Gwen was now even more invested in knowing what happened in Leon's nightmare. She crossed her arms, wondering what scenario could've been set in motion while he slept. "I hope I'm not prying too much, but... how did you lose me?"

Leon rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke. "You were... one of them. I found you in the library, scratching and throwing your body against a door. When you turned around, your skin was rotting and cracking. Blood dripped from your mouth and you attacked me."

The archivist swallowed nervously. "What... did you do?"

"I ran. You were pretty fast, though. Eventually, I slipped and you had pinned me down. I drew my pistol, but..."

"You pulled the trigger, right? To save yourself," Gwen said.

Leon shook his head. "No. I couldn't pull the trigger."

"Leon," Gwen said, standing directly in front of him. She placed her hand against his cheek. "If that were to happen here and now, you need to pull the trigger without hesitating."

He placed his hand over hers and squeezed it gently, staring in her eyes. "Even in reality, I still wouldn't be able to. I'd rather die with you than live without you."

Gwen smiled at the proclamation, but she couldn't help but argue. "No, Leon. You need to survive regardless of what happens to me."

"You're just as stubborn as Marvin, I hope you know that," he mumbled as he removed his hand from hers and placed it on her hip, tugging her body closer to his.

"I've been told by many that I'm stubborn, but that didn't stop you from falling for me," she chortled, kissing him on the cheek.

From the hallway, they heard snarling and barking. Gwen rolled her eyes in annoyance as she sighed, stepping away from Leon. "Damn dogs..."

<--------<<<<<<<<<<

After terminating the dogs in the hallway, Leon and Gwen passed through the door and up a stairwell. They were back on the first floor of the station. Gwen gasped in awe as they stood at the top of the stairs. "I've been wondering where those stairs led to for a while."

"What part of the station are we in?" Leon asked.

"The east side. That's the break room," Gwen said, pointing to a nearby door. "If we follow this hallway, we'll end up in the watchman's room. For now, let's relax for a little while."

The couple entered the break room and headed to the bunkbeds in the connecting room. Gwen plopped down on one of the beds, laying her head on the pillow. She didn't realize how exhausted she was and only fell asleep a few minutes later.

Leon decided to check on his arm to see how the wound was doing before resting. It hadn't been an issue since Gwen gifted him with what felt like a miracle elixir. Standing in front of the sink in the corner of the room, he unwrapped the gauze from his arm. He turned his body sideways to see the wound in the mirror. "What the-"

The officer's eyes widened in pure confusion and shock when he found no wound. Taking another look at the piece of gauze he took off, he noticed there wasn't a drop of blood on the white fabric. He frantically searched his arm for the gash but found nothing. For a second, Leon thought his exhaustion was blinding him from seeing the injury and he wiped his eyes. Opening his eyes, the wound was still gone and not even a scar was left behind. "How is this possible?"

Leon turned to face the sleeping Gwen and had tons of questions about the medical remedy he received from her. But seeing her slumbering and peaceful face stopped him. He decided to hold his questions for when she woke up and laid down on the bed opposite of Gwen's.

<---------<<<<<<<<

After a couple hours of rest, Gwen woke up. She was the first to wake and saw Leon sleeping in the other bed. She stood up and walked over to the sink, using the cold water to clean her sliced palm. She hissed in pain as the liquid collided with the injury. Opening the medicine cabinet, she found some extra gauze and wrapped it around her hand once she finished cleaning it.

Gwen stepped away from the sink and stepped on something. "Huh?" The archivist glanced down and saw it was a strip of gauze. "Where'd this come from?" She whirled around to face the sleeping Leon and saw his arm was unwrapped. Biting her bottom lip, she threw the gauze into the sink and wandered out of the break room. She wandered out into the hallway with her pistol drawn in case any corpses were up and walking. The only thing going through her mind was hoping Leon wasn't suspicious of her and the remedy he gave her, but she knew he would eventually find out the truth.

Outside the shutter leading to the watchman's room, Gwen found a couple of zombies munching on the lower half of a body. By how it's positioned, she knew it was the other half of Elliot. The monsters were occupied with munching on the officer's leg, allowing Gwen to inspect the fuse box. She clicked her tongue in annoyance when one of the fuses was missing. "Damn..." Gwen headed back to the break room to see if there was a spare fuse that she could use to open the shutter.

