Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.
Aftermath
Chapter Three: Lowlife
The metal doorframe that led into the room beyond had been crushed by the train, and Alyx had to crouch to make her way through. The Stalkers' shrieks still echoing behind him, Gordon followed. It looked like a small parking garage, the bare white lights beating down on them as they stood up.
Gordon did a quick check of the area. It wasn't too big, and there was nothing in the room itself; just a force field at the far end blocking access to what looked like a tunnel. It was somewhat difficult to tell, the light from the garage only stretched so far.
"Hold up a sec," Alyx said pleadingly, slipping down against the wall until she was sitting on the ground. "I gotta…" She rested her head back, eyes closed. "…I gotta catch my breath…"
He looked over at her, saw just how affected she was. "Okay," he said quietly, nodding.
The Stalkers were almost inaudible now, and Gordon did his best to block them out as he walked over to her, leaning against the wall but not sitting down. He didn't want to crowd her after that. Although, if he was honest, it was as much for his own feeling of awkwardness as it was for her sense of personal space.
Though he was keeping his gaze on the force field leading into the tunnel, he could see Alyx opening her eyes and taking a deep breath.
"I'm sorry, Gordon, I just…"
Steeling himself, Gordon looked down to her. She wasn't matching his gaze, instead staring straight ahead.
"…I can't face them. Every single one of them was a person who resisted the Combine." She took that moment to look up at him, and he had to force himself to hold her intense gaze. "They're me. If I ever let my guard down, they…" Her eyes flitted back to the train wreck, now hidden by the collapsed archway. "They're me."
She closed her eyes again and rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand.
Gordon still stared at her. Then he cleared his throat and looked down at the Gravity Gun, rubbing at a smudge on the metal frame that had probably always been there.
"Well, I, uh…"
Alyx was looking at him now, and he hoped to God the heat in his face wasn't showing.
"…I guess I'll just have to keep my guard up. For both of us."
For the longest time, she didn't do anything, and Gordon started to wonder if he had said anything at all, or just hallucinated the whole thing. He was beginning to consider saying it again when he felt Alyx's hand pull his away from the Gravity Gun. Anxiously glancing down, he both relaxed and tensed when he saw Alyx smiling up at him gratefully.
"That was the cheesiest thing I've ever heard," she said happily, shaking her head.
"…oh. Okay."
"No, but it was good," she added quickly. "I know what you meant, and…" She took a slow, calm breath, the first one since she had clambered out of the train. Then she squeezed his hand. "Thanks, Gordon."
She took another deep breath. "Okay," she asserted, yanking herself up using his hand. "Well… this might not be as easy as I thought. We're in the same boat as the other evacuees now; on foot to a train station."
After a cursory glance around the room, she hooked a thumb towards the force field.
"Let's head for the surface."
His hand dropped from hers. And suddenly it was as if nothing had happened. Judging by the heart rate showing on his stats, that was probably a good thing.
Alyx sent a charge through the control device beside the force field, and it flickered away. She pulled out her pistol and walked into the darkness. There was no light, no matter how much Gordon searched and squinted. Slapping a button on his wrist, he activated his flashlight, illuminating Alyx in a circle of light.
She shook her head in surprise, and turned to face him. "Oh! Good. I'm blind as a bat in here."
It was a long tunnel, stretching out further than the flashlight could reach. Old cars and wrecked trucks littered the road's surface. They had to move slowly to navigate around them as well as the chunks of collapsed ceiling that varied in size from crunching beneath their feet to bumping against their knees.
Something moaned from behind a pick up truck, and they looked warily to one another.
Gordon spoke in a quiet murmur. "Did you-"
Another noise, this one a grunt from behind one of many pillars that ran down the middle of the tunnel, separating the road.
Alyx brought her pistol up as a zombie emerged from behind the pickup, growling and moaning as it pulled itself up. She opened fire while Gordon looked for something to throw with the Gravity Gun. Another zombie lumbered around from behind a pillar just ahead of them.
Spotting a fuel canister beside a derelict car, Gordon pulled it towards him with the Gravity Gun. He could hear the liquid sloshing about inside. Aiming it at the zombie, he fired, the charge puncturing the canister, igniting the fuel and spraying a fine shower of fire onto the zombie.
