Disclaimer: I own nothing from Silent Hill. Anything used belonging to another individual or entity retains sole ownership of said item in question. This story is fictional, any similarity between the characters in this story and any person living or deceased is purely coincidence.
Spare The Rod…Spoil The Nurse
They could hear the world around them change into the hellish nightmare they knew would be just after the hateful wail of the siren. A deep mournful growling could be heard as well as a sickening squishing as the walls turning to flesh and sheet metal. The twisting and contorting of metal and flesh seemed to last forever. Suddenly, there was silence. Dirty water seeped in from the ceiling from an unknown source and as the water hit the floor, it echoed throughout the hospital.
Brooke finally found the courage to open one of her eyes and found that the world had changed before her. Zack Let go of the girls and reached for his rifle. Finding the flashlight on the end, he flipped the switch, illuminating, Ashley and Brooke's faces in deep shadows.
"You girls all right." Zack asked, not able to find any other words.
Brooke nodded as she stroked Ashley's head, calming her down from their recent encounter with Lexington. Ashley sniffled and weakly nodded her head that she would be fine. Zack got to his feet and went over to the reception desk to find it had changed from an elegant hardwood, to a twisted and mangled metal structure coated in rust and blood. He got his helmet from the counter and went back over to where Ashley and Brooke sat on the floor.
"We should try and get out of here. Remember what happened last time the world was like…" Zack stopped, not wanting to bring back the memory of Vanessa's death.
Brooke looked to him and knew what he meant and Ashley looked to him as well, taking a good guess. Brooke helped Ashley to her feet and Made one last visual check to make sure they were indeed fine. Zack checked his rifle to make sure that the change to this world hadn't affected it, at this point in time he didn't want to take any chances.
"Zack, Lexington took my pistol!" Brooke cried as she realized she was unarmed. When she had it, it was clumsy in her hands and the feeling of it disturbed her, yet it made her feel safe, something physically tangible to hold on to.
"Shit, I forgot about that too. What sucks more is Lexington is a finely trained military machine and one more gun in his hands is one more way for him to do harm." Zack said pounding the front of his helmet, berating himself for not being able to wrestle it from his hands.
"He can't hurt us if he doesn't know where we are." Ashley said sternly.
'Yeah Ashley that is true but how are we going to be able to hide ourselves from him?" Zack asked confused.
"We use what we have all around us. Lets make something useful to our advantage. Lets use the darkness." Ashley said looking around the pitch black area.
"Ashley I don't think that's a good idea." Brooke hesitated.
"She may be right though Brooke. He can't shoot what he can't hit. The military training in him won't let him just randomly shoot bullets." Zack said seriously considering the notion.
"You guys please, I don't think…" Brooke stammered.
"Brooke, it will be all right. I'm here and nothing is going to hurt you. Ashley is here too, everything is going to be fine." Zack said trying to comfort her.
Realizing that she was outvoted, and these people were going to do what they pleased, she slowly nodded her head in concession. Ashley grimly looked to Zack as he nodded his head, with that, they're only link to hope and good was extinguished with the flip of a switch, plunging the hellish world once again into total darkness.
Brooke could feel herself shake. Her breath began to quicken and she could feel the cold sweat starting to sting her facial wounds. She didn't want to look around, not even to move. The small feeble light on the end of Zack's rifle, to her, was a shield that kept the evil at bay. She could sense the malicious presence gazing at her, piercing through the dark. They were now in their home, and they wanted to play.
Brooke could hear Ashley move around Zack, trying to get him to protect her as she was sharing the same sentiment as Brooke. Zack could tell that now that the light was out, Ashley wasn't as brave as she previously let on. He then thought of a way to comfort the frightened girls.
"Here I have an idea." Zack said.
Ashley and Brooke could tell he was moving in the darkness. There was some rustling and then there was a sharp ripping of material. It continued for a minute, then they felt Zack tie something to the waists of their pants.
"There, That's my combat harness. I don't really need it so now we will never be more than a foot away from each other." he said, in the most comforting voice he could muster.
"But what about all of you battle stuff?" Brooke asked.
"The good thing about MARPAT uniforms, they have pockets everywhere." he said.
"All right, lets head back to the stairwell and see where we can go from there." Zack continued, as he checked his gun and made sure his connection with Ashley and Brooke was secure.
Finding that everything was as it should be, they finally started off down the rusty hallway. To make his way, Zack had to probe the area in front of him with his rifle. Progress was slow, the awkward configuration led to one member of the group stumbling every so often.
