Chapter Five - Apprehension and Evasion

Chapter Five
Apprehension and Evasion

The barricades ran parallel to the station, where they spilled into the street and formed an outward semicircle across the boulevard. Each corner was capped with large, metal Sentinel Towers, complete with Union Solider sniper teams in their crows nests.

From his hiding spot behind the barricades, Kylar could see the intense blue lasers of the Sniper's pulse rifle scopes sweep the street in front of him, like a bizarre light show. A crow, pecking at a rotting piece of meat, took flight from an alleyway, and was instantly tracked across the street by the lasers. There was a sharp crack, which reverberated off the walls of the buildings lining the street, and the crow hit the ground, dead.

With the rifle shot still echoing in Ivanenko's ears, he made his way to the base of the station-side Sentinel Tower, careful to keep his head down. It was exactly midday, and the sun came straight down on him, casting no shadow.

He tried to make sense of where he was in relation to the Grand Station. The ride here had been short, but it was impossible to tell the route they took down the tight European streets.

Wait. The man said wait. But should he trust him? He had no reason to, but he had no reason not to either. He killed that man for me... is that a good sign? He wasn't sure.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded in the Station. Shit. Kylar thought. Several Armored Personal Carriers like the one he had been thrown in pulled out of the police station and into the cobbled plaza behind him. Kylar rolled around to the front of the Sentinel Tower, barely avoiding being seen as several metrocops ran out of the station and to their vehicles. Two metrocops ran towards the barricade to open its razor wire fence and let the APCs roll through.

Moving fast, Kylar ducked around the police station and into a narrow alleyway. There was a dumpster pushed against a chain link fence - he climbed it and jumped into the courtyard of one of the dilapidated apartment complexes that lined the street. The alarm still sounded behind him, not as loud now that he was not directly under the sirens of the station and the APCs. He moved through the courtyard, and noticed two men standing huddled near a doorway, both wearing blue citizen jumpsuits. Kylar realized he must look very strange in the clothing he had on now - he needed to hide.

"Oh, shit." One of the two men said, hearing the siren. "Raid."
"Hope its not our block." The other replied, looking worriedly at the sky.

Ivanenko heard the APC roll up along the curb of the street-side building, siren blaring, the sound of men slamming the heavy doors of the car just barely reaching his ears. A female, synthesized voice was broadcasted out of the vehicle's loudspeakers, speaking in a flat, clinical tone.

"Deploy... Sterilize... Secure. Inaction is conspiracy."

The two men went from looking worried to terrified. One, in a petrified but sharp voice, shouted,"OVERWATCH!" before turning to force his way into the apartment. The other followed, the same look of overpowering fear on his face.

Without having to look, Kylar could hear the heavy steel boots of the Overwatch metrocops kicking in the door of the apartment behind him, and the sound of men running. There was little time.

Kylar began to move from the raid. Walking with his head lowered, quickly but not fast enough to draw attention, he slinked away from the metrocops behind him.

I need a place to hide and rest. And to just think. Where did that metrocop tell me?

As he quietly left, he kept his eyes open for the man that might be Deupree.

The apartment complex bordering the street had a steeply pitched shingle roof, with gabled eaves that protruded out one short foot, a classic European style. The roof's eves cast a cold shadow down on the perimeter of the courtyard below, surrounding it. Standing in the sun seemed cold, and Kylar thought, It must be nearing the end of winter here, and his chilled body seconded his theory. It was even colder in the dark shade where he now lurked, compelling him to pull the stolen overcoat tighter around his shoulders. For a moment he looked up to watch the sky. The sun had passed its apex and began the second half of its daily journey, downward towards the distant western horizon. In as urgent yet inconspicuous a fashion as possible, Kylar started his way across the courtyard, clinging to the shadows.

Before he had gone half the length of the building, Kylar heard a volley of sharp cracks come from inside the very multiplex four-story he was walking beside. Ivanenko dropped to one knee and ducked. Instantly from the rooftops shot dozens of crows, cawing and screeching as they took flight like a swirling tornado. The shape condensed and formed a dark cloud composed churning and buzzing with terrified birds. The cloud twisted, turned, shrunk, and vanished. Kylar stopped and watched the birds disappear and the sky return to calm. He took a breath and stood back up.

