Walk In the Night
A Resident Evil 4 Fanfiction

Chapter One: Walking Blind

Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil or any of the canon characters. I only lay claim to Michael and Lauren; my OC's.

'How many more years must I remain involved in this business?' Lou wondered absently, the twenty-five year old was seated in the back of a plane next to a broad shouldered, black haired male. Lou blinked her eyes lazily and stared out the window at the dense shrubbery below. All the colour muddled into one, a mix of off-putting grey and pale green. She turned her head away from the depressing scenery and brushed her blonde and caramel hued hair back from her eyes.

"Lou, we're nearly there," rumbled a deep voice from beside her, Lauren blinked and glanced sideways where the tanned male was grinning at her. "I can't wait, this place looks absolutely delightful," Lauren drawled whilst casting a glance downwards as they hovered over a nearby local village. It was seemingly empty, but they couldn't tell from this high up, the buildings all looked derelict and abandoned . "Why are we here in the first place, Mike?""Well, I suppose it's got something to do with a girl called Ashley," Michael paused and pursed his lips. "The President is beside himself, he's offering large sums of money to get her back, Trent thought it would be a good gig for us." He shrugged absent-mindedly. "Money is money to me."Lou looked at the man she had known for years, his dark blue eyes darkened by the shadows of the lack of light in the plane carrier, the darkness playing across his face and shadowing his strong facial features, also turning his black hair a darker charcoal. His lips lifted in a cheeky smile when he noticed her staring at him, Lou scowled and turned away. He always seemed to make her frustrated, she hadn't even known they were going on a bounty, much less known that they were leaving the country until earlier this very morning. He must have known she would adamantly refuse to go, and that's why he had left telling her until the last possible minute. Michael resisted the urge to laugh at her foul mood knowing it would only provoke her further, and in the small space of the carrier he didn't need that. Lou opened her eyes and pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the window, the dull sunlight glinting off of the pane highlighted the ring of gold in the iris of her eye as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Michael.

"What?" Michael questioned from where he was sitting, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest; he seemed slightly uncomfortable under her gaze. "Oh, nothing really, I was just wondering what you're going to do if it gets cold," Lou remarked casually, falling back from the window and settling herself into her seat. Michael looked down at himself and at the white shirt that swathed his broad-shouldered frame, slowly uncrossing his arms. The smile he always wore was not absent from his lips as he shrugged. "I don't plan on us being here long enough for me to get cold". Lou was watching him with a small smile on her face when something drew her gaze to the window, Michael's voice faded into the background when she focused on the small something below the carrier plane.

The sight was odd, people had begun to gather underneath where the pilot obviously intended to land. Lou wasn't too worried at first as the villagers looked painfully archaic and cut-off from modern society. Anyone would, living so far from civilisation. What did threaten to constrict her heart was the sight of one of the farmers in the middle of the crowd, he appeared to be holding a rocket launcher. At any other time she would have found it comical for something to appear so out of place, and she probably would have laughed. But the sight of the weapon pointed directly at their plane, held in the hands of someone who looked so crazed even from this high up, it sent cold chills racing down her spine. She felt warm breath on the side of her face as Michael leaned over and peered over her shoulder to see what she was looking at. Lou didn't have to turn her face to know that her partner's expression had changed to one of shock, a look that surely mirrored her own. Her fingers worked of their own accord and buckled her seatbelt while she found she was unable to tear her eyes from the scene before her. Time moved at an almost painstakingly slow rate, both Michael and Lou were sickeningly entranced by what they were seeing. Neither cast a thought as to whether or not the pilot had spotted the imminent danger, both being too focused on the man with the large weapon. Time came to a halt as the trigger to the rocket launder was pulled, Lou jerked back from the window and pulled her arms over her head and curled up into herself on the seat, she felt Michael pull back from her. He had no time to buckled his seatbelt as the rocket-propelled projectile made contact with the side of the plane. Metal was torn away from the side of the plane and the right propeller completely came to a screeching halt. A high-pitched ringing shrieked in Lou's ears, her arm's came away from her head and her teeth gritted together at the awful sound. Smoke quickly filled the plane's cabin, sucking up all of the vital oxygen leaving Michael and Lou coughing and fighting for air.

