Close Encounter

There’s something about the end of the world that’s a lot less final than it ought to be. In fact, there’s been a few ends now, and none of them have been the end. First, there were the portal storms. Brief moments of weightlessness followed by the intrusion of creatures from beyond. Not the end, but lead to another end: the Seven Hour War. A particularly sentient and dominant series of aliens come spilling through, reshaping the world in hours. Their reign has lasted for years, leading to the most recent ‘end,’ though localized: a city detonating following a final distress signal.

Now it’s back to the portal storms. I’m walking with a group of people to a major resistance base and I can’t help but think of the next end. The bright portal over the city’s ruins serve as a constant reminder of that.

“Hey. Thinkin’ about the superportal?” I look aside at my partner, Bedros, a younger man, not sure from where. Not that it particularly matters, the Combine love to transport their citizens periodically across the globe so no one gets too attached. I myself am a middle-aged guy from a city in former Canada. I believe they renamed it City 7. I nod and respond, “Kinda. Mostly about if it opens up. Not sure we can survive a second war.”

Our squad “leader” is an old, tough lady named Kazimiera. She still maintained an Eastern European accent and seems to know the area well. She chuckles, “I would not doubt ourselves yet, Scott. Dr. Kleiner and the others at White Forest are smart. We have Dr. Vance now again, too.” She glances over at the portal as well, but shortly looks away. “Just look at the ruins of the Citadel below it.” She’s right, perhaps the next end would be the Combine’s. But I can’t help but feel worried. So did the last member of our squad, by the look on her face.

The last one is a quiet young woman, maybe around the age of Bedros. I caught her name once, I think it’s Albina. Not one for much social talk, but that was good for survival back in the cities. She’s a great shot with the SMG, even the pulse rifle. So she trails slightly behind, watching our backs. In the meantime, we were hiking up hills north of the city. All the greenery was almost an oddity after constantly living inside or on the outskirts of the city. It made me nervous. I’m not sure how the Combine would operate out here in the open fields. We heard rumors of synthetic units called hunters, like miniaturized striders, but we haven’t seen any yet, thank god.

Coming up over the hill, we could see what looked to be a small abandoned town. A village might be more accurate, there are only a few buildings. Pointing out a small satellite dish on a roof, Bedros says, “Maybe we ought to check it out, could open a line to White Forest.” We all simply nod, continuing our trudge in the general direction of deliverance.

Reaching the village, we could finally label the buildings somewhat. The building with the satellite dish seems like it used to just be a lodge of some sort. A building across from it resembles a convenience store, but it might just be storage. Hidden by further trees is what seems to be an inactive metalworks factory. Kazimiera stops us between the two small buildings, glancing back and forth then to us. She orders, “Okay. Bedros, Scott. You two can go check the shop, yes?” We nod together and she nods back. “Okay. Albina, you can come with me. We will check the radio.” Albina nods too and then we split up.

The shop isn’t in the worst condition for being abandoned some 20 years. Granted, it’s empty. Our flashlights beam across blank shelves and faded advertisements in a language I can’t read. Dust fills the light and makes me cough. Bedros comments, “Would be nice to have one of those metrocop masks about now, right?” I give a slight smile but continue searching. We reach the back of the store quickly, which provides us with a locked door. Jostling the handle gives nothing; it’s either locked or jammed. Putting my ear against the door I ask, “You think there are any zombies behind there?” He shrugs and replies, “Probably not, right? The headcrabs were pretty much contained to those shells the Combine launched. We’re not near the city so I’d guess not.” I kick the door and sigh. “Well, either way, we’re not getting in from this end. Let’s check around back.”

As we walk out, I glance over at the other building. There’d be a lot more noise if something was wrong, but it’s hard not to worry out here. Everything is unexpected and unpredictable. Walking around the back of a building gave me some additional anxiety, but there isn’t anything lurking around the back. No headcrabs, zombies, or otherwise. There’s a dumpster and another door, presumably connecting to the room our locked door leads to. Bedros tries to turn the handle, no luck. “Stuck too?” He shakes his head. “No, it’s just locked I think. The door feels fine otherwise.”

“Maybe we could break the lock?”

He shrugs again. “Worth a shot.”

There isn’t anything large lying around on the ground, as expected. I decide to take a peek in the dumpster, which was a mistake. It smells absolutely horrid, the product of two decades’ rot. Bedros is amused by my grimacing. He says, “Here, how about you stay here Scott. I got an idea with no more dumpster diving. I’ll be right back.” He heads back around the corner of building while I recover, leaving me alone.

