Gasping for air, Leon grunted as he ran as fast as he could when he heard the growl not far from him. Without even turning around, he knew that one of those creatures had jumped and landed dangerously close to him. The noise of the landing and the roar more than proved it.

As he ran, his mind worked on a little mental map. Those things would catch up to him if he just ran in a straight line.

After a few more steps, he throws himself to the ground and slides under a small opening in a formation of rocks just in time to dodge the tongue of one of the monsters.

Without slowing his speed, he leaps over another stone formation, where still in the air he places both legs on the large stone beside it and propels himself backwards, just in time to dodge a strong and fast advance from another beast.

From what little he could see, the two beasts also appeared to be women. One with black hair, the other already in a more advanced stage of mutation, where all her hair had already fallen out.

Their bodies were different, the one who still had hair had a reddish skin, while the other had a pale skin. But honestly, Leon didn't give a shit at that moment.

Due to his momentum, he fell backwards onto the ground, but quickly got up and started running. However, he was soon thrown back to the ground when the tongue of the beast with the reddish skin grabbed his leg and pulled it back.

Leon gasped, and quickly cut the creature's tongue out with his knife. Before he could do anything else, the other creature leaped toward him, who's eyes widened. In reflex, the young man rolled to the side, feeling the impact of that monster's landing. That thing was heavy.

Spinning his body still on the ground, Leon plunged his knife into the side of the creature's neck, which roared in pain and struggled to pry the blade from its flesh. This gave the blond man the opportunity to kick the monster backwards and stand up, continuing to run.

He had full view of the towers scattered around, and he knew that the snipers were watching. Which made him unable to control himself as he thanked them for the great help they were being.

The roar of the two monsters echoed loudly behind him, and turning around for a moment, Leon laughed humorlessly as he saw that the monster he had stabbed was advancing even faster than before, and seemed to have a rather pissed off expression on its deformed face.

Apparently he had made the demon pup very angry. Fucking Great.

He kept running, jumping, sneaking, and using any rock formation to dodge or use to his advantage in an attempt to buy some time until he could hopefully reach where that door was mentioned before or that, by some miracle, he could kill those two creatures.

If only he had a timer for that damn collar.

But, trying to look at the less worse side of the situation, was the fact that the training, although exhausting, was helping a lot. He ran so much that by now he must have been tired. But although he was panting, he felt that he could keep running for longer.

Even though he knew he couldn't run forever.

And as if fate read his mind, after some more running, he came across a lake. A frozen lake, of course.

From what he could tell, those creatures were much heavier than he was. Maybe over a hundred kg the one with the pale skin. And from what he could see, they didn't get tired easily and it would only be a matter of time before they caught up with him.

Damn it, now or never. He ran toward the side, concentrating so as not to end up slipping and fucking everything up.

The creatures obviously followed him, until one of them leaped toward him.

Leon heard the roar from above and looked back, his eyes widening slightly as he saw the reddish-skinned monster staring at him deadly.

Gritting his teeth, he leapt to the side a few moments before the creature crashed into the ground. The ice gave way on impact and the monster fell into the lake.

The surrounding area cracked, but did not give way immediately. Leon, who had rolled on the ground after jumping to the side, was kneeling with only one of his legs while looking at the other infected.

The pale-skinned creature, being heavier, was having trouble keeping its balance, as some of the ice gave way whenever the infected took a step.

In other words, a free pass for Leon to get out of there. He even almost thanked his luck.

Again, almost, for the moment he stood up, the collar whistled, his eyes went wide, and his body fell on the ice as he was electrocuted.

His teeth clenched, nothing but disjointed grunts came out of his throat, his eyes rolled back, and his body contorted violently. An instant later his mouth began to foam.

A moment later, everything stopped. His body quieted, but his eyes were closed and his injured muscles still immobile.

The tongue of the creature that was still trying to hold on to the ice clamped down on the side of Leon's thigh, slowly pulling the unconscious young man closer, but doing so very slowly as more and more parts of the ice cracked. More and more parts broke off, until the creature fell completely into the water.

The two creatures were struggling in the water, but it didn't look like they could swim, so with each stroke, the more the surrounding ice was destroyed, the more they sank, and the more Leon, still unconscious, was pulled in.

At one point he began to cough, spitting the heaps of saliva and foam from his mouth. However, he continued to lie there, his movements were slow and imprecise, his eyes were too heavy to open them, and his muscles ached.

