Half-life: Stasis
Disclaimer: I do now own any of the characters,events or locations from 'Half-life' or 'Half-life 2', they are properties of Valve.
Author notes: I will not name the Combine by that name in Chapter 1, as Shepard does not know that name that. Please review, will gladly read any comments and constuctive critisism.
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Chapter 1.
Stasis is cold. It felt like he had been there for an eternity. An eternity of boredom and torture.
The very soul of the man had been wasted away, he could no longer feel. His mind was deluded, and created monsters from his past. The memories of Black Mesa still consumed him, and caused him to think insane thoughts.
And now, he was staring into the eyes of the one who put him there. That one, mysterious being, who stalked him through the last days of his life. The one he saw at every turn, but could never speak to or touch, or kill.
"Wake up, Mr Shepard. Oh, don't give me that look, if it weren't for me, you would have been killed long ago." He explained
He continued; "For i saw a use for you. We could foresee ...Problems in which you could aid us with. And of course, we were correct, and now, your time of worth has come. You will soon see what has become of your earth. It has changed since you last saw it."
"We're sure you'll manage though"
As he said that, the stars started to warp, and blur past him. The stars that he had been staring at all the time he had been there. Soon, they were lines in the black sky as they formed into a cage, then walls, doors and windows of a tram.
He looked over to see a man, with his head in his hands, sat on the tram seat. He failed to notice any of his features, as this was the first human he had seen for that eternity. Shepards eyes widened as he the scales fell from his eyes. He was back, back on earth, or what he thought was earth. The tram was loud, and sounded in need of repair. The interior was filthy and disgusting.
The tram rocked violently making Shepard loose his balance, so he grabbed hold of rusty bar to his right. The feeling caused him pain, the pain spread to his legs, head and the rest of his body. He hadn't felt anything ,and he hadn't stood on his own legs in what seemed like a life-time. His chest started hurting as his heart and lungs started to function properly again, and his eyes burnt.
He fell on the red seat next to him, causing the bones in his back and his leg joints to hurt. His fingers cracked as he moved them. This was the first pain he'd felt since before stasis, and hence it felt like the worst pain in all his life. He ground his teeth, trying not to curse in pain, attracting attention to himself was something he'd never wanted to do, it wasn't in his personality.
After he had recouped from the pain, he realised the train was slowing. Out side the train he saw burned out buildings and destroyed cars, and obvious signs of conflict, such as scorching and craters on the roads. Old dead grass and vegetation covered small corners of the roads. Though, the most prominent thing he noticed was rubble spewed across the roads, consisting of bricks, mortar and other various materials. There was a huge amount of it, most of it seemed to have been moved to the sides of the roads, probably so the road could still be used.
Shepard was puzzled by this sight, were was he? There's no way he was in America, this is nothing of what he could remember. But, how long had he been in 'stasis'? What year is this? Shepard started looking at the remains of buildings. For what he thought, they looked Eastern Europion in design. Germany maybe, who knows. Shepard thought.
The tram was suddenly pitched in darkness, making Shepard jolt away from the window in surprise. The tram moved into a large room, which was also grimy and covered in dirt. The tram suddenly stopped making Shepard slightly loose balance in his seat. A large door towards the front of the cart he was in opened, and the two other people stood up to exit. Shepard thought it best to follow, but not knowing what to expect moved slowly. It's then when he noticed he was in navy blue overalls, and looked down to his legs and feet. Through the tram door was the large room, which turned into another room to the left.
Shepard looked to his right to study the room, there was another man in blue overalls as well, sat on a large bench, who looked up at Shepard when he realised he was there. There was an old wooden door, on the other side of the room, which looked like it would have been from when this building was originally built. But now looked out of place with what the rest of the room looked like. The room was empty on the left, apart from a small water fountain on the wall, and a tall wire fence creating a wall from the next room. Shepard walked to the fountain, as his mouth was dry, he couldn't remember the last time he had drank anything. The fountain was metal, and looked old, and dirty. He turned the tap on, a little trickle of water came through, thankfully the water didn't seem too dirty, it was still clear at least. He cupped his hands and brought some water to his mouth. It was refreshing, but it tasted quite odd, not like he remembered.
Shepard turned around and leant on the wall next to the fountain, he saw the others from the tram had gone through a small gate in the fence. After a few seconds of thought, he decided to follow them again, and walked towards it. He stepped through, and stopped to see where he was now.
"Move citizen." An authoritarian voice said from his right.
The voice was hard to understand, as if it was through a radio.
Shepard quietly replied with "Pardon?"
This simple question was replied with by a forceful punch in the side of his ribs,knocking him into the wall to his left.
Shepard rested his head on the wall for a second or two, to wait for it to stop hurting, then turned around to see who had attacked him. He saw a strange dark figure, who was tall and looked strong. He was wearing a white mask, which looked somewhat like a skull. He pulled out a batten from the back of his belt, and held it as if he would hit him with it.
Shepard moved away from him further away from the fence holding his ribs quickly. The one who attacked him crossed his arms and moved back to where he was before, into the shadow of the wall. He could still feel that hurt from that punch, but he couldn't understand why he got hit. This whole place stunk of hostility.
The end of the corridor lead to a huge room, which looked like a platform for more trams. There was one red freighter parked on the rail furthest away, The tram lead out of the building to a huge opening to the right, were the trams would enter. Outside, was mainly grass and grey soil, Shepard notices a huge black wall, which the rail lead through. Shepard must have missed this when he was coming on the tram.
The floor was made of concrete slabs, and was covered in litter. The actual walls of this building was more like a hangar, made of sheet metal. It seemed to have been added onto the rest of the station at a later time of it being built. There was yet more high wire fence on the other side, leading through to another room.
Shepard quickly made his way there, but slowed when he noticed there were more of those soldier types. They turned their heads to looks at him, then turned back as they were, as if they didn't care.
Shepard now walked to the wire fence, trying to open the wire door. It was locked by a large pad-lock. One of the troops noticed him trying to open it, and walked over to him.
"Follow me." the soldier ordered. Shepard didn't want another beating so he did what he said. He followed him into a small dark room. It was empty apart from an old wooden desk in the middle, the soldier reached into a drawer and took out a red object, which looked like two red bars connected at one end.
The soldier walked up to Shepard again, "Hold out your hand." he ordered. So Shepard did what he told. The soldier put this object around his hand, and squeezed one end of the devise, making a sharp barb pierce Shepard's hand. Shepard let out a gasp of air from the pain. Then, the soldier places it back in the drawer. Then walked to open the gate.
Through the gate was a rather boring empty room, with the same dirt and muck covering it, there was a large screen which was currently off. Under that was large wooden double door, and since that was the only way to go, that's were Shepard headed. He had to force the door open. But as he did, the sun almost blinded Shepard, rising his hand to cover his eyes.