The town he was now pulling into wasn't… quite what he expected. It was small and sparsely populated; he'd anticipated dealing with a bigger town or city that had lots of factories and production plants. This was nearly the opposite. He stopped at the sole gas station to ask about Aperture. He was given an odd, suspicious look, but the directions were given, edging past the outskirts of town. He almost asked more information, but the man who worked the register at the station didn't appear to like talking about it. He dropped it, but this all did nothing to aid the mounting suspicion as Craig made his way toward the old salt mines. He found a parking lot, with several cars in it after driving through a back road through the woods for what felt like an hour; quite a large parking lot, to his surprise. He'd assumed it was a larger scientific facility, but this… well, he was parked about a mile out, cautiously away from most of the cars and there was still quite a few packed in with him. The front gate security seemed surprisingly lax when they saw the state of his car, as well, which appeared as though he were living in it. The sense of dread was mounting the closer he got.

Rick was right about Craig hating it here: it was indeed freezing in early January and the thin jacket Craig wore wasn't helping block out the biting cold much. The entire walk toward the huge building, Craig had his arms wrapped around himself with his head down; Rick's old dogtags were cold and pressing against his chest, further distracting him. He almost didn't see a man in a lab coat angrily storming away from the building as he approached it, he had to quickly skirt to the side before he knocked the man's box from his hands.

"Fire me," the man grumbled under his breath, "I'm just trying to keep your test subjects alive, god forbid, I hope you all rot in hell for what you're doing…"

The man's ramblings to himself wasn't terribly comforting in the least, "Excuse me," Craig piped up, making the man whirl around with an angry snarl.

"What do—Oh, you're probably going in for volunteer testing, aren't you. Poor soul, don't do it, not that they ever listen," the man sighed.

"No, I'm… I'm looking for someone who was hired here," Craig tried not to let his panic show.

"Heh, you really are a poor soul then. I hope they're alive, I really do," the man said with a shake of his head, "You know what… I have something that might help you."

Craig warily watched the man with his hands deep in his jacket pockets while the apparent scientist set his box down and rifled through it, producing a security badge and offering it to the blond. Craig hesitantly took it and examined it, with a glance up at the man.

"They didn't take my badge; they were in such a hurry to get me the hell out. That's what I get for having morals. They said something about already having morality and it just… made no sense," the scientist shook his head, "If they don't show you who you're looking for… well, god help you, that's all I can say."

Craig stared wide-eyed as the man swiftly picked up his box and moved away. It only took Craig a moment to remember that he was freezing, so he pocketed the badge with a nervous sigh and turned back toward the building. There was the symbol again, the same camera aperture symbol right next to the name Aperture Laboratories.

The doors opened automatically into a plush-looking waiting room with armchairs and tables in one direction with what appeared to be offices for secretaries to his left. The lobby was deserted for right now, with a pair of big doors toward the back with an obvious slot to swipe a card next to it; Craig took note, remembering the generous scientist. A portrait of a cheerful looking man with the plaque Cave Johnson hung next to a glass case with what appeared to be awards, assumedly for different scientific achievements. Tentatively, Craig peered around the door to the secretary offices without seeing anyone for a long moment. The quiet was unsettling and the deserted offices were eerie; it set Craig on edge already.

"Hello?" he called, his voice nearly swallowed by the deafening silence.

There was a sudden click of heels behind him and a voice spoke up, making him jump before he could turn around, "May I help you?" a snotty voice called.

A short young woman stared at him unpleasantly; Craig frowned but approached, "Yes, I was hoping you could help me. I'm looking for—"

"You're in the wrong place if you're applying for testing, dear," the woman huffed, crossing her arms over her blouse and tapping her heeled foot.

"No, I'm actually hoping to find someone that was employed—"

"Human Resources is three floors down."

"Listen, I'm looking for an employee by the name of Richard Segreto," Craig managed to spit out, getting very frustrated with the rude woman interrupting him.

"Oh," she said simply and turned on her heel.

Craig could only stare after her, confused and shocked by the abrupt ceasefire of interruptions. She smoothed the back of her skirt behind her before sitting down at one of the computers at the numerous desks, fingers clacking away, assumedly typing out the information he'd given. Slightly at a loss, he drew closer to her desk and shifted from foot to foot waiting.

"Sir," she spoke up suddenly, giving him something of a contemptuous glance, "I'm very sorry, but we can't just pull up an employee's file without reason on a dime like that."

