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It feels impossible that Raccoon City General Hospital is still standing after all of this time. Leon thinks it should’ve collapsed years ago. The fighting, the bombing, the initial outbreak have chipped away at the building and yet it still remains. The resilience of humanity and its creations, beautiful or gruesome, will always be fascinating.
Leon’s standing outside of the hospital’s parking garage. The entrance is blocked off by the gate. He reaches out and presses his fingers against a bullet hole in the cement wall of the parking garage. It’s old. He can tell that much. The deterioration of the hospital over time has worn away at the natural shape of the bullet hole. Leon glances over at the metal gate. It’s damaged. Rusted over, broken in some spots, dented in others. A normal occurrence around here. Leon grabs the fence from the bottom and lifts it up. It squeaks loudly. The sound rings loudly and grates on Leon’s ears before jamming halfway. Leon groans as he leans down to walk underneath the gate.
The parking garage is filled with old, damaged cars covered in dust, cobwebs, and blood. Cement blocks and rocks are scattered on the floor. Leon strains his neck upwards. The ceiling is damaged. Cracks trail across the cement like rivers or lightning bolts. The ceiling vibrates momentarily and dust falls down. Leon lowers his head. Raccoon City General was cleared out for the most part. Things still wander in occasionally. Things that used to be innocent people just trying to get out. People who were just victims of Umbrella’s carelessness. Raccoon City will never be what it once was and no amount of fighting will ever get the victims justice.
Leon doesn’t like being back here. Raccoon City is his old haunt. He has more negative memories associated with this city than positive at this point. But there were reports of people sneaking in. It didn’t sound like a real threat, most likely college kids getting too curious and somehow having the balls to sneak in. If that’s the case, Leon’s hoping it’ll be fairly easy actually getting them out once he finds them. He can only pray that they’re still alive.
Something glints in the corner of his vision. Leon grabs his gun, aims it, and looks for the source.
It’s amazing what can survive the end of the world. An apartment in a high rise, a children’s toy, an old car, a phone. The phone is sitting abandoned on the ground by a car. It’s almost as if it was purposefully placed there. Leon lowers his gun and picks up the phone. It’s covered in dust and the screen is cracked. He presses down on the power button. The battery symbol pops up. Working, just dead.
Leon pockets the phone.
Leon drives slowly through Raccoon City, trying to find whoever was found sneaking it. Meanwhile, the phone sits charging in the cupholder. Throughout his career, he’s found letters, journal entries, and even the occasional voice recording detailing events and people right before everything went to Hell. Finding a phone isn't a shock, but finding it in the parking garage of the hospital is. Realistically, the phone should be destroyed.
Raccoon City is desolate. There’s nothing around. Or maybe there is and whatever is lurking in the shadows hasn’t come out into the light yet. Leon prefers the desolate option. Far less nerve-wracking than the thought of him being stalked by whatever has managed to survive in the city.
The phone lights up. Leon picks up the phone and briefly looks down. He swipes onto the home screen. No service. The phone isn’t buzzing with notifications. Leon stops the car. He flips through the texts that were never sent. I’m stuck out in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know when I’m getting back. Calls that failed. All to the same number. He clicks on Maps. The last location search was Raccoon City General. Were they trying to get into the city? Had this person worked for Umbrella or the National Guard? The virus had spread to the outskirts of Raccoon City fast. If the person was just an everyday civilian, why hadn’t they gone in the other direction? Why hadn’t they tried to escape? What was in the hospital for them?
Mainly out of pure curiosity at this point, Leon clicks on the Voice Memos app. There’s only one recording. And it’s dated for the day that everything went to shit. Leon turns up the volume, clicks on the recording, and starts the car.
"This is for Michelle. Um.” A man sighs. “It looks like there’s a chance that we might not get to talk again. And um-and that means we won’t get to finish our conversation from earlier tonight. But I uh.” There’s a long pause. Leon looks at the phone, half expecting the recording to be over. But it’s not. There’s still a minute left. “I hate my response. I hate that my first reaction was just me being…Afraid of-of change and of growing up and you know the idea of having a baby means that all that’s coming whether I want it or not. But I do. I do wanna have a kid with you and I should have said that right away but not because you wanted to hear it, but cause it’s true.” There’s a deep sigh. “And just whatever you decide to do and whatever happens tonight, I just.” The pause is longer than the others. The man sighs before sadly saying. “I think you would be an amazing mom.”
And the recording ends. Leon has to guess that the man never made it back home to start his family.
“Goddammit,” whispers Leon.
Leon will never know what happened. Which feels odd. He’s usually able to piece things together but this is it. All that there is is a short voice recording meant for someone who may also be dead. Or maybe she’s alive and wondering why the man she loved never came back home. Leon doubts she ever got any real answers.
He drives deeper into Raccoon City. He doesn’t end up finding anything or anyone out of place, but he does hear something. Pained screaming. He slams on breaks, grabs his gun, and gets out of the car. He looks up and around, trying to find the source of the screaming. It doesn’t take long.
An Amalgamation. How the hell is this thing even alive? It stands on top of the high rise. Leon’s heart drops as the Amalgamation consumes one man, and then grabs onto a second guy and consumes him too. Blood-curdling screams echo out and probably startling God knows what else is still in the city. It’s over quickly. The people that Leon came here to save are dead. He’s too late. Leon cocks his gun and aims it. He peers through his scope. His pointer finger hovers over the trigger. Come on, come on. It’s not a clean shot but this won’t be a one-and-done thing either. It’ll take more than a shot to the head to kill this thing.
The Amalgamation looks down at him. It roars loudly and jumps down before Leon can even think about shoot it. Leon follows the fall with the barrel of his gun. When the Amalgamation lands, the ground shakes and dust kicks up. Birds are startled and fly away from their nests in half destroyed buildings. There’s low rumbles coming from elsewhere in the city.
“Shit,” curses Leon. He grinds the soles of his boots against the ground to steady himself. Rocks and pebbles crunch underneath his weight. He stares at the Amalgamation. “Holy shit.”
It’s a truly unholy sight. Limbs stick out from the warped, mutated body, wriggling and waving almost desperately like they’re trying to escape or trying to grab onto something. Faces have merged together. The humanity of these poor people has been stripped from them. Leon backs away a bit to create a bit more distance between him and the Amalgamation. There’s one face in the middle that seems more human. It’s odd. It hasn’t been completely warped by the virus and remains somewhat unmarred by time and fighting. Though, there are what appear to be open wounds on the side of his face. They’re along his temple, cheek bone, and jawline on the right side of the face. The man is probably in his late twenties or early thirties if Leon had to guess, but it’s impossible to tell with how distorted the rest of the body is. He’s staring at Leon with wide, fearful eyes. His pupils are blown out. He growls and steps towards Leon. He garbles something. Another step. He garbles again. Another step.
“What the fuck,” curses Leon.
It’s not normal behavior. The Amalgamation seems a bit more conscious and aware. His mouth is opening and closing and Leon can vaguely make out his tongue running along the roof of his mouth. He’s speaking to him. Or, well, he’s trying. The words are warped and sound more like an animalistic growl rather than a human man’s face. But he’s obviously the center of this Amalgamation. He was infected and when it kicked it, he started attacking and absorbing people.
“Give it to me,” the man manages to growl out before charging at Leon.
Give what? Leon isn’t sure. There’s no time to ask questions. Leon isn’t sure that he wants to know what the man wants. And so, like always, Leon fires his gun.