The zombie at the pick-up truck was down, and Alyx turned her gun on Gordon's burning, screaming zombie. Its arms up in the air, it lumbered towards Alyx in one last ditch attempt at killing something before it fell. She backed up a few steps and watched it collapse to the ground with a low growl.
She waved a hand around in front of her nose. "Zom-B-Q… doesn't smell good."
Gordon wrinkled his nose and nodded in agreement. The smell of cooking rotted meat was never something he imagined he would sample. It certainly provided a stark contrast to the dusty, industrial smell of the tunnel. He tried not to enjoy the warmth provided by the flaming zombie as they passed it by.
They walked for a few minutes longer, coming across and dispatching the occasional zombie and/or headcrab before reaching a doorway in the right-hand wall. Gordon moved around to get a look inside first. The corridor didn't go very far before it came up against a locked door. After a cursory look down the other end of the corridor, Gordon ventured inside.
There was an alcove on the right just before the door where some lockers had been left to stand, the doors swinging open and revealing little of value inside. The door itself was locked. A window in the wall beside the door revealed a room beyond, though the reflection of flashlight on the glass obscured their view a little.
"I think I can see a power box in there," Alyx observed, a hand on his shoulder as she tried to see inside.
He looked up at her questioningly, and she pointed to the door handle, and the device attached to it.
"It needs electricity to open."
"Ah," he grunted, before standing up and looking around for another way through. Casting his gaze into the alcove, he saw a vent cover at the bottom of the wall, beside the lockers. With a deep breath of resignation, Gordon knelt down and wrenched it free, tossing it aside.
"Hey, an air duct," Alyx said, sounding far more amused than Gordon thought was reasonable. "I've heard stories about you and air ducts."
Gordon paused, and he felt his eyebrow tilt up in anticipation of the lies Barney had told her.
"Dr Kleiner says whenever he locked himself out of his office, you and Barney used to compete to see who could get in fastest without using a key."
That actually sounded about right. Gordon shrugged, nodded, and then started to crawl. Before he disappeared, he brought his head back out again.
"Did he tell you who won?"
There was a pause while Alyx thought about it. "Barney says it was him, usually."
Sighing, Gordon moved back into the air vent. "I'm sure he did…"
The metal of the ventilation shaft popped and grunted with each awkward shuffle of his body. Oh, how he had missed this.
Oh, wait. No he hadn't.
The crawl probably didn't take that long, but it certainly felt like it to him. It took him up, back and around until-
The vent suddenly disappeared beneath him, and he found himself sitting in front of an amused rather than surprised Alyx.
"Oh, back so soon?"
Without a word and very grateful Alyx couldn't see just how red his cheeks were, he crawled back into the vent, avoiding the old route. Eventually, he came to a vent cover beneath him that he was fairly sure was over the next room. He blasted the cover off and dropped down.
He stretched as he wandered around the room, feeling happy just to be able to move again. A pistol resting on a shelf on the far side of the room caught his attention, and he snatched it up greedily. There was a box on the floor beside it with ammunition, and he loaded it up. He couldn't find anything that could act as a holster, so he resolved just to hold it for now.
Exploring the other end of the room, he found the door where Alyx waited patiently on the other side. She waved to him through the window, and he returned the gesture. On the right was a doorway blocked by what looked like an overturned car. Opposite that, just where Alyx had spotted it, was the power box. Gordon flicked off the latch and opened the cover. He pulled up the small switch in the middle, and green lights faded into being.
The lights from the ceiling fizzled into life above him, and he squinted as he turned off the flashlight. Alyx opened the door and came through, nodding appreciatively.
"There you are. I thought you might have forgotten about me." She didn't seem to catch the incredulous look he gave her, instead focusing on the weapon in his hand. "Hey, and you found a gun!" He held it out to her, and, confused, she slowly took it off him. "Don't you want it?"
He turned to the overturned car in the doorway with the Gravity Gun held high. Gordon blasted it several times, first just to topple it over, then to clear a way through for them. Letting the Gravity Gun drop down to his side, Gordon opened his hand to receive the gun.
