Long-term salvation

At this moment, dawn has not yet arrived and the sun's light has not yet risen from the horizon.

"One of the cars is indeed that woman's, but there's no blood or signs of a struggle in either car, not even footprints," Sybil said after taking a look around. "If we want to know more, we need to call the forensic doctor or find more professional detectives."

"..."

Gideon walked to the black jeep and looked inside but didn't see any handheld DV or video camera.

"Keep going, we're entering Silent Hill."

Chapter 9 Hello, Alessa (4K)

The machete chopped down, accompanied by the sound of whistling wind.

Rhodes stepped back half a step, allowing the tip of the machete to only cut open the magazine pouch and leave a slight scratch on the magazine.

"I don't care what you're going to do," Rhodes frowned slightly, "I only care about the truth here. If you choose to continue to fight me—"

The alarm blared once more, and Pyramid Head's skin and flesh peeled back layer by layer, dissipating in mere seconds into ash. The flesh on the wall vanished, and the wall returned like gray paint, reapplied over and over again, retaining its old, dust-covered appearance.

The monster and the darkness disappeared without a trace in an instant, even the three ragged men.

I don't think they will have a good ending.

"Well, it seems she doesn't want to talk to me very much." Rod spread his hands and turned to look at Ruth, who still looked terrified. "Ma'am, are you okay?"

"I...I'm okay...if I can find a place to clean myself up."

"Be patient, ma'am. We still have a long way to go." Rhodes pulled her up from the ground without any disgust on his face. He then noticed the wooden sign in Ruth's hand. There was some English written on the sign, which was the name of a hotel:

Grand Hotel.

It's an ordinary name, but it's imbued with a girl's pain and despair.

"Then let's go to this place first." Ruth looked down at the wooden sign and wiped the filth off it with her hands. Some strange impulse was driving her to this place. "Will we encounter those monsters again on the way?"

"Are you tired?"

As Rhodes spoke, he replaced the rifle's magazine with a new one and replenished the previously consumed grenades and explosives.

He has a small temporary storage space, about the size of a trash can in Escape from Tarkov, which can currently only store small items exchanged by the system, such as weapons, ammunition, logistical supplies, etc.

"I'm just worried about my daughter. She hasn't met a soldier like you... like you."

"She'll be fine." Rhode looked up at the sky. The sky of Silent Hill had not changed because of the transformation in the other world. It was still gray and filled with endless ashes. "Silent Hill will not let her get hurt."

Ruth didn't quite agree with what Rhodes said, but she didn't refute it. Instead, she dusted herself off and followed Rhodes towards the Grand Hotel.

The road was calm, but a slight warm breeze blew through the streets and houses, stirring up the ashes on the ground and turning them into a light mist. Coupled with the already thick fog in Silent Hill, Rhode and his companions could only follow the main road and use the signs at the intersection to determine the direction.

Ten minutes later, the sign of the Grand Hotel appeared in front of the three people.

However, as soon as he arrived here, Rhodes heard faint shouting coming from the hotel -

"Help! No..."

"Get out of here, you sinner!"

Rhode and Ruth exchanged a glance, and Marian quickly approached the hotel, but instead of entering directly from the front, she began searching for another entrance. Then, Rhode led Ruth through the door at a normal pace and entered the hotel.

He soon found the source of the noise: a dirty woman throwing stones at an equally dirty old woman.

Without further ado, Rhodes fired a shot upwards, successfully attracting their attention.

"Ladies," Rhodes raised an eyebrow, "could you please stop your quarreling now that we have a guest?"

The old woman initially glared at the dirty woman with disgust and ridicule, but when her gaze fell on Rhode, she screamed and covered her eyes with her hands, as if she was stung by the light, and staggered away.

"A monster! A monster made of blood and iron!"

Rhode just shrugged and turned his head to the dirty woman and said:

"Are the people here not very friendly? Or is calling someone 'monster' the way to greet them in Silent Hill?"

"No..." The dirty woman's eyes lingered on the weapon in Rhode's hand. Now that it was pointed at her, a more realistic and intuitive fear slowly filled her entire body, squeezing out the joy she had when she first saw Rhode. "My name is Anna, and I don't think you're a monster."

At this time, Ruth, who was following behind Rhodes, tugged at his clothes and whispered:

"That crazy woman who just ran away, I met her when I first came to this damn place."

"Don't worry about her," Rod replied in a low voice, looking past the dirty woman named Anna and towards the corner of the hotel. He always felt that someone was staring at him. At this time, Marian's voice interrupted:

Commander, I saw a...

