Chapter#2: Water hazard.


Breathe. That was the first urge that came over me, the second being the exact opposite, feeling the cold touch of water working its way into the pores of my face, my eyes could not cut more than a few feet through the water, and somewhere behind me, the Borealis groaned like a woeful soul racked with pure agony. I watched bubbles sink around me, no, bubbles don't sink, it was my HEV dragging me away from the surface, turning round to face my salvation, I began to swim towards the dim light with everything I had, my suits servos assisting my desperate break for the surface. I could feel my limbs growing heavy, and with little warning, the warm night air rushed over my slicked hair, if there had ever been a moment to be alive, this was it. Before me, piercing the lake like a razorblade, lay the wreck of the Borealis, her hull so utterly crippled, that I myself hardly understood how it remained vertical. As if by divine intervention, the icebreaker chose to sink further into the lakebed, giving a low growl of protest as it did.

Spinning round to face the shore I was met by a grisly sight, what looked to have been a cheery town was littered with burning debris, no doubt flung from the borealis as its bootstrap device blew itself apart. For me this was of little importance, all I cared for was the sweet sensation of sand shifting below my boots. As I waded out of the lake, my now urgent problem stole the bracket for top priority, the fuzzy hell my vision had been reduced to without glasses was disheartening to say the least. As I shortly found out whilst wiping my face, one of their arms had been caught in my neck padding, and while one lens was cracked, it was a welcome improvement.

"H.E.V. OVERCHARGED, DISCHARGING EXCESS POWER." Feeling the tingle of electrical current ground, I was given an explanation as to how I was still alive. As it had become unstable, the bootstrap device, much like the Combine confiscation field, had fed energy into my suit faster than it could calibrate for discharge, which also meant… pulling the Gravity gun from my back, I marveled at its charged blue glow, capable of shifting thousands of pounds, and reducing a person's insides to jelly.

There was an exact value to go off, but at this moment using metric for my calculus was an activity for later. Walking up the beach I came across a transparent brown bottle twice my height, its label adorned from letters of some unknown tongue.

A few feet away lay a proportionally sized cork, with a tug from the Gravity gun it hovered in front of me, occasionally hissing when arks of power made brief contact with the corkwood.

With a crackling blast the cork was flung over the water, landing with a heavy splash. I continued up a path leading to massive houses. That's when I saw them, A white one frantically leading others to contain the fires started by debris. I chuckled to myself seeing them somehow utterly surprised even after the weeks following the resonance cascade. Making my way over to the house they were surveying I eyed off what were most certainly dragons, or something comparable.

People were running out of smaller doors in the walls of the massive houses, none paying much mind to me as they made their escape, belongings in hand. Looking back to the white dragon I became aware of a small blue one roughly twice my size trapped under a sizable beam of wood, another blue dragon much larger desperately trying to shift the beam, letting out cries of anguish the whole time.

Fuck it, lets get the poor thing out.

Getting under the beam near the white dragon's feet I propped the gravity gun up to face the beam, bracing, as I pressed the red button. Wood splintered upwards, and giving roars of surprise in turn the dragons fell back with the sudden motion. Looking over at the small blue dragon I waved. It considered me for a moment, before coming to its senses and bolting towards, what I could only now assume was its mother.

Placing the Gravity gun on my back I prepared to make my Exit, running further up the path. Behind me I could hear roars and growls as the dragons pursued me. Stretching in front of me a wall of massive logs cut through the town, a sizable chunk of outer hull pierced it, and while it would make the perfect tunnel, it was too high up. At this moment my eyes caught a stack of (regular sized) wood beams stacked up on each other, one skewed to the side, sticking into the air.

Swinging out the gravity gun I stepped onto the lower end of the beam, pointed the gravity gun at the raised end and fired. The gravity gun in its overcharged state completely fractured the beam, not however, before I had been launched an odd sixty feet through the air. Landing inside the hull I glimpsed a poster depicting some sort of sponsored Lemon product, sliding across the slanted floor. The ground rushed up to meet me. I Fondly remembered the long jump module, and of course in turn, how much landing would hurt without it. I once again happened to be lucky, the drop off rushing to meet me was easily half the distance of my entry point from the ground, this would mean two things: firstly, no major fractures, and second, I wouldn't die… probably.

Rolling into it my landing knocked the wind from my lungs and nothing could be done but lay on the roof of whoever's house was obscured below the edge of the hallway I had slid through.

Dark clouds crowded over me like a swarm of vultures, and the sharp wind shrieked bloody murder, distant was the cry of thunder acting as all the warning needed to lower myself to the dirt road below, cutting through the town in a jagged stripe of gritty tan and grey, All doors were shut as I strode through the collection of simple buildings, Gravity gun casting a haunting blue sheen across the walls around me. Only one set of doors were open; A tipsy looking bar, sporting a haphazard sign, reading in sloppy letters: The Drunken Dragon.

Dragging myself in.

All eyes snapped to me, from drinks and games alike as I pushed into the space, setting myself down at a stool, I broke the tense silence.

"The name's Dr Freeman… Dr Gordon Freeman, and I am in need of the stiffest drink available."