Silent Hill: The Inner Monster
Page 23
By John Priest (Efrit, Drake, Noctros, etc)
*John's Story*
Both John and Nalia, exit the eastern hallway through the door at it's northern end. Through the door, they enter the Laboratory. Inside of the sterile and orderly room, are desks arranged in series of rows, the middle section being connected by sinks and gas outlets, with the western and eastern series of desks having their respective sinks and gas outlet to an adjoining end near the walls. The smooth, synthetic plastic tops, clean and whole, with no visible smudges, marks, or any other form of negative distinction. They carefully tread inside the room, making sure to look at the floor and under the desks, so that they won't be ambushed should they be preoccupied with a different matter. They take their time looking beneath the lengthy desks, finding only stray pieces of gum attached to the underside of each one. John get's done first, standing up and signaling to Nalia to come to him with a hand gesture.
"Find anything?" Questions John, "No, sorry. Just icky, icky gum" responds Nalia, in which she goes over to a soap dispenser and acquires some soap, which she uses to wash her hands, wanting to rid herself of being near the chewed up pieces of flavored rubber.
John himself doesn't proceed to follow Nalia's example, being quite content with how his hands are hygienically. Instead, he quietly steps towards the teacher's desk, it being the only desk in here that could contain papers and all other sorts of materials. Once he's at his destination, he quickly sets a new objective and searches throughout the metal, cube shaped desk. Neither the main drawer, nor the drawers on the left of the desk contain anything useful, just useless pencils and ungraded papers. John lets out an audible sigh, a bit frustrated by his lack of luck in this particular room, which is further fueled by the ever-increasing heat inside this school. With a little bit hope though, he opens the right drawer. In it, he finds a glass vial, perfectly upright as it is held inside of a Test Tube Rack. He carefully lifts the rack by grabbing it on it's sides and places it on top of the desk. Bending over a bit, he views the insides of the vial. Inside, is a sort of lime green liquid, with a tiny label saying "Pure Concentrate Acid"
His face flashes a continence of caution for a moment before returning back to it's usual demeanor. He's especially careful in handling the dangerous chemical as he slowly picks it up and out of its rack. He grips it tightly in his right hand, making sure to not over do it, last thing he needs is a crippled hand. Nalia see's John's discovery and casually makes her way towards him. Once she's right beside him, she looks at his hand.
"What's that?" Asks Nalia as she tries to get a good look at the vial, "Careful, it's acid. A Pure Concentrated sample." Warns John as she eyes it with curiosity.
Upon hearing the warning, Nalia backs her head away from the vial. John laughs a bit to himself, making sure it's barely audible so Nalia hears a simple gruff chuckle.
"Come on, let's get out of here. We can use the emergency exit over here" Directs John as he points towards the emergency exit.
She nods her head and follows John as he turns around and heads towards the door.
Once they are at the door, John stops Nalia from proceeding through the door. He isn't ready to go so freely, he still remembers what occurred when he was outside before he entered the school. He briefly contemplates the situation, quickly forming a plan. With it in mind, he turns to Nalia.
"Nalia, out there in the school yard, is dangerous territory. If you hear anything, a screech or something, I want you to run like hell. I want you to run straight to Janitor's Shack and close yourself inside it until I come for you." Instructs John, "B-but John...what about you? Just run with me, we could make it together " pleads Nalia, but John shakes his head and replies "I'm lugging around too much stuff, I'll have no choice but to fight. Please, just do this for me." Nalia show's a clear expression of worriment, but she turns her head to him and smiles slightly "Alright John." John smiles back "Thank you. Now then, let's go."
