Part 4, Day 21

Sorry about being a pain in the ass with the update. I'm beating myself up now so you don't have to. Now that's service!

I leaned against the wall. I was exhausted. It seemed as if I had never stopped running. I had ran across the plaza with Gordon without any problems. I had ran into the Nexus without any problems. I ran with Gordon through the Nexus as he disabled the three generators. I ran all the way into this room where I could open a door and give Gordon access to the rooftops.

A dead soldier was slumped against the security panel, pressing random buttons. I shoved him off and unlocked the door.

"Lemme get this gate open...done! I'm gonna stay here and keep these gates open long enough to make a difference. Go on up and connect the skybridge. We need to let reinforcements come through from every possible direction! If any more citizens come through, I'll send 'em up to find you. See ya when I see ya, Gordon!"

The gate hummed open. With something of a salute, Gordon rushed through the gate and up a staircase, along with a few rebels that had just joined the group.

Then...silence. I heard sparks shooting out of disabled generators , but that was all. I sat against the wall and began to nod off.

--

Someone poked at my side. I had sunk to the floor and was lying on the ground. My eyes focused on...DOG.

"DOG! Where were you?" DOG simply offered me his hand to get me up. I might have been imagining things, but he looked angry. I stood up without his help.

Without another word, he ran back the way I came, through the lobby of the Nexus, and banged on the door through which we entered. I held my hands up to show that I couldn't open the door, as there was no security console handy.

He made a noise that resembled an exasperated groan as he backed up a bit. He dug his hands underneath the door and tugged with all of his strength. He managed to yank the door right out of the doorframe.

I walked right through. Part of the wall had also been taken out. "Thanks, DOG!" I said. He didn't respond. He rushed ahead, crashing through some double-doors. He proceeded down a set of stairs and through another wall to emerge in the plaza.

"DOG? What's wrong?" He motioned for me to follow again. He ran across the plaza, powering through buildings and destroying everything in his path. As he was jumping over a fence on part of the plaza, I yelled.

"DOG! STOP RIGHT NOW! What the HELL is wrong with you?"

DOG stopped and turned around, a bit impatient. He picked up a rock and hurled it in the direction of the Citadel.

"The Citadel?" DOG nodded.

"What about it?" I asked.

DOG charged into a nearby building and came back out carrying four filing cabinets. He arranged them around himself and pretended to be trapped.

"Office job? Boring?" DOG shook his head no to both. "Prisoner?" DOG nodded.

"Prisoner in the Citadel?" DOG again nodded.

"Who is a prisoner?"

DOG began to walk around on one leg. "Eli is a prisoner in the Citadel? I knew that, boy."

He nodded once more, but continued to "act". He went still for a second and began to play a recorded message. It was definitely Alyx talking.

"Eli and Alyx are prisoners in the Citadel?" DOG nodded for the last time and proceeded onwards, destroying things in his path.

Three Combine soldiers ran out of a building, firing at DOG with shotguns. He picked up a chunk of wall that he had knocked out and threw it at them in a fit of rage. All three were knocked to the ground. Two were definitely dead, while a third was alive, but the wall had him pinned to the ground. He screamed in agony. Without another word, I shot him in the head and silenced him.

DOG kept going. He actually jumped to grab a scanner out of the air and hurl it against a wall. I guessed that he thought he was going to rescue Alyx from the Citadel. He was strong, but...not that strong.

He suddenly ran ahead. I heard thumping from around a corner. Shortly after, I heard an explosion and gunfire. A Strider walked around the corner, trying to shake DOG off of its leg. DOG jumped off of the leg, jumped on top of a car, and threw himself at the leg again. The Strider was knocked to the ground, emitting a sound that resembled a scream. DOG jumped on top of its head and began to tear away at the hull. Blood went flying everywhere as he separated the protective metal from the delicate innards.

When DOG was finished with the Strider, he ran ahead. Eli must have been a genius to make DOG. I'd kill to have a robotic super-pet. But seeing that I had already killed, it didn't make much of a difference.

