- Chapter 11 -
Preparations
The hallways of the Neo-Umbrella base resounded with the sounds of smashing glass and wood, complimented by the enraged roars of Wesker, all of which originated from his office. His subordinates all heard the commotion, but knew it was in their best interests and health not to interrupt him.
Wesker, having completely lost his characteristic cool for the moment, was rampaging through his office, smashing furniture and equipment, a long red slash across his right eye. He was so close. Chris and Jill were in his hands. He had them right where he wanted them. If Alice hadn't shown up...
Wesker finally punched the nearby wall with such force that he knocked a hole in it, his left arm following his fist in up to the shoulder. Without warning, he felt a creeping pain in his left arm, and retracted it from the wall. Wesker tore off his glove to see a horrifying sight.
The skin and flesh of his left hand was literally crawling, as if the muscles beneath were going crazy. The pain increased, and Wesker, suppressing a growl of agony, quickly rushed over to his desk. Pulling open a drawer, he pulled out a pistol-shaped jet injector and a vial filled with a greenish liquid marked "PG67A/W."
Wesker loaded the vial into the injector, rolled up his sleeve, and pressed it into his arm. The serum was intramuscular, which made the process quick, and a short pinch later, the pain began to abate, his skin settling back down.
The virus within him had brought him back to life and gave him his superhuman powers. That didn't mean it was perfect. The virus was unstable, and regular injections of the PG67A/W were needed to keep it in check. However, he had to administer it in precise amounts, or risk being poisoned from an overdose. Chris and Sheva had managed to use the serum to their advantage during their battle to weaken him, which had nearly killed him during the volcano fight, but he had narrowly managed to heal from it. Until he found a way to completely stabilize his virus, he had no choice but to continue using it.
Wesker put the injector back in his desk drawer, regaining his composure. Chris and Jill may have escaped him for the time being, but he vowed to himself that that would not happen again. There would be other opportunities. For now though, he decided to wear them down.
Wesker smirked. Now was as good a time as any to field-test his latest B.O.W.s.
Though many of Wesker's subordinates in the base reacted with shock to his uncharacteristic outburst, one woman in particular was unfazed. She knew Wesker better than any of the others, and knew full well the frightening depths and insanity he hid behind his cool, calm, and collected façade.
Ada Wong might have worked for Wesker in the past, but she was by no means loyal to him in any way, shape, or form. The other Neo-Umbrella workers were so sure they had place in the madman's "new world order," but they were just pawns to be manipulated and discarded when he had no further use for them. Wesker was a born traitor who would double-cross anyone and everyone at the drop of a hat. He betrayed the S.T.A.R.S., Umbrella, and Tricell, and would inevitably stab Neo-Umbrella in the back as well.
Though she didn't claim to be a saint, Ada had no desire to help Wesker destroy the entire planet. She only agreed to join Neo-Umbrella with the intent to sabotage them from within, especially since Leon Kennedy was on Wesker's hit list.
Knowing Wesker, though, he was most likely onto her, or would be soon. She didn't care. Wesker could kill her if he wanted to, but Ada would defy the crazy son of a bitch to her last breath.
Rebecca looked through the folder of dossiers Alice had given them, and froze up when she saw a familiar face that they had missed before. A man she hadn't seen in over ten years.
The photo depicted a young man with shaggy black hair and a tattoo reading "MOTHER LOVE" in stylized letters spanning the length of his right arm. This was Billy Coen, who assisted her in the night leading up to the Mansion Incident. She recalled him well enough. Billy was a lieutenant in the Marines, who had been dispatched to Africa to destroy a guerrilla training ground, only to discover that the village was full of innocents. Not wanting to go back empty-handed, Billy's superiors decided to execute the villagers, and used Billy as a scapegoat. After the horrors they had experienced with James Marcus, Rebecca, realizing that Billy was truly innocent, had him declared officially dead. As he had departed into the B.O.W.-infested wilderness of Raccoon Forest the last time she ever saw him, Rebecca herself eventually became convinced that Billy had died.
Rebecca called everyone back to the conference room. She needed to know where Billy was and what he had been doing.
Alice, Rebecca, Parker, Piers, Sheva, Chris, Leon, Helena, Claire, Jill, and O'Brian all entered the conference room single-file, Chris holding a coffee cup in his right hand. They all took their seats as Rebecca slammed the files down on the table.
"How'd you get this picture, Alice?" she demanded, opening the folder to Billy's dossier for all to see. Everyone gasped at the sight.
"That's Lt. Billy Coen!" Jill said. "I thought he was dead."
"You know him?" Claire asked.
Chris shrugged. "We know of him," he explained. "Back in '98, Billy Coen was a Marine who apparently flipped out while on a mission in Africa and killed twenty-three civilians. He was court-martialed and sentenced to death when Rebecca's S.T.A.R.S. unit was sent to investigate the zombie and monster sightings in Arklay. But I thought Rebecca filed a report saying he escaped and was killed during the incident."
Rebecca sighed. It was time to come clean. "I worked together with Billy to fight the B.O.W.s, and I let him go before I reached the Spencer Mansion."
Chris had just taken a swig of his coffee, and after hearing the end of Rebecca's confession, choked and spit out the mouthful all over the table. He began to cough furiously, and Jill quickly reached over and slapped him on the back. Everyone else looked at Rebecca, surprise and shock etched on their faces.
"With all due respect, Rebecca, are you insane?" Helena demanded. "Billy Coen was a convicted felon! A crazy serial killer! What the hell were you thinking?!"
"Helena, shut up!" Leon hissed, grabbing her arm. "We haven't heard the whole story yet. I'm sure Rebecca can explain." Taking a moment to cool down, Helena nodded and motioned for Rebecca to continue.
