My apologies for keeping you in suspense, Chapter 10 is finally here! Rebecca Chambers is on a desperate drive to save Cheryl Mason from The Order, but it may already be too late for her AND Black Falls. The cult's cold-blooded leader, Reeve Meyers, has forced Cheryl to use her power to bring the fog of Silent Hill to the small Vermont town. Things are going from bad to worse to terrible too bloody fast as Reeve prepares to make Cheryl the mother of his demonic God once and for all!

Fair warning: mature content begins to appear in this story with a vengeance...you'll know when it happens, and it even disquieted me. It isn't my intention to disturb readers, but if this does, I can only give my most sincere apologies. So let me be clear at times like this: this chapter has content and language FOR MATURE READERS ONLY!

Bonus! Helena Harper and Ingrid Hunnigan from RESIDENT EVIL'S universe join the story...along with Leon S. Kennedy! (He's not just 'phoning it in' anymore, like you've seen previously!)

RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGMENT DAY

written by Charles Spencer,
inspired by Ygure

Chapter 10:

"THE FOG"

-1-

Division of Security Operations Headquarters
Somewhere in Washington, D.C.

Less than one block away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address of the White House, and a few stories underneath the capital city, was the top secret subterranean headquarters for the Division of Security Operations. The DSO was a special counter-bioterror group known as 'the sword of the President'...an organization autonomous from Joint Special Operations Command and responding only to Presidential order, it recruited the very best agents from other groups and branches of the federal government to combat the escalating scourge of bioterrorism and bio-organic weapons. Since their orders to efficiently eliminate any threat to the citizens of the United States came directly from the President, such orders and the group's execution of the same were considered law and 'absolute justice'. The DSO was created by the late President Adam Benford late in his first term of office, only two years earlier...ironically, Benford was assassinated in June by the same international conspiracy responsible for unleashing the C-Virus upon the world.

The subterranean offices of the DSO were dedicated to information gathering, witness protection, and other purposes. It also held training and tactical exercise facilities to keep agents fit and sharp in their abilities. One large room contained an Olympic-size swimming pool for agents to use in their off hours. One of the newest agents of the DSO was there, swimming laps from one end to the other and back again. She was a brown-haired woman who exuded as much strength as she did beauty in her black swimming suit, her strong arms and legs driving her through the water. For most of her time in the pool, she had been alone...

...but when she stopped at one end, her breaths and pulse racing from her exertions, she looked up at saw Leon S. Kennedy standing at the side of the pool and looking down upon her with his naturally confident smile. Leon, one of the founding members of the DSO, nodded and greeted, "Helena!"

Helena Harper couldn't help but smile back. "Hi, Leon! What are you doing here?" An extraordinary, unique bond developed between Helena and Leon during what proved to be a chaotic, bloody summer of 2013. It was a tragic, horrible time for Helena especially, and Leon wasn't surprised to see there was still a haunted sadness in the lady's eyes, in spite of her smile.

Leon gestured to the nearby steel ladder that descended into the pool. "We need to see the President. Something serious is happening in Vermont." It hadn't been long since he got word from Chris Redfield of the BSAA about Rebecca Chambers and what she had been investigating, her working with Cheryl Mason, and how things suddenly, dramatically took a turn for the worse.

"Vermont?!" Helena immediately began to wade to the ladder as she kept her eyes fixed on Leon, who walked and kept pace with her. "That's not far from here...!"

Leon's confidence turned to an unsure frown. "I have no idea if this is a national security threat, Helena, but I do know some kind of creatures are being used to control people." Leon had experience with such monsters, from a nightmare incident years ago that he remembered like it happened yesterday: it was a life or death struggle against the Los Illuminados cult in Spain, their use of mind-controlling parasites to create their own army, and their kidnapping of the First Daughter at the time, Ashley Grahm. In so many ways, his work at that time as a Special Agent answerable only to the President was the inspiration for the DSO. "We need to see the President so we can get his approval to find out."

