“You know what I really enjoy about Xen? My favorite part?” I asked Spike, sarcasm practically dripping from my tone. This place truly is the epitome of sunshine and rainbows.
“What?” Spike asked in genuine curiosity.
“The factory.” I said, and jumped down a hole.
I landed softly and watched as a giant cube made of what looked to be.. electricity, rose from the ground in front of me and began to move along. Most likely a conveyor belt or motor system.
Spike landed behind me, and I motioned to the next cube that was rising up. “We gotta ride these things again.” I said, and stepped on.
He followed, and soon, we were both sitting silently on a moving cube. Rivetin-
Clunk
..Wait, it stopped.
Why did it stop?
A loud alarm went off, and a door next to us opened up. That doesn’t look good. Is it supposed to be doing that?
Did it detect us and is now trying to exterminate the anomalous life form?
Oh lord. We gotta get outta here.
I moved my hand slightly and shocked myself against a blue barrier.
Alright so moving is not an option.
Noticing I began to breathe heavily, I tried in vain to calm myself down. It’s gonna be fine, Freeman.
While I was doing that, the conveyor took us inside, where we sat still for a second. I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
...
..nothing.
I cracked open my eyes. Where’s the death ray?
“This is new.” I said, and flinched slightly when the next door opened up rather violently.
The room we were taken into next was rather large. What looked to be lasers decorated the floors, and a giant red circle contraption above us didn’t give off a very good vibe. This is it. This is the murder room.
The cube, after jolting forward, continued moving until it reached the center and stopped.
It rose up, and stopped once more with a loud clang.
Suddenly, on all sides, doors opened up to reveal what seemed to be a red electro-magnetic wave. It would be fascinating, had I not been both completely confused and completely panicked at the same time.
This is when multiple pieces of what looked to be a larger cube began moving towards us at a speed I wasn’t ready for.
“These things are gonna crush us-“ I said, and quickly jumped on top of one to avoid that fate. Spike did the same, but barely got up in time. Had he stayed still for a second longer he most likely wouldn’t have made it.
With another loud clang, the pieces stuck together cleanly. Blue arrows decorated the top of the cube, giving it a rather futuristic look. It would look cool, had it not tried to kill us a moment earlier.
The big cube began to separate, and I hopped back onto the original one. Spike jumped on too and nearly knocked me off, but he grabbed me before I actually fell.
“Thanks,” I muttered. Spike nodded, but closed his eyes quickly at the sudden bright light above us.
Looking up, I felt my heart drop.
Lasers. Red death lasers.
Four extended bridges came out from the walls, and, taking a chance, I immediately began moving onto one. It was the correct choice, as when I looked above, I noticed that the lasers were going to go right around me. Sweet.
Spike, thankfully, had the same idea as I did.
After going all the way down, the lasers rose back up and disappeared as they clicked back into their mechanism. The bridge pieces slowly began moving back into the wall, so we both jumped back onto the cube.
Next, four individual laser machines in the shapes of vertical lines descended from the ceiling mechanism, right as that ceiling mechanism began to lower as well. My heart lurched, before I noticed a small platform ring around the cube had formed. I hopped onto it to avoid being crushed by the lowering ceiling, and, fortunately, I was right in my judgement once more.
When the vertical lasers turned on, I walked slowly and in tandem with them so as to avoid getting my entire ass sliced in half. Not something I wanna have happen, thanks.
The lasers disappeared, and the circular platform and vertical mechanisms rose back up. Me and Spike got back on the cube.
The cube lowered itself down, and began to move into another door on the other side of the room.
Me and Spike both hopped off when it reached what looked like a vent, and we bent down to fit inside. We both crawled along, (not thinking about anything claustrophobia related,) and climbed out when it went upwards at the end.
I climbed up and out, where I then turned to Spike as he hopped out of the tiny space.
“I’m surprised how well we kept calm during that whole thing.” He said.
I was panicking the entire time, but because I didn’t want to seem like a loser, I replied, “Yeah, right? We were totally chill, even on the verge of death.”
He chuckled. “Yep.”
...
Silence reigned over the conversation, and we both chose that as a good time to move on.
Instead of walking normally, I decided to begin walking backwards to face him and speak at the same time. “So, that was an experience, huh? That wasn’t in the Xen I went to the first time.” I said, waving my hands back to the area we came from.
“Really?” Spike asked. “What was, then?”
“..what does that even mean?” I asked, genuinely confused about that. Did he want me to describe an entire galaxy?
He groaned, “Geez, dude, you get what I mean! You’ve mentioned a lot of stuff wasn’t in the other Xen, but I’ve never even seen it. What was it like?” He asked.
