Chapter 6: Touch of Red
Carnicería Chus Y Jose was a meat shop that had most certainly seen better days. The front window had been smashed in and the door had barely been on its hinges. The small tables in the tiny lobby had been shoved against the southern wall with the splatter of drinks that looked to have been placed on it previously. The small knick knacks that had decorated the front counter had been ground to dust in what looked like a fight. Old blood had been streaked behind the counter's floor and told the story of someone who had been dragged out toward the front.
Claire Redfield stepped through the mess with half bleary eyes and aimed for the swinging back door behind the tarnished counter. The back room split off in two different directions. To the right was the kitchen and what she supposed was the meat locker for the products. Turning left, she had found a small storage room turned into a back office.
With tall cabinets, the office room's space had been made into a 'L' pathway. She had peeked around the shelves to find that she was alone. A large rectangular window on the far back wall had light from one of the streetlamps pouring in.
Sliding down the wall near the back, Claire dropped her Magnum on top of one of the cabinets. With her hands cupping her face, she began to softly cry into the silence of the abandoned backroom.
She had raged in her mind at the betrayal of Sebastian, but he had been right to leave her elsewhere. This had been her worst fear after all.
Out of pride and desperation for two aloof men in her life, she had foregone sense and ran in without a plan, a map, or even an idea about what she could do to help the situation at all. It felt like Rockfort all over again. This time, however, instead of running out of bullets, she had run out of reasons to make a better decision.
Claire felt a cool breeze hit her skin and she dropped her hands to blink up at the now open window at the back of the room. Goosebumps rose on her skin as she reached for her Magnum but found the gun missing.
"Have you lost your proper little escort? Are you all alone now?" Leon's voice tauntingly called throughout the room.
Claire flinched and stood from the wall in a ruffle of the borrowed robe. She reached under the scratchy material of the robe and fumbled for the silenced pistol that was still hanging from her left holster.
"You're a long way from home, sweetheart. Would you like me to make you feel better?" Leon's voice was gentle and alluring as she heard scraping steps from around the cabinets.
Claire felt her hands begin to shake. She wanted so badly to lean into the comfort of that familiar voice. She saw him step around the corner and she lifted her shaking hands to point the pistol at him.
"Leon, I'll shoot." She declared weakly as she tried to steady her aim.
"Surrounded by strangers in this god forsaken land, and yet you came all this way for me." He went on, tilting his head at her.
"Leon, please." Claire uttered, feeling exhaustion like she had never imagined.
With inhuman speed, Leon was before her, hand wrapping around her gun. He yanked the offending weapon from her grasp and tossed it aside.
Claire pulled her hands back as the gun was taken from them and her head was craning upwards as she stared in shock at her friend.
Leon had truly matured over the years since she had first met him. His body had filled out with weight and firm muscle and his face had become more angular as the baby weight had fully dropped. His stature was confident and smooth, no longer was he the rookie cop she had bumped into on one of the worst nights of her life.
After two months of being infested, Leon had started to cut a terrifying figure. The veins in his neck, wrists and in his eyes were almost black in color without the light to reflect the further pigment. His clothes had seen better days, but still seemed to be well maintained as she caught sight of the well cared for guns at his side.
Leon reached forward and wrapped his gloved hand around her chin with the care of a lover. Claire sucked in a breath in response; paralyzed with indecision.
He pulled her closer and kissed her cheek. His lips moved to her ear as he whispered. "I used to think about coming into that sad little home of yours and fucking you within an inch of your life. I wanted to break you. How your eyes begged me each time, but there I was trying to protect you yet again. You didn't understand what you were asking for."
Claire had moved a hand up to his wrist. As he spoke, her eyes looked up unflinchingly into his when he pulled back; grey eyes clashing with red.
"I never took you for a coward, Leon." She said as her anger began to build.
"I suspect there's a lot that people never tell you." Leon retorted as he threw her back into the shelves. When she regained her footing, he reached out to grab her again.
