Years after being captured by the GRE and experimented on by the Baron, Marius Fischer, Crane finally has an opportunity to escape when another test subject, Subject Beta, breaks containment. Taking advantage of the resulting chaos and with the assistance of a woman named Olivia, Crane escapes the lab, but discovers that thanks to the experiments performed upon him, he is part Volatile and can temporarily gain the strength of one. He meets up with Olivia outside the lab, who agrees to assist him in his desire for revenge against the Baron in return for helping her escape the Baron's clutches. She explains that the Baron once owned a biotech company before the outbreak, and now he is obsessed with perfecting the virus so he can control the world. In order to gain the strength to stand against the Baron and his army, Olivia instructs Crane to slay the Baron's experimental Chimeras, extract the GSB from their bodies, and use it to empower himself. In addition, he must seek allies willing to help him against the Baron. Meanwhile, Olivia collects samples from the Chimeras Crane defeats in order to figure out the Baron's plans. Seeking allies, Crane first comes across survivors in the local Town Hall led by the Sheriff, who warn him that a "Beast" has been going around hunting down the Baron's men. Upon hearing that the Baron is personally overseeing an operation at a mine, Crane and the Sheriff infiltrate the grounds in an attempt to kill him directly. However, the Sheriff betrays Crane and tries to hand him over to the Baron, but the Beast, his real target, interferes and manages to escape, allowing Crane to avoid captivity while the Sheriff flees, seemingly with the Baron. The Town Hall's second in command, Jacob, informs Crane about a group of infected exiles, former test subjects that managed to escape from the Baron's lab and developed telepathy within other infected in the process. Crane makes contact with their leader Lydia and captures one of the Baron's scientists, Camilo, who agrees to help them enhance their telepathic abilities to control the infected. Meanwhile, Olivia admits to Crane that her father was a scientist in Harran who was studying the virus, and is now being kept prisoner by the Baron.