-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈
AS THEY reached the gate the sounds of mooing cows, clucking chickens and someone raking hay could be heard in the distance. Seraphina had realized one terrible thing on this short journey—it was possible something was spreading around.
I don't want a repeat again.
Leon was quite prepared unlike her, so he had multiple weapons on hand if anything bad had happened. Or anything worse than the chainsaw incident. Hopefully no more chainsaw men. He held his handgun up with his wrists, eyeing out the area.
Hearing the signs of life made them both tense up. The well next to the barn house was filled to the brim with a gray green water. Sounds of flies could be heard, buzzing all around it. Maggots and worms swam in the disgusting water, birthing in numbers.
A foul smell radiated off of the surface. Seraphina shined her small flashlight into the waters and saw a peculiar growth along the edges. So many resemblances to the T-virus, similar to when they were in the sewers and saw it flourishing in waters.
"This really looks like Raccoon City's sewers, when it was spreading all over," Seraphina grimaced at the sight. Leon leaned over her shoulder, his face by her ear and eyed the murky waters. She could feel how close he was, even his breath. "Doesn't it?"
"You're right. Not a good sign."
As if a heavy weight off of her lungs had been lifted, Leon got up and went out to examine the barn. Finally, she can breathe a little. He's overbearing sometimes. Every building was built with wooden planks, clearly aged with the darkened spots. A village made from the ground up.
It had gone quiet beside the white noise.
"Leon?" Seraphina called out as she approached the barn housing the cows. The cows shifted slowly as they ate the hay, their tiny tails flickering around. The silence was met with the sound of garbled speech, an angry man heading towards her.
She finally got a good look at the villager's faces—despite being human, there was something truly uncanny and wrong with their appearance. Their eyes were bloodshot and red, lusting for their deaths. Every single one of them had that look. Other than that, they did not look visibly sick.
What is it?
The older man stuck out the rake and aimed for her, but being quick on her feet, she stepped aside in time. Being a brute force, he couldn't stop as he got up again, only to be met with a bullet in the shoulder. Crying out in pain, he spoke a few last words in a language she couldn't understand.
"Te voy a romper en pedazos..."
Words she couldn't decipher but the hatred and resentment in his tone was enough. It sounded like he was saying something specifically to me. Two bullet holes in his head finally killed the man, slumping forward. Blood stained her boots, leaving a crimson kiss of death.
Seraphina was never a religious person, perhaps no one was after the incident in Raccoon City, but she prayed heavily to the skies. She killed the no longer human man in self defense. So why had the guilt lingered? Maybe praying will make it go away.
Guilt threatened to eat and swallow her up.
Leon ran over when hearing the ruckus, glancing downwards in surprise when seeing the dead body on the floor. He took ahold of her shoulders, facing Seraphina directly.
"Hey, you alright? You don't look so good."
"I'm okay. I think the posters were true. They must know something about me here," Seraphina explained in fear. "That man was talking about something before I had to put him down. I don't know much to understand, but..."
"You think it's related?"
"Possibly."
Leon went quiet for a brief moment. "You're gonna be just fine with me. I won't let anything happen and I'll try to get more details from Hunnigan. You can also ask Dean. I neutralized all the targets in this area as for now. It's good you know how to fend for yourself."
Seraphina forced a tight lipped smile.
"I always have. Don't you remember?"
"Right." Leon looked away. His face appeared dark.
-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈
The pair searched up and down in the farm area, stocking up on supplies if needed and trying to avoid the ring of chickens walking around. Trying to find Ashley Graham in the middle of nowhere in a desolate place in Spain was trying to get a needle in a haystack. Absolutely fruitless.
Wind blew through the deteriorating wooden buildings, sending a song that sounded unsettling as it whistled. The whole structure of the place was very strange and out of the ordinary. It made them both wonder what was truly going on...
