Chapter 11 – Snowbound pt. 2
Alyx was the first to regain consciousness. She looked around from her seat in what was once the snow-car. The roll cage that once encircled it was twisted and mutilated. Alyx had to struggle and bend the metal to escape the wreckage of the car. She clutched her right leg in pain. The fall had hurt it. She could still walk, so she hadn't broken it. Gordon still lay unconscious against his seat. Luckily, no harm had come to him. The metal from the car only trapped him in his seat. One of the two rebels behind him was not as lucky as the metal from the roll cage had impaled him. The other rebel hung out of the side of the wreckage. Alyx looked behind the car and saw Adrian laying a few feet from the rest of them. He must have been thrown from the car during the fall. Alyx walked around the wreckage to Gordon's seat.
"Gordon. Gordon, wake up." She said as she shook Gordon. Alyx was startled by a groan from behind her. Adrian had begun to stir, so she ran over to him. "Adrian, are you okay?" she asked. Adrian opened his eyes. His sight was disoriented. From what he could make out at first, Alyx looked like a person from his past at Aperture Science.
"Chell…Is that you?" he said.
"Adrian, it's Alyx. Are you okay?" she said.
"Alyx? Oh…Alyx. Yeah, I'm fine. Just a few bruises here and there." He stood up slowly, groaning with his first movements. "How's Gordon?" He asked.
"He's trapped in the car, but he's still breathing. I'll need your help getting him out." She replied. Adrian walked back to the car. He cringed at the sight of the dead rebel in the backseat.
"What a wretched way to die. He was a good man and he died a soldier's death." He said. Alyx, after consoling Adrian for the loss, asked for help with Gordon. Adrian moved some of the metal bars out of the way and helped lift Gordon out of the car. Alyx stayed with Gordon while Adrian went over to the other side to help the other rebel out as well. Alyx tried to wake Gordon again. He finally began to stir.
"Alyx…?" he groaned.
"Gordon!" she exclaimed. She stole a quick kiss before continuing. "Thank God you're alive. That was some fall." As he laid there in Alyx's arms, Gordon looked up at what was once the ice floor. The weight of the fallen Strider caused the ice to break under them and created a giant hole in the ground. Where they had landed was a large hollow cavern in the ground. Ahead from the car were a few ice tunnels leading to the north. Adrian walked back to Gordon and Alyx, carrying the rebel from the car on his arm.
"Ah, good, you're awake." He said as he set the rebel down on the dirt floor. Alyx helped Gordon up onto his feet. Gordon tapped on his ear and spoke into the microphone on his collar.
"Dr. Kliener, are you there? Dr. Kliener?" he asked.
"Yes, yes, hello Gordon. Are you okay?" Kliener asked.
"Yes, we're fine. The Striders are dead. Unfortunately, only Adrian, Alyx, one rebel, and I survived the fight."
"Thank goodness you survived. I thought you were done for. The mic and camera on your suit lost transmission for a few minutes. I feared the worst." He said.
"So Doc, where too next." Alyx asked Dr. Kliener. Before Kliener could answer, Adrian did.
"Well, Lo-gen and Rezlan mentioned that the Borealis was underground. Ask the doctor which way is North so we can navigate these tunnels to it." He said.
"Captain Shepherd is right. The rebels from his base sent me the transmitter maps and I have a lock on Dr. Mossman's location. The tunnel leading to the Borealis is dead ahead of your location. Follow it to the end." Kliener replied. Gordon and the group recovered from their wounds and started walking forward through the tunnels of ice.
----------
"Do you hear that?" said Alyx. The group of four had walked about 30 yards in the tunnels and a weird sound had startled Alyx. "It sounds familiar." She said. The rebel who followed shortly behind Gordon stopped in his tracks.
"No. Not that sound. I thought they all burrowed below City 17." He said.
"What's got you so spooked?" Adrian asked. The rebel didn't respond. The sound grew louder. It was like a scuffling echoing through the tunnels. The rebel suddenly let out a yell.
"AHHH! No! I won't die like they did!" the rebel ran forward down the tunnel. But, before he could get out of the group's view, something jumped out at him. A creature that looked familiar attacked the rebel.
"What is that!" Gordon yelled.
"Oh no. Antlions!" Adrian yelled. "Fire at will!" Gordon, Adrian, and Alyx pulled out their guns and fired at the iced-encrusted antlion. The creature fell after a short amount of bullets. The rebel laid against the wall, dead from his wounds. The scuffling began again. This time it was from behind the group. "Oh shit. RUN!" Adrian yelled. They began to run down the tunnel as fast as they could.
"I thought antlions could only live in warm climates." Alyx asked Adrian as they ran.
"That's what we thought too. But on our way here we encountered these little bastards." Adrian said. "Apparently they're antlions who have adapted to the subzero temperatures of this region. Icicles even grow on them. Hot or cold, these things are still the annoying little insects they were in City 17." The group kept running from the insect pests. The antlions were gaining on them, and they soon emerged from the tunnel behind the group. Gordon and Adrian fired when they could at the pestering insects. Dr. Kliener spoke in Gordon and Alyx's ears again.
"My map says that you're nearing the Borealis." Gordon could see the tunnel exit up ahead. He could only sense that the legendary ship was through that exit.
"We've got to stop the antlions from getting into that cavern up ahead." Gordon yelled. Adrian came up with a plan.
"Quick, throw a grenade at the entrance." He said. Gordon and Adrian both hurled live grenades at the tunnel entrance. "Run! Get through the doorway before they detonate!" The group managed to get past the grenades just before they blew. The explosion caused a barrier of ice to cover the exit, blocking the antlions from getting through.
When the three of them recovered from the blast, they noticed a bunch of Combine soldiers lying on the ground. The red snow around them confirmed that there was a firefight in the cavern. Gordon was kneeling next to an Overwatch Elite Combine when Alyx tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and a giant weight was lifted off of his shoulders. Above the three rebels sat the red hull of that fabled ship. There sat the Borealis.