20. Daylight Breaks

Greg typed furiously at his keyboard until he finished his work. He wiped sweat from his forehead and smiled. He looked over at a slip of paper that sat on his desk and picked it up. Emblazoned on it was the insignia of the Umbrella Corporation, burning a bright red, and on the letter was a warning that Umbrella special tactics teams were on their way to acquire the top-secret test subject in order to study and clone it, as Greg had previously agreed. The paper gave strict warning that any opposition whatsoever to their efforts would be handled with extreme force. Greg laughed to himself and tore the paper in half, dropped it on the floor and crushed it with his foot.

"The Umbrella Corporation," he said. "They truly believe the world is in their hands. And perhaps they are correct. But not I…and certainly, not you."

Greg walked over to a large test tube that held an immense being; it was nearly 8 feet tall and its body was bulky and muscular, its head bald and its right arm had grown long, piercing claws and was at least twice the size of his left, its heart slung over its shoulder and hanging on the right side of its body. It stood straight up in the tube, it's back arched, and slept silently, resembling a well-conditioned Spartan soldier preserved in time, its presence the very epitome of a perfect warrior.

Greg put a hand on the tube as if attempting to reach the creature.

"You, are my greatest work," Greg said. "You are my Mona Lisa, my Sistine Chapel, you are what Hamlet was to Shakespeare. You embody every bead of sweat, every drop of blood, and every sloping tear that has ever left my body. I have spent the greater part of my life in your creation, and now, you stand here before my eyes. Beautiful. Strong. Perfect." br

Greg caressed the glass tube as if petting a newborn child.

"And perhaps more importantly, you are my son. I gave you life, what no mortal man or woman alike could ever hope to give. Every breath that passes through your lungs and through your nostrils exists because of me. And I have made you more than any man, myself included, could ever wish for. You are, in every sense of the word, perfection personified. To a mere man you would appear a freak, a monster, when the truth is, you are greater than God HIMSELF. And they…"

Greg's hand balled into a fist and shook violently.

"They want to take you away from me….I, your father, your creator. I made the mistake of allowing myself to be bound to their every whim, but their money was all I needed. And now, they want to clone you. To take you away, and create an army. They want…mass production…"

Greg's hand shook fiercely, and he punched the glass tube hard.

"RIDICULOUS! They don't understand what it means to be an artist. Every sonnet, every poem, every page of literature is but a shred of human experience, it is a part of the artist which he has bravely shared with the world. It is his child, his greatest love, his pride, and his very essence, his soul, is passed on through it. How dare they….how DARE they suggest such a whorish notion as mass producing a masterpiece? There is only one Thanatos, only one perfect being, and he shall remain so!"

Greg turned aside and punched a button on the side of the tube. The water that filled it suddenly began to drain, and the creature's body was exposed to air. As soon as the water was fully drained, the glass tube began to slowly rise until the creature was entirely free, and its shackles slowly released themselves from around his waist and arms. The creature's body did not move at first, and Greg became concerned, but soon he noticed its eye lids slowly creak open like an old gate. Its eyes were vacant and pearl white, no pupils to be found. It moved its head and looked around, then took one step forward, struggling to adjust to gravity and compensate for its incredible weight. Soon both legs were out of the tube and it slowly turned towards Greg, who was smiling and had both arms outstretched.

"This is the fruit of my labor," he said. "Not since the day God created Adam has such an incredible feat, a profound display of artistry seen its reward as I have this very day. My beloved Thanatos, for that is your name, after the Greek God of Death…you are my son, and I am your father."

Thanatos looked at him as if confused. It tried to speak words, but found it had not the knowledge nor ability to do so. It did, however, appear to either understand what Greg had said, or recognized him as his protector and guardian in the same way a chick identifies that which it first sees as its mother and care giver. Thanatos took one lumbering step towards Greg.

"So graceful, so elegant," he said. "Every blood cell in your body resonates power and beauty. There is no other being like you Thanatos, and there shall NEVER be another. Those who wish evil upon us wish to take you away from me, and I cannot, I WILL not allow that. You are too unique, too special, too perfect. You cannot be replicated, and with God as my witness, they will not have the chance to take you from me, and defile your very essence by replicating you. You are an entity all in yourself, it is IMPOSSIBLE to create another."

Greg grabbed Thanatos's immense, clawed hand with his own.

"I named you because you are to be a bringer of death, a harvester of sorrow, a warrior of the greatest caliber. And now, my dear son, you must fend for your very life. They will arrive soon, and your day of awakening has finally come to pass. You will rain death and malice upon their weak and helpless bodies with the ferocity and rage of a storm! You cannot allow them to believe you are so easily tampered with. You are the epitome of perfection, the Achilles of this generation. You are everything I never could be, and so much more. A new race of man is born in you. They compared me to Victor Frankenstein, but I will not forsake you Thanatos. Not ever. My life is in you, and yours in mine. The heart that beats on your chest was built by these very hands; I will never abandon you, Thanatos."

