Prologue

The dense forest that surrounded it very well concealed the mansion hidden in the mountains. But no matter how many trees they screened the building with, even with the seemingly normal private mansion cover; the real secrets of the house would have to come to light eventually. For no one, no matter how secretive they may be, no matter to what lengths they may go can ever conceal the truth from those who want to find it. And as always, the irony of it all, is that the biggest secrets, and that they may break with the most ferocity, would always be the quickest to be uncovered...

"Warrick. Bring that over here, would you? There's a good lad."

Warrick Scirhearn was an apprentice under a scientist named Henry Sarton. He had only been here in the secret lab for a week, and already everyone seemed to expect him to know what they were thinking. A budding genetic scientist, Warrick had taken up the deal with the company as soon as it was offered to him. He had practically signed the contract in blood, so strict were the clauses, but he was glad that he had. Working on the large-scale experiments that were being conducted by the company here was a thrill. There was so much to learn that he never thought he would ever know. Textbooks couldn't teach the science he was learning here. Henry stood back from the cage and shook his head.

"No. That won't do. Perhaps we need to raise the exposure." He carefully removed the small cat from the cage and handed it to Warrick. "Here. Take this animal back to the keeping room, would you? Be careful not to let it scratch you, the last thing we need is for an accident here."

Warrick nodded and held the cat. It was a gorgeous black and white kitten. The blue tag on its ear read T-092. He took it into the back room and placed it in its cage. He returned to the lab.

"Dr Sarton, is Smokey going to be used in the 'T-000' experiment?"

"Why do you ask, Warrick?"

He shrugged. "Her tag says T-092. I was curious to know, seeing as the only creatures bearing that code are T-Grade Bio-Organics, which, if I'm not mistaken, are the main B.O.W.s."

Henry laughed. "Very observant, Warrick. Yes, Smokey was intended for that experiment. But the way things are going at the moment; I think she may be a failure. The virus doesn't seem to be affecting her at all."

Warrick nodded as Henry picked up the empty vial and sealed it into a contamination bag. Warrick looked around at the small laboratory he was all too familiar with. Once or twice he had thought that perhaps what was going on here was wrong, but after considering what could become of it, he had managed to convince himself otherwise. But some of the creatures, especially the mammalian specimens, really frightened him. Particularly the green monsters that were held in the B4 holding rooms. Though he hadn't really seen them very often, when he had been shown the creatures, they had really frightened him. Henry looked at him.

"You can go now Warrick, could I trouble you to feed the Cerberus'? I don't exactly have the time right now."

"Yes sir."

He smiled and turned back to what he was doing. Warrick left the room, and shuddered. He didn't like the dogs. But there was something he disliked more. One of the consultative researchers who occasionally came in from Raccoon City. He didn't know his name, but he knew him well enough to stay away. The scientist in question was standing close by in the hall, talking to one of the other researchers, a young man whom he only knew as Dr Fidler. Warrick turned quickly and put his head down, walking quickly down the hall. Just as he came to the stairs, someone darted out in front of him and cut him off.

"Whoa, son! Where're you off to in such a hurry?" Warrick looked up. Dr Fidler grinned. "Can I get you to give me a hand, kid? Warrick, wasn't it? I'm Dr Fidler. Richard Fidler."

He nodded. "Yes sir. Nice to meet you."

"You to. Well kiddo, I was wondering if you're in any particular hurry, 'cause I need someone to give me a quick hand down on B4."

Warrick shuddered and looked past him, up the stairs, wishing that there was some way to get away from the task that was about to be set for him.

"I....I was just about to feed the dogs...." he said shakily, and looked up the stairs. Dr Fidler waved it away.

"Aww, they've been alright all day, I'm sure they can wait another half hour or less. Come on, thanks Warrick, there's a good lad."

Warrick followed him unwillingly down to the elevator to B4. Dr Fidler grinned at him.

"Yeah, I know. The monsters are scary, but they can't get out, you're fine. Is that the problem?"

Warrick shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"You're a little young to be a scientist, aren't you?"

"I'm an apprentice."

"All the same, how old are you? 17, 18?"

"19."

"Just a little off."

The elevator stopped and Dr Fidler slid open the grated door. He led him into a room at the end of the hall. There were a few other scientists in the room. Dr Fidler approached a tank at one end of the room.

"Now, what I want you to do is this. This is the room we use for holding the T-000 specimens, and I'm sure you know that. Over in the corner is a computer. Can I get you to run up some of the reports on the following specimens?"

Dr Fidler led him to the computer and loaded a slide cartridge into the high-tech printer next to the PC.

"Okay, I want you to bring up the Cerberus, Neptune, Hunter, Tyrant and copy the pictures from the file on the B.O.W. progress. And when you're finished, just put it up in the Visual Data Room and you can be on your way. Thanks for your co-operation, Warrick, I appreciate it."

Warrick nodded and set to it.

Warrick, Henry and Richard all turned in surprise as the alarm sounded out through the lab. Hitting the switch on the projector, Henry bolted from the room to see what all the ruckus was. Richard ran to the door and looked out. Three scientists ran up the stairs from B3.

"Hey! Hey you! What happened down there?"

They looked at him. "Dr Fidler! Come with us! There was an accident in the lab, we have to evacuate the laboratory until clean up arrives and secures the area. Until then, anyone who comes after us will be sealed in the lab."

