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[Champski]

Seeing as chapter three crashed and burned, I figured it was because I posted the whole bastardload of writing all at once, and it was quite a bit of writing. Thinking about it now, I really should've done it in parts. Therefore, as the chapters get bigger, I will begin to post them in parts, that is if you all still want to read it.


Chapter 4: Office Complex

The sight that stood before Gordon was very unsettling. He was now on the office floor of Black Mesa, by the looks of things, anyway. On the wall in front of him was a sign showing where to go:

<====Admin Offices
====>Exec. Lounge
<====Cafeteria

Gordon stepped out of the elevator, very slowly. He didn't feel safe at all where he was now. Gordon could barely see the space around him; the fluorescent bar lights flickering on every now and then, illuminating the black and beige checkquered floor, and the blood spattered across it. Gordon saw something dangling in front of him and when the lights flickered on, he saw a pair of human legs dangling out of the ceiling. Gordon walked towards them, and from out of nowhere, there was a loud growl, and the legs were yanked right back into the hole in the ceiling. Gordon cautiously walked towards the hole in the ceiling and turned on his suit's flashlight, but saw nothing. Gordon backed away from the hole in the ceiling and walked up to the big red double doors on his right, which according to the sign, would take him to the Executive Lounge. Gordon tried opening the doors, but they were locked. There were two scientists trapped in the room together, arguing by the looks of things. Whilst they were arguing, the tongue of a barnacle broke through the ceiling and lashed one of them, the other running into the corner on the other side of the room, able to do nothing but watch.

The tongue wrapped around the unfortunate scientists neck, pulling him up into the ceiling while he was flailing and grabbing at his throat. He disappeared into the darkness, there was a terrible CRUNCH and seconds later, the tongue slowly lowered itself back down, curling up and down looking for something else to grab. Gordon turned around and saw two or three headcrabs waddling towards him. Gordon readied his glock, but noticed several cut and frayed live cables hanging from the ceiling, as they were sparking all over the place, the occasional jolt of electricity jumping out. The headcrabs all leapt at Gordon, getting caught in the cables in the process. They were fried, and the cables set on fire. Gordon noticed a vent just to the right of the cables. Being careful not to interfere with the cables, Gordon broke the vent covering with his crowbar and crawled in.

To Gordon's right, the vent led up a slope around the corner. To Gordon's left, he couldn't see either, as the left turned around a corner, too. Gordon took his chances with the left turn, and saw that up ahead, it lead to what appeared to be a large cylindrical room, too tall for Gordon to see inside the vent, and in the middle of the room was a massive fan, spinning too fast for Gordon to see the blades, just the circular outline it created. Gordon peered up against the vent cover....
"SCREEEEEE!" A headcrab jumped up against the vent cover on the other side, causing Gordon to fall on his back and scramble away. Gordon could now see another crawling around in the room, and one already attatched to a dead security guard. Gordon took both of the headcrabs out through the vent cover with his pistol. Gordon could see a vent cover from behind the spinning fan, which Gordon figured was where the split in the vent to his right led, and wouldn't be wise a choice, for obvious reasons. Gordon leant back, kicked the vent cover out, and poked his head out. There weren't any other vents to get to, and with the fan in the room with him, he wouldn't have tried anyway. Gordon crawled back and went up the slope he saw before on his right.

Gordon reached the end of the slope to meet another vent cover, and Gordon kicked it out to find he was on the other side of the locked doors of the Executive Lounge. Gordon climbed out onto a vending machine, just a couple of metres from the barnacle tongue that devoured the scientist.Gordon remembered the other scientist and saw him standing in the corned on the other side of the room, just as he was before. Actually, now that Gordon could see him up close, he recognized him as one of his workmates, Robert King. Gordon proceeded to walk towards him, but a barnacle broke through the ceiling with his tongue, and just about caught Gordon for lunch. Gordon edged around the barnacle's tongue, and was almost caught by a third tongue breaking through the ceiling. Gordon made his way around them all and reached Robert on the other side of the room. “Gordon! If I'd known it was you before, I would've let you in.” Gordon just grinned again and thought about how he'd once again taken the hard way when he could just as easily have taken the easy way. “Everyone's heading for the surface, but I think they're crazy not to stay put. Someone is bound to come by and rescue us.” Robert wished Gordon good luck, and they both shook hands. Gordon ran out past the frayed cables and down to the end of the hall where he saw a single red door, but it was locked. There was, however, a window next to it, which Gordon smashed with the crowbar, and crawled through.

From where Gordon was, there was a small red door directly to his right, and a window next to it, which had already been broken. Next to the door, there was a small sign that read

DR. NEWELL
Scheduled chaos theory R&D

To the left of the small red door was another pair of big red doors, locked like the last pair. Gordon's only choice right now was the broken window, and it didn't look promising. Gordon looked through the window to see a room filled with water, up to about knee high; a counter top running along the side of the room had a basin in it, and the tap was on, water flowing over the edge out into the room. Gordon would've walked in, but saw that a panel of fluorescent lights had fallen from the ceiling, and that the cables were still connected. The rest of the lights in the room were on, and Gordon could see the fallen lights were still glowing under the water. Of course, since the cables were in the water, it had made the liquid electrified. There was a stack of tables around the cables, all toppled over, except for one against the wall, which the toppled ones were leaning on. There was also a smaller basin on the left side of the room, and most importantly, there was a vent on Gordon's left, a couple of feet from the smaller basin on the left. There was a table in the water a few feet from Gordon, just above knee level, and not floating, which was lucky for Gordon. Gordon would be able to reach it if he jumped, he just hoped he didn't miss. Gordon pulled himself to the other side of the window frame, holding on from the outside edge, and pushed himself off, landing on the table.

