12. Journey To The Center.

The streets are empty aside from a few civilians rushing to take cover. Leon runs down the street to his apartment building and leaps up the stairs.

He opens the door and calls out. "Alex!"

She pops out of the bathroom confused. "You're back!" She exclaims.

"Hey, it's time to go. Hurry and grab your things okay?" He pats her head gently as he brushes past her to go the bedroom.

"Okay~" She runs to her room grabbing random clothes and toys she had laying around the room and stuffs them into her little pink backpack.

Leon enters his bedroom and throws his backpack onto the bed. He shoves some spare clothes and other essential items into it. He quickly zips it up and slings it over his shoulder as he moves back to the front door.

Alexis is already packed and waiting at the door. "You got everything you need?"

"Yes, I wish I could bring everything though..."

"It's alright, we'll get new stuff later okay?"

"Okay~"

He holds her hand as they rush down the stairs. Once outside, he hides her inside his cloak and they disappear into the shadows.

Making it back to the front gate, it looks like the soldiers are just barely holding on. The zombies made it up the wall and have started attacking the soldiers.

Using the chaos to his advantage, Leon climbs up the wall and walks along it until he gets far enough away from the fighting.

Since the front gate is the only exit, he can't exit through a door and has to jump from the top of the wall. He moves himself over the edge as carefully as possible. He holds the wall with one hand and Alexis with the other. 

He lets go of the wall and drops, landing hard on his feet. Normally this kind of drop would pose no problem for him, but with the added weight of Alexis, he struggled to remain standing.

Nevertheless, he lands on his feet and runs down a road that leads away from the settlement. He can feel the pain in his knees while he runs.

He summons spike and sets Alexis on his back. He wants to cover as much ground as possible before it gets too dark.

Two hours later the sun begins to set so they take shelter in a two story abandoned house. Leon kicks the door in and spike runs inside to make sure it's clear. After making a lap around and being certain there is no danger, he returns.

Leon takes this as the all clear signal and walks inside with Alexis. It's definitely run down, but it should be good enough for the night. He moves the broken down front door back and uses some furniture to keep it in place.

Finally able to take a breath, he collapses on the floor panting. They finally escaped from that place and managed to steal quite a bounty. Hopefully they will just think he died during the battle or something. Maybe they won't even be able to fend off the horde. Then there won't be anyone to left to worry about. Either way, they need to get some rest and leave as soon as the sun comes up.

They need to put as much distance between them and that settlement as possible. Alexis pulls out a blanket she packed earlier and Leon rolls her up into a little burrito. She falls asleep pretty quickly. Leon stays up for a bit to keep watch.

He looks out the window periodically but there's nothing out there besides the normal amount of zombies. Leon ends up falling asleep, leaving Spike to guard the pair. Thankfully he doesn't need to sleep and can stay alert all night.

...

Early in the morning, Leon is walking down a street leading away from the settlement. He's carrying Alexis in his arms while spike takes care of any infected they run into. Spike would only need help if a higher level monster shows up or a large group.

While walking down the road, Leon suddenly feels like he's being watched. He looks around but doesn't see anyone, not even on the top of the buildings around him. That's when a man appears from one of the alleys and slowly walks towards them.

Leon is obviously surprised by this. He didn't think it was possible for anyone to follow them. Especially with him using his cloak whenever there were shadows. He almost looks like a ninja, wearing all black and has a hood covering most of his face.

The man walks over to Leon with a package in his hands.

"Are you Leon?" The man says in a raspy voice. Leon's not sure how he should answer. The man doesn't look hostile but you never know. Fortunately that's not the case here.

"Uh yeah, that's me." Leon hesitantly replies.

"Here." He gives Leon the package and walks back to the alley he came from.

What a strange person Leon thinks to himself. He must be one of the couriers that he heard about in the settlement. They are basically a group of people with artifacts that help them cover long distances and deliver various things.

There's a note taped to the front of the package. After reading the note Leon is pleasantly surprised. It's from Diane the owner of the equipment store. After the horde started there attack Leon jumped at the opportunity to get some free artifacts and escape from the military.

He completely forgot about the item he was supposed to pick up after three days. It seems Diane finished the item and sent the courier to deliver the item to him. When he opens the box he pulls out a strange looking glove. He can see the three D rank cores imbedded into the glove and a small chain hanging out

Flipping the note over he finds some instructions on what it is and how to use it. Enhanced gear like this glove use the embedded cores like batteries. They have a special effect and once the energy gets used up they have to recharge for a while before they can be used again. This glove has a small chain that when used can extend and retract at will. It's also a lot more durable than normal chains. With this he will be able to use it like a grappling hook or even as a weapon if he chooses.

Anyways, it's getting dark soon so he needs to hurry and find a place to hide out. Eventually they come across an RV parked in the middle of the road. He decides its as good a place as any.

He opens the door as spike jumps inside with Leon following right after. Pulling out his crank flashlight, he scans the interior. Its a nice place, there's a small table to sit at with some cabinets and a sink right on the other side. Farther back is a bed that is the same width of the RV.

He sets Alexis down and she quickly takes off to explore the vehicle. Leon takes the bed sheets and uses his nail gun to cover the windshield and other windows. He doesn't want the zombies or people to see them inside.

"Leon!" Alexis calls out.

Leon rushes over to see what she's so excited about. "What's up? Did you find something?"

"Yeah, look." She points at one of the cabinets close to the floor.

He kneels down to look inside and way at the back is a hidden safe. Surprisingly, the safe is wide open and the contents are spilled out. Stacks of cash, covered in what Leon assumes is the owner's blood, are strewn about all over the place.

Sadly, even though it's a lot of money, it's basically worthless these days. He and Alexis managed to start a fire in the oven inside the RV, and crack the sun roof to let the smoke out. They wanted to roast a couple of things like hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire. As for fuel, of course Alexis was throwing in stacks of cash periodically. Watching the valueless paper burn to nothingness. She was really enjoying throwing the money into the fire. It's not something people would normally get to do.

Later that night they were huddled up in the bed slowly drifting off to sleep listening to the crickets outside and the occasional zombie sound. The fire in the stove is emanating a small orange glow on the interior of the RV. Spike is curled up in front of the door.

....

The next day, Leon and Alexis are trying to find a store they can loot for supplies. Alexis is riding on spike as usual. Eventually they find a small gas station and head inside. Since the electricity went out a long time ago most of the freezer foods are ruined. They both picked out a few drinks they liked. Alexis got some juices and Leon picked a couple of energy drinks.

As they begin traveling again, little did they know they were getting closer and closer to the center of the city. The zombies around here are much stronger and there are more of them. Leon took this opportunity to practice with his new artifacts.