RESIDENT EVIL: HORIZON OF DESPAIR

Office of Bioterror Security, July 15, 2014, 4:22 AM

Brian Lansing began to loosen his tie as he stared at the security feed. This was bad. 22 minutes ago, a bioterror attack had been reported in the Northwest, localized around Parris City. The Triton Research Facility had been attacked. On paper, Triton was a biomedical research facility, and the real truth behind it was on a need-to-know basis. Lansing was definitely a man of the last few administrations, when it was all about early preparation and hitting the enemy before they hit you. That's why he became the head of the Triton Project; it was his idea after the incident with Umbrella.

Lansing was on that need-to-know basis. "What viruses were released? Do we know yet?" He stared at another man in a suit, with glasses. One of his top men in the field of B.O.W.s. He'd been staring at the feed nonstop while talking to men on site or close to site. His near-white hair was pushed back on his scalp, his eyes widened with a look of disbelief. All the protective measures, all the security systems, and this happened.

"We have no information if the original samples were stolen, but the mutagen strain that was developed for a vaccine was released."

"Has it hit the city yet?"

"Yes sir."

"Do we have numbers on the infection rate yet?"

"The sample of has an infection rate of 66%. It also hits older and sicker individuals sooner."

"How long until we're looking at another Raccoon city?"

"Six hours at the soonest."

"Has the BSAA been informed?"

"No sir. I was waiting for you to make that call."

Lansing used his tie to drop beads of sweat from his brow. "It can't be helped. Call it in." His assistant reached for the red phone.

---

Above Parris City, 8:32 AM

The morning sun was hot on George Dufrenes' skin. It was odd to see such a clear day in the Northwest, where cloud cover and rain were all too common.

"Sir!" Alpha team's point man, Josh Fried called over, his left leg bouncing restlessly where he sat. "How much longer til we land? We've been circling the city for twenty minutes!"

"We need to make sure we have a safe LZ. It wouldn't do us much good to land and get overrun. We couldn't save anyone then!" George's cajun accent had died down a bit over the years in government and security work, but some inflection was still there. This was his fifth mission as a BSAA captain. Most of his work had been raiding warehouses of domestic terrorists, trying to get their hands on rouge strains of T or C. The C-Virus had gained in popularity due to the global incident last year. The news media flooded information about Lanshiang, and now even domestic groups were trying to get their hands on something. This, though, a large scale rescue and quarantine op? They hadn't seen anything this big since...

"It's like Raccoon City all over again..." the fires had been breaking out all day. Gas stations exploding, cars erupting, the sites of people running from shambling corpses. They could see it all from the sky, but they were powerless to help.

"Come on Geoffrey, let's find a good LZ."

"The hospital has a heliport, but..."

"I know. It'll be crawling with infected. Still...it's early. We might have a chance there. Take us down Geoffrey."

---

Turledove Apartment Complex; Parris City eastside, 9:00 AM

Henry turned over, sweat covering his forehead. "Urrrrgghh" he moaned, before rolling over out of the bed. Why was it so hot? And, why was it so bright? The sun's rays shone between the blinds of his room and...oh no.

Henry sat up, walking over to his dresser, and picked up his watch. 9 AM. "Oh god," he moaned. No wonder it was so hot. There was no power. That meant no air conditioning. And that meant no alarm to wake him up. "I'm going to get fired for sure..." he grabbed his cellphone, which showed itself at around 80% battery life. At least it charged some during the night, and dialed work.

"We're sorry, all lines are busy at the moment," the automated voice said. All lines? Was there some big emergency? Maybe an earthquake hit the area... Henry threw on some clean clothes and did his best to fix his hair before setting outside. If the bus line was working, maybe he could arrive. If an emergency happened, surely Mr. Davis wouldn't fire him. He couldn't!

Stepping out into the hallway, he saw one of his neighbors in his pajamas. "I guess you got today off, eh Mr. Matthews?"

The older man just slowly swung his head around, looking at Henry. His skin was pallid grey, his mouth hung agape. He looked hungover or sick or...dead. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were feeling well. Hope you feel better soon!"

Mr. Matthews slid a foot forward towards Henry. "Urggh," he lightly murmured.

"Uh, Frank? You okay?"

"Urrrgghhh," this was longer, sustained, almost unearthly.

"Frank, you're sort of...freaking me out man."

Frank moved faster.

---

Office of Bioterror Security 9:55 AM

"Director Lansing, I've got an updated report from Parris City."

"What is it?"

"Military vessels have set up the quarantine zone. Thanks to the northern mountain, it made it easy to set up roadblocks and get a few ships around the area."

"Good. Has Washington considered the Slash and Burn plan?"

"The President has been...uncomfortable with using the same methods used in Raccoon City and Twin Oaks, especially considering the political nature-"

"We could have a nationwide epidemic in a week if we don't control this now!"

Lansing's tie was almost pulled completely loose, his shirt was open slightly. Even with the cold air of the control room, nerves made every man sweat with worry. Especially Director Lansing. "What about the BSAA teams?"

"I've been in contact with Director Grey. The BSAA Alpha Team has gone silent since storming the Burton Memorial Hospital."

"It's already that bad."

"Sir, I feel that it's getting worse."

"What do you mean?"

"We've just received a message from the man who is claiming responsibility for the attack."

"A man? Not a group?"

"No sir. And...also, he calls himself... A. Wesker."

"Impossible! Albert Wesker died in 2009 in the Kijuju Autonomous Zone."

"You should watch this." The man flicked on a monitor. A familiar sneering voice came from the feed, a slightly English accent which drew out the sound of vowels. The voice of a gentleman who would stab you in the back with no hesitation.

