Well, hello again faithful readers! What a "quick" update, eh? L Anyway, regarding to what you said, Blizrun, about Shepard not supposed to kill Freeman, it's true. Calhoun also wasn't supposed to meet Freeman, and in fact a character from a completely different game (Doom) wasn't supposed to appear at Black Mesa at all! But that's the point where my story and the Half-Life timeline diverge – when Doom suddenly appeared in Black Mesa, seemingly out of nowhere, it triggered a chain reaction of events (fueled by the administrator, but I won't spoil anything here), and the events ended up differently. It's sort of a parallel HL universe. Because of all this, Shepard's Osprey wasn't shot-down, and he received new orders regarding Freeman. Hope that helps your suspension of disbelief a bit.
To Mr. Unanimous: Chill. I mean it. I'm OK with criticism, but when you start to flame and insult me, that's where you cross the line. btw, I've send you an e-mail cuz I thought your second review was from someone else. Also, did you consider that my bad grammar is because english is not my native language, as I clearly stated, asshole? So keep your tongue clean and don't flame me, because next time you do shit like that, expect some response.
I would also like to say that I was a little afraid to introduce Rosenberg, Calhoun, Shepard and the admin. all in the same chapter (it was chapter 6), but eventually decided for it. Hope you readers are OK with that.
Also, I don't remember Rosenberg's private name, so I'd call him 'Alex'. If you know his canon name, send me an e-mail or leave a review, and I'll fix it ASAP.
Enjoy! (or don't enjoy, but at least be kind enough to keep the reviews/mails clean of personal insults)
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CHAPTER 7
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Four men, trapped in a small elevator, their weapons busy pointing at each other while an entire squad of trigger-happy troops are holding them in their sights.
Not an easy situation.
From this distance, their chance of missing is practically none.
*BWIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZ*
||CLANG!||
The elevator shook a bit when something heavy landed on its roof. The ceiling bulged slightly inwards, threatening to collapse on the heads of the four. The cables started to creak in protest.
In the meanwhile, the soldiers recovered from their initial surprise. Their Sergeant grinned, as he shouted "Fire!". He would surely get a promotion for wasting these birds. The prize on their, and especially Freeman's head was very high, and kept rising as more and more soldiers found their deaths by his hands.
The troops pulled the trigger without hesitation, pouring a steady stream of low-caliber high-velocity bullets into the elevator.
Only the elevator wasn't there, their bullets ricocheted from the metal wall of the empty shaft.
CRASH!
The elevator crashed to the floor. Apparently, the added weight of the creature on the roof was too much for the cables, they disconnected and the elevator fell just in time. Although the landing was pretty rough for all four men, it was a lot better than being holed with lead.
Doom was the first to recover. He opened his eyes, shook his ringing head, then rose heavily out of the debris of the shattered cabin floor. A moment afterwards, Freeman stood-up too. Calhoun moaned, and Freeman helped him to his feet, but Rosenberg wasn't moving.
Doom looked around, noting something else lying on the floor in the middle of the cabin. He approached the thing, and whistled.
"Damn…"
It was the mutilated body of a bullsquid. Straight above him was a gaping hole in the roof – apparently when the elevator slammed into the floor, this beast crashed straight through the roof and died.
Freeman and Calhoun were busy trying to wake the unconscious Rosenberg, when something happened. Freeman heard a quiet clattering sound, and felt something touching the boot of his suit.
Looking down to his feet, he saw something that made his heart miss a beat.
It was green in color, round in shape, and had a small hole where a ring-shaped pin used to be.
A grenade.
"Fire in the hole!!" he shouted, grabbing Rosenberg and helping Calhoun to lift his unconscious form on his shoulder. The four ran as quickly as he could out of the elevator and into the familiar corridor, with Calhoun, carrying Rosenberg, struggling to keep up with Doom and Freeman.
{{{BOOM!}}}
The explosion forced the men to the ground. The elevator, now considerably far behind them, filled with bright flames and clusters of razor-sharp, murderously fast shrapnel. But the only burned and torn flesh was that of the dead bullsquid. The soldiers failed yet again at their attempts to finish these men's lives.
Freeman breathed out a sigh of relief, while Calhoun dropped his scientist friend to the ground.
"Damn, we were f***ing lucky there…" Freeman murmured.
"We have to make some distance from the elevator!" Doom suddenly called. "Those marines might have the idea of getting down here and try again!"
Freeman nodded in agreement.
They stood up and started walking quickly, Freeman helping Calhoun with carrying Rosenberg.
Several minutes later, Calhoun lowered Rosenberg and dropped to the floor, exhausted. That served as a sign for the other two, and they too sat down, letting their bodies a moment of rest.
"OK, time out man!" panted Freeman. "We can't keep trying rip each other's throats with monsters and marines snooping all around!"
Doom raised an eyebrow.
After a moment of silence, Doom said, in a slow heavy voice: "Agreed".
Both men extended their right hands, and eyed each other suspiciously before shaking them.
'Finally', Calhoun thought. 'These idiots could've got me and Alex killed… What the hell was I thinking when I allowed this idiot to drag me into this?'
But from the outside, Calhoun's expression was as focused and serious as ever, although his pounding heart barely allowed him to keep that expression from coming down and be replaced by pain and fear.
After they shook hands, a minute of silence followed.
"Well…" Freeman broke the silence.
He looked at Doom, but did not receive any response.
