Chapter 3

Fire. Fire everywhere. He is screaming at me, insanely furious. "You HAD to play bloody cat- and mouse, didn't you? Well, guess what? I have NO IDEA HOW TO FIX THIS, AND NOW WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE."

No.

I'm not gonna die. I'm going to fix this, goddammit, if it's the last thing I do!

My enemy-turned-friend, who under some really incredibly bizarre circumstances got transferred into a potato battery is shouting at me-something about a stalemate button. Oh, right! Okay, button. Gottafinditgottafinditgottafindit- there it is! I shoot a portal above it, and shoot another one in the Conversion Gel underneath Him. My friend. I wish, oh I wish that I could have the old Wheatley back, before he was corrupted, before he tried to kill me, before all the tests...but there's no going back. I have to do this.

I run underneath him, and jump into the glowing portal, him ranting about how this is all my fault, and now we're all gonna pay the price-

BOOM.

"PART FIVE! BOOBY-TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!"

I have a brief moment of flying, wisps of smoke curling from my smoldering clothes, and it seems like everything is in slow motion around me. When I land,I can hear something crunch inside of me as I slam into the ground. The smell of burnt hair fills the air, and my ponytail is smoking along with my clothes. The pain is like nothing I've ever felt before, burning, searing. Even worse than breathing neurotoxin, or the turrets bullets, or the red lasers singing my legs.

My gun. Where is it?

"WHAT?! ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!"

Just ignore him, Chell. You can do this. I pick up the portal gun, ignoring yet another snapping flash of pure pain. Tears are running down my face, making clean trails through the grime and dirt and sweat and blood. I'm sorry, Wheatley. I'm sorry, my friend.

I aim my gun at the moon, whisper a prayer under my breath, and pull the trigger.

Uuugghhh...

Wha-...

...Wha' happened...?

The first thing I realize is that I'm lying all splayed out on the floor, arms and legs bent at weird angles. I slowly prop myself up on my elbows, cursing silently under my breath. My head feels like it's crammed full of cotton balls. I reach my hand up and feel my forehead- OW! That hurts! As I try to massage the pain out of my forehead, I notice everything looks...different. And not in a good way. I try to get up and- oh God!

OHDEARGODWHAT'SWRONGWITHMYLEGS- oh. Okay, panic over. There are vines snaking their way around my legs, and I yank them off without incident. But wait. If there are vines on my legs, then that means...that...m-means...oh God. Oh nonononononononono. NO! Thisisn'thappeningletthisallbeabaddreamPLEASE!

I frantically wrack my brains. Come on Taylor, thinkthinkTHINK! Okay, what do you remember? Falling, and then my boot-springs bouncing me into the wall, and Mr. British Blue Robot saying something...something about the portal gun, I think he was asking if I had found it. Real nice, seeing someone falling down a fifty-foot-deep pit and asking if they found the portal gun, instead of, you know, wondering if they're alive or not. But what after that? Darkness, and a...really bizarre dream. Maybe it means something? Better find out.

Okay. It's obvious that I've been out for a long time. My head hurts, and my mouth feels like it's been stuffed with cotton. Okay, priorities: I need water, food, and I have to figure out if there is anyone else alive, in cryo or not. I drag myself to my feet. And immediately fall over. What? I look down at the "long-fall" boots. Wait, where's the spring? Oh. Both are lying over there, all twisted up into weird shapes. Broken clean off. I look closer, and- hold up just a damn second! On the heel, it says, in large red letters, "-REPLICA. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO JUMP OFF SURFACES MORE THAN EIGHTY FEET HIGH.-"

Of course. That would have been nice to know before I fell into a forty-foot-deep pit. At least they worked...enough...to not kill me on the way down. I yank the busted boots off my feet, and start walking, one boot in each hand. The room I'm in is more of a passageway, with sparking wires and bits of plaster hanging down from the ceiling.

The gloomy, dim hallway suddenly opens up into a lit room, and I squint and shield my eyes with one hand. It hurts, but at least now I can see more than a few meters in front of my face. My eyes are still adjusting when suddenly I see them.

Beautiful, scribbly-looking murals cover the walls. They all are laid out like a great big book around the circular room. Light filters through the dust from a great big gaping hole in the ceiling. The murals show what looks like a robot hanging from the ceiling, with scientists surrounding he/she/it and holding clipboards or taking notes. The next picture is a lot more disturbing. It has the same robot as the center of attention, but all the scientists lie dead, some alive but choking, and everything in this picture is tinged green, like the air itself is sick. Yikes. Moving on now.

The next picture has yet another picture of the same robot, and a woman in an orange jumpsuit, kind of like mine. She doesn't have any long-fall boots, instead she has braces on her legs, with a spring in the back kind of like my boots. There is a picture of a slice of cake too, and as if on cue my stomach growls loudly. Time to find something to eat. There is a little tower of ceiling tiles, and I can see something sparking blue-white sparks in a little shower all the way to the floor. I walk up the elevation, careful to not slip or cut my feet on something. There it is! At the top, theres a white...something. Looks like a gun. Maybe it's one of the portal guns Mr. British Blue Robot was talking about! Pick it up, and the sparking stops. I shake it, and there's no rattling or anything, so I guess it's safe...

I experimentally shoot a portal at the wall, and another over across the room, there is an opening They both open with a barely audible whoosh noise, and I jump down, barely avoiding an upturned nail on the floor. That could have been bad. I run through the blue portal and come out the other in front of...a staircase? I run up the metal stairs, and when I get to the top, there is a room in front of me, blocked off by some metal ceiling bits. Must've fallen. I-wait, what was that? It sounds like... someone talking. There is a staircase in the room next to me, and it sounds like it's coming from wherever it leads to.

I walk up the stairs, and I was right. There is someone in there, talking to someone -or something- else out of my field of vision. I walk up behind her. She has brown hair, and is wearing an orange jumpsuit with a huge, white Aperture logo on the back. I can't see her face. I tap her on the shoulder "Hello?"

In hindsight, maybe walking up behind somebody and tapping them on the shoulder when you're in the middle of a completely insane science facility probably wasn't the best idea. She screams, and swivels around on her swivel chair and wields the keyboard above her head. Before I can raise my arms up to defend myself, she smacks me in the side of the face so hard that I stumble back a few steps and land on my butt on the floor. "OW! OI, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" I shriek, clasping both hands to where the keys hit. Her eyes widen even more when she realizes that I'm not going to kill her (though at the moment that's up for debate). "OH MY GOD! Sorry sorry sorry! I just...I...you surprised me. I thought I was the only one left."

A/N: I am so, so, SO sorry about the lack of updates! There is no really good reason for it, and in my freetime that I could have used for writing, I instead opted to play Kentucky Route Zero and Half Life. I am a horrible person, and we weren't even testing for that. Anyway! Please review, and if you find something wrong with the story, or if you don't like something, or if you love it to pieces, PLEASE PM me or leave a review! Thanks so much! Luv you all! PEACE!

~TopHatRose