Silent Hill

[12.12.01] » by Keith Myath

                Jeff Reniot looked out of the window of his apartment. He saw nothing but thick, oppressing fog.  The fog had settled over the town of Silent Hill four days ago, and it still had not lifted.  If anything, it had become thicker by the day. It started off like normal fog.  You could still see down a couple of blocks before the haze blurred reality. Then it got worse.  Now Jeff couldn't even see the tree fifteen feet from his second floor apartment window.

                Jeff's apartment was small, fit for just one person.  He reached to the coffee table and grabbed his pack of smokes.  He pulled one out and lit it with his Molson Canadian lighter.  He got up and walked the five feet to the kitchen.  He poured a cup of coffee and walked back to the living room and turned on the T.V.  All the channels showed static. There was no change in the radio, either.  Something really strange was going on.

                Jeff's phone rang. He walked over to it and checked the call display.  It was his girlfriend.

                "Hi, baby.  How are you doing?"

                "I'm still really scared." There was something wrong with her voice.  Like it wasn't actually her.  But she got like that sometimes.  "I would feel so much safer if you came to my house.  I've got beer."

                That was one of Jeff's weak points.  If there was beer at a certain location, he would be there.  It was often brought by him, though.  His fridge was always fully stocked with Molson Canadian, Coors Light, Budweiser, and, occasionally, Warsteiners.

                "Yeah, I'll be over in a bit."

                Jeff walked out into the street to walk to his girlfriend's house.  Her name was Kendra and she was 23.  That made her two years younger than Jeff.  She lived four blocks down. Normally that walked took six minutes, but in the fog it took much longer.  Jeff was always afraid of what could come out of the fog at him.  He was always very cautious.  Imposing figures loomed out of the wall of fog, dark, blurry shapes that eventually took on less frightening forms.  The fog distorted sound as well.  A roaring beast of burden with glowing eyes became a semi.  A demon ripping apart a corpse became a dog chewing a stuffed animal.  Jeff's imagination ran away with him.

                He arrived at Kendra's house in ten minutes.  He walked in and noticed the lights in the house were off.  He turned them on and saw that most of the furniture was overturned.  The couch was ripped open, several windows broken, and the mist was starting to drift into the house.  He looked at the ground.  There was a pool of red liquid.  It was blood.

                "Kendra! Where are you?!" he yelled over and over again. He looked at the stairs leading to her second floor.  They looked old, unwashed, the wood decaying.   He walked up to her bedroom.  There he saw the writing on the wall.  Literally.  Written in blood on the wall at the head of her bed were the words "Help me... I'm at the hospital..."  Jeff ran out of the house and tried to get his bearings.  He looked for a street sign.  He found one and saw that he was fifteen blocks east of the hospital.  He started running around, looking for someone who could give him a ride.  Then he noticed how incredibly quiet the town had become.  He walked into the nearest yard and saw that it, too, was like Kendra's.  He went to the next house; it was the same as the last.  For one brief moment, the fog disappeared and Jeff saw the town.  All the houses were destroyed, some just the foundation remained.  Blood was splashed along the street and was pouring into the storm drains.  The smell of rotting meat was carried through the air.  It made Jeff want to vomit.  The smell was so intense it overwhelmed him.  He looked around and saw many odd creatures walking the streets and flying through the air.  Most of them looked like skinless dogs, but something was wrong with their faces.  All the dogs looked at him and he saw what was so strange: all the dog's faces were human.  Skinless dogs with skinless human faces, stalking the streets.  He looked up and saw something that looked like a pterodactyl.  One of them looked at him and let loose a horrible screech.  Jeff immediately passed out.

                When Jeff came to he was in a church lying on one of the pews.  He looked at the ceiling and saw that it was decaying.  He got up and looked around.  He saw that almost all the wood in the church was decaying.  He looked around and wondered how he got here.  An old man wearing a brown suit and holding a bolt-action rifle came into the main area of the church and looked at Jeff. He wore large glasses and his graying hair was receding.

                "How did I get here?" asked Jeff, not beating around the bush at all.