Finally they made it to the door that led to the stairwell. Opening the door, Zack led Ashley and Brooke carefully into the confined space. Zack shut the door behind him and he turned. Suddenly he felt himself being pulled towards the set of stairs leading down, followed by the shrill scream of Brooke as she fell into a darkened chasm.
Zack had seconds to act. As he was being violently drug towards the chasm, he quickly reached out and grabbed the rickety railings. The railing scraped and snapped as the weight of Brooke pulled against their fastenings. Luckily they held, Brooke was saved.
Zack's muscles ached as he struggled to find his footing. He held the railings with an iron grip vowing to never let go. Ashley thinking quickly reached out with her hands and probed her way until she felt the harness strap, pulled taught by Brooke. Following it over an edge that had not been there before, she grabbed Brooke and pulled her up and over the ledge of the second floor landing to safety. It wasn't until Brooke was held tightly in Ashley's arms, sobbing with fright, that Zack let go of the railings.
Zack heaved with a combination of fright and adrenaline. His breath came in gulps as he crawled over to where Ashley and Brooke sat against the wall. He then grabbed his rifle and, deciding that this situation need the aid of light, Zack flipped the switch and revealed what had happened.
They were sitting on a stairway not made of concrete but heavy metal grating, through the holes of which, a dark chasm lay under them. The stairway continued up, but there was nothing connecting them to the first floor. When they had come in, there was not enough room for Brooke and she fell over the edge, had it not been for the combined efforts of Zack and Ashley, another grave would need to be dug.
Brooke sobbed into Ashley's shoulder with fright. It felt sort of karmic that Brooke and Ashley's roles would be reversed, yet she didn't think this would be the last time. Ashley got her first look of the black abyss as Zack pointed the flashlight over the edge.
"That was too close." Ashley heaved, exhausted from pulling Brookes weight up.
"Yeah, if it weren't for our harness, we'd all be flat. Get it, B flat like the music note?" Zack lamely tried to Joke.
Ashley gave him a look of complete disgust. "Very funny" she said going back to Brooke. It wasn't that Zack was trying to be a dick, it was just his bodies natural reaction to something so stressful. After Ashley gave him her look, he felt bad about what he said, yet he didn't think it wise to say anything else.
Brooke finally settled down and Ashley and Zack helped her to her feet. Forgetting Zack's lame Joke the group tried to return to some form of normalcy. Just then there came crash on the grating above them. Zack pointed the flashlight upwards as all three scanned through the grating to see what the could find.
"Hello! Is anyone up there!?" Zack shouted.
There was only silence. Zack swept the light through the grating and seeing only blackness through the holes. He went for one last sweep when the light caught the form of someone standing two floors above them. The person didn't say a word and only kept walking towards a door. The person seemed to look at Zack and the girls before entering, yet it was not known.
"We need to follow that person." Zack said to the other two.
"WE don't need to do anything, we should just go about our own way." Ashley countered.
"I understand that Ashley, yet that person might be in trouble and we should try to help them. I couldn't live with myself if I knew I left someone to suffer." Zack said to her.
"He's right Ashley, we should." Brooke said through tears stained eyes.
Ashley looked to the chasm, then up to where the person had entered the main hospital and then to Brooke and Zack. She didn't want to waste any time yet she didn't want to leave anyone to suffer either. "Damn my good conscious" Ashley said, relenting.
With that, Zack lead Ashley and Brooke up two flights of metal stairs and came to the fourth floor. They found they couldn't have gone to the fifth floor as the stairway was damaged beyond this point anyway. Zack opened the door and making sure it was safe, he lead both Brooke and Ashley into the hospital proper.
They were met with the same surroundings as the second floor. The wall pulsated with slow rhythmic heaves. Some portions were covered in raw flesh while some were exposed sheet metal, rusted and covered with blood. The floor was at least solid as was the ceiling, yet it dripped with dark sticky blood of unknown origin.
"You guys I'm gonna shut the light off again." Zack warned as Ashley and Brooke braced themselves.
Once again their emotional safety net was torn away with the flip of a switch. With the absence of the light, the walls heaving seemed to become quicker and more robust. Zack checked his tether to the girls and started to make his way down the nightmarish hallway. Progress was even slower than before, Zack wanted to make sure there were no more accidents like the one in the stairwell.
After a few minutes of probing their way along, Zack found that his eyes actually adjusted really well to the darkness and he could see quite a bit. He always kept his rifle out in front of him, light or not, it still felt better to have ready.
Zack rounded a corner and found a fairly large opening up ahead with a large collection of something in the middle. Zack made his way closer and could sort of tell that they were human forms standing in a collection in the space. As Zack inched closer, the forms didn't move. He checked and he didn't think he could see any threat, so to get a better look he turned on the flashlight. As the light hit the group of people Zack, Ashley and Brooke got a good look at what was blocking their path.
