Outbreak

The year 1998; I'll never forget it. It was the year that changed my life and also the life of many others. My name is Ruthanne Walkin. I was born in 1980 and was raised in Raccoon City. I was only 18 when the incident with the outbreak occurred. I'll never forget that day. Ironically it was the brightest of days, the weather was beautiful, and I had just graduated from high school. Usually ceremonies like this were done later in the evening, but the auditorium that our graduation was going to be held at had already booked times for another event so our graduation was held in the early morning. I was looking forward to getting into college, naturally wanting to join the police department and hopefully rank up to be a top official officer for the government. Ever since the pharmaceutical company, Umbrella, came around, it always sparked my interest to do undercover work of some kind, possibly becoming a detective. I always enjoyed solving things and did heavy research of my own on Umbrella. I learned a lot more than the average citizen and even had gotten tid bits on a man named Ozwell E. Spencer. From what I found he was the leader of the corporate giant. I also found tid bits on a man named Albert Wesker and William Birkin whom also worked for the corporation as leading research managers, but not much was said on either of them. From photos I found of them on online research, Wesker was the one that stuck out the most, at least physically considering he was the only one wearing sunglasses, but I also had a gut feeling about him and I wasn't sure what it was or what the feeling was pertaining to. Something about him and doing research on him had me hooked from the very beginning, but I had no idea at the time just how involved I would truly become. From everything I had gathered, I never trusted Umbrella and always felt that they'd end up selling things they shouldn't on the black market, but what those things were, I could never dig up enough information on to put together a solid proof theory. My father had connections though seeing as he worked as one of the senior engineers for the power plant that powered not only the whole city, but the Umbrella Corporation as well. On rare occasions he'd bring me to his work station and I looked up files in the computer database and that's where my research on Umbrella began. I was never skeptical of something as simple as a pharmaceutical company that is until I found something on the database that you couldn't normally find in a local newspaper, despite the company having Raccoon City as its hometown. What I was found was rather startling. Umbrella had started research on viruses. No big deal right? They're business was medicine so naturally they'd have such research, but it was then my eyes laid upon the very sentence in a file I had read, "….bio-organic weapons research…." The only thing that came to mind when I had read that was bio weapons. There was no further information in the database, but I knew what I had read would not bode well.

I would never forget that sinking feeling the day I discovered such information. Somehow I knew something terrible was going to happen, but that was a year or so before graduation and with a well over a year to go by, I didn't think much of it anymore. Since then my father had never taken me back to his work place. He knew the nose digging I had done and was afraid that I would dig too deep into something that could prove to be harmful and none of my business. I understood his feelings, but this was the line of work I was going to get into eventually so I didn't think much of it, course I was also still very young at the time and as they say; young and stupid. I was determined, I wanted to know more, but they also say be careful what you wish for and it wasn't until 1998 that I got more than I bargained for. Graduation….as beautiful as a day it was, it was very depressing for me because I didn't want to say goodbye to all my friends. I knew that day we would all go our separate ways, only a few left behind to be long term friends for the future. My family and some of my relatives were there at the ceremony. After about 3 hours it ended, I had my laughs and cries, said goodbye to everyone, and then we went to a restaurant for the celebration. I thought that maybe the weird tension I felt in my chest was just from feeling depressed about graduation, but once we got to the restaurant it got worse. We sat down to eat, but it didn't take long before I had to use the restroom. I didn't actually have to go, but I needed some time to take a breather and collect my composure. As I was walking to the bathroom I heard a sudden scream as a woman ran out from the door. "What's wrong?" I asked. The woman was rather frantic as she stammered her answer. "A…rr-r-rat! A rat is in the bathroom!" I sighed of relief and rolled my eyes a bit, thinking that it was a bit ridiculous to be afraid of a rat. "Is there anyone else in there?" The woman collected herself before she finally answered back, "Y-Yes. One other woman is in there. I think she got bit." "Uh oh, that's not good. What if it had rabies?" The woman responded back, "I don't know, but I'm not going back in there to find out." "Alright. Go get a manager or something. They should have a med kit around. I'll go in there to see if she's okay." The woman nodded as we parted ways and I entered into the bathroom only to be confronted with a very odd smell. I heard the scuffling of tiny feet followed by scratching noises that seemed to emit from the inside of the walls. I figured the rat crawled away and I happened upon the woman that was said to be in the bathroom. She didn't say a word, but I could hear heavy breathing and her back was turned to me. Something wasn't quite right especially with her stance. She stood kind of crooked and her head was tilted as if her head was leaning on her left shoulder. Her arms hung dangling at her sides and I couldn't help but notice the odd tint of color in her skin and it was then I noticed that there was a bite mark near her right ankle. She grunted and moaned at times and refused to give me eye contact. "Uh…miss? Are you okay?" Her only response was another soft moan and the first thought that hit my mind was zombie. But what a stupid thought right? I mean, how could zombies exist? However, the situation was just too…odd. I couldn't help but think about movies like Night of the Living Dead that came out many years ago or old horror movies, but there was no way. Living dead? Come on. I shook the silly thoughts from my head as I went over near the sinks and got a dry cloth towel and began to rinse it down.

