Chell inhaled the deep smell of sun-baked grains.
A throbbing that long since reigned atop her skull started to travel downward towards her spine. She rubbed at her neck idly with her right hand, which ached from the motion.
This wrist was warmer and cleaner than most of her body. Little trapezoid marks depressed into her skin from where the edge of the now discarded portal gun once rested. The cushioned inside of the device had protected her skin from dust and injury, but the muscles that kept the device perpetually aloft burned with agony. This wrist was the place least contaminated by Aperture, Chell remarked to herself, but even it wasn't free.
The wheat field rustled in the wind.
She imagined baking a cake with all of the food that lay before her, ripe for threshing. Maybe she could find livestock, maybe get a glass of milk or a steak or some pork tenderloin. Chicken, venison, anything would do.
If experience had taught her anything, her only subsistence would be a few pancakes of her own making made from the wheat, yet that was still an improvement from starvation. Drunk with excitement, she took her first step forward.
The companion cube sat forgotten behind her. She was well prepared to leave Aperture behind.
Chell gathered up several stalks in her palms. The stems felt good to the touch, like paintbrushes ready to adorn a canvas with art. The sun beat down strongly, and the terrain crunched naturally beneath her aching feet. Her long fall boots offered less bounce than usual with each step, but that didn't matter. She was just thrilled to be away. Sweat prickled on the back of her neck.
She walked as she worked, letting each step separate her from the shed. It was like the ground simply knew and propelled itself away from her feet. When she walked, a gentle gliding sensation accompanied her. The wind was warm for a change, and she was glad to be free of the ever-present air conditioning that dried her eyes and chilled her bones.
She inhaled very deeply the earthy feel of the sunny surface.
...if this was even the surface.
Chell paused, very suddenly. The ground seemed to lurch.
She listened carefully. She didn't hear the telltale cogs and pistons of the enrichment center, but she knew better.
Aperture could produce artificial sunlight. Beyond that, it was a simple matter of pumping in dirt, air, and some plants before GLaDOS had a new type of test. And she very much loved to test.
Was this the surface?
She needed some sign that GLaDOS wasn't in command. The field seemed too neat to be human work, but the abundance of organic life wasn't her style. What was something she couldn't get that existed outside of Aperture?
Other people? Bugs? Water?
Water. That was it. Chell could dig through the dirt and find ground water. If she found it, then she was on solid, real terra firma. If not, then it was time to run a little faster.
Chell shivered, unsure of the outcome. She was simultaneously both within and free of Aperture, and would only know for sure once she turned up the soil.
Dead, and alive, until someone opened the box.
Her clean wrist hovered over the soil for a moment before both hands plunged into the dirt. She scooped out an armful, and another, and another.
Dirt all the way down.
Sweat began to pour as the ecosystem burned hotter. Invisible fire rained from the sky, toasting her skin. Still she dug: she had to know if this was Earth or Aperture.
Her nails scraped something.
Was it white tile...?
No. It was a rock. She kept digging.
Several hours and feet of dirt passed that way. Chell had yet to find more than pebbles and soil, and she still didn't trust this world. There was no adrenaline in the air, but also no ground water, or even animal bones. It was as if reality and Aperture had merged into some sort of purgatory.
No, she reminded herself. Aperture was a reality. A reality she would keep fighting, no matter what.
She burrowed deeper still. The soil was beginning to come out in clumpy chunks that stuck together. Everything seemed moist. Was that her sweat, or was it water? There was no way to tell, yet.
Chell's stomach gave its familiar growl.
The work and humidity were going to consume her if she kept this pace. Chell sat back on her heels, resting in a three foot deep crevasse of her own creation. She stood up in the thin cavern and looked at the pile of earth to her left. Some of it was sliding into the hole, gently. With the tenderness of a bulldozer, she shoved the pile away from her toil and towards the distant shed.
She looked at the sun to gauge the time. It had moved from its solar zenith to a more westward position and was just beginning to turn the azure sky into other colors.