"Ignore her. Are there any other humans nearby?"

[No, those monsters no longer exist.]

"Very good, come and join me now," Rhode said, closing the communication. He ignored Anna beside him and roughly rummaged through the cabinets and miscellaneous items in the hall. A few seconds later, he pulled out a folded painting from a box marked with number 111, examined it, and then handed it to the somewhat bewildered Ruth beside him.

"Look, this should be what you need."

"This is... which room did you take it from?"

"number 111."

"Then this is where we're going," Ruth said without further ado. The moment she saw the painting, her expression grew serious, and her motherly strength once again dispelled her worries and fears about the road ahead. "Whether my daughter is there or not, there's definitely something there that I should know."

"The right choice, ma'am."

Rhode nodded approvingly, then turned his head to Anna, who was standing beside him anxiously, and said:

"If you leave here, you might live longer."

Upon hearing this, the latter nodded with his head lowered, carefully avoiding Rhodes and Ruth, and not daring to look at Marian who was walking quickly from the other corridor. He broke open the hotel door alone and ran into the gradually thickening fog outside.

Without further ado, Rhode and the other two searched through the rooms one by one. Finally, Ruth stopped in front of a painting depicting a woman being burned at the stake. Suddenly, she took out a dagger, cut open the old canvas, and saw the sign for Room 111 through the crack.

"It looks like this," Ruth said, "this room is hidden, in this simple way, and what this painting depicts..."

Ruth recalled the memories she had seen at school, the memories of "Alessa," and some ominous premonitions came to her mind:

"Is this town holding a sacrificial ceremony?"

"So it seems that this painting is not hiding, but guiding and revealing." Rhodes glanced at the tattered painting, shook his head, stepped forward and opened the door.

The room inside looked very ordinary, and was also filled with the ashes unique to Silent Hill. There was a hole in the wall on one side of the room, and opposite the hole was a room in another building.

As he crossed the short gap, Rhode looked down, unable to see the ground even with his eyesight. In this abyss, only a little dust was floating in the air, and even the brick and stone debris that had been stepped on simply fell straight down, with no echo for a long time.

No one wants to explore the depths of this abyss.

"Come here, be careful," Rod said, pulling Ruth towards him, then reaching out and grabbing Marian's hand, pulling her towards him as well.

"I can do it myself, Commander."

"I know now that you can do it on your own, Miss Marianne."

"Hmm..." Nikki, who was teased, made a low moan like a little animal that was wronged.

"what."

With a light laugh, Rhodes stepped over the abyss and stood in the large warehouse scorched by flames. A little ashes mixed with a faint burnt stench were tormenting his mouth and nose, but the scene before him was nothing special - the debris burned by the fire, the plastic curled up due to the high temperature, and the charred iron stairs and beams were all the same.

This place is so normal that it looks like a factory warehouse on fire, not a sacrificial site... Maybe we need to go deeper.

Rhodes reached out and rubbed the wall lightly. Thick black ash rubbed onto his hand and refused to come off. Frowning, he found a rag to wipe away the stains. Then, Rhodes turned his head and said to Ruth:

"Ma'am, do you see or feel anything?"

"This is…nothing," Ruth shook her head wearily.

"In that case, Marian," Rod called out to Nikki, who was about to go deeper, and took out two rations and water from the storage box for her. He gently instructed, "Take good care of Ms. Ruth. I'll go upstairs. I know my limits, so don't worry."

Nikki nodded without further persuasion. After just this short time together, she understood most of Rhodes's character:

Now that Rhodes has made up his mind, he will never be shaken by anyone or anything.

As for Rod, he took out a cigarette and held it between his fingers, holding a handheld DV in his other hand. He slowly walked into the pile of junk and then walked up the stairs. The sound of his feet stepping on the iron frame spread out in the surroundings, shaking off a few ashes.

When it first entered Silent Hill, the footage captured by the handheld DV was very fragmented, as if it had been disturbed by something. However, as it stayed inside longer, the footage became more stable - as if it was adapting to, or being accepted by, the "other world".

After going upstairs, Rhodes only walked a short distance when he saw the person he was looking for standing in the middle of the corridor - a little girl in a purple dress stared at Rhodes quietly, her dirty body surging with deep hatred and murderous intent, and in the depths of her pale eyes, the flames of hell were roaring wantonly.

[Pollution points in the other world increased by 1]

Hello, Alyssa.

