"W-well Shit," Chris said.
Naomi pushed the message away quickly, reacting as though it where something as gruesome as a dead mouse that the cat had dragged in. Just then, a loud crash sounded from outside the room.
"What was that?" Naomi asked, jumping at the noise.
"H-hell if I know," Chris replied, drawing his handgun and moving towards the door.
Naomi followed reluctantly, pulling out her knife just in case. Chris sniffed briefly, his face contorting in disgust.
"Fuck, what's that smell?" He asked.
Naomi froze; the sound of something heavy being dragged across the carpet was coming from outside and her phone began to spit static once more.
"Oh jeez," she breathed, trying to control her nerves.
Chris gave her an odd look.
"You okay?" He asked.
Naomi shook her head, her eyes staring at the door the whole time as the sound got closer.
"Fuck this," Chris muttered.
He flung the door open and brought his gun round, training it on the Slug Man's head. The creature gave a low moan as it pulled itself towards him, its acidic trail leaving a path of melting carpet behind it. Naomi ran out to join Chris and found herself paralyzed as she stared at the creature's blank face and slimy skin and felt a shiver run down her spine. Chris wasted no time and opened fire, hitting the creature square in the face, the impact making a dull smack and punching a tiny hole in the Slug Man's scaled flesh, a trail of dark blood leaked out and ran down its face but the monster didn't slow down.
"Fuck you!" Chris yelled, firing again "Leave…Me…The…Fuck…Alone!" He snarled, spitting out each word with every bullet he fired.
The creature screamed an inhuman scream as the bullets tore holes through its head and shoulders and it stopped, writhing for a second before its head fell to the ground and it stopped moving.
"Thought that bastard was n-never gonna die," Chris muttered.
"Chris!" Naomi yelled, suddenly finding her voice just a little too late.
A second Slug Man, this one coming from behind, lunged at Chris, its movement defying all laws of anatomy as its torso almost bent double at the hip and it reached forwards as Chris turned around to try and shoot it, wrapping its slimy arms around Chris' right arm. Chris swore loudly as the acid made short work of his jacket sleeve and the smell of burning flesh filled the corridor. Naomi watched in horror as Chris tried to throw the creature off with no luck. She swallowed her nerves and gripped her knife in both hands making a dash forward and plunging the weapon into the creature's head. The creature screamed again releasing Chris and rearing backwards, waving its arms in pain as blood trailed down its formless face. Naomi leaped back immediately, letting go of her weapon and leaving it in the creature's head, causing it to scream and writhe even more. Chris, now free, brought his weapon round, wincing at the pain in his arm and firing three shots straight into the creature's head, letting out an agonized yell from the pain in his arm as he fired each shot. The Slug Man gave one last scream before it toppled forwards, lying motionless on the carpet.
Chris looked around to see Naomi standing just in the doorframe, shivering.
"You o-okay?" He asked, loading a new clip into his gun.
Naomi managed to nod, unable to take her eyes of the Slug Man's corpse. The acid slime was still eating into the carpet around it but seemed to be getting less effective by the moment. Chris reached forwards, pulling the knife from the creature's corpse and revealing the ruined blade, eaten away by acid.
"Fuck," Chris spat angrily, kicking the first Slug Man's corpse in the head "After a whole fucking week, now they decided to pay me a visit."
Naomi finally took her eyes off the dead monster on the floor, somehow managing not to empty her lunch onto the carpet next to it. Her phone was still sending out static, albeit faint but there nonetheless.
"We…We have to get out of here," she said.
"You think there're more of them?" Chris asked.
Naomi nodded.
"Please," She added.
Another noise sounded from upstairs, sounding like something heavy being dropped.
"Guess you're right," he replied "C'mon then."
They ran back through the double doors across the corridor, the noise from Naomi's phone increasing as, sure enough, there was another Slug Man waiting for them in the next corridor. A dark patch on the ceiling above it. It began to crawl towards them, its slime beginning to spread behind it.
"Where the fuck are these things coming from?" Chris snarled, firing three consecutive shots at the creature, the recoil causing him more pain from his wounded arm.
The Slug Man dropped down dead but the static was still there. Naomi looked behind them and her jaw dropped as she saw the ceiling beginning to sag slightly, turning brown before a sack of something dropped from it, leaving nothing but a damp ceiling in its wake as the sack split open and dissolved, revealing another Slug Man.
