Enduring the Evil 2
Disclaimer: This is my second Resident Evil story and the sequel to the previous 'Enduring the Evil' which was requested by a few friends after they said how much they liked it. Of course, I was obviously most likely going to do another one anyway. The story is the Resident Evil plot but due to some changes I have put into it, it is non-canon. All OCs in this story belong to me and my friends, Resident Evil and all of its characters etc belong to Capcom. Story has been updated, all spelling mistakes and errors that I could find have been fixed.
Summary: Seven days have passed since the destruction of the mansion, although there were many survivors, all of them were haunted by the memories of what happened there. STARS survivors Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, Richard Aiken and Rebecca Chambers, along with fellow citizens Alex, Jamie, Bryan, Danny, Connor and Scott, with the help of STARS Alpha Team member Brad Vickers managed to escape the mansion deep in the Arklay Forest minutes before its destruction, although, despite surviving the nightmare, they lost many friends in the process of their escape. In the present, the past haunts them.
Chapter 1 - Never Again
September 29
The sound of a motorcycle engine filled the silent air of the highway as it drove towards the city in the distance, night time, the sky was really dark, but everywhere was lit up thanks to the street lights.
The motorcycle reached the inner parts of Raccoon City and came to a halt, everything was quiet, except the sound of the motorcycle which growled in the silence.
The woman slowly took her helmet off and took in a deep breath before looking around. "Ah, I'm finally here." The woman shut off her motorcycle and got off, placing her helmet on the small vehicle before turning to face the empty street's of the city.
On the other side of the diner, a lone vehicle had stopped, letting its engine fill the air for a moment before the man inside stepped out. "What have we got here?" He said as he turned the vehicle off and closed the door to check out a body just a short distance away.
At the gas station, a man came flying through a window and landed onto the ground with a loud, hard impact, there was blood everywhere on him, but the man groaned, as he slowly got back up, almost as if he wasn't affected by the impact.
The man that had punched him ran for his truck and started it up. "That guy's a maniac! Why'd he bite me?!" Without another word the man drove off, while the other man slowly limped after the truck.
The young man in the police uniform kneeled down next to the body, placing a hand over it to observe the wounds. "Man, what a mess. What could of done this?"
Footsteps filled the air.
The police officer didn't take long to hear them and immediately glanced around only to find several people limping towards him from his vehicle. He turned and saw more and more coming from other directions, they were everywhere. "What, are these things?"
The people were getting closer and closer, the police officer had no choice but to pull out his gun and aim it at them. "Alright, that's far enough, don't move!"
They continued towards him, not listening to his words, like they didn't even hear him.
"Don't move!"
The police officer stepped back but something caught his foot, he looked down to see the body he had just taken a look at had came back and tried to bite his leg.
"NO!" Without hesitation, he lowered his gun and fired at the persons head, killing them instantly. He immediately turned back to the crowd of people going towards him.
He began firing off several shots at one of them and successfully hit them in the chest, only to make them stumble back a little but they continued to limp towards him.
"What's up with that guy? That was a clean hit." The officer said as he continued to back away down the alley, the people continued to limp after him, all he could do was keep shooting to keep them away.
"Hello? Is anyone here? Hello?"
Inside the diner, the woman wandered around looking for people, the whole city was quiet, the streets were empty, sure it was night time and the chances of everyone being in their own homes was a possibility but there would atleast be some people around, it was too quiet.
When she reached the corner of the room she finally found someone, his clothes were ripped and messy and he was leaning over someone. "Uh, hello?"
The man slowly turned and faced her and snarled at her, there was, from what it looked like, blood all over his face, his eyes looked very strange and he looked like he was beaten up real bad.
The woman gasped and stepped back as the man got up and began limping towards her. "Look, I'm sorry I bothered you ok? Just, don't come any closer. Are you listening!" She said as she backed away, only to hear a sound behind her.
She turned to see more people outside banging on the door, just like the man that was limping towards her, they looked exactly the same, like they were beaten up real bad. "Ah!" The woman turned to the other man heading towards her and noticed an exit at the end of the room on her left and made a run for it.
"I'm running out of ammo here."
In the blink of an eye, the diner exit slammed open, the police officer was already aiming at the woman who gasped as she stopped and faced him, putting her hands up.
The cops sight slowly moved from the woman to the man behind her.
