Half-life2:Resistance

He closed the door silently, and whispered to the others what was inside. “It doesn’t seem like anything threatening Ian; we should just go in there and talk to him. Maybe he could help us. Besides, if he’s a citizen, maybe he’s down here hiding from the Combine too.” Ian considered, and consented to Gordon. “Alright, let’s go.” He concluded, placing his hand on the door handle. He opened the door, and the three of them entered.

Upon their entry, the man who was working over the radio jumped in surprise, and turned towards them. Ian held up his hands in a sign of peace, and said to the man, “It’s alright, we’re friends. We’re on the run from The Combine.” The man’s face softened, and he spoke to them hesitantly.

“You startled me,” he said, “but you are welcome here. Any enemy of The Combine is a friend of mine. I assume that you’re traveling through the Underground Railroad, attempting to get out of the city?” Ian thought, Underground Railroad? What Underground Railroad? He had never heard of such a thing.

“Excuse me,” interjected Gordon, “But what do you mean “Underground Railroad”? We are traveling by another means, and have never heard of that.” The man gave Gordon a confused look, “You’re certainly dressed for the occasion. What is that, some kind of orange space suit?” He asked pretentiously.

“Anyway, you’ve never heard of the Underground Railroad? We use a variety of stations, like the old America in the days of slavery; and we smuggle people out of the city to small, discreet places of refuge, away from The Combine. We used to send them to Ravenholm…but that was before the infestation. In any case, you’re welcome here, even if you’re not planning to go outside the city via the Underground Railroad.” The man continued to stare at Gordon’s fantastic suit bizarrely as he spoke.

Ian replied, “We had no idea of the existence of your railroad. We are part of The Resistance, which is an open military resistance to the empire of The Combine. After we get out of here, I’m sure we could tell Dr. Vance of the Railroad’s existence, and perhaps we could work together to further our causes.”

The man seemed to like this, and said, “I too, had no idea of the existence of your party, The Resistance. Heck, if I had known that you guys were around, I would have joined ages ago. I’ve just been sitting here in this little booth and shuffling people to the next station. But those days are over… I was just about to leave this place when you came in, I’ve gotten word that The Combine is searching these sewers for someone named “Freeman” apparently he’s some nut who thinks he’s the late Gordon Freeman. Bad thing is, they’re filling the sewers with manhacks; and I don’t want to be around when those things start showing up.”

“Funny,” said Gordon, “we’re the one’s they are searching for. I am Gordon Freeman, and there is nothing far-fetched about that.” The man’s eyes widened, and his voice practically went up an octave when he responded. “You’re…you’re the real Gordon freeman? I…just…just…I can’t believe it! Gordon Freeman, here in my station, it’s astonishing!” the man laughed in utter disbelief, “Well, if you really are who you say you are then you are an important piece of cargo that will be protected! I don’t want you around here when the ‘hacks show up.”


“Uh,” Ian interjected, “would you mind telling me what a manhack is? It sounds sort of deadly.” Just as Ian said this however, a loud and high-pitched whir began reverberating through the concrete room, and made a crescendo. The sound was terrifying, and was like that of fingernails scratching on a chalkboard.

The man from the station looked with dismay towards the sound, and yelled hysterically, “It’s too late! The manhacks are already here! Quick, take this gun Dr. Freeman!” The man picked a small pistol off of the table, and took a large white pipe from the same table and held it over his head like a saber.

The whole room was in a panic, and Ian had no idea what was going on. All eyes were turned towards the direction in which the sound was emanating, and Ian saw that there was yet another hallway with boards covering it’s entryway in a haphazard fashion. Ian took his gun off of his back and pointed it towards the entryway in anticipation of whatever might be on the other side.Both Tonya and Gordon did the same, and it was obvious that none of them had any idea of what was going on, but they intended to fire at anything hostile that may have appeared from the hallway.

The whir grew louder and louder and now was accompanied by grating sounds of metal on stone, and metal on metal. It sounded unnervingly like a circular saw to Ian, and along with the name of “manhack” that was assigned to it; it gave Ian a horrifying picture in his mind.

Suddenly, as they anxiously waited for the things to appear, the wood boards which obscured their vision from the hallway beyond were violently blown into wooden splinters, which shot around the room like shrapnel amidst a cloud of sawdust. A loud cracking noise reverberated through the room as the boards exploded, and as the dust cleared; Ian finally saw what had caused the boards to explode.

Initially, the only thing that he could comprehend was the likeness of a bright red light, which glowed from some sort of flying object. A fraction of a second later, Ian could see that the flying object was somewhat like a circular saw, with quickly spinning blades which buzzed loudly and rotated in a whir, keeping the machine aloft. It was smaller than a scanner, as it was no larger in diameter than a record, but its image frightened Ian tremendously in that fraction of a second that he beheld its likeness.

Everyone in the room, including Ian, let out a barrage of fire at the opening of the hallway and at the approaching manhacks. The one Ian had seen made a loud buzzing noise, and flew towards him at astonishing speed. However, Ian quickly reacted to the flying buzz saw’s charge, firing a burst of rounds straight at it. His bullets hit one of the manhack’s blades, which crumpled under the impact, and was jammed in the machine. It whirred loudly, and fell to the floor at Ian’s feet with a crash, its red light extinguished.

Ian’s victory was superficial however, because it soon became apparent that there was an extreme amount of manhacks pouring forth from the hallway, and filling up the room; sometimes bumping into walls or each other and sending out sparks, but always making daring swoops at them, attempting to slice them.

The man from the Underground Railroad swung at the manhacks desperately with his metal pipe, and he was able to shatter a few that were swooping down at him. Ian and Tonya both used their automatic weapons to fill the air with lead, and quickly downed the tiny flying machines; while Gordon accurately destroyed the menacing little fiends with his pistol.

However, it soon became apparent that there were much more manhacks than any of them had anticipated, and the entire ceiling was abuzz with them, and they constantly swooped down. Ian backed himself against a wall, and began firing towards the ceiling, where most of the machines were now gathered. “How many can there possibly be?” He yelled over the whir rhetorically.

Just then, Ian caught sight of a red light attached to a manhack which plunged down at him with amazing speed. He fired, but missed, and the thing continued to come down directly at his head. In that split second, Ian saw the tiny buzz saw extend numerous mechanical arms to make it larger and have more cutting radius as it came down at him.

He rolled to the left just in time; but to no avail, for he felt a sharp sting cut across his right forearm. The manhack crashed into the wall, and with a shower of sparks broke apart and fell to the floor. Ian looked at his arm, and saw a slight red line across his blue sleeve. However, when he examined it, he realized that the wound was not very deep, and had only cut through a bit of skin, and not muscle or bone, and it appeared small enough to be negligible until he reached Dr. Vance’s lab.

Meanwhile, the battle continued, and the frightened resistance fighters on the ground were clearly gaining the upper hand to the manhacks. The machinations were now literally falling like flies, and within little time at all, there were only a few stragglers left, which Gordon quickly disposed of with his pistol; blowing the last of them to bits.

Once it was all over, and the last of the flying little devils was destroyed, the group seemed to collectively let go of their breath, and breathed out heavily. They looked at each other, to make sure that they were all still in good condition; but they were seemingly unable to talk to one another.

Ian felt an intense wave of relief overcome him. They had just defeated a swarm of flying buzz saws; a feat which Ian couldn’t have even imagined a few years ago, when all was still at peace. He had wasted quite a bit of his ammunition, and he had only a couple of magazines remaining in his belt; and he didn’t know if he would be able to make it to Dr. Vance’s lab without using all of his ammunition, should they run into any more of those manhacks.

“Was that all of them?” Gordon asked, his voice echoing in the now silent concrete room. The black man who was working the Underground Railroad station looked around the room at the smoking hulls of the destroyed manhacks and replied, “I think so, but we should still be cautious; The Combine often sends swarms of manhacks in waves, and once they realize that they’ve lost radio control of these hacks, they’ll probably send another wave for us…” He said this with a hint of nervousness on his breath. He paused, and continued, “But anyway, I am tremendously grateful to you for coming to my aid. I could have never survived that swarm of hacks without you guys.”

Ian replied, “No problem sir, we were just passing through; we weren’t really expecting a swarm of flying saws to suddenly attack us, but we are always glad to help.” The man from the station looked at Ian, and noticed that he had been wounded by one of the manhacks. “Hey,” he said, pointing out the little line of blood, “It looks like one of the hacks got you. Let me treat that for you.”

He went over to a shelf that had been badly cut by manhacks, and pulled out a small white briefcase-like object that had a red cross on it, and had “FIRST AID” emblazoned on it in bold red letters. Ian held up his hands, “No, no, I’ll be alright, it’s just a scratch sir, you don’t have to treat me.”

The black man shook his head, and replied, “Even so, it could easily become infected down here, and we must take precautions for that sort of thing.” He walked towards Ian with the fist aid kit in hand, stepping over the metal remains of manhacks, some of which still had blades which spontaneously spun due to gravity.

“Roll up your sleeve boy,” he ordered Ian. Ian could not resist such a command, so he rolled up his tattered sleeve to reveal his forearm, which had a clearly visible gash across it. It was worse than Ian had thought, and as most wounds go, it didn’t really start to hurt until he had seen its full bloody extent.

The man calmly opened the first aid kit, and pulled out a roll of bandages, some antiseptic fluid, and a pair of scissors. He sterilized Ian’s wound, which produced a sharp sting in Ian’s forearm. Then, he wrapped it tightly with bandages, and cut the remainder away from the roll with scissors.

“Thank you.” Ian said simply, rolling his sleeve back down his arm. “Not at all,” replied the man, “You are clearly important as the protector of the great Gordon Freeman. I would want you to be in tip-top shape to protect him.” Ian didn’t know what to say to that comment. Although Ian didn’t exactly enjoy being known only as the protector of Gordon, it was an honorable title to have.

Gordon continued the conversation, “If indeed they are going to send another swarm after us, we better be on the move. Let’s go and see if we can make it to Dr. Vance’s lab through there.” He pointed towards the hallway from which the manhacks had emerged.

Ian agreed with Gordon’s assessment, and the three of them began to leave when the man from the station said, “I cannot go with you, sadly. I will have to stay here and keep the Underground Railroad alive. Thank you for saving my station, and I bid you well. Good luck!” The three turned back, and waved goodbye to the man, bidding him well and moving on to their next destination.

Smoke still rose from the remains of the manhacks, and their red lights blinked incessantly and randomly using what little power they had left. But their ghostly frames presented no more of a problem than to serve as annoying stumbling blocks that the party had to step over…

Ian thought of what the man at the station had said. There would be more swarms, more foes to overcome, and all of these shadowy frames of deceased manhacks merely were monuments for what was to come. He hoped most ardently that they would not face any more complications upon getting to Dr. Vance’s lab… but in his heart, he knew that his deepest hope was false.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Breen’s face shone out of a diminutive holographic screen in a secluded region of Dr. Vance’s lab. Usually, this wouldn’t have been a problem. After all, Dr. Breen’s broadcast was in operation 24 hours a day on every wavelength of radio and television. It was no surprise that whenever a television or monitor was turned on, Dr. Breen’s broadcast would spontaneously appear on a screen in the lab.

But this transmission was very different; for next to the screen sat a small camera, which followed the movements of the shadowy figure who watched Dr. Breen’s likeness on the screen. He too, could see on his own screen who was communicating with him on the other side. This was no ordinary BreenCast; this was an open communication line between the Citadel and Dr. Vance’s lab.

“I can assure you; nobody in your department will be harmed. Just give us the location of your base, and I will take Dr. Vance for myself. I will not harm him. I only intend to reason with him. Surely you know, throughout these days of communication with me recently, and the career we shared at Black Mesa, that I only want what is best for you, doctor.” Dr. Breen said smoothly and chillingly.

A female voice from the darkness of the room replied, “Please, Dr. Breen, I know your motives, and I agree with them. I just don’t want our parties to be in divergence in our ideals any more. The Resistance is clearly destructive in nature; and must be brought to order; and you assure me that nobody will be harmed in the transfer?”

Dr. Breen smiled invitingly, “Of course not.” He replied with the smoothness of oil. “Then,” the female replied, “I will comply with your demands.”
 
Still good, but...

“It seems,” he said, “that they have lost our trail. I assume that they will be having difficulties looking for us in the sewers, and will waste loads of time and effort fruitlessly searching these caverns. I think that we now are very near to an exit which is in the vicinity of Dr. Vance’s lab. Even so, there is no telling what we should face out there. For all we know, there could be an entire Combine battalion out there waiting for us…”
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Who in the hell speaks like this in real life? I've always been following your story but recently the dialogue has gone really weird...like everybody is trying to be as eloquent as possible no matter what the situation. I mean, that quote is Ian speaking...and he's like the everyman character.

Who says "It seems that they have lost our trail. I assume that they will be having difficulties looking for us in the sewers."

As opposed to something like "I think we must have lost them in these sewers."
 
I've been enjoying your story, but I have to agree with Sulkdodds. The dialogue has started to feel forced and unnatural. You seem to be staying away from contractions and overdramatizing statements. Try reading it aloud to yourself and see if it feels natural.

theotherguy said:
The man seemed to like this, and said, “I too, had no idea of the existence of your party, The Resistance. Heck, if I had known that you guys were around, I would have joined ages ago.
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The "I too", followed by "Heck" makes it feel like two different people are speaking. Part of the statement is very formal and part is very informal. It just reads weird. Please accept this as constructive criticism meant to help. I think you're doing a really impressive job.
 
First of all: it's an amazing story all together. When i discovered it about a month ago i was just browsing for fun before going to bed, but i ended up reading it from 11.45 pm to bout 7.30 am all in a row, it was just that captivating.
I just think that indeed the quality has been dropping a bit in the last chapters, because after you played the game it seems you've started just telling what happened in HL2 for the most part. And what i liked the most about the earlier chapters was that it was such an original story from a totally different standpoint, and with different events, but still believable. So ehm concluding :): just try and keep it a bit more different from the HL2-storyline.
And just one other thing that i just have to say: the boss from HL1, who controlled the Vortigaunts, is called the Nihilanth, not the Nialith, or the Niniliath.

Oh and eh, keep up the great work :thumbs:
 
Sulkdodds said:
Still good, but...



Who in the hell speaks like this in real life? I've always been following your story but recently the dialogue has gone really weird...like everybody is trying to be as eloquent as possible no matter what the situation. I mean, that quote is Ian speaking...and he's like the everyman character.

Who says "It seems that they have lost our trail. I assume that they will be having difficulties looking for us in the sewers."

As opposed to something like "I think we must have lost them in these sewers."
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yeah, I was having a problem with this when I was writing too. You see, just before writing the paragraphs where they spoke so strangley, I was reading a victorian era novel for school; and after reading that for a couple of hours I even started thinking in dialouge like that. After a while, I realized that what I was writing was kind of cheesy and stupid, and I tried to tone it down a bit. For example, in that part where he goes from "I too," to "Heck" I realized by the second sentence that the guy from the sewers was speaking a little too much like a proper englishman, so I added the "Heck" in an attempt to "equal out" the sentence, but it ended up sounding weird ;) In retrospect, I realize that I realy should have just edited those parts instead.
 
Hey real good work dude. I can't wait for your next chapter at Fanfictions.net . You can always count on my review. :)
 
*dramatic music* and from the darkness came...CHAPTER 40! *end dramatic music*

-Chapter 40, Hydras and Helicopters-

The door shut heavily behind them as they left the Underground Railroad station. Ian, Gordon and Tonya were all silent, and they had little to do other than keep going through the fairly straight maintenance hallway. A sense of nervousness hung over the group like a cloud of fog. They were all worried about encountering more manhacks. They had just barely survived their last run-in with those flying machinations.

They moved quickly, their feet making sucking noises as they squished into the muddy floor of the maintenance tunnel. Ian knew that they must get to the surface immediately. The Combine knew that they were down there, and they would stop at nothing to destroy Gordon Freeman. More waves of ‘hacks were to come, and more soldiers would fill the sewers. They were like rabbits being smoked out of a hole and out into the open where they could be safely disposed of. Even so, they would have to find the quickest route to the surface if they wanted to survive, because their place of refuge was quickly becoming their grave.

The hallways that they were traveling through were divided into rooms that each appeared to be suited for a certain purpose, but which were mostly the same in size, shape and appearance. The room that they were in now had white concrete walls, a mud floor, and several pipes running along its walls. The effect of the manhacks was clearly visible here in this room, and Ian could see black marks all over the walls where the swarm of flying saws had cascaded through the hallway and had collided with the walls in their frenzy to pursue Dr. Freeman and the others.

Ian saw these marks as a foreboding sign. “If and when they send another wave of man hacks for us, will be prepared for them?” He asked into the silent hallway. “I mean, I don’t want to end up getting caught unprepared and cornered in one of these tiny hallways with nothing but a couple of submachine guns that are running low on ammo, and your little pistol, Gordon.”

Gordon Freeman looked over at Ian as he said this, and emptied a spent shell from the chamber of his gun. “We handled them last time, didn’t we? Don’t worry; the Combine will never know what hit them. We’ll be all the way to Vance’s lab by the time they send another swarm after us.”

Tonya replied with nervousness on her breath, “I sure hope you’re right, Gordon…but Ian has a point, if we’re caught by those manhack things in an enclosed area like this then we’re doomed.” Gordon sighed, apparently with impatience, “Then we’d better hurry up and get out of this God forsaken sewer system quickly so we don’t have to deal with them.”

They quickened their pace, and came to the end of the hallway, where there was a large metal door. Ian unlatched and opened the large brown door with a squeak, and without anything to stop it from swinging too fast, the door collided with the brick wall on the other side, making a huge reverberating metal slam into the chasm. However, the room that was beyond was completely devoid of light, and was pitch black, and none of them could see anything beyond two feet from the door.

“Great, how are we supposed to make our way through this? I can’t see a thing!” Ian exclaimed, gesturing into the darkness beyond the door. “No worries,” replied Gordon cheerily, “my suit has a little solution for something like this.” Gordon then held his right arm out straight, and with his left hand pressed a button near his wrist which caused an embedded flashlight on his right arm to illuminate, and a beam of light streamed through the dusty darkness of the room beyond, landing on and lighting up the far wall and the ground.

