chapter 7: alternate alchemilla hospital
The elevator continued moving for a few more seconds. But for Harry that was to long for a floor that didn't exist. Finally it slowed to a stop, and slowly the doors opened. Immediately Harry knew it had happened again. Nothing was wire or dark yet, but the walls were covered in blood and rust, and the couch was skeletal looking and decayed. He tried the double doors, and they opened.
The long hallway before him was decayed, and the dense foggy light was sparse since the windows now had rusty bars on them. He took several steps forward-
-and heard a click behind him. He spun around and pulled on the handle. It was locked firmly from the other side. All the doors along the hall were jammed. At the end there was another set of double doors. He went through them and suddenly darkness engulfed his vision.
He turned on the flashlight. The doors slammed closed and they too locked. "Oh shit…" Harry whispered. At the end of this hallway was a set of stairs that went down. At the bottom, he heard a sort of resounding bang from the fourth floor, and he went up to investigate.
Halfway however a solid concrete blocked further passage. So he was right, there never was a fourth floor. He went back down onto the third floor and pulled out the map. Everything was completely alternate now, but if it was the same as the school, the layout should still match the map. There were rooms 301-307 with two storage rooms, a linen room, and male and female restrooms.
He began up the hallway with rooms 301-304, rattling doorknobs as he went. Room 301 was jammed but Room 302 opened. Inside were a nurse call station, old hospital bed, IV Dropper, and a TV/VCR on a little rusty stand. On the bed was a video cassette tape. It was unlabeled, with a few dried blood splatters on the front. He knelt down and inserted it into the VCR and turned the TV on. Surprisingly enough the TV came to life. The screen was nothing but static, but the video still played. He only caught bits and pieces of the audio. It was a female voice he could tell but the static in the background was too loud to make out a specific voice.
"Still has--------------, eyes do------------tting a puls--------------er skin is------------when I cha-----------------blood and---------ooz--------Why? Wh----------------------I won--------please
The video ejected itself. Apparently the thing didn't work as good as he thought. He left the video cassette on top of the TV and left Room 302. He walked on up the hallway. Room 303 was jammed but Room 304 opened as well. Inside his radio went crazy.
The room was a bit larger and had three old hospital beds. In the back of the room, covered by shadows, was the outlined of someone hunched over. "Hello…?" Harry said quietly. The figure suddenly moved, and Harry instinctively rose the steel pipe. As the person shuffled into view, he saw it was wearing a nurse's outfit- a white apron like dress with a green long sleeved turtleneck underneath and white nurse shoes. She let out an animalistic howl and came at him, a rusty scalpel in her right hand. He swung forward, connecting with the nurse's face.
She stumbled sideways and Harry got a good look at her back. The same parasite that he had saw dead at Kaufmanns feet earlier was attached to the nurse's back, wriggling about. Blood was all around the area that it was attached to probably the nerves in her spine. While she was turned, he hit her back, splitting the parasite.
She howled again, and he hit her once more, blood flying up from the parasite. She fell to the ground and Harry stomped the parasite, just to be safe. In here was nothing to special, although a steel plate screwed to the wall puzzled Harry.
There was no way of getting it off without a screwdriver. He left the room. Well, if he went through the linen room he could get to the other wing with the rest of the rooms and a storage room. On his way he checked both restrooms, which were jammed. He entered the linen room, which was filled with yellowed rusty washers and dryers. He walked past them slowly, eyeing them. As he reached the door something crashed behind him. He spun around, raising the pipe.
Everything was still except for an overturned washer. "What the hell did that…" He thought out loud. The washer close to him rumbled, and the door flung open, then it slid across the room and crashed on its side. In panic, Harry left-
-and ran into a couple of the demented nurse's. One of the grabbed his arm and the second one raised her scalpel and swung it mere inches from his face. He shouldered the nurse holding him away, who was wearing a red long sleeved turtle neck under her apron.
He then pulled his handgun out and shot several bullets into the one with the scalpel. The other one came at him again and he shot it in the face, making it a blur of gore and blood. She spun around from the impact, and Harry shot the parasite. Soon, the wing filled with the smell of pus and rot.
Harry pinched his nose and quickly entered the nearest room, which was a storage room. Inside were some rusty carts and trashed wheelchairs and hospital beds. This reminded him of the alleyway and Midwich when everything had transformed into this nightmare. He had seen hospital equipment. "I wonder if it's connected to this hospital…" He thought. He wandered inside a bit.
