Steve the Headcrab

Chapter 6

"...and at the last second I jumped at him! Then, after a flash of light, I was suddenly at the beach, and... Well, you know how it went from there."

Steve recounted his tale to his new Strider friend as they continued their journey. It was mostly silent throughout with only a few "hmm"s and "huh"s, just letting Steve vent about his troubles.

"thats rough buddy," the Strider finally said. "but hey after all that youre still alive which is more than most headcrabs can say." As awful as his struggles were, Steve had to admit that the Strider had a point. Even though his plan to get home had failed, he was incredibly lucky to even get this far. He was spared from the wrath of Gordon Freeman and the military in Black Mesa (as well as the ensuing nuclear detonation wiping Black Mesa off the map), he endured his kidnapping by Kleiner, and he was rescued from the killer Antlions just hours ago. As long as he kept trying, Steve knew that he would eventually get home. The "how" and "when" of that still eluded him, but at least now he had some time to relax and think about it. "i nearly died a while ago too so hey weve got something in common there."

"Speaking of that, what is your story, anyways? I don't know much about Striders, but you don't seem like you'd be the kind to hang around a place like this. And I still never got your name, either."

"dont have a name."

"Huh, what do you mean?" Steve had figured that the Strider was on Earth because of the Combine, what with their conquering and enslavement of other worlds, but he thought that at least it would have a name by now. Though, he could only assume so much about an alien species he'd never met before.

"you think i grew this gun? im synthetic my dude. the combine created me. sure there are probably normal non-robot striders out there somewhere but all the ones on earth are killing machines made by The Man to stomp out their enemies. i was being brought somewhere on one of their gunships but it got shot down with me in it. i guess it cushioned my fall or something because i was totally fine."

Steve began to realize how little he had actually paid attention to the Combine invasion. He had gotten tunnel vision trying to get home, and he hadn't really noticed what was going on around him. Earth had been drastically changed by the Combine, as well as the countless other worlds that they conquered. Had Xen also been taken over by them? Steve stopped himself at that thought. Surely Xen was fine. Everything would be fine. He just needed to focus on getting home. Returning from his daydreaming, he noticed that it had been a while since anyone had said anything. The two of them enjoyed the comfortable silence between them, accompanied by the sound of the waves hitting the beach.

"...dave."

"Huh? Dave?"

"my name. i wanna be dave," the Strider said. Steve burst out laughing at this. It had been a long time since he had a good laugh.

"Dave? What the hell kind of name is Dave?! You could pick literally anything, and that's what you chose to be your name?"

"oh look whos talking steve johnson. your names as generic as they get just short of john smith. did your parents not like you or something? its like your name was specifically chosen to be boring." Steve was no longer laughing. That had hit a bit of a sore spot for him. His name was generic and boring, and Steve would be the first to admit that. He had lost count of how many times he was made fun of because of his name when he was growing up (and even into his professional life). In hindsight, it was very childish of him to do the same to his friend - his only friend in this awful place, in fact.

"...Hey man, I'm really sorry," Steve mumbled, "This whole thing has gotten me really stressed out, but that's no excuse for me acting like that. If you want to be named Dave, you can be named Dave. Now that I think about it, you probably don't know a lot of names to use for reference anyways. Can you forgive me?" Steve grew nervous as Dave remained silent, taking in what he had said. The last thing he wanted was to piss off the only guy keeping him alive at this point.

"well as long as you acknowledge that you did something wrong then were cool. anyways you were pretty quiet earlier. thinking of another plan to get home or something?"

"Eh, not really, but I should get back to that. Maybe I need to try another way of thinking. Hey, what's that thing called where you go along a path of similar words?"

"uhhhh you mean word association? you sure itll help?" Steve was a bit curious about the general knowledge Dave seemed to have. Maybe the Combine implanted their troops with a certain amount of intelligence? Again, he could only assume so much.

"It's worth a shot, at least! So, teleporter... Where do I go from there? Teleporter, teleport, tele-port..."

Dave began to tune Steve out, choosing not to correct him on how word association actually works. During their journey, Steve had done most of the talking. Dave didn't mind too much, though. He enjoyed the company... even if Steve tended to ramble and mumble a lot. The little guy was under a lot of stress, so it was understandable. He also figured that Steve just wanted someone to talk to. From the sounds of his story, the headcrab was in sore need of a friend. Whether Dave would be willing to be that friend, though, would take some time to decide.

"Port... portal. Portal? Portal gun! Aperture! Aperture Science! That's it!" He had struck gold. From his time with Kleiner, he had learned that Black Mesa's rival, Aperture Science, was working on various kinds of portal technology. If anything could get him home, it would be found there.

"nice sounds like you got your answer. so where is this aperture place anyways?"

"Hmm... I think it was somewhere in Michigan, something to do with some salt mines."

Dave's pace noticeably slowed, and Steve could tell something was up. What did he say that had such an effect on him, and why? Steve began worrying. This would be the second time he said something stupid to Dave. He hoped that Dave didn't run on a three-strikes system or something, otherwise he'd need to find another way home. Luckily he didn't have to wait much longer for a response.

"you know thats like... in america right?"

"Wait... what? Huh?"

"its on a completely different continent bro. unless you can steal a combine gunship or swim really fast you arent getting to michigan any time soon. and dont ask me to get you there either. you see these spindly legs? the best i could do is walk along the ocean floor but we couldnt keep that up for long. wait do i even need to breathe? huh i hadnt really considered that. well either way you cant breathe underwater so its looking like youll need to make a plan to get to your other plan."

Steve had several colorful four-letter words floating around in his head, but once again he just couldn't convey his full frustration. It was one thing after another. His original plan was so perfect, but he screwed it up at the last second. Everything afterwards had been a disaster, and this was just the latest disappointment. Of course he wasn't in America anymore. He'd heard it countless times since being relocated to City 17. Come to think of it, Steve wasn't too sure where exactly City 17 was on this continent, but that wasn't really important right now. Steve continued to stew in his troubles until Dave spoke up again.

"oh hey steve you may wanna take a look at this."

Steve turned his gaze to the horizon, where he saw a very distant but distinct shape forming. Ever since the start of their travels they had been wandering onward without any kind of direction or destination, but now they had found the perfect landmark:

The Citadel.