to the banner hanging in the office, and whispered, "Leon, look."
Leon followed Claire's hand and saw it was a welcome banner his colleagues at the Police Station had specially prepared for him, the rookie cop.
"WELCOME LEON"
Looking at the welcome banner, Leon's expression became complicated—happy, yet guilty.
Claire walked to the workstation prepared for Leon in the Police Station, picked up a piece of paper, and scanned the handwriting on it.
"Leon, your colleagues are pretty nice. I think I understand why Chris likes this job."
Leon took the note. It was a small onboarding task written for him by Lieutenant Marvin. The sentence at the end, "Glad you're not here, rookie!", felt like a needle, sharply piercing his heart.
At that moment, Leon felt like a fire was burning inside him. With a serious expression, he silently walked around the office once, then stood before his workstation, unlocked the drawer, took out a High-Capacity Mag, and loaded it into his Matilda.
The observant Claire sensed his emotional turmoil, walked over to him, gently patted his arm, and softly reassured him.
"Don't think too much. Officer Lear said most of the officers and citizens here have safely evacuated. They'll be fine."
"When all this happened, I should have been fighting alongside my colleagues, not praying for everything to be okay like a coward now." Leon shook his head, took a deep breath, and his eyes became determined. "I'm fine, Claire. I'm fine. Now I just want to do one thing—make the Umbrella Corporation pay for all this."
Claire nodded and was about to say something when rapid gunfire suddenly erupted outside in the Main Hall, mixed with inhuman roaring.
The two exchanged a glance and hurriedly rushed toward the Main Hall.
They dashed to the Main Hall and saw Alyssa already cornered against the wall, firing wildly at a monster with a bizarre large eye on its back, looking like a flesh ball.
Without time to hesitate, Leon and Claire immediately raised their guns and fired, attracting the monster's attention, intending to cover Alyssa's chance to escape.
The eye on the monster's back was hit by bullets, causing it to emit a piercing roar. It abandoned Alyssa and turned to charge toward Leon and Claire.
Leon and Claire fired several shots, but none caused substantial damage to the monster. Seeing the monster closing in, they were forced to dodge and evade.
At this moment, Alyssa in the corner, temporarily relieved from the crisis, finally managed to warn.
"Leon, Claire, be careful! It can shoot Parasites!"
Before Alyssa finished speaking, the monster, having missed its attack, suddenly gathered strength and shot a deformed flesh construct about the size of an arm toward Claire.
Claire, nerves tense throughout and reacting extremely quickly, sidestepped deftly, dodging the flying foreign object.
But that lump of flesh that landed didn't lose its vitality; instead, it began to crawl on its own. Immediately upon landing, it scrambled with limbs, rapidly climbing toward her.
At this moment, Claire's full attention was focused on the monster in front, completely unaware of the Parasite behind her.
Just as the Parasite was about to leap onto Claire, a size 44 foot stomped it into a pulp.
(Translated by yourtl.app)