My God. That was a hell of a long fall down.
She had been standing here for about three minutes now, contemplating whether to jump or not. Chell knew she had her boots on which were supposed to absorb the shock of any fall. But still, it was scary. Scary that you could land on your face- or stomach, or any other body part that wasn't the feet.
Jump, she thought. Just do it.
Suddenly there was a loud noise, and her hands shuddered with vibrations. Damn it, she thought, as a spray of blue erupted from her Portal Gun. The light shot across the chamber and dissolved against a panel of steel caging. She had clutched a little too hard on the trigger. There was no time to think anything else before she stumbled back, losing her footing and slipping.
Painfully, Chell's elbow smashed against the edge of the platform and with a cry- she fell.
'OH MY GOD!' she screamed as she tried to regain orientation- whilst fully aware that she was hurtling to the ground alarmingly fast.
The beige floor was now approaching, and Chell had only just slipped her hand back into the gun again. With as much force as she could muster, she closed her eyes and triggered- distantly hearing the sound of the portal materialising.
The only thing she could hear now was the sound of the rushing air as her momentum increased. For a while, this was all she could hear. Then, quite abruptly, it stopped. She seemed to have come to a halt.
'Good work,'a voice boomed, from the loud speaker that hung loosely above the exit, in his usual rough tone. 'Bean counters told me that this chamber was pretty hard. Ha! You proved 'em wrong.'
'Thanks,' Chell murmured, all the while knowing that the messages were pre-recorded. There was no way Mr Johnson could personally oversee all of the testing.
Quietly, she made her way through the emancipation grill and walked up the metal stairs, listening to the clanking noise her boots made against it. As she reached the top, she heard the instantly recognisable sound of lift doors opening.
There were already some people inside it- two scientists and an engineer. Casually, Chell joined them and the lift doors closed. With a sudden shudder, it started moving upwards.
'So,' one of the scientists said to the other. 'Has Johnson spoken to your group about it?'
'About what?' the other replied, sounding confused.
'He went on and on about how he wanted to put someone in a computer- their mind- their brain- or something like that.'
'It sounds crazy to me,' the engineer shrugged.
There was a hiss of compressed gas, and the doors slid open. She was here. Carefully, Chell stepped out and felt the cool air sweep across her face. It felt good to be back in the lobby.
'Hey Chell,' she heard, as she started to make her way to the resting vaults.
It was Flynn, someone she had been paired with on many occasions- and also happened to be one of her roommates.
'Hi Flynn,' Chell smiled, wearily.
He nodded to her elbow, exposed for all to see, since she had rolled up her sleeves. 'Looks painful,' he remarked.
'It's not as bad as it looks,' Chell winced, as she flexed her arm.
'I'm sure,' he said, looking her in the eye.
For a moment, they stood there, staring at each other. It was Chell who was the first to break the trance. 'I'm just ... going to take a nap.'
'OK,' Flynn said, putting his arm on her shoulder. 'See you in a bit.'
Gratefully, Chell turned around and walked through the open door, remembering to shove the Portal Gun through the chute. It fell down the pipe, only to be caught by the tractor beam which pushed it along into another pipe. Several other Portal Guns were trailing behind it as they made their way to another beam. The process was organised, and simple. Chell had seen this countless times before, but didn't actually know where they went sent off to.
With that done, she walked on through the metal door and continued into the hallway. It was lined with other metal doors- five on each side, spaced about a metre apart from each other. Each door lead into a room that contained four separate resting pods. They weren't actually assigned to a room, but after a week, they had gotten used to sleeping in the same pod and made it theirs.
She made her way to the third door up on the left and opened it. The door swung open noiselessly and she heaved herself in. Suddenly, she felt incredibly tired.
Beside each pod was a grey box that was attached to the wall. When they woke up and then they arrived back from testing later, the box would dispense a small box, in which would be a bit of food and several grapes. And an orange pill. There was always a pill. They had been instructed to swallow the pill, for it contained the vitamins and nutrients that the food did not. Too make swallowing easier, they also dispensed a sealed carton of water. Whether it was fresh or not, Chell did not know. But frankly, she didn't care. You had to be hydrated if you were testing, which was every day. If you didn't hydrate then it was only a matter of time until you would soon find yourself falling to your knees in a chamber with exhaustion and very dry throat.
Chell yawned and sat down on her pod, lying back on the plush blue fabric. Feeling bored, she reached out to her left and felt for the box. It was there. She pulled it towards her and opened it. Inside were five chips and six green beans. It was hardly filling, but she had gotten used to the emptiness. Oh, and the pill. Always the pill.
It was a wonder that she wasn't getting any skinnier. She ate this amount every day and still she wasn't getting skinnier. She still felt the same. Maybe it was pill.
All for the better, I suppose, she thought as she threw back her head and swallowed the pill, with the aid of a gulp of water.
Then she sat back and idly ate some chips whilst staring up at the ceiling. Her eyes slowly drifted down to the clock at the end of the room. She had long lost her sense of time since coming here, as had everyone else. This clock was not here to reinvest in that, but to tell them when their break would be over. There was only one hand, and there was no numbers. Instead, the clock face was comprised of two colours. The left hand side was blue, and the right was orange.
The orange side represented their break. The hand always seemed to move quicker on that side, giving them maybe about forty minutes. When the hand reached the blue side, it meant they had to get in their pod and sleep.
'Hey Chell,' she heard, as someone entered the room. It was Thana.
'Thana,' Chell heard herself say. 'Hi.'
'Are you okay?' Thana asked, walking over to her pod, opposite hers.
'I'm fine,' Chell replied, watching as her roommate swallowed her pill. 'So how did testing go today?'
Thana sat down on her pod and put a grape in her mouth. 'Pretty good,' she said, nodding slowly. 'Apart from this.' She zipped down part of her jumpsuit to reveal a gory mess of blood, seeping out slowly from a small hole in her chest.
'Oh God,' Chell breathed. 'Turrets?'
Thana nodded. 'It's still stinging, but not as much. They say the cutest things. Then they try to kill you.'
Chell could only agree. She hadn't encountered them very often, but knew enough to stay out of their sight.
The door opened and Flynn walked in, sparing a glance at the clock. It was nearly time to sleep.
Following closely behind him was Nelson, the fourth roommate. He was a tall, dark haired and muscular. Most of the other female test subjects often threw him loving glances, but not Thana- and certainly not Chell.
'How's everyone?' he asked, cheerfully.
'Sleepy,' Thana muttered, as she watched the hand on the clock reach the end of the orange half. Suddenly, the doors hissed shut. Now they were sealed. There was no getting out.
The lights dimmed, and the red lights on the pods activated. They would only go off once you got in them.
'Night everyone,' Flynn said, as he climbed into his.
There was an echo of 'nights' and 'goodnight' from the others as they all proceeded to get in the shell-like devices, including Chell.
She murmured her last goodnight and slid down into the pod. Her elbow slid against the glass, sending a sharp shot of pain up her arm and causing her to startle in alarm. Just as the glass began to close, she quickly ducked her head under and eased the rest of her body into the pod.
Now she was completely under, and the glass sealed itself above her. There was only one last thing to do.
Sleep.