Where Darkness Falls

Where Darkness Falls


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Where Darkness Falls
 
Chapter 2 – Back to School
 
“Well Misato, it’s been a while.”
 
Though dishevelled, Ritsuko seemed genuinely
glad to see Misato.  She gave the
woman a slightly cautious smile, as if only now allowing herself to believe that
the Operations Director was there, and offered her hand out for a
shake.
 
Misato, who was very glad to see a familiar face, took
the proffered hand and shook it with great relief.  “How did you get here?” she
blurted.
 
Several things were beginning to make sense
in her mind – like how Shinjiht hht have been able to get out of Japan.  However… there was still so much she did
not understand, and she fervently hoped the blonde could shed some illumination
on her confusion-clouded state.
 
“I escaped from my cell with a little help
from Maya Ibuki,” Ritsuko explained, reaching into a box of shotgun shells
situated on the nightstand and feeding them one by one into the pump-action
Smith and Wesson cradled comfortably in her arms.  “Never would have guessed her for the
aiding and abetting type, but anyway, I stumbled across Shinji alone in the Kobe
station, dressed in some dirty jeans and a stolen sweat shirt…” Her eyes grew
far off as she remembered.  “He
looked so lost, Misato,” she murmured softly, “with dust streaked in his hair to
hide its colour and huge dark circles under his eyes.  I had planned to escape on my own and go
somewhere Gen- the Commander would never find me, but when I saw Shinji,” she
shrugged and finished loading the weapon, “I stopped dead in my tracks, like a
deer in the headlights, you know? 
Sometimes he just has that look that I can’t say no to…”
 
“Yeah,” Misato whispered as the woman
trailed off, clearly at a loss for words, “yeah, I understand.”
 
“He told me that he just couldn’t take it
anymore,” Ritsuko continued, her tone level and serious though her hand was
shaking slightly as she rested the shotgun against her leg and leaned against
the wall, “he wanted to be as far away from NERV as possible and just have a
normal life, and since our goals were in line, well…” she shrugged once more.

 
“What exactly did you tell the landlord
about him when you moved here?” Misato asked awkwardly, deciding that she would
get the details of the journey to America at a quieter (and safer) time. “Did
you say he was your son or what?”
 
Ritsuko smirked.  “My younger brother actually,” she said
dryly, “just because I act more
mature than you doesn’t make me mother material.”
 
Misato gave a weak chuckle.  “Right…” she hesitated for a moment, not
truly wanting the answer to the question she was about to ask… but as the
silence spun on, she found that she had no choice, and the one person that might have some idea was in right
front of her.
 
“So umm… what the hell is going on here,
Ritsuko?”
 
“I have no idea,” the blonde replied
immediately, “everything was normal yesterday, and when I woke up this morning
it was like this. It’s as if everyone vanished into thin air.” She sighed,
hefting the shotgun onto her shoulder. “I went to look for Shinji but he wasn’t
in his room.  I don’t know where he
could be, Misato – all I can hope is that he managed to find a way out of town,
because this place is a death-trap.” She sighed and rubbed her eyes.  “I know one thing though – he is not in this building.  I’ve searched the place from top to
bottom and the only person I’ve seen is you…”
 
With a start, Misato remembered the thing
that had been looming over her, but before she could speak, Ritsuko grinned.
“Don’t worry,” she said, coolly patting the shotgun, “it’s dead.”
 
“What was it?!” Misato asked, shivering as she
envisioned those rows of sharp little teeth.
 
“Some kind of mutated frog, I guess,”
Ritsuko said thoughtfully, “I didn’t really spend a lot of time studying its
structure.”
 
“Thank God!” Misato shivered, “A couple more
seconds and you could have studied its eating habits too.”
 
Ritsuko gave her friend a grim smile.  “We may have had our differences in the
past,” she said quietly, “but even I’m not that cold.”
 
Finding no other words to express herself,
Misato simply whispered, “Thanks, Ritsuko.”  Spotting her handgun on the nightstand,
Misato retrieved it and checked the clip. 
“So if Shinji’s not here,” she said, trying to sound business like in
spike of the quaver in her voice, “where could he be?”
 
