Chapter Text
8:00 pm
Location: Near City 17’s Water Treatment Facility
The sun hung low in the smog coated skies signaling night fall’s fast approach. With the Resistance group only about an hour and a half out from Black Mesa East the moon was a welcoming site, cloaking the world around them in darkness as it rose. This allowed them to relax a bit, keeping them hidden from hunter choppers that flew above as the combine prepared to take their search deep into the night. Once they stopped encountering stray manhacks and scanners they felt it was safe enough for them to make a break for the old water treatment plant nearby. That way they could take a moment to breathe and recuperate.
Pierce, Sebastian, Gordon, and Barney all entered the facility ahead of the others. Guns drawn, they walked in a triangle formation, each man having the other’s back as they scoped out the rooms ahead. Once the coast seemed clear they relaxed and let the others slip in behind.
“You know I could have helped clear the room,” Alyx notes as she picks up an old clipboard trying to dysipher the cyrillic words.
Barney cracked a small smile while he checked nearby desks for supplies, “I know ya could, kiddo.. But its best if we let the more heavily armored people here go in first.”
“That why you made Gordon the line leader?” Eli chimed in with an amused smirk.
“Yup!” Barney replied without hesitation which earned a laugh from both Vances.
Gordon rolled his eyes and waved a hand at them before moving on down the a hall to look for supplies. He stopped at a wall with an old map of the entire facility. He gently wiped the dust off before examining it closely. The images and cyrillic words faded from age making it difficult to read. Eventually he gave up on trying to figure out where in the facility they were and moved on to see what he could find.
The man paused when he noticed Combine tech hanging along the ceiling and an older terminal having been implanted in the original controls of the facility. None of it seemed on so that was a good sign at least, but the Freeman still kept his guard up. As he walked through into the vast control room that overlooked the water treatment pools he came across dead Combine soldiers. He looked them over to make sure none of them would somehow come back to life and try to attack, but when he removed the mask of one and saw nothing but a skeleton he let out a breath of relief. No way these were springing back to life on him.
He stood up and continued searching the room collecting ammo from the corpses as he moved along. He stopped dead in his tracks when he caught a whiff of something rancid. Gordon scrunched his nose in disgust as he searched for the source. Off to the side was what used to be an old server room, faint lights lit up the small room drawing The Freeman’s attention. Large sprawling cables ran out of the room across the floor and ceiling connecting to a generator that sat next to the server room door. The blinking red lights told Gordon the generator had run out of power long ago. However, upon further inspection the generator looked fairly new compared to all the other Combine technology in the room. The lack of dust causing alarms to go off in Freeman’s head, so he continued with caution.
Just as he passed over the threshold, Gordon froze.
There before him stood a foreign white pod shaped machine with what looked like a giant grub like creature inside. Next to the pod sat a smaller terminal, all the screens flashing with a red warning written in the Combine language.
Gordon approached the pod slowly, his curiosity getting the best of him. The smell was permeating from the creature’s pod. The generator outside must have been keeping this.. thing.. alive. So when it ran out of power… Gordon felt a wave of nausea come over him as he stepped back, having to grip at the wall for support. His head began to ache as the world around him grew distant and fuzzy. He closed his eyes to prevent from vomiting, but a distant familiar voice broke him from his focus.
When he opened his eyes he wasn’t in the same room, instead he was in what looked like an airplane hanger with a helicopter sitting at its center. The same distressed voice called out from behind him causing him to quickly turn around. It was Alyx! She was screaming, pinned against the wall by.. nothing? Gordon looked up to see what she was screaming at and he felt his heart stop at the site. That same grub creature he saw in the pod was floating above him with Eli in its spindling arms, a second one was holding Alyx back. Gordon quickly pulled out his gun and went to fire it but his hands were empty. He frantically looked around his waist for his holster but to no avail. He was stripped of all his weapons. Alyx’s gut wrenching scream tore him out of his panic and just as he looked up he saw Eli’s limp body hit the floor in a pool of blood. Alyx clutched her father to her chest and cried out for him. Just as Gordon moved to approach them it all faded to black.
“Gord’n?” A familiar voice called out in the distance.
He looked around the void trying to find where they were coming from.
“Gord’n!!” It shouted again, this time closer. It felt like the voice echoed from behind him no matter which direction he faced.
“GORDON!!”
The Freeman gasped and jumped, the world around him seemed to materialize out of nowhere, as if he had never left. He turned around in an instant when he felt the pressure of someone’s hand on his shoulder, his gun leading his movements.
“Whoa! Hey now, it’s just us, doc!” It was Sebastain and Alyx. Gordon blinked before lowering his weapon, looking away sheepishly as he rubbed his fist in a tight circle on his chest.
