Elizabeth Larston, a half-life fanfic

Welcome to City 45. I am administrator Virichenko and am responsible for what is now known as one of the finest Urban City Centres and is a privilege to any loyal citizen to be here. Be happy to be one of few admitted presence in the city and relish, in the safety of the streets and ruthlessness of the Units to deal with any negative activity. Welcome to City 45.

Administrator Virichenko was a tall man with a thick Russian accent well known for his large bushy beard that hung from his broad jaw, the beard was a similar colour to that of his hair, messy and un-brushed under a grey UU hat. He had deep dark brown eyes that rested below his bushy black eyebrows and his nose was prominent and pushed up somewhat so he vaguely resembled a pig. He was well known among administrators as being the least classy. Most administrators wore dark suits and had greying hair and a calm and controlled voice, however Virichenko relished in the fact that he was unique. Not only in his style but in his management. He made no attempts to hide the brutal beatings and daily deaths on the streets and was a figure of fear often walking the streets and occasionally delivering punishments himself. An activity that other administrators thought of as far below their standing. He was well respected in the grounds of Civil Protection and if he said something no one would risk not listening. The message repeated again on the flickering screen with a dark green background, his face was in the centre of most of the huge monitors surrounding the train station and his smile was ever present.

Elizabeth Larston sat on the train drunk with sleep and leaning on the cold bar that was presumably for citizens to hold on the trains not that there was ever more than five people per carriage. She sat with her eyes shut apparently asleep breathing heavily with a small smile on her face. Elizabeth was just like any of the other citizens on the train, she was in her mid-twenties and wore the plan blue civilian jumpsuit with her CID number on her right breast pocket. She had long slightly curled auburn her and small grey eyes, and a lightly freckled face. The dirt on her clothes was evident and her smell would probably have been terrible if not for the fact that everyone was used to everyone smelling bad and hardly noticed any more. She shivered in the cold and murmured something in-audible in her half sleep. There was a citizen sitting opposite from her, he was slightly above average height, he had short dirty brown hair and light stubble forming on his face, he was wide awake and alert looking out of the windows with a hint of anger in his deep green eyes. He wore the blue jumpsuit like everyone else but his was slightly blackened by soot. His face seemed to anger more as the message kept repeating, he shut his eyes and breathed deeply shivering in the cold of what they once called January. He glanced over at Elizabeth as she groaned and stretched her back emitting a quiet cracking sound, she blinked repeatedly and glanced around drunk with sleep, she still looked tired despite the long sleep she had on the journey here, she looked over at another citizen standing holding the edge of a seat, he stood in front of the door as the train grinded to a halt. He glanced over at the other people and said quietly "End of the line." Before stepping down onto the platform.

