Disclaimer: I do not own any Resident Evil characters or Resident Evil terms but I do own anything else that is original, Kronos virus, everything about the project and much more coming in the next chps.
Chapter One: S.O.S.
Life is strong and fragile. It's a paradox. ~ Joan Jett
28 May 2006, 8:04 P.M.
Weston City, U.S.A.
RAIN.
The mighty little bullets tapped against the window like an annoying beat. Millions upon millions of wiggling shadows cast into the dark apartment, only lit by the shimmering blotches of lampposts outside and the orange numbers of 8:04 P.M. on a digital clock inside.
Everything was still.
The turning of the number '4' to '5' clicked in near fateful sync with the soft opening and the loud shutting of the front door.
BANG!
Stomp, stomp, stomp went the young twenty-seven-year-old woman as she pitched her keys and bag away in a fit of frustration. Her fingers combed through her brown hair, pacing back and forth.
The words still stung in her head.
*/*/*/*
"You wanted to see me, Sir?"
A disappointed sigh. "Redfield, we need to talk."
*/*/*/*
It was this afternoon. Called to come to the director's office. She didn't expect it to go down that way – then again, she rarely ever had a reason to visit him. She had a perfect record, followed protocol like a priest to a bible. The director himself praised her for handling the Harvardville incident last year. So there was nothing to raise a red flag.
No. There was one little thing.
And Claire Redfield was found out.
*/*/*/*
"Sure, Sir." Claire managed the most brightly casual smile she could give. In retrospect, it might have been a bad decision. "What did you want– "
"Redfield, I'll cut to the chase. I've had reports that you've been making frequent requests to Infosec."
It was a reflex she absentmindedly did. Her body tensed and she bit her lip. The director could clearly see it and his notion was correct. Likewise, Claire could see he wished it wasn't.
"Why?"
She tried to relax.
"I was looking up on an old case. Double-checking is all."
"Really? Well, I've checked too and you're not working on any cases that need the information division at Quantico."
Again, the twitch in her body. This time, she couldn't walk out of it.
"Redfield, tell me the truth. You're working on this under the covers. Why?"
*/*/*/*
It was a rookie mistake. She should have been more careful. But she was getting desperate.
A single rumour that surfaced three months ago and she discovered it through the backwaters. It rekindled a very old hope she had long ago. A hope she had moved on years ago. But the more she dug to find out its legitimacy, the more she was finding dead ends.
Each cul-de-sac was killing that renewed hope, and thus pushing her frantic attempt to keep on looking. Finding. Any clue to lead her closer to the rumor.
*/*/*/*
Claire slugged her shoulders. She couldn't lie. Not to the director. Not an associate.
Hopkins didn't like how far off the handle she went once she said the truth.
His voice grew angry. "Claire, you gave the techs wrong information to confirm a claim. For personal gain. Do you know how much red tape you've broken? How badly this could affect your reputation?"
"Sir, let me explain!"
"Enough!" It was a strong shout that shook through her. She had overstepped her boundary.
The director calmed down in his seat but his authority-filled eyes stayed dead set on her.
"As of this moment, you're suspended without pay. Two weeks."
She couldn't believe her ears. Suspension!?
"But, sir-!"
"Claire, it's been a rough year. You should take this as a vacation," the director stated both firmly and concernedly. "I mean it."
*/*/*/*
She had tried to persist but the director had put down his foot, whether she liked it or not.
*/*/*/*
The director could easily read the soured expression on her face, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. He knew her well enough, one of his best employees.
"Claire. I know why you broke the rules this one time... But you have to stop chasing a ghost."
*/*/*/*
And that was the end. She bolted out of the office silently, out of TerraSave HQ and drove back to her little apartment in Weston.
There was nowhere else to go. Just...home.
In the cold living room filled with dribbling shadows.
Claire heaved a very tired sigh. It had been a very long time since she had lost her cool. She dropped onto the stuffy sofa and let the metrical tapping of rain ring through her ears.
Well, it could have been worse. I could have been fired...
Claire rolled her head to the digital clock. Should she call? It wouldn't do good to add more worry to Chris, especially at this hour. She was a big girl, she could handle this suspension like a mature woman.
From the last email she got, her brother was being stationed in Afghanistan for a while to investigate another possible bioterrorist group. A lot of tension brewing between the USA and Iraq was making things difficult.
It couldn't be helped.
With the suspicion of bioterrorism tied to the Rasuls in the Middle East and the USA's BSAA stepping on Muslim soil, it was putting more needles into the people over there. Stringing them up to attack America in their land with guns and tanks.
Might have been the bioterrorist's plan. Stir up a religious conflict among the people to slow the BSAA down long enough to launch their counterattacks at the side; infecting everyone, even citizens, insurgencies and the Afghan governments.
TerraSave had decided to help out as much as they could, sending members to help the citizens.
