Disclaimer: Half Life and it's characters are owned by Valve. I also took the chapter title and few lyrics from Trent Reznor. Also, the day after I chose this song for the chapter I saw the preview for the new Terminator movie and nearly pissed myself from all the awesomeness in it, including this same song.
Author's Note: The chapters featuring this character are probably all going to be short but I can't make any promises.
Chapter Two:
The Day the Whole World Went Away
I listen to the words he'd say
But in his voice I heard decay
The plastic face forced to portray
All the insides left cold and grey
The ground was hard and it was cold. The test subject woke up holding her knees to her chest for warmth. When she slowly began to uncurl, pain shot up her side and she realized the cause for her waking so early.
Feeling with her hand for what was causing such discomfort, she realized she had somehow managed to fall asleep on a small, jagged rock. When she threw the offending object away from her, her body tensed at the noise it made. Someone could have heard that. Then she would be found.
Springing into a crouching position, she leaned on the balls of her bare feet and the palms of her hands and listened carefully. Throwing the rock had been a very foolish thing to do. It did not matter that she had been tired, that was no excuse for stupidity.
When it seemed like her presence had not been detected, the woman crawled closer to her well hidden camp, her long legs and arms making her look like a mutated spider. She had seen one of those, a mutated spider that is. Grown to an obscene size and much too fast for her liking. Usually she did not care if a spider was near by, but those things were different.
The bite she received from that beast before she managed to get away had rendered her arm useless for the better part of two days.
Shivering at the memory as well as the cold, she began to long for a fire. Fires were out of the question as she found out the first night in the woods. Building a fire had been hard and the sense of pride she felt when finally accomplishing the task faded when the moaning beasts flocked towards it.
There were things in the woods, things unlike any mutated animals or bugs she had seen. The things felt the heat, felt it in their cold decaying flesh and they searched it out. If they found her as well it was an added bonus and she would become a meal. Death was not in the plans and it would make her no better than those beasts. No one could appreciate her intelligence again. All because she had wanted heat like some spoiled brat.
She was still tired but it was not wise to fall back asleep. The rock had been a gift, an alarm clock of sorts. The day before, she had over slept. A soldier found her, probably considered himself lucky as well. His gloating and pride clouded his judgment, he should have never woken her up without first drawing his gun .
When she smashed the rock into his brains it was really his own fault. That was the end all who underestimated her met. It was merely survival of the fittest but she knew none who could best her. Not the moaning beasts or the barbaric soldiers.
Not all was lost in his life. She did not know his story but knew that his purpose in hers was to provide her with many needed supplies. From the dead soldier she looted a gun, a few ammo clips, and his jacket.
The gun was nothing like her past gun which was best left where it was buried far away. This gun could kill, it was a machine gun that she had an awkward time with at first. After practicing on a few beasts and soon finding out that she had a rather nice talent for it, the woman found herself wishing this soldier had entered her story a long time ago.
No matter, she received what she needed when she needed it. There was always a way to survive, it was up to her to figure out how. It was up to everyone else to either get out of the way or die.
The jacket was thick and heavy but blended in better than her orange jumpsuit. She only wore the pants now as she had ripped the top part off in order to make herself a wimpy backpack and her under shirt hardly did anything to protect herself from the elements.
Finding the jacket, she shrugged it on over her shoulders and immediately felt better. The thing still smelled which was the reason she had not worn it while sleeping, afraid of the dreams she might have influenced by the smell of the soldier she murdered.
She attempted to take his pants but they were far too big to be a wise choice of clothing for her and the boots were nice at first but soon began to make her feet blister. Her feet were bare now but tough from what she suspected were experiments she could no longer remember.
The woman was not certain where she was running to but she knew what she was running from. In a very short amount of time she also learned why it was smarter to bash a soldier's head in with a rock rather than plead for help. It took only one badly aimed bullet for her to figure that out.
