Chapter 10

"Mmm, ok," you said nonchalantly.

"WHAT?!" Wheatley boomed.

You hand him off to P-Body.

"You're making a smart choice," stated GLaDOS.

"I can't BELIEVE you! The nerve of you to just rid me like that!"

As P-Body and Atlas leave with Wheatley bickering, you turn to face the door before you as it opens.

"Proceed onto the catwalk where I'll take you to my chamber where the elevator leads to the surface."

You looked back behind you to see them make it to the other door.

You turned quickly to portal on the wall past the door and portal near you and run out, charge P-Body, grab Wheatley and run back down to the other hallway.

"Now you're making a not-so smart choice," stated GLaDOS annoyed.

"After them, you imbeciles."

You dashed down the hallway to the right side you didn't run down.

"Oh, ho-ho. The old bait-n-switch, I see.

Devilishly clever thing you did. Didn't even know myself.

J-just let me in on your plans next time, alright?" said Wheatley calmly.

"Can't exactly tell you the plan I just came up with in front of the enemy you know."

Once you went through the door, there appeared to be a sort of rail with machinery and conveyer belts working either side of you.

Wheatley spotted something and said excitedly, "Oh! Want to see something cool?

Plug me into that port there by the door, I'll lock'em out. Or in. Just not locked with us."

Without hesitation, you plugged him in and the door mechanism rotated and the green circle became red.

"Ha ha! Success! Unplug me and take me with you please."

You grabbed him and sped along the guarding rail past the machinery.

"Oh this is great. Once we get out of here, we can find that Lady.

Maybe you know her, I dunno." Wheatley beamed energetically.

"What Lady?" you asked. "Oh, man alive, did she know how to use a portal gun! She was here!

As a test subject. The one that got out, I guess. Or maybe she's dead. Knowing her, she killed the Lady."

You gave a discerning look. "I don't know. I'm not sure how people will react to a robot that talks."

"Oh, are you residing in a tribe full of savages? Horrid."

"No, that's not―never mind," you said.

At the end of the railway, there is a stick thing hanging from the ceiling.

"Oh, there's a maintenance rail! Place me there and I will hide from her."

You placed him on the rail and said sadly, "I'm gonna miss you, Wheatley."

"I too, friend. Say, if you ever meet, um her again, ―the Lady not her-her, can't miss her: brown hair, never speaks― just–just tell her I said I'm sorry, for, um, for what I've done. That thing I did.

And said, I've said some horrible things. Things about her being fat.

Fatty fatty no parents and all that, yeah. I take it all back, truly I do."

With a wave of his upper handle bar, he zips off.

"Remember what I said! If you find her, tell her what I said!" he said faintly.

And he was gone.

Wait, brown hair and never speaks? He doesn't mean… you thought to yourself.

If he meant That Woman…

You decide to dawdle on that thought later as you leave through the other door.

There was a series of conveyer belts across the room that you must jump down and traverse across.

The first conveyer you get on pans to the left where you see and orange glow beyond the entrance in the wall.

You hopped to the next one which is panning to the right, where there is that same crushing platform you and Wheatley avoided earlier.

A twang of sadness hits you suddenly with the crippling loneliness you just now realized is there.

You were alone from the start, but with Wheatley being there, he filled a void you didn't knew was there.

You kept hopping across until you reached the other side and walked down the platform to where there is a door.

Once you entered, you found another series of underground maintenance catwalks to traverse.

You have been travelling for what felt like a long time, and you cam across a door with a simple door handle.

Once you touched the door handle, it started to pull down and the door opened inward, revealing a woman who was now startled by your appearance.

Oh my gosh.

It's that Mute Woman!

"What the―? What are doing here? How did you get here? Oh boy I'm so glad to see―" you started before she cups your mouth with her hand and lays a finger to her own.

She then points to the ceiling as to indicate something.

"Let me guess: you're helping me escape?" she looks at you with a deadpan expression and removes her hand to sign, 'No, I'm here taking a tour of this old facility.

Yes, I'm helping you escape, but also S-H-E can be listening.'

She signed out the alphabet letters for the word 'she', indicating GLaDOS.

"Oh," you said quietly.

'Follow me,' she signed as she walked back out the door she came from.

You followed her for a while through a series of twists and turns in the back way of Aperture, when you said softly, "Hey, hold on a sec."

She stopped and turned around to you.

"Why…did you came looking for me?"

'I was afraid something happened when a rocket launched out of nowhere. The other hunters panicked and came running back, but you…'

She looked down with a worried look.

'…you never came back.'

"I'm sorry," you said finally, walking ahead of her.

She followed after you to stay with you.

"I was curious as to why the wheat fields were off-limits, but I found a deer, but then I fell…" you took a turn to the left in to an office building.

She grabs you and you turn to face her.

'You're going the wrong way. I know a secret entrance.'

"Just stopping by in here to eat a snack. I've been running around with low energy for a while.

I just don't want to eat out here on the catwalk." She nods in understanding and heads inside after you.

There was a faint rumbling but was too hungry to pay any mind to it.

You sat down, placed the portal gun next to you, and pulled out your snack still intact.

You continued, saying, "It wasn't just heading into the fields that I feel about. It was the reason."

She looked up at you intently, waiting for you to resume.

"I thought you were some kind of crazy person who had a secret bunker with bodies in it or something, so I went looking―well it would have been snooping.

You never talked, so I didn't know how to trust you. I'm very, deeply sorry."

She looked down as you finished the rest of your snack in shame, watching her.

'C-H-E-L-L,' she signed. You looked confused and said, "Shell?" She shook her head.

'The C and H are like in the word champ.'

"Chell?" you repeated with a different pronunciation.

She nodded with a smile and you told her your name in response.

'Now we have officially met. You always seem to avoid me in town, and now I know why.'

You grabbed the portal gun, got up and you and Chell started for the door.

Once outside the office, it seemed completely different.

There was an odd door at the end of the catwalk.

"This isn't what it looked like before, was it?" you asked slowly.

Chell shook her slowly and without warning, two mechanical claws swooped down and grabbed you and Chell.

"IT'S A TRAP!" you cried as you both were hauled up.

You looked up to see a circular structure with a tube system going through it coming into view.

All this running around, and you ended up resting underneath her flipping chamber.

"We had been under her chamber this entire time?!" you exclaimed.

Chell just looked confused, looking around as through something didn't feel right. As you were nearing the chamber, Chell placed her index finger to her lips, implying to be silent.

"She knows I talk, you know," you told her.

'No, stop talking,' she corrected in sign. 'I don't want her knowing I can communicate.'

Once you were in her chamber, she slowly turned around to you face you both.

"Well isn't this an unpleasant surprise: you somehow found and brought this lunatic back in here."

"Hi, GLaDOS," you say unenthusiastically as she drops you both once the floor panel closed.

"While I would say that this is a happy reunion, I'm not happy with this situation at all.

For one: I finally found you and this is how you repay me? You don't sound thrilled to be back with me. And two:"

She turns to face Chell. "I told you to never come back. And yet here you are."

"How did you find us?" you asked, gripping the portal gun.

She turned to face you again. "Trying to kill you with traps seem ineffective when you're equipped with the portal gun.

So I decided to trap you using a false sense of security and moving you closer to me so I can bring you here.

I could have routed some goo into the trap, but what I found in the trap was rather interesting."

You lowered the gun. "And what's that? Her? You didn't expect to find her here?"

She shook her head. "No, I caught her in a more-than-obvious trap before.

I found a better way to rid of you two, personally."

Face her head-on on page 11.