"Guess the answers that," Chris muttered.
He practically shouldered the lobby doors open, grabbing Naomi's arm to drag her through as she seemed frozen at the sight of the creature.
"The fuck is w-wrong with you?" He asked as they ran down the stairs "You afraid of slugs or something?"
Naomi didn't reply and merely followed Chris across the lobby to the double doors that led outside, all the time looking back to see if the creature was following them. It wasn't until they were out of the hotel and back on the road that Chris stopped running, finally allowing Naomi to collapse to the floor and attempt to catch her breath, her phone finally going silent.
"Aagh, fuck!" Chris yelled, grabbing his arm in pain.
Naomi looked up, seeing that the sleeve of Chris' jacket had been burnt straight through and the flesh underneath was an angry red and peeling.
"Whatever was in that shit it stings," Chris cringed.
"Are…Are you okay?" Naomi asked.
"Think it hit something important," Chris muttered "Must've t-torn something when I fired my gun cause this thing wrecks like a m-motherfucker."
Naomi got to her feet, taking a closer look at the wound.
"Is there a hospital around here?" She asked.
"B-better be," Chris winced "I h-haven't had t-the chance to really go sightseeing."
Naomi took out her phone, bringing up the pictures she'd taken of the map.
"There's a hospital in Central Silent Hill," She said, noticing a red building marked with a white cross "Come on."
"H-hey," Chris said "The hell's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
Naomi paused and shrugged: "Well…I just wouldn't want you to get hurt, is all," she said.
Chris gave her an odd look but began to follow her nonetheless.
The pair walked in silence through the fog, Chris still cradling his wounded arm. After a few minutes of walking, Naomi's phone came to life with static once again.
"W-why does it keep doing that?" Chris asked.
"I have no idea," Naomi replied, pulling it out "But I swear every time it does…"
She was cut off mid-sentence when she heard the sound of metal scraping across the pavement to their right.
"Oh jeez,"
"Oh, bloody perfect," Chris muttered.
Without a moment's hesitation the two ran off before the Nail Head could reach them, the noise from Naomi's phone dying after a few minutes.
"So…That thing knows w-when there's a monster around?" Chris asked.
"Guess so," Naomi replied.
"Fuck," Chris muttered "Wish I had something like that."
Naomi nodded in reply as she tried to see ahead of them through the fog. They passed a sign for 'Lakeside Amusement Park' and a while later what looked like a pair of garages just visible through the fog. All the time Chris cradling his wounded arm and darting his gaze left and right in case of any more monsters hiding in the fog.
"Chris," Naomi began "How exactly did you end up here?"
Chris gave her an odd look and shrugged: "Came here for a weekend off," he said "Day I was supposed to leave the whole place was covered in f-fog and everyone was gone. Probably got out before all this shit went down."
Naomi gave a small murmur in reply as they crossed a bridge, this one mercifully intact.
"All I can say is t-thank god these monsters are so fucking s-slow," he continued "O-otherwise I'd be dead meat."
Naomi shrugged in response, remembering the butchered corpse on her way in.
"There's got to be more than just the monsters around here," she thought.
Once they were across the bridge they came across a sign pointing them down Riverside Drive. Naomi checked the map pictures on her phone; although she couldn't make out the name it was the first street after the bridge and led straight to the hospital.
"Looks like we're almost there," she said.
Her phone screen began to flicker almost as soon as she said this and static spewed from it once again, causing her to jump. Chris whirled around as he heard the sound of scraping across the road, a shadow beginning to emerge from the fog, limping towards them.
"Motherfucker," Chris snarled, bringing his gun up again and firing twice.
The creature let out another inhuman shriek and stumbled backwards but didn't fall over, Chris however grabbed his wounded arm again, swearing as the recoil from his gun sent a fresh wave of pain through it and blood began to leak down his arm. Without another word the pair turned down Riverside Drive, running away from the Nail Head as fast as they could, not bothering to stop until they were out of breath.
"Where…Where the f-fuck are we now?" Chris asked.
Naomi looked around, noticing a large building to their right surrounded by a bricked wall.
"I think we're here," Naomi replied, still trying to catch her breath.
The pair moved around the building, coming to a set of open gates which gave way into a courtyard, a pair of double doors sat to their immediate right, the words 'Alchemilla Hospital' written above them in red letters, a large red cross sitting next to them as though they needed any more confirmation of their location.