--

"DOG! Wait up!" He had hopped from level to level in a parking structure filled with old, rusting cars. I wasn't too confident in the sturdiness of the building. He shoved through cars and buses as if they were small girls. He made his way up to the roof of the structure and looked around, probably scouting a path to get as close to the Citadel as possible. I decided to stick with him and set up the staging area I had in mind later.

DOG seemed to find a path through the ruined city all the way to the Citadel. Smoke was rising from all sorts of buildings, and I could see a few fires. I didn't think the Combine was about to put them out anytime soon.

DOG ran back outside the parking structure. A dropship flew by, holding a folded-up Strider in its...arms. I didn't know whether it was taking a dead Strider away or delivering a "sleeping" Strider to some place where rebels were acting up.

DOG, being the (currently) extremely angry robot he was, he climbed up a lamp post, leaping off the top onto a rooftop. He ran along the rooftops, following the dropship. After a few seconds of chasing, he leaped off of the rooftop in one of the biggest jumps I had ever seen. He just barely caught the Strider's leg. Hanging on a little firmer now, DOG swung back and forth until he had enough momentum to flip onto the top of the dropship.

At this point, he began to kill the dropship as he would kill any other Combine synth. He tore the hull away and started to mutilate the delicate stuff underneath. The dropship flew around drunkenly for a few moments before dropping the Strider. It fell about fifty feet before crushing some kind of gas station. Thankfully, it didn't blow up.

The dropship swayed around a bit more before it too began to spiral toward the ground. Mesmerized by the whole fight, I didn't take time to realize it was flying straight at me like a kamikaze. DOG jumped off of the doomed dropship and tackled me to the ground. The dropship flew into the building behind me, tunneling through it before it came to a stop.

I let out a huge breath, patted DOG on the head, and kept going.

--

We came to S12 for some reinforcement. S12 was the nearest base to the Citadel. For security reasons, all CP stations needed to be one mile away from the Citadel. S12 was like the sign that said, "Turn back now!" in all of those cartoons. I looked behind me at the smoldering, ruined city. I looked forward at the gleaming, futuristic Citadel. There was no turning back now.

--

S12 was a reasonably large place. It was twice as large as S25. A 50-foot communications tower stood next to the station. A jungle of antennae stuck out of it. I saw two rebels working inside, speaking into walkie-talkies.

I knocked on the door. A few moments later, a man opened it. Two rebels immediately pointed their weapons at me. I held up my hands.

"Heeey...I don't think that's necessary!" I motioned for the guards to put down their guns.

"I'm sorry, it's just that this close to the Citadel, we need to take all the precautions possible. I'm surprised we haven't been blown up by Striders...but we did lose a crap load of rebels yesterday in a fight with soldiers. There's only five of us left now."

"Five? You mean the two in the tower out there, you, and your two guards? That's it?"

The man nodded.

"Well then, you can just come with us and abandon this place! My friend here," I pointed at DOG. "Is trying to rescue Eli and Alyx Vance from the Citadel. Any of those names ring a bell?"

"No."

"Oh, well. Let's just say that they're really important. So can you come with us?"

"Aye. This place was as boring as hell anyway. Andrew! Get those two men from the tower!"

"Right away, sir." Andrew, one of the guards, hurried out of the base. A few moments later, he entered along with the two I had seen in the tower. One had an eye patch while the other walked with a limp. Not the best traits to have. I could see why they worked in the tower. Nonetheless, I could use all the help I could get.

--

Once they were all packed up, we left the station. DOG had not mellowed out one bit. He never ever went around anything, he just plowed right through it. As we neared the Citadel, he quickened his pace.

"DOG! Wait for us, boy!" I began to jog behind him. He ran even faster. I sprinted, and even then, he stayed a few feet in front of me. The man with the limp obviously couldn't keep up. He began to fall behind, and eventually out of sight.

The rebel with the eye patch said, "Hey, I'm going to help him! You go on ahead!" No one objected. We ran on ahead. Surprisingly, there were no Combine this close to the Citadel. It was a stone's throw away, if DOG was throwing the stone.

