Author's Note: Additional improvements have been made to the previous chapter, thanks to evolution-500 once again! Again, sorry for the obvious dumb mistakes. Even when proofreading something two-three times over, they can still slip through the cracks. Sometimes, a pair of fresh eyes is always needed to help you out so again, do not hesitate to leave your reviews! It definitely helps out quite a lot!

Recommended BGM

1. Resident Evil Zero - Safe Haven

2. Resident Evil (1996) - Outside

3. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles - July 1998

Chapter 3

Alex Mason prepared himself in his newly given STARS equipment. He was going to bring his trusty M1911 but decided against it when he remembered that he was given a steel blue custom-made S.T.A.R.S. Beretta M92F which was dubbed the "Samurai Edge". According to what Barry had told him, it was designed by some guy called Joseph Kendo, the brother of Robert Kendo, who owns a gunshop just around the corner of the RPD. It was probably the most advanced side-arm he's ever been given in his entire military career. Instead of carrying 7 rounds, it could carry up to 15 rounds and the recoil was at least 30% more efficient than the M1911, with various other upgrades he wasn't entirely fully aware of yet.

Satisfied with what he was going to be bringing with him, he quickly left the locker room and proceeded to go directly to the RPD's rooftop, where at least most of the entire Bravo team was waiting on him to finally arrive. Upon reaching the hallway leading to the station's rooftop was the Bravo captain, Enrico, standing alongside the youngest rookie, Rebecca, who was leaning against the wall next to the exit.

"Good to see you, Mason!" Said Enrico with heavy welcoming enthusiasm.

"Hi, Alex!" Said Rebecca as her face turned into an energetic one, seemingly relieved to see him.

"It's a pleasure, Captain!" Mason replied with a slight smile as he then turned to Rebecca to greet her. "How's it going, Rebecca?"

"I'm actually a little bit nervous as you can see," she said with a small nervous chuckle. It was only going to be a couple of hours' worth of sweeping the unchecked perimeters that the RPD hasn't necessarily followed up on yet, but something inside was telling her that it wasn't going to be as simple as it sounded. "It is my very first big mission assignment as a team after all."

"You'll do just fine," said Mason as he put a hand on her left shoulder to try to calm her down. "Trust me when I say I had it the hardest when I first started in the field. My father taught me how to hunt in the cold wilderness of Alaska as a kid. The harsh conditions of being out in the Alaskan wilderness for days really almost killed me. And when I was finally in my early twenties, I served as an infantryman during the Korean War. It was probably one of the hardest times in my life as the shit I've seen, it could've easily made anyone lose their minds for good."

Rebecca frowned, not knowing what to say in response. He was right. She's lucky that this ain't a violent war that they're dealing with at the moment. She felt sympathetic at thought of Alex having gone through so much at that age. Lord only knows what more crap he's gone through, even after the end of the Korean War.

After a brief moment, she looked up at him and said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't sweat it, kid," he replied with a soft smile as he hugged Rebecca in the end. "As I said, you'll do just fine. Just remember your STARS training and you'll be good on your own."

After breaking their hug apart, Rebecca immediately made a formal salute to Mason with a warm smile as a response. "Yes, sir. I'll do my best!"

Alex gave a quick laugh. "Okay, no need to sugarcoat it." He then turned his attention to Enrico, who listened to the whole conversation, admiring Alex for what he said about himself and the encouragement he gave to their youngest member of the team. "When do you think the chopper will be ready for lift-off?"

Enrico opened the door behind him to ask Kevin Dooley, their RPD pilot who volunteered for the job as their main S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team pilot, about the chopper's preparations. The sound of the chopper's engine and blades rushed inside the hallway they were in, nullifying almost any normal conversation they could have, even a few feet away from each other. The other members of Bravo team, Forest Speyer, Kenneth Sullivan, and Edward Dewey were all finishing up packing their STARS equipment inside the chopper, deciding to sit inside and wait for the others to join them afterward.

"What's the ETA for lift-off?!" Enrico asked in the loudest voice he could do.

"Chopper's ready to go!" Kevin replied with a confident thumbs up.

"Alright! Now the only person who's missing is—!"

