p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"One hand was held to my chest, inside that hand was the sample that I'd been after so long. My other hand was in front of me, a outstretched pistol, my trusty Red 9 ready to protect me at any coasts. There was splats of red on the walls and floors from the man that had just went into the other room before me. The dead bodies of what where probably never great men, the dead men on the floor below me where the devote followers of Ramon Salazar even before the virus took hold, they should have known what was coming... never mind, point being is that ahead of me in the other room was the American agent I had fought with before. Him and the president's daughter had been infected, and I had the sample to save them. Getting it wasn't easy, my neck still hurt and had the finger marks of devout follower, he was probably a co worker of mine once, back when I worked here in the laps. But they weren't human then either./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"Gently I opened the door, and snuck the pistol into my side holster. "Leon!" Leon, the American agent, turned over to look at me. He's lips parted but then he's face looked plain again. He was alone, and judging by he's grim face, I rightly feared the worst for the president's daughter. I held up the purple sample near my face for him to see. "I've got it!" Leon suddenly made a face, which made me turn a little too see the danger, I was going too pull out my pistol too point at any danger, but I didn't have the time, I barely had time to turn a little still a horrible pain was felt in my right arm, so sharp and sudden all I did was give out a hoarse cry. Then the pricing feeling got stronger and I saw what happened to me, there was a infected monstrous tentical making a hole through the higher arm of my arm near my shoulder. I cried out louder in pain and I think I heard someone yell something. I dropped the long searched for sample on the ground and was suddenly flung against the wall, my face hitting it at full force so my nose splashed out blood on my face and the wall. When I fell on the ground I heard the wet splash of my blood already, my blood was probably everywhere by now. I wanted to scream but my body wouldn't let me I was in so much agony, my mouth and eyes twitched, I was never great at pain, when I was a cop I never did well against the tazzer test they'd make everyone take to show what it felt like getting shot. There was a great deal of noise around me, and at my point my hearing got better even though I could still not scream. "Well I've came for what I've wanted. Thieves need to be punished after all." I known the voice was Saddler's by the pitch, and my heart raced like a nass car track. "You won't get away with this Saddler!" /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"There was some more noise till finally some peace came again. And the room was more still. I suddenly saw just how white everything was above me, and seeing the classic sealing up so high made me feel small, like I was a little child again in my grandfather's old cabin he used to have, oh things where so much easier then! So much of my clothes felt wet, and my face was probably in a state of shock, I was almost embarrassed when I felt someone- surely that agent, tugging at shirt so he could see the wond at the top of my arm. I never saw the wond myself, because it hurt too much to turn my head, but I known it was a hole, not a bullet hole, I've had those before, but probably the size of a mouse hole. Enough that Saddler was able to get a ferm hold on my arm and piece me, so he could throw me against the wall. "Is-" I started, but a little bubble of blood came out, so I had to wait till it drooled down the side of my mouth. "Is he gone?..." the agent looked at me, and nodded he's head. He was putting something on my arm, some kind of herb, and then he introduced me to eat the plant even though it was hard to get it down with all of the blood in the way./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;""The sample is gone.." I cringed, the agent was now dragging me over to a different part of the floor away from the large pool of blood. Blood was in my hair on my clothes and basically anywhere near the attack. The agent had to rip off the arm of my right shirt completely, because it was so wet and in the way. He did however, seemed to have a good deal of medical supplies on hand, probably there for Ashley, in which he used on me. By the end of it Leon had blood all over he's hands and arms. "He stood the sample..." I said, and tried to lift up my other hand to rub my red face, but I was still feeling too much pain to do that. "I know." The agent said plainly, trying to fix the bottoms on my shirt. "You'll be better in a second, forget the sample for now. You should be happy your alive." Then he rubbed he's face with he's elbow and mumbled. "Thank God..." "No, I don't think you see how important that sample was. It's the only key to saving you and Ashley... besides..." the agent turned he's head to the side. "What?" "My notes, there's a way to manually remove the parasite, but it's far away from here, it's on the military island. And it's impossible to use unless you read my notes." The agent stood up, and helped me to lean against the wall instead of laying on the ground. "Where will you be by then? What's your plan?" He asked, and I dryly laughed. "Well, dead apparently. No one gets this hurt and makes it out of this town alive. What I deserve." "Your not going to die, not while I'm around." Suddenly