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Subject: [UW!] The Agent
From: Michael Schmidt mikeauto@execpc.com
Date: Fri, 03 September 1999 03:22 AM EDT
Message-id: <7qnt7s$89n@newsops.execpc.com>
Too many things were happening too fast. Agent Davin Essburke had
just gotten off the phone with one of his fellow agents, Seth Mackenzen.
The man's voice had a slight touch of fear and sickness when he told
Dave that at least a dozen people had been murdered at Raccoon Retreat,
the resort area somewhat near the old site of the Arklay Mansion. Damn,
couldn't the problems around that site just dissappear? The stress of
the moment was too great for him, and he furiously massaged his temples.
He knew he must've looked like crap--his black suit was all wrinkled,
but he could care less. All of these problems posed far too many
questions about Umbrella's competence.
Out of nervousness, he began to arrange the incoming reports around
his desk. Reports of zombie dogs. One report of a supposedly dead human
being rising up and attacking someone. The dozen or so missing people.
And now these murders. According to the report that was brought to him,
they had been chopped into chunky kibbles. And that led him to think
that Umbrella may have had a slip-up in their security department. Hmm,
Dave thought, their new specimens must've proved too much to handle. He
had been informed that within the past few months, the mansion site had
been excavated, revealing a chamber of the underground lab that had not
been crushed beneath the rubble. Luckily for Umbrella, the chamber
contained embryos of certain B.O.W.'s that were seemingly hard to
replicate. With the notes made by Birkin lost in the decimation of his
lab last year, the company made poor attempts at restructuring some of
the specimens. At one of the new research facilities he visited about 7
months back, he had seen some of these miserable creatures.
He was escorted to the holding area by a nameless Umbrella guard
wearing the standard gas mask and heavy armor. When he reached the
holding pens, there were about 15 creatures in the heavily-barred cages.
The Ma-121's were very sickly and weak; most of them lied inert on the
dirty floors of their cages. Some seemed to be nearing death. Davin
recalled their unearthly screams of anguish as they writhed about on the
floor; he shuddered at its memory. The first new generation of Hunters
(the apt designation of the Ma-121's) was a total disappointment to
Umbrella. As he crossed over to the other side of the room, he came upon
the Ma-2's. Unlike the 121's, the Chimeras were unbelievably active.
Some were thrashing around in their steel barred cages, screeching and
making quite a rattle. It looked as if they had mutilated themselves
with the long, serrated claw located on their right hand. One of the
keepers said it was quite a fearful struggle keeping them fed. But he
would not be doing any of that today. He certainly did not want to see
them eat.
As he continued down the row of mentally deficient mesh monkeys, he
found one that seemed to be fine when he approached it. The creature was
standing straight up on its hind legs, wobbling, and staring straight
forward with its empty eyes. He had always noticed something about the
Chimeras: they were the only creature that Umbrella had made that
actually scared him. The Hunters? They were just overgrown lizards. The
Lickers? They were quite an aesthetic piece of work, but nothing close
to this. The Chimera continued to stare, and then moved toward the bars
of the cage chittering. Davin let out a short yelp, but restrained
himself and began to move back nearer the wall. As he turned his head
away from the curious beast, he decided he had seen enough failures and
gestured to the Umbrella Guard to unlock the door; he was going to
leave. As he walked toward the guard, who had his back to him, he heard
an electronic hiss. It seemed out of place, but he figured it must just
be a door opening elsewhere in the building. Not in this room. No. He
dismissed the idea.
When he heard the thing shriek, he turned around and saw it leaping
towards him. The next events happened so fast, within seconds, but he
remembered every detail. The thing swiping its claw at him in mid-swing.
The claw connecting and tearing off a good-sized chunk of his left
bicep. The thing's weight crashing into him as it knocked him down. Its
fetid stench of decay hanging over him as it screamed its cry of
victory. The small yellow teeth and the blood-rimmed ghostly eyes that
were nearing his own face. And finally the hail of machinegun fire that
ended the creature's life in a torrent of blood.
Its final scream repeated in his mind as he was rushed through the
steel hallways to the infirmary by the guard who saved his life. And in
the aftermath of it all, he had learned that it happened because of a
downed security breaker. Security never seemed to be something Umbrella
was proficient in.
He sighed as he snapped back to real life and felt the indent in his
arm that the Chimera had left him. A gory parting present. But he
shouldn't be concentrating on the past, no. He should be reviewing his
mission: to deter anyone from visiting the site of the Arklay Mansion.
He wasn't sure why he was assigned this task; he just followed orders.
He had heard various rumors, such as the possibility of a new, rebuilt
underground lab that was researching B.O.W.'s. He'd also heard that
something else important besides the embryos had been found there, and
they didn't want anyone to know about it.
And something had happened in Raccoon Forest. Certainly, the
creatures who did this couldn't be from the mansion incident--he was
sure they'd be long dead. So what caused this atrocity at Raccoon
Retreat? They couldn't have been done by the Ma-39's; the bodies were in
too many pieces. The Tyrants, Lickers, Ivies, and other mutations were
also unlikely culprits. No, work like that was done by either Hunters or
Chimeras. Oh God, he thought to himself, why does Umbrella let these
things slip? Next thing you know, zombies will be repopulating Raccoon.
Now that would be horrible. But the monsters who did this are horrible
enough. He took another look at his arm and shuddered.
Suddenly, the phone rang at his desk. "Hello?" Davin said, the words
sounding hollow in his plain, empty office.
A deep, unwavering voice responded. "Mr. Essburke?" Davin was aware
this was his boss from Umbrella.
"Yes sir?"
"Based on the records you obtained from Raccoon Resort, not everyone
was killed at the forest resort. We believe someone has survived."
Davin knew this situation well. In Umbrella's dirty work, survivors
who had seen something they shouldn't were terminated. In this case, he
knew there could be a risk the person who escaped had found the ruins of
the mansion, or somehow linked Umbrella to the attacking creatures. "Who
is it?"
His boss paused. "It is a young girl." As the man described her,
Dave felt rather insulted to even look for her. If the dogs hadn't
killed her yet, the hunters would. Why should he be sent out to do this?
But he remembered the girl who survived the old, decaying Raccoon...
Sherry, was it? I guess if one can do it, another one might be able to.
And why should he complain? The pay was fantastic.
He cackled to himself as he responded to the Umbrella man. "Yes sir.
Should I head out to the area around the resort?"
"No. Wait a day or two. See if the girl resurfaces. If she does, get
a record of the police investigation and try to follow her. If she
doesn't resurface, search for her corpse."
"Yes, sir. I'll do that, sir." Davin said with a tone of confidence.
"Good." The phone clicked off. The lone Umbrella agent in the FBI
branch of Raccoon hung up and sighed. He himself hoped the girl would
make it out of the woods. Whatever was in those woods he could probably
handle, true. But if there turned out to be Chimeras... Davin sighed
again and unholstered his AMT Bull's-Eye Target. He gazed at it with
longing, as if it were his only friend in the world. And if he were to
go into the forest, it would be. For now, he told himself, watch and
wait. Watch and wait...
Ok, that was my first ever posted fanfic. Please give me some feedback,
like things I should be doing better, technical problems, etc... thanks
for putting up with me.