Chapter 4: The Tunnels
There they stood, in front of the entrance to the railroad tunnels. It was abandoned so there was no worrying about trains approaching as they traveled. Their timing couldn't have been better, because now that the sun has come up the tunnels weren't pitch black. The occasional escape holes in the roof that were each 100 yards in between each other provided plenty of light from the surface.
All three of them stared into the gaping entrance. Parts of the tunnel were flooded with toxic sludge that would have to be avoided, but even worse, parts of the tunnels were headcrab and zombie infested. Luckily for them, however, the immediate entry point seemed clear of toxicity and infestation.
"This tunnel leads to City-17, it should be a days walk," said Cindy, "we should start now if we want to make it there before darkness falls."
Even after that being said, none of them moved. They were all frightened beyond measure of going through the tunnels on foot. They wouldn't move until one of them took the first step, and no one was willing to take that first step.
The voice in the back of Cory's head arose again, taking center stage.
(There's no pain in death, so what are you afraid of?)
The voice made a good argument. Cory took a deep breath, and held it. He began walking forward alone. Leon and Cindy stayed behind awhile to watch him enter. As Cory got deeper into the tunnel, his footsteps began to echo louder and louder. After Cory was several yards ahead of the, Cindy and Leon both broke into a sprint after him.
The three of them walked for several minutes silently when it finally became too much for Cindy to tolerate.
"We need to start a conversation," she said shyly.
"About what?" asked Leon, "Doesn't seem like there's much to talk about."
"Sure there is, Cory, what was it you were saying back in the station?" said Cindy hoping to spark a conversation. Whether it was a friendly or unfriendly one didn't matter to her, she just needed to hear voices of other people before she started hearing voices in her head.
"You know, I just don't like seeing girls cry, that all," said Cory. It was too bad for him that he was a horrible liar. His tone of voice alone made it obvious that he was holding something back. Cindy knew this.
"No, that's not going to fly with me, tell me what's really going on," demanded Cindy. Deep down she knew the Cory liked her, she was 100 positive of this, she just wanted to hear Cory say it for once. She felt she liked him too, but she never said anything because she knew so little about Cory and his past that she thought it would seem childish for her to admit she liked him.
"You going to answer her Cory?" asked Leon after a few moments of silence.
"There's nothing to say," said Cory.
"Fine have it your way then," said a slightly irritated Leon.
"Well, why don't you tell me more about yourself then Cory?" asked Cindy.
"What do you want to know?" replied Cory.
"Well, what was your childhood like?" asked Cindy trying to discover more about her secret crush.
"You don't want to ask him that," said Leon with his stern, "you'd better do as I say," tone of voice.
"What? Why not? I'm curious and I want to know," said Cindy, not taking the hint.
"Ask Leon about his past I don't feel like talking right now," said Cory, suddenly filled with sadness with the sudden memory of his dead family. He really wasn't in the mood to remember the bloody, bullet riddled corpses of his parents and sister.
"Fine, be that way. Leon, you feel like talking?" asked Cindy; distraught that she was unable to extract information from Cory. She hoped that if she could get Leon talking, maybe Cory would feel more comfortable sharing some information.
"Why? So you can pretend to be interested?" said Leon, seeing right through Cindy's plan. He didn't like being used as a tool.
"No I really want to know more about you," said Cindy, lying.
"Fine," said Leon, playing along with Cindy's plan. "My mother died giving birth to me and my dad was a drunk. Once the Combine came and took over, I saw it as my chance to do something I've always wanted to do but couldn't."
"What was that and why couldn't you do it before?" asked Cindy, trying to keep Leon talking.
"I wanted to kill my dad. When he got drunk he used to beat me up. That's kind of where I learned to fight, defending myself against a drunken hulk," said Leon. He would have liked to pretend to be fighting back tears, but the fact of the matter was he couldn't remember the last time he cried.
"Did you really kill you dad?" asked Cindy. She found herself genuinely interested now; she wasn't faking anymore.
"Yea, it was the highlight of my life. I used the USMC knife he gave me for my thirteenth birthday," said Leon, "after that I dropped his body off in front of the Mets' station, they had no interest in finding his killer."
Cindy was suddenly feeling a bit frightened of Leon, and a bit closer at the same time. She knew this was probably something he didn't tell everyone (or at least she hoped he didn't go around telling everyone as if he was proud of it).
"I don't believe it, you must have had a hard time growing up alone," said Cindy.
"That's what everyone assumes, I actually think I did better off alone," said Leon.
"Well, thank you for sharing, does anyone else want to take a turn?" said Cindy, now staring Cory dead in the eyes.
"Nope, look ahead," said Cory, removing his crowbar from his belt loop.
