Lone watched Aryn walk away, he shook his head, "She's too independent for her own good."

He had been doing his usual search for survivors when he saw Aryn and the creature; he thought he was doing the right thing by shooting it. Now he wasn't so sure. More often than not, the people he saved chewed him out. He headed down the street towards the gun shop to get some more ammo, as he walked, he thought about how he got into this mess.

In 1996, he was the captain of the L.A S.W.A.T team when a man, who worked for Umbrella, approached him with a job offer. The job offer was a very good one, paying much, much more than his current one. The man told him to think it over, and he gave Erik a number to call. He talked it over with his family, two days later, he called the number that the man gave him and accepted the job offer. With in three weeks, him and his family had transferred to Raccoon City and were settling down into their new home when he got called into work.

His boss welcomed him with open arms, explaining what they did at Umbrella, well, some of it. He didn't find out the other things they did until later. He had a small itching suspicion in the back of his mind on why a pharmaceutical company would need a private S.W.A.T team. He pushed that out of his mind and went to work training the team. It wasn't until 1998 when the outbreak began when he started to have that suspicion again. It was subtle, people started to go into hospitals with odd symptoms. They would go in, but they would never come out. He had to work late one night in the late fall of 1998, when his boss asked him to take his team out on a mission.

"Erik, I need you to take your team out to do some real in the field training, to test their skills." Mr. Brady said with a smile.

Erik raised an eyebrow, "Sir? What is there to do?"

"I'm afraid there has been an accident. A few of our test subjects have escaped and I need you and your team to hunt them down and either retrieve them, or eliminate them." Mr. Brady went on to explain what had happened.

Erik nodded," Yes Sir."

He wondered what the man had meant by 'test subjects' it was probably some rabbit with six legs or something. He assembled his team and headed out. He explained the situation and all the information. Apparently, some one had stole information of a project the corporation was working on, and then sabotaged it. He just wondered why there would be something to eliminate or capture. The van stopped and the team piled out, then the van sped off. Erik found this odd, it was only ten o'clock and the city was silent, too silent. A moaning came from their left. It was a person with blood all over his front, part of his torso was missing.

"What the?"

One of the men fired at it, the creature's left arm was blown off, but it kept walking towards the group.

"What is this? Night of the Living Dead?" One of the men said, right before some sort of human-like creature pounced onto him from the roof.

It was the early version of the Licker. Erik's jaw dropped in shock.

Move! Move! Move!" He motioned for the group to move. They quickly started down the street, back towards the complex. The group ran as if the hounds of Hades were nipping at their feet. One by one, the group was picked off, only Erik made it back. He dragged the one other remaining team member and watching in horror as the man formally known as David slowly turned into an undead creature. Void of any emotions, and only driven by the primal need for food. He stormed upstairs to the offices and into the room titled 'Mr. Brady'. The man was putting a few papers into his briefcase when the young officer came in.

"What the hell are you doing here? I just watched one of my best commanders turn into some flesh eating.. THING!" Erik bellowed.

With the calm, cool look of a lion, a money hungry one at that, Mr. Brady smiled, "Why, he just got to be one of our test subjects. You see, the so-called test subjects that you had been sent out to capture was two of your very own team. We injected them with a new..Ah, medicine of ours."

"What kind of medicine?"

"It's supposed to stop or slow aging. Apparently, it keeps people alive even after death. Quite an interesting find."

"You don't even care that those men had families?" Erik was slowly getting madder by the second, and getting Erik mad was a very hard thing to do.

"Ah, well, it doesn't really matter. Considering the T-virus has been accidentally released into the city. I suggest that you find a way out. Like I'm getting ready to do." Mr. Brady gave a grin.

"Like hell you will.." Erik said softly as he raised his gun to Brady's head and pulled the trigger.

The bullet went into Brady's head, a nice, small hole, and went out in a splatter of bone, skin and gray brain matter. The gore splattered all over the white wall, which was white no longer. Erik headed out of the office putting on his helmet and gas mask. He hadn't bothered to change out of his gear before going up to Brady's office. He stepped into the elevator and punched for the ground floor. He headed out the lobby doors, and then towards home.

Lone snapped back to reality when he reached the weapon shop. He stepped inside, quickly scanning the room for freaks, none found. He rummaged through the debris for the type of ammo he needed for his weapon. He wasn't sure if he'd find it, since his gun was military issue. While doing so, he thought about what happened when he got home.

Apparently, the virus had spread faster than expected, because when he got home, his wife was holding their daughter in her arms, rocking her to sleep. Or so he thought. When he got closer, he saw his daughter's face was bloody, with teeth marks. His wife of six years looked up, her mouth bloody. Erik gawked in horror as the zombie slowly stood and shuffled towards him. He said a soft oath before closing his eyes and pulled the trigger. The already lifeless body hit the ground with a soft thud, never to move again.

Erik moved over to where his daughter was and did the same to her, to insure she didn't become a zombie either. It would break his heart if she did. He went down the hallway to the spare bedroom that he used to keep his weights and equipment. He looked over the gun cabinet for a long time, trying to decide what weapons to take. He decided to keep the rifle he had and took a Desert Eagle as well as some ammo for it and left the house for the last time.

Lone found some ammo for his weapons and exited the shop. He paused, hearing the sound of claws on the bricks above. He turned around, rifle raised, something leapt towards him. He pulled the trigger without a second thought, the creature screeched and fell to the ground, a large hole in its upper body the size of a dinner plate.

"Damned lickers."