Chapter 4

AN: I am SO, SO, SO SORRY about the horrible lack of updates! I've had a LOT of stuff going on (need to sleep, homework, my laptop being confiscated, something about "not being allowed to write fanfiction at 11:00 at night" or something. PSSSH. SLEEP IS FOR WIMPS.) ANYWAY! Enjoy this chapter, or I will hunt you down like the dirty monkey you are and eat all the snacks in your fridge! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

"OH MY GOD! Sorry sorry sorry! I just...I...you surprised me. I thought I was the only one left." The girl stammers at me, looking horrified. I clamp my hands to the side of my head. Ouch. Was that keyboard metal-plated, or is that just me? I am sitting in the concrete floor, and I look up at the girl, who is still holding the keyboard above her head. I can't really see her face, as she is wearing a long, blotchy gray scarf that is covering almost all of her face in the silky folds of cloth. I can't even see her eyes, as she's wearing really dark sunglasses. She only looks about thirteen or fourteen, judging from how tall she is, and the pitch of her voice. She has white headphones, with a mouthpiece and black Aperture logo.

"What are you doing in here?" I ask, grasping the wall and slowly raising myself up to my feet. I don't have my boots anymore, they were too awkward to try and carry along with my portal gun, so I left them behind in a testchamber earlier. My portal gun! I pick it up, being careful not to scrape it on the floor. "Who are you?"

"Um, my name's Ami, if that's what you're asking..."

"Alright then, Ami, how did you get down here? Where are you from? What's even going on-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What? What do you mean, you don't know what's going on? It's not like you've been asleep for the past three days or something..." She trails off, looking at me in a strange way. "Then again, knowing this place, that's exactly what could have happened. Hold on." She sits back down on her chair, and I step up until I'm standing next to her. "What's your name? Should I just call you Girl With Red Hair?"

"Taylor I-don't-know-if-I-have-a-last-name. What were you doing before I came in here?"

"Hacking," she says with a touch of pride in her voice. "I was watching security footage, exploring around in the databases, looking for info on whatever the hell happened to this place. You?"

"I was in those motel room things, and then this robot came to help me, he had a British accent, and-"

"What?" She interrupts me, sounding more than a bit startled. "What did the robot look like, the one who rescued you?"

"Well, he was metal, uh, rather small, round, talked a lot, and had one big blue eye. What about it?"

"Well, if what you're saying is true, then you're supposed to be dead. Also, his name's Wheatley."

"Um, excuse me?!"

"Here, I'll show you, hold up a sec!"

She turns around and picks up a small wire, with a plug on the end. She inspects it, then shrugs and brushes away the hair from the back of her neck.

"Er, what are you do-"

And then she plugs it in.

For a split second, nothing happens.

Then her hair, scarf, and sunglasses fizzles away, like a hologram. She turns her head towards me, and I can see what has happened.

Her whole head is made of metal. A robot. An android. She has two cartoonishly large, almond-shaped blue eyes, softly glowing. No mouth, though. Her head is shaped more or less like a human head, except more...pointy. She is still wearing her headphones. She turns her head towards me and blinks. Her metal eyelids make a plink-ing sound. "Um, what's wrong? You're all pale."

"You're a robot." I say, stating the obvious in a hoarse voice. "Honestly don't know why that surprises me anymore."

She gives me a steady look. "And you just figured this out?" Then her eyes widen. "Oh, my hologram was on, wasn't it...sorry."

Alright, I should just stop being surprised now. It's not like this is the most insane thing that's happened to me so far. "What are you doing, there? With the plug?"

"Oh, right." She sounds a bit miffed that I'm still not in awe of her being a robot. Well, you're gonna have to do better than that to surprise me in this place. "Hold on a second. I'm accessing the security footage, to show you what happened while you were in sleep mode."

The wire is attached to the side of her computer. It's a rather large, clunky, old fashioned one, too. The screen (which was originally simply glowing blue) flickers, then changes to a gritty, black and white security video. It is outside a door in a hallway, and Wheatley rolls up to the door on his management rail.