Yup...TerraSave members were working. And she was not.
"...Hopkins was right," she mumbled to herself. "All I'm looking for is a ghost."
Claire inhaled and buckled up. Two weeks. What could she do for two weeks?
She looked around her apartment. How sad. Ever since she moved to Weston, she hadn't done much to it – much of her things were still in boxes by the closet. It was still a reasonably nice home. Claire had a few ideas of what she wanted to do when she got herself her own house but since joining TerraSave, she had never much put effort into them.
It was laughable. Claire only came home on weekends. And those were very few times. What classified as 'home' was pretty much TerraSave.
She didn't even have a hobby to look forward to when coming home. Sometimes reading but alas, it would always be work. Not for pleasure.
Two weeks...
Maybe she should arrange her apartment. Just to look like a better excuse of a home. Maybe even owe a little dog to keep her company. One that didn't shed. And didn't bark a lot.
Or a fish, considering how often she had to go to work and cross states.
No, she might accidentally starve it to death during one of her trips.
That was when she spied her lonely laptop, charging on the kitchen counter.
She had nothing else to do now. Might as well check emails and have dinner. Sleep early too. She could figure out what she could do tomorrow.
Off into the kitchen, Claire switched on the laptop and headed to the fridge. Mostly empty, like her apartment. Luckily, she found a TV dinner.
Expired? She checked. Just last week. She couldn't complain.
Three minutes entered into the microwave and she strolled back to the laptop with the only soda can in hand. Hit a few keys and she was in.
She took a sip.
"Ugh!" She cringed. She hadn't expected the piercing, fermented taste of rust.
First emails that caught her eyes were from her co-workers over at Iraq. She opened them and read line after line. It was tough – no news yet of any viral outbreak but there had been a few outbursts. Attached were several photos: of TerraSave members, smiling rescued orphans, and Muslim helpers working together with distribution of food, clothing, blankets and medicine.
A brighter side of the war.
No email from her brother. Expected. But she wasn't too worried. She still kept tags on the BSAA, even had gotten Jill to send a message if ever he went missing.
Well, he did once. Two years ago. But from what Claire had heard, the situation was handled and Chris came back alive. Still, for him to just up like that...
Her lips stretched happily, seeing Sherry's protected email. From the contents she read, it seemed like the young woman was doing well this month and last month. The smile turned downwards upon reading further down the long email.
Even if Sherry kept her best to hide it in her email, Claire could easily read between the lines. The nightmares were still there. Not worse than before but not gone. Claire could relate. The only difference was a child had been struggling against the trauma for eight years.
Note, she should go visit Sherry tomorrow. Sherry was one of the reasons why she moved to Weston.
There was one email that she discovered as...unusual.
It was the first one at the top. She had just gotten it, her laptop giving a beep at its arrival. Moreover, she didn't recognise the address.
Actually, she didn't even recognise the email service. Was it a new one?
Only the title, "Important. Please Read".
Anyone would instantly say it was spam. Well, the title didn't seem to say some outrageous deal. Actually, this email didn't even get listed into the spam box in the first place.
It wasn't a TerraSave address. It wasn't from a friend.
Her gut feeling was pricking at her. An anonymous, serious email in her laptop...
Just a peek.
She sighed.
Great.
A jumble of symbols and large caps filled the email.
You send me an encrypted email when I don't even know you.
She deleted it.
Ding!
Good, she was getting hungry. Up she went and opened the microwave. Carefully with a few "Ah! Ah!" and some blows, she cupped the TV dinner.
Season three of Downfall was five months ago. Wonder if it's still going...
Beep beep beep! went her laptop. And it wasn't a good sound.
Her eyes widened at the screen and in a fit of panic, her fingers dropped the tray and darted to the keyboard. Didn't matter if the sauces splattered across the counter.
"No! No, no, no, no, no! NO!" she yelled but regardless of how hard she hit the keys, the problem wouldn't go away.
The screen was flashing red alerts and static. Her firewall had been breached. Did the email contain a Trojan horse?
First the suspension, and now a computer virus in the latest model provided by TerraSave!
"Dammit, this can't be happening!" She fisted the table.
Then, it stopped.
A software window suddenly opened, taking over the screen. It looked like a video feed and yet it wasn't, decorated with blue and white numbers and letters on a black background.
Someone stared back at her. But not a human's face.
Half black and half white, meeting right down the center. Like a full masquerade face mask of a joker with neither a smile nor a frown. There was no way of seeing the rest of the body, only up to the shoulders on screen. Flowing hair, in a style where one half was shaved and the other was left overgrown, was visually formed by lines of binaries and matrices from the roots of its head.
Its one eye glaring hollowly out from the sockets of its mask was directed at hers.
Its voided mouth appeared on the blank mask.
"Read the email."
