The group went all the way to ladder and down to it, for a break to the door. Leon and Ashley had already reached it, the younger Weiss pair were a bit behind them, the older and Sakura were still in the hallway.
"That's as far as you'll go" said someone from behind the altar "I'll take the kids". There was an old guy dressed in robes and carrying a staff in one hand. He was the man in the portrait which got shoot by Leon's stray bullet back at chief Mendez house, no way the special agent and Youji would mistake him.
"Who are you?" Leon's question was out of place "If you must know, my name is Osmund Saddler, the master of this fine...religious community"
"What do you want?" demanded Omi furious "To demonstrate to the whole world, our astounding power, of course. No longer will the United States think they can police the world forever. So we kidnapped the President's daughter, in order to give her our power, and then send her back"
"No..." whispered Ashley. "Leon, I think they shot something in my neck"
"We just planted her a little...gift. Oh, there's going to be one hell of a party when she returns home to her loving father." the man's laughter was creepy. "But before that, I thought I might bargain with the President for some...donations. Believe it or not, it takes quite a lot of money to keep this church up and running"
"Faith and money will lead you nowhere, Saddler"
"Oh, I believe I forgot to tell you that we gave you and the other kids the same gift"
"What?" Youji snapped "When I was unconscious..." whispered Leon "Oh, I truly hope you like our small, but special contributions. When the eggs hatch, you'll become my puppets. Involuntarily, you'll do as I say. I'll have total control over Your minds. Don't you think this is revolutionary way to propagate one's faith"
"Sounds more like an alien invasion if you ask me"
Right then Aya jumped out of the ledge of the second floor, landing safely between Saddler and the group. His katana was still sheathed but not for long, he was holding it dangerously.
"Where's my sister?" he growled revealing a bit of the deadly steel.
"Oh, the pretty Japanese girl? Well, we have another purposes reserved for her.
"Give her back.
"I'm afraid I cant do that. You know, she hadn't aged a bit since she got into coma, two years ago. We need her badly, so she'll stay with us at the lab.
"SHINE!" that was Abyssinian in whole Takatori-shine mode dashing towards Lord Saddler with his deadly blade begging for a taste of blood. But the man leaned against the wall and disappeared as it turned around, barely missing the frosty touch of the steel. At the same time, the church doors opened and two other guys looking like hooded monks appeared. They were armed with crossbows and immediately fired against the group. Leon grabbed Ashley and go crashing through the window, and into the side shed. The steel crossbow bolts narrowly missing hitting both of them thanks to the Weiss team counter attack.
"Hey, You okay?" asked Leon to Ashley.
"Leon, what's going to happen to us.
"Don't worry, we got into this mess, we can get out of it.
"/Balinese!" Aya's scream was perfectly heard from the other side of the wall "take care of Sakura!/".
Out of the building, the Weiss were pulling a complete racket.
"Stay close!" said Leon to Ashley as they joined the others.
There were nearly 20 enemies outside, not all of them still standing. From behind the barrier Aya and Ken were pulling up, Youji shot a powder barrel on the cart near the graveyard doors. It blew up 5 of the people around and the cart went away in flames, rolling over 2 more of the aggressors and setting them on fire too.
"Shotgun!" screamed Leon and quickly enough Aya and Ken gave him space to fire at will.
With the area clean and not waiting for more opponents, the group ran to the shack with the tunnel leading to the village.
Again they met the merchant and they armed themselves for the next campaign. Leon traded the shotgun for the riot gun, and got it and Ken's riffle tuned up.
"/I lost my crossbow when they took me, but I think this one will do good enough./" He was talking about a crossbow he had taken from the monks they killed. He was cautious enough to take all the bolts they were carrying. "Still, I'm gonna miss my black bow. I had it for years.
"/You can ask Burman to buy you a new one as compensation/" said Youji as he paid for the blacktail gun. "/Bombay, by the way.../" Ken gave the boy his leather case.
"/Oh, you found my darts! Thanks/." Omi took the case and secured it on place.
"/Also, Bombay/" Aya had just paid for an attached case "/take care of these/". Inside the case was all their stock of fragmentation and incendiary grenades.
