It was a dark July night when the S.T.A.R.S unit's perception of reality had altered for the worse; murderous shadows with hungry, grinding maws clawing their way from out of some cheap horror movie and into their world. Into Jill Valentine's world; into her restless dreams. She could hardly believe her luck, somehow she had managed to traverse the silent Spencer Estate and happen across a startling secret, one that was being brewed in her own backyard. The derelict and seemingly long since abandoned center of the cannibalistic attacks was a front, a cover to disguise inhumane and sickening research; research that would likely have lain dormant and undiscovered if not for the efforts of herself and her comrades. The more the squad discovered the more horrified Jill became. Umbrella, the world's largest and most powerful pharmaceutical company which helped to build Raccoon City with its wealth had a much deadlier portfolio than anybody could have realized. The Tyrant Virus (or T-Virus as it was referred to) was set to be Umbrella's greatest success, sold off to the highest bidder. It was potential bio-terrorism at its finest, with the S.T.A.R.S team sent in as test subjects; gathering combat data to present to an unknown buyer if the documents found in the Spencer Estate where anything to believe. Jill did believe, and it sickened her that anybody would be willing to murder a squad of people with friends...families...

The whole experience had been a nightmare, one that Jill hoped to wake from soon.

And now here she was, on an elevator up to her safety and freedom. By her side was the rookie Rebecca, her hands wringing around each other like two writhing snakes; the fear prevalent in her young youthful eyes. Truth be told Jill couldn't see her as anything more than a child and for that she was truly grief stricken. She had her innocence stolen from her, and no doubt her once young and bright perception of the world was dark and reduced to nothing more than rubble. She was a nice kid Jill thought, perhaps a bit too quick to impress but it came from a good place. Given enough time she thought Rebecca would make an outstanding member of the S.T.A.R.S team. Not knowing what else to do Jill gave the rookie a tight smile, one the young girl returned with a tenth of the enthusiasm she had once had. It was in that instant Jill knew; no matter what they all did, no matter how hard they tried to forget, Umbrella had left their mark on them. Jill's face pulled into a scowl as the alarms rang around her, mustering up the only word she could think of to label the wicked company, 'Bastards.'

Jill's hands rearranged the bangs cascading down the side of her face, tucking them firmly into her beret. A mighty wind was blowing fiercely on the heliport, kicking up clouds of dust. A frantic inspection of the area and the sky revealed Brad Vickers was nowhere in sight.

"Come on Brad, don't fail us now. Not after everything..."

Brad, the teams pilot had radioed throughout the investigation; trying in vain to reach the few survivors of the team. Each time they tried to make contact the radios fizzled and cracked and finally went dead. It was a maddening experience, but one that could have been avoided. Brad after all, had abandoned them. True to his nickname Chicken Heart Vickers had upped and left his team, forcing Jill and the others to flee through the woods; hell hounds snapping at their heels. Jill was quick to remind herself that yes, Brad did leave them behind; but he came back. He stuck around. And from what they heard on his latest radio broadcast not even moments previously he had found a heli-pad and he planned to be waiting there for them.

'He promised us. So where is he?'

"Jill, look!" Rebecca was hurrying off to the side, her tiny frame trying to drag out something large and metallic. As Jill came beside her she immediately saw it was the answer to her prayers, a physical object equal in weight for the amount of times she asked God for help. Her knight in shining armor, so to speak.

The flare launcher was heavy enough that she required Rebecca's help dragging it into the center of the helipad, pushing the launch button to send a fizzing orange ball of flame into the sky. Within seconds Jill could hear the gentle thwacking of helicopters blades, Rebecca giggling with joy. "God bless you Brad Vickers" Jill mumbled just as the elevator was called down again. Immediately Jill spun, her hand resting delicately over the grenade launcher that swung from her side. Within seconds the elevator stopped, then slowly climbed upwards again. Jill's grim face melted into a thankful smile as she seen it was Chris and Barry, evidently well and good despite staying behind to 'be the hero' as Chris had put it. Before they could even say Jill knew something was wrong, Barry was hurriedly reloading his magnum whilst Chris hurried over to the women.