Alyx smiled and shook her head as she pressed the gun into his hand. "Smartass…"
She went ahead of him through the doorway, and Gordon couldn't help the smirk as he followed, switching on his flashlight again.
As they continued along the tunnel, the occasional moans and grunts of the zombies were accompanied by a familiar buzzing and clicking. Then, as they navigated their way around an ancient over-spilt oil tanker, they saw one of the dead creatures, yellow blood splayed on the concrete around it.
"Antlions here?" Alyx asked curiously.
Gordon prodded it with the tip of his boot to be sure it was dead before moving past, hand clutching the pistol a little tighter as he checked the coming area. In the distance, close enough to hear but far enough away to be unaware of them, packs of zombies and antlions slashed and swiped at each other - a vicious battle of warped nature.
Alyx came up beside him to get a better view via his flashlight. "The Combine's defence field must have collapsed…" she mused. "Makes sense, if it was powered by the Citadel."
"We should try and slip past," he said quietly, keeping his eyes on the fight that sprayed blood across the walls on the other side of the tunnel.
Avoiding them wasn't too difficult; there were enough derelict cars and vans that they managed to run from one piece of cover to the next pretty seamlessly. Even once they were a safe distance away, Gordon still kept his pistol on the brawling creatures, backing up along the tunnel.
That was why he didn't know about the wall of metal behind him until he had bumped into it headfirst.
"Ow," he grunted, hissing as he rubbed the back of his head.
Visibly trying to hold her laughter in, Alyx turned him around so the flashlight was on the wall.
"Looks like we've found a troop train," she said, taking Gordon's attention away from the growing bump on his head. He looked up at the wall, and saw it wasn't a wall at all. The train car had collapsed in through the ceiling, creating a blockade between them and the rest of the tunnel.
Luckily (though Gordon still doubted how correct that word was in these situations) the door was open. There was light coming from inside, so Gordon switched his flashlight off. He could just make out Alyx's face in the pale Combine light. With a cautious smile, Gordon gestured for Alyx to go first.
"Oh, ladies first, huh? Thanks," she mocked, stepping up into the train. She stopped before going inside, looking down at him suspiciously. "Is this because I laughed at you back at the Citadel?"
"Don't know what you're talking about," he mumbled, hopping up to join her.
Alyx just smiled knowingly as she walked further down the train. Gordon followed, looking around. The train was empty, the empty benches running down both sides of the transport the only indication that anyone had been in here. Or at least, that anyone was supposed to be in here. It could have been an empty train.
Absorbed in his thoughts, Gordon bumped into Alyx's suddenly still form, his glasses bouncing to the tip of his nose. Pushing them back up and blinking, he saw that she had stopped to study something further down the train.
"What the hell is that?"
She took off towards whatever it was, and Gordon followed, trying to see around her. Halfway down the train, resting against a glass wall segregating the two sections of the train (for different ranks, maybe?), was a Combine soldier with a headcrab cosily nestled on his head. The gloves had burst to make room for the spindly clawed hands, and a fine trickle of blood dribbled down from beneath the headcrab, down onto his body armour.
Alyx studied it intently, arms folded in thought. "Hm. A Combine zombie. That's like a, uh, um… a zombine." She looked at him, laughing a little. "Right? zombine, get it?"
He stared at her, and for the first time in their entire relationship, Gordon found himself feeling a little disappointed. Just a little. Because, even though he wasn't known for his sense of humour… that joke was terrible. Just… awful. And he was friends with Barney, so he knew bad jokes.
Thankfully, Alyx seemed to sense this, and tucked an embarrassed strand of hair behind her ear, avoiding his gaze.
"O-kay," she muttered to herself, almost inaudibly.
Gordon pointed to the glass. "Shall we, uh…"
"Yeah, probably a good…" Something caught her eye on the other side, and she leant forward to more thoroughly inspect it. "…idea…"
It was another zombine, this one clambering to its' feet. Both Gordon and Alyx brought up their pistols, and could only watch as the zombine reached behind its' back and yanked a grenade from its' belt. It ran towards them, rotting legs limping under the weight of its' armour.
