Chapter 22: The Dash
Running forward as fast as her legs would carry her Julia slipped her mask back on lest she run off the bridge she was currently fleeing away from. It was quickly coming to an end and terminated in a massive gate built into the walled city she originally saw in the distance. Even with the greenish glare of the night vision she couldn't see beyond the hundred foot high gate which itself was only about a third of the way up the outer wall. The sounds of gunfire faded as she entered a long tunnel under the wall and for the first time in at least an hour had a temporary respite from the rain. The vaulted corridor looked like it was built to allow something gigantic to get through and she never wanted to know what that was exactly.
Leaning one hand against the wall of the tunnel she panted as she got her breath back. Though she was overheating in her torso her fingers were still numb and her toes were just now getting some life back into them. Looking over her shoulder she could barely make out the figures of some of the guards still moving and the dragon was nowhere in sight. It was a small comfort that a least a few were still alive and she was determined not to waste the chance they'd given her. Peering into gloom in front of her she could see green pinpricks of light past it but nothing more. Tightening her fists in her metal gloves the frightened loner resumed her forward march to distant and dubious safety.
The passage had to be at least three city blocks long and Julia had to wonder if the wall above the tunnel was solid rock. It would mean millions of tons of material were used to build just the outside layer, let alone the rest. When was there time to do all of this? It didn't make sense.
As she drew closer to entering the metropolis she heard a faint commotion far away that seemed to be growing louder along with the amount of green light. Coming out of the tunnel into the ever present rain she got her first good look at the Dark Man's walled fortress. It was a mixture of familiar and bizarrely alien unlike anything she ever even heard of before. Given her location she should have expected nothing less.
Modern skyscrapers were joined with breath taking medieval cathedrals and mosques. Greek style temples, step and triangular pyramids and ornate, delicate Japanese pagodas were dwarfed by gigantic trees with boughs the size of aircraft carriers. Shifting, spinning buildings made entirely of glass vied for her attention with sinister, twisting towers burning pyres on different levels and space age looking platforms with sub cities in glass bubbles on top of them. The only uniformity that could be found was that there was none. Standing there in slack-jawed amazement Julia had to close her mouth and remind herself that she was on a mission to get home. Still...as much as she wanted to be home with Victor this place was much more than Julia ever dreamed it would be.
A grand avenue stretched out before her made of wet brick set into a paved road with gutters along the sides. The rain picked up as she pulled off her night vision mask. Lamp posts, ostensibly filled with oil, set at regular distances gave the path an 1800s look as well as providing ample visibility. Curiously many of the lamps were either not lit or smashed to pieces but it was still preferable to the total darkness of the outer ring. Reaching behind her to put the goggles in her ammo bag the interloper realized with dismay that it was not there anymore. It took her a moment to come to the conclusion that it hadn't been for some time and that she was down to only the bullets in her gun. This new revelation rated somewhere between 'horrible' and 'catastrophic' on the bad news scale but she had no other options than to keep going.
Moving forward she encountered more and more working lights which were indeed burning oil from the smell of them. The rain went tink! off their elaborate, wrought iron posts and the steady patter of rain was replaced by something much more frenzied as she tread on the cold stone. Getting to visual range where the commotion she'd heard much earlier was happening she slowly became aware of what she was looking at and decided that some things were better left to the imagination.
The increasingly loud disturbance revealed itself to be a chaotic, full scale battle ahead. Keeping her shortage of ammo in mind the pilgrim tossed aside the goggles and flexed her fingers in the metal gloves as she walked. When she was two hundred or so feet to the conflict she was able to make out what was going on as the din increased. Echoing off the buildings lining the avenue and gaining volume with each step were a thousand acts of violence occurring all at once and back to back. Squinting through the downpour she heard bullets being fired, metal striking metal, shouts, screams, detonations and crumbling walls singing a song of wild brutality.
The groups involved in the melee were as varied as the buildings around them. Some were dressed like jousting knights complete with armor, shields, lances and swords. Men in pirate hats armed with flintlock pistols and sabers battled monks with shaved heads while also engaging lizard men with forked spears. Guerrilla fighters with bandanas over their faces shot AK-47s at a horde of moving corpses who tackled and tore their victims apart in packs. A helicopter swooped by as multiple grenades went off and the battle raged on, oblivious to Julia's existence. The scene reeked of blood, gun powder and leftover explosive gases that assaulted her nose as much as her eyes. Gawking at moving wreckage ahead she didn't know if she could make it through this melee, let alone the miles to the looming tower on the horizon.
