New chapter, folks, new chapter. Okay I'm never saying that again – I sounded like one of those announcer/salesmen people...

Anyway, this story is getting close to the end now, which means some more action, more weird stuff in the plot, and probably more fighting, too. Trust me, it never ends, ha ha...

Now onto the chapter, before I make myself sound any more retarded! Oh, and the title is a sort of a metaphor for one part of this... I was uninspired.

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Chapter Eighteen: Attempted Murder

“Do you think Leon hates us?” Vee asked Travis, looking around the room and then to him.

“I wouldn’t call it that. But he does seem rather upset.”

“Rather,” she replied, with a barely discernible nod. “Travis, I’m sorry that my plans tend to get us in trouble.”

“Don’t worry about it. It could be a whole lot worse,” he said, trying to cheer her up. “Come on, we’d better catch up with the others.”

They exited the pit, Vee murmuring the words to a song, and stepped into the sewers right behind Leon and Chris.

“… Nobody knows you. Trust is a joke…”

“She’s singing again, how unexpected,” Leon said sarcastically, more to himself than anybody else, although loud enough that she heard him.

“Oh, you want me to do something else? How about quote Hamlet?” she retorted coolly. “Player King: ‘But, orderly to end where I begun; our wills and fates do so contrary run that our devices still are overthrown; our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own’.”

He crossed his arms, turning to face her. “Hamlet: ‘O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables – meet it is I set it down, that one can smile and smile and be a villain. At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark’.”

“You’re familiar with Hamlet? Never knew that.”

“That isn’t surprising,” he muttered. “It doesn’t seem that you would care, since you don’t appear to care about much of anything else.”

“Did you just imply that I’m insensitive to you?”

“I don’t have to imply anything,” he said in a subdued manner.

“You’re starting to remind me more and more of the mother from The Others, except you haven’t tried to smother us with a pillow yet,” Vee said under her breath.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he snapped.

“We said we were sorry. What more do you want?!”

“How about a couple of good kids that actually do what they’re told and don’t go around doing things behind my back!”

“The only reason we did anything behind your back is because we were worried you would try to get rid of us!”

“Yeah, sure. And I suppose it’s a coincidence that you got mixed up with Wesker?”

“That tears it!” Vee shouted, making a move to go after him, but Chris managed to restrain her before she could get far. “Let me go!”

“Not until you calm down.”

Leon, not being concerned in the slightest by the scene, turned to walk away.

“Alright, alright, I’ll meditate or something. Just let go of me,” she said calmly.

As soon as Chris let her go, she grabbed a rock that was nearby and chucked it, managing to nail Leon in the back of the head.

He paused, slowly turning back to glare at her and then continued walking.

“And it really makes me wonder if I ever gave a fuck about you!” she half sang, half screamed at him.

“Vee!” Chris said, putting his hands on her shoulders and trying to get her to stand still. “What you just did was seriously uncalled for.”

“I realize that, but I don’t know what to do anymore! I just don’t know what to do.”

“Vee, Vee, listen. I need you to pull yourself together. Everything will be okay in time, I promise. But right now we have to pay special attention to Claire, and find Ashley.”

“Right. Sorry,” she replied composedly.

He smiled, ruffling her hair. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Don’t ever do that again,” she said with slight discontent, trying to fix her now disheveled hair.

They continued on along the path, eventually finding the others standing around, waiting for them. “Rebecca, did you get a chance to look at Claire’s wound?” Chris asked, as they approached.

“Yes. I can treat it easily, but first I’m going to have to remove the shrapnel. After that, she’ll be as good as new.”

“We’re going to go look around,” Barry called back to them, as he, Luis and Jill started to follow Leon further down the path.

“Why don’t you two go with them, just in case they need help?” Vee suggested, “It might be best if I keep away from Leon for a while, so I’ll stay here and help Rebecca.”

“Alright,” Chris replied, “Take good care of Claire for me.”

