Chapter 10 Alchemila Hospital Part 2
Chloe stopped in front of door down the hall from the Examination Room. A gilded plate with the words Chief Physician etched into its surface stared back at her. She figured if there was anything to find it would be found in Dr. Kaufman's office. She turned to look at the boys behind her. The darkness that had once again taken over the town made it impossible to see anything in the building without her flashlight. Clark looked at her as if to ask what she was waiting for. Lex took a look over his shoulder to make sure nothing was creeping up on them out of the shadows. Chloe put her focus back on the door and reached for the knob. She turned it and then swung the door open.
The trio entered the pitch black office and began sweeping the beams of their flashlights around. The office was as Chloe had expected. There were filing cabinets, a desk, bookshelves, and numerous papers lying on the surface of the desk. She looked to Clark and then to Lex.
"Search everything." She said before advancing forward to start looking though the papers on the desk.
Clark made his way to the file cabinets while Lex busied himself with one of the bookshelves. Chloe took a seat in the plush desk chair to start the chore of sorting through the paper work. Though after a few minutes of riffling through them she understood there was little there to go on. There were memos, simple files, and seemingly unimportant files relating to the running of the hospital. She had hoped to find some kind of clue however it seemed that she would have no luck. She gave up and put the papers back on the desks surface.
"Nothing useful here." She said glancing back up to see if the boys had better luck.
Clark turned to look at her from his position in front of the file cabinet. "Not much here either." He said flatly. "There are medical files here, but nothing I can decipher."
Lex spoke up but kept his attention focused on the books. "There are bunch of medical texts and journals here." He said. "Though I doubt we can use any of these." He stopped searching and turned to face the other two. "Guess it's a bust."
Chloe moved to get up from the desk and try another room but when she stood up her foot scrapped against something that made a crunching sound. She looked down and aimed her flashlight at the floor. The crunching sound had been broken glass. Chloe noticed that a glass vile had broken and it's contents had spilled all over the floor. It was a viscous fluid that was an unsettling bright red. She stooped down and put two fingers into the substance. Bringing her fingers up closer to her face she rubbed the substance between them. It was sticky, but she was fairly certain it wasn't blood.
"What is that stuff?" Clark asked. He had walked over to the desk and was staring at the liquid on Chloe's fingers.
"I'm not sure." She said still studying the substance. She looked back down at the shattered vile. "But I get the feeling that this glass was broken on purpose."
"What makes you say that?" Lex pipped up joining Clark and standing by his side.
"I don't know." Chloe admitted. "It's just...it seems so deliberate. I think someone was trying to destroy some evidence." She became aware that there was a portion of the shattered vile that still contained a small amount of the red liquid. She quickly looked around for something that she could pour it into. Scanning the surface of the desk she found a discarded test tube with a rubber stopper. She swiped it up and then poured the remaining fluid into the test tube. Placing the rubber stopper back in place she slipped into her bag.
"Why are you saving it?" Lex asked puzzled.
"It might come in handy." Chloe said as she wiped the fluid on her fingers onto her jacket. "Or at the very least we should try to figure out what it is." Deciding they had discovered all they could in the office Chloe started heading back toward the door. "Let's keep looking elsewhere."
Lex and Clark turned to follow her, but when Clark's flashlight beam swept back across the room he noticed a metallic glint caught his eye. He walked over to a hook near the door and saw a large key ring with a single key hanging on it. He picked it up and shined the light directly on it. There was a thin piece of tape on the head of the key and written on it were the words Basement Key.
"What did you find?" Chloe asked as she came up behind Clark.
Clark turned around and held up the key on it's ring. "Basement key." He answered. "Maybe we should look there?" He asked looking between Chloe and Lex.
"That's as good a place as any." Chloe replied. "Any objections?" She said looking back at Lex.
Lex only shrugged in response. He didn't feel like making any snide comments at the moment. "Okay then." Chloe continued. "Let's go."
The trio exited the office and headed down toward the end of the hallway. Clark spotted the door labeled Basement and inserted the key into the lock. It turned easily and Clark opened the door to reveal a blackened staircase leading down. Taking the lead he started the decent. Chloe followed after with Lex bringing up the rear. Upon reaching the landing at the bottom Clark swept the beam of light from one end of the hall to another. There were three doors he could plainly see, as well as a set of sliding double doors to the elevator. Chloe and Lex stood close to him.
"Which one?" he said glancing over his shoulder at Chloe.
Chloe aimed her beam at the door directly across from where they were standing. The sign on it read Electrical Room. "Might as well try that one." She answered. "Maybe we can turn the power on in this place." She moved forward and took hold of the knob on the door. Fortunately it wasn't locked. She opened it and the trio stepped inside. There was a large generator attached to the opposite wall from the door, with numerous cables running up the wall and into the floors above. Dozens of breaker switches lay before them.
Clark stepped up to a row of switches and tested the first one. He switched it on, then off, then on again. It yielded no result. He tried the next one below it, again no result. "Don't think we're going to have any luck." He said turning back to Chloe and Lex. Lex's attention was distracted by a very faint glow coming from a red button on the circuit breaker. He walked over to the generator and stood in front of the dimly lit switch.
"What about this one?" He said glancing over at Clark.
Clark nodded. "Try it."
Lex pushed the glowing red button and there was an audible click. The was a humming sound as the generator powered to life. However, there was no sudden burst of lights to banish the darkness of the Electrical Room. Clark tried the switches on his side of the breaker again, but just as before, there was no change.
"Why didn't the lights come on?" He asked puzzled.
