Entering the deserted town, Gordon could not help but feel weariness creep about in his mind. He had been here before. This town-it gave him a sinking feeling deep down-was not well deserving of his trust. Furthermore, the little memories he did associate with the small, rural town were all bitter; every last one of them were.
The siblings had parted ways with the resistance leaders, though only temporary. Seemingly chagrined, the taller brother had excused the both of them as they set off to speak with one another. Both of the men seemed as though they were awfully irate, more so at each other rather than the world surrounding them. Although it was not Gordon's responsibility to worry too much of them, he could understand completely why they would be so frustrated. Being thrust into an area one was unfamiliar with was awful-Gordon himself would know this.
"Hey, Gordon?" a calm, feminine voice beside him spoke, a hand reaching out to touch his arm, "Are you okay?"
Freeman's gaze fell upon the young woman, a concerned smile visible upon her face. She must have noticed his disgruntled expression as he contemplated the precariousness of the surrounding area.
Gordon nodded his head slightly in response to this inquiry, though he did not reciprocate the positive expression.
It was ever so puzzling how Alyx had the ability to smile in such dire times. Through all of this despair and pessimism, she was the one who was easily able to crack a grin, often even adding a lighthearted remark along with her cheery manner. Oh, how Gordon was itching to ask her, 'How do you do that?' How does one remain so positive and optimistic when fate throws such heavy burdens at them?
As it was, the physicist's facial expressions scarcely lifted, even in the slightest. Life frowned at him, and his only resort was to return that frown, glaring right back at life. Exhibitions of joy were so incredibly difficult for him; he figured there was no use in feigning these emotions when they weren't sincere. Seldom did a smile even begin to conceptualize among his face.
Yet, there had been times when exceptions could be made for this no-smile rule that he mentally regulated. Alyx herself was the exception, as a matter of fact. Through the times he had spent with the young mechanic, he had grown exceptionally close to her. Her positivity perhaps even reminded himself of what he used to be, someone with a sense of humor and slight pride; someone who saw all of the potential the world had and worked hard to achieve their goals. There was once a time when he himself was a bright-eyed physics student who wanted nothing but to explore the possibilities of instant teleportation. Though different from what he once had, Gordon still saw all of that potential in Alyx. Maybe even once-just once-he had smiled a little for her.
The expression was one of relief; joy, even. There was a high possibility that Alyx hadn't even noticed the smile that crossed his lips, as it must have been minuscule and difficult to notice. With the unbelievably gracious assistance of the Vortigaunts, Alyx's life had been restored. The brutal, merciless acts that a Combine Hunter committed left the woman in a critical condition. On the threshold of death, she was rescued by a group of Vortigaunts who saved her life, in return for Gordon's assistance. The expedition of finding the necessary compounds to save Alyx's life proved a difficult task, however, it had been undoubtably rewarding upon completion. Maybe, just maybe then did he smile sincerely.
"You sure about that? 'Cause you seem kind of out of it. Want to sit down for a while?"
Again, Alyx's voice interrupted Gordon's cerebration. He saw this as a good thing, too, as he tended to overanalyze things very often. A small break might be beneficial, anyways; maybe Alyx would be up for an encouraging chat.
No spoken words were required to indicate an answer from Gordon, he merely gave another nod of his head. He carefully watched Alyx as she motioned towards a nearby small staircase. She sat on one of these steps, resting her arm on one of the higher stairs. Within seconds, Gordon followed, cautiously taking a seat next to his companion.
"Look, Gordon…" Alyx spoke again, pausing in mid-sentence, "I know you're not too happy about passing through this place again."
Gordon blinked, a look of surprise visible on his face. How was she able to tell that he was unsettled?
Seeing the man's expression lead Alyx to smile, a soft chuckle escaping her.
"You've been looking a little pale since we got here." she explained, a sympathetic smile showing up. "To be honest, I'm not too ecstatic about being here, either."
Alyx's statement brought a mood of sobriety with it, her smile soon disheartening.
Freeman couldn't help but silently admit it, yes. He was still very untrusting of the area. After all, this was the location where the two had a near fatal encounter with their first Hunter. Each and every memory associated with this town was, as previously mentioned, negative and bitter.
Gordon watched Alyx as she inhaled sharply before continuing to speak.
"I think our stopping here is the best for our new friends, though. They probably need some time to take everything in, you know?"
Gordon tilted his head to the slightest, through a pause of continuous silence. Vague, incomprehensible quarreling was audible in the distance. The voices of the two siblings could be heard; through their indistinguishable arguments were tones of discontent and exasperation. Pausing their conversation for a moment, the two rebels listened to the voices. Awkward silence passed, Alyx clearing her throat after a few seconds to indicate she was resuming her speech.