Gordon breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to the counter top running along the wall on his right, being careful not to touch the water flowing out of the sink, as that too would be conducting the electricity. Gordon made it to the other side of the sink without being fried, and saw the table sitting on it's legs, up against the wall. Gordon leapt over and landed on the table safely, although he was only just avoiding the cables hanging in the water. Gordon jumped safely over to the small sink on his right now, and saw the light switch. Gordon flipped it, and all the lights went out, except for the red emergency ones built into the walls, which now set a dim red glow across the room. Gordon turned on his suit's flashlight, and walked through the water to the vent. Gordon saw three headcrabs at the top of the vent's slope that were all now waddling towards him. Gordon ran back up onto the smaller basin, and waited for the headcrabs to run out of the vent. All three of them jumped out, looking for Gordon. He turned on the lights.

Gordon let the red glow of the emergency lights bathe the room again, and stepped over the mess he'd created, up into the vent. Gordon's flashlight started flickering on and off randomly, and Gordon thought there might be something wrong with the suit, but noticed a glowing icon in the top right corner of his HUD, a flashlight with a ray coming out the end, indicating it was on. It was glowing red though, and Gordon noticed a small bar filling the flashlight's shape was decreasing. The flashlight shape was now empty, and Gordon was left in the vent's darkness. He'd forgotten that although the flashlight would work as long as the suit had power, it had an emergency cutoff time of five minutes to conserve the suit's power. The flashlight shape on the HUD then filled up to indicate how long you had to wait until you could use the flashlight again. The flashlight shape was full again within a minute, and was now glowing orange like the rest of the HUD. Gordon switched it back on, but once he turned the corner, switched it off, because everything was bathed in an eerie green glow.

Gordon turned the vent's corner and saw the green glow was coming from a hidden cylindrical space in the walls, which contained a massive fan coming down from the ceiling, just like the one Gordon saw before, except it had torn through the vents walls and was cutting in. There was only just enough space for Gordon to slide under. Gordon, keeping as flat as possible, slid under the fan slowly, breathing lightly to avoid raising his body too much. Gordon breathed in as deep as he could once he made it past the fan and underneath the roof of the vent once again. As tight as it was, it was better than being diced. Gordon continued down the passage the vent took. The vent turned left, and stopped at the cover. Gordon kicked it open and crawled out onto some weird padded floor. Gordon leaned on the padding and it gave way beneath him. Gordon tumbled out onto the floor, and looked ahead to see big red double doors. Gordon opened them and walked out to see the room filled with water that he had been in minutes ago. These were the double doors Gordon couldn't open from this side, and he moaned when he realized everything would probably continue to be this difficult.

Gordon ran back through the big red doors when a pack of headcrabs broke through the ceiling, leaving a big hole. Gordon drew his pistol and started firing, taking out each headcrab with precision accuracy. He was rather surprised at this, but his smile faded when something in the bottom right of the HUD was glowing. It was the ammo counter, and however it was doing it, it read that Gordon only had five bullets left in total, and no secondary ammunition.

5 | 0

Gordon let the clip out of his pistol, and saw looking through the side of the clip that there were indeed only five bullets in there, and looking on his weapons belt, there were no spare clips left. Gordon stared in awe at how there could be such technology in the times Gordon and everyone else were living in. And then again, Gordon was working at Black Mesa. There was a small red door on Gordon's left, but it was locked. If Gordon could get up into the ceiling...
Gordon remembered a room just to the right of the double doors he was standing inside of now. Wasn't it a storage room? Gordon ran out through the doors and saw a small wooden door on his right with a small plaque above it that read simply “STORAGE”. Gordon tried opening the door, but it was locked. That's when he heard a growl. At that moment, two claws burst through the wooden door, sending Gordon flying across the floor. The claws pushed out further through the door and broke it down, pulling the wood out of the door frame, to reveal a zombie, swiping it's arms through the air, trying to attack Gordon, but hitting nothing. Lying on his back trying to get up, Gordon took his pistol and shot up at the zombie, hitting once in the chest and three times in the 'crab. Gordon's ammo counter was now glowing red:

1 | 0

Gordon got up and searched the storage room, and found to his relief, two ammo clips for the glock. He was glad, but he started wondering, where the hell was all this ammo coming from? At any rate, the counter was much higher now, reading:

1 | 36

Gordon reloaded and slid in a new clip so his counter now read:

18 | 19

Aside from all the new ammo, there was a bunch of crates, which is exactly what Gordon wanted. There were plenty there, but Gordon only needed a big one, and a small one, which is what he took. Putting the small one on top of the big one, which was significantly larger, Gordon grabbed the big crate and dragged it back through the double doors to where the hole in the ceiling was. Gordon took the smaller crate and placed it next to the big one, to step up on. The big one was too high for even Gordon to get on top of, and Gordon was a tall guy. Gordon climbed up on top of the big crate, looking for somewhere to go. He looked straight up and saw a short ladder, so he jumped up on that and climbed it's short height to see a higher level of the ceiling. Gordon climbed into the tiny space, as it was a fairly low level, but enough to climb around in. There was a grate in the floor that Gordon slammed out with the crowbar, and that led down to a tiny tunnel with a grate you could only just see through, good enough for viewing though. Through the blurred vision of the grating, Gordon could see a big doorway leading down through a hall, with a sign next to the doorway reading:

