Disclaimer: Gundam Seed and all its characters are copyright their respected owners 'n whatnot.

Ch -02 -NoWhere-

He tried to hide from the world…the noises bothered him.

Neither here nor there, otherworldly, terrifyingly ethereal, never in all his years had he ever heard anything like this. Sounds that form pictures in your mind and cause you to see things that weren't there. Sounds that brought back childhood fears, of monsters under the bed and boogiemen in the closet. And even now as a grown man, he knew he was being childish as he let his imagination take root, he shouldn't fear anything he couldn't see. Not him, a commanding officer of Zaft.

But Arthur Trine couldn't help it- something about the noises got to him. He was genuinely afraid of something that he didn't even know was real or not, and now he tried to hide from the world in hopes that everything would go away.

He didn't know how he got here, only that he couldn't leave. Some strange building, a hotel or an apartment, he couldn't tell. Everything was so old and damaged that it would be better off being condemned. The carpeting in the hallways was all but worn away, the wood paneling stained and warped. Every single one of the doors were locked or completely broken, even the entrance was shut tight. The grimy windows would not open and no matter how hard he hit, no matter what he threw the glass would not shatter.

It was only after the sounds had started, the grinding, whispering, moaning sounds that danced in his skull, that he began to believe something was keeping him here. For what reason, he didn't want to know.

At one point he thought he had spotted a young girl walking the dark hallways. He chased after her thinking it could be Meyrin or possibly Lunamaria, only to find something so wholly terrifying that he could no longer keep his body from shaking or stand even the dark sight of the broken rooms around him.

"Where is… everyone? Where are you Captain?"

Now he hid, curled in a ball inside a dark closet mumbling to himself. Praying that the next time he opens his eyes, he would wake from this nightmare.

"Silent hill? I've never heard of this place…" Murrue thought to herself as she studied the old town sign. In fact, she was pretty sure the Archangel wasn't near any towns at all. The last detail she remembers about the battle between the Archangel and the Minerva was that they were far up north. This town was quite warm, damp and humid, nowhere near any sort of arctic climate even if it were the middle of summer.

"There's no way either ship could have traveled that far…"

A sound brought her from her thoughts… that sound again.

"No! It can't… That was a dream!"

The one from her dream, the one that caused her skull to rattle and her muscles freeze. This time the sound stayed outside her head as it grew louder, no mind numbing pain as she tried to tell which direction it was coming from. The effect was the same however, as the siren ever so slowly grew to its peak then began to fade to a distant howl, the sunlight soon followed with it.

"This isn't real!" Murrue could not believe her eyes as she once again watched the world around her darken. The trees bending and twisting into blackened horrific shapes, even the grass began pale and die. The sign that once held a greeting became aged right in front of her, the paint peeling and cracking before turning to dust.

"This isn't a dream! What's happening to this place!?"

She took a step, stopping when the faithful sound of her feet hitting the pavement betrayed her. This time it sounded like she was walking on metal, and sure enough when she looked down the grey road was no longer there, replaced with frightening rusty grates and steel sheets. Eyes narrowed as she tried to look through a section of grating below her, all she saw was deep foreboding black.

Crackling static again, the same static she heard the first time this insanity had started. Her eyes snapped to the small radio clipped conveniently to her belt. Ignoring the fact she didn't remember placing it there she flicked on the flashlight. It didn't illuminate much, only a small halo in the dark contrast around her, but it was better then nothing. The fog had lightened she noticed, but now replaced by smoky clouds that billowed all around, doing nothing to help with visibility.

A different noise, this time it sounded like another pair of footsteps echoing out in the dark. She did not move, remembering the macabre images from her dream and holding back a cold shudder. The steps were out of sync, like whoever was walking had a terrible limp and was stumbling with each stride. Straining to see through the dark as a shadow appeared ahead of her on the metal road, she made out a human shape, but something was off… very off.

"Who's there? Come out where I can see you!" She called out in her commanding voice, hoping perhaps to scare off anyone whom might be planning to frighten a lone woman in the middle of nowhere.

Eyes went wide as the thing shambled forward into the halo of light the little radio was creating. She couldn't help but stare, the rubber texture of flesh that appeared both burnt and rotting. Skin stretched over what should have been arms, encasing the thing like a straight jacket against its will. Its head was shaped in an oddly familiar way, although the flesh like texture was blackened and grotesque, the face held a single red eye that seemed to be able to move to either side of its head as it tracked the woman in front of it. Pink fleshy tube-like structures grew out from the back of its head circled around the face disappearing into where the mouth should be.

If it weren't for the grotesque appearance Murrue would swear this thing's face was based off a Zaku Warrior.