"Maybe it's only sending power to one part of the building." Chloe offered up.
"That's not how generators work." Lex said tersely.
"Do you have a better explanation?" Chloe countered.
Lex sighed. "No." He relented. "We'd better keep looking." He continued. "We'll just have to keep searching in the dark."
Chloe agreed that though it was an interesting development, they couldn't expect any further clues in the Electrical Room. She turned on her heal and headed back out the door with Lex and Clark in tow. She was going to check out the other two doors when a loud DING and the sound of doors opening caught her attention. She aimed the beam down to the end of the hallway and saw the elevator doors opening up. A dim overhead light illuminated its interior. It sat there doors opened wide as if it were waiting for the trio, almost beckoning them to step inside.
Chloe looked to the boys. "What do you think?" She asked.
Clark felt uneasy about stepping into the elevator. They had no idea where it would take them, and he wasn't convinced it wasn't some kind of trap. Though it did make searching each floor more convenient. "Might as well." He answered starting to walk toward the open doors.
Lex didn't like the idea either, but trying to convince the other two not to use the elevator would have been fruitless. "Of course." He muttered to himself. "Nothing else works, but the elevator does."
The trio cautiously stepped into the elevator cab and Clark found the panel of buttons designating the individual floors. His finger hovered over them momentarily. They had already been to the first floor so the second was the logical choice for continuing their search. He pressed the button marked 2, however the elevator remained motionless. He frowned and pushed it again, still no result.
"Okay." He said aloud. "Let's try 3." He pushed the button marked 3, but to his annoyance the elevator still refused to budge. "What the hell?" He exclaimed flustered. "This thing has power but none of the buttons work."
"Did you try all of them?" Chloe asked glancing over at the panel.
"Of course I did." Clark responded. "There's only 3 floors right?"
Lex turned his attention to the panel of buttons. "Then why are there four buttons?" He asked pointing at the button marked 4.
"What?" Clark exclaimed turning back to look at the panel. To his astonishment there were now four buttons where there had only been three a second ago. "But, there were only three there a second ago." He said confused. "I swear." He glanced back over at Chloe.
"It's okay Clark." Chloe said reassuringly. She didn't know if the button appeared out of thin air, or if Clark just hadn't noticed it the first time, but either way it was there now and it seemed to be their only option. "Just press it." She instructed.
Clark relaxed his frown and pushed the button to the fourth floor. The elevator doors slowly closed and there was a slight shift in the gravity of the cab as the elevator began to rise. The trio stayed close together as the cab rose through the shaft climbing slowly up to the fourth floor. They had switched off their respective flashlights and waited for the cab to come to a halt. Chloe wasn't sure if it was just her imagination or if the cab was simply moving incredibly slow but it seemed to be taking a long time for them to reach their destination.
"Is it just me or is..." She started, though she didn't get to finish her sentence as the loud wail of a siren invaded the elevator cab. It was the same tell-tale siren they had heard twice before, and a stab of cold fear overtook the trio as they realized what was coming next.
"Oh shit not again!" Chloe cried as the siren's wail began to grow louder. The sound of it's mournful countenance assaulted the trio's eardrums. Chloe felt her head begin to throb. She groaned and put her hands to her ears. Her flashlight crashed to the floor of the cab but the pain in her head made it impossible to focus on anything else. Lex had actually collapsed to the floor and was writhing in agony at the pain shooting through his body. His hands were clapped over his ears in a vain attempt to block out the droning of the siren. Clark was attempting the same but the roar inside his skull had caused him to loose balance and he fell back onto his haunches. His eyes were screwed shut and he bared his teeth in a painful grimace. Chloe was summoning all her will to resist the darkness that was crowing the edge of her vision. But, despite her greatest effort the pain became too overwhelming.
She felt her feet go out form under her and she slammed into the floor of the elevator cab. She stared up into the dim light above her for a few seconds before her vision blurred and then went black. The sound of the siren still reverberated around the trio in spite of their motionless bodies lying on the floor of the cab.
Interlude...
Chloe found herself suddenly standing on the streets of Silent Hill. She looked all around her but she didn't recognize anything. She realized she must be somewhere they hadn't discovered before. Though instead of the gray mist and the ash covered concrete she was standing on the grated floors of the other-verse. There was a row of shops setup across the metallic street opposite her. There was a light rain falling all around her and she noticed a line of torches blazing where there would have been street lamps. The buildings on the other side of the street looked as if they had been scorched by fire. Their facades were blackened and rusted. Their glass windows were broken or boarded up. Chloe squinted in the fitful light of the torches but she could see a young woman slowly walking toward the buildings. She could only see the girl from the back, but it looked like the girl she had seen back at the school. Was it Lana? Chloe tried to follow after the girl, but she seemed unable to move forward.
"Lana?!" She called out to the girl. However the young woman did not turn nor even slow her pace, she simply continued walking.
"Lana wait!" Chloe called out again. She desperately willed herself to move, but it was if her legs would not follow her mental commands.
A moment later the girl stepped over the curb of the grated road and walked into the dark doorway of one of the shops. Chloe wanted to chase after her but it was obvious that something was not allowing her to. She looked up above the doorway of the shop and saw that the only thing on the building's facade that had not been destroyed was a large sign that read Green Lion Antiques. Chloe didn't have time to wonder what it all meant before the light of the torches began to fade. Her breathing hitched as the light was extinguished and inky blackness consumed her once more.
Hope you enjoyed the second part. The next couple of chapters might take me a little time as it's a little tricky to work out the details but still keep up the continuity of the game. Let me know what you think.
