Chapter 2 – The Pursuit

Ricky closed the gate behind him and switched on his belt-torch, the first thing that the light illuminated was a headless body, dressed in typical peasant clothing. The stench that manifested from the corpse was over powering, as he got closer, he heard a male scream out at him in Spanish, Ricky couldn't speak Spanish so he had no clue as to what was said, but he knew for a fact that it wasn't good, after his mission briefing, he knew that the locals were out to kill him. Wasting no time in trying to reason with the sickle wielding maniac, he fired a shot at the attacker's head, the shot hit with a sickening squelch, but to Ricky's horror, the villager was still alive! With no time to ponder this, Ricky unloaded another three shots into the villager's forehead where it exploded, but instead of falling on the floor, defeated, something protruded from the spot where a "humans" head has once been, in the space of five seconds, the "thing" sprouted a tentacle with a blade on the end of it. Not wanting to be caught in the blades swinging path, Ricky took a grenade from his belt and threw it at the villager's feet, running away from the blast and splatter zone, he heard the almighty explosion from behind him, but felt none of the villager's body parts on his black t-shirt with the S.T.A.R.S. logo emblazoned on the arms and back. He turned and faced the chaos he caused and continued on the path searching for Leon and this church. "Amateurs" Ricky sighed walking up to a wooden frame with a rope dangling from it.

Then he heard the screams of anger and anguish from the villagers and heard gunshots in quick succession, that's when he first saw Leon S Kennedy here, heavily outnumbered but taking down the villager's onslaught one after another. Without any hesitation Ricky scaled down the cliff face to help Leon, as soon as his feet touched the ground, an axe zoomed past his ear and stuck into the stone cliff face, without any time to celebrate his luck, Ricky shot four 9mm bullets into the villager's chest and he collapsed to the floor, dead. Looking around, he couldn't see any sign of anymore villagers or of Leon for that matter. Ricky ran to the spot where Leon was fighting the onslaught of madmen and saw a cavern, assuming that Leon went through here, he cautiously, gun raised, entered. After coming to a clearing, he noticed stalagmites and stalactites dotted around the cave he had come to, he heard bats and the sound of waves gently crashing upon the "shore" and that's where he saw two poles, both with ropes to stop the boats from drifting away, he got onboard the only boat left there and pulled out his combat knife and swiped at the rope, started up the engine and was quickly, but carefully, making his way up the small river.

Ricky eventually came to another part of the cave and saw blue flames on long stands; he stopped the engine at the dock and left the boat. To the left of him, there was what resembled a market stall, but no ordinary market stall, on this stall, there was guns and ammunition, enough to outfit a small countries army! And there was a man dressed in a dark, dirty black coat, a purple bandana was wrapped around his mouth, he spoke with a husky, throaty voice, but with a British accent. "Haven't seen you around here before, Stranger." Said the Merchant, he gazed upon Ricky's features, his black, short hair, his brown eyes, burning with power, with the need to complete him mission, his toned chest, his long powerful legs, his strong, well toned arms.

"Looks like you got a job to, and by the looks of things, you ain't equipped enough mate, tell you what, I'll give you any Shotgun you see here plus a back strap free of charge mate." The Merchant offered Ricky, Ricky just looked at him in slight disbelief then a Remington 1100 caught his eye, having used this gun in the Raccoon City incident and the Arklay Facility, he held a soft spot for this assault shotgun.

"I'll take the Remington 1100, thanks man." Ricky took the back strap and put it on and then he holstered the Remington, he turned to leave when the Merchant called him back. "Here mate, your forgetting something, have three boxes of shotgun shells on me, oh and five clips for your handgun, if you see me around, I'll be able to sell you more weapons and ammo, also I can upgrade your weapons, at a price…" Ricky took the ammo and put them in his hip pack, the Merchant laughed as he finished his sentence and he, Ricky, walked away.

As he rounded the only corner in this part of the cave, he saw a ladder, walking towards it, he placed his hand on the sixth rung and was about to climb up when he heard an almighty crash, slightly shaken by the shock, he continued up the ladder, heart beating ten to the dozen. When he climbed the ladder, he saw a heavy door ahead of him, not knowing what was on the other side, he opened the door fearlessly, knowing that whatever made that crash could be just on the other side. Luckily, on the other side was just two barrels, broken, and empty, but there was a terrible smell of death and decay around the area. Releasing the half used magazine from his Beretta, he discarded it and replaced it with a fresh magazine, he turned left and saw the cause of the stench in the air, but what it was, Ricky didn't know. It was enormous; it looked once human, definitely like something has catalyzed the growth of this gargantuan. Its body was naked but for a large piece of cloth tied around its groin area, probably hiding its modesty mused Ricky. It was dead, and it hadn't been dead long, for the blood hadn't yet coagulated, Ricky couldn't bear the horrid smell anymore. He walked further on, and noticed an uprooted tree about 50 feet from the remains of the giant, a sheer spectacle of the power of the behemoth, Ricky walked past small shacks, looked seemingly empty, and saw about 100 feet in front of him, another heavy gate, without pause to admire the power of the monster, Ricky hurried to the gate.

The gates lead to a bridge with parts of the timber panels, used as flooring, missing, but not too much to make it impossible to cross, but difficult for a small child or a physically handicapped person to cross. On the other side of the bridge, was the church mentioned in his briefing, and so was Leon. The pursuit to catch up with Leon has finally came to an end, wasting no time in catching up with him, Ricky holstered his Beretta and started to run across the bridge, he scaled the gaps with ease and when he reached the end of the bridge, he heard a growling, followed by a series of rapid gunfire, like a machine gun, or a Mac-12 shooting something. When Ricky reached the entrance to the church, the shooting stopped, so did the growling, it had only taken Ricky five seconds to run to the from the end of the bridge to the face of the church, knowing Leon will be just inside the church, he started to enter, but he heard somebody speaking in Spanish, it didn't sound like the other villagers, they all had evil voices, this voice was evil all right, but just not in the same way, it had a cool, authorative edge to it. The Spaniard talking was definitely male, and getting closer, knowing that the locals don't take too kindly to outsiders, Ricky ran to the right hand side of the church and hid down a small side path. Slyly peering around the corner, he spotted three men walk to the church entrance, two of the men were dressed in black robes, and holding crossbows, the other, walking in front of the men, to assert his dominance, was wearing a purple robe, emblazoned with some sort of insignia, possibly the Los Illuminados cult insignia Ricky wondered, he watched them enter the church. Ricky was about to emerge from his hiding spot when he noticed more black robed men with crossbows walking to the church, a lot of them, Ricky bitterly stood by and let them enter, knowing that if he fired a shot, he'd be dead. As he waited for Leon to come out, or for any sign of trouble, he heard more villagers, this time not coming for him, but waiting, waiting for somebody, or something. Waiting and waiting, Ricky was starting to worry, then he heard a window smash, quickly pulling his Beretta out of the holster, he raised it and started to make his way to the church, then he heard the door next to his hiding spot unlock, he aimed the gun at the door ready, ready for whatever danger may be lurking behind it…