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

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...

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From:

raptorcanaria

Dinah's head whips towards the sound, squinting as if she might be able to see something. She doesn't say anything, however: just listens.

From:

acts_of_gord

Nothing. No sign of anyone.

No further zombies, either, which is something.

"I think there's a switch on the side of that thing," Gordon says. "If one of us can crawl in there and flip it we should be able to get past safely."

From:

raptorcanaria

Which one is obvious - Dinah's smaller and she's willing to bet she's more agile.

"That lever thing?" she asks for confirmation, before diving under the blades. Tucking her knees in tightly, she rolls to the centre of the propeller and pushes the lever up.

From:

acts_of_gord

The blade grumbles to a halt.

"... that'd do it, yeah."

The only way out from here is a set of low-lying stairs; everything else's been walled off. A light gleams dimly in the open room beyond: the interior of what might've been a barn, once. Now it's home to a stack of accumulated detritus: saw blades, engine parts, paint cans, and the like. Someone's been here recently, though. The white-and-green medkits in the corner attest to that. So does the switched-off chopper in the center of the room, identical in every way to the one outside.

As Gordon pulls one of the sawblades over with the gun, the scream of an enraged headcrab can be heard from the far end of the room. The little monster's leap draws the eye away from the bipedal forms lurching out of the shadows near the nailed-shut door.

From:

raptorcanaria

"Convenient, all these weapons around," Dinah remarks, giving a humourless half smile. "Stay back."

After giving that warning, she dives and rolls in the exact same way, this time switching the chopper on, before rolling out the other side: towards the zombies.

From:

smelltheashes

Convenient? Perhaps. Or possibly providential; as the chopper spins up, a man's voice can be heard from somewhere beyond the barn. It's the same voice as before, and it thunders, "For the days of my life have vanished like smoke, and my bones are parched like ash, and let all my impurities be as fuel for that fire until nothing remains but the light alone!"

The zombies don't seem to notice; they're staggering towards Dinah, claws outstretched.

From:

raptorcanaria

Which was exactly what Dinah wanted them to do. Without saying a word, she extends a foot and an hand and flips the first zombie into the chopper, then spins 180 to add extra momentum to the kick she sends towards the second.

From:

acts_of_gord

If the zombies were a little smarter, the two remaining ones would be terrified right now. Then again, they wouldn't be zombies if that were the case.

Whether they'd continue attacking the girl who'd just thrown their comrades to their final rest the world will never know. With a THWOOM, a single gleaming sawblade flies across the room on a course that neatly slices both of them in half, sending their decaying parts scattering.

Gordon lowers the gun and flashes Dinah a brief, quick smile.

From:

raptorcanaria

She returns the smile, relieved and satisfied with their teamwork.

"Nice shooting."

From:

acts_of_gord

"Thanks," Gordon says. As he points the gun at the boards covering the door and blasts them out of the way he notes, "You're pretty good yourself."

The alley outside is narrow and twisty, clogged with oil drums. At one turn, a black artillery shell of some sort- wide, and opened at one end- blocks the way. Gordon eyes the thing with visible loathing. "Headcrab rocket," he says shortly. "One of plenty."

From:

raptorcanaria

Dinah kicks at it in distaste born only from Gordon's loathing.

"That's how they infected this place?"

From:

acts_of_gord

"Yep. The ones that you've seen're too small to breed- but they make a hell of a bioweapon."

The prospect of the Combine having something the size of that Xenian testicle monster in captivity occurs to him. He wishes it hadn't.

From up ahead the smell of... barbecue? Is that barbecue?... drifts on the wind.

From:

raptorcanaria

In a place like this, it's enough to make Dinah cover her nose and mouth in distaste.

"Do I want to know what that is?"

From:

acts_of_gord

"I don't think so," says Gordon, and looks around warily. There's no sawblades or other weapons here, but there is an oil drum up ahead. That's simple enough to lift and carry ahead of him.