The group of people were nurses. They weren't like the ones Lester incinerated. They were the hell versions. Not one of them had a face, only a blank area of pale yellow skin. Most of the skin covering their faces was covered in either, cancerous looking growths and grooves, or marred by deep gaping wounds. Their flesh was a pale yellow covered by bloody, ripped, and torn, skimpy white uniforms, that left little to the imagination. They had no hair, only little white nurses hats, that covered their bald, scarred heads. They all had high heeled shoes and they all carried a sharp surgical tool of some sort.
Zack, Ashley, and Brooke starred at the group of nurses with all encompassing fear. These things looked like they had organization, an organized enemy was very dangerous. They did not get to look long however, for not long after the light hit them, they stirred into action.
They moved in stiff, jerky movements. They didn't talk yet every now and then, one let out a frantic, raspy pant, that would signal another. There didn't seem to be a leader, they were just drawn to the light, coming towards Zack, Ashley and Brooke.
"Zack, they're coming for us, um, uh what, what do you think we, um should do about it?" Ashley asked in a fake quizzical tone.
"Turn off the fucking light that's what!" Brooke shouted.
With Brooke's "suggestion" Zack hurriedly fumble with the light switch until the light was no more.
As soon as the light went out, The nurses, stopped, dead in the middle of what ever jerky movement they happened to be in. A series of distinctly female pants erupted from them, seeming to signal that they were done moving.
As soon as they were sure the nurses weren't coming for them, Zack, Ashley and Brooke rounded the corner back the way they came and sat trying to figure out what to do. Zack frantically searched his pockets. The girls could tell he found something, as he focused his search on one at the bottom of this combat pants leg. Zack rooted around and pulled out a grenade and even in the darkness the girls could tell Zack was excited.
"Yes, I thought I didn't have any more of these left." Zack said in a whisper.
"What is it?" Brooke whispered back, trying to make sure the nurses wouldn't hear her.
"It's a flash bang grenade. These bitches like light, I'll show them a light show they won't ever forget." Zack said as he pulled the pin.
Zack inched his way to the corner and looked around it to find that the nurses hadn't left their last positions of rest. Zack let the lever on the grenade pop off and fall to the floor with a clank. He then tossed it right into the group of the nurses. Zack then quickly wheeled around and shielded Ashley and Brooke from the grenades affects.
The grenade sailed through the air and it hit a couple of them as it crashed to the floor at their feet, right in the middle of the group. The nurses on the outside turned to see the commotion in the middle of the group right at the perfect moment.
All of the hellish nurses were looking at the grenade or looking in it's direction, when it exploded with a violently loud bang and a blinding white light, amplified by the small confines of the hospital hallway. The resulting light and noises was too much for the nurses and it sent them into a frenzy.
The nurses began to swing their knives and scalpels wildly. They didn't care that they were hitting their own kind, each of them swung and slashed the throat of another, and that same one would turn to stab another. The nurses pants turned to frantic screams and wails as they continued to butcher each other.
Zack, Ashley and Brooke didn't dare look around the corner. They could only look to the wall opposite them and see sprays of blood splatter against it. every time one of the nurses got her throat slashed, they could hear the wet, wheezing of the nurse as she tried to desperately gasp for air. The three continued to watch the opposite wall when a nurse with her throat cut, landed on her stomach right in front of them.
Once the nurse hit the floor, she slowly turned her head and would have been looking right into Zack's eyes, should she have had any of her own. The nurse then began to slowly crawl towards Zack and Brooke, a large amputation saw, covered in blood and rust, in her left hand.
Zack fumbled with his rifle trying to get it to aim. This was when the inherent drawback to the full length M-16 battle rifle became evident, it was too long for close combat. Brooke began to claw at Zack's arm as the nurse made her way towards her and Zack. The nurse let out a gasping pant and raised her arm, ready to strike.
As she got her arm to it's full height before swinging, there was a loud BANG and a bright flash of light. A large hole bore its way through the nurses head and out of the other side, spraying the opposite wall, and Brooke and Zack, with yet more gore. The nurse dropped the saw and dropped her head to the floor, in a pool of her own blood.
Zack and Brooke turned to look to see where the gunshot had come from and found Ashley, with her hands around the large MK23 SOCOM pistol that Lexington had let her use. Her breath heaved from adrenaline as she looked to Zack and Brooke.
"What? Lexington took his pistol from you, not me." she said with an impish smile, wiping the blood spray from her face. There was one last thump as the body of a nurse hit the wet bloody floor, and then there was silence, and darkness.
