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testedtommyau · 3 years

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Act 1, Scene 2, Part 2

Sorry for the long wait, hope this is worth it ^^

Warnings for this chapter: Usual blood/gore Flashbacks of child ab/se (physical) Verbal ab/se and shouting

“It bit me!”

Tommy watched out the corner of his eyes at the giants on the other side of the bars. Blood dripped off his chin from snarling lips, baring his teeth at those who dared enter his cell.

“The aggression is growing with each test; I don’t believe it’s going to get any easier.”

The group of giants looked towards Tommy. Only to be met with his cold gaze, pupils shrinking at the sight of those fowl beings.

“Does it need more punishment?”

Tommy winced at the word, it always brought pain. But he refused to let them use those sharp lines on him without fight.

“It’s only making it worse.”

The lock on the cell clicked as a giant walked inside, lips rose as he showed his growing fangs, threatening another bite.

Blood and bruises, the norm of each day. On the cold table he sat, bandages around the new mark that was soon to be added to his scars. As he grew the giants appeared less like giants, yet still stronger. But each day his internal strength to make it through was only to grow.

“Let’s get you back.”

He looked up to see the giant who unstrapped his legs from the table, hissing as he recoiled his legs closer. Knees against his chest and wrapped his arms around them.

“Can you not talk yet?”

His eyes were dull, staring forward, dead to the world around him as he numbed the pain surging through his body.

“Hey?” The giant snapped their fingers in front of Tommy’s face, eyes flashed to light as vengeful jaws clamped down. Blunt claws dug into flesh as screams pierced the air. The giant’s free hand grabbed Tommy by the neck and threw him off, sending him across the room and slamming into the wall. He fell to the ground with a thud and groaned, the giant clutching their arm as it bled heavily from the gashes deep in its flesh. Tommy quickly got to his feet and ran out the door, no plan, just run.

Run.

And run he did. His smaller body slipping past the giant’s grasps and bolting into the vents. Hands and feet pattering against the flooring. He could hear the giants shouting for him, it was so loud. Too loud. At the end of the vent, he kicked off the coverings, dropping down to the room it led to. It was like every other room, as if the torture was endless. He ran to the door, jumping up but to no success. He couldn’t reach the handle. Tommy backed up and wrapped his arms around himself, eyes darting around as tears trickled in the corners of them. He was alone but scared.

Benrey awoke in Tommy’s arms, head on his chest. They purred quietly at the soft rhythm of the man’s heartbeat.

“Purring there buddy?”

Benrey’s ears twitched under the helmet as they look up to Gordon, seemingly it’s just him and Benrey awake.

“Yeeah.” They replied drearily. Rubbing their eyes.

“You look pretty comfy there.” Gordon chuckled, Benrey smiled and nodded.

“Super comfy bro.”

Gordon smiled back; the smile only grew as they kept looking at each other.

“So um, what else can you do? With being an alien?” Gordon asked, Benrey’s eyes lit up.

“Want uh, some Benrey backstory eh?”

He nodded.

“Well uh, I got these.” They lifted their helmet and their hair poofed. Nearly covering down to their eyes. But also showing off their larger ears, they flap up and down to their will. Gordon stared at the ears as they wiggled, they were… Kinda cute.

“Oh and!” They put their helmet back on and changed the colour of their eyes.

“Shapeshifter bro.”

“That’s cool.” Gordon said, he probably should say more but it is not every day you see an alien and a shapeshifter. The compliment made Benrey’s cheeks blush a darker shade of blue, smiling. Tommy was lightly snoring, arm tightening around Benrey.

“He okay?”

“Yeah man, he always movin’ when he sleeps.”

“Heh, yeah? So uh, where’d you grow up? Being an alien and all.”

Benrey looked to Gordon, their eyes dimmed and looked down. Telling Gordon fully would rat out Tommy’s secret. But he doesn’t need the full story, right?

“Uh, got taken away as a lil spawn. Got dumped here for years.” Benrey said, nervously toying with their claws.

“And uh, just live here. But don’t wanna live here.”

