Resident Evil 2 1998 Zombies
Pinkie Pappalardo
The Raccoon City Destruction Incident was a conflict which took place in and around Raccoon City in late 1998. Driven by a series of t-Virus outbreaks, the majority of the city's populace of 100,000 were infected through the contaminated drinking water or attacks by infected entities and were driven by the virus' mental degradation to commit brutal homicides and cannibalism through a process fittingly known as 'zombification'.
To prevent the spread of both the virus and classified information (specifically regarding the transactions of illicit weapons and political bribery of the Umbrella Corporation within the United States government and military), the CDC imposed a exclusion zone around Arklay County, and the Pentagon coordinated military operations within the city to euthanize the infected, secure sensitive information and rescue and detain survivors. These efforts were further complicated by Umbrella Headquarters using the city as a test-bed for its products, as well as attempts by H.C.F. and other agents to steal classified data and research.[note 1]
By October 1, the situation had become untenable, and at the pressures of a congressional council influenced by Umbrella, the President of the United States authorized the bombing of the city utilizing experimental thermobaric weapons, resulting in the near-total loss of the remaining population within it's limits. Following the bombing, successive administrations maintained a cover-up to protect national security due to both the sensitive and defamatory nature of the US' involvement in illegal bioweapons research in the city.[3] A 200-mile-wide exclusion zone was maintained for many years after, and the few survivors were left struggling in a series of lawsuits for compensation.[4]
The first outbreak in Arklay County occurred at Umbrella facilities in the Arklay Mountains on May 11th, at the Arklay Laboratory, the executive training facility, and a water treatment plant as well as adjacent buildings. The perpetrator was Queen Leech, an intelligent bioweapon developed by the late Dr. James Marcus, which had assimilated a facsimile of Marcus's consciousness and sought revenge on Umbrella and the world for his murder ten years prior.
The mountains had already in a precarious situation for several years, with an abandoned hospital housing contaminated flora since 1993 and the escape of Lisa Trevor into the mansion grounds in 1995.[5] In early 1998, allegations were raised that the river water, a dumping ground for Umbrella, had become polluted beyond legal safety limits.[6] However, the latest contamination was far more dangerous. The Arklay staff were exposed to the t-Virus and, following their slow mental deterioration, allowed the MA-39 bioweapon, Cerberus, to escape containment. This led to a number of strange maulings of campers and hikers in the mountains, along with Zombie attacks on rural households. The mountains were subsequently closed to tourists and the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S) were brought in to investigate, eventually leading to the destruction of the executive training school and laboratory in July, and a subsequent forest fire which destroyed much of the surrounding area.
Though Umbrella USA had enough influence over the media, businesses and municipal institutions in Raccoon City to avoid being linked to criminal actions, with the fall of the Arklay Laboratory, Umbrella virologist Dr. William Birkin and intelligence agent Albert Wesker had begun planning to defect from the company with their research. Wesker had been planning to leave the company for some time, but feared that escape was impossible with oversight from Oswell E. Spencer and the Umbrella Intelligence Division. Thus, Wesker had established contact with a rival corporation, who bid to help Wesker stage his own "death" and earn his freedom, at the price of delivering the combat data for Umbrella's Tyrant project. Having received orders to dispatch the S.T.A.R.S. team to the mansion to recover valuable research, Wesker used the opportunity at hand to make the necessary preparations. However, ultimately his efforts were thwarted due to the combined effort of surviving S.T.A.R.S members: Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, Rebecca Chambers and Enrico Marini and Umbrella executive officer Sergei Vladimir.
