It was around seven when she called him in for dinner. The sun was beginning its descent across the horizon, merging in a bloody red and gold line with the green fields that stretched out before him. Often he and Marty, his faithful beagle, would go frolicking through the tall stalks of grass. He would throw a ball to distract Marty and then hide among the grass, turning invisible within the thick green mass, timing how long it would take the bounding beagle to find him. More often than not, Glen would join him, playing hide-and-seek with him in the long grass and having fake matches of capture the flag or water gun fights. Today, Glen was busy with chores in the house, and it was just him and Marty.
"Adrian! Dinner! I'm not going to tell you again!" his mother's cross voice drifted across the field. She would, though, he knew he had at least one 'last time' call before she got really mad. Nevertheless, Adrian sighed, popping out of the grass and darting across the field. "C'mon, Marty, let's go!"
The beagle gamboled joyfully around his heels as the boy set off through the hills, down the slope towards home.
The screen door at the side of the house was open slightly, swinging in the soft breeze that played with the grass in the fields. The entire house was painted gold in the sunset. Through the top floor window, he could see Glen's hanging posters of the solar system and his models of airplanes and space shuttles dominating the air. He hurried in.
"Shoes off, Adrian, don't track mud in here," his mother admonished, sweeping past him with a broom. He mumbled an apology as Marty scrambled in from behind him, bounding straight to his water dish and lapping noisily. Glen was already seated at the table, which was set with cutlery and plates. A steaming roast chicken sat on a plate in the centre of the table.
"Don't forget to wash your hands," his mother said, and Adrian rolled his eyes slightly before moving to the sink and turning the tap on. When his hands were thoroughly clean he sat at the end of the table, next to Glen, and clasped his hands together. The seat between Glen and his mother was quite empty.
x x x x
Adrian opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a dark grey sky overhead, a thick mass of clouds that stretched as far as he could see. His eyes drank in the overcast, gorging themselves upon its miraculous beauty. Adrian never thought he would experience such fierce joy from simply seeing the sky.
He was lying flat on his back on a cold, hard surface that dug into his shoulders. Slowly he forced himself into a sitting position, hissing with pain as his stiff limbs complied with his body's movements. Being in stasis for so long – how long? he thought again – had taken its toll on his system.
He tentatively touched his face, still astonished at being back. Coarse stubble on his cheeks and chin met his hesitantly probing fingers. A faint breeze floated past him, ruffling his short dark hair. A low rumble of thunder echoed across the sky. Adrian staggered to his feet, struggling to get his bearings. His body was still sluggish and weak from his containment. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was.
He seemed to be in an abandoned parking lot. A rusted car was parked several feet away, its hood popped open like a hungry mouth. Inside its engines and parts were coated with iron rust, and had fallen into disrepair. Glancing around, Adrian saw that he appeared to be in some sort of city. Eastern European, by the look of the architecture. Taking his first shaking, uncertain steps forward, Adrian stumbled out of the lot like a drunk and slowly headed up the street.
The city seemed deserted at first glance, but after walking for several minutes Adrian became aware of signs of life. A massive black tower reared before him in the distance, seemingly exploding upward from the heart of the grim metropolis. Small mechanical devices floated around and about the tower, some floating over the city streets like small black sentinels.
The roar of distant engines suggested that some cars of transport vehicles were at work. He could hear the low throb of machinery throughout the city, as well as loud klaxon like wailings every now and then. Confused, overwhelmed by his new surroundings, Adrian staggered on.
As he walked, Adrian became aware of noises up ahead. The loud drone of an engine grew louder in the street. It sounded as though some type of heavy vehicle was making its way toward him. Ducking into the shadowed area behind a dark green dumpster, Adrian observed the street from an alley as the vehicle grew closer. He had no idea what it was, or whether it was friendly or not, but he wasn't going to take chances until he could figure out where he was.
