Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.
(A/N: Do you know who does beta work for me? Hhgbh. And did you know that it's much appreciated? Because it is.)
The Black Mesa Incident
Chapter Fourteen: On A Rail
The tram came to an abrupt, automatic halt when it came to a yellow and black striped barrier. The lever to release it was on the wall opposite.
Just a security guard sat beside the lever, leaning against the wall, her helmet on the floor beside her. Her mousy hair fell just below chin level, waving back and forth as she hurriedly got her feet, straightening up as Gordon hopped off the tram. The way she looked, it was like she felt she was in the presence of a superior officer.
"Freeman. I've been waiting for you." Philips seemed to perk up at the sound of a female voice. Considering he looked like he was only just out of his teens, this wasn't really surprising. Gordon couldn't tell how old she was. Maybe between his age and Philips.
She stuck out a hand. "Veronica Bennett."
He stared at the hand for a moment before coming to his senses. "Oh. Um, Gordon Freeman."
"I know," she laughed, "I just called you Freeman, remember?"
Not knowing whether that was an insult or a joke, Gordon just gestured to Philips.
"This is…"
The young security guard stood and held out his hand, leaning over the control panel to do so. "Wayne Philips." He was still pretty shaken from Robertson's death, but seeing someone with some semblance of optimism and good cheer seemed to do him some good. The fact that she was a moderately attractive woman probably had something to do with it as well.
"Delighted," she replied happily, shaking his hand firmly but gently. She looked back to Gordon, all business. "One of your scientist pals said to give you a message. You're supposed to take this old rail system," she pointed to the tram with a vague wave of her hand, "up to some kind of satellite delivery rocket."
Gordon pursed his lips in the beginnings of asking 'where' when she spoke again.
"Now I don't know where it is exactly, and the old guy was so worried about getting out of here alive he didn't tell me. But the main thing is, the military aborted the launch, so when you do find the rocket, you'll have to get up to the control room and launch it yourself. He said something," she continued, waving her hand around in the air as she thought, "about the Lambda team needing the satellite in orbit if they were ever gonna clear up this mess? Something like that." She smiled. "Hope that clears things up."
He sighed. "Not really."
That made her smile more. "Well, just let me…" She reached over and jerked the handle on the wall up. The barrier rose surprisingly silently. Gordon was used to all mechanical things everywhere howling in agony every time they were used. With a nod of thanks, he hopped back on the tram and started her up.
"Hey, wait, where are you going?!"
Gordon stopped the tram, both he and Philips jerking forward as it stopped suddenly. He pointed ahead of him. "The… rocket."
"And you're just going to leave me here?"
"Um… no?"
"Damn right you're not." She leapt back on to the tram. "Are his manners always this bad?" she asked Philips, who just shrugged, struck speechless by this bundle of energy that was now going to be travelling with them. She gestured grandly to the room beyond. "Now you may go."
He gave a quick, slightly frightened look to Philips before he started her up. They moved forward into the next section where a tram elevator lay, waiting to take them down to the level below. The tram stopped automatically, and the elevator rotated as it descended, giving Gordon a slightly queasy feeling. The elevator came to a halt, and Gordon pushed the throttle up, and they moved on down the dark tunnel, a layer of water beneath them that Gordon wasn't sure was intentional or not. Maybe he had done it by turning on the generator earlier.
Glad for a rest, Gordon took Martha of his shoulder and dropped the handgun beside her, resting forward on the control panel. Bennett sat at an angle from Philips, resting back on the guardrail where it went down and became part of the tram.
"So, what's been happening with you guys?"
Both were silent for a few seconds, waiting for the other to speak up. When it looked like Philips was suddenly mute, Gordon opened his mouth, half turning to look over his shoulder at her.
"We came from the rocket test labs," Philips said, promptly shutting Gordon up. Happy to let the two chatter, he took his glasses off and tried to wipe them with his HEV gloved hand. It just smudged it worse, and Gordon grimaced.
"Wow. That must have been quite a walk."
"Not really. We kinda… took a shortcut."
Gordon smiled faintly as held his glasses up to the faint lights in the ceiling.
"A shortcut?"
"Well, we might have…" Philips cleared his throat. "…fallen."
"From the rocket test labs? That's quite a drop!"
Gordon got the faint impression that Bennett was mocking them, but he remained silent. A wipe with the other hand yielded similar results on his glasses, and he blew out a frustrated breath through his nose. Now he was getting angry.
