One of the directors responsible for the operations at one of Umbrella Corporation's secret bases arrived there after receiving a strange call from his subordinates. John Raze was prepared for anything: the base was testing a wide variety of experimental models of the T-virus, so a reinforced squad of two and a half dozen thugs shielded their boss with reliable vigilance. But contrary to his fears, he was greeted by his own employees — not as zombies or mutants, but ordinary humans, very much alive.
John allowed himself a brief sigh of reliefand relax. But only for a moment, and only until he was shown the reason for the call… or rather, the consequences of that "reason."
"How? The dead haven't shown such abilities before. And breaking in not to devour the living, but from the object, is strange, to say the least, for the infected individual," he muttered, carefully reviewing the video recording of the incident. On the screen, scientists were administering a series of injections to a man restrained in a metal chair — the restraints built directly into its frame. This method had long been standard procedure, and even Tyrants had been unable to break free. Yet this infected subject, who had barely changed under the virus's influence, managed to do what had previously seemed impossible.
"His characteristics have improved in ways we don't yet understand, but even now, according to preliminary analyses, subject HiF-05 is head and shoulders above the Tyrants. As for his intelligence… we used some unconventional methods to introduce the virus. And the injections weren't done with the T-virus itself, but with an analogue developed by our colleague — the G-virus — which already contained the T-virus embedded within it, implanted before freezing fifteen years ago. It was supposed to thaw upon contact with our G-virus analogue," one of the scientists explained. He was sweating profusely and constantly paused to take a sip of water.
John grimaced in irritation at the professor's behavior. Unfortunately for Raze, this scientist was irreplaceable; his knowledge was still too valuable to the company. Otherwise the ambitious director would have removed this fanatic from science long ago and replaced him with someone more loyal and controllable.
"What exactly were the characteristics of these viruses? And what came of the experiment? I can't understand much from the camera recordings alone," he asked, frowning.
"Our colleague," the scientist began, glancing briefly at the graying professor standing closest to the door and displaying military bearing, unlike the rest of his colleagues, "suggested injecting the virus along with the blood of infected individuals. And given the G-virus's tendency to be transmitted through saliva (and apparently someone here had watched too many horror movies) which we still managed to recreate, he used bats as the primary test subjects. Both dead and living specimens. While the dead specimen turned into a completely normal corpse, as has been confirmed many times in other animal species, the living specimen began to mutate. Dealing with them wasn't difficult, so the infected genes extracted from them were tested on five volunteers from among the contract workers."
At this point, John allowed himself a small smile. Yes, the contractors, those who signed a contract with the corporation to provide their services as "guinea pigs" at the very beginning of Umbrella's release. At that time, no one knew what was being developed in Umbrella's laboratories. And more than twenty years later, the corporation still kept these volunteers in cryogenic suspension.
"More specifically, Professor: what kind of volunteers were they? Or rather — what did they contain? And why am I seeing only one recording? Where are the other four samples?" Raze asked gloomily, watching the scientist once again reach nervously for a bottle of water.
"Two of them contained the frozen T-virus. The other two were injected with a second dose of the T-virus before the procedure, and the last one was injected with the G-virus. The last three couldn't handle it and died of heart failure — but strangely enough, they didn't turn into zombies.
The first two, who already had the virus in 'sleep mode,' were injected with both variants of the resulting hybrid. At first, everything progressed the same as with the other three. But at some point, the destructive processes began to slow down, and eventually almost stopped. Still, the two subjects didn't survive — their hearts also failed at the last moment."
He paused, swallowing.
"So, the behavior of the subject shown in the recordings seems even stranger. While its counterpart simply died without showing any signs of change, HiF-05 raised his head again after a couple of seconds — even though his heart had not resumed beating. The first thing we noticed was a change in the color of his eyes, and most likely his retina, because he saw us through the one-way mirror… and even spoke perfect Russian... How did it go?"
For the first time, the Russian scientist spoke up, smiling and offering the line his colleague failed to recall.
"'Damn it, Umbrella! I'm screwed — in every possible way! I need to get out of here!'" he quoted with amusement.
"But the test subject spoke for a minute and a half!" one of the scientists behind him protested. Their Russian colleague only smiled mysteriously, unwilling to repeat the uncensored version of the subject's monologue.
"Yes, yes, that's how it went. Then he growled (!) and jerked upright, ripping the chair off the floor. With the chair still on his back and lower body, he rushed toward the wall… though you've seen that on the recording.
We took the liberty of calling you because the infected dogs — the ones with explosive devices implanted — sent after him were destroyed, and two of them seemed to have been completely eaten. The subject has left our area of responsibility," the scientist finished under John's furious stare.
"And you kept quiet about it?! That's what you should have started with! What if he moves toward Raccoon City? The operation to capture the original G-virus is about to begin there. It may be several hundred kilometers away, but if the target left your area even before your call — and judging by the surveillance timestamps — he could already be near the city, if not inside it.
And despite the blockade of the city itself, the surrounding areas have not been fully evacuated. (Even if that's not my problem, I don't want to breed more samples)
And yes — you said you set the dogs on him? How do other infected individuals react to him?" John asked, calming down and returning to a businesslike tone as he typed quickly on his PDA.
"Ordinary undead ignore him, but animals perceive him as extremely aggressive. Perhaps animal instincts — heightened by the virus — allow them to identify him as a threat," the scientist replied, shuddering under his superior's gaze.
"Understood. Then send a squad to eliminate him. I've already issued the order myself.
Now, indulge my curiosity: what's the name of this subject? HiF-05? And you said he spoke Russian? Was he Russian when alive?" John asked, surprised, staring at the features of the black-haired man who, once again on the recording, was smashing through a concrete wall with his back — still strapped to the chair.
"No. He was a pure-blooded German and didn't know a word of Russian. We have already checked the available questionnaire and data on this sample. As for the name… I don't know."
The scientists exchanged awkward glances. They couldn't admit that their colleague, as the "discoverer," had proudly named all five test subjects Hedgehog in the Fog — hence the abbreviation HiF.
"And don't destroy him! We've tried to reproduce the results, but nothing worked. We need him here, at the base — preferably intact. Otherwise we may lose a promising direction in the virus's development," the scientist added absent-mindedly, forgetting once more who stood before him.
His remark earned a thoughtful look from his superior, who seemed to be deciding what to do with this fanatic. But John nonetheless updated his order to the squad — transforming the elimination mission into a capture operation.