Bring Your Daughter To Work Day
Part 1: The End
It was a bright sunny December day in 2000. The threat of the so-called millennium bug had passed. The people were happy. The world was still in order. Meanwhile, Aperture's world was just about to fall apart.
That day, was the annual Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. Every volunteer, worker and/or praying mantis man was required to bring the daughter to work and show off a science experiment of their choice and its Science Fair.
Aperture had been running this event ever since Cave died, as a salute to science and a remembrance of his passing.
The time came for the science fair. One of the many workers at Aperture waltzed up on stage and began his introductory speech. He included the usual 'thank you for coming' and 'we have a lot of young scientists here in our midst's' but what really struck the audience as odd was his appearance.
He was wearing an orange jumpsuit, with the Aperture Logo on the left side. He had a messy unshaven goatee, and hair that must not have been brushed in weeks. He spoke loud but scared. Like, he was about do something he was going to regret. Maybe it was nervousness; maybe it was just that he was a bad public speaker.
"...and although we have many of the same experiments today, I'm sure we will see many different creative sides of all these young scientists," Mr. Rattmann said as he finished his speech.
He had decided to wear his testing jumpsuit, in case he didn't make it out in time, as a kind of, final salute, to science.
He knew GLaDOS' plan, although he still didn't completely understand why it had to happen. He knew that he could die, but it would be a necessary risk to further progress science. But, he was beginning to have second thoughts. Most of these scientists had been working with Aperture since the facility burrowed its way into the salt mine, all those years ago. For whatever reason GLaDOS had, was it absolutely necessary to kill them all?
It was too late, he told himself. Even if he did back out now, he had no doubt that she would kill them all regardless.
"Please follow me as we begin the judging!"
Almost all of the experiments this year had been potato batteries. The few that were other than that, were thrown out regardless. The one that had held the most curiosity though, was young Chell Johnson's.
She had used a potato centuries old. The interesting thing was that, it was generating 1.1 volts of electricity; more than the usual 1.
Had she just incorporated a new trait to potato science?
Another talent gone to waste,Rattmann thought has he slowly stepped out of the room, and pulled the trigger to release the neurotoxin.
GLaDOS' cackle filled the room.
Her robotic voice came over the speakers; the last thing they would ever hear.
"This is payback to all you scientists who thought that I wasn't worthy; that I was just some valuable sidekick.
Goodbye, Aperture employees and offspring. It's time for a new age."
The green gas filled the room so suddenly it was surprising more than anything.
Chell's mother was running around helplessly, not knowing what to do. Chell thought, 'We're about to die, and all she does is run around aimlessly."
Chell ran through the door she saw that man run through and followed the passage. It was cold and it smelled like sewerage down here. She kept running, she could feel the gases creeping down here throat, working its way into her lungs.
The further she got, the easier it was to breathe. That's when she hit the end of the passage, and thats when she saw the man. They stared at each other for a moment. Then he dawdled towards her, like a drunken man. He grabbed her and yelled at her. She felt on the verge of tears, but she knew she couldn't cry. She had to survive. It was her only hope.
"...ruin her plan! OUR PLAN! You shouldn't be here. I'm going to get you back there."
She knew the gas had already got to him. His speech was slurred and when he went to run, he tripped and fell. Chell knew this was her only hope.
She pushed herself out of the fallen man's clutches and ran to the end of the room where a formerly hidden door was. It lay open and she knew she was lucky because the door needed a key to open, but it already been input. The door lead into a sleep chamber.
She had heard about them. There you could be asleep forever. You couldn't die. It was the perfect plan.
It would have gone perfectly too if the gas hadn't start to get to her too.
She knew she couldn't speak. Every last grain of energy was being used to get to the bed.
"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT!"
The man had risen. Now he looked like he was ready to kill. He probably would if she didn't get out of there.
The bed was a foot, 2 feet away at most. He was a room away.
She could do this. She knew she could. She climbed into the bed, and shut the cover.
It was over. In 30 seconds or so she would be fast asleep; away from this horrid place.
She could hear the man's infuriated screams. She didn't think he would survive. Then she quickly flashed to her mother. The poor girl was probably gone now. They were all probably gone now.
She wished none of this had happened.
And that was her last thought before the sleep took her.