"Yeah…"
"So you both worked in the test labs?"
"Nope, just me. He wandered in and killed these big tentacle monster things that were thrashing around in there. And a big blue monster back in that generator room."
Not listening to the conversation, Gordon took that moment to turn around and look at them with blurry eyes.
"Do either of you have a tissue?"
He could see Bennett looking to Philips, the incredulity in her voice evident. "He killed them?"
Laughing, Philips handed Gordon a tissue from his pocket, which he took gratefully. It only took a few seconds for the glasses to be clean and on his face once again. He smiled.
"That's better. Thank you."
He handed back the tissue and returned to the control panel, watching where they were going.
"So what's your story? How'd you get mixed up in this?"
Gordon took a breath, keeping his gaze forward. "I was there when this… started."
"Where?"
"Anomalous Materials. I was there when the reaction started and-"
"Everything went to hell."
He shrugged.
"What's the suit for? Hazardous materials?"
"Yes."
They all gripped onto something as the tram rose up, away from the water. Now it was just tram rails beneath them.
"But you don't get a helmet?"
"I didn't think I'd be needing it when the day started."
"The irony, huh?"
He just smiled.
"What about the military? Any of you come across them?" She sounded like a kid at Christmas.
Philips expression darkened. "We… just did, yeah."
"And you got rid them, too?" She whistled. "I'm impressed."
"They killed a friend of ours. It's nothing to be happy about."
"Did I say I was happy?" Gordon couldn't tell, but he was sure that Bennett was scowling. He didn't dare turn around to find out lest he become part of the argument, but he was fairly sure of it.
"No, but-"
"Then shut up."
"Wait just a minute." Philips voice rose, and so did he. "You-"
The sound of machine gun fire interrupted him. Radio chatter and shouted orders punctuated any of the brief silences, echoing down the hallway ahead of them as it arched to the right. Alien gurgles and grunts accompanied the already overloaded collection of noises, the occasional noise of electricity being 'fired' ringing into their ears.
"Face-off," Bennett whispered, now at Gordon's side without him noticing.
He nodded silently. A face-off between marines and aliens. With them in the middle.
Couldn't any portion of this journey be peaceful and stress free?
The corridor straightened up in front of them and stretched out for another fifteen feet or so. There was a turning to the left almost immediately in front of them, but the tram bypassed it for some reason. As they passed, Gordon saw electricity dancing on the left hand side platform before launching itself across and to the platform on the right. He heard a pained yell from a soldier before the battle was out of sight again.
There was another left turning coming up as the corridor arched with it. The tram followed it around, and Gordon throttled down when he saw the barrier ahead of them. He brought the tram to a stop before he reached the two platforms, one on the left, another on the right. He could just see into the right platform, where a mounted machinegun had been set up behind some sandbags. Some more sandbags were scattered around the platform in small clumps here and there, providing areas of cover for the soldiers.
They hadn't noticed Gordon and the others yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Gordon knew that there were probably several soldiers on the left hand platform, judging from the noises coming from it.
So there were three platforms. One on the right, one in the middle, and one on the far left where the aliens had taken camp. And there, on the right hand side platform, surrounded by soldiers, was the lever to raise the yellow and black striped barrier that prevented them from just racing through the war zone.
Gordon got a grip on the control panel. "I'll open the barrier, you drive past, I'll jump on."
Bennett managed a 'wait', but he had already climbed up onto the control panel and hopped down onto the thin maintenance pathway that ran along either side of the rail tunnels. He made his way to the very edge of the platform, pressing his back to the wall. He had a clear view into the middle platform; all of the soldiers there were dead, and the aliens had since made their way forwards from the far left platform. They hadn't noticed him either, probably because he didn't seem quite as aggressive as the soldiers.
He checked the stats in the corner of his eye. Health at 93, HEV at 85. That should be enough to keep him relatively unharmed. Definitely. Absolutely. Positively.
Dead man walking, that's what he was.
After a few breaths, Gordon launched into a sprint across the platform. Some of the soldiers stopped firing and watched him pass in amazement.
"What the fuck?"
"Is that Freeman?"
Gordon wondered how and why they bothered learning his name, but decided to put it aside for another time as a bullet bounced off his thigh. It knocked him off course, causing him to topple to the side and almost bringing his head into contact with the electrified rail in the center of the track. With a push of his hands, he brought himself back up again and rolled into a run towards the lever. Green electricity lanced out in front of him, and he back-pedalled against his own forward motion like a cartoon character. He managed to avoid falling on his back and quickly made the last leg of his brief journey. It took a quick upward slam of his hand to move the lever up, and the barrier raised compliantly.
