All characters and locations are property of Capcom; with the exceptions of Mark and Bart, who are mine. The "Spencer Estate" name is property of S.D. Perry.

The First Survivor

Prologue:

"Read 'em and weep boys, four kings."

"What?!? No way!!! Steffle, you son-of-a-bitch, if I find out you cheated on that one..."

"Cheated?!? That's the first hand I've won all night. You wanna accuse someone accuse Steve. I don't think he's lost a hand all night up until now."

"Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry. And Steve, if I find out that you've been cheating..."

"Hey, come on. Are we gonna play or are we gonna sit here and accuse each other of cheating."

"We're playin', deal em."

"Hey, you guys hear about those idiots in the lab?"

"Watch it Elliot. Man, I'm gettin' it from all sides tonight."

"Sorry Mark. Anyways, they were working on something down there, something dangerous, and there was an accident."

"No shit? What happened?"

"Dunno. But five lab technicians were rushed to the infirmary. That was this morning, and they still haven't come out yet."

"Boy am I glad I took my day off today."

"Figures. They're always screwin' with stuff of that sort, was only a matter of time before someone got hurt."

"I just hope it's not any kind of disease. All those viruses down there, think how easy it would be to infect us all."

"Well, it's Umbrella's problem now. Now let's stop worrying about that and get back to the game."

Chapter 1:

That was the last enjoyable night that I spent at the Spencer Estate. If you haven't already figured it out, my name is Mark Steffle, and I am a lab technician for Umbrella Incorporated. Or at least, I was. It really didn't begin until the morning after the card game. I remember waking up due to a sharp pain in my left arm. I wasn't sure what I had done to it, but it was extremely painful and was turning dark red. I decided to go to the infirmary to have it looked at.

When I arrived, the doctor seemed to be in a craze. Mumbling something about escaping in the middle of the night, and fear of infection. I didn't get all of it. I approached him, and asked if he would look at my arm.

"Sleepin' on one side again, eh Mark? Don't worry. The blood probably just got cut off in your sleep. Give it time and it'll be fine."

I tried to find comfort in his words, but I still had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I thanked him for his help, and as I walked out the door he called out to me "Oh, Mark, I almost forgot, due to the accident yesterday I've been instructed to make everyone wear one of these suits for safety measures."

He held in front of him what looked like a radiation suit. I didn't think we were testing anything radioactive in the lab, but the pure thought of it made my entire body itch. I took the suit, put it on, and went about my daily routines, after making a few short detours.

I stopped off to see my pal Keith Arving, who is in charge of the visual data room and all related visual material.

"Hey Keith, what's up?"

"Mark, what can I do for you?"

What makes you think I want something?"

"You never stop in while I'm on duty, unless you want something, so spit it out."

"You heard about the accident right?"

"Who hasn't?"

"Well I was hoping I could get a copy of the surveillance videos from when it happened."

"Mark, I could loose my job for that. I mean, if I were to take a video just like this one here, and hand it to you, like this, and to turn my back as you walked out, like so, that could cost me my job."

"Don't worry, I wont tell anyone."

"You better not, or I'll track you down and kill you myself."

"Thanks."

I took the video to my office and put it in the VCR. I wasn't prepared for what I saw next. It showed five technicians in room 7-C. They were handling some kind of chemical, one which I had never seen in all the time I had worked there. It was labeled T-007. Everything seemed to be going fine until they inserted the material into a synthesis output machine. That's when all hell broke loose. The machine started shooting out sparks and pouring out smoke. Suddenly it started to spray out the liquid, coating everyone and everything in the room. They tried to escape, but the automated outbreak control unit kicked in and locked the exit. They were trapped inside until the contamination unit arrived. This was the end of the tape.

At first, I was horrified at what I had seen, but then my curiosity kicked in. I had to know what they had been working on.

Chapter 2:

Room 7-C was locked off to anyone without a level 1 clearance. Fortunately, I knew ways around that.

