The following story was originally going to be the final chapter of my "Origins of the U.S.F." series. However, I had a few too many ideas for it and liked it too much to cram into one single chapter, so instead it's going to be a standalone story with a few (four or five I'm guessing) chapters.

The story is called "Progenitor" and it takes place near the end of 1996 when HUNK and several other U.S.F. soldiers find themselves in one of their most dangerous incidents yet.

A few interesting things happen in this story. By the end, you'll see my take on why:

1. HUNK earned the nickname "Grim Reaper"
2. Umbrella canned the Progenitor virus for good
3. Umbrella stopped selling to private parties and stuck to reliable clients

Keep in mind it's all a fanfic, and I think of it as such. I hope you guys like it.

01 - VISIONS
14 – 11 – 1996 - PARAÍSO, 80 MILES WEST OF BELEM, BRAZIL

“I still can’t believe it, Victor.” Davi said to the older Police Officer. “You’d think living in the worst place in the country your whole life would make you appreciate your family, but no. It’s the same thing, day after day.”

“I’ve told you. You get used to it.” Victor responded.

Dressed in blue uniforms, the two Brazilians walked side by side towards the apartment complex. They were responding to a routine disturbance call. Probably another husband beating his wife, his kids, whatever he happened to be upset with. His dog, maybe. Victor knew that Davi would turn up like the others, sooner or later. Davi was young and inexperienced. Plus, he was from Belem; a real city. Nobody from a real city could possibly fathom how shitty life was in a favela. Much less the favela to end all favelas: Paraíso. Davi was one of a small handful of Belem Police Officers sent two months ago to battle the growing crime rate in the small town. It wasn’t the first time reinforcements had been driven down the one single road leading through Paraíso, and it wouldn’t be the last. Some turned away the second they arrived in town. Victor never knew what happened to those ones. Some of them tried to do their job and got either injured or killed during one of the occasional drug busts. Some snapped. They lost it. Couldn’t handle the stress, or the trauma or whatever. These guys who thought they’d seen the harsh side of life would come here and get their asses handed to them.

Columbians were a real problem in these parts. Drug trafficking was a problem all over the world, it seemed. In Paraíso, the drug runners knew there was a weak Police Force, and desperate citizens. They would stop in and sell what they could, steal what they thought was worth stealing, and pass on once they got bored. For Victor, being a Police Officer wasn’t about enforcing laws or order. It was about doing what you could to help those around you who were stuck in a dead end shithole – just like he was.

“Get used to it. Right.” Davi said as he opened the door into the complex.

The Officers set foot into a wood and brick building that was laid out more or less like a hotel without a lobby. Though they could hear the residents here and there, nobody that they could see walked the halls. Victor and Davi each carried .357 revolvers. Instinctively, they put their hands on their weapons as they proceeded through the halls.

“They said second floor, right?” Davi asked.

A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the thin walls. There was the sound of commotion for a moment. Not slamming, but shuffling of several feet on the floor above them. The Officers ran for the staircase immediately. The shuffling had already stopped. Davi drew his revolver and locked the hammer back.

“Do you think that was them?!” Davi shouted as he leaped up the stairs two at a time.

“Does it matter?”

The Officers emerged on the second floor. A group of five or six people filled the hallway in front of the door into one of the apartment. Looks of concern were on their faces. A few of them parted at the sight of the Police. Davi and Victor approached them.

“What’s going on here?!” Davi demanded.

“There were screams, we –“ A woman began.

“I know there were screams. Were they from this room?”

The woman nodded, but also shrugged. Davi shook his head and looked to Victor. “Is this the one?” He asked.

Victor glanced at the number on the side of the doorframe and nodded. He drew his own revolver and readied the hammer on it as well. With his free hand, he slammed four time on the old door.

“This is the Police! Open the door!” Victor shouted.

There was no response. Victor could see streams of sweat on Davi’s face already. He nodded briskly to the younger Officer, and threw his weight into the door. The soft wood door gave way with little resistance, and the Officers entered the apartment. The residents stayed back, watching on with both fear and interest.

Curled up in the far corner of the “living room” was a woman. An adult in her mid to late thirties. She had blood running down her left arm from a wound on her clavicle. She was shaking. Once Victor heard her whimper, he recognized her as the one who must have screamed.