"Hello? Anyone in there?" A knocking noise. "Helloooooo?"

It takes Ami and I almost three hours to watch all the security footage. First, Ami (which turns out to be an abbreviation for Advanced Mechanical Intelligence) shows me the part where I fell into the pit and Wheatley left me. She explains, "When he saw you fall into that pit, he just assumed you were dead, and when you didn't say anything or try to meet him up ahead, he just went off to find the other test subjects. There were seven live test subjects in all, and only about three or four survived. And one of them's standing right in front of me." She raises her bottom eyelids in what could be interpreted as a smile.

Then we watch all of what happened to the last subject, who Ami calls Chell. I felt so bad for her, she was probably trapped in this place for a hell of a lot longer than I was, and nothing remarkably horrible has happened to me yet but I'm still itching to get out of this place. After watching the videos until Chell is let free (good for her!) Ami switches it off. " After the camera loses sight of the elevator, the recording just ends. No data coming in or out."

"That's weird." I remark.

"Well, at least we're safe in here. No video cameras or panels or anything. There's no way She can get to us." Ami calls the female robot in charge of the whole facility Her or She, never Her real name, GLaDOS. The Genetic Life and Disc Operating System. Absolutely terrifying.

The constant chirping of the alarm was beginning to annoy GLaDOS. And when things started to annoy GLaDOS, they usually had about thirty seconds, tops, to eitherstop being annoying or stop being alive. Usually it was the latter. "Computer. Isolate the source of the alarm." There were a few electronic beeps from the computer. "Source location: Testing Track 000032. Life form: Juvenile Female Human. Artificial Intelligence Detected: Advanced Mechanical Intelligence."

"Perfect. I was needing some new test subjects, and the Cooperative Testing Initiative will have more...unpredictable results with an Artificial Intelligence and a human." She switched on the PA system in the testchamber Blue and Orange were in. They were having a fine old time taking turns melting each others limbs off with lasers. "Blue. Orange. I have something I need you two to take care of. And Blue, if you don't stop murdering Orange I will have to murder you myself. Understood?"

Blue lowered the Discouragement Redirection Cube with a disappointed gurgle. They both stood in front of the security camera (Orange with most of her left leg a bubbling, gooey mess) and nodded.

"Good. Don't disappoint me."

Then the bots exploded.

Wait a minute. "Do you hear that?"

"What?"

"I don't know. It sounds like hissing and clanking. Like pistons."

The punchy clop noise of a portal opening behind Ami and I causes both of us to turn around and look on in fright.

Two robots, burst through the portal, making chattering, gurgling noises at one another. The taller, slimmer one has a bright orange optic and a significantly higher-pitched voice. It's companion, shorter and round has a blue optic and a voice pitched very low. Both carry portal guns that have blue or orange stripes painted on the side. Ami and I shoot to our feet and look at the robots. They're standing across from us, so close I could reach out and touch one. "Have you seen these two before?" I hiss through gritted teeth, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. "Never in my life." She says, quiet as possible too.

The orange one looks at the blue one, and then grabs my arm. The blue one grabs Ami's wrist.

They're DRAGGING US OUT OF THE ROOM! Ami and I scream and kick, but to no avail. The blue one places a purple portal on the wall, that looks a lot like it leads too...Oh shit.

"RUN, AMI!" I scream in her direction, but when I turn around, Blue is empty-handed. Looks like she already got away. It takes a second to register the full meaning of this before they throw me into the swirling purple portal, into a brand-spankin-new testing track.

She left me.

The intercoms turn on with and audible click. A female voice comes out, sounding robotic and human at the same time.

"Blue, Orange, you each receive ten Science Collaboration Points. Well done. As for you," She says the last sentence aimed towards me, with a twinge of venom in her voice, "I had no idea there were still rats in this facility."

AN: I am a horrible person, and we weren't even testing for that. I sincerely apologize for the lack of updates in the past week or so. And this chapter is a nub, so I don't even have a good excuse! ANYWAY. Please read, write, and review. THANK YOU GUYS FOR SUPPORTING ME! It really, really helps! TopHatRose, OUT!