Central Silent Hill/Alchemilla Hospital (Foggy World)

[scribble_puppet]

Their feet hit gritty pavement.

It's the middle of a block of foggy street in a run-down commercial district. Not the skyscrapers of New York, but squat, huddled old buildings of a quaint New England town. Behind them is a dusty toy store; other storefronts litter the street to either side and in front.

The whole place echoes emptily, the movement of the fog the only sound other than themselves.

Amber scuffs a sneaker on the asphalt. "So... yeah. Here it is."

Comments

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"Stops?" She peers out a window and up.

Not that she could tell anything, anyway, since the fog limits visibility to maybe ten feet.

"Well, there's shit all over, but walking's better'n sitting waiting for them to get us, right?"

[futures_of_ash]

"Yeah, stops. It's kind of like a bubble. Nothing outside that edge until you manage to hit your real world again." Rachel shrugged, sure that she wasn't explaining it right.

"Usually..." speaking of stuff, there was a eerie howl starting to rise on the wind. Baying from all around, a sound clawing from a near dozen throats riding on a wave of fear. "Oh....no."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Gun. Loaded. Ready.

Amber is getting used to this place and its surprises.

[futures_of_ash]

Hardened hero that she was...well, this was a hell of a curve-ball anyway. Rachel held open the door for Amber then nodded toward the best street. "Hounds. The first weapon us fear...the actual emotion. They, no, she can project it when they're close enough. Whatever you do, don't run."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

The look she gives projects a very strong, are you shitting me?!

(Amber has not had much experience in non-urban situations.)

"That's... gonna be pretty fuckin' hard," she admits.

"She who?"

[futures_of_ash]

"The pack leader." Rachel answered grimly, striding beside Amber with an almost lupine ease. "Projective empath, and it's easier to take prey when they're terrified out of their minds."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"Picked a good fuckin' place for it, then."

At some point, she's going to be questioning why someone from Rachel's world is here in Amber's.

Right now, questioning it seems a bit counterproductive. In the "possibly deadly" sense.

"Fuck this place."

[futures_of_ash]

"Yeah, I'm not liking it either." Rachel admitted grimly.

There were shadows following them in the next streets over. Human shadows, moving on all fours...and behind them, just in the edges of the encircling mist came more.

And the Fear.

It was the sick, churning fear of those about to die. When there's no other option but to curl in a corner and scream as the monster comes because you've run out of places to run or hide.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit

don't run don't run don't run don't run
don'trundon'trundon'trundon'trunDON'TRUNDON'TRUNDON'TRUNDON'TRUNDON'TRUN

Her legs are cramping from trying not to book it.

[futures_of_ash]

The problem with this particular onslaught was that Rachel and the Pack leader were evenly matched. So there was a very silent war going on, parts of the Fear hitting Amber, and parts of it being deflected back at the other hounds and...

Rachel wrapped her hand around her friends arm, pace slowing as she fought, but she didn't want to get separated from the girl at all. "You can shoot at the other hounds. You can't hit the leader, but the others should be possible. It might distract her."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

ARE YOU KIDDING SHE CAN'T SHOOT THEM THEY ARE TERRIFYING

but on the other hand

Rachel needs help

Rachel helped her

Rachel

is important

BLAM BLAM BLAM

Her hand is shaking, but she keeps pulling the trigger.

BLAM BLAM BLAM

[futures_of_ash]

No, she wasn't kidding, and in any other time...any other place...she would feel guilty about bringing harm to one of the hounds. That wasn't here and now though. She couldn't afford the luxury of guilt right now.

"Slider..." she murmured as the bullets hit one of those following them. The impact caused screaming. The screaming in turn caused howling, a great, belling sound that rose, horribly, from human throats.

"Reload Amber." Rachel suggested as that Fear spiked into Rage for a moment before fading slightly.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Waaaayyyy ahead of you there. Amber has figured out very quickly that you do not stop attacking until the other guy is no longer moving. Especially here.

BLAM BLAM BLAM

[futures_of_ash]

That other guy didn't seem to want to stop moving.

The Fear wasn't constant anymore. Instead it slashed like knives, a spiking, distracting emotion usually seeping in just before Amber pulled the trigger. The Pack Leader was not happy with one of her hounds being injured.

Not happy at all.

"Keep walking backward amber...we need to get to the door. They'll bring up Med in a moment for those injuries they have and we're going to want a little more space between us and them then..." Or a lot of space really. Hounds didn't cut loose often.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

For Amber, fear helped her with pulling the trigger. Less "oh shit this is another person" and more "OH SHIT THIS THING IS GOING TO KILL ME IF I LET IT."

She keeps walking, stiff-legged, always glancing from the terrain ahead to the Hounds and back. Because seeing where she's walking is just as important as seeing what they're fleeing.

