Chapter 6: Two Test Subjects

After the alloy door of the isolation chamber closed, the entire world was left with only the cold hum of instruments.

Chloe was confined in a high-grade reinforced chamber on the second basement level of the Arklay Research Facility. There were no extra items, no conversation, and no warmth. Three sides were cold metal walls, while one side was one-way transparent reinforced glass. She was in the light, while all eyes watching her were in the shadows.

It was even more deathly silent and more heavily guarded than The Ark.

She sat quietly in the corner, her eyelashes lowered, appearing docile and harmless, but in reality, she was calculating the time and the plot.

Wesker had just said she was a perfect memory transplant vessel, and the purpose of the experiment at The Ark was to achieve perfect memory transplantation. This meant that for some reason, she perfectly adapted to the characteristics of the T-variant strain and would not go mad. That was why Oswell E. Spencer had taken an interest in her and transferred her to the Arklay Research Facility.

After an unknown period of silence, the light outside the glass dimmed slightly.

William Birkin appeared at the console, his fingertips rapidly tapping the keyboard. Her data flickered across the screen: stable brain waves, normal emotional index, neural resistance far exceeding that of an average person, and no tendency toward berserk behavior.

A near-pathological fanaticism surged in the man's eyes.

"Truly perfect... I've never seen such a stable mental carrier..."

He muttered to himself, his gaze glued to Chloe as if he wanted to cut her open completely from the inside out.

Chloe looked up, her eyes briefly meeting the fanatical ones outside the glass before she quickly looked down again, continuing to play the role of a harmless, submissive, and non-threatening test subject.

She could feel another gaze that was even colder.

At the end of the corridor, Albert Wesker leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets, watching the little girl in the isolation chamber with indifference. He didn't care about William's experimental data or memory transplantation; he only evaluated one thing: whether this sample was controllable, dangerous, and of use.

In Wesker's eyes, Chloe was a weapon that might come in handy in the future.

An obedient, calm weapon that wouldn't easily break down.

Just then, an extremely faint yet unusually piercing sound wafted up from deeper within the facility.

It was like the whimpering of a beast, yet also like the desperate roar of a human—low, raspy, and filled with a relentless madness. It penetrated layers of heavy alloy gates and faintly reached the second basement level.

Chloe's ears twitched slightly.

She looked up toward the bottom of the glass, toward the depths of that invisible darkness.

William's movements paused, the fanaticism on his face fading slightly, replaced by a trace of subtle disgust and vigilance.

Wesker also looked up, his gaze turning toward the ground below. There was no ripple of emotion in his eyes, only a long-accustomed indifference.

"Is that... Lisa?"

Chloe didn't speak, only asking silently in her heart.

On the third basement level beneath her feet, another test subject was imprisoned.

An existence completely different from her, one that had long since fallen into the abyss in both body and soul.

Lisa Trevor.

The daughter of the architect of the Spencer Mansion, she had been captured and brought to the facility in 1967 and injected with the original Progenitor Virus.

She survived, but she had become a monster forever.

Her body mutated wildly, regenerating infinitely, impossible to kill;

Her mind had completely collapsed, leaving only primal instinct and pain—no reason, no memory, no self.

William had been studying Lisa for over a decade.

Studying her immortal body, her twisted cells, and the extreme modification of the human body by the Progenitor Virus.

Lisa was a physical experiment.

A failed, out-of-control, immortal monster.

And Chloe was a mental experiment.

An unoperated, naturally stable vessel that would not collapse and was perfectly suited for memory transplantation.

One on the third basement level, sinking into physical madness.

One on the second basement level, holding onto mental clarity.

One completely out of control, imprisoned as a monster.

One exceptionally lucid, guarded like a treasure.

Deep beneath the entire Arklay Research Facility, there were only these two most unique, long-standing, and classified test subjects.

William finally withdrew his gaze and looked back at Chloe, his tone flat but carrying an undeniable command:

"Don't pay attention to the sounds below. That's a failure, a monster that lost its mind long ago. You are different from her."

You are different from her.

The words fell softly into the isolation chamber.

Chloe slowly lowered her head and buried her face in her knees, appearing afraid and submissive.

Only she knew that the string of vigilance in her heart was pulled even tighter.

Lisa was a failure.

Because she went mad.

While Chloe was seen as a perfect specimen.

Only because she was still lucid.

But what if one day, she too lost her value?

Would she also be thrown into the third basement level, becoming a roaring monster like Lisa?

In the darkness, the little girl's fingertips curled slightly.

Upper level and lower level.

Lucidity and madness.

Vessel and monster.

Hope and despair.

Beneath Arklay, two test subjects were imprisoned.

Two vastly different fates were also confined there.

And Chloe knew very well that she could never become a second Lisa.

She had to save herself!

It was now 1990, eight years before the Mansion Incident. If she had to wait for the S.T.A.R.S. members to arrive, she would have to wait at least eight years, and she wasn't sure if she could make it that long.

And Wesker was still the captain of S.T.A.R.S.!

William would go to Raccoon City in 1993 to build the NEST underground, and Wesker would go undercover in the Raccoon City Police Department in 1996.

In other words, she might follow William to the NEST at any time, or be locked in the basement of the Arklay Research Facility if she lost her utility.