PROLOGUE
Raccoon Times, August 26,1998
MAYOR ANNOUNCES ‘KEEP CITY SAFE’ PLAN
RACCOON CITY—On the front steps of City Hall, Mayor Harris announced in a press conference yesterday afternoon that the City Council will be hiring at least ten new police officers to join the Raccoon police, in response to the continued suspension of the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.), in effect since the brutal murders that plagued Raccoon earlier this summer. Joined by Police Chief Brian Irons and all of Raccoon’s Council members, Harris assured the gathered citizens and reporters that Raccoon City will once again be a safe community in which to live and work, and that the investigation into the eleven “cannibal” murders and three fatal wild-animal attacks is far from closed. “Just because no one else has been attacked in the last month doesn’t mean that the elected officials of this city can relax,” Harris stated. “The good people of Raccoon deserve to have confidence in their police force and to be secure in the knowledge that their political representatives are doing everything possible to ensure each citizen’s safety. As many of you know, the S.T.A.R.S.’s suspension is likely to become permanent. That unit’s gross mishandling of the murder investigations and its subsequent disappearance from Raccoon City suggests that they don’t care about this community—but I want to assure you that we care, that myself, Chief Irons, and the men and women you see here today want nothing more than to make Raccoon a place in which our children can grow up without fear.”
Harris went on to detail a three-point plan designed to bolster public confidence and keep Raccoon citizens from falling victim to violence. Besides hiring between ten and twelve new police officers, the citywide curfew will remain in place through at least September, and Chief Irons will personally head a task force of several officers and detectives to continue searching for the killers who took the lives of eleven people between May and July of this year------
Cityside, September 4,1998
RENOVATION OP UMBRELLA COMPLEX PLANNED
RACCOON CITY— The Umbrella chemical plant just south of downtown Raccoon is due for major construction efforts, slated to begin next Monday. This will be the third such structural renovation in the last year for the thriving pharmaceutical company. According to Umbrella spokesperson Amanda Whitney, two of the laboratories inside the main plant will be fitted with several million dollars’ worth of new equipment designed for vaccine synthesis, and the building itself will receive a state-of-the-art security system. In addition, all of the connected office buildings will be upgrading computers over the next several weeks. But will this be a problem for downtown traffic? Said Whitney, “With the Raccoon police building just finishing up yet another one of their renovations, we know that local commuters are getting pretty tired of blocked streets. We’re going to do our best not to get in the way of downtown traffic; most of the construction is internal, and the rest we’ll be doing after business hours.” The courtyard in front of the RPD building, our readers may remember, was recently repaved and landscaped after several mysterious cracks appeared in the cement and topsoil; traffic had to be diverted around two blocks of Oak Street for six days. When asked why so many “overhauls” as of late, Whitney replied, “Umbrella has stayed ahead of the competition for as long as it has by keeping up with current technology. It’s going to be a busy couple of months, but I think it will be well worth the effort when we’re finally through. . . .”
.Raccoon Weekly Editorial, September 17, 1998 IRONS TO RUN?
RACCOON CITY— Mayor Harris may be in for a rough race next spring. Weekly sources inside the RPD are saying that Brian Irons, chief of police for the last four-and-a-half years, may be running for the city’s top office in the next election, facing off against the popular and as yet unopposed Devlin Harris, already in office for three consecutive terms. Although Irons would not confirm his possible entry into the political arena, the onetime S.T.A.R.S. member also refused to deny the rumor.
With his approval rating at an all-time high ever since the cessation of this summer’s savage murders (as yet unsolved) and the planned expansion of the RPD, Chief Irons may indeed be the man to knock Harris out of City Hall; the question is, will voters be able to forget Irons’s alleged involvement in the 1994 Cider District land scam? Or his rather expensive tastes In art and interior design, which have turned parts of the RPD building into something more like a museum than a working office? Assuming he means to throw his hat into the ring, this reporter—for one—will be looking forward to examining Irons’s financial records. . ..
Baocoan Times, September 22,1998
TEENAGER ATTACKED IN CITY PARK
RACCOON CITY—At, approximately 6:30 P.M. last night, fourteen-year-old Shanna Williamson was accosted by a mysterious stranger in downtown’s Birch Street Park on the way home from softball practice. The man came out from behind a row of hedges at the south end of the park and knocked Ms. Williamson off of her bicycle before attempting to grab her. The teen managed to get away with onty a few scratches, running to the nearby residence of Tom and Clara Atkins; Mrs. Atkins alerted the authorities, who conducted a thorough search of the park but found no sign of the attacker. According to the girl (through a police statement issued earlier this morning), the man appeared to be a transient; his clothes and hair were dirty, and she described a bad odor coming from him, a “smell like rotten fruit.”
She also said that he seemed drunk, staggering and falling after her as she ran. With the plague of cannibalistic murders from May to July still unsolved, the RPD is taking Ms. Williamson’s encounter very seriously; the assailant bears a striking resemblance to eyewitness reports of the “gang” members spotted in Victory Park last June. Mayor Harris has called a press conference for later today, and Mice Chief Brian Irons has stated already that with the first of the newly hired police officers expected next week, regular patrols will extend their routes to include the downtown park blocks. . . .
ORE
SEPfEfflBER.26, 1998
WITH THE GUYS WAITING OUTSIDE IN BARry’s truck, Jill did her best to hurry. It wasn’t easy; the house had been tossed since the last time she’d been there, the floors were strewn with books and papers, and it was too dark to navigate around the debris easily. That her small home had been violated was upsetting, though not much of a surprise. She figured she should just be thankful that she wasn’t really the sentimental type—and that the intruders hadn’t managed to find her passport.
She grabbed random handfuls of clean socks and underwear in the cramped darkness of the bedroom and stuffed them deep into her weathered backpack, wishing she could turn on the lights. Packing a bag in the dark was harder than it sounded, would be even if one’s house hadn’t been trashed; but she knew they couldn’t afford to take any chances. It was unlikely that Umbrella still had all of their houses staked out, but if there was anyone watching, a light in the window could draw fire.
At least you’re getting out. No more hiding. There was that much. They were headed for foreign soil, to storm enemy headquarters and very likely get killed in the process, but at least she wouldn’t have to hang out in Raccoon anymore. And from what she’d read in the papers lately, maybe that was for the best. Two attacks in the last week ... Chris and Barry were skeptical about the danger, even knowing what the T-Virus did to people—Barry thought it was some kind of a PR stunt, that Umbrella would “rescue” Raccoon before anyone got hurt. Chris agreed, insisting that Umbrella wouldn’t crap in their own back yard, so to speak, what with the Spencer estate disaster so recent. But Jill wasn’t prepared to assume anything; Umbrel-la had already proven that they couldn’t contain their research. And with what Rebecca and David Trapp’s team had faced in Maine ...