"Wait! Don't shoot-"
"Get down!"
The woman ducked, allowing the cop to get a clear shot at the mans head, killing him instantly and making him fall to the floor with a loud thud. The woman just stared in shock before she turned back to the cop, who held his hand out to her. "We can't stay out here, head to the police station, It'll be a lot safer."
The woman took his hand without hesitation and the two immediately sprinted away from the crowd of people and towards an empty police car. "There!" They entered the car and immediately started it up, the sound of the cars engine roaring louder than the crowd of people. "Buckle up."
"Ok."
They quickly drove off, while the crowd of people continued to limp around the streets, some going after them.
1 Month Earlier...
Raccoon City, Alex's House, 9:00 AM
Alex opened his eyes, again, he could not keep them shut. He had managed to get atleast a few hours of sleep, but of course, every time his sleep became deep, the nightmare had struck him and he found himself remembering every single thing that happened seven days ago.
(Alex Robertson, 19 years old, Bare-Knuckle Boxer, Teacher at a Bare-Knuckle Boxing school)
"...Fuck it..." Alex sat up and got out of bed. He put on his house coat and slowly made his way down the stairs and into the living room, to no surprise, he found everyone else sitting around looking like they had seen better days.
"Couldn't sleep?" Alex asked.
Connor slowly turned to him. "Couldn't sleep."
(Connor Anderson, 18 years old, jokes before serious, works at a local shop)
Alex sighed and made his way into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.
Scott was sitting in the kitchen next to the window reading the newspaper as usual. Bryan, Danny, Connor, Stuart and Marc were in the living room watching a movie. Jamie was sitting down eating breakfast but watched the tv also.
Alex shook his head, everything was quiet, last time he checked, things were never as quiet as this, Bryan was always so loud, Danny, Connor and Jamie were always talking, and Andrew...no...he didn't want to bring him up. It pained him enough already that Andrew was killed. But what happened to Andrew and Kyle just made him want to run right out into the middle of the street and scream bloody murder.
Scott of course, remained the same, he knew Scott could be an asshole sometimes, but he did care, he was just too damn good at keeping himself from breaking down.
"Scott...?" Alex said in a quiet tone.
"What?" Scott replied not taking his sight away from the newspaper.
(Scott Calver, 20 years old, former military, gun shop owner)
"Do you think...we'll ever be rid of these memories? These nightmares that we have everynight?" Alex asked.
Scott took a drink from his cup and went back to reading his newspaper but replied. "I don't have any nightmares, but I would say you might not be rid of them for quite a while. Something like that will never leave your memories for a good long time, but don't worry, it will leave eventually."
Alex sighed and returned to making his coffee. "I guess It's just...It's the others. They looked to me to lead them through that horror and to safety, and although I did a slight ok job at it, at the same time, I did a fucking shit job at it."
Scott looked over his shoulder at him. "Alex, the guys, they are all young and still have a lot to live for, they look up to you as a leader, a leader who can make the perfect choices and decisions for them. And a leader who can actually lead them to a better life, they need you, and you need them, you can protect them, they can protect you, they all rely on you to decide everything, and even though you may think you did a shit job at leading them all before, you did damn well as good as you possibly could in a situation like that. Besides, you can learn from any mistake you've made from the previous incident to make yourself a stronger leader, that's all I can say Alex."
Alex finished making his coffee but stood frozen still for a second until he finally understood what Scott meant. "Yeah...I think I get it now...thanks Scott."
"Don't mention it..." Scott looked at him. "No seriously...don't mention it." He returned to his newspaper.
Alex walked back into the living room and sat down next to Danny and Bryan. The only sound that filled the air was the sound of the tv from the movie everyone was watching, Jamie picking at his breakfast with his fork and the heavy breathing coming from everyone who made it possible for their breathing to be heard.
"How is everyone?" Alex said filling up the silence with his still slightly tired voice.
"Like shit." Connor replied first.
"Good." Stuart said.
(Stuart Reilly, 19 years old, Kickboxer, works at a gym)
Marc shrugged. "I'm fine."
(Marc Wallace, 18 years old, Boxer, works at a gym)
Jamie remained silent and continued eating.
Bryan and Danny stayed silent also.
Alex looked at them. "Bryan...Danny..."
Silence.
