Welcome To The Umbrella Corporation

Chapter Nineteen

It was not until Wesker met Lisa that he realized why Spencer personally chose him to take care of Marcus. It had nothing to do with Wesker’s potential as a scientist, or Birkin’s morally stringent views. Spencer didn’t choose him because he liked him, or trusted him, or anything so benevolent. He didn’t even do it to test Wesker’s loyalty, although that was a small part of it. Spencer did it in order to bond Wesker permanently to the company, to make it impossible for Wesker to back out when things got to much for him.

To blackmail him, in other words.

“What you are about to see is the most secret project at this facility,” Spencer told him as they descended down into the labs one day. “So far, you’re doing a fantastic job, and you’ve proven yourself trustworthy, dependable, and dedicated. I’m very confident that you’ll be able to handle the ramifications of this project.”

“What kind of ramifications?”

“It’s hard to explain,” Spencer said evasively. “It’s just that this project implies some ... uncomfortable truths.”

They took the elevator to one of the lowest levels, which Wesker so far did not have security clearance to visit, despite his status as Research Project Manager. They headed down the sterile white hallway to the unmarked double doors at the end. Spencer entered an entry code into a number pad and the doors clicked open.

The circular lab room he entered was larger than any of the others in the upper levels. Two rows of computers were in the center, and a series of observation rooms lined the outside wall of the lab, twelve in all. The room was populated with about a dozen scientists, half of them wearing full hazard suits and a few of the others wearing face masks. They glanced up when Spencer and Wesker entered, but said nothing and returned to their respective jobs. The room was brightly illuminated with fluorescent lighting, making Wesker glad he always wore his sunglasses.

Spencer walked through the room and Wesker watched as the scientists visibly backed away as he passed by. It was like Moses parting the Red Sea. Wesker followed him hesitantly, trying to ignore the suspicious stares the other scientists gave him. He had a feeling that they already knew who he was.

The observation room at the opposite side of the circular lab was much longer than the others. As Wesker approached, he saw that it was divided into several anterooms in front of the actual observation chamber, each with its own number pad to grant entry.

Wesker looked through the several panes of glass into the observation room at the far end. There was a woman inside, or at least Wesker guessed it was a woman. She was filthy dirty, her long blonde hair hanging in front of her face like dead weeds. He clothes were ragged and torn up, and she shambled around the room aimlessly, walking more like a gorilla than a human being. Her wrists were bound with solid metal manacles that led to a chain around her neck, which then extended to the wall, where it was bolted in several places. She looked like an abused animal in a zoo, and Wesker could not take his eyes away from her.

“This is Lisa,” Spencer said, gesturing toward the woman. “Lisa, meet Wesker. He’s going to be your caretaker from now on.”

Wesker got closer to the glass to get a better look. He tried the door but it was locked.

“There are three doors,” Spencer explained. “You need three different access codes to get to her. She’s chained very securely, but we can’t take any chances.”

“What do you mean? Why is she in there?”

“Lisa is our most secret project. She is a Typhoid Mary.”

Wesker looked at him, uncomprehending, and then returned his gaze to Lisa. He felt a chill run up his spine. “What are you talking about?”

“She’s infected,” Spencer said clinically, his hands folded behind his back.

Wesker already knew that accidents had happened at the lab before. People had become infected. Marcus told him long ago that the they hadn’t had an accident for over seven years.

“So she’s a just second-stage host?” he asked. Something was wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. The woman had manacles on. Why would they put manacles on a zombie?

Spencer shook his head. “No, she isn’t. The Progenitor, for some reason we simply cannot understand, has not killed her.”

“What a minute. Are you telling me that woman is alive?”

“Yes, technically. She’s alive, but unfortunately, she’s violently insane. Whether or not it’s from the virus, we can’t say.”

“I don’t understand. How long has she been here?”

Spencer did not answer, and Wesker pulled away from the glass to look at him expectantly. Spencer met his gaze and said, “Lisa has been here for almost twenty years.”

“Twenty years?” Wesker blurted out. “You’ve kept her here all that time?”

“What would you expect us to do? She’s infected with the virus.”

“But it hasn’t killed her?”

“No, it hasn’t.”

Wesker’s heart was racing as he turned back to the window and stared at the woman trapped in the observation room. Twenty years. Wesker was only twenty-two, so this woman had been a prisoner in the lab for almost his entire life. He tried to think. The Arklay lab itself was only about twenty years old, so did she become infected before the lab was even built? Did they build this particular room specifically for her?

