Disclaimer: Please refer to the disclaimer in Chapter 1
A/N: So far, I've been my own beta, so any mistakes are mine and mine alone.
Chapter 2: Silent Heaven
Sam was sitting on the bed in his motel room, trying to watch television. It was too difficult to concentrate though. He had come all this way and all he had to show for it were more questions. Tomorrow, he could drive over to Silent Hill and find this Dr. Kaufman, but that was so far away from then. It felt impossible to wait that long, he had to take some sort of action. Maybe he could take a quick look at the town, just to get a feel for the layout.
Restless and without much else to do, he shut off the T.V. and got up. Sam slipped his jacket on and grabbed his keys on the way for the door. Even if he ended up driving around in circles, it was still better than sitting around doing nothing. It was still pouring down rain, but he didn't care about that. He got in his car, started it up, and pulled out of the parking space. Visibility was going to be poor, that much he could tell. Rain water fell down his windshield in streams and rivers, even the wiper blades at full speed were barely enough to allow him to see.
Earlier, he had studied the map and had a pretty good idea on how to get to Silent Hill. He just hoped that this wasn't going to turn out to be a bad idea. The road he was on started out in town, with buildings lining both sides. Eventually, though, those buildings grew fewer and farther apart until he was beyond them completely. The road began to twist and wind through hills and forests.
The drive was growing more and more treacherous as he continued. In the daylight, he had no doubt that this was a beautiful stretch of road, but right now he only saw the danger apparent in it. It would be all too easy to go off the side and not be found for days in the least. He needed to be careful and go slowly, if he was to make it safely. The rain had yet to lighten up in any noticeable way; in fact, he was certain that it had only gotten more intense.
Sam turned on the radio, hating the silence that had fallen thickly inside the vehicle. The station his radio was dialed to, was playing some classic rock song. He had no desire to play around with the dial to find something else, so he left it alone for the time being. The music made things a little better and he was pleased with that. He couldn't stand the silence, save for that inane patter of thundering rain on the roof of his car.
Minutes stretched on as he drove, counting down until he reached his destination. The closer he got, the more nervous he was. There was something about that name, Silent Hill, which set his nerves ablaze. He couldn't put his finger on it, just some undefined feeling he got. When the town's name was first mentioned, he didn't pay it much attention being too enwrapped in what Dr. Burke was telling him, but now it alighted something within him. There was an ominous quality to the name, Silent Hill, something that bothered him a little. As it was, there was little he could do about it, save for turning back. That was something he was not prepared to do, however.
Eventually, he saw a sign ahead that stated that Silent Hill was just three miles further, with the town of Brahams another seven miles. This was it, he was getting close now. Sam turned down the volume on the radio a little, opting to put his concentration on the road ahead of him a little more. He was getting anxious about what he would find there, what the town would look like when he got to it. A sign indicating that Silent Hill was coming up on the left, flashed by him.
It was on this road that something happened. He had been crossing a very dangerous stretch along what appeared to be a deep crevasse, when a figure darted out in front of his car. Sam didn't get a chance to get a good look at the figure before he drove through them, but he thought it was a young girl. He slammed on his brakes and lost control, the screeching of the brakes was deafening. His car slipped and slid on the wet cement, slamming him into the guardrail. He smashed his head on the steering wheel, sending an explosion of colors across his field of vision. Sam passed out to the sound of static on the radio and the thundering of rain on his car.
Consciousness came slowly, building itself layer by layer. First, he could only hear the world around him, which wasn't much except for a slight breeze. The next aspect of his return to life was the return of sensation. Pain flooded through his body, eliciting a moan from him. His body ached and his head was throbbing, the pulse of it matching his heartbeat. Awareness came back completely with the return of his sight. He opened his eyes to what seemed to be a blank white wall.
Sam looked around, noticing that he was still in his car and that night had turned to day. He was completely surrounded by a bank of fog. It swirled and floated around him, enshrouding his car in it's entirety. Giving himself a minute to sit there, he reached for his seat belt and unlatched it. Grabbing the door handle, he pulled it out and tried to push the door open. It wouldn't budge, so he tried again, this time putting his weight behind the push. The door gave with a loud creaking groan of protest, but it did open.
