Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.
Aftermath
Chapter Nine: Riding Shotgun
With an authoritative clearing of her throat, Alyx managed to stop the fit of giggles as they emerged from the tunnel onto a woodland road. The terrain around the road was rocky, punctuated by fir trees sprouting out from all around them. On their left, a sparkling, shallow river rushed past in the opposite direction, reflecting both the sunlight and the blue glow of the Citadel portal. On the other side of the river, a well beaten path curved in a zigzag up a slope beyond and out of Gordon's sight.
Bringing his gaze back up to the road, Gordon saw a wall of crashed cars piled up at the entrance of another tunnel ahead. He slammed down the brakes, and they skid to a grinding halt on the gritty road. Alyx slammed a hand down on the dashboard and grunted, grasping onto the chair with the other. The engine hummed, vibrating the car as Alyx peered through the front at the blocked tunnel.
"Should've known it wouldn't be as easy as just driving down the road," she said with a wry smile. "Looks like we'll have to take a detour."
Looking back over his shoulder, Gordon saw a gap in the metal barrier separating the road from the riverbank. Shoving the car into the reverse, Gordon backed up through the gap and into the river. Water splashed onto their backs from behind, and Alyx groaned, wiping cold water from her exposed neck.
"Sorry," Gordon mumbled, accelerating along the river and secretly enjoying the sprays of water that shot out either side. He eventually turned, climbing the other side of the riverbank and driving up the pathway. Turning back and forth on the long 'S' shape of the path, Gordon spotted flashing red dots coming from somewhere on top of the hill.
His glasses being as murky as they were, Gordon couldn't quite make out what it was, and pointed. "Can you see that?"
Alyx followed his gaze and sat forward in her seat. "A radio tower! If it's working, we need to send a warning to White Forest. They've got no idea the Combine's heading their way."
With a terse nod, Gordon increased speed, kicking up a cloud of dust behind them as he did a hairpin on the last turning.
"Gordon," Alyx laughed, admonishing.
With a shrug, Gordon continued driving up the hill, bringing them to a resistance encampment. A wooden fence ran around the perimeter of the camp, reminding Gordon of the old towns in westerns. The image was completed by the gate they drove underneath, the attached sign with a spray painted lambda symbol swinging in the wind.
The radio tower stood atop a large warehouse on the left, red lights flashing around three dishes fixed to the tip. The front three quarters of the warehouse were stripped bare, the ceiling and walls missing or falling apart. The rear section of the building was in better shape, slightly bulkier than the rest and the part that the radio tower was erected upon. There were still some holes in the walls, though they were much smaller.
Thick cables ran along the roof of the warehouse and above their heads, leading to one of two smaller buildings opposite. They were more the size of a bungalow, the one closest to them both the largest and the one attached to the other end of the cables. The troughs and wooden trailers resting about the buildings betrayed the encampment's farming origins.
Gordon cut the ignition, and the car rumbled into silence. Wind rushed around the Combine portal, and thunder rumbled in the distance.
Alyx pulled herself up from her seat, holding on to the metal bar above her head. "Nobody's home," she murmured, her voice the only sound in the encampment. "Wonder how long it's been deserted."
Slipping out of the car, Gordon lifted the Gravity Gun from its' spot hanging from the headrest. He looked around with a wary eye as he slipped it over his shoulders. "Not sure if I like it."
She 'hmm'ed her agreement, pulling out her pistol as she ventured a few steps away from the car. "They must have a transmitter in one of these buildings."
Gordon nodded, tracing a finger through the air along the cable from the warehouse to the building. "That one, I think."
Moving together to either side of the front door, Gordon tried not to show how much he enjoyed doing the 'count to three, then jump into insane situation' ritual. He kicked the door open, covering Alyx with the revolver as she ran inside. It was a large, tiled room, like a large kitchen. Two rooms in the far left-hand corner were a bathroom and a toilet, respectively. Both were scummy and obviously hadn't seen much use in recent years.
"Well, here's the transmitter," Alyx said, holstering her pistol and rushing over to the right corner.
Following her, Gordon joined her at a large widescreen monitor mounted on the peeling wall, in much better condition than the one they had used in that shack a few hours ago. Gathered on a metal table beneath it were stacks of radio controls, with the odd computer tower thrown in for good measure. They were all linked up to the monitor through no cables Gordon could see, though he did note the cabinets pressed to the walls that probably would have hummed if they were active.
Confirming Gordon's assessment, Alyx poked at a couple of buttons and dials before sighing back at him. "No power, though. Let's see if we can get some electricity going."
Nodding tiredly, Gordon moved back outside, making a beeline for the warehouse opposite. That was where the radio tower was based, after all. Looking through the gaping holes in the walls, there wasn't anything of use in the front section of the warehouse, just collapsed bits of ceilings and piles of bricks. The back section was blocked from the inside by a series of wooden shelves on the left side and locked wooden doors on the right.
Edging around the right side of the warehouse, Gordon walked up a slope that rose up to the side of the building, almost consuming that corner. It gave him easy access to the roof of the building, and, holstering the revolver for the moment, Gordon climbed aboard.
"I'll keep a lookout while you poke around inside," Alyx called out from below, and promptly ran back into the open, taking up a position beside the car.
Clambering up the back section of the roof, Gordon had to concentrate hard on his footing, the wavy metal surface slipping even beneath the grips of his boots. Though they had probably been melted away by explosions and clogged up with sludge, blood and mud by this point. Gordon let out an impressed grunt out how poetic that sounded before continuing along, eventually resorting to climbing along on all fours.
He finally came across a hole in the wall on the other side of the building, and dropped down to the ground there. Gaps in the wall ahead on the left looked through into the front section of the warehouse. He was in what appeared like an outdoor corridor, blocked off from the rest of the encampment by tall brick walls. Not so tall he couldn't have climbed over, though. Grumbling, Gordon turned and leapt up with his arms stretched out above his head, latching on to the hole and heaving himself through. It wasn't a graceful landing, his head tipping through first and his legs flipping over his head before he slammed onto his back.