Gordon stared at Benrey for a moment, almost shocked but as he looked at them… It made sense.

“Like, a prisoner?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s, like someone kept in one place all the time?”

“Uhh, yeah. Somethin’ like that.”

Benrey was still smiling as they said this.

“But uh, had Tommy there, was best friend.” They smiled wider as they looked up at Tommy who was still snoozing.

“So, he was like, working here and you became friends?”

“Uh…. Yeah.” They lied. He seemed to believe it at least. Gordon’s eyes drifted to the two old men huddled together a few steps across from them.

“They know each other long?” He asked, Benrey turned their head to look and shrugged.

“Dunno, only spent time with the firecracker, Bubby.”

Gordon looked back at Benrey, waiting for an explanation but didn’t receive any. Instead, he found himself staring into Benrey’s eyes, taking more detail to the black eye with a yellow pupil, a deep scar going down it.

“We uh, should get going.” Gordon said, standing up to start heading to the next door. Benrey tilted their head but shrugged, gently shaking Tommy awake.

“Hm…” Tommy flinched at the feeling of Benrey’s hand on his chest, relaxing when he met their gaze fortunately.

“Yo bro, we gotta get goin’.” Benrey said as they pointed to Gordon who was in the process of waking up the older men. Tommy looked to Benrey’s face, noticing their eyes stayed fixated on Gordon with a soft smile creeping up on their face. It caused an unpleasant ache in the pit of Tommy’s stomach and a cramp in their chest. Still he was ever unsure of what was causing it, but it happened when Benrey was… happy around that Freeman guy.

“A-alright, lets g-go.” He finally replied, letting Benrey hop off his lap so he could get up himself.

Tommy rubbed his arms for friction, relieved to be out of the freezer room. He has decided that the cold was not for him.

“You okay Tommy? You’re shivering.” Gordon asked, which caught the other off guard. He paused for a moment and stared at the human while his thoughts processed. He noticed the uncomfortable look on his face.

“F-fine.” Was the best he could answer.

“Ya lookin’ cold bro.” Benrey piped in, wrapping one of their arms around Tommy, though it didn’t do much due to their height difference but the feeling of Benrey’s body was comforting enough.

“Gordon look out!!”

The three of them looked towards Coomer’s voice, a giant creature, Tommy guessed another escaped alien, lunged towards them. Sending the three to split off into separate directions.

“What the fuck is that!?” Gordon cried out, almost tripping over as he ran.

Benrey jumped to the wall and clung to the material with their claws, climbing up out of the creature’s way. Only to find it had targeted after them, its body slithering towards them with stubby legs dragging it at an unnecessary speed.

“Oh shit!” Benrey gasped, the mouth of the creature clamped down on the leg of Benrey’s pants but missing the leg itself, yanking them down with a squeal. Ass landing on the hard floor with a thud and their back to the wall as the alien snarled, rising up to attack but its plans faltered by Tommy tackling the creature to the ground, giving Benrey time to get up and run. And run they did.

“Get moving you fucking idiots!” Bubby called out as Benrey bolted to Gordon.

“But Tommy-“

“He can kick its ass, we gotta get goin’!” Benrey interrupted, tugging Gordon’s hand to get moving to the next room. The sound of Tommy’s grunting and the alien screeches hopefully indicating Benrey was right.

Benrey’s eyes scanned the room for an easy escape, though it was hard while Gordon was screaming at Dr Coomer to stop throwing grenades. What harm is a bit of explosives?

“What’s this do?” Benrey asked, pointing over to a lever. Gordon rushed over in his still panicked state, only looking back to see Tommy tackled into the room by the creature, his fists colliding with its eye. Causing it to shriek and back up, letting Tommy pounce on top of it again.

“Hurry the fuck up!” Bubby demanded.

“Sorry! Sorry!”

Gordon pulled the lever and noticed a ledge above start to move, it connected to two openings in the vents.

“We got to get up there!”

“Great work Dr Freeman!” Dr Coomer said.

