The Raccon City Interviews

[Annie Anthrax]

Fanfic Sub-Forum link.

What ho everyone! I had a sudden brainwave to try and write this fan-fic. If anyone has ever read World War Z it'll be just like that, only about the Raccoon City incident from Resident Evil. I wanted to write this because quite frankly the stories in RE are shockingly bad and Raccoon City is such a wonderful story, told very poorly (see Resident Evil Apocalypse for details). While parts of it have been done very well, Nemesis, Outbreak and so forth, the wider story of the struggle of normal people has only been touched on in Outbreak. There's so much more that can be told.

So, I'll be writing these series of interviews with various people who were involved with Raccoon City. I might use a fair bit of creative license here (the United States is not actually a member of the International Criminal Court for example) and it is my intention not to interview or mention any of the characters from the films or games especially, as I feel that limits my creative options somewhat.

The structure of these interviews will be on per post and I'll try to make them chronological. So, here is the introduction to; The Raccoon City Interviews...

My work with the International Criminal Court has lead me on many strange and horrifying adventures. Never was this more the case than when I was asked to assist in the investigation of the Raccoon City incident. The investigation was huge, it was a black stain on the people of America's hearts and they wanted blood. Vast amounts of resources were thrown at this by the ICC and the United Nations.
In addition to myself, there were several other people working on behalf of the ICC, several agents from Interpol and a group of agents attached to our investigation from the FBI, who ever invaluable. They couldn't do enough for us and their enthusiasm and thirst and dedication for justice was inspiring. As I will mention later, their support and local knowledge was of indescribable help against the difficulties we faced.

Despite this though, the investigation was very slow and very difficult. The body we were investigating, former pharmaceutical giant Umbrella, had influence in every branch of government, from law enforcement all the way up too (so it was claimed by certain conspiracy theorists) the president.

This slowed our enquires to a snails pace as Umbrella and the government made everything as long and as difficult as possible. Evidence would be mysteriously lost or destroyed, witnesses would go missing or suddenly decide they did not want to give a statement in court. Although we never ultimately proved anything, we heard a great deal of rumours about Umbrella and government agents intimidating witnesses into keeping quiet, to either save their own necks or to 'protect national security' respectively.
Our office was even firebombed on one occasion, thankfully though all our files were electronically backed up back in The Hague.
Everywhere our agents were heckled by Umbrella employees and police, not to mention on occasion, the secret service. Thank goodness for our FBI friends who looked after us and kept us safe from the worst of it.

Despite this though, the response we got from the people of America was overwhelming. The regular, normal citizens could not do enough for us and without them it is very unlikely that we would have gotten half of the successful convictions that we did.
And it is because of them that I now publish this book. While the Umbrella trials were televised globally, there were so many stories that we left untold. The 'human factor' is something I had to sadly miss out in my final report to the ICC.
We met so many people during our investigation, some of whom had been utterly broken by their experiences, others had risen like a phoenix from the flames of Raccoon City.

For those brave people who went through hell on Earth, this if for you.

Jane Smith,
International Criminal Court, The Hague 2009.  

[Annie Anthrax]

The first stage - The Arklay Mountrain.

I come across Shaun Tailor in his cabin in the wilds of Maryland, he says he has been a man of nature all his life and I can believe that, he has a 'man of the wilds' look about him. A great shaggy beard and kind eyes that have the strength of the mountains in them. He is well in his 50's but is still in tip top condition and can "still get down with the best of them" he proudly announces, indicating several scars on his large arms.
Shaun worked as a Park Ranger for the Arklay Mountains Forestry Commission for a number of years, including the 1998 incident.
He invites me to join him with some venison he has just cooked. I am a vegetarian.

How long were you working in Arklay?

Oh, long enough. It's one of those jobs that turns into a job for life. It gets under you skin, the wilderness. Mayhap it makes you a little crazy. (He laughs) Yeah. Maybe it makes you a little crazy. You get used to it, you know? You get this.. This.. Urge. That *this* is where you are meant to be. I tell you, I've never been on anything harder than weed and mushroom soup but living away from the forest was the closest thing I've come to going cold turkey. City living is disgusting! Everyone is in such a damned hurry.

Do you miss the work?