Groaning, he gave his head a little shake before sitting up, setting his askew glasses straight. Shelves ran along the left wall and along to the one opposite Gordon, stacked to the gills with bottles of various industrial cleansers. All of them were ancient, caked in dust and cobwebs. A long counter in the middle of the room had two sinks, one on either side. Tucked into the far left corner of the room was a rather out-of-place lift platform. Or at least, there would have been a lift platform if the power had been on. As it was, it was just a square hole in the ground.
Getting to his feet, Gordon's boots kicked against broken bottles and small chunks of wood. Reaching the hole in the ground, Gordon dropped down the single story to the basement below. The latticework metal platform rattled against the impact of his feet. Stepping inside, Gordon checked around the bare, darkened room, his eyes finally settling on the wall almost behind him on the right. A thick power cable hung from one of two large metal power outlets. The other inlet rested askew on the floor. He opened his mouth to ask Alyx for advice before slamming it shut again. Shrugging, he picked up the plug and clamped it into the outlet.
Something electric hummed into life above him, and a light shone down onto the elevator platform from the floor above.
"Okay, power's on out here!" Alyx called out.
Gordon nodded, satisfied with himself as he stepped onto the platform and pressed the ascend button. All things considered, that was easier than he-
He saw Alyx leaping down through the upper hole in the wall on the right, her face wrought with panic.
"God, oh god," she whispered, sprinting over and skidding to a halt behind the counter, putting it between her and the rest of the warehouse ahead. "Gordon, hide."
Revolver clutched tightly in his hand, Gordon crouched down behind the counter. Looking up through the thin windows that lined the upper corners of the room, he saw a set of two familiar blue eyes glaring through.
"Hunters," Alyx whispered, her voice catching. "They're out there."
It disappeared from the window, leaping up out of sight. Gordon wasn't sure if it had spotted them or not. Powerful hooves thumped above them, thin wisps of dust trickling down with every footstep.
Finger to her lips, Alyx frantically shushed. "It's on the roof…"
Their eyes followed the footsteps as they banged overhead, until the Hunter finally leapt down through a hole in the ceiling and into the front section of the warehouse. It was separated from them by the shelves and locked doors Gordon had spotted from the other side.
"Here it comes," Alyx chanted, pistol grasped up by her head. "They're not gonna catch me off guard," she said determinedly, eyes locked on the ground. "Not this time."
A series of flashes made Gordon duck his head, a sound accompanying them that reminded him of bullets shooting through water. It terrified him a little that he knew what that sounded like. Thin black darts shot through the air, leaving a thin trail of luminescent blue light and lodging into the wall behind them. The dart was wider at the back, holding a sack of glowing blue liquid that was responsible for the light trail he had seen before. A high pitched whine filled the air, and Gordon looked up at the darts with a cautious wince.
The whine increased in pitch until it almost hurt his ears before finally exploding, leaving a crater in the brickwork and showering white hot sparks down on them. Alyx seemed unaffected by the blast, holding her pistol in the air and firing blindly at the Hunter. Revolver ahead of him, Gordon crawled to the edge of the counter and peered around.
An unseen nozzle beneath the Hunter's eyes flashed like a strobe light, firing more darts towards them and gradually smashing through the doors and shelves that separated them. It wouldn't be long before it made its way through and attacked them head on, and Gordon didn't really rate their chances in this confined space. Because of the manner in which the Hunter was strafing from side to side, only a few of Alyx's shots actually made contact, and those that did weren't having much of an effect. Gordon stretched his arm around and took aim, hitting the Hunter in the side.
The Hunter twitched a little, and a small stream of grey goo spilled out from the wound. Then it abruptly stopped, and the Hunter continued on as though nothing had happened. Gordon pulled himself back behind the counter, closing his eyes and jerking his head away when more darts exploded above their heads. He tapped Alyx on the leg. Still keeping her gun perched above the counter, she looked at him frantically, trying to keep control in the face of the creature that had nearly killed her.
"Guns aren't working!" he shouted, before pointing to the hole in the wall. "Out in the open!"
Glancing unsurely from him and to the ledge of the counter, Alyx eventually nodded her agreement, albeit reluctantly.
Gordon jerked a finger towards the hole. "I'll cover you, then I'll follow!"
Counting to three with his fingers, Gordon leapt to his feet while Alyx sprinted around the counter with her head down. He fired off three shots at the Hunter, only managing to hit it with two. It was more than enough time for Alyx to nimbly grab onto the ledge and vault through the hole, disappearing onto the other side. Gordon prepared his sprint when an almighty crash from the other side of the counter made him reconsider, wood and glass showering onto him.
The Hunter was on top of the counter, blank eyes snarling down at him. Gordon jumped to his feet, charging around the counter and sprinting through the now smashed shelving. He tripped and stumbled into the open section of the warehouse, and went for the holes in the wall on the left that led to the outdoor corridor he had been in earlier. A row of darts embedding into the ground ahead of him forced a detour, and Gordon did a sharp turn away, jumping from the explosions and rolling along the ground.
He came to a stop just in front of the locked wooden doors that led out to the encampment, and leapt to his feet in time to see the Hunter charging into his chest. It felt like a battering ram, and threw him back and through the wooden doors faster than his brain could keep up with. Within a few seconds, he was rolling and skidding along the dusty ground of the encampment. The Hunter followed him out, stopping for a brief moment at the doorway of the warehouse before charging at him again.