“Ma’am. Are you alright?” Victor approached her while Davi looked through the hallway to the bedroom.

“She bit me!” The woman stammered. “My baby! My little baby! Oh God!”

“Who? Ma’am, who bit you?”

She rambled on. Victor could tell that her wound wasn’t bad, but if it really was a bite it would need to be cleaned. Davi was still looking towards the bedroom. The door was shut. A single bloody handprint was smudged near the doorknob. His eyes shifted to Victor. He nodded. Victor returned the motion.

“Stay with her. We’ll take her back and have the doctor look at her wound.”

Victor had seen a lot of shit in his time. A lot of violence. A lot of death. He had seen the after effects of drug overdosing, rape, brutal murder, animal attacks, and everything else godforsaken on the planet, he figured. Bites. Something about a baby. Whatever was on the other side of that door had to be bad. Maybe some coke-head snapped and started biting people? He had no idea. He had seen dead children, dead babies, before. It was one of those things you don’t get used to. Davi approached the woman and wrapped a blanket from the floor around her shoulders. He threw on some latex gloves and put pressure on her wound. She was taken care of. For now. Victor swallowed the lump in his throat and approached the bedroom door.

His footsteps echoed on the cheap wooden floor. His knuckles gripped his revolver tightly as he put a hand towards the bloody doorknob. He paused just as his fingertips felt the sticky, warm metal. He listened. The door was weak. Thin, like the front door to the apartment. He could hear something on the other side. Something repetitive. Something wet. Something familiar – and a bit sickening. He tried to guess which direction it was coming from within the bedroom. He peered at the small amount of light at the bottom of the door. Tried to see a shadow. He tried to get anything, any sign that might give him an edge. But it was twilight outside now. It was too dark to make anything out. He almost shook his head at how long he was stalling. He knew apartments like this. They were tiny. As soon as he opened the door he would see the whole damn room. With his revolver ready, he twisted the creaky knob and threw open the door.

“Police! Fr…”

He was staring at a little girl. Not a baby. At least, not a baby to him. Still a baby to her mother, perhaps. She was maybe six or seven. She was facing him on a dirty mat on the ground, hunched over a man. The man lay on his back perpendicular to the little girl. A large pool of blood soaked into the floor and stained his light blue t-shirt. A look of shock was frozen on his face. There was blood on the wall. Not a lot, but enough to indicate a struggle had happened.

And the little girl was crying. She was hunched over the man her face near his neck. But she wasn’t crying. Victor knew she wasn’t crying. But it’s what his brain told him. It’s what he wanted to think she was doing. Even as her eyes rose to meet his gaze, her hollowed and milky white eyes, he wanted to believe she was a crying little girl. Even as she pulled a stretching chunk of the man’s esophagus from the massive wound in his throat between her tiny teeth – and chewed on it – Victor wanted to believe she was a crying little girl. Even as she opened her mouth, still staring at the seasoned Police Officer, blood running from her jaws and dripping from her chin, and emitted an unearthly moan of hunger, Victor wanted to believe she was anything but what he saw. Her moan turned into a wail, ferocious and ravenous. She sprang up and charged him as he felt urine burst from his underwear and run down his leg.

The little girl hit the large Officer at full speed. He began screaming in absolute terror. He was in shock. Frozen. He didn’t even realize he still held a gun. The monstrous face of the little girl rose to snap its teeth at his chin as he fell back, still screaming. She climbed up onto him, clawing into his chest with long, sharp fingernails. She was stretching her little neck, trying to get at his with those bloody teeth.

“Victor! Victor!” Davi was screaming at him, hesitantly aiming his revolver at the frail little child on the older Officer.

Victor was still screaming. A panicked, high pitched wail that only emitted from a man who had truly lost his nerve. A man who didn’t care what his scream sounded like. The people in the hallway saw what was happening and had begun screaming as well. One of them tried to block the view from the others. He shouted at them to look away. The woman in the corner was screaming again.

“My baby! My baby!”