Ian was impressed, “Wow, you really have got everything in that suit of yours, eh? What’s next, a can opener?” Gordon chuckled, “I don’t know what I would do without the HEV suit; through all this time it’s like it’s become a part of me… Anyway, this flashlight is on a battery charge, so we’d better hurry before it runs out.”

Without saying anything more, Dr. Freeman advanced into the next hallway, illuminating the path with his embedded flashlight, and causing shadows to dance around the room. Ian and Tonya followed closely behind him.

Ian felt as if he was now becoming a comrade of the great Gordon Freeman. Even though he had just arrived in City-17 a few hours ago; through hardships it is quite easy to form a connection with someone in your same situation. Ian no longer felt pressed to speak eloquently or respectfully to Dr. Freeman. He saw that this legendary figure was nothing but an ordinary man in a fantastic space suit. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time to become famous for Black Mesa.

Through Gordon Freeman’s illumination, Ian was able to see what was in the room around them. There were several columns of pipes running from the ground to the ceiling and along the walls; some of which spewed steam, creating an incessant hissing noise. Water dripped slowly from some areas of the ceiling and pooled in reflective puddles on the concrete floor. They advanced slowly along a railed walkway, and there was a drop of no greater than three feet on either side of the walkway to pits which contained several pipes. This was to be expected. After all, they were in the maintenance area of a sewer system.
 
They crossed this small room, and Gordon’s flashlight caught the figure of a huge metal hatch on the side of the wall which had a red circular valve in its grey center. “What do you think this is?” Tonya asked idly as the group stopped in front of the hatch. Gordon examined it, and concluded, “I think this is just another door, but it’s pressure sealed, probably in case of flooding. I think that this hatch must lead back into the main sewer system. Judging on how far we’ve come, I think we just might come out right on the other side of that debris which blocked our path back there.”

Ian looked at the hatch. He hoped that it would most definitely lead back out into the sewers, and that they would have a quick path back to Dr. Vance’s lab. “I hope that this thing is unlocked. Why don’t we try opening it?” He commented, placing his hands on the cold, rusty metal grip of the valve in the center of the man-sized hatch.

With great effort, Ian pulled on the valve, and after some time was able to barely move it to the left. He placed his hands in position again, and with another great force was able to budge the valve, and he then easily turned it with an annoying squeaking sound. There was a hiss of air as the pressurized door unlocked. Ian then pulled on the heavy metal door, and was able to swing it open. Light flooded into the room as the door was opened, and they could all see what lied beyond.

There was an elevated catwalk stretching out ahead of them, suspended from the ceiling by steel cables and small metal braces. Ian could see the curved ceiling of the sewer out in front of him, and he concluded that they had reached the main sewer, just as Dr. Freeman had predicted.

“Wow, it looks like you were right!” exclaimed Tonya, taking the initiative and stepping out onto the metal grated catwalk. Gordon, and then finally Ian crossed out of the dark room and onto the catwalk in the light of the main sewer system. Once his feet had struck the metal of the catwalk, Ian looked to all sides of him. He saw that they were suspended about fifteen feet from the ground, and that they murky sewer waters flowed underneath them. To his left, he saw the mass pile of debris that they had tried to bypass, and with disappointment, he discovered that the place where the hatch was into Dr. Vance’s lab was covered up by debris, and any hopes that they once had of getting in by that way were now crushed.

“Oh no, look guys, the debris covers up the hatch!” Ian exclaimed, pointing out the massive mountain of trash. Gordon replied, “Ah, that’s too bad… but we can still get in from the surface. There must be some way for us to get out of these sewers and back to the streets!” Ian was extremely disappointed that their path was now blocked…but, He knew that they would have to get to Dr. Vance’s lab somehow.

“Well,” Ian continued, “we might as well cross over this catwalk to that door on the other side, and see what we can do there. But whatever we do, we’ve got to do it fast because The Combine is searching for us right now. It won’t be long before they find us.”

With that, they continued down the catwalk hesitantly and slowly, with their feet falling heavily on the metal grated floor. Ian now looked at the scene to his right, and saw that the sewer there dropped off to a much lower level, and there was a square hole going down into the ground farther than he could see, and the water from the sewer poured down into it a slow, slight trickle.

They continued on for a few more seconds; and that’s when Ian began to hear strange popping sounds coming from the sides of the bridge. Thinking nothing of it, he continued on. However, as soon as he took his next step, he heard a wave of sharp, snappy popping noises from all sides. That was when he realized that the popping noises were that of the metal cables which held the catwalk in place, which were now snapping and swishing through the air in waves.

Ian could feel the catwalk buckle beneath their weight. Thinking quickly, Ian screamed, “It’s collapsing! Everyone get back to the other side!” But it was too late, and the middle section of the catwalk buckled under weight it could not support, and the metal twisted and shrieked as it fell to pieces, and the catwalk collapsed to the ground.

Luckily, the group was not directly in the center of the catwalk when it collapsed; but they were now in a precarious position on the remaining piece of catwalk which now sloped downward at a 10 degree angle. Unable to hold on to the slick metal, the three of them slid down the slanting metal grate and splashed into the sewer water

Ian rolled three times, and landed painfully with his back on his gun. The others lay around him, and he was stupefied to what was going on all around him. All that he could see was the collapsed catwalk and the sloped stone ceiling of the sewer. And he could hear nothing, because the water which he lied in was just deep enough to cover his ears.

He regained his senses, and stood up slowly, and the others did the same. Once everyone had stood up, Gordon managed to ask, “Is everyone all right?” Ian was about to respond when he heard a sudden splash from his left. He turned quickly enough to see the ghostly figure of a combine officer, who had jumped down from a ladder hanging from the ceiling which Ian hadn’t noticed before.

The officer wore a black gas mask, and had a blue uniform unlike any of the other Combine soldiers that Ian had ever seen, and he carried a submachine gun, which he aimed at them. Before any of them could react, the officer yelled out them in an inhuman, overdriven radio-like voice, “Hold it there!”

Ian glanced at the others and noticed that none of their weapons were drawn. They were in serious trouble. How did the officer get down there? Had he caused the catwalk to collapse? Had he been watching them all along?

But, just as Ian stood there dumbfounded staring at the officer, he suddenly noticed something strange rise up from the square pit behind him. It appeared to be a strange, thin, translucent-blue tentacle, which curled in a seductive fashion in the air.

The officer must have noticed the look of terror on their faces, because he turned just in time to see the gigantic blue thing as it flipped with catlike-agility towards him, impaling him, and causing him to scream audibly. The tentacle stabbed through him like a hot knife in butter, and stuck a few feet through the other side of the officer.

It lifted him up easily, and while he was still alive, the tentacle whipped him around like a rag doll, slamming him into walls, and finally to the ground, where he was dragged into the pit from which the tentacles came, all the while screaming. Once he had been dragged into the pit, there was a crunching sound, and the screaming stopped. Then, devilishly, three, and then four of the otherworldly tentacles emerged like snakes from the pit, hungry for more blood.

Ian felt his stomach sink as this whole scene unfolded. Even though the strange and fiendish tentacles had saved their lives, it was still a terrifying sight to see a man slammed against walls and finally eaten by an otherworldly beast.

“Uh, Gordon…what the hell are those things?” Ian asked timidly, his eyes still wide on the blue creatures. Gordon replied almost in a whisper. “You mean thing… I think that’s a Hydra. I heard about them at Black Mesa, but never saw them. God, how did they get down here?”

Ian was glad that Gordon had some knowledge of the deadly and terrifying creature, and he asked further, “So just how are we are supposed to get past it?” Tonya replied, “Why don’t we just try shooting it?”

Gordon shrugged, “Good idea, I don’t really know… I never really worked with these things before.” So, Tonya pulled her machine gun from off of her back, aimed it at the creature and fired. The loud pops from her gun echoed through the chamber, and her bullets flew towards the tentacles.

However, the creatures began twisting back and forth wildly like threatened worms, and her bullets rarely even struck them. The ones that did strike simply passed through the tentacles and did no damage, as if they were made out of water.

“What are these things?” Tonya exclaimed, stopping her firing when she saw that her bullets did no harm to the rapidly moving tentacles. “Well, shooting isn’t working, what are we going to do Dr. Freeman?” Ian asked in desperation, watching as the tentacles whipped through the air.

Gordon replied, “I have an idea! I’ll distract the tentacles so that you and Tonya can climb the ladder that the Combine officer came down from. It should take you to the surface.” Ian thought about it. He had already seen that shooting at the beast temporarily distracted it, and they would be able to climb the ladder while the Hydra was thus occupied. But then he thought of another thing, “If we’re up there, how are you going to get up the ladder without alerting the Hydra, Gordon?” he asked thoughtfully.

Gordon shook his head, “Don’t worry about me, I’m the one with the HEV suit, I can handle the situation on my own. Here, I’m going to go over there to the other side of the sewer and distract it. This is no time for hesitation, just run as fast as you can to the ladder and climb up it as quickly as possible, do you understand?”

Tonya replied, “Yeah, uh, I guess. Just be careful Gordon, we can’t afford to lose you.” Gordon began moving to the other side of the sewer, and turned back at them, “I can handle it. Quick, you need to get up that ladder immediately!”

So Ian and Tonya sprinted towards the ladder which hung down from the ceiling as Gordon began distracting the hydra by shooting at it and yelling loudly. The hydra began wriggling in an insane fashion once again and taking random swipes at Gordon as he yelled curses at the beast and popped off shots at it with his pistol.

Thankfully, Ian and Tonya both reached the ladder without being spotted by the deadly tentacles, and Ian stepped aside so that Tonya could climb the ladder first. She put her gun on her back, and grabbed onto the metal bars, and began to ascend it slowly. Ian did the same, and as he climbed up the cold, wet metal ladder, he looked back at Gordon, who was still distracting the hydra.

Suddenly, one of the tentacles of the hydra stood out from the crowd, and appeared to stop and glare at Ian. Realizing that it had noticed him, Ian began to climb more rapidly, pounding on the hollow metal with his boots. However, the beast flicked its tentacle towards Ian hastily, and Ian had barley enough time to see its blue figure swoop towards him.

Just as Ian was about to close his eyes in preparation for the impalement, he heard a shot from behind him, and a bright spark appeared on the ladder just ahead of him. He heard the twang of a ricocheting bullet. At this sudden sight, the tentacle became dazed, and struck the ladder just ahead of Ian. There was a loud metallic noise as the tentacle struck the ladder, and it flew back in pain.

Ian realized that Gordon Freeman had just rescued him from the hydra by distracting it with a ricocheted bullet, and he looked back at the scientist in the orange suit, which was still shooting at the hydra. “Keep going!” he ordered, pointing up at the ladder. Ian wasted no time at taking Gordon’s suggestion, and he quickly hurried up the ladder behind Tonya.

After a few more seconds, Ian could begin to smell fresh outside air rushing out of a hole directly above him, and he saw Tonya pass through a round opening just ahead of him. He knew that he was very close to the surface. In a desperate fashion, Ian climbed the last few rungs faster than he thought humanly possible, and dragged himself out of the round hole.

Ian lay on his back, exhausted from evading the deadly tentacles of the hydra. He realized that he was lying on some kind of ribbed metal, and sat up to see where he and Tonya had come. They were in a large silver metal pipe, in which one side was closed, and the other side opened to show the cloudy blue sky, and the wastes of city-17 below. Oh how Ian was glad to see such a sight!

He looked at Tonya, who appeared disheveled and unkempt, and exclaimed, “We made it Tonya! Now all we have to do is make a short walk to Dr. Vance’s lab!” Tonya shook her head, “What about Gordon? He’s the whole reason we were going to Dr. Vance’s lab anyway. He’s still down there; I really hope that he comes out alright…”

She was right; Ian could still hear the battle raging below them in the sewers, and he began to seriously worry about his safety. Ian instantly turned around and looked down the manhole to see how Gordon was faring. Luckily, he spotted the figure of Dr. Freeman speedily climbing the ladder to get up to where they were, all the while shooting at the hydra to make him a less valuable target.

Within little time at all, Gordon made it up to the pipe where Ian and Tonya were sitting, and heavily plopped himself down against its side, his plastic suit clanging against the metal. “That was amazing!” commended Ian, “I can’t believe that you just got us past that thing! You call yourself a scientist; my God, you’re more of a warrior!”

Gordon simply gave him a look of tiredness, and wiped his filthy glasses on his even dirtier gloves. “I’m just glad that we all made it up here alive. That was all impromptu you know, you have this HEV suit to thank, not me.” Gordon said humbly, putting his glasses back on.

“So where are we anyway?” He continued, beginning to stand up and look over the landscape which lied on the outside of the pipe. Ian stood up as well, and squinted against the daylight. Ahead of him he could see the drained remains of the canal system, with islands of trash poking out of the murky and rancid water. But, just beyond that, Ian saw the familiar and welcome sight of the main square, where Dr. Vance’s lab was.

“Why, we’re almost there, Gordon, that’s the building right over there! We just have to pass through this canal, climb to the other side, and enter the building! What great luck we have.” Ian exclaimed, pointing out the silhouette of the buildings in the main square.

Gordon cheerfully replied, “Well then, I don’t think we should run into any more trouble! Let’s keep going and get to a safe place.” He advanced forward, and hopped off of the lip of the pipe and into the mud about five feet below the pipe. Ian and Tonya followed, and for the first time in a long time, crossed into the open space of the surface.

They didn’t walk for twenty seconds before they heard a yell from elsewhere in the canal from some male voice who sounded to be in great danger. “Everyone get out of here! They found out about the Railroad! Everyone run for your lives!” The man’s voice exclaimed.

Alarmed, Ian turned towards the sound, and saw at the far end of the canal the images of about twelve running people, who sprinted along the muddy bank as if they were being chased by the devil. And that’s when Ian heard the distant beating of helicopter blades. The thumping drew nearer and nearer, and suddenly, an enormous grey flying machine which resembled the deadliest of war helicopters swooped into the canal, following the group of sprinting fugitives on the other side of the canal closely.
 
Before any of them could react, there was a sound like that of a charging motor from the front of the helicopter, and within seconds, the nose of the grey, sleek machine lit up with a blue glow, and translucent blue plasma beams poured out of it in a torrent towards the fugitives. In an instant, every one of the dozen resistance men fell to the ground and died under the heat of the plasma beams.

Instinctively, Gordon, Ian and Tonya ducked behind a pile of rubble to avoid being seen. Breathing heavily, Tonya asked, “What just happened here? Did The Combine just kill all of those innocent people? What was that thing, some kind of chopper?”

Ian was just as confused as Tonya, why would The Combine just massacre someone like that? It had happened so suddenly, he wasn’t at all sure of what had gone on. He certainly hadn’t seen an attack helicopter like that one before. It was so fast, so lethal; they were all dead in seconds.

“I don’t know Tonya; I’ve never seen anything like that chopper before. One thing’s for certain though, we’re not safe down here! We need to get out of here right away!” Ian said in a frightened, quickening tone. “Should we go back into the tunnel?” Gordon suggested.

Ian replied, “No, there’s nothing back there but a hydra. We could wait here, but that thing is probably going to make another pass and look for survivors. It will definitely spot us. We have to make a choice between hydras and helicopters, and if we choose helicopters, we are going to need to make a run for it…”

The beating of the chopper’s blades returned. It was making another pass. Ian could feel his heart speed up in his chest. They had to act quickly, they couldn’t stay, and they would have to make a move very fast to avoid the chopper. Time was drawing short.

“Alright, let’s go with the chopper. I’ve had to deal with choppers before. The key is surprise, Ian. We’ve seen how long it takes for that gun to charge up, a few seconds, right? If we move quickly, and come into its scope very fast, they won’t have enough time to react and fire their gun before we take more cover. Got it?” Gordon said quickly. The chopper blades became louder and louder. He knew that it was hovering very near them now.

“Okay! You lead the way, Gordon. Here’s to hoping that you know what the hell you’re doing!” He said, getting up from behind the debris. Gordon got up quickly, and sprinted towards another pile of debris. Ian and Tonya followed closely behind, trying to keep up with Gordon, who had the power assist of his HEV suit to aid his speed.

Ian saw the hovering grey figure of the chopper floating just tens of feet from the ground, whipping up water and dust with the turbulence of its blades. He could just make out the black gas mask of the pilot in the cockpit as he spotted them. The gun began to charge up…

Ian dived behind a pile of debris including car parts and large metal plates along with Gordon and Tonya just as the gun began to fire upon them. Ian slid into the dirty water as a hail of plasma beams blasted into the pile of debris, sending sparks and little chips of metal everywhere and creating a screeching, pinging and grating sound which caused Ian to yell in terror. However, the plasma beams were unable to pierce the solid piece of debris, and after a short time, the chopper’s gun overheated and stopped firing.

They could waste no more time, they had to use this small moment of peace to run to the next pile of debris. So the three said nothing more, and sprinted at breakneck speeds out from behind that piece of debris to the other side of the canal, where there was a small inlet of debris with a dug-in hole which was covered by metal panels.

While the chopper began to charge its weapon, the three of them hopped inside the trench, and covered the top of the trench with metal panels. Again the chopper fired, putting holes right through the metal panels, but all the while still missing them. Again it overheated, and circled around to get a better shot at them.

Ian knew that they longer they played this game, the smarter the pilot would get, and he would reserve his shots for when they were not behind cover. They needed to get out of the canals as quickly as possible.

They kicked the metal panels away, and sprinted towards the nearest cover, a collapsed bridge which had once spanned the canal and now lay in ruins. They ran on, faster than ever before, towards the bridge. Ian could hear the whir as the gun began to charge up. He realized suddenly, that they might not make it.

When the firing started, Gordon made a quick turn to his left, and the others followed, pulling so hard to the left that Ian thought he was going to fall over. The plasma beams flew randomly in a cone towards their last position, about ten feet to the right, smashing into the water and causing it to vaporize in torrents of steam.

The gunner caught on, and immediately began to move his cone of fire to the left to finally crush the three of them, but by that time, Ian, Gordon and Tonya had already splashed their way safely under the a part of the fallen bridge which still stood amidst debris and rocks which enclosed them and made them impossible to hit from the air.

Ian slammed his back against a gigantic stone from the collapsed bridge, and breathed deeply in relief when he realized that they were now covered on all sides by many feet of stone, and that they chopper could not possibly hit them while they were down there.

