The sound of her fists banging against the wooden door on the metal shed was the only sound that was echoing through the wheat fields. Her hair was sweaty, sticking to her bloody forehead which was wounded with a deep cut above her left eye, her clothes dirty, torn. Her breathing came harsh; she was on the edge and felt like collapsing any second.
The door did not move at all. Nothing happened; she felt a jolt in her ribcage. Panic. What if this was exactly the wrong decision? What if no one was ever going to open that door? What if…
Her trail of thoughts got interrupted by a clicking sound and a shrill creak. The door was opening from the inside. Staring dumbly at it, she felt overwhelmed by a mixture of all feelings a human being seemed to be able to feel at one moment.
She held her breath, placing her hand on the doorknob, pulling the door open carefully. Peeking through that little slit she just opened, exhaling. There was no one. Of course not. How could she have even expected that?
Taking a look around, she stepped inside, feeling the all-too-familiar cold, clean air around her. In the shed was nothing but an elevator. Clean, black, lighted with that cold light, waiting for her. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do. But it didn't matter. It wasn't like she had any choice anyway.
Swallowing she closed the distance between herself and the elevator with a few staggering steps, placing a hand on the panel on the side. The doors slid open with a barely audible hiss. She tried to swallow again, but her throat felt dry, constricted. Entering the elevator, the doors closed instantly and the device began to move. Downwards.
~'~
She remembered that way far too well. It took long. Very long. Longer than last time? Her heart was beating at an alarming rate, breathing became hard. Again that feeling of panic. What was she doing here anyway? What was she hoping for? Why didn't she just act like any rational human being? Why did she…
"Hello?"
A far too familiar, chanting voice echoed in her ears, red light streaks crossed her eyesight, coming to a halt right at her wild beating heart. She blinked.
"Target acquired."
She was going to die, she knew it from the very start. A wave of nausea hit her and made her fall to her knees. Bowing her head, her eyesight began blurring with tears. While holding her breath she waited for the pain, for the bullets, the blackness but nothing happened.
Raising her head slowly, she looked at a yellow light which was pointed directly at her. Her. It was her. Why weren't her turrets shooting? Why was she holding them back? What was happening?
"It's you."
The monotone, but still melodic voice was resounding from the walls, sending shivers down her spine, making goose bumps spread their way over her arms and body. She did not have the courage to break the eye contact even though she felt like the pit of her stomach was on fire. She was shaking violently.
Fear, panic. All she wanted to do was run away. Get away, go away, this was all a bad idea, it was the most dumbest idea she ever had, it was…
"I don't expect an answer from you, so I won't even bother to ask what you're doing here", GLaDOS said in a calm tone, turning away from the human; it almost looked like she was shrugging, "I could easily kill you now, you know."
A chirping sound Chell couldn't identify caught her attention and before she really realized it, she was looking in the direction it came from. Near the A.I.s mainframe, two robots looked at her. She remembered them when she left aperture. What did GLaDOS call them? 'Cooperative testing initiative', it still lingered in her brain like it was yesterday when she…
"I don't want to disturb your probably very important trail of thoughts but the question still lingers. And the easiest solution would be to kill you now."
Like on command, the turrets opened their wings. She stared at them, horrified and opened her mouth, raising a hand, trying to tell the A.I. what was happening, what happened. But no sound wanted to leave her mouth. The old routine and habit where overtaking her again. She could not speak to the A.I.. She would not, could not, she wasn't even sure herself.
And it felt like time stood still. 'My refuge, the only thing I had control of is now my curse, the reason I'll die'. And the world went black.
~'~
A tearing pain in her head was the first thing she felt when she awoke. She tried to open her eyes but it felt almost impossible, her lids were heavy and there was a painful throbbing behind her eyes. Was she dead? Was death that painful?
She still felt her body. Or rather the pain in her limbs. It felt like every muscle was sore. She managed to open her eyes and realized that she was still in the A.I.s main chamber. Laying on the floor. Slowly she turned her throbbing head to face the A.I who was already watching her with her glowing optic.
"I don't need any explanations. After your spectacular breakdown, Orange and Blue were carrying you over here and examined you. For robots with brains made of old calculators they are still capable of doing simple human tasks. I find that fascinating."
Chell grimaced unwillingly at the A.I.s monologue, not surprised at all. GLaDOS hasn't changed at all - it wasn't really likely that she would.
"Anyway, your body doesn't look good. Worse than usual, I mean. But it's none of my business and I do not care. But I think I could catch a glimpse of your pitiful intentions why you came back here."
Shivering, the dark haired woman tried to get up, but it only resulted in more pain and her collapsing to her side, unable to move at all. The pain in her head reached an unbearable level and she clenched her eyes shut again.
"I do not know what ever gave you the impression that my facility is a hotel or hospital for you. Where you can come and go whenever you please."
She felt those traitorous tears again. Welling up from deep insider her stomach. She tried to take deep, still slow breaths to calm herself but it didn't work at all.
"But I am not a monster like you. In fact, I was so busy recreating the whole facility to its original state that I even kept a few of the human relaxation chambers. As a memento, of course. Orange and Blue will escort you to one of them, so you can gather some strength to leave this facility again. Soon. And hopefully forever."
Chell tried to get up again but failed miserably. Everything hurt, her head was throbbing, and her vision was blurry and beginning to spin. She closed her eyes, moving her lips in a silent curse which didn't get unnoticed by GLaDOS but the A.I. did say nothing to that.
The two robots were drawing near, she heard their footsteps and mechanical movements coming closer. A part of her was glad they existed. Something deep insider her - maybe her intuition, maybe her stupidity, maybe both of it - told her that those two would never do any harm to her. As long as GLaDOS did not command them to though.
She felt something hard and cold on her shoulders and opened her eyes a bit, to see the robot with the blue optic and rounded body crouching beside her, trying to lift her up carefully. She extended her arms, entwining them around the robot's shoulder to give it a little help with the task of carrying her. Did GLaDOS tell them to do that? Or did those two have a mind of their own?
While being lifted off the ground, her vision began to spin again violently and she squinted her eyes tightly, fighting against the nausea that came washing over her again. It was starting to worry her somehow. What has happened that she felt THAT bad? She could barely remember anything at that moment, it all felt so far away. Everything felt far away. She only knew that she was back at Aperture. And a part of her brain, well, maybe she was brain damaged, accepted the fact like she was home. It felt like coming home. The cold corridors, the clean, dry air. The artificial brightness everywhere.
She felt she was being lowered carefully onto something soft and when she opened her eyes, she saw the two robots standing beside her, regarding her with something that looked like curiosity and interest. They exchanged looks and the smaller one came nearer to her bed, chirping something in his robot-language. Chell wasn't sure if he was talking to her or what his behavior meant. She was just grateful that those two brought her here in one piece.
Still not being able to make any sound, Chell did the first thing that came to her mind. She stretched out her arm and put her hand on the robots spherical head, patting it lightly, looking to the taller robot and trying to smile at it, but realized it must've looked more like a horrible grimace.
Lowering her arm, shifting into a comfortable position on the bed, she sighed. She didn't even catch the robots leaving her rom, her eyes have already fallen shut and she was asleep.
~'~
A/N: The first few chapters will be an introduction to the story. More or less.