The little girl sank her teeth into Victor’s arm. Victor screamed in pain as he wrestled with her. Survival instincts screamed at him to pummel her, to kick her off of him. Human compassion warning him that he couldn’t hurt a child, no matter what the circumstances. He was a Police Officer, he was supposed to help people. He –

Her head exploded. Bits of cherry red brain matter splattered Victor’s face. Gore sprayed the open doorway into the bedroom. Another round hit her in the chest almost immediately, and her small body was thrown off of Victor. The little girl lay crumpled and headless on the floor. Blood gushed from her wounds. Victor was still in shock, but he wasn’t screaming anymore. The woman’s screaming was even louder. She rose towards Davi. Davi was pale and emotionless. He turned the barrel of his smoking revolver towards the mother, and shot her in the face. As Victor watched, Davi turned back to him and locked eyes with him. He smiled in a terrifyingly calm way and put his revolver to his own temple. For a moment the only sound was the pounding footsteps of the neighbors as they ran away – down the hall, down the stairs, out the door. Maybe into the fucking jungle. As Victor’s mind tried to make sense of what the Hell was happening, Davi finally spoke.

“You get used to it.”

Davi pulled the trigger and collapsed to the ground.

02 - EMERGENCY
17 – 11 – 1996 - ROCKFORT ISLAND

It was a word HUNK only now realized he hadn’t heard used on Rockfort Island in the nine months he’d been there.”Emergency”? He had seen more death since he started his career than many would see in a life time. He had seen some, for lack of better word, crazy situations. And not once had anybody within Umbrella’s ranks referred to any of those situations as an emergency.

“So how fast can you have them ready?” Fenix asked.

They were walking along the dirt road from the housing complex to the base. Ahead, HUNK could make out the shape of the old church against the morning sun.

“Faster if you tell me what I’m getting them ready for.” HUNK answered before sipping fresh black coffee from his mug.

“Look, I told you I don’t know any more than you do. Doctor Higgins is supposed to accompany the Units. He’ll explain everything during the flight.”

“Higgins?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Usually when he’s involved it means something bad is going to happen.”

“Look, HUNK. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. Honestly. But I don’t know anything that I haven’t already told you. There has been ‘some kind of emergency’ on the mainland, you’re being granted temporary control of Beta Unit to assist you and you’ll be working with the U.B.C.S., who’s already on site.”

HUNK swallowed the last bit of his coffee as he and Fenix stepped through the open chain link gate and into the base courtyard. They headed for the front door of the office building.

“I know you’ve got your gut feelings, Captain.” Fenix said. “I do too. There’s something off about this whole thing, and I don’t like it either. But just like your soldiers need to trust you, I need you to trust me. And to see whatever this is through, I need you to be focused.”

HUNK turned to Fenix as the Brazilian opened the door for him.

“Yes sir, Commander.”

Fenix gave a slight smile. They entered the building.


“Standard assault!” HUNK barked as the soldiers of Alpha and Beta Unit began to slap their equipment on in the armory. They fumbled with buckles and nylon straps on their vests, and with fully loaded magazines for their various weapons. They were tired too. Odd as the job was, it wasn’t every day a soldier past the boot-camp phase was ripped out of bed at six a.m. Beta’s Captain, Sin, stood by the door in her black flight suit. Her arms were crossed in front of her as she observed her five soldiers get their gear together. HUNK counted the heads. Eleven, including himself. He hadn’t worked with such a large group in…ever. He didn’t like it. Too many distractions in the field. Five extra heads made a lot more room for a mistake.

HUNK went to his locker and cranked out the combination on the lock. He threw on the vest, already filled with magazines for his MP5, and strapped it to his belt. He took his MP5 out and checked the sight mounted on top. With the flick of a switch, a red dot appeared inside the metal cylinder. It was already adjusted for a medium range. He took the gas mask, newly issued, and tucked it into the pouch on the back of his belt.

“Don’t forget your masks.” He reminded the soldiers.

They responded with “aye sir”’s and “yes sir”’s. He thought he heard a “damn it” from somebody. The British Army S10 had just been issued to every soldier in the U.S.F. as part of their standard gear. The soldiers had only been training with them for about a week. They weren’t all used to it yet. HUNK threw his helmet and radio to his battle buddy, Killer. Killer fixed the equipment on the back of HUNK’s vest, and HUNK took Killer’s helmet and put it on the back of his. Killer racked his Mossberg 500, which was full of buckshot.

