Twin tidal waves rolled out from under the tires of Arelia Mitchel's Ford pickup truck as it bobbed its way through the puddle-littered cobblestone back road en route to the Silent Hill resort town. The torrential downpour of the previous evening still remained in the gutters and dips, spraying up water like gossamer wings on either side of the truck. Inside, Arelia turned up the FM radio station and nodded her head to the familiar beat emanating from the speakers. It was a song she'd heard long ago, but couldn't quite place. She thought about it briefly before taking a quick, shallow inhale of her cigarette. As she exhaled, she began to hear only the bass beat, and paid no mind to the rest.

A pot hole jarred the truck. Arelia leaned back in her seat and put one foot up on the dashboard, combat boot gleaming in the sunlight streaming through the windshield. It was a nice day for potholes, she thought. Her other boot leaned its weight on the accelerator and pushed the automobile forward through the wooded countryside. As she glanced at the mud surrounding the road, she briefly recalled the mudslide that had closed main roads to Silent Hill. She then decided she did not mind the solitude of the secondary path. Just the amount of time it consumed.

She looked at the clock. 5:45 PM. Damn!

Arelia had hoped to reach the resort before dark, but with miles to go, that had been rendered an impossibility. Her eyes scanned the area for state police. Then she floored it.

At 9:12 PM, the black truck roared its way through the final road to its destination. Its passenger turned off the radio when it began picking up only static. The lack of music was eerie in the dark, Arelia thought. She was glad she turned it off, however, when a police motorcycle approached her bumper, close enough to be tailgating. She looked in the rearview mirror, then the side mirrors as the bike pulled around to her left and caught up with the driver's side door. What is he doing? she wondered privately.

The male police officer glanced at her, eyes concealed by the visor of his helmet. He flashed her a radiant, charming grin under his mustache and seemed to wink, though Arelia couldn't be sure. Before she could smile in response, he accelerated and disappeared beyond the curve of the road ahead.

So, a cop was headed toward Silent Hill. Funny, that. For all its hush-hush occult and drug history, the town seemed to have recovered since its final battle with the aforementioned. It was now advertised as a safe, serene, family-oriented getaway from the hustles and bustles of ordinary life. It had been turned into a vacation resort and, as Arelia understood, had picked up quite a profit from it. The remote location and quaint atmosphere had obviously done it some good with producing a desirable image.

The policeman entered her mind again. The ex-marine took her foot off the dashboard and winced at the pins-and-needles sensation that followed. He appeared to be attractive and perhaps nice. She just hoped he hadn't seen the rifle rack in the back of the truck bed.

But what would a police officer be headed on-call to the town for?

She passed the curve of the road and came out on the other side unharmed. Still there was no sign of the town. Huh. Must've been a little farther than I expected. She glanced warily at the guardrail to her right and edged closer to the left, spotting a fleeting glimpse of a rather perplexing situation. The policeman's motorcycle had been ditched on the side of the road, but the man himself was nowhere in sight. The memory of his smile came back to her full force for an instant before she looked back to the road.

Shit!

At 9:18 PM, Arelia's truck swerved to avoid a figure stepping out into its high beams, flipped twice, and landed upside down just inside the borders of Silent Hill.