Las Plagas: Resident Evil IV
Chapter Twenty One: El Gigante
The only thing that Leon had ever seen that could cause significant mutations in people were engineered viruses, but if there was no trace of such things inside of the blood of the villagers sampled by the CIA Investigator, then how did he explain the twenty foot tall monstrosity that was standing right in front of him. The giant seemed to become even more imposing as the sunlight dimmed further, giving dominance to the glow coming from the torches on top of the tree wall, making the monster seem more like a moving shadow as the pouring rain bounced off its shoulders.
Bang! After seeing what this thing had done to the villagers who were bringing it out, the Agent knew that it was coming to kill him, so he drew his revolver, and fired a shot right at the things off-colored face. Catching it right in the nose in mid-growl, the giant stopped for a second, twitching and rubbing its nose with its big hand as if it had been stung by a bee, only to grit its teeth and growl angrily while reaching down to pick up a large rock. There was plenty of such debris scattered around this enclosed space; tools, tree trunks, and carts left lying there as if this had once been part of the village's mines, or…
Suddenly the giant interrupted Leon's thoughts by pulling back its arm and throwing the large rock at him, and even though the Agent was easily able to dive and roll out of the way, there was so much force when the rock hit the tree wall behind him, that he was knocked on his face while tiny broken pieces of the rock rained down on him. Bang! Bang! Remaining there where he was, lying on his stomach on the wet dirt, Leon fired two more shots at the giant, causing it to twitch and grunt again when the bullets hit it in the hand and the knee… not expecting to really hurt the thing, just stop it from moving long enough for him to come up with a plan.
The doors on both sides of this place were still locked down, and now there was no sign of the Merchant, either, making the Agent feel even more alone and uneasy than before… how the hell was he going to get out of this one? He couldn't see anything that could be used to hide behind, although there were some mining tools lying around that could be used if he ran out of bullets… not that they would help much… hey, look at that… there was a crack in the tree wall from where the rock had landed.
Bang! Firing another shot as he got to his feet and turned toward the wall, Leon hoped that the monster would be distracted by the bullet going into its throat, at least enough for it to be unable to stop his escape attempt. Among the random tools that the Agent had been given for his assignment, there was a small grappling hook that was attached to a long retractable tether; only strong enough to hold a little more than his own body weight, and needing to be thrown by hand, he took the metal object out of its pouch, swinging it around a few times before releasing it when he reached the base of the tree wall.
Losing sight of the grapnel for a second as it flew upward, the small object reappeared in the light of the torches before sinking into the wet wood just below the spikes, and as soon as Leon was sure it was securely anchored, he jumped up to begin climbing. Pulling on the tether so that it retracted a little as he went, the Agent kept his feet braced against the wall like in that old Batman TV show, but the rain had made the wood slippery, and except for the large crack, there weren't really that many places to set his feet.
He had hoped to be able to climb much faster, but the slippery, water-soaked wood wasn't doing him any favors, and Leon had needed to holster the revolver in order to climb, so there was nothing he could do to defend himself when the giant's massive hand suddenly closed around his body. Pulling him from the wall and dislodging the grapnel as easily as if a child pulling down a floating balloon, the monster brought him right up to its face, allowing the Agent to smell it's incredibly fowl breath when it rotated him around for a closer look.
It's leathery, discolored hand was big enough to keep Leon's arms and legs restrained, and even more so when it started to squeeze. Its thumb and fingers acting with the power of an industrial vice as they constricted like an Anaconda, the Agent could only move his head back and forth, struggling for breath as his face started to turn red. Soon he could take in no breath at all, his mouth hanging open as he drooled and twitched, all of the veins in his neck and head becoming pronounced as a tunnel of darkness began to form around his vision.
BANG! At first Leon thought it was a clap of close thunder that echoed around the enclosed space, but then he realized that it was a gunshot when the giant's right eye exploded from the impact. Suddenly able to move again as the fingers released, the Agent was so focused on taking that first gasping breath of fresh air, that he hadn't even realized that the monster had dropped him until he fell onto the soaked dirt below. Above him, though, the monster was screaming in a mixture of pain and rage, its hand over the destroyed eyeball, and stumbling backwards several steps while the hooded man stepped into view.
