White Mesa
It all started at the "Black Mesa" incident, or rather the resonance cascade. Aliens from this border world apparently took control of the facility and the military had to take control of the situation, not until the combine invaded the facility and took control of the situation entirely. The combine controlled Earth by using the interdimentional portal that crosses the border world "Xen" and suppressed us, humanity. We now live in a world where we can't be free and have to constantly be scared for our own lives, raising children of our own is a struggle, food is far and wide, and we are relocated to different factions of our once known plentiful earth, cities as the combine as Dr. Breen calls them. The combine along with Dr. Breen have used the border world Xen to their advantage, causing the human race to almost go extinct.
Dr. Breen used to work and actually manage Black Mesa, making him a respected leader for the combine and president of the planet Earth. Ever since then, Humanity has fallen into shambles, a window shattered and the pieces scattered, I pray even to this day I make it to another day, without misery, fatigue, sadness and loss of hope. I might never see the free world and instead through a glass window and security scanners. I've had friends die right in front of me; shot, decapitated, asphyxiated, cut in half, hung, almost everything you can think of. Everyone I meet might be the last I see of them, before "disobeying rule" or "not following orders." I have seen things you wouldn't see on TV, I've seen so many inhumane acts that I've become numb to all of it, it seems like a daily part of life; wake up, see a person die, get scraps of food, beg for food, see more people die, be beaten for not walking left instead of right. I'm numb to it, as it all feels a schedule, a sadistic game that Dr. Breen has us caught up in, slowly trying to tighten his grip on humanity's throat till the last breath is drawn. I counted the days, weeks, months, before getting a single bag of potato chips and one yam.
The last time I saw Dr. Breen gave a service announcement was in late April, and even then, it wasn't anything inspirational. I fear for the next generation as I suspect them to all be brainwashed sheep to the evil Shepard, Dr. Breen. Speaking of kids, Its almost impossible to have a child nowadays, when a couple decides to have a child, the combine will force the lady if the lady gets pregnant, will force the girl to have an abortion, yet another pulled root of human life. Some ladies rarely have a child and if they can slip by the pregnancy test and fake their enlarged stomach for too many rations they can try for a baby, if they have enough food for their baby and themselves. When these the children get older, say eleven or thirteen, the kid is forced to work at a camp for mining and construction work, if they can reach the age lord willing without being caught. If they get caught, rumor has it they are executed. I was fortunate enough to be born before the takeover of the combine. Nobody is ever happy, no-one has ever been, not even the social able kind of people I've never experienced happiness, joy, any emotion, except depression and anger, emotions that carry no reaction from the combine.
I used to be in city 18, in the city of Acapunico in South America, this place was infamous for its extreme heat temperatures in the summer and sometimes even spring. I was transferred there after I was given my citizen tag and the gear issued to you at city 1 the capital for all new recruits to this dark and malicious world, and the starting point for all courses taken before even entering the city itself. The first day in city 18 was like entering a hot sauna at its highest setting, I remember getting to city 18 on the 13th of May, I already saw people with rags and their shirts off picketing the ground in search for coal and any other resources found for the combine and some for us the humans. I won't go into immense detail on how every year and every day was but long story short the weather was always tropical. I counted my days, and I begged for extra overtime in the mines for more money to pay for food, which came scarce for chances to any other time down in the mines. I was only given one oxygen tank and gasped for air just to get two bags of plain banana chips, back then that was a meal. My name is Richard Dunn; sorry for not explaining this earlier, just I got caught up in the moment. I'm currently twenty nine years old, my person number is 117, I have no family, and I am in city 11 that is in the North Pole, on Oates Coast and Victoria. I've been told that I'm staying in city 11 for only three years before relocating to city 17. To relocate; we have to pack our things which only consist of; three navy blue citizen shirts with a number on the back, three pair of navy blue pants, one pair of dark brown shoes, a brown cotton coat with pockets, a blanket, and any other essential items. I happen to carry a watch, an heirloom I received from my great grandmother before the takeover of the combine, the watch is a platinum "Kolex" watch with emerald notches. I always wear it on me, as it gives me comfort in these dark days. I boarded the train from city 18 to city 11; city 18 was in the south part of last known "South America" and was in a very hot part of the continent. Remembering the amount of hostility and violence the combine put towards us, the pain is now only measured in memories and tears.