"Okay!" Helena reached the ladder and climbed...as half of her amazing, statuesque body got out of the pool, Leon offered a hand. Helena gladly took it and he helped her out the rest of the way. The vision of the lady was striking as she stood next to the man who was also one of the few survivors of the disaster of Raccoon City. They weren't far from her towel and bundled clothes, which rested on a bench. Helena nodded to them and said, "Give me just a minute to dry off and dress."

"A minute? But you just got out of the pool...!"

"And you did say this was serious, so I'd better get dry and dressed now!" With a self-conscious smile, though, Helena lifted a hand and twirled one of her fingers as she added, "Uh, turn around first, okay?"

Leon smiled and nodded. "Okay." Ever the gentleman, he turned toward the pool, and Helena quickly stripped nude from her swimming suit. Leon turned his attention to his smart phone and speed dialed a number. In a few seconds, a brunette beauty with glasses appeared on his screen. "Hunnigan?"

"Hey, Leon," Field Operations Support Comm Officer Ingrid Hunnigan answered. "A spy bird is being retasked to look down on Black Falls, Vermont like you wanted. It should reach its destination any minute now." The lady gave him a scornful grin. "This had better be as important as you say it is...I had to call in a few favors to get this done on such short notice, and you're not exactly on a mission right now!"

"I have a bad feeling I'll be on a mission very soon," Leon said quietly. "But at least now I owe you a favor."

Hunnigan's smile became bright. "I'm holding you to that, buster!" She looked off the screen at something, and her lovely face shifted to become pure business. "Okay...bingo! I'm getting the real-time satellite feed now. Coordinates verified. So that's Black Falls, huh? I don't see anything out of the ordinary."

"That could change anytime, Hunnigan. Just keep your eyes peeled, okay?"

The lady with glasses gave the agent an annoyed glance. "Hey, I don't get a charge from watching stuff!" She looked back offscreen as she informed him knowingly, "I do enough of that making sure you get through your missions in one piece - !" Hunnigan suddenly stopped cold, and her expression shifted suddenly to confusion, and then just as quickly to pure, outright fear. "Oh! Oh, shit!"

Leon felt like a lead weight just dropped into his gut. "Hunnigan? Talk to me!"

"L-Leon..." Ingrid Hunnigan managed to look at Leon, and the lady's eyes were wide behind her glasses. "...I-I was looking right at it as it happened, and I'm still not sure if I can believe it! Black Falls...i-it looks like it just got erased!"

"What, you mean literally?" This got Helena's attention...dressed in only her shirt so far, which provided just enough cover to protect her modesty, she moved up close behind Leon to look at his phone's screen.

Hunnigan frowned deeply as she looked back at the satellite feed. "No, b-but it might as well have been...some kind of phenomenon just appeared. I-it looks like low cloud cover or some kind of heavy fog, and it just blanketed each and every inch of Black Falls. This can't be natural, because it's actually conforming to the town's borders! I've never seen anything like this!" Her eyes full of worry, Ingrid Hunnigan looked at Leon. "Stand by, Leon, I'll send you a replay of how it started...now!"

Leon said, "All right...!" One second later, Leon was seeing Black Falls from orbit, its surroundings bright and green. Then, in the space of a few seconds, it was just as Hunnigan said. The entire town was covered in gray. "Oh, my god!"

Helena Harper saw it too, and relexively clutched his shoulders from behind. "Leon...wh-what the hell is going on there?!"

Leon S. Kennedy glanced at Helena and said, "I don't know, Helena...but we need to find out!"

-2-

Black Falls, Vermont was literally consumed by the spectral, never-ending fog at 5:03 P.M. Eastern Standard Time.

For everyone in the town, for those in the rural homes and farms just within its borders, for most of the men, women and children attending the County Fair on the other side of King's Bridge, the fog appeared in exactly the same way at the same time.

One moment, it was a beautiful early evening in the late summer here in the green dairy country of central Vermont; the sun hadn't even thought of beginning to set yet as everyone in town - well, the overwhelming majority who had no idea what was coming - went about their business, kept to themselves, knew good fellowship, had fun, whatever. When time literally turned to the next moment, the gray appeared. It didn't come rolling in from the distance with the speed of a hurricane. It didn't appear with a 'poof!', either. The fog just...happened in the space of a few seconds. Clear air became opaque with brackish, smoky mist in less time than it took to describe it.