“Six in the morning; ‘out of bed! Let’s move!’” Striker complained as he tied on his bandana. “Fuckin’ A, man. A this rate bed time is gonna be four p.m.”

“Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch!” Blacktail said in a whiny voice before laughing.

“Hey! We’re not all morning people!” Striker said defensively.

“Striker, you hardly qualify as ‘people’.”

Striker stared up at Blacktail for a moment. Past him, he caught a glimpse of Typhoon chuckling. Blacktail stuffed his M79 Grenade Launcher into a scabbard on his back.

“I’m gonna fuckin’ shoot you guys.” Striker said.

Blacktail and Typhoon broke out into laughter.

“You guys suck.”

“Quiet, all of you!” Butterfly ordered as she stepped away from her locker. “Or maybe you missed when the Captain said ‘hurry’.”

Blacktail, Typhoon and Striker each straightened up immediately and doubled their efforts to finish putting on their gear. Each blurted a “yes ma’am” as Butterfly checked on Typhoon’s gear and headed over to speak to HUNK. She passed the Beta Unit soldiers – Shift, Drake, Shark, Farm Boy and Hornet. She didn’t know them well, but she knew that Sin ran a tight ship. Hopefully they have their shit together better than Blacktail and Striker, she thought to herself.

The soldiers filed out of the room towards the hangar. HUNK gave them each a final check as they passed between him and Sin and out the door. As Striker passed, bringing up the rear, Sin turned to HUNK with a smile.

“Don’t kill my boys.” She said.

“Don’t wreck my base.” HUNK shot back.

“See you soon. Good luck.”

HUNK nodded a farewell to her as he stepped out after the soldiers.


The soldiers approached the familiar Blackhawk helicopter just as the blades began to warm up. Nighthawk gave a slight wave from behind the cockpit windshield to let them know it was alright to board. They clambered into the big chopper and began to take seats.

“HUNK! Agent HUNK!”

It was Doctor Higgins, calling from across the hangar. The lanky man came jogging towards the chopper as HUNK turned to face him. There were three other scientists in tow. Two of them were carrying large metal cases. HUNK eyed the cases for a moment as Higgins slowed to a walk.

“Yes, doctor?”

“I see you’ve brought two Units, as I asked. That’s good.” Higgins droned in his animatingly bored voice. It made HUNK wonder if the man enjoyed anything in life. But, then, who was he to talk?

“Eleven soldiers.” HUNK confirmed. “Can I ask why so many?”

“I’ll explain once we’re in the air. But before then I need to know I have your cooperation in this operation.”

“Cooperation?”

“I need you to understand that as it stands, I am in charge of what goes on. We may be away from Rockfort for a few days. No longer than a week, tops. Your team is damage control. My team is in charge.”

Irritating as it was, it helped to put HUNK’s mind at ease. Top secret or not, the situation couldn’t be that bad if the docs were set to run the show. So far, to him, it sounded like the typical ‘stay here, guard this’ job. He nodded.

“Sure, doctor. You got it.”

“And should the situation get out of hand, it’s to be handled by the U.B.C.S. Your team will fall under the authority of their Commander.”

HUNK stared at him blankly for just a moment. Higgins stared right back. The three scientist behind him exchanged a couple quick glances before HUNK responded, “Understood.”

“Good.” Higgins said as he motioned for HUNK to join his team in the Blackhawk. “Excellent. Let’s be on our way. This is an emergency, after all.”

I really am not ignoring this. I'm at work, so it's a little difficult to read anything lengthy. I will be reading it when I get home, though.

Here's the first part of chapter three. I'll finish the second part tomorrow.

THE MOTHER VIRUS

17 – 11 – 1996 - SOMEWHERE OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN

“We’ll be passing into Brazilian airspace in ten minutes.” Nighthawk announced over the headsets that all of the passengers wore. “Without any delays, we’ll reach our destination in less than an hour.”

The soldiers sat facing the front of the chopper. They filled the seats from side to side. In front of them sat Higgins and his team of researchers. Higgins now rose and turned to face the soldiers. Blacktail nudged Striker just enough to wake him up from his snooze, and nodded in Higgins’ direction.

