I awoke in a fairly large room. The bed was stiff as a board, and the sheets somehow penetrated the yellow T-shirt that clung to my body with sweat, viciously scratching my skin. I sat up groggily, propping my body up from lying position with my fatigued arms. They burned with the pain of exercise. I'd been through a lot in the past few days mentally and especially physically.
The right side of the bed and the head hugged the wall, stuck in the corner of the room. The wall to my right sported a rather large window, looking out over some kind of prison facility. Daylight was shining through the window, assaulted my dark-accustomed eyes. I rubbed my eyes, sleepily and yawned. I could taste the foul morning breath and decided it was time to brush my teeth. But … where was the washroom around here. As a matter of fact, where the hell was I?
I got out of bed and tried recalling yesterday's events. I remember being kidnapped by Ada, and then Leon and Mr. Hunk rescued me. We parted from Leon because … because I wanted to join Umbrella. That wasn't the case really, I just wanted to keep Umbrella from hurting Leon and the others. I knew the corrupt corporation was after them for something. There was a knock on the door, on the opposite end of the room.
"Come in," I called out nervously. The door swung open to reveal the figure of a tall blond man. He was effeminate looking with his hair slicked back, pink lips, rosy cheeks and sparkling blue eyes. He wore the uniform of a Buckingham Palace guard, minus the tacky black headwear.
"It's good to see you're finally awake," he said, with a girlish voice. I didn't reply. In fact, I was terrified. By sacrificing my own freedom, I hoped to have protected the people that helped me escape from Raccoon City. But whatever was going to happen to me was completely out of my control. The strange man continued speaking. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alfred Ashford," he said with a formal bow. "I am the descendant of the late Veronica Ashford, who helped discover one of the first viruses that helped to build the Umbrella Corporation." I was impressed. Within the first five minutes of my first day with Umbrella and already I was being introduced to the higher ups.
"That's … cool," I said, unsure of what else to say. "Are you management of this facility?"
"I am," he replied politely. "And I am also quite honored to have you here at my base. Umbrella has been looking for you for quite some time. If it hadn't been for Mr. Hunk, we might not have found you at all."
"Mr. Ashford," I said, wanting to cut right to the chase, "what is it Umbrella plans to do with me?"
"I've heard about your experiences in Raccoon City," he replied. "You've conducted yourself successfully enough to escape the nightmare."
"Well it wasn't all me …"
"We believe that your abilities will be beneficial to our company."
"I don't exactly agree with Umbrella's policies …"
"You will be paid generously for your services. How does two thousand American dollars a month sound to you?" I was about to try and negotiate my release with this guy – he seemed reasonable enough, but when I heard how much they were willing to pay me, I decided to put it off for a minute.
"What kind of services?"
"The military kind," he responded simply. "You are at Umbrella's Rockfort Prison Establishment. Off course, you aren't a prisoner here, but a new recruit in our training facility."
"But I'm not even old enough to be in the army!" I retaliated.
"Like I said," he continued, "you will be paid two thousand American dollars a month for your training, and your salary will increase two-fold with every promotion. Housing and food will be provided free of charge as a member of our military. And I will personally see to it that your every need will be taken care of."
"I …" What could I say? This was too much information to absorb in such a short amount of time. Did I really want to join their cause, especially after what they did to Raccoon City? If I didn't, how would that affect my life, and the lives of Chris, Leon, Claire and everyone else? "What if I were to say no?" I asked.
"Should you choose to not co-operate," he explained, "you will simply be thrown into the prison just a short walk from here, and have the Shadow Technology extracted from your body against your will for our purposes. We have legally purchased you, Kenny. Whether you like it or not, you are property of Umbrella Incorporated. But we are giving you the opportunity to make your stay extremely comfortable. The choice is yours."
"Will I be contributing to any disasters like what happened to Raccoon City?" I asked.
"Raccoon City was an accident. It isn't often that Umbrella is in danger of being revealed to the government, but when there is a possibility, we take every possible measure to make sure that doesn't happen."
"Every possible measure? You call unleashing the virus on the entire city a security measure?!"