Nothing was really of use. At the opposite end of the room was a rusty computer desk. He kicked it, and heard something jingle inside.
He reached down and pulled on the drawer handle. Inside was a ring of broken keys, except one. He pulled it from the ring and examined it. It was a key to the basement storeroom. He tucked it away in his pocket and after a brief look around, left the storage room.
He quickly checked the rest of the rooms, which were all jammed.
At the end was the public elevator. With the key he might as well try the basement. The elevator was so old and rusty, with a decayed look and blood, just like the whole hospital. It looked like it shouldn't work, but after hitting the call button the doors opened with a terrible screech.
"Why in the hell is Silent Hill turning into these alternate places?" Harry said aloud, startling himself. It had been haunting him for a while but he didn't want to think about it cause Cheryl was somewhere probably seeing the same. If he didn't get to her soon she might never be the same, traumatized for life. He hit the B for basement and the elevator started its descent. It didn't get far however. As it started to move, something halted it and he heard the gears working against each other. Something was holding the elevator. He hit the open button, and the doors slowly open-
-and Pyramid Head was standing there, holding his giant sword in one hand and a disfigured, broken body in the other. Harry immediately pulled out his handgun and open fired on the monster. It pointed its "head" in his direction and tossed the body at him.
Harry slung himself to the side of the elevator, and again starting hitting the B button. The doors started to close, but Pyramid Head stuck the sword in between the doors. "Oh shit no…" Harry thought.
He began firing again, the bullets not even affecting the monster. Pyramid Head lifted the sword with great ease and impaled it into the back of the elevator shaft. He saw the monster had gotten the sword stuck and Harry saw this as a chance to duck underneath and try and get away from the monster. He shot once more until the handgun was empty and he rolled under the sword, getting rust all over his cloths. Pyramid Head however reached out with his other hand and shoved Harry across the room easily. He crashed into an old waiting chair, and it crumbled upon the weight.
Pyramid Head dislodged the sword, making the elevator unusable. It swung the sword 180 degrees and Harry had to lean backward to miss the huge blade. Pyramid Head then brought the sword back and prepared to impale Harry. He flexed his arm and Harry broke into a sprint, the wing going by in a blur. At then end he went through the double doors and down the steps to the second floor, all the while hearing the monster dragging his sword chasing Harry.
On the second floor Harry stopped to take a quick breath of air and to dust himself off, and then continued on down past the first floor on into the basement. All of the doors were jammed except for the storeroom, which was locked. Thankfully he had the key, and used its so.
The storeroom looked moderately normal, except everything was dark, wire mesh, and covered in blood and rust. The shelves proved to have nothing but empty bottles, unknown brown liquids in syringes, and some old alcohol bottles. A cabinet was at the back of the room. Harry opened it and saw it was empty. As he closed the door it rocked gently, and he looked down to see if the floor was uneven.
What he saw were several large scratches where the cabinet had been moved. He went to the side and gave the cabinet a hard push. It toppled easily and a ragged hole in the wall was revealed, just big enough for an adult to get through.
He stepped into it, and saw nothing back here but a steel grate on the floor, covered in thick vines. His flashlight offered him a small view through the vines, and he could make out a hallway underneath the floor. He tried pulling at the vines, but found them thicker than expected. He stood for a moment, then got an idea. He went and got a bottle of alcohol from the storeroom and soaked the vines, then took out his lighter and caught them on fire.
The vines quickly blackened and he put the fire out by stomping on it. He pulled open the grate and dropped down below. The ceiling was just high enough so he didn't have to lower his head. His shoulders touched the walls, and the darkness seemed to get darker. This produced an uneasy feeling of claustrophobia in Harry, and he quickly hurried down the hall through an old metal door. Through here the walls changed from rusty and bloody to old cracked gray brick, but the floor remained wire mesh with eternal darkness beyond. Somehow though it felt right, like even if the hospital wasn't alternate this part of the basement's basement would still look like this.
Up along the hall several doors were scattered on both sides.
He started slowly up the hall, checking each door. As he neared the end his radio went off, and he raised the pipe. In the darkness, he could make out two figures. As the light fell on them, they began stumbling toward him. One was another nurse, and the other was doctor who also had the odd parasite on his back. Harry swung downward, cracking the nurse's skull.