Benrey looked back at Tommy while Gordon looked around, blood splattering across the floors. Tommy got up onto the creatures back and dug his claws into its flesh, Benrey hurried to Gordon to ensure he wouldn’t turn around and see. It would be rather suspicious as to why he now has claws.

“Got anythin’ bro?”

“I think these stairs will lead up to that one.”

There was indeed stairs, it was good enough for now. Benrey took Gordon’s hand again and ran up the stairs, finding Gordon was right.

Bubby and Dr Coomer kept watch for Tommy now that Gordon was out of his sight, with Dr Coomer popping the ping off another grenade and tossing it.

“Watch out!”

“Wh-what? HEY!” Tommy jumped off the alien before being collided with a grenade, however it missed the alien, but shrapnel hit some sides of it’s flesh.

“Why are you throwing grenades!?” Gordon called out from the top of the ledge, Benrey by his side. Tommy’s eyes narrowed at the sight of Benrey’s hand closed around Gordon’s.

“C’mon we got to get up here!”

“D-d-don’t tell me w-what to do!” Tommy shot back, getting back up and remembering his gun. Bubby and Dr Coomer already turned to follow Gordon’s command while he turned back to the alien readying to charge at him. Tommy cocked the gun and raised it, aiming.

“I’ve d-d-done this a thousand times, y-you’re no e-exception.” He muttered, oblivious to his words the alien snarled and ran at him, only to be halted by a bullet to the head.

“Yooo go Tommy!” Benrey cheered, sounding surprisingly close. He looked up to see the moving ledge, Gordon and Benrey on top of it looking down at him as it glided across the ceiling.

He better head up to join them.

It was hard to breathe, the heavy thud of his heartbeat and the dread of failure keeping him on the ground. It could also be the many electrical shock burns to his legs to the point he could not move without crying.

This wasn’t the end of it, if he does what he’s told. It ends in pain.

Does what he shouldn’t. ends in pain.

So why bother being what they want when both end in pain but one chances in getting out? He just has to try harder.

Tommy scraped the rock against the wall of the cell, making what he could best depict the imagery of the giants on it, then scratching them until his nails bled. If only he could do that to all of them, maybe he will. He was growing, maybe one day he can become a giant himself. He looked down at his healing legs, able to stand yet again but a touch on the raw flesh still caused pain. To which the giants took no care in whenever they’d yank him by the ankle.

Speaking of which, the all too familiar unlocking of the cell took Tommy’s attention. Two giants, one in white, one in blue. Foolishly they had left the other door open, if he could just reach it

“Let’s go.” The giant in white ordered, Tommy glared and limped towards the cell doors. Suddenly he clamped down on the giant’s leg, making him squeal before bolting out through the door.

Only to immediately black out.

Benrey and Gordon hopped off onto the other side, waiting for the others to join.

“So, Tommy seems pretty good at fighting.” Gordon said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah! He uh, pretty epic. He got good.”

Benrey’s smile stayed plastered on their face, even more so when they noticed how close the two were. They could feel Gordon’s body heat nearby, sending a little shiver down their spine. It was nice.

But it was short lived as Tommy hopped over next, shoving between the two of them. Blood all over his uniform again.

“Hey bro!”

Benrey wrapped their arms around Tommy, glad that he was safe. Tommy however stared at Gordon from the corner of his eyes, pupils narrowing as he held Benrey closer.

Gordon felt a cold shiver down his back, a gulp going down his throat.

“You, okay man?”

“F-Fine.”

“Right.” Gordon called out to Bubby and Dr Coomer. “Come on guys, get across.”

“I’m coming!” Bubby shouted back, jumping onto the ledge with Dr Coomer behind him. Dr Coomer got onto the other side without a hitch.

“You did that a lot faster than I did.”

“Easy as pie Gordon!”

“Now for Bubby.”

The four of them stood back to give Bubby some room.

“Here I come Gordon.” Bubby then missed the entrance as the ledge continued onward with him still on it.

“Uhhhh.”

His voice distorted out as it guided away.

“Hello Gordon! Is he alright?” Dr Coomer asked.