"Come on!"
It was Bennett. The tram whizzed between the two rival factions, bullets and electricity shooting past from either side in a vain attempt to kill this new arrival. Gordon waited for the orange control panel section at the front of the tram to pass before rolling on to the back section. He almost overshot it, and only Philips grip on his arm stopped from falling off the back and electrocuting himself. As the tram continued onwards, the sounds of battle faded, and Gordon lay on his back for a moment, staring up at the passing lights in the ceiling.
"Damn you know how to run!" Bennett yelled from the front, keeping her eyes on their course. "How'd you take a bullet in the leg like that?"
"It's the suit," he said, straightening his glasses and sitting up.
"And it can take bullets?"
Gordon shrugged. "Hazardous Environment Protection System." The pained look on Philips' face caught his attention.
"Yeah, no shit," she laughed. Gordon crawled over to Philips on all fours.
"Are you…?"
He spotted the bullet wound in his leg. Philips teeth were bared in a brave attempt to hide any discomfort, but it didn't really work.
"Might need a… first aid kit or something…"
Bennett turned around at that, and gasped. "Holy crap! When did-" She shook her head at her own comment. "Never mind." Looking at Gordon, she jabbed her thumb in the direction of the control panel, and he did as he was told. He didn't look back at Bennett made her ministrations to the injured guard.
"Ow!"
"Oh, stop complaining, you big baby."
"Baby? I've just been shot!"
"Wah, wah."
"Do you even know what you're doing?"
"I've got some medical training. My dad being a scientist, he practically blackmailed me into it."
Gordon turned to look at her. "Your father wouldn't be Thomas Bennett?"
She sighed, as though she had to have this conversation everyday. "Yeah, that's him."
Philips looked between them. "Who's Thomas Bennett?"
Bennett smiled. "Finally! Someone who doesn't know."
"He's a scientist with Black Mesa. Worked on the early teleporter technology."
"Isn't that the stuff that started his whole mess?" Philips asked, sounding almost accusatory.
His would-be doctor heard it too. "I don't think I like your tone."
"I wasn't using a tone."
"Yes you were. It was like you were blaming my dad for all of this."
"Well I've just been shot! I think I should be allowed to blame someone for a few minutes!"
She was silent for a few moments. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Right. So, what are you planning on doing with my l-AAAAAAAAGH!"
"There. Bandaged up and ready to roll," she said with false cheer. She stood up and joined Gordon at the control panel. "You know where you're going?"
"Not really."
"Then I'll drive."
Gordon shifted, feeling uncomfortable with that idea for some reason. "You could just direct me-"
"Oh my God, you don't have something about women drivers, do you?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Good. In that case, I'll drive."
"What about…?" he nodded in Philips direction, keeping his voice down.
"He'll be okay until we reach the rocket complex. There should be some medical supplies there," she said, gently nudging him off the controls as she spoke.
"And if there aren't?"
Her eyes remained locked firmly on the route ahead. "Keep him awake."
Tempted to say something else – although he wasn't sure what at this juncture – Gordon just nodded and sat down beside his injured friend, who lay with has back to the low guardrail. It seemed ideal for sitting against, almost as though it were designed that way.
"How are you feeling?"
Philips shot him a look that reminded Gordon of Barney. It was a look that said 'Gordon, I know you're a genius and all, but sometimes you're really stupid.'
"Sorry."
"Look… no offence, but I really don't feel like talking right now."
"But…" Gordon pointed awkwardly to Bennett' back. "You have to stay awake."
After a scowl at the back of Bennett head that Gordon was surprised she couldn't feel, Philips sighed resignedly. "Okay. Let's talk."
And so, Gordon started a conversation about his work. Or at least, tried to. As soon as he got to the topic of the phase two emitters modulating the resistance frequency of any given sample as long as it was in a state of flux, Philips seemed more then moderately disinterested, so Gordon changed the subject to his favourite foods.
This, remarkably, didn't help either, so Gordon asked Philips what he wanted to talk about. Which was baseball. And although he knew less than nothing about the sport, he nodded along with Philips as he went on about the best game he ever saw, laughed when he mocked the other teams, and shook his head as he berated members of his own team that hadn't performed up to snuff.
