A/N: Ermm… Uuuuuh… Well, I actually started writing this chapter awhile ago (like soon after chapter 5 was done) but my written draft got trashed somehow and the typed portion was on my old computer which has been reformatted and sold to one of our neighbors. I finally got to writing again after my frustration wore off so here it is: Mind Games, chapter 6.
Chapter: SIX
"And who the hell are you?" asked Alexander, irritably.
The man ignored Alexander and continued speaking,
"My name is William Miller," he began, then looked at Leon, "I believe we have met before,"
"The old man that smacked me this morning…"
"Yes," replied the old man named William Miller, "As you are certainly aware, there is a…disturbance…here, in this town and surrounding areas. I, and several others, had been affected by the virus or parasite that's causing this."
Alexander clapped, "Wow, thank you so much for that wonderful explanation! Because, without you, we never would have figured out that something was wrong. We may have been fighting for our lives against hordes of psychotic freaks, but of course that's nothing out of—"
Leon stopped Alexander before he could finish, 'Wait, you say this is being caused by a virus or parasite? How do you know?"
"What else could it be?" replied Miller, "what, other than a virus or parasite of some sort, would cause people to behave like this? Almost overnight, countless people become ruthless murderers, leaving Pineridge as a bloody mess? That's no coincidence."
Ashley spoke up, "A bloody mess? What do you mean? Everything was fine when I arrived here up until those two goons attacked me."
"Well, that's what's curious about all this. The exterior of the town, the sections bordering the forest, know almost nothing about any of this. They just go on leading normal lives, completely blind to the horrific events occurring in the interior. Although," he paused for a second, "I think that is beginning to change. Already, the Victims of this epidemic are beginning to appear in the outskirts of the town."
William Miller proceeded to tell the three about the horrifying events taking place in the center of Pineridge. According to Miller, the police were of no use since most of them were Victims themselves. It wasn't uncommon to see bloody, mangled corpses lying in the middle of the street. Shootings, beatings and worse, unspeakable acts were happening every day. Houses were sprayed with blood, internal organs and other forms of gore littered the sidewalks and streets. It wasn't uncommon for an Unaffected to wake up and find bloodied corpses thrown through their windows in the night. The few Unaffected that were left were starting to starve. There food was running out and they were too terrified to leave there homes. The ones that didn't die of starvation were eventually overtaken by the sickness, or whatever it was, and joined in the chaos.
Miller had managed to escape only because of secret pathways passed down to him from his father. Some of Miller's ancestors had been founders of the town and passed down the locations of these passages from generation to generation. There purpose, however, remained unknown to the current generation of the Miller family.
"Once again," started Miller, "the exterior seems to know absolutely nothing about this. It makes no sense whatsoever."
"It sure doesn't sound like any of Umbrella's experiments," commented Leon, "There's no way that the Las Plagas could have spread all this way. Unless… Oh no…"
"What?" asked Ashley and Miller at the same time.
"She must have taken it straight to him…"
Alexander spoke for the first time in a while, "Who must have taken what straight to whom?"
"Umm, never mind," Leon said quickly. Just then, Herald, their "pappy," came with Leon, Ashley and Alexander's food.
"There you go pappyflaps! Remember, it's an old coal miner saying that if your flapjacks get cold, your pappy will die! So I'd eat them quickly if I were you…"
Alexander turned red in the face.
"What. The fuck. Is up with these people?"
No one said anything so the three ate their flapjacks "before they got cold so their pappies didn't die."
They finished their meals and were about to say goodbye to mIller and get on their way when the old man stopped them.
"You can't continue on your own. They will find you, guaranteed. If you come with me, I can lead you to a safe house. From there, we can discuss this further and take action against these Victims."
"Now, hold on a second," began Alexander, "You expect us to just follow you on some escapade through the woods to some supposed 'safe house' just because you told us information that could very well be total bullshit? I don't think so. Leon, Ashley; how do we know we can trust this guy? For all we know, he could be a Victim himself, leading us to our deaths."