Opening the door, Gwen collided with something hard. She stumbled back from the impact and tripped, but her fall ceased when her arm was grabbed and she was pulled back to her feet. She saw it was Leon who she had crashed into and apologized. "Oh, sorry about that, Leon. I wasn't paying attention."

"Where were you?" He demanded with a scrutinizing gaze.

"Down the hall. We'll need a fuse to open the shutter. The electrical box is missing one," the young woman casually responded.

Leon kept his hold on Gwen's arm and pulled her back into the break room. He dragged her to the bunkbeds and forced her to sit down. The blue-eyed woman was at a complete lost as to the frightening look on Leon's face. "What's with the scary look?"

"I woke up to find you gone. How would you feel if I left without a word?" Leon crossed his arms, glaring down at her.

"Are you kidding me?" Gwen snarled, flying up to her feet. "You did leave without a word-for two whole years! No call, no email-not even a damn letter! I woke up one morning and found you gone! I had no idea where you had gone or if you'd be back! You..." Tears of anger rushed down her cheeks, a lump forming in her throat. "You abandoned me, Leon."

"Gwen, I-"

"No! I don't want anymore apologies! It's two years too late! I love you, Leon, but I don't think I'll be able to forgive you just yet." Gwen sat back down on the bed, burying her face in her hands. She sniffled and let her tears flow through her fingers.

The guilt ripped at Leon's heart at the sight of Gwen's tears. He knew she accepted his apology when he first arrived, but now he knew she was holding her true emotions at bay. Kneeling down in front of her, he placed his hands on her knees and gently squeezed them. "Hey," he gingerly called out. Gwen pulled her hands away from her face and stared into Leon's eyes with her glassy ones. "You've every right to be mad at me, but I hope you'll forgive me one day, Gwen."

Gwen sighed, closing her eyes for a few seconds before opening them. "Just... give me some time, Leon. It'll be a while, but I know I can't stay mad at you."

Leon moved one of his hands to Gwen's cheek, wiping away the tears streaming down her porcelain skin. "That's more than I deserve." He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips

<--------<<<<<<<<

Once Gwen calmed down and her tears dried up, she and Leon searched the room for a fuse. Luckily, she found a spare under one of the bunkbeds and grinned as she grabbed it. "Got it!"

"Before we go," Leon spoke up, stopping Gwen from leaving the break room.

"What is it, Leon?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head.

The blonde reached out and touched the area where his wound was. "That medicine you gave me... It healed my wound already, without leaving a scar. What was that stuff?"

Gwen swallowed nervously, unable to tell Leon the truth just yet. "U-Um, I learned about the mixture years before I met you. If you mix certain herbs together-"

"There was something else in that vial besides herbs. I could taste it."

Gwen winced, pinching her arm unconsciously. "Once we get find the other electrical component, I swear I'll tell you what all was in the mixture."

Leon believed in her promise and nodded. "Alright, let's go."

<--------<<<<<<<

Placing the fuse in the electrical box, the metal shutter opened. The zombies feasting on the lower half of Elliot's body gradually got to their feet and limped over to Leon and Gwen. They drew their pistols and killed the monsters before entering the watchman's room.

"Ah!" Gwen screams out as something grabs her ankle, resulting in her falling to the floor and dropping her handgun.

"Gwen!" Leon heard her distress and spun around with his pistol raised.

Gwen looks over her shoulder to see Elliot's upper body was sentient. "Are you serious, Elliot?! Talk about a late reaction, you bastard!" She kicked him in the face to prevent the former officer from biting her leg. Leon shot the zombie in the arm that had a grip on the archivist, tearing it from the monster's body and freeing her. Gwen scooted away in search of her pistol while Leon handled the undead creature. She found it under the desk and went to shoot Elliot, but Leon had killed him already. "I can't believe he came back even with missing half his body. This virus or whatever the hell it is sure does work in odd ways."

Leon grabbed Gwen's hand and hoisted her back to her feet. "Regardless of how you die, I guess you'll come back as one of them unless you destroy the brain."

"These bastards can take multiple bullets to the head. I think it's a little more complicated than destroying the brain," Gwen stated.

"You're probably right. But for now, let's get the hell outta here. Wouldn't want anymore uninvited guests."

"Well, we need to get to the clock tower," the archivist explained. "And that's on the third floor."

"How're we supposed to get to the third floor? The only door we haven't gone through is in the library, but the floor collapsed."

