Chapter Text
Bryan remembers when Leon personally handpicks him to be a DSO member—the newly team unit serves as the paramedical and SAR team he personally oversees—after the incident on Tall Oaks and New York.
Bryan was in government custody back then as they deemed him to be dangerous. Well, he was a mindless mutated infected days before Leon shot him with that green liquid. Leon, however, has an idea. Bryan’s condition is special and it's proven by how he was ignored by the other infected, so why not use that advantage? Leon deeply hated this idea because he knew the government would send him to a more dangerous mission, even more dangerous than his Spanish Rescue Mission. Leon told the men in suit that he has one condition that Bryan has to be trained to be a guide and rescue dog, not an attack one like him. They reluctantly agreed and Bryan soon placed into a bootcamp, after he got a comprehensive medical check-up. Leon personally choose his main physician and it’s none other than Dr. Luis Serra
“Let’s see your test results, muchacho,” the doctor said with a thick Spanish accent. He placed his CT Scan, MRI, and X-ray of his body results side-by-side. Bryan knew the virus fucked up his body, but he didn’t imagine this fucked. There is long, soft tissue that seems connected to his spine. He could see all of their roots and there’s eight of them, varying in size and thickness. He didn’t understand how they all could fit inside his back. Is that the tentacle that erupts from his back when he’s fighting that monster in Umbrella's lab years ago? His arm looked different too, but it doesn’t look as bad as his back. “I personally don't know your mutated body back when Leon found you, but it seems the cure only reverts the overgrown flesh, extra organs, and bones whilst can’t revert those that are attached to your neural system.”
“Those are tentacles, aren’t they?” Bryan whispered, sounding scared. “What are they actually?”
“The infected girl that bites you has a different type of virus, the base may be the same but it’s a whole new virus. My best bet is that the virus evolves on its own, it still can mutate the host’s body but at the same time doesn't take over their mind completely. You mentioned the girl looked normal aside from her foot, was it not? And she only completed her mutation when you were about to shoot her?” Bryan nodded. “Well, the virus is aware then. It’s like our flight and fight instinct. The virus seems to mutate your spine and nervous system as you were bitten on the arm. The virus may reside on your vein before it settles itself on your spine. That also explains your enhanced senses and strength.”
“So taking them off my body will do more harm than good?”
Luis nodded and didn’t take his eyes off the screen. “Well, we can do reconstructive surgery for your visible scars and your arm if you wanted to, those extra flesh, tissues, and bones look dangerous to keep around and it seems like the surrounding area is not as active as your back,” Luis recommended. “Overall, you look as healthy as before—despite being infected and partially mutated. We can do more tests if you want to, to make sure you’re not contagious.”
“Can I?” Bryan asked and Luis nodded, clearly surprised how he kept asking for his consent. “Yeah, I want to.”
Then, bootcamp was harsh for Bryan. He was a runner but he’s not an athlete. He got two trainers back then, each had been ordered to put him down if he became aggressive or mutated and both eventually grew fond of him. They both knew Bryan was in the wrong time and place when the outbreak happened and is one of many Umbrella’s victims. They taught him different things, one taught him the right to use a firearm and the other taught him paramedical knowledge. Since Bryan was a medical courier and knew the basics of medical information, he skipped a few steps and directly went to how to treat patients in the field. His firearm training, though, he already told his trainer that he sucks at guns and he still sucks at it. Even though he doesn’t feel the recoils, his aim needs more training. As expected, Bryan was more capable as a paramedic as he’s naturally an empath, so his firearm training shifted to physical hand-to-hand combat. That’s when his trainer noticed his strength. He taught him multiple martial arts and how to properly use his strength and his extra limbs.
“You do need to be gentle to the patients when you’re a paramedic, but you’re not just a civilian paramedic, you’re a military paramedic and shit can happen on the field,” Jacob, his trainer, told him as he wore the body shield. He’s been teaching Bryan karate this past few months in between his medical training. “We now know the virus enhanced your strength and we’ve seen the result of it.”
Bryan grimaced. He remembered last week he accidentally cracked his peers’ bone because they went aggressive as he tried to defend himself. Hell, even two of his eight tentacles emerged to defend him. “Yeah, I apologize for last week, I went overboard.”
Jacob smiled. “Well, they’re the ones who went overboard. Everyone here was told about your condition and they chose to ignore it. You’re just a civilian, kid, and they failed to see that and paid the price,” he said. He took a stance and lifted the big, body shield. “Now, let’s try to properly control your limbs, shall we, Squidy?”