HIGH SECURITY STORAGE FACILITY
authorized personnel only

From where Gordon was watching, he could only just see a scientist to the left of him slouched down against the wall, dead, blood spattered on the wall behind him, and bleeding out onto the floor. There were boxes and crates, wooden and metal, scattered across the room. Just as Gordon was taking what he could see in, he saw a scientist run out through the hall, a headcrab chasing after him. He ran out into the open space, standing amongst the crates made of wood and metal, when Gordon heard something mechanical start up, cluncking and whirring. The scientist turned around, to Gordon's right, out of his field of vision, and stared with terror on his face. He turned to run back through the hall, but as soon as he tried, a stream of fiery bullets blazed through the air and perforated the ground, shooting straight through the headcrab, and pelleting the scientist, shooting him dead. He fell flat on his face, just feet away from the doorway. Gordon watched the whole event unfold and stared in horror, gasping quietly to himself, trying not to make any sort of loud noise.

The mechanical cluncking and whirring stopped, and another thing altogether started.
*beep beep beep beep*

Gordon looked around, thinking of what to do. He decided to test whatever was out there. Gordon turned around with what space he had, and with as much force as he could muster, he kicked off the grate, and out into the space as far as he could get it. There was a short whirr, and a split second later, the grate was shot against the wall with relentless force, before it could reach the ground. Gordon took a deep breath and poked his head outside the grate's opening, just enough to see what was taking all these things down. Gordon peeked out to see a turret that had descended from the ceiling, and a camera was attached underneath it, scanning around to find a target. From where Gordon was, slightly to his right, almost directly underneath him, was a large wooden crate, large enough for him to hide behind. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead, but Gordon knew what he had to do.






So there's part one, tell me if you spot any typos or grammatical errors please, cnc always welcome, more pronouns to come in the later chapters, I promise.

EDIT: Chapter 3 is still there if you want to read it, it's just a bit more of your time I'm wasting.

[Weiman]

Get rid of the ammo counter thingy IMO. Just saying "low on ammo" and "restocked" is a much better way of telling a story instead of plain dry numbers.

[Champski]

Yeah thanks, I've actually already phased that out in the later chapters, as I have with the suit batteries. I suppose it was just to give an idea of the suit's features. I'm not sure if I should keep the HUD

Yeah thanks, I've actually already phased that out in the later chapters, as I have with the suit batteries. I suppose it was just to give an idea of the suit's features. I'm not sure if I should keep the HUD idea or not. Or haven't I mentioned that yet, I can't remember.

Thanks for the comment, anyway.

[Wolf the Widowmaker]

Agreed, stay off the ASCII arts. On a website it's fine, but in a formal text..
Instead of the arrows in the beginnings you could write something like "The sign said: Admin offices and cafeteria to the left. Exec. lounge to the right"

Also, feel free to step away a bit from what a player experiences. Not all events and headcrabs have to be told about.

Otherwise, good job.

[Champski]

Thanks for the comment about the ammo counter, I have only kept it in that one chapter, and maybe a little in the next, I'm not sure. But it's dead now, and you shouldn't be seeing any more of it. I'm going to try and be a bit more descriptive with thing like that now rather than just showing the stats. Also, I know what you mean about all the encounters, I've tried to step away from that a bit. When I include an incounter from the game, recently I've been trying to make it more a part of the story rather than, there it is, I'll shoot it.

I think the coming chapters are some of the best so far, and I hope you guys like them too. Thanks a lot for these comments as well, they're all appreciated.

[TheShadowNinja]

Okay, I just have to say something (which I've also told someone else)
Please don't make a new thread for each chapter. It's really annoying. Just have one thread, where you update it with new chapters. It'll be a lot easier to read, and won't clog the General Discushun.

[Champski]

Alright, that's fine. The idea behind making a different thread for each one was rather than bunching the whole story in one thread, if I made separate ones, it'd be easier to find them if you ever needed to search for them rather than flipping through a bunch of other chapters and comments to find what you're after in the one bunched up thread. Plus no one would know if there's a new chapter up or if it's just a new comment in the one thread. I just did it this way because I thought it would be easier for you guys, and because no one else has had a problem with it until now. However if there's anyone else who wants me to post the chapters differently, then please say so, I don't want to be doing the wrong thing or anything.

[TheShadowNinja]

Alright, that's fine. The idea behind making a different thread for each one was rather than bunching the whole story in one thread, if I made separate ones, it'd be easier to find them if you ever needed to search for them rather than flipping through a bunch of other chapters and comments to find what you're after in the one bunched up thread. Plus no one would know if there's a new chapter up or if it's just a new comment in the one thread. I just did it this way because I thought it would be easier for you guys, and because no one else has had a problem with it until now. However if there's anyone else who wants me to post the chapters differently, then please say so, I don't want to be doing the wrong thing or anything.

If you're worried about comments for wrong chapters being confused, then make a posting system to use in the thread. Like name the chapter before your comment. Ignore people who don't use your system.

[Champski]

Hrrmm...yeah I suppose, but what benefits are there? Does it make that much of a difference if there are different threads? IDK, I'll change it if anyone else has a problem like I said, but whatev.

[Champski]

OK, so I'm sorta taking advice and using less threads, but I figured I'd compromise and keep the same thread for the parts of the chapter. At least that way you'll still be able to find the parts of the chapter you're after. To ensure you don't confuse them with other comments, I'll do this.