"Look out! It's got a grenade!"
They both turned and ran to the other end of the train, turning to watch the zombine bonk its' head against the glass. It cast a bewildered (as bewildered as a blank headcrab could appear, anyway) look up at the glass before the grenade exploded, glass bursting out at them. Gordon stepped in front of Alyx, letting his HEV suit take the brunt of the shards and putting his arm up to protect his head. The suit beeped and informed him about minor lacerations. Exploding glass was minor, apparently.
Smoke billowed out around them. Alyx put a hand on his arm and slipped around him. "Thanks," she said offhandedly, leading the way.
Taking a moment to wonder if he had offended her by protecting her that way, Gordon noticed that Alyx was at the doorway at the other end of the train and was venturing out into the tunnel.
He lightly jogged to catch up, slapping the flashlight button as he went. Alyx spread out to the other side of the tunnel, ducking her head back and forth as though looking for something.
"Gordon," she whispered, pointing a finger down the tunnel.
Moving parallel with her, Gordon moved to a derelict car in front of him, standing beside the engine. He shone the flashlight over and on to a sleeping zombine. It grumbled beneath the light and stumbled to its feet.
Gordon looked over to Alyx as a chorus of zombie moans and cries echoed from down the corridor.
"Probably wasn't the best idea to wake them up," he said. She gave him a sarcastic 'thank you' look before returning her attention to the coming hordes.
He brought up his own pistol, only to be greeted by a fast zombie leaping at him over the car. He fired before it reached him, blasting the spindly headcrab from its shoulders. A squad of the normal variety of zombies (if there was such a thing) lurched towards Alyx, each one taken out with precision aim.
A garbled snarl attracted his attention, and a zombine charged out of the darkness, swiping at him as he brought up his gun. The pistol went flying away. Gordon ducked what he thought was another slash at his head, only for the zombine to pull out a grenade and hold it over his head.
It beeped ominously as Gordon whirled the Gravity Gun around. Sidestepping around the zombine, he yanked the grenade towards him. Alyx looked over, her eyes widening at the zombine now behind him.
They cried out to each other at the same time.
"Alyx, back-"
"Gordon, down-"
Gordon ducked and fired the grenade at the gang of zombies in front of Alyx, just as she leapt back and fired at the zombine behind him, blasting holes in the headcrab and sending it tumbling back to the ground. The grenade exploded, throwing zombie parts all around the tunnel.
A little shell-shocked, Gordon remained frozen in his crouching position for a few moments, looking to Alyx breathlessly.
"Good job, Gordon," she said appreciatively.
He adjusted his glasses as he clambered to his feet, dusting himself off without thinking. Looking down at the general dirt and grime covering it, he grumbled in the back of his throat and walked over to her, scooping up his pistol as he went. She was looking at him expectantly, and he had to stare at her for a few moments before catching on.
"Oh!" He cleared his throat. "I, uh… you too."
Somehow, she managed to laugh and look slightly exasperated at the same time as she moved on, walking around an overturned van and leaving him in the dark. He shook his head at the mental pun before following.
Another doorway led them to a staircase. Dim light filtered in from somewhere above, and Gordon felt it was safe to switch off the flashlight. Alyx turned the corner before him and promptly yelped, back-pedalling and firing frantically at something out of sight. Whatever it was, it squealed and whined as the bullets ripped through it. Finally, looking thoroughly irritated, she stamped on it. There was a squelch of yellow blood that left a sticky mark on her boot as she stepped back.
After staring back at her for a moment, Gordon slowly peeked around the corner, seeing the obliterated remains of a black, hairy, poisonous headcrab.
He looked back to her. She was still breathing heavily.
"I hate those things," she huffed, glaring at the headcrab as though daring it to come back to life.
He glanced to the headcrab, then back to her. "I, uh… me too," he said cautiously, slowly.
Looking completely justified in her reaction, Alyx continued up the stairs as though nothing had happened. The steps led up to a corridor, light pouring in through a series of thick windows on the left wall. As they moved along, Gordon could make out the bottom floor of a multi-storey car park through the grimy windows. Three floors, from what he could see through the immense holes in the levels above, having seemingly collapsed under their own weight.