"Yeah." Frankly, she wants a LOT more space- like maybe the Atlantic Ocean- but she'll take what she can get.

[futures_of_ash]

"Curb here." Rachel murmured softly to Amber. She, too, was trying her best to keep an eye out behind them. "That small one you can barely see, coming up from the back? That's Med."

It was a blond child, barely older than twelve, but wrapped in the same black leather as the rest and bearing the same facial tattoos. A pup, as the Hounds called him. Young, precious, and protected rabidly on hunts. Rachel...couldn't find it in herself to hurt him. Even years later.

"Stop wasting ammo...we'll go through the building. Door just behind us."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"A kid..." she hisses.

Amber's gotten good with doors. Specifically, with opening them just enough to slip around and then slam behind without being followed.

It's slightly more difficult with Rachel, but only slightly.

A shop. Dusty displays and shelves lie scattered across the aisles. Cages of various sizes line the walls, some with prices hanging on them, a few with a picture of the former occupants- kittens, hamsters, birds, dogs.

They're empty, waiting.

Amber is already clambering over a pile of dog food bags, toward the back room's door.

[futures_of_ash]

"One of very, very few." Rachel agreed grimly. The Hound program had an incredibly high die off rate. That was alright though, it was only mutants.

Rachel was skimming the ceiling when the front windows simply exploded. It was a shivery, tinkling sound that let the renewed howling outside creep into the shop. The door soon followed the windows, then the brickwork, leaving the front of the shop a gaping hole beyond which the pack sat with glowing eyes.

Luckily, the pack tended to have issues with cages. That meant the next attack didn't focus on the girls, but on the cages lining the walls; pale energy lashing into the twisted metal bars until the things screamed and twisted in protest.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Shit shit shit

Amber is through the door and running for the fire exit, past even more shelves and cages

and walls made of bars

chains

She doesn't pause to wonder about the back room. For one, that's almost normal, here. For two, EXPLODEY PEOPLE BEHIND THEM.

[futures_of_ash]

Rachel landed to run just behind Amber, a palpable heat at the girl's back as shrapnel chased them. She, too, was very careful not to look at the walls they were passing. The last thing they needed was for Rachel to let her fear of cages get the best of her too.

The Fear that had been beating at their heels returned in full force, twined now with unreasoning Rage as the pack hit the backroom. Bars, and chains, and cages...

...these materials didn't explode so easily, but they did lend themselves to more practical purposes. The chains started snaking and weaving, striking out toward the fleeing girls like serpents.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"UFF" One with a heavy end catches Amber across the face, and she staggers into some bars. She recovers quickly, though, still fire exit bound.

Fear has always been a part of Amber's life. Never really to the level it's at now- not even that time she stumbled into the abandoned building territory of some thugs who didn't think they needed to be reported on- but it's something her mother taught her from childhood.

Her mother taught her that fear is the time for moving quickly but steadily, watching everything, and, over all, not messing up, because that means something worse than even death.

Fear is battery power. And you'd better be somewhere safe when that power runs down.

This is why Amber's response is a hissed, "fuck this place," and a tightened focus on the door.

And to topple a stack of boxes behind her. Because even with enemies that'll explode them, they'll have to pause at least for a moment to do that.

[futures_of_ash]

There was actually a low, steady growl trickling from Rachel's throat as they went. An unconscious thing that kept her in the right frame of mind for the run; after all, to take on the pack itself and hold them while Amber ran would require the Phoenix...

...and she'd already seen what too much force in this place could do. They didn't need the world dissolving around them.

She couldn't catch all of the chains, she couldn't even catch enough to keep Amber from being hit, but she was able to keep those chains from wrapping around; from hooking. With enough chains coming at them, she could tie the damn things in a knot that looked like a rusted, trembling spider's web in the hallway behind them.

Rachel was just an inch or two behind Amber when they hit the door back to the street.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

At the threshold,

And Amber is no longer in front.

[futures_of_ash]

And Rachel was no longer behind

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

It's several blocks before she realizes that there's only one pair of feet pounding on the pavement.

Amber stops, clinging to a lightpost and gulping air. Her legs shake.

"rache?" she wheezes, then swallows more air into her aching lungs.

"RACHEL?"

....not the smartest idea she's ever had. She realizes it, and freezes, ears straining to hear anything beyond the pounding of her blood or the whispering fog.

Lucky. Nobody's coming after her.

Not lucky. Rachel's not coming after her.

"fuck fuck fuck." She sags against a brick wall, taking care to stretch out her legs.

She only relaxes long enough to get her breath and down a few granola bars. She doesn't have the luxury to take it easy, even with screaming legs and worry for her friend. She's off at a steady pace as soon as her breath gets back (http://hollow-way.livejournal.com/4872.html).