Hell yes! I've got it pretty good out here though, not quite the same job, a bit too science like for my tastes. They've got me measuring soil and tracking animals and whatever other odd jobs those egg heads need doing. Back then it was honest to God work, just you and the wilderness and your truck.
You might not think there's a great deal of difference between out here and the Mid-West, but to me it's totally different. The trees, the wildlife. I'll tell you one thing you don't get out here that's the same is the herbs. We used to be famous for that, used to get all sorts of nature nuts coming up to the lodge to look at the exhibits and buy the cookbook from the gift shop.
They were good eating, red herb made a nice topping for chicken as I recall. Made good poultices too, real wise woman medicine, can't beat that s**t. None of this anti-biotic, cell-regeneration bullshit for me. It ain't natural.

On the subject of things not being natural..

(He chuckles) Yeah, let's get on with this then. s**t, where to being. Arklay was always a bit of an old place, I hear back in the day Walt Disney was thinking about using them as the setting for Snow White, you know? Where the trees all have have faces and malign intent? Or like in the Evil Dead? (He laughs) Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, we all knew it was beautiful. But it was a tough place, it was rugged, untamed. Something you don't see enough of now these days.
We'd get hikers getting into trouble all the time, find animals with all sorts of bits missing. Nothing really surprised us after a while. We were a good crew, all of us were seasoned men of the wild and most of us had seen service of one sort or another. Even when we started getting the crazies in the woods we weren't too fussed, we'd all seen worse. At least, so we thought.

The crazies?

Yeah, that's what we called 'em at first. And at the start they were crazies. We thought they'd either escaped from the institute or the wild had got to them, you know like.. Sun stroke or something. Occasionally someone would report they had seen someone in distress or been attacked, usually hikers but occasionally it would be one of the park workers. In the beginning we used to go out and check it out ourselves but after they started getting more regular we used to just call the police straight away as it'd always end up with them having to be taken away.

Very sorry creatures they were, either stumbling around helplessly or they'd be flipping the ******** out. We had to put down a few of them, in hindsight, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all but at the time it was very sombre for us. We'd all seen death but getting lost and going mad in the woods was no way to go.

Didn't you find these reports suspicious at all?

Oh yeah, but like I said, Arklay was always a bit of an odd place. The other thing that started to shoot up was wild animals. I don't mean animals in the wild I mean bat-s**t crazy animals that'd soon bite your face off as look at it.
After a little while the managers decided to do something so we had this big public awareness thing on the dangers on going out unprepared into the wilderness, I did a few talks, showed a few pictures. I don't think it did any good but when does anyone listen to these things anyway? It got to the point where we knew most of the local police by name, especially the STARS ones, you know, the search and rescue crew? They were always very good, we had a good working relationship with them. They understood the wilderness. They'd work with us alot to track down missing hikers and crazies and before too long they got a permanent office in the ranger's lodge, they were around so often!

Eventually the directions got some boys in from the EPA or something I think to test the water, they didn't find anything though.

Did Umbrella ever get involved?

(He pauses to think) To be honest, I don't rightly know. I remember plenty of occasions when I'd see the park managers and some suits from Umbrella together but I never dealt with them myself.
Most of the other rangers were like that too, we didn't have any time for suits and Umbrella had suits a plenty. We stayed away from their mansion for the most part, they didn't like us round there anyway. We'd always get heckled by their security if we went too close. They never really talked to us other than that.
The closest we'd come is seeing the Ecliptic Express shoot past or seeing them dicking around in those funny white suits somewhere in the forest. I'd seen them doing stuff like that a few times, I always reported it because it looked mighty suspicious but nothing ever came of it.

Then the murders started and I suppose the chance for pleasant chit-chat went by.

You're talking about the mansion incident?

Well, I wouldn't know about that. But when we found those dead hikers things started getting a bit too weird. Which is alot coming from me, believe me.
I didn't come across them myself but a colleague did. He was a huge Vietnam-vet, a real mountain of a man. When he got back to the lodge he was in pieces, just in pieces. Never seen a man so white or shaking so much. It was like someone had shattered his soul.
We'd gotten a report of a missing pair of hikers who were a few days overdue, newly weds apparently. So we went out to look for them and the helicopter over head spotted their tent. I never got there, but I if whatever was inside that tent could do that to a grown man who survived the jungle hell of 'Nam, I don't want to know.

