-1Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life
(A/N: And hhgbh receives many thanks for wonderful beta work.)
The Black Mesa Incident
Chapter Sixteen: Apprehension
Gordon's eyes whipped open almost as soon as they had closed when the tram suddenly shuddered, making his entire body jolt from side to side. He got to his feet and joined both Philips and Bennett at the control panel. The tram was going faster and faster down the twisting corridors, and Gordon ascertained from the panicked looks of his companions that they couldn't slow down.
"You had to pick out a faulty tram, didn't you?" Bennett yelled at him.
Rather than continue an argument while their lives were in imminent danger, Gordon just shrugged instead of shooting back a response. Not that he would have done anyway. Gordon wasn't someone who really had arguments. It was probably a psychological condition; fear of confrontation, or something like that.
Little explosions peppered the black and yellow striped electrified rail beneath them, making the tram rock from side to side, going faster still as it turned another corner into an open expanse of a room.
Three soldiers were stood in front the large metal door that stood in lieu of a wall at the far end of the room. The rail itself stopped a few feet in front of them. Gordon ducked and gripped the guardrail just before Bennett shouted for them to hang on. The soldiers only just noticed their presence in time for the tram to smash its way off the rail and crush them into the door. The velocity of the tram carried it straight through, and Gordon barely had time to take in the new surroundings before they plummeted straight down.
It was a tank of some sort, the dark brown walls rusting and peeling. The whole room echoed around them as they fell, leading Gordon to come to the conclusion that they were in an enclosed space, if deep.
Suddenly they hit water and sank, continuing down for only a few seconds before the front of the tram hit the bottom with a metallic clank, the noise dulled by the water filling Gordon's ears. Slowly, the tram fell back until it was lying on the ground flat, as though it were sat on another rail, waiting for more passengers. Gordon opened his eyes in time to notices his glasses leaving his face, one temple having desperately grasped onto his ear before finally giving up the fight and floating away. He reached out and placed them back on his face, although they did little to clear his vision underwater.
He checked with Bennett and Philips, who both gave him 'OK' gestures with their hands. With a nod, he indicated upwards, and started swimming, hoping they would get the idea and follow. The water wasn't particularly dirty, but it wasn't particularly clean either. A he ascended, Gordon could make out walkways leading through open passageways to stairwell. The place must have been flooded somehow.
With a loud gasp, Gordon burst from the water, quickly followed by Bennett and Philips. Philips looked like he was having trouble keeping afloat because of his injured leg - Bennett had, unsurprisingly, lost his splint in the fall - and so Bennett and Gordon held on to him, keeping him above water level. . Their breathing echoed around the dark, cylindrical chamber they found themselves in, the ceiling towering above them and looking very intimidating.
"So," Bennett gasped, "where now?"
Gordon tilted his head downwards, indicating something underneath the water. "I saw some open doorways."
Philips nodded too, agreeing with him. "Yeah, I saw them."
"Okay then. Let's wait and catch our breath, and then we'll go, yeah?"
The two men agreed with murmured 'yes's. They waited in silence above the water, kicking idly before they finally decided they were ready and diving back underneath. Gordon led the charge, with Philips in the middle and Bennett at the back, in case their injured comrade would need any assistance. Strange caterpillar like creatures, a pale yellow bordering on white, writhed about in the water with them, latching onto his HEV suit every now and then before detaching, disinterested.
Gordon swam through the open doorway and up the stairs on his left, which turned up into more stairs going up the other way. Martha flapped about like a fish out of water, and Gordon shot the offending weapon a scowl. It didn't do much to stop it moving randomly every time he kicked. The water ended at the top of that stairway, and Gordon ended up walking out of the water like that woman from James Bond that he couldn't quite remember. Barney would probably be able to recite the actresses' name from memory, along with which film it was and when said movie came out.
The corridor was predominantly a sickly yellow, the concrete floor below him a dull pale grey. He turned and helped Philips limp up the wet metal stairs when he emerged. They waited for Bennett to come out before continuing on, dripping water as they went. The corridor turned left at the end, and they came out into a much larger room filled with water. A brown metal walkway under their feet ran along the left hand side of the room, leading to an entrance in the wall. The walkway looked a little worse for wear and very precarious. Barnacle creatures hung their tongues from the ceiling all around the walkway, as if they knew that was the only way people could get around the room. Hanging above the centre of the water was a shark cage, dangling from a metal post that extended out of a room above them.