both of our heads snapped up, we both heard the sound of someone grunting in pain. And from the white staircase Leon looked far below, then turned back over to me. "It's Ashley, she's in here, hold on." Then he left me there, following the staircase there was a sort of look out place too the ground below, and that's where the agent was standing at and looking down at now. "Hold on! I'll get you out!" Then weirdly enough he shot down a few different times, till again he started talking down to who I believed to be Ashley. I known soon there had to be infected coming, so I had to get up now. I braced my body with my hand on my good arm on the ground, then almost climbed the wall with my back. I felt a pain in my chest that made me want to lay back down, but luckily my long legs where working just fine. My chest hurt so bad every time I breathed I was sure I broke at least one rip. After a second it came easier to stand up, but when I tried to walk away from the wall I nearly fell down, but I had to keep going, so it was just a game of one foot after a another. I heard Leon start shooting again already, which made me go a little faster. But I had to be careful because I could fall over the short stairs and too my death if I lost my footing. When I got near to where Leon was he seemed surprised to see me there, but didn't complain when I helped with shooting down the infected. Ashley was hiding away from the infected men, hoping to not get grabbed. When the agent shot down the man in red he dropped a key, and though all of the gore Ashley grabbed the key and looked up above. "I got it!" And then she ran over to a door some of the infected went though, and then she was gone. The ground below was full of dead shot up corpses. The ones I killed where more worse for wear then the one's the agent got, because he has more government training. When she was out of slight I signed loudly then leaned against the agent without thinking, the strain of standing up too much. He cringed from the blood rubbing against he's clothes, but made no complain, taking my arm and placing it over he's shoulder as we started walking up. "I hope she can handle herself." The agent said, more to himself then me. "You did all you could." I dryly said back, but he just shook he's head and said nothing. Then he placed my body against the wall, and we started our wait./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"br /For a long time we stayed in the same state. I leaned against the wall with my good hand clasped over one of my knees. Lord knows that if I somehow lived to tell the tale of today, I'd have the scar on my arm to prove it. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"Leon paced for a while, but then settled to leaning against the wall around four feet away from me. We didn't have much to talk about, he had he's secrets and I had mine. I known he didn't trust me, I could feel it in the air between us. But that was smart on he's end, I wouldn't trust me either, I barely trust myself as me. What we did talk about, was las plagas, and how to not let it get Leon and Ashley killed by removing it. Even though I had lost the sample, I still had some pills that could slow the effect down, so I have them to the agent because he both needed and deserved them more then me. Right when Leon really started to look worried a door in the other side of the upper room opened, and then Ashley stepped out and shyly looked at Leon. He ran over to her and hugged her like they where father and daughter. I shook my head. "Some men get all the luck..." I laughed. They walked back to where I was at, and getting to their eye levels I grimly leaned against the wall. "Oh my God..." Ashley looked around the room with her hand to her mouth. "There's blood everywhere. Luis are you-" she shook her head. "Never mind." "Well weather or not he's fine." The agent started. "We have to get going." "You two can go though that big door just over there. I'll go ahead, you can catch up if you wan-" "No your not, not this time." Leon said sternly. "Your too injured. Your coming with us this time." Ashley looked uncomfortable at that, I suppose I'd be uncomfortable around me too, though I'd still say she'd had bad taste if you where to ask me. Something about the agent just telling me what to do meant something to me, though whatever it was I did not know. But I did as I was told anyway, and followed behind them both. Walking at a good pace like they where was killing me. I felt like a dead man walking. Probably would have been better off dead too, that's the only time people don't bother you is when your dead. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"We all three went though a doorway, then started walking down a hallway, a very quite hallway. Really the times you where best safe around here is when your fighting someone or something, because that means no one's hiding from you waiting to strike. It's not like this castle was my home or anything like that, but not only did I know my way around it I also understood it. The hallway we where in lead one way, and it was a dark hallway too, the sides beautifully designed like the wall itself was meant to be a work of art in a museum. Shame it wasn't owned by the most friendly of people. When we walked into a new room the Americans where met with a weird slight, and I myself thought it was really weird when I first found it. It was a small platform diverging from the main part of the ground. Below the platform was red hot lava, Lord knows what the geres carrying that platform where made of. A