The frown on Craig's face couldn't accurate describe his displeasure. She could've said that before she sat down. He couldn't exactly say that he was looking for his missing boyfriend, however true it might have been. The likelihood that it would get him a repercussion was slim, but unlikely that it would garner him some allies at this point or even get him the information he wanted. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Please, ma'am, he's been here for just under a year and we haven't gotten contact from him in several months," Craig forced his voice to be more plaintive instead of annoyed, stretching the truth just slightly.

"Segreto? S-E-G-R-E-T-O?" she glanced at him with a huff, almost glaring at the blond from under her false eyelashes and immediately looked down at her screen when he nodded, "No record of a 'Segreto' here. Only Richard I know is some old guy in the chemistry department, sorry."

She didn't sound particularly sorry, much to Craig's annoyance. The curt, almost rude behavior had him more upset with the secretary than the possibility that he was in the wrong place. The fact that she was annoyed she had to do part of her job wasn't helping him put too much stock in her words. She'd even spelled a somewhat uncommon last name correctly and assumed he wasn't looking for said older man in the chemistry department; Craig wasn't convinced and was starting to think the suspicious feeling that was blossoming in his chest wasn't entirely out of paranoia. He took a long moment to breathe with his eyes shut before speaking.

"Are you absolutely certain you searched in the right departments? I have letters from him with your company's symbol, he was not a scientist," Craig offered, attempting to keep the contempt and anger out of his voice with mixed results.

"If he was maintenance, kitchen staff, or test subject, that isn't my department," she rolled her eyes, "I'll get you someone else."

The woman briskly rose from her desk and walked to a door with venetian blinds blocking the window. As she disappeared behind it, a man and a woman took her place, both carrying large stacks of paper and talking away like no one else was there. Craig stared, not moving to be inconspicuous or anything, but neither of them were paying him any mind.

"You had gotten the memo about the memorial in an hour, right?"

"Of course I did, but I have so much to do…"

"It's required, the guy was the head of the company not too long ago."

"How long ago did he die? Does it really matter that much?"

"Eh, I don't know, but you know what kind of punishment skipping on something 'required' means."

"Oh god, I don't want to test—OH!" the woman nearly dropped her stack of papers as she almost walked into Craig standing there, "Excuse me, sir, can we help you?"

Craig was more than a little wary of these two people, but there was no choice, "Ah, I'm looking for a Richard Segreto that was employed here…"

"Scientist?" the man asked, sitting down at a desk to tap out the information.

"No, he was a veteran in the army, I doubt he had some scientific degree I wasn't aware of," he supplied, subconsciously crossing his arms to press the dog tags around his neck closer to his chest.

The man gave him a look very similar to the first woman, but continued tapping out keys, "S-E-G-R-E-T-O, right? Says there is no such record of a test subject or scientist or other employee."

Craig opened his mouth to protest, but the woman sidled up to the man's desk and peered over his shoulder, "Yes there is, says right there."

The man gave her a meaningful glare that Craig did not miss and she quickly amended her words, "Oh, says he already went home, sorry about that. Maybe try contacting his family or something!"

"Thanks," Craig spat flatly and they both cheerily smiled and went about their business.

It was very unlikely that Rick's family would have been contacted if something happened; Craig was the emergency contact and the man's mother has passed away a long time ago and his father wasn't really equipped to handle an injured anyone, much less his adult son. Craig was the emergency contact, as far as he knew. That card key in his pocket suddenly felt very heavy. If he hadn't thought they were lying, he would have turned it in, but… now it seemed like something was going on and he had the means to find out exactly what they were hiding. That scientist he met in the parking lot seemed to much more right than Craig felt like pondering right now.

He moved back into the lobby with the trophy case and glanced at the portrait of the founder for a moment. That memorial the employees were talking about was likely for this man; the plaque said he died a few years before. If it was required with a repercussion for not attending, that would be his chance. Craig took a deep breath and slid the card through the slot next to the door in the lobby, quietly slipping inside of it after it beeped. The security gate immediately on the inside had the door left open with a security guard staring at the screens. The guard didn't seem to notice Craig immediately, so he squared his shoulders and walked pass his glass window like he was supposed to be there, holding up the card in what he hoped was a similar scientist-like behavior. The guard didn't look up and as soon as he was out of ear shot, Craig jogged away with his heart thumping in a fit of nerves.

