A/N: As per usual I have to apologize for how long it has taken for this chapter to come along. There has been a long hiatus on communication between myself and Undead Light. It's another action chapter, light on humor. I promise the next chapter will have a little more hijinks and a little less drama! For now it seems like I will be writing this solo, until Undead Light is no longer busy. Sorry for any grammatical mistakes, as this was only lightly edited! Here we go, Chapter 8!

Disclaimer: We do not own Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Halo, or any other game mentioned in this fiction, it is purely for fun.

"So tell me what happened would you?" Desi asked breathlessly. The spider's cocoon was tough to cut, even with Desi's sword.

"Rebecca and I were working our way out of this damn hospital when we got jumped by tall, dark, and ugly here. I shoved her ahead and told her to run while I dealt with the spider. As you can see, the spider dealt with me first." AJ grunted as he struggled against his silken bindings. With a little help from Desi's blade, he was able to tear himself away from the cocoon and drag himself to his feet. "At least I managed to finish the prick before it wrapped up another bagged lunch," he meant Desi of course.

"That's assuming I wouldn't have been able to deal with the spider myself" she retorted.

"I don't take those kinds of chances."

This response prompted no further argument from Desi. AJ was a team player, he always had been. There was no denying that he was protective of the rest of the team.

"We need to find Rebecca again, let's go" he said as he dumped the empty pistol mag on the floor and slapped a fresh one into the grip. Desi wasn't sure how much more ammo he had, but if they ran into any more heavy trouble, it would be all about ammo conservation.

The pair climbed their way back out of the spider hole and onto the grime and rust covered industrial plate that passed for the hospital floor. The ambient noise of creaking metal, hissing steam, and clanking industry was much louder out in the hospital corridors.

"Something is wrong here." AJ's brow was furrowed and the corners of his mouth were curled down into a tight frown. "This corridor, it doesn't look a bit like it did when I was dragged into that hole. There had been a junction right before the spider hole, now it's just one long hallway as far as I can see," he noted, his eyes scanning the walls for any breaks or faults that signified the hall was being hidden. Of course he found plenty of breaks and faults, but none that betrayed the position of a hidden hallway.

Desi didn't say anything, but AJ was right. When she had come this way, there had been several intersecting corridors. In her time here however, she had learned that there was not much one could do about the mysterious happenings in Silent Hill. Being so out of touch with her environment irked her, it made her feel blind in more than one way.

"Well, that leaves only forward then," Desi said calmly. The swordswoman had no intention of searching the walls for a hidden corridor that would not be there. The world around them had changed and all they could do was adapt to the conditions.

Sighing in resignation, AJ pried himself away from his wall investigation and nodded an agreement. Drawing back the slide on his weapon, he chambered a round in his pistol. The darkness had many surprises in this hospital and he looked as if he were ready to face each and every one of them if it meant getting to Rebecca.

Desi thought about that for a moment. The rest of the team may have been oblivious to it but Desi was a woman. She could see that he cared for her as more than just a teammate. Oh yes, it was not lost on her that AJ had eyes for Rebecca. At first Desi was skeptical of this, pondering the possibility that it was just some lusting crush, or nothing more than a fleeting fancy. As time went on though it became readily apparent that he truly felt for Rebecca, he was always the first to be there for her. Of course, AJ would take a bullet for any of his teammates… but there was just something about his protectiveness towards Rebecca that Desi picked up on.

Desi gave her head a mental shake, she needed to maintain focus on their current task. AJ started off into the darkness and Desi followed close after.

Without a flashlight to assist them through the inky black curtains of darkness, their forward progress was slow. What ambient light there was in the hospital was soft and menacing. It left linger pools of shadow in which any number of Silent Hill horrors could be concealed, ready to tear into flesh and bone at a moment's notice.

Finally the hallway came to a corner, and after a half an hour of walking without any feeling of progression, it was a welcome sight. The sign on the wall further lifted their spirits; a staircase sign with an arrow pointing in the only direction there was to go.

Their hope soon dipped into dread however as they turned the corner. As far as the eye could see, creatures had packed themselves into the corridor. They were still as statues except for their heavy breathing and the occasional twitch. They looked to have been women at one time –nurses if their attire was any indicator. The beasts did not seem to have any sort of faces; it was just skin or sometimes rather enflamed looking wounds.

What had caught Desi's eye however was that they were all gripping varied sharp objects. Not one of them was without a surgical knife, hooks, pieces of broken glass, or sharp metal. A glance over at AJ told Desi that he had noted the obvious threat as well.