                The old man looked pleased.  "Oh, you're finally awake.  That's good.  You see, I brought you here.  I found you lying unconscious on the street.  The monsters, they won't come in here.  I think it is because this is a holy place. Oh, by the way, I'm Dale Hanley.  Pastor of this church."

                "Thank you Dale, but I have a question.  What the hell are those creatures out there?  There were skinless dogs with human faces."

                "I honestly don't know what is going on, or why it's happening.  But I believe that this is the work of Satan."

                "Sure.  Whatever.  Listen, do you have anything that I could defend myself with?  I need to get to the hospital.  I have to find my girlfriend."

                Dale walked into the room he had come out of.  Jeff could here rustling and the old man came out again.  He was carrying a handgun and a duffel bag.

                "What's in the bag?" asked Jeff.

                "Ammunition.  I got it from the police station.  It looked like that place was hit by the creatures hard.  There was no one in the place at all.  I pray they're with God now."  He handed the gun and the bag of magazines to Jeff and wished him a safe journey.

                Jeff walked out of the church and immediately loaded the gun.  He pulled the slide back and pulled the trigger to see if it worked.  He heard a click.  He pulled the trigger again and again.  Still, nothing but clicks.  He looked at the gun for a second then remembered virtually every action movie he had ever seen.  He flicked the safety down and pulled the trigger.  The gun worked this time, sending the bullet whizzing into the fog.  He could now smell rotting flesh and it made him think of when he saw the entire street.  He spun around, looking for the source of the smell.  A low growling sound was emanating from the fog.  The sound seemed to come from all around him.  He looked for whatever was making the sound.  There was nothing he could see.  Then, right in front of him a dark shape was coming his way.  It was one of the dog-things.  It walked at first, then started to run.  It broke through the fog and dove at him.  Jeff automatically aimed the gun and fired until it was out of ammo.  Each bullet slammed into creature's body and shot out a fountain of blood.  The creature hit the ground beside Jeff and rolled to a stop.  It was making a whimpering sound and blood was creating a puddle around it.  Jeff pressed the magazine release button and the empty clip slid out and hit the ground with a hollow metal clang.  He put a fresh clip in and pulled the slide.  The fog was getting thicker now.  Jeff walked up to the wounded dog and aimed for the head.  He pulled the trigger and the creature went limp.  Jeff walked up to a street sign and saw that he was five blocks east of the hospital.

                He started walking in the direction of the hospital when he realized how hungry he was.  There would be food in the hospital for him to eat.  The town was totally deserted.  All the cars were abandoned.  Every so often he came upon something that looked like it used to be human.  He saw a police car with the keys still in it.  The door was open and there was blood splashed on the pavement nearby.  He walked around the car to see if there was any visible damage.  There was a dent in the fender, where the cop must have hit something.  Lying beside the car was a set of keys.  Jeff looked at the keys and then looked at the shotgun locked to the glass separating the backseat from the front.

                He took the keys and tried them in the lock.  It worked.  He took the shotgun off of the hook and started the car.

                He started to drive to Silent Hill General Hospital.  He noticed blurred shapes following him along the sides of the streets.  As he got closer to the hospital, the creatures started to lose numbers and the sky got darker.  The sun was setting.  He pressed the accelerator harder.  He wanted to be inside a building before it was too dark.

                He got to the hospital with the last rays of daylight getting swallowed up by the fog.  The sun was setting fast.  Too fast for Jeff's liking.  He got out of the car and looked at the hospital.  It too was decaying.  But it also looked a lot worse than anything he had ever seen.  The windows had rusted iron bars over the windows, rust running down the walls.  There were several broken windows and on the top floor he could see a light on.  The only one in the building.  He was going to need a flashlight.  He looked in the car and found one in the glove compartment.  The batteries were still good in them too.

                He walked up to the doors of the hospital and the last bit of light from the sun disappeared.  Jeff was now bathed in darkness.  He had the shotgun and duffel bag across his back, and the handgun and flashlight in hand.  He turned on the flashlight and entered the building.

                The doors creaked open as Jeff pushed on them.  The glass on the doors was cracked; white spider webs of cracks laced the entire window.  He looked at the lobby and saw that it was deserted.  There were chunks of marble blasted out of the wall, apparently from gunshots.  A fierce battle had raged on in the lobby.  There was blood and unidentifiable chunks all throughout the lobby, not all of it looked like it came from a human.  He wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't like it.

