Chapter Text
Chris’s mouth thinned into a line as he drove down the dark gravel road; the thick pine trees blocking any view of anything off the side of the road. The bright headlights slicing through the darkness as the car rolled along with a steady hum of the engine and a crackling of gavel sliding beneath the tires.
Leon had been gone for five days. It had been a relatively easy mission; Chris had taken a look over the case Leon was assigned to back at the office before heading out to locate him. The mission itself was simple, go to this vacant lab to ensure their were no B.O.W’s they may have missed in the area and retrieve some files that may have been left behind initially when the lab was abandoned. From reports, the place had abandoned for some time: a cakewalk of a mission.
Chris’s hand gripped the steering wheel beneath his gloved hands as he drove along. The words of Sherry’s concern ringing in his mind when she took him aside earlier that day in the office. A frown on her face as she spoke of the bazar radio silence over the last five days.
The distant sight of a chain linked fenced around a tan buildings perimeter came into view at the end of the long road. The building’s windows dark with boards covering some of the windows. The front gate was left wide open; allowing Chris to drive into the asphalt covered space to park before the front of the building. There was not a single car or motorcycle in sight causing Chris’s eyes to narrow in suspicion as he parked his car and turned to keys in the ignition off without taking his eyes off the empty space around the building.
His hand raising up to his ear to press the ear piece.
“Sherry, I’ve made it to the location…there is no sign of a vehicle,” he stated as he pushed the driver’s side door open and stepped into the cold chilly air.
A soft rustling of tree branches in the wind and the occasional coyote call all that was heard in the wilderness around him.
“He didn’t leave the premises, I am still getting something from within the lab on my end,” Sherry stated, a beat of silence. “ I don’t know if someone took his vehicle but I haven’t heard of anything about the safe house in that area being used. He has to be there Chris.”
Chris gazed up at the dark building that was casted in the dim light of the covered moon; a starless sky blanketed in clouds. He clicked on his flashlight; a golden beacon cutting through the dark as he locked his car with a click of a button. His boots hitting the concrete steps in soft pats as he made his way inside with gun in hand.
“I’m hoping so Sherry” Chris muttered to himself as his eyes cast along the cluttered lobby.
Furniture having been moved out of the rooms and put right in the front of the facility. Equipment having been boxed up along side loose papers scattered along the white tiled floor. A scent of antiseptic and chlorine hung in the air; a sterile hospital smell that was semi buried under a faint whiff of metallic. Chris crept along, the rooms on the ground floor devoid of any hints of Leon.
The stairway leading upstairs having been blocked by a barricade of stacked metal desks. A distant buzz of fluorescent caught Chris’s attention as he traversed further down the hallways towards its source.
A bluish light cast along the hallways walls and floors from an open elevator; the light flickering softly as Chris steadily drew closer towards the elevator. He stepped into the narrow metal and wood panelled elevator. The buttons glowing with a yellow warmth as Chris stared at them; a faint red fingerprint smeared across the surface of the button. Chris pressed the transparent blood covered button and descended into the basement of the facility. The elevator shifting in shaky motions as it descended in the shaft, a soft creaking whine filling the space as it adjusted; the doors sliding open in a slow motion to reveal a semi-lit hallway of whitish-blue light serving as backup lights.
A eerie concern filled Chris as he observed the faint red drips of blood trailing down the hallway; a few smeared like someone’s shoes had been dragged through it. Chris steadied himself, stepping out into the chilly hallway with a faint buzzing of lights and ventilation humming. Chris’s footsteps echoing in the space as he followed the trail down the hallway; turning the corner and following the trail to a white door at the end of the hallway.
He reached out, turning the handle and pushed; opening the door to a bright white room to see a familiar face strapped with metal restraints in a metal chair. His gear tossed on a distant metal cart with wheels. The bright white of the room washing the color out of Leon’s face as he sat there, his head hanging back with his bangs falling back off his face. Dried blood that had trickled from his nose that’s bridge was a hideous shade of black and blue that caused his eyes to narrow from the swelling. He breathed out ruggedly as he tilted his head back down like his head weighted to much for his neck to support. Bruises lined his arms with bandages wrapped around his right forearm.
Leon raised his head, his long bangs casting his face in shadows.
“Chris?” he asked in a rasped.