Taking a great leap, Judy dove from the great height down into the gray pit of the chamber, creating a blue portal that she immediately flew through. The doe ended up flying through the orange one on the wall located on the far side of the chamber. With the force and momentum that she created, her trajectory had her going straight down to the pit again. Relocating another blue portal to where she was falling down to again, she breeze through and ended up flying over to the very edge of another elevated platform on the far side of the chamber.
"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Judy breathed out, feeling the slight adrenaline from speeding across the course like she just did.
"Nope, not really," a voice replied to the side of her. "It only took me screwing the jump up a few times, but it wasn't that difficult at all."
The doe met up with Nick, who was waiting rather patiently, standing against the black wall to her right. Now that they had both figured out how to get across, the two ran down the passageway to where another tricky incline awaited them. A large, unscalable gray wall was in front of them, a small pool of the deadly water from previous chambers below it with nothing there to protect them from it. From a distance, a small fragment of gray could be detected, where a portal could be possibly be placed.
As he slightly cocked his head over to the left of the chamber, Nick saw something on the other side of him that immediately caught his attention. "Carrots, you gotta look at this," he said, gesturing for Judy to follow him.
Walking over to where the fox was pertaining to, the doe saw what he had his eye on. On the bottom of the wall that they now stood near, a portion of the black blocks seemed to be missing (presumably from when the course had been designed). The considerable crevice that it made within the plain wall looked just big enough for either the fox or rabbit to crawl through, a beckoning streak of white light coming from where the "passage" lead to.
"I say we see figure out where this leads to," Nick said.
"But we still gotta solve the rest of this task," Judy replied, wanting to get things solved so they could get closer to the final chamber. "We're getting so close to-"
"Yeah, we'll get to it," the fox interrupted. "It's not like they're gonna see us sneaking through here or anything."
Judy pointed over to a nearby testing apparatus, a red dot blinking on it as it looked right at them from the gray wall. "Pretty sure they will, Nick," she informed.
"What? You're worried about that thing looking us?" The fox swiped the portal device. "Here, I'll take care of the problem."
The fox fired the device near the camera. An orange portal took form, and the camera fell from the wall and entered the murky water with a small splash.
As if on cue, the speakers started to come on again. "Please do not destroy any-"
"Yeah, yeah, don't destroy the apparatus, blah blah blah," Nick blabbed, his voice speaking over the robotic recording. Turning his head around to Judy, he added, "Alrighty, let's head through this wall. It'd be a miracle if this thing was an alternate route to help us get outta here, don't ya think?"
"Still not so sure about this," Judy replied, feeling precautious. "Maybe this is a trick that they put in the chamber to trick you. I dunno, Nick, it seems a little dangerous."
"Good point," the fox admitted, nodding his head. "In that case, Fluff, you go first. Scope the scene a little bit and I'll join you in a few seconds."
Rolling her eyes, Judy got down on her knees and crawled her way through the cranny in the wall. Nick simply watched from where he stood, watching as the doe looked like she disappeared through the light that the fissure casted.
A few seconds after the doe, the fox copied and proceeded to crawl through the open space alongside her. Unlike Judy, Nick had a little bit more trouble fitting through, and was partially concerned that he was going to get stuck. However, his worries proved unnecessary once he got his whole body through the small spot.
The light was no longer that bright whiteness, and proved to be nothing more than the reflection of a halogen bulb from nearby.
Grabbing onto Judy's paw for assistance, Nick got himself out of his crawling position and stood up to look at where the two of them now were. From what Nick and Judy could observe, the space looked somewhere that was definitely off limits for volunteers like them. If it was true, then they stood within a passageway that was meant for Aperture Science workers only.
The walls surrounding the space looked a little bit dilapidated compared to the tidy conditions back in the chambers. An assortment of wooden crates, opened and unopened, were scattered in a corner, and to the right of the two mammals was a rusty set of stairs leading to a slightly elevated metal platform. In addition to the lightbulbs above them, an eerie glow of red illuminated this particular area.
"What is all this?" Judy mouthed out loud.
Nick broke out in a small smile. "Woah," he breathed in response. After a few moments of silence, he added, "Anywho, I guess I better start gettin' a look around here."
"I don't really know what you're expecting to find," the doe replied, kicking the top of a small crate out of her way as she walked around. "There's nothin' even in here except some old boxes and stuff."
"A one-way ticket out of this place, that's what I'm looking for. If there's anything I've learned from the movies, it's that places like this always got some sort of secret shortcut."
"I'm pretty sure they designed this place so you can't cheat, Nick. The only way out is solving all of the tests, and it's as simple as that. No way to get around that."
"Not listening, Carrots," Nick said, impolitely interrupting the doe. The fox walked up to a large, silver door that looked like it lead to somewhere in his mind. "Now then, let's try this door."
As he turned the knob, Nick opened the door and ended up looking straight at the a well-placed turret with its laser aimed directly at him.
"Activated," the turret whispered, its sides opening up.
"Oh snap!" Nick exclaimed.
Reacting on impulse, the fox quickly slammed the door shut as he cursed under his breath. Nick shielded himself in a far corner despite the door protecting him, shielding himself with his paws up. The turret on the other side of the doorway fired at nothing, its bullets hitting against the metal but not causing any damage whatsoever.
The firing stopped, and Nick breathed a sigh of relief. His heart continued to beat at a rapid pace.
"Searching," the turret said, barely audible behind the door. "Are you still there?"
Nick grunted at yet another encounter with the menacing robot that he had grown a good hatred for. "A turret," he muttered. "Why in the hell would a turret just be sittin' right in front of the door like that?"
"Probably there to catch foxes like yourself who try to cheat the tests," Judy mocked.
"Har har," the fox huffed.
"So are we done here or what?"
The vulpine turned around and climbed up the corroded, discolored staircase. He made his way to another door at the top of the platform the stairs lead to. Nick tried to open it, but it didn't budge in the slightest. Great, it's locked, he thought.
Nick surveyed the area once more before walking down the steps and joining Judy, feeling a gradual sense of disappointment.
"How about we just stick to solving the tests the right way, without trying to cheat?" Judy asked. "The sign said we're on the seventeenth test chamber, you know, so that means there's only two left to go here. Now if we just work together and figure them out as a team, this will all be done before you know it." The doe gestured for the vulpine to come closer. "Come on, Nick, let's get to work!"
With a sigh from the fox, the two got back down on their knees and started to crawl back out of the room they discovered.