Philips had just asked Gordon which team was his favourite when the wall on the left of the tram disappeared so they were side by side with another rail. And another tram, this with two soldiers on board. Both brought their weapons around the bear as both Gordon and Bennett did the same with their handguns.
"Stalemate, fellas," Bennett smirked.
The two soldiers, one wearing a beret and the other a bandana on his head, smirked back. Beret nodded down the corridor, and Gordon chanced a glance over in that direction. At the very end of the corridor, perched on a corner, Gordon could see a soldier stood behind some big metal contraption. There was a flash, and something came out of the front of it, pausing for a millisecond before launching forward at them. Gordon grabbed Bennett by the shirt and pulled her down as he ducked. The rocket soared over their heads and down the corridor, exploding on the wall of the corner in the distance.
Their enemies took that moment to attack, and Gordon leapt at them, taking the brunt of their machinegun fire with his HEV suit. He landed on Bandana, losing the handgun to the rail as the tram shot along. Beret pointed his M4 at Gordon's head, pressing it against his temple, and Bandana smiled beneath him.
A loud gunshot rang out, knocking Beret back and off the tram, dying as soon as he came into contact with the electrified center rail. Both Gordon and Bandana looked over at Bennett, crouched behind the control panel to avoid the rockets with Martha firmly grasped in her fingers. Enraged, Bandana kicked Gordon off of him, knocking him back. Gordon's eyes went wide and he flailed as he thought he would fall into the gap between trams. He fell on his back, his head dangling off the side. Before Bennett could fire, Bandana was on top of him, pressing his head down, intending to scrape it off on the concrete between rails.
Or at least, that's what Gordon thought at first. A quick glance up ahead quickly corrected him as he realised another partition between rails was coming up again, and Bandana intended to decapitate him.
This is why you should wear the helmet, Gordon.
The butt of a shotgun whacked into Bandana's face, his nose breaking and blood spurting with a crunch. Gordon roughly shoved him off and scrambled to his feet, leaping from one tram to the other just as the wall whipped past, closing them off from their enemy. He got into a crouch, and, noting Bennett holding Martha like a baseball bat, nodded gratefully. She silently waved off his thanks.
"We've still got rocket boy."
The tram reached the end of the corridor, where the rocket launcher was based, and turned, gradually revealing the soldier to them. Bennett aimed Martha not at the soldier, but at the rocket launcher. There was a brief spark, and then it exploded, filling the tunnel with blinding hot fire that almost caught up with them before fizzling out into smoke.
"Let's do it again," Philips coughed. Bennett smiled and shook her head, and Gordon just sat down. He scowled when he realised his glasses were smudged again.
The next half hour or so was spent in relative quiet, at least as far as the whole 'aliens and/or military attacking' thing went. Gordon silently tried to clean his glasses himself before asking Philips for the tissue again. Bennett and Gordon talked a little about her father and where she thought he was, and if he was even still alive. Philips and Bennett discussed their individual stories of getting into the Black Mesa security program while Gordon stood vigil at the control panel.
He started to feel comfortable. Travelling with people he could easily call friends towards a goal that was simple, to the point, and uncomplicated. Bennett and Philips laughed at some shared story of the security hazard course, and Gordon couldn't help smiling himself.
The tram came to a halt as they came to a broken tram elevator. The black and yellow striped rail that the tram would usually grip onto was warped and bent at an angle, and, judging by the scorch marks, was probably deliberate.
"I hope we're almost there…" Bennett muttered, getting to her feet and helping Philips to his, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. An open platform lay beside them, the only thing of interest a red ladder descending into a hole in the ground. Gordon and Bennett looked to Philips concernedly.
He waved his free hand and smiled. "I'll be okay. Just have to… take it slow."
"We'll go before you," Bennett said. When Philips cocked an eyebrow at her, she finished the sentence with, "so you won't fall."
"…okay."
"What? What's odd about that?"
Gordon didn't know himself, so after slinging Martha over his shoulder, he got climbing. He tried not to look down when he realised this ladder went a long way. Bennett went in above him, and then Gordon couldn't look up either, at least not without blushing furiously. Considering the fact that the tunnel for the ladder was lit emergency red, nobody would notice. But Gordon would only be all too aware of the fact that he was staring up at a woman's rear while he climbed, so he decided to just focus on his hands. It would be a shame for Bennett to stand on them, after all. Yes. Yes, that was a good reason.
