Chapter 1: First Encounter
I received special training via a secret organization under the direct control of the president. I was to assume the responsibility of protecting the new president's family.
That was only part of Leon Kennedy's story. Six years before, he was a cop; an ordinary, young rookie cop for the Raccoon Police Department, fresh from the academy. On the very first day of work, he ended up becoming part of the Raccoon incident and faced monsters beyond his imagination. People changed into cannibalistic zombies and ordinary living things changed into monstrosities. The horrors he faced were like none he had ever seen or even imagined. He managed to escape with a young woman he had met, Claire Redfield, and a young girl named Sherry Birkin, the daughter of the very person who was responsible for creating the G-Virus. All three had escaped and he had joined forces, Claire by his side, with Rebecca Chambers, John Andrews, and David Trapp, survivors of the Caliban Cove incident as well as Barry Burton, Jill Valentine, and Chris Redfield. Together, they took part in missions to rid Earth of Umbrella. Thankfully, the government finally saw that it was truly Umbrella's fault and they were finally taken down.
The government noticed Leon for his great skills and Leon is added into their ranks. He worked his way up from agency to agency, eventually reaching to the top ranks of national security. He had enough skill to join the secret security service of the president of the United States, President Graham. In six years he had drastically changed from a rookie police officer to a highly skilled and highly intelligent elite agent of the government and guardian of the president and his family.
The car moved at a steady pace down the forest trail. Leon Scott Kennedy rested his head on his balled up fist, quietly sitting in the back and looking out the window at the repetitive and dull scenery. His appearance had also changed over the past six years. He was now 27-years-old, 5'10, had a deep voice, and a well-built body, but still had his youthful blue eyes and brown hair, split down the middle. He wore a black shirt with a brown jacket over it, blue pants, black shoes, and black fingerless gloves. He wore something like a shoulder harness under his jacket that went around his shoulders and connected across his back. It had two ammo pouches hanging from both shoulder straps and his sheathed dagger in the front of his left shoulder strap. His belt held a number of different equipment, other pouches, and holsters. Finally, on the side of his leg was another pouch that held a bit more ammo.
"Man, why am I the one who always gets the end of the stick?" the Spanish driver, Jose, commented to the passenger, Fabian.
"Yo, who are you really?" Fabian asked. "Come on and tell us."
Leon remained silent. He felt it wasn't in the Spaniard's place to know his identity. "You are a long way from home cowboy. You have my sympathies," Fabian continued after Leon didn't reply.
"I guess that's a local's way of breaking the ice," Leon scoffed. "Anyway, you know what this is all about. My assignment is to search for the president's missing daughter."
"What? All by yourself?" Fabian asked. He chuckled lightly of such a feat.
Leon looked at Fabian. "I'm sure you guys didn't come along so that we could sing Koombaya at some Boy Scout bonfire. Then again, maybe you did."
"Hah! You crazy American," Fabian commented. "It was a direct order from the chief himself. "I tell you, it's no picnic."
"I'm counting on you guys."
Jose and Fabian only shrugged at Leon's reply. Several minutes later, Jose was asked by Fabian to stop the car because he had to take a leak.
It was right before I was to take on my duties of protecting the president's daughter when she was abducted. That's the ultimate reason why I'm in this lonely and rural part of Europe. According to our intelligence, there's reliable information about a girl who looks very similar to the president's daughter. Apparently she's being withheld by some unidentified group of people. Who would've thought that my first job would be a rescue mission?
"Agh, its freezing," Fabian commented while doing his business. "So cold all of a sudden."
He zipped up his pants and began walking back towards the car when he thought he heard something moving among the tall, dry plants. He stopped for a few seconds and looked around. "Ah, must be my imagination," he figured.
He got back into the car and apologized. "Sorry it took so long."
Jose started the car back up and he continued driving down the forest trail.
Nearly an hour later, Jose drove the car across a bridge and stopped a few feet away from it. "Just up ahead is the village," Jose added.
Leon looked outside and could see a visible path leading to the village. When he noticed that neither Jose nor Fabian was moving to get out, he realized that he would have to go alone. He sighed loudly and said, "I'll go have a look around."
