Chapter Three: Unforeseen Consequences
LOCATION: Anomalous Materials Laboratory, Sector C, Black Mesa Research Facility
TIMESCALE: December 2nd 1998, 1100 hours. EVENT TIME PLUS ONE HOUR FORTY MINUTES
Gordon's' nostrils were awakened by a smell of burning. Burning metal, burning flesh. He lifted himself from the floor and gazed at the devastation within the barrel. The huge pipes that normally pumped coolant had massive, smoking gashes in them, one was even swinging away from the wall. The receiver was almost completely destroyed, blackened by the blast pattern of whatever had happened. Electrical discharge beams harmlessly struck the walls. Gordon, bewildered and confused, started to head toward the entry door. It had been blasted open, leaving a small diagonal hole for him to crawl through. He crawled into the entry room, to be greeted by the badly burnt body of Doctor Davision. Gordon swore to himself, then headed to the exit door. Unfortunately the door required a retinal scan from either Davision or Willis. Gordon put his eye to the reader, which was badly damaged. The intercom piped up
"War..war..warning.unauthorised.person." the reader exploded from the wall, and the door slid obligingly open.
Gordon stepped through. In the hall was Doctor Vance, crouched over the body of one of the security guards, performing CPR. Gordon walked over, watching Vance's futile efforts to revive him. Then, suddenly, the guard pushed Vance aside and lifted himself up.
"What the.hell happened"
Vance looked just as bewildered as Gordon did.
"I don't know, but we've got to get to the surface, Gordon, that hazard suit of yours should provide ample protection, go and see what's happened and if the transit system is still operational"
Gordon nodded, walking away into the devastation of the labs.
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On the top level above, Doctor Ivan Yalek awoke, rubbing his sore head. He didn't know what had happened, only that a wall panel had blown up and struck him in the head. All the lights were out, and Yalek nervously cried,
"Hello.is anyone there?"
There was a scuttling noise in the darkness, followed by two distant screams. Yalek shivered, then stood up and headed toward the exit, its bright green glow reassuring his frayed nerves. Then the scuttling noise grew louder, and Yalek spun around, angrily shouting
"Is anyone there?" He peered into the flickering light. Quietly illuminated, a small dog like animal stood, but it was hard to make out.
"Hello little fella, what are you doing down here?" said Yalek, leaning for a closer look.
Then, the lights momentarily flickered on for a long period, and the creature was revealed, an ugly, drooling crab-like creature. Before Yalek could move back, it leapt onto his head, its jaws closing around his neck. Yalek dropped to the floor, screaming, clutching and scrabbling at it. The head crabs' jaws sank into the doctor's neck, injecting him with poisonous, acidic fluid. Yalek continued rolling and spluttering on the floor, but slowly his spasming stooped, as his lungs filled up with fluid. Within a minute, he was dead.
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Gordon stepped off the elevator that had taken him up to the second level of the labs. In front of him were another two scientists, crouched by the burning mainframe. Gordon walked over to them. The first was clutching at his chest, blood seeping out of the small wound. He was shaking his head.
"I never thought I see a resonance cascade, let alone create one"
The second was familiar to Gordon, it was Doctor Dave Johnson. He looked up at the orange figure, fear turning to relaxation as he realised who it was.
"Gordon, you're alive, thank God for that hazard suit. I'm afraid to move him and all the phones are out, you've got to get to the surface and let someone know we're stranded down here"
Gordon nodded,
"Wait here, I won't be long"
He walked away from the two to the control room. Punching the keypad he walked into to be greeted by a nauseating smell of burning flesh. Doctor Harmer was slumped against the far wall, his chest cavity open and sizzling. Doctor Fleming lay on the floor, headless, blood seeping from the wound. Willis was slumped over the keyboard, his half burnt face revealing his bloodied skull. It was horrific, but Gordon nervously crept under the view port and out the other side, there was nothing he could do for them now.
Gordon raced down the corridors to the elevator room, past the destroyed mainframes and seeping coolant fluid. Just before he hit the elevator he skidded to a halt. One of the laser tubes had cracked, and a bright red laser was cutting its way through the wall. He ducked underneath, and in front of him lay another security guard, he was still alive, but his legs were crushed under a mainframe. Gordon raced over to help, at the same time another crack blasting the laser open, it's slow cutting movement nearing the two.