John slowly opens the door, pistol gripped tightly in his right hand. He leans his head out into the fresh air, briefly pausing to feel the soothing caressing hand of the gentle air as it hits his face. He looks around the yard, scanning for any sort of monster, but he finds none and slowly edges his body out of the laboratory and into the yard. He signals for Nalia to follow him and she does so. They carefully tread their way towards the wooden shack out in the far ends of the school playground. Nalia stays close to John, hugging herself as she walks in step with him. John makes sure that she's next to him, not content with her being any further than a hand's length away. They are almost halfway to the shack, when they hear the horrid screeches of the Decayed Avian's. Wasting no time, John yell's a Nalia to go, who hesitates but follows his orders after John yell's a second time. She bounds over the land like a wolf, quickly coming to her destination and following the instructions John gave her.
When she's finally gone and safe, John focuses himself on taking care of the monsters and making sure to avoid breaking the vial of acid he's placed in a small pocket on the left side of his duffle bag. He grips his pistol in both hands, aiming it as he scans the grey-ish blue horizon for the Avian's. Then, out of the west, come the apparitions. Shooting forth on their thin, skinless wings, fiercely coming down onto John's location as they see their prey. John quickly takes off the duffel bag and lays it onto the ground, quickly coming back up and shooting at the pair. The Avian's barrel roll constantly to avoid the bullets, successfully dodging them and closing in onto their prey. John continues to shoot, hoping to hit one as they get close, but he doesn't and in a result, begins to form another plan of action. He looks around his surroundings and notices the swing sets. He glances quickly at where he last saw the monster, but finds them gone.
Unsure, he backs away slowly from his current spot, making his way to the swing set, but that's when he sees the blur of their figures from behind him. He tries to get out of the way, but they are too swift. He is tackled in the back by one Avian, his back arching back and his chest out forth. Then, the other Avian swoops around John and slams right into his chest, knocking the breath out of him. The pain from this coordinated assault, erupts violently, wrecking havoc on John's body. As both monsters swoop back into the air, John falls onto the ground to his knees. He struggles to get onto his feet as the monsters above, taunt him with their wicked caws. When he manages to get a solid foothold, he dashes for the swing set. His hunters allow him to get close to the set before pursuing, playing with their meal. He successfully get's to the swings and turns around, waiting for his unsuspecting prey to chase their "meal". When they get near, just close enough so they won't be able to counter his next move, John lunges through one of the swings and lands onto the ground on the other side. The Avian's are surprised by this sudden move, trying to turn around just before they hit the swings, but they are too close. They crash into the swings, one get's tangled up in a swing as it crashes into one and tears it away from the set, the other crashing to the ground head first.
John luckily landed only a few inches away from the swing, allowing him to avoid getting caught in the mess that just occurred to the monsters. He stands up, putting the pistol into his right pocket and grabbing the emergency hammer, which he had placed under the strap on his back. He undo's the buttoning and pull's the hammer free, gripping it tightly in both of his hands. He gets to the tangled Avian first, which is struggling to get free as he comes closer. Seeing the twist on how the hunter had become the hunted in just a single moment, the monster let's out one final cry as John raises the hammer above his head and down upon the head of the Avian, crushing it instantly and causing it's head to become thin and pan-cake like, the various cracks each leak out cranial fluid and blood. Near him, the other Avian stands up, a bit dazed from the head-injury it suffered. It tries to bite John, but he hears it behind him and spins around, crashing the hammer right up against the monster's skull as he turns instantly. With the monster dead, John falls back upon his knee's and breathes hard. He tries to regain his composure, his body still aching from the assault he suffered recently.
He searches inside his inner pocket for a health drink, finding one and taking it out. He twists the led and quickly chugs the contents of the brown glass. Even though the fluid is foul tasting, he doesn't really taste it, more concerned with healing his injury. Once he's done, he throws' the drink onto the ground and wipes his mouth. Just as expected, his pain is elevated. He stands back up, shaking his head and gripping his hammer in his right hand. He spots his duffel bag and retrieves it, strapping it back around his shoulder. With that done, he heads to the shack, arriving at it after walking towards it for a few minutes. He knocks on the door, Nalia opening the door slightly and peeking out.
