Chapter Two: Dryden
Shizuoka Facility, Japan
Umbrella Corporation Overseas Base
1200 hrs_
He isn't tired.
Although he had been lifting weights for nearly two and a half hours already, his muscles didn't feel strained. Instead of dropping the weights to the floor, he continued the rhythmic movements of his arms, lifting and lowering the weights in tune to the music that pounded from the earphones plugged to his ears.
His name is Dryden Aisley Wesker, the adopted son of Albert Wesker, the current chairman of the Umbrella Corporation. He was born during the global T-virus outbreak, to a woman who had successfully bonded with the T-virus. Unfortunately, she had refused to further cooperate with Umbrella, so she was liquidated. He was then adopted by Albert Wesker, who gave him the name "Dryden Aisley" and taught him everything about the T-virus.
His life was restricted to the walls of the underground facilities and bases of Umbrella, but Dryden didn't mind. The world was a tangled mess of the undead; a former shadow of what it used to be. Besides, Dryden preferred the chrome walls of the facility to the smoking ruins of Shizuoka.
After a hundred lifts, Dryden finally threw the weights over his shoulder, listening as they made a resounding crash on the floor. He sat up on the bench and wiped the sweat from his body. It was then when he noticed that his father was late.
Strange.
Dryden knew his father was a perfectionist, one who always had to win, no matter what. He also had the uncanny ability to evade death, which was mainly why Dryden was not worried.
But still, his absence warranted an investigation.
Dryden took his shirt that was hanging from one of the hooks on the wall, pulling it over his head as he exited the small gym. A few Umbrella guards were stationed in the hallway, and he beckoned to one of them.
"Find out what's taking my father so long," he ordered, and the guard immediately walked down the hallway, towards the control room. Dryden walked in the opposite direction and headed to his father's study. Once he was there, he sat at the comfortable leather chair, clicked the touchpad of his father's laptop and activated the tracking program. Dryden typed in the password and a green map popped up. The red dot that was supposed to mark his father's location was absent.
Now worried, Dryden stood up and walked out of the study. He was on his way to the control room when he met the guard.
"Sir, Chairman Wesker has been located near Mount Fiji," he reported, his voice muffled by his breather.
Dryden relaxed. "Send a scout to retrieve him immediately. Go!"
"Yes sir!" the guard walked away a second time, and Dryden turned and walked back into the study. He switched off his father's laptop and pulled a leather book from one of the shelves behind the desk. He then sat on the couch on the other end of the room and began reading.
As he read, he reviewed everything that he and his father had discussed about the status of Arcadia. There were hundreds of human survivors on board, but the experiment regarding his father seemed to be failing. Dryden had suspected that the human essence was the solution to their current problem, but since most of the crew had bailed and the humans his father had been ingesting didn't seem to carry the required energy and "balancing factor" they needed, Dryden was considering other options.
He sorely hoped that they would find a solution soon; the T-virus in his father's body seemed to be quickly taking over. Dryden had no doubt that once they had solved this problem, his father would be powerful enough to bring all of the other survivors under his command.
Dryden was aware that a good number of people were surviving, and he and his father planned to bring them all into one place and start afresh. Of course his father would be the leader of this new society, where Dryden knew he belonged.
As he turned the page, his thoughts flew back to the time when he was physically ten-years old, and his father had introduced him to the world. Of course the world Dryden knew was vastly different from the world his father knew. In Dryden's view, the Earth was only a vast wasteland filled with cannibalistic beings that had more aggressive needs - their unending need for flesh. Those select few that had survived the "outbreak" were either holed up in their own little encampments and forts, or were serving loyally under his father's leadership.
"They are our creations, Dryden," his father had said, placing one hand against a blood-caked face that was snarling at them from behind shatterproof glass. "Their bodies were mutated, thanks to the T-virus."
