Resident Evil: Chronicles of the Saga

by UN-4-Seen Scholar

The novilization of the entire Resident Evil timeline. From the discovery of the Progenitor to beyond the fall of Umbrella. Read and review please my first fan fic.

36. Chapter 36

Thirty Six

Another three years had passed with very little happenings or relevance, the date being mid-June, 1986; the start of another continuing season in Mother Nature's designated seasonal clock, the sun high in the clear sky, casting its bright rays of light down onto the planet below, the breeze that flowed over the woods gently swaying the branches of trees side-to-side and offering a cool counterpart towards the searing temperatures that covered the world. Three simple, ordinary years went by that the people of Earth barely even paid heed to, being as immersed in their own lives so much that they barely noticed the time fly by on its regular daily circle, like the planet rotating on its axis, always spinning but never knowing it is.

This also applied to the Umbrella employees who worked on their secret black-project, all of them more focused and concentrated on the T-Virus rather than what went on around them in the world outside, since they all knew how important the work was to the corporation and how ruthless Spencer, their employer, could be if they failed to keep up with his demands on the project, thus each and every one of them remained fixed on their work and busied themselves in whatever they were ordered to, despite how slow or repetitive the results of their experiments seemed to them. Albert Wesker, head of the Arklay labs, was no exception, since he was now busying himself with supervising all of the work down in the labs, ensuring that all the experiments were running efficiently and safely, and analyzing all the research data they obtained in order to determine which piece of data could be more useful in helping to advance their T-Virus project, but all the new data he read through or received over the years was merely repeating what they had already uncovered years before.

Spencer, why do you keep making us repeat the same experiments over and over again, when all the results remain the same?

Wesker sighed and placed the folder back on the desk, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his tired, sore eyes, the stress and strain of the work catching up with him. It had been a long and weary three years of working in the laboratories underneath the Spencer Estate, each of them passing by one after the other exactly the same, deliberately and unbearably slow, barely any progress made forward and nothing new had been produced from their T-Virus research, due to Spencer's constant orders and sheer refusals to change their 'highest priority' that he had enforced on their shoulders.

Throughout the entire work hours that all staff had to endure, from eight in the morning until nine in the evening, for the past three years, since the labs had now recovered from its downward plunge to disarray and were back to full working efficiency after Alexia's death, they were forced under orders from Spencer to constantly repeat the same experiment over and over again, using specifically picked human specimens and infecting them with the T-Virus, until they came up with the answer to cure the T-Virus of its one remaining flaw, namely that inability to fully wipe out a population instead of the 90 kill-rate it already possessed.

He got up and began to pace about the office quietly, his hands folded behind his back, occasionally reaching up to straighten his sunglasses as his mind recalled everything that he knew about the T-Virus and began remembery every detail that he himself had worked on as part of his career. As all of the employees in Umbrella's secret machinations knew fully well, the T-Virus was an extremely powerful mutagen with the potential to infect and mutate every living creature on the planet into deadly BOWs, including human beings. And thanks to extensive research on the virus, they knew that they had to the ability to manipulate the genes of any living organism, including splicing and replacing certain genes or DNA strands in the host, and combine it with the virus to form even more powerful BOWs, such as the Hunters. However, due to a strange trait evident in the virus, somehow the T-Virus has the death rate of 90 of infected, due to the other 10 having some form of an immunity to the virus' mutagenic properties, despite any method of infection to their body, either bites or injections. At first, Wesker had decided to hand over his report to Spencer, explain all the details about the virus and that they should leave it as it was because a virus with the capabilities to wipe out near enough an entire population was still an excellent biological weapon to sell on the open-market and fetch an incredibly large sum of money from potential purchasers. At least, that was his original idea a decade back.

But Spencer, for reasons yet to be determined, fiercely refused such actions and made a strict demand to all the scientists in every Umbrella facility to focus their endeavors on improving the T-Virus so that it could kill an entire population effortlessly, ignoring all the costs, delays and dangers it was bringing down on all of the facilities. And no one, not even the members of the board who worked with him, could dissuade him from his orders without risking to spark his temper, thus the labs were spending hour after hour, day after day, trying to solve the riddle behind the T-Virus' inability to kill 100 of potential hosts. So, all of Umbrella's employees had no choice but to keep on repeating the same experiments over and over again in an attempt to uncover the flaw in the T-Virus' mutational properties, without open complaints to be made. However, they merely continued to obtain the same results repeatedly and had met with nothing short of failure after failure after failure.

And Spencer still continues to ignore the costs of this project, even though he surely knows how expensive this all is. Not to mention, there is the risk of a potential epidemic if the virus were to escape outside and cause an outbreak.

Wesker stopped briefly in his pacing and glanced out of the office window beyond the desk in front of him, staring at the vast woodland outside, watching as the small sparrows flew back and forth in front of the window, and the plants swayed side-to-side gently in the sweet summer breeze, the sun shining brightly down upon the forest floor. It was truly a beautiful scene but this did nothing to cheer Wesker's move, since his mind was wrapped around the danger and worry about the possibility of a T-Virus outbreak.

When working on any type of virus, natural or man-made, one had to ensure that they had the money, power and cunning to work on such a project, especially when the aim behind the project was biological warfare, since they would have to make sure that no one would ever find out about it, that they could supply the project adequately enough with everything it needed and that they could supervise the entire operation perfectly so it could fulfill its aims without much trouble or danger. And they had to be sure that they constructed a sufficient enough facility to house all of the technology, research samples, specimens, staff and equipment without either the public noticing what was happening or the virus leaking into the environment and spreading across the entire neighboring area towards a population, causing an epidemic.

But Spencer however, despite all of these facts and necessities which he most likely knew of himself, was blatantly ignoring the dangers of the virus escaping and the consequences that could arise if the virus were to spread to the city, spreading through the city and infecting all life inside with the deadly biological agent, thus revealing their work to everyone on Earth and bringing down the entire public eye upon them. The evidence was obvious, if one could see how dangerous the estate's site was in contrast to the virus' mutational abilities and the immediate environment justs outside the mansion. Having constructed a large laboratory complex beneath an old and run down mansion would have been considered a stroke of genius, had it not been built in such a potentially dangerous area like Raccoon Forest, since the entire woods would end up becoming a breeding ground for the T-Virus if it escaped. There could be no denying it, although Spencer preferred to ignore it, that the thought of an outbreak was just too plausible in the facility's area of construction and the more-than-likely prospect of an epidemic certainly stood in a very high chance of occurring if the virus escaped.

And, from some extensive research Wesker had conducted on the corporation's activities during his spare time, it seemed that such a fate had occurred with some of Umbrella's other facilities stationed abroad in other countries; more than once had the Progenitor escaped, from work accidents or sabotage by competitors, and gone wild in less than suitable areas to conceal their work, causing the infection to spread into either human settlements or inhabitable wilderness, nearly enough causing what could have been a disastrous epidemic.

The first outbreak incident had occurred in a remote farming village somewhere in Africa, meaning that incident wasn't exactly a major point, since the village was isolated from the main cities and the wildlife in the area wasn't exactly a large population for the virus to spread across the provinces, meaning the incident wouldn't have been noticed so quickly and the corporation had significantly enough time to wipe away the evidence. However, the other two incidents that occurred afterwards had been far more dangerous and terrible than the previous outbreak, since the virus itself had managed to escape into much larger inhabited areas, which were in South America, Utah and the mountain ranges on the Isle of Crete. Wesker had shuddered at the thought of would have happened if the virus had been allowed to propagate in those two areas and spread across the local environment because then what Umbrella would have suffered from was noting short of a full-blown pandemic, even worse if the virus spread into any cities or towns, but through sheer good fortune and dumb luck, Umbrella had successfully managed to cover up the incidents via a complete sterilization of the area using a high-temperature explosion to erase all traces of the virus and the BOW clean-up operations conducted by their special forces, although the operations were completely largely due to the skills of the USF agent 'John Doe', now known as HUNK. And, due to their deep pockets and large connections in the political stage, the corporation had been able to masquerade the incidents as something of a terrorist attack or natural disaster, thus avoiding any suspicions from the general public or local governments, since any sort of explosion or special forces presence would have riled up many conspiracy buffs or the public press.

At least Umbrella was prepared for the possibility of an outbreak, but that still didn't change the fact that Spencer was blatantly ignoring the danger and shirking the safety responsibilities he was meant to uphold as the head of the corporation. Even if the site was to be destroyed by an explosion or the USF were sent in to take out the escaped specimens, that still didn't change the fact that an epidemic was still possible; even if a single specimen or a small trace of the virus were to escape the sterilization, it would spread like wildfire throughout the environment and if anyone caught wind of the virus, Umbrella would be practically crucified.

After all, what they were doing with the T-Virus was quite possibly the most horrifying thing humanity could ever experience or see in its history on Earth. A virus with the ability to bring the dead back to life, to create demons from Hell out of simple creatures, all of it towards the endeavor of warfare and bloodshed, to feed the fires of war and make a hefty profit for their corporation, conducting horrific genetic experiments upon hundreds of living creatures, even human beings.

Sometimes, during his time off, Wesker briefly considered over everything he had done for the company and how many people he had experimented on in his entire career. Ever since Marcus had him involved with Progenitor project when he and Birkin had enrolled at the Training Facility, he had been given the authorisation to conduct any kind of experiment he wished, to perform any sort of tests on any sort of specimens, ranging from mammals to reptiles, so long as he obtained worthwhile results for the corporation to use. Then, he had been promoted as Head Researcher for the Arklay laboratories alongside Birkin by Spencer, thus given permission for him to work with all forms of research specimens, including human beings. And throughout that entire time, Wesker had done quite terrible things to them, there could be no denying that; he had injected them with an extremely toxic mutagen and had literally killed them just to bring them back to life or mutated them into hideous monstrosities of science.

He never talked about it with anyone else, never once opened up the topic in any discussion, but he knew that their entire career, each and every one of Umbrella's employees must have experimented on a great number of people and animals. Tens upon hundreds of thousands had passed in between their facilities and had each left as either a corpse or monster, whether they were alive or dead after that could only be determined by their work. In addition, Umbrella didn't own just a few laboratories and facilities in America, since being a pharmaceutical corporation, they were known to own a multitude of facilities in the world, not just specified to one continent and not all of them were devoted to medicinal purposes. Which meant that the amount of people that the corporation practically butchered in their T-Virus research must resides somewhere in the high hundred-thousands, if not low millions, and that would only count the humans they used; since the corporation used animals as well, they could either steal or capture as much as they liked because the public would be more concerned over the disappearance of other people rather than a bunch of animals.