Suddenly, the water in front of them erupted upwards. A scientist launched up out of water several feet into the air, screaming. Blood whipped around from his dismembered leg before he began to fall back into the water again. Something big and red shot upwards out of the water, catching the scientist in its mouth and swallowing him whole before disappearing under the water again.
A low, continuous drone echoed from underneath the water, and occasionally, the top fin of the fish like monster appeared from underneath the water.
Bennett looked at Gordon. "I'm taking bets that the only way out is under the water."
Gordon didn't reply, his gaze firmly on the water beneath them. Those weren't really odds he could argue with. They walked around the walkway, the occasional long, rope like barnacle tongue blocking their path. On those occasions, Gordon would pull out Martha and shoot the barnacles above them to death before continuing on and leaving Bennett and Philips to catch up.
Eventually they got to the far left corner of the room and walked around the corner into the corridor. After some wandering around some more corners, they came to a wide ladder. They clambered up and into a fairly utilitarian looking lab. The walls in front of them and on their left were completely replaced by control panels, flashing lights, beeping noises and monitor screens filled with green numbers giving the impression of a lot going on in a small space. A scientist with her mousy hair tied back in a bun stood idly in the corner, as though waiting for them. She looked at Gordon with any surprise in her features, just wonder.
"Did you see it? They said it was hauled from the Challenger Deep-"
"Hey, I've been there!" Philips piped in, prompting both Gordon and Bennett to give him a confused and annoyed look.
The new addition to their troupe didn't seem to mind. "But I'm positive that beast didn't swim in terrestrial waters until a week ago." She swallowed loudly, avoiding Gordon's gaze, who towered over her by a head and a half. He had never felt particularly tall until that moment. "There's a tranquilizer gun in the shark cage," she continued, nodding across the room, "but I'm not sure if it will work on this species. You're welcome to try."
Gordon looked down the long room and saw a gap in the wall. After giving the scientist a cautious look, he walked over to it. Extending out of the tall, thin gap was the metal post that the shark cage hung from. He looked cautiously around the post and managed to catch a glimpse of something that resembled a crossbow inside the cage. How the hell did that get in there without someone being trapped in their with it? Honestly, sometimes it was as though someone was making these tasks difficult deliberately.
Tired and rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses, Gordon looked back across the room to the scientist. "I don't suppose there's another one?"
She tilted her head to the side curiously. "Why would there be another one?"
He sighed, closing his eyes "Of course. Sorry." He tossed Martha to the floor.
Before he turned around and started the tightrope walk along the metal post, he could have sworn he saw a smirk on Bennett' face. It was that smirk that powered his resolve to get that crossbow and kill the big alien killer fish below. Gordon was fairly sure this was the strangest task he had ever set himself.
There was only one bar on the top of the cage, splitting the top down the middle. This bar was also all that the chain it hung from was attached to, making Gordon even more apprehensive about simply dropping in. And even if he got inside without dislodging the cage, the water was so murky he doubted he would be able to get any kind of lock on the creature. His aim wasn't that good to begin with, despite Harv from the office complex claiming that he was a 'natural'.
He reached the end of the post and lowered himself down. The crossbow itself was lying on a thin brown metal shelf a metre or so above the 'floor' of the cage, which was itself only about four bars. It was this shelf, that Gordon fell onto after his grip slipped on the post, knocking the crossbow out and dangling precariously through the middle two bars of the bottom of the cage. From his awkward upside down position on the shelf, Gordon stretched out his arm to pick up the crossbow. A loud creaking noise from the chain above him gave him reason to pause. He looked up just as it snapped, sending the cage crashing into the water and straight to the bottom, the crossbow lost from Gordon's vision in the face of the water rushing into his eyes.
The cage clanked dully on the concrete floor at the bottom. Gordon wasn't sure if this place was supposed to be underwater or not. After all, on the other side of the room was a huge metal door made out of the same material as the shark cage with a crank wheel beside it, so obviously people came down here and travelled back and forth.
His attention quickly fell to the giant red fish creature charging at him through the water, its growl evident even through the dulling effect of the water. It slammed into the cage, making it lean precariously before falling back on the ground again. Gordon had since managed to come to an upright position, and was searching for the crossbow. His eyes found it wedged beneath the cage. It was a wonder it hadn't been crushed. When he tried to pull out from underneath, he realised that it was well beyond his strength levels, and he was losing air faster than he would be able to think of some way to move the cage.