“Pay attention.” Blacktail ordered.

“Why? You’re not the boss of me.”

“I’ll kick your ass.”

“That’s good incentive.” Striker said with a wise nod. Blacktail smirked and turned his attention towards Higgins, as did the rest of the soldiers.

“Let me start by introducing my team.” Higgins said as he put a hand against a chair to brace himself against the slight swaying of the chopper. “To my left is Doctor Caitlin Burn, my assistant in B.O.W. Research and Development. To my right is Doctor Karl Johnson, Chemical Weapons, and Doctor Nancy Greer, Medical Operations.” The scientists each gave some kind of gesture as their name was said. Although Johnson seemed preoccupied with whatever was in the metal cases.

“I understand some of you may be concerned as to the nature of this assignment.” Higgins continued. “To be brief, there has been a leak of our Progenitor Virus in a small town in Brazil. The Information Department is looking into just how the sample was taken to that location.”

“’Information Department’?” Striker quietly asked.

“Spies.” Blacktail muttered.

“Our best guess right now is that someone who had access to archived samples set up a private transaction and there was an issue during delivery. Whatever the case, your assignment doesn’t involve any detective work. We have close ties with certain individuals within the Brazilian Government who received word of some kind of sickness in Paraíso. They came to the conclusion that one of our viral agents was involved and have instructed us to see that the situation is handled at any costs. They have managed to keep the occurrence under the radar, but as you can imagine, our immediate involvement is crucial to both these individuals, and Umbrella.”

Butterfly raised her hand slightly as Higgins came to a pause in his speech. He nodded to her, giving her the go ahead to ask her question.

“Doctor, none of us have any real training regarding the Progenitor Virus since it’s development was cancelled so long ago. Any information you can give us about it now is going to be important to us once we land.”

“Perhaps Doctor Burn would like to elaborate on this?” Higgins said after nodding in agreement.

Doctor Burn, a thin blonde in her late twenties, stood up and cleared her throat.

“The Progenitor Virus has a somewhat different effect on those infected than the T-Virus, which you should all be familiar with.” She said. “The amount of time before infection takes full effect is roughly the same, given the right variables, but the similarities pretty much end there. Progenitor infectees suffer from severe hallucination and hysteria. They do not die and reanimate, like victims of the T-Virus, however they exhibit equally violent behavior. Without the proper conditions, a person infected with the Progenitor virus will both decay and regenerate damaged tissue. This can lead to what appear to be spontaneous mutations. Within a few weeks, the regenerative ability will lose out to the decay, and the infected will die naturally.”

“So why don’t we just drop a vaccine in there and let the infected die off?” Drake asked.

“Because there is no vaccine for Progenitor.” Burn said immediately.

The soldiers exchanged brief glances. Burn let them take it in before continuing.

“Make no mistake – this is a very dangerous operation. We’ll be testing each local that is not showing sign of infection. Those who are confirmed to be clean will be safely evacuated by U.B.C.S. while the town is decontaminated.”

“And those that are infected?” Shift asked.

“That’s what you are here for.” Doctor Johnson said.

Higgins spoke up again. “Right now the entire town is under U.B.C.S. quarantine. As you may well have guessed, the U.B.C.S. on site aren’t aware of our involvement with the viral agents. You are not to speak to them regarding any such information. Of course, your team probably won’t be interacting with them anyways.”

“Thank God.” Striker muttered.

“We will establish a safe zone for testing the civilians, which will operate twenty-four hours a day. We need to wrap up this task as quickly as possible. You soldiers will be on site at the station unless we need you elsewhere. The virus leaked almost three days ago, we estimate, so we can expect a relatively high percentage of the citizens will be infected. Should the situation get too dangerous, we’ll be using this.” Higgins motioned at the metal cases.

“It’s P-Epislon gas.” Johnson said proudly. “It should kill the infected within seconds if we release it.”

Blacktail raised his hand. “Wait, what?!”

“Do you have a comment?” Higgins rudely demanded.

“Ah, yeah. As the Artillery Specialist for Alpha, I know what that gas is used for. It’s supposed to be used on T-Virus infectees in an extreme situation. Is it even tested on Progenitor infectees?”

