Chapter 6: Otherworld
Godhand's Number: I'm not sure what your trying to get at about the show-not-tell issue. If it's more information or background about what created the creatures then I'm sure you know Silent Hill isn't the type of place to smack you in the face with everything you need to know. Information will come bit by bit, otherwise it would ruin the structure of the story, I'm going to try and keep as much hidden for as long as I can.
Saint Raven: I'm including all of the characters from the original Silent Hill, although their roles in the story may be altered slightly. Don't worry about Shego, she isn't there to replace Lisa Garland.
A note on the lateness: I've been far too busy to continue the story recently, exams looming and all. Anyway once they're over and done with I hope to have this completed in a few weeks.
And on with the story…
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The door slowly opened as a light shone through the ever increasing gap into the empty and silent classroom. Harry flicked on the light switch and a gentle buzz emitted from the long, thin lights as the room was suddenly drenched in light. It was a standard classroom, a large blackboard was on the wall with various simple math problems written on it in chalk. The wooden desks were neatly arranged into rows as a few plants were placed along a long running shelf along the windows at the opposite end of the room.
Harry looked around as he stood still and scanned the room "Damn!" he swore under his breath as there was no sign of his daughter. He slowly limped across the room and to another door, leading to the next classroom. Just as he opened the door the radio began to wail it's warning. Harry pulled out his handgun and stepped back from the dark room, the grunting noises from the dark room were getting louder and louder. They were now so close Harry could smell the rancid, rotting flesh of the creature. The second it emerged from the shadows, a series of shots echoed throughout the halls as three bullets ripped into the things head. It fell to the floor with a thud.
Ron had taken the second floor in the search of Cheryl and Kim as he was confronted with two creatures in the distance as he switched on the lights to the hallway. Ron weighed up his options quickly and given that these 'teddy-bear' creatures were so slow he decided to just slip into the nearby classroom. 'Wow' Ron thought as his mind drifted back to his days in elementary school 'This is almost exactly the same as what my class looked like.' He spotted a large globe in the corner as a smile began to form on his face.
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Two young children sat in class as others buzzed around the room, chatting to each other excitedly and exchanging cards. The event, Valentines Day. However one boy sat solemnly at his desk a sad expression painted on his face. A red head runs over to a blonde sitting down, his desk empty as others were spilling over with cards.
"Here, Ron" she said, placing a beautiful and colourfully designed card into his hands. Ron had learned some years later that Kim had spent almost a week working on perfecting his card, a huge smile beamed across the blond boys face as he embrace the young Kim and kissed her on the cheek.
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Ron was now smiling broadly as a tear began to form in his eye, this was the last room on the entire second floor. He had spent the last hour shouting Kim's name, she wasn't here, maybe she was dead. Ron began to go through the process of over-analysing every detail of the trip and blaming himself for it. "KIM!" the teen shouted at the very top of his voice, praying that there would a some reply. Ron got nothing, he felt himself starting to slump to the floor against a wall as he was overcome by massive disappointment and doubt. He suddenly stopped himself and forced himself back upright, 'No, she wouldn't give up on me. I'll find you Kim, as God as my witness we're leaving this town together.' Ron inhaled deeply and started back downstairs, now he had a promise to keep.
After nearly an hour of thorough searching, Harry and Ron found themselves outside in the pitch black courtyard, staring at the large clock tower in the corner.
"We may as well have a look" Harry spoke to Ron without diverting his gaze "They could be in there." Ron nodded and stepped forward to a small door at the base of the concrete tower. The door was slightly rusted, Ron grabbed the handle and gave a hard pull to prize the door open. A blast of warm air hit the two in the face as they peered in through the child-sized doorway and into a small room inside.
"After you" Ron said gesturing to Harry to go in first, Harry limped through the opening as Ron heard the clatter of foot on metal each time Harry took a step. There was nothing special inside the small room, Ron had now climbed in too and closed the door behind him as the two looked dead ahead to see a wall confronting them. 'The Other Side' was written messily onto the wall with red spray paint. Harry turned back to Ron to get his thoughts when he stood still, motionless in utter confusion. Ron saw Harry staring and turned his head to see what had caught his attention.
Behind Ron was the exact same wall that they were facing a moment ago, the door was no longer there. Only this time the words 'No Escape' were scrawled onto the wall. Harry and Ron simultaneously turned back around to see the door was now on the other side, somehow it had shifted from one wall to the other while they were looking at it.
"Impossible" Harry muttered, shaking his head "This is impossible!" he said clearer and louder looking as though his so far calm exterior was about to break. Ron stepped forward and opened the door, it creaked open but the two realised from what they could see that they weren't at the same school anymore. Not only that but they were quickly learning that this was far from an ordinary town.