The fish creature slammed into the cage again, this time even harder than before. The cage almost toppled this time, but it allowed Gordon to free the crossbow from underneath the cage and slip it sideways between the bars. He pulled back the wire behind the dart in the delivery system on the top until it was on the metal hook at the rear of the crossbow. He took aim and fired it directly between the creatures' eyes, which, like any fish, faced off in opposite directions. The monster growled louder and seemed to go drowsy for a moment before shaking off the effects of the tranquiliser and swimming away, preparing for another charge.
Pressure built in Gordon's lungs. He desperately needed air, now. His hands fumbling from his haste, he pulled back the wire again, the next dart in the brace loaded into the crossbow coming up as he did so. The creature was almost upon him now. He fired again, this time hitting it in the right eye. It recoiled in pain, yellow blood puffing out into the water as it writhed away. Gordon could feel himself fading away, so he quickly pulled the next dart into position, took aim, and fired.
That finally did it. The creature writhed some more after the dart hit it in its side, but then it suddenly fell limp, the eyes closing and the body floating up to the surface like a dead goldfish. Gordon didn't even have time to feel relief as he dropped the crossbow and kicked up with his legs, negotiating his way through the gap in the top of the cage and bursting up to the surface. He took the deepest, longest, loudest breath he had even taken in his life, and he heard the distinct noise of applause coming from up above him. In the lab above, Bennett and Philips clapped and whooped, giving the occasional thumbs up.
If he feeling a little less glad to simply be alive, Gordon would have bowed illustriously once he was out of the water. He pointed to the murky liquid below him as he sat on the brown metal walkway.
"There's a way out down there."
Bennett nodded, smiling. "We'll be right down."
Gordon heard Bennett and the scientist exchanging a few words, Philips occasionally piping in now and then. She was probably trying to convince the scientist to come with them, but if Gordon knew any member of staff in Black Mesa that wasn't in security, he knew that the answer would be an unequivocal 'no'. Very few scientists would have the guts (not to mention common sense, really) to say yes. Eli Vance was one of them. Isaac Kleiner another. He knew of scientists like Dr Rosenberg and Richard Keller who had reputations, but he didn't know either of them well enough to judge what their response to the current… predicament was.
And, of course, there was him. Gordon had no idea how he would be reacting right now if he hadn't been the one in the test chamber that morning. Maybe he would be insisting on waiting for the military or simply hiding like most of his peers did. But he hoped not.
There was silence for a few seconds, and within a few minutes Philips and Bennett sat down beside him on the walkway, sans their temporary scientific guide. Bennett sat on his right, Philips on his left, also dropping off Martha – crowbar attached – on Gordon's lap.
"She hadn't heard about the military," Philips explained, although it sounded like he was defending her to Bennett as much as he was telling Gordon the facts.
"But we told her, and she still decided to stay."
"That's her choice."
"And it's our duty to protect her. How can we just leave her here in good conscience?"
"So you think we should stay here with her?"
"No, I'm saying that one of us should stay here and make sure she's safe until the real rescue parties arrive."
"What real rescue parties? The government? They sent the military in on us in the first place. You really think they're going to change their minds because some lucky-ass survivors come to their doorstep? They're more likely to kill us or contain us on the spot. Hell, with the technology they've got now, they could probably wipe our brains of the whole thing."
"No," Bennett replied quietly, shaking her head.
"No?"
"No." She looked past Gordon and at Philips, who was sat on the other side of him. "Once they find out what's going on down here, they'll send help. Real help. This is the work of people doing what's in the country's 'best interests'. This isn't the work of the people we elected into power. Once those people find out, all the people here will be okay."
"So we can leave her! What's the problem?" Philips yelled, gesturing angrily up to the room the scientist occupied. Gordon wondered if she could hear their debate.
"The problem is that there's no guarantee the soldiers won't reach her first."
"Soldiers that the government sent."
"The government didn't do this!"
"How can you be sure, huh?"
"Because I have to be! If I don't, that means that my dad is dead for no reason. It means that my best friend got her head ripped off by some alien squid thing for no reason. All right? Is that okay with you?"
Philips was silent, and Gordon stared at the tips of his boots through the shimmering surface of the water. It was strange how they looked bigger under the water.
