The window of the dormitory was wide open, letting a fresh night breeze blow through the hot, stuffy room. Tonight was supposed to be a night of studying, cramming for the upcoming final exam week. But late spring heat would not let Kenny sleep. He sat at the window sill, letting the fresh breeze blow at his face, sending his dark hair into waves on his head. He glanced at the clock on the wall, and it read 4:43 am. He was supposed to have finished studying two hours ago, and been in bed an hour ago. Yet after all the tossing and turning, his body had decided for him that sleep was not an option. Was he nervous about the exams? That couldn't have been it. He'd gotten a 3.94 GPA in the previous semester. And during all this classes this semester, he'd practically slept through all the lectures and still maintained a respectable mark on all assignments and tests.

Kenny was honest with himself. It had been six years since he'd had a decent good night sleep. Six years ago … we was a mere fifteen year old teenager back then living in the suburbs of Raccoon City, U.S.A. And it wasn't like anyone needed an explanation as to why he hadn't been able to sleep since then. Everyone who wasn't living under a rock knew what happened to that city. Those murders occurring on the outskirts of town, people eating each other up, rumors of a cannibal cult … the stories had gotten stranger and stranger with every passing day. Until finally, the reality came to the center of town. There was no satanic cult, no crazy people sacrificing each other to some unknown god. It was a virus. A virus that turned people into the walking dead. Zombies.

That's what they were. Shuffling along the streets, moaning in some unholy manner with their arms outstretched in front of them looking for their next warm meal. Nobody had believed Kenny's story. The official government statement was that the Umbrella Corporation, responsible for running the city had accidentally unleashed a virus that engulfed the mid-Western town. But that was only the half truth. Nobody mentioned the zombies. And as a result, the American people hadn't an inkling of what it was like to survive that hellhole. And nobody believed Kenny.

Kenny's mind was wandering, he knew it. But what else could it do, given the intense head of the night, with the comfort of the cool breeze blowing into his room? Every so often, his mind would take him back to the days of Raccoon, and the three months that followed thereafter. The three months that he'd spent in isolation in one of Umbrella's island bases situated off the coast of South America. There, the company behind the virus spill trained him to be one of their own. Kenny had convinced himself that he was just undercover for the defunct Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. unit, getting inside information on Umbrella. But his services had proven to be useless, given that the corporation had already begun its decline in the stock market.

After being rescued from the island by ex-S.T.A.R.S. member Chris Redfield, Kenny promised to return to a life of solitude, to return to school, get an education, and prepare for a bright future ahead of him. He tried and had succeeded, somewhat. The nightmares still haunted him.

Kenny wanted to forget, but he knew it was useless trying. The more he attempted to shove the memories from his mind, the more they insisted on staying. The best way, he figured, was to just let life happen to him and perhaps one day, he could forget it all. But now wasn't the time, not especially since he was reflecting on everything that had happened to him six years ago. It was time to take a walk.

He left his room and headed down the hall, descended the two flights of stairs that took him to the dormitory lobby and headed out the twin glass doors and into the night. The breeze was slightly stronger out here. He could already feel the thin coat of sweat on his body vaporize into the dry air. The pathway outside the building led into a nearby park and on the other side was the main University building. Security was pretty tight around the main building and he thought better of it than to take a walk on the campus grounds. So he stuck to the park around his building.

The sun was getting ready to come up on the horizon. The sky was light blue towards the east, and still pitch black to the west. A few faint stars could still be seen, but they would vanish into the sky within a few hours for another day.

A movement on the road across the park crossed his eye. The street lights were reflecting off a smooth black surface. It was hard to figure out what it was in the darkness at first. What had made it so suspicious was the lack of sound that it produced. Squinting into the night, Kenny could barely make out the shape of a limousine. It was traveling slowly with all of its fancy lights shut off. There was definitely something strange about it. Anyone traveling in a limousine around these parts would be proud of that fact. The lights would be turned on and its occupants would be hanging their heads out the window drunk and shit faced as hell. But there was none of that. Just a black limousine stalking the streets and some insane hour in the morning.