The two girls headed into the room where the elevator is, and the other two began to head down the corridor. Travis was a little nervous. He knew that the Verdugo would probably show up soon, unless the plot had changed again. And just as he was beginning to wonder whether or not that had happened…

“What is that?”

Travis looked ahead into the dim light. Something long and dark colored with a blade-like appendage was hanging from the ceiling, swinging back and forth. “We have to catch up with the others, fast,” he whispered. “Walk as quietly as you can, and don’t say anything.” He wasn’t sure exactly what Verdugo was doing, but he hoped it wouldn’t notice them until they made it to the room at the end of the corridor.

They practically tiptoed through the hall, trying to keep the sound of water sloshing around to a minimum, while the only other sound was that of the Verdugo nearby, trilling gutturally.

They slipped carefully past the tail and were making their way towards the door, relieved that nothing had happened. When they opened the door, though, the trilling stopped and was replaced by a low growl.

“Quick, get inside!”

They got in the room as fast as they could, slamming the door behind them, just before Leon flipped the lever for the power. The four looked at them weird.

“What’s wrong?” Jill asked.

“There’s a monster out there,” Chris explained, right before the Verdugo dropped down from the ceiling. “Oh, great.”

Back in the elevator room…

Rebecca had finished the general preparations for the small surgery she was about to do. She had removed the tourniquet, and exposed the injured area of Claire’s shoulder before having her lay down on the floor. “Now, Claire,” she said to the lethargic woman, “I’m going to give you a mild anesthetic before I do this. You might feel some pressure during the procedure, but that’s probably it.”

“Don’t be too nervous,” Vee said, “I’ve had some stuff like this done before and there’s nothing to be worried about. For that matter, I’ll hold your hand – it’ll make you feel a little better.” Claire just nodded.

Rebecca pulled out a needle, seeing Vee shudder. “Are you okay?”

“I hate needles,” she replied, looking off to the other side of the room while Rebecca gave Claire the shot. “At least I’m not in your position, Claire. I’d be freaking out if Rebecca came at me with a needle… Not because I don’t trust her, just because of the needle,” she added, noticing the look she got from the medic.

“I’m going to start now, okay? Try not to fall asleep.”

Claire nodded slightly.

“Talk to her, keep her alert.”

Vee gave her a thumbs up with her free hand. “Um, I know, I’ll tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a… woodcutter. He was once a noble, but due to some extenuating circumstances, he became a woodcutter… God, this is a bad story…”

“What happened?” Claire whispered, and Vee continued the story awkwardly.

“Well, uh, one day when he was still a noble, he found these two kids. They were the children of three different people that worked together in the… fields… making, I mean, planting different things. The three people disappeared into the forest one day, though, and no one could find them. So this noble, being the kind of guy he was, decided to look after them. Still with me?”

Claire nodded.

“Okay. Err… Some time passed, and the noble became a woodcutter. One day he had to travel far away to do a job for the king – who was later beheaded,” she included with a small laugh, “The two kids wanted to help the woodcutter, so they did some things they probably shouldn’t have to get to the distant kingdom where he was. When they got there, a lot of things happened and the events left him distrustful of their intentions. They tried to set things right, but nothing they did worked – he just accused them of being liars. And then when this one guy, who went around slaying dragons or something, gave them advice, things got worse.”

“All done,” Rebecca said suddenly, “All I have to do now is bandage your shoulder.”

“Man, even the brothers Grimm wouldn’t touch this story…” Vee said to herself.

“Is there a happy ending?” Claire asked quietly.

Vee shook her head. “I don’t know. I can’t think of one.”

“I think…” she started softly, “… That the two kids found a way to show him they meant well.”

“How did they do that?” Vee asked, not thinking much of the statement.

“They thought about it, and found a way.”

Back in the power room…

The group had been fighting with Verdugo for what felt like hours, but the monster was so heavily armored they were having a hard time doing any damage. Until Luis noticed the liquid nitrogen tank in the corner of the room. “Leon, the monster is vulnerable against low temperatures!” he pointed out the tank.