The transition was still a jarring one, and the reactions of most everyone to the near-spontaneous arrival of the fog were the same. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared with shocked, wide-eyed bewilderment. Some laughed and thought it was a dumb, elaborate prank, while others feared it was smoke coming from a massive fire in the area. But there was a quality to this fog, something alien and unknown, something that wasn't of the world they knew. It was something oppressive and overwhelmingly wrong about the fog that made people elementally afraid.

Those who were indoors at the time saw many, many other things change. Black Falls shifted to become something...darker. It was the best way to describe it as everything unliving took on an aged, disused quality. Places that were clean became muted and bleak. A town alive and full of activity one moment turned to something stagnated and derelict...it looked like the town had literally been abandoned years ago, but the process only took seconds before the stunned eyes of those who witnessed it. Both telephones and cellular devices went inert instantly as anything with complex electrical systems shut down completely with the exception of lights, and they reduced to a state where in too many cases they flickered ominously.

At the County Fair itself. The rides creaked and screeched to a dramatic halt, trapping hundreds, as sound systems for music acts went jarringly silent and food stands lost power in the half of the County Fairgrounds that laid within Black Falls' borders. Automobiles weren't immune, of course. Every vehicle running, including those in turtle-slow traffic coming from the north and the south full of families who wanted to see the County Fair, died quietly. Well, that was true for the traffic that had been within the town...the fog ended at the borders, and cars that still had to enter town were still running, even though they weren't getting anywhere. Those who still had to enter town, north and south, suddenly felt a primal, superstitious fear as they bore witness to the fog's arrival as it covered the entire town; it stood before them like a great, gauzy gray wall that rose high into the sky.

In the town, in the fog, panic began to take hold of many, and some started screaming. Sheriff's Office deputies and State Police officers there to keep order while the County Fair was going were virtually helpless, even those at the borders controlling traffic. Those who were outside and suddenly staring at a wall of fog couldn't get in touch with their fellow officers inside of town, who found their radios suddenly were only worth sounding off with a strange static.

That was when The Order made its move, as planned.

Just before the fog arrived one of cult leader Reeve Meyers' followers, Nurse Brenda Cunningham, notified one of his lieutenants to get every Order Soldier ready, and he quickly called his fellow team leaders. There were 55 members of The Order all told in the town, all that was left of that monstrous faith that believed they were instruments of a twisted form of order that sought to bring Paradise to a chaotic world, all in the name of their terrible God. Tragically, terribly, their numbers were made three times stronger by those who Reeve called Puppets, people who had been possessed by monstrous, intelligent parasites that obeyed him and his followers. The numbers of the Puppets had grown, especially in the past week, and they were about to serve their purpose as enforcers of The Order's agenda. The combined teams of Soldiers and Puppets were waiting in many, many vehicles strategically parked at places along the borders of Black Falls.

When the fog came, these forces were given one mission by the word of Reeve Meyers. To lock down the town. To ensure that no one entered, and just as importantly that no one left.

With the fog on their side, less than a minute after it arrived, the forces of The Order got out of their vehicles. They were all heavily armed, and when they reached the fringe of the smoky mist they opened fire both within and without. The situation quickly devolved into sheer, bloody pandemonium along the borders of Black Falls. The Soldiers and Puppets were mainly concerned with driving those already inside the fog further into the gray, but they also focused ruthlessly on the law enforcers of the Sheriff's Office and the State Police, who because of communications breakdown were hopelessly unable to counter their enemies. Thudding explosions from hand grenades sounded from the choked traffic as vehicles detonated, and from the Fairgrounds where innocents of all ages began to die in the hundreds. Still, there were hundreds of men, women and children who, mostly because of luck, managed to run out of the fog and to relative safety. Unfortunately, many many more were forced to run deeper into the mist...into a smoky gray that offered no hope. Most of the population of Black Falls and thousands of fairgoers were trapped.

