CHAPTER ONE: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

[Seon]

"I can close the shutters and lock the doors. Nobody will know that you are in here and nobody will be able to get in," Jack said. "There is no need for you to go to an empty police station. Police stations aren't supposed to be empty. Besides, if you get killed out there, there would be nobody left to take care of Katie."

He waved his hands towards her fingers. "No wedding rings. Divorced, I presume? This place is safer than sneaking into a police station. There are plenty of foods and weapons if you are in a hurry. All other windows of this building is behind steel shutters, so you know that you are safe if you hide in the office or something. On the other hand, if you go outside, you can get jumped by someone. You'll never see him coming because o the fog. I am a local, so I can brave it better than you can."

[Kadael]

Cecilia purses her lips and looks away from Jack, at the photograph. He has a point - Nathan knows that they've gone to Silent Hill, but not anything about Katie's abduction. She didn't even think about telling him. He wouldn't know anything was wrong until they didn't come back, and by then...

"...Fine," she sighs. She glances at the empty spot on her left ring finger. Was she still expecting to see something there? Is it that obvious?

She sends a quick message to Ash. NEVERMIND JACK IS COMING. U KNOW HIM? Then she's back at her list of contacts, going down to the name Nathan. He deserves to know about his daughter, but... she's not sure she can tell him. She doesn't know if she's ready for the guilt, the blame, and the panic to be thrown around all over again.

Her finger hovers over the CALL button, not pressing, not pulling back.

"Come back soon," Cecilia says. She means it - the idea of being alone here makes her blood run cold.

[Seon]

Jack grabbed the shotgun, loaded it, and also dumped a dozen more shells into his pockets.

"I'll be back," Jack said. He went out the front door, locking it behind him in the process.

[Laraqua]

Jack has managed to grab 16 shells in all. Hopefully it'll be enough or else he might need to venture into the mall to grab some additional bullets from a hunting shop. As he steps outside into the cold, still air, he notices that the steel shutters are still rolled up over the wide glass windows and the neon sign is glowing orange in welcome to Annie's Bar.

Cecilia,Return to your own thread once the shutters are put up but feel free to do one last post as the metal shutters go up as his last image of you.

[Kadael]

Cecilia closes her phone and shuts her eyes. She'll talk to Ash, to get everything straightened out, and then she'll call Nathan. This is definitely not a convenient way to avoid him. She wouldn't do that. Right.

Jack says he'll be back, but someone wanted him dead. There's probably more where that came from. People don't attack without reason.

Even with the heater going, she feels a chill in the air. Before the shutters go down, she looks out the window and gives him a halfhearted wave. She can't muster enough motivation to smile.

OOC,Oh, Cecilia. You're assuming a person tried to kill him... returning to my thread, then.

[Seon]

Soo... Car... Or no car? Jack drew out a random card from his tarot deck.

O of swords. "Ehh... Sure, why not?" Jack muttered. He sauntered over to his car and, tryin his best not to touch or look at the corpse, rummaged through his pockets for keys and unlocked the door to the car.

[Laraqua]

The keys are where they should be and its easy enough to unlock the car. Casting a quick glance into the brightly lit interior of Annie's Bar, he opens the door easily enough. It's not too far to the police station, after all.

[Seon]

Jack'a mouth twisted back up into a smile as he put the key into the ignition and turned it on. "Who said charging into a police station with a shotgun was a bad idea?" he muttered.

[Laraqua]

The car doesn't start. It doesn't so much as cough. It's as though the battery were well and truly dead.

[Seon]

Jack sighed. Just his luck. He kicked open the door to the car.

"Might as well walk to that place there then, eh?" He looked down at his pockets, sighed in disappointment as he realized that he left the kitten in the bar, and then sauntered out. It was a short walk to the police station, so he might as well brave it.

[Laraqua]

The cold air chills him quite completely. To make matters worse, he has to step cautiously around the corpse spattered by his car. The blood smeared prints continue to head across the road into the foggy distance. He could always follow them if he was spoiling for a fight. Otherwise, he can go left or right down the road to find his way to the police station that is north of the resort area. Going west will allow him to get onto Bachman Road which is a relatively long street that curves slightly onto Crichton Street. Follow it north and you'd find the police station is on the corner of Sagan Street and Crichton Street. Alternatively, go east along Craig Street and get onto South Park and followed one of the paths north. Across the road (in the direction of the blood spatters) should be a couple shops with laneways between them that you could use to get into the South Park if you jumped the fence. Across the road, you could also check out the Burger Joint with the cute waitress to see if they're open and if there's anyone inside.