A red muscle car came tearing around the corner ahead and plowed through a mass of ghouls with a tank-like cow catcher built onto the front end. Careening uncontrollably it slammed on its brakes as it swerved somewhat in Julia's direction before crashing into the side of what looked like a fire station. It was only about 70 feet away from her but the corpses began to swarm it as the battle swallowed the car whole. Julia decided that if it could run that the heavily armored vehicle was her ticket away from this place.
"You can do this." she whispered to herself. "Just get to the car. Get to the car."
Taking a few deep breaths and getting a running start the pilgrim charged into the unbridled chaos of the battle. Getting up to a sprint and ramming into crowd shoulder first she learned the hard way that seeing the havoc was much different than being in the thick of it. Stumbling over the dead and dying, jostled, body checked and nearly knocked over by the mosh pit-like sea of enemies the pilgrim fought for every inch. The living dead, while frightening in appearance, were little match for her metal covered fists and when she unloaded on their skulls they fell rather easily. One of them split itself open in front of her and she ran chest to chest into a pirate with his cutlass still embedded in the creature's sternum. Julia could smell his salty, unwashed body and fetid dread locks which at any other time might have been comical. Instead he pulled a 15th century pistol on her in the cramped quarters they were forced into which despite being a priceless antique was still a lethal weapon. Julia swayed away from the shot with as much room as she could but she still felt the burn of the discharge as it went off by her head.
Acrid smoke exploded around them and Julia roared in anger as much as pain when she delivered a mostly blind overhand right to the pirate's throat. Metal made contact with soft flesh and before she could see what had happened to him she was swept away a moment later. Vision obscured by the haze and pushed along by a surging mob the pilgrim threw elbows as best she could as she spotted the bright red car through the carnage. She was almost carried past the car but snagged the rear bumper like a swimmer catching themselves on a low hanging branch to avoid being dragged along by a river. Pushing a knight fighting a frog man out of the way she slid towards the front of the car where the powerful engine was still rumbling anxiously.
The red hot rod was still under heavy attack from the corpses who were climbing all around it trying to break their way in. Cracking one of them on the jaw as it tried to get past the heavily tinted passenger side window Julia got to work clearing the area. Gripping the soiled and bloody clothing of the undead she started hauling and heaving them off the vehicle. Working her way to the driver side she dropped another with a punch to the back of the head as it tried to get into the hood. One of them had broken through the driver's window and was halfway inside the car when she grabbed its ankles and yanked it out onto the street.
To her surprise there were two men in the front seats. Clad in bright racing suits and helmets only the passenger appeared to be conscious. The driver's head lolled to the side but she didn't see any evidence of permanent damage. "Who the hell are you!?" the passenger yelled over the battle.
"A freelancer! Need to get to the tower!" she shouted back. Something grabbed her shoulder and Julia turned around to break a guerrilla's nose with a straight left.
"I need a ride!" she shouted
"My bro's out!" he pleaded.
"Wake his ass up then! You sit here any longer and you're dead!"
A second frog man literally jumped on her and Julia was slammed against the hard side of the car by its weight. Incensed Julia gripped the top of its surprisingly dry head and kneed it in what she assumed was its chest. Legs thick enough to make a Frenchman cry buckled under her assault and Julia contemptuously threw it aside. "Hey! Hey man! Get up! We gotta go!" she heard the passenger shouting as she stomped on the frog man's squishy head.
"Fuck!" someone new behind her said and she whirled to see the driver coming to. "The fuck is going on..." he said woozily.
"This broad just saved us! Open your door!" the passenger ordered. Bewildered but compliant the driver swung his door open and Julia literally dove into the back seat. He slammed the door behind her while Julia scrambled to avoid glass and sit up on the leather seats as the hot rod thundered to life. Lurching backwards the car ran over bodies both prone and upright as they eased out from the side of the building the car had run into.
"Can this thing still go!?" she shouted as a machine gun went off nearby.
"Shee-at! This baby was built to knock down them goddamn Po-laris towers at 90 plus!" the passenger yelled as he worked the car's complex, four levered gear box. Shifting forward the rear tires peeled out on top of a body before gaining traction and springing ahead into the crowd. The cow catcher worked with cruel efficiency as it lifted everyone and everything out of the car's path and after a number of bumps punctuated by arterial spray they were racing away from the battle.
"Bro, that was intense!" the passenger said enthusiastically.
"Dude, I know." the driver said. "My fuckin' head is killing me."
"Try not running in a wall next time dipshit!" the passenger said with what Julia assumed was a giant grin on his face. "Lucky you came along missy." he added.
"Yeah..." Julia trailed off as she watched the speedometer rise past 70. Suddenly having the strong urge to buckle herself up she hastily did so as the lamp posts blurred by. They zoomed past smaller battles, mages fighting with fireballs and the smoking ruins of fighter jets littering the avenue. The driver, as recently concussed as he was, expertly weaved through the larger obstructions and drove through the smaller ones.