Leon didn’t waste any time prying the tank from the wall and throwing it in the direction of Verdugo, who shrieked when it started to freeze, and struggled to move.

It only took a few more shots before the insect-like creature disintegrated into a fine dust on the floor. They unlocked the door, and headed back towards the elevator room.

Claire was sitting in the chair at the desk when they entered, while Rebecca and Vee checked her vital signs.

“I got a pulse of sixty-nine and twelve respirations per minute,” Vee said to Rebecca who was checking blood pressure.

“Your pressure is a little low from the blood loss,” she said to Claire, taking the blood pressure cuff off. “It should go back up to normal in a little while, but in the meantime, I’d suggest you take it easy.”

“How do you feel?” Chris asked, coming to Claire’s side.

“A lot better,” she said a little sleepily.

“Are you okay to do some more walking?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“Travis and I can keep an eye on her,” Vee volunteered. She was perfectly aware that Travis wasn’t crazy about the woman, but at least they wouldn’t be in Leon’s way.

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s get going.”

They took the elevator to the room where you normally find the merchant – unsurprisingly, he wasn’t there for some reason – and continued into the first of the two mines. The others descended the ladder at the end of the track they had been following, while Travis and Vee stayed behind with Claire, standing just out of sight of the villagers working below. Claire seated herself on the ground a couple yards from where they stood, leaning against the wall and resting her eyes.

Vee heaved a sigh, peering around the wall to see how the fight with the miners was coming. “We’ll be lucky if Leon doesn’t just fork us over to Alfred pretty soon…”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Travis reassured, but she just shook her head.

“He is extremely ticked off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone that bothered before. I really shouldn’t have hit him with the rock, either,” she added a little regretfully.

“Why did you throw a rock at him, anyway?”

“I really wasn’t thinking at the time. In hindsight, that was better than what I would have done if Chris hadn’t stopped me…”

“Should I even ask?”

“Eh… Let’s just say that I probably would have gone to jail for a long time,” she said, peering around the edge of the wall again when she heard a chainsaw start up. “What should we do about this mess?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think Leon’s going to let this go anytime soon.”

“Well…” she trailed off, looking back at Claire momentarily. “You know, while Rebecca was patching Claire up, I told her a fairy tale based on what’s happened to us – I wasn’t very inspired,” she explicated, seeing the weird look he gave her, then going on to give him the gist of the story.

“Wait, if a noble is equivalent to a cop, why is a woodcutter equivalent to a government agent?”

“Like I said, I wasn’t inspired. Anyway, at the end, she told me she thought that the two kids came up with a way to prove to the ‘woodcutter’ that they didn’t mean to cause so much trouble. She didn’t give me any ideas, though.”

They both looked in her direction. “Do you think she knew exactly what the story was about?” Travis asked and Vee shrugged.

There was an explosion nearby, and Chris called up to them. “We cleared the path! Come on!”

They retrieved Claire and helped her down the ladder, following the others into the next area. The two took special care to find a spot near the door they had come in through where the Dos Gigantes might not notice them if they stood against the wall with Claire in between them. It wasn’t long after that, the two monsters entered the room and the fight began. Travis watched with some concern as Jill almost got stomped on.

“Do you think they’ll be alright?”

Vee looked at the scene before them. “Yeah. They can protect themselves. Right, Claire?”

Claire replied with a drowsy murmur.

“Uh-oh, here comes one right now. Stand still,” Vee said, and they ceased moving as the one Gigante stopped, staring directly at them stupidly and then stomping off. She waited until it had made its way to the other side of the room and then took on a disturbed tone. “I’m still wondering who’s idea it was to dress those two things like that.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the castle…

“I hate my job,” Nicholai grumbled to himself. “It shouldn’t be this hard to detain a couple of kids.”

HUNK didn’t reply. He was staring off into space contemplatively.

Nicholai’s communicator beeped. It was Alfred.

“What is taking so long?” he questioned authoritatively, and the Russian shifted nervously.