The monster had clung to the still undestroyed ice, its opaque eyes staring fixedly where Leon lay while, due to the cold, perhaps, the infected could not retract its tongue, much less continue to pull the young man toward it.

But the more the infected tried to get closer to the blond, the more the ice beneath him cracked, to the point where he felt the icy ground beneath his back begin to crack.

Leon, still disoriented, kept the goal of his survival as a priority, which enabled him to start moving despite all the confusion and consequences of being electrocuted.

He was unable to stand up completely, and was forced to use his arms to slowly crawl away and hope that the ice would support him long enough to get out of there.

However, seeing that its prey was running away, the infected began to struggle harder, forcing its heavy body onto the ice it was clinging to, this ice being the only reason the creature had not yet sunk into the lake.

At one point, Leon could no longer pull himself away. He didn't know if it was the adrenaline, or because his whole body was sore but he didn't even realize that the thing's tongue was literally stabbing into the side of his thigh.

Grunting as he lay on his back, he picked up his knife and, with trembling hands, began to slam the blade into the creature's frozen tongue, until the tongue broke and he was finally free.

This seemed to infuriate the infected even more, and the ice began to break.

Leon gasped again as he realized that the ice around him was beginning to fall away, and feeling his heart beating even harder, he turned and tried to stand up, which turned out to be a bit difficult due to his wobbly legs.

After standing up, he walks as fast as he can away from there, since he still couldn't run.

The roars and screams of the creature behind him were no longer heard, but he didn't even realize this until he reached the shore of the lake, where he, still panting, looked back.

That could have ended badly. Very, very bad.

He just hoped he wouldn't run into any more of those things. And of course, he would remember who were those snipers scattered around those towers, that is if there really were snipers there.

Putting his hand on that collar, he turns and forces himself to walk, limping a little due to the wound on his leg.

He had only forty minutes before he gets electrocuted again. But despite this situation, that was not what his mind was concerned about.

He was righteous. He had that will to do good for other people, no matter how dangerous it was for him. And that way of being, that cop inside him, kept thinking about those creatures.

Why didn't William destroy them? How were creatures like that formed? No chance that they had captured random women and infected them ... right?

... It was possible, since at no time was he introduced to that level of mutation. And all of them, except the one with pale skin, seemed to be wearing clothes to go to some kind of party.

It was obviously not a complete mutation, he could tell. But the state they were in was... depressing. Fucking normal women! And even if they weren't, no one deserved to be turned into something like that and used as a toy, a test subject, or used to be killed by agents in training.

A part of him was angry with William, he was the one in charge there. Another part, the part he had developed in the time he had been there, was grateful for the experience.

And that was exactly what pissed him off. Part of him was grateful that he was facing an unknown kind of monster now, because just as his superior always said, he had to refine his survival instincts.

Hugging his body due to the cold, Leon clicks his tongue at having these thoughts in his mind.

After walking for some time, the young man stopped and ran his eyes around. There was nothing there, just more small caves, more holes in the walls, and one or two more towers scattered a few miles apart.

No chance of the key being there, under that snow, it would be impossible for him to find it. But coming from William, he no longer doubted anything.

It was then that his mind realized. In all the time he had been walking, there was nothing there. The only things that were common to find were caves, holes, and towers. Towers that were supposed to have snipers, but for some reason, even though he was about to die, none appeared.

And William never said that it was forbidden to go near these towers.

Well, the keys to that collar might be in a totally different place, but he had no clue or anything to guide him beyond that.

Changing direction, he walked to the nearest tower. He didn't even look in any more detail at these towers when William told him about the key to the collar, something that, thinking back now, was a mistake.

A beginner's mistake not paying proper attention to his surroundings, as his trainers used to say.

As he approaches, his eyes focus on the number painted in white a little below the top of the tower.

"C-14" He muttered to himself.

Taking a step forward, he puts his hand on the metal door handle and to his surprise, the door opens.

The first thing he saw was an upward spiral staircase. Below the stairs was a locked iron trapdoor.

With slow and somewhat arduous steps, he climbs the spiral staircase until he reaches the iron door that led to the place where a sniper should be.

Like the door below, this one was also open, and Leon found himself in an empty room. It looked like a control room, there was what looked like radio equipment all around, no windows.

Weird.

Next to it was a ladder leading up, where there was a small area for a sniper. But no sign of one.

With his flashlight, Leon investigates the dark, empty place. It didn't look abandoned, since there wasn't even a speck of dust around the place.

He found nothing there except for a herb that he promptly drank.

