Chapter 10: Deep Sea Researchers
With Julia's help Victor pushed a heavy mechanical lathe in front of the inward swinging doors. It would be difficult getting into the room with it in place but just for good measure they heaved an old printer against the door as well. Chuck had sat the two soldiers up back to back and tied cords around the both of them Old West style. He had found a first aid kit and was bandaging up the soldiers while the barricade was being built. The mercenaries had recovered for the most part but with injuries to both of their faces and gauze keeping pressure on their wounds neither spoke. While the knight was still very wary of the self-admitted killer tending to them he was pleased that in tandem they were able to overcome the mystery soldiers without permanent harm to anyone.
Ready to move on Victor motioned the other two behind him and hefted his shield. Heading to the back of the room he heard someone croak, "Whhrrrrr...waaahht." Turning around he saw that the soldier who had taken the buckshot was trying to speak through the bandages. Going back to him Victor kneeled down in front of the soldier and studied his pained eyes.
"What's down there?" the knight demanded.
"Duuhn guh." he got out.
"You're working for the Order aren't you?" Victor asked and the mercenary did not respond. "Save yourself the pain. I know you are. I know who hired you, too. Spindly little man in a robe? Long nose? Stares at you from a thousand yards? I'll bet he's promised you a way out of here."
Victor sat back on his haunches. "There is no way out of here. Not for you, not for me if the town wills it. Whatever you've been promised, you won't get it. You're going to die here, you and whoever is with you. Do you know why we've left you alive, patched you up?"
The soldier shook his head and Victor clarified, "Because you're just as trapped as we are in the end. We don't want to fight real people any more than you do. The man you work for doesn't care how many of you die as long as you fulfill your purpose. We're not your enemy. He is and so is this town. Take that back to whoever you answer to."
Standing over the soldiers Victor added, "I know something old is beyond that door. Something you were probably told to keep safe. If it will thwart the Order's plans, we're going to let it go. I suggest getting out of Silent Hill if you can because whatever it is, it won't like being caged up."
Returning to his companions they headed towards the rear of the room. The wide doors that were not present the last time Victor visited this place were barred with a heavy, medieval style plank that took all three of them to lift. Throwing the beam down to the floor with a loud slam the other two readied weapons as Victor touched the door again. There was the faintest trace of an old, powerful darkness that his atrophied senses could just barely pick out. Had he never left Silent Hill he was sure that he could have detected its presence before they even came down to this floor it was so strong. It put him slightly at ease to know that his telepathic abilities had not completely abandoned him since his time out in the real world. If he was walking into a massive concentration of monsters at least he would know ahead of time instead of going in blind.
Pulling open the heavy doors he was hit with a rush of cold air that seemed desperate to be released. Bracing himself against it and squinting in the sudden chill Victor was surprised to find an old rock stairwell before him. Much like the room beforehand the stairwell was excessively well lit with multiple emergency lights keeping the slick stone shining. The steps themselves were hastily constructed and uneven in addition to nearly all of them being wet. There was the sound of dripping, trickling water coming from below them and Victor was at a loss to explain how he had never seen this structure before.
Most curious were the runes scratched into the walls of the narrow stairwell. Almost all of them, if he was reading them correctly, were for reinforcing the walls themselves to near indestructibility. Turning around he found that the entirety of the door he had just opened was covered in similar runes. None were concerned with slowing progress or keeping someone away from the walls or door. They only attempted to turn the ordinary stone and metal they were etched onto an unimaginable density and toughness.
"What...the hell is all of this?" Chuck asked.
"Whatever is down here, they were trying to keep it in." Victor explained. "We're close to something dangerous for sure."
"Peachy." Julia complained in her trademark optimism.
"Oh, what was the deal with that red one on the front door?" Chuck asked and Victor was reminded of the rune guarding the door to the camp.
"Ah. That. It was meant to keep people and creatures at bay. Had it not burned out we would have never been able to get near it." the knight said.
"Why did we then?"
"Honestly not positive." Victor admitted. "I've never seen a rune react that way before. I was going to try to break it physically but...I think the ash we were given did the job."
"The ash broke the magic thingy?" Julia asked.
"I think so. Would explain why it failed when we got close and why we were instructed to use it around the Order's runes." Victor surmised.
"What about these ones?" Chuck nodded at the ones covering the walls.