Around a corner and through a few well-inspected doors, he glanced at a clock and found there were maybe forty-five minutes until the hour. No one was in sight in this first area, but he almost didn't want to push his luck any further. There were control panels to his left and a railway leading to another door and more buttons. A large sign sat under two painted arrows, directing toward the security gate and something labeled the testing track; Craig took a moment to inspect the sign. It had a small stick figure wearing an orange jumpsuit with a hobo pack over his shoulder, pantomiming making an escape. It read 'Remember: See orange, press red!' in a cheery font that made Craig squint at it with some confusion. Just underneath of it was a large red button that was marked 'terminate.' It made the blond shudder at the thought of what it could mean; he moved past it quickly toward the testing tracks, leaving morbid thoughts behind him.

The walkway took him over what looked like some labs with large glass beakers littering the tables and whiteboards with complex equations and notes written on them. Craig moved as quietly as he could, seeing there were still some scientists lingering, despite the fact that there was now thirty minutes until this mandatory memorial. Their conversation was somewhat intelligible to Craig, who stopped to listen just for a moment.

"The preliminary tests for the blood-to-gasoline formula were a success…there were a few hitches in the results…it was really too bad he…there was gasoline everywhere…who would have guessed his body couldn't…it was gushing from every orifice…," the broken commentary made Craig shiver and keep going, picking his pace up a little.

There was something very wrong with this place. Terminating test subjects attempting to escape with an ominous red button, turning blood into gasoline and conversing about it like it was nothing, plus all of the damn run-around he got about finding one solitary, assumedly unimportant employee; this was all painting a bizarre picture that wasn't getting much better the more Craig went on.

The metal walkway finally expanded to an open security gate and an open area. Craig very carefully wandered in, seeing two buildings on opposite ends of the room where there was an obvious switch and counter, all set up on a matching set of stairs. A sign lit by a dim bulb mentioned something about the switches being pulled simultaneously. As Craig approached slowly, glancing around for anyone who might spot him, but it was pretty desolate. He checked his watch at the same time a giant light flickered on above him; he stared up and saw a giant hatch door. Craig's neck craned all the way back as he stared at it, trying to see what it did or what it held or anything. The only hint he had was that it was massive and this was supposed to be where the testing tracks were. Without anywhere else to go, he climbed the stairs and moved toward the switches, but there was no way he could manage to flip both in the five second time frame given.

He drew closer to the door and found it was blocked off by another security gate; that made sense, given that the mechanism to lift the door swung it upward and anyone could be seriously injured by drawing too close. It didn't appear there was much else to do here, but there was no other place to go, aside from back to the lobby. There had been too much progress to turn back already and the longer Craig stayed here, the more terrified he was that something unspeakable happened to Rick.

KA-CHUNK. A booming noise had Craig nearly falling over himself in surprise and shock, realizing that it was the enormous port door in front of him sliding into place so the wheel in front could swing around to unlock it. Oh! It was opening! Craig scrambled back to his feet and dashed to one of the security gates as sirens were sounding, hiding himself just under a window to observe what was happening. Fifteen minutes before the memorial, he realized with a quick glance at his watch; the port door was lifted away by a giant arm, pulling it toward the ceiling. Craig watched as it disappeared from the pool of light below; he only turned to look down when he heard the chatter of people. Behind that giant port door was…

Another door. A smaller door with a simple bar handle and a window. Craig stared for a long moment before rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't going insane already, it appeared not because suddenly the chatter got louder and a great deal of employees started to pour from the door, talking with one another in small groups. None of them seemed bothered by the fact that they were walking out of a tiny door when there was a HUGE one blocking the way for seemingly no reason. Aperture Science was starting to make less and less sense as time went on.

There were hundreds of them, wearing an assortment of colored jumpsuits and some with labcoats over them. Test subjects, if Craig had to make a guess; he scanned the crowd very, very carefully, aware that according to what he'd deduced so far, Rick was likely employed as one. No one stuck out as even similar, Rick would easily stick out in a crowd, he was tall, broad shouldered, and the type that made friends easily and talked too loud. There were people in the throngs of test subjects that fit parts of that description, but no one that was exactly Rick. It took quite a while, but the crowd eventually thinned out and disappeared; Craig waited for a long moment before coming out of the security gate to investigate.