"Greetings."

---

Outside Turtledove Apartments 10:05 AM

Henry held on tight to the fire escape, as Frank flopped out from the window. "Oh Christ," Henry muttered. What had happened to Frank? What the hell happened to the world!? He had nearly fallen from the fire escape after breaking the window before Frank could get a chance to grab at him. It was like the old man had lost his mind; like he was under some sort of crazy spell. And now, he was looking at a thirty foot drop if he couldn't hang on tight enough.

The grey-faced man moaned loudly, leaning over the side, waving his arms at Henry; it was like he couldn't bend down and grab him. Instead his entire torso leaned over the railing of the fire escape; and suddenly, he fell. His body made a loud crunch, the sound of broken bones and destroyed tissue. "Oh Jesus Frank," Henry muttered, holding onto the railing of the fire escape. He looked down at Frank's corpse, which began to move. His legs were broken, and he started into a crawl. "That should have killed...him..." it all became apparent. Raccoon City. Twin Oaks. Lanshiang. This all happened there. Some virus which caused the dead to walk around killing everyone around them. It happened here.

This was a nightmare.

Parris City, Downtown – 9:01 PM

The darkness struck the city in the hours since the initial chaos, and the nightfall finally brought a numbness to the frantic violence and chaos of the hours before. St. Albert’s Catholic Church settled in downtown Parris City looked as if the only place of sanctuary to any on-looking survivors from the adjacent Dakowski Park as the sight of the wreckage of a bread truck within the front glass of a restaurant two blocks down illuminated the darkness with the fire that still softly lingered from only an hour prior. Several church pews and various debris had been used to make a makeshift barricade in front of the large wooden doors of the chapel. At least the stone walls of the church kept the incessant groaning of the recently dead outside quiet enough for some to get some rest. There were men and women gathered around the area from different walks of life, obviously due to their clothes. Businessmen, students, nurses, even a woman dressed fairly provocatively for a church. Leaned against a wall was a man whose head was bandaged from one of the survivors in the area: Henry Moore.

The man had been mistaken as an undead earlier; covered in blood and barreling into the church, of course someone smacked him with some sort of stick. And when he didn't get up and start groaning well; it was obvious he wasn't one of the undead. Still, it had been some time and he was still unconscious; that never bode well. One of the survivors, Peter Simpson, was getting anxious and generally impatient. “Just when the hell is the government going to evacuate us! I thought they had special...trained soldiers or something to protect us!”

“Sir, just calm down;” Richard Levitski, the lone police officer amongst the survivors held his hand out apologetically. “The government probably has people on their way now. It just takes time.”

William Robens shuffled his hands in his pockets as he looked over the former sales clerk with an expression of apathy before moving his eyes back to the streets through a small crack in the barricade. The survivors in St. Albert’s was growing in number and that meant a higher chance of being discovered by the infected things outside that were roaming the downtown streets looking for a good meal and the twenty-nine year old former high school teacher found his chances for survival becoming very thin. A cigarette was pressed firmly in-between his lips, but it wasn’t lit at the exact moment. He wasn’t exactly sure if the infected relied on smell or anything.

“Please do scream louder so the infected can hear you, I really do wish to die.” He spat, albeit in a dry monotone with a sense of condescension as his eyes remained peeking through one of the barricaded windows, not even making contact with the person he was speaking to.

“Don't you talk like that to me, punk!” Peter Simpson's face was turning red in anger, but William didn't care to react or even move for that matter. This of course, caused the officer to step between the two. “Both of you, relax. We need to keep calm and quiet right now until we hear something from the government.”

The officer's radio had been silent for hours now; with no indication if anyone else was alive out there. How much time did they have, holed up in this church? What if the infected broke in? Where could they go? Hell, was the Police Station still safe? Why hadn't he heard anything from any other officers? All these thoughts were going through their minds as the sound of a helicopter broke the argument.

“See?” Peter stated, excited that it was all over. “They're here! We're safe!”

William rolled his eyes, “The helicopter doesn’t sound very close.” A slight breath left William as he crossed his arms, “Looks like it’s going across the river.” He noted as he believed he saw it moving away from this part of downtown and westward.

The officer did his best to stare out the stained glass window and nodded. “They're probably looking for survivors there.”

“Well what about us?" Peter interrupted, confused and angry. "Why aren't they getting us?”

William sighed, shrugging as he caught a mumbling to his left—the sales clerk was finally stirring awake, “Hey, looks like the head trauma patient is coming to.”

---

Parris City, Above the Datski River – 9:06 PM

“We’re passing over Dakowski Park.” The voice of Tyrone Gibson, the co-pilot for the incoming BSAA helicopter stated loudly over the sound of the whirling helicopter blades. Parris City had been hoping for the arrival of the BSAA, but these guys had not been sent for survivor recovery – rather team investigation, which confused a few members of this particular team of agents.

“Remember, we’re here to reconvene with Alpha Team—they’ve been silent for too long and the situation here has gotten really bad.”

“What about survivors, sir?” The female member of the team, Chéris Allard, inquired as her mind raced to the people of the city.

“That’s Delta’s job, little lady, we need to keep our sight on Alpha Team.” Alex Paulson smiled at the rookie, hefting his BSAA issued G36C assault rifle over his shoulder. He was the Bravo Team leader for this operation; his first time leading one as well. He'd been the point man for Alpha Team for a year, and now they finally moved him to the big leagues. Everything was looking good outside of Alpha Team’s apparent failure and that Bravo Team had been basically assigned to be their support squad, but to Alex Paulson it felt more like “clean up” duty. Eventually, the helicopter touched down in a clearing, and Alex hopped out the door, followed by Tyrone, Marcus, Riley and the Rookie.

