Chapter 9

Tell Him Everything

The village wasn't just overrun, it was crawling, and not just with zombies either. Fucking piranhas, mutated giant amphibians, everything was out for our blood. Krauser just swore, profusely, and shot at anything that moved and saying over and over how insane this all was. I knew he wanted answers, I could see it in the way he looked at me after I killed one of them like I knew what I was doing. It was only because I did know what I was doing, and I wanted answers just as badly as him.

When we found our contact, he was barely alive, bleeding from a wound in his leg. I was amazed he'd managed to last this long at all. I covered the exits while Krauser asked him about the village.

"That girl..." he croaked feebly, "she brought demons to our village."

Dying words that made no sense. That was until we found the girl he was talking about, and the thing guarding her in an old church, surrounded by water. Javier must have released extra water from the dam upstream, flooding the village.

Fucking bastard, killed all these people, I'll make him pay, I thought, I promise.

The girl was there alright, but she didn't fit into the surrounding at all. She was dressed in virginal white, stained deeply with red blood around the hem, and she was singing softly in a cultured voice.

"Leon," Krauser said, flicking his head to the side as we entered the church, indicating the mutated head of the thing sticking out of the water.
"I see it," I said back, taking aim.

The girl looked up at me, I caught her eye, she stopped singing and collapsed to the floor. All hell broke loose.

"Shi-it!" Krauser said as the thing launched itself from the water and bared its massive jaws right at us, "What the fuck is it? Where do I shoot? Things fucking huge!"
"Dammit!" my handgun was no use against its scaly hide.

What was it? I had no idea and, in the long run, I don't think I ever want to know. It was like a sea monster from ancient myth, all tentacles and fangs and stinking of dead fish. We lured it outside before it mauled us to death, but that only gave it more room to manoeuvre. We tried to shoot it but it was impossible, it leaped like a dolphin from the water, reappeared and vanished in the blink of an eye. I didn't even notice it was behind me until it was too late. The tentacle hit me like a truck, throwing me across the walkway and slamming me into the wall, winded and dazed and broken. I thought I heard Krauser shouting my name, but the ringing in my ears was deafening everything. I coughed roughly and stumbled wearily to my feet, only to come face to face with it. It was right there, jaws gaping wide. I raised my hand to shoot it but only then realised I had lost my gun. It was all around me, there was no way out. A spike of fear jolted through me as I looked up, watching it rear back for a final strike.

"Get out of the way!" Krauser yelled.

I did the only thing I could do, I ducked and covered my head as best I could, hoping to all hell that Krauser had a plan. Then the sound of cracking and breaking could be heard from above me and there was mortar and brick raining down around me. Something slammed into my right shoulder and I was sent sprawling to the ground, letting out a cry of pain. The thing roared above me, screaming, screaming, screaming...

And then nothing. Silence. I opened my eyes and tried to push up on my arms, but my right arm screamed in agony at the movement and I dropped back against the rough boardwalk.

"Fuck," I said weakly, even as Krauser ran up to me, worry in his eyes.
"Are you alright?" he asked, "What's wrong?"
"My arm," I said, blinking away the stars in front of my eyes, "I think it's broken."
"Shit!" he knelt down and carefully helped me onto my knees and then up onto my feet, "Let's at least get inside. That thing might be gone now but who knows when it'll be back."

I nodded dazedly, my head swimming. I felt like I was going to pass out. The girl was still there, lying open and vulnerable on the broken wood. What was she doing here? I thought. Does she have anything to do with the other girls that had gone missing in the village, like that radio report had said? Krauser sat me down gently and propped me up against the wall.

"The girl..." I said faintly.
"I'll get to her," Krauser said authoritatively, "you first. Here."

He un-holstered his knife and put it in my right hand, which lay limply against the ground, palm up.

"Can you close your hand around it?" I tried and managed to get a fair grip on it; it still hurt, only not as badly as before, "Good. What about this?"

He lifted up my hand and bent my arm at the elbow, moving just my forearm.

"That okay?" I nodded, "Then it isn't broken. Unfortunately I think I know what's wrong."
"What..?" I didn't manage to finish my sentence as Krauser grabbed me roughly and snapped my dislocated shoulder back into its socket.

I screamed, falling forwards against him, fisting my left hand into his t-shirt, squeezing my eyes shut. My head fell against his shoulder and he let me stay there, shivering. Slowly I managed to release my death grip on his shirt and my left arm fell limply to the ground. I couldn't move, I think I'd gone into shock. I felt Krauser's hand resting tentatively on my back.

"Could of said," I mumbled out weakly against his neck.
"Would have only made it worse, you know that," he said in the calmest, gentlest tone I'd ever heard him use; damn I must look like shit if he's being this nice to me, I thought, "it works better if you're relaxed."
"Yeah," I conceded, "help me out here would you?" I asked as I tried to push myself up without jostling my arm.

He helped prop me back against the wall and then went to check on the girl. She was still unconscious so he picked her up and placed her on one of the long pews close to where I sat, lying on her back. He checked her eyes but didn't find anything abnormal.

