Author's Note: This is a one-shot that I've worked on for the past few months in between writing and revising my latest Resident Evil/Call of Duty crossover at the time of this upload. I could've divided this into three different chapters, but honestly, I think it all fits well together into one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Call of Duty or Silent Hill franchises, including all of their characters. They all belong to their respective owners, Activision (Call of Duty) and Konami (Silent Hill).

Recommended BGM:

1. Silent Hill 2 (2001) - Laura Plays the Piano

2. Silent Hill 2 (2001) - The Day of Night

3. Silent Hill 2 (2001) - Promise (Reprise)

Bonus Track: Silent Hill (1999) - Silent Hill

The road was dark and lifeless, the humming of the car's engine almost making Alex drift into a deep sleep. He was used to feeling this way on long road trips any time he hadn't bothered to get any sleep. Hell, he could even take on a twenty-four-hour road trip and still be awake the whole way, but this was almost unlike any other as if the last hour of the ride to Silent Hill was haunting him from the inside, forcing him to feel more exhausted than usual.

From his best friend's place to Silent Hill, it was only supposed to be an eight-hour drive, yet it felt as though it'd been three times as much. His leg was already getting cramped from slight numbness in his seat and decided to shift himself slightly in a different position, trying to give it some relief, but it wasn't helping much. There were these tiny needle-like prickly feelings all over his leg that continued to travel through his ankle. Maybe if he had accepted Frank's insistence to go along on the ride with him, it would've been a smoother trip to the small town. Even if he did accept his insistence, however, Frank was still on active duty, and at any time, he could've gotten a call from Jason for a mission briefing of sorts anyway. At the very least, the whole terrain was getting slightly more interesting than it was before, a better viewing angle for his seven-year-old son, David.

Didn't think this would be harder than driving a jeep inside the jungles of Vietnam...

It was at this point that he was ready to simply turn back and crash at Frank's place, but it was too late to give up the trip now. This trip was an important one he could not miss. Taking a quick glance over his right shoulder, he saw David was fast asleep, shifting involuntarily in his seat as he held his small, brown teddy bear that his mother had given to him before she passed, clutching it tightly in his hands over his red t-shirt. His crooked smile was slightly shaking, thin streams of saliva dripping over his cheek, and Alex smiled at this, feeling mixed emotions he only started to feel ever since David was born, emotions that only a parent would be able to understand.

For the first time in months, David actually looked like he was resting more comfortably than ever.

It was earlier that year when David started having nightmares about something unknown with no real explanation as to how or why. After his last mission of helping to deal with matters against Perseus, he received a phone call from Jenny, Jason's wife, that his son wouldn't stop screaming in the middle of the night almost once every week before it turned into a few days, then into a daily thing. The frequency and intensity of those nightmares weren't able to be explained at all by her, and it was only when Alex finally decided to retire from the military to spend more time with his son that they began to stop. At least that was the case for a while before deciding to visit Frank's place for a good couple of weeks' worth of stay. From there, it only grew worse and his son would be having more episodes even during the day any time he napped due to the lack of a good night's rest. It was as if some sort of malevolent force was following his dreams and nightmares everywhere he went, only to become more prevalent when David would be around people other than his own father.

Alex was beginning to run out of options and was finally starting to suggest he'd take him to a psychologist, only for Frank to tell him otherwise.

"Psychologists don't do shit unless you're a guinea pig they could use to their advantage for a raise in their pay," Frank had told him. "If I were you, I wouldn't trust them with any diagnosis they manage to pull out of their asses. At the end of the day, they'll be switching it off every now and then and recommend useless remedies. Big waste of fucking time if you ask me."

Alex took his word for it. He trusted Frank with his life so there was little reason to doubt him, especially if it came to David, whom Frank deeply cared about as if he were his own nephew.

He would then only be left with one other option and that was to observe everything he could as David slept, which seemed like a rather simple thing to do at first, but at the cost of various sleepless nights for himself. However, loss of sleep was the least of his worries.

During his observations for about a whole week, with some help from Frank as well, they managed to make some sort of understanding of the nightmare occurrences. They learned that while David would be having these nightmares, he not only would be twitching in his sleep, but murmuring something very quietly. It was hard to decipher exactly what it was that he'd be saying in his sleep, but according to Frank, it was very similar to how Alex would've been murmuring in his sleep, back when he had first escaped from Vorkuta, a Soviet prison camp he'd been stuck in for two whole years. Alex himself couldn't remember anything through the blind spots of his Soviet programming and although they were unsuccessful to keep him brainwashed, he still felt like there were holes inside his memories, like crucial spots of information that he was missing in his life during and after Vorkuta.

As David continued to speak almost in a somewhat different voice in his sleep, Alex felt like there was this ominous presence lingering around them. Even Frank himself, who barely shows any type of fear behind his expression, seemed extremely uneasy as well. Whatever David continued to murmur over the passing nights, Alex figured he should at least record him and review the video footage for themselves.

After hours of reviewing the whole thing through many different footages, they were almost ready to give up as David stopped murmuring anything abruptly for hours on end until something caught their eye. His mouth began to twitch, his lips slowly moving in place to utter words that were still indecipherable to read or even hear. His uttering, however, became more consistent than before, and after Frank passed him some old headphones and Alex cranked the volume at its peak, he listened to it again and again, making sure that what he was hearing correctly were the right words being uttered.

Silent Hill…

The phrase wasn't familiar to any of them, though Frank developed a worrisome hunch that whatever David had been dreaming about, it could possibly be that someone out there may have attempted to program him through the use of two simple words put together. However, Alex immediately backed out of this theory, not necessarily believing that people like Stitch or Kravchenko had any way of knowing anything about his son, nor have they had any knowledge about his exact location at Jenny's either. If David had been in any actual danger, the security detail at Jenny's place would've immediately contacted either Jason or Alex unless Jason specifically tried to hide it all somehow, which wasn't entirely far-fetched either, considering he had omitted many important things in the past from them, such as Operation: Greenlight, in which Jason was solely responsible for overseeing the whole thing.

On that following morning, Alex questioned David if he had any prior knowledge about a "Silent Hill", to which he would simply deny ever hearing anything about it. With nothing else to go from, Frank and Alex began researching anything related to "Silent Hill", and the mystery as to what it was would quickly come to a close.

They found out that it was a small American town, about close to a little over thirty thousand inhabitants, located in the New England region of Maine. From various historical records, they were able to see that it was known as a quaint resort town for its blissful and wonderful views of Toluca Lake, the Lakeview Hotel being a local hotspot for tourists as well. Besides all of that, however, it didn't come as a surprise that there was more than met the eye. For as long as the town had existed since the late seventeenth century, there had been cultist activities dwelling inside the area, many of which have made it to headlines in newspaper clippings, claiming that these rumored cultist groups have been to blame for various disappearances and kidnappings that mostly involved children. Even as rumors, they hit Alex deep inside his gut, churning at the idea of David somehow having dreams related to these nightmarish claims none of them had any sort of involvement whatsoever.

