MEMENTO MORI
iii. THE LION, THE UNICORN, AND THE MAIDEN
❝WHO TURNS A MUSEUM INTO A POLICE STATION?❞

"THIS IS NOT HOW I IMAGINED MY FIRST DAY," Leon mumbled, using the combat knife that Lieutenant Branagh had given him to cut through the thick duct tape surrounding the panel that controlled the gate blocking them from the west side of the building. His words made Ayla pause, feeling some kind of pity for the boy since Raccoon City had turned into a wasteland during his first day on the force. Leon was dressed in a fresh uniform, being stained slightly at the knees and sleeves of blood. But, his clothing offered a lot more protection than hers. Still, she wore Leon's jacket that he had suggested she keep after hers had been torn up by the zombies.

"Didn't expect a city overrun by the dead?" Ayla asked, raising a single brow as she leaned against the wall. She tilted her head, watching Leon mess up the panel as he opened it to reveal the lever inside. "I would assume they teach you that sort of thing at the academy."

"I must have missed the day we went over this," Leon chuckled, lifting the lever up which caused a green light to blink at them. After a few moments, the gate began to hiss as it lifted itself up into the ceiling. They waited until the light remained a steady green, granting them safe passage into the waiting room on the other side. "After you, ma'am."

She entered the room first, glancing back to make sure Leon was indeed behind. They had already gotten one medallion from the Lion statue in the main hall and now, they only needed to find two more in the station. In the waiting room, itself, there was nothing of interest other than a potted plant that Leon took clippings of. He mentioned how Marvin had told him the herbs were good to use for a medicinal paste that sped up the body's natural healing abilities. It was what he had used on her wounds, lessening her chance of getting an infection from the human bites. Ayla had read somewhere that a human mouth had more bacteria than a dog's, but she wasn't sure how true that was. But, she was sure about the herbs' healing properties. They were useful to have and there was always an abundance of them throughout Raccoon City since they grew all over the Arklay Mountains.

"Nothing in here," Ayla said, urging Leon to follow as they moved past the waiting room. Behind the privacy panel that sectioned off the room, they found a door that led them into the area only R.P.D. personnel were allowed.

It was pitch black in the long corridor that awaited them. Leon's flashlight provided some light, but darkness awaited them and Ayla didn't want to think what monsters hid in the shadows. She took out her own flashlight from her backpack, using it to illuminate her path as they continued down the hall. The smell became stronger as they walked and it was difficult for Ayla to ignore as she tried not to gag. Just as the east side of the police station, blood was splattered all over the walls and pooled at their feet. However, deep scratches marred the walls causing Ayla to take a moment to examine them.

"What could have done that?" Ayla wondered out loud, looking back at Leon who stared at the scratches too. No human ━━ infected or not ━━ could have done something like that.

However, Leon did not get the chance to speak. A radio sparked to life, causing the two to pause as they flashed their lights down the hall. Almost all the windows were boarded with wooden planks, but Ayla could see a few that weren't. Hopefully, they wouldn't be a problem. She hadn't forgotten how the streets were littered with the dead. Leon walked forward, heading toward the slumped over officer at the end of the hall.

"Be careful," she said, watching Leon crouch down next to the corpse. The radio continued to speak, talking about touching down at R.P.D. within the next half hour. Was it Search and Rescue? Ayla hoped it was the government sending out someone to help, realizing that it would be best to escape the city soon after the close calls she had. She still wanted her story, but Ayla did have some value in her own life.

Leon lifted the officer's head, frozen as he watched the man's jaw unhinge and slowly drift downward as the crimson tendrons glistened in the light of the flashlights. Ayla held her breath, trying not to gag as she looked away. The sound of the officer's radio continued to buzz, but it slowly drifted into nothing. But, the silence didn't last as something clanked down the hall. Ayla flashed her light, noticing a soda can rolling down the hallway.

"We're not alone," Leon mumbled, holding up his gun.

Ayla did the same, standing a few paces behind him. The sound of rain and the croaking from the broken pipes mixed with the static from the radio, but other than that, the hallway was silent. It made the hairs on the back of Ayla's neck stand, knowing that the dead walked amongst them but they could not pinpoint where the danger was.

