a tale by NomadX

Jake gave a contented sigh. A whole week of fishing with Daria. It wasn't often that he had a chance to spend quality time with his eldest. Even if he had to spend it in the shadow of his wretched father. With her going off to college in a few months... this could possibly be his last chance before... he pushed those thoughts aside. Yes, he could remember a great deal of miserable summers spent at Mad Dog's Silent Hill Fishing Retreat. Put the worm on the HOOK! JAKE! it's not like the pathetic thing is good enough to feel pain JAKE! Though I suppose you should KNOW that!-- No, he caught himself. No more. "I don't want to spoil what time we have left." He murmured to himself. He glanced at her slumbering form in the passenger seat. "They grow up so fast..." He yawned suddenly. The clock on the dash read 10:46, good thing they were right outside of town.

"Almost there Kiddo," he grinned.

" 's'grea' ad. Jus..grea.." Daria mumbled then drifted back off to the realm of sleep.

He sighed with contentment when a road sign caught his attention.

"Hey! That's not right..." He could barely tear his eyes off the offending words. Unfortunately, not soon enough to notice the police motorcycle coming up fast in the passing lane. He swerved and lost control. His vision clouded and the world suddenly filled with the sickening sound of twisting steel and faint sirens crying out in the distance.

=-***-=

Jake woke up alone in a blanket of blueish gray fog. Apparently they had made it into the city limits after all ....then it hit him.

He was Alone.

"DARIA!" he screamed.

Jake caught a glimpse of a greenish shape moving in the distance. Thinking it was her, he raced forward, reaching out to the form that he preyed was his daughter. Suddenly his feet lost all traction and he fell hard on the asphalt pavement, bloodying his nose and shins. He rolled onto his back and felt pain shoot up his left leg. Wincing, he stood up. Turning back to the direction that he thought he had been running, he caught another glimpse of the figure in green. It had become a young man wearing a dark green overcoat and small, round sunglasses and was walking almost casually toward him.

"Who did you expect, Jakey? The Wolfman?"

Jake jerked his head to find a mid-sized black dog with a bright red shirt was staring down on him with piercing blue eyes.

"Mr. Morgendorffer? Can you hear me?"

Thick vines sprung up from the sewers and violently pulled him below screaming....

"-atest reports show critical shrinkage in the collective brainpower o-"

"More words by the Mentally Weak? NEXT ON SICK SAD WOR-"

"WHAT TIME IS IT!?!?! SPONG-"

Jodie Sighed as she shut off the television and threw the remote hard against the pillow.

"It’s all just more of the same old crap..... Doesn't anything ever change around here?"

She put on her coat and went outside.

It was raining.

of course

SPLASH!

Trent chucked his water Bottle into the crowd as he started hurling out the lyrics for the set's third song.

"o/ Demons in the sky / Always flying high / Fire in their eyes / why! Why! WHY!!!! /o"

Jesse fell into another of his mindbending solos. Trent had no idea what happened during his short time out of commission a few weeks ago, but it almost seemed like Jesse was the one who was struck by lightning. His ax skill had improved unbelievably.

"Oh Shit."

Jesse Morano was now playing his Strat with his crouch. "Whoa, this is it." Trent thought, "The Spiral is finally ready for the next level. Too bad we can’t even settle on our name."

Eh?

There's more then one way to skin a cat.

Consider it done :)

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"Running and running, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the QB man!"

"Oh, give it up."

AAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.................

"Where am I?"

"Where do you think you are? You have fallen Underneath."

The dog padded into Jake's narrow field of vision, no longer a disembodied voice. He couldn't shake the feeling she (was it a she?) looked vaguely familiar somehow.

"Wh-where is Daria?" he stammered.

"Safe...I think. Guess we'll see soon enough." She started to walk away.

"Wait!" he cried out after her, "...now what?"

"That," He heard faintly in the distance, "is your problem."

Jake felt numb, stumbling around alone in the dark. He felt his foot brush up against something smooth and round. After feeling around a few minutes in vain, he discovered an ancient flashlight lying in the ...muck. Greedily he snatched it up, praying that it still functioned.

Weakly, the light flickered in his hand. Though it revealed barely anything farther then a yard in front of him, he still felt a little more at ease then before. Timidly, he took a step forward.

As usual, Jodie's depression had taken her to Degas Street. She couldn't explain it, but there was something about the place that drew her. It was everything that she both loathed and envied, a come as you are attitude and God Fuck the Queen. She glanced at a few of the ratty second hand "vintage" shops that occupied the storefronts, briefly thinking that it might be a good idea to get out of the rain. Eventually though she rejected the idea, the rain just enhanced the experience. Subconsciously, she began to walk towards the music in the distance, but t-

Jake saw a corpse fall into the floor in a dirty heap in front of him, and, in his extremely limited experience, it looked fresh. It, no, he, landed face down on a section of flat stone. His fiery read hair shown brightly against the spreading crimson stain across his shirt.

Not knowing what else to do, Jake began to kick him over.

"Why, Mr. Morgandorfer! Fancy meeting you in... this..." the boy stopped wide eyed, as if just now realizing where he was, "dank...dungeon... WHERE THE HELL AM I!?"

Jake began to curl out of fetal position, "H-Have we met?...I thought you were dead!"

