Disclaimer: I don't own Half Life.

The Black Mesa Incident

Chapter Eight: Duty Calls

Barney tried to blink the stars out of his eyes. Hell, he was trying to blink away the mother of a headache he had while he was at it.

"Ah… shit…"

Slowly, he forced himself into a sitting position. His thumping brain gradually remembered the circumstances that led to his headache.

"Oh… shit…"

He looked around himself urgently, and saw the wrecked remains of the elevator around him, blood covering the walls like wallpaper.

"Uh… Doc…?" Barney pushed himself to his feet. "Professor… what's your name! Can you hear me?"

Silence, except for the blaring alarms. Barney looked at the wreckage around him again. The floor had exploded upwards, as if an earthquake had hit it. Not unreasonable, considering it hit the ground at about two hundred miles an hour. Barney saw how he survived the fall, albeit with said headache.

His corner of the elevator floor had curled up around him, protecting him from the impact as it hit the ground floor. He cast his gaze upwards to the roof and saw a helmet shaped dent there.

Well… it mostly protected him.

Barney removed his helmet and frowned at the all consuming crack.

"'The Ultimate Protection', my ass…" he muttered, looking around the room for any sign of the scientists that had been in the elevator with him.

It was a storage room; that much was obvious from the boxes and barrels littered everywhere. He walked forward to explore, and stopped as his boot landed on something soft and squelch-y.

Slowly, he looked down and saw a severed arm. He back-pedalled as fast his legs could take him, backing into the destroyed elevator. Another soft and fleshy object touched the back of his head, and Barney turned in horror to see one of the deceased scientists hanging from a crack in the elevator roof.

"JESUS MARY CHRIST!"

Barney ran as fast as he could out of the elevator shaft and around the corner, knocking over boxes and falling over barrels as he tried to put some distance between them. He finally stopped when he fell over and hit the side of his already tender head on some metal shelving.

A shaking hand rubbed his sore head.

"Okay, Barney, okay… oookaay…"

He got to his feet and leant against the wall in front of him. He rubbed his temples as he chanted himself to calmness.

"It's no problem, it's not problem… you've seen a dead body before, no biggie. You've seen a dead body before…"

Barney slammed his fists into the wall behind him. "Yeah, on frickin' Grey's Anatomy!"

His hands went up as he surrendered. "Okay… all right… it's okay to panic… this is a very stressful situation. You were almost killed in an elevator crash. It's okay. Just call upstairs, and you'll be just-"

A high pitched whirring noise interrupted him. Slowly, he turned to face something that looked like a dog that had been mangled by a bigger dog, run over by a car, and then put back together by cats as some malicious joke towards all dog-kind.

And it was making weird noises while it looked at him.

"Oh. Good."

It began to shake, and the whirring noise became more intense.

Barney put his hands out in front of him. "Uh… nice… uh, thingy… calm down… just…"

It didn't stop. It just kept getting louder.

"Uh… screw it."

He kicked it as hard as he could, sending it careening down the corridor and into some metal shelves. It bounced off them and hit the ground with a thud.

Barney smiled.

Two more came around the corner, wondering how their friend had managed to fly across the room. They spotted him.

Barney stopped smiling. The two creatures came towards him, hopping on their three legs and whirring as they approached.

He decided to use the better part of valour. His boots felts unusually heavy as he tried to sprint down some stairs and towards a secure looking metal door.

A light above it was red.

That was never a good sign.

It also read 'offline'.

Oh, that was even better.

He turned the handle and rammed the door to try and get it open. It wouldn't budge.

Barney turned as he heard the pitter-patter of tiny feet behind him.

"Uh… look… guys, I was just-"

They began whirring, in unison this time.

The security guard turned and frantically tried to open the heavy metal door.

They stopped whirring.

Something loud and heavy slammed into Barney's back and the door in front of him, blowing it off its' hinges and forcing it into the corridor beyond.

After waiting for the door to stop sliding along the floor, Barney groaned and held his head, wishing he had left his helmet on.

The whirring started up again.