They rounded the corner, stopping in their tracks when they saw an officer hanging overheard from a broken pipe. The pipe went through the back of his head and out his mouth, making Ayla gag as she moved past it. Blood pooled underneath the corpse, but she was careful not to slip. Leon stayed for a moment, staring up before he followed Ayla. "What could have done something like that?"

"I... I don't want to think about that," Ayla mumbled, shaking her head as she continued down the hallway and tried to forget about the corpse. Instead, she tried to focus on something else as she tried to open the door on her right. CONFISCATED ITEMS STORAGE was engraved in bold letters on the door, but above it, there was a three-leaf clover that stared back. "We need a key," Ayla mused, letting go of the locked door. "Some of the doors have these symbols and only a certain key opens them. I saw a similar door in the East Wing."

"That's weird..."

"It sort of makes sense when you remember this place used to be a museum," Ayla hummed, taking a glance at his confused expression. Her parents still remembered when this place was a museum, but Ayla had always known it as a police station.

"Who turns a museum into a police station?"

"Raccoon City, apparently," Ayla answered, shrugging her shoulders as she continued to observe their surroundings. She noticed a poster on the wall that displayed a smiling Lieutenant Marvin Branagh. It deemed him officer of the month. "Look at that," Ayla smiled, directing Leon's attention to it. "Glad we still have him around to help us."

"He needs a hospital," Leon mentioned. And, Ayla agreed. Once they found a way out of the station, they needed to take Marvin to a hospital to get his wounds treated ━━ one preferably outside of Raccoon City.

They kept walking down the hall and Ayla tried her best to ignore the sinking feeling within her head, feeling each of her footsteps slow. She could hear shuffling, either on the same floor or above them. It stopped for a moment before it picked up again. The two continued to speak in hushed tones. "We need to leave the city," Ayla added. "There's no functional hospitals left. Everything is overrun by the dead."

Leon nodded. "Okay, so, in that case, we need to find Claire and Areum. They were planning on coming to the station too. There's a city not too far from here. We can make it there by foot if we need to."

"Sounds like a plan," Ayla nodded. "Safety in numbers, after all."

As they moved deeper, their surroundings only became more grotesque with whole walls and floors being stained with crimson red. The rain coming in from the broken windows caused a chill to remain in the air, making Ayla shiver despite wearing Leon's jacket. Her eyes flickered to the deep scratches into the walls and the metal doors. It made her wrinkle her nose, wondering what kind of monster could have done that.

"It's best not to think about it," Leon said, following her gaze to the scratches.

They moved slowly, careful not to slip on the mixture of rainwater and blood. The whole hallway was flooded, causing the water to seep into Ayla's shoes. She could hear the squeaking of her boots with each step. The wind howled outside, making Ayla flinch. She kept close to Leon.

Something slammed itself against one of the closed windows, making them both jump as they hit the wall behind them. The window wasn't broken, but there were no boards to cover it up either. The zombie on the other side slammed her fists against the glass, snarling at them as she watched with pale eyes.

"I don't think the glass will hold," Ayla whispered, looking down at her gun as she counted the bullets. "I only have six bullets. It was all Marvin had."

"I have eight," Leon replied, letting out a heavy sigh as he urged Ayla to keep walking. He hoped the zombie would calm down once they were out of sight. "It's not worth it on just one."

However, they barely got a few steps in when the glass shattered behind them and the woman fell in. The glass pierced her abdomen, but she didn't show a sign of pain as she stood to her feet. They ran down the hall, feeling their heart race as the woman screamed. They entered a room on their right, one the station used as a press room. Leon locked the door behind them, but the zombie continued to slam against it. Ayla took in deep breaths, looking around the room for an exit but her eyes caught a few documents scattered on the tables. She caught the title 'RECORD OF EVENTS' and she shoved the papers into her backpack. She'll determine later if they were worth anything. She flinched, hearing the door behind them begin to crack.

"Damn it, this door is locked!" Leon gasped out, trying to open the only other door in the room. He rapidly looked around, finding small windows that led to another part of the station. It was broken with blood covering it, someone had already used it as an escape. The door burst open and the zombie screamed as she rushed forward. Leon pushed Ayla toward the window as he kept the zombie at bay. Through there, Ayla! Go!"

