Chapter 3
That night, Leon didn't return to the bedroom.
He stayed with Edith all night.
I heard him in the living room, speaking to Edith in a gentle tone I'd never heard from him before, telling her about the times he "saved" people.
He told her how he used his purification power to fend off the zombies swarming the survivors.
He told her how he handed out his food to starving kids.
Every one of those stories came at the cost of my supplies, draining away our hope for survival.
With Edith's amazed praise, Leon's ego and sense of mission were more satisfied than ever.
He was the hero now, the savior everyone needed.
And I was the only thing keeping him from being the hero he wanted to be.
Early the next morning, I opened the bedroom door and saw Leon trying to pry open the metal box I'd locked up.
That was our last supply of medicine.
"What are you doing?" I shouted, rushing over.
Leon jumped, startled, and the crowbar in his hand clattered to the floor with a sharp, metallic sound.
For a moment, he looked embarrassed, but then he quickly acted like he had every right to do it.
"Edith has a fever. I need to get the medicine," he said.
I glanced over at the couch. Edith was wrapped up in a blanket, her face flushed, and she was moaning weakly. She really did look seriously ill.
What good acting.
"I told you, no one touches what's in here," I said, stepping in front of the metal box.
"Fiona!" Leon snapped, his patience finally gone. "Do you have to push me this far? That's someone's life!"
"I don't know if she even counts as a life to you, but these meds are our lives," I shot back.
"You're unbelievable!" Leon roared, shoving me aside.
He was strong, and I stumbled, my lower back slamming hard into the corner of the table. A sharp breath hissed through my teeth from the pain.
Leon didn't even look at me. He just picked up the crowbar and brought it down hard on the lock.
With a clang, the lock snapped open.
He threw open the box and snatched up the amoxicillin, plus a few boxes of fever reducers and anti-inflammatories.
I pushed myself up from the table, staring at his back as I felt my heart turn colder and colder.
Leon used to get all anxious if I so much as cut my finger while chopping vegetables.
But now, for a woman he'd barely known a day, he shoved me aside without a second thought.
He carried the medicine over to Edith like it was some precious offering, gently feeding it to her.
Edith managed a weak smile at him, her eyes shining with dependence and adoration.
In that moment, I became the outsider.
I didn't say another word. Silently, I went back to the bedroom and closed the door.
I started going through my storage space, checking what I had left.
Food—enough to keep me going for half a year alone.
Water—more than enough.
Weapons—a fire axe and a knife.
Clothes, meds... Leon had already made off with most of the meds.
I had to leave.
If I stayed, Leon would keep bleeding me dry. He was a bottomless pit.
I spent the whole day getting ready to leave.
I left behind some heavy but useful stuff, like the generator and gasoline, considering it my "rent" for all the time I stayed here.
I only took food, water, weapons, and some clothes I needed.
My storage space was huge, like a giant warehouse, but it had one fatal flaw.
I could only keep non-living things inside.
There was no way for me to hide myself in it.
So I had to make my escape quietly, making sure Leon didn't catch on.
Otherwise, with his current savior complex, he'd definitely drag me back and force me to keep being his human food bank.
I was going to slip out at midnight.
That was when everyone would be fast asleep, and the zombies barely stirred.
But things never went as planned.
As the sun was setting, gunshots and terrified screams suddenly exploded from downstairs.
"Zombies! There are so many zombies!"
"Help! Leon, help us! Please!"
The whole building was in chaos.
Leon's face went pale, and he rushed straight to the window.
I followed behind.
Down below, a mass of zombies, at least a hundred, were frantically crashing against the barricade we'd built out of abandoned cars.
A few of the guards had already been ripped apart.
"How... How did so many zombies show up all of a sudden?" Leon muttered, his face ghostly white.
We'd cleared this area out so many times before. Usually, there were just a few stragglers wandering around.
A zombie horde this big was definitely not normal.