Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.
Aftermath
Chapter Six: To the White Forest
A loud metallic crash awoke Gordon with a jolt, and he sat up quickly, his head spinning. Eyes closed to stop the dizzying swirl of the colours in front of his eyes, Gordon put a hand to the side of his sore head. It was bright outside, far less murky than during the crash. He must have been out for the night. Then again, considering it was a shockwave of portal energy, the possibility of another slow teleport wasn't out of the question.
"Alyx?"
Nothing.
He felt his glasses, still perched on his face. Good, good.
Crowbar. Good.
No Gravity Gun. Not so good.
Opening his eyes, Gordon took in his surroundings. He was in a train carriage, though it was at a very steep angle, veering down to the right. Attempting to stand on the back of the seats he had collided with, Gordon checked up the train, and saw another carriage above him. How many carriages had he been thrown through?
"Alyx?" he tried again. Still no response. Fear gripped his chest, but he fought it down. Don't panic, don't panic. She could take care of herself, as she took great delight in showing him time and time again. His best bet would be to get out of the train and find her from the outside.
Shaking his head, Gordon looked out the window closest to him, on the right-hand side of the car. The metal spokes and girders of the bridge obscured his vision, though he could make out grass below. Quite far below, too. The train creaked around him as he unsteadily shuffled his way to the edge of the seat, peering down the makeshift ramp the floor had become.
The next carriage wasn't at quite the same steep angle as this one, so hopefully he would be able to make his way to the ground that way.
"Geronimo…" he muttered, slipping off the seat and allowing himself to slide down, keeping his arms and legs tucked in to avoid catching on anything.
Though the second carriage did level out a little, it wasn't enough to slow him down, and he wound up sliding into the pool of water that had gathered at the lower end of the carriage. His impromptu ride at an end, Gordon blinked, staring up at the ceiling through the drops of water on his glasses. Grasping onto a seat beside him, Gordon pulled himself to his feet.
Now at the lower end of the carriage, Gordon looked out the window on the left, seeing the train had crashed down into a lake beneath the bridge. A lake which had evidently leaked in and was now halfway up his lower leg. With a sigh, Gordon sloshed further into the next carriage, which was, mercifully, more or less level with the ground. The water, unfortunately, was up to his waist now, and Gordon awkwardly moved his arms around like a robot as he walked through.
Suitcases bobbed along the water, and Gordon gently wiped them away as he moved to a door at the end of the carriage. Once there, his hands floated slowly through the surprisingly clear water, searching for a door handle to slide it aside. His fingers slipping into the metal groove, Gordon tugged.
Nothing. Just a metallic thud to tell him he was pulling against a locked door. After a few more fruitless attempts, Gordon yanked the crowbar from his side and stabbed it between the door and the frame. Not having any idea what he was doing, Gordon just twisted it back and forth, watching it create the smallest of warped gaps.
He sighed, and backed up, breathing heavily. He was probably just making it worse. Putting the crowbar away, he looked around for another way out, hands on his hips thoughtfully.
"Gordon!"
His head jerked at the voice, and he stared ahead for a moment before whirling on the spot, looking out over the lake at the source. It was Alyx, and relief flooded him. She was on the shoreline only a couple of feet away from him. She crouched down and sighed.
"Oh, Gordon, thank God you're okay."
He cast a questioning eyebrow at her, and she waved him down. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Hold on a sec, I'll get you out of there."
Casting her gaze around the area, Alyx's eyes sparked when she spotted something off to her left. Smiling, she ran over to the side. Following, Gordon walked along opposite her, eventually catching sight of what she was heading for. The Gravity Gun, resting upside-down on a train door that had been thrown loose, water lapping at the edges.
Tentatively, Alyx lifted the device, inspecting the top and bottom before smiling at Gordon hopefully. "Let's hope this still works."
She moved around to the front of the train carriage, and Gordon could see her through the window of the door, aiming the Gravity Gun towards him.
"Stand back."
He didn't really need telling, and he'd backed up to the other end of the car as fast as the water could allow, frantically kicking up froth as he went.
"Here goes…"
With a metallic wrench, the door jerked in its frame before being yanked away, coming to an abrupt stop in front of Alyx. Her eyes on the door as she turned away, Alyx looked entirely too careful. It only then occurred to Gordon that the Gravity Gun was a delicate piece of scientific equipment and he probably shouldn't have thrown it around as much as he had been doing.
Alyx blasted the door, sending it hurtling away and bouncing against the rock face surrounding them. She stumbled back from the force of the blast. She steadied herself as Gordon stepped out of the train car. His boots squelched against the wet grass on the shore of the lake as he walked up, smiling at the look of surprise on her face.
"Wow," she laughed, "I forgot what a kick this thing has." Turning it around in her hands, she offered up the main handle of the Gravity Gun. "Here, you take it. You're better with it than I am."
Reaching over and trying not to be too possessive about it, Gordon took the Gravity Gun from her, twisting it around until it was facing the right way again. It didn't seem damaged, only a few scuff marks and grass stains. The broken leather strap that flopped to the ground was slick and shiny with water, the surprisingly bright sunlight glistening against it.
Taking a deep breath, Alyx put a hand against her chest. "When I couldn't find you, I got…" She then broke out in a smile, sighing and shaking her head. "I know, I know, I shouldn't have worried."
Gordon shifted his shoulders about, unaccustomed to having to carry the Gravity Gun in his hands. "I, uh…"
Oh, damn it. She was looking right at him now. He had to finish the sentence, which wasn't easy with her directing that innocent gaze his way.