"Lou?" Michael managed to get out, reaching through the smoke and felt the shoulder of his partner. Lou didn't hear him over all the shrieking of the sirens, the grating of metal against metal and the sounds of the screams that were coming from the cockpit of the plane. Her over-sensitive hearing went into overdrive and a disfigured howl tore itself from her mouth, shutting her eyes firmly and pressing her hands against her ears in a futile effort to block out all the sound.

It was not long after that that the plane begun to spiral out of control, plummeting downwards towards the ground. Michael fought for breath, the smoke stinging his eyes. He opened his mouth to breath, his lungs straining in protest about the lack of oxygen. He was thrown forward as the plane came into contact with something, as the force of the landing was not as harsh as he expected he believed it to be trees. It was not all over though, the plane continued to surge forward violently, crashing through the foliage and the sound of the trees' trunks breaking joined in the chorus of other loud sounds. Finally the plane came to a rest.

Michael worked as quickly as he could to free himself and Lou from the wreckage, feeling dizzy from lack of oxygen, his eyes stinging with tears from the smoke and making sight difficult, his hearing wasn't much better with his ears ringing from the pressure of sound. He unbuckled Lou's seatbelt with difficulty and picked her up, she had seemingly knocked her head on something he noticed, looking at the blood that had matted up the back of her head. He pushed through the plane's passenger door, it swung off of its weakened hinges and collapsed to the dirt beside it. Smoke rushed out of the cabin and Michael greedily sucked in much needed oxygen as he stumbled away from the carnage, Lou shrugged over his shoulder. When he thought they were far enough away from the disaster he lowered her to the ground and sat heavily down beside her unconscious form. The plane was a wreck, both metaphorically and physically speaking, he had no idea how they had survived, much less how the pilot would have managed to pull himself from that. He felt a stab of remorse but cast it aside, there was no time to feel bad for other people, right now he had to concentrate on surviving. As the smoke dissipated from the crash site Lou jerked awake beside him, launching herself into an upward seating position, gasping for air. When she opened her eyes Michael noticed that they were red-rimmed and her pupils were heavily dilated. He heard movement and yanked her downward, pressing her face unceremoniously into the dirt. She made a sound of protest but Michael quickly smothered it with his arm. Lou looked up at him in accusation, trying to make sense of the situation when choked screams filled the air. She tore her eyes from Michael's serious face and toward the source of the screams.

"Oh thank god, we crashed, I- I don't know what happened," came the sound of the pilot's gushing voice, he sounded nervous and his voice was raw from choking on smoke but he sounded fine. "C-Can you help me?"

Lou watched in horror as the villagers that flocked around the carnage not only helped the man from the plane but threw him to the ground.

The grateful look on his face turned to one of recognition and chilling fear, his eyes widened. "Lauren! Michael!" He screamed, writhing on the ground, trying to get away from the deranged people. "HELP ME!" He cried out pitifully, at the sound of their names being screamed in such a gut-wrenching manner both Michael and Lou had to force themselves not to run forward and help the man.

Neither of them carried sufficient fire-power on their persons, Lou only had a drop leg holster which was strapped to her thigh and contained her magnum, and a black leather shoulder holster containing her Desert Eagle, Michael wasn't much more well equip as he was only carrying a Blacktail in a holster strapped to his belt.

