Whistle Stop

[smelltheashes]

Thirty seconds ago White Forest was being destroyed with unthinkable thunder and fire from the skies.

That was then.

WHOMP!

This is now. And it has gone very, very quiet.

Comments

[smelltheashes]

"Won't be a problem," says Kate. "Jerry, go see what's takin' those boys so long to git out here, would you?"

Jerry nods and heads off. He eventually returns with the rest of the grey-clad patrol and what might've once been some form of ramp or something used in mining. "This ought to do it," he says. "Let's get you folks set up now..."

[vance_prime]

"Alright people, keep it orderly, pregnant women to the front of the line--" Alyx starts ushering people toward the gangplank.

[smelltheashes]

Kate nods and steps back and smiles, but her expression starts to fade after a bit. "Dan?" she says as the line starts growing in earnest.

"Yeah, Mom?"

"Thought you said you were gonna double the population 'round here." She gestures towards the disembarking crowd. "I might need glasses at my age but I can still see this is one hell of a lot more than double a hundred'n forty-seven."

"More like triple," Dan concedes. "Sorry, Momma. Wanted to ease you into it-"

"That ain't the point, Dan. You thought I'd turn folks away in a time of need just 'cause there were too many?" She shakes her head. "You'n me, we're gonna have us a little talk first chance we get... Sorry 'bout that, Ms. Vance. Hope your folks don't have a problem with close quarters."

[vance_prime]

Alyx manages a faint, wry smile. "White Forest was an old military base meant for about one hundred personnel. We'll manage."

[smelltheashes]

"Different kind of close quarters," says Kate. "We don't live on the surface these days. Ain't worth the trouble of hidin' any time somethin' passes overhead."

[vance_prime]

"Again, we'll manage. We're out of other options."

Unless people want to stay on the Borealis. And given the speed at which they're leaving, that seems unlikely.

[smelltheashes]

"Figured as much," says Kate. "Okay, then. Let's get your folks movin'. Only place big enough to get 'em all inside without a tunnel crawl's Druid Cave, 'n that's a ways upstream from here."

She'll deal with the whole my son appeared out of NOWHERE with a GIANT TELEPORTING BOAT full of STRANGE PEOPLE and DROPPED THEM ALL IN MY LAP thing when she's alone. Right now, she's got an image to uphold and a lot of hospitality to live up to and she will be damned if any of these people see her being anything but up to the task.

"Dave, you'n Jerry better bring up the rear. Me'n Dan'll be up front in case Ms. Vance here's got any questions or anything."

[vance_prime]

Alyx is feeling more than a little strung out herself. It may or may not be obvious to Kate.

"I am sorry to impose on you like this, Mrs. Shephard. If there's anything we can do to help out..."

[smelltheashes]

"Don't you worry about that none," says Kate firmly. "We'll figure somethin' out in the morning. Right now you folks need somewhere safe'n secure 'fore you're good for any kind of serious thinkin'. I aim to get you that."

She glances at Alyx, eyes traveling up and down for a moment.

"You ain't tryin' to do all this alone, are you?"

[vance_prime]

She sags a little. "As opposed to what, exactly?"

[smelltheashes]

"Somebody ought t'be helpin' you take care of yourself," Kate says gently. "You got any family or anything?"

There's plenty of young women in Alyx's condition in Rowlesburg these days. Kate's aware of just how delicate male-female relations can be, with this generation of young people not really knowing how to handle anything whatsoever. Coming out and asking where is he, and why isn't he with you? isn't something she asks lightly.

[vance_prime]

Alyx looks down. "My only blood relative died four months ago," she says quietly. "My fiancé left on a field mission with your son about an hour before the Combine came."

[smelltheashes]

"Oh," says Kate. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry-"

Then the other sentence sinks in.

"Waaaaait a second. Adrian's alive?"

[vance_prime]

She looks back up. "Yeah, didn't you get the transmissions we sent out?"

[smelltheashes]

"Got some real broke-up transmissions a while back," says Kate. "All we could make of 'em was that Dan was sending from somewhere north of City 17. Real bad atmospheric conditions that night."

[vance_prime]

Alyx runs her hands over her face. "Jeez, I'm sorry, I didn't mean--"

[smelltheashes]

"Momma, I'm sorry," Dan breaks in. "I swear to God I thought you-"

"I believe you, Danny," Kate says. "Don't you worry none. Ms. Vance, you don't have a thing to be sorry for. Not a single damn thing, you hear me?"

[vance_prime]

"O-okay." Alyx nods and swallows. The trauma of the last twenty minutes (Jesus, it's only been twenty minutes, it feels like days) is starting to make itself felt in force.

[smelltheashes]

"I mean it," says Kate firmly, stopping to face Alyx. "You just-"

Dan clears his throat briefly and gives his mother a meaningful look. Kate glances at him, then at Alyx; her expression goes from one of urgent enthusiasm to something a good deal softer as she rewinds the conversation several sentences. "Tell you what," she says, and reaches out to put her hands on Alyx's shoulders. "How 'bout you just hang on a little bit longer, 'n as soon as we get inside you can sit down'n have yourself a good cry or somethin'? I'll be right nearby if you need somebody. Promise."

[vance_prime]

I should be stronger than this, Alyx thinks. I should be able to bear up. I need to be able to bear up.

She just nods again, not meeting Kate's eyes.

[smelltheashes]

"Good,"" says Kate, and, louder, "Here. Might do you some good. You don't much look like you had breakfast this morning." On 'here' she presses a couple of balls of hard, yellowish-white candy wrapped in wax paper into Alyx's hand. "We'll see 'bout getting real food together once you folks're settled in some."

[vance_prime]

Alyx murmurs a soft 'thank you' as she takes the candies and pops one into her mouth.

...mmm. Not bad.

[smelltheashes]

"There's more where that came from if y'need it later," says Kate. "Okay, here-"

The mouth of Druid Cave is pretty well obscured by brush and snow, but it's very carefully arranged brush and snow, and it comes away quickly to reveal a rough-edged, triangular opening probably wide enough for three or four people to walk side by side. It's dim inside, but not entirely dark; the passage glimmers with shafts of what might be daylight reflected inward from cracks and gaps above. Dan murmurs something about it being amazing what you can do with a real bored engineer, some mining equipment, and a whole bunch of glass as Kate produces a couple of Coleman lanterns from a concealed stash in the wall and starts handing them out. "Light 'em up," she instructs, keeping the last one for herself. "It's not that much father, but no sense stumbling now."

[vance_prime]

Alyx lights her lantern and holds it high, walking slowly and carefully through the dark passage.

[smelltheashes]

The passage narrows in places, widens in others, and snakes up and down as the group slowly files in. Eventually they come to a much narrower passage- but this one is lit with proper electrical lights, the cables running along channels carved into the walls. "Stairs here," says Kate. "Town starts down at the bottom."

She moves extra slowly, glancing over her shoulder regularly to make nobody trips or loses their footing on the cool, damp stone, or on the metal stairs that take over from them as the tunnel walls suddenly disappear. (Unlike Black Mesa, these stairs have handrails. On both sides.) The metal stairs snake their way down into a wide, high-ceilinged cavern of brown and black stone. There are houses here, plenty of them- small, to be true, but livable. Most of them look as if they were built in a hurry and modified to last afterwards.

"Not what I'd call my ideal standard of livin'," says Kate, "but it sure beats getting noticed by Combine, or eaten by some of the things in the forest."