"I'm… glad you're all right."
She opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again. Her face seemed to go a peculiar shade of red as she smiled, meekly tucking some hair behind her ear.
"Well," she said quietly, before bringing her head up and speaking louder and clearer than perhaps was really necessary, "we should keep moving. I'm sure the Combine haven't forgotten about us. I heard Vortigaunts a few minutes ago, maybe they're still around."
Trying not to let his piqued interest show too much, Gordon cocked a curious eyebrow. "Vortigaunts?"
She nodded. "We've got a long way to go to find my Dad. It'd be nice to have some extra help."
Not to mention having some very important questions answered. So far, the Vortigaunts were the only other beings who had even acknowledged the existence of Him. True, Breen had said something about his contract being 'open to the highest bidder', but Gordon didn't really have the ability to ask him. One, he was dead, and two… Gordon really didn't like him. Number one was the main reason, though.
Looking up to the bridge above their heads, Gordon could see that the train had been tossed from the bridge, colliding with the ground and ricocheting up and onto the low verge behind Alyx, blocking their way forward.
The side doors were missing from an empty cargo trailer that rested atop the verge, and Gordon led the way inside. The doors on the other side of the trailer were closed, though dented and slightly ajar. When a simple push didn't suffice, Gordon aimed the Gravity Gun and blasted the door aside. It swung open violently, clanging against the side of the trailer.
There was a small drop on the other side, but nothing too hazardous. Gordon sat down on the edge of the trailer and dropped down to the ground. He moved out of Alyx's way so she could follow, taking in the area while he waited. Directly in front of them was the entrance to what looked like a mining tunnel, blocked by too tall fenced gates. Inside, he could see a rail for mine carts heading upwards before disappearing into the darkness.
"Oh my God… the Citadel."
He shuddered away the memories of Ravenholm as Alyx ran past him, heading out into a clearing on his left. Her boots splashing against the shallow lake, she rushed to edge of what Gordon realised was a cliff-face. The train had taken them quite a distance from the city they were now overlooking. What remained of the city, anyway. The now miniature buildings had been almost completely annihilated by the blast, only the barest of burnt, scarred frames remaining. The rest only looked like so much dust.
And there, at the centre of the charred landscape, was a mountain of jagged spikes, a nightmarish vision of twisted dark metal. The remains of the Citadel.
The most brilliant blue light spun out from the very centre of the Citadel's corpse, like a tornado fixed to one spot. Twitching and spasming as it swirled around, the beam of light connected to the grey clouds above. The once hellish red core of the thunderous clouds had been replaced by the same luminescent blue that now churned forth from the Citadel. The occasional ominous rumble was the only reminder that this was the same storm he and Alyx had delayed only a few hours earlier.
"What the hell is happening?" Alyx murmured, moving as close to the edge of the cliff as she could.
"It's a portal," Gordon said, though it was more an observation of scientific wonder than an answer to Alyx's question.
Whatever reply she was preparing to say was interrupted by a blinding haze of light from the energy twisting above the Citadel.
"What's that?" Alyx asked urgently, though Gordon was too busy shielding his eyes with his hand to see.
The light faded, and the ground rumbled. Bringing down his hand, Gordon saw a circular wave of blue energy growing out in all directions from the Citadel. And, Gordon couldn't help noticing, towards them. A high pitched whine came with it, growing in intensity as the wave approached.
"Portal storm!" she cried out, barely getting the words out of her mouth before she ducked to the ground. The wave of energy blasted through them like a powerful gust of wind, knocking Gordon up into the air before thudding onto his back.
"Look, the bridge!"
Arching his aching head back, he watched the wall of energy hurtle through the remains of the bridge, tearing apart what little remained of the framework holding it together. With a groan that echoed over them and out over the cliff-face, the bridge collapsed, metal girders screeching and crashing as the train came hurtling down. A boulder on the hill above the entrance to the mining tunnel toppled, bouncing against the train car they had moved through earlier and crashing through the gates in front of the tunnel.
Smoke and dust sprouted upwards, growing into the air and leaving a murky filter in front of the once bright blue sky.
Wincing, Gordon heaved himself up, resting back against his elbows. His eyes wide as he took a few breaths, he looked over to Alyx.
Holding a similar expression, Alyx stood up from her crouching position. "Are you okay?" she breathed, her eyes drifting over to the remains of the Citadel again. "It's like… the first days all over again. I hope we don't get many more."
Gordon frowned as he got to his feet, watching Alyx as she dusted off her jeans. When she noticed the thick streaks of mud running up both legs, however, she let out a sigh of acceptance and pulled out her pistol.
The first days? What did that mean? The first days after Black Mesa? Was this what the Seven Hour War was like? Eli had only mentioned it in passing at Black Mesa East before everything else got in the way. Gordon had never been told what precisely had happened in his absence. Was this it? Portal storms, followed by… the Combine, maybe? Or maybe it was just headcrabs and other creatures coming through from Xen?
She was on the move before he could ask, heading for the mining tunnel. Stood beside the entrance, she jerked her head towards it, indicating of him to follow. Gordon glanced back to the Citadel. If he did ask, it was just going to prompt even more questions from her.
"Why you don't you know about the first days?"
"Why don't you know about the Seven Hour War?"
"Why haven't you aged a day since Black Mesa? Shouldn't you be forty or something?"
"And stop looking at me like that, I'm Eli Vance's daughter."
He blinked the troubling possibilities away before following along. Gordon led the way into the mine, flashlight illuminating the way.