I wasn't looking at her directly, but I could tell in my peripheral vision that she had finally turned around to look at me and still she said nothing and that sinking feeling I had all day had just doubled in impact. I tried to put it off though because I had my own beliefs religiously about the world and the thought of walking dead just…I just couldn't comprehend it. It contradicted everything I believed. The lady would have had to die for one thing and a bite from a rat is not going to bring you back to life. Right? Of course. And just when I had wiped all doubts in my mind, one second I had caught sight of the woman in the mirrors above the sinks and I'll never forget what I saw. The woman's jaw was missing and there was blood all over her chest. Just when you think your reflexes couldn't react any faster….mine did. I jolted at least a few feet away from her as shear fear gripped me. I never understood how people could freeze in place when they were clearly in danger, but then…then I understood that feeling. I couldn't help but just stand there in complete disbelief. I just couldn't comprehend what I was seeing. The woman's eyes were pure white, no pupils in sight; her skin was grey and peeling off, some of her bones showing through her skin. My thoughts at that moment were indescribable. How could this be possible? This had to be a joke of some kind, a very good one at that, but her features….her horrific features they looked so real. Before I had a chance to even react or talk the woman suddenly growled at me and rushed at me with her hands. Thanks to defense classes I had taken since sophomore year, my immediate react was pushing her arms to the side with my right hand, while using my left hand to go above my right and punch at her face. She went back quite a few feet. She fell flat on her ass after colliding with the wall behind her and she laid upon the ground motionless. By then someone had finally come into the bathroom. It was a woman dressed in uniform, holding a first aid kit in her arms. She looked at me quizzically, "Is everything alright?" Before I could answer, although I had no idea what to say to her, the woman I had punched began to stagger back to her feet as her groans and moans were more audible this time and it was then I knew….we had to get out of there and clear the restaurant and call for help or back up of some kind. If this situation was exactly what I thought it was and that the true fairy tale nightmares of zombies was suddenly a reality, I knew my family had to get to safety as soon as possible and get the police contacted, but then I realized how the hell would they believe me? If you go screaming to police that a zombie outbreak might occur they're going to laugh and send you to the sanitarium. I had to think of something more tangible that would get people to listen. I didn't want to give the uniformed woman a chance to argue with me so I quickly urged her outside the bathroom as she began to retort back, "Hey, what are you doing?!" I quickly looked around as stares and glares were shot my way from various restaurant customers. I didn't care at that point. Their safety as well as my family's was much more important than public behavior etiquette. A fire alarm was nearby as I quickly pulled it and screamed at everyone that there was a fire and to get out. The manager behind me obviously retorted back as she knew there was no fire, but I quickly covered her mouth to keep her from revealing the truth as I whispered in her ear rather sternly, "If you do as I say you'll most likely live! You've got to get out of here. That woman is sick with something and it could cause an epidemic. This is not a joke, not get out of here!" I didn't push the woman, but I encouraged her with a nudge in the right direction. Luckily she didn't fight back with me and did as I said and just in time for that infected woman to come out from the bathroom. I noticed her within seconds as I thrust my leg backwards with a strong back kick and sent her flying back into the bathroom. I shut the door closed and grabbed a chair and propped it under the door handle to keep it from opening.

By then customers were already scrambling and screaming about as they darted for the entrance to leave. I noticed my dad had sent my mom with my brother to leave, but my father came over to me to make sure I was alright.

Ruthanne: "Dad, remember when I asked you that if there was ever a time that something unbelievable happened that I would need you to believe me and I'm not making it up? Well, now is one of those times."

Dad: "What happened?"

Ruthanne: "You're going to think I'm playing a game but, there's a zombie in the bathroom."

Dad: "………What?"

Ruthanne: "There's a zombie…in…the bathroom."

"A zombie…" he said rather irritated. He gave me one of those quizzical looks and I had no idea how to convince him aside from just showing him the zombie, but I wasn't about to do so considering the risk of him getting bit or me for that matter.

Ruthanne: "Look, I know what you're thinking, but…"

Dad: "…I don't know what game you're playing, but you're going be really sorry once I…"

Ruthanne: "…I'm not/ playing a game. If you don't believe me then you can see it for yourself, but I'd rather you not because letting that thing loose is a very bad idea."

I was hoping he would listen to reason, that is if there was any reason to logically explain that the entire restaurant is empty and that I ruined my own graduation celebration because there is a zombie in the woman's bathroom, but there wasn't. And despite me trying to implore him to just take my words at face value, he stubbornly went to the bathroom door. I quickly went after him, but he angrily kept me at distance. He was going to make sure I wasn't playing some stupid game. My saving grace was the fact that the door had a miniature window on it so that he wouldn't have to actually open it, he could just look through the window and there in plain view was the zombie woman clawing her fingers at the door and her disfigurement could be clearly seen through the window. When dad saw the zombie, it left him with his jaw dropped. He was literally speechless, similar to how I reacted when I saw the zombie.