I can understand now why Marcus went as mad as he did. If one becomes too obsessed with this line of work, nothing but darkness and insanity awaits them.

Marcus had definitely been one to go over the deep end. He had lost track of everything around him, forsook all those near him and had kidnapped several people in order to feed them alive to his leeches, nearly enough drawing the public attention onto the corporation's secrets, all as part of his work on the T-Virus in order for him to overthrow Spencer, thus earning himself the wrath of Spencer resulting in his death by assassination from Wesker and Birkin, under orders from Spencer. It was obvious that all those experiments he had performed on those people, his obsession over his leeches and his paranoid fear of Spencer had been enough to make his mind snap, to change him into something as inhuman as the BOWs and clinically insane, driving him to the very edge of his limits and declaring him as expendable.

Wesker knew that it was the same for everyone, no matter who they were, because obsession was a poison, a danger to yourself and those around you, since obsessions can be twisted by yourself or another, resulting in the loss of a person's humanity and mind. There were no exceptions in that topic, nothing was excluded from this rule; if anyone grew too attached to another object or person, they would end up like Marcus, insane, inhuman and buried, sooner or later. Nothing could be done to stop it, once one took that first step down the dark road to insanity.

Hence why Wesker preferred to keep his mind and senses open to the world, to remain oblivious to other things unless it was necessary for him to focus on them, since obsessions and attachments had always been something he vowed to steer clear of. His career as a researcher was a good example since he was now reaching the end of his limits to work as a scientist and would soon need a career change if he wanted to remain of use with Umbrella and acquire the information on Spencer that he wanted; after all, he couldn't leave the corporation, not when Spencer held all the trump cards in the corporation and would be sure to remind Wesker how deeply involved he was with the company, who he was to take orders from now and that he had no choice but to stay. He knew that he wasn't innocent in any sense of the word, nothing could be done to absolve him of his crimes, that he couldn't just walk out of the corporation and never look back because he himself was responsible as well, having performed intense acts of premeditated evil and atrocious cruelty, placing enough of the blame on his own shoulders that meant no matter whether he confessed to everything that he, Umbrella and Spencer had done, he would be next in line for the death chamber that demanded his blood, the entire world looking at him in fury and righteous justice to see him be punished for his crimes, lashing for revenge to what Umbrella had done.

And there were a lot of crimes for him to be punished for if the truth were to get out, some that he had committed on his own and others as part of the large conglomerate which he worked for in a whole. What they were doing with the T-Virus didn't just simply break the law, wasn't something as average or common as a murder or theft in the world, it literally shattered the fixed bounds of reality and defied the moral ethnics of society in every possible way, both real or 'fictional'. What they did with their black project made Stalin's military purges or the Nazi's Holocaust look like a simple parking violation, made them seem like something that a person could just pay a small fine for and have it swept under the rug never to be spoken of again because every single negative word or term that Dr Samuel Johnson had scribed in his dictionary to describe how terrible something could be was most certainly applicable to them. Umbrella was quite literally the most illegal, unethical, immoral, unconscionable, unbelievable and unforgivable criminal industry that the human race could ever know in its entire history.

Which is why Spencer needs to focus more on the dangers of this work if we wish to keep this a secret. We have to make sure that we are prepared for all treacherous circumstances and possible disasters that could occur with the T-Virus.

The sudden of sound of someone clearing his throat brought Wesker out of his thoughts and made him focus on Lord Oswell E. Spencer himself, who sat behind his office chair, glancing up at Wesker with his cold, piercing gaze from behind his thin glasses. It was just another of Spencer's rare visits and inspections of the facility's findings, which is why Wesker had allowed his mind to wander since he knew what the meeting concerned of all the time from previous experiences, but he still had to remember to pay attention when Spencer was speaking, especially if he didn't want to antagonize him.

Spencer held up the paper he was reading, eying Wesker scrutinizingly. "Is this everything?" he asked.

Wesker nodded and stood in front of the desk, looking at Spencer straight through his sunglasses into his eyes. "In regards to that paper you are holding, that is the summary of all our experiments here in this facility. The rest of the documents have already been sent to the board and most of the research data has been sent to Paris via the communications network. We only await for your inspection of the BOWs themselves," he answered, keeping his answer as short yet detailed as possible.

There was another point that Wesker found puzzling about the corporation's assets; the computer systems that it owned in each of its laboratories. For some reason currently unknown to Wesker, the higher-ups ordered that instead of copying the data onto a disk and having it mailed to them via their own private delivery service, all of the researchers had the express orders to upload all data on the communications network and send it to them through that. Yet the strangest thing about that was brought up by this question; who was it that controlled the computer systems?

Since he was Head Researcher at the Arklay laboratories, Wesker had often used the communications network, data archives and the various other programs installed on the system in conjecture with his work, namely to perform his own studies or to send off important data for it to be evaluated, but he had never once asked who designed the system, how it was made and who was the one in charge of maintaining its functions. There was certainly a person working behind the system, since every time one would use it for whatever purpose, a female voice would make announcements or statements based on their actions in order to inform them of what was happening in the facility around the clock, meaning there had to be an intellectual figure pulling the strings behind the computers. After all, a computer is merely a tool and what it does is what the user decides for it to perform, and with Spencer ignoring everything going on in Umbrella's work or functionalities, it meant someone else had to be working the system.

However, he had very little time to think about the Umbrella corporation's administrative businesses or mechanical controls, since he was far too busy with the T-Virus research, the thoughts over the dangers of the virus and discreetly discerning Spencer's true motives behind the project; with a lot of burden now put on his shoulders, Wesker made sure that he had his priorities straight as usual and figuring out the data processing of Umbrella's internal computer systems was currently the lowest on his list.

"How many of these BOWs do you have for us to use?" Spencer questioned, lighting up a cigar that he had taken out and placed between his lips.

"Six fully grown Hunters. We currently have them down in the B4 laboratories for you to inspect," he responded.

Spencer nodded. "Good. Very good. And I understand here that you are requesting the start of a new project," he stated, glancing up at Wesker sternly.

Wesker nodded, keeping his expression in its normal stoic image. "Yes. The research staff have recently proposed a new theory to test. Since the Hunters were created from fertilized human ovums combined with reptilian DNA to form the base-hybrid, and then T-Virus is injected to enhance its abilities, they believe they go do the same process again, but with different sources of genetic information," he explained.

"The Chimera project," Spencer said quietly, reading through the report.

Wesker nodded. "That's the name it goes by. But we won't be able to commence the project until you give permission," he stated.

Spencer placed the paper back in the manila folder and spun his chair around to face the window, the trail of cigar smoke gently rising from behind the expensive leather as Umbrella's last founder gazed out the window at the beautiful sight beyond. Wesker straightened his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, waiting patiently for Spencer to give his answer.

"I'll have the board discuss it in the next meeting, but this does show promise, so we may begin this project. However, I still expect you all to focus your current endeavors towards solving the problem with the T-Virus' infectious capabilities in regards to that immune ten percent figure," he answered, blowing a puff of cigar smoke from behind the chair.

Wesker remained standing still, nodding slightly at the answer and turned to leave, walking up to the door but he stopped abruptly, glancing back at Spencer. He knew that he had to be careful around Spencer, since he wanted to figure out his motives without raising suspicion and continue on with his research in order to keep Umbrella off his back for the time being, yet he knew he had to ask this question about the possibility of an outbreak and how they would have to take care of it if it did happen. And this was probably the best time to ask Spencer, since he wouldn't be around much longer.

"Spencer, I have a question," he said over his shoulder.

A puff of cigar smoke popped over the top of the seat in response. "What is it?" Spencer asked.

Wesker waked back over to his desk and sat down in one of the chairs in front of it. "I need to ask about you about something important. What will happen if people ever found out about our research?"

Spencer spun around sharply in his chair to face Wesker, his eyes narrowing into slits. "Why do you ask?" he questioned suspiciously.

Wesker merely shrugged his shoulders, ignoring the small sense of fear that crept up on him, keeping his expression calm. "Call it scientific curiosity on my part," he retorted dryly.

A few moments of tense silence passed between them until Spencer sighed and crushed his cigar in the ashtray on his desk. "Very well. If you wish to know, we eliminate them to make sure that they tell no one about our work," he claimed, pulling out another cigar.

Wesker arched an eyebrow in curiosity. "How can you pull that off?"

"We have several divisions in Umbrella, as you know, designed to deal with all forms of trouble. One of them, Monitor, is our private espionage forces, tasked with reporting on all of our 'business asssociates' activities, stealing data from other companies, seeking out potential candidates and eliminating any nuisances that crop up. They help keep our work a secret," he answered, lighting up another cigar.

Wesker shook his head slowly, finding that hard to believe. "But, if murders or 'accidental' deaths start cropping up in any local areas or cities, the local governments and law enforcements may get-"

Spencer scoffed, the smile on his face displaying that he enjoyed Wesker's lack of knowledge on the subject, which Wesker himself found particularly irritating. "They won't rat on us. We have far too much deep connections in all areas of the cities and towns across this globe, thanks to several large donations we make to them in order for their cities to develop and prosper."

Wesker folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair, trying his best not to react to that smug grin on Spencer's face, his mind warning him of who he was. "If I remember from my law degrees and police academy training, bribing officials is illegal," he stated.

Spencer laughed. "I prefer to look it as, that old saying goes, 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours'. We make these large donations to every city in the world and then lean on them, sort of our way of having a debt repaid; Raccoon City is one such place, since it's because of our donations and profits that they have the Kites Brothers' railway line still being funded."

"And what about the world political stage? The President, the White House, the UN. How can you keep this from them?" he asked, leaning forward slightly.

Spencer took another whiff of his cigar and blew the smoke out, that familiar veil effect with the smoke coming up again around his wizened face. "That's where the board and I come in. As most of our board members are, in fact, high-ranking officials in today's political climate, we can manipulate and control everything that the government or UN does that seems...inconvenient to us, via blackmail or just simple exertion of power. For example, we have a member of the French Senate as one of our highest-ranking officials and the head of Umbrella Europe, so we now have firm control over European politics. And this isn't isolated to Europe or America, since we also have members of the Asian, Russian and African governments enrolled on the board, thus, if there are ever any risks from the UN or world politics, we can control them and drag their all of their procedures out as long as we want, if necessary," he explained.

