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Chapter 5 λ
That night Adrian sleeps like a baby in his new bed, out of exhaustion and shock. At around ten am he wakes up, his life as Citizen J-9142117 already seems like so long ago, when in fact it has only been less than twenty-four hours. He rolls off the bottom bunk and pauses, deciding whether to wear his blue citizen shirt and pants or the resistance suit. He chooses to wear the blue set; somehow he doesn't feel right wearing the rebels' outfit, not when he can barely shoot a tin can off a crate five meters away. He says that when Olivia asks him, up in the common room. They spend the day working on his aim in the parking lot, and she even lets him try out the Pulse Rifle, after she unloads the alternative pulses.
It's around six pm. Adrian is sitting in the common room with the other fighters, eating dinner on the sofa, enjoying his hot canned soup after two decades of the unidentifiable freeze-dried junk that the Combine fed them. He watches the others play a darts tournament. They were playing fighters versus medics and Blair, who insisted on being in a team on his own. Adrian had started out with the fighters, but had gotten himself eliminated early on in the game. Two medics remained against three fighters and Blair. Chester still hadn't resurfaced.
The room is full of shouting and laughter. Adrian can't help but join in the cheering and booing.
A door which he knows leads to the communications room swings open, and a woman runs in. She's wearing a pair of large cordless headphones, duct-taped at the middle, around her neck, and her cheeks are bright red with excitement. There's something vaguely familiar about her, he realises, but can't think what.
"We just got a message from Barney," She says excitedly. Her voice is startlingly familiar to him. "It's the Free Man-- He's returned! He's on his way to Black Mesa East!"
The room is silent for a moment, as everyone shares astonished looks, then the shouting and cheering starts again, louder than before. Adrian waits for the chaos to subside before edging towards Olivia.
"Hey, stupid question; don't wanna seem dumb but uh, who is the 'free man', exactly?" He whispers.
"Ha-ha well, this guy, Gordon Freeman, he cleared up the whole Black Mesa incident, twenty years ago."
"Oh, oh Black Mesa, yeah. Yeah. Mhm, sure. Black Mesa."
She punches his shoulder playfully. "Well, moron, basically, if there's anyone who can lead us to overthrow the Combine, it's him."
"So where's this superman been hiding for the past twenty years?" Adrian asks sourly.
Before she can answer someone a few feet to his left calls, "Adrian?"
"Huh? Eh?" He looks around, and spots the woman he almost remembers. "I know you from somewhere, don't I?"
"Yeah, she just called your name, dimwit." Olivia points out.
The woman laughs, embracing him as he stares blankly back at Olivia over her shoulder. He racks his brain for a moment, until it suddenly clicks.
"Oh my god, Lucie!" He says, hugging her back. "Jesus, wow! I never thought I'd run into you again!"
"Am I missing something?" Olivia says, her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.
"Well, a while back I got relocated to City 14, and she was my flatmate. Jesus, that was something like… five years ago?"
"Seven." Lucie says. "And you still look exactly the same."
"You don't!" He says defensively. "You look great, freedom suits you."
"What are you saying?" She says, mock-insultedly. "What happened to your head?"
"I had a run-in with a wall." He grumbles, shooting a glare at Olivia.
She laughs. "When did you get here? Wait-- what happened to--?"
"He got relocated, just like everybody else." Adrian cuts in. "I don't know where he is now." He adds slowly.
"Oh. Well. Anyway, we found each other, who knows, right? Uhm-- I have work to catch up on, I'll see you around…" She says quickly, and shuffles back towards the radio room.
Adrian turns back to Olivia, grinning like an idiot.
"You're grinning like an idiot." She remarks. "Who's that guy you were talking about?"
"A couple of weeks after I got there, he got assigned to our apartment. Eisenheim, we called him -- I think his name was David… she had a thing for him." He adds, whispering conspiratorially, on one side of his hand.
Around them, the resistance members are ecstatic with the news of Gordon Freeman's return. Olivia's about to ask about the nickname when they start calling up the players to finish their tournament. She shrugs and takes up her place next to Ford.
"Hello, Adrian." Says Olga from behind him. He turns. "Great news, huh?" He notices that she's carrying a little tin tray. On it is a shallow bowl with a plate overturned on top of it and a small thermos.
"Yep." He says. "Super."
She smiles at his unconvinced answer. "Is your forehead giving you any trouble? I can still take a look at it if you want--"
"No, it's alright, it isn't hurting anymore." He says. Her fussing brings him a pang of sorrow at the realisation that he hasn't seen his parents in almost fifteen years.