“Can I get a closer look?”

Spencer called over one of the other scientists, who entered the codes to the first two doors. He apologized for not knowing the code to the final door. “That’s all right,” Spencer said. “I think this is close enough.”

Wesker stared through the single pane of reinforced glass at the woman in the room. Upon closer inspection, he saw that her wrists were bruised and rubbed raw from the manacles, which looked as if they hadn’t been removed in years. Her clothes, a blue shirt and brown pants, were torn to shreds, hanging off her body in tatters. Her skin was filthy, scabbed and blistered in places, and her tangled hair hung limply over her face, obscuring it.

“Who is she?” Wesker asked.

“I told you. Her name is Lisa.”

“That’s not what I mean. Who is she really?”

Spencer pursed his lips and shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry, Wesker, but there are some secrets even you are not privy to yet. Let’s just say that Lisa is a very unfortunate individual who is not here of her own free will.”

“And she’s been here for twenty years.”

“Yes.”

“Jesus,” Wesker whispered. He rubbed his chin nervously, staring at the woman, trying to come to grips with the conflicted emotional reaction stirring within him.

At one end, he was disgusted and completely horrified at the thought of someone imprisoned in the lab for so long. At another end, he was amazed and fascinated that she had survived with the virus for that entire time. Her awful plight both revolted and intrigued him. He was profoundly interested in who she was and why she was there. He was captivated and sickened at the same time, filled with moral outrage and professional interest simultaneously.

How could she have survived? The Progenitor killed everyone it infected. There were no exceptions. No one could be immune to it. It would be like being naturally immune to Anthrax or the Black Plague. The Progenitor was absolutely lethal. So how come the Progenitor didn’t affect her?

“She must really be a Typhoid Mary,” he said after awhile. “I don’t mean to second-guess the other scientists here, but I don’t understand how she can just be immune to it. There has to be some physical reason.”

“If there is, we haven’t been able to learn what it is. We’ve subjected her to hundreds of different tests over the years, and we have no explanation.”

“It doesn’t make any sense ...”

Suddenly, as if awakened from her stupor by the sound of their voices, Lisa’s head jerked up so she could looked up at them. Wesker staggered backward in shock, suppressing the urge to shriek in fear. Spencer did not react as much, but he looked away just the same. Lisa shuffled forward, her manacles clanking, and tilted her head like a quizzical dog. Wesker stared in horror at her face.

Because it wasn’t her face. It appeared as if she had torn someone else’s face off and placed it over her own. Wesker covered his mouth as if about to vomit, as he stared at the decayed skin hung over the woman’s features. Dark, insane eyes looked out from behind the empty eye holes in the skin mask, partially concealed by the dirty hair hanging on front of it.

“My God ...”

Spencer’s voice cam from behind him. “As I said, Lisa is quite insane. She tears the faces from anyone who gets close to her and then wears them.”

Wesker stared at Spencer in utter disbelief. “Anyone who ...” He stared back at Lisa, but she resumed her previous pose and he could no longer see her hideous mask. But for the few seconds he had seen it, it occurred to him that it could not have been that old, or it would have been visibly more decayed and rotten. The implied truth of the situation struck him in the face.

“How many people has she killed?” he asked, her voice strained.

“Maybe a dozen,” Spencer replied. “She killed one of the researchers here just last year. He entered the observation room to take a sample and somehow she got a hold of him. He must have been standing too close. She tore off the helmet to his hazard suit and strangled him. Then, she ripped his face off and wore it.”

Wesker could not take it any longer. He looked away from the woman and faced the other direction, leaning over and putting his hands on his knees. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“You wouldn’t be the first.”

Wesker closed his eyes tightly, trying to erase Lisa’s image from his mind. But something else nagged at him, something else was wrong.

“The face she ... the face she’s wearing right now. It’s not a year old. It’s newer than that.”

“It’s about a week old,” Spencer replied. “It belonged to another test subject.”

Wesker stood back up slowly, his breathing ragged. Behind his sunglasses, his eyes opened wide. He cast a confused, worried look at Spencer. “Another test subject?”

Spencer looked him right in the eye, and Wesker saw nothing there. No fear, no guilt, no trace of any emotion that might make Spencer seem human. It was like looking into a bottomless pit. Wesker pushed past him and quickly went back through the anterooms to return to the lab proper.

He wasn’t sure if he was trying to get farther away from Lisa, or from Spencer.

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