Chapter 34: Assimilation

After PT, Rick was asked to have a quick breakfast and go to the infirmary. No reasons were given but he didn’t need to be a genius to know why. Present with the Doctor were the Major and the Captain. Why the latter was there was beyond him and he got a quick answer.

“Captain Walker is in the know but she needs to know more to provide you with appropriate training.” Ethan explained when he saw the expression on Rick’s face.

Rick nodded and took a seat on one of the beds. Mia immediately began to share her discoveries from the blood sample she had taken the previous day. She was detailed and very pointed with her vocabulary. Often, Ethan needed her to clarify in simpler terms so he could understand.

“So basically… The viruses are still dormant in my body?” Rick asked at the end of the explanation.

Mia denied it on the spot. “No. There are still traces of it. You’re not contagious if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I wasn’t. I was wondering the consequences of it and what it meant for them. It they were just dormant or—”

“They are not.” The doctor cut him off. “They were broken down and your body assimilated part of them into your own DNA and discarded the rest.”

Her brother interjected with a question of his own. “What does that mean exactly, Mia?”

“It means that I’m not human anymore.”

“Incorrect.” Mia refuted the statement strongly. “You’re human just… A hundred and a few more percent.” When she saw the confused look on their faces she explained herself more after sighing. “As I said your body disassembled the viruses. How asinine aside that is, it picked what was good from them and integrated it to your DNA. As a result, part of your DNA had been… enhanced.”

“Like my DNA unlocked some kind of hidden potential in the human genome?” Rick put it out there in simpler terms.

“Yes, you can see it like that.” Mia nodded. “Now, I need to know more about the effects of those viruses. Not about them; I already read reports from Doctor Birkin. I’m talking about you. So far I know your physical abilities have been increased drastically, from your muscles to your senses, but is there something more?”

Rick nodded slowly, thinking with which part to begin. It wasn’t easy, there was a lot to cover.

“I deal with visual information a lot faster. My reaction time is off the charts. That’s how I’m able to last so long against the Captain. In my eyes, she’s very slow when she moves.”

“Well that explains that.” The major commented now understanding how a novice like Rick had been able to last against his best element in close quarter combat.

“It only happens when I’m on alert, so I think my body is just reacting to adrenaline a lot more.”

The doctor agreed. “It is the most likely answer but we’ll have to test it thoroughly. What else?”

“My abilities were depending mostly on my hunger,” Rick continued. “Especially healing. I suppose my body needed more energy and consumed what I had eaten faster for it. With my stomach full, I noticed a stark difference.”

“You used the past tense. Can I infer it’s not the case anymore?”

Once again Rick nodded. “Not since I was injected with a modified T-Veronica virus.”

Mia titled her head to the side. “The T-Veronica? A variant of the T-Virus?”

“Hold on,” Ethan raised his hand to interrupt the two of them. “When did you get infected with another virus? I thought it was just the T and G ones.”

“December 28th.” Rick replied stoically.

The Major wasn’t so stoic however. “How did that happen?!”

There was reason to be panicked. The T-Virus had brought down Raccoon City in a bit more than a week and had needed a nuke to put an end to its chaos. If a variant of it was somewhere out there, this was a serious threat. Not only to the United States of America but the whole world at large.

Rick sighed, not particularly wanting to talk about how his Christmas holidays went tits up.

“In the search of my girl—” Rick corrected himself. “Ex-girlfriend’s brother, we ended up captured by Umbrella and imprisoned on Rockford Island in the South Pacific Ocean. It was… a concentration camp for the company’s enemies and traitors. Experiments were run on the prisoners while Umbrella’s military forces trained to the side. A third party attacked the island, probably a rival company, I don't know.” His shoulders went up and down in a shrug.

“There was another outbreak of the T-virus. We… Claire and I escaped by using a transport plane. Unfortunately, its controls were remotely taken over and we ended in another Umbrella base in Antarctica. There I was captured again by Alexia Ashford. One of the descendants of a founder of Umbrella. She was the one who created the T-Veronica. Named in honor of her ancestor.”

“And she injected it to you.” The Major was beginning to see the big picture while also being disturbed by the fact that the kid in front of him went through a fourth outbreak in less than six months. A fourth one and lived to tell the tale.