City 18 was my worst experience with the combine by far, as they always cracked the whip at us constantly and forced us to work in extreme conditions. I was going to have to get used to this as this is my third time relocating, and have a rough transition from the extreme heat to the extreme cold. The train ride to city 11 had me wondering; the combine built a train station from the south part of South America to Antarctica, over the ocean. At these times you wish they could use these amazing feats of human/alien engineering to good use, but instead the human weakness, power takes over. It makes people like Dr. Breen greedy for more, and making the people underneath yield the consequences.
Only a couple people were being transferred over to city 11 with me, as I recall only seven or six people were taking the trip. It was two in the morning when we boarded the train and I'm not talking a good furnished train. I'm talking any normal subway train with only coffee tables and a food compartment. I sat at one of the coffee tables with my briefcase in hand and laid my briefcase to the side of me. I laid my head on the table and began to get some sleep as I was rudely awakened this morning. It was about an hour or so in the trip when I heard a voice of a lady, "Hello?" I raised my head to see what she wanted and said in a tired tone "yes? What is it?" she was holding a pot of warm coffee and offered me a mug, "do you want some coffee sir?" I was happy she offered me some coffee so I said "yes please, and your name is?" she replied "June, people usually call me bug for the obvious reason", she poured me a cup of coffee and said "what's your name?" I replied "Richard, Richard Dunn". June said before leavening to offer the other people coffee "can I talk to you after I'm done offering coffee to the others?" I was kind of confused why she wanted to talk to me in particular and I simply said "sure".
While she was offering I noticed the temp dropped a little bit, and I decided to put my coat, gloves and beanie on just in case I fell asleep. I looked outside the train windows and noticed a flock of seagulls fly by, and at that time I wanted to know what it was like to be free, with no worries on how or why you're moving to someplace new after going through immense pain and suffering, must be nice. I looked back towards where June was still offering and pouring coffee to the other passengers. I turned back as I drank my black coffee and stared outside the windows. "I'm back" I was alarmed to see how fast she was as she put back all of the components. "May I sit?" June asked, to which I replied with "yes, you may." She sat down and I said, "Why do you out of all people want to see me?" she replied with "I heard you were at city 18. I've heard stories you know, about how people were tortured in various different ways, people were..." I simply couldn't hear about this and covered my ears. I got an immense headache when she was talking about city 18, I could hear the screams, the torture, skin from bone, heads rolling, the heat, my fragile grasp on if I were to make it to the next day knowing I was going to die or not. "Are you alright?" I could hear through my gloves and hands, muffled. I heard her go quiet as I assumed she'd stop talking about it as it only brought me excruciating pain, their was a long pause, say five minutes or so when I stopped covering my ears and tried to see if she was done talking about city 18.