"I…"
"Yes?"
"…sorry."
Bennett closed her eyes and sighed.
"I didn't know," Philips continued on, fumbling for some kind of decent apology.
"It's fine."
"Are you sure? I mean, obviously about your friend, but what about-"
"He worked with Dr Rosenberg, who worked on teleportation tech. If that doesn't mean the military would kill him straight away, I don't know what does."
"Well… other scientists survived. Why not him?"
"Because if he is alive…" Her voice caught in her throat. "It means I'm abandoning him here."
Silence descended between them, the only noise the light slapping of the water against the walls beneath the walkways.
Bennett looked to Gordon. "What about you, Gordon? What do you think we should do about her?"
He stared off at the metal doorway, seeing the tantalising corridor beyond through the bars. He wrapped Martha's strap across on shoulder like a postman.
"I think… that we'll need two people to turn the crank."
With that, he ejected himself from the walkway and into the water, sinking like a torpedo before swimming down towards the ground where the crank was embedded into the wall. He grabbed it and pulled, using it to swing his body around. As he turned, he saw Bennett and Philips swimming down towards him, the latter considerably slower than the former. Philips got a firm grasp on the wheel along with Gordon, and they started to turn it to the right, both somehow instinctively feeling that was the right way to turn it.
Gordon had been right about the crank, much to his surprise. He had just said what he did as an excuse to get them to stop fighting. After all, if they were chasing after him trying to keep him alive, they wouldn't be agonising about moral decisions that were ultimately out of their control. Bubbles frothed from his mouth with every big turn as he grunted from the effort. Eventually, the metal door was up high enough for someone a good head taller than Gordon to walk through.
The door slowly descended as soon as they let go of the wheel. Bennett swam through first, and Gordon pushed Philips through before him, grabbing him by the belt to help him along. Gordon felt the metal narrowly miss his toes as he swam through. The underwater corridor went immediately to the right, the ground going up in a ramp. They quickly found themselves out of the water, Bennett shaking her head and rubbing her hand through her hair in a vain attempt to get it somewhat dryer. It didn't really work, so with a grumble, she just plopped her helmet back on her head.
Following the corridor around several twists and turns, they found themselves in an open expanse of a room with five huge industrial pistons lined up in a row. A control panel on a platform above them switched them on, and his two companions waited on the ground floor while he went up and turned them on.
When up on the platform overlooking the room, Gordon saw movement on the opposite side of the room, on a walkway that ran along the wall.
It was him. Again. That man in the suit. With a quick straighten of his tie, the man turned and strolled leisurely down the walkway before disappearing into an open doorway in the far right hand corner of the room. The noise of the pistons working almost faded away as Gordon followed him intently the whole time. His jaw clenched, Gordon sprinted downstairs and almost fell over as he tried to come to a stop in front of Bennett and Philips, who had since sat against a wall while they waited for him.
"Whoa! Where's the fire?"
Gordon pointed to the walkway on the opposite side of the room. "Did you see…?"
Bennett looked over. "Oh. Doorway, okay. Looks like there's a ladder up to the walkway, too."
"Great," Philips grumbled. "More ladders."
"C'mon, buddy. Up and at 'em," she grunted, getting to her feet and helping him to his. They started walking, leaving Gordon stood watching them.
"But…"
"You coming, Gordon?"
Incredibly frustrated, Gordon scowled and followed wordlessly, silently overtaking them, rushing up the ladder and down the walkway. Through the doorway was yet another corridor, and Gordon held no doubt that no matter how fast he ran, he would never find his quarry. He was quickly starting to hate men in tailored suits.
Looking a little irritated, Bennett and Philips caught up with him. They didn't say anything, for which he was grateful, but they were clearly displeased with his strange behaviour. The only apology or explanation he could offer was a shrug and a murmured 'sorry' before leading the way.
The pale yellow of the corridors gradually gave way to a cold blue. Steam puffed out of Gordon's mouth with every exhalation, and he looked back to Bennett and Philips. He was taking a breath to ask if it was cold when the two spoke in unison, and very loudly.
"Yes."
Another advantage of the HEV suit. Gordon could barely feel it except on his ears. It was the kind of cold that made one sniff and stung the earlobes. Not pleasant, but not unpleasant either. But then again, this was coming from the point of view of someone in a protective hazard suit. His companions had no such protection, and looked uncomfortable.
