"Leon?" Luis and I said in unison. I blushed and he smirked, our faces still close.
"Are we interrupting something?" Leon asked, confused.
I pulled away so quickly that I nearly fell out of my chair. "What? N-no!" I stammered at the same time Luis calmly said "Yes." I felt like slapping him senseless.
Leon rolled his eyes and decided to change the subject. "Hey, Luis, you got something I can lock this with?"
He was already on it. He tossed Leon a bar, and he put it in its place, locking the door.
Luis was eyeing Ashley… in a particular area. "Oh, and I see the president has equipped his daughter with ballistics too…"
She gasped. "How rude! And I don't believe there's any relevance with my figure and my standing. Who are you?" Damn. Daddy's little girl's got some attitude. But I didn't get why he said that about her, I mean, my chest was clearly-
"Oh-hoh, well excuse me your highness," He interrupted my thoughts. "But perhaps someone might want to introduce herself first, before asking someone his name."
"The name's Ashley Graham, the president's daughter."
Luis turned to Leon. "Is she…? Well, you know." He meant infected with the parasite.
Obviously Leon didn't understand. "Don't worry, she's cool."
I wasn't paying much attention to what they were saying anymore, I was too busy staring out the window at the hundreds of villagers marching their way up to the house.
"Uh… Leon? Should we be worried about those guys?"
The agent looked out the window at what I was pointing at. "Dammit!" He cursed. "You two, go hide upstairs, now!"
Ashley started heading for the stairs, but I stayed in place.
"Have you forgotten that I have a gun, too? Leon, we've been over this, I can help."
He grunted in frustration. "No. There's too many of them this time."
"Just trust me, I can handle it!"
"I said NO!" He shouted.
We all had shocked faces, even Leon.
"I… I mean…"
I nodded weakly. "I know... Come on Ashley." I began walking upstairs with my head down, not really caring if Ashley followed me or not.
Of course she did, and when we got upstairs I turned to her with my hand out.
"I'm sorry if I sounded like a bitch earlier. It's just that a lot has happened and… I just want to go home."
She shook my hand with a smile and said, "I know, me too. This place is a dystopia."
There was the sudden sound of wood breaking and gunshots and we quickly darted our eyes across the room, searching for a place to hide, causing us both to run for the wardrobe at the same time.
We stood there, frozen in place and afraid to move. All we could hear were the gunshots, and there was no way for us to tell if they were alright or not. Suddenly, there was the loud sound of glass shattering and we heard Luis yell "Leon, upstairs!" from the floor below.
The two men both ran upstairs as a surplus of villagers crawled through the windows. They continued shooting for about another five minutes when Luis said "This never ends!" That seemed to be true. It felt like Ashley and I were in that closet for an eternity before the gun shots eventually died down, and we couldn't hear the two men any more. For a second I was frightened, worried that they had been killed, and now they were being taken to Saddler. I cracked one of the doors to the wardrobe open the slightest bit, with my gun ready to be fired. But I didn't see anybody, so I assumed they were downstairs. We stepped out of the wardrobe and Ashley dusted off her shirt.
"It's no use. You're just going to get dirty again."
She shrugged and changed the topic. "So… what, are you a secret agent or something? You don't look old enough."
I shook my head and smiled slightly. "No, I'm only seventeen. Leon and I were separated for a while, and I bought the gun myself."
"He wasn't angry?"
I shrugged. "No, not really. He'd seen me shoot a gun before, so I guess he didn't care."
She didn't say anything for a while, but when she did it was barely above a whisper. "He was worried about you, you know."
I looked up at her, stunned. How could he have been worried about me? I was such a pest to him…
Before I could say anything, she continued. "After you were taken away, he would barely even talk to me. And when he did it was about you. He blamed himself for you being taken away like that, and I don't think he thought that he would be able to rescue you in time before they…" She trailed off, not wanting to finish that sentence.
She didn't have to; I knew what she was going to say. "Oh…"
Just then Leon came walking back up the stairs. "Hey, are you girls alri-" He stopped when he noticed my teary eyes. He rushed over to me. "Emily, is everything okay? What's wrong?" He did a once over of me, checking for any injuries, and when he saw my bandaged forehead he carefully examined it before saying, "Hey, what happened?"
I wiped my cheeks and shook my head before wrapping my arms around him. He was obviously even more confused than before, but after a while he gently hugged me back.
"I'm sorry…" I whispered.
"For what…?" He asked.
"For making you worry."
I literally felt the realization wash over him. He hesitantly rubbed my back while I sobbed into his chest. "Hey, don't cry over that… I mean, of course I was worried, but the important thing is that you're okay."
"But Saddler…"
He nodded. "I know… But you have to remember that Ashley and I are in the exact same situation right now, and-"
I quickly backed away and blinked away the remainder of my tears. "Oh, s-so now you're calling me conceited or something? Look, Leon-"
Before I could finish, Ashley butted in. "No, Emily, I think what he means is that we're in this together."
The agent nodded. "Yeah… You're not alone. We're here for you; we know exactly how you're feeling."
That only managed to make all of the tears come flooding back. "No, you don't! Leon, m-my parents were killed by those things!" Apparently Ashley hadn't known about that, because she gasped loudly. "I… I don't want to become something that will… that will make someone feel the way I do…"
Before I knew it, Leon was hugging me again. It took me by complete surprise; he didn't seem like the type of guy who would hug someone willingly like that, but he did… and it felt… nice.
Ashley cleared her throat beside us. "So… what are we going to do Leon?"
I unwrapped my arms from his torso and looked up, waiting for an answer.
"Uh… well… I guess we have no choice but to keep moving."
Ashley and I both nodded our heads in agreement and we began walking outside.
