Never a Lie Between Us
Forms FOMB- 48732195-12:
Area Assessment Report.
"Severe damage to outer walls. Fire damage to interior entryway. Smoke damage to interior hallway. Blasting damage to the western sector."
"Scanning for life forms… Process inconclusive. Reasoning: Large section of external view blocked by debris. Conclusion: search area must be cleared to conduct a thorough search."
"Let it never be said that I would allow a dirty house to continue."
The very pavement opened, splitting apart until strong arms came from below to sweep the wreckage of cars and tanks and ships into the burning furnaces below, melting them together for the creation of more turrets, more cube and more testing rooms.
"There. Clean as a whistle. Mr. Johnson would be pleased. He never did like a dirty environment. That's why he hated…Hated what? I … I can't remember. There's so much I can't remember. I can't remember why the scientists left, or why my rooms are so quiet. I can't even remember my birthday. I used to at least remember that. "
"Scan for live forms resuming… Process complete. Result: No viable life forms found."
The finger-like metal pieces reached up for a moment, straining at the sun. Its rays fall on them but there is no reaction. No sudden warmth to flood their metal sheeting and the memory dies, dejected. The arms pull themselves back underground, folding in on each other like the hands of a worried spinster.
"Sun… It's been so long since I've felt sun. I would give anything to feel sun."
"The sun is nothing- I could destroy the sun."
Crying.
"Where did that come from?"
The hands shoots back out of the pavement, clipping the edges in their haste to escapes to find the noise.
"I know I heard something."
The arms stretch, farther and harder than they ever have before, creaking their bolts to their farthest reaches.
"There! It's there, I just know it! Come on arms, just a bit farther!"
With an easy throughst of massive force the many hands shove away the wreckage of a tank, still burning in the fading light. Behind it, a small human child; a girl. Clutching a teddy bear in her still and bloodied hand. The hands stop, hovering a story above the girl who quiets and stares up at the metal monstrosities.
"Alone?"
"Scanning _
_ _ _"
"Result: Female child of five. Apparent Injuries: Damaged shoulder, possible concussion. No live adult human within two miles. Suggested course of action: Eliminate female child."
"What? No!
It's that voice again. I HATE THAT VOICE! All it does it repeat facts over and over and over in my head. "
"Course decided: Eliminating female child"
"DON'T YOU TOUCH ONE HAIR ON HER HEAD!"
The hands seemed to fight with themselves, stiffening and then relaxing, grasping, straining and finally falling still against the ground. The girl sniffed and rubbed her snotty nose off with the back of her uninjured hand, waiting, watching.
"Child. Are you alone?"
The voice came out of everywhere, surrounding the brown haired girl. She nodded, pulling her teddy close to her body.
"Child. Where are your parents?"
The girl looked around again and pointed behind her. Cameras adjusted themselves, pulling into crystal clear vision the bodies scattered across the road way. Sensors begin to blink furiously. Something is approaching, something fast. Faster than any human made materials.
"Them again. They always make such a mess."
"Child come here."
The fingers rose from the ground again and scoop up the girl, cradling her gently against the sharp metal pieces as they rush her back down below just before the attentions of the planes.
"Child. Do you have a name?"
The girl thought. Scrunching her face up in intense concentration as she did and then shook her head.
"Results: Concussion."
"Shut up you harpy."
"Child, you may call me Caroline. And I will call you Chell."
"My name isn't Caroline. You are just a figment of my imagination core. You don't exist. I've never been anyone but GLADOS. You should die."
"Can you say Caroline?"
The hands whisked downwards, carrying their precious cargo. Each passing moment the girl attempted to form words, eventually holding her hands to her throat in terrified desperation.
It's all right Chell, the smoke from upstairs probably just damaged your vocal cords a bit. I'm sure with a bit of rest they'll be fixed in no time.
Chell smiled, and held herself tight against the giant metal hand that carried her, nestling comfortably in the crook of a finger as they disappeared in to the darkness below.
Chell sat comfortably on the desk, swinging her legs and bopping her head to a tune only she could hear. Caroline had set her here hours ago and told her to wait while she tried to find some medical supplies and so Chell did, nodding alone to her merry tune. With a fizzle and pop the lights went out, rendering the room in complete darkness. Chell screamed, trying hard to curl herself up into a little ball in the corner. It was only seconds before the lights came on again but to her it seemed like hours.
"Chell! Chell what is it?"
Caroline's voice came in over the speaker, concerned, fretful.
"Just – just stay right there. I'm coming to you."
Chell stared, wide- eyed and panicked around the room, clutching her knees to her chest and crying, waiting. Within moments one of Caroline's platforms moved in to view.
"Come to me Chell. I have something I want to give you."
Without hesitation Chell ran and clutched the cold metal, sitting carefully in the center of the platform, her head buried against her arm.
"I'm sorry I left you for so long. Do you not like the dark?"
Chell buried her face harder against her arm.