Miller stared at Alexander for a few seconds and then spoke,
"Mister Brown, have you paid no attention to the Victims' behavior? They don't operate in that way. I do not think they are intelligent enough to carry out a plan such as the one you are accusing me of. They attack on impulse, out of nowhere. If I were a Victim, at least one of the four of us would be lying dead right now."
Alexander had nothing more to say so Leon stepped in.
"We don't really have much of a choice. This guy is the only ally we have in this. I think we should take our chances. Besides, I think we've proven that we can take these Victims on."
Ashley agreed with Leon, so Alexander, clearly displeased, had decided to go along with it.
"Good night, pappyflaps! Don't let the evil Geeeflies bite!" was Herald's farewell to the four of them. Alexander was tempted to replay with a stinging "fuck you" but decided that he'd rather not risk starting up a conversation with the freak.
Miller led the three through the forest for what seemed to be about 5 hours. At least that's what it seemed like to Alexander. They lost the trail some time ago and Alexander started to wonder if the old man even had a clue where they were going at all.
After what seemed like an eternity to Alexander, Miller finally stopped them in front of a very large, but old looking mapou tree. Miller walked up to the tree and drew a circular item from his pocket. He stuck the item in the trunk of the tree and turned to face Leon, Ashley and Alexander.
"It's not far now. Just a few more minutes."
Alexander stiffened.
"Damn it, you mean we're still not done? We've been fucking walking our asses off for like an hour and a half. This had better be worthwhile."
Miller just turned around and continued on.
Figures, Alexander said to himself, he ignores me as usual.
After about fifteen more minutes of walking, a structure came into view. It was an old decrepit looking church. The place looked like it was literally falling apart. Paint was chipped off in many places, the wood looked rotted in some areas, and the place looked like it had been built in the 1940's.
Who the hell puts a church in the middle of the woods?
"This is it," stated Miller, "Hountfort Church. Don't worry; it's not what it appears to be on the outside. Follow me."
William Miller led them to the entrance of the church. Miller opened the doors and led them in. He was about to speak when,
BAM!
Alexander felt himself smack hard against the church wall. Before he could recover, a large man had him in a tight headlock. He struggled and kicked but could not break free of the man's grip. He managed to get a look at Leon and Ashley. To his dismay, they were both in similar positions.
Alexander tried once more to break free but failed.
"What the hell is going on!" Alexander screamed, and then addressed his captor, "get the fuck off of me you bastard! See, Leon, I KNEW this was a trap!"
William Miller, however, looked less than pleased.
"Andrew, Dominic, Larry! At ease!"
The three men immediately released their captives and stepped back.
Leon spoke, "William, what was that all about! Are these men with you?"
Miller ignored Leon, however, and turned to face the men named Andrew, Dominic, and Larry.
"What was the meaning of that?"
"Well, uuh," one of the men began to say, "I thought our orders were to attack any outsiders that come within our borders in case they might be…you know."
Miller reddened, "They were with me! Did they LOOK like they were assaulting me?"
"Well, no sir. We just thought—"
"I KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT!"
Alexander was shocked. William Miller had to at least seventy0five years old by the way he looked, yet he was yelling with all the volume and force of an army general. Alexander had to fight the urge to salute. His respect for the old man grew a small bit in that moment.
Miller continued, "I know you were trying to follow orders. But I'm asking you to use a bit of common sense! I didn't have them restrained and they weren't trying to kill me. Common sense tells you that they're not a threat. The three of you are lucky that I don't give you the cane right here and now."
Whatever the "cane" was, Alexander could tell it wasn't a happy bundle of joy by the way the three men got all fidgety and nervous when Miller mentioned it. There was no question; Miller was the boss here.
"Now," resumed Miller, "instead of trying to kill our guests, why don't you introduce yourselves in a proper manner?"
With that, Alexander's captive stepped forward. He had a medium build. Not too buff, not too skinny; pretty similar to Alexander. He looked like real joker to Alexander. He always seemed to have a smirk on his face.
