Prologue

The forest is alive at night.

A disorderly symphony played by a myriad of insects, nocturnal birds

and beasts in the Arklay Mountains, located in the midwestern United
States, coyotes and wildcats roam on the surface and owls dominate
the sky, noises of the hunt. Then, from somewhere in the trees, an
animal lets out a beastly roar. In the summer, the darkness of the sea of
trees is full of life and noise.

But this night, sometime after 8pm on July 23, 1998, a corner of the
Raccoon woodland was strangely tranquil.

The only difference was silence from the flapping of the crows swaying
the treetops, as well as the noises of nests made by the carnivorous
beasts patrolling the land. Even insects kept quiet and only a heavy
silence lay in the space. It was such an empty silence, as if all life was
exhausted and the dense darkness itself had gained life.

The inhabitants of the night-time forest knew. Tonight, something else

must rule over this land. Sensitive to the arrival of horrific things they
could never confront, they had abandoned the territory and fled.

And in fact, all the living creatures had been eaten at this point. By an
impossible existence. By new rulers who have crawled out of the hell.

8:17pm. In a silent world where fear reigns, the sound of the arrival of
unfamiliar individuals echoes, shattering the silence.

A pair of steel strips laid across the mountains in the rugged forest.
There's a subtle railway that's still in service and not abandoned. A
noise sounds at the seams of the tracks and coming from beyond grew
rapidly.

The approaching train was marked "Ecliptic Express." Just like a

thunderbolt cutting through dark clouds, a huge mass continued to
run through the trees like a lightning bolt — it runs through the area
instantly with unbelievable momentum.

However, passing through was not permitted.

The appearance of the train changed in this moment.

Giant leeches wrapped in a myriad of scales with a slimy luster and

much movement — so many monsters clung to the outer walls of the
vehicle. They were rushing all at once from the treetops to the train in a
passing moment.

Guided by a single evil will, a group of blood-sucking leeches carrying a

horrifying poison inside their bodies began to invade the cars in search
of any life-forms. Originally relaxing on a comfortable journey on a
luxury vehicle isolated from the outside world, the passengers were
being pushed into Hell with panic and cries. To transform them into
something that isn't human.

The train continued to race while the horrible feast unfolded, gradually
slowing down and eventually stopping as if it were exhausted. In the
midst of the deep forest sinking in-between.

At the rendezvous point of destiny.

For Rebecca Chambers, who'd just been assigned to the special

mission unit S.T.A.R.S. of the Raccoon Police Department, this first
mission, which had been delayed until night, was a terrifying baptism.

Bizarre incidents in which victims of murderous homicide frequently

occurred in the outskirts of Raccoon City, the victims were eaten alive
and this filled the mundane local city with anxiety and suspicion. The
citizens were calling for a resolution to the case as soon as possible,
and it was decided the elite unit S.T.A.R.S., originally primarily tasked
with counter-terrorism and hostage rescue, would put an extraordinary
wide-area investigation into it. In response to this, a seemingly urgent
dispatch order was issued and at about 10pm on July 23, a helicopter
with six Bravo Team members departed for Arklay.
But then-.

Their destiny changed rapidly. The helicopter flying over Raccoon

Forest suffered an engine problem and crash landed.

Bravo Team began exploring the surroundings to find out where they
were, spotting a military prisoner escort vehicle that had rolled over
and finding a miserable scene, two MPs who were fixed with a
desperate expression of agony. They were corpses. There was no time
to investigate the cause of death in detail and they discovered a
transfer instruction licence with an ominous description.

It was a death row prisoner who was being transported. A military

officer in the rank of second lieutenant, whose name is Billy Coen. His
body is missing and only the military personnel can be found.
Frightened by the fact an army-trained soldier has escaped, appearing
to be a criminal, they spread out and began searching for the
individual.

Holding a pistol, Rebecca divides up with the team and heads into the
forest. She struggles to go deep into the darkness in a tense situation,
trying to cope with circumstances too severe for an 18-year-old rookie
to experience.

The trees in front suddenly scatter. In the open space, there were
railroad tracks and oddly she finds a stalled train in the forest. Despite
feeling suspicious, Rebecca decides to investigate inside because the
fugitive may be hiding. The side of the vehicle is marked as Ecliptic
Express.

It's here that a mysterious incident, the first stage of the biological
disaster that'll be later described as the "Mansion incident", began. The
door opens to a feast filled with malice and insanity.

Behind Rebecca, it tightly closes...

 Epilogue
Soaked in the rays of the sun, my life-saver, I felt refreshed, as if I'd
sterilized the malicious drops that clung to my body.

We escaped from that crazy research facility and hadn't traveled that
far yet. Still, now that I could take a breather on this small hill
overlooking the green trees of Raccoon Forest, the heaviness I had last
night that seemed so intense had been wiped clean.

Billy took off the handcuffs he'd left on his left wrist from the first
encounter I had with him, and threw them far away. The fugitive's cuffs
reflected the sunlight and formed an arc that disappears into the sea of
trees below.

Lying on the grass, Billy's face was radiant. He must've been suffering
alone for a long time.

She worried about the people who couldn't be saved and tried to
accept the prisoner's circumstances with an unfaithful and innocent
sin.

Surviving the deadly struggle against a kind of "evil" that was the same
as the one that had fallen into her own hands, he could've managed to
shake off his ill-fated past. Despite the fact the law of this country
chased him indiscriminately, the will to survive revived Billy's dying
soul.

I'd like to congratulate him. But at the same time, I feel I'm not cut out
for the police.

If you're a police officer, you don't put your personality into arrests.
Even if she believes Billy is not guilty, he must be secured and taken to
the station because he's a fugitive. It's a jury's place, not the police, to
decide who's guilty. Even though he had proven his innocence based
on the facts, she knew the only way she would belong is if she let the
Raccoon Police Department choose.
But I didn't feel that way. Regarding Billy, the military ruling is too
unilateral and lacking in fairness. Requesting a retrial will probably not
subvert his guilt.

Besides, I've already issued a false report to Captain Enrico. In fact, I'd
already decided in my mind to follow him.

Billy died in the incident, dying as a Zombie, and his body couldn't even
be secured — that's the report she intends to write. Then he'll become
a dead person in his family register, so he can live without being chased
as a death row prisoner.

Some police officer. But as a human, I believe this decision is the right
one. What I learned in this case was that it was myself who finally
destroyed the "evil." Dr. Marcus, who lost sight of this, ran into out-of-
control circumstances and eventually ended up being eliminated by a
bigger "evil."

She could see a large mansion standing unnaturally in a position not

far from the large forest they were overlooking. The place where
Captain Enrico was heading — I could join them if I went there, and
above all, I had to fulfill my responsibility to S.T.A.R.S. We had a mission
to keep, all the consequences of this horrifying case needed to go
public, to protect the safety of our citizens.

Time to say goodbye to Billy.

I silently and gently removed the dog-tags from his neck and hung
them around my neck. It should be proof of Billy's death, and I wanted
to send him a message of my intentions. Goodbye forever, we won't be
able to meet again.

We exchanged small words and saluted. In this way, my first dispatch

and case was finished.

Finished?

No. This bizarre case hadn't been resolved at all.

This was all just the beginning. On the eve of the tragedy that began in
the mansion.

The curtain raised again, and darkness began to bleed through...