“Aw no need t’ be sorry! It’s mah fault fer sneak’n up on ya like that. Ya seemed a lil zoned out,” Sebastian waved it off like it was nothing and gave a warm smile in return.
“Barney and Dad got a little worried when they couldn’t find you so we came to see if you were ok,” Alyx explained. “You.. doing ok? You seem a little..out of it?”
Gordon blinked a few more times to try and get his mind off of what just happened, “I uhh.. yeah. I just.. I found this thing,” he motioned to the alien creature behind him.
Sebastian winced, “S’ that what’s been stink’n!? Gah!! No wonder ya zoned out ya probably need some fresh air after breath’n dead advisor fumes! Eeagch!” The ex-guard pinched his nose closed as his eyes threatened to water.
Alyx looked past Gordon to see what he was referring to, “Oh! You found one of these things! They must have brought in a generator to keep it alive when they cut power to this place.. Guess nobody ever came back to check if it was.. still running..” She came closer to investigate the terminals. “Yup! Power failure. This guy’s been dead for at least a month. We ran across these things on a train we crashed the other day. I have no clue what they are.”
Sebastian heaved, “They’re Advisors! Giant grub things that work fer th’ Combine. Now could we please go someplace where it don’t smell like a rotten worm corps!”
Alyx laughed and nodded, “Fine! Come on, Gordon. Some people aren’t as desensitized to bad smells as others.”
Sebastian stuck his tongue out at her before turning and leaving the room.
Alyx laughed harder, “Sebastian is something else! Was he always like this back at Black Mesa?” She asked in amusement. When she didn’t get a reply she turned back to look at Gordon. “Hey?” She slowly approached the armored man looking up at the distant look in his eyes as he stared at the rotting Advisor. “Gordon, you there?” She waved a hand in front of his face causing him to blink and look down at her. “Hey, you sure you are ok?” Her smile dropped to a soft look of concern.
Gordon hesitated, looking between her and the creature.
Alyx noticed his discomfort in its presence and gently grabbed his wrist giving it a tug, “Come on, lets go regroup with the others, I overheard Dad say Barney found a vending machine with some snacks!” She said excitedly trying to help distract the taller man. Gordon reluctantly followed until they got to the doorway, he turned and looked back at the Advisor’s pod, his expression hard to read. Alyx’s smile faded.
“H-Hey..” She reached up and grabbed the man’s head forcing him to look at her. “It's ok. That thing is dead, very dead. It's not going to hurt us, ok?” Gordon’s expression shifted, softening slightly. “Now come on, let's get back to the others ok? I’ve learned the hard way that it's not best to stay in one place by yourself for too long.. Not in places like this at least. Letting your mind wander is one of the worst things you can do when you're vulnerable.” She grabbed Gordon’s hand and gave it a squeeze to help keep him grounded, “Staying close to those you care about helps keep you grounded. Which may be hard for you cause I’ve noticed you like to wonder,” She giggled at that causing Gordon to smile, “You ready to go back now? I’m sure my Dad is starting to worry.”
Gordon gave the advisor one last glance before letting out a shaky breath and nodding. Alyx smiled and guided him down some stairs and back to the room they had entered in.
“There you two are! I was starting to worry,” Eli said as he approached them. “What took you so long?”
Alyx pushed her Dad away as he tried to search her for wounds, “We’re fine, Dad! Gordon found an Advisor pod and seemed a little freaked out by it. The terminal said it had been dead for a few months so it was nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah ‘n it stunk t’ high heaven!” Sebastian added.
Eli sighed, “An Advisor pod, huh? Hmm.. that's not good.”
“The pod’s life support is offline, the Advisor is dead,” Alyx repeated.
“That still aint good,” Pierce said as he and Barney walked back into the room with old bags of chips and snacks from the vending machine. “No Advisor is a good Advisor. The Combine protects them from things dead or alive. Where there’s an Advisor.. There’s Combine.”
Sebastian snuck over to snag a bag of doritos from Pierce’s hands, earning a growl from the taller man.
“Shit. Pierce is right,” Barney agreed as he set his arm full of snacks down on a table, “This place ain’t as safe as we first thought. We gotta get move’n.” He quickly checked his gun’s ammo. Sebastian and Pierce doing the same.
“Wait.. But none of us have seen anyone else here and we’ve all but explored the entire building!” Alyx argued.
“This is just one building of three, there are two others that none of us have checked yet,” Barney countered.
“They are right, honey. We can’t stay here. It's too risky,” Eli tried to reason.
Alyx sighed in defeat giving Gordon an apologetic glance.
“Now, c’mere n’ give us a hand, Alyx! We ain’t leave’n all these t’ waste,” Sebastian said as he began shoving the remaining vending machine snacks into Alyx’s backpack. Pierce rolled his eyes and packed his extra ammo away in his own.
