The Other Freeman

[SilentGunz]

Dog rushed over to the dark demonic wall, and shoved his claws underneath it. Barney Calhoun called out, “Hey, Dog! Not there! You can’t get through that way!” Dog pulled up one section of the wall. “Well I’ll be damned,” Barney said, “I think he wants you to go through Gordon. You’d better hurry.” Gordon Freeman ran to the opening made by Dog, and as he jumped down into the darkness of the Citadel, Barney shouted out, “If you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said, ‘Fu----.”
Gordon was gone, gone in the dark tunnels of the Combine’s Citadel. A nearby rebel runs up. “Barney, I think I saw some soldiers coming this way. The battle’s not over yet!” the rebel told Barney. “Well then,” he said, “let’s go”

***

Barney aimed at a soldier’s head. “Gotcha,” he whispered to himself. A bullet whizzed through the air, and the Combine soldier fell, a puddle of crimson blood surrounding his body.
“Uh… sir, you’ve got to see this!” a man with a Sub-Machine Gun said, looking up. Barney looked up too. Up at the tip of the Citadel, barely visible past the clouds, a small flame appeared. It expanded into a huge ball of fire, engulfing the clouds. All the humans stopped fighting and looked up. Everything was silent for a minute, then the shooting started again; but the rebels weren’t shooting, it was a strider. Barney watched as the Strider charged up an orb, and fired it at a group of Combine soldiers.
“They seemed to have lost control! They’re shooting their own guys!” the man said. Barney nodded silently, but was interrupted by a crash behind them. “Damn it!” Barney shouted, “We’ve got to get out of this building, it’s collapsing!”
A quartet of Gunships flew overhead, firing at their hideout. A single rocket shot out of the roof of a nearby café and blew up one of the Gunships. The rest flew off. “What was that?” Barney remarked. “I have no idea,” the SMG man replied.
“Come on, we’re leaving, we’ve got to---
A crackle on the radio interrupted Barney. “Now what?” he said.
A voice came through, “Did you see that? That was an awesome shot!” it said. “It sure was! Wahoo!” another voice replied.
“Who are you?” Barney said into the radio.
A cough was heard through the radio, obviously a clearing of a throat. A different voice came through. “I am the Freeman,” he said.
“Gordon?” Barney asked, “You can’t be Gordon, he just went into the Citadel!”
“Gordon… no, I am the Freeman.”
“Forget you.” Barney turned around, “We’re leaving,” he said to the other rebels.
“Yes sir!” they all replied.
They set out across the streets, killing Combine soldiers as they go along. All the synths are gone. The streets become quiet as they walk through the city, towards Black Mesa East. Black Mesa, the thought of it sent a shiver through Barney’s spine. The rebels encountered the occasional zombie, or soldier, but that was all. As they walked through a tunnel, they heard a siren. It was getting louder by the second. “Hurry, we’ve got to hide,” Barney said to his troops. He spotted a doorway. “Over there!”
He peeked out of the door, open just enough to see. A Combine APC zoomed by chased by a Dropship that carried a Strider. “Close one,” Barney whispered. “Uh… sir,” a rebel said. Barney turned around to find the rebels at the gunpoint of a Combine elite and his troops.

***

Barney woke up against a wall, his hands cuffed behind his back.
“Well, well, well,” a Civil Protection Cop said as he walked up to Barney, “we’ve got Calhoun! You’ve caused quite an uprising.”
“No, that was Gordon. I’m just leading the uprising.” Barney replied.
“You’re a traitor!” the cop said, “I should have known since you told me that bullshit story about Dr. Freeman escaping from his trip to Nova Prospekt!”
“Would you want to become a Stalker, a slave, and work the rest of your life in darkness?”
“That fate is for resisters only, like you. I became part of the Combine.”
“And you lost your instinct, your family, and your friends.”
“I never had any friends!”
“I was your friend, before Black Mesa.”
“Well, we don’t need our instinct. In fact-
“That’s enough, Joe.” The elite said as he walked up. “You can go now.”
Joe walked away. Barney watched him go out the door. They used to be such good friends… back in high school.
“Now where was I?” the elite asked himself.
“Where are the others?” Barney asked.
“They’re tied up in the back room, and we’ve got your woman.
“Gina? Let her go, she didn’t do anything!”
“On the contrary, she killed 37 soldiers in the past two hours.”
“Yeah, but haven’t we all?”
“Just shut up! I’m tired of your rabble, your so called freedom! There’s no such thing as true freedom in this world; there never has been, and there never will be! It’s all an illusion!”
“Could you just bring her out?” Barney remarked.
“Sure, whatever.” the elite replied as he walked over to the door, and went inside.
A man kicked in the front door. Clad in rebel clothing, he shot down the two soldiers keeping guard. He grabbed a key from the body of one of the guards, and unlocked Barney’s cuffs. “Let’s save the others,” his voice was familiar to Barney.
The elite came out with Gina, a small brunette woman who wore ripped clothes, telling Barney she was just in a battle.
“Gina,” he said.
“Barney, I-
“Shut up!” the elite told her. He saw the new man. “You’d shoot me, with her in front?”
“Don’t fire,” Barney said to the man, “you’ll hit her.”
“No I won’t,” the man said as he shot a single bullet from his pistol. It hit the elite right between the eyes. He fell down as Gina rushed to Barney, hugging him.
“Who are you?” Gina asked the man.
“I am… the Freeman.”