"Right here, Captain!" Yelled Richard as he came running from across the second-floor east hallway they were in. "Sorry, sir! I had a small chat with my girlfriend and didn't realize that—"

"No need to explain!" He replied, cutting him off mid-sentence with a small grin on his face. "You're here now – that's all that matters!"

Richard nodded. "Yes, sir!"

He then turned to look at both Rebecca and Alex, who were standing right next to him.

"Hey there!" He said enthusiastically. "Ready to kick some ass?!"

"You had me on 'ready'!" Mason replied, trying to beat the sound of the helicopter's engine roaring through the hallway they were still in.

"Definitely!" Rebecca followed up, now feeling a bit more confident in herself, thanks to Alex's encouragement.

The three of them walked towards the chopper and strapped themselves in before signaling to their pilot that they were all ready for take-off. The chopper slowly began hovering over the rooftop's surface before finally reaching a reasonable height away from the ground. Soon after, they started flying almost directly into the sunset; in the direction where the Arklay Mountains were located. Darkness was beginning to fall, but it wasn't necessarily dark enough for any of the Bravo members to not be able to see the expanse of the forest directly from the sky itself. If they were going to do a search and rescue this late in the day, they'd have to be extremely vigilant as almost anyone trapped within the forest would be nearly impossible to see through all the thick trees and grass covering most of the entire region.

The mood inside the chopper quickly began to shift from lively, to solemn. No one dared to say a single word inside the chopper after Enrico had debriefed them on what they had planned after reaching the vast expanse of the forest. Alex Mason was the oldest among the team at sixty-five years old, yet somehow, he never felt this sudden dread coming down his spine and into twisted knots inside his stomach. Despite what he has told Rebecca about not having to worry about her first mission, he couldn't help but feel that something wasn't going to go as planned; that the unexpected will happen eventually, but to what extent – he did not know.

Everyone around him was decades younger than him. Even Enrico was just twenty-four years younger than him and he was the second oldest of the bunch. Despite the big gap in age difference, he got along with each member of Bravo team pretty well, feeling a closer relationship with Rebecca than anyone else. She was basically what his son could've been to him, had he not given up full custody of David to pursue bread crumbs that led to dead-ends about rumors of crazy experiments that happened in Angola.

Stop torturing yourself!

His mind tried fighting off any feelings of regret that he's developed over the years.

It never did anything good for you. It won't change a damn thing now.

Rebecca noticed the inner reactions of his train of thought as he blankly stared down at the ground where his feet laid to rest. She didn't know what he was thinking, but she knew that he must've been feeling something awful inside. Mason then turned his head, noticing the worried look on her face, and gave her a warm smile as a sign of trying to let her know that he was fine. Rebecca smiled back at him just before taking a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she worked on keeping her expression as calm as possible, which caught Forest's attention, who was sitting right next to Mason. Forest shot an encouraging smile at her, while Kenneth leaned just across from a sleeping Richard, who was seemingly resting his eyes, and patted one of her knees as a sign that everything will be fine.

"So much for trying to keep my composure in front of my older teammates…" she told herself in her mind as she gave half a smile at both of her teammates, nodding back at them. It wasn't so bad having a handful of big brothers watching out for her. So long as they understood that she wasn't just a defenseless kid and could easily take care of herself when the situation calls for it.

Almost half an hour has passed as they flew around many of the unsearched areas through Sectors 4, 7, and 8, and still no sign of anything down below the forest. Edward then suggested to Kevin that they should do a quick ground sweep between the searched and unsearched perimeters they had just flown by. He wanted the team to go and see if there are any potential survivors out there as the last few hikers reported to have last been seen were around said area. And so Kevin redirected the chopper around those perimeters through the vastness of the forest. But then…

BOOM!

All of a sudden, they all saw themselves within the chopper, tipping wildly as the entire thing began to drop altitude, the floor rumbling beneath their feet. Richard opened his eyes, extremely startled as to what was going on, his teammates had a surprised look on all their faces as they looked everywhere to see what went wrong with the chopper. The smell of burnt metal and ozone started to emanate through the air around them, filling their nostrils.

Couldn't have been lightning...?

"What's going on!?" Enrico shouted as he leaned towards Kevin to see the dashboard in front of him.

