Chapter Text
By the time she arrived in Wrenwood, it was almost 10 p.m., and the local police department had already cordoned off the area from the general public. But still, she couldn't shake off the chill that suddenly hit her the moment she stepped into the small district.
Claire glances at the hastily closed shops, remains of wrecked cars and whatnot left abandoned on the streets after the incident earlier this evening, as well as the few rescue team vehicles parked all over the area. She stared at the workers carefully moving the bodies of the many infected into specialised trucks, and wordlessly shook her head.
It was like she was back in Racoon City that fateful night all those years ago. The only difference between Racoon City and Wrenwood was the fact that this place wasn't engulfed in flames.
She never thought she'd be seeing these kinds of 'scenery' again after so long. It made her wonder who could have caused such an incident here so randomly... what's their purpose?
"Claire! Over here—"
Claire turned around and saw Parker Luciani standing beside one of the trucks that was used to collect the remaining bodies as she ran up towards the man.
"It's a T-virus infection, we've already confirmed it—'" said Parker as Claire frowned at the man.
"Have we determined the source of the infection? Were they bitten or—"
Parker shook his head as he turned towards one of the bodies piled nearby and carefully lifted a headless infected body so that it showed its exposed back. Claire leaned over to take a closer look before frowning at the sight. It was faint, but... she could clearly see a tiny needle mark on the dead infected.
Claire took another look at the other bodies collected and noticed that some had bite marks on vital areas.
"What about those other bodies with the bite marks? Were there any traces of the T-virus on them or not?"
Parker shrugged again. "No, there weren't any. Those bodies seemed to have died from blood loss instead." The older man cocked his head towards her as Claire frowned.
"You know something, don't you, Claire?"
Claire let out a small sigh. "I'm not sure... but this looked similar to an incident from about 10 years ago. Back then, there were some unexplained cases of outbreaks and deaths, and those victims had similarities with the ones here."
She shrugged. "Rebecca determined that it was an advanced strain of the T-virus, and we later found out that someone was creating biodrones that can be used to infect anyone they choose." Claire shook her head.
"But that's... no way something like that is happening again right now. Back then, we already destroyed every trace of Antonio Taylor's research on the biodrones in Alcatraz... as well as the biodrones themselves. There's no way someone else could've gotten a hand on those documents and data." Not to mention, Dylan Blake was dead as well as Maria Gomez... and they've determined that those two had been working on their own. So who else could have known about those techs?
Parker sighed as he picked up a small glass box nearby. "You're maybe right. Someone else must've had the same idea as the ones you guys faced before." The man passed the small glass box to Claire as she stared at it up close. She could barely see the tiny object inside the glass box, but even she could tell what it was. It's a tiny dart needle, no doubt soaked with lethal doses of an advanced strain of T-virus to allow one to conveniently administer any shots that'll turn anyone into mindless zombies.
Claire glanced again at the bodies as she noticed how cleanly the killing shots were. Straight bullets to the heads, a common weakness for the infected. While there were some shots that had missed or didn't hit the mark perfectly, she could tell that the person who took down the infected victims was someone who had experience with dealing with the zombies. She could almost guess who that was.
"The one who reported this incident and called out the orders to cordon this place, was it a DSO agent?"
Parker stared at her in surprise as he gasped. "Yes, how did you know?" the man asked as Claire let out a soft chuckle.
"That person was most likely my lovely husband, Leon," said Claire in amusement. There's no doubt about it, she knew very well how Leon could handle his guns and how he'd use them against the infected. And she knew too well how powerful a certain gun in her husband's possession was when used by an expert.
Still, it didn't explain why Leon would come to Wrenwood, just as a T-virus outbreak suddenly occurred. She thought that Leon had gone to Elbridge to—Claire suddenly ran up towards an officer as she hurriedly asked, "Before the outbreak, were there any reports of some mysterious death over here or something?"
"Y-yes, there was a body—"
Parker darted over as he grabbed Claire by her shoulder. "Is something wrong?"
Claire sighed at him before shrugging. "I'm not sure. Leon has been investigating a case involving some survivors from Racoon City who have died of mysterious causes. One of those survivors was found dead in Elbridge, which is not far from here."
