Gus DeBricko ran his fingers through his medium-length brown hair. He wore a black button-up silk shirt and khaki pants. Over the shirt he wore a white lab coat with the Black Mesa symbol on it. Just another day at work, he thought as he set about his daily routine of cups of black coffee and boring assignments for thousands of employees whose names were impossible to memorize.
"Damn, I hate the administrator." He said under his breath. The administrator was the no-nonsense leader of the facility. Gus preferred bastard when no one was around or "Cat's Pajamas" when in presence of friends or one of the other personnel in the place. He wasn't a bad leader-just a strict and mysterious ruler.
"Hey, Gus." One of the security guards said nonchalantly. Gus looked up and saw Alexander, one of his favorite security guards. Alex looked the other way when Gus smacked the vending machines in just the right place so that it gave him free food, and Alex got small snippets and rumors of goings-on in the facility. It was sort of a mutual understanding, and had been happening for years. Both men knew that...things would happen to them if they were caught, so when anyone else was around they pretended to just be coworkers.
"Hey Alex. Got some more personnel requests for me?" Gus asked, noticing the large stack of paper in the man's gloved hand.
"Yup. Have fun!" The man said dastardly, and jogged away. Gus swore under his breath and kept meticulously filling out the forms. After a couple more black coffees and a LOT more forms, the desk jockey was beat. He got up from his desk, opened the door to his office, and walked out into the hall. He nodded hello to several other workers and made his way to the cafeteria for a snack.
As he walked up to the vending machine, the lights went out. At first, Gus just thought it was a momentary flicker, as any type of weather could pass overhead without them knowing, being underground, but then he remembered the facility was military-funded and most likely had backup-backup generators.
Suddenly, the room around him shook and he heard people yelling. Several balls of what looked like blue lightning filled the room, and people started screaming. In the distance he heard several distinct cracks-gunshots. Acting on instinct, the worker ran for cover behind what he thought was the lunch counter. He promptly head butted a vending machine.
As he was grasping his head in pain, the room suddenly became light, but the room was as chaotic as before. Turning around he saw a strange naked, fleshy creature with one eye shooting lightning bolts from it's fingertips. Gus ran for the door out of the cafeteria, fumbled with the knob, and pushed it open. A grisly sight awaited him.
Alex, the security guard, was slumped against the wall, lying in a pool of his own blood. On his head was a strange crab-like being, with a bloody "beak".
"Alex? Alex, this isn't funny! Come-come on, let's get out of he-here!" Gus said, his voice jittery.
In response, Alex-or what used to be Alex let out a horrible scream and got up, accidentally kicking the gun towards Gus. Gus grabbed the 9MM and pointed it towards his best friend.
"M' sorry, A-Alex." His voice said, almost a whisper. Aiming through the iron sights, he aimed at the crab figure on his head and fired three times. The three loudest sounds he would ever hear struck the virgin air.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
The alien crab flew from his head, hit a whitewashed wall, and hit the ground, leaving a trail of yellow alien blood and red human blood. The security guard's disfigured head displayed a final, distorted scream and his whole body slumped to the ground. On his back, the guard had a medium-sized knapsack that looked like it was sloppily packed with various items. Gingerly removing it and a bulletproof vest from his friend's body, he removed his bleached lab coat and slung them both over his shoulders. Gus walked over to the alien and fired twice more at the monstrosity. It twitched and Gus grabbed the top of it. Its squishy skin bunched up. Sliding the knapsack onto one shoulder, he unzipped a section and put the crab in. Making the sign of the cross, he stood up and decided to move on.