Thanks to people who are still reading this. Enjoy the new chapter. And thank you Marina's Myst and Shock Treatment for your reviews.

Disclaimer: Same thing as before.

Okay, this chapter is a little graphic, and I really hope it doesn't require an M. I don't want to have to push it up.

Chapter Three: Hydrophobic

Steve opened his eyes to a world that couldn't even have come from the most disturbed of minds. There was little to no light, and if a street lamp did work, it cast a glow that made things worse.

What seemed to be a mix of blood and rust seemed to cover everything. Where a parked pick-up truck had been before he passed out was now a rusted over mess that was broken in several areas. In fact, most of the things that Steve remembered from the previous area were in that condition. A foul smell filled the air, and through all of it, Steve noticed one thing.

Alice wasn't there.

His first thought was that he wasn't in the town any more. There was no way that even a town this messed up could look like this. Steve grew a strong belief in that, until he noticed something tied on one of the few working lamp posts. Alice's ribbon was there, reminding him of what she had said earlier.

What was going on? Why was everything deformed?

Steve stood up, noticing he still held the pole. There was a benefit. If this version of the town had any of those creatures, then this at least would help.

"Unless they're bigger,"

Steve sighed at his own comment. This town wasn't worth it. The monsters, this world, the people; was it really all worth dealing with just for the chance of meeting a family he didn't even remember?

He pushed the thoughts aside. He would deal with that later. At the point in time, he didn't feel safe standing in one spot. Steve started walking up the street. He wanted to laugh after a few minutes of walking.

Just ahead of him, the street seemed to stop. A large chasm separated his side of the street from the other. It was too far to jump, and too deep to climb down and up. What the hell? Why was there suddenly a gap in the road?

Steve turned around, angry, and felt the color drain from his face. About five of the one-armed creatures, and two of the chained-women were making their way towards him.

"Now they travel in gangs?" he muttered to himself. He obviously couldn't run the other way in thanks to the ditch, and they were spread too wide for him to run by. Steve looked around for another escape. To his left, was the wall of the park, so there wasn't anywhere to go over there.

Steve turned to his right, and stared in brief amazement at the large and run down department store that met his eyes. The sign advertising the name was missing letters and illegible. He didn't complain. This store was shelter from those things, assuming they couldn't open doors.

He ran towards the front of the building, and pulled on one of the doors. It was locked. Steve started to sweat. He looked over his shoulder. The creatures were still a little bit away, but if he couldn't open the door, they would get to him. He couldn't beat seven of them into submission.

Steve tried the other door in a panic, and was relieved when it actually opened. The lock looked broken, but he didn't spend time investigating further. He ran inside, making sure the door closed behind him.

Once inside, Steve got a good look at the twisted site that met his eyes. The first thing in his view was a manikin hanging from the high ceiling by a rope around its neck. One hand seemed to have a few fingers wedged in between the rope and its neck, and the other hand was hanging loosely by its side. Whoever hung it had a sick sense of humor.

Steve averted his sight from the view, and walked down the tiled floor. He walked by a couple of sights that he would have rather not known about. He had passed an area that looked like it housed fish. What looked to be a cat was floating face first in the water. A wound of some sort was invisible by the red water caused by it. Further down the path was a large glass window that showed a smaller room where employees might have eaten lunch. A man looked like he had hit his head on the glass until he fell where he was now.

Steve felt sick. This entire store was a nightmare. He wanted to go back out of the store, but he knew that would be stupid. Those things were probably still there. Then he got an idea. If this was a department store that looked like it had once held almost everything imaginable, then there should be a hunting goods section. That would mean a gun and ammo that Steve could take with him.

When he reached the area he had been looking for, he saw most of the cases bashed in. Steve stared into a few of them. Was that a- Steve shook his head. He wasn't going to observe any of the sick environment that he didn't have to.

Aside from a few more horrible sites, Steve found nothing but a few boxes of ammo. He rounded a display case, trying to search for something more, and saw a man.

He wasn't alive by any means. In fact, he looked like he had been dead for a long time. The corpse was sitting in a wheelchair, and clutched tightly in its hands was a handgun. Steve never thought he'd be happier to have found a dead body. He cautiously reached towards the handgun.

The sound of footsteps echoed behind him. Steve turned around to see no one, but walked forward a few steps just to be sure that no one was near, especially not one of those monsters.

A gunshot echoed throughout the store, and Steve jumped. He turned around to face the corpse.

"Shit!" he yelled. A new hole was in the body's left temple, and a mess was on the wall. "Shit!" he said again. The gun was now on the floor, and the arm holding it was hanging over the side of the wheelchair.

It took him a few seconds to recover from what he had just seen. He thought that thing had been dead. He knew it was dead! After staring at the body for a few more minutes, he turned to the gun on the ground. It was probably one of his only means of survival against another gang of monsters like the one that drove him in here. He already knew that it worked.

Hesitantly, he picked it up. The first thing he did was eject the clip. It had about ten shots left in it, and looked as if it could hold twelve. It took 9MM bullets, and luckily for him, there was a box of those in one of the cases.