It stumbled towards her, wet gurgling noises coming from… whatever those things on its face were. Something was seeping from pours on the rubbery skin, and as Murrue stepped backwards to keep a distance she could see how the black substance hissed and steamed as it touched the ground.

"Acid!"

The thing kept coming, backing Murrue closer and closer back to where the road ended into nothingness. She was unarmed, and didn't exactly want to go hand to hand with this thing if it was indeed dripping with acid. Looking around, her pickings were slim but to her luck she spotted something that could be useful. Quickly, she darted off into the dead grass and under the old town sign; there she found a suitable piece of wood that to her luck… had a nasty nail sticking out the end.

Military training didn't exactly cover combat by way of board with rusty nail, but it did teach how to improvise, and the best people in the world suited for improvisation were none other then field mechanics. Trying to fix a weapon of war in the middle of a battlefield with limited supplies? Yeah, you not only needed skill, but imagination as well.

Murrue did not hesitate as the hobbling thing shambled forward; she took a grip and swung with all her might. Her scrap of wood connected with an audible crack across the thing's head, the nail digging in deep as the black slime splattered off from the impact. The creature let out a shrill cry as it fell to the ground and writhed against its own constricting skin.

Not wanting to lose the only weapon she could find Murrue carefully stepped over the thing and tore her stick from its skull. Another shrill cry and the thing began twitching and shuddering on the ground, the same gurgling spats coming from its fleshy tubes. Murrue nearly tripped as the thing moved like lightning across the ground. It darted across the street pushing itself with its legs and sliding on its own acidic ichor.

Not wanting to get rushed by this thing she watched carefully as it darted from one direction to the next, until it suddenly pushed itself out her aura of light and into the darkness, disappearing. The gurgling sounds faded, signaling that it had run away.

"Holy… what…the hell! What the hell was that!" The thing was gone, though she was unsure if she actually just saw that or if she had gone out of her mind. She held up the piece of wood she hit it with, and watched as the nail lodged in the end fizzle away as the acid went to work. The rest of the wood was slowly being eaten away as well, turning into a soggy pulp.

She dropped it, seeing as it was no longer of use, then wondered what the hell she was going to do now. "I don't know where I am, I can't get into the Archangel and this town likes to switch between day and completely screwed up regularly." She took a couple steps down the road in the direction she thought she had come from; with everything looking rusted and broken it was hard to remember.

"There's a messed up acid dripping Zaku-Man crawling around out there somewhere now, and to top it all off there's no one else in this god forsaken town!" The tapping of feet on metal stopped as she came to a realization. "No one except Captain Gladys… I wonder if she's seeing things as well?" Murrue shook her head trying not to go any more crazy thinking on it. She quickly recalled that the other captain had a nice shiny gun, that's all that mattered right now.

She continued on her way, trying to figure out if she was backtracking to the little diner she woke up in, or simply walking in circles. Nothing looked the same; even the cars that were parked and abandoned on the side of the road were now reduced to corroded shells and fleshy lumps of something she didn't want to even think about. Murrue rounded the corner; glad to see she was indeed going in the right direction. The grocery she had run past when she followed that shadow was also worse for wear, matching the messed up look everything else was sporting.

She thought she heard something coming from inside the store, and ever so slowly approached the large display windows. Much to her annoyance the glass was covered in so much grime it was near impossible to see anything. That problem would go away however, as something smashed right through it.

She fell backwards, shielding her eyes with an arm as glass exploded around her. Thinking it was probably the Zaku-man again she scrambled to her feet and prepared to run, but instead of the awkward limping steps she heard the quick patter of something on four legs. She chanced a glance back, and then bit her tongue as she tried not to curse out loud.

A dog looked back at her. But it couldn't be an ordinary dog no- it had to be an eyeless skinless bloody dripping dog that looked like it ran under a lawnmower and lived. She didn't know if this was worse then the Zaku-man but she definitely wasn't sticking around to find out.

She got about a yard away when another skinless dog-thing ran out from an adjacent alleyway. She skidded to a halt as it stood in front of her with its head lowered, growling in menace.

"Ok… its just a dog… just a dog… just a …"

The first dog thing joined its companion, sniffing the air around it as it tried to get the scent of its prey. It paced around her while the other remained vigilant in its aggressive posture. Then it stopped, looked at her with a growl, and then opened its jaws- both sets of them.

Its head split apart from its muzzle as a flower would open in the sunlight. Though there was nothing nice and flowery about this thing, as rows of razor sharp teeth came into view, along with a long slime drenched tongue that writhed from the center of its throat.