Gunshots from Gordon's left hit the Hunter in the legs, and it stumbled off-course. It was Alyx, standing beside the corner of the warehouse. The Hunter growled and lowered its head, shaking it almost angrily before charging at her instead. Gordon scrambled to his feet, Gravity Gun at the ready. Head whipping about, he saw the trough he had spotted earlier, and yanked it to him. Whirling on the spot, he fired it at the back of the Hunter. The metal container hit the Hunter at an angle, bouncing off and into the air, making the creature stumble. It almost looked like it would fall over, and Alyx backed out of the way, moving around Gordon and behind him.
Gordon pulled the trough to him again, and aimed it towards the dizzied Hunter, which was turning towards them. He fired, hitting it head on and knocking it onto its' back. The trough ricocheted into the air, and Gordon snatched it towards him again. The Hunter was getting back up again, its legs shaky. Its once smooth dark blue surface was cracked and leaking grey liquid which pooled at its feet. Gordon walked forward and fired again, point blank, crushing the Hunter's face and sending it tumbling limply back, heels over head.
"Killed it! We killed it!" Alyx cheered from behind him, her smile showing through her tone. "Gordon, we can take-"
A dull thud interrupted her, and Gordon turned to see another Hunter, having rammed into her and thrown her into the side of the warehouse. It stood over her, snarling with claws extended. Her gun had been knocked from her grip, and was lying at the entrance to the transmitter building. Gordon pulled out the revolver, and tossed it up in the air, snatching and grasping it by the barrel.
"Alyx!" he called out, tossing it as he would a flat stone across water. The Hunter turned curiously as the gun sailed through the air past its very eyes, following it until it landed in Alyx's waiting grasp.
She brought the weapon to bear and fired, putting a bullet through the Hunter's top eye. Wailing with a pitch so high it made Gordon's ears hurt, the Hunter stumbled back, grey blood practically spewing forth. Determination knotting her features, Alyx got to her feet and took aim again, firing the last bullet at the Hunter's lower eye. The shot silenced the Hunter, the creature abruptly toppling to the ground and lying still.
The encampment was quiet again. A cold wind blew through, though Gordon assumed that wasn't why Alyx was shaking. He was about to walk over when she blinked, straightened her back, and marched over to him, handing the revolver back.
"Thanks," she said tersely.
He slowly took it, studying her. "You okay?"
"Yeah, fine, I…" Her shoulders slackening, she let out a breath, finally managing a tired smile. "I just think I needed that."
"Glad I could help."
She grinned, and hooked a thumb towards the transmitter building. "We should get our warning out and then keep moving. That was probably a scouting party."
Following her in, Gordon frowned as he scooped up her pistol from beside the doorway. "That was a scouting party?"
"No kidding," Alyx laughed, taking the pistol. "Combine don't do anything small, do they?"
While she busied herself at the monitor, Gordon moved to the window that looked out at the car. He could see the portal twisting and churning in the distance.
"Here it is, okay…" Alyx muttered to herself. "The signal's really weak."
The monitor made an affirmative clicking noise, and static filled the screen, bathing Alyx in white light.
She took a breath, leaning forward on the table and fiddling with a dial. "Well, let's give it a try… White Forest, come in. White Forest, do you read?" After giving it a moment to adjust some more controls, she tried again. "White Forest, do you read?"
A loud voice boomed out of the speakers, making both Alyx and Gordon jump.
"This is White Forest, identify yourself."
The static cut away to reveal the same control room Eli and the others had been gathered in earlier, though it was now occupied by a rebel with stubble and eyes that were maybe a little too intense. Gordon recognised the figure behind him, even though his back was to them. Dr Magnusson, shoulders hunched and working on something that was probably mind-bendingly complicated and important.
A little taken aback, Alyx took a moment before speaking. "This is-"
"Alyx?" Magnusson boomed, his head tilting up like a dog who had heard the word 'walkies'.He whirled on the spot, waving the rebel away and leaning into the screen, his face filling the monitor. It wasn't a pleasant sight. "Alyx Vance? Where are you? I expected you hours ago."
"We…" she glanced at Gordon. "…had a bit of a set-back."
Magnusson's glare intensified as he scrutinized them both. "Don't you understand the gravity of the situation? The survival of Earth depends on the data you carry!"
"We know!" Gordon and Alyx groaned simultaneously.
Alyx shook her head, and addressed Magnusson directly. "But the Combine, they're heading your way!"
Static flickered over Magnusson's image, and he turned his ear towards them. His voice cut out as he practically scolded them over the airwaves. "What? What's that, what? You're heading our way? Well I should hope so!"
"No, not us, the Combine!" Alyx said desperately. "You have to get ready!"
"What?" The monitor was more static than Magnusson now, chipping away at his voice until it was gone. "Y-'re brea- up, Alyx! What? Wh-"
The static was abruptly replaced by the image of a Combine Advisor, bathed in green light and staring out at both of them. Alyx slammed a hand on the power button, and the monitor deactivated.
"Crap," she muttered. "I wonder if he got any of that." Sighing, she looked back to Gordon. "Let's keep going. See if we can pick up the road somewhere ahead."
Gordon managed to get the car started pretty smoothly this time, with no stalling or awkward jerkiness at all. He felt quite proud of himself as the car roared through the gate on the other side of the encampment and out onto the rough forest terrain. Dirt and grit kicked out from beneath the thick tyres as the car bounced along the uneven ground, and Alyx had to visibly grab on for most of the journey. There were a few close calls with some unexpected trees that seemed to appear out of nowhere from behind the canyon walls, but the path was largely clear of obstacles.
After a sudden, short drop that made Alyx audibly squeak and caused such a loud metallic crash from beneath the car that Gordon was worried he had broken it, they reached a cliff-side path overlooking a slew of railway lines. Old trailers and shipping containers had been left to rust on the tracks.
"Hey, I know that peak!" Alyx said excitedly, having to shout to be heard over the exposed engine. "You can see it from White Forest! We're heading the right way."