We started going out in pairs after that and carrying shotguns. I didn't like it. I had some holiday saved up so went to stay with some friends out in Nova Scotia to think about what I was going to do next.
Looking back, that might have been the best decision I ever made.  

[Annie Anthrax]

The wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow and don't always give you the result you wished for. The man I am talking to today is one of those missed results. Peter Stone is the former Assistant Chief of Police for the Raccoon City Police Department (or RPD), under the now infamous Brian Irons, the corrupt and ultimately insane chief of police who murdered several of his own men. While there were allegations of corruption and aiding Brian and Umbrella were made against Mr Stone, we could never prove anything. He currently resides in California, now working as head of security in a local shopping mall. He invites me into his office for this interview.

Thank you for agreeing to this interview.

Oh no problem, it's not like I've got anything to hide right? No hard feelings? (He chuckles and we shake hands, I feel like giving my hand a chemical shower) So, what did you want to know?

I was hoping you could tell me about the early phases of the Raccoon City incident.

Ah, I wish I could, but I wasn't in Raccoon City at the time, so I don't know I can tell you.

Yes, I'm aware of that, but I was referring to the early incidents in the Arklay Mountains.

You're talking about the Mansion and STARS?

That's correct. You did deal with that case didn't you?

Well, it wasn't just me, Brian worked on it as well and I have two other detectives working for me. I was in the original interview when the STARS team came back from the mountains. Me, the chief, a man from the mayor's office and a representative from Umbrella.

Do you think that was wise given the circumstances?

Why not? The chief wanted him to be there, plus as far as we were concerned this was their business too. Where this whole business was meant to have taken place, the nature of the allegations against their company. I didn't see any problem with it.

Did you ever allow this with any other interviews you did about non-Umbrella cases?

(He doesn't answer) No problem with it at all. He was a nice guy, did his best to put them at ease, real nice guy. Not sure if he made it out of the city in the end, damned shame.

So what happened during the interview?

You know damn well what happened. They feed us some messed up c**k and bull story about monsters in the forest, diseases that can turn people into zombies, Wesker being some sort of Umbrella mole. Saying the rest of Alpha and Bravo were killed by these things, that Umbrella was behind it all somehow, that they had some sort of super secret laboratory of there.

Sounds pretty incriminating.

Oh, it was, it was a very impressive piece of acting we thought, how they all had the same fantastical story. We'd take a break every ten minutes or so to discuss how the interview was going and we'd just be increasingly dumbfounded by what they were telling us. I mean, monsters? Come on.

So the interview didn't lead anywhere?

Of course it didn't. By their own admission there wasn't any evidence, which we thought was very convenient. We asked the man from Umbrella about it and he just burst into laughter. At the time it was pretty funny, I mean. This crazy story. After the interview I had a talk with the chief about what we were going to do and he invited the Umbrella man in as well. We decided that given the evidence available, what they were telling us was a lie which they had thought up on the way back from the mountains. We had no idea where the other members were, maybe the others killed them, maybe they deserted, we didn't know. We had to pursue every avenue of possibility. That's what good police work is.

So what action did you take?

Well, first we put the STARS on suspension and under house arrest until the matter could be cleared up. Then we did a few helicopter sweeps of the woods a week or so later, but we never found anything. The chief felt it was a waste of time with the trail so cold, so left the case open and waited for something new to come to light.

And it never did?

Nope, nothing was ever found in those woods. No bodies, no wreckage, no mansion and certainly no secret lab. We took the STARS off suspension but most of them didn't want to know, most of them drifted away from the department after that, only Jill and Brad stuck around for the duration.

Did you ever do any other investigations?

What were we supposed to do? There wasn't anything to find in those mountains, plus how are you supposed to investigate a secret lab that is, by definition, a secret? The department was struggling to keep itself in the public's good books following a few heavy handed incidents, investigating the company that employed a third of the town would hardly have done us any favours.
The chief had the final say in this and he didn't want to know. It was a busy time for us.

Did you know that Chief Irons was on Umbrella's payroll?