As Jack stands there, drawing a map of Silent Hill in his mind as he figures out which way is best to go, he is struck by both the cold and the silence. It's odd listening to the silence during tourist season. This entire town really isn't making any sense right now.

Maps,You have them of Silent Hill so feel free to google them to take a look at the various areas. [url=http://th03.deviantart.net/fs49/PRE/f/2009/188/3/9/Silent_Hill_Complete_Map_by_Guy_onthe_Couch.jpg]This[/url] map gives you an overview of the area.

[Seon]

"Alrighty then," Jack muttered. "Eenie...meenie...minie...MO!" He pointed towards the direction of the bloodtrail.

He frowned.

"Haha, very funny, fates," he muttered as he turned towards Craig street. There was no way that he would go to South Park. The craziest things happened there, and there was no way that he would face it. Even with a shotgun.

[Laraqua]

Jack heads down the street to turn right and ... comes face to face with those funny Fates. A gaping hole in the road is full of chunks of mansonry and gutted pipes that disappears into a yawning void. Even the nearest telephone pole is hanging over it at an angle with wires drooping down into the fog-shrouded emptiness. Well, it looks like he'll have to find another way to go. Of course, interestingly enough, there was no sensation of an earthquake earlier.

[Seon]

"ALRIGHT. GOD, FINE!" Jack said to nobody in particular.

"Hi, bloodtrails," he said as he walked past his car once more.

"Bye, bloodtrails," he said as he walked towards Bachman Street.

[Laraqua]

The long road heads down and should switch left onto another street beyond the park but he's barely two dozen yards down the road tears another chasm in the asphalt road that would force him off the road and into the park. Well, unless he wants to grab a boat and see if he can make his way up the river past the crater. That is an unlikely possibility but in this world it might work out. There's a sharp series of barking that comes from somewhere within the park.

[Seon]

"Hey, bloodtrails, I am back!" Jack said as he sauntered back to his car. "Lesson learned. From now on, when I see a dead body and some bloodtrails, I will know that I was going in the correct direction."

He walked, this time much more carefully, in the general direction of the bloodtrail.

Spoiler:

Can't use Invisible Castle right now. You?

[Laraqua]

The bloody shuffle-prints appear to be larger than anticipated. Wider and larger than his own shoes and the prints suggest the figure was walking on the pads of their feet -- though there's no sign of any toes. The prints wind their way across the asphalt to the burger joint. The door is warped and shredded and half hangs off of the door frame. The 'AEC Burger' Joint's roller screen windows have been pulled down and locked, preventing Jack from seeing inside. The prints seem to go right inside but to the left, just around the building, is a short laneway that heads up to a fence that blocks off the park. From memory, there's a dumpster near that fence as well.

OOC,Nope, but I can make any rolls you want to use for you in the meantime in reality.

[Seon]

"So if my fates are correct, that is the right way to go," Jack muttered, looking at the doorway to the burger joint. "Naaaah. Naaaaah...." Jack said. "Better not."

Jack walked towards the fences, stepping as silently as possible to avoid alerting...whatever the thing was that was inside the bar.

And the dogs.

Spoiler:

Roll a Sneak, please

[Laraqua]

Jack moves quietly enough through the alleyway though in the absolute silence the odd crack of shoes against asphalt and then concrete still sounds incredibly loud in the quiet. The dumpster is pushed up against the side of the burger joint's brick wall and stands about three feet away from the rear fence. Corrugated iron is hardly quiet but the support strut bars and poles are on this side, at least, so it shouldn't be too difficult to climb over. Climbing over quietly will be a bit more painful, however.

[Seon]

Alright, Jack grimaced. He checked the shotgun's weight to ensure that it was fully loaded, and then slipped it into his rather deep pockets. "Let's do this."

He reached up towards the bar and then began to pull himself over the fence.