Chapter 51: “Oh, Fuck Me.”

Rick wasn’t able to get a hold of Rachel for two weeks. She had been on an assignment on the other side of the world and while she had been aware of what was happening on Terragrigia she hadn’t been free to drop what she was doing and join the FBC forces there.

He had shared with her his suspicions about the FBC and she agreed with him that the whole ordeal sounded suspicious. The call ended with her relief he was alright and a promise to look discreetly into things.

It took a week for him to get a job as a field agent in the BSAA. Clive O’Brian kept giving him some curious look every time they came across each other so he ended up asking Jill what it was all about. She told him that the Director of the BSAA had apparently got his hands on his file. A mostly unredacted version.

To say she had been not only impressed but awed by the amount of shit he had gone through during his five years stint in the army was understatement. Especially his mission on the Spencer Rain.

Rick had written a letter of apology to Princeton for dropping out before the year even began. He was quite honest about his reasons, thinking that after how accommodating the University had been with his situation while in the army, they deserved at least that much respect.

To his surprise the Dean had answered that if he wished, he could still take the classes remotely and only be present for the exams. Rick’s grades had been outstanding and so despite being in the army and overseas. At least as far as the Dean knew. It was an unexpected opportunity that Rick took but changed his Major from medicine to bio-engineering. Medicine required of him to be present at a hospital in the latter years, something that was impossible and incompatible with his new job.

Sherry had written to him. Mainly about her time with her mother at Disney World but also about the fight they had about her joining the USSTRATCOM, the name of Leon’s agency. She didn’t want to be under the spotlight with either the BSAA or FBC. Doubly from the latter as she knew no one there.

Rick replied he was disappointed she didn’t join the BSAA, like he had done, because he would have loved working with her or at least seeing her more often. He, however, gave her his support and encouragement for the path she had chosen in life.

His first act as a member of the BSAA was to compile everything he knew about the bio-weapons and virus he had encountered over the years but also about the organizations and multiple persons of interest linked to it. Of course he had kept silent about anything regarding people and who were state secret. Everything else? It was game. It was rumored that Director O’Brian was caught dancing in victory in his office when the database was upgraded massively with all the new information.

It was information the FBC didn’t have and it allowed the BSAA to slowly but surely grow and make its mark in the world.

With no leads regarding the FBC’s suspicious actions, the discreet investigation on it had been stopped. Jill had been furious but knew there wasn’t anything that could be done about it.

The next eighteen months after what was now called the Terragrigia Panic, Rick went all over the world to investigate any leads on outbreaks. Most often that not, it was about raiding a facility researching the T-virus and creating bio-weapons or simply stopping some black market deals. Very rarely he had to enter battle and fight for his life.

He had moved out of Jill’s flat and found a small apartment up North in Wilmington. It was relatively a small city compared to the big ones around like Philadelphia or Baltimore. It reminded him of Raccoon City for its size and, along with the cheap rent and proximity to the BSAA headquarters and Princeton, were the reasons why he chose to live there.

Jill had subtly encouraged him to go out and date. Rick agreed on the condition she did too. She hadn’t insisted more after that. Still, he did have a few one night stands here and then but nothing more than a date. He had fully embraced Rachel’s philosophy of not getting attached. He would be lying, however, if he was happy with this kind of social life.

No matter who he met and went on a date with, he always found faults or flaws that turned him off. The truth, and Rick was well aware of it, was that not a single one could interest him for the simple reason that not one of them was Claire Redfield.

It was tiring and he absolutely hated it. Not being able to let go of his ex of seven years. He wished he could, truly, alas it was a vain endeavor. Claire had been his very first girlfriend and left a profound mark on his mind and more importantly: his heart.

While the sex was good and got plenty of phone numbers for an encore, he never made a single call. Stringing along a woman wasn’t his style and the simple thought of doing so displeased him greatly. It also wasn’t enough to make him feel something. Sexually satisfied? Yes. Emotionally satisfied? No.

The truth was that Rick was utterly miserable. Now that Rachel wasn’t by his side anymore to share their special brand of love they had, he was really no one in his life which had turned quite dull and devoid of life. At least he had his job and studies to focus on.

Especially the former. While there were no outbreaks to deal with, now that the threat of bio-terrorism was public, more and more cases popped up where the BSAA was called for.

The most recent one, the one he had been assigned to, was a leak in the pharmaceutical company WilPharma. The very same company who had made vaccine trials for the T-virus in India back in 2002. Someone had leaked information and pictures about those trials to Terra Save who immediately made them public. It was a shitstorm and the company took quite a hit on its reputation. People were manifesting, demanding justice, answers, accountability and shutdown of those trials.

Rick didn’t know who at Terra Save made everything public but that person was clearly retarded. The pictures presented were not of the vaccine trials but of the people infected by the T-virus and not yet turned into zombies. Not only that, but they were three years old pictures and the clinical tests had been exceptionally authorized by the US and Indian government out of desperation and hope to save infected people.

WilPharma being the one pharmaceutical company the United States charged with developing a working vaccine to the T-Virus and provided a sample of it for it there was real concern about any interruption.

To make sure that everything was in order, Rick was sent to Harvardville to do a check and make a report. Since the BSAA was a non-governmental agency WilPharma agreed to the inspection it was offered. If only to clear their name and continue their work without being bothered.

He had been well received and had access to pretty much the whole facility and data he wanted as long as it was about the T-virus and its vaccine. Rick could understand why WilPharm was a business first and foremost and all businesses dealing with billions of dollars had something to hide, whether it was good or not.

It only took a few days for him to see everything he wanted to see or rather was permitted to see. He was sure that there were skeletons in every closet but he wasn’t there for that. As long as the research on the T-virus vaccine followed the laws and ethics then all was well.

He had just said goodbye to Annette whose home he had spent the previous night in Harvardville to catch up with her and Sherry. Of course he had scheduled the visit and didn’t just show up at her door with a pizza. She had been kind enough to drive him back to the airport where he was waiting for his evening flight. The sun wasn’t even setting yet so he was spending his time waiting while listening to music with a MP3 Jill had gifted him for his birthday.

He was so engrossed in enjoying AC/DC, he missed people running in panic past him. It was only when he thought he heard gunshots that he opened his eyes and had a look at what was going on. He barely had the time to take stock of the situation that an announcement through the speakers called for the immediate evacuation of the airport. . Standing up and turning to pick his bag up, he was confronted by the sight of an airplane coming right onto him.

Rick moved on instincts to the left with a superhuman burst of speed. He went through a double door and heard the plane crash. The shock had been so violent that the walls shook and part of the building almost fell on top of him. One look back and he saw the way blocked.

The sounds of moans made him look forward.

“Oh, fuck me.”

His defeated tone echoed perfectly how he was feeling regarding the zombies pouring into the corridor and the new outbreak that had begun.