                He walked to an elevator and found that it wasn't working.  None of the lights were working.  He walked back outside to see if the light was still on in the top floor.  It was, which meant that the light source wasn't electrical.  He went back into the lobby and looked for a way up.  All of the doors that led to upper floor were locked.  Jeff decided that the only way he was going to get to the room was to turn the power on.  He walked down a flight of stairs, the flashlight casting ominous shadows on the walls.  He entered the basement of the building.  There were none of the niceties of the rest of the hospital.  Pipes and wires were held to the ceiling by metal straps and bolts.  Water was dripping from some leaky pipes and the sound made the whole area that much more disturbing.  Jeff looked at the walls and saw that there was mold growing on them.  The basement was like a maze.  He kept coming upon dead-ends in the form of locked doors.  He finally found the door to the power room.

                He turned the knob and pushed the door.  It creaked open, the rusted hinges squeaking.  He sent the light from the flashlight in an arc around the room.  He saw nothing that could harm him.  He took several steps into the room and the door slammed shut.  He spun around and looked at the door.  He turned back and walked toward the main breaker.  Shining the flashlight at the breaker, he started flicking switches all over the place and saw that nothing happened.

                He saw a switch with the word "Main" written underneath in faded pen.  He flicked the switch and heard a whirring sound.  He turned around and all the lights in the room turned on for one second.  In that split second when the room was bathed in light, he saw several creatures walking toward him.  They were two feet high, had no eyes, no nose, no lips covering their jagged, rotten teeth, and had little holes for ears.  They held blood stained medical scalpels.  Then the lights broke, sending glass raining down on Jeff and his otherworldly attackers.

                He kept his flashlight trained on the creatures and he took aim at them.  He pulled the trigger, the muzzle flash lighting up the room in small, dim bursts.  The first bullet slammed into the head of one of the creatures.  It's black/red blood spraying onto the door behind it.  He fired eleven more shots before he ran out of ammo.  He swung the flashlight around, looking for more of these two-foot tall demons.  There were none and he relaxed a bit.  The creatures in this hospital were slow, but they came in great numbers.  He remembered a line from "Star Wars" and chuckled to himself.  Taking the advice of Obi Wan Kenobi, he loaded his gun and left the power room.  He wandered around the basement for a while, looking for a way to get to the main floor.  He had gotten lost once already and didn't want it to happen again.  He saw a cushmin parked in one of the hallways.  He got on and saw that the keys were in it.  The staff probably didn't expect non-personnel to be down in the basement.  He turned the key and the little cart turned on.  He drove through the basement and found an elevator.  Jeff got off of the cushmin and prayed the elevator worked.  He pressed the up button, and he could hear the elevator moving to his floor.  He could hear it come to a stop.  The door opened and he saw that the lights in the elevator were broken.  He shined his flashlight into the elevator and saw that there were smears of blood on the floor.  He shined his flashlight up and saw nothing.  He got in and pressed the button for the top floor.  He heard the elevator move and felt it go up.  After about ten seconds he felt a powerful jolt and the elevator came to a halt.  He looked up and saw the metal ceiling of the elevator bending down.  Something was up on top of the elevator.  Several panels broke down from the top of the elevator and a large mass fell into the elevator with Jeff.

                David Osborne was sleeping in one of the rooms in the hospital when the power failed.  He woke up and looked at his watch.  It was noon.  He got up out of the chair he fell asleep in and walked to the bathroom.  He saw a man staggering in to the bathroom before him.  The man fell and slammed his head against the door.  He slid down the door and ended up in a crumpled heap on the floor.  David ran over to the man and saw that he had been stabbed sixteen times.  The man looked at him, his face panic stricken.  "Get the hell out of here!" The man rasped.  He coughed and blood oozed out of his mouth.  Then he went limp.

