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Ashley was vaguely aware of being picked up, but she couldn’t really open her eyes to really see. But somehow, she knew it was Leon. There was no one else who carried her the way he did.
“Ashley….Ashley?” his voice called out to her. She wished she could reply, to tell him that she was okay, but she couldn’t. The pain was too great, the only thing she could do was hold on.
She dipped in and out of consciousness, only vaguely aware she was being jostled around somewhere in the background of all this suffocating feeling. The wriggling in her chest had ensnared her entire being, trapping it in this horrible, paralyzing, undulating pain. But despite that, Ashley fought to regain consciousness.
The sound of Leon’s grunts of pain is what gave Ashley enough strength to finally open her eyes. She was laying in a chair of some kind, one she knew would remove the parasite. Leon had nearly collapsed, but was holding on to the stool for dear life.
“You go first,” she begged him with the last of her strength.
“No way,” he replied, as she expected. “Like I told you, I’m going to get you home safe.”
Ashley wanted to cry, she couldn’t bear the idea of Leon having to hurt like this for her anymore. But she knew that there was nothing she could say or do that would change his mind. She decided to just prepare herself for the operation. The faster she got through this, the quicker Leon could get the parasite removed too.
She watched with lazy eyes as the chair moved and some strange metal-like appendages approached her.
“Here goes nothing,” she heard Leon say.
Her mind didn’t quite understand what was happening until those little arms lit up and she felt the most terrible hot flash of pain. She had never felt anything to this degree of agony in her life. It felt like someone was systematically removing every single part of her insides one by one, just to twist it around again. Her blood boiled into a blazing magma, it felt like she could feel every single nerve ending being brutally flayed. Everything was on fire and the wriggling in her chest was so intense she thought the parasite may burst out. That thought and fear alone eclipsed the pain she felt.
It was all so mortifying, she wanted to beg it all to stop, but suddenly, she felt strong and gentle hands gripping her own.
Leon.
His kind and gentle face flashed in her mind and Ashley used all the strength she had to cling to that memory. The idea that Leon was right beside her gave her what she needed to hold on a little longer. It was the only solace in the sea of torture.
And in an instant, relief.
Like a stubborn pimple that had finally popped, the wriggling stopped and suddenly there was this odd coolness in her chest. The pain was…gone.
Then, she blacked out.
-~*~-
When Ashley finally woke up, the tears in the corners of her eyes had dried, leaving a crusty seam on her eyes and cheeks. She reached up to rub it away and she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the dark veins in her arms were gone. That aching pain in her chest was also gone, and for the first time in forever, she was able to take in deep, cooling breaths without that disgusting squirming feeling within. Sure, she was a little sore and there was this layer of exhaustion that still persisted, but she honestly felt great.
Then she felt a cold chill as the memories of what happened came flooding back.
“Leon?” she called out. Panicked, Ashley looked around, but saw no one. Where was he? Did he leave? Maybe he found another machine to remove the parasite?
Worried, she crawled off the chair, only to have her heart lurch again in panic when she saw Leon laying on the ground nearby, unmoving and looking even more sickly than she had last seen him.
“Leon!” she squeaked, scrambling to his side, nearly tripping over her own feet in her rush to get to him. Ashley flinched when she saw how intense the infection was on his arms and she quickly turned him so he was laying on his back.
Ashley gasped in horror. The dark veins had now completely encroached his face and every part of his arm. Every so often, his flesh would ripple with a shadowy pulse, making the veins even more visible. Leon's skin had grown sickly pale and mottled, almost like those crazy cultists'. Leon's breathing was rough and shallow, his eyes were screwed shut in whatever nightmare he was trapped in. Even though he was unconscious, it looked like Leon was in terrible pain.
There wasn’t much time left.
“Don’t worry, Leon,” she told him, unsure if he could hear her. She began making a mental checklist of things she had to do. “I’ll get that thing out of you."
Ashley glanced up at the operation chair, knowing that she would have to get Leon up on to that, but it was easier said than done. She didn’t doubt her own strength, she was pretty strong for someone of her stature. The fact that she made it this far was a testament to that, but Leon was still a fully grown man who was well muscled and heavy.
Still, she wasn't going to give up that easily.
With some effort, Ashley managed to pull him up into a sitting position, but not any further. She leaned him on the chair to reposition herself when she realized part of the reason why Leon was so hard to move. All his stuff was still strapped to his person, weighing him down. Ashley had no idea how much those items weigh, but they looked heavy. For someone like her, every single pound counted.
“Sorry, I’ll have to take your gear off,” Ashley apologized as she reached for the clasp on the ones slung over his shoulder. The guns clattered to the ground noisily and Ashley jumped, worried they might go off, but thankfully they didn’t.
