Silent Hill: Red Sands
Disclaimer: Now let me begin by saying that this is an entirely original idea that came from watching quite a bit of WWII videos and propaganda. Know that this story is all my own save for Silent Hill's original creations by Konami. There may be sensitive topics in here that require sensitive responses and reviews to those who may or may not have dealt with WWII personally. I don't know if you have grandparents or great grandparents who have, but know that I mean no kind of disrespect to them whatsoever. I understand that this topic must be tread upon carefully, so I will do so in that way.
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
-Lance Armstrong
"Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, ALWAYS."
-Mahatma Gandhi
By: VampireQueenAkasha
"You see it too? For me, it's always like this."
-Angela, Silent Hill 2
Part One
Brahams
Year 1952
"You must pay for your sins ... "
It was difficult to move.
How badly had he suffered from the damages to his head? Joseph Milch didn't know how long he was out cold, but he awoke in the middle of a hospital examination room, staring straight up into a poorly-lit light over his head. When his eyes opened, they were very sensitive and he had to shut them quickly to avoid being blinded. When he tried to sit up, he could feel pain shoot clear up his spine and explode into his head. Groaning, he tried to move into a sitting position and felt a cool breeze behind him.
Joseph glanced down and noticed that he was dressed in a hospital gown and several IV needles were plugged into his wrists. He grasped them tightly and pulled them from his flesh, drawing small rivers of blood from the open holes. He stepped onto the cold floor and hurried toward a closet to fetch some gauze to wrap his arms with. As he worked, he occasionally looked toward the hospital door to see if anyone was coming to help him.
He had no idea where he was or how he had gotten here and when he touched the back of his head, he felt a heavy patch there, wrapped in bandages. He felt some form of panic. Had he been hurt somehow? What had happened to him?
Joseph could barely think as he staggered toward a chair where a pile of ratted clothes were lying. He reached down with shaking hands and unwrapped them from their tight bundled shapes. It was a US army uniform, covered in cuts, dried blood and grime. He could only stare at them in surprise. Had he been a soldier? Maybe that was why he was here. He was wounded in battle and taken to get medical treatment. But how long had he been here?
Joseph slipped the uniform on, despite the cruddy feel of the fabric and staggered toward a mirror where he observed his rugged features; the doctors had obvious shaved his face and trimmed up his yellow hair. That was nice of them to go through that kind of trouble. His hands touched a bandage on his cheek and carefully peeled it away, revealing a fresh slice wound. He sucked in a sharp breath and splashed some water on his face before stepping out of the room.
The hallway was poorly lit by flickering lights overhead and very cold. The man was shivering as he staggered down the silent halls, looking around for anyone to help him. There were no signs of anyone anywhere though and it made him a little bit worried.
Joseph peered into the reception glass of the main office to look for anyone, but it was empty too.
"Hello?" he called, his voice rough.
No reply and it seemed to echo down the poorly - lit corridors.
Joseph walked into the office and began paging through some papers and notes spread across the table, hoping to find something that could give him information on how he had gotten here. There were documents on several other patients, but nothing on him. The folders were scattered everywhere and there seemed to be no organization whatsoever. It looked like everyone had left in a hurry too. He tried the filing cabinets and searched for his name; he found his folder, but every paper and note was removed.
That was odd.
Joseph sensed something and glanced up toward the hallways where something moved away, almost like a shadow melding into the darkness. He quickly rushed out as fast as his weakened joints would allow and followed, thinking that it might have been a person to help.
"Hey!" he shouted, "Wait! Hold on!"
The pain in his leg was intense, but he continued to move toward the shape that darted toward the operating room, disappearing inside. Joseph pushed the doors open and stepped into darkness. The tools and tables were glittering in the dim light and he could see no one around.
"Hello?" he said.
A sniffling sound filled the air, like a child weeping. Joseph furrowed his brow and walked around a table, spotting a small shape huddled in the corner. It looked like a child; a little girl in a brown tattered formal dress beneath a ratted stained jacket. Her head was covered in a white cloth. Joseph had never seen the child before, but he reached out with a gentle hand and smiled tenderly, hoping to offer comfort to her.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.
"I can't find mommy ... " the girl whispered, her voice trembling. She carried a peculiar accent to her voice that sounded a trifle bit German to him. "She's gone. I think she's lost. I can't find her..." Another sniffle. "I lost mommy ... "
Joseph stared down at the child with pity. "Maybe we can look together." he offered.
She was quiet for a long time before she answered. Her voice changed now and it sounded somewhat more venomous for a little girl. "Are you lost too sir?"
The tone went over Joseph's head. "Uh ... maybe ... " he said.
When she turned around, he jolted backwards with a shocked gasp of horror. The girl was staring at him with pale, lifeless eyes and cold, dead flesh. Her forehead was soaked in blood where a bullet hole had contacted. Somehow she was alive and real when she shouldn't have been. She smiled eerily up at him, dry cracked lips pulling upwards. Every move was painful to watch and even looked painful for her to do.
"They'll find you too..." she whispered, "They all will."
Joseph looked up at the sight of a woman standing behind the observation glass. She was dressed in filthy rags and wore various kinds of jewelry. Her hair was long and brown and her eyes a hard, cold green. One of the necklaces that caught his attention was something that looked circular and red; an occult symbol of some kind. Like a Halo. The lettering around its circumference looked rovásírás, an old Hungarian alphabet. For a moment, both sets of eyes met one another between the glass. She tilted her head to one side, studying him for a few moments with a strange smile on her face before mouthing a single word that he couldn't hear, but could read easily from her own lips.
Run.