“That’s an excellent question.” Johnson said. “It is not, is the answer. However the T-Virus is built around the Progenitor virus. We believe it will work in much the same way.”

“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘a desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy’?” Higgins asked with a cocky smirk.

“Yeah.” Blacktail replied. “It was Guy Fawkes that said that. If I remember right he was captured, tortured and hanged.”

Higgins stared blankly at Blacktail while Striker did his absolute best not to laugh at the speechless doctor. Blacktail relaxed but shook his head. “This is bullshit.” He muttered.

“So…” Higgins said, getting back to the subject. “Do you all understand what needs to be done?”

The soldiers looked to HUNK, who nodded after a moment.

“You tell us what needs to be done on our end, Doctor Higgins.” HUNK said. “We’ll make sure it gets done by any means necessary. I don’t expect your group to be too savvy on military tactics, just as we aren’t when it comes to science. You do your job, and let us do ours.”

Higgins nodded. He detested the bit of challenge he heard in the grunt’s voice. Although he was smarter than HUNK or any of the soldiers for that matter, he couldn’t deny that the men in black with machine guns intimidated him. He took his seat, as did Burn and Johnson. Glancing at Greer, he could see her methodically reorganizing her medical supplies in an attempt to make everything easily accessible. He breathed in a heavy sigh and prayed that this mission would go as planned.

“Now entering Brazilian airspace!” Nighthawk said in everyone’s ears.

I like it! I'm looking forward to the next installment.

17 – 11 – 1996 - PARAÍSO

Nicholai Ginovaef scanned the road ahead as he drove the old Jeep into town. A hundred yards behind him, the other members of his Squad had already shut and locked the gate. The Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service – U.B.C.S. – had done exactly as ordered. The quarantine area was a large trapezoid completely encasing the town of Paraíso; the fences they had set up never closer than 150 yards. There was enough space – and enough trees to fill that space – between the town and the fence that the U.B.C.S. commandos wouldn’t see anything that happened inside the town, and the people inside – infected or not – wouldn’t even know it was there. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but the fence was electrified and heavily guarded on all sides. Plus, in the unlikely event that either an infected or a civilian came too close to the fence, the U.B.C.S. was ordered to shoot on sight.

The poor grunts knew what Umbrella wanted them to know, and not a thing more. They thought that there had been some kind of wild jungle sickness going around that worked on humans the way rabies worked on dogs. It wasn’t too far from the truth really, except for the fact that the U.B.C.S. members under Nicholai’s command had no clue about Umbrella’s responsibility for the outbreak. It didn’t matter. As long as they did their job at the fence, Nicholai knew that he could work on the inside to see things through, and go back home to Russia with a real stellar paycheck. Hell, as long as he did his job and the U.S.F. did theirs, the U.B.C.S. might never get the chance to pull a trigger. Either way, he got paid all the same. The thought brought a smile to his weathered face as he pulled into town from the north.

His experienced eyes scanned the town as he parked immediately in front of the hospital. It was something else, to be sure. The hospital itself was one of the only buildings built by the Government, back before they had left the town to the civilians. It was constructed better than the other buildings in town, but that was hardly an achievement. Nicholai marveled at the buildings made of brick and plywood with sheet metal roofs, and wondered how these buildings even stood against the elements. There were houses built practically on top of other houses and virtually no order to the layout of the streets. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a massive garbage dump. The streets right around him were quiet and empty. The hospital, aside from being the only place to land a helicopter, was probably pretty safe. Intel had indicated that most of the infected were on the southern side of town near the lake. Whatever the reason was, Nicholai knew the infected didn’t go far unless they had something to chase. So either the healthy people had been smart enough to stay hidden and the infected had stayed on the other side of town, or the healthy people were all dead. Either way, the hospital seemed safe enough. Nicholai knew better than to let his guard down. He checked that his SIGPRO 2000 handgun was safely tucked into the holster on his vest as he stepped out of the Jeep. Once he set foot on the dirt, he took his Colt M4A1 from behind the seat. There was a loud crack as he chambered a round.

