From behind him, Julia held onto the pistol in her hands. The cool metal of the weapon had already started to warm to her touch. She was still a bit uncomfortable about handling the deadly weapon, but was relieved at the prospect of being able to take out the monsters that roamed the street with better ease. With a belt that had been lying in the control room, Ryan had made an impromptu sling that allowed her to carry the pipe on her back. The weight of the cudgel tugged at her back as she watched him go to the door and open it. A hollow metal sound echoed out as the door creaked open.
Pointing the shotgun and flashlight attached to it into the darkness, Ryan swept the firearm from side to side. When he was sure that the coast was clear he looked back at Julia.
"You ready?" he asked her
In the low light, she gave him a firm and confident nod of her head. She wasn't scared anymore. Or at least she couldn't afford to be.
"Awesome" he said as he eyed the pistol in her hand. "Just stick close. And whatever you do, don't point that thing at me"
"I got it" she said.
With that, the two of them headed down the steps, the metal making creaking rusty sounds that only old, worn metal could under pressure. Soon they were both back on the bridge that would lead them into Central Silent Hill. They cautiously made their way across the rest of the bridge without any confrontation from the creatures in the dark. Ryan was taking no chances. His body was ridged and on edge. He pointed the weapon into the foggy dark with the uncanny resemblance of someone who had had military experience. Julia couldn't help but think that something in the last few minutes had made him change. Something that had helped him fine tune his senses to the ever present danger around them.
It wasn't long before they reached Central.
"Shit" she heard him breathe to himself.
"What is it?" she asked stepping to his right side, the pistol shaking a little in her hand.
"Check it out" he said, aiming the shotgun's light at a street sign.
It read "Chrichton St"
Julia gave him a funny look.
"Yeah. And?"
"This bridge ends in a T junction. I don't know whether we should go left or right"
"Then we'll just pick something. This town isn't that big. If we pick the wrong direction then we can just turn around and go back"
He lowered the shotgun and turned to her.
"Getting lost isn't what I'm worried about" he said, starring past her into the dark.
"I know" she said, understanding that running into any other surprises was not what he had in mind.
Without any further deliberation they turned left and started walking north on Chrichton. Several yards later and they were still walking the long stretch of road. Nothing had come out of the fog to terrorize them and Ryan was starting to feel pretty good. Too good in fact.
"I don't like this" he said as his grip on the shotgun tightened. "You'd think we would have run into something by now"
As if on cue, the MP3 player and cell phone started to go off. Instantly they were both back to back, weapons trained on the space in front of them and sweeping the area for anything unusual.
"Where is it?" Julia asked. Panic was starting to set in. Seeing something wasn't as bad as not being able to see it.
"Shhh" Ryan said. "Listen"
Julia heard nothing at first. Then something faint started to register. It was soft, definitely in a pattern of some sort. The sound was almost like a low beating. Like something was hitting air.
WOOSH., "AAAAAAAAEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIII!"
"GET DOWN" Ryan yelled as something flew over their heads. Whatever it was it had been close. Way too close.
Pointing the shotgun into the air, Ryan searched for the thing. Julia couldn't believe it. There were monsters in the air now.
"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me" she said, pointing her gun towards the sky. "What the hell was that thing?"
"Don't know. All I could make out was skin and wings. We've got to get off this street, now"
As he finished the sentence, the white noise and cell phone rumbling came back, strong. Ryan had to pull the plug out of his ear it was so intense. Whatever was causing their machines to go off, it had to be pretty close. Fear welled up inside Ryan's chest as he slowly turned around, breathing heavily, and aimed the shotgun down the street, illuminating it. Julia's eyes widened in horror as she saw what was ahead of them.
There had to be hundreds of the things. The weird dog monsters that Ryan had seen before, walking things with flesh strait jackets making gurgling noises, more of the giant meat monsters, bloated round walking things and some other creatures that, to both of their terror, were dragging bloody corpses. Trails of fluid spilled everywhere. A tremendous stench of rot and decay filled the air and mixed with the blood, creating a cocktail the nose wouldn't soon forget. They all looked like they were minding their own business, not even aware of the two human's watching them. Ryan chocked down vomit that had welled up in his throat while Julia tried desperately not to gag loudly.
