Chapter 4: Reckless Heart

Helena Harper quickly jogged to Leon's side. "The hell was that?"

"Just doing my job." He turned to me. His expression was almost apologetic. "Are you okay?"

"I've been better."

He winced under my glare but his smile persisted.

Weird, why does he feel guilty? I nodded. "Found your partner I see."

"Yeah," Leon reached for my hand. Instinctively, I pulled away and a solemn gleam flashed across his eyes. A professional air settled his chiseled, yet gentle features. "You should stick with us. That was more than a close call."

"There's two more upstairs."

"We know," Helena pushed me towards the escalators by my lower back. "Pretty brave to distract the enemies for them, and stupid. Do you have a death wish?"

"Well, you did just imply I was stupid so, yeah maybe I do!"

Leon hurried up to the third floor. "Focus guys. We need to get out of this hellhole, in one piece preferably." He threw me a glance over his shoulder then hid his face from Helena with his reddish-brown hair. "I always hated going to the mall."

Jeanette rushed from behind a barista counter. She clambered past strewn dining tables and latched onto my leg. "Mommy!"

Leon turned sharply towards me. "Mommy?"

"It's uh, not what you think."

"Indeed," Bennett walked out from the counter with his hands up in surrender. "Nice to see you've made capable friends, J.D, as usual."

Jeanette tugged at my leggings and pointed down the escalators. A crowd larger than the one I dealt with was rushing to secure their next meals.

"No time for explanations, we need to move." Helena dashed ahead and I scooped Jeanette into my arms.

"Gladly!" Bennett followed behind her and Leon made sure to cover my back.

Adrenaline coursed hot and thickly in my veins. Jeanette's grip around my neck was tight, inhumanly strong, and her little heartbeat was steady despite it all. It could be wise to get Bennett and Jeanette somewhere safe before I get back to looking for Jacky. If the little girl got set off in any way she could hurt someone.

Leon hauled me sharply by the shoulder in a different direction. Another group of zombies jumped at us and cut us off from the others. He led the way towards the nearest hall he could find. We hopped over up-turned chairs. My foot caught onto a chair leg and I stumbled for a moment. Leon could've dragged me across the floor like a wet mop if I hadn't recovered my footing. His grip tightened around my small hand and finally, we shut a pair of double doors behind us.

Immediately, he grabbed brooms and shoved them into the door handles. Leon found a stack of crates filled with potato sacks and we pushed them against the doors. We leaned against the crates, wary of the growling and pounding behind us. Too tired to take off running again, I slid down to sit on the oily tile floor. Puffs of air burned my esophagus.

Leon ran his hand through his hair then turned to us. "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," I barely managed through my panting and waved dismissively at him. "Remind me to go to the gym after this."

"That's not what I meant," he knelt to eye level. His coarse fingertips gripped my chin and his piercing gaze examined the wounds on my face. "That doesn't look too deep. That's good."

Leon's gaze finally locked with mine and my face grew hot against his touch. He let a small smile light up his grave expression.

"Hey!" Jeanette's little hand smacked Leon off my face and she grouched.

He laughed it off and helped me up. "Okay, okay! No touching then. We can't stay here for long."

"I know," I agreed while I inspected Jeanette for wounds. Satisfied the girl hadn't a scratch on her, I straightened up and my lips pursed. "Damn, sorry, we lost your partner again."

"We'll run into her again. I'm sorry we lost your, um," I leveled a glare at Leon. "Right. So how do we get out?"

Good question.

Yellow, dried grease stained the white concrete walls. Steel kitchen equipment was plagued with splotches of rust or eroded in parts. The smell of burnt vegetable oil and dirty mop water provoked my nose to wrinkle. Stovetops still burned and the pots blackened from charbroiled chicken. Racks of flour tortilla packets lined the wall next to the door with an exit sign blaring red. Unfortunately, the exit was the loading dock, which led outside and away from my objective.

Leon tried to open the door but it was locked. "You can probably make it out through-"

"No, I still have to get to Jacky."

"I can get to her. You need to look out for Jeanette and yourself."

I shook my head and pressed my lips into a tight line.

His brow furrowed and he took a deep breath. "It's not your res-"

"I don't care, Leon. It feels like it is. I told her I was going to get her so I'm getting her."

"No offense, I'm not sure that's a smart idea. I've been through this before. I'll get your roommate."