I looked up and she was done talking, and looked at the ground before looking back at me and saying "sorry for mentioning that, its just you don't get anybody to talk to or any stories to talk about when your isolated in a building." I said "its fine, just had a…." I paused to think on what my problem was, "…a migraine, that's all." She knew that I didn't convince her and wasn't going to ask about city 18 for a while, "So what job you working on when we get to city 11? Cause from what I heard theirs ice to chop, building the cabins for the other citizens, and I think that was it." I never had heard about the jobs to work at city 11, and I never had anybody tell me that I would be doing a specific job, so I said "what job do you think I'll get?" she thought for a bit before answering and said "I think you'll get ice work, how old are you?" I said "twenty nine, my birthday is in February" she replied "from what I've heard when your twenty's you usually work building, then when you're in your thirty's you work ice. So for your first year or couple months you'll be working buildings" I said "what do women do in the job department?" she said "I think the ladies make the jackets and clothes for the men and the combine and make a little bit of change, age doesn't matter for us." I said "that's good, do you know anybody that's going into city 11?" she shook her head and said "no, and anybody I knew are either stalkers or six feet under." I gave a nod and simply said "me too, I've lost so many people that I don't have the time to count how many people have died right before me, now that I know that the combine make us into stalkers worries me the most. Which brings me to another question, how many times have you been transferred?" she gave an answer "millions, by the time I set foot in the room I'm living in I'm already given orders to a new city, it just messes with my brain so much, how many times have you been transferred?" I said "only three, this is my third one before transferring to city 17 in three years." I then noticed that June decided to sit with me because she wanted to talk about city 18, and I said "so do you really want to know what went on in city 18?" she gave an excited look in the eye and said "yes I would very much appreciate that." I then began to give her the whole story, everything from the first steps there to my ending days of those two years, I told her on how it got to sometimes one hundred and fifteen degrees and maybe even higher then that.
I told her how I knew a guy named Chenny Tix who worked with me in mines before one day was caught stealing goods from the market that opened on Sundays. I wasn't going to lie I did try and steal some goods too, but I was hardly successful. Chenny was caught and was turned into a stalker, a mummified version of him still is etched into my mind, Chenny was always a person who never had a depressing side and always kept his chin up, even though he'd complain about the heat, and that was about it from ol' Chenny's mad side. He was my only friend that one year I stayed there before seeing him on the guard tower, as a stalker. The blank expression that came off of his mummified face still brings me to tears, he is one person I will always remember, and keep him in my mind. Chenny had a kid and a wife; he was one of the lucky ones until he was caught. I don't remember his kid's name but I do remember his wife's was Weller, and she was almost the dead opposite of Chenny. She would always look at the bad side while Chenny looked at the good side, you could see they were perfect for each other including their surviving son. I remember walking down the road to the mines and seeing Weller with her hands in her face crying about how Chenny was then a stalker. And I just kept walking, and I thought about the times Chenny would make us laugh, and sometimes make us cry. I will never forgive myself but if I had decided to help her out, I would have been terminated and I know that for sure.
It was about two or three hours into the trip when I told her my life story, how I was in city 18 and city 1, Chenny and his wife and kid, and my laborious days in the mines. When I was done talking about how my days in city 18 and city 1, June looked like she was getting tired and for good reason. I checked my watch to see that it have been only two hours that I was talking, and I didn't even seem tired so I stayed awake, which I knew would backfire in the future for me. June said "your story is kind of like mine but not as violent." I said nothing since I was simply listening; she said "hey what time is It? Because I don't think that coffee is going to keep me up." I said "Four in the morning, about to be five." She cursed and said "is it ok to take a nap? I understand your pain and don't want to be rude" I calmly replied "it's completely fine by me, thank you for the consideration." June stood from her seat and proceeded towards the back of the train, where she laid her head and finally after a couple minutes, slept.
Everybody in the train was asleep, aside from me, and at that one moment I found peace in staying still. No metro police, no loud machinery, no people in pain, nothing. At that moment I felt I could do anything, I could look outside a window and not have my picture taken constantly from scanners. Or walk around without having any boundaries, except the train of course. I looked around the train or rather the back of me to see five other people sleeping away, I wondered what they were dreaming about, how they used to be free, or when they could first drive a car, or the first time they spoke.
I've always had nightmares, before the combine and after the combine takeover, it wasn't a condition and no I did not have a troubled childhood. I've always had a bad dream, doesn't matter what kind of day it is, or how hurt I am, I've just always had a bad dream. I remember this nightmare where my parents were being burned alive and the combine and Dr. Breen was sitting and watching them. My parents were being burned alive while I was being forced to watch. Then my parents climbed out of the furnace and with their charred and skin peeling mouths said these words that will be carved into my mind, "we love you son." It might sound cheesy, but those words will never leave my mind. Just thinking of them makes me weep tears of angst and loss, my parents never wanted me to cry over them since they knew they were going to die, but now that's the only thing that feels that I have control over.
