Sonic Hill 2: DX
Chapter 11: A World of Darkness
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"W…where am I?"
Silently, the wind blew though the green grass of the open plain. The sky was a clear vivid blue sea. From far away, the pleasant chirping of the many unseen birds could be heard. What appeared to be butterflies fluttered about in the small patches of flowers planted in random areas along the field. Such a calm place this was, a world he wished he could just lie in for hours…
The field seemed to have no end; just endless green grass in all directions as far as the eye could see. Only one physical feature appeared different from everything else: a steep independent green hill only about fifty meters away from where the blue-eyed kitsune stood now. It was strange, but something told him to go there. It was instinct, he guessed. Didn't matter what - he just knew he had to see what was on top of that hill. His legs received their commands, and he began to sprint across the gap between himself and the mound. It didn't take very long; in seconds he was ascending the slope.
"Tails!"
The voice was familiar, very familiar. Miles looked upwards and his eyes lit up with joy.
"Sonic!"
At the top of the hill stood the blue hedgehog he'd been looking for all this time, the blue hedgehog he'd loved and lost far too soon. Still with that innocent smile, still with those beautiful eyes, Sonic stood not too far away from him.
"You're alive!" Tails yelled, giving Sonic the biggest grin he gave in years. He sped up into an even faster sprint. "Sonic! I can't believe it! I never thought I'd see you again! I missed you so much!" Sonic still stood on top of the hill, waiting, as the fox came closer and closer to him. Tears of happiness welled up in his eyes.
It was a happiness that quickly faded away.
Tails realized, though he was running as fast as he could up the hill, he wasn't moving very quickly, and eventually wasn't moving anywhere. Sonic stared at him, a look of saddened confusion painted on his beautiful eyes. Tails wasn't only not ascending the hill, but now he was slowly sinking downwards.
"No!" he cried, feeling equally confused. "Sonic!"
Tears of sadness began to grow over Sonic's eyeballs. "Why wont you come to me?"
"I'm trying!" Tails shouted, right before he tripped and fell. Fallen, he looked back up at Sonic. He could still see him there, but now he was even farther away.
"Tails…why?" the hedgehog questioned. His voice shaking. "Why are you running?"
"N-no! This cant…"
Miles couldn't finish as suddenly he couldn't see; the sky had gone pitch black. His vision came back in a hellish tint as the whole field around them then burst into flames, leaving nothing but the hill itself untouched by the burning death.
The soft green grass was gone, replaced by dark wet dirt and mud. Miles realized that was why he was slipping away—he couldn't keep a firm ground any longer on the slick earth. He continued sliding down, realizing that he was going to slide right into the flames at the foot of the hill if he didn't do something quickly.
"No!"
Sinking lower and lower, only a few feet from the ghostly flames, Miles desperately searched for a good footing before it was too late. Luckily for him, he managed to keep a firm grasp on a piece of the wet dirt, instantly digging his foot into the ground below. It worked, and he managed to stay still just in time – the flames were so close to the soles of his shoes they were almost melting away.
He grabbed onto the muddy dirt a bit higher with his free hand, and did the same with his other foot. He slowly continued to climb up the hill, his body becoming slick with mud and grime all the way up. After a few minutes, the exhausted fox finally reached the top.
"Sonikku…" he whispered, climbing back to his feet. "I made it…"
But Sonic wasn't there anymore; he'd disappeared a long time ago. In his place stood Shadow, whose lips, torso, and hands were dabbled in a thick layer of crimson.
His blood?
"Shadow!?" Miles's jaw dropped.
Shadow's head was slumped down, looking upon his scratched up multicolored boots. Slowly he looked up; staring directly into Miles's soul with an insanely wide grin spread across his face. His once white and perfect clean teeth were now red canines.
"Miles…" Shadow croaked, his voice sounding even darker and creepier than usual.
