Alyx,
I hope this transmission finds you well. I have sent the order for the Railroad to tear down the stations and cover their tracks. Gordon should be showing up at Black Mesa east within the next day. Eli might be writing the next transmission, in fact he might be able to tell you himself! Anyway, where were we?
The door opened. It was a Security Guard standing over the body of that creature I had seen
“Heya doc. Today got real interesting, huh?” he chuckled.
“I suppose you could say that. Say, have you seen Gordon around here?”
“Freeman? No. The last I heard, he had made it onto the surface, but that was an hour ago. No idea where he is now, and my radio’s all busted up. Here, take it, maybe you can fix it up.”
He handed me a handheld radio. I tried to turn it on. Nothing. I clipped it to my belt.
“Thank you, Mr… Say, what is your name?”
“Brian, how about yours?”
“Kleiner, Issac Kleiner, and him over there is Eli Vance.”
Brian walked over to Eli, but then yelled.“An alien! How’d it get in here?!”
He drew his pistol, but before he could fire I ran in front of him.
“Don’t kill it! I’ve removed anything harmful!”
Brian looked at me with a sideways glance, and holstered his firearm.
I turned to Lamarr, who was cowering in the corner. I crouched down, and reached my hand out to coax her out of the corner. At first she didn’t respond to me, but eventually she gained interest in me. She slowly approached my hand, and with a sound not too dissimilar to sniffing. She ran over to my feet as I stood up. I walked back over to Eli, Lamarr following close behind. Brian followed, eyeing my new pet rather closely.
“Eli. Do you think you think you'll be able to walk?”
Eli was now able to stand and even walk on his new leg, albeit slowly, with a heavy limp.
“Yeah Izzy, We should move out.”
Brain approached me with his pistol in his hand.“Also doc, I know you don’t want to, but you should take this.” He handed me the firearm.
“Your pistol? But you need this!”
As a response, the security guard held up another pistol.
“That one’s not mine. This one is. I picked that one up from guy a bit less lucky than me.”
Eli walked over. “My god, how bad is it out there?”
“Not too good. People have been falling left and right. The military showed up, but they seem too trigger happy to care if what in their crosshairs is human or alien.”
I spoke up,
“We need to get out of here. Especially Eli. Will you escort us?”
The security guard paused for a second.“Hmm… Ah hell, sure, Didn’t want to die alone anyway!”
We all let out a morbid chuckle as we departed from the room. Eli was obviously struggling to grasp the finesse of his new leg
“So, what have you seen?”
“Ah, hell. More like what haven’t I seen? Creatures that latch onto heads, Dogs with fifty eyes, human-like things muttering Tuns, like the one I shot down back there.”
“And the military?” Eli asked
“They seem to be here to shut us up and not to rescue us. Be careful if you run into them, they shoot first ask questions later. the-” The security guard was cut off by a sound. Chittering.
“Shh, eyes open. It’s a headhumper.”
A headcrab crawled in through a hole through the hallway. It hadn’t noticed us. I raised my gun.
“Alright doc, just point and pull the trigger.”
Hands shaking, I raised the pistol, and pulled the trigger.
I missed.
The headcrab noticed us. I fired again.
Missed.
The headcrab was approaching us. I pulled the trigger.
*click!*
“Ah, shit doc.”
The Security guard pulled out his pistol, and pulled the trigger.
*click*
“Did I forget to reload?”
The headcrab leaped at us. The guard and I crouched and dodged it, but Eli wasn’t so lucky. Eli Caught it with this hands, attempting to keep it off of him.
I looked around for something to kill it with. A broken off bit of pipe sat next to me. I picked it up and swung as hard as I could. It fell out of Eli’s hands.
I hit it again.
And again.
And again.
I hit it until it was nothing but yellowish bits in the metal floor.
“Thanks Izzy.” Eli sighed with relief, as the guard handed me pistol ammunition.
“Sorry Doc, I forgot to give you these.” He reloaded his own gun.
“Nice job disposing of that thing. You’re a regular Ellen Ripley.”
He laughed as I picked Eli up off the ground. Lamarr didn’t seem too pleased with the events that had just transpired. She ran
The last time this was meaningfully touched was 2019. I think about it a lot - but I'm not sure I'll ever get back to it in a meaningful way.