"We'll stay and watch the car. Don't want to get any parking tickets," Fabian clarified.
Leon raised a brow. "Right…parking tickets."
"Good luck," Jose added.
Leon got out of the car and commented in a low voice, "Jeez, who are these guys?" before slamming the door. Jose put the window down and inquired, "Did you say something?"
Leon ignored the Spaniard and was about to start walking down the path when beeping coming from something on his belt caught his attention. He unclipped his radio from his belt and pressed the transmit button. The face of an African American woman appeared on the video screen. "Leon," she began through the transmitter, "I hope you can hear me. I'm Ingrid Hunnigan; I'll be your support on this mission."
Leon was surprised by Hunnigan's obvious youth. She couldn't be older than 20 perhaps. "Loud and clear," Leon replied. "Somehow I thought you'd be a little older. So the subject's name is Ashley Graham, right?"
"That's right," Hunnigan continued. "She's the daughter of the president so try to behave yourself, okay?"
Leon laughed a little. He knew better than to make such moves on the president's daughter. "Whoever this group is picked the wrong girl to kidnap," he added.
"I'll try and get some more info on my end as well. I'll let you know when I find some."
"Good. Talk to you later. Leon out."
Leon put the high tech radio back on his belt and removed his handgun, a Hecker and Koch USP Tactical, from its holster. He made sure the gun was loaded and then began walking down the trail, holding the gun so that it pointed diagonally near the side of his head. He noticed a simple, two-story house shortly down the trail. He decided to check the place out first for any clues that could lead him to Ashley's whereabouts.
As he approached the house, he noticed the front door wide open. Unsure of what to expect, he placed the gun in front of him. He slowly entered the home, aiming his loaded gun at both sides. When he noticed it was clear, he closed the door behind him. He didn't know why but he had the urge to just do so. Of course little did he know that that act would give him the precious time he needed to escape from the nightmare he was about to experience.
He could feel rays of heat coming from the next room. He also heard someone cough pretty badly. He soon turned the corner into the next room, his gun near the side of his head again. He noticed a man bending over, using a poker at the fire that was burning in the fireplace. "Um, excuse me. Sir?" Leon inquired.
The man did not seem to hear or even notice Leon's presence. Leon shrugged and walked up to the man, putting his handgun back in its holster and taking out a picture of the president's daughter from the back pocket of his pants. He stopped before the Spaniard. The man seemed to finally notice Leon as he got up and turned around to face him with what seemed like an angry expression.
He held out the photograph and said, "I was wondering if you might recognize the girl in this photograph."
The man looked at the photograph and said, "¿Qué carajo estás hacienda aquí¡Lágate cabrón!" Leon didn't know Spanish, but by the sound of it, he knew it wasn't friendly.
"Sorry to have bothered you," Leon apologized with a hand gesture.
He put the picture back in the back pocket of his pants. Unaware to him, the man quietly grabbed an axe that was near the fireplace. Right as Leon looked up the man brought the axe up and was about to bring it down but Leon was faster. He immediately dived to the side, grabbing his handgun in the process. He stood opposite of the axe-wielding man, activated the laser sight, and aimed his weapon at the villager. "Freeze," he ordered.
But the villager did not stop. He held the axe high over his head, ready to strike when he got within striking distance. "I said freeze!" Leon ordered again in a firm voice. The villager kept going, as if oblivious to the weapon pointed at him.
Why isn't he stopping? Doesn't he see the goddamn gun pointed at him?
As the man got closer, Leon began to fear that he would have no choice but to fire at the man but only enough to injure him. When the man was within striking distance, Leon aimed his gun at the man's knee and fired. The villager collapsed on his back. The bullet surely would've shattered his knee, considering that Leon fired at such close range—
—except the man got up as if he hadn't been shot.
"What?" Leon said in disbelief. This can't be…
The man got up and was within striking distance again. Once again, Leon shot him but this time in his chest, which stopped the man's incoming axe attack. The man was barely fazed. Leon shot him again and again, the man didn't stop. The villager once again brought up his axe and brought it down, but Leon evaded it when taking a few steps back quickly.