Ayla went first, feeling the jolt in her ankles as she landed on the other side. Leon followed quickly behind, much to her relief. She immediately shushed him before he could speak, pointing to another officer that had turned. He was halfway down the hall, slamming his fists against a vending machine. He hadn't noticed them yet. Ayla looked around, noticing the path behind them was barricaded. Next to the barricade, there was a body laid on the floor. He was a civilian from the looks of his clothing. Why hadn't these people evacuated when the virus had hit?

"We can only go forward," Leon whispered, gesturing for her to follow behind him. They noticed a door that read West Office, marking that as their first destination to search. They were able to sneak by the zombie at the vending machine, feeling relieved when he didn't notice. Leon opened the door to the office, allowing Ayla to enter first and he followed.

Inside, the office was nothing short of chaos.

The smell was what hit Ayla first, making her gag when she noticed the three rotting bodies spread throughout the office. One was slumped over the desk that once belonged to Officer George Scott, no doubt it was the officer himself. Another corpse was in the supervisor's office, sprawled out on the floor with a caved-in head. It looked as if it had been dragged in there; its blood was smeared against the tile floor. Her eyes scanned the rest of the office, seeing what little the flashlights illuimated. There was another door at the other side of the office, one that led into the main hall. Ayla tried to open it, but it was locked and she didn't have the key. There was a blue spade on the door, making her frown. With the camera hanging around her neck, she snapped some photos of the office and the corpses. She went back toward Leon, noticing his gaze on a banner that hung above them ━━ 'WELCOME LEON'.

Leon found a note over a desk that was partially stained with blood, rookie's first assignment given by Lieutenant Branagh himself. She read over his shoulder, realizing it was a fun task set up to get him to unlock his desk using the initials of his fellow officers' names. The team building exercise felt strange in their current situation.

"Be glad you're not here, Rookie," Leon read, noticing the small note written in the corner of the page. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he tucked away the note in his pocket.

"You would have ended up like them if you had been here," Ayla commented, looking at the corpses in the room. She remembered the first few days of the outbreak when most of the city was still alive. Most people had evacuated, but the ones who stayed had faced horrors no one could prepare for.

"I wish I had come sooner," Leon mumbled, leaning against his desk as he stared at the blood-stained floor. "I could have helped."

"Well, you saved me, Leon. So, I'm glad you showed up when you did," Ayla added, offering the man a small smile. She recalled chatting with Officer Rita about a few weeks ago about the new rookie, mostly whether he would be cute or not. It was difficult not to wonder where Rita was not, but she was most likely damned to forever wander the halls of the station in a deathless haze. "You know," Ayla began softly, "everyone was so annoyed with my presence here that they were really excited to dump all my inquiries on you."

A smile appeared on Leon's lips. "I don't see how anyone could think you're annoying, Ayla."

Ayla let out a small laugh as she went through a couple of files that were laid out haphazardly, most of them were about simple robberies or traffic complaints. "Everyone else would beg to differ."

Leon quieted down after that comment. It hit Ayla as well as she thought about how everyone was gone. She had known these people for years and they had become a part of her weekly routine as she reported on the cases they worked. But, now they were all gone. Ayla's eyes glistened as she glanced at Rita's desk and noticed a picture of the woman, her husband and their two sons. Ayla had met them briefly before, but didn't know much else about them. She hoped they had made it out of the city in time.

"So, uh, what kind of things are you looking for in your article?" Leon suddenly asked as he looked through the drawers for name plates, coming up with uneaten energy bars, ammo, and random pieces of chocolate.

"Classified information, I'm afraid," Ayla grinned, sparing the man a glance. Leon was surprised by her answer, but immediately realized she was joking when he faced her too. "Kidding, Leon. I guess... I guess I'm looking for the cause of this outbreak and trying to bring the people who caused this to justice."

"You think someone caused this outbreak on purpose?" He asked as his eyes widened, raising a brow at the brunette.

"I don't know yet," Ayla replied softly. "I hope not, you know? It's scary knowing that someone could have something that dangerous to cause an outbreak on this scale. Over eighty percent of Raccoon City is dead. And, that's the number before the radio station was hit."

