1998... I'll never forget it. It was the year when
these grisly murders occurred in the Arklay Mountains. Soon after, the news was out to the whole world revealing that it was the fault of a secret viral experiment conducted by the international pharmaceutical enterprise, Umbrella. The virus broke out in a nearby mountain community, Raccoon City. And hit the peaceful little town with a devastating blow crippling its very foundation. Not taking any chances, the President of the United States ordered a contingency plan - to sterilize Raccoon City. With the whole
affair gone public, the United States government issued an indefinite suspension of business decree to Umbrella. Soon its stock prices crashed and for all intents and purposes Umbrella was finished. Six years had passed since that horrendous incident...

I received special training via a secret organization working under the direct control of the President.
I was to assume the responsibility of protecting the new President's family.

Ingrid Hunnigan stared out the window as the car bumped along on the back road. Tree branches reached out to scrape at the car like skeletal hands hungry from what was inside the car. She gave a sigh and tried to shake herself from the involuntary trip down memory lane. These damn missions always did that to her.

"Why am I the one who always gets the short end of the stick?" The driver asked the passenger beside him in the front seat. The passenger shot a glance back at her.

"Who are you really, miss?" The second guide asked her. "You are a long way from home, chica." His eyes darted along her body as he spoke, not bothering to make eye contact.

"Does it matter? Anyway, you know what this is all about. My mission is to find the president's mission daughter."

"What, all by yourself?" He and his buddy let out a roar of laughter.

"I'm sure you boys didn't think you came along to hold my hand the entire way-or maybe you did." Her tone was flat. She got the meaning. They didn't believe that she was capable of carrying out her mission. The driver's eyes were on her through the rearview mirror. Though she showed no skin, he looked her over. She wore a heavy duty brown coat, under a skin tight grey-black shirt. Black holsters where hanging over her shoulders and buckled across her chest. Simple jeans and well made boots. She flexed her fingers. The fingerless gloves were still being broken in. Her head rolled to the side as her neck popped loudly. Ingrid pushed back a few fly-aways of hair that had come loose from the messy bun at the base of her neck.

"Oh you crazy American. It is a direct order from the chief himself, huh? It ain't going to be no picnic."

Ingrid scoffed. "I am counting on you boys." It was the sweetest tone she could manage, giving them a few bats of her lashes and a slight smile. They shrugged to one another and returned the car to silence.

She dove back into her thoughts.

It was right before I was to take on my duties of protecting the President's daughter when she was abducted. That's the ultimate reason I'm in this lonely and rural part of Europe. According to our intelligence, there's reliable information of a sighting of a girl that looks very similar to the President's daughter. Apparently she's being withheld by some unidentified group of people. Who would have thought my first job would be a rescue mission?

The car rumbled over a wooden bridge before pulling to a slow stop, though the engine was never turned off.

"Just up ahead is the village." The driver said, finally cutting the engine.

"Let's go have a look around then." Ingrid wrapped her fingers around the handle just as the passenger turned to face her again.

"We'll stay here and look after the car. Don't want to get any parking tickets." He relayed to her, a wicked grin on his face.

"Right…" She looked around, the area was deserted. Other than the bridge they had just crossed and a small house up the road, the place was devoid of human life. "Parking tickets."

Cop number two looked to the driver, who wore the same grin.

"Good luck."

Ingrid got out of the car as she muttered to herself. "Where did they find these guys?"

Did you say something, chica." The driver stuck his head out the window, his fast twisted in a sneer. She ignored him and began to head out thoughts of diplomatic relations called her back to the car after only a few steps. The driver spotted her return trip and called out. "Did you forget your make up or something?!" Cackles sounded from inside the car and she shook her head before walking away from the car towards the house.

The house itself was plain, wooden and clearly hand built. There was a wide porch across the front of it, the door was wide open thought the windows were all shut, heavy shutters secured behind glass. Something in her gut wriggled uneasily. Her hand drifted to her sidearm just as a beeping came from her PDA. She pulled it out and opened it up.