"You guys want to go out for a walk or something?" Alex asked.
"I don't think I can ever go outside again..." Bryan said with a hint of fear in his voice. "Never again."
(Bryan Hunter, 18 years old, martial arts freak)
Danny ran his hands through his long ginger hair and sighed. "He's right...take a flashback to what happened after we stepped outside last time."
(Daniel 'Danny' Bleyker, 18 years old, rock band maniac, works at a music school)
Alex shook his head. "Come on guys...we would just be going out for a walk, nothing could possibly happen there."
Bryan looked at Alex. "Yeah...and we went on a mere camping trip and two of our friends died, fate has a cruel way of messing with people if you ask me."
"Bryan, Danny, calm down, just relax. Just try and put this all behind you, all you need to know is that we have memories of our friends and that's all that matters. As long as we remember the good times we all had then nothing can possibly keep us down." Alex explained.
"I don't know Alex...I just don't know anymore..." Bryan said looking down at the floor, trying to think.
Alex nodded slightly. "Neither do I Bryan..."
Danny put his arms around both of them and pulled them closer to him. "We're best friends...we all are...we still got each other."
Connor stood up. "Danny's right, besides, remember what that one STARS motherfucker with the sunglasses said, it was Umbrella, it was all Umbrella. To believe a company like them would have even caused shit like that."
Alex nodded. "Yeah, well I will tell you this Connor, I will not let this go unpunished, I'm gonna go meet up with Chris at the Raccoon City Police Department soon and try and discuss things with his Chief."
Stuart spoke up. "Yeah well let's hope he doesn't decide to arrest you and the rest of us. Remember, you guys were most likely not allowed to go camping there in the first place. It would be a damn good piece of luck if he let you off."
Marc shrugged. "Yeah, you should try and be careful about what you say so he doesn't totally flip out, because I think you know one wrong word with the police chief could pretty much make you fucked."
"What makes you say that?" Stuart asked.
Marc looked at him. "I heard the RCPD Chief is a huge asshole, it wouldn't surprise me if Alex came back here with a couple of cops holding his hands."
Alex stood up and smirked a little. "Well I assure you, that ain't gonna happen."
August 7...
Of course, one of the biggest problems everyone was dealing with was nightmares, nightmares about zombies, it was only recently found out that they weren't the only ones that had nightmares about them. Jill Valentine had called Alex and informed him of her emotional condition on nightmares involving zombies. Alex had already told her that they were all the same, it was no surprise that everyone was like this right now, after all, since when do you get caught in a situation with zombies?
"I'm going out for a walk, anyone want to come with me?" Alex asked looking at the others.
Even after the amount of time that passed, Bryan and Danny were still down, Jamie was still too quiet, Connor couldn't be bothered, Stuart and Marc wanted to stay with Jamie, and Scott was just, Scott.
"Hold on."
Alex turned to the source of the voice. Bryan stood up. "I could go for a walk right now, I need some fresh air anyway."
Danny stood up next. "Yeah me too."
Alex smiled. "Ok..." He turned his sight to Scott. "We'll be back soon Scott, make sure no one burns the place down while we're away."
Scott just waved at them, not taking his sights off of his newspaper. Alex, Bryan and Danny left the house and started walking down the street. It didn't take long for their silence to break though.
"Hey Alex by the way, does Louise know about what happened?" Bryan asked.
Alex kept his sights on the street up ahead, he spoke without looking back at him. "Yes..." He replied.
Danny spoke up next. "What was she like?"
Alex sighed. "She was crying, she was really sad."
"I see...I honestly don't blame her." Danny finished.
Bryan looked at Alex again. "So I'm guessing you're gonna go to her apartment and give her some company or something?"
"Yeah...I think she could use it right now anyway." Alex replied.
"Knowing what she's like when it comes to us, I think you're right." Danny said.
Alex and the others arrived into one of the main streets and looked around. "Hey Alex, did you talk to Chris yet? I heard you and him were going to talk to the RCPD Chief about what happened back then." Bryan spoke up.
Alex shook his head. "I think it may be in best interest to leave that to Chris, if I do go with him then we might actually get in trouble, and we've already had enough of that."
Danny looked at his phone. "Well what're we gonna do then? If you want Alex then you can go to Louise's house, we don't mind."
Alex nodded and walked on. Danny followed.