Another volley of cracks - which Kylar now knew to be gunfire - reverberated in the courtyard. A bullet shattered the window directly above him, which disintegrated outward in a plume composed of a thousand pieces of broken glass, sparkling in the sunlight. Kylar shot to his knees and quickly pulled his coat just up to the top of his head, and then hunched over. There was a short rain of glass shards, and as he lay there, curled up in his jacket, he could hear the shards thump off of the back his heavy overcoat and crash to the cobble footpath around him. That window had been shot from the inside., Kylar thought. As if on cue, the sounds of wood being splintered, a scream, and then more gunfire followed. More tires squealed outside as another APC joined the raiding party. And the intensity of the sound increased two fold.

Kylar returned to his feet and ruffed his collar, sending a shower of glass into the air behind him, until they reached their apex, fell and hit the ground with a faint tinkling noise. He running, careful to avoid the piles of trash and weeds that collected in the corners and cracks of the cobble path. He came to the edge of the just raided multiplex, paused at the alley, took a quick breath, and lunged. He sprinted across the exposed alleyway, and upon reaching the relative safety of the next building, he twisted his upper torso and slammed back first into the wall of the building, where stopped to rest. This last apartment building was a stone structure,and at some point over the ages had received a smooth concrete facing, and an inch of various paint colors, one coat on top of the other ever since it had be resurfaced. Kylar knew this because just feet from where he stood, bullets from some overpowered machine gun had strafed the wall with a talon-like slash that spanned the vertical dimension of the three-story building.

Not being seen once more became his chief intention, so Ivanenko slowly edged to the next available door, only a dozen e-meters away from him. More determined now, Kylar pushed his back against the wall, trying to stay in the sliver of shadow from the roof of the apartment. He had to shuffle, a painfully slow form of locomotion when one is exposed in the open. When he was a just a couple of e-meters away, the door of the adjacent apartment exploded outwards, jumping off its hinges and into two jagged pieces that bounced ti a halt in the overgrown grass. A steel, thick heeled boot protruded out into the space where the center of the door had been.

Kylar jumped at the doorway and grabbed the handle of the worn, smooth brass. It refused to twist - behind him he heard the synthesized shouts of a Metrocop, the exact words indistinguishable but their meaning clear. Desperate now, Kylar rammed his shoulder-blade into the exact center of the aging door, which caved in straight down its middle. From outside, there came a hail of gunfire, 9mm rounds lodging themselves in the thick stone outer walls of the apartment and ricocheting through the half-open doorway behind him. A bullet tore through the long tail of Kylar's overcoat before he ducked sideways out of the doorway and into the temporary safety of the apartment complex. The bottom floor appeared unoccupied - the lights were either broken or extremely dim - and the storm shutters nailed shut across the windows locked out the sun, leaving him in almost perfect darkness. The only thing he could make out was a central twisting staircase, lit by a few scattered rays of daylight penetrating down through the blackness. The stairs wrapped around a defunct elevator shaft that had also once ascended to the upper floors, but now sat dead at bottom of its own pit.

Knowing the cops were just an instant behind him, Kylar charged the stairs, vaulting himself over the wrought iron railing and onto the first landing. Thankful for the thick canvas clothing, the Doctor pushed himself off the rough concrete and sprinted up the stairs. Reaching the second floor, he saw terrified citizens huddled behind the doors to their homes, watching Kylar. At first they looked relieved, the cops were not raiding here, when they suddenly heard the sound of Metrocop boots pounding on the floor, and their original fear returned, quickly replaced by dread. They slammed the doors to all their flats down the hallway. One man lingered a second, and shouted,
"Get to the roof!" at Kylar before jamming his door shut. Kylar was already moving in that direction, past the cowering tenants and up the final flight of steps. Below, he heard the sound of a dozen metal boots coming up the staircase. He chanced a look down the spiraling stairs -two squads of fully armored Metrocops stormed upwards, electrified stun batons and 9mm handguns in their hands. The group split, and half of them spilled out of the stairwell and down the second floor hallway, kicking in doors and firing their guns. The other five continued their climb, hot on Ivanenko's trail.