Greg put his hand on Thanatos's chest, only inches away from his beating, exposed heart. Thanatos looked down at his father with blank eyes, then wrapped his immense arm around Greg as if to embrace him. Greg returned the embrace lovingly, his body covered by Thanatos's giant claws.

"Together, we will defy both Heaven and Hell alike. May the Lord have mercy on their souls…for they shall have none from us!"

The police van burst through the small police barricade at the Raccoon City Bridge. In the distance, the sun began to slowly peek over the silvery, silk blanket of the ocean, the sky a warm gold. Kevin and Alyssa glanced out at it as the others peeked through windows on the side of the van.

"Beautiful," Kevin said.

"Yeah," Alyssa responded.

"Almost makes this all worth it just to be able to see that again," Kevin said. "I don't think I've ever been awake this early in my life!"

"I have," Alyssa said. "I see it every morning after I put on my sweats and go for a jog. I never get tired of it; it reminds me that in this piece of shit world we live in, there is still some beauty. Something worth living for."

"Kinda weird hearing that from you," Kevin responded. "But you're exactly right."

In the back of the van Jim snored loudly, Yoko laying against his chest also in slumber, as Cindy and George watched the sunrise.

"It's so beautiful," Cindy said.

"It is hope," George said. "Burning brightly before our eyes. Daylight rises over the darkness of what this world has become. Perhaps it is a sign."

"George," Cindy said, clasping his hand. "There's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

"I, I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

"How you will react."

George became nervous.

"Perhaps, we should wait until we've survived this."

"But what if we don't?" she said.

"We will," he responded, putting his hand on her soft cheek. "You must believe."

She touched his hand with hers. "Okay."

Mark looked out over the horizon.

"Ah never thought ah'd see that again," he said.

"It's overrated," David responded.

"Ah don' think so," Mark said. "Reminds me a' the day ah took Jerome fishin'. The lake was so beautiful."

"Enough. You'll only hurt yourself again. The past is gone, get over it."

"Ah spose yer right. But ah still believe in hope, an' nature gives it to me, whether you want ta' believe it or not. Maybe if you weren't so caged in with yo demons, you could appreciate life more, instead a' pushin' away everybody."

Mark drooped his head down sadly like a wilting flower. David crossed his arms and harrumphed to himself.

Soon they arrived at the gates of Raccoon University, and Kevin burst through them easily with the hulking van. He drove up the parking lot until he reached the "Professors Parking Only" and parked directly in front.

"I always wanted to do that," he said.

The group filed out and made their way to the entrance with George in the lead. Together they pushed through the large double doors and crossed the threshold of the main room of the University. A pair of staircases ran across each other onto a loft and up again to the second floor. On all sides were doors and before them was the front desk. George stepped forward and looked at the room.

"I still remember," he said. "My first day as a student here."

"You can reminisce later," Alyssa said. "Let's get this over with."

Yoko looked around dumbfounded and lost, yet a strange feeling in her stomach gave her the impression of deja vu. She had been here before.

George turned to the others. "Peter should be somewhere in this building," he said. "I imagine he has an office somewhere, but where I cannot say. We must search the building until we find him. I will scan the lower floor, whoever wishes to assist me may do so, and whoever is willing will search the upper floors, we will save more time that way."

"I'll go with you George," Cindy said.

"I'm stickin' with the doc," Jim said. "This sucka knows his shit aroun' here, you fools'll probably get lost!"

"No way I'm going with him," Alyssa said, motioning towards Jim.

"Ah'll back you up," Mark said to George.

"Then it's settled, everyone else come with me upstairs." Kevin said, pulling out his .45. "Happy hunting. We'll rendezvous back here if we find anything."

"Good," George replied, then began searching the room as Kevin, Alyssa, Yoko and David made their way upstairs.

George searched the back of the room and noticed a large moose's head sitting against the wall. It's eye sockets were missing.

"What on Earth," he said.

"Where're the eyes?" Mark said.

"This is some freaky shit man," Jim commented.

"Poor Moosey," Cindy said empathetically.

"The deans of this school were strange individuals. They had, unique, tastes to say the least. But this moose head, I don't remember it."

"Let's scan the area a bit more," Mark said. "Best to learn the enemy's grounds as best we can. Ah'm sure that moose head ain't th' only changes you ain't gonna recognize."

"True," George said. "Very well, let us check the rest of this floor."

"How about here," Cindy said, pointing to a door labeled Faculty Center.

"Let's get movin'," Jim said. "I'm startin' to feel kinda itchy! Maybe I could use a nice, warm shower."