I looked back at my table, and stared at my black coffee that apparently was still hot. I took a sip and stood up. I put my hands in my shoulders and walked up to the window of the train. The sun began to rise, and the lights in the train went out to show it was a wake up call for the others in the train. I looked back at the other people in the train and saw they were finally waking up, one man looked at me and said "aren't you tired? I've heard you and that lady over there talking the whole night." I simply shrugged and turned back to the window watching the sun rise. I've must have thought for over a couple hours staring out that window, and thinking on how city 18 was getting new people to torment. I checked my watch, it was six o' clock and the wintry sun was over the waves and seeping into the train windows. The sun wasn't so bright so I knew that we were in the halfway point. It was waking hours and other people were starting to wake up, all of them including June. An overcast was in view and seemed to shroud the sun that was used as an alarm for the others, making it night instead of the day. I saw the poorly lit ocean as the train kept going along the water, sharks and schools of fish began to swim pass the train. Some questions sprang up in my mind. How are the animals and sea life still alive? Haven't the combine destroyed almost all of the life on earth already…with the help of Dr. Breen? I guess I will never know, as those types of questions never come through with answers nowadays in the world we live in. As I was looking at the ever vast ocean, I saw this peculiar shark swimming around the train; it looked to be a great white and about thirteen or so feet. I couldn't really concentrate on its features, since everybody in the train cabin was bustling and making food and how the train kept going and I had a hard time seeing what its features were like.
"Hey Richard." I heard from the left of me just to see that it was June the girl I was talking to hours ago. "Oh hey June." I groggily said, she said "what were you looking at that fascinated you so much?" I replied "I just…remember when they started corralling animal life and types of sea life for 'experiments' and for more land?" she said "Yes, that was back when the combine first started on taking over, why?" I answered "I keep seeing schools of fish and one shark. And I know for sure that they were in captivity." She said "look Richard, I think you are suffering from sleep deprivation, pretty soon your going to start seeing all kinds of different kinds of people." I said "you might be right but I swear, I saw a shark and different kinds of fish, and I know I'm not tired. Just follow me here June, I drank the whole cup of caffeinated coffee and slept before I got on this train." She said "well, what kind of shark was it?" I replied "I think it was a great white, thirteen footer." She replied "well what was it doing, or did you see it for only a second before losing sight?" I said "it seemed to just circle the train and do nothing but that." She took a sip of her coffee and then said, "Are you sure your not tired? Because I think that's the coffee talking." I said "I don't know, maybe it's the coffee, the nightmares…" before I could keep talking she said "what kind of nightmares are you talking about?" I looked at here and paused a bit before saying "ever since I was a little boy, I've always had nightmares, doesn't matter what types of days it were or how bad I was hurt, it always turned out to be a bad dream, that's why It's hard for me to go to sleep since I have that. I never want to see that dream ever again." We paused for a moment before she said "that's sad, I hope you recover from that, or try and overcome your nightmares." I replied "I've been trying but it seems to never work out as I keep trying to stop having these dreams, thank you June" she gave a smile at me and then took another sip at her hot, newly made coffee.
June asked me "you want another cup of coffee?" I replied with "yes, I'll get for myself but thank you for the suggestion." I took my arms out of my shoulders and leaned off the train's inner railing and picked up my cup for a refill. I walked down to the end of the compartment and saw the coffee pot, picked it up and refilled my cup of coffee. I gave a little laugh as I remember when I was a kid I hated coffee, just as any other person was when they were a kid. I remember little bits and pieces of when my grandpa used to offer me a sip of coffee when I was little, I tried my best to not burn my lip and it turned out to be very nasty. I remember him always saying "when you grow up you'll like it" and here I am now, drinking coffee like a fish. While I was pouring my self a cup a man across from me grabbing a biscuit said "have you heard of the stuff the combine is putting in the water? Someone told me that they put something in it to make you forget." I simply said "I believe it, now in the this screwed up life we live in." he gave me a weird look and said "aren't you worried?" I put my coffee down and looked at him and said "no, just seems like normal to be honest." He didn't say anything after that and just leaned on the compartment table and drank his coffee with his crusted biscuit.
