[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 527 - One More Top-Tier Researcher Added to the Ranks

The Scorpion King barreled through the mountain forest, thick legs churning at breakneck speed.

The sole surviving T-02 Tyrant jogged close behind like a loyal heavy infantryman, each stride hitting the earth with a dull, pounding weight.

William Birkin sat atop the jolting scorpion's back, both hands buried in his own hair, looking exactly like a gambler who'd lost everything down to his underwear.

"You people don't understand at all!" he howled.

"I was already leaving! I had a buyer lined up! You barged in and blew the whole thing — and my Sherry is still in their hands! Annette is still there!"

Leon gripped a protrusion on the scorpion's carapace with one hand, steering without bothering to look back.

"Buddy. Shut your mouth."

"That wife of yours is a diehard. As for your daughter — once I free up my hands, I'll go pick her up."

Ada sat behind Leon, the wind throwing her short hair across the corners of her eyes.

She watched coldly as this genius virologist, once hailed as Umbrella Corporation's brightest rising star, came apart at the seams.

"Since we're laying everything out." Ada shifted her weight, avoiding a protruding bone plate. "Tell me, how does the chief of the Arklay Research Facility end up sneaking around, selling out his own employer?"

William went quiet.

He lifted his head. His bloodshot eyes burned with a venom that had been locked away for a very long time.

The dam broke.

"Chief? Chief my ass!"

He spat.

"To Spencer and those suit-wearing idiots, I'm nothing but a hen that lays golden eggs."

"No. Worse than a hen. I'm a tool."

Rebekah huddled to one side, ears open.

She'd spent time at the Spencer Mansion, but none of this had ever reached her.

William leaned back against the Tyrant's thick arm, completely indifferent to whether the monster beside him might decide to bite his head off.

He drifted back.

"Teenager. I was just a teenager when that old fossil Spencer found me."

"Back then, I was the miracle of the entire biology world. Within the inner circles, at least."

"Albert Wesker. That bastard who wears sunglasses all day, playing the part."

"We were the best partners."

"After Marcus died, we took over the Progenitor Virus research. We transformed it into the second-generation T-Virus."

The words came faster now, his voice climbing.

"And what did I get for it? I created a miracle, and those bloodsucking executives only wanted to mass-produce it!"

"They wanted to turn the T-Virus into an assembly-line toaster, pump out a batch of brainless weapons that follow simple commands and nothing else!"

"That is an insult to evolution!" William flung his arm wide.

"True evolution requires independent thought!"

"The body must surpass humanity. The mind must tower above ordinary men."

"That is the perfect new lifeform!"

"Weapons with no intelligence are just moving lumps of rotting meat on a battlefield. Live targets. In any complex tactical environment, they aren't worth a damn!"

Leon raised an eyebrow.

William's thinking was genuinely ahead of its time.

Pity that capitalists have no use for smart employees. Even less for smart weapons.

William's smile turned cold.

"They were afraid."

"Those old fossils on the board were terrified of creating something they couldn't control."

"They only wanted obedient dogs."

"And naturally, they wanted me to be obedient too."

"So you were finished." Ada picked up the thread.

"Yes. A promotion in name, a demotion in reality." William ground his teeth. "They kicked me down to that sunless underground third level and handed me the G-Virus project, the one nobody believed in."

"They thought that would shut me up. Let me rot in that lightless basement."

He paused. When he spoke again, the bitterness was gone, replaced by something that sounded almost like pity, for everyone else.

"But they were wrong."

"They had no idea what the G-Virus actually means."

"It isn't some inferior infection agent. It is active evolution at the genetic level."

"The G-Virus allows the host to continuously shatter genetic locks under extreme conditions, restructuring the body from the ground up."

"Simply put: as long as you don't die, you can evolve without limit."

"Sounds insane," Rebekah muttered.

"Insane?" William shot her a look. "This is art."

"When the G-Virus approached perfection, I thought I could finally claim what I deserved. I submitted an application to headquarters. I demanded entry into the highest decision-making level. I wanted control over Umbrella Corporation's future direction."

"And then they told you to get lost." Leon threw the line back into the wind, not turning around.

Didn't matter whether it was here or anywhere else.

Having thoughts like that wouldn't get you killed. Saying them out loud? That was your mistake.

Straightforward people had a way of making that lesson especially clear.

