And you thought I was dead. My friends, you couldn't be more wrong.

            The corridor was comprised of nondescript concrete walls, obviously remnants of the Cold War that ended two decades ago. Gordon slowly walked down it, eyes scanning for any threat. He didn't have a clue where the hell he was going. He had only been working at the facility for two weeks. Hell not even that long! As he turned the corner, he could see the area ahead of him was blocked with several boards that had been nailed to the concrete doorway, crates stacked up behind that, and two sawhorses painted in red and white caution stripes in front.

            Beyond the blockade Gordon could hear the sound of water dripping from an unknown source. Taking out his crowbar, he wrenched away several boards and broke up two of the crates that were in his path. Moving the sawhorse out of the way, Gordon took the S.P.A.S. out and looked around the room before him. Nothing but more crates.

            Breathing in relief, he took a step forward. *SCREE! SCREE!* Two headcrabs leapt off of their hiding place at Gordon's head. He hit the ground fast and the two creatures slammed into another crate tucked away into the corner. *BLAM SHUNK-CHUNK BLAM SHUNK-CHUNK* Now there were two less headcrabs in existence. Pulling himself off the concrete floor, Gordon paused a moment to reload his shotgun before moving on.

            The next room was huge, to say the least. About two-thirds down the walls sloped downward into a large steel door and a pathway lead into a control booth above and to the right. Gordon walked right out into the room only to have another headcrab leap at him. Time froze. He could see the headcrab perfectly lined up with his head. He didn't have the time to react. It was going to attach itself and Gordon would be zombified.

            Then, out of seemingly nowhere, a puke green glob of acid collided with the headcrab and time restarted. The bulbous, chalk white thing was knocked into the wall. It screeched in pain as its body was dissolved. Gordon looked to his left and on the other side of the chamber a bullsquid sat, partially concealed in the shadows underneath the control booth. It spat at Gordon again. He jumped to the left and landed on his knees.

            He switched the shotgun for his Glock and took aim. *POW POW POW POW POW POW* The bullsquid jumped as the first few bullets carved holes in its body and ran to the other side of the area below Gordon. *POW POW POW POW POW* All but one of those shots hit and the bullsquid collapsed on the ground. Its pale green blood flowed from the bullet wounds and gently sloped down towards the steel doors.

            Gordon began to berate himself. "You stupid asshole, you've got to think tactically now! These damn things are going to kill you if you don't!" After a few deep breaths, he reloaded the pistol and moved up to the control booth. He had just stepped in when a nearby door was ripped apart from the inside. *PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA CLICK* The zombified worker fell to the ground. Gordon reloaded the pistol as he peeked inside the room. "Whoa."

            Inside were a tool chest and a desk with a toolbox, crowbar and some grenades on it. Stacked around however were a propane tank and a crate full of dynamite. Apparently the former worker had the mind set that if he was going, he'd take his attacker with him.

            Gordon briefly entertained the thought of taking the crowbar but decided against it. After all, what would he do with it? Hold one in each hand?  He did however take the grenades to restock his small amount. Walking back into the control booth, he pulled the lever marked "lift control". Warning klaxons sounded and red lights flashed down by the lift entrance.

            Leaning on the booth window frame, Gordon watched as the steel doors below opened and the lift rose up to his current level. Letting his suit absorb the 9mm pistol, he walked back down to the lower lever. Spotting a ladder that lead down to the lift, he grabbed on and lowered himself down. As soon as Gordon touched bottom, he took out the S.P.A.S. and walked onto the platform itself.

            The activation button to the side of the lift was brightly lit and attached to a pillar underneath the control booth. Pressing the button, he heard a loud buzz in response and began descending the shaft at a surprisingly fast rate. The air rushed by Gordon's head and a few seconds later the lift roughly stopped at the bottom. The shotgun was directly lifted to his shoulder as he looked around for any immediate threats. Finding none, he let his arm drop to the side.

            Looking around, he saw that he now stood in a tunnel that lead further into facility and a small train sat at the bottom of the room. Grinning, Gordon leaped down from the lift and onto the railway. At once the sounds of houndeyes and bullsquids echoed from further in the tunnel. Wasting no time, he climbed onto the train and pushed on the control lever. The train beeped in response to his actions and a speed indicator appeared on the bottom of his HUD.

            Gordon pushed the lever once to get the train moving and an additional three times to get it at top speed. As he whizzed through the passageway, he saw that it was filled with houndeyes, bullsquids and a few headcrabs. Apparently the shockers hadn't reached this place yet. To his amusement, a few houndeyes and a bullsquid ran in front of the moving vehicle and were instantly crushed. Then again, it seemed that neither kind had any intelligence beyond basic animalistic instincts so it wasn't all that surprising.

