The Arklay Outbreak

Chapter Five

Enrico Marini, the commander of the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team, led Rebecca Chambers on a tour through the police station. He was a brawny, muscular man with thick black hair and a bushy mustache. He gestured with his hands when he spoke, and his voice was full of passion and intensity. Rebecca found him intimidating when she first met him, but after their initial meeting to discuss Rebecca’s transfer to the S.T.A.R.S. unit, she quickly learned to like him. Enrico was like a tame grizzly bear.

If anyone had asked Rebecca what she was going to do for a living after she graduated high school, she would not have answered a police officer. At the time, she was considering a career in either music or health care. She wanted to be a violin player or a nurse, but most of all she wanted to be both. And if someone had told her that in a mere six years she would be a cop, she would have laughed at them.

But plans change.

She’d only been in Raccoon City for a few days, and she hadn’t even unpacked most of her belongings yet. As soon as they formally accepted her transfer and she knew that she had the job, she went out and got the cheapest apartment she could find, although it was unfurnished and not in the best part of town. She didn’t care about that, though. All that mattered was that she actually got the job.

Today was her first day, and already she felt like he was in way over her head. Enrico met with her as soon as she arrived, and decided to give her the guided tour before he even introduced her to her coworkers in Bravo team. She guessed that he wanted to form a complete opinion of her first, as if her behavior during the tour was some kind of subtle test. Rebecca felt confident that she could pass any test that Enrico wanted.

“That’s the photograph development room,” Enrico said as they walked by, gesturing toward a small room off to the side of one of the open lounges, underneath the wide staircase. They went up the stairs, Rebecca walking with her hands folded behind her, Enrico boldly pointing and gesturing at everything they passed, his loud voice echoing down the whole hallway. “This statue here is one of the many pieces of artwork you’ll see here at the station,” he said, referring to a marble statue of a man wearing a helmet, reaching into the air. “Chief Irons is quite an art collector. Did you meet with him last week?”

“No, I only had the interview with Mr. Wesker,” Rebecca said.

“I’ll have to introduce you, then,” Enrico said. “He’s a demanding boss, but basically a good guy. He’s kind of weird though,” he said, cupping his hand over the side of his mouth as if telling a secret, even though his voice was loud enough for people down the hall to hear him.

They continued down the hall and came to a set of bright wooden double doors. Enrico punched them open and ushered Rebecca inside. It was a cramped office area, with five large desks covered in papers. The S.T.A.R.S. logo was emblazoned on the far wall, with a detailed map of the city on the left, covered in pins and post-it notes. Several old computer monitors sat on a desk to the right, hooked up to printers and scanners. Above them was a wall covered in newspaper clippings, wanted posters, and other notes.

The only person in the room was handsome man seated behind one of the desks, his feet up casually on the desk top. His short brown hair was in a buzz cut, and his dirty sneakers and blue jeans contrasted with the crisp white dress shirt he wore. As Rebecca and Enrico entered, he was speaking into a phone. He looked up and nodded to Enrico.

“This is the command center,” Enrico said proudly. “This is where the senior members of S.T.A.R.S. do all our planning. The senior members are myself, Albert Wesker, Barry Burton, Richard Aiken, and the young hotshot you see here, Chris Redfield.”

Chris cupped his hand over the phone receiver and smiled . “Nice to see you too, Rico.”

“Who’s on the phone?”

“Who do you think?” Chris took his hand away and said, “Yes, Claire, I know what Mom and Dad are planning. They already told me.”

Enrico nudged Rebecca’s arm jokingly. “His sister, but the way she acts, you’d think she was his wife.”

“Very funny,” Chris said. Then, into the phone: “Nothing, I’m just talking to someone here in the office.”

Enrico chuckled and led Rebecca around the office. “By the way, this is Rebecca Chambers,” he said to Chris. “She’s the new member of Bravo.”

“Nice to meet you, Rebecca,” Chris said with an easy smile. Rebecca smiled back and waved politely. As Chris got back to his phone call, Enrico spent a few minutes showing her around the room before heading back into the hall.

“Albert Wesker, who you already met, is the commander of Alpha team. Don’t ever call him Albert, though. Everybody just calls him Wesker. Chris Redfield is the strategic coordinator and his second-in-command. Alpha and Bravo teams frequently work together, so you’ll get to know them better as time goes on.”

“I can’t wait to get to know everyone,” Rebecca said.