“Wow!” Ian exclaimed breathlessly once everyone was safely against the stone wall under the bridge. “Nice ideas Gordon, we were nearly killed there, but somehow you pulled us through!” As he said this, Ian heard more pinging of plasma beams colliding with all sections of the bridge around them. Suppressive fire…the Combine chopper wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t be leaving the bridge.

“We’re not safe yet Ian,” Gordon replied, “That chopper knows that we’re under here, and they aren’t going to let us leave while they still live. This bridge could very well be our death trap if we don’t find a way out of here.” Ian felt his stomach sink. Gordon was right; they were trapped like rabbits in hole. They needed to find an escape route.

When all began looking dejected, and panic was on the rise, a voice was raised, “Wait, maybe it’s not so hopeless! Look guys!” Tonya exclaimed, pointing to what appeared to be a blue door against the wall of the canal. Ian walked over to the door and found that it was unlocked. “Man, we are extremely lucky!” He said with a smile, “I think we just found our escape route.” “Good!” Gordon approved, “Let’s get out of here while we still have time!”

And with that, the three of them opened the heaven-sent door and exited the canals for good.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Naguk-digh had been crawling in the ventilation system for hours, watching, waiting. The human idiots had no doubt found out about his escape by now. They would see instantly that he had escaped into the ventilation system…but he did not care. It was vengeance and lust which drove him forward.

He considered going to a terminal and contacting the Mighty Combine again, as he had been doing when he was captured…but no, that would be to good a fate for the pathetic humans here. Especially that one that they called the Eli Vance…He would be the one to pay most dearly.

And so he waited for the proper moment, he needed the conditions just right…for when he killed that foul being, he would leave no witnesses.

-Chapter 41, Betrayal-
 
is there a newly compiled worddoc or txt file? id like to read this while im on a roadtrip. =)
 
well, yes, I have both a word and a txt file, but they are both too big to upload, even when zipped! But, I'll try to find a better compressor for you guys.... anyway, here it is....CHAPTER 41...

-Chapter 41, Betrayal-

Gordon Freeman slammed the door shut behind them. They stood now in still ankle-deep water from the canals in the dark and dusty interior of a melancholy and metal room that appeared to be some kind of maintenance center for the bridge, which appeared to be originally intended to be flooded entirely with water. But now, the only indication that this room had once been submarine was the rust which lined its metal walls and pipes, which ran all over the walls. The room was terribly small and claustrophobic, and there was a rusty metal staircase leading to a trap door in the ceiling.

“Quick,” Gordon alerted, “we’re still not safe in here, we need something to block this door to buy us just a little more time. They could be under that bridge in minutes, and I’d say there is a 98% chance that they are going to try this door first when looking for us.” Gordon was right, they had very little time, and they would have even less if they didn’t block this door.

Ian searched the room frantically for something moveable and heavy. Toolboxes, bricks, and small appliances were all that he could seem to find until finally he spotted a set of large concrete pipes lashed together with stainless steel wiring. He could use that to block the door.

“Do you think these will work?” He asked, pointing out the group of pipes. Gordon looked over at him and confirmed, “Those are perfect. Quick, help me move them over to that door.” Hastily, Gordon took up one end of the pipe, Ian took the other, and Tonya grabbed the middle. Together with a collective grunt, the lifted the heavy grouping of pipes and shoved it against the door.

The height of the pipes reached the midsection of the door, and they were heavy enough to block it from opening without enough force to break the door itself. “Perfect. Now, let’s hurry out of here before they catch us!” Gordon exclaimed, taking the initiative and climbing the metal steps in the center of the room towards the hatch in the ceiling.

Ian and Tonya followed him, clanking up the metal steps towards the ceiling. However, once Gordon reached that hatch, he was unable to open it. “Oh no, the damn thing is locked!” He said, gesturing towards a large padlock which held the lever of the hatch in place.

Tonya immediately cut to the front of the group and pulled out her MP7. “No problem, Dr. Freeman,” She said, placing the barrel of her gun point-blank against the padlock, “stand back!” She said, pulling the trigger of her gun. There was a loud bang and a faint ping, and the padlock was blasted away from the latch. Tonya pulled her gun away from the latch. “Let’s go,” she continued. Gordon and Ian simply stared at her. She got a disgruntled look on her face, “what? You didn’t think I could handle a gun?”

“Err, no, It’s just…that was kind of sudden,” Ian replied. Gordon shook his head, “Stop wasting time, and let’s get out of here!” He exclaimed, grabbing hold of the latch on the trap door and pushing upward with great force. The rusty hinges of the latch squealed, and light flooded into the cavern, causing Ian to squint.

The three quickly climbed out of the square hole in the ground, and were immediately immersed in the sights and sounds of the room above them. The thing that Ian noticed first was the droning sound of a small Breenscreen, which he saw immediately in the corner of another room; he caught a couple of sentences, and he wasn’t very happy about what Breen was saying.

His vile and smiling face appeared on the small television screen and droned, “…and that is why it’s entirely and absolutely necessary that we work together to catch these criminals! Yes, Gordon Freeman has returned, and he is being aided by a few rebellious fools; I have seen him myself. But please, don’t let his appearance frighten you; he is nothing but a common criminal with an ego trip. There have been some who have endowed him with romantic qualities, calling him the “one free man” among other things… superstitious remarks such as these are dragging the species down. Gordon Freeman is an ordinary man, with barely even so much as a degree from MIT. He is the representation of all the worst of instinct, superstition and ignorance in our society, and he must be stopped at all costs. Anyone caught aiding Freeman will immediately be put to death. If you have any tips regarding the whereabouts of this criminal, call the “I saw Freeman” hotline at 148-926-993…”

Ian wasn’t concerned about Breen’s threats; he knew that he would be put to death if he was caught. But what worried him was the massive publicity that he was getting. How had Breen found out so quickly? It was amazing that he had reacted so fast and put out a BreenCast in such a short amount of time. Their story was now on every screen of every television in all of City-17.

He looked around where they had come out of the hole in the floor, and noted that they were now in the middle of a short hallway of some kind. The floor was made of hardwood, and it looked like the hatch from which they had come was originally covered from sight by a large, thick red rug which now lay curled beneath the heavy hatch door. Ian heard the clinking of silverware against plates; and he turned his attention towards it and was shocked.

Sitting in an adjoining room to the hallway, there was a man at a table, eating a meal. He apparently had just noticed Ian, Gordon and Tonya as they emerged from the hatch in the ground, and his eyes widened in surprise. He dropped his knife, and it clinked on his plate next to his food. Ian was worried. If this man was loyal to the Combine, they would be forced to kill him. And if he wasn’t, he would be captured by the Combine and questioned or worse. He was an older man, nearly bald and with grey whiskers all over his face.

Ian decided to speak to him, “Please sir: don’t be alarmed! We didn’t mean to barge in on your house like this, but you see, this is Gordon Freeman here, and we’re running away from the law… We’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about this…”

Still saying nothing, the surprised man glanced at his TV, which now showed a close up of Dr. Freeman’s face with bold red letters below it reading “Have you seen this fugitive?” and then he glanced back at Ian, Gordon and Tonya. He suddenly stood up in his chair, nearly knocking it to the floor, and he replied angrily, “I don’t care who the heck you are, I want you out of my house! I understand your intentions, and I knew about that old abandoned maintenance station under my house, that’s why I covered it up with the rug, for a way to escape…them; but I don’t want any trouble, you hear?”

Gordon Freeman put out his arms in a sign of friendship, “Please sir, we understand; we’ll be leaving. But you should get out of here too; The Combine will be in here in moments, and they won’t be sparing you any mercy when they start the interrogations. I’m so sorry that we had to do this, sir…” Gordon and Tonya began backing off towards a nearby doorway which led to the street, and Ian followed them.

The old man called out in desperation, “I’ve lived in this house for four and thirty years, and I’ve withstood everything from communists to Combine, but never have I given up my home to them. But you’re right… I’m an old man, and wouldn’t be much use to The Combine anyway; I might as well be use to you and leave here before they come to question me. Oh, why on Earth did you have to come to my house?” Before he had even finished this monologue, however, Gordon Ian and Tonya had already left his quaint home, and had shut the door in haste.

They were now in a small section of Victorian-style homes in a run down neighborhood near the edge of the drained canals. It was mid-morning, and daylight reflected off of the dilapidated windows of the cottages around them. The Citadel was a prevalent feature in the sky, its black silhouette outlined by the bright sky. Even now, Ian could still see swarms of scanners pouring from its depths and into the sky. He could also still hear the beating of helicopter blades spinning fearfully close behind him over the canals. One thought raced through his mind: they had to get back to Vance’s lab at all costs.

There were no people on the streets. This was extremely fortunate, since the three of them were all over the BreenCasts. Any passerby would notice them instantly, especially Gordon with his bulky orange suit. “Gordon,” Ian said, “We need to get you out of sight! We need some sort of route that’ll keep us away from the sights of anyone. I mean, with what you’re wearing, you’re like a giant orange beacon. You’d be spotted instantly!”

Gordon sighed, “It’s not like we can go from shadow to shadow Ian; it’s the middle of the day! We’ll have to make due with just avoiding people when we see them. We’re not too far from Dr. Vance’s lab, are we?” This worried Ian greatly. He was right, how were they supposed to remain in hiding in broad daylight? They were doomed unless they found some other way…

Luckily, Tonya spoke up, “Wait, maybe there’s some way to get there quickly and also avoid being seen. Maybe we can take a car or something…” Ian looked at her and replied, “Where are we supposed to find a car? Even if we did, how could we drive without keys?” Tonya cringed, “I don’t know, I was just suggesting an idea, is all…”

Gordon broke in and said, “Wait, maybe her idea isn’t so far-fetched… My suit has the capabilities to control certain machinery manually, cars aren’t really too advanced for my suit to bypass the controls and allow us to drive without keys. In other words, it’s sort of capable of hot-wiring a car.”

Ian shook his head and with an unbelieving tone addressed Gordon “You and your suit… I thought it was supposed to be a research type thing; and now you’re telling me that it can hot-wire cars? Your American government thought of every possibility didn’t they?”

Shrugging his oversized shoulders, Gordon replied, “Hey, I don’t know why they included all of this stuff in the suit either, I’m just regurgitating the garbage they fed us from the manual during hazard training. These suits were designed for inter-dimensional travel you know.”

They walked on in a random direction down the empty streets while this banter was going on, all the while getting farther away from the canals and the sound of the still-hovering helicopter. Tonya cut them off and suggested, “Why don’t we quit wasting time and find a car before anyone spots us?” Gordon and Ian took the cue, and stopped talking, while Ian began to scan the area for any sort of vehicle that looked like it was in working order.

Suddenly, at the corner of the street, Ian saw two patrolling metro cops appear, swaggering along and joking with one another. His heart began to race as he saw the officers appear there on the street corner. He felt like a deer in the headlights. The officer had not yet noticed them, but in seconds they would undoubtedly be seen.

Ian reacted quickly, spotting a red brick alleyway directly ahead of them, and without saying anything, darted into it, practically pulling the others in with him. He pressed his back against the side of the alleyway, and breathing heavily with adrenaline still in his veins, he said to the others. “My God, I hope they didn’t see us! That was close…” Gordon replied, “We can’t be too sure…they had more than enough time to spot us. In any case, we need to get out of here. Why don’t we keep going down this alley until we find some place to hide?”

So, they hurriedly continued down the long dark alleyway amidst trash which openly lay on the ground, and boxes of unknown origin littering the alleyway, stacked upon each other. Fire escapes hung down from the walls of the man-made canyons like jungle vines. Ian only hoped that this claustrophobic alley wouldn’t have a dead end, or they would be trapped in it.

Luckily, the alleyway widened, and soon became a large clearing with buildings surrounding it on all sides. There were the traditional multi-storied homes surrounding this small parking-lot like area, except for the left wall, which was made up of what looked like an old brewery. There were large hangar-like garage doors on this brewery; but the most engaging quality of this area was the fact that there were large white distribution trucks sitting in the parking lot of the brewery, well secluded from any streets and abandoned. It was exactly the situation that they were looking for.

“Will you look at this Gordon? We’ve hit the jackpot! Do you think that you’ll be able to hotwire these trucks? I don’t see anyone around…it’s a perfect situation.” Ian exclaimed, his voice filled with excitement. Gordon nodded, “Yeah, this is exactly what I was thinking of; I just hope those things are filled with gas. Why don’t we try it?”

The three of them went over the asphalt of the parking lot towards one of the trucks. It was of medium size, a small distribution truck, and it was white, with a large advertisement for a foreign beer on the side of its large rectangular storage compartment. Ian suddenly realized that for several years The Combine had banned alcohol in the city, and it would be sort of strange to see a beer truck driving through the streets…but he kept his mouth shut. They would have to make due and hope nobody noticed.

Gordon went over to the driver’s side of the truck, and tried the door. Helplessly, the door clicked and would not open. “Dang, the thing’s locked!” Gordon exclaimed. He continued, “But that’s no problem for my suit…” Gordon put his hand out to the lock of the door, and pressed a small button on the right arm of his suit.

Suddenly, there was a hissing noise, and a small metal spike emerged from his suit towards the lock. Gordon shoved the spike into the lock, and it immediately began twisting and turning on its own. There was another hiss, and then a short click. The spike returned to its original position, and when Gordon tried the door, it opened easily.

He smirked, and said, “See? It was no problem.” Amazed at this little magic trick, Tonya replied, “You’re like a human Swiss army knife, Dr. Freeman.” Gordon simply entered the car, and stuck his little spike into the keyhole of the vehicle. There was a slight pause, and then the engine sputtered and started with a roar, causing the vehicle to vibrate and hum.

Gordon retracted his spike coolly, and looked back at them with a confident smile. “You never cease to amaze me, Gordon…” Ian bantered. “Let’s get going, shall we?” Dr. Freeman replied, scooting over to the other side of the cab to allow Ian access to the wheel. Ian allowed Tonya to enter first, and she sat in the middle of the cab, next to Freeman.

Ian then got into the cab, and adjusted the position of his seat and mirrors. “You’d better stay low in the car, Gordon, since you’re the most noticeable of us. We can’t risk you getting seen…” Ian told Gordon. Gordon took the hint, and ducked down as low as he could in the car so that he couldn’t be seen by anyone outside.

“Good. Is everyone buckled in?” Ian said, putting his hands on the wheel of the truck. “Alright, let’s roll.” He revved the engine, and was pleased when the large vehicle lurched forward. He looked at the gas meter, and noticed that it luckily was full. He pulled the truck out of the parking lot, and out of a small driveway/alleyway.
 
Soon he came to a street, and he pulled a right onto the cobblestone. Unlike the last street he was on, this road was flooded on its sides by citizens. The sun was bright over Cit 17, and a yellowish glow lighted the melancholy grey of the city. Cops and citizens alike roamed the streets busily, with the two parties avoiding contact as much as possible. Because of all this business, Ian knew that he was already very close to the main square, his destination.

Carefully, he drove his large truck at a slow speed down the lane, avoiding eye contact with metro cops and trying to seem as inconspicuous as possible. However, this was difficult to do while driving a large beer truck, and he got several strange glances from passersby, wondering what he was doing there. Ian especially tried to avoid the scanners, which flew about randomly searching for suspicious citizens. Those he knew he could not fool if their truck were carefully examined by one of them.

However, by an extreme stroke of luck, Ian was not pulled over even once by any cops on his transit from the parking lot to the lab of Dr. Vance. Ian knew the area by heart, and he made all the correct turns to make it to the main square; taking care to turn onto the avenue whose checkpoint into the main square he knew to be controlled by the resistance. This wouldn’t be hard, because by now he was certain that almost all of the checkpoints were controlled by his allies.

Within no time at all, Ian was in visual range of the east checkpoint, which he was certain was one of the first checkpoints to be under resistance control…or so he hoped. “Ian, I sure hope you know what you’re doing. You do know that you’re driving directly towards a Combine checkpoint, right?” Tonya said nervously.

Barely even moving, Ian replied, “relax, Tonya, I’ve got it taken care of. I’m pretty sure that this checkpoint is controlled by the resistance.” Tonya replied shortly, “Well you better be more than just pretty sure, because they find us now and we’re finished!”

Ian said nothing, and simply kept driving towards the checkpoint. He gently put on the brakes, and slowed as he came nearer to the checkpoint. A white-masked metro cop came out from one side of the checkpoint with his right hand raised; signaling for Ian to come to a complete stop. Ian hit the brakes harder, and came to a complete stop in front of the cop.

“You better be right Ian…” Tonya whispered, eyeing the cop as he came around to the driver’s side of the truck. Ian rolled down the window of the cab, and allowed the policeman to come near the driver side window.

Ian decided to take a risk, and asked a question of the officer before he even spoke to them. “Are you one of us, or one of them?” He whispered, his eyes gazing into the reflective panels of the officer’s gasmask. There was an awkward silence, and Ian felt adrenaline enter his veins when he realized that he might have been making a mistake. However, a very human whisper emanated through the gasmask, and relieved Ian of his tension. “Yes,” the officer whispered, “I’m from the resistance. You are very lucky to have come to this checkpoint. What are you carrying with you, weapons?”

Ian shook his head, and in a louder voice said, “No sir, we have a special shipment for the United Combine Munitions Factory.” He said this while leaning back and motioning towards the passenger side of the car, making Gordon Freeman clearly visible to the officer, but to no-one else.

The imposter of an officer nodded, and confirmed, “Excellent, You’re free to go.” He made a signal with his gloved hand to the operator of the checkpoint, and the forcefeild flickered off, allowing the truck to pass. Ian nodded in approval, and revved the engine, carrying the truck and its precious cargo through the checkpoint.

“I can’t believe you just did that, Ian. I thought for sure that we were done for!” Tonya exclaimed in a lighthearted tone. Ian replied, “I told you so, cousin. Our only goal now is to cross the square and to go through the underground entrance to Vance’s lab. This has been quite a trek huh? I really didn’t think it would take this long just to cross the city.”

The truck rumbled through the busy square, causing people to almost leap out of the way to get onto the sidewalks, they were so unused to cars passing through. Even over the hum of the engine, Ian could hear the droning of the gigantic Breenscreen in the center of the square, continuing about the “dangers of instinct” and about Gordon and the other fugitives. Ian loathed that man…one day, when the rebellion finally kicked in; he would personally see his demise.

