☆ Lyon, a government conspiracy
Night had fallen, and the Nevada desert, illuminated by countless stars, was filled with the aura of death. The thin, white light cast a chilling glow, and the man sitting beside it silently tightened his coat. To avoid alerting his prey, he hadn't lit a campfire; one could imagine how cold it must be. "Will this method even work?" he couldn't help but complain, glancing at the man leaning against the modified ambulance, clutching his gun.
The man holding the gun wore a short brown jacket the same color as his hair. It wasn't thick, but he didn't complain about the temperature. He kept his head down, his long, soft bangs obscuring his right eye. "Didn't you hear the message from the bait? They were using flashlight beams to locate their companions. If you hadn't broken the flashlight, they might have been more easily fooled."
"I should have gone to be bait. It would have been better to lure Alice's team and Ye Xi's team apart than to sit and wait." The man sitting by the lamp muttered, glancing at the zombies that kept howling outside the railing, and spat out a mouthful of saliva.
The fenced-off area wasn't large, only enclosing the ambulance and a small flashlight; the five or six-meter square patch of sand was the only safe haven amidst the zombie horde. After what seemed like an eternity, a different voice finally broke the silence amidst the zombie roars. The brown-haired man, who had been alertly watching his surroundings, sprang to his feet, his silver-gray eyes narrowing. The man sitting by the flashlight was quicker; judging from his attire, he was likely a special forces soldier, so upon seeing the brown-haired man stand up, he realized what was happening and immediately jumped off the sand.
"Huff..." It sounded like heavy breathing. "Hey... Carlos... Alice... hurry..." The weak, tired voice grew louder, and the staggering figure became clearer. He was clearly exhausted; the long poles he carried on his shoulders slowed his movements, bent his back, and the constant dodging and attacks left him no time to speak. "Hurry! Ye Xi, she...!"
He stopped talking, clearly having seen the two people behind the iron fence, but they weren't the two he had imagined. This pause gave the zombie eyeing him an opportunity. "Down!" the brown-haired man shouted, immediately raising his gun and, after the zombie instinctively ducked, accurately blowing its head off as it approached from behind.
“Come around here, the door is right in front of the car.” He said to the man lying on the ground while shooting and clearing away the zombies around him, but the man didn’t move. “Shit!” he cursed under his breath. “Hunter, cover me!” With that, he rushed towards the railing, leaped up when he reached it, grabbed the top of the railing with both hands, and used his strength to flip over the three-meter-high railing.
"Leon, don't be impulsive!" the man called "Hunter" said urgently, but he was still a step too slow. Watching Leon throw ten long sensors over, the man helplessly raised his gun to cover Leon as he carried the exhausted and unconscious man toward the door.
Leon was quite agile; at 178cm tall, he carried the 180cm man with surprising speed, and they soon returned to safety without incident. "Hey, wake up." The hunter crouched down and patted the face of the unconscious man. His face was completely clean, clearly indicating he was a very tidy person.
Seeing that the man showed no signs of waking up, he frowned and looked up at Leon, whose brows were also furrowed: "What do we do now? Judging from what he just said, one of our targets is in danger. You don't think he's already..."
“No one can be sure right now…” Leon glanced at the ambulance modified for desert driving and said in a low voice, “Maybe this is just a trap. After all, we don’t know what their specific abilities are, or whether they can sense their surroundings. Just to be safe, you stay here, I’ll go out and look for them.”
"You're going out? Leon, are you sure you want to go out?" The hunter asked in surprise, looking at the hordes of zombies outside.
“Or you can go out, and I’ll stay.” Leon glanced at the hunter, his handsome face expressionless, yet it sent a chill down the hunter’s spine. He quickly waved his hand: “Alright, you go. Leave this to me. If he’s faking unconsciousness, I’ll interrogate him immediately.”
Leon snorted and left with his equipment. Three years ago, he reported the events at Havadville Airport, especially Ye Xi's extraordinary skills, to the government. He learned that Ye Xi, like Alice, was employed by that damned Umbrella Corporation and had a more than 90% chance of being infected with and adapting to the T-virus. This finally caught their attention. Having only one adaptee might be a rare exception, but having another adaptee was different; it meant they shared common cellular antibodies that allowed them to adapt to the T-virus.
Therefore, the higher-ups issued a clear order to find and capture these two precious adaptors as quickly as possible, or at least obtain their blood samples for comparative research. Only in this way could a drug be developed to resist the T-virus and save the few remaining humans and other organisms in the world.
