Present Time
It took the better part of three hours, but finally they had stocked up on food and weapons. Now just to get off the compound, Rain thought dryly, as she glanced to her right, studying the small boy for a moment.
He wasn't all that bad, she decided. From what she had learned so far (it always astounded her just how trusting kids were) that aside from being an avid basketball fan (which she could appreciate), Austin was also a die-hard hunter, and had already explained every different trip that his father and him had gone on every year.
Another saving grace, she thought, as she navigated the small town-like facilities streets. He should know at least something about maintaining and firing a weapon. Good. She pulled to a stop in front of the large, imposing doors that were similar to the ones that had contained Raccoon City. With a firm order for Austin to stay in the truck, Rain swung open her own door, dropping to the ground, throwing a brief, but thorough, visual.
Nothing.
Ignoring the strong instincts that were shouting for her to get out of the area, she stepped closer to the barricade. Her head tilted up as she studied the height of the wall - at least thirty feet. Stepping closer, she first turned to the left, scanning along the massive doors for any sign of a switch or control panel. Finding nothing, she turned towards the right, repeating the action.
Nothing still. With a frustrated sigh, Rain stepped away from the wall, once again taking in the entire surroundings. A small movement at the top of a building caught her eye, and the brunette turned to look at it dead on.
A security camera. There was a small, blinking red light that indicated it was still operational, and currently in use. Her eyes narrowed at the possibilities it presented, and also what bad could come of it.
A screech of un-oiled metal made the latina jump, and Rain spun to stare at the door in well concealed shock. As if it had been years since last being used, the gears responsible for opening the door worked slowly, and loudly, causing the former operative to cringe. Realizing just what this meant for her, Rain sprinted back to the truck, before the doors had even gotten a chance to crack apart. It seemed as if they were moving in slow motion, but as soon as the gap was big enough, undead started filtering through, and Rain made sure both doors were locked, as she waited in drive.
As soon as the truck would fit through the gap, she floored it, ignoring the thuds and sickening splats of the undead she hit. With a sharp glance to her right, which lasted all of a split second as she navigated her way through the abandoned streets with, she was relieved to see that Austin did not look too disturbed by what had just occurred.
Rain wasn't sure if that was necessarily a good sign of the kid's mental health. In either case, they were quickly out of the city and on the significantly more abandoned freeway, before Rain finally breathed easily. She momentarily scoffed at how traumatized at being locked inside of an infected city seemed to have made her.
Though showing no outward signs of distress, Austin had been silent until this point.
"What are we gonna do now?"
Rain thought over the question as she kept driving, slowing to a normal speed at the lack of a current threat.
"I don't know kid," she admitted slowly. Austin nodded, looking down into his lap.
What now?
Two Weeks Prior to the Lock Down in Springfield
Breaking into the Umbrella facility in Detroit seemed to have been too easy, Alice reflected, as she glanced through the gritted opening of the vent she was currently in.
Empty hallway, she thought, looking for any signs of surveillance. All clear.
With a slight creak, she jimmied the vent out of it's place, before allowing herself to drop down into the hallway, landing in a crouch to both cushion her fall, and to keep her lower than the average person's immediate line of sight. The handgun she had acquired was out, following everywhere she looked.
Still nothing.
Silently she moved towards the wall, shuffling as she kept low, head on a swivel, looking for any signs of movement or danger.
Around the corner was her destination, the main security station. From there, not only would she be able to keep a surveillance, but she could use the advanced computer system to hack into the classified files. She made her way over to the door, studying the locking mechanism on the outside of it before she simply tested the door itself.
It was sealed, which she had figured despite her hope. She turned her attention back to the keypad lock, for once wishing that Umbrella had been dumb enough to have a single set of codes for everything.