-3-

The Delivery Room on the second floor of Wyler Community Hospital, in the heart of Black Falls. The crimson Halo of the Sun on the floor glowed brightly as Cheryl Mason sat helplessly in the chair in the arcane symbol's heart. She was helpless because of the control serum given to her, and her nose continued to bleed because she had been forced to bring the fog to Black Falls, the same fog that shrouded both Silent Hill and Shepherd's Glen. Cheryl's half-open eyes were full of anger both directed inward toward herself and to the man who made her use her power against her will. Not far away, bound and gagged in their chairs, Alex and Elle Shepherd barely noticed that the room had changed to become darker and derelict. They were fixed on both Cheryl and the hateful presence of the leader of The Order.

Reeve Meyers looked around him and smiled in triumph...he spread his hands and declared, "Yes...yes, I can feel my powers grow stronger, just as it was in Silent Hill!" He looked at his cloaked followers in the room, at Nurse Brenda Cunningham, and he said, "Truly, ours is a giving and loving God." Reeve then looked down upon Cheryl Mason and grinned. "Before I make you realize your destiny once and for all, Alessa, our faithful soldiers outside will need help both in bringing order to this pathetic town and defending our holy ground from any interlopers from the outside world. More servants of our God will be needed from...somewhere else." He quickly moved from where he stood in the Halo of the Sun to a countertop where a thick, black book laid...on its obsidian cover was the symbol of The Order, as well.

Reeve returned to stand close to Cheryl in the heart of the glowing, pulsing Halo on the floor, and carefully opened the book. The book was, for want of a better description, The Order's 'bible'. It didn't just hold perverted testaments and ugly, profane verses...it also contained ancient spells and rituals, far too many of which were powered by the blood of human sacrifices. Reeve turned to one of the few spells, however, that only required mystical power on the part of the one who wished make that spell reality. Reeve reached the page he wanted full of script written in blood and mused, "This may drain much of the power I have already gained, but it must be done. Besides...the unfaithful who live here must know the meaning of penance for being so sinful." He smiled in anticipation as he spoke in a voice that built in volume with each moment. "The unbelievers value the chaos that comes from their liberty and pursuit of happiness, do they? They'd rather have the uncertainty of freedom than embrace any true form of order?! Well, if they love chaos so much, then let them be welcome to it!" And Reeve Meyers began to speak a terrible spell of summoning in a language long forgotten.

-4-

Outside, in the city streets. In the farmland. In the County Fairgrounds. Reeve's summoning made things appear in the gray of the fog...and there were hundreds of them.

And then the screaming REALLY began...

-5-

Satisfied, Reeve Meyers closed the book as the Halo at his feet glowed with terrible brightness...the screams and chaos outside couldn't be heard in the Delivery Room, but he could feel it, and it was good. He considered Cheryl Mason, who could only look at him with half-open eyes as she reclined in the chair. "Now, finally, we have reached your moment of truth, Alessa Gillespie...it's time for you to become a mother." As he walked out of the Halo for a moment to return the book to where it had rested before, Reeve said, "Brenda, would you kindly prepare the patient?"

"Of course, your grace," Brenda Cunningham answered obediently. The blonde nurse began to prepare the drugged girl...she began to set the steel stirrups attached to the chair in their needed position.

Reeve set his book down again...next to a wooden box with strange, alien sigils carved into it. The box looked old...what was inside was even older. He opened the box, looked upon what was inside, and grinned. "You know, Alessa, I read in Claudia Wolf's journals how she tried to make you the Mother of God thirteen years ago. When she found you, you were taking a nap in a fast food restaurant of a shopping mall you liked to visit after school. Using her power, she made you lapse into a deeper sleep...and when she was sure no one else would see, she made you swallow an embryo of God she had summoned from...somewhere else."

Nurse Cunningham put Cheryl's feet in the stirrups, forcing her bare legs apart, and strapped them secure at her ankles.