"I believe the spread of the virus was due to rats that infested the sewers. The hygiene level of that city is simply atrocious. But we won't have to worry about that happening at the Rockfort facility, and we will no longer have to worry about Raccoon City either."
"Why not? If the virus is still running rampant …"
"Raccoon City has been eliminated."
I could feel the color drain from my face. The shock gripped at my heart and nearly stopped it from beating its way out of my chest. "…What do you mean … 'eliminated'?"
"The city was nuked this morning, about an hour before you awoke."
No … that meant that Jill and Carlos, and any other remaining citizen of the city was … "You can't be serious."
"I am dead serious. We have moles holding high positions in the American senate. They can be very convincing."
"You MURDERERS!" I shouted. "How the hell can you …"
"It was the government that made the final decision. After all, we can't have a contagious virus spewing from a doomed city, can we?" Alfred lost his calm composure and began speaking in an aggressive voice. "Now your tour of the Rockfort facility begins in one hour. I suggest you take that time to get yourself ready." He nodded at the table near the door. "I hear you're a smoker. Use those well." A full red packet of cigarettes lay open on the desktop, right beside an ancient looking typewriter.
Alfred left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. The guy was a freak. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but the way he just lost his composure so quickly, and then switching back to Mr. Nice Guy with such ease just creeped me out. He was like a woman in more ways than one. There was his girly screechy voice, those eyelashes, and the mood swing.
I lay my head back down onto the soft white pillow and began contemplating my new situation. The people that I cared about were probably far away. Come to think of it, I had no idea where the Rockfort facility was in relation to Raccoon City. It couldn't have been far, because if it really did get nuked this morning, I would have been awoken by some kind of effect from the explosion. I was in a new setting – a military one. And I had no experience in the military whatsoever. How was I going to pull this off? Did they somehow expect this 'Shadow Technology' inside my body to kick in? Cause I sure as hell wasn't gonna be some kind of expert soldier. I mean, yeah I could shoot a gun and run like hell from monsters, but there was just no way I could actually be trained to fight them!
I nearly jumped out of bed from the strange vibrating sensation in my pocket. It was the cell phone I picked up from Chris's hideout yesterday! He was trying to make contact with me! I quickly reached into my pocket and pulled out the little device, tapping the green button I could've only guessed as being the "answer" button.
"Hello?!" I called eagerly into the phone.
"Kenny, where the HELL are you!!?" the speaker asked on the other end.
"Chris! It's so good to hear from you!" I knew if Chris could reach through the phone line, he'd strangle me to death with his bare hands but I'd take that over my current situation.
"I thought I told you not to leave the house!" he bellowed. "I've been trying all night to contact you. You had me worried sick, especially after getting your note! Tell me where you are. I'm coming to get you."
"I don't even know where I am," I replied. "I'm at a place called the Rockfort facility belonging to Umbrella."
"Oh god …" he said, the anger abruptly subsiding from his voice, substituted by dread. "Umbrella has you. I didn't want to believe it. Why in the world would they come after you?"
"Apparently, I'm valuable to them somehow."
"I don't care if I don't know where you are. But I'm gonna hunt down those bastards and make them tell me where this Rockfort facility is …"
"No, Chris you can't!!"
"What the hell are you talking about? Why not?"
"Because your immediate priority is Claire! And, it's dangerous over here. I'm in some kind of military training facility. They're probably got well-trained guards and soldiers here, not to mention weaponry and all sorts of fatal bullshit. I can't have you come here on my accord."
"But if you're in danger …"
"I'm not in danger. They're taking care of me over here."
"After the mansion incident, I'm starting to question Umbrella's policies on 'taking care' of things."
"They …" I began to lose my composure. I didn't want to tell Chris, but I had to give him a valid reason for staying wherever the hell he was. "They want to turn me into one of their agents." My claim was met with silence. "Are you there?" I called out after a few seconds ticked by.
"You're shitting me."
"No, I'm not. They want to make me one of their soldiers, and maybe a general when I'm fully trained."
"I can't even begin to guess why," Chris said, "but I'm not going to have it."
