The Tears of Silent Hill

2

Carley drove twenty miles south of where she just left. It was the only closest interstate she could connect to to begin her journey towards Silent Hill. You would think the interstate that takes you north would be north of where you live, but not in this case.

The drive south didn't last too long. With music playing and distancing herself from her old life, Carley began to feel a sense of peace. It has been many years since she felt like this and she just realized it. She never realized how much stress she remained in. 

Taking a glance out the windows to glimpse at the scenery, Carley smiled. 

"This is what I needed to do for quite a long time," she said out loud to herself. "I needed to get away. Far away."

As she drove, Carley's scenery was that of pine trees and an occasional flat piece of land with cattle grazing. She felt bad for the livestock as there wasn't much fresh grass for them to feed on and this summer seemed to be hotter than the last. Hardly any rain in the past month and not only were the livestock suffering, but so were the farmers and their crops as well as people and animals in general. There were some thick clouds in the sky, but nothing that indicated rain. Carley glanced at the cluster panel of her truck and saw that the thermometer on the outside of her vehicle read that the temperature was one hundred and two degrees. That's not even factoring in the heat index.

It wasn't until about twenty minutes later that Carley was entering the outskirts of the city where she would make that turn onto the offramp exit onto the interstate and point her vehicle north. Taking another quick glance at her cluster panel, she saw that she had plenty of fuel and her vehicle temperature was good as well as oil pressure. She made sure she did her vehicle maintenance before she left to ensure her trip would go as smoothly as possible. 

Smiling, Carley took the exit and looped under the road she was just traveling on and merged onto the interstate.

"No going back," she told herself. Which, she had no intention of doing. She was going to West Virginia. She was going to Silent Hill. There was something there for her and she needed to discover what it was. Perhaps to discover herself. She didn't know what to expect, but at this point, she didn't care either. 

A hundred and thirty miles later, Carley came upon her next exit for her to take. Right before she came upon the exit, there was a truck stop nearby and Carley decided to pull in to top off her vehicle and grab a quick bite to eat. 

After paying for her fuel she pulled her truck around and went into the diner that was inside the truck stop. As she opened the door and walked in, the cool air from the air conditioners hit her and Carley felt a relief from the heat outside. Walking into the diner, Carley was greeted by a young cheerful waitress. The waitress offered Carley a booth or a seat at the counter and Carley opted for a booth. Fortunately, the waitress seated Carley at a booth that the air conditioning vent was blowing at, and Carley seated herself comfortably.

"Here's the menu and what would you like to drink, ma'am?" the young waitress asked Carley.

Carley took the menu that was offered to her looked up at the waitress and replied, "A sweet tea would be wonderful!" Carley smiled.

"Yes ma'am! I will have that right out to you in just a moment." The waitress responded and then turned and bounced off to get Carley's tea.

Carley looked over the menu and moments later the waitress was back, placing Carley's tea in front of her with a small saucer of freshly cut lemons.

"Are you ready to order?" the waitress asked.

Carley smiled and replied, "I would love a chef salad with smoked ham added, please, and with buttermilk ranch dressing."