The three of them had unknowingly just turned a corner in the tunnels. Cory must have been the only one really paying attention because as they turned the corner, directly in front of them were several zombies wandering aimlessly in circles.
"I count six," said Cory.
"We got another problem, look," said Cindy, raising her finger and pointing at the toxic sludge that laid to the far right of the tunnel. It didn't totally block their passage, but it lessened their maneuverability should they get into a major fight.
"Fuck, look at that one," said Leon pointing out that one of the zombie stood out from the rest. This particular zombie was being controlled by three poisonous headcrabs, rather then the normal ones. Poisonous headcrabs are black, much skinnier then normal ones, and are twice as deadly. They carried a poison that, if not treated with an antidote within twenty-four hours, would be deadly. The poison was delivered with a single bite.
Leon and Cindy drew their guns, but Cory kept his crowbar at the ready. It would be suicide to challenge a poisonous zombie to a crowbar fight, but Cory could deal with the normal zombies while Leon and Cindy take their shots at the poisonous one.
"Okay, you guys ready? I'll hold off the normal ones and you two pick at the poisonous one," said Cory, coordinating his plan of action. "Ready, set, go!"
Cory dashed forwarded and spearheaded the closest zombie in its gut with the harpoon end of the crowbar. After withdrawing it, he started to take steps backwards as he continued to whack the zombie several times with the hook of the crowbar. After only a few steps and many attacks, the first zombie went down.
As the zombie fell to the ground Cory heard continuous gunfire break out from just behind him. Leon and Cindy finally opened fire on the poisonous zombie. Cory was going to start one his next kill, but he noticed the headcrab from the first zombie was already half done detaching itself. Cory didn't have time for a creative kill so he just stomped on it with his boot.
Cory looked up from the dead zombie, the others had come closer now, and something even more dangerous was happening. The poisonous zombie had reached over and detached one of its three headcrabs, and was getting ready to throw it right at Cory.
They didn't have any antidotes on them for a bite from a poisonous headcrab; Cory couldn't afford to get bitten. Cory got his crowbar ready to swing like a baseball bat, ready to defend himself. The zombie tossed the headcrab with great force. The headcrab glided in Cory's direction, but then altered direction in a haze of tainted blood. The headcrab had been shot out of mid air (and Cory knew it was Leon who took the shot) and the headcrabs body landed right next to Cory.
Cory glanced back in Leon's direction and lipped the word "thanks". After that he continued onward with the fight at hand. He charged the next closest zombie as Leon and Cindy continued their hail of bullets. Cory flung the hook from below up into the face of the zombie. In so doing, he pried the headcrab off in one blow. The headcrab died instantly, and so did the zombie. The moment the body fell to the ground, so did the poisonous zombie, it had finally taken one too many bullets.
Only three zombies remained, and Cory signaled his friends to each take one. Cory approached his enemy with his crowbar, Leon with his fists, and Cindy with her gun. Cory wondered why Leon wasn't using his gun as well, but when he saw the gun tucked in the front of his pants with the slide locked back, he knew that Leon had used all his ammo.
Cory slammed the hook into his zombie's head. Not only did it pierce the headcrab, but also the human's skull beneath it. This was not enough to stop the zombie, but it was enough to force a horrible wail out of it. Cory removed the crowbar and repeated his previous attack. In the zombie's weakness, Cory took this chance to shove the zombie into the toxic sludge, killing it for good.
Leon was warming up on his boxing techniques with his zombie. As slow as the zombie was, this was no challenge to Leon. Leon kept a hail of fists flying at the zombies face. He was hitting the zombie so hard that wounds were beginning to open and yellow blood was flying all over Leon. This fueled him to hit even harder then before. He kept attacking and never let up. After the zombie obviously was close to not being able to take anymore, Leon maneuvered around the zombie, wrapped his hands around its throat, and broke its neck. When the host body fell to the ground dead, he stomped on the headcrab.
Cindy had her gun, but was obviously skeptical to use it. She must have used lots of her ammo already. Instead, she (as Cory would put it) used her gun as a fancy club. She held it backwards by the barrel and used the handle to beat the zombie in the pressure point where the shoulder meets the neck. The zombie keeled to its knees, to which Cindy swiftly brought the gun back to a firing position and pointed it in the zombies face. A single shot, and the zombie fell dead. The slide on Cindy's gun locked back just like Leon's, she too was now without ammo.
The three of them stood among the wreckage they created, not one of them with a scratch on them. They had entered battle and will walk away victorious, only with a little less ammo then before. City-17 laid only a few hundred yards in front of them, and once they'd make it there, the search for Gordon Freeman would begin.