Disclaimer: Gundam Seed and all its characters are copyright their respected owners 'n whatnot.
A/N - Ever so slight AU just for crossover reasons.
CH-05- Face
An address.
Numbers scrawled across the surface of a crumpled piece of dirty paper. Dark ink. No, not ink. She doesn't want to know what the ink is.
564 Levin Street.
Where the hell was Levin Street?
Murrue's eyes shifted over the address in her hands, she didn't understand why this boy would give her such a thing, or what possible means could come of it. But if anything, maybe it would get her the hell out of this damn hotel. Not that the fog was any better, but at least she wouldn't have this overwhelming feeling of being trapped.
She backed away, taking easy steps just in case the floor around her gave way as well. She didn't know where Talia went; she didn't want to know were Talia went. All she knew was that the Minerva Captain was gone, swallowed by the room itself. Murrue only looked around when she felt she was completely out in the hallway again. Her breath caught in her throat, this was impossible.
Everything had gone back to normal. The dark dingy atmosphere returned to the lighted dusty, yet tolerable scenery of an abandoned hotel. The wire grating walls were gone, and the bloodstained floor was as clean as it could be considering the wear and tear.
Murrue snapped her gaze back to the room where the little boy was, everything was neat and clean, no sight of a gaping hole to be seen. Tidy waxed floors and a decorative mat lay there instead. She felt the muscles in her neck twinge involuntarily and she knew exactly why. She needed to get out of here; this place was quickly driving her insane.
She didn't waste this opportunity; she bolted to the emergency stairs and did not stop for anything until she was in the lobby once more. She stopped, she didn't really know why but felt compelled to do so. She looked around for hopefully the last time, hoping perhaps to see Talia, or even that green haired man of hers waiting. They were both quite capable especially the Minerva Captain and both were coordinators at that. But it seems like this hell did not discriminate, as no one was in the lobby waiting for Murrue.
Her arm stung.
She placed a hand over the wound received from the crazy axe-wielding maniac that had Talia's face. It stung and itched, and the blood still trickled from the gash slowly. Her sleeve was still damp and soaking, this needed attention. It was all she could think of now, as her energy quickly drained the more she became aware of the pain.
She burst back out into the fog, knowing she wasn't being as cautious as she should. But the burning in her arm and her pale complexion overrode any fear of roaming monsters that she may have had before.
Murrue didn't know how long she stumbled through the dense air until she found a main street, passing by the multitude of neglected stores until she found what she was looking for. She slammed against the doors, only to find they were locked. She growled, knowing she was near her limits and didn't care if anything heard what she did next. Murrue reached for her gun and shot at the glass panes, grinning madly as they shattered she tripped over the doorframe as she made her way into the pharmacy.
Murrue was so weak she couldn't stop from tumbling into the counters, knocking over whatever various items were stacked up. She finally smashed her way into what she wanted, or whatever was closest that she could use. Grabbing some gauss and a bottle of peroxide she finally let herself collapse into the back wall. Somehow she got her jacket off, despite being torn on the sleeve and across her stomach it was still functional. She tossed it aside and looked to her wound.
The cut was deep, but it didn't look too bad, thankfully it wouldn't need stitches. She got the peroxide ready, knowing very well that this was going to hurt, but wanted the reassurance of knowing the dust and whatever grime from the hotel was cleansed away.
She braced herself, and then poured. She felt a cold sensation at first as the chemical came in contact with the open wound. It sizzled and foamed as it touched her blood, then began to sting.
Murrue's jaw clamped tight, hissing through clenched teeth as the stinging persisted. The pain taking her back to memories of her youth when her mother would do the same on cuts and scrapes. Murrue remembered clearly her mother's voice, telling her it wasn't going to hurt every time this needed to be done.
A smirk crossed her lips. 'The liar.'