different direction from that platform, was a different hallway they hadn't been down yet. "Mhm, this could be where we need to go..." the agent thought. I known that wasn't where they needed to go to get out, but this actually could be a useful thing for me. "Ashley, Luis, you two stay behind. I'll go ahead and see if that's the right way." He explained in a firm way. "Ok Leon. Don't take too long." And with that he got onto the platform and was slowly driven out of the way from us and though the lava ground, leaving the two of us behind./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"Ashley glanced over at me nervously, but I laughed dryly and waved her away with my good hand. "You don't have to give me that look!" Then I glanced over to make sure the agent was now across the lava barrier and into a another room. "I'll leave you be. I know I'm a little too much man for some women." Ashley scrunched up her face. "You can't just leave. Leon said we had to stay." Again I saved her away. "I'm not a dog, I don't just do what others say!" "That's not the point! Your injured. There was blood all over the room." "Nah, doesn't matter." I said, starting to walk away into a another room. "I'd just slow you down anyway." Then I was out of her slight./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"br /br /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"For a while I walked though a another hallway much like the last, only now it was longer and taller. When I got at the end, I saw a long but still small cart with fancy seats on it, on top of the rails that went though some of the castle. I'd used before for work went I was getting from the top of the castle into the now gross wet basement, even though for a longer time I worked on the military island. So I was ready for that weird looking structure, what I wasn't ready for was the woman I'd talk to before leaning against it. The woman in red, who I known little about, but she did seem like quite the character. "Ah! It's nice to see you again!" I called in a jokey way, and she looked back with a fake but clever smile. "Luis Sera, you've lost the sample didn't you?" I leaned against the same cart a little bit away from her. "I did. There was nothing I could do." I started, in a now serious tone. I didn't know this woman and didn't trust her. I wanted protection, and whatever organisation she worked for (and I had a good idea which one) what I had, the sample. I sent out a message to a old friend of mine, but he never answered. Now that I didn't have the sample, I couldn't trust this woman with my life. "Oh I believe you." The woman said plainly, as she span over to sit in one of the very front seats on the carts. Taking the hint I sat in the one opponent to her and crossed my leg over the over. "Do you want to hear what happened?" I asked. "I already know." She was spying on me, lovely. Well I hope if she was, she'd maybe have my back at least for my own safety. "Great, nice to meet a beautiful woman that can keep up to date with the news." "Mhm, the way I see it is, either..." the cart started going down the rails at a fast speed, but I couldn't help but notice that they where slowly then they used to be back when I worked here. "Either I help you leave this place and keep you alive, and in return you'll come in for questioning. Or we go our separate ways and you have to fend for yourself." She glanced over at my arm. "With that nasty puncture wound you'll have to carry in the belly of the beast." I laughed sourly. "Oh oh! Sorry miss but I am no headless chicken! I know this place better then you with or without a wound. But." And in leaned in closer to her, to my enjoyment she did not back away or leaned in, I like women like that. "I do want the protection non the less. I don't know who your working for but a few questions couldn't hurt. As long as I make it out alive." The woman in red nodded. "Great. Your goals are easy enough to give to her. But you'll have to be content with being left behind every now and then. And if you know this place so well then I in trust you to find the safest ways to get from one place to the other. But I can't have you following me around." "Aw, would I be too much of a pain?" "You'd cramp my style." I pretend to be hurt, like my heart was breaking from this sudden blow to my pride. She did not react to my little play. Does that make sense to you Sera?" "Yes, Crystal clear." Now the cart had stopped on the other end of the tracks, in a hole new room and hallway, I swore this place had more hallways then rooms. "Great." The woman said smoothly, stepping out of the cart, her heels making little clicking noises as she went. "I'm glad we could come to a agreement." I stepped out of the cart as she walked off, moaning a little from the arm pain. "And Luis..." she said slightly. "Take care of your arm. Your one of the few not infected people in this joint, you don't want to have a infected arm." "Hey, don't I at least get your number?!" She didn't say anything back, because she already felt, leaving me in the room alone with my thoughts./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"br /My grandfather was a wise old strong tern faced willed man. He could crush you just with the look in he's eyes. No hardship was too much for he's soul to bare. No challenge was too hard for him, no mountain was too high, no horror was too much too bare. I barely known half of the things he'd seen and done in he's life, but what I did know actually scared me of him. If he saw me today, well, he wouldn't be proud. He didn't like me when