Patient Zero

Bernard Collin was a single father, working at one of the factories in the outskirt of Raccoon City. He didn't make a lot of money out of it, but it was still good enough to support his little family's livelihood.

His job pushed him to work under pressure, so he would release some pent-up stress at the nearby bar before going to sleep. He just had a few drinks and chatted with his co-workers or friends.

He lived on the north side of Raccoon City, the downtown area. He carefully opened the door and locked it as to not wake his only son up. Next week, his son would turn 9 years old. Bernard had saved up enough money to buy him a gift and toss a little barbeque party.

His throat felt dry and he decided to relieve it before going to bed. He went to the kitchen and get a glass of water from the sink.

"Ahh... that was a lot better," he said.

He then went to his son's bedroom and watched him sleeping. The son that was smaller than his arm when he was born, now could pack a bit of a punch when they play.

Bernard was happy, even though his wife passed away to give birth to his son. The kid also grew to be a cheerful one, with a lot of friends in school and cares about those around him. He was pretty proud as a father. He raised his son in the right way.

"Good night, Michael," he said and kissed his son's forehead.

He went to his bedroom and sleep. The same also happened around Raccoon City. Its citizens, one by one turned off the lights as they close their eyes to a deep slumber, not knowing that tomorrow might have been their last to open their eyes... as a human.

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"C'mon... C'mon... C'mon..."

I was being restless inside the elevator. It was taking too long to reach the surface, longer than I expected.

Ding!

When the door slide and separated, I rushed out and find out where I was right now. The Delta team or Wolfpack, also nowhere to be seen. All I could see was the reflection of the full moon on the surface of Victory Lake and the faraway buildings on the west side. This place was a bit far from the Water Treatment Plant but it was still within the estimated distance.

10 minutes was all I need to arrive there. I sat on top of a nearby tree and observed it. It was so silent. It felt like nobody was inside. Well, it might make things easier.

'What should I do now?'

I could have just demolished the pipelines or the tanks where they store the water in. But, is it feasible? That was all I could think of. Well, whatever I would do, I have to enter this facility as well.

Suddenly, I heard a static sound from the intercom, "Killswitch, you there?"

It was Nick Fury. I replied, "I'm on position, but what should I do now? Do I just demolish everything?"

"You can't. That place was too close to Victory lake and the river. You need to get in and reverse the pipe's flow first. What's the situation?"

"I don't know. It was eerily silent. Maybe they were already done in by Umbrella's Secret Service (U.S.S)."

"It's possible. Black Widow and Hawkeye would arrive at your position soon, you can switch to the second channel to talk to them."

"Alright. I'll contact you once I'm done."

I switched to the second channel and said, "Killswitch here."

"We're almost there, wait for us at the gate." it was a woman's voice, Natasha's voice.

I started to jump off the tree and walked to the gate. When I checked the security post, I found the two dead bodies. Just like I thought, the U.S.S. did their job properly. If only there wasn't a mishap in their mission, forcing them to abandon the facility altogether, they might have been able to clean their traces.

"All's clean. No need to be on guard." I said on the intercom.

Not long after, a black sedan arrived behind me. Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow and Clint Burton aka Hawkeye had arrived. Natasha wore a black tight-skin suit, a pair of black boots, and a pair of electroshock bracelets. There were also two pistols strapped on both of her thighs.

Clint came out from the driver seat. He wore black pants, a pair of boots, and a bulletproof vest over his T-shirt with a bow and a quiver full of arrows on his back. They were really made for infiltration mission.

"So here's the prodigy that Nick bragged about? Are you really an 8 years-old?" asked Natasha, a bit curious.

"Impressive, right?" said Clint from the sidelines. I also puffed my chest a little bit, feeling a bit proud.

"Well, I started killing when I was five, so I don't know what normal people would rate it, but still commendable though," she said while ruffling my hair.

"Stop teasing him, Nat. Look, the kid got scared," said Clint. And yes, I was terrified.

"I'm just kidding. Relax," she said while winking. I didn't know what to feel about that, so I started telling them the situation to change the subject moved inside.

The whole facility was left empty. The staff either had fled or dead by now, so there was no resistance along the way. The only struggle we had was finding the control room.

After switching the water flow to reverse, we started waiting until it was completely drained. I prayed that it could somehow ease or even solve the problem.

