Gordon usually was not usually a nervous person. In fact, it could be said that Gordon was the least likely person to get upset about anything. However being late to work tends to do that to you.

Especially Gordon's type of work.

You see, Doctor Gordon Freeman works at the Black Mesa Research Facility, a top-secret government laboratory that does all kinds of top secret science that most people wouldn't or shouldn't know about. Because of the classified nature of most of the projects, Black Mesa has very high hiring standards. If you were not the type of person to spend your college days at the library and the lab, you were going to be shown the door at a Black Mesa interview. Even when you are hired, you have to follow some rigid guidelines. If you so much as bring coffee outside of the designated areas, you would probably get some kind of severe punishment, if not outright firing.

And he was late.

Gordon paced around the empty tram car, checking his watch. He was only a few minutes late, but it could spell the end of his scientific career. Suddenly, Gordon felt a strange tingling sensation down his spine. He looked up and saw a man in a blue suit on a broken tram. Gordon saw him occasionally whenever he did some experiments. He tried asking other people who he was, but no one even seemed to see him. Although he could not explain it, Gordon had a very bad feeling about this man. Whenever he looked at him he just didn't seem…human. There always was something off about this person that Gordon couldn't put his finger on.

"Hey there, Gordon"

"GAHHH!"

Standing in front of the tram door was a Black Mesa security officer. Gordon breathed a sigh of relief when he saw him. He was so distracted with his thoughts he didn't notice that he had made it to the station. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry Gordon. How about I get that door open"

They walked up to the giant blast doors that separated the tram system from the Section C Labs, the area where Gordon worked. The guard pushed a few buttons on the key pad, and the giant doors began to roll back. After a few ear-splittingly loud minuets, the doors fully retracted, revealing the Section C Labs.

Immediately In front of Gordon was the welcome desk where another security guard was busy typing on a computer. "Hello Gordon"

And there went Gordon's chance to sneak in unnoticed.

Gordon tried to fake a smile. "Hi"

"You're late, but I will let your superiors deal with that. You might want to hurry up before they start the experiment without you."

Oh, Crap! There was an experiment today! Gordon ran like he never ran before to the locker room.

In the locker room he briefly glanced over his locker until he found his key card. He then ran to HEV room. Once he got inside he looked at the display of hazard suits. As of the moment there was only one left. He quickly climbed into the orange armor and ran to the experiment chamber.

Dr. Rosenburg was tapping his foot when Gordon burst in. "Sorry I'm late!" Gordon said.

"We were considering doing the experiment without you" said an irate Dr. Rosenburg. "Anyway, we will be deviating a bit from standard procedure, but this is the purest sample we have so far."

Gordon walked into the camber and looked up at the massive anti-mass spectrometer. The whole room looked like a silo with a large machine on the ceiling.

"All right Gordon, we are firing in 3…2…1…" At that moment, a column of pure energy struck the center of the silo. "Good. Spectrometer has been put at 110%"

Gordon blinked. Dr. Rosenburg knew it was dangerous to push the machine past 100%. Why was he doing it?

"Gordon, the specimen has arrived. Go ahead and put it in the spectrometer." An orange cart rose from the floor. On it, Gordon saw a petri dish filled with a strange silvery liquid. It flowed unnaturally around in its small dish.

"Gordon, it's time to start the experiment!" Gordon snapped out of his thoughts. Might as well get this done with, Gordon thought as he pushed the cart into the path of the spectrometer.

Everything after that was a blur.