The pain soon subsided and Murrue finished the job by dressing the gash tightly. She didn't bother putting her jacket back on, and just sat there for a bit. She looked to her left and grabbed a bottle of something off the shelf next to her. It was a health drink of sorts, she wasn't very fond of them to begin with, but anything slightly nutritious right now would probably do her a world of good.
She eyed the bottle; it looked clean enough, and then snapped it open and took a swig. She nearly gagged, but managed to swallow it. It tasted like pressed lawn clippings mixed with extract of peanut husks.
Murrue forced another gulp, then laughed. Remembering how many of her crew would sneak these kinds of things onboard in an attempt to avoid whatever swill was served with lunch. "Must have been a trend thing." She half mumbled, her voice sounding drained. "I don't know who would admit this could taste good."
A sigh escaped her. Her crew. She had no idea what had become of them, no idea if they were even still alive. Images of the town invaded her mind, the way Talia fell, her officer disappearing, the monsters in the alleys, and that huge pyramid-head thing.
The way it stared at her.
At her.
Her good arm raised on its own accord as it tried to swipe away the invisible image of that creature in front of her. Her arm fell back to the floor when the memory left her staring at an empty store.
She felt like crying but held it back, choking back a sob that tried to escape. She would not give up now, not after escaping everything so far. She would not give in to this place, she would not allow it to take her mind. She'd find her crew, make her way back to her ship and get the hell out. Maybe even turn the Lohengrin on this messed up town, laugh as it burns to dust. Then she'd fire it again just for good measure, to hell with the environment.
Murrue took a final mouthful of the foul tasting health drink let the bottle fall from her hand. "I must be really losing my mind to think something like that." She half mumbled to herself while her head fell back on its own accord. Exhaustion finally took over, and sleep took hold.
Talia gasped, then coughed as dust and stale air greeted her on her return to the waking world, if this nightmare could be called that. She'd rather go back to sleep.
The Minerva Captain opened her eyes. She could just barely make out the faintest light above her through the massive hole in the roof. There was nothing up there however, whatever light she was seeing was soon drowned out by the blackness above.
She sat up quickly, remembering seeing Daniel here of all places. She did not know how it was possible, he was supposed to be safe up in the PLANTs, up in space thousands and thousands of miles away from earth itself. Yet there he was, she was sure of it, clear as day in that room… ignoring her.
Pain overtook her senses as her body reminded her what she just went through, bone and muscle popping at the slightest movement. She must have landed badly on her already injured back. Her axe was next to her, broken in two and rendered useless.
"I'm lucky to be alive." She murmured as she attempted to stand, grateful the axe head didn't land on her. She stumbled a bit before she steadied herself on her feet, and then tried to figure out where the heck she was now.
All around her was concrete, from the walls right down to the floor. A simple basement if she ever saw one. There was the odd decoration here and there, a broken neon sign, a ruined picture frame and a few broken chairs. She noticed a bar at one end and walked towards it. There was nothing on the shelves behind it however, just more dust and broken glass bottles, ghosts of times when liquor was passed about eagerly.
Knowing how rowdy bars can get, Talia decided to take a closer look. She hopped over the faux mahogany in a swift leap, the movement causing her muscles to protest somewhat, but the reward was worth it.
A combat shotgun lay hidden and out of place in a cabinet, a box of shells sitting next to it unopened. She picked the weapon up tentatively, half expecting something to jump out of the dark space. Instead there was something underneath the gun, carved into the wood cabinet itself.
It was circular, outlined in a bright red ink. She ran a finger over it trying to make anything of it, as it was well worn and damaged. She decided it wasn't anything important and moved on.
She tested the weight of her new weapon, pointing and aiming at nothing in particular. It looked to be in good shape, but she really wouldn't know until she fired. She brought the extra shells up on the table and began to load the gun. To her surprise it had a magazine extender allowing the generic shotgun to hold eight rounds. It also had an extra shell holder on the butt of the gun, permitting her to carry extra ammo a bit more easily. Whoever owned this bar must have meant business… or just really liked guns.