They turned a right corner, and the floor inclined upwards towards a lab. A familiar gurgle echoed down, and Gordon pulled Martha from his shoulder, taking point. He reached the top of the corridor and, with his back pressed to the wall, peeked around the corner. An electricity alien stood in front of him, looking alarmed by his sudden arrival. It quickly recovered and pressed its hands together, gathering green electricity.
Swinging around the corner, Gordon cocked Martha and fired at the creature's chest, the spray tearing through the brown flesh and knocking the alien on its back. Yellow blood pooled below it.
He looked around the room. Two tall control panels stood parallel to each other and running down about a third of the room, directly in the middle, creating two little corridors; one between the two control panels, and one between the right hand side control panel and the wall. The room opened up on his left, another control panel full of blinking lights and beeping noises making up the wall. A bare table with a metallic sheen lay in front of it. Taking up the far left corner of the room was a smaller room, the walls made of white clouded glass. He thought he could make out a human figure inside, and his heart jumped. It was him in there. The man in the suit. A door was on the right hand face of the room. When he heard Bennett and Philips coming up behind him, he put up a hand to signal them to stop, and they did so.
Gordon explored further into the room, and blasted through two more aliens before he was satisfied the room was safe. The person inside the misted room moved across to the wall. The door opened with a hiss, and Gordon rushed to the door, vaguely aware of Bennett and Philips coming up beside him. His heart sank with Martha as a hopeful, eager looking scientist was revealed by the sliding door. Warm air floated in from inside the room, and the two security guards rushed inside, savouring the feeling with grateful smiles. The scraggly, white haired scientist was totally focused on the disenchanted Gordon, however.
"Gordon Freeman, it is you, isn't it?" He shivered, and welcomed Gordon inside the room. He went in and enjoyed the feeling of the warm recycled air around his head. The room was very small, feeling more like an airlock than a room. A secure looking door on the far side of the room confirmed this assumption, and Gordon got a bad feeling about what was coming.
The scientist pressed a button on the small panel in front of him, and the door slid shut behind them, closing out the cold once and for all. "The science team have been tracking your progress with the Black Mesa security system. Unfortunately, so has the military. That suit of yours is full of tracking devices."
Gordon looked down at his suit, as though he could somehow be able to see them and remove them. It was a disconcerting feeling to know that almost everyone in the facility knew where he was.
His new information source shrugged and nodded to the secure door, walking over to the control panel on the wall next to it. "Still, it's better than going naked in this place. It's cold in there, and you'll have to hurry. It could sap your suit power in a matter of moments."
Philips piped up from where he sat against the glass. "So… we can't go?" His tone was halfway between regret and hopefulness. Bennett had no discernable expression one way or the other.
The scientist looked aghast at the suggestion. "By heavens, no. You'd both die within seconds."
"…how many seconds?"
Bennett punched him in the arm before getting up and hugging Gordon. She pulled away and looked up at him. "It's been fun, Gordon."
"I… suppose."
"Remember we're down here, all right?"
The choice of words brought back memories of another security guard Gordon had made a promise to.
"Don't forget we're down here, all right?"
All Gordon had been able to give by way of response was a nod. This time, he tried to give a reassuring smile.
"I'll be back for you." His gaze travelled down to Philips. "I promise."
The young man smiled, getting to his feet and hobbling over to him. He shook Gordon's hand.
"Thanks for… well, thanks for everything."
Gordon gave his hand another shake for good measure and turned to the door. He looked over at the scientist and gave an affirmative nod.
Returning the gesture, the scientist turned to the control panel. With his finger poised over the relevant button, he paused, turning back to Gordon again. "If you're bent on reaching the Lambda Complex, you'll want to keep to the older industrial areas where the security system is full of holes. It's worked for me." He thought for a moment. "So far."
He took a deep breath and nodded. "Thank you."
Apparently satisfied, the scientist pressed the button, sliding open the door with a loud clang. As soon as a big enough gap was available, Gordon launched into a sprint into the dimly lit room, the cold immediately making his glasses frost up. He whipped them from his face and kept on running, hoping to God that he would be able to find his way through without them.
