Quick question: How far is City 17 from Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico? I decided to walk through HL2 series recently. From time to time I bury myself in wiki articles in order to better understand what's going on in the game. And today I wondered: well, that's some awesome soviet aesthetic going in City 17 and around it. But wasn't Black Mesa in New Mexico, United States? Then how exactly all of the characters traveled that far without being captured by Combine forces? Or is geography of HL universe different? Do devs give explanation to that at any point?  


Sorry if this question is dumb, just couldn't find anything in google on the topic.