How could David even know anything about Silent Hill? Why does it have to be my baby boy suffering from these nightmares? How is he connected to that place anyway?

Alex felt his head spinning around in circles, a heavy delirious state he could not explain. Even his best friend couldn't put a finger as to how it could be possible that David knew of a place none of them had ever visited or heard about before. It was likely that, as a typical curious kid, would bump into some vague pictures of the town, maybe references to its name in a book or something, but it all seemed surreal, especially when he'd outright denied knowing anything about Silent Hill. All of them were pretty protective and picky about what David should be reading for his appropriate age and reading level. Even Jenny was almost just like Alex's wife - always reminding him about what he should be doing as a parent, which in all honesty, got him pretty annoyed for telling him how to parent his own kid, though he didn't blame her either as he had been mostly absent in all of David's seven years of life.

But I'm here now. Gonna make up for it by helping him deal with these strange nightmares. Gotta be something in that town that's probably affecting him somehow…

It was all he had been going for, feeling entirely desperate to help ease up his child as much as he could. Frank was initially apprehensive about the idea of ever letting him go to that town alone with him, trying to force him to let him come along as he felt that David's well-being was more important than his work in the CIA. Alex declined his company, trying to give him the excuse that it would be better if he could have some father-son time with David together, to make up for not being there for his son when he'd needed him the most, especially after his mother's passing.

Grace…

Alex began to shudder in his seat, trying to suppress the emotions from erupting across his exhausted face at the image of his now-deceased wife began to appear in his mind, who apparently died in a car crash two years ago. The love he had for her was too great, it pained him to remember the last time he saw her, having a normal conversation with her at the dinner table, her glistening smile washing away all of the darkness he harbored as a result of being a seasoned veteran soldier, who had dealt with many violent wars in the past.

And now the only thing that really kept him going in life was David, his sweet baby boy, and the last time he visited his wife's gravesite, he promised her that no matter what happens, he'd do anything to protect David, their one and only child.

Once again, he shuddered in his seat, trying to clear his head as he took in his surroundings down the dark road, the hills all around them passing by in silence, the soft crunch of gravel beneath the tires joined by the car's soothing engine, followed by David's serene breathing, all of which gave him a sense of calmness inside his mental state of mind. The passing fluorescent lights that passed almost every seventy meters were slightly blinding due to his eyes becoming tired from focusing down the road for a long time.

During the first half of the trip, he had the radio tuned in to his favorite bands, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Even David began singing along with some of the songs he listened to, which really made him feel happy that there was at least one thing they had in common, and it was their taste in music. However, as David began falling asleep throughout the rest of the way, he decided it would've been best to keep him resting without anything else to pollute the silence of the air inside the car. Plus, he figured that even with music blasting inside the car, he still wouldn't find it in himself to draw any energy in him to keep himself awake at all times, which is why a couple of hours ago, he decided to stop by a convenience store to buy himself a cup of coffee. He'd also given his son some snack bars, a bag of chips, and a juice box for him to enjoy, to keep him from feeling the effects of an empty stomach, which by now, he had been feeling himself, having forgotten to buy himself even a small cold sandwich.

But this didn't matter to him. What mattered most was to keep himself awake and get to Silent Hill before ten at night, and maybe then, he could finally figure out what David kept trying to refer to in the rural town.

The thought of David's safety kept reminding him of his wife, replaying the last conversation with her over and over again, the whole thing becoming a cycle, a loop of endless torment that he wasn't there to protect her for most of the time that he was gone. Since the accident, his worry for David kept progressing, his mind becoming restless at the vast amount of possibilities of what could happen to David if he wasn't there to protect him, to save him from any danger he might end up facing in the coming future. The mere thought that David could be suffering the same delusions that he himself had suffered from eighteen years ago, made his hands on the wheel sweat even more, his head becoming hot and sweaty the more he thought about it.

What if whatever they did to me in Vorkuta, was passed down onto David somehow? What if this is a trap they set up for me or David? Could it be possible that…?

No. No way in hell should he even think about the existence of said possibility. It was - should be - impossible for Perseus to be operating in the state of Maine, using Silent Hill as their base of operations, a way to lure them in, let alone the existence of a cult or sect kidnapping children for centuries without anyone putting a stop to their occult activities. Even the theory of his own son suffering brainwashing side effects passed down from him seemed more feasible, but again, all of the theories that he and Frank were able to come up with just seemed like overall impossibilities regardless of the way they saw them.

Now that he thought about it, he was heading directly to a location that could put his son in danger: cultist kidnappings, Perseus traps, maybe a malevolent force stalking them as it waited for the right moment to catch them off-guard? Yeah, now he was starting to think a lot more like Reznov, his old friend from Vorkuta who failed to escape with him, dying in an explosion. Reznov didn't seem all too creeped out by superstition, but every time he talked about his days during the Second World War, he could see the fear crossing his eyes every time he spoke of the sleepless nights in which he spent inside enemy territory. Maybe it wasn't superstition at all, but mostly a kind of paranoia that'd never go away, keeping yourself on guard at all times.

But this is different…

…we're talking about my son here!

He blinked his eyes rapidly for a moment, trying to shake himself out of the thought process that had anything to do with Reznov. He had been long dead, hallucinated about him years after his death, his mind still coping with his loss even after having lost his wife much more recently. He looked past his shoulder one more time, watching over David, still sleeping with his teddy bear now barely clutched as it lay on top of his lap, almost between his blue jeans.

Just like a little angel…

He thought about turning the radio back on, to try and focus his mind on what was worth listening to at a low volume. After making up his mind, he reached over and turned on the radio when a loud, piercing wail of static noise erupted from the speakers inside the car.

AH! WHAT THE F—!

Instinctively, he put both hands over his ears, until the panic he felt made him quickly realize he was the one on the wheel, and within that instant, he veered pretty badly on the far right side of the road, barely scratching the paint of Frank's old jeep against the guardrail. In less than a few seconds, he managed to have control over the wheel once more, but now he needed to turn off that ear-splitting radio noise that began to rise in a higher-pitched whine.

David had woken up, screaming in horror over the loud wailing radio, which made it ten times harder to concentrate as he frantically rushed his fingers to try and find the power button within the car's darkness. The jeep was now swiveling closer to the mountain pass on the left as his mind and eyes were blinded in a heightened panic.

"Hey - hey - hey! It's okay, kiddo! It's okay!" Alex yelled over the screeching whine, his thumb finally managing to turn off the damn radio that gave both of them the biggest fright yet.

With the noise now gone, there was an eerie stillness of the air inside, the most uncomfortable silence he's ever felt throughout the whole trip since, with David's screams now put to a complete halt.

Before he could even take a deep breath of relief, a pair of flashing blue and red lights were shining just behind the jeep's back window.

Oh for God's sake…

You panic for a moment, lose control of the jeep, and all of that in front of a fucking police officer?