After hearing those answers, Wesker had to admit that he did feel slightly impressed by the precautions that Umbrella had already taken in regards to their work and the possibility of outside interference. After all, with power and some key positions in the world's political stage, Umbrella could basically acquire anything they want without any hindrance or suspicions, and they could manipulate all of the political actions taken against them, should such actions occur. And Wesker was sure that this was the same with the local governments in each of the towns, like Spencer had explained previously, since Umbrella was embedding themselves so firmly in the cities' economies and lifestyles via the large donations that they had made to help assist in their productions, which had at least lessened the chances for Umbrella to be either discovered or revealed as the corporation could merely use their influence over the local authorities to eliminate any threats.

But that did little to remove the nagging fear and doubt embedded in Wesker's mind about the potentially hazardous circumstance of a T-Virus outbreak and the chances of such a horror happening under their command. Even if Umbrella controlled the law, politics or economies of the town, they couldn't literally control the minds of every living person and simply snap their fingers to encourage the public to ignore their work, since the general public would go into a global panic and a full-blown frenzied outcry for Umbrella's demise. After all, if the entire public were to find out about the T-Virus, they would immediately swarm towards the UN and demand for Umbrella's punishment, despite whatever methods or tactics that the corporation employed to stop them, because the governments couldn't accept a planet-wide riot and mass protest in the cities, knowing that such things would be terrible for them and they would turn their backs on Umbrella as a consequence.

Which meant that Umbrella must have a back-up plan for them to use, a fail-safe built just in case of the unsettling prospect of a T-Virus outbreak, excluding the USF or Monitor units, otherwise they would be in for it.

"What about the possibility of a T-Outbreak?" he asked bluntly.

Spencer immediately choked on his cigar at the sudden question and went into a fit of wheezing coughs, his face flushing bright red and a vein began to bulge in his neck, his hand clutched over his heart as he struggled to breath.

Wesker hastily got up and was ready to dash out the room for help, but Spencer held up his hand to stop him, his breathing slowing down to its regular pace, his face gradually returning to its normal color. "Excuse me...That had been...quite...blunt. I hadn't expected you to...ask such...a question. It came as a...shock," he claimed, forcing his words out through his coughing.

Wesker sat back down slowly, keeping his gaze on Spencer to make sure he didn't suddenly choke to death while he was there. "I beg your pardon, sir. I was just inquiring about the possibility of a T-Virus outbreak and how one would cope with it," he said.

Spencer nodded his head and took another whiff of his cigar, his body sinking back into a chair and relaxing, seeming to loosen up, and he blew out the smoke, the nicotine soothing his frazzled nerves. "I see. Well, as you are no doubt aware, we can't allow the T-Virus to escape the facilities in any way, hence the delicate safety measures we have taken, as I explained previously. However, since we can't discount the possibility of the T-Virus escaping and that we have already had a few minor leaks on our table, we have made sure to take the necessary precautions, namely with the installation of the self-destruct system into the main generators of all facilities we own," he answered, pulling a small vial with a prescription on it and popping one of pills in his mouth.

Wesker suppressed the urge to scoff at Spencer's statement of 'safety measure' he had supposedly taken, when they were working in an abandoned mansion in the center of a forested wilderness near a thriving city. If anything, the area the mansion was built in was less than safe. But then Spencer mentioned something about a self-destruct system and Wesker briefly considered the possibility that it had something to do with the explosions that destroyed the outbreak areas hours after USF arrived in those various regions. Umbrella, even with the control they have in the government, couldn't possibly have used a ballistic missle or, perish the thought, a nuclear warhead to clean-up the outbreak because the uproar and political scandal would have revealed them in a matter of days, so they had to have developed another method to use, one that would ensure total eradication of the T-Virus without being too suspicious and this self-destruct system was obviously sounded like the perfect method.

"Self-destruct system?" Wesker questioned, gently prodding Spencer to continue.

Spencer swallowed the pill and inhaled deeply on his cigar, blowing out the smoke and crushing the finished cigar in an ashtray. "That's right. Our final fail-safe measure installed in all of our facilities, developed by my old time friend and comrade, Sergei Vladimir, only to be used under the most extreme of circumstances. If an outbreak were to occur as you believe, Wesker, naturally, considering how much research and money have gone into these facilities, our first method of protocol is to attempt to secure them by having the USF dispatched on site to eliminate all targets and for Monitor to retrieve all of the research data, storing it to the Archives whilst they are also to kill any witnesses to the outbreak. However, if that fails and we can't possibly reclaim the facilities, we have to activate the SDS either remotely or on-site, but only when there are no other choices and if I give the order to do so," he explained.

Wesker opened his mouth to try to speak but then Spencer chuckled heartily, clapping his hands together once. "How foolish. Since all this prattling began, we haven't had a drop to drink," he said, an amused grin plastered on his face. "Would you like a drink, Wesker?"

"Coffee, black, no sugars," he answered bluntly.

Spencer nodded and pushed the 'INTERCOM' button on his phone. "Laura, would you be so kind as to get us a black coffee with no sugars and a glass of Chateau La Fruite, '37?" he asked kindly.

"Of course, Lord Spencer. Right away, sir," his secretary's professional yet polite voice replied, a complete contrast to the irritatingly overly-enjoyed tone and smile that Wesker had seen many times before coming to Umbrella.

Spencer then looked back at Wesker, noticing his calm yet impatient expression. "What is it?" he asked in confusion then he smirked and nodded his head. "Ah yes, the SDS. Well, the self-destruct system was developed by former Soviet war hero Colonel Sergei Vladimir and has been a main part of our systems in every facility because it is highly successful in eradicating the infection, fully functional, cannot be damaged or sabotaged and can be easily explained away to the public. According to Sergei, the system operates via a highly-powerful explosive planted in the core module of each of the facilities generators, which can be activated by overloading the power output in the generator. This triggers a chain reaction throughout the facilities' layout where all of the secondary explosive charges placed in every key point of the structures are detonated simultaneously. The result is an explosion of up to 2000'C spanning at a five mile radius and a total devastation of the facility, bringing the whole structure down on its whole weight," he explained.

Wesker arched an eyebrow at Spencer, looking quite confused. "Isn't that a bit complicated? I mean, you have an outbreak, several carriers and BOWs running around, a wiped-out USF team, the general public are getting angst and you have to evacuate any surviving high-ranking employees. Wouldn't it be better to find some way simpler?" he asked.

Spencer shook his head. "There's no need to think about it so much, Wesker. All you have to do is input your user name and primary password to activate the system. The program will then start to shut down all outer power systems and ready itself for activation in five minutes. It will then initiate the alarms and give the employees firsthand warning to evacuate to the nearest method of escape, namely the heliports or motor pools, this lasts at least two minutes. Then the system will enter the final phase, in which it commences the final countdown to detonation in three minutes and after that, goodnight Vienna," he answered.

Wesker nodded at Spencer's explanation and straightened his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, feeling slightly relieved and glad that Spencer had at least managed to notice the dangerous situation they were in, what with the potential danger of an outbreak, and had taken steps to counter-act them in order to keep their work from being discovered on the virus. The SDS seemed to be a very capable way of eradicating the infection, since the T-Virus itself (unlike its predecessor) was pyro-sensitive and could instantly be destroyed by burning the body of a carrier, at least if they did so on time, but that was another matter altogether, and judging from the explosions at the previous outbreak sites, the system certainly could wipe out all the carrier and BOWs in the immediate area without causing too much of a scene.

Although the infection and all evidence of Umbrella's involvement would be wiped away, the public would take notice of such an explosion occurring, no matter where it was located since Umbrella wouldn't be bothered to incorporate everyone in on their secrets. But that was where their influence on the local governments would come in, in which they would have the mayor's office declare that it was a natural disaster, an uncontrolled fire or a terrorist attack to the press and the police would begin an 'investigation' into matter, but they would find only the false evidence Umbrella would give them and dismiss the case into the stacks of closed or unsolved cases that churned inside the legal system's records. And if the case become an international incident and the UN started to demand answers on the subject, the Africa outbreak was an example because, when Wesker had first heard about it, the 'official' word was that it had been down to a rebellious faction of the North African Military as a part of obtaining total dominance over the South African Republic and an immediate global stir had been caused over the destruction of the farming village in that explosion.

As the Cold War was still in effect, tensions between USA and USSR were mounting, and the UN were eager to resolve the issue before it escalated into an all-out nuclear holocaust. However, due to Umbrella's influence over all of the political governments, they had been able to confirm their story via carefully doctored 'evidence' to support these claims and had already executed the 'guilty' parties to show that they were on top of things. And since the UN didn't want to provoke any further incursions or trouble that would potentially spark another war, they accepted the evidence and reports then dismissed the problem forthwith, giving not a second glance towards it.

Thus Umbrella possessed a suitable defense system against competitors, outbreaks or public inquiries in their work, and they had a well-trained special forces to take care of clean-up afterwards in case of an outbreak and a unit of highly-trained assassins to eliminate all witnesses to their crimes. In effect, the corporation's security was impenetrable.

Or so it seems. I just hope that Spencer doesn't lose sight of the important issues about our work, namely the dangers of an outbreak and the research is costing us a lot of money.

There was a knock at the door and it opened up to reveal Spencer's secretary holding a silver tray that carried a simple mug of steaming coffee and a carved wine glass filled with a dark violet wine. She strolled confidently up to the desk and placed it down in front of Spencer.

"Your drinks, sir," she announced, nodding curtly at Wesker and strolling out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Spencer picked up his drink and took a sip. "Good year," he complimented.

Wesker picked up his coffee and took a sip, his mind already thinking over what Spencer had told him and memorizing each detail so he was aware of all the security measures when he would need them, in turn trying to solve any holes he found in it. The self-destruct system was certainly reliable to wipe out the infection, since it could reach a high temperature to incinerate the virus and spread over a wide range to destroy all escaped BOWs. The USF and Monitor seemed to be trustworthy, loyal, obedient and dedicated to Umbrella, but without having seen them operate, Wesker could not be sure if they had the necessary skills needed to handle those kinds of delicate operations, namely their assassinations or search-and-destroy duties.

But the one thing that Wesker was finding holes in was Umbrella's control over the UN and locals, regarding how well they had managed to spread their influence and how they had managed to incorporate themselves into the local lifestyles. From what Spencer had told him, it seemed that Umbrella had supplied several donations and briberies towards all towns in order to have them so dependent on the corporation that they wouldn't rat them out, instead helping to cover up their activities around the area and avoid suspicions. But that all came to how well Umbrella could shape the town, place itself in their favor and maintain the image of some sort of miracle company that was a benefiting source of wealth and health towards the ever-growing towns.

