Chapter 3

The radio was starting to emit static again. James paused and removed the radio from his pocket and gave it a hard shake.

"Com'n." He muttered to himself as the sound got louder. Was it just broken? It was certainly annoying. Suddenly, he heard the sound footsteps coming nearer. The radio was momentarily forgotten as a shadow took place in the fog of a deformed human. Was it human?

James backed up; not wanting to see what was coming his way, he prayed it of his own specimen, someone as lost and confused as he was. Unfortunately for him, his prayers were nothing in the damned town. It was another creature like the one at the construction site. Underneath its second bloody skin the stretched over its head and chest, little stubs were squirming around, trying to be free of its permanent straight jacket. James's stomach lurched, he did not want to fight this, and it was so scary. As the thing hobbled closer to James, its back suddenly bent backwards and a sound arose from it.

Damn!

James instantly recognized this and leaped out of the way just as the creature spewed out its acidic puke.

I have to fight, or I'll die!

James raised his plank over his head. Blood from the previous fight still hadn't dried. It glistened menacingly as James smacked the creatures head, knocking it sideways.

Come on, He thought to himself. Die!

The monster stayed up though, it did not want to fall down. Before it could attack, James's board caught it directly where their ribcage should have been. This worked; the monster was on the ground, laying still. James swallowed nervously and shakily jabbed the board into the side to see if it was alive. The creature instantly sprang to life, scuttling frightening speed on the ground toward James's feet. James screamed and jumped back as the monster brushed against his leg. The radio was going wild now, static coming from it that James though it would burst. As the monster neared again, James brought up his foot and brought it down hard onto the monster. It made a sound and it back arched before falling back the ground. The static on the radio died, James knew that that must mean he was no longer in danger.

No longer in danger? He thought to himself, his heart was beating so loudly and fast he though it would leap from his chest. This friggin town is full of monsters!

James backed away from the corpse and turned away his head. This was just unbelievable, what happened here? Where had everyone gone? Did the monsters…kill them all? It just was so twisted, how could this be happening? And of course, what about Mary?

"Mary," James murmured as he shook his head. "Why on Earth did you come here? Are you even here?"

Maybe this was all a trick, someone thought it would be funny to…

Send a man a letter saying it was from his dead wife and telling him to come here. James finished grimly. But that also sounded ridiculous; wouldn't they have known how dangerous the town was? Does anyone know?

It doesn't matter. He decided. If Mary really is here, I need to find her. It's been so long…

Now James needed to go to Rosewater Park. He carefully took out his map and examined the closest route to the park. The map showed that he could follow one street to got there, he wasn't that far.

James put away his map and started toward the park. Without really even thinking about it himself. He chose Mary over leaving the town, leaving to safety. He had already lost her once, three years ago due to her illness, and that had nearly destroyed him, he couldn't allow that to happen again. He wanted to see her, even an illusion of her, and this might be his chance. Besides, should she die at the hands of the monsters because he wasn't there to protect her...he would never forgive himself.

Suddenly, the familiar sound of static interrupted his thoughts. James fled.

James had been doing everything possible to avoid whatever lurked in the fog, but he knew that sooner or later he would have to fight. It wasn't a very pleasant thought. Just as James reached the end of the street, something appeared in the fog that made James audibly gasp.

"What the…" His words trailed off as he got closer to find that the path leading to Rosewater was cut off…or, no longer existed. The street ended jaggedly. Where the rest of the road should have been was just empty air. Well, so much for that route.

James sighed and looked at his map. He had marked off blocked roads and such, there didn't seem to be any other way for him to get to the park. James sighed in frustration and retraced his steps back to the intersection. He began to walk in no particular direction, hoping he would accidentally find a way to the park. As he was walking, the sound of static filled his ears. James raised his board above his head nervously, his eyes darting around for whatever may be near.

He kept on walking forward till the noise died down and he was in safe zone again. He still couldn't figure out what was going on with those monsters. It was something you'd expect in a horror movie, or a nightmare.

What if it is just a nightmare, James thought to himself. What if I'm just dreaming? Soon I'll awake like I've been doing for the past three years in bed, feeling empty and full of grief.

James shuddered. Half of him wanted I to be a dream, but half still wanted to find Mary for real.

Walking forward, the noise came up again, only this time, no shadow appeared. A weird sensation prickled his neck, he turned around. There it was, and over there.

Please no!

Surrounded, closing in on him, and suffocating him. The radio seemed too loud suddenly, the sound went through his ears and to his brain, giving him a headache. The monster came closer, promising him no mercy for they were hungry.