Perfect timing, Al… Just perfect…

He shook his head at this, mentally punching himself in the face, already hearing Frank shouting at him for panicking and losing control of a vehicle that shouldn't have been much of an issue, to begin with. Then again, he had David with him, who looked like he had seen death in the face, and that was more than enough to make him worry. Had he been by himself or with Frank, he wouldn't have panicked in the slightest.

"You feeling alright, kiddo?" he spoke softly, rubbing his head with one free hand, hoping to keep David less frightened from the recent experience.

David pulled away from his hand and turned his head around, nodding with the shakiest nod he's ever seen from him. He was quiet, but his expression kept itself wavered towards feeling like he wanted to scream in anxiety again, holding onto his teddy bear much more tightly than last time.

"Sorry about the radio," Alex said apologetically, feeling like he wanted to smash his head against the wheel. "The officer behind us might've seen me swerve and simply wants to know what happened so just make sure to sit tight, okay?"

"Mmhmm," David mumbled, nodding at him more steadily this time before turning his attention to the back window and looking at the flashing lights curiously.

As Alex looked through the rearview mirror, the vehicle was moving much closer to him, speeding up to catch up to him. However, the vehicle looked too small for it to be a police car. In fact, it wasn't a police car at all, but a motorcycle. Alex began to slow down, to see if he could find a good spot to park on the side of the road, but there seemed to be no room to do so. As he continued to slow down, the cop finally caught up with him, positioning themselves just beside his window to the left.

It was a female cop, dressed in a standard police uniform, wearing a light blue buttoned shirt with black pants and black boots.

Alex tried to get a quick look at any insignia she may have that would indicate whether or not she was an officer of either Silent Hill or Brahms, another town he had just passed through. The second he began to study her, she immediately gestured for him to follow her upfront. According to the map he acquired from Frank, she was probably letting him know to pull over once he hit the main road off the mountain pass, which was only half a mile ahead. Alex gave her a forced smile, waving back at her more confidently before the cop sped up again, disappearing through the curved path ahead. He was a former government agent after all so dealing with the police shouldn't be much of a problem for him.

Well, it wouldn't be if you never decided to damage Frank's jeep in the process. I'm sure you can handle a couple of shouts and sharp looks from Frank after this is all over.

At the very least, he was glad that was all it happened. It could've been a lot worse for him and David. Endangering his child even further had him hitting himself in the head mentally over and over again. The thought of it made him glance over at David again, his gut churning heavily with deep regret as he did. The poor kid was biting the sides of the tip of his ring finger, something he hadn't done in a long time.

"Knock it off, David," he said sternly, and David quietly stopped biting it altogether, looking back at the road somewhat irritated.

Alex felt bad for having scolded him a bit too harshly. David hadn't been feeling like himself for a long time, and neither had Alex or Frank after learning more about his recurring nightmares. All of them were already on edge and the last thing Alex wanted to do was to ruin David's mood in any way possible. However, he knew that David needed some discipline as well, a firm hand from a father figure he rarely ever had on his side. Jenny had been the mother figure David needed for the past couple of years, but neither Alex nor Frank could always be there for him due to their line of work, let alone Jason, who had been his handler for as long as he could remember. That's why it has been one of the main reasons he gave up being a CIA agent; to spend more time with his son like he was doing right now, to be the father he couldn't have been before.

Alright, calm down, Al. Just drive off the mountain pass and get this over with…

It wasn't even a minute later that he found out that something was utterly off down the road - no rather, something particularly wrong. With the lack of sleep, he could've easily imagined that someone may have had an accident somewhere ahead, but in reality, it wasn't necessarily his imagination. The cop's motorcycle was laying abandoned just near the side of the road on his left. The cop herself was nowhere to be seen…

Where could she be? Is she okay?

There were so many questions flowing inside his mind like a whirling thunderstorm overwhelming his brain. He wanted to stop and see if the cop needed help or if they were alright somewhere, but chances are, they may have been chasing after some known criminal in the local area and the cop merely tried to warn him about it beforehand. Plus, he really didn't want to leave David alone in the car in the middle of the night like this, especially now that they were getting closer to Silent Hill. So instead, he kept driving ahead, trying to tell himself that the cop was doing fine on her own, that he should prioritize his concern for David's safety above all else. If he were lucky, the cop didn't even see him pull the crazy stunt he did earlier on…

…and suddenly, the air around them became thick, like some kind of invisible cold noxious wave of air, like the atmosphere itself was changing somehow. He couldn't quite place his finger on why it began to feel the way it felt as there were very few words to describe exactly what was happening inside the jeep.

Could be the pressure change because of how high we are in elevation I suppose…

But that didn't necessarily explain the creeping fog that swept around them, like a lurking childhood monster trying to find its way out of the dark crevices in between. Then his vision started to feel fuzzy, narrowing not from exhaustion, but from something else… like some outside force was trying to impair his vision even further. He could even feel the temperature dropping to a dramatic chill and his breath was now visible in brief white streams, the windows around him slowly building up a sort of unsettling foggy condensation.

Alright, alright… just get a hold of yourself. You're cold. You're tired. You're imagining things. You just need to —

"DAD LOOK OUT!"

David cried out in horror so suddenly, Alex's senses were now fully awakened, and just as he heard David's warning, something immediately came into view; a shadowy figure, strolling right in the middle of the road with seemingly no care for their own well-being. Maybe it could've been the officer from before, but it wasn't the time to examine who exactly it was that decided to endanger themselves like that in front of a moving vehicle.

By pure instinct, Alex swerved the jeep almost violently in order to avoid running the person over, the only option he could ever think of in the heat of the moment. As he slammed the brakes with all the strength he had, the tires screeched in a deafening whine, he could barely hear his son still screaming. Alex immediately lost control of the vehicle once again, but this time, he could no longer recourse back on the road, his path entirely blocked by the shadowy figure with nowhere else to go. He hit through the guardrail in a thunderous blast, the jeep rolling down the hill as the gravity inside kept pulling them in all directions, and before Alex knew it, everything around him went entirely black with no sound involved soon after.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, Alex found himself plastered against the wheel, feeling like his head was about to explode, probably the biggest headache he's ever gotten since Jason had tried to deprogram him back in the late sixties. He rose his head up as he snapped his eyes open, slowly trying to lean back to his seat as he groaned in pain, peeling his fingers away from the steering wheel. Outside, it looked as though it was already morning. The jeep had surprisingly landed on all fours, although now he was definitely going to get berated by Frank, especially after…

"David!" he yelled out of fatherly instinct, looking at the passenger seat and into the backseat, feeling his heart stopping mid-beat for a good second as he did. The side door was wide open, and the seatbelt was thrown haphazardly to the side of the seat.

David's gone!

"David!" he blurted again, this time, feeling the tendrils of intense panic growing inside his stomach.