As Adrian looked on, a huge armoured van barreled down the street. It was a faded metallic blue-grey colour, with thick black striped tires that didn't resemble anything Adrian had ever seen before. A large turret gun was mounted on the top, near a clear class dome-like window. The (by Adrian's guess) armoured personnel carrier rumbled away, leaving deep black tread marks on the asphalt.
Before he had time to ponder the strangeness of the APC's appearance, a group of people hurried past. Adrian almost let out a cry of joy, for they were the first people he had laid eyes on in who knew how long, but something held him back. Maybe he was crazy, but he had a distinctive gut feeling that there was something off about them. He had learned to trust his intuition, and right now his entire being was screaming that the group in front of him was bad news. He took in their authoritative stride, their gleaming white face masks, their highly polished boots and their drawn handguns and batons. What are they? Adrian wondered. Police or something? A gang? But before he could ponder further, the group of strangely garbed individuals had vanished around a corner.
Adrian waited for several more minutes before exiting the relative cover of his alley, just in case. He warily crouched next to the building, surveying the street for other signs of life. As he watched, a dark black shape drifted down from the leaden sky and swooped over his head; ducking, Adrian cursed as it emitted a blinding flash, scorching his eyes. He blinked furiously, trying to clear his vision, but by the time he had, the thing was nowhere to be seen.
Before he could contemplate on what the small black thing was, he felt something. A splash of water, on his arm. He looked down and saw a tiny grouping of water droplets on his muscled forearm. The dampness of the droplets soaked into his skin.
As Adrian stood there, another droplet found his face, then another. Thunder snarled overhead, there was a flash of blue lightning, and in the next second, rain was pouring from the sky in torrents, soaking his clothes and his skin and his face and the ground around him. Adrian fell to his knees, overcome, in the middle of the street, laughing and crying at the same time as the raindrops caressed his skin. The water felt like heaven as it pounded onto his face and body. After years of being completely devoid of sensation, the mere touch of rain was overwhelming. The tears in his eyes mixing with the water, Adrian sat, on his knees in the middle of the street, as the rain poured down around him.
x x x x
Jill was exhausted.
She had been skulking around the ruins of the abandoned apartment buildings for three hours, looking for the case. The latest message she had received had told her to look for it in Block 22-B, but the message was vague and contained no further hints. She suspected the apartment had been raided by the Combine before her contact could send her the exact coordinates of the case's location. So she had been forced to rummage through the city block for the better part of three hours, combing through the disused residential buildings, looking diligently for the green writing case.
Jill knew she was putting her entire residential sector at risk because of her absence, but nowadays risk was a constant factor in her, and everybody's, life. She couldn't do her job without a great deal of risk, because there was no security as a Resistance member. All she could do was pray her absence would go unnoticed for another couple hours, at least until she returned to her sector.
Jill walked up the curving staircase of the final apartment on the block, her footsteps echoing in the emptiness. The ravaged building had fallen into disrepair. Paint was peeling off the walls, clothes and household items dotted the floors in the hallways and in the apartments, hastily left behind when the citizens had been herded away by the Combine. Boxes of citizens' possessions were grouped together in a messy pile at the foot of the staircase, forgotten and collecting dust in the quiet, empty building.
It broke her heart to see the city fall apart like this. Every time she looked into an empty bedroom and saw a dust-stricken teddy bear in a corner on the floor, or a torn picture of a laughing couple, she felt tears burn at her eyes and sadness threaten to consume her. The Combine had destroyed everything. But she could do nothing for those who had been lost. All she could do was strive to help everyone that could still be saved, and that wouldn't be accomplished by continually breaking down.
Jill stepped into the open doorway of Apartment 20, eyes sweeping the living room. It was scant and devoid of much furniture. All that was left was a beige loveseat, a reclining armchair, a coffee table, and a television set in a small wooden cabinet. Jill stepped across the worn carpet, leaving a distinctive footprint in the half inch of thick dust that coated the floor. She crossed over to the couch and began stripping it of cushions, searching for the case. She turned the living room upside down, even cutting the pillows open with her makeshift shiv and searching through the stuffing. When she found nothing, she moved on.