            Unfortunately Gordon wasn't paying attention to the track and he crashed through a barrier that had been set up. Emergency sirens sounded and he cursed himself for his inattentiveness. Looking ahead, he saw that a large span of the floor was covered in radioactive liquid with several decaying wooden crates at the far end. He yanked at the control lever but it was stuck at maximum speed and wouldn't budge. To this there was only one thing Gordon could say.

"Oh shit."

            The train slammed into the emergency barrier at the end of the track and he was sent flying. Screaming and doing several flips in the air, he landed on top of the largest crate and shattered it. To his surprise, the sludge wasn't as deep as he thought. Standing up, it only reached his knees. Gordon didn't have time to breathe in relief as a nearby bullsquid started spiting at him, not to mention that his armor was slowly getting drained due to the toxic waste.

            First he climbed onto another one of the boxes that was thankfully able to support his weight. Drawing his submachine gun (he had lost his grip on the S.P.A.S. during flight), Gordon used the aiming reticule on his HUD to shoot the creature without having to hold the weapon to his shoulder. After expending about half a clip, the monster shuddered and died.

            Now he was able to breath in relief. "Lady Luck must definitely favor me right now." He mumbled to himself as he reloaded the M635. Jumping onto another few crates, he was able to reach solid concrete. The first thing he spotted was his wayward shotgun lying in a corner, the second being a ladder that let him on the top of a gigantic pipe.

            Grabbing the shotgun first, Gordon put the two weapons away and climbed up the ladder. The pipe itself was a faded orange color that disappeared into the nearby wall. However a maintenance hatch was opened, presenting a way to continue on his journey. Taking out his shotgun, he dropped into the hollow construct and activated his flashlight.

            The pipe was large enough so that he didn't have to crawl on his belly like he had been doing in the vents before. One end was blocked off by a rusting grate so he had to go the other way. Gordon was glad too, as a foul odor was seeping through from the other side. As he was crouch-walking through, he wondered about the fate of Dr. Green and Dr. Cross. 'They're still alive.' He thought. 'They both have more experience with an HEV than me.'

            A short distance away another maintenance hatch was left open. Deactivating his flashlight, he slowly stood up and looked around. A yard above was the ceiling, surrounding him more pipes, and below a bullsquid spitting at him. A quick switch over to the Glock 18 fixed that problem however. Reloading the pistol, Gordon climbed onto an adjacent pipe. From this vantage he could see a balcony overlooking the area that was hidden by the wall previously.

            Dropping down to another pipe, he slowly walked along it until he was standing in front of the balcony. A quick jump and he was on solid concrete again. To his immediate right was a countertop with a pair of batteries and med kits on it. Gordon eagerly used all of four of the items. With his health and armor both back up to 100%, he drew the shotgun from his suit and continued onward.

            The room in front of him was massive, like a cavern. The three walls were probably about two hundred feet long and the ceiling so high up that he couldn't even see it. On the opposite side of the room, the outer wall of some cylindrical construct bulged in that was easily just as large. The walkway on which Gordon stood spanned from the right wall to a third of the way over with the doorway he emerged from in the walkway's center. In the middle of the room was a freight elevator that led to another chamber above.

            Gordon's only way further was with the use of that elevator and the only way over was a pipe that lead to a broken down nuclear reactor that was leaking radioactive plutonium all over the floor. The pipe itself was fairly wide, so he didn't have to worry about balancing himself too much. As he walked on the pipe, his suit's built in Geiger counter started clicking at a fairly quick pace. Suddenly his suit took a hit from the right. Gordon whipped his head in the direction to see a bullsquid sitting in the far corner of the room.

            Another massive glob of acid spat forth from the creature's mouth though this one missed Gordon by a few feet, so he ignored the thing and kept on going. A few more steps and he safely reached the reactor. He hopped onto the lift and depressed the control button by the guide pole. It buzzed and he began rising towards the ceiling.

            The lift was barely functioning so its rate of ascent was pretty slow. Gordon took the time to sit down and rest his weary feet.

"It's probably been about eight hours," He said to himself, "since the Resonance Cascade occurred. And here I am trying to save the world. I've got the US Marines at my back, strange aliens at my front and security guards and scientists as my only allies." He smiled and shook his head.

            "Seems like the plot of some B movie from the eighties, only without all the gratuitous sex."