                David got up and ran, trying to find a doctor.  He heard gunshots coming from the lobby.  He ran down a flight of steps and kicked open the door that led to the lobby.  What he saw shocked him beyond belief.  One side of the lobby was full of monstrous, horrible looking creatures.  Some of them were two feet tall and had only mouths on their faces.  There were several others, too.  Two of the creatures were about the size of a man, with long, powerful arms.  There was one creature that was crawling along the wall.  It looked like a spider, only this spider looked like the spider from hell.  It had tendrils coming out of it's back.  They whipped around aimlessly as the spider looked for prey.  The rest of the creatures were like dogs, but without skin.  David noticed the dogs had human faces.  Except the faces had the skin removed, leaving only a skull with the muscles still attached, the muscles covered in random patches of fat.  It gave the whole creature a very ragged look.  He felt sick just looking at it.

                In the side of the lobby that David occupied were twelve police officers.  They were all behind a small, make-shift barricade.  An officer right next to David stood up and fired several blasts with a shotgun.  The slugs flew through the air and two ripped the torso of one of the gorilla's in half, sending chunks and blood everywhere.  The rest tore into the marble at the other end of the lobby.  A dog jumped over the barricade at the man who fired the shotgun.  It sunk its teeth into the man's neck and shook it's head, tearing flesh and sending blood shooting up.  The man's shotgun slid across the floor and came to a halt four feet from David's feet.  He looked at it and the dog looked at him.  He darted for the gun and grabbed it.  He looked up, expecting the nightmare dog to be charging in his direction.  It was standing over the corpse, just looking at him.  Dave pulled the trigger and he heard a click.  The dog started to stalk forward, head low, growling.  Dave spun the gun around and grabbed it by the barrel.  The dog charged and Dave swung the gun.  The butt of the shotgun connected with the side of the hellhound's head, making a sickening crack and sending it spinning across the floor.  He looked at the corpse and made a decision.  He ran up to it and searched it for ammunition.  He found fifteen slugs, and nearby there was an ammo box that he could see had shells in it.  He loaded the slugs into the chamber and pumped it.  He stood up and fired several shots.

                He saw the tendrils of the hell spider streaking towards him.  He quickly ducked.  David heard a scream behind him, and he looked back.  The tendrils had wrapped around a person behind him and they were lifting him toward the spider.  The man, who it seemed was a patient trying to escape the hospital, was lifted right in front of the spider's head.  David heard a tearing sound and the man's arms and legs were ripped off, his limbless torso falling to the ground with a wet sound.

                David ran toward the staircase door, firing pot-shots the whole way there.  He grabbed the door handle and whipped the door open.  He ran in and looked back.  He saw several of the creatures rushing the barricade.  The cops would not make it out of this one.  He ran up the stairs and heard their screams echo through the lobby.  The screaming stopped.  David ran and ran, until his legs failed him.  He fell on the stairs and looked at the floor number.  He was on the fourth floor.  He loaded his gun and sat on the steps, regaining his energy.  He waited five minutes before he moved.  His legs ached, his lungs burned, but he pressed on.  He noticed it was starting to get darker.  And the lights were out in the whole hospital.  He was going to need a flashlight.  There should be at least one on every floor.  He went through the nearest door and stepped into the X-ray wing of the fourth floor.  He ran to a desk that was now empty.  He opened three of the four drawers and found nothing.  He opened the last and found what he was looking for.  He pulled out a small yellow flashlight and turned it on.  It worked.  He shone it around and looked at everything in the fading light.  The whole experience was too surreal for David and he swore he could see the building decaying.