"Well okay. I have a little favour to ask of you. Someone needs to take this down to Chester; he hasn't shown his face since you all got here yesterday." She says, looking worried.
He accepts the tray which is warm from the food and her hands. "His room is--"
"The first one at the bottom of the stairs, yes. Thank you. And make sure he eats it, we don't need a leader who's too weak to stand up." She returns to the ward.
Adrian descends carefully and knocks on Chester's door. There's no answer. He wonders whether to leave the tray beside the door, but realises that it would be trampled in the cramped passage, so he knocks again, more forcefully. He waits for a moment, then turns to leave. He's about to step onto the stairs when he hears Chester shout "What d'you want?"
Adrian pushes the door open and looks inside. The leader's room is almost identical to his, except that the top bunk, desktop and every other available surface are covered in papers and maps. Chester himself is lying with his hands folded under his head, staring at the underside of the top bunk. He's fully dressed in the resistance uniform, with his worn boots resting on the metal bar that forms the footboard, ankles crossed.
"Well?" Chester snaps, moving his feet to the side so he can see the doorway, with Adrian standing under it. He spots the tray and turns his eyes back to the metal underside of the top bunk. "Leave it on the table." Adrian clears a space as best he can and sets the tray down on the desk. He stands awkwardly beside it.
"What now?" Chester grumbles, facing Adrian again.
"I er-- Olga told me to make sure you eat it." He mumbles.
Chester rolls his eyes and slowly gets up. He grabs the back of the chair, pushes a stack of papers off the seat and drags it to the desk. He sits down heavily and removes the overturned plate. Underneath is a steaming bowl of vegetable soup, which the rebels had stolen from an unguarded Combine truck. Adrian, who always feels uncomfortable watching people eat, looks around the walls, and inspects a large grey and white map of the coast. Various points along the coastline are circled. Most are numbered and have the same λ sign he saw on the armbands. "Boyd doing okay?" The leader asks, waiting for the soup to cool down.
"He's still in the ward but they said he'll be okay." Adrian answers. "What happened? Did you get spotted by CPs?"
Chester shrugs. "It was a man-hack. The tunnel we usually take was locked, so we took another path. There was a stack of crates and I suppose that the hack was in standby-mode or something, but when Boyd moved the crate the damn thing flew at him."
"Oh…" Adrian mutters. A shiver rolls down his spine. He knows what man-hacks can do. He had once watched through his apartment window as CPs in the square set a few loose on unruly citizens. He examines the map while Chester starts to eat. To Adrian's relief the leader doesn't slurp his soup. Adrian waits till he's done, then asks; "Where's Black Mesa East?"
Chester looks at him thoughtfully for a moment, then lifts himself slowly off the chair and jabs one of the scribbles with his finger. "There, the old hydro-plant. Of course, that map's a little out of date. Well, twenty years out of date. But I have more recent ones if you need them." He says, shuffling through the rolls on his desk. "Why?" He asks, looking up at Adrian.
Adrian shrugs. "No reason, that's just where they said he was going."
"Where who's going?" Chester asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, uhm, Gordon Freeman. We got a message from Barney about an hour ago."
A look of incredulity crosses Chester's face. He opens his mouth to say something, then closes it again and dodges around Adrian and out of the little room instead. Adrian stacks the plates on the tray, leaves the untouched thermos on the desk and follows.
When he reaches the top of the stairs, Chester's already disappeared. He picks his way across the common room, dodging around celebrating rebels. Through the chaos, someone puts a hand on his shoulder, and steers him to the kitchenette, which isn't much more than a glorified niche. He sets the tray down on the limited countertop and turns around to see Olivia.
"The medics won." She says, managing to look annoyed while still looking cheerful. "If Pasternak was here he'd have us fighters running laps around City 17." She laughs.
"Pastor-who?" Adrian asks, getting tired of being out of the loop all the time. He picks the tray up again, and places the dishes in the sink.
She stares at him for a moment, then sighs. "You poor pathetic creature. Mikhail Pasternak, he was sort of like our coach, kinda like a high-school gym teacher." She lifts herself onto the counter and sits on it.
"Hence the laps." Adrian says, rinsing the bowl. "What happened to him?"
"Nothing happened to him, the guy's a panzer. He just moved to another base."
He leaves the clean dishes on the side of the sink and grabs a rag to dry his hands. Suddenly, something hits him in the back of the head, jerking him forward. He barely hears Olivia's shocked "Are you okay?" as his vision darkens and he passes out.
Comments λ
Folks, I just remembered to say that this Adrian has nothing to do with Adrian Shepherd. Sorry about that ;D