Las Plagas: Resident Evil IV

Chapter Eleven: Luis Sera

What a beautiful day, Leon thought as he looked up at the clear blue sky, setting down his newspaper before leaning back to relax in the white vinyl lounger that was next to the swimming pool. The palm trees that lined the rear courtyard of his huge manor house were tall enough to keep the sun from being uncomfortable, while letting just enough light through for him to work on his tan, and he was hard at work today… although tanning was soon forgotten as his beautiful wife came out onto the patio in her two-piece bikini, carrying another drink to replace the one he had just finished.

"It's like you can read my mind sometimes, Claire." He said, smiling while she set the drink down. "Why don't you join me for a while out here… where everything is perfect?"

"How can I refuse the world's most perfect man?" She replied, getting onto the lounger so that he was holding her. "Oh Leon, I'm so glad that we got married and adopted Sherry, instead of wasting our lives doing something stupid like fighting bio-terrorism. Now some other idiot can run all over the world fighting zombies, while you and I spend all day lounging by the pool or just having sex until we pass out."

This was truly the perfect life, he thought as they started kissing, and Claire had just gotten on top of him, when the Agent's eyes snapped open, his whole body twitching from the shock of suddenly feeling cold… so cold that he could see his breath. Claire Redfield and the pool by the manor house were gone, replaced by what looked like the inside of an old wooden tool shed, where Leon was… sitting on the ground?

His head hurt and his whole body was sore, but when Leon tried to bring his hand up to his forehead, he discovered that his wrists were bound behind his back with something cold and metallic. A chain, maybe? Clink-clack-clink, struggling to free himself, the metal chain rattled and shook, but he was unable to free his hands, the frustration causing him to look down toward his feet, only to discover that his jacket was gone. Well, that certainly explained why he was so cold, but when he leaned back to try and get more leverage, the Agent felt something warm against his back.

"Oh, good, you're awake." The prisoner from the armoire said, grunting with discomfort when Leon moved the chain. "Hey, don't move so much, huh? You're not gonna wriggle your way out of that chain, I already tried."

"Well, we can't just sit here." The Agent replied, his feet sliding on the slightly muddy floor when he tried to change positions. "Wherever the hell here is."

As far as Leon could figure, he and the prisoner had been taken to this place after passing out from their individual beatings at the hands of Chief Mendez, although it seemed kind of pointless to chain them up on the floor back to back, when it would have been much easier to just kill them on the spot… not that the Agent wasn't glad to still be alive, or anything. He couldn't see much from where he was sitting, just a small window that let the sunlight in, and some old rusted tools that hung on racks along the walls… no door on this side, though, not that he could get to it while chained up like this.

"Hey, hey, calm down vaquero." The dark haired prisoner continued. "You're not gonna break out of this with your bare hands, and besides, we don't want to piss off the guards, right?"

Guards? From where he was, Leon couldn't see anyone, but after craning his neck as far around as he could, and kind of awkwardly leaning on his cellmate's shoulder, he saw that there were two villagers in the shed with them, each one on either side of the one door to this place. Both of the men were holding bladed weapons… well, more like gardening tools such as a sickle and an ice pick, but each one more than enough to kill a man, especially if that man was chained up on the floor.

"These guys don't speak Ingles, so we can talk at least." The prisoner continued, smiling and nodding at the guards, who remained stoic. "I'm Luis Sera… you don't see too many Americanos in this part of the world, so what brings you all the way out here, hmm?"

"I guess there's no harm telling you if these guys don't speak English." Leon replied, trying again to free himself from the chain. "I actually came here… looking for this girl… hold on, I think… I think I can reach her… picture."

It was quite a struggle, but the Agent managed to reach into his back pocket and take out the picture of Ashley Graham, holding it as far out to the side as possible so that Luis could take a look. The dark haired man strained to turn his head far enough, but once he did he couldn't help but let out a short whistle, and Leon couldn't really blame him, since she was a good looking girl. Unfortunately, one of the guards suddenly seemed to come to life, his whole body jolting as if reacting to a pre-programmed command… a command which caused him to walk over and rip the picture out of their hands.

"La nina es nuestra, cerdo!" The guard yelled before kicking the Agent in the side of the head so hard that it almost knocked him over. "Ahora sientate ahi y no te muevas… o te metemos una escoba en el culo!"