“Alright ladies,” he said, hefting the rifle up and scanning the area. “Check your surroundings here, we don't know who decided to take a nice walk in the park and ended up some monster's snack, alright? Let's get this job done!”

“Alpha Team’s last known location was at Burton Memorial Hospital, sir.” Chéris Allard stated, recalling the information relevant to their mission.

“The hospital? Really?” Riley Alcowski groaned.

“High vantage point and a workable helipad. It's basics 101.” Paulson took point, leading them through the forest.

“But...depending on how many patients were infected, they could've been overrun. We can't overlook that.” Paulson added to his previous statement as he speculated how things could have turned for them. Historically with infections like this, Hospitals had turned problematic quickly and had been viral epicenters—Raccoon City was a good example of such.

“What our plan of approach, commander?” Marcus Eisenberg inquired as he trailed behind Tyrone Gibson.

"We stay off the main streets. A direct approach is suicide. The City Arboretum is where Delta is headed, and we'll make our way there too. There's maintenance passage into the sewers, and it's a straight shot to the hospital basement floors from there."

Ultimately after crossing the Datski River, they arrived at a large metal fence which separated the park from the sidewalk of the streets. They could already see fires down the road, and the visages of the undead beyond. “It looks like the mouth of hell down there.” Paulson muttered under his breath whilst Riley simply nodded in reply.

“The Aboretum is in the opposite direction at least, at the edge of the park.” Chéris stated matter-of-factly.

“Right, let’s go.”

A woman in Scientist like clothing was looking out the window, she with her little research and equipment was trying to study to zombie like monsters.
She was writing in a notebook and pen that somehow survived this whole ordeal, from her time escaping the monster she took note of several details, they seem to react to loud noises and sight, they are primal in nature often walking towards their prey with no worry of what stands in their way and they seem to have no sense of pain, since injuries that would incapacitate a human for months they would pay no attention at all like they don't even notice it. Interesting.

She sighed she just wanted to rest, so she took a seat at a bench.
She wished she could've just went to work and none of this happen, she was exhausted like everyone else, and the only thing keeping her mind off the blood and gore was her attempt to study the zombies that can be viewed outside the window. But her mind always replay when she first encounter those zombies, she trying out her work clothes, and she heard banging on her door. Expecting it to be her friend to visit, but instead it was a man who looked like he was horribly injured, she opened the door only ajar, that saved her life. As she opened the man pushed his arm into the door and tried to reach for her, and that caused to get the attention of many more like him. After getting the door closed and looking out the window in a panic, she seen more like him. In a rare moment of fear she left her house and went into her car and manage to get to the church right away, she was lucky compare to many others. She only had to deal with one, violently. She sickened when thinking back to it.

During her relaxing, she looked back to the rest of the group, she places her studies in her pocket of her dress skirt. She pushed up her glasses to better look at the people, she might as well be honest with them, lying won't get them anywhere.
"I believe the chances of us being evacuated is low, there is simply too many of those specimens for to be entirely eradicated safely of the entire city state, at best their will try their best, but the chances of that working are still low... Even we do get out of here safely what to say what infected everyone of those things isn't air bound so we could be sick as we speak." She told the arguing men, without trying to tact, this isn't the time to be so. The man with the head injury was starting to come to.
"But it might not be, we simply lack the resources and knowledge to know what happening for sure... We should give the man some space, just in case." She pushed her glasses up again. she didn't try to move from her position, she wasn't a nurse or doctor better let someone like that deal with him.

Fleur looked at the survivors in the church, there were such an variety of people. One man had a head wound that was quickly bandaged. That man was Henry Moore, a man who had been thought to be one of the 'Things' outside of the church. She could not find her boyfriend whom she had entered with.
"Navine! Vhere are you darling?! Please! Come out of hiding! Zit is safe!" There was no response, only the sad, frustrated and scared looks on peoples faces.

Fleur decided to raise her concern for evacuation, "But, if we do not do something soon, vill... what vill we do?"
Looking at Henry she said to him "You should sit down, zis must all be cauzing you such stress, vich is not good for you, please, let me assist you, I'm a nurse..."

As Fleur walked towards Henry she could hear the moaning coming from outside the church. It brought back a flashback of her and her boyfriend, Navine, escaping from their small house. He had managed to bash ones' head in with a hammer, making an escape to their car. They drove over so many of them... They then arrived at the church, so many survivors ran in for shelter separating them for a few moments.

Fleur took the opportunity to examine Henrys' head. No, cuts, just a large bruise and mild bleeding... You vere hit with something hard... yes?"

Burton Memorial Hospital; 2nd Floor, Room 204 6:00 AM:
Matthew woke up......

It was dark in the room but the morning light lighten up the room a bit.He looked at his sick mother which was hospitalized due to Hypertension.He kissed her hand,patted her head then said "Get well soon" and he left the room.Matthew was going home because his father was left there for 3 days and he was very worried.

Outside of Burton Memorial Hospital; Central Parris City 6:15 AM:
It was very silent outside and there is no people much on the streets yet.Matthew took a deep breath then continued walking home

Simmons Residence; Southern Parris City 7:15 AM:
"I'm home!" Matthew said as he opened the door then closed it.There was no response......

He peeked at his Dad's Room to discover that he was still asleep.He is kinda tired by all that walking so he took a rest in his room playing with his PC for a while.

