Author's Notes: First of all, I'm sorry for the long delay between chapters. Next, I would really like to thank everyone who reviewed my story; it brings me endless joy to know that other people enjoy my creation, just like I enjoy other people's creations. It's just so damn rewarding! J.
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CHAPTER 6
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---DATATATA!!!---
PING!PING!
The furious volley of bullets ricocheted from the wall above the security guard. He fired several shots from his Glock handgun toward his pursuers behind him, and kept running.
A bald, aging scientist was running at his side, breathing heavily. He had difficulties with keeping up, but he had no choice. Those marines were hunting down everybody, not only the alien creatures, but also all personnel and security staff as well.
"Rosenberg, can't you keep up!?" shouted the guard, while firing behind him. A lucky shot hit the helmet of a pursuing soldier with a loud PING, causing him to grab his head in pain. His squad mates returned fire in such massive volume, that the guard was forced to grab Rosenberg by his arm and round a nearby corner in the corridor they were running through.
The sound of heavy military boots running was not far behind.
"Calhoun… I…" panted Rosenberg, but he kept running. There was simply no time to chat.
Yessssssss, an intersection!
Calhoun chose a random direction. He and Rosenberg were apparently running through the maze of some kind of anonymous scientific complex. Calhoun never been here in his entire life – he was usually posted far from here, close to the primary entrance to the humongous Black Mesa facility.
After many more random turns, Calhoun tried to listen.
Silence.
"I think we lost 'em, pal!" said Calhoun quietly.
Rosenberg was too busy to respond, sitting down right on the cold metal floor, panting very heavily.
"Come on, up you go!" said Calhoun while helping Rosenberg to his feet.
"Thanks Barney… I've already started to think that we won't make it…" he looked at Calhoun, a serious expression written on his face. "I owe you my life!"
"Nonsense." Calhoun stated, like it was a matter of fact. Rosenberg tried to protest, but Calhoun's hand gesture forbade any possible response.
They started to walk, alert for any sound.
They had no clue where they were, but they were apparently far from where they wanted to be – outside of the facility.
Then, they made another turn, and stopped in surprise.
The sight wasn't very typical – two men, one wearing a HEV suit, the other wearing an unfamiliar green armor. One of them was pointing a pistol at the other, whose hands were lifted up in the air.
Calhoun didn't know what was the meaning of this, and who these people were. He didn't care either. He was preparing to silently head back to the way they came from, when his plan was spoiled by non other than his relatively new friend, Rosenberg.
"Hey, Gordon! Gordon Freeman!" he shouted, pointing his finger at the HEV clad figure. "It's really you!".
Freeman was caught by surprise, and turned his head to see who's calling his name.
This was all Doom needed.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Doom went into action! (hey, it rhymes!)
-
The room was dark. The walls were padded in black cloth that seemed to absorb the only source of light in the room – a small desk lamp.
Sitting behind the desk was a male figure. His face was in the shadows, but he was clearly wearing a blue business suit, and a tie…
"You do understand that Gordon Freeman is a very dangerous man, right?", asked the mysterious figure, talking to the US Marines Corporal standing in front of him. "His victims can be counted in the dozens, and those are only the human ones. Underestimate him, and you're a man of the past! Get it?"
"Of course I do, sir", said Adrian Shepard in a firm, confident voice.
Good, this soldier is competent. The administrator smiled. What a good man! He will be very useful later on, very useful. That's provided he won't get killed by Freeman, of course.
"Good, then you are indeed ready. Get rid of Freeman. If somebody interferes with this operation, ANYBODY, you are allowed to terminate him. That holds especially true for a certain man in green armor… well, you'll see."
"I got it, sir! You can count on me to serve the United States of America proudly!"
The administrator smiled again. So young, so ideological… But this corporal does have what it takes to do the job better than an average Lieutenant or Major.
"I know I can count on you, otherwise you wouldn't have been assigned to lead this mission. Dismissed."
Shepard turned toward the exit door, knowing what he must do next…
-
With a mighty leap, moving too quickly for Freeman to react, Doom jumped to the side. At the same time, his foot flew through the air, kicking Freeman's handgun out of his hand.
Still moving very quickly, Doom charged at his foe, pummeling Freeman with his fists.
"F***!" cursed Freeman, as his nose cracked and started bleeding. Doom was an unforgiving combatant indeed.
In the meanwhile, Rosenberg raised his tiny, .32 caliber handgun. He aimed it at Doom, who was punching Freeman's face like a punch bag. His hands were shaking from excitement and adrenalin. And from emotional shock as well.
Rosenberg pulled the trigger, but the bullet whizzed far to Doom's side, not coming even remotely closed to its target.
Rosenberg prepared to shoot again, but a firm hand grabbed his gun, preventing him from aiming.
"What the heck you think you're doing!?" Calhoun called. He couldn't understand anything that was going on!
"Calhoun! The man in the orange suit is Gordon Freeman", shouted Rosenberg. He was clearly stressed, nearly to the point of crying. He was only a scientist, not a man of war. "He works in the anomalous materials lab. He's one of ours, we got to help him!"
