No way back - Leon Kennedy

Four months later...

"Lucy, are you listening to me?"

I subtly opened my eyes as I noticed I had begun to doze off.

"Yeah, right! Uh... How did it go?" I ended up replying as Camilla sighed.

"You're dozing off way too much recently... Do you even sleep, at night?"

I grimaced.

I just couldn't rest properly since I had entered that training facility.

"I'm just endlessly exhausted..."

She smiled weirdly.

"Sorry, but I can't help but wonder how you ended up here, when the selections are rough. Did you... bribe someone?" She nonchalantly asked as I grimaced, trying to not swear at her.

What a great reputation I had.

I knew it wouldn't be that easy, but to say even the experience I had didn't help at all... I just had more "real life" experience than the others, but here, we were learning all kind of techniques, ways of communicating, and stuff I never knew I had to learn.

I was somehow truly disappointed in myself for not being able to do as well as I encouraged myself to.

"Sorry, but absolutely not." I sighed as she seemed to give up.

I'm not here to let people bitch on me.

"Anyway, have you seen Will?" I asked as she let herself fall in her chair.

"No. Ryan told me he had seen him at the shooting stand this morning, but..."

I raised a brow as I heard her mention him.

"You seem to meet with Ryan a lot, these days..." I remarked as she almost jumped out of her chair.

"It's not what you think. We just happen to help each other in our training, since I found out we both lacked in what the other mastered. Isn't that why you're hanging out with Will, anyway?"

I tilted my head.

It's so easy to get through her.

"If it's in the way you mean, not really. I prefer to train alone, Will just helps me with other stuff." I replied as I looked for my hair tie, which was supposed to be in my pocket.

I sighed as I glanced over my backpack.

I should get going...

"Well, I must go, so say hi to him on my behalf, okay?" I said as I put on my shoes, waving at her as I left the room.

I sighed as I grabbed the cords of my hoodie to tighten it as much as possible, feeling a urgent need to seek some psychological comfort.

This is really hell.

Almost everyone I had met here seemed to have gone through a thorough training, and, on my side, I couldn't really say the same, so the difference made itself clear pretty quickly, in a state where they'd almost harass me, trying to discourage me because they were better.

They comforted themselves too much in that idea.

To be honest, I didn't resent them for that. I understood all too well what it felt like to be constantly compared to others, at a stage where every move on my part was related to I don't know who.

Even my roommate seemed to be ready to pounce on me at the slightest mistake.

It was suffocating at times.

I will always remember the first day I arrived here. Everyone seemed so happy to be there, until the day it was announced that strangely, the government would only offer 5 contracts instead of 15, knowing that there were about thirty of us. Quickly, the good mood gave way to leave only bad waves.

There were only two months left before the final tests, and I was among the last in the rankings.

It wasn't good for me.

"What's the matter?" I asked the instructor as she handed me a picture, which depicted weird looking corpses, which seemed to have rot for too long.

This is glaucous.

"So, what is it?"

I frowned as I gave the picture back to her.

"I don't understand why you're showing this to me."

She sighed.

"Among all the people training in there, you're the only one who's supposed to have experience with fighting these. So, I repeat, can you tell me what is shown on this photograph? And how you're supposed to deal with it?"

I closed my eyes for a second, looking for an answer that would seem correct.

"It looks like these infected you told me about the last time I came."

She sat on her desk, nodding in refusal.

"This won't be enough."

I looked down, a bit ashamed.

She sighed as she reached for something behind her.

"What I'm giving you sums up what I've been teaching the others since the beginning. If you start working on it tonight, you might manage to get back what you've missed before the final tests."

I bit my lip.

This is clearly my last chance.

I took a look at the folder, which didn't seem as thick as I thought I'd be.

I can read this and take notes probably in five days...

"Thank you..." I ended up replying as she gave me a smile.

"It would have been a shame to waste that potential."

------------------

As I got out of my training, I called Will so we could get something to eat together outside the training facility.

"You weren't at this morning's training..." Will remarked as I gobbled down a Chinese ravioli, slightly upset.

"Will, please, I don't want to hear about training." I answered kindly as he sighed.

"Sorry, but I don't really have a choice. The final exams are in two months, and you allow yourself to take it easy. Do you realize how lucky you are, sometimes? " He added as he tied his black, obsidian-looking hair in a messy low bun.

I sighed.

"I'm going to find a way to get back on track. In the meantime, try to stay where you are, will you?" I stated as he crossed his arms.

"I'm not saying this to be mean, but you should try to stop being defensive with the people that try to help you. It would make your life a lot easier."

I laughed silently.

I just don't trust anyone. 

"Sometimes I wonder how we managed to be friends." I replied as he began to snicker.

"Same for me. To say that it started from the beating I took on the first day... Since then, I've always been trying to understand how such a frail and angelic-looking woman got me on the mat as soon as the fight began."

I tried to suppress my victorious smile, thinking about the technique in question.

If I had known that just by looking at Leon I would have assimilated so much of his way of fighting, I would have paid even more attention to him. 

I sighed.

He's among those that worked hard enough to be called extremely talented. 

"Maybe I'll teach you, if I happen to have the time for it."

He grinned.