"Madison…" Allan whispered, keeping as motionless and quiet as possible. She was still asleep on his arm. "Madison." He repeated more frantically, but maintaining his silence. She stirred next to him and let a sleepy groan slip through her lips. "Madison, don't move."
When he had awoken a minute earlier, he'd felt something was immediately wrong, and his feeling was met with instant correctness: standing not five feet from them was a new MAT. It was just sitting there, an egg with a tripod stance, watching them. Its laser wasn't active, but Allan could see its eye: red and alive.
"Wha?" She questioned and began to sit up.
"Madison, don't move," He stressed.
Too late.
He saw her eyes widen and her mouth open and knew it was the end of them. She let out a scream and backed up into the wall.
"I see you." The MAT chirped, its gear turning and preparing to pop its machine guns out.
Its laser shot out from its eye, landing square on Madison's forehead. Allan grabbed her and pulled her to the floor, shielding her with his body. The MAT popped out its side panels and Allan closed his eyes. Madison screamed again.
"Die die die die die die die!" The MAT chanted and began shaking.
No sound came though. No bullets either. Allan opened his eyes.
The MAT had no guns. It seemed like it thought it did, but on either side of it where the guns should have been were empty slots. The Mobile Armed Turret--MAT--wasn't a MAT at all. It was an MT.
"Empty." Allan said the word, unable to keep a tiny smirk off his face from the irony.
"Die?" The MT questioned, obviously confused why he hadn't torn the two of them to shreds.
"No," Allan answered and stood up. "Not us at least."
He strolled over to the little eggshell, hoisted him up by his legs and prepared to toss him into the wall.
"Allan, wait!" Madison cried out and put a hand up from the floor. She caught him mid-throw. "Maybe he can help us."
Allan stared at her, then at the MT.
"How?" He asked curiously.
"Put him down." She motioned to the floor as she stood up.
"Him? This little killing machine?"
"Yeah, put him down."
Allan reluctantly listened. As he propped the MT back on its legs, it whispered "I'll get you.". Allan squinted at it and tilted his head.
Madison knelt before it as a mother would kneel before her child and laid her hand on one of its legs.
"Can you help us? Can you get us out of here?" She asked sincerely.
The MT responded by shining its laser into her eye. She threw up a hand and shielded herself from it.
"Stop that!" She commanded and, surprisingly, the MT stopped.
Something inside it whirred and clicked, and then its laser disappeared and its would-be-gun-holsters slid back into its body. Its red glowing eye waned down to black, and then the MT went dormant and quiet.
"I think… I think it died," Madison said almost sympathetically.
Allan stepped beside her and crouched.
"No. Its still alive."
"Still alive?"
"Still alive. Look," He told her and pointed at the black hole where its red eye glowed only seconds before. There were many more smaller red lights inside it: miniscule and myriad. They danced around the core of it like flies on a light bulb. "I think we should move along."
"Yea. OK. That sounds good," She responded; the trepidation stirring in her voice.
Allan, sharing her unease, stood up and walked to the doorway of the room. Outside, the long, black hallway stretched out both ways into the unknown. He swallowed a lump in his throat and turned to Madison.
"Well… let's Rock N' Roll I guess."
She nodded and stepped beside him.
They joined arms again without even thinking about it and proceeded down the hall. They got half a dozen steps before a sound came from behind them that froze their bodies and caused all the hairs on Allan's neck to stand.
"Where are you GOING?" The voice came from the MT; they both could tell by the general location of the sound, but the voice did not belong to the MT. The voice belonged to Glados.
"Run," Allan commanded, and they did just that.
"How did she do that?" Madison questioned through her heavy breaths. They were jogging at a fast pace, cautious of the dark abyss ahead of them, but unable to heed to its danger. There was a bigger danger behind them. "How did she… take him over?"
"I don't know," Allan answered between his own breaths. "I don't want to stick around to find out."
Down further and further they ran, leaving the red glow of the room behind them. The darkness around them swallowed them, and when it seemed like they couldn't possibly go any further without becoming disoriented by the lack of sight, a light appeared. It was dim and far away, but it was unmistakably there. Madison squeezed Allan's arm and pointed towards it hopefully. He was able to make out the dim silhouette of her arm from its glow. Behind them, something clanked and smashed, but neither of them paid any attention to it. There was (literally) light at the end of the tunnel.
As the pinhole sized speck of brightness grew to the size of a doorway, they could make out a very bright room inside it, and soon enough they were squeezing through the entrance and-
"WAIT!" Allan cried out, but a bit too late.
The room looked like a giant toilet bowl. There was no flat floor, only a giant funnel that stretched to each of the four walls and slid down towards the center of the room where a small pool of water awaited. Allan's feet kicked out from under him just as he cried out, and then he was on his back; riding the slide down into the mysterious pool below. His hands shot out to his sides in a desperate attempt to stop himself, but there was no getting off this ride. Not till the end. He hit the water and was submerged in a cool liquid. Water filled his jumpsuit and he instinctively held his breath and began to swim back up to the surface. Madison came down nearly on top of him. Her legs collided with his chest underwater and knocked him back into the wall of the pool. He regained his composure and swam to the surface again.
