Caroline retreated slowly down the corridor, firing her revolvers, and reloading them with hand movements rehearsed and ingrained in her consciousness since before she knew what Aperture was. A hundred metres down the corridor, the mutations raged and roared.
Caroline came to the end of the service corridor remarkably quickly, turned, and ran. She burst into the main hallway, and sealed the blast doors. The last thing she saw of the other side was the mutations scrambling into the corridor and bolting towards the main hallway. They slammed against the blast doors, and scratched at them and screamed.
Caroline slid to the floor, her back to the blast door.
Who was she kidding. Living like this was no way to exist. But she did anyway.
Kept sane only by her research, she'd spent three years down here.
Caroline noticed that, as the blast doors had sealed, a mutant arm had gotten severed underneath the door. She idly looked at it, and noticed a glint of something embedded in the arm.
A name tag.
Using a knife to pry it out of the flesh, Caroline examined it. 'Aoife'. Caroline remembered her well. She had been an incredibly bright girl. She'd worked in test chamber design department before the Forge went bad. She'd been quite an artist too. Caroline remembered a conversation they'd had a few weeks before Complex 18 had been sealed.
They were chatting over coffee on their morning break. Aoife had been showing Caroline the new concept of the test chambers.
Caroline remembered being intrigued. "So what are these going to be used for?"
The other girl had been excited about the construction of the chambers. "Well, for testing of hazardous materials and new technology. All in a completely sealed, safe sphere of metal."
Caroline had been sceptical. "Surely that's impossible. We wouldn't have the technology to create that."
Aoife tapped the sketchbook under her arm, as she sipped her decaf. "Apparently not! We're starting design of several hundred chambers, and a few are already under construction!" The break bell rang.
They'd both returned to their posts, with Aoife promising to take Caroline to show her the test chambers. As she walked out, Caroline noticed that everyone's eyes were on the blonde girl. And she'd remembered that she had wanted to be noticed like that.
Such concerns were shallow and meaningless now.
Caroline didn't know whether Aoife had made it out, or was one of those things that were currently still attempting to break through the door.
Caroline started the walk back to her office. The corridors were lit, a pleasant side effect of the hundreds of gigawatts being generated underneath her feet.
Arriving back at her office, Caroline checked the clock. It had been only an hour since she'd gone down to check the Forge, and she was exhausted.
Taking off her restricting work skirt, she clad herself in the nightgown she'd always kept spare in her office, for when she need to stay the night. She had a small office couch, which folded out into a bed. Locking the door, Caroline curled up and went to sleep.