"Any ideas on how to get through?" Desi whispered.

"Not sure, but it will be tough to be too maneuverable with this" he said gesturing to his left shoulder. Desi couldn't see anything at first, but she got closer and really examined him this time. Right under the collarbone was a single puncture wound. How had she missed that before? Come to think of it, she hadn't even asked him if he was ok when she pulled him out of the cocoon.

"How..?"

"When the spider got me with its stinger" he answered the question before she could finish it. "The toxin clotted the wound to keep me from bleeding out, no use in having a dry lunch. The toxin seems to have fully worn off now and all this movement has exacerbated the wound." His explanation was calm and concise and left only one question on Desi's mind.

"Can you keep going?"

"Is there any other option?"

Desi fell silent, it had been a stupid question but the threat of him not making through the mob of monsters was growing by the second.

"I suppose I'll go first. Every man's dream is to be surrounded by lovely ladies right? I suppose this will have to do" he joked as AJ often did. It seemed to make him uncomfortable when his teammates felt worried or downtrodden –especially on his account.

Before Desi could offer protest, he was already advancing into the line of ghastly nurses. Desi was not far behind, going her best to duck and dodge in any way that would keep her from hitting one of them. The monsters did not seem to react to anything but loud noises and physical contact.

The going was very slow as AJ was not as flexible as Desi was. She was able to bend and shimmy in ways he could not in order to get by the creatures. All he could manage was moderate bending and ducking. Right in the very middle of all of them, at the very belly of the beast, an unlucky twitch threw everything into turmoil.

One of the nurses twitched as AJ was passing by her and she immediately attacked. She hacked and slashed with a surgical knife. The team tactician dodged back both times but hit the wall on his final step back. The loose metal plates that the wall was comprised of clanged loudly and all the nurses were suddenly in motion.

"Desi! Run! Now!" he yelled. The nurse that had been slashing at him wound up and drove the blade into his already wounded shoulder. AJ yelled loudly, struggling against the pressure. Bringing up the pistol, he placed it to the creature's head and squeezed the trigger. The nurse's head jerked back as the bullet ripped through her skull –oddly enough the blood was crimson rather than black.

Desi had not run however, she was torn between listening to AJ and going in after to get him. She stood there, sword in hand as her brain pulled her in two directions.

"Now goddamit! Now! I'll be right behind you!" he yelled as he kicked the corpse back into the encroaching wave of nurses, many of which toppled like dominos.

That was enough for Desi, it was wrong to underestimate her teammate. They had all been through a lot, and AJ was militarily trained –not someone to be taken lightly. She took off towards the stairwell, dodging the nurses as she went. Gunfire echoed loudly behind her, but much to her relief it didn't seem to be getting any quieter, he was keeping up with her.

Finally reaching the door to the stairwell, she threw it open and stepped through its threshold. She prepared to let AJ in and close it quickly after he made it through. A few moments after she made it in, AJ came barreling through the mob of grotesque nurses, using one of them as a shield from the others. Apparently he had charged the beast with a knife and simply continued to bowl through them with the momentum.

AJ pulled his knife from the creature's chest and dove through the door so Desi could close it behind him. He looked rather worse for wear, all covered in cuts and scratches. The wound made by the spider's sting was still bleeding, not profusely but enough that he needed medical attention soon.

"You would think it would be fun to live like a Beatle for a few minutes… but that was more like being Yoko Ono than anything!" he laughed heartily, now lying flat on his back in the middle of the stairwell. Desi couldn't help but let the smallest smile slip while she rolled her eyes. He was always doing the best he could to make the best of bad situation.

"Well then, we should probably get moving" Desi said, trying to keep her stoic and focused demeanor.

"Yeah, I'm out of ammo now. All I have left is this shitty old combat knife I looted off of one of those Order chumps." AJ sighed, though to his credit he didn't seem any less determined to split the skull of every demon and beast between him and Rebecca.

"It's ok, I'll just have to take care of you, and fight for you, and make sure you stay safe and sound." Desi had that way of speaking, that it was hard to tell when she was serious, and when she was trying to get his goat.

"Hey wait a second now…" AJ began to protest but the woman had already set down the stairs on her own. She didn't smile outwardly, but it was still fun to mess with AJ from time to time. He was always so chivalrous and protective –not to say he thought anyone else incapable of doing things for themselves—so she couldn't resist rubbing the role reversal in a little bit.

