A Chronicle of a Life in Silent Hill.
Chapter.1 Snow and Fog
Why am I making this tape? Hell I don't even understand anything anymore anyways. Am I making it for a future generation of men and women who find themselves in this strange and peculiar situation? Am I making this tape to somehow make my experience more real?Like a solider talking to old war buddy or a rape victim who confides in another?
I don't know and I think I never will understand what drives me anymore. What I do know is my story will end here in Silent Hill. Glancing out the window into the fog I reassuringly griped my gun. No ,I shook my head, first I must start at the beginning...at that hellish school and a place that was once home.
I woke with a start and then looked down at my college algebra book. "Shit" I thought "I must have fallen asleep." I listened and the building was in complete silence and "from the sound of it it is past closing time." I had been studding by the geological bulletin board which had a simple wooden table with a few chairs.
I chose this area many a time for its closeness to the entrance to science building and stairs but remained out of the way enough to be fairly quiet. I took out my phone and opened it up to see what time it was. As usual the thing was a piece of crap. The damn thing wouldn't turn on. "I know I charged it!"I shouted angrily.
My phone was old and prone to crashing so I did what I always do in this situation I took the battery out and reinserted it. I did it few times but still to no avail. Frustrated I opened my phone and put it face down on the wooden table in front of me and almost smashed it with my fist right then and there, but I held back.
My fist shook with such anger that I felt my grip alone would destroy the infernal device. I then let out a deep breath and put my phone into my pocket. I then began to pack my stuff into my book bag while muttering about how I was cursed with a Dresden field and that me and only me had a problem with technology.
I then looked up at and smiled as I skim read a comic on the bulletin board stating that one day the earth would be covered in oceans. I smiled at the foolishness and arrogance of race that believes that it contributes more to changing the temperature of the Earth than the Sun. How can people ignore evidence such as the Medieval Warming Period and the Maunder Minimum?
Frustrated at the futility of my thought process I ended it with "oh well, the stupid bastards will learn if the sun spots don't fire back up. Of course they will still be shouting global warming when it snows in July." I lifted my back pack and headed for a family that would not be there to greet me.
As I stepped through the glass doors into the outside world, I felt an immediate cold descend upon me. Soon a fog began to grow all around me until the old brick buildings of the campus seemed to disappear. As I walked to parking lot the lack of other human beings did not alarm me for staying late at school often made me used to seeing the campus empty.
My all encompassing partner the fog did not disturb me for I have seen the campus draped in fog before but its severity was a mystery to me. My footsteps felt unusually loud as I crossed the slabs of stone arranged as a large chessboard in the courtyard. As I walked through the parking lot my upper body tensed up and my ears strained for the slightest sound.
I took out my car keys and held them between my fingers and looked all around like stalked prey. To no avail was I able to get rid of the utter sense of uneasiness that griped me. I wanted to flat out sprint to my car in the distance but held back for the reason of my fear was unknown to me.
I tried to distract myself with what voyeuristic escapes I would engage in when I got home. Would be as an Hashshashin in Assassins Creed, a mighty Persian king in Prince of Persia, maybe today I would finally figure out how to beat that cursed metro map in Advanced Wars Days of Ruin, or perhaps I would finish my dream of beating all the Halo games on legendary by finshing ODST.
My adrenaline started coursing and my pace quickened. " Of course I had to park in the very back in the parking lot"I muttered. I laughed in my reminiscing about how lucky I was to have parked in the same space habitually for 2 years or I could of wandered in a parking lot full of monsters looking for my space.
I tried to calm myself by thinking of how I would spend the next 2 days with my friends and family. I stopped the tape and took a sip from my water bottle. Thinking about them reminded me on how much I lost. After contemplating this for a few moments I hit record and continued. I don't remember what caused me to bolt but I cleared the rest of the parking lot in a few moments threw open my door and slammed my backpack in the passenger seat.
I breathed heavy as I felt that evil presence near by. I slammed my key in and only quickly fumbled with my seat belt due to an electronic beep in my car. I throw my car in reverse backed out and got the hell out of there. As I got on the road I had to force myself to slow down because of the speed bumps between me and the highway.
I looked around frantically in my mirrors as I drove. I didn't know what invisible force was assaulting me but I vowed that I wouldn't go down without a fight. If I had to use my overstuffed book bag as weapon I would. If I had to run someone over with my blue, 2004, Dodge Neon I would. If I had to kill with my own bare hands I would.
My body quivered with the adrenalin pumping through veins as my survival instinct took over. I came up to the stop light and looked around ready to run it at the slightest threat. Time for me didn't slow down it just didn't move fast enough. "Come on you damn light" I shouted in a more frantic and desperate tone than I attended.
Finally it turned green and I slammed on my accelerator feeling small comfort from the sound of my turbo.