"Help..me.sir.I.."
"Hang on!" Gordon tugged at the guard's arms, watching the laser. It hit an area of reflective glass and began to hover, descending over the guards' torso.
"Hurry sir!" screamed the guard, but it was too late. The laser began cutting into his back, blood spurting over Gordon's face. The guard screamed, and Gordon continued to tug. The laser cut to the floor and Gordon pulled the lifeless torso away.
"SHIT!" he swore, dropping the guard's arms. He proceeded to the elevator, but the huge entry doors were sealed. On the floor however, was a mean looking red and silver crowbar. Gordon picked it up and smacked the glass open. At the same time, the strings holding the elevator gave way, and it screamed down the endless tunnel, its three escaping occupants screaming .It flew past Gordon, knocking him back. He peered over the edge, watching it continue and then explode in a mass of flames and blood as it struck the bottom. Gordon looked left at the maintenance ladder, and proceeded to climb up it.
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Security officer Janek Jennings had just stepped off the elevator when it gave way. He swore to himself, and was ready to continue on when there was a muttering noise behind him. He swivelled to see a labcoat clad figure stumbling toward him, his face covered by the darkness. Jennings read the name tag.
"Doctor Yalek, is that you"
"Rrrgh.sneee" with that growl, the figure appeared.
It was Doctor Yalek, but not the Yalek Jennings knew. His face was covered by an ugly four legged creature that seemed to be feeding on the doctor's head. Below Yalek's elbows hung his lifeless forearms, replaced by a long thing bone and gangly fingers. In his chest area was a toothy mouth-like formation, drooling hungrily. Jennings reeled in horror and pulled out his 9mm sidearm, firing it once at the monster. It stopped, absorbing the bullet in the arm, but it had little effect. The monster continued, nearing Jennings who was backed against the wall. He continued to fire several rounds but they had no effect. Yalek reached out, and with one swipe, ripped the guards' head off his shoulders, the lifeless body slumping to the floor. Yalek crouched over, holding it with its forearms. The mouth in his chest opened, and a slithery tounge extended into the guards' neck, sucking out the blood and juices.
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Gordon had just reached the top floor by this point, and looked on in horror at the creature. He began to creep away, but crunched on a shard of glass. Yalek's "head" spun round and it made and angry noise. He stepped away from the body of Jennings and began to stumble towards Gordon. Gordon now faced a dilemma. He had never killed anything before, and was frightened by death. But this creature would eat him. Closing his eyes, he lifted the crowbar high above his head, and just as Yalek was about to strike him, he plunged the crowbar into the head crab. Yalek screamed horrifyingly, acidic blood spurting out. He slumped to the floor, the head crab falling off lifeless to reveal Yalek's bloodied head, with holes in his eyes, neck, scalp and mouth. Gordon didn't stop to look, but continued on.
By the time he reached the reception area it was too late. The trams had fallen off the rails when the power cut off, and all the main exit doors were sealed. Blood covered the walls. Gordon looked left and right for an exit, and, seeing a gap in a collapsed section of wall, crawled through it.
He emerged on the other side to witness the final moments of a second security guard. The guard was firing at the lifeless body of another zombie, and littered around him were the dead bodies of head crabs. The clip ran empty, and the guard slumped to the floor dead, finally succumbing to his mortal wounds. Gordon picked up the 9mm handgun and clips, gazing intently at his first ever firearm. He then proceeded through the broken doors into the emergency exit route.
This route led him through an old disused industrial sector. The walls were covered in damp and were rotting. In the middle of the corridor however stood another creature. This one Gordon hadn't seen before. It was gazing up at a terrified scientist, who was urging it to "shut up" It looked harmless to Gordon, small and yellow with a large black mouth. But then, this creature gave away it's terrifying secret. It proceeded to quietly growl, the growl growing in volume and intensity, and the creature sinking into itself. Then, just as the growl became loud, the creature let off an almighty scream with a shockwave. The scientist fell to his knees, clutching his ears, blood seeping from underneath his hands. He fell to the floor, brain matter oozing out of his bloodied ears. Gordon levelled the pistol and fired three rounds, killing the sonic dog dead.