He could also make out zombines and zombies slumbering against pillars and cars. Reminded him of a couple of parties back in college he had been invited to and never enjoyed. Of course, they hadn't particularly enjoyed his being there either, especially considering he always ended up mixing drinks and foods and certain herbs together to prove a point about chemical reactions in humid, closed off, unventilated rooms.
Alyx stopped at the entrance to the car park. Somewhere in the distance, a generator hummed, still struggling away after being left unattended for God knew how long. They exchanged a nod before Alyx took a cautious step out over the threshold, her foot touching down without a sound.
The zombies all grunted simultaneously, lurching to their feet and looking around for the source of the disturbance.
"Oh, come on," Alyx groaned to herself, moving into the room with pistol gripped tightly between her hands. Gordon moved swiftly alongside, gun raised.
As they approached, the ground began to rumble in a manner Gordon found worryingly familiar. He suddenly stopped and thrust his open palm out towards Alyx. Spotting the gesture, she stopped, glancing nervously between the stumbling zombies and him.
"Uh, Gordon… zombies!" she hissed, nodding urgently towards their incoming guests.
In that moment, the ground in front of Alyx erupted outwards, spurting dust and cement into the air. She stumbled back, shielding her head from the downpour, coughing as she looked up in alarm.
The buzz of antlion wings answered her unspoken question, and the large green insects burst out, heading straight for the zombies, which they obviously perceived as the immediate threat.
As the dust cleared and the battle commenced without them, Gordon looked for a way forward. Alyx waved a hand and pointed upwards.
"Up! Up is good, Gordon!"
He nodded, and they scooted around the pit in front of them. Antlion spores swirled up, and Gordon sneezed. He waved his hand around to clear the air as they went. Alyx reached back and slapped a hand against his shoulder. She pointed at a concrete support beam that had collapsed diagonally down from the floor below.
She started running, and Gordon cast a glance back to see how the fight was going. The zombies were losing quite quickly, overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
"Faster is good too," he called out, quickly following her up the beam, the concrete cracking and puffing dust as they went. They stopped at the next floor, breathlessly looking for their next route. Most of the floor had collapsed away, leaving only the skeletal support beams for them to map a path.
Alyx was ahead of him - which seemed to be the usual sequence of events with these things - and simply jerked her head away and said, "Follow me."
He did so, staring down at his feet to keep his balance. Which, unfortunately, gave him a view of the fight below.
Put simply, there wasn't one. Zombie parts were strewn about the floor, blood and headcrabs decorating the walls.
The antlions turned their attention to their other intruders and flew up towards them, wings buzzing menacingly as they shot up into the air. After pausing in the air for a moment, they swooped back down at them, teeth and claws bared. Alyx shot several in mid-flight, aiming for the wings and sending them awkwardly tumbling to the ground. Gordon watched them crawl out of the burrow below en masse. There would be too many of them to handle at this rate.
Stopping, he searched around the bottom floor, finally finding what he needed tucked away in the far right corner. He turned and started running back the way they came.
"Gordon!" Alyx cried.
He turned and pointed upwards. "Keep going!"
Frustrated but distracted by incoming antlions, Alyx set her jaw and resumed running. He didn't see where, just that more and more antlions followed her, disappearing out of his sight. Not that he was being ignored, however. Oh, no, antlions were attentive hosts.
On his way down the collapsed beam, he ducked one charging antlion and weaved his way around another. The next slammed into him full force, throwing him back and against a pile of rubble. It scuttled over with two claws raised. Gordon kicked down, smashing his boot against the antlions' head before rolling off to the side and scrambling to his feet. Slowly backing around the gathered antlions stalking towards him, Gordon whirled on his heel and ran for the far corner.
He heard Alyx's gun firing away from somewhere above, and more antlions emerged from the pit to replace those she was killing.
Gordon reached his destination as another antlion came at him from the side, slashing down with its' claw as it flew by. He caught the strike across his cheek, throwing flecks of blood against the floor and sending him slipping to the ground on his backside. Ignoring the warm blood trickling down his cheek, Gordon clambered up on top of the car he had been heading for.
