Chell wiped the sweat from her patient's head. A young boy about 6, named Tomas. Tomas had been very sick lately and was sent to Chell's hospital right after he started coughing up blood. The thin boy groaned and moaned in pain. "...water.." he begged weakly.

Chell brought the pitcher to his lips. He drank at a steady pace and closed his eyes. His dark skin shone with persperation again, his water supply replenished.

Chell furrowed her brow. She wasn't losing this one. Too many children had died in this settlement. GoldenBrook was a small settlement about 350 miles away from the Emerald City. Chell knew what the Emerald city was referencing but nobody else remembered the ancient movie about a girl who wasn't in Kansas anymore. Chell realized she was very similar to Dorothy. They both had a hard life, they both had had to face a great evil, and both had made friends on the way. Both had escaped to freedom.

The year was 3106 about a thousand years after she had gone into relaxation. She had been there in the 1970s. The 1970s. It was so long ago, Chell at least had the comfort of knowing what happened to her adoptive parents. One tried to kill her, the other was dead because of his damned determination.

Chell unbuttoned the boy's shirt.

"Come now Tomas, you can do it." She said, her Hawaiian accent thick but understood by the boy.

"No, no, no miss Kameāloha, I think I'm gonna die like Lilly did. Maybe I'll see her where I go." The boy said, remembering his little sister. His country accent was thick.

"No, you're too young. It's not your time, Tomas. Your mommy would be very sad if you left her." Chell said.

Tomas looked to her. "Mommy? I love mommy." His voice became weak. He was slipping.

Chell was NOT going to lose this one! She had lost so many children. So many had died in her arms. She couldn't take it. She did something that was against the rules. She pulled out a flower she grew. She put a few leaves in his mouth. He insinctively chewed. Life returned to him. The fast acting cure in the plant began demolishing the virus.

Genetically engineered herbs worked wonders. Especially when you knew what you were doing. Chell smiled as the boy's immune system became godlike. Defeating the virus almost immediately.

He sat up and turned his hands over and flexed his fingers. "Miss Kameāloha...wh- what did you-"

Chell put a finger to her lips. "It's a secret plant. It makes the sickness go away."

The boy began to cry tears of joy. He hugged his doctor with all his might. "Thank you! Thank you!"

Chell smiled and returned the gesture. Chell's kindness was well known, she'd earned employee of the month every month since she had began working there, everyone in GoldenBrook knew her, Chell was an accepted part of the community.

In a world where civilization was barely taking hold again, it didn't matter if you had a degree in medicine or not. A year as a doctor's apprentice and you'd be put out in the field.

She had everything she had ever wanted. Friends, a job, a home, and she wasn't stuck doing tests for her dead mother! It was beautiful, and perfect in so many ways.

The hospital kept Tomas for two more days, before the boy was reunited with his mother. Chell knew she'd never see him in sick bay again. He'd likely never get sick until the day he died. The herb was powerful, yes, but if it was overused, superviruses would evolve. Then humanity would be done for. They didn't need a redo of the Combine's devestation. The herb was to be used sparingly. A responsibility she was proud to have.

Chell was currently in the employee locker room. She was just released from work, it was time to go home.

Chell hung up her hat, put away her data pad, and closed her locker. She slung her pack over her shoulder and walked out of the locker room, then the hospital altogether.

People she passed on the street waved and smiled as she passed. She saw Tomas with his mother. They were celebrating with fried mochi. The salesman smiling at them, and saying they could have it for free.

Chell smiled. Earth had changed so much in a thousand years. Crime was unheard of, and the people were kind. America had fallen centuries ago, and now they were in a country known simply as Atarashīki bō. Which was Japanese for "New hope".

Japan had been hit with a series of earthquakes that took 5 years to sink Japan under the waves. America had already fallen, and so the people living in the dead country invited the Japanese to live in this new world. That is where the name came from.

America's fall was mainly due to the eruption of Yellowstone's super volcano that buried half the continent in ash. It happened during the reconstruction after the Combine invasion.Thankfully most were evacuated, but many lives were lost. Many species went extinct. But life was beginning to take hold again. Earth was like that. Strong. Reliable. Like the people.

Chell continued down the street, walking to her horse. Pure horses were only seen in the wild. All horses used by humanity were genetically modified to be bigger, faster, and... oddly enough multicolored. The more colors your horse had the more expensive it was. Chell recalled seeing a rich merchant riding a ginger orange horse with a blonde mane a while ago. Cars were rarely used, as they were harmful to the environment. Cars were only used for long distance trips.

