A Body In Motion
An acidic mist hovered over the moat.
A shot fired, leaving behind an ethereal blue portal resting on a whitened panel.
Chell's eyes carefully scanned the room, taking in every minute detail of the layout within it. Her mind worked steadily as she ran through each phase of her plan; she had to think everything through, no matter how much it taxed her brain, before she dared to go through the portals herself. She'd had one too many close calls already, and she wasn't going to risk her life any more than she had to.
She knew too well that every step could be her last.
She was backing up to get a better view of the chamber area when it happened. The sudden sickening presence of gravity dragged her foot down, and she was barely able to register the fact that she was falling off the side of the floor...and into the moat.
Her left hand reacted faster than her mind could, grabbing hold of the side of the drop. She clung there a moment for dear life, her fingers whitening painfully with the strain. Heart beating wildly in her chest, breaths becoming shallower and shallower, she managed to get her right elbow back onto the floor's surface. Her ears picked up a slight clank as her portal gun's smooth surface hit the paneled area. She made sure not to look directly at its fluorescent mouth.
Slowly, painfully, she hauled herself back onto the test chamber's floor. She rolled onto her back instinctively and lay there awhile, breathing heavily. She blinked at the bright white lights above her, but all she could see was the greenish-brown of the toxin. She couldn't get its stench out of her nose. She couldn't stop tasting the mist that had tried to infiltrate her lungs, as if she was still dangling above its sickly presence.
She wasn't entirely sure how long she lay there, but finally she found herself struggling to her feet. Shaking from the exhaustion of constant testing and the horror of her near-death experience, she raised a trembling arm and repositioned her portals. This time, she knew exactly where to place them. She didn't have to think it through. She disappeared through one and flew out the other, trying to hold onto the tingling feeling that always rejuvenated her a little.
She wound up in...the room.
What was left of the previously broken window hung on the wall behind her, its overall appearance jagged and unnerving. She took a careful step forward, her longfall boots crunching on some fragmented shards of leftover glass. The sound echoed in the eerie, empty space and made her jump a little. Her hand flew up to her forehead, rubbing at the lines of stress that told more about her than words ever could. Taking a moment to breathe deeply and focus on dispelling the shivers from her body, she glanced over her shoulder one last time and made her way further into the room. She'd already examined the room and its contents before now - unfortunately finding no leftover food to replenish herself - and she knew for a fact that no one was here.
But someone had been.
So where were they now?
Her fingers brushed softly over the wall, feeling a few crumbs of loose plaster tumble off its surface. She took in the mural again, wondering what it could mean. She could make out most of the figures presented, but not all of the words sketched haphazardly in between; the phrases were mostly garbled together and didn't seem to make any real sense.
She could only imagine who had painted these murals. As far as she could tell, they had been made by someone hiding from GLaDOS, someone ducking around behind the scenes. Someone desperate.
Someone not entirely unlike her.
Despite her stubbornness, she couldn't deny the exhaustion that tugged at her limbs whenever she slowed down for too long. The only voices she ever heard besides GLaDOS's belonged to the sleek death machines that tried to shoot her whenever she was in sight. The humming of lasers rarely left her ears. Her eyes were too used to processing and fearing the color red. And now...she'd nearly drowned in toxic liquid.
An essentially omnipotent computer had tried to kill her in the past and had nearly succeeded. Now GLaDOS wanted her dead even more.
And Chell was starting to wonder if she had the strength to deal with the AI again.
The woman sat down on the hard floor, the jumpsuit around her waist flowing out orange and soft over the dark flooring. Her portal gun rested in her lap - a cool reminder of the lab she was in, but surprisingly comforting. Her eyes caught faint, warm light glinting on the surface of the paint as she studied the artwork in front of her. She lifted a careful hand, watching as the shadow of it floated on top of the colors.
She felt the shaking come back to her limbs, and she fought to control herself. Her hand dropped and she focused on breathing deeply, closing her eyes and willing her jumpy nerves to calm down. But it was hard to think of anything calming lately.
The trauma was starting to catch up to her, now that she'd remained still for so long. She knew she had to get back out there and keep testing, keep fighting. It was the only way she'd keep herself sane - or conscious. But her muscles complained angrily against her, her body not willing to get up from its restful sitting position. Exhaustion, both mental and physical, mixed together potently with shock, and she felt her eyelids starting to droop.
She couldn't stop herself from falling, softly, onto her side. She couldn't prevent her breaths getting slower, longer, deeper. And whether she was dying or merely spinning away from the world for a while, she couldn't help but feel grim determination. So be it. If she was going to lose consciousness, at least it was happening where GLaDOS would have a hard time finding her - if she would ever be found at all.
At least she had found a little home, brief as it was, of her own.
OoOoO
She only realized she was still alive when she noticed her eyes opening on their own.
Slowly, cautiously, she sat up, feeling free to stretch out her tense muscles once she knew no one was there with her. After a few moments, her eyes turned of their own accord toward the mural once more. What was it about this hidden artwork that drew her to it? Ever since she'd found the first mysterious, hidden area, she'd kept a careful eye out for others. She could still remember her shock when she first realized she might not actually be alone, as well as her despair at never seeing another soul - besides the twisted one that was trapped in the casings of a computer. While she still looked - sometimes feverishly - for whoever had hidden in the background of Aperture, she didn't really expect to find them. Something told her that they were to be heard and not seen. Hence, the murals.
She only wished she knew what they meant.
For the most part she could understand the meaning behind the phrase "smooth jazz" in this mural; that was relatively clear enough. But in ages past she'd found grotesque, nonsensical pictures - even companion cubes plastered onto human faces. She simply didn't understand. She wished...
Suddenly, it hit her.
In one smooth motion she was up again, tucking a rebellious strand of hair behind her ear subconsciously as she searched the room one more time.
She came back moments later, sitting in front of the mural not unlike a wondering child. Her eyes returned from the painting to the shard of glass held carefully in her hand, and slowly she moved.
She didn't know how long she stayed there. The lighting was constant, and there was no day or night in Aperture.
Time had no meaning here.
Plaster crumbled and fell to the ground like grains of salt. Light went through her piece of glass and came out kaleidoscopic on the other side, a small rainbow of hues reflecting off a pristine background. She paused a moment, silently absorbing the pallet of colors, before she continued.
She could have been there for a minute or a century before she pulled away from her work. After careful eyes traced over each mark she'd carved into the now uneven surface, she flung the shard of glass out into the moat.
Whoever had made these murals had survived. She didn't know if they were still living, or if they were better off dead, but they had managed to escape GLaDOS at some point. Just as she had. And they had left their mark, to let others know they had made it - to shed a ray of fragile, but powerful, hope in this desperate place.
Maybe, just maybe...someone would see she had been here, too.
On the wall read the words, "Faith in the struggle."
Finé!
I hope you all really enjoyed this piece! This is my first Portal fan fiction and it was beta-ed by iammemyself, an amazing Portal author you should go check out... right after you leave a review. ;)
Note: for those who are wondering, the test chamber featured is the one with the Advanced Aerial Faith Plates. :)