Silent Gulch Retribution Chapter 13

Alessa and Alex stood, staring at the monster in the middle of the road. The monster stood before them scraping its blades together but taking no other actions.

"What is it doing?" Alex tried to be as quiet as he could, convinced that the monster couldn't see through the bag on its head.

"It seems to be just standing there." Alessa relaxed a bit, not bothering to try to be quiet. "Why the hell are you whispering?"

"Uh, I don't know." Alex frowned as he realized he was still whispering. He cleared his throat and spoke normally. "So what should we do? Try to kill it?"

Alessa raised an eyebrow at him. "First of all, you couldn't kill a fly. Second, it's not really a threat. More of an annoyance with all that scraping." She looked back toward the monster. "I mean, it's just standing there."

"Okay, let me revise that." Alex frowned at her. "Why don't you kill it? It is in the way." He pointed past the monster to the faint outline of the church ahead.

"With what? We don't have any weapons." Alessa held up the book she was carrying. "I'm not going to kill it with this."

"Well, then what do we do? We need to get past it and it doesn't look friendly enough to let us pass." Alex pointed toward the monster.

Alessa looked back to the monster and her eyes grew wide. She slammed her palm against Alex's chest, sending him flying back. She jumped back just in time to avoid the monster as it passed between the two teens.

Sister groaned, bored out of her mind. She was still following Caboose, who seemed so confident. "Caboose, I really don't think we are going the right way."

"I know where I am going. This is the way to Church, I know it." Caboose smiled back at her, not paying attention to what was ahead of him. His foot suddenly kicked something metal and he cried out in pain.

"Caboose, are you all right?" Sister moved to his side, looking at what was ahead of them. "How did you not see that?" She looked over the large object before them.

"I kicked it because I was looking at you." Caboose sat down on the ground and grabbed the injured foot.

Sister moved forward and brushed the dust and leaves off of part of the object. She frowned at the weatherworn scorpion marking. She tapped on the metal. The headlight to Sister's left flickered on and the engine sputtered to life. "Hey Caboose, I think this is a tank."

Caboose right away perked up. "Oh, Sheila, is that you?" Caboose scrambled to his feet and smiled at the broken down tank.

Sister frowned at him. "Caboose, just because it's a tank doesn't mean it's Sheila."

"Private Caboose, is that you?" a quiet female voice filtered through the air. "Caboose, it has been so long."

"Sheila, it is you." Caboose jumped up and down a bit.

"Sheila? How did you get here?" Sister looked at the tank, unsure of exactly where to look. She wasn't sure where the face was on a tank.

"It left me here when It no longer needed me. I stayed online for several years, then shut down to conserve power." Sheila's voice faded in and out as she spoke. "I thought you left, that was the deal they made."

"Well, we did leave that place, but the fog came to the base we were staying at and now we are here again." Caboose smiled at the tank. "Did you miss me, Sheila?"

"Yes, Caboose, I did miss you. It has been very lonely here." The cannon of the tank lowered in what was the vehicle's show of sorrow.

"Wait, did you say several years? And what is this about a deal that someone made? What does it all have to do with us?" Sister furrowed her brow.

"Yes, I had been wandering around for several years before I settled here and shut down." The tank turned her cannon to Sister. "I mean the deal that Church and god made. Don't you know about the deal?"

"We don't know anything about any deal." Sister turned to look at Caboose. "Did Church tell you anything about a deal?"

"Church doesn't like deals; he says there is always fine print." Caboose smiled happily. "Why does a deal matter?"

"Well, if Church doesn't like deals then why would he make a deal?" Sister looked down at the ground. "Also, the Church that we saw said that it had been just yesterday that we had all been at Silent Hill. Sheila says that she ran for several years. Why would there be a difference?"

"I don't know, but does that mean that Church is alive?" Caboose clasped his hands together, hugging an invisible teddy bear.

"I don't know what it means, Caboose." Sister turned back to the tank. "Sheila, what can you tell me of this deal?"

"I don't really know much about it. All I know is that Church made a deal with god for something. No one really told me much about it," Sheila answered.

"Sheila, is there anything at all that you can tell us in order to help us get out of here?" Sister asked.

Sheila turned her turret to point off in a direction. "That is which way you should go. It calls to us. It calls us in that direction."

"Thanks, Sheila. I wish that you could come with us, but we have to find a way out of here." Sister took Caboose's hand.

Caboose followed Sister, waving back at Sheila. "Bye for now, Sheila. We'll be back for you after we find Church."

Donut peeked into several of the classrooms. "I think that these are science rooms." He brushed the dust away from the door's window.

"What makes you think that they are science rooms?" Sarge looked over a bulletin board. What should have been covered with announcements for the students was instead covered with crudely written religious propaganda and drawings done by children.

Donut squinted, looking around the room as best he could with the small window. "Well, there are lab tables all over the place. Oh, and there are locked cabinets. That's where they usually keep the chemicals."

"Elementary schools don't have science labs, Donut." Sarge frowned at a picture of a blue church. It was splattered with a liquid and Sarge wiped some of it off the paper. He sniffed it and frowned. It smelled like motor oil but there was no source for the splatter across the wall.