Alarmed, Leon grabbed reflexively Aya's arm, something he regretted almost right away by the way Aya looked at him "Are you sure of that?" he said seriously.
"Don't let your guard down on Bombay just because he is a kid" said Aya getting rid of Leon's touch.
"He is the veteran here" added Youji as matter-of-factly as he could.
Omi ignored the comment. Leon didn't even have the time to think about the implications of that statement. Ken needed instructions and he needed them the fast the better. He couldn't stand not knowing what to do at the middle of a mission.
"/So, now what?/" he asked to both Omi and Aya, once they left behind the merchant. They were in the little room with the typewriter.
"We need to get back my computer. All the information I retrieved from this guys is on it. I couldn't check it, but we might find Aya-chan's whereabouts quicker and also any clue about a way to get us rid of whatever they injected us with.
"Is there any way they can hack their way into the information.
"Nop... Well, there's always a way, but everything is encrypted. They'll need a hacker as good as me to get it and you know we don't sprout everywhere. On top of that, we are talking about MY computer. I will take them long only to have it running anything besides a black screen. I just hope they don't try to break it"
"Leon, please lend us your map" said Aya.
Again Leon gave the map to them.
"The Village is behind this door.
"There aren't many places to go after reentering it..." said Bombay looking at the place in he map.
"We first came in using this path over here" pointed Aya.
"I used this one" said Leon identifying the road for them. "There is mere waste land beyond that gate"
"Since we are here already, we must go around to this place over there. It's the only other exit.
"My people are supposed to send over a helicopter. Hunnigan told me to go right that way, but instead of being an exit, I think that path only take us further into chaos"
"Maybe. But as I said before, there's not much place to go... /Kill at sight?/" asked Bombay to Abyssinian. All the Weiss members looked at him nod.
"/No point asking questions/" he said and they got ready.
Everyone readied their weapons and stepped outside. A few people tried to stop them but not even Leon knew what the hell hit them.
They made a run for the door Omi pointed in the map and quickly entered a farm area. More townsfolk were waiting there. The three younger Weiss and Leon covered Youji as he took the girls towards the nearby granary. With his brand new weapon he took out of the way 2 men before they reached the second story of the building. The trio went out through the window to a creaking platform. They were at the end of it and going down a ladder at the other side of a tall wooden fence blocking their path towards a back door, by the time the place was clear of infected people. Taking care about the bear traps, the older Weiss and the two girls reached the door.
"It's locked from the other side. There's no way to open it from here" he said to the group while they got reunited again "Let me help". Giving his crossbow to Ken, Omi climbed the door with Youji's help. Leon noticed the kid had some small goggles on, similar to those of Siberian and wondered if they had the same use. Omi looked around from the top of gate, before daring to jump to ground. When he did jumped to the other side, quickly unlocked the door.
Instead of the happy faced Omi some expected to see, a very concerned one approached Ken and took the crossbow from him. "/Don't freaking like this/" he mumbled for Aya to hear. Both of them walked ahead of the group just out of habit, because it wasn't the smartest thing to do considering they were relaying on a crossbow and a three-foot blade.
They found another merchant ahead, near a bridge over a stream.
"/Those guys are everywhere!/" said Ken a bit upset. Omi waited until everyone passed him before attempting to cross the bridge. Ken had gone first followed by Aya. Leon came next along with Ashley, Then Sakura and Youji, and Omi was the last one.
"Leon, I have some bad news." Hunnigan voice could be heard when Leon answered the call of his intercom.
"I'd rather not hear it"
"Well, I'm afraid I have to tell you anyway. We've lost contact with the chopper. Somebody must have shot it down though, we can't determine who"
"Great.
"We're prepping another chopper for you. Meanwhile, I want you to head towards the extraction point"
"Got it"
"Will she ever say anything nice to you?" asked Youji.
Ken and Aya had already reached the other side of the bridge, but right then.
"Here they come!" screamed Omi and a fragmentary grenade explosion made emphasis on his call. No point firing crossbow bolts, they were too many.
"/This way too!/" said Ken shooting with the rifle to the mad men coming from across the bridge. A few people fell.
"What are we gonna do, Leon?" asked Ashley scared "I hate to say it, but we're sandwiched all right"
"Quickly! Into the cabin!" Ordered Aya. They all ran to it with another explosion covering their retreat.