The doctor came at him, his hand raised with a razor sharp bloody scalpel. Harry didn't have enough time to attack, so he stumbled backward.
The doctor swung, and Harry heard the wind from the speed. The nurse was trembling and jerking on the floor, her head squirting blood and brain matter onto the wire floor.
The doctor then came at Harry again, and this time he brought the pipe down on him in the same fashion as the nurse. He fell to his knees, and Harry continued to bludgeon the crazed doctor until he to fell onto the floor in spasms of pain, howling. Harry gave both of them swift kicks in the back and they both stopped moving, pools of fresh blood forming around the lifeless bodies.
He tried the closest door and thankfully it opened. Inside this room, Harry felt immediate sadness and anger and a mix of other emotions. A hospital bed was in the middle of the room with stained sheets, an IV Dropper to the right of the bed. On the other side of the bed were an old chair and a nightstand with a picture and key on it. "What the…why is this room down here and not in one of the rooms…?" He thought. He walked over and picked up the picture. It was of a young girl, maybe Cheryl's age with short black hair and eyes that seemed to pierce his soul. She wasn't smiling either. Her neck had two large white cuffs on both sides and she was wearing a navy blue school uniform. The photo was black and flaked around the edges, and several spots on the photo were burnt.
The girl looked awfully familiar. She looked a lot like Cheryl, but that's not what he was trying to think of. He thought for a moment, and then it hit him. It was the same girl he had saw in the school, only she was younger in this picture. At the bottom right hand side of the picture a name as written in fancy handwriting.
Alessa
He had also seen that name in the school written on the textbook he had found in the vandalized desk. He set the picture back down and examined the key. It was a key to the examination room. He checked his map. That room was on the first floor. He pondered the odd room and picture of Alessa a bit longer before leaving the room and basement's basement all together. There was another elevator in the hospital opposite the side of the building the broken one was on.
Harry boarded it and rode it to the first floor. He saw on the map the examination room was the room he had met Kaufmann in. He inserted the key and tried to open it, but found it was blocked from the other side. He opened it enough to get his arm in, and moved the chair blocking the way. He took a moment and surveyed the room. Finally his eyes fell on someone hiding under a desk. She covered her eyes as the flashlight fell on her. She made a sound of excitement, and crawled quickly from underneath the desk and ran up to Harry, wrapping her arms around his neck.
She pressed her face against his chest, and then looked up at him, giving him a smile. Harry noted just how attractive she was, with dirty blonde hair that went to the middle of her back and striking blue eyes. She was wearing a nurse outfit with a red long sleeved turtleneck underneath. Her nurse hat was tilted a little on her head. She took a step back from him, still smiling.
"Finally, someone else who's okay." She said. Her voice was soft and kind.
"Who are you?" Harry asked.
"Lisa Garland. What's yours?"
"Harry Mason." Lisa smiled.
"Harry, tell me what is going on here! Where is everybody?" She asked, her voice in fright.
"So you don't know anything either? Great… I just don't get it. This is all like some kind of bad dream…" He said, looking at his feet.
"Yeah, a living nightmare…" Lisa said. He looked up and saw her staring at him.
"Hey, have you seen a little girl running around here? She's seven years old. She has short black hair, brown eyes." Harry asked hopefully.
"A seven year old girl. What she's your daughter?" He nodded vigorously.
"A seven year old girl…I cant say that I have. I've been in here this whole time. I'm sorry. I unconscious all this time and when I woke up in here everything was like…this, and then there was that huge man with a pyramid shaped head…" Harry shuddered.
"Yeah, I saw him earlier. It's like he's out to get me or something."
"I'm sorry about your daughter." Lisa said comfortably.
He sighed. "It's alright." There was a brief pause. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about all that weird ass stuff in the basement would you?" Lisa looked at him puzzled.
"Weird stuff?" She asked.
"You don't know? You're a nurse here right?" She nodded.
"Yeah but we're under strict orders never to enter the basement storeroom, so I really can't say. Why…? What did you say was down there?" She asked almost suspiciously.
"Well, there was this…" He stopped as massive waves of pain hit his head. He fell to his knees clutching his temples. He then heard the siren blaring in his ears.
"Harry? Harry what's wrong?" He couldn't speak, only groan in pain.
"Harry, let me help you." Her voice seemed to be fading away.
"Harry!"
"Harry?"
"Harry?"
"Harry?"