Thoughts raced through Leon's mind.

-turn into one of those THINGS—

-rather die—

-helphelphelp—

-get antivirus, they must have one, created the damned thing—

His mental panic was interrupted.

"Actually, that's not entirely true, Mr. Kennedy. And, since I have not done so already, let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Albert Wesker, and I am a scientist here at Umbrella. It's been a pleasure working with you so far."

The name rang a bell in Leon's mind, but he couldn't…quite…remember where

he had heard the name before.

Wesker went on, "The T-Virus, while it was certainly useful as a stepping stone in our research, is now considered to be… obsolete. I have something special in mind for you two."

Buffy, in a pinched, infuriated voice, said, "What did you do to us?"

Wesker's attention shifted to her, "Miss Summers. Gary here tells me you work with him in the security department. Tell me, do you enjoy working for Umbrella?"

"Actually, scraping the grease pit at the Double Meat is seemin' awful tempting right now. I might have to tender my resignation when I get out of here."

"It's unfortunate that you feel that way since I have the feeling that you'll be working with us for quite some time."

Leon, tired of the man's vagueness, demanded, "Tell us what you did to us, asshole!"

Wesker seemed displeased with Leon's epithet, but did not mention it. "I believe instead of telling you, I'll give you a demonstration. Unit One, come forward."

One of the uniformed men stepped forward. The man kept his eyes fastened on Wesker. As he stepped closer, Leon was able to get a closer look at him. The man seemed… not right. His skin was ashen, the whites of his eyes yellowish. He looked deathly ill. In fact, if Leon didn't know better…

"Unit One, open your mouth."

The man complied. Inside his mouth – oh, God – he had fangs! His incisors were at least half an inch long, and very sharp. God, what kind of monsters was Umbrella creating now? He felt Buffy tense beside him.

Wesker smiled, clearly pleased with his creation. "Unit Two, come forward."

The second man stepped forward.

"Unit Two, remove Unit One's right arm."

To Leon's horror, the second man reached out with both hands, gripped the other man's arm, and wrenched the arm out of his socket.

Leon felt himself begin to gag. Beside him, he heard Buffy utter a quiet, "Oh, God." The first man had barely made any kind of reaction at all when his arm was torn off, merely a soft grunt and barely perceptible fluttering of his eyelids.

"Excellent. Unit Two, you may keep the arm as your reward."

With what looked to Leon to be an expression of hungry glee, the man started to consume the arm. Beside him, the man with an empty, bloody socket where his arm used to be watched the feast with no expression. Using sharp teeth to tear at the flesh, the second man made short work of the arm. There were sickening, fleshy sounds as he ate. His lower face was completely covered in red, clotted blood. Clotted blood… clotted… God, of course.

They were zombies. Not the kind of mindless zombies that resulted from a T-Virus infection, but something much, much worse. The T-Virus had been… accidental… its effects uncontrolled. After all, what possible use could mindlessly aggressive zombies have? As Umbrella had learned in Raccoon City, zombies that could not be controlled were as apt to kill Umbrella researchers and employees as anyone else they came across. But a zombie that could be trained to follow orders – well, that clearly had many possible applications.

Wesker was watching the bloody scene with the pride of a creator. "So you see, Mr. Kennedy, you and Miss Summers will have the honor of being on the front line of scientific research. Here at Umbrella, we pride ourselves on being the one of the world's leading medical research companies. So devoted are we to our cause, many of us even choose to use our own bodies to test certain… physical modifications."

After a dramatic pause, Wesker reached up and removed his glasses. His eyes were bright yellow and completely un-human. They were… more like the eyes of an animal, with slitted black pupils and large yellow irises. After allowing them to look their fill, Wesker put his glasses back on. His eyes must be sensitive to the light, Leon noted.

Leon was now fairly certain that he was dealing with someone who was completely fucking crazy.

Wesker smiled. "Within a few short hours, you both will be part of something much larger than yourselves."

Leon was still reeling from what he had just learned of Wesker and his plans. To prevent total panic, he focused on details. "Hours? The T-Virus used to take days to work."

"Yes, you are correct. However, ever since we moved our operation here to Sunnydale, we've noticed that this new virus – known here as the D-Virus – has several very useful advantages over the T-Virus. One is a mutation of the virus that results in the growth of the unit's incisors, as you have seen. Another is an accelerated amplification process, so that the spread of the virus throughout the body is complete in approximately six hours. Some of the members of my research team point toward a… unique geographical feature of Sunnydale as the cause of this phenomenon."

Leon heard Buffy mutter something like "Hell" and "mouth." He wasn't sure if he was meant to hear it.

Wesker glanced at his wristwatch, then continued to speak. "Now, I'm afraid that I have to insist that you return to your tanks. Otherwise, the decomposition process cannot be controlled as precisely as I would like. All Units, assist Mr. Kennedy and Miss Summers to their tanks."

With Wesker's command, all ten soldier zombies, including the zombie with one arm, began to move toward them.

At that moment, Leon really wished he had his shotgun with him.