She wondered if they had given up looking for her and wondered what she had done wrong. Perhaps they were brainwashed and sent to take her back... but their motive did not matter. All that mattered was beating them.
Making sure her gun was fully loaded, she packed up her few things into the makeshift bag she had made out of the top of her jumpsuit and a belt from one of the monsters she killed. Normally she ran away from the things rather than risk injuries from trying to destroy them - but this one had angered her.
It had sneaked close to her. In all the time she had been out there, she never knew these beasts to be stealthy. This one seemed to have a personality all to its own. It attacked her from behind and cut her with one of its disgusting claws along her stomach.
The woman knew fury when she realized she had been caught unawares by a beast. She was so angry at being bested by this stupid animal that she beat it and beat it and even after it died she had kept beating it.
After that, she had been in need of a bath. While in the ice cold water of a shallow river deep in the woods, she washed the belt she had swiped from the beast as well for it smelled of death. In the water she found none of the monstrous leeches but plenty of two-headed fish. Her stomach grumbled, longing to be able to catch one and cook it over a fire, but that would only be asking for trouble.
That had been nearly two days ago and her hunger only grew and kept her awake longer in the night. She was strong, however, and hunger pains did not intimidate her or harm her stamina.
Slipping the strap of her bag over her shoulder, she looked around her before she set off in a jog heading south. It was almost sunrise which meant that soon the helicopters would be out. However, in the past week the presence of the military seemed to be dwindling while the presence of the beasts in the woods grew larger.
Today she planned on trying the main road again, something she had not tried since the day she found out the soldiers were not the friendly types.
That had been a very bad day. She had been sore all over and replaying the past in her head. There was vomit on the ground near her and she felt like she would be sick again.
Trying to stand up made her feel dizzy and she bit back a shout of pain when she felt her braces dig into her ankles. She must have landed at the wrong angel and finally the damn things broke.
Reaching down, she bit down hard on her lip and tasted blood as she attempted to pull them out in one quick motion. Fast. Like a band aid.
Her fingers slipped, the braces were wet and she knew she was bleeding too much. Not too much. I'm just bleeding. The test subject thought to herself. Too much would imply that I'm ready to give up and ask for help. I should know by now that asking for help is overrated.
After scolding herself for being so weak she tried one more time and with a loud groan she held on tightly and pulled the bracer out of her left leg.
You're only half way done. She nodded, not allowing herself to take a brake should she talk herself out of completing what needed to be done.
This one was broken worse than the other, the top half dangling harmlessly from her calf while the other stuck into her ankle at two spots. Her tendon was not damaged, they were designed not to do any permanent damage should something horrible happen.
Through the pain it occurred to her that she had no reason to know that but the information was there. Without pausing to consider this, she held tightly to both pieces and pulled. Tears streamed down her face and she let loose the cry of pain she had been fighting to keep back.
Despite how foolish she knew it was, when the offending object was out of her leg she pulled her wounded legs towards her chest and began to let herself sob. Not for the pain in her legs or the harsh words spoken by machines in what she had feared would be the last moments of her life.
What she sobbed for was unknown to her and later as she thought back at how stupid she had been for sitting out in the open and crying she would say that was why she was sobbing, because she did not know.
"You there, stand up." The voice was mechanical and it made the test subject's stomach feel about fifty pounds heavy. Looking up quickly, she saw a man with an odd uniform on and a machine gun pointed at her.
She wanted to give up then and tell the man she could not and hoped maybe he would just shoot her but as she moved her mouth no words came out. She could not remember the last time she spoke and wondered if perhaps she was a mute.
"I said move!" The soldier shouted at her and before giving her any time to cooperate he fired a warning shot at the ground beside her.
Rolling away from where the bullets hit the ground, she leaped to her feet and told herself to be bigger than the pain threatening to over take her and the fear trying to freeze her movements.
The soldier laughed at her and in that laughter the woman found her saving grace. Anger began to grow, red and hot and it melted away her paralyzing fears.