"Hey, Frankie." Chell said patting her horse's head. His full name was "Frank Sinatra" after the famous singer. She had lived for his music before Aperture's "GLaDOS" project fluked.

Many might wonder what it was like to know your adoptive dead mother's consciousness is stuck in a homicidal AI miles underground, in the middle of a field of wheat, all alone until the end of time. But to be honest, Chell didn't mind. She was used to her life being hard.

Frank nuzzled his owner, licking her hand in a greeting. Chell patted him and boarded the powerful horse. It shook it's head and began trotting down the street. The buildings were a mix between Japanese and American styles, oddly beautiful. Sakura trees lined the streets as families went about their daily business.

Chell and her horse walked out of town, and kept walking. They walked till they hit the forest, and then by the edge of the very same field she had left all those years ago, to her home.

Chell's house was a 2 story house that she had commissioned a local architect to build. Far away from civilization, quiet, and perfect for illegal testing. Chell slid off her horses taking the bit out of its mouth. She knew it was painful to wear. She brought the horse to his patch of the large yard and let him graze. Nothing would attack him. They knew better.

Chell walked into her home and set her bags down. She took out her hair band and let her long black hair fall to her shoulders. She stretched out. She needed a little relaxation. She winced at the word as the relaxation chambers came to mind instead of a warm blanket and some movies.

Chell went into the kitchen and warmed up some deer meat steaks. Then she went into her living room and began doing what she did best. Tinkering. She made little robots that would run around or fly in circles. Toys basically. She'd give the old ones to little kids.

Caroline when she had the time, used to show Chell all about robots. All their components how to make an impossible machine (a.k.a the personality cores) work. How to focus without any distraction even in the most crazy of situations.

Chell missed her mother occasionally. But at least she could CALL her mother.

GLaDOS and Chell had begun talking through Chell's companion cube. The companion cube apparently had a built in two way radio. At first their conversations were short, Awkward, and tense.

It's hard to trust the person who has tried to kill you more than once. But they bonded through a shared feeling. Hatred. For a particular moron. They'd sometimes make jokes about Wheatley and how stupid he was and it made them laugh. Laughter really was the best medicine, as it seemingly healed all the wounds they both had inflicted upon eachother.

The talks soon drifted away from talks of their least favorite person, to science. GLaDOS was pleasantly suprised to find Chell was actually highly intelligent. She could sometimes see things that GLaDOS had missed, without making GLaDOS feel annoyed or inferior.

A daughter and her giant robot mother bonding. Touching, and a little weird. But what was life without a little weirdness? And besides, It was a way to pass the time.

Chell tinkered with her robots for a few minutes before her phone rang. And only one person had her number. Chell smiled picking up the phone.

"Hey!"

Space core watched Wheatley sleep. It may have been creepy but he hadn't much else to do. Soundless as ever, space was nothing more than a prison. If it weren't for space core's vast intellect he surely would have gone just as crazy as Wheatley had.

Space core mentally sighed, while out loud he still screamed about space though nobody was listening. Space core was beyond irritated with his current position. He rotated his body towards the moon. It glowed with an aura of a celestial god. He looked over the area tiredly.

What he saw made him scream for joy. A small rock, about the size of a golf ball was moving through space at a leisurely speed. Due to the position of it he could avoid it, but he had other ideas.

He immediately calculated how much damage he would sustain if it hit him. A mere 3% damage. He could afford that. He turned his body so that the area where his two cords were jumbled was facing it. If it hit them it would take only a few seconds for him to forget what he was doing. If he forgot what he was doing...

The meteoroid plinked off his casing, knocking the two cords out. Now was the tricky part. Getting them back into place without forgetting what he was doing and dying. With his limited time and memory, he expanded his body so the cords would float freely, and waited until they floated to the opposite sides. Then with a movement quick and gentle, he contracted, plugging the wires into their correct ports.

Space core sighed out loud. "Testing.. 1. 1, 2, 3. Ha!" Space core brought his lower optic shutter up in a triumphant grin.

"Eureka! It worked!"

Space core looked to Wheatley, hoping he had perhaps awoken. Wheatley was still in sleepmode, his solar panels opened fully. Space core geussed he'd be fully charged soon.

Now all he had to do was wait, maybe this hell wouldn't be so lonely after all.