INCOMING CALL…
She pressed answer and held the camera lens up to her face. On the incoming message screen was a handsome blonde. His hair was cropped short around his face. Red-rimmed glassed framed his eyes.

"Ingrid, I hope you can hear me. I am Leon Kennedy, I will be your support on this mission."

"Loud and clear." She said, with a bit of a grin. "Somehow, I thought you'd be older. Anyway, the subject's name is Ashley Grahm right?"

"Correct." He said, his voice a bit quieter as he pressed his glassed higher on his nose at her age comment. "She is the president's daughter so try to take care of her."

Ingrid scoffed. He was just like ever other male in the line of work. He doubted her abilities to do this job, this mission. Her eyes focused on the house beyond as she continued to speak to him.

"Whoever this group is, they picked the wrong girl to kidnap." She continued to walk toward the house as the conversation went on.

"I'll try to find more information on my end."

"Right. Hunnigan out." She slapped the PDA closed and replaced it in her pocket before he could finish his train of thought.

Through the open door of the house, she walked. The floor creaked loudly under her feet. She turned a corner to see a man poking at a fireplace with a rod.

"Excuse me sir?" He didn't react to her at all. She stepped closer and pulled out a photo of Ashley. "I was wondering if you knew this girl?"

He turned as if surprised by her sudden presence and let out a string of words, Spanish she couldn't quite catch. While she knew a bit of Spanish, could read more of it than speak it, she caught a word or two. He seemed to be asking her a question.

"Hola, mi llamo es Ingrid Hunnigan. Soy es buscando, uh…" She tried to recall the words she was looking for but he walked towards her, raising the rod in his hand.

"Freeze! I said freeze!" Her mind couldn't recall the Spanish word for 'freeze' but she decided to let her gun do the talking. Her handgun was yanked from her thigh holster and pointed at his head, a small red dot dancing around his forehead. Please don't make me do this, man. He didn't seem to be bothered by the gun and swung at her. She pulled the trigger twice, in rapid succession. He was dead after the first shot. He slumped to the ground.

Hunnigan bent down and lifted his head to see blood beginning to ooze out the open wound, bits of skull fragments and brain tissue was sprayed along the wall behind him. He was not a zombie.

A thundering engine roared to life outside. She rushed to the window as the sound of metal crushing together, engines revving as gunshots rang through the air. Hunnigan ducked out the front door and could no longer see the car that she had arrived in. Instead, there were three men, all coming towards her with weapons at the ready. The gun was pointed at each of them, several bullets planted in each one's head before they could attack her. She ran past their corpses to find tire marks leading towards the bridge.

The bridge was detached from the close side, hanging uselessly. Far below, in the rushing waters of a river, the car was overturned, smoke billowing from it. Beside it in the river was a large truck that must have pushed it over the side. She stepped back from it as she heard the beeping of her PDA in her pocket.

"Shit."

"Is everything ok?" Leon asks from the PDA's screen.

"The locals were hostile, I had to neutralize them but they took out my support."

"Get out of there and head towards the village. Take whatever measures necessary to save the subject." He pleaded. She simply nodded without saying anything and replaced the PDA in her pocket before ejecting the magazine from her gun and slapping a fresh one in. The old magazine only had a few bullets left in it. It was placed in a small bag attached at her lower back, under her jacket.

Hunnigan followed the tire marks of the truck. It lead her towards the village. There was a sign beside a footpath. It read "Peublo". Village in English. She followed for awhile before she head a soft crying.

"Ashley?" She called out but the whining continued. Running after the sound she came across a white dog caught in a bear trap. "Oh no. Let me help you out, boy." Hunnigan bent down and pried the jaws of the trap open. The dog leapt from it and shook itself off before laying a few tenderly licks to the wound. It looked at her for a few moments before barking, turning and bounding off into the forest beyond. "Heh, your welcome you ungrateful mutt." She called after him with a smile on her face. "Great, they have set traps. This isn't bear country."

The path lead her this was and that before she eventually came upon a large gate. There was a strange marking on it, an almost hieroglyphic symbol. Inside the gates, the village could be heard. Men and woman were talking loudly. Creeping along the path, she darted behind a tree and took a knee. Her PDA beeped a few times. She pulled it out and lifted it to her face. As soon as the screen lit up, she held a finger to her lips. Kennedy seemed confused.