Reeve said, "The embryo didn't have to be big, of course...it was as small as a grain of rice when she made you ingest it. Claudia also wrote that when she was done, she sensed that you had a dream of Silent Hill in response." With both hands, Reeve slowly, carefully took the thing from inside the box. "You must understand that in many ways, I'm not as...subtle as Claudia was. It isn't my intention to bring you undue agony, either...well, to be honest, I wouldn't mind causing you pain at all. I'd simply prefer to execute the formal ritual as it was done by your mother Dahlia when you were only a child in Silent Hill. I know you repressed the memory of that night, and it's time to remind you. I even have a full can of kerosene here in the room not far away to finalize the ritual." Reeve turned to Cheryl and slowly stalked toward her. "But before then, you must be impregnated...and I have a new embryo for our God with me, brought here from the darkest of shadows, within this tool that shall make you fulfill your destiny." He glanced down at what he held as he approached, then looked into Cheryl's eyes and smiled coldly. "You denied this destiny for far too long, Alessa, and you shall rightfully know agony because of that!"

Reeve Meyers stood not far from between Cheryl Mason's legs as Nurse Cunningham and his cloaked followers watched. Cheryl mustered all of her focus to look at what Reeve held...and with a sudden, soul-wrenching terror, she wished she didn't. She saw the thing in his hands that held the embryo of his demonic God, and she couldn't help but recall the memory she'd repressed long ago of the unspeakable ritual she suffered at Dahlia's hands, because she used the terrible thing, as well. Helpless tears flowed from her eyes from remembering the terrible pain she felt that night even before the burning began. Reeve began to speak the ancient words for the ritual then, words first written at the height of the Sumerian civilization, as he raised the thing he held in his hands to the level of his face...he invested his remaining mystical power he had into it, and it began to glow with a sickly amber light as the Halo of the Sun at his feet glowed urgently.

The thing Reeve held, what he was about to use on Cheryl, was...phallic in shape. It was about a foot long, and four sides of its length were bladed and terribly sharp. To ensure penetration.

Cheryl Mason could only stare through half-closed eyes as she watched Reeve speak, as the thing in his hands glowed brighter and brighter. She felt the embryo inside, felt its horrid, all-consuming need for a mother to bring it into the world. Cheryl wanted desperately to fight, but she couldn't...she could barely even think as Reeve's words became louder, as he slowly raised the thing in one hand high into the air. She knew what he was about to do, but there was nothing she could do because of the control serum. Cheryl Mason could only know despair in these monstrous moments...tears flowed from her eyes, and the only thing that brought her any solace was to think of Rebecca. Oh Becca, Dahlia was right...I am nothing, just like she said. I can't even fight them anymore. I was never worthy of you, sweet Becca. I...I just wish I could see you one more time. I never told you how truly happy you made me...I wish I was given the chance...to show you...

And without warning, the doors to the Delivery Room burst inward as Doctor Burton Young was shoved through them...Rebecca Chambers was immediately behind the old man, holding him by the back of his silver suit's collar with one hand as she carried her suppressed H&K MP5 with the other. She kicked the back of one of Young's legs, forcing him to his knees as he cried out, and he served as a partial shield as she raised her submachine gun up to her shoulder and aimed it into the room, holding it in both hands. Rebecca screamed, "EVERYBODY FREEZE!"

For the next instant, it was like time stopped.

Everyone in the room had frozen in their places. Everyone. Reeve, Nurse Cunningham and his cloaked followers were stock-still as they stared at Rebecca, shocked by her intrusion. The short-haired beauty was also like a statue and she almost forgot to breathe as she looked at the profane tableau before her...she barely registered Alex and Elle Shepherd as they looked at her with wide eyes. Rebecca's very being paused as she desperately tried to process what these bastards were about to do to Cheryl Mason as she was strapped in the Delivery Room chair. On his knees before her, Doctor Young's face slackened with shock.

And then Gwen Park and Bea Montoya entered the room behind Rebecca. The teenaged candy striper took one look at what was happening, and she gasped...she stared with wide eyes as her hands quickly flew up to cover her mouth. The Head Nurse, meanwhile, looked at the scene and felt a sudden, overwhelming mix of horror and outrage. Gwen breathed, "What the hell - ?!"

Burton Young, in spite of his position, was almost stunned beyond description by what he saw. Almost. Young finally roared at the leader of The Order, "REEVE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU REALLY ARE OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND!" Like he had to state the obvious.