“Well,” Ritsuko murmured, “He made a few
friends here but I highly doubt he would be at any of their houses, what with
all the people disappearing.”
 
“Could he be at school?” asked Misato,
slipping her gun back into its holster – and deciding it definitely felt better there.  “I mean, you said he wanted to have a
normal life, and normal life means high school, right?”
 
“I can’t see him heading off to school in
this kind of fog,” Ritsuko pointed out, pushing away from the wall and heading
into the living room, “but as strange as this all is, I guess it’s possible that
it wasn’t like this in the morning.” 
She gave Misato a bland smile. 
“Today’s my off day, so I slept in.”
 
“And I’m glad you did,” Misato said
honestly, noting with mixed thankfulness and curiosity how easily the other
woman held the weapon in her hands.
 
“Let’s go take a look,” Ritsuko suggested,
“we’re not getting anywhere standing around-”
 
“Hey Ritsuko?”
 
“Hmm?”
 
Misato stared at the floor for a minute
before whispering, “Why is this so important to you?  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad
you’re here… but you’ve never really been that close to Shinji.”
 
Ritsuko averted her eyes.  “When we were on the plane over here,”
she said softly, “he fell asleep with his head on my shoulder.”  She raised her head, almost managing to
meet the other woman’s gaze before pulling her eyes away once more.  “As I watched him sleep, I made him –
and myself – a promise… that I would make up for all the pain his father and
everyone else caused him.”
 
“Oh,” Misato said uncomfortably, shifting
from one foot to the other.
 
A thick silence fell, and the two women
decided that maybe it was best to leave it unbroken for now.  As they stepped out of the apartment
they both noticed that the corridor was perfectly normal… no blood… no grime… no
monsters – nothing.  Misato glanced
around in confusion, wondering if maybe Ritsuko had carried her to a different
floor, but the sign on the stairwell definitely read 4.
 
Worry
about it later, her mind advised as they made their
way to the foyer, best not to think about
where everything went or why it’s not dark anymore or what happened to the rain…
just… just don’t think until you’re gone.
 
Pulling out her map, she noted that Silent
Hill High was up at the corner of Bradbury and Ellroy – less than four blocks
away from the Lonsdale Apartments.
 
“If it isn’t rain, it’s fog,” she muttered
as they started off, “man, I think I prefer our non-stop summer to this
crap.”
 
At her side, Ritsuko just smiled.
 
**
Wandering through the fog shrouded streets,
Misato was taken again by the barrenness of the city.  It’s like that one town, oh God what was the
name of it again? she thought, glancing idly at a car with its drivers side
gaping wide open.  Was it Jonestown?  That doesn’t sound right, but I remember
reading about that one place where the whole population just vanished – dinner
still on the table and everything.  She shivered.  They never found any bod-
 
“Do you hear something?”
 
She came up short as Ritsuko tilted her head
to the side, listening intently.
 
Misato frowned.  “It sounds like…” her eyes widened.  “Flapping!  Come on!!”  Without waiting for a reply, she dashed
off in the direction of the school, trying to look everywhere at once.  “The front door’s open, let’s go!”

 
As the flapping sound grew louder, Misato
put on a burst of speed, hitting the school’s front door with a bang and
whirling around to cover her friend’s retreat.
 
“Come… on?”
 
The street behind her was empty.
 
“Ritsuko?”
 
Everything was still and quiet.  The flapping sound had faded away to
nothing, as had the sound of feet hitting pavement… there was only Misato’s
harsh breathing to break the silence. 
Crap! she thought angrily,
sweeping the desolate street with her pistol.  We must have gotten
separated…
 
“Ritsuko you idiot,” she hissed, keeping her
voice low to avoid attracting any unwanted attention.
 
She briefly considered heading out into the
fog to search for her friend, but quickly discarded the idea.  She probably went around to another
door, she reasoned, I would have
heard her shooting if she was being attacked…
 
A shiver ran her spin as she considered that
the woman might not have had time to get a shot off.  “If that happened,” she whispered,
feeling horrified by her own rationale, “then it’s too late anyway…”
 
Cold all over, the purple haired woman
started to turn back towards the open door… but she paused as she spotted a dim
shape in the fog.  Is that…? Taking a cautious step
forward, she barely contained a cry of joy.
 