Done with his laughing, the soldier told her to sit back down so he could see her jump up again like that. "I haven't seen someone move like that since those Olympics still aired on the TV."
He's making fun of me. Looking at him with a tilt of her head, the woman calmly sat back down and waited patiently.
"Whatchu waitin' for? I told you what to do! Jump up again all fast like!" The soldier yelled at her, readjusting his aim on her.
Nodding, she unfolded with calculated movements. Her foot came up and kicked his gun out of his hands before he could think to react and once she got both feet under her again she shot out with her right fist and felt the cartilage of his bone crack under it.
His howl of pain was her signal to run for it. If she had been truly thinking maybe she would have picked up the machine gun and shot the soldier but she had not been thinking. Not really.
If she was thinking, she would wonder how she knew to twist her body that way or how she was able to deliver such a forceful punch. But all that was behind her, all she could do now was run.
As she ran away the soldier began to run after her. Now she had been the one to cause anger and that almost made her laugh as well.
The soldier was not calling for back up, apparently she was not the only one refusing to think that day. She knew even if she out ran him he could follow her trail for she must have been making a horrible one from her bleeding. Despite the adrenaline that pushed her on she feared she could at any moment collapse and that would be the end of her story.
When she heard shouting behind her and gunshots her first instinct was to dodge behind a tree and crouch down. When she did, however, she realized the gunshots had either been very poorly aimed or not even aimed at her for she heard them in the distance and none whizzed past her.
Daring to peek around the trunk of her tree, the test subject saw for the first time several beasts. They must have tried to come after her and in her hurry she had not even seen or heard them.
There were three of them and his gunshots barely hurt them and she almost shouted for him to aim for the head but remembered she could not speak.
Unable to look away she watched them begin to feed before the soldier's screams ended. He was meeting his end right before her eyes as she lay several yards away bleeding but safe. He had been armed while she had merely been lucky.
No. I had been smart.
It was then that she had known for certain she would survive. Her wounds had healed over the weeks and she had grown stronger and smarter. Not a man with a silly gun could stop her or a machine with too much time on its hands and so neither could these dumb beasts. Not a damn one.
As she dwelt on these memories she had trouble finding the road and when at last she did she found the pavement did not feel good on her feet so she traveled beside it. At least she was used to the hard dirt. Every now and then she would turn with the road but it would always straighten up again so that she was once more heading south.
There was an odd sound in the distance that the woman almost ignored but soon realized it was the sound of a helicopter. Without bothering to look around for it, she sprinted for the tree line again. Leaning against the trunk of a large tree and breathing hard, she looked to the sky and waited for the helicopter to pass. It was flying very low to the ground and did not make an appearance for a minute and when it did, she sunk back behind the tree even more.
She did not let herself hope that it was a civilian helicopter. That kind of optimism was foolish and would get her killed. Sure enough she heard the bullets of the helicopter followed by that horrible moaning and screaming of the beasts from the forest.
Shuddering, the woman tried to bite back her fear at the noises. Fear was not something she could afford to feel. Fear caused acts of stupidity and she was not stupid. There was not a lot that she actually was, but she knew she was intelligent.
When the sound of the helicopter began to fade, she peeked from around the tree and breathed easier when she saw the coast was clear.
Break time was over and so she began her journey again in a jog. Despite the somewhat chill temperature outside, she was beginning to sweat and smell but at least she preferred her own body odor over the sickening smell of the belt and jacket she had stolen.
She found the bodies of the monsters the helicopter had slain and avoided them. The flies were surrounding them and the woman tried not to gag.
The highway turned around a large hill and the woman squinted at the large objects in the distance. Frowning, she wondered if she should hide again or check it out.
Her curiosity won despite how stupid she knew that was of her, and she kept on running.
The object began to take shape and looked less like a large dot the closer she got and more like a large truck. The woman tried not to get too optimistic about it, but a truck would be all sorts of useful to her.