He felt a jolt of sharp pain over his forehead. Touching the ridge above his right eyebrow, he felt blood seeping from a wound he now had, probably a gash as a result of the crash, but this did not matter to him. Alex released the seatbelt as fast as he could and threw the jeep's door open, getting out of the vehicle as quickly as possible. As his feet touched the ground, he felt his boots clash against something that seemed all too familiar from their home state in Alaska.

Snow? Here in late spring?

It was impossible. The weather here wasn't as chilly as it was back in Fairbanks, but somehow, it was snowing, out of season as well, and there was not even a single flake of snow across the mountain pass from earlier either…

David…

His mind was now entirely focused on David. Driven by a wave of shock and anguish, he desperately searched for him underneath the car, thinking he might've fallen off the jeep during the accident. However, there was no sight of him anywhere near the wrecked car, making him feel even more panicked than ever.

Maybe the same criminal that the cop could've been chasing after had kidnapped him? Maybe one of Perseus' agents? A trap all along?

Perhaps he's walking down the road, dazed and bleeding out, dying or…

No! He couldn't, shouldn't, think of that. Although he couldn't keep the endless loop of horrible possibilities that might've happened to David off his mind for as much as he didn't like any of it. His little boy was just seven, there's almost little chance of him surviving on his own out there…

"David! David!" he began to shout, his voice tinged with fear and anxiety as it echoed through the vastness of the massive fog, his boots slapping against the heavy snow with some difficulty. "David! DAVID!"

He was beginning to feel helpless. A wave of despair hit him like a bag of bricks, and through the blinding hysteria, he kept shouting his son's name repeatedly through the unforgiving fog, running without a stop. There was no way in hell he would ever forgive himself if something were to have happened to David and he wasn't there to help or protect him, exactly the way he once felt upon learning what happened to his wife all those years ago.

As he continued to run straight ahead, he began to realize the road he was on was still the same long road he tried taking before from the top of the mountain pass, which led all the way down here. There were quite a handful of vehicles around, all of them looking either abandoned or completely totaled, just like Frank's jeep. Were all of this somehow related to local disappearances around the area or could it be something more sinister?

C'mon Alex. Keep focusing on David. Don't stop to think about anything else!

Moments later, he came across a huge green sign, looking rusted and almost withered away by varying weather conditions.

Welcome to

SILENT HILL

Weirdly enough, there hadn't been any footprints to follow. In fact, the entire road was covered in snow, there was almost no sign of it being used by people inside vehicles at all. That was until he found a set of small footprints on the snow that matched his son's sneakers, about several meters away past the welcoming sign.

"DAVID!" he hollered one more time in full force, using his hands as a loudspeaker to amplify the sound of his echoing voice.

Growing tired of running, he began to slow his pace to a jog, trying to look at his surroundings as he continued to follow the footprints inside the snow. He could barely see six feet away from him, but nothing was stopping him from trying to look for his son anywhere the footprints led.

Now that he was further into town, the first thing he started to notice was that it seemed eerily quiet as if there was a complete lack of human activity anywhere in the area. Every store around him was shut down, all lights were turned off, and traffic lights were all in non-working order. Parked cars were at random spaces on either side of the streets. The more he thought about it, the more the town felt extremely haunted. It was a different experience of seeing a town destroyed by war itself, but this one didn't seem like it had been invaded or ruined, let alone bombed. The whole place felt abandoned as if its residents suddenly disappeared without a trace. The absence of life itself was deafening. Not even a single sign of an apocalyptic event, other than what it seemed to be like The Rapture itself…

"Where the hell is everyone?" he whispered to himself in shock and confusion. "And why do the footprints stop here?"

There was an intersection between Bachman Rd. and Finney St., the small footprints disappearing in the middle of the intersection. Again, this seemed rather impossible, unless whoever made those footprints had the ability to fly or teleport away to a different location. He then began to wonder why or how could David walk so far off the road in weather like this when he clearly knew better, especially since Alex had taught him not to wander off in thick snow-covered areas either.

Alex continued to wander aimlessly through the thick white mist, feeling dread and fear for his lost, potentially harmed child. The anxiety within him grew with each footstep that was unusually loud for a place like this, especially when walking on snow, a stark contrast to the bustling battlefields he once knew. He didn't know if David really had entered the town or if he might still be somewhere near the crash site, which was somewhat unlikely considering the footprints from earlier, though he was beginning to have his doubts that David would've entered an unknown town all by himself in the middle of this strange weather. He began to have this strange feeling of being caught off-guard so suddenly by a random passing car or truck, running him over just as he almost did with that shadowy figure from earlier before.

Maybe it must've been someone lost… or a ghost…

…c'mon Al. Fucking ghosts? Really? All you need right now is to say that —

He looked around behind him and suddenly, neither his footprints nor the ones he was following before were there. They were gone, as if they never existed, as if no one had ever stepped foot in the snow he had just passed through, ever…

Alex's mind was beginning to go haywire. He was starting to think he was losing it, possibly because of the lack of sleep, making him hallucinate things… or it could possibly be the Soviet programming playing tricks on him subconsciously due to the accident, though he highly doubted it as a real possibility. He hadn't heard or seen those terrible numbers in forever, at least from what he's been able to recall for the past eighteen years since.

The cold and dilapidated environment continued to haunt his state of mind, making him feel as though he could simply walk through the town forever, walking in an unknown enchanted loop…

As he continued to walk across the intersection through Bachman Rd., he heard a child's laughter somewhere behind him from his right side. Instinctively, he turned back around to scan his surroundings, but there was no one he could see.

"Anyone here?!" he raised his voice, reverberating all around the streets and buildings within the city block. The laughter didn't sound anything like David's at all.

"Hehehe!"

Another child's laughter. This time, he was able to tell that the child's giggling was actually his son's. The first one seemed almost as though it were a little girl's. Apparently, he wasn't alone…

"David!?" he continued to holler, turning his whole body back around, and began to sprint to the left onto Finney St. "Where are you, kiddo?! Are you okay?!"

The children continued to giggle, forcing Alex to follow the sounds they were making until he could make out two figures ahead someplace close to an open alleyway. One of them looked slightly taller and more feminine, wearing a sort of navy school uniform, with white socks and black dress shoes. The other one, which had a stronger resemblance to that of his child, was wearing the same red shirt and blue jeans with black and white sneakers from before. In his eyes, it had to have been David, but for some strange reason, he was still jogging away with this mysterious girl. Both of the children must've heard him earlier.

"David!" he called out to him, running his way through the fog toward their disappearing shapes. "Hey - you in the uniform - who are you!?"

None of them responded back, both of whom were now starting to run away from him. Not once did they bother to face him at all and suddenly, they took off further into the dense fog, going through the alleyway he managed to take a glimpse of earlier.

"David — for heaven's sake, get back here!" he commanded him in a sharper tone this time, closing in the distance between them. "It's too dangerous being out here alone in this weather!"

Why the hell does he keep running away from me?!