Well, that wasn't entirely true, she amended. They did have universal pass codes for several different categories of access. There was the category code, which had a universal three digit number to be typed in. After the 'Cat' code, there followed a five digit access code depending on which type of information or access one was trying to obtain - security, personnel, medical, laboratory, weapons, supplies, and machinery, to name just a few. Finally there was a two digit district code, depending on which Umbrella facility you were at. It was a similar set up going down the line from top secret to secured access, classified, authorized, general, and every type of employee stature in between. A universal three digit Cat code, and then a universal Branch code, and a two digit District code.
Select few people were privy to understand Umbrella's code system, and even fewer knew the correct full-access codes - Alice was one of a handful in the entire world. Not only were there the specific, correct codes, however, there were also several different levels of 'decoy' codes for each real one, to allow a specified amount of access to a specified field for each employee, without giving them full access.
With a sigh, Alice leaned her back to the wall. She knew each of the key codes well, but with Umbrella it was always a gamble of how they would categorize at each facility. To get access to anything relating to her former security position, you would have to know the top secret Cat code, the security Branch code, and the Raccoon District code. To find out the information regarding her employee files, it was the same Cat and District codes, but her specific 'personnel' Branch code.
She sighed, but maintained a watch out of the corner of her eyes as she thought on the topic for a moment. The Branch and District codes were obvious enough, but to determine what they would categorize the security room as was making her hesitate. The 'secured access' code would make most sense - it wasn't as vital as top secret, or even classified, but the number of people with access was limited in the entire facility. At the same time, it could simply be the 'authorized' code, which was a more general 'secured access' code.
Not for the first time, Alice cursed Umbrella's unnatural need to complicate matters, although considering exactly what they had done, and what they had the potential to further do, she couldn't say she faulted them for their logic.
She pondered it for a bit more, before deciding to use the 'secured access' code, reasoning that 'authorized' would allow her to access more of the facilities physical securities as opposed to their network securities. Turning she punched in the numbers with a quick confidence - there was an allocated fifteen second pause between each of the three pass codes, but anymore time than that logged a notice of violation - it usually wasn't responded to immediately, but it was put on file to be investigated.
She wasn't very keen on the idea of her presence being logged into the systems, even Umbrella would not automatically know it was her.
With a flash of green on the note pad, and a whoosh of air, the doors slid open, closing almost immediately when Alice had crossed into the room. She shot a quick glance around, noting with relief that there were not any security cameras in the security room. There were, however, two guards watching the monitors at the moment, as well as a techie working diligently on one of the computers in the adjoining network room. Her presence went ignored - obviously the guards figured that if someone had the correct passwords to get into the room, then they were expected to be there.
Coincidentally, that also meant that her presence at the facility still had not been registered, otherwise they would probably have been on high alert. She briefly considered disposing of them all together, but no...that would be a quicker way to alert her presence. If she could slide under the radar, however, than that would be the most effective way to take care of her task. This caused her to grin, as she crossed the room, deftly grabbing one of the several lab coats that was hanging next to the door to slip into, hiding her rather obvious civilian clothes that could cause someone to question her.
The techie did not spare her a glance as she walked in, and she slid behind a computer opposite of his, facing both him, and the door to the other room, along with placing her back at the wall. Before getting started, she fumbled through the pockets of the lab coat, coming up with a small square of post it notes. With a satisfied grin, she stuck one over the pin hole at the top of the monitor, a camera that was set to record who was accessing the computer at any given time. Her movements were discreet, as to not attract the attention of the other techie.
She needn't have worried, however, as her 'companion' was deeply engrossed in his work. Alice booted up the computer, silently contemplating her log in information as she awaited for the screen to materialize.
She knew without a doubt that her actual information was already flagged, much like a watch on a stolen credit card - it would immediately log itself into the system, alerting the proper authorities of her presence. She did, however, have the access to several fake accounts, that had been set up for her or Spence in the need of discretion and anonymity, as well as a several regular employees account information, which she had acquired though means that were arguably a breach of her power rights.