To be continued…

 

[Dracarys]

o_0 interesting... you've got quite some skill there, canb't wait till the next chapter/post/whatever

 

[eatbugs]

Another story.

 

[eatbugs]

i don't think the combine are that friendly.

 

[SilentGunz]

“Good luck, my brother!” Father Grigori shouted as Gordon slipped off into the darkness of the mines. The zombies were right behind the Father; he shot them with his Annabelle, aiming for the heads, as he knew those nasty creatures could still live without their victim. Grigori backed up into a small tomb, and shot an explosive barrel which made a chain reaction with the other barrels and the zombies to cause a flaming circle around him. He laughed manically as the zombies burned and the smoke rose to cover the doorway to his death.

***

The Dropships zoomed overhead, charging towards New Little Odessa. A soldier looked out of the window, and he saw smoke rising from the dark little mining town that was attacked not too long ago. “Fire, down there!” the soldier said to his commander. The elite walked over to the opening, and looked down at the smoke.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” the soldier said, “and where there’s fire, there are people.”
“That’s right!” the elite said. He turned to the Dropship’s front. “Take us down!” he shouted at it.
A buzzing noise responded, and the troops’ container lurched as they started to descend towards the dark little town of Ravenholm.
“Aren’t there going to be tons of zombies, I mean, we shot parasite rockets about a week ago!” the soldier said.
“We can take on a bunch of slow walking corpses, can’t we?”
“I guess so… but-
The soldier was cut off by the radio. “Attention,” a voice came through, “the one called the Freeman has been spotted near Shorepoint. We’re going to attack in advance, waiting for him.”
“Sir, permission to go to Shorepoint and stop Freeman?” the soldier asked his commander.
“Permission denied… that’s Squad 7’s job.”
The elite watched a single Dropship go down towards Shorepoint. Soon his Dropship was landing. They all got out and looked around. They were in a graveyard, a destroyed graveyard. There were chunks of tombstones every where, and the corpses of zombies in piles.
The elite walked over to where the fire was, past the burnt zombies. One of the torsos started dragging itself towards him, but a quick burst of his SMG stopped it. The soldiers followed their commander, and saw a priest sitting in the small tomb.
“More! I… you’re not part of my flock!” the priest said with a mocking tone.
The soldier walked up, grabbed the priest by the neck. “Who are you?” he asked.
“Father Grigori, bringer of salvation!”
“Where’s Freeman?”
“Who?”
“You-
“You can stop now, Freeman is at Shorepoint,” the elite said taking Grigori away from the soldier.
The soldier mumbled to himself. “Why are you so interested in the number one convict more than us, it’s an equal prize if any of us capture him,” the elite said to him.
“Well-
“Outbreak! Outbreak! Outbreak!” a soldier’s voice came through the radio.
“They need help at Shorepoint!” the elite said.
“I’m on it!” the soldier shouted as he ran off.

***

“Come on, come around the wall Freeman,” A sniper said to his self. Gordon Freeman peeked around the wall the sniper was aiming at, and then darted behind a train cart before the sniper could shoot. “Damn it!” the sniper shouted. Right when he did, a grenade flew from behind the cart, right into the window. Before he could shout out anything, the grenade exploded and the corpse of the sniper fell out of the window.
The soldier walked up to the sniper’s perch. He saw the sniper rifle, and some signs of an explosion. He picked up the rifle and aimed at Freeman’s head. “Finally, my revenge,” the soldier mumbled. He heard a groan behind him. A zombie was lumbering towards him, not really a threat. He pulled out his sidearm and shot the headcrab right off of the victim’s head.
The soldier turned back towards the warehouse he was aiming at, but the Freeman was gone! “Damn it!” the soldier shouted out. All the birds flew away. The soldier dropped his rifle, and sat there silently for awhile.

