#*theonefreeman_ic*

Heavily armored footfalls crushed piles of dead leaves and fallen branches within the stifling confines of an arboreal environment. Gordon paused for a moment to scan his surroundings, having encountered a pack of antlions several hours beforehand. The Xenian insectoids were the only signs of life he had encountered inside the dark, tangled forest. A short sigh escaped from Freeman's lips as he contemplated how much of Earth's natural fauna had survived against the interdimensional contamination.

Gordon reached down to his waist to grab a canteen of water and began to drink from it. Making sure to only use as much as he needed, as he had no idea when the next opportunity to resupply would be. A short distance away, Gordon overheard the distinct cawing of crows before the flapping of wings. At least common Corvidae were still around. There was plenty of carrion, local or otherwise, around these days Gordon mused.

But then Freeman remembered that birds usually take off in a fuss if something is around that threatens them. Given the fact most of the new wildlife could threaten him too, Gordon drew his revolver from the holster hanging from his thigh.

As he rolled up on the seaside house, once a homely abode now derelict and in disrepair, there were no Overwatch sentries to greet him. Instead, the horrific stench of burning flesh flooded into his senses, putrid and overwhelming. The Combine was not currently present, but they undoubtedly had paid this place and its former occupants a visit.

Gordon climbed out of his buggy with a combat shotgun in hand. Keeping the weapon leveled and at the ready, a precaution that had served him well so far. As he approached the now smoldering source of smoke, the revolting smell became even more abhorrent. His growing suspicions were confirmed as emerald eyes caught sight of charred corpses. Their flesh had nearly completely sloughed off, leaving nothing left but blackened skeletons. Little remained of identifiable features had been twisted into grisly rictus grins by the flames.

Freeman turned away from the sight, resisting the urge to vomit. Unfortunately, these horrific scenes had become frequent and familiar to him now. He passed through the shattered doorway into the coastal house. The story of a final struggle for survival told by upturned furniture and spent shell casings. Blood that pooled on the floorboards was turning brown, now sticking to Gordon's armored boots.

Something on the mantelpiece caught Freeman's attention, something out of place amidst this house of banal horror. It was a small photograph, framed and placed proudly, of a family of five. Pictured were two parents, a grandparent, and two children. One child was an adolescent while the other could not have been older than ten.

Gordon sighed heavily. His thoughts turned away from mere survival and the tasks at hand, back to his home and his family. The crushing reality that they had not survived pervaded him, inundated him. Soon his thoughts multiplied to consider the fates of thousands of families. Then on to millions of people, billions of dead.

Freeman's breathing intensified, growing increasingly more rapid and ragged. The dam of his mind had broken then burst, pouring out an ocean of unwanted thoughts that churned and frothed like raging black waters. His vision blurred at the edges as tears filled his eyes. He staggered towards the exit, lurching as if an unseen weight pressed into his shoulders.

A great many things had ceased to make sense in Gordon's life. The current and most pressing problem facing the physicist was the robotic endoskeleton trying to kill him. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this fresh horror was one of a type Gordon had become accustomed to facing over the past two and a half days. Compared with the aliens of Xen, this new foe was almost pedestrian in comparison, if no less formidable.

Freeman dodged and weaved through the ruined cityscape, his bright orange HEV suit doing him no favors against the urban rubble backdrop. Still, it continued to prove its worth after sustaining damage from the machine's peculiar type of energy weapon. Gordon's breathing grew ragged as he tried to get some amount of distance away from the robotic predator to afford himself some time to process his predicament.

He stopped to take cover behind the walls of a bombed-out department store. Emerald green eyes scanned his surroundings as ears strained to detect heavy metal footfalls. The holographic display projected to the lenses of his eyeglasses showed that his suit power was running dangerously low. While the HEV's munition monitoring system could not scan the energy weapon he had scavenged from some poor devil's skeletal remains.

The brief moment of respite was abruptly ended by a robotic hand bursting through the wall behind him. It grasped his shoulder like a vice and pulled Gordon clear through the wall and into the air. Landing squarely on his back, Freeman coughed and wheezed on dust and debris, lifting his energy rifle to fire blindly at his assailant. Inflicting nothing but superficial damage on the mechanical man, by some luck, Gordon managed to hit and destroy its weapon.