Elizabeth stood as the train stopped and yawned loudly, she shook her head quickly to wake herself up and took a deep breath before following all the citizens who came before her. She stepped onto the platform and looked to her right seeing the rest of the train along the platform with the other carriage doors opening, she then looked to her left and saw the other citizens walking down the platform. She followed after them taking her time and looking around at the trains and the huge glass ceiling above her, she shivered, realizing how cold the air was and breathed deeply seeing the air come out of her mouth, she crossed her arms and slouched over walking down the platform. When she arrived at the maze of fences she saw about eleven citizens in the queue in front of her so walked over to the line. At the front of the line there were two figures wearing the same clothes. They stood above average height with their arms crossed, they had their white masks over their faces with glowing bright blue eyes, the back of their helmet was a black fabric, the black fabric went down their neck and under their mask until it reached the large black bulky vest, they had white patches on their shoulders and at the centre of their chest. They had black trousers made from the same fabric as the back. They entire armour was padded heavily and the one in the front held a long baton in one hand looking at the citizens, the one at the back had a submachine gun in its hands, an mp7. They had armbands relating to their rank and division but it was apparent that the first was a lower rank than the second. The one at the back nodded to the first unit and it said in a hugely altered voice that had changed so much due to the filter at the front of the mask it sounded almost like deep static. "Citizen! Forwards!" the first woman stepped forwards looking up at the unit. The unit spoke again its static voice emitting the word "Apply." The citizen nodded and said with terror in her voice "H- Hannah Karson, 65056" the unit brought has hand down to his belt and took out a flat screen handheld device. He tapped something into it glancing over the device as a blue light shone back onto his mask. He nodded and pointed to the wall, Hannah quickly followed walked to the wall, the unit took out a bright orange tie that almost resembled a cuff. He grabbed Hannah's hand violently and pulled it back tying her hands together, he then started to pat down her arms, torso and legs checking the inside of her shoes. Once the unit was finished he walked over to the citizen's suitcase going through all of her belongings and throwing them down next to him one at a time. He chuckled loudly and looked over at the other unit who chuckled with him when he took out some underwear. He quickly piled everything back inside the case when he was done and threw the case into a pile to the right and says "Cleaned." He stepped forwards and took out a six inch blade from his belt and sliced the ties saying "Move along." Hannah turned and opened her mouth to say something but then sighed looking down muttering something about her suitcase as she walked on. The second unit watched her go and stepped forwards in front of her as she was about to leave saying in his thick static voice "I didn't hear you." Hannah looked up with shock in her eyes staring into the bright blue eyes before saying "I- I was j- just saying I n- need to get a new s- suitcase." The unit smiled under his mask and said "Don't lie to me." Hannah widened her eyes and glanced around her in panic not speaking, the unit laughed in a thick ominous static before saying "Malcomplience. With me." Hannah looked down and gulped and stepped forwards following the unit as he walked into a doorway to the interrogation room. "Next!" the citizens stepped forwards one at a time being searched by the units, some were taken to the left towards a train to take them to 'Nova Prospect' some went straight forwards into the city and some to where Hannah went to the interrogation room. All of them lost their suitcases. About half an hour later the man from the train who was sitting opposite to Elizabeth stepped forwards, he faced the wall and let the unit tie and search him. The unit went down to his suitcase looking through, then he said in his static voice "Humph..." He picked up a vial of green liquid and inspected it for a moment looking up at the citizen. "Contraband." He gestured for a unit who was walking through a fence nearby and said "You got time for some re-education?" the unit smiled under his mask and stepped forwards flicking his baton on releasing some sparks from the tip. The citizen looked down and gulped pressing himself against the wall bracing. The unit slammed the stun stick into the back of the man's knee, he shouted loudly in pain falling down onto his knees, the unit paced back and forth behind the man before grabbing hold of his collar and pulled him onto his back dragging him towards the room Hannah went to. "Next!"

Elizabeth got through to the gate ahead easily without any trouble, she had her suitcase confiscated and so lost her map of the city as well as all her spare clothes. She sighed and looked around the train station, the glass roof was still above but it was browned by dirt, there was a couple of other citizens walking around sitting on benches waiting for people or trains. She saw a man standing behind some thick bulletproof glass, above the glass was a sign saying 'New arrivals' she stepped forwards into the line of two people as the citizen at the front left. She waited for a while until it was her turn and the man at the window smiled to her saying "Hello there! I'm Robert Lancaster, I'm part of the Civil Workers Union and I'm going to be helping you to become welcome in this lovely city!" He spoke with strange enthusiasm for a slave to the Union that they all were forced under. The world has gone to shit and this guy is smiling about it. He had thick black hair and dark brown eyes, he wore a white shirt with the Overwatch symbol on his breast pocket. He looked and smelt better than most of the citizens but was still equally malnourished. "Could you uhh… Apply for me?" Elizabeth widen her eyes and nodded faking a smile and said her name and Citizen Identification Number. The man looked down at some papers for about ten seconds scanning over names before saying "Aha! Larston!" he took a small file from under the table and opened it on the desk looking through it. "Ok… You have no evidence for anti-civil activity… You have two Loyalty points and you seem to better groomed than most other citizens so I would say… Loyalist in the making…?" Elizabeth smiled and nodded, she did not like being called a loyalist, and she was in no way loyal but did do loyal things. The way she saw it if you can't beat them. Join them. And trans-dimensional super aliens who took over earth in seven hours count as can't beat them. "Right well… I wont put you with the other dirty uncivil ones… Hmm…" he reached above the glass out of view and took out a key saying "Niuqelrah' block, third floor, eighth door." He smiled to her as she took the key from him and stuck it in her pocket along with her CID card, she turned to leave then hesitated turning back saying "I uhh… Had my suitcase confiscated… Is there a way I could get a new one…?" Robert bit his lip thinking for a moment and shrugged saying "I have more tokens than I can count it won't hurt to lose a few." He then reached down taking a dirty black suitcase, he dusted it off and passed it to her saying "I can't guarantee the clothes will fit or anything but it's better than nothing." He smiled somewhat sympathetically to her and looked down starting to write something down. Elizabeth looked down for a moment thinking then said "Right… B- Bye." He nodded to her with an enthusiastic smile on his face before looking back down and working.