He glanced from the steeply downward sloping path to glance over to the right, and saw the peak on the horizon that Alyx was referring to. Returning his gaze back to the sort-of road, he saw that the path was taking them down and then to the right in a u-turn, probably to the railway lines. As they approached the bottom of the slope, however, the sight of uprooted trees and billowing smoke on the left made Gordon slow down.
He brought the car to a slow crawl, eventually stopping beside the still gleaming white object.
"It's one of those Advisor pods," Alyx said, her voice quiet and a little awestruck. "Back in the Citadel, those things we saw."
"Crash landing," he added, hesitantly peering out from the side of the car. A thick, muddy trail had been left behind the long, slug like pod, the ground having been shoved along by the crash until it had gathered at the front, stopping its rapid descent. "Looks empty."
Suppressing a shudder, Gordon moved along, turning the car around and heading for the railway. They had to drive between a large barn on the left, and an old house on the right, white paint peeling from the latter. An ominous hole in the roof of the barn didn't fill Gordon with great confidence. Eyes on the horizon, he noticed that the gate leading out onto the railway lines was closed. He stopped the car, and switched off the ignition.
"We'll need to find the controls for the gate," he muttered, frustrated and feeling more than a little tense about the missing Advisor. One of those things had nearly fried their brains from the inside out. Spending any more time around them was not a concept he relished.
Gordon was just slipping the strap from the Gravity Gun over his shoulders again when his head felt like it was shook from the inside. His vision narrowed like a telescope for a brief moment, blackness encroaching in from all sides. Then it was gone, though everything seemed much paler, almost black and white. Blinking a couple of times, colour returned, and he looked back to Alyx over the car.
The troubled frown told him he wasn't the only one who felt it. "Uh, what…" Her eyes darted from side to side, her head fixed. "…what was that?"
Taking a breath, Gordon nodded to cloud of smoke in the distance, then turned to go into the barn. "Three guesses…"
The front doors were locked, but a corridor ran around the right-hand side of the barn and presumably led inside. Gordon reached the corner, and was only distracted by two surprisingly fresh pumpkins on the floor for a moment. Shaking the thought away, he peered around the wall and down the corridor. All clear, though he could make out two bodies at the far end.
Another jolt went through his brain, and Gordon ducked his head. He heard Alyx groan from behind him, and glanced back at her almost black and white form. Pistol drawn in one hand, she was rubbing her eyes with the other. She blinked them widely before nodding for him to proceed, the colour of her skin gradually returning to his vision.
As they got closer to the locked door at the end of the corridor, Gordon could see that the two bodies were resistance members. There was a sizeable hole in the floorboards beside them, leading to dark, sandy ground below.
"Looks like we weren't the first to find this place…" Alyx muttered, kneeling down to check on the rebels.
There were no obvious wounds, but Alyx's shake of the head after checking their pulses confirmed their absolute deadness.
Gordon didn't bother to suppress the shudder this time. "Oh, this isn't creepy at all…" he murmured, noting the Combine retinal lock that had been clamped to the wooden door.
After a deep breath, Alyx pushed down on her knees as she stood up. With a tight, resigned smile, she just said, "Ladies first," before hopping down through the hole in the floorboards.
Asking himself whether he actually saw Alyx just do that, Gordon knelt by hole, calling inside. "Alyx, I don't think-"
But she was already gone. With a frustrated sigh, Gordon slipped down. He had to crouch down to move inside the sandy tunnel. They were beneath a wooden platform, stairs on their left descending from above their heads and into the main area of the barn. Gordon followed Alyx out into the open. Just before he emerged, his vision blurred and his head once again shook from the inside out. He dizzily clambered to his feet beside Alyx. They were both silent for a moment while they shook off the effects.
"I think we found our Advisor," she said quietly, her eyes on a metal shape hanging from the top left hand corner of the room. It was so big it almost touched the floor. A layered metallic shell was wrapped down the front of whatever it was - life support, maybe - protecting the Advisor inside. Thick cables hung from both sides of the dark metal casing, leading to the left-hand wall, which was largely cool Combine metal.
A dead resistance member lay slumped forward on a large Combine control panel in the middle of the wall beside them, her fingers still poised on the buttons. Instead of a monitor in the centre, however, a dark metal pillar had been erected.
"The Vort said we should kill them before they hatch," Alyx said over her shoulder, her eyes looked on the mesmerising device.
His eyes also locked on the metal casing, Gordon tilted his head over. "Victory said."
Rolling her eyes, Alyx fixed him with a stare. "Okay, Victory said." She scanned the room before locking onto the console. "Ah, life support. What do you say, Gordon?" she said, moving over to it. "Shall we pull the plug?"
"Uh…" Gordon tore his eyes away from the Advisor pod, moving to her side as she gently grabbed onto the dead rebel. "I'm not sure we should…"
"Sorry about this…" Alyx said quietly, pulling the body back and awkwardly letting her slump to the floor. She started tapping away on the controls instantly, talking to herself more than him while she worked. "Maybe I can get this open… there we go."
With a low mechanical drone, the metal pillar slowly disappeared down into the console, revealing the power orb hovering inside a cylindrical force field. Alyx backed away, eyes on Gordon, and gestured towards the orb.
"Over to you, Gordon."
Uncertainly and extremely slowly, Gordon brought the Gravity Gun around to bear, pointed towards the hovering sphere of energy. His finger tapped against the trigger nervously, and he looked over at the Advisor pod. There wasn't a choice, really. If they left it here, it could go unnoticed by the Vortigaunts and unleash who knew how much hell on what remained of the human population. Gordon's wouldn't be responsible for anyone else dying. Not if he could help it.
Steeling himself, Gordon returned his attention to the orb. He aimed, and fired a bolt of golden energy at the orb, propelling it out of the force field and into the wall behind. The console beeped frantically as the sphere bounced around above their heads, the combined noises making Gordon wince.