No, no I did not. I'm still shocked about what happened (he looks decidedly un-shocked). I had no idea. I actually owe him my life. He sent me away on a training course in Virginia when the incident happened. Despite what anyone says, I owe him that.

So let me see if I got this straight.

Go for it.

Despite being told the same story by every remaining member of the STARS team you and your superior felt it was too fantastical to be true.

Yep.

And that after preliminary investigations turned nothing up it was felt to pursue the investigation any further would be too difficult and not lead anywhere, wasting department resources in a very busy time in the RPD's history as well as damaging it's reputation with the public.

That's correct, it was around the time all those freaky murders were happening, we needed our resources on the streets, keeping people safe. We needed the people to have faith in us.

And you were content to leave the disappearance of 7 people a mystery until something happened to turn up on it's own, a course of action that ultimately lead to the death of over 100,000 people?

...Get out.  

[Annie Anthrax]

Cecilia Lucke's office in New York is much how I would image an ace freelance reporter's office to be like. That is, full of smoke and very messy. Every surface seems to be covered by a vast amount of papers. A small empty space has been cleared for a laptop and an ashtray. During the trial of several Umbrella members, she was a witness against several of Umbrella's operational managers and hired thugs. Despite the approach of a New York winter Ms Lucke has the window open as "It helps her think". She invites me to sit on a rickety chair and hastily sweeps the papers off of it with one hand while still holding her cigarette with the other.

You'll have to excuse the mess.

It's no bother, thank you for agreeing to this interview.

You know, of all the years I've been in this business, I've only ever known one reporter who kept a clean working space. He was eventually sent to prison for fiddling with little boys, make of that what you will but just keep it in mind the next time someone with a clean desk asks you to go camping with him. (She laughs before starting to cough violently)

Can I get you a glass of water?

(She motions for me to remain seated with one hand) No, no it's fine. These things will kill you you know, wouldn't be without them though, been smoking since I was 15 years old and I'm not about to stop now because of a slight cough (she coughs violently again and spits into the bin). So, Raccoon City. Raccoon ******** City. Yes, I remember that place all to well. And I wasn't even there when it all went down, that would have been the scoop of a life time.

I went to Raccoon City around... June time I think. June, July, something like that I always get mixed up with those two. I had had a tip off from a source that something strange was happening in that part of the world. Strange attacks, gruesome murders, real horror story stuff.

But this was several months before the incident in September?

I'm getting to that! Jesus woman, hold your horses!

I'm sorry, please continue.

Thank you very ******** much! Jesus. (She takes a drag of her cigarette) Yeah, real horror movie stuff. I didn't believe it at first though, if it really was as huge and had been going on for as long as my source made out someone else would have surely made a big deal out of it.
I'm not just talking local rags, I'm mean national news, people love this kind of s**t! People are morbid ********. You might not think you are but I'd bet you anything that you'll still slow down when you pass by a traffic accident to get a good look.

I did some research to see if he was yanking my chain, just a few preliminary phone calls, I like to do things when I'm on the ground but I had other things that needed my attention and I wasn't going to go out to the middle of nowheresville just to have my chain yanked.

What did you find out?

Nothing much actually, but enough to get me interested. There were lots of mentions of little things, like attacks and an increase in crazy homeless people and even murders. But the reported details were always very minimal. I called up a contact in the police but he said the report cards had gone missing, it was the same everywhere else I checked, the hospital, city hall. My 6th sense was tingling I knew something was going on.

So you went to Raccoon City?

So I went to Raccoon City, biggest ******** mistake of my life, almost cost me my life too! It wasn't even some ******** zombie, it was some- Anyway, we'll get to that. So I went to Raccoon City, met up with my contact and he told me some very strange things.

Like what?

Well, my contact, God rest his soul, used to volunteer at the court house helping out the witnesses in court amongst various other things. He was a big fan of courtroom drama, studying to be a paralegal, anyway. He said to me that something funny was going on in the courthouse. That the seriousness of the the crimes wasn't being reported and that the wrong people were being brought in for them.

The wrong people?

Yeah, ******** nutcases, you know? The people nobody wants, the people with no homes and no money and enough ******** mental health issues to fill a textbook. They'd bring in these wrecks of human beings to stand trial for these horrible crimes. They couldn't even defend themselves properly in court. The judge and jury would always convict them too.