“You ok there, doc?” Barney asked as he handed Gordon some extra stem packs. “Ya look like ya seen a ghost er somethin.”
Gordon nodded his head and took the stem packs, shoving them away in a small storage pouch on his thigh, “The Advisor thing just… never seen something like that..” Which wasn’t a lie. He hadn’t ever seen one before, but that isn’t exactly what had him so on edge. The last thing he was going to do was tell Barney what was actually bothering him. After all, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
Barney nodded, “Yeah those things can be freaky up close. Just be thankful it wasn’t alive. It’ll be fine, though.. If that thing’s dead then they probably have moved all the living ones outta here a long time ago. Nothin’ t’ worry ‘bout. C’mon we need t’ get moving,” He gave Gordon a firm pat on his back before joining the others.
Just as they all left out of the back door bullets began raining down on them. They all took off running towards the closest wall to take shelter from the gun fire.
“Shit!! They’ve spotted us!” Sebastian said frantically as he got his rifle ready to aim.
Pierce quickly pushed his head back down and his rifle to the sand, “Keep yer head down! They ain’t shoot’n at us!!”
“They aren’t?” Barney asked.
“No! There’s Antlions on the beach further ahead! Must be a nest nearby.” Peirce pointed at the Antlion thumper a little ways ahead.
“Now how are we going to get past them?” Eli asked as he watched the Antlions hiss and charge at the soldiers.
“Very carefully,” Pierce answered.
Gordon watched the giant insects as they were shot at from above. The soldiers stood on the roof of one of the other buildings and picked them off one by one.
“Too bad we ain’t got one of them pheromone things t’ keep the antlions off us,” Sebastian said.
“No, but if we stay close and hug the buildings then the Combine won’t see us, and maybe the antlions will keep their focus on them,” Barney suggested, noting how far they were from the thumpers.
“That could work..” Eli added.
“Well it's our only option,“ Barney said as he mapped the best way to do this. “Are we ready? Gord’n You mind lead’n the pack?”
Gordon looked out across the way, glancing up at the combine above them then back at the tree line ahead of them before nodding.
“Alright. Whenever yer ready, Freeman,” Sebastian nodded as he took up the back with Pierce.
Gordon took a deep breath before taking his first step out. The rest of them followed close behind as they all hugged the building’s retaining walls. Cloaked in the darkness of night they silently shimmied their way under the Combine’s noses keeping a good distance between them and the antlions. They were almost there when suddenly Gordon felt a buzzing feeling in his head. He turned and noticed an Antlion looking his way. He froze. Shit not now!!
The Antlion seemed curious as it slowly approached Gordon and the others. Everyone stopped and all but held their breath as they watched the antlion closely. Barney began to aim his gun at it the closer it got causing it to hiss at him. Gordon felt the warmth in his chest and the buzzing began to grow louder. He began feeling the same emotions the Antlion was. Curiosity.. And anger. Gordon moved his hand to slowly lower Barney’s weapon causing the Antlion's focus to shift back to him. It lowered its talons and began to approach again out of curiosity.
Everyone watched in awe as it walked up to Gordon and sniffed him, making content chirping sounds, fluttering its wings as it smelled him. Gordon reached his hand out and Antlion met it pressing its head against it. It made a happy chirp before engulfing Gordon’s hand in its mouth. Everyone froze and hesitated to intervene. They all let out a collective sigh when the insect pulled away leaving Gordon’s gloved hand still attached to his body and coated in saliva.
Just as Gordon reached forward to pet the creature a shot rang out leaving Gordon dazed and confused.
“Ballistic trauma detected! Morphine administered!” Is all he heard as he began to come back to reality.
When he finally came too he realized he was face down in the sand with other hands quickly grabbing at him. A sharp pain radiated from his left arm. He looked down and saw blood staining the fabric of his undersuit. He had been shot..
The others had dragged him behind the corner of the building while they began shooting back in retaliation.
“Shit, Calhoun! Look what y’alls little stunt did!” Peirce hissed.
“Me?! Why are ya blaming me?!” Barney growled back while he focused on shooting at soldiers.
“Cause ya had th’ chance t’ stop it n’ ya didn’t!” Pierce spat taking a few shots of his own.
Sebastian grumbled while he took aim with his sniper rifle, “Would ya both stop! We’re all t’ blame! S’ not our fault Gord’n woke up from stasis n’ became a’ Disney Princes!” He fired two shots killing two soldiers with ease.
“What’s a Disney?” Alyx asked out of confusion while she handed Eli medical supplies from her backpack.
Sebastian shook his head, “Eli, ya really failed t’ educate her, huh?”
Eli chuckled while he quickly wrapped Gordon’s exposed shoulder in bandages to help stop the bleeding, “Didn’t think the mouse was that important in the post apocalypse.”
“The mouse is always important!” Sebastian exclaimed while he took out another soldier.
