Chapter 14: Old Friends

Scurrying into the darkened shop the trio only had a few moments to orient themselves before the monsters outside started to recover. Still unsure if he was permanently deaf or not Victor was somewhat pleased to hear Julia yelling at him to help her push something in front of their exit route. Throwing his gun aside Chuck assisted with pulling a rack of gardening equipment over the low hole leading to the alley. They were in some kind of hardware store which Victor knew he had been in at some point before but at the moment was only concerned with escaping it.

Proceeding calmly to the entrance and twisting the deadbolt open as the other two sent another rack crashing down on the opening Victor threw the door open to the street. Finding nothing but mist to his left he looked right to see a squad of the black armored mercenaries just as surprised to see him. The group regarded him for a moment as his already overtaxed mind wrapped itself around this new development. They raised their rifles and Victor jumped back inside as bullets thudded into the building. Throwing the deadbolt shut and jumping back from the door he ran into Julia who was trying to go the opposite direction.

"Oof! What the hell!"

"Did you hear those shots?" he asked.

"Oh. Crap. Crap!" she said with increasing amounts of concern.

"There's a squad outside." Victor reported grimly.

"Oh great!" she threw up her hands.

"This day just keeps getting better." Chuck muttered as he pumped red shells into his shotgun.

"We need a way out of here." Victor said more practically.

"D'uh! Crushed to death by a bunch of slimy bastards or shot by some assholes! Just the way I wanted to die!" Julia raged.

"Maybe if we're lucky we can make them fight each other." Victor suggested.

"When was luck ever been-" Chuck started.

The was an ear-splitting explosion of wood and metal that came from an uncomfortably close distance somewhere deeper in the store. It wasn't a bomb or grenade like the ones they had set off but a terrific rending of hard materials being torn apart as if by a wrecking ball. They looked at each other before scrambling forward to see what had just happened.

Skidding in unison to the other half of the store the blood drained from Victor's face and the warmth of his blood fled from him as he saw what had caused the cacophony. A giant hole had been smashed into the side of the wall from the next building and out of the dusty gloom a massive figure ducked its blood spattered, polyhedron head into the room. Stripped to the waist and wearing a filthy butcher's smock complete with gloves Pyramid Head dragged itself onward. Its body was pale white like all Silent Hill monsters but instead of being slick it was simply grotesquely muscled. A large piece of wall blocked its entry so it merely tore it down with one arm as it dragged behind it a blade the size of a man with the other.

The store was lit up a moment later with the sound of gunfire as both Julia and Chuck unloaded on the demon of the misty land. Bullets pounding into its body and went ptnk! off of its gigantic, sharp angled helmet with enough force and volume to put down an elephant. The monster's skin was like a mummified corpse as the projectiles opened no wounds but only gritty entry wounds that seemed to do no damage. It had staggered back slightly at the force of the attacks but when the room was quiet save for the sound of Julia's finger clicking an empty gun it was no worse for wear.

"Fuck."

"Oh hell." they said at the same time and Victor was almost paralyzed with indecision as the creature resumed its slow march forward.

"Guys, ideas, now." Julia said as she hurriedly reloaded.

"Can we start crying now?" Chuck asked.

Victor was too distracted by the deadliest adversary to have ever walked the earth to think clearly. He had once gone toe to toe with it for the better part of ten minutes to save Julia deep under Lake Toluca years ago. It was immaculate, immortal, heaved the blade it carried like it was a toothpick and never tired. His home made shield and armor rent in a dozen places and one solid blow from bleeding to death the knight had escaped with her just before the monster had finished him off. Now he was staring it the face again with nothing in the intervening years giving him reason to think he could survive another encounter.

"Vic!" Julia shook him as it dragged itself closer.

"Huh!" he snapped out of it.

"We're in jam here! Keep it together!" she said as they all backed up.

"How do we get out?" Chuck said on the verge of hysteria. How were they supposed to get out? Three enemy forces were converging on them and the only way out was-

Hope exploded across Victor's mind like a flash of lightning against a darkened sky. Sheathing his sword he shook his shield off his arm as Pyramid Head lurched further into the store. "I've got it." he announced. "Chuck, take my shield. Jewel, get his shotgun. The both of you, get to the corners of this room."

"In there with that thing! Are you nuts!" Chuck cried.