Big cities were probably easier to control because cities like New York, Vegas, L.A., Tokyo and Paris, because they were towns with big businesses, big companies and corporations that rose up to extreme heights in the business community, respect and prestige building especially for those who were popular on a global scale, meaning that Umbrella had an easier chance of acquiring a threshold of power in those large cities since they themselves were a seriously profitable enterprise. However, for small local towns like Raccoon City, the views were different; as they were thriving and growing from the simple farming communities or roadside stops that they once were beforehand, they needed to establish a solid foundation for a town to build up on and a reliable source of income they could use for funding, yet there was the superstitions and fears surrounding big enterprises, like Umbrella, that often made smaller towns reject them. Hence, it was necessary for Umbrella's hold over Raccoon City and similar suburban settlements to be air-tight, so that the public and local law enforcements wouldn't start asking questions, unlike the governments, who could be brought with either money or a display of power. And with the area around Raccoon City as a site for the development of the T-Virus research and BOW projects, this rule was imperative to fulfill.

"How is everything going on in Raccoon City?" he asked suddenly, doing the same he had done previously with the SDS.

Spencer calmly sipped his drink and stared at Wesker with his usual cold, penetrating stare, probably trying to discern his motives for asking so many questions. Although Wesker could admit that Spencer's piercing gaze still scared him on a deep level, he had somewhat developed an immunity or inoculation against it, since he practically knew whatever thought went through the last Umbrella founder's head, save for his unknown motives.

"As I said before, we are making progress. We have managed to place ourselves upon Raccoon City's local government, owning most of the city's council, press, health and economy. And since the town relies on us for money and work, we have already made some donations towards the town's future designs. But there are some slight problems that need resolution," he explained, taking another sip.

Wesker drank a bit of his coffee, taking care not to burn himself. "How so?"

Spencer sighed. "It's the police and the mayor we have a few errors with. You see, the current mayor and chief of police are some of those 'honorable' lot, one of those 'we don't take bribes' people, so we can't hire them over to us. But we can't remove them either by force, otherwise that attracts suspicion from the public, so we have to find another way to get rid of them."

Wesker, having studied law in his years at university, knew how the legal system worked and so knew how Umbrella was probably going to accomplish this goal in getting their own employees on the force and mayoral stand.

"Rigged re-elections," he replied calmly.

Spencer nodded, downing the last of his drink. "Naturally. We have the power and money to ensure that the elections go in our favor, and it'll be simple to ensure that our selected candidate gets put on the spot for mayor. As for the RPD, we have yet to find a suitable man for us and we shall have to wait for a while for one to appear."

"Who is your selected candidate for the mayor?" he asked.

"A simple electrician by the name of Micheal Warren. He was a key employee that had worked on the Kites Brothers' Railway Line and had been one of the main supporters in allowing us to finance the development of the railway. We'll encourage the public to elect him as mayor in next year's election and then we'll bring him into the fold as one of our key figures in the city, although we had best tread lightly with him as well, since he is like the current mayor, honorable," Spencer answered.

Wesker nodded then glanced at his watch, taking note of the time, and stood up from his seat. He had asked Spencer all the questions he wanted to and acquired all the information he had needed to know on Umbrella, but he had work to do back in the laboratories on the T-Virus, despite what he may think of it. After all, Spencer himself was the man pushing for the research to move forward and finish as soon as possible, and Wesker had firsthand experience of how disagreeable Spencer could be if he didn't get what he wanted.

"I am sorry, Lord Spencer, but I have important work that requires my attention. So, if you would excuse me," he said stoically, heading towards the door.

Wesker had just about reached the door and was holding out his hand to open it when Spencer coughed sharply behind him, causing Wesker to look around and gaze impassively back at the elderly man who sat at his desk, glaring back at him scrutinizingly.

"There's just one more thing I have to say," he stated sternly.

Wesker stood where he was, making no sudden move or change in his position, anything to show that Spencer was causing him trouble, but he simply arched an eyebrow in curiosity, remaining silent and waiting for him to speak.

Spencer's eyes narrowed to slits and he pulled out another cigar, placing it between his lips and lighting it up, never once moving his eyes from Wesker's face. "I understand that you have been performing a lot of independent research of your own wishes, correct?" he asked.

Wesker nodded. "Just a few little matters that required my attention. Nothing to worry about."

Spencer took a whiff of his cigar and blew out the smoke, the grey thin smog masking in his face in a shroud, providing that eerie effect once again. "So you say, Wesker, but I am not pleased that you have been making inquiries about our corporation through the system. You have been using your authority to gain access to sensitive material and data concerning our activities, yet you fail to specify your reasons behind this." He spun his chair around sharply to face him forward and glared at Wesker in suspicion. "Why are you making so much trouble?"

Despite the immense shock and fright he had just suffered, Wesker still managed to keep his expression as calm and collected as ever, making no move whatsoever but to stare back at Spencer impassively, suppressing all emotions from rising within him. "Scientific curiosity," he simply replied.

Spencer continued to glare at Wesker, obviously trying to read his expression and discern whether he was lying or not, his cigar slowly burning in his hand, giving off a faint trace of smoke, but he soon spun his chair around to face the window, gazing out the window at the beautiful wilderness beyond. A few more seconds passed, the tension and silence between them thick enough to be seen even through Wesker's sunglasses, but instead Spencer waved one of his hands dismissively from where he sat, indicating that Wesker could leave, which he did immediately, before his fear would act against him. What Spencer had said just then, those words and that glare he had thrown at Wesker was certainly terrifying, and despite how cool and calm he could be, it had nearly tore down Wesker's collected persona and threatened to let his emotions run rampant.

How does he know!? How did he find out what I've been doing!?

As his mind wrestled with that question, he kept his body walking at a brisk pace, his face as cool, calm and collected as ever, ignoring the small greetings that the scientists gave him or the salutes from the guards as he passed them by, occasionally reaching up with one hand to straighten his sunglasses. He strolled throughout the halls of the mansion, oblivious to everything else around him, and hurried to the laboratory entrance, his thoughts all running around the same point that had near enough frightened him enough for his composure to crack.

How did Spencer find out about his own little escapades? Ever since Wesker had begun to hold Spencer's motives and reasonings under scrutiny, due to his strange actions and blatant disregard towards the dangers of a possible T-Outbreak, he had decided to investigate Spencer discreetly, ensuring that he was as cautious as he could be since he was a Head Researcher attempting to investigate the founder of Umbrella's business enterprise and discern his motives behind his approval on the T-Virus project. Naturally, as he was still just a scientist, he had found little information to use and was denied access to the more classified data, so he decided to abandon his investigation temporarily, until he made his position change in Umbrella, and focus back on his research, in order to keep Spencer satisfied and placate him.

Yet somehow, either by luck or careful monitoring, Spencer had discovered that Wesker had been investigating him and was now probably holding him under more suspicion for attempting to access that classified data about him. But Wesker just couldn't understand how he had managed to find out that he had been attempting to uncover anything about him; he had been careful not to leave any trace of his actions and hadn't told anyone about what he was doing, although Wesker was never a man to work much with computers, so he may have missed something important on that which Spencer traced back to him.

It looks like I has best be more cautious in the near future.

That was definitely true. Although Spencer knew he had been snooping around, he still didn't know what Wesker was after and had let him off the hook for now, due to his importance on the T-Virus research team, the efficient way he handled the Arklay laboratories and the progress he had made with the BOW projects. But he had provided plenty of warning that if he was found snooping again, then there would be dire consequences for him; Wesker didn't even need to think about that to know that it was true, since he and Birkin were first-hand witnesses of Spencer's cruelty and utter influence over the corporation they worked for.

Thus, he was stuck with his current career as the leading researcher in the Arklay laboratories, forced to work on the fruitless efforts of 'perfecting' the T-Virus, so that it could kill off an entire population in cooperation with Spencer's unknown goals, and he would have to remain focused on his work, leaving his private investigations into Spencer's motives behind him until he was in a more suitable position to acquire it without causing any suspicions for him.

It appears that my career change is placed further on the back burner momentarily. Oh well. Patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait.

As he planned through his future endeavors thoroughly, made decisions on what he was to be done and how their T-Virus was to proceed, he stepped down the fountain stairs, taking great care not to slip on the wet stone, and onto the elevator at the end, pushing the button to head down into the labs. Although he had made plans for his future in Umbrella's businesses, he had to focus on his present occupation for the moment and that meant he had to continue his work on the T-Virus, if only to keep Spencer happy.

Once the elevator stopped on the labs first floor, he immediately stepped off and headed towards the main lab on B4 level, his mind focused on the business at hand...

There must be something in here that Spencer wants us to find. But we have checked everything and found nothing useful at all! This is a waste of time.

Birkin groaned aloud and dropped the paper back down onto his desk, holding his head in his hands and rubbing his tired eyes, feeling the lack of sleep start to lull him to fall into a well-needed rest, the effects of his morning coffee beginning to wear off. The B4 level main laboratory was empty of all life, except for himself and the BOWs currently resting in their sedative induced slumber, the rest of the science staff having gone off to get their meals and conduct their own research on the T-Virus. It had been a long and grueling day, like every day for the past three years, of work for him down in the Arklay labs, every member of the research team now forced to work on the T-Virus and it's mutational properties, under direct orders from Spencer himself, so that they could perfect its kill rate from the start of their morning shifts to the end of their evening shifts. All current additional tasks and projects were canceled abruptly, forcing all members of staff to slave away at perfecting the virus, leaving all other projects either stored away or left incomplete. And none of them could do anything to change their duties because none of the employees, even though they were pretty much ignorant and moronic about the T-Virus' potential, were foolish enough to complain or attempt to dissuade Spencer from enforcing this part of the research continuously when they couldn't retrieve any worthwhile results from it.

It had been the same results over and over again for all their experiments; they just couldn't have the virus mutate the last 10 and they couldn't figure out what it was that gave them this natural immunity. Even though the virus certainly began to infect the subjects and inserted its RNA into the cell to merge its genome with the subject's DNA, taking over its function, producing offspring to spread into other cells, when the offspring themselves arrived into other cells, they didn't perform the next step of infection. Normally, the offspring would kill off the mitochondria in the cells and replace them with a replica of itself to combine with the cells to produce enough energy to power the lower functions of the brain whilst bypassing the other vital systems, effectively killing the hosts, at least that was for the 90 majority. With the 10 minority, the T-Virus simply produced the offspring and released it into other cells, killing off the mitochondria and replacing them but, instead of the energy only being able to power the lower brain functions and motor neurones, the virus could actually power the whole brain without any trouble, keeping the respiratory and circulatory systems intact, thus the host still lived.