I was 12, he died when I was 12 too. My parents died when I was so young I could hardly remember them, so he took up the challenge, which of course wasn't for him. But both of my folks where shady to say the least, and it wasn't hard for my grandfather to see the time kind of punk that was in them in me, so he didn't bother with raising me right much. And though he never cared if I had good morals or not, he did care about me survival. He thought me a lot of different ways to survive, in just about every way there was. Surviving in nature, around other people, against animals, against muggings, Hell one time when I was 11 he showed me how to attack back if anyone ever tried to rape me. He was very careful about how he did things. He died on he's own terms too. One day he woke me up in the middle of the day, before sun broke, and told me upright that he was drying, but before he went he wanted to explain a few things to me. I don't want to share what he said with you, or with anyone. But I will say it was both touching and scary. Then, like a old lion, he walked off into the woods away from he's cabin very sickly and never came back. And he'd fought like Hell to keep that cabin for himself, and I gave it up quickly. It was near the lake, it was a nice cabin too. Just one room and a basement, but it was home. I lived there alone, off the fat of the earth for a few years, but by the time I was 15, things around the village got... Worse. Kids my age started getting sicker and sicker, everyone started getting sicker and sicker. And then the kids started dying, all of them started dying. Oh! And after the only girl who ever really enjoyed me died, I had no reason to say, so I left. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"Now I know why all the kids where dying, and they where better off dead then what happened to their parents, that's the only peace that time of my life gave me./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"The weird thing was, I never got sick, and never had the pale skin or the tired rings or the thin hair. And when the night came, and the kids always died at night. My old girl, she was with me when she died. She died with my hand on her head. Her arms reached up to me and tried to stranggled me, and I let her, because I was scard of hurting her, and she looked at me with her green eyes- and suddenly they where red! And I let her hurt me, her nails going into my skin, until she suddenly stopped breathing, gave me a sorry look and fell back over onto the bed, and died right then and there... I... I gave her body back to her family in the morning... They didn't say anything to me, they saw it coming. Her family had already lost one child, and they had two more children that where going to die. I think back then they where barrying the bodies of the dead, they don't know. When I came back here yesterday, I made sure to set a blaze to any pile of bodies on wooden carts, just in case her old skeleton was at the bottom. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"After years of making little money in far off city of Madrid- and make note that it wasn't easy for many reasons. I wasn't like the other people in the village, my grandfather didn't live there because he liked living a old school kind of life, or because he was religous and loved God. No he just liked being alone, I guess that was the one thing I ever had in comon with him. So even though I wasn't like others in the village, I still wasn't like others in the capital of Spain. But I learned, I was a fast learner. After a made enough money when I was 19, I went to college in America. It was a great three years of learning, but the college hardly teached me anything, no I learned from books, and what I learned about about science and biology. Mainly science. I met a man from college, a good man. He was the only person in the world I could open up too, I told him everything, and he told me everything. He helped me learn the wonder of woman, and what women like in men. He was also the one who teached me English well enough to where I could speak it like a native. I learned other languages, my four where Spanish, English French and Latin. I wasn't great at French, and the Latin I learned to better understand the history of science. But after three years of college I decided it wasn't worth my money, so I left, but I kept to good contact with my old best friend. It was then a great feeling came over me, the same feeling that made my grandfather move to Germany as a young, young man to join the war effort, I wanted to be a hero. So I became a police man. I still had the scars on my stomace from that time. I don't want to talk about what happened. But be sure that you could give your life too someone, and they would still think of you as a piece of meat. My scars looked so bad I started to always wear a white tank top whenever I had sex with any young girls, they just looked that ugly underneath. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"I was wayword for a few years, I lost contact with my old American friend. I lost my way overall. But then... Well, the thought came to me, the darkness, and the horror came to me. I remembered what happened, all the things that happened while I was 15. My grandfather wasn't lying when he told me how horrible the world was. I was smarter, stronger, more worldly now. And it didn't take me long to piece together what was wrong with my village now, once I finally after all these years opened the door up in my mind. And I- well, I don't want to talk about what happened after that. I'm only 29 now, but I feel like I'm 80. I don't know if I can... I don't know... How I can keep going. Everything in me feels tried. I don't know if I can make it too 35, I feel so sickly and tired. I don't know what in me is going to break down, but I just... I just can't keep on. No one is on my side, my friend from college didn't awnser me back, he must not care for me anymore. I... I'm tired./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"br /span/spanbr /br /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"Gently I opened the door, and snuck the pistol into my side holster. "Leon!" Leon, the American agent, turned over to look at me. He's lips parted but then he's face looked plain again. He was alone, and judging by he's grim face, I rightly feared the worst for the president's daughter. I held up the purple sample near my face for him to see. "I've got it!" Leon suddenly made a face, which made me turn a little too see the danger, I was going too pull out my pistol too point at any danger, but I didn't have the time, I barely had time to turn a little still a horrible pain was felt in my right arm, so sharp and sudden all I did was give out a hoarse cry. Then the pricing feeling got stronger and I saw what happened to me, there was a infected monstrous tentical making a hole through the higher arm of my arm near my shoulder. I cried out louder in pain and I think I heard someone yell something. I dropped the long searched for sample on the ground and was suddenly flung against the wall, my face hitting it at full force so my nose splashed out blood on my face and the wall. When I fell on the ground I heard the wet splash of my blood already, my blood was probably everywhere by now. I wanted to scream but my body wouldn't let me I was in so much agony, my mouth and eyes twitched, I was never great at pain, when I was a cop I never did well against the tazzer test they'd make everyone take to show what it felt like getting shot. There was a great deal of noise around me, and at my point my hearing got better even though I could still not scream. "Well I've came for what I've wanted. Thieves need to be punished after all." I known the voice was Saddler's by the pitch, and my heart raced like a nass car track. "You won't get away with this Saddler!" /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"There was some more noise till finally some peace came again. And the room was more still. I suddenly saw just how white everything was above me, and seeing the classic sealing up so high made me feel small, like I was a little child again in my grandfather's old cabin he used to have, oh things where so much easier then! So much of my clothes felt wet, and my face was probably in a state of shock, I was almost embarrassed when I felt someone- surely that agent, tugging at shirt so he could see the wond at the top of my arm. I never saw the wond myself, because it hurt too much to turn my head, but I known it was a hole, not a bullet hole, I've had those before, but probably the size of a mouse hole. Enough that Saddler was able to get a ferm hold on my arm and piece me, so he could throw me against the wall. "Is-" I started, but a little bubble of blood came out, so I had to wait till it drooled down the side of my mouth. "Is he gone?..." the agent looked at me, and nodded he's head. He was putting something on my arm, some kind of herb, and then he introduced me to eat the plant even though it was hard to get it down with all of the blood in the way./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;""The sample is gone.." I cringed, the agent was now dragging me over to a different part of the floor away from the large pool of blood. Blood was in my hair on my clothes and basically anywhere near the attack. The agent had to rip off the arm of my right shirt completely, because it was so wet and in the way. He did however, seemed to have a good deal of medical supplies on hand, probably there for Ashley, in which he used on me. By the end of it Leon had blood all over he's hands and arms. "He stood the sample..." I said, and tried to lift up my other hand to rub my red face, but I was still feeling too much pain to do that. "I know." The agent said plainly, trying to fix the bottoms on my shirt. "You'll be better in a second, forget the sample for now. You should be happy your alive." Then he rubbed he's face with he's elbow and mumbled. "Thank God..." "No, I don't think you see how important that sample was. It's the only key to saving you and Ashley... besides..." the agent turned he's head to the side. "What?" "My notes, there's a way to manually remove the parasite, but it's far away from here, it's on the military island. And it's impossible to use unless you read my notes." The agent stood up, and helped me to lean against the wall instead of laying on the ground. "Where will you be by then? What's your plan?" He asked, and I dryly laughed. "Well, dead apparently. No one gets this hurt and makes it out of this town alive. What I deserve." "Your not going to die, not while I'm around." Suddenly both of our heads snapped up, we both heard the sound of someone grunting in pain. And from the white staircase Leon looked far below, then turned back over to me. "It's Ashley, she's in here, hold on." Then he left me there, following the staircase there was a sort of look out place too the ground below, and that's where the agent was standing at and looking down at now. "Hold on! I'll get you out!" Then weirdly enough he shot down a few different times, till again he started talking down