Gordon proceeded to a large open room with an elevator in it. He walked to the large control lever, and with all his strength flipped it. The freight elevator began to move, and Gordon stepped on hastily. He didn't know where the elevator would go, but it was his best bet. The elevator slowly but surely went down a large metallic tunnel, creaking and whirring as it went. Gordon's attention faded for just a second, when a head crab flew past him and below the elevator. He looked up to see several of the little beast jumping from the top of the shaft to try and get him. They were all missing, but Gordon decided to take some target practise, aiming the 9mm handgun at each and firing. Each round caught the beast mid-air and their little bodies collided with a squelchy "thud" upon hitting the elevator's metallic surface. It finally reached the bottom level, and Gordon ran off it quickly in case the head crabs got lucky.
Maintenance worker Peter Stormare was running as fast as he could from the beasts. He'd heard the freight elevator kick in and he didn't want to stick around to find out what was going on. He ran into a large room with a canal below. On the other side was the exit elevator, but the metal bridge crossing the canal was broken.
"DAMNIT!" he said.
Stormare climbed down a small ladder but tripped and fell into the canal. He popped up, but each side of the canal was too vertiginous to climb. Stormare then noticed lng black ropes hanging from the ceiling. He didn't know who'd put them there, but he was going to put them to good use. He put his hand on one, and started to climb, but as he did the rope whipped out of his hand and round his neck, pulling him out of the water. Choking, Stormare gazed up to see the rope wasn't a rope, it was a slick black tongue pulling him into the waiting jaws of an ugly red beast. Stormare struggled to break free but it was too late. His head entered the jaws and the teeth closed around him. A second set of jaws bit a hole in the unfortunate worker's head, and the creature proceeded to suck out all of Stormare's vital organs before spitting out the lifless and empty skeleton.
Gordon arrived just in time to witness the unfortunate event. Unfortunately there was no other way across the canal, so Gordon took a deep breath and leapt from the one side, catching hold of a tongue and swinging across to the other side, firing a round up into the barnacle's jaws as he did so. The barnacle screamed and blood flowed out of its mouth. Gordon walked up to the xit elevator and hit the up button, stepped inside and turned as the green doors slid together, lifting him out of the horrors of the anomalous materials laboratory.
LOCATION: Anomalous Materials Laboratory, Sector C, Black Mesa Research Facility
TIMESCALE: December 2nd 1998, 1100 hours. EVENT TIME PLUS ONE HOUR FORTY MINUTES
Gordon's' nostrils were awakened by a smell of burning. Burning metal, burning flesh. He lifted himself from the floor and gazed at the devastation within the barrel. The huge pipes that normally pumped coolant had massive, smoking gashes in them, one was even swinging away from the wall. The receiver was almost completely destroyed, blackened by the blast pattern of whatever had happened. Electrical discharge beams harmlessly struck the walls. Gordon, bewildered and confused, started to head toward the entry door. It had been blasted open, leaving a small diagonal hole for him to crawl through. He crawled into the entry room, to be greeted by the badly burnt body of Doctor Davision. Gordon swore to himself, then headed to the exit door. Unfortunately the door required a retinal scan from either Davision or Willis. Gordon put his eye to the reader, which was badly damaged. The intercom piped up
"War..war..warning.unauthorised.person." the reader exploded from the wall, and the door slid obligingly open.
Gordon stepped through. In the hall was Doctor Vance, crouched over the body of one of the security guards, performing CPR. Gordon walked over, watching Vance's futile efforts to revive him. Then, suddenly, the guard pushed Vance aside and lifted himself up.
"What the.hell happened"
Vance looked just as bewildered as Gordon did.
"I don't know, but we've got to get to the surface, Gordon, that hazard suit of yours should provide ample protection, go and see what's happened and if the transit system is still operational"
Gordon nodded, walking away into the devastation of the labs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
On the top level above, Doctor Ivan Yalek awoke, rubbing his sore head. He didn't know what had happened, only that a wall panel had blown up and struck him in the head. All the lights were out, and Yalek nervously cried,
"Hello.is anyone there?"
There was a scuttling noise in the darkness, followed by two distant screams. Yalek shivered, then stood up and headed toward the exit, its bright green glow reassuring his frayed nerves. Then the scuttling noise grew louder, and Yalek spun around, angrily shouting
"Is anyone there?" He peered into the flickering light. Quietly illuminated, a small dog like animal stood, but it was hard to make out.