Upon figuring it out, I nodded. “Alright then, sorry for the misunderstanding.” I apologized.
He nodded. “Apology accepted.”
“But anyway,” I started. “Xen was boring. It was bland, and it was all colored the same. This shade of puke green that really just made you not want to look at anything. Factory wasn’t as complicated, either, and I definitely didn’t get chased by 15 of those blue aliens-“
I was cut off as I began to free fall. Uh oh.
“Ough!” I yelped out as my back hit the ground hard.
“Sigh You alright?” Spike asked, hopping down next to me and putting out his claw. Did he just sigh?
“Yeah, but this is getting ridiculous.” I started, electing to ignore the sigh. “How many times have I fallen like that?” I asked, using Spike’s claw to pull myself up. I dusted myself off as he answered.
“I lost track at around the 6th time.” Spike said, shrugging.
I clicked my tongue. “Don’t blame you.” I muttered.
I shook my head, and turned to a conveyor belt with some weird green things on it. “Well, let’s get moving.” I said, and nodded my head towards the aforementioned conveyor belt. I walked over and put my foot on it, nodding once more.
Spike also nodded, and jumped on with me.
After riding the conveyors for a bit, some of those weird flying cunts appeared in the sky. The ones that control the vortiguants. “You know the drill,” I said, and pulled out my magnum. I took two shots, and killed one. Spike did the same.
One shot. One more shot, click.
Oops. I’m empty.
I swung out the cylinder, pushed the backside of it to make the spent ammo fall out, put in a new set using a speed-loader, and shoved the cylinder back in. After that, I spun it for coolness points.
One more shot, and the one I had fired at went down. Two more, and another was dead on the ground.
Spike reloaded his gun, and killed the last one.
“Your aim is really good.” I complimented, turning towards him. “And you’re pretty good at a quick reload, too.”
Spike grinned. “Oh, thanks.” He said.
I nodded, and turned back around to face forward.
But upon realizing something kinda huge, I turned back to him. “I never taught you how to reload the magnum. How the fuck did you figure that out?” I asked.
I wasn’t angry or anything, if that’s what you’re thinking. No, I was just.. genuinely surprised.
“Hm?” He asked, before understanding what I was asking. “Oh. Just inference, I guess. Saw the thingy, saw what it did, saw the ammunition, figured it out. Wasn’t hard. Way easier to infer about than reloading the Glock.” He explained, shrugging his shoulders. This guy..
“Well look at this smart cookie,” I said. “Just learned what a gun was a few days ago and he can already infer on how to reload a different one.” I finished, smacking his shoulder lightly to really drive the point home.
I’m proud of this guy.
“I’m not proud of you anymore.” I said, and walked into one of those weird healing chambers.
“What?! But I said I was sorry!” Spike exclaimed, and ran to catch up with me. “Hey, guy! Tell him he’s being unreasonable!” Spike asked, and turned to the vortiguant manning some weird piece of technology.
“Gar jung.” He said, and went back to what he was doing.
“Oh.. you’re no help!” Spike yelled. “Gordon, come on!” He begged.
“Spike, you shot me.” I said.
“I know, but I didn’t mean to!” He tried to explain.
“Well, maybe you should learn the rules of gun safety.” I said, and stepped out of the chamber, now fully healed and revitalized.
“What are they, even??” He asked, flinging his arms out.
I stopped.
I put a hand to my chin.
“I’m not sure.” I said, and shrugged.
“What do you mean you’re not sure!?” He yelled.
“They didn’t tell us at Black Mesa.” I began to explain, moving my hands around try and find the right words. “They just kinda.. expected us to know them. I had planned on researching them, but I only really learned how to shoot a gun in the first place, like, a day prior to the incident. If I recall, it was because of some mandatory training thing.” I explained.
...
“Wait, what the buck?” Spike asked. “They taught you how to shoot a gun.. a day prior to you actually needing it? What else did they teach you?” He asked, seeming to come to a revelation.
Not quite catching on yet, I continued. “Well, they taught me how to run, how to crawl, how to land, and- wait.” I said. It finally dawned on me.
All of the things I was taught.. it was all stuff I needed to use to survive in Black Mesa.
...who knew? Who knew about it?
Who knew it was going to happen?
Who told the company?
Were they just.. taking chances? Just in case?
Or does it go deeper than that. Did everyone know? Everyone except me?
Why wouldn’t they tell me?
Also, wait. Another thing: Why did the military show up so quickly? Were they all just.. on-hand? Why were they all able to survive for so long against the aliens? Did THEY train for it too?
