Dying was never easy in Aperture.
It was a slow thing, a fickle thing. Doug had witnessed it more times than he would have liked. It was easy enough to get killed here—a falling cube, a hidden turret—one wrong move could mean the end of you. Usually quick and painless and before the person even realized they'd made a mistake.
A leg splashed with toxic goo. A high-energy pellet grazing the body. A stray bullet. Starvation. Not all deaths were easy—some were slow. Painful. Agonizing.
To be honest, Doug was surprised he'd survived so long. Every day, he expected a slip-up—but his companion cube had been instrumental to his survival. Always there, always giving him the best advice—things Doug knew within his heart, and yet never acknowledged until the cube pointed it out, plain and simple.
And things changed the day Doug found Chell. After that, he'd tried especially hard to stay alive—she was the reason for his survival, after all.
Overgrowth reigned Aperture. Nature rebelled as GLaDOS tried to restore her facility. Vines clung to panels. Rain dripped from the ceiling, etching out dips in the floor. Rust crept across metal, eating away at the structures. But it was with nature, with this chaos that Doug was able to find Chell.
She was testing, of course; he had known what her fate would be the moment he patched her into the reserve grid. Could it be a fate worse than death? Sometimes he wondered.
He sat on a ledge, hugging his knees against his chest. Gaps beneath his feet provided a perfect view into a test chamber—one of the ones on Chell's current testing track. Still, he heeded his companion cube's advice and stayed away from the edges. Besides getting within view of a security camera, he also didn't want to risk the fall. Unlike Chell, he had no long-fall boots.
There she is. The cube's voice was soft, gentle. A whisper.
Doug placed a hand over his mouth, barely daring to breathe. An orange and white blur darted into the test, pausing before attacking the test with an unmatched frenzy. Thhhwoppp, portal. Chell darted around the corner, taking out a line of turrets. He heard their synthetic pleas and yells as they exploded.
For a turret, death took but a moment.
You're right. She could save us. Doug leaned over, giving a pained smile as he patted the cube.
Clattering from below. The man jerked away, edging toward the hole in the ceiling. He braced his hands against the edge, sucking in a breath.
Chell stood on a heap of uneven panels, staggering as she bent around the corner. More turrets. He watched her hesitate, holding the portal device close to her chest before twisting around and shooting a portal beneath the three legs of a turret. Thwopp. It caught; more autotuned screams. Her shoulders relaxed.
Doug wiped a hand on his grungy coat, giving a sigh of relief. She was okay. He didn't look away as she took a step down, taking a moment to lean against the wall and wipe the sweat from her forehead.
Another loud clatter. Chell jumped, edging away from the wall. A few squares away, a panel crumbled, dissolving and disappearing into the bottomless pit beneath the chamber. Then another. And another. Just as quickly, fresh panels replaced the gaps in the floor.
"Stay right there," said GLaDOS. "These panels are unstable. Just let me replace them."
The lady pressed herself against the wall. As the holes grew dangerously close, she decided to ignore the computer's advice. She threw a portal across the room and darted through one behind her, walking onto the parts of the floor GLaDOS had yet to replace.
She took another few cautious steps forward—
—and the ground crumbled beneath her.
Metal clattered; the facility groaned. Doug inhaled sharply, chest tightening. He couldn't breathe. He almost fell from his perch near the edge as he darted forward, searching the spot Chell had disappeared from. A cloud of dust rose..
"No!" the central core yelled. "I told you to stay right there!"
Doug was fixated on the same spot, ready to leap down into the chamber and risk breaking his legs to help her.
His companion cube, silent until then, spoke up.. Stop. You can't overreact. If you make a noise, she'll know we're here. We'd be dead.
A pause, then the cube spoke again.
I think she's still alive.
Doug blinked twice, not daring to believe it. As the dust cleared, he leaned forward as far as he could, hands clasped around the metal framework. His heart caught as a glimpse of orange came into view.
There. She's caught beneath the chamber, his cube said. Doug's heart soared.