"Oh, for the love of… could you stop it for one second?" he yelled, leaping to his feet and turning towards them.

The whirring stopped.

The creatures looked at each other.

The whirring started up again.

With a roll of his eyes, Barney turned and ran as fast as his legs would take him down the corridor. The space in front of him suddenly opened up into a laboratory area, and Barney skidded to a halt when he instantly recognised the green goop that covered the majority of the floor like icing on a cake.

He glanced back. The creatures weren't far behind him. He looked at the nearest table.

Barney nodded. Yeah. He could make that.

Another quick glance back gave him the impetus he needed to leap over the thick lime green liquid and land on the table with a crash. Test tubes smashed loudly and flat screen monitors fell to the radioactive floor below, crackling and sparking as the liquid came into contact with their systems.

Barney looked back and saw, much to his delight, that the creatures knew that if they tried to pursue, they wouldn't survive very long. After happily flipping them the bird, Barney stood up on the table and took stock of his surroundings. There was a door ahead of him that was just within leaping distance.

He was glad Gordon wasn't here. Even this jump would have been difficult for the vertigo prone scientist.

But for Barney, it was a piece of cake. In no time he was through the door and up the ladder within. It led to the top of a maze of vents, the whole section presumably used for maintenance.

He crawled his way around, wishing he had thought to practice crawling around on all fours like Gordon had with Dr Kleiner's air vents.

Lucky bastard. He was probably laughing away now, thinking of Barney wedged in some air vent. Not that Barney had a paranoia about his weight or anything. No-siree bob.

He turned a corner and saw Dr Linton huddled there, a flashlight propped up so that it was facing him. The balding scientist looked tired. His comb over didn't look anywhere as neat and tidy as it usually did.

"Hey, doc."

Linton's head whipped up, alarmed. His posture relaxed when he recognised Barney.

"Calhoun… how did you get past the power lock? That must have taken some rather smart work."

"Uh… yeah…"

"Well, it doesn't matter. The only other way out of here is through the canals. If you do get to the surface, please don't tell anyone I'm down here." He summoned Barney closer with a 'come hither' motion of his finger.

Warily, Barney came forward.

"I think they're trying to kill us all."

Linton came back and nodded at Barney as though he had just disclosed a top secret piece of information.

"What? You mean the aliens?" He snorted. "Yeah, nice call, Doc."

"No. Not the aliens." He glanced from side to side nervously and pushed up his glasses. "The government."

There was a fairly hefty twitchy thing going on with his left eye. Barney tried to ignore it.

"The government."

"Yes. Why else haven't we heard from rescue services by now?"

Barney didn't have an answer. In truth, he didn't know how long he had been out at the bottom of the elevator shaft. He was also surprised that it wasn't him leaping to these conclusions instead of Linton. It was probably just the adrenaline. Once things had calmed down a bit, he would start thinking like a conspiracy theorist again.

Not conspiracy 'nut', conspiracy theorist, thank you very much Dr Eli Vance.

The security guard in him took over. "Doc, you need to clear out. I don't know if I'll be able to come back for you."

Linton gave him a look like he was going to slap him around the head. "Don't you think I know that? I'm safer here than up there, believe me."

"…right. But seriously, I can't just leave you here. It's my job, y'know."

"Do you really think you job means anything anymore? This is strictly every man for himself now, Calhoun. Look out for yourself. Stop thinking like a security guard and like a normal human being."

Barney let that comment go. "Well, your theories on the human condition notwithstanding, doc, I've still got to get you outta here."

"No."

"Look, you can't just say no. There are weird… things down there that like to kill people."

"Yes, I know. Why do you think I knocked over the toxic canisters and took refuge up here?"

Barney couldn't think of a response to that, so he just changed subjects. "Do you know what these things are, Doc? Or are you as clueless as I am?"

"I know that they don't respond to intimidation tactics. It's kill or be killed."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that…" Barney muttered, rubbing his sore head. Damn, he wished he had a helmet with him. Or some Aspirin. Aspirin would be good.

"They withstood your bullets?" Linton asked, his tone halfway between wonder and fright.