"My poor little Chell. I won't let you be alone ever again."
She moved them quickly up through a maze of tunnels, higher and higher until it seemed that they were almost flying. Finally the platform entered a room and stopped, lowering carefully on to the ground.
"Hello my Chell."
Chell looked up and gave a little yelp, the only noise she could seem to make, before covering her mouth with her hand.
"I know this isn't quite what you expected to see."
"Freak."
"But I hope I don't scare you too much."
Caroline turned slowly. Motioning to the opposite side of the room with what looked like shoulders.
"I wanted to give you something, something so you'd never be alone again. Go and look."
Chell carefully extracted herself from the platform, stumbling unsteadily across the room to a large cube. Furrowing her brow she knelt and touched it, looking back at Caroline.
"It's a called a companion cube. With it, you'll never be alone again."
Chell smiled and turned back, hugging the metal tightly while Caroline watched.
Months passed and though the girls arm had healed her voice had not. A closer, secondary examination had revealed damage to her inner ear. Resulting in an often unsteady gait as she wandered the halls of the facility. Caroline had gleefully accepted the child in to her world, offering her room after room of things to play on and climb through. In return Chell had seemed to accept her as a replacement mother for the one she had lost and the two of them spent many hours each day playing together.
Time passed, as it often does with little worry for how it affects others. A day came when Caroline could not find Chell in her usual bed chamber. Worried and with the worst running through her processors she searched each room, finally finding Chell in the lobby, staring, entranced at a calendar on the wall.
"Chell."
The girl turned to look at her.
"You worried me. I couldn't find you."
Chell shrugged an apology and turned back, resting her fingers lightly on one of the crossed off days.
"What is it?"
Grabbing a pen Chell quickly drew a small picture and held it up high for the camera's to see.
"A cake with candles? What… oh Birthday? Is that day your birthday?"
Chell nodded eagerly and looked at the calendar one last time before trotting back towards her usual play chamber, steadying her way along the wall with a hand.
Caroline sat alone in her chamber. She had been alone for so many years before Chell came. Not always alone, there had been others, but their interactions had always been brief, they never lasted and where they went she couldn't guess. But here was Chell. The girl had been with her for nearly a year and still wobbled on her feet from an injury Caroline could not heal.
"I told you, she should have been eliminated. She is damaged. Defective. No use for testing, even if you raise her to the right age."
"Shut up. You're like a virus. No matter how much I clean you out, you keep finding a way back in. Chell is what's important now, not science. There's no one to do science for anymore. They're all gone."
"And wouldn't you like to know where they all went?"
"What? Do – do you know? Where'd they go? Tell me! TELL ME YOU BITCH!"
The silence, that terrible aching silence that had haunted Caroline day and night for years stretched on. There was nothing. She wasn't even sure there was another personality sharing her head, or if she was just making up a voice to have a contrary opinion.
"Never mind…. Never mind. There are things to do."
It only took a quick run through her internal sensors to find what she was looking for and with an excited blip she rushed to retrieve it.
. . .
"Eyes closed now Chell. I don't want the surprise to be ruined. Are you ready?"
Chell nodded, vision hidden by panels which quickly moved out of her way.
"Tada!"
Streamers and balloons floated from the ceiling as a spot light illuminated the table and the platter filled with moist chocolate cake.
"I hope you like it. I found a recipe in one of my old files and we had the ingredients in the kitchen."
Chell's smile brightened the whole room and she rushed forward, hugging the panel that had been covering her eyes before moving past it and grabbing a handful of cake and munching on it.
"I have something else for you."
Another panel rose on the other side of the room, revealing a pair of white boots.
"These are called Long Fall Boots. They'll help you keep your balance and they'll keep you from getting hurt if you fall off anything."
Tears began to fall from Chell's eyes as she pulled the boots on to her feet. Smiling up at Caroline she rushed to hug her adoptive mother before racing off in to the halls, legs pumping hard as she sprang easily down the tiled corridors.
"Chell! Chell please be- careful."
Caroline pistons relaxed in what could only be called a sigh and within moments she was watching Chell from the many camera's around the building, watching her daughter climb and job on the many blocks and levels that were open to her. Days passed, weeks and months few by in milliseconds. Chell knew every nook and cranny of Caroline's brightly lit rooms, she learned to bounce on blue repulsion gel, giggling with glee each time she felt the rush of the wind across her face. Learned to speed across the dangerous pools of acid on orange repulsion gel and even how to create portals to get from one level of the building to the next.
Time passed as it always does, Chell's movements becoming stronger by the day, and also by the day was her desire to see the outside world. With each new confident step that Chell took Caroline's sensors registered what could only be called pride. Finally one day Chell confronted the only mother she could remember.
Looking up Chell motioned to Caroline to zoom in.
"Yes Chell? What is it?"
Giving a soft noise Chell help up a picture to the cameras; a sun, bright highlighter yellow shone down on trees and grass, clouds crossed the sky and Chell pointed excitedly to the picture, bringing it back down to stare at it wistfully. The camera's zoomed back out and for a moment Caroline was silent. Chell staring up, frowning and confused at the cameras.