The sun was impossible to look at, so she turned away towards her pile of stalks.
With a sigh, she grabbed the stack of stones and began to make a fire pit. The stones all fit in an interconnected ring, which she placed a few meters away from the hole in the ground. Next she grabbed the largest stone and a smaller one and set to grinding the tops of the wheat stalks to make a powder. She had no idea if that was the right thing to do, but made an educated guess anyway. The smallest stone pounded the plant into flour, while the largest acted as her anvil.
The same grinding stones also sparked her a fire using the remnants of the plants as kindling.
Unfortunately she had no water yet to mix with the flour, so her own spit had to suffice. It wasn't the first time she had gone without proper hydration, but given the oppressive heat this was probably the first time where dehydration could become a serious problem.
Her dinner was sparse, not more than some cornmeal bread-shaped thing, but it was food. Never in Aperture, except for finding radioactive potato batteries, had Chell eaten, and even of those she had only taken small bites.
She continued digging after that, scratching away at the terrain until the low light caused her to miss the soil and scratch herself. She came out of the dirt, still unsure if she was in the facility, but dead tired. She needed sleep, and if this was a test, she doubted that GLaDOS was going to interrupt it anytime soon. Besides, if she were going to try something, wouldn't she have done it while Chell was knocked cold after battling him?
Chell found a flat, cleanish spot under some discarded stalks and shut her eyes.
She was dreaming.
"I'd ask you to think outside of the box on this one, but it's clear your box is broken. And has schizophrenia."
A man was running through hallways. They looked like Aperture's, but... younger. More wholesome, less cataclysmic. Chell had something like a sideways birds eye view of a black haired, bearded scientist running.
"The scientists tried everything to make me... Behave."
Chell could hear her voice.
"They attached cores on me. One of them generated an endless stream of bad ideas. It clung to me like a tumor."
The man turned. Suddenly, there were wires dangling from his head-
"It was your voice. You're the tumor!"
He screamed; so did Chell. The man felt wires wrap around his entire body, holding him in place. Then the man vanished, his wild eyes going with him. The wires floated in place, outlining the shape of a human. Chell watched them, finding herself unable to scream again.
How had she even screamed in the first place? She couldn't remember the sound of it, now.
The wires floated towards her, pointing and angling towards her position within the wall. They extended slowly, inviting her into some tomb of metal and plastic horror. She tried to run, but her feet were rooted, and then one curious wire struck out, grabbing a hold of her wrist-!
Chell's eyes shot open.
She tried to take inventory of what was there and what was not. She felt her arms and legs, and her head and shoulders, feet and hands. Everything was where she had left it- save a slight discomfort over her right hand, the good one.
And it was cold.
"Hello, and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science Computer Aided Enrichment Center."
Chell would have sworn a torrent of insults, if she could. She found that she couldn't recall any.
"We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one."
Her eyes opened, and her nose discovered that adrenaline was keeping the air taut with danger.
"Your specimen has been processed, and we are now ready to begin the test proper."
It was the same glass room, the same toilet and pod bed combo from before all of this. A clipboard and coffee mug met her gaze on an abandoned side table. She held her head in her hands and tried to mutter a prayer. She found that she couldn't recall any.
"Before we start however, please direct your limited attention to your right wrist."
Chell never liked orders, but complied with this one out of personal desire.
A tight band laced around where her hand connected to her arm, at the thinnest area. It curved around that little bone that comes to a point, feeling cool against the skin. It was a matte silver, like stainless steel, but it reflected her somber, oddly clean face.
"This device will serve as a tracking and cognitive redirection device. It allows anyone witnessing your tests unparalleled access to information regarding your whereabouts, heart rate, blood pressure and more. It can directly release a number of chemicals into your cells and will be indispensable to you during testing. This is because you are incapable of removing it."
Chell looked at the polished fibers with a quickly mounting fear. Then hatred took over and she began to wrench at it to pry it away.
