She drifted off at one point, having struggled to stay awake, and failed.

Next thing she knew, someone was shaking her shoulder. She snapped awake, banging her head back against the wall as she did.

She swore loudly, and snapped her gaze up to whomever had shaken her.

Upon seeing it was Leon, looking a tad worse for wear, she relaxed.

"God you scared me blondie." she snapped, "what happened to you?"

He gave a shrug "oh, you know, giant lake monster, freaky villagers, the usual. You?"

"Eh, just possessed yokels, not much else..." She stood up, and remembered the still-hurting wound.

Leon stared as she wobbled and almost fell over. He made to ask why, then seen the dried bloodstains on her clothes and the rip in the toughened vest.

"What happened to you?" he asked as he walked towards the church door.

"One of..those villagers, sprouted some hellish….THING...from its neck..."

She waved a hand vaguely at him, and he just shrugged. "sounds like the same thing I seen..."

He slotted the object into the churches main door, and shoved it open. Red wobbled in behind him, looking a bit pale and irritated.

After some tinkering, the gates barring the way to the room the girl was apparently in were lifted.

Red stayed outside the door, arms folded, humming a tune. She heard Leon entering the room, then making attempts to calm the girl down, and they at last seemed to work.

Finally, bored of waiting, she opened the door, just at the same time Leon was walking out of it, so they smacked heads-on into each other.

"Watch it blondie!"

"Watch it yourself you trigger-happy halfwit!"

Ashley blinked, peering around Leon to see who he was bickering with.

Red turned from glaring at Leon, to staring at Ashley. "'hello." she said after a second "so your the missing Miss Graham?"

Ashley blinked "yes...but who are you?"

Red grinned, turning so the insignia on her back was visible "Red's me name fer now, good to meet ya, now lets make like someone's pants and split!"

And with that she zipped off towards the ladder.

Ashley just blinked at her. she was defiantly a little odd.

As if reading her mind, Leon spoke: "don't ask, I don't know what she runs on either..."

That said, they followed Red down the ladder to the main area of the creepy church...


"I'll take the girl.." spoke a creepy voice from the alter. All three froze and whipped round, turning to face the hooded figure, holding a staff in one hand.

"Who're you?!" Leon snapped.

"Oh, forgive me, my name is Osmund Saddler, the leader of this fine...religious community.."

"so YOURE behind this "Loopy-nados" bullshit?!"

Saddler turned his gaze to the blood-soaked soldier. "What have we here? Another intruder?". He chuckled, "insult until you're blue in the face, little red-jacket, it wont make any difference...you wont get out of here alive.."

Red glared, one hand moving towards the rocket launcher on her back, but then froze as she heard saddler speak of the "Gifts" , the plagas, that he'd given Ashley and Leon.

The doors swung open behind them, she barely caught sight of the cross-bow armed figures racing in before Leon had grabbed both hers and Ashley's wrists, and hauled them both towards the window nearby.

She shielded her face with her arms as they catapulted out the window, the sound of shattering stained glass filling her ears, then she slammed, face-first, into solid, wet ground.

Red prised her face off the floor, trying to ignore Leon's sniggering at her oh-so-graceful landing, and followed them out the door. They re-emerged back by the church, and began the journey back to the village, interrupted frequently by ganados.

Red soon accepted these people were hell-bent on killing them, so shooting them became second nature.

Ashley on the other hand, seemed a little scared of it all, she kept close to Leon the whole time, glancing nervously around her, and occasionally at Red, to make sure the other girl hadn't vanished.


They ran across a bridge, the wooden structure seeming to shudder under their footsteps. They were forced to duck into the cabin nearby when more villagers showed up, boxing off both escape routes.

"Leon!"

The blonde whipped round and caught the object thrown at him, he used it to barricade the door shut, then turned to face who threw it.

"Luis.."

"Small world eh?" Luis Sera advanced towards them, a grin on his face as he spotted Ashley "i see the president has equipped his daughter with ballistics too.."

"How rude!" Ashley yelled, glaring at him.

Red prodded Luis in the head "don't be a pervert." she said shortly.

"And another? Leon's got a gift with the ladies it would seem.." he said, looking Red over.

"Don't worry, they're cool." Leon said simply, and Luis seemed to accept this, giving a slight shrug.

"LOOK!!" all turned at Ashley's shout, to where she was pointing. Outside, villagers were advancing on the cabin, brandishing various weapons.

As Ashley ran upstairs, Red, Luis and Leon all took up position by a window, waiting for the onslaught to begin.


It seemed unending, shoot one, three more would scramble in. Red swore as one dashed past her, heading up the stairs.

Ashley screamed as she spotted the villager, and crouched on the ground, shielding herself with her arms. Next second a loud shot cut the air, and the villagers now headless body slumped to the floor.

She looked up, seeing red holding a smoking shotgun, a pissed look on her face. She managed to offer Ashley a smile as she lowered the weapon and walked over to her.

"Hey, its okay, 'e wont be trying nothing funny." She helped the blonde up, "you okay?"

Ashley nodded, trying not to look as scared as she felt "i-im OK..." she stammered, and Red patted her shoulder, "that's good, i think we've gotten rid of them all now, lest go back down.."


"Where now?"

"The route I used to get in here is cut off, so we have no choice but to go forward.."