He could make out blurry large objects on either side that resembled giant towering cylinders, creating a makeshift corridor for him to run down. His feet slipped beneath him, threatening to make him fall flat on his face and end his journey right here. By some miracle, he managed to stay upright. A brown smudge appeared at the end of the corridor, and Gordon realised as he slid straight into it that it was an electricity alien. It collided into the wall behind it, either knocking it out or disorienting it enough for him to get away. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth (not that he could with the way his vision was at the moment), Gordon followed the corridor around again, finally coming across a square hole in the ground with a ladder poking out of the top, curving up and around, attaching itself into the ground.
He slid along the icy floor almost fell down the hole, only just managing to grab a rung. On the verge of hyperventilating, Gordon lowered himself down the ladder as quickly as he could, eventually landing feet first on a latticework metal floor. He fell onto his back and put down his glasses to rub his face with his hands. Rubbing furiously, he managed to return some warmth to his cheeks and ears.
His breath robbed from him by the blind running and the deathly cold, Gordon sat up on the spot and slipped his glasses on. He frowned as he found them still frosted over so he breathed hot air on them a few times to clear them up before he got up.
He was on a platform overlooking an area that led straight into a corridor ahead of him. A ladder led down to the ground floor, and he took it, hopping off a few rungs up. Martha at the ready, Gordon walked down the corridor, his attention brought to crates and barrels littered along either side of the room, providing cover for any potential enemies that might want to attack him. The warm golden tones of the lights and walls made Gordon feel warmer, though. He decided that was a good thing.
The corridor turned to the left fairly soon, and this corridor stretched on for quite a long time. Some of his caution fading, Gordon continued on at a slightly brisker pace until he came across a military crate. Suddenly wary of soldiers, Gordon unwrapped the crowbar and used it to pull the crate open, revealing some rectangular shaped boxes with little circular indentations in the centre. A lens was inside the indentation, and Gordon realised that they were the laser mines that had haunted him in almost every place he had encountered military resistance.
He took two with him, slinging Martha over his shoulder. Eventually, he reached the end of the corridor. There was an indentation in the wall on his right, made for the wide freight elevator that sat in place, waiting for any passengers. Gordon stepped on and found the simple 'red button/green button' control panel to make it ascend up to the second floor, which he could see from where he was stood.
What he recognised as the boots of a security guard came into view, and Gordon felt a little bit of relief. Although he had become accustomed to doing things by himself today, all the help he had gotten along the way had done something to ease the burden. The security guard was stood in a hallway that led into an open space behind him, looking like a warehouse. The whole place looked like it was seemingly lined with supply crates, large and small. In the middle of the warehouse, Gordon could make out a rather large square platform a good few feet above the ground, metal ramps leading up there. Even higher above that, in lieu of a roof, the bright blue sky of an early morning could be soon, and Gordon suddenly felt both happy and tired.
The elevator came to a clanking halt. The security guard smiled and nodded upon seeing him.
"Freeman, right? I've got a message for you. Make sure you don't-"
His throat burst open from behind, a violent spatter of blood shooting forward. The guard instantly fell face first to the ground, blood pooling in front of him.
There was a huge stack of green metal military crates on Gordon's left. He tossed the laser mines behind them and pulled Martha from his shoulder, cocking her and feeling very small sense of security from the power behind the action.
Everything was silent, the only noise the sounds of the fans on the ceilings doing their work.
Then, a quiet tapping noise echoed around the hall. Suddenly, a slim, pitch black figure darted around the corner. A high pitched noise - which Gordon somehow instantly knew was a silencer – popped through the air, accompanied by the flash of the attacker's handheld pistol. The small, fast, and powerful bullets hit Gordon in the stomach, then the shoulder, knocking him on his back. He swung Martha up and fired, but the impossibly fast attacker dodged back out of sight.
He breathed rapidly as he got up, surprised at how easily he ran out of breath. Within a few seconds, the foot steps were back, growing louder and louder. Gordon ducked behind the green crates along with the laser mines, cocking Martha and pointing her where he guessed the black clad assassin would pop up.
The lithe dark figure appeared in front of him, and he fired, eviscerating his enemies' insides and spraying them against the wall. The figure clutched at his stomach before collapsing dead to the ground. As Gordon looked down at the dead body he realised from the shape of the figure that it was a woman.
Before he could completely process this, he heard more footsteps. He cocked Martha, but nothing happened. No satisfying clicking noises, no cartridge popping out the side, nothing. He tried again, and quickly decided in a panic that he had run out of ammunition. He tossed the gun to the ground in frustration and looked around. The footsteps paused for a moment before starting up again.
