A Doubtful Adventure

5_From the darkness

He crawled along the dark tunnel, realizing that they do not have any source of light whatsoever, so at least the woman behind him won't get hypnotized. His senses were set for detecting any potential threats. Which could be anything around here. A freakin shadow on the wall could be it.

He thought about turning off the safety of his new gun but then, firing inside of a dark, narrow tunnel would do more bad than good. Especially that their ears could really hurt after that. He knew a lot about being almost stunned by metallic echoes inside of endless vents… Crawling alone in claustrophobic atmosphere….

He gasped for air, coming back to reality.

"Anyone has an idea how to light the way?" He asked finally." Or you didn't have any evacuation plan before the actual evacuation happened?"

"Don't be so smartass, Mr. smoothass."Said Wendy, apparently stopping with her forehead on his butt for a second, this time unwillingly.

Gordon closed his eyes praying for this woman not to touch his butt in the middle of such an important escape!

"We had about eight ways of escape before that mass invasion has eaten this place alive! They ate almost all of our equipment before we could react, if you really wanna know! Including expensive and hard to get medical stuff. "

"And all the flashlights… I am sorry to tell you people, that my personal flashlight got broken a few hours before you've found me."

"Just hurry! We do not have anything to close the hatch!" Big Mark reminded them about the hopelessness of this situation with a few loud gunshots one by one. He was crawling backwards, covering this very fresh pair of lovers or soon lovers as he was predicting. He was hoping that frantic Freeman will be useful fighting their way outta here.

Gordon wished he could cover his ears, instead of speeding on his hands and sore knees. The sound of shots started resonating inside of the tunnel and he didn't want to admit that to anyone, but his hearing sense was way too sensitive . It probably helped him to survive.

Breathing heavily, he raised his head and noticed a very weak light revealing a contour of another tunnel, going up!

"Okay Gordon!" Commented Wendy, accompanied with repeating shotgun sounds much too close. " We do not know what is up there, probably nothing interesting.

"Like another tone of headcrabs?" He asked, reaching for the first rusted rod of the industrial ladder. He didn't want to stay in the tunnel anymore, started feeling sick and his head hurt.

"You still have this small buddy attached to your suit?"

"Oh shit!" He almost completely forgot. He carelessly reached his left calf and tapped it around gently. A spongy and jelly like shape tweaked his glove almost the same carefully. Didn't seem aggressive at all. He got a dim sensation of fear in this little creature.

"Gordon…?"

"All right! All right! It's still there and it seems harmless. HEV didn't signalize any blood toxins from this chap."

"Shit. I wish you had a REASON to get rid of it!"

"I've always wanted to have an alien pet! Mom never let me!" He explained audaciously while climbing slowly up the rusty and creepy tunnel. The cover of the hatch was pretty high up but also partially removed from the manhole so he could see the sharp sunrays coming in. A good sign. The same weather they have seen ten minutes ago.

BAM! A sharp noise pinched through his brain again. He staggered a bit.

"Hurry up Freeman! Is it safe?" Shouted Wendy after killing one more headcrab.

That was a stupid question anyway, how they could be any safer down there?

After quite tiring climbing, he pulled his new gun out and very, very cautiously reached for the hatch cover to move it just with the tips of his fingers… Yes… That's right…

The heavy piece of metal skipped quite smoothly. Gordon raised his head a little, trying to stay invisible. And there it was, bathed in the sun, a half ruined landscape of a city on one side and an empty plain slowly turning into woods on another. No sign of any of their friends or enemies though.

"Fucking afro man or some other of your *friends* could at least leave us some signs." He said bitterly, looking at Wendy, holding to the ladder below him.

She made an impression of emotionless or just really tired. Did not say anything, just stared at Gordon with a dull face.

"Huh…"Said Gordon and pushed the hatch cover to make the passage free.

"The hatch was partially opened, what else do you need, genius?" Growled Mark from the bottom. He seemed to be struggling with aliens, however blind he felt.

"Okay! Go up!" Freeman almost jumped out of the tunnel. Waited for quiet Wendy to climb up and even reached for her hand to help her get out faster. He got an impression of goose bumps when their bodies touched again. "Hey… That's too weird… Just too weird.." He thought, staying mute and watching her standing on the ground.

They didn't lost eye contact until she let go his arm and turned around in terror. The scientist raised his gun and stretched his muscles on the sound of low, buzzing radio communications of the Combine soldiers.

A dark figure showed up just a few yards away, next to a broken wall.

"Get down Wendy!" Cried Gordon and took his chance of a shot.