Chapter 13

Alice didn't know what to expect and her hands were trembling so intensely that she was barely able to hold the shotgun. James slowly moved a few steps in front of her, like covering her with his body. Holding the steel pipe ready for a fight, he was prepared to see another creation of this infernal Otherworld, wondering if those creatures are the same like he has seen before, when he was here last time. But now, in the ray of his flashlight, he saw something that he definitely didn't expect to see. The monster approaching them was four-legged and resembled something that could be barely called a dog. All its body was like grey and green in colour and wrapped in filthy bandages, even the legs. But it wasn't what made James and Alice's blood turn cold. No. It was the snout of the creature. At first it might seem two-faced, but if you look closer, it becomes pretty clear that its snout is literally split into two parts. It was such a feeling that someone grabbed a huge knife and sliced the dog's snout into two halves. The bloody flesh was visible and both sides of its split maul were full of sharp teeth. Altogether it looked terrifying and the dog seemed not to just stand there and watch them.

"Holy hell, what is that thing?" Alice asked in trembling voice.

"Would you believe if I say I don't know? This creature is new even for me, I have never encountered it. There were no animal-like beings on my way. But never mind. If it attacks, we have to fight back."

And then, just like understanding their talk, the infernal dog howled so terribly that it could turn even the bravest person's blood cold, and ran towards James and Alice. The frightened woman felt her eyes filling with tears and some were already running down her cheeks. But James seemed like having nerves of steel as he stood in a combat mode. And as soon as the dog pouched on him, James counted the right moment and hit the hideous creature with a pipe. The dog howled again, this time in pain, and fell on the dirty ground, but it was still alive and definitely planning another attack. But James was quicker, he wouldn't allow this beast to strike again. He ran toward the dog that was trying to get up and made a few more hits. Each time the pipe connected with the creature's body, its life faded fast. To be safe, James delivered the final blow, crushing the dog's split head with his boot. Finally the dog stopped moving or making any sounds, so it was obviously dead.

Alice covered her mouth and began whimpering quietly. Till now she though that monsters and such terrible violence existed only in films. But now here she was, witnessing the real monsters with her own eyes and how brutally it was killed. James noticed that and came closer to her, trying to calm her.

"Alice, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that you had to look at such things. But this is about survival in this place. I had to kill this thing, otherwise we would be dead meat. Do you understand?"

Alice barely nodded and finally gave in to her emotions and started crying. James didn't like this and hugged her, hoping it would make her feel better, at least a little bit.

"Listen, I hate killing living beings, I'm not a monster," he continued, holding her face with both palms "but in this case it had to be done. We have to kill these things to stay alive and to find your friend. Speaking of which, we're already not that far away from that part of the town where Alchemilla hospital is." He opened the town map and pointed to the hospital location. "The faster we reach it, the better. Now come on, let's go."

Alice wiped her tears and nodded. She understood that James was right. It's not his fault that he killed that dog-like creature. They were under attack, and life has taught him how to defend himself and those who were dear to him. But Alice was more worried about Linda and silently prayed that she would be alright. Trying to focus and hold her nerves down, she followed James to the northern part of Silent Hill.

***

Linda barely woke up, it was that difficult to leave the state of unconsciousness. She thought she felt the world changing around her and being consumed by darkness, but it might be another dream like before. But opening her eyes, she noticed that it was dark around her, just like at night. But that was not all. Everything around looked rusty and filthy and there were blood stains here and there on the floor and walls. But the strangest thing was that everything looked… red, or to be precise, mixture of red and orange, but the red colour was stronger. She remembered that during her encounter with Alessa in the last dream the world around them looked the same. It could mean one thing – she was in Alessa's infernal world now.

"Damn, is this another dream?" Linda whispered to herself. "But why do I feel everything when I touch the floor or myself? Or is it all… real?"

Linda slowly raised on her feet, but in a few seconds realized that she was completely alone. No sign of Alice and James. It seemed like they have simply vanished.

"Alice? James? Where are you? If you hear me, say something!"

Nothing. The only answer was just dead silence. Linda didn't know what to think. She remembered for sure that when the siren went off, they were together, but now she got separated from them in some peculiar way. Looking around, Linda realized she was still in Lakeside Amusement Park, where she fainted, only now it has changed to its infernal version. The worst thing was that she didn't know where to go now. The map was by James, so all that remained was to guess the way, and if she's lucky, she would find a stand with a map of Silent Hill, so she could have at least some source of orientation. Glancing down, she noticed that the handgun was still lying on the ground where she dropped it.

"Oh, thank God, at least I haven't lost that," Linda sighed, picking up the gun. "Lucky for me, I can defend myself, but what if I run out of ammo?"

Then she remembered James mentioning that they shouldn't forget about melee combat. Anything hard would do – a wooden plank, a pipe or other things of that kind. If she could find something, that would be nice.

"I'd better save the gun for more serious situations, if I get into such, but I hope I won't," Linda thought loudly. "But I'm somehow sure that it won't go that smooth as you could hope. In fact, this is Hell, and it pretty means it's full of abominations."

Linda gripped her gun tightly and began searching around. She truly hoped to find some clues, and in this diabolical Otherworld there might be bigger chances to stumble on the answers that she needed and, maybe, find Alessa herself.