Enrico Marini and Forrest Speyer were used to severe situations like this. They had been through all the training and this wasn't the first time Bravo Team had been stranded in the line of duty.

"Hey Forrest," said Enrico, "You remember that time those lunatics tried to hold the bank hostage and they sent you and I in to take them out?"

"You mean the time the air vent gave and we went falling through the ceiling?" Forrest responded with a slight chuckle.

"Yea. Which is worse? Then or now?" Enrico asked.

"Well, I'd say then because of the embarrassment, but what the hell attacked us out there in the woods? It looked like a dog, but it five shots before it went down….not to mention how it seemed to have been decaying and th blood was already coagulated."

"What does that mean?"

"Well," Forrest said, "Blood doesn't do that until well after you're dead."

"Oh." Marini replied. "So, then you answer is now?"

Enrico Marini was one of the best leaders a team of men, or women, could ask for. He took his job seriously but remained humble and friendly. He was a man you could look up to, and know he'd look out for you as well. Even in the direst of times he seemed to keep a cool, collected head, and tried his best to keep his team at the same level, to avoid friction. But normally, that was in times of duty that he knew what was going on…this was, by all means, different. Nothing made sense. Dead dogs rising from the depths of hell to attack them in the woods…creepy mansions, and to top it off they already had lost one man in the crash, not to mention there hadn't been any word from Kenny or Richard yet.

"And Rebecca," Enrico thought, "What could have happened to her?"

Rebecca Chambers was an 18-year-old new recruit that had joined Bravo Team as their field medic. She always longed to be involved in a battle situation though.

When their 'copter went down just outside the Spencer Estate grounds, and before they were attacked by those devil-dogs, they had found an over-turned police transport vehicle, accompanied by the two guards who were driving it, both dead. In the back they found a dossier for the convict it was transporting, a Mr. Billy Cohen. Enrico had ordered that they split up in search of him, and after he lost sight of Rebecca he never saw her again.

Just as he was really getting down on himself for the thought of losing another teammate, Forrest called out to him.

"Jesus H. Christ! This place is gigantic!"

"Whoa," was all Enrico could reply as they finally came around the back side of the estate and saw the massive backyard.

Immediately butted up against the house was a graveyard, which, they assumed, was probably for the immediate Spencer Family. As they looked past that they saw a rickety old path that lead down through a thicket of trees and into the massive dark of the backyard. It was way too foggy, and way too dark for them to see anything beyond that.

"Want me to light up a few flares?" Forrest asked.

"How many do we have left?"

"Um," he checked his left hip-pouch, "looks like 2, we had to use 4 back at the crash site so Alpha Team could locate it."

"Don't then, we'll probably need them for something more important, we have flashlights anyway." Enrico replied.

As they began to move towards the graveyard, Forrest began to check all his ammo and weaponry. He had been the vehicle/weapon specialist and lead sniper for the Bravo Team for a few years now. He was pretty laid back, which most people could tell by just looking at him, in fact, according to his colleague Chris Redfield, the only thing keeping him from being a rock star was his lack of any talent whatsoever. As they neared the graveyard, he and Enrico clicked on their flashlights and began to patrol the beams through the wispy fog.

Caw-caw-caw-caw-caw

"What the hell?" Enrico exclaimed.

"Relax Cap'n," Forrest said as he pointed his flashlight at some power lines that ran above their heads, "it's just a couple of bir—."

Before he could finish his sentence the birds had left the wires and were now at full-head on assault with the rock-star wannabe.

"Forrest, look out!" Enrico shouted as he tried to take aim. Just as he lifted his pistol a giant black mass flew right past him and knocked it out of his hands.

It was one of the birds. They were massive embodiments of Alfred Hitchcock's worst nightmare. Large black wings, sharp, long beaks, and beady eyes that could suck the soul out of the strongest person.

Enrico dove for his gun and spun around to aim. As he looked up he saw one of the birds almost about to crash down on his teammate.

Bam!

He fired off one round and nicked the bird in the wing, and it collapsed to the ground. He shot it once in landed, but he didn't see the other one coming down on his friend as well.

It was too late; he didn't have enough time to aim and shoot before it reached Forrest and took a nice bite out of his arm with its razor sharp beak.

"AAAArrgh! Get this piece of shit off me!" Forrest screamed.

Enrico stood up ran over to his friend, knocked the bird to the ground with the butt of his pistol and shot it in the head.

"Duck and cover!" Enrico screamed, as he knocked himself and Forrest to the ground and patrolled the sky to see if there were any more potential attacks swarming about.

Everything went silent.

It was over.

Enrico turned over to see his comrade lying on the ground bleeding pretty badly out of his right arm, which he was now cradling across his chest, and wrapping in his torn up shirt in a make-shift tourniquet.

"Ay dios mio!" Enrico exclaimed, "Are you alright man? What the fuck were those things, they were gigantic!"

"Like I said," Forrest replied, straining, with all his strength to reply, "They were birds."

"Nuh-uh," Enrico replied, "birds do not get that big, and thirst for blood, something is very wrong here…I'm beginning to wonder if this so-called Cannibal Clan, isn't something slightly more sinister then Umbrella and the media is willing to admit."

"I don't know," Forrest tried standing up, "but if I don't get this taken care of soon I'm going to lose a lot of blood."

Enrico never had very formal medical training, but growing up in the Latin projects as a kid, where there were very few affordable doctors, he learned how to take care of his bumps, bruises, and deep cuts pretty well.

"Let's see if we can get you inside amigo." He said.

"What about the mission?" Forrest replied.

"Fuck it." Enrico said, "I'll get you situated somewhere that you can lie down inside, and then I'll go see what I can find inside…think you can handle a little climbing though?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he said, "there aren't any doors that I can see from back here, and the windows are too high up to reach, but I do see a vine support on that wall over there that leads up to that balcony on the second level…it looks pretty sturdy."

"All right, the shock hasn't worn off yet, so I'm not in too much pain." Forrest said.

They climbed up the vine support along the side of the mansion, and when they reached the top, Enrico busted open the door from the outside, and lead Forrest into what they assessed to be a living quarters that had long since been abandoned.

There were clothes strewn all over the place, and the bed was a shambles. There was evidence of a struggle as the yellow wallpaper that lined the room had claw marks in it in various places. It seemed as though something had gone very wrong in this room a very long time ago, however it was safer for Forrest in here then outside.

"Alright," Enrico said as he put another tight cloth around his friend's arm, and proceeded to elevate it to slow the bleeding. "Lay here, try not to move around too much and whatever you do, don't let anyone in this room until I get back. If you get dizzy go get some fresh air out on the balcony, but keep your arm elevated. I'm leaving your pistol on the dresser over here."

"Nnnnnh." Forrest mumbled, totally exhausted, and suddenly not feeling quite as coherent as he did earlier that evening, but he was suddenly a little hungrier then normal.

"Ok kid, I'll be back as soon as I've finished searching the perimeter for Rebecca or anyone else I can find." Enrico stated as he left the room and climbed back down the vine support.

"Could this not possibly get any worse?" he thought to himself as he turned his flashlight back on and returned to the abyss.

He had no idea.