A blast of fire ripped through the laboratory, setting off multiple explosions as the facility destabilized. The personnel that weren't caught in the destruction began following the emergency procedures to exit to safety. As the first person to escape stepped through the final doorway, a massive metal door shot across the hallway at an alarming speed, making the man splatter with a grotesque cracking sound as he was instantaneously crushed against the opposite wall. The exit was sealed. As panic overcame the blood-spattered crowd, the flames continued to grow behind them. One scientist attempted to charge through the wall of fire, collapsing almost immediately, his short-lived screams filling the others with fearful anxiety as they pressed against the metal door and hoped for a miracle. They were not so lucky.

Throughout the facility, other personnel were dying in a similar fashion, caught up in the aftermath of the explosion. The exits had been automatically sealed when the area containing samples of the T-Virus was compromised by the blast, making the virus airborne. The personnel who were inside that laboratory had most likely been infected, however it was uncertain if any had managed to escape the cataclysmic destruction.

Some of the staff who managed to live through the initial eruption had banded together to ensure their own survival, deciding they would cooperate to eradicate the infection. They were some of the most intelligent minds in the world, and they knew that Umbrella Corporation would have definitely planned for this. It seemed likely that there were members planted among them specifically tasked with cleaning up the infection if an outbreak should occur, which would mean eliminating all the survivors. To stop this from happening, they decided to use their room intercoms and personal consoles to determine someone to kill each day, utilizing the facility's weapons system to do so. They knew escape wasn't viable until the infection had been eradicated and any secret Umbrella operatives were dead.

Among them, a few people were already moving according to a predetermined plan, people who knew for a fact that the possibility of hidden operatives wasn't just a possibility. They had anticipated a virus being released, that was the entire purpose of them being there, and they were prepared to carry out their objective. This may have all been due to an unfortunate accident, but the cause was now irrelevant. The only outcome they could allow was the elimination of every other person in the facility.