The robotic, stiff voice came from the speakers. Claire froze on the spot, unsure what to make of this.
"Please read it."
Then the window closed. The 'person' was gone. The screen became normal. Like the virus was never there to begin with.
Her inbox, however, was different. At the top of the list, the encrypted email was back and opened up on its own. A password was keyed in without her even touching the keyboard and at command, the cryptic symbols shifted and morphed into plain English.
It was as if her computer got possessed. Did she get hacked? Claire had never heard of such a hacking tool like what she had seen before her very eyes, not even from the techs at Infosec. Moreover, that 'person', whatever it was, knew. She had deleted the email and 'it' wanted her to read it.
Warily and slowly, she sat down and took a closer look. The large cramped paragraphs were now simple one-sentences with attachments.
One audio. Several files. Two jpegs. But there was one common phrase.
Cape Inacio.
She opened another window and typed the location. Zero results.
The name didn't exist in the Internet.
Claire opened the files first and her laptop was flooded with documents of all sorts, all tagged with a familiar company logo. Two identical hexagon-shaped spaces – one on top of the other with lines forming an X, at the end of four bold golden letters.
HELIX Foundations.
A powerful conglomerate, rival with TRICELL head to head for the lead in the industry and also prominent in the Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies. Particularly a common name across the globe, more well-known than TRICELL – provider of more than a third of the world's diversified pharmaceuticals, innovator of medical and prosthetic inventions that have benefited hospitals, investigation units, every healthcare organization over the last three decades, idealist of the medical world– the list just went on. The most recent news was HELIX dwelling deeper into neural networks, artificial intelligence and neuroprosthetics to advance the medical science.
They triumphed continuously over TRICELL in front of the media. Their squeaky clean reputation was more influential than the indicted and destroyed Umbrella. Their work has saved millions...
So...what was the link to these documents?
First thing to catch her eyes was an electronic map of a small tropical island, roughly an area of 300 km with unfamiliar landmarks. Titled Cape Inacio.
Second thing was a zoomed in picture of crudely-distorted organism agents.
"Oh no," she groaned. "Not another one."
The biological structures – they were a dead giveaway.
A virus.
What was it and what was it capable of? The other documents had nothing – only numbers and statements that linked between HELIX and Cape Inacio. Unusual statements and numbers. One was a suspicious document depicting the medical transfers of injured or sick prisoners from US prisons to HELIX's medical centers. But the many times Claire and others had survived through in the past, she had a hunch that this virus was no doubt deadly.
What was HELIX planning? No, a more pressing question came to mind – why was she given this?
She opened the audio.
Nothing but static in the first few seconds. She was expecting some sort of explanation about this new virus to come out.
There were some sounds. Shuffling. Breathing. Like someone was having difficulty to speak.
"Ahem..." A voice of a woman, tinted with a strange mixed accent, was cleared with a couple of nervous coughs. Then a sigh. "My name is Iria McLenlan. Head Director of Theseus Research Facility..."
Silence for two seconds. Then a grown.
"Screw formality," the voice whispered. Her tone surprisingly changed from the unsteady seriousness to scared casualness. "I'll cut it short. At the end of this month, a virus named the Kronos Virus will be finished. But an outbreak on the world is...the least of anyone's concern...
Over 8,000 people live on Cape Inacio, exactly where the virus is being developed. Out of that, 3,682 employees have been working in this facility; scientists, security, staff, doctors. All because we were told that if we didn't cooperate...the rest would be killed or be used for experiments. Men, women and children... Additionally, 1,280 prisoners were brought here to the facility...making it a total of 9,280 people. "
She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"You can imagine where I am going with this... Once HELIX gets their hands on the completed virus, all employees, all residents on this island...will be expendable. There is no way of contacting the outside without triggering HELIX's security. How this information got to you is thanks to...someone with very good computer skills."
There had been a pause. From what she heard, the woman had some connection to whoever sent the email.
"I'm not going to give those bastards the pleasure of killing us off. I've already made a plan of how we can get off the island before that happens. All of us," the voice enforced the last sentence. "But I'm also afraid. So I need to make a backup plan. You're my backup plan."
Claire wasn't too sure about feeling 'obliged' to be backup. What could she do?
"You have evidence. GPS coordinates to the island. As much information as I could skimp for you. I want you to get whatever help possible. Rescue teams, ships, anything that can rescue everyone. Anything before the deadline. In case...in case, the original plan fails and there's no one else to save our families."
One hand cupped to her mouth. Her shoulders were feeling dramatically heavy from the responsibility she was being given.
"And...if 8,000 people isn't a good enough reason...then I can give you another, Claire Redfield."
Claire was surprised. How did she–
"Steve Burnside is alive."
Her heart stopped.
"That's how I know about you. He told me."
No... No. That's a lie.
Steve is dead. He died years ago.