Ivanenko sprung off the last step, where he touched down on the aging hardwood floor of a lofty attic. Light gracefully drifted in through the European style windows, illuminating the particles floating in the air. Medieval looking furniture littered the space, partly covered in dust. He skidded to a halt. fHe shot a glance over his shoulder, looking for any path to escape. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, but he managed to control his anxiety. A corner of the attic roof ahead of him was caved inward, its trusses and struts long rotted away and broken. Through this gaping hole the trapezoidal steeped roofs and dark pits of alleyways formed what Kylar thought looked like cresting waves on a violent sea.

Through the collapsed roof Kylar could see the roof of another building, which e estimated to be just 6 e-meters below him on the surface of the attic floor, a four e-meter wide chasm created by a street-level alleyway three-stories down separated this building from the next. The other roof was composed of a patchwork of baked clay tiles and corrugated steel sheets - one fowl step would mean disaster.

He left his thoughts and returned to the now, Kylar felt the floors tremble with the weight of the approaching Metrocops. He took a deep breath, and let his subconscious take over his muscles, crouched down, one hand out in front of him, like a runner in blocks, ready to dash.

Joseph hung by one hand on the slippery ladder, dangling in the dark. Below came the rest of his company, Simon heading the group. He took out a flashlight, fumbled with it, and turned it on, casting a bright, wavering beam on the sewer cover.
Letting go with one hand, Joseph reached up and grabbed the handle of the cover, and tested his weight on it, attempting to make it budge. Unsatisfied, he steadied himself against the wall, and then, with one arm, he heaved, and the heavy piece of metal slid open, grating the asphalt above. Seeing the sunlight poring in from about, Joseph climbed out of the maze that made up the City 17 sewer system. He had first discovered the vastness of the system when he was 12, and the first time he explored its depths he had found himself in a dead end, and was barely able to squeeze himself into a runoff drain, and finally was able to escape to the safety of the surface. After that, Joseph and his friends started to map the labyrinth out, and soon they could go almost anywhere in the City. Better yet, they were nearly undetectable, and anyone who pursued them through the tunnels would quickly become lost. But ever since his father was killed on account of Joseph's own reckless actions, he realized the true potential of the sewer. After three years his special project had been completed; a forward operating base for the Resistance right under City 17 itself.

But that seemed like another life time to him now. Home always felt far away at times like this. Joseph exited the sewer, turned around and took a knee, replacing the heavy iron drain cover back into place as the last of his squad left the sewers.
“Ok boys, this is as close as we can get to the Downtown Overwatch Station from the underground without hitting one of Civil Protection's traps. So this is how it will go from here. Philip, Ronald, and Simon, you three will go west and circle around, while William, Neil, and I will go east and circle around as well. Take a good hard look at this picture. This is that last one we have of Doctor Ivanenko, and it was taken twenty years ago. Upon reaching the site do not approach, CP is all over that station and this could be a trap. I wouldn’t trust that spook Metrocop for the life of me, but we really don't have a choice. When, if ever, you find Ivanenko we will regroup and approach together."

At the time the air was filled with the sirens of the Shark APCs and Overwatch's distant voice churning out orders on the loudspeakers.

“Dammit, why did they have to start a raid now!? They had one in the same damn neighborhood three fucking days ago. New plan boys, two man teams - split up and find him as soon as you can, if he was really by the Station and wasn't snatched then he is most likely running right now, we cannot let him get killed if this is truly Kylar Ivanenko then we will have lost a lot a valuable asset. Neil, you're coming with me. Move out."

The newly formed two-man teams ran off in several directions, trying to encompass the entire area where Ivanenko might be. Joseph and Neil aimed for the most direct route through the apartments, and started to weave through the City’s closely packed housing multiplexes. it was a long block, and Sharks had parked all along the first half boulevard that led to the station. They were still far away, but the two groups would collide soon.
Crack.
Crack-crack
Joseph and Neil paused for a second and listened. It was gunfire, 9mm by the sound... then they heard the faint cries of people shot, one after another. Neil looked at Joseph, his face grim. Joe had to break the silence, and he simply stated,

"Let’s keep moving."

They jogged on.

Kylar took the time for one breath, using a mental trick he had learned to focus. He would need his body to be in perfect synch with his mind if he was to survive. He began to sprint, taking in footing, distance, loose tiles, and hundreds of other things, not even being processed, but merely sent as signals to his reflexes. He leaped from the edge of the roof, taking care to ensure he would land feet first, and prepared to absorb the shock of a 6 meter fall.