Bryan was about to follow until someone across the street caught his attention. The woman in red, who was quite far away, stared at him, she had sunglasses on so it was quite difficult to fully picture her face, but she stared at him. Bryan glared back, there was something odd about the woman, before he could do anything a bus zoomed right past him, as soon as it passed the woman was no longer there.
"What the..." Bryan muttered with confusion in his eyes.
"Hey Bryan! You coming or what?!" Alex shouted.
Bryan nodded and ran on to catch up with them.
"Jamie..."
Jamie looked up from the table, he was alone, everything was quiet except the sound of the tv on low volume, but he could of sworn he heard someone call his name.
"Jamie..."
"Who's there?" Jamie said standing up from the table.
Silence.
"ANSWER ME!" Jamie shouted.
Again, silence.
"I am here Jamie..."
"That voice...it couldn't be..." Jamie's eyes widened.
"You are not alone...I promised you a future...you promised to help me...I plan to keep my promise...would you be willing to still keep yours?"
"Yes! Of course! But where are you?" Jamie shouted looking around.
"Don't be afraid Jamie...just live...we will meet again."
"WAIT!"
Jamie opened his eyes and stood up from the table. He rubbed his eyes and looked around, everything was exactly the same way it was in his dream, the tv was on and the volume was low, but he couldn't hear a voice this time.
"It was...a dream? ...Is he really dead?"
(Jamie Anderson, 17 years old, quiet pacifist, works at a local shop)
Just as Jamie was about to sit back down, he noticed a letter on the table. "Must be from the others..." He said before he opened it.
"Wait..."
"Jamie, I hope you wake up and read this letter soon. I am currently under orders from someone you may know, to return you to him. I will do so, and you will meet me in due time, for now, have faith and be patient, you will have everything you have ever wanted soon enough."
"Could it be? No...it couldn't...but then...I'd be an idiot to doubt that after seeing all the crazy shit back at that mansion...I guess I'll have to wait..."
"Yo Jamie!"
Jamie quickly hid the letter and turned to where he heard the voice, Stuart and Marc entered the living room.
"Oh, hey guys."
Stuart smiled. "What's going on?"
"Nothing...much...where's the others?" Jamie asked.
Marc shrugged. "They're away, Alex, Bryan and Danny are probably over at Louise's house, Connor and Scott went to get some groceries, remember?."
"Oh...right...I see..."
"Jamie...you've been quiet alot...you're definitely up to something aren't you?" Marc asked.
Jamie shook his head. "No! Of course not!"
Stuart smirked. "Yeah...sure...come on Jamie...don't lie to us. We know you have something on your mind. What's up? Talk to us man."
Jamie sighed and gave up. "I...I'm just upset over the death of someone who could of made my life better."
"Huh?" Stuart and Marc exchanged confused looks before turning back to Jamie. "What are you talking about? Andrew and Kyle?"
Jamie looked at them. "...They...yes...them too...but someone else. I just can't explain right now...I'm sorry guys."
"Eh, It's ok man, we don't expect you to be able to focus on your words after barely getting out of a nightmare, take your time." Stuart said.
Marc nodded. "Yeah...just tell us when you think you can, remember, you can tell us anything, our opinions of you will never change pal."
Jamie watched them both leave and for a moment remained silent. He stayed silent, but then a smirk found Its way onto his face.
Raccoon City, Louise's apartment, 3:00 PM
"So Alex...are the others getting on ok?" Louise asked as she gave Alex a cup of coffee.
Alex took a drink from his cup and nodded. "They're getting better...Jamie seems to have lost it and went mute, Connor is just, angry, Stuart and Marc are pretty much shocked and Scott...well...he's just himself."
Louise turned to Bryan and Danny who were sitting on the opposite side of the living room table. "Bryan? Danny? Would you two like anything to drink?"
Bryan remained silent but shook his head.
Danny ran his hand through his long ginger hair and spoke for both of them. "Me and Bryan are fine, we just feel like relaxing right now."
"Ok..." Louise said before she turned back to Alex. "Alex...could you...do you mind telling me how Kyle died?"
Alex looked at Bryan and Danny, who merely nodded, and turned back to Louise. "Alright..."