Running concurrent with this biological disaster, Birkin accelerated research on both the t-Virus and G-Virus projects at NEST while undergoing negotiations with the Pentagon to hand his research over to the United States Army when completed, in exchange for witness protection alongside his family.[7] Incineration Disposal Plant P-12A, a treatment plant constructed specifically to process biohazardous waste, became a dumping ground for NEST's failed test subjects. The material became too much for the facility to process at once, and the chemicals became diluted enough for the virus to mutate. Despite taking antiretroviral drugs, this mutant strain was able to quickly infect the staff and escaped into the outside world.[8] The ground near the plant was also contaminated, leading to the creation of mutants such as the Grave Digger.[9][excerpt 1] Umbrella's facility near the Raccoon Police Station was contaminated by mid-June, with employee "Don" showing symptoms of t-Virus infection.[10] By August 17, there were even reports of monsters appearing within the city itself.[11]
The final weeks leading up to the main outbreak saw a further spike in cases. By September 5, the virus had contaminated a chemical treatment plant near the Raccoon Police Station and the sewer facility. Thomas showed a delayed infection, and was still capable of non-violent, conscious thought as late as September 12, when his friend George Scott, a police officer, also began showing symptoms.[12]
Contamination in the sewer ecosystem close to Raccoon General Hospital led to an increasing population of mutant leeches, which were observed by researchers at a private Umbrella lab in the basement rather than actively fought against.[13] While the t-Virus spread in the sewers below, the Raccoon General Hospital itself was seeing a surge in inpatients experiencing symptoms of infection, with reports entering on or before Thursday 10 September, and rapidly increasing on Friday 18 September.[14] The hospital was unable to diagnose the patients with a known illness, but took note of the patients experiencing gangrene, coagulation and uncontrolled aggression.[14] Umbrella HQ had taken notice of the increasing spread of the virus and on Tuesday 15 September had already mobilized the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service.[15]
Umbrella caught wind of Birkin's plans thanks to their own moles within the military, and an Umbrella Security Service task force infiltrated Raccoon City in mid-September. Either through spies or warning from Birkin himself, the rival company was also alerted to the ongoing developments and Albert Wesker oversaw an H.C.F. operation into the city intent on evacuating Birkin and his research.[16][17]
Just minutes to midnight on Tuesday, September 22, a USS team confronted Birkin in his P-12A lab, armed with MP5s. During a standoff, Birkin attempted to pull out a handgun on them, and the doctor was shot by USS operator J. Martinez in spite of Umbrella's orders to bring him alive.[18] The team took his briefcase containing vials of both the G-Virus and a modified t-Virus ε strain and made their way into the sewers beneath Raccoon to rendezvous with their reserve team. Close to death, Birkin infected himself with a single vial left on his person and transformed into a "G" creature.
G-Birkin pursued the soldiers through the lab and sewers, killing a number of them. During the rampage the briefcase was destroyed and a curious group of rats became infected with t-Virus as they drank the green media during the early hours of September 23rd.[19] The sewer ecology soon spiraled out of control over the day, with giant rats competing with giant cockroaches.[20] Ultimately, these rats were forced out of the sewers and made their way into the outskirts of the city, where their viral load contaminated Victory Lake, the main drinking reservoir for the city.[21]
Following the raid, NEST had fallen into chaos with the t-Virus spreading throughout the entire laboratory and Dozens of Hunters R escaped from area B. By rigging the low-temperature laboratory to affect the entirety of level B4F, Dr. Frost was able to force the Hunters to undergo brumation, freezing them in their tracks. Nonetheless, a minimum of ten researchers had been killed during their release.[22] At some point, a researcher managed to steal a remaining sample of the G-Virus from Birkin's lab in the hopes of profiting off it's sale on the black market.[23] That evening, the executive branch of Umbrella had learned of Birkin's failed assassination and sent out a warning of the major incident at hand. When Brian Irons, Chief of Police at the Raccoon Police Department, was briefed of the emergency he became hysterical and began preparations to botch police operations.[24] Mayor Michael Warren was also alerted and departed the city immediately, leaving his daughter Katherine in the care of Chief Irons.[25]
With the t-Virus now contaminating the drinking water, tens of thousands became infected. Over the following hours, violence in the city dramatically increased. During the day, Annette Birkin had finally made the effort to contact her daughter Sherry, and while not informing her of her father's fate, ordered her to leave her classes at East Raccoon Elementary School immediately and return home until further notice. The situation during the first day was immensely confusing, as the emergency response was stretched thin by many reported cases across the city and Raccoon General Hospital became overwhelmed. Still, many people were able to continue with their ordinary routine despite the increasing state of emergency, local media began reporting on the mass violence, most notably among spectators at the Raccoon Sharks football game,[26]
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