Zack, Ashley and Brooke sat looking at the opposite wall, not wanting to turn the corner and see the scene that awaited them. Zack finally got control of his rifle and switched the flashlight back on. As soon as the light hit the opposite, they saw it was drenched in blood, as it ran down the wall and pooled on the floor.
Zack, crawled over the corpse of the nurse who had tried to slash them, and slowly went around the corner. He brought the rifle and the light up and he could finally see the carnage of the past event. All of the nurses who had been standing, were now laying on the floor. Some had scalpels and other sharp instruments, sticking out of them, as their wounds drained blood and pus.
Others were not quite dead yet. They lay in the large pool of blood and twitched violently as they moved their last before death took them. Yet others still, were only wounded, they couldn't walk yet they were still drawn to the light. The wounded nurses let out their high pitched pants of frustration as they crawled towards the light.
As the Nurses crawled to him, desperate to reach the light, Zack took aim on each one of them and released them from their hell. The shots echoed through the dark, silent hall until there were no nurses moving at all. Zack felt something on his shoulder and saw that Brooke and Ashley had come around the corner and joined him.
"How long have you girls been standing there?" He asked.
"Long enough to know we gotta get out of here." Brooke answered in monotone.
Zack nodded his agreement with Brooke and he once again switched off the light. He wished he didn't have to, yet the threat of something seeing them coming was too great. Zack then started to make his way slowly down the hallway again, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dark. As they walked through the pool of blood, Zack could hear Ashley and Brooke jump every time they would accidentally kick one of the nurses corpses, their shoes sinking sickeningly into soft flesh.
They made it past the scene of death and found themselves in another office type area. In the middle of the room was a table with a sheet metal top and iron legs, covered in blood and water. There was only one way to go and that was a hallway on the other end of the office. Zack lead the girls and they came to another large window set into the wall.
Looking into the window, They saw a large room, the walls and floors the heavy sheet metal, yet they looked to be rusty, rather than bloody. In the middle of the room, a metal post shaped like a cross was the only thing present. A demon nurse was nailed to the cross, as though she was crucified, yet her back was exposed, her front facing the metal cross. She was naked except her high heeled shoes and her little nurses hat.
Zack, Brooke and Ashley stopped to look at the nurse. Something about the scene drawing their gaze. Seemingly coming from nowhere a deformed man wearing a ripped, torn and bloody, doctors lab coat came into view. He was abnormally large and his head bald. He face was like the nurses, devoid of a nose or mouth, yet he had a brow and a dark recess where his eyes, shadowed by his strong brow, where.
In his hand he carried a whip, where as normal ones were made of leather, this one had a long thick tail of metal wire with sharp teeth running it's length, or as Zack knew it as razor wire. The hellish doctor looked towards the window and made no expression as he faced Zack and the girls. Even with the absence of his eyes, his stare sent shivers down their spines.
The doctor then looked back towards the nurse nailed to the metal cross on the floor. The with extreme strength and violence, he swung the razor wire whip, lashing the nurse, sending her in a frenzy on the cross. The strike sent sprays of blood on the walls and stained the doctors coat. The nurse tugged at the nails, opening the wounds, blood running freely down her arm. As much as she struggled, she could not get free and the punishment continued.
Zack, Ashley and Brooke couldn't take their eyes away. They were disgusted yet they couldn't turn away. The doctor beat the nurse mercilessly. She struggled to get free, yet she was held fast by the large nails in her hands. Finally, she fell still and never moved again. The doctor lashed her three more times to make sure he had completed his task. The back of the nurse ran red with blood, the razor wire had deeply cut her open, leaving nothing left to recognize.
The doctor, satisfied with his work turned and went back out of sight. As with the room on the second floor, there was a door next to the large window. Zack turned the handle and found that it was open. Looking to both Brooke and Ashley, he slowly opened the door and went inside. Before, Ashley and Brooke could follow, the door quickly shut and locked itself.
Zack tried to desperately open the handle yet it would not budge. He then went to the window and started to pound unsuccessfully against the glass. Ashley and Brooke could see him yelling, yet they could not hear him through the glass.
Zack entered the room and as soon as he did, he heard the heavy rusty door, slam shut and then the little metallic click of the lock. He tried in vain to open the door and then turned to the window. He pounded it and tried to get it to break, but found soon enough, he was alone.
"Brooke! Ashley! Can you two hear me!" he yelled trying to get them to hear him.
The girls were yelling back to him, yet again he could hear nothing. Realizing that he was alone, for now, he turned to investigate the room. He raised his rifle and not thinking anyone was going to see him, he switched on the light. He shined it on the tortured nurse and found that she was indeed dead.
