Well, here's the next chapter, I apologize for the wait, but several things conspired all at once for me to not get this done on time. This is actually the sixth draft of this particular chapter because I never could get the feel of what I wanted. Also, there is a part towards the end that is a flashback.
That part actually is going with my next plan for a story (causing this chapter to be further delayed as I figured out the details on a prequel). I really wanted to do another story, and in the middle of this one I got the idea for it. There will be elements of that story in this one, but really nothing to give away the suspense of it. It does bring some characters in from other stories, but again is mainly there for continuity.
Finally, the hospital I'm describing doesn't exactly correspond to the actual Brookhaven Hospital mainly because I didn't want to be looking at a map the entire time I was writing. It is of its own design, and therefore should not be criticized as not being "the Silent Hill Hospital."…I suppose you could, but I'll probably ignore it.
David Struve
The shotgun roared and the hospital lobby was filled with the thunder of god and intense light as the two nurses stumbled backwards. The heavy buckshot had only winged them, but had done its job and cleared Sarah a path between them.
She took her opportunity, charging past them and into the more open reception area. As she ran, she dropped the shotgun and drew the pistol she kept in a shoulder holster under her right arm. A quick move flipped the light on underneath the weapon, and another turned the laser sight on.
Just as the two nurses staggered back to their feet she set her feet and fired two shots. The laser sight was perfectly sighted in and both took nearest one in the face, snapping her head back and showering the other in a crimson spray.
Even as she moved the sight to the second nurse, another shot rang out through the dark room. Sarah felt the air around her head move, and felt the marble pillar behind her splinter. Shrapnel filled the space around her, and she felt two shallow cuts open on her cheek. With a desperate move she crouched low and spun around the pillar, setting her back to it even as a second shot sent more stone flying.
A quick look around the pillar confirmed what she hadn't thought possible. The crippled nurse held a pistol in her hand, one that was now sighted in on Sarah's head. Another shot rang out at the same time Sarah jerked her head back, and again she felt the air move only inches from her face.
Readying her weapon, she turned the other way and found herself face-to-face with the blood spattered nurse that held the steel pipe. Only the purest will not to scream kept Sarah from falling back in horror, which saved her life.
The nurse's face was now fully revealed underneath the lanky black hair; it seemed that several of the earlier transformations had caught the still human nurses and tortured them at Alessa's will. Long scars ran the length of her ruined face, some still oozing blood and pus. Yet the worst was how pieces of her face had been cut away and re-arranged. Her mouth now opened vertically along her cheek, replaced by one cataracted eye. The tip of her nose had been ripped off, leaving a bloody hole. The only place that was untouched was her right eye, which stared at Sarah in a look of pain and misery. Whatever dark magic had created the nurses had ensured they would be in the same eternal pain as their now dead master.
Instinct made her bring her hands up and grab the pipe only a split-second before the nurse brought it down. Pushing backwards, Sarah managed to bring the already unshaken creature off-balance. Without hesitating she dropped to one knee and kicked out, wincing at the sound of the nurse's breaking knee.
She slipped back behind the pillar just a fourth shot ripped through the air where she'd stood.
Sarah had the advantage now, two nurses down and only one left that was evidently a terrible shot. Sarah risked another glance around the pillar and then immediately jerked her head back, counting as she did so. After she hit five, another shot illuminated the area.
Taking one of her trademark risks, Sarah jumped up from the pillar and sprinted towards the resting area where the crippled nurse still "stood." As she ran, she counted under her breath and a second before she said 'five' Sarah slid behind an overturned table. True to her count, the instant her body was hidden the nurse fired.
Not wanting to use more ammunition than necessary, Sarah made a quick glance around herself and saw one of the steel pipes a dead nurse had carried. It fit perfectly in her right hand.
Rolling out from behind the table, she ran straight for the nurse. As she did, she flipped her grip on the pistol so she held it by the barrel. At the count of 'four' she was within range of the nurse and acted. A fast spin sent the pipe out to strike the nurse's hands, snapping her wrists and sending the pistol flying away. Even before the tortured creature could scream, Sarah finished the spin. The butt of the pistol caught the nurse where her neck connected to her shoulders and snapped her spine.
With a sickening thud the nurse's body hit the ground, followed shortly by a loud crack as the bone in her leg gave out. Sarah couldn't help but wince at the sounds, but even more so at the low moaning from the nurse whose knee she'd broken.
One swing of the steel pipe ended both the moans and the nurse's misery.
Breathing shallowly to avoid vomiting, Sarah retraced her steps and picked up the shotgun. Only six shots remained in the weapon, but it had been worth using it to avoid being bludgeoned to death. Without a further need for it, she dropped the steel pipe.
After retrieving the shotgun, Sarah walked back to where the crippled nurse had been in the doorway to the lobby. The pistol lay by her side, resting in a pool of black blood. Swallowing her nausea, she holstered her own weapon and picked up the fallen pistol. A piece of the nurse's clothing helped to clean the weapon, and after slinging the shotgun onto her back, she drew the other pistol.
Now with one in each hand, she continued walking into the station and looked through the bloodstained papers. Most were illegible; covered in blood and yellowed with age.