Simmons Residence; Southern Parris City 9:15 AM:
Matthew was hungry and he checked the kitchen for breakfast but there is no food on the table.Matthew's father was still asleep.
Matthew had no choice but to cook the breakfast himself.Matthew cooked some scrambled eggs and some bacons then made some juice for him and his father.He didn't have time to call his father for breakfast because he was very hungry so he ate alone then brought his father's breakfast in his room.He was still asleep when he entered.It was understandable because his father works night shift in the office.

He put the breakfast in his father's working table then woke him up.As he touched his father,it suddenly attacked.

"WARGHHH!!!!" his father moaned

"WOAH!" Matthew shocked and falled to the ground.

Matthew's father was now a zombie and trying to eat him for breakfast.Matthew had a sudden adrenaline rush,He stand up then ran out of the room and lock slammed the door.Matthew rushed to his room and put his laptop in his bag.He looked around his room for a weapon but there was no weapon around him.He thinked to use his lamp but it will be just be a one hit weapon but it's the only way.So, he tool the lamp then left the room.As he left the room, the door to his father's room is smashed to pieces but his father was not around but as he looked up....

Matthew's father was clinging on the wall then lunged on him.Matthew was pinned down on the ground and he dropped his lamp 1 meters away.He was being choked by the zombie,he was struggling to get the lamp but he won't reach it.He was about to ran out of breath when he managed to get the lamp and hit his father with it.

The lamp was broken but his father was still moving.He ignored it then proceeded to the streets

Streets of Parris City; Southern Parris City 10:03 AM:
Matthew was running and avoiding the undead,he went through the alleys and streets.He heard a scream "HELP!".Matthew recognized the voice,it was Mr.Edwards being pinned down by a zombie.Matthew ran to it then kicked the zombie then helped Mr.Edwards to get up and they ran to a safe place."What is happening?" Matthew asked,"I don't know.... people are trying to kill each other" Mr.Edwards answered "I know a safe place to stay,it's the church downtown let's go!" Mr.Edwards added then ran.

Mr.Edwards and Matthew was running around the streets avoiding infected.They we're trying to reach the church but they got surrounded by infecteds.Mr.Edwards looked around,"Look a warehouse!".They ran into the warehouse and blocked the entrance.

Warehouse; Southern Parris City 10:35 AM:
"I guess we're stuck here for a while kid" Mr.Edwards said."We have to do something!" Matthew complained."There are too many of them,it suicidal that's why we will be stucked here for a while"."I'll look for an another way out, stay here" Matthew said.

Matthew searched around the warehouse,it was empty but there was a backdoor.He took a peek at the backdoor and the place was clear but they need to be silent to not get noticed by the infecteds in the frontdoor."I found a way out, follow me!"

Outside of Warehouse; Southern Parris City 10:45 AM:
Matthew opened the door carefully and silently then crouched to walk silently out of the warehouse and Mr.Edwards followed.Everything was going well when Mr.Edwards accidentally kicked a can and made a noise,The infecteds noticed it."RUUN!!!!" Matthew screamed.

Streets of Parris City; Southern Parris City 10:48 AM:
Mr.Edwards and Matthew was being chased by infecteds again."We need a plan!" Matthew shouted to Mr.Edwards while running."Ok! there will be intersection up ahead you'll go right,i'll go left.So we can be chased by just a bunch of infected" Mr.Edwards suggested.As the two reached the intersection, they did the plan but most of the infecteds followed Mr.Edwards and none followed Matthew.He was very lucky and took a rest for a while.

Streets of Parris City; Downtown 10:55 AM:
Matthew continued walking because there are not much infecteds in the streets.It was a good sign because he might be getting near to the church that Mr.Edwards was speaking of.He was still worried about Mr.Edwards and he hoped that he can escape those infecteds.He laughed by what he said.... Mr.Edwards was a tough guy and there is just 4 infecteds chasing him so it would be just a piece of cake for him.After all the thinking, he reached his destination.He approached the gate and the guards checked him for bites,scratches,and wounds but the guards confirmed that he is not infected so they let him in.

St. Albert's Catholic Church; Downtown Parris City 11:21 AM:
Matthew was now on his safe haven but there are people injured and being treated.It was a horrible sight to see those people suffering.He then remembered his mother,he tried to get out but the someone stopped him."STOP! What are you doing?" a girl asked,"My mother she is still in the hospital, i need to see her" Matthew answered."No! it's dangerous plus it's hard to get in your location because the roads are destroyed,blocked,and filled with infecteds so it's dangerous!" the girl added.

Matthew had no choice but to stay........

10:30 AM, Turtledove Apartments
Henry had made his way down the stairwell of the building quietly and precariously, terrified that one misstep would lead him into the hungry jaws of something recently deceased. Here and there he'd hear screaming, someone being torn apart by a former loved one, and here he was, powerless and terrified to even help. He just had to keep moving down. He finally reached the lobby, and through the plexiglas window of the steel door, could count six of the undead milling around the room.

The apartment supervisor, Vincent Difono, was shuffling around, a huge chunk of his neck torn off. It was grotesque to say the least, and it made Henry's stomach churn. This was terrible. He looked for anything that could be used as a weapon, and found absolutely nothing in the empty stairwell.

Damnit, what the hell can I do? he thought. Still, there was a clear line towards the door out to the street. At least there he could find somewhere safe; somewhere that wasn't an apartment building stairwell. He took a deep breath, and opened the door.

---

10:35 AM, Office of Bioterror Security

Director Lansing ran his wrinkled hand through his hair. "I can't believe this," he muttered, looking at the computer screen. One of his aides came to his side, whispering to him.