"It's end of the fucking world, if anything," Leon muttered as he glanced toward the closed door that led to the west hallway, deeper into the station.. He could hear the zombies growling on the other side and it was enough to cause shivers to go down his back. "Have you found anything useful yet?"

"No, not really," Ayla replied as she dug through another drawer. "Just a bunch of wrappers and cigarettes."

"No, I meant for your article."

"Oh," Ayla whispered. She had to admit she was surprised Leon wanted to know more about the article. Most people tended to brush her off. "Yeah, well, they think that everything was initially spread by rats and then made its way into the sewers and, finally, into our drinking water. Good thing I carry a water bottle."

"Jesus," Leon mumbled as he shook his head, shocked by her words. "It's worse than we thought, huh?"

"Definitely."

Silence had taken a hold of them as the two shuffled through countless paperwork and the desks of their fallen co-workers. Ayla walked into the office, looking around. There was a safe in the back, but she didn't know the combination and she doubted it would be lying around in the desk. She checked the desk for documents, looking over anything that involved Umbrella. However, she only found arrest warrants and print-outs of emails. Nothing of importance. And, nothing that mentioned Chief Irons. Ben would have liked those.

"Nothing of use here," Ayla said, returning to Leon. He had managed to unlock his desk, looking through the things his co-workers had left him. "Did you find anything?"

"Just some candy bars and a card signed by all of them," Leon said, gesturing to the desk. He had put all the bars into Ayla's backpack, in case the two of them got hungry later. And, some sugar may help the Lieutenant as well.

Ayla went around him, looking at the card. "It's sweet. I bet you would have liked it here a lot."

"Yeah, I bet I would have."

She sighed, patting his back awkwardly. He gave her a smile, appreciating her attempt to cheer him up. "Come on," she said softly. "We should keep moving."

"Yeah, lead the way."

They headed out, proceeding down the hall. They were silent, not wanting to alert the dead. There was another zombie pounding at a boarded window, but there was less of a risk of it getting in. They felt a little safer, turning right. There were stairs that lead upstairs and a room to their right. They entered the room first. It was a little office attached to a darkroom. They find some supplies in the lockers, bullets and a few energy bars. There wasn't much else in the room, causing the two to leave. The zombie at the window had left fortunately, leaving the hallway with sounds of rain pelting against the building.

They headed up the stairs, pausing when they saw a body leaned against a shutter wall. Dry blood caked her clothes, skin, and hair. There was too much blood. It was smeared against the walls and pooled underneath the woman. Ayla couldn't breathe, immediately recognizing the woman. "That's Rita Phillips," Ayla mumbled numbly. "She has a husband named Paul and two kids, Jonah and Liam. She... She was the only one here who gave me the time of day."

"I'm sorry," Leon said, sighing. He didn't know the deceased woman personally, but it still affected him. Rita would have been one of his co-workers, someone he would have gotten to know. And, it still hurt to see another person receive such a horrific fate.

The second floor didn't have much to explore, considering it had been cut off by the shutter door that Rita was leaned against. They checked the men's locker room, but there was a broken boiler that was blasting out hot steam. It was strange how it could have happened, making Ayla wonder who had been there before them. They needed to turn off the water pressure, but they were missing the cog that would turn the pipes. They couldn't proceed this way without suffering from burns.

"This leads down to the S.T.A.R.S. office."

"How do you know?"

"My boyfriend was a S.T.A.R.S. member."

"Boyfriend?"

"Well, ex-boyfriend," Ayla sighed, shrugging her shoulders as Chris Redfield came to mind. She had met him many months ago in a small diner when his buddies had encouraged him to talk to her. Through him, she had met Jill Valentine and Nadine Ellis. But, she had no idea where any of them were now. "He kind of broke up with me and then disappeared off the face of the Earth."

"I see..." Leon mumbled, listening to her words as he checked the lockers for anything useful. He gasped, flinching back when a body fell out and hit his feet. He clutched his gun as he waited for it to move. But, it remained still.

"Oh, it's as if this station is messing with us," Ayla mumbled, checking the pockets of the corpse. She was able to find a wallet, looking for a driver's license to see who the man was. Another civilian, but he was covered in bite marks. She frowned, staring at her own bites. Did the virus spread through bites? Marvin had been bitten, but he seemed to be fine. Well, as fine as he could be after almost bleeding out.