Once the T-Virus completely infected the host, it made no additional actions inside the body and merely went inert, thus killing itself. The infection in the host was still evident for a few more days until the host's immune system fought back and expelled the virus, resulting in only minor effects on the host itself, namely both the original external and internal symptoms, such as the fever, profuse sweating, itchiness, shallowed breathing and increased adrenaline, showing no sign of genetic changes or necrotic effects on the host. All in all, the host survived the infection and its immune system soon killed off the virus, leaving the person unaffected. At first, Birkin had found this incredibly peculiar and had wanted to study beforehand in order to determine how it was possible for the T-Virus to bond so readily with the host's DNA, but from all the experiments he had performed, he couldn't find the answer to it and would have preferred to abandon that project in order to focus on more productive research.

The Hunters were a perfect example. The project with the Hunters had been a resounding success and Spencer himself had arrived at the mansion earlier in the day to speak with Wesker about it. Hopefully, he and the board would allow the Hunter project to be put forward for mass-production in their other facilities across the globe. Birkin briefly glanced up from his desk and gazed at the six Hunters floating in the stasis tubes in the center of the lab, watching the BOWs float silently inside the green-fluid calmly, eyes shut in slumber, breathing slowly into their respirators and their heartbeats giving off loud, regular beeps on the life-support controls. At least that was a piece of good news in these hectic work years with Umbrella, that they still had some living BOWs with them to prove to the board that they had made some progress with the T-Virus and in Umbrella's secret biological-weaponry projects. In fact, the research staff were even considering another similar named Chimera and had already gave Wesker the suggestion to pass on to Spencer. Not that they didn't anything new to perform, since they already had enough on their plates to work from, such as the second-stage T-mutations.

Birkin shuddered involuntarily, his mind recalling that one time when they had made a crucial error in one of their experiments, one that had resulted in the deaths of three scientists and one guard, the screams and gunfire echoing from the dark corners of his memory, the images of that night coming back for him to watch again. It had been during an experiment on another human, a Russian man, from what Birkin had gathered from his frantic screams and begging before he was injected with the T-Virus, when Birkin and the rest of the science team had intended to uncover whether there was a difference in the virus' infection method between an ordinary human and one with the immunity in order to discern how they were to remove the T-Virus' supposed flaws. However, the experiment ended with the subject simply becoming a zombie as usual and Birkin simply did the necessary thing, ordering it to be disposed of and sent to the Treatment Plant, so the guards simply went inside and put it down with a spray of machine gun fire, or so they thought.

Apparently, no one had checked to ensure the zombie was dead, but it didn't move for some time, so they had all assumed it was dead and they ordered the guards to remove the body for transportation to the Treatment Plant, all of the scientists, including himself, ignoring the zombie as they discussed what they were to do next. But then, someone had started screaming and everyone looked inside in the lab, horrified to see that the zombie had literally returned to life again, and was attacking one of the scientists, a man in his late-fifties, the zombie ripping a chunk out of the man's throat and chewing on the artery within, the scientist himself gurgling and choking on his own blood as it splashed down onto the floor. The other two scientists inside continued to scream in terror as the thing kept eating at their colleague, making no move to leave, whilst everyone else outside were too stunned to do anything even Birkin himself, simply standing there aghast as they watched the zombie eat their colleague.

However, the screaming soon attracted the attention of the zombie and it had focused its attention on the other scientists, dropping hold of its previous meal, which had begun to spasm wildly and bleed out what was left of its blood all over the floor. The two scientists, thinking that the zombie would be too slow to react and had most of its motor functions reduced by severe rigor mortis in its joints, tried to slip past it easily without it attacking them, but to everyone's amazement, the zombie actually ran at them and slashed at one of the scientists, a woman, with its hands, hacking open the woman's throat and drenching itself, the woman's clothes and the walls in her blood. It then immediately spun around and lunged at the other scientist who had nearly made it to the door, dashing at him with amazing speed and sinking its teeth into the man's throat as he grasped hold of the door, attempting to pull it open as his fingers tried to grab hold of the handle through its frantic spasms from his main nerves and arteries being gnawed through.

The man's screams soon turned to obscure gurgling and bubbled in his mouth as blood began to run in torrents from his lips, the zombie itself tearing away his throat with a sickening wet rip and chewing on it eagerly with sharpened canines. After a few minutes of listening to the horrific sounds of the zombie tearing through it's flesh, Birkin snapped out of his stupor and immediately ordered the guards to kill the zombie; three of the guards went inside the room whilst Birkin watched from behind the reinforced glass windows, watched the guards kick the door in and knock the zombie away along with its meal, all of them pointing their weapons at the creatures yet none of them fired a single shot, all of them rigidly standing in place and staring at the creature. And when the zombie got up, in another burst of unexpected speed, Birkin could see why.

That zombie had been unlike any of the others Birkin had seen or knew about in his work on the T-Virus project; it was considerably and certainly a lot more dangerous than the normal ones. It had the same characteristics of the average T-infected humans, namely the milky white eyes and rotting skin, but instead of a sickly pale color, that particular zombie had a skin color of a deep crimson red that literally matched the color of coagulated blood, its fingers and toes had grown claws, and its canine teeth had elongated into fangs. It was a very startling sight and, after witnessing what it had done to the other scientists, it wasn't much of a surprise that the guards were scared of the monster; the three soldiers slowly approached the 'enhanced' zombie, weapons trained and ready to fire at the first sign of movement-

-but suddenly, the zombie astonishingly charged at the guards and leaped at them, soaring at least a few feet in the air before it landed on top of one of them and immediately began hacking him open with its claws and teeth, effectively disemboweling the helpless soldier. And the other guards stood dumbfounded and petrified at the sight until one snapped out his stare and opened fire, peppering the zombie and the guard being eaten with a volley of machine gun fire, exploding their bodies into a misty cloud of blood and shredded organs.

And that was the first time that had ever happened. In all our experiments, nothing like that had ever happened to us; maybe because we never bothered to test that form of a theory.

But that incident opened up a new avenue for them, a new theory and path for them to explore in their T-Virus research. After the incident was cleaned up, the bodies disposed off and burnt, and the staff replaced, Birkin immediately began to examine the prospect of that second-stage infection and had conducted numeral tests using simple zombies exposed to higher-levels of the T-Virus, then he rendered them incapacitated, either by sedatives or severe wounds, in order to promote the change like it had happened before with that incident. From the results of the examinations and autopsies he conducted after each experiment, it was clear that everyone, including himself, had made a rather rash error in judging that the T-Virus simply went inert after it had killed the host and revived them into the 'zombie' stage.

It turned out that if an infected human was rendered unconscious and its brain was still intact, the body would enter a temporary dormant phase and take on the appearance of being dead, when in actuality, its body would begin to rapidly mutate due to the T-Virus' regenerative abilities becoming hyperactive. And, within the time-frame of one hour, the decayed skeletal and muscular system, which had been degraded by the T-Virus' necrotic effect, is reconstructed into a stronger and more durable form, giving it more motor function and frees up its joints from rigor mortis. Further development of the T-Virus' hyper-regeneration can be seen with the zombie's elongated canine teeth, newly formed claws on its fingers and toes, the major advances in decomposition on the host's external body, its eyes becoming fully white that no one can determine whether the host had any pupils in its eyes whatsoever, making it seem like the host was blind yet everyone in the Arklay labs certainly knew better. But the most gruesome detail was the fact that, due to increased adrenaline and the T-Virus enhancing the infected mitochondria in all the host's infected cells, the circulatory system is reactivated and commences its functions again in pumping the blood around the host's entire system; however, as its exterior skin has broken down considerably from the infection, most of the newly pumped blood is expelled from the body onto its skin, giving it that crimson hue. In addition, since the infected mitochondria provide a far greater release of energy, more of the brain's functions are reinitialized and the host receives more intelligence than the first-stage hosts, which bestows an increased aggression and agility onto the hosts, hence why they had soon gained the ability to jump and run. In contrast though, as a consequence of the rapid mutation from the T-Virus' regenerative abilities going hyperactive, cellular breakdown in the host reaches such a critical point that it can be permanently killed by extreme injuries to the body, even if the brain is left undamaged.

With all these findings from this new strain of infection in the T-Virus hosts, Birkin immediately submitted them to the board for inspection and evaluation along with at least three of the 'Crimson Heads', the nickname the staff had given them for their crimson-hue skin, in cryo-stasis for analysis by the other divisions in Umbrella's businesses. A few weeks later, the board replied about how they approved of the project and wanted the Arklay laboratories to continue research on the new V-ACT strain that they had discovered, and they had even made suggestions on seeing how much further the T-Virus could mutate its hosts beyond to a third-stage.

At least, that was what was to happen. But instead, Spencer orders us to abandon all other projects and strive to 'perfecting' the T-Virus. How utterly useless!

The sound of the lab door opening sounded to his ears and he looked up to see who had come in, a smile soon coming onto his lips as he recognized Annette walking towards with a stack of folders balanced n her hands precariously, and being the gentleman he wanted to be for her, he stood up and stepped up to her, taking a few of the folders off of her for him to carry.

She glanced up at him and smiled sweetly. "Thank you, William."

He returned the smile and shrugged his shoulders. "Glad I could help," he replied.

She walked up to him and kissed him quickly before she stepped over to the desk and placed the folders down on top, Birkin doing the same moments later. As Annette sat down and pulled out one of the pieces of paper in the folders, Birkin opened up one of the folders and briefly browsed through the contents.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"Test results on the brain scans of people with this immunity to the T-Virus. I wanted to see if there was a difference in brain chemistry between these immune people and the rest of the subjects we have," she answered, not once glancing up from what she was reading.

Birkin nodded and promptly seated himself down in a spare chair, taking up one of the folders and beginning to examine the contents sternly for any of these differences Annette was searching for, his eyes darting over the paper in lightening speed and his hands briskly snapping the pages over to the next one, his brain taking in every printed word and number on the page. It was all just a complex map of equations, tables, graphs and charts that he read through many times before during his constantly repetitive experiments that he had been ordered to perform under Spencer's command, each of them listing the same results and findings over and over again that Birkin himself had found for every day in the past three years, and although he doubted that he would find anything interesting in the new results, he still felt obligated to examine them as part of his profession.

