Raccoon City Destruction Incident

The Raccoon City Destruction Incident was a catastrophic viral outbreak that occurred between September and October 1998, resulting in the city's destruction in a missile strike.

Arklay mountains
Although the city outbreak began in September, the June of that same year sealed Raccoon's fate.

The previous month on May 11, Dr. James Marcus, who had been ressurected by the Progenitor virus via a leech colony that Marcus had experimented on, enacted his revenge on Umbrella for his previous assassination. Spreading the experimental t-Virus around the Arklay Laboratory, the water supply was infected.

The dying or "zombified" researchers were unable to stop the mysterious release of the experimental B.O.W.s and the already-infected guard dogs. The escaped dogs would spread the t-Virus around the Arklay Forest in what would become known as the Arklay Mountains outbreak. Even with the destruction of the facility in July, the virus had spread too far to be halted.

Elsewhere, the underground laboratory's waste, contaminated with the t-Virus, began to flood Incineration Disposal Plant P-12A. Before August 17 reports became apparent that monsters were in the city. Umbrella began preparing for the inevitable, and its UBCS mercenaries were called into action on September 15.

In the days before the Raccoon City Destruction Incident officially began, the Raccoon General Hospital was already being filled with cases of a "cannibal disease".

Cause and effect
By September 1998, Umbrella scientist William Birkin successfully completed his work on the G-virus. Intending on selling his creation to the U.S. military, Umbrella turned against him and sent a U.S.S. unit to recover the G-virus. They discovered Birkin in his lab preparing to escape, and during the subsequent scuffle, an overeager operative shot Birkin. As Birkin lay dying, the operatives took the virus samples and fled the lab through the vast, secret sewer system beneath Raccoon City, specifically the RPD. Before his death, Birkin successfully injected one of the G-virus samples into his body and transformed.

Birkin then went on a rampage and chased the U.S.S. soldiers out of the lab and into the sewers, killing them there and destroying the vials containing the "G" and t-Viruses. The released virus spilled into the sewers and led the sewer rats to ingest it by both consuming it and feeding on the bodies of the U.S.S. The rats then began spreading it to the surface, while the rest leaked into the city's water supply, infecting the inhabitants of the now-doomed Raccoon City.

The beginning of the end


By September 24, the outbreak had reached epidemic levels in the city. Several people at J's Bar manage to escape the streets, which by then were inundated by zombies. Will, the bartender and Bob, friend of fellow survivor Mark Wilkins died in the attempted escape. The survivors destroyed a fuel truck and escaped to a small canal, where they met officers at the Apple Inn on the other side. The survivors used a bomb to destroy the zombies on Main Street, where the police in charge were killed or wounded. Elsewhere a helicopter carrying some 40 regugees crashed near the tram line, killing everyone. At 9PM, the Pentagon had the city quarantined and sent in the US Army to restrict civilian movement. The roads were being barricaded by the following morning.

By September 27, Raccoon City was completely infected, and all semblence of normal life had been destroyed as crashed and abandoned vehicles and dead bodies littered the streets and several buildings burned out of control due to the collapse of the Raccoon Fire Department.

Hordes of zombies filled the streets and overran the last remnants of Raccoon City Police Department in a major battle on the city streets on the night of September 27, and soon after overrun the police station itself, removing what was most likely the last safe zone in the cty.

Umbrella dispatched their Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS) to assist the police. In reality, the UBCS were actually just pawns used by Umbrella while their inside man; Nicholai Ginovaef acted as their leader and secretly collected data. The USBS fared little better than the RPD in containing the zombies, with almost all those dispatched to the city killed by September 28.

"Last escape"
On the night of September 27, Jill Valentine, recently resigned from S.T.A.R.S. returned to the city after investigating Umbrella with Chris Redfield and Barry Burton. The three of them made an agreement; Jill would continue her investigtion within Raccoon while Chris and Barry would go to Europe to investigate Umbrella's main HQ, with Jill rendezvousing with them later.

When the outbreak hit, Jill stayed in her apartment while the zombies overran the city and the UBCS and police tried to keep them at bay. She decides to make a run for it and as a former S.T.A.R.S. member, felt obligated to help any survivors. Meanwhile, Umbrella had already taken steps to kill the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members, and deployed the Nemesis-T Type into the city admidst the chaos. The Nemesis kills Brad Vickers, but Jill manages to avoid the creature.

Jill later meets a UBCS member named Carlos Oliveira. Despite the fact he works for Umbrella and Jill despises Umbrella, Carlos takes her to his leader Nicholai Ginovaef, who doesn't seem to trust her at first. They make a plan to rendezvous at the Saint Michael Clock Tower, where an escape helicopter will pick them up by using a city tram. However, the tram wasn't working, so they plan to find tools to work the tram. While searching for tools, Jill had believed that Nicholai was killed so only Jill, Carlos, and a injured Mikhail Victor got the tram working and escape. However, the Nemesis attacked the tram and Mikhail sacrificed himself to save Jill and Carlos by using a grenade at the Nemesis. This caused the tram to haywire and crash into the Clock Tower courtyard. Jill managed to make a signal at the clock tower and the rescue helicopter came, only to be shot down by the Nemesis. The Nemesis infects Jill with the t-Virus and Jill is forced to kill it. Jill became unconscious and fell into a deep sleep, just as Carlos showed up where the two were fighting.