The fox glanced at Shadow's blood-coated fur, his heartbeat multiplying rapidly. Something felt very very wrong. Eyes wide, he took a step backwards. "W-what did you do to Sonic?"
"You don't have to worry about Sonic anymore." Shadow flashed an even wider crimson grin as he looked at Miles with murderous eyes. He raised his bloody gloved hand to his mouth and licked the crimson red off of his fingers.
"What the fuck did you do!!?" Miles screamed with alarming abruptness.
Shadow didn't reply. Instead, he wiped blood off of his torso and smeared it onto Miles's white, fury chest. Miles opened his mouth to scream again, but was interrupted as the hedgehog suddenly kissed him hard, sliding his bloody tongue into his own mouth. Miles screamed into Shadow's mouth as he tasted Sonic's blood. Putting his hands to Shadow's chest, he shoved as hard as he could. Shadow stumbled backwards and suddenly shattered like a mirror. Glass-like pieces of the hedgehog fell to the floor, some flying at Miles and cutting deeply into his flesh. The tiny shots of pain took him by surprise, and before he knew it he was reeling backwards, losing his footing again and falling. He rolled down the hill, covered in blood and muddy dirt, screaming the whole way down until he rolled right into the flames. Flesh and fur burning away, nerves exploding with agony, Miles realized with horrid awakening that he was being burnt alive.
'NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!'
---
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" His body was covered not with melded flesh and fur, but sweat when he shot up out of the bed in a screaming mess. Quickly he curled into a ball and started muttering to himself, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to force their way out of his body. He stayed that way for only a few seconds before he realized it was only a dream.
"Whoa…man…" he rubbed his hand this his scalp once again, shaking and trying to understand what had just happened. "Sonic Hill…was it all…just a nightmare?"
Reaching behind him, he placed his hand on his back, wincing as the pain shot through his veins again.
Taptaptap, clink, tap tap, clink…
Taptaptap, clink, tap tap, clink…
Taptaptap, clink, tap tap, clink…
His dark blue eyes stared down at his hand. The glove was still stained with his own blood, and the green sludge from the drainage pipe.
"N-no…" he stated conclusively. Looking to his side, he saw the shotgun—still with a small dent in its side from when Pyramid Head tried to cut him in half—laying right next to him. That nightmare he just woke up from wasn't real, but this one sure was. "How long have I been unconscious?"
Putting his hand to his head, he reran the past events through his mind. The hospital, Shadow, finding Amy…the last thing he remembered was falling unconscious in that room after being attacked by those monsters…
"…wait a second, where am I?"
With his arms still wrapped around his body, Miles vaguely searched the area for any signs of familiarity. There were none. He was in a strange, dark concrete square about fifteen feet long and wide. The tall barren walls were a very dark shade of gray, except the wall in front of the carted hospital bed he sat on. There was a set of old metal double doors there, with paint chipping off and signs of rust far past beginning to show. Miles looked up, surprised to see the sky right above him.
It wasn't foggy. Instead, it was as black as the starless night.
"What happened?" he asked as he crawled out of bed, much to the dismay of his sleeping leg muscles. The only place he could think of that he might be in was outside the hospital, in the garden. But from the looks of the map earlier, the garden was a lot bigger than this.
Taptaptap, clink, tap tap, clink…
Taptaptap, clink, tap tap, clink…
That weird noise sounded in the distance for the third time. Just hearing the insane beat made him feel uneasy. Even more so than he was now.
'I got to get out of here………Sonikku…'
Depression took over his mind once again as he remembered everything he still had to do before he could leave He had to get back to Shadow, then try and find Amy again, and then maybe he'd have a chance of leaving. There wasn't much of a choice. Miles grabbed onto the shotgun and pumped it, remembering he only had one shell left. Somehow, he had a feeling he'd need a lot more than that. Whatever happened when he was unconscious didn't look like it was for the better, and he'd only gotten more endless questions in his mind since he'd found Amy. Had she really gotten a letter from Sonic? How come he didn't hear about her beforehand? Who the hell put him in the bed in the first place? And why would they just move him outside?