"We've got to go n-" but the rest of his sentence was lost in the symphony of sound that erupted beside the elevator.

From out of the newly formed hole leaped a solitary figure, pale and monstrous under the coming dawn sun; its sexless form stacked with muscle upon muscle. "God damn it!" Barry yelled out, his aim zipping towards the creature firing off round after round. Its dull milky gaze passed over the huddled trio to Barry, roaring as he tried reloading his colt python as quick as he could. The beast let out a roar as it lifted its clawed hand; marking Barry. Barry screamed in anger as he dropped a handful of bullets, the horrifying creature taking one gigantic step towards him.

Jill whistled and waved her arms shouting "Hey! Freak show!" The beast made another step towards Barry before she had reached for her grenade launcher, much too close to him for her to make a safe shot. "Barry move!" Chris screamed as the creature raised its mighty bladed fist; ready to plunge into his chest. Barry ducked out of the way, but barely just; the beasts clawed fist instead brushing past him. Jill pulled the trigger, the grenade popping out of the launcher with a satisfying thunk sound. It tore into the creature's side, the explosion blowing little more than a small chunk out of the beast's ribs. "Chris, Rebecca get out of here" Jill barked as the creature briskly batted Barry away like he was nothing more than a rag doll. Jill spun on her heel and began running the opposite direction when she heard the concrete of the helipad tear up, loud thumping feet pounding after her. A cry of terror tried to escape her lungs, but she held it back. If she gave into fear now she'd be done for.

She exerted all her strength to dive to the side, just as she seen the creature slice into the air that her body formerly occupied. 'Shit shit shit!' was all she could think as she took aim and fired another grenade off at the beast, the wind sending the load off in another direction. Just as Jill was about to let another grenade fly the beast had halved the distance between them; snatching down with its normal, albeit freakishly strong hand. It hefted her into the air, the air seeping from her lungs. From above the voice of Brad Vickers sounded followed by the hard crash of metal against concrete.

"Chris, use it to kill that...thing!"

Brad's voice cracked in fear, and slowly Jill was losing her battle to maintain consciousness. Her hands dropped her weapon as they frantically searched her waist for what they wanted most. At last, just as the abomination rose its claw to strike her down Jill snatched up her stun gun, sticking the metal ends into the beasts' arms. She could feel the crackle of sparks heat up its arm as she kicked off as hard as she could, landing hard on the concrete floor. She dared take a look back and seen Rebecca holding up the end of a rocket launcher, Chris taking aim at the beast. "Get down" he yelled as Jill tucked into herself, the air above her head disturbed by a homing missile. Within seconds she was flung up into the air, a blast of heat brushing up her back.

The last thing Jill saw before she blacked out was the worried face of Chris.


Jill's eyes fluttered open, the gentle face of Rebecca Chamber's looking down on her. "Chris she's awake" was all she said before Chris came over, gripping onto her hand like a vice. "Jill, I'm so sorry. It's just I had a shot and I thought you would have ran away..." Jill looked into his eyes and seen he was deeply hurting over the fact her ass got knocked about the heliport-"Wait! We got out!" Jill shot up and looked about her, seeing only the helicopter. For the first time since the damned mission started she felt her body ease and looked Chris in the eye. "I owe you one Redfield." He cracked her his usual boyish grin as he looked out the side of the chopper. Jill did so too, her gut stirring with fear as she looked at the mansion; the place that started this whole nightmare. She deserved a holiday after all this she thought, a damn long holiday. Maybe even a new job.

"You know," Jill began as she took of her beret; letting her hair cascade down her back "I don't think I'll be needing this anymore..."

And with that Jill flung her beret out of the chopper, its blue form dancing through the air before it was enveloped in the licking flames from the mansions explosion...