The air outside was brisk and wet, feeling blessedly cool against his face. Sam stumbled his way out of the car, taking a few seconds to regain his bearings. His headache was beginning to fade, something he was grateful for, but his body still ached severely. He took a better stock of his surroundings and what he saw shocked him to his very core.
Behind his car, the road he came in on was missing. It ended sharply in a drop off. Was the rain severe enough to annihilate the road so completely? He reached in his pocket, pulling out his cell phone; it was dead.
"Dammit," he muttered, putting the phone back in his pocket. There was nothing else to do now, but head into town and look for help. With that, he turned around and began walking down the road. His steps were uncertain at first, as if he had forgotten how to walk in the accident. As he walked, his legs became stronger and surer in their strides. Sam kept his eyes peeled on his surroundings, taking in his environment. The fog was choking and pervasive, it was like being indoors. He could barely see the road ahead of him and kept clear of the edge, which overlooked a bottomless grey abyss.
The road was set at an incline, heading slowly downhill. He figured this was a good thing, thinking that it meant he was close to town. It was hard to remember how far he had traveled on this road last night, so he was uncertain of exactly how far he was from the town proper. So far, he had seen nothing to indicate that civilization was anywhere nearby. Sam didn't want to entertain such thoughts, yet they came to him, regardless. He just tried his best to keep his mind blank, as he walked.
Time wasted away into some chasm, lost forever to him. He had no idea how long he was on that road, following it's winding path. It continued it's downward angle, taking him –it seemed –deeper into the fog. There was simply no escaping it; there was no safe haven from this thick soup. All he could hear were the hollow echoes of his own footsteps, a sound he allowed himself to focus on. It was better than letting his mind wander over anything else.
As it was, the road began to even out and the chasm to his left filled in to the point that he could see the ground below. The ghostly shape of buildings could be seen from where he was, something that rejuvenated him considerably. Maybe now he could get some help and finally get his answers, the ones that had been plaguing him for awhile. He quickened his pace in light of seeing those structures. Sam began to jog, closing the gap between him and town. Soon, he passed an old-fashioned wood sign that stated: Welcome to Silent Hill. He couldn't prevent the smile that graced his features at this.
The road curved to the left, taking him straight into town. Immediately upon setting foot into Silent Hill itself, he saw that there was something wrong. It looked as if it had been abandoned. Even in the thick fog, he could see garbage strewn about the place haphazardly. No one was visible nor were any of the cars he could see, moving. It just seemed wrong to him, somehow. He looked about cautiously, trying to see if he could see anyone. The town looked empty. Sam peered into the window of a shop, noticing that it looked like it hadn't been occupied for quite some time. Fear crept up his spine, heightening his senses incredibly. What could've happened here? He thought.
Sam continued on in his walk, careful to look for signs of other human beings. So far, it seemed as if he was alone. No building that he passed, looked in any way used. It was as if everybody just left all of a sudden and let the town fall into disrepair. That feeling of wrongness only grew, the further he walked. This town was a bad place, he had decided, there was nothing good here that he had found. Everything was a symbol of that wrongness, from the empty shops to the old rusting cars parked in the streets.
After traveling a few blocks, he saw something that made him stop in his tracks. Ahead of him in the distance, he could see the vague outline of a person standing there in the middle of the street. "Hey!" he called out, hoping that this person could tell him what was going on. In response, the person fled in the other direction. "Goddammit," He muttered, running after the other person.
At first, he wasn't certain if he was still running in the right direction, as he saw no sign of the person. Then, when he was just about to give up, he saw them run around the corner to the left. With a second wind, he quickened his pace and ran around the same corner, which led him to a narrow alleyway. It was clogged with the old rusting hulks of dumpsters and garbage bins. Trash was littered everywhere, blowing about in a breeze he wasn't certain that he felt. The other person was visible in the distance, just barely inches away from being swallowed completely by the fog.