He tossed his pistol away and pressed his back into the corner of the wall, Gravity Gun pointed down at the car. The antlion that had struck him came for him again, and Gordon pressed the charge button in a panic. Yellow energy struck the insect creature dead centre, throwing it away and onto its back, kicking and thrashing frantically. Gordon looked down at the Gravity Gun, grunting in surprise.
Shaking it off, Gordon continued blasting the car beneath him, eventually dislodging it from the corner. Continuing towards the burrow on the other side of the parking lot, Gordon blasted the car again and again, stopping occasionally to dodge an antlion attack and deter them with a blast from the Gravity Gun.
Finally, the car was at the pit, and he blasted it around at an angle so the front end dipped down into it. Antlions angrily hissed and clanged against the car from below. Letting out a breath of relief, Gordon realised there were still antlions above ground waiting to kill him, and ran for his pistol. Two antlions stood in his way, and he dove over them, grabbing the pistol as he rolled on the ground. That done, he whirled on the spot and managed to dispose of them rather neatly, one or two shots for each antlions' head.
There was silence above. Concerned, Gordon hefted himself to his feet, keeping his gaze upwards as he tried to get a better view.
"Alyx?" he tested, unsure.
After a heart-stopping silence, Alyx's head popped out from a ledge two floors up. "Ah, that's better. I can hear myself think." Her head tipped down to look at the car. "Good idea, Gordon. I wouldn't have thought you could plug up the burrow that way."
He shrugged and pushed up his glasses.
Alyx laughed, and waved him up. "Come on, there's a gate up here. We've gotta be close by now, right?"
With a sigh and a nod, Gordon headed for the fallen support beam. Once on the first floor, he slowly managed to navigate his way around the maze of concrete beams and collapsed sections of floor. When he made a wrong turn and had to double back, he tried not to notice how impatient Alyx was looking. Finally, though, he did reach her, and smiled proudly. Any other time, any other place, that sort of activity would have left him royally stumped, so he allowed himself some self-satisfaction.
Alyx was waiting for him behind a thick metal gate, its surface a metallic grid offering them a slightly obscured view of the other side. Though the ceiling had collapsed onto the road, there was a doorway on the right, leading to a worryingly dark corridor. There was an orange crank wheel planted in the wall beside the gate. Gun tucked under his arm, Gordon started turning. He was keenly aware of Alyx's presence during this display of manliness, and did his best not to grunt or show any sign of effort on his part.
He didn't succeed, and was fairly sure he had the appearance of someone about to die from exhaustion by the time he was done. Breathless, Gordon gestured for her to go first. She moved through without comment.
Gordon sighed and followed.
The corridor didn't go far, leading to two double doors on the right. Going through on the count of three, they emerged out into pitch darkness. He switched on the flashlight. It was a bare room, echoing and unnerving as they moved forward.
"Please let there be a way to the surface…" Alyx said, a mental rather than physical tiredness straining through her voice.
The halo of the flashlight stretched out far ahead of them, and Gordon spotted something. Something good.
He pointed a pleased finger ahead.
Alyx followed the gesture and gasped, taking off at a surprising speed. Gordon stumbled as caught up, keeping mindful of his feet in the darkness.
"I don't believe it, an actual elevator!" Alyx marvelled, wrapping a hand around the metal grating in front of the shaft. She peered up, looking for the elevator itself. She smiled at him as he caught up. "I would've settled for stairs!"
With that, she turned and pressed the button. The elevator hummed reassuringly, and Gordon allowed his shoulder to slump. Maybe he could relax, just for a-
Lights within the elevator shaft flickered, and the panel sparked and sputtered. The hum from the elevator wobbled precariously before dying out completely. Engulfed in silence, Alyx and Gordon looked at each other, exasperated.
"You have got to be kidding," she groaned. With a resigned sigh, she looked to the sparking button and followed the cable that ran from it, trailing up the wall and dangling from ceiling. "Follow the cable, I guess."
