Warning: T for violence and profanity.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the Black twins, the rest belongs to Capcom.
Previously on Balance of Nature...
Before I could tell him to take a hike, a few hostile humans entered the room. But what made me worried was the large man behind them. He was bald with long black facial hair and surprisingly had two colored eyes, one of them breathtakingly red.
"Perfect," The stranger muttered under his breath. "The Big Cheese."
Without any thought, Leon rushed towards the approaching large man and tried to kick him backwards.
But...that didn't work. The Big Cheese caught Leon's foot and he tumbled into the air, straight on top of the stranger and I.
Then I went black.
Chapter 8: What It Takes
Alex
"Alex! Alex, wake up." Huh?
From what I could make out through the white ringing in my ears, someone said, "So that is the beautiful girl's name. Alex. Rolls right off the tongue" His voice was smooth unlike the previous voice I heard.
"Enough with that."
The voice sounded familiar, as I if I heard it plentiful. I couldn't tell exactly who it belonged since my mind was still flashing back and forth and drowsiness overtook my body.
Forcing myself, I slowly opened my eyes and blinked several times as the world came back into view. Everything was blurry but through my eyelashes, I saw two large figures in front of me. Sadly, when I lifted my eyes fully, a glimmer of disappointment arrived. Waking up from the knockout, I wasn't transported back into my world. I didn't even know why I thought that would work but a small part me still felt that this was all some weird dream. Only wished it was. You eventually woke up from a dream.
This was a nightmare I couldn't escape.
"Alex, you're awake! How do you feel?"
I knew that was Leon. I recognized his voice quickly when my senses fell back into place.
"Where are we?" I asked, ignoring his question and asking about the real problem.
What had happened to us? The idea of being knocked out and waking up tied up didn't sit well with me. It was basically an episode of Law & Crime and I definitely didn't want to be that girl sold for drug money. I needed to get out of here, Spain and this useless excuse for a world. This video game may have been fun playing it but imagine being in my position. To put it lightly, being here was like being sucked into your favourite action movie. Yes, it was entertaining but almost getting killed every other minute was not fun.
Leon promised, "We're gonna get out of here, Alex, we all are."
Before I was able to respond, my forehead throbbed with pain. The bump on my head pounded and I winced. The pain cursed through me and vibrated to my neck which felt oddly numb. I wondered why. Instinctively, I began to lift my hands to touch my forehead but was immediately stopped. I shook my hands only to realize they were restrained. Tied to a wooden bar but my feet laid loosely in front of me. Great. But my feet were no use to me, it wasn't like I could untie the rope with my toes.
I furrowed my brows in confusion as I scanned the room. It wasn't the same area as before and looked to be a barn or shed of some sort. The windows were boarded but I was able to still see trees without leaves outside and shovels were hanging from hooks. Bundles of hay scattered the room and wood was piled in the corner.
Then my eyes rested on the Stranger and Leon who were tied together in handcuffs, he looked miserable. The Stranger was still passed out with his head hanging to one side and drool forming on his suede vest. Meanwhile, Leon was awake and alert, looking for anything to get us out of here. He wasn't wearing his jacket anymore, sporting a tight black t-shirt revealing his muscular body. There was also a knife strapped onto his chest. I wondered where his jacket went, it was quite cold here and the temperature would drop even lower into the night.
Oh god, please don't tell me I'm spending the night here too. I want to go home, I thought to myself.
That was when I was reminded of what happened.
The Big Cheese had cornered us last minute and Leon, in a final attempt to defeat it, failed and fell a top of the Stranger and I. Was he heavy? I meant, he had a good body, a very good body but he was not heavyset, not one bit. Perhaps his impact on the ground was hard because the Big Cheese had toppled him over.
Considering I was behind him when the whole scene unfolded, I didn't get to have a better view until Leon came falling down on me. He caused the floor to break break while I was underneath and the last thing I remembered was pure darkness blooming into my mind. Did Leon even get injured? I had seen him doing insane moves that you would only see in movies but did he feel pain? It seemed very possible considering I felt pain...but on the other hand I didn't belong here.
I called, "Leon," My hated that my voice wavered.
"What's going on?" I asked while I struggled in the rope restrain. It began to block the blood to flow to my hands, beginning to feel numb.
Leon gave me a sympathetic look before turning his attention to the Stranger whom just groaned.
Regaining consciousness, the Stranger shook his head and said solemnly, "Crawl into one hole and into another."
"Tell me what's going on here." Leon demanded of him.