A confused hand came up and scratched (relatively) smartly cropped brown hair. "Bullets…" Barney's eyes widened, and he looked down at his holstered Beretta pistol. "Oh, now how come I didn't remember that was there?" He sighed. "Geez."

"And you're a security guard?"

"Hey, gimme a break, Linton." The scientist twitched at the use of his name. "So far today I've been dropped hundreds of feet down an elevator shaft, given one hell of a headache, and seen two people smashed into four, if you get what I mean."

"I'm sorry, Calhoun."

He waved a dismissive hand. "Ah, forget about it. I'm gonna, at least until I get outta here. Speaking of which…" Barney made his way back to the ladder, and nodded with his head for Linton to follow him.

"Weren't you listening? I'm not coming."

"But-"

"No 'but's. Now get out of here. The canal is where you want to be."

Barney sighed. "Great… more slimy sticky wet stuff to slosh through." He started for the ladder once again, and paused. "Last chance, Doc."

"Go, Calhoun."

"Look, have you at least got some food or something to survive off of?"

"…no."

"Then what the hell are you gonna do? Just sit there and starve to death?"

Linton crossed his arms. "For lack of a better option."

"There is a better option. Come with me."

"No."

"Look, I promise you, the government hasn't sent some rogue black ops group to wipe us out, okay? The only thing stopping you from getting outta here alive is you being a stubborn, paranoid ass. Now come on."

"No, Calhoun."

"Do I have to knock you out?"

"You wouldn't dare."

Barney sighed. "Look, I'm not gonna force ya, Doc."

"Then go."

"But I don't want to leave you here to die a slow death."

"You won't be." Linton smiled. "Trust me."

After a staring contest of epic proportions, Barney relented. "All right. But I'm telling them you're down here when I get topside. No-one gets left behind, Doc."

Linton's expression remained blank. "If you say so."

Another sigh escaped Barney's lips. "Goodbye, Doctor Linton."

"Goodbye, Officer Calhoun."

It didn't take Barney as long as he thought to reach the canal through the disgusting (disgusting) sewage system, although he did have to shoot quite a few of those weird whirring dog things and some incredibly creepy little creatures that tried to attach themselves to his head.

His first meeting with one was the worst. He had entered a storage closet in search of a helmet when some boxes on a shelf above him had shifted suddenly, revealing some kind of… crab… thing.

It had leapt at his head and dug its' claws into his neck, attempting to get a… 'claw-hold' on him. Barney had thrown it off him, pulled out his gun, and pulled the trigger. The little bastard had been ready for him though, and leapt onto the gun as he fired, knocking it out of his hand.

With a smile, he had stepped on it until it died. The smile soon faded when he realised he had smooshed the creature all over his gun.

Barney didn't like those little sons of bitches.

Another creature that had been only too happy to make his acquaintance was about as big as a cow, but nowhere near as docile and stupid. It had two legs, a flat body, and a big display of red tentacles where it's lips should have been. Razor sharp teeth only added to the lovely allure of the creature that Barney had dubbed a 'Bullsquid'.

The thing had first tried to rip off his leg, and, upon realising that was too difficult, had thrown him down the sewage pipe, submerging him in the delicious broth of crap, crap and what tasted like… mmm, crap.

Pumping the thing full of lead while shouting obscenities that would have made Gordon blush didn't seem to help Barney's case with the Bullsquid, which just kept coming at him. It's mouth was slavering with green… stuff, which it even spat at Barney. The force of it had knocked him onto his back, once again filling his mouth and nose with the lovely sewage water.

At that point, Barney had decided to simply run away from the creature and lock it in there, since the very secure door leading to the sewage system had been within sight.

Barney ascended up the ladder which he hoped would take him to freedom. More dark, dank corridors led out before him.

He couldn't help but sigh as he got to work.

Barney had never been much for walking. Obviously, he had to walk to get places, but he never much liked doing it for recreational purposes. Now, running he could understand. It served a functional purpose; to get you physically fit. But walking? For fun? Hell no.