Kevin entered the long hallway of the second floor with gun drawn, Alyssa behind him with her own. David and Yoko took up the rear, a hunting dagger in David's hand. Yoko heard the sound of the floorboards creaking in pain under the weight of her every step, and it unnerved her that she couldn't help recognizing those noises vividly. A sudden flash blinded her for a second, and a man's face quickly passed across her eyes from behind the curtain of her eyelids, when David shook her shoulder.

"You okay?" he said.

"Uh," she responded, queasy. "Yes, I'm alright. Thank you."

"Hold yourself together girl," Alyssa said.

"Are you sure you don't need to sit down, Yoko?" Kevin said. "You look tired."

"I'm…okay," she responded, weakly.

Alyssa helped her to her feet and supported her until they reached a door. Kevin walked up to the door cautiously, then kicked it open and pointed his gun into the room.

"How rude of me, forgot to knock," he joked.

He scanned the room as the others followed, then holstered his gun when he was sure it was clear. Alyssa let go of Yoko as she and David looked around the room. A large statue was positioned to the back center against the wall, one of the arms raised upward, its hand cupped. Alyssa observed a large grand piano, running her finger along the keys.

"Why don't you just set off an explosive so EVERYBODY knows where here?" David said bitterly to Alyssa.

"Oh please," she responded. "Those things don't have the intelligence to find out where we are. Besides we would've seen one by now if there were any here."

Yoko eyed the piano as Kevin looked up at the statue.

"Is it me, or is something glimmering up there?" Kevin said, rubbing his chin with his hand. "The way the light's positioned, looks like something shiny is in its hand."

Alyssa turned around to see what Kevin was fussing about as Yoko walked up to the piano. David tried to position himself to climb the statue but found himself unable to get his footing or grip.

"We'll have to hoist someone up," David said.

"Not me again," Alyssa said. "I've had to do this shit before. Yoko, you're light enough to be easy to carry. C'mere and give us a hand."

Yoko stood in silence, her eyes fixed on the keys of the piano as if in a trance. Alyssa walked up behind her to touch her shoulder.

"What's with you girl? Didn't you hear me?"

Yoko slowly put her fingers on the keys. She had done this before. Slowly she pricked each key one by one, a melody beginning to develop. In the same way a long retired musician who has forgotten to play quickly and steadily reacquaints themselves with their lost talent, so did Yoko begin to glide her fingers over the piano. The melody that played was both beautiful and haunting all at once, and sent a shiver up her spine as her fingers became masters of themselves, almost separate from her control and acting out of memory more than her own autonomy. Another bright flash of light crossed before her eyes, and she felt an overwhelming rush of adrenaline course through her veins. She fainted.

In the brief moment she was unconscious, visions crossed over her mind, images of memories forsaken. A man's face. He was a dashing man with short, blonde hair and sunglasses over his eyes giving him a menacing appearance, a lab coat over his shoulders. His smile was confident, but carried with it a darkness that Yoko couldn't quite understand. The man approached her.

"My name is Albert Wesker," he said. "You must be Yoko Suzuki. I have a job for you."

A hard slap across Yoko's face woke her from her dream state. The hand belonged to David, and she was being held in Alyssa's arms, who had caught her on her way down.

"You didn't have to hit her assshole!" Alyssa said.

"I'm not sticking around to babysit anybody," David said angrily. "Not now that we found something."

"It's a jewel," Kevin said, holding a bright blue jewel in his hand that glimmered. "The hand came down as soon as Yoko stopped playing. Wonder what it's for." Suddenly the door to the room burst open and a zombie dressed in a suit and tie peered in. Upon seeing the group it moaned and took slow, labored steps towards them.

"I see more dead people," David said, quickly grasping the blade end of his dagger with his fingers and sending it shooting forward into the zombie's forehead. The force knocked the zombie onto its back and for a moment it spazmed, until David walked up to it and stepped on the handle end of the dagger, driving it straight through its brain and out the other side, ceasing its motion. David then messily pulled the dagger out and cleaned it using the zombie's tie. Alyssa walked up to him.

"You're getting used to this, aren't you?"

"Hmph..."

The group returned to the entrance room and climbed back down the stairs when the other group emerged from the Faculty Center.

"Did you find anything?" Kevin asked.

"Yes," George responded.

"A red jewel!" Cindy said.

"Red huh?" Kevin said. "We found a blue one. And one of our zombie friends."

"Yes," George responded. "There were two in this room."
"But mah main man Marky Mark capped em good!" Jim said making gun motions with his hand and mock "pow pow" sounds.

"That's right we heard shots while Yoko went out on us," Alyssa said. "We thought you might be in trouble."

"Hmmm," George said to himself. "I wonder. Kevin, may I see that?"

"Sure," Kevin said, handing the jewel to him.

"Cindy, come on."

George and Cindy walked over to the moose head in the back of the room.