Seconds, minutes, perhaps hours, Birkin didn't know, passed by slowly and drearily as he continued to scan through each of the folders placed on the desk, the papers soon beginning to pile up into leaning towers of thin white sheets mixed with staples and pins. Occasionally, Birkin or Annette got up and left the room for a few minutes, either to use the bathroom or get some coffee from the canteen, but otherwise, they spent most of their time inside the B4 lab browsing through the tedious and repetitive files.

Yet, after near enough three quarters of the files had been looked through and examined, a short gasp sounded that immediately brought Birkin to his feet, knocking over one of the piles onto the floor, scattering papers, pins and clips all over the floor.

Annette looked up at him and waved him over, two pieces of thin paper laid out in front of her. "Come and see this!" she cried enthusiastically.

Birkin stepped around to her side and glanced down sharply at the pieces of paper in front of him. Both of them were pictures of a brain scan on two different people, each of them showing the multi-coloured images which displayed the areas of the brain that showed to have more T-Virus activity in them, namely the T-infected mitochondria providing the energy to power the brain. However, in one of the pictures, it could be seen that the entire brain was bright green with T-activity, in addition to a large white area having been revealed in the center of the brain, clearly circled with a red marker to show its place, meaning that the T-Virus was providing enough energy in the body to power the entire brain and all its functions in the body. Whilst in the other one, the brain's T-activity could be seen to be bright red in the lower regions whilst the rest was black with inactivity and there was no sign of that white area nearby, thus a representation of a normal T-human host.

"What's with this area here?" he asked, pointing at the white circled area on the picture.

Annette rummaged through the papers and held up one to his face, a detailed report on a examination of a hormone in the brain. "It's called the Beta Hetero Nonserotonin hormone, a special type of hormone released in the body during the prepubescent years. It seems to be a type of genetic trait in humans, passed through people with a specific DNA sequence, since barely anyone has actually recorded this hormone in any of the scientific references or institutions worldwide," she explained.

He placed down the report and looked up at her, his expression looking mildly puzzled. "But what does this have to do with the T-Virus and the host's immunity?"

She held up the scans for him to see, one in each hand, the one with the hormone in her left hand whilst the other was in her right. "Okay, as you can see, the T-activity is different in each of these pictures, namely one is fully active whilst the other has only enough energy to power its lower functions, which is aggression, hunger and movement. And you can see that this new hormone that we have found is only in one of them, namely in this scan of one of these 'immune' hosts," she began to explain, holding the hormone scan forward for him to see more clearly.

Birkin nodded. "Go on."

Annette placed the pictures down on the table and pointed at the red one. "This brain activity is obviously part of an orignal T-infected host because only the lower parts of the brain are working, albeit very powerfully since the energy levels are quite high, which means that this host will become a zombie." She then pointed at the other picture. "But in this one, you can see that the hormone is present in one of these people with the immunity and that the T-Virus is actually providing enough energy to run the whole brain, thus preventing any damages being caused to the brain itself. In addition, due to this increase in energy output, the T-Virus' necrotic effects are inhibited and the person stays relatively healthy." She then glanced up at him. "I believe that this hormone may be responsible for providing this increase in energy and the inhibiting of the virus' necrotic effects, since it allows the virus to adapt to the brain," she explained.

Birkin thought over what she had just described to him and began to pace across the room, rubbing his chin in thought as he considered all this new information and how it could be used in the T-Virus project. If this was true, that would mean that the hormone somehow managed to assist the T-Virus in infecting the host, allowing it to infect all the host's cells effectively and keep them all alive through its own energy, yet it also seemed to control the T-Virus mutational properties, acting as a sort of inhibitor to the virus' necrotic effects on the body, its genetic changes in a person's DNA and the damage it caused to brain. In other words, it preserved the person's health, intelligence and DNA, thus making him sort of 'immune' to the T-Virus by keeping it inactive in the body until their immune system could kill it.

He stopped abruptly, his eyes wide in stunned realization and his jaw dropping open in shock as his mind soon brought up a new idea to him, an idea that seemed to click inside his mind and resonate throughout his entire brain. What if they could control the hormone's activity? If they could somehow impede or slow down the hormone's functions to allow the T-Virus to spread and mutate the host in its normal capacity yet keep the hormone functioning whilst this was happening, they could practically allow the host to be mutated by the virus, to have its body and genetic structure changed to produce a normal BOW, but they could also keep the host's intelligence safe and intact at the same time as the infection was spreading, maybe even enough so to allow it understand and interpret orders in battle from the corporation. And, if they could study the hormone more and uncover its entire genetic structure for them to understand it, they may be able to find a way to mass-produce the substance and apply it to all of their BOWs to allow them to have intelligence to receive orders; even more promising, they could maybe be able to use it to actually apply the virus to a living human being and keep the mutations in check with this hormone, allowing the person to become a 'superhuman', for lack of a better term, giving him the ability to have full control over the T-Virus' mutational properties and keeping his brain intact to prevent him from getting enraged, creating an even greater form of BOW.

I don't believe it! Annette has found the answer! We have fulfilled Spencer's orders!! We have actually found a way to perfect the T-Virus to a higher-level than even Spencer could have imagined.

"We did it," Birkin murmured and then he laughed triumphantly, feeling a wonderful and blissful mirth course throughout his entire body.

Annette joined in with his laughter and ran up to him, flinging her arms tight around his neck in a loving embrace, squeezing him tightly. Birkin wrapped his arms around her in turn and lifted up in the air, feeling his body endowed with a new-found strength at the joy and accomplishment he felt, spinning her around in circles, both of them laughing in merriment at their new discovery. They spent near enough a few minutes twirling in victory and bliss, enjoying the shared happiness they felt for each other and the fact that they had finally fulfilled Spencer's orders, until Birkin set her back down on the floor and kissed her passionately, enjoying the sweet taste of her lips and the feel of her warm breath as she kissed him back before he pulled away and looked back at the scans, gazing at the pictures in astonishment.

"I can't believe we've figured it out," he said in disbelief, amazed that they had managed to find out how to perfect the T-Virus, that they had uncovered the flaws that Spencer so desperately wanted to expel and would now be able to explore much more into the potential of the T-Virus.

Annette rested her head on his shoulder, smiling sweetly. "I knew you could do it, William. After all, you are a genius."

Birkin felt his cheeks flush red and he chuckled. "Don't flatter me. You were the one who figured it out. You're the genius," he complimented, turning around to face her.

Annette's own cheeks began to flush and she jokingly punched him in the ribs. "Now who's flattering who?" she quipped.

"You started it. I just followed suit," he retorted.

Annette shook her head at him and smiled. "Honestly William. You are a genius in science and research, but when you socialize with other people, you just can't keep a good conversation," she stated.

Birkin feigned insult at the remark. "Hey! I can hold an interesting and worthwhile conversation with anyone. It's just a question whether they will listen or know what the hell I am talking about."

She laughed again at that and Birkin joined in, enjoying the moment he and Annette were having together, as he did with each of the moments they were together, either as work colleagues, best friends or lovers. Ever since they had confessed their feelings for each other three years ago with that kiss in the winter, during that brief picnic moment they had shared together, Birkin felt like his entire world had been morphed, transformed into the perfect rendition of heaven and his eyes had been opened the true wonders of the world or, to put it more accurately, the color of life had been splashed upon the black-and-white canvas that he had usually envisioned the world as. That moment, when both of them had experienced their first kiss, when they had both confessed their feelings for each other through that small gesture, he felt like his pride and soul had been restored, that all his troubles had vanished and that there was nothing at all he could ever deem as 'impossible for him to do'.

With Annette by his side, he felt that he could accomplish anything possible. She was intelligent, dedicated, focused, had a quick understanding on whatever task he gave her and she never once missed a day of her work, always in on time, working hard throughout her entire work-shift and sometimes staying up as late as he did, both of them occasionally having to shutdown the labs themselves and ensure that everything was safely stored away before they left for the dormitories. The pair of them had soon become known as the perfect team in the laboratories, never arguing, always spending time together and working non-stop with each other on whatever they were to ordered investigate.

But they didn't just work well together as the perfect team and have what seemed to be the perfect professional relationship in their work because they also possessed a perfect friendship between them. Since they were both so much alike and could relate to each other about anything, be it personal things or a discussion about their work, many people would often find them sitting together in the cafeteria having a conversation between each other over their meals, whether it was about the research or anything that they found interesting to talk about, ignoring everyone else around them unless they were called upon, though Wesker was the main person to speak with them.

And their relationship extended even further than that. When they had first met each other on that heartfelt evening, both of them had noticed that something had sparked between them, an invisible yet unbreakable connection, which led their thoughts and feelings for each other to transcend further beyond from mere appreciation and friendship, and it soon grew to full blossom that both of them could do naught but act upon it. From then on, Birkin and Annette spend every one of their waking moments together, working in the day, talking with each other during breaks and sleeping together at night, relishing in their new-found love and affections that had developed. Both William Birkin and Annette Jenkins had become an inseparable pair, the perfect working team and romantic couple, a small light of humanity inside the vast evil and unspeakable horrors that Umbrella had created.

But, I wonder if I should ask her to go further? Should I ask her the all-important question?

Birkin began to feel a twinge of anxiety and timidness at that thought, his hand reaching down into his pocket to brush his fingers across the small velvet box tucked away safely inside. He most definitely loved Annette and wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with her by his side, either in work or at home, to enjoy the happiness and bliss that would come with their companionship, but he wanted to take it further, he wanted to ask her the greatest question that any couple could ask each other and hoped beyond all doubt that she would agree. The little present he had for her seemed appropriate enough for the moment, to represent how much he cared and adored her ever since they first met, and how far he was willing to go along their relationship despite what Wesker, Spencer and Umbrella would think about it.

Yet, although he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she returned his feelings of love and affection, that she enjoyed spending as much time with him as he did with her, he still harbored a feeling of dread and foreboding at popping the question to her, his mind reeling from the thought of rejection at what he was willing to propose to her.

"We should report this to Spencer immediately. He'll need to know that we have found what he was after," Annette suggested, jarring Birkin away from his thoughts.

He looked up at her and smiled, pushing those thoughts of proposition and rejection out of his mind. "Why don't we wait until tomorrow to tell him? He can surely wait another day before we tell him and besides, we will have to perform a few preliminary tests to ensure our theory is plausible," he explained.

