Half-Life Fallout: Sudden Death - Half-Life Fallout

Chapter 1 - The Sound of Silence

For the first time in a long time the sounds of war ceased for a moment and let the sound of silence slip through a devasted City 17. This brief moment of peace brought everyone memories of better times and a slight sentiment of hope for a better future. The Combine could have stripped everyone of their liberty, but they haven’t stripped them of their hope. And even they know that hope is the last thing to die.

John couldn’t let this rare moment go to waste and decided to take the risk and venture himself out of the hideout to breathe the fresh air and enjoy the brief silence. He hadn’t left the resistance hideout for a few days since the Combine decided to regularly patrol that zone everyday.

That dark and dirty hideout has been John’s home since he joined the resistance two years ago. He could have stayed on the relatively more comfortable place that the Combine assigned to him when he was relocated to City 17, but he preferred to join the resistance and live on the edge than to live oppressed by a ruthless alien force.

The hideout used to be a nuclear bunker and was constructed during the Cold War by an eccentric Russian billionaire, who was afraid of an eminent nuclear war. The underground site is huge and can lodge almost a hundred people. It even had a pool, which is now the armory room. It is rumored that the place can resist to several nuclear attacks of big proportions, but fortunately it never had the chance to prove it.

Rumor has that the Combine suspects that some guy named Freeman may pass through that zone. There are some amazing stories about him circulating through the resistance groups, about how he took down several Combine soldiers and how he’s making his through City 17, some even claim that he might be the savior of City 17 and take down the Combine oppression with his own hands. But John doesn’t really believe on those stories, he just thinks that Freeman is only an exceptional soldier and those stories are just propaganda to raise the hope through the resistance soldiers. Just like how the Russians used to do during the WW2, when they invented or exaggerated stories about good soldiers just to elevate the hope of the soldiers.

John unlocks the hatchway of the hideout, lifts it up a little and looks around for any threats. The coast seems to be clear. The resistance hideout is located underneath some rocks, on a cliff near the coastline of City 17, apparently out of the Combine control. John lifts the hatchway a little more to look better. The zone is indeed clear. He then proceeds to completely open the hatchway and get out of the hideout. He walks down to the edge of the cliff and stares at the horizon, enjoying the silence for a few seconds. It seemed like forever to him since the last time he did that. Before the Combine invasion, John would pass hours at the beach, alone, hearing to the sound of the sea and walking by the shoreline, feeling the sand on his naked feet. Now he can’t even remember that feeling. And it’s impossible to remember it anyway, since the beach is now infested with antlions.

John takes a deep breath and returns to the hideout. The silence won’t last forever.

Wow... Half Life Episode 4: A New Hope

no way i'm reading that

What was this new abbreviation I learned...? Something like that ******* is too long and don't want to read a novel tonight...

Yoggs, on Nov 5 2005, 06:53 PM, said:

TL; DR? Or KISS?

Hehe, I intended this chapter to be short because it's just an introduction to the main character. The second chapter is going to be larger and should introduce more characters and details.

Don't be such haters.

Dark Knight, on Nov 5 2005, 09:53 PM, said:

The former. Thanks.

where's that fall asleep emoticon?

I have a question: is it possible to have independent tabs for different pages on Microsoft Word? It's because I don't want to have to scroll down the page to get to the different chapters and it would be cool to have the chapters divided on different tabs on the same document like in Excel.

A New Hope is the title to the first Star Wars movie. Be more creative in that respect...

ewakio, on Nov 6 2005, 03:10 AM, said:

Can you suggest a better title? That was the first title that came to my head and the only one that fitted the story.

Damn, you guys are really anal-retentive...

Maxey, on Nov 5 2005, 07:17 PM, said:

Nope, sorry. I don't really want to - you're the author.

Maxey, on Nov 5 2005, 10:03 PM, said:

I don't know about tabs but you can open a new page. All you have to do is go to file>new. A new page will open up. All you have to do is minimize the top page and the bottm page will be on top.

Yoggs, on Nov 6 2005, 03:18 AM, said:

And will that page be saved on the same document?

Maxey, on Nov 5 2005, 07:19 PM, said:

No. When you create a new page by that method, it's a completely different file.