"Nalia....open up and let me in...." Issues John as he looks at her with a tired expression. She's a bit taken back by his sullen continence, but proceeds as instructed.
John walks inside the earth-colored shack, turning on his flashlight and looking for anything odd. Nalia begins to speak, but remains quiet when she see's John's determination.
He looks around the shack, lifting up the various supplies. Upon lifting a dusty old bucket, he finds a rusted lock. With some more clearing, he uncovers a secret door.
"Well well, look what we have here" States John as he looks down upon the door
"Hmm, got anything to get it open, John?" Asks Nalia. John searches his pockets for that screwdriver he found inside the school, knowing that with it, he can break the lock by hitting the end of the screwdriver with the end of his hammer, using the driver end to hopefully accomplish it. He finds the screwdriver inside of his left pocket and takes it out. With the end of the hammer in his right hand and the driver in his left, he goes onto his knee's and begins to hammer at the lock. Several minutes pass until he manages to chip the lock and break it with one final hit. Determining the driver to be useless now, John throws it to the side as he grabs the protruding latch of the secret hatch and opens it up. Surprisingly, the hatch is metal, likely being painted to look like wood so that it'd fool anybody looking around the bucket that originally covered the pad-lock.
"I'll go first, when I give you the ok, you come down" Instructs John as he slowly climbs into the hatch and looks at Nalia, who nods and waits for him. It takes some time, but he finally manages to get to the bottom of the shaft, ending up in a dimly lit room. The room is surprisingly clean, a strange opposite of the dirty and/or dusty rooms inside of Midwich. He looks around the room, deeming it to be safe after a few moments of scanning it for foes.
"Nalia, come on down, it's safe" Yell's John up through the shaft and towards Nalia.
She arrives 10 minutes later, carefully stepping off of the ladder and onto the floor, "Hey John".
"Hey, close the hatch above you?" Questions John, "Yeah, made sure too. So, what now?" Asks Nalia, "We do what we've been doing best, explore." States John.
John finds a door right behind the ladder, grabbing Nalia's hand and leading her through it. The hallway is also lit, but a bit brighter. The hallway was clearly dug some time ago, marble aligning the walls alongside the lights.
Their walk through the hallway, is uncomfortable. While the air is cool and refreshing, the atmosphere is oppressive. Neither of them feel at ease in here, especially with it's odd lack of doors. Nevertheless, they get to the end of the hallway, finding another door and treading right through it. It seems that they are alone in this odd place, no sign of monster or other human life. Through the door, they enter an oval shaped room. The room, while lit like the rest, is a mess. Over turned desks, torn papers, etc. John searches through the papers, forgoing the desks because they all have no drawers. Several minutes pass as he searches around the room, moving empty desks, shells of their former selves, out his way in a bid to find some sort of clue or note. Nalia keeps herself busy by sitting on a vacant chair, deciding to not disturb or possibly hamper his search. He finally finds a whole piece of paper.
" So yeah, I placed my glorious work of art, a sword I carved out of ice, inside the freezer in the eastern wing this morning. I love to use it when I'm monitoring the cells, to shut these brats up when they start crying and moaning for their "mommies" and "daddies". Hah, dumb little runts don't know that they'll never be seeing their folks, ever again. Strangely though, some of the kids have been disappearing lately. I'm suspecting the culprit to be George, he always was a bleeding heart. Whatever is the case, something's wrong here. Could swear I was hearing voices when I went down the eastern wing last night, sounded like children? Shouldn't be possible, since we stopped using the eastern wing about 10 years ago? Ah well, I'm sure it's just the hours getting to me"
There is no written author of the document, likely this was a page of that person's journal, or perhaps even a transcript. Whatever it is, it's a bit important, so John places it inside his inner jacket pocket and walks back to where he last saw Nalia. She's waiting for him when he locates her, swinging her legs slightly to pass the time.
"Come on, time to go foraging for a chunk of ice." States John, "A chunk of ice?" Mutters a confused Nalia, "Just an expression, come on." Expresses John as he turns towards the eastern door and walks towards it with Nalia in tow.
