Uroboros: Resident Evil V

Chapter Nineteen: Ritual Sacrifice

Chris hadn't even had time to get up after being freed from the fallen palm tree trunks, when the bystanders attacked, but as far as ambushes go it was the most awkward and disorganized thing he had ever seen. Instead of attacking all at once, the villagers came at them a couple at a time, allowing the two BSAA agents to fight them off for a few seconds before being overwhelmed by the others. Some of the people tried to grab their weapons, while a couple made a dive at the ground in order to restrain their ankles, and one of the villagers even went the wrong way, running right into a tree.

Because of how many there were, eventually the confused people were able to subdue them, and now Chris and Sheva were being dragged across the mud by their captors. Even this was awkward, since the villagers were just grabbing any part of him that they could, as if they didn't understand the easiest way to do things and were trying to figure out, well… everything as they went. Like the tall man, all of these people were covered in ash and war paint while wearing grass and bark cloth, with the same glazed over eyes and drool coming out of their mouths… like there was something seriously wrong with them beyond a plagas infection.

All of them were speaking while their captives were dragged deeper into the village, and when the Agent looked over at her to find out what it meant, she just shook her head, meaning that it was more gibberish. It was like the parasites were trying to use words and move their host bodies in a mostly normal fashion, but they were all still trying to figure it out, which was weird since back in the city the Type 2 Plagas were able to take perfect control of their hosts within seconds, and the original parasites were even better at it because of all the time they took to assert dominance.

Chris struggled to break free, but even with as confused as the villagers were, they were incredibly strong to the point where the Agent couldn't break the grip they had on his arms or on any other part of his body. So there was nothing he could do as he and Sheva were taken up a short hill to where a whole different part of the village was visible. It was built in the same manner, but the difference was that there was a platform bridge built across a wide canal where water from the marshlands could flow through, but the bridge was built so high above that water that a long steep ramp was needed on both sides of the shore to reach it.

For a moment Chris was turned over while the group dragging him went around a hut to head toward the bridge, allowing him to see that this was actually the part of the village where they needed to be, since the metal pipes and walls of the oil field's main facility could be seen off in the distance beyond a pathway toward the west. But then he was flipped over again, only to gasp when he saw another detail about the bridge that he was being dragged toward… there were BSAA agents on the platform.

There were three of them, with their weapons and body armor taken away just like Chris and Sheva, but strung up so that they were hanging by their wrists to a wooden beam that was extended just off the platform so that the agents were hanging above the water. One of the villagers stepped forward, slurring his words and drooling heavily while pointing at the three men and angrily stomping his feet until it all started to look like one of those old tribal dances that could be seen on a festival day. Some of the others villagers joined in, moving with no coordination as they tried to follow what he was doing like it was their first time doing what should have been tradition.

Did that have something to do with what was wrong with them? In the Kennedy report, it said that the parasites retain the memories and personality of their host, but was this a bad batch somehow? Were the parasites defective in some way that only allowed them to absorb the instincts and ancestral memories of their hosts? That would explain why they could talk but only in nonsense, and were able to move and attack but with no coordination whatsoever, and why they were acting like the tribals of hundreds of years ago… and then the dance stopped when the man leading it picked up a machete.

"Sheva, you've got to do something." Chris quietly urged as they were dragged onto the platform. "They're confused, there's something wrong with these plagas; maybe you can talk them down since they're not so single minded."

The three BSAA agents nodded their heads franticly for her to try, since none of them could speak with the rags the villagers had shoved into their mouths. So the young woman gave it her best shot, calling for the attention of the villagers and then speaking very calmly and passionately about what the Agent assumed was her argument for them to stop all this nonsense and free their captives. For a moment all of the hostiles fell silent, kind of looking back and forth at each other before making a reply that made Sheva hang her head.

"He said this is the day of the fat tiger snowstorm." The young woman replied sadly. "Then he said I apologize for the slow internet connection, but only a sacrifice can make Wayne Newton bless the Starship Enterprise... Chris, you've got to do something, they're going to kill those men!"