A frown appeared on Annette's face, her expression turning solemn and anxious. "What about Wesker?"

Birkin's own smile vanished and he glanced down at the notes on the table, his eyes fixed on the brain scans and reams of paper scattered over the desktop enough to cover the entire stainless steel surface. After accepting and taking up the position of his assistant, Annette had to be introduced to all aspects of his work in order for to take in everything that he was required to do and what she would have to assist him on, including her having to be introduced to Albert Wesker, his partner and colleague throughout his entire career. On the surface, Annette and Wesker seemed to get along with each other, barely having any arguments with each other and nothing ever went wrong with whatever experiment or task they would undertake, but Birkin wasn't blind to what was really felt between Annette and Wesker; he could tell that, although Wesker certainly didn't show any contempt or resentment towards Annette, Annette didn't particularly like Wesker and preferred to keep their relationship with him as professional as she could, despite the fact that she often explained how much she normally felt nervous around him, more so than with any of the other high-ranking staff in Umbrella's employment.

Birkin looked back up at her and shook his head slowly. "He won't bother us. He prefers to keep to himself a lot and only speak with others if he deems necessary. We can tell him about our work before we tell Spencer, since we need to help run the tests," he answered.

Annette sighed, releasing what little stress she had in her out into the open. "So, what should we do then?"

Birkin glanced at his watch to see it was closing up to nine in the evening. "Lets go back to our room and relax. Shifts nearly over anyway."

It took both of them barely a few minutes to sort out all the files stacked up on the table and placed them back in their folders neatly, sliding them away inside the filing cabinet for study if need be, putting away all the samples and experiment materials that had been left abandoned by the other staff into their proper places on the shelves or coolers, and to ensure that the Hunters currently stored in cyro-stasis wouldn't wake up and drown in the fluid whilst they were absent. After that, Birkin and Annette headed towards the dormitories through the empty and silent halls of the laboratories underneath the estate, Birkin himself having to make a quick stop at the lab manager's office to inform of the Hunters still in stasis and that the technical staff would have to maintain their condition, strolling through the lushly decorated courtyards, occasionally nodding at the patrolling guards, and stepped inside the worn-down building of the guardhouse.

"I need to take a bath," Annette stated as they stepped inside their shared bedroom of what was once Birkin's old single room, now a little more tidier than he would usually leave it.

"Go ahead. I'll make some coffee," he said, shutting and locking the door behind him.

"Is that all you have to drink?" she quipped, smirking.

Birkin shook his head. "Of course not! I had some of your hot cocoa on our first date," he retorted.

Annette laughed once more at him before she disappeared into the bathroom and the lock on the door clicked shut, followed by the sound of running water. Birkin hastily took of his lab coat and tie, tossing them both over the back of the chair by the desk, and strolled over to the coffee maker, popping open the top and pouring in the dark black beans from the nearly empty beside it. After he switched it on and timed it to six minutes for some decent enough coffee, he pulled out the black velvet box from his pocket and opened it up, gazing at what he had inside.

I am going to ask her. I have to ask her, otherwise I'll probably scold myself for eternity for not doing so when I can now.

The door to the bathroom opened up again and Birkin hurriedly placed the box back inside his pocket as Annette stepped outside, running a towel through her still-wet hair, her science uniform crinkled and creased.

"Is the coffee ready?" she asked as she walked over and sat down on the bed.

In answer, the coffee maker whirred to a stop and gave off a high-pitched ping, announcing that it had finished brewing the hot dark liquid. Birkin picked up the pot and poured two small cups of coffee into the two mugs sat next to it, taking them over to Annette and sitting down next to her on the bed, handing over one of the cups.

"Cheers," Birkin and Annette said simultaneously, clinking their cups together and taking a sip of the coffee, enjoying the hot and bitter taste as it went down their throats. Birkin then placed his coffee mug down and retrieved the box from his pocket, holding it yet gently in his lap, concealing it under his closed hands.

"Annette, there is something I have been meaning to ask you for some time now and I believe that now is the appropriate moment," he said.

Annette sipped again at her coffee and looked over at him, holding the coffee cup in her hands, careful not to burn herself on the marble mug. "What is it?

Birkin took in a deep breath to compose himself and let it out, clutching hold of the little box more tightly in his trembling hands. "Annette, when I first met you, I...God, I am not good with words than I am with science," he complained.

Annette placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, causing him to look at her beautiful face. "Its okay. It'll come to you. Just say what you wish to say," she said encouragingly.

Birkin smiled at her gratefully and took another deep breath before he started again, "Well, I felt like a new man when I first met you, a man who had found what was the most important to him that he could finally be complete, the last piece of my own personal puzzle. It was like when I first discovered science; I was captivated by it, by you, and I wanted nothing more than to explore further. And since then, I have enjoyed every aspect of my time with you, either in work or when it's just us together, I did really enjoy spending all that time with you, because you were the most perfect person to me. You were my perfect assistant, my perfect friend and now my perfect lover," he explained in something that could be near enough considered babbling.

He noticed Annette look away as her cheeks began to flush red with embarrassment, her eyes downcast towards the floor, but she soon turned her attention back to Birkin when he got down on one knee and held out the black velvet box to her.

"Annette Jenkins, I want to ask you this; will you be my perfect partner for life? Will you marry me?" He then opened the box to reveal a large golden ring inside, causing Annette's eyes to widen in shock and disbelief, the cup falling to the floor from stunned hands and splashing in coffee contents all over the carpet, leaving a dark brown stain in the green fabric.

"William?" she asked timidly, reaching out with one trembling hand to take the ring from the box, but Birkin gently took her hand in his and slid the ring onto one of her slender fingers; it was a small golden ring decorated with two bright diamonds and a twinkling sapphire, the jewels themselves placed in a small triangle shape. She then looked up at Birkin-

-and leaped into his arms, burying her face into his shoulder, sobbing in joy at what had just happened, her tears of happiness beginning to stain his shirt. Birkin smiled affectionately and gently rubbed her back, feeling tears of his own begin to seep through his eyes and slide down his cheeks.

I did it! I asked her! This is quite possibly the most happiest day of my life.

"I guess that's a 'yes'?" he asked rhetorically.

Annette leaned back and smiled at him, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand. "Of course it's a 'yes'. William Birkin, I would love to marry you, you arrogant fool," she stated.

"Lets get married as soon as possible. I don't want to wait," he claimed.

Annette nodded. "Yes. The sooner the better." She leaned forward again and rested her head on his shoulder, taking a deep shuddering breath. "I can't believe this is true, It's like a fairy tale."

Birkin chuckled. "I was planning to surprise you with my proposal, but I was unsure when to give it to you."

Annette chuckled in response. "Well, that was a surely big surprise, William," she retorted.

Both of them leaned back and stared deeply into each other's eyes, enjoying the sight of the love and affection they held in their hearts for each other sparkle like stars in a clear dark sky, but they soon closed their eyes and brought their lips together in a passionate kiss. To the pair of lovers, nothing else mattered but themselves and the kiss that they were sharing with each other; they didn't care about Spencer or Wesker or Umbrella or the T-Virus or anything else. All they cared for was the love they held for each other...

Several hours later, under a dark and clear evening sky, what little light there was cast down upon the Earth by the moon and stars, inside the vast wilderness of Raccoon Forest, barely any signs of life stirred in the silence and solitude of the graceful peace of the lush environment, most of the animals and insects having returned to their make-shift homes in order to enjoy a blissful sleep in whatever dreams that they could have. The only signs of life in the wilderness were the quiet chirping of crickets, the loud hooting of the forest owl, the constant flight of mosquitoes in search of sustenance, the howling of dogs echoing up from the thriving city just outside the woods and the occasional cry of a large bird as it soared across the sky, its dark shadow flashing briefly in the moonlight before it disappeared into the night.

But animals were not the only signs of life still awake and active in the early hours of the morning night-time. Inside Umbrella's secret and hidden facilities across the mountain range, a few handful of their workers were still up and about working deep down in the laboratories, fulfilling the orders that had been handed to them. The small number of technicians busied themselves with keeping all of the laboratories' machinery and technology running efficiently in the absence of the researchers, such as the Treatment Plant's vast connections and pipelines that transported all of the chemicals necessary for disposal across the plant, or the Arklay laboratories cryogenic stasis tanks that held the Hunters in their sedated slumber so that the BOWs didn't awaken inside the tanks and drown in the stasis fluid like the last time. In addition, the security forces of both facilities were wide awake, each of them patrolling back and forth across their areas, weapons loaded and senses alert for any sign of trouble, either intruders or escaped specimens, thus providing them with extra fear and adrenaline to remove the weariness that crept on them.

But, inside the dormitories, seated upright in her shared bed, the thin covers barely covering her naked body and that of her newly-wedded husband asleep beside her, Annette Jenkins (now with the name Birkin) stared blankly at the wardrobe at the foot of her bed, her eyes wide awake and showing no signs of drooping shut, her body unwilling to succumb to the tempting option of lying down beneath the covers and drifting to sleep. She found that she was unable to go to sleep, since it was the last thing on her mind, what with everything that had happened to her during the past three years, including William's matrimonial proposal just hours ago and other important matters that cried for attention, drowning out the lullaby of slumber from her thoughts. She looked over at William, who lay sprawled over the bed, snoring lightly in his sleep with the covers hiding his waist from view, his hair unkempt and messy, and smiled at him, stroking him softly on the cheek, her ring glinting in the still room on her finger.

She sure as Hell hadn't expected William to propose to her soon with the offer of marriage, even though she did dream for the day that he would have asked for her hand, for many different reasons. When she and him had experienced that short yet tender moment together, it was no secret that her feelings towards him had drastically changed from what she had originally thought of him and they both soon spent every minute of their waking time together, either working as colleagues or talking as friends, each of them desiring to go deeper with their relationship, but had been afraid of having their feelings unrequited. However, Birkin organized a small picnic for them on the western balcony overlooking the forest and they had both shared their first kiss there, transversing them from simple friends into a romantic couple, meaning they spent all of their time together, now even enough to...make love with each other.

And he has just asked for my hand in marriage! It's almost too good to be true for me! But, if we are going to get married, what will Wesker or Spencer think if they find out about this?

