AN: The group of OCs who begin this story will not appear in the next two parts (books). There are canon (official) characters who die non-canon deaths.
-Meeting Chris Redfield-
They were having a bad day.
All of them appeared in this place out of nowhere. Noel Jones had taken his teenage daughter to an old, unused parking lot to get driving practice for her highly desired license. The lot belonged to a pharmaceutical company that went out of business years ago. They were out of the car a matter of minutes to finish their coffees when they appeared in a new location in the blink of an eye.
He and Claire didn't arrive in this unknown place alone.
Two men a few years apart in appearance, shared they were brothers, Nathan and Steven Russo. The black-haired, dark-eyed pair showed up in the large room when they did. Six other men were there too. These six introduced themselves as having been inside the abandoned building connected to the parking. Four of them were FBI agents dressed in tactical gear. The lead agent had shaven hair and was named Anderson. The agents were working alongside a scientist named Dr. Yasir Patel, and a man named Lucas. Lucas had a pasty complexion and bags under his eyes. He wore plain clothes and offered he was with the FBI to avoid prison.
An arm around his daughter's shoulders, keeping an eye on the shady type Lucas seemed, he established they were inside a mansion with an older sort of decor. The foyer in which they stood was brightly lit and quiet. He walked them closer to the front door wondering what they would see when they opened it. The others were busy delivering unfounded accusations and blame shifting despite having to know none of them had the power to do such a thing or reason.
Noel decided to take the initiative, saying, "Okay, everyone remain calm. We have to figure out where we are and the way out. It's simple so nobody needs to panic."
He absorbed his surroundings. There was a large staircase leading up to a second floor and a door to his left and right. Turning and putting his back to the stairs, he focused his attention on a third set of double doors straight ahead. He pointed it out to the others.
"I suggest we take the exit and try to figure out where we are."
As if on cue, one side of the doors burst open. A team of uniformed men ran inside. Mostly uniformed. An odd man out wore lighter gear, however, they all had the same symbol on a shoulder of their outfit sleeve.
The last one in slammed the door behind him and rested his back against the door, completely out of breath. By their clothing, they were clearly field operatives of some kind and they were armed and wearing equipment. A man possibly in his early to mid-thirties was the first to notice the dozen or so people standing around the foyer. He signaled the other four agents or soldiers, who quickly raised their weapons at them.
The man who had taken notice of them did the same with his handgun, eyeing them suspiciously. Noel settled his hands on his daughter's shoulders, squeezing to provide comfort. He maneuvered Claire behind him, surveying the confrontation potentially generating.
"Identify yourselves!" the uniquely attired soldier commanded. "What are you doing here?"
Having had enough of this confusion, the older of the two brothers spoke to the armed soldiers.
"We don't know how we got here. All of us are just people who ended up in this house. My name is Nathan Russo, this is my little brother, Steven. We have no clue what's going on or how it's possible."
The man frowned, most likely not knowing what to believe. "What do you mean you don't know how you got here?"
"I'm Agent Anderson with the FBI," the federal agent revealed. "I was investigating a series of disappearances in Wimberly, Texas with my team."
The soldier observed him indicating his team members, disregarding the four civilians who came to be in this mansion too. "Texas? This is Colorado."
"What?" Nathan breathed in disbelief.
The sentiment was mirrored on the faces of everyone else in their group. Noel felt Claire nudge his arm when she moved to stand at his side. He ran a hand through her blonde waves of hair, hoping she wasn't very afraid or worried. He could do the concern enough for the both of them.
"The Arklay Mountains to be precise," the soldier volunteered. "Raccoon City used to be a few miles from here."
"Used to be?" asked Dr. Patel.
The soldier seemed saddened for a moment before he covered with a tough expression.
"Yeah, the government blew it up to stop a viral outbreak from spreading and to cover their asses."
Lucas looked at the Indian scientist. "Avoidable casualties. A real tragedy and complete waste of research and funding."
The soldier gave him a questioning stare. "What would you know about it?"
"Nothing, nothing," he replied with a smile. "Forget I said anything."
Agent Anderson was glaring at him. Noel was a former police officer until a case got him and his family put in witness protection for the past sixteen years. He understood when cops made use of criminal assets, their backgrounds had associations with the investigation or investigations they were brought in to help on. Lucas probably knew some things concerning the former pharmaceutical giant responsible for that deadly outbreak. Everyone who was an adult a decade ago when news broke about Raccoon City's destruction, also heard about Umbrella Corporation.
