Silent Hill EVOlution Part 4

Mik:

When I finally drift awake, nothings right. Out the window I can see its raining soot and ash, like a grey snow. Everything looks dull, worn, weary.

"Don’t panic, you’re in a dream state, this isn’t really silent hill....just the version that invades your dreams.."

I slowly turn my head, and she’s sat in the other seat. Tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.

"You....what are you? and what’s up with the freaky tattoo thing?!" I ask irritably. "why the car and why ME?!"

She looks calmly at me "this is a dangerous place to be, those things are all over the place. People have driven in here before, but the core of the town drains the vehicles, they stop, and wont start ever again. That marking,  put in place before you  entered here, will make sure the town doesn’t suck it dry. Your car cant stop running, but better that then having it stop. believe me."

I just stare at her, waiting for the rest of the explanation.

"As for the marking on YOU, you are better able to transfer between the states this town offers, the normal, and the nightmare state. There’s no telling when I’ll change, or how long the darker me can be held at bay...that’s why I need YOU. That mark will drive back the darker side of me, the side THEY are trying to cultivate."

"What’s the catch?" I ask, not sure I want to know.

"The catch is it relies on your energy, you wont be able to sustain much contact before it'll drain you, two encounters at most...and then.."

"THEN WHAT?!"

"You'll return to this state until you regain your strength. Your car also serves as a battery. That marking also infuses some of the towns power within it, thus it will aid you as a battery of sorts..."

"What’s the catch for THAT?!" I ask crossly.

She chuckles "you’ll be lucky if that car makes it to its next MOT, protection comes at a price im afraid...still, its just a car, its replaceable. Human lives aren’t."

I shrug, mumbling. She’s right I suppose.

She looks up at the building and shudders suddenly "your friend, he’s in a bad place....the guardian is going to wake up, I need to find him, before the dark me comes back.." she looks at me "we'll meet again, and when we do, ill need to use your power to return to my normal state...don’t forget...your the only option I have!" and with that she’s gone.

I want to ask her what the fsking hell she's on about, but everything’s going hazy again, and I pass out.

------------------------------------------

Someone’s shaking my shoulder. Slowly I open my eyes again, and its my partner.

"Good, you’re OK, what the hell happened with you? Insomnia bite ya in the ass again?" he asks.

I shake my head yawning "mnhh....no...it was the girl again. She said a bunch of things...." I trail off as he lobs something into the backseat. "what the hell bud, were trying to stay alive, and you’re off taking music lessons?!"

He gives me a glare. I notice he looks a little frazzled. On edge, as if something really weirded him out.

"That thing...may be the key to kick those cultists asses!" he goes off on some tangent about a pyramid headed guardian, and the thing that woke it up, then stabbed him with the pointy end of that thing.

"Was it a hallucination?" I ask, seeing no marks on him.

He shakes his head, tapping the steering wheel with one hand "I don’t know truthfully. It felt real, it hurt...but that thing stopped the guardian in his tracks, just like the winged thing said...so...I don’t know..."

"Where now?" I ask. He shrugs "no idea...I guess there’s got to be a base around here, that those cultists use...give that map there.."

While he’s pouring over the map, I glance out the window. And blink. For the, scribed in blood, are the words: "The false god hides in the false church".

I elbow Sheppard, and once he’s finished making threats about where he’s going to shove the road map, I point out the message.

"Who the hell writes in blood?" he asks.

I shrug "someone badly in need of a pen..?"

He just shakes his head. "False church? what the fudge-hm?" he looks at the map again. "Did you mark this one?" he asks, pointing to a circle around a place named "green lion antique shop".

"Uh, not that I can remember..."I offer. But who knows what I did whilst sleeping.

"Well, its all we got.." he sighs. He hits the gas and im slammed back in my seat and we tear off.

One of Mile’s more weirder hobbies is drag racing. Which is why the chief rarely lets him near the EVO. Saying he can be a speed freak is a joke. He currently holds the record for most arrests done after  a high speed chase.

On the way there he keeps humming. A weird tune. It makes no sense, yet its somehow interestingly catchy...

The fog seems to get thicker as we head along. More things lurch out of the fog, but miles just hits the gas and makes road pizza outta them.

The only thing eh says the whole trip is "extra points if they bounce off the hood?".

I just shrug.

We settle for parking the car a short distance away, so we can sneak up on them. The shop looks like a run down tip from the outside. With  a battered green wooden door hanging off its hinges. We nudge it aside and creep down the slippery stone steps. There’s a weird smell in the air. The door at the bottom opens into a messy room, full of junk.

