"What do we do?" Ashley asked. We were hidden behind the thick pillars that separated the glass panes lining the church stone walls.
Leon turned to look at us. "Your father trusts me. And I need you to trust me too, and do exactly as I say," he pleaded.
In order to decide whether or not to trust him, Ashley looked to me for my answer. I gave her a small nod of approval. He is my coworker after all.
She looked back atLeon. "Okay."
He gave a little smile, "I'm gonna get you home safe." he said looking from Ashley to me.
I knew he was telling Ashley this but the way he looked at me implied something different. Like those words were meant for me. As my heart thumped faster, I hoped I wasn't being delusional at his gesture.
The sound of the church doors opening pulled me out of my thoughts. Leon raised a finger and gave us a 'just a second' before moving towards the railing and crouching down so he couldn't be seen.
Following Leon's movements, I pulled Ashley with me and pushed her down in a crouching position. The villagers gathered and continued their odd chant, looking around for us.
"All right, let's get the hell out of here." He said looking back at us.
I looked over at where the ladder I pushed down earlier was. It was a possible way to escape without being seen by the villagers. "Follow me." I said, heading towards the ladder on the left side of us.
As we walked over to the ladder, I pointed to it and instructed Ashley to climb first. I followed right after, making sure she didn't fall.
"What do we do? There's no way out!" Ashley quietly cried as Leon stood up after climbing the ladder.
I puffed out air, walking towards the window and pointing out. "This way," I said.
Leon moved to the other side of the window and looked down, "We're gonna have to jump." He crawled onto the window sill, looking back at Ashley and I for a moment before jumping down.
Ashley ran to the window, giving me a worried look before looking down at where Leon had jumped. "What? No way." She shrieked.
"It's OK. I've got you." Leon called to us.
I placed a hand on Ashley's shoulder. "This is the only way." I said, smiling and squeezing her shoulder.
She looked worried before climbing over the windowsill. She looked back at me for a moment before pushing off to fall down into Leon's awaiting arms.
I climbed onto the small ledge under the window. It had started to rain heavily, making it harder to see and hear. Giving one last look behind me, I dropped down to the stone floor. The impact made my legs tingle a little in pain.
Leon looked at me before turning and moving down the ladder on the side of the church building. I looked at Ashley, moving towards her so that I didn't have to yell for her to hear me.
"Did you fall like this?" I asked, moving my hands in a crisscross position over my chest. "What if he didn't catch you?"
She gave me an annoyed look, brushing past me to the ladder. I paused for a moment at the harsh reaction, "Rude." I muttered.
"Roost, I've secured Baby Eagle and the agent." Leon said as I made my way down the ladder. "Affirmative, they're both okay."
Pushing off the imaginary dust on my pants, I hook my arm around Ashley's following behind Leon. "Copy that." he said, his arm moving back to his side.
"So where are we going?" Ashley asked, already prepared to go home.
"We're heading to the extraction point now," he replied, giving us a small glance. Leon placed his hands on a shelf that looked knocked over and began pulling it to let us get through. "Like I said, it's dangerous. Stay close... Both of you." He said looking at me before heading through.
The temperature had dropped even more when we reached the front of the church, making me glad I had decided to wear my sweater. It was pure dumb luck that I chose to wear something warmer.
In response to the strong pressure applied to its metal, the gate door burst open. Villagers crowded in and headed straight towards us.
"They're coming. Get behind me." Leon asked, pulling his gun out of his hip holster and shooting at the first two villagers.
"Oh god! What is wrong with these people!?" Ashley sobbed, moving to hide behind me.
Cold metal rubbed against my foot, reminding me that I had hidden my engraved pocket knife in my boot. Whoever took us didn't do that good of a search. Pulling it out, I kept the black knife at my side in case I needed it.
As we moved out of the church and into the cemetery, Leon continued to shoot at the villagers coming towards us. I made sure Ashley was still with me. Weaving through the dull grave site, we found an old shack attached to a small stone building. Slipping through the door, Leon and I shoved the door closed, knocking a few villagers down to the ground and locking it.
The room was lit, candles scattered around the small room. Chairs were also scattered around the room making it look like a distasteful mess. An altar was to the right of us. A giant skull sat upon the stone with stained bandages wrapped around it.
