January 18th 06: How could they possibly have missed it?

The first thing that pops into my mind every time I play Resident Evil 2 is "How the hell did the citizens of Raccoon City not realize that they were being invaded by zombies before half the population had become zombies?". Now, the game will tell you that the police waged war with the zombies in the back alleys. I don't buy that. In mid-september the T-Virus sample made its way into the sewers where it infected rats and the like who eventually passed it on to the human population of Raccoon City.

Now, based on my knowledge of the T-Virus the infection rate is 90%. So in essence nine of every ten people that were infected by it via the fleas infected by the rats or infected by the rats themselves would become zombies. Also, based on events in the game it’s safe to assume the transformation takes place in the forms of atrophying flesh and cravings for food within twelve hours of infection. In this case food is anything with a pulse and because of this it would be safe to assume that the rats and fleas would be going after humans, birds and even pets all over the place. Because of this the infection rate would likely be extremely high with the animal population pretty much going wild. Full transformation occurs within roughly forty eight to seventy two hours after the initial infection.

Taking the infection and transformation rate of the T-Virus into account the fact that it took as long as it did for the citizens of Raccoon City to notice is extremely difficult to believe. For starters the population of the city would probably notice the various birds of the city doubling in size and becoming ferocious. As well you’d have to be pretty stupid not to notice that the dog that bit you is not only extremely strong but dropping chunks of flesh. Also, if the time span in which the T-Virus alters the genetic make up of the victim is within seventy two hours as the games imply then there would be far too many zombies roaming the streets for people to miss. There’s also the fact that most people would report an attack in which the attacker tried to bite of your arm to the police. That being said you’d expect the cops to issue various bulletins warning the population or something. Which they do…after the infection level is somewhere near 50% of the population. Sure, Police Chief Irons is in league with Umbrella but such a thing wouldn’t have stopped a bulletin being released sooner or the mass-fleeing induced by the zombie attacks.

The actions of the RPD showed the ignorance of the people of the city in spades. Irons knew of the effects of the T-Virus and yet he allowed his officers to arrest the undead. Thus allowing them to get a foothold into the department and ensuring his own demise in the end. Through arresting the zombies the virus was then spread to the inmates within the prison and to the police officers themselves. It took the police to the 28th of September to start the evacuation of the city with the events of Nemesis starting around this time and the events of 2 starting on the 29th. By this time basically the entire population of the city is undead with the only remaining survivors being Leon Scott Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Sherry Birkin, Brian Irons and Jill Valentine. As well as a few assorted soon-to-be zombie chow or Umbrella operatives such as HUNK.

What makes the events in 2 and 3 even more dumbfounding is that the S.T.A.R.S members warned the population of the city but their claims were unfounded and thus ignored. You’d think the people of the city would pay more attention when over half of a specially trained and equipped police squad was obliterated and a suspicious mansion exploded in the forest. Not to mention there had already been reports of near-invincible cannibals around the time of the events of the original Resident Evil in July. The immense foolishness of the people of Raccoon City leads me to believe that there was something far more sinister going on during the infection and eventual destruction of Raccoon City.

It is implied throughout 2 and 3 that there is a chance that the actions taken by the police and the delayed response to the evacuation announcement and the delaying of the announcement itself was all orchestrated by Umbrella as a testing ground for the T and G-Viruses. This leads me to wonder even further about the destruction of Umbrella itself between Code Veronica and 4. It almost seems as if it was all planned and if something far more chilling, far more dangerous and on a global scale is being planned. If not by Wesker then by Ozwell Spencer himself.