Being actually alone-- physically and mentally, that’s terrible. I look into the forests around me, which are anything but white. They’re dark, hiding anything within. We could be completely surrounded by soldiers and there would be no way to know until it’s too late. I ready my SMG just in case. Luckily Bedros is back in moments, holding a cash register. He has a bright grin and says, “This was the heaviest thing I could find.” I lower my gun as he walks over to the door and slams the register into the handle.

After a few repeats of this, the lock finally gives and loosens the handle. He drops the register and we ready ourselves for whatever may be behind the door. Quickly throwing the door open, we tense up, then relax. Bedros announces, “There was something in here, but it looks like it didn’t make it.” I come around the corner and I’m presented the sight of a horribly disfigured human body, donning a dead headcrab. He continues, “It looks like one of those weird ones-- the poisonous ones, right?” Its body leans against another door, which seems fused with the wall at its seams. I say, “I guess it melted the door shut on itself… And they can starve to death too. I wonder how long it’s been here.” The smell isn’t rancid like the dumpster, but rather acidic instead.

I turn my attention to a wooden crate on the ground, partially broken. A supply crate. He sees my gaze and follows it, leaning down next to the crate. He lifts it up and peers inside, saying, “Hey, there’s some stuff in there! Medkits, ammo, batteries… I guess this was supposed to be a cache.” He puts down the crate and shifts back towards the zombie. He turns its arm around, revealing an elbow pad with an orange lambda spray-painted across it. Not unlike ours. Whoever they were, they could have been one of us. I simply say, “I guess things aren’t all peachy outside the city either.” Bedros remains uncharacteristically quiet a bit longer and then asks, “Do you think Freeman got out?”

The question caught me off-guard so I just echo, “Freeman?” He picks back up the crate and continues, “Yeah. He was what really kicked off the whole rebellion thing. You think he’s still out there?” I hadn’t thought about it, but it was rather odd. He’s a figure with a mysterious power. He was involved in the original Black Mesa Incident, then went missing for about the entire duration of the Combine’s rule up until maybe three weeks ago. “Maybe. Last I heard, he was in the Citadel before it blew up at the top.” Bedros nods sullenly. “Yeah, I heard that too… But I also heard he was seen later heading towards the train station before the city went.”

We both just stand in silence, pondering one man’s discontinuities until we both hear a woman’s voice speak out. We quickly step outside and head back towards the middle of the road between the two buildings. We call out our squadmates’ names, who come rushing out of the lodge. Kazimiera says with some worry, “Yes, yes? What is it?” Bedros and I are at a loss for words from the confusion, but we’re shortly answered when the female voice continues. All of us now hear it echo from across the hills, distantly but clearly. It’s the same inhuman voice that had been drilled into our heads inside the city, but it’s different. Mostly it’s the distance, but I could tell it’s colder. The announcement system has dropped its human act, now operating only for the Combine’s benefit and not to maintain the illusion of amicable control.

I can see the fear of the Combine in everyone else’s eyes, even our leader. We’ve had no encounter with them since leaving the city, just enough time for the memory of danger to begin to fade. Now just this disembodied voice alone was enough to freeze us. Another sound breaks us out, an equally distant but louder buzzing. A ship. Albina suddenly shouts, “Hide!” Without thinking or considering, we each immediately dash for the buildings we came from, hiding within their walls. In the empty space between the buildings there’s only buzzing and a lone supply crate. We maintain dead air until the buzzing disappears and leaves behind true silence once more.

Slowly returning to the open, the air of anxiety seemed to surround all of us now. Bedros breaks the silence first with a question, “Where are they going?” The answer is obvious. To White Forest. To make sure their next end for us isn’t prevented. Instead of answering aloud, Kazimiera stares at the supply crate. She says, “We have this, at least.” Bedros picks it up and we stare ahead, to the old factory. I also ask an obvious question, “I’m guessing the radio didn’t work?” The two women shake their head. If it had worked, we would be using it at this very moment. Instead, we head into another mystery.

Up close, it’s clear the building is not very large. It simply has two continuous floors, with what seems to be some sort of management room at the back of the second. As we enter the building, the lights seem to flicker. Bedros flinches and drops the supply crate onto the ground. Albina rubs her head for a moment and Kazimiera is blinking hard. None of us can explain what just happened, but still she speaks first, suggesting, “There may be an injured vortigaunt around.”

The vortigaunts are a mysterious species, but the most friendly of the sentient species that came through the portals. They were similarly once enslaved and some still are. I haven’t interacted with many, but I never felt anything like that from them. I look towards the ceiling, but the only lighting is the sun coming through a hole in the ceiling. No electricity to flicker. Heading up the stairs to the second floor now, she says, “Come, everyone. If we find him, he can help us to White Forest.” It’s true, all the vortigaunts are connected through a mental force beyond our reach. But I still feel dread as we climb up the stairs. We left behind the supplies, easier than carrying them up these stairs.