Reaching a large gate, they both pushed open and revealed a path going down. A path would be a loose word for it, as it was just bare dirt and the slight stickiness of the mud. Dean dialed in as she picked up her device to reveal a very exhausted looking Dean on the other side.
"Hey, I'm checking in. We're all meeting up at the church?"
"Yes. Are you gonna be okay, Dean?" Seraphina could see a large, rickety bridge overhanging above them. "You sure you aren't going to be in danger by yourself?"
"I'm okay, it's just these people are holding me back. I'm sure you guys know the situation, but these guys are...really aggressive. More than that, maybe? Sorry, Seraphina, it's gonna be a while before we meet again."
"It's fine. Take your time and don't get hurt. Leon has my back, so I'll be waiting."
"Right. I feel better knowing he is. See you!"
Leon folded his arms together. "What a peppy guy."
Seraphina rolled her eyes. This was going to be a long time before she would meet up with Dean again. Leon wasn't bad company, but having to deal with two extremely different in personality men in the same group was a bit troublesome.
Tying her hair up into a ponytail, it revealed a purple-red, veiny streak on her bare neck. Being unaware of this, Seraphina hadn't realized something appeared on her own body. Seeing the scar, Leon reached out in concern before retracting his hand quickly.
"Your neck..." He pointed out and his usual calm demeanor broke for a second. Flashbacks to their time in Raccoon City, when Ada first told him she was infected. "Was that always there? That mark."
What?
Panicking, she turned around and felt her collarbone before using the reflection of her metallic device to look closer. An ugly blemish stuck out in plain sight, if it weren't for her hair covering the discoloration. Nothing came to mind about why this could have appeared...Seraphina's mind ran blank. A scar? Bruise?
"Oh god, no...I can't be..."
Courtney assured her that the T-virus cells in her body died years after, as they gave her constant shots or medicine to prevent the spread and from infecting the entire body. Like something that would prevent it from getting worse. If her aunt hadn't stepped up to protect her, she would have perished along with the missile.
They would have killed her and Sherry...
Like another parasite infecting her body, the dark thought pierced her mind. Maybe she should have been killed...why didn't they?
"Hey, you're gonna be just fine," Leon saw how distressed she'd gotten and couldn't even seem to feign a smile. He wanted to reach out for her hand, yet afraid to do so. "I'm sure you aren't infected. It might be something else, or maybe a it's just a bruise."
Seraphina sighed heavily with a frown.
"You're right. I'm worrying too much."
The sound of yelling and shouting threw them off, as a group of male villagers pointed at them. What creeped both of them out the most was their soulless eyes, their pupils the color red.
"¡Un forastero!"
"¡Agárrenlo!"
"¡Ya es hora de aplastar!"
A boulder sat on top of the hill, being pushed by the hands of the same villagers. Leon's eyes narrowed and pushed Seraphina away from him hastily, letting her fall back and loose her balance. The sheer weight of the rock made it slid past right them, inches away from touching their skin.
"¡Mierda!"
Leon took their brief moment of peace to take out the guys from above with precision. All that harsh training in the military had paid off. They took multiple bullets before falling dead with a final yell of pain, slumping onto the bridge.
Dusting off the flecks of dirt and soot, Seraphina stood up on her feet from the hard fall. They've encountered death too many times to count and they hadn't even rescued Ashely Graham yet. How funny it was for her to assume this mission wouldn't be difficult. Hadn't she not learned?
Right after the boulder, they encountered another part of the village which had sparse houses. Their houses were dingy, the place brooding with darkness. Few villagers lingered around. Tied to each tree trunk was a bomb with a long, thin string in between. Touch the string and it would kill anyone on the spot, blowing them to pieces.
Death was too close for comfort.
"Gosh, they really want us dead." She commented as she drew her pistol, shooting the yellow bombs off in an explosion. Better to set them off far away. The initial pressure made her wince, but the area was cleared out now. Now there were traps to look out for.