They quickly passed over the square, and finally came to the almost monolithic feature of the United Combine Munitions Factory, which housed Dr. Vance’s lab. Ian pulled the truck into the alleyway on the side of the factory, making sure to nearly completely cover its entrance, so that nobody would see them enter through the secret passageway under the dumpster.

“Finally,” Ian said with a sigh of relief, “we’ve made it. Everyone get out of the car before someone wonders why we’re parked here, and uh, Gordon you can get out of that uncomfortable position.” When Ian said this, Gordon uncurled himself from under the dashboard, rubbing his neck. “Excellent driving, Ian, to tell you the truth I really didn’t think we were going to make it…but we’ve been having incredible luck recently. It’s just fate, I guess.”

Gordon opened his door and stepped out into the alleyway, with Tonya following him. Ian, however, stayed in the car. He tried to turn the engine off, but then he realized that there was no key in the ignition to turn. But, with some force, he was able to turn the ignition off without a key by twisting it using the tabs on the side.

Once the truck was off, Ian opened his door, and jumped down from his seat to the pavement. From there, he walked around the front of the truck, and rejoined the others near the dumpster. Then, they moved the large blue trash receptacle to the side, and opened the trap door underneath. Tonya hopped down into the cellar first, with Ian following. Gordon volunteered to stay behind and move the dumpster back over the secret door. He did this while climbing down into the hole while simultaneously pulling the dumpster. Then, he too fell into the cellar below.

As usual, the secret passageway was entirely pitch-black, for security reasons; and it was thus extremely difficult to move around. Even so, Ian and Tonya knew the path, and Gordon didn’t even need to turn on his flashlight. “So this is where Dr. Vance does his research nowadays, in this dark hole?” Gordon asked quietly in the darkness. Ian replied, “Don’t worry, Gordon, this is just the short passageway into the main lab. The whole facility is actually pretty huge…it’s been referred to as ‘Black Mesa East”. Gordon continued, “I take it that Dr. Vance took part in naming it then… he was one of those guys who loved his job; and always put the most into Black Mesa. I’m so pleased that he’s still alive…I thought for sure that I had been the only one to survive those terrible days at Black Mesa. But Barney Calhoun, Isaac Kleiner, Eli Vance, Judith Mossman and Dr. Rosenberg…it’s like a fairy tale.”

They continued down the stone steps until finally they came to the wall which contained the door into the freight elevator. Ian felt around blindly on the cold stone wall until he came to the little red button which would activate the speaker system. He pressed the plastic button inwards, and instantly, spotlights came on all around the room and lighted the door to the elevator.

A female voice, which Ian recognized as belonging to Judith Mossman, came on over the speaker system above the door. “Yes?” she said in an impatient manner. Ian replied coolly, “Dr. Mossman, it’s me, Ian Olbowski, along with Tonya, and our unparalleled guest, Dr. Gordon Freeman.”

Dr. Mossman practically giggled when she heard the name of Dr. Freeman, and exclaimed, “Dr. Freeman! Is it really you?” Gordon smiled and replied, “Yes Dr. Mossman, it’s me. I’m glad to be back.” Judith laughed again and continued, “Dr. Freeman, you hadn’t seen me all that much twelve years ago, but you have no idea how much I envied you! To have worked with Dr. Kleiner and Dr. Vance in their prime…it must have been amazing! To tell you the truth, I wish I had been in the test chamber that fateful day. Come in, Dr. Freeman, you, Dr. Vance and I have so much to discuss!”
 
The metal doors of the elevator hissed open, and the three of them were allowed to enter into the small freight elevator. Ian thumbed the “DOWN” button on the elevator, and the vehicle began its slow descent. They passed by the storage area, where several members of the resistance sought refuge, and sat, ate, and spoke to one another. Then, they passed the living quarters and a kitchen area, where Vortigaunts were currently preparing a meal for the inhabitants, flipping pancakes and frying eggs. Finally, the elevator screeched to a stop in the main lab area, which was empty save for the one-legged figure of Dr. Vance as he was giving orders to a Vortigaunt.

The elevator doors opened, and a small electronic ping from a speaker signaled their arrival as the three of them exited the lift. Dr. Vance instantly looked up at them, and a smile spread across his face. “Gordon Freeman!” He exclaimed, walking over to them with his hands clasped in front of him. “Why, you haven’t changed one iota! How have you been man?” Ian and Tonya backed off, and allowed Gordon to greet his long lost friend.

“Dr. Vance, it’s so great to see you again! How long has it been? Twelve years?” Gordon said excitedly. Dr. Vance replied, “Well, let’s see, the last time I saw you, I was sending you up for help at Black Mesa. I didn’t actually think I’d be meeting you there! Oh, how things have changed since then…”

Gordon continued, “Or so I’ve seen, Eli… I see that you’re missing a leg…how did that happen?” Dr. Vance looked down at his prosthetic leg and said, “Oh, a bullsquid, one of those vile two legged creatures from Xen with tentacles took it from me. But that was years ago, and this prosthetic has become like a new appendage to me. I’m just happy to have gotten out of there alive, especially along with my daughter, Alyx…” Eli paused in reflection, a glitter in his eye, and he continued, “we all thought you were dead, Dr. Freeman. I mean, when we sent you to Xen we knew that it would be a one-way trip; you only had enough oxygen for a few days, and there was no way for you to teleport back to Earth. Obviously you proved us wrong, Dr. Freeman… How did you get back here, by the way?”

Gordon was about to answer Eli’s question when suddenly from a door across the room emerged Alyx Vance, holding a wrench. When she saw Gordon, Ian and Tonya her face lit up. “Hey! You all made it back! I saw that BreenCast about you guys, and I considered going out after you, but I was stopped by my dad here…he insisted that you could handle yourself, Dr. Freeman.” She walked near her father, and he put his arm around her and said jokingly, “Alyx, there’s nothing Gordon can’t handle…with the possible exception of you!” She pushed away from him and rolled her eyes, “Dad!” She whined. Dr. Vance merely chuckled.

Just then, from another door came Dr. Judith Mossman, wearing a white turtleneck sweater and jeans. “Dr. Freeman!” She exclaimed, “It’s so exciting to see you in person!” She went up to him and shook his gloved hand. Gordon returned her favor, “And the same to you, Dr. Mossman.” Dr. Mossman continued, “I’m sorry that we weren’t able to teleport you, and that we caused you to go through all of that trouble to get here…”

Gordon shook his head, “Oh, it was no problem, especially with these two as guides,” He said, gesturing towards Ian and Tonya, who were standing near the wall silently. Dr. Vance joined in, “Yes, those two are some of the best we’ve got! Heck, they haven’t even been here for a week, you know. They were locked up in The Citadel with Dr. Kleiner for the past three years! Now that builds character…”

Ian only smiled... Dr. Vance had made him remember the fact that he really had only been free for little more than a week. Even so, he felt like a completely new person since the start of his freedom; the week felt like an eternity.

“And speaking of The Citadel, Alyx,” Mossman chimed in, “those last repairs that you did of the feedback device were not satisfactory. I am not impressed.” Angrily, Alyx replied, “well maybe if you had done the calculations correctly, it wouldn’t have broken in the first place!”

Mossman was about to make another snide remark when Dr. Vance cut them off, “Please, ladies, why are you arguing about this now? This is a time for celebration! Gordon Freeman has just barely arrived…” Mossman’s face returned to normal, and she replied, “You’re right, Eli, I apologize. We’re just kind of pressed for time here, and we can’t afford to waste it arguing over who broke what. In any case, Dr. Freeman doesn’t have any idea of what we’re working on. Perhaps we should put him to work?”

Dr. Vance nodded, “Yeah, Dr. Freeman, I think it’s about time that we got you out of that H.E.V suit and back into a lab coat where you belong.” Gordon smiled and replied, “Man, Eli, I haven’t worn one of those things in over a decade. I’d be glad to once and for all get rid of this old orange thing.” Dr. Vance Placed his hand on Gordon’s shoulder, “It’s good to have you back, Gordon,” he said, “Alyx, why don’t you give Gordon a tour of Black Mesa East; and show him D.O.G and the zero-point energy manipulator while you’re at it?”

Alyx looked excited, “D.O.G is here?” she asked. “Of course, Dr. Kleiner managed to repair the teleporter, and sent D.O.G over here.” Alyx smiled and exclaimed, “Awesome! Sure, I’ll give Gordon a tour of your lab. It’d be a pleasure showing him around.” She began walking off towards one of the doors, and Gordon followed her.

Dr. Mossman started, “Well, I’d better get to the surface to repair one of the machines in the factory up there.” She began walking towards the elevator, and when she got near the door, she turned around and faced Gordon. “Dr. Freeman,” she said, “It will be a pleasure working with you.” Gordon merely nodded once in approval, and Judith opened the elevator and ascended out of the room.

Then, Gordon and Alyx Vance exited through one of the doors, and disappeared. The only people now left in the room were Ian, Tonya and Dr. Vance. Ian had not spoken throughout this entire exchange, but it had given him a welcoming and familiar feeling to see the reuniting of Gordon with his long-lost comrades… he only wished that he could have gotten the same reception from his friends that he had before the invasion… He wondered for the first time what had happened to his old buddies from before the invasion. He was sure that most of them were dead or enslaved by now, and that the rest were now living their lives silently in the city, and still others might even be Combine soldiers. Who knew, maybe one day he would meet them again.

Dr. Vance turned to his work table, and began arranging items on his desk while he spoke to Ian and Tonya, “Well, you two. I’m glad that you made it back. From the news stories I’ve been hearing it sounds like you’ve been through a lot. I’m very grateful for your services. But, the worst is yet to come… sometime later today I’ll be briefing you on your role in the start of The Rebellion today. Most likely you’ll be put into sniper positions above the main square. In the meantime, I want you two to be in tip top shape. I’ve arranged for fresh clothes and a hot meal to be placed in your room, so that you can relax after your journey. You really shouldn’t be needed until The Rebellion starts.”

Ian looked down at his ragged and dirty clothes, and realized that he really did need a fresh change. “Thank you Dr. Vance, for your hospitality,” he replied. Dr. Vance rejoined, “I hope you understand us locking you up in your room like this, we’re just very busy at the moment, setting up defenses and the like…” Ian held up his hand, “It’s no problem, Eli. It’ll be good for Tonya and I to finally unwind after today. I’ll see you around, sir.”

Dr. Vance gave a single nod of recognition, and then got back to his work. Ian and Tonya turned towards the elevator, and began their trip back to their room. Ian finally felt at home. The hospitality of Black Mesa East was more than he had experienced in three years, and he was finally starting to see it as his new home. Even so, nothing could beat the Knishes that his mother used to make for his family. He sighed as he remembered his late parents. He had never had time to mourn their deaths, he was always running from someone, always fighting for his life; and he had never gotten around to being sad. But he didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

They went up the elevator to the floor which housed the living quarters, and both Ian and Tonya stepped out of it and into the dark hallway, which had doors running along both sides. He remembered this area as the place where he had fought for his life against Naguk-digh’, the treacherous Vortigaunt.

Continuing along the hallway, Ian began to hear strange banging sounds coming from above him. He looked up and saw a long ventilation shaft extending through the length of the hallway. However, he attributed this banging only to the shifting of the underground complex, probably caused by the massive weight of the dirt sitting above it.

The cousins came to the metal doorway into their quarters, and Ian opened it, now revealed was their quaint quarters with bunk beds, a heater, and a small table. On the table sat two sets of blue jumpsuits, and two trays containing a meal of fresh fruit, a bowl of oatmeal, and a glass of water. “Ah, this is nice, I feel right at home!” Ian exclaimed, picking up an apple and taking a large bite out of it.

Over the next few minutes, Ian and Tonya ate their meals, and took turns occupying the room to change into fresh clothing, which was exactly the same as their last sets of clothing, save that they were clean. Afterwards, Ian considered taking their guns, which were still in their possession, to the armory. However, he instead decided that he would do that later in the day, and that he would spend the rest of this time relaxing in his room and talking with Tonya.

“What do you suppose will happen to that beer truck that we parked next to the factory?” He asked, sitting down on the bunk bed. She thought for a moment, and then bantered, “Well, I don’t know, but maybe it will attract Barney Calhoun.” Ian laughed lightheartedly, “Yeah, maybe. Calhoun is quite a character, I can see how he and Dr. Freeman get along together, and he just has that ‘friendly drunk’ sort of attitude.” Tonya nodded in agreement. “I don’t know why everyone is going crazy over Gordon now. I’d never really heard of him until a week ago.”

“I’m not surprised,” Ian responded, “You were only eleven when the invasion started. I wouldn’t expect you to know anything about the politics of Black Mesa… back in those days there was a lot of speculation going on about who started the invasion and the resonance cascade. Most people blamed the U.S government…since they weren’t much liked. Ultimately, Gordon became famous for being the man to have caused the resonance cascade, and also of the reports that he had killed the Nialith. He became a hero and an enemy at the same time; but in any case he was famous…”

Just then, there was a sudden shock, and the room shook like there was an earthquake, and a large boom emanated from somewhere beyond the walls. Ian fell out of the bed and onto the floor, his knees searing in pain. Fear came over him. Something was wrong. “What just happened?” He asked exasperatedly once the shaking had stopped.

Quickly, Ian got up from the floor and grabbed both of the submachine guns sitting on the bed, handing one to Tonya. They had to get out there and see what was going on. It had been so sudden, like a powerful explosion. Just then, another smaller explosion shook the room, and the voice of Colonel Harper came on rapidly over the loudspeakers in their quarters, accented by the popping sound of machinegun fire in the background. “Attention all resistance members, Black Mesa East is under attack! I repeat: we are under attack! All resistance men get down here with guns now! We need men to defend us…” The radio cut off.

Ian began to panic. How had The Combine found out about Black Mesa East? Had it been the assassin, had it been Naguk-digh? Another explosion rattled the room. “Come on Tonya, we’ve got to get down there!” Ian exclaimed, nearly kicking his door open and exiting his room as fast as possible.

He and Tonya sprinted down the hallway towards the elevator shaft. In no time at all, they reached the large square shaft. However, there was now smoke rising steadily from the bottom of the shaft, and it was clear that the elevator had collapsed in one of the explosions. Not only that, but Ian looked up and noticed a huge jagged hole in the ceiling of the shaft leading all the way to the surface, from which light streamed down into the smoke.

There were ropes leading down from the hole to the bottom of the shaft, and Ian supposed that they must have been used by The Combine to enter the lab. He had guessed correctly, for just as he was watching, four combine troops in black gas masks emerged from the hole in the ceiling, rappelling in another wave down the ropes.

Reacting quickly, both he and Tonya fired their weapons at the descending troops, catching them totally off guard and causing them to let go of their ropes, and they fell to the ground, dead. “Come on; let’s get down there before the next wave comes!” Ian suggested, looking down the shaft and seeing that there was enough debris for him to jump down without injuring himself.

Ian took the initiative, and jumped down into the smoky base of the shaft, landing on a large, flat piece of debris, and doing minimal hurt to his legs. He then turned around in time to catch Tonya as she leapt from the second floor. At the same time, several resistance members from the third floor began grabbing onto the ropes that The Combine had provided, and were rappelling down the sides of the shaft to aid the battle in the lower floors.

Ian wasted no time waiting for the others to get down, and he came out of the smoke towards the sound of machinegun fire in the main lab. Once his vision was no longer obscured, Ian could see the whole bloody scene before him.

Several Combine troops in black gas masks and flak jackets were deployed all over the lab, firing their plasma rifles and submachine guns at resistance men, who were coming out of the armory and other rooms of the lab, and they were held up behind desks, tables and lab equipment, firing their weapons with fierce force at the Combine troops.

There also were several Vortigaunts in the rooms, blasting their green electrical energy at Combine troops and causing them to fly back several feet with the force. Ian could see the recognizable figure of Col. Harper in one corner of the room, surrounded by Combine troops. Nevertheless, Col. Harper held up himself, downing several Combine soldiers. The most frightening thing that Ian saw, however, was the sight of Dr. Vance being held in place by several Combine troops, who surrounded him and were setting up some kind of device around him. Dr. Vance was in danger!

Ian reacted quickly. Staying low, he made his way behind a large piece of lab equipment along with Tonya, and immediately began to fire at Combine soldiers as the battle raged all about him. Ian tried to concentrate his fire on the pocket of troops which surrounded Dr. Vance; but to no avail. There were simply too many troops entering the room from holes in the ceiling and tunnels in the wall. The Combine had planned this attack well. They must have known about it for some time in advance.
 
“Ian, look out!” Tonya screamed. Instinctively, Ian ducked just as a plasma beam from one of the soldier’s rifles struck the lab equipment above him, showering sparks all around Ian’s head. Instantly, Ian popped back up to a standing position, and downed the troop who had shot at him with a burst of fire to his head. Ian then continued to fire at the troops around Dr. Vance, but it was too late; the troops had finished putting up their strange device around him, and there was a blue flash, and he and all the troops who had surrounded him instantly disappeared.

“What?” Ian yelled, “What happened to him? Those bastards took Eli!” Now enraged, Ian emerged from his hiding spot behind the lab equipment and ran through the lab, dodging fire and killing off officers. He made it across the lab and to Col. Harper’s side, taking out the troops who were near him. “Col. Harper? Did you see that? They just teleported Dr. Vance out of here!” Over the machinegun fire, Harper yelled, “The battle is lost Ian! There are too many of them! We need to find a way out of here, or we’re all going to get captured or killed like Dr. Vance!” Ian wouldn’t accept a retreat. “Isn’t there anything we can do? Can’t we get Dr. Vance back somehow?”

Harper blasted another combine soldier with his weapon and exclaimed, “Listen, when it comes down to this, we’ve got to think about ourselves, okay? Get back there and tell Tonya and the other resistance men to fall back towards my position, I think I have an idea!”

Ian didn’t ask any more questions, and instead he ran across the lab again, nearly getting hit by one of the soldiers. He crouched next to Tonya and yelled, “Everyone fall back towards Harper!” Immediately, most of the resistance men in the room who were still alive began backing their way through the fray, firing at the Combine troops who were now pouring from the elevator shaft.