His head jetted out of the water and he sucked in a harsh, deep breath. Madison soon joined him, mimicking his actions.
"What the hell!?" She shouted as she pushed wet clumps of hair away from her face and scanned the surroundings.
Allan would have answered if he could have, but he was as confused as she was, and before he could even share in that confusion, the water beneath them was moving. Madison let out a shrill cry of surprise as the entire pool of water began to slowly circle in a counter-clockwise direction. That's when Allan felt the suction on his legs and lower body. He could see by the look in Madison's eyes that she felt it as well. The room didn't just look like a toilet bowel, it apparently operated like one as well.
His hand shot out to grip hers, but it was too late. They were being sucked (flushed) downwards, and there was nothing either of them could do against the relentless force. Madison shouted his name, and then all sound went away as they were pulled underwater and sucked into a pipe. The thirty seconds after that was like being on the world's most dangerous water park ride. Allan was pulled and tossed and flung around as the water tore at his body and limbs from every angle. He couldn't help but open his mouth at one point and got a lung full of water in them. His vision started to blur. His arms felt weak and useless. Madison was nowhere near him.
Then he was out; sprawled on his hands and knees, coughing up water and gaining his vision back. The leg-shocks must have broken his fall. He glanced over to his side and saw Madison hacking up her own gallon of lung-water. His breath was slowly coming back to him, and it was then that he peered down at the floor and saw it wasn't a floor at all, but a large grate: hundreds of small holes littered the floor, letting the water they had just been drowning in fall down below. He couldn't see what the 'below' was, but he could hear water splashing against something from far, far down. He lifted his head and saw two large, dirty cylinders against the far wall. A long, thick pipe was leading away from them over his head. He traced the length of it with his eyes till it led behind him. He turned to see a long control panel against the other wall and three more cylinders on either side of it. They had been dumped out into some sort of water control room.
He slowly stood up, check to see if Madison was alright, and then the two of them were pacing the length of the room, looking at the quiet machinery that lay there, rusted and forgotten for--seemingly--years. Madison found an old toolbox in one corner of the room next to a series of thin pipes that covered an entire wall. It was filled with tools. People tools. The kind a machine would have no use for.
They shared a long look at each other that was filled with doubts and questions, but neither of them asked any. Allan slid his hand along a monitor that was attached to the control panel. It's screen was caked with dust and a thin layer of grime; it's edges starting to crack and split the plastic casing. No one had been in this room in a long time, that was for sure.
A loud noise split the silence apart in the room. Allan instinctively reached for Madison as she did the same. As they met hands, another tube in the ceiling--there were around ten of them scattered around overall--opened its mouth and spit out a long stream of water. It passed through the room indifferently and sailed down through the floor. Before the mouth closed up again, however, a large chunk of something metal-looking slammed down against the grate. The mouth closed.
They shared a curious look before Allan walked over to it, Madison slightly behind him. They stood over it and looked down at it. Allan knelt closer.
It was a gun of some sort. It had an oval-shaped, white body with thin, black pieces of metal protruding from it's front. A fat, grey tube was jammed into it's top with several smaller tubs running out from it and circling down to the bottom of the body where they jammed up inside of it through ringed holes. A long white tail stuck out from behind it and a handle and trigger made up the bottom of it.
"You were right," Madison whispered in awe over his shoulder. "It's a weapon. They're making weapons here."
Allan turned back to the gun and looked it over. He'd never seen a weapon like this one. It did have a trigger though. It did have a nozzle at the front. Allan had never shot, or even held, a real gun, but he had played paintball with his friends when he was younger and it certainly didn't look that much different from his Black Eagle III. But what kind of strange gun was this? There was no place to put bullets OR paintballs. Allan stared at it intently, and before long his hand was reaching for the handle.
"Don't!" Madison hissed. "Who knows what that thing is or what it does. What if you hurt yourself?"
He pulled his hand away.
"Yeah... forget it, let's just get the hell out of here."
He stood, and then he and Madison were heading towards a door that was nestled into the corner of the room beside a tank. Allan pulled at the knob, but it wouldn't budge. He tried with more strength, but it was no good.
"Now what?" He sighed and dropped his hands to his hips. "The only other way is down."
Madison stepped next to him and pounded on the door with her fist.
"Hello!?" She called out.
"Madison, no one is out there. Look at this place, there hasn't been anyone here in-"
"Hello?" A voice came back from the other side.
They were both so stunned--and at the same time frightened-- that neither could make so much as a peep. They just stared at each other with wide eyes and mouths agape.
"Is someone in there?" The mans voice was closer to the door now.
Allan stared at Madison. She shrugged.