"Engine failure! Emergency landing!" He shouted back. "Grab hold of something!"

Rebecca grabbed a small pole near her seat and held on, not looking back at the windows to not witness the terrible situation they were in. She saw the grim but determined-looking face of Kenneth, a desperate Forest trying to keep a hold of himself mentally and Richard's rising anxiety that flooded all over his face as he tried grabbing a pair of handholds on the bouncing wall. Across the cabin of the falling chopper, Rebecca also saw Alex quickly leaning to the front next to Enrico, grabbing the chopper's radio as he began shouting something into it. She couldn't make out what he was saying as the loud roaring of the chopper's dying engine screamed at them tirelessly.

Not knowing what else to do, she began to close her eyes, thinking about the last time she was with her family for a quick moment, but her thoughts began to raddle just as violently as the chopper did. The crackling sound of tree branches, hitting the chopper from its sides, was too deafening and jarring for her to do anything but hope for their survival. With it, the chopper spun wildly out of control in a nauseating lurching circle as it dropped through the dense forest.

A second later, silence took over like the quick absence of light. It was so sudden, that Rebecca thought she had either been completely deaf or maybe even dead, as all sound and movement stopped like a paused videotape. A moment later, she heard a small tick of metal, falling over somewhere inside the now fallen chopper. With that sound, she immediately was able to hear her own beating heart as her pulse increased for each second she tried gathering her surroundings. Their main pilot, Kevin, managed to get them to land without somehow causing an explosion during the entire process.

"Everyone okay?" Said Enrico as he was craned around in his seat.

"Damn…" said Mason as he grabbed beneath the side of his ribcage. "I think I might've taken a heavy beating or two. Should be okay though." He almost had the wind knocked out of him. The fact that his body managed to maintain itself in one piece at his age, he was surprised that he seemingly didn't have anything broken. However, his whole back was extremely sore for an excruciating amount of time.

"Just a few bumps, I'm fine here," said Kenneth as he was experiencing a small headache. Nothing he wasn't able to handle.

Rebecca then followed up before the chorus of affirmations from the rest of her weary teammates were then emphasized, thankful that all she experienced was a mild case of ringing ears. "...Yeah I'm fine as well."

"You did a fine job at flying us through this hellhole, Kev," said a relieved Forest. "No one else could've pulled what you did back there."

Everyone else couldn't have agreed more and another wave of affirming voices was then followed.

"How's the radio?" Asked Enrico, concerned about his team's safety.

Kevin was tapping on the controls and switches on the dashboard for a quick diagnosis of everything electrical and the bad news hit them again like a bag of heavy bricks.

"From what I can see, everything looks completely fried," said an exhausted Kevin. "Probably an isolated case of close approximation to lightning, which could've caused an EMP-like effect on everything electronic. Beacon is fried as well."

"Let me see," said Mason as he wasn't fully convinced that it could've been just a random case of lightning hitting near them. He's had experience with flying before and had at least a few cases of crash landing the way Kevin did as well. If the cause was actual lightning, they'd most likely be seeing a fire somewhere near their vicinity, but only smoke was emanating from the chopper itself due to its entire electrical structure being completely toast.

After fully checking on the chopper's condition, he then gave a logical but worrisome conclusion about the cause of engine failure. "No… the chopper must've been tampered with somehow." He then pointed at one of the panels showing the integrity of the engine itself. "See this? It's showing that some of the engine parts of the chopper are missing, which caused the entire thing to fry."

Edward, the co-pilot, glared blankly at the direction he was pointing. His hands were sweating as a sudden rush of anxiety began filling up inside him. "So, what you're saying is…"

"Someone fucking sabotaged the chopper," said Mason coldly, before punching the wall of the chopper as he cursed about their current ordeal. "SHIT!"

"So... " said Richard nervously, trying not to sound too much like a scared little kid. "We have someone from those cannibalistic killers working for the RPD now?"

"Hey!" Said Enrico, as he turned his attention to him and the rest of the team after sliding one of the chopper doors open to get themselves out of there. "Let's not jump to conclusions just yet. For now, I want everybody out and see the surrounding area where we crash-landed."

