Alone in the Dark: part two
The room Gordon entered, opened up on a staircase, just as Alyx had said only ten minutes ago. There was a faint sign on the wall with an arrow pointing upwards and a minus three next to it. So they were on level four right now and if the staircase was intact, it could bring them all the way up to level zero, to the exit of this underground garage. But the amount of debris on the stairs suggested otherwise.
Gordon looked up in between the metal staircase, wondering how high he would be able to go. He felt a tang of disappointment when he saw that three levels higher everything was blocked. Too good to be true. But at least it would help them get higher up, closer to any other exit they could stumble upon.
They, them … both words implied multiple persons, and right now Gordon was all alone. He needed to find Alyx soon. With every moment they were separated, the chance of either one of them being killed or captured grew bigger. He knew Alyx could take care of herself, but still …
He started climbing the stairs, ready to fire the gravity gun if any threat would reveal itself to him, be it antlion or zombie. Right now, there was a bigger chance of running into antlions than there was of zombies, and he hoped for dear god that it would be antlions. Against them, he could use the gravity gun and turn them on their back for a few seconds, neutralising them just long enough for him to pass through. But zombies were not so vulnerable to the gravity gun. He had to use something to throw at them (preferably a round saw blade) and right now, the only things lying around were rocks.
Turning the corner of the third floor, he saw an antlion lying on the mezzanine in between the two floors. It appeared to be dead, but just to be sure, he threw a little rock at it, hitting it square on. The creature didn't so much as twitch, which confirmed that it was dead. As he got closer, he could see several bullet holes had penetrated its exo-skeleton, greenish goo oozing out of them. It seemed like it had been hit by a nine mm caliber. Alyx!
He stepped over the dead antlion, seeing spent shells of her handgun on a few stairs higher up. There were three shells, and remembering that Alyx was even lower on ammo than he was, he just knew that he had to get to her fast. He clenched his teeth and increased his pace. He just hoped that she had been able to find a room in which she could barricade herself long enough for Gordon to get to her.
When he got to the first floor, the rest of the way up was barricaded by the collapsed staircase. Even the access to the hallway was blocked, so he had to retrace his steps back to the door he had passed on the second floor.
He turned into the hallway and quickly scanned both sides. To his left: nothing. To his right: two dead antlions. Both seemed to have been killed by a nine mm caliber. Stepping around them, he saw a trail of greenish ooze leading away and he began to feel very worried. A wounded antlion could only mean that Alyx had run out of ammo and that she had not been able to finish it off. His careful step changed into a slow run, eyes darting from the trail on the ground to the area ahead of him.
And then he saw it: little drops of blood on the floor and a slash of that green ooze on the wall.
But it was not the green blood on the wall that interested him the most; it was the few drops on the floor. He crouched and reached out with his hand to one of the drops, wanting to see if they were real or if his eyes were deceiving him. His hand hesitated a bit, some part of him not wanting to know the answer to his question: could it be Alyx's blood?
Just as he wanted to rub his finger in the drops to see how fresh it was, a loud screech came from behind him. His skills, honed by dozens of combat experiences, made him react almost instantly. He rolled forward, increasing the distance between him and the antlion. Turning towards it, he saw that it was wounded. (This must be the one that left the trail in the corridor.) He quickly targeted it with his gravity gun and pulled the trigger, a yellow beam of energy shooting at the alien beast. It was hurtled backwards and it ended up on its back, its legs desperately trying to regain footage on the ground.
It reminded Gordon of a turtle turned upside down, the poor creature doomed to die unless someone turned it on its belly again. The antlion was not as helpless as the turtle though; it only needed a few seconds to regain its balance and to turn itself.
Gordon ran towards it, knowing that he had only seconds to deliver the killing blow. He dropped the gravity gun on the floor and his hand moved to the side of his right leg, intent on grabbing his crowbar. But just as his hand grabbed air instead of a crowbar, he remembered that he didn't have it on him. Skidding to a halt, his foot slipped on the green ooze on the floor and Gordon fell backwards, cursing loudly.
The antlion was on its feet again and charged right at him only to be met by three shots from the pulse rifle. It wailed in agony as it fell to the floor, its leg still twitching.
Gordon was breathing heavily, the pulse rifle still aimed at the antlion that was lying just in front of him, its front legs almost touching his. It had been a close call; too close for this comfort. But this had not been the first time, and he knew that it certainly was not going to be the last.
Slowly, he got to his feet and turned around, heading back to the place where he had seen the drops of blood, the pulse rifle hanging loosely by his side. His right hand moved to his thigh, to where his crowbar normally would be. Note to self: never give my crowbar away ever again!
This time, his hand went directly to the drops without hesitation. Rubbing a bit of blood between two fingers, he could see that it was still fresh, confirming his worst suspicion: It probably was Alyx' blood; she was injured.
Standing up, he noticed that he wasn't in the corridor anymore. The trail of green ooze and the drops of blood had caught his attention so intensely, that he hadn't noticed he had entered another room. Something he had to stop doing because it had gotten him more than once in dangerous situations he could have avoided.
"Sometimes, you're as absentminded as Doctor Kleiner." Alyx had said on one occasion. She was right. Even in Black Mesa, the two of them had the reputation of being accident prone; that you should be careful whenever they were conducting an experiment together. And no thanks to Barney, it was a reputation he had gotten very quickly.