Alyx looked between Sebastian and Eli with deep confusion, “What mouse?!!”
”INCOMING!!” Pierce shouted as he turned to see an Antlion charging the group from behind.
Alyx did have a chance to react before being pinned up against the wall by the Antlion. Eli groaned as he was thrown to the side, they both watched as the previous Antlion approached Gordon and sniffed his wound. It hissed viciously its wings flapping furiously, causing the others that surrounded them to do the same. All at once they flew off leaving Eli and Alyx confused.
“Holy shit!! It’s a swarm!!” Barney announced as hundreds of Antlions began to emerge from the shore, each one flying at the Combine above them. Soon the bullets stopped and instead it began to rain soldier gore as the over sized insects ripped them to shreds.
“HA! Would ya look at that!” Eli shouted.
Alyx stood in awe, “They… They are attacking because of Gordon! Th-That one Antlion that came up to Gordon saw him get shot.. They’re..! Defending us??”
“N’ Now their rain’n hell down upon th’ Combine!” Sebastian laughed as he watched a soldier get dragging out of a window head first and dangled over the beach by an Antlion.
“Then what are we wait’n for! This ‘s chance t’ book it!!” Pierce shouted and began pushing everyone to move. Him and Barney quickly scoop the confused Gordon up and take off towards the other end of the shore following after the others, leaving the soldiers to fend for themselves.
They don’t stop running until the water treatment facility disappears behind them. They slow down to more of a walk by the time they reach a wooded area next to a road. Sebastian looks down at his map as they walk.
“Alright! Base should be not far after th’ bridge!” He points ahead of them where the road turns into a small bridge over a water way. Just across the water was the faint glow of Black Mesa East. “There she is! Home sweet home!”
“Then let’s keep moving.. We’re almost there..” Barney says as he tries to catch his breath from running while supporting Freeman.
Gordon slowly moves to stand on his own, his body feeling numb now that the Morphine had hit his blood stream.
They began moving again, only this time taking it a little slower since they were all but at Black Mesa East’s doorstep.
The group slowly shambled across the bridge and up the hill to the building. Eli walked ahead and typed in the code to open the doors. Everyone piled into a Black Mesa styled check point airlock. Once the door slammed behind them and locked the lights flicked off and a red laser began scanning the entire room.
”Hold on.. We’ve got something,” A female voice echoed through the speakers. “Multiple human signatures.. except.. huh.. that’s odd. It’s human shaped? The scanners must be acting up again,” She mumbled to herself. “Hello in there! Just one moment! You’re safe now!”
Once the scan was complete the lights came back on and the shutters opened to reveal a window into an office room. A woman in a turtle neck stood on the other side with a few others.
“I knew when I saw so many human signatures on the scanner it was you. Kleiner said you guys were on your way, but we weren’t expecting you so soon! Come in!” She said in surprise.
The shutters closed and the adjacent doors opened allowing them access to the rest of the building.
The woman quickly came around to meet them, pulling Eli into a tight hug. “I am so happy to see you are all alright.” Eli smiled and returned the gesture. “We’re fine, Judith, just tired, is all.”
Alyx rolled her eyes and pushed past the two, “Yup. We’re all super. Thanks for asking.” She said sarcastically. “I’m going to find D0g,” She said before disappearing down a hall.
Sebastian and Pierce moved to set their things down and unpack handling ammo, medical supplies, and weapons to the other resistance members there.
“Dr. Gordon Freeman, I presume?”
Gordon turned to face the woman who was now focused on him. He nodded and raised a brow, reaching a hand out to instinctively shake her’s.
“I’m Dr. Mossman, Dr. Judith Mossman. I have been hearing about you since long before the Black Mesa incident. Oh… Black Mesa.. I do so envy you working with Eli and Dr. Kleiner when they were at the top of their field,” Judith’s smile faltered for a moment as her grip tightened on Gordon’s hand. “Y-You know I had actually interviewed for your position back at Black Mesa. Guess I’m lucky I didn’t seem to make the cut,” She said jokingly. Gordon swore he caught a glint of something else in her eye. It made him uncomfortable.
Barney winced at that and shot Judith a glare.
Gordon gave her an awkward smile and nod before pulling his hand from her grip.
“I’m sorry, you’ll have to forgive my eagerness I-I’m just so excited to think we will finally have the chance to work together,” Her expression softened. “This place is nothing like Black Mesa, but it has served us well. I’m sure it’s going to be a lot more like Black Mesa with you around to help, Dr. Freeman.”
“Right you are!” Eli laughed and joined Judith, “M.I.T. graduates are few and far between these days. We’ll get you out of that hazard suit and back into your lab coat where you belong.” He smiles and puts a reassuring hand on Gordon’s shoulder, “Judith is a trusted associate. She helps us out in the lab, but most importantly in the field as a Combine informant.”