As I entered the room, I noticed that nothing had changed from the video. It seemed as if no steps had been taken to clean up the mess. Even the synthesis machine still lay in it's place. Apparently, no investigation would take place.

I scraped a sample of the material off the wall and into a test tube. I didn't have to worry about contamination because of the suit. I quickly headed to my office to examine the sample.

My office harbors the only computer in the complex which can activate the locks. Gets really annoying that John has to come in here every time we have to lock down a sector for some reason.

Over the next two days I conducted various tests on the strange purple material, one of which consisted of adding a drop of my own blood to the mixture. I ignored all other assignments in order to follow this study, this probably wouldn't go over too well with the heads of Umbrella. I must have blacked out around eight times or so. The entire time, I was beginning to feel more and more run down, as if I was getting the flu or something It was now the thirteenth of May, and the blood sample would take twenty four hours to sit before it would be finished. I left my office for the night, and went to my room. I had barely come in contact with anyone for the past four days I had been working. My arm hurt worse than ever. I planned to go to the infirmary and have the doctor take another look at it. I'd do that in the morning.

Chapter 3:

The next morning, I awoke to a strange pounding sound. It took me a minute to realize that someone was knocking on my door. It was Steve. Forgot to mention this but it turns out he was cheating. He looked at me with an extremely vague expression upon his face. His eyes were blood red. It looked as if he had contracted some sort of skin disease recently, because it was flaking off in big patches. To add to this, he really smelled horrible. At first, it didn't hit me that he had taken off the radiation suit.

"What's up, Steve?"

"Just... wanted to stop... in and say......... hi. I haven't... seen you in a... few days."

"Yeah, I've been working non-stop for a while now. This was the first night I've spent in my own bed in nearly a week. Why aren't you wearin' your suit?"

"The doctor...told us a... few days ago that we... didn't have to....... wear them any............more. That made....... me happy."

"Hey, you feelin' alright? You don't look too good right now."

"I'm... fine. Never better. I'll see you... later."

"See ya."

He talked with such a monotone voice it was scary. And the way he kept pausing in between words. I suddenly noticed that my arm didn't hurt anymore. In fact, it was completely numb. I threw off the suit and examined my arm. I almost lost it. My arm was covered with the same flaking skin that Steve had all over his face. Purple, blue and white sections covered the entire arm. I couldn't explain it at first, but then it hit me. Steve's odd behavior, the blackouts in the lab, and now this weird skin disorder. I rushed to the lab to check on my experiment.

The timer had gone off some time ago, but suprisingly, nobody had come in to turn it off. Usually it won't ring for more than ten seconds before someone yells "Steffle, turn that damn noise maker off, before I shove it down your throat."

I looked in the microscope, and I couldn't believe my eyes. The blood cells had been completely taken over by the virus. My worst fear had been realized. The virus was extremely deadly, and we had all been infected.

I began to work frantically, trying to come up with something to counteract the effects of the virus. It may have been a futile attempt, but I refused to surrender.

I worked for the next four days, with the virus growing stronger with each waking moment. I blacked out about seven times before the end.

Finally, on May 17, I had a breakthrough. I had come up with a formula that would hopefully end this nightmare. The synthesis machine chimed to tell me it was finished, and I almost killed myself trying to get to it. For the past few days I had slowly watched my sanity slip away from me. I couldn't let the virus win after I had come all this way.

As I cradled the test tube in my hands, I stared in awe at the orange fluid within.

I raced to my room as fast as my legs could carry me. On the way, I saw many of my friends in a horrible state. It made me wonder why so many of them were being effected by the virus more than I had. I came to the conclusion that it was either because I had been secluded in my office for so long, or that it had something to do with a person's personal metabolism.

I entered my room, and I locked the door behind me. I looked at the orange liquid, then I looked at my arm. It looked dead, and it was starting to spread to the rest of my body.

