My Own Puzzle

Freedom was slow and Chell wasn't liking it very much. For one thing, there weren't any buttons out here. It was hard to solve a puzzle when there weren't buttons around. There weren't any doors either, so there was no clear goal in sight. In fact, there weren't any walls. There was so much space that she felt lost even though she could go anywhere. What was there to go to? She'd walked for longer than she'd ever had before without achieving any goals at all.

Well, she'd made one goal, maybe two. She'd found water and food. After so long of wading through knee-high grass, which wasn't edible and waved in long rolls of green, Chell had come across a stretch of water drifting its way across a dip in the land. Was that a river or a stream? She wasn't sure what the difference was, just that both words described a natural flow of water like this. But it gave her something to drink. And across the river and/or stream, she found a cluster of bushes that held tart but juicy berries. It wasn't a lot, but it was something to eat.

She decided to stop in that natural relaxation area to consider what to do next. But she wasn't used to that. Normally, she solved what tests the computers gave her, what puzzles were in front of her. Escaping had been the ultimate test, using all they gave her and whatever they missed to get to her goal. The solution hadn't been quite what she'd thought it'd be. But then, neither was freedom. What was she to do now?

Chell spotted some pebbles and started arranging them by size. Maybe they could make another test? She had a faint notion that she had made experiments of her own at one time. She'd gone through lots of experiments, so it shouldn't be hard to make them. Hadn't that one man done all kinds of things to find out what would happen? Throw out a lot of ideas and see what stuck. And lots of stuff had come out of that methodology, like the portal gun, her boots, and even GlaDOS. She could make something new too.

However, you weren't supposed to solve your own puzzles. She looked down at her pebbles, seeing that something could be done. If the flatter pebbles were buttons, and the pointed ones were turrets, and there were a few sticks that could be walls... how did you get the smallest pebble onto the largest while touching every button and avoiding every turret? But who would solve the puzzle if she couldn't? Chell could see several methods it could be done. And if you added in things like faith plates or excursion tunnels, there'd be entirely different solutions.

Something landed on her goal pebble. Chell paused in messing with the tiniest pebble to examine it. Could it solve puzzles? It had a fat body and fat eyes, black in color. But it wasn't a black like she'd see in the Apature Labs. This was a black with a metallic sheen that suddenly turned gold when she shifted her gaze just a bit. The creature had delicate looking transparent wings with tiny black veins. If she could fly at will, a lot of the experiments she'd run could have gone a lot faster. Fly... that was a fly, wasn't it?

The fly spent a few moments doing a curious thing. It would rub its front two legs together, lick them, then rub them over its head. In doing so, it didn't seem interested in solving the puzzle. Although, it was on the goal pebble, so maybe it thought the puzzle was solved just with that. So the lesson from this experiment was that puzzles could be solved almost instantly with the power of flight. It was a valuable lesson, if one that Chell couldn't see how it would help her out right now.

How could she fly? She thought about that, waiting until the fly took off for more examination of flight. But its wings turned into a blur and she soon lost it. But it wasn't the only thing flying about. Birds had flown out of the grass when she approached, or though the blue sky overhead. Just here at the water, there were lots of little bugs flying about. In watching them closely, Chell thought she identified a dragonfly hanging off a bent strand of grass, a butterfly flitting about erratically until it landed on a flower to eat from, and some kind of beetle showing hidden wings from under its shell. There was the problem; she didn't have wings.

Flight might be out of her reach then. She felt hungry again, so she went back to the berry bushes. However, the parts she had picked were still empty. That meant there were a limited number of berries unless they would regrow overnight. That could be a problem. How did she get more reliable food? The water seemed like it wouldn't run out and the air was wonderfully fresh. But if she didn't have a way to get food, she wasn't going to last long enough to solve other puzzles.

Then she realized, the sky wasn't the same blue as when she left the labs. It was more yellow, almost orange. The sun had been moving all this time towards the horizon and it was almost there. Sitting down, Chell waited to see what would happen. The part of the sky with the sun in it got yellower, then oranger. The sounds of the birds vanished, overtaken by the faint ripples of grass and the constant gurgle of the water.

Meanwhile, the opposite part grew more purple and dark. A bright star showed up within that darkness. The sun turned a fiery red, spilling that color out to clouds around it. Eventually, the reds turned to darker shades as well, the opposite darkness overtaking the sky. The sun disappeared entirely although its light lingered in red for quite some time before it was fully night. Some voice called out into the night, "Who?" An owl?