His opponent was relentless and undeterred. While Gordon struggled to regain his footing, the robot marched up to him and batted the energy rifle from Freeman's hands. Gordon gasped as he felt an index finger snap, a second blow struck him squarely in the chest and knocked him to the ground once again. If not for his suit's high impact reactive armor, the strike would have shattered his ribcage.

Gordon replaced the empty magazine in his submachine gun with a full one before kicking the corpse of a Combine soldier on to its side to search for more ammunition. Several more fresh cadavers litter the abandoned house, alongside a plethora of spent shell casings.

Upon hearing the seemingly Human voice Freeman immediately jolted upright. Turning around to aim his weapon at the possible new adversary. A look of surprise almost overcomes the stern countenance of his cold expression. Whoever this was, he at least looked Human. But outside appearances could be deceitful, and Humanity could be every bit as murderous as the aliens.

Gordon Freeman steadied himself, taking a deep breath as he surveyed the gap between the Xenian "islands." The habitable surface area of the Border World consisted of small asteroid-like planetoids suspended by some unknown force within the swirling interdimensional plane. If he misjudged his movements and erred only slightly, he could easily find himself falling into this abyss.

Exhaling, he activated the long jump module attached to the back of his HEV suit and launched himself across the chasm between islands. Landing with a solid thud as his heavily armored form made contact with the surface of the adjacent planetoid.

The surface of this particular planetoid was akin to that of a terrestrial tropical jungle. Only the vegetation was colored in hues of violet and turquoise and was slightly bio-luminescent. Freeman had become accustomed to such habitats, including the alien threats that lurked within them. Houndeyes, Headcrabs, Antlions, and much, much worse. Gordon pressed the safety of his submachine gun to the off position and pressed forward.

Gordon Freeman furrowed his brow and allowed himself to pause before confronting the technological aberration. He took a ragged breath to steady himself, having used a considerable amount of effort and firepower to breach the derelict Aperture Science laboratory's considerable subterranean defenses. 

The scowl on his face deepened as he regarded the robotic artificial construct with his emerald eyes. "I always knew Aperture was quite advanced as a competitor to Black Mesa...but I wasn't expecting...this." 

"The guards tell me you're an archeologist. Well, I suppose I must be some kind of living fossil to an alien that studies history, albeit one from a different timeline." Gordon Freeman said dryly, pushing his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. 

When he displaced to this dimension, to this space station they called the Citadel, Freeman had made quite the scene. Unfortunately for him, the locals immediately detected the energetic quantum disturbance and had armed soldiers sent after him. Now Gordon was in some sort of futuristic holding cell and meeting another alien, who was markedly less horrific in appearance in comparison to others Freeman had encountered. 

Still, despite his current predicament, this was not the worst dimension to end up in. The high level of technology Freeman observed around him in his brief moment of freedom was quite dazzling. A stark contrast to the bleak utilitarianism and inhumanity of Combine equipment and architecture.  

Perhaps they could even help Gordon accomplish his mission. But that was neither here nor there. For now, Freeman had to find a way out of this cell, get his HEV suit and Displacer Cannon back, and find his bearings. 

Gordon utilized his Gravity Gun to punt the remains of a rusted-out Soviet-era sedan out of his path. Once again, he thanked the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the former Black Mesa Science Team turned Resistance on just how useful of a tool they crafted. It was challenging to traverse through this junkyard, especially after being further filled with debris from the aftermath of both the Portal Storms and Combine Invasion.

Freeman suspected that was the primary reason the peculiar creature he had encountered in the woods now used this place as shelter. For one so small, it must have offered a multitude of hiding spots to avoid ravenous aliens and murderous Overwatch patrols. Possibly acting as a place for her to hunt and scrounge for food as well.

The last thought made Freeman pause for a moment as a pang of sadness washed over him. No child, no matter how transfigured, deserved to live in such a squalid place as this. But Gordon supposed there were far worse alternatives in this ruined world of his making. Perhaps that guilt was what motivated him to drop a stash of supplies a few days back.