After stretching his legs, he grabbed the bag and refastened the side-pack. Shotgun in hand, he opened the hospital double doors and walked back into the building.
'…what the fuck!?'
He was back in the C Corridor, if he remembered the map correctly, but it looked nothing like it did when he entered the place a while ago. The floor was gone, completely, replaced by gray-ish red metal grating. Underneath the grating was nothing but endless blackness, as if the room was hovering over a bottomless pit. Not only that, but also the walls and the ceiling were filled with bullet holes, scratches, and even some stains of what had to be blood. And then the smell filled his nostrils, the awful stench of gasoline and most of all dead flesh, much stronger than it had been before. The little furniture that had been in the hallway before was now broken, shattered into strips of dead wood and metal. It looked like there had been a miniature war inside the place when he was gone.
'Jesus…'
The dirty soles of his shoes clinked against the metal grating as he walked across it, trying to figure out what to do first. Maybe it would be best to check the corridor's rooms first to see how different things had become entirely. Then he could take the elevator back to the third floor and get back to S3—if Shadow was there at all anymore. Worry replaced the fear in his heart, and he began to wonder if the handsome hedgehog was okay…
The door to C4 was locked, which destroyed Miles hopes that the doors that had been unlocked beforehand had stayed that way. How much had really changed? He soon found that all the other doors in the hallway were locked too, including the one to the first floor main hallway.
"Ugh…" he turned and walked to the elevator, hoping it'd work. If it didn't, he was screwed. Going and picking up Shadow first seems like the best option. Even though that nightmare made him feel even more uncomfortable about the hedgehog than before, it was only a nightmare. Besides, Shadow was currently his only ally in the whole place.
Miles was happy to find the elevator still worked and walked into it, pressing the third floor button once he spotted it. The elevator began to rise up, stopping a lot faster than he expected. Looking at the level indicator on the top of the door, he noticed the second little green light was lit up, not the third. The doors opened wide, revealing the M Corridor. The radio static went off, alerting him of the nurse demons within the hall.
"Hey!" Miles exclaimed, pressing the third floor button again. Nothing happened. "What the hell?"
Looked like he'd have to find another way to get to the third floor. Great. Sighing in annoyance, he stepped into the hallway and shined his flashlight down both ends. Like the first floor, the corridor looked like a war zone. The metal grating was replaced by simple flooring though, which he didn't mind at all. A nurse demon was only a few yards away from where he was standing, its tattered and torn body reaching out for him. Shouldering the shotgun, Miles took aim. A second before he was going to pull the trigger he remembered he only had one shell left.
Lowering the gun, Miles sidestepped out of the way just in time to avoid a swing from the nurse's steel pipe. He turned and ran away, moving quickly up the M Corridor and trying to figure out where to go. If he took the door at the end of the corridor into the 2nd Floor Main Hall, he might be able to take the main hall stairs up to the third floor and then walk into the S Corridor.
Another nurse stood in his path to the door; pipe raised and ready to smash his head in. It missed him though as Miles ran around it, squeezing in between the nurse and the right wall just in time to evade it. He reached the end of the hall and grabbed the handle of the left door that lead into the 2nd Floor Main Hall, only to find it was locked.
"Shit." He muttered. "No good."
The nurse not far down the hall let out a moan and began to move towards him, its legs bending in any direction it pleased. Miles looked around the end of the hall he was in, trying to find another way to get out. He spotted and tried the door a few feet away from the locked one—the door to the day room which he hadn't entered even before the place got even weirder—to find it was unlocked. He pushed into the room quickly, shutting the door behind him and looking around.
Aside from a large refrigerator lying on its back on the floor, there was no furniture in the whole room. It was much larger than any other room he'd been to in the hospital, which made him feel a bit less claustrophobic. In the back was a door, which according to the map led to another part of the 2nd Floor Main Hall - just what he was hoping for. He began to walk across the large open room, but stopped when he reached the refrigerator.