One sheet caught her attention, being newer than the rest. Besides the date of the paper being the newest, it was also white among the other pages. The sheet was clasped in a clipboard and hanging on a stand marked "In-patients." The name on the sheet said William Bernshaw.
She could hardly breathe, wondering just exactly what had happened for William to appear in Silent Hill. A quick look told her he was being kept on the third floor of the hospital, suffering from extreme exhaustion, blood loss, and severe internal damage. Also linked to the clipboard was a stopwatch, running backwards and moving just past forty-five minutes.
No time was wasted as Sarah sprinted for the elevator, ignoring the tell-tale scraping of steel pipes on the ground as she ran. Her pathway carried her past a four-way intersection, and as she passed it two nurses appeared from the gloom. Both carried rusted pipes, and both fell back as Sarah opened fire with the duel pistols.
One fell immediately, bullets snapping her head back in a crimson spray. The other took several more steps before collapsing still trying futilely to breathe through her bullet ridden chest.
Her sprint took Sarah to the "H" elevator. After punching the button several times, she forced herself to calm down. It could just all be a lie that Richard was in the hospital. It could just be another trap of the city to get her to reveal herself. Yet somehow she couldn't bring herself to believe that. Somehow she knew that Richard had followed her to Silent Hill and was waiting upstairs.
The stopwatch in her hand passed forty minutes, and Sarah punched the up button again…as if it helped. Above her, the elevator passed the third floor and continued descending to the main lobby.
She heaved a sigh of relief when the lift gave a pleasant 'ding' and the doors opened. Until she saw a figure thought long dead standing in the doorway with a grin on his face.
Without giving the figure a chance to make any action, Sarah's hand shot up and fired one shot directly into his head. She saw a crimson spray fly out the back, shards of bone embedding in the torn elevator lining, and him crumple to the ground in a heap.
The doors slid closed on the elevator, having passed the standard time. Though she didn't want to get inside with a corpse, Sarah pressed the up button again. The stairs weren't a place she wanted to be with the nurses around.
Again the doors opened, and before she could react a hand flew out and knocked her onto her back. The force of the blow causing her pistol to fly out of her hand, leaving her with just the one she'd picked up from the fallen nurse.
"He told me you were in Silent Hill Sarah." The figure said casually. "But he didn't know where…but I knew. I knew exactly where you would be at. That's why I came here, to have a little reenactment."
Memories flooded back through Sarah's mind. Back to the sewers of Silent Hill, where she and several others had tried to escape so much earlier…during the original turning.
"Alex, we've got a problem over here!" Sarah shouted desperately from the concrete side of the sewer. "Something's moving up the main tunnel faster than we can get the people out! In another minute or so we'll lose them all!"
Splashing over to where Sarah stood, Alex looked down the tunnel at the creature that was charging towards them. He'd never thought they might be killed by something that looked like a large cube of acidic Jello…
"You're in charge of getting everyone out now Sarah." He said sadly. "I'll slow it down." Then he took out a single stick of dynamite, snapping the fuse until it was only a few seconds long.
She shook her head bitterly. "There's nothing you can do against it! If you even try go back down the tunnel it'll be suicide!"
"Let him die!" Paul shouted from across the room where daylight shone through the end of the passageway. "He's the one that got us trapped down here, I say let the bastard die!"
Alex stopped what he was doing long enough to laugh. "If I die Paul, you die too." He looked one last time at Sarah. "When this goes off, take care of him for me." Then he was running down the tunnel, pulling the silver Zippo from his pocket and lighting the fuse just as the creature engulfed him.
Sarah did even wait for the fuse to go off. She just turned and fired a single shot in Paul's direction.
"You're dead Paul." Sarah stammered from the ground. "I shot you in the head!"
Paul laughed bitterly, sending cold prickles racing down Sarah's back and across her neck. "Twice actually…but the problem with shooting me in the head Sarah is that you can't kill one of the dark men with a simple bullet to the skull. That might bring down one of the lesser creatures of the city, but I'm different than them."
Sarah raised the pistol again, firing another shot that echoed through the room. This one took Paul in the throat and he stumbled backwards, crashing hard into the elevator door.
"You bitch!" Paul gurgled through both the hole and the blood in his throat. "Now I can see how you survived the Dark Wing assassins." With a cautious hand he reached up to his shattered throat and covered it with his hands. After a few seconds he lowered them to reveal perfect pink skin.
The pistol roared again, firing until it finally clicked dry.
This time Paul barely flinched as the bullets smashed into his chest and stomach. Sarah merely saw him extend his arms into the shadows and draw them into himself. The room darkened dramatically as he gathered them into a ball that completely encircled him.
"My turn." He hissed smugly from inside the ball before it exploded around him, sending shards of black flying in every direction. Where he had stood, now was a creature that Sarah had only read of in The Order's texts.
He truly was a dark man, a creature that fed off the very energy of Silent Hill to move anywhere that a shadow covered. His power came from the darkness, and they possessed the ability to open a person's mind as easily as one might open a tin can. Inside they could sense your deepest fears and secrets, not hesitating to use them in any way possible against you.
"It seems that Master Walter has given me a very great gift indeed." The creature that had once been Paul said. "He gave me what I've desired for years now."