Chapter 15: DO NOT MAKE A SOUND.

A few hours after thorough searching by the group members, they came back to present a commendable amount of supplies.

"Lots of medical stuff, somewhat-fresh clothing, actual, edible food and- holy SHIT IS THAT A GUN?!" I exclaimed, gazing in awe at the handgun that Vito was holding before me.

"It's gonna be useless."

Before I could say anything, I heard Stan's voice, looking over to see him slumped against the side of a nearby fence, a nearly-empty bottle of whiskey in his hands. "Did ya forget, bud? That machine gun didn't do shit."

I felt everyone's eyes glance back towards me.
"What's he talkin' about?" Vito piped up.

I was dismayed by the realization that Stan had caused me to remember. My excitement in seeing the gun had faded almost instantly, becoming equal to that of a club, maybe. Nonetheless, I was a bit perplexed by the confused faces that seemed to encapsulate the crowd in front of me.

"Wait, you guys don't know?"

"Know what?"

"...Guns don't work."

As expected, I received a few unbelieving expressions, and a snicker from Vito.

"Come on, buddy, what're you-"

I couldn't give a shit about the feedback I was receiving, so I simply demonstrated, picking up the gun and raising it towards the air, and, to everyone's alarm, pulled the trigger.

"What the FUCK ARE YOU-"

They were bewildered to see the gun emit a resounding click.

"What the…" Vito muttered in astonishment. "That pistol is fully loaded…"

As I brought the firearm back down and shoved it back in Vito's arms, I reflected on the dark thought that had passed my mind as I had gripped the handgun. For just a moment there, I had considered pointing the barrel end of the gun at Vito's face and pulling the trigger as a form of intimidation. The thought had passed quickly, but I was disturbed that it had even crossed my mind in the first place.

"See? It doesn't work. Any other gun you find is gonna act the exact same way." I stated simply. "I don't know how, but it seems that something has disabled all of the firearms."

As the group panicked at the revelation I had proclaimed, I glanced over at Soos, who seemed to be assessing me.

"Considered that power move, huh? A show of force and intimidation?"

I was alarmed by Soos' random yet unsettlingly specific rhetorical question. Had he read my mind?

"Wait, Soos."

"Cat's callin?"

"Weren't you building that thing?" I asked him, referencing the silent vehicle I had tasked him with making. I was frightened to suddenly see an aggressive rise in Soos' behavior as he began muttering violently, scratching at his head fervently while looking around.

"Not procurable here, Dipstar- SCARCE- surely in the municipality of (dirty, long talons)- we could obtain such materials- Not enough soup- not ENOUGH! Here is not enough! Doth thou wanteth to maketh me repeateth mineself, Dipshit?!"

I couldn't be bothered to interpret half of what Soos had just spewed, but I caught on that supplies could potentially be found in the city for the vehicle I had in mind.

"We gonna get movin' or what?" Stan grumbled, stumbling as he slid up the wall to steady himself, bottle of whiskey in hand. "I'm getting sick of this place already."

I shook off Soos' disturbing words, and nodded my head solemnly, turning towards the group.

"Listen here, guys." I voiced, making sure not to be too loud. Nowadays, quietness was the key to survival, if you didn't want to attract nearby monsters.

Everyone's eyes turned towards me, save for Stan, who was peering into his bottle with disappointment.

"We have no idea what's gonna be in that place." I said simply, pointing at the city that laid beyond the wide-spanning bridge before us. "Which means we need to make sure we do whatever we can to stay cautious of our surroundings and minimize the amount of sound we make. Remember, we're here to find some stuff and pass along, and nothing else. Everyone clear on this?"

I felt my mind ease from stress as I watched them all nod slowly in confirmation, all except for Sean, who was looking in particular at some of the newcomers Josh, Mary and Amy whilst trembling slightly, his face filled with apprehension and unease. I was dismayed by this.