Ian began to run towards Harper, but he suddenly tripped when he was grabbed from behind by a strange, spiny hand. He fell to the ground, and his gun flew out of his hands and slid across the floor. He turned around to see what had grabbed him, and saw the giant red eye of a Vortigaunt. “Naguk-digh!” Ian exclaimed, kicking at the beast. He must have gotten out during the battle.

The Vortigaunt stood up, pressing his clawed foot into Ian’s chest. “For a day I have been hiding from you, watching you humans… It gives me pleasure to finally kill you…” The Vortigaunt drooled from his mandibles onto Ian’s face. “So it was you,” Ian retorted, “You vile creature, you sent The Combine here!” Ian kicked the creature hard in its stomach just below its third arm. However, his kick seemed to have no effect, and Naguk-digh simply pressed his leg harder into Ian’s chest.

“You are wrong,” he hissed amidst the sounds of machinegun fire. “I did not expect this…attack to occur. I wanted only to kill the Dr. Vance with my own hands… one of your own must have sent them here… But now the Dr. Vance is gone, so I will have to settle with killing you instead!”

The Vortigaunt began charging up electrical energy, and green sparks began flying from his three arms. Ian reached out for his gun, but it was too far away. Frantically, he tried to kick the beast off, but to no avail. Would he die today? Would it end like this, pinned on the floor by a seemingly weak alien? He looked around, and called out for Tonya, but she had already gotten lost in the fray.

But then, just as Naguk-digh was about to administer the killing blow of electricity, a sudden burst of fire from the area Ian’s peripheral vision blasted into the Vortigaunt’s head, whipping him to the side, and impeding his electrical energy.

Ian let out his breath as the dead weight of the Vortigaunt fell off of his chest, allowing him to breathe. Whoever his guardian angel was, Ian was very grateful for being saved. He had almost died, but now he was suddenly saved to fight another day. He shoved the dead, scaly body of Naguk-digh, the crazed and disillusioned Vortigaunt, off of himself. He was just about to get up to join the battle again when the face of Alyx Vance looked over him, with her hands still holding the pistol she had used to kill the Vortigaunt.

“Come on!” she exclaimed, extending out one of her hands to help Ian up. Ian took her hand thankfully, and pulled himself up while simultaneously taking his gun up from the ground. He could see that Combine troops now were coming in torrents from the elevator shaft, now fighting hand-to-hand with resistance men in the main lab. The only main pocket of resistance that still remained was now gathered around Col. Harper, defending the hatch into the sewer system. Most of the resistance members were surprisingly good aims, blasting down Combine soldiers left and right. Even so, several of the resistance men were falling to the ground dead. They had to get out of there as quickly as possible, or they would all be dead soon.

“Where’s Gordon?” Ian shouted to Alyx as they traversed the room, firing at any Combine troops that they could find. Alyx replied while crouching behind a desk to reload, “In one of the explosions the hallway caved in, and I was separated from him and D.O.G. I managed to tell him to get to the garage and take one of the cars to get out of here…since there was no way back to the main lab besides that tunnel.” So Gordon was separated from them. Their situation was getting worse and worse…Combine flooding into the lab, Dr. Vance captured, resistance men falling left and right, and an absent Gordon Freeman. It was as if their good fortune had suddenly turned into torrents of bad luck.

Ian was still shaken from his encounter with the Vortigaunt as he fought his way through The Combine to get to where Col. Harper was standing. He had never understood Naguk-digh, how he could be so resentful of the help of humans. Couldn’t even the simplest creature understand freedom? It would have to be something to think about later.

Finally, after moving from piece of equipment to piece of equipment, Ian and Alyx made it to the pocket of resistance that was gathered around the sewer hatch. He could see that they group of resistance men had taken several boxes of grenades from the armory and had stacked them in the center of their protective circle. One of the boxes of grenades had been opened by Col. Harper, who was now lobbing the live cylinders of explosives out into the crowd of Combine and Resistance fighters, wreaking havoc on them with the fiery explosions from his grenades, which caused a flash, a bang, and an impermeable layer of smoke.

“Alright,” Harper yelled, “This sewer door is blocked by debris! But If we throw these remaining boxes of grenades in there with one live one, we might be able to blast enough of the debris away for us to escape into the sewers, from there we can disperse and meet at a designated spot! Everyone, help me with these grenades!” Having emptied his box of grenades, Harper ran over to the sewer hatch, and he twisted the valve open. As he swung the hatch away from the wall, Ian saw that it was blocked quite completely with the debris from the sewer which had blocked his path earlier. Ian immediately understood what Harper was talking about, and he sprinted over to the brown wooden boxes of grenades, and picked one of them up and tossed it into the hatch. Several of the others did the same, and within little time, all the space that was available in the space between the hatch and the debris was filled.

Then, Harper took a grenade out of one of the boxes and removed the pin. He quickly tossed the grenade back into the hatch and slammed the large metal door shut. “Fire in the hole!” he screamed, jumping out from the side of the hatch. The others hastily got out of the way as well, and within a second, there was a tumultuous series of bangs which caused the door of the hatch to fly off, and which shook the very walls of the complex.

There was a ringing in Ian’s ears, and he was under the impression that the explosion must have made him deaf, because he couldn’t hear anything going on around him save for the incessant ringing in his ears. However, after a few seconds, his hearing returned to normal, and all of the raging battle around him became audible.

A thick trail of black smoke streamed out of the place where the hatch had been, and there was now a jagged hole where the brick had been blown away. Luckily, Ian also saw that the debris on the other side of the hole had been significantly blown away, and there was now enough of a space for any man to squeeze through.

Taking the initiative, Col. Harper entered the hole first on his stomach, and dragged himself through the small tunnel of debris and into the sewers on the other side. Several of the other resistance men now crowed around the hole with their backs facing the wall, still firing at the Combine troops, eager to get out of the battle.

While Ian was watching this whole scene, a Combine soldier took advantage of his inattention and ran up to him. Just as Ian noticed him, the soldier brought his rifle up, and whipped Ian with the rifle butt into his stomach. Ian lost his breath as the hard butt of the gun slammed into his stomach. Instinctively, he curled forward to block any more blows to that area, but at the price of revealing his back for the Combine soldier to strike. Ian felt another painful blow to his spine, but luckily, while he was falling to the ground Ian pulled the trigger of his submachine gun, accidentally blasting the legs of the Combine soldier who had attacked him, and causing him to fall over in anguish.

Ian then caught his balance, and finished the Combine soldier on the ground off with a quick burst of fire. He was in intense pain from the blows he had sustained, but it wasn’t enough to cripple him. He didn’t think about the pain, and instead kept firing wildly into the ever-increasing crowd of Combine soldiers, who were now taking refuge behind tables and lab equipment. Ian began to back towards the sewer hatch just as three consecutive electricity blasts from allied Vortigaunts struck a grouping of soldiers, causing several of them to fly back and hit the wall…which made Ian very glad to have those aliens on his side.

Now it was Ian’s turn to enter the hatch, and he climbed into the hole. He climbed up into the tunnel directly behind another resistance man, and he dragged himself over the dusty debris, crawling as fast as he could manage. Finally, Ian breathed fresh air, and slid down the jagged pile of debris and into the shallow water of the sewers once again, leaving the raging battle behind him.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

High in the Citadel, Dr. Breen was already recording a BreenCast about the news which was currently happening. He was just that sure of success. His inside source had done well, giving him the exact location of the secret Resistance base so that he could execute a quick, clean strike… His strategy had been silent, and efficient, and as he sat there, literally hundreds of troops had made it into the underground lab beneath the United Combine Munitions Factory. It disappointed him that such a vast resistance movement actually existed in his perfect city; but he was glad to have finally crushed them forever…and as an added bonus, they had hopefully captured both Dr. Vance and Gordon Freeman, the intellectual and symbolic leaders of the Resistance, if all went well. Breen began his recording of the BreenCast, sitting up straight and facing the camera in his special recording device.

“Good afternoon, citizens,” he said pompously once the recording had started, “As many of you may have seen, there was a massive raid of The United Combine Munitions Factory today. You may be asking, “Why has this happened?” Well, my friends, it seems that a massive, rebellious resistance movement occurring in our very city, led none other by the notorious Eli Vance, the intelligence behind the fabled Lambda Project in Black Mesa twelve years ago. He was the ultimate cause of the invasion, and continues his destructive behavior as the leader of The Resistance. However, using tips from an inside source, civil protection units closed in on their secret hideout today; and they have captured Dr. Vance and possibly even the legend Gordon Freeman. Unfortunately, some of the rebellious fiends may have escaped, so if you see any suspicious people about, please report them to your nearest Civil Protection officer; your tips are greatly appreciated.

Now, one thing that we can learn from all of this is that resisting our benefactors, The Combine, is completely senseless and useless. Dr. Vance, in his arrogant ways, thought that he was above the law, and practiced horrible atrocities in order to meet his ends. Now that he is subdued, who will stand out against us? It is pointless to resist, for you will be met with the same fate as that terrible man, Dr. Vance. Live in peace and harmony with your protectors, and you will be granted the greatest freedoms imaginable…continue to resist, and our grip upon you will be tighter.

Furthermore, a public execution of all of the resistance members captured from the secret hideout will be held in the main square at 5:00 PM today, and you are all welcome to attend. If not, it will be publicly televised on every station. Have a nice day, and remember, the benefactors are here to help you.”

Breen turned off his recording device, and wiped the sweat off his brow. He sighed. The citizens were becoming more and more inaccessible… they were like a dog on a short leash. They kept misbehaving, and he had to keep tightening the leash. Eventually his hands would be around their necks using his method… but if it was what had to be done, then he would do it.

Breen leaned back in his char, and turned to face the windows, overlooking the beautiful morning city below him, a city that he had never actually set foot in, but which he had absolute control over.

-Chapter 42, Ruined Plans-
 
Chapter 42. Peace

-Chapter 42, Ruined Plans-

D.O.G, the giant loping ape of a machine, beat on the debris of the collapsed hallway, letting out a terrifying, electronic roar in frustration. Something had gone wrong when Gordon, D.O.G and Alyx were returning to meet Dr. Vance. She had just been showing him how to use the fantastic “Zero-point energy manipulator”, an amazing invention that was captured from The Combine and was used as a sort of anti-gravity cannon, allowing the user to pick up moderately sized objects with ease, and fling them at targets with amazing speed. Although it was only used for industrial purposes, Alyx thought that it could prove to be an excellent weapon against The Combine; and she had allowed Gordon to play catch with D.O.G, her protectorate robot, by throwing large crates at it with the manipulator.

However, when they had been doing this they suddenly began hearing explosions, and as they ran back to see what was going on, an explosion caused the hallway to cave in, and Alyx was separated on the other side of the debris from Gordon and D.O.G. Now, Gordon was stuck here with the beast of a machine, wondering what was going on.

After dog had beaten on the debris helplessly for some time, it let out a large frustrated wail, and retired from trying to remove the debris, and fell back against the wall in exhaustion. Gordon thought of this strange, apelike robot to be more of a creature than a machine, seemingly having emotions and almost biological movements. “D.O.G, is there any other way that we can get around?” Gordon asked helplessly in frustration, listening to the distant gunfire going on behind the debris.

However, D.O.G apparently did not understand English, and it wailed even more helplessly than before. “Great!” Gordon exclaimed, “How am I supposed to get out of here now?” Suddenly, as Gordon was about to give up all hope, the feminine face of Alyx Vance appeared in a small opening in the debris. “Alyx,” Gordon exclaimed with an air of concern, “are you alright?”

Alyx looked behind her for a moment, watching as a Vortigaunt electricity blast shot past her. “I’m fine…” she replied uneasily, “Listen Gordon, Black Mesa East is under attack! I’m sorry, but there isn’t any other way back to the main lab from where you are. Still, you need to get out of here! No doubt The Combine came here for you; and the best thing for you to do is avoid them.”

Freeman cringed as he heard this; he didn’t want to be the cause for so much trouble, especially if he had to run away from the scene of the crime like a coward. “Isn’t there some way that I could help?” He asked amidst the booming of gunfire. Alyx quickly responded, “Yes Gordon, there is. They just captured my father! They teleported him out of here…and we can’t be sure where he’s gone, but there’s a good chance that they took him to Nova Prospekt, a Combine prison on the coast of the Black Sea in Romania.” Gordon was shocked. “They captured Dr. Vance?” He exclaimed enthusiastically. Dr. Vance had been his most trusted superior at Black Mesa; he was like a father to Gordon. “If they took him to that Nova Prospekt place, then I’m going after them. They aren’t going to imprison and torture such a man as Dr. Vance if I have anything to say about it!”

Looking back again, and obviously concerned about her safety, Alyx concurred, “Yeah, that’s what I had in mind, Gordon. But you’re never going to make it there on foot; I don’t even think you could make it out of the city… Listen, there’s a garage that’s nearby down your end of the hallway. You should be able to take one of the cars, preferably the dune buggy, out of there. From there, it’s up to you to get out of the city. I’ll try to meet you at Nova Prospekt if I can. He’s my dad, and I want to see him safe just as much as you do.” Gordon nodded, “Right. Go to the garage, take the dune buggy, get out of the city and travel to Nova Prospekt, I got it.”

Alyx replied, “I’m not exactly sure how you’re going to get specific directions to Nova Prospekt, but keep the radio channel of your suit open, and if we ever get out of here alive, we’ll try to contact you and give you direction. I’m sorry that I can’t help you any more Gordon…but we’re kind of pressed for time here.” Gordon nodded, “I understand,” he confirmed, ready to run off towards the garage.

“Dr. Freeman,” Alyx stopped him, causing him to turn back and look at her, “Good luck out there.” He gave a quick nod of understanding, “Same to you.” Just then, Alyx spun around from where she was standing, and fired with her pistol at some unseen enemy behind her. Gordon decided not to distract her any longer, and he started off towards the garage.

D.O.G let out an electronic wail, and tried to lope after Gordon, his single red mechanical eye blinking, but Gordon stopped him. “No, you stay here, D.O.G. Hold the fort and kill any Combine that you see, okay?” He put out his gloved hands to calm the beast, and it merely made a dejected, strange sound, and sat down, almost offended, on the concrete floor.

Gordon slowly backed away, and when he was sure the creature was going to stay, he turned around and started running to get to the garage. He had to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was true that he could do nothing more to help The Resistance than to avoid capture…and the only way to do that was to begin this several hundred mile trek.

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“Everybody split up; you all know the ways out of the sewer! We’ll meet at Safe House B, Residential Block 7!” Col. Harper screamed the sights of his weapon focused on the opening into Dr. Vance’s lab, waiting for any Combine soldiers to exit in their pursuit. However, Resistance fighters were still combating their way out of the lab, giving Harper a moral decision to either blow the tunnel and keep The Combine from pursuing but at the same time blocking any Resistance members from escaping, or to wait there with his sights on the tunnel, providing ample time for The Combine to pursue, but also ensuring the survival of more Resistance members.

Ian, meanwhile, was just brushing himself off and looking for Tonya, Alyx, and Harper while the other resistance members started scrambling off in random directions throughout the sewers in small groups. Luckily, he spotted both Tonya and Alyx very near each other, both moving quickly to assist Harper in his attempt to defend the outside of the hole. Ian decided to follow them, and within seconds was standing near Col. Harper, his own sub machinegun aimed at the hole about twenty feet up on the sewer wall.

“Harper,” he spoke breathlessly, “How are we supposed to get to that safe house?” Harper looked at him for a moment, to confirm who he was, and then turned back to defend the hole. “Don’t worry about it, kid.” He responded confidently, “Once we blow this tunnel, you and your cousin will be coming with me to the safe house. Just make sure to stick close.” Ian turned back to look at Tonya and Alyx, who were mirroring Harper’s position of defense. “Are you two okay?” He asked, “Is anyone hurt?”

Tonya replied, “I’m doing just fine Ian…but uh…I’m kind of running low on ammo.” Ian nodded, “That’s alright… I am too. Just try to conserve your ammo as much as possible and it should last.” He turned towards Alyx, “Thanks for saving my life back there.” He said in earnest as she stood in a guard position next to Tonya, watching as the remaining Resistance members exited the lab.

“Don’t mention it Ian. Naguk-digh was a very crazed Vortigaunt…I’ve never seen anything like it. But the good thing is that you made it out safely, Ian. I wish I could say the same for my dad…God, I just hope that Dr. Freeman can get to him in time… there’s no telling what they would do to him at Nova Prospekt.

Nova Prospekt…Ian had heard of that place before when he was enslaved at The Citadel. He had heard that it was like some sort of Combine concentration camp. He remembered the circumstances of his escape…he was going to be one of the members in the labor party that was going to reinforce and add to Nova Prospekt. There was no telling what would happen there if he hadn’t escaped. He had no doubt that the he wouldn’t be doing any “labor” there…he had heard rumors and stories about it…that Combine guards tortured prisoners and turned them into ghastly medical experiments called “stalkers” he had even heard that gigantic cremators were stationed there, and that hundreds were burned daily, causing voluminous clouds of smoke to rise from it constantly. He prayed and hoped with ardency that Dr. Eli Vance would not be one of those poor souls that were thrown into the cremators, to go out as nothing but a burnt shell.

Suddenly, as Ian was conversing with the others, the black gas mask of a Combine soldier poked out of the tunnel, looking around for the escaping resistance members. Instantly, his face was met with four separate streams of bullets, and his body slid out of the tunnel and down the mound of debris into the water.
 
“That’s it!” Harper exclaimed aggressively after the Combine soldier had fallen, running up the hill of rubble, “It’s time to blow the tunnel! Cover me!” Ian noticed that there were four more of the unexploded rectangular boxes of grenades next to the tunnel’s opening, and Harper was now in the process of throwing them into the hole while firing at Combine soldiers inside with his free arm. Ian and the others climbed the mound as well, and within little time at all were standing at Harper’s side, firing at the Combine troops inside the lab.

Ian could see that Black Mesa East was now completely overrun, and most of the equipment inside had been destroyed by gunfire, with the only remaining few Resistance fighters being held up in a corner at the opposite end of the room, barely even holding their own, and peppering at the literal hordes of Combine soldiers that had flooded the lab; most of these were taking up defensive positions that the Resistance fighters had previously occupied, and were even setting up automated turrets to clean out any of the surviving Resistance men. The rest of these Combine troops were beginning their pursuit on the Resistance men that escaped into the sewers, chattering on their radios, and advancing towards the tunnel, where Ian, Alyx, Tonya and Harper waited for them.