Objective one: secure the landing zone. Nicholai didn’t necessarily like working alone. But after his years in Spetsnaz, the skills he had acquired made him a perfect candidate for what Umbrella called the “Monitor Unit”. Although he was officially registered as a high-ranking member of the U.B.C.S., he knew a great deal more than many of the rest of them did about Umbrella’s dealings, and he was much better trained to deal with their “pets”. Thus, the high paycheck. Uncomfortable as it was to sweep each room of the hospital by himself, he knew that his reflexes and fully automatic rifle would keep him relatively safe against those infected with Progenitor. He made his way methodically up to the third floor, shutting doors as he cleared rooms to make it difficult for any attackers to come up on his rear without a warning. His old training told him leaving such an obvious trace to his movement patterns was dangerous, but his newer Umbrella training had taught him that he was dealing with relatively mindless enemies. He needed to be more concerned with sound and silhouetting himself against the sky than a trail of bread crumbs.

He breathed easier as he stepped up onto the roof of the building and immediately spotted the helipad. He checked his watch. The U.S.F. would be there soon. He shut the door leading to back into the building and took a kneeling position near the edge of the roof. He could see most of the town from this point, but it was mostly blocked by the damn buildings. Still, it was better than nothing. He ran his fingers through his pale blonde hair, irritated with the Brazilian heat.

Objective two: make contact with the Intel Operative. Nicholai plucked a specialized PDA from his belt. He activated its communications function and held it close to his ear. A status bar on the bottom of the screen indicated that it was searching for a signal via satellite. After just a moment, his call was answered.

“Identify yourself.” A husky Englishman’s voice commanded.

“Monitor Ginovaef.” Nicholai responded.

“What is your status, Monitor?”

“I have secured a safe landing zone for Alpha Team. The quarantine zone is under enforcement and I am waiting at LZ one.”

“Excellent.” The man said. “What is the situation in the town.”

“Listen for yourself.” Nicholai said before holding the PDA out over the rooftop. “I hear nothing.”

“Understood. Proceed with Operation Proud Sword as planned. Your next report should be in three hours.”

“Affirmative.” Nicholai said.

He closed the PDA and checked his watch again. As if on cue, the sound of the Blackhawk’s blades roared into his ears as it flew overhead, making a quick circle of the building. Nicholai stood and waved a hand to the pilot. The chopper hovered overhead and slowly touched down towards the roof. As it came to about five feet above the roof, the door was thrown open from the inside and eleven black-clad soldiers exploded out onto the helipad.

“Go! Go!” The leader shouted. “Watch the streets!”

The soldiers fanned out and took positions along the edge of the roof, like Nicholai had just before they arrived. By the time the chopper touched the helipad, ten of the soldiers had covered the entire roof and were aiming their weapons down the three story building into the streets below. The leader approached Nicholai, who straightened and gave him a curt nod.

“Agent HUNK of Alpha Team?” Nicholai asked.

“That’s right. You must be the Commander of the U.B.C.S. Platoon on site?”

“Correct. I am Nicholai Ginovaef.”

Nicholai looked around at the other soldiers as the four scientists stepped out of the chopper carrying metal cases and dragging out some supplies to set up a base camp. Nicholai made a mental note about the number of cases and then turned his attention back to the man in front of him.

“I had already secured this area. But I suppose the sound of your helicopter may draw their attention.” Nicholai said with a smirk.

“Have you encountered any of the infected yet?” HUNK asked.

“No. I just arrived from the quarantine line.”

“I see. Where exactly are your men?”

“They’re far enough away not to be of any trouble to you.” Nicholai answered. “We are only here if you absolutely need us.”

“Well, let’s hope we don’t.”

Nicholai nodded as the soldier turned and walked back towards the scientists. He barked a few quick orders at the other soldiers. One of them, a woman with pigtails and a focused look in her eyes, gathered a few others and kicked in the door to the building. She led them inside, presumably undoing all of Nicholai’s careful work as they made the place ready for the scientists to set up.

Nicholai sighed, allowing himself a silent chuckle. Let them do as they will, for now. He thought. As far as they know, this is their operation.
He checked his watch again. Everything was ahead of schedule, so far. Comfortable already in his mission success, Nicholai approached the doctors and began to help unload the supplies.

So there's the rest of chapter three. Sorry it took so long. I've been busy with...stuff?

I'll take the plunge for this soon. Just have some other online fictions I am also reading atm.