Richard nodded and ducked back inside. "Come on, kiddo, there's been an accident. Let's go. Before we get locked in."

Warrick followed closely as they were led from the lab. As soon as they left, two of the scientists took the medals from their respective alcoves in the side of the outer rim of the shaft that led to the underground lab. The third held open two books, a blue one and a red one. The two medals were placed in the red and blue books separately. He handed them back to the men.

"Put Doom Book 1 somewhere in the mansion. Put the other one in the Underground. Make sure they're hard to access."

Warrick stepped forward. "What? You're just going to lock them down there?"

The head scientist turned to him. "This is no time for you to have a morals issue, boy. This is a Class-B emergency."

Richard looked at them with a hard expression. "What exactly, did happen down there?"

"One of the sealed bulk canisters containing the virus was broken when one of the creatures escaped momentarily."

"Good God! Is it under control?"

He shook his head. "There were casualties associated with the escape of the animal. Some other researchers died immediately when they came in contact with the virus material."

"Dr Fidler, what's going to happen?" Warrick asked shakily. Richard shook his head.

"I'm head scientist for this particular experiment, so listen up you three and do exactly as I tell you. The lab emergency protocol is in action as of now. We have to fully seal the laboratory, and suspend all other experiments currently being conducted with the material in question. Put everyone on alert. There's a possibility that some of the other animals may have escaped.

"Issue these orders to all security personnel; shoot all intruders on sight. Anyone who tries to escape the mansion, shoot them also. Any animal that is seen outside its pen is to be eliminated. The Helicopter Port is still off limits. Follow the security procedure used in the case of a full-scale intrusion. No one gets in, no one gets out. Have the underground sealed, and the door into the courtyard closed off also. Anyone in the guardhouse is to stay there.

"Lock doors vital for procedure through the mansion and store the keys at separate intervals and activate the emergency traps. Begin to run tests on all scientists immediately and issue the contamination suits to anyone not infected. Move it!" Richard grabbed Warrick's arm. "Come on. Back to the mansion."

"Okay, take this down. On May the 11th there was an accident resulting in the release of a certain agent being developed by the company in the Arklay Mountain laboratory. This is a record of the events and the actions taken by the staff.

"The early morning experiments were progressing as planned until the laboratory alarms were sounded. The reason for this alert was discovered upon our exit of the facility. In the basement levels of the laboratory, an accident was caused by the escape of one of the MA-121 specimens being held in the B4 laboratory. This accident resulted in the now imminent outbreak of the contagion known as the T-Virus. A full-scale containment operation was launched to avoid possible spread of the virus.

"Though the efforts to contain the virus to the laboratory had been successful due to the fact that Tyrant Virus is not an airborne contagion, our efforts had been in vain due to the presence of many experimental specimens, which had escaped during the emergency. They have attacked and killed several of the researchers already. Areas where these creatures have gained access to the mansion were cordoned off in the efforts to contain them. Some of these said areas included the Courtyard, Guardhouse, Underground and the Laboratory. Also, some of the B.O.W.s had escaped.

"Of these, a few have been traced. The giant snake has been found to be in the attic room, but is somehow gaining access to the library. The spider Black Tiger is in the storage room of the Underground, and has blocked the door through by casting a web across it. Plant 42 is in the main room of the Guardhouse. Tyrant has luckily not escaped. The door to the Helicopter Port has also been welded shut. Therefore all precautions have been taken to prevent any further contamination.

"Headquarters were contacted and advice on other ways to handle the situation has been requested. As of yet we have received no reply. We do not expect to for a few days. But we have learned of a new threat. As many of the researchers have no full awareness of symptoms unique to the virus, they may spend days locked in their rooms to develop the virus without our knowledge.

"At this very moment tests are still being conducted to define the number of remaining individuals who have contracted the virus. Already many of these individuals are showing symptoms, or their tests are turning up positive. More than half of the staff have been infected. Therefore our efforts to contain the virus have failed. The only conclusion we can come to now, is that the virus is somehow being spread through a vermin, or has mixed with the water and is being spread by this means. We are suspecting the latter.

"It is now May 14th. We have also found that some of the test subjects have escaped into the surrounding forest. Due to the quarantine regulations however, we cannot track down the escaped specimens. Another accident that occurred involved the Aqua Ring. A scientist lost his sanity on discovering the outbreak and fractured the tank. The resulting damage included the flooding of the Guardhouse basement and the escape of Neptune Prime. This has been troublesome, seeing as Plant 42 seems to be feeding off the nutrients and viral traces in the water.

"Other than these observations, we have found that the virus decomposes the human flesh and mind as it progresses. The individual is clinically dead, though still walking. They become zombie-like. When struck down, they undergo a further transformation and become incredibly volatile. We have come to call them 'Crimson Heads'. It is now certain that the mansion laboratory experiments have been successful — the escaped monsters are veritable killing machines with very few effective ways with which they can be dealt. The virus itself is lethal.

"The ultimate conclusion? For the heads of the company, this disaster will go down as the ultimate proof that this experiment was successful. The ultimate truth? We are doomed. Whether or not I, or any other researcher for that matter, should come away from this alive and unscathed, the world will be doomed at the hands of this virus, or any other enhancement of it."

"Shall I put it down as your final hypothesis, Dr Fidler?"

Richard looked at Warrick. "If you like, I don't think it will matter. It probably will be my final hypothesis. After all, as I said my boy, we ARE doomed."