William's face went white, then flushed crimson.

"Wesker! That treacherous bastard!"

"We were so close we practically shared the same pair of pants, and he turned around and rejected my application on behalf of the Executive Training Center."

"They said I was merely an excellent scientist. That I lacked management ability. That they questioned my loyalty?"

"I gave my entire life's work to Umbrella Corporation, and they watched me like I was a thief!"

"That was the moment I understood everything."

"At Umbrella Corporation, I would always be a disposable screw." William clawed at his collar. "Since they showed no mercy, don't blame me for showing none either."

"Rather than hand the G-Virus to those scientifically illiterate businessmen, I'd find it a worthy buyer myself."

"The U.S. government?" Ada asked.

"The military." William snorted. "Those four-star generals were salivating over something that could reshape the entire landscape of warfare. They were willing to give me the highest level of protection, plus enough funding to buy half a state. All I had to do was hand over the G-Virus."

After that long tirade, even the wind seemed to die down a little.

The tragedy of a genius, maybe, is spending a lifetime being ordered around by people smaller than he is.

Leon eased the Scorpion King's pace.

The massive arthropod rolled to a stop beside a concealed, abandoned gas station.

The Tyrant halted behind it, motionless.

Leon swung down from the scorpion's back and walked up to William.

He looked at this disheveled, gaunt man, the genius worn down to the bone.

He could see it clearly in William's eyes. The refusal to accept it.

"That deal is dead," Leon said.

"I'll tell you straight: the world outside has been a total wreck for a while now."

"Those four-star generals you were counting on? They probably can't even leave their underground bunkers in Washington."

"Government orders can't get out of the capital. The military has fractured into warlords, every unit fighting for itself."

"You show up with the G-Virus, the most likely outcome is they squeeze every last thing out of you and put a bullet in your head."

William went still.

He'd spent years buried in the Spencer Mansion's underground. The apocalypse outside wasn't real to him yet, not in any visceral way.

"The government collapsed?" he murmured.

"Couldn't be more collapsed."

Leon stepped closer.

"Umbrella Corporation can't tolerate you. The U.S. government can't protect you." He tapped his own chest. "That brain of yours is worth something. Be a shame to let it rot in the mud. Jump ship. Work for me."

William stared at him, this man who had walked into the Spencer Mansion alone and turned it inside out.

"Work for you." He turned it over. "What can you offer? I suppose it's not out of the question."

Poor William still hadn't fully grasped that he'd already been flipped. When it came to Leon, he was naturally open to the idea.

"A lab where you can push that brain as far as it goes. No one breathing down your neck, no one telling you what you can or can't research."

"You want to build new lifeforms with independent thought? Go ahead."

"Just don't blow my place up."

Leon grinned.

"One more thing, I've already got a few capable people over there. One's named Candice. Workaholic, that one. The other..."

He let the pause stretch.

"Marcus. James Marcus. That old man who plays with leeches. I think you know him."

William looked like he'd been hit by lightning.

"Marcus? He — wasn't he blown to pieces?!"

"He was blown up, yes. Living quite well now, just in a different way." Leon patted William's shoulder. "On my turf, miracles are a regular occurrence."

"So. Think it over. Beats running around like a stray with no home."

William's throat worked.

"I'll do it. Honestly, it doesn't matter where I am, as long as you don't send me back to Umbrella Corporation."

"But — Sherry..."

"I told you. I'll go get her."

"I've never gone back on my word."

"You have nothing to worry about."

The night pressed deeper.

Somewhere in the distant forest, a Walker's hoarse snarl carried through the dark.

Ada sat on the scorpion's back and watched the whole thing play out.

She understood what it meant. William Birkin, the mad genius. Marcus. Rebekah. People like that, all gathering in one place.

What that prison in Atlanta might eventually produce, no one could say.

"Let's move." Leon turned and swung back onto his mount.

The Scorpion King stretched its thick legs and broke into a run, hurtling toward Atlanta.

William sat behind him, no longer complaining.

He was already thinking. Calculating how to show this new boss exactly what the G-Virus could do, how to make him truly understand the artistry of it.

He just had to hope this one was worth impressing.

But they didn't get far before trouble found them.

On the road north out of Fort Benning, the military had set up a blockade.

That was not good news.

➤ Next: Detour