From:

smelltheashes

A wise decision on both their parts! For up ahead the cobbled streets are filled with light- the light of purifying flame filling a whole plaza, dancing off every wall and casting leaping, capering shadows. The fire burns bright and hot, but a careful eye will spot shapes twisting in it that might have once been adversaries.

Above the fire a door swings open. The man who steps out onto the balcony laughs, a thundering cackle that dances on the edge of madness. As several more zombies stagger past the flames, he leaves off with his laughter, and the sound of gunfire echoes through the alleys.

"Ah, what is this?" he suddenly calls out. "More lives to save? Very well, I will keep my eyes on you! More than that I cannot promise."

From:

raptorcanaria

"Wait, we should stick togeth..."

Dinah's words are cut off when he slams the door in front of him and disappears.

"Uh, I guess we should be grateful for the help?"

From:

acts_of_gord

"That was weird," Gordon says; he's still squinting up at the doorway. He casts a glance at the fires; there are visible half-bodies staked among the flames. "We should keep moving."

From:

raptorcanaria

"Right," she says, drawing back from the flames a little.

They're still a lot like humans and it's slightly disturbing.

"Lead on, then."

From:

acts_of_gord

They keep going.

There was a complicated rig with a gas tank and an electrical igniter that blocked their way. It had its uses- it did, after all, keep the zombies back- but the howls of agony it induced were too disturbing even for Gordon's hardened sensibilities. By mutual agreement, the fire rigs they found as they continued to travel were left alone.

There was a fence that had to be climbed, but it snapped and fizzed with electricity. The wires there stretched back to a switch in the building the armed man had retreated into, which turned out to be teeming with zombies- some of which had the disturbing habit of lying perfectly still when approached, only to come to their feet the moment Gordon's or Dinah's back was turned. Anything with a headcrab still attached became fair game, whether still or moving- or at least, the headcrab part did.

And then there was the blind alley, where the only way out was to clamber up a fire escape... no. Up two fire escapes. Even better.

As he's almost at the top of the second, Gordon pauses. "Dinah? Did you hear a cat just now?" he asks- and something black and spidery LEAPS at his face with a scuttling hiss.

From:

raptorcanaria

"Down!"

Dinah barks it out like an order, and isn't surprised when Gordon hits the floor in a heartbeat. She leaps over his lowered head to the creature, sending it flying. In the same movement, she follows through to land, crouched and ready on the rooftop.

"Where did it go?"

From:

acts_of_gord

Gordon's a little surprised he was able to fit on the floor here- the fire escapes and roof ledges alike are narrow in Ravenholm. Still, he looks up. "I didn't see-"

From:

smelltheashes

A familiar laugh rings through the air. If Dinah looks back the way they came, she'll see the source: the man who lit the fires is standing on the rooftop of a nearby building, gun in hand. "Well done, sister!" he calls, raising a fist in acclamation. "And you, too, brother. Make free us of my traps. But take care not to fall in them yourselves- behind you!"

The sound of a gunshot splits the air, and the black, vile thing that had been about to leap at Gordon again gives its death rattle.

"In Ravenholm," the man intones, "you do well to be vigilant."

And he steps back into the hole in the roof, still smiling as the darkness claims him.

From:

raptorcanaria

"Yeah, thanks," Dinah says, unimpressed. "We weren't being vigilant before then."

She steps back to let Gordon up, looking around them both, alert.

From:

acts_of_gord

Someone, Gordon thinks, is just possibly a couple of chips short of a motherboard.

From here the roofs are too rickety to trust. There is, however, a skimpy sort of path- wooden ledges nailed carefully into place along the edges of the buildings, twenty feet or more off the ground. Gordon's had to move farther and faster on less sturdy footing, so he sets off with relative ease. He won't go quickly until he's sure Dinah's able to follow as well. The wooden path leads to a window that overlooks a building with no second floor... and a first floor alive with headcrabs.

Gordon shudders at the sight. "We need fire," he says. "Did you see any oil barrels on the way over here? Or anything flammable?"