Aside from harsh training, Bryan hated the bootcamp because he’s different from his teammates. Most of them are scared of him, of he might kill or eat them because he's infected. Luis already told everyone that Bryan is clear with no sign of infecting someone else. Aside from his infected status, he’s basically a freak. His left side of his body was full of scars—which some already ‘fixed’ from surgery a few months ago, his back looked more toned because all his tentacles hid there, he had enhanced strength and senses, and of course, his mismatched eyes—green on right and yellowish on left. The only company he got is his doctor, Luis, Leon, his two trainers, and surprisingly, Michelle herself. Leon broke the news of him being alive and is on a bootcamp to her a few months after he was released from the government’s custody. When he got permission to be visited, Leon came with her and a teenager. When Bryan saw her, he immediately knew who she was. She has his eyes and Michelle’s hair. Michelle told him her name is Bryanna, she was named after him. Bryan couldn’t stop apologizing to Michelle about what he said that day and he’s glad he’s keeping her. Michelle accepted his apology, but she wasn’t ready to reconcile him because of how jerk he was back then. At first it was awkward as the teenager didn’t know who he was but overtime, she warmed up. Since then, Bryan tried to be present in his daughter’s life. And for now, that’s enough.
After the bootcamp and everything, Bryan is cleared to be back to society and gains the ‘title’ DSO Paramedic Agent. But he has to wear a personalized wristband monitor—an anklet would be too suspicious and those nerds on RD gave that instead of an anklet—for his infection, status, and whereabouts. The wristband will alert his handler, in this case Leon, if his infection goes on at an alarming rate and he’s about to mutate or go mindless. He doesn’t mind though, the wristband design is cool and he likes it. Plus, the thing gives them a weird sense of safety. The wristband once sent Leon an alert when he was on a mission to retrieve evidence of Simmons’ crime and Leon arrived on scene, all DSO agents put Bryan down with anesthesia because his tentacle emerged when C-Virus mutation monsters attacked them. They thought Bryan was one of them and Leon told them everything—and forced them to sign an NDA. Then, the RD tweaked his wristband and since then, it’ll alert Leon if he grows more than 8 tentacles.
“Whatchu thinking?” Sherry pats his back and startles him. “Oh, sorry.”
“Just reminiscing,” Bryan sighs and drinks his tea before going back to his computer. He got to write the report of the small outbreak in New York. Thankfully everyone is cured but the damage is pretty massive. Bryan is assigned to make sure everything went back to normal and no trace of the virus. “So, what’s up?”
Sherry takes a chair and sits beside him. Sherry was also in government custody just because her parents were experimenting on her. Like him, she is physically aging slower than most humans and she looks like she is in her early twenties despite she’s around thirty now. “I was wondering if you, Michelle, and Anna can come to my dinner? I have an important announcement,” she says gleefully.
“Oh? Jake finally proposed to you?” Bryan teases her and she blushes. “I can keep that secret.”
“How—did your virus make you telepathic!?” Sherry blushes even more and Bryan just smiles. “Bry—”
Before Sherry can say something, Bryan’s phone lights up and Anna's name is on its screen. Bryan immediately picks it up. Bryanna, or Anna for short, is Bryan’s daughter and now she’s in medical school, determined to find a cure for her father. Sherry knew her and she’s a good kid, even though she’s still a bit awkward with Bryan. “Hey, sweetie, what’s u—” Bryan goes tense and Sherry goes worried by his sudden change of demeanor. “What?” Bryan stands up and takes his jacket. ”Stay where you are, I’ll be there.”
“Bryan, what happened?” Sherry follows Bryan who is now running in a hurry.
“Call Leon, or whoever, that there’s a biohazard attack in the university,” Bryan says without looking back. “Tell Leon to meet me there!”
He can hear Sherry yell at him but he doesn’t listen. He knew he was against his protocols but his daughter is number one priority. He takes one of the keys from Leon’s desk and proceeds to the car, and drives as fast as he can to the university. His anxiety fills his lungs, he’s afraid his daughter became what he is today. As he arrives at the university, paramedics from various hospitals, CBRN units, and even police and the army are guarding the place. Bryan parks his car near an ambulance and goes out straight to the police who guard the line. The policeman is about to tell him to go but Bryan shows him his badge and he raises the line for him. He immediately goes to the one who’s in charge.
“Hey, this area is an active biohazard zone, you’re not allowed to enter—” The man stops himself when he sees Bryan walking towards him. He sees his green DSO Paramedic Agent jackets and then his face.
“Go set a quarantine zone here and don’t send anyone to hospital,” Bryan immediately orders him as he walks past him. “Lock this place down, no one gets in or out.”
“What!? Hey—”
Bryan doesn’t hear what he says as he enters the building, ignoring everyone who warns him. He’s not familiar with the layout but he can sense that something is clearly wrong. His instinct tells him to use his tentacle but until everything goes south, he keeps them under his skin. He takes his gun instead. He doesn’t really need a flashlight as, thanks to the virus, his eyes are now sensitive enough to see in the dark. He can hear groaning, whimpers, someone hush-ing, and faint whispers—at least not on this floor. The hallway is strangely quiet and only his heavy footsteps echoing between its halls. His daughter told him before that she’s hiding in a room on the fourth floor and after making sure there’s no one on the ground floor, he goes straight to the fourth floor.
