11 Before X-Day

March 20th, 1998 The aim for the future changed once William became a prototype, but first he had to find the perfect moment to break from Umbrella so he could begin working on the first step of his new plan. When he knows what Umbrella is doing, being attached to Umbrella would only damage him in the long term. Albert has informed him that he has been speaking with a rivel company of Umbrellas and that Burkin is beginning to feel the same way. William expanded the number of spies using money and extortion to distribute them throughout several of Umbrella's bases, thinking that if those two were feeling this way, others may as well.

While William was working on that, one of his botanists, Rick, went AWOL with a buddy who discovered a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. Rick had sent a message saying they were headed to the abandoned Arklay hospital, which William would be interested in discovering. So William took a break and went to investigate why Rick hadn't contacted him in two days. He walked through the forest till he reached the front gate of the hospital, where he looked at the overgrown structure before entering.

After looking around, William discovered the path they took and made his way to a hallway, where vines and leaves covered the walls. William came closer and positioned his head near the vines to hear some ruffling after hearing movement on one of the walls.

"Hello?"

"Shit, hello!"

"We need your help!"

Is that you, Rick?"

"Boss?"

"Ya, stand back; I'm going to make a way in."

"Wait! The structures are unstable; we put together a pesticide; let's test it first."

When William takes a step back, he hears them spraying something and notices the vines reacting and withering, reviling a doorway. Rick and the other guy were disheveled and dirty.

"Thank you for showing up, boss."

"No problem; this place piqued my interest." "What happened to you two?"

"We were exploring the place and found the Pharmacy to look around, but when we went to leave, the vines had already covered the doorway and trapped us in there."

"So the plants here reacted to your presence." "Did you figure out where all the vines lead?"

Yes, there is a massive plant bulb in the basement, in the ICU. We intended to walk right there, but vines obstructed the stairwell, so we sought another way in when we became stranded in the pharmacy."

Now that you're out there with those pesticides, let's go have a look and see what we're up against."

Boss, when we were confined, I felt like something was watching us, so I think we should be cautious."

"Don't be concerned." If something happens, I'll handle it."

Going to the end of the corridor to the stairwell down, the vines were blocking the route with numerous layers, but they were able to walk down after using the majority of the pesticide. After passing through a wrecked lab section and turning the corner, the left half of the corridor collapsed, and on the right was the door to the ICU. When William enters the chamber, he notices a five-foot flower bulb in the center of the room. As they get closer, they notice the vines moving around, attempting to obstruct their path, but gazing at them, they appear pale rather than the dark green they were previously. William walks up, disregarding the vines that are obstructing his path, and pulls out a sample collection kit, stabs the bulb with a syringe, and collects a glucose-like liquid. When William was about to grab some more, they heard shouts from behind them and turned to see a guy standing there wearing a black hood and wielding a massive axe.

"Get the hell away from her!"

"You two, back up and get out of here when he rushes me."

As soon as William stated that, the man charged him, swinging the axe at him, and William ducked out of the path a few times while waiting for the other two to leave the room. When they do, William stops evading and grabs the axe with his hand, tearing it from the man's hands and tossing it away before hitting the man and propelling him across the room. William approaches the attacker, plunges his hand into the man before he can rise up, and begins cunning and converting the man into biomass.

Looking through the memories, he discovers that this man is Al Lester, the former director of the place. When a phony pharmaceutical business linked to Umbrella provided the hospital with the experimental T-JCCC 203 reagent, which it utilized in clinical experiments on at least two patients, Doug Frost and Dorothy Lester, the facility was forced to close. Dorothy Lester was Al Lester's wife. While they were proven to be receiving illegal imports, Umbrella's intervention in the police department prevented any charges from being brought, and it went unreported by the media. Kurt, an investigative journalist, became aware of stories of strange testing, contacts with foreign companies, and unexplained patient deaths. He started an investigation because there was no reporting on these incidents. Dorothy, a half-zombie at that point, murdered him soon after. As a result, the hospital was formally shut down, although Kurt's death was concealed. Al Lester returned later to the hospital and discovered the gowning from his wife's body that had been left in the ICU. Seeing the plant as his resurrected wife, he began feeding it birds and small animals. He was going to kill Rick and the other guy and feed them to the plant when he noticed them.

William realized what occurred after scanning Lester's memories, but before he could do anything further, he began to get a sensation, and as a result, he began to morph. When he looks at a reflected surface, he notices that he has transformed into Al Lester, and when he speaks, he also sounds like him. William then continues to gather additional samples of Dorothy before removing the remainder of the insecticide and putting it into a cut on the bulb, killing it. As soon as that was completed, all of the vines on the wall began to die. When William heard the structure creak and brake, he dashed outside to meet the others. Outside, Rick and his buddy are waiting at the gate when they notice all the vines, leaves, and large flowers covering the hospital wilting, and then they notice William racing away as the facility begins to collapse.

"What happened to that guy, boss?"

"I tricked the man into cutting the bulb in half, killing it and causing the hospital to collapse; part of the ceiling fell on the guy."

"Did you get any extra samples?"

"Yes, but only if you work with me will I allow you to study them."

"Okay, Rick says you worked on the herbs and are cultivating them; I'd want to see if I can utilize the samples to produce a growth solution that will work on the herbs if possible."

"As long as you let me see the results before doing any testing, fine."

"Deal, what are we going to do about this whole incident?"

"Don't worry, I'll personally talk to Chief Irons about it so he can investigate."

After that, William reported the event to Umbrella HQ in the city and had it investigated after revealing that the plants had the T-virus. They dispatched a crew to search the wreckage for and destroy anything that may link them back to Umbrella. William is instructed to give them half of the sample and test the other half.

For the following month and a half, William sent the plant samples to Rick and his buddy to research and see what they could do, and they came up with a solution that, when applied to the herbs, could make them grow one and a half times quicker and twice as big. They may now create a level two herb solution or two level one solutions from a single plant. On the other hand, William was now making use of his new ability to leave Raccoon City without worrying about Umbrella tracking him down and to kill and replace a few people who worked in the NEST 2 facility and other places nearby. Getting access to maps and other important information he needed before leaving Umbrella, he learned about the White Queen AI, a mostly unfinished product that Umbrella didn't want to waste. Umbrella put it with the Red Queen AI that controlled the Arkley laboratory and was held in the facility's U.M.F.-013 computer core.

So, on May 11th, after hearing from a spy at the Arkley laboratory that an e-strain of the T-virus had been leaked, William directed the spy to meet up with the others there and to have someone drop off level three virus-killing inhalers (made with two blue and one yellow herb) so they wouldn't transform. He then urged him to lay low until they could walk freely around the complex so they could help him get to the supercomputer. After making some phone calls, William orders the creation of a drive that can house the White Queen AI and a unit that can handle the AI.

For the following two months, William prepared to use the leaked virus when Albert informed him that he'd made a deal with one of Umbrella's rivals and would be utilizing the opportunity to flee Umbrella. On July 14th, Albert messaged William that he and Burkin had been assigned to reopen the umbrella training facility and that they would soon be bringing in a team to inspect the facility, informing him that he would soon leave umbrella and would not be in contact for some time.