The Hopeful or the HopelessBy Ryu
Summary: Gordon ponders on which sides there were out
there and which one was he on… A simple one-shot of one of
my favorite games of all time.
In the future, everything was wreck beyond any repair. Not just the cars, and the business that flourished almost twenty years ago, but the new generation of people that were here. These people, most of which did not have any hope to fall on. All they had was the annoying humming of a Combine lock or the suppressing field, which they could no longer love or even make love. It just wasn't time for things like that. There had been two factions, and the Combine wasn't on. In fact, the Combine was just a catalyst to either fuel or bring down a faction. No, there were only two factions, and it didn't take a man of his stature to realize that.
There were the Hopeful and the Hopeless, the Resistance and the Civilians. It was common sense that some civilians joined the fight because they were hopeful for another day and some just joined the Combine for a decent meal, a nice place to sleep at. However, there were people who sat down at their houses, wondering if there was going to be another day, another day they can breathe in peace without Civil Protection coming over to tell them to "Move it" or something akin to that. They wanted to fight no longer… Some just planned for the day of the death of either side… or even both.
That was the factions battling in City 17, Gordon Freeman noted. And he felt a guilt bubble in him, just for once since the Resonance Cascade: the catastrophic sequence of events that befell not only Black Mesa and New Mexico's end but the end of the United States, the end of the Russia, the end of Europe, the end of the world… And it was he and his colleagues to blame. Eli Vance, guilty. Isaac Kleiner, guilty. Arne Mangusson, guilty. Breen, Green, Cross, and all the others that was working at the compounds of Black Mesa were guilty and all it fell on was Gordon. All he was, was a new recruit, never knowing what he was getting into and that give him guilt, for his naivety created the inter-dimensional rift that caused the end of the world…
And why? Why was he a pawn to all around him? He didn't really mind the "control" Eli and the others had him. In fact, he called that help… but there was a force bigger than everybody…. That man with the blue gray suit, red tie and with very cryptic talking… he was the one behind everything, everything. He was the reason nobody could sleep at night and rest peacefully without some Combine soldier's essence over his head, or the wonder why killing still didn't affect him.
Before, Gordon would flinch at the thought of murder, since it was almost impossible – in theory – to get with it these days, but now… Gordon didn't need to worry about Forensics, because nobody had that power to do so anymore. Mankind was not its master anymore. The Combine were Mankind's masters. Gordon no longer flinched when he pulled the trigger of a shotgun and watched his target fall, with a pitiful cry, nor did he mourn about kill a man who family could be still alive.
It was nothing more to do. After all, liberating a future was hard and long.
In this world, there were the Hopeful and the Hopeless. Gordon knew in his heart that he was Hopeful. One day Mankind would be free of the Combine and one day, he would free too… from the G-Man's grasps.