"Wait!" Said Rebecca as she stopped her captain from heading out, looking as though she'd seen a ghost. "Does Alpha team know where we are currently at?"

"When Mason picked up the radio to contact Alpha, it automatically sent in the last coordinates to our location," Enrico emphasized as he clung to the edge of the chopper's exit. "I'm not entirely sure if what he said was sent or heard by the other team, but even if it wasn't, they'll surely come looking if they don't get a response from us within the next 30 minutes."

"Hopefully that's the case," she thought to herself, sighing inwardly before following Enrico out of the chopper as the others joined in a file.

My first mission with the team and already it's gone south. If this was it, how much worse could this possibly ever get?

It was already a few minutes past thirty at eight at night and the clouds above them suddenly blocked what little was left of the draping evening sunlight. The forest was essentially dark as the thick green trees around them dropped their shadows as deep as the night sky. The air felt warm, but thick around them. Small animals were heard rustling through the leaves and underbrush of the wild forest. If there was anything out of the ordinary based on the murders happening inside where they were, it would easily be dismissed as just mere old folklore legends. A group of flashlights clicked on, their beams cutting through the darkness of the green forest as Alex, Edward, and Enrico were examining the extent of the chopper's damage around it. Rebecca quickly remembered that she packed a flashlight inside her pack, relieved that she didn't forget about it back at the station.

"How you holding up, Becca?"

Rebecca turned around to see Kenneth Sullivan, grinning at her. He had his sidearm equipped in one hand while holding his flashlight with the other; a grim reminder of why they were here in the first place.

"So, this is how you guys make your headlines on the missions you go to, right?" She said, jokingly as she smiled back at him.

Kenneth cracked a small laugh, his teeth shining as white pearls against the darkness of his skin. "Oh, this? Nah, it's mandatory for recruits. I mean yeah sure, we secretly sabotage helicopters on purpose to make them look like accidents and give the recruits one hell of a time. It's a waste of money and helicopters, but we do have a reputation to maintain so..."

"And you don't think the Chief would be bothered by all this?" She asked, knowing how stingy Irons can be about many things.

"Of course he does," he replied with a bold casual tone, still grinning at her. "But that never stopped us from doing what we do best."

This guy… And a great comedian at that...

Before Rebecca could respond to him, Enrico called out for everyone as he readied his own weapon in the process.

"Okay, everyone. Fan out and investigate the surrounding area. Dooley, stay with the chopper. The rest of you, keep close. I only want this area secured. Alpha could arrive in as little as over an hour. Keep your guard up!"

Everyone nodded at their captain before they all went their separate ways, some relatively close to one another. Alex and Rebecca were directly going in a somewhat parallel direction – a few meters apart from one another as they slowly gained more distance from each other. Each of the STARS members checked their nine millimeters, carefully checking their magazines and chambers, as per their training. Beams from different flashlights shined in many directions away from where the crash site was. Their paths were becoming narrower and blurry as a low mist began to crop out, sweeping in like a ghostly tide similar to how it would work in horror movies inside a dark forest. The sounds of swaying leaves and branches are all that there was, except for the faint rumblings of thunder.

Not long after the team separated, there was a loud gunshot heard from a distance, which wasn't relatively far off from the crash site.

The team quickly picked up the pace to check what was going on and then, they saw something they may never forget for the rest of their lives.

"Kev!" A panicked Forest shouted, seemingly being the one who shot his gun as his gun's barrel was still smoking, the muzzle still pointing inside the chopper in front of him. Forest became stunned as a result of the horror he had just witnessed.

"What the hell happened?" Said Enrico before turning his attention to the direction in which Forest's gaze was fixed upon.

Right in front of him, the chopper inside was now draped in thick blood from where Kevin Dooley once was. The entire team wasn't sure what to do, other than to watch in terror about what just happened a few moments ago. Mason, as nervous as he was, took the courage to take a stance and check on Kevin's condition. He slowly crept closer to the front of the chopper, his sweating hand holding onto his weapon as firmly as possible, readying for anything.

He was immediately able to see Kevin's now dead body, savagely gashed underneath his jugular. The sight was almost the same one he's seen on little Harry and the previous victims before him. However, seeing this in person was a completely different experience. And probably almost the same experience he once had when he rescued Woods in Angola.