“Oh that reminds me, Jameson sent me an email just as you all showed up. Let me finish up some work and I will see what I can dig up,” Judith said before she began walking towards the door. “Dr. Freeman!” Gordon turned his attention to her one last time. “It’s been a real honor. I am looking forward to working together.” She says with a nervous smile before leaving back to her office space.
Gordon nods awkwardly, letting go of a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in her presence.
“Now, before you go exploring you should go have that bullet wound looked at down in the infirmary. I’m sure Barney could help show you the way?” Eli said, gesturing for Barney to help.
“Sure can! C’mon, Doc. Lets get ya all patched up,” Barney said as he pushed Gordon along to an old lift. Once they got in Gordon watched as each floor went by watching Vortiguants and other resistance members working together in the kitchen or charging up generators. The ride was quiet, but Gordon couldn’t help but feel like he was being studied by the other man. He tried to ignore it.
After the doors open Barney ushered them out and down the hall and up to a room with a red cross above it’s doorway. Barney sat Gordon down on a cot and began helping him take off the HEV suit.
Gordon could feel the tension between them but was too cowardly to say something so he chose to stay silent as he unlatched pieces of his armor and watched as his fell to the floor with a heavy clang.The heavy sound of each piece helped ground him, helped him forget how irritated the other man felt towards him at the moment.
Suddenly in the back of his mind he felt the same fuzzy static feeling he felt when he encountered the Antlion and the Bull Squids. He turned to see a Vortiguant wearing a lab coat walk into the room along side a human dressed like a doctor. Gordon gulped. Not a Vortigaunt. Anything but a Vortiguant.
“Calm down, doc..” Barney said as he unhooked Gordon’s chest plate. “The Vortigaunts ain’t gonna hurt ya. They are just here to help ya.. Just relax.”
Gordon nodded nervously as he held his arms above his head for Barney to pull the chest piece off. He tried his best to keep his eyes and mind on something- anything else, but his eyes kept wandering back to the vortigaunt.
“There now ya should be able t’ get t’ the wound.” Barney said as he began unwrapping the bandages on Gordon’s shoulder. The doctor nods as She begins pulling out various tools and cleaning ointments.
“Alright, Dr. Freeman. I am just going to examine the affected area, extract the bullet, clean it up, and send you on your way, ok?” The doctor spoke calmly as she put on gloves.
Gordon nodded and swallowed nervously as the Vortigaunt stood there staring at him. He felt like a specimen under a microscope. The vortigaunt no doubt was experiencing the same sensation he was. The vort narrowed its gaze slightly, as if reading The Freeman’s thoughts.
“My colleague is here to observe so they learn to treat similar wounds in the future. They are just observing,” The doctor gestured to the Vort who waved with a smile.
Gordon returns the gesture nervously.
“Now. Let me take a look here.” She leans in and wipes the wound with a clean cloth and disinfectant before reaching in with tools to grab the butt of the bullet. “Lucky for you, it seems your armor saved the rest of your shoulder from being impacted. Without it being there to slow the bullet down your shoulder would be shattered.” She says as she slowly pulls the bullet out of his skin and drops it on a metal pan below her.
She moves to fill the wound with disinfectant and antibiotic ointment before packing it with gauze and wrapping it with a fresh bandage.
“Sheesh!” Barney remarked as he looked at the bullet. “Good thing ya still got morphine in yer system, doc! Or you’d been scream’n with the size of that thing.”
The doctor turned to Barney and handed him a roll of bandages. “His bandages will need to be changed before he goes to bed and when he wakes up in the morning. Here are some bandages and more antibiotic cream.”
Barney takes them with a nod, “Thanks, doc. I’ll be sure t’ help em out.”
Gordon couldn’t help but stare at the Vortigaunt as it left the room with the doctor. They know. They have to know, right? What if they tell everyone? What then?
“Alright Gord’n. Let's get ya to a room n’ into some fresh clothes, yeah?” Barney asked as he helped Gordon down from the tall cot.
Gordon wobbled at first, it felt weird not having the HEV suit stand for him after hours of being in it. Once he got his balance he followed Barney out of the room and down another hall. This one seemed wider with doors lining the walls on either side. Barney stopped and opened the door to one and waved Gordon in. The room was bare with an old mattress along the back wall made neatly into a bed with a few pillows and bedsheets. Next to it was a side table with a lamp that was illuminating the room. At the other corner there was a door leading to a small bathroom and a potted Xen plant that glowed a faint green. There was a dresser next to it with fresh clothes laid out on top.
“It ain’t much but its luxury in the post-apocalypse,” Barney commented with a smile. “I’ll leave ya to it. When yer done just go to the lift and press level 3 that should bring ya t’ the cafeteria. I’ll meet ya down there fer some grub,” And with that Barney shut the door behind him leaving Gordon alone with his thoughts.