Before he left, however, something else caught his attention. In the entire room, there was only one sheet of paper placed on the wall, with no sign of a notebook nearby.

As he approached, Leon ran his eyes over the handwritten letters.

"A-9, B-13, C-17" He muttered those words and letters, and almost immediately understood what it meant.

The indication of which towers he should go to. B-13 was probably the closest.

He took the piece of paper and put it in his pocket, hurrying out of there better than before after ingesting that herb.

He went back the same way he had gone, but to his chagrin, after he reached said tower, it was not the one he was looking for.

"B-10?" He muttered again, running his eyes around to see the numbers of the other towers.

A-9, C-11, C-14... where was B-13?

Walking around that tower, his eyes fall on a small hill a few feet away. A hill partially destroyed, perhaps by a landslide. But whatever it was, it pushed down the tower he needed, covering it almost completely with debris and snow.

Leon sighed at his luck, but didn't complain, instead he immediately started down the small hill, running towards the tower every time he stepped more firmly on the fragile and slippery ground.

As he approached the destroyed tower, however, something caught the young man's eye. Not far away, lying on the ground and covered with a small layer of snow, a body.

Leon's mind goes back to everything that had happened up to that moment. Why would there be a body there? Had someone gone there before him? William said that they were only infected by the surroundings.

With his knife in hand, Leon walked slowly toward the body, and the closer he got, the more confused he became, until he got close enough to see that the body was wearing a training suit identical to his own.

The blond man stood still for a few moments. Many of his doubts fading from his mind. It was rather obvious that the man lying in front of him was one of the people trained to become an agent. Blood still stained some of the surrounding snow.

Leon, though somewhat affected by the death of yet another person, just sighed with a certain regret. He knew that this training was extremely tough, and if the person didn't work hard, he or she would die.

But why didn't they remove the body?

For a moment, he even thought that this man had died from the fall from the tower, just a simple and unfortunate accident. But on closer look, he saw that the injuries on the man's body were no match.

The man's stomach was pierced, part of his arm was missing flesh, there were cuts and holes all over his chest. And the worst was certainly the head, as the only thing holding the head from the neck were a few remaining muscles and the spine. Other than that, the neck of the body was almost ripped off, and it was possible to see the exposed windpipe.

Inside the windpipe was something that looked like the barrel of a pistol.

God... Leon didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing that he was used to seeing images like that and didn't even feel his stomach turn anymore. Although he was quite sure that this image would be part of his nightmares later.

Turning, he focuses his eyes on the fallen tower and walks to the parts still visible. Luckily, the small area where a sniper stood was open, and he had a view of the interior of the place.

All he saw was snow, dirt, and rubble, but maybe there was some room for him to sneak around and hopefully find some clues.

Before he could descend the stairs, however, a noise, the roar of a creature from a horror movie, unlike anything he had ever heard in his life, came from behind him.

Leon turned suddenly, already in attack position with his knife in hand. At first he thought it was another one of those creatures from before. But his surprise was great when he saw the dead man's body rising from the ground.

Not in the same way as a zombie or any creature he had ever seen face to face, but with his arms and legs supporting him from behind, giving Leon an even more detailed view of the exposed windpipe.

Something that resembled a muscular tentacle poked out from inside the body's torso, just below the side of its chest. The head was hanging by a few tendons and bones, but the man's mouth widened in a humanly impossible way, with sharp, bloody teeth that were sported in a macabre grin. The man's eyes were wide open, but they were colorless.

Leon had no idea what it was. He hadn't seen it in any of the infected files his superiors had handed him. But he was not stupid. He noticed the similarities of both the Infected from before and the one in front of him to Infected he had seen before.

Those were infected who, for some reason, had not made it to the last stage of mutation, and were trapped in that form between human and monster.

At least, that was the most plausible explanation for him at the moment.

The creature roared, but somehow the roar didn't seem to be coming from the mouth of that deformed head, and to the young man's surprise, that muscular tentacle widened and seemed to throw something in his direction.

It was all too fast, and by instinct Leon managed to dodge it. His surprise and indignation at that place only grew stronger when he saw that greenish goo begin to corrode the exposed metal of the fallen tower at a frightening speed.

The body stood on two legs that seemed to transform before Leon's eyes, and slowly, the man's torso opened, revealing a huge necrotic mouth with sharp teeth.

Memories about the G-virus came back strongly in the blond man's mind, which caused him to act immediately. No chance of another William Birkin appearing, even if it was an incomplete infected.

