Half Life: Citizen 204
Based off of Valve's masterpiece, Half-Life
My name is Preston, to make this simple; I have been living in a world of hate and violence. Ever since that goddamn experiment in Black Mesa went wrong, the world has never been the same. Let's start from the beginning of it all; I was in my room, watching the news, when a report came on about this top secret research project going wrong being unveiled to the public. They should've kept it secret in my point of view. Even if the place flubbed up, it'd make it a lot less scary for everyone. (Well… until I knew what was happening.) The news reporter put on some kind of footage of the main chamber. I couldn't make out most any of the words that over-enthusiastic reporter was babbling on about, but I understood some of it. She mainly said stuff about a scientist group seeking for alien life in alternate dimensions. (That's at least what I thought.) The two words that stuck out were Xen and Lambda… It was so odd at the time. He was going to use this huge, expensive-looking contraption to get to his "objective". The scientist seemed familiar to me; his name was Gordon Freeman. After endless minutes with the reporter's agonizing yapping, it was happening. I could almost see the scientists on their knees praying, "Please work, please, don't be bad…" My heart started to race, sweating and praying for the same, as the ominous person in a weird suit inched closer and closer to the beam of blinding light. Anticlimactically, as the scientist's cart connected with the light, "BOOM" I wait to see if that was supposed to happen… "BANG" Another explosion sounds. Just then, my heart sank, I knew something was wrong. A person on the intercom yelled, "Get away from the stream, Gordon, I'm going to do an emergency shutdown… What? It's-it's not shutting down, it-. Static. Nothing but static on the screen and the audio of the footage. Millions of horrified people including me were just standing frozen in complete and utter horror. Nobody, even the military knew what to do. I tell myself, "What kind of crap did we just get ourselves into…"
There I stood, worrying about friends and family… "What the heck am I going to do…?" I remain silent for the rest of the day; I take a fake sick day from work. The rumors were all true about the cataclysm effect. I worked part-time in Black Mesa as a security officer. The secrets my best friend would sneak to me during lunch hour were true. I was stuffing my face with doughnuts and sipping coffee when all the things he would tell me were true. I would laugh at him! I thought he was honestly joking! I was in a freaking death trap! I lay in my bed teary-eyed, praying for my life. The rumors were that if the experiment failed, the alien life would have complete access to our dimension! The military is holding an evacuation today. Hopefully, it's enough to keep me and my family safe. I know I'm being dark and pessimistic right now, but this story will lighten up soon. I hope…
Chapter 3: I drive worriedly in my station wagon to a large military compound with a sinister-looking sign; "Sigma-Alpha" As I pass by the warning signs and my ignorance soon sinks into silent anxiety. As I arrived, all of the hope had been stripped from my soul… I had to give up my car; possessions, money, my credit and debit cards, and even the clothes on my back were replaced by a dull, blue suit reading, "CITIZEN 204". "Is this really the US military?" I mutter to myself. We are herded like animals to the helipad for… well… I really never knew why we were there. The entire din of worried people had abruptly stopped as a tall, muscular figure creeps out from one of the sheds. I look up to see the creature; it was a person with a gleaming full-face gas mask thing on its face and a black and white tactical vest gazing down at me. Those two, little, glass eyelets look at you as if looking into your very soul. It looks down at me, studying my every feature. As if it's never seen a person before. It sluggishly paces around me. I say one word and the thing whips out this huge stick from its belt. A flash goes off and I see the stick explode with light. It somehow became electrified and an obvious beating tool. As it whips the stick near my face, I completely black out, and the only thing I remembered was the thing barking orders to each of the soldiers.
Chapter 4: I start to hear and see again; the figure that attacked me was dragging across the floor to somewhere. Everything's a blur and all I hear is white noise… What did I do to deserve this? I only tried to say hello to the thing and it attacked me! As my sight and hearing clears up, the dragging stops. Before I could think, I was shoved to the ground. The figure barks, "Get up". I comply-slowly. My face is throbbing out of control, my ears are still ringing like some kind of psychological torture, and I yearn for an explanation. The figure points to a rack of suitcases and says, "Take one." As if it's already ominous enough, a man in a navy blue suit strolls down to take a suitcase. "Who are you?" I said. Then, I start to hear blaring squeals in my ears. I start to hear voices whispering, "Freeman… One Free Man… Xen…" The man says nothing back and walks away. Before the noise stopped, I get a flash of an orange symbol on my arm. It's a roman letter… As soon as I see it the thing fades. That man looked so ominous, but gives me thoughts of safety running through my head. "How did you get that so mark?" the thing in the mask asks. "What do you mean?" I said. I say, trying not to get into more crap then I'm already in. "Never mind," the thing says. A train pulls up behind me and opens its doors. Not even the train looks human; it has a light on top and a series of black, rectangular shapes as a body. The thing says, "Get on and wait." I comply with reasons of terror. Minutes pass and noting happens. Eventually, more people are dragged onto the train with me. Soon enough, the train is filled with identity-stripped civilians. The doors slam and the train starts to lurch forward.