After picking up the box and sliding it into his pocket after mentally noting that it had thirty bullets in it, he heard the footsteps again. He slid the gun in between his belt and pants after putting on the safety. He didn't want to waste ammo on something like one of the one-arms. Steve had no idea how much ammo he would find. He picked up the pole where he had dropped it, and went towards the sound of the steps.

The sight of an older woman made him lower his weapon. She looked like a normal human. She seemed just as surprised to see him as he did to see her.

"Hey" greeted Steve. "It's nice to see another human!" The woman seemed to miss his joke, and just stared at him.

"My name is Diana," spat the woman after a second of silence. "Does that name mean anything to you?" Steve just looked at her for a while. From the way she was talking, she sounded like the rest. Could he just meet one normal person in this town?

"No?" Steve said in the form of a question. Before he could ask what she was getting at, she asked another question.

"What is your name?" she leaned towards him as she spoke.

"Steve," he said awkwardly. The woman's pupils narrowed and her eyes widened.

"No!" she shrieked, backing up a few paces. Steve just stared at her. "No!" she yelled again, and started to run in the opposite direction.

Steve was so shocked by her behavior that he just stood there for a few minutes in silence. She said he name was Diana, but all Steve could do was wonder what she was so afraid of.

Another shriek snapped Steve out of his thoughts. This one sounded like a little girl. Almost like-

"Alice!" he exclaimed, and ran towards the sound of the screaming. After a little while of running he saw the door that the screams were coming from. He pushed the door open, and ran into a hallway that was covered with the same blood-rust mix as everywhere else.

The hallway seemed to be alive, almost. The general feel in the air was that Steve had ran inside something. The walls felt like they were pulsing and the floor was a little sticky. None of that affected him right now. He felt like he had to save Alice.

The screams led him into a room, where he saw Alice hugging her knees in the corner. She was screaming, and staring at a faucet. Water gently trickled out of it, and Alice continued to scream.

"Alice!" said Steve, walking over to her. She looked up at him and was crying. "What's wrong?"

"Turn it off!" she screamed. Steve looked around for a second, and then noticed the sink again. He walked over to it, and stared at it for a second. There was nothing strange about it, it was just water. "Make it stop!" Alice cried. Steve twisted the handle to the right, and the flow of water came to a halt. Alice ran up to him, and grabbed him in a hug.

"You were scared of the water?" asked Steve. Alice didn't answer directly and continued to sob.

"He turned it on," she whimpered. "He hates me." Steve knew that she was talking about Mark. He was the only person who Alice referred to like that. Steve placed a hand on top of her head.

"It's okay now," Steve whispered. "He's not here anymore,"

Slowly Alice's tears came to a stop. She looked up at Steve. "Thank you," she said. She stood up and actually smiled. Steve smiled back.

"Ready to go?" he asked. Alice nodded, and he pushed open the door.

The hallway looked…normal. It wasn't covered in the filth from before. It had smooth blue linoleum floors, and white walls. He walked down the hall a little bit, with Alice trailing behind, and noticed that there were no signs of the nightmare he was in.

He turned to ask Alice if she remembered the world, but decided not to. It was better not to bring that place up. She just stared at him and smiled. Her hair was flowing over her shoulders and covered part of her shoulder blades. Without the ribbon to keep it neat, it just kid of fell where it wanted to.

Steve smiled back, and continued to walk forward. A door was visible further up. An exit sign was above it. Steve smiled again. He was getting out of the store. They reached the door, and Steve pulled on the handle.

The door didn't move.

He shook the handle up and down a little, trying to make it obey his will, but the thing wouldn't open. After a few more attempts of the handle, he noticed a number pad on it. Above was a small note.

To All Employees,

The number code has been changed. You all received an e-mail of what the new code was. If you have any questions, or never got the e-mail, contact me in my office.

Mr. Kleve

Steve just stared. Now he had to find a number code? He turned around to see if any of the doors were labeled with names. That was when he saw that Alice was gone. "Alice?" Steve called. There was no response. He jogged down the hall a little. "Alice?" he called again.

He reached the door he originally entered the hall from. Alice was nowhere to be seen. Where could she have gone? He turned the handle to go back into the department store.

To somewhat of a relief, the store was back to the way it should have been. The scenes of horror were gone, and most were replaced by scattered items. Steve walked along the wall. He called Alice's name again, but still couldn't find her.

Alice would probably show up when she wanted to be seen again. It was no use worrying about her, because she wouldn't be found anyway. Steve still worried about her. She was only a little girl!

He walked forward, and noticed another door ahead of him. When he got closer, he noticed that it was labeled as stairwell. The door was unlocked. It seemed to be a place that employees would go and customers wouldn't. Maybe this led to some of the executive offices?

The sound of him climbing the steps echoed throughout the stairwell. His left palm was sweaty and barely grazed the railing as he climbed. It was a short hike. There were only two sets of stairs, twelve steps each. At the top was a door marked with an 'employees only' sign.

Screw the employees. Steve walked in anyway. The floor changed from the tile used everywhere else to carpeting. A small potted plant was in the corner directly in front of him, and a window was to the left of it. The hallway extended to his left and a wall was to his right.

