-Samus Aran
Chapter Seven
Fox McCloud
"You have got to be kidding me," I said. The spiral staircase led us into the basement of the Silent Hill General Hospital. How do I know? Because we were in the morgue. I always knew a morgue when I saw one. You tend know about places of you believe you're going to end up eventually. In my case, a part of me thought my trip here was long overdue.
Samus sighed.
"I know you hate this place," she said in a sympathizing tone. "But at least we can give proper treatment to your..." She looked straight down at my ankle. She then looked at me. "How are you able walk straight on that ankle?"
"I heal faster than normal, remember?" I replied. It was true, I did heal fast. "So we don't have to go through the building." I turned around, hoping to go back the way we came. That is, until Samus grabbed my tail. Putting her lips slightly against my ear, she whispered:
"You're right. We don't have to go through the hospital. We can go back down there. With the insects." As if to emphasize the point, her index and middle finger crawled up my spine. I shuddered. Usually I would shudder for other reasons (Use your imagination. I'll give you a clue: Who's touching me right now?). But when you have the thought of something you fear the most, fingers is the last thing you want to feel against your spine. "With spiders, man-eating maggots... butterfly maybe." That last one was a low blow.
"Serves me right for turning you down that time," I muttered. "All right, I'm going. And not because I'm afraid." If you look in the dictionary and saw my face under the word "liar", don't be surprised.
"Uh-huh. Suuuuuure." I heard laughing and looked at Ness.
"I'm sorry," he said between laughs. "It's just priceless."
"Say anything about this to the other Smashers, you can kiss that new Nintendo DS goodbye. Got that?"
"Yes sir," Ness said, gulping in fear. Content with the answer. I then looked at Samus.
"I hate you," I said, starting the inside joke.
"I love you, too," she answered. Maybe it was just I, but I didn't catch any hint of a joking manor in her voice. I shrugged it off as all three of us walked through the death room. Death room? I chuckled inside of my head. Everywhere we go in this town could be called the death room.
Hospitals. Oh, how I hated hospitals. As we walked forward, I could remember the countless times I been down in the morgues in Corneria.
Let me let you in on something: Star Fox wasn't only made up of four members. There was actually a point where he had so many members, we changed our names to the Star Fox Squadron. However, many circumstances reduced our numbers back to the original four.
Some of us went back to our home planets as protectors, serving as allies whenever we were on duty in their area. Others went into hiding after bounties on their heads became a little too high. Not that I blamed them one bit. They did it more for the team. The higher the bounty, the most danger we are in. Even I did it a few times, handing leadership to either Falco, Peppy, or sometimes Slippy (There was a time when Peppy, Falco, and I had to go into hiding. Probably a good thing. Slippy actually managed to lead the team to destroy the mercenaries who forced us into hiding).
However, all the other members... I had to confirm their identity at this very place. I guess that's half the reason I hate hospitals. That also ties into the reason why I try to have as few friends as possible. And walking through this room did not help me one bit.
I looked left and right, making sure I kept my sword with me. I looked down towards Ness.
"Hey Ness, how's your head?" I asked.
"Could be better, but I can send off minor sparks here and there," he answered. I smiled and ruffled his hair. We then stopped at the examiner's table. Instead of a body, there were newspaper clippings. I picked up one of them.
CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED IN SILENT HILL GENERAL
Ness climbed up on my back and sat on my shoulders and Samus was to my right.
"Read it, Fox," Samus urged. I nodded slowly, inhaling before I read aloud.
"Bodies of children in the pediatric ward were found mutilated and burned today. Many were found decapitated, while others have organs exposed. A fire was apparently set to cover to murderer's, or murderers', tracks. According to the police chief, this was the most horrific crime scene he had ever seen. While he declined further comment, it is apparent this crime may be linked to the other massacres that plagued this town as of late, including the butchering of the local bar's owner Tobias Bennett." I stopped for a minute. "Why does Tobias sound so familiar?"
I didn't get a chance to answer that question, because the sound of children's screams was heard from above us. Maybe a couple of floors up.
Samus Aran
All three of us looked at each other, then bolted for the door leading to the rest of the hospital. We stepped inside of the hall and looked left and right trying to pinpoint the screams.
"Seems as if the noise is coming from the third floor," Ness said. I looked around until I saw one of those signs that tells people where each section of the hospital is located. On the third floor was the pediatric ward.
"De ja vu," I whispered. We bolted for the nearest elevator, which was only down the hall. Ness quickly pressed the corresponding number. Luckily it was a modern elevator. Quite frankly, I did not want to through another elevator hell ride.
As the elevator ascended, we all readied ourselves. Fox brought his sword in front of him, gripping the hilt with two hands. I held my insect stinger in one hand. Ness, whose mind was his weapon, appeared to have electricity running through his eyes.
DING!
I don't think there was ever a day I dreaded that sound. Not even that day when I had to go undercover as elevator operator during a hit. And that is saying something. As the steel doors open, we made a run for it, following the sound of the screams. It would of been comical under other circumstances. However, the three of us were in a world that might as well be the closest thing to Hell. Heck, this might be Hell.
All of us skidded to a stop in front of the door. I went forward and turned the knob, which felt rather warm. I opened the door, only to let out a scream.