"How do you know that it's an elementary school?" Donut turned to look at the Sergeant. "This room makes it seem like it's a high school."

"Yes, but the sign out front said that it was an elementary school." Sarge moved over to the younger soldier. "Hey, are those robots?" Sarge turned the knob and opened the door.

"Sarge, maybe you shouldn't do that." Donut bit his nails as the door swung in. "What if there are monsters in there? We don't have any way to defend ourselves."

"Oh, don't be a pansy, Donut. If there's anything in there we'll give it a proper strangling." Sarge sauntered into the room and toward a group of five robot skeletons that stood at the back. "Crude design, but then again, not everyone is as skilled at robots as me."

"Sarge, I still don't think this is a good idea." Donut stood beside the other man looking at the robots. "You know, they look a little familiar."

Sarge turned to glare at the younger man. "Don't be ridiculous, they don't look like anything that we've ever seen."

Donut shrieked like a woman who had just found a snake, spider, and mouse in her bed all at once. He pointed at the robots. Sarge turned to see that they were now moving. Their arms jerked about and one of them raised its head to look at the pair. "Ven y únete a nosotros en el padre oscuro." A metal hand reached out for Sarge and he took a step back.

"What in the name of Larry Craig is going on?" Sarge slapped the hand away from him and backed up a few more feet. "That sounds like Lopez."

The robot took a shaky step toward them. "Ven a seruno con dios." The rest of the robots started to move forward, grabbing for the soldiers.

"That definitely sounds like Lopez." Donut looked over the robots. "Sarge, I think that we should run for it. I don't think you can strangle a robot."

"For once you're right Donut, you can't strangle a robot. They don't have a windpipe." Sarge looked around for anything to use. He grabbed a beaker and threw it at the robots. It smashed against one of their metal chests harmlessly. "Well, so much for that."

"¿Porqué se ejecutadesde el amor de dios?" The lead robot cocked its head to the side almost at a ninety degree angle.

"Run for it!" Sarge turned and ran out of the room with Donut on his heels. The robots weren't so fast to move, bumping into each other as they tried to move around the tables.

Three of the doors in the hallways slammed open, and robots stumbled out of them, grabbing at the soldiers as they ran past. "Get to the gym!" The two ran for the place they had used for safety ten years ago.

Grif stopped and Simmons managed not to run into him. "What is it, Dex?" He frowned at the back of his partner.

Grif looked around at the area around them and frowned. "Shouldn't we have reached Tex's house by now? I don't see anything at all."

Simmons looked around as well and saw nothing but fog. "Well, who knows with this damn town? There might not even be a Tex's house anymore." Simmons looked back at Grif. "How are your hands?"

Grif raised his hands to look at the bloody cloth that was wrapped around them. "I think the bleeding has slowed." He flexed his hands and winced. "They still hurt, though."

"That was a really stupid thing you did, you know that?" Simmons frowned and glanced at Grif's hands. "You shouldn't put yourself in danger like that."

"Oh, my god, Sarge is right. You are such a fairy." Grif chuckled at the other man. "You are so the woman of this relationship. You cook, sew, and you don't have balls."

"Hey, it takes two to be in a relationship. That means that you are a fairy as well." Simmons crossed his arms. "I don't see why I even tried to care."

"I'm the man of the relationship." Grif smirked triumphantly. "You care because you love me, Dickey."

Simmons was shocked for a moment. It quickly turned to pissed-off. "Don't say that word, we're in public."

"We're in the middle of a deserted street in what seems to be Silent Hill. That isn't really public." Grif threw his arms out to the side. "Hell, we could have sex in the middle of the street and it still wouldn't make it public." Grif paused, tapping a finger against his cheek. "You know, on second thought—."

"Get that thought out of your head right now, Dexter." Simmons took a step toward the orange soldier. "I never want you to think that thought again."

"The more you tell me not to, the more I'm going to think about it." He smirked and took a step toward Simmons. The maroon soldier blushed crimson. Grif smirked more. "Someone is embarrassed. You are way too easy, in more than one way."

"Would you cut it out, Dex? I am not easy." Simmons didn't back away but looked away. "Would you just stop? I'm not comfortable with being like that in public."

"Once again, it is not public if we are the only two people." Grif took a deep breath and looked around. "Fine, if you feel that uncomfortable, I'll stop."

Simmons smiled a little bit. "Thanks, Dex." He finally looked back up at the other man. "So, then what do we do from here?"

Grif was about to answer when he heard a low growl. He knew he was hungry but it was like nothing that his stomach had made. He turned to look in the direction it seemed to be coming from. "I think I have a suggestion."

"What would that be?" Simmons cocked his head to one side. "You're just full of plans and surprises today, aren't you."

"I suggest we run from that." Grif pointed behind them. Simmons turned and froze.

Behind them stood a five-foot-tall dog. It didn't seem to be any particular breed, with rich maroon fur. The odd part of it was that one of its legs and one of its eyes had been replaced by robotic parts. The dog took a step forward and the robotic claws dug into the pavement. It slowly opened its mouth revealing several series of razor sharp teeth. It barked loudly.