The alleyway was much longer than he'd anticipated, feeling like an endless path filled with so much trash and junk thrown almost everywhere on the ground. Somehow, the kid was much faster than him, more than he could've given him credit for. Not to mention the other taller girl seemed to keep up the pace with him, but once Alex catches up to them, they're gonna have some explaining to do and he wasn't planning on being lenient about it either.

And just when he thought he was about to burst apart from the growing frustration of the alleyway having no end, he finally arrived at its end section. On his left was an opened gate leading to a sort of offshoot to an abandoned rusted warehouse's basement. Why the hell would his kid go running off in a place like that with a girl he had never once met before in the middle of nowhere? Tired of chasing after answers, he shook his head quickly and made quick steps down into the darkness of the stairway as he continued to call for the children, his voice echoing through the long, narrow passageway.

Somehow, Alex couldn't shake the feeling that something else behind him had been stalking him, and for a good moment, he quickly turned his head behind him, only for no one to be there. At this point, he was growing paranoid, and nothing else could really comfort him in the fact that all of them were in the middle of a seemingly empty ghost town. Anyone or anything could catch them off-guard and if the children weren't aware of the possible dangerous scenarios that Alex began to form inside his mind, both of them could very well end up…

No! Stop thinking about that shit! Just keep your head straight, Al. For David's own sake.

As a former soldier, he'd be naive to think that everything would be fine in a place like this, though when it came to his son, he had to firmly believe that nothing bad would happen at all. Once he gets to him and his new friend, all of them will simply get as far away as possible from this bizarre town, assuming that the girl would be willing to go with them if she was here all by herself with no one around to protect her. Maybe after sending them to a safer place, he and Frank could come back here and properly investigate this whole town together. Something about this place just didn't seem right, even from the very beginning.

Without warning, an air raid siren suddenly burst to life from somewhere in the distance - no - multiple sirens at once.

Instinctively, Alex's hand reached for an absent weapon, cursing at himself for forgetting his M1911 back at the jeep. He looked around his back carefully, glancing at what little sky he could see, thinking if this was finally the time in which the town was going to be bombed by an incoming airstrike. Memories of past battles began to flood his thoughts, blending with the surreal nature of Silent Hill, sending chills down his spine as the song of horror continued to blare all around. However, it did not sound like any ordinary air raid siren he's ever heard before. This one seemed more haunted in nature, ominously growing in intensity as the atmosphere around him thickened as a result of something otherworldly, with an incessant chorus of incoming dread and anxiety, piercing through the inside of his own skin. As resilient as he was, his mind was slowly starting to shift into a blinding, harrowing fear for his lost child as there was something even more unsettling happening around him.

The dense fog that extended out from the alley began to dissipate away in mere seconds, and all Alex could do in response was hold his breath in trepidation. What followed after was next to impossible.

What the fuck…

What was once a bright, snowy sky, had quickly faded out into a pitch black of nothingness, like a fast-forwarding total solar eclipse. It was as if the darkness of his own past was the same malevolent force that's been stalking him and his son all along, infecting David with relentless nightmares as a form of punishment for his failure as a father, finally leading him to a town that seemed to distort his perception of reality itself, feeding off his twisting and contorting emotions.

The air raid sirens continued to wail even louder, assaulting Alex's ears with their eerie cacophonous sounds of dread and terror. Fear mingled with a familiar sense of purpose — a soldier's purpose.

At any rate, he knew he had to keep going, had to keep moving through the darkness, for David's sake. Whatever was happening around him, he could save the logical explanation for later.

The sirens finally stopped abruptly once the darkness robbed his vision completely.

As he searched through his cargo pants inside the darkness, he managed to quickly find his lighter. He'd been fortunate enough that even though he had been smoke-free for several years now, he always kept it with him as a lucky charm and now it proved to be more useful than ever.

It took several tries, but the lighter finally lit up its flame, shining his way through the stairs which now looked entirely corroded. The walls around him were peeled, and the smell of rust became more overpowering as he descended further into the depths of the unknown. Finally stepping foot on flat ground, he saw what seemed to be an out-of-place hospital gurney, its wheels still eerily moving freely as the thing lay on its side. There was what seemed to be a blanket that was startlingly similar to David's favorite one, all stained in dried blood, mixed with what seemed to be fresh blood as well.

"David…" he spoke out loud as his mind whirled in a state of confusion and fear, now pushing even further down the dark, flooded path, sprinting in desperation as he continued to call out to him inside the damp basement.

Navigating around the place was an entire maze of its own. There were many chain link fences installed around the area, most of which looked extremely oxidized. The winding paths he kept following had drops of blood being blended in dark puddles of muddy water, the stench of death now overpowering his senses, and this made him go through a state of blind hysteria, not entirely knowing whether his son was safe or not.

C'mon Dave… don't do this to your old pops…

After what seemed like forever, he finally bumped into a fence gate and pushed through it, knowing that time was of the essence to find his son as soon as possible before anything worse happens. Everything in the environment has been telling him that the line between reality and hallucination was blurring even further, making him struggle to maintain his own grip on sanity as nothing was making sense to him anymore. For all he knew, he must still be unconscious inside the jeep, or maybe at a hospital, dying… and David himself was…

Fuck! Just shut the hell up and move! David needs you now more than ever!

Frank's voice. He nodded to himself and began to rush through the darkness once again, pushing to a left corner and then to a right, until he stopped abruptly in front of something, turning his blood into solid ice.

A body? A… torso?!

"Jesus Christ!" the words escaped out of his mouth on its own. Even as an experienced and hardened soldier, nothing could have ever prepared him to face such an atrocious act done on someone like that at this level of grotesque.

Is that…?!

No, it wasn't David. It couldn't be. He was sure of it.

Whoever it was, their body had been completely skinned apart, mutilated entirely, leaving only its upper torso and hanging over the fence with barbed wire that held pieces of wet skin all around it. The blood was still fresh — someone or something had done this recently. Its arms were outstretched painfully in the form of some twisted crucifixion, like nothing that Alex has ever seen before in his whole life. The head was hanging down at a sort of uncomfortable angle as if its cervix had been partially snapped by the barbed wire twisting over it.

Would Perseus even be capable of doing all this to someone? Or maybe the local cult?

It was a possibility, but even if it was, he wasn't willing to be hanging around without a weapon to find out.

As he thought of his remaining options, he saw something peculiar. Below the corpse was a small opening through the bloodied chain link fence, ripped apart as though it'd taken someone with superhuman strength to pull through. Left behind was David's teddy bear, looking rather intact, except wet with blood on its sides. Alex quickly hurried to pick it up and examine it further, his eyes almost becoming watery as he stared at the teddy bear for a moment, fighting off tears of extreme fear of what could've possibly happened to his poor, baby boy.

"Oh, David…" he lamented in a whisper, his voice quickly drowned out by something moving in the shadows from somewhere.

Instinctively, he turned around, still holding onto his son's teddy bear as he waved the lighter in front of him, trying to see if there was anybody else there other than him. He knew he heard noises from somewhere, he was sure of it. Someone or something was here with him, possibly the same one responsible for what they'd done to the crucified person.