Thin wisps of dark green light rushed around them noiselessly, fading out of existence every time Gordon tried to look at them. With an abruptness that shocked him, Gordon was suddenly jerked up into the air, though only by a few feet. Once there, he remained, floating weightlessly. The same had happened to Alyx, and she looked at her loose arms wondrously. A barrel from the other side of the room had also been jerked into the air, along with the dead resistance member. The orb exploded overhead, and seemed to be the signal for the now sparking Advisor pod.
With a sound like metal grinding on metal, the segmented shell at the front of the pod slid up agonisingly slowly, piece by piece. Inside, the maggot-shaped Advisor peered out. A small black device with two blue lights attached to the side of its… head seemed to be its eyes, though it looked more like a camera, particularly in the way it swivelled about. The white exposed dome that made up the head had a small black harness above a small hole just below the centre. What looked like reigns dangled from it, though Gordon doubted anyone rode them. The rest of the creature was encased in a grey sack, though it looked more like it had been forced in from the way it was visibly stretching. It reminded Gordon of a caterpillar.
A thick wad of cables connected up to a plug halfway down the underside of the beast, though some were disconnecting, hanging loose and sparking. Smoke billowed from the console, obscuring Gordon's view of the Advisor for just a moment.
He, Alyx, the barrel and the rebel were slowly lifted into the air for inspection. Then, with a familiar and painful red flash behind his eyes, Gordon was suddenly flung across to the right side of the barn, colliding with the wall with such force his head snapped back and cracked against it. The HEV suit beeped and did its work while Gordon searched for Alyx. She was just beside him on the left, pressed against a pillar by the invisible hands that held them.
Gordon tried to move, and found that he couldn't. Alyx was having similar difficulty, her head stuck at an awkward sideways angle. What looked like heat waves shimmered from their bodies, though Gordon couldn't feel any kind of heat. If anything, the ethereal grip made him feel colder.
Eyes tilted down, the Advisor summoned the barrel closer to its face. After a quick inspection, a fleshy tentacle emerged from the hole on the front of the creature, slick and gleaming under the sunlight trickling in from above. It spiralled out towards the barrel, the tip of the fleshy protuberance poking against it several times before recoiling in disgust. With a low groan that sounded like a baby's whine coming from the Advisor, the barrel suddenly crumpled in on itself, as though a giant hand had squeezed it.
Without a further glance, the Advisor tossed the barrel away, shooting it down into the corner of the barn. It then focused its attention on the dead rebel. Gordon could only watch in muted horror as the body hovered up to the creature. Alyx, however, was still struggling against her invisible bonds, grunting in frustration with each tug of her shoulders.
The Advisor's tentacle slid out again, this time prodding at the rebel's exposed neck, her head lolling back serenely. Once again frustrated, the creature turned the body on the spot, and her head drooped forward. The tentacle stroked the back of her neck for a few moments before rearing back slowly. It dove forward, puncturing the neck and spilling rivers of still fresh blood from the back of the rebel's head.
"Oh my God!" Alyx cried, her struggle frozen for the moment.
Gordon felt ill in a way he hadn't since the first days after the resonance cascade, and tried to turn his head away. Finding it locked in place, he could only watch as the Advisor finished its' feast, withdrawing the tentacle. It gave the eviscerated body only the most casual of looks before twisting the torso around and back with a sickening crunch, like someone wringing a wet rag to squeeze the moisture out. Blood dripped to the floor, splashing onto the pool that had gathered there. The body flew across the barn, slamming into the bottom of the stairs leading out of the room.
An explosion suddenly burst out from the containment pod, hitting the Advisor in the side. It reeled for only a moment, writhing and screeching more out of discomfort than genuine pain. Slowly, it rotated its gaze around before finally settling on him.
Gordon suddenly felt a lot colder. He suddenly jerked forward, away from the wall and inexorably towards the Advisor.
"Gordon!"
He tried to turn and face her, but he was hopelessly stuck in place, arms jammed down at his sides like a toy soldier. The Advisor's breath brushed against his face, foul and hot. Trying to keep his breathing under control, he failed miserably when he saw the pink, fleshy tentacle emerge, spiralling slowly towards him. Gordon closed his eyes. So this was it. This was how the One Free Man was going to die. Eaten by an inter-dimensional maggot. His only real regret was Alyx. He really should have told her-
A sudden explosion and flash of burning pain made Gordon open his eyes. The same compartment of the pod had exploded again, this time blowing loose a power cable which now jolted the Advisor almost continually. Snarling and screeching, it tossed Gordon down into the ground. The pressure on his chest increased as the creature flew up into the air, writhing around wildly, and Gordon found it hard to breathe.
The wooden support beams for the ceiling creaked and snapped, metal sheets tearing and falling down before warping in mid-air, swirling around and forming an angry vortex around the Advisor. It glared down at him through the maelstrom, and for a few worrying moments, Gordon thought it would come for him again. Then, turning up to the now gaping hole in the roof, it shot up into the sky, trailing wood and metal behind it as it soared out of sight.
Chunks of wood and metal left behind tumbled to the floor, and Alyx along with them. Gordon gasped for breath when the pressure suddenly disappeared from his chest. Coughing, he rolled onto his side. Alyx was on her feet already, leaning back against the pillar and staring up at the hole in the ceiling.
"Oh my God…" She quickly blinked herself out of it, rushing over and kneeling down beside him. He felt a gentle hand on his back, tilting him up into a sitting position.
"You okay?"
He nodded wordlessly, still coughing.
"Okay, just breathe, all right?" she soothed. "Breathe."
Gordon did so, taking deep breaths through his nose and out his mouth. "You?"
"Yeah, fine, just…" She sighed, her breath a little shaky. "…thank God you're all right."
Looking up, his gaze locked onto hers. "…yeah. Yeah, you too."