Another loud KA-CHUNK signaled the descend of the giant port door; Craig gasped and nearly tumbled down the stairs sprinting for the door, vaulting over the closing security gate with speed and precision that surprised even himself, making a mad dash for the door. He jammed the handle down with all of his force, shoving his shoulder into the door as he watched the huge port door barreling toward him. The door finally opened and Craig fell through just as the giant port door crashed down behind him. He scrambled to his feet and whipped around to see the last of the light from the other side disappear, leaving a singular lamp above his head as the only reason he could see.

He gripped the front of his shirt, feeling his heart thudding heavily in his chest. That door was about two seconds away from cutting him in half; he made it. As much as Craig didn't believe in fate, nothing could be clearer about coming here. He made it this far by some act of some higher power: there was absolutely no turning back now. He was stuck, both mentally and physically.

The blond leaned against one of the walls to catch his breath before he hyperventilated. There were no signs around telling him where to go, but there was really only one hallway, as far as he could see. The singular light above him didn't allow him to see the rest of the way. He ran a hand through his hair and sucked down one more deep breath before beginning to make his way down the hallway, keeping a hand against the wall to prevent them from getting lost. A loud sparking noise erupted from the ceiling, nearly making Craig jump out of his skin, but a light flickered on just past the first one. He blinked up at it, wary it was going to flicker off again, but the more he walked, the more lights turned on.

That was a relief. There seemed to be a singular door at the end of the hallway and nothing more. It was unmarked and looked heavy, with a valve on the front to open it. Craig tentatively grasped the wheel and turned it, grunting with effort to pull the heavy metal port open. He slipped through the small crack he'd managed to work open; he was greeted by a vast, dark underground lake in a cavern that Craig had to strain his neck even to see light peeking from the top. A huge metal globe with criss-cross slats of metal for the oceans sat in the middle of the lake. It had a strip of metal around the United States that said in a bold font: APERTURE INNOVATORS.

Rising up around the globe were huge towers all attached with high-rising walkways and spheres a size that Craig couldn't even begin to fathom from his vantage point. All of this looked wildly disproportionate to the outside of the building; Craig couldn't recall moving down at all, but here he was staring up like he was a great distance under the earth's surface.

It took him a moment to regain a sense of self, feeling so small in such a huge chamber; once he did he looked a little more at eye-level. There were several heavy metal doors like the one he'd just come out of, all marked with various numbers and letters, some painted with neat letters that said QUARANTINE. Wisely, Craig stayed very far from those doors. He didn't even know where to begin to search for answers, but straying near something that would obviously harm him was not intelligent. He took a deep breath, hoping to quell feelings of gloom about the overwhelming sense of being very small and very, very useless right now. He turned and chose the nearest safe looking door for inspection. It was marked with yellow paint stating M-2 in severe looking type. With a deep breath and no idea what would lie ahead, Craig turned the valve and pried the door open, relieved to find nothing immediately jumped at him.

Instead, there was another hallway with a simple door with a lever handle with another single light lighting the short path. Nothing else marked the hallway, Craig checked twice, very much preferring not to walk into some sort of radiation testing grounds or something similar. There was no sign for what kind of danger lie ahead, so Craig cautiously approached the door and opened it, wincing at the creak of metal that erupted when he pushed the door. It was dark in the room beyond, but lights slowly flickered on, revealing row after row of tall, thin tubes that reached taller than an average sized man could reach. They were attached to a giant generator that hummed softly in the silence of the chamber. Curious, but wary, Craig approached one of the metal tubes, looking for some kind of indicator of what it might be. There was a spout at the bottom. There was a small spigot sitting at the top, unmarked aside from the red paint that marked all of the spigots in every one of the tubes.

Though he knew he shouldn't touch a thing, Craig turned the spigot very gently until a small stream of what looked like water hit the grate underneath of the spout. It wasn't water; Craig could tell that by the pungent sweet smell coming from it, so he didn't touch it. He quickly turned the spout back off and stepped away in case it was some kind of noxious material.

A small noise behind him nearly shocked him out of his skin. Craig whipped around and looked for someone there, it sounded like a scuffling foot. Immediately, his heart began hammering in his chest. He was about to get caught and he'd already come all this way. He sucked in a gasp and shoved himself behind one of the spouts, hoping he could hide himself before anyone came to apprehend him. The space was small, but he had enough room to move, to turn and see if there was actually someone there. The noise came from far off in the left corner, he realized and he heard it again. He held his breath when he saw something that might've been a scientist coming from somewhere in the shadows the tubes cast.

