Midway on our life's journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost.

To tell about those woods is hard - so tangled and rough.

And savage that thinking of it now, I feel the old fear stirring...


Claire Redfield sat hunched over a stack of files, tired eyes surreptiously trained on the words she was skimming over. A soft groaned echoed off the walls of her empty office, reverberating right back into her ears as a reminder that her long and tedious work was still bringing up no valid link between Tricell and this newest rumor about a new strain of virus that Chris had come across in a database in Africa.

Nothing was panning out, but she wouldn't give up; she simply couldn't, she had to find out the truth to help him bring down Tricell for good. The president of the company, Excella Gionne, had been presumed as deceased in Africa but that apparently hadn't slowed the companies efforts for advancement. Tricell had been cranking out new products-granted none of them were particularly suspicious-and making new partners ever since, no comments on their previous president's strange disappearance.

She looked through the second file once more, looking for anything that might also link Albert Wesker to them, but she came up empty handed on that too. She rubbed her eyes and sighed, picking up her mug to find it drained of the coffee she was drinking. A glance at the pot on the far side of the room confirmed that it was empty, much to her irritation.

Claire Redfield would not be deterred, she stood taking a long stretch to ease her stiff muscles and made her way to the second floor of the office that she had established with a few other previous TerraSave employees after the company had been shut down. The Association for Bio-Safety, or ABS as she had dubbed it, had been her livelihood since the fall of her previous work with TerraSave and essentially the right arm of the BSAA. While the BSAA members were working abroad and trying to apprehend those suspected of working with the agents that had caused so many outbreaks, Claire and her team stayed in the states fishing out information to help aid them in their search. Based out of North Dakota, the ABS has two different offices, both areas headed up by two different people. The largest office is located right outside of Fargo on the the outskirts of town and is overseen by Claire herself, the other sits directly in the middle of the big city and is headed up by a good friend and coworker of hers by the name of Sarah Michaels. Sometimes Claire traveled out to the other office to do some work there but most times she kept busy with her work in her own building. Tonight was no exception as she sat alone in the big building, pouring over those annoying and piece missing files, desperately on the search of her most prized liquid Columbian livelihood.

Upon reaching the staff break room, she began tearing through the cabinets on the hunt for some coffee but with a loud groan and several demolished cabinets she came to the conclusion that she had drank the very last bit.

Still she would not be deterred, she needed some sort of caffeine to get her through the rest of the files that sat downstairs on her desk. She pulled open the refrigerator, pushing through various open, labeled containers and condiments and into the back where a few energy drinks and sodas sat. Claire furrowed her eyebrows, trying to decide which beverage would be more beneficial in her rejuvenation process and begrudgeningly grabbed a cold Red Bull in favor of the Coke or the lone Pepsi that was left untouched.

She almost visibly winced when she popped the can top, not at all looking forward to tasting this thing. She was never a fan of energy drinks, but only ever having one in her entire life, she realized that she couldn't be too terribly prejudiced as to their odd taste. The one she had drank years ago was terribly bitter and she hoped that this one was not similar.

She took a little sip and, satisfied that it wasn't all that terrible, drank some more and began to shut down the room and start making her way back to the office. Something out the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned towards the TV that hung on the wall. For some reason she hadn't noticed that it was on while she was searching throughout the fridge for a drink. A banner blinked below the normal programming and flashed with the words Emergency Broadcast.

She read the words aloud to herself as the banner slowly slid across the screen.

"An evacuation has been issued for the citizens of the city of Fargo as well as the surrounding areas...a chemical spill and explosion has just been made public. All inhabitants have been urged to evacuate immediately."

Hn. That was funny, she hadn't heard or felt any explosion. With a resigned sigh she turned off the TV and headed back downstairs to her office, shutting the lights off and locking the door as she left.

If there really was a chemical explosion it was probably in her best interests to leave town for a bit, just until the clean-up had been finished and it was okay to come back.


A man in all black stood on the roof of the office connected to a nuclear power plant, his dark coloring making him blend in with one of the blackest nights the city had ever seen. A small beeping noise resounding from his belt and he unlatched the radio and clicked the button to talk.

"HUNK here." His voice was somewhat obscured from the full-cover gas mask that he wore.

"What's your position?" The radio buzzed out with a bit of static and the voice on the other side was male and possibly Russian if the accent was anything to go on.

"I have retrieved the data. I will be en route to the destination shortly."

"Good. Do not lose that information. It is vital to our success."

"Understood. HUNK out." He clicked the radio back onto his belt, and began to descend the rooftop with professional precision. He had to make it to the heliport in mid-Fargo or else the copter would leave without him. A small smile made it's way onto his covered face. If it was one thing Umbrella did best, it was punctuality.