The noise came again, this time, now from behind him.

As he faced the hideous corpse once again, trying his best to swallow the bile building up inside him, he slightly jumped out of fright. What he thought was a dead corpse began to mumble something, trying to communicate with him somehow…

And Alex had more than enough of this place. He was losing it, the grip of his sanity slipping away each second he stayed there any longer. The hole underneath the corpse was too small for him to go through and the only way of ever following his son's trail would be to go another way around the surface somehow. The chain link face was not only stretching so high up, but all of it had barbed wire wrapped around it, making it impossible for him to jump over.

"Help… me…" the thing struggled to move its lips as the whispered words became clearer, and Alex froze, simply staring at it, aghast.

No-no-no… he… he's dead. That's right. He's dead. And just like with Reznov before… ignore him. Just… ignore it all.

Get the hell outta here! NOW!

Without further hesitation, he turned and ran back to where he had first come from. It was only when he turned to the first corner that led out of the area that three of some of the most demonic beings he's ever seen had risen into view.

"What?!" he shrieked without ever realizing that he did.

They were humanoid in shape, short in height, about four feet tall, arms long enough to reach the ground limply. Their faces were filled with all kinds of wrong, their contorted expressions twisting in some of the most inhuman ways possible. Their skin was gray, thick, and burnt, walking in drunken strides as one of them moaned and shrieked in a distorted childish voice that cried in a sorrowful, but demonic tone.

"It… burns…" the thing said as another one wailed in a warped, ethereal voice.

"Daddy… help…! Burns…"

"No… no… I-I… I'm hallucinating," he muttered in disbelief, taking a few steps back as his body trembled in severe apprehension. "You're not real! You're not fucking real! This can't be! No!"

Looking back around, he realized that there was no way of escape. His only way out of there was to head through the humanoid things. Seeing no other option, he pushed through a gap, narrowly dodging the grasp of the first and second ones that stood closer to him. The third one, however, managed to grab at his bomber jacket with its abnormal hands, its grip tightening and burning through the jacket's material. In response, he kicked it with enough force that loosened its grip and he began swiveling against the corroded wall to his right, knocking the thing down completely as it ripped away and dragged his bomber jacket along with it. Their dark presence sent a hot trail of heated air, with the acrid odor of burnt flesh rushing through his nostrils, though he continued to run out of there, putting enough distance away from the other demon-like children, slowly coming to terms that whatever they were, they were real, and not figments of his imagination running wild.

Gotta get back to the surface, get my gun, and come back here for David!

His true goal now well-fitted in his mind, Alex continued to sprint without looking back, hearing the otherworldly wails of the demon children being put behind him…

…and just when he thought he finally had a small moment of relief, the whole fence gate he had entered from was now replaced by a solid, thick wall of blood-stained bricks.

Okay… now I'm fucking losing it!

He could've sworn he was in the right direction. He even specifically remembered the plastered pattern details of the wall's corner and the fence barely having any signs of blood or barbed wire attached to it in this section of the chain link fence maze.

This has to be it! The fence gate! Where the hell?!

Alex began to gaze around for any other possible exits. Maybe he could use one of the barrels to climb up to a hidden ventilation shaft? Or possibly a fire escape somewhere?

There!

Just as he had predicted, there was a ventilation shaft large enough for him to fit right inside, located just above a series of rails and metal pipes that he could use to climb as well.

Without wasting more time, he dropped David's teddy bear and proceeded to climb over a set of oxidized barrels and jumped as much as he could, putting one hand over the metallic pipe that seemed like it was about to give in at any moment.

C'mon! Just a better grip and I'm good to go!

Using his military training, he proceeded to use all of his muscle strength in one hand to reach over another pipe, his knees banging against the corroded wall almost painfully, but he held himself together as he grabbed onto a rail next to the pipe. Having the lighter equipped with the other hand wasn't helping much, but it also wouldn't help either if he had no way of seeing his way through.

Just one more… and…

"SHIT!"

He hadn't expected it to be so slippery, and before long, he'd lost his balance as he tried reaching for the edge of the shaft and immediately plummeted down to the barrels, hitting his head and back in the process before his body bounced back to the ground, the clustered group of demonic children slowly gathering from across the corner of the wall, eager to get their filthy hands on him.

All he was able to hear after that was the distant, distorted echoing moans of the dark creatures as his ears rang a piercing, resonating wail of pain surging through his skull and spine. He tried to stand up, fully determined not to fall victim to the humanoid beings, but his body had already given up on him. The world around him became hazy, spinning wildly from the massive headache he began to feel, and the last thing he was able to remember was the sound of the air raid sirens blaring once again in the distance, before falling unconscious…

"AH—!"

Alex woke up in a huge startle, blood pounding in his ears so heavily, he thought someone must've hit him right then and there. He threw some wild punches in the air a few times before he could even have a good look at his surroundings.

It was entirely bright, everything looking rather blurry and fuzzy. As he began to sit up straight, blinking a few times before squinting at what was ahead, he was able to make out a few shapes around him through the bright light; tables, chairs, booths…

Am I at a… diner? How did I…? The fuck's going on here?

He looked over by the window behind the booth he was sitting on, his head and back aching and throbbing so much, he could practically feel as though he had been run over by a massive tank. It was apparent that outside was just exactly as it had been before — foggy and bright once again.

Except, it's no longer snowing or packed with snow outside…

…ash? What the…

Alex put both his hands over his face, sliding them down in weariness and disbelief as he tried to recall recent events. Did any of it actually happen? Where's all the snow from before? Was he dreaming? Was he stuck in a loop of nightmares, unable to wake up in the real world? Was there a huge fire somewhere?

His answers were still coming from the aches he was feeling from the fall he'd received in whatever world he found himself in before. He could even still hear the spine-chilling echoes of the godforsaken creatures inside his head, the sirens of war and chaos burned into his mind… the ungodly wails of the nightmarish reality itself still keeping him on edge for as much as he hated to admit it.

"You feeling okay?"

A voice quickly put him on the alert and his heart jumped for a quick moment as he glanced over in the direction where it came from, hoping to himself he wasn't exactly hallucinating once again.

The cop…

She was sitting over one of the stools that stood next to the counter in front, her face now fully revealed without her helmet, although she also seemed like she received a pretty good hit just above her left eyebrow herself, possibly due to the impact she may have had earlier. The cop had short blonde hair and the eyes of an experienced investigator, an astounding fact for someone who looked quite as young as she did.

Alex suddenly sighed in relief, feeling a sense of tranquility to finally have someone real and normal to talk to right now.

"I've been better," he said simply. "I'm just having a really fucking bad day, Officer…"

"Bennett," she finished off his sentence. "You can call me Cybil for short if you want — and as you can see," - she put a couple of fingers over her bleeding wound for a moment - "I'm not exactly in my best days either — what's your name, by the way?"