Claire reacted faster this time and looped her arm under his. She placed her hand on his shoulder, gripped him solidly and yanked him forward as she head butted him as hard as she could. Leon momentarily lost his balance with an angry cry.
Claire lifted her leg to kick him square in the chest; her head pounding from the headbutt. The frantic redhead watched as Leon stumbled backwards and his head smacked into the wall. With no time to search for her two lost guns, she yanked Chris' knife out of her thigh holster and set back off toward the entrance of the store.
Exploding out the meat shop's front door, Claire threw everything into her stride as she charged down the street. Her labored breaths bounced off the houses on the narrow road with very little space in between for alleyways. House after house she passed reflected dark windows. Nobody was home anywhere; not one soul to bear witness.
She didn't have much time until Leon regained his composure, and he would most certainly find her when he did. Her eyes caught sight of a large warehouse peeking out from over a row of homes. She hightailed it across the street and slammed into the front door, jerking the handle under shaking hands.
The doors blew open and she slid over the lobby's front counter, knocking over pen holders and scattering papers everywhere.
As she ran toward the back, her mind was formulating a plan with the environment. Not too long after, she heard Leon push through the front doors with a crash. She recognized then that her ability to take out the trained body of an agent was extremely low in consideration.
She would need something more than physical skill.
"I love a good chase, Claire." Leon called out somewhere behind her. "I'm surprised you're running. Isn't this what you wanted, sweet girl?"
Claire had run into some sort of factory. From what she could deduce in the small amount of time, it was some sort of packaging company for types of food. A large conveyor belt ran the length of the long room and different machines lay in a production line.
Struck with an idea, Claire looked around until she saw the glowing control panel for the conveyor belt.
Thwump! A noise sounded behind her. She felt herself yank backwards in her steps.
She turned to see that Leon had thrown his knife through the length of her flapping robe and pinned the bottom of it to one of the cabinets as she was running past. Glancing at the direction of the entrance, she spotted his form slowly walking through the door and he threw her a smirk.
"Going to have to be a little faster than that."
Leon lunged for her, and she dropped to the side. His knife was holding her garment in place and thus restricting her movement. Bad luck found her knife sliding somewhere out of sight.
She let out an angry sound as she felt Leon's arms wrap around her legs and they hit the ground with a clatter of tools that knocked over. Claire began kicking furiously, scrambling for something, anything, around her.
A cardboard box sat on the ground just within reach. Reaching her hand inside in desperation, she pulled out the first thing her hand met. It was a canister with a label she couldn't read. She reflexively brought the can up and sprayed it directly into the vessel-blown eyes of the infected agent.
Leon yelled out and screwed his eyes shut.
Claire reared back and kicked him twice in the face while she recognized the smell of Permethrin hitting her nose. Permethrin was common in most bug repellents and an active ingredient in killing lice. Claire's mind went briefly to the time her mother had to shave her head when she was six years old; she'd never forget that smell.
"Got a bug problem, Kennedy?" Claire snarked as she worked quickly at bunching the material up around her chest and tossing it off. Leaving her in her tactical pants and grey tank top again, she was on her feet moving once more.
Leon let out a growl as he stumbled to his feet, rubbing his eyes furiously. "Claire!"
Claire had disappeared behind some of the machinery. The heavy hum of the equipment was beginning to fill the air and was making it very hard for the agent to hear her movements. She kept a close eye on Leon as he blinked furiously. Even from her vantage point, she could see that his eyes were an even more scary color of red.
Leon was scanning the area around him. Watching for movement and he began a careful stroll, his eyes still blinking out the chemical.
Claire spotted a lighter that was tucked inside a day planner like a bookmark. She glanced down at the can of bug spray and narrowed her eyes in thought.
She snatched up the lighter and waited for Leon.
