Don't own a thing etc. Enjoy!
A Binary Choice
by
DarkSpade
==============================================================
Ends and beginnings - there are no such things. There are only middles.
-Robert Frost
==============================================================
June 10th, 2005 - 7 years after mansion incident
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The intercom crackled to life as the young doctor placed another slide under the microscope. The slide contained a particularly potent variant of the ebola virus which had already killed hundreds of people across several villages in central Africa.
"Dr. Chambers, there's a phone call for you."
"I'm kind of busy, Helen. I still have a lot of work to do on these ebola samples. Can you take a message?" she asked.
"They said it was urgent and that you'd wan't to speak to them." answered Helen.
After pausing for a second she decided. "Fine. I'm coming out."
The door closed behind her as she entered the decontamination room. After a few seconds her biohazard suit was sprayed down with water from nozzles which lined the white room. When the process was complete the door in front of her opened and she stepped out into a locker room.
Rebecca Chambers removed the hood of the suit and threw it on the bench in the middle of the room. Then she unzipped the front of it and stepped out of it. She hung the oversized biohazard suit on a hook and took her white lab coat from another.
She put the lab coat on over her jeans and t-shirt, checking to see that her ID was still attached, cringing slightly as she saw the terrible picture of herself printed on it next to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) logo.
She walked out of the locker room to see her assistant, Helen, standing standing outside. Helen was nineteen and had only been Rebecca's assistant for a few weeks. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Doctor, but the guy on the phone sounded serious." she explained to Rebecca.
"It's okay, Helen. I'll take the call in my office. Who did you say was calling?" Rebecca replied.
"I-I didn't. He-he didn't give me a name. He just said he was an old friend of yours and he needed your help with an urgent problem." Helen stuttered. "I'm sorry, I should have asked."
"Don't worry about it. It's almost lunchtime. Why don't you take your break a little early today?" said Rebecca, as she turned around to walk back to her office, eager to find out who the mystery caller was.
Rebecca took the stairs up two floors to her office. The office was still new to her. There were boxes waiting to be unpacked all over the room. Up until a few weeks ago she had been sharing a cramped office on the floor below with two other junior researchers. Rebecca weaved through the boxes and dropped heavily into the chair behind the cluttered desk and picked up the phone. The light next to the 'hold' button was flashing. She pressed it.
"Hello." came a deep male voice.
"Barry!? Is that you?" exclaimed Rebecca excitedly, instantly recognising the voice on the other end of the line.
"Hey, Becca. Yeah, it's me. So how are things in Atlanta? Chris told me that you just got promoted." said Barry.
"Yeah, they gave me a huge office and a raise. They even gave me an assistant. I moved into the office a few weeks ago but there are still boxes full of stuff everywhere. I don't even know what's in half of them." Rebecca told him.
"Wow. What's your assistant like?" asked Barry.
"Well, she's kinda new but she once she gets used to the job I think she'll do great. So, how about you _Chief_ Burton. What's it like to be running your own police department? I'll bet Denver is now one of the safest places in America now thanks to you."
"That's kinda what I'm calling about. We might have a serious problem here. Last night a patrol car interrupted an assault in progress in the suburbs of the city. The two officers were able to stop the assault but when the suspect turned on them they fired at him in self-defence. They shot him nine times in total before he went down." Barry explained.
"That's terrible, Barry. But I don't see what this has to do with me." said Rebecca.
"Well, after the incident the coroner called and brought the body to the morgue. According to what the coroner told me, the man was already showing early signs of decomposition." Barry began. Rebecca didn't like where this was going. "Then during the middle of the examination the body began to move. The coroner was still in shock when I talked to him. The body attacked him, but luckily for him a couple of my detectives were there working on a case. They shot it a couple of times and it went down. They dragged it into the quarantine area of the morgue. That was about an hour ago. As soon as I heard what happened I came down to the morgue. That's where I am now."
"And?" asked Rebecca, already knowing what Barry was going to say.
"When I got here it was already walking around the quarantine room. It's a zombie, not as decayed as the other T-Virus victims, but it's obvious." Barry continued.
Rebecca felt numb. This wasn't supossed to happen. This couldn't happen. Not after everything they had accomplished. Four years ago they had brought Umbrella down. After years of collecting evidence, sabotaging facilities and trying to convince the world what was going on they had succeeded. Once they had convinced the American and European governments, Umbrella had no chance. On the same day the media were shown proof of Umbrella's experiments, military strikes were launched against Umbrella compounds all over the world. There were mass protests against Umbrella, their stock price dropped like a rock causing chaos on the world's financial markets. The Umbrella board of directors either comitted suicide, disappeared or were arrested. It had taken less that three days for Umbrella to crumble to nothing thanks mostly to the work of the STARS.
"Barry. That's not possible! Every last drop of the T-Virus was destroyed and all the research as well!" Rebecca said desparately.
"I know Rebecca. We were both there but.......but there is just no other way to explain it. I need you to come out here and take a look for yourself. Apart from the former Umbrella scientists, you know this virus better than anyone. And this is what you do now, right?" asked Barry.
"Yeah. I'll go talk to my boss right now and get him to send a team out to you. If things go smoothly we should be out there in less that six hours. Oh, and Barry, you need to seal off any area's where the infected person has been and get everyone who has been in contact with him checked out." explained Rebecca.
"It's already been taken care of. The site of the assault has already been sealed off and so has the morgue. Were also checking anyone who has gone near the zombie. We really need you out here Becca. If this virus gets out it'll be a hell of a lot worse than even Raccoon City."
"I'll be there as soon as I can. Be careful, Barry." said Rebecca, before hanging up the phone and sprinting out of her office.