Gordon looked around the room, or rather small garage as it turned out to be. There was a rusted old car, some containers and a bicycle. But no sign of Alyx. He looked at the floor; maybe there were some more drops of blood that would give any indication of where she had been heading, but he didn't see any. Either she had bandaged the wound, or it was just a small cut, which reassured him quite a bit.
There was an iron gate in the opposite wall on the left side and a turning wheel next to it. Gordon walked over to it. Maybe Alyx had opened the gate and gone through it. There was only one way to find out.
He grabbed it with both hands and started turning it; however, years of non-use had taken its toll on the mechanism. The wheel was all rusted and the chains connecting it to the gate were old and fragile. He had to use a lot of force to turn it and he began to wonder if Alyx would have been able to turn it at all.
The gate was opening slowly and it was making a lot of noise. About half way up he heard another sound aside from the creaking of the gate: the familiar shrieking of antlions. He peeked around the edge of the gate and saw to his horror that a ramp lead back into the garage he and Alyx had escaped from only fifteen minutes ago. Oh crap. His hands let go of the wheel, which normally would close the gate instantly, but because everything was so rusted, the wheel didn't turn back automatically and the gate remained stuck half way up with antlions getting closer by the second. Not again …
Quickly, he started turning the wheel in the other direction, trying to close the gate. It worked, but very slowly; too slowly. He didn't have the luxury of time to close the gate the old-fashioned way so, instead, he started kicking at the metal chains connecting the wheel to the gate mechanism. It was so rusted that it would certainly have to break under the constant kicking of a reinforced HEV boot, closing the gate instantly.
The equipment protested against the harassment it was receiving from Gordon's boot, and he saw that it was beginning to break; a few more kicks should do the job.
Keeping an eye on the part of the ramp he could see, he could hear the antlions coming dangerously close. Oh, for crying out loud, break damnit! After a few seconds, he saw the first of what would certainly be many antlions. He paused his kicking for a few seconds and aimed the gravity gun at the antlion. Shooting it back into the garage, it took two other antlions with it. He decided to keep the gravity gun in his hands, aimed at the ramp, while he continued kicking at the chains. Two more antlions came into view, and as soon as Gordon saw them, they were hurtled back to where they had came from. Then, finally, the chain broke and the gate came rushing down.
He leaned on the wheel for a few seconds, catching his breath, but already he could hear other antlions outside the gate, slashing their front legs at it. Recognising a certain other predicament some ten minutes ago, he decided not to stick around to see if the gate would hold like the door had.
He ran back into the hallway, where he had seen the two dead antlions. He realised that Alyx probably had done the same thing. But he was still wondering if she had tried to open that gate and if she had managed to turn that wheel. He decided to make a mental note and ask her when … if he would see her again. No … definitely when he'd see her again. He had to find her so that they could deliver the message to White forest.
The other side of the hallway he had dismissed earlier opened up on a long room, with a double door opening up on another passageway. Not wanting to be caught up in the same error, he scanned the entire room before entering it. Near the other side of the big room, he saw some antlions, but even from this distance he could clearly see that they were dead. He counted five of them.
Carefully, he started moving to the other side, keeping an eye on his surroundings and the many shadows that were cast on the floor by the flickering lights. Somewhere in the middle of the room, there was an opening leading into obscurity. Deciding that it might be a good idea to steer clear of it (you never know what could be hiding in complete darkness), he walked around it in a big circle, keeping an eye on the door-opening. But then his foot suddenly hit an empty basket, sending it flying, and in doing so, making quite the racket. It was immediately followed by the wails of zombies awakening. Just great …
Gordon decided not to wait for what would come out of the dark opening and ran away from it. He could already hear several zombines pursuing him. As he was getting closer to the double door, he aimed his gravity gun and shot a beam of yellow energy at it, throwing the doors open in his path. He switched the gravity gun for the pulse rifle, knowing that he could not outrun these zombines and that this was the time to use what little ammo he had left.
As he passed through the open double doors, he turned around, grabbed both doors and slammed them shut, just as the zombines wanted to pass through them to get to Gordon.
Two zombines slammed into the double doors, the sheer impact of them shattering the two doors and sending a volley of broken glass at Gordon. He held his arms in front of his face to protect it against the shards of glass, but quickly recovered and aimed the pulse rifle at the two zombines that were already getting back to their feet.
He quickly finished off the first one and changed his aim at the second one, only to see to his horror that it had pulled out a grenade. Running backwards, he began shooting at the zombine, trying to kill it so it would drop the grenade. But it followed him; the tick of the grenade going faster until, after a few seconds, it blew up.
Gordon was too close to the blast. It threw him against the wall just behind him, the back of his head slamming against it. The pulse rifle dropped out of his hands, and he felt all feeling in his legs disappear. He slowly dropped to the floor, his head leaving a trail of blood behind on the wall. He could hear the HEV suit whispering something in his ear, but he couldn't discern the words. As he was slowly drifting into the darkness, he saw one of the zombines head straight for him, but just before it could slash him to death, he heard gunfire and saw the zombine fall to the ground.
The last thing he saw was the face of a girl shouting something at him. But it wasn't Alyx …
To be concluded.
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so, instead of a two parter, this turned out to be a three parter :-P. Please review and also feel free to leave any constructive criticism!