"I am near the village."

"Ingrid, how are you holding up?"

"Bad question, Kennedy."

"Sorry, I am sending you all the files I have collected. Hope they are useful."

"I'll take a look at them, thanks. Hunnigan out."

The files themselves were mostly GPS maps of the areas ahead, files on missing persons, the history of the villages in the area and a few police records. She scanned them for a few minutes before pressing on.

Sticking to the shadows and behind cover, she made her way through the village. There was a large steeple on the far side of the village that looked like the stronghold of the place, the perfect place for a hostage to be held. Hunnigan moved swiftly and quietly.

As she moved farther into the village, her eyes were drawn to a huge bonfire in the center of the area. The corpse of one of the police that had brought her was being roasted. She looked on in disgust as a wave of panic rushed over her. Hunnigan backed up the smell of the burning flesh invading her nostrils and the wind changed. Suddenly a woman called out behind her.

"Damn it!" She curses before throwing herself at the closest door. There is a dresser beside it. Hunnigan throws herself at the dresser and begins to push it towards the door, blocking it just as a window upstairs breaks. "Who are these people?"

A chainsaw is started somewhere in the distance, but not nearly far enough for her liking.

"Great, a chainsaw." A nervous laugh escapes her as she heads upstairs. A ladder can be seen at the window. Hunnigan runs and it and throws it backwards, sending two people to the ground with it. The chainsaw tears through the wood of the front door as well and the wooden dresser that she had placed behind it. "What are they planning?"

Two men stand at the window, banging on it. She pulls her gun and shoots at them. The glass fractures beneath the bullets and clears the way for her as the chainsaw can be heard coming closer. Hunnigan hops over the windowsil and is outside walking along the roof. She circles the building and finds a spot to hold her ground. Two women with knives charge towards her. A bullet to the brain of the closest one and one to the knee of the woman behind her. Once stunned, Hunnigan runs at the second woman and performs and step-through kick, her foot nearly taking the woman's head off her shoulders. Her body slumps down next to the body of the first woman.

Then before Hunnigan's eyes, the bodies both liquefy in a few moments. She stares at the strange event, a foul odor can be observed in its aftermath. In her dumbfounded confusion, the man holding the chainsaw has caught up to her. He wears a burlap sack over his head, synched together with twine at the neck. Only two holes for eyes can be seen as he flings the dangerous weapon back and forth at her. She backs up as she pumps round after round into his head without him even slowing down.

Stepping back she runs out of real-estate and topples off the roof of the house. She strikes the ground, the wind knocked from her lungs. Blind training kicks in as she rolls away from where she landed and gets to her feet quickly, gun at the ready even as her lungs burn for more air. The man with the chainsaw lands, blade first where she had been before chasing after her.

Her eyes dart around and she spots another house behind her. She runs for it, diving into the house, rolling over and kicking the door closed behind her. There is another dresser here that she again places behind the door. She runs to the back of the house looking for a window to escape out but too late does she realize it is a dead end. Banging outside shakes the door on its hinges. She ejects the current magazine and shoves another in the gun before placing her back against the wall opposite the door, preparing for it to break down.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a shotgun mounted on the wall. She runs to it and checks it. Loaded. She shoves her handgun into her holster and places herself at the front door as the wood begins to splinter.

Then everything falls silent. There is no more noise, other than a few people muttering something and the sounds of footsteps receding-and a church bell?

Hunnigan waits until she can hear nothing other than the bell then eventually that dies as well. She moves the dresser only enough to open the door and peer outside, shotgun still ready in her hands.

No one is waiting for her. A few weapons are at her feet outside the door. She steps out and looks about the village square. Absolutely no one.

"Where did everyone go-bingo?" She asks no one in particular while turning in a small circle as she assures herself that everyone is indeed gone.

Hunnigan faces the church and lowers the shotgun. She sighs, her pulse still deafening in her ear. Don't worry Ashley, I'm coming for you. She begins to trot toward the church door.