He was becoming nonchalant about strange item and furniture placement by now, but something was weird about the fridge. Curiosity got the best of him and he grabbed the handle, wanting to see the contents inside. Using all his strength, he tried to open the heavy door, but failed to. It was too heavy for him to lift. Shrugging, he decided it really wasn't important anyway and walked to the door. It was locked on the other side, but opening it from this end unlocked it.
The 2nd Floor Main Hall was trashed, not to Miles's surprise. Three nurse demons were in the hall with him, but they were easy to dodge since there was a lot more space in the room than in the patient corridors. He opened the door to the stairway and ran up the steps till he reached the third floor.
A burst of static from the radio echoed down the 3rd Floor Main Hall as he entered it, but he went across the hall and through the S Corridor too fast to really care about what was inside. The S Corridor had a few monsters in it too, but none of them blocked his short path to S3. He stopped at the door, grabbing the handle and turning to open it into the new room.
"…Shadow?"
The room was empty. There were no traces the hedgehog had even been there except for the empty medicine capsule on the table.
'Where'd he go…?'
Worry clouded his mind again, even more than before. Honestly, he wasn't very surprised the hedgehog was no longer there. He had no idea how long he was asleep, but it was a good guess it was a lot more than ten minutes, and he'd been away for over an hour before he fell unconscious anyway. Shadow had probably gotten worried and come after him…and with Pyramid Head walking around…
'Oh god…this isn't good.'
Along with Shadow, the pipe was missing too, which meant he was probably walking around with it. That was good, at least if he ran into nurses—and it seemed impossible for him not to—he could defend himself. But regardless of that this place was extremely dangerous to be walking around alone and without a gun.
That same feeling of admiration for the mysterious crimson-eyed one collided with Miles's thoughts. He really wasn't sure how he felt on the whole matter. Shadow thus far had been the kindest being he had the pleasure to meet since…well…since he met Sonic. Not to mention the fact that he had still been his only real ally since he entered the town. But something about him…it reminded him so much of his "deceased" blue boyfriend. And that scared him. Maybe not as much as the monsters and creatures roaming the streets did, but it scared him. It was a whole different level of fear.
Miles shook his head, trying not to get lost in his own thoughts. Petty things like that didn't matter right now – what really mattered was finding Shadow, and then Amy, and then Sonic. He'd gotten way off track, but he couldn't just leave the hospital now.
'I hope Shadow's okay…' he said a silent prayer that the hedgehog really was, and left the room.
---Later…---
-BANG!
The nurse's body fell to the floor; spazming for a few seconds before Miles kicked it in the ribs. Its short life ended as it died from blood loss half an hour later, but Miles didn't know that, for he had already left the hall later on, after it had lost consciousness. The young fox had been searching the hospital from the top back to the bottom, retracing his steps. Searching the third floor have proven to be useless aside from two discoveries:
One: There was a painting of an angel covering the Corridor Stairway door, which hadn't been there before. Its point of interest was its thin marble arm, which stuck out of the painting like a statue. Around each of its fingers was this strange foreign writing. He didn't see the point behind it, or why it would cover the stairway, but it stood out obscenely from the rest of the hospital.
And two: He had spotted two boxes of shotgun shells in the storeroom, bringing him to believe maybe he wasn't completely out of luck after all. With that added, he had twelve shells left—two had been used during his fruitless search of the S Corridor, and the other one had been used just now in the 2nd Floor M Corridor. Though he was wearing several pounds of equipment on him now, he felt a lot more confident having a decent amount of ammo for once.
The hospital wasn't only infested with nurses now either. He had run into a straight jacket monster in the storeroom, and two more in S11, and that seemed to be a premonition that he'd run into a lot more as the day (or was it night?) progressed. Good thing for him those monsters were even less immune to the shotgun's immense power than the nurses were.
