The blast of Leo's Gold Desert Eagles had saved Richard Aiken's life from the Hunter, but the catastrophic noise served as an absolute beacon for every infected creature nearby. The atmosphere in the medical bay, still thick with gunpowder smoke and the green blood of the Hunter, was charged with terrifying urgency.
Leo Thorne, the master strategist, knew they had seconds before the room was breached again. He grabbed the emergency med kit and tossed it to a shell-shocked Rebecca Chambers.
"We move, now," Leo ordered, his voice cutting through her panic. He pulled Jill Valentine by the wrist, their shared adrenaline a potent, physical connection. "Rebecca, can Richard walk?"
"N-no, he's too weak," Rebecca stammered, checking Richard's fading pulse. "But the serum bought him time, maybe an hour."
"He stays here," Leo decided grimly. He knew Richard's survival was temporary, a cruel narrative necessity for the plot to progress. "He's safer behind that reinforced door than running through the halls. Jill, we're taking the second floor. We need to find the remaining keys and locate the rest of Alpha Team."
Jill, still reeling from the impossible sight of the golden pistols and the sheer annihilation of the Hunter, followed without question. Her professional suspicion was completely overridden by the overwhelming reality of Leo's destructive capability and his life-saving actions. The seeds of love and romance were now firmly planted in the fertile, terrifying soil of mutual survival.
The Western Hallway and the Serpent's Fangs
Leo and Jill, with Rebecca trailing slightly behind, moved with silent precision—Leo's peak human body ensuring his movements were fluid and noiseless. They ascended the main staircase, heading back toward the second-floor Western Corridor.
As they reached the end of the long hall leading to the main second-floor gallery, a low, ominous sound reached them—a heavy, scaly drag, far too large for a man or even a Licker.
"That's new," Jill whispered, her dark bob swaying as she strained to listen.
"It's the snake," Leo confirmed, his face impassive. Yawn, the massive, T-Virus infected serpent. "It bit Richard. It's defending its territory."
Leo knew this encounter was necessary. They needed the key from the room adjoining the hallway, and the key would only appear after the snake made its first appearance.
They approached the door to the Armour Room (the room containing the Shield Key puzzle). Leo's peak human reflexes allowed him to notice the slight shift in the floorboards under the thin, rotting carpet just before the attack.
CRASH!
The gigantic head of the snake burst through the attic window at the end of the corridor, its mouth wide, revealing rows of needle-sharp fangs. It wasn't interested in a slow hunt; it was angry and territorial.
"Scatter!" Leo roared, shoving Jill and Rebecca away just as the colossal serpent lunged.
Leo dodged the attack with an almost supernatural ease, his body twisting out of the way of the snapping jaws that bit deep into the stone wall. The air was filled with the smell of old stone and reptilian musk.
"It's too big! The hallways are too narrow!" Jill shouted, firing three panicked rounds from her Samurai Edge that barely scraped the snake's thick scales.
Leo knew a direct confrontation with the M92Fs was tedious and wasteful of standard ammo. He had to end this quickly, or the monster would force them into the Armour Room, which would lead to Richard's inevitable death by the snake's second, crucial appearance. He needed to avoid that, if possible, but the plot required the snake to remain alive for later.
He drew a single Gold Desert Eagle. Its chrome-gold finish flashed, an almost blasphemous sight in the dusty mansion.
Leo aimed not for the head, but for the gaping mouth, waiting for the serpent to fully open its jaws in its next strike.
As Yawn lunged again, its mouth a cavernous black hole, Leo fired a single, deafening shot.
BLAM!
The .50 caliber round struck the soft, pink tissue inside the snake's throat, narrowly missing its fangs but impacting its soft palate. It was a precise, painful shot meant to deter, not destroy.
Yawn shrieked—a deafening, horrifying sound of massive reptilian pain. Its head recoiled violently, smashing the already broken window frame and shattering the glass chandelier hanging above. The immense beast, momentarily stunned and bleeding profusely from its throat, decided the meal wasn't worth the cost. It retreated back through the window with a sickening, rapid slish-slither sound.
The air hung heavy with the smell of cordite and adrenaline.
"It's gone," Leo confirmed, holstering the gun. The secret weapon had done its job: a powerful, quick, and definitive deterrent that wouldn't completely derail the snake's later plot points.