It was fascinating, reminding her of instructions to stare at art for mental refreshment. Except, more, it was a greater feeling seeing all that in motion. That was a part of freedom she could appreciate. It still didn't do anything about the food puzzle. Maybe in the morning. Since there wasn't a bed out here, she'd have to sleep on the ground.

While she was checking around for a suitable spot, Chell spotted something she'd missed in the light of day. Beyond the berry bushes and off in the endless grass, there was a red glow in a familiar oval shape. She wasn't that tired, so she decided to go check it out first. The bushes made a noticeable shape above the grasses, so she could find her way back here.

She recognized the shape even more as she got closer. That was a portal hanging in midair. Except, she'd not seen a red ringed portal, just blue and orange. Looking through it, she saw a place with a high density of trees, perhaps a jungle. It seemed to be daylight there. How far away was that place? As she got closer, something rustled through the trees. A strange gray-skinned creature dropped down in front of the portal, with an elongated head and clawed arms. Chell stopped as the creature reached over and tried to touch the portal. Maybe she shouldn't get close.

Then the portal went fuzzy, snapping in a worrying way. At least the creature hadn't come through. Then it cleared up again. Instead of a forest, it showed a building more like the labs had been recently. Gray cracked walls, piles of rubble strewn about a wet floor. A pair of strong men rushed by, wearing gray and black clothes that blended into the area well. Although they moved by fast, she spotted the guns they had equipped. Those definitely weren't portal guns. A third man stopped by and tried to look in, but the red portal changed once again. Maybe it was unstable.

For a while, she just watched what this portal was showing. There was a man with a whip who was fighting off skeletons and bats. Another blip and it was a girl in a chick mask running down a track with a pigeon. What were these strange places? And how did whoever controlled the other end get between so many different places so fast? After seeing a group of colorful animals rushing down a bizarrely spiraled road, Chell wondered if the red portal opened into other worlds. Some of this wasn't possible since they weren't using gels or anything she could notice.

GlaDOS hadn't been sure of what was out in the world and that had been over three hundred years ago. The automated announcer certainly thought that some apocalyptic event had occurred. This whole time she'd been walking, there'd been nothing but grass, birds, and bugs. Maybe some small animals, she'd heard sounds under the grass but couldn't see what caused them. In the red portal, she saw a younger girl throw a small sphere at a sparking lizard to capture it.

But that world passed by as Chell made a decision. She'd only found berries and some water here so far. As she couldn't rely on the computers to get her food and objects anymore, she had to find a way to get her own. There wasn't much here. If she went through the red portal, she could end up in another world where resources were more abundant. There were a number flashing by that seemed violent. Chell didn't want any of those; she wouldn't know what to do there since she didn't have a portal gun to bypass the violence. However, if she went through the red portal, there was a good chance that she'd never be able to get back unless she stumbled across another and it happened to fall upon her world.

A number of weird worlds passed before her eyes that she decided not to take, including one of a snowy mountainside where some teenagers were fighting a huge spiky shelled creature. Eventually, one popped up that seemed quiet. There was a torch in front of a stairs leading up to a log cabin, with a lake and starry sky off in the distance. More importantly, there were apple trees by the log cabin as well. It looked blocky and the flame on the torch seemed strange, but there had been a lot of blocks and panels in the labs. Chell stepped through the portal before it could shift away from the log cabin.

When she turned around, she saw that the portal was pink from this side. Pink? It collapsed in on itself, leaving her in another quiet night. The torch crackled behind her and a faint breeze made the trees rustle. Still feeling hungry, Chell went over to pick an apple to eat. It was crunchy and sweet, much better than the tart berries.

It had been a long day. Was there a bed inside this cabin? She walked up the steps and opened up a gate to get to the door. Inside, she didn't see anyone else. A couple of torches lit up the inside, showing a row of wooden boxes. Maybe their science wasn't as advanced here. Up some stairs, she found a plain table with a book on it, another torch, and a bed with blue covers. It all looked clean and unused, still without anyone around.

Chell went over to the bed and found it soft and sturdy. She picked up the book to see what it was about. While there was nothing written on the cover, there was a note on a loose piece of paper right on the inside.