"Finally," Chris muttered "Let's just get some goddamn b-bandages then get the fuck out."
Naomi looked over at him for a brief moment before walking up to the doors. All of a sudden her phone began to emit static again and she whirled around, seeing the form of two Nail Heads coming towards them through the fog. Without a word she quickly opened the doors and the pair ran inside, slamming them shut behind them.
"You think they can get in?" Naomi asked.
"Do they l-look like they can use a door handle t-to you?" Chris replied.
Truthfully, that wasn't what concerned Naomi, but considering that her phone had gone silent once again she doubted it mattered.
She turned around, seeing that they'd emerged into a reception area with a long wood desk taking up most of the wall to their left, a set of benches and a vending machine sat to their right. Marble tiles lined the centre of the floor and the walls were decorated with ugly green wallpaper halfway up before being replaced by blank white, the two colours separated by a wooden beam.
"What a shithole," Chris commented "No wonder I didn't come here."
Naomi ignored him and moved over to the desk, noting that there was a notepad and a pen sitting on top of it and the odd loose paper but nothing else. However her eyes fell on a map, lying just next to the notepad, which detailed the hospital's floor plan. She picked it up, thinking it might be of some use.
"Doesn't look like there's anybody here," she said.
"No shit," Chris replied, still with one hand on his arm.
The room turned off into a corridor just past reception and the pair followed it, coming into a fair sized corridor with two doors, one at the end and another to their left about halfway down. Naomi tried the nearest door but found it didn't open.
"What's up?" Chris asked.
"The locks broken," Naomi shrugged "I can't open the door."
"Bugger," Chris muttered.
Naomi moved to the far end of the corridor, finding that this door did open and they emerged into yet another corridor, this one steering them left with a set of stairs just across from them.
"This is getting us n-nowhere," Chris muttered.
Naomi took the map out, examining it and noticing a room marked 'medicine room' just through the next set of doors. She quickly crossed the hall and attempted to open the door leading to the next corridor, but found that it too was broken.
"Great," Chris muttered "Now what?"
Naomi checked the map again, frowning. There was another entrance to the hospital which took them straight into the next corridor, but it meant going across the courtyard where the two Nail Heads where waiting for them.
"Maybe we can go upstairs and try to elevator," she suggested.
Chris shrugged.
"Nothing else to do,"
They took the stairs, emerging into a small room with another set of stairs leading up and a pair of doors just next to them, leading into the second floor. Naomi opened the doors cautiously, keeping an eye out to see if there where anymore monsters in this area, thankfully they weren't and the two stepped out into the corridor. A pair of doors lined the walls down the corridor to their left and another sat right across from them after the corridor turned a corner. Another door sat just before the turn and checking the map Naomi saw it marked as 'Nurse Centre'. She tried the doors across from them, finding them yet again to be inaccessible. Chris sighed and shook his head, seeming unsurprised. Naomi paused, remembering that the doors on the train hadn't worked either and it wasn't until she'd found a hole in the side that she'd found a way out. Thinking it over, it almost seemed like this place had turned into a twisted sort of maze. She checked the map, seeing that the room next to them led into the next corridor too and she tried the door, finding it open. The pair stepped into the Nurse Centre. It was a small room with a pair of green couches at either side and a desk at the end, just opposite the door. Naomi crossed to the desk, finding some notes strewn about its surface. She picked them up, skim reading them.
'Wesker isn't responding well to treatment.
He keeps babbling on about how 'it's all
fake, only the nightmare is real'. This
isn't something we can solve easily, the
doctors have suggested moving him
to Cedar Grove. At least they know
how to deal with this stuff.'
"Wesker?" Naomi read the name out-loud, wondering where she'd heard it before.
"You quite done?" Chris asked.
"S-sorry," Naomi said quickly, putting the papers back.
Chris shook his head and opened the next door, the pair emerging into the next corridor. There was a pair of double doors just in front of them, the words 'operation prep room' written above them.
"Think there might be some stuff in there?" Chris asked.
"Worth it I guess," Naomi replied.
Chris opened the doors and the pair walked in, finding themselves in a completely bare room. Chris walked in, almost slipping on something on the floor.
"Fuck," he muttered, looking down.