"Hello little fella, what are you doing down here?" said Yalek, leaning for a closer look.
Then, the lights momentarily flickered on for a long period, and the creature was revealed, an ugly, drooling crab-like creature. Before Yalek could move back, it leapt onto his head, its jaws closing around his neck. Yalek dropped to the floor, screaming, clutching and scrabbling at it. The head crabs' jaws sank into the doctor's neck, injecting him with poisonous, acidic fluid. Yalek continued rolling and spluttering on the floor, but slowly his spasming stooped, as his lungs filled up with fluid. Within a minute, he was dead.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------
Gordon stepped off the elevator that had taken him up to the second level of the labs. In front of him were another two scientists, crouched by the burning mainframe. Gordon walked over to them. The first was clutching at his chest, blood seeping out of the small wound. He was shaking his head.
"I never thought I see a resonance cascade, let alone create one"
The second was familiar to Gordon, it was Doctor Dave Johnson. He looked up at the orange figure, fear turning to relaxation as he realised who it was.
"Gordon, you're alive, thank God for that hazard suit. I'm afraid to move him and all the phones are out, you've got to get to the surface and let someone know we're stranded down here"
Gordon nodded,
"Wait here, I won't be long"
He walked away from the two to the control room. Punching the keypad he walked into to be greeted by a nauseating smell of burning flesh. Doctor Harmer was slumped against the far wall, his chest cavity open and sizzling. Doctor Fleming lay on the floor, headless, blood seeping from the wound. Willis was slumped over the keyboard, his half burnt face revealing his bloodied skull. It was horrific, but Gordon nervously crept under the view port and out the other side, there was nothing he could do for them now.
Gordon raced down the corridors to the elevator room, past the destroyed mainframes and seeping coolant fluid. Just before he hit the elevator he skidded to a halt. One of the laser tubes had cracked, and a bright red laser was cutting its way through the wall. He ducked underneath, and in front of him lay another security guard, he was still alive, but his legs were crushed under a mainframe. Gordon raced over to help, at the same time another crack blasting the laser open, it's slow cutting movement nearing the two.
"Help..me.sir.I.."
"Hang on!" Gordon tugged at the guard's arms, watching the laser. It hit an area of reflective glass and began to hover, descending over the guards' torso.
"Hurry sir!" screamed the guard, but it was too late. The laser began cutting into his back, blood spurting over Gordon's face. The guard screamed, and Gordon continued to tug. The laser cut to the floor and Gordon pulled the lifeless torso away.
"SHIT!" he swore, dropping the guard's arms. He proceeded to the elevator, but the huge entry doors were sealed. On the floor however, was a mean looking red and silver crowbar. Gordon picked it up and smacked the glass open. At the same time, the strings holding the elevator gave way, and it screamed down the endless tunnel, its three escaping occupants screaming .It flew past Gordon, knocking him back. He peered over the edge, watching it continue and then explode in a mass of flames and blood as it struck the bottom. Gordon looked left at the maintenance ladder, and proceeded to climb up it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
Security officer Janek Jennings had just stepped off the elevator when it gave way. He swore to himself, and was ready to continue on when there was a muttering noise behind him. He swivelled to see a labcoat clad figure stumbling toward him, his face covered by the darkness. Jennings read the name tag.
"Doctor Yalek, is that you"
"Rrrgh.sneee" with that growl, the figure appeared.
It was Doctor Yalek, but not the Yalek Jennings knew. His face was covered by an ugly four legged creature that seemed to be feeding on the doctor's head. Below Yalek's elbows hung his lifeless forearms, replaced by a long thing bone and gangly fingers. In his chest area was a toothy mouth-like formation, drooling hungrily. Jennings reeled in horror and pulled out his 9mm sidearm, firing it once at the monster. It stopped, absorbing the bullet in the arm, but it had little effect. The monster continued, nearing Jennings who was backed against the wall. He continued to fire several rounds but they had no effect. Yalek reached out, and with one swipe, ripped the guards' head off his shoulders, the lifeless body slumping to the floor. Yalek crouched over, holding it with its forearms. The mouth in his chest opened, and a slithery tounge extended into the guards' neck, sucking out the blood and juices.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
Gordon had just reached the top floor by this point, and looked on in horror at the creature. He began to creep away, but crunched on a shard of glass. Yalek's "head" spun round and it made and angry noise. He stepped away from the body of Jennings and began to stumble towards Gordon. Gordon now faced a dilemma. He had never killed anything before, and was frightened by death. But this creature would eat him. Closing his eyes, he lifted the crowbar high above his head, and just as Yalek was about to strike him, he plunged the crowbar into the head crab. Yalek screamed horrifyingly, acidic blood spurting out. He slumped to the floor, the head crab falling off lifeless to reveal Yalek's bloodied head, with holes in his eyes, neck, scalp and mouth. Gordon didn't stop to look, but continued on.