She followed Enrico around the station like that for over an hour, letting him show off the points of interest and introduce her to most of the other police officers. She enjoyed this kind of one-sided tour of the station, with Enrico doing all the talking. It kept her from having to introduce herself to everyone personally. So she trailed behind him like a fan seeking an autograph, smiling to those he introduced her to, looking interested when he showed off one of the expensive paintings or sculptures decorating the station, and in general just keeping quiet, trying to take it all in.

Enrico led her around the station and eventually to Chief Irons’ office, but according to his secretary he was in a meeting, so she didn’t get to meet him yet.

Eventually they made it back to the main office area. Rebecca her own desk there, although at the moment there was nothing on it except her jacket and purse. Seated two desks down was a tall, lanky black man with a science textbook in his lap, a red bandanna tied around his head, and the logo for a heavy metal band on his black t-shirt. He looked up at Enrico and Rebecca as they entered.

“Hey boss, what’s up?”

“Rebecca,” Enrico said, “this is Ken Sullivan, one of the members of Bravo team.”

“How d’ya do?” Ken asked genially, sticking out his hand.

Rebecca leaned forward to shake it daintily, and then stood back up straight, folding her hands in front of her. “I’m good, thank you. I’m very happy to be here.”

“Ken is our point man and also our team negotiator,” Enrico explained. “Rebecca is our new medic and first-aid specialist.”

“That’s cool,” Ken said, but when he said it, it didn’t sound like a bland stock response. He seemed like the kind of guy who thought everything was cool, and always meant it when he said it. Rebecca liked him right off the bat.

“Where’s the rest of the crew?” Enrico asked.

Ken shrugged. “Don’t know, man. I think Rich is down in the weapons bay with Barry, checking something out. Forest and Eddie are probably in the garage.”

“Well, I guess we can track them down later,” Enrico said gruffly, annoyed that they weren’t there for him to introduce Rebecca to.

They left Ken to his reading and went to Enrico’s small office. He took a seat in his cushioned, leather office chair and Rebecca sat down in the small folding chair across from him.

“Okay, then,” he said. “You’ve seen the place, met a few people, probably formed all your first impressions by now. So tell me what you think.”

Rebecca knew that first impressions were never very reliable, so she tried hard not to be swayed by them. She had no other experience to draw from, since she was only a few months removed from the Academy. This was her first real job, and the tour was just brief taste of what working at the RCPD was going to be like.

“It’s very large,” she said hesitantly. “This building looks more like a museum than a police station. I expected something a little more conventional, I guess.”

“That’s Chief Irons for you,” Enrico agreed. “Like I said, he’s quite the art collector.”

“And it’s, well,” she sighed, trying to think of the right word. “It’s disorganized. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It just seems like the organization here is haphazard. Our offices are down here, but the command center is upstairs. I mean, it seems like the S.T.A.R.S. teams take up most of the department’s resources. I didn’t realize how much emphasis was placed on them as part of the regular police force.”

“That’s very true. The S.T.A.R.S. teams are, for lack of a better word, the highlight of the RCPD. We’re based here in Raccoon City, but we do work all around the state, so we get a lot of publicity. A large chunk of the RCPD’s budget is dedicated to the S.T.A.R.S. for that reason.”

“It just seems like so many resources set aside for such a relatively small group of officers. I mean, the S.W.A.T. team alone in New York City is probably more than twelve people.”

Enrico leaned back in his chair. “Don’t confuse manpower with effectiveness. Sure, we could hire a bunch more people to join S.T.A.R.S. and turn it into some huge organization, but that’s not what we’re about. We are a very tight-knit group, but in my opinion, that only makes us a more effective unit when we work together. I know it might sound like a cliché, but we’re like family. It’s one of the things that makes S.T.A.R.S. so special.”

“Does that mean I’m part of the family now?”

“Give it a few weeks. I think you’ll see what I mean. Being part of S.T.A.R.S. is more than just being a police officer. We’re passionate about helping people and we’re passionate about our mission.”

“That’s totally the same way I feel.”

“And that’s why we chose for you to join us,” Enrico said.

As Enrico said, S.T.A.R.S. was a highly-publicized unit, so Rebecca already knew about them when she first decided to become a cop. At the time, she never expected that she would have the opportunity to join, but when they announced an open position, she applied immediately. She could have accepted a job as a police officer and been happy to do so, but the chance to be part of a special team appealed to her. S.T.A.R.S. performed many of the same functions as a S.W.A.T. team, but they also staged search-and-rescue operations, long-term criminal investigations, hostage and kidnapping scenarios, and a host of others.