There was another locker, but it had a lock on it and they didn't know the code. But, that didn't stop Leon as he broke it open. Well, that was one way to do it. There was a case of shotgun shells inside and some clothing. Leon huffled, taking the box. "Would be useful if we had a shotgun."

"Yeah, but we are in a police station so I'm sure we'll come across a shotgun at one point. We could always check the armory too," Ayla smiled, shaking her head.

Lastly, there was a portable safe sitting on the towel bench, intriguing both of them. After some trial and error, they were able to figure it out. It played a happy tune when unlocked, causing the both of them to smile. There was a spare part inside and it looked like a key to a keyboard. They shrugged, putting it into Ayla's backpack for safe keeping.

They continued up the stairs. On the third floor, there was a zombie waiting for them. However as it reached out to them, it ended up falling off the railing and splattering against the floor. Better it happens to it than us.

The third floor felt unfinished. There were boxes and useless supplies from the station's museum days everywhere, clearly the floor was being used as storage. They could hear the dead, but they were unsure if the noise was echoing from downstairs or if there was someone on the floor with them. They saw an eerie unmoving shadow, causing them to pause. Leon told Ayla to stay behind him, pulling out his gun. However, when they rounded the corner, they saw a small statuette on a desk next to a lamp. They both relaxed, but they could still hear sounds coming from the other side of the door next to them. It felt as if the whole station was still alive and it was actively trying to kill them. But there was a glimmer of hope on the desk, they found a special key ━━ the blue spade's key. Ayla tucked it away in her pocket, knowing it would come in handy downstairs.

The hallway beyond was pitch black except for moonlight that came through the windows. Something bolted across the window outside, causing both of them to freeze in fear. "What in the world?" Leon mumbled, sparing a glance at Ayla who only shrugged.

They could hear a window shattering, one out of their sight. Whatever it was, it was inside with them. They rounded the corner, fearing the monster they may see. Ayla wondered if it was the same beast that had caused the destruction on the first floor. Nothing seemed out of place, but they could still hear the noises. At the end of the hall, they found a note.

"To any survivors," Leon read quietly, holding out the note that had a few bloody fingerprints and smudged writing. "Consider this a gift for anyone still unfortunate enough to be alive. Keep your eyes peeled for those creepy fucks that look like they were skinned alive. Lickers, we call them. They're blind as bats, but their hearing more than makes up for that."

"Lickers..." Ayla echoed, wrinkling her nose as she looked out the window. "That sounds disgusting."

Leon turned the page around, noticing more writing on the back. "So long as you don't run around like a total idiot, guns a-blazing, you should be able to slip right by them... probably.  Either way, make like my grandma and creep around as slowly as possible around them. Anyway, not that I wanna go, but duty calls. That, and I've got a friend to avenge."

Leon paused, looking over the note.

"It's signed David, must have been an officer here," he said after a moment of silence, tucking away the note to show Marvin later. With the zombies and now, lickers, Ayla wasn't sure if coming to the station was such a good idea after all.

They entered the main storage room, immediately pausing when the smell hit them. It was easily the worst room they had been to as the smell of rotting flesh and mold flooded their nose. Something black grew on the walls, looking like cocoons or something similar. Ayla didn't dare get too close, but she did take out her camera to snap a few pictures. There were paintings and knickknacks scattered everywhere, all the items from the museum that hadn't been shipped off elsewhere. They were able to find the Maiden statue from the notebook, but she was locked behind steel bars.

"What the hell?" Leon muttered, seeing multiple dead bodies on the other side of the bars. They were all wearing police uniforms, mangled together as if someone had torn them apart. The cell was  boarded up with barbed wire with a C-4 bomb strapped to it, but it was missing a denotator.

Ayla found a note while Leon was looking around, some guy's scribblings. The writing was close to being illegible. "Damn those corporate assholes, they cut me off. After all I've done for them..." She paused, looking further down. "I boarded all those filthy pigs up in a steel pen, and set some C4. All I gotta do is detonate it and it's sayonara suckers."

"What are you reading?" Leon asked, approaching.