Craig's breath hitched in his throat when he realized that flesh colored arm he saw was not a person. A bubble of revulsion crept into his stomach when an easily seven-foot tall beast crawled out from behind the far set of tubes. It had two bulbous humanoid eyes and a huge mandible that snapped hungrily at the air. That breath he was holding came out as a shuddering, scared exhale when that… that thing crawled closer to him, toward the spigot he opened. It made a loud chittering noise that made Craig flinch and he had to clap his hand over his mouth to keep from making a noise in fear. Six arms stuck out from its mantis-like body, they were strangely human, all of its fingers flexing and unflexing in a way that had Craig horrified but staring. Equally, there were six legs that extended from the thorax, all with toes and human hair, but the body had a distinct, exoskeletal sheen that suggested this horrifying monster was far more insectoid than even vaguely human. The mandible was shoved into the grated trough below the spigot, eagerly, disgustingly sucking up the sweet-smelling liquid that Craig had poured out of the tube.

The monster made a displeased shriek when it could not reach more of the fallen liquid, instead shoving its mandible farther through the grates, effectively making it stick right where it was. The beast struggled, screaming in frustration and Craig could only watch in horror as all of its flesh-colored body segments worked in tandem to try to force itself out of the grate. In a cold wash of realization, Craig realized he had to get away before he was noticed. He did not want to find out if he was at all edible to this creature. He took a breath for courage and worked his way behind the tubes, slowly edging toward the door.

While the monster struggled, Craig scanned the room while he sidled between the wall and the tubes. He saw a door on the other side, opposite the door he'd come in. There was no way he'd get to it without having to run past this monstrosity trying to extract itself. Craig reached the end of the tubes his way and took a deep breath, prepping himself to make a run for the door. Breathe in, breathe out; he just had to run roughly three hundred feet before he had to open the door and slam it shut. Yes, that was all… he had to do.

Craig swallowed thickly and bent his knees, poised to run with one eye firmly on the abomination that was far too close to him, screeching in anger. He sucked down another breath four whatever courage he could screw up and moved, sprinting as fast as he could carry himself, sneakers screaming against the tile floor, almost deafening in Craig's ears, drowning out the sound of the struggling insectoid. He reached the door, almost foolishly stopping to breathe instead of fumbling with the doorknob. The door wouldn't open! Craig kicked the door in frustration and in turn was kicked away from the door, sliding across the floor with a terrified cry, hitting the opposite wall behind the tubes.

"Oh god oh god!" Craig's words stuck in his throat as he saw that huge… thing advancing on him with a speed that almost spelled certain death.

The beast lunged at him, scraping with three of its humanoid hands, groping and reaching for him, but mercifully, it couldn't quite reach. Craig's eyes were wide behind his glasses, those disgusting fingers just inches from his face. His chest was heaving, almost hyperventilating with fear. The groping hands in front of him had him transfixed for several moments before he realized it wasn't going to give up. In a frantic moment of desperation, he scrambled against the wall to stand again and moved as quickly as he could with his back pressed hard against the brick and reached as far as his arm would allow around the tube, frantically twisting the spigot open until a rush of the sweet liquid poured out of it.

The monster immediately yanked itself out of the space it was clawing at and all twelve of its limbs descended on the flow of liquid, hungrily, desperately pulling its mandible to the stream and a red, human-like tongue darted out to drink it up. Craig stared in utter disgust for only a moment before making an adrenaline fueled break for the door, pushing it open with all of his might and shutting it behind him. The last sight he saw when he closed the door was a shrieking human-like insectoid coming at him with all twelve limbs just like the food it was so greedily ingesting.

The moment he was sure that door was locked, Craig turned and ran as far away from that door as he could, putting as many walls, doors, and whatever other obstacles he could between him and …it. He found himself tucked under a desk in a seemingly empty office, quaking with latent fear with his knees pulled up to his chest. Water invaded his vision and spots stained his glasses; Craig wasn't sure if his hands were shaking or his vision was swimming. He pressed his forehead to his knees and tried very hard to focus.

It had come to this: he was going to find Rick in here or die trying, he was in that deep.

Now, with that realization, all he had to do was get twelve uncannily human limbs reaching for him to get out of his head. Twelve… twelve… twelve… Somewhere along the line, he nodded off with a quiet, resigned sound that might have been a sob.