She turned back towards the officer she just stopped. "Where did the body you said just now was found?"
The officer turned around and started pointing towards a row of buildings from the other side of the road. "It's at the rundown building over there, that place used to be a hotel eight years ago—"
Claire suddenly let go of the officer's arm as if she had just been electrocuted.
"No way! There's an infected body... at the old Wrenwood Hotel?"
Was it a coincidence... for an outbreak incident to occur, not far from the site where Alyssa Ashcroft had been brutally murdered? Was it by chance that Leon was here just when the attack had occurred? What was the purpose of turning random strangers into mindless undead like this? Was it all connected?
Claire spared a glance at her right forearm for a brief second. She had worn a jacket with longer sleeves to hide it, but even then, she could still see hints of blackened inflammation and marks that had started to appear recently. The same thing had happened to Leon... and she even heard that Sherry had also manifested the same marks on their body. It made her worry that they had somehow contracted something without knowing, but if they got this from something they were already exposed to for so many years ago... then why did it start to manifest now? Why... after so long?
She thought about the many times she was infected with various strains of viruses in the course of dealing with different kinds of incidents involving Umbrella and the other people connected to it. She remembered taking various vaccines to reverse the damage of those different viruses to her body. Back then, those vaccines had worked. Not just for her, but Leon, her brother, Sherry and everyone else that she knows.
Yet, for some reason, the vaccines didn't seem to stop the spread of this current illness they were having. As if... this current infection were resisting the effects of the vaccines.
So did that mean... whatever dormant virus that's still present inside their bodies right now, could it have started to mutate?
What's... gonna happen to them now?
It started one day while she was checking on the records of the surviving victims of bioterror attacks that TerraSave had kept, which led to her finding out that a few of those survivors had died from a mysterious disease. She told Leon about this as she went on to check on the other survivors that she could still locate. At first, she thought that it was just a random occurrence since most of the survivors were still in good health, showing no signs of any illness. But then she noticed something else.
The few people who had died suddenly seemed to have shared something in common. They were survivors of the original outbreak in Racoon City 28 years ago. That couldn't be a coincidence, and Leon seemed to agree as well, and decided to take it on himself to investigate the case.
And not long after, they started seeing strange, darkened marks on different parts of their body. Familiar-looking marks that they remembered seeing on victims of viral bioweapons.
"Something bothering you, Claire?" Parker's voice broke through her line of thoughts as Claire hastily pulled down the sleeve of her jacket to cover the black mark that had almost spread towards the edge of her wrist.
"It's nothing—" Claire quickly deflected, hoping that the older man hadn't noticed the black marks on her forearm. She wouldn't be able to see an end to it should Parker decide to tell Chris what she and Leon had been keeping secret these few days. It's already hard enough to convince Rebecca not to worry about them too much. Parker shrugged before turning around and beckoning to her to follow him into the building. Claire sighed.
She could already imagine how her brother would react if he knew that Leon, Sherry and she had been getting these black marks, and she preferred not to be forced to sit down in some sterilised room waiting for the inevitable.
She'll confront this disease head-on, all on her own terms.
The alarm tone of her phone suddenly rang as Claire took it out to check it. There was a new message from Leon. She opened her inbox as a short message popped up on her screen.
[Something came up. There's something else that I needed to investigate. Don't think I'd be able to come home tonight.]
Claire bit her lips as she quickly typed in her reply.
[Got it. Be careful out there. Please don't overdo it too much.]
As soon as she clicked send, another new reply popped up on her screen. Claire smiled despite herself as she fondly thought about her dear husband.
[Oh, you know me... I'm always careful. Love—]
The message ended abruptly as Claire started to frown. An uneasy feeling of dread started to creep up on her as she quickly shook it off.
Leon should be okay; he should be able to take care of himself just fine. Claire stepped into the lobby of the old Wrenwood hotel, where she was greeted by an overturned trolley as well as some bits and pieces of broken furniture in front of her. Parker was crouching over a small puddle of blood that appeared to be fresh.
Claire took in a long breath to try to steel herself to face whatever it was lying in front of her.
It should be all right.
They were able to survive whatever had happened in the past. They should be able to overcome this obstacle just as they used to.