"The enrichment center offers this federally regulated warning. Don't touch it."
Chell flipped a pair of birds at the nearest camera and continued her work... until a paralyzing shock a moment later ended all stable motion.
"The enrichment center suggests you pick your pathetic rolls of fat off of the floor and begin testing."
An orange portal opened. Chell leaned dangerously against the bed, hoping to pass out.
"I've calculated the amount of electrical resistance your body possesses: that shock was roughly 46% of your maximum Ohm capacity. Your next round will be 56%. I'd consider this very generous of me, because at that constant rate increase you have more than three strikes. Use your violations sparingly. I'd suggest one each ten years, to pace yourself."
Chell gave a bloodshot stare into the camera.
Silence met her ears. When Chell felt more confident in her abilities, she yawned, stood, and stepped through the opening.
GLaDOS gave a slow clap.
"You know, I'm doing this next batch of tests off the record. Actually, that's a lie. It would be bad science not to record these results. I'm just not filing the correct legal paperwork this time. That way, this can be our little secret, and then we can speak freely. Even you. If you can even lift all of those chins."
She chuckled darkly. Chell only rubbed at her sore arms.
"I suppose you're wondering how you got here. I mean, I wouldn't trust you to piece anything together besides a sandwich. Still, you're lucky you have me to answer that question. I was honest with you- I promised to let you go. I did. You were honest to goodness on the surface of Earth."
Somehow, Chell didn't believe that. If anything, this only confirmed her suspicion. That place was fake.
"We just never settled the matter of what happened after that point. I never said I wouldn't bring you back."
Chell wanted to say something, but found her ever-present taciturnity wouldn't let her. Her tongue had too much difficulty finding the right words.
"So, I let you roam the surface for a day. You know, it was very expensive to pump in all of that fresh air for you. And the dirt. Without any gnats, or worms, or skulls. Or birds. Or potatoes."
Chell stopped listening and walked towards the first test. It was simple, easy by design. The cube went onto the button, which opened a door. Chell left through it, revealing a particle field and an elevator shaft, missing an elevator.
"The enrichment center suggests that you do not try to enter the elevator shaft. This is a friendly reminder that non compliance will result in a 56% capacity electric shock."
Chell looked for a camera. Finding one, she walked to it, looking it in the lens. The band on her wrist began to hum.
"You are still expendable, [subject name here]. This facility promises to never compromise science for revenge."
Chell absently wondered what the difference was to her, if both resulted in death.
She patiently waited for the elevator. When she entered the field, her bracelet was not removed.
Of course things couldn't be that easy.
The rest of the tests were equally simple. They were all familiar, all the same. At the second chamber she grabbed her first gun, the Singular Portal Device. It rested roughly over her left hand, and with a little difficulty, she still managed to pull the trigger as needed. The right hand hung limply, almost useless save for balance.
She slowly formed a plan. She didn't like it, but she needed it. She needed it to work, so she could do what should have already happened twice over.
GLaDOS was going to die.
Test chamber eleven. Chell could see the true portal device, supposedly worth all of the combined incomes and organs of [subject hometown here]. It was the only one with a reset button, and that was going to save her.
GLaDOS was saying something. The whole trip had been nothing but barbs to prod at imagined sensitivities. But Chell knew better. Her weight and supposed status of brith didn't matter in a fight: focus and determination did.
Chell continued through the test, knowing she'd get what she needed if she just stayed the course.
GLaDOS eagerly watched the chamber as Chell opened the blast door with the button, portalled away the high energy pellet, avoided the green goo coating the floor and finally boarded the moving platform.
It was when Chell reached the device, however, that GLaDOS's words started to have meaning.
"Good job! You've acquired the Dual portal device. Now you can make these tests take even longer. Of course, you realize this particular model has been heavily modified to prevent daring escapes."
Chell looked at the gun's seamless hull while the platform stopped mid motion.
