Four years after she was brought to the facility, there was then a very long series of events, both related and unrelated to Prospekt 18, that led to her escape. There was a man. A man who, while highly regarded by the majority of humanity, when in combat, seemed to rely on overwhelming the enemy with pure lunacy. His tactics would be called "unorthodox" by the leader of a SWAT team, had there been any left during the time of his unorthodoxy. There was a woman. A woman who, though held at a lower standard than the "Freed Man" himself, was also highly regarded by humanity. Being the daughter of the great Eli Vance, Alyx Vance was also a participant in the Lambda resistance, it led to her becoming a sort of role-model for many.
This long series of events started with Mr. Freeman. He, in effect, "returned from the dead". For the last 20 years, Freeman had been in a controlled stasis. Controlled by whom remains a mystery to Freeman himself. Perhaps, beyond the need to save humanity, in his adventurous journey, Freeman also searched for answers. However, that is another story entirely. After 20 years of tyranny under the rule of the Combine empire, Freeman emerged from his very long sleep. And from here, interesting things start to happen.
It is unclear as to where Freeman was first seen. Nor is it important, really. A citizen of City 17 later claimed to have seen Freeman in the town hall, shortly after the newly arrived train passengers had disembarked, another claimed to have seen a mysterious man on that same train, and having no memory of this man getting on the train at the previous Combine checkpoint, but neither of these stories were proven to be factual. It is believed that, after getting off the train in City 17, he went through the checkpoint without so much as a suspicious eye from CP officers, and arrived in the courtyard of the City from where he was discreetly taken to an underground laboratory by former Black Mesa head of security, Barney Calhoun. In this laboratory, Freeman was introduced briefly to Alyx Vance, and he met with Dr. Isaac Kleiner. This laboratory is also believed to have been where Dr. Kleiner had been working on advanced teleportation technology, but this piece of information also remains to be proven. After being filled in on the events of the last 20 years, Freeman, Calhoun, and young Vance set off towards the Citadel in hopes of igniting a resistance in the residency of City 17 but were met with increasingly troubling difficulties. Dr. Wallace Breen, the head of administration in City 17, and self-proclaimed ambassador for the human race, had been informed of Freeman's emergence from the dead and had prepared a Combine Overwatch strike force and had sent it after the three with an army of remotely controlled reconnaissance vehicles. The groups scattered, and Freeman was left on his own.
After fighting off waves of Overwatch soldiers, word of Freeman's arrival spread like wildfire. On his way to the hidden laboratory, Black Mesa East, he was assisted many times by known rebel soldiers. In two days time, he met face-to-face with Dr. Eli Vance, and his female colleague, Dr. Judith Mossman. After being told the of objective the resistance movement, Freeman found that he had been unwittingly followed by the Overwatch strikeforce, and the laboratory was sieged. Freeman was separated from his colleagues once more and was forced to retreat into the neighboring mining town of Ravenholm, where he fought off more waves of alien possessed miners and headcrabs. After three gruesome hours of combat, Freeman emerged from the mining town unscathed and determined to continue. He made his way to a rebel outpost and spoke briefly to Alyx Vance. She supplied him with an all-terrain vehicle and a map of the infamous coastal wasteland. He was told that Eli Vance had been captured and sent to the experimentation/prison facility known as Nova Prospekt. Young Alyx asked for his help. As he traversed through the harsh environment of the wasteland, he was met with enemies such as the antlions, headcrabs, goliaths, and the Overwatch's relentless pursuit.
Two and a half days passed, and he arrived at the heavily fortified outer base of the prison. It is said that he rested before infiltrating the facility, but this is another rumor. He broke into the prison while our friend was sound asleep in the lowest depths of the complex. The fighting woke her. She had thought it had been another test, but that had not been the case. Freeman fought through wave after wave of Prospekt security guards in search of Eli Vance and had inadvertently freed our friend in the experiment room. There was an explosion. A series of them. A ricochet bullet had impacted with a fuel reserve in one of the storage rooms and set it ablaze. Seconds later, the artillery shells were covered in flames, and they exploded in a KAWHUMFFF! that shook the entire complex. It blew a hole in her room, and the shockwave, warm in its millisecond long gush of air, had thrown her against the wall.
She lay there, unconscious, while Freeman continued fighting.