“Here I come Gordon, here I come Gordon.” And he guides past again, all eyes on him as he goes out of sight. Benrey and Tommy looked at each other then back at the entrance of the ledge, Bubby coming past one last time still repeating himself and finally made it to the other side. To an understandably confused Gordon.

Well, into the vent they go.

Tommy kept Benrey close to him, not wanting them to get lost. In front was Gordon directing Bubby and Dr Coomer where to go, with multiple routes and vent pipes it seemed rather easy to get lost. Though the sound of Bubby screaming for breath was not the most pleasant as he got caught by another barnacle. Tommy snuck past Gordon as he shot at the barnacle to free Bubby, shouting at everyone to watch where they were going. Tommy huffed, he knew where he was going, and he knew to not walk into the traps.

“Should we take out the other ropey suckers?” Benrey asked Tommy, he nodded and raised his own gun to another barnacle in their path and Bubby was nearing it like the other one.

“Tommy! Tommy!!”

No time to listen to the human, he fired at the barnacle, rendering it to a harmless mess of guts on the ground.

“Oh my god Tommy.”

“Great work Tommy!” Dr Coomer added.

“You are the smartest one here.”

Tommy felt his heart skip a beat, he turned around to Gordon who was heading over with a relieved smile on his face.

“You are the smartest one here, Tommy.” Gordon repeated, he scanned Gordon’s face for any hint of mockery but there was none to be found. Tommy felt the tension in his face soften as he stared at Gordon, feeling a warmth build in his chest at the compliment the longer he lingered to the words. Gordon took notice of Tommy’s calmer expression, watching the indented anger rolls on his forehead loosen and his pupils grew a little larger, his lips slightly parted as if he was processing what was happening.

Which he mostly was.

“This meat is attacking!” Bubby cried out, making a run for it and breaking the moment.

“Then just bite it bro!” Benrey replied, jumping down and clamping their teeth into the meat slab.

“The meat’s alive!?”

Tommy and Benrey followed along as Gordon now avoided the meat on the floor.

“The meat from the frozen good department has dangerous properties!”

So, Tommy was right to dislike that freezing room.

“What the fuck are we putting into the meat? What do we need with meat?” He questioned. Tommy raised an eyebrow at the scientist, shouldn’t he know? He was a human; they couldn’t be keeping stuff from their own kind, could they?

“Classified, Gordon!”

Classified? But isn’t it the humans that carried out experiments on those that were living?

“Classified? I think we are BEYOND the point of classification!”

He was off on another yelling fit, much to Tommy’s approval it was not directed towards Benrey this time.

“This company is defunct!”

“W-w-what does that mean?” Tommy whispered to Dr Coomer.

“Defunct! An adjective, for something to no longer be existing or functioning!”

Tommy blinked at him.

“I believe he’s saying that the company is no longer functional!”

“O-oh.” He looked back at Gordon, face red from his mini explosion.

“That’s good though, right? No more shitty cages.” Benrey whispered, their fingers gripping at Tommy’s sleeve.

“Y-Yeah, never again.” He replied.

“Oh, it’s brighter here!” Benrey hurried out the door where the lights were working better, Tommy took a hold of Benrey’s shirt collar and pulled them back to him.

“S-s-stop running o-off like th-that.” Tommy said.

“Sorry brooo.”

Tommy shook his head while Benrey grinned innocently.

Taking a few steps forward, Gordon observed the area. It seemed safe enough-

“M-Mr Freeman!”

Gordon felt Tommy’s hand on his shoulder as he yanked him back, a bloodied scientist with a headcrab latched on burst out from the glass window, colliding with the ground where Gordon had originally stood.

Dr Coomer and Bubby rushing in after the… whatever it was.

It took a moment for Gordon to come back from the rush of being yanked over so fast, it seemed to have the same effect on Tommy and Benrey as well as the three of them were huddled together, Gordon pressed against the wall by Tommy, with Benrey at their sides.

Tommy looked down and froze as he noticed it wasn’t just Benrey he was holding but Gordon as well. He thought the human would’ve moved away from him as soon as he was safe. But no, here the three of them were, eyes staring at each other.

