"Bitch." - Heather Mason ======================== Cerl Descending Chapter 05 - Division ======================== [It figured she wouldn't come back here.] Cerl thought to herself as she patrolled the hospital. Only a few extra freakish nurses were left in the decrepit building and though one had a revolver, none of them had reacted fast enough to even consider attacking Cerl. Cerl was almost finished with her clean sweep of the third floor when she saw a diary on the floor. She reached down to pick it up. She glanced over a few pages: ----------------------- Ask Doctor to let me quit being in charge of that patient. It's too weird. Still alive, but with wounds that won't heal. Told the doctor I quit. Won't work at that hospital anymore. The room is filled with insects. Even with doors and windows shut they get in to spite me. To the hospital... Feeling bad. Need to throw up. But nothing comes out. Vomiting only bile. Blood and pus flow from the bathroom faucet. I try to stop it, but it won't turn off. Need drug. Help me... ----------------------- 'Nowhere' and 'Basement' were written on the last page in sharp erratic letters. [Basement? This place has a basement?] Cerl wondered, unsure if she'd seen a button for the basement on the elevator controls. Once she was sure that there was nothing else that might help give an indication as to where Cheryl might be on the top floor, she headed back to the elevator and saw that basement button. She glared at the controls, now certain that the button had NOT been there the las time she'd looked at it. She pushed the button, loaded three shells into her shotgun and steadied herself. Chances were good that whoever or whatever she met in the basement was probably going to try and kill her. It had taken Louie and Melissa roughly thirty minutes to make it to Bachman Road and find Cheryl's house. The dull blue two-story house looked about the same as all of the others on the block. Louie managed to kick the door down after six tries. Inside was not filled with blood, monsters or gore, but it was nonetheless quite disturbing. After Louie entered, Melissa followed him in and closed the door quietly to make sure no monsters would followed them inside. Then, she saw what was covering the walls. Photos of little girls and boys covered the walls, either pinned or taped into place. Every so often, a photo would have a red circle around it, but most would also had an 'X' over them as well. And that was just the first hallway. "What the-" Louie asked, staring at the walls. "Looks like she had a strong desire to raise children." Melissa commented, also creeped out by the sheer number of pictures. "She found a rather bad outlet, if you ask me." Louie replied. "Well, nevermind. Let's try to find something ELSE about her. Look for diaries, books, anything at all." Melissa told him. "Uh, oh, right." Louie responded, "I'll check upstairs." "I'll check down here." Melissa answered, heading into the living room. Cerl was impressed. She didn't think the basement of a hospital would be so elaborately large. After walking through a VERY long twisting hallway, Cerl found herself in front of a metal door. The door was covered in large black, red and rust-colored letters which spelled "Nowhere" over and over. Cerl moved up against the door as quickly as she could and gripped the hand slowly. She mentally counted to three, then forced the door open. Her eyes locked onto Cindy, who turned in time to see Cerl raised her shotgun and fire. Cindy's left hand, which was holding a large revolver, raised only a quarter of the way necessary to return fire, then stopped. Apparently, without much of a brain left, even the zombie nurse couldn't react any further. The undead nurse collapsed, fully dead. With Cindy dead, Cerl turned her attention to the only other occupant of the room, Lisa Garland. Lisa was sitting in the furthest corner from the door, her eyes wide with dark circles underneath them. Her uniform was caked with patches of blood and Cerl could tell, even from a distance, that Lisa was trembling. "Lisa? Are you okay?" Cerl inquired, walking over to pry the revolver from Cindy's hand, just to make sure Lisa didn't try for it. "no...never was...was always....always..." Lisa began in a quiet voice, her eyes focused on nothing but the empty space in front of her, "...always..." "It doesn't matter, you know. Whatever Cindy told you was a lie." Cerl told the nurse as she began to move towards the shaking woman. Lisa's eyes regained some focus and she looked up at Cerl as if Cerl was insane, "Except for Cheryl, Cindy, Valtiel and Grecion, none of the monsters in Silent Hill reacted to my presense. It's as if I'm invisible to them. That can only mean one thing." Cerl was silent for a few seconds, "You aren't be the same as them." "How can you say that?! All the monsters do to people is tear them limb from limb and eat them! I don't even have the will to fight!" Lisa all but shrieked. "Exactly." Cerl answered. Lisa blinked, staring at Cerl in shock, "What?" "The monsters of this world are simply mindless beasts, meant to kill those that would stop the cult's goals. If you were truly one of them, you wouldn't even be able to think. That means, Lisa, that you _are_ alive. And if you're alive, you can continue to live. It's only when you give into that mindless side that you would ever become a monster." Cerl told the nurse. Lisa trembled, clutching herself, "...but I'm scared..." "It's all right to be scared, Lisa. I was scared when I first came here and I'm still scared." Cerl told Lisa as she sat down next to the nurse, "Fear isn't an enemy that you have to battle whenever something scary happens. It's only when Fear becomes Terror that it's a bad