# Arc 1 – Claire's Last Investigation – Chapter 3: The Infection

Raccoon City, 1997

The computer terminal sat in a small office at the back of the warehouse, hidden behind a locked door that Claire had picked in under a minute. The room smelled of stale coffee and ozone, the kind of smell that came from old electronics running too long in a poorly ventilated space. A single desk held the monitor, a keyboard, and a tower unit humming beneath the table.

She sat down in the squeaking office chair and pressed the power button. The screen flickered to life, displaying a login prompt.

Username:
Password:

Claire had expected this. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small notebook—her notes from months of observation, including the names of Umbrella employees she'd seen coming and going from the facility. She tried the most common ones: smith, admin, research. Nothing.

Then she remembered the man she'd photographed at the gate. The one in the suit, unlocking the padlock. She'd caught a glimpse of his ID badge in one of her photos—a name, partially visible. Wesker.

She typed it.

Username: wesker
*Password:

The screen went black for a moment, then lit up with a desktop interface. File folders, research databases, a directory labeled PROJECTS.

Claire's breath caught. She was in.

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She moved quickly, scanning the file names. Most were coded—acronyms and numbers that meant nothing to her. But one folder stood out: T-VIRUS – PHASE 2 DATA.

She clicked it open.

The screen filled with text. Viral structures. Mutation protocols. A timeline of infection stages. Names of test subjects, each one crossed out after a certain number of days. She scrolled through pages of data, reading faster than she could process, her mind racing to piece together the implications.

Subject 001: Day 1 – Initial exposure. Day 3 – Cellular degeneration. Day 5 – Hostile behavior. Day 7 – Termination.

Subject 012: Day 1 – Exposure. Day 2 – Aggression spike. Day 4 – Full transformation. Day 6 – Containment breach. Subject destroyed.

She scrolled further. There were photographs—grainy, black-and-white images of things she couldn't quite identify. Human shapes twisted into impossible angles. Faces with no expression, mouths open in silent screams.

She found a folder labeled PATIENT ZERO – RACCOON CITY. Inside was a name she recognized: Jessica Harlowe, the …