"Hey, I just want to talk!" he yelled out, hoping he could get them to stop. It didn't work; the other person didn't so much as falter in their run. Sam tried to get a burst of speed to close the gap, but wasn't sure if it worked. The figure darted around another corner, this time to the right, behind an old car. He made it to the car in short order and ducked around the corner. It led to another alleyway, this one much narrower than the last. There was hardly any elbow room here, just enough for a person to use.
He came to a set of stairs leading down, when he heard a loud noise. It sounded like an old air raid horn blasting out through the town. The sound of it stopped him in his tracks for a second, but only for a second. Sam started leaping down the stairs, two steps at a time, hoping to make up for his mistake in stopping. Every time the horn sounded, it seemed as if everything got darker. By the time he reached the bottom step, it was more night than day.
The alleyway ended here, instead turning right into an enclosed walkway. It was pitch black in here, but he didn't let that stop him. Keeping a hand on the wall, he stepped into the darkened walkway. At the moment he entered the tunnel, the horn sounded out it's last blast before going silent. His heart was racing and fear was beginning to consume him. What he wouldn't give for an escaped soul and a vessel right about now. At least with that, he understood it. This situation was a total mystery. Was the Devil behind it all? Did he concoct all this? While it seemed like a sound theory, something told Sam that Satan was not behind this. It was something else entirely.
It felt like he had been walking in this sightless tunnel forever, that it had no end at all. It wasn't a very comforting thought, but he just couldn't seem to shake it. He soldiered on, despite his strong desire to turn back. He knew he needed to find this person, to find out what was going on. Hell, he just needed to find this person for the sake of human contact. Sam had never felt more alone and isolated, this was unbearable.
As he was walking, he began to notice a growing light ahead of him. This omnipresent darkness was beginning to break and lighten up a little. The tunnel opened up into some sort of courtyard, but there was something deeply wrong with it. The fog was gone, replaced by a light drizzle falling from a night sky. The ground was inexplicably made up of rusted metal grates, suspended over a bottomless pit. The exterior faces of the buildings were all comprised of iron plating, each one as rusted as the grates.
"What the fuck?" he whispered, taking in his surroundings. The courtyard was bisected by a chain link fence running down the middle. The other side of the fence was filled in with rusting scraps of metal and other such garbage, The edges of the side he was standing in were also filled with such things. There were oil drums and what appeared to be old surgical beds, lining each side. He cautiously walked to the far end of this space to see one of those surgical beds resting at an angle, separated from the rest of the scrap. A terrible sensation edged it's way into him when he got a better look at it. It was difficult to tell in the darkness, but it looked like a sheet had been draped over it, concealing something underneath.
Getting closer, Sam could tell that there was what looked like a body under there. The sheet itself was stained by something awful and he could only guess at what it was. It was too late to stop now, he reasoned, and he had to see it for himself. Just as he reached the bed, he heard a sound coming from behind him. He jumped and spun around, seeing something that made his heart leap into his throat.
The empty courtyard that he had just walked through, was now filled with several figures, all facing him. The menace in their stances was evident to him. "Hey," he said, "who are you?" He, of course, got no response.
En masse, they began to approach him, shuffling forward like the undead. These figures were short, resembling children, but he had no illusions that they were kids. Without turning away from them, he reached out with his hands, hoping to find something he could use as a weapon. Initially, his search was in vain, but just as he was about to give up, his left hand closed around what felt like a metal pipe. Grabbing it, he pulled it from the pile of junk it was cased in and brandished it like a weapon. This didn't stop them from continuing forward.
When the nearest figure got into striking range, he almost froze in fear at what he could see. There was no way that these things were human; they were misshapen and their skin was charred. He braced himself and struck out, hitting the closest thing across the temple. It was knocked back a couple feet, slamming into two more that were coming up behind it. That didn't stop them for long and soon they were approaching him again. Sam tried to hit one again, but didn't strike a serious blow. They just kept coming, backing him up into the bed; it fell backward toppling over on to it's side. These things were beginning to surround him. He kept hitting them and one even went down for good, but he couldn't stop them. Soon, they were grabbing at him and pulling him down.
The creatures were pulling at his skin, tearing into him. The pain was overwhelming and he let out a scream. It was loud and guttural, the cry of the dying. What little light there was started to fade and he lost consciousness.