“We are having some trouble apprehending the vermin in question.”

“You had better not fail this mission,” Alfred said, taking on a surprisingly threatening tone. “Or else you can take their places!”

He tried not to be too concerned by that statement as he pocketed the communicator. “We’re going to have to think of something drastic.”

Back where we left off…

The group had managed to make their way through the Novistadors’ cave and the castle ruins without much ado, and had just entered the second mine. Vee quickly got bored walking along the path into the mine, and had started singing again, quietly.

“Has our conscience shown? Has the sweet breeze blown?” she nudged Travis with her elbow and pointed to Leon. “Has all kindness gone? Hope still lingers on.”

They came out into the mine, where there were a few villagers hanging around here and there, casually waiting for them to come closer.

“We’re going to go first, and as we clear the area, you follow,” Chris told the two, after thoroughly examining the site.

They nodded, watching them descend into the dirty, dusty hellhole and set off bear traps as they headed for the stone room where Dr. Salvador and his friend were waiting for them. Once they entered, and the skirmish began, Travis and Vee carefully led Claire down the stairs. She was beginning to wake up a little more, but she was still on the languid side.

Vee was now humming another tune, and apparently not paying much attention to where she was going. “The sand castle values are all swept away in the tidal destruction of moral melee – DAMN!”

Travis nearly fell down when all of Claire’s weight suddenly shifted to his shoulder while Vee was speaking a mile a minute. He regained his balance, Claire groggily fidgeting a bit as she came further out of her injury-induced half-consciousness.

Vee had stepped into a trap that hadn’t been triggered and was hiding under the cover of the sand.

“OhGodohGod!” she repeated, hopping around on one foot like a lame flamingo.

“Are you okay? Do you need some help?” Travis asked, watching the scene with concern.

Vee stopped acting like a psychotic idiot, and took a few deep breaths. “Okay. I’ll just pry it off, and I’ll see if there’s any damage.”

She interlaced her fingers with the teeth of the trap and pried it open, pulling her foot out before it snapped shut again.

“It looks alright,” she said calmly, inspecting her ankle, “But it hurts like crazy!”

“Why don’t you stay here with Claire and give your ankle a minute to rest, while I go into that little basement room over there and loot the scepter?” Travis asked.

“Gladly,” Vee said, taking Claire.

Travis disappeared into the room below, and Vee stared at the ceiling for a moment. Until she heard a scary voice saying something in Spanish…

Looking up, she saw Dr. Salvador following the twisty path, coming right for them. He started up the chainsaw, and Vee quickly drug Claire back up the stairs, trying to get away from him. “Travis, we need some help!”

Dr. Salvador slowly made his way up the stairs, saying something indistinct.

“Go away! The guy you want is somewhere on the other side of the room!” she squeaked, trying to back further away and meeting the wall.

Just as Dr. Salvador raised the chainsaw, Travis came up behind him, forcing open the trap Vee had stepped in only moments before and allowing it to close on the freak’s head. Dr. S screamed, running around like a headless chicken, until he ran into the wall, fell down… and his chainsaw accidentally disemboweled him.

“Thanks,” Vee gasped, glancing at the body for a split second before looking away. “You’ve never had better timing.”

“Happy to help,” he replied, “Let’s go. The others are probably about done.”

“Is everything okay?” Rebecca called to them from one of the stone room’s windows.

“Yeah,” Travis shouted back, “Everything’s fine.”

Once the group had finished looking around, they continued on through the spike-ceiling room, and into the last half of the mine where the rail cars waited.

Travis and Vee both knew what lie ahead at the end of the track, and they weren’t sure what was going to happen, but they didn’t want to take any chances.

“What do we do? It’s not safe to take the rail cars,” Travis whispered to Vee, who thought for a moment.

“Wait until we get to the second boarding platform. Then tell them some story about why we should walk the rest of the way.”

“Why me?”

“Hey, I’m the one who causes the most trouble. Do you think they’d listen to me more than you?”