The Stranger turned to me. The look caused me to gulp down the knot that was stuck in my throat. This guy didn't seem too dangerous but he sure made me feel uneasy. But I guessed everyone here made me feel like that.
"Americanas, si? Now what brings a bloke like you into this part of the world?" He turned to me. "And what of you, Alex, how did a pretty girl like you end up here?"
I swore if he didn't stop hitting on me - or if I wasn't tied up - I was ready to whack him with the nearby shovel. Actually I was ready to whack anything with a nearby shovel from pure anger.
Leon seemed to respond harshly with the comment and twisted the handcuffs, making the Stranger loudly call out, "Easy, now. Whoever you are."
The Stranger didn't send another look at me. A part of me wondered why Leon did that. It wasn't as if cared. At least I didn't think he did.
"My name's Leon," He managed to reach into his pocket and took out the picture of Ashley. "Came here looking for this girl. Seen her?"
The Stranger glanced at the picture. "What? You supposed to be a cop?" He paused, "Nah, you don't look the type."
"Let me guess...she's the President's daughter," He said more like a answer than a question.
I added with a raised brow, "How did you know that?" Who was this man? Was he important to this game? More importantly was he friendly or dangerous?
He glanced over at me and seemed to resist adding a wink. He said mystically, "Psychic powers," What? Did that exist in this world? Oh god, I needed to talk Noah. I had no idea what was happening.
The Stranger looked at my expression and chuckled, "I'm just kidding with you, Alex. I overheard the villagers talking about her in the church. A secret passage in the village might lead you right to it."
Leon asked, "And who might you be?"
"Me amo, Luis Sera. Used to be a cop in Madrid." Madrid, I have always wanted to go there. I wondered if it was any different. "Now I am just a good for nothing guy, who happens to be quite the ladies man." He now thought to send a wink toward me. Leon didn't catch it.
"Why'd you quit?"
"Policia, you put your life on the line and nobody appreciates you. Being a hero isn't what it used to be." That sounded terribly gloomy.
Leon brought his head back into thought. He suddenly began, "Used to be cop myself. Only for a day though." For a day? I have seen what Leon could do and he was better than any cop I have ever seen. Did he get fired...or quit?
"Somehow I managed to get myself involved at the incident of Raccoon City. On my first day on the force." He finished solemnly.
So that was Leon did before he became an agent. I wondered why a far off look appeared in his eyes as soon as he said it. It felt surprisingly pleasant to hear more about him. I realized I didn't know much about him other than he was a agent on a dire mission.
But what caught my attention was the city he mentioned. Raccoon City. What was that? Where? I have never heard of the city in my entire life. Was it a city in this world only? And who names a city after a raccoon? Was I supposed to know what happened at the incident, whatever it was. Did everyone know? More and more questions kept swirling and the more and more I understood if Leon ever questioned me seriously, I would be in trouble. I was already deep enough in the rabbit hole as it was.
"That is the incident with the viral outbreak, right? I think I might've seen a sample in the lab of the department." Luis put in.
So a viral outbreak occurred in the city? Was that just another word for zombie apocalypse? And Luis said something about a sample, I questioned what that was and if was of any importance.
"And what of you, hermosa muchacha?" Did he just call me beautiful girl? From the smirk on his face I began to have the hunch that he was just hitting on me to get me riled up. I met this guy for maybe ten minutes - excluding the time we were knocked out - and I was already getting accustomed to his typical lines.
"What are you doing with a fellow like Leon?"
I began, "It doesn't-"
But before I was able to tell him it was none of his business, my attention spun to the loud groan erupting from the door.
A hostile human entered the room with an shiny, deadly looking axe. His glare didn't leave me to think he was here to untie and chat with us. Panic grew in me as I continued to struggle with the tight rope. I was just a sitting duck right now, waiting for him to come at me next.
"Do something!" Luis exclaimed as he hired the axe into the air.
Leon cooley said, "After you." The hostile lifted his weapon higher and brought it down.
I shut my eyes, expecting to hear screams of pure terror but instead, I heard a chain break. Opening my eyes wishfully, they managed to dodge the blow and break the handcuffs. They rolled to opposite directions with Leon beside me.
"Untie me."
He strongly nodded. "Give me a minute."
The hostile started to lift his axe atop of Leon but he skillfully highered his left to catch him off balance and toppled him over. The human groaned painfully before he turned to dust, dying. The whole dust thing was surprisingly seeing like a typical, normal thing now. I supposed seeing something happen several times would make it seem like the usual.