"KYLE!" Alex bolted through the forest followed by Bryan and Jamie ignoring the branches hitting against them as they ran through the thick fog. They eventually came to an open area and found Kyle lying down on the ground getting attacked by a dog.
"Kyle?" Alex said hoping the dog hadn't done much damage to him.
The dog chewed off a huge piece of him and blood splattered all over the ground.
"NO!" Alex shouted aiming his rifle and shot the dog right through the head. He ran over to Kyle and checked his pulse. "Oh...shit..."
Bryan and Jamie just stood there and stared speechlessly at him.
Bryan snapped out of his thoughts and spoke up. "Alex...please tell me he's..."
Alex looked at them, a tear was dripping down his eye. "He's...he's dead..."
Jamie fell to his knees and just stared off into space. "What? That can't be...no way..."
Bryan walked over to Kyle's body and kneeled down beside him. "That's...that's ridiculous." He looked at Kyle and slowly shook his head. "What...what are we...what are we gonna say to his parents? What are we gonna do?"
Alex sighed and sat down. "I dunno...fuck the trip, it's gone wrong, horribly, we need to fucking get him out of here."
Bryan nodded. "I know but..." He stared back down at Kyle. "How can we get him out of here without a car?"
Alex stood up and looked around. "Look, let's just take him back to the camp first, we'll figure out what to do from there, Jamie..."
Jamie looked up and nodded, tears were running down his face but he wiped them away and walked over to Kyle. As soon as he bent down to pick Kyle up his eyes opened.
Jamie's eyes widened and jumped back. "HOLY SHIT!"
Alex and Bryan turned and saw Kyle moving, he was struggling to get up, but he was getting up slowly.
"Kyle! Thank god man I thought you were-" Before Alex could finish, Kyle leaped ontop of him and tried to bite him.
"What the fuck?! Kyle what are you doing?! KYLE!" Alex shouted as he struggled to restrain Kyle.
Bryan and Jamie just stared, wondering what was going on.
"Well don't just stand there! GET HIM OFF OF ME!"
Bryan and Jamie grabbed Kyle but he immediately went for them, they both shoved him back and helped Alex up.
Bryan looked at him. "What's wrong with his eyes?"
Jamie shook his head. "Kyle what's wrong?"
Alex clenched his fist. "How is that possible? That dog ripped him apart and he's still alive? That ain't possible, but..."
Kyle was slowly limping towards them.
The trio backed away from him. "Kyle?"
"Kyle don't you recognize us?"
"It's us!"
Alex shook his head. "No...something's wrong, I don't think any human being could survive something like that, he got ripped apart. I don't know what's wrong but we have to take care of him."
Bryan looked at him. "What do you mean?"
Alex looked at Bryan and tilted his head sideways towards Kyle. "Bryan, you know what I mean."
Bryan's eyes widened. "What? No way man! I ain't shooting him!"
Alex grabbed him. "He just tried to bite me, he's crazed all of a sudden, I don't know why and I personally don't want to know, do him a favour Bryan."
Bryan stepped in front of them and looked at his hunting rifle and back at Kyle. "Kyle..."
Kyle continued to limp towards them.
Bryan lifted his rifle up and aimed it at Kyle's head, a tear dropped down his face. "I'm sorry man." Bryan pulled the trigger and a bullet shot out of the rifle and went through Kyle's head. The noise of the bang slowly got quieter until everything went silent. Kyle fell to the ground with a loud thud and was no longer moving.
Louise gasped. "Th-That's...awful!"
"Tell me about it." Alex said. "It was our fucking fault. First, we should never have even let him take us to that damn forest in the first place and second, we should never have fucking let him go off by himself!"
"Alex calm down, there was nothing you could do." Louise took Alex's hand.
Alex slowly pulled his hand away and sighed. "I could of done something, if I had been there before that dog attacked him, I could of saved him, but...but..."
"Life has a cruel way of messing with people." Danny finished for him.
Alex nodded slightly. "Yeah..."
Bryan slowly looked down at the floor. "Andrew..."
"I know..." Alex said looking back at Louise. "Andrew got the worst of it In my opinion..."
"What happened?" Louise asked in a nervous tone.
Alex sighed and explained.
"AHHH! ALEX! ALEX! AH! AHHHH!"
Alex glanced around and his eyes widened, he could see the blood spreading all over the floor. "ANDREW!" Alex ran over and kicked the zombie off of Andrew.