In fact, all along the way since I had saved them from death, I had noticed that Sean, the irish guy, had always kept that look of fear in his eyes, almost never taking them off those three. He had been fidgety and nervous since I had met him, and always distanced himself from those three whenever he could, especially during the long trek to this city.

I was both anxious and curious as to why those three took up his attention, but I dreaded that it was not something good.

Nonetheless, there was not time right now to worry about that. I turned once more, facing the bridge that led ominously into the city, the sounds of the deep rumbles, groans and the faint roaring of monsters far off reaching my ears, making the whole idea even more unsettling.

"It's okay, Dipper. I won't let anything happen to you." I heard Mabel say, wrapping her arm around mine, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. As I looked at Mabel, looked into her hazel eyes, Stan's words echoed in my head.

You know nothing, old man, I thought in anger. This world has no morals, nothing is upright. Why should I be? If I enjoy it, then I should be able to do it…

I looked once more at the bridge.

"Alright, let's get moving."

We had made our way across the bridge, halfway over, and I decided to take a moment to go to the railings and look down at the wide river that ran below the bridge.

Despite the darkly perverted landscape, the water remained unchanged, and I almost lost myself in the cool-blue stream, flowing under the bridge. It was the first sight I had of something that could be considered 'beautiful' in this place.

"Someone's coming."

I heard Vito mutter the statement near me and prompted myself to look up across the bridge. Indeed, someone was coming, a single, ragged individual splattered with dark-red stains across his entire person. As he stumbled towards me, I felt it necessary to unsheathe my knife and keep it at the ready, and everyone else followed suit. I had also happened to notice that the bots following Soos had stayed back at the front of the bridge.
"Soos, why are they back there?"

I was astonished to see, for the first time since I had met this crazy fuck, an expression resembling caution on his face.

"The lad yonder shall answer ye questions, boy."

I felt a shiver run down my spine upon hearing the phrase, looking back at the man who continued towards us.

When he was around five meters away, I decided to engage him in a firm tone.

"We're just passing by, sir. We are not going to-"

My sentence was cut off when I noticed that the man brought up one finger to his lips, in the manner for shushing someone. His eyes carried a fresh, severe trauma, as if he had experienced terrible horror from where had just come. He came up to me, laying one hand softly on my shoulder, still keeping that shushing expression.

"..."

The lack of words from the man gave me goosebumps all over, and shortly after he let go of my shoulder, continuing to stumble down the bridge past us.

"What...the hell...was that?" Josh muttered, visibly disturbed. Mary and Amy mirrored the same discomfort, Vito seemed shaken, and Sean could only be seen as terrified.

I was also seriously shaken by the encounter.

Though it seemed that the message here was to be quiet, that went for the entirety of the environment we were in. However, he seemed to be warning of a whole new different level of silence…

"Foul beasts of milky white lay within that den of silence, shrouded in decrepit decay. They see not with sight, but with the shattering of tranquility." Soos muttered menacingly.

I nearly shit my pants upon hearing that foreboding sentiment.

"You know, we can always go around." Vito piped up, keeping his voice quiet. I shook my head, despite wanting badly to do just what he suggested.

"Unfortunately, I think all the supplies we need for that silent vehicle is in that city, along with a lot more useful supplies, I'm sure. On top of that, traveling around this giant place would take us weeks, and I can assure you that we would encounter much more horrific monsters in the forests than on the road and around civilization."

Dipper had no idea if that was the case, but he was sure that traveling in an open area was much more desirable, as they could not be caught off-guard by monsters hiding in the forestry.

"Nonetheless, we all need to keep quiet when we go into the city. That much is obvious."

Finally, the group crossed to the end of the bridge, with everyone peering up at the large buildings before them. Decrepit and battered, as if they had just gone through a warzone.