A way around the inevitable questions occurred to him, and he tried to sound as casual as possible as he spoke. His voice echoed in the dark tunnel.
"So what do you remember of the first days?"
"Not much," she shrugged, eyes on the ground in front of her. "But the Seven Hour War… I remember having nightmares about Voltigores and Shocktroopers for months. Glad the Combine ran out of those," she sighed, looking to him for agreement.
Gordon nodded quickly. "Oh yeah. Yeah, Shocktroopers and Voltigores. Hated those."
"Not that the Striders and soldiers are much better," she sighed absently. If she wasn't convinced by his agreement, she didn't show it, instead continuing through the tunnel.
He sighed at how clueless he still was. Voltigores? Shocktroopers? Were they creatures he had met? Had they been at Black Mesa? Did that mean the Combine had been invading while he had been wandering around the Lambda Complex all those years (days) ago?
He gave a mental shrug. Whatever, Alyx said they were gone now. One less horrific thing for him to deal with. His boot caught on the bottom of the Gravity Gun's trailing shoulder strap, and Gordon irritably looped it around his wrist. Should stop it flying off in future train crashes.
Not that he was planning on getting in any train crashes. Not that he ever planned on getting in train crashes, they just seemed to… happen around him.
The slanted tunnel levelled out a few feet ahead. Gordon blasted a mine cart that had been left askew in front of them.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the rebels used this place," Alyx said quietly, her voice nevertheless echoing down the tunnel.
They reached the end of the tunnel, a hole in the ground leading to the floor below. Jumping down, Gordon was confronted by a slew of corpses, slumped across the rails and against the walls. Some were human and antlion, but most were desiccated zombies, clawed hands scratching at their emaciated faces in a fixed expression of agony.
Alyx landed quietly behind him and groaned at the sight, and the smell. "Well, safe haven it ain't."
He grunted his agreement as they headed forward toward the sunlight at the end of the tunnel. The groan of zombies and the clicking of antlion mandibles slowed them as they approached the exit. Rewarding their caution, a zombie hurtled into view from the left, an antlion slashing viciously at its headcrab.
Alyx took aim and started firing. Gordon looked around for anything he could throw. Finding nothing, he could only watch as Alyx emptied what remained of her clip into the brawling monsters. She reloaded with an ease that could only come from years of practice - or blind luck, as was the case with him.
Something occurred to him, and he frowned. "How do you not run out of ammo?"
Checking the area in front of them, she slipped the pistol away. "I restocked when we were at Barney's safe house."
"Oh. I don't remember that."
Looking a little embarrassed, Alyx scratched her neck. "Yeah… you were mostly staring at the crowbar."
After a pause, he nodded. "Ah. Well. I uh, do like the crowbar."
"Yeah." Her gaze flitted ahead of them, and a smile blossomed. "Okay, a communication centre."
Gordon followed her eyes and saw a large shack ahead of them overlooking a canyon down below. The cliff-side beside it and the path on their left that could take them around it had both been fenced off.
"Let's see if we can get a message out to my Dad," Alyx said, practically running through the door and inside, leaving Gordon to catch up. A large array of television screens hung in front of a display of thick, old windows. Most of the screens were cracked and rusted, though the largest TV seemed relatively unharmed.
Thick cables led up to a cramped maintenance walkway on the left-hand wall that looked like it had been put up long after the shack itself was built. It was certainly… homemade.
"Dr Kleiner and my Dad are up north at an old missile base," Alyx said, tapping away on the keyboard in front of the television screens, occasionally pressing buttons and twisting dials on a control panel beside it. "I hope they're still using this frequency. They're trying to help launch a-"
The screen buzzed to life, replaced by white, fizzling static.
"Ah, here we go." Twisting a dial beneath the screen, she tapped a button beside it now and again as she spoke. Gordon had no idea what any of this stuff did, and was once again relieved to have someone with him. Working alone in City 17, he probably would have died quite quickly.
Now there was a sobering thought.
"White Forest? White Forest, this is Alyx Vance, do you read?" A frustrated groan escaped her, and she focused her attention on the controls for a few moments more before trying again. "White Forest, come in. White Forest, are you there?"
The white began to flicker, replaced by another, more familiar image. Dr Kleiner's stretched and distorted visage filled the screen, peering down at them unsurely. Gordon could make out Eli in the far right corner too, his back to them as he worked on something. On the monitors built into the wall behind the two scientists, Gordon could see an image of the destroyed Citadel, though it was more specifically focused on the energy raging forth.
"Alyx!" Kleiner marvelled, adjusting his glasses as though to check his vision. "My goodness, is that really you?"
Eli whirled on the spot as quickly as his metal leg could allow, hobbling over as Alyx replied with a grin.
"Yes, and Gordon too. We're okay – we made it out of City 17."
"Alyx! Thank God," Eli gasped, nearly falling through the screen as he moved Kleiner out of the way and leant towards them. "I can hardly believe it."
Clearing his throat a little, Gordon offered a tiny wave, which prompted the smallest of smiles from Eli.
"And you, Gordon. Good to see you both."
"Don't worry, Dad, we're fine," Alyx said assuredly, though handily leaving out the fact they had been in two train crashes, attacked by dozens of armed soldiers and pursued by a gunship and a strider. "But something really strange is happening with the Citadel."
"Oh yes, we're been monitoring the situation," Dr Kleiner interjected, and Eli stood up to give them a view of the older scientist. Clearly in his element now, Kleiner continued, waving his finger around in the air with authority. "The raw discharge of the meltdown has been focused into a coherent beam of portal energy."
