Chapter Three – Separation
On the top of the
police station, Something had become lord. It had stopped the police in the
station, those who still lived, from escaping. It had reached off the roof, its
web catching them as they tried to run. Their trusted squad cars wouldn't
mind, beloved dogs had turned on them, and they never thought too look up until
it had been too late. Far, far too late. A few officers had spotted it, tried to
fight it up here. McKenzie had been one, and his broken body had ended up
guarding the door to the beast itself.
It was big, whatever it had once been, if it had ever been anything else. The
creature could only remember being as it was, but that didn't mean it hadn't
been something before that. Eight legs, at each corner of the body, supported
it. The body was large, and round. Its body was armoured, made of some kind of
hard, bony substance. At the joints muscles could be seen. Dozens of eyes
focused on the little group. It took a step towards the three new intruders.
Mercurius looked in horror as the monster advanced. Each armoured leg came down
with a crack. Zanatos also looked on in dumb shock, as the massive creature
moved towards them. The winged things and the little demons were pretty bad, but
this thing was just fucking unreal.
Sara, however, moved. The two heavily armed, well trained ex-Marines stood
still, but she realised much faster that if they didn't fight they were dead.
She ran to one side, pulled back the hammer of the Colt, and fired. The bullet
bounced of the beast like it was nothing, but caught its attention. The eyes
looked her way, even as she ran. It turned from the other two towards this
moving prey.
It was a mistake. Zanatos shook his head. The he clipped Mercurius round the
head. His partner looked at him. "Merc, move to the right, flank the
son-of-a-bitch! I'll fire, bring its attention back to me, then you fire and
bring its attention to you! Confuse the bastard with a crossfire!"
Mercurius was already moving, motivated, feeling better with the idea of a
usable, sane, human plan to follow. He felt like they had been playing some
other things game up until then. Now the ball was in there court.
Sara ducked as one huge leg stabbed at her. Each end was sharpened to a horrible
point. A voice rang out, "Hey you ugly piece of shit, over here!" Zanatos.
The creature ignored that, pulled another leg back for the strike. A roar, the
man made roar of the gun, made it shudder. Shot slammed into its side. The small
lead balls and chips of armour ricocheted around the roof top. Blood exploded
from its side in a half dozen places where shot had gone through. It hissed, and
turned too look at the big man. Zanatos pumped the shotgun. "Bring it,
fucker!"
The monster swung it's bulk around, hissed again. It took three steps, moved
with horrible speed. Zanatos fired a second blast straight into its face. One of
its eyes exploded, and it hissed again. It kept on moving, covering the open
topped roof easily. A sharp crack rang out, then a second. Both times the beast
shuddered, then it stopped, turned again. This time to face the white [faced]
haired Mercurius. Unlike Zanatos, Mercurius was on the move. And then two more
shots rang out, the small calibre blast of the SAA. Sara had guessed what the
two men had planned, and had waited until the time was right before firing. The
monster turned again, and she pulled the trigger. The gun clicked empty. All six
shots gone. Three into the small grey demons, the rest into this monster.
Zanatos saw as she desperately re-loaded, mimicking the movements Merc had
showed her, taught her, but panic had banished the lessons better than time ever
could. Pumping the shotgun, he fired again, at the same place in the side that
he had fired at first time. He knew he only had one shot left, and got ready to
fire. The beast turned again, and charged. It moved even faster than before.
Pain and rage at being outsmarted by its victims drove it on.
Mercurius stopped and fired both his remaining shots. Instead of turning the
monster continued to charge. Zanatos snapped up the shotgun, muttering, "Shitshitshit,"
but not in time. A long stream of stuff flew from its head, where its mouth
could have been. It slammed into Zanatos' chest, sending him flying back, and
sticking him to the wall behind him. The air left his lungs with an explosive
woooosh. The massive weapon dropped to the floor. Mercurius screamed and
charged, switching his empty and useless weapon into a club. The thing saw him,
and one viscous leg kicked out, smashing him backwards. He flew, skidded along
the floor.
Sara's trembling hands snapped the SAA closed. She aimed and fired, even as
the monster brought its huge head down to the unconscious Zanatos' level. Her
smaller weapon barely scratched it, but it changed direction anyway, swinging
it's huge head up and around. It advanced again. Sara fired, once, twice,
three times. All three shots it shrugged off like water. She backed away, even
as it advanced. She looked behind it, and saw Zanatos was moving and using that
knife to cut his way out. But it would take too long…for her, for him, for
Merc. Then as if by thinking his name summoned him, she saw the white haired man
moving in the corner of her vision. His hands moved across the gun, loading a
bullet straight into the chamber, aimed, fired. The bullet punched a hole deep
into the beast. It hissed again, turned to look at him. Sara fired. Not at the
body, or the head, or its eyes. At the muscle she could see at its knees.
It was a hundred to one shot for a amateur with a hand gun. Sara knew that, but
for years as a teenager she'd hung with the 'wrong' crowd, and made sure
her parents and teachers never found out. One of the things they had done was
teach her too shoot…well.
The bullet slammed into the beast's knee. It shrieked, not hissed but much
more high pitched. The noise seemed to explode around them. The whole of the
monster shook as it shifted weight to the other legs, tried hold the other one
off the ground. It stood, wavering, trying to decide if it should charge the
white man or the pain-giver. It was too long for the beast, long enough for
Mercurius.
Mercurius fired again, having got another six rounds into his rifle quicker than
should have been possible for a human. Another leg exploded. This time the whole
lower section hung there for a second, held in place only by a few muscles. Then
it slowly dropped, flesh snapping as it fell to the floor.
The monster staggered, tried to remain upright. But its enemies saw it was
wounded now, went in for the kill. Mercurius fired rapidly, three of his shots
going wide, but two others slamming into the things joints. Sara fired her last
two shots as well, one slicing more tendons and muscle in a knee. The monster
fell with a terrible scream.
Steps rang out across the silence. Zanatos, moving oh so slowly, his leg
dragging behind him, advanced. His shotgun was in one hand, the other one
tearing off the sticky crap the beast had sprayed him with. He stood in front of
the feebly moving head. Without a word he heaved up the shotgun, aimed, and
fired.
At point blank range the shot tore into the things head. It exploded like some
kind of melon hit by a hammer. It shuddered, and died.
Zanatos wiped gore from his face. He looked up at the others, about to say
something. Then the sirens rang out again. They looked round, and the world
flickered. The darkness began to melt away, and the snow covered of the Silent
Hill police station appeared.
Mercurius looked around, laughing. The nightmare was over! They had won! Then he
looked at his friend since boyhood, the man he had grew up with, who he had
known forever. He was silently screaming. The darkness wasn't going away from
him. It was surrounding him. Zanatos reached down and tore off the bandage on
his leg. The marks were obvious now. One just like it was behind Zanatos, on a
wall. It was a circle with a triangle in it, and other weird marks inside that.
It was covering the wound on Zanatos' leg, even as black liquid exploded from
the long gash in it. Zanatos looked up, his eyes meeting Mercurius', showing
the fear and pain he was going through.
And then he was gone.