“Rather cosy!” Benrey smiled, Tommy backed away in a flash and coughed into his fist. Gordon turned away to rub the back of his head. Benrey frowned up at them both as the warmth was gone from the two.

“I believe the threat is quite gone!” Dr Coomer announced, Bubby on his knees poking the corpse with his gun.

“That’s uh, nice.” Gordon sighed. He left to another room to search where to go next. Leaving Tommy and Benrey to stay in the main hall. Benrey’s eyes wandered around and saw another guard, at first a dread of fear sank in but was replaced with curiosity. The guard wasn’t recognisable, no one they’ve seen before. The said guard looked over at the two with their hand over a gun, but soon smiling and pulling their hand away.

“Hello?” Seemed to be a guy. The helmet covering most of their head, but their bright green eye and one discoloured eye stood out against their dark brown skin.

“Yoo, got uh, got my ID, proper guard.” Benrey lied, showing their passport, hoping they were being believable enough. Curious yellow eyes looked to the guard’s different looking eyes, feeling their smile widen to not feel alone in their looks.

“Oh! I got one too!” The guard brought out their own ID, Tommy stayed near Benrey and brought out his own.

“Here’s m-my passpo-“

“You don’t need to show him your passport!” Gordon yelled out, everyone turning to him as his face dropped when he noticed this wasn’t Benrey.

“Look Gordon! It’s officer Boper!” Dr Coomer read out the name on the ID photo. Not a name Tommy has ever heard before, he also was surprised to notice the guard was almost at eye level with him, it wasn’t normal to see other humans nearing his 7 foot height.

“Bit of a bloody mess we’re all in, eh?” Boper said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, it's uh, place went boom.” Benrey answered.

“Oh! You all look a bit ruffled up!” Boper walked over to take Benrey’s arm which they didn’t realise had blood on their sleeve, but Tommy quickly shoved past and in the process knocked Boper over onto his rear, fists balled up and inching closer to the guard.

A line of gunshots fired through the hallway, Dr Coomer and Bubby already out of the way but Benrey rushed to take Tommy’s hand and pull him down to the floor to avoid the line of fire, Gordon on the floor covering his head.

“What the fuck!?” Gordon cried out.

“Step the fuck back!” Another voice roared out, another guard. He stepped to Boper and helped him up, glaring at Tommy who was on the ground with his own gun at hand.

“Hey, hey I’m okay.” Boper reassured, taking the other guard’s face into his hands and placing a kiss on the cheek.

“I was a little out of line just coming forward like that.” He admitted with a nervous chuckle, muttering a sorry to Benrey. Tommy however was having none of it. Standing up and towering over the other guard beside Boper.

“Can we not fight each other!?” Gordon walked over and stood between the protective two. Benrey got up and said it was okay.

“Can we just, lower the weapons?” Gordon asked, his eyes looking into Tommy’s desperately.

God damn human.

“I’m terribly sorry for all that.” Boper chuckled. “When you’re in a dire situation where we’re all on the verge of death every second it does make your loved ones rather protective I must say.”

Loved ones? Tommy raised an eyebrow at them but was provided no explanation.

“So um… what’s your name?” Gordon asked the other guard.

“Stong.”

Okay, another guard neither Benrey nor Tommy have heard of before.

“We were trying to get out until you lot came in.” the one known as Stong glared.

“Honey we’re all stressed and scared.” Boper said, he took Stong’s hand into his own and squeezed it. Tommy’s eyes landed on the matching rings on their fingers, was that a human thing? Get matching rings?

“I found snacks!” Bubby shouted out, they all looked up and saw him on the higher floor.

“Oh nice!” Gordon hurried off to go get some snacks, Dr Coomer deciding to go with. Leave Benrey and Tommy with the other guards.

Boper looked back to Benrey, the two having wide eyes and bright smiles at each other.

“I haven’t seen you before mate, what department were you in?” He asked.

“Uhhhh! New, first day.”

“Oh really? We just joined this facility a few days ago.”

Stong and Tommy both stared at the two talking, Tommy could feel the relatable sense of protective anxiety radiating off Stong. It was strange.