"Sir, Director Gray from the BSAA is here to see you."

Charles Gray was tired. He'd taken a helicopter to Washington to meet with Lansing about this whole mess; something he wasn't happy about. He had men in the field right now, and he should be at Headquarters getting updates on the situation in Parris City, not coming to some emergency meeting that had nothing to do with how to do his job. At least, that's what he thought.

"Brian," he said, extending his hand to the older gentleman. "It's been a while."

"I wish it were under better circumstances, Charles. I think you need to see this." Director Lansing pointed to a monitor with a video queued up. A man, whose face was hidden in shadows, began to talk. "Greetings gentleman. I would first like to thank the people at Triton Corp for assisting me with my endeavors today," the camera seemed to pan out, showing multiple bodies on the floor; men and women in lab coats: Triton Employees.

"I'd like to be frank," the man folded his hands together, "I was quite surprised to see so much of Umbrella's work carried on here. Enough to help me with my own plans."

"Who the hell is this guy?" Charles looked to Lansing and others.

"He calls himself A. Wesker."

"Wesker? Redfield and his team killed him years ago!"

"That's what we thought too. But this video feed is from today. Whoever this man is, he's at the Triton Offices now."

"Damnit, what does he want?"

One of the aides fast-forwarded the video, and the man in shadow continued. "I will take what the thieves here have done, and I will bring the true meaning of Umbrella's Research to light! The secret to ultimate power; to becoming a god!"

"He's a goddamned madman." Charles Gray looked to Lansing. "What are your men on the ground doing?"

"Keeping quarantine for now."

"Survivors?"

"We have to assume the worst. The best thing to do with be the destruction of that facility before this Wesker character can use it."

"You're wanting to nuke the damn town, aren't you?"

"It's the safest way to ensure nothing breaks the quarantine. "

Charles glared at Lansing. "My men do their job first. You want to set fire to the northwest coast? You tell that to the president."

---

Turtledove Apartments 10:38

Henry had almost reached the door, when he felt something tug on his shirt, and suddenly felt the ground go beneath him. SHIT! Vincent had grabbed him, and pulled him on his back. The corpse of the former super moaned, his mouth open wide to take a chunk of flesh from Henry when the young man instinctively kicked at the body of Vicent.

The corpse reeled back, and Henry began to crawl, making his way to the door, before pulling himself up, and quickly running out into the hellish world outside.

The first thing he felt was the heat: fires had sprung up from wrecked cars on the road, and some of the fires had spread to the nearby buildings. "Shit shit shit..." he muttered, making his way down the street. He had to find something, fast.

And then he felt something again; something fell on top of him: the body of a woman. The corpse was still moving, and began to chomp at his face. "DAMNIT!" He screamed, pushing the body off of him, and forcing himself back on his feet. His face and shirt were covered in rust colored blood, fresh from the body. He had to get off the streets, somewhere...safe.

He saw the crowds of the undead shambling around. Hundreds upon hundreds of bodies. "Oh god..." he muttered, making his way down an alleyway. He had to find something safe.

---

Outside of St. Albert's Catholic Church 4:35 PM

Henry was covered in blood and sweat. The sweat, his. The blood? Not his, thank goodness. He had been running down the streets and hiding where he could for hours now, terrified that the next step he took would be his last.

That's when a gunshot broke the silence in his head. Someone was armed! That meant safety, right? He bounded out an alley, and saw a cop ferrying people into a church. A cop! He broke into a run, flailing his arms trying to alert them. He was another survivor! He-

He heard a scream as he neared the door, and a blunt object entered his vision. Sharp, striking pain filled his head as the world went dark.

---

Burton Memorial Hospital 5:30 PM

Josh was dead, his body torn in half by multiple undead. Now, it was just George Dufrenes and two other members of Alpha Team. George's assault rifle was tossed onto the ground, out of ammunition and useless; his M92fs handgun was the only weapon he had left. Kyle Gaul and Derricus Bole were the only two members of the team that had survived, and here they were, all holed up in a hospital lab. Kyle was bleeding from a wound in his side.

"What the hell...happened to those infected?" He muttered, with Derricus doing his best to keep the man from bleeding out.

"I don't know. This isn't like any of the reports," George muttered. The hammering of the undead on the door was getting louder now. They didn't have much time.

St. Albert's Catholic Church 9:10 PM

"Thanks," Henry said to the French nurse, who had checked on him. "Yeah, someone beaned me pretty bad when I got here, with like a broomstick or a bat or something." All he knew is that it had hurt, a hell of a lot. His head was still throbbing in pain. "What time is it?"

"It's around 9 at night." The police officer had also come to check up on him, it seemed.

"Any rescue teams?"

"Just a helicopter we heard."

"Do we have a radio?"

"We've just been trying to keep everyone calm here. No one's looked around the church yet."

Henry forced himself up, probably against the protests of the nurse. "Couldn't hurt to look around." He didn't want to sit and wait. He didn't want to turn into a meal for those things out there; he just wanted out of here, as soon as possible. "I'm Henry, by the way."

Parris City, St. Albert’s Catholic Church

“What about it, Officer Levitski? Should we make a ton of noise looting this church?” William Robens inquired with a sense of self-centered safety as he turned around from the window and looked to the police officer with a blank expression. Robens knew the police officer's triggers as he had particularly good at analyzing people, it was something he picked up from his father growing up who had been a police detective for the city for several years before retiring to San Francisco five years prior. It was also why he was good at keeping a classroom in line and he didn't want some idiot to screw up him breathing to the next day.

“Those people infected out there are attracted to noise.” Will reminded the police officer.