The soldier searched each of them over one more time and lowered his weapon. He motioned for his team to do the same. They were reluctant to do so but followed their commander's orders. Studying the odd assortment of people gathered in the foyer, he introduced himself.
"My name is Chris Redfield and I'm a special agent with the Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance. These are my comrades David, Josh, Martin, and Ethan."
Bio-terrorism? He knew of the BSAA, not much else. His work never overlapped with them while living in Florida.
He pointed to each member in turn as he supplied their names. The BSAA agent turned his gaze on Anderson, who was eyeing him with hostility and suspicion.
"What kind of disappearances were you investigating? Why send in the FBI?" Agent Redfield asked.
Anderson stared at him. "That's classified."
"You people claim you appeared out of thin air. I'm thinking the place you started might have something to do with it," Agent Redfield said.
The FBI agent in charge stonewalled. "I also hunt terrorists."
Agent Redfield took interest in this and asked, "Do you know about a potential doomsday project?"
The blankness in his expression clearly gave an answer.
"I would be very interested to know what you're all doing here but right now there isn't time. You should stay here as a group." The BSAA agent turned his gaze back to Anderson. "You and your team should keep alert until my team and I return."
Noel wasn't keen on this plan. He didn't like staying in one place for very long when he didn't know the situation or potential danger. He decided to disregard the order.
"No thank you. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm taking my daughter and getting her home. The door is right there and we'll find our own way."
He started for the door, Claire trailing slowly behind him. She seemed hesitant to leave the others behind. Admirable, considering they were strangers, but too friendly for the same reason.
One of the armed BSAA soldiers was quick to step in front of the door, blocking their exit.
"Move out of the way," he demanded sternly.
"You don't want to go out there."
Noel narrowed his eyes, adjusting his thick rimmed glasses. "Why not?"
"Skinless dogs," the soldier, Ethan, answered.
As if to prove his point, he rolled up a sleeve to show them a rather nasty dog bite on his forearm.
"Quick as hell and vicious bastards," he added, pulling his sleeve back down.
Claire seemed curious. "Why would they attack you?"
Really? It was the skinless mention he was wondering on. Were they sick? Some kind of extreme rabies?
Ethan answered her. "They used to be guard dogs for this mansion. The T-Virus leaked and infected them. Damn dogs escaped from their cages and had their first taste of human flesh. Been eating it ever since cause it's the only food they got. These days they're especially hungry seeing as the only meat around here are the rotting zombies and they don't taste very-"
"That's enough," Agent Redfield commanded. "I didn't tell you all of that so you could scare kids."
He could see Claire was getting frightened by Ethan's talk.
"Zombies?" she uttered. "You're joking, right? Those don't exist..."
Agent Redfield looked sympathetic. "What's your name?"
She lifted her gaze to look up at him. "Claire."
This brought a smile to the agent's lips. "I have a sister named Claire. She's much older than you. But she was only nineteen when she escaped Raccoon City. Claire was one of the few who did make it."
It was easy to see by the way his face fell that he did not like talking about Raccoon much.
"What happened there?"
Agent Redfield didn't seem to like the idea of answering her. All of the others in the room were watching him intently, eager to know themselves. Even his teammates seemed to want to hear him tell the story and looked at him in anticipation.
He sighed and nodded.
"Okay, I suppose you have a right to know since you're all in this mess somehow," he reasoned. "I should start from the beginning. Ten years ago I was a member of the STARS unit which stands for Special Tactics And Rescue Service. Strange murders had been occurring in the area just outside Raccoon City and the victims were apparently eaten."
He paused when several of his audience winced at this, Claire especially. He continued anyways.
"STARS was sent in to investigate the forest where most of the murders had taken place next to Raccoon City. Bravo team was sent in first but we lost contact with them. I was a member of Alpha team and we took our own helicopter to investigate. My team members were Barry, Jill, Brad, Joseph, and our leader was Captain Wesker. We found Bravo's helicopter crashed in the middle of the forest and it was after that the nightmare began. The dogs got Joseph... They were just ripping him apart and eating him alive... I'll never forget the screams... Then our helicopter pilot, Brad, panicked and abandoned us, flying away before we could reach the chopper."