"Not good" Ryan said, backing up but keeping the shotgun aimed at the crowd of living rigamortis specimens.
"Jesus, how many of those things are there?" Julia asked backing away from the creatures.
She stepped backward and her foot landed on something. "Crick-Crash". She looked down at pile of broken glass at her feet and then back at the creatures. Every single one of them looked up in unison with whatever could be identified as their heads. Their full attention was now on the two outsiders standing before them. For several seconds, the two parties just stared at each other. Then the closest creature, some sort of pus ridden, bladed cadaver came charging at Ryan.
Ba-BOOM
Two slugs tore into the humanoid blade thing as it fell to the pavement, screaming and thrashing. That was enough incentive for the other creatures to start moving towards Ryan and Julia. An army of the un-natural was now heading strait for them. And they were all hungry for their blood.
III
"DON'T LOOK BACK, JUST KEEP RUNNING!" Ryan yelled to Julia as they made their way south on Crichton.
They ran in dead sprints, their shoes making quick "slap-slap" noises on the pavement. Ryan somehow found the strength to aim the light and gun ahead of them to guide their way properly. He had no intention of stopping because stopping could very well mean their own gruesome deaths. And he had no intention of being eaten. Failing to fight the urge, Julia looked back and saw the creatures a ways off but gaining on them. She had no idea how many of them there were. She wondered if running was the best course of action as she turned back to Ryan.
"We can pick them off" she said, running and waving her pistol behind her.
Without even looking at her, Ryan said "We don't know how many there are. We can't afford to waste the ammo. Just. Run!"
They kept running for several blocks. Ryan had no clue how far away the things were, but he could hear them in the distance. They had to be at least forty or fifty feet away. That knowledge alone was enough to keep his legs moving forward. Somewhere in the distance, he started to make out a large building. He had to squint through the fog, but he could almost make it out. Was it? It had to be.
"Oh my god! It's the hospital!" he said. "We can duck in there and hope they leave us alone!"
"What if they don't" Julia asked, struggling to keep up with him.
Her question was met with silence. Julia whipped her head around to see where Ryan was referring too. The great grey building grew in the distance, becoming larger the closer they came to it. Something deep inside the two compelled them to run faster. Against all odds and fighting exhaustion, they made their way to Koontz street, monster's in tow. A few more feet and they were at the front of the building, a sign, "Alchemilla Hospital" briefly glowed as the flashlight traveled across it.
Running up to the wooden doors, Ryan grabbed at the handles. His heart stopped when they wouldn't budge.
"Damn, it's locked!" he almost yelled, looking behind him.
The monsters weren't far away, within two minutes, they would get to them. Ryan dropped to his knees and started searching the ground. Julia watched him in frightened confusion as he dug through the stones and dirt of the surrounding sidewalk. She could hear him muttering "Key, gotta be a key somewhere" over and over. If they couldn't get in the building, they were screwed.
III
"Shit, shit, shit…" he kept saying as he searched the ground in vain.
From somewhere above him, Ryan heard the sound of glass breaking. He looked up to see Julia with her pistol in her hand. She had smashed a window out using the butt of the gun. Reaching through, she undid the lock and yanked open the door. Ryan got up off the ground and they rushed inside. Once in, they shut the door and locked it again.
"The door! Grab something to barricade the door!" he yelled at her as he braced his back against the wooden entrance and prepared for the monsters to ram it.
Julia took a quick look around and she spied an old wooden desk on wheels. Rushing over to it, she set the pistol down on top of it. Julia then used her lower body strength and good arm to push the heavy piece of furniture towards Ryan. When it was close enough, she grabbed the pistol as Ryan got up. He started to lift it, his muscles strained as he tipped it over. With a loud grunt, he let it fall to the floor with a BANG and shoved it towards the door. Aiming the guns at the entrance, they took a few steps back and waited for the creatures to collide with the doors. A few seconds ticked by, then a few minutes. Still they waited.
Nothing came for them. Everything was completely quiet. Even their machines had stopped making noise. The only sound came from their labored breathing. Finally snapping out of their fear induced trance, they lowered their weapons and moved away from the entrance and into the hospital.
"Well… that was… anti-climatic" Ryan said as he looked at the door, panting.