            The lift came to a halt with a short corridor in front of Gordon that lead to another huge cylindrical room. 'That must be rocket test labs.' He thought as he stood back up. Slowly walking forward, the first thing he heard was the sound of something slurping and chewing to the right. Dropping to a crouch, Gordon slowly crept along the left wall with the S.P.A.S. ready for him to execute a double blast.

            The smell of the radioactive substance around him was soon mixed with another scent, that of human blood. He reached a point where he could look at what was going on. A bullsquid was feasting on the eviscerated corpse of a member of the science team. The creature was so intent on devouring its meal; it didn't notice Gordon point the barrel of the shotgun at the approximate location of its brain.

*BL-BLAM*

            The twin ten gauge shells plowed through the bullsquid's flesh. It never knew what hit it. Gordon chambered another round before reloading. He briefly spared a look at the corpse of his coworker. The face didn't look familiar, so he doubted he had ever met the guy. The man's torso was ripped to shreds with most of the major organs already eaten. There was barely any blood on the surrounding wall and floor so the bullsquid must have drank most of that as well.

            Gordon barely took one step onto a metal footpath that clung to the edge of the area when he heard the chittering of houndeyes just ahead of him. A pack of four ran up to him and begin making their noises and blinking at him. Cute as the things were, they were still dangerous as hell. This they proved by simultaneously starting to emit a high pitched whine. *BLAM SHUNK-CHUNK BLAM SHUNK-CHUNK BLAM SHUNK-CHUNK* With the first three down, the last one turned tail and ran. Gordon chased it down the walkway and gunned it down at the end. *WHEEEE*

            His head snapped to the right and he saw another houndeye partially concealed behind a pair of explosives barrels. He didn't even have time to curse before the houndeye released its shockwave. The barrels detonated setting of a chain of events. First Gordon was thrown up in the air. Then the shockwave hit another pair of explosives barrels (that some genius had placed on a metal bridge leading to the center area). Those blew up as well, sending the hapless scientist even further up.

            Colliding with the wall of the central construct, Gordon fell down and by some miracle, managed to grab onto the safety rungs outside of the construct's entrance. A pair of headcrabs jumped at him, missing by a mile and falling to their mutual deaths to the bottom some two hundred yards below. Grunting, Gordon hauled himself onto the walkway. 'Holy shit, that's the second time I've been thrown around.' His HUD read health at seventy percent and armor at thirty. 'And to think that no less then fifteen minutes ago both were at one-hundred.'

            Shaking his head at his luck Gordon walked into the entrance and retrieved his shotgun from where it had landed. "I really ought to keep a better grip on this thing." He mumbled to himself. Mounted on the wall to his left was a large handle. Obviously only a handful of people were ever meant to be inside at once. Gordon grasped the handle with his free hand and gave it a good tug. It only screeched across the metal backing in protest. He pulled again, this time leaning away from it, letting gravity add to the forces acting on the rusted lever.

            It gave way and suddenly switched positions. Gordon fell backwards and landed on his rear as the doors leading to the chamber switched open spots. Getting up he held the S.P.A.S. tightly as he edged to the open entrance. Thumbing the double-tap switch behind the trigger, he spun on his left heel and pointed the muzzle of the gun down the hall.

            It was empty. Feeling relieved and at the same time a bit foolish for acting like he was some kind of secret agent, Gordon stepped over the door's threshold and onto the metal grating for a floor. *CLANG CLANG CL-CLANG* Jumping in surprise, he pressed his back against the outer wall and pointed his gun at the other side. The terrible noise reverberated throughout the hallway as the unknown source continued pounding on the inner wall. For the moment, Gordon was thankful the steel boundary was still strong despite the years of rust on its sides.

            Swallowing a lump of mucous in his throat he continued on. Only a few yards ahead of him, he saw the form of a fellow scientist sitting in a pool of blood against the inner wall. Gordon ran over and gasped in horror. The man was still alive, but he had a gash in his gut that went straight through. It looked like someone had stuck an axe through him.

"Jesus Christ…" Gordon said. The man looked up and with surprising strength, grabbed him by the suit's collar and pulled him closer.

"Fire the rocket engine… Destroy the damn thing before it grows any larger…" With pain induced force, the man tossed Gordon across the hall and clutched at his stomach. "STOP…" The man gave up on his struggle for life and fell silent.   