Zack was shaken when he heard the screeching sound of metal scraping against metal. He quickly turned and saw that the doctor had come back into the room, through a sliding metal door, still carrying his whip. Zack looked out of the window to Brooke and Ashley and saw that they were screaming, yet he still could not hear them.
Zack was being backed into the corner as the doctor walked towards him with blind hatred. He made not one sound, only staring at him with those black empty eyes. Realizing he had to do something, Zack raised his rifle and directed the light right into the doctors eyes. For the first time, Zack could see that the man didn't have eyes at all, just dark, bloody sockets.
The doctor recoiled from the shock of the unexpected light, giving Zack the opportunity to escape. The doctor quickly got his composure and again started to walk towards Zack. Zack raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger.
Ashley and Brooke could only watch helplessly as Zack and the demon doctor faced each other. Zack had shined the light in his face and bought himself some time to escape, but the doctor was again starting his, slow, hateful advance. The girls watched as Zack raised his rifle and shot the doctor, the bullets tearing into his flesh.
The bright flash of the bullets hurt their eyes, but that was the only indication Zack had actually fired his weapon, the glass preventing the noise from escaping the room. The doctor kept advancing towards Zack and when he was in range, he raised the whip and lashed it towards Zack. The girls watched in horror as the sharp razor wire tail, sunk deeply into Zack's upper thigh. They saw him scream in pain as the doctor pulled the whip violently back towards him, tearing away at Zack's flesh.
Zack went to his knee as Blood poured from the wound. They could see on his face the agony he was in, yet helpless to do anything about it. Zack slowly got to his feet and limped away from the doctor to attack from a different angle. The doctor chased Zack and again raised his whip to strike.
The whip flung through the air and wrapped around Zack's torso, imbedding itself in his combat vest. Brooke grabbed Ashley expecting the worst. "Brooke look it's O.K. Zack had his bullet proof vest on, it didn't get him." Ashley said trying to comfort the poor girl. The girls watched as Zack took this chance to yank the whip away from the doctor, relieving him of his weapon.
Zack now had a hold of the doctors whip. The pain in his leg was agonizing yet he still had to fight. Zack untangled the whip from around his torso and now held it in his hand. The doctor still, wanting to kill him, continued to walk slowly towards Zack. Zack knew he had to get rid of this thing and prevent the doctor from using it. He noticed the nurse.
"Sorry sweetie, but it's either you or me." he said to himself as he lashed the whip as hard as he could at the hanging nurse. The razor wire whip wrapped itself around the nurse and upright post several times, the razors sinking deeply into her soft flesh. Zack then ran around the cross several more times and then tangled the handle in the tail. Now if the doctor wanted to use it, he would have to spend a lot of time untangling it, Leaving Zack to pepper him with bullets.
The girls watched as Zack tangled the whip around the nurse so the doctor couldn't use it. As Zack was just finishing up, the doctor caught Zack with a hard punch, hitting him from his blind spot. Zack sprawled on the floor. He propped himself on his hands and knees and spit blood. He looked up and saw that the doctor was coming at him again. He then saw that they were behind the nurses cross, the nails sticking jaggedly out of the other side of the metal.
Zack waited until the doctor cam within striking range again. As he raised his large hand to crush Zack's skull, Zack quickly raised his rifle and fired from his hip into the knee of the doctor, blowing it out. With the support of his knee no longer holding up his giant frame, the doctor dropped down to the right height. Zack then got on his good knee and grabbing the doctors face with his hand, he pushed it as hard as he could against the metal cross, the jagged nail, going through the back of his head and out of the front.
The doctor went limp as Zack still held his face in his hand. The jagged nail coming cleanly out the front right between Zack's middle and ring finger, missing them by inches. Relieved the ordeal was over, he fell to his back on the floor as the pain in his leg came rushing back to him.
Just then the sound of the siren wailing could be heard. In the light of his flashlight as it lay on the floor next to him, Zack saw the world change back into the cold, grey, lonely monochrome of the normal Silent Hill. As he looked at the ceiling, he could see the plaster coming back to it, making it normal. Zack could feel himself losing control. The last thing he saw was Brooke and Ashley kneeling over him, saying something he couldn't understand, when he lost consciousness.
To Be Continued…
A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews. They really help. Also thanks for providing me with the proper description of the floors and street in hell Silent hill. I have not played the games for a long time and when trying to find screen shots, they were never good enough for me to see what they might be. I knew they were a metal lattice work of some kind and try as I might the only description I could think of was chain link fencing. Anyway, I again thank you for helping in that regard.