Enjoy.
CHAPTER ONE: AWAKENING
Gordon Freeman's eyes opened.
Warm blood rushed through his body.
His heart began to beat once more.
It was as if someone had pressed 'play' on a remote that controlled Gordon…and, in a way, they had.
Gordon began to comprehend his surroundings.
Or rather, lack of them.
He seemed to be in space, but was neither falling nor floating. He was simply…there. Suddenly, Gordon recognized the purplish hue around the stars, and the green tinge on every colour. This was the skyline of Xen, the border world between Earth and…where? He still didn't know.
Before he could think anymore, he heard what sounded like…no. No way. But, as it got closer, he could almost make out…the noise of a train?
Solid ground seemed to materialize under his feet, although he couldn't see it. Looking to his right, Gordon saw something very strange indeed.
A green steam train seemed to be hurtling right towards him.
He instinctively stepped back.
The front of the train whipped past him like a bullet, slowing down inch by inch, until the train slowed to a complete halt, the entrance directly in front of Gordon.
Before he could open it, though, it swung open and a cold breeze hit Gordon in the face. In the doorway stood the man who had 'hired' him; the man whom he had thought was just a simple human being, a simple person doing his job for the Government;
A simple G-Man.
But Gordon knew he was much, much more. You could already tell that he wasn't entirely human, if at all, the minute he opened his mouth.
"It-It's been a while, Doctor Free…man." Each syllable was different; as if he was choosing between a library of different voices and just couldn't decide what he wanted to sound like.
The most unnerving thing was his manner of expression. His lips curled in a strange way and he licked his lips after every word, as if they were always dry.
He wore a dark blue suit and held a metallic silver briefcase, which was clasped in the long, pale fingers of his right hand.
He wore a black tie, which he constantly adjusted as he spoke, a sort of strange idiosyncrasy. The man beckoned to Gordon from the door of the train, and suddenly Gordon was drawn towards him, and his vision went black.
But suddenly, he was sitting at the back of a train. There were only a few other passengers, each in a blue jumpsuit, akin to ones from prisons he had seen, with CITY 17 written on a red armband.
The carriage was old and rusted, with peeling green paint on the insides and half-missing red carpeted floor. The seats were cold and metal. There were windows on either side of the carriage, with a door in the middle on the left side, and one on the right side.
Gordon looked to his right, and saw the G-Man sitting on the train next to him. "I trussst you enjoyed your ressssst, Mr. Free…man?" He said, calmly, "Your," he paused, "…servicccces are needed onccce more."
"In the passst quarter-century, the planet Earth," he said 'Earth' like a disease, "…hasss been," he paused once more, searching for the word, "…occupied by a large galactic empire; the Combine. I have…dealt with the Combine before, but it sssseems that they have…changed."
He licked his lips, "After you," he paused, "…killed the Nihilanth, the Vortigaunts were sssset free from its' control, and began to…migrate to Earth from Xen. The Combine, having previously occupied the Vort homeworld, descended upon Earth…"
The G-man looked down at his watch. "It sssseems it is time for you to wake up, Mr. Freeman." He pronounced Freeman with obvious malice, "Wake up and ssssmell the ashesss." His voice faded into the background, as the noise of a train became louder, and Gordon's vision swam back into focus.
This train didn't seem to be frozen in time like the other one had been. People in the same jumpsuits with the armbands populated the seats, although the carriage was mostly empty. A dry wasteland was the only sight that could be seen through the windows, populated by Xenlians such as Bullsquids and Houndeyes.
The train halted, and a man got on. He had dirty black hair, looked to be of Asian descent and was carrying a small satchel. He sat down next to Gordon.
"Hi," said the man, "I'm Samuel." Gordon just nodded mutely. "I got off the train from City 14 a while back and I've just been waiting for another to pick me up."
This sparked Gordon's interest, "Wait…where exactly are we going?" Samuel looked at him, dumbfounded.
"How do you not know where you're going? Did you have earplugs in when you were transferred?" 'Transferred'? Gordon just shrugged.
"Yeah, I guess so." Samuel chuckled, "I like you, uh…" Gordon put out his hand, "Gordon." He said, as Samuel shook it.
"You seriously don't know where you're going?" asked Samuel. Gordon shook his head. "You're heading for City 17, that's the worst one of the lot. It's almost like a labour camp, but with slightly better accommodation."
He sighed, "This is where the Consul operates from, so it's where the Combine operate from as well. It's by far the worst one of all. I've heard things," he said, in a low whisper, "The air is so bad around here you need to keep your gasmasks on all the time."
"Gasmasks?" asked Gordon. Samuel looked astounded, "You mean you don't even have a gasmask?" he asked. Gordon shook his head. Samuel reached into his satchel. "I always carry a spare around, so you're lucky. I still don't understand how you don't know these things, but…it's really not my business anyway."
He handed the mask to Gordon. "Here you go. Keep hold of it, and remember to put it on once we arrive at the train-station." Gordon nodded.
