Chapter 2. Enjoy your daily allotment of Chell angst. Or something. Again, I don't own Portal or Invader Zim. Seriously, you should know that by now.
Chell blinked to clear her vision, groggily sitting up as the blurry figures came into focus. Her first thought was that she was waking up in a relaxation vault and she panicked, but calmed down when she realized that that couldn't be right. She had always emerged from those feeling refreshed and healthy; Aperture wanted fit test subjects, after all, not just scrawny chickens that'd die before completing Test Chamber 01. (Well, supposedly they resorted to random hobos off the street in the end, but not until they were pretty desperate for fresh blood.) Since she was feeling tired and rather ill, she could rule out the possibility of being thrown into another test chamber in the near future.
So then where was she? Maybe backtracking would help. What was the last thing she remembered?
GLaDOS had just released her. A noise made her jump, fearing the computer had changed her mind, but instead a charred cube with pink hearts on its sides flew out at her. When it didn't try to stab her, she scooped it up in a hug, turning away from the shed so GLaDOS wouldn't see the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes.
She saved my cube, was Chell's only thought as she slowly walked away from Aperture forever. Before we were even "friends" SHE SAVED MY CUBE. Looking up at the full moon, down across the wheat field, and back at the rusty shed, she felt the tears that she'd held back for however many years she was trapped underground flow; not depressed, exhausted tears, but genuinely happy tears mixed with a strange sadness at leaving GLaDOS and Wheatley, floating around the moon, despite his betrayal. In this moment, though, Chell decided there was no place she would rather be.
Some time later, she came across a road. A pair of bright lights blinded her and she stumbled, having lived in the failing lights of the Enrichment Center for so long that the brightness brought on a sudden headache. A screeching noise... Then darkness.
Hit by a car. The moment she discovered a trace of human civilization Chell had been hit by a car. Was whatever sort of god out there trying to tell her something? The God of Science, maybe, urging her to go back to the machines that tried to kill her? Perhaps karma for killing one of them in retaliation? Or the universe just hated her guts for some reason?
No matter; she wasn't going back now either way, not in this condition. Clearing her throat, she tried to whistle to get a doctor's attention. Unfortunately this just ended in a lot of choking, but at least they noticed now that she was awake.
"Careful, Miss! We don't know where in the world you've been, but somehow you seem to have damaged your vocal cords. I wouldn't recommend talking for quite some time, not without some extensive speech therapy first.
"Is there anything we can get for you? A glass of water, maybe? No, no, you just lay down. Your knees are broken, you'll just hurt yourself again. If you need anything, just write it down and show me or a nurse." Chell nodded, watching the doctor and glancing at the nametag, which told her his name was Doctor Bryan. He seemed friendly enough, but she was still naturally wary. She watched his white coat swish as he turned to leave, pausing to talk to a nurse who then also stalked out the room. The nurse returned with a glass of not-quite-cold water for Chell.
Drinking the water (and trying to ignore the unfortunate taste; was the pollution really this bad here?) Chell took a moment to let everything sink in. So she was in a hospital somewhere. Apparently either she was asleep for a very long time or this wasn't Northern Michigan, because for some reason she had the sense that it hadn't been this polluted before Aperture. Then she wondered briefly how she knew that when she couldn't remember anything prior to waking up from relaxation for the first time. On that note... who was she, anyways?