"You got a way of getting past the second wall, freelancer?" the driver asked as they clipped an assassin in a white hood and spent a blood spatter flying onto the windshield.
"Uh, no?" she offered. "What second wall?"
"The inner ring? The wall without doors you have to fly or climb over?" he said as if this was information a preschooler would know.
"Bro, let's test it out." the passenger said eagerly.
"What? On the inner ring?"
"Yeah! If we can do this we can plow one of them cannon towers down right?"
"Aight." the driver agreed. "Buckle up little lady, we're about to drive through a wall ."
"Fuck, you guys are crazy." she blurted. Looking around she saw extra straps and began lashing herself to the back seat as best she could.
"This is going to be sick. I always wanted to try crashing the party of the man upstairs." the driver said.
"Nothing, if these two idiots kill me, I'm coming for you in the afterlife." Julia promised.
Lights passed overhead, blinding him. The air was cold and wet, smelling of mold and rust. He'd been man handled and beaten by the mercenaries already and now was seemingly strapped to a moving hospital bed even though he did not recall how he got there. There was a throbbing pain in his skull and the glare of the lights kept his eyes from focusing properly. He was being taken somewhere in a hurry and if he had an idea of where he was then nothing good was going to come at his final destination.
Thrust under a bright, large overhead light he was blinded even when he closed his eyes to shut out the glare. Groggy but recovering he realized that there was a good chance he had been drugged. "Still the vigilant watchman in the dark, I see." said an oily, smooth voice that hadn't been heard in years.
"Huuuungh...Simon..." Victor said drowsily. He could not see the man but he could feel his malice soaked presence nearby.
"I admit, it wasn't until recently that I entertained the notion that you had survived." the Order Master said.
"I always hoped that you didn't." the knight answered truthfully.
"You were so careful." Stone continued, oblivious to his comment. "For years we looked for your body. Of course, attaching your tracking rune to that arm was a nice touch."
"Huh...not me...the Fater." Victor said and wondered why he was being so forthright.
"Ah. Of course. Tell me, were you always working for him? Or was it by some divine miracle that you escaped when none of my adepts did?"
"Neither...I simply...asked for my life..." he answered again. He tried to collect his thoughts but they slipped out of his mouth before he could. "We were never in collusion, not until recently...not until you managed to cage him."
"Interesting...I had assumed at least a base level of cooperation between the friend of my enemy. I assume he furnished you with your armor, weaponry, sheets? Things you could not have crafted on your own?"
"He did..."
"Mmm, I see now. How did he call you back to Silent Hill after I dropped him down a well?" Stone pressed.
"I...I don't know..." Victor answered and came to the realization that he had been given something to loosen his tongue. Everything he was saying was almost against his will. "He came to us in dreams."
"Ah. Clever, Fater. I knew he would have an escape route, an ace in the hole. I never imagined that it would be you, my lost, erstwhile apprentice."
"I was never your apprentice." Victor said with finality. "I only wanted to learn. I was going to run away when we went to make the sheets."
"A move that would have ended poorly for you had it not been for the Greatest Evil. But lo, here we stand regardless. Back to where you would have been, should have been all these years. You have run for so long, Victor Rosencrantz. Finally you have come back home. It would be a shame to let your talents go to waste by killing you."
"Go...to hell, Stone."
"An apt choice of words, apprentice. You will learn that nothing is impossible for the true servants of God. But one last question before you go. The ashes I found on you...the ones that break our runes...what are they? Where did they come from?"
"I don't know. Ask the Fater." Victor spat.
"I intend to. But first, you have to be reshaped back into a useful tool for us."
"I'll never work for you again!"
"Oh, I know, I know." Stone said serenely and leaned over into Victor's vision. The years had not been kind to the Order's patriarch. His visage was more sunken and skeletal than the knight remembered, his skin more pallid. His eyes, intense and cold at the same time, had however remained the same.
"You're looking old, Order Master." Victor said.
"How petty." Stone dismissed. "There's someone I want you to meet. A colleague of mine. He'll be handling your...reeducation. Death is too good a punishment for you Victor Rosencrantz. Your crimes warrant a penalty much more severe...and you will pray for a death that will never come."
Victor had lived in Silent Hill for most of his adult life and few things frightened him. Pyramid Head ranked on the top of his list with Nothing a short distance away but neither inspired true terror in him, not anymore, not since the old days. Even when he fought the red helmeted monster years ago underneath Lake Toluca his fear was tempered with purpose, even resolution that it would likely mean his life.
Here and now, strapped to a gurney at the mercy of his former master, Victor was truly afraid again.