“That’s uh, why I never seen ya bro?”

“Possibly!”

“I think they seem to get along.” Stong muttered awkwardly, trying to seem somewhat approachable. Though it’s a bit hard to when your first interaction is one threatening your ‘love’ and the other shooting you with a gun.

“B-Benrey’s a… Hopeful o-one.”

“Kind of need to be in situations like this…”

Tommy looked over to Stong, the familiar look that he’s given up but still holding onto hope lingered in his eyes. Stong’s hair was visible due to him not having a helmet and done up in a bun, his own dark skin was a little lighter than Boper’s and had a little patch of chin hair, scars going down his right cheek, most likely had more under the uniform much like Tommy and Benrey did. He seemed around the same height as Gordon, not as wide but still sturdy.

“They’re um.” Stong pointed to Benrey, noticing their blue skintone.

“D-don’t.” Tommy glared.

“They’re a much nicer alien then the lot we’ve been dealing with.”

“O-Oh. Right. Hmm…” Tommy looked at Benrey again, Boper smiling at them the whole time. Nothing indicating that he has any intentions to hurt them, and Stong wasn’t saying anything bad about them either.

How is it that now three humans do not know what this prison was doing? It must be some trap.

“So how did an alien become a guard?” Boper asked, Benrey gulped and their skin paled. Looking over to Tommy for an answer. Boper raised an eyebrow and looked to him as well.

“Somethin’ wrong mate?”

Before he could come up with an answer Boper’s pupils shrunk as he whipped out his gun.

“Honey get down!”

Stong, trusting Boper, ducked in a second as a headcrab pounced. Boper firing as it shot through the alien, its body landing on the floor with a wet thud. Giving his gun a twirl, Boper slipped it back into its holder.

“Sorry about that, be bloody shit if that got either of ya. Seein’ what it does to the other guys.”

“Yeaah but, they kinda sucked anyway.” Benrey muttered, Tommy couldn’t help but feel a small smile creep up the corner of his mouth.

“Oh, ain’t this a beauty?” Boper said as he picked up the dead headcrab, observing it. Stong quickly took it from him and tossed it back to the ground.

“We don’t know how safe those are even when dead.” He warned, Boper rolled his eyes and little but nodded.

“You know what, fuck you all!”

Boper, Stong, Tommy and Benrey turned to see Gordon storming out of the room Bubby and Dr Coomer had gone to get snacks, his steps heavy as he tried to head for another room.

“Little bitch baby crying he can’t have his fucking chips!” Bubby yelled out after him, kicking the ground beneath. Benrey jogged over to Gordon, their legs going fast to keep up with him.

“Hey, hey bro? What’s up?” Gordon ignored them and kept walking. “Got uh, got a passport to go in there? Please stop?”

“For the last time I don’t have my FUCKING PASSPORT!”

Benrey jolted back from the outburst, spluttering their words trying to calm the situation.

“So don’t FUCKING ask me again!”

Gordon’s words spat out like lava, blood boiling through his veins as his eyes burned into Benrey’s.

“I-I…”

Gordon turned heel with a huff, leaving Benrey to watch him disappear. Silence plagued the room while no one knew what to say, Tommy’s eyes flickered to the doorway the human had left to and back to Benrey.

“Bit of an overreaction, eh?” Boper asked.

“’S like that a lot.” Benrey muttered, they looked up with a hopeful gleam and went to go to the doorway but was abruptly held back by Tommy.

“H-He might y-y-yell again.”

Benrey stayed quiet but kept looking at the door.

“W-why do you b-b-bother with him?” Tommy asked, Benrey looked up at him with wide eyes. Tears prickled the corners. The hand on their shoulder tightened as Tommy’s brows knitted together in concern.

“I did with you.” Was all Benrey replied as they broke out of his grip and hurried after Gordon. Leaving Tommy speechless.

Lights flickered and bloodstained walls no longer holding as much of an eerie sense to Gordon’s eyes. Still unsettling of course, but the constant dread of death replacing the intensity of seeing such fluids everywhere. Not how he ever expected his life to turn out.