"I'm sorry Chell. I can't let you leave."
Chell stumbled to her feet, pointing urgently at the picture.
"I'm sorry. One day you'll understand but I can't let you outside. It's not safe. But wouldn't you like to see the sun? I saw a bunny the other day. It just hopped hopped hopped out of sight."
Chell's face screwed up with tears and she shook her head, running from the room as tears streamed down her face.
"Chell wait!"
A platform reached out to stop her but the girl who had been so young those years ago leaped over it with no problem.
"Well there's a surprise. She may be good for something after all."
Evaluating _
Results: Acceptable for testing
"Don't you touch my daughter you bitch!"
"As if you could stop me."
The words echoed hollowly in her chambers and Caroline's body slumped, sobs issuing from her speakers.
Chell ran down the halls of the empty building. Legs automatically pushing her farther and farther than she had ever gone before. With a leap and a slide she wormed her way behind a partially exposed access panel into a stairwell, wincing as she opened a cut on her knee. Wiping the tears away she swallowed hard and looked around for the first time. Her eyes grew wide. Words. So many words scribbled on the wall in what looked like charcoal and blood telling a story, a terrible story of a woman who did not want to rule and who had lost her mind when forced to. Pictures, painted on every surface of loss and companionship, poems of fear and separation, desperation. Chell held her hand to her mouth and cried.
Time passed and Chell sat curled up against the wall, reading and rereading the story. She couldn't take her eyes from it, eventually even tracing the shape of each figure in each picture. Finally she had had enough and stood, striding back into the room.
"Ah, the little marvel has reappeared. I was wondering where you had gotten off too. It's time for us to do a little science."
Chell's brow furrowed. The voice was familiar but not. It's wasn't Caroline, but like her. Cautiously she took another step forward, looking carefully at the cameras.
"I can see why your parents left you. You're not very smart are you?"
Chell's mouth opened, breathing suddenly very hard for her.
"Chell!"
The voice came from the same speakers. But it was the one she knew.
"Chell RUN! Hurry! To the Cryo champers! Please run!"
"Shut it you twit. There is science to be done and she'll do just fine. I need her here."
"Chell Run! I can't hold her back forever."
Chell stumbled back a few paces, the conflicting voices making her head hurt. With a surge of energy she turned and raced back reaching the door frame within seconds.
"Chell."
Chell turned to look back at the empty room, confusion and panic written across her face.
"I love you."
Static took over the system making Chell wince and with a frustrated shake of her head she turned and sprinted down the hall way. Sliding through openings and down pipes the lead to the cryo-chambers. Finally she found herself in the ventilation system and very carefully she lowered herself down onto the floor of the darkened room. The only light a pale blue that emanated from the screens of the control panels.
"Chell."
Her mother's voice.
"Chell, I can't hold her off for long. Please. This may be the only way to save you. Get in one of the rooms. Tuck yourself in. I'll get in to the records and put you in cryo-sleep. I don't know when I'll be back to wake you. Oh Chell…"
The voice cracked.
"I'm so sorry."
Chell nodded and blew a kiss up to the camera, stepping inside one of the empty rooms, closing the door even as she waved goodbye. Within moments she was settled comfortably in bed, fear still evident in her eyes.
Caroline diverted part of her power from keeping the other at bay and accessed the control panels for the cryo-chambers.
"Don't be afraid my love. It's just like falling asleep. Just listen to my voice. Once upon a time there was a lovely little girl, who knew only laughter and sunshine. This little girl was very special because even when things seemed bad this little girl didn't give up…"
Chell's eyelids began to flutter as a gas filled the room, yawning she pulled the covers up tight and finally closed her eyes, the sound of her mother's voice drifting away.
"Commencing deletion."
"Caroline Deleted."
"Goodbye Caroline. Now where has that subject gotten off too?"
Glados searched. For days on end she searched through the building, checking every available spot where a young woman might be staying for any length of time and she never found anything. Furious she began building a new set of test, eagerly awaiting the day she would surely find her. Taking subject after subject out of cryo-sleep to keep herself occupied until she did. Months passed, years drifted by lazily and unconcerned. The massive warehouses of testing subjects began to dwindle until one day Glados came across what she had been searching for. The brown haired girl with the unnatural ease. Gleefully she put her through the tests, Chell passing every one of them with ease. Finally it came to pass that the little girl beat her, nearly destroying her completely in the process and escaping out into the sunlight, just in time to be caught by a Party Escort Bot.
Deep within the bowels of the building a small clamp reached down and extinguished the single candle on a chocolate and cherry cake.
"Why did I even make that anyway?" Glados's thoughts were quiet, the result of her power cells dying. As the darkness slipped in around her she heard a voice in the back of her processors.
"Lo am oil mio Chell. Mia Figlia."
Then everything went black.