Officer Levitski was the ‘leader’ of the group and the self-appointed protector of all of them, as well as a devout Catholic. His deep sense of religion and guardianship over the others made a knot rise in his throat as he looked to Henry. “He brings a good point, we can’t let them hear us.”

Peter Simpson rolled his eyes, “Then we’ll do it quietly, Christ.”

“…please don’t use the lord’s name in vain, sir.”

"Laisse-moi t'aider! I mean, er, you say... Let me help?" Fleur smiled.
"I am concerned for Henry, if he vere to die... He would ... Become one of them? No?" Fleur then became glum...

Fleur looked down at her shoes. Thinking about Navines' disappearance, she decided this was a good chance to both look for some medical supplies for Henry and search for Navine.

"If vey are drawn by ze noise... Ve must act quietly and quickly, the church is rather large, there must be some kind of secret exit or supplies stored somewhere, yes?"
Fleur than realized that she had not introduced herself to anyone.

"Vut... How are we going to work together if ve do not know our own names?"
Fleur curtsied. "Vi name is Fleur Déluxöur, I am vrom France, could you tell?" Fleur let out a quiet giggle.

Parris City, St. Albert’s Catholic Church

Will moved his attention to Fleur, who realized they had not introduced themselves, which was something he was hoping wouldn’t be brought up for some time. The only reason he knew Officer Levitski’s name was for obvious reasons when the officer escorted everyone into the church hours earlier. In Will’s mind, all of this was pointless claptrap and they needed to be careful and maintain this as a safe place for as long as possible—which meant no noise and by extension no talking. But as he was not armed outside of a small crowbar he had been using earlier to help barricade the church. Henry’s intent on digging around in the church the same reaction on him as this whole ‘introduction’ business. The history teacher had no desire to work with anybody here unless they proved essential to surviving what was to come. If Henry could snoop around quietly that was fine by him, but the way things were going had him on edge.

“No, I had no idea you were French, do regal me with the details of such a shocking revelation.” He commented in reply with a dry and rather aggravatingly sarcastic tone. This made the salesman, Peter Simpson take a deep breath of aggravation.

“Hey, screw off, she’s just being polite.” Peter moved his view to Fleur, “Sorry about him, he doesn't have any manners. I'm Peter Simpson, I’m sure you’ve seen me on signs all over here in Parris City.” Peter apologized as he attempted to embody a more positive disposition, though it was unsure if he was acting that way to get ‘close’ or genuinely was being friendly. Either way, there was truth to his self-absorbed words that he was known in Parris City as Peter Simpson was one of the most successful real estate agents in Parris City as he had been described as selling houses to some of the richest denizens of Parris City. It would explain his business attire and his Rolex watch gripping his left wrist.

Levitski nodded as he recognized the man, “Yeah, you’re the big time real estate guy, right?”

“That's right.” Peter smirked as he turned attention to Will, “What about you?”

“Will. My name is Will.”

The matter-of-fact remark did not help Peter’s views of Will as he felt that the remark was another comment that proved that he was a pompous, sarcastic jackoff. In addition to the attitude, there was this sense that Peter remembered Will from somewhere but he couldn’t remember exactly where and the nostalgic déjà vu he was feeling was not a positive one at that. As Peter kept to his thoughts, Officer Levitski kept his eye on them both as the two had been ‘fighting’ since they first heard each other's voice. As an officer of the law he felt he needed to keep them from starting trouble in such a dire scenario.

“If anybody has forgotten, I’m Officer Levitski.”

A alleyway behind K's Bar saw the former owner shamble down in search of the flesh that it craved, however it failed to notice the silent figure standing in the shadows. Within one mighty swing Sam leapt out of the shadows and brought down the large spanner in his hands, sending K down to the ground in a twitching mess before finally passing on.

Sam peered down to what he had just done, and thought on just how easy it was but also how hard it could have been. "This is going to get worse before it gets better" He spoke softly to himself before leaning down and taking out K's wallet, making sure to take the photos and his ID card... Ever since he got here the guy had welcomed Sam, so in turn he had to do something for the guy, even if it was just to report of his death in all this chaos. With that he made his way to the end of the dark alleyway to check the street which were teaming with those things.

A plan to find others was easy in a way, well living others would be nice. There were many places people picked to hide within and among the top of these were churches, malls and hospitals, all of which were poor choices but never the less it never failed during any disaster no matter what it was.

---

The first place that he could check was likely the closest and most likely was the St. Albert’s Catholic Church. Sam kept low to avoid the things walking around outside but from what he could see the church was still intact, which was a good sign no one had messed up yet. However he knew full well that the front door was not the place to try and knock so he made his way around to the back where he witnessed a former nun trying to dug through the earth to get at the dead. Climbing over the fence he took the chance of its head being down and being close to the fence to jump off and crush it under his size 14's. With that he had a clear line to move under a window and try to peek in hoping to see living people.

Tosata's apartment,Southwest of Parris City, Room 207 5:25 Am

"Yes. Yes. Don't worry brother. I'm fine," She chuckles," Good night. Talk to you another time." with that she returned her phone into her pocket and grabs her bunny designed coffee mug which she uses for tea and her tool kit as she heads outside. She sees her neighbor, Mrs. Cook and Mr. Cook, outside. "Good morning." She says as she pasts by them. She almost got past them until Mr.Cook grabbed her left arm with a loud groan as he looks up. She screams as she flings her coffee mug forward hitting his body, making him momentary drop her arm. She runs towards her motorcycle,quickly puts her tool kit in the storage that is located below the seat,mounts her ride and drives away.