***

Leon watched as Gordon drove off in the buggy, dodging Antlions along the way. The rebels at the guns shot at the remaining Antlions. A woman came out from the warehouse. “Leon!” she said to him.
“What is it Gina?” Leon replied.
“There’s a man here asking for Freeman.”

To be continued…

 

[SilentGunz]

Ok... after being busy with some other stuff (mapping and real life things) I got the third part done. Here it is:

New Little Odessa, that’s where Gordon Freeman was headed, that’s where the rebel was, but Freeman had left already. He had gone ahead, but where? “Hey, you wanted to see me?” Colonel Odessa Cubbage said to the rebel.
“Yes, yes I did,” the rebel said, sitting on a crate in Cubbage’s basement. He was tired; he had to go from Shorepoint to NLO on foot, chased by Antlions.
“What did you want to know?” the colonel asked.
“Where’s Freeman going?”
“To the next town of course! Lighthouse Point. They needed some help.”
“Do I have to go on foot?
“I supposed so…” there is another buggy, but it’s broken. You’d have to get Samantha to fix it; but she’s working on a crossbow right now.”
“Ok… I’ll go on foot I guess.”
“Good luck,” the colonel told him.
“Yes, good luck to the Freeman,” a vortigaunt said.
“I’m not the… thank you, friend.”
The rebel walked out of the house. “Does he think he’s the Freeman?” Cubbage said to himself.

***

The Freeman examined the crossbow. “Nice work Samantha,” he told her, aiming it at her. “Now here’s the deal: you fix up this buggy, and I get out of here; if you don’t fix up the buggy, you die, and it’ll be painful.”
She nodded silently.
“Now, get to work,” he commanded her.
Samantha worked on the buggy for about an hour. Just when it was almost complete, a knock came from the garage door.
“Samantha, come eat, it’s lunchtime.”
“That’s my friend, if you could just let me go,” she said.
“Is the buggy done?” the Freeman asked her.
“Yes, it’s done.”
He got in the driver seat, and put in the key.
“Wait, I forgot something,” he told himself before walking over to pick up the crossbow.”
“Uh… Carl. Could you move away from the door,” she said as the motor started.
“What?” Carl said.
“Move!” she shouted, and the buggy charged out of the door, then went up the road towards Lighthouse Point.
“Colonel! It’s that weird rebel! I knew he was bad!” Carl shouted.
The buggy charged up the road, running over stray Combine soldiers.
The buggy ramped over an upside-down car, over a pile-up of vehicles. As they cleared the wreckage, a Gunship buzzed ahead of them, its bullets spraying the ground. The Freeman drove through the bullets, but got shot. His left shoulder was bleeding.
“Damn you!” he yelled to the Gunship; it replied with more bullets, some of which were inches away from his face.
The buggy rode into a tunnel; it was safe from the Gunship.

***

They finally made it to Lighthouse Point. The Freeman saw the Gunship that chased them; it was firing at the top of the lighthouse. A rocket shot out of the lighthouse window and blew up the Gunship. The Freeman used the scope on Sam’s crossbow to see who fired the rocket. It was a man in orange armor, the HEV suit. It was Gordon Freeman. He drove full speed towards the little town, with Sam still moaning. When he got there, it was empty. There were no more rebels, or Combine. The town was silent. He walked up to the lighthouse, watching the floating Gunship in the ocean below. With his SMG in hand, he kicked down the front door and saw a rebel, checking some boxes. “Don’t shoot!” the rebel told the Freeman, “By the way, who are you?”
“I’m A… the Freeman,” he said.
“Gordon Freeman is the real Freeman,” the rebel remarked
“Well then, I’m the other Freeman.”
“Well, what do you want? I’m the only one left here. Everyone else just died.”
“Where is Gordon going?”
“What do you care? Are you from the Combine?”
“I am not a rebel or a soldier. I’m independent.”
“Well, Gordon is headed towards that damned prison, Nova Prospekt.
“Ok then… but I have to kill you now.”
“What?” the rebel asked.
His pistol went off, and the rebel was dead.

***

The teleport hummed and flashed with blue light. The Combine soldiers watched as Alyx Vance and Gordon Freeman disappeared in a flash.
One of the soldiers asked his commander, “Sir, permission to teleport and follow the convict?”
His commander replied with, “Permission denied! You go on Antlion duty. Make sure they’re all gone from here.”
“Yes sir,” the soldier grimly said. He was so close again!
Later on, when all of the Combine soldiers were away from the teleport room, the lone soldier snuck in and started up the teleport. “This time, Gordon,” he whispered to himself, “this time.”