            Gordon stared at the corpse. "What the hell is in there that could do that?" The pounding on the inner wall still hadn't ceased and to his left, a top of a few stairs, another doorway stood. He wanted to tremble in fear. Obviously whatever was inside was larger than anything he had seen so far. But he remembered the promise he had made to himself, the promise that he would do whatever it takes to survive. 'And if that means firing a rocket, then I will."

            Walking over to the door, he saw another latch similar to the one that was on the entrance that lead inside. Switching it over, the door slid open to reveal the control room for this entire area. A shout erupted from Gordon's right and another scientist ran to the door on the opposite side. And then it happened.

            A gigantic green tentacle-like creature smashed through the heat-resistant glass and collided with the fleeing scientist, sending the poor guy into the computer banks on the left wall. The man looked up with an expression of fear fixated on his face. Gordon rushed forward to help. *BLAM SHUNK-CHUNK BLAM-SHUNK-CHUNK BLAM SHUNK-CHUNK BLAM SHUNK-CHUNK* His shotgun spewed buckshot.

"Nooo… no! No! Get it off of me! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" The man shouted in pure terror. Gordon's shots were drawing blood but if the creature was affected by it, it didn't show. The tentacle monster picked the hapless scientist up by a suction cup like appendage under what appeared to be its head and pulled him out. Gordon bolted over to the gaping hole in the window and his jaw dropped as there was not one, but three of the tentacle creatures in the blast pit.

            The one that held the still struggling scientist disappeared into a hole in the ground where the three things has apparently sprung from. A few moments later it came back up and joined its 'brothers' in banging on the walls. Gordon stared at their behavior in curiosity. 'Why are they banging on the walls?' He wondered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Looking, he saw a security guard rush out onto a platform on the left side of the chamber above him.

"Hey! Over here! Eat lead you outer space octopus!"

            The guard then raised his sidearm and began firing at the tentacles. Gordon wanted to shout out for him to stop but his gut told him to stay silent. The guard only got off two shots before one of the tentacles rose up and impaled him upon a scythe like growth in front of its head. He screamed and shot the thing several more times before it tossed him down the pit it stemmed from.

            Poised above the tentacles in the direct center of the room, creaked the rocket engine. Looking down at the control panel for the construction, he saw that the lights on the console were all out. It seemed that in order to fire the engine, he would need to restore the power, fuel, and oxygen supply.  Gordon slowly walked out of the room through the door opposite the one he came in. He needed to find a way to the individual control rooms and that meant finding a way around the tentacles. There was a ladder leading up on the other side of the room he was currently in. The tongue of a barnacle hung down from the ceiling right by the ladder.

            Gordon raised his shotgun only to realize two things. One, the barnacle was so high up that the spread pattern of the ten gauge shells would be nearly useless. And two, he had emptied the weapon when he had fired at the creature before. He reloaded the S.P.A.S. and switched to his pistol. *POW POW POW POW* The barnacle spewed out undigested chunks of a previous meal before dying.

            He let his suit absorb his pistol and climbed up the ladder. At the top was another security guard sitting in the corner. "How'd you-" The guard cut him off by pulling down to the floor. "Be quiet! This thing hears us." He whispered to Gordon. It was then that Gordon understood how the tentacles reacted. 'Sound… they're attracted to sound.' Nodding to the guard, Gordon walked into an adjoining room that lead out to the blast pit. Inside were three crates full of dynamite and a liberal amount of grenades strewn atop them.

            'Someone must've had the idea of dropping those explosives at the base of the tentacles and then detonating them.' He thought. It wasn't a bad idea. It might've actually worked. But the rocket engine was a sure-fire way to 'KFC' those things. Gordon called out his M635 from his suit and placed his finger near the trigger. With his suit in stealth mode, the tentacles wouldn't be able to hear him walking out.

            As he stepped out, the tentacles stopped banging on their confines and sort of swayed around and started moaning. The moan's tone was in such a way that it almost seemed like a mournful song. Almost. Gordon stepped onto the first platform and looked down. 'Oh shit.' A ring of two walkways (three, counting the platform Gordon stood on) clung to the edge of the blast pit. They were connected to each other and to the floor by a ladder. And obstructing the top of the ladders were a bunch of crates. Not only that, but the doorway to each control area had been boarded up.

            There was no way around it. If he was going to go on, those obstacles needed to be removed and the way he could do that was by creating some noise. Switching the submachine gun for his grenades, he pulled the pin off and heaved it at the first stack of crates. The explosive device landed on the walkway and exploded a second later. The crates were blasted into millions of splinters though the walkway wasn't damaged all that much thanks to its construction. The tentacles however acted exactly as Gordon had figured.