"Run!" Grif grabbed Simmons's hand and ran for it down the street. He spotted a building nearby and ran up the stairs, nearly dragging Simmons behind him. He threw open the doors of the church and raced inside.

Tucker slowed down a bit to catch his breath. He looked over his shoulder and didn't see anything. "I think we lost it."

"Honk, honk." Junior once more jumped out of Tucker's arms. "Blarg."

"You really were no help back there." Tucker frowned down at the alien. Junior simply tilted his head to one side. "Oh, I can't stay mad at you." He took a deep breath and looked around. "Well, now where to?"

"Honk blarg." Junior turned and moved off in a direction.

"Where are you going?" Tucker moved after the small alien. "Damn, I wish you spoke English. That would make this way easier."

Tucker followed him down the street and stopped when the alien did. Junior pointed forward and Tucker stared at the creature in their path. "Why is there a rooster here?"

The rooster stood up, stretching its wings. The teal feathers were dulled in the fog but its wide seven-foot wingspan was very visible. The bird spotted Tucker and threw its head back. "Buck, cluck, buck, bawk."

"Oh, this cannot be good." Tucker started looking around for a weapon.

Alessa managed to stay on her feet, but Alex fell to the ground. "Damn, what the hell is going on?" Alex scrambled to his feet, looking toward the monster.

"I don't know, it just suddenly charged at us." Alessa turned her full attention to the monster that was skidding to a halt. "More importantly, we can't just dodge it. We have to find a way to stop it."

"Maybe we can get it to ram something." Alex tensed as the monster turned back toward him.

"For once you had a good idea." Alessa glanced over at the male teen and frowned. "Are you all right?"

Alex gripped his stomach and fell to one knee. "No, I'm not all right." He sucked in a deep breath trying to fill his lungs. "It feels like I was just stabbed."

The monster let out a scream and started to thrash about, scraping its blades together. It charged forward and Alessa panicked. She raced over and tackled Alex out of the way as the monster charged past where he had been a moment before.

Alex curled in on himself, moaning. "It feels like I'm dying." He tried to sit up but swayed and leaned against Alessa.

"You're going to die if you don't move." Alessa tugged on his arm, trying to get him to stand up.

Alex shook his head and grabbed her sleeve. "I can't, I can't move." He coughed and leaned his head against her arm. "It hurts so much, Heather."

Alessa froze. "What did you call me?" She looked up, remembering the threat. She spotted the monster, dead in the middle of the road.

Pyramid Head stood over it swaying. It groaned and shook its head. Its hand clenched and unclenched and it gripped its blade tighter. Pyramid Head threw his head back and roared out in what seemed like pain.

"Alex, we have to go!" Alessa threw Alex's arm around his shoulder and tried to help him stand. "We can't stay here." Alex had trouble standing but they managed to start moving forward.

"We have to get to the church." Alex grabbed part of Alessa's shirt with the hand not around her shoulder. He clenched the fabric in his fist.

"We're going to the church. I don't know if it will be enough. Unless that thing is some demon and there's some god out there to protect us I don't think it will help." Alessa struggled to get him toward the church.

"We have to get there. It's where we need to be." Alex leaned his head against her shoulder. His eyes started to close and his feet dragged a bit.

"Stay with me, Alex, just stay awake. You are way too heavy for me to carry. If you fall asleep I'm going to leave you behind for that pyramid guy."

"Don't let him rape me." Alex shook his head a bit to try to get himself to wake up. He struggled up the steps with her. Alessa pushed open the doors and they entered the church. She didn't even notice that they were at the head of the church.

Tex looked over as the door opened and Grif and Simmons ran in. She frowned, unsure of why they were there. She turned toward the main altar as a door opened there. She was struck by the sight of Alessa helping Alex inside. Her heart nearly stopped as she realized the danger her daughter had just walked into.

"Please, someone has to help him. I don't know what happened, but he needs help!" Alessa knelt down as Alex's legs gave out under him and she was left holding his full weight. She wrapped her arms around him.

"The mother has arrived." The woman spread her arms wide and laughed happily as she stared at Alessa, who still clung to her friend.

"Alex?" Grif stood up, his fear of the dog following them lost. He ran forward but stopped as people moved into the main aisle and in his way. "Get the hell out of the way, that's my son!"

The woman moved up the steps and toward Alessa and Alex. "Oh, we have waited for you, mother of god." She frowned as she looked over at Alex. "Why, though, are you with this demon? He is not the father of god." She frowned and turned to her flock. "We have another demon to exorcise."

"Get away from our son!" Simmons joined Grif at the back of the crowd.

"I don't like the sound of the word exorcise." Grif said glaring at the crowd. "Now get out of the way."

"Exorcise means they are going to kill him." Tex tried to pull at the ropes and get them loose. "Alessa, run now, just run."

"Mom?"Alessa looked at her mother on the floor. "Why is she tied up? What are you doing?" Alessa stood up and looked around at the people. She finally spotted the body of Harry and covered her mouth. "What have you done?"

"We have set it all up mother. Soon god shall be born." The woman stretched her arms toward the sky. "Now is the beginning."

~End Chapter 13~