Gordon looked around before he decided to peel himself out of this tight under suit and get into some real clothes for the first time since the Resonance Cascade. He walked over to the dresser to find a nice soft cream colored sweater and some sweat pants along with some wool socks, fresh underwear, and a pair of shoes. He almost could not wait to get out of the restrictive clothes he was in, all but ripping it off his body.
He let out a sigh of relief feeling the cool air on his skin now that it was free from its restrictive prison. He held the suit in his hands rubbing his fingers over the torn blood stained fabric on the left shoulder. He’d have to make sure that got fixed before the next time he put it on.
Gordon let the dirty undersuit hit the floor as he moved to put on his fresh warm clothes. The shoes were a size too big but he wasn’t going to complain. He sighed in content as he sat down on the edge of the mattress.
What was he going to do.. The Vortigaunts are sure to find out if they don’t already know that there is something wrong with him… And what about that… thing that happened back at the water treatment plant. He saw one of those things kill Eli.. One of those Advisors. What does that mean? Was it a vision of what was to come? Was it a sign? Or was it his mind playing tricks on him? How does one address something like.. that!
Gordon groaned and rubbed his hands over his eyes under his glasses and just sat there for a moment while he stewed in his own thoughts. Then he remembered.
“...Letting your mind wander is one of the worst things you can do when you're vulnerable. Staying close to those you care about helps keep you grounded.”
Alyx’s words echoed through his mind pulling him from his rappid spiral.
Right. Perhaps it's best if he were to stay with the others for right now. Besides, he could go for an actual meal. He remembered seeing those Vortigaunts cooking with real vegetables and meat causing his stomach to growl.
Gordon sighed before running a hand through his hair pulling out knots before standing up and making his way out of the room and down to the cafeteria.
Who knows.. Maybe he’ll eat some food, go to bed, and wake up all normal again tomorrow!
12:58 am
Location: Eli’s Lab
The lights were off for the night, the only light sources being Xen specimens throughout the lab and a Computer screen on the wall. Eli sat impatiently waiting in front of a virtual call screen. This was the second time he had attempted to call Dr. Chettmen. He was beginning to lose hope on ever getting a hold of him. The older man groaned to himself, wiping the exhaustion from his eyes. Just as he went to end the call and try again there was a soft knock on the doorway adjacent to him.
Eli jolted up instinctively immediately relaxing when he realized it was Judith.
“Sorry to bother you so late, Eli.. I hope I am not interrupting anything?” Judith spoke softly as she slowly approached the other’s desk.
Eli sits back down looking up at the other with a soft smile, “Oh not at all, what is it?”
“It’s just that I noticed that earlier the scanner picked up this when you all came in,” She handed Eli a paper with the print out of the scan’s results. “I-I figured it was just the scanner acting up again but… considering the circumstances of.. recent events.. I thought I’d bring it up to you.”
Eli furrowed his brows and looked down at the paper in his hands. The scanned image showed the outline of all 6 individuals, each passing the scan as human. But when it came to Gordon’s results the scanner drew a blank.
“That..is…odd,” Eli said hesitantly, his hand rubbing his stubbly chin.
“The strangest part was during the scan his result kept bouncing between human and null. Almost as if his presence confused the scanners entirely,” Judith explained. “I just.. I would like to think it wasn’t anything.. m-maybe it was his suit? After all, we have never run the Hazard suit through the scanners before?” She tried to justify.
Eli set the paper down and stared at the outgoing call on his screen still ringing from before. “Maybe… Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. Like you said it could have easily been the shape of the hazard suit that threw the sensors off.. we’ll have to re-calibrate them for next time. Thank you for telling me, Judith.”
“Of course! It's never a problem, Eli..” Judith moved to the doorway, “I’ll leave you to it then. Jameson should be able to call back in a few minutes. You know how Dr. Breen can get..”
Eli chuckled at that, “Oh trust me, I know.”
And with that Judith left the room with a smile leaving Eli to his computer screens once more. It wasn’t long before Kleiner suddenly joined the call.
“Oh hey Izzy! I didn’t think you were supposed to join us today?”
Kleiner smiled tiredly while readjusting his glasses, “Yes well, I couldn’t find it in myself to sleep so I thought I might as well make myself useful. Besides.. it's been a while since I’ve spoken with Jamie..” He looked down, fidgeting with his hands sheepishly. His cheeks seeming s bit flushed.
Eli smiled to himself, “I understand.. I worry about him too.. We’ll get him outta the Combine’s hands eventually, Izzy. And that's a promise,” His tone shifted to be more serious, trying to reassure his friend.
Kleiner nodded, “I know.. but I still can’t help but worry.. Especially on nights like this when.. Oh!”
