BLACK MESA RESEARCH FACILITY, NEW MEXICO, 8:45 A.M

A young man sat among multiple scientists working around the facility at the Central Transit Hub, watching everyone with the expression of nervousness. This young man's name was Gordon Freeman, a 27 year old graduate at MiT and an employee in the department of Anomalous Materials. The reason why this young man was so nervous was due to the fact that he was late for an important experiment.

In the past few weeks, the Facility had been researching on one of their newest discoveries of a border world, dubbed Xen. Freeman was surprised by this discovery, and was somewhat happy as humans were not the only form of intelligent life in the universe, which was a rather cold and dark theory. However, Freeman, in awe of discovering another world, realized that being late for such an experiment could jeopardize his career at Black Mesa. After all, he had just recently been awarded the 'Employee of the Month' award.

As Freeman looked at the track, awaiting the arrival of his tram, a scientist, reading a newspaper published by Black Mesa itself, questioned Gordon. Freeman quickly darted his view towards the scientist.

"Weren't you supposed to be at the lab…" , The scientist paused, pulling down his right sleeve and looking at his watch, "… Half an hour ago?", He looked back at Freeman, who tried to respond, but ended up stuttering his words.

"Well, I-uh, erm…" Freeman couldn't get a reasonable explanation for his lateness, although it was very clear that no one in his dormitory woke him up when he was supposed to arrive. As Freeman came up with his explanation, he heard a voice over the announcement system make a statement: TRAM #12 HAS ARRIVED. HEADING TO LOCATIONS: SECTOR C TEST LABS, SECTOR E COMPLEX, AND SECTOR F RESEARCH LABS. PLEASE BOARD IF YOU ARE TO WORK IN THESE LABORATORIES.

Freeman got off of his seat very quickly and walked towards the tram, waving at the questioning scientist with an exaggerated smile. The tram door closed as Freeman entered and began heading towards the announced destinations. Freeman sighed and sat down on a seat in the tram, pulling out his MP3 player and putting on his headphones. Dive, by an electric artist known as Tycho, began playing, calming Freeman down and giving him the feeling that today will be a good day. He began tapping his feet to the rhythm of the song, and looking onwards as the tram slowly made its way to the test labs.

As the tram was moving, Freeman noticed a security guard locked out of the Security Officer Central Station, making Freeman chuckle a bit.

"Heh, guess I'm not the only person that's late." He said to himself, before looking on to the main course. As the music continued on, Freeman laid back on his seat and closed his eyes, taking a nap as he was still tired.

As Freeman drifted off into sleep, his thoughts were filled with darkness. Vague, white figures appearing in the distance, not looking human at all. A green light flashed and overpowered the darkness, before fading, allowing the dark to return. Soon after, a figure appeared once again, this time, a human figure. This person was wearing a blue suit, tie, and was holding a briefcase. He appeared to be a pale, middle aged man as well. He walked forwards into Freeman's vision, before speaking and saying a sentence that would be chilling to Freeman…

"Prepare… For unforeseen consequences…" He spoke, with a smirk. Freeman's eyes popped open, and he jolted forward from his seat, panting from what he just witnessed. He looked around, realizing that he fell asleep and that he simply had a bad dream. He removed his headphones and turned off his MP3 player and stood up, trying to remember what had happened in the dream.

"Prepare… For…?" He tried to remember, those chilling words causing him to feel fear and shock. Who was that man anyway? He had never seen him before in his entire life. Was he just Freeman's version of the Grim Reaper, or was there a bigger game to be known? Freeman calmed down and looked out of the tram windows, noticing that he had arrived at the Sector C test labs. Freeman wiped off his lab coat, straightened his tie, and sighed. I should just forget about that dream… It's harmless, anyways., he thought to himself.

Freeman walked in front of the tram doors, watching as the Security Guard walked towards the tram. The officer stepped in front of the tram door, and entered a code that would allow Freeman to exit.

"Morning, Mr. Freeman," He greeted him, "… Looks like you're running late." The officer placed his left arm out sideways, allowing Gordon to exit.

The two walked towards a giant steel door, Freeman placing his hands in his pockets as he was waiting for the officer to open the door.

"So… How's Barney doing? I heard his bar tab's caught up with him, probably why he's been so scarce around these parts." The officer laughed a bit, entering a code into the keypad that would allow Freeman to enter the lab.

"He's doing fine. He still owes me that beer, though." He responded to the officer with a slight smile. The officer nodded and pointed at Freeman with the expression of 'you're the man'. Freeman smiled and fixed his glasses while the officer at the entrance station went to open the door for him. The officer darted his view back to Freeman, noticing that he had cut his ponytail off.

"Aw, man. You cut the ponytail…" He said to himself, entering a command on the computer and watching multiple camera angles on the facility. "Sellout…" He said under his breath, though it was barely audible enough for Freeman. Freeman was a little insulted, but wasn't going to let it ruin his day, after all…

He's got enough to worry about for the day.