After keeping a close eye on people for more than a year, the first symptoms of the Hope virus manifested themselves when a newborn was born with malformed skin and clawed limbs. The infant did not live more than three hours before passing away, and an undercover umbrella researcher who was working there collected samples and delivered them to William's hidden camp. After that, William examined what had happened to the community. The findings of Williams' research showed that the consequences were similar to those seen in the chimp's test; nevertheless, the cells were unable to sustain the change, and the host ultimately perished.
Over the course of the subsequent year and a half, an increasing number of infants were born with mutations, and even in those infants who were born without mutations, the cells in their bodies died at a rate that was faster than their bodies could produce new cells. However, no children survived the virus for more than three months, and only a small number of cells in their bodies survived the virus long enough to be studied. After an elderly person passed away in a natural manner, the virus continued to be active and consume the body. When the residents of the town looked for assistance, they were told to remain in their homes and wait for it.
After a period of eight months in which nothing changed and everyone who left the village was killed, the virus mutated in everyone on November 25. Within two days, more than seventy percent of the town had perished, and those who were still alive exhibited unusual behavior. The citizens of the town started bringing all of the dead bodies to the town hall, and all of William's spies who were hiding out in the town were either killed or brought to the town hall. When William had seen enough, he issued the order to clean out the town, with the town hall being the last building to be emptied.
After clearing everything outside the town hall, the squads gathered at the main doors and were about to enter when infected citizens emerged from the building looking even more hideous than before. Their gray skin was split, crimson veins protruded, and their fingers looked like blades. The squads had been trained to deal with bioweapons, and they were successful in eliminating the infected. However, they did suffer some casualties, as the infected only knew how to charge and swipe at the soldiers. As soon as the teams entered the structure, they noticed that there was flesh stuck to the walls and large pools of blood on the floor. The most peculiar sight was a young woman who seemed oblivious to the events taking place around her as she sat in the middle of the room sobbing while holding what appeared to be a lifeless infant.
As they moved closer to the girl, she let out a scream at them, which caused two of the largest pools of blood in the room to burst apart, reviling two horrifying clawed creatures. They weren't able to finish off their opponents until they had lost more than half of their squads to the creature that charged at them and tore up soldier after soldier as it went. After that, the girl was restrained and given something to make her sleepy. After that, they moved to make room for William and his squad when they arrived at the scene.
After making certain that the location was safe, William and others in his team put on biohazard suits so that they could gather samples. After placing the girl in a biohazard chamber and transferring her to a helicopter, William went to the girl's child and obtained a skin and blood sample before placing the infant with the rest of the town's people. They left after taking whatever they could, and William gave the order for the town to be burned down and destroyed so that nothing could get away. After William returned to Raccoon City, he approached Burkin about conducting research at the brand-new NEST laboratory. Burkin granted him access to the facility, and once he'd gone through the new umbrella Elusive Sergei Vladimir, he started conducting experiments with Elizabeth Green and the other materials that he had accumulated over the years.