Chapter Text
Five years.
It'd been five years since Gordon had escaped Black Mesa in his fucked up version of Half Life.
Five years since he'd been trapped in that world, helping the science team escape the lab.
Five years since he'd had his hand cut off, hundreds of bullets shot into his body, been attacked by aliens
And five years since he'd left the one he loved
The shit in that game was enough to traumatize anyone. Having your life in someone else's hands and choices.
So why was he starting it again.
Well, he had the house to himself this week, Joshua was with his mom at the time. The money g-man had promised him did come through.. oddly enough, and he was still living off that so he didn't have a job to worry about.
He slipped on the familiar VR headset, his senses being taken into a new world as he loaded Half Life.
File not found
That- that was a problem! Maybe the console was just bugged from lack of use? Yeah, he'd try to start it again.
File found
Processing
File corrupted
He forced the headset up so he could see his own world as he looked for the usb he put the science team on. Maybe it wasn't plugged in or set up right, that had to be the problem. He found it, and plugged it into his computer. Maybe it was just half life that was bugged out. He could load them into a different game.
Gmod, it was perfect. The simple sandbox style and published by valve as well as half life was. It used similar models, yeah, that was a fine replacement.
He started up gmod, he had modded it so he could play it in VR, similar to how he did with half life. It ran fine, opening a single player world. It didn't give him the option to select a world, instead it put him in an endless void looking world, before slowly beginning to look like the familiar restaurant (it's a restaurant.) Chuck E Cheese.
It was different this time, everyone from the party was gone, all the employees were gone. It was quiet.
"So.. you came back."
The voice behind him sounded familiar, he went to spin around to face the speaker but he felt as if he was unable to, no, he was unable to.
"How long has it been Gordon...Ten, years? Hm? Well... You told us how time moves faster here... maybe it hasn't been....... so long."
The voice spoke again. It wasn't anyone from the science team.. was it G-man?
"I- I didn't mean to be gone so long. It's just-"
"Do not make excuses Mister Freeman. That won't be nessasary. I've noticed you haven't.. upheld your end of our little... Deal.. hm?"
Damn it why was it G-man the first person he met again, it wasn't like he could log off, once you're in a world with these characters you had to play by their rules.
"I see we aren't.. in the.. half life, game, as you call it.. anymore.. hm?"
"The game said the files were corrupted when I tried to start it..! Is everyone okay? No one's been damaged right?" Gordon hoped they were alright, if they had gotten deleted or corrupted it'd be his fault and he wasn't sure if he could fix it.
"Oh, so after.. five years, you're concerned? Hmm Dr. Freeman?"
He paused, taking a long breath.
"Yes. Everyone is... Mostly, fine. Nothing my... assistance couldn't fix."