In the school’s parking lot stood an empty
police cruiser with the letters SHPD emblazed on the side. Its windows and doors
standing wide open, and a pump action shotgun was laying across the front seat
like a Christmas present waiting for a good little girl to come play with
it.  Misato snatched the weapon up,
still scanning the streets for any sign of movement, and popped the glove
compartment open.  “Must be my lucky
day,” she whispered giddily, finding a full box of shells for the shotgun, a
handful of AA batteries, and a small, silver crucifix.
 
She took everything, distributing it amongst
her flight jacket’s numerous pockets, and grabbed the CB mic from where it was
resting on the dash.  As she raised
it to her lips, however, she noticed that the cord had been yanked from the
dash… and as she took a step back, sure that she had heard a noise behind her,
her eyes landed on a rather sizable patch of dried blood on the ground next to
the driver’s side – unseen in her haste to find a better weapon than the one she
already had.
 
Slowly, Misato pulled the cross out of her
pocket.
 
“Hope you don’t mind if I borrow this,” she
whispered, carefully stepping around the patch of blood, “but I need all the
help I can get, you know?  I… I have
to find him.”
 
Misato shook her head.  I’m talking… to a spot of blood, she
thought, quickly checking the shotgun’s breech.  Time to get going…
 
With a final glance at the squad car, she
slung the shotgun up on her shoulder and strode into the high school.
 
**
 
Misato wandered aimlessly through the
school, looking through the classrooms and offices for any sign of her misplaced
charge. Guess I shouldn’t be
surprised, she thought tiredly as another room proved empty, no one in the convenience store… no one in
the apartment building… no one on the streets – where IS everyone?  Did those… things get them
ALL?
 
She wondered suddenly why there were no
bodies.  If they are all dead, she thought
uneasily, pausing to look into an open locker, where are they?  I mean, those things DO look like they
could eat a person alive – hell, they tried to eat me! – but shouldn’t there be
something left?  Bones at
least?  And this isn’t the biggest
town, but there’s probably at least a few thousand people here – I don’t think
those monsters could have killed EVERYONE that fast…
 
Misato frowned, biting her lip as she
considered this situation further. 
“And Ritsuko said everything was quiet when she woke up,” she muttered,
“if they killed everyone in that apartment building, someone would have screamed – and even
Ritsuko doesn’t sleep that
deeply!”
 
She shook her head angrily.  I can’t be wasting be time thinking
about this now! she told herself,
Shinji could be here and he might need my help!

Misato made her way through the rest of the
school, finally finding herself at the exit to the roof.  “He wouldn’t be stupid enough to go up
here,” she muttered, laying a hand on the doorknob, “not if he saw those
monsters running around and caught a glimpse of all this fog – he’d go somewhere
safe, right?”  She sighed, pushing
the door open and stepping through nonetheless.  “Better safe than sor-”
 
Suddenly, an unearthly scream pierced the
air – rising so high and so fast that Misato clapped her hands over her ears and
cried out in surprise and fear, instinctively closing her eyes.  Abruptly, the scream was silenced,
replaced by the soft patter of-
 
“Rain…?”
 
Misato opened her eyes… but nothing could
prepare her for the sight she saw.
 
The metal on the fence was rusted, even
though she swore it was not in that condition a minute ago, and she barely
contained a scream of her own as she turned back towards the door… for on the
fence, less than three feet from her, was a corpse.  Misato covered her mouth as she felt her
gorge rising, unable to look away from the horror before her. 
 
Is it
a man… or a woman??
 
This was the first thought that flew into
Misato’s head, for honestly… she could not tell.  The face and genital regions – as well
as the rest of the body – had been so badly traumatized that she could hardly
even identify it as human.  The
worst aspect, however was the thing’s mouth.
 