"How does it feel to be a vagrant rat, Claire? Running fatefully into your own traps?" Leon called out. He seemed to consider something for a moment before he said, "What were you even doing in Raccoon? Your brother wasn't even there."
Claire sucked in a quiet breath as she remained squatting beside a large crate. Her memory flashed toward Alfred Ashford standing at the top of the stairs, his rifle aimed down at her. "Have it your way then. You're just a rat in a cage."
"Your brother couldn't even call you to tell you where he was? It's the 21st century! Has it occurred to you that he doesn't care? Do you even know where he is now? Or are you stuck leaving messages as you have been your entire life?"
"That's not true!" Claire snarled in rage. The truth of it stung and made her momentarily forget her need for stealth.
Leon whipped in the direction of her voice and began creeping forward, sweeping left and right for her in the dim room. Claire took that moment to duck under a large conveyor and crab walked toward the left side. She wedged herself near the machine that seemed to be rotating labels for cans and a large structural pillar with a fire extinguisher.
"And Rockfort… You sought to infiltrate the European Umbrella Division alone, with jeans, a t-shirt, a vest and one handgun. You weren't searching for your brother, Claire. You're just a scared lonely girl imposing herself on others." Leon continued as he peered over a cabinet to her far left, making his way closer.
"Poor little Claire Redfield. Chasing crisis after crisis for men that don't give a fuck about her. Your presence here means nothing, by the way. I can feel your friend just below the surface, you know. He can't answer you right now because he's writhing! If he thought what we did to Ada was bad, it would be nothing in comparison to you." Leon snarled as he knocked over a box close to her position.
His voice had transformed into something sinister and filled with a rage Claire would have never associated with him. Her hands were beginning to shake, and she took a moment to center herself. He was close now.
Claire gritted her teeth as she leaned out, flicked the lighter to life and followed up by spraying the bug repellant directly into Leon Kennedy's handsome face.
Leon flipped backwards twice to avoid the flames and Claire had expected it; he was the one who taught her about that little move after all.
As Leon reacted, so did Claire. She had immediately flung away the bug spray, the lighter, and snatched the fire extinguisher off the wall. She was running forward to meet him in the middle of the floor.
As Leon came back onto his feet, a red canister slammed into his face and knocked him back into a tall cart full of rejected products.
Claire dropped the extinguisher with a great expel of her lungs, hit the button next to the cart and watched as the compartment for the trash compactor opened above, the contents speeding down toward Leon.
Leon grunted as he threw the entire cart backwards, toppling it over onto its side. The falling garbage was banging against the side of the cart like a drum and echoing throughout the room.
Claire spotted her knife, scooped it up, and began running toward the lobby of the building.
Leon tackled her from behind, causing both of them to crash to the floor. A hand came fisting into her hair and Leon slammed her head onto the concrete twice before she could react.
Dazed, Claire could barely focus as her life began a final countdown timer. Leon's words had manifested their intended effect. She felt distracted, slow, and suddenly very scared.
With the knife still locked in a death grip in her right hand, she twisted her torso and thrust the knife up into the side of his neck.
Leon went still.
Warm blood was gushing down her wrist as she let go of the knife and tried to quickly scoot backwards. Her head yanked forward from the hand he still had in her hair.
Leon's eyes crinkled as he chuckled, a gurgling sound erupting from his mouth. Bloody teeth flashing at her before he spit a mouthful of blood into her face and tore the knife from his neck.
Claire flinched and let out a startled sound as Leon yanked her closer with her hair still in his grasp. He wasn't even slowing as blood leaked from his neck and out of his mouth.
He was quickly climbing over her and tossed her knife away. With his hand free, he wrapped it around her throat and cut off her air entirely.
"Open your mouth, Claire!" He commanded with a spray of blood flying from his mouth.
Claire clenched her teeth and looked at him through wet, bloody eyelashes. She began to thrash in panic as she lost her sense to the scorching red eyes and red-stained teeth in front of her.