PART 2 IS OVER HEAAARRRRR!!!!!!!!!

And so it begins.






Chapter 4 part 2: Office Complex



Gordon poked his head back around the corner to see where the camera was faced, and when he saw it was facing the other side of the room, Gordon sucked in a deep breath of air, and jumped down behind the large wooden crate. Gordon landed with a loud clacking sound, and immediately, the camera and the turret swung around facing what would be Gordon, if it weren't for the large wooden crate covering his body. Gordon, back pressed against the crate, heart leaping out of his chest, breathing hard through clenched teeth. He had completely forgotten that Black Mesa not only had some of the world's most advanced technology being used and developed there, but also had some of the world's most advanced technology guarding it. Gordon's mind flashed back to when he first arrived and was being briefed on all of the equipment Black Mesa had at their disposal. The automatic turrets were mentioned, and Gordon had found out about the targeting camera already, but had completely forgotten whilst being caught up in the moment, that the turret was also equipped with state of the art “hearing” technology to sense where targets are when they make a noise, if for example the camera fails, which also had other functions that Gordon had forgotten about. The camera could not only see in RGB, but also in infra-red, ultra-violet, and thermal, which registers targets to the turret in different colours, depending on what their heat signature is. This not only means that it shows objects with a high heat signature, which may suggest they are a target, but it also picks up recent changes to other object's heat signatures, which may indicate a possible target has been in the area, or is nearby. While this made the turrets job a hell of a lot easier, it of course made Gordon's job a hell of a lot harder.

The turret turned around, and Gordon looked around the corner to see that the camera wasn't facing his direction anymore. Once it moved, Gordon bolted behind one of the large steel crates. He shuddered as he put his back against it, even through the suit he could feel that the crate was cold. He realized at this moment that sitting up against the crate like this would warm it up, and the turret might recognize the change in heat. As he was realizing this, the turret did start to turn and face Gordon's direction. The camera could see a constant change of heat against the crate, and started firing.
Gordon crouched himself into a tight ball, as tight as he could get, as the turret was releasing bullets rapid-fire against the other side of the crate, which was luckily enough steel, so it wasn't penetrating through to Gordon. He knew that since it knew where he was, it wouldn't stop, so he would still have to take his chances and bolt for it.

Gordon was crouched down next to the doorway the scientist had run through. Gordon was trying to pay as little attention to the two bodies laying in front of him as he could. Gordon closed his eyes and prayed as the bullets sparked up against the crate on the other side, denting it further now. Gordon's eyes snapped open, and and with his life on the line, he stood up and dived around the corner, through the doorway, before the turret could correct itself. It was shooting where Gordon was standing now. In the same moment, Gordon had landed right in front of a waiting pack of headcrabs, who all jumped at him while he was falling. They missed and flew straight over him out into the open, and as Gordon fell, he turned around to see them all get gunned down. Gordon landed , and although in that spit second, the world slowed down, Gordon could see everything happening around him, as soon as he hit the cold floor, everything became a blur. Gordon couldn't comprehend what had just happened. He knew he was acting different, like he had some sort of heightened perception that allowed him to see things in a different way, but as soon as that moment was over, it all just became an indescribable blur. Gordon knew if he could do it again it would help a lot. Maybe it was the praying. Maybe it was the few deep breaths before the dive that calmed him down. Whatever it was, it worked.

The hall lead up into a staircase, where Gordon was ecstatic beyond belief to find Barney in the corner, shooting at a headcrab. He shot it dead and stood up, walking over to Gordon. He had no idea how Barney had gotten ahead of him without them both seeing each other, but he was still pleased to see him. They both continued up the stairs to find a hall that, according to the plaque above the doorway, lead to Sec. D – Admin 1. It had the office style black and beige checkquered floor again. There was an office as soon as the hall started, on Gordon's left, and he went to turn the handle, when Barney chimed up. “Uhh, Gordon, I dunno, I don't think we should go any further, this just doesn't feel right.” Gordon knew they had to get to the surface and call for help though, so he gave Barney a look that said they had to get out, and Barney understood, nodding to show he agreed, even if it was reluctant. Gordon turned the handle and walked into the office to see a scientist hanging out of a vent at the top of the wall, another scientist grabbing him by the arms, trying to pull him out. There was a growl from within the vent, and both scientists were pulled straight in. Barney, now white as a ghost, screamed in fright. There was a disgusting crunching sound, the screams of both the scientists, obviously in agony, and a second later, blood and innards flew out of the vent and splattered against the wall adjacent to the vent. Barney turned away and staggered out the door like he was drunk, and Gordon vomited on the floor. He took a moment, leaning against the desk, and saw that there was an HEV suit battery sitting on the desk, probably for whoever was working in the office at the time. Gordon took the battery and clipped it in with the other one, as that had left the suit's power at only 5%, so it now raised to 30%. The battery was obviously of a higher charge than the other, since the other only gave 15% to begin with. The suit could hold four of the batteries, so Gordon would be ok for a while. Gordon cleaned himself, stood up, and walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.