The moment quickly became awkward, and Alyx quickly looked up to the clear sky above. "That thing was hurt, did you see it?" She blew out a breath, shaking her head. "I can only imagine what it would have done if-"
An echoing, automated voice came through from outside. The Combine's cheerleader, addressing autonomous units and talking about sectors and expunging.
"Uh-oh," Alyx said, jumping to her feet. "Sounds like it called its friends."
Sighing, Gordon dropped his head, slowly and painfully hefting himself to his feet. A croaky, static-filled voice made him whirl on the spot, muffled by the wooden door.
"Soldiers," Alyx gasped, slipping out her pistol.
The Combine lock on the door began to beep, the red retinal scanner flashing ominously. While Alyx moved behind the pillar to take cover, Gordon moved to the stairs, slipping underneath and crawling for the hole in the floorboards of the corridor outside. Gripping the crowbar tightly, and positioning himself underneath the hole, he stood up suddenly, the floor ending at his waistline.
Two soldiers on the other side of the door looked a little surprised to see the torso of Gordon Freeman poking up out of the ground; he imagined he must have resembled a mole or a rabbit.
"Hi," he said with a cheeriness that came out of nowhere.
Swinging the crowbar, he thwacked it into the shins of the soldier stood in front. He fell awkwardly onto his front, and Gordon followed it up with a vicious hammer to the back of the head. The soldier behind brought up his pulse rifle, and Gordon promptly ducked back down in time for the lock on the door to explode, blanketing the corridor in smoke. Distracted by Gordon's sudden appearance, the explosion caught the soldier off-guard, leaving him no time to avoid Alyx's gunfire.
Gordon popped back up again and pushed himself up onto ground floor in time to meet Alyx coming in through the doorway.
"Nice shot," Gordon grunted, getting to his feet.
Alyx gave him a quick nod before locking her eyes down the corridor. "We gotta get outta here. Let's get to the car."
She led the way, picking up two grenades from one of the fallen soldiers as she went. Gordon picked up two more grenades along with a pulse rifle tucked under his arm before he followed around the corner. A soldier appeared at the far end of the corridor, the orange eyes denoting the shotgun he held in his hands. Gordon pulled the pin of the grenade and rolled it down the corridor like a bowling ball. The soldier skid to a halt and started running in the opposite direction. The explosion burst out through the wooden corridor walls.
Gordon and Alyx started running through the smoke and beams of sunlight that filtered down through the cloud. After sticking the ring of the grenade between his teeth, he dove forward as they approached the corner, prompting a surprised 'whoa' from Alyx. He skid along the ground, pulse rifle aimed up at the shotgun soldier waiting for them around the corner.
He fired a volley of flashing bullets up through the soldier, piercing his body armour and shattering the lenses of his helmet before he dropped like a stone. Gordon got to his feet as Alyx arrived, looking down at the soldier at his feet.
"Nice shot."
Shrugging, he delicately took the grenade from his mouth, making a face at the tangy taste it left there. "Car?"
She smirked. "Car."
They moved together to the exit of the wooden corridor that led out to the clearing between the barn and the house. Peering around, Gordon could see soldiers gathered in the house, waiting patiently at the windows while two more sprinted towards the barn. He could see the car waiting for them. An armoured Combine van sat on the left, parked just beyond the house. Gordon could only just see that the gate to the railway tracks had been opened, probably to let the soldiers through. Good. One problem solved.
He and Alyx locked eyes and counted to three. They rushed out into the open, splitting off; her for the armoured van and him for the car. Gordon blasted the two soldiers, felling them in their tracks. Bullets puffed against the ground as he and Alyx continued running in opposite directions. Over his shoulder, Gordon saw Alyx tossing one of the grenades into the ground floor of the house before diving behind the armoured van for cover.
Reaching the car as the grenade exploded, Gordon whipped the Gravity Gun strap from his shoulders and wrapped it around the headrest before bouncing into the chair. Throwing the pulse rifle in the passenger seat, he pressed the ignition and prepared the car in a blur of motion, the back wheels kicking up a cloud of dust as it roared forward. Two soldiers on the second floor of the house took pot-shots at him as Alyx sent the second grenade sailing through the air and into a window beside the soldiers. While they dealt with that little obstacle, Gordon pulled up beside the van.
Grinning, she slipped inside, picking up the pulse rifle. "For me?"
Gordon shrugged. "Saw it, thought of you."
"Just what I wanted."
He revved up the car as the grenade in the second floor of the house exploded, and they raced back out into the open, heading for the gate leading to the tracks. A rapid thumping noise from overhead made Gordon's already pounding headache worse. Light flickered through the shadow that loomed over them, and Gordon looked up to see a sleek, black Combine helicopter hovering overhead as they approached the gate.
"Gordon!" Alyx cried, pointing to the Hunter that had emerged from the train tunnel on the right.
It took up a position in the middle of the open gateway, and Gordon tightened his grip on the wheel.
"Get off the road," he growled, and slammed a hand on the turbo button. The Hunter snarled and lowered its head as though it were about to charge. With a series of bumps that jerked them about in their seats, the car ploughed over the wailing beast, leaving it behind as Gordon tugged the car to the left.
"That… was pretty cool, Gordon," Alyx said, smiling and nodding appreciatively.
He shrugged. "I know."
The helicopter's gun charged up above them, and a thick spray of highly powered bullets rained down on them. Gordon swerved to avoid them, taking them bouncing off the tracks and onto the grassy verge that ran alongside. The car skidded in the slick mud for a moment before regaining traction and heading for a pair of tunnels in the distance.
Easily moving just ahead of him in the car, the helicopter dropped something that landed directly in their path. A mine, like the ones that had been put in his way when he had been travelling along the canals on that jalopy of an airboat. The red light on the face of the ball-shaped explosive flashed angrily, and Gordon easily steered around it. It exploded harmlessly behind them, only to be replaced by two more further down their path. Gordon pulled off a jagged zigzag around them, the close explosions rocking the car only a little.