"She okay?" I asked as he sat down in front of me and checked his ammo.
"Seems so," he nodded, "just fainted."

He looked at me seriously. I looked back. The still sound surrounding us was equally as eerie as the moaning and groaning of zombies. In a situation like this it wasn't natural to hear silence.

"So," he said, breaking the tension, "looks like we're not going anywhere just yet."
"I can walk..." I protested, frowning in indignation.
"Never said you couldn't, but can you shoot?" he asked.
"I can shoot right and left handed," I shot back.
"Of course he can shoot with both hands," he muttered, as if to himself, rolling his eyes, "but even with that your aim will be off and who's going to carry her? You? If I carry her that leaves you to shoot and sorry if I don't want to put my life in the hands of the guy who won't be able to shoot for shit."

What an asshole, was all I could think as I glared at him. Although he did have a point. I sighed roughly.

"Fine," I gave in, looking back to the girl.
"I was going to suggest, considering we have a little time on our hands here, that you fill me in," Krauser said.
"About what?" I asked stupidly.
"You're kidding right?" he said frankly, making me blush a little, "I heard you talking to Kessinger in the bar that night Kennedy. I heard that vague allusion to what attacked you in Racoon. You said Umbrella was significant somehow right? And that you've come across this before? I want to know, everything."

I sighed, letting my head drop forwards. There was no way round this and, anyway, it wouldn't be fair to leave Krauser in the dark considering the situation. I nodded, trying to think where would be the best place to start.

"I think I'd better go back to the beginning," I said, wondering how long it would take for my shoulder to be useable again.

He didn't talk. He just listened and stared. Sometimes he stared at me, sometimes into the space between us, as if he was trying to imagine the scenes I was describing. I wasn't sure why he'd want to do that, surely hearing about them was bad enough. Still, by the time I reached the end, he looked much more confident than he had for the entire of our journey since we'd entered the village.

"Christ," was the first thing he said, first thing he'd said in about an hour, "that's just...it's just crazy. I don't..."

He stood up and paced over to the doorway of the church. Nothing had come down here since we fought with the water BOW. I guessed that even the zombies and amphibians knew that coming down here was a bad idea. Which was what confused me, I mean, the zombies I'd come across in Racoon didn't have any motive for self preservation, yet these one's seemed to. They were different somehow, almost as if they were being controlled by someone, but that was crazy in itself. The T-virus, the G-Virus, heck even the T-Veronica virus, none of them let you have that kind of control. This was something new, and that above all things scared me the most.

The girl took that moment to wake up. She sat bolt upright, her eyes wide, and screamed. Krauser jumped out of his skin and glared at her, which didn't help matters.

"Jesus girl! Keep it down!" he growled, walking quickly towards her.
"Krauser, don't scare her!" I admonished, her eyes flicking to me, "Hey, don't worry, look at me. We're not going to hurt you."
"We're the ones that saved you," Krauser elaborated, crossing his arms and looking her over.
"Right," I nodded, "we're here looking for Javier Hidalgo, do you know him? We met a man who said you'd escaped from his mansion, is that right?"

She hesitated for a moment before nodding meekly. She seemed scared and yet somehow self assured at the same time. It was almost as if she were more scared of us than any threat the BOW's could pose to her.

"What's your name?" I asked; that got her attention and she stared at me avidly.
"...Manuella," she said finally.
"Nice to meet you Manuella," I smiled, making Krauser frown at me, "we were hoping you could show us the way to Javier's mansion. Could you do that for us?"

Again she hesitated, her eyes flicking to Krauser, but finally nodded and wrapped her hands around her slim waist.

"It's up river," she said softly, "there's a boat, behind the church, you can use that."
"You're coming with us," Krauser said as if making it clear that there was no room for argument, "it's safer for you that way."
"I..." she started to protest, but I cut her off.
"It's important Manuella," I said sincerely, "we have to get to that mansion. If you help us, we'll protect you, alright?"

She nodded in defeat, her head drooping. Krauser asked her if she could walk and she stood up without showing any signs of fainting again. He helped me to my feet and, despite our respite, my shoulder was still off limits. I knew this was going to be a problem, but at least I still had my other hand. I went for my holster and blanched, finding nothing there. Then it came back to me in a flash, the BOW, I'd dropped my gun, where the hell was it!?

"Looking for this?" Krauser said as his hand came into view, holding my gun.
"Thanks," I murmured, giving him a small smile, "must have dropped it when I hit the wall."
"Keep a better hold on it next time," he said and his words made my head snap up in anger, which melted when I saw the concern in his eyes, "I might not always be there to get your back and, if that happens, I'd like to see you come out of this alive. Understand?"

I nodded dumbly and felt my stomach drop out at the thought of the reasons why he might not be there to 'get my back'. I looked at him sternly.

"No one's going to die here," I said, "we'll get out. I did it once, I can do it again. We're all getting out of here. You understand?"

He nodded slowly turning away to follow Manuella, who'd been standing awkwardly to the side, towards the boat. Not before I caught sight of his smile however.

AN: Rollin', rollin', rollin', rawhide! This story just won't die! Yeesh.