"It just made the only way out of here." Victor said as steadily as he could. "Stay as far away from it as you can. Not even Pyramid Head can go three different directions at once."

"What are you talking about Vic?"

"I'm going to get his attention." Victor said. "Draw all of our enemies into this building at once and then he can judge them all."

"Wait, no, that's insane!" she exclaimed. "You'll get killed!"

"I'll be fine, Jewel." he promised as Pyramid Head threw an entire shelf out of its way.

"Bullshit." she said desperately.

"No arguing. I'll meet you back in 45." he said. She looked as pained as he'd ever seen her and for a moment he thought she wasn't going to comply. Grabbing the back of his helmet Julia forced her mouth onto his for an all-too-quick moment.

"You'd better come back alive or I'm going to haunt your ass." she declared and ran to the corner of the room. Blinking in uncertainty Chuck looked at Victor for a second before doing the same. Standing directly in front of the monster Victor writhed his hands before forcing himself to let them hang at his sides. There were aisles of merchandise in between them which the monster simply cleaved through with a blow so hard it rattled the ground. Bits of rack and metal pinged off of his armor as Victor made himself stand strong.

Stooping down he picked up a piece of rubble and hurled it at the creature's helmet. It bounced off harmlessly but Victor considered it a moral victory. "Hey! You remember me, demon?" he called out to it. The monster had never made a sound as far as he knew, never a grunt or cry or even a breath. He had no way of knowing if it could understand him but goading it at least made him forget for a few moments the mortal danger he was in.

"You think I'm afraid of you and that oversized can open you're carrying? I've seen children with more intimidating weapons than that. You couldn't kill me before with it and you can't now. Unless maybe you're the one whose afraid of me?"

The creature did not respond but continued to drag itself past the destruction it had caused. With Julia and Chuck only fifteen feet away from it on either side he had to keep it coming straight forward if either of them were going to escape. Drawing his sword he waited until it had only one aisle to break through to assume a fighting stance. Instead of using its great knife Pyramid Head merely smashed down with its free hand and pulverized the shelf like it was made of paper. Throwing the shelf back it was momentarily occupied as Victor darted in to slap the tip of its helmet with his blade. Dancing back as the monster swiped at him with the knife he felt the swish of air from a blow that would have cut him in half.

"Now! Go!" he yelled at his companions. He saw them running and disappear behind the monster but could not take his attention off of it. Backing up he ran into one of the shelves it hadn't demolished and Victor realized that this was going to be closer than he thought. To his left the monsters from the alley were pushing on the makeshift barrier they'd set up and to his right the mercenaries were either waiting for him to come out or about to come inside as well. Putting his blade away Victor retreated to the farthest opposite wall of the store some seven aisles from Pyramid Head.

Crouching down behind tarps and camping equipment he waited tensely for something, anything to halt the advance of the monster still coming directly at him. Crossing the threshold into the second part of the store it speared the first of the seven aisles and cut through it effortlessly. If something didn't happen soon he would be stuck trying to work his way around the monster without anything else getting its attention.

The sound of the front door being beat on came as music to his ears. The creaking of the shelves Julia had thrown down signaled that the horde was almost through and if it wasn't for the fact that he was stuck in the middle things would have being turning out perfectly. Crashing through aisles two and three Pyramid Head was getting uncomfortably close and Victor was going to have to speed things up or he might not make it.

"Hey you idiots!" he yelled at the door. "I'm in here!"

He didn't know how many bullets they pumped through the door but it was enough that a few of them tagged Pyramid Head on the side of its helmet. The door was swiss cheese when the mercenaries finally kicked it in and not a moment too soon. Dim light from outside and combat armored men poured into the hardware store while the shelves were finally pushed out of the way by the mass of slimy bodies from the alley. They tore the hole larger with the weight of dozens of faceless and headless monsters which streamed forward towards the mercenaries. There were at least eight of them squaring off against the monsters, all armed with high powered rifles and the half-destroyed store took more damage as the men opened fire on everything.

Hundreds of rounds filled the air and the guns kicked up a terrible racket as wood, skin, metal and monster were punished by the impressive firepower of the mercenaries. Victor hit the ground so as not to be seen while his enemies sorted themselves out. When the bullets ran out the knight listened as the sound of dozens of feet poured into the room even with all the casualties the horde must have just sustained. Clips were quickly reloaded but it was the vibration of one impossibly heavy step he was waiting for. It was followed with the sick, audible sound of bodies being cut in half that confirmed he wasn't at the top the Pyramid Head's hit list at that moment.

