3/3 λ
Chapter 9 λ
The sky glows orange as the sun sinks towards the horizon, disappearing behind the tall buildings and city wall. The church seems much smaller up close. The only remaining obstacle is getting through the wild trees, made harder with the haphazard placement of tombstones and overgrown roots. Adrian almost trips over an upturned flagstone, and ends up breaking the head off a kneeling angel. He quickly replaces it and moves on.
"Shit-- Ow-- Oh crap." He hears Steven Blair mutter, a few steps behind. "Hey, uh guys, what d'you say would be the penalty for defacing holy stuff? Hypothetically, of course. Like, er, hypothetically breaking the head off a statue? Hypothetically?" He asks, glancing up nervously at the sky.
"Expecting a bolt of lightning to strike you down?" Walt sneers, giving Blair a little shove out of the way. He and Sylvia snicker as they pass by.
Olivia glares at the strangers. She never liked Blair very much, but she likes the new people a whole lot less. "I didn't know you believed in God, Blair." She says in a forcedly friendly voice.
"I don't." He answers. "Well, not really. But you never know, right?"
"Er-- right…" She says, giving up on trying to be friendly.
They reach a clear spot in the tiny forest, about three quarters of the way to the church. Although the clearing is natural, the long grass is smoothed down and crushed in places, as if someone has passed through recently. They all hope that the other team had left the trail.
"What's that?" Says Blair, who can always be trusted to be the one to spot potential danger. He points towards the edge of the trees, where a large black object is sticking out of the tangle of leaves, high above their heads. They hesitantly move closer. It's made of dull black metal, and has a tiny propeller on the back. A little orange LED flashes slowly on the side.
"It is a scanner!" Mikhail says.
"What's it doing there?" Olga asks.
"I think it's stuck." Says Chester. "See how it's facing into the trees? It must have been following the others and got tangled there."
"Blair, you still got that slingshot you KO'd Adrian with?" Asks Olivia, passing him a fist-sized rock. He rummages in his bag for the catapult, takes aim and launches the stone. Pieces of hardware rain down. The team check for any more scanners, and when Chester's satisfied that it was the only one, they continue their trek to the church.
"What's this?" Adrian wonders aloud, picking something out of the scanner debris as he walks past. It looks slightly like a medflask, but the contents are blue, and it has a nozzle which looks like it fits into a socket.
Olivia glances over her shoulder. "Battery pack." She says, turning back to look at the path ahead of her. "Chuck it, it's not important."
Adrian turns the vial over in his hands. He slips it into his backpack, then hurries to catch up with the group.
The chapel's wide marble steps slide into view, uneven from the growth of roots underneath them. The team work their way around the areas where the marble is too loose. At the top of the stairs is a flat area, going all the way around the church, which is round, and supported by flying buttresses. Ivy creeps along the patio and over the walls, which stretch up high and taper into little spires and one small tower, obscuring much of the stained-glass windows.
Directly in front of them is a huge wooden door, with decorative iron mesh and studs. It's so large that it has a smaller door built into it for everyday use. Both doors seem to be rusted shut and pasted over with ivy.
"It doesn't look like anybody's passed through here recently." Chester says doubtfully.
"We could try the side doors." Says Mikhail, leading them around the side of the church. They come to another door, smaller than the main door but just as elaborate, also rusted shut. They keep moving till they reach the vestry, a little square room standing against the circular building. It has a small plain back door, and the plants binding it to the doorframe have been sliced through, although the slashes are barely visible in the growing darkness. Mikhail manages to get the door open, and the other follow him inside.
Two large wooden closets entirely cover one wall. A cupboard with a sink, a clothes-frame and a desk take up much of the remaining space. They stand in an uncomfortably close group in the centre of the cramped room.
"Where are they?" Olga whispers.
"We should split into two groups," Says Mikhail, in an equally low voice. Something about the building makes it seem improper to do otherwise. "One to check the main hall and the other to look up there." He indicates towards a niche where a narrow wooden staircase spirals upwards.
"I'll check upstairs." Chester says, taking the safety off his SMG. "Be careful, we don't want a repeat of the mall in here." Olga volunteers to go with him, as does Olivia, and by extension, Adrian. The rest, --Blair, Walt and Sylvia-- follow Mikhail into the church proper.
The stairs are tightly-wound and difficult to climb. By the time he reaches the arch that leads off from a little wooden landing, Adrian's already feeling dizzy. The stairs continue upwards, towards the bell and clock, but he follows the others through the arch. Beyond is a room the size of the vestry, being directly on top of it, which evidently once served as the living quarters for the resident pastor or minister or reverend, Adrian isn't exactly sure what the difference is. In the corner is a small dresser, opposite that a little stove, sink and a table with one chair. On the other side is a thin division with a toilet and shower which had been added later to replace the ole' chamber-pot and wash-basin deal. In the only space left, beneath the shuttered window, is a plain wooden bed on top of which two people are sitting cross legged with a set of cards spread between them. One is wearing the resistance uniform; the other has the blue overalls.
The one in proper uniform is the first to recover. "Took you long enough." He says with a sniff, turning back to his friend. "Check-mate."