Just then the screen shifted showing that Dr. Chettmen had finally joined the call. The other two men sat eagerly while they waited for the video feed to load in. Both of their hearts sank when they finally saw the state their friend was in.
“Jamie, I’m glad you could finally- m-my god..?! W-what happened?” Eli exclaimed, Kleiner gasping in the background.
Chettmen’s face was stained with tears as he tried his best to put on a smile for the others. The skin below his left eye was bruised and puffy with a fresh cut running through his eyebrow. Blood was smeared on his forehead and on his hand from the new wound.
The biologist opened his mouth to speak but found himself at a loss for words. He wiped his eyes with shaky hands, trying his best not to break back down.
“Jameson, calm down! Breathe and tell us what is wrong? Who did that to you?” Kleiner asked with concern, though he knew the answer already.
Jameson took a deep shaken breath before trying to speak again, “I-I..I’m fine… it was just a bit of an… a.. disagreement.. W-Wallace didn’t mean to push me is all.. I-I fell into a-a lab table. I-It was nothing..! H-Honest…”
“Bullshit,” Eli blurted out under his breath. “Breen didn’t do this by accident and you know it, Jamie. Don’t make up excuses for him.”
Chettmen looked down at his hands sheepishly. “I-I know…,” he sniffled.
Kleiner sighed, “Jamie, we’ve talked about this.. there is no excuse for Wallace’s actions. No one should be laying hands on you! Even if it is an accident!” The physicist grew heated and began shouting in anger.
“Izzy, calm down.. yelling about it isn’t going to undo what has happened,” Eli tried to calm the other down.
“I-I’m sorry, I just..Uugh! Cannot stand that man!” Kleiner growled looking at something off screen.
“I…I’m sorry..” Chettmen spoke softly.
Both men’s expressions immediately softened to ones of worry and concern.
“No, Jamie.. you don’t need to apologize for anything. You have not done anything wrong,” Eli explained in a gentle tone. “Are you still alright enough to continue with tonight’s meeting? We can reschedule for another time if you need to?”
“N-No! I… I’d rather not.. be alone r-right now,” Jameson took another deep breath before straightening himself out and cleaning his face off with a tissue. “Besides, maybe this will help keep my mind off of… things..”
“Are you sure, Jamie?” Kleiner asked nervously.
Chettmen gave a warm smile, “Yes, I’m sure, Izzy.”
“Alright, we’ll continue, but only if right after you go to the infirmary and have that cut cleaned and wrapped up,” Eli said pointing a finger at the camera for emphasis.
Jameson chuckled, “I promise. I’ll go to them and then straight to bed.”
Both men’s faces fell and Chettmen was quick to respond, “N-Not with Wallace! Don’t worry.. I-I told him I would be sleeping in my own room tonight.”
“Good,” Kleiner hissed.
“Anyways.. with that addressed, it is time to get down to business,” Eli said as he began flipping through his papers. “What is the update on the situation regarding Breen?”
Chettmen sat up, “He is oblivious to anything the resistance has planned. I brought up the idea of tracking Gordon via signals and thankfully the buffoon gave me full unfettered access to the signal data. So the Combine should be thrown off your trail by tomorrow morning once the signal scrambling is complete.” Jameson smirked, “I took it upon myself to have a fake virtual Gordon running around based on his real last known location. Sending the Combine on one of the biggest wild goose chases in history.”
“Good, cause there is no doubt we had Combine following us. We had a few run ins on our way over here,” Eli commented.
“Black Mesa East’s location is secure,” Jameson reassured. “And if for some off chance you feel like you’ve been caught, let me know immediately so I can pull a few strings.”
“Will do, Jamie,” Eli nodded, writing his notes down.
“N-Now regarding the vault we found Gordon in?” Kleiner asked.
“Yeah.. Izzy brings up a good point. Why did the Combine have Gordon locked up with such tight security?” Eli added.
Chettmen sighed, “I am afraid I do not know everything.. but I can tell you what I do know. Five years ago Wallace came to me telling me they had found Freeman alive. He never told me how they found him,” He explained. “Wallace told me there was something off with Gordon and wanted me to run some tests, so I did. And what I found.. was not.. normal. His white blood cell count was abnormally high and he had trace amounts of that blue Xen fluid in his blood. It was odd to say the least.”
Eli and Kleiner looked at one another before writing down their own notes on the matter.
“When I presented Wallace and the rest of the Combine with this data they freaked out! Wallace immediately locked Freeman up in a special chamber where he was forced into stasis. Eventually he had the vault built to house him, enslaving Vortiguants to power the machine that held him prisoner,” Chettmen sighed as he tried to recall what happened next, “W-When I asked Wallace why this was necessary he grew defensive and told me I had to keep running tests on the man every six months. Of course nothing would change because the man was in stasis but nonetheless I did what I was told.”
