As sunlight quickly filtered through the window Matt let out a groan and pulled the blanket over his head. It was no secret that the red head wasn't a morning person. That was why Mello was making coffee while Near was responsible for waking Matt up. Mello knew what a difficult job it really was and typically just let him wake up on his own. It was one of those things Matt used to get into trouble for while at Wammy's, on the list right after smoking. Matt was never one to care for rules, which was one of the reasons Matt and Mello had became friends so easily. Oh the trouble those two would get into. For a while they had even held a contest to see who got sent to Roger's office the most.
As a yelp was heard, Mello turned his gaze back towards the other two. Near was holding an empty bucket at his side while Matt was sitting up in bed soaking wet, his messy auburn hair was now dripping water into his face. It was a rather amusing sight. Mello never though of doing that to wake Matt up, but he probably would have gotten cold water dumped on him in the middle of the night. Near probably would never have to worry about Matt getting revenge on him. Hell Mello didn't even dare prank Near after the incident when they were kids. It was a memory he tried to forget. Near might have been the quieter one that no one would suspect but in reality he was a truly evil mastermind when it came down to it.
"Well I'm awake now," Matt voiced before throwing the blanket off himself and headed toward the bathroom.
Mello snickered before he returned to working on making breakfast. He quickly started to make pancakes, chocolate chip for himself, regular for Near and blueberry for Matt. Mello was glad that he at least knew how to cook since Near would burn their room down and Matt couldn't make anything that wasn't just heated up on the stove or microwaved. At least Near tried, Matt just didn't care enough to make anything else.
Once the pancakes were actually finished Matt had finally walked back into the room fully dressed with his hair still damp. Mello would have commented on Matt taking forever in the bathroom but the red head was rather spacey. Typically he would have devoured his food rather quickly but he would take a bite, play with his food and then take another bite. Mello could instantly tell that there was something bothering him but knew Matt would only tell him if he felt the need. He just hoped it would be sooner rather than later.
Once they were all finished with breakfast they gathered anything they might possible need when they arrived at Silent Hill. None of them quite knew what they were getting themselves into so they wanted to be as prepared as they could. Each of them would have a gun on them just in case the need arose, even though Near wouldn't likely use it. You could never be too careful, mostly when it came to unknown territory. They didn't think that they would need to use anything like a gun but it did make them feel a bit more comfortable.
Matt had declared he'd be the one to drive and insisted that they all rode in the same vehicle. It would have been a waste of gas otherwise. Mello had been stubborn at first but gave in due to how the red head had been acting earlier. Mello could always drive his motorcycle the next day.
"Shotgun!" Mello called after they put everything in the car, which just caused Matt to roll his eyes. Mello would always ride up front, so often that Near typically climbed into the backseat anyway. It wasn't like it mattered to Near anyway.
"Once we arrive we will search for anything that could lead us to the missing people or a suspect. If we happen to get separated just phone the others," Near explained as they headed toward their destination. They weren't sure how well their phones would actually work but they hoped they wouldn't need to use them. Their goal was to not get separated so they were going to do what they could to not allow that to happen. They would all be on edge enough as it was.
The drive itself to the gate was rather uneventful, other than Near lecturing Matt on not obeying traffic laws. This just made Matt break them even more. Mello had learned a long time ago not to comment on Matt's driving skills; although, he didn't have much room to talk. Once they actually reached the gate they were a bit shocked to see that the gate was no longer there. They all looked at each other before they slowly drove beyond where the gate should have been. When Near spoke to the local police they had informed him about the locked gate and they had even given him the key. It made them all wonder if someone else had come here recently. They were hoping that wasn't the case. It was unsettling enough with the fog without adding that atop of it.
"Matt watch out!" Mello called out as a figure of a small girl walked across the road.
Matt slammed on his breaks, causing the car to spin and roughly slam against the rail, luckily not enough to break it. Matt's head had slammed into the steering wheel, knocking him out, while Mello had hit his shoulder on the door and Near just looked a bit nauseous. Mello rubbed his sore shoulder and looked around outside the car, looking for any sign of the girl, but found none.
"That was most unpleasant," Near's voice echoed through the car.
Mello was about to comment but then noticed Matt not moving and his gaze quickly turned to panic. "Matt!" He quickly unbuckled himself and got out of the car. He moved around to the driver's side and threw the door open and shook Matt. "Matt wake up! For the love of G-" He began before a groan left the red head's lips. "Oh thank God!"
"What the hell?" Matt questioned before he sat up and looked at Mello. When realization sat in he quickly looked around at the damage to his car and his friends. He was glad to see everyone looked alright but not happy about the condition of his car. "Damn it..." He muttered before he let his hand touch his head and pulled it back to see blood. When he saw the look in Mello's eyes he shook his head. "I'm fine, but my car isn't. It'll run at least."
Mello relaxed before standing up to look around. He couldn't see any trace of the girl. It gave him a rather uneasy feeling. People couldn't just vanish. He'd have to keep a look out for her, since a child had no business being out here alone. There hadn't been any reports of missing children so it was something he'd have to look into. He got back into the car, not wanting to spend any more time here than they had to.
Once the car was moving again they drove at a slower pace, not wanting anything to jump out in front of them in the thick fog. They were a bit relieved when they had seen the large Silent Hill sign that had marked their entrance to the town. If they had been looking closer they would have seen where someone had written underneath the population, 'Are all damned.' If they had seen it, they might have turned around or at least would have had an idea of what they were about to encounter.
When they actually entered town what they found was rather shocking. It didn't look like a fire had consumed the town. Some buildings had slight evidence of such but for the most part it looked like any other run down and abandoned town. The fog was just as thick here as it was before they had reached the town. It was strange but the only one caught up on that was Near. Matt stopped the car in front of what looked to be a diner. They weren't that far into town so that way it'd be easier to track where they had already gone.