M1 through M3 were locked, but M4 wasn't now. A search of that room had proved useless too, and after finding M5 was also locked, Miles was worried he might finally be shit out of luck when it comes to finding useful things. That idea scared him too.
The door to M6 opened though, to his relief. A small pang of fear hit his heart as he remembered what happened when he and Shadow had come in there and gotten injured earlier, but the feeling was soon forgotten. Something else had caught his interest already.
There was a hole in the left wall of the dark room. Well, not exactly a hole, but there was a large thin chunk of the gray wallpaper missing. Where there was no wall, he saw, was another wall behind it, with very disturbing images painted onto it. At first glance he couldn't tell what it was, but as he looked closer it illustrated itself clearly enough.
A sea of hundredsof tiny white hands, all reaching up to something the top part of the wall was covering. Between each hand was only blackness, like someone had painted them onto black walling. Only about two feet of the second wall was missing, so Miles could only fathom how many hands there really were. It looked like the hospital workers had intentionally covered up this first wall, leaving Miles to wonder if one of the patients had done this. He wasn't sure, and he would never know.
Written sloppily on a piece of lined paper stapled beside the hole in the wall was a memo.
'I was locked up inside the basement's basement. It was so small and dark and I was so afraid. I got out by pressing the buttons on some machine. I dropped my precious ring, and I saw a door. But I will never ever go back there.'
"Basement's basement?" Miles asked out loud. The hospital's basement was on the map, yet he hadn't gone down there earlier since the gate covered it. And he sure as hell didn't want to go now. But...unless he found something of use in here, he had no other choice. Normal basements creeped him out enough, and the hospital wasn't likely to have a pretty one judging from the way it looks now.
'But that's the only place I haven't checked yet…I have to go.' Miles thought to himself. 'There should be a storeroom down there, maybe there will be some keys to other parts of the hospital or something. But what's this "basement's basement"?'
He guessed it'd make sense once he got there, at least as much sense as it can anyway. Having a goal to reach was better than aimlessly running around the place and wasting ammo. He checked out the rest of the room, as usual coming up with nothing else of use, so he left.
The 2nd Floor Corridor took him right to the basement, giving the fox a simple trip. When it reached the bottom, the doors opened to reveal only blackness again. A blackness that was quickly cut through by Miles's still powerful flashlight. The basement was relatively simple looking – all it was mostly was a C shaped hallway, with one door in the middle and three or four doors around the end. To his relief the static didn't go off, meaning the hall was safe.
'Wait a second…' the ceiling of the hallway looked…well, normal. That was odd – he could have sworn it looked like a bottomless pit almost underneath the metal grating of the C Corridor earlier…he didn't even want to wrap his mind around the thought. He shook his head and moved forward.
His footsteps echoed down the short hallway as he moved across the even shorter distance between the elevator door and the middle section door of the hallway. According to the map it was the storeroom, which was the only room of real interest to him – if he didn't have to go into the boiler room or electrical room he'd have no problem with that. He pushed the door open, happy that it wasn't locked.
The storeroom, at first glance, actually looked kind of normal. All there was were a few large shelves full of random junk, and a decent amount of open space from the door to them. Better start searching.
And so, Miles began vaguely looking through each box and shining his light down every nook and cranny of the shelves, coming up with absolutely nothing worthwhile. That was, until he spotted a smaller box with a large dry-cell battery on it. He hadn't really thought about it till now, but he'd been using the flashlight an awful lot since he came to the town, and considering he didn't even know how long it was turned on before he found it, it was pretty likely it would run out of battery just in time to fuck him over. He grabbed the battery and shoved it down his empty left fur-pocket, then continued looking for stuff.
Five minutes later, his search—like it had been so far of the rest of the hospital—had been fruitless. Sighing, Miles turned around and contemplated what his next move should be. That didn't last very long though. On the floor by the shelf by the door was what looked like bloody fingerprints. Great. That sure made him feel more comfortable about the place.