He heard Philips gasp every time he bent his leg, but about halfway down, he converted over to mumbled curses every now and again. Gordon occupied his mind trying to guess which curse words and combinations Philips would use, but it quickly became boring as Philips became more and more incoherent with his annoyed cries.
Eventually they reached the bottom of the shaft, and Philips almost fell on Bennett as she reached the ground floor. Feeling like a gentleman, Gordon handed Martha to Bennett and took Philips' arm around his shoulder. Both security guards gave him grateful smiles, and they walked out into the corridor, walking along the right hand side pathway that ran along the side of the rail. They approached a corner going to the left. Gordon could see boxes on both left and right pathways, although there were patches of pathway to be seen. Gordon let Philips rest against the wall and took Martha from Bennett. She watched with a look of wonder as he unwrapped his crowbar from the top and walked off down the corridor towards the box that would eventually cause them problems.
As he walked, he got a look down the corridor. The rail came to a dead end, with what looked like a platform on the right. But on the wall, written in big black spray painted letters, were the words 'SURRENDER FREEMEN'. And below that was a small bunker with a slit in the front, two very large guns poking out and pointing right at him. He threw himself back as the soldier in the bunker finally seemed to notice his presence and fire, lodging three rapid fire bullets into the wall.
Bennett ran to Gordon's side as he scrambled to his feet. "What the hell's that?"
"It's a bunker with a gun in it."
"Big gun?"
"Oh yes."
"Crap."
He nodded, short on breath. "Yes."
"Any ideas?"
Gordon's heart sank, though he tried not to show it. He was hoping she would have the plan; she had come up with all of the instructions so far, after all. Gently, he tugged Martha from her grip and handed his crowbar to Philips, who had sat down against the wall when Gordon had said 'bunker with gun in it'. Obviously he expected to be here for some time while they took care of this. His blasé faith in them was quite heartening, actually. He took the crowbar with a nod and wink.
"I think I can jump from platform to platform; there are gaps between the boxes on either side."
"Convenient gaps?"
"…yes, why?"
"Sounds a bit trap-like to me, is all."
"There's already a big gun," Gordon said, frowning in confusion. How could it be a trap if they were already trying to kill them?
Bennett thought for a moment. "Good point." She whipped out her handgun, cocked it, and with a second thought, took Philips' gun as well.
"Always wanted to do a John Woo."
"Who?"
"No, 'Woo'."
"What?"
"Never mind."
With that out of the way, Bennett sprinted down the corridor, into and past the line of fire before taking cover behind a box on the other side. Only two bullets were spurted out that time. She nodded for Gordon to get on the left hand platform with an urgent nod and flick of her eyes.
Gordon did so, his feet hitting the very edge of the platform. He almost toppled back onto the electrified rail but by leaning Martha forward, he managed to pull himself back forward. He went around the corner and ducked below the waist-high box, narrowly avoiding another shower of bullets. Gordon looked to the right. Just ahead of him was a gap between two crates, the one in front tall enough for Gordon to slam into without getting hit. He glanced back at Bennett and nodded, who returned the gesture. Gordon slung Martha over his shoulder and held up his hand, counting down from three.
On 'one', Bennett whipped around and let loose a volley of gunfire at the bunker. After five or so shots, she stopped, and Gordon ran, leaping across the gap and landing on the platform opposite and slamming into the wall. The soldier in the bunker didn't even get a chance to fire, but obviously saw where he went, because the sound of bullets slicing through dangerously thin wood assaulted Gordon's ears.
More gunfire echoed from behind, coming from Bennett attempting to draw the enemy fire away. Gordon studied the crate that towered above him. He could see light seeping through the gaps in the wood. On a guess, Gordon cocked Martha and fired her into the crate, squeezing his eyes shut to stop any splinters. He heard the spray of pellets ripping into the wood, and when he opened his eyes, saw a messy hole torn through it.
Bennett ran out of bullets behind him, and Gordon ran through the box, ending up on the station platform he had spied at the end of the corridor. Two soldiers, M4 rifles at the ready, took aim at him, as well as the high powered guns in the bunker. A pillar stood next to the bunker, and Gordon kept on going, tucking himself just between them, shielding himself from both the soldiers and the high powered gun.
He cocked Martha and swung around the corner, aiming as high on the soldier's bodies as he could. The soldier on the left fell back as the spray tore through his face, blood spattering on ground behind him. His companion opened fire, and Gordon leapt to the ground as he cocked Martha again, landing on his side. This shot went into the soldier's knee, knocking him onto his front. Gordon cocked Martha again as he got to his feet, and didn't hesitate to pull the trigger again before the soldier could do the same.