Gordon and Alyx exchanged a worried look before Eli translated.
"It's the Combine," he said gravely. "They're trying to open another gateway."
Dr Kleiner nodded emphatically. "Yes. What you're seeing is the infancy of a superportal. If it attains full strength-"
"It'll be the Seven Hour War all over again," Eli interrupted, his face grimmer than Gordon had ever seen it. "Except this time we won't last seven minutes."
So the Seven Hour War was the invasion by the Combine. The first days must have come before. But the Seven Hour War happened twenty years ago. Earth had access to a lot more military power than they did now. If the same invasion force attacked again…
Gordon suddenly understood the fear that briefly silenced everyone.
Alyx, however, was deep in thought, and suddenly broke out of it to look at him. "My God… Gordon, what if that was why they were sending so much data from the Citadel? So that-"
"Data?" Kleiner cut in, almost panicked as he rushed forward. "From the Citadel?"
Alyx nodded. "In the control room. They were feeding huge volumes of data directly into the Core destruction sequence."
Almost ignoring her, Kleiner backed up and spoke off to the right, to someone out of sight.
"Magnusson, did you hear that? I'll bet it's the Combine portal code!"
Gordon couldn't help the way his jaw dropped as he saw Dr Arne Magnusson emerge from behind Eli, irritably dismissing Kleiner with a tired shake of the head. He was too far away from the static riddled image for Gordon to make him out in much detail, but the voice… the voice was familiar.
"Yes, yes, I'm not deaf."
"I downloaded the whole packet," Alyx elaborated, pulling the data stick from her belt. "They're been chasing us ever since."
"Well of course they have," Magnusson sighed, tossing his hand up in the air exasperatedly. "You see, Kleiner, it's the lynchpin of all of their plans."
"Well, I can see that" Kleiner mumbled. "I never said-"
But Magnusson was away again, lost in his own thoughts, his arms folded and his hand balled up in front of his face. "Somewhere in that sequence, they would have had to establish a connection with the far side," he theorised excitedly, before finally looking at Alyx and addressing her directly. "What you have there, young lady, is the specific contact code for the Combine Overworld."
The smallest of gasps escaped Alyx, and Gordon couldn't help but look to the image of the Citadel portal behind the three scientists. On the other side of that was the Combine home world?
"Good God," Eli muttered, looking sad rather than shocked as he shook his head.
Now that he was closer, Gordon could see Magnusson with greater clarity as his words boomed out over the speakers. Twenty years had been kinder to him than Gordon would have imagined. His cheeks were a bit more jowly, his hair greyer… but still recognisably the same man. There was still that glint of superiority that came from knowing that beside the fact that everyone hated him for acting like he was always right… he was always right. That was what most people at Black Mesa had found most infuriating about him. He was one of the smartest among them, and made sure everybody knew it.
Although he was the only one who could scare Dr Breen. That was always fun to watch.
"Now if I'm right about this – and I have no reason to doubt myself -" he inserted smugly, rocking back and forth on his heels.
In a moment that made Gordon like her all the more, Alyx rolled her eyes in full view of the overbearing scientist.
Unimpeded, Magnusson continued, "- you are carrying the very code Dr Mossman had hoped to recover. Now, how soon can you get here?"
Looking frustrated at the loaded question, Alyx glanced through the windows behind the screens a little helplessly. "Well, we'll have to get our bearings, but we can definitely-"
"There is no time to waste!" Magnusson declared, his eyes glazing over as he muttered away to himself. "We'll need to step up the launch schedule. Now, as soon as you get here with the signature data," he said, backing up and waving his arms around in the air like an angry wizard, "we'll encode the satellite and get the damn thing into orbit."
With that, he disappeared off to the right, busily followed by Dr Kleiner.
Eli turned to them, hands out cautiously in front of him. "Get he- as qui-ly as -ou can, you two. But fo- God's sa-, be -ful."
Static cut into the transmission, and Eli's worried face paused, the distorted words cutting in and out from frozen lips.
"Dad?" Alyx frowned, and got to work on the controls. "Dad, you're breaking up, come in. Dad!"
The screen finally plunged into static again, and Alyx slammed a hand down on the controls in front of her in frustration. The screen winked off, and Alyx hung her head, sighing.
A distant voice made Gordon's ears prick up, and he put a hand on Alyx's shoulder. She looked up at him, then listened to the voice. It was the Combine's mechanical Overwatch, smooth female tones belying the hell they were going to rain down on them. A helicopter thundered out of nowhere, vibrating dust from the roof of the shack as it passed overhead.
"They're still tracking us," Alyx said distractedly, eyes on the ceiling. "We need to keep moving."
Pressing two fingers to a large blue button, she turned to face the opposite side of the shack, where a door opened up. Letting her lead the way, Gordon checked around the room for anything useful before turning to the doorway. His foot hit against something solid, and he cast his gaze down.
It was a garden gnome. Big bushy beard, the paint on his red hat fading at the tip. And it was smiling so cheerfully, hands tucked in his pockets without a care in the world. Gordon stared into its big, black eyes, almost mesmerised. Maybe he should take it with him. That would be a good idea. Take the gnome, carry him everywhere, to White Forest, and then-
"Gordon!"
He blinked, and looked up to see Alyx waiting for him in the doorway. "Uh… yeah?"
"What are you doing?"
His eyes whipping down and then back again, Gordon pointed downwards. "It's a gnome."
"…and?"
"And…" He looked down at the smiling face and suddenly realised the insanity of his thoughts. Suddenly finding the gnomes' inane open mouthed grin borderline infuriating, Gordon kicked it back into the shack. "…nothing, sorry. Let's go."