Although studying two humans was against human morality, Leon chose to remain silent for the sake of the drug. He used a cell phone with a special circuitry that he had left Claire three years ago to contact her and tell her the truth about the situation, hoping she could use the team to find Ye Xi and Alice. Claire was kind-hearted and did not approve of this heinous practice, but she also deeply understood that this was the only way to save humanity and restore civilized society to its original state. Therefore, after a long struggle, she reluctantly agreed—the experiment could only begin after obtaining the consent of Ye Xi and Alice themselves.
Lyon is still unable to shake off the feelings he had at the time, and he can't tell Claire the truth. Whether they agree or not, the experiment will continue. He just never expected them to use this method to lure out the adaptors—a method that could very well harm innocent people! Lyon had strongly opposed it, but what did his single voice mean in the face of the unyielding orders from above? He could only apply to lead the team himself, hoping that the already dwindling human population would suffer fewer losses.
The hunter watched Leon's departing figure and sneered inwardly. He understood Leon's concerns, of course; otherwise, the higher-ups wouldn't have sent him to monitor him. But what did humanity and morality mean in the apocalypse? Human rights, such a hollow concept, were already a dead word in peacetime, let alone now. As long as he could survive, that was enough; where did he find the energy to care about the safety of others?
The hunter, who was cursing Leon as an idiot, sneered and was about to turn around to look at the mercenary who was either unconscious or not when he felt a pain in the back of his neck. With a final curse of "Damn it!", he truly passed out.
"Phew... thankfully we had training in this kind of feigning unconsciousness to infiltrate, otherwise... tsk tsk, I didn't expect that handsome young man to actually start to suspect anything." The mercenary muttered to himself as he dragged the unconscious man's body. He wondered how Ye Xi's mind could work so fast, coming up with such a treacherous idea. Indeed, women are not to be trifled with, Nikolai thought to himself, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow.
The surrounding zombies had already been mostly cleared away by Ye Xi and her companions, so Leon didn't have to spend much time before spotting the unusually large group of zombies ahead. His heart tightened, and he quickened his pace, firing immediately at the cluster of zombies once he was within range—could something have really gone wrong?
Having undergone professional training, Leon was no longer a rookie cop (←but he was genuinely inexperienced and naive at first). With a few quick, accurate shots, he managed to hit zombies in the head even in the darkness—and while moving at high speed! Approaching the horde of zombies, Leon swiftly switched from gun to knife, efficiently dispatching the remaining few. His gaze then fell upon four zombies lying prone in the center of the horde. Clearly, there was something beneath them, and based on Leon's experience, it was definitely a person!
Without delay, Leon strode up to the four zombies, raising his pistol again with a speed so fast it was almost imperceptible. But after raising his gun, he stopped—something about these four zombies felt off… Just as he began to suspect something, a cold glint suddenly flashed into his eyes, swift and without hesitation!
Unable to react in time, Leon swiftly dodged to the side. A cold glint of light brushed past his face, wiping away a few strands of hair, leaving a thin, shallow gash on his cheek, enough to draw blood. Leon immediately jumped back, his eyes fixed on the figure crawling out from beneath the four zombies. She kicked away the four now-dead zombies with a hint of disdain, then brushed the sand off her clothes, brushed her hair back from her face, and looked at Leon. Her hand holding her hair paused for a moment, then casually lowered it. With a flourish, her other hand deftly tucked the dagger into her leg pouch.
"Oh my, isn't this Lyon, my benefactor who saved me at Havadville Airport three years ago? Long time no see, what brings you here all of a sudden? I thought you were one of Umbrella's people... Huh? What happened to your face? Did someone hurt you? What a pity for such a handsome face..." Ye Xi said with an innocent smile, feigning surprise.
"Damn it..." Leon muttered, looking at Ye Xi with a wary expression. "You actually tricked me. Do you really have the ability to sense your surroundings?"
No, that awesome ability belongs to that guy, Ah Quan. Ye Xi answered honestly in her heart, but said nothing aloud. She looked at Leon with a relaxed and innocent expression. After staring at each other for more than ten seconds, Ye Xi sighed: "Hey, do we have to keep facing each other like this? Tsk, the zombies around us are getting closer and closer."
“You know what I want.” Leon suddenly dropped his guard, glanced at the approaching zombie out of the corner of his eye, and then looked intently into Ye Xi’s eyes. “I want you to cooperate, without resorting to force.”
