Silent Instability Chapter Three

Kathryn Deane 10/4/08

Silent Instability Chapter Three

Beth and Cybil jog down Bachman Rd towards Bloch St and towards the Gas Station and the Bridge Control room. When Cybil, who has her head turned and looking at Beth as she is briefing her, quite suddenly and without warning gets jumped on and pummelled by a Romper, a humanoid creature, looks featureless and appears to be either skinless or burned, but moves like a gorilla. Cybil tussles then punches the creature off her, vomiting fire onto it as she does so and watches the Romper burn. During the tussle though, she heard Beth's gun go off, and without turning her head to look at her, she asks Beth if she's ok. No answer, Cybil snaps her head round and realises that Beth has gone. She sees something glint on the ground from the burning corpse of the Romper and Cybil relights her hand to get a closer look. It is Beth's 9mm handgun and next to it, her locket. Cybil picks up the handgun and puts it in her empty holster of her cop's uniform on her waist she then also picks up the locket. She notices it is the locket that belonged to Penny, and notices some engraving on the back of it "Beth, Happy Anniversary Sweetheart. Love Penny." Cybil holds onto that locket like her undead life depended on it. She picks up pace. At Woodside Apartments she opens the main doors to the loft and steps inside. She jogs up the stairs taking two at a time.

Clown and Lisa and Penny who is now awake and able to move after some water and a tin of baked beans that Clown happened to have in his storage all hear foots steps in the hall. They all know as well that it is not Beth. Simultaneously all three of them reach for their weapons they have or are supposed to have. Clown with the 9mm that he has as back up from his other 9mm that he gave to Beth. Penny, goes to reach in her holster for her Glock but realises her holsters empty as The Order members took it when she was taken. Clown, however sees this and pulls out her Glock from his clothes and hands it to her. She glances at him with a quizzical look and he merely whispers "I saved it from the Mess Hall where you were tied. I knew it was yours because The Order only carry rifles, plus it is Police issue," with that he winks at her then aims his 9mm at the door. Penny holds her arm out to her right side and aims her Glock at the door from her position of resting on the couch and Lisa aims Beth's 45. The door swings open and "DON'T SHOOT!" screams Penny, "Its, its my sister" she says with an incredulous look on her face. Cybil just smiles, but it is a grim, weary smile.

"This is Cybil?" asks Lisa.

"Yes, it is," answers Penny, "What in the name of holy hell happened to you, Sis?"

"Lets just say that some certain, uh, followers, "cleansed me of my sins."

Penny gets a look of sudden shock and grief on her face and she involuntarily yells out a string of obscenities brought on by a bout of stress triggered Tourette's and a tear rolls down her cheek. Cybil walks up to her older sister and wipes a tear from Penny's cheek with her finger "Sis, don't worry about me. I'm fine, even as an undead pyromancer. I came back originally for revenge on the rest of the Order members that Alessa didn't get her hands on. Yes, she got all the ones that were in the church when they burned me alive. But there are others, and The Order is The Order and knowing that they led The Doctor, who not only experimented on my best friend but also led him to my own sister" – she strokes some hair out of Penny's face – "I have more reason to go after them now." At this point, Penny notices Beth is not with them.

"Where's Beth?" asks Penny

"I don't know, I was with her coming here then I got jumped by a gorilla like creature without warning, as I struggled with the Romper and burned him I heard Beth's gun go off. But when I looked around she was gone. All that was left was her 9mm" Cybil says this as she un-holsters the gun and hands it to Penny, she then holds up the locket "This was also dropped, I thought you might like it back so you can give it back to Beth when we find her" Cybil gives her Sis a knowing smile.

"Thank you" Penny takes the locket and puts it around her own neck for safe keeping, she then takes the clip out of her Glock to make sure it is full then slams it back into the gun. She moves to get up, Clown moves to stop her but Lisa pushes Clown back shaking her head. Clown nods and gets another makeshift crutch for Penny.

"I'm off to find Beth," says Penny

"And we are going with you," says Lisa

"Yup, you will need all the help you can get," says Clown. Cybil lights her other hand and on that note they walk out the door. They make their way down the stairs Cybil bringing up the front and acting as light source to conserve the battery power of Clown's torch, Penny right behind Cybil, then Lisa with Clown bringing up the rear and out the front loft door. Penny, following Cybil almost bumps into her because Cybil has stopped abruptly outside the door "Cybil? What is it?"