'To the adventurer who finds this place:

I came to this island from my village far away, in hopes of striking it rich and setting up my own village. However, this was not to be. I had just gotten this home set up with the start of a garden when an old neighbor managed to sail his way to find me. The old place had gotten overrun with zombies when the person I trusted to defend the village in my place had gotten killed. As that is only the latest in many setbacks that I faced in trying out this dream, I have to give up for now and go rescue the old place.

Maybe I'll manage to set off again, maybe not. As this place is far from any town that I found, you must be a persistent adventurer to reach it. If you want somewhere to settle down, go ahead and take this place for your own. I'd rather my work here not go completely to waste. This place has a lot of promise, so you should be able to make a good life here. If you'd rather keep exploring, that's fine too. Stay the night if you need a rest, but keep things intact in case another has need or want of it.

This book may not be of much use to you who've reached here, as it is a beginner's guide to those of us who want to make their own life with their own hands. However, it is pretty good at what it teaches, might even be able to teach you some new things with the range of knowledge in here. And I've made use of the blank pages within to make a map of this island, record where I found various resources, and make copies of crafting formulas that I use regularly. I know there's another copy in my home village, so I decided to leave this behind to whoever wants to settle down here.

Good luck, stranger.'

A beginners guide to making your own life with your own hands. That sounded very helpful to Chell. Setting it aside to study tomorrow, she lay on the bed and settled herself to sleep. She was lucky to come across that red portal. Perhaps she might someday find whoever left this cabin behind to thank them? Although, talking was something she didn't do.

Maybe she'd make them a cake, if she could figure that out.

"Moo!"

Cows were good animals to keep around. Chell had cleared out some land in order to build a large fenced in pen for them. Since skeletons, zombies, and other monsters roamed around at night, torches had to be put a regular intervals around the animal pens. And she had to make another farm plot in order to grow wheat to feed them with. But cows gave milk while alive, then beef and leather when killed. Also, they were heavier than the chickens that she also kept penned in. That made cows good for stepping on buttons to solve puzzles. The chickens could only weigh down small buttons and that's if they didn't run off first.

Although, getting the cows to solve the puzzles she made herself was tricky. Placing wheat, carrots, or apples around the goal area seemed like it might work. But the cows would try to go straight for the food instead of figuring out how to get around obstacles. That was good for figuring out that cows prioritized food. Since she figured that out early on, it wasn't advancing her science much if that was the only thing that came out of the puzzles.

But some of the cows did seem to be learning. She'd put a stream of water across the testing pen and the lumbering brown cow currently in there was slowly shoving a crate to redirect the stream. While it was the first to be doing this, a couple outside the pen seemed to be watching. They only ever said 'moo', so Chell couldn't be sure what they thought they were doing. Once the crate was in place, the stream then went for the next lowest incline, out of the cow's way to getting the carrot.

Was intelligence something that could be passed down to the next generation of cows? Maybe if she tested all the cows with this puzzle, then split them into 'passed' and 'failed', then mate the cows within each group. Would the next cows be just the same or could the ones who passed make their children smarter? It'd be better if she had more generations of smart or dumb cows to observe the results. She'd need to come up with tougher puzzles to give to smarter cows and... Chell looked over the herd of brown cows she had right now.

She was going to need a lot more cows to do this right.

To GlaDOS:

I don't know if you'll ever see this letter, but I'm writing it anyways. If the red portal comes back again, I'll watch until I see you or the labs, then toss it over for you to find. If not, then it's not much time wasted in writing.

Thank you for giving me my freedom. I know you were doing it in an attempt to kill me because you were having trouble doing that yourself. However, I had a stroke of luck and found an entirely different world. It's a good world, as even a brain-damaged fool like me can make my own life with my own hands. There are groups of undead that roam the night, and all kinds of dangerous monsters when you go into mines for materials. Still, I've learned how to deal with them and even make good use of fighting them off.

While it is much different from what I did in the labs, I am still working to advance science within this world. I've found ways to test out ideas even though it takes me a lot more work than you to put experiments together. I have learned much about animals, plants, rocks, water, and lava in them. Although flight still is a far off dream, I'm making good progress towards cows that can better solve puzzles and advance science. I've already got some that make healthy mushroom soup.

Oh yes, and I can make my own cakes now. They're delicious and it's a pity you couldn't eat them yourself as an A.I.. Overall, I'm doing well and I hope you are doing well as well.

From Chell