"PLEASE" the pilot cried in desperation, his eyes looked crazed with fear as they searched around the area for them. His eyes came to a halt as they came into contact with Michael's, hope and relief flooded his gaze. "Michael! Please.." his voice broke as one of the villagers picked him up and begun to drag him off. Michael looked away, had to look away from the hope and relief in the pilot's eyes. The hope and relief disappeared, replaced once again by animalistic fear. "NO, PLEA-" the man's voice was cut off harshly as a farmer delivered a harsh blow to the pilot's head, effectively snapping his neck. Lou gasped at the sound of the crack that rang out through the clearing, still unable to see anything with her face pressed into the dirt. Michael's hold on her head eased and Lou pushed herself up, rubbing the dirt from her face with the edge of her sleeve, marring the material of the beige leather. Not that it particularly mattered, both the cropped leather jacket and the black tank top she wore were coated in a sheen of dust and dirt. She pulled herself up from the ground, her body cried in protest but it was nothing compared to the ringing in her head, or the feeling or her nose being assaulted by many horrible smells, blood making up much of that smell. "What.. What happened?" Lou rasped out, her voice was grated and raw due to the damage the smoke had caused. "The pilot died." Michael replied, standing up and brushing himself off. He refused to make eye contact, he could already feel that she was confused, angry and frustrated. "We have to go get our supplied, before they return."

"They?" Lou demanded, "the villagers?" She looked back to what remained of the plane after the crash. Lou dusted off her distressed Levi's and followed behind Michael as he walked toward the plane. She was confused about what had happened after the crash, she wanted to ask but Michael didn't seem to want to talk about it, and pressing the matter would only make their situation worse. Lou disappeared into the wreck of the plane and the sounds of shifting metal sounded.

Out of the door toppled two black weapon's cases along with a couple of survival packs. Lou belted one of the kit's which carried a variety of equipment and gear around her waist, including a pouch to hold supplies, navigation light, rappel and a radio pouch. Michael followed suit and began to walk away from the crash site, he looked over his shoulder and waited for her to join him. Lou caught up to the man as she hefted her weapons carrier over her shoulder, "what happened, Michael?" She inquired curiously and seriously, her voice held the promise of threats if he didn't respond to her question.

With a half-hearted sigh he ran his tanned hand through his short black hair. "When we crashed, I pulled myself and you from the crash site to a safe distance away. We got away but the pilot was not so lucky, the villagers carried him off and killed him." Michael said shortly, not going into too much detail. It was enough for Lou though, she felt remorse but also knew there was nothing she could have done for the man if she wanted to live. Self-sacrifice would get her nowhere but dead, after-all.

The sound of a heavy sigh drew Lou's attention to Michael as they walked off the path, picking their ways through trees. However her attention did not remain on him for long, the sound of a bell chiming drew her attention to the appearance of a village not too far off. From what she could see from where they were the buildings were about as well looked after as the people, with many of the roof-tops patched and missing places. The buildings looked like they were barely standing. They got closer to the village, noticing the eerie absence of life. None of the remaining villagers seemed to notice their presence or care that they were invading upon their property, they were all too occupied with heading toward what looked to be a church. The smell of burning flesh bought Lauren down to earth, her nose wrinkled in disgust while her hand raised to cover her mouth.

"What on earth?" She said, her voice muffled by her hand. "Is that a person?" Lou approached the fire, there was a man, impaled by what looked like a three-pronged stake. He wore the uniform of a police-man. "Are they cannibals or part of some free-formed cult?" Lou wondered, gazing up at the man's disfigured and marred body. Michael had made himself busy searching the nearby house, and neither of them heard the sound of approaching footsteps, however Lou did catch the sound of a gun being cocked and felt the cold feel of metal against the back of her neck. "Who are you?" Lou asked after some time, "why would you do this to this man?" If she was going to die, she made as well die with some answers after-all. With that reasoning in the back of her head she did not cast a thought to the fact that the gun had slowly removed itself from the back of her neck.

"Step away from my partner," Michael snapped harshly, his Blacktail pointed evenly at the stranger's head.

"You both speak English?" came a male's curious reply, his voice was deep and somewhat soothing.

"No, obviously we don't, we speak French" Lou said smartly in reply while she turned around.

"I said step away from my partner," Michael said with his voice strangely calm, he cocked the gun. "I will not hesitate to put a bullet between your eyes if you don't remove it immediately."