"There is the long way round to Central Silent Hill on foot. But, didn't you have a boat, Clown?"

"Yes, "did" being the operative word, but it wasn't mine"

"Damn, and there is no vehicle around, so it looks like we will have to go it on foot along Nathan Avenue then up W. Sandford St."

"But, that will take longer with Penny and I on a crutch each" says Lisa.

"So, you will just have to try and keep up" with that Cybil picks up pace, followed by Lisa, Penny and Clown. They make their way along Nathan Ave. and turn into W. Sandford St. They decide to take a short cut through Lake Side Amusement Park and are about half way when Penny notices Cybil shaking her head vigorously. "You ok, Sis?"

"I don't know, I'm feeling extremely tired all of a sudden" Penny and Cybil look at Clown who is also shaking his head vigorously. Lisa seems ok. Cybil notices Lisa watching something intently, and she follows Lisa's gaze and notices a gangly, ghoul looking creature moving towards them. Lisa brings up the 45. Cybil, while trying to shake off extreme fatigue holds up both her hands getting ready to fire a couple of fireballs at the thing. Penny tries to lift her Glock but she's too weak from being experimented on by the Doctor and now this creature. Clown is barely managing to hold his own gun up. Penny is the first to fall unconscious. Clown follows straight after. Lisa pulls off two shots at the creature, but the creature moves faster then he looks like he could. Cybil then loses her consciousness and as she falls Lisa, realising that once Cybil's fire goes out will leave her in pitch black so she makes a dive for the torch on Clown's head. Lisa puts the torch on her own head and turns it on so she can see. She looks around aiming the 45. She sees a glimpse of the creature. He then reappears to Lisa's left and she watches him walk towards her. He's tall, skinny and bony. His face is long with high cheekbones and pointy chin. His eyes are wide with more then a hint of worry, or paranoia or both and it doesn't look like he has slept in a while. He is very pale with shoulder length dark hair and he is basically wearing and old tattered tux only without the tie, just the shirt, trousers and coat with tails. He has no shoes though.Lisa starts shaking her head vigorously and trying not to fall asleep, which is odd for her because she's an insomniac and essentially never sleeps. Realising what the creature is, Lisa starts losing her physical strength to hold up the 45. She hears a noise to her right and glances in that direction. She sees Sarah running towards her. The creature now in front of Lisa puts his hand on Lisa's cheek. The creature is not affecting Sarah partly because even though Sarah is an insomniac herself. She also had come into contact with the creature before when he attacked her. Only some how she managed to fight him off. This time though, she is more prepared. Lisa who is now having trouble keeping her eyes open watches Sarah as she moves to rescue her and the others. She watches her pull a syringe out and injects herself.

Sarah purposely runs right into the creature knocking him over. Thing is Sarah happens to be with the self-defence class at the hospital as a hobby. So she pulls back and gets into a fighting stance. The creature looks at her. He walks up to her calmly. Sarah keeps her guard up. He puts his right hand on Sarah's left cheek. Nothing happens. He puts his other hand on her other cheek. Still nothing happens. Sarah just smiles at him. Then head butts him. He staggers backwards. She stalks towards him. He starts backing up. He's realising that Sarah, not only being an insomniac like Lisa is but also being jacked up on whatever it was she injected herself with, is no match for her. He turns and takes off in a dead run. Sarah looks around. She sees Lisa still standing, but she looks odd. She walks up to her. Lisa has her head down with her chin on her chest. She's still holding the 45 at her side. The torch on her head in pointed at the ground. Sarah plants a hand on either side of Lisa's face and lifts her head to look at her. Her eyes are open. But she's glazed over. Sarah realises that she's awake but at the same time not awake. Essentially sleep walking but only when guided by someone else, or catatonic. She gently removes the Torch from Lisa's head and puts it on her own. She then gently takes the 45 from Lisa's hand and ejects the clip, making sure it is full, or full enough and slams it back in. Sarah notices light coming over the horizon. She switches off the torch.

Penny groans and rubs her head then looks over to Cybil and reaches out to her just in time to see her dematerialise because of sunrise.

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