Chapter 4: Office Complex
The elevator reached the next floor and did not go any higher; and much like the other floors it was in a total ruin. Electric wires were hanging down from the ceiling and managed to zap a couple of headcrabs to death.
Behind Gordon was a door that was unfortunately locked from the other side, and it had a couple of those barnacle things hanging from the roof that caught a scientist in its tongue. There was an air vent against the wall just out of range from the malfunctioning electricity and Gordon slid into it. He was skinny enough to fit, and crawling through the vent wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be; luckily the HEV Suit was equipped with a flashlight, so he wasn't in total darkness, but there were bugs crawling through the vent with him, small bugs that he hadn't seen before; weather they had come through the portal or not he had no clue. The vent ended up in the room where the barnacles were, and some of those scientist's remains; Gordon looked around and found an electrical switch, he shut it off and walked out the door, past the now harmless electric wires and to a locked door next to a window. He used his crowbar to smash down the window and he vaulted through, in the next room there was even more locked doors; one of which the window was already smashed, but it was full of water and some more electrical wires made the entire place a deadly swimming pool.
Around the corner was a corridor with some crates which were broken with his crowbar, and looking into the next room Gordon saw something that made him excited, a shotgun. He put his pistol away and held the shotgun in both hands; going back the way he had come. There was a room that had the label 'STORAGE' and as soon as Gordon reached for the door a zombie broke its hand through, ripping down the door and charging at him. One blast from the shotgun and the zombie was on the ground, not moving. Gordon figured that his one chance of escape was through the deadly swimming pool; his HEV Suit should protect him from most of the electricity.
He dove through the broken window and landed on a half-floating table, and then he leaped over to the sink and shut off the water, then made the daring jump to the light switch and shut off the electricity. Over on the wall was another vent, which Gordon crawled into. In the vent was a couple of headcrabs waiting for Gordon around the corner, one managed to leap along the shaft at his head, but got shot midway, as did the second. The vent was broken up ahead, and a large fan rotating at a deadly speed almost struck Gordon in his head, causing him to duck down even more to crawl any further.
He moved a couple meters forward and then the roof broke underneath him, Gordon slammed against the ground and his pistol flew from his hand, a headcrab dived at him and landed right next to his head. It reared back on its legs, showing its gaping mouth to Gordon's head; Gordon weakly struck it with his crowbar and knocked it back. The crowbar dug into the back of the headcrab and it made a small squeal of pain before slumping onto the ground. There was a ladder leading back up into the vent and Gordon took it; it lead to a freezer room full of dead pig carcases hanging from the ceiling.
There was another one of those alligator monsters in the far end of the freezer and it shot a ball of slime, barely missing Gordon's head; striking the wall next to him. He fired at the creature and it bled out onto the floor, Gordon continued his way through the freezer.
Gordon got to the end of the vent and broke off the cover, looking into the next room. There was a dead scientist slumped against the wall with bullet-holes in his torso, the smell of dried blood struck Gordon and a scream filled the hallway ahead, a scientists ran down into the next room and the sound of a turret opening fire covered the sound of screaming. The scientist fell onto the floor, dead, and Gordon had no intent of going into that room, but he didn't want to go back either. The turret was still beeping and indicating that it was online, Gordon had to be quick, he dropped down from the vent and hid behind a box; the turret was firing and bullets were getting through Gordon's hiding spot. He ran to the other side of the room, bullets hitting the ground behind his feet, and he pressed against the wall on the other side, hiding from the turrets sight.
After a run in with a security guard who refused to help, a scientist who attempted to help and failed, and a large fight with those clay-coloured monsters, Gordon was exhausted. He walked into a cafeteria looking area with a large amount of zombies and headcrabs; he managed to get the jump on them, shooting them multiple times with both his shotgun and his pistol - which was now out of ammo - and they all fell to the ground. At the other side of the room was a large doorway blocked by wooden planks, the crowbar got rid of those in a matter of minutes. In the next room two zombies were feasting on a couple of scientist corpses, Gordon approached them with his shotgun and blasted both of them, the next room was another freezer; it was smaller than the last and the only way out again was yet another vent. Gordon crawled his way through the vent and into a bigger room with around some more barnacles in it, a few shots into the main body of the creature made it vomit up some bones and flesh; there was a ladder attached to the side of a vent and Gordon reached up higher, it led to another vent that got Gordon back onto the right path. He broke down the vent cover and watched as a scientist rain from a zombie while a security guard shot at it with his pistol; Gordon dropped down and the scientist was gone, the security guard told him to make it on his own, which was Gordon's plan anyway, he had given up on finding Barney, Isaac and Eli. He walked up a flight of stairs and there was a longer hallway stretching down to an elevator shaft, and to the right of Gordon was another door. He looked through the small window to see what was on the other side, there was nothing at first, just another room, but then someone walked into view; it was a man, but not a scientist of security guard. The man looked like someone from the government, and he was very calm about the whole situation, his face was pale and he wore a blue suit with a red tie; his hair was cut short and black. The man looked at Gordon through the window and seemed to straighten his tie, then left his view, almost like he had never even noticed Gordon's presence.
Gordon was confused, why didn't that man help him? And who was he? He hadn't been seen or reported anywhere in the facility to Gordon's memory... And to be honest, he seemed almost like a ghost.