Chapter 6
August 20, 1983
Silent Hill, Idaho
Midwich Elementary School
11:42 AM
Someone (Cheryl?) had been kind enough to leave a map of the school folded neatly on a bench next to the doors inside the foyer. Harry stuffed it into his pocket with the other map. He entered the hallway and headed to his left to the reception area.
Maybe some people had survived and were taking refuge here in the school. Maybe they were protecting Cheryl. Maybe they knew what those creatures were and what was going on in the town.
His hopes were upset by the sight of the blood-stained books open on the reception desk. Upon closer inspection, they contained bizarre messages. The first one read: "10 00 Alchemy laboratory. Gold in old mans palm. The future hidden in his fist. Exchange for Sages water." The second: "12 00 A place with songs and sounds. A silver guidepost is Untapped in lost tongues. Awakening at the ordained order." And the third: "5 00 Darkness that brings the choking heat. Flames render the silence awakening the hungry Beast. Open times door to beckon prey."
Unnerved, Harry entered the door behind the counter into the teacher's lounge. He closed the door carefully behind him, turned around and screamed.
Taking up the entire right wall was a grotesque painting depicting a rusty (at least, he thought it was rust) door with two bodies, clad in strait-jackets, bolted to the wall besides the door. Their faces were gone, and their skulls grinned eerily at Harry with unblinking eyes.
What the hell is this thing doing in an elementary school?
Harry went back into the hallway and tried the doors on both ends of the hallway, which were, of course, both locked. He saw on his map that there was an infirmary behind the other single door, and a small courtyard behind the double doors. He decided to see if there was anything useful in the infirmary first. The door was thankfully unlocked, but the room was sparse at best. An uncomfortable-looking cot, a table, and a shelf was all that was in the room.
The shelf contained some bottles of peroxide, which Harry took, as well as some bandages. He bandaged up his wounded ankle, pocketed the rest of them, and headed for the courtyard.
Harry played his flashlight beam around the small area in wonder. There was nothing there, besides four benches and a tree. There were no swings, no slide, not even a basketball net. What did the children do on break, just stand around?
Harry turned to his right and saw that there was something else in the courtyard after all. A clock tower rose into the sky. He walked a little bit closer to it, and stopped when he thought he heard a sniffle from behind the small door on its front.
"Hello? Is someone there?"
".....Daddy?" a small voice, muffled by the thick stone door, but Harry knew it was Cheryl.
"Cheryl!" Harry pulled on the door, and pushed, but the door held fast. It was locked. He looked around madly for another way in. There was none. He turned back to the door. There was no keyhole. How was he supposed to get it open? Then he noticed two oval hollows on each side of the door. One read "A Golden Sun", the other "A Silver Moon". Was something supposed to go in them? Maybe that would unlock the door.
But where could he find them? He shone his flashlight up at the clock face. The time read ten o'clock. Wait, that wasn't right. Harry checked his watch. It was a few minutes after noon. Then he remembered the bloody message at the reception desk. Maybe the oval objects could be found where they led him.
But what did the alchemy laboratory mean? Alchemy was an ancient magic, certainly nothing that would be found in a school. Well, he supposed it could mean the science lab. The school was bound to have one. He checked his map. There it was, on the second floor.
"Cheryl, hold on, I'll be right back!" He ran to the double doors opposite the ones he came in from. Maybe he could reach the staircase from there.
He pushed the door open and stepped into the hall. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and stumbled backwards as a knife swept through the air. One of those things he had seen in the alley stood before him.
So it wasn't a dream!
The creature simply stood and stared at him for a few seconds, a low rumbling sound coming from its mouth. It was almost like a kind of mumbling. Before the zombie child could move, Harry pulled the pipe out of his belt and swung it fiercely at the side of its head. It connected with a thud, and its head smashed into the wall. It then collapsed. Harry knew a blow like that should have killed it, but after the bird incident earlier, he decided to make good and sure it was dead. He held the pipe over his head, and then swung it down into the zombie child's body once, twice, again. He continued swinging it until the creature was reduced to a bloody pulp on the floor.
Panting, he replaced the now-dripping pipe into his belt and headed for the west door. It was unlocked. He went through it and turned right and sprinted up the stairs.
Inside the science lab, he saw it. A statue of an old man's hand. A small golden medal was gasped in its hand.
A Golden Sun.....
Harry picked it up and smashed it as hard as he could against the edge of the counter. Nothing. He tried it again, and again, but to no avail.
.....exchange for sage's water.....
What the hell did that mean? Maybe there was some kind of acid he could use to eat away the hand. But what if it ate away the medal itself? It was a chance he had to take.
The lab equipment room was right next door to the lab. Harry searched the shelves. There were some creepy-looking lab specimens in jars, some bottles of peroxide, some empty bottles. There it was! HCl, hydrochloric acid. Harry picked up the bottle as a zombie child leapt from its perch on top of the cabinet. It landed on Harry's back and sent him sprawling to the floor. Scrambling to his feet, Harry ran for the door. He didn't look back as he slammed the door.
Back inside the lab, he carefully poured a small amount of HCl on the hand. It dissolved away easily. Miraculously, the medal was unharmed. Harry took the medal from the goo that was once the hand and pocketed it.