Someone had shorn the lips and eyelids from
the face, leaving a leering, skull like gcompcomprised of bloodied and cracked
teeth and vacant, muddy blue eyes.
 
With a sharp cry of disgust, and the
horrifying feeling that the corpse was somehow accusing her with its dull,
lidless stare, Misato darted back into the school, slamming the door behind her
resting her back up against it.  “Oh
God,” she sobbed, “oh God, I just want out of here!”
 
Get a
hold of yourself! she thought firmly, If you go all to pieces, Shinji’s as good as
dead!  Ritsuko too!  Now take a deep breath… stop whining…
and go find them, damn it!
 
Taking her own advice, Misato pushed back
from the door… but she came up short as she realized that she was standing in
pitch darkness.  “What
the…?”
 
She clicked on sma small flashlight, her jaw
falling open as she found the stairwell in the same state as she had first seen
the Lonsdale apartments: grimy, rundown, and smelling strongly of, blood, death,
and decay – a total opposite to the clean, if empty, hall she had left when she
opened the door to the rooftop.
 
What the hell is up with this
place!? Misato wondered, her grip on her gun
tightening as she realized that she now had to trust her life to the narrow
flashlight beam and a pair of guns with limited ammunition.
 
Against an army of demonic monsters, in a
place of total darkness where the air reeked of death and decay personified… she
did not give herself very good odds.
 
“No use standing around,” she told herself,
wondering why she was not screaming at the top of her lungs.
 
Must
be getting used to it, she reasoned, edging
carefully down the stairs.  That or I’ve finally gone off the deep
end.
 
Peering around the corner, Misato found
herself face to face with one of the small child-like creatures.  For several seconds, the two stared at
one another, too stunned to move… then the creature hissed and raised its right
hand, revealing a large butcher knife – and Misato was moving.
 
Throwing herself to the right, she brought
the shotgun up, firing it point-blank into the creature’s chest and taking a
certain amount of cruel pleasure from the dismayed squawk it uttered as it fell
on its back and began writhing around, clearly in agony.  “Nice try,” Misato whispered, getting
shakily to her feet and drawing her pistol, “but I think you’re going to have to
let Hell know I won’t be joining you for a little while, my friend.”
 
The nine millimetre’s report was muffled and
somehow flat as Misato aimed it at the creature’s head and pulled the trigger,
but as she always said, results are what mattered, and since the thing
immediately stilled, she was not about to complain.
 
Not pausing to savour her victory, Misato
glanced around at the rusty grating and filthy, rotten wood that surrounded
her.  Better get out of here, she told
herself, Shinji’s not…
 
She let the thought trail off, afraid of
where it might lead her, and peeked into one of the sroosrooms, grimacing as she
found it decrepit and foul, with the chairs and desks in such a state of
disrepair that they seemed 100 years old. 
Even the bars on the win (ca (cause enough for raised eyebrows) were
rusted, lending to the atmosphere of decay and abandonment.
 
Misato let the door close and shook her
head.  “Just get out,” she commanded
herself, heading for the stairwell, “don’t… think.”
 
She med ted to make it to the front door
with only minor difficulty, encountering and finishing off a handful of the
child-like creatures along the way… and counting every spent shell and bullet
like a nail in her own coffin.  At this rate I’ll need to use one of
these, she thought grimly, stooping to pick up one of the child-monster’s
butcher knives.
 
“Damn it,” she muttered, her shoulders
slumping as she beheld the heavy chain that had somehow managed to find its way
around the school’s door levers. 
“Guess I need to find the back door.”
 
She glanced at the small windows around the
door, but sighed and turned away as she realized that even if she could pry the
bars off of them, she would never be able to force her body through the small
opening.  Maybe Rei, she thought suddenly, but not me.
 
Misato frowned as she started off down the
corridor.  “Now why did I think
of-”
 
She whirled around as a footstep echoed
behind her, but her eyes found nothing in the darkness.  Shaking off the impression that if she
had just been a second faster she would haven thn the First Child, Rei Ayanami,
Misato hurried off in the opposite direction, wondering where she would go after
she got out of the school.
 