Without pausing, Gordon put Martha over his shoulder and unhooked one of the grenades from the soldier's belt. He walked to the side of the bunker, pulled the pin, and casually tossed the grenade into the observation slit that the gun was poking out of. He backed up, expecting a large explosion, and was surprised when there was just a subdued thump noise that reverberated along the floor. Some blood spurted out of the front, marking the rail floor in front of it.
Silence filled the tunnel. Gordon stared at the blood on the rail.
"Um… Freeman? We… good to go?"
It was Bennett. Gordon blinked, and then shook his head. He had forgotten about others being in the tunnel with him.
"Yes…" He nodded, and then cleared his throat, speaking louder for Bennett and Philips to hear. "Yes, all clear."
It took a good fifteen minutes for Bennett to crack her way through the boxes with the crowbar. Gordon went back with her and helped Philips around to the platform. Philips looked away when he saw the dead bodies on the floor, and Bennett winced.
Gordon had done neither, and he had been the one doing the killing. But he was surviving. He was helping people. That was important. A little voice in his head rang out in response.
But important enough to kill for?
He wasn't sure. Right now he was stuck in the middle of everything and it was difficult for him to see five minutes from now, let alone what he would think of his actions in a day. His conscience and morals were taking a backseat to the here and now. To the guns being pointed at his head and his friends. And he wasn't just thinking of Bennett and Philips. There was Johnson, bleeding to death somewhere else in the facility while Thorpe could only feverishly try to keep him alive long enough for some kind of help to arrive – if it ever did. Harv and Peterson, waiting down in the office complex. Eli and his family, trapped in the deepest, darkest depths of the Anomalous Materials sector. Dr Kleiner, probably fascinated by the specimens surrounding him, completely oblivious to the danger. Barney, doing God knows what, if he was even alive anymore.
So, for the moment, he would do whatever he could to survive. To reach someone. And if he had to kill to do that… right here, right now, he would do it. The future (or lack of), at this point, was for optimists and pessimists. Gordon was here. And he had to do what he had to do.
And just like that, Gordon Freeman was a survivor.
At the far end of the platform was a corridor going off to the left, and, after safely depositing Philips against a wall, Gordon and Bennett cautiously investigated.
There was a door on the right, and after an experimental twist of the handle, Bennett found it was unlocked and pushed it open a crack so she could poke her head out. Gordon could see the night sky above them through the small opening. It night already. An entire day had gone by. How had that happened? True, he had been teleported around for awhile in Anomalous Materials, so God knows how long that had taken. But still… the sun had been so bright and hot when he had been on the surface with the military. And now it was night. And judging from the black velvet of the sky and the dewy air coming through, it had been night for some time.
Time flies when you're fighting monsters.
Gordon couldn't see much of what was outside. A concrete floor in front of them and a wall to the right where some crates were haphazardly stacked in the far corner. The sudden noise of voices made Gordon grip Martha.
"So who is this guy, 'Freeman'?"
Bennett looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow, looking mock impressed.
"They say he was at ground zero." That voice was far younger.
"Science team? You think he was responsible for sabotage, maybe?"
"Maybe." There was obvious venom in his voice as he spoke. "All I know for sure is that he's been killing my buddies."
Hearing someone so young making a threat against his life made his gut feel uncomfortable, so Gordon tried to concentrate on the contours of the weapon he held in his hand.
"Oh, yeah. He'll pay. He will definitely pay."
Bennett quietly closed the door, holding the handle down until the door was completely shut before lifting it up, thereby avoiding the click.
"Well," she said, smiling, "looks like you're popular."
Gordon just 'hmm'ed his agreement, not wanting to get into this discussion.
"I think there's two of them, but there's no way to tell."
"We'll see when we're out there."
"You don't stop, do you?"
He shrugged, then cocked Martha. "Can't."
A blank stare from her made him feel slightly awkward before she just nodded. "Okay. Wait a minute."
She ran off down the corridor, turning right onto the platform. When she came back, she was holding one of the deceased soldier's M4 rifles between her hands. She tapped a big protrusion on the bottom of the barrel.
"Grenade launcher. Time it right, blow them both up."
Gordon nodded his agreement, and reached for the door handle. Slowly, he pushed it down and left the door slightly ajar. After a brief glance at his fellow fighter, he kicked the door open and ran out into the open. The soldiers were stood on his left, just below the loading platform he was stood on. A guardrail stood between them, a few steps off to the right of the platform allowing easy access to the outdoor rail.
