This fic tries to paint a picture of Earth after the war ends. Spoilers up to Episode Two, spec after.
Ravenholm Cemetary, 2092
"And so we lay our dead to rest," pronounced the priest.
The oak coffin containing Barney Calhoun was slowly lowered into the grave. As it disappeared from the sun, Alyx Freeman started crying.
She wasn't the only one crying, of course. Barney Calhoun was a hero. The entire planet – humans and vortigaunts alike – mourned his passing. But she doubted anyone mourned Barney as she did. She had known him her entire life. He had helped raise her. She wouldn't say he had been a father to her – her father was Eli Vance – but he had been there nonetheless. He had taught her to fight. He had celebrated every birthday. He had been the Best Man at her wedding.
Alyx turned to her husband. If there was one thing she could count on, it was that Gordon would be around for a long time. Though they had been born twenty-three years apart, Gordon's time in stasis had cut the age gap to three years. Then there was the bond between them, woven by the vortigaunts after Alyx had been mortally wounded by a Hunter. The bond had connected their life essences, and this had many fortunate side effects. If one fell sick, the other reinforced them. The two of them would probably live well beyond normal human life expectancy. Especially with vortal medicine.
The vortigaunts were one of the more prominent features of the post-Combine Earth. In 2024, Gordon's sudden arrival had changed everything. The Nova Prospeckt Uprising had started in City 17, but it soon spread across the globe. The destruction of the Citadel had cut off the Combine from reinforcements. After the portal satellite network was reactivated, this severance had been complete. The creation of the Xen Barrier in 2029 had made it permanent – the Combine was no longer capable of invading Earth.
The next phase had been to repair the damage to Earth. The Xen Portal Storm of 2004 had introduced many Xen species to Earth, causing ecological mayhem. Combine pollution, not to mention the water drainage that lowered sea levels, had made things even worse. But they believed that the damage could be repaired.
To start, large sections of Antarctica were melted, returning the sea level to its pre-Combine state. Extermination campaigns were waged against invasive species. This turned out to be easier than many had thought. With the greater environmental conditions returning to normal, the advantage had passed back to Terran life species, who did much of the work themselves. In the end, the only non-Terran species remaining were vortigaunts (not considered invasive), and antlions (which the vortigaunts raised for their secretions).
The vortigaunts had assimilated quite well into human society. This was probably the result of their history. Enslaved by the Nihilanth for centuries, they had lost almost all of their culture. When they were freed from the Nihilanth, but re-enslaved by the Combine, they tried to ally with the humans. The humans, desperate for allies, accepted. The two species had bonded over a common cause, and the vortigaunts proved their worth to humanity. When the war ended, few suggested that the vortigaunts establish their own homeworld elsewhere.
There was, of course, a barrier between the species. Unlike many aliens in human science fiction, vortigaunts had significant physical differences, ensuring that there would always be some distinction between the races. Vortigaunts possessed capabilities humans did not. They were telepathic. They could wield electricity. And they could manipulate energies that the humans didn't entirely understand. Years of scientific research had revealed much, but the vortigaunts' intuitive understanding of these powers would always separate them from humanity.
On the flip side, vortigaunts were not aggressive creatures. Because of their telepathy, they lacked a strong sense of individuality. Ambition was an alien concept to them. Vortigaunts normally solved problems by consensus. The result was that vortigaunts had a very restrained presence in Earth politics. This was by their own choice – individual vortigaunts had no desire to become leaders. The vortigaunts retained considerable political power, due to their tendency to vote as a bloc. Given that they made up 30 of Earth's population, this made getting the vortigaunt vote a crucial goal for any human politician.
Technology had advanced as well.
One change had been extremely swift – the cities. The Combine had given major Earth cities numbers, in the order of conquest. Manila became City 1. Singapore, City 2. Those cities had been completely reworked, so that little remained of their older selves. All the great landmarks of Earth had been destroyed, in an attempt to erase Earth's cultural identity. While some cities had used both terms – New York/City 18, Tokyo/City 5 – most were known by their numbers. And using a city's actual name was often grounds for arrest.
Of course, this had been one of the first things to go. Once a city fell to the humans and vortigaunts, its original name was reapplied. Subsequently, the landmarks were rebuilt. The Kremlin, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, even the Pyramids of Giza, all were rebuilt.
Only one city retained its number – Riga/City 17. This was a consequence of Riga's relative obscurity, and City 17's notoriety. Few had ever heard of Riga before, but everybody knew about City 17. Besides, the city was never rebuilt. It had taken years for the radiation to subside. Nobody wanted to live there.
Eventually, City 17 had been declared a World Historic Site. The only new structure of any significance was the City 17 & Ravenholm Cemetery Visitor Center – located in Ravenholm, where it could not be seen from the city itself. The most popular attraction was the Freeman Walk, which involved retracing Gordon's path through the city. Gordon himself provided the voiceover.
The only part of the walk with no voiceover went through Ravenholm. The voiceover section as you left the reconstructed Black Mesa East went:
"This cemetery was once the village of Ravenholm. The Combine shelled it with headcrabs, turning all the inhabitants into zombies. The only survivor was the local priest, Father Grigori, who later served with the Lambda Infantry, and officiated at my wedding to Alyx Vance. I have no desire to relive my experiences here – I still have nightmares about this town. Instead, there will be silence, in memory of the people of Ravenholm."
Ravenholm had also been destroyed when the Citadel went up. It was turned into a cemetery, similar to the American Arlington. Earth's heroes were laid to rest here. The first had been Eli Vance. His body had been exhumed from the cemetery at White Forest, and reinterred here. Isaac Kleiner, who died of leukemia many years ago, was also buried here. Judith Mossman, Angus Magnusson, Odessa Cubbage, Father Grigori, and thousands of soldiers and scientists. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier remembered those whose names were lost with them, while the Ravenholm Pillar did the same for the people of Ravenholm. The Vortal Column commemorated the sacrifices of the vortigaunts. Now Barney Calhoun would join them. And one day, Alyx and Gordon would do the same.
Alyx began shoveling dirt onto Barney's coffin. Though most of the mourners left, she and Gordon, along with Barney's family, remained until the grave was full. The tombstone read "Barney C. Calhoun. Soldier, Hero, Father. 1984-2092."
"Goodbye, Barney," she whispered.