"The same virus that runs through my system?" Dryden had asked. Early on he knew that his mother, known as Project Janus, had successfully bonded with the T-virus, gaining all of its advantages and none of its side effects. This bonding had occurred after Dryden was conceived, but somehow the virus had bonded with him as he developed in his mother's womb. Dryden possessed psionic abilities, telekinesis, enhanced senses, agility, advanced healing, and a battle prowess that Wesker had honed over the many months.
Although Dryden was born nearly two years ago, he was now physically, mentally, and emotionally a twenty-year old. The T-virus had also lent him a faster growth spurt, which his father had stunted by tinkering with several of his genes. Now Dryden could enjoy the normal development and aging like any other human, without worrying how old he would be in a year's time.
His father had nodded once. "That is why you are very important to Umbrella - and to me. You are the most successful human who has paired with the T-virus, after your mother, of course."
Dryden had spared no thought for his mother, the woman who had decided to go against the very corporation that had helped her become part of the Homo Superioris, the new branch of humans who were able to bond with the T-virus.
To date, there have been only three Homo Superioris: Dryden, Project Janus, and Angela Ashford. The last two were dead, making Dryden the sole Homo Superioris on Earth. It should have saddened him, but it didn't.
If his father succeeded in bonding with the T-virus, then he wouldn't be the "lone ranger" any longer.
His enhanced hearing picked up the sound of the scout he had sent to retrieve his father, as they called in to relay the success of their trip.
"...lost Mishimoto, but the Chairman is with us!" the pilot said in a heavy Japanese accent. "He requests that his second-in-command be ready for a briefing!"
Dryden smiled to himself and closed the book. A sudden briefing after the attack on the Tokyo base only meant one thing: the enemy was close.
And Dryden was waiting.
Wesker stepped off the helicopter and looked at the helipad. Several Japanese Umbrella employees had gathered for his arrival, and he even spotted the medical personnel he had requested.
He had survived the small skirmish on the airplane with only a few cuts and bruises. Even as he walked across the tarmac, he knew that they were already healing.
The T-virus did its work well.
"Is he ready?" he asked one of the employees.
"Yes, Chairman," the lab-coated employee - whose name tag read Aniko Hashito - replied, his eyes fixed on the healing wounds.
Wesker walked briskly into the elevator that took him to the lowest floor in the facility. The trip took him only a few minutes, and he was soon striding into the chrome hallway where rows of guards in black bulletproof armor were standing. His shoes thudded on the floor as he made his way to the small conference room.
As he opened the doors, he spotted the tall, dark-haired man standing in front of the table, making two cups of black coffee.
"Dryden." Wesker's voice penetrated through the room, and the man looked up.
"Father," Dryden greeted, taking the two Styrofoam cups and placing them on the table in the middle of the room. "The Tokyo base has been overrun."
It wasn't a question. Wesker knew that Dryden was very perceptive, and that he had learned of the attack seconds after it had started.
"The rebels launched their attack, as you said," Wesker told him. He sat down at the very head of the table, while Dryden took the seat to his right.
"And they escaped?"
"Only one. The rest were annihilated. Your idea of planting a bomb close to the elevator shaft worked," Wesker said, taking a sip of the coffee.
"And your condition? Have the experiments proved fruitful?" Dryden watched him closely. He seemed to detect a slight shifting in Wesker's eyes, for he leaned against the chair and nodded. "Ah. No progress."
Wesker glanced at the boy and removed his sunglasses. Dryden looked at him again, but he did not flinch.
Wesker knew what his son was seeing: his ruby red eyes.
"The T-virus is taking over most of my body," Wesker revealed. "My ingestion of human DNA can only keep it at bay for short periods of time."
"Perhaps you need a purer source," Dryden said thoughtfully. "If you were to take a sample of my DNA, it may halt the T-virus."
Wesker fell silent. It was times like this when he marveled at the boy's intelligence. His idea seemed plausible, and Wesker knew, somehow, that it would work. But he dared not tarnish the last successful experiment of the Umbrella Corporation - not when there was an alternative.
Project Janus.