“Okay, okay, but what do I say?”

“I dunno. Tell them that given all the traps in this place, it’s probably not safe to rely on the tracks.”

“All aboard!” Chris shouted, hopping into a rail car.

“I hope you’re right,” Travis said to Vee as they got into the back.

The ride to the second platform was bumpy and full of danger seeing as they kept picking up extra “passengers” along the way, some with chainsaws. When they had finally cleared out the area, Travis decided it was time to say something.

“We, uh, think we should walk the rest of the way. Since there are so many death traps in this place, someone most likely tampered with the tracks,” he proclaimed, getting a lot of weird looks.

Chris, who seemed to be in charge being as Leon hadn’t said a word in a long time, pondered over the proposal, and then looked to Leon who just stared at him with the same unpleasant expression he’d been wearing for a while.

“I concur,” Claire uttered unfocusedly, and that seemed to make up Chris’ mind.

“That is a good point. Well, we’d better get a move on then. We might be walking a while.”

They continued along the tracks on foot, meeting a lot of resistance along the way until they finally reached the gap where the tracks ended. But this time, instead of the tracks falling short with no way across, there was a sort of steel plank about a foot wide, positioned from the end of the tracks to the ledge across the chasm.

Vee peered over the edge of the tracks and then looked to the plank. “There is no way in hell I am walking across that thing.”

“Oh yes, you are! I climbed down a freaking hole with spikes at the bottom. I’ll get Chris to carry you across if I have to.”

“What?” Chris asked a little confused.

“Fine, but if I fall to my death, I’m coming back and haunting you.” Vee sighed, looking at what had to be the most unsafe temporary bridge ever made.

“I’m willing to take that risk.”

After several long minutes of slowly moving across the gap, and even more near fatal slips, the group had safely got across. Just in time, too, for one of the carts had crashed into the plank, causing both the cart and the steel plank to fall into a dark abyss below.

“I’m mentally killing you.” Vee glared at Travis, who, in turn, started whistling.

Leon took the Stone of Sacrifice from the wall, and continued the revealed path, all the way back outside. There, he placed the stone into the door, revealing something yet again, only in this case, a lift. The group took it down, two at a time.

“Um, Vee. That giant statue is here. What are we going to do?” Travis asked, when the others had already gone.

“Not quite sure. Guess we’ll just see what happens when we get down.”

“Right. We can’t do anything about it, huh.” Travis sighed, shrugging his shoulders.

Once down, the group moved to the main area where the giant statue is, except, it wasn’t there, and in it’s place was—

“It looks like one of those monkeys with the symbols!” Vee burst out laughing. “It’s the perfect thing for Salazar. It fits him well.”

Travis walked over to the “statue” and picked it up, examining it carefully. “This thing...isn’t even a foot tall. It serves no purpose. Here I thought I had low self-esteem. I feel bad for Salazar. At least in the game it was compensating for his shortness. This is just pathetic.” He mumbled, shaking his head in a disapproving manner.

“Come on, let’s go. There’s no need for us to stand around gawking at a stupid figurine.” Leon angrily said, beginning his walk down the long bridge, the S.T.A.R.S. following closely behind.

“I swear, if he doesn’t lighten up soon, I’m going to shove this figurine where the sun doesn’t shine. Let’s go Travis.” Vee said, pacing herself so she would be able to catch up with the group.

“Hm? A serial number? No...it’s some kind of code.” Travis said, still examining the figurine, mostly unaware that the others had left. He peeled off the code and saw that the others were already over half-way across. Panicking, he quickly started sprinting down the bridge.

They crossed yet another bridge leading to a new building. In the new building, Salazar and his “left hand” were waiting for them, Salazar slightly chuckling as well as clapping.

“Nice of you to join us, Mr. Kennedy. I see you’ve brought more bugs for me to squash. No matter.”

“Heh, you again.”

“The sacred rite is about to begin. I cannot let you interfere with the ritual.”

“That’s not a ritual. It’s terrorism.”