He cleared the 4 meter gap, and as he landed on the opposite roof, Kylar compensated for footing and rolled to reduce impact. As he regained his feet, he began to weave across the roof, putting as much space between him and the metrocops. Only one goal was firmly fixed in his mind: survive.

Shingle and dust scattered under Kylar's feet as he slid to a halt on the shoddy roof. Once he was stopped he remained poised on the ground for balance, and looked over his shoulder one last time. The Metrocops swarmed up the top of the staircase, and came towards the hole in the collapsed roof that he had just escaped.

Without a second thought, Kylar dashed. He flew across the roof, the corrugated steel sheets that patched it together shifting dangerously under his weight. From behind, he heard the pop of 9mm fire start up again. Bullets bit at his heals and blasted shingles into red clay bits, which clattered down off the roof and into the street below. Ahead, Kylar saw a flock of pigeons take flight from behind a stout chimney, cawing as they went. He swerved towards it, grabbed the gritty stucco with his left had and spun him self to a stop behind the stone protrusion, safe from the wall of gunfire.

He did not look, but Kylar could hear what was happening behind him. The Metrocops split up, some going down to find a way into this building, others trying to make a way across. There was no way they could make the leap in their armor - he was out of reach for the moment, but he would have to move again, soon.

He scanned the rooftop for ways out. He could easily punch a hole in the roof, or reach a set of windows at the end of this roof, but he feared the cops would outflank him. He looked around, straining his eyes to look down the alleyways, now cast in darkness by the apartment's shadows. Far off down one of the winding sidestreets to his left, he could see two men running down the cobble, towards him, not away. They were very far off, but he could make out their shape and clothing. The one in front wore a heavy trenchcoat and held what appeared to be some sort of submachine gun in his hands, the second wore similar attire and carried a Nine. They were not ordinary citizens, that was for sure. The pair looked down each alleyway they passed and up on the roofs, but it was apparent they had not seen him yet.

Are they friend, or foe?

Joseph pushed the earpiece into place and took a second to listen to the chatter that went through the Metrocops’ comms.

“... that fucker.”
“This is Team 23 we have someone that just jumped across an eight foot gap to another roof.”
“Team 23 split and start to sweep up from the ground so that he can't go down.”
“We’ll get this asshole.”
“This is Team 25. We just finished our raid and are in the building that he jumped too; we are now heading to the roof.”
“Copy that we will bsdgga ajhwd ajwgd asdg wyj jddjfya jsgs...”
Over the static Joseph could hear Overwatch broadcasting her orders on their megaphones;
“Isolate infectious source. Amputate with extreme prejudice.”

Joseph turned to his partner Neil.
“Dammit they just switched their comms to a new decoder. Contact Axel and have him start running a new decoding protocol. It will take a few minutes for us to hear anything anyways, but I did get something about ‘start scanning the roofs.’ They say a guy just jumped from building to building, I bet that’s our guy.”
“Lets just hope we can get to him before the metro douchebags do, sounds like Overwatch means business.” said Neil.
“Agreed.” replied Joseph.

Joe and Neil continued down the alleyway with Joseph watching the ground while Neil focused on the roofs. Switching jobs at each alleyway, it wasn’t long before Joseph saw him—about three apartments to the southeast a head poked out behind a chimney stack then started a hectic dash to another smokestack as the shingles shattered around his feet from gunfire.
“There he is.”
“That stupid bastard, how are we supposed to extract him from the roof!?” said Neil.
“Keep your eyes on him. Once we get over there we will see what we have to do.”
joe pushed a button on the side of his earpiece.
“Black Mesa East, I have found Kylar. I repeat, I have found the Kylar.”

“He is about 3 apartments to the south of the intersection of old Johnsons and Station 13 parkway, keep your eyes on the buildings around you, the raids are about to be ending and we are going straight into the middle of it.”
Joe mumbled under his breath,
“I hope this bastard is worth this much trouble.”

Kylar breathed heavily, resting behind yet another stone chimney. Looking around, he spotted the two figures moving towards him, and they definitely weren't Civil Protection.

Damn. Just what I need. More people after me.

Kylar sprung out running again, continuing to weave behind chimneys and rises, making his way to a poorer section of the city, or at least, what Kylar assumed was a poorer section. As the building became weaker and more dilapidated, Kylar crouched down, grabbed an edge, and swung through an open window.

