"Wake up Chell" A soothing voice sounds in your head. "Wake up now" Blurred images of a woman's smiling face and flash before your lidded eyes. Her voice was calm and smooth. "It's time to get up now" The woman's smile morphs into a distorted grimace, terror runs through you as her voice begins screaming. "Now Chell! Get up NOW!" She roars. Then, as quickly as the face appeared it fades into a blinding white light…
Chell slowly floated into consciousness, blinking away the strange dream of a beautiful woman. Harsh light flooded through her long lashes and she blinked repeatedly to clear her vision.
"Good morning [Test Subject name here] it's time for testing" A robotic voice informed her.
Testing?
"Records indicate that you have been in the relaxation chamber for 99999999[corrupted]."
Running her hands over herself Chell discovered she was clad in an orange jumpsuit with "Aperture" emblazoned on it. Am I in prison?
"Data shows that test subjects who have been in suspended animation for a time exceeding three months may suffer from brain damage-." The robotic voice continued on, but Chell ignored it and began stretching. Just how long had she been out for? Rubbing the crust out of her eyes she sat up stretched, and took in her surroundings. Plain white walls, white carpeted floor, white ceiling and no door.
Damn it.
Correction, three of the four walls in her small room were white, the fourth looked like it had been ripped away by some unknown force. Getting up to examine the wall proved more than difficult. Having not moved her legs in apparently quite a while, Chell was happy to learn that they had not atrophied but were just a little shaky and weak. Weather that was from her 'extended relaxation period' or lack of food Chell couldn't be citrine. But hey, at least they worked. Leaning heavily on the wall for support, Chell made her way over to where the fourth wall used to be. Inching closer to the opening Chell peered out into the vast emptiness just in time to be buffeted by a strong gust of warm wind. Squinting her eyes she could just barely make out some kind of structures in the distance. Other than those very distant structures, there was nothing. Nothing below her or above her.
Well, this is clearly not the way out. Sighing, she lowered herself to the ground and began to toss some rubble out into the abyss. Something about this room, she couldn't say what exactly, irked her. She wanted to leave it as soon as possible. As Chell reached behind her to grab more rubble, she felt her fingers land in something sticky, and promptly retracted her hand. Orange…paint? She rubbed her fingers together. Strange. Looking to the spot where her hand had been she saw that it was orange paint in the shape or an arrow, leading under the bed. Chell crawled over to the bed and began to lift it away. Tearing off the mattress and pillows, Chell was left with a metal frame. It was surprisingly light considering it looked to be made out of steel and Chell moved it out of the way with little trouble. The carpeted floor gave way to a gaping hole, twice the size of Chell and indiscernible length. Chell gulped. There were more orange arrows leading to the hole and in fact, the entire hole was outlined in sticky orange paint. This had to be the way out. But she was hesitant to use it. The only thing that irked her more than the sterile room was the dark hole that led to God knows where. Chell feverously looked about the room, checking for anything she missed and spotted a vent with a blue arrow above it. Moving as quickly as she could, Chell clamored over and just about ripped the hinges off the vent plate in her rush. Perhaps this would be another way out, one that didn't involve dark holes and orange paint…But no, all she found in the vent was a pair of strange boots, (white predictably) and an even stranger "gun". Turning over the gun in her hand she noticed a small scrap of paper attached to one of the prongs on the end of it. Written in a strange mix of languages (Chell wasn't sure how she knew them, but she did) it took Chell a few minutes before she was able to decipher the message.
"Long fall boots to help ground you, portal gun to help you fly.
Follow the orange to the Queen, help will find you there"
Just what the hell did that mean? She sighed inwardly. Despite the confusing message, Chell figured it was her best bet out of the room. Even if it meant jumping into a dark hole of questionable depth. She shivered at the thought. Still, she rationalized it was better than staying her and starving to death.
