Ada Wong sighed and stared out the window, adjusting her shades. The landscape was horribly boring as they rolled by, just trees and fog, and it seemed to be getting worse. "Tell me again why we couldn't fly in?" She glanced over at Wesker, frowning. She had left the red dress in the closet and settled for a pair of blue jeans and a red shirt for this mission. As was her style, she had patched a butterfly on the sleeve. She had brought along a green jacket, as well, but it was slung across the backseat.
"Silent Hill is out of the way. Just a little tourist town. Air traffic is pretty non-existent. We don't want to draw that much attention to ourselves," Wesker spoke calmly, keeping his eyes on the road. Ada never imagined that she would see the man driving himself anywhere, but he had been doing so for the past four hours with no sign of fatigue. In a complete departure from her tourist outfit, he was wearing his suit, only the coat was hanging in the back, freshly ironed so as not to get the tiniest of wrinkles. The man was nothing if not a stickler for details.
Ada was about to close her eyes, feeling what was left of the warm sunlight shining on her face, when the scenery changed. The car came to a stop. She stared in confusion at the small restroom facility, covered in graffiti, and the foggy lake beyond it.
"You've got to be joking," The town was on the other side of the lake. It looked lonely somehow. Desolate. For a tourist town, at least. A huge cloud of fog hung over it, although it was late afternoon.
"We have to walk the rest of the way," Wesker was holding a map that he had pulled from the glove compartment. "There's a path through the forest, then the graveyard, then the town."
"So this is a tourist town, but you can't drive straight into it?" Wesker pointed casually, and Ada's eyes followed. There had clearly been another road, but it was blocked off. 'WELCOME' the sign above the gate read, only the 'L' had fallen off. The whole thing had an ancient look, as if it had stayed that way for years. "We come. That's nice."
"...And appropriate." The door opened and Wesker stepped out, opening the back door and pulling out his suit jacket, then shrugging it on over his arms. The air was cold even for him. He tightened the gun belt around his waist, which he had loosened somewhere around hour two of the trip, and headed for the trunk. Ada slid her own jacket on and stepped out into the humid air, feeling a chill come over her immediately. She stood there for a while, staring out over the lake as if entranced, until a fanny pack was shoved into her arms. "Now you can really look the part."
"Tourists don't normally carry guns in these things," She strapped it around her waist and unzipped it, giving her easy access if the need should arise. "Or parasitic samples, for that matter."
"Just don't lose it." Wesker smiled slightly, something that never ceased to amaze his partner, and walked over to the head of the path that led off of the road. He stared along it for a moment, then, deeming it acceptable, started walking. Ada followed closely behind, hoping that his body might block the biting wind that seemed to sink right through to her bones and nest there.
When they entered Silent Hill, the first and only thing that Ada noticed was the fog. It hung over the town like a cloak, covering her sunglasses in residue. Then it slowly cleared away, revealing the husk of a building here, an old diner here (the window had been broken at some point and never fixed). Doors stood slightly ajar and some wide open, as if the owner had burst out in a dead run and forgotten to close the door behind him. Wrinkled newspapers drifted along the pavement. Utterly uninhabited. She felt cold dread and spoke the first words that came to her mind.
"Was there an outbreak?"
"We would have been informed," Still, even Wesker was confused to find such a popular little lake town so empty. It was like happening upon the artifacts of the Mayans in the middle of the United States. He listened for a moment and heard nothing. No footsteps. No cars. It was eerie. "Doesn't matter. We're not here to check on the townsfolk." He was looking at the map again. Ada heard it crinkle.
"I don't like this," She stepped out into the middle of the street, her sunglasses now hanging from the collar of her shirt. Wesker didn't have the luxury of removing his. "Why wouldn't they tell us if the town was deserted?"
"Maybe they were banking on our assumptions. What better place could there be for the facility?" Another look at the map. "We're not far from the warehouse." There was a dark circle on the map, which Wesker had marked in ink. Ada didn't wait, starting down along the road, right along the median. After all, there were no cars to worry about, and if there were, this miserable road trip would be over soon (or so she hoped).
Five minutes later, they came upon the bloody mess.
Wesker had smelled it faintly for some time. Ada hadn't been paying attention and stepped right into it. She nearly slipped but Wesker was there in a flash, grabbing her arm and yanking her upright almost painfully.
"Watch your step."
"Thanks for the heads up," Ada said with a smile that lacked humor. She had just stepped into what looked like the remains of a small animal. She winced, realizing that she had even felt a few tiny bones snapping under her foot. It was disgusting, and the smell made it that much worse. "Ugh. What was it?" She slid her heel along the concrete as she spoke, leaving a bloody streak. It looked about the size of a small rabbit, but something about it was wrong.
...And then she saw it. Its mouth was stuffed full of gauze. It's eyes, although rolled halfway back into its head, still somehow seemed to be staring at her. Accusing, as ridiculous as it seemed. Its skin was missing fur in several places and was marred by tiny holes, about the size a needle would leave. That is, if someone was crazy enough to stab it repeatedly with one.
"Who would do a thing like this?" she covered her nose. "I guess this town isn't completely deserted. There are still loons around."
Wesker nodded, but deep down he felt the beginning of a faint recognition. A flash of memory from years past... and something, he was certain it wasn't his own thoughts, as he'd felt no remorse over that situation, whispered 'Traitor.'
It was the beginning of what would be Hell.
A/N: This is the extended version of chapter 1. Still lots of love and thanks to Gloomy Utopia, and also those of you who have reviewed thus far.
Next Chapter: The two are seperated and Wesker suffers from some particularly nasty flashbacks. (We all love flashbacks.)