                He walked back down to the lobby, gun aimed forward so that he could fire if need be.  The lobby was empty.  He walked up to where the barricade was and saw that the box full of shells was still there.  He picked it up and backed out of the room.  As he got to the door that led to the stair well, he saw one of the dogs looking at him from outside.  It howled and smashed into the glass door.  The door cracked but didn't break.  The dog gave up and trotted away.  David walked back into the stair well.  Finding survivors was going to be hard.  He walked around on the second floor, not finding any humans or creatures.  He went to the third floor.  David looked around and saw that didn't look like the hospital it was an hour before.  The ground was covered in blood, and the walls looked like they were made out of skin.  Something very strange was going on.  He slowly walked through the halls, shotgun pointed forward, the flashlight sweeping the halls.  He heard a strange squeak from behind him.  He turned around a saw one of he small creatures.  He put the flashlight in his mouth so he could still see.  He aimed at the two foot tall creature and fired.  The slug ripped the creature apart, sending its body part flying down the hall.  He ran in the opposite direction.  He saw the lights come on for one second and he looked at his surroundings.  The hospital was starting to decay badly.  Bits of the wall crumbled and hit the ground.  Then the lights shattered.  He swung his flashlight around and made sure that there were no creatures coming after him.  As the light penetrated deeper into the darkness, the shadows it cast were larger, more foreboding.  David couldn't see anything in the direct path of the light, but he was worried about what was lurking in the shadows.  He slowly swung the flashlight forward and saw that the elevator light was on.  He ran to it and managed to pry open the doors.  Saw the elevator coming up the shaft and when t got close enough, he hit a nearby button that had the words "Elevator Service Stop" written on it.  He saw the elevator halt.  He jumped down onto the top of the elevator and could feel the metal bending under his weight.  The top caved in and he fell into the elevator.

                Jeff aimed his gun at whatever fell into the elevator.

                "Holy crap…" moaned a voice.

                "Who are you?" asked Jeff.

                "My name is David Osborne" said the man climbing out of the pile of rubble.

                "I'm Jeff Reniot." Said Jeff, offering his hand to David.

                "Well, pleased to meet you Jeff." David said with a cough.  He grabbed Jeff's hand and Jeff helped him up.

                "How long have you been here?"

                "Since last night.  I woke up to gunfire in the lobby."

                "What happened in the lobby?"

                "The police had set up a barricade and were fighting off a horde of monstrosities.  They were all killed in the battle.  I managed to get a shotgun and a bunch of ammo, though."

                Jeff looked at the box of ammunition.  "So, uh, how do we get the elevator working again?"

                "Crap!  I'll have to go up and press the button again."  He climbed out of the elevator and jumped up to press the button.  He dropped back down into the elevator before it could pick up too much speed.

                "So, what are you doing here?" asked David.

                "I'm trying to find my girlfriend.  I think she's on the top floor."

                "Well, I'll help if you help get us out of here after."

                "Deal.  I wasn't planning on staying here anyways."

                The elevator came to a halt.  The door slid open and they  both pointed  their flashlights down the hall.  Hanging from the ceiling were rusted chains.  At the end of those chains were meat hooks.  The meat hooks had corpses hanging off of them.  The ground was coated in glass and there was bloody smears on the walls.  Some of the smears looked like handprints.  The blood looked fresh.  David noticed that some of the corpses were cops he had seen in the lobby. The smell of rotting flesh was most overpowering.  Both David and Jeff thought they were going to puke.

                David, pointing his shotgun down the hall, walked out first.  Jeff followed him, holding the handgun.  They walked down the hallway and saw a black figure moving along the wall.

                "What the hell is that?" asked Jeff.

                David push Jeff out of the way and then dove for cover just as the hell spiders tendrils shot past them.

                Before David could get up, Jeff was shooting the creature.  Thick gray/brown blood shot out from the bullet holes in the spiders chitinous exo-skeleton.

                David aimed his shotgun at the spiders head and fired.  The creatures head shattered, the slug ripping through the rest of the body.  The spider fell off the wall and landed in a limp heap by the wall.

                Jeff walked up to it and kicked it lightly.  He saw one of the tendrils move and he shot it.  They walked down the hall again.  David peered around the hall and saw a light shining out of one of the doorways.  He turned to Jeff.  "Jeff, there's a light on in one of the rooms."

                "Kendra!" gasped Jeff, and he took off running.  The hallway seemed to get longer with every step he took.  As he got closer to the room, he could hear Kendra softly crying.  Jeff turned the corner into the room and saw Kendra sitting with her back to the door.  She was hunched over, hands pressed against her face.  Jeff rushed to her side and wrapped his arms around her.  She didn't stop crying.  Jeff held her for several minutes.  Jeff let go and tried to get her to stand up, to get out of the hospital.  She finally took her hands away from her face.  When she looked at Jeff, he gasped.  Her eyes were small and beady, ink black with no eyelids.  Fresh tears ran down her face.  She had no lips, her teeth permanently bared.  Her hair was dry with blood.  Jeff reeled back.  She stood up and stumbled toward him.  He noticed a laceration across her stomach.  As she walked toward him, her intestines started to fall out.  They oozed onto the floor and Jeff ran out of the room.  David was standing outside the door.  Jeff looked at him and ran.  David looked into the room and saw a corpse crumpled on the ground, intestines spilled out on to the floor.  From Jeff's reaction, it was his girlfriend.