Looking up over the tarps he saw the polyhedron headed menace cut down four slimy monsters with one blow as blood splattered over the room. A mercenary cocked his rifle and unloaded a clip at the monster's helmet and Victor watched in horror with the rest of the sentient life forms in the room as Pyramid Head took the bullets in stride before stepping towards the door and splitting the mercenary in half from shoulder to groin with his terrible blade.

The men were in shock for a moment even as the swarm of monsters streamed past the unstoppable killer into their ranks. Cries went up and bullets started flying while the terror of Silent Hill began killing men and mannequin alike. Victor saw his chance and crept to the end of the aisle towards the hole in the wall. The store had become a maelstrom of blood, bullets, screams and death but he saw his way out. If he could shoulder his way through the stream of monsters and avoid Pyramid Head he could escape through the same opening his companions did. Shield-less but still very well protected by his armor he charged headlong into creatures still piling into the room.

Out of the corner of his eye to the right Victor saw the killing knife, thoroughly soaked in blackish as well as human blood, come up and swipe backhanded in his direction even though the helmet was pointing in the other direction. The force of the blow halted and reversed the mass of incoming mannequins so hard that Victor and the rest of the them were slammed back even with ten feet of slimy flesh to soften the blow. The impact knocked them down like dominoes and the knight was blown over with the rest of the bodies.

Head snapping unexpectedly and in an unusual direction Victor's vision blackened for a few moments as he found himself laying back in a heap of monsters that at least seemed as disoriented as he was. Shoving slick torso and slimy arms out of his way the knight dug himself out of the pile just in time to see Pyramid Head wading through the bodies surrounding it towards him. He did not panic often but he panicked now as he scrambled up to unsteady feet made even more precarious by the mess of limbs under them.

It staggered forward and Victor had nowhere to go that it's frightful weapon couldn't cut him off, literally. There wasn't time to think through a better solution so the knight did the only thing he could and dove into the pile of bodies mostly blocking the exit back into the alley. He might very well be crushed to death by the horde but at least he had a chance as opposed to having none now. Some of the monsters were trying to get back to their freakish feet or hands that served as feet but more were simply trying to get into the room still.

Landing on his chest somewhat close to the floor and on top of a few monsters Victor crawled forward on hands and knees. He was trampled on and beaten with heavy blows from the mannequins all over his head, back and legs but he doggedly moved forward for his life. A foot hit him in the back of the head hard enough to make it bounce off the floor and without the helmet on there was a good chance he would have never gotten up. Brain swimming and torso rattling he forced his upper body halfway into the alley which might just as assuredly kill him as the beast just feet behind.

He tried to at least get to his knees but the mannequins were too many. The rain of attacks was suddenly ceased as a cannonball hit directly overhead and plowed through the wall into the alley he was trying so desperately to get to. A warm sensation spread down the back of his neck and into the joints of his armor as small weights fell onto his back. Dimly looking up he saw that it wasn't a cannonball but the great knife that had embedded itself almost to the hilt in the alley way directly across from him. The monster had thrown the weapon and eviscerated a great swath of mannequins creatures both behind and in front of Victor. The weights on his back were body parts and the warm sensation was a shower of gore that was quickly turning into a pool.

Aching muscles objected as the knight made it into the alley and pushed himself to his feet. Swaying awkwardly he lurched forward and slipped on the blood pool back to his knees. Risking a look behind him he saw Pyramid Head almost to the hole Victor had just crawled through. To his left there were only a dozen or so mannequins remaining and Victor found the strength to run at them. They beat him across the face and chest as he shouldered his way past but they were only more bruises for later instead of a messy death. Bursting out from the group he jogged forward as fast as he could towards the alley's exit. There might have been more mercenaries waiting for him but he didn't care. Anything was better than fighting an enemy he couldn't hope to best.

Reaching the alley's mouth Victor found himself alone and out of breath. Gratefully resting on the wall for a moment he recuperated as long as he dared before he turned right and headed back into the mists towards their safe house. Battered, injured and absolutely soaked with blood the knight forced himself onward and hoped that his friends had escaped the carnage in one piece as well. He wanted to go back and look for them but in reality there was little he could do to help. Leaving red foot prints as he went Victor stumbled along towards safety.