to who I believed to be Ashley. I known soon there had to be infected coming, so I had to get up now. I braced my body with my hand on my good arm on the ground, then almost climbed the wall with my back. I felt a pain in my chest that made me want to lay back down, but luckily my long legs where working just fine. My chest hurt so bad every time I breathed I was sure I broke at least one rip. After a second it came easier to stand up, but when I tried to walk away from the wall I nearly fell down, but I had to keep going, so it was just a game of one foot after a another. I heard Leon start shooting again already, which made me go a little faster. But I had to be careful because I could fall over the short stairs and too my death if I lost my footing. When I got near to where Leon was he seemed surprised to see me there, but didn't complain when I helped with shooting down the infected. Ashley was hiding away from the infected men, hoping to not get grabbed. When the agent shot down the man in red he dropped a key, and though all of the gore Ashley grabbed the key and looked up above. "I got it!" And then she ran over to a door some of the infected went though, and then she was gone. The ground below was full of dead shot up corpses. The ones I killed where more worse for wear then the one's the agent got, because he has more government training. When she was out of slight I signed loudly then leaned against the agent without thinking, the strain of standing up too much. He cringed from the blood rubbing against he's clothes, but made no complain, taking my arm and placing it over he's shoulder as we started walking up. "I hope she can handle herself." The agent said, more to himself then me. "You did all you could." I dryly said back, but he just shook he's head and said nothing. Then he placed my body against the wall, and we started our wait./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"br /For a long time we stayed in the same state. I leaned against the wall with my good hand clasped over one of my knees. Lord knows that if I somehow lived to tell the tale of today, I'd have the scar on my arm to prove it. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"Leon paced for a while, but then settled to leaning against the wall around four feet away from me. We didn't have much to talk about, he had he's secrets and I had mine. I known he didn't trust me, I could feel it in the air between us. But that was smart on he's end, I wouldn't trust me either, I barely trust myself as me. What we did talk about, was las plagas, and how to not let it get Leon and Ashley killed by removing it. Even though I had lost the sample, I still had some pills that could slow the effect down, so I have them to the agent because he both needed and deserved them more then me. Right when Leon really started to look worried a door in the other side of the upper room opened, and then Ashley stepped out and shyly looked at Leon. He ran over to her and hugged her like they where father and daughter. I shook my head. "Some men get all the luck..." I laughed. They walked back to where I was at, and getting to their eye levels I grimly leaned against the wall. "Oh my God..." Ashley looked around the room with her hand to her mouth. "There's blood everywhere. Luis are you-" she shook her head. "Never mind." "Well weather or not he's fine." The agent started. "We have to get going." "You two can go though that big door just over there. I'll go ahead, you can catch up if you wan-" "No your not, not this time." Leon said sternly. "Your too injured. Your coming with us this time." Ashley looked uncomfortable at that, I suppose I'd be uncomfortable around me too, though I'd still say she'd had bad taste if you where to ask me. Something about the agent just telling me what to do meant something to me, though whatever it was I did not know. But I did as I was told anyway, and followed behind them both. Walking at a good pace like they where was killing me. I felt like a dead man walking. Probably would have been better off dead too, that's the only time people don't bother you is when your dead. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"We all three went though a doorway, then started walking down a hallway, a very quite hallway. Really the times you where best safe around here is when your fighting someone or something, because that means no one's hiding from you waiting to strike. It's not like this castle was my home or anything like that, but not only did I know my way around it I also understood it. The hallway we where in lead one way, and it was a dark hallway too, the sides beautifully designed like the wall itself was meant to be a work of art in a museum. Shame it wasn't owned by the most friendly of people. When we walked into a new room the Americans where met with a weird slight, and I myself thought it was really weird when I first found it. It was a small platform diverging from the main part of the ground. Below the platform was red hot lava, Lord knows what the geres carrying that platform where made of. A different direction from that platform, was a different hallway they hadn't been down yet. "Mhm, this could be where we need to go..." the agent thought. I known that wasn't where they needed to go to get out, but this actually could be a useful thing for me. "Ashley, Luis, you two stay behind. I'll go ahead and see if that's the right way." He explained in a firm way. "Ok Leon. Don't take too long." And with that he got onto the platform and was slowly driven out of the way from us and though the