                Jeff was not one to lose his cool easily, but once it was lost, it stayed lost for a long time.  David found Jeff sitting in one of the rooms.  He was staring up at the ceiling and shaking.  David walked in and looked at Jeff.  "So, what now?"

                "That was her.  I don't know how I know, I just do"

                "Okay, but what do we do know?"

                "I don't know, I just want to get out of this godforsaken town."

                "How.  Do you have a car?"

                "There is a police cruiser parked outside.  I drove it here from the church.  We have to leave."  Jeff's voice was breaking, he was losing it.

                "Then lets get the hell out of here."

                Jeff stood up and looked around.  He was confused and frustrated.  He didn't know what to do.  He took a couple of steps and stumbled.  He realized he was breathing very heavily.  The room started to turn black.  Jeff passed out for the second time in one day.

                When Jeff awoke, it was to gunfire.  He could feel himself getting dragged along while someone was shooting.  He opened his eyes and saw the doors to the stair well in front of him.  He looked back in the direction he was being dragged and saw a creature that looked somewhat human, except to the gorilla like arms.

                David let go of Jeff and concentrated on killing the beast.  He heard rustling behind him and heard a loud bang.  The gorilla-creature's chest ripped open, sending blood, tissue, and bits of bone shooting forward.  The creature flew back and slid across the ground.  David turned around and looked at Jeff.  He was holding a shotgun, smoke wafting out of the barrel.

                "Let's get out of here, now." Said Jeff.

                David walked to the door and opened it.  He saw many hazy shapes walking around.  He moved quickly, running to the car.  He opened the door and climbed into the drivers side.  The passenger side door opened and Jeff climbed in.  The look on his face said it all.  His girlfriend was dead, he had nearly been killed several times, and the oppressing fog was making it hard to discern reality.  All that he wanted to do was leave.  Leave this terrible place forever.  Forget about it, and make sure that no one would ever have to go through what he went through.

                Jeff faintly heard the car start.  He was in another world.  Shut off from reality.  Things couldn't get much worse than they already had.  He just wanted the whole thing to be over.  He kept hoping that he would wake up, that this was all some disturbingly real nightmare.  He tried to convince himself that this was all a dream.  That the pain wasn't real.  That Kendra wasn't actually dead.  That he was at home, lying in bed.  But it was not true, and he knew that.  He couldn't think.  He looked forward and saw that they had reached the end of the road.  It was the end of the line for them.  He saw that several of the roads leading out of town were covered in debris.

                "Game over, man." He whispered to himself.

                They got out of the car and walked around in the fog, trying to find a way out of the nightmare that was Silent Hill.

                "There's a hill.  On the other side is the highway out." Said David.

                Jeff didn't say a word.  What could he say?  Yeah, what if the road was overrun with creatures?  What then?  He and David walked up the hill and saw the highway.  Jeff heard a muffled snarl from behind him.  He turned around and saw one of the demon dogs.  Everything seemed to move in slow motion.  The creature leaped at David and sunk it's teeth into his throat.  Jeff just watched.  He slowly raised his shotgun and fired.  He didn't hear the blast of the gun.  He didn't hear the dog howl in pain and the slug ripped through it's chest, shredding its lungs and heart.  He couldn't hear David screaming in agony as his life slipped away, fading into darkness.  He turned away, not wishing to see anything else.

                Off in the distance, he saw the headlights of a car.  As it got closer, he saw that it was a Jeep.  He looked at the cab and saw that there was a man and a little girl.  He had to stop them. He had to get them away from this place.

                Jeff heard several muffled growls from behind him.  He sat down, awaiting peace.