Escape from Black Mesa
Chapter 2: Ground Zero
A loud ringing began to echo inside John's head as he slowly regained consciousness. His vision was blurred but returned to normal quickly.
The alarm was ringing quite loudly and as he looked around he saw the bodies of all his co workers around him. The computers arrayed along the back wall were utterly destroyed.
John staggered towards the door out but caught a glimpse of the anti-masspectrometer. The entire machine had been reduced to a pile of twisted and molten metal. John knew he had to leave and get help. He placed his hands on either side of the retinal scanner and froze as the machine verified his identity. The computer answered in its robotic and monotonous voice "access granted". The door opened part way when suddenly a flash of electricity fused the door to the wall and it stopped halfway through opening.
"Oh well, it's sufficient" John muttered to himself as he squeezed through. The hallway seemed to be fine until John found his way to the room that contained the backup generators.
The steel pipes that carried the coolant to the generators had collapsed and spilled the toxic liquid with it. John knew that the coolant was very acidic and devised a plan to get around it. He climbed up on the nearest pipe and began to balance precariously on the steel apparatus as he moved forward.
Sweat tickled down his forehead until he finally passed the coolant and reached the door. His problems continued to mount as he entered the next hallway. The larger computers were housed in this hallway and they were scattered all about like a child's toys. To make matters worse, the pipes in this hall had ruptured as well, but these pipes did not contain coolant. They contained high focus laser beams that were now carving fine black lines into the walls. One laser was moving around wildly and hit a computer, the computer exploded with such force as to knock John flat.
"This day cannot get any worse" John said to himself. He decided to try a mad dash to the other end of the hall and hope the lasers did not fry his brain on the way. He counted down in his head "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go!" He sprinted with all he had down the long hall, he was getting close now, he could see the door but he could also see one of the lasers heading towards him. At the last second he dived for the door, it opened just in time for him to get through.
He smelled something burning and checked to make sure he hadn't lost any limbs. He was relieved to find out that the laser had only singed a small piece of his lab coat.
He quickly ran to the service elevator and found that it was still working. He pushed the button and began his ascent. He reached the top without incident and was greeted at the top by a 9 mm pistol aimed at his right temple.
"Don't move or I'll blow your brains out!" screamed the security guard.
"Uh, I'm John from Test chamber C-33/a. My id is right here" he said and held up his employee tag.
"Oh, sorry, I'm a little on edge; you're the first living human I've seen since the thing happened. Hey you're a member of the science team, what happened?" asked the security guard.
"Well, my colleagues and I were testing our brand new anti-masspectometer but there was an accident and we inadvertently caused a Resonance Cascade," answered John.
"Well I don't really understand all that mumbo jumbo scientist speech. Could you dumb it down a bit?" he asked jokingly.
"We caused a tear in the wall between different dimensions and that tear is destroying this facility," John explained.
"Oh, so the weird creatures I've been seeing are aliens from another dimension," he security guard said to himself.
"I'm sorry, what aliens?" asked John.
As John asked this question a small green flash emanated out of thin air and a small creature dropped to the sterile metal floor.
"Ahh!" screamed John. "What is that?"
"Beats me sir. I just know it isn't friendly," replied the security guard as he put three rounds into it. The small creature squealed as it fell to the floor dead.
John went over to examine the creature. It bared a resemblance to a Thanksgiving Day turkey except for its two fairly large front claws, which were slightly similar to the claws of a crab. It had two pairs of stubby legs and had a tan like skin color. John was no expert of biology, much less alien biology but he was good enough to conduct a decent examination. He made another telling discovery as he flipped the creature onto its backside. It possessed a large circular mouth, which was surrounded by teeth. Further inside the mouth, John noticed a sharp claw like beak. He pondered what it could be used for. Digestion or eating perhaps he thought.
The security guard derailed his train of thought. "C'mon John, we need to get moving, we have to evacuate the facility," he said. John got up and the two of them continued on towards the transit system.
They turned down the hall that led to the lobby and two more of the creatures appeared. The guard quickly dealt with both of them. As they turned the corner and entered the lobby they encountered a new alien horror. This creature was roughly the size of a human and indeed looked very much like a human. The real shock came when John realized that the creature was wearing a science team lab coat. He noticed one of the crab like aliens perched on the man's head.
This headcrab had attacked this man and horribly mutated him. His hands had turned a dark shade of purple and his fingers were at least twice as long as a normal human's. They were sharpened at the end, but the most gruesome discovery was that the man's internal organs had swollen and had snapped apart his rib cage. The jagged ends of bones stuck out at sickly angles. The zombie stood up and began screaming incoherently as it approached the duo. It swung its claws at the security guard who jumped out of the way and responded by shooting the headcrab; the zombie fell to the floor.
"Well, that's one less horror in the world," commented the guard. The proceeded to the transit system.