I walked back to my table, where June was sitting, facing the opposite side of me. I sat down and took a sip of my coffee; she then said "how long so you think this train ride will take?" I looked at her and said "well were going across the pacific ocean at one hundred miles an hour, and taking no stops. I say well be there in maybe…" I paused to look at my watch, "…four or so hours." She said "what if we went a little fast than that? Like two hundred miles per hour?" I paused a little bit before saying "two hours, or three depending on stops and how it goes with our 'behavior'". She gave a simple nod and took a sip of her coffee; I then said "aren't you hungry? I mean we've been on this train for five or six hours." She said "nope, just don't feel hungry." I was hungry and said "well I'm going to get a biscuit…" I stood up, "ill be right back" I then walked towards the food compartment and took one biscuit and took a bite. I've never tasted anything so fresh and not filled with preservatives, it felt like I was at my grandmother's house on Sundays when I took a bite of that biscuit, when I used to play in my grandmother's yard, have friends come over for Sunday dinner, but its gone now, and there's nothing I can do.
There was a sign at the top of the food compartment that read "take only two!" with bold and underlined lettering. I took the advice and only took two, and walked back to my table. I sat down and ate some of my biscuit and then looked at June head in arms on the table looking down. I nudged her arm with my hand gently, then she raised her head and looked at the biscuit I was offering, she looked at me and then said "fine, I'm hungry now." I then gave a little laugh, she then ate her biscuit. I finally managed to get some well deserved sleep although the train was extremely uncomfortable. I know that I slept before the train ride but now I just feel extremely tired as the coffee wore down, June knew that I was going to pass out sooner or later and now seemed she was right. I rested on the inner train railing, and dozed off into a deep sleep.
The expected nightmare started in an empty mansion; I woke up in a large room as well as a large bed alone in the dark, staring at the window that seemed to be shielding the snow storm outside from getting inside of the room. I stood up from the bed and to be surprised by different color and style pajamas, I then noticed that the pajamas I was wearing were from mine as a kid with the whales and sharks on it. I remember only hearing the snow outside and nothing else beside the noise that I made standing up from the bed and my footsteps. I walked to the massive door that led to my bedroom and pushed it and opened it a little, and finally pushing it all the way. I snooped my head outside of the door studying my surroundings, I saw a huge living room, and I was on the balcony leading down to it.
I began walking outside of the room and shut the door behind me, leaving me feel some sort of uneasiness in an extraordinary way. I wish I could find the words for the awkwardness I felt stepping down those lavish and royally way that staircase was made as. I slowly traversed the staircase not knowing what I'll find at the bottom, the place was pitch black aside from the snow illuminating the way for me at least then I felt safer and aware I'm going to be fine making my way down these steps. I was at the end, the bottom step, I stopped and paused and stared at the floor. I didn't know was I was doing, my mind kept saying "Keep going! Your almost there!" but my heart and body said "what's the point; everything is all a big let down. Quit it… your finished, there's no hope for you, stop." After a long and thought provoking couple of minutes I began to move my foot to the floor of the bottom. I never have felt any more pain than I did in this dream, as I tried to move my foot to the floor I felt as if something restricted me from exceeding my goal. I felt my foot tearing as I persevered to land on the floor, flash backs and other horrible and soul crushing memories filled my head like concrete seating its way to persuade a quick finisher. My eyesight began getting foggy to the point I thought they were on fire, but I kept trying to get my foot to the end, I kept going tying, persevering, fighting, never quitting, I kept telling my mind "Don't stop! You can overcome this! Fight! Fight! Fight!" All I remember was falling to the floor and the sound of tearing flesh and bone. I laid there on the cold, dead floor, with a feeling of over achievement and victory. I felt the blood flowing and the spiking pain shoot up my spine, but I didn't react to it at all. Just then, a furnace lit up in front of me, showing a glow in the room.
