Tomorrow of Yesterday

By. Indigo Siren

Disclaimer: Resident Evil/Biohazard is to Capcom. All characters and situations from the games used within this story are purely for entertainment purposes only and are in no way being used for profit. I do however own any original characters and the story concept itself. All rights reserved.

A/N: My third Resident Evil story! I have been wanting to write this one for a long while. The problem was, creating a suitable plot to make it work. For a while I didn’t know how to map it all out, but recently, when I really put my mind to it, I managed to write my ideas all out and put them together into something I’m pretty happy with. I say that but I’m still working out some kinks in it. I’ll probably end up altering my ideas as I go along, even adding more, but that’s usually what happens with me. I’ve been looking forward to creating another story with Rebecca at the lead, and this one, an original scenario. I hope it lives up to what I wish it to be. Its definitely going to be a story of surprises, action and a nice splash of angst and drama. I hope you enjoy. And lastly, no flames. If you don’t like, don’t review. That’s all I ask. Anyway, on with the show!

Prologue

Late August, 1998

The apartment was empty. Each room was aglow in mid-morning light, reflecting on clean and bare surfaces. They were stripped of the furniture and ornaments that gave them the feel of a true home. Both the creamy walls and matching carpet were bright and fresh, not a speck of dust in sight to blemish them.

Stepping down the hall between the cluster of rooms, Rebecca Chamber’s gaze fell into each one with a quiet sadness in her eyes, stopping just in the entrance of the squared lounge, where remained the last two cardboard boxes that carried her belongings.

She hadn’t lived in the apartment all that long, but she’d liked it immensely. It was always a vibrant and welcoming place, no matter what her mood. And it had been the perfect little nest for a fledgling flying the roost to find an exciting life in Raccoon City. This cosy apartment in a similarly cosy city had made her feel free and proud. She’d had a high prospectus job under her belt and an intensely rewarding career ahead of her; and with all the friendly faces around her, she’d never once had a concern for what the future might have held.

But she didn’t have that now. The exciting life she’d once hoped for was gone. There was nothing left for her there. It was time to go back to her family in Los Angeles.

Her hopes, her ambitions - where had they all gone? How could they have dissolved so quickly in her hands? And what was left? Nothing but a bitter taste in her mouth over the incident in the Arklay Mountains, leaving her ridiculed by disbelieving citizens and fragile from the things she’d encountered.

Her career in law enforcement was well and truly over before it had even begun. She knew, deep down, that it had been too good to be true. Nevertheless she tried not to feel too down and promised herself that she would make a fresh start soon. She still had a her biochemistry degree and a range of career paths yet unexplored. Thankfully she also had youth on her side. There was so much life still left in that body of hers.

Life… That word, in its own way, was particularly cruel. She had lived through a nightmare and was thankful everyday for it, but what about her team mates? Men of greater ability who’d still had so much more to give - gone in an instant. She had just been lucky.

Feeling that it was a waste of time to continually mope over circumstances, she instead focused her attention back on the empty apartment, taking in the combination scent of apple and magnolia. From top to bottom she had cleansed the apartment to welcome the next occupiers, whoever they may be. But that wasn’t the only reason she’d done it. A part of her had wanted to purge away the darkness of her recent past - physically making her ‘fresh start’ happen as soon as she could.

Smiling sadly, she slipped out of her sneakers and stepped across the carpet, her interest laying with the large bay window, made even larger now that the curtains had been taken down. Daylight glared sharply into the room, trying to highlight each and every corner of the empty room. It even pointed out the distinct indentations in the carpet where her furniture had once rested. Squinting through the bright light, she looked out into the city bustling down below - people and cars on their merry way, going this way and that to destinations unknown.

She was certainly going to miss it all, each and every distinctive detail; but she had to get away - so that the nightmares would fade away forever. It was so hard to forget those terrible nights when she could still see the forest patched across the horizon.

Though she’d slept better in the last week, the return of normality couldn’t fight the creeping shadows still inside her head. Just after her return to civilisation she’d found herself drawn into many long days of misery, followed by even more intensely miserable nights where sleep almost completely eluded her. Images of blood stained monsters had constantly appeared behind her closed eyelids.

Thankfully, the smell of rotting flesh that seemed to cling to her like cigarette smoke had faded away, and the vividness of the creatures she’d once seen were blurring at the edges. Men had died and she’d wept a great many tears for them for her failure to save their lives. But was lost was lost, and forward was the only way to go.

She took time to inhale and exhale with a somewhat tired groan, then moved back across the room to retrieve her shoes in the doorway, wiggling her feet back into them. The weakness her dark thoughts brought made her chest tight and her legs tremble quite visibly. With a little focus, she calmed herself down quite quickly.

Though however much the thought of S.T.A.R.S mingled with terror and monsters, she tried to differentiate the men who’d died from the terrible situation they’d been in. She wished she’d had more time to get to know them, even one in particular she’d even come to have affection for. But even thinking that made her even more sad and she had to stop herself from reducing herself to a blubbering mess.

She shook her head to disperse her lingering thoughts as the sound of footsteps entered the apartment. It was her father, forehead glistening with perspiration from lugging box after box down to his car and the removal van. She couldn’t help feeling rather guilty for making him do all the leg work, but he’d assured her when arriving that he didn’t mind doing most of the work since she’d done all the packing.

The sound of an engine below signalled the departure of the van, making its long journey back to her home town.

He looked down past the doorway to the remaining boxes. “You sure you’ve got everything?”