That was one of the main reasons that Annette was unable to sleep well, if at all, that night because she was feeling slightly pensive and worried about what Wesker's attitude and Spencer's reaction to their engagement would be. After all, since they were performing quite dangerous and illegal viral experiments, all of Umbrella's research team had to dedicate full attention and focus towards their work, in order to ensure that they obtained suitable results for them to use in their BOW projects, meaning that Spencer would most definitely be opposed to the notion of researchers, guards and any other staff members so much as developing a relationship with anyone or amonst themselves, especially when William Birkin was concerned because he was one of Umbrella's top-geniuses and one of the two Head Researchers in the Arklay facilities.

As for Wesker. Well, Annette had no idea how the cool, calm and precise business partner that her husband worked with and had been in cooperation with him since his employment at the old Training Facility a few miles away. Even though she had worked with Albert Wesker on several occasions with her husband on the T-Virus research, she knew literally nothing about him, about who he was except from what she had heard about him or how he acted towards the other staff members, although mostly, he was a complete enigma. He never socialized with the other staff members, never talked about himself, always kept to himself, always acted professionally, never showed a single emotion on his stony expression and paid little interest in anyone else's lives or personalities except when he believed it concerned him.

And to be honest, Wesker made Annette very nervous whenever they worked together since nothing ever seemed to faze him or make him react in any way. As per their research demanded of them, Annette had to take part, along with all of the other scientists in the laboratories, in administering the T-Virus into all manner of living things, including other humans, and to observe how the virus would mutate them in order to ascertain their effectiveness as marketable BOWs. When Annette had witnessed the experiment being performed for the first time in her career, she had immediately ran into the bathroom and threw up her breakfast, feeling sickened and shocked at seeing a dead person being resurrected by the T-Virus, and had been haunted for weeks by the image of those dead white eyes on a rotting undead face that had once been a living human being. Who had loved. Who had cried. Who had a family. Who had a life. But as the experiments went on, she soon became used to the guilt and fear that she felt at what she was doing for Umbrella's biological weaponry projects, and had managed to surpress it so that it didn't impede in her work or make her look like an expendable asset. However, it didn't stop the horrid nightmares she experienced every night after work, visions of deformed monsters and ravenous mutants chasing after her and devouring her alive.

Naturally, she had noticed the same applied to the other members of the research staff as well because most of them seemed jittery, afraid and downright tired from lack of sleep, less energetic about their work and barely distinguishable from the undead creatures they helped to create, except for two people who seemed completely unfazed by what they did with their employment in Umbrella. William Birkin and Albert Wesker. Although, having spent so much time with him, both before, during and after working hours, Annette knew that what they did really was affecting Birkin, causing him to feel more stressed and anxious about ensuring that he completed every aspect of his work that he deemed vitally important, rarely showing any sign of fear or apprehension at his work unless it concerned something terrible, such as what would happen if the T-Virus were to escape.

Wesker, on the other hand, never seemed affected by anything that happened in the Arklay laboratories. Whenever she would work with Wesker, he would always act so professional and precise with his tasks, always thinking things through and carry out experiments in his own way, never once losing his temper at a mistake or get angry at being disturbed by other staff members like Birkin did. Even when they would have to administer the T-Virus to other people and animals then observe their mutations, he never showed any sign of emotion, not even a flicker, on his face, keeping up his cool and calm expression as he watched what happened to the host as the T-Virus mutated them, his eyes peering out from behind his dark sunglasses to watch over the experiments. And no one could determine anything from him, neither from his face or his eyes, because he kept up his cool and calm visage every where he went, and had never once taken off his sunglasses to show his real eyes, practically sealing away all of his emotions for anyone other than himself to read.

Thus Annette couldn't really ascertain how Wesker would react to her and Birkin's marriage together since he rarely ever seemed to care about other people's personal lives unless it felt that it demanded his attention as on par with his duties as Head Researcher.

Either way, I don't care what both of them say. I love William and I want to marry him. But not only for myself.

Annette tentatively placed a hand over her round stomach and stroked it gently, feeling the soft movements inside kick against her fingers. Ever since when she and William began sleeping with each other, Annette had spent some of her work hours away from work due to back pains, constant nausea and near enough continuous reguritation, thus beginning to impede on her part in the T-Virus research and cast doubts upon her abilities. Deciding to consult a doctor about her condition, she had requested to be taken to Raccoon City, since she didn't relish the idea of being examined by the Arklay labs infirmary staff in the same place that they experimented with the deadly T-Virus, and had left for the city a few weeks ago, leaving no explanation except that she needed medical consultation. But when she got there, she had been given a diagnostic that had utterly shocked her to her core. She was several months pregnant.

At first, she felt shocked at that news, that she was several months pregnant and was close to giving birth in a few months time, but had then began to feel slightly happy at the prospect of having a family, of having her own child to take care of and become an actual mother, to be able to start her own family and take part in one of 'the joy's of life' as her mother had commented. However, what little worries she had about asking for Birkin to marry her or how Wesker and Spencer might take thought of it grew exponentially because God only knew what would happen if they found that Birkin and she had a sexual affair that has now made her pregnant with his child, since both she and Birkin were assigned in the laboratories to work on Umbrella's T-Virus and produce effective BOWs for them to use in their businesses, which meant that all of their energy had to be devoted to their work rather than to keeping together a family.

But I have to tell William. He has the right to know. I don't care about Wesker or Spencer or Umbrella or the T-Virus. All I care about is him and my...our child.

"Annette, are you still awake?" Birkin asked and rose up from under the covers to gaze at her, his eyes still drooping shut to go back to sleep.

Annette jumped slightly at the question then looked away, clenching her hands tightly together in anxiety at what she was about to say. She knew had to tell him about their child, about what her current condition was and how that might affect his work now, but she couldn't be feel apprehensive about what he would say or how he would react, whether he would immediately cancel their marriage or follow through with his proposal, or do something even worse, a thought she couldn't bear to think about, and she pleaded silently to herself that he would follow through with his proposal, if not for her then for their child.

She drew in a deep breath and rubbed her stomach affectionately. "William, there's...there's something I should tell you. About my condition."

William drew the covers further over to keep himself covered and he straighten himself up. "What is it?"

Annette sighed and looked at him in his eyes. "I had visited the hospital in Raccoon City in regards to my health and went in for a diagnostic. And they told me..." she broke of from her sentence and looked down at her hands, her mind struggling for a way in how she should say what she had to say.

"Yes?" William asked, gently prodding her to continue.

Annette took another deep breath and looked him square in the face. "I'm pregnant. With your child," she declared.

Birkin's eyes widened immensely that she thought they pop out of his head and his jaw dropped, his expression one of sheer shock and disbelief. Annette turned away and looked back across to the foot of her, releasing the deep breath of air she had been holding in since Birkin had woken up. A few minutes of suspenseful silence passed between them, the tension between the two of them running high from what had just been said and none of them made any sign of movement or spoke a single word until Birkin leaned closer to Annette.

"You're...!? How long? Is it true? When did it start?" he asked hastily.

Annette shrugged her shoulders. "Several months now. They say I'll soon be giving birth to our child in a few weeks time."

Birkin looked away and rubbed his chin in deep thought. "Well, I guess...we'll have to buy a house somewhere in the city and I'll have to...explain our situation to Spencer and Wesker. I doubt they'll like it, but they'll just have to take it."

Annette gasped at what Birkin had just said and placed a hand over her rapidly-beating heart.

Is he really going to say...?
"What do you mean, William?" she asked.

Birkin looked back at her face with an affectionate and determined expression, taking her hand in his and placing the other on her stomach. "Well, if we are going to raise this child, we can't possibly raise it here, what with all of our work and research stored here, so we need to get a proper house. I doubt Spencer would approve and I'm not sure what Wesker would say, but lets hope that they understand and that they'll allow us to raise our child at the city," he explained.

Annette stared back at him in surprise, her eyes beginning to form tears that she tried to hold back. "You mean...you want to raise our child?" she asked in a small whisper.

Birkin nodded. "Of course I do. Naturally, I will continue my work here and I hope you will be able to as well, but I still am responsible for this child and so I should be around when I am needed." He reached up both hands and brought them to her face, gazing into her eyes lovingly. "My work is important to me and always has been ever since I started working with Umbrella, so I am going to continue my research for Umbrella. But you and my child are also important, and I am willing to sacrifice some of my working hours if that's the price," he answered sincerely.

Annette gasped and stared back at him, noticing the emotions he felt swimming in his eyes and the tone of voice ringed with the truth. He wanted to have a family, just like she did, and was even willing to spend time with them rather than with his work, one of the most important things in his life, on the T-Virus. Unable to stop the tears and feeling overcome with her emotions, Annette slung her arms around her husband tightly and squeezed him, sobbing quietly as the tears ran down her cheeks.

"Thank you, William."

William put his arms around her and stroked her back, placing his head on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Annette. We'll get married and then we'll get a house to live in," he said reassuringly.

Annette nodded, drawing in a shuddering breath. "This is the happiest day of my life," she claimed.

Birkin drew back from her and looked at her face, smiling happily. "And it's mine too."

Both of them stared at each other for a few minutes, smiling widely until they both drew closer together and gave each other a small affectionate kiss before they slipped back under the covers and fell to sleep, arms around each other in a small hug. In a few more weeks afterwards, William and Annette Birkin were officially married in Raccoon City's church, with flowers, a cake and everything that one could expect from a wedding; even their parents and relatives arrived to offer their congratulations and hopes that they would have a long, happy marriage together. The reception party in honor of the newly wedded couple was held at the Spencer Estate with all the staff turning up to enjoy the music, dancing and exquisite banquet that had been laid out for them, along with a toast towards their happy lives together and in appreciation for all of their hard work at Umbrella. The newlyweds spent a nice, relaxing honeymoon together at a luxury hotel in Florida for a couple of days until they returned home to their new home in Raccoon City's Cider District, both paid for by the Umbrella Corporation. And, on July 8th 1986, the Birkin couple were blessed with the arrival of their child, a healthy baby girl.

A girl named Sherry Alicia Birkin...

Hey, everyone!! Hope you liked this chapter, since this is quite a long one because I had to explain how Umbrella's security institutions and systems work, along with the creation of the Tyrants and Crimson Heads, including the birth of Sherry Birkin and how the Birkin couple soon get married together.

I apologise in regards that it took over a month to update, since it took me some time to write this out, what with my exams in mid-June, my birthday at the end of June, my party and having to go job-seeking over the summer. I do hope that this is okay for everyone, especially to all of you who were kind enough to review and favourite my story, and I apologise again for how long it took to update.

Anyway, I am intending to finish this (THAT IS A DEFINITE) and try to update a bit quicker so no one will have to wait any longer.

Please read and review. And stay tuned for the next update.