Ten minutes later, Jill finally found the green leather writing case, hidden under the sink cabinet in the bathroom of the house. Breathing a sigh of relief, she dropped to her knees and flicked the case open, quickly scanning the contents. Good. It was all there. Snapping the case shut again, Jill got to her feet and went to the sink, turning one of the taps on. It squeaked with rust and for a minute, nothing happened, until with an explosive snort filthy grey water burst out of the tap. Jill let it run for a minute, until it turned clear, before washing her hands and face. She looked up into the mirror, gazing at her reflection, her exhaustion seeping through her body now more than ever. Her face was pale and drawn, and there were slight lines at the corners of her eyes, despite her young age. Her auburn hair was untidy and disheveled, falling around her shoulders. The only bright and vibrant part of her appearance was her eyes, two emerald coloured spheres still vivid with life.
As Jill reached out and turned off the tap, she heard a scuffling noise in the distance. She froze, ears pricked, and sure enough, the telltale noise of rapidly pounding feet followed. The Combine were raiding the apartment block.
Cursing quietly, Jill snatched the leather case's handle tightly in her left hand, her heart pounding wildly. If the Combine discovered the case, it would mean the end of the Resistance. Jill looked at the hallway outside the bathroom. She couldn't escape the way she had come in – no time. The Combine could catch her on the way out. Turning around, she quickly pushed at the window over the radiator in the corner of the bathroom. After a few shoves, the window swung outward.
The sound of footsteps was growing louder. Jill hoisted herself up into the tiny opening, squirming to fit through the little space. She slithered out of the window and fell noisily onto the steel grating of the fire escape. Wasting no time, Jill got to her feet and hastily made her way down the connecting metal stairwell, praying the Combine hadn't heard her noisy fall. All the while she was uncomfortably aware of the case in her hand.
Jill finally reached the bottom of the fire escape. Not wasting time with the ladder, she simply swung herself over the metal railing and jumped the rest of the way down. She landed heavily on both feet, groaning loudly as the shock vibrated through her legs. She felt something twist in her ankle and she bit back a gasp of pain; however, she had no time to waste, so she hobbled away from the building and around a corner just as a masked face poked its head out from the window she had just vacated from.
Jill limped away from the building, her heartbeat slowly returning to normal. Her right ankle was throbbing painfully, and it hurt to put weight on it, but she would deal with that until she got back to her sector. Ducking into an abandoned lot to avoid a squadron of Civil Protection officers, Jill noticed the sky darkening.
Probably going to rain again, she thought, and sure enough, next second it was pouring down in sheets, drenching her clothes and plastering her hair to her scalp. Jill hurried onward through the rain, wanting nothing more than to return to the relative safety of her apartment, where hopefully Adam had managed to procure some hot coffee –
– and she stopped in her tracks as she saw a figure crouched up ahead in the middle of the street. It was little more than a black shadow, blurred by the rain, features obscured. Its face was tilted up towards the rain.
Jill had half a mind to skirt the figure and go back the other way, but something made her stop. The figure definitely wasn't a Civil Protection officer, because he or she wasn't wearing a mask. It also didn't look to be a citizen, because its clothes didn't look the same as hers. Frowning, Jill stepped forward, her footsteps muffled by the rain, and approached the figure from behind.
"Who are you?"
x x x x
The voice sounded from behind him. Adrian whirled around, caught off guard. Before him stood a woman, staring at him with a slight frown tugging at her mouth. Her light blue clothes were plastered to her body, along with her hair, which was a vivid auburn colour. Her eyes were bright green and shaped like almonds. Her skin was pale and creamy, seeming to shine in the silver sheets of rain.
Wow, Adrian thought. Who is she? She's beautiful.
"Uh," he said, and immediately felt foolish. The fact was, he was overcome by her appearance. She was here, a real human being – one that didn't seem (he hoped) threatening. He hadn't heard another voice for such a long time. The soft notes of her speech shone and fell upon his ears like beautiful music.
