Village: Resident Evil VIII
Chapter Four: The Empty Town
Well, there wasn't a shack or a cabin or anything within the perimeter of the fence, just an old sawmill with a pile of logs ready to be cut up, and a large waterwheel in the nearby creek to power the sawblade. Although clearly old, the mill didn't appear to have been completely abandoned, since the blade was fairly new and the logs weren't rotted or anything, there just understandably wasn't anyone around in the middle of the night. There were some axes and other tools, but they didn't seem practical next to the 9mm Ethan had taken from Umber Eyes, but the man did find a small cloth tarp underneath some spare parts for the waterwheel's gears.
A cloth tarp wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing, so he carefully took it out from underneath the parts, and put it around himself like a cloak, and at least now the wind wasn't getting to him as much. During this time, Ethan also noticed that he was becoming less dependent on the flashlight, meaning that he must have been unconscious in that truck for a long time, since the sun was starting to rise. The temperature dropped a little more while he continued following that trail, as it often did in the winter time just before dawn, but then the air got just a bit more comfortable when those first rays of red light appeared in the sky.
Thankfully, once the drag trail the man had been following entered the sawmill, it joined up with an actual trail on the far side, making it a lot easier for him to walk through the forest after passing through an unlocked metal gate. The animals that hadn't migrated south for the winter must have been waking up, since the caw of ravens was heard just before Ethan saw a couple of them fly overhead, and then the forest opened up into a clearing, and… and oh, my God. Up until now Ethan had been trudging his way through a thick, untamed forest that he believed would never end, but now, after reaching this massive clearing that opened up into a valley, the man could hardly believe what he was seeing.
"Where the hell am I?" He couldn't help asking aloud.
It was like in the span of… however far the distance had been between the road and where he was right now, Ethan had somehow traveled back into another time, although based on what he could see in those very first morning rays of light, he wasn't exactly sure which time period that was. A large windmill was visible in one part of the valley, its blades slowly turning while at the same time a plume of black smoke was coming out of what looked like an old fashioned factory on the other side, complete with electric lights around the perimeter. In between these things was what looked like a small town, looking like a hunting community out of a 1940's movie, where a small engine of some kind could be heard, possibly a generator… and all of it loomed over by the castle.
Directly across from him, on the other side of the village, was a massive, beautiful limestone castle with battlements and high towers topped with spires, topped and almost as wide around as the entire town below. If this were the fifteenth century or something like that, Ethan would have thought the King lived there, but the time of Lords and Knights was long past. As confusing as the layout of this hidden region was, the trail the man was following led right down into the village, and… and unfortunately beyond that point there were too many footprints and other drag marks for him to follow it any farther. Still, in a place like this someone must have noticed a possibly wounded soldier wearing modern equipment and carrying a baby, so the only way forward was to ask them.
The path was a bit slippery on the way down, but he kept his balance, reaching the edge of town and then walking up to the first house that he came to. It was wooden, constructed more like a cabin than a regular home, like all the other buildings in sight, but when the man knocked on the door, it slowly swung open. Looking around to see if there was anyone else around who he could ask about Rose, Ethan poked his head in through the door once he saw that no one was outside, knocking again and calling out to ask if anyone was home. Since this was a remote and hidden part of Romania, he was worried that the owner wouldn't speak English, but since there was no one inside, it didn't seem to be a problem for now.
Someone definitely lived there, since there was hardly any dust on the handmade furniture inside, and Ethan could smell the pot of some kind of stew that had been left on the woodstove even before entering the kitchen. The pot was full, but the fire underneath had long gone out with the ashes not removed, and it didn't look like any of the contents had been served yet. So what, had the owners of the house simply left in the middle of cooking dinner? He briefly considered taking one of the warm looking wool jackets that were hanging near the closet, but he wasn't a thief, so the man simply walked back outside.
Part of him wanted to go back and take that jacket once he stepped back outside, but instead he moved on, going up to the next house and knocking on the door. Hmm, no answer at this one, either… had everyone gone to work already? In a place like this, it made since that most of the population worked at the factory Ethan had seen earlier, like one of the company towns of old America, but there still had to be someone around. Where were the children? Where were the housewives? So far the only sign of possible life in this village was the sound of that small engine, and… hey, there was a good idea. If a generator was running, then there had to be someone nearby to maintain it, right?