Ian tried his best to hold off the Combine troops from here, but he needed only to distract them from Harper, who was carefully setting the boxes of grenades to do the most damage to the tunnel. Within seconds, Harper had completed his hasty work, and he signaled for them all to leave. “I’m blowing the tunnel!” He yelled, pulling the pin out of a single grenade and tossing it into the hole.

Six seconds later, after the four of them had left the tunnel exit, there was a sequence of several explosions, and the walls of the tiny tunnel caved in, blocking any exit for the Combine soldiers inside, but also dooming the surviving resistance members, who were now all alone and cut off, surrounded by hundreds of Combine troops. The dust settled, and they could no longer hear the doomed gunfire from the interior of the lab.

“Alright, let’s get out of here and to the safe house! Everyone follow me!” Harper ordered, running off into the semidarkness of the sewers. Ian and Tonya followed him, but Alyx Vance stayed behind saying, “Harper, really I’d love to come with you, but I actually have a train to catch…” Harper turned around, and gave her a perplexed look. “A train,” he asked, “a train to where?” Alyx quickly responded, “I’m going to get on one of those slave trains to Nova Prospekt. I plan on riding it there and saving my father.”

“You’re actually going to go to Nova Prospekt? That’s suicide! At least let us come with you!” Alyx forcefully shook her head, “No,” she said, “this is my vendetta, not yours. I can’t risk anyone else coming with me. Besides, you will be needed today…now is a better time than any to start the rebellion, isn’t it?” Harper sighed, “alright Alyx…just…just take care of yourself out there, ok?”

With that, Alyx said her goodbyes, and began running in the opposite direction that the others were traveling. Now one member short, their group continued their travel through the sewers towards the safe house. For a moment, Ian was worried about the hydras and manhacks that they had met earlier in the sewers, but he luckily realized that they were on the opposite side of the gigantic mound of debris blocking the sewer, and were therefore not in any danger of the hydra that Freeman had helped them battle before.

They jogged for quite a distance away from the lab before anyone spoke. It was Ian who started the conversation, beginning with a question. “What do you think happened back there? How did The Combine find out about us?” He asked to both of the others almost hypothetically.

With an air of mystery Harper suggested, “It could be a number of things…I don’t know. It could have been that assassin that was after you before, it could have been that treacherous Vortigaunt, Naguk-digh; it might have even been one of our own. But what I think is that they knew about us all along…they were just waiting for the proper moment to strike. It was probably the fact of Freeman’s arrival that tipped them off…they wanted to catch Dr. Vance, Mossman and Gordon Freeman all at the same time is all… I bet that they could have done this for years…”

Harper had raised a disturbing point. Had the Combine known about their secret base all along? Had they been watching, waiting and strategizing…just waiting for the right moment to strike? It was something that gave Ian the chills. If they had the authority to do this…then they were far more powerful than anyone had imagined. For all he knew, there could be a Combine official watching them right now…

“Do you really think,” Tonya added, “that all that time we were planning attacking The Combine… they were listening? If they found out about the lab, wouldn’t they have found out about the safe house too? Shouldn’t we be finding some other place to hide?” She had a good point. If the Combine had the power to discover the location of the lab, they could have found out everything about them, including the location of the safe houses, and furthermore the location of Kleiner’s lab.

“Maybe…” Harper trailed off, “but that’s a risk we’re going to have to take. I just sent everyone off to the safe house, so we’re going to have to hope that The Combine never found out about it…” Ian was not happy with Harper’s uncertain tone. It worried him that when they got to this place of refuge, this safe house, that their enemy would be waiting for them.

“What are we going to do about The Rebellion now that Dr. Vance and Dr. Mossman were captured? Is there any way for us even to continue The Resistance now that they’re gone?” Harper sighed, “Don’t worry about that, Ian. I’ll take care of preparations for that all-important event at the safe house…because no matter what, today at 5:00 PM it’s happening as planned. But, I’m still worried that even those plans might have been compromised… I don’t know… We’ll have to work those things out at the safe house. We need some kind of back up plan if The Combine did indeed find out all of our strategies. Frankly, all of our plans have been ruined, but we’re still going to need to start an uprising somehow…we can’t just be defeated by this!”

Col. Harper was clearly frustrated by the sudden change in routine. Up until that point, everyone in The Resistance had planned everything out to the last minute, and things were going rather nicely for them. Even their prodigal deliverer, Dr. Freeman had arrived under almost divine circumstances. But now, their hopes were crushed. Eli Vance and Judith Mossman had both been assumed captured, Dr. Freeman had gone missing, and what looked like a majority of the resistance was either killed or captured in the sting. It felt as if fate was not on their side anymore.

They continued through the ankle-deep water through the familiar sewer system, and Ian’s new jumpsuit had already gotten as soiled as his last set of clothes. They were coming up on the direct surface exit that Gordon, Ian and Tonya had passed before, but had decided not to go through, for risk of getting caught.

“How are we going to get out of the sewers, Harper?” Ian inquired, “Are we going to go out through this huge archway up here?” Harper glanced up at the light of the barnacle-infested stone arch, which had the tentacles of those horrible sedentary Xen creatures hanging down all over it.

“No, I’m almost certain that The Combine will be expecting us to do that,” Harper explained, “We’ll be taking a maintenance hallway nearby. It’s secluded enough that The Combine won’t notice us, and it provides good access to the surface.” Ian nodded, “That’s great, Harper. I think we just might make it.” Confidently, Harper replied, “I know we’re going to make it; just as long as I’m the one leading this little tea party.” Harper had always been pretty cocky, and Ian attributed it to his former experience in the Czech army…even though he had probably never seen any combat since before the invasion. The Czech Republic hadn’t been such an aggressive country before then.

After a few more minutes of traveling through the sewers without any further problems, they came to the maintenance door on the other side of the arch covered with barnacles. The water was now up to their knees, and they waded through it. The door was small and secluded in an inlet in the brick; the almost totally decayed word “maintenance” was painted in red upon its sky-blue metal surface.

“Ah, here’s our door. This should take us to a small building on the surface unnoticed. Just follow me.” Harper explained, wading through the sewer waters and up to the stone walkway on its side. He got onto the stone walkway, and then went up to the maintenance door on the side. Tonya and Ian followed him to the doorway, getting onto the dry stone walkway.

Harper tried the handle of the door. Unfortunately, the door merely clicked, and wouldn’t budge. “Damn,” exclaimed Harper, “the door’s locked! Well, I know how to take care of this!” Before Ian could say anything, Col. Harper backed away from the door, and then ran towards it and kicked it just under the handle with such a great force that it resonated with a huge metallic bang, and the entire door shook. However, the door still didn’t budge. Harper cursed under his breath, and then with a grunt of physical exertion, he kicked the door even harder.

This time, the lock of the door broke, and it swung inwards, allowing the group to enter the maintenance hallway. “Ah, there we go!” Harper exclaimed, pleased. “I told you I’d find you a shortcut!” With that, Harper entered the darkened stone maintenance hallway with Ian and Tonya following closely behind him into the dusty and dark passage.

This hallway was similar to the one in which the manhacks had attacked Ian before, and had shelves and supplies stacked on it’s sides, with pipes and gauges running all over the walls. It was lit by a single caged yellow light, which caused eerie, candle-like flickering light to illuminate the corridor.

On the far end of the passage, there was a rusty old reddish ladder, whose rungs extended up to the ceiling, where there was a square hole into a room above. The three traversed the secluded hallway quickly, passing by all of the boxes and pipes on the walls. Water dripped slowly from places in the ceiling, and Ian could hear a strange, grating, almost organic sound seemingly coming from the very walls around them.

Suddenly, just as the got to the ladder, something leaped out from the darkness of one of the corners of the hallway. Ian gasped and watched as some sort of small creature leaped into the light directly towards his head. Ian quickly backed away, and saw clearly as what he could now see was a large headcrab flew by his face, screeching. The horrendous creature slammed into the wall behind Ian, and fell to the ground, disoriented. Tonya screamed and Harper wasted no time, firing his rifle at the diminutive, crab-like parasite. Yellowish blood spewed from the pale, four-legged beast, and spattered on the walls. Harper had safely exterminated it.

“What was that about?” Ian gasped, looking down at the carcass of the tiny, harmless body of the headcrab. “You’re lucky, Ian. That headcrab was just waiting in the darkness for you to bobble along, it had its sights right on your melon. We should be careful from now on…headcrabs tend to live in groups.” Still shaken by the attack of the headcrab, Ian looked into the shadows for signs of any other creatures. He had seen what happened when someone got attacked by a headcrab…the zombie of his father had served enough warning to him. It surprised him that headcrabs had penetrated this far into city-17, which was supposedly “safe” from aliens by The Combine. But here, in the secluded sewers, there was no telling what could be lurking in the darkness. They would have to keep their guard up.

“Well, we might as well get going…” suggested Harper, placing his hand on a rusty metal rung of the ladder ahead of them. Tonya quickly followed him, and Ian took the rear, glancing back once more at the carcass of the dead headcrab. He grabbed onto the rungs of the ladder, and slowly climbed it behind the others up to the ceiling, and through the square hole above.

Finally, all three of them pulled themselves out of the hole in the ceiling, and emerged in a large, empty warehouse that looked to have been abandoned for years. Dust floated up from the ground, and was illuminated by the light streaming through the windows set high on the warehouse walls. There were several empty shelf racks on the walls and freestanding in the middle of the warehouse’s concrete floor. They looked to have once held a good supply of products, but now served only as a ghostly reminder of the past, casting their shadow across the abandoned warehouse, which was now strewn with nothing but trash.

“Come on,” said Harper, his voice echoing in the emptiness of the room around them, “We can get to the safe house without having to cross through the streets and risk getting seen. I think we can just pass through the alleyways and buildings and make it there just fine. It’s just a few blocks down this very road, so we shouldn’t even have to cross any streets.” The former colonel began to quickly traverse the abandoned warehouse, crunching over the trash and strewn paper which covered the ground.

“I hope that the others were able to make it without this secret route, Harper…” Tonya added, “I’d hate to get there just to find out that everyone else has been captured or killed.” Harper sighed, “Don’t worry about it, kid.” He concluded, “Everyone has their own little route through the city…and we spread out so thinly that The Combine will have virtually no chance at finding us all. I doubt that during that battle they were even able to find out our citizen identification numbers. No, I think most of them should be safe.” Again, Ian hoped that Harper knew what he was talking about, and wasn’t just pulling stuff out of thin air.

The group of fugitives passed through the abandoned warehouse, and finally came to a small, wooden door that was the exit to the outside. Luckily, Harper assured them that this door would take them out to an alleyway. He walked up to the small door surrounded by red brick, and opened it slightly. He then poked his head out of the door, checking the alley for any cops that might spot them. Then, he pulled his head back into the warehouse door.

“Alright,” he said, “there are no cops around…I think. I see another door on the building across from here that I’m pretty sure we should be able to get into…as long as it’s unlocked. It looks like it’s an occupied residential building. Let’s just hope that the tenants take kindly to wandering Resistance members.” Harper then grabbed the handle of the door again, and with a squeak, the door swung fully open, and light streamed into the warehouse, almost blinding Ian.

Hastily, the three crossed the small gap between the two buildings. While they were traversing the alley, Ian could hear all of the sounds of the city…the pounding of strider’s feet, the whir of helicopter blades, and the passing sirens of APCs. Clearly, The Combine was scrambling to find the fugitive Resistance members. If they didn’t make it to the safe house, sooner or later all of them would be discovered. Seconds later, Harper climbed up some concrete steps to the elevated door set in the red brick of the next building, and the three shuffled into the unlocked door and into the apartment complex beyond.
 
They now found themselves in the small, first-floor lobby of an apartment complex, which had wooden stairs and an elevator leading up to the left, and several chairs and televisions in the central area, where there sat a few people. All the fugitives cared about, however, was the frosted-glass windowed door on the far end of the lobby.

Harper, Ian and Tonya didn’t even bother to greet the people inside who, when they saw the guns that the three carried, suddenly seemed panicked. The T.V in the room had the face of Dr. Breen on it, as always, who spoke of the “dangers of magical thinking” and about the resistance members that were captured and killed that day. But, before the dejected looking people sitting on the couches could say anything to the passersby, the three travelers left the tiled lobby, and were already out the doors and in the next alleyway.

Ian only hoped that they had been there for such a short time that the people there wouldn’t alert their position to the police. He hoped that the people had the heart to give the Resistance men some slack, and weren’t already so propagandized by Breen to betray the fugitives.

The three of them then passed through the door of the next building, hastily, not worried about being seen from either side of the alleyway. They had to be speedy…they couldn’t stay in one place for too long, or people would start to get suspicious, so Harper sped along, not saying anything, and stopping for nothing.

The next building they passed through was the kitchen of an abandoned diner, and there were still cooking appliances sitting unused against the tiled walls, with no more patrons coming to take orders from the cooks. They spent very little time in there as well, merely passing by the appliances, and going through an open metal door into an empty meat locker on the other side of the building.

Harper then spotted a large garage-style door on the other side of this meat locker, which had empty meat hooks hanging from its ceiling. Most likely this was the place where shipments of food used to come into the restaurant before the invasion. There was another, smaller door on the left side of this garage door, and this was the door that Harper opened, wasting no time to get everyone through and out into the next alley. “Just how far away is this safe house, Col. Harper? Ian asked breathlessly as they passed through the next alleyway. “Not far…” he grunted, “It’s the building after this one… But we’re going to have to do something a little differently here. Instead of going through the side door of this building, we’ll have to climb the fire escape, and go through one of those windows up there on the sixth floor into the attic. This will give us a level of stealth as we enter the safe house through one of its attic windows. Everyone in the resistance was supposed to meet in the attic of this safe house…so it would be even better for us to enter immediately into the attic.”

Harper then pointed to a black metal fire escape adorning the alley-side wall of the next building, snaking up in-between buildings like a climbing vine and finally ending on its sixth floor: the attic. Then, Harper silently went over to the opposite wall near a small green dumpster.

“Can you help me with this?” He requested, taking one end of the dumpster. Ian then quickly went to the other side of the dumpster, and together they moved it so that it was directly under the suspended ladder of the fire escape. Next, Col. Harper stepped up onto the small green dumpster and began climbing the ladder of the fire escape up to the second floor. Ian learned by example, and got onto the dumpster himself. He then grabbed onto the flat metal rungs of the fire escape ladder, and climbed easily up to the first metal-grated platform on the second floor, with Tonya following closely behind.

Ian pulled himself onto the iron grating with a loud metallic clang. He was now about fifteen feet off of the ground, and he could now see into the cobblestone streets on either side of him beyond the exits of the alleyway. Fear struck him as he caught sight of the black figure of Combine police. If he could see them…they could see him.

Hastily, they climbed up to the next level, and the next. Ian was already winded by at this point, but he still had two more floors to climb. So, without being seen, the three ascended the remaining two ladders of the iron fire escape, passing several curtained windows on their way. Finally, winded and exhausted from climbing the fire escape in such haste, they came to the window of the attic, which poked out of the blue shingling like a rock extending from a cliff.

Harper placed his grimy fingers under the bottom of the window, and with some difficulty slid it open. Then, the three of them crawled into the abandoned attic through the window. Finally, when all of them had made it onto the bare, hardwood floor of the attic, Ian spoke. “You don’t think anyone saw us while we were climbing that fire escape, do you?” Harper shook his head. “Trust me Ian, if they saw us we’d know about it. We’d have scanners and cops on us in seconds. I’m pretty sure that we’re safe.”

Reassured, Ian and Tonya looked about the attic of the building they were in. There were several pieces of furniture strewn about the room, which were covered in white sheets like ghosts which inhabited the attic. The ground was of unfinished hardwood, and was covered in several years’ dust. They crossed the attic and came to the window on the opposite side, from which a wide ray of light shone through. Ian could see across the alleyway the shadowy window of the attic of a nearly identical pre-soviet style apartment complex…the safe house.

Harper opened this window too, letting fresh air into the dreary attic. “We’re going to have to put boards across to the other window sill…we can then crawl over and pull the boards back inside on the other side.” Harper explained, picking up several long planks of wood from the ground nearby. Ian helped him gather the boards and slide them out the window, and they rested on the sill of the identical window of the neighboring building.

Within little time, Harper deemed their makeshift bridge sturdy enough to cross, and he crawled through the window with Ian and Tonya supporting the boards, keeping them from moving. Harper crawled across the boards, causing them to shift dangerously. Luckily, he was able to get across, and he opened the window of the neighboring attic. Carefully, Harper slid into the other attic, and he held onto the boards at the opposite end. “Now, send Tonya across!” He yelled from the other side. With both men supporting the opposite ends of the board, Tonya crawled across their little bridge and to the other side with ease.

Finally, it was Ian’s turn. Uneasily, he ventured out of the window and out onto the boards. He crawled across the planks of wood awkwardly, trying hard not to look down. Again, he was painfully aware of people on the streets. He knew that if was spotted…he would be doomed. Fortunately, Ian quickly made it across the crude bridge and into the window, allowing Harper and Tonya to pull the boards over to their side. Then, Harper shut the window, shutting them off from the sounds of the outside.

Triumphant of crossing the boards unharmed, Ian spun about and observed his surroundings in the attic. He saw a large gathering of people there, dressed in citizen’s clothes gathered around a small table that had a television set…playing, as always, a BreenCast. But Ian recognized these people as being Resistance members, and he realized with relief that they had finally made it to the safe house.

“Hey look,” exclaimed one of the men in the room, getting up from where he was sitting, “Col. Harper and the others have arrived!” The man, who was dressed in the uniform blue jumpsuit of a City-17 citizen, roused the others, and they came over to greet the three fugitives. “Hello everyone,” Harper greeted, “how many are here? Was anyone captured?” The Resistance man looked down with a sad expression, “Only forty-five made it, sir, counting you three. Most of them were killed or captured in the lab, and the others were stupid enough to exit in the middle of the street out of manholes. But still, we managed to survive… it was terrible sir, I don’t know what hit us…I still wonder how The Combine found out about us…”

Harper was shocked. “You’re saying out of a force of four hundred Resistance men, all but forty-five were captured? That’s insane! Are they all being taken to Nova Prospekt like Dr. Vance and Dr. Mossman? The man shook his head, “no sir, Dr. Breen just said in a ‘Cast just now that all the captured Resistance men would be executed today at 5:00 PM in the main square…its horrible sir.”