Thankfully, the stairs went all the way to the ground floor. Creeping out of the stairwell and into what looked like the hospital lobby, the duo stayed low and brandished their blades. The thick, omnipotent murk was suddenly cut by several harsh beams of light.

"Identify!" a voice called from behind the wall of flashlights. Desi clutched her sword tightly and she could see that AJ's knuckles had gone white as well.

"Wait, they're friendlies! Looks to be a pair of those Team Light blokes!" another voice quickly piped up.

"Yeah I think you're right. Stand down!" the person who seemed to be in charge of this unit had all the others lower their weapons.

Finally able to see who had been blinding them, her vision came into focus and locked on the bright white letters that read 'S.T.A.R.S'. A S.T.A.R.S. team here? Why? How?

"The Captain found your friend. She was fighting off some of whatever the hell these things are. She's outside with the Captain right now, I'll take you there" the trooper that seemed to be in charge said.

S.T.A.R.S. teams were a recent development in this world. Of course they were not the original S.T.A.R.S. team, but ever since Rebecca broken free from her own world and come here there seemed to be a lot of inter-dimensional blending. Not just fictional people popping up as real, but the ideas from fictional worlds as well.

The light outside was not as harsh as Desi was expecting it to be after crawling around inside the derelict medical facility. It was foggy and ash continued to fall from the sky and dust everything in a ghastly and mottled gray.

The S.T.A.R.S. vehicle looked to be a refitted S.W.A.T. truck and Rebecca was sitting on the back of it as someone tended her wounds. She was talking to a man who was standing in front of her, his back to Desi and AJ.

"Sir, two more from the hospital" the man leading them out called to Desi now knew was the S.T.A.R.S. captain.

The man turned around, and it struck Desi like a bolt of lightning. That dirty blond hair,that chiseled jaw, the high cheek bones, and those defiant green eyes… it was Liam, their former team rival. Desi looked over at AJ, all her discipline devoted to keep the look of surprise off of her face.

AJ was not so keen on hiding his surprise however; his jaw hung slightly agape at the man standing before them. He was so completely taken off guard that he even stopped walking.

"Desi, AJ! It's good to see you both in one piece! We were sure when we deployed that this was going to be some grizzly business, but we never expected it to be this bad. I was worried you weren't going to make it" Liam said, a wide smile given to them in greeting.

That seemed to jog AJ from his stupor and he went to shake the man's hand before making right for Rebecca. Desi didn't hear the words exchanged, but he could have guessed: 'are you ok?', 'what happened?' the standard stuff.

"Liam, let's forget about you being a S.T.A.R.S. captain for a second, and focus on what you guys are even doing here?" Desi asked, suspicious as usual.

"We received word that you bunch had come searching for answers about Silent Hill and someone that had apparently been lost here. When you were all kidnapped in the Order attack, someone called it in. We are a rescue squad remember?" he replied quickly, as if it had been the simplest thing in the world.

"Where were you guys when you found Rebecca?" AJ piped up as he and Rebecca approached Desi and Liam.

"She was fending off a bunch of those fiery bastards –the ones with the gas masks that like to explode and burst into flames when you shoot them. Anyway, I showed up with Gaines and Vasily and we carved a path to her. Her leg was busted up pretty bad, I needed to carry her back but we made it here alright. We were actually just about to go back in. It's why our team was stacked up in the lobby." Liam didn't quite know it, but Desi could see the gears turning in AJ's head. Everything he just said was completely valid, but to AJ it likely looked like he was playing the valiant hero. It didn't help that Rebecca and Liam were acting so friendly.

"Yes, he's right. One of those things managed to get a hold of my leg and yanked me to the floor. It hyperextended my hamstring, nothing that a little ice and pain medication cannot fix" she said, seeming rather relaxed in her company and finally out of the hospital.

It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, there was not a damn thing Desi could say or do about it. All at once Liam had presented himself as a viable threat to any relationship with Rebecca, and he had managed to succeed where AJ likely felt he failed –keeping Rebecca safe. It likely read like this to AJ: He had to make Rebecca go on without him, alone and already wounded and even without a viable weapon. She got chased down and hurt, and if not for Liam she would have died. Liam saved her like a knight in shining armor and got her all patched up. It didn't help that they had a preexisting relationship with Liam, a friendly rivalry in all fairness. He was a friendly face to Rebecca, and he had saved her and was obviously kind to her. Desi knew AJ well enough to understand how his mind worked. It might have been different had he not known Liam wanted to date Rebecca during their older days on the MLG circuit.

