[center] RESIDENT EVIL: HORIZON OF DESPAIR [/center] [b]Office of Bioterror Security, July 15, 2014, 4:22 AM [/b] 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. --- [b]Above Parris City, 8:32 AM[/b] 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." --- [b]Turledove Apartment Complex; Parris City eastside, 9:00 AM[/b] 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. [i]All lines? Was there some big emergency? Maybe an earthquake hit the area...[/i] 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. --- [b]Office of Bioterror Security 9:55 AM[/b] "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." --- [b]Outside Turtledove Apartments 10:05 AM[/b] 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.