A Binary Choice
by
DarkSpade
==============================================================
Ends and beginnings - there are no such things. There are only middles.
-Robert Frost
==============================================================
June 10th, 2005 - 7 years after mansion incident
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The intercom crackled to life as the young doctor placed another slide under the microscope. The slide contained a particularly potent variant of the ebola virus which had already killed hundreds of people across several villages in central Africa.
"Dr. Chambers, there's a phone call for you."
"I'm kind of busy, Helen. I still have a lot of work to do on these ebola samples. Can you take a message?" she asked.
"They said it was urgent and that you'd wan't to speak to them." answered Helen.
After pausing for a second she decided. "Fine. I'm coming out."
The door closed behind her as she entered the decontamination room. After a few seconds her biohazard suit was sprayed down with water from nozzles which lined the white room. When the process was complete the door in front of her opened and she stepped out into a locker room.
Rebecca Chambers removed the hood of the suit and threw it on the bench in the middle of the room. Then she unzipped the front of it and stepped out of it. She hung the oversized biohazard suit on a hook and took her white lab coat from another.
She put the lab coat on over her jeans and t-shirt, checking to see that her ID was still attached, cringing slightly as she saw the terrible picture of herself printed on it next to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) logo.
She walked out of the locker room to see her assistant, Helen, standing standing outside. Helen was nineteen and had only been Rebecca's assistant for a few weeks. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Doctor, but the guy on the phone sounded serious." she explained to Rebecca.
"It's okay, Helen. I'll take the call in my office. Who did you say was calling?" Rebecca replied.
"I-I didn't. He-he didn't give me a name. He just said he was an old friend of yours and he needed your help with an urgent problem." Helen stuttered. "I'm sorry, I should have asked."
"Don't worry about it. It's almost lunchtime. Why don't you take your break a little early today?" said Rebecca, as she turned around to walk back to her office, eager to find out who the mystery caller was.
Rebecca took the stairs up two floors to her office. The office was still new to her. There were boxes waiting to be unpacked all over the room. Up until a few weeks ago she had been sharing a cramped office on the floor below with two other junior researchers. Rebecca weaved through the boxes and dropped heavily into the chair behind the cluttered desk and picked up the phone. The light next to the 'hold' button was flashing. She pressed it.
"Hello." came a deep male voice.
"Barry!? Is that you?" exclaimed Rebecca excitedly, instantly recognising the voice on the other end of the line.
"Hey, Becca. Yeah, it's me. So how are things in Atlanta? Chris told me that you just got promoted." said Barry.
"Yeah, they gave me a huge office and a raise. They even gave me an assistant. I moved into the office a few weeks ago but there are still boxes full of stuff everywhere. I don't even know what's in half of them." Rebecca told him.
"Wow. What's your assistant like?" asked Barry.
"Well, she's kinda new but she once she gets used to the job I think she'll do great. So, how about you _Chief_ Burton. What's it like to be running your own police department? I'll bet Denver is now one of the safest places in America now thanks to you."
"That's kinda what I'm calling about. We might have a serious problem here. Last night a patrol car interrupted an assault in progress in the suburbs of the city. The two officers were able to stop the assault but when the suspect turned on them they fired at him in self-defence. They shot him nine times in total before he went down." Barry explained.
"That's terrible, Barry. But I don't see what this has to do with me." said Rebecca.
"Well, after the incident the coroner called and brought the body to the morgue. According to what the coroner told me, the man was already showing early signs of decomposition." Barry began. Rebecca didn't like where this was going. "Then during the middle of the examination the body began to move. The coroner was still in shock when I talked to him. The body attacked him, but luckily for him a couple of my detectives were there working on a case. They shot it a couple of times and it went down. They dragged it into the quarantine area of the morgue. That was about an hour ago. As soon as I heard what happened I came down to the morgue. That's where I am now."
"And?" asked Rebecca, already knowing what Barry was going to say.
"When I got here it was already walking around the quarantine room. It's a zombie, not as decayed as the other T-Virus victims, but it's obvious." Barry continued.
Rebecca felt numb. This wasn't supossed to happen. This couldn't happen. Not after everything they had accomplished. Four years ago they had brought Umbrella down. After years of collecting evidence, sabotaging facilities and trying to convince the world what was going on they had succeeded. Once they had convinced the American and European governments, Umbrella had no chance. On the same day the media were shown proof of Umbrella's experiments, military strikes were launched against Umbrella compounds all over the world. There were mass protests against Umbrella, their stock price dropped like a rock causing chaos on the world's financial markets. The Umbrella board of directors either comitted suicide, disappeared or were arrested. It had taken less that three days for Umbrella to crumble to nothing thanks mostly to the work of the STARS.
"Barry. That's not possible! Every last drop of the T-Virus was destroyed and all the research as well!" Rebecca said desparately.
"I know Rebecca. We were both there but.......but there is just no other way to explain it. I need you to come out here and take a look for yourself. Apart from the former Umbrella scientists, you know this virus better than anyone. And this is what you do now, right?" asked Barry.
"Yeah. I'll go talk to my boss right now and get him to send a team out to you. If things go smoothly we should be out there in less that six hours. Oh, and Barry, you need to seal off any area's where the infected person has been and get everyone who has been in contact with him checked out." explained Rebecca.
"It's already been taken care of. The site of the assault has already been sealed off and so has the morgue. Were also checking anyone who has gone near the zombie. We really need you out here Becca. If this virus gets out it'll be a hell of a lot worse than even Raccoon City."
"I'll be there as soon as I can. Be careful, Barry." said Rebecca, before hanging up the phone and sprinting out of her office.