"You sound pretty happy about that" she said in a condescending manner "Almost like you wanted something to happen"
"Oh yeah, I'm so happy I wanna fucking puke" he said as he stared at the door and gripped the shotgun.
Julia turned around to look at their surroundings.
"Oh, wow" she said.
Ryan turned around to see what she was looking at. As dark as it may have been outside, it was surprisingly less so inside the hospital. Still, the added advantage of the flashlight attached to the barrel of the shotgun provided even more light. From what they could make out it was an old building. It wasn't like the more modern hospital that Ryan was used to working in. The entire area was worn and looked like it was falling apart. Dust clung to everything and the wood of the waiting room that they stood in was worn and creaking. There was a musky smell in the air that was most likely coming from an old red carpet that was tacked along the floor. Aside from the noise that they had just created, it was disturbingly quiet in the building. The whole building was completely deserted.
"Home sweet home" Ryan said as he eyed the area they stood in. "Man this place looks like shit"
"What should we do now?" she asked him.
"Well I'll tell you what I'm not doing. I'm not going back out there", he said, pointing to the doors. "Besides, we're safe in here"
"Then what do you suggest?"
"I say we wait it out here until the morning comes then we get the hell out of this town"
"And in the meantime?" she asked, cradling her arm.
"In the meantime, I'm gonna take care of that arm and then I guess we'll look for anything that might tell us where your aunt went." Ryan replied.
"Well then, where to?" Julia asked.
"I honestly have no clue" Ryan replied as he started to walk near a receptionist's area.
"How could you not know? You work in a hospital." Julia said as she wiped sweat and grime from her face. The pipe strapped to her back padded softly against her hoodie.
"That's right. I work in a hospital. Not this one" he said as he hopped over the receptionist's counter and started to pull through the drawers. "Didn't you ever come here as a kid?"
"No, I mostly just spent time with my aunt Lisa. There were never any "take your niece to work" days when I was a kid".
She watched as he ducked down and continued to look through the drawers.
"Ryan? What are you looking for?" she asked as she plopped down on a seat in the waiting room.
"I'll know when I find it" he said, pulling open the drawers and cabinets. "A few of these are locked and the rest are completely empty…oh wait." He said as he found something of interest.
"What'd you find" Julia asked as she quickly got up from the chair that she had been sitting in.
"Check it out" Ryan said, pointing his light at a piece of paper on the table.
Julia looked at the paper on the table and understood that Ryan had found an entire map of the hospital. This would make navigating the building a lot easier. He went back to the locked draws and tried to pry them open. For such old pieces of furniture, the drawers were firmly held in place. Ryan got up and held out his hand toward Julia.
"Let me borrow that pipe for a second. Lets see what else is here"
Julia let the pipe and its harness slide off her shoulder and into her hand. She then handed it to Ryan who started to pry on the drawers with it. A few of them opened only to reveal worthless items like prescription pads, some pill bottles and a few medical supplies like syringes and scalpels. It was no wonder why these things would be under lock and key. Then one of the drawers opened to reveal something that Ryan wasn't expecting.
"What the?" he said as he grabbed the small package and put it on the desk.
They both looked at the package. It was about the size of a half a loaf of bread, wrapped in a strong plastic and stark white. There was a small label on the package with the words "W. Claudia" on it. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Ryan made a small tear in the package. The contents spilled out a little bit onto the desk. It was a white powder.
"Drugs?" Julia asked.
"Looks like it" Ryan said as he put his pinky finger into the small pile on the desk and brought a small film of the stuff to his mouth.
"What are you doing?" she protested. "You don't even know what that stuff is"
"Relax. Whatever it is, this small amount isn't going to do anything to me"
With that, he tasted the chemical. Licking his lips a few times, Ryan shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention back to Julia.
"Is it cocaine?" she asked him.
"I don't know what it is. But what I want to know is why they would leave something like this in a drawer where anyone could get to it"
"What do you mean?" she asked him, not entirely grasping the concept.
"It's like this" he began to explain to her, "…some hospitals keep certain illegal drugs on hand in case they need them for very rare, very extreme cases of patients. Drugs like that are usually kept under heavy lock and key. Not left like this" he looked at the name on the package. "Hmm, 'W. Claudia'. Wonder what that means. Someone's name? Or is it a street name for the drug?"