“Terrorism, my, what a popular word that is these days. But no matter, I have prepared a special ritual for you” Salazar began to say, lifting his hand up, but Leon saw an opening and threw his combat knife, pinning it to the wall behind him. Seeing his master’s discomfort, the creature took hold of the knife and threw it back towards Leon, who swiftly dodged.

“Mendez, take care of these rats.” Salazar squirmed, holding his hand close to his body, before disappearing into the elevator.

“Wait!” Leon yelled, but a large creature came hurdling down, blocking his way.

“What, you!” Chris said in shock. “But, we defeated you at that barn.”

“Hmph” Mendez only said, glaring at the S.T.A.R.S.

“Leon, Luis, go rescue Ashley. I believe we’re the ones who he’s after. Payback is a bitch after all.” Jill said, taking her beretta out of it’s holster. “We’ve beat him once, we can do it again. So just go.”

“Okay, be careful.” Leon said, dashing for the stairs, Luis following.

“Vee” Travis whispered, pointing to his back. “Leon might need this. I’m going to try and help him. I have this rocket launcher and my handgun. Hopefully, I’ll be of some help. Just, get to a safe area and protect Claire.”

After finding an opening, Travis rushed pass Mendez, who was mostly concentrated on the S.T.A.R.S. members anyway.

“Travis!” Chris exclaimed, but had to shift all his focus onto Mendez, who rushed forward in an attempt to grab him, but Chris gracefully dodged.

“Err, you’re becoming a pain in the ass.” he said, shooting three shots into Mendez’s body. Mendez shrugged this attack off.

Mendez chuckled, as he pulled off his large coat. His body began to morph and transform. After a few seconds, Mendez’s torso looked like that of a giant centipede, having several small appendages coming out of his back.

“This might be difficult.” Rebecca quietly said, moving further back out of the range of the monster.

Leon and Luis made there way to the top with little resistance. They were right at the area where the merchant usually was when Travis had caught up with the two.

“Leon, Luis, wait!”

“What are you doing here?” Leon questioned, his face showing a look of extreme anger and discomfort.

“I came to help, for crying out loud. Couldn’t you be a little more considerate about it?”

“I might be, if I knew that you weren’t just going to get in my way.”

“Ugh, you’re really starting to piss me off, and that’s not easy to do.”

Leon raised an eyebrow at what Travis had said.

“Look, I just want to help. Come on, I’ll prove I can be useful Leon.”

“Heh, fine, but it’s your life. If you get yourself killed, it’s not my fault. And remember, you’ll be on your own in battle.”

“Noted”

After an awkward silence, the three entered the area, only to see an empty altar and a grinning Salazar.

“you are too late, Mr. Kennedy. The ritual is complete. The girl is on her way to an island with my men, but I think it’s time I pay due respect to your stubborn will. Mr. Kennedy, welcome!” Salazar said eerily, before being wrapped up and taken in by the giant plant, along with his other body guard. After a few seconds, the plant transforms into a hideous monster.

“Monsters. After this there will be one less to worry about.”

“I love that line.” Travis said, but got an evil look from Leon. “Okay then, geez.”

Back with the S.T.A.R.S.:

The fight with Mendez was proving to be long, but not extremely difficult. The monster was tough, but he was definitely outnumbered. Between Barry’s colt python, and the handguns the others had, Mendez looked to be on the failing side, that is, until his upper body split from his lower.

“That was too easy” Chris smirked, turning his back to the monster.

“Idiot! He’s not dead yet!” Vee yelled, but it was too late. One of the monster’s appendages had stabbed into Chris’s back.

“Chris!” Jill yelled in concern, firing four rounds at Mendez, but he had jumped and moved to the higher levels where we could move more freely, using the lift bars to swing on.

“Looks like we’re taking this fight to the higher levels of this place. Come on Jill.”

“Right behind you Barry. Rebecca, stay with Chris.”