"I could be useful to your cause this way," I said, trying to convince him to let me stay. "I could take Umbrella out from the inside, especially once they make me a higher ranking officer." I was thinking too far ahead at that point, but the possibility was always there. "Just please let me do this. I don't want to endanger anyone else unnecessarily."
"Kenny, I …"
"Once you've taken out the company's higher ups, I'll come reunite with you guys. But until then, I have to distract them from you."
"That's really selfless of you, Kenny, but this is absurd. You're a fifteen year old kid! How do you plan on taking out Umbrella from the inside?"
"It'll be a few years until they've gained my trust completely. But until then, you have to trust me! Keep doing what you have to do to take down the company, but you can rest assured I'll be doing what I can to help you from the inside."
"Keep in touch with me," Chris said, finally deciding to let me have my way. "I don't want to lose contact with you, especially given the task you've assigned yourself. The cell is probably not gonna last forever, but I'll give you my email … "
"Chris, one more thing."
"What?"
"Is Raccoon City really … gone?"
"Yes," he replied grimly.
"Oh no, Jill …"
"Relax, Kenny, she's fine. Barry says he's found her."
"That's good. When will you be reuniting with her?"
"I don't know. I've left the hideout, just going by your note. Because if Umbrella now knows where we are situated …"
"Where are you going now?"
"I'm heading to Europe to look for Claire. But you just sit tight. And grab and pen and paper, I'm giving you my email. Do NOT tell anyone!!"
* * *
The tour of the military facility was generally uneventful. I mean it was interesting to see the cadets do all sorts of weird exercises, knowing I was going to join them soon. But the real fun part came when I got to tour the prison. I tour guide was a Latino man who went by the name of Rodrigo Juan Raval. He spoke with a deep voice, the pronunciation of his words hinting at a Spanish origin, besides his name and skin color of course. I wasn't really paying much attention, just kinda nodding my head with every pause or saying "Uh huh." I was a full time high school student. When it came to pretending I was interested in random bullshit, I was an expert.
By now we had reached an open pen, surrounding with concrete walls and thorn wiring lining the tops. There were prisoners, dressed completely in white clothes digging in the pen.
"And this is where the prisoners come to work," Rodrigo explained, extending his hand to the surrounding area.
"Uh huh," I said blankly, half ignoring him.
"Oh shit," he said, grabbing his walkie-talkie hanging from his belt. "One of the guards needs access to the compound but he's forgotten his ID card. Hang on, I'll be right back." With that, he disappeared through the same door we came in through – the one with the strange indentation of an eagle on the lock. I looked around the pen at all the prisoners toiling at the dirt, wiping the sweat off their faces from the intense heat of the late morning sun. The soft clang of shovels hitting dirt could be heard all around me.
One of the prisoners, a younger fellow, perhaps a year or two older than me with short brown hair shot an evil glance at me. I was used to taking slack from people for no reason. Just to emphasize the point that I wasn't some prisoner, that I had rights and freedoms, I pulled out the cigarette pack from my pocket and lit one up right in front of me while he stared angrily.
"You got a lot of guts to come here and act like you own the place," he said. "You have no idea what some people will do for one of those around here." He pointed at the cancer stick I held between my fingers.
"Is that so, Mister …" I glanced at his identification tag, "MFD2872?"
"The name is Steve Burnside, you little shit," he said, dropping his shovel.
"You might wanna take off your dog leash before coming over here to kick my ass," I shot back. The comment obviously got the better of him when his face turned beet red with anger as he yanked at his chains, his efforts to break them utterly futile. "What's the matter?" I taunted. "Too attached to your bum buddies?" That was the straw that snapped the camel's back. He lunged for me, taking some of his fellow prisoners down with him. The door to the pen opened and Rodrigo game running through surrounded by some of his fellow guards.
"Settle down!" he ordered gruffly, taking down the enraged prisoner. The struggled for a few moments, but the whole time, his intense glare of hatred never meandered from my own. I just stood there smiling at him, the cigarette smoking from between my smirking lips. From that moment on, I knew that my experience at the facility was going to be very eventful … and fun.