"What does this mean" Julia asked as fear was replaced with unbridled caution.
Ryan shook his head.
"I don't know. But I'll worry about it later. Right now, lets take care of that arm.
III
They walked down the hall, past the receptionist desk and an office. Near the end of the hall was a door that, according to the map, would lead to a stair well. However, the door was locked. Frustrated, Ryan turned their attention to the examination room and the adjoining medicine room. Julia cautiously opened the door for Ryan as he pointed the shotgun into the room. After making sure it was clear, he ushered her to follow him into the room. Closing the door behind her, she looked around the place and saw that it was nothing more than a boring examining room. There were a few cabinets, some posters about proper eating and exercise as well as an anatomical skeleton that was propped in the corner. That thing had given her a brief scare when she had initially seen it. An examining table sat near the wall.
"I'll be right back" Ryan said. "Just need to grab some supplies"
With that, he disappeared into the adjoining room. In three minutes he came back with some wooden splints, gauze, heavy duty bandages, tongue depressors, and a small bottle of pain relievers. He set the items down on the examining table and beckoned Julia to sit down. She complied and started to get an uneasy feeling. It was the feeling that one gets when they know that they are going to go through something very, very painful. Ryan gently took her injured arm in his hands. Julia winced as a stabbing pain shot through her arm and chest. Ryan carefully rolled up the sleeve of her hoody to get a look at her arm. It was a little more swollen and puffy than it had been a few minutes ago. Ryan looked at Julia and she stared right back at him.
"Julia, this is a pretty bad break. The bone will heal wrong and your arm won't function like it should. If I don't set the bone, then you'll have a lot of troubles later in life. That is if we survive this anyway."
Julia stared at him like he was crazy. He seriously wasn't suggesting what she thought she was suggesting.
"I hate you" she said with a quiver in her voice.
"I know. But this will be just like tearing off a band aid"
Julia took in a breath as he took her arm. With a free hand he gave her the tongue depressors. She looked at them, not knowing what he wanted her to do.
"I'm not going to lie to you. This is going to hurt, a lot. Bite down on these."
She put the small pieces of wood in her mouth. She started to breathe heavily.
"I'll go on three alright?" he asked as he took her arm and prepared to set it. "One…"
Before she could even react, he had pulled on her arm and set the bone back into place. Julia clenched down on the tongue depressors, a few of them snapping under the pressure. They soon fell out of her mouth as she cried out, tears welled in her eyes. Her entire arm felt like someone had put broken glass in and then stepped on her arm. She stared at Ryan as he started to put the splints in place and wrap her arm.
"You said on three!" she yelled at him.
Without even looking at her, Ryan continued his work.
"If I had gone on three, you would have tensed up. Then it would have hurt more" he said in a non-caring tone. "Sometimes you have to hurt to heal"
He undid the top of the pill bottle and sniffed it, checking to make sure the medication had not expired. He then dumped out three pills into his hand and handed them to her. She took them and choked them down.
"You're a bastard. You know that?" she said, fighting the pain in her arm.
"Yeah, well you'll thank me when we get you to a proper hospital"
"Where do we go from here?"
Ryan set the map on the table next to them and looked at it. After going over a few of the areas he found something that made him smile. Julia noticed this and looked down where he was looking. He had been looking at the map of the second floor. His index finger rested on a space that read "Nurse Center"
"I think this is going to be a good place to start looking for your aunt, Juila"
From within her, a sense of hope began to grow.
Author's note:
Happy Halloween! I'm sending this in on 10/31/2007, just a few hours shy of the month of November. Hope this reignites the mood for the spooky holiday that may only be dying down right now.
Well, five chapters in and I think I have something good on my hands. I want to thank everyone who has been reading the story thus far and those who have been kind enough to leave their comments. If you want, check out some of my other stuff. I hope you'll continue to stick with me while I continue to churn out more chapters. Expect to see some familiar creatures, a trip or two to the otherworld, some new clues and some even bigger revelations. Oh, and someone gets their hand on a very nifty weapon.
When certain medications expire, they give off a strong vinegar like odor.