Half-life Stories: A follow up to Opposing Force

Finally, I saw something that I didn’t expect to see so soon. It was that tall, mysterious figure that had a problem speaking in straight tones. Instead he like to chop his sophisticated vocabulary up into something that you have to listen to closely to understand. He looked a bit more rugged, his suit looked like it aged and lost some of its color. His skin was more aged and he had sockets under his eyes. His hair had gray streaks running through it and the black lost most of its shine. The brief case he was carrying had an outline of the old black mesa symbol on it, it looked as if he tore is off. The brief case was falling apart, with pieces of leather falling off. He gave me just a smile, and started to talk in his broken tone. “Corporal Adrian Shepard, we meet once again. Well, actually I don’t have the liberty to cal you corporal anymore because, well….Letssss just say the military doesn’t matter at the moment in this state of time. For you it seemssss we just talked 10 minutes ago, but through my time, its been 10 years. 10 horrific, destructive years to the human racccce. Now if you will come with me, I can exxxxplain what I am talking about.” I looked into his eyes, one of his eyebrows were lifted, waiting on my move. For some reason, I could trust this man, or maybe it was the reason I didn’t want to be stuck in this helicopter for the rest of my life. So I nodded my head in approval and walked into the green portal. “Wiiise choice my friend.” he said. There was a short period of a bright white light then we landed in the middle of the desert.
I recognized this place for some reason. We stood at destroyed buildings, body bags where on the ground, the day was sunny, but the sky was chocked with black, thick smoke. The Geiger counter in my pocket was off the chart and the cracking noise was louder than ever. “welcome to the carcass of black mesa, Mr. Shepard. You probably can not recognizeeeeee it because you never visited this part of the facility. This is what it looked like after the nuke went off. Those body bags do not have corpses, lets just say. Well, its no concern anymore. This is black mesa now.” The weather started to move in a miraculously fast cycle. So fast, that it went to a white light then abruptly stopped. The desert around them was cracked and dry. A giant machine was pumping into the ground and the sky was a deep, deep red. Creatures launched up from under the ground and jumped at them but came to a complete stop a few feet away. “Those are a new species that appeared a few years back, they have been classified as ant lionssss. Back on subject, the black mesa facility opened up the world for auction and it wassss grabbed very quickly. I will show you what I am talking about.”
We went through another cycle of white light and ended up in the middle of a war, in what seemed to be in New York City. There where strange ships shooting at people on the ground. Men in masks battled armed civilians as explosions accrued all around them. Towering tripod monsters blasted blue beans at military vehicles and made them evaporate into nothing. Smoke filled the air and buildings were collapsing from left to right. “welcome to one of the many 7 hour wars. It seemed that the Xen race was enslaved by another race classified as the combine. As soon as Gordon Freeman killed the Nihilanth, the combine used the open portalssss to invade earth. It was discovered later by Dr. Eli Vancccce that the resonance cascade incident was set up by the old black mesa administrator Dr. Wallace Breeeen. The combine promised him great power for the human race. He took the bait, and handed earth over on a silver platter. But what he was promised, he was granted. He now holds up hereee.” “ SHIT RUUUUN!” Yelled a citizen and an explosion went off.
We went through another cycle of white light and we ended up at a beaten up city at the edge of a pit. I looked up to see a tower rising through the clouds, the edges of it where going up and down, the screeching hurt my ears. “this is the central location, of our benefactorssss. Also of the menacing Dr. Wallace Breen. But if you look behind you, you can tell it won’t lasssst for long.” I glanced behind me to see rebels and soldiers battling it out. Large Tank-SUV vehicles would ride up and shoot at the rebels with a turret. More of the strange gun ships launched out of the tower and shot up the surface with there guns. Then a rebel came under it with a RPG and blasted it down. This city was torn to hell with no chance of surviving. Then, a part of the tower rose up from the ground and was coming down fast. Right above me. I covered my head with my arms in the fear of being crushed. But, nothing happened.
I slowly brought my arms down and opened my eyes to find my self staring into a pure white ceiling. I heard the sound of running water as I turned around to see the man washing his hands in a pure black sink. He pulled a towel off a silver hanger and dried his hands off, then picked up his briefcase once again. Thisss is where I have to let you go Adrian, where I leave you on your own. My employers insisted that I kept you in the location where you where safest but I convinced them of your potential and how you would be another step towards a brighter future for our people, a future of no enslavement. In front of you liessss a door of something you never expected. So get going Mr. Shepard, Your destiny awaits you on the other side of those doors. I gave the man one last look and started to walk towards the double doors. I pushed them open and a strong wind came over me. The wind was drying my eyes and hurting my face so I tightened my muscles and lifted up my arms as I forced my self forward. I covered my face from the muscular, un natural winds and pushed my self with everything I had forward. Then I heard a loud swooshin g noise then it came to an abrupt stop.

"I'm sure you can imagine, there are worssssssssse, alternatives." were the last words this mysterious figure said to me. He gave me one more stare, and gave me a minute to let everything he said sink in, and see if I had any questions. He brushed his suit off and wiggled his tie around once. He didn’t say a word as he strutted over to a green light that awaited him behind the pilot door. He walked into the strange light, and a loud abrupt noise occurred afterwards. The door squeaked as it slowly closed, the green light could still be seen from the floor, behind the crack. I unlaced my helmet from the back and took the tight thing off. It was good to breathe normal air again as I adjusted my jaw around. I slowly ran my fingers across my face to feel the marks the mask left from being so tight. My hair fell over my eyes and I brushed it away to get a view of the outside. Little white bulbs passed every second in either groups or alone. Was the helicopter moving, or was it in suspended animation and the white bulbs were the ones passing by? I stood up and twirled my head in a circle. I walked to the edge of the helicopter and tightly grabbed onto the railing, as I leaned towards the outside. The white bulbs still past by at an incredibly fast rate, but the helicopter jets were moving also. I still had no idea what was happening with the way we were moving, but that was the least of my worries at the moment. I didn’t understand what that man meant by putting me in a place where I could cause no harm, or no harm could come to me. What did this man want with me? He was saying that I would have the urge to reveal the things that happened at the back mesa facility to the world, revealing what his "employers" had done. I could barley understand what he was talking about. I came out of my state of mind and slowly walked over to the bench where I was sitting before. My vest was half dead and kept beeping louder and louder every second until I gave it some attention. I un strapped the buckles and removed the vest from my body. I looked around on the inside and out for the battery pack, and it was sewn into the interior of the vest. I grabbed the pack of cigarettes and lighter from it and everything else, then set it beneath my feet. I lifted my boot and crunched the battery until the beeping stopped. Afterwards, I pulled out a crushed cigarette from the cardboard package and lit it up with my golden Zippo that my father gave to me. Ah, it was the first one I’ve had since I woke up this morning. I inhaled the smoke that never tasted better then before until I heard the captains door slowly open. There, the fuzz ball looking green still light floated, lighting up the hole helicopter. I waited to see what would step out of the light, I was hoping it was a guy with a gun so he could shoot me in the head, 'cause I don’t want to stay here my whole life. Sitting in this boring ass helicopter, I’d rather be stuck in a battle I have no chance of winning. Surly, a surprise would come out of that damned light that was burning my retinas.