But the way the fingerprints were left on the wooden shelve suggested someone had tried to move it or…something. He looked down to the bottom of the shelf and noticed the edge of something metal underneath it, but he couldn't tell what it was. It looked like it might be a trapdoor or—
'—the basement's basement.' Miles remembered the note from only a few minutes ago. Did the man mean a second basement underneath this one? He had mentioned a door…
Miles walked up to the shelf and put his shoulder to it, trying to ignore the small amount of blood sticking to his orange fur. He leaned in and began to push, slowly moving the shelf out of the way…
-SLAM!
He almost jumped out of his fur as the door slammed only a few feet away. Looking up, for a moment he saw Sonic standing in the doorway. He thought it was, anyway, until his mind correctly processed that it was actually Shadow. The hedgehog's black fur was even more ruffled and messed up than before. In his hand he held the bloody steel pipe, showing he'd been through several battles while the fox was away.
"Shadow!" Miles called, feeling extremely relieved but feeling a slight hint of fear in the darkest depths of his mind.
"Miles…" Shadow said grimly, the expression on his face not that of happiness nor relief. "Why didn't you come back?"
Miles smile turned into a frown as he recalled the promise he'd made to the hedgehog earlier. "I'm sorry." He reached his hand out to put it on Shadow's shoulder. "I tried, but I couldn't. I'm glad you're alright though." He looked to the shelf. "Anyway, I—"
"Anyway!?" Shadow screamed for the first time, startling the young fox as he smacked his hand out of the way. The look on his face told him immediately that he was very, very angry. "What do you mean anyway!!?" he extended his arm and pointed at the door. "I almost got killed back there! Why didn't you come back!?"
Guilt flooded Miles's heart as he realized that he must have really hurt the hedgehog's feelings, if not almost gotten him killed. "Shadow, I—"
But Shadow cut him off again before he could finish, tears welling up in his eyes but the anger still staying true. "All you care about is that stupid boyfriend of yours!" He shouted, clenching his eyes shut and reopening them to give Miles a despairing look. "I've never been so scared in my whole life!"
Miles bit his lip. He didn't know what to say. From all the stuff he'd said and done, he hadn't stopped to consider that Shadow might feel a bit insignificant around him.
"You always compare me to him…" Shadow cried, the anger in his voice gone completely now and replaced by sadness. Tears began to flow down his face, making his dimly lit pale skin look even more awkward than before. "You always compare me to him…you couldn't care less about me - don't give a fuck about anyone else but him and yourself, huh!?"
"No." Miles said, looking down at the floor. "That's not true, Shadow…I'm sorry…I tried to get back, but I got…off track…"
He stared into the hedgehog's crimson eyes again, the guilt swallowing him up even more. The hedgehog wiped the tears away from his face and sniffled, staring back at the fox. His large crimson eyes looked away from Miles, the pained betrayed look fading away.
"We have to save them…"
"What?"
"Sonic…and Amy…" Shadow's voice was almost the same as it had seemed to be earlier on that day, but it still held that barely sustained sadness in it. He looked back into the two-tailed fox's azure blue eyes, his voice still breaking but finally calming down. "And we have to get out of here…"
"Yeah…" Miles agreed, trailing off. Shadow had just done a 180 in his mood, but he didn't mind that now. It was better than being yelled at. "I ran into Amy, but…she got away."
"Miles…" Shadow got an expression on his face that made the fox think he was going to say something but decided not to. Eventually though, he spoke again. "Stay with me. Please, don't ever leave me alone again…"
Something horrible must have happened when he was unconscious, Miles knew, and as bad as it had been for him it was probably a lot worse for the shaken hedgehog. He was still at a loss of words. The look Shadow gave him made him really not want to ever leave him alone again. That helpless innocent look was so familiar… and Miles soon realized it was the same look Sonic had given him every day during the painful period of time after Sonic had gotten sick, and before he…he…
"Shadow…"