"They're still in operation." Victor said as he scanned them. "They're not targeting us you see. Just keeping the walls from being shattered."
"By what?"
Victor shrugged and Julia shook her head. "Great."
"Come on then. Let's go see what they're keeping down here." Victor said and took the first step downwards. He could sense their reluctance but the others followed anyway as he moved carefully down the rail-less stairwell. They went about eight steps down before turning and going down another eight. The knight counted three flights before coming to one of the sources of the water sound. On either side of the stairwell were the open and roughly hewn remnants of a sewer tunnel. The construction of the stairs must have run into city's network and water was leaking in from both sides.
Making a mental note of it Victor was especially careful not to slip as they descended further down into the earth. Amazingly the runes had been inscribed in every inch of the stairwell as he counted three, five, nine more flights of stairs down. It must have taken months just to create the runes although the steps were suspiciously older than that. The air also seemed to grow colder with every step and at this rate he was sure that soon he would be able to see his own breath.
At the twelfth flight they finally entered the heart of the operation. Victor was dismayed to find a large, circular room dominated by a ten foot well and a modern crane. There were so many lights laying around the room was lit up like a fashion runaway and it almost hurt his eyes just being in there. The trickle of water from the sewer found its way all the way down here and was draining into the well which was quite deep as far as he could tell. Constructed above it was a crane with a winch that dropped a steel cable into the darkness of the hole below. Several industrial strength cooling units in the corner pumped out frigid air and Victor could indeed see his breath as he took in the confusing set up before him.
Runes were etched into absolutely every available surface and even onto the machinery still in operation. Studying them closely Victor was concerned to read that a fair number of them were concerned with indestructibility but also for warding off spirit attacks. These were the kinds of wards the Order used to paralyze or deter Silent Hill's monsters from getting near.
"Vic?" Julia asked. "Do you have any idea what all of this is for?"
"None." he said blankly. "Everything here has some kind of ritual significance – the cold, the lights, the runes. I don't know what it's all supposed to mean."
They spread out as Victor contemplated the meaning of the room. Julia poked around at the many lights attached to the moist walls while Chuck prodded the crane set up. Victor crouched down to examine the markings and found the symbols were carved by an expert hand for sure but there were signs of hasty work on many of them. They would hold up effectively if tested but were not flawlessly written. This could have been a fatal mistake if one's life depended on a single rune but given the number of them here they likely counted on a quantity versus quality approach to housing whatever was down here.
Victor heard a mechanical thunk! and suddenly a yellow light on the crane pulsed to life along with a warning blare. Alarmed Victor whipped free his sword and spotted Chuck at the helm of the crane's controls.
"Chuck!" Julia exclaimed.
"Um, oops." the Canadian said. "This panel was wicked cool so I pressed a couple buttons..."
"Idiot!" Victor cursed. The crane began to coil up the steel wire and draw whatever was in the well further towards them. "Shut it off!"
"Uh..." Chuck trailed over the blaring siren. "I can't?"
Hurrying over to the panel Victor and Julia tried to make sense of the buttons and commands the panel had. There was a blinking button near the top right that the knight assumed was an off switch so he depressed it in the hopes it would cease the process. In response the winch almost doubled in speed and began twisting the steel wire up at a dizzying rate.
"Bloody hell." the knight swore. "Get ready."
"For what!" Julia squawked.
"I have no idea." Victor said and backed up from the crane to get some room. The others did the same and pointed firearms at the well as the crane groaned with the strain of it's load. The metal wire had coiled to almost five feet thick and must have fallen hundreds of feet down before they had unwittingly triggered the reversal of the process. Bracing themselves when the machinery began to slow down Victor's pulse quickened the first moment he saw something come up from the darkness below.
The sound of a gun popped by his ear in the cold air as Julia fired on a mass of ice that had been dredged up from deep below them. Dripping water the massive block of ice had a chunk blasted off as the single bullet slammed into its surface. Turning to look at his woman the knight raised an eyebrow in his helmet as she shrugged. "Sorry, nerves." she said.
The ice was cloudy and difficult to see through but there was something dark in the center of the nine foot or so long block of frozen water. Curiously lights had been built into the ice so that the cube itself was glowing with illumination. When it was clear that this was the only threat presenting itself at the moment Victor put his sword away and set down his shield to inspect what they had found. Not wanting to disturb the controls he tried to pull the crane over the edge of the well so they could get good look but it was locked in place.