Just like in the article, there were burnt bodies all over the place. I looked at Fox and Ness. Fox opened and closed his right fist repeatedly before punching a nearby wall. He did this over and over again, screaming each time. Ness just looked at him with a look of sadness. But we didn't stop him. Not until we started to see blood on the area he was hitting.
I grabbed his arm. Of course he struggled until, so I quickly grabbed him around his abdomen and tripped one of his legs. This caused him to go off balance and fall on his back. I quickly removed my self from atop of him. Fox looked at me, with eyes that were filled with sadness. I frowned slightly. I then looked at his hand.
"We're going to have to see about that hand," I said. Ness looked down at the floor, tears falling from his eyes.
"They have no remorse, do they," he said between sniffs. "They kill and kill, no matter who they are." I closed my eyes. He was right. And this filled me with a sudden rage. I heard the door open, and I turned around to see a nurse. I sighed with relief.
"You don't know how happy I am to see you," I said with a smile. "Look, I need help with my friend -" I stopped as I looked at the woman. I doubt a normal nurse would be carrying around a butcher knife. And I highly doubt a regular human would be hunched over like a puppet with a huge growth coming out of his or her back. She quickly threw the butcher's knife at my head, which I quickly caught. I threw it back with much more speed. I almost cringed as the blade imbedded itself into her forehead. I felt a hand on more shoulder, which caused me to turn around. I sighed as I saw Fox's face.
"We have to go," he said. I nodded as Ness blew the door off of its hinges.
"No more headaches," he said in an unusually dark tone. As we made our way back of the doorway, I saw the door slam against another one of those puppet nurse. I looked left and right, as we made our way down another hall and hanged a left, only to see more of the nurses, along with a doctor. Before we can come up with a plan, the room was set ablaze.
Ness
I'm done with this. I'm done with holding back. I held back too many times. So I decided to let the rage flow through me. As the screams of the monsters sounded through the air, I smiled. I wanted to feel every tenfold the amount of pain they inflicted on the innocents. I walked forward, pass the burning building, dark voices sounding in my head.
I looked up as I saw another kind of nurse. She, or it, was faceless, and it wore the outfit of a stereotypical nurse. It carried what seemed to be a long metal rod. As it fan forward, I merely laughed. Electricity surged through the creature's body, before it turned into black dust. I past by the pile, unaware of Fox and Samus following me.
The hallway led me to another spiral stairway, which I climbed without fear. Inside of my head, I heard cackling. Hold on... I wasn't coming from my head, it was coming from without. At the top stairway was a deformed, monkey like creature. I grind my teeth with anger. I darted my eyes left, sending the monkey against the wall with a sickening thud. I darted it right, crushing it against one of the railings. I then brought my heads forward, and made a motion of them snapping something in half. The monkey's neck snapped, and its head rolled down the steps. I merely stepped over it, advancing upward.
I smiled as I entered through the door at the top of the stairs. It led me right to the operating areas. I used my mind to scan for any of those creatures (an ability I didn't even know I had). I sensed quite a few in each of the rooms. I closed my mind and concentrated until veins were visible on my forehead. One by one, fire started to shoot through the doors, and the inhuman screams of those monsters sounded for a brief time. I was smiling...
...Until I actually stopped to think. What made me different from them? I slaughtered every single last one these monsters, just like how all of these monsters slaughtered those children. And what resulted from this? Death, death, and more death. I fell to my knees, tears running through my eyes. I felt a presence behind me, but I didn't even turn around.
"I'm a monster, just like of them," I said.
"No you're not," Fox said. He sat next to me, his tail drying my eyes. Samus sat to my left and ruffled my hair."
"Now you know what we go through everyday," Samus said. "Unfortunately, I didn't want it to happen to you. But that's L'obscurité en dessous."
"Huh?"
"The darkness underneath. Everyone has a dark side. I'm just glad you got a hold of it before you turned Carrie." She sighed. "Let's not tell your mother about this."
"Um, yeah, about that... I'm an orphan..."
Samus and Fox looked at me with mouths open like trapdoors. Fox was the first one to speak.
"Well... look like you're one of us," he said with a chuckle.
"Yeah," Samus said. He then looked around. "Come on. Let's go."
Samus Aran
Well, who saw that coming? I didn't. After looking for a room that wasn't infested with monsters, we finally found one. It had two hospital beds, so Fox and I decided to share one. While Fox was looking through the cabinets for something to wrap around his hand, I was tucking in Ness. Ever since I decided to break out of my shell, I always felt like Ness's caretaker. Not that I mind. As he slept, I couldn't help but frown. He looked so innocent, and that's what pains me. After his little rampage, Ness will never be the same. When... If we get out of here, he'll always have blood on his hands.
"Damn it!"
Speaking of blood on his hands, Fox had a little trouble wrapping the newfound gauze around his injured extremity of his upper extremity. I smiled slightly as I walked over to him. Putting my arms around him and grabbed his right hand and took the gauze.
"Let me take care of that," I whispered. Using one thumb to hold that end of the gauze around his hand, I used my free hand to grabbed the other end and wrap the gauze around his hand. In mere moments, his hands were fully bandaged.
"Thanks," Fox whispered.
"You're welcome," I replied. "Now let's go to bed. I know you're more than tired." Fox nodded. We both climbed into one of the beds. I turned to rest my head on his shoulder. Fox wrapped his tail around my waist.
"Good night, Fox," I whispered. I then felt a kiss on my forehead.
"Good night, Samus."