"I'm a friend of Daria's. Though I doubt that she would admit it," The redheaded youth slowly rose up to a sitting position and warily looked around, "So what exactly is going on?"

Jake's face hardened, "Daria is missing...somewhere," He began to falter, "All I wanted to do was spend some quality time with my daughter fishing at the old Silent Hill Lodge before she went off to college and I'd never see her again and...and now.."

"Silent Hill! That's all the way in Raccoon County! How the Hell did I get all the way out there!? I mean I've sleepwalked before, but 200 miles is a bit extreme." The redhead stopped, "Where exactly in Silent Hill is this anyway?"

"Maybe it's all just some horrible dream."

It was a time that Trent has always hated, last song of the gig, the beginning of the end. A few mouths ago, he would have been surprised to see so many people still hanging around. but lately... well, he hasn’t been surprised by much lately. He signaled Nick. It was experiment time. Nick had finally convinced the rest of the band to let him play with this mixing software he found online. Trent was curious to see how the how the strongly traditionalist pit would react. He breathed into the mic.

"Hey!, You stragglers are in for some new innovations in the spYral’s sound. This here’s a cover from the band called Orgy" He could hear Max grumble behind him and wished that he would just give it a rest, he lost the vote fair and square. Trent hoped that Max wouldn’t suddenly get the balls to try anything stupid. Cue-

o/...

she's lost in coma where it's beautiful
intoxicated from the deep sleep, deep sleep
do you wonder what it's like
living in a permanent imagination?
sleeping to escape reality, but you like it like that

guilty by design
she's nothing more then fiction.
she dreams in digital,
cause it's better then nothing.
now that control is gone,
it seems unreal,
she's dreaming in digital.
she dreams in digital.

and your pixel army can't save you now
my finger's on the kill switch
I remember I used to compose your dreams
control your dreams
and don't be afraid to expose yourself
before I shut you down
you made some changes since the virus caught you sleeping

.../o

The red-cloaked dog walked up to the emerald fox.

"Well, idiot’s have finally found each other."

"Think this’ll actually do the trick?"

"And of coarse, in the end, that’s all that really matter, right?"

The fox was grinning.

-

They all could feel it: Something was happening.

-

Jake and his new companion had been trudging through the slimy depths for eons now. Time had lost all meaning. The entire world was the faint yellow light of the found flashlight and the groans, clanking, and skittering noises emanating from the void beyond. There were no words. Neither had anything to say. However, this was all about to change.

"The smell is getting worse," the redhead muttered.

Jake nodded. It reminded him of the time he set his fingers on fire two weeks ago. He tried to turn his mind to something more pleasant but failed miserably. All he could think about was his missing little girl. Only she wasn’t really little anymore, but that only made Jake even more desperate to find Daria, this was his last chance to prove himself worthy as a father. To distance himself that much further from the despised MadDog.

"Mister M! Hurry! I found something!"

=-***-=

It looked as if the alleyway had exploded in white feathers. And as far as Jodie could tell, they originated from the rusted-out Dumpster smoking in front of her. Something inside it shifted. Not knowing what to expect, she moved into a defensive position, ready for anything, or so she thought.

=-***-=

Trent couldn’t believe it. Not a single sharp object had been hurled at the stage. This meant either the masses approved, or that they were to drunk to aim properly, Trent was seriously tempted to go with option two. His stomach told him to go grab a few burgers, Jesse seemed to agree. As he turned the corner to the local grease pit, he was surprised to notice an old friend in the alley across the street.

=-***-=

It was a giant duck.

With a tiny blue fedora.

"WUUAAGH! More of the damned hairless apes! I am going to wring that nexus' slimy neck next time I see him." The duck seemed to sigh, "Well, at least that harlot, Bev isn't around to foul me up anymore. Good quackin' riddance. Hey kid!" acknowledging Jodie for the first time, "Know anywhere I can find some decent smokes?"

Jodie nodded, "Round the corner, a few blocks down. The shop is next to the Good Times, Chinese takeout place."

"Thanks kid. If ya need any help with giant frog monsters then just shout. He attempted to fix his remaining plumage and walked away.

"Only six more months," muttered Jodie, "and I am threw with this madhouse."

=-***-=

Jake rushed ahead to get a better look at it.

"It’s like some sort of... bubble in reality or something." The kid brushed his fingers across the cool surface and watched as it rippled.

"Is that really such a good idea?" Jake started.

"It’s our only idea. There’s no way around this thi-" his voice trickled off as the surface of the bubble suddenly focused on the Image of an African-American girl, leaning in alleyway like she had lost her balance.

"Jodie?..."

Jake shushed him quiet, intent on the image.

The girl suddenly looked up, like she saw someone she recognized, then said a few words to whoever was out of view. A grungy-looking young man walking into the shot and into the girls arms. Jake suddenly recognized him as Daria’s friend’s brother, Trent, and was even more confused. The girl couldn’t have been out of High School, the redheaded kid certainly seemed to know her. After more soundless conversation, the girl leaned forward and the two began a passionate kiss. The kid looked as if he was going to pass out.

questions, comments, flames, statements of utter confusion?

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(Then again, why should I expect a response, it's not like I'm known for my raving reviews)

This is Free Advertising Nomad X – 3/03