Chapter Twenty-One.
She drew her magnum and let her head roll back to see who was approaching. The pit she had fallen into was small and rotund with the floor being made of dirt. She aimed the gun at the hooded figure that had walked around towards her head and began squeezing the trigger.
"Easy, stranger," the man said loudly with a deep, rough voice. "In a bit of a spot, I see."
"Who are you?" she asked, seeing that his eyes held the same faint glow the other Las Plagas victims sported. "You're one of them."
"Used to be," he said gruffly. "Had enough of it." He walked closer as Seras lowered the magnum more from the pain shooting though her body than actual trust. He was wearing a large black trench coat with the lower half of his face covered by a purple scarf. As he walked, Seras could hear the jingle of metal.
"Well if you're not one of them, could you help me?" she asked. "I'm in a lot of pain."
"It looks bad," he said, now only half a meter away. "I'm afraid you haven't got long."
She coughed, sending blood out of her mouth. "Look, I'm not human, alright? I'll live, but not if one of Salazar's cronies comes down here and lops off my head. Please, help me."
"Not human eh?" he said, closely inspecting her body. "Seems to be a lot of that going around these days."
"Look, help me or don't help me, but this really hurts, so if you're going to help the get on with it."
"Alright, alright," he said with no real sense of urgency in his voice. "Everybody gets one, I guess." He opened his coat, revealing a plethora of tools, weapons and ammunition. From somewhere in his coat, he retrieved a hand saw with fine teeth for cutting metal. "Don't mind the shavings."
He began to saw the spike through her stomach while he hummed a rough tune. As she wondered what he meant by "Everybody gets one" he sawed quickly through the spike, throwing it off to the side. She tried to sit up, but he put his hand gently on her breast and held her down. "Hang on, I'll get your leg," he said.
She considered shooting him in the hip, but decided to let him get away with the grope. If he got her out of the mess she was in, she supposed it could be forgiven. Once the spike through her leg was cut, he put the saw down and cradled her lower back and thigh. With a quick movement, he lifted her up off the metal, making her yelp.
"Thanks," she said once he set her down in her back on the soft, damp, sand. Her blood went to work healing the wounds, the worst of which being her stomach.
"Don't mention it," he said, standing with a slight slouch. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"Me? Uh…my name is Seras," she said, feeling better about speaking now that her stomach was on its way to getting back together. "I'm supposed to rescue Ashley Graham, the U.S. President's daughter."
He looked up at the hole she had fallen through. "Ain't going too well, is it?"
"No, not really," she said, thinking this conversation was the absolute last thing she had expected. "The American they sent, Leon, he's captured too. And a researcher we met up with, Luis, is dead."
The man grunted. "Small wonder, only sending two people…even if you are a, a, whatever it is you are."
"A vampire," Seras said, somehow knowing it wouldn't bother her new acquaintance to know what she was. "I've been a vampire for almost ten years."
"Vampire, eh?" he said. "Guess I've heard everything now. So how are you planning to accomplish your mission exactly?"
She sat up and looked around, seeing a steel ladder leading up to what looked like a sewer tunnel. "Uh…well, I guess I should go up that ladder before someone comes to kill me. After that I guess I'll look for Ashley or Leon again. I should've just shot Salazar now that I think of it, but I was low on bullets and…"
"Ah ha!" he said. "There's your trouble; you're not properly equipped. I might be able to help you with that."
Thinking of equipment, she took the rifle off her back; the pain of it jamming into her back had been overridden by her impalement, but she could feel it a little now. The scope had been knocked off-center, but she didn't really need it anyway. "I've got this .308 rifle, a .44 magnum, and a 9mm pistol. I'm low on ammo for all of them."
"I got all that in spades," he said. "But I'll tell ya, I got some other things you might be interested in. For a price of course."
Seras smiled. Something about the man had struck her as a salesman from the moment she saw him pull out the saw. She removed the rifle's scope and checked to see if it was undamaged. It was. "I've got this to trade," she said.