Before they can exit the oval room though, John is forced to undo a series of locks. While most are minor and not that difficult, considering they strangely had their key's inside of them, the major vault-like lock placed in the middle of the door, forces him to assert his strength to get the blasted thing open. He manages to slowly turn it, but it takes some time to open it up, with each passing moment becoming more and more oppressive on his patience. He finally twists it open, an accompanying screech coming out as he forces the door open. With that done, he wipes the back of his hand up against his forehead, wiping off a few beads of sweat from it.
The hallway they enter, is damp and down, clearly showing signs of age. An odd contrast to the pristine marble corridor he and Nalia walked through. John guesses that since the eastern wing was not in use for some years, the people who were running this place, just let it go. Still, it's odd considering that a freezer, which was still in use, was down here. This little matter continues to nag at him as they make their way down the hallway. The hallway slowly descends as they continue to walk down it, eventually returning to the even surfacing it had when they first started through it. They come to one more door and open it, this time coming into a hallway, filled with prison cells. The bars are twisted and rusted, visible openings made as a result of the degradation of each set of bars.
"Stay close..." Warns John as he places his right hand on Nalia's shoulder and takes it off after issuing the warning.
She nods to show him she understands and will obey, for now. The start to pace themselves, walking a bit faster than before. It's a bit before they arrive at the end, two doors and a stairwell greeting them as they arrive. He see's one of the rooms, labeled "Freezer" but looks through another door's front window, the door being labeled "Showers". That's when, John's eyes open wide with shock and, at once, know's why a "freezer" is down here. The "shower" room is dyed a murky green, skeletons bound to the walls, their expressions ghastly to look upon. John carefully opens the door to get a closer look at this morbid scene, signaling to Nalia to stay behind as he investigates.
He doesn't really know why he's feeling the urge to see this grisly scene, likely motivated by his natural curiosity. As he enters, his nostrils are assaulted instantly by the sick, foul stench inside the room, nearly gagging and forcing him to throw up, but he manages to keep his stomach and it's contents inside of him and not spilt upon the marble floor. He looks up as he is gripping his own mouth and nose with his right hand, laying his eyes upon an even more horrid truth. The skeletons, are mostly children. Their mouth's frozen in a final continence of pain and terror, remnants of flesh hanging off of their skulls alongside the strands of their own hair. The scene mortifies John, who has walked to the end of the room as he observed the fallen corpses of these poor lives.
Shower heads align all of the walls except the wall containing the exit, each one just above reach, fixed directly to face downward and nowhere else. John notices a note beside his left foot, bending over and picking it up.
It reads:
"Just to let you know George, you'll need both The Holy Flame and The Corrupt Ice in order to gain access to the control room, in which, you can activate the carts in the basement, which you can use to transport yourself and/or anything else to whatever location you wish, including The Water Prison. Just make sure you take the door to the left when you enter the room after implanting the two items needed, otherwise you'll either end up in the storage closet or-
The rest of the note is un-eligible.
Upon reading this note, John is a bit glad he came to this room. He still wishes he didn't have to lay eyes on the scene laying before him, but what is done, is done. He smiles a bit to himself, assuring his mind that it's time to get out of this room. When he turns around and heads towards the door though, the door instantly slams shut, surprising both Nalia and John. John runs to the door, hitting it with his hands to try and get it open. Nalia tries her best to open the door, but the handle won't budge.
"IT WON'T OPEN!" Screams Nalia in fear as she struggles to open it. John continues to hammer his hands down upon the door, "Damnit!" but it won't budge.
That's when, he begins to hear a hiss, coming forth from the shower heads. His fears are realized as he begins to see the outline of what he suspected to be in those heads: Gas. A gas shower room, whom ever was the sick, twisted individual who came up with this room, has swiftly wrought the blunt of John's cursing.