**
 
“Damn, this place is a nightmare,” Misato
said, her voice shaking and unsteady as she pulled her newest weapon frhe he
throat of another of the beak creatures she had killed in the convenience
store.  It had come at her from
nowhere; not giving her the chance to bring her shotgun to bear, and it had only
been a stroke of luck that she had been examining the knife’s odd handle when it
had pounced.
 
Wincing, she kicked the creature – more out
of spite than the idea that it might still be a danger – and brought her left
arm into the flashlight’s beam, taking stock of the small injury the creature
had managed to inflict.
 
My
jacket took most of the hit, she thought critically,
rolling up her sleeve to get a better look at the thin cut in her skin, but better safe than sorry – who knows what
kind of infections these things could carry??
 
Misato looked around, blinking as she found
herself less than five feet from a door marked simply ‘infirmary.’
 
“Well how do you like that?”
 
Trading the knife to her other hand and
readying her pistol, she pushed the door open and let the flashlight illuminate
the small ronbspnbsp; Immediately
something caught her eye, scrambling across the floor and under the bed.  Misato pulled the trigger three times,
cursing as each shot dug up a small chunk of linoleum, passing wide of her
intended target.
 
“Guess we do this the hard way,” she
muttered grimly. 
 
Unslinging the shotgun from her sder der and
cocking it with one hand, she dropped to her knees, bearing down on the trigger
even as she brought her eyes in line with the creature under the bed.
 
“NO!!”
 
Misato was so surprised at hearing another
human voice that her whole body jerked, the shotgun going off with an angry
bang, as if frustrated that it was denied its pray.  “H-hello?” she called cautiously,
unclipping the flashlight from her pocket and aiming it under the
bed.
 
The beam played not on a creature, but on an
ordinary little girl, her brown eyes wide with shock and fright.  “N-no!” the girl cried, cringing away
from the light.  “Don’t… don’t come
near me!!”
 
“Hey, hey!” Misato said quickly, setting the
shotgun within easy reach and holding out her hand.  “I’m not going to hurt you…
promise.”
 
The girl’s eyes widened as she looked into
Misato’s face, and as the realization that she was looking at a fellow human,
she scrambled out of her hiding place and dove into the woman’s arms, sobbing
hysterically.  “I thought you… and
I… we were… oh GOD!!”
 
Misato just gaped.  How did she stay alive? she thought
incredulously, pushing back a bit to get a better look at her.  She estimated that the girl was about 14
or 15 years old, with short brown hair and scared, but clear brown eyes.  At a guess, Misato pegged her at about
100 pounds and five foot four inches. She’s gonna be tall, she thought
idly.
 
“I thought I was all alone,” the girl
sniffled, starting to get herself under control, but quickly losing it again as
something somewhere in the building howled.  “Ma’am, what’s happening?  Where is everyone?  I’m scared!!”
 
“I don’t know,” Misato confessed, mentally
cursing her poor English skills. 
“Things were like this when I got here.”
 
Poor kid, she thought sympathetically, she’s as in
the dark about what’s going here as I am – and she can’t be a day older then 15,
either! Looking into the girl’s tear-streaked,
terrified face, Misato came to a conclusion. I need to get her out of here too… I don’t
think I could live with myself if I just left her to die…
 
“I’m Misato,” she saspeaspeaking carefully
to be understood, “Misato Katsuragi.”
 
“I’m Amber…Amber Donnelly,” answered the
girl, wiping briefly at her tears and taking deep, hitching breaths to calm
down.  After several moments she
gave Misato a timid smile. 
“Um…you’re Japanese right?”
 
“Hai,” Misato replied, giving the girl a
small smile.
 
Encouraged, the girl finally released
her.  “We just got a new transfer
student in a little while back,” she said, seeming thankful to have a mundane
topic of conversation, “His name is Shinji Takeuchi – he’s Japanese
too.”
 
“Yes!” Misato cried out, making the girl
jump, “I know him – I’m looking for
him! Do you know where he could be? I figured he might be here, but I can’t find
him anywhere…”
 
Amber shook her head.  “I don’t know, ma’am,” she said
sheepishly, “I’ve been wandering the school for hours, and everyone’s gone… I’m
sorry.”
 