Newcomers
On the night of September 29; after Jill's infection, Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy arrived in Raccoon City not knowing of the outbreak due to the lack of protection from the guards. The two met after Leon saved Claire from nearly being killed. The two headed to the police department, but were separated after a truck driver(who turned into a zombie after being bit by a zombie moments earlier) crashed into them. Claire meets gun store owner Robert Kendo, only to later be killed by zombies, then she arrives at the police station and finds a injured police man, Marvin Branagh. Claire then sees a little girl, who was being attacked by a zombie. Leon arrives and finds the same little girl, who runs away from him. Claire and Leon reunites, and split up to find her. Under command from Sergei Vladmir, a helicopter airdrops its "t" pods, with T-00 hitting the RPD and the others hitting the Dead Factory to attack a US Military team. Leon encounters with the T-00 who seems to be attacking Leon wherever he goes. Leon enters the underground parking lot and meets a mysterious woman named Ada Wong. She is searching for a reporter named Ben Bertolucci who knows about the Umbrella Corporation.

Around there, Claire meets Chief Brian Irons, who was supposed to watch over the mayor's daughter, but was killed. Claire finds the little girl, who's name is Sherry Birkin. Both of Sherry's parents work for Umbrella and her mother tells her to go to the police station. Claire then was able to find a secret passage in Chief Iron's office. She finds the chief, who was attacked by an unknown monster, who implanted embryos into his body. She learns of Iron's involvement with Umbrella, and the fact that he refused to speak of the truth of the Mansion Incident. She also learns about the G-virus and William Birkin, Sherry's father and creator of the G-virus. Irons then dies after the embryos in his body hatched. Meanwhile, Ben was attacked and killed by the same monster. Leon and Ada finds Ben and learn about Iron's involvement. Ada leaves to find Umbrella's lab, where she might be able to find her boyfriend.

While in the sewers, Claire and Sherry got separated and Sherry was then infected by the monster, who is revealed to be William Birkin, transformed into the monster. Claire meets Sherry's mother Annette Birkin, who tells her about the G-virus. Annette later encounters Leon and Ada, where is shot Leon in the chest. Ada confronts Annette and healed Leon. Claire finds Sherry, only to find out she was infected. The two made it into Umbrella's Underground Lab. Leon and Ada made there way to the underground lab, only for Ada to be attacked by William. The tram leading into the Underground lab stop midway and Leon goes out to find where they were, leaving Ada behind. Leon was able to make it into the lab, being separated from Ada. He learned from Annette later that Ada was a spy, refusing to believe her. Leon was then attacked by the T-00 only to be saved by Ada. Ada killed the T-00, but she was also fatally injured by the T-00. The T-00 fell into the blast furnace and Ada "died" in Leon's arms. Claire confronts Annette, who then confronts and later killed by William. Annette give Claire the information to create the vaccine to save Sherry. Unfortunately, time is now running out as the self-destruct system was activated. Claire was able to detect Leon on the surveillance cameras. She tells him to save Sherry from the security office as she was going to create the vaccine.

Leon found Sherry and headed to the escape train in the underground level. As he was starting the train, he was attacked by the now mutated T-00. A mysterious woman, believed to be Ada, gave Leon a Rocket Launcher, in which Leon use to destroy the monster once and for all. Claire finally makes the vaccines and heads toward the train. Unfortunately, she was attacked by William, but was able to defeat him. Claire reunited with Leon and Sherry as the train makes it way out of the lab. Claire injected Sherry with the vaccine and successfully cured her. However, William somehow makes it on board the train and the train self-destruct system was activated. Leon finds the now mutated William in the back and Claire and Sherry try to find a way to stop the train since the doors are locked. Sherry was able to reach the control panel and stopped the train. The three made their way to the end of the tunnel before the train exploded. Leon, Claire, and Sherry finally escaped in the morning of September 30. Claire leaves the group to find her brother, Chris Redfield, while Leon and Sherry were picked up by the US Military.

Around that night, HUNK, who had survived in the sewers for nearly eight days makes his escape out of the sewers and headed to the helipad to be picked up by a rescue copter. HUNK successfully escapes Raccoon City with the G-virus in hand.

Raccoon destruction
On October 1, Carlos successfully cured Jill with a vaccine he found at the Raccoon General Hospital. The two leave the church around that time and then Jill once again encountered the Nemesis.

After surviving the attack by T-00, Ada escapes the sewers and heads toward the Apple Inn to meet up with her contact. She finds out that he had committed suicide and Ada was then contacted by Wesker who seems disappointed in Ada for letting Leon escape the city. However, he changes his mind about Ada after seeing that she retrieved the G-virus. Wesker then gives Ada a hookshot gun and tells her that a helicopter is leaving Raccoon City and that the city is going to be destroyed. Ada leaves the hotel and makes her escape. Jill and Carlos learn that the city is going to be destroyed by a missile. The two search for a way to get out of the city before the city gets destroyed. Jill finally confronts Nicholai, who has stolen a helicopter and makes his escape.

Jill then confronts and kills the Nemesis once and for all. Ada finds the helicopter, only to be confronted by Tyrant-T0400TP. She destroys the Tyrant and manages to get on the helicopter with the hook gun she receives from Wesker. The helicopter had Sergei Vladimir and an Unknown Umbrella Officer Jill had believed that there was no escape for them, until Carlos learns that someone is trying to save Jill and that a helicopter is on it's way to pick her up. The helicopter finds both Jill and Carlos. The pilot was revealed to be no other than Barry Burton. The missile then arrives and destroys Raccoon City completely.