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Kim slowly crept through the hallway, the light illuminating just a few feet ahead. She constantly sidestepped various things in her way such as discarded hospital beds and wheelchairs, each had blood smeared all over. Kim didn't even want to think what had happened to their previous occupants, then as she came to a turn in the hallway she heard footsteps. She cautiously stepped back from the wall and edged around the corner to see a nurse standing against a wall with her back to her.
"Hello, are you okay?" Kim asked as she walked over to the nurse. Suddenly Kim leapt back in horror as the nurse turned to face her, her white apron was covered in blood and she was holding a heart in her hand. The blood dripped from the nurse's mouth who had clearly been eating the heart, her eyes were misted over on her blank, expressionless face. She dropped her snack and pulled a knife from her skirt belt, holding it in the air at Kim for a moment then throwing herself at the teen.
Kim's mind was racing, but it didn't slow down her reactions, she dodged the nurse and delivered and instant and forceful blow to the woman's side with her foot. The nurse bent over, slightly breathless for a moment before standing up straight again.
"What the hell is going on here? Why are you attacking me?" she shouted at the woman, but the young woman gave no indication that she had even heard Kim. With a faraway look in her eye she once more slashed at the redhead. This wasn't even a contest, the woman was so slow and Kim once more dodged the swipe with ease.
"Stop or I'll have to hurt you!" she warned the employee as she turned to face Kim and once more tried to drive the blade into her. Kim slapped her hand away and threw a punch square in the nurse's face, sending her opponent reeling backwards. The woman steadied herself and began to lurch forward towards Kim, so she struck again, harder. This time with a heel kick straight at the nurse's jaw, so powerful that the nurse's feet left the floor as she went flying several feet before crashing to the hard, unforgiving steel floor.
Kim stood silently, ready to attack again if necessary, as the nurse lay motionless on the metal grating. Kim began to slowly let her guard down as minutes went by without the nurse moving, she picked up the Kimmunicator and stepped over the nurse's body towards a set of double doors into the next section of this floor. She opened the doors with a slight struggle and was relieved to be confronted with silence rather than the stalking steps of another crazy employee.
The light shone off two doors ahead, both wooden, both having bronze numbers screwed to the door, they read "O.R." and "I.C.U.". Having a mother as a brain surgeon had given Kim a basic understanding of medics, such as the initials. Kim took a deep breath and decided to have a look in the operating room, she slowly and cautiously opened the door to see not an operating theatre, but only a walkway around the edge of the room. The middle of the room was completely gone, a black abyss stared back at Kim. Then Kim immediately noticed the two nurses on either side of the walkway heading towards her, she tried to back off back out of the doorway. But she felt someone behind her, it was the nurse she thought she'd killed earlier.
Kim quickly struck with a palm-heel strike to the nurse's nose, blood spurted out as the nurse stumbled back. But in that time the two in the other room had reached the door and were right on Kim, she leapt back to give a distance. Kim crouched, ready to strike out at the nearest threat, her eyes narrowed on her targets, poised to strike like a cobra. One nurse stumbled forward and a fist flashed across her face as she was sent crashing to the floor, a second approached and was duly given a kick to the ribs. A third was tripped to the floor as Kim swiped away her legs. The heroine stood above the three downed women, panting slightly from the adrenaline rather than exhaustion.
But Kim's moment of victory was short lived, all three woman began to climb back to their feet, things suddenly weren't looking good. Kim decided there was no other way, she'd have to put them down once and for all. This time Kim made the aggressive move as she grabbed the wrist of one nurse, leaped up and volleyed another right in the face. Landing behind the nurse she had the wrist of, she used her other arm to grab the woman's neck, and after a moment of hesitation, slammed her foot into the back of the woman's knee and brought her full force down on the nurse, who in turn come down hard onto Kim's knee now planted firmly on the floor. The nurse's leg instant snapped along with her arm and her spine creaked to the point of breaking. All in one fluent and deadly move.
Before the remaining nurses could react, Kim smashed one in the temple with a kick and the other in the throat with a vicious fist. She stood and took in the carnage in front of her, suddenly beginning to doubt her motives for doing such harm. 'This is gonna be much easier with help from Shego.' she thought for a moment and decided not to go any further alone, backing back into the previous hallway and locking the double doors behind her on her way back to the room where she found her arch enemy.
A figure entered a room shrouded in total darkness until their entry brought light, the green and black clad woman lay in bed. The figure grabbed a beat up chair and sat down with her back against the wall, after all that had happened she needed a moment of rest, even just a minute with her eyes closed. But sleep wouldn't come to her, as the thoughts of the safety of Ron immediately come to her mind, she ended up repeating to herself 'I don't know what I'd do without you, Ron.'