The faintest of sounds caught her ears and in an instant her newly acquired weapon was up and aimed in its direction. She hopped the bar again and walked towards the wall in the direction of the noise. This corner was darker then the rest, she simply thought it was a play of the light but as she drew closer Talia noticed a strange texture, a sort of dark vegetation spreading all over.
The sound again, and again her reflexes had the gun pointed before she even had a chance to let the movement register. Carefully she stepped forward, fully aware of how the soft mass squished under her boots. An audible groan this time, and Talia noticed a tuft of odd colour amongst the dark growth on the wall.
A moan, a person's moan came from a lump on the wall. Talia ignored all the warnings and placed her hand over it feeling the warmth from whomever underneath. She tugged at the growth until a very familiar face was revealed.
"Dupre!" She recognized her crewman, and instantly attempted to free him. "How did you get here? Where is everyone?" She asked as she franticly pulled and tore away enough of the growth to free his face.
"Look…out for….him…" Vino mumbled in barely a whisper.
"What? Look out for who?" She pulled some more but the growth was quite resilient, sliding back up the boy's face the moment she let go.
"Him… look out for Him!"
Before she knew what was going on something wrapped around Talia's ankle. A tremendous force quickly yanked her away from the boy and dragged her roughly across the rough cold floor. She managed to turn on her back and see the fleshy tentacle-like appendage pulling her along. Gun still in hand, she didn't bother looking where this slimy vine was taking her, and opened fire.
There was a cloud of black ichor as the powerful blast severed the vine from her leg, freeing her from its grip. Scrambling back to her feet she didn't realize how far and how fast the slimy thing had dragged her, until she looked up into glowing green eyes set deep into the concrete wall.
She had been nearly pulled to the other end of the room, the vines objective clearly to slam her into the wall that now glared at her. The wall itself began to shift and move, the flesh-like vegetative growth moving out the way to reveal a giant face, a terrible semi-robotic face intertwined with fleshy growths and pulsing veins. It was the face of the Impulse Gundam.
"What… the… hell..."
Another slimy vine slammed into her from the side, sending her careening off her feet to land hard on the concrete floor. She tried to get up, but was quickly slammed again, sliding back into the wall where the boy was trapped.
Almost immediately the fleshy growth tried to cover her, growing rapidly over her jacket and adhering her arms in place. Talia would have none of that, and before it could cement her in place she fought against it. The vines snapped and popped as she pulled away, the fabric of her uniform tearing with it. The monster on the wall sensed her escape and screamed in protest.
The sound was horrendous, like an animal in distress with overtones of metal grinding against metal. She would have covered her ears if something hadn't already grabbed her.
It came from the ceiling, wrapping around her chest as it took hold and lifted her off the ground. She cried out in pain, this one had thorns that hooked into her clothes and dug painfully into skin.
The appendage thrashed her about, shaking her madly in the air and causing the thorns to dig in even worse. Through the whole thing she somehow held onto her weapon and fired it blindly. She didn't see what it hit, all she knew was that the thrashing stopped and she was again being pulled towards the giant face.
The face itself seemed like it was trying to escape from the wall, looking like it wanted to devour her in some strange way. Those putrid green eyes followed her madly, black pupils dashing about in random disturbing patterns.
Talia did not like how close she was getting to this strange thing and opened fire again on the face. She was rewarded by another ear piercing screech as the thing dropped her. The moment she hit the ground she raised the shotgun again to finish it off, but smaller vines were now trying to tangle her feet and throwing off her aim.
She stomped one of the vines in place with a heavy boot, holding in place as it squirmed underneath her. Now able to keep this nasty thing in her sights, fhe fired off two rounds. One blasted one of the eyes causing that strange black blood to ooze down in torrents. The other shot hit the faceplate, damaging it more then it should have if this thing was really a Gundam. The protective plate fell away, revealing behind it a mouth most horrid. Lipless orifice stretched into a permanent painful grin, deranged blackened-yellow teeth constantly gnashing together. The huge gaping maw of exposed muscle and metal moved and writhed as if trying to speak in some strange mechanical language.
