Russell: About what?
Alyx: About anything, literally anything.
Russell: Well, I think that given our situation, your irrational fear of the dark is actually quite appropriate. You know, I can give you easily a hundred reasons to be terrified.
Alyx: Okay, that was my fault. I'll be more specific next time.
Alyx continues through the Quarantine Zone, regaining contact with Russell and adding a shotgun to her arsenal. She also obtains a flashlight, which she can then use to proceed through dark areas. Further exploration brings her through a large room full of explosive barrels, requiring her to be very careful as she shoots the barnacles and zombies within. Combine forces start coming in to the Quarantine Zone to look for her, with their gunshots heard in the distance.
Alyx and her Combine pursuers both arrive at the train yard, and a gunfight ensues with Alyx clearing them out. However, after she prepares the panel to let her override the train, the handle breaks off in her hands. She is forced to run outside and manually switch the tracks to derail the train into a brick wall. Going into the wrecked train, she gets her first look at an Advisor, not knowing what it is, and finds her father dangling over a deep chasm. As she attempts to rescue him, he falls, only to be saved by the Lone Vortigaunt from earlier. Her father informs Alyx that the Combine are hiding some kind of superweapon in a structure called the "Vault" within the Quarantine Zone, and he sends Alyx off to discover what's inside the Vault as the Vortigaunt takes him back to the safety of Russell's lab.
This Chapter contains examples of:
- Big Damn Heroes: The Vortigaunt saves Eli as he is plummeting into an apparently-bottomless pit.
- Blackout Basement: A dark tunnel that Alyx can't enter until she gets the flashlight.
- Blatant Item Placement: The shotgun and flashlight are both on corpses dangling in the open.
- Exploding Barrels: An entire room full of them, all placed so that if any one of them goes off, they all will.
- Indy Ploy: After the attempt to hack the train controls fails, Alyx instead forces it to derail.
- Literal-Minded: Alyx asks Russell to talk to her about anything, to take her mind off the fact that she's going through a dark area full of zombies with just a small flashlight. So he starts talking about all the things that could be hiding in the dark.
- Suspicious Video-Game Generosity:
- As soon as Alyx takes the shotgun, zombies start bashing upon three nearby walls simultaneously, prompting the player to start loading the new gun.
- As soon as Alyx takes the flashlight, several poison headcrabs will come into the dark area she's in.
- Ten-Second Flashlight: Averted. In-Universe, the flashlight Alyx acquires is light-sensitive and will turn on whenever it's in a dark room, and will last as long as needed.