"...I've seen the surveillance videos from Rockfort Island and Antarctica. I know what happened there."
Shut up! This is just a trick!
It was as if Claire was being pried, boiling her from the inside.
If you saw it, then you should have already seen his death! That doesn't mean you know him!
The woman in the audio didn't seem to cease the trickery, her tired voice droning. "I know... Hard to believe. The virus, people kept against their own will, and now this... I don't blame you." Pause. "Red hair. Green eyes. Bit of a hothead but a bright kid. If he doesn't leap before he thinks. Has to prove a point that he doesn't need to rely on others, can handle things himself. But he has a good heart, knows who to trust, knows which back to look out. Has quite an appetite too." The voice giggled but it sadly died. "And...if that kiddo hadn't come to this island...I think I wouldn't have been making these plans in the first place... I owe a lot to that kid. A lot of people owe him, just for being here."
Claire's temper settled. It was too convincing. As if this person knew him, more than she did...and yet, the woman sounded in debt.
No, more like a guardian.
...How long did the woman know Steve?
"Steve trusts you. That's enough for me to trust you. I don't know anyone else outside that can help us. So I chose you... And...if you choose to come just for him, I'm fine with that. He deserves getting out of here too and...it's a better reason than helping out strangers."
Again, a pause. Longer.
The woman was struggling. Trying to keep her cool as best as she could.
"Miss Redfield...I don't care about the virus or my reputation. I don't care much about those corporate dogs paying me to shut up and be their obedient pet. I don't give a damn of what happens to me." Claire could have sworn...she heard soft crying. Anger. "I just want...everyone off and away from this island... None of us wanted to drag our families and friends down with us. They had nothing to do with bio-weaponry. They're just innocents!"
Heavy breaths. A few quick sniffles and another second of silence to regain back broken self-control.
"Please...help us."
The plea was desperate.
This couldn't be an act.
"I wish I was meeting you in person instead of through an audio file. Under better circumstances. But...I don't think I'll live long enough for that..."
Claire's gut feeling pinched again. This was a director. Which meant she broke through a lot of tape to get the message to her.
Which meant the woman may have already paid the price by the time Claire got the email.
"I want to say...thank you. For listening to this and whatever you do next."
The voice was muffled by tears but the owner held back her composure as firm as she could.
"'There is not a wise man without fault. We all have got our weaknesses,'" she heard the voice quoted. "...Something my father once told me..."
The audio ended another few seconds later.
Claire stared into the screen, painted with the continuous dancing shadows. She thought long and hard. Had it been eight years ago, she would have jumped the gun. Didn't matter the consequences but she'd have gone to the island at the mere mention of Steve.
She was wiser now. Part of her said this didn't prove that Steve was alive. But the TerraSave side pointed out lives were at stake. Not just supposedly people on the island but also the world if the virus got out. What was more, this woman in the audio passed a heavy baton to her– the responsibility of thousands of lives on a single island.
The rest wanted to be hopeful.
There was one more attachment. The second picture. She opened it.
There...that was enough proof.
"Steve..."
It was a cropped-out picture, perhaps from a photograph of a small group standing in front of the camera. And there he was in the photo, smiling. Alive. And hadn't changed much since the last time she saw him...
Standing with that familiar smirk was the green-eyed young man she remembered eight years ago.
Her eyes watered. Just a bit. It was too early to be crying.
But she still had a dilemma.
As a TerraSave member, she should be contacting HQ and showing them the evidence she had. Get as much manpower as possible. Contact the navy, BSAA, every hands on deck to get together for a large-scale operation.
The only problem was that she was suspended. Once she gave the information to TerraSave, she would be told to go back to her apartment. What made this worse was...
"Too personal. Hopkins would say that..."
No way would Director Hopkins let her in. Another matter was that it may be too late by the time TerraSave gathered everything and reached the island. If what the voice said was true, HELIX would get their virus and destroy every piece of evidence linking between the company and the development.
Including over 9,000 lives...
End of this month..that was days away. Too short a timeframe.
However...Claire Redfield was suspended.
She was free to do whatever she wanted.
Claire scooped out her smartphone and connected it to her laptop via the model's own USB port. Quickly, whiles copies were being made, she skimmed through a shipping document and did a little research on the side.
An island of people needed resources. Resources needed to be shipped somehow.
And she found her means of transportation through her research.
She glanced at the clock. "Eight hours. I can make it."
Her phone went beep and she unhooked the port out. She flipped it open and dialled the numbers as she forwarded the email to TerraSave.
It'd only be until morning before anyone would read it but by then, Claire would have been long gone.
The line clicked in her ears. "Hello?"
"Hey, it's Claire." She shut her laptop and fished out her spare handgun from the drawer. Travel light.
"Oh, hey, Claire! What's up–"
"I need your help. How fast can you get to El Delmor?"