Off in the distance, I heard explosions. A gunship flew overhead, too high for DOG to reach. It fired a few rounds in our direction but missed. DOG, angered, roared at the gunship. Thankfully, he didn't bother chasing it down. The gunship flew out of sight, as if teasing us.

"Ignore it, DOG." I tapped his shoulder. He "barked" at me and ran ahead, as fast as ever. Groaning, I followed.

Two Combine soldiers made a lame attempt at killing us. I shot one as DOG picked up a car and hit the soldier with it like he was a golf ball and the car was the club. The soldier went flying like a rag doll over an improvised road block. DOG, even more enraged he threw a car into the air randomly and leaped over the roadblock. I clambered over behind him frantically.

--

Gordon was there, firing at other soldiers. He threw a grenade at a cluster of them. Two manged to run away, but the third was ripped apart by the explosion. Stuff like this didn't bother me anymore. Ripped bodies were a dime a dozen.

DOG threw a van at the two escaped soldiers. They were both killed immediately. Now that all enemies were dead, I took time to look around. A dead Strider lay in a heap next to some kind of hollowed out building. The Citadel was right in front of us, behind the Citadel wall. Even I could throw a rock at it and hit it now.

I turned to Gordon and explained to him why I was here and what DOG wanted. All of a sudden, DOG rushed to the Citadel wall and began to lift one of the sections.

"No, DOG! You can't get through that way!" But DOG, straining to move it, lifted the section out of the ground. A hole revealed itself underneath the section of the wall. Gordon could clumb down the hole and reach the Citadel! It must have been like the pipe in S25!

"Well, I'll be damned. I think he wants you to go through, Gordon! You'd better hurry." I could see DOG struggling to keep the Citadel wall section lifted. With a salute of sorts, Gordon leaped down the hole.

"And if you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said "Fu*k you!" My advice was drowned out by DOG dropping the wall back in place.

"Good job, buddy!" I patted him on the head. For some reason, he seemed a bit more calm now. I would have loved to follow Gordon and help him, but I needed to set up the staging area as soon as possible so we could punch the Combine below the belt.

Only now did I notice the rebels we had picked up at S12 were nowhere to be found. I knew the two handicapped rebels had stayed back. But what about the other three? I looked around. I saw another rebel who was exchanging guns with a dead soldier.

"You! I need your help! Go find five rebels back behind the roadblock! One should have an eye patch one should walk with a limp, and three others should be normal."

"Okay, whatever." The rebel ran to the roadblock and vaulted over it, out of sight.

"So now, we just wait for him to come back." I said to DOG.

--

A few minutes later, the rebel returned. He looked a little flustered. "They're dead. All five of them."

"Shit. How?" I asked.

The rebel gulped and replied, "They all had huge holes through them. And there was a big hole in the road next to them. I think something came out of the ground and-"

I silenced him. I knew exactly what killed them, and I had no intention of meeting up with it again. But I felt the ground rumble lightly. DOG tensed up. He roared softly.

"No one make any sudden moves. I want you all to move toward that apartment building over there."I pointed to the building I had in mind. "Now, slowly, start walking. Walk on your toes." We began to edge across the street.

The rumbling intensified. I heard more thumping. A Strider was far down the street, scanning the area for rebels. It finally found us, trapped in the street. We could either run now and possibly get drilled by the drillbot, as I had come to call it, or we could stick around and get killed by the Strider.

The Strider seemed to know what our dilemma was. It fired a few rounds in our direction to tease us. It paced around us, menacing.

"Run." I said urgently to DOG and the rebel. "NOW!"

We took off. Angered, the Strider opened fire on us, hitting me in the back three times. I screamed but kept running. Behind me, I heard the ground ripping open. Cement pieces hit me as I heard the familiar sound of the drill bot surfacing.

"Oh, crap." I turned around. No point in running now. I raised my gun and fired at the Strider. DOG ran off to find some projectile to throw. I had no time to tell him to just simply hop on top of the drillbot and rip its guts out.

