Half-Life 2: Retaliation Backstory feature

I used to cry myself to sleep, knowing that the world was now a cruel and dark place. I no longer have tears to shed. I lie awake, thinking about when my day will come. They dragged John out from cell the other day, he tried to fight back. He punched and kicked, and I saw him elbow one of them. It was futile. I heard him screaming. He screamed for so long I wanted him to stop. It echoed throughout the entire prison. And then he did.

I know what they did to people there. I dare not speak of it. Its in-humane, what they do to us. Yet I know, they aren’t human anymore. Every morning, I wake up, and those yellow eyes would be staring at me. Always holding those abnormal rifles. I sometimes saw the one with red eyes, carrying a shotgun. Nonetheless, it was disturbing.

They feed me once a day. A small, broken bowl full of what they called “nutritional organic fluids”. They also gave me a can of “Dr. Breen’s Private Reserve”. Purified water. They put something in it, it made you forget things. My best friend Riley drank it at City 17. He didn’t remember who I was. I never drank it. Always thought about it, though.

There was a time when I thought about joining the Civil Protection force. Better rations, a nicer apartment. It would’ve been better than what the Combine was willing to give me as a citizen. Though I knew it wasn’t worth it. Turning against my own race, just as Breen did. I couldn’t, even if I did want to.

After spending most of my life in the middle, I decided to take a side. I started to think about the Resistance. Many of my friends joined the Rebels, I started to want to as well. To be free, to be able to stand up for yourself and make a difference.

I was first contacted by Barney, the role model of the Resistance. A very strongly-willed guy, yet always joking around. He was a good leader. We left in the middle of the night, Civil Protection skulking around, looking for anything out of the ordinary. We were in the plaza when we were spotted. Barney told me to run, and he hid in the shadows. They didn’t notice him because of his cop uniform, he blended in well with the darkness.

I ran as fast as I could, a scanner keeping its light on me. I ran through an alleyway, and crashed through some crates. I burst through an apartment door, where some citizens were still awake. They closed the door behind me, and told me it was OK. They were part of the resistance.

For several days, I waited there. The Civil Protection were bustling through apartments, and I had heard reports of them in the Canals. I wouldn’t be able to make my way out of the city, not while they were on to me.

I would’ve stayed there, and snuck out after a week or two. But someone came along that stirred everything up. Gordon Freeman. The citizens let him inside the apartment, and not soon after Civil Protection were trudging up the wooden staircase.

We all ran for our lives. They got Mary and Malcolm. Donny didn’t make it, either. I heard the gunshots. I had made my way down to street level without being caught. A Civil Protection APC was racing past the street. They were distracted by someone on the rooftops.

I soon met up with my friend, John. He showed me a secret pathway to the canals. We knew there was a whole network of rebels that would help us if they could. We waited out until morning to be seen. We didn’t want the Civil Protection to be on to us.

We reached the first outpost. The Rebels were tearing it down, we saw some running to the next station. We heard alarms coming from the citadel. The Civil Protection had discovered the rebel network. John and I followed the rest of them. Soon, we were the only ones left.

After being chased by the Civil Protection, we eventually made it out of the canals. We headed back into the outskirts of the city. There were old, abandoned apartments. We saw barely any other citizens. Civil Protection activity was still pretty high. We saw them walking through the streets, guarding the old buildings and some of the checkpoints. John told me the only safe way out was through “The Tunnel”, an underground bomb shelter. It was the only place the Combine didn’t know about.

We snuck from house to house, looking for the entrance to the complex. It was supposedly used by the Resistance. We hadn’t heard anything about them using it, but John figured it was the only way to go.

It was nasty down there. It smelled like vomit and decay. We saw corpses of refugees. I guess we were lucky. We crept through the darkness, with only patches of light to guide us. I think we had an angel on our shoulders. We heard occasional moans and broken growls. We weren’t sticking around to find out what they were. But as luck would have it, it found us.

We found a flare box, with a single flare inside of it. We heard the moans and growls getting closer. I then felt something behind me. John lit the flare, and our hearts stopped. There were zombies all around us. We heard one of them growl so loud, we jumped and dashed down the tunnel. John held the flare, and I followed what light I could see from it. We sprinted through the complex, desperately looking for a way out. Finally, we reached the Light of God.

A small ladder with an open hatch, and a beaming white light coming from the surface. That’s what saved us from them. Or so we thought. John went up first, I followed him close behind. The flare was the last thing I saw before I closed the hatch. I thought the worst was over.

I soon found myself on the ground, with blood flowing out through my nose, and a slight amount of blood from my mouth. I was hit in the face with an AR2. I thought it was John, until I saw two blue eyes staring at me, pulling me off the ground and onto my feet. They were dragging John across the floor into a dropship, and they surrounded me, guns at the ready. We had been caught.

We weren’t sure how long they had followed us. We didn’t even know how long we were in The Tunnel. A day maybe? Several hours? It didn’t matter. Days went on. I can’t recall what they did to me. Beat me. Electrified me. They tried to get anything to prove that I was part of the Resistance, and anything to help them.

They should’ve killed me. I had nothing to hide, and nothing I knew could help them. They threw me in this cell like cowards. They took John’s life, and soon they’ll take mine. But it
won’t be easy. I will escape from this cell. I will escape from this prison, and I will retaliate against the Combine.

I am a human being, and we all have a little Rebel in us.