Its good eye turned to her, the black ghoulish pupil amongst a sea of green locked onto the Minerva captain standing before it. The sickening mouth opened in a roar, spilling a river of thick black bile.
Talia hesitated for a moment, mesmerized by the sheer monstrosity in front of her. So engrossed by the sight that she did not notice another of those tentacles reach up from the pool of black ichor. It grabbed her again and lifted her off her feet to slam her into the hard cement floor. The shotgun fell from her hands as the appendage slammed her again and again. It let go when the she refused to lose consciousness, throwing her back into the middle of the room.
She tried to get back up, but everything was fuzzy and the room was spinning. She could hear the groans of the face as the slithering arm drew closer and closer. Talia felt around the cement floor blindly, without her weapon there was no way she could defend herself against this thing.
She felt the unnatural thing wrap around her leg tightly and just as it began to drag her away her hand ran over something cold and metallic. She gripped the head of the broken axe as best she could, knowing she would have to make due with what she had.
The tentacle like arm twirled her around to face the monstrous thing in the wall again. Raising her up until she was in line with its horrible mouth. The maw itself opened as she drew closer, waiting to devour its next meal.
When Talia was close enough to reach out and touch the foul creature, she lashed out. Jamming the sharp axe into its flesh over and over, slicing at it with all the strength she had left. The appendage dropped her as the face cried out from her assault. She somehow landed on her feet and immediately dove for the shotgun nearby. Talia did not waste one precious second. She pointed her weapon at the beast in the wall and unloaded whatever shells remained into the things face.
Black sticky thick fluid spilled from the things face as it was decimated by the closeness of her shots. It cried out in pain as its teeth shattered and flesh was torn away, its festering blood spilling out onto the concrete floor. A final ear-shattering screech as its other eye exploded in a disgusting spray of black, and then fell silent. The face relaxed, the vines stopped writhing.
A good two minutes ticked by before she lowered the gun, her entire body shaking from the ordeal. The thing was truly dead.
Talia stood there, cut, bruised and sore. She unwrapped a vile limb from around her upper body, and then tore away what was left of her jacket letting it fall to the ground. She had just killed a monster, not just any monster… a bloody disgusting monster that looked like a mobile suit that was fighting by her side not too long ago. But it was dead now, and unable to hurt her or anyone else.
Talia swerved unsteadily on her feet. All she wanted to do now was to lie down, just go to sleep and hope to wake up in her bunk on the Minerva and put this nightmare behind her. Instead she remembered her trapped crewman she tried to free before being dragged away. She ran back to the wall and resumed pulling away the nasty growths until bright hair could be seen underneath. The vine substance gave no resistance now that its host was dead. Unfortunately she wasn't fast enough on the kill.
She let out a sorrow filled sigh as she pulled the small lifeless boy into her arms. Her lips turned up into a snarl before her fist hit the wall in anger. Vino was dead, Arthur was most likely dead as well, and she has no idea why? What for? What is this place and why is it all happening!?
Talia couldn't leave him here in this gunk. She picked him up and placed the young man down gently in the centre of the room, then carefully collected her captain's jacket and laid it over him.
"I'm sorry." Was all she could say right now, there was really nothing else she could say. She left him as she stood, collected the shotgun that had killed the creature and made her way towards the door.
A moan from the monstrous face cried out. Not an unnatural moan, but a sound belonging to a human boy. She tentatively returned to the disturbing bleeding face and listened. The cut and smashed mouth began to open up, Talia nearly backed away in fear of something horrible, but instead something began to slide out.
The shape of someone slid from the mouth, the red ZAFT uniform coming into view.
"Shinn!" She yelled and immediately pulled the boy away from the monstrous face. Dead or not it was still disturbing, and she wanted to be as far from it as possible.
She checked the young Mobile Suit pilot for a pulse. He had one, and it was strong too, but the boy would not respond no matter what she did. She nearly shouted in glee at her discovery, if she couldn't save them all, at least she saved one.