Following the printed instructions on the back of the paper, she managed to get the "long fall boots" on after a few tries. They were a bit awkward to walk around in, but Chell figured she'd get used to it. Now came the "portal gun". It was bulky and heavier then it looked. Chell wasn't quite sure what to do with it now that it was strapped securely to her arm. She tapped her fingers on the metal trigger, but didn't pull it. This whole situation seemed oddly familiar. Shrugging off the prickly sensation on the back of her neck she walked shakily to the edge of the outlined hole. Chell peered down into the darkness, searching for a light or any indication of an ending. Nope. Not a one.
She gulped thickly, looked up at the ceiling and prayed for divine intervention. She waited. Nothing happened. Chell blew out a breath of air that ruffled her bangs. Great. Stealing her nerves and squaring her shoulders, Chell sent up a silent prayer to whoever was watching and took the plunge into the darkness.
She was going to die. There was no way she could survive this fall. Chell was going to die smooshed flat, like a pancake at the end of this tube. That is, if this tube even had an ending.
Chell wasn't sure of a lot of things at this point; like how long she had been falling, where she was going, why she decided to jump. You know things like that. One thing she was sure of however was, she was still falling and she was falling fast. She was not in limbo, which was good. Chell was able to catch glimpses of lights and markers on the pipes that lined the walls.
Chell glanced down below her and spotted a pinprick of white light. Elation with an ample dose of fear flooded through her veins. The end was near! Minutes passed (or was it hours?) and Chell could see the light at the end of the tunnel clearly now. The end (perhaps her end) was rapidly approaching and Chell braced herself. The tunnel narrowed drastically. So much so, that instead of floating somewhere in the middle, Chell was sliding along a smooth metal pipe now. If she could scream, she would have. But as it was, Chell kept her silence as the smooth pipe tilted upward and rocketed her in to the light.
She flew through the air and fell back down again, landing heavily on her back with a splash. She gasped and sputtered, some of the murky water she landed in invading her lungs. Chell lay there in the shallow water trying to catch her breath for a good minute, her grey blue eyes glancing around the cavernous room all the while. Huge black cables, grey pipes and copper wires ran from the beneath the water to the ceiling. Water dripped and echoed off them creating an eerie echo.
Chell gulped in a breath of air and slowly sat up, taking in more of her surroundings. She glanced behind her and saw the tube she flew out of moments before. Something on the ceiling caught Chell's eye, she looked up. An orange 'x', the same orange she had seen in the first room, was painted directly above her. On the white panel below her, the same 'x' was painted. This was planned! Chell gripped her portal gun tighter.
Light reflected off the giant white construct in the distance and bathed the room in a dim light. Chell squinted; maybe there was someone over there that could help her. Hope flooded through her veins. Chell stood to her full height with renewed vigor and began to wade through the ankle deep water towards the construct.
Time passed in the strange twilight, how long? Chell couldn't be sure, but at least she was almost to the….white thing. She wasn't sure what to call it. Chassis? Upside down tower? It seemed that the grime that coated the rest of the chamber didn't effect it. Brilliantly white it loomed above her connected to the ceiling, silent and still. Chell circled the thing, looking for any clues that another human had been here, finding none. She plopped down, defeated and tired onto the platform below the chassis. Chell closed her eyes and allowed her thoughts to wander far away from the dank chamber.
So wrapped up in her thoughts she was, that Chell didn't notice the thing creeping down from the top of the chamber. Grotesque in its construction the thing resembled a brainless monkey made of white and black metal. It's singular red eye switched off and on a few times, signaling the others that it had found an intruder. Seconds later, more red eyes lit up from between the cables and below the pipes. Quietly they began to move closer to the intruder. The thing on the chassis silently crawled down and stopped a foot away from Chell's head. It stretched out its rusted clawed talons almost brushing the intruder's neck…
When suddenly it's light died and screeched, startling Chell out of her thoughts. Chell whirled around, her eyes wide with fear. Unbalanced, the thing tumbled to the ground and writhed there. All around her, similar sounds echoed off the walls. Chell lifted her portal gun and aimed it at the darkness. Her finger on the trigger, she was about to fire off a portal when a voice sounded above the screeching.
"-Oh. It's you." The lyrical voice addressed Chell "It's been a long time."