It Takes Two
Chell followed the arrows.
It wasn't like she had many other options. Their existence itself was a fluke she could not have predicted. While she traced their whispers with caution, she was well aware there was nowhere else to turn.
In that maze of clattering pipes, they were the only guide she could hope for.
As her feet dug deeper, in the halo of the red guiding lights, she found herself wondering if the arrows were also part of the game. Maybe she was crawling to her doom, deceived by the ghost of a fake escape route. Maybe the voice was relying on its final elaborate trap.
Well, she thought, this was just what it wanted – for her to lose all motivation. She reinforced the idea in her mind. This was far from planned, and she was the one in control.
No, something greater than the voice was taking place, deep in the bowels of that lost facility. Something way off the mark. Still, somehow, the arrows had been prepared – ready to surface one day, from their shelter of walls and oily metal.
Ready for her to find. Though a good one, she couldn't shake the feeling.
And it dawned on her, in the square of a grid she would certainly have missed without the scribbles. For a brief, glorious second, she was deaf to the gurgle of the water. Her realization filled the immense space of the ceiling-less room above her head.
She was alone now, but maybe she had not always been.
The rusted catwalks on top, unreachable until a few seconds before, looked closer than ever. She smiled. She was never meant to do this on her own.
With deadly precision, she fired her portal inside the highest niche, and began her ascent.