Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.

One Long Shift

Prologue

Barney did his best to ignore the flashing lights coming from the direction of the Citadel, instead choosing to focus on Alyx's small wave. Gordon was, predictably, looking pretty blank, which Barney chose to believe was worry on his part.

"Bye Barney!" Alyx said, her voice mostly blocked by the blue glass separating them. Good luck!"

He put on his best reassuring grin, and gave a salute. "See ya when I see ya!"

The train jolted beneath his feet, and he instinctively grabbed on to the guardrail. Choosing to avert his gaze in case he abruptly decided he didn't want to go and started to cry like the big baby he was, Barney moved to the right-hand side of the train, leaning around to watch their course. They were heading for the tunnel on the far right.

Just as the train was about to enter, he cast his gaze back to the train station, catching sight of Gordon and Alyx as they ran along the platform. Then the tunnel enveloped him in darkness, and the small, vague shapes of his friends becoming smaller and smaller until even the tunnel itself was a pinprick on the horizon.

Clouds around the Citadel rumbled and flashed, and Barney struggled to tear his eyes away. He could have sworn he saw smoke coming from the train station, but found it difficult to distinguish it from the darkened clouds around the Citadel. Probably his paranoid, overactive 'seen way too many action movies' imagination. Gordon and Alyx were probably on the train and on their way, cracking open a bottle of champagne to toast their success.

And then they would really toast their success. Bow-chick-a-wow-wow.

He laughed and shook his head. Did Gordon really think it wasn't obvious? Barney doubted he was the only one to notice. Then again, no-one had said anything, so…

With a shrug and a shake of the head, Barney turned and pushed open the door, heading into the carriage. Usually, he prided himself on getting to know everyone who worked with him. Then again, he usually had one squad at a time. The whole evacuation had been such a crazy, rushed endeavour, he wondered if there was anybody on the entire train that he would recognise. Even their face, something.

The carriage he was in now didn't make him feel any better. Sighing, he started the headcount anyway. One of the rebels shifted across the aisle to join some friends sat around a table, and Barney snapped his fingers and pointed at him.

"Hey, hey! Come on, tryin' to do a headcount here."

The guy, actually incredibly young, ducked his head sheepishly before slipping quietly back into his seat. "Sorry, sir."

Feeling like an asshole, Barney waved his hand about. "Don't apologise-" He sighed. "Just stay still, yeah? Even easy math confuses me."

That prompted a chuckle from others around the carriage, and the kid managed a little smile, though he still looked like a kicked puppy. "Okay, sir."

Barney looked back up the carriage to hide his scowl. He hated 'sir'. Made him feel old. Although, to that kid, he probably was old. Maybe more than double his age. Holy crap, that was depressing. Took him back to the day when he had realised he was too old for Alyx within a few moments of meeting her. Oh, how he had wished for any form of alcohol.

He recounted and started moving up the carriage again, ignoring the kid in favour of avoiding awkwardness. Slowly moving through the second carriage, Barney almost lost count when he saw a face he recognised, her gaze locked on the passing grey scenery. The rebel sat beside her was fidgeting with an old cigarette packet, and glanced up at him when he noticed that Barney wasn't moving on.

The rebel was about to say something when Barney quickly resumed counting. They were going to be stuck together for however long it took them to reach White Forest, no point in making things worse in the meantime. Best course of action would be to stay out of her way until they reached the base, and then… continue to avoid her. Yeah. That sounded good.

His pace significantly quicker, he ended up squeezing himself through the sliding door before it was fully open, taking him into the third and final carriage. Thankfully, no-one he knew.

"Twenty-nine, thirty… and with the driver that's… thirty-one," he sighed quietly to himself. Thirty-one people for him to keep alive. Gordon didn't know how easy he had it. All he had to worry about was the world. Barney had people, names, faces…

A cry from the back of the train caught his attention, and he started moving, ushering down the few rebels that were rising from their seats.

"Stay put, people," he said offhandedly as he went.

Keeping his gaze locked ahead, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was watching. His grip on the rifle tightened as he passed into the first carriage. A low rumble vibrated through the train, the metal rattling around them. Others had gathered around the back door, murmuring and shoving to see what was going on.

"Comin' through!" Barney announced, poking the nozzle off his pulse rifle between them and gently pushing them aside. No-one had dared to actually move outside, and Barney slowly clicked open the door, trying to ignore how frightened everybody looked.

It was the Citadel, groaning ominously as it shot streaks of brilliant white energy into the circling clouds above it. Gunships and troop transports fled from all sides of the building, along with flying… things that Barney had never seen before. One of them was approaching the train, though it seemed to be flying overhead. Hand above his eyes, Barney followed it along until a sudden flash of red light hit him like a pipe around the head.

"-the hell-" he muttered, stumbling forward and grabbing onto the guardrail. By the time his vision cleared and the pain subsided, the thing had gone. Jesus. Barney would be happy never seeing one of those things again.

A white light grew from the base of the Citadel, becoming bigger and bigger until it was almost all encompassing. Almost like it was chasing them.

"Crap," he murmured, whirling on the spot and kicking open the door. "Everybody sit down and grab on to somethin'!" he cried, throwing himself down into a chair and latching onto the metal bar atop the bench in front of him.

After a moment of glancing at each other, everybody followed suit, grabbing on to overhead rails and the seats.

His back to the growing light, Barney watched as the carriage became brighter and brighter. A hollow, scraping whine filled the air until it became almost unbearable. The train jolted up in the air, and Barney clenched his eyes shut.

Well, dying in a train wreck was one way to avoid awkwardness.