Leon shot the man's right arm, causing him to drop the axe. The man placed his hand over the new wound and growled in pain. But then he looked at Leon with an angry expression and was about to keep moving towards Leon when he decided to aim at the only remaining spot: the villager's head. He fired and at last, the man collapsed on his knees and fell on his chest. This time, he did not get up.
Almost immediately, memories from six years ago on that fateful day in Raccoon flooded Leon's mind. He knelt beside the dead man's body and studied his features. He was definitely no zombie. He walked and moved like a normal person, did things like a normal person…hell even spoke like a normal person. And yet he had reacted in a way that was definitely not normal and even resisted his attacks despite being shot in the knee, the chest, and the arm at close range. The headshot had finally taken him down.
If he's not a zombie, then how was he able to go on even after I shot him three times at close range? If he's not a zombie or a regular human being, then what the hell is he?? What is—?
The noise of an engine being revved interrupted Leon's train of thought. He quickly got up and looked out the window in the front of the house. He saw a pick-up truck drive towards the area where Jose and Fabian were parked. There were three other men outside the house, equipped with axes and pitchforks. They were walking towards the house.
In the distance, Leon could heart gunshots, shouts of terror, and something crashing followed by a tumbling noise. Leon wasn't sure what had happened or if the Spanish officerswere ok, although he had a bad feeling about that. He wasn't sure why the villagers now outside the house were armed with axes and pitchforks and ready to kill him. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on.
"Shit," he cursed.
His radio began beeping again. He unclipped it and pressed the transmit button. Hunnigan's face appeared on the screen again. "Is everything ok?" she asked, concern clear in her voice.
"There was a hostile local. I had no choice but to neutralize him," Leon responded. "There are still others surrounding the area."
"Get out of there and head towards the village," Hunnigan continued. "Take whatever measures necessary to save the subject!"
"Understood," Leon responded with a nod. He put the radio back on his belt. The suddenly hostile villagers began banging on the front door. They had him trapped inside the house. But after a while, Leon noticed that the villagers continued banging on the door…not even trying to actually open it.
These guys might not be zombies, but they're proving to be as brainless as one.
With three villagers at the entrance, Leon would have to find another way out and fast before the villagers found a way to finally open the door. He took one last look at the dead villager on the floor and ran to the stairs. However when he reached it, he could hear buzzing noises coming from a lot of flies. Naturally from experience, that meant a dead body. He walked towards the sound, which was coming from a closet on the side of the stairs. He was horrified with what he found. There was a human skull along with a pile of other human bones…all covered in flesh-eating maggots.
"Looks like they've killed a lot of people. I hope Ashley's ok," Leon said to himself.
Taking his eyes off the maggot covered bones, Leon quickly ran up the stairs. At the top, there was only a wooden table beside the stair rails and a window. He looked out the window and could see the villagers practically waiting for him to emerge. He really didn't want to go outside and deal with these villagers but he had to do whatever it took to save Ashley.
Leon took a few steps back. Then he ran forward and dived out the window, using his arms to shield his face from the shattering glass. He rolled on his back and stopped in a standing position. One of the three villagers yelled to the others. All three of them looked at Leon and began walking towards him, weapons ready.
Leon brought his handgun up and aimed at the nearest one, a man in his early 30s perhaps and armed with an axe. He fired at the man's head, just as he had done with the first villager. The man stumbled backwards, a hand over the fresh wound on his face and just kept walking towards him after several seconds, his axe high in the air. Leon couldn't believe it. He had shot the goddamn villager between the eyes and yet he kept coming. The first villager did need to be shot a few times but nonetheless the headshot had finally killed him.
If a headshot doesn't even kill them, then what the hell does?!
Leon began growing desperate for a way to kill the villagers. Headshots didn't seem to instantly kill them…so what did?
Out of frustration and desperation, Leon shot the man in the chest three times. The man finally went down. He had no time to react as the other two villagers continued to move towards him. They were getting within striking distance.