"Oh God…" he gasped as he put his left arm over his nose, trying not to puke at the sight of the terrible violence that had just occurred inside. "He's dead, alright."

There were also drops of blood going directly into the darkness of the forest. It looked as though whatever attacked him, either bled in response to the shot Forest may have done to it or the killer was still carrying a piece of Kevin's flesh along with it as it ran away. Either way, they mustn't have gotten far from their current position.

Enrico stepped in to have a better look at what he was seeing, followed by everyone else who were all in shock and muttering their reactions to the devastating situation they all now have gotten themselves into. Whatever the attacker was, it most likely wasn't the only one who knew of their location and probably was going to come back to finish the job with the others, especially with the loud crashing of the helicopter and now the loud echoed sound of the gunshot. Seeing that they were no longer safe at all, Enrico was about to emphasize a search for a better location to secure a perimeter, until they all heard a pack of canine-like creatures, howling near their location. It brought sudden waves of chills down their spines as they searched around the area with their flashlights pointing in the direction they thought it came from.

Then, sudden movements appeared from the underbrush in front of them. Three of some of the nastiest creatures they've seen in their lives spawned right before their eyes. Nasty chunks of rotten flesh-covered their canine-like bodies, no bigger than that of a German shepherd's, but without any skin or hair to cover up their fleshy-like muscles. Parts of their ribcage were even exposed, giving out the question of how they were even able to walk normally, let alone even be alive, to begin with.

Right now though, there was no time to even ponder anything about their ghoulish looks as they all froze in place. Each Bravo member was ready to fire and run elsewhere as soon as any of the grotesque creatures did any sudden movement against them.

Without a moment's notice, at least one of them came rushing towards them, all of them quickly shooting at the creature before it caught any of them in its bloodlusted jaws. The creature took at least five shots to its fleshy body before it finally stopped in its tracks, leaving everyone caught by surprise at the amount of stamina and vitality it had in its raging force that should've left it dead the first couple of rounds it caught in its body. Though as they realized the other two were now coming at them, they quickly ran in pairs in multiple directions deep inside the dark forest, away from the rest of the small pack of the demonic canines rushing at the closest pair they could find; Enrico and Edward. In a sudden rush of panic, Edward began calling out for backup to help him and their captain.

However, his yell for help did not reach anyone in time as one of the rabid canines jumped from an incredible distance, lunging directly at Edward's back. The decaying canine quickly managed to sink its sharp teeth directly into his shoulder as he screamed in agony, trying to desperately keep the flesh-eating monster away from him before Enrico shot the deadly creature in its head, quickly dispatching it as it dropped dead on the ground. There was no time to tend to Edward's wound as the last creature gained an incredible amount of speed, enough to gain incredible height from its powerful jump. It almost caught Enrico off-guard before a sudden shot managed to hit the ghoulish canine in mid-air, struggling to stand up as it dropped to the ground. Another pair of gunshots followed before the creature finally gave one last whimper as it died from its wounds.

Mason ran closer to the creature, still aiming at it for a few more seconds to make sure it was completely dead, before finally dropping his stance.

"What in the hell!?" He exclaimed as he ran a few hyper-deep breaths in response to what just happened a few moments ago. He began examining the dead, rotten creature laying still on the ground with its dead white, ghoulish-looking eyes seemingly staring back at him. He saw the pool of blood it left behind, but something wasn't quite right about it.

Mason wasn't an expert in biology, but he knew for sure that the creature's blood seemed unusually coagulated. It shouldn't even be possible as coagulation only happens after someone or something has been dead for some time, which wasn't the case when the rabid canine was up and running not even a minute ago.

He then shifted his focus on both Enrico and Edward as soon as Rebecca arrived with some medical supplies she was able to get before they started getting chased along with them.

"You okay?" Mason asked the pair, still quite in shock about everything that just happened in an instant.

"Nice shooting back there," said Enrico, tiredly as he stood up, trying to see where Richard, Forest, and Kenneth were at. "Edward needs more help. He was bitten by one of those damn things!"

"I'm already on it, sir," said Rebecca as she put on a pair of blue latex gloves to prepare herself.