As I sped away and got on the interstate I found myself to relax. I slumped forward and felt my heart rate begin to slow down. Though I felt a little unsettled by the experience and a little queasy, I sighed in relief. This relief however was short lived as my puzzlement grew. The thing I saw was innocent enough in other circumstances.
A little snow flake hit my windshield than another and before I knew it was snowing. Even with my belief that the Earth was going to get colder due to lack sunspot activity I never believed it would cool this extremely or this quickly for that matter. It was April for Christ sakes! My mind, in attempt to rationalize, went back to how it snowed in Texas really bad right around spring break and how I was pissed at TCC NE for refusing to close their campus!
Though worried I was able to hid from the true horror of what was occurring with a 'reasonable explanation'. I turned on my window shield wipers, heater and defroster in reaction to these new and startling events. I stupidly drove for 5 minutes thinking about the snow and how the new climate would affect the world that I missed a very simple fact.
It was my gut that brought the obvious to my attention. I felt the eerie feeling of being alone that can only be described as the loneliness of one stranded on island feels. Then it hit me I was the only one on the road! "Surely I would have seen some else on the road by now " I said to no one in particular.
My mind began to develop wild theories for explanation. Maybe the snow caused people to take pause and…"no" my mind cut off you would see people on the road rushing to Walmart to stock up on supplies for the impending doom. Maybe a nuclear attack is intimidate and people are being with there families in their final moments.
No I argued it would be the opposite because everyone would be trying flee the cities and I would die with them in the rush hour of the century because of their futile attempt to escape the kill zone. Maybe aliens abducted them all. "Why weren't you abducted", my mind sneeringly asked.
Maybe it was I am Legend scenario and I am the last man on earth. What could have possibly killed everyone in the hour or so while you were napping? With no viable theory to grasp I complacently headed home hoping to find answers there.
As I got off the interstate I noticed another car in front of me. It was grey SUV and never in my life did such a mundane sight bring such relief. "Maybe I am just being paranoid and seeing threats that aren't really there," I thought. However I felt the urge to follow them for maybe something did occur during my nap and they could give me the answers I desired.
The SUV seemed to ignore all the stop lights which both worried me and strengthen my convection to follow them. "If something bad is going on in US I want to know about it," I told myself. Looking back I think it goes beyond that and that it had more to do with the very desire that causes us to build societies and families.
The desire of human contact. I followed the SUV as it pulled up to some sort of storage center. You know the ones were people are supposed pay someone to store their crap that they are to sentimentally attach to get rid of it. The complex consisted of large grey sheet metal buildings with hundreds of red doors and long red roofs in a fenced in area.
This fence was simple, yellow, wrought iron fence but for some reason the main gate was crushed like a child smashes his toys with only the edges of the gate standing tall and proud. I slowed my car down and put it in park. I had park about a block away from the SUV. "Who knows what is going on and the last thing I want to do is seem threatening in any way," I thought to myself.
In the distance I saw a robed women get out and open the passage door behind the driver seat. I saw her take and injured man arm over her shoulder and help him walk. From the distance I couldn't tell what the wounds were exactly but I knew the man was injured by the way he walked and blood on his robe.
I got out of the car and selfishly began to think about my own problems. I was cold! In the car I was somewhat immune from it but out here my t-shirt and blue jeans felt like poor protection from the elements. I began to walk up and noticed them disappear into the fog through the hole in the fence.
I shouted at them to wait and hurried after them but my pursuit stopped at the SUV. When I looked in I saw death. The others a man and women were both in brown robes like the couple I saw before. The man looked like he died from his dick getting cut off and the women looked like the flesh of her face was eaten or burned.
The fact the entire interior of the SUV was a scene of gore caused me to lose my stomach contents and take pause. I tried to regain my composure but the cold and the sight I just saw caused me to shudder uncontrollably. About 30 seconds later I thought about the women and how she needed my help.
I felt macho pride overcome me in the face of horror and I quickly went through the fence into the complex. I might have not known where to go if not for the conspicuous trail of blood in front of me. I followed trying to shout out about how I have come to help and mean no harm. This was message was impeded by the fact that my teeth wouldn't stop chattering.
I began rub my hands together in vain hope to get them warm. I cursed as my body began to feel like it was being stab by thousands of tiny needles. I walked passed many steel doors that contained countless memories and cherished items. I perked up for I thought I heard a noise a little ways off in the distance.
I listened more carefully and realized it was footsteps rapidly heading away from me around the corner of the storage building I was standing next to. I had to investigate.
I hit pause on the tape recorder. In few moments I continued. You know I learned something that day that I had a bravery that I would have never thought to posses. However I also learned I am incredibly stupid sometimes. Funny how those things go hand and hand.