"We worked together to survive the zombies and B.O.W.s," Rebecca explained. "He saved my life more than once when he could've easily killed me. He told me that his commanding officer ordered the killings in Africa, and used him as a scapegoat. I let him go for one reason: I was a police officer, and it was my job to fight injustice, not help spread it."
Everyone was silent at that. They weren't sure what to think about all that, but they all knew Rebecca, and knew she wouldn't just let a vicious criminal roam free. Alice broke in.
"After you two split up, Billy went underground and eventually fell in with an anti-Umbrella resistance group. He's a trained soldier, and has experience with stuff like this. We need all the help we can get."
"Hold on a minute," Sheva cut in. "Even if we could track Billy down, what makes you think he'll help us? The whole world thinks he's a murderous lunatic."
Leon thought for a minute. "I'm in the Secret Service, and I'm a friend of President Benford," he said. "Even if we can't convince everyone else that Billy's innocent, maybe I can convince Adam to grant him a pardon so he doesn't have to hide like a rat anymore."
After a few moments, everyone agreed. It was time to put together the team.
Six hours later, a simple black van drove through the streets of the Eastern European republic of Edonia. Chris was at the wheel of the van, with Leon in the passenger seat and Claire and Jill in the back, along with a stockpile of weapons in case any of Wesker's thugs were in the area. Chris and Jill were in their BSAA uniforms, Leon was wearing a black sweatshirt, black fingerless gloves, and blue jeans under a brown B-3 sheepskin bomber jacket, and Claire was clad in the same clothes she was wearing during Neo-Umbrella's attack on the BSAA.
The dossier Alice had provided stated that Jake Muller was stationed in Edonia, and Chris, Jill, Leon, and Claire were chosen to find him and convince him to join the team. Claire, however, still had her doubts.
"Again, do you guys really think this Jake Muller guy will help us take down his dad?" Claire asked. Jill and Leon both looked at her like she was stupid.
"Claire, he doesn't even know Wesker," Jill said. "Alice said that Wesker ditched him before he was even born."
Leon nodded. "Just because you donate sperm doesn't make you a father," he added. "Fathers protect their children, raise them, take care of them. Wesker just knocked up this lady and ditched her."
"Doesn't surprise me one bit," Chris said, venom in his voice. "We all know that Wesker doesn't give a ferret's anus about anyone but himself."
Jill looked out the window and shuddered a bit. "Does anyone else get some bad vibes from this place?" she asked. "Something about this town gives me the creeps."
"I did some research earlier," Leon said. "From what I read, Edonia was part of the Eastern Bloc until the mid-1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform and democratize the Soviet Union's government, but it didn't do so well. Internal affairs deteriorated over the years until a coup d'etat in the early 21st century led to the dissolution of the parliament, and the Prime Minister became a dictator. There are plenty of rebels who don't take to kindly to it, and they've gotten a lot of public support thanks to the instabilities in nearby countries like the Eastern Slav Republic. Edonia's been falling into a civil war for a while now."
"Well, that's just perfect," Claire said. "The last thing we need is to get caught up in a war zone. Let's hurry up, find this Jake guy, and get the hell out of here."
"The files said that he's part of the Liberation Army that's fighting the dictator," said Jill as she readjusted her cap. "My best guess is if we find the army, we find Jake. Something tells me that the people here aren't gonna take too kindly to Americans, though."
Chris sighed. "Why does everyone hate Americans?" he wondered aloud. He nonetheless put it aside. They had to recruit Jake and get out of Edonia before Wesker made his next move.
Meanwhile, not too far away, Raymond Vester and Jessica Sherawat were lurking in their own armored car. Behind them was a large metal box with the Neo-Umbrella logo on it, from which loud banging and monstrous growls were coming.
Wesker had previously bugged the BSAA building during the attack, and knew that Chris would be coming to Edonia to find Jake Muller. To help his own agenda, he had supplied B.O.W.s to the Edonian Liberation Army, and also dispatched Raymond and Jessica to Edonia with the metal box to further cause trouble for Chris.
Raymond didn't exactly agree with Wesker's "new world order" scheme, but he had no choice but to assist him in the plans, knowing the consequences of betraying Albert Wesker. That was what had brought him to this war-torn hellhole.
Without a word, Jessica and Raymond opened the back doors of the car and pushed the metal container out before quickly slamming the doors back shut. Just as they did, the door of the box was smashed off of its hinges, and what stepped out was something the world had never seem before and should never have seen to begin with.
The creatures that emerged from the box were the result of one of Wesker's B.O.W. projects: taking T-virus zombies and injecting them with matured Las Plagas parasites, resulting in what was known only as the Las Plagas zombie. The Plaga zombies differed visually from ordinary zombies in that their decaying skin bore a pale green coloration, and they possessed piercing red eyes as a side effect of the Plagas within their undead bodies. Add to that increased strength, speed, agility, and intelligence, and the Plaga zombies were a true force to be reckoned with.
The Plaga zombies snapped to attention as they saw the black van go by. Immediately, they realized that in the van was their quarry, the hated enemies that the bearer of the Control Plaga wanted dead.
Large sets of flower-esque mandibles emerged from the zombies' mouths, and they let out an inhuman roar as they dashed after the black van, ready to do their master's bidding and get a good meal in the process.
Author's Note:
Well, shit. Looks like Chris and the gang are in trouble.
As for who bears the Control Plaga, they're in Neo-Umbrella. Who they are, you'll just have to wait and see.
Next chapter has Chris, Leon, Claire, and Jill duking it out with Las Plagas-infected zombies, and the introduction of Jake Muller. Until next time. Please R&R!