By the time he reached the reception area it was too late. The trams had fallen off the rails when the power cut off, and all the main exit doors were sealed. Blood covered the walls. Gordon looked left and right for an exit, and, seeing a gap in a collapsed section of wall, crawled through it.
He emerged on the other side to witness the final moments of a second security guard. The guard was firing at the lifeless body of another zombie, and littered around him were the dead bodies of head crabs. The clip ran empty, and the guard slumped to the floor dead, finally succumbing to his mortal wounds. Gordon picked up the 9mm handgun and clips, gazing intently at his first ever firearm. He then proceeded through the broken doors into the emergency exit route.
This route led him through an old disused industrial sector. The walls were covered in damp and were rotting. In the middle of the corridor however stood another creature. This one Gordon hadn't seen before. It was gazing up at a terrified scientist, who was urging it to "shut up" It looked harmless to Gordon, small and yellow with a large black mouth. But then, this creature gave away it's terrifying secret. It proceeded to quietly growl, the growl growing in volume and intensity, and the creature sinking into itself. Then, just as the growl became loud, the creature let off an almighty scream with a shockwave. The scientist fell to his knees, clutching his ears, blood seeping from underneath his hands. He fell to the floor, brain matter oozing out of his bloodied ears. Gordon levelled the pistol and fired three rounds, killing the sonic dog dead.
Gordon proceeded to a large open room with an elevator in it. He walked to the large control lever, and with all his strength flipped it. The freight elevator began to move, and Gordon stepped on hastily. He didn't know where the elevator would go, but it was his best bet. The elevator slowly but surely went down a large metallic tunnel, creaking and whirring as it went. Gordon's attention faded for just a second, when a head crab flew past him and below the elevator. He looked up to see several of the little beast jumping from the top of the shaft to try and get him. They were all missing, but Gordon decided to take some target practise, aiming the 9mm handgun at each and firing. Each round caught the beast mid-air and their little bodies collided with a squelchy "thud" upon hitting the elevator's metallic surface. It finally reached the bottom level, and Gordon ran off it quickly in case the head crabs got lucky.
Maintenance worker Peter Stormare was running as fast as he could from the beasts. He'd heard the freight elevator kick in and he didn't want to stick around to find out what was going on. He ran into a large room with a canal below. On the other side was the exit elevator, but the metal bridge crossing the canal was broken.
"DAMNIT!" he said.
Stormare climbed down a small ladder but tripped and fell into the canal. He popped up, but each side of the canal was too vertiginous to climb. Stormare then noticed lng black ropes hanging from the ceiling. He didn't know who'd put them there, but he was going to put them to good use. He put his hand on one, and started to climb, but as he did the rope whipped out of his hand and round his neck, pulling him out of the water. Choking, Stormare gazed up to see the rope wasn't a rope, it was a slick black tongue pulling him into the waiting jaws of an ugly red beast. Stormare struggled to break free but it was too late. His head entered the jaws and the teeth closed around him. A second set of jaws bit a hole in the unfortunate worker's head, and the creature proceeded to suck out all of Stormare's vital organs before spitting out the lifless and empty skeleton.
Gordon arrived just in time to witness the unfortunate event. Unfortunately there was no other way across the canal, so Gordon took a deep breath and leapt from the one side, catching hold of a tongue and swinging across to the other side, firing a round up into the barnacle's jaws as he did so. The barnacle screamed and blood flowed out of its mouth. Gordon walked up to the xit elevator and hit the up button, stepped inside and turned as the green doors slid together, lifting him out of the horrors of the anomalous materials laboratory.