After staring at him for being the lunatic he probably was by this point, Alyx led the way into another mining tunnel, this one slanting down to the right. Light shone in through the large entrance at the bottom. Stepping through, Gordon took in the facility stretching out before them. A tall building was on the left, old painted writing plastered across the front, fading and chipped.
"Those buildings look like they've seen some use recently," Alyx murmured, waving her finger around.
Gordon nodded thoughtfully. "Mining…?"
"Looks that way."
It towered above a loading yard ahead of them, cargo trailers resting inert on the rails. Behind that was a large metal shed. Gordon could imagine a supervisor emerging from the closed doorway, checking up on the workers and shouting orders in… whatever language they spoke in whatever country this used to be.
The gates in front of the loading yard looked pretty solid, but a ridge heading up on the right could take them over and into the yard. Gordon pointed the way, and Alyx nodded. They walked up the ridge slowly, and Gordon took the opportunity to breath the relatively clean air. It only managed to hammer home just how murky and industrial City 17 had been.
"So… what's the plan? At White Forest, I mean."
Alyx looked down at her feet for a moment as they trudged up the steep incline. "Dr Magnusson has an old rocket up at White Forest. He's been hoping for the day he could launch a satellite to tap into the old array they set up at Black Mesa. But getting a launch off while the Combine was intact… there was just no way. I'm not sure how they'll use the satellite to shut down that portal, but… I guess we'll find out when we get there."
They walked for a few seconds longer before something that Alyx said sparked something in his head.
"The old array… you mean the rocket I launched?"
Memories flooded back to Gordon. Fighting his way through the soldiers, security guard at his side… what was her name? He could still remember the glint in her eye when the possibility of combat appeared. He also remembered saying goodbye to both her and the other security guard at the freezer gate. Oh God, him too? What was his name?
And yet her last words to him still echoed in his mind.
"Remember we're down here, all right?"
Gordon had remembered. That was why he had taken His offer; the possibility that he would be able to help them, to take them all from that hellhole. Instead, they would have died, alone and afraid, if not killed by Xen creatures or soldiers, then burned away by the nuclear blast.
"The one and the same," Alyx said, and Gordon blinked the thoughts away. The ache in his chest remained, however. They had reached the top of the ridge, and Alyx leapt down to the loading yard, gravel crunching beneath her feet. Taking a breath, Gordon jumped down and landed beside her.
She looked back to him for confirmation, and frowned. "Are you all right?"
Swallowing to parch his dry throat, Gordon tried to appear relaxed. "Hm?"
"You look, uh…" she studied his face with far more concern than he was comfortable with.
He waved the question away, trying his best not to look her in the eye. "It's just, uh… Black Mesa. Memories."
"Oh." Now she was the one who looked uncomfortable. "Sorry."
"It's all right, I just… I keep forgetting. And then remembering. Then I feel…" His already quiet voice shook in his throat, and he dropped his head, silently pleading with himself not to show anything more. The words faded along with his will to say them.
"You feel guilty that you forgot."
Whipping his gaze up to hers in surprise, Gordon's mouth hung upon for a moment before he replied. "Yes, I… that's it, exactly. I mean, I… all those people, I told them… there were these two security guards when I launched the rocket. I promised them they'd be all right. And I can't even remember their names." He sighed and shook his head. "Sorry. You… don't want to hear this. You've been through it, and I…"
"Yeah," she sighed. "I've been through it. But it's…"
Something touched against his wrist, and Gordon looked down to see Alyx's hand squeezing it gently. He was surprised he could even feel it through the HEV suit.
"…it's nice to know someone else went through it, too." She smiled, and opened her mouth to say something more when an alien cry unlike any Gordon had heard before echoed through the air. Their heads whipped up, weapons at the ready.
"What was that?" Alyx said quickly, her back to his.
A piercing, high pitched purr bounced around the walls of the loading yard, setting them even further on edge.
Gordon put his finger up in the air to make sure Alyx didn't speak. "We're not alone," he murmured.
A metal clanking followed, rapidly fading until it was inaudible. Whatever it was seemed to be leaving. After waiting a cautious few seconds, Gordon let the Gravity Gun drop down to his side, and looked over his shoulder at Alyx.
"Any idea what that was?"
She shook her head. "We'd better not wait around to find out." Her eyes drifted across the yard and to a metal gate opposite them, on the far side of the yard. They wandered over to it, moving around the huge mining trailers that sat patiently on rails as cautiously as possible, Gordon covering her back.
"Hey."
He glanced to her curiously.
"Can you figure out a way to get this gate open?"
Cautiously assured that nothing was going to leap out at the moment, Gordon looked to her, then to the gate. No buttons or any kind of controls. Wordlessly, he moved to the metal shed he had spotted earlier, that was now on his right. The door lacked any kind of handle, and was a thick metal; he doubted the crowbar or Alyx's gun could do much. With a shrug, Gordon blasted it with the Gravity Gun, only to be sent stumbling back from the force of the blast.
A frustrated breath escaped him. He peeked in through the murky windows, cupping a hand over his eyes to better see inside. It was a rather dark space, which only made the sunlight seeping in through the gaps in the ceiling all the more prominent. Gordon looked up and saw a few slivers of light squeezing through what looked like sheets of corrugated metal.
He backed up from the shed, eyes still on the roof, searching for a way up. Turning on the spot, his gaze fell on the two large mining trailers sitting on rails on his right. Thick metal frames had been set up around the trailers, which would have allowed the workers back in the day a view of what was inside. A ladder led up to the frames, and Gordon indicated to Alyx his course with nothing but a quick point of his fingers.