Meanwhile, Luis decided it was a perfect time to run away. He ran away like we were the hostiles and ready to attack him next. What was his problem? He was untrustworthy but I felt that we would see him soon again. I wasn't sure why.
Leon shortly untied me using the sharp knife, careful of not getting my fingers. He wiped his sweaty forehead with his bare arm and placed it back into it's case.
"That was a close call."
I heaved for air. "You can stay that again." I asked, "You alright?"
"Yeah, you?" He looked concerned. Leon placed lifted his hand to my forehead. The hand was oddly warm for the cold weather, I didn't want it to leave. "Any bruises, cuts? How's your head?"
I shook my head as heat rose to my cheek. I felt a turmoil in the pit of my stomach. I shrugged it off, probably still shocked of what happened.
I stated, "I'm fine, completely fine." Although I wasn't. I was definitely not fine.
Leon didn't respond since Hunnigan called. He removed his hand from my head and conversed with her. He told her about the secret passage to the church and the stranger we met, Luis Sera. After their short conversation, he hung up and stretched out his hand for me.
"We're out then?" I took his hand to lift myself up and shook it off as we began to head out of the room. I couldn't be too dependent on him. Afterall, I had only known him for only a day.
As we walked into the hallway, we were faced with a creepy looking man staring at us out the window. His sudden appearance almost caused me to jump.
"Who's that?" I hoarsely said.
"Let's go find out."
We exited the area and the bright rays of the sunset hit me. I shaded my eyes with my arm as we neared the man. He wore a purple bandana that covered half of his face with a black hood over his head which was connected to his robe. He carried a large brown backpack and had blue eyes lighter than mine or Leons.
He rasped out loudly from a distance, "Hello stranger. Got something that might interest ya!"
Alright then. He was not weird at all.
Leon began to walk to him at the secluded side of the house but I stayed back. No way was I getting myself caught up with another eccentric person in this world. Luis was enough. Plus the annoying humans that were trying to kill me were already enough.
When he realized I wasn't exactly tagging along, he looked inquisitively at me.
I said, "I... think I'm just going to stay here. Y'know be on the lookout."
A crossed look flashed across his face but he answered, "Okay, I won't be long."
When Leon left, and checking when the coast was clear, I immediately took out my cell phone. I raised a brow when I saw the time and date haven't changed a bit. And still no service. I honestly didn't know what I expected,I was in a video game. In no way in hell did my phone plan go that far. I searched through my pictures for leisure to find one of my brother making an ugly face at the camera.
God, I never wanted to see my family this much till now. Including Noah.
Which led me into another trail of thought. Noah and I were in the same room when we were sucked in so he had to be here too, right? It made sense but perhaps it was just my homesickness talking. Maybe I was going crazy, maybe not. But I really needed to see Noah. He was not be my favorite person but I needed him.
And I may or not have missed him.
A few minutes later of flipping through my pictures, reminiscing of memories that seemed so far away now, I heard footsteps approaching me. I quickly stuffed my phone into the pocket and watched Leon.
He was had a new gun strapped on his back. I think it was called a sniper rifle but I wasn't too sure. In his right hand was two black handguns. Why did he get another one?
"Another pistol?" I laughed, "Trying to multitask?"
"Not exactly. Its…for you."
I stopped laughing.
Horror flashed onto my face and I took a few stumbled steps back. He put his hand out and looked at me seriously. I hadn't seen him so serious like that, at least with me. He always treated me like I was glass, fragile. I knew that but he wasn't too keen on that now.
He started, "Alex-"
"No, no." I winced, "I-I can't take it. I c-can't kill them."
Interrupted, Leon took ahold of my shoulders and he stared at me with furrowed brown eyes and a hard stare. I looked at anything but his eyes.
"Listen to me and look at me." He said. "You understand whatever happening now is dangerous, right? It's not a walk in a park."
I stayed silent.
"You're not getting it. What I'm trying to say is that now that your with me, I made you my responsibility. And I would feel better if you had something to protect yourself."
"Leon," I muttered, "I never wanted to be weight on your shoulders but-
"Stop it, Alex." He ruffled his hair and sighed, "I'm not sure how the night will turn out but it sure as hell won't be easy. Sometimes, you gotta do what it takes to survive. Even in what might seem like the weirdest and hopeless situations."
I struck out my hand and Leon handed the black glock.
I was trying to control the shakes as I took ahold of the pistol. It felt freezing against my fingers and I blankly stared at it.
"I'll do what it takes." I said, "Show me how use this thing."
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I worked pretty hard on this one :) PLEASE review. They really are much appreciated and help quicken my writing speed.