            All three homed in at the source of the explosion and began furiously pounding the surrounding walkway. Gordon smirked. Strong and tough these things were, but they're dumb as a rock and easily manipulated. He withdrew another grenade and repeated the process. *BOOM* The tentacles homed in, another grenade was tossed. *BOOM* Rinse and repeat with the final barrier. *BOOM*

            With his path clear (somewhat), all Gordon had to do is hope the tentacles would be distracted long enough for him to reach the first door. Putting the grenade away he crouch-walked over to the first ladder a foot away from. Slowly, ever so slowly, he put one booted foot on a rung and then the other. His eyes never looked away from the tentacles, still banging on the ground level. Step by step, he climbed down the short ladder until his right foot touched the first walkway. He let out a breath he had been unconsciously holding.

            Crouching again, he inched towards the ladder. It was only about ten yards away. With the tentacles however, it seemed like a hundred. His breathing was slow and deep as Gordon was afraid that even doing that too hard would attracted the monsters. One foot crossed over the other as he reached the halfway point.  Two tentacles had stopped banging fruitlessly on the floor and resumed their moaning. 'Wait a second… where'd the third one go?' At that precise moment, the third tentacle rose up right in front of Gordon.

            He froze in place, his left foot suspended above his right. The pupil's of his eyes dilated as much as physically possible, taking in every detail of the monstrosity. The tentacle itself merely hovered in place and stared at Gordon. Gordon could make out two yellow eyes on either side of the creature's head. They blinked at him and the thing seemed to cock its head sideways like a puppy would at something it didn't understand.

'I don't get it… it's looking straight at me. So why doesn't it attack? Maybe it's blind or has very poor eyesight. That has to be it. Why else would it use sound to find its prey?'      

            After a few more excruciating moments of eye-to-eye contact with each other, the tentacle moved away. Gordon placed his foot down and continued onward. At last he reached the second ladder. Carefully making sure not to step on any wood fragments, he gently grasped the top rung with his hands and placed his feet on another rung. Silently climbing down, he reached the middle walkway and placed his left foot down. Turning slightly to his left, he let go of the ladder and brought his right foot forward. But it collided with his left leg's calf and he lost his balance. He flailed his arms and by instinct, brought his right foot around and down.

*KLANG*

Gordon's head snapped to his left. The three tentacles looked at him. They knew he was there.

"FUCK!!"

            The power of the built up adrenaline in his body was released and time slowed. His arms and legs were synched in movement. When the left leg went up, the left arm went down and visa-versa. The doorway drew closer. So did the tentacles. He glanced to his left. The first tentacle hit where he had struck the walkway. He was halfway there. Gordon pushed his body even harder, drawing on the adrenaline induced strength. He was almost there. The second tentacle hit the metal where he had been a split second ago. The third one was closing in fast. By running, he wouldn't make it in time.

            There was only one option. He tensed up his legs and jumped forward. The tentacle came crashing down right after. Gordon sailed through the air. The doorway was right in front of him. He put his arms up. Gordon landed and let his inertia place him into a roll. He went through the entrance and continued rolling until he hit the safety railing. Time returned to normal.

            The tentacles were pounding furiously at the walkway, still searching for Gordon. The HEV clad scientist was lying on his stomach breathing heavily. "I made it… I made it… I made it…" He said over and over, still amazed at his narrow escape from certain death.

'Focus Gordon, focus. Slow down your breathing, you don't want to hyper ventilate.' With great control he brought his breathing down to a steady rate. He started picking himself off the ground, but fell back down when his body began violently shaking. The pent up fear was overloading every nerve in his body and he couldn't control it.

"I have t-t-to stop shaking. Fire-e-e the engi-gine." Squeezing his eyes shut, Gordon concentrated on a single thought. It wasn't reaching the Lambda complex. It wasn't killing the tentacles. It wasn't even staying alive. It was the thought of being home, his old home on the east coast. He pictured the front porch, the kitchen, his bedroom. After several moments, the trembling stopped and he got up. 'Man, if I make it out of here alive, the first thing I'm doing (after two days of uninterrupted sleep) is getting a girlfriend and getting laid.'

            Taking his shotgun out, Gordon turned around and ran to other side of the hallway, still eager to put as much distance between the tentacles and him. At the end was another chamber like the one he came in. Now he understood the purpose of the design. When the engine was fired, they would lock shut and prevent any of the flames from reaching outside.

            Stepping in, he flipped the lever to the other side.

Check out the author's note for important info.