lava ground, leaving the two of us behind./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"Ashley glanced over at me nervously, but I laughed dryly and waved her away with my good hand. "You don't have to give me that look!" Then I glanced over to make sure the agent was now across the lava barrier and into a another room. "I'll leave you be. I know I'm a little too much man for some women." Ashley scrunched up her face. "You can't just leave. Leon said we had to stay." Again I saved her away. "I'm not a dog, I don't just do what others say!" "That's not the point! Your injured. There was blood all over the room." "Nah, doesn't matter." I said, starting to walk away into a another room. "I'd just slow you down anyway." Then I was out of her slight./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"br /br /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"For a while I walked though a another hallway much like the last, only now it was longer and taller. When I got at the end, I saw a long but still small cart with fancy seats on it, on top of the rails that went though some of the castle. I'd used before for work went I was getting from the top of the castle into the now gross wet basement, even though for a longer time I worked on the military island. So I was ready for that weird looking structure, what I wasn't ready for was the woman I'd talk to before leaning against it. The woman in red, who I known little about, but she did seem like quite the character. "Ah! It's nice to see you again!" I called in a jokey way, and she looked back with a fake but clever smile. "Luis Sera, you've lost the sample didn't you?" I leaned against the same cart a little bit away from her. "I did. There was nothing I could do." I started, in a now serious tone. I didn't know this woman and didn't trust her. I wanted protection, and whatever organisation she worked for (and I had a good idea which one) what I had, the sample. I sent out a message to a old friend of mine, but he never answered. Now that I didn't have the sample, I couldn't trust this woman with my life. "Oh I believe you." The woman said plainly, as she span over to sit in one of the very front seats on the carts. Taking the hint I sat in the one opponent to her and crossed my leg over the over. "Do you want to hear what happened?" I asked. "I already know." She was spying on me, lovely. Well I hope if she was, she'd maybe have my back at least for my own safety. "Great, nice to meet a beautiful woman that can keep up to date with the news." "Mhm, the way I see it is, either..." the cart started going down the rails at a fast speed, but I couldn't help but notice that they where slowly then they used to be back when I worked here. "Either I help you leave this place and keep you alive, and in return you'll come in for questioning. Or we go our separate ways and you have to fend for yourself." She glanced over at my arm. "With that nasty puncture wound you'll have to carry in the belly of the beast." I laughed sourly. "Oh oh! Sorry miss but I am no headless chicken! I know this place better then you with or without a wound. But." And in leaned in closer to her, to my enjoyment she did not back away or leaned in, I like women like that. "I do want the protection non the less. I don't know who your working for but a few questions couldn't hurt. As long as I make it out alive." The woman in red nodded. "Great. Your goals are easy enough to give to her. But you'll have to be content with being left behind every now and then. And if you know this place so well then I in trust you to find the safest ways to get from one place to the other. But I can't have you following me around." "Aw, would I be too much of a pain?" "You'd cramp my style." I pretend to be hurt, like my heart was breaking from this sudden blow to my pride. She did not react to my little play. Does that make sense to you Sera?" "Yes, Crystal clear." Now the cart had stopped on the other end of the tracks, in a hole new room and hallway, I swore this place had more hallways then rooms. "Great." The woman said smoothly, stepping out of the cart, her heels making little clicking noises as she went. "I'm glad we could come to a agreement." I stepped out of the cart as she walked off, moaning a little from the arm pain. "And Luis..." she said slightly. "Take care of your arm. Your one of the few not infected people in this joint, you don't want to have a infected arm." "Hey, don't I at least get your number?!" She didn't say anything back, because she already felt, leaving me in the room alone with my thoughts./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"br /My grandfather was a wise old strong tern faced willed man. He could crush you just with the look in he's eyes. No hardship was too much for he's soul to bare. No challenge was too hard for him, no mountain was too high, no horror was too much too bare. I barely known half of the things he'd seen and done in he's life, but what I did know actually scared me of him. If he saw me today, well, he wouldn't be proud. He didn't like me when I was 12, he died when I was 12 too. My parents died when I was so young I could hardly remember them, so he took up the challenge, which of course wasn't for him. But both of my folks where shady to say the least, and it wasn't hard for my grandfather to see the time kind of punk that was in them in me, so he didn't bother with raising me right much. And though he never cared if I had good morals or not, he did care about me survival. He thought me a lot of different ways to survive, in just