Along the roads of Parris City, 7: 55 Am

Shoot! Where is everyone? she thought. She looked around while she was driving, thinking. I should head to the church. I hope it's safe there. She thought as she dismounted her bike and turned it off. She grabbed her tool kit out of the storage below the seat and started to run in the direction of the church.

Outside of St. Albert's Catholic Church, 4:49 Pm

After hours of running, hiding from the zombies and seeing people being eaten. She has finally made it to the church. Her feet was covered in blood which she washed off when she pasted the river earlier. She saw citizens that weren't zombies being lead into the church. She ran to join the crowd once she got into the church. She looked around. Finally! I can rest. she thought as she walk towards the middle section of the church and sat down at the side, closing her eyes.

Downtown, The Theater across or adjacent, or otherwise very near to the Church

Sarah popped another piece of popcorn into her mouth as she say behind the candy counter for the theater. It wasn't exactly food but with... whatever those things out there were wandering around in the streets, Sarah wasn't going to risk leaving. There were a few others here. Some of them had armed themselves with the stems of the portable barricades that the theater used to establish waiting lines for movies. Then part of the group had barricaded and shored up the doors.

What bothered Sarah the most was the loss of cellular coverage. That was some hours ago. There simply was no new information on what was happening outside. Who carried a radio anymore when there were smartphones and internet?

Most people had left the moment the things started wandering the streets, eager to race home and rescue their loved ones. Others had decided to jump in their cars and head for the hills, literally... up into the hills outside Parris city. Sarah's boyfriend for the evening had been one of those, having run off on her the first moment things went awry. Sarah, however, intended to do exactly like the emergency broadcast system said, to stay put and obey the quarantine until rescue services arrived.

Off in the corner of the church, a young woman, almost a girl, was sitting with her knees against her chest and a white stick four and a half feet long. She was resting her head on her knees, which let anyone who glanced at her see something white around her neck.

"It's not that far now, my buddy said he'd pick us up, Go..." James told her....
"....ait no! Stop! Don't leave us!" James yelled as the truck sped off with their belongings....
"The bastards...." James coughed as a red line slowly inched down his cheek....

The girl shot upright, breathing heavily and holding onto that stick like it was the only thing between her and death. She glanced around in a rush, looking like a scared baby animal who lost their mother. A few moments pass, and the girl closes her eyes and sighs, her shoulders starting to bounce gently...

St. Albert's Catholic Church
Henry walked towards the back of the church, past the girl with...the stick? Was she some sort of baton juggler or something? No matter. There were two doors behind the choir which led to a small hallway. There were two doors; a men's and women's restroom, as well as a stairwell leading up to the second floor, and a stairwell leading to the basement. Henry shrugged, wondering which to check out first. Suddenly, a voice broke the quiet of the hallway, shocking Henry.

"What's going on back here?"

Henry nearly jumped, turning to see the real estate agent behind him. "Sorry, just trying to figure out where some things might be."

"Well, I always keep my junk in the basement, we might want to check that out."

"Yeah, but there could be some stuff upstairs too..."

"Well, let's Scooby Doo it then, kid. I'll take some people downstairs, and you take some upstairs. Just uh...don't get all lightheaded climbing the stairs, alright?"

"Yeah, right."

The two returned to the center of the church, and Henry looked around at everyone still gathered around. "Well, Peter and I found a second floor and a basement-"

"Yeah, like we couldn't tell there were multiple stories from outside." The teacher looked completely annoyed by everything going on, still. Which of course made him wonderful to work with.

"Anyways, we're going to split up and see if we can find anything useful. I'll head upstairs, and Peter will head downstairs."

"I'll stay here," Officer Levitski said, "and keep the entrance safe. If you see anything dangerous, don't be afraid to come and get me."

"Right. So, anyone want to check upstairs?"

"Who wants to go downstairs with me?" Peter's gaze seemed more fixated on the ladies in the room than...anything however.

Regardless of who went with the two, the second story was another hallway, with several doors. A children's nursery, several private bible study rooms, a storeroom which was locked, and the priest's office, which was also locked.

The basement was pitch black; someone would need a flashlight or a lighter; any sort of light source to see around. If anyone had a light source on them, they'd be able to see an old metal desk with some junk piled on it; as well as an old emergency radio!

---

Parris City Side Alley

Alex Paulson checked the side street with Marcus, and motioned for the others to follow in suit. They'd done well enough for now; evading any infected for the moment; if they broke into a firefight, all it would do would be to alert everything in a mile radius of where they were.

"We can cut through this building here," Marcus said, opening one of the doors. "That'll put us directly across from the Church. There's an alleyway that'll fork to a bar or to a theater; both ways will take us around to the Arboretum."

"Yeah, but the Church is across the street. I'd rather not risk moving out in the open. We'll just take the long way around."

"Roger that."

Chéris Allard was doing her best to keep up. They'd done training exercises in the Canadian Intelligence Service, but moving around with a back of equipment, a loaded gun and being forced to keep quiet at the risk of being turned into some creature's next meal? It was a lot to take in.

"Hey, Rookie, you alright?" It was Riley, their tech. He'd been the nicest of the team to her, probably due to his non-military background. He'd been picked from his class at MIT and brought straight into the BSAA.

"I'll be fine."

"It's rough for the first few missions. It'll get easier, trust me-"

"Everyone, hold up." Alex was surveying the area with his rifle shouldered, while Marcus knelt down by a body. "It looks like signs of the V-ACT mutation.

"V-ACT?"

Paulson piped up at this one. "It's a rare mutation of the T-Virus. If you bring an infected down, there's a chance that a mutation will activate while it's in a death-like state. They decay faster, but something happens, they get feral. Fast and deadly."

