The Next Day
Within mere hours, the Umbrella Corporation suffered two devastating setbacks: the loss of the administrative train the Ecliptic Express and the complete destruction of the Hive, a subterranean research lab beneath the Arklay Forest. The Company raced to gain a handle on the situation, calling in some of its most capable and ruthless agents to secure the two sites and recover anything salvageable.
Meanwhile, elements of the Raccoon City Police Department's elite Special Weapons and Tactics Service Bravo Team tried to find each other in the Forest. Enrico Marini, Captain of STARS B Team, already felt the loss of at least one of his men, Edward Dewey, killed by horrors unspeakable, monsters created by Umbrella for war. Rebecca Chambers, the rookie medic for Bravo Team, had faced her own demons, but had survived with the help of Billy Coen, an escaped convict, and Mathias Dawson, a childhood friend. But Mat had been lost when the Ecliptic Express crashed, and Rebecca and Billy parted ways in the early morning of July 25th. Rebecca left to find the remains of her team, who were taking cover inside what appeared to be an abandoned mansion deep in the forest.
The STARS thought their nightmare was over. But some terrors become more gruesome in the daylight…
Chapter 1
Scattered
(ENRICO)
Enrico Marini watched the first rays of sunlight as they filtered through the broken windows of the conveniently placed mansion he, Forest, and Richard had taken refuge in. They had needed a place to take a quick breather; otherwise Enrico would have pulled them back to their crash site. With luck, Kevin would point Alpha team in their direction, and rescue wouldn't be far away. Otherwise…
Otherwise, we might all be really, really screwed Enrico thought glumly. He looked over his shoulder.
Richard Aiken was stretched out across the steps leading to the mansion's second floor, apparently catching up on some sleep. Enrico didn't hold that against the communications expert, though he did envy the other man. They were all tired, but as captain Enrico was expected to keep an eye on the situation at all times.
Not sleeping was Forest Speyer, Bravo team's explosives expert and marksmen. He was currently leaning up against a wall, his Milkor grenade launcher leaning up against his leg.
Enrico watched as Forest struck a match against the wall, then lit a cigarette he had somehow managed to keep dry throughout their entire journey the previous night. Forest stood smoking, seemingly unconcerned about the situation, but Enrico knew better. The loud Southerner wasn't happy about the way things had gone the last few hours, and Enrico knew he'd have to settle things with Forest sooner or later. All the same, he'd rather do that back at the HQ in Raccoon City then here in some abandoned mansion.
"Why don't you get some shut-eye, Forest?" he said, stepping toward the younger man.
Forest shrugged. "It's alright, sir. I'm okay."
"You sure?"
Forest nodded. "Yep. Just ready for this all to be over with."
There was nothing in Forest's demeanor to suggest he was upset, but Enrico didn't buy it all the same. He knew that the other man needed something to be doing. Honestly, that wouldn't be so bad for me either Enrico thought to himself.
He walked over to where Richard was stretched out on the stairs. It had to be an uncomfortable place to sleep, but it was also a testament to how tired the STARS were. If Enrico could have fallen asleep standing up, with his eyes open, he would have.
After rousing his communications expert, Enrico addressed the two men who were, for all he knew, the sole survivors of the STARS Bravo team, with volunteer detachments from the regular RPD and SWAT. He shook his head. How things get this bad, go this wrong? He chased such thoughts away a moment later. Worry about why later. Now, just focus on getting everyone home.
"This mansion is enormous" Enrico said, gesturing about. "It would be expedient to search it completely. We might run into our wayward teammates, or some local caretaker who can get us a phone to call out of here."
Forest looked around and sniffed. "Jeez, Captain. A caretaker? It's obvious that nobody's been here in months, if not years. There's nothing gonna help us get out of this mess."
Enrico met the outburst with patience. Worry about Forest later. Just get everyone home. "There's not a very high likelihood that anyone useful will be here, but not anything. We need to go over this place top to bottom, make sure we leave no inch uncovered. That way we can be sure we don't miss anything. Any questions?" Neither Forest nor Richard said anything. "Good. Now, Forest, I want you to-" He finished up detailing their plan of search. Enrico would handle the back of the mansion, Richard would take the second floor, and Forest would handle the ground.
"Be sure and come back here if you find anything. Otherwise, we meet back here every hour."
On that note, the three STARS broke apart. Enrico couldn't help remembering that this was how things had gone the night before. Try as he might, he couldn't keep from feeling as if he could've done something better. He had the distinct feeling those wouldn't go away for the rest of his life.
(REBECCA)
Rebecca had spotted the emergency flare in the distance when she had left Billy on the hill. That's where they are she told herself. Just get there, and it's all over.
It didn't look like she'd face much resistance on this particular journey. After fighting her way through a laboratory full of horrors, this wasn't going to be so difficult.
Just look at it that way Rebecca told herself. After everything you've been through, this won't be so hard. Right?
But Rebecca was exhausted. She'd been running most of the night on pure adrenaline the past few hours, and now that her life was no longer in immediate danger, she was starting to crash. And that's not good Rebecca told herself. If I pass out in the middle of the forest, no one will ever find me.
She wasn't sure the rest of her team could get on without her, either. What if one of them was critically injured? They could die if she wasn't there to treat them. It was one thing if she died, but quite another if someone else died because she didn't have what it took to make it back to them.
The only thing Rebecca could do was try and lighten her load. The first thing she dumped was the MP5 she had collected from the Ecliptic Express. She made sure and took all of the weapon's magazines (since the Samurai Edge fired the same bullet she could use the ammo), then hid the weapon in a pile of brush near a tree. Later, she might come back for it; in the meantime, she hoped she had kept anyone from finding the submachine gun.