"Protocol one: the gun is location sensitive. Leave the track and your gun is disabled, including in elevators."
Chell wasn't really surprised at that one. From her perspective it made total sense. Chell, however, had her plan, and didn't need to leave to
engage it.
"Protocol two: the gun is entirely voice activated so that tactilely disabled persons can test. It's true! Just say "fire blue" to shoot a blue portal and "I love my overseer GLaDOS" to fire an orange one."
Chell stared in fear at the gun. She gave an experimental shot with the trigger. It was stuck, and no inter-dimensional fabric in space-time appeared.
The singular portal device sat in the pedestal behind, useless and inaccessible.
"Protocol three: Upon completion of the test you will drop the device in the equipment recovery annex. There will be no cake."
Chell almost reacted, but she stopped herself. She hadn't survived in Aperture by letting her emotions show.
"Failure to adhere to these protocols will result in electrical discharge, followed by neurotoxin. Failure to speak is accepted as agreement to this contract and any future stipulations applied."
Chell tried to cough out something, anything, but was met with a painful blow through the wrist. She dropped to her knees, nearly losing the gun.
"Thank you for your cooperation."
The platform continued. Chell carried on, confused and afraid.
The next test looked different. It was simple, like the first. One portable wall next to her, another across the room, almost a football field away. Goo covered the ground, emanating a gaseous stench.
She looked at the gun.
Fire blue, she willed silently, jerking the trigger.
Two cameras on black, curved walls watched from a distance too high to leap to. She could hear the shutters adjust, even as the facility croaked around her.
She couldn't quite smell it- but neurotoxin tinged the air green enough for her to see it. A blue, digital clock, counting downwards from five minutes, appeared above her.
For once, she knew the correct words.
Aching from disuse, her vocal chords dropped like ball bearings, leaving her sounds murky.
"Fire blue."
The wall across from her lit up as the fabric of space time opened. With a pleasant THWOP the fabric cemented into a shimmering oval of closed energy. She turned her gun next towards the wall closest to her, supporting her weaker left wrist with her right one.
"Fire orange."
Nothing happened.
GLaDOS gave a slow clap.
"I'm not surprised you're unwilling to say it. After all, the enrichment center has long since promised to stop enhancing the truth."
Chell gazed away from the camera, trying to make it so that she wouldn't see her as she spoke. Damned if her pride was going to get her killed; that was just what she wanted.
Though it cost her some dignity, she uttered the lifesaving words: "I love my overseer, GLaDOS."
The orange portal opened.
Surgically, she stepped through.
"You're going to regret the time you lose on each test, in case you haven't noticed."
Chell looked at the test track. It was familiar again, but black walls replaced once portallable surfaces. She had one option, laid cleanly before her. Walk forward.
The blue clock returned, twenty seconds shorter. Chell found that she felt a little heavier, a little more lethargic than she expected herself to be.
For the sake of her plan, she hoped the other chambers weren't like this one.
Deadly neurotoxin pumped through the air while she worked. It was not stalks Chell brushed aside this time, but words. In between 'fire Blues' she whispered a hurried fire orange, praying it would somehow work.
"That's right. Fire orange," she crooned. "Fire orange. I wouldn't call that a very enhanced alternative to 'I love my overseer' but I do see the appeal. It sounds like something a Neanderthal would say."
Portals zinged through the air, followed by a steadily depleting supply of oxygen. Chell could barely think straight, and wasn't able to get any boost from the far overused adrenaline.
Chamber sixteen was different. No turrets met her as she traversed the course. The clock gave her a minute and forty seconds to live.
Upon reaching the rat den, the numbers got worse. Extra tubes slid more toxin through the ventilated wall, which was guarded by all. of. the. turrets.
There were no portallable surfaces to attack them with. The live-fire course's exit, however, was near. Chell dove through portals to reach it again, not pausing more than a second, which was probably already too much. The rat den, piece one of her plan, lay forgotten.