"What a charming fellow." Luis said after the guard went back to his post. "Kind of reminds me of my shift Sergeant back when I was a cop in Madrid… so is that what you are, mystery man? You some kind of cop from America? Yeah, you kind of look like the type… not for me, though… you put your life on the line every day for the people, but they don't give a shit."

"Not bad, but I'm a Federal Agent, actually." Leon replied, wishing he could rub his now sore cheek. "Well… I used to be a cop… just for a day, though."

The dark haired man actually let out a laugh at this, first commenting on how he thought he was bad, but then suggesting that maybe the Agent was just able to learn faster than he was. Leon found himself laughing a little, too, before briefly explaining that his first day on the force just happened to be during the worst part of the Raccoon City outbreak. For a second he was hesitant about giving Luis too much information, but then again he doubted that the villagers had the capacity to use spies or do anything else but follow simple commands like… like animals?

"I was sent here to find that girl in the picture, her name's Ashley Graham." The Agent continued, nodding toward the picture that the guard was still holding. "I suppose that it's too much to hope that you've seen her around?"

"Trust me, I wouldn't miss a blonde with tetas like that… especially around here." Luis laughed. "But, you know… that does make something I heard some of the villagers saying make more sense… right before you found me in the farmhouse, I heard them saying something about moving the President's daughter to the church… santa mierda, is that who blondie there is… the fucking President's daughter? You've gotta be shitting me… so who does that make you then, James Bond?"

Leon had to admit that the whole story really did sound like something out of an old Bond film, and if he hadn't actually been handpicked by the President himself for this mission, he would have thought that the whole thing was bullshit, too. Hell, maybe it was better if the dark haired man didn't believe him, and CRASH! Suddenly the conversation was interrupted when the door to the shed flew open, revealing a villager who… was in really bad shape.

"Ayuadame!" The new villager screamed as he stumbled into the shed. "Estoy ardiendo… ayuadame! Estoy ardiendo!"

The first thing that the Agent thought when he saw this man was that he must have just survived a fire, with his reddened skin and the burn marks on his clothes that seemed to be still spreading. Leon didn't smell smoke, but the fire had to be nearby, since the new villager's body was still smoldering as if he had literally just come out of the flames… although there was no smoke coming from the large metal pick hammer that he was dragging behind him.

Jolting to life again like they had done when seeing the picture of Ashley, the two guards actually looked surprised when they saw their smoldering brother, but instead of accepting their help, the red skinned man screamed again while swinging the pick hammer upward. There was enough force behind the blow to nearly take off the first villager's head when the spike stabbed up underneath his jaw so that the end came out the top of his skull, and then the other villager grabbed the attacker from behind, pulling him backwards so that the pick hammer and the impaled man fell to the ground.

Screaming again as the second villager tried to restrain him, the red skinned man looked like he was turning even redder, and repeating those same words as he twisted around in order to make the second villager cry out when he was pushed right into the waiting points of a pitchfork that was leaning against the wall. Again with those same words, the smoldering villager kept screaming as he ripped the pick hammer out of the dead man's skull, only to swing it sideways right into the temple of the second villager just as he was freeing himself from the pitchfork.

This whole exchange had happened so quickly that both Leon and Luis just sat there staring at the smoldering man as he executed the others… but then it was their turn to suddenly come back to life when the red skinned man once again ripped the pick hammer out of his victim… and started stumbling his way toward them. Suddenly a wild idea popped into the Agent's mind about using the pick hammer to break the chain between them, but it would take the two of them acting in complete unison, and Luis, well… he was completely panicked.

"No! Come on, you gotta move with me!" Leon exclaimed as the dark haired man did exactly the opposite of what was needed. "No, not that way, this way!"

"Ayuda, el nos matara!" Luis screamed, struggling against Leon's movements so violently now that they both ended up falling over sideways. "Ayuda, no quiero morir!"

Well, now there was no way for them to use the pick hammer to break the chain, and with the red skinned villager now standing right above them… raising up the heavy weapon for the kill… the Agent found himself screaming just as loudly. Suddenly the red skinned villager's attack was stopped when a gloved hand clamped down over his mouth from behind, while at the same time the blade of a long knife stabbed into the back of his neck hard enough for the tip to come out the front.

Dropping the pick hammer as he was dragged backwards through the door by the unseen attacker, the soldering villager could be heard gagging and choking as he was stabbed repeatedly until silence fell, leaving Leon and Luis laying there helpless as they waited to see who it was that would walk back into the shed after they heard the body outside fall to the ground.