"How do you know it's the...V-ACT thing?" Riley looked over to the body.

"Because," Marcus said, "We're looking at a dead one." He rolled the corpse over to reveal the heavily decayed face, the skin a deep crimson due to the rapid blood seepage during it's transformation. The hands had been worn down and the bones jutting from the fingers resembled sharp claws.

"There were very few recordings of V-ACT mutations. In the Spencer Mansion report, and a few in Umbrella Lab raids. This is bad. Every corpse in this city now has a chance to turn into something like this."

"That means we keep on our guard." Paulson was moving towards another door. "Come on. We don't have time to waste."

Fleur raised her hand. "I vill go with Henry, that vay, if anything were to vappen, he vill have assistance!" She smiled.
"Oh! Vut of the storeroom, you said it was locked, yes? Perhaps ve might find a key somewhere?" Fleur giggled a little. "I have quite a good nack of finding things"

Fleur just really didn't want to go down into the basement.

"So, who vill be joining us? Vill? Peter?"

"I will! i will join Bill and Peter,i'm only an expertise in computers but I might help with something" Matthew replied to Bill

"Also I have a laptop, it's still fully charged. it can be used to light up our way to the basement" Matthew added

St. Albert’s Catholic Church, Parris City

Ellie sat there, crossed legged and hands in her lap. She had her head lifted up, but leaning back against a wall. She didn't bother moving, She didn't want to move. In her hands, a small flip cellphone rested in her hands, open and bright with light of a text conversation. Ellie was nervous, panicked and scared. The others made a vote to split into groups, one goes upstairs while the other goes downstairs. "I'll stay here with you." Ellie said, looking at Levitski. "I'll keep you company. I'm good at that." She added, flipping her phone shut. While everyone else moved off, she and Levitski stayed put in there positions. It felt a tiny bit awkward, and slightly silent. Ellie looked up at Levitski then lifted her head back from leaning. "So... Hi." Ellie said. "Name's Ellie..." She awaited an answer from the officer, hoping he wouldn't be an unsociable man and could at least strike up an conversation with him.

"May I join you in your search downstairs?" She asked Peter. Personally, she prefers the light over the dark but in this case it was the dark over the light. She holds up her tool box. "I'm not sure if i'm able to help or not but i'm electrical engineer. I will be glad to help if need be."

St. Albert's Catholic Church, Basement Level

Will rolled his eyes at the people talking at him and volunteering him to explore the place. “I’ll stay here… in case we get overrun.” He commented though the truth of the matter was that Will didn’t want to make noise and if other people were he wanted to be near an exit. He didn’t care about anybody or anything else other than survival.

Looking up to Henry and Fleur, “You two be careful up there.”

Peter Simpson sighed at Will as he shuffled his hands in his pockets before looking to Matthew and Connie. “Good thinking, kid.” He stated as the comment about using the laptops light was better than anything he had. The only flashlight he could recall himself having had died about a week back and that was in his car a few miles down so it was good that they had somebody thinking of light.

Turning his glance to Connie, he smiled widely. While she was useful, the power was dead in the entirety of downtown right now so Peter wasn’t sure how much she could be utilized. But he liked the company for sure. “Let’s go take a look then.”

It was then the three would go into the dark basement to make out a desk and a radio of somesort. Peter was thankful, though it seemed that the radio had a distinct lack of ‘working’ when they approached it. The desk outside of that was filled with some shipping manifests as well as an old broom leaning against it. Otherwise it looked like most of the basement had been ransacked: the drawers and file cabinets were empty of useful tools and there were no batteries to be found or anybody alive… or dead.

“Damn it, it’s broken.” Peter sighed before he looked over to Connie and handed her the radio; “Is there a way you can fix this thing?”

In the dark, even with the laptop light would make it difficult to do anything with the radio.

---

St. Albert's Catholic Church, Main Floor

Richard Levitski kept his wits about himself as he looked to Ellie. This is why he wanted to become a police officer—protecting people. “Richard… my names Richard.” He divulged, earlier he had only been designated as ‘Officer Levitski’ but here he gave his name out to the girl, maybe to reassure her or simply because in high school he was never any good with girls. It was no different now, even with his police academy training and the week of duty he had gone through—that same knot he’d feel in his stomach was present now.

“You don’t have to worry about anything.”

Whilst Officer Levitski talked to the girl, Will on the other hand was going through the motions of the church itself—double checking the bathrooms for any sort of items—but the only thing he found was a matchbox and a glass cup; he took the matchbox.

“Checking out the Kitchen, Levitski.” Will said with a complete lack of care.

“Alright, be on alert.” Levitski said as he diverted his attention from Ellie for a brief moment.

As Will passed by one of the women—the scientist girl who had commented earlier, he spoke again. “Keep an eye on the windows, we need to pay attention if anything is coming.” The comment felt more of an order as he passed her and went into the Church’s kitchen area.

Ellie got up, revealing her small stature to Richard. "Also, due to me being Tiny I can fit into small spaces." She said, looking up at Richard. Everyone to Ellie were either giants or same size as her. While being hard to reach things and places, Ellie can fit into tiny spaces and cracks. She was practically an adult inside a Tiny Child's body, but didn't look that much like a child. Ellie checked her phone again for any texts, Nothing. She was worrying a little more. She was nervous for her Dad especially. "God damn it dad..." Ellie muttered, closing her phone. Ellie turned her head outside to seen the destroyed city that was Parris. "What the hell happened?" Ellie asked herself, staring out at what is now hell.