She nodded. "Careful up there. I'll keep watch out here."
Satisfied, and with the Gravity Gun wrapped around one hand, Gordon clambered up on top of the first metal frame and walked to the edge. It was parallel with the frame on the right that was clamped around another trailer, and Gordon had no trouble hopping over to it. From there, it was a relatively small jump to the roof of the large booth, the slant of which had Gordon walking very oddly.
Gravity Gun firmly grasped in both hands, Gordon pulled one of the metal sheets covering the hole in the roof towards him. He gently placed it aside before jumping down into the booth. An old light bulb flickered in a window on his right, giving a view of the small gap between the shed and the brick wall behind it.
Moving to the other side of the room, Gordon found a simple red button/green button control panel. He pushed the green button down with his palm, and watched as the gate outside slid up. Alyx, waiting by the gate, held her hand up in an 'ok' gesture.
"That worked," she called out, her voice sounding surprisingly distant through the thick glass of the window.
Gordon looked to the door he had been unable to unlock from the outside. It looked similarly immovable from in here. Casting his gaze back up to the hole in the ceiling, he saw it was too far up for him to even think about climbing out. There was nothing in here he could stack with the Gravity Gun, either.
Something caught his eye in the window looking out at the wall. Two luminescent blue lights, one above the other. The light bulb above them flickered, revealing a creature Gordon had only seen once before; the message from Mossman they had watched at the Citadel. A white, glistening shell protected mechanical apparatus around the two blue lights that were now obviously eyes. The rest of the body was a dark, silvery blue. Two long metal claws were retracted beneath the eyes, like a boxers' arms. Three legs, muscular and hooved like a bulls', only much bigger, one on either side of the head and another sprouting from the back. Aware that it had been spotted, the… thing, whatever it was, quickly darted out of sight.
"Gordon, there's something snooping around out here."
Panicking, Gordon looked for some way out. Something he could blow the doors or the windows with. There was a metal bar on the floor holding a maintenance hatch shut, maybe he could throw that at the windows and-
Moving faster than his brain could keep up with, Gordon yanked the bar from the two metal hoops keeping the metal hatch door closed and slipped down beneath the shed. It led to a crawlspace that took him to the right, around the back of the shed and then to the front.
He moved and shuffled as quickly as he could, swiping angrily at the cobwebs and squinting at the bits of dirt that bounced up into his eyes. Gordon rounded the corner, and could see the loading yard from his low angle. The Gravity Gun was snagged on the corner behind him, and he struggled to dislodge it or unwrap the leather strap from his wrist.
Alyx was in the middle of the yard, eyes searching the area around her. The huge alien thing landed behind her, knocking her to the ground.
Alyx's voice was a panicked whisper. "Oh my God-"
It was twice her height, and pursued like a feral animal as she crawled towards Gordon. The two claws Gordon has seen earlier burst through Alyx's abdomen, just below her ribcage, and she cried out with a finality that chilled Gordon's bones. The tiniest flecks of blood spattered against his HEV suit.
"No-" he managed, reaching out with his free left hand.
The alien thing relaxed its claws, letting her drop to the ground before rearing up a leg and smashing it down on the concrete above his head. It caved in on him, pinning him down. He tried to get up, using his free left arm as leverage. A large chunk of concrete collided with the back of his head, pressing his face to the filthy ground and leaving his head spinning.
He could only watch, his vision blurring like some terrible hallucination as Alyx, half-dead, desperately tried to crawl away from the alien thing. Her back was to him the entire time.
"Help me," she gasped, her voice barely above a whisper. The creature stamped a powerful leg down on her side, and Alyx went limp. Gordon's vision faded as he watched the alien thing study her like a curious dog, rolling over her body with its leg and tilting its head to the side.
The last thing he heard before the hazy blackness took him was Alyx's voice, weaker than he had ever heard it. As though saying the words was all the effort she could manage.
"Gordon… help…"
A clicking noise brought him back to consciousness with a start, and Gordon's head whipped up as best it could. The back of his head stung, though the pain was quickly receding. The creature was gone. Alyx was still there, lying just out of reach, her body limp and her face resting away from him.
Grunting, he tried to move, and found that he truly couldn't. He was stuck. Slamming his left hand down onto the ground, he tried to find something, anything to pull himself out with, but found nothing.
The source of the earlier clicking revealed itself in the form of an antlion, wings twitching as it scampered over to Alyx. It studied her for a moment, then seemed to look at him.
"No…" he said frantically, his voice a low growl as he writhed and struggled, desperately trying to stop what was about happen.
But then another low growl, much deeper than anything he could manage, emerged from the right. The antlion reared up, its claws raised to stab down through Alyx. A blast of green light made Gordon wince. When his eyes opened again, he saw the antlion flailing about on its back, random buzzes of electricity slicing over its form. Finally, it managed to right itself, and hissed at the newcomer.
It was a Vortigaunt, that same deep growl thundering from its brown, scaly throat. It stepped around Alyx, putting itself between the antlion and her. The antlion leapt at the Vortigaunt, stabbing down with its claws. Easily grabbing both limbs, the Vortigaunt tossed the smaller creature over its shoulder and slammed it into the ground. Keeping it pinned with one hand, the Vortigaunt raised another, a ball of green energy gathering in its palm.
With a cry in a language Gordon didn't understand, the Vortigaunt slammed down its hand. The antlion exploded, yellow blood bursting out across the yard. Taking only a moment to pause, the Vortigaunt turned and knelt beside Alyx.