In response to her defiance, Leon began to squeeze her throat tighter, and Claire was ripping at the skin of his forearm, not able to recall how to break the chokehold from a lying position. She finally opened her mouth in a silent scream.
Leon leaned down like he was going to kiss her but instead he began to fill her mouth with his blood while he began to laugh into her lips. The excess of the blood filling her mouth had nowhere to go and was spilling over the sides of her lips, dripping down into her ears.
"Which is the true nightmare, Claire? 'The horrific dream that you have in your sleep or the dissatisfied reality that awaits you when you wake?'" Leon asked, quoting one of her favorite lines from a book she had told him about once.
Frantic fingers were lifting to claw at his face, but there was no longer any strength behind it. Her eyes connected with his and she understood then she was going to die.
Leon hummed as he looked down at her. With his body laying heavily atop of hers, her lower half was pinned along with the rest of her. The flash of pleasure was cruel on his face and Claire blinked as his face was starting to become a haze.
As the room began to shrink to a pinpoint for Claire, Leon released her throat and slammed his mouth over hers
Expelling the stale air in her lungs, blood exploded from her mouth and leaked all over Leon's in the process. Her body was reeling for air and in its desperation, she couldn't muster the strength to push Leon's face away as he continued on to bite at her lips softly while she wheezed in her life breaths.
"Soon, I'm going to make you work for every breath you take, just like this, Claire. Each breath belongs to me, sweetheart. They have for years now."
"Get up." Leon said after a pause, shifting as he touched the knife wound on his neck. The wound had already started to clot.
Claire continued to lay on her back, sucking in air while her hands were reaching up to clasp her throat. She didn't know if she could even vocalize anything at this point.
Leon kicked her in her side, and she let out a wheezing cry.
"Oh, the time for games is over. Get up!" Leon ordered harshly as he grabbed her upper arm and pulled her from the ground.
Coughing, she was dragged to the main doors of the factory. Her boots slipped on the papers she had knocked over earlier.
Claire caught sight of her reflection in the lobby mirror and moaned in terror.
"And remember, in certain events, death may be better than capture." Orski's voice flared across her memory.
Like a true prisoner of war, Claire was led through the streets with Leon at her back. Every now and then, she would catch a civilian looking out at them from a darkened window. The look on their faces was a solemn reminder to her predicament. The upper half of her body was almost completely covered in blood and it marked her tank top in the shade of her failure.
A few of the citizens had come out of their houses to see if they could help; their fearful voices calling out to strangers in their city. Before they could register Leon's gun, he would turn and shoot. The bodies fell to the streets and joined the rest that already lined the Spanish city.
If there were Gods, they had turned away from Lugo.
Claire began to keep her head down as the heavy feeling that was starting to become her life pressed in from her chest and drove straight through her heart. She should have never come here. She couldn't save any of these people.
Ganados that had been walking in the streets began to follow Leon.
"Lord Saddler." They whispered repeatedly.
Even if she had the strength to break away, she'd be very limited in the direction she could go.
Eventually, Leon pushed through a tall gate that was connected to the Roman Walls of Lugo. Beyond was the cathedral she had seen in Hunnigan's attachment. Leon wasted no time and pulled her quickly through the courtyard.
As she tripped on the steps, Leon tightened his grip and nearly pulled her arm out of its socket when he yanked her through the large door. The rest of the Ganados waited outside.
The brightness of the lights in the cathedral stung Claire's eyes for a moment as she squinted into the room.
"Ah, if it isn't the lovely Ms. Redfield." A voice called out. The sound echoing around to the high ceiling above. "Looks like we've had a rough night."
Claire jumped at the sound, her blood crusted eyelids sticking together for a moment as she blinked rapidly. She became aware of a man in purple robes walking toward her. His face held a deep edge of age and a twinge of sickness that spoke to the true invasive nature of the Plagas. Her eyes drifted then to the staff in his hand that had wiggling parasites wavering back and forth slowly.