Gordon walked up ahead and saw that some of the red emergency lights were on in the opening to the left. Gordon walked on, Barney walking behind. Gordon stopped at a “T” zone where he could go straight ahead or turn right. While he was wondering where to go, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He could swear something was standing in the shadow of the red light next to him...
Gordon turned to his left and turned on his flashlight to see an alien slave monster staring him right in the face. Gordon let out a scream, then fell to the floor, landing on his back, and fired off three shots at the monster as it was charging up it's lightning attack that almost killed Gordon earlier. The slave fell flat on it's face in front of Gordon, and although the slave had been the most scary creature for Gordon so far, and still was, he was pushing it away, and he began to see them as another distraction. Gordon also started to wonder how he had become so proficient using guns. At the beginning of the day, he was just another scientist. Well, just another theoretical physicist with a Ph.D and a graduation from MIT, but he had turned into an almost expert marksman within the past few hours. He didn't know how it was happening, but he knew that when he fell to the floor just now and he shot the alien slave, the whole “slow-mo” thing happened again, and he realized all he had to do was calm down and concentrate. If he wanted to stay alive, he couldn't panic and hide in the corner, he just had to calm down, concentrate, and do whatever it took to get out.

Barney gave him a pat on the shoulder, breathing heavily, and Gordon smiled at the fact that he was less scared than Barney at the moment. His brief moment of glory ended when he heard more slaves talking. He knew because he heard them during the Resonance Cascade, making weird clicking noises and talking in their creepy raspy voices. Gordon was standing in a room with next to no light, and five or six of the slave standing in front of him. It was a terrifying experience. Now Gordon was standing there with a gun, not afraid to do what was needed. Gordon walked forward slowly, Barney following two steps behind him. Gordon walked into the right turn and saw an alien slave charging up it's attack, charring the walls with the energy. He ducked back around the corner as a bolt of green lightning shot past him, and hit the wall where the other slave was standing before. The slave ran around the corner in front of them both and charged it's attack, but Gordon shot it down before it could fire it off.

Gordon and Barney were now running through the area, trying to find a way out before more slaves could find them. They were out of luck though, as there was a slave around almost every corner now, and Gordon and Barney took out every last one of them, checking every corner, hall and office. They came to a doorway with two plaques next to the frame.

Sec. D
Admin 2
====>
Sec. D
Admin 1

Gordon walked in and saw two alien slaves charging their lightning, illuminating the walls around them. Gordon ran out as the lightning hit the wall. Barney shot one of them dead, but the other came in and hit Barney across the face. Gordon shot that one dead, and ran over to Barney. He was a little shaken up, but he could stand. He said he'd try and find another way out. It worked the last time, and Gordon was coping fine without him, so they both shook hands and agreed to split up once more. They both went separate ways, Gordon taking the door in front of him, and Barney ran back the way they came, trying to find something they might've missed.

Gordon walked through the doorway and turned the corner, to stop straight in front of a barnacle's tongue, inches from his face, Gordon walked around it and talked to a scientist who was standing in the corner, to scared to move in case the barnacle caught him. “I just over heard a secure access transmission”, he stammered. “Soldiers have arrived and they're coming to rescue us. Of course I have my doubts that we'll live long enough to greet them.” Gordon was relieved to hear someone had finally come to rescue them, but whether they'd find them was another matter. There was a staircase just to the left of them they both took up, being careful to stay clear of the barnacle's tongue.

Gordon reached the top of the first set of stairs and was just about to go for the second, when he heard a loud cluncking sound and a whirring that followed. He knew it was a turret but couldn't see it, and had to act fast otherwise he'd be gunned down. He looked up and saw it was built into the wall hanging over the bottom of the staircase, aimed straight at Gordon. He jumped around the corner a split second before the turret fired at him, but missed and shot the scientist dead instead. Gordon held his gun low, advancing up the next set of stairs, staying close the the wall that was hiding him. He knew as soon as he stepped out, the turret would be right in front of him, but if he could run to the wall before it could fire, he'd be safe, since the turret was built into the wall and could only look down a certain amount before it hit the wall. Gordon made a dash for the wall and pressed his back to it before it could see him. There was a doorway to the left of the turret, which Gordon started to edge his way towards. The room led out into a hall, but before it reached the hall, there was a large wooden crate marked clearly across the box on all sides [EXPLOSIVES]. It was just as big as the other wooden crates, so there must've been enough explosives in there to fill the room if they all detonated. Gordon had to really be careful now. He edged his way inside the room, and a zombie was standing at the other end through the hall, wandering towards Gordon. He fired off four shots, dropping the zombie where he stood. Gordon realized he'd gotten dangerously close to hitting the crate with his bullets. Gordon had to run like his life depended on it now. The hall was straight ahead of him now, but if he ran past the doorway, the turret would see him, and bullet the explosives crate. Posed like an athlete getting ready to run the four hundred metre sprint, he kicked off and ran. The turret activated and shot after him, hitting the crate, sending the room ablaze with a massive fireball. Gordon leapt through to the hall before the flame reached him. The explosion went out in the other room, and Gordon leant against the wall, sweat drenching him. But he heard slaves talking.

Gordon stood ready once again, and turned the corner to see two slaves standing there, ready to hurl their energy lightning at him. Gordon crouched down and emptied three bullets into each alien. Gordon collapsed onto the floor as the aliens fell. He just hadn't had a chance to catch a breath all day, had he? Gordon took a moment, and walked in through a single red door up ahead to find a security guard keeping watch. “Hey, what the hell are you doing here, sir? You should be topside, I hear troops are coming in to rescue us.” Gordon knew he should be happy about that, but every time he heard it, he felt worse and worse. There was a vent down in the corner that Gordon opened and crawled through. It led to a beam overhanging the hall where the slaves were, after the explosion. Or at least that was Gordon's guess, judging by the burn marks on the walls from where they were attacking. Gordon started to crawl across the beam when a pack of headcrabs broke through the wall to his right, causing Gordon to empty his clip on them. They were all dead, but Gordon's ammo counter was low again.