Leon ran up to the infected and, as soon as said infected attacked him with his arms extended, the blond man threw himself forward and let himself slide along the ground, stabbing his knife into the side of the deformed knee of the creature, which grunted as it felt its flesh being pierced.

The creature spun around and tried to attack Leon with its huge arm, but the blond man dodged to the side, stabbing his knife into the upper back of the creature, which roared again and reacted by throwing its huge body backwards in an attempt to crush the blond man.

The ex-cop dodged, but soon had his arm pierced by the tentacle, which made him groan in pain. The tentacle then began to suck his blood, something that Leon stopped after plunging his knife into the tentacle, which retracted at great speed.

To his dismay, however, the creature seemed to be made even stronger by his blood. The pale appearance it had before took on a bit more color.

Damn, just a knife against that thing wouldn't do. He would need something else. And that's when his eyes fell on the weapon stuck in the exposed windpipe, just above the severed head.

The creature advanced toward him, the sound of its huge footsteps briefly reminding him of the giant's steps back at the police station.

The tentacle spat acid again, but Leon dodged it by leaping to the side.

Before he could even get up, the creature reached him and tried to step on his head, but the blond dodged again, kicking the creature in the back of the knee. But not having enough force to knock it down.

Not yet.

Leon threw himself backwards and stood up, but didn't react in time for the creature's attack, which hit him right in the side of his torso. The blow was so strong that he was literally thrown meters to the side, flying through the air until he crashed into the side of the fallen tower.

He gasped and spat out some blood as he felt his back collide with the hard surface, but he didn't even have time to process what had happened, as the creature pierced the side of his abdomen with its tentacle and pulled him hard toward it.

Leon cried out in pain, and his eyes widened when the creature grabbed him by the shoulders and opened its huge mouth on the abdomen.

The blond man screamed in desperation, unable to use his knife due to the creature's strong grip. However, he still had his legs, and leaping up, he entwined the creature's arm with his legs, literally hanging on, and managed to pull his arm strong enough to free himself.

Still holding on with his legs, he sticks his knife into the arm that was still holding him, freeing himself completely. Giving the creature no time to react, as soon as he got his feet on the ground, he leaped over the infected's shoulder, drove his knife into the head still hanging by the few muscles, and without thinking, without giving his body time to feel the repulsion, he stuck his hand into the exposed windpipe and pulled the pistol out with all he had, driving his knife into the rest of the neck just before leaping away.

The creature roared again while Leon, for only a few moments, observed the piece of paper wrapped around the handle of the gun.

He quickly took the paper and put it in his pocket, focusing his eyes on the monster in front of him again.

The infected seemed to swell a bit, a pus-like liquid oozed from its mouth, and suddenly, the creature turned toward Leon and literally spat a rain of sharp teeth at the blond man.

No matter how skilled a man was, no chance to dodge all those teeth, at that speed, and especially at that distance.

All he could do was try not to get hit in the most important places, putting his arms in front of his body and cringing.

He groaned loudly as he fell to the ground, feeling sharp pains in his left leg, in the middle of his belly, and in both forearms.

Well, it could have been much worse, but that didn't change the fact that his situation had become even more precarious.

The creature roared and advanced towards him, and with no choice, Leon was forced to ignore the pain he felt and react.

He stood up and began to shoot the creature in the mouth, which grunted with each bullet that pierced it and slowed its steps. But still, it was not enough to stop the creature at once.

The tentacle attacked the blond again, who, despite the pain and his limitation, dodged with difficulty. But even so, he still managed to shoot at the tentacle, which although strong, was more delicate than it seemed, and with just a few shots, the tentacle exploded into a green liquid.

The creature seemed to struggle in pain as it grunted, and again, ran towards Leon, this time as fast as before.

The young man fired as much as he could. Luckily, perhaps, the pistol had an elongated clip, so he was able to shoot more times before the creature got closer.

The downside was that the shots didn't seem to have much effect.

The creature tried to attack him with a side arm strike, but the blond man crouched down, and with his knife, pierced the creature's knee while throwing himself against said monster's body, pushing it forward.

The creature lost its balance and fell to its knees, but it didn't fall, its long arm wouldn't let it. And soon, the creature tried to attack Leon again.

However, the surge of adrenaline in the young man's body made him act as fast as before, and as he dodged, he stuck his knife deep into the back of the monster's shoulder, limiting the movement of that arm.