Jill stared at the smoking hole in the wall, then at the single bullet mark on the inner stone. "A single shot, and that thing ran," she breathed, her awe now laced with a profound, terrifying acceptance. "You're not S.T.A.R.S., Leo. You're something else."
Wesker's Deception and the First Key
The encounter with Yawn allowed them to safely enter the Armour Room. Inside, they quickly solved the puzzle, retrieving the Shield Key.
As they were examining the key, the radio crackled to life—Wesker's smooth, icy voice.
"Jill, Thorne, report. We encountered some... complications upstairs. Chris and I are proceeding to the balcony area to secure the second floor. Barry is setting up perimeter defense on the first floor. Proceed to the third floor immediately and use the Shield Key to access the Attic. We need confirmation of any survivors up there."
Leo knew this was a lie. Wesker was splitting the team, sending them into traps. Chris and Barry were likely being manipulated and led into danger. The conspiracy was unfolding perfectly.
"Acknowledged, Captain," Jill responded, though her eyes locked onto Leo's with deep skepticism. "Leo, Wesker sounds… off. And why didn't he answer before?"
"He's running a different operation, Jill," Leo stated, keeping his true knowledge hidden behind a mask of tactical speculation. "We follow his orders, but we assume every room is a kill zone. Let's move. We need to secure the third floor before the next wave hits."
The Attic and the Hunter Ambush (Escalation)
Using the Shield Key, they accessed the cramped, dusty third-floor hall. This led them to the terrifyingly quiet Attic. The air here was hot, heavy, and rank.
As soon as they entered, the environment changed. The small room was littered with debris, and the scent of decay was overwhelming. Leo immediately recognized the trap: the Giant Spider (Black Tiger) usually resided here, but given the Hunter's premature appearance in the med bay, Leo had to be ready for an accelerated threat.
The plot is fluid, adapting the horrors based on the noise.
They found the corpse of Forest Speyer (Bravo Team's Omni Man) hanging upside down, pecked to death by infected crows—a horrific, still image of gore. The key—the Helmet Key—was clutched in his hand.
"Oh, God, Forest," Jill whispered, sickened.
Leo didn't waste a moment. "Grab the key, Jill. Now."
As Jill reached for the key, the window behind them exploded inward with a massive, focused force. Not crows—but two Hunters (a canonical mid-game escalation) that had bypassed the lower floors and were now cornering their prey.
"INCOMING! TWO OF THEM!" Rebecca shrieked, frozen in terror.
This was the end-game level threat. Hunters were fast, capable of one-hit kills, and aggressive. This was a battle for survival that demanded every ounce of Leo's power.
Leo shoved Jill and Rebecca into the deepest corner of the room. He drew both Gold Desert Eagles simultaneously, the sight a blur of action and gold.
"Stay down!" Leo roared, his voice amplified by adrenaline, completely dropping the pretense of a standard operative.
The two Hunters launched their attack—coordinated, deadly leaps, their claws aimed at Leo's neck.
Leo became a whirlwind of destructive power. His peak human reflexes allowed him to track both creatures simultaneously. The sound was deafening, a relentless, concussive drumbeat of death.
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM! (Hunter 1)
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM! (Hunter 2)
Leo fired two four-round bursts, alternating between the targets with terrifying speed and accuracy. The .50 caliber rounds turned the Hunters into bursting sacks of muscle and bone. The wall behind them was shredded, and the floor was instantly coated in thick, bubbling green blood and chunks of meat. The gore was absolute and overwhelming.
Jill and Rebecca were deafened, their eyes wide and horrified. They watched the smoke rise from the golden barrels of the pistols, and they knew Leo was the only reason they weren't shredded corpses.
"Eight shots. Two targets. Annihilation," Jill whispered, her voice barely audible. Her initial attraction to his skill was now a raw, potent cocktail of fear, respect, and deep, romantic desperation. She loved the man who could do this, but she was terrified of the force he represented.
Leo knelt, his breathing fast but controlled, the golden guns now quietly resting in his hands.
"The Helmet Key. We have it," Leo said, his voice flat. "We're going to use it to find Chris and Barry. And then we're going to find out what Wesker is really doing here."
He looked at Jill, his eyes blazing with the resolve of a man who knew the future. "Every horror in this mansion is intentional, Jill. This isn't an accident. This is a containment experiment, and we are the test subjects."
The true conspiracy, and the final stages of the mansion's horrors, were now opening before them. The next confrontation would be with the treacherous Captain himself.