Back in the courtyard, Harry popped the medal into the Golden Sun slot. He looked up as the hour hand moved to 12 o'clock. Now he needed to find the Silver Moon.
A place of songs and sounds......
Harry checked the map again. The music room was on the second floor, near the front of the building.
He returned to the second floor and headed down the west hallway. As he entered the hallway where the music room door was located, he saw the other door down the hallway to his right close. According to his map, it was the locker room.
Locker room? What do they need a locker room for? There's no gym in this school, if this map is correct.
Harry walked past the music room and entered the locker room, his gun drawn. Inside, he heard a thumping sound. He walked around the lockers to the other side of the room. One of the locker doors was shaking, as if something was trapped inside it. Unable to repress his curiosity, he carefully reached out and touched the locker door.
The door then flew open and something jumped screaming at Harry. He screamed, then realized it was just a cat. It ran out of sight, and Harry heard the creaking of the door as it pushed it open. Harry cursed himself for not closing the door more firmly. Who knew what other things were in the school?
As if in response to this thought, Harry then heard a crunch and the angry squealing of the cat. Harry ran to the door and peered out into the hallway. A zombie child had the squirming cat in its claws, and was tearing chunks out of its back with its teeth.
Harry shoved the gun out of the crack in the door and fired three bullets into the zombie child's head. It dropped the cat and fell backwards, dead.
Harry stepped out into the hallway and walked over to the still-writhing cat. He aimed his gun down, shut his eyes, and put it out of its misery.
The music room was a small room with a baby grand piano wedged into the back of the room. A small section of the keys were stained with blood. High up on the wall, Harry saw a silver medallion fixed in a plaque. He dragged the piano bench to the wall underneath it and stepped up onto it. He tried prying it out, but it wouldn't budge.
As he jumped back down to the floor, he saw a large piece of paper taped to the blackboard. It was a musical score for something, but someone had scrawled a message on it in blood: "A tale of birds without a voice' First flew the greedy Pelican White wings flailing eager for the reward. Then came a silent Dove, flying beyond the pelican, As far as he could. A Raven flies in, flying higher from The Dove, just to show he can. A Swan glides in to find a peaceful spot, Next to another bird. Finally, out comes a Crow, Coming quickly to a stop yawning and the napping. Who will show the way? Who will be the key? Who will tend to the silver reward?"
Is this referring to the piano? Do I have to play something? But I don't know how to play the piano!
Harry looked back at the piano and stared at the bloody keys. Maybe I'm only supposed to play those keys. Hesitantly, he walked over to the piano. He pushed each of the bloody keys, and was surprised to find that many of them made no sound.
A tale of birds without a voice! That's it! These are the ones I'm supposed to play! And those birds refer to either black or white keys!
First he had to figure out where the pelican went. It was greedy, but its wings are flailing, so it can't have gotten very far. So maybe it's on the second white key. Harry pressed it. The dove was next, and went as far as it could. The sixth white key was the farthest white key that made no sound. He pressed it. Next the raven, a black bird, flies higher than the dove. There was a silent black key just above the dove's key. He pressed it. Now there were only two silent keys left, a black and a white. The swan was next, so it must be the last white key, followed by the final black key for the crow.
The medallion fell out of the plaque and landed on the floor with a thump. With a sigh of relief, Harry snatched it up and ran back to the courtyard. He shoved it into the Silver Moon slot and tugged on the door. It was still locked.
Shit! I got both medallions! What else can I do?
Then he remembered that there had been three clues in the lobby. What had it said again? Darkness that brings the choking heat. Did it refer to the basement? The door leading to the hallway in the lobby was locked. Maybe he could reach it from the door in the hallway where the zombie kid had ambushed him.
In the hallway, the zombie kid was nowhere to be found. How is that possible? I smashed that thing to pulp! There isn't even any blood on the floor anymore. He scanned the hallway and saw no sign of it. Ignoring the nervous flutter in his stomach, he tried the door at the end of the hall. It was open. Running now, Harry almost fell down the stairs as he headed for the basement.
There were only two doors down here, one that was locked that led into a storage room and one that led into the boiler room. There was nothing in the room except for a lot of pipes and valves that Harry had no idea what their function was, and a large generator that thankfully had one button on the front, which obviously turned it on.
He pushed the button, and as the ancient machine struggled to start itself up, a low, throaty growl sounded from right behind him. Gun ready, Harry spun around and looked around the room, his heart pounding. However, as far as he could see, he was alone in the room. And that was well enough for him, he thought as he left the room.
Back in the courtyard, Harry was delighted to find the door in the clock tower was finally open. Opening the heavy door, he was surprised to find Cheryl was nowhere to be seen. In fact, nothing was to be seen. The room was empty save for a ladder leading downwards into darkness.
But I heard her in here. She must have gone down that ladder.
Harry took a few tentative steps into the room. "Cheryl?" He got down on his knees and shone the light down the ladder. He couldn't see the bottom. "Cheryl? Are you down there, honey? Answer me!"
He nearly fell down the hole when he heard the giggle from behind him. He turned his head, and saw her. Standing just outside the clock tower door. "Cheryl!"
She just grinned and slammed the door shut.