One thing that needed to be understood about Rebecca Chambers...she had seen many bloody, terrible things in her short life, but she had never, ever let that affect her. Rebecca always looked at the world and everyone around her with a sunny, innocent purity. She believed in the inherent goodness of people and that justice was a reality in this world, not simply a flowery concept. She never let anything make her look at life from a darker perspective. And she never swore, even when things were bad, even when she felt at her lowest.

But at this moment of eternity, it was like an inner switch was turned in Rebecca's being as she understood with total revulsion what was about to be done to Cheryl Mason, someone she held more important than her own life, someone she grew to desire...to adore. The only reason it took her any amount of time to understand was because she was a truly good and decent young woman, because before this moment, she couldn't have imagined such complete evil. Rebecca Chambers felt a firestorm of fury build within her as she regained herself, her slender gloved hands tightened as she held her submachine gun, and her lovely lips peeled back in a snarl as she stared hatefully at the monsters in the room and she told them in a strong voice: "I swear to god, I will shoot the first motherfucker who moves."

Reeve Meyers stared coldly at Rebecca for a beat...and he decided he wasn't about to be stopped, not so close to victory. He looked back at Cheryl Mason, focused between her legs, and the arm that held the thing in his hand tensed. Reeve was completely fixated on his goal to make Cheryl the Mother of God...it was a goal he wasn't allowed to reach.

Even with a suppressor attached, a firearm would still make noise...even if rounds were fired from it, the mechanical operation of the weapon itself wasn't reduced in volume at all. Rebecca Chambers fired a three-round burst from her MP5, and the sound that came from the gun was a metallic chak!-chak!-chakk! And three rounds tore into the profane thing Reeve held and made it shatter into a thousand pieces as it burst with a strange mystical glow. The embryo contained within was annihilated. Reeve grunted with pain as he reflexively lowered his arm and his other hand clutched his injured hand's wrist. He was damn lucky he didn't lose any fingers to the bullets. The Halo on the floor dimmed quickly, as if in response.

For emphasis, Rebecca screamed, "I FUCKING MEAN IT!"

But Reeve Meyers glared at her hatefully and began to growl, "How dare you. You will not stand in the way of our holy work - !"

Fixed on Reeve, Rebecca ordered, "Just shut your damned mouth and step back to the far wall! ALL OF YOU STEP BACK!"

Nurse Brenda Cunningham still stood next to Cheryl as she stared at Rebecca. She said coolly, "You're the only one with a gun I see, bitch. You can't kill all of us - !" And she reached for the tray on the stand and grabbed a scalpel from it.

Rebecca Chambers wasn't in the mood. She fired another three-round burst, and her bullets tore into Nurse Cunningham's breast, and suddenly her short white dress turned red at her bosom. The bullets had torn apart Cunningham's zealous heart, and she was dead before she crumpled to the floor.

Rebecca said, "Maybe I can't kill you all, but I'll damn sure get an 'A' for effort!" She lowered the weapon to her hip, deliberately flicked a switch on its side, and added, "Especially with this bad boy on full automatic! That means I squeeze this trigger as I sweep it from one side to the other, and YOU'RE ALL DEAD!" Rebecca's eyes challenged Reeve and the black-cloaked people behind him as she shouted, "So who wants to die next?! HUH?!" She fixed purely on Reeve again. "You...you must be Reeve...I remember hearing your damn voice in my mind! Maybe as long as I keep this gun aimed at you, the rest of your dogs will stay where they are!"

Reeve Meyers honestly seethed as he stared at the pixie. "You will rue the day you blasphemed against our covenant, Agent Chambers. You will pay for standing in the way of the rebirth of our God and bringing order to this miserable world - !"

Rebecca interrupted him coldly: "I don't even want to hear you TALK anymore, asshole! Now you and your people step back! If you don't - !"

Reeve Meyers finished for her, "You'll kill me?" He smiled thinly. "I doubt that. You limit yourself with your pathetic morality, Agent Chambers. You wouldn't shoot an unarmed, helpless man."