The other end was surprised. "Wait, at this hour? Why-"
"I'll explain to you when I get there. Bring your gun too."
"What? What's going on? What happened? Why-?"
"It's going to happen again. Like Rockfort."
That got the attention. "Another virus?"
"Yes. And soon."
"Then we should be contacting BSAA-"
"There won't be any time!" she uttered as she grabbed whatever she thought could be important into her bag. "By the time TerraSave and BSAA rally everyone on this, it'd be too late!"
"Shouldn't you be telling this to Chris or Jill-?"
"You know as well as I do. They're still in Iraq. Rebecca," Claire croaked. "I have nobody to turn to. Please."
The voice hesitated.
It would be suicide to go alone. Claire had too many experiences doing that before, having searched for her brother when Raccoon City fell. She was better than that now and needed someone who could back her if she was going to go back into Hell.
She could have called Leon. She could have called Chris. Jill. Heck, maybe Barry. Her friends from TerraSave.
The last time she heard about Leon, he had gone on another assignment the year – this time with his division partnered with a division in the Navy. And Barry was retired from the life of fighting against biological warfare since the Raccoon incident, spending more time with his family. Most of her TerraSave friends were in Iraq.
Rebecca became her last choice.
"Please..."
"...This is important to you."
"More than you think."
The silence told her Rebecca was thinking. Hard. If she chose to come, she'd be reliving the nightmares too.
It was unfair. Although Rebecca had joined BSAA, invited by Chris to the cause, she was mostly in Research and Development within the American branch. Rare times, she had to draw out her firearm. But the life she was in under BSAA had been a peaceful and quiet one.
"I know a friend with a plane."
Claire had been holding back her breath during the duration Rebecca was thinking. "Thank you."
"Hey, what are friends for?"
The two women didn't exchange goodbyes but they acknowledged this was the end of the call.
McLenlan, I'm not going to just save Steve.
Claire flipped her smartphone shut and hurtled to the door, slipping on her jacket.
I'm going to save all of you.
The door slammed behind her.
Time for a little vacation.
8:13 P.M.
Cape Inacio, Atlantic Ocean
Click, tap, tap, click!
He checked. Double-checked. Triple-checked.
Didn't seem like the island's security had found him. The bogus virus he had sent out should have distracted them long enough until his avatar got out of the wide world's cyberspace.
Inside the heavily protection of the island's network, it was another story.
He had no choice but to drop out after he 'talked' to Miss Redfield. Urged her to read the email. He went beyond his fifteen-minute window and had to close off his connection between him and her. He wasn't sure what happened after that.
He hoped she had read it. Because after he opened the email for her, he too got a glimpse at the attachments.
His curiosity got the better of him. He never opened to see what the contents were before he sent so it was a surprise to him when he hacked them open for Miss Redfield to read at her laptop.
After his disconnection, he read some of the files. He had yet to listen to the audio file. But the documents were strange– documents he had never seen before when he hacked once into HELIX's mainframe in their American main building. What he had in his computer was a paper trail between the island and the company.
He wanted to find out more, which meant hacking through the firewalls and security. Again.
Whatever you do, do not let HELIX catch you.
She had warned him in the hidden cipher. He hadn't seen her for almost a year. Absolutely no contact. He would only get a daily message from her on his smartphone since the day he was told by her colleagues that she needed to stay at work after they've made some breakthrough. Then one day, she came out of the blues, handing him a little message.
And that was it.
The warning was...uncanny. And this time, it was a cipher. Like how they used to play years ago...
If he had to guess, HELIX was doing something bad. Maybe like what he discovered from hacking into TRICELL's database and looking up articles about Umbrella.
Did that mean...she was in danger? Were they all in danger?
Calm down. Don't get ahead of yourself, he told himself.
He decided. Risk a second breakout.
He opened up the program again. He could run a few heuristic data crawlers–
Knock, knock!
He froze, tense fingers above the keys. It came from the front door. He heard it click and swing open.
No... He made sure he wouldn't be found...
"Hey, Randy. You home?"
He relaxed but hastily shut off the old, outdated laptop and carefully hid it under the floorboards of his bedroom. He quickly hurried out and met his red-haired visitor at the hallway. "Heya!"
"Whoa, what's with the fire?" His tall friend casually smirked. "What'd you been up to?"
"Oh, you know." He glanced back to his bedroom door. "Just checking emails. Got a couple of spam."
His friend frowned understandably. "Yeah, real annoying. Most of my inbox were cramped with coupons and enlargement pi– uh, ahem, I mean weird stuff."
"You're free today?" Randy rolled around, trying to purposely draw his friend away from the door.
"Yeah. Work ended early. So we can continue on with that mission. I'm ready if you are."
"Cool! Oh, I managed to unlock a new weapon too yesterday!" He tried his best not to fake his enthusiasm. Then again, he was very excited to tell him that. "The special M15 rifle!"