All her thoughts flashed in an instant. A dark light flickered in Ye Xi's eyes, and her extraordinary perception allowed her to put on an enigmatic smile again. She took a few steps back: "Fine, if you also have that ability. However, before that..."
"Hey, buddy, your package!" Accompanied by the roar of a car engine and rock music, the teasing voice grew closer and closer. Leon instinctively looked over, but before he could see what it was, a huge black object suddenly fell into his arms and knocked him to the ground. Leon quickly reacted, picked up the object in his arms, and looked closely. It turned out to be the hunter who had already fainted!
Shit! Leon removed the hunter from him and stood up. The car was already far away—including Ye Xi, who had been laughing in a very inappropriate way earlier.
"Haha, did you see that guy's expression just now?" Nikola laughed as he drove, the heavy metal music blaring from the car making him even happier. "It was so satisfying to mess with someone from Umbrella!"
"I know him, but he's not one of Umbrella's men." Ye Xi wasn't in as good a mood as Nikolai. Umbrella, or more accurately, Wesker, was already giving her enough headaches, and now there was this government too?! Tsk, maybe governments all over the world think the same thing.
"What?" The heavy metal rock music drowned out Ye Xi's voice, and Nikolai, who hadn't heard what Ye Xi said, asked loudly.
Ye Xi frowned, raised her hand and turned off the music: "I mean, they belong to the government, not Umbrella!"
Nikolai's smile froze. Ye Xi didn't notice Nikolai's unease. She looked straight ahead and continued, "I roughly know what they're up to. This car is clearly a three-seater, so one of them must have already made contact with Alice and the others. Based on my professional knowledge, they definitely want to capture Alice and me for comparative research to develop a drug suitable for all of humanity."
“…Human experimentation? That’s impossible…” Although Nikolai said it was impossible, he knew in his heart that it was definitely true, otherwise his voice would not have been so soft. He just didn’t acknowledge that this was a complete violation of human rights.
"Why not?" Ye Xi fell into deep thought. "Do you know? If any government in the world could be the first to master and monopolize this technology applicable to all humanity, that country, or rather that government, could become the government of the entire world, the ruler of the new world! This is not an exaggeration. In the past, although peace seemed calm on the surface, everyone knew that undercurrents were constantly surging. Who didn't have ambitions? World War I and World War II eroded their strength, and now, a new confrontation based on technology has begun underground! If a country masters this technology, it can pretend to be doing good deeds on the surface while secretly threatening and pressuring others to sign one seemingly fair treaty after another, and then... hehe..."
Nikolai sighed, a hint of seriousness mixed with helplessness in his expression: "Hey, Ye Xi, you know what? Being too aware isn't good either. I had a feeling the moment I saw their clothes and the equipment in this vehicle, but I just didn't want to say it out loud. As a former mercenary, even though I've been brainwashed, I know all the ulterior motives of those high-ranking officials, they just pretend not to. Now, nobody can withstand this kind of stimulation. For your own sake, and for the sake of others, you'd better not tell anyone except those directly involved. People's hearts are even more unpredictable now, maybe someone will target you and Alice first, starting with so-and-so from so-and-so's place."
Ye Xi stared at Nikolai's serious profile with some surprise. This was the first time she had seen Nikolai like this, away from his usual joking and teasing. "Do you think I'm really that stupid as to go around telling everyone? As for the mole in that team, I think I know who it is. But right now, the most important thing is to find Alice and Carlos. The person who got close to Alice and Carlos has probably already received a warning from them."
“Hehe, me too,” Nikolai said with a grin. “We still have the communicator we used to contact each other. I just briefly explained the situation to Carlos, and he’s not stupid; he understood right away. They’re deliberately heading deeper into the desert now. I know the direction, so just watch me.” As he spoke, he turned on some music and started singing along loudly, though to be honest, it wasn’t very good.
"Tch, so what if they're best buddies?" Ye Xi muttered, covering her ears, completely unaware of what was going on.
Author's Note: Leon is currently a minor character, and his identity is somewhat different from his role in the game... Because of Momo-chan's long review, I'm still figuring out how to improve the supporting character, which is truly not an easy task for me (facepalm). Moving is the worst thing ever... and not having internet for a few days is even worse... OJZ Please leave a comment! By the way, do you all miss Cursed Lord? ~
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
