From the journal of Chris Redfield:
November 27, 1998
It's been almost two months since the Raccoon City disaster. I haven't been back to check it out myself, but by the way the media's got the story covered, I won't need to. Not that I could go even if I wanted to. On the morning of October 3rd, the government authorized a nuclear strike on the city, literally vaporizing anything within the city limits. At the time, Barry and I were at headquarters – its location is classified for our own safety against the Umbrella Corporation, who most likely had one of their spies working in the government system help to organize the missile strike to cover their tracks, and the police themselves. Our S.T.A.R.S. unit is officially defunct, but I have been working undercover to expose the Umbrella Corporation's plots by myself, completely keeping Barry and Jill in the dark– with little to no success thus far, might I add. So the city itself now lies in ruins, and the radiation emitting from that place would probably grow me an extra set of arms if I was lucky, but most likely turn me into a walking cancerous lump. Better than being a zombie, I'd say.
Jill found out about what I'd been doing shortly before the virus outbreak in Raccoon. She said I'd been a little more edgy than usual since the first outbreak in the Arklay mountains. I tried my best to hide the stress I was experiencing, but nobody lies to Jill Valentine. Eventually I let Barry in on it too, and the both of us decided to travel Europe, where based on my notes, Umbrella's main headquarters are located. Before we left, we housed ourselves in a temporary base of operations that was previously mentioned when the missile strike against the city occurred. Jill was scheduled to join us. But just as she was leaving, the outbreak got worse. It seemed everyone and their dog in Raccoon City had been turned into the undead from the virus. I could only hope and pray that Jill was alright.
But all that changed when Kenneth Feng came along. Of all people, that kid makes it out of that disaster zone alive. It gave me hope that if he had the skills to escape, most likely Jill, as a trained S.T.A.R.S. operative, could make it out without a scratch. Kenny was the high school volunteer at the Raccoon Precinct, working there as an office bitch for his work experience. If you ask me, that kid was bright, and a hard worker. Sometimes, we need that kind of a change of pace, especially amongst the S.T.A.R.S. members. Don't get me wrong, we have a natural talent, and are trained, to kick ass. But because we only get called in for special missions, there was a lot of time to slack around.
I'm getting off topic here. I ran into Kenny while snooping around the hospital in a neighboring town to Raccoon. I had gotten some leads that the hospital was actually run by the Umbrella Corporation, but like everything that company does, it was difficult to prove. Kenny was in a frantic panic, covered in bruises and scratches – he was completely hysterical. I managed to tackle him to the ground and get him to calm down. He was muttering a lot of bullshit, particularly something about Albert Wesker being alive – who we all know is dead. That traitor died in the Arklay mountains, impaled by a tyrant – a bio-organic weapon engineered by the Umbrella Corporation.
But Kenny was the bearer of good and bad news. Jill had made it out of Raccoon City alive. That was the good news. That bad news was that Claire was there. Claire. She's my sister. My baby sister had come into Raccoon looking for me, putting herself in danger all on my own accord – and I wasn't even in the stinking city to protect her! I should have been in contact with my family at the very least during my undercover investigation against Umbrella. And I almost paid for that mistake on September 30th, apparently when Claire first entered the doomed city.
I almost wanted to strangle Kenny when I found out that he'd sent Claire to Paris, where Barry and I were headed for. The catch was though, we hadn't left yet! I swore that kid to secrecy when he accidentally stumbled on our plan and he had to leak it out, to my sister of all people! I suppose she wouldn't have run into had I kept in constant contact with her the whole time. God, I don't know if I'm even making sense anymore. This whole issue has been taxing on my personal and professional life.
I took Kenny over to headquarters to keep him safe. He knew too much and I knew Umbrella would be on him just like they were after us. And the very next day, they got to him, kidnapped him from our hideout. Knowing that our secret base had been uncovered, Barry and I had to flee that shanty three story piece of shit house.
Kenny used the cell phone I gave him to call me and let him know he was alright. But knowing Umbrella, I was unsure of how long he remained that way. My first instinct was to go after him and take him back from Umbrella HQ. But he told me not to. I don't know what he was thinking, or what possessed me to let Kenny stay with Umbrella, especially when he told me that they were training him to be an agent for the company. I suppose I gave in finally when he convinced me that it would be beneficial to our cause to have an operative working as a mole. But what kind of punishment would they put the kid through if they ever found out he was feeding information to us? But for the past two months, Kenny has been keeping in constant contact with me through email, giving me any bit of information he could squeeze out of the guards and from his officers. Despite his best efforts, nothing he told me gave me some real insight into what Umbrella was up to, although I knew if we ever decided to infiltrate that base, Kenny had already provided us with plenty of knowledge. Claire and Kenny's safety were my top priorities at that point. Claire was my baby sister, and Kenny was an innocent kid dragged into a mess that he was never meant to be involved in.
And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, they did. I just got word from Leon – a friend of Claire's who escaped with her from Raccoon City shortly before Jill did, that she had been kidnapped by Umbrella as well, while she was snooping around their Paris headquarters looking for me. I don't know how many times I'd kicked myself for not keeping in touch with her. She would have never gone if it weren't for me. Leon had received an email from Claire just a few hours ago, telling him the coordinates of her location. After a few hours of research split between Leon and I, we discovered to my horror that Claire was on the very island that Kenny was training on, Umbrella's Rockfort Facility. They were together. And even better, a mysterious aerial attack on the establishment had released the deadly T-Virus from the island's storage areas, the same virus that caused all the scientists in the Spencer Mansion in the Arklay mountains, and the poor citizens of Raccoon City to turn into mindless zombies.
It seems that Claire hadn't been infected – at least not at the time she sent the email to Leon. On my side of things, though I've been keeping in regular contact with Kenny, I haven't heard from him today, which suggests that he's either been turned into a zombie, or many of the computers on the island had been destroyed, limited his internet access … or both. The cell phone I gave him must have long died out by now.
I am no longer comfortable just sitting here, waiting for some bit of good news to pop up. Kenny and Claire are stranded on some deserted island in the middle of the ocean with zombies running rampant. I had full faith in both of them to survive just for awhile … long enough for me to get there in time. I've decided to go and do something about their situation myself – I'm so sick of feeling helpless. Umbrella's screwed around with enough people's lives and I don't want anymore of it. I'll go in there, get Claire and Kenny out, and launch a full out war against that corporation before they can take anyone else. I'm so sorry I got you all into this … please forgive me.
Author's Notes: I've got the next chapter typed out. I've actually had it ready to be posted for quite some time. But for some reason, my computer I shaving troubles reading the file, so I have to go back to my school computer and email the actual text to myself. So this chapter is just to give you guys something to chew on, the summary of the story established so far from the perspective of another character.