Dipper had decided it would be best if they crossed through alleyways and smaller streets rather than the main streets than ran throughout the city. Trash littered the streets, blood stained the concrete below, and a few bodies, most of them mutilated greatly, were scattered haphazardly around. As they passed by a little girl's body leaned up against a general store, her limbs dismembered and eyes gouged out, Amy ran over to a public garbage can and was violently sick, trying to stifle her sobbing.

"Oh my god...oh my god…" She kept muttering, tears streaming down her face.

Along the way, Dipper and the group found some extremely valuable supplies, though most were in stores and malls that they passed.

"We can't risk them." Dipper stated quietly to everyone. "If they have that bell that rings at the front door or, god forbid, an alarm system that will go off, we're as good as dead."

And so, with reluctance, they passed them by.

It was an hour into exploring the city that Dipper began to take notice to some discrepancies he saw in the surrounding environment.

It was a city, yet there were so few people, and most importantly of all,

Where were all the monsters…?

That question stuck in his mind with fear, as he was afraid there was something going on that he wasn't sure about. However, upon remembering the man they had encountered at the bridge, he felt it had to do with the silence.

It was painfully quiet in the city. The only things that could be heard were the wind and the faint roaring of the monsters in the distance.

There were no birds, no animals...no humans…

It was terrifying.

"Dipper."

I heard the hushed voice and craned my head over towards Mary, who had picked up something from the ground. "What is this?"

I came up to inspect the object. It was flat on one end, and had an odd shape to it. Once I turned to the other side.

"What are all these skin-colored flaps-"

"Hey, that kind of looks like my-"

I was startled when Vito came out of nowhere and snatched the thing from my hands, snaking over to a public trash bin and yeeting it into the hole.

"What the hell was that, Vito?!" I hissed. He looked over at me with a grim expression.

"That was nothing useful. At least, not to morally upright individuals."

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I decided to move on from the point.

"This place creeps me out." Mary whispered to me. "We should get through the town already."

"I know, but...we still need to find out what parts are necessary for that vehicle, and Soos claimed they could be found in this city."

"So what? Soos is fuckin' insane! Look at him!" She pointed at Soos, who was currently rubbing the brick frame of a nearby building studiously.

"Elegant in a colonial fashion, like the year 1775 gives flashbacks to war veterans of the olden days. Oh, how I envy their ignoble spirits, the queer gentlemen!"

Soos was not helping the case I was making for him.

Nonetheless, I shook my head.

"Look, he's helped us through a lot, and you guys have only arrived recently. He may be insane, but he's reliably insane."

"Listen, Dipper…" Mary started, and I was immediately taken off-guard when I felt her softly lay her hand on my chest, dragging it down in a very suggestive manner.

"Wh-What are you-"

She came up to me, whispering in my ear as her hand made its way down towards my pants.

"I think it would be in everyone's best interest if we just moved along. Don't you agree? After all, I can...give you something in return for leaving this dreadful place…"

I was shocked by the suddenly promiscuous behavior of this girl before me, but I didn't have much time to think about it when I noticed Mabel come from behind me, launching a punch into Mary's face. She fell backwards as blood splattered to the ground, smacking into the pavement.

"OW, FUCK!" She yelped.

"Don't fucking touch him, whore!" Mabel seethed.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…..

I froze in fear as I heard the low-pitched screech, like knives being dragged across glass.

"Oh, fuck."

I whipped my head around to see something peek its head around the corner of a building nearby, a few stories up. My face drained of blood as I realized what had happened.

"Shit, get inside!" I uttered in a strained hush, hoping to god above that we had not yet made enough sound to invite many of the monsters our way. As I quietly sprinted into a nearby building, I was quickly followed by everyone else, who tried to remain just as quiet.

I pushed open the doors of the building, and was utterly relieved to find out that they did not creak. Once everyone got inside, I surveyed the place quickly. It seemed like we were in some big lobby of a corporate building, with the front desk in the center of the first floor, and stairs on either side, leading up to a second floor.