Next, she turned her attention to the guns and equipment in his holsters and pouches. It was a little awkward removing them with Leon like this, but she managed to fish most of his gear out and lay them on the floor nearby. There were grenades in one of the pouches and Ashley hesitated touching them. She didn’t really know how they work and she was worried she might set it off by accident if she touched it. For a moment, Ashley contemplated just leaving the in Leon’s pouches, but glancing at the machine's arms, she realized that she didn’t like the idea of the machine accidentally setting them off either.
So she fought through her hesitation and carefully took them out of Leon’s pouches. Ashley placed them in a neat pile to the side, where she wouldn’t trip over them and turned back to Leon.
When she had removed all the excess weight she could, Ashley grabbed Leon’s arm again, this time hooking it around her shoulder. Then with all the strength she had left, the young woman stood up, painstakingly pulling Leon up with her.
“Come on,” she encouraged herself, dragging Leon towards the operation chair. She can do this.
Leon was counting on her.
The first few steps were manageable, but Leon’s feet were dragging on the floor due to their height difference, making movement harder than it needed to be. When she was about to put Leon on the chair, one of her sore, exhausted knees gave out and she accidentally dumped him face first, half-way up the seat.
“Shit. Sorry,” Ashley apologized. At least he was on the seat now.
With the hard part now over, Ashley managed to yank him up and flip him right side up with some effort. When he was finally in position, Ashley took a small break to catch her breath. It wasn't the most strenuous activity she's done here, but she was in a hurry and overexerted herself. She was still a little drained from her own procedure too. But Ashley didn't allow herself to rest long, however, she had to get Leon ready for the operation. With Leon unconscious and unable to prepare himself, Ashley made sure to get him as comfortable as he could be. She also put his hands on the grips knowing how painful this was going to be.
“You’re going to be okay, Leon.” He didn’t respond, but Ashley hoped at least he heard her words of encouragement.
It was concerning that this whole time, Leon wasn’t responding or even reacting to her. Even when she had accidentally dropped him on the seat, he didn’t even let out a grunt of pain. It was like he was… dead, but Ashley quickly shoo’d that thought away. There was no time to be thinking like that when Leon was alive and could still be helped right now.
She hurried to the monitor, trying to calm her jittery fingers. “Okay, how does this work…?” If only Luis was here to guide the way.
Ashley pushed some of the keys, checking what options were available. Diagnose? That looked right. There were some settings she could change too, but it was probably a good idea not to touch them. After all, Leon had used these settings to remove her parasite. She clicked the ‘Run’ option.
The sound of the chair moving caused Ashley to look back at Leon again. After he was in position, the arms above them moved and began hovering over Leon’s prone form. After a moment, Ashley heard a beep and she looked back to the monitor to see that it had detected the parasite on some sort of X-Ray. She grimaced when she saw a huge, horrific spidery form curled up near what looked like Leon’s heart. Had this thing been in her too? It was huge. The parasite had taken over almost the entirety of his chest, flexing and worming its way around there. It was sickening to watch.
Ashley yelped a little as she was startled by a prompt that suddenly appeared on the screen.
‘PURGE?’ it asked.
“Hell yes,” she said. Ashley looked over Leon one more time. “Okay, here we go, Leon.”
He didn’t give her an okay, but Ashley knew that it was now or never and clicked the ‘YES’ prompt. She watched as the arms moved over Leon and approached him. They charged up with some sort of light and after a moment, they got closer. And, suddenly Leon jolted.
Alarmed, she rushed to his side. “Leon?”
His body was jerking around like he was having a seizure, but Ashley realized it wasn't from the pain; Leon wasn't even holding the grips. In fact, Leon still wasn’t even conscious. She was pretty sure she screamed through her procedure, but Leon wasn't the one reacting to the pain. It was almost like something inside him was… writhing around, trying to escape.
Ashley froze. Was the parasite trying to get out? She suddenly remembered the many times she had seen those things crawl out of both people and corpses and she broke out into a cold sweat. Was it already too late? The parasite inside Leon was so big, what if…
Terrified, she grabbed his flailing arm and held it down to keep Leon somewhat still, fighting the tears in her eyes. “It’s going to be fine, it’s going to be fine,” she repeated, unsure if she was saying to Leon or herself anymore. "You'll be okay…I promise."
It felt like eternity, holding onto Leon’s arm like that, but eventually Leon stopped jotling and she heard another beep from the monitor.
Shaking, she turned to look at it. ‘SUCCESS’ it said and she wiped away the tears she didn’t realize were streaming down her face. Ashley looked at Leon and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the veins slowly beginning to fade away. They made it!
