From: Macaw

Subject: [UW!] The beginning of the end....

Date: Sunday, September 12, 1999 11:54 PM

Heather's eyes slowly opened as she awoke, and she shook her head groggily as the small action shot pain through her head. It took her a second to remember and then she sat up straightaway looking around her wildly expecting to be shot at again.

"Heather!" Tailor exclaimed and leapt up, hugging her to himself. If anybody had seen his face at that time they would have seen him struggle to hold back the tears that where in the corners of his eyes, "I'm so glad you're okay."

"I'd be offended if you wouldn't, " Heather told him with a mischievous grin.

He laughed, and the others ran in from the waiting room.

"Well it's about time you woke up sleepy head," Skyler said standing next to her bed.

Cries of "Heather!" and "You're all right!" filled the air as the others followed him into the room.

A nurse entered, "Glad to see you're awake, miss," she said.

"Me too," Heather said simply.

"Look!" Cassandra cried as she ran in with a newspaper. "...Heather! You're awake!" Cassandra said noticing for the first time that the young girl was sitting up in her bed.

"I've already been told that a few hundred times," Heather replied. "What's wrong," she asked looking at the copy of Cityside that was slightly crumpled in Cassandra's fist.

"More murders in Raccoon Forest," Cassandra said and silence followed her words. "You mean..." Heather managed to say.

"The monsters," Cassandra finished, "are back."


The Blackhawk helicopters skimmed over the treetops in the early morning of the next day. The pines waved and bowed under the wind force of the thumping helicopter blades as the morning mist started to evaporate.

Skyler yelled to Heather, "See if you can see anything unusual!" The forest was a sea of lumpy greens and browns.

Heather scanned it with her binoculars, a sniper rifle slung over her back. She couldn't see anything except trees...and a dog.

"DOG!" Heather screamed.

The pilot immediately hovered as close to the canopy as he could, keeping the buffeting aircraft as still as possible, as Heather aimed.

Tailor took her binoculars and refocused them spotting the skinned, blood red hide of the dog. Heather fired the .30-06 that Skyler had dug up for her. He had gotten it from an old Army buddy. It had a recoil compensation spring and pad in the butt-stock to keep Heather from being knocked on her ass, knocking the dog over, but it clambered up again.

"Aim for the head!" Tailor yelled over the thumping of the rotors.

Heather nodded and did so and fired twice more, knocking the dog over again. This time it didn't move.

On the other side of the helicopter Skyler had his own problems as he spotted one of the green creatures, brought the Weatherby .456 that he was using up and fired once, hitting the creature and knocking it over on to its back.

Seeming confused it leapt back up onto its legs and let out its coughing puma like shriek. Skyler fired three more times putting all three rounds into the back of its spade shaped head in a triangular pattern.

He saw through the scope, as it was hit, the grown greys and reds gushing out of the three holes.

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed getting a sense of satisfaction out of taking the horrid creature down.


For the next four days the Forest was alive with the sound of gunfire, the wind of rotor blades, the stench of death, gunsmoke and JP fuel fumes as the few people who knew what was really going on scoured the forest in the five Blackhawk helicopters that they had borrowed from the surrounding Sheriff's departments.

The group spent the next four days searching the forest in five helicopters. At the end of the long siege on the forest the toll had risen to 105 creatures, 28 dogs, 30 green-mottled creatures, and 47 assorted mutants -some of which none of them wanted to remember the looks of.

The next day most of the people on Umbrella's hit list save for a few were gathered in Tailor's office.

"I can't believe we killed that many," Charlie said awed.

"And there are without a doubt many more," Tailor said sighing, his face etched with a grim expression as he tried to massage away the headache that was forming in his temples.

"Damn!" Skyler said vehemently and slammed a balled fist against the desk he was sitting at.

Heather sat quietly and watched it all, thinking.

"Where did they come from?" Cassandra wondered.

"Probably from the mansion that was blown up, where the Retreat is now," Heather said.

"What's the old Arklay Mansion got to do with anything?" Charlie asked, confused.

"A lot, I finally found some files that the STARS had tucked away in their office and Heather and I skimmed through them," Jessie explained to Charlie, laying a hand on his leg and giving him a winning smile.

"What did you find out?" Trooper Norris asked.

"It seems Umbrella had a hidden lab there and that Captain Albert Wesker was a traitor," Heather said piping in.

"Why am I not surprised Umbrella is behind all this?" Sam Jackson asked darkly.

"They can take quite a punch, can't they?" mused Sam Forbes, rubbing his tired eyes. Like the others he had spent very little time sleeping of late and with having to worry about his mother's disappearance the toll was starting to show on him.

"Yeah," Skyler answered darkly, "Just imagine what would happen if they came into the city."

"No thanks," Damon said not even wanting to think about that possibility.

Fuller just stood in a corner of the room looking sullen. "Look, right now our priority is to..." Tailor stopped talking as the phone rang. Everyone looked at it.

"Just answer it!" snapped Heather, exasperated by the adult's paranoia.

Tailor picked up the phone and answered, "Hello? Yes, speaking.... what?! Shit!" he said disgustedly and slammed the phone down. The others looked at him questioningly.

"That was just one of my officers that patrols the airport. It seems like a Russian Condor just landed there," Tailor said.

"What's a Condor?" Sam asked.

"One of the world's largest cargo transportation planes. The Russian military used to use them to carry tanks and heavy artillery all over the place," Skyler explained.

"Why am I not liking this?" Vasquez said worriedly.

"That's not all," Tailor said, "it seems he asked a few questions. Umbrella has pulled a few strings with the military getting permission to do some training with on of their UBCT teams in the Forest. The officer also told me he spotted two dozen men, a butt load of ammo and weapons as well as what looked like several flamethrowers."

"Aw shit," Skyler said.

"Oh no," Charlie whispered.

"What's wrong?" Fuller asked confused.

"If they use those flamethrowers in the Forest, they could well start a forest fire," Damon explained.

"So?" Fuller asked.

"That would drive the monsters right into our laps," Norris finished for Damon, exasperated at Fuller's stupidity.

The others were digesting that information when Damon's cell phone rang.

"Agent Damon," he said into the phone and after a few seconds of listening, "Yeah, well you can kiss my ass," He listened for a few more seconds. "Yeah well you can't fire me because I quit," Damon said and slapped the flip shut on the phone, putting it back into his pocket.

"What the hell was that all about," Skyler asked?

"Oh they wanted me to return to the office with our win Oregon, so I quit," Damon explained.

"I think it's time we had another conversation ould-be assassin," Skyler said getting up out of the desk chair and grabbing his car keys.