Chapter 50: Meet the Advisors
Chell followed Gordon out to the car and climbed in the back. Gordon started the car and waited for Alyx to get in and then he drove out the gate she had opened and began driving down the hill. About halfway down Alyx pointed to something in the distance.
"Hey I recognize that peak!" Che said, clearly excited, "I'm pretty sure you can see it from White Forest. We must be on the right track."
"Woah..." Gordon commented as they got to the bottom of the hill. He shut the car off and they all got out to investigate.
"Hey that's one of those advisor pods." Alyx said, "Remember those things we saw in the Citadel Gordon?" Gordon nodded.
Chell didn't say anything, she was just looking at what she could only assume was the advisor pod. It was a white tub-like creature and it looked as though it had crashed since it was surrounded by what looked like an impact trail and the pod itself was sheared in the she felt a weird pulse that sent a chill down her spine.
"What was that?" Alyx asked, Chell recognized the fearful undertones in her voice. The whole group looked at each other as though each one of them was trying to make sure that the other two had also felt the sensation.
Another pulse ripped through the area.
"Is that an advisor?" Gordon asked quietly.
"It must be..." Alyx replied, "Let's do some poking around. The vort said we should kill them while we still can."
"And how will we do that?" Chell asked.
"We'll find out when we get there." Alyx told her. "Go ahead Gordon I'll be right behind you."
Chell took out her shotgun and followed Alyx as they made their way into a nearby barn. They wound their way inside and went through a hole in the floor to end up on the inside.
"I think we've found the advisor..." Alyx said looking up at a metallic looking pod of some kind. Chell looked around the room and noticed a bundle of wires connecting it to a computer of some kind.
"Oh hey," Alyx said, "Life support. What do you say we pull the plug?"
No one answered. Alyx walked over to the control panel for the cumputer and opened up the shields for a generator. Gordon took out the gravity gun and used it to destroy to power cell. The energy ball bohnced around destroying the computer.
"Woah!" Alyx said as Chell felt herself lifted off the ground.
"Uhh..." she asked, "What the hell is happening?!" Before anyone could reply they were all pulled up in front of the pod as it began to open revealing the advisor. Chell hadn't expected advisors to look like giant grubs in a brown sack. Nonetheless she watched as the creature examined them as well as some other things it happened picked up. Chell felt herself thrown across the room and she found that she was pinned in the rafters of the barn.
"Uhh..." She heard Gordon's voice and looked to see that the advisor had pulled him up in front of it and was using some kind of tounge to examine him. "Get off me!" he said. Just then there was a small explosion in the pod but it wasn't enough to stop the advisor.
"Gordon!" Alyx yelled as the advisor flipped him around a prodded the back of his neck. "Don't!" Alyx yelled as it reeled it's tounge back. Before anything else could happen there was another explosion and the advisor threw Gordon to the ground and flew away. Chell found herself hanging over one of the trusses in the roof and Alyx ran over to where Gordon was laying.
Chell jumped down out of the rafters. "Agh!" She said as she landed. "I forgot I don't have those boots anymore." She thought to herself. Alyx turned and looked at her. "I'm ok." She told her. "Is he?"
"I'm fine." Gordon said as he sat up. "Just reeling from what just happened."
"Yeah..." Alyx responded, "I can only imagine what that thing would have done if it had another two seconds..." She paused for a moment, "At least you're ok."
"Alert!" Chell heard a robotic voice she hadn't heard before. "Autonomous units subsumed. Adjust threat level: Probe, expunge."
"Sounds like it called its friends..." Alyx said. Chell heard a beeping sound coming from behind her and she took out her shotgun. She had no clue what was about to happen but she wanted to be ready. The door blew off revealing some soldiers, she fired into the group of soldiers. As they fell back Gordon ran in with a pulse rifle and finished them off.
"No," she heard Alyx say, "No more. We're getting the hell out of here."
Chell reloaded and followed her and Gordon back out to the car. As she ran outside she felt something sharp hit her in the arm. She looked to see a hunter about to charge her. She impulsively fired at it but she still braced herself for it. Just as the hunter began to charge she heard the rumble of the car and looked up just as Gordon ran the hunter over and killed it.
"Don't just stand there!" He yelled, "Get in!"
Chell and Alyx both ran over and got in the car. Gordon put the car in gear and punched throttle. As they drove through some boards and ran over some zombies a hunter chopper began chasing them. As Gordon was driving, the chopper overtook them.
"Hang on!" Gordon yelled before he swerved around a train car to dodge something the helicopter was dropping. After a few more minutes of running over zombies and dodging mines Gordon ended up driving through a barred gate.
"Crap!" Alyx yelled, "Get away from the car!"
Chell looked to see that the engine was on fire and she didn't waste a second getting out of the car.
"Hey," Chell heard a voice she was glad to hear, "Over here!"
She followed Alyx and Gordon over to find Chase.
"You guys made it!" He said. Just then a mine fell into the shipping container beside him and blew up.
Chell waited a moment for the concussion from the explosion to fade.
"Go see what you can do about that chopper." He told them, "I'll see what I can do about that fire and then I'll come help you out." He then ran over to the car and Alyx and Gordon made their way inside a fenced in area to take on the chopper.
Alyx climbed up into a shipping container as the chopper started dropping mines. Gordon used the gravity gun to throw one of the mines back at the chopper. The mine exploded damaging the chopper.
"I wonder if I can do some damage by shooting the mines as it drops them." Chell though to herself. She waited for the chopper to start dropping mines and then she shot one and when it exploded it damaged the chopper. Gordon picked up another mine and threw it at the chopper. After repeating this a few times the chopper finally fell out of the sky and crashed.
"Heck of a job!" Chase called running over to them.
"Yeah," another man called walking over to them. "You guys made quick work of that chopper. Anyone else up for a drink?"
"We've gotta get back on the road but our engine just went to hell." Alyx said as she caught up with them.
"You broke a fuel line." Chase told her. "I managed to get the fire put out but you're gonna have to fix that. Should be easy enough, they've got a shop over here."
"How do you know that?" Chell asked.
"He's been fixing one of our trucks the last few hours." The man told them. "Come on we'll get you set up." He then led them all inside a building to the shop he was talking about. As she walked Chell was surprised to find a large truck sitting there with the hood lifted up revealing a large engine suspended from a crane.
"There she is." Chase said as he followed them in.