"To hell with this!" Murrue said out loud, then without waiting rushed forward before this nasty thing could rush her first, and kicked it right in its split face before she took off in a run. The dog whined as it fell to the ground, not expecting to be on the receiving end of an attack. The other dog jerked away in surprise, then began its chase after the Archangel captain.

She ran blindly, the small flashlight barely illuminating the road in front of her. She could hear the tapping of nails as the skinless things ran after her, drawing closer. She didn't dare look back and just kept running as fast as she could. She smiled when she saw it, and praised whatever god of luck was on her side. Without even slowing down Murrue burst through the doors of the now rundown diner and quickly slammed them closed behind her.

She leaned against the door with all her weight and held it shut, it pounded against her back as the skinless dog-things tried relentlessly to get in after her. She prayed to herself that they wouldn't get smart and smash through the large windowpanes here as well. She cursed silently as the slamming got more and more intense; she didn't know how long she could hold them back or how long this degraded door could hold out.

Murrue looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon, there was nothing. The dinner as a whole barely even resembled the one she first woke up in. Everything was in its spot, from the booths to the stools to the condiments on the table, but everything looked wrong! Instead of the clean atmosphere the whole thing was covered in a blanket of rust and decay, even the walls looked eroded to the point where plaster and wall paneling was eaten away until only wire grate held the everything together.

Not only was this place screwed up as well but also Captain Gladys - and that shiny handgun that would come in handy right about now - was nowhere to be seen. Murrue held on with all her strength, but she could hear the door begin to weaken and give way. She was about to give up and make a dash to the back of the dinner; maybe there was a way out there, when suddenly the slamming stopped. Just like that, everything went quiet.

Murrue did not dare move, wondering what had happened and why her new friends had stopped, until the familiar sound of that siren started up again. She watched in terrified fascination as the environment once again changed. Paint returned to the walls, the rust faded away, tainted wood and plaster looked like new again.

"What…" She took a step away from the door. "What?" She touched one of the tabletops, feeling the clean surface when only seconds ago it looked like someone had bled out onto it. "What!!" She put a hand to her face and sat down, slinking back into one of the booths not being able to believe what she was seeing or what was going on. "I've gone insane…"

Murrue looked back out, the light had returned and the pounding scratching sound of the dogs that had chased her had vanished. "Maybe… they only come out when everything goes all crazy?" She asked herself, and then decided to check to make sure. She walked back to the door, and after a moment to steel her nerves, cracked it open just enough to look out.

The coast was clear…

Opening the door more she took a step outside, no dogs, only the lonely grey fog. "Thank god." She sighed, grateful for the quiet of the abandoned streets for a change. She walked out into the street, looking around in hopes of finding a glimpse of Captain Gladys or where she could have gone. "I guess I'm still on my own, I should at least try to find my way back to the Arc-" Her little radio began to crackle again, and something in the back of her mind told her to turn around.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!"

It jumped out from behind the dumpster on the side of the street and began it's chase once more. The dog thing let out a slobbery growl as it leapt straight at her, Murrue managed to somehow dodge just in time but fell off balance and stumbled as the disgusting canine's body slammed into her awkwardly.

Both scrambled on the ground as they raced to see who would get to their feet first. In the process Murrue had begun making her way towards the dumpster the dog thing had come from. A handle of some sort sticking out had caught her eye, and now she prayed to whatever gods were listening that it would be useful enough to fend off her attacker.

Ignoring the sound of paws on the pavement getting closer by the second, Murrue's hands made contact with the handle, and without even thinking pulled it from the trash and swung around with all her might.

The dog thing whined as a bent and broken golf club made contact with its jaw, sending it sprawling backwards and onto the ground in a heap. Murrue did not wait for it to get back up; she pounced on this opportunity and cracked the club against its head again, and again, and again.

She ignored the pitiful cries of this messed up beast, she ignored the sickly black blood spattering everywhere, and she defiantly ignored the colourful profanities that were spewing from her own mouth as she did so.

Murrue only stopped when the bent shaft of her club snapped in two. Exhausted, she tossed it aside and looked down at the dead thing in front of her. It was defiantly dead, even though it looked dead before but now as its blood pooled under its crushed head it was really, really dead.

She took a step back from it, and then closed her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. So she was wrong about one thing, these monsters – or at least these dogs, are out here regardless if its day or that weird night. Her jaw clenched as she wondered if that Zaku-Man was still out here as well, shambling around or waiting to dart out from under some darkened spot.

A slight shuffling sound brought her from her thoughts, and that's when she remembered a very important detail. She opened her eyes and lazily turned her head to the right, where the second eyeless skinless dog thing stood patiently on the sidewalk. It was waiting for its companion to bring him a meal, but unfortunately now it would have to take matters into its own hands. Its split jaws separated in a slimy growl, and then it lunged.