Angered, the Strider approached me, its leg raised. It slammed it down. I rolled out of the way and fired. The drill bot, as if on cue, began to spin its drill. It stepped back a bit, and ran at me. It tucked its legs into itself and plowed right at me. DOG rushed into the scene and tackled the moving pod. He shoved it aside so it flew right past me and into the building we needed to get to. It collapsed on top of the drillbot, trapping it under a heap of rubble. I could forget about it for now and focus on the Strider.

DOG had climbed up the leg of the Strider and was trying to reach the head. The Strider managed to shake him off.

As DOG hit the ground, the Strider began to charge up its cannon. Air bended around its gun as it fired a blue ray of light. To my horror, DOG went sailing away as the cannon blast hit him. He hit another apartment complex and crashed through the wall. I had no time to check if he was okay. It was just the rebel and me now.

"Hey! Use this!" I looked around. I saw another rebel on top of the hollowed out building. He threw a rocket launcher at me and ran away. I didn't catch it. It hit the ground with a thud, undamaged. I scurried to pick it up.

I raised the weapon at the Strider and aimed. But at that moment, I felt something blunt whack me in the back of the head. I screamed and fell. The world was becoming blurry. I looked around and tried to find who had whacked me. The rebel stood by me, smug.

"You...you!" I sputtered.

"Yeah. Working undercover has its perks, you know. Makes it way easier to kill you." He showed me the butt of his gun, which had a few drops of blood. He pointed his AR2 at me, laughing. "I'd give the Strider the pleasure of shooting you 'till you look like swiss cheeses, but I think I want that pleasure more."

He opened fire. The bullets slowly began to penetrate my vest. I felt the first bullet hit my actual body.

"AUUUUUUUUUGH!" I coughed up blood. It flowed over my face.

The rebel laughed hysterically. He shot me once more. I found it hard to breathe. I gasped for air.

He raised his gun again, but before he could fire, a car came flying out of nowhere and smacked the Strider in the back of the head.

"Huh?" The rebel turned around, distracted. With my last ounce of strength, I grabbed his gun from his hands and shot him. At this point, I blacked out.

--

"He might just have to sit around here for a day." I opened my eyes. An African-American man stood over me, holding an empty medicine vial. "He's awake! Man, Jesus must looooooove you!"

"Wha-"

I realized I was lying in the street where the Strider and the drillbot and the evil rebel had been. The Strider was dead, ripped apart by DOG. The drillbot was also covered in blood, and it lay lifeless underneath the rubble. I had probably been out for an hour. The sky looked only slightly darker.

I stood up. I spit out blood from my mouth and felt my stomach. The vest was still ruined but my stomach seemed fine. There was no time to waste. It was time to go back to S31 get people for a staging area.

"Guys. We need to go now. No time for staying around."

The medic gaped at me. "I KNOW Jesus loves you!"

--

As I retraced my steps back to the Nexus, I heard a gigantic BOOM. I spun around. I didn't realize what it was at first, but then I saw an explosion at the very top of the Citadel

"Gordon." He was the only person who could possibly do that much damage. And if he was up there, he was dead. I stared at the Citadel. The very top part had been blown apart. Some kind of orange cloud was opening above he Citadel, some kind of portal.

"Aw, crap." The medic said.

"Let's go. We need to-" I realized it was pointless. The staging area? Why the hell should I do it now? Alyx, Eli, and Gordon were probably all dead. That explosion must have dispatched Breen.

"Dr. Kleiner!" I remembered him now. I needed to go help him relocate, if he hadn't done that already.

I told DOG and the medic about the doc. They both agreed to go.

We started out for the lab, hurrying down the street towards the setting sun.

The End.

Mmmm, aren't cheesy endings great? I thought so.

I didn't think this would ever come. I want to thank all reviewers of this story, especially my first reviewer, IFreeman. You don't know how nervous I was before I got your review. I had no idea how feedback would be. But here I am, with these final stats:

Number of people who have favorited this story: 12.

Alerts to this story: 7.

Again, thanks so much to everyone! Y'all rock!

'Til next time...

The Lover of Cheezburgers,

Cheezburgerlover.