He took a few steps back and aimed at the man with the pitchfork. He fired two shots at the man's face. The second shot actually sent the man a few feet away, which surprised Leon. He didn't think a bullet from his handgun was capable of doing such a thing.
The last one, oblivious to what happened to his comrades, continued coming at him. Leon fired two shots at the man's head. He collapsed on his back, dead.
Leon stood there speechless, shocked, and beginning to understand a bit how to kill the villagers. This fight had just proved that, although not fatal, shooting the villagers in the face was probably the most effective way to kill them.
He removed the empty handgun clip, put in a fresh one from one of the ammo pouches attached to the sides of his vest and decided to head back to where the Spanish officers had parked the car. He had the urge to go and see what had happened to them and if they were ok, although he had a feeling that they weren't.
He went back towards where the car had been parked. Leon could see tire tracks in the dirt that showed that the car that had left towards the Spanish officers had indeed sped up and rammed into them. When he looked at the bridge, he was horrified by what he saw. The bridge was completely destroyed, most likely by the cars. Leon walked to the very edge of the cliff and could see the Spanish officers' car in the water as well as the other one in the water, lying on its back. The damage on the cars confirmed Leon's fears. The villager in the car had rammed into the officers, hard enough to destroy the bridge and cause both of them to fall into the water. Now only the question of the officers' survival hung in the air.
Where are the survivors? Leon looked around for any bodies but didn't see any. That gave him a glimmer of hope in a way. I hope they got out in time…
Leon eventually got back on the trail and continued on his way past the house. He walked into a shed that was on the right side of the trail and several feet away from the two-story house. Inside the virtually empty shed, there was a wooden table and two shelves on the right wall. On the lower shelf was a wooden box. Leon walked up to it and noticed that it couldn't be opened but it did look breakable. Instead of wasting ammo, he removed his knife from its sheath. With a little work, he sliced off the top of the box. When he looked inside, he was surprised to see a box of 9 mm ammunition.
What's this doing here? The villagers don't use guns...at least not the villagers I've killed.
Nonetheless, he grabbed it and put it in the ammo pouch. Nothing else remained in the box or in the shed. Satisfied, Leon stepped out of the shed. To his right he saw a signpost; a disturbing looking one. The post had two wooden sticks that formed an X and ended with two human skulls, hanging on to each stick with rope. The upper half of it was covered in blood.
"What does this mean?" Leon wondered. He had a feeling that it meant something bad up ahead, but how bad he was unsure of.
With his loaded gun ready and in the same position as before, Leon continued. Before he could take a single step, something caught his attention. Past the signpost, he saw a white wolf that began whining loudly and trying to escape from something. Leon moved past the signpost to get a better look. When he looked at the ground where the animal kept looking, he could see why. The wolf's left back leg had been caught in the steel jaws of a bear trap.
Leon walked up to the animal and knelt down by its injured leg. With a little strength, he pried open the bear trap and gave the wolf a few seconds to remove its leg before he let go of the bear trap and allowed the jagged steel jaws to shut.
The wolf began limping away. It looked at Leon with its yellow eyes for a few seconds, as if to thank him silently. Then it ran off into the woods with a slight limp, leaving Leon to wonder how it could do that on its injured leg. He looked down at the trap.
If there's one, then there's definitely more.
He observed his surroundings and realized that it wasn't going to be easy to look for the traps. The surroundings could easily hide a bear trap.
Then again…why would I avoid walking down the trail? They surely wouldn't have put the traps on or near the trail because then I'd be able to see them.
Leon almost wanted to laugh. Although the villagers had proven that they were capable of devising some sort of plan or use teamwork against an enemy, they also proved that they weren't very bright. Of course he had been able to figure that out before but he didn't realize how stupid they could actually be. Why they thought he would avoid the trail and expected him to fall into one of their traps was beyond him.
Carefully walking back to the trail, he continued walking down the light dirt trail until he reached another signpost. This one had a wooden arrow pointing forward. "Pueblo" was carved on it. "I guess I just keep going for the village," Leon said to himself. In front of him were four old trees and between both pairs, Leon could see that the villagers continued to believe that he would be stupid enough to fall into their traps. Between the pair of trees were two yellow bombs, both attached by a single line. Leon knew they were armed by the little red light on both. The path he was currently on just went around the pair of trees on his left. There was also a space in between the two pairs of trees wide enough for Leon to walk through them. It wouldn't save him a while lot of time, but he didn't see why not.
