'BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!'

The alarm beside Toms head beeped impatiently at him, the heap on the bed that was Tom stirred slightly. He was an average height man with a lean build and short black hair with a decent bed of stubble on his face, his limbs seemed to have become twisted in the blanket during the night.

"Nnnggghhh" Tom slowly twisted around to face the alarm clock which read, '7.30' in large red letters. He kept staring at it until the display changed to '7.31' and then rolled back over onto his back, sighing and reaching over to what he hoped was the snooze button. The beeping stopped and Tom slowly slipped back into his deep sleep.

Tom woke up not having moved an inch from his prior position, he rubbed his forehead and looked over to his alarm clock.

'9.43'

"SHIT!" He didn't hit the snooze button after all. Tom vaulted out of bed, but was tripped up in the blanket which was wrapped around his legs. Tom struggled back to his feet whilst wrestling the blanket and ran towards the bathroom, thanking god for making him lazy enough to sleep with his work pants on. He grabbed the security team shirt which lay on the bathroom floor and quickly threw it on not bothering to button it up.

Tom grabbed the toothpaste tube from the counter and squeezed with all his might to both open the lid and deposit a sizable amount of toothpaste into his mouth. Tom grabbed his toothbrush on the way out and jammed it into his mouth, violently brushing any surface he could find.

He ran over to the kitchen and spit the toothbrush out into the sink, and then flung open the pantry doors, one of them broke from the force and crashed to the ground.

"SHIT!" Tom exclaimed, muffled by the toothpaste still present in his mouth.

Quickly scanning the contents of the pantry he ripped into a loaf of sliced bread grabbing 2 or 3 pieces and ferociously opened a jar of strawberry jam, dipping all the bread into it in one go. He shoved it in his mouth as he ran for the door.

Tom was halfway down the hallway of the dormitory facility before he remembered his door, he looked back with bread, jam, and toothpaste sticking out of his mouth and saw that his door was wide open.

"Fuck it, I don't have anything worth stealing" he thought to himself and continued down the hall.

Tom sprinted out onto the station platform where a tram was awaiting, the doors began to close just as he got close.

He let out a muffled cry and dived towards the closing door, making just in time, but then he felt a painful pressure on his ankle, he looked back and saw that his foot was stuck in the door, the automatic sliding door retreated a few inches and tried to close again.

"MMNNNGGGHHH!" was the sound of pain that Tom created with his still full mouth. The door opened slightly and closed again. "MMNNNNGGGHHHH!" the door opened again and tom pulled his foot out just as it began to close, and the tram started moving.

Tom lay on the floor for a few seconds and then calmly got up and brushed himself down, he then looked towards the other end of the tram to an extremely startled scientist, which was a reasonable state considering he had just seen a man with a mouth exploding with bread, jam, and some white foamy substance in an unbuttoned shirt, with no shoes make a heroic dive through a closing tram door. "Shit!" Tom thought to himself, he had forgotten his shoes.

Note: Hi everyone, I'd just like to mention that this is my first ever bit of fan fiction and as you may be able to tell it is based in half life 1.

I thought that before I got to the action I should start by introducing my characters one by

one, so meet Tom, part of the prestigious blue-shift security force. The whole being late for work scenario is just a way for me to show to you how Tom acts in stressful situations and introduce him in an amusing way.

I don't really know how often I will be updating this, but I will try to update as often as I can without stressing myself too much.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to feedback.