Slowly, his eyes adjusting to the gloom, Kylar took stock of his surroundings. He appeared to be in an empty or abandoned warehouse or storage shed. It wasn't large, but hopefully it would help. Kylar leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, catching his breath and processing this last piece of his life.

Slam! Kylar was instantly alert. He crouched down into a fighting stance, his hands up, his balance on the balls of his feet. He had some basic training in hand-to-hand combat, back at Black Mesa. But that was a long time ago, and Civil Protection and the others chasing him had guns.

The two figures at finally caught up to them. Kylar could tell by their cool demeanor and easy gait, as well as the way they seemed to hold their weapons and body, almost casually, that these were professionals.

Shit.

The warehouse had been a type of factory, stripped of its machines and equipment, leaving only the bare scaffolding of metal housings that once locked conveyor belts and machines into place. The struts hung down from the ribbed ceiling, relics of a time past, like a corpse, abandoned to the elements to become petrified by time, with only the worn skeletal structures remaining.

Joseph and Neil had taken position on the factory's only vantage point - a small balcony that protruded from the old foreman's office and along the far wall - which gave them a view of the entire plant. Comfortably shouldering their SMGs, Joseph said something into his mike. Kylar knew he had been seen, despite all the scrap cover in the warehouse was limited.

Behind him, Ivanenko heard the sound of the heavy warehouse door being rolled up, and metrocop radio chatter. The sun had dipped an incremental amount lower in the sky, and now poured into the dusty space through the door freely, silhouetting his pursuers in black. They had their 9mm drawn, and were ready to engage.

"Attention unidentified person of interest. Subside and submit immediately. Unsatisfactory actions will be met with immediate eradication." Overwatch said in her flat monotone.

Kylar threw himself at the ground underneath the remains of conveyor, out of sight of the range of the metrocops. Immediately there was gunfire - not from the Civil Protection squad but from the balcony. Joseph and Neil unloaded their weapons into the assembled metrocops, who went down in a hail of bullets. Six cops hit the ground dead, their armors automatic response systems emitting a flatline tone and then listing off coordinates and timestamp for the casualties.

Joseph slung his weapon and quickly slid down the ladder to the ground floor, Neil covering behind him. From the two other walls of the warehouse, identical two man teams appeared until all six resistance fighters had converged on Kylar.

Deupree walked briskly to the center of the group as his teammates surrounded them, taking point, and shot out his hand and offered it to Ivanenko. He took it and Joseph helped him up.

"Doctor Ivanenko? I think you better follow me."

click SPOILER to see renders

Spoiler:

I cautiously allowed myself to be helped to my feet, ready for anything. Still wary about these two unknown figures, the fact that they knew his name did not ease any of his suspicions, and in fact served to increase them. Yet, they had killed the Civil Protection Soldiers, and saved him.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess. besides, this could be the man that one guard talked about.

Kylar did not feel anything threatening from these two, a powerful motivator to trust them. For now. Kylar decided then to follow them, and see what they wanted, but to remain prepared.

Knowing time was short, he contained his curiosity, of who they were, and why they were rescuing him, to ask the far more important question:

"Where are we going?"

As they moved out of the warehouse in formation, Joseph simply answered,

"To the underground."

They quickly reached an intersection of the alleyways, where their was a hefty manhole cover. While two teams swept the windows with their SMGs, Neil and Joseph pulled the massive steel cover out of place and began to move inside.

"In here Ivanenko." Joseph said, pointing to the ladder that descended into the dark abyss. "Union will be slow to follow us in here."

Two men made their way down before him, flashlights barely illuminating the bottom of the pit. Obviously a complex sewer system ran beneath the city, and in old European fashion was extremely large and treacherous. With three men in hole and three men still on watch, Ivanenko started his way down the ladder. The smell hit him imediately, and he could feel the ladder rungs becoming wet with the moisture in the air.

When he was most of the way down, the last pointman closed the manhole cover above them, and the sky vanished. In the dark, Kylar could hear the dripping of pipes and the rush of water. His feet touched mossy stone, and he stood still as he could, letting his eyes adjust to the dark. Suddenly, a flashlight blinded in front of him, and he realized he was surrounded by Joseph's crew.

"From here we can reach Doctor Kliener's lab. There's a name you should remember, he's the one that's looking for you."

Chapter Six - Tunnel Syndrome