Samuel looked out through the windows, "Oh look," he said after a while, "The city walls." Gordon looked out the window. A large concrete wall towered high above the train. The sky was dark and greenish, with swirling grey clouds as if a storm would break out any time.
The pinnacle of this city that he could see so far, though, was a large black building reaching up into the sky, with a large circle of clouds swarming around the top. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to it.
"It's the Citadel, the Combine base of operations." Samuel replied, "Where have you been for the last twenty-five years, man?" Gordon shook his head, "I don't know that myself." He muttered.
The train stopped as a large gate lifted up in front of it. Gordon caught a glimpse of the men standing at the gate. Tall, with strange black gasmasks that seemed to run into their black body armour. They had grenades in their belts, and were holding sleek SMGs, and looked perfectly comfortable using them. There were large radio-like devices on their backs, with antennae going from the upper back to the head.
Gordon didn't even need to ask Samuel who they were.
He could already tell by the alien look of their uniforms that they weren't Earth-based. He could tell that they worked for the Combine.
The train passed through into a city, cutting through ruined apartment buildings and tunnels. "Is the whole city like this?" asked Gordon, watching homeless people fervently scavenging through ruins.
"No." said Samuel, "The Combine's, uh, fixed up a bit of the city and that's basically where everybody lives in communal apartments." He lowered his voice conspiratorially, "The police near the train-stations; the Metrocops, just gun down innocent people for fun and raid apartments when they're bored." He changed his voice back to normal, "At least, that's what I've been told."
The train pulled into a large stone building with a curved roof; some sort of train-station. The doors opened and the passengers piled out. Gordon stayed sitting down, thinking. As Samuel stepped out of the door, he looked back at Gordon. "You coming?" he asked. "I guess so." Gordon replied slowly.
As he got out of the train, he took in his surroundings all at once. More of those Combine soldiers were here, except there was a difference. Their uniforms were dirtier; less dignified and sleek than the soldiers.
Their gasmasks were white with black eye holes, instead of the black masks and red eyes of the soldiers he had seen, and opposed to the grenades and sub machine guns of the soldiers they had held batons crackling with electricity and had small pistols in their belts.
Gordon took a deep breath in…and nearly choked. He coughed and spluttered, before hastily putting his gasmask on and tightening the strap on the back. The difference was amazing. What had been dirty and poisonous air was now cleaner than the air in an air-freshener commercial.
He took a tentative step onto the platform, before entirely exiting the train and watching it pull away from the platform back the way it had come. Now he had to go forward. Gordon walked cautiously through a small entrance, littered by empty cans and plastic bags.
The train-station Combine, the Metrocops, sat around, bored, sometimes whacking citizens with their batons randomly or hauling them off for questioning. Gordon turned the corner and saw a long line of people wearing the blue jumpsuit and gasmask that seemed to be a sort of uniform.
Gordon joined the line, and saw Samuel was in front of him. Suddenly, Gordon saw a tall, cloaked thing with a large machine like a vacuum cleaner walking up and down the platform. Suddenly, a Headcrab leapt from the top of a train. The thing sprang into life, pointing its' vacuum at the headcrab and activating it.
Wait, no, it wasn't a vacuum.
It was a flamethrower.
The headcrab was charred like a steak. The thing slowly lowered its' flamethrower and continued patrolling the platform. Gordon looked away.
The line was moving moderately fast, with some people being told to go through the main entrance into the city, and others being taken into small rooms adjoining the platform by tough-looking Metrocops.
Finally, the line reached Samuel. The Metrocop studied him for a minute. "Where's your SRC?" he asked Samuel after a while, "My what?" asked Samuel cautiously.
"Your Standard Relocation Coupon." The Metrocop replied, firmly. Samuel stuttered as he spoke, "I-I don't have one, sir." The Metrocop studied him for a moment, before making a gesture at Samuel with his fingers.
Another Metrocop walked over to Samuel, "You, citizen! Come with me." He said in a deep voice, before dragging him off into one of the rooms. Samuel looked around helplessly, before disappearing behind the locked door.
Gordon walked slowly backwards. He definitely didn't have an SRC, and he did not want to be taken into one of those rooms by a Metrocop.
He slithered out of the line and looked around carefully. He spotted what he was looking for; A back door.
Gordon waited for the Metrocop at the front of the line to start talking to another citizen, before moving quietly backwards, away from the Metrocops.
Across the platform from where his train had pulled in was a blue door, with faded white letters spelling out FACTORIES. Gordon slowly walked towards it, looking over his shoulder at the Metrocops.
Suddenly, he heard a gruff voice ring out, "You, citizen! Get away from there!" He ran for it. Gordon pushed himself through the door and collapsed against the wall, breathing heavily.
So, there you have it. My new project, which will be significantly longer than Blue Shift/Guard Duty. BS/GD was a 'novella', Resistance is a novel. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!
NEXT CHAPTER: "SLAVE LABOUR"