"We've got to get to her," he said. "She needs our help." He swung the cube over his shoulder and leaped from his alcove—though not into the test. Beneath him stretched a small network of catwalks that extended around the exterior of the test chamber. But Doug was unsure if one would lead to beneath the chamber.
We'll find a way.
Doug nodded, swinging his legs over a bar. He wound his way down, jumping onto the catwalk and sprinting until he spotted her. Through a thick grate, a splotch of white and orange.
"Chell!" he said, throwing his shoulder against the crisscrossed metal. Though it, he saw a small platform—the remains an office ceiling. The grate rattled, not budging.
Her chest rose and fell, but her eyes were closed and her face clenched in pain. Spots of red dotted her body. Doug pressed his face against the grate. "Chell?" he said, voice a whisper. She opened her eyes, blinking twice before clutching at her side. She grimaced, a silent sob shaking through her.
Her portal gun was gone, disappeared into the endless pit. Debris and shrapnel filled the ledge, all leftovers from the decrepit state of the facility.
She's hurt badly, his cube whispered.. Doug nodded, sliding it off his shoulder. Banging his companion cube against the grate wouldn't help either—only an explosion could knock it off its hinges. Be careful, Doug, his cube said. Don't let her know we're here.
"Listen, Chell," he said, swallowing. "I'm going to get you out of there, okay?" he said, but the lady barely responded. She blinked again, eyes unfocused.
"I've got to find another way in," he told the cube.
The holes in the test chamber are the only way in. And we already jumped down from the ceiling. Doug twisted, running a hand through his hair. He gave a sharp exhale before running the catwalks, trying to find another way to the girl.
There's no other way in.
His cube was right. There was no way in. The man circled back to the grate, his panic skyrocketing. Chell still lay on he cracked panels and metal, struggling to prop herself up. Her arms trembled and gave out. She collapsed back onto the debris.
Doug Rattmann had never felt as helpless in his life as he did at that moment.
"I'm here," he said, choking it out. "I've been here." Chell strained to meet his eyes, her breaths shallow. She gave him a pained look; she gave him a searching look—trying to place the man, trying to figure out how HE—a person, and not a robot—could even be here. As if she couldn't believe he was there.
"I…" he said, swallowing. He pulled at his hair. "I can get you help."'
She shook her head, closing her eyes again. Stranded beneath a test and severely injured, her chances of survival were slim—especially without the portal device.
"No! There's got to be a way!" he said, voice cracking. He pulled his cube closer. He couldn't get over there and she could not leave. But what about..? He cut himself off, not wanting the cube to guess his thoughts. He tightened his hand around one of the straps and took off down the catwalk, clanking along until he found what he had been looking for—a bright red security camera.
What are you doing?his cube gasped. Get out of there.
Doug ignored his companion, instead clearing his throat. "She needs your help," he said, though not making eye contact with the camera. "She's going to die down there if you don't help her."
The camera swiveled. Though a wall speaker, the central core's voice crinkled through. Surprisingly enough, she mentioned nothing about Doug—no snarky comments about how vulnerable he'd made himself— how risky of a move he'd made. But this was not the time for that.
"There is nothing I can do for her," she said, voice flat.
"You run this facility. And you're going to let her die?" Doug clenched his fists. A pause. "For what? Science?"
A pop from the speaker. GLaDOS reconnected.
"I have NO control beyond the testing tracks," she said, voice almost a growl. "This is not my choice. That spot beneath her is untouchable because some employee somewhere decided to disconnect me from all administrative areas."
A pause.
"There is nothing I can do."
Doug sagged in defeat, wiping at his eyes. She was stranded and she was hurt, and yet she would not die for a long time yet.
He made his way back down the catwalks, back to the grate, and back to Chell.
He pressed his face against the cold metal bars.
"I'll stay with you," he said, sniffing. He would stay with her until the end, however long that might take.
And Chell sagged, turning to look at him with a look of such longing, of such utter defeat that Doug's heart shattered.
Dying in Aperture was never easy.
A/N: This is based on an ask to askthelabratt on tumblr that I just started to write for.
"Assuming Chell dies in testing (hypothetically) what would you have done?"