Apocalypse

by Keith R. A. DeCandido

• ISBN13: 9780743493499
• ISBN10: 0743493494
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-31
• Publisher: Pocket Star

Summary

Failure of the Hive to contain the Umbrella Corporation's most deadly viral creation has led to an outbreak of apocalyptic proportions. Now the streets of Raccoon City swarm with the living dead, compelling Umbrella to deploy another of its bioweapons,

Excerpts

Chapter One Major Timothy Cain didn't take any shit.He'd been born with a different name in Berlin back when the city was separated by a large wall. The third of four children, and the youngest boy, he had the misfortune to be on the wrong side of it. Shortly after Mother died, when he was sixteen, Father had managed to secure a way for them to emigrate to the United States. Upon arrival, Father had declared their name to be Cain -- an anglicization of their name in German -- and gave all his children new names. They were now Michael, Anthony, Timothy, and Mary, because those, Father said, sounded like American names. Anytime they used their old German names, Father would hit them until they stopped. Not being fools, all the children learned quickly to think of themselves with their new identities.In gratitude to his new home, Timothy enlisted in the army on his eighteenth birthday. Shortly thereafter, he was sent overseas to fight in the Gulf War. Father was happy that his son did so. Michael, who was three years older than Timothy, had moved to Chicago and become a police officer; Anthony had moved to San Francisco and lost touch with the rest of the family. As for Mary, though women could serve, she had no interest in doing so, preferring a career in business.Timothy Cain became alive for the first time in the desert. He had always succeeded academically, but mostly by rote. He was a fast learner, but he had never had much enthusiasm for it. The two years of school he'd attended since immigrating were difficult, since Timothy spoke with a thick German accent, which made him the target of teasing by his peers, and made it difficult for him to derive any kind of enjoyment from the learning experience.Combat, though, he took joy in that, especially when that combat was against the enemies of the United States of America. And in the desert, nobody cared about his accent, except for a few idiots, and they all shut up once they saw Timothy Cain in action.It didn't take long for him to distinguish himself, work his way up the ranks. He was leading his fellow soldiers into combat after only a few weeks, and his men would follow him anywhere. He had a natural charisma, an aptitude for tactics, and an especially fine ability to kill Saddam's foot soldiers. Subject to the usual armed forces proclivity for obvious nicknames, he quickly became known as "Able" Cain, because no matter how bad the mission, no matter how ridiculous the plan, no matter what it was you needed to get done, if you put Sergeant Timothy Cain in charge, it was going to get done. Period.Cain learned many things in the desert, but the most important thing was that, contrary to what Father had always taught him, life was neither precious nor sacred.Life was, in fact, cheap.If life was such a glorious, magnificent, wonderful thing, then it wouldn't be so easy to take it away.If life was a great gift, then he wouldn't be able to kill a fellow human being with one hand, as he did often in the Persian Gulf.When his tour ended, he went to officer candidate school to get his commission.After several more years as an officer, he realized another important truth: there was more to life than the military.That truth didn't so much come from plowing through the desert and blowing up the enemy, something at which he had frankly excelled. No, this truth came from the gentlemen in suits who worked for the Umbrella Corporation and recruited him to run its Security Division. Able Cain had served his country. In a sense, he would still be doing so, for Umbrella had many government contracts and provided services for Americans everywhere.The main difference was that now he'd be recompensed with an obscene amount of money.Having achieved the rank of major, Cain said yes to Umbrella's proposition, though he insisted that he still be referred to by his rank. He was also able to buy Father a house in Florida. When M