Sven-XIII

I got bored the other day and decided to get my copy of Raising the Bar and rewrite one of the original opening sequences to HL2. I'll keep writing more.

Darkness. Pure darkness. That’s all that he could see before him. He felt as if he was in a haze, unable to keep his balance. As he took a few steps forward, he heard a voice; a cold voice that seemed so familiar to him, and yet so unknown. “Doctor Freeman,” the voice said, “It’s time.”

As if on cue, a man in a blue suit materialized in front of him. He seen the man’s piercing green eyes first. They held him on the spot, unable to move and yet, he stepped towards the man. The man snapped his fingers, and then things began to change.

The darkness melted away, changing slowly into a green meadow. The sun was stunning, and Gordon tried to look away from its glare, but he still had no control of his body. “Let’s take a walk,” said the man with Green Eyes, who apparently had a fascination with the “S” sound. They, or rather, the man, walked to the crest of a hill, revealing the landscape. Gordon could see a city on the horizon. The man, who now rested against a tree, said “Mr. Freeman, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, not that the passage of time has any real meaning for you. However, elsewhere it has been a different story.” He paused, just long enough to respond to Gordon’s confused look with a grin. “I have been wondering how the most effective way of explaining these changes to you, and I have decided to simply show you.”

The sky turns from its glorious shade of blue to a dark grey. The clouds swirl, and the sounds of nature is replaced with the claps of thunder and flashes of lightning. The man walks away from the dying tree and toward Freeman, saying “Don’t blink, or you will miss it. Sometimes everything can change… overnight.”

With a flash of light, Gordon’s surroundings change. The sky is now swirling around the city, or rather, a massive citadel that has seemingly appeared from nowhere. The grasses have died, leaving nothing but dirt. As he examines this sight, he can clearly see some old rivals of his. Bullsquids and a pack Houndeyes are fighting apparently over a corpse; a human corpse. A dolphin-like aircraft flies over the group, ceasing the fight. It was flying towards the citadel.

And yet, throughout these changes the Green Eyed man seemed calm, almost entertained. “Don’t be nervous, Mr. Freeman. We’re not really here… Not yet, at least.” As impossible as it may seem, the land is changed once again. All of the trees have gone, and the far-off city is in ruins. The citadel is even more massive, surrounded by the skeletons of skyscrapers that pale in comparison to the sheer size of the citadel. “Ten years is a long time for most, Mr. Freeman” the man continued, “It is a lifetime for some. Long enough to heal the first scars of a whip. Long enough to forget the little things in life, like the taste of fresh air. But you remember, don’t you Mr. Freeman. It was no time at all… for you.”

As a set of tracks are being created, the roar of train can be heard. “I think that covers just about everything, and now all that remains is to put you in the picture,” said the man with Green Eyes. As the train approaches, it slows down to a halt. A door from the rear car opens. “All aboard, Mr. Freeman. Time waits for one man.” Gordon ‘walks’ onto the train, and the door hisses shut, erupting a bit of steam. The train then slowly lurches forward, leaving the Green Eyed man and the meadows behind.