"Tell me, errrrrr…. Doom…… what have you meant by this 'invasion from hell' you mentioned when… you know…"
Doom looked onto the nearby wall, thinking of some mysterious thoughts. Then, his gaze slowly shifted to Freeman's own.
"What I told you is true" he grunted. "Every single word of it".
Doom hesitated before continuing.
"It was years ago. You've already heard the main details. It was horrible. Worse than here… wherever 'here' is…" He lowered his head and tightened his lips. "I don't want to talk about it"
"Hey, it's alright, really!" Freeman meant to pat Doom on the back, but was stopped by the murderous look of the man.
There could be no mistake in the meaning of that gaze: Touch me, and die.
"Heh, sorry…" muttered Freeman, taking his hand back. "You know, your story really makes very little sense…"
"So none of this horror happened here?" asked Doom. Freeman shook his head in response.
Suddenly, Rosenberg made grunting noises, and all attention was instantly on him.
"Hey, wake up buddy!" Calhoun slapped him gently on the cheek. "How'd ya feel?"
"Like…. ARGH!… million bucks… OUGH!… I guess…"
"He's OK" stated Doom.
Calhoun looked at him angrily, but at heart he knew Doom was right.
"It's nothing… OUCH! Well, maybe I cracked a rib…"
"Come on, up you go…" Calhoun helped the scientist on his feet.
Doom, who had some medical training, opted to examine him, but Rosenberg insisted that he's fine.
"No, really, no need to worry! It's only a scratch!" for a second his face was washed by a painful expression, but returned to smile almost instantly. "Seriously! Now, Freeman!" He shook the man's hand enthusiastically. "Won't you tell us what's been with you since the accident?"
"Actually" Doom interfered, "I too am interested in some information. For starters, what is this place?"
"Welcome to the Black Mesa American research facility…" said Freeman sadly. "The only place in the world where cockroaches grow bigger than you do…"
"Black Mesa… No, never heard of it. Care to elaborate?"
"Actually, this is classified information. What means exactly zit in the face of our situation. So I'll tell you."
And told him he did. For the next half-an-hour, the four men gladly exchanged information. Doom became slightly more open and lively. Calhoun started to respect both men for their tremendous courage. But in Black Mesa, something dangerous is bound to come up once in a while. Even if you're sitting in one place.
*THUMP- THUMP- THUMP- THUMP- THUMP-*
The sound of heavy military boots running could be heard from the distance, along with some shouts.
All four leaped to their feet instantly. The sounds were getting louder.
"Hide!" whispered Freeman, and they all instantly scattered, preparing to ambush the troops that were heading this way. After half-a-minute, the sounds grew fainter, and disappeared in the distance.
"The danger has passed!" Freeman said, dropping from the air vent in the ceiling.
"Thank God!" said Rosenbeerg, coming out from behind the corner – the best cover he could come up with.
"Damn, we were lucky this time…" Freeman wiped his forehead of sweat. "We can't forget that we're in a dangerous situation. We must remain alert!"
"Yes. And leave our differences BEHIND as well!" commented Calhoun, looking back and forth at Doom and Freeman.
Both men nodded, and upon seeing the other making this simple gesture both felt a wave of relief.
"By the way… ummmm… Where are we heading?"
Rosenberg was the one to ask this important question, that nobody so far thought to ask.
"I just wanna get out, to see my wife again!" Calhoun stated, his voice filled with emotion. "And you, Alex, are coming with me!"
Rosenberg did not protest.
"I'm headed for the Lambda section" Freeman shrugged, like he was stating the obvious. "I was told someone can help me there… and my help is needed in return…"
Doom was the only one who didn't know what to answer.
"I'll come with you… Gordon…" he finally said. "Maybe this 'Lambda team' knows something about the portal I went through. Or why are the demons who invaded my world are fighting with those who invaded yours."
Freeman nodded.
"Barney, Alex…" Freeman said. "You can join us if you want to. Perhaps you'll find an opportunity to escape on the way. And besides, there's safety in numbers…"
"I don't know…" Calhoun started, but Rosenberg told him to shut up.
After some short persuasion, Rosenberg convinced Calhoun to join up, at which point he shook hands with Freeman.
"Great!" Freeman called. "Now that the matter is settled, we just have to figure out how to exit to the surface… From there we'll figure out how to reach the Lambda complex… and maybe, just MAYBE, we could actually make it. All four of us, in our separate objectives…"
The men nodded.
They were determined to not let the monsters and their own hypocritical government win in this situation. They were taking a stand, and felt satisfaction upon knowing it.
Only Doom wasn't sure what would become of him. But he prepared for the worse and hoped for the best. This man fought a war of survival, back on conquered Earth, against ridiculous odds, and came up on top. There's no way that he could be beaten, not now, when finally, after an infinite number of years he had allies by his side.
"Let's go" Doom said to everybody's surprise.
They all turned and started striding in a random direction, hoping it'll lead them to a point from which they could make it to the surface.
As the sound of their footsteps faded, a lone dark figure stepped out of the shadows nearby.
The administrator smiled.
'So far so good!', he thought.
Then he turned and walked away, in a direction different from the one taken by Freeman, Doom, Calhoun and Rosenberg. After all, he had other important matters to attend to…
Author's Notes: Chapter 7 ends! Finally, no cliffhanger this time! I hope you liked it. If you didn't, don't be afraid to tell me, just please tell me what's exactly wrong with it (instead of cursing and pointing out that it's 'stupid-stupid-stupid'), and try to be nice. After all, you don't see ME using rude words toward my readers, now do you?