Half Life Chapter 9
Safe at Last?
Larry peeked through the window in the blast door. All he saw was an empty hallway. He wondered how often they patrolled this part of the base.
"We think the Larry made a wrong turn," Morty said.
"No this is where we're supposed to be," Larry replied. "We just need someone to come let us out." As if on cue, a person in a white lab coat turned the corner down the hallway. He seemed young and overwhelmed, with ruffled hair and a red face. In one hand he was holding a cup of coffee, in the other he was trying to juggle a clipboard, a pencil and a few pieces of paper. Larry began pounding on the door to get the man's attention. Unfortunately, the blast door was designed to protect against rocket fire and explosions explosions. He had heard Black Mesa East was once a missile silo.
Just as the scientist passed the door, the pencil began to roll off his clipboard. He tilted it the other way to save it, causing the papers to fall off and the pencil with them. Larry could see him mouth a curse word and then lean over and begin picking everything up. He examined his pencil and its now broken point. He would have to go back and get another one. The man sighed, took a sip of his coffee and turned, coming face to face with two brown eyes and one enormous red one.
The scientist spit his coffee all over the blast door and screamed. His coffee cup and clipboard went flying as he took off down the hallway.
"Well, at least someone will come get us now," Larry said.
"And we can finally be free of this device?" Morty asked, fingering the metal collar still firmly locked around his neck.
"Yep," Larry said. He turned back to look at the door and right down the barrel of a shotgun. Behind it an angry face yelled something. Larry couldn't hear, but he was pretty sure it said 'get away from the door.' Larry grabbed Morty's arm and pulled him back. Gears began to crank and the door groaned upward into the ceiling.
"DROP YOUR WEAPON!! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND RIGHT NOW!!" Several armed resistance members stood on the other side of the door, all pointing guns at Larry and Morty. Larry dropped the bag of ammo around his neck and threw his rifle away, but Morty held tightly to his television.
"Hey, hey relax we're part of the resistance!" Larry yelled.
"How do we know you're not a spy?! And how did you make it through Ravenholm?" the man yelled.
"How could I find this place if I wasn't one of you?" Larry shouted back, hoping they would see reason.
"It's awfully convenient you show up now, when the Combine are on high alert and scouring the entire area. The city's been going to hell in a hand basket," he responded.
"Ask anybody! I was posted at the head of the escape route," Larry said. One of the men in the back of the group perked up and squinted at him in the darkness.
"Larry?" a familiar voice asked.
"Dan?" Larry responded. Larry had known Dan since they first arrived at City 17. They particularly like each other and he hadn't seen him in about a year, but he was glad to see him now.
"It's okay guys," Dan said. He put his hand on top of the leader's rifle and pointed it to the ground. "I know this guy. He's one of us." The rest of the team relaxed and walked back into the hallway. Larry grabbed his gun and ammo and followed them out. The team leader pushed a button on the wall and the blast door slammed shut. He glared and Larry and Morty and walked away.
"Don't worry about him," Dan said. "Everyone's just sort of on edge around here because of everything that's going on outside."
"Yeah we were there for the start of it. Some guy in a crazy jumpsuit came through our post and my day's been hell ever since. Metrocops, manhacks and zombies," Larry said.
"Wait. Crazy jumpsuit?" Dan asked. "Was it Dr. Freeman?"
"The one free man," Morty responded.
"You know that guy?" Larry asked. "We sent him on the escape route, but the metrocops were all over it. I doubt he made it out alive."
"Well you guys made it out," Dan said. He didn't exactly seem happy to be saying it. "Besides, I heard he just showed up here after taking an airboat through the canals."
"What? Are you serious?"
"The one free man cannot be defeated. He brings salvation," Morty said again. His eye looked off into the distance. Larry figured he must have been daydreaming.
"I see you're still stuck with the vortigaunt," Dan said.
"I'm not stuck with him. He saved my ass in Ravenholm," Larry snapped. He surprised himself by how defensive he got when it came to Morty.
"Okay okay. Relax buddy." Larry bristled at the word buddy. "Well listen, let's get you head and arm checked out and then you can tell me why you decided to come here the hard way." Dan slapped Larry's arm a little too hard where the zombie scratched it and he winced in pain.
They all headed down to the medical center and a doctor began to check Larry out. Meanwhile, Morty conversed with another vortigaunt that was helping the doctor. Larry didn't really pay attention as they spoke in their native tongue. As the doctor bandaged his head, Larry told Dan the whole story, meeting the guy with the glasses, the manhacks in the tunnels and jumping the train to Ravenholm.
"Sometimes I wonder how it even took the Combine so long to find Ravenholm. I mean the train tracks lead right to it!" Dan said.
"Uh yeah, anyway, so there Morty and I got split up. He went through the sewers to come here, and I had to go through the town. Ended up lying in a hallway where I almost killed myself with a grenade when Morty showed up and pulled me out of there. Then we met some crazy priest who apparently had been living there the whole time and he showed us the way out."