"In here." Leon waved at her, motioning to go inside an empty house. Loud, large blasts indicated there was more bombs to be disarmed. There were furniture lying around, slightly coated with dust. The picture of a strange cloaked figure sat on the wall. This man on the picture could be their 'lord' from the way he dressed, an peculiar aura and image.
Something about the entire house felt like a doll's toys. No sign of life, despite the little trinkets and furnitures placed around to make it seem alive. People used to live normal lives, now they had been stripped into lifeless bodies that were out to aggressively kill outsiders, like a mob.
Knock. Knock. Knock, a sound of something hard hitting wood resonated inside the room. They shared a look of worry. Leon bravely went up to the wooden closet and glanced her way as a sign of a warning. "Don't do anything unless I say so."
Okay.
With a click, he opened the lock and a large male body tied up flopped to the floor. Long, shaggy hair and a piece of duct tape covering his mouth. The man glanced at both agents before shaking his head furiously, murmuring desperately in an attempt to save his life. He's still humane, not like the others.
Leon ripped off the duct tape with a loud, painful noise. It revealed his thin beard and hazel grey eyes, supposedly around the same age as them or a little bit older. The man gasped for air, finally freed of his prisoned mouth.
"A little rough, don't you think?"
He spoke in a slight accent, distinct of the Spain region. His English went a long way from preventing himself was being killed as he could explain what was going on. Leon caught wind of this idea quickly and untied his tight bond of ropes.
The man freed his wrists and rolled out of the tight rope. He sat up and faced the two, his eyebrows raising in surprise when seeing Leon accompanied by another person.
"You guys aren't like them?"
"No," Leon answered briefly, seeing the man look at both of them back and forth, staring particularly at the woman in the room. "Hey. Talk. Eyes on me, not her. What about you?"
"No. I have one important question. You have a smoke?"
"No, but I have gum."
...?
Male villagers lined up with pitchforks and various weapons in their hands, approaching the group. Seraphina backed away when seeing the towering, overwhelming presence in the room. Dressed in a dark cloak, with one blood red pupil and blue pupil. The sound of his boots resonated against the loose floorboards. Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Oh great," The man from the wooden closet go up from his spot to stand up, but didn't bother doing anything rash in front of the aggressive villagers. "The Bitores. Behind you!"
"What?" Leon turned around to the inhumanly tall man in the room, standing in front of the group in a protective manner. Seraphina held onto her pistol with trembling hands, pondering on the right moment to shoot. No. Placing the weapon back into the holster, she feared that weapons would only escalate the chaos.
"What do we do, Leon?"
Her words fell on deaf ears.
Dean! Does he know about this strange man?
I have to tell him.
Seraphina pressed the button on her device which turned on with a small red light. Dean should receive the message and left the mic on her side. There wasn't time to explain everything. Leon ran up to the tall man, swinging his leg in a swift motion to kick. To his surprise, the man grabbed his shoe and flipped Leon right back, crashing into the flooring.
Groaning in pain, the impact had struck him so hard, Leon's vision spotted with black and the last thing he saw was his fading consciousness. A dark room with two blurry faces and a inhuman feeling.
"Hello? Seraphina, you there?"
Dean's loud voice caught the attention of the group.
"Are you in a danger and you don't have control?"
"Dean, come back from the church! We're surrounded—!" Seraphina yelled before screaming in pain as the leader picked her up by the wrist. His grip tightened strongly, letting a bolt of pain run up her arm. "Let me go!"
One of the men stomped on her device, smashing it into metal pieces. The leader launched her easily with his hand and heavily slammed her body onto the floor. Seraphina's body ached and racked pain, as she was losing her own consciousness too. This was not a human man, he was just like the rest...
By her darkening vision lay Leon unconscious, far from her hands.
I can't reach him...
Seraphina failed to save him.
-
the boulder: ⬅️🪨
leon: 🏃🏼🏃🏼