"Yeah, we arrived here two days ago." Says the other, briefly glancing up. "And no, I already told you, there's no check-mate in poker."
"Well that thing when you have a king, queen, ace, ten, and that weird smiling guy. I got it." Says the first one.
"That 'weird smiling guy' is called a Jack, and you just gave away your hand--"
Chester loudly clears his throat. "I'm Chester Cubbage, this is Olga Bakst--"
"Hold up there cabbage, can't ya' see we're busy?" Says the second one irritably. Chester, not used to being snapped at, glowers.
Mikhail comes floating up the stairs with surprising stealth. "There was no one in the-- ah, I see you have found our comrades." He says. Chester steps to the side to let him through. "My name is Mikhail P—"
"Pasternak!" Yells the uniformed one, scrambling to turn around and stand up. He shakes Mikhail's hand eagerly, balancing a pair of spectacles on his nose. "I'm Leo Whistler, sir. I've heard so many stories about you, sir!"
"Is this guy for real?" Olivia mutters to Adrian, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. Adrian looks round to see the other 'comrade', looking all comfortable in his blue overalls, and unconsciously tugs at his own sleeve. Comfortable-guy introduces himself as Basil Clampitt, shaking hands with Mikhail more casually.
Chester pulls the window shutter open ajar. "We'll have to stop for the night; it's already way too dark."
"I agree. And also the team is tired. We shall rest here." Says Mikhail, making his way to the stairs. "I will go tell the others."
Because of the raid on the hotel, Chester sets up a rota for lookout-duty. He takes the first shift, and Olga offers to join him. The rest stretch out on the hard wooden pews to sleep. Adrian, being a rookie and not expected to do look-out, falls asleep almost instantly. It feels like just a few moments till Olivia's shaking his shoulder to wake him up.
Watery morning sunlight pokes through the windows not covered by ivy, illuminating the church a little. For breakfast, they share packs of vacuum-packed bread and cups of sugarless milkless coffee, both stolen from Combine supplies. While they're eating, Chester stands up and clears his throat.
"Last night we received a message." He says gravely, showing them a handheld radio which Leo and Basil had brought. "It was from the coast. They had a message from Black Mesa East." He pauses again, thinking how to go on. "The Combine did a sweep, and the hydro-plant's been destroyed." He waits for a break-out of nervous chatter to subside before continuing. "Eli Vance has been captured. Judith Mossman has been captured."
"What about Freeman?" Sylvia shouts. "Where's Freeman?"
"As of yesterday, Ravenholm."
"What? That's suicide!" Blair informs them.
"Now, now!" Mikhail says, also standing up. "I think we need to have more faith in Gordon Freeman's abilities. And of course, I am sure that Father Grigori will assist him."
"What, that maniac--?"
"Steven, no more!" Mikhail interrupts angrily. "It is even likely that Gordon Freeman has already departed from Ravenholm, and is making his way to Shorepoint Base. We will not lose heart. Now, if everyone is ready, we must leave at once."
They pack up and leave, ploughing through the vegetation at the back of the chapel, which is the closest to the city's outer wall.
"What's Ravenholm? And why's it suicide--? And who's Father Grigori? Why's he a maniac?" Adrian asks Olivia, dodging roots and tombstones.
He expects her to laugh like she usually does when he displays his ignorance, but she looks sombre. "It was an old mining town, but then the Combine shelled it with head-crab rockets." She shivers, partly from the rapidly declining temperature, but mostly at the thought of Freeman having to pass through Ravenholm.
"So everyone's dead? What about this Grigori fella'?"
"Uh… not quite. Father Grigori is the only guy who survived the attacks, but he refused to leave, and now he's… not all there." She adds finally, jabbing a finger at her temple. "If you get me." Adrian nods. They reach the churchyard's boundary wall, and scramble over one by one.
In front of them is wreckage; a few blocks of houses so decrepit that not even the Combine expect people to live there. They skirt around the first block, and climb the rubble like steps onto the first floor of the next. They cross the block cautiously, especially Blair, who is convinced that the building is about to collapse. The other end of the building also ends in a slope of debris. The group hangs back as Chester slides down, landing in a familiar-looking alley, and dives behind a dumpster as an APC rolls by.
When the sound of its giant wheels rolling over the rock-strewn tarmac fades away, he emerges from behind the skip and pulls up a manhole cover. Adrian suddenly remembers the alley from his first day as a free citizen. Chester lowers himself into the manhole, disappearing for a few minutes, before resurfacing, lighting a flare and beckoning them to come. One by one, rebels dash across the alley and down the tunnel. Mikhail is last, pulling the manhole closed behind himself.
They group at the bottom of the ladder. Chester tells them to be on their guard, since CPs could have swept the tunnels. Then he leads them through the underground system, but the route is different from the other time. Instead of leading them to the right, which is how they arrived at the ladder before, he leads them left, through a door Adrian hadn't even noticed the first time.
Comments λ
Isn't Basil the weirdest yet awesomenest name ever? Plus it's a sort of a running joke me and my best friend have 3