"I hope you have had fun running around my country."
"Last I checked, Saddler is not a Spanish surname. Where are you from, outsider?" Claire asked hoarsely and with as much bravado as she could muster.
Lord Saddler considered her for a moment before his eyes drifted over her shoulder to the presence of Leon. Claire could feel Leon's gaze like a sore on her back.
Leon grabbed the back of her neck, slammed her down on her knees in front of Lord Saddler before stepping away again. The sound of her knees hitting the floor was like the cracking of Billiard balls. She screamed through her teeth and glared up at Saddler.
"Much better," Saddler said with a kind smile. "Do you like my new bodyguard, Ms. Redfield? He has proven to be more capable than any of the men I selected before. An American, no less."
"Where is Ashley?" Claire gritted out. She winced out of habit as Leon stepped closer to her again.
Lord Saddler held up a hand and Leon went still. "She's resting now and serving her purpose. As we speak, your little coalition of the U.S. Agencies, and the different units of the Spanish Military are gearing up for an attack and an attempt at rescue. Meanwhile, I have already sent off the shipment that will reach the U.S. Military in the matter of hours. Spores are such an interesting thing, don't you agree?"
Claire contemplated something before uttering, "Well, it seems you have everything wrapped up here. Why send your highly valued bodyguard after me?"
"Ah, well, as you may know, our parasites work very closely with their hosts. This relationship can create unique circumstances in how they come into adulthood. Parasites very much depend on their host's body and mind." Saddler said as he looked once again over to Leon.
"With all the dancing around, I truly thought bringing that whore of a spy to heel would help him with his emotional outbursts. In turn, it made them worse. We had to correct a lot in his first month of adulthood. When he reacted stronger to you in our surveillance, I knew that this had to be handled in a better manner."
Claire stopped breathing for a moment as she looked back over her shoulder at Leon. He continued to stare directly at Saddler.
Saddler gave a dark laugh and said, "Stop looking at him, Ms. Redfield. He's not going to save you."
Claire continued to stare up at Leon. Her fury reserved for the thing in his chest and the abomination of the man leading this nightmare.
"I'll get it out, Leon." She vowed before she turned her head back to the Lord and spit at his feet.
Saddler shook his head as he gave a gesture to Leon once more. Leon grabbed her arm and hauled her back up.
"Let's go out and greet our guests, shall we?" Saddler continued as he began walking.
From the corner of her eye, Claire saw movement from the back of the room. A man peeked his face out from one of the banners. He was older, with large black glasses catching the reflection of the lights in the room. Claire opened her mouth, but he was already gone.
She was dragged out the door with haste and toward the dais that was the top of the cathedral's stairs. Ganados had flooded the streets. Everywhere she looked, hateful eyes stared back at her.
Leon positioned her in front of Saddler before making her submit to her knees for a second time.
"Yet another night in our long prayers over the sea. None will have ever stood witness to such a sight. The burden of subjugation is upon us. We shall be ever merciless in our quest to educate, proliferate, and conquer!" Saddler called out to the crowd.
Pitchforks, torches, knives, flails, and scythes raised into the air with a shout from the hundreds of Ganados present. The roar of the population quaked Claire to her core.
Claire saw the glint of the vial attached to the needle and began to scream. She tried to stand, jerk away and fight, but Leon held her steadfast as Saddler approached her.
As Saddler slid the needle home into her neck and depressed the stopper, an explosion rocked the area in front of the dais.
Claire immediately felt the rush in her system and the world in front of her began to tilt and sway. She took a gasping breath and flinched as more explosions followed.
One by one, pockets of the Ganados flew into the air in front of the dais.
"Grenades." She thought through her haze.
A machine gun began to sound and as she saw Leon begin to charge down the dais, Claire caught sight of the mask with two distinct lenses emerging from the shadows in the square.