Misato sighed.  Well this was a big bust! she thought sullenly.  Ritsuko’s pretty resourceful, so I’m sure
she’s ok… but this girl…
 
 “Are there
any other ways out?”
 
Amber nodded. “The doors won’t open – I
tried – but there’s a fire exit in the gym…” she blushed suddenly.  “I heaometomething moving around in
there, so I… I couldn’t go in.  I’m
sorry.”
 
“That’s nothing to be sorry about,” Misato
said, rising from her crouch and reaching out to take Amber’s hand, “Hell, I
almost couldn’t bring myself to come in here to look for some alcho-”
 
Before she could finish her thought, the
tiny window in the infirmary burst in, showering them both with fragments of
glass.  Amber took one look at the
squirming thing on the floor and tore her hand from Misato’s, uttering a
terrified scream as she dashed out of the room.
 
Don’t, Misato thought, bringing her
shotgun to bear as she barely checked herself from chasing after the girl, let her go for now or this thing will tear
you BOTH apart.
 
She cocked the weapon and began backing
towards the wall, looking in vain for a head of some sort… but there was none –
instead, the thing’s chest was split, rows of jagged teeth, glistening with
unspeakable saliva gleaming dully in the light from her flashlight.  In the seconds before it roared, Misato
noted that it vaguely resembled a huge dog… though instead of fur, it was
covered in brown, rotten looking flesh, like a canine zombie that wal
l
mouth.
 
Misato felt her sanity slip as its mouth
gaped wide open and it let out a terrible, bone-jarring cry – like a razor blade
on a car’s hood. 
 
“Bad dog!”
 
Without even thinking, Misato did what you
do with bad dogs – you discipline. 
Only her discipline was manufactured by Smith and Wesson in 12 gage
doses, and she delivered them directly into the ‘dog’s mouth.
 
As the creature uttered another howl, Misato
turned and bolted.  Play dead, she thought hysterically,
praying that she had at least incapacitated the thing, roll over… bad dog – BAD
DOG!!
 
She sprinted down the dark corridors,
cocking the shotgun as she went. 
“Amber!” she cried, glancing around wildly for any sign of the girl… but
she was alone.
 
Great, she thought, taking the next
corner at a dead run, God, please let the
girl have enough sense to head for the gym – we have GOT to go!
 
Taking her own advice, she dashed down the
hall and into the gym, slipping on the tiles and falling on her rear with a
breathless thud.
 
“Tile…?”
 
Somehow, impossibly, the centre of the gym
was occupied by a huge, rippling pool, its exact dimensions hidden in the dark,
but clearly not ‘Olympic standard.’ 
I don’t… smell chlorine, she
thought, far past the point of being surprised by anything as mundane as having
a pool in the gymnasium.
 
Misato rose carefully to her feet, feeling
her stomach turn over as the dark water lapped fitfully at the edges of the
pool.  Whatever fluid was in the
pool… it was not water, and she had to fight to keep from throwing up as she
realized that the liquid had a dimly red tinge to it, as if it was full
of-
 
“Don’t… think…”
 
Skirting the pool as best she could, Misato
kept repeating this simple mantra over and over again.  No thinking, yes, she thought, keeping
her eyes straight ahead as she made her way towards the far side, best not to think.  Don’t think if you want to stay sane,
don’t think if you want to live, don’t think if you… what was
that…?
 
She froze as a soft ‘splish,’ echoed in the
darkness five feet from her.
 
“No,” she whispered, half horrified, half
angry, “oh come on!  I’m five feet
from the damn door!!”
 
The thing rising up from the pool did not
seem to pay her mad complaint any mind. 
First one tentacle rose from the surface of the murky liquid, feeling
blindly around on the rim, then another joined the first, helping it hoist the
remainder of the creature onto the ‘shore’ with a disgustingly wet thump.  It looked almost human, Misato decided,
if you tilted your head to the side and pretended that it had arms and legs
instead of tentacles.
 