The infected turned his body around again, trying to attack him with the other, but Leon was quicker and, yelling as he pulled a tooth from his forearm, stuck the tooth in the middle of the creature's elbow. Wasting no time, he grabs the barely hanging man's head, forces the pistol inside his mouth, and fires several times until he blasts the brain out.

That wasn't enough to kill, but it had some effect, as it made the creature desperate.

The infected got up and Leon picked up his knife again.

The creature opened its mouth again and more tentacles appeared, thinner and shorter than the other, but in greater numbers.

The tentacles attacked the young man, who moved away while dodging and attacking the tentacles.

He needed to be faster.

His eyes, for a moment, focused on metal stakes stuck in the snow down the hill. Debris from the fallen tower. He didn't know if it would kill that monster, but he didn't have time for that shit.

Running to the side, he threw himself to the ground and let himself slide through the snow when the tentacles attacked him in pack, and that's when he risked his chances and advanced against the creature, which soon retracted its tentacles.

Faster.

The mouth on the creature's torso opened again, and the tentacles moved still inside the mouth, like a tangle of mixed flesh, until they went toward Leon again.

Only three seconds. In the first, the tentacles moved swiftly toward the blond man.

Faster.

In the second, he dodged to the side as he threw his knife into the creature's mouth, cutting the base of some tentacles and preventing others from retracting.

Faster.

At the last second, Leon dodged an attack with the creature's arm and, removing one of the teeth still embedded in its body, pierced the side of the monster's leg while pushing it forward, taking advantage of the momentum of his speed.

The creature was thrown backwards, and its animalistic scream became more and more distant as the infected fell down the hill, until its body was pierced by the iron stakes.

Leon was stunned for a few moments, his eyes staring at the impaled body of the creature, and he blinked slowly. He felt pain all over his body, he was bleeding in several places, and again, the cold didn't bother him anymore.

His body was hot, boiling with adrenaline and the will to survive.

The creature was dying... he could see it. He could hear the choked grunts.

And he was alive. Bruised, tired, but alive.

And he hoped to stay alive when the collar activated and he was electrocuted once again.


Inside a control room, two men stared at a large screen in front of them, while around them other people were sitting in front of computers with various screens from the surrounding area.

"How is he?" William asked, without looking at the people around, having his attention drawn slightly to Jonah beside him, who was writing something in a folder.

"Alive, sir. Injured, but not in a situation where we need to intervene." A male voice from some corner of the room in which William made no point of looking informed him.

"Hm, persistent. Maybe he really can do it." Jonah said, looking away from his folder and staring at the large screen in front of him. "Why did you lie to him?" He asked, without turning to William.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ah, William, come on. If the collar was as strong as you said he would be dead by now." Jonah said, and William was silent for a few moments.

"I needed him motivated." He replied, watching Leon slowly stand up, badly wounded, with blood and saliva dripping from his mouth, but alive and strong enough to start walking right after reading the piece of paper he had kept in his pocket.

"I think you accomplished that. Ain't he the first one to kill that infected?"

"... Yes."

"I think you were right, the boy is a prodigy. And his mental test shows he's practically a genius. I think we hit the jackpot." Jonah said, and William snorted slightly.

"He has a temper, that's for sure."

"Well, so what, do you care?"

"...No. I just find these human sensations curious. To feel and show anger over such... futile things.

"You don't feel anger? Then what do you feel for Albert? Why are you so obsessed with these viruses?" Jonah asked, and William lowered his head a little, looking at the ground with a thoughtful expression, perhaps.

At least, that's what Jonah saw, since William rarely showed any different expression than usual.

"I think what I feel can be characterized as anger. But these viruses shouldn't exist. They are destroying the world, not helping it. Albert, me, Alex, none of us should be here. We should let the human race progress naturally... that's the answer you're going to get." Jonah stared at him for a few moments, a little surprised.

That was the most he had heard William talk about himself since meeting him.

"Good. He's headed in the right direction. We'd better get ready. As soon as he arrives, kill the infected and sanitize the area. Oh, and organize the field files. At this rate, it won't be long before he's fit for missions." William said, turning and walking out of that room at a calm pace.

Jonah nodded as he left, but his eyes were still locked on the screen in front of him.

Of all the agents, not only from that organization, but from others that already existed and were being founded, this was the most promising he had ever seen.

Ah, of course, him and Chris Redfield.

"Practically a genius..." He muttered to himself, analyzing the folder in his hands.

The idea of supersoldiers didn't seem to be just a dream after all. Not least because, perhaps, he was witnessing the development of one.