Everyone was quiet. I guess they didn't know what to say to something as horrible as that. Breaking the silence, a small sniffle came from Ashley. Was she crying? If she was, I couldn't blame her. My eyes had begun to water as well, but tried my best to hold back my tears. I had cried enough that day, I didn't want to seem like any more of a wimp than I already was.
Suddenly, I felt someone's body wrap its self around mine: it was Leon. "It's okay…" he whispered while softly caressing the back of my head.
That pretty much did it. I was bawling into his chest, and most likely getting tear stains all over his shirt.
"How could they have been so defenseless…?" I sobbed. Leon didn't answer; he just made soothing noises, and kept comforting me.
Then, I felt Ashley join the hug too, as she wrapped her arms around the two of us. We stayed like that for a while.
…
"You found this key where exactly…?" I asked Ashley. We were standing in front of a blue door that was shut securely. Leon guessed that it was probably a prison, and who was I to argue with him? If it was a prison, though, it was rather small. It probably only held a few people.
"I already told you, in that room back there. It was hanging on some painting."
"That's a little odd." Leon stated and the blonde shrugged her shoulders. "You girls wait here."
"Again?" I complained.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" I knew better than to argue with him. His intuitions about things like that were usually right.
He put the key in the hole and the door quickly rose up, startling all three of us. Then, Leon began slowly descending down the stairs. To get a better view of the area, Ashley and I ran over to the windows/holes and peered over the side. The area was small, and there was a cage on the right wall. Looking further in, I saw what looked like a big man with-
"Are those claws?" Ashley gasped.
"Y-yeah… I think so…"
Leon slowly approached the bars of the cage holding the clawed man, when he turned to us and held a finger to his lips as a warning: do not make a sound. Ashley and I nodded in fear as he continued to timidly walk towards the cage door.
Suddenly the man burst out of his chains with a grunt, and I had to quickly cover my mouth to stifle a scream. As the prisoner walked slowly towards our rescuer, I noticed two things. One: There was this freakishly large parasite on its back, and two: it looked as though he was sniffing the air. He kept laughing manically, walking slowly across the room, and I couldn't help but wonder: Why doesn't he just kill him? I leaned in through the window once again and gasped when I got a good look at his face; his eyes were sewn shut. I whispered my discovery to the blonde beside me and her eyes grew wide with excitement.
"Maybe we can help him!" Ashley whispered.
"How?"
"Well did you see how Leon shot that thing on its back when he was turned away?"
I nodded.
"Well maybe we can distract him long enough for Leon to shoot him again."
My face matched hers and I said "Ashley, you are a genius!"
Before she had time to say anything I was already shouting out the window. "HEY JACKASS!"
The thing turned in my direction, and Leon looked at me with shock and confusion written all over his face.
"Not you, that ugly thing!"
I don't know if it understood English, or was just looking for something to attack, but it automatically started running for the stairs. Leon took aim and fired about a hundred TMP bullets into the parasite, and with a grunt, the thing fell to the floor.
When Leon returned, you could tell he didn't know whether to be proud, angry, or annoyed. Finally, he just laughed.
"That was a stupid thing you did there."
"It worked didn't it?"
Before he had time to answer, there was a shout coming from behind us. We quickly pulled out our guns and began shooting the three men who emerged from the hallway. One of them turned around and began running the other way.
"What's his deal?" I asked rhetorically and then followed him.
As soon as I rounded the corner, I saw the two horses Ashley mentioned, although they weren't 'breathing fire'. There were three more men: two of them stood behind each horse head with a crossbow, and the other stood in the middle throwing—
"Look out!" Leon quickly grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the way. I have to admit, it did hurt a little. But not as much as it would have if he didn't; the man was throwing dynamite, and it exploded right where I was standing.
"Jesus Christ…" I said as Leon let go of me.
"You need to be more careful." He said sternly.
"O-okay…"
When we were all calmed down, Ashley looked at the stone horses and huffed.
"I swear there was fire here before!" She insisted.
"Yeah… There was a lever back there; I guess it turned it off."
"Well… guess we need to go now, huh?"
We walked towards the big doors at the end of the hallway, and as soon as we were through them, the only thing that went through my mind was 'Oh shit…'
"Matelo!" There was a group of about eight or ten zealots standing in the middle of an enormous room. There were four fountains, one in each quadrant, and a red carpet running all throughout the room. Towards the back, there were balconies on opposite walls, and the both held a freaky dude with a crossbow. There were also stairways towards the back of the room, leading towards some place we couldn't see from our position, and there were about ten more cloaked men heading straight towards us, while others were coming at us from our sides.
"Leon…" The panic in my voice was clear as I began slowly walking backwards, closer to him. Ashley did the same. Our puny handguns were no match for all these guys.
"You girls stand back." He said as he pulled out a Rocket Launcher…. Wait WHAT?!
There was an explosion, and about three fourths of the people in the room were gone now.
"I… wha… WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!" My voice nearly echoed in the nearly empty room.
The man almost attempted a smirked as he replaced the RPG with his shotgun. "Back in that shack when you asked for that Blacktail thing. You weren't even paying attention. I was actually surprised you jumped up for that and not the Rocket Launcher." He said as he was shot-gunning away.
Okay, I was officially confused now.