about every way there was. Surviving in nature, around other people, against animals, against muggings, Hell one time when I was 11 he showed me how to attack back if anyone ever tried to rape me. He was very careful about how he did things. He died on he's own terms too. One day he woke me up in the middle of the day, before sun broke, and told me upright that he was drying, but before he went he wanted to explain a few things to me. I don't want to share what he said with you, or with anyone. But I will say it was both touching and scary. Then, like a old lion, he walked off into the woods away from he's cabin very sickly and never came back. And he'd fought like Hell to keep that cabin for himself, and I gave it up quickly. It was near the lake, it was a nice cabin too. Just one room and a basement, but it was home. I lived there alone, off the fat of the earth for a few years, but by the time I was 15, things around the village got... Worse. Kids my age started getting sicker and sicker, everyone started getting sicker and sicker. And then the kids started dying, all of them started dying. Oh! And after the only girl who ever really enjoyed me died, I had no reason to say, so I left. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"Now I know why all the kids where dying, and they where better off dead then what happened to their parents, that's the only peace that time of my life gave me./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"The weird thing was, I never got sick, and never had the pale skin or the tired rings or the thin hair. And when the night came, and the kids always died at night. My old girl, she was with me when she died. She died with my hand on her head. Her arms reached up to me and tried to stranggled me, and I let her, because I was scard of hurting her, and she looked at me with her green eyes- and suddenly they where red! And I let her hurt me, her nails going into my skin, until she suddenly stopped breathing, gave me a sorry look and fell back over onto the bed, and died right then and there... I... I gave her body back to her family in the morning... They didn't say anything to me, they saw it coming. Her family had already lost one child, and they had two more children that where going to die. I think back then they where barrying the bodies of the dead, they don't know. When I came back here yesterday, I made sure to set a blaze to any pile of bodies on wooden carts, just in case her old skeleton was at the bottom. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"After years of making little money in far off city of Madrid- and make note that it wasn't easy for many reasons. I wasn't like the other people in the village, my grandfather didn't live there because he liked living a old school kind of life, or because he was religous and loved God. No he just liked being alone, I guess that was the one thing I ever had in comon with him. So even though I wasn't like others in the village, I still wasn't like others in the capital of Spain. But I learned, I was a fast learner. After a made enough money when I was 19, I went to college in America. It was a great three years of learning, but the college hardly teached me anything, no I learned from books, and what I learned about about science and biology. Mainly science. I met a man from college, a good man. He was the only person in the world I could open up too, I told him everything, and he told me everything. He helped me learn the wonder of woman, and what women like in men. He was also the one who teached me English well enough to where I could speak it like a native. I learned other languages, my four where Spanish, English French and Latin. I wasn't great at French, and the Latin I learned to better understand the history of science. But after three years of college I decided it wasn't worth my money, so I left, but I kept to good contact with my old best friend. It was then a great feeling came over me, the same feeling that made my grandfather move to Germany as a young, young man to join the war effort, I wanted to be a hero. So I became a police man. I still had the scars on my stomace from that time. I don't want to talk about what happened. But be sure that you could give your life too someone, and they would still think of you as a piece of meat. My scars looked so bad I started to always wear a white tank top whenever I had sex with any young girls, they just looked that ugly underneath. /span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"I was wayword for a few years, I lost contact with my old American friend. I lost my way overall. But then... Well, the thought came to me, the darkness, and the horror came to me. I remembered what happened, all the things that happened while I was 15. My grandfather wasn't lying when he told me how horrible the world was. I was smarter, stronger, more worldly now. And it didn't take me long to piece together what was wrong with my village now, once I finally after all these years opened the door up in my mind. And I- well, I don't want to talk about what happened after that. I'm only 29 now, but I feel like I'm 80. I don't know if I can... I don't know... How I can keep going. Everything in me feels tried. I don't know if I can make it too 35, I feel so sickly and tired. I don't know what in me is going to break down, but I just... I just can't keep on. No one is on my side, my friend from college didn't awnser me back, he must not care for me anymore. I... I'm tired./span/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: large;"br /span/spanbr /br /p
