biohazard 0 VOL.1 is the first volume of a manhua series published by the Hong Konger comics publisher, SkyWalker, and officially-licensed by Capcom. It was released in 2003.
Plot
The story starts with a young boy who has fled deep into the Raccoon Forest to get away from his unhappy household. Heading close to the newly erected Spencer Mansion, he discovers the young Lisa Trevor being harassed by a wild dog interested in her pet rabbit. One of the dogs jumps at the rabbit, still in Lisa's harms, but he punches it mid-air, suffering a scratch to his arm in the process. The two run into the manor, where Lisa is revealed to him to be a guest at the Spencer Mansion, along with her mother, Jessica. The boy is awarded with attention he considers be like being treated as a family member for saving Lisa. Later on, the boy plays with a football, which falls down a flight of stairs going deep under the mansion's graveyard - a place that he was forbidden from ever going near. He looks in horror at a coffin that is being hung in the air by chains.
Moving to the present time, S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team has been sent out to investigate bizarre murders in the Arklay Mountains (spelt "Arc Lei" here). During their investigation, Bravo Team spots a train moving through the forest. They alert it from the helicopter that use of the line has been prohibited, that they are now in a restricted area and are to stop immediately. The Pilot reports that the train is refusing to heed their warning. As such, the team captain orders unit to prepare to drop onto the helicopter. As Rebecca is a new recruit and inexperienced, she is to provide "support" for the mission, but not to get caught up in any conflict.
Rebecca drops down onto the roof after Joe and John. With the splinter team landed, the helicopter -and the rest of Bravo- fly off to continue their investigation. They begin progressing into different cars through the roof. Forest and Kenneth climb down from the engine and walk into the next car, confused as to why everything seems empty. Rebecca, meanwhile, drops into what appears to be a laboratory. Noticing a "U" on one of the cultivation chambers, she begins to think of the pharmaceutical company, Umbrella, which they are presently investigating. Joe and John move into a room, discovering too late that it is crowded. Three Umbrella executives watch over a camera feed.
Meanwhile, Billy and Tom - two convicts - are being transported through the mountains on the same train. They hear a gun shot, and ponder on the train being hijacked. The Umbrella security guards radio in for support to take out the S.T.A.R.S. intruders. Ready to use the hijacking to make an escape attempt, the convicts pick off their handcuffs and break the door open. They steal their handguns and run through the train.
Tom and Billy move into the laboratory and straight into Rebecca. The S.T.A.R.S. rookie is punched in the chest by Tom, giving room for the other convicts to flee. Billy stays behind. The convicts, unfamiliar with the train, become lost in finding an exit point. This gives a security guard an opportunity to take potshots at them from a hole in the ceiling. He succeeds in killing one of the seven clustered convicts, but is killed by Tom right after. Another three guards enter the room and lay waste. Tom is injured running back to Billy. Not wanting his friend to be killed by the guards, too, Tom closes the door via a switch, and reveals a hand grenade he stole from the guards at the cell. Running to the three guards, he kills himself in a suicide attack.
In the explosion, the cultivation chambers smash open and a pool of liquid floods the compartment. Rebecca performs CPR on Billy, who points a gun into her face upon regaining consciousness. Meanwhile, the liquid manages to reanimate the corpse of one of the recently deceased convicts.
Elsewhere, the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team helicopter is revealed to have crashed into a burning wreck, and its pilot, has been killed, with eyes being pecked out by crows.
Lisa Trevor's life is shown in flashes, from her happy family life to her capture by Umbrella to her horribly mutated body. They are revealed to be the thoughts of the Umbrella President after an injection; he wonders if they were dreams or a hidden memory. Below him, an experiment takes place where Hunter B.O.W.s (along with what appears to be a Drain Deimos, but probably an attempt at drawing a Chimera) attack the "T-Prototype". After butchering the test subjects, the Tyrant jumps at the control room, trying to break in. It falls down in pain and begins to melt; the experiment is a failure. They expect the Umbrella train to arrive soon with the prisoners for use as experiments; they are unaware of the disaster. The President then notice that S.T.A.R.S. team members have entered the death castle.
Back on the train, Billy is revealed to have aimed his handgun at an approaching zombie, and not actually Rebecca. Billy shoots it straight through the eye, but this does little damage. Rebecca reacts by stabbing it in the side of the head. As more zombies approach, the two run to another room and seal the door, but the zombies still smash the small window. Rebecca investigates the bizarre slime, concluding that it was the liquid that caused the reanimations; Billy responds by shooting two rats that are coated in the fluid. The two then hear a sound from further down the compartment. Suddenly hundreds of black rats come flooding in through the corridor in such great numbers they give the impression that the lights have gone out. A rat jumps at Rebecca and bites her arm, though the two humans are more concerned about the giant scorpion that has appeared in front of them.
Characters
- Rebecca (first appearance)
- Billy (first appearance)
- Tom (first appearance)
- Joe (first appearance) - Based on Forest Speyer
- John (first appearance) - Based on Kenneth J. Sullivan
- S.T.A.R.S. Pilot(first appearance) - Based on Edward Dewey
- S.T.A.R.S. Captain (first appearance) - Based on Enrico Marini
- Lisa (first appearance)
Gallery
Further notes
The volume's depiction of the train sequence differs radically from the actual events of the game. Firstly, the train appears to be safely under the control of operatives linked to Umbrella, rather than being a company-owned express train taken out by leeches. The t-Virus only spreads around the train because an explosion smashes a cultivation chamber, which leaks out onto the corpse of a dead convict shot by the guards.
Sources
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