Not a soul in the city noticed as an intruder roamed throughout their midst, and he knew his job was finished. He didn't like admitting it but he was exhausted from nearly three months work and no intermission; he had constantly been infiltrating lab after lab and office after office in order to find these files, and had finally located the files on one of Umbrella's defected lab technicians. He had properly taken care of it, and now all he had to do was make it to the heliport on time.

Finally maybe he could get back to his apartment tonight and get some sleep.


Claire downed the rest of the can's content and picked up the files off the desk and put them in her shoulder bag, slinging it over her torso. She checked, as she did every night before she left the office, to make sure her trusty Beretta was loaded with the safety off; so many incidents and a few potential muggings had ensured that she never left home with out it. Finally she shut down all the lights and locked up the office, heading down the street to her apartment. She never drove to the headquarters, considering that it was only about a mile from her place, and she figured that she could save some gas that way.

Ever since that Harvardville incident she had been much more adept about holding up her own security procedures. Of course before then she had taken precautions but for some reason being trapped in a airport turned zombie-infested area with no viable weapon save for an umbrella at first had made her incredibly nervous. The familiar weight on her hip was the most comfort she could recieve at any time, and she silently bode a thank you to Chris for teaching her all of the 'useless gun training' as she dubbed it then.

That training had been just about the most useful thing she had ever gotten in her life, and never again would she feel like she was incredibly vulnerable.

A cold breeze tickled her nose and she noticed that the sky was incredibly dark, strange considering that the forecast tonight had called for clear sky with a bright moon, but she ignored it. The streets were strangely quiet but she had supposed that it was due to the evacuation and she was thankful that so many people had gotten away okay. Soon she was just a quarter mile from her apartment building but something had halted her in her steps.

Three police cars had been literally piled on top of eachother, and were blocking her way. She eyed around the first one and with her eyes wide she noticed that smoke was pouring out from under the hood, she backed up slowly as it caught fire to the radiator and pretty soon flames had engulfed all three cars. She turned on her heel fast, trying to put as much distance as she could before the inevitable happened, but before she could get away fast enough a fiery gust shoved her forward and she ducked for a roll. Her landing was decent enough but she had scraped her hands in trying to protect her head from hitting the pavement. She hissed as she surveyed the damage, now safely out of range from the flames and bit her lip as she removed out pieces of glass and rock that had embedded itself into her palms. Then she pulled open her bag to get out the small first aid kit, taking out the antibiotic cream and some bandage wraps. She applied the cream and wrapped the bandages around both hands and flexed them both. Nothing was broken, thank the heavens, but her hands were still sore.

Lucky her that she wasn't going to have to shoot anything today.

She got to her feet and brushed the dirt and residual rocks off of her pants, and searched for a detour around the blockade from the police cars. Spotting an alleyway she breathed a sigh of relief, not paying attention to the movement inside of the most rear police vehicle, and continued on down it.

Every few steps she walked, she began to become more and more wary of her surroundings, little noises and hisses and creaks echoed throughout the empty hall between the two very large buildings and she was hit with a wave of sickening familiarity. Her stomach had tied itself in knots and she kept her hand dutifully on her hip holster, the feel of metal in her hand doing a nominal job of placating her in her worries. In a way she was feeling somewhat silly, but the news of the chemical plant explosion had her worried, especially since there hadn't been any tell tale signs of any such thing. She hadn't felt the waves that it should have produced due to such an explosion, nor had she heard anything at the time, the night being completely and eerily silent. The only chemical plant she knew of was Holling's Coatings, and while it was a decent sized plant it was located in downtown Fargo, which happened to be nearly fifty-five miles from her apartment, or even further since she had only been to that area once. A clicking noise made her stop moving, and she turned around swiftly, removing her gun from it's holster and pointing it in the direction of the sound. She stood tensed for a moment before the grate on the wall popped open and an opossum ran out. Exhaling a sigh of relief she let her entire body relax, moving her hand to put the gun back up, but suddenly thinking better of it.

Within the blink of an eye something long and pink whipped out of the hole and wrapped around the opossum, dragging it back into the crawl space. Claire visibly jumped, and raised her gun again as gurgling and chewing noises echoed out of the hole and blood and fur bits were sprayed all over the opposite wall. Her heart dropped to the pit of her gut and she was thankful that her hands were bandaged tight to prevent them from shaking too much. Soon the noises ceased and the blood spray stopped but what followed that was even worse, as Claire was knocked back into the wall as a creature flew out from inside the wall.