It raised a hand over her body, and a green glow hummed to life from its palm. For a moment, Gordon panicked and tried once more to free himself. But then he saw the Vortigaunt run the hand gently up and down, like a scan.
It growled thoughtfully, its voice exactly the same as the other Vortigaunts Gordon had met since coming to City 17. A deep, throaty voice, with an air of wisdom and a surprising gentility that belied the fact that Gordon had been forced to fight so many of them to the death back at Black Mesa.
"The Alyx Vance…" it mused, resting an arm on its' leg in a disarmingly human gesture. "What harm has come…?"
Gordon tried again to move, though this time he settled for waving his hand, getting the Vortigaunt's attention. Its red eye flitted up to him casually, like someone who had just recognised an old friend across the street.
"Ah, the Freeman," it purred, "I am pleased to see at least you are unharmed." Red eye falling on Alyx, it shook its head sadly. "But the Alyx Vance… her condition is grave."
It leapt to its feet and held out its clawed hands to either side, gathering green electricity. It was a technique Gordon had seen many times before. He closed his eyes and ducked down, wrapping his left arm over his head in time for the blast of energy to shoot over him, reducing the chunks of concrete to dust.
Gordon scrambled to his feet in an instant, frantically untangling the Gravity Gun strap from his arm before skidding to a kneeling halt beside Alyx's gut-wrenchingly still form.
"Alyx…" He reached to her face, her neck, but hesitated. Could he touch her? Would it hurt her if he touched her? They needed to move her, didn't they? Could that hurt her?
"God…" he whispered, then looked up to the Vortigaunt desperately. "Can you help?"
The Vortigaunt tilted its head to the side, as though unsure. "Healing her will require more than I alone can conjure. Let me summon my kin."
It walked to the middle of the loading bay, and Gordon's attention flickered from it to Alyx and then back again.
Cupping its hands in front of its face, the Vortigaunt let out a cry that oscillated rather than echoed through the air. It felt like it vibrated through Gordon's entire body instead of just his ears. From somewhere in the forest that stretched out before them, a similar Vortigaunt cry came back, sounding like a question.
The conversation went on for a little longer, but Gordon's attention was back on Alyx. God, she was so pale. He reached out with a tentative gloved hand, finally touching her cheek with the very tips of his fingers. "Please be okay."
Its communication apparently over, the Vortigaunt crouched down on the other side of Alyx, eye to eye with Gordon.
"My kin will meet us at a sheltered location beneath the surface. We must move her there quickly." Spindly arms reached down towards Alyx, and the Vortigaunt paused to look up at him, as though checking for permission. "I will stabilise her, if the Freeman will provide us with protection."
He nodded, hurriedly scooping up the Gravity Gun and once more entwining the leather strap around his wrist. Looking back to the Vortigaunt, he saw it scoop up Alyx, its long arms almost wrapping around her as it held her up with an ease belying the spindly arms.
"Let us hurry, Freeman. Help awaits us in the mines."
"Right," he said breathlessly, leading the way through the gate and into the mining complex. Hopefully there would be a lift somewhere they could take down, and then the Vortigaunt would know where to go.
That was a lot of 'hopefully's.
antlions fluttered and buzzed overhead in different directions, apparently ignorant to their presence. The pathway turned abruptly to the left, and Gordon followed it around. A fence on the right ran along until the wall at the end of the passageway, and Gordon tried to ignore the antlions racing past on the other side, heading for a hole in the wall that looked as though it had been dissolved away.
"We must hasten," the Vortigaunt urged quietly. "Her state is delicate."
Reaching the end of the passageway, they found an old elevator waiting for them in the building on the left. The kind of elevator with no walls or doors, just old rusting guardrails and the whims of God deciding whether you survived or not. A lot like his life in general, really. The elevator car itself was jammed halfway down the ledge in front of them, leaving Gordon just enough room to slip inside. It didn't look particularly safe.
"Perhaps the Freeman can restore this elevator's functionality," his new companion said calmly, stating it as more of a fact than a question.
He looked to the Vortigaunt, to Alyx, then to the elevator. Taking a breath, he slipped inside, the Gravity Gun clanking against the roof of the cramped elevator as he did so.
"Use care, Freeman."
"Will do," he mumbled. The whole thing creaked and jerked the moment his boots made contact with the grated floor. Breathlessly, his gaze became locked on the wall, as though even moving his eyes would jostle the lift. Gradually, the creaking subsided, and Gordon allowed himself a breath of relief. He looked up to the Vortigaunt with a relieved smile.
"It's o-"
With a metallic crash, something above his head snapped, and the elevator plunged into the darkness below. Gordon grabbed the guardrails on either side of him as sparks flew from the brakes lodged into the corners beneath the elevator. He heard the vague echo of the Vortigaunt shouting his name, but the screeching and groaning of the metal around him drowned it out.
Finally, and with far less force than Gordon was expecting, the elevator crashed to a halt at the bottom of the shaft. Murky light poured in from the wooden corridor in front of him, and Gordon was once more reminded of Ravenholm. At least there was light here.
"Freeman! Are you well?"
Coughing from the cloud of dust that billowed up from beneath him, Gordon waved his hand around before banging it down on the metal guardrail beside him. "Fine, just… dusty."
"Then press on, Freeman, if you are able. I will take her to my kin by another path."
Nodding even though he knew the Vortigaunt couldn't see him, Gordon heaved himself to his feet, rubbing the dust from his hair.