"I'm not too sure," Ayla muttered, looking over the deranged message. Someone clearly out of their mind had written it, talking about how they were excited to kill a bunch of cops for everything they had done to him.  She handed the notes to Leon, letting him read it. "Apparently, he needs some music for all the fun he's having."

"A person did this?" Leon breathed out, shaking his head as he handed the note back for Ayla to put into her bag. He did his best to ignore the dead bodies and the thought of a deranged man wandering the station, trying to focus on the maiden statue instead. "We need to get in there."

"We'll need to find the detonator," Ayla commented, looking over the steel bars and the wooden planks. The barbed wire was a little extra, but she didn't expect anything else from someone hellbent on revenge. "I'm sure whoever went through the trouble of this has the detonator somewhere in the station."

When they deemed there was nothing else they could do in that room for now, they headed out the other door in the storage room that led them into the library. The whole place felt like a maze to Ayla, making her frown. At least, the library's lights were still working. The swinging chandelier was the only sound they heard, but they were still worried about any zombies that may be lingering in the shadows.

Leon's radio sparked to life, breaking the silence as it caught both of their attention. "Leon and Ayla, it's Marvin. I need you two back here ASAP."

"Are you okay, Marvin?" Leon asked.

"I've got something to show you," he said. "It's important."

"Copy that," Leon replied. "We'll be right there."

Though, first, they headed into a side room where they found the Unicorn statue and were able to get the medallion from it. Then, they headed through the library, careful not to disturb the dazed zombies before heading into the main hall where Marvin was. It was fornatue they had found the spade-shaped key since they needed it to unlock the door. Ayla couldn't get over how strange the station was, especially now that the dead had taken over.

"There you two are," Marvin groaned, clutching his side. He was still seated on the couch. He looked paler than before, making Ayla worry about his injuries. She could see the bite marks peeking out from underneath the ripped clothing. It made her pause. She had been bitten too, multiple times. Would the same happen to her? Marvin cleared his throat, showing them his laptop that was monitoring the security feeds. "Take a look."

Both Leon and Ayla looked. He zoomed in on one of the cameras, CAM5. It showed two women trying to open a gate, being locked outside of the station. "Yes!" Leon smiled. "I knew they'd make it."

"You know them?" Marvin asked, out of breath as he looked up at Leon.

Leon nodded, pointing to the monitor. "It's Claire and Areum. I came into town with them. We met at the gas station right outside of town."

Marvin nodded. "You two can get to that courtyard through the second floor, east side," he muttered, pointing toward a door. From a distance, Ayla could see the spade design on the door. Luckily, they had the key. "Go, quickly, before something else happens."

"Alright, we're on it." Leon nodded. However, he wasn't blind to the man's pain. He cleared his throat, placing a gentle hand on the older man's shoulder. "Thanks, Lieutenant."

"You gonna be okay?" Ayla asked softly.

"I'm still breathing for now," Marvin said, nodding his head.

"Good," she replied. "Keep it that way."

Her attention drifted back to Leon. He gave her a kind smile. "Ready to go?"

Ayla nodded. "Let's go save your friends."

♡

IT'S BEEN SUCH A LONG TIME SINCE I UPDATED, oh my gosh. I checked the history on google docs and apparently, I had finished the rough draft back on november 21st, 2021 but then I never touched the story again. So, it is completely my fault for taking forever to get this chapter out! I haven't even written a sentence for chapter 4 yet, but it is what it is! Slow progress is still progress! I would rather take months to get chapters out then to never update ever again, but hoping to get this book finished one day! Or, at least, the RE2 portion of it.

But, here it is! Most of the second half of the chapter is just summarizing what happened, but honestly, I am okay with that because I didn't want to go too in detail about what happened because I am sure most of us have played the game! I don't know why I originally wrote it like that, but I just went with it because I wasn't too keen on wanting to rewrite it.

Leon and Ayla's relationship is slowly developing! I want them to be friends first before anything romantic happens, but hey! In high intensity situations, human beings have a tendency to wear their hearts on their sleeves! I'm excited to keep writing for them because I adore them.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! We'll most likely meet Claire and Areum in the next chapter! And, hopefully, one day, I'll post my Claire fic! But, who knows tbh!

━━ AMARA
[ CHAPTER POSTED ━━ 05.22.2022 ]