Chance Encounter

As the meeting progressed behind closed doors, the executives of Umbrella told themselves that their manueverings and agendas would never leave Asia. However... this would prove wrong in but a few hours into their plotting... All their preparations could never have prepared them for the rush of footsteps that entered into their conference... Every bit of the planning that Umbrella had taken to ensure that its plans were not found out, proved to be unfounded as the head of security huffed in front of them and told them of the rumor surfacing on the Internet about their dealings. According to the head of security, a leak in the Corporation had somehow transmitted the security feed of the meeting to news outlets across the world. Picking up a breaking news edition, he tossed it on the table for the President of Umbrella to see. There, posted in large black teletype, was the scheme that they were just now discussing. Adorning the front, there were pictures of the shadow conspiracy all sitting around the table discussing their darkest project. Amidst cursings and panicked phrases, Umbrella's handlings of security changed almost immediately. Spending a great deal of money to revamp security in the days to follow, they sacked the original head and nominated a new security head to lead up the top of the line system. When they were finally done dealing with the problem within, they came out about everything happening within their company.

About a week after the feed was broadcast, people from near and far congregated outside a mammoth building awaiting the press conference set up by the Umbrella Corporation... As the outraged crowd gathered outside the company headquarters, a man dressed in an expensive suit and a kindly face came out of the building. The actor, hired to play the part of the Umbrella president, told of the current state of affairs within the company. Wearing his stately smile that brought silence to the many voices, he brushed off the meeting, as if it were nothing, explaining that it was an amateur act of sabotage against their company. His benevolent face and kindly words told how that this act was supposed to destroy their public image and produce ill thoughts about their business practices. Congenially bowing before the crowd as they clung to his every word, he had them eating out of his hands and before anyone knew it, the press conference had ended... Turning and waving to everyone as he thanked them all for coming, the actor shifted a foot around and walked back into the office building behind him...

After everything had been said and done, the fact that the public had never seen the higher ups of Umbrella before helped push things into their court... Because of their timely explanation, many people bought the excuse for their beloved Corporation had never done them wrong before and had little to earn if they were to ever harm them. The few, who had personally taken on this giant and lived to tell the story, were hardpressed in coming up with something to prove their guilt. The Corporation had done well to cover up their tracks and left nothing behind to link them to anything.

Once everything had been finished, Umbrella went on with their plans and fast tracked the project so that their foes would be none-the-wiser. As the black trucks and helicopters roared away from their hidden locale, the executives, contained within, were confident that everything had been set in motion and nothing could stop them from their ultimate goal... Their vehicles streaking away from the Omega site, their thoughts froze onto the hazards before them but they knew very well that no one could stop them now. Their public image had indeed been saved but the threat of their plan still loomed overhead as everything seemed to fall into their laps... Only time would tell if anything could doom their plots... but as it stood now, the world was theirs for the taking...

It had been days since Chris and Claire Redfield had a moment's peace. Shifting around in their seats as they finished their meal, they could not shake the sense of people watching them with prying eyes. Chris sat there munching on his dinner as his other hand cradled the Colt .45 in his jacket pocket. They had to be ready for anything now especially after the failed attempt on his life some three days ago. Throwing a napkin down and a wad of ones, Chris and Claire got up and left the diner that they were in and continued on their tek forward. Eyeing his surroundings, Chris ushered Claire toward him as they picked up the pace toward their hideout. The condemned building, that they had taken shelter in, was once a secret base for the CIA in the 50s when they had been infected with the whole red scare. Times had changed since then and the threat of Communism had long since passed. Wires and equipment, forgotten in the dusts of time, laid strewn against the rotting tables. In one corner, there laid a bed with freshly laundered sheets and a couple of bar stools, taken from a dumpster and fixed. On the opposite wall, a tan couch clung to the derelict structure. Among the few comforts in the room, these were the newest items here but not the most used. Folded neatly in a drawer, a laptop slept from which Claire spent most of her time on. The hacking codes and other papers lay covering the top of it as it slumbered quietly awaiting its owner's passcode.

Avoiding the numerous traps set, the brother and sister duo found their way back into their room... The footsteps echoing in the hollowed structure, they made it into their room unscathed at the end of another day. Drifting to rest on the bed, Claire let out a sigh as Chris passed her her laptop. The worries mounted on their faces was not the only thing on their minds as the computer flickered to life. Their minds were set on figuring out what they were to do now that Umbrella was on good standing with the world again. They feared what this would do to the world once they had accomplished their desires. Resting her laptop on the bed and laying down with her feet flailing in the air, Claire started to type on her PC as she tried to infiltrate the Umbrella mainframes. Using her usual hacking patterns that exploited the new weaknesses in the system, Claire sat typing up a storm as her screen flashed amongst screens. Almost immediately, the screen cut to black leaving a bewildered Claire on the edge of the bed... Minutes pass as the screen cut to a scene of a beast in cryostasis. Scientists cluttered around it as a sunglassed gentleman in black picked up the unit effortlessly. Watching the scene, Claire's eyes shrunk in horror at her realization that this was once a dear friend of hers. Her hands shaking as the tears streamed down her face, Chris' face sullied and came to rest next to Claire to see her boggle on the screen.

"Are you going to be ok Claire?" Chris hugged her tight.

"This can't be..." Claire sobbed watching the video pass, "This guy is dead... He should be dead..."

"A friend of yours?" Chris asked concerned as his eyes froze on a familiar face, "Wesker! What the hell is going on? Tell me Claire!"

"I went looking for you in Europe and wound up in an Umbrella prison camp..." Claire trailed off in the midst of incoherent jibber jabber, "I escaped and found myself in Antarctica with a friend named, Steve Burnside. They used this special virus on him and he saved me... but he died saving me..."

"Wesker's involved with this.. isn't he?" Chris' face deepened with resolve, "What did he do?"

"Wesker took his body for the virus contained in it," Claire sobbed into the blanket, "He saved me and I couldn't stop Wesker... I could do nothing as he got away with Steve... All I could do is watch..." Claire trailed away in pure tears as the screen continued to show the experiments done on him... Everything went blank as the screen froze... Claire looked up to the screen. Slowly as if they were being typed with one finger, the words... "I am still alive..." frozen on screen... as horror marred across Claire's face... The words sunk into every fiber of her being as she sat there transfixed on the words, tracing them in her mind and speaking them wordlessly... Somehow... she had to save him...