The vehicle came to a full and complete stop and its doors exploded open, spilling for a group of men – at least that's what they looked like from this kind of distance in the poor lighting. The men fanned out over the streets and began heading towards the dormitories. As they got closer, Kenny could see that every one of them toted a mean looking automatic rifle in their hands. Now he was really spooked. Turning around on his heels, the young man headed back into his dorm as fast as his feet could carry him without making too much noise. Thankfully, he hadn't wandered far from the entrance and was safely back inside within a good chunk of a minute.

Kenny dashed up the stairs, his heart threatening to beat its way out of his chest. The sweat that he'd gotten rid of by walking outside reformed on his body, this time from fear instead of the heat. He opened the door to his room and slammed it shut behind him, locking it. Those men were infiltrating the dorms. Were they after someone? Were they planning on taking the students hostage? There was little he could to at this point to warn his fellow students, so Kenny stuck a chair under the knob of the door and threw himself to the floor, crawling under his bed and waited from the approaching footsteps.

For a few moments, all he could hear was the beating of his own heart and the sounds of his breath. But then, the footsteps approached, walking quickly but quietly down the halls. He expected to hear the bashing down of doors and screaming students. But there was none of that. Instead, his phone had rung, causing him to jump in surprise, hitting his head on the bottom of the bed as a result.

"What a fucking great time to call!" Kenny whispered to himself. It was not even five in the morning and someone was calling him! Better yet, there were mysterious men outside his room with automatic rifles! Kenny seized the receiver and whispered harshly into it.

"Hello?" he was ready to give the caller a piece of his mind when his blood ran cold.

"Did we surprise you, Kenny?" the caller asked.

"Who … who is this?" he asked.

The voice on the other end was cold, calm, and strangely familiar. "I'm surprised you don't recognize me, after all we've been through together."

"Quit the answering questions with questions shit," Kenny said. "There's some freaks outside my dorm room right now and if you've got the answers to what's going on, I want to know right now."

"You still belong to Umbrella, my boy." The words seized Kenny's breath, stopped his heart from beating, froze time for a moment. Umbrella … "I take it that's a name you haven't heard from for awhile?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play that innocent bullshit with me. You don't think I know who you are?"

"Wesker?"

"Very good, boy. I'm touched that you'd remember me."

"What the hell are you still doing around here? Umbrella's gone. Haven't you heard the news?"

"Oh so is that what you attribute me to?" Wesker asked, letting out a laugh. "Umbrella? There are far greater things going on here than Umbrella. And I want you to witness it first hand."

"No, no, Wesker. I don't want it. I don't want to have anything to do with whatever you're planning."

"There's something I think you'll find of great interest brewing in Europe," Wesker continued, ignoring Kenny's pleas. "And I want you to go there and check it out."

"Who the hell do you think you are, ordering me around like this?"

"Because I know you'll do as I say, especially if it's for the life of a dear friend. Ashley Graham, the president's daughter."

Kenny was speechless. He and Ashley had been well acquainted since the days she would spend in Raccoon City on vacation. They had kept in touch all these years and coincidentally wound up at the same university together. That's why those men were here. They were Wesker's men, and they were looking for Ashley!

"Don't lay a finger on her, Wesker, I'm warning you!"

"And that's why the first thing tomorrow morning, in approximately twenty-four hours from now, you'll meet the limousine from where you just saw it parked. The rest of the details will be revealed to you then."

Without another word, Wesker hung up the phone, leaving Kenny with nothing but a dial tone. He collapsed onto his bed without even knowing it, his mind swimming with thoughts, he couldn't even begin to sort them out. What did Wesker want with him? Was it possible that this was just a lie to get him involved in something he wanted no part of? Was Ashley really in danger? How did Wesker get his number?

The only people that could comfort him at this point were those that had made it out of Raccoon City with him. Familiar but distant names flashed through his mind. Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield … but he was no longer in contact with any of them. He thought he'd left Wesker to them. But instead, Wesker had eluded them and come to Kenny. He decided to wait and give himself time to sort out his thoughts. Now the challenge was doing it in twenty four hours.

The next day, Kenny's worst thoughts were confirmed. Lying at the foot of his doorstep was the daily newspaper with a picture of Ashley, the blonde, all-American girl smiling on the front cover with the headlines, "President's Daughter Kidnapped," written in bold, copper black lettering.