It was obvious to his listeners that as he told his story, he was also reliving the memories. Noel could see he wasn't lying. The haunted look in his eyes revealed it was the truth.
He continued, "So we ran from the dogs, ran for our lives. We found this very mansion."
Agent Redfield suddenly chuckled but it was one full of irony. "We thought this mansion would be shelter. Protect us from those skinless abominations."
The man laughed again. "We were wrong. The mansion was a nightmare full of its own abominations. We were foolish and split up, thinking we could cover more ground as we searched for our missing comrades. We did find them..or at least the bodies."
He squinted, trying to think for the details. "Kenneth was the first Bravo member discovered inside the mansion. Walked in a room to find a zombie feasting on his body. Richard was nearly dead of poisoning from being attacked by a giant infected snake. I made it to him in time but he was later eaten by an enormous shark."
His listeners were staring in stunned disbelief. Sharks? Giant snakes? In a mansion? As if zombies and skinless dogs weren't hard enough to believe in the first place. Noel was feeling grateful he never worked with biological threats.
"Forrest was pecked to death by infected crows and became a zombie. I had to put him down. God... It was awful."
Claire softly spoke. "You don't have to explain how your friends died if it's too painful."
The BSAA agent shook his head. "No, they deserve to be remembered."
He went on with his tale. "As I searched the mansion on my end, I learned this mansion was built by a man named George Trevor. But the mansion was actually a cover for something much bigger. The pharmaceutical company named Umbrella, founded by a man named Oswell E. Spencer, had built underground laboratories beneath the property. Umbrella turned out to be nothing but a mask to hide what Umbrella was really doing."
Dr. Patel seemed very interested now. "What? What were they doing here?"
"Experiments. They were trying to engineer bio-weapons. They were using something called the T-Virus and there was an accident. The T-Virus leaked and infected the workers who soon became walking dead creatures. They roamed throughout the mansion, decaying, with their sad, soulless moans... But they weren't the worst of it. Many of their animal test subjects escaped from the cages. The ones I remember most were the hunters. Scary and deadly."
He grew silent for a few seconds before going on. "The one monster I will never forget was Lisa Trevor. She was human once, an innocent child. When the mansion was constructed in the 1960s, the architect, Trevor, accidentally discovered the underground laboratories. Spencer grew paranoid the man would expose their experiments. He invited Trevor's wife and daughter to the mansion, Lisa was only fourteen then... Spencer locked Trevor in a secluded room where he left the man to die. He used Trevor's wife and daughter as test subjects in their experiments. I had to kill that little girl. She'd become a hideous monster, living underground and killing anyone alive she came across." He broke off where he was headed. "I'm sorry. I'm getting off topic."
No one said anything. Noel imagined they were still reeling from the fact this company had done so many horrible things. Infecting people against their will, illegally testing on animals and humans and then to have the virus leak like that... No one wanted to think too much on it. Even Lucas appeared a little disturbed hearing what the agent was telling them had happened ten years before.
Agent Redfield retained his previous line of thought. "I learned about Umbrella's experiments and I learned something else. There was a traitor in STARS. My captain, captain of the Alpha team, Albert Wesker, was working for Umbrella all along. He led our teams to the mansion on purpose. We were to be test subjects so Umbrella could see how their bio-weapons held up against trained soldiers."
The agent clenched his fists. His face filled with anger at the thought of the traitor.
"Wesker shot and killed Enrico, the captain of Bravo team because Enrico learned of Wesker's betrayal. In the end, the remaining survivors of the two teams headed for the helipad after finally making contact with Brad. Our pilot returned to the area searching for us. Wesker woke the sleeping human experiment labeled Tyrant. He wanted to prove it was an amazing weapon but it killed him. Our team managed to kill the tyrant and we escaped on the helicopter before the mansion blew up, and don't ask me to explain how the mansion is here if it blew up. I have no idea in the slightest. Jill, Barry, and myself were the only ones from Alpha team to make it out and Rebecca was the sole survivor of Bravo team. Our pilot Brad survived as well, but..he didn't survive Raccoon City."
It visibly pained him a great deal remembering these deaths. But he was definitely determined to give them all the facts. Noel could respect it.
"We tried to tell them. We tried to tell everyone what we'd seen in that mansion but no one believed us."
Agent Redfield shook his head angrily. "They called us crazy and suspended us from STARS. Our teammates had died in vain!"
The man was fast to regain his calm and finished his story.