Elizabeth looked towards the exit where there was two units standing there, one with an mp7 and one with a stun stick. She looked at them from a distance for a while, she didn't know if this was the exit or a restricted area, looking around and seeing no other door she sighed and stepped forwards to the checkpoint. "Apply." She looked up at the unit saying slowly "E- Elizabeth Larston 69396" the unit nodded and reached it's hand onto its belt bringing up the handheld device and tapping some information in. He stepped aside and nodded to the unit with the mp7 who turned and brought the side of his fist against a button on the wall causing the doors to slide open, she stepped forwards walking through the blue holographic gate glancing over her shoulder as the gate shut itself behind her. She turned back looking around. It was late evening but she had the feeling in the day it would still be as dark. The buildings towered around her blocking any chance of light and most had boarded up windows. She shuddered in the cold and rubbed her arms violently to try and keep as much warmth as possible. She had originally thought that the train station wasn't heated but she now realized it was much better than this. She looked down and quickly walked forwards knowing not to run from experience. The units didn't like people running. 'Movement verdicts' is the name they gave to beating people for running, the way they see it is the only real reason to run is to run from them so if you run you are suspicious so are taken in for questioning. She turned a corner looking down the next street, she had no idea how the city worked, location-wise. She took her suitcase and clicked it open going on her knees to search through it. She took out a weathered map and located the train station, she frowned and looked through the city seeing that lots of locations had been crossed out and had their names replaced, she finally found the block and realized that the man had replaced it with the name backwards. 'Harlequin' she shrugged and saw that it was a couple of streets away so clicked her suitcase shut keeping her map out and walked down the street towards 'Harlequin'. When she arrived at the block she walked in seeing the lift, she pressed the button waiting for the lift to come down, she sighed after about two minutes having decided the lift must not be working and began the trek up the stairs to the third floor. She saw the faded '3' on the wall and walked along to the eighth room in the corridor trying to key. She fumbled for a couple of seconds before the key fit inside, she opens the door looking around the cramped room. A third of the apartment was tiled and had an oven and a fridge, the other two thirds was a bed which lay next to the wall with a small slit of a window about a meter higher than the bed, to the left of the bed was a wall and to the right was a table with a small twelve inch TV, the bed had obviously been used as a sofa. At the foot of the bed was a door that she walked towards opening it seeing a toilet and sink but no bath or shower. She groaned quietly and turned looking back at the room, under the table which the TV stood on was two drawers, she opened them and looked inside, a mouse scrambled out and flew across the floor to the bed hiding underneath, she sighed and muttered to herself looking inside the dusty drawers and opening her suitcase. She looked inside the suitcase once again placing the map back and looked at her new clothes. She looked through the clothes seeing that they were too big but this made little difference to her as baggy clothes don't matter much. But then after looking through a while she realized they were all men's clothes. She groaned to herself and put the jumpsuits into the drawers throwing the underwear into the bin that sat next to the fridge. She clicked her suitcase shut sliding it under the bed and lay on top of the bed, it was a metal frame with a thin small mattress, it wasn't comfortable and there were no covers, she looked up at the bluish light flying though the window, she could see the cold and breathed deeply watching her breath evaporate into the air. She lay there looking up for a while unaware of the time except that it was late. She sighed and turned on her side slowly falling asleep.