Alyx grunted and grabbed onto the metal bar above her head. He could see the smirk on her face out of the corner of his eye as she studied him.
"You're enjoying this way too much."
With a quick swerve once the trail of train carriages ended, they mounted the railway track again.
Gordon glanced over at Alyx and smiled innocently. "I don't know what you mean."
He gunned it, smashing through a stack of wooden crates blocking the tunnel entrance and plunged them into the darkness. The light at the far end grew as the car thundered through the tunnel, the engine's roar blasting around them. Gordon had to squint as they emerged into the daylight, his eyes adjusting quickly to the sudden brightness. They seemed to have lost the helicopter, though Gordon could hear it behind them, somewhere in the distance.
His attention was focused straight ahead for the moment, however, swerving around chunks of debris and crashed train carriages. The tight space between the debris and the tall white walls on either side of the tracks left Gordon wincing a couple of times, and he definitely heard Alyx hiss sympathetically now and again. Up ahead, a train carriage had been crushed side-on down the railway, the middle having collapsed in on itself, turning into a makeshift metal ramp.
Gordon slammed down the turbo.
"Here we go!" Alyx cried, sounding incredibly excited.
The car hit the sloping, warped metal, and it jerked beneath them, abruptly bouncing upwards before sailing through the air. Alyx whooped as they arched through the air, the flight lasting only a few breathless seconds before they came crashing down again. They bounced around in their seats, and Alyx laughed infectiously, provoking a helpless wide smile from Gordon.
"Awesome!"
The tunnels ahead had collapsed in on themselves, though Gordon could see that the stone separation on his right ended just before the tunnels. It gave him a gap to drive through and he proceeded along the train tracks on the other side. A bridge loomed over them just before they reached the ramp, and Gordon's head jerked back in alarm when a fast zombie dropped down onto the front of the car.
"Whoa!" Alyx shouted, bringing the pulse rifle to bear at the screeching zombie as it tried to clamber through the front and onto them. She gave it a solid kick to the headcrab and followed it up with a quick, thudding burst from the pulse rifle, blowing the headcrab from its shoulders. The body tumbled limply from the car, and Gordon tried not to show his panic as he frantically spun the wheel and attempted not to collide with the wall of debris, the speed of the whole thing making his stomach tingle.
After several more bridges and some zombie road-rage, the helicopter found them again, though it didn't bother with any bullets, instead preferring the mines. Gordon did his best to avoid them, but the long trains occupying the tracks made it difficult. Clenching his jaw, Gordon wished for a rocket launcher, or anything explosive he could throw up at the helicopter-
He swerved around another mine, and smiled when realisation struck.
The mine exploded just behind the car, tilting the vehicle onto its front for just a moment before it crashed back down again. Gordon's hands thumped quickly along the wheel as he tried to straighten them out again, only succeeding in time for a shower of bullets to thunder down on a stack of logs strapped to a trailer. The chains broke with a loud metallic ping, and the logs spilled out in front of them, shaking the ground through the tyres of the car.
"Whoops!" he shouted incredibly loudly, ignoring Alyx's incredulous smile as he made a sharp right turn to avoid the logs. The back left wheel bounded over one of the logs, though they largely managed to avoid them. Shooting around the back of a row of trailers, Gordon skid the car straight again, taking them towards a train yard in the distance.
Containers were stacked up in front of the train tracks, towering above them and obscuring any view of what was inside. On the right, however, and now directly in front of them, were three thin wooden road barriers, which the car ploughed over easily. Behind them were two red metal gates, wooden planks nailed across them, giving the occupants somewhere to spray-paint a large lambda symbol. Gordon tensed as the car's front bumper collided with the gates, breaking the chain holding them together and sending them swinging loosely as they drove through.
With a metallic springing noise verging on comedic, something in the engine snapped, and the smallest of fires broke out atop it.
"Oh, crap!" Alyx pulled herself up a little to get a better look at the engine, then looked to him with a worried expression. "We may have to ditch the car!"
His gaze whipped over to her. "W- but… the car…"
He sighed, realising there wasn't anywhere else to drive the car at the moment anyway. A tall tunnel ahead of them had been blocked off by metal containers, and another gate on the left blocked their path into the train yard beyond. Alarms sounded from the building Gordon could only just see on the left, and the helicopter's blades thumped ominously in the distance.
Gordon brought the car to a slow stop and reluctantly clambered out, grabbing the Gravity Gun as he went.
"Hey, over here!"
Whirling on the spot, Gordon spotted a rebel waving them over through the doors of a shipping container. With a confirming look at Alyx, the went to meet him.
"This way," the rebel said breathlessly, sweat glistening on his wide forehead. He led them into the container, which had been linked with another tilted up to the right, becoming a makeshift corridor. A metal sheet had been erected above the gap between the two containers, giving them cover from the incoming helicopter. They gathered around the rebel, whose eyes darted between them both.
"Since you brought that chopper in on your tail, you wanna maybe help us take it down?"
Alyx smirked and nodded. "Oh, with pleasure."
Behind the two, Gordon could see up the ramped container, and spotted a mine drop down at the top. It exploded quickly, the cloud of smoke that billowed down engulfing them. The rebel charged up without another word, MP7 tilted up at the sky as he approached the top of the container.
Before they followed, Alyx offered Gordon the pulse rifle. He shook his head, and waved the offer down. She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he patted the Gravity Gun. After a moment of incomprehension, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she smiled, nodding. They moved up the ramp together, joining the rebel at the ledge of the container. It overlooked a concealed crawlspace below, hidden beneath more containers. The rebel hopped down and moved off to the left, and they quickly followed.