Ruthanne: "Okay…maybe it's not a zombie…maybe it is. Either way she's infected with something and it looks pretty contagious to me. We need to get to mom and bro and..."

I was suddenly cut off by the sound of dad mumbling to himself about something, but it was quiet enough inside the restaurant that I caught what he was saying.

Dad: "It couldn't be. When Spencer said he was conducting bio-organic weapo…"

Ruthanne: "…wait. Did you just say Spencer? You mean Ozwell E. Spencer?"

Dad: "The little spout of research you did a year ago. I'm sure you already know what I'm talking about."

Ruthanne: "The Umbrella Corporation?"

Dad: "Yes."

It wasn't until he actually said it that I suddenly realized that he was probably right and it was then I remembered reading about Umbrella's bioorganic weapons research data that I had read about from before, which means that hunch I had so long ago wasn't just some imaginative paranoid thought. I knew something would go wrong, but I just had no idea what it pertained to.

Ruthanne: "Do you think Umbrella might have created something that got out?"

Dad: "Most likely. How did that woman get infected?"

Ruthanne: "The lady that was in there before that woman said the woman was bit by a rat."

Dad: "Umbrella has done countless experimentations on rats so it's likely that one of their rats got loose and now it's going to spread this infection and…."

He paused for a moment and then walked up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders.

Dad: "I'm going to tell you to do something you're not going to like, but there isn't any choice so I need you to trust me."

I hesitantly nodded my head as a knot formed in my stomach.

Dad: "I need you to go with your mother and brother and get out of this city."

Ruthanne: "W-What?! No…dad…I'm not leaving you. I…"

Dad: "Listen to me. If this situation is what it appears to be, I need to get in contact with some people at my company before this explodes into an uncontrollable epidemic. You've got to…"

Ruthanne: "…I'm not leaving you!"

I was almost yelling with intensity. I loved my mother and brother, but I was closest to dad and I didn't want to leave him. I was confident that my mother and brother could make it out together. And before my father and I could speak further, strange sounds began to emit from outside the restaurant. It sounded like screaming and large booming sounds like an explosion went off nearby and it was then that my brother had entered back into the restaurant. His face was white as a ghost.

Brother: "Y-You…gotta come see this."

My father and I exchanged glances before we went rushing out of the restaurant and the sight to be seen was implausible. About half the lights of the city were blotted out, people were running down the streets, and there was garbage and pieces of paper strewn all over the main road we were on. Some windows in some nearby shops were broken out and there was a flipped car that was toppled over on a fire hydrant while a bus was crashed into the side of a building. It was like I was living in a horror survival game.

Mother: "What in heaven's name is going on?"

Although I had an answer for my mother, words could not come out of my mouth. I was too distracted with the atmosphere around us of the shear panic and fear emitting from each individual that ran by, screaming hysterically. It was then a woman on the other side of the street instantly screamed out "Zombies!". Her hand was held out as her finger pointed at the end of the major street and as we looked we saw a group of people who had the same disfiguring features as the zombie woman in the bathroom. Although they were still far away, they had that ever familiar dragging stance, grayish molding skin, bones revealed or hanging out as if they were broken, and pupils whited out. The very smell was overwhelming. It was the reek of death or more specifically the undead.

None of the citizens running by were even bothering with driving a car. They were too hysterical and scared. Dad approached my mom and said his goodbyes as tears formed down her eyes, not being able to comprehend what was really going on. My brother rushed to the driver's seat as my mother got in the passenger seat. I was well prepared to leave with dad, but he had other intentions. Without warning dad had shoved me into the back of the car as my brother locked the doors to keep me from escaping. I was frantic. I just couldn't comprehend leaving my dad. The windows wouldn't go down and the locking mechanism was set to child safety so I couldn't even unlock my own door. And as my brother drove away, my father stood in the street giving me one last glance as his eyes spoke "goodbye." That was the straw that broke the camel's back. With one shove of my elbow I broke the window next to me as my brother jolted the steering wheel from the sound as the car swerved to the side. Luckily it didn't flip or sway as it jolted to a complete stop, leaving dark tread marks from behind the tires. I used that opportunity to break away the rest of the glass as I managed to get out of the window and onto the gravel. "What are you doing?!" my brother yelled as my mother cried out "Ruthanne!" They were quickly getting out of the car as I was on my way to leave.

Mom: "Wait daughter! Where are you going?"

Ruthanne: "I'm going back to dad!"

Mom: "In this mess?!"

Ruthanne: "I'm not going to leave him. If I go with him then maybe there's a chance he can survive."