I’m beginning to wonder if this is the wrong place when I feel a draft ruffle my hair. Using the flashlights were turn the whole room upside down, and finally spy a hole in the wall, about 3 foot high, hidden by a grandfather clock.

We squiggle in, for some reason miles insisted on bringing that flute thing with him. God knows what he’s planning on doing with it. Play them all to death? riiight.

And I have a tattoo that knocks me out. Isn’t life nuts?

Down a cramped tunnel, and out into a small room. At the far end is an altar. A cup of a weird whitish fluid lies there. I think back to the article about the drug, and wonder if that’s it.

"NOW what?" Miles asks. I just shrug. I don’t know, its a dead end.

Then I notice the symbol carved on the front of the altar. Its kind of like the one I have. I place my hand on it, and the world seems to go fuzzy.

Quickly, I reach back and grab Mile’s hand, focusing on where the marking will lead. The space around us seems to burst into flames, the heat unbearable. Then everything goes white.

The fog fades and were standing outside  a church. The air is filled with ashes again. Something feels wrong but we silently run up the steps to the church door. Kicking them open we find the church to be empty.

Then, stood at the altar we see the girl.

Seeing us she seethes "get lose fools, do you want to die?! I’ll tear you apart myself!"  She lunges from the altar, holding a knife in one hand. She aims for miles, but I remember what she told me before. I get between her and him, and forcefully, grab her wrists. She struggles, the knife glinting in my face.

She gets free and scratches the sharp blade across my cheek, leaving a deep cut. I push her away from me, the hand with the marking coming into contact with her face. It feels like a huge amount of energy has been drained from me. She recoils, tearing at her face.

"agh ...guhh...what the hell?!" she growls. But she sound different. When she looks up, her eyes are a pale blue again.

"Well.." she laughs "well done, you figured it out...you’ve given a temporary reprieve..."

I shake my head sighing “Lets go find those nut jobs. Its time for an ass-whooping.. Pokazát', gde ráki zimúyut..”

“What?” they both stare.

I sigh “It means what I just said in English. Its punishment time!”

Still catching my breath, feeling like ive run a miles..I grab her arm and the three of us tear out of the church, and get halfway down the steps before

"Oh no you don’t!" a woman’s voice screams.

They’ve spotted us. Miles in particular seems to draw their attention.

The woman goes white and points at him "Thats..the flute of the Waker, how can this human wield it?!".

I scrub at the cut on my face, covering the tattooed hand in blood, so the marking’s hidden by the fluid.

Shit, we’re screwed, those creeps are coming towards us..

There’s a sudden sound of rubber tyres squealing, and a horn blares into the silence. Most of the cultists scatter, screaming as a vehicle tears round the corner, zooming in the church gates. The woman, and the guy at  her side scatter to the left as the car  comes to a halt at the steps.

That woman is screaming again "how can it move, its empty!!"

Sure enough, as the doors pop open and we make a dive for them, I can see EVO’s empty, nobody’s driving it.

Me and Beth pile in, and Miles is just behind us when an arm hooks around his neck and hauls him back. Its one of the mad cultists.

Miles kick the door shut, "Move!" I hear him shouting, directing this at the car itself.

As if understanding him, we see the gears shift, then it screeches off, a couple of the cultists bounce of the hood as it bombards them, gaining speed and momentum, knocking the gates open and tearing off into the fog.

We can hear her faint screaming:"That girl, that blasted car! She’s done something, nothings ever survived this long!"

-----------------

Miles

She turns to me now, furious. "You will DIE for this! If you people hadn’t come. The town doesn’t need you, WE don’t need you. How did you get here.."

"Your precious town is responsible for kids going missing you crazy bitch!" I shout back at her "so we do were supposed to come here to investigate-"

"Liar! How did your car get that marking, very few can place such power on it, and I know it wasn’t you!"

I glare back at her, not answering.

"That girl, it was her wasn’t it? She called you, altered the car...she’s been guiding you around here..."

"That doesn’t explain the flute Dahlia.." the suited man says "how did that idiot get it. Hed've had to get close to the guardian to even obtain such a thing.."

"Well maybe he'll be smart enough to tell us once he’s seen what we can do.."

I feel a pang of fright, then force myself to calm down "sorry lady "we don’t negotiate with freakshows". Police rule." This only seems to piss her off even more.

"You wont be so cocky when were done with you..."

Then there’s an explosion of pain in my head and it all goes dark...