Benrey finally catches up with him, the patter of their running slowed as they came to a halt behind Gordon.

“Uh, sup bro?”

A heavy sigh from Gordon.

“What do you want?”

Benrey gulped, they hadn’t thought this far.

“No mad? Don’t be so angry?”

Gordon groaned and sat down against the wall, face in his hands. Watching, wondering what they have to do to make things okay. Tommy liked to sit down and do nothing for a bit, maybe he’d enjoy someone to sit and do nothing with him as well. So Benrey plonked themselves down next to Gordon, yellow eyes glowing amongst the flickering ceiling lights. Benrey kept an eye out as Gordon kept in his position. Quiet sniffles behind the gloved hands could be heard but Benrey tried to avoid saying anything, not wanting to be yelled at again.

Minutes of silence fill the gaps between the two, Benrey’s occasional hums breaking it but there was no objection from Gordon. Finally releasing the hold of his face, Gordon looked down at Benrey. Their claws fidgeting together while the helmet covered their head.

Suddenly they look up, catching Gordon’s eyes.

“No mad anymore?”

Gordon felt his cheeks heat up. But it was a comforting warmth.

“I guess.”

Benrey smiled wide and got up.

“Let’s go? Let’s go? Passport free, free entry.”

Gordon chuckled and got up, Benrey turned heel and went back towards the exit until they were stopped by Gordon.

“Hey, wait a minute.”

“Huh? Wha?”

“I’ll give you my passport.”

Benrey perked up and looked back to Gordon who had a smug grin on his face as he brought out a clearly fake piece of paper from his pocket. Benrey smiled and skipped over, happy to play along as now Gordon was in on it.

“Right here.”

“Lemme see.”

Using their tippy toes, Benrey looked up at the paper, seeing the useless scribbles on it and muttering to themselves.

“See? Says Gordon.” He lied.

“Hm…”

Benrey ponders.

“This is a receipt.”

Gordon’s cheeks puffed in a sudden urge to chuckle.

“What? No, no, no it says Gordon Freeman.”

“This is uh, huh, you asked for mayo?”

Gordon started walking off, chuckling along with Benrey who was walking beside him. Smirking that they’ve managed to make Gordon smile again.

“Mayonnaise sir?”

Back to the main room, Boper and Stong kept together while Tommy stood alone against the wall. Bubby and Dr Coomer arguing about what was objectively the best crisp flavour.

“Why’d you ask for mayonnaise?” Benrey kept giggling, Tommy’s eyes snapped to the two returning. Though he kept to himself.

“Oh you’re back!” Boper exclaimed, Stong walked over to Gordon.

“Despite some…” He looked over to the two arguing elderlies. “Difficulties with communication. Would it be helpful if we were to come with you?”

“Oh! Yeah man, it’d probably be nice to have some more…” Gordon looked at the team with Stong. “Sane members.”

“I think they’re fun.” Boper argued, Benrey now at his side and comparing their helmets.

“Do you know where we need to go now?” Gordon asked Stong, he nodded and walked him to the doorframe at the end of the room. Behind them, Tommy followed.

The end of the room led to a steep drop, near endless drop. Tommy raised his eyebrow; at what logic would someone create a room like this? By the pale colouration on Gordon’s face, he assumes the human agrees that his own species sucks at building design.

“I think that’s the only way up at this point.”

“Great…”

“Gordon be careful!”

The shout was near enough to cause Gordon to jump, which could’ve ended in what Dr Coomer was aiming to avoid.

“That’s a big drop! But I think we can make it!”

Benrey looked down and popped their lips.

“Think so?”

“Well of course you can Benrey, you’re like. A magic alien or something.” Gordon muttered.

“If you can get a good enough run, I think it’s possible.” Boper added. “But I won’t lie mate, I’m not too keen on trying and failing.”

“Great. That makes me feel so much better.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow at Gordon. “H-How would that make you feel b-b-better?”

Before Gordon could question what Tommy had asked, the shatter of class took the attention of each member.

“Fuck!” Bubby cried out, headcrabs and peeper puppies sprung through cracks in the wall and doorways towards the team.

