AN: So, this is the first fanfiction I've ever written and it's an AU Half-life/Portal fic...

REALLY weird concept I know, I think it turned out pretty ok though. I actually did this for an english assignment and it's meant to follow some of the text in the assignment as posted here:

"The tall creature lingered into view. The young couple sat on their hotel balcony and watched as the long tounge wrapped itself around a nearby tree, slowly stripping off the green leaving only the remnants of a darker, brownish colour coated in saliva. The man and woman embrace and watch this simple act of nature. They came here to get away...away from the city life, away from the chaos, away from the "technological advances". They came here to hide. They came here to be together"

That was the story you were supposed to continue and it was of course supposed to be some deer-like creature eating the leaves but due to a mistyping it sounded like it ate an entire tree...

My mind came up with this, enjoy!

Away to nature

He pulled her closer as the creature once again crawled back into the shadows, its massive feet making the ground shake slightly. When the shadow of the monster had dissappeared he turned to her.

"Chell..."

"Yes, Gordon?" This was going to be a really awkward question to ask, honestly.

"Are we going to... make it out alive?" He could see the concerned look on her face as soon as the question left his mouth.

"I don't know Gordon..." She said quietly. "I just...don't know."

At this he sat up a bit straighter in the couch, looking oddly determined. Staring through the heavily armored glass of the dome they were sitting in he saw the stump left by the mutant deer. He felt strangely sad, sad and alone. The latter might have come from the fact that all major cities on earth had been nuked from the surface of the planet. The rest had been cleaned up by either the robots or the radiation. It also might have been the weird burrito that he had for lunch earlier that day. At second thought it was probably the former. He stood up from the couch, looking around the balcony, as it was called. Well, in a sense a glass dome above ground does resemble a balcony to an underground hotel. He still found the name rather silly though.

A small wolf-like creature ran straight at him from outside the boundaries of the unbreakable glass. It soon learned its lesson, smashing its nose hard against the transparent surface. Those mutants are really stupid. And really annoying. Three days earlier, before they managed to make their way into the hotel, a mutant had actually shot lightning at him from 20 feet away. Like real electricity, straight from its hands. How does that even work?

"Man, I hate those mutants" he muttered under his breath as he went to get a cup from the counter in the middle of the room.

"The mutants bothering you again, Gordon?" Chell said with a smile, a small one, but a smile nonetheless. "I know where you're coming from on that one, trust me. And sorry for breaking the coffee machine earlier. It told me the coffee was done by actually saying it out loud, don't know what idiot designer put that in, you know how that stuff creeps me out."

"Mm" Gordon replied, filling his cup with tap water. They only had a limited amount of it, seeing how there were no humans to run the water facilities, if there were even any water facilities left after the huge bombing.

He opened up the mini-bar and took out a small bag of peanuts.

"Those things are really expensive" Chell said. Gordon just stared blankly at her. It took a few seconds for Chell to realise the huge hole in her logic.

"Oh, that's right" she said, looking down at the floor. This wasn't the first time she'd made this mistake. She'd ought to have learned by now, really.

At this a huge bat-like bird crashed on top of their roof. This was a pretty normal occurence by now, they'd stopped leaping high every time and now merely flinched a bit.

"Man." Gordon said loudly. "I really hate those mutants."

Chell hated them too of course, but it wasn't anything like the deal with her and computers. She hated computers with a burning passion. Especially the ones with a voice. They freaked her out like nothing else.

She walked toward the edge of the glass dome again and watched the huge bird slide down the curved top of the structure and finally fall onto the ground with a small bump and an uncomfortable cracking noise.

The animal mutanta really weren't as bad as the human ones. She never felt comfortable hurting them so she usually let Gordon do the shooting whenever necessary. And the cute ones as well. She had a soft spot for those. They'd met a couple of mutant rabbits and a mutant squirrel as well. Gordon had to handle those too. She actually didn't like shooting the ugly ones either.

God dammit, why couldn't there be computer mutants, those would be right up her alley. And insect mutants, she hated insects too.

"Hey Chell?" Gordon called across the room. "Have you seen my wrist watch?"

"Yeah, got it right here" she called back, taking Gordon's broken watch from her right pocket. "Might be a bit battered though."

"What do you mean a bit...oh..." Gordon said as he saw the watch Chell was holding.

"Sorry, it beeped and I panicked." He didn't exactly look happy but he gave her a small smile anyway.

"That's alright." He said, taking the watch back from her. "It was old anyway."

Suddenly they were interrupted by the humming sound of the elevator going up the shaft. They fell quiet instantly, looking at each other with raised eyebrows. Both of them could tell what the other one was thinking. It was something along the lines of "what the hell", although perhaps in more colorful language. Gordon quickly picked up his shotgun, which lay on the counter next to the broken coffee machine. He threw a revolver over to Chell.

"Shoot first, ask questions later." He told her as they moved in front of the door, readying their weapons. "Looks like we didn't get away after all. Man, I hate those mutants."

There was a beeping noise to indicate that the elevator was on the right floor and that the doors were about to open.

"Well, here we are again." Gordon said.

"It's always such a pleasure." Chell sighed before the doors started opening.

So there, I hope you liked it! English is my second language so if you find any errors youre welcome to point them out in the comments!

Thank you

/ Togarda