They turned in alarm just as Bennett rushed out. With a squeeze of the secondary trigger, the grenade launched from the bottom of the M4 and landed right between the soldiers, sending both flying in opposite directions and out of their way. Bennett looked down at the smoking weapon, and then to Gordon.
"I think that worked pretty well."
He looked at her. Was she enjoying this? Was she killing people and smiling and joking about it? Gordon wondered what Dr Bennett would think of that. The soldiers looked quite dead, so Gordon descended from the raised platform and stood on the concrete walkway that stood beside the rail.
"Train station, huh?"
Gordon nodded, looking around. On their right was a huge archway, the mammoth doors locked firmly shut. The rail led straight into it, which led Gordon to believe that that was how they would leaving after the rocket was launched. To the left the rail continued on and curved left around to another closed off archway. Judging from its' position, Gordon guessed that the other side was where the bunker with the mounted gun was. Across from them on the opposite side of the tracks were two large metal blast doors, a small keypad beside them.
With a quick run and a jump, he was on the other side, and he heard Bennett do the same behind him as he wandered over to the panel, tossing Martha onto his shoulder. He studied the nine digit number pad, but settled for pressing the big red one above them all. A loud groan made Bennett jump, and the door opened up surprisingly fast. They stepped through, and another pair of blast doors awaited them, with the same kind of control panel waiting in the airlock-esque room. When he pressed the red button, the doors behind them closed as the ones in front opened.
And there was the rocket. Or at least, there was the rocket beneath the ground. In the centre of the courtyard before them, the ground gradually went downwards towards a large metal circle, which Gordon knew was a door that would open up to allow the rocket to launch. Almost to the finish line. Well, the finish line of this task. There probably a hundred more waiting for him around the corner.
There were tall walls either side of them that stopped a few feet ahead, and Gordon strode ahead with a confidence he still didn't feel.
"I didn't sign on for this shit." Gordon froze. The voice of the soldier echoed around the courtyard.
"That's for sure, but civilians? Who ordered this operation anyway?"
He looked back to Bennett, and then just sighed. Only one thing for it. He took one stop out into the open, and a bullet whizzed past his face.
"Squad! We got Freeman!"
After a quick back-pedal so he was behind the wall, he sighed and looked at Bennett, who was already hefting her M4, ready for battle. Gordon pressed his back to the wall, and was about to whirl around to fire on his enemies when he saw something in the very left hand corner of the courtyard. A mounted machine gun, set up behind a small wall of sandbags. It must have been put there when the military first forced their way into the rocket test labs. Gordon pointed in that direction to Bennett, who nodded. Hopefully she got the idea that he was going in that direction, not her.
He tossed Martha to the floor, and, after a few seconds of hopping up and down on the spot, Gordon launched into a full on sprint, running out into the open and to the machine gun almost in a straight line. Bennett's cover fire seemed to do the trick, because with a quick dive and a roll, Gordon was safely behind the sandbags. He scrambled to one knee behind the gun, took aim, and fired at the soldiers on the opposite side of the courtyard, who were themselves hidden behind some random stacks of sandbags. Behind them was a red metal fire door leading into the complex behind them; the rocket test lab.
When they showed no signs of coming up, Gordon settled for simply obliterating the sandbags, and fired. Clouds of sand puffed into the air as the machinegun ripped through them. While he did this, Bennett swung around the corner and aimed her M4 at the soldiers, but tilting it up in the air slightly. She fired the grenade launcher, her entire body rebounding from the force, and the grenade shot into the air. It landed with a loud explosion behind the sandbags, sending two bodies flying into the air and down into the rocket pit. A third flew off the side and slammed into the wall, going so fast as to bounce and roll back along the ground.
Gordon ceased fire and got to his feet. He tried not to look at the inert bodies of the soldiers in the rocket pit as he walked back to Bennett, who had taken off her helmet to wipe some sweat from her forehead.
"New Mexico sure is hot, huh?" she said, only the slightest touches of irony in her voice.
He didn't answer as he picked up Martha and walked to the red doors, wary of any surviving soldiers behind the sandbags. Finding none, he went inside, the doors sliding silently open for him compliantly. They followed the white, brightly lit corridor around a right turn, coming out into a hallway with a wide stairwell on their immediate left. A closed secure door stood at the top.