Green eyes bugged wide. "Get out!" His friend watched him nod. "How did you get that?"
"Wasn't too hard. Found a few Easter eggs that led me to it. I can show you for your avatar."
"Thanks, bud," his friend uttered. "Oh. What's for dinner later?"
"Tacos. They got the shells imported this week."
"Sweet. I'll help out."
He was given a pat on the back as the laidback man headed to the living room to set up the game station for them.
He was happy. He wasn't scared anymore, having expected men in black to barge through the bungalow's door and seize him. But the redhead, he was one of her colleagues, a new face who came last year.
Again, he stared back at his bedroom door.
He'd have to do his research another time. Maybe give one or two days until the heat died out inside the network.
"Randy, you coming? Starting off without you."
"Hey, wait up!"
The fifteen-year-old boy hurried into the living room.
29 May 2006, 5:12 A.M.
El Delmor, Brazil.
The early orange rays seeped across the beautiful Amazon forest, cracking at the dark blue sky. Morning light was slowly streaming over the coastal city of El Delmor but it wasn't enough yet to stir the lively people of Brazil after another night of the Carnival.
The docks, however, were paid to do the morning shift without tiredness and delay.
Claire peered over a pile of crates. It was easy to get past the front gates thanks to the portentous radio speaker motivating a few officers there to cheer for Brazil for a winning goal in Spain, but difficult sneaking into the shipping area of El Delmor. Which was suspicious. Why need high-level security in a Brazilian shipyard and only at one cargo ship, the Titancrest Line?
"Are you sure this ship will take us to this island?"
She looked over her shoulder. Behind her squatted Rebecca, wearing just as smart-causal as she was but with a different taste – then again, she didn't give Rebecca a chance to grab a change of clothes like herself. A simple band shirt, khaki pants and a light vest. Only her old STARS boots and the BSAA pouch belt were military standards. Claire had guessed being put on the spot after their call, Rebecca also grabbed whatever she felt was important but kept it light.
When they met at El Delmor's airport, Claire took her the story. That she was hacked in, was given a ton of documents about the most powerful company in the world – well-known to everyone for their charitable efforts to save lives – plotting to create a dangerous virus and was told that 8,000 people and more were trapped on an island against their will.
An island that didn't even remotely exist, no matter how hard she and Rebecca searched on every known online atlas.
Claire could easily read the disbelief from Rebecca's confused face. It was outrageous, baffling to hear HELIX Foundations was going to possibly be a repeat of Umbrella.
"You know that sounds crazy," Rebecca had outright said that.
The only one information she didn't tell her was about Steve.
No one, but Claire and Chris, knew the full story about what happened on Rockfort Island. Leon, of course, knew later on because of an investigation involving a drug dealer, tied together with the Veronica virus in 2002. Sadly, as much as she had hoped that Leon could be able to find something under the rocks, he found no clue to link to Steve's whereabouts.
She wasn't sure why. Maybe she didn't want to get her hopes up again too much. Even after seeing the photo. Not yet until she was face to face with Steve.
The photo could have been taken before Steve was captured and taken to Rockfort Island... Maybe the voice could have known Steve from way before. Or had information but never met Steve in person.
She just...didn't want to be too hopeful only to later have that hope shattered again. Experience thought her that.
Claire was then asked, "Have you told TerraSave about this? This sounds too big for just the two of us to handle."
She answered back she had forwarded the email back to her boss.
After getting her answer, Rebecca had crossed her arms. "And you want us to get a head-start? Take care of the situation long enough till everyone arrives to the island?"
Claire nodded.
Rebecca rolled her eyes and sighed. "I don't like the idea. But I've been meaning to take some time-off from R'n'D for a while. Fine. Chris is going to kill me for this."
"Don't worry. I'll just say I forced you to come."
"Nope. Not convincing enough."
Two hours later, they drove down to the docks. And now here they were.
"This ship is supposed to set sail across the Atlantic Ocean to Singapore, delivering medicine for HELIX's new building over there," Claire explained. "The documents had this line's name in them."
"Yeah but that doesn't guarantee that we'd be stumbling onto this Cape Inacio."
"No, but it belongs to HELIX. And it's the only shipping line partnered with them to go across the Atlantic. It's better than nothing."
"Oh, I really hope you're right because we'll be ending up in Singapore if you're not."
She shrugged with a smile. "Least you get to see the merlion over there... Just need to get on board as quietly as possible."
One quick look at the crew and the people in charge of hurling the cargo onto the boat took her it wasn't Pardo employees. It was a mix of different races, men and women wearing identical logoed jackets and caps, paid under HELIX to keep a tight schedule and maintenance. Also meant they had a tighter check on identification.
"So what's the plan?" Rebecca asked.