But I know it wasn't that simple. Who would have known that right now, at this moment, there was a person who was bitten by a stray rat a few minutes ago, running inside the forest? He then tripped on a pebble and fell on the river, which would take him straight toward Raccoon City.

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Wednesday, September 23rd.

And morning then came. I woke up around 7 AM, staring at the ceilings for a while.

Last night, I went straight home after reversing the water flows. Natasha brought me home and went back to the facility along with some SHIELD agents. They decided to force their way into NEST and get any evidence they could get their hands on to support their case. I gave Natasha the Universal Card that one of the deceased U.S.S. members held in his pocket. I picked it up when I was checking the Alpha Team's body.

They were successful in getting inside and took a lot of research data and security camera recordings. However, they couldn't stay for too long because the mutated William Birkin was still roaming around. Two of SHIELD's agent also become a victim of his attack. Natasha and Clint had a hard time fending off William, but thankfully they were not wounded in any way.

An announcement also had been made since last night. Police Patrol cars were delivering warnings until now, ordering the citizens to not consume tap water for the moment. Anyone who did had to visit Raccoon General Hospital immediately. Local TV stations also started broadcasting the announcement.

There was no further information about what was happening, the mayor only said that there was a chemical leakage contaminating the lake. The citizens felt uneasy and worried. For safety reasons, Chief Brian Irons assigned police squads to patrol the city now and then, adding oil to the fire. The citizens felt more anxious.

Surprisingly, Umbrella didn't make a move toward SHIELD's sudden involvement. Either they didn't know, or they were just too busy scrambling around to fix the mess they had last night.

"Fuck!" I finally couldn't hold myself from cursing. Regina didn't comment on my word either because she also felt the same as me.

I was still laying on the bed while staring at the ceiling. But I wasn't cursing because there was a spider on the ceilings, no, it was much worse.

In front of me was the familiar blue tab, decorated with golden letters that I hated the most.

<Congratulations! You receive a Quest!>

<Survive the Demise of Raccoon City.>

<Any creature that was deemed as part of the Quest will grant EXP for the user.>

<Failure Conditions:

1. Death.

2. Escaping the city before the event officially ended.>

<Rewards:

1. 1 Random Special Ability

2. 1 Random Item.>

====

<Optional Objective 1 -Save more than 50% of Raccoon City's citizens.>

<Reward: Random Item or Special Ability>

====

<Optional Objective 2 - Find the complete evidence of how Raccoon City met its demise.>

<Reward: Random Item or Special Ability>

====

<Optional Objective 3 - Save Raccoon City from total destruction.>

<Reward: Random Item or Special Ability>

====

Damn it! It was fucking mocking me, right? The damn Gods must have been laughing from his chair. My effort was still lacking in their eyes, I guess.

"Ahh fuck it! I don't care, just throw everything to me!" I got up and walked to the living room. Aunt Claire was watching TV, and Chris went out early in the morning. He might have to go to the Police Department, questioning the sudden announcement from last night.

"Good morning, Edward. Do you sleep well?" asked Aunt Claire, worries painted her face. She made a simple breakfast and avoid using tap water. This was also the first time she allowed me to have Coke on breakfast. Yay!

"Don't use any of the tap water, okay? It seemed the city's water supply got contaminated," she explained. While I started grabbing the food, she continued, "oh, your school also called earlier. They said that today you would go to Raccoon Zoo for a field trip. Exciting, isn't it?"

A field trip? That came out of nowhere. Well, it wasn't bad though. I always wanted to visit the Zoo but never had the chance to.

I just nodded excitedly, while moving my eyes toward the TV. The newscaster was delivering the news about the "chemical" leakage. The mayor started to make excuses, trying to shove the responsibility toward his subordinate while putting himself on the pedestal promising to get the perpetrator punished.

Well, good luck with that. By now, Umbrella would have shoved him with a pile of cash to make him shut up.

Next on the local news, the newscaster covered info about several aggressive attacks among the citizens, resulting in their victim to be hospitalized. According to the news, the attackers seemed to be out of their minds or high on drugs.

There were also other attacks, resulting in cannibalism, the newscaster started assuming that the perpetrators were part of a cult and deeply condemned their wrongdoings.

After I was done with my breakfast, a knock was heard from the front door. I become vigilant as Claire went to see who it was. Once the door opened, I heard a familiar voice. It was Natasha's.

