Mechanical Animals: Resident Evil 4

6

The rain stopped altogether, leaving behind a gentle breeze that felt like a punishment in itself. Thankfully, this path had stepping stones on the ground, and the trek through the mud was temporarily over. When they heard rushed Spanish ahead of them, Rose bit back a biting comment about Leon's poor choice of words moments before. Never say the 'q' word while on a job. Nurses and doctors knew it, restaurant workers knew it, federal freaking agents knew it.

Ashley kept close behind Leon, with Rose coming up to the side of him to form a meat wall between the Ganados and Ashley if they needed to. At first, she didn't see anybody wandering around the various structures. There was a building in front of them with a single door, but nobody was in front of it. "There," Leon whispered, pointing to a woman with a torch slowly walking down a set of stairs to their right.

"There's the other one," Rose said as a man up top came into view. The Ganados slumped around, on the lookout and communicating to each other in a very not-a-zombie way. "Ashley, stay behind Leon." She didn't give either of them a chance to protest as she stealthily made her way around the far side of the structure alone. The air had been stifling beside Leon, and she was effectively giving them both some space and also allowing herself to zero back in on the task at hand. Leon had let a little humor pop back into his personality, though it was strained, and gave her hope that maybe he was quickly getting over his distrust. Fools thinking, she reminded herself. He just wants to keep up a united front in Ashley's presence.

As Rose moved silently, she watched her own back. She could hear the faint whispers of the ganados, their guttural language a warped and disturbing version of traditional Spanish. She reached the far side of the structure and steadied herself. Peeking around the corner, she leveled her weapon at the head of the woman and smirked triumphantly when she spotted the hilt of a kitchen knife barely held on by a leather piece wrapped around the woman's waist. She pulled the trigger, and a loud BANG alerted the man up top as his companion fell in a heap. Moving quickly, she hustled up the stairs and took aim at the second man, firing at him just as he was about to blow his torch flames in her direction. He screamed as the bullet pierced his eye, sending a splash of blood outward and he stumbled forward, pressing his hand to his injury. Rose surged forward, lifting her leg, ignoring the twinge of pain it caused, and kicked him in the head. He fell on his back, and Rose quickly fired once more at his head.

She was surprised when he didn't die. Instead, she leaped back as his entire body convulsed and a disgusting, razor-sharp parasite exploded from the remains of his head. "What the fuck is that?" She yelped, avoiding the sharp tentacle as she brought her foot down harshly on the bulbous parasite. It squished wetly, yellow and green puss mixing with blood, staining the boards and the sole of her boots. "Ugh," she groaned, holding her nose as she backed away from the smelly atrocity. Casting a thorough glance around, she walked to the edge of the platform to yell toward Leon and Ashley. "Outside's clear!"

She then turned to go back down the stairs, bending down to yank the knife away from the corpse of the woman and rejoin her companions. Leon gave her a disapproving look as she held the handle out to Ashley, but he didn't undermine her. "Here," Rose says to Ashley, who looks at it like it might bite her. "Just in case Leon and I are both unable to get to you for some reason. Just don't cut yourself." Thankfully, both she and Leon had been pretty conscious of their surroundings and hadn't needed to use the medical supplies they'd brought too often. As far as she knew, her knee had been the only serious injury requiring them. She frowned to herself when she realized that the pain meds were beginning to wear off. She'd need to double-check how many pills she had left.

"Is that a good idea?" Leon murmured when she moved around him once more. She glared back up at him.

"It's practical. There are two of us and thousands of them. We've been lucky so far. I'd like to give us every advantage."