“I can still fight” Chris said, squinting in pain. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

“Like hell it is. That wound is pretty deep. Just let me take care of it, okay?” Rebecca softly said, taking Chris by his right arm and slowly sitting him down, facing Claire, as she tended to the wound.

“What if they can’t take him alone? He’s faster now and he has cover as an advantage.” Chris pondered aloud.”

“Come now, Chris. It’s Jill and Barry. They’re both S.T.A.R.S. members as well. Have faith.”

Meanwhile:

Jill and Barry were having trouble hitting the moving Mendez. It was dangerous to shoot with all the obstacles that were around. After minutes of shooting at Mendez, he finally came out for an attack, sending his giant appendage crashing in between Jill and Barry, utterly crushing the wall behind them.

“Barry, shoot the one that’s holding him up!” Jill pointed out, firing three shots at the other arm. Barry joined in with his magnum. The monster finally fell to the ground, squirming like a fish out of water. Thinking fast, Jill jumped on the creature, making sure it wouldn’t be jumping back up.

“It’s like surfing” she joked for a moment. “Barry, kill it anytime now.”

With that, Barry sent three magnum rounds into the thing’s head, finally killing it.

“We have to go check on Chris, then get to Leon. He may need help.”

“Right.” Jill concurred, rushing back down the stairs to the others.

Back with Leon:

The battle was becoming hectic. Travis was using all his energy to just stay out of the creatures’ tentacle like vines, while Leon and Luis concentrated on the giant head.

“Aim for the eye” Travis helpfully pointed out, as he narrowly dodged one of the vines. “Okay, note to self: Talking while fighting is a bad idea.”

Reluctantly taking Travis’s advice, the two aimed for the eye, hitting it several times. The giant head flopped back and revealed the heart of the monster, which was Salazar.

“My turn!” Travis happily spoke, taking the rocket launcher off his back. He carefully aimed and pulled the trigger...only nothing happened. “What the?” then the memory of falling off the ladder of the spike pit flooded his mind.

“What are you waiting for?! Shoot it.” Leon angrily said, but the monster’s head had already snapped back into place, protecting Salazar once again.

“Give me like, um, a few minutes. I’ll fix it, I swear!” Travis said, panicking. “Looks like the trigger isn’t connecting or something. God, why couldn’t I have been interested in engineering? I’ll just experiment. Hopefully I won’t blow myself up.”

“I’ll distract the vines.” Luis said, firing at them.

“Guess that leaves the head to me. I already told you you’d be on your own in a fight, guess I lied. We’ll buy some time. Get that thing to working.”

“Sir, yes sir!”

Minutes passed, and near death events occurred until finally Travis jumped up, rather happily.”

“Got it! Let’s try this again, Leon.”

“Better work this time.” He responded, shooting several more bullets into the eye. All the previous events reoccurring.

“Now, let’s try this again. I’m sure you’ll have a few friends where you’re going. Heck, Mendez may already be waiting for you.” Travis laughed, while aiming the rocket launcher. “It’s now or nothing.”

He pulled the trigger. The rocket went flying towards Salazar, but swerved upwards, hitting the ceiling.

“I’m going to kill you.” Leon said, clenching his teeth. His eye was also twitching.

“It wasn’t my fault! I aimed it correctly. It must have been because I was tampering with it.”

The creature that was once Salazar began to make a weird sound, as if it was chuckling.

“Since when do monsters laugh?” Travis asked, a little freaked out.

Unexpectedly, most of the ceiling fell on top of the giant plant monster, crushing Salazar and the head. It slowly began to decay.

“Um...talk about anticlimactic. That has got to be the lamest way to die. At least with a rocket launcher, it makes a bang.” Travis sighed, not very happy with the end result.

“What are you complaining about? It’s dead. Better us than it.” Leon answered.

From behind them, the door was forced open, revealing the rest of the small group.

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Well, wasn't that bizarre and... bizarre? It's starting to get really weird with the plot twists now, actually.

Okay, got to be off – but do be kind enough to leave us a review and tell us what you thought!