"Hmm…" the man said, not sounding so enthused anymore. "Maybe not then."
"Oh wait," she said, pulling out the ten blue medallions she had collected back at the farm near Pueblo. "Are these worth anything?"
The man's glowing eyes widened. "Ah…yes, yes they are," he said. "Now we're in business."
The man opened his cloak and removed two boxes of ammunition for each gun type Seras had, plus two speed loaders and clips for her magnum and pistol. "There," the man said. "How's that for a trade?"
Seras handed him the medallions which he pocketed discretely. "Works for me," she said, opening the boxes of bullets and filling the clips and speed loaders. The extra bullets she took out of the boxes and put in separate pockets on her vest, which was now sporting an unsightly hole near the stomach area.
"Now all I have to do is find a way out of here and back to where they're going to take Ashley," Seras said, looking at the steel ladder leading up to the sewer tunnel.
The man sighed softly. "Alright," he said. "Because you're such a friendly customer, I'll throw this in for fr…for fre…for free." He seemed to have trouble pronouncing the word free, although the rest of his English had been perfect. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a rolled up piece of parchment.
"What's this?" Seras asked, taking it.
"It's a map of the castle. All up to date and everything. That tower near the back, the one by the water, that's where they'd be moving the girl to. I know there's boats down by the water they use to go to a nearby island owned by that Saddler fellow."
"Thank you," Seras said, glad to finally have some idea of where she was going. "You've been very helpful. I, uh, don't suppose you'd like to accompany me?" The added backup would be nice, she thought.
The man laughed. "No thanks. If you happen across something valuable, I might turn up, but otherwise I'm afraid we're to part company."
Seras nodded and smiled politely, sticking out her hand. "Well it was good meeting you," she said as he took her hand and shook it. "Bye."
She went to the ladder and climbed it after picking up her machete; deciding that the situation with the strange merchant had been too bizarre to allow a parting that wasn't at least a little awkward. Once up inside the tunnel, she took a look back to see if he might be following somehow. "Odd little man," she said as her radio beeped. She pushed the button on it and held it to her head, guessing it was likely Salazar but hoping it was somehow Leon. "This is Seras," she said.
"Ah, Ms Victoria. You are able to reach your radio I see, excellent. Are you enjoying your impalement?" Salazar said.
She resisted the urge to laugh. "I've had worse actually," she said. "Next time I'm just going to blow your head off your shoulders and be done with it."
There was a long pause from Salazar before he replied. "What? You're free? Damn it!"
She laughed, he was losing his composure finally. "I'm a true vampire. You can't just impale and forget me, you know."
"I'll send someone down to take care of you," Salazar said, audibly holding back his anger. "My right hand will make sure to remove your head and your heart."
The transmission cut off and Seras put the radio away. She drew the magnum and cocked the hammer, ready with her machete in her other hand. By right hand she knew he meant one of the bizarre creatures that usually flanked him. She had no idea what their powers were, but they looked mean.
The sewer tunnel was made of stone, but had modern trappings like steel doors and electric lighting. Arrows painted on the wall pointed towards locations for sewer workers; she wondered which one would lead her out and consulted the map the merchant had given her.
After a moment of study, she determined the room to her right was the one with the service elevator she wanted. She entered it, seeing that the room was some kind of power relay area as well as a break room. A table with foam coffee cups and clipboards sat near the elevator which she attempted to summon with a button.
Instead of humming to life, a button reading "Insufficient Power" in Spanish lit up. "Damn it," she said, looking at the map again and seeing the room labeled "Breaker Room" down the tunnel from the room she was in.
She headed towards it, knowing Salazar's monster would use the delay to find her. She only hoped the battle didn't cost her too much in the way of blood. Being impaled had been a bad enough price. Anymore damage like that and she would be apt to eat Leon or Ashley if and when she found them.
To be continued…