Gwen sighed. "Guess we'll figure that part out once we get to it. You wouldn't happen to know where we could use a crank, would you?"

"I remember seeing a metal shutter on the second floor when we were in the art room. I was checking the hallway and saw something on the wall beside it."

The young woman holstered her handgun. "To the second floor, it is."

Without stopping, the couple ran through the east office and to the main hall. Gwen suddenly froze in her tracks when she remembered who they left behind. "Marvin..."

"We'll keep our eyes peeled for him. If he is a zombie-"

"I know," Gwen interrupted Leon. "We have no other choice but to kill him. I mean, would we be showing sympathy for him if we do or would it just be cruel to put him down?"

Leon patted the archivist's should in reassurance. "We'd be doing him a favor. I may not have known the lieutenant for long, but I think he wouldn't want to be a monster."

Gwen nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think you're right. Guess it's the least we could do for him."

At the base of the stairs in the main hall, the couple encountered Lieutenant Branagh. Marvin dragged his foot across the tile as he tried to attack Leon and Gwen. The archivist went to grab her handgun but was stopped when Leon placed a hand over the one she tried to grab her gun with. "I'll do it."

Gwen didn't argue and stepped away from the approaching zombie. "Alright." She couldn't look as Leon killed the lieutenant. She turned her back to him and slowly meandered up the stairwell. Even after the gunfire ceased, the young woman still refused to face the man she held in high regards only hours ago. Now, he was gone and wouldn't be coming back.

"Ready to go?" Leon softly inquired as he reached the top of the stairs and stood by Gwen.

The sable-haired woman nodded slowly. "Yeah."

<--------<<<<<<<

Past the art room, Gwen saw the shutter Leon had described. Standing beside the mechanism needing the crank was a zombie. The creature stood in the corner, his back turned to them. "It's like he's in timeout. All he needs is a hat with "DUNCE" written on it," Gwen smiled in amusement.

"No time for jokes. We need to find a way to the third floor," Leon said, trying to hide his amusement.

Gwen whipped out her pistol and killed the zombie. "Oh, come on. You gotta admit it was a little funny. Is there a rule stating you can't make jokes during a zombie apocalypse that I don't know about?"

Leon grinned at her cheeky response. "No, there aren't officials rules to follow in a zombie apocalypse. Well, there's just one."

"Oh," Gwen raised a brow. "And what's that?"

"Survive."

The archivist had no retort since she knew that one word was enough to describe all the things they've done in the numerous of hours since their reunion. "That rule I'll gladly stand behind. You won't find me breaking it."

"Good, 'cause I wouldn't let you," Leon smirked.

Gwen placed the crank in the slot and raised the metal shutter. She tried to yank it out of the turning mechanism, but it was stuck and didn't budge. "Oh, c'mon! I might need it again!" All the tugging resulted in her sliced palm to pulsate in pain.

Leon placed a hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her away from the stuck handle. "Just leave it, Gwen."

The woman huffed in defeat and released the crank. "Fine. But I swear if we need it later, I'm blaming you."

"Okay," the officer chuckled, knowing she was messing with him.

Another groan of dissatisfaction left Gwen's lips when she tried to open the door to Chief Irons' office. "Dammit!"

Leon heard her frustration as he walked up the stairwell. "We can reach the third floor if we walk up the stairs."

"Getting into the chief's office is the least of our concerns, but I was wondering if there was anything useful inside. Guess we're not gonna find out," Gwen sighed. She left the office door alone and followed Leon up the stairs.

Now on the third floor, the couple search the storage room and annihilate two zombies wandering aimlessly around the room. After killing the two monsters, Leon found a large gear and tested the door leading to the main hall, discovering it was locked.

Gwen discovered a blue herb and some gunpowder in the room. She smiled at the sight of the blue herb, having learned about their properties from one of the coroners who worked at the station during her lunch break. "Who knew finding herbs would be fun."

"Why the hell is there a large gear in the storage room?" Leon muttered as he rejoined Gwen.

The archivist shrugged her shoulders as she crushed the blue herb and wrapped it up before sliding it into her pocket. "Who knows. I've learned to not ask questions anymore with what we've found in questionable places." She patted the pocket with all the medical herbs she found with a smile. "Even these herbs are questionable, but they sure provide us the medical supplies we need without lugging around a first-aid kit everywhere we go."

"Yeah, but I'm still curious," Leon said.

Gwen huffed with laughter. "Aren't we all."