Claire noted the open hatch at the starboard. Small crates were being hand-carried into there.
No ID checks.
"Disguise as the crew and climb on board. We'll have to hide in the lower deck to get away from any ID check-ups." Luck must have been on their side on that day because she spotted some through the window of a nearby office, hung by a coatrack inside. She smiled to herself, remembering the little acts she did back in Paris, 1998.
"Claire?"
She wheeled back.
"These crates aren't pharmaceutical drugs." Rebecca had peeked under a burlap blanket over the crates. "They're food supplies. All sorts of supplies. The kind you bring to towns preparing for dangerous storms."
"So?" She wasn't following. "HELIX has done a lot of volunteer work for disaster areas across the world."
"Yes, but you just said this ship's heading to Singapore. Few BSAA members from the SEA branch are stationed there and they told me it's going to be the dry season soon. So...who's getting these supplies?"
They glanced back at the crates.
"The island." Claire looked around. She hadn't realized it until now, seeing the familiar supplier logo on most of every box around them.
Enough to help 8,000 people on a single island.
"She was right."
A yell from the other side of the dock yanked at their instincts to duck back down. A manager, pushing his employees to work faster.
"Come on. We have to hurry."
Stealthily, they kept themselves hidden between the containment units until they reached to the trailer. No one was inside the common room so carefully, Claire slid open the glass panel and pulled out the jackets and caps.
The two women hid their firearms away and tossed on their jackets. Caps on, lowered to their eyes.
"Grab those," Rebecca pointed at a few small crates.
The words, 'supply kits', were printed across the white clean labels. Claire didn't refuse. If they were going out to sea and without meeting any crew members, they could use the kits. Bunker downstairs on cans, packages and stored water for a while.
Hands on the crates, the two marched on, keeping away from any wandering eyes and staying quiet. Just act calm and surely, the plan would work.
Click!
The cold sound of a handgun was very close to Claire's ears. Coming from her right.
"Don't move."
Playable Characters
Claire Redfield
White Bishop
Date of Birth: 1979
Age: 27
Blood Type: O
Gender: F
Race/Nationality: Caucasian/American
Occupation: TerraSave member
Teammate Class: Field Agent
Weapons of Choice:
Melee – Combat Knife
Primary – Handgun (TerraSave standard)
Secondary – SMG
Stats:
Strength: ***
Stamina: ***
Accuracy: ***
Wits: ****
Speed: ****
Endurance: **
Ability:
*/*/*/*
Rebecca Chambers
White Pawn
Date of Birth: 1980
Age: 26
Blood Type: AB
Gender: F
Race/Nationality: Caucasian/American
Occupation: BSAA member, R'n'D
Teammate Class: Medic
Weapons of Choice:
Melee – Stun Baton
Primary – Handgun (BSAA standard), Flame Spray
Secondary – Tranquilizer Rifle
Stats:
Strength: ***
Stamina: **
Accuracy: ****
Wits: ***
Speed: ***
Endurance: **
Ability:
Vickie: Ello all and we have Chapter One up. The start before a chess game that's about to begin. I originally had wanted to cut this story into 12 or 13 chapters but also decided I didn't want to write too long chapters too (keeping at bout 6000 to 7000 words at beast) and this is a very long story. So in retrospect, if this was a game, there would be estimated 12 long game chapters, consisting objectives you, the player will have to do. Of course, I'm not going to make this as broken as RE6 storyline's consistency was. So this chapter would be considered as the beginning cutscenes of the 1st game chapter. I would say at the point Claire and Rebecca tries to stowaway onboard is considered gameplay but I'm not too sure if that should be the case because you are not fighting zombies yet. Dun see this as a stealth mission either because you'd have to get on the boat without ever using guns until you reach the island. And stealth missions are more up Ada Wong's alley. So, eeeeeh, this is just an if. Probably just all cutscenes for this part.
Onwards. I can imagine this whole story as a four-player game like Resident Evil: Operation: Raccoon City and Dead Island, but you'd be switching between characters a lot between game chapters. You the player, can choose which character you want to pick within the team in each game chapter and will experience that character's situations. Your team probably can end up being split into two, giving 2 different smaller story arcs until the team meets back together to continue on. More diversity in the missions you get.
Within a team, it'd always be four slots and balanced: normally, you'd be part of a team with two fighters, one tank and one backup (usually being a medic or a character in a support class). Now if say, there was a mission mode rather than a story mode, I can actually picture it going like Evolve where you, the players, can freely pick any playable characters within your team and must complete a team mission. Relatively speaking...
And if a game, no quick-time events. I dun care. Unless they are programmed well to be sync to the controls, I will never want to see QTEs in this game. Never... I still carry wounds from Tomb Raider (fawking...ending...stupid...QTE...died...14 times...all because of a fawking specs...)