..they all knew, didn’t they?
But who could’ve-
Wait a minute.
I bet it.. I bet it was that briefcase fucker!
Did he know the whole time? I bet he did.
..
I waited for a response.
You there, briefcase fucker?
...
Guess not. God damn-
“Gordon, you alright there?” Spike asked, tapping my shoulder. Huh?
“What?” I asked, snapping back to reality. Ope, there goes gravity.
“You kinda froze there for a bit. I’ve been trying to get your attention for a little while there, but you wouldn’t snap out of it. What was all that about?” Spike asked, concern clearly present in his tone.
“Oh.. uh.” I started. “Nothing. It’s nothing.” I settled on, which definitely didn’t raise suspicion.
“You sure?” He asked again.
“Yes.” I finished.
Spike thought about it, and then shrugged. “Okay. I can’t force you to talk,” He sighed. “but know that I’m always willing to listen.”
“Thanks.” I said. “Oh, and, about the whole you shooting me thing?” I went back to our previous topic. Nice segue.
“Yeah?” He asked.
“I don’t really care. The suit protected me, I was messing with you.” I revealed, and grinned at his surprised face.
“You-!” He began, but couldn’t think of anything. “You!” He settled on, before facepalming.
I began to laugh. Ah! He should’ve seen the look on his face. The ol’ “you shot me and I got pissed but not really”trick. A classic!
Surely everyone knows that one.
Spike groaned. “Ugh, whatever. Let’s just go.” He muttered, pointing towards the path onwards.
“Alright.” I agreed, and walked towards the weird green things that flew up into the air after touching a bounce pad.
Shiiet.. this looks fun.
“Hm. These ones seem to be super powerf-“ Spike began, but I pushed him off the ledge and into a boost pad. He shouted as he flew up. “YOU DIIIiickk!!”
I giggled like a little kid and hopped onto the jump pad, shouting in joy as I began to fly up at an intense speed. This is great.
The adrenaline, the speed, the wind blowing past my ears. It’s all great.
This must be what it’s like to fly.
But, sadly, it didn’t last long. The end of the ride was rapidly approaching.
I changed my trajectory in the air to begin flying forward, and flipped to land my feet on top of the next conveyor.
And he sticks the landing. +10 ‘absolutely fucking sick’ points. That was awesome.
I hopped off halfway through the conveyor ride to jump onto another booster. I flew up to the next conveyor, and saw that I would get to go on another one of the giant boost pads. Hell yeah.
Wait, where’s Spike?
“Freeman, you dick!” He said, and hopped up from where I just was. Oh. Seems he took longer than I did. “Why did you do that?” He asked, pointing a finger at me.
“You shot me.” I said, and jumped onto the next big pad.
“Woo!!” I yelled out as I went flying.
“But, I thought you- ugh, whatever!” Spike said, and jumped onto the boost. “Woo, I guess.” He said as he crossed his arms in the air.
What a Negative Nancy.
At the end of it all, I got sucked into what seemed to be a pod. Spike smacked into it and fell back down, which I felt more bad about than anything. Didn’t feel like laughing at his pain this time around.
The pod began to move, and I was soon dumped onto what looked like a pile of dead bodies. Ew.
I hopped off and waited for Spike, settling down in a mostly-clean corner. He’ll swing by eventually.
And I was right. After only about a minute, he showed up. The man of the hour.
“Ew, what is this?” He asked, flinging some weird goop from his foot.
“A pile of bodies, or something.” I said, not exactly knowing what it was myself.
“AUGH!” He yelled, and jumped off quickly, flying rather far. He rolled to stand back up when he landed, and backed away from the pile. “That’s nasty.” He said, and gagged.
“Tell me about it.” I said, and shot the weird branch stuff behind us.
Zip zoom, we were flying again.
Forward, right, up, left, right, down.
Landing jets.
..rather disoriented, I fell against the nearby wall and began leaning on it for support. I didn’t expect that. At all.
I just wanted to get out of there. Maybe climb up there or something, like I would with a vent. How was I supposed to know it was a super vacuum suck machine?
I heard a grunt, a slam, and Spike groaning in pain.
I turned to look at him, and he stood up slowly. He then vomited everywhere.
Wincing, I turned away so as to avoid making myself sick. “You alright there, bud?” I asked.
“F-fine.” He said, and sniffled.
You know what, I don’t even blame him for barfing his guts out.
When the world finally stopped spinning, I got a good look at where we stood. The room was bare except for a window. Tinted red, it allowed us to see a giant contraption.
“Oh, what the fuck is that?” I asked upon first glance.
The original Xen was so much better than this shitshow.