The bloodshed… it will never end. It only gets interrupted. You're… services have proved to be of… g…great importance. You will… take the weight from the F…Freeman… and serve as our… succeeding… Free Man…
"The Last Words I Remember."
"…and I don't know what you all expect to achieve by this little pathetic attempt at freedom, but you are welcoming nothing more than pain and suffering upon your people. I strongly feel…"
A bullet can change a lot. It can determine whether or not you'll be waking up the next morning. It can determine if a leader will be staying office for his full four year term. But a barrage of bullets, well, that's a different story.
"…little hero Gordon Freeman, well, I'm sure you've already heard, is not with us anymore. So what now, you have no idol, you are outnumbered, with only one option left. I am not here to…"
I shielded my eyes as the bullet ripped through the television, sending glass in all directions. I saw Larry across from me, back against the wall, gun out the window, scared as can be. I worked up enough courage to look out, only to see the Strider was still very much alive and very much pissed off.
How the hell did we end up like this? Who alerted them to our presence? Save questions for later, gotta shoot now. I knocked out a window pane with the barrel of my SMG, and began blind firing at where I thought it would be at. You never really did get used to how loud those guns were, they never felt quite, right. It fired right back at us, tearing through the apartment walls, and on top of that, we had Combine snipers in the building parallel to us.
The wall across from me became painted with blood, I looked to see Larry was not there anymore, just gone.
"Fuck!" Mitchell yelled behind me.
I had no intent to stop firing; I kept spraying the Strider with blind fire shots, while I reached for a little present on my waist. I pulled the gun in, gripped the cylinder, and pulled the pin. I didn't have much time to contemplate the throw before I released it. It flew over the Strider, hitting the side of a window, falling to the ground. I took out one of the Strider's weakened legs so I wasn't completely heartbroken. It fell on its side, still firing with precision accuracy. I reached for my last grenade, pulled, prayed, and tossed. It went in. Not even a second later, it came flying back out, landing on the Strider's front side, completely taking it out.
"One problem down, two left." Mitchell stated.
I raised my SMG once again to fire, this time using the sights. I was coating the walls of the building with holes, but no blood. I closed one eye, and looked through to two little iron sights and saw the bastard's head. I placed my finger on the trigger, I was so focused on the shot, until something drew my attention. I saw a red dot painting his helmet. I raised a hand for Mitchell to stop firing, he did. We all sat in silence for a good 10 seconds, until I heard a beautiful sound.
A trail of smoke was left behind from the rocket that crashed into the exposed apartment rooms, and the sniper fire stopped. There was no movement, even after the smoke cleared. We all assumed we did a job well done. One of the pricks tried to limp out alive, sliding down the wreckage onto the street, over the Strider. Mitchell popped out a few shots, but I said to let him go, "Tell his friends who not to fuck with." I forced myself up from one knee to deeply breathe. It was eerily quiet. "Come on, they're probably waiting on us to kiss their asses up there now."
One Malevolent Benefactor