She ended up ditching the extra ammo shortly later, though. There was simply no sense in her carrying over two hundred rounds for her handgun. She doubted (she hoped) that she wouldn't need that many bullets.
She thought about ditching her bullet proof vest too. She hadn't run into much gunfire in the lab; fortunately, zombies didn't seem to be able to use weapons. The vest had gotten scratched and torn during the fighting, to the point where the large red cross, denoting Rebecca's status as a medic, was all but unrecognizable.
Finally she made up her mind and decided to keep it. It had extra pockets, and that meant she could carry all notebook they had found inside the Umbrella labs.
The notebook was a goldmine of information, and there was no way Rebecca was going to leave it behind somewhere. It detailed Umbrella's dark deeds from all the way back to the 1970's, and would be invaluable in bringing the Company down. And that made everything she and Billy had gone through the previous night worth it.
Rebecca remembered the pained look on Edward's face as he warned her about the dangers lurking in the Arklay Forest, then the look of slack hunger he had had once he had succumbed and joined the other infected. She remembered the look of grim determination on Mat's face the last time she'd seen him, before he had given his life to save her and Billy. The horribly disfigured pile of corpses she and Billy had found in the labs.
And all of it because of Umbrella, the shadowy corporation behind it all. Umbrella had founded the research, had murdered Doctor Marcus to protect their secrets, and prompted the mad scientist to return and start killing everyone who crossed his path. Now that I think about it, Umbrella's probably behind the Arklay Cannibals too Rebecca realized. Some of the zombies must have wandered onto the outskirts of town. And she had an even more disturbing thought. No one ever saw the killers. That means they could still be out there, waiting. People would see them and think they were just harmless bums, no threat until they started biting. And just like that, the T-virus would reach Raccoon City.
No Rebecca silently vowed. Not while I'm alive. I'll make it my life's work if I have to, but no one will ever have to go through what Edward and so many others did. No one else will know what it feels like to wake up dead and hungry.
She didn't have farther to get to the mansion Enrico had pointed out earlier. Rebecca was glad. The sooner she got back to the other STARS, the sooner she could get rescued and the sooner she'd be back in Raccoon City. Then she'd get to work.
(MAT)
Mat Dawson woke up with a headache. Maybe not a headache precisely, but definite head pain. That could have been because he'd just been blown out of a building, had been hit over the head with a lead pipe, or just because that's what happened when you hung upside down in a tree for about an hour.
The first thing Mat saw when he opened his eyes was the barrel of the P90, a few feet from his face.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, flinching back. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was being held at gunpoint by a tree, and laughed out loud. He stopped that quickly, though; laughing hurt.
"Well" he said, dropping his arms down limply. "This is interesting."
He was stuck in the tree in such a way that he couldn't twist around to see how far down the ground was. He decided to stop trying after the tree groaned ominously. Keep squirming around, and it might drop him rather unceremoniously on his ass.
Mat decided to concentrate on freeing the P90. It was hanging by its strap from a branch that was out of his reach. He could reach out and just barely touch the barrel of the submachine gun, but nothing more. Trying just made the weapon swing tantalizingly out of reach.
"C'mon, c'mon" he muttered, reaching out for his gun. He half propped himself up, stopping the rush of blood into his body. His legs had gone all tingly, and he didn't need an MD to know that wasn't good.
"Really?" he complained as the weapon rocked back again. "You are not making this easy, you know that?"
The tree was groaning in protest at his movements, but he was so close. Just a little closer…
"Oh-" Mat began as the tree branches he had been hanging from suddenly snapped and dropped him what turned out to be about seven feet. Mat hit the ground and, more importantly the rocks therein, and for the second in a little less than an hour was out cold. This bout of unconsciousness didn't last as long, though.
Almost mockingly the P90 slipped off its branch and dropped, butt first, onto Mat's gut. He groaned in long suffering misery, then slowly picked himself up off the ground. He slung the P90 over his shoulder (damn, why does everything hurt? he wondered), then decided to have a look around.
There was a huge smoking crater where the Hive had once been. Chad had been right; the self destruct system inside the lab had made sure Umbrella wouldn't get any more use out of it.
Unfortunately, it had also destroyed any evidence of Company wrong doing. Mat, along with Rain Ocampo and JD Salinas had planned to bring down the pharmaceutical enterprise by exposing its weapons research and viral experimentation, but it looked like all of that had gone down the drain.
Back to square one Mat thought dismally.
The Arklay Forest was still. Mat thought about the Umbrella mercenaries he had met inside the Hive: Rain, JD, Olga Danilova, and Chad Kaplan. They had given their lives for each other, and now Mat was the only member of their little circle still on his feet. That meant he owed something to their memories. He remembered Rain's last words to him. Just keep fighting Umbrella.
Mat set his jaw. He wouldn't let them have died in vain. He would keep fighting. He knew he didn't have enough information to bring Umbrella down on his own, but if he could get back to Rebecca…
"Then I might have a chance."
Mat's voice broke the silence of the forest. It was almost like the Arklay was holding its breath, waiting for what was going to happen next. Me too Mat thought. Me too.
The quiet let Mat pick up a sound he instantly recognized as out of place; the drone of helicopters. His face brightened. The RPD! They must have found Kevin! They're coming to rescue us!
But as Mat got a closer look at the approaching aircraft, he realized that these were no police helicopters. They were large, twin rotor military vehicles, the kind designed for transporting large numbers of soldiers quickly. And if they were on their way to the Hive, then it was pretty easy to guess who they belonged to.
Mat decided that, seeing as how he had assisted in the destruction of the labs, it would probably be a good idea to make himself scarce. While the choppers were still only a dark spot on the horizon, slowly advancing, Mat slipped into the forest.