He couldn't resist one last mournful glance at the elevator shaft before nodding, moving slowly with Alyx through the darkness. The flashlight illuminated several areas segregated by chain linked fences. What was this place used for?
The cable led them towards a small room, probably a supply closet. Inside, along with a small crate of emergency flares, was the power box they were looking for. Gordon swung it open and flicked the switches inside. The elevator thrummed back to life from the other side of the room.
"The elevator's moving again," Alyx said from the doorway. A zombie cried out from somewhere in the void. "And here comes trouble."
Putting her gun away for the moment, Alyx scooped up a plank of wood from outside and backed into the room with him. She slammed the doors shut, sliding the wood through the handles. She backed up to the wall and pulled out her gun.
"Should hold them until the elevator gets here," she explained. After a moment's thought, Alyx smiled humourlessly. "Might hold them."
Nodding his agreement, Gordon scooped up a flare. He inspected it for a moment and saw the string at the top. Giving it a sharp tug, he winced at the brilliant red light that… well, flared into life. Tossing the flare to the ground, he switched off his flashlight.
Alyx looked at him questioningly.
"Saves the battery," he offered, and she nodded with a quiet 'ah'.
The elevator still hummed, and he could hear the different growls of the approaching zombies. Whether they were coming straight to them or wandering aimlessly, Gordon couldn't tell. He'd find out soon enough, he supposed. For the moment, however, he enjoyed finally, finally, sitting down against the wall. The only time he had spent off his feet since waking up in that rubble had been either in a flying van or from having fallen over.
So, inevitably, he couldn't contain the groan of pleasure as he relaxed to the floor, back pressed against the wall.
"Feels good, huh?"
He opened his eyes to see Alyx mimicking his position. He nodded, sighing contentedly.
It was only then that he realised just how much sweat had gathered on his face and the very top of his neck. He tried not to think about the smell his body was producing beneath the HEV suit at the moment. The day he took this thing off would be a danger to all of mankind. Plants would probably wither and die.
Shifting uncomfortably, Gordon wiped the back of his hand against his head, taking some of the sweat with it.
Alyx laughed, and he looked over questioningly.
"You've…" she pointed a finger at her forehead, waving it around a little. "It's, uh…" She sighed and licked her thumb. "Oh, come here…"
Making him very nervous, Alyx shuffled over, brandishing her thumb like a weapon. He waved his hand about frantically.
"No, that's fine, I don't-"
"Gordon, the HEV suit is filthy, and now it's on your face. You look ridiculous, just let me-"
"I'm okay, it's not-"
"Look, just-"
"I don't-"
Too late. The thumb was on his forehead, scrubbing away. Defeated, Gordon let out an indignant huff. This only prompted a smile from Alyx, which left his mood just that little bit lower. He was the One Free Man. He didn't need his face cleaning.
"Oh, stop squirming," she tutted. "Would you really want to show up topside with a splotch of black dirt on your head?"
"I wouldn't mind," he mumbled, arms folded.
She laughed quietly. "Y'know, Dad said that Mom used to do this to me, too. I was as quiet as a mouse, though. Apparently I would just stare at this thing," she tapped a small, box-like jewel hanging from a black thread around her neck. "I was always trying to grab it. Dad said… he said I was holding it when he found me."
Gordon looked up at her after that comment, watching as the look of sadness was blocked out by concentration on removing the last patch of dirt from his forehead.
"All done," she said, satisfied. "See? Wasn't so bad. The Opener of the Way is presentable again." She looked up suddenly, staring at the doors. "Can you hear that? Elevator must have arrived."
He pushed himself to his feet and moved to one side of the doors, and Alyx to the other. They looked at each other, ready for the count of three that would signal their entry into zombie territory. But under the red light of the flare, Gordon noticed something new, something he hadn't seen before.
"Did you…" stared at her hair intently, and she frowned, smiling unsurely.
"What?"
"Your hair. There's some… red." He pointed, as if that would clarify the matter for her. "Right there."
With a self-conscious smile, Alyx brought her hand up to the sliver of red that ran up the middle of her hairline, just at the front. "Uh, yeah… I've… always had that."
