We Don't Go To Ravenholm- Oh Wait, Looks Like We Do

[acts_of_gord]

The Milliways portal door is a capricious, fickle thing. It had opened for Gordon earlier when he'd tripped over the charred, blackened remains of a lurking zombie while firing a sawblade into its still-mobile companion. Then it'd gone and opened again, back to Ravenholm, just as he was leaning forward to check and see whether the zombie that'd loomed over him before had gone.

The blade had flown true and eradicated the zombie threat, but in the moonlight that trickled through the cracks in the boarded-up window and badly patched roof, Gordon could see he still wasn't alone...

Comments

[raptorcanaria]

"Great," says Dinah, hauling herself out easily and offering a hand to Gordon - that suit can't be light.

"At least the cart's armed."

[acts_of_gord]

It's not. He's pushing himself out of the water with one hand and holding onto Dinah's with the other and it's still a hell of a job to get out. He has to wait a moment for the water to trickle out of everything before he can continue.

"Too bad neither of us are small enough to fit under the blade for the whole ride there," he says ruefully. "All right, let's get moving."

He pulls the brake release lever next to the cart and skitters back. The blade spins up, slowly at first, then faster, and the cart starts moving up the slope at a remarkable rate of speed.

The whackity chop splud urrrgh noises start within moments of it slipping out of the light's range and into the darkness.

"Gonna be a fun walk," Gordon observes as he starts off.

[raptorcanaria]

"Yeah," Dinah says, sticking close to him and grimacing at the noise. She nudges him slightly with the crowbar to make him takes it and keeps a hold of the other end.

"Nothing like a nighttime stroll through dismembered corpses."

[acts_of_gord]

"Could be worse," Gordon says, wrapping his hand around the curved part. It's too dark in here to see much of anything but the light at the far end, and his suit light's battery is almost out. "Had to make it through the residue processing section of Black Mesa once. You have any idea how much 'residue' a self-contained base that size puts out in a week?"

Why yes, it is meant as a distraction from the remains of the zombies, why do you ask?

[raptorcanaria]

"Do I even want to know what it's residue of?"

Dinah grimaces in the dark, resigned to finding out anyway.

[acts_of_gord]

"We had on-site employee dormitories. And a private sewer system. And that was the nice stuff-"

They're almost at the end of the cart's track now. The surface is still some distance away, but that's all right. The daylight is growing brighter and brighter beyond the cart's reach; anything that tries to attack them now should be visible, right? Mind you, even without the corpses, the tunnel floor here's still less than ideal to cross...

[raptorcanaria]

...it's uneven and irregular and difficult to navigate, especially when holding on to one end of a crowbar.

They're near the surface when the track runs out and the cart stops, at around the same time that the path slopes up suddenly at an angle that suddenly allowed direct sunlight through and into Dinah's eyes.

The combination of sudden light and uneven ground work at just the wrong time, and she trips, letting go of the crowbar.

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon staggers a little himself; the crowbar's motion jerks him off balance, and the light's a little worse for a man wearing heavily scratched and otherwise vile eyeglasses. By the time he rights himself-

"Dinah? Where..."

... she's gone.

[raptorcanaria]

...it's uneven and irregular and difficult to navigate, especially when holding on to one end of a crowbar.

They're near the surface when the track runs out and the cart stops, at around the same time that the path slopes up suddenly at an angle that suddenly allowed direct sunlight through and into Dinah's eyes.

The combination of sudden light and uneven ground work at just the wrong time, and she lets go of the crowbar when she trips.