Lou looked at who had nearly shot her, he didn't appear to be from here, his skin was healthy and still held life which was unlike that of the villagers who's skin was awash with a grey and sickening tinge. The man who had very nearly shot her looked to be in his mid to late twenty's, with brown blonde hair and sharp blue eyes. He held his arms out to the side and Lou caught a glimpse of shoulder holsters beneath his tan leather and wool jacket.

"I didn't do this," he said, jerking his head backward toward the burning policeman on the stake. "The villagers did this." He raised an eyebrow and lowered his arms. "You can lower your gun, I've lowered mine."Michael lowered his own begrudgingly and re-holstered it at his waist

"Who are you?" Lou inquired, forward with her arms crossed, her eyes were inquisitive and the colour of a frozen lake bathed in sunlight. The golden ring around her dilated pupils making them look eerie.

"Leon S. Kennedy," the man who claimed himself to be 'Leon' replied. "Who are you?"

"Lou and Mike," she replied shortly, but judging by the look Leon gave her it wasn't enough information. She didn't care about his curiosity or suspicions, she certainly wasn't going to give her full name and details to someone she had just met, much less under these circumstances. She picked up her weapon case and began to walk without waiting for a response. Her voice betrayed her origin though, Leon noticed, already picking up on the fact that she was from Australia. Truly one of the strangest accents.

"Are you going to tag along with us? Strength in numbers would be the appropriate statement I believe," Michael sighed wryly.

"You have a point, we'll stick together for now. What are you doing here?" He inquired curiously, eyeing the back of 'Lou's' head as he walked after the two. His shoes crunching heavily on the gravel under his feet. Somewhere not far off a crow cawed, Leon looked in the direction the sound came from as he waited for an answer.

"Looking for someone, or so I've been told," she said smoothly, revealing close to nothing; she didn't want anyone else moving in on their bounty.

"So am I, though it's more of my job," Leon said in slight surprise, though he hid it well. "How'd you get here?"

Lauren looked at him out of the corner of her eye, "a small carrier plane". Was all she said.

"Who're you looking for?" Michael piped up and asked Leon. He looked untrusting of the stranger and moved closer to his partner. Leon noticed his movement but said nothing. Leon pulled out a photo and passed it to Michael as Lou tapped open a door with her shoe to a nearby run down house, peering inside. The door didn't need much encouragement as it was already rusting off it's hinges."I'm looking for the Presidents daughter, Ashley Graham. Do you have any idea where she might be?"

Michael shrugged off-handedly and passed him back the picture. "Sorry mate, I wouldn't have a clue." He followed Lauren into the house, with his gun drawn, Leon closed it when Lou entered before him. Out the back was a man wandering about aimlessly. Leon tensed and shot him in the head, not giving him a chance to look. Lou jumped when the bullet didn't take him to his death. Instead, the man turned around grumbling something in Spanish and started towards them. Leon shot him again and brought him to his knees.

Then, Lou stepped in, aiming the Butterfly to his head and shooting. "What the hell was that thing? What's with the villagers around here? They don't die with a direct shot to the skull!" Lou said uneasily, her mouth set into a straight line. A woman came from where the man came from and ran towards them.

"Duck!" Leon called out, Lou wasted no time and dropped to her knees before rolling out of the way as Leon shot him twice in the head. The body disintegrated right beside Lou, bubbling away in a putrid pile of chemicals.

"What the fuck?" Michael barked before turning his eyes to Leon suspiciously, with every moment that passed he trusted this man less and less. "What is wrong with these people?"Leon looked at him for a moment before he turned at the sound of Spanish voices, more enemies were coming.

"Come on, we have to go, I don't know what's wrong with them" Leon said, putting a hand on Lou's shoulder and pushing her forward. All three of them ran, running from the approaching villagers, not knowing when they would get to stop again.

Author's Note:
Thank you to Dominick Disaster for reviewing my story and offering me much to think on and review, I really appreciate it. I hope this revised version is better than the last (:
And thank you to Ultimolu also for suggesting that I remove the profiles, I'm glad you helped me realise that it was a terrible idea for me to put them there.

Thanks for reading the first installment!