His gloved hand fell onto one of the laser mines, and with a smile he attached the magnetic side to the side of the crate the assassin would have to run past to reach him. Once attached, it whined affirmatively, a blue laser emitting from the lens and touching the wall opposite. Gordon pressed himself into a corner and waited as the footsteps got closer.
The assassin leapt straight over the laser, going into a roll and bringing her weapon to bear at Gordon. He barely managed to get his arms in front of his face before he was barraged by tiny, powerful bullets. Then, as quickly as they had started, they stopped. Gordon looked up and the assassin was gone. He checked his stats. HEV at 56, health at 69.
What a fun day this was.
With his jaw set, Gordon scooped up the other laser and placed it at the bottom of the crate, pointing diagonally up. The blue laser from this mine crossed over the laser of the straightforward one. Again, Gordon waited. Again, the footsteps approached. And again, the assassin managed to leap clean over his trap and hit him with even more bullets, lowering his suit power precariously further.
Gordon was beginning to understand what Barney meant when he said 'Okay, now I'm pissed'.
He grabbed Martha and unwrapped the crowbar, this time waiting just next to the corner of the metal crate. The footsteps approached again. Gordon had a pretty good idea by now of just how loud the footsteps had to be just before the assassin made her jump over the lasers. With that in mind, Gordon listened.
The footsteps grew louder, and Gordon's one handed grip on the crowbar tightened.
Louder still. He adjusted his position.
Then the briefest of pauses as the assassin jumped. Gordon swung the crowbar around, the pointed end stabbing into the assassin's face, causing a most un-assassin-like scream to emerge. The body fell straight to the ground, going through both blue lasers. Abandoning the crowbar which had become lodged in his opponent's face, Gordon leapt away in time for the explosion to force him side first into the wall in front of him. He slumped to the ground with a groan.
After taking a moment or two to catch his breath and adjust his askew glasses, Gordon struggled to his feet, running his flat palms against the wall behind him to support his weight. Slowly, and with one hand rubbing the side of his head, Gordon picked up the spent Martha and slung her over his shoulder. He hoped those were the last of those assassin things in the room. He wasn't sure how he would be able to take out any more of them.
A cursory glance down at his stats only reinforced this, putting the HEV at 32 and his own health at 49. For once he agreed with his suit's assessment. He felt like he was at 49. Glass half empty kind of feeling. Without much effort, he managed to pry the crowbar from the charred remains of the assassin, trying to put the sound of her pained scream out of his mind as he continued on into the warehouse.
It was strange. The fact that his attackers were women hadn't deterred him as far as his survival instincts went. When you're facing a loaded gun, Gordon guessed that your reaction was the same, no matter who was holding it. Either way, the other person is trying to kill you.
The crowbar dangled idly from his hand as he wandered around, eventually coming to a sign that read 'SURFACE ACCESS'. That sounded like something he wanted, so he looked to what was next to it. A huge square doorway stood in front of him, large enough to get a truck into, at least. A metal roll down cover was in place, and a quick look further down to the left confirmed another entrance similarly covered up.
At a lack of anything else to do, Gordon went up to the upper platform. There, he found a lever in the floor pointed off to the left, a sign identical to the one beside the big doors below above it. Wrapping the crowbar around Martha once again, Gordon wrapped his hands around the handle of the lever, the finger shaped grooves there helping. With a grunt, he managed to pull it all the way to the other side, and the doors went up with it.
Satisfied, Gordon went down and through the large open doorways, finding himself in what he presumed, with the other entrance off to the left, was a U shaped corridor. Hopefully there would be a door somewhere around. His hopes were answered as he turned the corner, where, at the bottom of the 'U' shape was an open door, a HEV charging station planted enticingly on the wall.
Gordon went inside. It was only then that he started to think about the security guard's words before he was killed.
"Make sure you don't-"
Don't what?
The door closed behind him, and the lights went out.
"Get him!"
He felt something cold and hard hit him in the back of his head, and he fell to the ground. Someone chuckled behind him.
"Nice hit." Then it sounded like he was talking into his radio. "All right, we got him."
Then Gordon was engulfed by a completely different kind of blackness.