It led them out to the corner of the open space of the train yard, which looked more like a loading area now that Gordon could see it properly. A large, open entrance to a warehouse on the left was half obscured by a container swinging slowly from a crane. Behind the warehouse, in the far left corner of the yard, was another building, presumably the main complex.
The helicopter fluttered overhead, blades chopping through the air ominously. There were about half a dozen rebels around the yard, all with MP7s and pulse rifles aimed toward the helicopter as it swirled above their heads. They took cover in the warehouse and beneath the hanging container as it blasted bullets down on them. Gordon hefted the Gravity Gun around, and bided his time in the corner.
Alyx crouched down beside him and watched. "You sure this is going to work?"
Realising the futility of using bullets, the helicopter dropped two mines in the yard, one at the far end and another beside the hanging container.
"Never am," Gordon sighed, before rushing out into the open, Gravity Gun at the ready. He pulled the mine to him, and it continued to beep. It dawned on him that this maybe wasn't the best idea he had ever had. The helicopter loomed above him, the gun taking aim.
Gordon tilted the Gravity Gun upwards and fired, expelling the mine through the air and into the side of the helicopter. The explosion knocked it away, sending it twirling through the air. The rebels in the warehouse whooped and cheered.
"Reeeeturn to sender!" a rebel cried from the warehouse.
Another at the main bunker thrust a fist into the air, grinning ear to ear. "That's gonna leave a mark!"
Quickly recovering from the attack, the damaged helicopter turned and came around for another pass. Gordon quickly ran back to cover with Alyx and the rebel that had brought them inside.
"Doc, you're really puttin' on a clinic!" the rebel enthused, giving him a punch in the arm.
Gordon didn't even understand what that meant.
After another shower of bullets that found no victims, the helicopter dropped three more mines. Gordon rushed out into the open again, acutely aware that the pilot of said chopper would probably stop dropping mines soon when he realised what Gordon was doing with them. Yanking one of the explosives up, Gordon moved as quickly through the yard as he could, moving around the other mines and sporadically glancing up at the helicopter as it banked and came in for another shower of bullets.
It was tilted down now, facing him as the gun took aim. Gordon heard the mini-gun charge. He tilted the Gravity Gun up and fired. The mine sailed through the air in a tall arch, before slamming down into the tinted blue glass of the pilot's cabin. With an explosion that made Gordon jerk his head away, the mine blasted through the glass and left the front section of the helicopter a shattered mess, smoke and flame belching out as the airborne vehicle abruptly dropped towards him.
Eyes wide, Gordon ran and leapt for cover beside Alyx and the rebel, skidding along the ground to reach them and coming to a stop with his head beside Alyx's feet. He watched the chopper collide with the ground at an angle, the metal chassis twisting and the blades warping as they continued to chop against the ground. It finally ground to a halt on the far side of the train yard, a hissing, crackling, burning wreck.
A roar of whoops and cheers erupted around him.
Breathless and lying on his side, Gordon looked up at Alyx hopefully. "Good?"
Smiling and shaking her head, she reached over and straightened out his askew glasses. "Good, Gordon."
"Hey! Over here!"
Their heads collectively moving to look at the source of the voice, they saw a rebel on the other side of the yard waving them over. Still in sync, they looked at the rebel beside them questioningly.
"That's Sturgess," he said, looking like he was ready to fall collapse from exhaustion. "He's in charge." That done, he breathlessly collapsed onto his back, eyes closed and an arm across his face.
Gordon looked to Alyx, who shrugged. As they made their way over to Sturgess, Alyx handed his pulse rifle back to him in amiable silence. Two exhausted rebels sat against the wall beside the entrance of the warehouse, one much louder than the other.
"I give the Combine a lot of credit, though! They're tough competitors, a real class act!"
"Shut up…"
Sturgess himself reminded Gordon of Sheckley, if a little more enthusiastic. The painful looking scar on his cheek did nothing to dampen the welcoming nature of his grin, and Alyx returned it.
"Boy, are we glad to see you guys."
Puffing out his cheeks in disbelief, Sturgess' eyes travelled from her to Gordon.
"Whoa, that was amazing! The way you threw their mines right back at them?"
A little at a loss for how to respond, Gordon looked back to the flaming wreck behind him, then back to Sturgess. He shrugged.
Sturgess took a deep breath, propping his pulse rifle over his shoulder. "Well, I could sure use a drink!" he almost boasted, only glancing at Alyx before fixing his gaze on Gordon. "Who's with me?"
Gordon imagined he wasn't talking about tea, which was pretty much the only drink he really wanted right now. He had never been that much of a drinker, really; hell, it was only when he met Barney that he realised that all beers didn't taste the same.
Sensing his discomfort, Alyx gently cut in. "We need to get back on the road, but our engine's shot to hell. I don't suppose you've got any tools for working on cars?"
Snorting incredulously at her, the rebels' stubbly grin seemed to grow even more. "Tools? We've got a whole shop over here!" He locked his gaze with Gordon's again, nodding towards the main bunker behind them. "Come on, we'll get you set up."
He excitedly whirled on his heel before leading them across the yard. Why was he ignoring Alyx so much? Had she done something to annoy him? This seemed to be their first time meeting, though. And why would he rather talk to him than her? Surely she was the more experienced as far as resistance matters went? What was the difference between Alyx and him? Beside the fact that he was a man and she was a-
Oh.
Alyx rolled her eyes at the back of Sturgess' head. Gordon just shrugged helplessly before they followed along. He scrutinised Sturgess as he kicked the door open a little unnecessarily, taking them through the corridor beyond and to a door in the right-hand corner. Really? They still had sexism? How did that even still exist? The world could end at any minute. That overrode any prejudices, surely.
He sighed. He really did learn something new every day. Though he had learnt about a hundred new things every day since the resonance cascade, really.
(A/N: Hey everybody, sorry for the delay, work and general life stuff, you know how it is.
Reviews, everybody!
Next Chapter: Under the Radar)