"Here, this joy stick looks like it'll do the trick." Julia offered.
"Please, no more random button pushing." Victor pleaded.
"Oh, what's the worst that could happen now?" she reasoned and pushed the stick to the left. Amazingly the crane jerked left and swung the payload towards Victor who jumped out of the way. Glaring at Julia who only giggled slightly he backed up as she more slowly brought the large cube out from over the well to hang a couple of feet over the floor they stood on.
"See? No harm done." she said happily and the three of them surrounded the ice block. Using the back of his glove to wipe away the frost and condensation on the outside layer of the cube Victor managed to get a bit more clarity to see what was trapped inside the ice. To his utter shock and disbelief he made out a man trapped inside. Undoubtedly a corpse by now the knight could still see hands, feet and dark hair of someone long since departed from this world. There was something lodged in it as well, a long metal object that seemed to be coming out of the body.
"Is that...a guy?" Julia wrinkled her nose.
"Oh my God..." Chuck breathed. "It's him."
"Who?"
"The Dark Man..." the Canadian incredulously as if he didn't believe his own words.
"You can't be sure of that." Victor said but he was already beginning to make sense of everything they had seen up to that point.
"It's him all right." the killer insisted. "Look at the bits of redness around his hands. They're always bloody."
As much as Victor didn't want to admit it the theory made sense. The excessive protection, the standing guard, the ritualized prison. All of it pointed to ceremonial and spiritual weapons against an enemy who would not respond to normal weapons. The Order knew their enemy well and used his weaknesses against him to form an effective cage he could not break away from.
"We have to get him out of there." Chuck concluded.
"Is that... a good idea?" Julia raised an eyebrow.
"No, not really." Victor answered. "But this is an enemy of my enemy situation. If the Order managed to lock him up that means they're up to something big. I'm not thrilled about letting him go – in fact I'd much rather keep him like this." Victor said. "But he'll have answers and we might need his help."
Rubbing his eyes with both hands in the cold air Victor added, "I'm going to regret this, but get him out."
"Stand back." Chuck said and steadied himself with his shotgun against his shoulder. The report of the buckshot rattled the walls as he ejected smoking spent shell after spent shell onto the refrigerated floor. Chunks of ice a foot long fell off the block as he chipped away at it like a violent archeologist freeing a wooly mammoth from a ten thousand year nap.
The block began to fall apart as Chuck shot the top of it and the lack of tension caused most of the block to hit the floor. Still half locked in the ice the body was now mostly exposed to the open air. The metal object was a curious blade with a triangular handle that Victor had never seen before which someone had plunged through the sternum. His left eye had been torn out and his other remained open as it stared in death. The left socket wasn't red but blackened and possibly rotted from the frostbite. Wrapped in a black straight jacket with the trapping buckles broken Nothing was frozen as solid as the ice that had trapped him.
Setting down his empty shotgun the Canadian produced one of the knives taken from the soldier's camp and began chipping at the ice still holding the body. Julia joined him and after several minutes of repeated stabbing they loosed the dead man's head from the ice. With only half his torso and leg still locked in ice Chuck gripped an arm and braced his foot against the block.
"Hold it still." he instructed and Julia got behind the block to brace it. Chuck grunted in exertion as there was the sound of a peeling crack when the body was finally separated from the ice. Falling back on his rear the killer wiped his hands on his pants and held the body while Julia gripped the sword. Pulling the glinting sword free Julia nearly dropped it from the unexpected weight.
"Yeesh." Chuck panted. The pilgrim used both hands to inspect the swrod which looked so frail that it would probably break in actual combat. Swinging it around a little she then offered it to Victor who eagerly examined the handle. Every bit of the blade was indeed silver and a spell of some kind was inscribed on the triangle that made up the hilt and connected to the end of the pommel. To his surprise he did not recognize any of the symbols finely carved into the weapon. This was unusual for a number of reasons as he was a master of the Order's runes and would have at least been aware of some other magic from the area.
"What's it say?" Julia asked.
"This wasn't made by the Order." he furrowed his brow. "I have no idea what it says. I know that's there's a spell of some kind on it but I don't know what it does. If it was used to trap Nothing then it must be powerful magic..." he said and reminded himself of an old story he was once told during his training.