At first, it felt like rest. Like he was finally getting a chance to sleep. Slowly, he opened his eyes, still feeling very drowsy and wondering why he was walking backwards. Then he realised he wasn't walking, he was being dragged. Strange that he couldn't feel it though. He was in a dull, grey corridor, the lights hurting his eyes.
"Where're we taking this Freeman guy?"
Gordon looked over and saw a gasmask wearing soldier on his left, holding his arm roughly.
"Topside for questioning." That came from the beret soldier dragging his other arm.
"What the hell for? We got him, let's kill him now!"
"Uh… and if they find the body?"
"Body? What body?"
Gordon couldn't think about the meaning of their words. It was hard to think in general. They passed a small latticework vent on the left, and Gordon could have sworn he saw Barney looking through at him. Barney? Why was he there? He looked desperate, too. Like he wanted to help but some invisible wall in front of him was putting a halt to his efforts.
The soldiers either side of him laughed, and Gordon's eyes closed of their own volition, plunging him into darkness once again.
The next time he woke up, it was nowhere near as peaceful. He landed violently on something very solid, some small light objects accompanying him. A piece of paper floated down until it covered his face, and Gordon opened his eyes, instinctively swiping it away.
Where the hell was he?
And had he really just seen Barney?
The room he was in was incredibly narrow. Crates, tables and boxes were piled up on his right, squashing him into the cool metal black wall on his left. There was another black wall on the other side of the room, which wasn't very far. The boxes and everything else looked like they had just been thrown in from on high. Gordon looked up, realising something. Sunlight was filtering in through the latticework metal ceiling, leaving a crisscross of shadows across the whole room. The sun! Gordon hadn't seen the sun in… well, it felt like an age.
His glasses were still on his face, although why the military had been considerate enough to leave them on, Gordon had no idea. Actually – and perhaps more importantly – Gordon had no idea why they had been considerate enough to let him live when he was fairly sure he heard them agree to kill him.
But then he thought about it. Their actual words involved nobody being able to find the body. Which would suggest they were going to-
A metallic groan interrupted his musings. And then Gordon realised where he was. The black steel walls began closing in. He was in a trash compactor. Gordon looked up. The top of the black 'walls' didn't touch the latticework ceiling. Above his head he could see a hatch which he presumed workers would open and toss garbage down through.
Or people, if you were the military and had a sadistic streak in you.
There was no way he could reach it, though. Something metal glinted beneath some sheets of paper at his feet. After a brief spate of digging, Gordon brought up his crowbar, the red peeling paint unmistakable. He would have taken some solace in finding his old travelling companion if the walls hadn't pressed his body towards the haphazard mountain or crates and tables beside him. Left with little option, Gordon climbed, barely managing to balance on the makeshift climbing frame.
He continued up, and realised to his incredible relief that the top box – upon which he was now precariously perched) would allow him to jump clean over the black 'wall' and down to the ground on the other side. Hopefully there would be some way out of here. From what he could see, while the black 'walls' were thick they didn't take up that much space behind them, that left to the metal pistons behind them that pushed them into the garbage. As the box beneath him toppled, Gordon thrust forward, overshooting the 'wall' completely and landing on the ground on the other side with a very painful and sharp thud.
A pained gasp escaped his lips, but he froze when he saw something in the ground; a grate. A wonderful, fantastic, superb grate, down through which he could see a very dark pipe. Almost completely black pipe. But he didn't care. He took the crowbar and shoved it between the bars of the grate, popping it up and sliding inside before the 'walls' had even stopped compressing.
It wasn't as big a drop as he had feared, but the metal floor of the one-person-sized pipe was incredibly slippery, and Gordon almost instantly fell on his rear. Even though the pipe wasn't on an incline, somehow the impact of Gordon's falling over combined with the slippery nature of the pipe managed to propel him down it at disconcerting speeds. It took him towards the light at the end of the tunnel, however, so Gordon tried to put his annoyance on the backseat.
The light blinded him as he was launched out of the pipe and into the open air. Gordon could smell sewage.
Whatever had made Barney look so desperate – if it had even been Barney in the first place – Gordon was sure it wasn't as bad as this. Because, in terms that the security guard would no doubt use, nothing really compared to swimming in shit.
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(A/N: As I wrote this chapter, I started wondering; is it actually possible to swim properly with glasses on? I don't wear them myself, so… any glasses wearing readers have an input on the matter?
Well, anyway… reviews, please!
Next Chapter: A Leap of Faith)