(Untitled)

[acts_of_gord]

Barney pulls the bridge shut almost as soon as Gordon touches down in the building across the road. They've just come from apartments in foul condition, but this building's suffered more; the holes in the walls are enormous, and the floor feels as if it might give way at any moment. Some previous Resistance member took the precaution of bridging

Comments

[a_mere_child]

Alyx tenses at the sound, but the gunship doesn't appear to have noticed the two anticitizens yet, and glides past with nary a pause.

"C'mon, let's keep moving--"

[acts_of_gord]

"Fine by me."

The next room over is just a closet, but there's a stairwell close at hand, which is fine with Gordon. Barney did say they needed to get across the rooftops, after all.

An angry screee! sound is all the warning he gets of the two headcrabs lurking just around the turn. Fortunately, the crowbar Barney's given him does a very good job of smacking the wretched little monsters into the wall.

[a_mere_child]

He might want something with a bit more range for the poison headcrabs lurking around the corner, though. Alyx sure does.

[acts_of_gord]

Yeeeeeeah. That would be shotgun time, right there- damn this narrow hallway, anyway, he's only able to aim for one of them at a time-

[a_mere_child]

"Look out!" Alyx shouts, firing on the next one in line as it leaps.

[acts_of_gord]

!!

The shiny black headcrab lets out a scream like a strangled cat before falling over, legs twitching in the air. It takes Gordon a moment after it falls silent to realize his ear is still hurting; he reaches up to touch it, and his fingers come away red.

"... I think that was you," he says a bit weakly.

[a_mere_child]

Alyx cringes. "Shit, it was, I'm sorry--are you okay?"

[acts_of_gord]

"I think so. It was just a graze."

And it's not like everything doesn't hurt already anyway. The suit ran out of morphine (or whatever it claims is morphine; Gordon has his doubts) a long time ago.

"I'll patch it up later. Let's keep going."

[a_mere_child]

"Right."

The next turn of the corner leads them back out into the open again, albeit with a few Combine and Zombine in the way. After rushing across another drawbridge, dodging fire the whole way, they find themselves in a relatively intact building with bare hospital bedframes scattered about the wide hallways.

"Hey, a hospital! Keep an eye out for medical supplies, we're gonna need 'em."

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon nods, testing the next doors to come to hand. He'd just as soon avoid having to bash them open, after all. The first few've been locked or barricaded, but there's one at the end of the hallway that opens easily enough- onto a double-width corridor, outside whose windows a gunship is rising even as he flattens himself against the wall...

The sound of gunfire's coming from somewhere around the bend- and the groaning of zombies. They're going to need those medical supplies soon.

[a_mere_child]

It seems that the Overwatch have already infiltrated the building, and are busy fighting their zombified colleagues. Not so busy that they don't turn and fire on Alyx and Gordon, of course; that would be too easy.

On top of it all, Alyx can see trip lasers crisscrossing the room ahead. "Think you can set off those tripmines from here?" Alyx calls over her shoulder as she ducks behind a support column for cover.

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon doesn't say anything in response. This is because tripmines + zombies + zombines + regular combine = the perfect excuse to huck a grenade down the hallway just as hard as he can.

There's still a few gorbling horrors left when the smoke clears, but the tripmines are gone- and there's a lot of corpses that won't be getting up again.

[a_mere_child]

The remaining necrotics are swiftly dispatched.

"I'm starting to think we're not going to find a lot of medicine here," Alyx murmurs as she drops the spent magazine out of her gun.

[acts_of_gord]

"Probably been raided already." Gordon does his best to wipe his forehead on the back of one arm, but the HEV suit isn't really designed to do that. The blood and ash will just have to stay where it is. "We'd better keep moving anyway."

There's a few side rooms that probably housed patience once, but they're all thoroughly unremarkable. The only exit from the area is a short flight of stairs leading upwards once again... well, okay, that's the right direction if nothing else. Gordon checks to make sure he's got as much ammo as he can handle and loads up his pulse rifle before heading that way.

[a_mere_child]

The bad news is, the rumble of the gunship's propeller can be heard just above the crumbling rooftop overhead.

The good news is, there's a rocket launcher propped up against the far wall...

[acts_of_gord]

And the floor looks like it hasn't seen maintenance since before the coming of the Combine. Great, just great.

But then again, neither had the bridge...

"Alyx," Gordon says quietly, "find somewhere load-bearing and reinforced, and stay there. I'm going to take that thing down."

He waits for her answer as he makes ready to run.