The Hunt
Adrian Shephard's not the kind of man to have nightmares, generally. After Black Mesa he was short on the ability to sleep more than a few hours at a time, but that wasn't nightmares so much as tension and stress. For him, nightmares- when they happen at all- are usually old, old dreams of an old, old disaster, and they almost all center around a six-year-old-child's world washing away.
Guess what's been snapping out of his sleep in the middle of the night since that trip to the dead zone. Go on, guess.
The first time it happens he's at Milliways and he's okay with that, since it's the night after the mission and everything's still so fresh that it's no wonder his brain hasn't put it away. But the second night it's not so easy, especially since the dreams started off good and then took a turn for the horrific. Putting them behind him and going back to sleep just makes it worse, because it's a plummet right back to the nightmare material and it wipes out what rest he got.
Not cool. Not cool at all.
Anyone who comes looking for him in the morning will find a note in his bunk, or another one at his equipment locker. Same note. It reads:
Gone hunting. Headed towards northern forest. Properly armed. Will be marking trees at eye level if you need to track me down.
-Cpl. Shephard
Sometimes a man's got to do something clean. Anyone wants him, he'll be up in a makeshift tree stand near one of the local streams, bow in hand and arrow ready to draw, waiting for one of the bullsquids whose tracks he found nearby to make its presence known.
Guess what's been snapping out of his sleep in the middle of the night since that trip to the dead zone. Go on, guess.
The first time it happens he's at Milliways and he's okay with that, since it's the night after the mission and everything's still so fresh that it's no wonder his brain hasn't put it away. But the second night it's not so easy, especially since the dreams started off good and then took a turn for the horrific. Putting them behind him and going back to sleep just makes it worse, because it's a plummet right back to the nightmare material and it wipes out what rest he got.
Not cool. Not cool at all.
Anyone who comes looking for him in the morning will find a note in his bunk, or another one at his equipment locker. Same note. It reads:
Gone hunting. Headed towards northern forest. Properly armed. Will be marking trees at eye level if you need to track me down.
-Cpl. Shephard
Sometimes a man's got to do something clean. Anyone wants him, he'll be up in a makeshift tree stand near one of the local streams, bow in hand and arrow ready to draw, waiting for one of the bullsquids whose tracks he found nearby to make its presence known.