"Oh. I mean, I think I noticed it before, I just, um…" he nodded to the flare fizzling away beside them. "With the light, it uh…" His face heating up in a manner that had nothing to do with the flare, Gordon cleared his throat. "It's good, I mean…" His gaze plunged down to the pistol in his hand, then fixed on the doors. "…I like it."
Alyx was silent. The flare was deafening. Gordon didn't dare look at her. What a stupid thing to say. Stupid and dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
"Thanks, Gordon."
His gaze whipped up to her. She was just smiling at him fondly. Intent on not ruining the moment, Gordon just shrugged, offering a smile of his own.
"Ready?" she cut in, visibly steeling herself.
Gordon pulled the Gravity Gun and pointed it at the doors. "Nope."
He fired, blasting the doors from their hinges and flattening the two zombies that were stood directly in front of them. Pistols drawn, Gordon and Alyx started running. Gordon switched on the flashlight as they ran, illuminating a zombine charging at them from the side.
It barrelled into him, knocking him off his feet and rolling along the ground. Looking up, he saw the zombine latch onto Alyx by the shoulders. Fear gripping him, he scrambled to his feet with pistol aimed at the headcrab-
And watched as Alyx knocked the zombine's arms from her, following it up with a knee to the groin and an elbow to the headcrab. She finished up with a barrage of gunfire, tearing through the alien creature nestled on the Combine soldier's head. Gordon stared at her in amazement, and she looked at him innocently.
"What?"
The screech of a fast zombie interrupted them, hurtling towards him. Gordon fell onto his back and shot the creature through the chest as it flew overhead. Following its course with his gun, he fired another shot lying on his back that blasted through the headcrab, and the zombie crumpled to the floor.
Gordon scrambled to his feet and ran to catch up with Alyx, who had resumed her run for the elevator. The gate in front of the elevator had opened, leaving it tantalisingly open for them. She reached it before him, practically diving inside. Zombies clustered around the entrance, all facing towards him. He stopped just short of a zombie's swinging claw which knocked the pistol from his grasp and into the darkness. Deciding to leave it behind, he darted off to the right and swerved around the group, slipping through a gap and into the elevator.
Alyx slammed her fist against the button, and the gate closed. They shared a relieved breath, and Gordon almost felt himself relax when something wrapped around his leg, yanking him to the floor. Looking down, he saw a zombine's claw latched around his ankle, pulling it through the gate and holding steadfast as the elevator rose.
"This is gonna hurt, Gordon!" Alyx announced, pointing her pistol down at the clawed hand and firing a spray of shots. Most hit the zombine's hand, though one or two did hit his leg pretty hard. He pulled his leg up as fast as he could, his toe skimming the concrete of the elevator shaft as they left the underground hell-hole.
Kneeling down beside him with a hand on his shoulder, Alyx let out a small breath of a laugh. "That… was close."
Eyes wide, he adjusted his glasses and nodded. They both got to their feet, resting against the sides of the elevator as they watched the various floors go by from the comforting safety of their metal box.
One floor was empty, the black and white checked floor reminding Gordon of the kitchen section of the office complex back at Black Mesa. At another floor, a zombie slammed its fists against the metal gate, roaring and moaning at the futility of it all. At the next, an antlion dragged the dead body of a civilian into the darkness of the corridor beyond.
"Oh, my God…" Alyx said, her voice just above a whisper. "The city is really falling apart…" She looked at him, and said with no small amount of worry, "I hope it's still light out."
He nodded solemnly. Gordon had had just about enough of dark corridors and surprise zombies, thank you very much. Hopefully, with the Combine retreating from the Citadel, they wouldn't want to bother them anymore and everything would go so much smoother from here on out.
Gordon silently berated himself. Why did he torture himself with these thoughts?
(A/N: Alyx's dialogue about the Stalkers was taken from the Episode One sound files. I remember hearing about it on the commentary and thinking I'd be able to use it here. And I admit that I owe a debt to Pisces for providing the inspiration for Gordon and Alyx hiding out in the closet.
Also, if you haven't searched for 'I'm the Freeman' on youtube yet… I highly recommend it. After reviewing, of course. :)
Next Chapter: Urban Flight)