6 | 2

He needed to find some ammo. The glock had been invaluable so far, he'd be dead if he didn't have it fighting against the slaves earlier. He sure as hell couldn't take them out with the crowbar when they were hurling lightning at him. Gordon crawled across the beam to the next vent cover, opened that up, and crawled through. He came out the other side to what he guessed was the ceiling, judging by the feel of the floor underneath him. He went to crawl forward, but the floor gave way and he fell through into an office. Gordon started at what he thought was a shotgun. He picked it up and saw that it was in fact, a shotgun, or to be more specific, a Franchi-Spas 12 gauge semi-automatic assault shotgun, bottom loading. That's what the HUD displayed when the gun's image flashed across Gordon's field of vision, coming to rest under number three. There were also two small boxes of shotgun shells, ammo that Gordon stored into his suit. The ammo counter on his HUD reset itself to display the shotgun's ammo. The HUD read out:

8 | 28

Gordon walked towards the door, holding his shotgun down, his crowbar and pistol holstered in his suit. Gordon walked out into another office hall, an office room down from where he saw the security guard, who was set on staying put, guarding the are in case any other scientists came through. Gordon walked down a small set of stairs to walk out into a wide open room, which may have been an eating area once, but appeared to be nothing but a massacre. Tables were flipped over on their side, scientists flung over dead, all over the floor. There was a doorway that Gordon would've gone through, but it was boarded up. Who could've done that though? Gordon was walking over to the doorway when a big pack of headcrabs fell out from the ceiling. There was maybe ten or twelve of them, all jumping at Gordon. There were too many of him to take on at once, so he ducked and weaved his way back to the stairs, the headcrabs following after him in a pack.Gordon had run himself in a dead end, but could see the headcrabs waddling up to the corner. Gordon took out one of the grenades he'd found earlier, pulled the pin and threw it down the corner. There was a deafening explosion, and when Gordon turned the corner to see what was left, there was nothing but blood mist sprayed onto the walls, and a few charred body parts.

Gordon ran back to the boarded up doorway, and smashed the wooden planks with the crowbar. The hall led out into a dimly lit section of the cafeteria, with a juice and coffee vending machine. Two scientists lay dead on the floor as a couple of zombies tore the skin off their bodies and fed themselves through their stomach. Gordon couldn't see any more of it, so he fired at the zombies with the glock, taking them both out without wasting any ammo. He hadn't seen any real need for the shotgun yet, and hoped he didn't find one, either. A shotgun is a powerful weapon, so it would make sense for it to be used on a powerful enemy. Gordon prayed he didn't find any enemies that powerful. It seemed the only way he'd get any further was through the walk in freezer room, which he didn't want to do, since it was a very large storage area, and the temperature was much colder than a usual freezer so that it kept the produce frozen properly. The door was right in front of him, all he had to do was make the choice. He had already promised himself he'd do what it took to get to help, so he made his decision – he was going through the freezer. Whatever he had to do though would have to be done quick, a normal person would be snap frozen if they spent any more than ten minutes in there.

Gordon stepped in and didn't even get to look around before he heard a loud screech, and saw a scientist run out with at least four headcrabs chasing him. Gordon shot off his pistol and took them all out before they could attack the scientist. The scientist followed Gordon as he explored the freezer, coming to the hanging meat. Gordon walked through the hanging meat to see two bullsquids feeding off of a dead security guard on the floor. Gordon tried to sneak past them both, but Gordon crunched his foot down on a bit of ice that had formed on the floor, and they both heard and turned around. One of the bullsquid charged the scientist and killed him with it's mouth of razor teeth. The other bullsquid was staring straight at Gordon, grunting, getting ready to attack. The bullsquid roared and without warning, charged at Gordon. He remembered how tough these things were when he fought one back at the water pool; they were tougher than most, and Gordon knew he needed the shotgun to kill it. The bullsquid was charging at Gordon at an alarming pace, and Gordon holstered his glock, ripped out the shotgun, and pulled the trigger. Buckshot fragments sprayed the body of the bullsquid, sickly green ichor spurting out from it's body. It howled in agony, before dropping on both it's feet to the ground, dead. Gordon backed away before the other bullsquid ran around the corner and charged him, but the bullsquid had doubled back and charged Gordon from behind, hitting him the back of the legs and toppling him over as the bullsquid charged through. The bullsquid skidded across the slippery floor and whipped around, trying to get grip on the floor. The bullsquid was now walking over to Gordon, standing over his legs, down at his face. Gordon could see in plain sight behind the bullsquid's tentacles, it's round mouth of razor sharp teeth lining the edges of it's lips, if it had any. The bullsquid let out a cry of victory. With one swift movement, Gordon swung his shotgun out, jammed in in the bullsquid's mouth, and pumped it, sending the empty shell out of the side. KA-CHAK- -BOOM. The bullsquid fell dead on Gordon's legs, and he kicked it off, found a cloth and wiped the shotgun off, pumping the empty shell out the side once again. Gordon saw a lever on the wall, but wasn't sure what it activated. There weren't any other doors out of the place, so Gordon figured he'd have to look for another vent. That's when Gordon saw what the lever activated. There was a track running along the roof of the freezer room, and attached to that track was a transport cart that led from one end of the room to the other. The cart was stacked with crates, but that didn't matter. The point was, it travelled directly between the two vent spaces that Gordon needed to get through – one of them was reachable by crawling through the vent cover Gordon found at the other side of the room, above one of the food shelves. The other vent that Gordon needed to get to was unreachable without the cart; there was no ladder to climb, nor were there any shelves near it. Gordon flung the lever down, and the cart whirred into life, moving back and forth along the track, from one end of the room to the other. Gordon ran back to the food shelves, and climbed to the top. He burst the cover off with the crowbar, and crawled inside, turning around just in time to see the scientist run out through the freezer door that Gordon had entered through. It was at this point that Gordon started to shiver. The cold was getting to him.









