Doug didn't get very far before the rain turned into a thunderstorm. He tried to press on, but as the sky grew darker he felt more uncomfortable and felt that there were creatures stalking him in the waist-high wheat. They were hunting him, waiting for him to let his guard down. This wouldn't have troubled him nearly as much if he hadn't already been exhausted. He seriously needed some sleep if he was going to continue on this journey.

"I can't stop here, though," he whispered to himself. "Whatever is in the wheat will get me."

He looked ahead of him and estimated that there was at least another mile of wheat to walk through. It was hard to tell, though, with such little light. The moon was struggling against the clouds to lend him a helpful glow. As he squinted into the darkness, lightning streaked across the sky and he could have sworn that he'd seen tall figures around him. They had long limbs and sickles for fingers that glinted in the flash of light. Doug immediately ducked down before any of them could spot him.

"This can't be happening," he whispered hysterically. "Th-They're looking for me. I just know they are. Oh god. What should I do? C-Companion Cube, I need you right now! How do I find you? I-I should have stayed in Aperture! This was a huge mistake! Why did I think I could do this?!"

He curled up in a fetal position and shivered in a shallow puddle. He could hear the tall monsters moaning as they looked for him. But even as he covered himself with his lab coat in fear that the monsters might see him, his eyelids grew heavy and began to droop. He fought against the drowsiness, terrified of what the hunters might do once they found him.

"Th-They might not even be real," he assured himself quietly. "They could be a hallucination. A-Actually, I bet they are. And I need some sleep. Maybe if I only rest my eyes. Just to refresh my mind."

He closed his eyes and almost instantly fell asleep.

Doug got a surprising amount of sleep despite the storm. It didn't make him feel much better, though. He was famished and could only think about how much he really wanted some wheat toast.

"How ironic it would be to starve to death in a wheat field," he mumbled with a smirk.

He stretched and wiped a bit of mud off of his face. The whole right side of his body was soaked in mud from sleeping on the ground. Without the pattering of the rain and the booming thunder, it was eerily quiet out. The sky was slowly clearing itself of clouds, and the moon was able to light the wheat field more. The monsters seemed to have gone with the storm. If everything wasn't drenched, Doug might have wondered if he had just imagined the whole storm.

"I might as well keep walking," he said. "I still don't feel safe sleeping outside in the dark."

As he continued on his journey, he was surprised to find himself longing for Aperture. He looked back and could barely see the building in the distance. Despite all the unpleasant memories that were associated with that place, he still felt reluctant about leaving. It wasn't just because Nora was still back there. He missed the dim lights that had beamed into his dens. He missed the humming of machinery. Hell, maybe he even missed Wheatley a little. But what he found himself missing most of all were the enclosed spaces. The open sky and seemingly endless field made him very uneasy. He wondered if Chell had felt the same way when she had left behind Aperture.

"No, she was probably ecstatic to get out of the facility," Doug mumbled, smiling. "I wonder where she ended up. She probably established a new life in a nearby town. At least she has a chance at leading an ordinary life now."

There was a sudden sound of something fluttering over his head and he ducked down defensively. He still didn't like birds after one had attacked his head in Aperture. He was very wary of anything in the sky as he continued forward.

It was only an hour until the sun came up. He felt better about having more light, but the sun shined right in his eyes. Nevertheless, he relished the warmth on his face. The closest kind of warmth he had gotten to this in Aperture was standing over a furnace receptacle. He hadn't felt so free in years. He hadn't even felt free in college. There had always been so much stress over homework and papers and budgeting his money as he worked a part-time job as a computer technician's secretary—not to mention his schizophrenia just beginning to bloom. Then he'd started working at Aperture, and he'd felt no relief from being done with school. He'd felt trapped as an employee before he was literally trapped there.

He suddenly tripped over something that was half-buried in the mud. He caught himself before he fell, and looked down at the object. It appeared to be a coffee mug with its handle sticking straight up. He pulled it out of the ground and brushed the mud off of it. It had a band of black around it and a red heart on either side.

"It's about time you found me!" the Companion Cube said. "Would you mind dumping the mud out of me?"

"Sorry," Doug said. He used his hand to scoop the mud out of his friend. The mud was so damp and cold, but he found that he couldn't stop smiling. "You always have to have hearts, don't you?"

"It's just my thing," the Companion Cube said. "You know you love it."

"I suppose I ought to call you the Companion Cup now, huh?"

"Ha-ha. Very clever."

"I missed you," Doug said quietly.

"I missed you, too," the Companion Cup said. "Now look alive. There's a truck approaching."

"What? Where?"

"Just turn your head a bit to your left."

Doug obeyed and saw an old, rusty pick-up truck driving south down the road that was just a few yards in front of him. It started to slow down as the driver noticed him.