I scrunched my nose in disgust, moving away from it to the opening that led to another room. It had more candles scattered around but what was more gross was the piles of sculls piled up in the corners of the room. Another altar stood at the front of the room, except it was wood. A painting hung over top of it, a man dressed in purple robes lined with gold.
"Hey, can we take a break?" Ashley panted out, she was slightly hunched over with her hands resting on her legs just above her knees.
"Sorry, we need to keep moving." Leon apologized, making his way to the door in the room.
I turned to look at Ashley, "Ashley, we just left the church. Sure enough, we got into a scuffle with a whole bunch of bad bitches but then we just crossed a graveyard and now we're here and now you're like 'Can I have a break?' Like we've literally been outside for five minutes." I said sarcastically.
"I know, but I'm not used to this stuff like you two are" Ashley glared at me as we made our way outside.
"Hunnigan was right about the weather..." Leon said, cutting us off from our little banter.
A big pile of rubble blocked our way into the small village. We moved to the left. A house with an open window stands beside the rubble. I climbed through first, not caring that I didn't have any firearms to protect me from surprises.
The rain poured harder than when we left the church. A harsh wind blew around us, causing my wet brown hair to fly in front of my face.
Bright orange and yellow lights bouncing around the houses' stones caught my attention. A large bonfire stood in the middle, its flames rising high in the air from the oxygen around it. I stepped closer, looking at what stood in the middle of the flames. My eyes widened at what was in the middle. A charred skeleton was pinned to a post in a crucifix position. Gagging at the sight in front of me, I quickly moved away wanting to get away from the gruesome sight.
"What the hell?" I shuttered at the flames engulfing the skeleton.
The sound of the villagers getting closer to us made me move toward Leon and Ashley, hoping to get away from the crazy people. Leon led us down a dirt path leading to a closed gate. Leon pushed the door open, letting Ashley and I slip through. A two-story wooden house was beside us on the right. A pitchfork lay in the hay underneath a window and beside it stood an abandoned chicken coop. To the left was a wooden paddock attached to a run down barn, in that held pigs and cattle. Looking closer, large amounts of hay piled up inside the space. A body laid face first into the smaller pile of hay, blood seeping out of its head.
Leon led us to a large windmill as the villagers approached us. Treescovered the moonlight making it harder to see. I picked up my pace getting closer to Ashley. Leon was at the front, leading us through the darkness.
A wooden bridge swayed in the wind, leading to another two-story shack. Its roof was slanted like it was ready to fall through from the rot that ate at it. We quickly crossed over seeing that the villagers had gotten closer to us. When my feet landed on the soil, a new group of villagers made themselves known from the stone archway to our right.
"Hey! Over here!" A man said waving his hand as he stood behind the doorway inside the house.
Leon grabbed Ashley and I's hands and dragged us to the house. Leon and I stopped at the gate doors, pushing each door shut and locking it.
"C'mon!" the man said as we ran into the house.
Leon and I stood beside Ashley's hunched form, as she panted from the intense cardio we had to endure. She wasn't a runner. After Leon made sure she was okay, he turned to the man.
"You!" he said, walking towards him.
"Hey... Listen, about earlier, I-" The man said as he backed away in fear until he hit the stone wall behind him.
"Yeah about that..." Leon seethed and placed his closed fist on top of the man's chest, keeping him in place.
"Hey, I see you found your 'missing senoritas'" the man said looking at Ashley and I.
I grimaced at the Spanish man, crossing my arms over my chest. Ashley moved away from me and towards the man.
"The 'senorita' has a name and it's Ashley. And you are?" she asked.
"Name's Luis Encantado." He flirted before moving his gaze towards me. "What about you Bella Dama?" he asked.
"Sophia," I grunted out in disgust.
"Great. We all have names. Now then-" Leon cut in before Luis could say anything else. "Who are you? And what're you doing here?" he asked, pressing his fist harder into Luis's chest.
"Very good questions, unfortunately..." Luis trailed off, looking out the boarded-up window beside them. Leon moved closer to the window when we heard the villagers crash through the gate doors.
"Both of you hide. Now!" He asked.