Please keep in mind that all comments that were previously given have been taken into account and anything to do with the HUD and the suit has been faded as per request. It is only in here because it is an earlier chapter.

Comments and criticism as always are welcome, and.....well yeah. Anything you want to add is appreciated.

Also, if you want to add anything to the c+c sentence at the end, please say something, comments and criticism gets boring.

[Wolf the Widowmaker]

I'm still ranting about the HUD. Drop the gun recognition and suit battery. It's just not needed.
Also, be a little more descriptive about the killing of the NPC creatures. Something more than "Gordon fired three shots and the creature died."

Before you mention any crawling in vents, I would like to mention a funny anecdote. Before the day of the resonance cascade, Gordon and Barney used to have competitions in getting into locked offices to fetch the keys of some forgetful scientist. Gordon usually went through a vent.

[Champski]

OK, I've obviously not been making myself clear enough, sorry about that. These are chapter I've already written. Due to time constraints I don't have the time to re write them. Anything before chapter 6 is going to be the same. The HUD HAS been dropped but it isn't obvious yet because those chapters haven't arrived yet. Just know that all of this has been changed and you'll just see it later, that's all.

About the vent thing, yes, I'm putting that in in episode one when I write it.

[Champski]

PART 3 OVER HEAAR!



Gordon crawled through the ever turning vent shaft to come out the other side, the cart moving closer. The vent was right in front of him, but he wouldn't have enough time to kick it out and then move through, so he shot it out with the glock as the cart approached. Gordon jumped on and kicked through the crates and boxes, but wasn't fast enough to get through to the vent. Gordon pushed the boxes off the cart and crouched down, waiting for the cart to move through to the vent once more. It reached the end of the room and jerked back the other way. Gordon noticed at this time if he didn't crawl through the vent fast enough, he'd be left dangling on the edge of the vent, or would fall to what would most likely be his death, as the cart and both vents were above ground, around twenty or so feet. The cart was now aligned with the vent once more, and Gordon scrambled through the vent as fast as he could, making it just in time before the cart shifted out of place, continuing along the track. Gordon kept crawling.

The shaft went out for quite some time in a straight path, but rather than eventually turning, it dropped down, turned right, and continued straight. Gordon dropped down the shaft and turned right as was required, heading straight ahead once more. The shaft turned left and stopped at a vent on the left side of the shaft wall. The light shining through the vent was an eerie, dull red glow. Gordon popped the cover and jumped out into the room to see vent shafts twining all around in different directions, a ladder near the middle, and barnacles hanging along the ceiling and the bottoms of the shafts. There were bones and remains scattered all around the floor of the room, and in one corner, two clips for the glock and a suit battery, presumably from the person who was last in the room, and the last meal for the barnacle that was hanging nearby. Gordon approached the ladder, and climbed up, stopping next to a barnacle that was fixed to the ceiling directly behind him.

The tongue was hanging directly over the vent shaft Gordon needed to jump down on to, so he pulled out his crowbar, and slammed the barnacle in the side with it. There was a wet squelching sound as the crowbar made contact, and the barnacle vomited up the remains of it's last meal, curling up it's tongue and dying. Gordon jumped down on top of the vent shaft, which then led up to a shaft running across the room from one side to the other. Gordon jumped up on top of that, and saw a wide opening for the vent shaft he now needed to crawl through, which bent around and crossed over in front of the vent Gordon was standing on, running from one end of the room to the other. Gordon crawled in through the shaft opening , turning left, then right, then left again, constantly turning through what had to be the bendiest shaft he'd been in so far. He kept crawling until he could see a yellow light shining from around the corner of the shaft. He crawled through to find a vent cover, which he kicked out and jumped through. There was a staircase right in front of him, a doorway to his left, and a dead scientist lying on the floor, and a Black Mesa security guard standing next to him, tidying up his body. A terrified scientist ran out from the staircase, a zombie chasing after him as fast as it could. Gordon and the security guard dropped the scientist, both using their glocks. The security guard ran over to Gordon. “Don't count on the cavalry finding us down here, head for the surface! The elevators are out of order, but we can still climb.”

Gordon walked up the staircase, noticing a sign as he went:

↑
Sec. D – Admin 3 |

Gordon reached the top of the staircase to find a door on his right, and a hall in front of him, leading presumably towards Sec. D Admin 3. Gordon looked through the window in the door on his right. There was a short hall with a door at the end, swinging wide open on it's hinges, and half way down the hall was a left turn. As if from out of nowhere, that G-man stepped out from the side of the door, and turned to stare Gordon in the face through the window in the door. Gordon's eyes widened. He was standing right in front of him, on the other side of the door, smiling at him smugly. Now was his chance. Now was his chance to finally get some answers. Gordon pulled on the door, but all hope faded away when the door shook in it's frame, locked from the other side. Gordon angrily yanked and pulled on the door, and the G-man straightened his tie once more, turning and walking, briefcase in hand, through the swinging door at the other end of the hall. Gordon screamed in anger as his answers slipped away from him once more, and he kicked the door. He at least had to find out where he had walked out from this time. Gordon ran down the hall next to him, past an office room, when a scientist jumped through the window, glass spraying out everywhere, causing Gordon to skid to a halt. There was a zombie standing on a catwalk ahead of Gordon, who jumped down and was now stumbling towards him. The scientist attempted to run past the zombie and away to safety, but another zombie burst through the brick wall, and they struck the scientist down.
Both zombies turned on Gordon now, and without much effort, he shot them both dead. He was getting rather used to it all now, but remembered that he mustn't let his awareness lower because of it – he may be shooting them all with ease now, but the moment he lets his guard down, anything could get him.