The zombie got back up but Bryan, Danny, Scott and Connor all fired their weapons at it, taking it down instantly.
"Andrew! Andrew!" Alex kneeled down beside Andrew who was breathing heavily, there was blood everywhere and the bite marks were so deep into his neck that the blood didn't stop pouring out.
Danny kneeled down beside him. "Andrew it's gonna be alright! You're gonna be okay!"
"It's alright, you're gonna be alright bro." Connor said trying to calm him down.
Andrew continued to breath heavily. "A-Alex...I don't want to be...one of those things..."
Alex shook his head and held Andrew's hand as he continued. "I don't...want to become one of those monsters. W-Walking around...without a soul..."
Alex nodded. "You won't."
"I'm sorry...I wasn't much help to you guys was I?" Andrew said as he coughed out blood.
Connor shook his head. "Hell no man! If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have gotten this far!"
Andrew smiled. "Thanks Connor..."
Everyone started to hold back tears, some were letting them out, some were struggling to hold them in. Tears were falling down Alex's face but he continued to stare at Andrew, Jamie shed tears but kept his head down to hide his face, Connor, Bryan and Danny weren't holding back and let their tears out, Scott shed no tears but stared in disbelief.
Andrew clenched his fist and slowly aimed it at them, Alex and the others could see his ring with his name on it. Alex put his fist against Andrew's, followed by Danny and Bryan, then Connor and Jamie, and after a few seconds, Scott managed a slight smile and put his fist against the rest of them.
Andrew smiled. "You guys are my best friends, you're my family, I love you all."
Alex nodded. "Yeah..."
Andrew coughed up more blood. "Please, Scott, shoot me, if I'm going to die, I want to atleast die without turning, and knowing you were the one that put me to rest." He removed his ring and gave it to Alex. "Take my ring, and remember me."
Alex nodded and stood up. "Andrew, you will always be with us, you know that."
Andrew slightly nodded, his breathing became faster and heavier.
Bryan shook his head. "Not this way man, not when we were so close..."
Andrew smiled. "It's alright Bryan, please, don't grieve over me, be strong, as long as we are all friends 'til the end, that's all that matters. I'm going to be with Kyle, we'll be watching over you all, so please, for all of our sakes, live."
Bryan nodded and stood up without hesitation, Scott, followed by Alex, Jamie, Connor, Danny and Bryan all aimed their weapons at Andrew as he slowly started to close his eyes.
"I'm sorry Andrew." Bryan quietly muttered.
After a few seconds passed, Andrew stopped moving, and following Scott's lead, the six of them fired all of their weapons into Andrew.
Bryan and Danny remained silent. Louise just gasped. "I-I...I'm so sorry you had to go through with doing that Alex. It must have felt really bad."
"Felt like bullshit! That's what it felt like!" Danny shouted.
Alex stood up and walked over to the window and looked outside down at the crowded streets. "It did, it was a damn virus that caused all that shit."
"Any chance It's gone?" Louise asked.
"It is, I'm sure...no...I know it is. It was what turned all the people in the mansion into zombies, and is obviously the cause of all the monsters there too. But the mansion blew up, nothing could escape that, I know that much." Alex explained.
Bryan looked up at him. "Alex...Umbrella..."
Alex nodded. "Yeah, Umbrella are the ones responsible for that. They are the ones responsible for those zombies and monsters, they are ones responsible for the deaths of my friends. But...I don't care how much control they have over this city, I don't care if no one stands up to them, I will do everything in my power to make sure they pay for taking the lives of my friends."
"You know we've always got your back Alex." Bryan said.
Danny smiled. "Yeah, we will always have your back."
"Thanks." Alex said before turning back to the window and looked down at the crowded streets. He was glad he still had his friends support, even after all the events that occurred during the mansion. All he could imagine though, is the chaos that would take place in Raccoon city, had something escaped the mansion.
Authors Notes: Story has been updated, all spelling mistakes and errors that I could find have been fixed. We see the current condition of everyone right now and as you clearly saw, they all aren't doing well at the moment. We're also reminded of the how Kyle and Andrew got killed, and someone left Jamie a note, who though? And as for the woman in red that Bryan saw, they have more questions that they want answered. Hope you liked the chapter, please Review, feedback is always appreciated.