He walked towards the space, but the ground caught his attention. His mind flashed back to the bear trap that had caught the wolf and his suspicion that there were other bear traps, hidden well within their surroundings.
Leon decided not to take the chance. Chance are that the villagers put traps in that space, knowing that he might take that path and step into a bed of traps.
He went around the first pair of trees and continued on when he heard someone yell something out in Spanish. He immediately raised his gun and waited for his next victim to approach. But after what felt like five minutes, Leon lowered his gun. The villager had not appeared for some reason.
Maybe he's waiting for me to come to him instead.
Standing here wasn't going to help solve anything. Raising his gun up again, Leon slowly began walking towards the next area, where the path bent to a new direction. As he turned his body to face the new path, he turned his gun the same way. When he finally reached the point where the path bended to a new direction, he saw the villager at last begin walking towards him, armed with a pitchfork.
Leon aimed at the man's head and fired three shots. The third shot flung the man back a few feet, just like with the earlier villager. This was still perplexing to Leon. "My gun can't do that," Leon reminded himself. "So why is that happening? Huh, I guess it doesn't really matter. As long as I'm able to kill them."
He walked over the dead villager's body and walked towards another shed on the left side of the trail. He went inside and noticed two wooden boxes this time. Not wanting to alert any nearby villagers if there were any, Leon took out his knife and cut off the top of both boxes. Once again, both boxes had a box of 9mm ammo. Still perplexed by who would leave the ammo in the boxes for him, he grabbed both and put them in the ammo pouch, giving him 70 clips in all.
He turned to his left to walk out when he was startled by what was on the wall of the shed. There was a dead woman hanging on the wall with a pitchfork in her face. Blood had streamed down the wall, all coming from the fatal stab wounds in her face. Leon wasn't sure how he had missed the bloody mess before him, but it sickened him. "Guess there's no sex discrimination here," Leon observed. "Better find her fast."
He walked out, clearing his mind of the bloody image of the dead woman. He started heading to his left again when he heard someone yell something out and someone running. Leon saw two villagers, one pointing at him and the other running towards him. Leon quickly raised his gun, aiming at the running villager's kneecap. He fired, causing the villager to fall on his chest and drop his weapon, a mining pick.
The other villager threw his axe at Leon. With help from the gun's laser sight and Leon's quick reflexes, he shot the weapon, deflecting it. The villager had no other weapon to throw or attack with, so all he did was walk towards him, ready to attack with bare hands. Leon could hear the first villager groan as he slowly got up.
I have to kill one of these guys fast, or else they're going to overwhelm and kill me.
He quickly shot the second villager in the kneecap as well, bringing him down to the ground. As soon as he fell, the first one was on his feet. He was only a few feet away, well within striking distance since he had picked up the mining pick. To give him the few seconds he needed, Leon shot the man again in his right knee. The man collapsed on his injured knee, exactly what Leon was hoping for. He quickly moved towards the man, wrapped his arms around the man's waist despite not wanting to get near him, and using all of his strength, he threw the man over his head, smashing his head against the ground. The man's skull was fractured along with his neck from the move Leon had performed called the supplex.
The dead villager's body fell on its back. Leon used his arms to help flip himself back up, landing on his feet. Before he could defend himself, the second villager wrapped his hands around Leon's exposed neck.
Leon struggled to get the villager's hands off of him. Remembering his training, he put his left foot on the man's chest and brought his right foot up, kicking the man under the chin and forcing him to fall on his back with his grip on Leon's neck now gone. Leon did a back flip after kicking the villager, landing in a kneeling position. While the man was down, Leon stood up, aimed at the villager's head and fired twice. The man only flinched.
Goddamn, these guys can withstand quite a bit of bullets.
This time he fired at the man's chest. The man made one last attempt to get up after being shot, but fell back and died.