Harper nearly laughed, “5:00 PM you say? That’s not horrible, that’s perfect!” Confused, Tonya chimed in, “how is a public execution perfect, Harper? What kind of sick person are you?” Harper laughed, “No, I mean its perfect timing! The Rebellion is planned to start at 5:00 today…a crowd will already be gathered there for us, it will be easy for us to blend in, and there will be about three hundred Resistance men in the square! We can start the Rebellion right there, just as Breen is making his speech! We have control of the walls, so we can use snipers there and in buildings to pick off the executioners and cops, and then The Rebellion can start right there… man, I bet this is going to surprise those bastards!”

Harper was right. The timing was perfect. They couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to strike… fate was back on their side. Ian just hoped that The Combine didn’t already know their plans, and had merely scheduled the execution as a trap to snare the rest of the Resistance members. It was a disturbing thought, but Ian kept it to himself.

“That’s fantastic Col. Harper!” exclaimed the Resistance man, “now that we have you here, we can start planning The Rebellion immediately! I’ll get everything ready, we have some topographical maps of the city streets, and some maps of the sewer system for you if you’d like…” Harper nodded, “Good, let’s turn this damn Breen Screen off and get going!” the Resistance man replied, “I’m Bart Avery, by the way, it’s nice to meet you.” Harper shook Avery’s hand, and returned the favor, “and nice to meet you.”

Avery turned around and exclaimed to the others, “Well, you heard the man, let’s go! Get all of the maps together; let’s start planning this thing out!” There was a general busy shuffling in the attic as all of the Resistance men moved about; gathering what supplies they thought would be useful for the planning of The Rebellion. Ian looked around and noticed that there were several unopened and fresh Combine supply boxes from The United Arms Factory lying about the room… they had outfitted this safe house to defend itself, as a second headquarters. There were several important items here…computers, maps, weapons, and high-tech equipment. He also noticed graffiti on one of the walls: A Greek lambda spray painted in orange and circumscribed by a circle…it was the symbol of Dr. Freeman. Beneath the symbol, the words “One Free Man” were scrawled in orange spray paint.

Ian realized, as he stood there in the attic of the safe house, that he was witnessing the birth of a nation, the start of a revolution. In the hands of all of them in that room was the future of the species. Some day, maybe…if they somehow pulled it off, they might be printed in history books, for future generations to come. This very meeting might be described in the annals of history as the start of The Rebellion which freed the human race from its extraterrestrial captors.

-Chapter 43, Pass it On-
 
Extreamly high quality, as allways, but I think the talking is a bit drawn out, it doesnt quite fit with the action. If you know what I mean.
 
Um... sorry to bother, but... how about a compilation of the full story? Im tired of pasteing the new chunks... thank you.
 
-Chapter 43, Pass it On-

Dr. Eli Vance awoke suddenly and shakily. He had just been in his lab, carefully making calculations and repairing the teleporter when he heard explosions, and black figures rushed into the lab suddenly. There was so much noise, so much confusion…before he even knew what was happening he was grabbed by Combine troops in black masks and teleported away. So where was he now? He moved his fingers and the toes on his single foot. All of his limbs were there…the last time he went unconscious one of his legs was missing. He remembered the helplessness…lying there on the tile floor with his leg bleeding out…he shook off the memory. He had to find out where he was now.

He opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness. He tried to move around, but it was no use. He felt trapped, claustrophobic. Soon he realized that there were large metal constraints across his body, locking him in place. He could only move his head from side to side slightly, but his limbs were pressed against him by the constraints. Moving his head and hitting hard metal, he realized that he was locked in some kind of giant metal pod…like a coffin.

Suddenly, he heard a loud metal banging sound, and light streamed into his pod from a tiny window directly in front of his face. He could now see through that tiny window that several lights were being turned on in the room around him. He squinted and tried to see as much as possible through the window. To both his right and left, pods that were identical to his hung near him, no illuminated in the light. He soon comprehended that he was just one of thousands of pods hanging high above the ground in this gigantic facility. The whole grisly scene became visible to him…the opposite wall of this massive triangular room was also covered by racks and racks of human-sized metal pods.

He was just one of many being harvested by The Combine.
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The resistance man named Avery unrolled a large, dusty map of the main square of City 17, and placed it flat on the small card table which Col. Harper had provided for the purpose of planning the initial attack of The Rebellion. Harper pulled up a shoddy wooden chair and sat in it next to the table. Ian, Tonya, and several other Resistance members did the same, pulling chairs from odd ends of the room and sitting next to the card table. The others simply stood by, looking on the action that was taking place. Harper turned on a lamp that had been provided for him, illuminating the map with a yellowish light. Someone else handed him a set of multi-colored pens, and then all was silent. The resistance was gathered at attention.

“Alright,” Harper said when everyone was settled, “The first thing we need to do is assign people roles in this. Are we sure that the barricades in the main square are still under Resistance control?” One of the Resistance men nodded, “Yes,” he replied, “I spoke with one just a few hours ago before The Combine attacked. I’m pretty sure that they were given orders to stay on the barricades no matter what happened. I don’t think they would have run off.” Harper listened and then replied, “Good. So we’ll have snipers on the barricades here, here…and here…” Harper circled parts of the map which Ian could see were labeled as street crosswalks. The map was old, from before the invasion, so naturally it wouldn’t have the Combine barricades labeled. Harper drew the barricades in as thick red lines, and he circled them.

“Now,” he continued, pointing at the front of the representation of a building which Ian recognized as The United Combine Munitions Factory. “The BreenCast said that the prisoners would be executed on a raised platform right here, in between the Breen Screen statue and the factory. There will be hundreds of men packed onto this platform, and there will probably be a couple of machine gunners to take them all out. It’s imperative that we shoot down these gunners before the execution takes place. Unfortunately,” he continued, “none of our snipers have a good shot at this area from the barricades. We’ll have to put snipers in the buildings surrounding the square to get a good shot at the executioners.” Harper began marking red letter X’s at the spots where sniper cover was needed.

Harper looked up at Tonya and Ian, “You two, Olbowski and Barovits…I have seen that you are pretty decent snipers, perhaps some of the best we’ve got besides Alyx. I want to put you here and here.” Harper pointed to two X’s that were both in the same building. “Is that okay with you?” He asked.

“Of course,” Ian replied, “we’ll do our best. Just tell us what to shoot at and we’ll be fine.” Harper smiled, “Great,” he said, “any other volunteers for sniper positions?” When Harper asked this, several people raised their hands, and the colonel filled the other five needed sniper spots, and he wrote their names down next to their corresponding red X’s on the map. Ian soon realized that he was the youngest person in the room…everyone else looked to be in their late twenties to mid thirties, with a few people appearing middle aged. Those few took up sniper positions, putting an over twenty year gap between Ian and the other snipers…save for Tonya of course. However, he felt that he was up to the challenge; after all, in just a short time he had overcome all odds. He truly felt that he had been deeply changed by the invasion. He would have never thought of ever being able to do something like this three years ago…but now it seemed only natural.

After all of this had been done, Harper continued, “The rest of you will be stationed at predetermined locations on the ground of the square. Conceal two weapons with you, so that you can hand one to another citizen once the uprising starts. Don’t worry about the metal detectors in the barricades, the Resistance men controlling the barricades will attribute the metal detectors going off to ‘bugs in the system’, just agree with whatever they say, and go inside the square. Stay away from other members of The Resistance, and make sure that you have your eye on a cop…I want everyone to have perfect accuracy on their first few shots of The Rebellion.” Harper then assigned spots to groups of Resistance men, and within little time, had assigned every person a spot in the square.

“Now for this, Barney Calhoun is going to be our figurehead, since he survived Black Mesa and actually was pretty well known in the press. Just as Dr. Breen is about to give his speech over the central Breen Screen, Calhoun will take a microphone and will begin a speech from the barricade that he is on. While everyone is looking towards him, the snipers will silently take out the machine gunners, and as many cops as they can find. At this point it will still be secret, so I want the snipers to take out only cops that are far away from the crowd… once the crowd starts to get riled up and cops start to come for Calhoun, everyone will simultaneously pull out their weapons and fire at the nearest cop. Without a doubt, the crowd will have started to panic by then. Hand your free weapons to any citizens who are not panicking, and we will free the prisoners from the execution block… from there…well we’ll just have to hold out from there.”

Ian began to understand the process that The Rebellion would follow. Surprise would be their greatest tool. They would have firepower on all sides of the square as well as in the square itself. Although it was unlikely that Barney’s speech would be eloquent enough to start The Rebellion, it would serve as an excellent distraction for the cops. The problem was, however, as soon as the uprising took place, all of the citizens and Resistance members would be canned inside the square like sardines, allowing The Combine to surround them on all sides. Ian didn’t doubt that The Combine would stop at nothing to end the uprising, and would probably send in striders to mop them up.

“How are we possibly going to ‘hold out’ against the entire Combine army?” Ian asked skeptically after considering Harper’s plan. Harper looked back at his map, and then at Ian’s face, “We’re not,” he said, “the square will be our stronghold for only a moment. We would be killed instantly if we took the defensive route. We’re going to immediately need to spread out and start and attack wave towards the center of the city. It’s going to be bloody and hard, and it will probably take months… we’re going to have to take the city block by block…eventually we’ll work our way to The Citadel. Anyway, after the uprising, The Rebellion isn’t going to be as coordinated, I’m guessing that the citizens themselves will begin to individually take up arms…the city will fall into anarchy.”

Harper was right, this wasn’t going to be some organized army vs. army war…it was going to be a game of messy civilian uprising and loosely coordinated guerilla attacks… it was the worst and most chaotic kind of warfare. Ian would do his part... they all would… because not just their lives, but the lives of the entire species were depending upon it.

“What are we going to do about Dr. Freeman?” A woman from the crowd asked Harper. “Well,” he replied after looking at her, “Gordon has taken the buggy to get to Nova Prospekt…to rescue Dr. Vance. Personally I think it was a terrible idea for him to do this…but Dr. Freeman is determined to save his longtime friend. Luckily, his buggy is equipped with a radio transceiver, so we should be able to contact him using a radio transmitter…” Harper sighed, “We’re going to have to give him directions… I’m sure he has no idea how to get to Nova Prospekt…and he probably won’t be able to get out of the city.”

Ian remembered the fifty foot walls which surrounded the city. They had been able to trick the guards into letting them slip through last time, but now they were unlikely to make the same mistake again, especially when it was Gordon Freeman riding up to the gates in an open air dune buggy. Dr. Freeman would just have to improvise to get past the wall…

“Does anyone have a radio transmitter?” Harper asked to the crowd of Resistance men. “Right here, Colonel Harper.” Avery replied, picking up a large green metal box on the floor which had several knobs on it and an antenna sticking out of it. He placed the heavy radio transmitter on the table with a thud, and someone else took its long black power cord and plugged it into an outlet on the wall. Static immediately began to hiss over the radio’s speakers, and Harper turned the volume knob down to keep the static from becoming too annoying. “Excellent,” he concluded after examining the transmitter, “Does anyone know the radio frequency for communication with the buggy?” He asked, turning the radio band knob, going through all the channels.

For a moment, everyone just looked at each other in ignorance…but then a man from the back with ruffled blonde hair stepped forward, and scratching the back of his neck spoke up, “Uh, yeah… I was part of the team that serviced it with the radio and the Gauss cannon. I think the radio frequency was 104 point uh… something megahertz… sorry, I can’t really remember any more.” Harper sighed and then replied, “Well, I guess that’ll have to do. I’ll carefully transmit to every frequency in-between 104 and 105 and wait for a signal to come back.” Harper turned the radio off, “before I do that, I’ll have to assign you all something to do to prepare for The Rebellion. Does anybody know what time it is?”

Ian checked his watch and offered, “It’s 11:00 AM, six hours ‘till.” Harper nodded and continued, “Alright, I’ll need a group of people to gather weapons…I’ll need another one to scout out the sniper spots, and the rest of you will go out into the city and tell as many people as you can about The Rebellion…I want as many people as possible to be in that square and on our side. Also, I need a few people to rendezvous with Dr. Kleiner to make sure he and Barney are alright, and give them the plan for The Uprising.”

Ian didn’t like the idea of leaving the safe house and becoming easy targets for the police to find them…but Harper was right, they simply didn’t have enough people on their side to start the uprising, and people needed to be told quickly. Also, there was no telling what had happened to Dr. Kleiner since Black Mesa East was infiltrated…he needed to be told what was going on. It would be hard work; work to be done totally in secret…over the next six hours they would have to tap random people on the shoulders and quietly give them sign of the uprising, in hopes that they would join The Resistance.
 
Over the next few minutes, Harper assigned groups of people to certain tasks. The party that was assigned to gather weapons immediately began shuffling around the room and prying open boxes of guns with crowbars, loading and cleaning the weapons so that they could be used. The group that would be scouting the sniper spots took these weapons and concealed them, and were then on their way out the attic door towards the main square. Ian and Tonya as well as Avery were in the third group, the one that would inform Dr. Kleiner. Harper also told them to take as long a time as possible to get to Dr. Kleiner’s lab, so that they could inform as many citizens of the situation as possible before they reached Kleiner. Harper wanted this process to be extremely efficient, and he didn’t want to waste a man in furthering their goal. There were also two other men in Ian’s group, the blonde man who had worked on the buggy, and a small, thin man with round glasses.

So, these five were now being equipped by the weapons group with small pistols which they concealed under a completely new set of blue jumpsuits with fake citizen I.D numbers. Ian placed his new, shiny weapon in a pocket between his undershirt and the blue denim front of the jumpsuit. He then zipped up the jumpsuit so that it fit tightly around him, as The Combine required of all citizens. He hoped that his group would not have to use their weapons…frankly he was rather tired of being found out by The Combine. He also hoped that the citizens whom they tried to convert would take their news kindly, and that they had not already been brainwashed by The Combine.

As Ian and his group began to exit the attic, he heard Harper as the former colonel turned on the radio transmitter and began repeating, “Safe House B to Dr. Freeman; do you read,” Into every channel between 104 and 105. Ian could only imagine what Gordon Freeman was doing now… He would have rather had the legend of a man in that attic with the rest of The Resistance, providing extra assurance and strength…but he knew that Dr. Freeman was in a more fitting position, motoring his way to Nova Prospekt and forcing The Combine into spreading their forces thinly to compensate.

The blonde mechanic opened the attic door, and the five exited the dusty wooden loft and stepped out into the small, claustrophobic tenement stairway landing beyond. The frail man with glasses shut the door behind them, and they began descending the wooden stairway in a mass. “Well, where should we start?” the resistance man named Avery asked, leading the group down the stairway. Ian offered, “Why don’t we learn each other’s names first? I’m Ian Olbowski, and this is my cousin Tonya Barovits, we used to be slaves in The Citadel, but we were released by Barney Calhoun.” The group thought that this was impressive, and greeted Ian and Tonya as they descended the stairway. “And I am Nikoli Streski,” added the blonde mechanic, “I used to work in a car factory before the invasion.” They greeted him as well, and Avery continued, “I’m Bart Avery, I used to be a sales representative for an American company here. I’m not even a native…I was just here on a business trip.” Ian could tell this from the start by Avery’s American accent…which made no difference, because The Combine forced them all to speak English.

Finally, as they reached the bottom floor of the tenement, they all looked back at the wiry man with glasses, who simply looked at his shoes and managed to say weakly, “My name is Yuri Steinberg…I used to be an engineer…but I was just designed some of the equipment in the munitions factory for the past few years…” They greeted him as well, and now that all was said and done, they moved out into the lobby area of the tenement.

There were a few people standing around in the lobby area, some were watching television, others were simply standing about talking. The people paid absolutely no attention to Ian and the group of Resistance fighters as they came down the stairs. It was in this scene that Ian turned to the others and whispered, “Should we try to talk these people into joining The Resistance? I mean what better place to start than here, right?” The others considered this, and Avery the former sales representative spoke up, “Let me handle this, guys…it’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel…” The rest of the group agreed with him, as he was probably the best at moving people to do things.

Avery turned towards the group of people in the lobby, and cleared his throat loudly to get their attention, and then spoke out loudly, “Let’s hear it for the Mighty Combine, eh?” People began giving him strange looks, and even Ian began to wonder what Avery was up to. The man continued with a certain tone of sarcasm in his voice, “So you people mean to say that you don’t like it under Combine rule? Would any man who likes our benefactors please stand up and say it aloud?” Nobody in the lobby even flinched, and Ian supposed that they all thought the man was crazy. Avery suddenly walked over to an overweight man sitting in one of the chairs and asked him, “You sir, how much money are you making under The Combine?”

Flustered, the overweight man replied brokenly, “Uh…around two credits an hour…why?” Avery placed his hand on the back of the chair the man was sitting and replied, “I feel sorry for you, I make three times that!” The man blushed and retorted, “And what makes you think you can come in here and brag about what you make! I tell you, sir, I made twenty fold of what I make now before the invasion! But now, I can’t even feed my kids…” Avery concluded quietly, “Ah, so life is harder for you under The Combine than it was before the invasion? Is that the general consensus around here?” Avery looked around the room, and people were slowly nodding their heads to what he was saying, listening to see what he had to say.

“I tell you all, life was much easier for me before the invasion too! I’m in the same boat as this entire species, just like you. Do you ever wonder where all of our money has gone? Have you ever wondered what our paychecks are being spent on? I’ll tell you what they’re being spent on: that worthless and ugly Citadel, and massive, useless spaceships in orbit. What good will that do us, it only makes our masters richer while we their slaves suffer in the dust!” There were more nods from the audience, and Ian began to understand where Avery was taking his speech. However, one person spoke up from the back of the room. “This is treasonous!” the woman said, “If The Combine hears you saying this…we’re all dead!”