The village wasn't giant or anything, but there were several small paths and alleyways in between the rows of houses, making it difficult for the man to follow the sound of the generator, especially when the path he was on hit a dead end at a barn or a tall wooden fence, forcing him to backtrack until he could find a way around. Trying to keep going in its general direction, Ethan eventually found the source next to a small shed, only to discover that it wasn't a generator at all. The sound was actually coming from the idling motor of a partially rusted old tractor, hitched up to a sled full of logs that were probably supposed to have ended up at the sawmill he passed through earlier… if it hadn't crashed.
"Hey, are you all right?" He asked, kneeling down to check the driver and shaking him a bit. "Hey, buddy, are you okay?"
From what Ethan could tell from the scene in front of him, the tractor veered off the path and drive right into the side of the shed, where it tipped over. At first, the man thought that the driver had simply fallen off the machine during this, but after shaking him a couple times and getting no response, he found that it was because the driver was dead. The tractor must have rolled partially on top of him, pinning the driver down underneath one of the large rear tires and crushing his lungs.
"Help!" He called, looking around for any of the villagers. "Hey, there's a man hurt over here! Come on, where is everyone?!"
All right, it wasn't like anyone in town could do anything for the poor guy, but Ethan wasn't about to discover a body and then run away as if he were guilty of something. The last thing the man needed was to get arrested for murder in a small place like this, since a lot of out of the way communities tended to make their own laws, and they weren't known for mercy. Calling out a couple more times, he still didn't see or hear anyone around, forcing him to go back to banging on doors once again. This time the door literally fell off the hinges, landing with a thud on the wooden floor, and this cabin wasn't in as good of condition as the others.
The floor creaked heavily with each step that the man took into the home, noticing quickly that there had been some kind of struggle, or maybe a hasty robbery, given how some of the furniture was overturned, and the window on the far side was broken. Some of the wood was stained with what could've only been blood, and given how close this place was to the crashed tractor, maybe someone else had been hurt when the driver wrecked, and they ran to this cabin in some kind of… oh hell, I don't know, a panicked delirium? That would explain the blood and knocked over table, just not the broken window, but then Ethan's thoughts were interrupted by a long drawn out creak from up above.
He hadn't noticed at first that this cabin had a second floor, and even though he was technically in the wrong for just barging into someone's home like that, the man still felt that it was best to keep his hand on the grip of his pistol… just in case. Just in case of what, Ethan? Zoe had told him on several occasions that he was starting to become paranoid with his concerns about safety, and he had even started to agree with her, right up until the moment when Chris and his goons stormed the house. A deep, slow grunt and snort came from up there, and Ethan hoped that the owner of the cabin just had really bad seasonal allergies, but he still stepped back from the stairs so that he would be able to see when the person…
Crack! Suddenly the floor simple vanished out from underneath his foot, allowing the man to discover that this home had a cellar as well when he fell down into it, unable to keep from crying out in shock before landing on something a lot softer than expected. With the stone walls that now surrounded him, Ethan expected to land on hard concrete, feeling relieved and grateful that the owner of the cabin had decided to pile up all this stuff down there… until the smell reached his nose. First there had been wood and dirt, as expected from a basement, but then there was copper… the unmistakable scent of copper and rust all around him.
Maybe the situation would have been noticed right away if so much dust hadn't been kicked up from the floor collapsing, but now as everything cleared up, Ethan gasped when he sat up, turning his head to the side and discovering why everything smelled like blood. The good news was that the man finally found more people in this empty town, but now his brain locked for a second when he looked around at the five people, both men and women, who were down there lying in the dirt with him. Covered with large, gaping wounds that had bled out onto the dirt covered floor at some point, and their bodies left in twisted, unnatural positions, each person had an expression of terror frozen into their face like…
Ethan's brain stopped completely when he heard that same deep, slow grunt and snort was heard again, this time as if it was coming from right up above… and this time it was followed by a growl… an slow, drawn out animalistic growl that was slowly getting closer.