But before Calhoun could answer, he was forced to duck behind the nearby corner, pulling Rosenberg with him, as Doom drawn two pistols and released several shots toward the two.
PING
"Awww!" Shouted Calhoun, grabbing his head. One of Doom's bullets hit his helmet. "Are you OK!?" asked Rosenberg with a clearly panicked voice.
"I'm fine. The bullet didn't go through…" Calhoun answered tiredly while feeling the small hole in his helmet, grateful more than ever for this handy piece of equipment.
At last, Gordon Freeman received the chance to retaliate. Drawing his M4, he aimed it at carefully Doom's head.
But then, fate intervened.
The wall behind Freeman exploded, sending debris across the entire room. Freeman pulled the trigger of the M4 exactly at the moment a chunk of flying stone hit the barrel of his gun, spoiling his aim and causing the streaking line of bullets to miss Doom's head by inches.
Freeman cursed.
He turned his head around to see what happened to the wall. What he saw, is a large hole. Suddenly, a brown figure, wearing a strange green collar, exited from the other side. Another two followed the first one.
"Buggies…" gasped Doom.
"Slaves…" cursed Calhoun.
Freeman simply opened fire at the creatures, but more of them started to pour from the orifice, forcing Freeman to retreat. Doom, Calhoun and even Rosenberg started to rain lead over the alien horde of Slaves.
Many died, but more came, and soon the four found themselves running through the corridors with green lightning charges hitting nearby walls behind them. They ran in turns, each time two of them covered the retreat of the other two.
Doom ran, stopped for a second, fired back and kept running. His Colt made a hole in one of the creature's head, but three more passed by their comrade's body, releasing deadly electric charges that forced Doom to duck.
Suddenly, the corridor widened.
Doom, running ahead of everybody else, has suddenly found himself under the sights of a dozen guns, all held in the hands of marines that were lying behind a line of sandbags for protection.
Doom cursed, stopped sharply and ran back the way he came from, less than a second before the marines fired. The bullets, fortunately, missed Doom completely.
"Back! Back!!" shouted Doom to the first man that was running towards him. It was Freeman.
"We can't, the alien slaves…" Freeman answered.
Doom only had a second to realize that 'slaves' is how Freeman called the buggies, before Calhoun and Rosenberg came running from behind a corner, a green lightning storm on their tracks.
The four were forced to run through the room with the marines.
As Doom, who was in lead, entered the room from the corridor and sprinted in the direction of another, the marines aimed and fired at Doom. Thus, they were distracted from the other three men. Doom made it to another corridor. Calhoun, Freeman and Rosenberg were on their way, when the stream of slaves poured into the room.
The marines were forced to defend themselves from the aliens. The slaves forgot all about their former prey, and concentrated on the newest threat.
The four men ran through the new set of corridors, seeking to increase the distance between them and the threat of aliens and fellow humans as much as possible.
"In here!" Doom heard the blue-suited man shout. This man was apparently a security guard judging by the badge on his chest. How did the bald man called him? Oh right, Calhoun.
Calhoun was standing inside an elevator cabin, waiting for the other three to come.
"Good thinking, buddy!" Rosenberg congratulated him once they were on their way up the shaft. "If the slaves won the battle, they will not be intelligent enough to follow us through the elevator!"
Everybody else was quiet, as the elevator kept rising with a silent hum of electric engines.
Calhoun wondered what would they find when the elevator reaches its destination and the door opens. There was a panel in here, with buttons for different floors, but in his hurry Calhoun pressed a random button, and now he couldn't remember which one it was.
-CLICK-
-CLICK-
"Oh crap, not now…" Calhoun murmured.
Like they were a single person, Doom and Freeman drawn their guns, and pointed them at each other simultaneously, cocking them in the process (that's the -CLICK-)
The two men eyed each other, daring the other man to move first. The tension was incredibly high.
Rosenberg took a step, and positioned himself between the two.
"Really!" he squealed, clearly frightened. "You have to cooperate with each other! We…"
He didn't finish the sentence, as Doom pushed him violently with his free hand, sending him crashing into the wall. His other hand, pointing the loaded weapon at Freeman, didn't waver.
Calhoun helped Rosenberg onto his feet. Rosenberg and Calhoun were desperate. They couldn't let the two rivals blow each other to pieces!
Then suddenly, the elevator stopped.
The door opened.
Calhoun instantly wished it didn't.
An entire squad of marines was waiting there, guns pointed straight into the elevator cabin. Doom and Freeman turned their heads, seeing the marines. Both their guns were still pointed into each other's faces…
Author's Notes: How was that? I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. I know that everyone's real story in the game is very different from the one portrayed here, but I do want to be original. For the purpose of this story, just assume that all of the events in the game Half-Life weren't accurate, and the real and complete version is the one written here ~_^ The same about the locations, I won't take them from the games, I'll simply made them up.