"What? It's not hard, just spit it out," the woman said, raising an eyebrow at him, her face still locked in a distrustful frown. She crossed her arms over her chest, water dripping in rivulets from her clothes. In her left hand she clutched a battered green leather case. "Who are you?"
Adrian stared at her. Should he tell the truth? He had no idea who this woman was, and although she didn't seem like a threat, past experiences had taught him that first impressions could be misleading. He looked at her, and she stared back, nonplussed. Finally, he decided that he needed information about where he was and what was going on, and she could be the one to give it to him. It wouldn't hurt to tell her his name.
"I'm Adrian," he said, his voice sounding unsure, unused. "Adrian Shephard."
The woman looked at him in silence for several moments. She opened her mouth to speak, when a loud alarm sounded in the distance. "We'll have to talk later," she said. "I don't have time for this; I have to get back to my sector before they detect the miscount. The Combine don't mess around."
What the hell is she talking about? Adrian wondered. What sector? What is the Combine? "Wait!" he called, as the woman turned to leave. She looked back over her shoulder impatiently. "Who are you? Where are we? And what exactly is the Combine?"
"Are you serious?" the woman asked, her voice halfway between utter skepticism and confusion. "How can you not even know… oh, forget it," she said frantically, as the unmistakable rumble of another APC drifted closer to their position. "No time for that, we've got to go before they find us! Hurry, if you're coming with me, than move it!"
Sensing the incoming danger, Adrian complied and followed the woman without hesitation. She led him through a dark alley and out onto another street. He could hear shouts in the distance, and the woman stopped. "Quick, in that alley!" she whispered, grabbing his hand and tugging him into the shadowy alcove. Moments later, another squad of the white-masked men ran past, toting pistols.
"I don't get it," Adrian whispered, eyes on the men as they disappeared. "Who are they? And what are they doing here?"
"I was about to ask you the same question," a cold, mechanical voice issued from behind them. Adrian spun around in surprise, and found three of the masked men striding out of the shadows, their eye goggles shining in the rain. Their white masks were pale and forbidding in the half-light.
Beside him, the woman muttered, "shit."
"So, looks like a couple of rats have strayed too far from the sewer," the first masked man spoke again, and it was followed by cruel laughter from the other two. The laughter was fragmented and sounded garbled, as though it was being transmitted through some sort of mechanical device. The sound chilled Adrian's bones.
"What about this one?" the second masked man said, poking him roughly in the shoulder with the handle of his baton. Adrian fought the urge to knock it away. Two of the men were armed with batons, whereas the first had a small pistol clutched in his right gloved hand. As long as the first man had the pistol, he couldn't risk attacking them. "He's not dressed like a civilian."
Adrian blinked and looked down, hardly able to believe that until now he hadn't even spared his clothes a glance. Instead of his customary Powered Combat Vest, he noted with surprise, he was garbed in black combat pants and a loose black checkered combat shirt.
"Who cares how he's dressed?" the one with the pistol said. "In two minutes it's not gonna matter, because nobody's gonna see his sorry ass ever again."
Adrian glared at the man. Next to him, the woman was looking frightened and frantic. Her fingers were clutching the leather case so tightly they had turned white.
"You, citizen," the pistol man ordered. "Up against the wall. Now."
"I don't take orders from you," Adrian snapped. His limbs and body had finally grown less stiff, and didn't feel ripe with aching pain any longer. He felt no fear, only a heightened sense of wariness. He waited as the man took a step forward.
"What did you just say?" he whispered in that dead, mechanical voice. Adrian's lip curled. "I said I don't take orders from filth. Now why don't you just get the hell out of my face before I decide to stop being nice?" The woman seemed to flinch at this; her eyes darted nervously back and forth between him and the masked men.
