Chapter Text
Gordon had awoken to new surroundings. Last he remembered, he was caught in the dark fusion reactor’s explosion before G-Man had saved him. Now, as he gathered his thoughts, he noticed he was in an unfamiliar forest, which was nothing like what was back in his world. He sat up, brushing his HEV suit off as there was dust and leaves all over him.
Looking around, Gordon quickly realized he had no weapon. Nothing to protect himself. Was G-Man playing tricks on him again? Gordon scoffed at the idea, but he didn’t rule it out quite yet.
The physicist was quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he heard someone - or something - scream in agony. Standing up, he quietly moved towards the sound, picking up a branch that looked like it could do some damage if needed. The screaming only got louder, before going silent completely. All Gordon could hear was the soft rustle of leaves and the quiet noise of metal banging together.
Peeking through the bushes, Gordon noticed a woman beating the shit out of a combine soldier. She was bludgeoning the soldier’s head off with.. What the hell is that thing? It looked like some kind of gun, but not one he had ever seen before. He tried to get a better look at it, leaning forward against the bushes. Too bad his glasses were half-shattered from the explosion.
Gordon didn’t have all that much time to think much about it, though. He heard the soldier’s head drop to the floor with a dull ‘thud’, and the woman had noticed him watching. She drew the gun close to her chest, the “barrel” pointed to the floor. The gun whirred softly, and Gordon’s eyes flitted back to it for a moment. He had seen a lot of things, but not that.
The girl had noticed his gaze on her gun, and stepped back, her brow furrowing. She obviously was not in the mood to chat, as she turned on her heel and dashed off. Strange. Gordon decided he should probably follow her, as she looked like she knew what she was doing. He ran after her, and the woman looked back, letting out a startled yelp as she noticed him quickly catching up. Before Gordon could try and stop her, she had tripped over a branch (typical, as the foliage was unsurprisingly dense). But instead of falling, she just rolled onto one knee in front of Gordon, using her gun to keep her relatively upright. She glared at him, her nose scrunching slightly as she looked at his suit.
“What do you want?” The woman asked, looking quite upset as she crawled back a few steps. Gordon noticed her shoes, which were long-fall boots. He had only seen them once, when he was looking over bodies in an abandoned facility. It fascinated him.
Gordon tilted his head to the side, bringing one hand up and signing, "where did you get those?"
She raises an eyebrow, looking entirely confused. Gordon quickly noticed she didn’t speak sign language. Damn it. He brought a hand up to his face, rubbing the bridge of his nose. The stranger just rolled her eyes, before mimicking writing something down. She was asking if he had a notebook. He did not. That made communication even harder, and Gordon facepalmed internally. Damn it, how was he going to talk to this woman? He needed answers, information, and probably shelter considering there could be danger and he had no weapons besides a branch. But the more Gordon thought about it, he realized that if there were any aliens here he would have seen them by now.
The woman in front of him was getting quite tired of his staring, and stood up. “Well, you don’t speak, and I don't understand hand signals. See ya.” She grumbled the last bit, slinging the gun over her shoulder before walking off. Gordon followed her again, fumbling with his suit for a little bit. He remembered there was a text to speech communications system somewhere, if he could just find it- there it is!
He tapped the woman on the shoulder, who turned around with an exasperated expression. He typed something into the communications system rather quickly, and it said in a monotone voice, “Do you know where we are?”
The stranger shook her head no and shrugged, staring at his suit where he had the communications system. Her eyebrows raised, looking him up and down as if he was an alien before looking back at his face. Gordon had no idea what was going on in her head, but it was probably something like, 'What the fuck is this guy wearing?' She decided to push her dumb thoughts aside, nodding ahead and saying “Just come on. I’m looking for shelter. You have a weapon?”
Gordon looked down at his branch, shrugging. The woman rolled her eyes again, exhaling heavily. “Great. Just.. come on."