Gordon walked in through the broken window frame to find 2 boxes of shotgun ammunition. Gordon was still perplexed at how it was getting here, but was grateful for it. There was an entrance at the end of the hall where two elevator doors should be, but instead they were pried open, and the elevator was jammed at the very top of the shaft. Gordon looked up to see a scientist dangling from a ladder on the side of the elevator. Gordon had to get to him and help, but how? The only ladder that was anywhere near him was the one in front of him on the other side of the shaft. But....was it possible? Gordon could jump but would he make it? There was only one way to find out. Gordon backed right up to the beginning of the hall and sped towards the ladder as fast as he could. Gordon jumped right at the edge of the doorway and flew across the chasm. He'd been thrust back into that weird slow-mo mode his mind created for him. Gordon felt like someone was flying right behind him, pulling him back, slowing him down, not letting him reach the ladder. He flung one arm out and held on for dear life, hanging now from the bottom rung of the ladder. Gordon pulled himself up and climbed the rest of the length, standing on the thin ledge around the edge of the shaft.

Gordon edged around the walls of the elevator shaft trying to reach the next ladder. Gordon stepped into the corner of the shaft and slipped against the next wall. The ladder was right next to Gordon, which he had to fling himself in front of to reach. As he flung himself in front of the ladder, his feet slipped and he scrambled to grab a rung off the ladder before he plunged. Gordon wrapped his arm around one of the rungs as he fell. He smacked the side of his face against the ladder as he came to an abrupt halt, and the rest of his rag doll body that was pulling through the air as he fell now flew against the wall and slammed against the metal. Since the suit itself was made of metal, it didn't take much damage, but Gordon's body was pressed up against the inside wall of the suit and the wind was knocked out of him as the ladder made contact with the metal chest of the suit. Gordon couldn't express the pain that had just surged through his body at that moment. The suit's paint had been scratched off in parts, but that made no difference. There was much worse that could happen to the suit. The right side of Gordon's face had slammed against the ladder, right against the cheekbone, just under the eye. Gordon was positive it was bleeding up there, but had a feeling it wasn't too bad, even if it was throbbing like his heart was at the moment.

Gordon gathered himself and climbed the height of the ladder, edging closer to the dangling scientist, who was now only hanging by one arm. Gordon made his way around the edge of the shaft, coming to the last ladder. Gordon climbed it and was now standing just above the scientist, who was dangling from the elevator's side ladder. Gordon crouched down on what small space he had, and held on to the top rung of the ladder he had just climbed. He reached out and extended his arm to the scientist, and the scientist reached up as far as he could with his spare hand, missing Gordon's by centimeters. He reached too far and his other hand lost it's grip. The scientist fell to his death and Gordon closed his eyes so he didn't have to see the inevitable gore, but still heard the terrible sound that went with it.

Gordon stood back up on the small ledge and took a dew deep breaths. He was feeling queasy with all the stuff he'd seen today. Gordon didn't think he'd even seen this much blood in movies. He had to shake it off. He reminded himself that he wouldn't get to help if he kept letting himself feel sick. Gordon stared directly at the ladder and shook off the dizziness. He pushed off the ledge and hit the ladder, grabbing hold as he did. This shook him up a bit more but he hung on, breathing hard through clenched teeth. Climbing the ladder, Gordon found the maintenance hatch and kicked it out. He suddenly flashed back to the movie version of “Mission Impossible” that he'd seen when it came out a few years ago, and hurried inside the elevator as fast as he could. He knew it was jammed, but that one elevator scene made him wince when he saw it.

Gordon dropped down into the elevator which was completely in the dark, except for the orange glow of the elevator buttons. Gordon went to press the “up” button, but before he could lay a hand on it, the doors swung open like some invisible presence opened them for him. Gordon stood on his guard with his 9mm, stepping out of the doorway. Onward and upward, wherever that was.





That is officially the end of chapter 4, chapter 5 will start next week. It should start getting good soon, I think you should know why. Once again, I'd like to make it clear that the HUD and all suit features are dropped, but may still appear in this chapter if it's already written in, and I cant change that right now.

C+C welcome as always.

[Wolf the Widowmaker]

I don't have anything to complain about, except that I don't remember this part from playing it.

[Champski]

It's in there somewhere. Besides, even if it isn't it would make for a more story-esque addition, wouldn't it?

That being said, it IS in the game. Thanks for having nothing to complain about, that means I haven't done anything WORTH complaining about.

[DethFanatic]

Just finished reading these, and they are bloody good. Keep up the great work!

[Champski]

About that, I obviously haven't posted one of these chapters in a while, and I've just really been doing a bit more work on the story, quite a bit more in fact, and the project itself is due very soon, so I have to crack down. I intend to continue with chapter 5 soon.