She gave a nod and smiled softly. “I’ve checked three times just to be sure. I’ve not left a single dust bunny behind.” To divide the last load, she took the smaller of the two boxes. “Just these and we’ll be out of here.”

He heaved the heavier box into his arms and nodded. “Lock the door on your way out. You can leave the box by the trunk and I’ll load it in while you give your keys back to the landlord.”

“Okay.” The word barely escaped her lips audibly, lost within a sigh. She stood for a moment as her father left the apartment, looking about her one last time, cementing the images into her memory. Through good times and bad, her home had been her rock of support. She hoped she’d find another place just as special.

Retreating for one last time, she slowly let the door fall closed behind her as she took her one last step beyond the doorsill, turning back to watch the bright walls disappear through the last shrinking crack as the door shut back into place.

The last sound to fill the empty apartment was a hollow click as the key bolted the lock.

***

October 1st 1998, [Unknown Facility]

The long rectangular room glistened with a sheen so abnormally bright it was a wonder it stayed so continuously perfect with the amount of gore that passed its way. But the stainless steel surfaces were polished sparkling clean, as if it had never seen a corpse to begin with.

The three tables fixed firmly into the pale grey tiled floor were all bare. All work for the night had been completed and stored away. The table furthest into the room was still being wiped down by the last remaining worker, a woman in her mid-thirties still dressed from head to toe in her stained coveralls, unnecessarily adding more shine to an already clean table. But she was a woman of perfection as known by her colleagues.

The morgue was pretty methodical. Thirty perfectly lined wall cabinets with pristine clean doors. One gurney sat in the far corner, the crisp white sheets on it folded neatly, straps clipped together on top. In labelled draws were all the sterilised equipment - knives, clips, saws, drills… all like brand new. An ‘L’ shaped work surface circumnavigated the room away from the entrance door all the way around to the door to the main office plated with a brass plaque announcing its purpose and the name of the head of department. They kept all their work filed neatly and alphabetically in cabinets across the length of that room - an archive that extended beyond twenty years of intricate investigations. All so perfect - but it needed to be. They were a big company that never liked to miss the mark. Nothing was allowed to fall out of place.

The woman finished with the table, tossing her cloth into the sink just as two men in temporary coveralls arrived pulling along a trolley with a black body bag strapped atop. She glanced at them wearily, smiled at her familiars and then sighed deeply at the sight of the bag wheeling in her direction.

“You boys have the best timing.” The sarcasm in her voice was playful as she begrudgingly approached the men, the first of whom, a forty-something burly man, handed her a sheet of paper. “What you got for me?”

“Another one for that big project your bosses are salivating over.” The first man said as his partner without a word disappeared from the room with heavy steps. The woman eyed his retreat and then turned to the remaining man, who just rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about Jim, he had a bust up with his wife before we got called out to intercept the body.”

“Poor guy. Just what he needed - a night out with a dead body.” She went into the office to retrieve a pen from one of the desks and returned to her companion, signing the bottom while using the table she’d just cleaned to lean on. “By the way, was it that Japanese woman again handing it over?”

“Yeah, it was her.”

“I’ve seen her once upstairs. She’s got the most deadpan expression I’ve ever seen, and I work with corpses for pities sake.”

He laughed. “I know, must be all those bodies she’s been asked to get. She’s pretty heavily involved with the Binder project I figure.”

“Wouldn’t know. She doesn’t look like a scientist to me.”

“How many is it now they’ve got in that project of theirs?”

She tapped her bottom lip with her pen. “That takes us up to seven now.” Her eyes fell on the bag. “So what do we know about this one?”

He handed her another sheet containing a profile, a picture clipped to the corner. “All you need to know is on there. A special case I‘d say.”

“Ah,” she exclaimed with understanding, “another one from that group. I’ll just send him straight on up with the rest. I think Doctor Bridgman and Doctor Yates will want to get started right away. They’ve been dying to test out their recent little concoction.”

The man didn‘t seem that interested in whatever they were doing. He was just a ‘dogs body’ after all. “They must be really confident. But then again, they get excited over every little thing these days. Is it important, you think?”

“Yeah. They aren’t saying much about it now since its only just started. They figure it’ll take a few years before they get their desired results.”

“You’re in for the long haul then?”

“Me?” She snorted. “I’m mostly assigned down here, consorting with the dead. Though, I’m not complaining. That Bridgman, WOO, he’s an asshole.” Grinning, she went over to the body bag. “Don’t tell him I said that.”

He snorted, jamming his file folder under his arm. “Don’t worry, I don’t hang around enough to talk to the guy. Your secret is safe with me.”

“Thanks! I’ll see you later!” He left her alone with the body bag, which she didn’t hesitate to unzip to take a look at the face. She whistled with surprise and disgust. “Boy, you’re looking rough. But don’t worry, those guys upstairs are going to fix you up, you can be sure of that.”

These men and women were thinkers and doers in a new age of science and discovery. So dedicated their passion was practically an obsession. And as of recent, they were all swarming in around the pool of blood left by the wounded pharmaceutical company Umbrella Inc., who had taken a big blow after losing one of their prize laboratory in the Arklay Mountains. Though they had managed to cover it up well, they were going to have to fight harder to keep their name out of the press when it came to Raccoon City, which in the last hour had been reported across the airwaves to have been wiped off the face of the Earth.

Under that city had been one of Umbrella’s biggest functioning facilities, another one now turned to rubble.

It left room for the greedy competition to surpass them. And certainly, the men and women working in that obscure facility, were working harder then ever to keep up in the big dangerous game of bioorganic weaponry. And they were certain that in the near future, they would produce something that would blow the competition right out of the water.