thing. Terror is when you can't even find the will to run away, when you abandon all hope for survival." "....but I might be.... one of them...." Lisa looked up into Cerl's eyes. "Do you still want to run away?" Cerl asked, standing up. Lisa nodded. "Then let's run." Cerl said, extending her hand to Lisa. "Run where?" Lisa asked. "The police station. There's six other people in this town that have hope for the future. With you, there's seven. You don't need to fight, but knowing you're safe will give those of us who are fighting a reason to keep fighting." Cerl explained. Lisa sat in silence for a long minute, then took Cerl's hand. Louie and Melissa had arrived back at the police station in time to meet Kimberly. Before any introductions could begin, however, Cerl and Lisa arrived. It took ten minutes to clear up the introductions and get down to business. "Okay, it's clear that Cheryl is trying to make an avatar for Sammael. There are three major questions that I'd like to know, but the main one is 'why'. Louie, Melissa, any clues at Cheryl's house?" Cerl inquired. Melissa shuddered, "That woman is obviously suffering from a very creepy fixation on wanting to be a mother. Her house was filled with photographs, polaroids and dolls. She has virtually every child-rearing simulator game, every book on motherhood, and even medical files on various children. Each of the files had a 'viability' rating on them." "Well, that would explain part of the problem..." Cerl began. "Part?" Kimberly asked, "It sounds like most of it." Cerl shook her head, "There are medical practices to get around virtually every medical problem involved with births nowadays, and seeing as they have such high-tech toys at Cheryl's beck-and-call, I'd assume she could handle most of it herself. But seeing as she's channelling the power of a god, one powerful enough to create a subdimension, the problem of having a child seems almost trivial. There has to be more to this than just having a kid." "What if Sammael won't let her have a child until she's given him a body?" Louie inquired. "That's probably the means, but the real question is why Laura and I was tricked into coming here. I'm a martial artist and there's a plethora in this world, not to mention that there are plenty of others that are better than me. Going through all the trouble to bring someone from another country here seems a bit excessive. Laura's a wildcard. We have no idea what they have planned for her." Cerl answered. Laura began looking nervous, "What do you mean? Am I gonna be a sacrifice or something?" "Probably not a sacrifice, otherwise they would have made efforts to 'acquire' you already. But I think most of us should stay here to protect you anyway. It's obvious that you're important to their goals. It likely has to do with the fact that you lived in this town when you were younger." Cerl answered. "Why would that be important?" Melissa asked. "As disturbing as this may sound, we're dealing with something that needs a body. If it could use ANY body, they would have their avatar already. So, it probably needs a special host. And if the host is already attuned to Sammael's energy, the chances of her being able to reject it are lowered." Cerl responded. Laura's face turned pale with horror and disgust. Everyone else in the room was looking as if they'd just been asked to taste something nasty. "Anyway, we need to find Cheryl, but we also need to keep Laura safe from any of Cheryl's monster if and when they come looking for her. There are still three places she could be and we should have at least two people here to guard Laura." Kimberly spoke up. "Angela and Lisa, do you two think you can stand to stay here?" Louie inquired. The two women nodded. "I'll check the prison." Kimberly declared. "I'll check the amusement park." Cerl volunteered. "I guess we'll check the school." Louie stated, shrugging. Just as the quartet were preparing to the leave, the phone on the nearest desk rang. They exchanged looks. Finally, Kimberly approached the phone and picked it up, "Hello?" A british woman's voice was audible to everyone, "....Don't bother with the school. Check Brookhaven Hospital." *CLICK* "Brookhaven? How do we get there?" Melissa asked. "It wasn't Cheryl, but I don't think we can trust whoever that was." Lisa spoke up. "Regardless, it's a lead that we should check out." Louie answered, before looking at Kimberly. "You can usually get to Brookhaven by boat or by the bridge, but I thought that Silent Hill cut us off from there." Kimberly explained. "Then we'll try the dock. If someone suggested it, then there's probably a way there." Louie replied. "Hey, has that symbol always been on the wall?" Laura interupted, pointing to a massive circle on the far wall of the station. In the center, three circles formed a loose triangle, while various runes appeared inside the large circle. "No, it hasn't." Kimberly stated firmly. The wailing of sirens began to seep into the police station, steadily growing louder and louder. "I get the feeling this place isn't going to be safe for much longer." Angela spoke up, "The only times that siren goes off is when an area is about to eclipsed by Sammael's full might." The ground began to tremble and a sound reminscient of running water was heard. "EVERYBODY OUT, NOW!" Kimberly roared, before turning to a hole in a nearby wall, "Scraper, get all the ammunition and guns out of the armory! Get them outside!" "What is she-" Melissa began, before Cerl grabbed her arm and pulled her and Lisa out of the building, "The lady said MOVE!" The group reconvened outside. Melissa shook her arm free of Cerl's grasp, "Who is Scraper?! And what's going on?" An enormous worm punched it's way through the roof