It's fleshless and corded muscles gleamed with a slimy substance and it's exposed brain and open mouth were dripping with the same slime. It's long claws were razor sharp and the smell of it's rotting exterior and the tongue lashing around in front of her was merely enough to make her want to vomit.

She froze in horror and disbelief, her eyes filling up with tears.

Not this...anything but this...

Without warning the pink slimy muscle shot out at her, and she leapt over it, successfully dodging it and taking aim, landing a shot directly into it's brain. The licker fell over instantly on it's back, dying nerves causing it to twitch a bit before it finally died.

Before she could take a breath however, the grates all around her began to pop open and she could hear them breathing, clicking their teeth together in anticipation of a good meal.

She wanted to cry, and with good reason, because in seconds at least four more of them leapt out from their dwellings and had her surrounded, tongues waving excitedly in the air.

At that very moment, alone in a dark alleyway soon to be B.O.W food, Claire Redfield was surrounded by the proof of yet another viral outbreak.


The streets were strangely silent, he noticed, as he stalked through the city quietly. His gloved hand came up to remove his gas mask, and he sniffed the air, inhaling the smell of the city and something unsettlingly familiar. He coasted along the street, snaking from dark alleys to corners and other places but it seemed that he didn't need to. No other presence had made itself known the entire time he had been there, and even the shops and homes seemed deserted. He could conspicuously walk in the middle of the street, tactical gear and all, and it seemed he wouldn't be noticed.

If this didn't reek of suspicious, nothing did.

He didn't have time to worry about that though, he needed to ensure proper delivery of this data to Vladimir or there would be hell to pay, and he didn't feel like sitting through another one of that crazy Russian's speeches about "loyalty" and "obedience to the cause".

Vladimir seemed to have forgotten exactly who he had hired; HUNK had been loyal to Umbrella for many years, even if he technically wasn't employed by Umbrella itself anymore.

No, now he was merely a hired gun, working for whoever offered him the right amount; Sergei Vladimir just happened to have the right amount, and as for Umbrella well...

Even he knew that their days were numbered and their glory days behind them. Umbrella was merely nothing more than an organization in shambles and being run by an old man fit with insanity and his crazy loyal-as-a-dog Russian subordinate.

Umbrella was going to fall any day now, so he wasn't too terribly concerned about their cause or how he fit into it. All he cared about was getting to that heliport so he could maybe get some sleep tonight.

The radio beeped again and his green eyes rolled as he clicked the send button.

"HUNK."

"Where are you? That helicopter will be dispatching in the next thirty minutes. If I don't get that data there will be hell to pay, Mr. Death." Vladimir sneered. He sounded angry, which caused a smirk to appear on the mercenary's strong features.

"I'll be there. You'll get your data." He replied, eyes wandering around the empty streets cautiously. Was it just him or had he just heard a scream? Before Vladimir could respond he clicked off the radio and started towards it source. He honestly had no idea why he was actively searching for it but it didn't sound very good, and given the clarity of the scream it was in very close proximity. His body carried him without thinking and he found himself before a pile of burnt up police vehicles and just as soon as he stopped in front of them, something moved inside one of the cars. Charred hands grabbed onto the ground and pulled itself along, it's skin being slaughed off onto the concrete.

"Shit." He pulled out his VP70, fondly named Matilda, and landed a clean shot right through the zombie's head. A few more of the undead human husks crawled out of the wreckage and without even thinking about he had eliminated those too.

The only problem was that they kept coming and he was getting backed into a corner, with not much of an escape route. He replaced his sidearm and ran through the crowd, yanking a frag grenade off his belt and tossing it into the sea of rotting flesh, rolling to safety as it went off, spraying the ground and walls with bloody tissue and bone fragment.

He ran into an alleyway and stopped, grabbing his gun once more and placing his mask back on so he could see in the looming dark. His boots crunched along broken glass as he made his way up the long alley.

Suddenly three lickers flew at him, and in an impressive display of precision he whipped out his MG and began firing on them, sending them straight onto the ground dead.

And then he saw her, dangling from a fire escape, her face contorted in her effort to hang on as what couldn't be any less than five of those creatures surrounding her on all sides. One of them reared forward to latch onto her but with a grunt she swung and kicked out, her foot colliding into it's head and crushing it's brain. He rose his eyebrow and pulled out his gun, sparing four bullets for the other ones, all clean headshots. Her arms gave out and she fell, landing on her feet, and immediately she swooped up her beretta off the ground and pointed it straight at him.

"HUNK." Her voice was soft but seeped with malice, and her gun was pointed directly at his heart. He pushed it away with a glove hand and turned around, merely walking away. An indignant look settled over her features and she ran after him.

