Got Smoke?

The President's Daughter

By the time I reached the church, it was night time. I was about to make contact with Hunnigan when I heard the sound of glass breaking. I immediately went to the back of the church, where I saw Leon and Ashley.

"Leon!" I called out, and he smiled upon seeing me.

"You're alright! I couldn't contact you and Hunnigan's worried," Leon answered, getting back up on his feet.

"I'm fine. There was no reception earlier. I see you've extricated the subject," I said, nodding towards Ashley.

"Who are you?" Ashley asked in a rather angry, or jealous voice.

"Amara. We're both here to take you home."

Before Ashley could say something else, we heard shouts in Spanish coming from inside the church. Leon grabbed Ashley's arm and we hurried out of the church area. Leon said that Hunnigan had sent a chopper our way at the extraction point. We ran past them and found ourselves on a bridge with Ganados closing in on us from both sides. Hunnigan then called Leon to say that she couldn't make contact with our pilot. She was relieved for a moment when she heard that I was alright. But now that we had no pilot and we were basically sandwiched, we needed to get out of the situation at hand first and fast. We retreated into a two-storey cabin and Leon immediately tried to jam the door, but it was stuck.

"Leon! Use this," another voice called out. Leon caught a door jam in his hands and immediately barricaded the door. "Small world, eh?"

"It's you," I said, recognising him as the mysterious Spaniard from earlier.

"Hello again, mi señorita..." he turned to face me, and I could see a twinkle in his eyes.

"Come on," I heard Leon mutter as he forced the door jam in.

"I believe I haven't properly introduced myself to you," he said next, walking towards me and giving a charming smile. He grabbed my hand gently and kissed the back of it. "The name's Luis Sera."

"Amara Rollins," I said, trying hard not to stutter.

"Miss Amara..." he chuckled, letting go of my hand. He stepped closer to me and our faces were just inches away when Ashley interjected.

"Can we just focus on those crazy things that are trying to kill us out there?!"

Luis stepped back, frowning slightly at Ashley. His eyes stared down at her and joked, "Well, I see that the President's equipped his daughter with ballistics too."

"How rude!" Ashley yelled. "And I don't believe there's any relevance with my figure and my standing!"

Luis turned to face Leon and asked, "Is she, you know?"

Having stuck the door jam in, Leon peered out of the window. "Don't worry, she's cool," Leon replied.

"Eh, never mind. There's supposed to be some obvious symptom before you turn anyway."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Leon sighed, "We're infected with the Plagas — the parasite they injected in our bodies."

"Wait, we?" I asked again, but he didn't have time to answer me. The Ganados were right outside the cabin and were now breaking in.

In a firm voice, Leon commanded, "Ashley, upstairs!"

Ashley flinched at Leon's voice, but she quickly nodded and ran upstairs. I followed her as well, positioning myself near the windows. I told her to hide inside the closet just in case. It was clear that she wanted to protest, but the gunshots from below made her scramble to do what I told her to. I shot several rounds all at one go, clearing out the first wave of Ganados. I heard Leon and Luis fighting their own battles downstairs, once in a while checking in on each other and making sure there was enough ammo to go around.