"We need to find some higher ground, in case those things may decide to come inside." I whispered, before making my way cautiously to the stairs, avoiding all of the debris on the floor.

We made our way up the stairs, and from there I located a small stairwell through a door, and decided to head upwards.

After a minute or so of quick running and sore feet, I exited through a side door and came out into a wide lobby, with several windows lining the left wall.
"Holy fuck…"

"What the hell…"

"Christ above…"

All along the windows, as if somehow drawn out of their dens, were dozens of creatures, with elongated arms and legs, stretched, hairless, white skin. They crawled along the windows haphazardly, occasionally twitching their heads, as if listening.

I needed no further warning to shush everyone behind me, my heart pounding violently.

Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm.

That mantra played in my head over and over as we slowly made our way along the floor, sidestepping shards of glass, crumpled paper, and other debris from the office we were in.

Slowly, but surely, we stayed alongside the right wall, as far away from the window as possible.

"Be careful when you round this corner." I whispered, pointing to the nearby hallway coming up. "We might need to watch out for-"

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I felt my heart drop as I heard the screeching noise, and turned back forward to see myself nearly face to face with one of those creatures, who was climbing alongside the wall.

Everyone froze. I stared into the foggy pupils of the monster, stared at its bloodstained needle-like teeth.

I stepped sideways once, taking all the care in the world to make no sound. Then I took another.

Screeeaa.

It continued crawling along the wall towards the group, and they all followed suit, sidestepping so that it could move along.

Eventually, we made it far back enough that the thing had eventually rounded the corner and out of sight.

The tension in the air was unbearable. We continued walking, ever so slowly, towards the staircase on the other side.

"Dipper."

I heard someone whisper faintly into my ear, so quiet that the words were almost unable to be heard. I decided not to comment, as I was unsure if I could speak so quietly in this silence. I wanted to tell him to shut up, to keep quiet until we got out of this situation, but he kept talking, and I eventually realized it was Sean whispering.

"I need...to tell you...something."

His voice was so hushed that he had to hesitate every words just to ease the strain he was putting on his throat.

"Can...it...wait?" I whispered back, trying to mimic his quietness.

"...Josh...Mary...Amy...they are...a threat…"

I was made curious by that sentence, and felt dread build up in my chest as he went on.

"...Before...we...met...they...were...evil…"

I was getting more and more nervous as he continued.

"...They...have...done...bad...things...evil...things…"

"Care to...clarify..?"

"We...need...to...leave...them...as...soon...as...possible…they're...using...you…"

We were almost to the stairs.

"...They...plan...to...ki-"

Suddenly, I felt his voice whisked away, and looked behind to see Josh having pushed into Sean, sending him falling towards the glass.

Smack!

We all watched in horror, eyes wide, mouths agape, as Sean smacked into the window, sending a loud reverberation that shattered the silence.

The heads of all those creatures crawling around on the glass darted towards the source.

Sean looked up at me, horror in his eyes.

"No-"

SMASH!

I watched on in horror as the glass shattered, dozens of mangled arms and claws reaching through the broken window and grabbing at Sean, who was pulled out of the building, screaming in terror.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

I watched on in horror as the claws tore at his skin, his face, his arms and legs. Blood coated the claws and his own body as they went to work, peeling his skin from his muscle. He screamed in agony, screamed for someone to kill him. The creatures lowered their faces within eye's view, and I gazed upon their pulled, pale faces, their clouded retinas, their needle-like, bloodied teeth, as they began to bite and devour Sean, ripping chunks of flesh and muscle from him. One of the creatures stabbed its a single claw into his left eye, pulling it out clean and chomping down on it, another ripping off his arm. The pain had become so powerful he was numbed to the torture, and as his single eye flicked towards me, I could see a desire for death, so strong that I felt my body crawl with horrible fear, my eyes filling with tears, my mind flooded with terror.

Kill me, he screamed.

I pulled out the pistol from my bag, aimed the sights at his head, and pulled the trigger.