Silent Hill: Resonance

Chapter 7: Battle Plans

Clip clop. Clip clop. Clip clop.

The familiar sound of me stepping up the concrete steps to City Hall sounded once again, echoing across the vast and open plaza that I had crossed before. The sounds drowned out my inward prayer to God that someone was here, and even if no one was, at least Officer Collard would be back shortly.

Since I've entered this city, everything felt like a blur. It took all the mental capacity I had to remember what happened only ten minutes ago. In fact, I could barely even recall what happened the first time I entered this building. God…I felt so disoriented, like I wasn't in my body, I wasn't in my right mental state.

Taking a deep breath of the frosty air before pushing open the heavy oak doors, I was once again met with that old familiar feeling. The pressure of the entire world was compressed indoors, the pressure that weighed down on my chest and made it hard to breathe. The pressure that made it felt as though my head were splitting down the middle like a ripe melon.

The place hadn't changed in the short time I had left with Aaron. The carpet was still dirty and stained. Those shelves of books decorated the walls covered in that heavy layer of dust. Thinking about it, it was odd that such an ugly place would be chosen to be the city hall. And once it was chosen, why would they wait so long to everything to fall into this state to clean it?

Maybe everyone had been gone longer than I thought. Looking by how thick the cakes of dust were, it had to have been a couple of weeks. Maybe…Maybe that's why the FBI was here, and not the drugs. I quickly shook the idea away, I had no time for conspiracy theories. Besides, the FBI was my best chance to get the hell out of here.

I walked over to the small coffee table in the corner, the book that Aaron had carelessly tossed was still sitting there. Curious to what he was reading, I peered at the cover. The New Age of Occultism. My fingers slowly traced the etchings of the front cover, the pentagram and countless devils.

I raised an eyebrow and picked up the book. A bookmark was placed randomly in the center of the heavy thick assortment of pages. I opened the book to see huge walls of small texts and pictures of odd symbols and rituals. Looking at the several runes, texts, and chants made me feel uneasy. I kind of felt an urge to throw this book in a roaring fire.

Why the hell would this be in a place like City Hall? Why the hell would Aaron be reading this? However, just as I was about to close the book and put it down for good, a quick skim of the tiny text served to show the words, "White Claudia".

I squinted in closer to read the paragraph,

White Claudia, the plant home to Silent Hill and specifically Toluca Lake, was used by the native Indians in the region as a part of their magic rituals to contact The Other Side and their rituals to the Old Gods. Although the plant is well known to cause hallucinations, the Native Americans, and many niche markets today, believe it strengthens spiritual awareness, weakening one's personal barriers between reality and the Other Side. A lucrative market of exporting White Claudia across North America has connections to these Indian roots.

Looking at the book some more, nothing more about White Claudia beyond that one paragraph. And I didn't want to hold this scary-looking tome any more.

I shut the book closed and put it down on the table. Walking back to the center of the room, everything looked the same except for one difference. A door in the corner of the room was now open. Walking towards the door and peering in revealed an impressive setup of laptops, radios, and maps with several markings. In the center of the room was a large map of the entirety of Silent Hill with many markings of question marks and circles. This was the FBI base. I was stupid, I should've looked harder instead of believing Aaron right off the bat.

I leaned in towards the map and inspected it. Alchemilla and the West and East Garage on the lake's coast had been circled in red ink. However, dozens of marks in black ink dotted the map as well and looked to be a recent addition. These additions consisted of ugly marks that crossed off streets and interstates, large X's took over entire blocks.

The sound of a toilet flushing brought me out of thought as the door opened and a shocked voice, "Jake!?"

I turned to see the stunned expression of Agent Bennett. His FBI coat was off, showing his buttoned-up shirt and messy tie. Spots of blood remained splattered on his ribcage area and his sleeves were rolled up, "Jonathon." I said back.

"Jesus Christ, man. What the hell happened? One second you were there, and the next I lost you in the fog! I was looking all over for you before I figured you would be here! I just got here not too long ago."

I shook my head, "I came here, but I didn't bother looking around. When I saw there was no base, I went for the hospital."

"The hospital? Alchemilla? What did you find there?"

I opened my mouth, but quickly closed it. How could I frame this without making myself look guilty? Deciding against my better judgement, I cleared my throat, "I…I think something happened to another FBI agent."

Bennett's eyes widened, his entire stature changing, "Who!?"

"Agent…Pendenski?"

I saw the look in Jonathon's face as he breathed out and let his arms go limp, "My God. I can't believe it…What happened to Agent Pendenski? What did you see?"

I shook my head, "I didn't see a body…But…", I trailed off, hoping I wouldn't need to explain further.