Naturally, Gordon disagreed with him on this point. Barney had mocked him for it on numerous occasions. He thought it sounded like a pickup line for an online dating agency.

'Hi, my name's Gordon, and I like theoretical physics, reading, and long walks anywhere, not just on the beach.'

Gordon had been so amused.

A yell of pain brought Barney from his fond remembrances, and he looked out across the huge chasm of a room before him to see a security guard on a walkway on the other side. He was stood between what looked like… zombies? They were pulling him to and fro, as though arguing over him like a possession. Barney pulled out his Beretta and took aim.

The zombies released their captive, who swayed perilously close to the edge of the walkway before falling in altogether.

Looking bored, the zombies wandered off in different directions.

His hands shaking in a bitter mix of fear and anger, Barney slowly put his gun away, and continued on.

Don't think about it, just get to the surface. You can deal with it later.

Jesus. If trained professionals were getting torn apart by these things, how were others in the facility doing?

How was Gordon doing?

He sighed, not only out of concern for his friend, but also because he had to once again submerge himself in water.

Ah, well. At least this was streaming water, so he'd be concentrating on fighting the current too much to notice the smell. And the taste. And the nausea.

"Bleah."

He dove in as gracefully as he could manage. Which was to say, not very much.

The current took him into a large cylindrical chamber, where a ladder was conveniently placed. Barney managed a wry smile at the thought of the Black Mesa design team planning for this kind of emergency.

'Well, maybe a security guard will dive in and need help getting out.'

He looked up. He could see the sky through the grated metal ceiling so far above him. The hole in the middle didn't hurt, either.

Barney smiled. It was good to see the sky again.

As he hauled himself up the ladder, Barney heard footsteps above him, and two burly looking military types wandered over to the hole in the ceiling, carrying what looked like hefty bags on their shoulders. They both looked down.

A grin slid across Barney's lips as he reached the top of the ladder, which was a floor below the soldiers. Finally, finally, the cavalry had arrived. Barney put his hand up, ready to call for help.

His call was caught in his throat when he saw what they were carrying on their shoulders.

Security guards.

One grunted with effort as he tossed one down the hole and through the one on Barney's level.

"Damn… these civvies are getting heavy."

Another snorted loudly and spat down the hole. "Yeah. Why are we on disposal duty anyway? Just because Shephard's team didn't make it, we have to do all the crap jobs?"

The other sighed. "Well… let's get on with it."

Barney backed up to the wall, hiding himself in the shadows.

Holy Jesus crap Jesus crap. They were here to kill them. The military had shown up to kill them. To silence them. Hundreds of hour's worth of government conspiracy reading rushed back to Barney.

Linton had been right. Dr Linton, with the really twitchy left eye.

Dammit. Linton was going to be so smug for the few seconds he was actually going to live before the military killed him. His last thoughts would be 'I was right, Barney. Ha ha.'

And then they would blow his brains out, just for being there when it happened. Linton didn't even know anything.

Jesus Mary Mother of God.

Barney looked over to his right and saw an open corridor, a sign beside it reading 'Surface Access'.

He thought for a moment. Did he even want to go to the surface now? Should he just stay down here, fortify his position and hold out for as long as he could?

Screw that. He wanted out. After a quick glance up to make sure the soldiers hadn't spotted him, Barney turned and ran down the corridor as silently as he could.

Another ladder stood before him, this one leading to a straight view of the sizzling New Mexico sky.

Barney got a firm grip on the first rung, and took a few deep breaths before he began climbing. Maybe there were others who wanted to get out.

It didn't really matter.

He was a security guard, dammit. He was gonna secure shit.

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(A/N: If you think Barney's being a bit too flippant in the face of stressful situations… I say poo on you. He's the type (in my eyes) who would make light of something to make it easier to deal with in his head. I'm sure once he's out of danger, he'd do some serious thinking about what happened in the Black Mesa Facility. But he's a trained security guard. It's what makes his reactions different from Gordon's and eventually Adrian's (when the sleepy guy wakes up, of course).

Anyway, reviews, please.

Next Chapter: "We've Got Hostiles")