Authors Note: Ok I admit it; I hardly know anything about European geography. Just know City 17 is supposed to be east. I know this will cause a lot of problems for me in the future but just bear with me.

Sincerely

Todne (the author)

Chapter 6: The Base

It was 2 hours from breakfast and Jacqueline had finaly gotten Scott all equipped for combat and gave him the grand tour of the base. The base, New Berlin as its occupants called it, was right at the edge of the forest and nestled on the rim of a cliff. Life here was very hard. The cliff they were stationed on was part of a Combine major defence system. From the rim of the cliff you could see all of City 21 and, with good enough equipment, you could even see the citadel of City 18 and 17.

The Combine use it mostly as a huge airbase, but there are several outposts that are there just to keep the headcrabs under control. During the 7 hours war hundreds of people fled into the woods to try to 'avoid' the war… little did they know every place that wasn't under attack or already occupied was filled with headcrabs. And with all the resistance in the cities the Combine just didn't have the resources to go out and sweep the woods clean. And besides, the Headcrabs out there would make sure that anyone who got out of the city would never make it very far.

Jacqueline claims the Combine know we're here but they don't attack because we're basicly a 'free outpost' to them, we see more zombie action in one day than we do Combine all month.

As for the structure of the base, it couldn't be more ideal. The base was in the shape of a square, there were 3 seven-foot tall concrete walls around the North, West, and South sides, and the East side was acctualy where the edge of the cliff was. There were thee buildings and one tower. All the buildings were 2 stories tall and looked just like tiny apartment buildings. The tower must have been 4 stories tall and had a moveable pulse turret mounted on the side.

The 3 buildings served as a equiptment house, a recreation house, and a business house. There was only one way out of here and that was a gate that needed 2 people to open.

House House

(Equip) (Rec)

Tower Cliff

House

(Buiss)

As for his equiptment, all he got a new outfit, a pistol, and a hat.

"I'm suppose to hold off the entire Combine army with a pistol?"

"If we gave every new and untrained recruit our best weapons then we'd be bankrupt."

"But I'm not untrained! I served in the City 15 resistance."

"Oh really? Than what did you specialize in?"

Scott just stood there scilent.

"That's what I thought"

"Right… umm, could you show me to a bathroom?"

"Yeah, there's one right behind you."

"Thanks"

Scott went into the bathroom, sat on the toilet and put his hands in his pocket,

"God… sooner or later someone's gonna find out what I did. You can't just run from a battle. I could get friggin court marshaled."

"And then what would they do, throw you in jail?"

Scott bolted up to see who said that. And standing in front of the sink was the Government Man in his classic pen-stripe suit.

"What do you want?" Scott said irritably.

"Oh, don't be so hostile, I think we could help each other out."

Scott looked the G-man in the eyes and said, "I'm listening."