Rebecca Chambers' eyes were bright with elemental anger. "You want to test me, Reeve? After I just saw what you were about to do to Cheryl?! Do you REALLY want to test me?!" Her entire being visibly tensed...the lady was only a hair's breadth from shooting Reeve, she truly was. For better or worse, Reeve lost his smile as he figured that out. Rebecca shouted one more time, "STEP THE HELL BACK!" Slowly, after a gesture to his cloaked followers, Reeve stepped backward...away from Cheryl...as the others did the same. Rebecca quickly moved closer to Cheryl as a consequence, and she wished with all her heart she could help the blonde girl. But she had to stay focused on Reeve and the rest of these monsters to make sure they wouldn't try anything. Rebecca said, "Gwen? Please help Cheryl out of this damn chair."

From behind the agent, Gwen Park said, "With pleasure." She walked quickly past Rebecca to Cheryl to begin undoing the straps that bound her wrists.

Rebecca then said to the candy striper, "Bea, untie those two." She nodded her head to the side toward Alex and Elle Shepherd.

"Yes, ma'am!" Bea Montoya moved behind Alex and Elle's chairs and began to untie them.

Rebecca glanced at the bound couple and said, "Alex, Elle, I swear I'll get you out of here!"

Almost forgotten, Doctor Burton Young was still on his knees on the floor. He was wringing his hands together as he stammered, "E-excuse me, I-I-I really need to go to the r-restroom - !"

Rebecca snapped at him, "Shut up!"

Suddenly, from Gwen: "Rebecca, Cheryl's been drugged!"

Hating herself for being unable to do more than glance at the one she adored, Rebecca saw that Cheryl Mason had her wrists free, but she hadn't moved an inch. Gwen was leaning over her, carefully looking into her eyes. Rebecca asked fearfully, "What did they give her, can you tell?!"

"Hold on..." Gwen saw that on the tray next to the chair was a vial. She picked it up, stared at it and frowned. "I recognize this crap. It's a very powerful hypnotic."

Rebecca snarled at Reeve, "You son of a bitch!" To Gwen: "Can you do anything for her?!"

Gwen shook her head as she checked Cheryl's pulse and was glad to feel it was steady. "I-I'm sorry, I have nothing to counteract this drug! But I know it's effects won't last long, maybe four or five hours! Cheryl will have trouble focusing and be physically incapacitated until then! She'll need help to get around!"

Rebecca nodded. "I understand." She glanced to her side and saw that Elle was freed, and she was helping Bea untie Alex...in a moment, he was free, too. Rebecca asked, "Bea, you and Gwen help Cheryl get the rest of her clothes back on, please?"

Bea said quickly, "Okay!" She moved over to help Gwen, and they collected the jacket, jeans and boots left in a pile on the floor not far away.

Rebecca glanced at Alex and Elle then. "I'm really sorry, guys, but I'll need your help, too!"

Alex and Elle Shepherd looked at Rebecca gratefully...Alex declared, "Anything you need, Rebecca, you've got it!"

Elle said, "I-I need to ask a favor first, Rebecca. Can you please give me a gun?"

Rebecca smiled at the lady cop and nodded. "I've got one on my right hip, Elle." The Beretta, still in its holster.

Elle moved over to the agent as she breathed, "Thank you!" She reached Rebecca's right side and unholstered the handgun.

Rebecca said matter-of-factly, "The safety's on."

Elle Shepherd quickly flicked a switch on the gun from green to red and said, "Not anymore, it's not!" She swiftly pointed the Beretta at Reeve, and her expression was full of a righteous anger that mirrored Rebecca's. "You want to threaten my husband, huh? You want to threaten our baby?"

Rebecca frowned a little. "Elle - !" She was half-tempted to let Elle kill him.

Elle yelled at Reeve, "Tell me where the hell my father is! Did your people kidnap him, too?!" The last time she had seen her father was in their house, just before she and her husband were kidnapped by The Order.

Reeve Meyers almost laughed. "Please. Your useless invalid of a father wasn't even worth killing. We just left him in your house to starve to death. He can barely feed himself without help, if I'm not mistaken."