I crossed my arms and my gaze focused on him. "I'm keeping my word, Leon. Jacky trusts me, I'm not letting her down."

He scoffed. "Suit yourself." Leon inspected the kitchen for another way out. "There's no other exit. Guess we have to get out and find another way in."

I grimaced. "Um, the mall locks itself in emergencies. Plus, if we got out and tried to get back inside the mall we could release these nightmares into the neighborhood. That is if there aren't already nightmares out in town by now."

"Shit. So what? Are we going to have to fight our way out of here through them?" He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the horde we were trying to avoid in the first place.

All I could offer was a deep breath and a tight smile.

"That's just great."

"Yup." I looked around for some kind of weapon.

Granted, the spare pistol Leon lent to me was useful, but there wouldn't be handgun magazines throughout the mall for me to pick up like the game. I needed something that didn't need to reload. I went for the chef's knife and nodded towards Leon.

"I don't like this."

"I'm not particularly chuffed either but there's no other way, is there?"

He shook his head and waved towards Jeannette. "Put her on my back."

"Are you serious? It's going to be difficult with her clinging to you."

"I can handle it, I love kids," he grinned.

I smiled a bit then looked to Jeanette.

"I'm not going through with this unless I'm in charge," Leon insisted and turned his back. He flashed a steely glance over his shoulder.

"Damn, okay bossy pants. Jeanette, do what he says okay?"

Jeanette nodded reluctantly and clung to Leon's back like a baby sloth. We pulled the crates away from the door to form a narrow pathway to funnel the living dead as best we could. The broomsticks started to give under the combined weight of the horde. Leon positioned himself slightly ahead of me. The man had a severe hero complex but that was part of his charm.

They rushed forward, trampled over each other to be the first one to get a bite. We did our best to aim for the head. We used our knives to conserve our ammo and soon we got overrun. Before they could topple us onto our backs, we stepped back to spread them out thin and maneuver past them. Leon grabbed my hand and we bolted out the kitchen back into the main hall.

Here we go again.

We dodged and ducked under any of the zombies we would run into. Since he had me by the hand and used his other to secure Jeanette wouldn't fall off, I had to keep the zombies off him. They cornered us against the glass railing of a balcony. We could easily fall to the ground floor of the mall. One of the zombies leaped for Leon and they toppled over.

"No!"

My heart sunk as I jumped after them. Thankfully, he reached out to me when I clung to the decorative lights. They snapped loose. The bulbs popped and sparks burned at my hand. We swung low towards a column. I tried to spin to avoid Jeanette getting crushed by the concrete pillar. My arm absorbed the hit instead and protected Jeanette. My left shoulder went numb on impact.

I lost my grip and we fell. I landed on my back and Leon and Jeanette's combined body weight crushed my tiny frame. Air rushed out of my chest. The crack of my skull making contact with the floor was a sharp, guttural snap. Every inch of me throbbed and blood pounded inside my head. I struggled to regain my breath. Everything was blurry and it hurt to focus. Leon's hands gripped my arm and tried to pull me to my feet.

"C'mon!"

His arms braced against my legs and back. I jostled in his arms while he ran. I closed my eyes to fight back nausea tempting my stomach to hurl my breakfast. I clung to his blue button-down, the quick beating of his heart kept me grounded. The plush give of bed sheets replaced his arms. I preferred the body heat to the cool mattress. Brilliant lights enveloped Leon while he examined me. I barely peered at him since the lights made my headache worse.

"Helena was right, you must have a death wish."

I managed a weak smile. "I admit. I am a bit reckless."

"A bit!?" Leon's weight shifted the mattress when he sat beside me. "That's an understatement. Thanks by the way."

"Don't mention it." I attempted to sit up and instantly regretted it when my head swam. "Whoa, okay, nope."

Jeanette scurried to my side and set her warm, tiny hand over mine. "Mommy, are you hurt?"

I really wish she wouldn't call me that. I set my head in my hands with a sigh. "I've had worse. I'll be fine, kid."

"Maybe a breather isn't a bad idea right now. You hit that wall hard, Tarzan." Leon pushed on my good shoulder to lay me back down. "I think we're safe for a bit."

"Doubt it."

"Look, I'm scared you got concussed during that stunt. Take some time to recover, okay?"