"In that case, here, help me," Luis asked, walking towards a fallen-over closet.
"Quickly, over here!" Leon said helping Luis lift up the wooden box to reveal a dark hole in the wall.
Ashley rushed in first while I hesitated, looking at Leon with scrunched eyebrows.
"Go!" he pleaded making me crouch to my knees, crawling through the cramped space.
The hole was dark, really dark to the point where I couldn't see my hand on the ground. I moved further into the cramped space. "Ashley, let's find a way out." I said hoping to get into a more spacious area.
"I think I see a light," she said shuffling further into the darkness.
The gunfire was loud, firing off one after the other. My stomach was tense from anxiety at the thought of something happening to Leon. As we made our way to the small light further into the hole, Ashley stomped at whatever blocked us from getting out. It eventually gave in, revealing a small room outside with a ladder leading to the second floor.
I brushed off the dirt on my knees. Moving towards the ladder, I looked at Ashley. "C'mon, let's go help those idiots and show them we aren't as weak as we seem," I said, winking at her.
She smiled and nodded to approve of my request. Moving up the ladder, I headed straight for the door on the side of the building.
Giving the door a small push, it opened with a loud creak. "You two! This way, hurry!" I called out to them.
Leon shot at another villager before looking at me and giving me a small nod. I turned not even giving him a second glance, grabbing Ashley's hand and running down the elevated path towards a large gateway. I ran as fast as my legs could until we were safely on the other side. I let Ashley hold onto the stone wall to catch her breath.
Leon and Luis were behind, with a large crowd of villagers chasing after them. Leon turned, taking out his gun, and aiming at the chains holding the large door open. As one of the villagers got closer to us, he shot the chain, making it give out. This let the door slide down, squishing the villagers' head.
There was a small moment of silence before Ashley's coughs filled its place. I ran to her, placing a hand on her back and grabbing her hand that covered her mouth. A small pool of crimson blood glowed under the moonlight.
"Shit." I said, dropping her hand but keeping my other on her back. I looked over at Leon, my face slowly morphing into worry for my friend.
"Wh-What's happening to me?" Ashley asked Luis.
"Ashley?" Luis asked, grabbing her blood-covered hand. "Is this the first time you've coughed up blood like this?" He asked, inspecting her hand.
"You wanna start explaining?" Leon demanded from beside us.
Luis let go of Ashley's hand, standing back. "The cough, the blood- it's caused by something called a... Plaga." He trailed off.
My gaze shifted to Ashley then to Leon. I shook my head at him, letting him know I hadn't had anything like this happen to me.
"OK. You say those "people," right?" he asked pointing to the wooden door. "Well, you have the same thing inside you. The same thing that made them like that." He finished, turning away from us to the dirt path in front of us. "This, what you're experiencing, these symptoms... They're only the beginning."
"I don't want to become like them," Ashley said worriedly pulling away from me to walk over to Leon.
"You are, well, lucky," Luis said to us from behind his shoulder. "You see, at this early stage, the parasites- the plaga. It is possible to remove it... with a surgical procedure. And all you need is some know-how." He said turning back to us. He pulled open his blouse to reveal a large jagged scar that ran from his upper chest to his ribs. "And, oh yeah– the right equipment."
"Wait. You, too?" Leon asked.
"No worries. See, I have a plan." Luis replied, letting go of his shirt. "But you're going to have to trust me."
Leon looked from Luis to Ashley and I. I slowly nodded my head. What other choices did we have?
Leon looked back at Luis giving him a firm nod of approval, not saying anything.
"Great! We're partners then!" he said turning away from us, walking towards the path.
"Hey why are you–" Leon tried to ask but Luis cut him off.
"No time for any questions. The clock is ticking!" Luis waved at us from behind him.
"Why are you helping us?" I asked, fed up with the Spanish man.
He just stopped turning his head slightly to the side. "Because it makes me feel better. Let's leave it at that." he began to walk forward again, pulling a small black walkie-talkie from his belt. "I will contact you later." He waved it in his hand, continuing down the path before disappearing from sight.
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bella dama - Beautiful lady {According to Google}
Tell me what y'all think! Hopefully its good.
I will be Posting on Weekly on Sundays <3