"Good Morning! My name is Sarah, Edward's teacher." she greeted with a bright smile while showing her school ID's. She also appeared with a bulging tummy, staying true to her disguise. If I didn't know her, I might have also been fooled by her.

"Good Morning. My name's Claire, Edward's Aunt. What can I do for you, Mrs. Sarah?" she asked.

"I'm here to pick Edward. Did you got the call before?"

"Oh, yes. But, we can just go straight to the Zoo. You don't have to visit us like this." answered, Claire. She felt bad because of my "teacher's" pregnant tummy.

"Oh it's okay Miss Claire, the headmaster was worried because of the current situation. He asked the teachers to personally visit their students' house." explained, Natasha.

After a bit of a chat, I disappointingly packed my bag and went with Natasha. Claire saw my downed expression when I went down the elevator.

"Hmm... Edward seemed to hate going to the Zoo," she muttered while closing the apartment's door.

15 minutes later, we arrived in front of a hotel. Nick Fury didn't have to hide anymore and could start an official investigation. He had evidence to help him stand his grounds. The government wouldn't have a reason to stop him. Unless they wanted to gain the irk of some high powered officials.

"What's up, Nick. I didn't expect you to even trick my Aunt just to meet me." I said, greeting the shiny head.

"Well, partially. It was just perfect that your school scheduled a visit to the Zoo," he replied while his subordinates were busy running around in the big hall.

"Wait! It was real!? What the fuck, Nick! I was supposed to be in the Zoo...!" I complained.

"Haha... I don't care!" he said while chuckling.

"Damn it, Nick. I'm only 8 years old. This is a very fragile time of my life."

"Well, it's a very fragile time of my life too," he said with a mocking voice. "Listen, I need you and Clint to start taking down those mutated civilians. I don't want them to spread further to the uptown."

"Fine! But you must make an official statement." I said while taking out a golden paper from my pocket. It was the Mercenary's Mission agreement. Anything written in it would become an official document after the contractor and mercenary both signed on it.

The Mission, Reward, and Punishment in case of breach of contract would be absolute. Besides that, I could get EXP and Mercenary points as a reward. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone.

"Man. Are you being serious?"

"I told you, didn't I? I wanted us to stay professional." I said.

"Okay, fine. Just do a good job." answered, Nick, while scribbling on the paper. After we both signed on the paper, it turned into light and vanish. Damn it, how do I explain it?

Thankfully, Nick didn't ask anything anymore and proceed to give me information. The currently confirmed locations were mostly from the Downtown area, the northernmost part.

A fisherman was bitten when a zombie suddenly pounced on him, causing him to bleed profusely. He was brought home, but after an hour, the fisherman also attacked his family. Now the whole family started to attack his neighbor.

Hawkeye and some SHIELD agents already went there to contain the outbreak, but the situation seemed to be a lot worse than they thought. My task was to back them up and do whatever I can to minimalize the death toll.

However, before I go, I asked Nick to give me a copy of the NEST's Security recordings and some of Umbrella's data.

"What are you going to do with it?" he asked.

"You said you want Umbrella to crumble to pieces? I'll help you hasten it. Just call it a bonus service." I said while smirking.

Nick gave me the whole copy. It didn't matter to whose hand it would fell, as it didn't contain any information about how to develop the virus, but only affirming their existence. The security camera also only recorded the attack U.S.S. operational did last night.

I went on my way toward the Continental and called for a meeting with Emma Farlene, the Branch owner. Currently, we were inside her office, but this time John Wick wasn't here to accompany me. This was the first time I did business by myself, but I wasn't worried. Emma Farlene was my mom's friend, she was very nice and approachable. I also knew that she was secretly helping me in hiding my identity. Even approving my use of the VIP section on the Continental's shop.

She sipped her coffee and asked, "What is with this sudden meeting, Edward?"

"I need your help, Mrs. Emma," I said.

"Hmm? Did the equipment broke or something? Did you need to use our service?"

"It wasn't that, Mrs. Emma. I wanted you to buy my information, and sell it to some particular people."

"Oh ho...? Who would you have in mind?" she asked, curiously.

"Well, there's three that have in mind for now. The first one is, Alexander Pierce, then the High Table, and then the last, Umbrella's rival, the Stark Industries."