"You filthy scum," the man snarled. "I'll make you eat those words. Take em' out," he said coldly, and with a sharp buzzing noise, the ends of the other officers' batons suddenly lit up with a blue electric current. One of them stepped forward and grabbed Adrian's shoulder.
In a quick, fluid movement, Adrian grabbed the man's arm and twisted it, and the man grunted in pain. Adrian quickly drove a fist into the man's side, causing him to double over, before grabbing the man's throat and forcefully hurling him to the rain-soaked ground. His limbs shook with the effort, and Adrian realized he was definitely not fully healed from his long period in stasis. However, even as beads of sweat formed on his forehead, he lashed out immediately after the masked man fell, not waiting for them to regain their wits.
Adrian seized the second man's wrist and twisted it ruthlessly, snapping the man's bone and eliciting a sharp howl from him. The stun baton fell from his grasp, and Adrian deftly caught it in midair and drove it into the man's side. A sharp crackling filled the air as the man screamed again. Smoke rose in thick streams from the ribcage of his vest, along with the putrid scent of burning flesh. The first officer raised his pistol and aimed it at him, but Adrian was ready. He quickly maneuvered the stunned man before him and held him like a human shield; seconds later, the bullets ripped into the man and he let out a choked cry before going limp in Adrian's arms.
The first man snarled and strode forward, aiming the gun again, and Adrian shoved the limp carcass he was holding forward as hard as he could. The two bodies collided and fell to the ground. Adrian strode forward and kicked the gun into the shadows as he seized the man on the ground, hauling him to his feet and throwing him roughly at the wall. The man slammed into it head first, dropping like a stone at his feet. Adrian turned, breathing fast, towards the woman who, all this time, had stood with a bewildered and astonished look on her porcelain features.
"Are you—" Adrian started, when a booted foot knocked sideways into his foot and sent him staggering sideways. Adrian looked down; one of the officers had stumbled to his feet, his left goggle lens cracked. A stun baton was crackling in his hand as he lunged.
Adrian sidestepped, but the man wasn't going for him. He instead grabbed the woman, ignoring her scream and bringing the baton close to her throat. Adrian took a step forward, but the man pressed the baton less than an inch from her throat, the vibrating blue tip sinister in the dark.
"I've upped the charge to a lethal dose," the man snarled. "One touch of this and it's lights out, permanently. Don't move or she gets it."
Adrian stopped moving. The woman stood, eyes wide with fear. The man's arms were wrapped around her throat and waist. "Drop the baton," the man continued, and Adrian quickly did so. "Good move," the man said in his mechanical voice. "And just as it happens, your last." He looked over his shoulder for a split second, searching for reinforcements.
In that exact moment, the woman's arm suddenly jerked backwards, ramming something into the man's left thigh. The man shrieked in pain, stumbling backwards and grasping at his leg, where the handle of a blade jutted out.
The momentary distraction was all Adrian needed. He lurched toward the man, kicking the baton on the ground at him. The man reached up to protect his face, and Adrian aimed at his stomach, punching him once, twice, three times. The man staggered, dazed, and Adrian seized his opportunity. He grabbed the man's head in both arms, and with a swift, brutal twist, snapped his neck.
The body fell with a thud at his feet, the bloody mask half submerged in a puddle of water. Adrian turned away from it, looking back to the woman, who was gaping at him in open-mouthed shock. "You killed him," she whispered, green eyes fearful and astonished. "You saved me."
"We've got to go," Adrian said hurriedly. "Someone will have heard all that. Is there anywhere we can hide?"
"The subway tunnels," the woman said, shaking her head to clear it. "Then lead the way," Adrian said, and the woman nodded quickly before heading off.
She led him through the empty street, where at the end Adrian could see more masked men heading their way. After ducking through another alley, the woman led him down a flight of stairs into a darkened subway platform. He noticed she was limping slightly, and that her right leg trembled every time she put pressure on it.
Adrian was about to ask if she was all right, when she beckoned to him with her hand. "There's a small maintenance room branching off from the right of this subway tunnel. We can wait there until the patrols overhead pass, and then continue until we get back to my residential sector."