The oddest thing had to be however, that AJ would hold no animosity towards Liam. He would just bottle it up and shelve it under the label of 'my own shortcomings' and call it a day. Desi felt bad for the guy, he took a lot of things to heart –even ones he had no ability to control or change.

"AJ needs to be looked at by the medic" Desi said quickly, trying to shift the conversational topic quickly. "His shoulder was impaled by a massive spider stinger, and during our escape we had to plow through a hallway crammed with beasts."

Rebecca looked to Desi and then looked over AJ as if she had forgotten to check him before.

"I'll take a look at him, if you don't mind" Rebecca said, but Desi could see those gears still cranking behind his eyes.

"Liam, I need gear. Boots, a chest rig, guns, ammo, everything just short of a uniform" AJ said, his tone neutral. Rebecca was already working on his injuries. "I'm going to go looking for the rest of the team, there are none of us left in this hospital."

"Well, wait. Don't you think it is best if we stick together and go looking? Besides you're hurt," Rebecca interjected before Liam had an opportunity to.

"I'll be just fine. We'll cover more ground if the groups split up anyway" he answered back quickly. Desi knew what this was about. He wanted to get away. He needed to prove to himself that he was still useful and that he wouldn't screw it up. She had a feeling that he was going to suggest that Rebecca and she stay with Liam and his group. At this point he probably figured Liam would do a better job keeping them together and unharmed.

"Alright…" Liam answered slowly. "You can take what you need from the truck. How do you propose we split up the teams?"

"I'll take some of your guys with me, Desi and Rebecca can go with you." Desi had totally called it. AJ got up when his wounds had been properly treated and he went deeper into the truck to start gathering and putting on gear.

"And why is it that we can't go with you again?" Desi asked cynically, arms crossed.

AJ waited a long minute before answering.

"Can't leave all the rookies alone together can we?" he said, referring to Liams S.T.A.R.S.

The trooper whom had lead them out to Liam, leaned towards his leader.

"Did he just call us rookies, sir?" the man sounded borderline insulted.

"Compared to them Polaski, you are rookies." Liam said without so much as batting an eye.

A few minutes later, AJ stepped out of the truck looking ready to go to war. He now sported a pair of dark blue fatigues, a black shirt, a combat chest rig, and various tactical pads. Having been a former soldier himself, he geared up rather quickly.

"So who do you have for me Liam?" he asked, adjusting the sling of his MP5.

Liam turned to the S.T.A.R.S. officer that had lead them outside and gave a small list of names of people to grab from inside. A few moments later, four men exited the building and headed for Liam.

"You asked for us captain?" one of them asked.

"Yes. You will be forming a second team with our friend AJ here, he's ex-military and has since then seen substantial para-military action. He's to be respected and his judgment trusted, understood?" Liam addressed his troops.

"Yes sir," a united answer from loyal troopers.

"For purposes of this mission you will refer to him as 'commander'," Liam continued.

"Yes sir," another chorus of replies. Desi figured these men must have trusted Liam greatly to not so much as bat an eye at these seemingly eccentric orders.

"AJ, these are Gaines, Vasily, Michor, and Harrow. They're good troopers, and they'll follow your orders. Don't worry, just do how you always do and I'm sure everything will start to work like a well-oiled machine," Liam reassured AJ that the S.T.A.R.S. officers wouldn't second guess him.

"Alright guys, stock up on ammo and make sure you're gear is tight and ready to move. Where we're going I'm expecting resistance. There are a lot of Order soldiers wandering around and you've already seen the beasts that stalk these streets. Five minutes and we move out," he said, talking like a man who was confident in the steps he was taking.

Desi had to admire his charisma; he may not have been the Team Light captain like Ben was, but he was certainly driven. Yes, driven, but foolish as well. He was about to go off on his own with a bunch of people he didn't even know to give Rebecca and Liam some space. What a dolt!

Desi had to resist the urge to facepalm at him. He was hardly a defeatist -she knew the difference by now. He was however, still wrong about everything. Liam was a good guy, but Rebecca didn't have the same look in her eyes when she looked at him, that she did when she looked at AJ.

"Alright guys, let's move out!" AJ exclaimed, turning to lead the small squad off into the fog. Desi hoped that everything went alright, for the sake of AJ and the rest of the team he was venturing off to find. But she couldn't worry about that now, she had her own worries. They too were about to delve back into the maw of Silent Hill's depths in search of their friends.