"Wait. I think I know what it's for." he said as the details of that long forgotten conversation resurfaced in his memory. "I remember one of my Order trainers telling me what to do when attacked by a ghost."
"A ghost?" Julia tilted her head to the side.
"Yeah. There were special runes for keeping them away from you but you couldn't really kill one outright. How could you? They were already dead. The most you could hope to do was trap one."
"Trap one how?"
"You'd beat it to the ground the old fashioned way and then pin it with a special sword. A holy sword with a triangle handle..."
"That thing?" Chuck asked. "Why would they use it on him?"
"Not sure." Victor scratched his chin. "Maybe they didn't even want his spirit escaping this prison."
"Kind of overkill isn't it?" Chuck said. "I mean, the dude was clearly dead already. Then they stabbed him with a sword for good measure. Why freeze him and drop him in a well to boot?"
"All of this was meant to seal his soul away." Victor explained. "Obviously they did their work very well."
"Yeah. Now what?" Julia asked. "We should probably figure out what to do fast. Those guys are probably trying to break in upstairs right now or they will be soon."
"We can get out through the sewers." Victor said as he'd already thought of this. "It won't be pleasant but we should be able to avoid more soldiers that way."
"That sounds...dangerous."
"Better than fighting men with assault rifles."
"What do we do with him?" Chuck asked as he crouched down to look at the cold, dead face of Nothing.
"I'm not sure. He's dead a few times over isn't he?" Julia asked. "What can we do?"
"Should we...bury him or something?" the killer suggested.
"Where, exactly?" Victor asked.
"Uh...I don't know. There's water down in the well right? I guess we can throw him down there. That's like a burial by sea, right?"
"If it makes you feel better." Victor said. "Just make it quick."
"Dark Man..." he began solemnly if a little strange for the setting. "I said I owed you and I wasn't ever able to repay what you did for me. I hope that this – fuck!" the Canadian blurted and scrambled hurriedly away from the body.
"What!" Julia said in alarm.
"The...the...fuckin'...!" he stammered.
"Use your words."
Pointing at the body like it had just attacked him he said, "That fucker just blinked!"
"Uh..."
"Come again?" Victor queried as he thought he just misheard the other man.
"He blinked!" Chuck repeated.
"You're sure about that?" Julia tried to confirm.
"Yeah I'm sure! I was looking right at him!" he protested.
"Are you sure you weren't making a mistake?" Victor pressed.
"I was watching him. The eye was open, it closed for a half a second and opened again."
"The dead guy. The one in the ice cube with the giant, sharp piece of metal through him." Julia stated.
"I know how it sounds but I'm not making it up." Chuck asserted. Seeing their skeptical faces he pointed down at Nothing and said, "Fine, don't believe me? Watch him for a minute. I bet you he does it again."
All three of them bent over the corpse and Victor watched it for what seemed like an eternity but was really less than a minute. It did nothing to indicate it was going to do anything but what a dead body should and remain laying there on the floor. Victor did note that Nothing looked a little thinner in the face since the last time they saw each other though that could have just been his imagination. Maybe the act of being frozen had over time caused the skin to shrink as the body slowly decomposed.
"Can we go?" Julia sighed.
"Just give it another minute or so." Chuck insisted.
"You were just seeing things is all. We're in Silent Hill after all."
"I know what I saw-"
The supposedly dead body did indeed blink as Chuck was halfway through his sentence and Julia jerked away from it in shock.
"Fuck me..." she whispered.
"Hmm. Interesting." Victor pondered.
"Dude, the body just blinked." Julia said.
"I told you."
"This changes things." Victor declared. "We can't leave him here to be captured again. If we can revive him we can get to the bottom of this."
"Aren't we at the bottom of this already?" Chuck asked.
"Are you trying to be funny again?"
"No?"
"What are you talking about then?"
"Isn't this what we came here for? Doesn't this explain everything?" the killer reasoned without making any sense.
"I think I'm more confused now than before as to why we're here." Julia said. "And how exactly all this was set up."
"We can talk later. Right now we need to get free before the men above break through. Chuck, get your friend and let's go. Julia, you're behind me with the shotgun." Victor ordered.
"Aw man..." the Canadian sighed. "He's all...wet...and dead...kind of."
"We're losing time. Come on." Victor said and smiled a small smile for the other man's discomfort. Julia gave him a disapproving look as he hefted his shield and led them back the way they came.