Lost In The Fight
Carl Samson gazed out into the old, musty carriage. His tired, weary eyes were spinning. His head was throbbing; a large green lump was bulging on the back of his slim head. His clothes were tattered and covered in dirt, the glasses perched on his thin nose were cracked, and his grimy face was badly cut - that had happened when the dauntless Combine soldiers had attacked him, like rabid dogs converging on a dying rabbit.
His ocean-like blue eyes looked down at the dusty metallic floor, and he ran his hand through his spiked black hair. A painful twinge careered through his head and an agonised expression crossed his face.
Suddenly, he remembered what had happened -
/Flashback/
The overhead speaker system roared into life as he looked at the monitors of the factory.
"The Combine are coming - evacuate the factory premises immediately," it said calmly.
Immediately afterwards came the sounds of hammering footsteps and screams as men and women sprinted across the monitors in front of him. The Combine had come to Earth two months ago and were slowly toppling city after city; Warsaw was next.
They started to appear on the monitors, clubbing anyone they could find into brutal submission. Their batons crashed down onto the poor workers' shoulders, and they fell with pitiful screams. They gazed up at the cameras, then pointed and started towards the door, just as the elite soldiers entered the gated courtyard shouldering sub-machine guns.
Carl turned sharply and dashed through the old, battered door. The metal stairs clanged ominously as he pelted down them. A Combine soldier saw him.
"Stop, civilian!" he shouted behind his gaunt mask. Carl ignored him and turned down a deserted corridor. Gunshots rang out as the Combine soldier took aim.
The corridor was a dead end. Carl didn't even bother to consider stopping; instead he launched himself towards the only exit - the window. The glass shattered as 150 pounds of Carl went soaring through it and he landed hard on the steel fire escape. The steel cut into his skin and blood dripped onto the ground underneath.
Carl flung himself down the stairs, nearly tripping under his own feet as bullets lodged themselves in the wall beside him. Plaster dust was still clouding his vision as he dashed into the dying brown bushes.
/End Flashback/
Suddenly, the Combine communication system blared out through the empty carriage and echoed into the rest:
"Five minutes till estimated arrival at City 15. This is the end of the line so leave the train immediately when it enters the station," it hissed evilly, like a coiled snake ready to strike.
A Civil Protection soldier strode up the aisle and hit Carl in the side of the head; Carl was so weak that he fell to the floor. Even behind the terrifying mask Carl could imagine the Combine soldier smiling evilly, just savouring the moment. The soldier walked briskly out of the carriage waiting to pick on some other survivor, the stun stick pounding in between his gloved hands.
Carl thought back again...
/Flashback/
The twigs cut into his skin and caught on his clothes as he made it towards a chain link fence. The Combine soldiers were close behind him, firing their slender H&K pistols, which they had probably stolen when they first came to Earth. Carl threw himself onto the fence and scrambled over it. He landed heavily on his left foot and felt his ankle bone crack. Carl pressed on anyway, his teeth gritted as he made his way across the deserted road. Combine soldiers were already over the fence and chasing after him hungrily so they could beat him.
To his horror a Strider smashed through a nearby building, sending bricks and debris everywhere. Its spindly legs were stained with blood and covered with the bloodied innards of the people that it had skewered on them. A deep thundering noise built up, then discharged as blinding white light shot out of its warp cannon. It blew a deep channel into the road, and Combine soldiers dived to avoid the fire.
The fire hit one unfortunate soldier and he was instantly obliterated; small lumps of burnt flesh sprayed in every direction. The Combine soldiers spoke furiously into the communication devices behind their unsightly masks as Carl scrambled away. A truck was ahead of him; it looked drivable.
A soldier charged him, throwing him to the ground like a sack of potatoes; dirt went into Carl's dry mouth and excruciating pain cascaded up his leg.
The Combine stared down at him.
"Take this sucker!" he shouted and picked up a brick beside him. He raised it, then smashed it into Carl's head. There was a flash of bright light, and Carl blanked out.
A few hours later, a couple of Metro police were standing in front of him.
"Get on this train, scum, and we'll see you in City 15," they said angrily, as they shoved Carl into the dusty carriage of the train.
/End Flashback/
The overhead speakers screamed out again.
"This is City 15 - please go to the nearest exit immediately and exit the train. I repeat - this is the end of the line," it droned.
Metro police were coming up the corridor; Carl quickly snatched up what he had on him and left the bleak, empty train. He was now standing on an enormous station platform with civilians mulling about and Metro police causing havoc in between.
A policeman approached him.
"Follow me," he said sternly.
Carl complied; he didn't want another lump to match the one on his head. They weaved in and out of the civilians, before going into a dark, deserted changing room.
"Put these on," hissed the policeman.
Carl put on the shoddy blue overalls and the pair of brown boots that he'd been given.
"Go," the policeman ordered.
Carl snapped and punched the soldier in the face; a significant CRACK meant that something was broken. The policeman collapsed to the ground and Carl picked up his holstered pistol; he didn't know what he was doing, but it felt good. He put the gun in his pocket.
'You never know,' he thought reasonably.
The large station invited him back in. A large scanner floated above him, taking snap shots. He was tempted to punch that as well after what the Combine had done to his family, but decided against it, lest he be arrested like so many others had been.
The Combine, when they arrived, had immediately started to kill most of the population of Earth; in two weeks they had reduced the world's population by a third. After two months, the population was down to one sixth of what it was and the survivors were forced to be the slaves of the Combine; they had also been specially adapted to not have any "wants" any more.
Dr Breen, loathed and feared by civilians, had become a puppet of the Combine and had helped to make civilians "support" the Combine's ways. The Combine, when it arrived, had killed Carl's mother and sister immediately in his old London apartment. Carl and his father had taken one of the last planes out of Britain to Eastern Europe and Poland. Carl's father had joined a resistance movement but it had been peppered with moles and within one week of losing his sister and mother, Carl had also lost his father.
A tear welled up in Carl's eye but he brushed it away angrily; this was now a place where emotions were blocked out and didn't count if he cried only he would be affected.
He moved up to a doorway, where a civilian was being told to pick up rubbish.
"Pick it up," the guard ordered.
The civilian obediently put the trash back in the bin.
"Go," the guard ordered.
The civilian moved past and the guard hit the civilian twice on the back; the civilian flinched but did not show any other emotions.
Carl trudged through the metal gates, which were flanked by two guards with batons held menacingly. A gunshot rang out behind him...