"We'll hit the road once Sam and his brother have dealt with their issues." she continued, shaking her head as if attempting to ignore the squabbling,
"In the meantime, what do you say we look for a bite to eat? I don't think that Headcrab from last night was very sufficient."
This didn't sound like too great of an idea to Gordon. He frowned, turning away from Alyx in a fit of stubbornness.
Alyx probably stared at him for a moment, for she too went silent. However, this silence came to a quick end as she stood up from her spot, brushing herself off and turning towards Gordon, who remained in a slump of disapprobation and aversion.
"Don't worry, Gordon. I'm not leaving you. We'll search together, okay?" Vance spoke with another positive grin on her face, arms akimbo. "No screwin' around here. Just looking for food, on the off chance that there is anything around here."
With a reluctant sigh, Freeman stood up as well. Searching for food together would be alright. No sense of danger in doing that, right? The two had backup if they needed it; DØG was sitting only a short distance away from them. Gordon wasn't going to let anything unthinkable happen to Alyx. He had already lost enough loved ones as it was. A thought one could easily dwell on if given the opportunity, reminiscing about those he had lost wasn't going to get anyone anywhere. Everything would work out safely.
Alyx kept a cheerful countenance, replying to Gordon's actions with zeal, "That's the spirit!"
Enthusiastic as always, Alyx.
The two rebels walked from the staircase they had rested themselves on, approaching a nearby shack. Overall, the area was very worn out; there was a noticeable amount of rust covering many of the aged buildings. As they walked, the distant voices of the brothers could still be heard. It sounded as if they had calmed down a bit, which could be considered positive; certainly best to blow of steam before getting back on the metaphorical road.
Upon noticing that Gordon and Alyx had left their spot on the staircase, DØG perked up his head with interest. He lifted himself from the ground, no longer desiring to sit down. Once the mechanical life caught up to the two resistance members, he poked his large head in between them as they walked, making attentive beeping noises.
"Hey, boy." Alyx looked over to DØG, who was trying hard to mimic her walking pace. "You doing alright?"
The large bot let out another noise, a lower-pitched 'boop' of an exclamation. Gordon saw it rather difficult to understand the living, yet non-living creature. Alyx could interpret the machine's communications without challenge, unlike Freeman.
Alyx stopped at one of these worn-out buildings, motioning to it as she carefully approached the door. "Let's start out here. Maybe we'll find something canned, if we're lucky."
She gave the old door a push, which, in return, spat out dust and made a creaky noise of defiance.
"Hmm." the woman muttered under her breath, staring at the door for a moment before pulling on the doorknob. As a response, the door remained still, refusing to budge even a little.
"Well, that isn't going to work out." Alyx huffed as she backed away from the door, glancing over to DØG. "Mind helping us out here, boy?"
Not giving a verbal response, DØG simply walked over to the door, swiftly punching a hole through it and knocking it flat to the ground. After completing the task, he reared his mechanical head, awaiting feedback from his master.
"Alright!" Alyx nodded her head, seemingly pleased with the job. "Thanks, DØG."
Dust that had accumulated over the ages was stirred as the two set foot into the abandoned shack. Dimly lit was the small structure; the only source of light was that of the outside world. While this did a decent job of illuminating the interior of this building, it was not enough. Simultaneously as Gordon turned on his flashlight, he heard Alyx cough from the dust inside of the building.
"This place is loaded with dust, man. You see anything in here?"
Flashlight shined all over the interior of the shanty. Nope, not a single hint of food or any supplies, for that matter. Evidently, the building had served a purpose during some period of time. However, it had seen enough action in its life, and whatever contents it stowed were long gone by now.
As a response to this question, Gordon shook his head.
"Well," replied Alyx, stepping outside of the shack with another sharp exhale, "no sense in sticking around in there, then. Shall we carry on?"
With a nod of his head, the physicist followed the mechanic's lead. Tagging behind them was DØG, who appeared to be quite content at the moment. One could see this as a good thing, too, as he tended to get awfully nervous when danger approached. For the time being, safety was present
Alyx stopped at another building, which appeared to be considerably sizable, or longer than the previous shack, at least. Long walks were not required to get to this building; it couldn't have been less than twenty feet away from the previous building.
"Let's hope we get a little more luck in this one." the woman spoke as she fiddled with the handle of the entrance door.
DØG watched her with curiosity, however, he soon realized that she wouldn't need any assistance with this task. This door must have been in a better condition than the previous one, as it didn't take long before Alyx swung it open with ease.
Unlike the previous shack, this one possessed something much more comforting: windows. Light seeped from the glass windows; although the windows were quite dusty themselves, daylight could still be seen through them. For this reason, Gordon did not need to put a flashlight to use.