"Take care of her," he said loudly, trying and failing to see around the dented metal roof of the elevator.
"Indeed," it said simply, voice echoing down to him.
Gordon took a few steps into the corridor before looking back to the elevator shaft. "Where am I…" he sighed, knowing the Vortigaunt was gone. "…going…"
He turned and looked into the shadowy abyss beyond. Taking a deep breath, he moved onwards into the mines.
Unlike Ravenholm, the population of the mines included not just zombies, but antlions as well. Although, much to his relief, the only remnants he found of both were exactly that. Dead bodies, the occasional limb left carelessly to lie in the corner of the dusty tunnels. The occasional buzz of antlions set him on edge, but none appeared.
After what felt like fifteen minutes of aimless wandering through deserted tunnels and dropping down through ominously smooth holes in the floor, Gordon eventually came upon a tunnel that was unlike those he had seen before. It looked like it was made of cobwebs, though much smoother. Gordon guessed he would have to crouch down to get through.
Eyes on the new tunnel, he didn't notice the slug creature on the floor until he had stepped on it, crushing it completely. It let out a low squeal of protest as it died. Looking down, Gordon saw the flattened remains of what looked like a giant grub. Lifting his foot, he frowned at the thick, sticky goo that trailed off from the creature. It seemed to be glowing, though the light had dimmed considerably since its death.
Casting his gaze around, he saw more on the walls and a few more on the ceiling. He rubbed his foot on the floor beside the deceased grub, and shrugged down at it.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
A shriek of protest echoed down from his left, and Gordon's gaze whipped over in time to see a spray of white liquid arching through the air towards him, droplets as big as his head hurtling down. He turned and leapt, rolling back behind the cover of the tunnel he had just emerged from. The liquid landed on the floor, bubbling and sizzling against the ground and melting a good section of it away.
That was acid. Something had just thrown acid at him. Gripping both handles on the Gravity Gun as tightly as possible, Gordon slowly peered around the corner. What he initially thought was an antlion shot out at him, and he withdrew his head with only the slightest of girly yelps, rolling and scrambling to his feet. Whirling around with the Gravity Gun, Gordon brought it to bear on the antlion.
Only to be confronted by something completely different. Though it was the same size and made similar sounds, it wasn't an antlion. Or at least, it wasn't any kind of antlion he had ever seen before. It was a paler green, more natural. A large head sprouted from the end of a long body, the four legs long and intertwining back on themselves in a complicated way that seemed terribly inefficient to Gordon. Two thin, long wings were attached to the middle of the antlions' body, though Gordon couldn't help but wonder just how much they actually helped with flight.
What really had his attention at the moment was the white droplets of acid falling from the creature's mouth, leaving the smallest of holes in the ground. Gordon stepped cautiously to the right, then back to the left. It was following him. No, more than that, mirroring him. Like it was trying to stop him from…
Realisation dawned, and he glanced to the dead grub behind the antlion.
He closed his eyes and sighed. "Protecting your young…"
By way of response, it lurched back with a hiss, gathering more acid before spitting it out. Gordon leapt to the side, rolling and coming up in kneeling position. He blasted the antlion, sending it hurtling over onto its back. It flailed uselessly, hissing and flapping its wings in a vain attempt to escape. Not entirely proud of himself, Gordon continued blasting the antlion until it was dead, lying peacefully on its back.
"Sorry," he said again, still not feeling like it was enough.
He moved on, walking though the cobweb tunnel. He ran his hand along their surface as he went, and found it far more solid then he had been expecting. He emerged out into an enormous chasm that almost literally took his breath away. The rock was a dark, cool blue. Water dripped somewhere in the distance, the sound echoing off the walls and surrounding him. His footsteps did much the same as he walked along a rocky cliff-side path. He couldn't see anything down below, just darkness.
His eyes on anything but the path, he ended up crushing several more grubs.
Following the path took him through more of the cobweb tunnels (more grubs squashed) and into dark caves that looked as though they had been undisturbed by man for some time before the creatures from Xen started moving in. Any antlions he came across here launched themselves at him only to skid into the deep lake separating them and fumble uselessly, splashing in every direction before going limp and sinking beneath the still waters.
Edging his way around the lake, Gordon circumnavigated several more underground canyons and caves, feeling more like a scientist devoted to wildlife than a misplaced theoretical physicist. True, a scientist devoted to wildlife that killed everything he came across, but still. The point still stood.
Eventually finding his way into another yellowy cobweb tunnel, lit by grubs that seemed to deliberately position themselves beneath his boots, Gordon began to worry that he was well and truly lost. Every turning just led to more of the same tunnels, and his back began to ache after the seventh or so turning.
His jaw set in frustration. This was going to take awhile, and he really couldn't afford to get lost. There wasn't the time, not with Alyx in the state she was. He and Alyx… it was the longest consistent period of time he had spent with someone in… well, a long time. Seeing her lying on the floor like that, blood seeping through her shirt, her skin pale…
Gordon sighed, and shook his head. She was a sneaky one. Without him even noticing, she had managed to become one of the most important people in his life.
He hoped she was going to be all right. He really did.
(A/N: So, yeah. I like to think that Race X was an advanced Combine scout party. I remember thinking of the Race X/Combine connection and being incredibly proud of myself, only to Google it and realise that plenty of other people had come up with the same theory. Ah, well. I like it. Gives Shephard's story more importance in the whole grand scheme of things, I think. Of course, there'll probably be a line in Episode Three that completely debunks that theory in every way, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Either way, reviews please!
Next Chapter: This Vortal Coil)