"Is this what the end looks like...beautiful." As the dream faded to black, I let out these what seemed to me, hollow words.
Chapter 2
Mellifluous Temperature
"Citizen" a familiar voice was heard, and when I looked up I wasn't surprised to be met with a metro cop in an extra coat made out of the finest lathered citizens of this bay. Apparently I was the last one to realize I had to get out, and I guess the hovering cop above me meant for a kind reminder, that felt like a punishment. "Citizen, stand up and proceed to exit the tram." My eyes met his and I did what he said with the engine of misery meeting the oiled lathering of beating and anguish in its eyes. Just then before stepping out with my belongings into the deathly cold the metro cop tapped my shoulder, causing me to turn around to see the characterless being lending its hand for me to accept the item in its hand, without resistance. A watch was presented; it then said with complete monotone voice as if implanted in his brain "This watch will give you the temperature, time and announcements for city 11- we are giving all citizens this issued article of clothing because the high winds blocks all communication to the populace". I picked the watch out of his insulated white glove that protected whatever was left of some bodies' hand, and put the watch on my left hand except of my right since that's where my Kolex was. He then pointed his hand towards the exit that led to the outside and to the walkway towards the hotel like check-in for yet another crack of the whip- but this time dipped in anticipation of the cold and ice and not of the heat and sweat. The shoes from the unstopping metro cop made the crunch of ice colliding with no halt behind me, and made me think if he was following my speed or was just doing what he did for the other passengers of my tram- but this time with just one person. I noticed the sudden drop of temperature from the tram to the outside Arctic. Obviously I knew it would be cold, but not like the bone-shattering amount of it here- and knew that I wouldn't be in just a medium coat, gloves, and beanie, but to something more heavily and would fit the weather around here. I and the snow cop [from what I gathered from a conversation while crossing the bridge to the check- in is what they call the metro cops here, for obvious reasons]- made it to the sliding door to inside the unknown temperature room, and when I stepped inside I don't think I saw anything so pristine and well kept since before the combine took over- and not to mention the caramel sweet warmness it presented me too, as if angels were in the room- but the angels in here were not angels at all, but the whir of air condition and the heavy quiet from the snow cops. A red carpet led up to the carved wood counter that the snow cop stood to await for my icy presence, so I kept walking to not let any of the cold out and to keep the other snow cop following me waiting.
The daunting words came out of the closed mask, "come closer citizen, and place your essentials on the desk" to which I did with little hesitation. Next words from the snow cop was a list of prompts as he searched my bag "Last order of designation, first name, last name, person number" which was replied with "City 18. Richard. Dunn. 117." the snow cop processed the information, pulled a 180 degree turn towards the computer behind him and then prompted me to "standby". Just then did I notice that my chances to escape that raced in my head, exaggerated planning and coordination coupled with a rebellious nature took place. Elbow the cop behind me, upholster his pistol, shoot him and the cop in front all within the time to escape out the door. This moment subsided quickly, as the cop was already facing me with an aggressive tone. "Citizen, comply immediately" with the cop's arm extended towards me with my luggage. I shook out of the enamor, and collected both my wits and the bag, both dense. The snow cop behind me then lightly shoved me to signal my entrance into City 11.
The snow cop behind me, to which I was under the impression was my escort, simply stood still as I exited the checkpoint. The cold air was the first exposure, and the second was the appearance of the city, both having the same arctic traits. In front of me was the city it self which seemed almost non-existent from the tram since the walls outside were too high to see over, but now was in full view. Rows of camps and stoic concrete buildings were in a vast array of snow and combine alike. I stood upon the checkpoint, feeling a horrible mixture of being late and having no time.