Elle Shepherd's eyes narrowed darkly as she said, "I'll see you dead before you ever threaten my family again, you asshole...!" She felt such a need to shoot the bastard...

"Elle." Rebecca Chambers' voice was soft yet firm. "He isn't worth it, and we've got bigger problems. He just brought the fog to this town."

Elle looked at Rebecca with wide, terrified eyes as she remembered what Reeve said before, when he made Cheryl use her power. "The fog from Silent Hill...? My god, he really did it?!"

Alex Shepherd breathed, "Oh, Christ." Alex looked exactly the same way Elle did. They had both hoped and prayed they escaped that brackish fog forever.

Rebecca Chambers said with thick emotion, "Cheryl's all that matters...they made her do this, and she's the only one who can stop this. For her sake, for all of us, I need to get her the hell out of here!"

By this time, Gwen Park and Bea Montoya had Cheryl fully dressed again. The Head Nurse turned to Alex and said, "Hey!" He looked at her. "I'm sorry, what's your name...?"

The man nodded. "Alex."

Gwen pointed to the side and said, "Alex, I need that wheelchair over there! Open it up and bring it over here!" The wheelchair was folded up and leaning on a wall. Alex got to it and tried to open it up, but it took a little effort. He then wheeled it over to Gwen, Bea and Cheryl, and its wheels squeaked loudly. It was probably once new, but like everything else in the room, like everything in town, it was derelict and seemed to have aged several years. Gwen nodded. "Thank you!" She looked at Bea and instructed, "Help me put her in that chair, Bea. Like this...!" Gwen put one arm under Cheryl's, and her other arm under the drugged girl's legs. Bea quickly echoed the Head Nurse and did the same on her side. "Okay! All together now, Bea...one-two-three!" As gently as possible, the Head Nurse and the candy striper lifted Cheryl Mason, carried her a few feet, and put her in the flexible cushion of the wheelchair. The blonde slumped into it, her body still incapacitated by the drug she'd been given. If not for her half-open eyes, she would have appeared asleep.

Rebecca urgently ordered, "All right, the three of you take Cheryl out of here and get her to the elevators!" She looked at Elle. "I'll need you to help me cover them, okay?"

Elle Shepherd nodded as she held the Beretta in both hands and trained it on Reeve and his followers. "These assholes will stay put, Rebecca, I swear!"

Alex looked at his wife with sudden worry. "B-but what about you both?!"

Rebecca shouted, "Just get Cheryl to the elevators! We'll be right behind you!" Alex Shepherd reluctantly nodded and with Bea Montoya followed Gwen Park as she wheeled Cheryl Mason out of the delivery room. Rebecca and Elle slowly backed to the doors, their guns fixed in their aim on Reeve and his followers.

Still on his knees on the floor, a pathetic vision of fear, Doctor Burton Young nervously asked them, "Wh-what about me?!"

Rebecca looked at the old man with contempt. "What about you?! Don't worry, Doctor, you should be okay! I am leaving you with friends, after all!" Rebecca Chambers and Elle Shepherd continued to back away until they were outside the threshold...and then they were gone.

Reeve Meyers walked to the center of the room, to the dimmed Halo of the Sun on the floor, and his expression was one of quiet fury. To have been at the very cusp of ultimate glory, to know the pure grace of his God...just to have it all denied him. Still on his knees, Doctor Young looked at Reeve and quietly began to say, "I-I-I'm so sorry, Reeve, b-but I had no choice - !"

Reeve snapped, "Please shut up, Burton! And don't worry, I don't blame you for this turn of events." No, the leader of The Order blamed Sheriff Gulager, who had been tasked with making sure Rebecca Chambers wouldn't interfere, but he had clearly failed. Reeve Meyers finally smiled a little again, and there was only a pure terrible cold in that smile. "But if they honestly think they can defy the inevitable, they're wrong. And if they believe they can escape, they're sadly mistaken. They will never be able to find a way through the fog outside...and they won't last long against what lurks within it. One way or the other, the blasphemers will die and the Mother of God will be ours again. She won't get far. No...she won't get far at all."

TO BE CONTINUED