"Maybe making your tests this easy is cheating. Of course, I have to congratulate you. You found a variety of ways to fail anyway. Pausing to resent me, pausing to resent yourself and your fate, pausing to avoid turrets, pausing to try and fire orange. It's very cute."
Chell entered chamber seventeen.
There was no companion cube to meet her, nor did she see any visibly white walls. The door shut on its own.
The clock stopped. The green seemed to freeze in place: dark, ominous, but not growing.
Her eyelids betrayed her, sinking a little lower. Even though the gas wasn't at capacity, she still felt weak and incapable. The warm temperature in this particular room didn't help either.
"Regrettably, this test is impossible. Make no attempt to solve it."
Chell looked around for a cube or white wall, but didn't find one. There was only a camera in the top corner, by the door.
The chamber itself extended outwards, but the end of it was not visible as the mist restricted her vision to a small radius. She walked towards the end of it, looking in all directions. There was nothing, not even an exit. The ceiling was equally devoid of puzzle elements.
"I found this experimental chamber in the storage area. It was designed to test the incapacity of the weapon to fire. The facility does not apologize for this clearly broken test chamber."
Chell wracked her memory. Maybe one of these tiles was portallable, just not the right color. She remembered a few such tiles existed, and she had seen some of them during her first escape.
Portal gun in hand, she examined every wall. Most were rounded, dark, and lustrous. One panel to the front right, however, was not.
The panel below it was also portallable, but without a door, what was the goal of this chamber? She fired two portals, one on each of the surfaces. She dipped her foot into the first portal, watching it exit from the other one.
"This test really is impossible, you know. It's an exercise in futility. Just like you breathing."
Chell turned back to the other side of the wall looking for more panels. She found another one on the floor that happened to correspond with one just above.
She fired blue on the ground, leaving one orange and one blue each on the floor.
She finally had a space to unveil her plan.
She reached her right hand into the blue portal she had just made, looking at the other portal in mock confusion. The camera rotated its shutter, getting a better view.
She gently tipped the operational end of the portal device upward, using her knee to balance it. Only a cursory glance showed her where the ceiling was, and that her aim was on target.
Chell focused her gaze on the wristband erupting from the floor across the room.
She willed the gun to fire blue, but without the requisite words, nothing happened.
"Fire blue."
The portal beneath her began to shrink, and it tried to push her appendage out of the opening, but she pushed her arm forward fast, quicker than she could process, and the hand-
THWOP-SCHHHHHK.
A severed chunk fell from the ceiling as she screamed. The wound had not cauterized as she had hoped, but the metal band was gone.
GLaDOS said something, but whatever it was didn't matter.
The hand fell a few feet behind her, literally aglow with color and electric power.
The green gas in the room grew thicker, gradually.
Chell ran to the door like a mouse cornered, and she scraped with one hand at the seam between the metal. She almost used her bloody stump, but recalled that it wouldn't help open the gate.
She had less than a minute to live, she was aching, losing blood, she was screeching a torrent of obscenities, there was nothing to do. Nowhere to run.
Chell didn't stop scratching at that door until she had to. At least, she had made a stand.
Game over.
A/N
The dog in the igloo scratches its neck. You are still amazed that it can write and speak. It sits bundled in clothing. You realize that there is some snow on your face, so you brush it off and sit upright. You must have dozed off in the snuggly room.
"Do you write happy stories?"
"No, no," the dog said, "sometimes I write dark ones. Those are kind of fun. Don't read into them too much, though."
You nod. Clearly this dog has everything it can want in life: food, snuggles, goals. You might even need to take a page out of his book.
"Oh, and, if this one leaves a sour taste in your mouth," he said out loud, "Sorry, its from 2015. Very old. Very unpolished. I just felt like posting it for the dialogue,"
You totally misunderstand the dog's meaning. You still haven't found out what is outside the igloo! But the blankets are warm... you'll look outside some other time.