"Y-Yes?" Allan said back.
There was a pause and then:
"Are you Allan?"
Madison's eyes widened even further as she tugged on his arm and shook her head. A sudden look of terror had filled her face.
"N-No?"
The door swung open and Rick was standing there.
"Rick!" Allan let out a thankful sigh of relief and pointed to him. "How did you-
Rick grabbed him by the collar of his jumpsuit and yanked him out through the doorway. A long, dark hallway was what awaited him on the other side, but he only got to glimpse it for a second before he met the wall on the other side with his face. His vision blacked out for a moment and he collapsed to the ground. Just as he was about to stand up and yell, Rick was on him again, pulling him up by his collar and standing him up straight in front of himself.
"Rick? Why-
Rick's fist met his jaw before he could finish his sentence. The lower half of his face was jolted with pain, but before that could even set it, Rick slammed him into the wall and kneed him in the stomach. He slowly slid to the ground, clenching his abdomen and struggling to find breaths of air. That's when Rick really came down on him. He violently shoved him to the floor and straddled his waist. Rick's head came crashing down into his own, and then he felt hands around his neck. Squeezing. Ripping the air--and the life--right from him. Allan was helpless but to make a gurgling noise and try to kick his, suddenly useless, legs out to shift his weight. It did not good however, and only caused Rick to further tighten his grip around his neck. He looked up and saw Rick's eyes. They were cold and emotionless and dangerous. His face was steady and calm. Allan could only plead with his eyes as his voice had been choked away. His eyes were going to. The world was being framed with little black lines around it's edges. Allan knew they would close down to nothing, and then he would cease to exist.
Something bright and orange suddenly came out from nowhere. At first, Allan thought it had been a delusion, it happened so quickly, but when he forced his eyes to focus, he saw that there was, in fact, a large orange oval now painted on the wall to his right. Except the paint wasn't paint at all... it was glowing and moving and... alive. He looked over the other way and saw Madison standing there with a gun in her hands. At first he thought it was the Black Eagle III, but upon further inspection it was the gadget that had fallen through the ceiling in the water room.
The black frame was larger. His vision was a pinhole compared to it's former self. The orange pizza glowed beside him. He saw Madison move, then he saw Rick move, and the Rick was no more and only Madison remained. Life came back to focus.
Breathe.
Allan took a sharp breath and then another and a third, and then the black frame went away. Madison was kneeling over him, cradling his head in her lap.
"Are you OK!?" She asked frantically.
"I'm better," Was all he could manage. His voice was hoarse and weak. "What happened to-
Was all he could say before he heard the groan from near his feet. He lifted his head and saw Rick laying on the ground, but starting to stir. Allan, realizing he didn't have time to recover, scrambled to his feet, nearly falling over if it hadn't been for Madison catching him.
"I hit him in the head with it," Madison said, gripping Allan's arm.
"With what?"
She pointed at the gun on the floor. Allan looked at it for a moment before scrambling to pick it up before Rick could. He got it in his hands and pointed it in Rick's direction.
"I don't think it works right," Madison whispered from behind his shoulder and pointed at the wall where the large orange oval glowed and swirled brightly. "That's all it did."
Allan made a move to look down at the trigger of the gun, but in doing so he accidentally fired it. It made a loud, short noise that sounded like a gun being fired inside a tub of jello, and then a long, blue stream was rocketing down the hallway, leaving a trail of blue residue in it's path that hung for a moment and then dissipated. Allan was surprised. The gun hadn't even kicked. It really was like a paintball gun.
"Allan..." Madison whispered, and Allan saw what she did.
The orange oval on the wall was gone. It was still there in a thin outline, but the center had been replaced with a room. It looked like a hallway with a long corridor stretching out away from it. It took him a second, but Allan eventually came to the idea that it was the same hall they were standing in.
"It's a... it's a..."
"Portal," Madison finished for him.
Rick was getting to his hands and knees.
Allan didn't think, he simply reacted. Rick stood on one foot, and then Allan was beside him, shoving him towards the portal with all his might. Rick made one, wobbly attempt at blocking the push, but his balance was too offset, and he tumbled into the portal, grasping his fist at Allan's arm and missing. Madison rushed to Allan's side and the two of them stared into the portal at Rick, who had stumbled over his own feet and was on the ground again. He looked around him and then up at them. He stood up.
"Allan... shoot it. Close it," Madison said with an anxious stress to her voice.
Rick's eyes met Allan's and he took a step towards them. Allan pulled the trigger and the orange-rimmed portal was no more. They stood there, side by side, staring at the wall when they heard Rick's voice from down the hall let out a yell.
"Now what?" Allan asked. Madison looked bewildered. "Madison?"
"Huh?" She answered, snapping out of her daze. "Oh... run?"
Allan heard footsteps quickly coming up the hall towards them. It was dark down that way, but he could make out a faint body in the distance. Rick was storming their way.
"Run sounds good," He said.
And they did.