"A priest living in Ravenholm? Now you're the one who's crazy," Dan said with a laugh.
"No really there was —"
"And don't tell me you named that lizard you've been hanging out with," Dan sneered. Larry narrowed his eyes at the man.
"I'm gonna let that slide because I've known you since we got put on the train to come here," Larry said angrily. "But he's my friend, so I don't want to hear another word."
"Seriously Lar, how can you trust those things?" Dan whispered, leaning closer. "Everyone knows that they're hiding something. We only put up with them because Vance trusts them for some reason."
"Okay that's it," Larry stood up. "I'm out of here. I hope I don't see you for another year." Larry walked over to Morty and tapped him on the shoulder. "Sorry to interrupt, but let's go get that collar off you."
"Yes. We long to be reunited with the Vortessence," Morty responded.
As they walked out of the medical center, Dan called after him. "Hey if you want to get your best friend's necklace off, check the supply room two floors up!"
Larry cursed under his breath and the pair walked down the hall to the elevator. As they waited for it to come, Larry thought about what Dan said. He had to admit that he'd been suspicious of the vortigaunts at first. Larry had thought of him as more of a dog than a partner — something he had to put up with and look after. But then he remembered Grigori's words and how Morty had put himself between Larry and the priest.
"What trick is this monster? Demons do not know the meaning of self-sacrifice."
Larry knew he couldn't be bad. He came all the way through Ravenholm just to find him. Morty was his friend. The elevator dinged as it reached their floor and snapped Larry out of his daydream. Morty stepped inside first and Larry got in behind him and pushed the button for the third floor. Next to him, Morty fiddled with the collar around his neck, eager to have it removed. Larry looked down and realized he was still wearing a CP uniform. This was the first quiet moment he'd had all day where nothing was trying to kill him.
The elevator doors opened up and Morty quickly stepped out. Larry led him down the hall to a door marked "SUPPLY ROOM."
"Alright buddy, this looks like the place. Whaddya say we perform a collar-ectomy?" Larry thought Morty smiled at him, but couldn't be sure. He pushed the door open and flipped the light switch. Nearly empty metal shelves lined the concrete walls and boxes were scattered around the floor. "Whoa. They need to restock."
Larry began to root around through some boxes. One wooden crate was filled with crowbars, another with metal bolts the resistance uses for makeshift crossbows. Empty medkits, batteries, there was nothing here.
"Has the Larry discovered a key yet?" Morty asked. Two of his hands were folded expectantly, the third still clutched the small TV he'd picked up in Ravenholm.
"I'm still looking. Why don't you plug in your TV over there and see if you can pick anything up?" Morty looked down at his television, but didn't move. He wanted that collar off bad. Larry continued rummaging around, opening drawers and pulling open boxes. He moved to a closet on the far wall and opened it up. Inside were laundry bags full of rebel clothes and body armor hanging from hooks. He began dumping them out in hopes someone saved a CP uniform, but it didn't look like it. Well I might as well change in the meantime, Larry thought. He pulled off the uniform and put on some jeans, a pair of boots, and a gray t-shirt. Over top of his clothes he put on a blue bullet-proof vest without thinking. When he realized what he had just done he laughed. Larry was so used to fighting that he put the vest on out of habit, so much so he didn't even take it off. He was hoping for a nice long break after all this blew over.
"Well Morty, I didn't find anything," Larry said. The vortigaunt's head drooped and he looked at the floor. "Hey don't worry big guy. We'll go find Vance and he'll get it off." They shuffled out of the supply room and bumped into a resistance member dressed in a full Combine uniform, mask and all.
"Oh jeez, sorry man," Larry said. "Hey listen, actually, do you have a key to a vortigaunt collar? I couldn't find any in there." The man shook his head no and backed up a few steps to let them out of the room. "Okay well tha…." Suddenly an alarm rang out followed by a deep rumble somewhere above. Larry put his hands up to his ears to shield them from the ear-splitting claxon. He looked up at Morty, whose concentration was focused on the rebel.
"Freeze!" a garbled voice shouted. The rebel was a Combine soldier and was aiming his pulse rifle squarely at Larry's face. He was really starting to get sick of having guns pointed at him. The soldier looked at Morty, then back to Larry. He reached behind him and pulled out a ring of keys. "Looking for these, scum?" he said, jingling the keys.
In an instant, a small television flew into the soldier's head and knocked him to the ground. Larry leapt forward, snatching away the gun and kicking the soldier between the ribs. Morty was already fumbling with the keys, trying each until one clicked. The collar split apart and clanged on the concrete floor. Morty sighed and began to hum. The hairs on the back of Larry's neck began to stand up and he instinctively took a few steps backward. Just as the soldier began to scramble to his feet Morty let out a blinding light. Larry closed his eyes and when he opened them the soldier was gone and there was a black scorch mark at the far end of the hall. Somewhere upstairs another blast shook the walls. It was a full scale invasion.
"Welcome back pal," Larry said. He slid the clip out of the rifle, saw it was full and snapped it back into place. "Now let's go kick some ass."