Adrian's head was spinning, but he nodded and hurried to catch up to the woman near the end of the platform. He jumped down onto the tracks, holding his arms out. The woman hesitated briefly before accepting his offer, and he grabbed her waist and lifted her down onto the tracks. "Thanks," she murmured, turning and heading down the tunnel. Adrian followed.
After a minute, they came to the small room she had referred to. It was blocked by a locked door, but Adrian simply kicked it open. The duo went inside, shutting the door behind them. The woman hit a light switch as she did so.
A dimly lit fluorescent bulb flickered to life, illuminating the small, cluttered room. It was filled with boxes and machinery, stacked in the corners and covered with dust. Other than that it was pretty much empty. Adrian sat down on a box by the door, running his hands through his slick wet black hair. The woman sat down across from him, wringing her shirt. She placed the case on the box beside her, suddenly very intent on checking its contents.
"Who are you, really?" she said after a minute of silence. She didn't look at him, instead choosing to ruffle through the contents of the case. "You're not dressed like a citizen, and you don't look like any CP I've ever seen." Adrian shrugged half-heartedly. "I told you. I'm Corporal Adrian Shephard, of the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. I don't know if you've ever heard of it?"
"Never heard of your unit, never heard of you."
"Well, what's your name?" Adrian asked, slightly put off by her flat response.
"Jill Townshend," she replied quietly. She shifted on her seat, wincing as she moved her ankle. "You're hurt," Adrian said, concerned. She shrugged. "It's nothing. I twisted my ankle when I was running from Civil Protection."
"Here, let me see it," Adrian offered, moving towards her. "I've had some first aid training in the military." Jill proffered her foot without argument. Adrian ran his fingers across her ankle, feeling her shiver with pain as he did so. His fingers greedily stroked her skin, taking in the sensation of touch – just touching another person felt so foreign, so strange. Adrian's eyes drifted upward toward her face, but her head was bent, her curtain of red hair hiding her face.
"It's not broken," Adrian said after a minute. "It's just a strain. If you keep off it for a little while it should heal in no time." Jill nodded slightly. "Thank you," she said softly. He released her ankle with slight disappointment. Silence stretched between them, lasting several minutes. Adrian, meanwhile, was bursting with questions. Finally he wasn't able to stay silent any longer.
"You mentioned Civil Protection. Are they the guys who attacked us?" Adrian asked. Jill nodded dully. "The Combine have taken over the entire planet. The masked officers we just saw were Civil Protection officers, humans who joined forces with the Combine for better living standards and more privileges. They serve as the police force in most remaining urban centres."
Shit.
"So these… Combine, you said, have taken over everything on Earth? How?" he asked. "When?"
"Years and years ago," Jill replied.
"What year is it now?" Adrian asked, afraid of the answer.
She told him.
Oh my God… Adrian put a hand over his eyes, an icy feeling of shock coursing through him. He had been away for almost twenty years. Before he could wrap his head around that massive bit of information, Jill spoke.
"How come you don't know any of this?" she asked, looking into his eyes with worry and confusion etched across her face. "Anybody who has been around for the past decade or so would know about the Combine invasion."
"I…" Adrian faltered. He knew Jill would never believe him if he told her the truth. "I was captured by an… enemy force while I was on a mission at the Black Mesa Research Facility."
To his surprise, the girl's eyes widened, and she stared at him incredulously. "You were directly involved with the Black Mesa Incident?" she whispered. "Wow!"
"You know about Black Mesa?" Adrian asked, surprised. He had expected some sort of government cover up to have taken place, masking the truth of the events which had occurred there. "How?"
"Everyone knows about Black Mesa!" Jill said breathlessly, shifting on her box. "The aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident had a huge widespread ripple effect on the rest of the world, kind of like dropping a stone in the middle of a pond. Portal storms began and started appearing all over the world. The Combine were the ones opening the portals, using their portal-network satellite."