"This isn't real!" He shouted. "This can't be!"

But it was. It was very real. The danger was right in front of him, mocking him.

I can't let this happen. I can't end up letting Mary down.

Without another thought, or even thinking about it, he was smacking the monsters mercilessly. With every powerful swing of his board, he felt more powerful. A few of them fell down to their bellies and scuttled away. With every powerful swing of the board, a renewed strength re-placed fear. These monsters were standing in his way. The hunted became the hunter.

James broke through the circle and ran down another street. He ran and ran until he reached the end. Running away from the monsters, from all of those nagging monsters!

He began to feel tired as he neared the end. Pausing to take a breath, he faintly noticed a strange scent in the air. He could have sworn he had never smelt it in his life, although it smelled strangely familiar. Once again, he couldn't help but feel he was forgetting something.

As he neared the end of the street, the smell only got worse; James resisted the urge to gaga and moved forward to see what was making that horrible smell. Even though he couldn't see what it was, James had a horrible feeling in his stomach, he thought he knew.

Suddenly, a form became visible in the fog, something leaning against the gate. As soon as James saw what it was, his face crumpled in disgust. Holding his nose, he moved closer to see if he was right. Someone had had the unfortunate pleasure to run into a monster without any weapon.

"Oh…" He groaned as he looked down at the creature. It looked horrible. Something lay on the ground in front of it. Holding his nose with one hand, James leaned down and scooped up the object which turned out to be a key. Giving the corpse one last look, he turned away and walked more into the street until the fog covered the sight from him. He was visibly shaking now. The key in his hand had a tag on it. Woodside Apartments.

Woodside Apartments. He thought to himself. Suddenly, an idea occurred to him. James pulled out hi map and quickly found Woodside Apartments on the map. His finger followed to the other side of Woodside Apartments that leads to West South Vale. If you were to take that street right outside of the apartments, it would lead you right to Rosewater Park.

Great! He though to himself. All I need to do is go through Woodside Apartments to get to Rosewater Park. Now we're getting somewhere!

The image of the corpse entered his mind suddenly, stopping his thoughts. He didn't want to end up like that. Maybe he should just—

No, He decided firmly, grimly. I'm going to find Mary.

Pocketing the key and his map, James went back to the end of the street and back onto the intersection. He needed to first go to Katz Street according to his map. James started that way, his mind buzzing. Very faintly, he began to re-play the time he and Mary first realized she was sick. They hadn't thought anything was serious at first, just a cold. Just go to the pharmacist and but some medicine, simple. But back then, everything had seemed simple…

Mary sat beside him in the car, a tissue held up to her mouth. A cough ran through her body, worst than it had been yesterday. She said it was beginning to hurt her chest to cough.

James put a comforting hand on her knee as she coughed and kept it there until she calmed down. With a sigh, she leaned back into the seat and closed her eyes. "I hope I don't give it to you." She had murmured softly. She had been up half the night coughing. The dark rings under her eyes confirmed that.

"Don't worry." He had told her. "I haven't had a cold for years. Immune to them I guess."

Mary had laughed, even though her abdomen was still a bit sore from coughing. "So now your superman!"

James grinned. "Sure, why not." He had said as he pulled into the grocery store parking lot. James turned off his car and climbed out. Mary came out of her side too, the tissue still pressed against her mouth. She saw the amused look he had given her.

"I don't want to get anyone else sick!"

"Mary, it's just a cold. It's not like your carrying around a fatal disease."

With his arm around her shoulder, he led her inside the store. Was it just him, or did her face seem a bit pale, had her beautiful brown hair always seem so limp.

They walked over to the pharmacist counter. The person behind the counter glanced up at them.

"We have a prescription for Mary Sunderland." He had told them. They nodded and came back a few minutes later with the prescription in a paper bag.

As Mary and James were getting back in the car, Mary had paused before getting in to cough. James shook his head. "You should really do something about that cold Mary."

Mary snorted. "Thank you James, but that was pretty obvious to me a few days ago."

He had laughed at the remark as he drove out of the parking lot. He had been so sure that the medicine would take care of it that in a few days Mary would be back to her old self. But after the cold had been there for a few weeks longer, James and Mary had to admit that something was wrong. They went to see a doctor whose idea it had been in the first place to admit Mary into the hospital "just for a few harmless tests" that ended up resulting in the knowledge of Mary's disease that ended her life, and James's for all it seemed.

Here's chapter three for ya. I know it's kinda short but it's a rather long boring story and I don't like explaining but there is a reason.