"No, I'm fine, really," replied Edward, though he was somehow feeling as though his strength was now diminishing over time as he sat on the ground to rest for a bit. "Just need a break for a minute… agh!"

Rebecca opened her first aid kit, shaking her head after seeing Edward's current condition, despite what he said.

"Don't be silly," she responded. "You need all the help you can get. Now let me see the bite."

She started examining his wound, which looked quite bad, considering how they also didn't know whether or not these creatures had some sort of rare case of rabies or something worse along those lines.

"My God, that is quite deep," she said as she examined his wound a bit further before finally starting to clean it up and apply some antibiotic cream over it. She then turned to their captain. "We may need to send him to the hospital to get the help he really needs. The only thing I can do is bandage him up for now. Without stitches, he could end up losing a lot of blood and potentially, develop a deadly infection." She continued to tend to him as she grabbed a thick patch and applied it over his wound before putting away her supplies inside her small pack.

"Shit!" Exclaimed Enrico turning his growing concern towards his other teammates. "Do any of you know where the rest of the team are at?"

Mason shrugged. "No clue. One moment they were with us and the next, nothing."

Rebecca stood up, worried about the potential dangers they were all in on their own. "You don't think more of them got to—"

"No!" Enrico cut her off before she could finish her sentence. "We will find them. Just try to keep yourself calm as much as you can and we can start by heading to the crash site, pick up the rest of our equipment, and begin searching from there."

"Good plan," said Mason as he then helped Rebecca pull Edward up on his feet, his left shoulder still hurting badly from the patched wound he had around it.

"Can you walk?" He asked out of concern for his teammate.

"Yeah..." Edward replied, his strength seemingly diminishing by the minute. "Just ...keep an eye out for any more of those... things..."

Mason nodded and left him in Rebecca's care as both he and Enrico were keeping a close eye on their surroundings.

After a certain amount of time have passed as they slowly made their way to the crash site, Edward's body couldn't handle it any longer. He began to collapse to the ground, hyperventilating as he did.

"Edward!" Rebecca let out a quick yelp as she hurried to catch him before he hit the ground. She slowly laid him down in the grass and began checking to see what was going on with him. After a simple diagnostic, she concluded that he had already developed a severe case of high fever. Whatever infection he may have caught from the large bite, it was spreading faster than almost anything she's ever seen in her medical expertise.

"His condition is getting worse!" A helpless Rebecca said as he was holding Edward in her arms, his head laying between her lap. "C'mon Edward… you have to get up! We're almost there."

There really wasn't anything either Mason or Enrico could do, but watch helplessly as Edward was seemingly dying from whatever disease those canine monsters could've been carrying with them. It would explain the faster decomposition seen in many of the dead victims' profiles.

"Re...becca," he said weakly as he was losing the strength to even speak to her. "Just… go. I'll only—slow you ...down."

"Don't say that," she pleaded to him, her voice starting to crack as her emotions were beginning to take over almost uncontrollably. "I won't go on without you." Rebecca couldn't help but shed a tear across her downhearted expression as she looked down directly into his weary eyes.

"You—have to…" Edward then gave his last remaining full magazine to Rebecca for her to use in the future. "You'll need it more-than… than I—do ...now." He then gave his last final breath before the light of his once lively eyes gave away at the dark, night skies above them.

"Edward...? Edward!"

Mason crouched next to her and held her in his arms as she began to softly sob over the death of her teammate, muting herself in despair inside the warmth of Alex's grasp. Before she could finish letting all her emotions go, Enrico warned them of another pack that had just fixed their sights on them at a distance, not far from where the crash site was located.

"Oh no," Mason mumbled as Rebecca let go of him to see for herself as yet another pack of those ghoulish creatures were watching over them.

This time, it wasn't just three of them, but a pack of at least half a dozen of them. They knew they wouldn't be able to fend for themselves like this alone, even with the help of their now missing teammates.

Not this shit again...

Author's Note: I may not be announcing any more updates for previous chapters so I don't have to keep bombarding the current chapter with long notes like this. However, if you do find any mistakes that may be bothering you, let me know and I will try my best to correct them by the next chapter upload. I am no professional writer so don't push it too hard on me hahaha.

Hope you enjoyed it so far!