A soft cloth ran across the wounds on my face and I attempted to open my eyes again. The tenderness in Leon's face nearly turned me to mush and knotted my stomach.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"None," I arched an eyebrow.

He smiled and nodded with a sigh. "Okay, maybe you're fine. You're one tough lady."

"So I've been told. How about you?"

"I think I'm a pretty rock solid lady myself." Leon laughed at my unimpressed reaction. "I'm all right, thanks to you." He tossed the bloodied sheet aside. "That's better. Can't hide a pretty face like that behind all that blood." Heat rushed to my face and I nearly headbutt Leon when I sat up. "Hey! Take it easy."

"Sure, yeah. I'm fine now. Uh, what floor are we in anyway?"

"Looks like the ground floor."

"Shit. Square one again."

Leon hid us in a quiet department store. Music hummed in the background and carts full of clothes sat abandoned in the aisles. The potent tang of perfume lingered in the air because of the shelving of bottles smashed on the floor. Smears of blood contrasted against the sparkly, white tiles along the aisles. Still, there was no sign of danger yet. I moved my head around to pull the kinks out of my neck muscles.

Today has just been a bloody joy!

Not only did I have Jacky to worry about, but I also had to track Dr. Bennett who was presumably being kept alive by Helena. A child of my own, without my damn consent, popped into existence and her handler had no idea what he got himself into. Lastly, I wanted to find out how the Resident Evil characters came to be in the first place and if the culprit was somewhere in the building. Life isn't so dull now, is it?

Leon wrapped his calloused hand around my wrist and the warmth radiated up my arm. "What's on your mind?"

"What you'd expect," I sighed. "You're not angry?"

"At what? You giving me a fake name? At this point does it matter?"

Shit, does he usually forgive this easily? It couldn't hurt to throw the agent a bone. "It's J.D. I go by a different name because… reasons." All right, so I threw him half a bone.

"Uh-huh, look it's fine. But I still want to know how you knew about me," Leon laughed when my face wrinkled like I smelled something nasty.

He seemed amused by every little thing I did, kind of how I seemed charmed into a daze by the man. If Tab were around she'd be teasing the living hell out of me for it too!

I shrugged. "Like I said. One of my friends must be friends with you and hyped you up like you were some Prince Charming." Leon's skeptical expression had me burst into a laugh. "You don't believe a damn word I'm saying do you?"

"Not even a little."

"Well too bad! We have people to find don't we?"

"Yeah. You're right," he helped me up and smiled at Jeanette. "Stay close okay?" She nodded and held onto my sleeve. "Let's go," he turned his back to Jeanette. "All aboard."

Where's my boarding pass? I had to bite my lip. Damn mind found it easy to slip into the gutter at times. Jeanette clung to Leon's back and we strolled towards the halls. Fortunately, the chaos had died down a bit and Leon was surprisingly good at talking with children.

Little did Leon know, he had a ticking bomb gripped on his back. I couldn't let Jeanette out of my sight, however, if the circumstances escalated my cover would be completely blown. Why did fucking Bennett decide on my damn D.N.A to produce his test-tube baby!

"How old are you kid?" Jeanette stuck out her tiny hand in Leon's face with four fingers. "Wow, you're a big girl, huh? We'll find your dad okay, so don't get worried."

"Okay. I'll be fine with Mommy too."

Leon shot me a sideways glance and I shook my head to answer his unvoiced suspicions. "Mm yeah. Mommy's pretty tough huh?"

"The toughest!"

What the hell was Bennett telling this child?

Leon chuckled under his breath. "Regular Wonder Woman aren't you?"

I gripped his windbreaker when a chill shot up my spine.

"What's wrong, J.D?"

We're being watched, I looked up towards the upper floors but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Well, moans of the undead roaming the halls were certainly not normal but not unexpected considering the situation. Yet, the chills of lingering eyes on my back persisted and it was starting to grate against my nerves. Am I the reason this happened or am I a happy accident?

"Hey?" Leon probed my gaze with his own.

"Nothing, for now. We should be extremely cautious."

As if the universe took some sick twisted pleasure in fucking with me, a large son of a bitch in a black trenchcoat jumped to the ground floor. The impact of his approach shook the ground. His footsteps thundered while he stalked forward and his empty gaze locked on to me. Leon grabbed my hand and pulled me forward into a sprint. The Tyrant flipped and smacked anything in its way to charge at us.

Well, fuck me then!