Both rebels stepped in; the aged, wooden floor creaking beneath their tired feet when they walked about. The old wood planks scattered across the creaky floor gave off the feeling that work had been done on the building before it was abandoned. A chill draft spilled out of the open door, DØG peaking his head in to watch with curiosity what the two were doing.
Alyx was the first to discover a row of cabinets in this shack. Around what appeared to be a makeshift kitchen, unfurnished ligneous boxes with hinged doors. Zealously, the female mechanic approached these cabinets, swinging them open without hesitation. It did not take long for her to walk up to Gordon, a dirtied metal object clasped in her hands.
"We scored!" Alyx held the dusty object up to her partner, an over-exaggerated-looking smile soon weakening, "…Kind of."
She stared down at the object in her hands: a single can of beans. Her expression told Gordon enough. Both of them knew that one can of beans wasn't enough ration to feed four people. Even a standard headcrab would be more filling than those canned beans.
"Well, it's… Something, right?" she shrugged, still grasping the can, "Maybe we'll find something better if we keep looking."
Gordon raised his eyebrows, making something of a shrugging gesture as well. Why must food be such a struggle in the post-apocalyptic world?
When Alyx had finished checking the other cabinets to no avail, the pair decided to part from the house. With their newly obtained beans, they would be unstoppable!
…That was also an exaggeration, unfortunately.
A sort of unexpected meeting with one of the brothers took place.
"Hey, Bean-" Alyx cut short her speech.
Dean now had an entirely confused expression on his face.
"…D-Dean! Of course. Your name is Dean." she shook her head, embarrassed of her words.
The shorter of the brothers stared at Alyx for a few long, uncomfortable seconds.
"Yeah, wasn't the whole name thing addressed before?" Dean replied, looking awfully perplexed, "Anyways, what's the word? How long are we stayin' in this place?"
Alyx glanced over to the canned beans, "Oh, we were just looking for some food and supplies, what have you."
She held up the aluminum plunder for Dean to see.
The man simply stared at it for a few seconds before directing his gaze to his leg. The leg of his jeans was still dampened by the gruesome bodily fluids of a deceased antlion.
"Right, right… 'Cause, I kind of need to get this cleaned off soon. Really soon."
For a few moments, Alyx paused as if she was contemplating something. Afterwards, she responded to Dean's question.
"Well, seeing as I'm not too fond of this town at all, I have no objections about getting out of here. We were just waiting for you and your brother to gather your bearings. You two doing okay?"
"Yep," Dean responded without hesitation, "A-okay. Sam just wanted some time alone to think about… Whatever Sams think about. Did you want me to go get him?"
"Whenever you're ready to hit the road. The sooner we can get back to White Forest, the better."
"I'll be back in a minute, then." Dean held out his hand in a sort of 'stay right here' gesture as he temporarily departed to seek his brother.
Upon being left with each other once again, Alyx directed her attention to Gordon. She did not appear to be very happy about the situation. It was evident that she was rather tired, worry also noticeable in her eyes.
"You know where to go, right, Gordon?" she glanced around the area surrounding them.
Gordon responded with a frank nod of his head, the only communication that he had ever really gotten used to.
"Good, 'cause I'm flying blind here."
It came to Gordon's attention that Alyx had never really gotten much of a chance to explore the small cluster of shacks and old buildings. The first time they had passed through the town was rather unsuccessful and unsettling, to say the least. After that very first Hunter had ambushed them, Alyx was left practically, dare say… Dead. A mere thought like this was one of the main reasons why Gordon wasn't exactly happy about visiting the whole area again.
Their second time traveling through the forest-the time they had departed to search for survivors in the ruins of the city-they had not traveled through the town area. As a matter of fact, they avoided it completely; had they not been traveling with two confused, tired strangers, they very likely would have avoided it a second time.
Gordon's steam of negative thoughts were interrupted by the new friends' return. Alyx, who had also appeared to be contemplating something herself, put a cheerful smile on her face.
The taller brother was the first to greet the two rebels.
"Hey." Sam's tone was quiet, his posture appearing to be considerably tense. "We're, uh… We're going now?"
"Welcome back." responded Alyx, "I believe we are! Gordon will lead us the way."
Consequently, the second journey to White Forest pressed on. While it was true to say that Gordon was glad to part ways with the village of abandoned industrial shacks, he didn't necessarily look forward to traveling through Victory Mine once more. Perhaps there was a different, safer route that could be taken. The Vortigaunt that assisted him through the area not long ago had found a different way, maybe he could do so as well.
With high hopes of not meeting a terrible fate, Gordon searched for a better route to Victory Mine.