"Alex Mason," he replied tiredly as he began to move his hands to rub his temples as a result of his throbbing headache. "Retired government agent for the past year now."

"Have you been drinking recently?" she followed up with another question, taking a closer look at him as she narrowed her eyes slightly.

"I haven't even taken a single drink since leaving the CIA. Not after…"

Alex began to feel more tense and apprehensive about the circumstances that plagued him, as well as the ones that have been affecting —

David!

As if his aches had suddenly gone for good, he immediately stood up abruptly and began to jog toward the exit of the diner when he was suddenly stopped by Cybil at gunpoint.

"Hold it!" she commanded fiercely in the familiar authoritative tone he once remembered to belong to his former handler, Jason Hudson. "Where do you think you're going?"

Alex already had his hand on the door's handle, feeling annoyed that he was now wasting more time than necessary as he knew his son and the girl he was with wouldn't last a second longer out there after everything that happened prior. He really didn't have time to be playing cops and robbers with Cybil.

"I can't stay here," he informed her, his hand still on the handle as he slowly turned his head around to see her light-blue eyes wearing a mixed gaze of inquisitiveness and caution. "My seven-year-old son's missing, along with this other girl he's with. And those monsters out there… if they really were real, I have to go and save them before anything bad happens to them. You have to understand!"

Cybil took a moment of silence to seemingly ponder whether or not what he was saying was anything to go by. If anything, Alex felt like mentioning the word, "monsters" might've given her a false sense of alert that he may not be fully there in the same reality as her. It was still far better than telling her that some kind of group of demonic-looking children had tried to attack him and could very well be stalking his son next. Although it was bad enough that it was now raining ash outside, and the cop surely may have realized that it simply wasn't natural for a town to be snowy, only to somehow make it all disappear and replace it all with ash, assuming everything he went through before really did happen.

"No…" she said after a long pause, slowly putting her weapon down. "I can't let you go out there by yourself. It's too dangerous." She looked away from him for a second, a flicker of apprehension suddenly washing over her face, almost trembling at a thought that had apparently crossed her mind at that same moment. "The 'monsters' you mentioned… what did they look like?"

Alex could tell that the young cop may have encountered some of the abnormalities that may have happened to him as well, considering that the entire town went entirely dark after those sirens blared in the distance. She must've faced those creatures before if that was the case.

"Would you believe me if I tell you that they looked a lot like deformed children being possessed by demons of some kind?" he said almost flatly, though he shook slightly just by the mention of it.

Cybil's eyes widened in shock. "What?!"

Alex continued to explain. "Before all that, one moment, everything was as normal as it can be, the next, everything fell to shit and rust, as if the whole place itself rotted away overnight when those sirens activated from somewhere…"

Cybil's mouth was half opened, her eyes narrowed down to stare back at him with the typical "you must be on drugs" type of look.

"Mr. Mason, I…"

"Just Alex," he interjected, keeping a stern look.

"Okay, Alex… I'm only seeing two options here, and as much as I am as concerned for your lost son and this other girl you mentioned, I think it would be in our best interests if either one, I send you to Brahms' police station where I'm from and let the police take care of it from here - or two…"

"Are you kidding me right now —!?"

"You stay put until I call in for reinforcements," Cybil raised her voice over Alex as she finished, pulling out some handcuffs in the process. "For now, this is for your own safety. Turn around, hands behind your back."

Alex gave her a fierce look of defiance and indictment. "You cannot be fucking serious! You said it yourself; it's too dangerous. My son is out there! Have you not seen the whole town turning into nightfall in just seconds and then… this?!"

"Do not make me repeat myself, Alex!" she said at once in a commanding tone. "If you really are a former CIA agent as you claim to be, then I trust you know exactly what's going to happen here if you do not continue to cooperate with me."

'Oh I think I have a pretty good damn idea…" he said condescendingly, looking around the environment through the edges of his vision as he kept a sharp gaze on Cybil.

Alex already had his mind fixed on trying to locate his son first before any arrests could be made against him. But how could Cybil not realize the dire situation they were in? Is she not even fully aware that it's raining ash outside, or that it's unusually misty at a time like this?

And she even looked scared when I said "monsters" too…

The only conclusion he could uphold was that she was probably doing her best to try and hide the fact that monsters really did exist and simply, wanted to mask her fears and turn the blame on him for being drunk or high, possibly due to the fact that Cybil really did see him swerve erratically on the jeep prior.

But I have to find my son first… I have to find him fast!

He'd have to try and make his escape first, putting some of his morals aside as he immediately formed a quick mental scenario to disarm Cybil and take her gun as he leaves to go find the place in which he first saw David and the other girl disappear earlier before. If the town was as small as it was described, it shouldn't take him long to find Finney St. or Bachman Rd., even if he had to run around the city blind.

Before he could do anything, however, a radio from somewhere inside the diner started to slowly throw in the sound of static in the diner's silence, and both Alex and Cybil merely stared at the abandoned small, portable radio laying on top of a table.

"The radio…" Alex said suddenly in a low voice. "Sounds almost exactly how it —"

Cybil's radio on her utility belt burst to life in a loud crescendo of static noise, interrupting Alex as Cybil quickly grabbed it and tried to make sense of the noise it was emitting.

"Why is it acting like this again?" Cybil muttered with uncertainty in her voice. "Couldn't even get it to turn on earlier when… GET DOWN!"

CRASH!

"SHIT!" Alex exclaimed before he could even take a look at what it was that had broken into the diner's window behind him, diving to the ground as he rolled forward to Cybil's side, his back now aching once again.

A huge, avian creature had shattered the window with unnatural strength, its large wings fiercely flapping in the air as it dove to try and take a bite of a moving Alex, barely missing him as it quickly flew over a set of tables toward the jukebox on the other end of the diner.

As Alex turned to take a better look at the creature, it was unlike any wild flying creature he'd ever seen before. The thing looked skinless, the legs and torso reminiscent of that of a human being, but the similarities stopped there. Its overall shape was mostly that of the extinct pteranodon, its arms the shape of enormous bat-like wings, and the thing was squeaking in a high-pitched screeching noise of a damned soul.

Cybil began to fire at it without hesitation, shooting it multiple times in the chest as the thing tried to do a diving attack once more, this time, pulling out its sharp talons that were directed at the cop instead. Blood had been splattering from the wounds it was receiving, yet none of the shots seemed like it was doing much to slow it down at all.

"WATCH OUT!" Alex shouted as he pushed down Cybil toward the ground, and he suddenly felt a painful scratch over his left shoulder as he shielded her from the skinless pteranodon-like creature.

During the struggle, Alex had accidentally made the cop loosen the gun as it slid underneath one of the tables in front, close to where the screeching portable radio lay abandoned. The creature immediately began to collide against the attached TV set on top of the ceiling's corner, the whole thing falling right on top of the skinless thing's head, knocking it down to the ground as it screeched loudly in pain.