Climbing up brought no further issue, but we still found ourselves nervous. A perpetual fear of the unknown. Rightfully so, especially in these days. As Kazimiera grabs the handle to the office door, another pulse shoots through my mind. It feels like a deep shadow crawling across my thoughts. The others seemed to existence the same feeling, a pain in their heads. Nonetheless, tough lady that she is, she continues on. She opens the door, revealing part of the mystery for us.

The room is full of Combine technology that had been hastily implanted in the walls. Wires stringing from them to something shuttered hanging in the corner. It reminds me of a hornet’s nest. Bedros mutters to no one in particular, “There’s no vort…?” Indeed, the room is empty other than the ominous metal structure and its connected terminal. Above the terminal is glass and a metal bar sheltering something.

Albina approaches the terminal instinctively. Maybe she isn’t a technical whiz like Dr. Vance’s daughter, but she knows more than us, us knowing nil. I can’t help but maintain focus on the corner. It’s an anomaly, this small bastion of advancement in the midst of nothing. In the meantime, she slowly and hesitatingly types away at the keyboard, attempting to do something. She says quietly, “I don’t… understand what this stuff means, I…” She seems to recognize one thing, which she promptly clicks. Blue monitors light up across the terminal, and the metal barrier slid down to reveal a pulsating ball of dark energy.

Despite its name, the dark energy glows brightly, adding some light to the room. We each stare at it with no idea what to do. Disrupting the flow is possible by chucking something in there, but that makes it bounce chaotically and dangerously around the room until it dissipates. Kazimiera takes charge once again and provides a plan of action. “Okay, here is what we do. Someone here has a grenade, yes?” Bedros reaches behind his back and unclips a grenade from his belt, handing it to her. I’m starting to feel increasing pressure on me, anxiety growing. She continues, “Yes. Now everyone leave. I will throw the grenade at machine and break it safely.”

We all nod, it seems safe enough. We start to leave, but our steps suddenly become heavy. Without warning, Albina collapses to the ground. I try to turn around to see what had happened, but then Bedros and I both find ourselves unable to walk, crumbling to the floor. As I strained to get up, I see even our leader fall flat. There’s something about the air, it’s distorted. Like heat waves over asphalt. But more importantly, there’s a crushing pressure on my body that threatens to break bones.

The pressure finally lifts and I found myself floating off the ground, weightless. I wonder if this is a portal storm. There was no blue wave of energy accompanying it. I attempt to reorient myself, but a blistering migraine punches a hole in my mind. I groan and hear Albina cry out. As we all manage to become upright, if floating, the structure that sat in the corner released a gas of some kind. It looks like a coolant. The shuttered wall splits apart, revealing something wholly alien and nonhuman within.

The vortigaunts, despite some different facial structure or bone structure, were still humanlike in their strangeness. Even the transhuman soldiers of the Combine Overwatch retained some humanity. This is something else entirely. Our leader quietly says something in another language as its shutters continued to open. I manage to strain out, “This must be… the originals…” I can see it fully now. It resembles a slug, or maybe a maggot, though if this is the Combine equivalent of maggots I am now much more afraid of them than before. Its front, or face is white, while the rest of it has a darker green. Something like a mask on its front, with an eyepiece to the side, and arm-like artificial structures attached to its back.

The optic scans across us, settling on Albina. I lock eye contact with her for a moment. Then my vision becomes blurry as a powerful force throws me from my spot in the air into the wall. I’m several feet above the ground, being pressed into the wall. I twist my head to my right, where I can see Bedros and further down, Kazimiera. They’re both pinned to the wall as well and attempting to free themselves from the invisible force crushing them.

I turn back forward to locate Albina, who is front and center to the alien. Its eyepiece darts up and down, seemingly trying to understand her. Its facemask moves up, revealing a long, tendril-like… tongue. The alien makes soft but distorted chirping noises as it extends its tongue, bringing it up to her face. I can’t look away, but I hear Kazimiera say with labored breaths, “You… ugly slug… fight me first! I…” She continues on, but it’s again in the other language. The alien seems to figure something out and flips Albina so that her back faces it. Its tongue then arches back and strikes. She dies almost instantly as the tongue penetrates her neck, emitting a brief spurt of blood. I immediately turn away, hoping that it would disappear without someone to see it. I can hear the alien squeaking and Bedros screaming in despair. Kazimiera is screaming as well, but out of rage.