When the screen finally was in front of her, she quickly typed in the account that had been created for her several years prior, when she had gone on another undercover mission. It would allow her the same clearance rights as her 'head of security' account would have, but it was not tied to her in anyway - she had made sure of that throughout the years, in case a backup would be needed, the plan Umbrella's take down had already budded in her mind.
She got to work quickly, quietly, and efficiently, immediately accessing the network and the top secret files with the proper cat, branch, and district codes. She struggled to mask her surprise and horror at the data she read - the results of her blood tests, her reaction and sensory testing, anything that related the t-virus and her together.
So she wasn't human anymore. Not entirely, at least. She was some sort of super-human weapon, just another of Umbrella's experiments now.
An experiment that was fully traceable and under daily, periodic satellite surveillance. Her eyes widened when she looked at the time. The satellite was set to locate her position every eight hours - every day at eight am, four pm, and twelve am, which meant she currently had nearly an entire hour to finish gathering her data, find a way to wipe as much of herself as she could from their systems, and get out of the facility.
Pursing her lips, she immediately got to it, everything she could find about herself was burnt into her mind, permanently stored exactly as the pass codes and every other piece of information she had from her time in Umbrella. A few minutes later, she finished, before she started tearing apart her files - not only clearing the information, but making it almost impossible to retrieve. If by some way they did manage to retrieve her files, it would take a long time to piece them back together.
She glanced at the clock. Just twenty minutes left. She couldn't just leave the tracking system alone though, could she?
No, she decided. But she didn't have near enough time to tear it down right now. She spent several minutes raking her brain for a solution before her eyes lit. Getting into the network's data was easy with her clearance access. Hacking the actual network's motherboard, however, was not as simple. Not only was it highly monitored, but the coding was one of the most complicated ones she could remember, and she was no slough with computers.
Taking a breath, she got to work once again, thanking her knowledge of every short cut and evasive computer technique that she could. When she was finally in, several minutes later, she immediately created a path onto the mainframe, before typing furiously once again.
Long before the Hive incident, she had been developing a slow acting, stealth computer virus, specifically designed to counteract Umbrella's network. She knew the encoding by heart as she fixed it into the computer, making sure that it would zero in on their tracking system, as well as trace remains of everything involving her information and files. It would take a week or so to fully complete it's task, but she added a delayed command, to start in exactly two weeks, to tear down the rest of the system.
Finally finished, she logged off the computer, checking the time again.
Five minutes to get back out of the facility. She stood up, quickly but silently making her way back to the surveillance room. She punched in the pass code that would let her out of the room, and she looked around when she entered the hall, taking in everything she could.
All clear. Alice put her hand to the handgun at her hip, while making her way along the hall again. She reached the spot where she had emerged from the vent. Crouching, she jump easily to the edge, getting a secure grip before she heaved herself into it and slid the grate back into place.
Finished, she maneuvered herself into the direction she had came from, not for the first time appreciating her slim build. She made her way though the ventilation system much quicker than she had coming in. She was almost at her goal when she felt her blood call out to a presence, as if she were being watched. She increased her speed, still moving silently. She wasn't sure exactly how her position was logged - coordinates, pictures, video. Any were possible, put she didn't plan on being around long enough for anyone to realize she had been there.
Reaching the end of her path she dropped into the maintenance closet that had easy access to the back entrance of the facility. She glanced out of the closet, seeing the coast clear. She continued in her direction, knowing that the best way to not be noticed was to be confident and act like you weren't doing anything wrong. As she neared the door, she shed off the lab coat, tossing it to the side as she entered into the cloudy afternoon. She took in her surroundings, noting that there were no attack vehicles or armed guards in the area.
With this knowledge, she started at a light run, putting as much distance between her and the building as she could. Just because there weren't any at that moment didn't mean there wouldn't be shortly.
Uhm, for the record, I don't know a lot about computers, so I just sorta winged it. Not bad, right? Please don't poke into all my mistakes or stuff. And sorry for the delay.
- Shannon Riley