His lungs burn as he inhales the odorless gas, coughing and wheezing constantly. Tears cloud his vision as he struggles to get the door open. He starts to feel his strength leave him, each struggle becoming more and more tiresome. That's when, he remembers the Acid. Thinking of no better use than now, John carefully yet quickly acquires the acid from it's pouch and opens it up, splashing the contents of the vial, straight onto the handle. The handle quickly dissolves, eaten away by the pure concentration of the acid. With one big charge, John breaks through the door and out of the room, gasping for clean air while kicking the door shut.
"Oh spirits, John!" Nalia rushes instantly to John's side, "I'm alright *cough*, I'm alright" sputters out John as he reaches inside his coat and produces a health drink, chugging this one half-way. His lungs cease to burn, but he continues to cough for a good minute or two before that too finishes and he's finally well.
"What happened in there? The door just slammed shut and it wouldn't open!" Questions a frightened, deeply concerned Nalia, "I don't know....I was just making my way through that hell and, everything just turned insane. Don't go in there Nalia, dear god it's horrible." "What's horrible John? What?" John's a bit reluctant to answer her question, but proceeds to do so, "Children, Nalia, they gassed children to death" Nalia instantly straightens up, clasping her hands around her mouth in shock as she hears this.
"We need to get out of here" Asserts John as he begins to stand up, but Nalia forces him to lay his back to a wall and relax. "Don't, rest. What do you need?" John shakes his head and tries to wave away her offer "No, no. It may be too dangerous..." in which he tries to get back up, but Nalia stops him "I don't care, you've suffered enough for now, what do you need, please?" John looks into her deep, pleading eyes and gives in "I need The Corrupt Ice item inside that freezer, it should look like a sword..." Nalia stands up and heads off "Sword, got it" and through the freezer door, closing it behind her as she enters it.
John doesn't know how much time has passed since Nalia went off on her own, he's been laying in the spot Nalia placed him in, his eyes closed to try and get some rest. She returns a few moments later, shaking a bit but still in one piece.
"Did you get the sword?" Asks John as he stands up, stretching a bit when he's upright. "Yeah, here you are John" Nalia gives John The Corrupt Ice sword.
Upon laying his hands upon the frigid, glass-like blade, he is hit with a sense of unease. The obtrusions sticking out of the sword, are numerable and wild. As he read in the man's note/transcript, it is clearly carved and/or formed out of one huge piece of ice. He observes it for a few more moments, before reaching inside his duffel bag and pulling out The Pure Flame. He places his emergency hammer back into the strap on the back of his trench-coat and makes sure it's secured before putting both swords in a respective hand.
With that done, he uses his head to motion for Nalia to follow him, which she does, silent yet obedient. John lead's her down the nearby stairwell, treading carefully as does so. While this place may seem to be absent of monsters, he isn't going to take that chance. They go through one more door at the end of the stairwell, going through it and into another hallway, it's only available route being to the right. They walk their way through the hallway, making sure to look at all spots in the corridor, so that they might not be ambushed. Half-way down the hallway, John and Nalia both begin to hear the soft laughter of children. It starts to grow in volume as they head down the hallway, until it suddenly changes and turns into the wails of children. The lights behind them begin to flicker and turn off, slowly.
John notices this "Nalia....run" in which he turns and starts to quickly make his way to the end of the hallway. Nalia follows as instructed and runs, easily keeping in pace with John. The lights behind them begin to turn off, quicker and quicker, till the darkness is on their heels.
The come to the end of the hallway suddenly, unsure of what to do. In front of them, are visible openings for a sort of item set. Knowing no other thing to do then, John shoves the swords into the slots. The swords stick into the slots and then twist slowly, before a large click is heard.
"Nalia, give me a hand" Order's John as he grabs one handle and she does the same. They pull strongly, using the combined might of their own strength with their fear of the incoming darkness. Finally, the open the door wide, only to be consumed by a large, bright red light of ominous proportions.