“Aand what about now?” Kleiner asked.
“Now.. All Wallace tells me is that Gordon is dangerous and must be kept contained,” Jameson explained.
“Why do you think that is?” Eli questioned, trying his best to dig deeper to get Chettmen to spill what else he knew. While he trusted the other with his life, he knew how he tended to hide things for others sake. It took someone with experience with Jameson Chettmen to know how to extract that information.
Chettmen rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “I umm… I’m not going to lie to you Eli… my last tests I ran.. scared me.”
“How so?”
“The last sample I took was a live one. I extracted a large piece of skin from the back of Gordon’s knee cap. At first all was well, it was nothing more than a piece of skin,” He explained, “But as time went on.. the skin cells began to change. The very DNA found in the sample began to mutate violently. Almost as if something was disassembling each strand and reassembling it until the skin sample’s DNA no longer matched that of a human. Or any of the dead DNA samples I had previously extracted. When left alive the cells became violent and erratic. Like nothing I had ever seen before. The longer the sample was out of stasis.. the worse it got.”
“S-So what does this mean exactly?” Kleiner asked with concern in his voice.
“I-I’m not quite sure.. Wallace made me kill the sample before it grew any more,” Jameson answered. “The strangest part of it all is that while the sample changed on a chemical and molecular level.. it never changed visually.. All I can say is there is a reason the Combine is scared of Dr. Freeman for more reasons than what the eye can see.”
Eli furrowed his brow at that before glancing down at the scan results Judith had handed him before. He stared at Gordon’s results, Chettmen’s words echoing in his mind.
..more reasons than the eye can see…
“Should we be concerned at all?” Eli said without thinking.
Kleiner gasped, “Eli! This is Gordon we are talking about! Why would he of all people pose a threat to the resistance?”
“Now, Izzy. Eli’s concerns are valid,” Jameson spoke up. “As for your question, Eli.. I cannot say for certain. I would need another live sample to study in order to know more. Without it I am just as blind to the situation as you are.”
Eli nodded to himself and sat in silence for a moment while he thought. He clicked his pen in his hand, setting it down on the desk in front of him, “Then we will just have to get you a sample.”
“Eli!” Kleiner argued.
“Whatever you do, don’t let Gordon find out,” Chettmen stated. “If there is something happening with him he is most likely already aware of it and is reluctant to speak about it. If he notices you have caught on it will only scare him more than he already is. Or worse he will think you are going to turn against him.”
“Jameson!” Kleiner pleaded.
“Izzy, it is in everyone’s best interest if we investigate this,” Eli explained.
“But it's Gordon, for heaven’s sake!” Kleiner countered.
“Yes, but Izzy if his DNA is doing the same thing I observed from his original live sample then this could be much more dangerous than even the Combine knows,” Chettmen explained. “The last thing we want is for anyone to get hurt, and that includes Gordon.”
“So neither of you trust him is what I am hearing?” Kleiner crossed his arms and huffed, visibly upset.
“Izzy, it's not that we don’t trust Gordon.. Jamie you can explain it better than me,” Eli sighed letting Jameson pick up where he couldn’t.
Chettmen nodded, “Like Eli was saying it's not Gordon we don’t trust, it's the unpredictability of the situation. If this is as serious as I suspect then Gordon may pose more of a threat to everyone, including himself, than the Combine. And that is only if the situation is not addressed quickly enough.”
“S…so you're saying if there is something wrong with him and we catch it early.. we could help him?” Kleiner asks, hesitantly.
“Precisely!” Chettmen chimed.
Kleiner nodded in defeat, “Fine.. I’ll agree to it.. but I still can’t help but feel like we are betraying Gordon’s trust in some way. After all, doesn't he deserve to know what is going on with his own body?”
“What he doesn’t know won’t kill ‘im, Izzy,” Eli reassured.
“And once we know what is wrong, then we will inform him,” Jameson added. “But for now it's best not to scare him off.”
Kleiner sighed, “Alright.. So how will we obtain the sample?”
“Leave that to me. I’m sure we can find a way to do this discreetly,” Eli said while rubbing his chin in thought.
“Well, I do believe that is all the time I have for now. It has been lovely speaking with you both,” Chettmen smiled.
“You as well, Jamie!” Kleiner said with a soft smile, raising Lamarr’s claw up to wave good-bye.
“You two take care,” Eli said his good-byes before they all signed off for the night. The moment the call ended Eli’s smile fell with a sigh. He tried to rub the exhaustion from his eyes while he thought of ways to get a sample for Chettmen.
He’d have to bring Barney and Alyx in the loop. After all they are the two who have been by Gordon’s side this entire time. If anyone has seen anything weird, it was probably them.
As far as getting the sample to Chettmen… that was a whole other problem.. for a completely different day.