Gordon looked up. Red lasers ran horizontally across the ceiling every metre or so, attached to a dozen or so sticks of dynamite on the wall. That was a dozen sticks for each of the six or so lasers. The lasers stopped a few metres in front of the door, leaving a gap. There was no way to get up the stairs and to the door without setting off the dynamite and blowing up the whole place. Two metal crates were in the right hand side of the room. He handed Martha to Bennett and walked over to them, judging their width and height. There was a slight gap between the wall and the stone banister of the stairs.
With a grunt, he pushed the metal crate towards the gap and managed to squeeze it in. Minding his head, he climbed on top. His arms could just hook themselves over the banister. With a smile to Bennett, he heaved himself up and over. The security guard gave him a thumbs up.
"I'll wait here."
"All right."
The scientist went inside, the door opening automatically. The lab was quite big, certainly bigger than Gordon was expecting. The dead bodies of scientists lay scattered around the place, some leaning forward in their chairs against their keyboards, bullet holes in the back of their heads indicating just how sudden the military's attack had been. A hologram of the planet was the centrepiece of the room, the words 'Satellite Portal System – Offline' rotating around it. Gordon took that as his cue and looked for the rocket launch controls. A quick exploration of the cramped, claustrophobic facility yielded a small room with observation ports looking out over the rocket pit.
On the opposite side of the room from the windows was a control panel with flickering screens above it. The one on the left had an image of the closed archway at the outdoor tram station. He pushed the appropriate button, and the door slowly opened. Not bothering to watch it open all the way, Gordon walked to the observation window, where a large red button stood out between them with the word 'LAUNCH' pasted above it in big black letters.
After a quick jog back to Bennett to make sure she didn't wander outside while the rocket was launching, Gordon went to the button and slammed his palm down on it. Alarms sounded, and metal layers slid down the observation ports, an even smaller slit allowing others to watch the rocket launch. The door to the control room shut as well, so Gordon decided he might as well enjoy the show.
First he heard the steady thrum of the metal door opening, and could only imagine what was happening to the bodies of those soldiers. Maybe they'd fall into the rocket prep chamber. Maybe they'd end up going off into space with it. Either way, he certainly hoped they were already dead.
The rocket launched, slowly rising out of the hole, suddenly making Gordon feel small and insignificant. The long white rocket seemed to go on forever as it made its' way out of its' home and into the night sky, leaving behind only a blinding burst of white light as its' engines came into full view. Gordon found the concept that they were the same rocket engines that killed those tentacle things hard to grasp. He wasn't sure why. That just seemed so far away now, it felt hard to consider that these completely separate events were linked.
With the rocket safely away, the alarms stopped, and the door opened again, as did the metal covers on the observation ports. Gordon leant against the port, closing his eyes and bowing his head. He blew out a long breath.
Then he stood to his feet, scooped up the first aid kit from a large green box on the wall, and made his way back to Bennett.
Philips was glad to see them, although he looked far paler than before. Bennett immediately got to work on them while Gordon went for an explore through the open archway outside. A tram was waiting for them, like a bus waiting at a stop. He smashed open the crates surrounding it, but didn't find anything of much interest. He checked his stats. Both were just a little below eighty. Not bad.
"Find anything you like?"
Gordon turned at the comment, and saw Philips entering the archway, flanked by Bennett. He was using a plank of wood as a crutch, leaving Bennett free to grip her M4 with both hands. The scientist poked a thumb towards the waiting tram.
Bennett smiled. "Let's rock and roll, shall we?"
Both Gordon and Philips exchanged a worried look as Bennett hopped up onto the tram, eagerly taking the controls. She looked back to them.
"Let's go, chop chop!"
With a look of resignation, the men got on board and gripped onto whatever was available. Bennett sighed.
"Let's get the hell out of here."
She slammed the acceleration lever up and the tram burst to life, taking them around the bend and into places unknown. Gordon didn't know whether Bennett was talking about the rocket test area, or just the Black Mesa facility in general. Either way, he agreed with her. He could do with a good long rest right now. He sat back against the guardrail and closed his eyes, the steady rocking noise of the tram lulling him to sleep.
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(A/N: Half-Life 2: Episode Two is awesome. Not just awesome, but shocking. Some of those plot twists had me gaping. Makes me want to finish this up sooner so I can get to writing about it.
If I'm not an old man by then, of course.
All reviews much appreciated!
P.S. Shephard is still coming. He's on his way, seriously.
Next Chapter: Power Struggle)