Ahem. Also every time I introduce a playable character in each chapter, I'll write down their game stats and abilities below, what type of teammate they are, etc, pros and cons. Choice of weapons are default weapons for the AI but like any Resident Evil games, you, the player can change the weapons to your liking. Classes are ranged from: assault, operative, medic, support, recon, marksman, field scientist, interference and a few more I've not listed down or thought about. Oh and explosives, well, pretty much that's default to everyone. Mainly most, if not all, consumables are RE-standards like hand grenades, flash grenades, etc. Primary weapons range from handguns, magnums, taser guns (yes you get tasers, ammo for this are special batteries, one battery giving a couple of shots) while secondary weapons range from shotguns, submachines, assault rifles, and sniper rifles. Melee will always be a special melee specific to the character.
On to explaining the stats. Stats here do not mean it will affect your shooting and fighting because those are a major part of RE mechanics. It'd be stupid to affect that and lead players into an early death. Stats affect pretty much everything else: strength is how long it takes to do physical labour such as pushing open a heavy duty door or bashing your shoulder to open a locked door (annnd I can hear the groans of players who hate button mashing), stamina is how many bars your health has (it varies for other characters, most standard characters have three stars) and how quick your health bars recover, accuracy is of course gun accuracy (some characters are not experienced shooters like Claire and Rebecca), wits is how easy working on puzzles such hacking electronics or picklocking (even password input like in ZombiU), speed is speed, how fast you move around and endurance is how much damage the character takes (taking in consideration if wearing armoured vests and such). Stats you see for each character are default stats but will be improved by skills (which is from RE6 but there are a few I see that is irrelevant). Now as a player, you don't have to spend a lot on each character. Once you unlock a skill, that skill will apply for whichever character you play in each game episode regardless.
Lastly, survival abilities. These pretty much affect the gameplay like recovery rate or inventory slots, being decoy, etc. Each character has about three abilities: a personal and two team abilities, like what you saw above: Claire having a Rally ability to get allies motivated and increasing damage while Rebecca has her Field Medic ability to effectively heal teammates better. I've not figured out all of the survival abilities but it's getting there...slowly. So please note that the stats and abilities you see above for Claire and Rebecca may get updated as I perfect them.
One more thing before I end my game speech here is that this kind of game, I would not expect it to be a fast-paced game like RE6 (I personally felt the gameplay pace was pushing the players too hard, especially when they are given quick-time-events. GAH!). I'd like it to be a little like Resident Evil: Revelations. Keep to the horror, slow pace at the beginning and when crisis comes, then slowly pick up the speed. Give players more time to explore, more time to plan their attacks, etc. Difficulty is on survival (careful consumption of ammo, herbs), you're not only surviving with what you can find but also, if you play this as multiplayer or singleplayer with AI control, you are surviving as a group like Left 4 Dead. You can only survive by benefiting on others' skills just as they benefit on your skills.
Btw, if you guys noticed, I'm not gonna dwell in the romance section. Sorry. :D I'm a pure survival horror gamer. Additionally, I'm more into realistic character interactions than stereotypical directions. So you won't be seeing catfights, fistfights, making the damsel in distress fall hopelessly in love for the bad boy, whichever. I don't write something that doesn't work for character interactions and emotions. So if you're expecting this to be like any RE romance fanfic, then I'm sorry, this isn't what you're looking for, regardless which pairing interaction I put in (for example, just because you see Claire and Steve, doesn't mean I'm gonna write a bedroom scene to satisfy your fan needs). I'll only write romance if the situation calls for it but it won't be the main focus of this story.
Besides, has there ever been a legit romance in the RE verse? ._. As far as I've seen, it's pretty much been just good interactions, not, "Hey babe, let's hop into bed and drink the champagne". What's more, WHO HAS TIME TO BE IN LOVE WHEN YOU HAVE A ZOMBIE OUTBREAK! ? Maybe when you're in a safehouse or out of a crisis but REALLY! ?
...Ok there was that weird love story in RE6...again was weird in my opinion. I was amazed the writers went down that route.
Anyway, enough bragging from me. I hope you enjoy chapter 1. :) Please r'n'r! Also again, I still have one more question that needs to be answered in my help post (link is in prologue) so I really hope you can answer that. If not, then well, I'll just go around it like I did on the question bout Rebecca.
Btw, if you think that Rebecca joining the BSAA and working there in 2006 isn't a plausible outcome for her, please let me know. I have decided to put that in to finish chapter 1 but if you guys have better theories about her character, I wouldn't mind hearing. As I mentioned in my help post, Rebecca has been a difficult character for me to put in both the story and the game (but I also need a medic type character too). I can still rewrite her if you guys think otherwise.
Thanks again and enjoy.
PS. Question...Did I get Steve's eye color rite? 0-0;
PSS. I'd like to thank the guest for this fanfic's very first review. :) Thank you very much.