Steve looked out the window. He was in an area built above the store. A glance above showed him that he was as close to the ceiling as he could get. Steve gaze wandered to the front door of the store where he saw that the front door to the store was smashed in. If those monsters were actually in the normal world, then they were in the store.

He turned to move down the hall. He needed to find that number for the exit. As he walked, several doors came into view. They held no indication of what was behind them, and Steve wasn't exactly enthusiastic about having to search through each room.

Luckily, he didn't have to. The second to last door had a name plate on it.

J. Kleve

Steve pushed the door open, and a mess of papers piled on top of a desk met his eyes. A bookcase had few books left on it, and they looked to be in pretty bad shape. He walked towards the desk. Maybe there was a clue in the drawers instead of in the pile on top.

In the first drawer he opened, a case met his eyes. It was small, no longer then twelve inches, and about half a foot thick. The case opened easily, and the top stood up nicely. Inside, was a foam indentation in the shape of a gun and six small holes that looked like they could hold bullets.

"Looking for this?"

Steve felt cold metal pressed against his skull. He dropped the pipe, and raised his hands to symbolize that he wasn't going to put up a fight. He looked up to see a revolver held by Alec.

"Alec," started Steve. The man in front of him grew pale.

"How did you know my name!" Alec was staring directly at Steve, and yet he seemed to be standing by his exclamation.

"It's me," Steve said slowly. "Steve, remember?" Alec lowered the weapon. He looked at the ground for a few seconds, and then pushed a large amount of materials off of the desk in a fit of rage. Steve stared, confused deeply by his actions. Alec seemed to regain his composer,

"Oh yeah," he said. "You're the…" again he trailed off, like he did when they first met. "As long as I'm the main…" Steve stared. Apparently oblivious to Steve's confusion, Alec continued. "Did you see Jennifer?"

"Who's Jennifer?" asked Steve.

"You should know," started Alec. Then he looked at the ground again. "Wait. Should you? Should you know my Jennifer? She told me she was here…"

Alec turned and walked out of the room. The revolver was still clutched tightly in his right hand. This time, Steve made no effort to stop him. Something was definitely wrong with him.

Steve took a few seconds to think about the encounter, and then noticed something on the floor. A picture frame was broken in half, and a picture was lying next to it. Steve bent down to pick it up.

It was a picture of a man standing close to a woman. He wore a tuxedo, and she wore a blood-red dress. His black hair contrasted with her blond curls. They were standing in front of an Italian restaurant. A clock was hanging in the window, and a neon sign reading 'open' was above it. On the back of the picture was a message written in permanent marker.

In our time, before its open; that it where I'll keep the memory.

For a few minutes, Steve didn't understand what was being said. Then something clicked, and he laughed a little. Apparently Mr. Kleve liked to play games. Steve stuck the photo in his pocket, and walked out of the room.

A one-arm was standing in the hallway. It started towards him, moving with a quicker momentum then usual. It was only then that Steve realized he hadn't picked the pipe back up.

He didn't have the time to go back into the room. The creature was getting to close. Steve narrowly dodged the arm being brought down on him. A razor nail ripped part of his shirt. Then Steve recalled the gun at his side. He pulled it out, and flicked off the safety.

Steve barely aimed, and squeezed the trigger. His fear made him pull the trigger nine times. The creature had gone down after seven. Damn. That was a waste of ammo. He reloaded the weapon and returned it to its safety-on belt position.

He returned to the office, and grabbed the pipe, cursing his stupidity and Alec at the same time. Alec must have dodged the thing and didn't waste any of his firepower. Steve walked out into the hall yet again, and made it to the stairwell with no further incident.

After he opened the door at the bottom, Steve noticed a chain-woman crawling towards him, but she was far enough off to ignore. He returned to the exit hallway with the blue floor, and got to the number pad.

He pulled out the picture, and looked at the picture. He studied it for a few seconds, and punched in 1 0 4 6 in the number pad. The red light turned green, and the door opened to reveal a storage warehouse built in to the store.

Smiling at his ability to figure out the number code clue, he walked down the rows of unopened boxes looking for the door that would lead to an exit.

Then a noise made his blood run cold.

It was a loud crash, like a couple of the metal shelves that reached up to the ceiling falling over. What the hell could cause that? It was what Steve saw as the cause that made him even more afraid.

The corpse in the wheelchair from the other version of the department store was next to the first of the fallen shelves. Its head was hanging uselessly on its left shoulder as its arms grabbed, actually grabbed hold of, the wheels to the chair. It wheeled itself forward a few feet before its feet caught in the path.

The chair spilled over, and the creature landed on the ground stomach first. Its back slowly grew longer to about six feet. It raised its head with a few cracking sounds, and large fangs began to protrude from its mouth. The eyes rolled back into its head, and it let out a screech. It pushed itself up with its arms as if doing a push-up, and started towards Steve.

Okay! There is chapter three! And if this was one of the games, I would consider this thing one of the boss battles.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know if you think this is pushing the T rating limit. Thanks for reading, and please review.