"Oh for the love of…"

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Murrue flinched as three gunshots rang out. The dog thing hit the ground in front of her in a bloody heap and stayed there. Looking to where the gunshots came from revealed Captain Gladys, standing with her gun still trained on the creature just in case it was still alive. Satisfied when the thing didn't budge, Talia walked over to Murrue and inspected her handiwork.

"You alright?" The taller woman asked as she nudged the corpse with her foot.

"No, but thanks for the save anyway." Murrue then shook her head as she tried to refocus. "I thought you said you'd be waiting at the diner?"

"I was… but when everything went dark, honestly I didn't think you would be coming back."

Murrue froze, considering what she had just gone through the other Captain had a point. "So, you're seeing all this as well? Its not just me?"

"Not to sound like an ass, but I really wish it was just you." Talia said as she released her gun clip, checked it, and then pushed it back in. "I was heading towards the police station to see if I could grab some weapons or ammunition. I didn't make it very far before I heard the... dogs, I guess you could call them that. I did find this though, it was just laying at the end of a road." Talia fished a key from her pocket and handed it to Murrue.

She took it and examined the broken key chain hanging from it. The blue plastic had been snapped, leaving only the letters T E L in deep red. "Motel maybe?"

"Or hotel… " Talia shrugged. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you ran into the edge of the world as well right?" She meant the broken and cracked roads that fell into nothingness. She sighed when Murrue nodded.

"The Archangel had a road leading to it when I first was there. But even if it still exists it won't do us any good, everything is shut down and the keypad to get back in was stolen somehow." Murrue said, still wondering how she managed to blackout in a warship and wake up in a diner.

"Great… Well I haven't found said hotel or motel yet so I may as well go with my original plan" Talia turned and began to walk away. "Well… you coming?" She added when she looked back to see her rival captain still staring at the dead thing.

Murrue snapped from her daydream. "You got the gun, you're the boss." Murrue held a mock salute then quickly caught up with the Minerva captain.

"Hey I'm only letting you because you're the only other person I've seen, and if I do recall you just killed one of those things yourself. Quite... brutally actually." Talia then noticed that her new companion was limping somewhat. "Hey, you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, woke up like this. Not sure what happened." Noting that Talia was in a somewhat better state of mind then the first time she met her, Murrue decided to pry a little herself. "Hey, um… did the Minerva… is it nearby?"

Talia's gaze fell to the road as they walked, a forlorn look falling over her. "I don't know. We were chasing you down when suddenly there was this… fog… I've never seen it so thick, or so high in the atmosphere it made no sense."

Talia's expression changed to absolutely confused as she remembered the incident, or at least tried to anyway. "Shortly after that everything went wrong. The Minerva was unresponsive and we started going down. The last thing I remember was seeing the ground… I don't remember the impact. When I woke up, I was… out in the street alone and… I thought I saw…"

"What did you see?" Murrue asked, wondering why the taller woman trailed off suddenly.

"My…" Talia paused, eyes pained as she tried to make sense of her own memory. "It was nothing, just a shadow."

Murrue let herself fall a pace behind and watched the other captain as she walked. Murrue knew when someone was keeping something back, but she didn't push the matter. She herself had seen a bucket-load of crazy recently; she didn't need Talia's worries as well.

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Both watching the others back and keeping an eye on any adjacent alleyways that looked too dark for their own good. It wasn't long until they found what they were looking for.

"Silent Hill PD huh? Doesn't look very big, but then again this town doesn't look like it would be too noisy to begin with." Murrue noted as they passed by the abandoned police cruisers and they made their way to the front entrance of the Police Station. Murrue tried the door only to find it was locked. She pushed and pulled and hoped maybe she could pry it loose, but to no avail. "Damn it! Why is everything in this town either locked broken or trying to kill you!"

Talia shook her head then nudged her aside. "Here hold on to this, actually just keep it you'll probably make better use of it then me." Talia gave up her gun, pushing into Murrue's hands without second thought.

Murrue checked the clip, and then raised a brow at the other captain. "But… what about you?"

Talia simply smiled. "We're bound to find something useful in here, and besides..." She then turned her attention to the offending locked door, and let loose with a powerful kick. The door handle flew off, along with splintered wood and dust as the door exploded inward. "I never was a good shot."

Murrue simply rolled her eyes and sighed. "You ever think this whole war could have been avoided if you guys didn't show off as much?"

"Pfft, as if."

A/N – So Ramius has found a helpful companion… but how long will that last until the town decides to separate them again? Dun dun dunnnn….

…lol… zaku-man…