Jonathon didn't need any more before grunting, "Damn it! I wonder if Lee or Gutierrez…," He took out his radio and brought it up to his mouth, "This is Bennett, Gutierrez do you read? Repeat, Gutierrez do you read? Over."

Bennett brought the radio down, "I didn't expect that to work…This town is screwed up. Something is seriously wrong here, there's no way out! Every road out of this place…"

"We're trapped." I sighed, "We're all trapped here in this hellhole."

A knock on the door knocked us out of our somber as Myra Collard walked in the room, "Agent Bennett! Thank God! And Jake, you made it here too!"

"Yeah, and we're going to stay here." I retorted.

Myra sighed, "It…looks that way."

In a situation like this, it was easy to give up hope. My head felt like it was ready to burst, but I tried to hold it together as I thought of what to do. If all ways out of town were crushed, then the only way we could get help is by getting a message out.

"Agent Bennett, the FBI had a helicopter that landed at Brookhaven, right?" Collard asked.

"You're right, but it'll be a pain to get to the other side of the lake. No, there's an easier way. I just need to get access to the FBI servers so I can get a message to DC. If I can get an SOS through, they'll send in the cavalry."

A spark of hope began to light inside of me. This shouldn't be difficult to do at all! If Bennett can pull this off, "The sky'll be full of FBI helicopters. Hell, even the army if necessary. We can use the helicopter as a backup plan."

"What do you need to get in contact with DC?" Collard asked.

"A computer with internet access. All the laptops here are dead; I'll need a working one. But where?"

"How about here?" Collard asked, holding up a newspaper, pointing to an article.

ANONYMOUS DONER PAYS FOR NEW COMPUTER LAB AT MIDWICH ELEMENTARY

I looked down at the map on the table, "Problem, Midwich is on the other side of town."

"That's a problem considering none of the cars are working, believe me, I tried." Collard added.

Bennett looked at the map as well, "We have no choice. That's our best chance to get the hell out of here…We'll have to split up."

"What!?" Officer Collard and I asked at the same time.

I was dumbfounded. Out of all the things we could do in this town filled with monsters, he wanted to split up!?

"Listen, something is going on here. Call me crazy, but no matter what happens, people always get split up. People always get lost. We stick together at first, but we'll all eventually get separated."

I spoke up, "Just because you and I got separated doesn't mea-"

"No." Myra interrupted me, "Officer Petross and I got separated as well. It's as if they're plucked out of thin air and placed somewhere else. It's a miracle all three of us are in this room at once." I was going to continue fighting, but I was obviously outnumbered and I didn't want to look like a thorn in their side.

"It's best if we were to split up and go individually and meet up once we're there. Just like we did here. I don't want to either, I'm scared as hell, but it's the only way."

He stood up fully, embracing his full height as he pulled out his nine-millimeter handgun and cocking it, "I'll go first. Then Collard. We're both sworn to protect the citizenry, that's you Jake. We'll go through, clean up any mess, and then you follow last. We'll go in increments of ten minutes."

He looked at me and then at Myra and nodded. Without another word, he turned and walked out of the room. His footsteps faded in the lobby as the heavy wooden door groaned open and shut closed.

I looked at Officer Collard, "Uh…Myra?" I asked softly.

She looked up from her pistol, "Yes? What's wrong?" She asked tenderly, almost like a mother.

"Did you find anyone out there after you met me?"

She shook her head, "Nope. This town is nearly completely empty. All I've seen is you, me, Agent Bennett, and Officer Petross."

I nodded, thinking of Aaron. Despite the fact he was so cold and mean to me, he was still young, too young to be running around at a time like this. I wanted to say something, but my muscles didn't move to say so. So, I just stood there as Officer Collard inspected and secured her weapon.

When the time finally came, Myra put her hand on my shoulder and looked at me, "It'll be fine. Don't worry. Agent Bennett and I will put our lives down for you."

I smiled, "Thank you. Good luck."

She nodded as she walked out of the room and outside the building. It felt…good to be treated with such kindness. I wanted more of it…It had been a long time since I felt a woman's touch. I wish I had more of that growing up.

Not having a mother's love could really screw you up.

I picked at my rusted pipe for a long while. I tried waiting ten minutes, I really didn't know; all the clocks had stopped working. The room felt completely void, not only of life, but of spirit. My spirit was crushed, I had my hopes raised, but cautiously of course.

I could see the sky black with FBI helicopters coming to save us and any survivors. Of course, would they be able to fight the beasts in this city? There were probably many roaming the streets, but only God knows what lurked underneath.

I had wasted enough time, my feet felt rooted to the floor…But with no hesitations, I followed the footsteps of my predecessors and headed out into the fog.