of the police station. It was green with a circular mouth that had hundreds of teeth within it. Red jewel-like circles around the mouth indicated eyes or something similar. Cerl pointed at it, "That was coming." Guns were drawn and fired rapidly. Though by themselves, each of the eight handguns that group were firing couldn't do much damage, but collectively, they dealt a large amount of damage rather quickly. The worm roared and collapsed, destroying the entrance to the police station. "Aaaaah, that was such a great base of operations." Louie grumbled. "Not to mention all those extra guns and ammunition are still inside." Lisa joined in. "You don't have to worry about that." Kimberly answered. Melissa arched an eyebrow, "Why is that?" "She's made friends with some of the wildlife. They aren't cute puppies or kitties, but they're good enough." Cerl replied. Scraper and roughly twenty other scarab beetles skittered out of the alleyway to the right of the station, dropped the first load of two shotguns, three rifles and four handguns, then retreated. Everyone, save Kimberly and Cerl, recoiled in shock. "What the blue hell were those things?!" Angela asked, a look of horror and disgust on her face. "That was Scraper and his friends. They've helped me survive countless times in this hellhole." Kimberly replied, taking offense to Angela's digust. Fifty scarab beetles skittered out the second time, depositing thirty clips of handgun ammunition and twenty boxes of assorted shells for the shotguns and the rifles. Louie was the first to recover as he bent down to pick up another handgun, "Well, they _are_ helpful." Laura and Melissa regained their composure, followed shortly by Lisa, then finally Angela. Both Lisa and Angela gave wary glances towards the alleyway, but they had accepted the creatures' presense... for the time being. "Listen up, we don't have the police station as a fallback anymore. Scraper and his friends will unearth the rest of the ammo and pull out a few more guns for us, but that's about all the help we can really hope for. His kind really aren't that useful for attacking the monsters that infest this world, and none of you can really talk to them like I can. We should probably designate a new place to gather, seeing as the police station isn't plausible." Kimberly announced. "How about the school? Since our clue-giving friend said that the school wasn't Cheryl's base, it shouldn't be as dangerous to gather there." Louie suggested. "Yes, but it's more open..." Lisa spoke up, "so, it's not as safe." "I don't want to sit on my can and wait for Cheryl to try and grab me again! I wanna help too!" Laura declared. "I guess we should divvy you three up, then..." Louie commented, looking at Angela, Laura, and Lisa. "Angela, do you think you can handle going with Kimberly to the prison?" Melissa inquired. Angela glared at the alleyway and shuddered briefly, "So long as her creepy friends aren't along, I have no REAL problem." "Then I guess the two of you are coming with me." Cerl noted. "Eh? Shouldn't one of us go with Louie and Melissa?" Lisa asked. "We don't know if there are any boats that can make it to Brookhaven, let alone how many people it could support. We might even have to go two at a time and who knows how long it might take to get there..." Melissa said, implying that it might take an hour or more. Lisa thought of the possibility of being along at the fog-covered dock for an hour or more and shuddered violently. She briefly considered the prison with Angela and Kimberly, but that was as bad as the hospital, "I'll go with Cerl." "You two have a map?" Kimberly asked Louie and Melissa. Both of the FBI agents nodded, "Good. Because Sammael might make certain routes inaccessable to you. If worse comes to worse, try to get on top of a building and jump around the problem." "Is that really necessary?" Melissa inquired. "We're in his world. Do you REALLY want to count on him to play fair?" Cerl inquired. Both the agents frowned, but nodded. "Good, now everyone load up. Take at least three clips and an extra gun." Kimberly ordered. ======================================================================= ======================================================================= ======================================================================= Well, another chapter at an end. More to follow. Current Cast Cerl Tendo - She's come from Japan to find the jerk who was taunting her adoptive father. Not truly from the Tendo clan, as she was actually born in America and later moved to Japan, Cerl has still managed to become the heir to the family school of martial arts. Kimberly Ganer - A police officer of Silent Hill who has a rapport with the abnormally large scarab beetles that seem to infest the town. She can speak with them as if talking to a normal person. Cindy - A nurse at SH Hospital. Turned into a zombie by Cheryl. Now officially dead. Tina - Another nurse at SH Hospital. Also turned into a zombie by Cheryl. Now officially dead. Lisa Garland - Yet another nurse at SH Hospital. Apparently knows Valtiel. Cheryl Spaniel - A doctor at SH Hospital who apparently worked with Doctor Michael Kaufmann. Laura Sunderland - After leaving Silent Hill with James, Laura grew up. But something or someone enticed her into returning... Angela Orosco - She apparently survived and has been living in Silent Hill ever since Laura and James left. Louie Carwess - An FBI man sent to investigate the validity of the reports about Silent Hill. (Actually a reference to Louie from Rune Soldier Louie. Carwess was his adoptive father.) Melissa Mylee - Louie's partner and fellow FBI agent. (Actually a reference to Melissa from Rune Soldier Louie. Mylee was the god she served.)