Adrian struggled to take in what she was telling him. "So you mean after Black Mesa went down, it had a negative effect on the rest of the planet?"
Jill nodded, auburn hair waving. "That's right. All types of alien life-forms teleported into the suburbs. Soon Earth was in chaos, and there was a huge population shift as everyone moved into the cities to escape the creatures. Earth's soldiers managed to put up protections around the cities, and the aliens outside continued to take over the countryside and remaining rural areas. The Vortigaunts who had recently been freed also escaped to Earth, running from the Combine."
Adrian's mind whirled. Vortigaunts… "You mean those weird scaly aliens with the third arm that shoot lightning bolts?" he asked. Jill nodded. "That's them."
"At Black Mesa they were trying to kill me."
"They were enslaved. After the destruction of Black Mesa they were freed, and they came to Earth to escape from the Combine." Adrian frowned. He wasn't too happy about the idea that those weird, threatening aliens who had killed so many of his teammates were residing on his own planet. However, everything Jill had told him was disturbing.
"So what happened after that?" Adrian asked. Jill's eyes suddenly became filled with sadness. When she spoke, her voice was low and quiet. "The Combine invaded. They decimated Earth's entire forces in seven hours, killing millions and enslaving the rest. They've ruled us ever since."
The shocking finality of her words crashed upon his ears, and he stared at her blankly. Earth was enslaved… it wasn't possible. Adrian sat back, thinking furiously about what Jill had said. He waited for her to speak again, but she had leaned back against her box and was watching him with bright eyes.
"I don't understand," Adrian said slowly. "Why didn't we resist? We should have fought!"
Jill shook her head. "We did resist. The entire world forgot their grievances and united against the Combine. Russia, China, Britain, the States. It was no good. We failed." Adrian closed his eyes. It wasn't possible.
"You killed and incapacitated three Civil Protection officers, and you didn't even get injured," Jill said, staring into his eyes. They were so vivid, so green. "You spoke back to them as though they were nothing. You challenged them."
"So?"
"So, nobody ever does that," Jill said. "Most people are too afraid to speak out against the outrages of the Combine, and for good reason. The Resistance always works in the shadows, so even we can't do anything to fight directly against the Combine. When we challenge them, we do so without their notice. But you… you just put yourself and all of us in incredible danger."
Adrian felt a thin twinge of annoyance. "How? They were going to kill us. One of them almost did kill you. Did you expect me to just sit by twiddling my thumbs while they did?"
Jill didn't smile. "You saved my life, and I'm grateful for that. But the facts still stand: we're all in danger now. Nobody speaks out against the Combine publicly, it's too dangerous. Now that you've attacked those officers, when they don't report in the Combine will know something's up. One of them is still alive up there. When he wakes up he'll go straight to the other CPs and then the entire city will be on the lookout for you."
Perfect. That's just swell. "Then let them," he said shortly. "I told you, I'm not afraid of those white-faced bastards. If they come after me, they'll get a bit more than they bargained for."
Jill shook her head exasperatedly. "They'll kill you, don't you get it? You're one man! The entire city is run by them. You'll never win."
"I'll do something," Adrian said decisively. Regardless of what she said, he couldn't stand by and let this oppression continue. Maybe the world had fallen and died, but he wasn't about to accept his world's destruction, not lying down on the ground like a whipped dog. "I'm going to fight."
Jill sighed. "Fine, you do what you want, stranger. But for the time being, I suggest laying low. Come back to my residential sector with me. You can talk to my father, he's a pretty big member of the Resistance. He'll get you started on whatever you need to do."
Adrian nodded. "All right. Thank you for offering to help me." Jill smiled slightly. "I told you, you saved my life. It's the least I can do." She cast him a furtive glance from beneath her curtain of red hair, but as he looked back at her, she quickly looked away. "The patrols should be gone by now. Let's hurry."
"Okay," Adrian said, and he followed the red-haired woman into the darkness of the tunnel, wondering what lay ahead.