Welcome to Africa

Chapter 10: Trip down Memory Lane

After an hour or so, Annabelle began to calm down and collects herself, Chris pulls her back and held her arm's length. She sniffles, wiping her tears away, and looks at him. "You good, soldier?" he asks her.

She exhales and nods at him, "I'm good." she answers, he nods at her, letting her go, and turns away from her. "I wonder this is what Irving meant by answers?" Chris asks as they found their path and march forward. "Not sure... But obviously, there's a connection here with Umbrella, and that's never a good answer." Sheva tells him as they arrived at the door. "We can worry about this later. First, we need to find out about Jill." Chris reminds her.

Sheva looks back and nods at him. "You're right. Let's see what we can dig up," she said in agreement. Chris nods back at her, but then spotted a crate with an open Journal. He steps in front of it, leans down, and reads what was written down:

From Chief Researcher Brandon's Journal – No.1

1966

Dec. 4

Mr. Spencer spoke of a flower called the stairway to the Sun. Supposedly this flower would give me the person who consumed it incredible abilities. Everyone thought it was nothing more than a rumor or legend that Mr. Spencer was telling us, later research would prove us wrong.

The first person to recognize that validity of that story was my teacher, Dr. James Marcus. He hypothesized that a virus, hereto unknown, might exist that could alter DNA.

The man was perspicacious!

His hypothesis turned out to be correct!

The virus discovered in that flower labeled "Progenitor." For three months in Africa, we worked diligently, fretted over results, and staved off attacks from the Ndipaya. After such time, our efforts were finally rewarded.

Even, Dr. Marcus, who until yesterday looked exhausted, was in good spirits. He wants to return home as soon as possible to delve deeper into his research.

I feel that same way. I want to learn the secrets of this Progenitor virus as soon as possible.

1967

Feb. 12

We've hit the metaphorical brick wall. We brought the Progenitor flower back from Africa and attempted to cultivate it here. The initial culture samples of the Progenitor virus had not shown DNA-Altering characteristics.

We cultivated the flower to mass-produce the Progenitor virus.

At first, everything proceeded smoothly. The plants were strong and grew quickly. In a short amount of time they flowered.

But here is when a major problem surfaced! The flowers did not contain the Progenitor virus!

Perhaps the environment in which they've grown triggers the development of the virus. This matter must be investigated.

Luckily, one of the newcomers... Ms. Aeries, I believe. Volunteered herself to study and understand the development of the results of the virus and hopes to improve the results.