Unless she was spotted by a helicopter of course...
Opening the door, the woman covered her nose and mouth as the stench of decay hit her and she leaped back, expecting one of the beasts to be hiding in there. When she heard no moaning, she stepped forward tentatively and leaned up on her tip toes.
Someone had shot through the the window and into the passengers head. She wondered if the driver had ran for it then but was unsure as there was no sign of anyone else.
Walking to the other side, she held her breath and opened the door before leaping away as the body slid out onto the pavement making a sick sound.
The woman walked away from the smell and the sight and held onto her stomach. It was no use, she could feel the bile rise in her throat.
Wiping her mouth with the soldier's jacket, she took out her canteen from her pack and rinsed her mouth out before taking a swig of water. Putting the jug of water away, she walked forward and inspected the body.
It looked to have belonged to a woman, a very short one. Hoping God was not looking, the woman knelt down beside the body and began to untie the comfortable looking walking shoes.
Trying not to gag or look into the mangled face, she slid the shoes off and then walked to the other side of the truck to see if they fit. They looked to be the right size, though they smelled truly horrible.
Smell was not an issue and she slid her sore feet into the shoes before tying them. They fit snugly but they would work. At least she would not get blisters right away.
The woman had also eyed the truck, but the windshield was all cracked and it probably would not start anyway. Besides that, there was brain all over the seat and she did not think her stomach could deal with that.
She continued on with her journey, leaving the dead truck and woman.
After an hour, she sat in the dirt and knew she had to rest.
Weeks ago she had found a house in the woods along with three graves and a skeleton sitting near a shovel. She had searched the house and not only did she find a rogue head hugger, she also found a pantry with a few cans of food.
Though she had rationed herself to one can every day the food was now gone and she hoped to find another house soon. From that house she had also swiped a screwdriver and had been able to use it as a can opener.
Taking out her water once more, she drank deeply and enjoyed the refreshed feeling it gave her.
Wiping her upper lip, the woman breathed heavily and looked down the road. If she squinted she could see another large object in the distance and she wondered if she was supposed to have glasses. Her sight had been excellent during the experiments but now it seemed to her that everything was getting fuzzy.
Maybe it was from exhaustion. She had been pushing herself too hard but that's just how she was.
Apparently. Not that she had ever realized it about herself until that moment but she was indeed a pusher with a stamina not to be reckoned with.
Standing, she put her water away before setting off again towards the object in the distance.
Indeed, as she got closer to the object she realized she had found another car that had been stopped. Peering through the windshield, she wondered what had drove these people off. Opening the door with her pistol drawn and looking cautious, she saw and smelled nothing out of the ordinary and frowned.
Crawling in she saw someone had already stolen the keys. Or the previous owners took them. It was a mystery and she was not real concerned.
There was a knowledge in her fingertips as she knew she did not need a key, all she needed were to find the right wires.
As the car purred around her, the woman smiled at her own success. However, the smile faded when she saw she had less than a quarter tank of gas.
It would get her far enough, she could ditch the car if she had to. Walking had gotten her this far.
Placing the car in drive, she headed down the empty highway towards the mountains in the distance. Wherever she was running to, at least now she might get there faster.
As she drove on, she began to come across more vehicles and after inspecting each one found that she had been extremely lucky finding hers. Most of the cars either had dead drivers and passengers or were stuck there because they had been driven until they were bone dry.
She drove on at a steady pace trying to milk as much mileage as she could out of the vehicle. It drove on for another two hours and when it finally ran out of gas she figured it was around noon.
Looking up at the depressing looking sky, her mouth opened wide in a large yawn and she was soon talking herself into taking a nap. After all, if she huddled in the back she should be okay.
Curling underneath the large soldier coat that now smelled like her sweat, she was quick to fall into a deep sleep and knew this would be best for her exhausted body. She needed to rest.
She would worry about finding food when she woke up. That was as good a plan as any as far as she could see.