Like what he predicted before, the third and fourth floor is full of the infected. Bryan lowers his gun and looks at them as they don't realize him standing there. Some have bite marks and some don't, he concludes the virus first administered via gas, which the first horde of infected bites the second and so on. There are no signs of mutation so far as they look like the zombie in New York a few months ago. He makes a mental note to give them a cure since A-Virus has a known working cure. Bryan walks slower as he doesn’t want to startle them and hear a sign of cries or whispers, and he hears them in a room near the emergency exit. Bryan stops at the door and knows if he opens the door, the horde will race towards the door and try to infect the living survivor. So Bryan opens his phone and calls his daughter—ignoring multiple chats from Leon, Sherry, and Luis.
“Honey, are you inside?” Bryan whispers.
“Dad,” Bryanna sobs. This is the first time she called him that. “Dad, they’re—oh my God, dad, we-we had this group project and suddenly everyone is screaming and—and running, and my friend got bitten and—”
“Hey, hey, you’re okay. Listen, I’m outside right now—” Bryan tells her and he can hear her gasp.
“Dad, what—the zombies—”
Too late for that, he thinks as he glances at the infected around him. “I’ll be fine. Just listen, honey, how many people are there inside with you?”
She sniffs. “Five, including me. Most of my friends—” she doesn’t continue and Bryan already knows what happened to them. “Dad, I’m scared.”
Bryan goes quiet for a while and checks if the emergency exit is clear and surprisingly, it does. Bryan doesn’t quite trust how eerily calm it is. He mentally thinks of their plan if he’s using these stairs. The first and second floor are clear, yes, but there is always a chance of a horde of even a mutated infected bursting in and trying to eat them.
“Honey, do you trust me?” Bryan finally says as he walks back to the door and faces the horde. They’re still groaning and walking ‘lifelessly’ around him, still ignoring him. “I can take you outside, but you have to trust me. Can you?”
Anna sniffs but there is determination when she replies, “yeah.” Bryan can hear her shuffles slowly.
“Good. Find something that can be used as a weapon. Anything sharp, long, or even a fire extinguisher.” Even without the call, there is some sound from inside as his daughter and her friends try to find something for a weapon. The sound alerts the infected, but they still walk aimlessly. “Good. I’m going to hang up and then go straight to the door, I’m right outside. The door to the emergency exit is already open and as soon as I open this door, I want all of you to run down as fast as you can.”
Bryan hangs up and puts his phone in his pocket. He knocks three times to give them some warning. He opens the door a little and the infected finally smell a healthy human and goes straight to them. Like they’re instructed to, the kids run straight to the emergency exit while Bryan follows. Bryan takes the hallway’s fire extinguisher and fires it directly at the horde, giving them time to lock the door. The five kids are standing frozen a level under him and he yells at them to keep running. As they’re set foot on the second floor, the upstairs emergency door bursts open and the infected flood the stairs. Bryan has no choice but to shoot some of them—he rather not to—and his back is itchy, something under his skin is asking to come out. It becomes unbearable and Bryan screams at the kids.
“Close your fucking eyes!” he screams as four of his appendages emerge from his back and they go straight to the infected.
The kids run and scream as Bryan tries to hold the infected at bay, at least until Leon finds them. His instinct takes over and he begins to attack the infected. The remaining four appendages come out and it pierces through the several infected bodies. Bryan grabs one and slams it to the wall beside him, and then another, and another. He doesn’t remember how much he killed now, every cell on his body tells him to protect his daughter at all cost—even if he has to become a monster. He almost misses it as one of the infected falls from the railing and it lands just beside Bryanna. Bryanna shrieks and it gets his attention. One of his appendages manage to pull Bryanna away just before the infected are about to bite him and Bryan crush his head. He doesn’t see her friend anywhere and he hopes they’re outside. Bryan soon realizes there is no one, not even infected, in this room. It’s just him and his daughter. He tries to control his breath and tucks all his appendages back under his skin before he walks towards Bryanna. Oh poor girl, she’s terrified—at him and at everything that happens just now. Bryan can’t blame her. Bryan takes one step closer and she scoots back, her back hit the wall, and Bryan raises his hand.
“You’re—”
“I will explain everything,” Bryan whispers, trying to look as harmless as possible. “I’m sorry I scare you. But, please, we need to go.”
Bryanna still hesitates but she stands up anyway. Bryan takes another step and it startles Bryanna. “Just, don’t walk too close. Please.”
It hurts, but Bryan respects her choice.
As they step outside, Leon is already waiting and some of his squadmates quickly put Bryanna under their comforter blanket and take her to their care. Bryan just stands there and collapses.