#drad25

1.

Two figures explored the overgrown ruins of Aperture Science.

After the stories they heard of this place, they anticipated finding skeletons of old employees scattered everywhere. People who died without ever seeing the Resonance Cascade.

Whatever had run this place cleaned up evidence of the infamous “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.”

The pair considered turning back, until they spotted a sign that read “RELAXATION VAULTS.” Beneath was a pictograph of a stick figure resting in a sealed-off bed chamber.

Out of countless rows of tall glass vaults, only one was occupied. Only one survivor of whatever happened to Aperture.

2.

A burst of chilled air broke across his face. Doug opened his crusted eyes to see the glass shell of the vault open.

You’ve slept for so long…and now they’ve got you…!

Along with the Bad Voice, Doug heard a radio toggling between classical music and the sound of metal beams bending. He had to find the real radio, he had to find the cube and try and hold onto the Good Voices.

“Excuse me, sir-“ a woman said.

She was real. Doug still couldn’t trust her.

“Stay back!” he fell to the floor, arms curled tight around his cube.

(X)

Gordon and Alyx sat with Doug on the sterile floor of the vault, trying to understand one another. Doug frantically asked questions but was never convinced of their answers.

Gradually, Doug distanced from the two, his miss-matched eyes darting around the empty room. The skinny man crumpled his body closer to the gray-and-pink cube, making frightful murmurs to himself. His eyes

Alyx’s brows arched with confusion. “I’ve…never seen this. He needs help, I just don’t know what…”

Gordon pondered, then held two fingers held out in a “V”, pressed forward away from the center of his chest.

“Vortigaunt,” he signed.

4.

Gordon, Alyx, and their Vortigaunt traveling companion were wary of using up their supply of antlion larval extract. However, the condition of the man they found left them no other choice. He needed the healing from the Vortigaunts – not just for the open bullet hole in his leg, but for whatever mental affliction separated him from them.

Doug tried to run when the Vortigaunt approached him. Even a neurotypical man would have been terrified of the leathery green creature upon first sight. In Doug’s weakened condition, his struggles did not last, and he soon submitted under the alien’s healing invocation.

5.

More than the wounds in Doug’s muscle tissue were healed. The Vortigaunt’s healing wove with precise detail, helping to slow the dopamine receptors in Doug’s brain. It gave him the numbing clarity of antipsychotics, but without side effects of dry mouth and dizziness.

The human man and woman had questions, but looked as haggard as Doug felt.

Doug shouldered his Companion Cube onto his back and led the way to one of his dens hidden in Aperture’s walls. If they were to properly introduce themselves and share their stories, at least they could do it over a can of beans.

6.

“We need to get you outta here, Doug.” Alyx stood up from the campfire and pointed to a pillar of light that shone through the dilapidated test chamber. “You should join the Resistance! We need more good men like you.”

Doug’s head dropped. His fingers tore into his scalp. A good man? Whatever gave Alyx that impression? Doug sent Chell to face GLaDOS alone. He deserved to bleed or sleep forever in the pod.

The only thing that broke Doug from his ruminating was seeing the tri-pronged and orange-barreled gun holstered at Gordon’s hip.

Damn Black Mesa stealing Aperture’s patents.

7.

The four wadded through the field of golden wheat. Alyx and Gordon had found what they needed, and were off on their next quest.

Doug faltered. He turned to the rusted shed they exited out of, imagining himself still entombed underground.

Then, a warm hand gripped his shoulder.

Gordon wore a familiar solemn expression.

Doug understood that Gordon, too, was a just like him - an undeserving man being called upon to change the world.

Pleased, the Vortigaunt smiled with a gentle show of teeth and squinted its ruby eyes.