Naomi looked down and saw a piece of paper under Chris' foot and she picked it up, noticing it was a page from a diary:
"I've been seeing them again; the others can't take it anymore and said they're taking me to a hospital."
Naomi folded the paper up, putting it in her pocket and looking around the rest of the room, but seeing that it was completely bare except for another pair of doors which led to the 'operation room'. However a frustrated rattle as Chris tried to open it revealed that these doors where broken as well. Chris shook his head and the two of them walked back out into the corridor.
"Well that w-was a waste of time," Chris muttered angrily.
Naomi didn't reply as the two moved down the corridor, passing the 'intensive care unit' and walking straight to the doors at the end marked 'elevator'. The doors opened and led them into another room with a large elevator sitting right next to them. Naomi pressed the button to call the elevator and it lit up.
"At least something works," She muttered as she heard the elevator grind into life.
The doors opened with a satisfying 'ding'. The pair walked in and Naomi pressed the button for the first floor. The doors rattled closed and the pair felt themselves descending slowly.
"Is the whole place like this?" Naomi asked.
"Yeah," Chris grunted "I kind of stopped bothering after the first couple of days, figured this place was just deserted at first but…" He paused, a grim expression coming across his face.
"Chris?"
"Nothing," Chris muttered, shaking his head.
The elevator stopped moving and the pair emerged, making their way down the corridor to the medicine room which was mercifully open. Cabinets and cub-boards lined the walls with assortments of medical equipment strewn about the counter and floors. Naomi opened the nearest cabinet, extracting a box of bandages and disinfecting alcohol from them. Another room sat just across from them, which according to the map led to the examination room.
"Come on," Naomi said, Chris following her through the doors.
They emerged into a large room with a desk in one corner and about three beds dotted around the room. A large window led to a view of the foggy courtyard, the Nail Heads not visible through the fog. Chris sat down on one of the beds, seemingly glad to finally come to a rest.
"This p-place is so m-many kinds of fucked up," he said "I can't believe I…Ahhg!"
He yelled in pain as Naomi applied a cotton bud covering in disinfectant to his wound.
"What the fuck!" He yelled.
"Hold still," Naomi said, grabbing his arm to make sure he couldn't move it away. Chris gritted his teeth as Naomi continued, finally wrapping the bandages around his upper arm tightly, though not enough to cut off his blood flow. After she was done she walked back a few steps as Chris flexed his arm, somewhat impressed.
"Where the hell did you learn that?" He asked.
Naomi looked away, frowning.
"My mum used to be a doctor," she explained.
"A doctor, huh?" Chris gave an amused chuckle "Wish I'd known her."
Naomi gave him a disapproving stare before sitting down at the desk, a sudden sorrowful expression coming over her face.
"H-hey," Chris said, getting to his feet "I was just joking, okay?"
Naomi shook her head.
"It's not that," she said "It's just, I…I'd rather not have to remember my…"
Before she could finish the stone around her neck sprang to life. Naomi had completely forgotten about it up until now but suddenly noticed it had suddenly grown warm and its colour was beginning to change again, slowly becoming an angry crimson.
"What the hell?" Chris gazed at the stone before his body froze, a fearful expression coming across his head as the sound of air raid sirens filled the room.
Naomi looked up, seeing the colour drain from Chris' face.
"Chris?" Naomi asked.
"Not again," Chris said, starting to panic "Not again!"
He took off, barging through the doors leading to the office and vanishing from sight.
"Chris!" Naomi called after him, but froze, her eyes widening as she saw just what he was running from.
Naomi looked down in horror as something spread out from underneath her, staining the floor a vivid red. It spread across the floor and up the walls, covering the beds and transforming the metal frames into rusted pipes and staining the bed sheets a sickening blood red. Naomi looked up at the window to see the fog vanishing, replaced instead by pitched blackness. But whatever was happening wasn't done there, from the corners of the room blood red vines began to sprout crawling up the walls and ceiling and branching off each other, blood red leaves growing out of them their edges jagged. Naomi backed up against the desk but leapt off it almost immediately as the felt movement from beneath her. She turned around and saw the vines where wrapping around the desk, engulfing it in a mass of blood coloured weed, the same happening to the beds till the room was transformed into a greenhouse from hell. Naomi stared at the scene before her, a fresh mix of horror and disbelief crawling through her.
"What…What the crap is going on here?" she managed to say, panic more than evident in her voice.