Mechanical Animals: Resident Evil 4

7

Leon turned away from Rose once he was satisfied that she was unharmed. Busying himself with checking his shotgun, he begins up the stone stairs leading up around a bend and turns his head towards Ashley. "Listen, you're the one he wants. If we see him again, you run."

"W-what about you and Rose?" Ashley stammers.

"We'll do our job."

The path smoothed out to dirt again with low branches from the trees bending down to scrape at their faces. Rose pushes them away with her arm, feeling resolute and determined to see this through and further melt the ice that had encased Leon in the past hour. Just because he'd been happy she was alive, didn't mean he had forgiven her. She wondered what it would take for him to open back up and trust her again. There was a large barn or warehouse structure before them. To their relief and astonishment, they saw a blue flame and the merchant was standing there, as if he'd been waiting for them the entire time.

"I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of my life," Ashley sighs. Rose couldn't disagree. She too was anticipating it from all of them.

"Yeah, I think we all will," Rose admitted, her voice heavy with exhaustion. "But there's going to be help for us all when we get home."

"Will you still be my doctor?" Ashley asked, her brown eyes wide with hope. "I don't think anyone else could understand what happened here."

Rose hesitated. She didn't actually know if she could or should stay on Ashley after all this. Would it be more damaging? Or could it help the healing process for them both? "I don't know," she answers honestly. Ashley dropped her gaze in disappointment that made Rose's heart clench with the sorrow of hurting the girls feelings. "I suppose it'll be up to our superiors."

Ashley nodded, and for a second, Rose thought she was going to pull the entitled 'daddy' card. But she didn't, and it earned her a little respect in the agents eyes. There was a sign Leon stopped at that said "no trespassing" in Spanish. The girls watched his silent form and Ashley broke it by whispering so that only Rose could hear. "Do you think that Leon's going to be okay?"

Rose bit back a heavy sigh, trying not to let her doubt show in front of her charge. "He'll be fine," she half lied. "He's strong and resourceful. We just need to keep moving and find a safe place to regroup."

"I could use a nap," Ashley yawned into her hand and they both chuckled as they came to a stop in front of the merchant. They greeted him, but having seen him so short a distance ago, they didn't really need to buy anything.

"It looks like the only way forward is through here," Leon said as he followed the dirt path around the front of the building. Rose looked at it in dismay. It looked like another great ambush spot, and it seemed that was a regular tactic with these things. Get them in an enclosed area and bombard them with more ganado's than they should be able to handle. She was still reeling from the last one...when she'd been unnecessarily cruel. They walked up a staircase tucked in a corner and into an open doorway leading to the second-floor landing of the dark inner space. Like everything else, it was decrepit and musty smelling.

"Be careful," said Rose as they walked beside the rail. It didn't look like it'd hold her if she fell, but the flooring was narrow and littered with rotted wood. Leon didn't get a chance to respond if he was going to. Ashley screamed as the wall suddenly exploded and a huge figure launched themselves at Leon. It only took Rose a moment to realize that Mendez had somehow caught up to them and it was he who had sent Leon falling to the first floor. Their bodies tumbled hard, Mendez's weight alone causing the walls to shudder. Ashley ran to the rail to see what had happened.

"Leon!"

Mendez turned to look up at her as Leon struggled to catch his breath. Rose shot him in the chest, though she'd aimed for his head. His eye, yes just one eye, glowed red with fury as he fixed his gaze on the female agent. She shot him again, as Leon reached for his gun that had fallen out of his hand. "Cease your pointless struggling. Abandon your body to the will of our God."