Leon noticed that the gates on both sides of the enclosure were open now, and that the Merchant was coming in opposite from the entrance Leon had used… carrying a large, bolt-action rifle in his hands. It was one of those ones where the barrel could be removed for transport, probably why the Agent hadn't seen it before, but he was sure glad that it was there now as the hooded man worked the bolt before firing again.
"The door's open!" The Merchant yelled, his cockney accent fading significantly as he started to help Leon up. "Come on, kid, we gotta…
The Agent had just been getting to his feet, when the hooded man suddenly shoved him back down… himself diving out of the way when the giant stomped at them with its big foot. The whole enclosed area shook as if feeling the tremors of an earthquake when the foot came down, missing Leon by only a few feet as he still struggled for breath, but instead of reaching down to finish him off, the giant now growled in fury as it started going after the Merchant instead.
Circling around him in two large steps, as if it somehow understood that the hooded man was going to try running for the open doors on each side of the enclosed area, the monster reached for the Merchant like it had done to Leon, only to roar and twitch again when the next rifle shot broke a piece off of one of its rotten front teeth. The Merchant tried to run for the nearest door, only to be blocked by the giant's foot, so he changed directions toward the other one, but now the giant seemed to be learning.
Instead of grabbing at him again, the monster picked up another large rock, before sending it rolling across the terrain with an underhanded toss, resulting with a loud crash when it bounced its way right past the hooded man, coming to rest so tightly inside of the entrance that Leon had used to enter the enclosed area, that it didn't look like the rock could ever be dislodged, at least without destroying the tree wall. This left the far door as the only possible way out, and with the giant now putting itself into position in front of it like the goal-keep on a football team, the Agent wasn't sure what they were going to do.
The bolt action rifle was hurting it a lot more than the revolver was, but the monster wasn't showing any signs of slowing down, and then it started approaching, shaking the enclosed area with each footstep. BANG! Quickly reloading the rifle and firing it into the back of the monster's neck when it started going after Leon again, the hooded man backed away as it resumed chasing him, this time not circling around the creature, but appearing to lead it back into the tunnel from which the villagers had dragged it from.
"Go, get out of here!" The Merchant yelled, firing another shot as the monster reached the entrance to the tunnel. "It can't chase us both at the same time, so go! Run!"
Leon didn't particularly like the hooded man, but not enough to just leave him there with the giant slowly cornering him inside the passage where it had been locked up, so after getting to his feet… well, at least up to a kneeling position, since he was still feeling the lingering pain of almost being crushed, the Agent took out the revolver and tried to aim. He didn't believe for a second that shooting the giant again would do serious harm, but it might distract the beast long enough for the Merchant to get away from it, and… and Leon was fairly sure that he could drag himself over to the gate before it reached him again.
Bang! It was a big target, so he wasn't worried about being too accurate when he pulled the trigger, which was good because the Agent's arm was shaking a little, but instead of hearing the monster groan in reaction, he heard something snap just before the tunnel's raised tree wall gate came crashing down. The giant had just been passing the entrance, and it looked up reflexively upon hearing the sound, only to have its surprised roar get cut off when the downward spike of one of the tree trunks went right into its mouth.
Forced to tilt its head back from the force of the crashing gate, the giant made a kind of gagging, choking sound as it collapsed onto its back, the whole enclosed area shaking violently in reaction to the combined weight of the monster and the gate both falling down, and then all was quiet. So what happened? Had his aim been so far off that the bullet hit the rope holding up the gate instead of the monster? Apparently so, since the gate was now completely on the ground, with the top half of the giant's head on this side, severed at the mouth in a puddle of disgusting yellow filth that must have been its blood.
"Good shot, kid!" The Merchant's muffled voice came from behind the gate, his accent completely restored. "Damn good shot… I didn't think you had it in you! Gate's kinda stuck, though… go find the girl, I'll see if this tunnel goes anywhere!"
"Hey, wait a second!" The Agent called back, struggling to get to his feet. "Hey, wait!"
No use, the hooded man was gone, probably having ran off through the tunnel to find a way out since the gate was no longer an option. This left Leon alone again, but hey, at least the giant was dead, so he opened the revolver's chamber, slowly reloading the weapon while walking toward the open entrance that would hopefully take him up to the old church where Ashley Graham was being held.