"A few months later, Raccoon City was affected. The entire city's population became infected by the T-Virus. There were people who hadn't been infected or changed yet but they were killed by the ones who had turned into those zombie creatures. My teammates Jill and Brad were in the city and they tried to escape while a creature named Nemesis tried to kill them. Nemesis was a monster created by Umbrella specifically designed to kill STARS. It got Brad but Jill managed to escape alive before the government blew the whole place all to hell. Umbrella had another facility underneath Raccoon where they were experimenting with something called the G-Virus. That place was the source of the outbreak, no doubt.
"So anyways, after the mansion incident and what happened in Raccoon City, myself and the other surviving members sought to expose Umbrella for what they had done. We finally succeeded but that victory was short-lived. Once Umbrella saw they were going to be ruined, they sold their viruses on the black market to the highest bidder."
The agent shook his head in disgust. "A lot of evil bastards out there I guess."
Claire glanced at Lucas when he said this. The man appeared to lack seriousness when taking the insinuation to heart, pantomiming a hurt figure. Noel put his body between them, protective. He was pleased she could suss out a suspicious character. It wasn't as great this drew a probable bad man's attention to her.
"Why Claire, I'm offended," Lucas said, words coated with sarcasm.
"You're a murderer," she told him bluntly. "Don't deny it."
What was she doing making accusations like that? He shifted to scold his daughter when the reply caught him by surprise.
"I didn't make them suffer..long," Lucas said, smiling creepily.
Noel moved them a few steps away. This man might be more dangerous than he thought.
Agent Redfield eyed the man confessing past murder as if trying to read him. A few moments longer and then he returned to the story.
"I won't get into details with the rest of what's happened up until now, but my captain from STARS, Wesker, he didn't die in that mansion incident. Well, he did die. The tyrant killed him, I saw it. But apparently Wesker managed to inject himself with an experimental serum known as the Progenitor virus before he died. The virus allowed him to resurrect and it also gave him superhuman abilities. This is the man I'm looking for. I have reason to believe he's planning to infect the entire world with a virus called Uroboros. Wesker's completely insane and extremely dangerous which is why you all need to stay here and-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence because the radio on his belt crackled to life, interrupting him.
"Chris?" a female voice came through the radio.
"That's the other team on this mission, Delta team," Agent Redfield said to answer their curious gazes, and responded on his two way radio.
"Sheva, this is Chris. What's the situation?"
"We've found how Wesker plans to disperse the virus. There's an airfield on the map of this place and I'm bettin' he's going to use an aircraft. You can get to it through some sort of underground passageway in what looks like a large residential building."
The person on the radio had a notable accent. Noel guessed some African variation in origin most likely. He had a pretty good ear for languages.
"Yeah. It's a mansion. I'm there now."
"Roger that partner. We'll catch up with you- Randall look out!"
The radio went silent and looking alarmed, the agent tried to get a hold of her with no luck. After a few moments the radio crackled and the female voice came back on. When she spoke, she sounded frightened and her breathing was rapid, rough.
"Chris! What's going on around here? The people living in a small town nearby were trying to kill us. For no reason! There's something wrong with them. I don't understand."
"I know. We ran into some of them too. They're acting like those ganado detailed in the Kennedy report."
"Oh God... You don't think that's happened here too, do you?"
"I don't know but we've got to find Wesker and stop him. Contact me when you make it to the mansion. I'm going to try and find the passageway to the airport."
"Roger that..and Chris?"
"Yeah, Sheva?"
"I'm sorry about what happened to your last partner."
The BSAA agent's eyes filled with pain and deep sorrow. He hesitated before responding.
"What happened to Jill wasn't your fault. We're partners now Sheva, and I don't regret it, okay? Focus on the mission or you'll get yourself killed."
"Right. We're partners to the end."
The radio went silent again and the agent put it away. He turned back to everyone but didn't get anything out before a grinding noise sounded from behind the large staircase. A man with slicked back hair, dressed entirely in black came walking ever so arrogantly like, into view. Black boots, black pants, black shirt, black gloves, a long black coat, and black sunglasses. It was a lot of black.
He seemed to have come from a door none of them noticed existed. He didn't take any notice of them at first, walking right past where Lucas and Agent Anderson and his men were, heading for the stairs. He made it to the fourth or fifth step before Agent Redfield pulled himself out of his shock and shouted in anger.
"Wesker!"