"Hey look, there's a map over here," Matt said as he pointed to the map hanging on a wall. "Looks like this place is bigger than we thought."
Matt was right about that. The three looked over the map and each wondered tow things; what buildings were still standing and if those people had been kidnapped where could they be. There were many logical options but they wouldn't know unless they went themselves. It would have been faster to split up but that was not an option.
"Where should we start?" Mello asked, having a few ideas of his own.
"We will check this diner first to see if anyone has been here recently. We will head north from here." Near told them.
With that being said the three grabbed anything they would need from the car and made their way inside the diner, which luckily wasn't locked; although, that wouldn't have stopped them. What they found inside proved there hadn't been activity in the diner in quite a white. There were various kitchenware scattered around, a few chairs were knocked over and layers of dust on almost every surface.
"Guys look at this," Matt spoke as he motioned to a trail of blood that lead outside.
They all looked at one another before the followed the trail out the back door. What bothered them was that it appeared relatively fresh, maybe a week or two old. With the sight there was at least a chance the missing people could still be alive. Any hope was better than none at least. If they could bring these people back to their family and friends that would be the best outcome. They would hope for the best but they had to be prepared for the worst as well.
The trail just suddenly dead ended into the wall so the three stopped walking. It was strange but none of them said anything. When Mello saw something he turned his attention toward the other side of the back alley they were in and saw the figure of the girl from the road that had caused them to crash.
"Hey!" Mello called out, which caused her to run off.
Mello took off after her, Matt and Near following after him. As soon as Mello rounded the corner he stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened at the sight of the creature standing a little ways in front of him. It was almost gray in color, with no face and its arms looked as if they had grown wrapped around the inside of it's body. The sight of it made the blonde's stomach churn. The other thing that bothered Mello was the way it walked as well as the black substance that seemed to drip from its chest and make a sizzling sound upon impact with the ground.
"What the hell is that!" Matt yelled when the two caught up to Mello.
This was the wrong thing to do since the creature's attention was now drawn to them and from the shrill cry it somehow let out, it wasn't happy that they were there. When it began it's eerie walk towards them Mello pulled out his silenced pistol and began to fire at it without a second thought. He stopped his shooting when the creature fell to the ground and stopped moving for good. Mello walked up to it and nudged its side with his boot. When there was no response he lowered his gun and placed it back at his hip.
"This place is getting weirder by the minute. That looked like something that would come from one of your games," Mello directed towards Matt.
"Could it be some sort of mutation?" Matt questioned as he stared at the lifeless form, thinking of what could be a possible explanation for what the creature was.
"No. It is not human." Near finally spoke. "It is producing some sort of acidic substance that would kill a human. If I'm not mistaken that substance would burn through most material, including flesh if it was given enough time."
"Well let's not stick around to find out. Let's gather some evidence and get the hell out of here."
Mello agreed, but this was the first time in quite a while that he'd seen Matt look frightened like this. There was something that Matt wasn't telling him. If Near wasn't there he'd get to the bottom of it right then and there but since Near was there he'd just have to wait. Instead he'd continue searching the buildings and surrounding areas for any sort of clue to what was going on.
The same process had gone on for at least an hour of the investigating; although, they had not come across any other strange creatures like the one in the alley. They were currently several blocks from where they started, outside of pharmacy. The door was locked so Matt was currently picking the lock.
"Will you hurry up," Mello said impatiently.
All of them were a bit on edge since the alley. They had a right to be and that was when a loud siren filled the quiet they all jumped. They had no idea what was going on and if they hadn't known better they would have thought there was going to be bombs dropped on them. What they hadn't expected was the world to change around them. It was as if everything began to decay, revealing rust, dirt and blood, as it all began to ascend upward. That wasn't the worst part of it. Along the street various figures could be seen making their way towards them. Some of them were the same as what they had encountered in the alleyway. The rest looked like children that were somehow made of ash.
Each one of them could feel their hearts beating roughly against their ribcage. It was as if they had died back on the bridge and was now trapped in some hellish nightmare. Maybe this was all just some sick nightmare they weren't waking from. Mello pinched himself just to make sure.
"This is so fucked up!" Mello growled out in frustration.
"I think it's time we got out of this place," Matt said, the other two agreeing completely.
With that thought they quickly began to make their way back to where they left the car. Both Matt and Mello shot at any of the nightmarish creatures that got in the way. It seemed to work against the armless ones but bullets weren't having much luck against the ash children. Mello muttered a handful of curses before rushing them with kicks and punches. This actually seemed to work except the heat coming from them made it painful to punch multiple of them at a time. Even Near assisted with narrowing down their assailants.
Their strategy had worked rather well and there were only a handful left when they began to disappear into the air. The area around them once again returned to it's normal state. No one could explain what happened and at the moment they didn't care to. They just wanted to get out of there and condemn this place.
"This is all so fucked up!" Mello said frustrated as he continued to grip his gun in his hands.
"Watch out!" Matt cried as he grabbed a hold of Mello's arm. If he would have taken another step he would have fallen to his death. Where the rest of the road had been was now broken, almost as if something had ripped it away. It was unnatural.
"What do we do now?"
"We will have to find another way around." Near voiced, sending a feeling of dread through each and every one of them.
Author's Note: Sorry for the wait. I would have had it finished earlier if it hadn't been for work calling me in almost every day. Well I hope you guys liked it. Tell me what you think and maybe some things you'd like to see in the future. I love your input and comments. It give me a warm feeling.
crystalize50: Yeah I probably wouldn't have stopped laughing either. *snickers* I have some tricks up my sleeve for Matt and Mello. I am glad you like it so far. I hope you continue to like it ^_^