"You guys go on ahead, i forgot something..."

"Luis..?"

The two girls listened in on the conversation between Luis and Leon, and as the Spaniard left, they walked the rest of the way downstairs.

"You two alright?" Leon asked, Ashley nodded.

"Been better." Red answered, sighing.


Not far from the old cabin, they came across a dilapidated old shack, with a familiar figure lurking outside. Red immediately went over to him and took the shotgun upgrades the odd merchant offered. To be able to pay for them she simply sold all the odd spinels and things shed collected from the dead villagers.

"Excellent!" she grinned.

"Red."

"Hm?" she turned, seeing Leon holding a sheet of paper out to her, she took it, skimming over what it said.

"Left or right?", Red stared at it "which d'ya wanna take?"

Leon looked at her "I'll deal with what on the right-side path, stay-"

"if you even say "stay here" I'll shoot ya. I'm a soldier buddy, I can handle things by myself. She looked at him "ill take the other path."

With that, the turned the mechanism to open the gate, gave him and Ashley a salute, and ran off down the path.

Leon blinked "heh, good look red." he said quietly, before heading down the right path, Ashley following.


Rain and thunder assaulted her ears as she entered the camp. She listened closely, hearing breathing nearby. She looked up, and spotted a villager about to throw a hatchet at her. A single shot, knocked him his post, his lifeless body hitting the damp earth.

She ran around the corner, this time the hatchet managing to hit before she could shoot. But that was easily dealt with, and another body hit the dirt.

Looting the attacker she ascended the ladder to the upper part of the wooden structure. All seemed silent.

She crept along, squinting through the heavy rain, shivering as blood dripped from the wound on her shoulder.

"Ahi esta!" hands seized her neck, and flung her round. She over balanced, the whole world whirling around as she fell down, down onto the hard ground below.

The breath knocked out of her for the second time that day, she saw she'd landed in an enclosed "pit" of sorts, the only way out of which seemed to be a door on one side.

As she struggled to her feet, she heard an unearthly screech, accompanied by the sound of a chainsaw revving.

She scrambled back, a hoarse scream escaping as the woman with the chainsaw, her face covered by bandages, swung the saw at her.

"No, no way.." she wheezed, feeling sick.

The woman screamed again but Red was long gone from her trajectory as she swung.

She ran to the other side of the enclosure, spotting a second chainsaw woman drop down to join the second.

She levelled the shotgun, but the mechanism jammed, the gun producing an odd noise.

"Oh no.." she shook her head, the two maniac women were heading right for her, both chainsaws revving in unison.

--Got no other choice-- she thought, reaching for the weapon on her back. Her prized rocket launcher.

The shot obliterated the chainsaw ganados in a flash, but the kickback from the weapon slammed red back into the wall of the enclosure.

She sat there a moment, dazed and confused. then nausea from realisation and the wound hit her all in one go, and she twisted to one side, vomiting heavily.

Her whole body shook after the nausea finally ended, and she forced herself to get back up.

--I hope Leon's having an easier time then I am...-- she thought vaguely. Then spied some glittering objects scattered on the ground.

A ruby, some shotgun shells, and a key.

She pocket the first two, holding onto the third.

A further raid of the pit area unearthed a few incendiary grenades, and a gold bar.

"whoa...nice." she grinned and stuffed it into her side-pouch, and advanced towards the door.


And soon regretted it.

Opening that door only resulted in coming face to face with even more ganados.

She Lobbed the grenades, one after the other, burning them up in a flash. But more kept coming.

She emptied the handgun as well, in order to be rid of them all, but finally it was done.

She took a few unsteady steps forward, then passed out, the whole incident getting the best of her. Never before had she been in such a volatile combat area, she was used to a more quiet life, working in a gun lab, doing select missions only...

This was a helluva shock to an unsuspecting system...


"Hey, wake up!"

"Is she okay? there's blood all over her..."

She recognised those voices..it was Ashley and Leon.

"Burgh..." she opened her eyes, seeing Leon crouched beside her, holding a first aid canister, and behind him, looking worried, was Ashley.

Leon helped sit her up, and she waited a second for her head to stop hurting, before speaking.

"So how'd you guys do?"

Leon looked at the bloody soldier "better then you by the looks of it, they had a monstrous giant guarding that end of things, how about you?"

"Chainsaw ganados and the like..." she got to her feet with Leon's help, offering Ashley a reassuring smile "you okay hon.?"

Ashley nodded "a little freaked out, but I'm fine.."

Leon looked at reds back, noting the absence of rocket launcher. "I see you used your "prized possession" already."

"Sadly yes, shotgun jammed, didn't have any other option..."

"So where now?"

Both looked at Ashley as she asked them.

"well, there's a gate leading out of here on the path we took, so lets go.."

More thunder split the skies as the trio headed towards the right-side path...

In the brief moments they were sheltered from the rain, red wrote again...



Personal Note 3

We found Leon's missing girl, Ashley Graham. She seems like a nice girl, very quiet, this whole business must be pretty scary to her, i don't blame her for being freaked out.

On that note, almost got killed by those freaky villagers, some with chainsaws.

Hadda use my prized rocket to stop them.
Prolly woulda died if blondie hadn't found me.

Leon's found a way outta here, so here we go...


Third chapter -