“Looks like we don’t have a choice!” Gordon shouted. In a blink of an eye Dr Coomer already made the jump.

“Coomer!!”

“Oop?” Benrey looked down and saw Dr Coomer gripping onto the ladder, giving them all a thumbs up.

“Uh, mate ya’ll might wanna get a bloody move on!” Boper pulled out his gun and started shooting, Stong against his back firing the other direction.

“Th-they’ll come after us while we’re on the l-l-ladder!” Tommy objected, not keen on repeating the water incident with a dear certain death drop if someone other than Benrey were to try and go after him.

Stong fired onto a headcrab aiming for Tommy. “You all go, we’ll hold them off!”

Tommy looked back with wide eyes at the two humans hurrying to the back, keeping the aliens at bay. Willing to risk never getting out or even their own lives just to keep the team safe?

“But what about you two?” Gordon asked, already being dragged by Benrey to hurry.. Boper smiled back at him, and locked hands with Stong.

“Don’t worry about us mate! We’ll find a way back as soon as we deal with these fuckers.”

Without arguing any further, Benrey bolted for it and jumped. Only to miss the ladder and smack their face into the wall. Dropping downward.

“B-Benrey!” Tommy cried out.

“There’s no way that killed him.”

Sweet voice floated up and the sound of Benrey’s singing got louder. They floated to the ladder, nose bleeding.

“Made it!”

“Why didn’t you do that in the fucking first place!?” Gordon snapped, Tommy sighed with relief regardless.

“Get a fucking move on!” Bubby snapped, pushing the two out of the way and nearly earning a gun to the face from Tommy. The grumpy old man made a run for it and jumped, Benrey reached out and caught Bubby’s hand to pull him to the ladder’s steps.

Now only Gordon and Tommy.

“M-Mr Freeman you sh-should hurry up.” Tommy advised, as if it wasn’t obvious. But Gordon was shaking.

“I don’t know if I can do this!”

“Well, you’re gonna have to!” Boper shouted out, he and Stong getting aliens at every direction.

“I’ll catch ya bro!”

Gordon locked eyes with Benrey and breathed heavily. His heart racing in his chest.

“One. Two. Three. Gordon!”

Tommy raised an eyebrow as the man sprinted. Whatever helped him do it he guessed. Gordon screamed out until he gripped the ladder, laughing in relief as he climbed up with the others.

“We’ll meet you sometime!”

“Take care of yourselves.” Stong added to Tommy, he took a deep breath and ran. Gunshots and aliens screaming behind him as he took his jump. Realising a grunt as he collided with the ladder but kept a firm grip.

“Come on bro!” Benrey called out from the top, Tommy looked up at them and nodded. Before he could though, he looked behind his shoulder at Stong and Boper, firing, smiling together. It filled his chest with familiar warmth that he was unsure of still. But they promised to meet up again sometime.

Though it wasn’t as if he was thrilled to have more humans in his life.

The lights were a blur, dizzying as they fizzed around Tommy’s vision. Groaning in pain with a pounding headache, he sat up and rubbed the sorest spot on his head where he must have been hit.

“Get up.”

Yellow eyes snapped up to the voice, anger replacing his pain. Blood boiling at the mere sight of these disgusting creatures that bore no heed to his warnings to stay away. With a wobble, Tommy stood up and bolted towards the giant.

The giant held up a button and pressed it, Tommy felt waves of unbearable pain shoot through his body via his neck. A blood curdling scream erupted from his throat as he dropped to the ground trembling. He could hear the cracking of electricity, desperately he grasped the source of the pain, a thick black collar around his neck.

“You really think you can get that off?” The giant mused, halting the effects of the collar. Tommy sobbed as he tried to tug it off to no success.

“If you lash out at us.” The giant pressed the button again, causing another scream of agony. It turned it off.

“If you try to escape.”

Another zap.

Tommy’s eyes were filled with tears, unable to see as he shut them tightly and cried. Gasping for air when it finally stopped.

“You’ll learn soon enough.”

He was again left alone, locked in his cell.

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