Leon stopped trying to figure out the best way to kill the villagers. Headshots worked, but evidently a few shots to the chest worked just as well. Perhaps not as well as headshots, but worked nonetheless.
He observed his surroundings and found that he was on one side of the bridge where the two villagers had been. The bridge was above a river, its waters growing rapid and splashing against rocks and the sides of the small cliffs.
Leon continued on, reloading his gun as he walked. Before he began crossing the bridge, he heard someone else yell something else.
For the love of God, must they come and attack every five minutes?
But when Leon looked across the bridge for his enemy, he realized that the yelling had come from a villager who was with two others on a hill leading to the woods. They were talking to each other and pointing and looking at Leon occasionally.
The agent was getting a bad feeling about that. It got worse when they began pointing at something else and ran off towards it. Leon didn't know what or where they were heading to, but he had a string feeling that they were heading to Pueblo, the village that he had been told to go to by Hunnigan. And also…it was the home of many of the villagers here. But that meant…
Shit! That means once I reach Pueblo, they'll already have an offensive attack in plan and I can only hold them off for so long. Only God knows how many people in Pueblo reside there and without a better gun…I'll die.
Thinking of such a thing reminded himself of his experience in Raccoon, when he thought he would die in various situations that occurred. But he managed to survive his deadly adventure in Raccoon.
However, this situation was different. Whether for better or for worse, he wasn't sure. What he did know was that he would have to find a better weapon or more ammunition. Or find a way to perhaps bypass the village and come back with a better weapon. If not bypass, then run out of Pueblo while the villagers tried to attack, but he quickly cleared the whole thought.
C'mon Leon, you survived the Raccoon incident with less experience and very few weapons. Don't act so stupid! If I survived that, I can find a way to survive this. Besides…Ashley needs me.
His determination renewed and his fear gone, Leon continued on crossing the bridge. The new path turned left and Leon could see another shed on the left side of the trail. An old short tree blanketed the simple shed with a bit of shadows and the only window was blocked up with planks of wood.
Leon walked toward it, checking to see if perhaps an unknown person left him some more 9mm ammo. He was about to walk into the shed when suddenly a villager, who had been hiding in the shed waiting for him, appeared and wrapped his hands around Leon's neck. Before Leon could use the same technique as he had used before, the man actually picked him up and threw him hard against the ground on his back. Then he let go and backed off a little.
Leon's upper back, shoulders, and even his neck began to pulse with pain. He couldn't believe how strong the villager was. Leon was around 185 lbs. and the man was able to pick him up as if he weighed half of that.
How are they so strong? They're just measly villagers!
Leon reminded himself not to be so surprised after discovering a new skill or quality of the villagers, due to the fact that these weren't ordinary humans. What they were, he didn't know but he would soon find out.
Leon did a front flip, landing on his feet and now facing the villager. The villager held his hands out and letting out something like a raspy roar, practically running towards him. Leon quickly took out his knife, held it backwards with the blade aligned with his arm rather than pointing up (like how someone would normally hold one), and positioned it so that the blade was sticking out.
When the villager was about to grab Leon's neck again, he lashed out with his right hand which held the knife, the blade stabbing deep into the man's face. The man yelled in pain. To add to the stab wound, Leon kicked the man extremely hard on his chest, actually sending him back into the shed and crashing into the wall, his back hitting it hard. While the man was slumped against the wall, Leon quickly raised his gun and fired at the man's head. The man groaned and his head rested on his chest, dead.
Leon immediately started calming himself down after such a startling attack. Once he was calm again, he went inside the shed. There were two empty shelve and a table with a box of 9 mm ammo on it. He picked it up and put it in his ammo pouch. Then he left.
When he stood at the entrance of the shed and looked left, he saw a long wall disappearing into forest and two big, wide wooden doors blocking the path in the middle of the stone wall. He walked up to it and took in a deep breath, preparing himself for his next big fight in the village he had been looking for.
"Here we go," Leon said to himself. He pushed open the doors, ready to face the villagers. Hell, all the villagers if necessary. Whatever it took to find Ashley and get her safely back home as it was his mission to save her at all costs…even if it meant his life.