Maybe
it was once, she thought deliriously, bringing the
shotgun up as the tentacles where the head should have been swayed in her
direction, as if scenting the air to find her location.
 
“Fuck it.”
 
Pushing away from the wall, Misato pulled
the trigger, feeling elation wash over her as one of the tentacles was
vaporized… the feeling vanished as two more tentacles took the place of the
ruined one, all of them darting out in an attempt to catch her.
 
“Ahh!!” Misato let out a dismayed scream as
one of the tentacles found her, wrapping around her waist and bearing down.  “N-no,” she gasped, struggling in the
thing’s grip and bringing her shotgun around as another tentacle found her left
leg.
 
Trying to… pull me apart… she thought
dizzily, feeling more breath leaving her lungs as the thing increased the
pressure of its squeezing.  Not… gonna… die here!!
 
Forcing her lungs to draw in more breath,
Misato screamed, levelling the gun at the thing’s waiting mouth and pumping off
seven shots in rapid succession. 
Her effort seemed successful as the creature’s tongue disappeared.  Making a gurgling screech, it released
her, dropping her on the floor with a sharp thump and falling back towards the
water.  A moment before it hit,
however, a bright light flashed behind Misato’s eyes, blinding her.
 
Gun,
she thought desperately, fumbling to get her pistol
free of its holster as she drew deep, thankful lungfuls of air, can’t let it… get me…
 
Misato blinked as she realized that the
floor under her hands was indeed floor… and the horrid stench that had filled
her nostrils was replaced with the dull fragrance of dust and floor polish.  Slowly, the world swam back into view,
and as she freed her weapon she finally grasped the fact that she was in a
gymnasium – a real gymnasium, complete with hardwood, basketball hoops, and a
wonderful, glorious… exit sign.
 
Quickly, she got to her feet, gathering up
the shotgun from where she dropped it and racing too the exit.
 
Better safe than sorry, after
all.
 
Once outside, she allowed herself a few
steadying breaths, taking the time to slide more shells into the shotgun.  “Four…?” she muttered, reaching into her
pocket and finding only one left. 
“Damn it – they must have fallen when I was-”
 
Fighting a demon? she thought as her
mouth snapped closed.  Which one?  The octopus one, or the dog from Hell,
hmm?  Well at least the other stuff
is still there… but still no Shinji – where else could I look?&nbThinThink, god damn it,
THINK!!
 
“Police station!” It was as if a light bulb
went off over her head.  “He’d go to
a police station,” she told herself firmly, reaching into her pocket and pulling
out the map, “He’s got to be
there!  It’s the only place that
makes sense… and since this is a police shotgun, I can probably get some more
shells for it – and they probably
have a first aid kit for this scratch! 
It’s perfect!”  She noted the
location of the police department and slipped the map back into her
pocket.
 
I’m
coming, Shinji…
 
It being full night by now, Misato had no
choice but to rely on the flashlight once more, though now that she knew what to
listen for, she was able to avoid several more of the winged creatures and two
of the beaked monsters, making it to the police station without incident and
(thankfully) without coming across Ritsuko’s mangled body.
 
Silver lining to every cloud I guess, she
thought, slipping into the police department’s front door with a sigh of
relief.  Though there were no police
officers around, it was still comforting for her to be in a building dedicated
to fighting crimes and righting wrongs. 
I could have been a cop, she
told herself, looking around for any sign of her wayward charge, who knows, maybe I still can be after I
reti-
 
A soft rustling from the squad room drew her
attention.
 
“Shinji?” she whispered hopefully, starting
towards the room as stealthily as she could – just in case it was not him… or
human.
 
Peering around the corner, she spied a man
sitting at one of the officer’s desks. 
From where she stood, Misato could see that he wore heavily tinted
glasses and had short dark hair and a beard, other than that, the only other
detail she could make out was the old-fashioned pistol in his right hand… and
the dead child-monster at his feet.
 
She gave a start as he abruptly raised his
head, taking note of her for the first time.
 
After a moment of staring, the man cleared
his throat.  “Good
evening.”
 
Staring into his eyes, Misato thought that
it most likely… would be anything but.
 
TBC