Something else began to slide from the oozing mouth. Along with him came more pieces of cloth, curious, Talia pulled it free from the slimy oozing face and held it up in the low light. It was a uniform, torn and shredded. The nametag read the name Hawke. L.
Her face contorted into one of pure rage, her knuckles cracking by the tightness of her fist. She had to force a breath to relax every muscle in her body, remembering that at least she saved Shinn for now. Losing her cool would do none of them any good.
She loaded the shotgun again, and stuffed whatever shells were left in her pocket. "Come on Shinn, I'm not letting you die down here." She picked up the boy; thankful he was a bit small for his age and tossed him over a shoulder. He only slowed her a little, if it were Rey she doubted she would get far at all. At least she was still able to carry her weapon and still move.
Shinn over one shoulder, a shotgun in her other hand, cut and bruised and covered in bloody grime. Talia was beginning to look as scary as the inhabitants of this place herself. She huffed as she adjusted Shinn then began walking to the exit. Too many have died, and despite the far away look on her son's face, the way he ignored her as she begged him not to let her fall, there was no way in this godforsaken hell that Talia was going to let her son die here as well.
Any monster on the other side of this door better not try to get in her way.
Mama bear is pissed.
Murrue jolted awake, handgun at the ready pointed at nothing in particular.
"Great, I'm jumping at shadows." She said to herself as she shook away the haze of sleep and got to her feet.
Her arm still hurt, but at least the stinging pain had stopped. Ready to leave this place and find this address, Murrue took a step only to feel the crumple of paper under her foot. She looked down, pretty sure there was no newspaper clipping next to her before, and picked it up.
It was a small headline, something about children disappearing from an orphanage. A suspected cult being involved, some sort of dark church held in the basement of people's homes. The rest was mumbo jumbo to Murrue, random names and pictures of lost children. What got her attention was a symbol printed there. A halo with runes along its inner rim, followed by three smaller circles placed in a triangular shape in its centre.
Murrue was certain she had never seen it before, but just staring at it made her head buzz. She had to physically shake her head to snap out of it; oblivious to the amount of time she was standing there simply staring at it. She dropped the scrap of paper to the ground as if it was on fire. She already felt completely insane. She didn't need any more help getting there. It was definitely time to get moving.
She spotted something in her passing. Near the register were various maps, she rummaged though them until she found one that would be of use. It was a map of Silent Hill itself.
She unfurled it immediately, thinking now she could find her way out, and if not at least find this Levin Street. But first she had to find out where the heck she was in relation to the map.
She found the Lakeview Hotel, and with a finger followed the road she believed she traversed to get here. The road kept going, she didn't realise just how far she had marched in her exhausted delirium. Finally the road slowly banked north, and into what was called Old Silent Hill. Blocks of houses and small shops peppered the map. She noticed Levin Street, running from top to bottom of the old town, now she just had to figure out where she was.
She looked around for any mention of a pharmacy, but the map wasn't that detailed to list every single building. She took a glance out into the fog and across the street, noticing another shop. It was grungy like the rest of this place, but she could just barely make out TOP SALES. She looked back to the map, and there it was in one of the bigger squares on the map.
"Finally a little luck."
She mumbled to herself happily for once. Levin Street was just around the corner. She just hoped and prayed it didn't lead her to another haunted apartment, or some sinister looking monster.
Thinking this would come in handy for future use, Murrue folded up the map and placed it in her jacket. She looked outside and took a breath, and made her way back out into the fog.
A/N: Murrue's slowly going crazy, Talia's pissed off, Shinn is comatose. What Next?
Whoooo knoooooows.
Besides the messed up bossfight not much happening this chapter by way of plot. I shall rectify that next time. Yarrr! I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for reading!
Ps. I just noticed I have Talia killing all the big baddies… I'll have to change that. Mwa haha.
And Murrue totally didn't just look at that seal and save her game. _ ha!