And you suspected a miscarriage of justice?

Too ******** right I did. After some serious digging I managed to find the details of some of the cases. One guy was meant to have killed this dame while she was getting out of her car. This guy was supposed to have ******** eaten bits of her and he didn't even have any ******** teeth! He just stood there in court and gummed his objections to the jury before the judge ordered him to be removed and he was found guilty in his absence. Poor ******** died in lockup, never even made it to prison.

And it wasn't just that.

What do you mean?

There were the bodies.

What bodies?

Exactly. What ******** bodies? Where were these murder victims supposed to be? Where were the attack victims? No-one knew a ******** thing, they would just vanish. The bodies would be checked into the morgue and then suddenly they wouldn't be there, no records, nothing. Like they were never even there in the first place.
The attack victims to, they'd be brought in by their weeping families to the local hospital only for them to be transferred to a 'special clinic' that no-one ******** knew about.
I smelt a ******** rat, I just didn't know how big of a rat I would end up messing with.

You're talking about Umbrella?

Not just Umbrella, everyone on Umbrella's payroll, which in that shitville was everyone. I'm talking about the judiciary, the mayor, the chief of police that ******** Brian Irons, even the ******** traffic wardens.

Traffic Wardens?

I don't see how else I could have got that many ******** parking tickets.

How did your investigations continue?

Well, I got lucky, is all I can say. Who ever had set this up knew what they were doing and no-one was going to talk to me about it. Not the local press, the local people, the police, the hospital staff, no-one. Until one night, I got a phone call from a sweet little thing who was a jury member on one of the trials and wanted to meet me down in J's Bar.

When I got down there she was pretty easy to spot, this tiny little thing, eyes wide in terror, looking around all the time. She was only what.. About 5 foot tall? Like a toy she was. Poor ******** thing.

What did she want to talk to you about?

She wanted to talk to me about her interesting experiences as a member of a jury for another case where some ******** up homeless guy got stitched up for one of the attacks. She told me that her brother had a history of drug abuse and he was on his last chance at the court before they sent him up the river for a very long time. Nasty drug crack, it'll ******** you up.
Anyway, so before the trial starts she gets a phone call from a man saying he knows something about her brother and that she's to come quickly. Being the caring sister she is she races over there and is met by this guy. With slicked back blond hair and shades. He tells her, all droll like that this trial is very important and it's very important that the guy accused for it got sent down. "To ease the poor victim's family" he told her, said it was better for everyone. Naturally she told him to suck his own c**k, but then he started getting nasty. Said he knew that her brother had been up to his old tricks, robbing old ladies for crack money and that it'd be terrible if the police were to find out.
What could she do? She loves her brother and knows damn well he'd never survive in prison. After a while she gives in and agrees to do it. The blond guy gives her some money as well before driving off.

Umbrella had been blackmailing the jury?

It makes sense doesn't it? Someone takes the fall for their mess and they get to deny everything. I tell you, my blood was pumping. I was ******** onto something and I knew I could be onto the story of a lifetime. The serial blackmailing of goodness knowns how many juries? And who knows who else? It could bring whoever was behind it down and I would be the one to swing the wrecking ball. I drove like a maniac back to see my contact to make plans for the next day.
But, it wasn't meant to be.

What happened.

Someone ******** shot him as he was walking into his house. Then had the audacity to burn down the house with his baby ******** daughter still inside. Police claimed it was gangbangers doing a hit.
My contact had been a police officer from LA who had transferred to Raccoon for a quiet life to raise his little girl. He gave me information for a little extra cash.
I knew whoever was behind this wasn't ******** around, I needed back up. If I stuck around any longer, I might be in the hereafter with that poor son of a b***h as well. Maybe someone was watching my hotel room already?

I got the ******** out of there, kept driving till morning.

When I got back to NY I called in all the favours I could but there wasn't anything left to investigate. The paper trail had gone up with that house, if there were any more attacks and murders then they weren't reported or recorded at all and my star witness well... I never could find her again.

I wonder you know, I really wonder if maybe I hadn't gone to Raccoon City if that poor little girl and her father might still be alive. ******** brushes her hand against her eyes, trying to hide a tear.)