I finally turn back and Albina’s lifeless body lies on the floor, tossed away like garbage. My leader is floated up to the alien’s face, though she seems to welcome the invite. First she spits in its face, causing it to briefly flinch. It squeezes her tighter with its invisible forces. She chuckles and says to it, “My name… is Kazimiera.” She coughs before continuing, having the alien’s attention somehow. “A name of kings. I lead my squad… and their safety is my… responsibility. So I will die… before the rest.” She seems to fall limp, surrendering herself. I see her become able to sigh as the alien lessens its grip on her. Then in a quick movement, she reaches down for her SMG. She holds the trigger as she lifts it and a few bullets make their way into its flesh. It screeches and throws her to the back of the room with a powerful force. I hear her break, though I can’t see her. Yellow bleeds from the holes on the slug’s face.

The alien drags over Bedros now, though sure not to relax its grip at all. I watch as he struggled in the air hopelessly. He has no words or last stands against this beast. He pleads with it, but it pays no mind. The alien flips him around to face his back. I know what comes next and look away, but I can’t plug my ears from the sounds. I look back up earlier than I should have and see his body hanging lifeless in the air. Then it’s discarded like Albina’s. Its eyepiece finally focuses on me. I can feel myself shaking despite the crushing pressure.

I’m slowly brought forward from the wall, gliding over the bodies of my friends. I try my best to writhe as well, as if I can escape the grip of thin air. Up close now, the body I thought was bland is terrifying, regardless of its details. It’s so wholly inhuman that I try desperately to look away. Lucky for me, it promptly turns me around. I brace myself for the tendril to rip deep into my neck. It makes me realize that true ends aren’t of the world. They’re small and individual.

But the end never came. Rather than the piercing strike I expected, the tongue lands gently against the back of my neck. I hear soft chirping from behind me. The feeling of the fleshy, wet, and warm object pressing against my neck makes me shiver. The alien turns me back around to face it once more, where its long and grey tongue floated in front of me. It prods my face, then drags down across my clothing. The tongue retracts slightly as if in disgust.

A horribly loud rip occurred, my clothes splitting themselves in half. I’m left naked in the air, realizing how truly cold it is here. The cold didn’t affect me any more than this monstrosity, as it already has me shaking anxiously. The other three people in my squad were killed almost instantly. What does it want from me? Is it playing with me? A series of emotions run through my head, none of them helping with the clarity. Then its tongue extends again, this time working across my skin in a corkscrew pattern. More tongue just seems to come and come, coiling around my body. The tube of flesh feels hot to my cold skin as it wraps my body, causing a shiver to run up my spine.

The alien suddenly rotates me face-down. Below me I can see my clothes, ripped almost perfectly in half. In the edge of my vision I can see a body: Albina’s. Blood pooling around her neck as she lied in a careless position on the ground. I strain to look up to see what my captor is doing with me. The small hole of a mouth it has at the very front of its face is starting to widen, striking a deep fear in my heart. I can feel the panic in my stomach, something very primal rising up. The fear of being lower on the food chain. I try to renew my struggling, but the tongue simply tightens itself around me. The invisible forces are only being used to hold me against gravity, guiding me as if on a conveyor into its ever-widening maw. Its tongue is being pulled back into the black depths of its insides. My head is pulled into the same depths..

My vision goes totally, truly black for once; no mental blackouts. My head is firmly held on all sides by a very real force now, the force of flesh. Its movement pause for a moment, causing me to freeze with it. Then it continues, pulling me deeper in, resuming my shaking. It feels hot on the inside and I’m only shoulder-deep yet. Slimy and sticky walls grab me from all sides, taking me deeper into this alien environment. I feel its flesh run across my bare chest, yet again sending shivers. The only sounds I can hear are thick and wet, along with the gulps of its muscles.

The pressure of its body is only slightly more relaxed than the pressure of what I believe to be its mind. But much more sensational. Only my legs barely hang in the open air anymore. It still has not let go of it though, it refuses to even take the risk of kicking. Finally, my whole becomes part of another whole. I eventually stop, leaving me awkwardly stuck within the middle of the alien. Now that the sounds of its gulps are gone, I can hear other noises, gurgling and pulsating. Muffled, I can hear a chirping, as well the sounds of the shutters again. It seems to be resealing itself in its pod, for the time being.

As the outside becomes silent, its insides becomes loud. Its muscles kick back up, firmly attempting to crush my body. A liquid pools around me and I try to scream even though there’s nothing nearby to hear me. Struggling against its stomach is futile, as the tightness and the thick flesh absorb all my blows. I can feel myself fading regardless. This is not only the end, but both ends. My body won’t be left as a testament to my life, but instead absorbed and expended. It’s...