They spoke at length about work schedules, responsibilities, paperwork requirements, and other boring details of the job. Bravo team worked the morning shift, from approximately eight in the morning until six in the evening. Their work week started on Friday and ended on Tuesday. Alpha team had an equally atypical weekly schedule, coming in Wednesday to Sunday, and worked the evening shift.

Rebecca asked, “If Alpha team has Mondays off, then why is Chris Redfield here?”

“Sometimes our schedules vary. It’s not uncommon to see Alpha team members here in the morning, and we often get called to work evenings if a situation comes up. Although, to be honest, I have no idea what Chris is doing here,” Enrico chuckled. “He probably showed up just so he could use the office phone to make long-distance calls.”

Rebecca laughed. “I obviously haven’t met everyone yet, but I was curious. I’m not the only woman in S.T.A.R.S., am I?”

“No, you’re not. Jill Valentine is part of Alpha team. She’s been with us for several years.”

“Okay. Am I the youngest member of S.T.A.R.S.?”

“By about seven years. I think Brad Vickers was our youngest member, and he’s only thirty. But we’ve had other members join when they were your age. Ken was twenty-four when he joined us, if I remember correctly. No one will judge you for being young.”

“That’s good to know” Rebecca replied with a smile.

Enrico leaned forward, setting his elbows on the desk and folding his hands. “Well, if you don’t have any other questions, there’s a few things I’d like to ask you, if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead. What do you want to know?”

“Let’s set up a hypothetical situation. You’re called to investigate a shooting and you’re in pursuit of the suspect. Along the way, you encounter some teenagers smoking marijuana. What do you do? Continue after the suspect or arrest the teenagers?”

For the next hour, Enrico went through about a dozen common police situations, and Rebecca answered as honestly as she could. Would she turn in a fellow officer who broke the law? Would she threaten a suspect in order to get information? Would she help a citizen in distress if it meant letting a dangerous suspect escape? They were fairly basic questions, but she knew that her responses mattered a great deal. Yes, she would turn in a fellow officer. No, she would not threaten a suspect. And yes, she would help a citizen who needed help.

“One last thing,” Enrico asked once they were done. “After this, we can head out and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team. Everyone has their own personal reasons for becoming a police officer. So what made you want to join the force in the first place?”

Rebecca did not answer right away. She fidgeted in her chair, rubbing her hands but not really wringing them. She knew that eventually someone would ask her that question, and she considered a convenient platitude about helping people or believing in law and order. But Enrico would know a lie when he heard one. Rebecca fixed her gaze on the wall and told him the truth.

“My father was killed three years ago,” she said quietly. “He worked at a bank. There was a robbery attempt. The robber didn’t get any money, but he shot my father and a security guard on the way out. The police never found him.”

She closed her eyes tightly, trying not to remember the phone call from her mother while she was at college. She tried not to remember the policemen offering their sympathies while at the same time admitting they had no suspects. The funeral, the grief, her mother’s depression, and then her own. She pushed it to the side and opened her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Enrico whispered, and there was such pained sincerity in his voice that it almost broke down her barriers and made her descend into tears.

“I dropped out of college that year,” she went on. “I just didn’t see the point in it anymore. I joined the Police Academy a little while after that.”

“There are a lot of people who become police officers for that exact reason,” Enrico said. “You don’t have to say any more if you don’t want to.”

Rebecca didn’t say any more. Saying what little she did had been more than enough. But despite what most police officers felt, despite what Enrico maybe believed, it wasn’t just about pursuing justice or revenge, or chasing some personal ideal or twisted vendetta. She wasn’t out to find the man who murdered her father. She knew that would never happen. It went deeper than that, until it was not just about her or her father.

Donald Chambers had not died right away. He laid on the bank floor and slowly bled to death for seven minutes before the police showed up. None of the other bank employees knew proper first-aid or CPR, and neither did the first officers on the scene. Nine more minutes passed before the paramedics finally arrived. By then, Rebecca’s father was gone.

For her, it was not just that her father had died, but that he died because no one knew how to help him. He could have survived if the police officers on the scene had been trained properly.

In the end, that’s what motivated her. She had already planned to be a nurse before the tragedy struck, she used her knowledge of medicine to become qualified as a first-aid technician while studying at the Academy.

It wasn’t about avenging herself or the death of her father. It was about saving someone else from that nightmare. No one should ever have to suffer through the loss of a loved one just because no one else knew how to save them. Most police officers received some first-aid training, but it was always a secondary concern, and many officers either forgot their training or did not practice it enough to be useful in an emergency situation.

Rebecca wanted to be the police officer who arrived first on the scene and could actually save someone who was wounded before the ambulance arrived. She wanted to be the one who could have saved her father.

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