“L-Leon?” she asked after a moment, but he didn’t respond. “Leon, you’re okay, I removed the parasite.” Ashley touched his arm again, but he still didn’t react to her touch.
A horrid feeling was lingering in the back of her mind as checked him over. Remembering the first aid classes she had taken for a lifeguard job that one summer, Ashley reached out and put her fingers to his neck. For a moment, she didn’t feel anything and Ashley was overcome with the panic that what she was looking at was a corpse. But after a few shaky attempts, she managed to find his heartbeat after a moment.
The relief was too much and Ashley ended up sinking to her knees, feeling the tears coming back again.
He’s alive.
Giving her another moment to recollect her emotions, Ashley stood up again to see if there was anything she could do for him right now. Thankfully, he seemed to be getting better with every passing moment, she was able to see his breathing now. It won’t be long until he wakes up, she hoped. For now, she’ll let him get some rest he needs. God knows when the last time he had any sleep was.
Ashley waited by Leon's side for a moment, wondering what she should do. She glanced behind her out into the room. Might as well make herself useful.
The first thing she did though, was check on the door. Specifically, she wanted to see if anyone was outside. Thankfully, it was all quiet and empty, but somehow that just made her feel just as uneasy. Bad things like to happen at the drop of a hat. At least she found the key still lodged in the lock and she took it to lock at the door from the inside. That should prevent anyone from wandering in before Leon woke up.
But what if someone did?
Ashley looked back at Leon, who was still unconscious, and then to the weapons left on the floor. With him like this, if anyone did manage to break in, it would be on her to protect herself and Leon too. The idea of holding a gun was uncomfortable to her, after all, the last time she held one in her hands she had been almost forced to shoot Leon.
The memory of that incident made her shudder. She had been so close to blasting him in the head. Before the memories of what happened got too intense, she shook them away. Not right now. She had to be brave, it was her turn to be the protector now.
Deciding to arm herself with just the pistol, Ashley decided she was too inexperienced with firearms to be carrying it around with her. She instead put it on the table nearby that would be within arms reach of Leon. In case something did happen, she would be able to defend him. Placing the gun there, Ashley realized that she had no idea if the thing was even loaded or not, nor did she even know how to. Worst comes to worst, there were other heavy-duty weapons on the floor, but she sincerely hoped she wouldn't have to fire them.
After this whole thing is over she's definitely signing up for some self defense and firearm classes immediately.
With that out of the way, Ashley took a moment to poke around the room to see if she could find anything else interesting or helpful. Most, if not all, of the journals there were written by Luis. Her heart panged thinking of the man. He had been the only person besides Leon and that mysterious woman who had actually helped them, she couldn't believe he was really gone.
Ashley made sure to make frequent trips back to the center of the room to see how Leon was doing. Each time she did, more and more color was returning to Leon's face. His breathing became stronger and the sickly veins were almost gone. He wasn’t quite conscious yet, which was a little worrying, but maybe his procedure was a little tougher because the parasite was a little too mature. Yeah, that was definitely it.
Rummaging around, Ashley managed to find a crumpled map of some kind, shoved inside a folder in a tucked corner of the room. It was labeled ‘When things go to shit’ and had some instructions and plans about how to escape through the caverns. Score! She and Leon should be able to make their way out here through that. Thankfully too, Ashley found some First Aid Spray in one of the cabinets nearby. She had some bruises and open sores, but Leon would likely need it more than her, so she set it aside for him later.
When she had exhausted herself searching the room, Ashley decided to take a seat on the floor next to the operation chair to wait for Leon to wake up. He still hasn't moved an inch and she was getting worried again.
With no clock, she didn't know how long it's been since the procedure, but it felt like it was taking longer for him to wake up than she did. Was it just because his parasite was more mature than hers had been due to the extra time or was something else wrong?
Either way, there was nothing she could realistically do, but wait. So Ashley just quashed those worries as best she could and stood vigil for her savior and friend.
Ashley might have fallen asleep a little because was startled awake by the arms overhead shifting and the chair itself rotating again. She jumped on her feet surprised, but realized that it was just returning to its default position.
“Ashley…?” Leon's weak voice called out. “Ashley?”
Her eyes widened and her heart jumped for joy, realizing that Leon was finally awake. She jolted to Leon's side. "I'm right here," she reassured him.
Leon was looking up at her, still fighting the haze of unconsciousness, but Ashley couldn’t help herself. She reached over and hugged him tight, feeling some tears in the corner of her eyes again. She was just so glad he was okay.
“I thought you were gonna die,” she confessed, hugging him close. Just thinking about it again made her emotional.
Ashley felt a gentle pat on her shoulder. “Okay,” Leon said in a reassuring tone and she knew he was.
He was okay.