"Alex…" Cybil gasped, trying to catch her breath as she slowly tried to stand up once Alex began to move closer to the counter. "Your shoulder…"

Alex ignored her concerns, grabbing a worn-out kitchen knife over the counter as he marched closer to the downed creature, which seemed like it was now whimpering in a strange hoarse noise. Just as he got close enough, he crouched down and immediately stabbed the creature's head in a powerful jab, killing it instantly as its fish-like glassy eyes no longer moved, its body limp and unmoving as it slowly formed a pool of its own blood.

He let go of the knife and slowly stood up, knowing that the rusted tool would easily break apart should he even try to pull it with enough force to take it out. The portable radio on the table, along with Cybil's comms radio, stopped their static noise abruptly as soon as the creature was seemingly dead. He merely stared at it in both shock and disgust, unable to fathom the reality he was in anymore.

I can't be dreaming or hallucinating, can I? What the fuck's going on in this place!?

As he questioned the plane of existence he found himself in, he quickly remembered the nightmares David had, some of which David could vaguely recall. He did say something about "monsters" and that every time he tried to walk anywhere in his dream, it would quickly shift between light and dark. It was all that David could remember and the few times Alex had asked him anything about Silent Hill, he simply wouldn't know what it was or what it meant.

And all of that is happening here in this fucked up town…

…am I really inside a literal nightmare? Is this all in my head too? Is anything even… real?

"Alex?"

Alex jumped slightly at Cybil's voice behind him, snatching him out of his inner thoughts, though he continued to gaze at the dead creature on the ground. He felt like he really needed to stop questioning everything around him every five seconds and at least give in to his soldier instincts if he wanted to survive inside this hellish town and look for his son in such dangerous territory.

"What's your son's name?" she inquired softly, now standing right next to him as she joined him to stare at the abnormality in front of them.

"David," he uttered in a barely audible voice.

"And the girl?"

"Don't know. Just saw her running off with him in an alley at Finney St., wearing a purple school uniform, with long black hair, about twelve maybe. My boy's wearing a red T-shirt with blue jeans, black and white sneakers. Short, brown hair, a bit like me." - Alex turned his head around and fixed his attention on her - "Do you even have any idea what the hell's happening around here? The ash outside? — And this thing?"

Cybil slowly shook her head. "Not a clue. I actually thought I was the one imagining things at first but after this… I'm starting to think you're not as crazy as I thought you'd be."

"Right," Alex scoffed. "So am I allowed to go find my son now?"

"I'll be damned if I let you do this alone," she said as she ejected the magazine to count how many bullets she had left before slapping it back in. "I'm not about to let a couple of children wander off by themselves in a place like this either. Not on my watch."

"Alright then," Alex nodded in agreement, feeling glad that he wasn't the only one struggling to cope with the insanity swarming around him, and proceeded to pick up the portable radio - as something kept telling him it'd come of some use in the future, putting it in one of his pockets. "We should head back to my jeep first. There's some stuff I'd like to pick up first before heading into that alleyway at Finney."

"That's exactly where I found you," she emphasized. "I caught a shadow of you going through the alley. I called out to you, but you didn't seem to respond or turn around to face me. And then I found you knocked out good with your jacket missing this time, down inside the abandoned warehouse at the end of the alley. I had to practically drag your ass all the way here. I thought you were drunk, and after what you pulled earlier in the night, it just sort of made sense at the time."

Alex wasn't in the mood to be explaining all of the phenomena that have been happening before and after the accident. All he wanted to do was to keep moving. If the air raid sirens would ever decide to blare once again and the sky shifts itself back to nighttime before he could find David, it'd be one hell of a perilous journey, and one he wasn't willing to wait around for either.

"Let's just hurry this up, okay?" he insisted and went on his way to leave the diner. Cybil nodded and followed right after him.

The diner was actually just several meters in front of the intersection Alex went through the first time so the walk wasn't going to be as long as he had expected it to be.

The weather was now unusually warm. The whole town was entirely covered in that same thick, white fog. This time, however, it was mixed with the gray fog of dense smoke and ash, reminding Alex of his military days inside bombed ruins, the whole place smelling like death and some wildfire that had gotten out of control, barely being able to breathe through it. However, there were no obvious signs of any fire from anywhere across town, not even Cybil could make out where it could be coming from, considering she was a frequent visitor to Silent Hill and it was her first time seeing the town abandoned and dilapidated like this. She had informed Alex that when she'd woken up from the accident she had herself, everything turned out to be this way, and nothing much really changed after that since finding him in the alleyway.

As they headed further into Bachman Rd. something quite shocking would quickly come into view through the thick fog. Nearing closer, the cop and the former CIA agent looked down the road that led straight to where the jeep was. The whole road seemed like it had collapsed entirely, almost as though the entire earth itself where the road once sat had quickly fallen into a huge chasm none of them could explain how it could've happened, let alone even exist. Earthquakes weren't a regularity in this particular region of the US, but even if it had been an earthquake, it must've been an unusually powerful one, yet none of them ever felt it, or else the rest of the town itself would've been completely obliterated, turned into nothing but rubble.

Knowing there was nothing else they could do to reach the jeep, Alex and Cybil proceeded to go back and look for David and his mysterious friend, both of them hoping that the children had taken proper refuge somewhere in the enigmatic town of Silent Hill…

Author's Note: If you haven't noticed by now, I sort of combined some things from the Silent Hill (2006) film and the first Silent Hill game. In my headcanon, the reason it turns from snow to ash, it's more to do with Silent Hill having varying dimensions of the fog world, depending on the psyche of the person's mind. The more their minds are troubled, the worse the town is perceived by the person in question, hence the change in dimensions that Alex goes through (not counting the Otherworld) and the reason Cybil has only seen the town filled with ash. Meanwhile, you have David and the other girl (Silent Hill fans may already know her name just by the description of her outfit), running through as almost shadows of themselves, hence why Alex couldn't properly communicate with them due to being in a different plane of existence.

As I said before, this is all just my headcanon since the whole series itself has many different ways of portraying the fog world to varying characters of the franchise.

Originally, I planned on switching it all up as a Dead Island/Silent Hill one-shot instead of a CoD/SH, while having Ryan from Dead Island 2 and his little brother being the protagonists. However, since I had it more than halfway finished, I simply decided to finish it as a CoD/SH one-shot. Plus, I feel like Alex and David have more interesting background stories to tell rather than Ryan and his brother. Not to mention we know next to nothing about the unnamed brother as well. Not like the Dead Island series takes itself seriously most of the time anyway hahaha. I could've made some interesting background plots for the two siblings, but I was still so caught up with my previous fic at the time, I simply went against the idea in the end.

Enough with the rant!

Hopefully, you guys enjoyed it! I know it's not a "Resident Evil Black Ops" upload, but it's just a little something from me for all of you to have a bit of fun with while you wait for my third entry of the REBO series. If time permits, I may someday turn this into a full story, but as of now, it's entirely out of the question.

See you all around! And remember, don't forget to drop in reviews as well! It always helps out!