I closed my eyes, and I swallowed the liquid. The next thing I knew, I fell to the ground as the entire world turned black. Before I blacked out, I swear I heard a gun fire in the next room.

Chapter 4:

When I finally awoke, I was extremely disoriented. It took me a minute to realize what had happened. I looked down at my arm, and saw that it was completely healed. A layer of dead skin lay at my side. I no longer had difficulty thinking. Then a thought occurred to me. "How long have I been asleep?" I asked myself. I checked my watch and the date read May 21. I had been unconscious for four days. That's when I remembered the gunshot I thought I had heard. It seemed to come from Marty's room.

I entered the room, and stopped dead in my tracks. Marty lay on the floor, lifeless, and upon further examination, headless. A gun lie just close enough to his hand for me to figure out what had happened. Marty had chose to take his own life, rather than succumb to the virus. Couldn't say I blamed him.

I sat down next to the body, trying to get a grip on myself. There had to be survivors, and I was probably the only one who had the means to save them. I couldn't loose it now. Suddenly I heard the door slowly open, and a horrible moaning sound. In walked Steve, looking worse than ever. I looked up at him, and couldn't believe what had become of him. His entire body was covered in rotting flesh, flaking off and falling to the ground. His eyes had become like two pieces of charcoal, black and unmoving. But somehow, he seemed to notice me. He started to walk closer. In a panic, I picked up the gun that lay at Marty's side.

"Steve, I'm warnin' you man, back up NOW! Are you listening to me? Stay back, damn it."

He didn't respond. I backed away, pointed the gun at him, and prepared to fire. Suddenly, he saw Marty's lifeless body on the ground. At that moment he seemed to forget that I was even in the room. He bent down slowly, picked up Marty's arm, and began to rip the flesh off of it and eat it. I had seen this before, but only in the movies. In the movies, the dead would rise from the grave and begin to prey on the living. But this wasn't the movies. This was real life, and I was actually seeing one of my best friends eating another human being.

"That's what the virus does, it turns people into zombies. Why the HELL would Umbrella want to create a chemical that turns people into zombies?!?"

My outburst got Steve's attention again. I couldn't stand to see him like this: so I aimed the gun again, and I put him out of his misery. One bullet to the head was enough. Steve's blood began to pour onto the floor, mixing with Marty's dried blood.

I leaned against the wall for a moment, trying to get past the fact that I had just killed my friend, when something strange began to happen. Steve's body began to rapidly decay. In a few minutes, all that was left was a pile of sand where Steve had once lay. I noticed that Marty seemed to be going through the same process, but at a slower rate. There would be nothing left of him in a few hours.

I slowly walked out into the hallway, and that's when I saw them. There were three more of those creatures, all of which were slowly shuffling in my direction. I recognized all of their faces, or at least what was left of them. I then started to doubt if there were any survivors, or anyone that my formula would work on for that matter.

As the creatures drew closer to me, I made a mad dash for the stairs. At the bottom, there was another one of them hiding by the room we kept the gardening equipment in. I looked up and saw that the zombies I had seen upstairs were having difficulty with the stairs. I hoped they would have the same problems with doors, as I ran into the nearby door and slammed it behind me.

I had decided to take a moment to catch my breath when the double doors to my left suddenly opened. I guess they didn't have as much trouble with doors as I thought.

Chapter 5:

I shot up as quick as I could, and prepared to empty the cartridge into whatever stepped through that door. That is, until I saw another gun pointed back at me.

"Whoa, hold it. Don't shoot."

"You're a human?"

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock. You figured that out all by yourself. Hey I've seen you before, you're one of the higher ups, Bartholomew James, right?."

"You've got it. And you are?"

"Mark Steffle."

"Steffle, I've heard of you before. You do good work. But lets forget about that for right now. How are you still alive? I've been through this house twice and you're the first survivor I've come across."

"So, they're all dead, or mutated, or...whatever."

"Fraid so. So how is it that you haven't been affected?"