Joseph didn't understand until he stared down at the eerily giggling girl. Both seemed to smile at him and he noticed now what they found so funny; the entire wallpaper around him began to peel and flake away like it was burning but there was no fire. The flaking revealed a peculiar stone and metal - like fence underneath. Joseph staggered back as the table seemed to incinerate and melt away just like the floors and walls, its surface trembling and rippling like a living being. Joseph watched the transformation taking place with horror before he looked up at the strange woman and noticed that she stared back with a very impassive expression, but her eyes glittered with delight.
Joseph turned and ran out of the room, listening to a cold, inhuman laugh follow him, no doubt from that woman. The transformation seemed to happen everywhere around him; wallpaper burning, doors melting and the floor oozing with a thick black substance. Joseph continued to run despite the limp in his movements. The sound of a siren filled his head, reminding him of the air-raid sirens from the war in Europe. He groaned, stopped and covered his ears with pain, struggling to continue walking, but his vision began to blur.
"Oh God ... " he groaned, "What ... What's ... going on?"
Pain lanced up his leg and he collapsed to his knees with a sharp moan. Warm wetness dripped down his face and he reached up, touching it gingerly with a shaking hand, coming out with a finger full of blood.
Joseph felt his world spinning and he contacted the floor, falling into unconsciousness.
All around him sounds filled the air; sounds of screeching animals and human sobbing sounds. The floor around him dissipated and was replaced with hot, gray metal. In the back of his darkened consciousness, he could make out the sound of an older woman's voice, accented like the little girl's.
"You will pay ... "
O
Joseph slowly woke to the real world, moaning quietly. His eyes fluttered open and he noticed that things had changed around him. The walls were no longer white, but rusty brown and bloodstained as well. Over his head roared a heavy, industrial - sized fan. Once he regained his vision and sat upright, he noticed that some parts of the walls seemed to look fleshy in texture and there were patches that bled and burned.
Joseph looked around with shock and silence. What was going on? How did this happen? Did it have something to do with that little girl and that woman?
He climbed to his feet and began to walk down the long, hot corridors, looking around for any way out of the place or any answers to what was going on. He looked back and almost tripped over a wheelchair in the middle of the hall, grabbing it to stop his fall. A hissing sound filled the air and Joseph glanced around sharply for the source of the sound. It was simply steam that blasted from a faintly glowing split in the wall that revealed an endless glow of orange and fire.
There were chains hanging from the ceiling with sharp-edged hooks dangling from the ends. Joseph shuddered at the sight of dried - up husks of human flesh hanging from the walls by meat hooks. It looked like one had moved, but that was just his imagination.
Joseph moved down the hallways, wiping the sweat from his brow. He passed a door and sounds immediately echoed from behind it. Joseph paused and frowned warily at the doorknob before he carefully reached out and noticed that the knob was ice cold. Confused and yet somewhat relieved to feel comfort from it, he turned the knob and opened the door, instantly becoming hit with a gust of icy-cold air and snow.
Snow?
Joseph was stunned by the sight of a calm, beautiful snow falling into the room, covering everything in an icy blanket. The room looked like another operation chamber to him and when he looked up, the ceiling seemed to be blanketed in eternal darkness.
And then, he heard it.
A sound that increased in volume and seemed to draw closer and closer to him. Joseph looked up at the sight of a dark shadow stepping out from behind a table. It staggered, moved wildly and with painful effort, as if walking was the worst thing in the world to do. When it stepped into light, Joseph backed away upon reflex, horror on his face. It looked like a doctor, but not like anything he had ever seen before; he was hunched over in pain and his white doctor's uniform stained with blood and filth. His head trembled violently and shook and Joseph could see a strange protuberance jutting out from the doctor's back. It was fleshy and covered in violent sores. Small hooks hung uselessly from the wounds. When he looked up, Joseph noticed that the doctor had no eyes and no face, but an extra layer of flesh stitched over its head.
This wasn't a normal human; he brandished a long, sharp scalpel in hand and strange, haunting moans reverberated from him.
"Stay away!" Joseph shouted, backing up, "Stay back!"
But the creature refused to stop and when it drew close enough, it slashed the scalpel through the air, cutting the sensitive flesh of Joseph's right palm just as he thrust his hand out to fend against the oncoming attack.
Blood sprayed from his open wound and he grimaced sharply in pain before staggering from the room. A dull shriek filled the air and Joseph looked back, but saw that the creature was no longer behind him as he ran. He continued going as fast as he could, no longer willing to stick around in this hellish void. There had to be a way out of there. He looked around wildly before spotting the exit doors up ahead, covered in grime.
Groaning with effort, Joseph pushed his way through.
He entered eternal darkness and the world outside was no different from the world inside the hospital. It was hot and sweltering and his flesh screamed for some kind of relief that he would not find here in this nightmare. The floor was cracked and splitting, revealing the golden glow of what he could guess was fire and sulfur. The skies were bright orange and black with thick clouds and crackling lightning. It was like the entire world had gone to hell.
"You deserve to suffer ... "
"Murderer ... "
"Devil ... "
The voices nearly drove him mad until he looked up toward the darkened parking lot and spotted the same woman from the glass standing there, smiling at his condition. She tilted her head when he staggered to his feet.
"You!" he cried, "Wait ... who are you? What is this place?"
She didn't speak, instead continued to smile, like he was a very amusing toy.
"Are you behind all of this going on around here?" he demanded, clutching his had tightly and staggering toward her. "What's happening here? That thing, it ... couldn't have been. Are you making this happen? ... Are you doing this?"
The woman stared darkly at him now, all amusement gone. All around them, a siren began to blare loudly through the air. It was piercing to the man's ears and excruciating. He held his head as his world began to dim.
"This ... isn't ... happening." he breathed, just before he passed out.
