Resident Evil: Exodus - The Tale of Elza Walker

Epilogue

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The trial made Elza Walker an instant celebrity. Suddenly everyone who was anyone wanted to talk to her, to be with her, to have her on or at his or her own television or radio show or social event, and so on. Such sudden skyrocketing to so great a level of fame would have gone to the head of a lot of other people, but not Elza Walker. She remained on an even keel throughout, kept her head, and didn't let any of it get to her. She listened to the good advice of her friends, carefully chose where she went and what she did, hired herself a competent business manager, and above all else continued to live her new life in exactly the way that she and she alone saw fit. That was why it came as no surprise to anyone who knew her when, upon completion of earning her degree in biochemistry, she not only asked for but was granted a job working as a research scientist with the Federal Bioterrorism Commission (FBC). They were always looking for high-caliber talent to aid in their part of the fight against global bioterrorism. Someone with Elza Walker's background, training, and experience was a natural fit for the FBC, and it was also a major publicity coup for his organization insofar as agency director Morgan Lonsdale was concerned. Lonsdale exploited Elza being hired by the FBC to the hilt, and milked the event for all of the publicity value it was worth. Who could blame him, given the celebrity status of the FBC's newest scientist? As for Elza, she let Lonsdale and the other politicians and glory hounds do their thing, while she got on with doing some real work at her new job as soon as she could. Her talents and dedication were such that within a few years she had become director of her own research department at the FBC, and was respected by them in her own right.

Despite everything, and despite all of the incredible things that had happened and continued to happen in her new life, Elza remained Elza. Perhaps the most visible sign of this was on the FBC firing range. It had been an odd thing at first for the FBC field agents to see the labcoat wearing woman in the wheelchair and with the eyepatch "from upstairs" down there; that is, until they found out who she was, how deadly accurate she was, and subsequently learned both her story and her background with weapons. After that there was no problem, and "the lady in the wheelchair" soon became a regular and welcome sight on the range. "She can outshoot us all," one veteran agent told one of the rookies one day, when the rookie saw Elza for the first time on the firing range and asked what she was doing there. Perhaps the fact that her wheelchair provided a more stable firing platform than two legs might have been easily passed off as an excuse; however, such was not the case. Elza was genuinely good, wheelchair notwithstanding, and she kept it up with regular practice. One of the things that she had never lost, one had never been taken away from her as a result of that terrible day in Raccoon City, was her skill with firearms. She had quickly learned to compensate for having only one remaining eye, and soon enough her skill with firearms also became part of her new life. Once the FBC had become aware of it, then Director Lonsdale had wasted no time in exploiting it. So in addition to her many scientific duties with the FBC, Elza also became a certified firearms instructor at his personal request. She was eventually regarded as the best that the FBC ever had during its lifetime. Even experienced agents in other organizations and seasoned military veterans would often come to visit and to shoot with her. Not that they had anything to learn from her. Rather, it was to meet with and get to know the remarkable woman in the wheelchair who was both the FBC's top scientist and top shooter.

It was this same drive and dedication that not only made Elza such a good firearms instructor, and a top-notch research scientist to boot, but also one of the best friends that a lonely little girl who had lost both her parents in the Outbreak could ever have. Sherry Birkin may have felt unappreciated by her natural parents before the Outbreak claimed both of them, but not so after. Now she had Miss Claire and her brother Chris, and Claire's good friend Leon, and the always nutty but ever lovable Uncle John. There were also all of the other friends and relatives these brought with them, such as Miss Valentine, and that goofy Mexican mercenary friend of hers who sometimes dropped by whenever she paid a visit. There was also that young woman Ingrid, who always seemed to be covering Leon's back whenever he was away on a mission ... and many others. Always, when there was no one else, there was Miss Elza. Even when the various affairs and adventures of the others made them have to go away for a time, Miss Elza was always there. Less than a surrogate mother but more than a close friend, both Elza Walker and Sherry Birkin developed a bond of friendship as close as that Elza had enjoyed with Claire Redfield during their shared youth together. Furthermore, as Sherry got older, and expressed her desire to follow in the footsteps of the others and become a soldier in the war against global bioterrorism, Elza was there to support her. Elza was just as much one of Sherry's personal heroes as was Claire, for if those two women could go up against Umbrella as they had done and succeed, then why could not she? The peculiar physical abilities granted to Sherry Birkin by the now-stablized G-virus within her own body would prevent her from ever having to endure the permanent physical damage that had been wrought upon Miss Elza, but she was determined that her mind would be just as sharp and just as deep. Also, with Elza Walker to help inspire the training of her mind and Claire Redfield as a living example for training her body, how could the now-adult Sherry Birkin go wrong?