Silent Hill
A Novel
By Drew Rogers
Based Upon The Video Game "Silent Hill" by Konami
Prologue
August 21, 1983
Highway 37, Idaho
Near the town of Silent Hill
4:15 AM
Officer Daniel Brusceme sighed wearily and shifted in the passenger seat of the patrol car driven by his partner, Officer Jack Pollack. He rubbed his eyes, turned and stared silently out at the passing highway. Dawn had broken just a half hour ago, and he and Pollack were doing their usual morning highway patrol between the township of Silent Hill and their hometown of Brahms, but today he felt exhausted. Maybe I'm getting too old for this, he thought to himself.
"This job is the pits," Brusceme said to Pollack, just to break the unbearable silence. "Every morning for the last three years, we drag ourselves out of bed at crow-piss, and for what? There's never anything going on out here in the middle of nowhere that needs our attention. Have we ever had anything out here that required our attention? Have we even ever passed another car? At least they could let one of us sleep in once in a while."
"You're forgetting two things, Brusceme. One; O'Grady has no sympathy for anyone. That's how he got to the top. Two; you're an officer of the law. Stop bitching and do your damn job. You don't hear me complaining."
Brusceme screwed up his face. Pollack was the perfect boy-scout type who had a sense of duty so strong he'd make the Pope look like a slacker. It drove him nuts. He was about to poke fun at him when he made out a figure on the road ahead. "Pollack!"
"I see it." Pollack brought the car to a halt and shifted into park. He nodded to Brusceme, and they got out of the car in unison. "Hey, buddy," he started, but stopped in mid-sentence as he took in the sight before him.
A man, couldn't have been more than 35, stood in the road before them. His jeans and brown leather jacket were stained with blood, and he carried a bloody bundle in his arms. His eyes were what scared him the most. They were bugged out of his skull and bloodshot. They reminded him of pictures of Charlie Manson's eyes that he'd seen in a book he had read about the Manson Family Murders.
He looked at Brusceme, who had also turned to stare, shocked, at Pollack. He then looked back at the man as the bundle, which was just a bundle of cloth, suddenly rolled open and a bloody baby's corpse fell to the ground with a sickening thud.
He heard Brusceme turn and run to the side of the road, wretching. Pollack fumbled at his holster, and drew his pistol. "Freeze!" Pollack yelled, aiming his pistol at the man's forehead. "Down on the ground! Now!"
The man looked down at the corpse at his feet, then looked back up at Pollack. He blinked once, then a look of horror passed over his face. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a pistol very similar to Pollack's own. He screamed at the top of his lungs as a shot rang out.
Pollack shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, waiting for the punch of the bullet. It never came. He opened them and saw the man clutching his right shoulder, blood gushing out over his hand.
Brusceme stood at the side of the road, his smoking pistol in his hand. He side-stepped over to Pollack. He stole a glance at Pollack, then turned his attention back at the man. Pollack quickly regained his composure and trained his gun on the man again as well.
The man stared at his ruined shoulder, then gazed at the two men with a look of such sorrow it took Pollack by surprise. He opened his mouth, and whispered a name.
"Cheryl."
Pollack wondered if this "Cheryl" was the corpse at the man's feet. Before he could ask him, the man collapsed face down on the road.
Pollack nodded at Brusceme, and they moved in opposite curves around the man. Pollack edged towards the man, and poked his side with his boot.
"Cuff him."
Brusceme quickly handcuffed the man, and together they dragged him to the patrol car and threw him into the backseat. They slammed the door and got into the front seat.
For a few minutes they both just sat, stunned, in silence. Finally, Brusceme once again broke the uncomfortable quiet. "Guess you were right about us having a job to do out here after all."
Pollack inclined his head in a curt nod. "Told ya. We should get this maniac back to Brahms."
"But what about that?" Brusceme bobbed his head in the direction of the infant corpse.
"You stay here and guard the area while I head back to town. I'll be back with help as soon as I can."
Brusceme was just about to protest staying out here in the middle of nowhere with a baby's corpse at four o'clock in the morning, but he knew that Pollack had made up his mind. So he simply got out of the car and watched as Pollack turned the car in a U-turn and disappeared into the fog.
He looked down at the withered corpse on the ground and shivered. Whatever the hell they had gotten themselves into, it was something big.