The Agent struggled to free himself as the village leader handed the machete to one of the other men nearby, but these people were so damn strong, far more so than the infected ones in Kijuju City, and there was nothing he and Sheva could do but yell for them to stop as the man carrying the blade walked up to his first victim. Doing some more of that clumsy tribal dance and shouting up toward the sky, the villager let out a slurred growl as he swung the blade… only to miss his target completely and spin around to where he fell from the platform.

Splash! Everyone looked down as their comrade vanished into the muddy water, but it looked like he was okay when he came back up a couple seconds later… at least until something else moved right next to him. In a flash of teeth and scales, something big jumped out of the water long enough to clamp its jaws around the villager, and then they both vanished back under the water with a bigger splash… and that was it as a large amount of discolored blood began to float up toward the surface.

For a while everyone just stared down at the water until all of the ripples were gone, and then the village leader started jumping up and down, motioning for one of the spear carrying men to come forward and continue with the sacrifice. Unfortunately for them, this man's parasite must have been just as defective, because although he swung the spear hard enough to cut through any rope, his aim was off so that the pole struck it repeatedly while the sharpened head was nowhere near it. The others cheered him on as he continued to hit the rope, succeeding only in making the BSAA agent shake around… until he got so frustrated that he tossed down the spear and leapt onto his intended victim.

Snarling and drooling as he wrapped his legs around the first BSAA agent, the villager pulled at the rope with all his strength, resulting in a cracking sound that came from the beam just before it broke under the added strain. Splash! The villager and all three of the intended victims vanished into the water, with Chris having to look away as the huge alligator or whatever was down there started moving again, and then all of the villagers cheered while stepping forward to resume dancing… even the ones who had been holding the Agent and Sheva.

Releasing their hold on the last two captives and then stepping forward to join the ancient tribal dance, it was as if the villagers had simply forgotten about them once the archaic ritual of sacrifice was complete, so Chris quietly motioned for the young woman to follow him as he began to carefully scoot his way toward the ramp at the end of the platform. There was no way to reclaim their weapons that were now in the hands of the dancing infected without being noticed, nor was there anything that could be done for the men of Delta Team that had fallen into the water, so the two of them crawled back down the ramp, with the Agent pointing to the path that he hoped led to the oil field.

"Come on, it's this way." He whispered as they stayed crouched down to avoid being seen. "If we hurry, we can still catch Irving."

Suddenly a voice started yelling from behind, and Chris didn't need to speak Swahili to know that they had been spotted. The drooling villagers took off after them immediately, but apparently running was a new thing for them as well, causing one of them to fall off the bridge into the water as the chase began. One of them tossed his spear, but his aim was so bad that it ended up in the back of another villager who was running in front of him, and another growled as he pulled the trigger on a pistol… but the weapon was backwards in his hands, causing him to shoot himself in the face.

With all of the villagers constantly falling down and hurting each other during the chase, Chris and Sheva were able to reach the path and follow it into a palm forest before most of their pursuers even got down the ramp, but that didn't mean that they could slow down. So the two of them ran as fast as they could, finally being so out of breath that they had to stop for rest even though the villagers were coming down the path right behind them… except that they weren't.

"What happened?" The young woman asked after about a minute of nothing coming down the path after them. "Not that I'm complaining, but… why aren't they after us?"

"We must be out of their attack range." The Agent suggested, hoping that this theory was correct. "Plaga parasites only go after threats that come within a certain range, and I guess it's even smaller for these ones because they're so confused… so why didn't these ones work out when all the others did?"

Either way, they were no longer being chased, which was great not only because the two of them were unarmed now, but also because the main facility of the oil field was just a short distance ahead. Yeah, the gate around the metal building was just on the other side of this clearing, but then Chris stopped when he saw something else in front of it. There were a bunch of really big OD Green Army tents set up before the gate like the ones the Red Cross and that TerraSave organization always used, but it wasn't either of those logos that was printed on the tent, but three pentagons of different shades of green, while underneath the logo were the words:

TRICELL AFRICA