A/N: So here's chapter seven, for all of you who've been reading this. I'm planning to make the next chapter have a little bit more action in it, so stay tuned! And reviews—they would be kinda nice. XD

Chapter Seven

Rose groaned quietly from where she had fallen; Cybil lay a good four feet away—at some point her grip on Rose's arm must have been lost. The cop pushed herself into a position so as to look under her arm at the vanished bridge, whose past existence was marked only by an impossibly thick pair of jagged steel beams protruding a few feet from within the vertical earth. Her blue eyes fell on Rose, wide, frightened, and entirely disbelieving.

"Do you believe that just happened?"

Rose glanced at the officer, scrambling into a sitting position, and then cast her eyes in the direction of the same bridge—or rather, the non-bridge—that Cybil was so fascinated with. The vanishing of the structure wasn't something that would have been believable in any other place in the world—Silent Hill, however, made such delusions into reality. That was for certain.

"In a screwed up, twisted sort of way, yes," Rose breathed, looking back at Cybil. "It's not really anything new and exciting."

"Well, yes—but honestly—this can't be promising."

"We made it through that—it should count for something."

You're an incredibly illogical and a grossly optimistic woman, Rose."

The glare that was shot in the cop's general direction, only just visible in the dim light of the premature evening, was particularly harsh, though it was brief, having vanished just as soon as it had come. Rose got to her feet; her black boots were scuffed and streaked; her jeans, once a light hue of cerulean, were now splattered with a thick and sticky mixture of ash and mud; her hair displayed a similar pattern of filth, though not in such a great quantity. She stumbled somewhat as she attempted to move, and in the next instant she witnessed the cop literally leaping into the stance worn whenever danger was about. Her pistol was drawn and aimed at something Rose had yet to see; a short scream erupted from the mother's ash-choked throat as the officer touched the trigger and released three shots so unnervingly close to her, that she was entirely able to feel the light rustles of moving air against the exposed flesh of her upper chest. Something crunched to the earth, a figure slumping and shuddering for a few moments, at last ceasing those convulsions with a repulsive squelching sound. Steaming entrails spilled out upon the ground, swollen and cancerous, while brandishing surfaces caked in a gooey, black, tar-like substance. They swelled and popped one at a time, releasing a purple essence which hissed and ate into the ground, and disintegrated the flesh of the fallen entity, whilst unleashing the most foul scent of flesh having been many a day farther into decay than this flesh currently was.

Shying away instinctively, Rose was abruptly snatched and yanked forward; despite the fact that Cybil had nearly pulled her arm out of its socket, Rose was eternally grateful that she had her friend there with her—she had nearly killed herself in that moment of fright. Scrapes from her shoes were present in the thick ash mere inches from the edge of the towering cliff face. Had any of the rocks along where she had been standing given way…a chill swept through her at the thought, and she shuddered involuntarily.

"And you're far too suicidal."

Cybil's voice broke the tense silence, as the two caught their breath from the moment of exhilaration just a short time before. Wrenching her arm away from the cop's hand, Rose stepped backward, ignoring the shooting pain in her knee. She was surprisingly strong, Cybil reasoned as she released her friend's arm, and she wondered just how it was that she could appear so ultimately weak and fragile, yet still have the strength to break the grip of an officer trained to hold on no matter what the cost. Or perhaps it had only been because of Cybil's reluctance to upset her further by not letting her go. Yes, that must have been it. After all, Rose hadn't managed to fight her way out of her hold back on the bridge.

"Can we just get a move on?" Rose's voice spat as she turned her back on the other woman. "I want to spend as little time here as possible, and get home to my kid, and husband in one piece."

Now it was Cybil's turn to glare. Though she said nothing, her words were distinguished by the expression on her face; she didn't approve of Rose's recklessness, but she would nevertheless follow her until she at last satisfied whatever curiosity she was attempting to satisfy. She took a few steps until she stood beside the downed demon, settling the outrageously bright beam of her flashlight upon it, and allowing her face to contort into an expression similar to that of one about to empty the contents of their stomach. With a swift motion, she landed a heavy kick to its side, checking to be certain it was really dead, and then clamped her hand over her nose and mouth as a fresh wave of the putrid stench emanating from the body overwhelmed her.

Rose stood stock still, staring vacantly at the sizzling, acidic corpse which lay unstirring on the ground where it had fallen, and wondering why on earth Cybil had approached the creature, let alone kicked it, and covered her leather boots with imitation tar. Every so often the carcass would shift, an aftershock of the continuous bloating and bursting of the effete excuses for organs, and the mother would flinch slightly. Finally she broke out of her apparent trance and looked to Cybil, her blue eyes questioning her as to when they planned to leave; Cybil, being the more authoritarian of the two, understood Rose's gaze to mean that she intended to, or wished to leave the area as fast as possible. The officer, however, was not so enthusiastic to leave the area, as she stepped away from the rotting being on the ash-tainted earth, and out of the field of stench. She raised her own eyes, the irises a slightly deeper version of the blue that colored Rose's—almost violet, if viewed in the correct light—and frowned at the darkness that had blanketed the town. If they left now, no doubt they would soon be swarmed by the creatures of said darkness, and Cybil's pistol only held so many bullets.

"We can't go just yet. It's too risky. And unless you want to get yourself killed, and leave Sharon for an orphan, I'd suggest you listen to me."

Rose frowned, her eyes narrowing just so, and shook her head.

"I'm not going to just sit here idle, Cybil. I have to figure this out, and I want to do so as fast as possible. Sharon's all alone right now, and I need to get back to her as soon as I can. She's all alone." The mother's blonde hair swung into her eyes as she glanced down once more at the body of the creature in the earthen road, and then boldly stepped around it, breaking into a jog, though only for a few steps, as her knee was paining her greatly. She didn't get very far however, for whilst she had stopped to feel for any signs of swelling in her knee, cold metal suddenly clamped itself around her uninjured wrist.

Eyes widening in surprise, Rose's gaze locked with that of Cybil's, only just visible with the faintness of light; her mouth opened as if she were going to voice her frustrations—or anger, whatever it might have been—but an instant later and it had closed again. Cybil cast her a firm glance, one eyebrow raised peculiarly, and tugged her friend over to handcuff her to the chain link fence lining the roadway.

"Not so fast. We're going to sit down, and wait this thing out. When we can see more than three feet in front of us, we'll go find your answers."