Leon, Ashley, Sakura and Youji were the first ones to get in.
"Leon." said a very familiar voice from inside. Sera was there and tossed the doorjam to Aya who had just got in. Aya grabbed it alright and passed it to Ken so he could block the door. "Small world, eh"
"Who are you?" asked Aya in a very dangerous tone of voice.
But Sera's attention was driven to Ashley's breast "Well, I see that the President's equipped his daughter with ballistics too"
"How rude! And I don't believe there's any relevance with my figure and my standing. Who are you.
"Ho ho, excuse me, Your Highness. Perhaps the young lady might want to introduce herself first before asking someone his name.
"Her name's Ashley Graham, the President's daughter.
"Is she... You know. ©.
"Don't worry. She's cool"
A dart flew and missed Luis neck by mere millimeters.
"Next one won't miss. I thought you were asked a question two times already. Answer now or you'll die here and now". Omi threaten was scary as hell "He is Luis Sera. He was the prisoner I told Hunnigan about, remember?" said Leon to Aya. The redhead was not completely satisfied with that answer.
"And who are you, people.
"Weiss" said Aya.
"That's all you need to know" stated Omi.
"Nice friends you got. You know if they... Ehh, nevermind. There's supposed to be some obvious symptom before you turn into one of them anyway"
In the meanwhile, Youji and Ken had barricaded the whole damn place.
"Quit the chat already, gentlemen!" said Youji "They are coming for us"
"Ashley, Sakura, upstairs!" Both girls did as they were told. Omi and Ken followed them up as they had the largest range weapons, the other four remained down. "Okay, its game time" said Sera.
Despite the blocked windows, the mad people managed to break into only to get shoot by either Leon's Riot gun - if they dared enter by the window he was watching -, Sera's Red9 or Youji's Blacktail - if they entered by the other one.
"/They are too many!/" said Youji when he noticed the main door had been torn apart and Aya was fighting back only with his sword.
With this many foes around close range combat was unavoidable. A silver string flew through the place and a few people got their necks broken -or worse - by a terrible pull on it. Youji fought alongside Aya keeping most enemies from entering.
They synchronized perfectly. Whether a head was severed or a body flew by the air only to get the skull smashed hard against the floor, hardly anything that came close to them survived. Whenever they cleared a circle around themselves, Youji pulled out the Blacktail again and shot like a possessed. Reloading was the problem, but Aya covered him completely. Still with that many bodies being slashed through, the wire lost edge so there was no other option but to severe it and drag a brand new shiny piece of it. At that pace, he will run out of it and replace the cartridge in the watch was not something he could do fast enough.
Outside there were explosions. Most likely, Omi had run out of bolts and darts, and was using the grenades.
"Abyssinian!" Omi's voice called him through the intercom "/We can't hold them back any longer.
"/They'll break in!/" screamed Ken.
"AYA!" Youji turned around just in time to watch his leader shake off an enemy who had grabbed him from behind. "I'm almost out of ammo!" he said, relief replaced by adrenaline rush.
"Upstairs!" Said Luis. Nor Youji or Aya wasted time following him. Leon also went up covering them with the Riot gun shoots.
Omi couldn't fight anymore. He was almost out of grenades too. The only thing he did was to make room for the others; he climbed to the wooden logs supporting the ceiling and stood there, felling kind like Leon before the man passed out.
Beneath him Ken and Luis managed to send a shelf down the stairs and it took off some people. Youji had found an alcohol bottle. The idea of setting up a Molotov bomb fled him as he realized they all were in a wooden house. Instead he had a much more creative idea. He took out his lighting and took a drink of the bottle. He turned towards the men who were trying to break in by the nearest window, placed the lightning before his face and spit all the alcohol on the men's face. The huge flame that resuted burned the damn villager and sent him screaming to the floor some feet below. The blond then was able to push down the ladder they were using.
It was madness, real madness. Leon and Luis took care of the stairs as most of their enemies came up that way, Youji protected one window, and Aya and Ken the other. It looked like the end for all of them, but suddenly.
"Vámonos..." the people stopped they attack as suddenly as it had started.
It was dawn.