Defensive rather than yielding. While the rant didn't do much to quiet her temper, O'Brien had managed to earn himself some respect points from Leah. However, unlike the common sense points, she didn't admit to these out loud. Instead, she slid her free hand to her hip, cocking her head as she considered whether or not to respond to his insistence that he'd done a good job at what he did. "Fair enough," was all she said.
Hate was a relative word to describe how she felt about the guy with the gun, but it wasn't wholly true. He seemed decent enough, hadn't tried to hurt her or anything like that. Perfect invitation to be nasty to him.
"Yeah, that's one. There's still a whole street full." She indicated the area with her machete, leaning away from a corpse's outstretched hands. Pivoting, Leah knocked the zombie to the ground and stomped on the back of its neck. O'Brien kindly reminded her again that he'd been shot, and she rolled her eyes, not so kindly replying with, "That's your fault, not mine. Could've stayed at the library and died, instead of coming out here. Though I guess this way of dying could be faster."
Whatever. This argument was getting old. He kept insisting he wasn't going to shoot her, and she kept a firm grasp on her paranoia. It didn't stop a smirk from appearing when O'Brien gave her a look that clearly stated he didn't like her plan of escape. She decided to save further comments for when they were safe topside.
Leah stayed close behind the man, alternately swiping her machete at and tripping any shufflers that invaded their path. As he tugged the ladder down, Leah spun on her heel, keeping her eye on the slowly approaching horde. Behind her, she heard the rusted metal creaking angrily, heard O'Brien's footsteps on the metal rungs. No matter how quickly he was going, it was taking precious seconds away from her own escape.
"Little help would be nice," she called up to him, slicing her machete through the forehead of another zombie. With a grunt, she pulled the weapon free, cringing when she felt rotted hands creeping along her back.