"I noticed the effects early. This gave me enough time to come up with an antidote for the virus. How about you? You seem to be in pretty good condition."

His eyes seemed to light up when I told him about the antidote. Suddenly, we heard a strange howling noise.

"Look, there's no time for me to tell you my story now. We've gotta find a way out of here first."

"Right."

"We should also get the information on that antidote of yours. Can't let that go to waste now can we?"

"Guess not. Let's go, Mr. James, it's down in the lab."

"Call me Bart."

We made our way to the lower levels. Bart gave me a couple clips of ammo, which didn't last long, but seemed to do the trick. As we entered the lab, I could hear them already, moaning and whaling.

We ran into the visual data room in order to escape a group of them. Most of them hadn't figured out doors yet. Inside, I found a document on a shelf to the left of the door as soon as you enter. The first part was very interesting to me. It read:

Helicopter Port

Executive and Government officials only on helicopter port. This restriction may not apply in case of an accident.

"Well, I'd say this qualifies as being one of those accidents."

It went on to talk about a prison, which I didn't even know we had. The last page in particular caught my attention.

Top Secret

Regarding the progress of "Tyrant" after the use of T-Virus, access to terminal controls for Tyrants life support will be limited to highest ranking officials, and researchers who have been instructed in the care of this experiment. Anyone caught tampering with Tyrant or Tyrant research will face disciplinary actions pending a hearing under Umbrella's board of authorities.

"Yeah, that'll really scare 'em. What the hell is Tyrant anyways?"

"Watch out!"

I looked down just in time to see Keith trying to get a hold of my leg. I hesitated for a moment, but as soon as I saw those soulless eyes all doubts left me. I fired one round at point blank right into it's skull. Brains splattered everywhere, including the paper I held. I tried to get some of it off but it just made things worse. Now, you couldn't read anything past "use of T-Virus".

We headed down to the second floor, and quickly made it to my office. For some strange reason, the zombies hadn't entered this room yet. Even with the automatic doors. I turned on the computer, and began to back up all of my research onto disk. Bart just looked around the room.

As the computer downloaded, I nervously walked around the room. Suddenly, a piece of paper on the floor caught my eye. It was a fax. I picked it up and read it.

Orders 2

From Mr. Thomas Lang Senior Project Supervisor Dept. 103

To Mr. Bartholomew James R&D Manager

The decision has come from higher up that a test must be conducted in order to observe the effects of the T-Virus on a living human subject. Your orders are as follows.

A. Sabotage research as to make it look like an accident.

B. Allow researchers to become contaminated with T-Virus and spread it to all other employees on the property.

C. Record data on results and bring to main HQ.

After successful completion of objectives, see to it that no researchers are able to escape.

White Umbrella

I turned around to look at Bart, only to see his gun pointed right in my face.

"I really wish you hadn't found that, Mark."

Chapter 6:

"I just wanna know one thing..."

"Let me guess, 'Why?' I don't question Umbrella. They pay me, and I do as I'm told."

"So that's what this all comes down to? Money?"

"Doesn't everything these days? You've gotta love this country."

"So now what? You gonna kill me too? Keep me from talking?"

"I really didn't want it to be this way. You could have come with me, worked for Umbrella. We could have both become rich."

"I don't take blood money."

"That's too bad. You could have made millions off of that antidote you developed. But, as I said, it's a shame to let it go to waste."

"So Umbrella didn't have one of their own? Then how is it that you weren't affected by the virus?"

"You idiot, I wasn't even here. I flew in today by helicopter. I just came in to get the information they wanted. Now, as an added bonus, I get to take this research of yours and sell it to Umbrella. I'll make twice as much money thanks to you."

"Over my dead body!"

"That's the idea."

I jumped at him and knocked the gun from his hand. We wrestled around the room for a while, knocking things onto the floor. Finally, Bart grabbed a smashed test tube and shoved it into my abdomen. He picked up his gun, grabbed the disk, deleted the information on the computer, then walked back over to me.

