'Kay, so this is my first fanfic. Starts in Half Life 2, in Ravenholm. In my version, Claire was also a scientist at Black Mesa with Gordon. She has been with him the whole time, and also has a HEV suit. Alyx also accompanies them into Ravenholm instead of becoming separated. Other than that, it sticks pretty closely to the game. I haven't planned anything for certain, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a little romance thrown into this story, but I'm not revealing too much about it yet. Reviews are highly appreciated.
Rated for violence and language.
"I need help, someone!" Claire called out, firing off a few double-barreled shot-gun shots.
There were at least three fastzombies coming at her by her count, and a few more normal zombies on top of that. Gordon turned, and leaned over her shoulder to take out two of the fastzombies before turning back to his side. Freeman, Claire and Alyx were standing in a triangle back to back position, fending off zombies. Claire took out the rest of the zombies, then glanced over her shoulder to see how the other two were doing. Alyx had her hands full, and Claire lended a few shots of help. The zombies began to slow in their coming, until the last one fell by Gordon's revolver.
The three relaxed, and Gordon immediately busied himself with reloading all of his weapons. Claire checked her ammo level - she was low on shotgun shells.
"Gordon, do you have any shotgun ammo? I'm low." she asked.
Gordon pulled out a small package of shells and handed them to her. She took them with a nod and reloaded her weapon.
"Well, that was fun." Alyx commented, still scanning around them for any stragglers that decided to crash the party fashionably late.
"Zombies tend to have a way of dragging fun with them wherever they go." Claire said with a slight laugh.
Gordon smiled softly and straightened up, ever silent. He motioned with his sub-machine gun that they should keep on moving. He led the way, and Alyx and Claire fell into step behind him.
"I can't see why you don't visit Ravenholm more. It's a wonderful place." Claire said, kicking a fallen zombie for good measure as they walked.
"Oh yes, perfect vacation spot." Alyx said, rolling her eyes.
Clair shifted her shotgun under her elbow to pull one of her gloves further up her wrist. She really hated her HEV suit, but it had saved her hide in more than one situation, so she couldn't complain too much. Gordon and she had received them at Black Mesa, back in the day when they were respectable scientists instead of rebels running around gunning down zombies at every turn. She pulled her weapon back into the ready position, and watched as Gordon swatted at a lone headcrab with his ever-trusty crowbar. It fell with its signature, strange half-gurgle noise. They came around the corner, and saw a huge bonfire with zombie corpses burning in it. It looked man-made.
"What the hell…" Alyx muttered.
"Evening folks!" they heard someone call out. They looked up to see an aged man standing in a building across the way above the fire, a huge black shotgun in his arms. He gave a loud laugh, and gestured towards the fire. "Been a while since we've had any visitors! Can't say I blame them, though! I did a pretty good job of burning those bastards up, didn't I?"
"I thought you said you didn't have anyone stationed in Ravenholm?" Clair muttered.
"We didn't." Alyx replied.
"Well then who's this wack job?"
"I don't know. But your enemy's enemy is your friend, so must be one of us." she said. Then she raised her voice to shout at the man. "Who are you?"
"The Reverend!" he yelled back.
"What kind of psychedelic religion would have him as a reverend?" Claire asked. Gordon chuckled softly. "Do you know who he is, Gordon?"
Freeman shook his head and proceeded up the road towards the building where the man stood. But when Claire looked up, the "Reverend" was nowhere to be seen.
"Wait, where'd he go?" she asked.
"I don't know, but we have to keep moving." Alyx said.
"That guy creeps me out. I don't like not knowing where he is. I feel like he's going to jump out of the shadows and-" Claire was cut off as the torso of a fastzombie grabbed hold of her ankle, screaming. She gave a small cry, shoved her shotgun into his head and fired both barrels. The point-blank range did the trick, and the zombie died immediately, but it's grip on her ankle remained firm. She kicked it off.
"Bastard!!" she yelled, kicking it again. "Why do they always have to do that to me?!"
"Come on." Alyx said, rolling her eyes and grinning.
"No, seriously, they only do that when I'm not ready for them!! It's messed up!" she cried, but kept on walking anyway. Gordon kept whatever thoughts were behind his smirk to himself, as usual. "Don't you give me that grin, Freeman. It wouldn't be as funny if it happened to you!"
Gordon pulled out his crowbar and waved it in the air slightly.
"Oh, yeah, the almighty crowbar." she said sarcastically. "It'll protect you from anything, right?"
Gordon nodded, and whacked yet another headcrab out of the air without even looking away from Claire. He raised one eyebrow as if to prove his point.
"Smartass." she mumbled, but grinned at him.