"My name is Andrew DeSalvo. I'm the weapons expert here at this puny little outpost."
He held out his hand for Alexander, Ashley, and Leon to shake. Then the three of them introduced themselves.
The next man to step forward was Ashley's captor. In Alexander's opinion, the man looked way too huge to be a techie. The guy looked like he lifted heavy weights everyday and then boxed in his spare time. Needless to say, he wasn't anyone Alexander wanted to provoke, although his face and expression didn't look very menacing.
"I'm Dominic Chance. I run the tech department here. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
Finally, Leon's captor stepped forward. He had a similar appearance to the first guy, if not a little thinner. This guy, Alexander thought, really needed a shave. His beard went down about 4 inches and didn't really look like it had any form. It was just…there.
"Hey. Name's Larry Kline. I work the radio and communications section of this place. Pretty pointless job since no one knows we exist and I can never get a damn signal out here. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"There," said William, "now isn't that better? Now, how about you show our guests around? Not too long, just a brief overview of the outpost."
The three men agreed and led Leon, Ashley, and Alexander through the large double doors. The first think Alexander noticed was that there was a huge gaping circular hole in the middle of the church floor. In the hole was a spiral stairway leading down into what looked like some kind of underground cavern. The men led them through this hole.
They were given a brief rundown of the weapons that were being held at the outpost and then Dominic showed them the tech room and went into some speech about RAM and processors and hard drives which nearly put Alexander to sleep. He knew all of these facts already. He had taken every computer course his old schools had to offer and then some. Larry showed them the Communications center. It was really nothing more than a small corner of the cavern wall with a cart full of radios, walkie-talkies and some things Alexander had never even heard of. Larry reached into a box on one of the shelves and pulled out three devices that looked like communicators that Alexander had seen in movies before.
"Those are Comm Screens," Leon commented, "latest models, by the looks of it. How did you get access to these?"
"I don't know," replied Larry, "Miller supplies us with all of our equipment. We have no idea where he gets it and if we asked, I doubt he'd give us a straight answer. Anyway, these are yours."
He handed a Comm Screen to the three of them. He started to explain how to use them but Leon interrupted and said that he knew and he could teach Alexander and Ashley.
Larry spoke, "Miller wants to speak with you three. He's waiting for you at the top of the stairs."
Leon nodded in acknowledgement and he, Ashley, and Alexander ascended the spiral staircase up to the actual…church…part of the church. There was Miller, leaning on his cane, waiting.
"Well," he began, "I hoped you enjoyed your tour of the outpost of the last and only S.T.A.R.S. regiment in the world."
Leon nearly choked on his own breath.
"S.T.A.R.S.? I thought they disbanded after the Raccoon City incident!"
"They did," explained Miller, "We're not exactly official. Everyone here, including myself, are old S.T.A.R.S. members that had nothing going for them after the force disbanded. After we first heard news of the Victims, we decided to set up here. So far it's mostly proven to be effective. The Victims have yet to find us here."
"If you say that you've been holding up here," asked Leon, "then what were you doing in Pineridge when you attacked me?"
"Studying," Miller replied, "It would be impossible to defeat the Victims without first knowing how they operate and what mental or physical effects whatever it is that's controlling them may have on them. One thing is clear, however; they're no zombies. Or Ganados either, for that matter. They are far stronger and far more intelligent than either of those two groups. Even more so than humans, I'm afraid."
"Oh, great," started Alexander, "so these things are stronger than us, smarter than, and there are more of them than us. Fucking wonderful."
"Indeed. Anyway, it would be best if you three got some sleep. We have much to cover tomorrow."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," said Leon.
William Miller showed the three their sleeping area, which was really just another chunk cut out of the rock. There were sleeping bags lined out for them, however, and that made it a bit more bearable.
After quite some time of lying awake and mulling thoughts over in his mind, Alexander was finally able to drift off into sleep, less than thrilled about what lay in wait for him in the morning.
A/N: I promise that what happened with this chapter won't happen with chapter 7.