"I could kill you now, but why waste the ammo when I could let "them" finish you off? So long, Mark. I hope the zombies finish you off quickly. Well, not really."

With that, he walked out the door. I laid there for a moment, as I pulled the piece of glass from my stomach. Fortunately for me, the glass hadn't done that much damage. But it still hurt like hell. As I pulled myself up, I heard gunshots from out in the hall. It wasn't too late, I could still get him. I checked my gun, only three more bullets, it would be enough.

I exited the room, and saw him battling with another zombie. I fired a shot at him to get his attention, then ducked behind the nearby wall.

"You just don't know when to quit do you, Mark?"

"I've always had trouble with that."

"You know I'll never let you out of here alive, don't you?"

"I also know that you can't leave here until you get rid of me, and I don't intend to go without a fight."

"This is a waste of time, Mark Why don't you just come down here, and let me shoot you like a good little boy."

'Do you even listen to yourself when you talk? How stupid do you think I am?"

"Fine, then I'll just come down there and shoot your sorry ass. Then I can get to my helicopter and get out of this hell hole."

I fired a bullet in his direction. It didn't hit him, but it stopped his advance.

"Give it up, Mark. You can't win. I'm gonna....What the hell? Get away from me! Stop it! AAHHHHHH!!!!!"

I looked over in time to see the zombies Bart thought he had killed doing the same to him. Then I saw the disk on the ground. I ran up to it and picked it up, only to see even more zombies coming in my direction. I decided to run around the corridor in the opposite direction and head up the stairs.

As I made the turn, I saw about five more zombies coming that way. I was boxed in. I fired my last bullet at one of them, and it barely seemed to feel it. I turned around and ran back into my office. That's when I remembered that the door on my office had no lock.

Chapter 7:

They slowly made their way to the door. I had to find a way out. I looked back, and saw the door to the freezer. It was risky, but it would put some space between us.

Just as they entered the room, I slammed the freezer door shut behind me. Now I was really trapped. There was no exit from the freezer. None, except for the ventilation shaft. The one which went through the entire lab. I ripped the grating off and jumped inside.

The zombies entered the freezer, and I had to kick one of them to get them off my leg. I slowly crawled through the vent, not really sure where to go. Then it hit me, Bart had talked about his helicopter as if he had flown it in himself. If that was the case, it would still be at the heliport. As I crawled through the vent, I could hear the creatures clawing at it, trying to get at me.

I came to the room with the elevator to the heliport, and jumped out of the vent. Another zombie was in the room with me, probably the guard. I had come this far, and I wasn't about to give up now.

"Oh, the hell with you ass hole."

As it came closer to me, I ran up to it and gave it a drop kick. It fell to the ground and made a really great 'splat' sound. I Grabbed the key card for the elevator from it and made a mad dash before it could stand up.

The elevator doors shut, just as it was getting up. I listened to the elevators soft hum as it brought me to the surface. I was almost free.

The doors opened, and the guard station was empty. I found that odd, but I wasn't about to complain. Out the window, I could see Bart's helicopter parked on the pad. I dashed out the door and headed for the cockpit.

"What an idiot! He left the keys in the ignition. Boy am I lucky Umbrella hired such a dumb-ass."

I started the thing up, and was faced with another problem, I had never flown a real helicopter in my life. I had played a flight simulator game on the computer, but I wasn't using a keyboard now. I considered the alternative, and decided it was time to learn.

After about five minutes, I got the got the hang of it. I was just about to head out when I suddenly noticed why there was nobody in the guard station. Two more zombies were headed my way. I panicked, and quickly took off. It was only a matter of seconds before I lost control, and started to tip. This actually worked to my advantage, as the propeller went right into the two zombies, cutting them into pieces and throwing them all over Raccoon forest.

With that problem out of the way, I regained control and flew away from the Spencer Estate; never to look back.

However, this was only the beginning of my story.

The End