"Place yours there," George said, placing his jewel in one of the moose's eye socket.

Cindy shuddered at the thought of touching an animal's empty eye socket, but did as she was told and shoved the jewel in with her hand. A low click could be heard and suddenly the wall behind them began to rumble as a secret door rose up and revealed itself. Suddenly on the other side of the room a door creaked open and a handful of zombies began to approach.

"Bring it on bitches!" Kevin said, pulling out his .45. "George, Cindy, check out that room, we'll deal with these."

George and Cindy walked in cautiously. Before them was a long stairway that led deep underground to a secret room, which had a large desk that ran all around the room and was covered in documents, monitors, and lab equipment, in addition to a computer. In the center of the desk, turned away from them, was a man sitting on a chair, his body slumped over the desk as if sleeping. George slowly approached and walked up beside the body. Cindy screamed as she saw it, a gaping hole in the man's head and blood oozing to the floor, the man's face petrified with horror. Its eyes were turned upward and its mouth kept the structure of screaming. It was Peter, and he had been executed.

"Peter," George said mournfully. "What happened to you?"

"He's been shot," Cindy said. "Who would do such a thing? And why?"

George began to rummage through the papers that sat on the desk when footsteps could be heard behind them. Alyssa and Yoko entered. Yoko stood shocked at the sight as Alyssa observed the body.

"This your friend George?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "This is Peter."

"Well hell," she said. "Now what?"

George noticed a cabinet in the center of the desk under Peter's body.

"Alyssa," George said, moving Peter's body aside. "Do you still have your lock picks?"

"Yes," she said.

"Please, open it."

Alyssa walked up to the cabinet as George tried to move Peter's body aside.

"Ugh," she said. "It smells like an old man's ass in here."

She jerked the pick around a bit, frustrated.

"A little more," she said.

Finally a click, and she quickly opened the drawer. Inside were more documents, which George retrieved.

"I'll need to study these further, where there's more light," he said, walking up the stairs.

"Not even a thank you? Typical," Alyssa said bitterly.

"Thank you Alyssa," Cindy said kindly with a bright smile. Alyssa blew upward at her hair in annoyance.

Some time later George approached the group, which was positioned on the loft.

"I've read over Peter's documents," he said. "And it appears that there is indeed a cure for the T-Virus, which he has been developing but has not yet finished. He has named it Daylight, the enemy of the darkness that engulfs us. In here are the details, but essentially the cure requires three ingredients. One called V-Poison, which he claims is being developed in secret somewhere underneath the University, and another called P-base, which he states is being developed in secret through the sewage system also underneath the University. In addition, there is a third chemical by the name of T-Blood, but the documents are missing details of exactly what that is. In fact, it appears Peter stopped writing at that point, or the documents are missing. He mentions that there is a processor on the third floor of this building that will allow us to mix the chemicals thoroughly, all we need to do is gather them."

"Sounds like an Easter egg hunt," Kevin said. "How do we get to the other floors?"

"There should be an elevator," George said. "This way."

He lead the group to a door in the back of the room, which lead to a hallway with a computer terminal and the elevator doors towards the back of the hall. Jim walked up to the elevators and pressed the button.

"Nada," he said, kicking the steel doors. "They ain't workin'."

"Yoko," Mark said. "You fixed the computers at the police station, what about that terminal?"

Yoko walked up to the terminal and began pressing buttons. Within no time the elevator sprung to life with a ding.

"Yay! Thank you, Yoko!" Cindy cheered, clapping her hands.

"Atta girl," Alyssa said, patting Yoko on the back.

"I know this," Yoko said. "Why do I know all this?" br

"Good thing we kept you around my Asian Princess," Jim said. "Now let's get movin' my crew! Jim needs his daylight fore he eats yo asses with BBQ sauce!"

"You're starting to make me hungry!" Kevin said.

The group traveled together to the third floor and found the mixing mechanism.

"You say we need three things for this to work right?" Kevin said to George.

"Correct."

"We'll hafta split up into three groups," he said. "There's no telling when one of us will turn, so we need to move fast."

"I'll stick with you my man," Jim said. "You got the fire power."

"I'll go with you too," Alyssa said. "When Mr. Jim finally turns, I want to be there personally." She smiled devilishly as Jim swallowed hard and loudly.

"We'll handle the V-Poison then," Kevin said. "George, Cindy, and Mark, you take care of the P-Base, and David and Yoko, you search around this building to see what you can find that relates to that T-Blood thing. We'll hafta move fast or we won't all make it out of here alive."

"Very good," George said. "Let us hurry then, for though hope has rejuvenated us, time will be our downfall."

"Yeah yeah," Kevin said. "Enough with the smart talk George." Kevin pulled out his .45 and cocked it loudly. "Time to Rock n' Roll!"