To be continued…

 

[SilentGunz]

If you didn't know, Parts 2 and 3 are in the past. This continues from Part 1.

Barney opened the back door, to reveal four men tied to chairs.
“Ok ‘Freeman,’ you get those two, I’ll get the others.
He went and untied the men on the left. Barney’s radio crackled to life. He answered it.
Alyx’s voice came through, “Barney, are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here Alyx,” he replied.
“We’re at the top of the citadel, could you come to get us.”
“Sure, we just need a ride.”
“I know a building where there’s a chopper parked. I saw it earlier,” the Freeman told them.
“Ok,” he said to the Freeman, then replied to the radio, “We’re coming Alyx, hang on.”

***

The rebels fought their way through the streets, killing off various foes, but nothing too serious, until they saw three Striders coming their way. The Striders lumbered slowly towards them, when a Hunter-Chopper pair came and shot up one of the Striders. The other two shot their deadly orbs in unison at the cockpits of the choppers. Both were destroyed when they hit the street.
Another group of rebels shot rockets and destroyed a second Strider, but the third one shot and stepped on the rebels. Barney and his group ran past the Strider, as it was too preoccupied with some Combine soldiers.
They finally reached the place where the chopper was kept. Barney got into the pilot seat. “Strap up everyone!” he announced as the chopper’s blades whirred around and it lifted off the ground.
“The roof looks soft, made of wood!” the Freeman shouted past the blades to Barney, “You can go right through it!”
Barney listened and the chopper broke free from the building and started climbing towards the tip of the Combines hateful Citadel.

***

Barney flew above the clouds; the city’s lights were barely visible.
“There’s an opening! On the wall!” a rebel told Barney.
He saw it and flew through it. The chopper barely fit. There was some more way to fly up, and then Barney saw a ceiling.
“We’re going through it!” he told the crew, and they all grabbed their seats tightly.
The chopper crashed through the ceiling, and they were right outside Dr. Breen’s office. Eli Vance and Judith Mossman looked up at the chopper. Barney stepped out, “Wow, that was some ride!” he told them.
The Freeman stepped out. “Who are you?” Eli asked him.
“Where’s Gordon!” the Freeman asked.
“He’s been gone since the explosion. He just disappeared. You could ask Alyx, but she’s still unconscious from the blast. And Breen, he’s gone too,” Eli replied.
The Freeman walked up to Alyx. He shook her, but she didn’t wake. He checked her neck, and could feel a light pulse.
“Yeah, she’s unconscious. Where was Gordon last?”
“He was in the teleport chamber.” Judith replied, “Down that elevator over there. She pointed towards an elevator. The Freeman walked towards the elevator and stepped inside. “Wait, I’m coming with you,” Judith told him. The Freeman closed the door and went down without saying anything.

***

The Freeman arrived at the control room. He looked through the broken window, and saw the signs of an explosion: exposed wires, burnt bodies, and blackened walls.
“Hello again,” a voice behind him said.
The Freeman turned around and saw a man in a suit.
“You again! I thought I saw the last of you at Black Mesa!” the Freeman said.
“Well, you haven’t, Corporal Shepard. I see you’ve failed at catching Dr. Freeman again? Such a shame that you’re such a failure.”
Shepard was silent. He just gave a grim look at the G-man.
“You’ve cause quite a trouble, Corporal Shepard. You almost jeopardized Dr. Freeman’s mission. Same scenario at Black Mesa.”
Everything went black, and then they appeared at the former site of Black Mesa, ruins now.
“Ah, Black Mesa. Face it Corporal Shepard, you can’t accomplish anything. You couldn’t have escaped there, without my help of course.”
Everything went black again. Shepard could barely make out the G-man’s face.
“You seemed to have survived another battle, a much more important one this time. We are very alike. My employers have decided you will be put back into your sleep. Until next time, Corporal Shepard.”
A white doorway appeared. Shepard watched the G-man walk out, and the door closed. Shepard sat in the darkness, alone. “Until next time,” the words that rang in his head for what seemed like eternity.

The End

 

[SilentGunz]

If you like this story, I might make another one soon (not like Grill-Life though, another serious one)

 

[Razorwing]

kinda short.. IMO, but great read

 

[Spartacus]

Wow, nice.

Sorry for bumping

 

[WacK]

hehe.. nice read.