Rhode muttered to himself, then glanced at the deep hole beside him. Several twisted steel beams rested on top of it. It looked like this was the sacrificial site from back then.

"I don't care about the lives of those scumbags," Rhodes said, looking away. "If you need me, I can help you blow open the door of that church."

"What do you want?" Alessa's dark side spoke indifferently.

"The truth, and making this place disappear completely."

"I can't make the power of Silent Hill disappear completely. It simply exists here, drawn to me," Alessa said. The temperature around them gradually rose as she spoke. "As for the truth, haven't you already revealed it with your words?"

Rhodes shook his head. He walked to the side of the corridor near the deep cave, bent down, lit a cigarette with the spark, took a deep breath, and exhaled the smoke.

"How did the Church of Silent Hill manage to thrive? A declining mining town like this doesn't have the funds to develop so many industries, let alone build and maintain a school, a hotel, and a church that covers a considerable area. Furthermore, there are sacrifices involved. The leaders actually believe that performing sacrifices can solve the town's fundamental decline... Who is helping them? Who let them know that there is a real (dark) power beneath this town?"

"The darkness is long-standing, and I cannot see past it."

"Give me a few minutes before you kill that leader. I need to know what's behind this." Rhodes took another puff of his cigarette and let the flames rise around him. "Only by uncovering the hidden truth can I prevent something like you (Alessa) from happening again."

Alessa pursed her lips. After a long silence, she asked slowly and indifferently:

"What if there's no hidden agenda behind all this, just pure human malice and stupid ignorance?"

"Then let the fire of Silent Hill continue to burn, let the souls of the scum scream in the flames for thousands and thousands of years, until they are completely burned, until your hatred is eliminated by time."

Rhodes spoke lightly, the smoke from his cigarette wafting upwards and merging into the smoke rising from the burning debris on both sides of the corridor.

"……lie!"

Alesha narrowed her eyes, and the flames around her suddenly rose and rushed towards Rhodes, but disappeared without a trace before touching him, as if the high temperature and flames just now were just a nightmare dream.

Ashes flew down, and when they piled up on Rhodes' shoulders, he suddenly realized that what he held between his fingers was no longer a cigarette, but a piece of paper with the words:

Hospital, B151.

"commander!"

Hearing the sound, Rod looked back and saw Marian leading Ruth up the stairs with a look of worry on her face. This was normal - he was now covered in ashes and looked as disheveled as if he had just escaped from a fire.

"Why does that little girl have such a childish personality at this moment?" Rhodes had no choice but to let Marian take out a handkerchief to wipe his face, but the latter was very stubborn about these subtle matters.

Ruth, who was standing next to them, looked at the two people in front of her with amusement, but she immediately noticed the piece of paper in Rhodes' hand. Almost at the moment she saw that thing, the memory of Alyssa being abused flooded into her mind again!

Seeing the girl who looked just like her daughter being tortured and humiliated once again, Ruth could no longer suppress the rage in her chest. She endured the headache and anger and squeezed out a few words from between her teeth:

"She...she's waiting for us in hell!"

+++++++++++

The flashlight swept across the long-abandoned Silent Hill. There was no sign of any living activity in the area it illuminated. Even the glass that had not yet broken only reflected a weak glow.

Gideon felt a little uneasy, thinking about the terrifying monsters Rhode had described to him...

"There's no sign they've been here," Policewoman Sybil said, stopping her gaze at the abandoned shops on either side and carefully examining the marks on the ground. "No tire tracks, no footprints, and it doesn't look like anything has changed here."

"...Let's continue deeper," Gideon said without further ado. Like the other members of the team, he took his equipment from the car and armed himself fully.

"Search in groups of three. If the radio is unusable, fire red flares when you encounter danger and green flares when you find the target. Officer, follow my group."

"What if we don't find them?"

"They will be found," Gideon recalled the blue eyes he saw when the wooden door opened that night. "Or maybe they will find us."

Chapter 10: The Deepest Part of the Hospital (4K)

Hospital, B151.

Rhodes stared at the piece of paper, and when he turned it over, he saw a line of crooked small words on the back:

I hate cigarettes.

"Tsk, so many years have passed, but my mental age hasn't increased much."

Rhodes folded the paper and put it in his pocket, then reached out to fiddle with his hair helplessly. His originally silver-gray hair was covered with a layer of dust that was difficult to wipe off, which made him feel very uncomfortable.

"commander?"

"It's okay. Let's go to the hospital in town. I've found a clue," Rod said as he led Ruth and Marian downstairs. "Ms. Ruth, have you made a decision?"