Avery looked at the middle-aged woman and replied, “Do you remember a time when you could question your leaders? Maybe the mind-numbing tap water has fogged your memory… There was a time when we could say anything we wanted to about the government and not get persecuted! There was a time when we could even choose our own leaders! But now, we’re reduced to saying nothing, just sitting here helplessly while those fools that run the government get rich off of us. Who here likes Breen? Who here can seriously say that they would dare associate with that old, swindling thief?”

Again, nobody said anything, and the woman backed off. Ian could feel the tension in the room, Avery would drop the bomb sooner or later…he just hoped it would cause everyone to raise their fists for The Resistance, and not against it. Avery continued his monologue, “I tell you people, I’m sick and tired of having to obey every word that comes out of that fraud’s mouth! I’m sick and tired of having to give up half of my paycheck to taxes…and hear me now,” Avery, his face reddened and his voice voluminous, raised his fist in the air and proclaimed, “ I am sick and tired of The Combine!”

Shocked by Avery’s unexpected outburst, the citizens simply stared at him with wide eyes and a few gasped. Ian was even a little surprised at how Avery went from sarcasm to pure passion in just under a minute. All the while as Avery was giving his speech, a contrasting Breen Cast droned over the speakers of a nearby television set, with the usual close-up picture of Dr. Breen giving his propaganda speeches. Avery went over to the television and declared, “Do you see this man, this collaborator? He is betraying you, and every word that comes out of his mouth is a stinking lie. The Combine will never get rid of the Breeding Suppression Field, and we will never be a ‘great nation among the stars’ as Breen proclaims. If we continue to live like sheep under this evil empire, we’ll be nothing but slaves forever! The only way to regain our independence is through revolution!”

Upon yelling this, Avery picked the television set up from the table it was sitting on. Unplugging it from the wall, he through it to the ground where its glass shattered into many pieces, which flew about the floor with a tremendous crashing noise. Now the room was silent, the citizens were in shock, and Avery stood there dramatically looking down at the broken T.V, breathing heavily. After a few seconds, he regained his composure and continued, “Will you join us? The Resistance has not been destroyed. We are only a shadow of what we were before, but Breen has not killed all of us. Be patient, all of you, because today, our revolution begins. We are relying on you…my friends. The Resistance is relying on each and every one of you to take up arms and fight against The Combine. Everything you have heard, every legend about The One Free Man and the secret resistance…it’s all true. Please, help us, join us, and together we’ll beat them.”

Avery ended his brilliant speech with this simple request, and it nearly brought Ian to tears. He had waited so long to hear these words…these words of conviction against The Combine. But, yet again, the room was silent. For a second, Ian worried that the citizens had not been equally affected, and were only mindless brainwashed zombies. But then, one man near where Avery stood called out, “I’ll join you! Everything you’ve said is true! I’m sick of The Combine, I’m sick of all of it!” Then, one by one, each of the citizens in the room came forward and professed their desire to join The Resistance, even the skeptical middle aged woman in the corner eventually joined the bandwagon.

Ian smiled at this, as he saw these ordinary people coming to the cause of The Resistance. It made him think that all of it might actually be possible, and that the city might really turn out to help them. Humanity hadn’t yet lost its spark under the iron fist of The Combine. Avery was also smiling, and greeting the newly joined citizens. After every single one of them had come forward, Avery continued, “You won’t be disappointed, friends. Go up to the attic now…you will all be given specific information. The Rebellion really is happening today, and you’ll all be given an opportunity to participate in it.”

Ian was utterly amazed at the response of the citizens in the lobby. It had merely taken Avery a few minutes to completely change their political views from apathy to revolutionary… These people must have been waiting for such a moment for years, and would have joined The Resistance if it had been an organized military movement like it was now becoming. The citizens mingled with the five Resistance men, and then slowly advanced up the steps in earnest towards the attic.

Ian turned to Avery, who was now happily watching his new disciples moving up the steps and remarked, “that was amazing, Avery! How in the world did you do that?” Avery smirked and shook his head slowly. “Easy,” he said, “if you want to move people, you speak not to their hearts but to their pocketbooks.” Ian realized that Avery had a point… most of his speech had been about wages and money, and not about the morals of the resistance. That was why the people were moved so quickly…the realization that they were now much poorer than they were before The Combine. It was a truth about most people, and most revolutions…but Ian didn’t mind much, just as long as they had more citizens allied with The Resistance effort.

“Do you think that these people will really be of use to us?” Nikoli Streski the mechanic asked skeptically. Avery sighed, “Sadly, I’m afraid these people will be of little use, Nikoli. They’re only in it for lofty ideals, and are easily moved…when the real fighting starts they probably aren’t going to be reliable… but it’s better than them being on the other side, right?” Nikoli grunted and remarked snidely, “I’m sorry for any fool who would actually sympathize with those Combine bastards, and I’m happy as anyone to keep even this group from joining them.”

A short while later, the group decided to leave the safe house and set out towards their goal: to inform Dr. Kleiner of the plans for The Rebellion, and make sure that he was alright. Along the way, they concluded that they would convince as many people as possible of joining The Resistance…time permitting, or else to simply inform as many of the citizens as possible of The Rebellion later that day. So, this new group of five left the safe house and began their clandestine undertaking on the streets of City- 17.
 
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Dr. Gordon Freeman’s small red dune buggy sat idling in the shadows of an abandoned, bombed-out parking garage within close visual range of the enormous fifty-foot wall which surrounded all of City-17. He stretched his gloved hands over the steering wheel and breathed deeply.

He had just performed a high-speed vehicular dash through the city. He had no idea where Nova Prospekt exactly was, but he judged using the sun and his somewhat rusty knowledge of geography to move in the general rough direction of Romania, where he understood Nova Prospekt would be, and which he knew to be several hundred miles southeast of the Czech Republic. Of course, a wanted man in an orange suit driving a red, open-air dune buggy did not go unnoticed by the local police… Gordon had to dodge through the narrow City-17 streets while being chased by Combine APC’s and cop cars…but somehow, he had lost all of them near the edge of the city, and sought refuge in this abandoned parking garage.

Gordon had not been expecting to find this monolithic, jet black fifty-foot tall metal wall surrounding the city, and he was now trying to figure out how to bypass it. His buggy continued to idle and vibrate loudly beneath him, and he realized that he was only wasting gas sitting there with the engine on, so he turned the key, which shut the engine off. He adjusted his glasses on his nose, and looked out of the large opening just in front of him out of the garage and into the street beyond.

Light shone off of the cobblestone on the street, making everything appear red-orange in its light. Out here, near the very extremities of the city, very few people lived…as they feared the massive walls which surrounded the city, just as they feared the equally massive walls surrounding The Citadel. As a result, the pot-holed streets and broken sidewalks near the wall were completely empty, save for the guards which Gordon could see patrolling near what appeared to be a gigantic gate on the wall, which was bordered by two high black metal towers which had white, sail-like tents shading the guards who stood on top from the sun.

Gordon racked his brain for solutions to get through the wall. Alyx Vance had had a much better idea for getting to Nova Prospekt…Gordon could have simply hitched a ride on one of the trains that was going there, and he wouldn’t have to be sitting here, thinking of how to bypass this monolithic Combine fortification. He couldn’t go over it…he certainly couldn’t tunnel under it…it left Gordon one choice, he had to go through it.

At that moment, the box that housed the radio receiver of his buggy began to hiss with static, and brokenly, a voice came on the air over the speakers. Gordon immediately became excited and picked up a small black receiver which was attached via a curly telephone cord to the radio to listen to what was now being said on to him. Who could possibly be trying to communicate with him?

The crackling, distorted voice came over the radio saying, “Hello? Dr. Freeman if you’re there, pick up, this is Colonel Harper! Hello? Dr. Freeman?” Gordon instantly pressed the talk button on the side of the radio receiver and spoke into it. “Yes, Colonel Harper, this is Gordon Freeman! What’s the situation over there? Is everyone alright?”

Harper replied with enthusiasm and relief, “Oh, Gordon, thank God you’re alive! The Combine invaded us so suddenly; we had no clue, no warning… I’m sorry to say it Gordon, but only forty-five made it out without being killed or captured. Right now we’re holding out in a safe house and getting ready for The Rebellion. Where are you Gordon? Are you alright?”

Gordon was overwhelmed that Harper had finally contacted him on the radio, but it was disturbing that only forty-five resistance men hadn’t been captured or killed. How could they carry on The Resistance with such few people? In any case, he responded, “It’s good to hear from you, Harper. I’ve just been on a pretty wild chase through the city, I’m lucky I’m even alive…I still don’t know how I lost them. I’m hiding in an abandoned garage a block away from the southeast wall…and I’m trying to figure out how to get through it. You got any suggestions?”

After about a second’s pause, Harper replied through the distortion of the radio. “Ah, yes Gordon, that’s exactly why I was calling you. I’m really glad you made it through the city without getting caught, personally we all thought that you weren’t going to make it… anyway, are you anywhere near one of the gates on the outer wall?” Gordon once again looked out at the huge gate and the towers which bordered it and confirmed, “Yeah, I can see one from here.” Harper cut back in, “Excellent… the only time we’ve ever gotten through one of the gates was through some pretty good timing… but I really don’t think they are going to fall for a trick like that again Gordon…you aren’t just going to be able to drive through…”

Harper sighed and then continued, “Gordon, you’re going to have to climb up in one of those towers, take out the guards and open the gate yourself from up there…now I know that’s almost like using direct force, but frankly it’s the only chance you’re going to get at getting through that wall.” Gordon again looked at the gate and at the tall black towers which were topped with white sails and assessed the situation. There were two guards in each tower, and there were four or five patrolling on the ground. It would not be an easy task at all…but Gordon had seen worse.

“I can do it, Harper… I’m just going to need some pretty good timing and a lot of luck.” Gordon replied into the receiver. He wasn’t lying…he would have to plan the attack carefully, or he would be quickly overwhelmed. “Gordon, I’m sure you can do it…everyone here is counting on you. Listen, if you can get through this, just stay on the line, and I’ll guide you from here to Nova Prospekt…frankly, getting through this wall is going to be the easy part.” Gordon sighed, “Thanks Harper…that’s really encouraging,” he said sarcastically. Harper replied, “Good luck, Dr. Freeman,” to which Gordon merely grunted and turned off the receiver.

It was now time to plan his attack, and he couldn’t afford any distractions. Gordon assessed his options… he couldn’t just walk up there like Rambo and start shooting at The Combine randomly, he would have to take them out one by one… However, Gordon didn’t have any sort of sniper rifle or anything at all… he merely had a small pistol and a submachine gun, nothing that was stealthy or long range.

Then, he had a stroke of inspiration as he looked at the futuristic weapon that Dr. Vance had mounted on the front of the buggy, the gauss cannon. Gordon had noticed this small, black cannon on the vehicle to begin with, as it swiveled on a small patch of metal on the buggy’s hood within easy reaching distance of the steering wheel. It was intended to be used with the right hand while the steering wheel was controlled with the left, but Gordon hadn’t yet thought to use it. He was, however, very familiar with the weapon. When he used to work at Black Mesa, he and Dr. Vance had been some of the key members designing the gauss cannon, and Gordon even personally used a handheld version of the device during his escape from the facility.

He knew it to be an extremely powerful weapon with incredible range and unbelievable firepower, vaporizing foes with a single shot. Gordon grabbed hold of the weapon with his right hand, and swiveled the gun so that it was targeting one of the Combine guards on the ground. This shot would have to be perfect…surprise would be his best ally.

Gordon pulled back the trigger of the weapon, and four orange generators on the side of the sleek black gauss cannon lit up, and then began to spin around the weapon, charging it up with power. Gordon waited until the weapon began buzzing and sparking with energy and now that the weapon was fully charged, he let go of the trigger.

Instantly, an orange energy beam that was about six inches wide blasted out of the barrel of the weapon and slammed into the Combine guard that Gordon was targeting. Even though it was a long distance shot, Gordon saw the guard fly several feet back and slam into the wall behind him. The other guards were shocked, and began to run over to the dead one’s body. Gordon could hear them faintly yelling, “man down, man down! We are under attack!”

Adrenaline began flowing through Gordon’s veins. It was do or die now; he would have to act quickly. As the other guards started moving towards the dead one, Gordon started up the buggy. At the same time, he began charging the next shot of the gauss cannon. He pressed the accelerator of the buggy, and the vehicle roared forward out of the garage. The next shot he let off from the gauss cannon was wider and closer to the three remaining Combine soldiers on the ground. This beam collided into one Combine troop, vaporized him, and slammed into the soldier behind him, instantly dispatching him and knocking him to the ground.

The remaining soldier did a double-take at the two that had just fallen and caught a stared at Gordon’s buggy, which was now speeding towards him. Stupidly, the soldier just stood there, and finally, decided that it was a battle that he couldn’t win, and the soldier took off and ran as fast as he could towards one of the towers.

Just as Gordon sped into the street directly in front of the gigantic gate, he finished this running Combine off with yet another quick blast from the Gauss cannon. Gordon now looked skyward, towards the two towers. Now that the soldiers on the ground were dispatched, he would have to worry about sniper fire from the two guard towers.

Sure enough, a few sniper shots rang off from the towers and pinged into the metal of the buggy, sending sparks flying. However, no sniper was good enough to hit a man in a speeding buggy, so Gordon considered himself safe from their fire as he simultaneously moved and charged up his next gauss cannon shot. This beam was carefully placed as to strike the very top of the left tower, as to sever the steel cables connecting the upper white sail with the top of the tower.

The orange energy beam flew true, and struck the top of the tower. The steel cables melted, and the entire burning sail came down on top of the two snipers, which in a sparking and fantastic display both simultaneously distracted them and caught them on fire. Gordon watched as the two flaming Combine snipers jumped out of the tower and landed somewhere on the other side of the wall.

However, Dr. Freeman was not yet fully safe. Two more snipers continued to pepper him from the other tower, and by now they were out of direct range of his gauss cannon. So, quickly, Gordon spun his buggy around, and screeching, he brought it to a stop directly next to the tower, so that he was out of the viewing range of the snipers.

Without even turning the buggy off, Gordon quickly jumped out of the vehicle, and pressed himself next to the ladder under the tower, safely out of sight from the snipers. However, the snipers quickly realized that he was directly under them, so they began to toss grenades down towards him.

Seeing two grenades falling from the bright blue sky, Gordon acted on impulse and began climbing the ladder up to the tower. Six seconds later, the grenades exploded several yards from the base of the tower, well out of range to hurt Freeman as he climbed the ladder with one hand while holding a submachine gun in the other. He could see up to the platform of the sniper tower, and the square hole which was carved through it for personal access. Then, suddenly, the light through the hole was blocked by the head of a Combine soldier as he threw a red blinking grenade through the hole towards Freeman.

Gordon dodged the grenade as it flew past his head, and he pulled the trigger of the submachine gun, sending a blast of fire towards the hole in the platform. His shots were accurate, and the sniper fell through the hole and landed on the ground below just as his own grenade exploded, sending him flying through the air once again… There was only one sniper left.

By this time, Gordon was very near the hole, so instead of going through it and getting killed instantly by the sniper, he swung out so that only one of his hands and legs was on the ladder, and the other half of his body was suspended in the air next to the ladder. Normally, this feat would have been impossible for someone, but because of his suit’s power assist, Gordon was able to accomplish it easily.

Gordon waited there for what seemed like ages, but was probably only seconds, and sure enough, the curious remaining sniper poked his rifle out of the hole, and looked down its sights towards the ground to look at his fallen comrade and see if Gordon was still climbing the ladder. Then, Gordon grabbed the barrel of the rifle, and tugging hard, he pulled not only the rifle, but the entire Combine sniper out of the hole.

The sniper screamed through his gasmask, and Gordon watched as he fell fifty feet to the ground. Not stopping to reflect any further, Gordon climbed off of the ladder and up into the tower of the sniper. He had beaten these guards, but more were sure to arrive…his victory would be short-lived.

Gordon looked out at the city below, and at the abandoned streets near the wall. He had just unbelievably conquered eight Combine soldiers all by himself… it was a primal fury that he unleashed both here and at Black Mesa which before he never knew existed… he had never even handled a firearm before coming to Black Mesa…

The wind blew across the sail on the top of the tower, ruffling it and playing with Freeman’s hair. Even here, at the edge of the city, Gordon could see The Citadel standing like an ever-present dark shadow on the horizon, with gigantic support wires extending all the way across the city.

Then, Gordon examined the gate controls on the railing of the sniper tower. There was a grey metal panel and a large blue computer terminal station sitting on the railing, which appeared to have something to do with the gate, since a red diagram depicting the gate was glowing out of the blue computer terminal. However, Gordon couldn’t read the strange alien markings on the computer terminal, and therefore had no idea how to operate it.

In frustration, he began pressing random buttons on the terminal, which seemed to do nothing. Then, with a sting of fear, Gordon began to hear the distinctive wailing sirens of Combine APCs coming near. He looked over the railing and saw with shock that a few miles down the road a column of APCs was speeding towards him.

In even more frantic motions, Gordon pressed random buttons. Finally, out of sheer luck, Gordon pressed the right combinations of buttons, and he watched and heard as the gigantic gate began to slowly slide upwards, with an immense noise like that of a gigantic old lurching machine coming to life.

With no time to celebrate this small victory, Gordon strapped his gun on his back and slid down the metal ladder as quickly as he could to his waiting, idling car. However, this proved to be a very dangerous feat, and Gordon nearly fell off and killed himself while he was sliding down the ladder, but somehow, he was able to hang on, and he jumped down the last five feet to the ground.

Gordon then hopped into the red leather driver’s seat of his buggy, and floored the engine. His tires squealing, and his engine roaring, Dr. Freeman sped through the newly created opening in the monolithic gate, leaving the Combine APCs, and the city behind.

-Chapter 44, Innovation-
 
What ever happend to the Xen invasion that started like a few chapters ago?
Will you ever get back to that?
 
oh, you'll see... :E That was one of the things I wanted to see in hl2, tons of xen guys battling tons of Combines...lets say that Xenian Resistance Force will arrive in city-17 any minute now :thumbs:
 
Thank you! I was waiting for weeks for it to be compelete!
 
what the...this is a very different ending..i don't really understand how you did now some things like the part at the interrogations and what G-man said, that also really happened in the game. But how you didn't know how it would end? Enlighten me...
 
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