"Hey! Get back here! Don't walk away from me!" She caught up with him, his tall form towering over her more slight one, "What the hell are you doing here?" She asked, but he didn't respond, not breaking his brisk stride.

She was aware that if he wanted to he could kill her at any moment, but right now it seemed as if the man in black was her very last problem.

"Excuse me? I'm talking to you..." She tried walking out in front of him, but he pushed her aside. He finally spoke though she counted that as a job well done.

"I have business to attend to. Carry on, Miss." That earned a laugh from her and once again he rolled his eyes, although it was hidden. Women. Without warning she raised her gun to his him again, this time she pressed it straight against his head, and he stopped, turning to face her.

Might as well get this over with. Not like there's anything to gain in killing her.

"Yes?" He said, a slight pang of annoyance clear in his altered voice. Through his red eye holes he studied her face, a strong sense of familiarity seeping into him. This girl...he had seen her before, and not just once. He had seen her on a few different accounts. She was older now and had body was more developed but he definitely recognized her.

Chris Redfield's little sister, Claire: survivor of the Raccoon City incident, the Rockfort incident and the Harvardville incident.

With a surprisingly steady hand she pushed the gun against his mask harder and he felt like just incapacitating her so he hurry up and get to that heliport and end this ridiculous assignment for good.

To be honest, he didn't feel like sticking around this condemned city for too long unless he had to, and the normally patient and even man found himself getting irritated.

"What are you doing here? You had something to do with this didn't you?" She hissed, anger in her eyes and he sighed.

"I don't have time for this, I-" Without warning a sharp rumble caused shook the ground, causing both of them to lose their footing, but only she pitched forward. Without thinking he grabbed her arm and tried to right her but the ground was starting to crumble. A crack appeared and her foot slipped, the edge crumbling as she fell. A yell was pushed out of her and she grabbed the edge, but rocks were falling and hitting her hands. She slipped but right before she was going to fall for good, a black gloved hand caught hers and she was pulled up.

'That's the second time he's helped me out, when he could have just left me to die.'

She didn't have time to ponder the answer as to why because within seconds of him pulling her up a huge worm-like creature broke through the already open ground, sending debris and big hunks of cement flying their way. Instincts flaring, they both leapt behind a standing vehicle in order to not get hit by a large piece of rock flying their way. He pulled out his machine gun and crouched as she got to her knees beside him. Removing a few clips of handgun ammo from his hip he tossed them to her and she began to reload her gun.

"We have to take this thing out." He said, and she nodded.

"Ready?" She asked, placing the other two clips of ammo into her belt loop. Before they could act however the oversized worm ripped their cover car up and threw it into a wall, shattering glass and metal on top of itself.

"Distract it! I'll find a way to kill it." He yelled to her and she nodded and ran off in the direction of the worm.

It was strange, he thought as she popped about a dozen shots into the B.O.W, he was fighting side by side with the sister of Wesker's long hated rival. Even if he hadn't seen Wesker in quite some time it was almost surreal since he had essentially been Wesker's right hand man for so long.

Still, as much as he hated to admit it, he needed her to at least take this thing out. He watched her as he loaded incendiary rounds into his grenade launcher; she was running back and forth in front of it, pinging it in the eye with her handgun. She was doing a decently good job at dodging the things it was throwing at her, and her aim was pretty flawless. For a civilian she was quite adept at what she was doing.

Had she fought something like this before?

It didn't matter, they were basically using eachother for survival and after this he would be over that highway and directly on the heliport.

He still had fifteen minutes until the helicopter took off, so as long as he could get this thing good and killed before that he could still make it in time. He hoisted the grenade launcher over his forearm and took aim at it's head that was set directly in front of her. He motioned to her to move out the way and she took off in another direction to take refuge behind a building. He blasted three fire rounds into it's head and it started to swagger, swinging it's front half around uncoordinatedly and after three more rounds it finally dropped.

He stood and removed his mask, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve as she walked back over to him. Suddenly the ground in front of him tore open and the worm's tail came out and hit him directly in the stomach. He flew about twenty feet before his back hit a brick wall and he spat out blood onto the front of his kevlar. Claire ran over to him, pumping her last clip into it's head effectively rendering it dead for good this time. She quickly knelt down by his side.

"Are you alright?" Her voice was concerned, and he was taken aback, but that could have also been the fact that he just had the wind knocked out of him something fierce.

"Nothing serious." He responded. His hand automatically reached for his mask but it wasn't anywhere near him. His eyes searched around the road for it until they landed on the mask.

Apparently when he was hit he dropped it, and it fell right into a pile of worm droppings. A very large pile with a human arm protruding from it.

'Well...shit. Ain't this just my day.'