“No. She injected a variant of it but it doesn’t have a name.” Rick corrected. “Alexia Ashford injected the virus into herself fifteen years ago but to fight the undesirable effects, went to cryo sleep to let her body adapt slowly. She may have been a sociopathic, megalomaniac bitch with a god complex but she was a genius. Her plan worked and she injected me with her own strain of the virus. You can say it’s the T-Alexia in a way.”

Mia chose to speak up then. “I’ll need a report of what that virus can do but for now I’m more interested in the effects it had on you.”

Rick bobbed his head in agreement. “Much like with the T-Virus I developed a strong fever. It didn’t last long and I wasn’t rendered unconscious. So far, the only effect I know about is that my need for energy is far less. Whether my stomach is full or not my abilities do not fluctuate anymore.”

“What about the island and the virus?” Ethan inquired.

“Both destroyed as far as I know. Alexia is probably dead but Wesker—Oh, yeah, the asshole is alive, I forgot about him, Wesker may have found her body or another sample of the T-Veronica.”

The Major said nothing but made a mental note to report this to the president. The threat was too big to ignore even if flimsy.

“Anything else of notice?”

“No, doctor. There might be… Well… I could feel my organs regrowing but beside that, I know of nothing else.”

“Alright. I’m still going to monitor you closely. If you feel any changes or any discomfort, you come to me immediately.”

It wasn’t just a suggestion. It was a command. One that Rick wouldn’t disobey for the simple reason that he wanted to know even more than she did about what he was and what he could do.

Rick was let go for the morning tests. Thoughts about what he was exactly ran around in his head. He was human. That brought him a bit of comfort. He wasn’t a monster despite what the few people he knew told him. A beast, perhaps but not a monster. The knowledge made him feel a bit lighter but Claire’s words still hurt deep even if she had spoken then in a moment of turmoil and immediately took them back.

Since he had the morning free until it was time for him to undergo the daily test, he used the opportunity to continue studying his basics manual, Rachel lounging on her bed with a magazine.

This time however, it was about weapons. Knives to be precise. The blonde woman was humming to herself, curling a lock of her hair around a finger, while laying on her stomach. The humming itself didn’t phase Rick one bit and he could easily tune it out. What was difficult was the fact that Rachel was purposefully facing him. It revealed not only her breasts spilling a bit from her issued white tank top from the way they were pressed against the mattress but her ass was also moving right and left.

He knew he would find it difficult to not keep staring at it if he looked sideways only once. It was that beautiful and inciting. On top of that, it reminded him of Claire’s again and he really didn’t want to go down that memory lane.

She left when it was her turn giving him one hour of full peace. When she came back however, he was done with the manual, for the morning.

“Want to spar?”

His question came from the left field and she blinked in confusion. “Spar?” Rachel wasn’t sure it was what he had asked.

Rick simply nodded, pushing his chair back when he stood up and pulling it back. “Yes. I need to learn how to fight and fighting the Captain can only bring me so far.”

“What do you mean ‘learn how to fight’?” The blonde was frowning up a storm. “You’re the one that lasted the longest against her and by far!”

“Out of instincts not skills. I need to learn and I need experience.”

Rachel opened her mouth then closed it multiple times. It made no sense to her. Either Rick was playing her or his instincts were that good. In the latter case it deepened the mystery of how he had found himself here. Being a survivor was one thing but not enough, of that she was sure. There was something more about Rick and it was bugging her not knowing.

Rick sealed her decision with his next words. “I’m not going to fight back. The purpose is for me to learn how to deal with attacks.”

It was enough for his roommate to put her issue down and go with him to the training area. What followed next was Rick having his ass handed to him. He could see Rachel's movements clear as day and in slow motion but held himself back to learn how to block, parry or dodge properly. He wouldn’t have learned anything otherwise and that would have defeated the purpose of the exercise. Being hit a lot didn’t bother him; pain has been a long time companion in his life. As far as he could remember in fact. Pain was a lesson and he intended to learn it well. That Rachel gave him tricks and tips here and there, during short breaks, was very much appreciated.

She honestly couldn’t understand him and she wasn’t the only one. The other candidates who have been there have been perplexed about Rick. Even more so now than after he had dispatched one of them the previous day.

The spar ended when it was Rick’s turn to go through the tests. This time Doctor Hunt had more tailored tests to test his physical ability. If the previous day had turned out to be about his endurance instead of his limits, today would be different.