Chapter 10

"She said left, I remember, she said left." Wheatley muttered from Chell's arm in which he hung from. She shook her head, remembering that GLaDOS had said to go right from here. She turned, staying quiet as she pattered along. It was hard to do so with these boots, they were light, but they always make a loud clanking sound as she walked. They weren't that comfortable, either. The insides were well cushioned and it fit her feet well, but they were like high-heels, and it took Chell a while to get used to them again. It was a wonder why GLaDOS left her with them on when she let Chell go. There were a lot of things that GLaDOS did for Chell that confused her, but she was at least thankful she had done so, for it had kept Chell alive and kept things working at least mostly alright.
That's why Chell had come back wearing the same clothing she had left with, although they had been blanketed with a thick layering of dust in Chell's basement. She had come back with them on because she wanted to have the same familiarity with GLaDOS as before. She hadn't changed much; that was a fact, she looked almost exactly the same as she did when she had left, even though it had been over twenty years, and she couldn't explain why. Making another reason why she wanted to come back, so she could break her curiosity.
Chell ran her hand along the railing, Wheatley mumbling about how Chell had went the wrong way and that they were going to get lost or caught and that he should never have trusted a brain-damaged mute to decide what to do. It made Chell start to doubt herself, but she knew that something had changed in Wheatley since he was in control of the center. A part of ALBANE had probably been absorbed into his circuits, making him a bit darker than the Wheatley he used to be, than the Wheatley she used to love and care about. He used to been great fun, and he always found ways to make her smile, but this dark side of him made him all the more difficult to work with.

A loud pop and some static came from Chell's pocket, and she winced. PotaDOS wasn't doing well; she needed to pick up the pace, it was only a matter of time before the potato ran out of energy or just overall broke. Then Chell would be left with Wheatley, and who's to know what he would try and get her to do.
Chell kept an eye out for cameras or turrets, the catwalk was dimly lit, but she didn't feel like having to ask Wheatley to turn on his
light. Beyond the railing were the outer walls to a few test chambers, Chell was curious about which ones they were and whether or not she had been in them before; although, she had never been in the outer part in this area. It made her heart race, the excitement of running around in the guts of the facility, trying to hide from an antagonist of her own story. It made her miss the old times, and she somehow enjoyed it. Her life was on the line, and it was up to her to fix things, it made her a hero, made her a martyr.
The thrill could only be cut from her when she risked her life, but this time it was for more than saving a building, she was saving her beloved daughter. If her life was on the line, it mattered a lot more, and it gave a thrust to the speed of her feet and flexed her senses.

She took another turn, this time to the left, just as GLaDOS had told her. She was immediately met with a dead-end, but she knew that she needed to jump over it and land on another catwalk, and from there, they were almost there. Chell took a grip of the railing to
look below, spotting the other catwalk. With that, she flung her legs over and dropped.

As she fell, her immediately was lit with red beams, and as soon as she had a sure footing and the Long-Fall Boots absorbed the momentum, she fell to her stomach. Bullets blazed through the air, barely missing her hair. Twenty turrets were guarding either side of the catwalk on an elevated surface, so if she was to dodge down and just crawl passed them, they probably wouldn't see her.
"Are you still there?"
"Target lost."
The turrets' voices chorused with all their different sayings for whenever they couldn't find the target. GLaDOS must have updated them because they had reacted and targeted her faster than they used to.
"I know where you are." One said suddenly, making Chell's heart skip a beat. Then she started to hear the sound of something
mechanical moving, like small gears moving a bigger object. A red light suddenly lit up the catwalk right in front of her; then quickly
targeted for her head, "I found you." The turret said darkly. Chell was up and moving immediately, hearing all the other turrets starting to move.
Thanks, GLaDOS, this is a real help. Chell thought to herself as she dodged the infinite cascade of bullets. Her legs
thrusting her forward in a fashion of movement that she's never done before, the blood roared in her ears, but she could hear faintly over the whole commotion of bullets and adrenaline, Wheatley screaming high-pitched like a little girl.
As fast as she was moving, nothing seemed to hit her—AH!
She stumbling in pain as a bullet slashed through her jumpsuit pants and seared through her thigh. She immediately felt liquid start
to run down to the back of her knee, and she lost her balance, falling to the ground. But the turrets didn't give in, they were all over her fallen body in less than a heartbeat, easily able to with their new moving abilities.
This wasn't the kind of adventure that Chell found so addictive. Another bullet clipped the bicep of the arm that was holding Wheatley. She couldn't give up, not now, not here. Not like this, she couldn't give in this easily.
She pushed herself up, crushing her teeth together as she held back the pain, and continued to run. Bullets continued to skim against her, and she heard a few ricochet off of the screaming Wheatley, at least protecting some of one side of her abdomen. She was almost past them, she could make it, she could do this… As long as they didn't get another critical hit on her.
Ahead, there was a turn in the catwalk, and GLaDOS had said that that was where the security room was. So she kept running, and somehow managed to dodge the last one, and dash around the corner into safety. As soon as she did so, she collapsed to her knees, and then sat back as she caught her breath, putting pressure on her wounds the best she could. Hopefully the turrets couldn't jump down onto the catwalk and walk around the—Clank, clank, clank-clank clank.
"We're coming for you."
The sweat that slid down Chell's forehead turned to ice, and she stumbled to get up and unlock the door with the password GLaDOS had told her earlier. Her fingers fumbled lamely over the keypad as Wheatley began to freak out again, and PotaDOS went on another round of static as the turrets started to get closer.
The long password egged on Chell's nerves, and she got it wrong; she tried again, and got it wrong again. Her fingers flew over the keypad quickly; her leg and arm starting to burn harshly, and she bit back the tears that started to build up in her eyes, clouding her view.

Red shined across her hand, followed by the lead turret saying that it found her. Chell tensed, and in one last reach for life, she turned on it head on. For some reason, the turret seemed stunned from the act of bravery, and it didn't shoot, just sat there and watched her; but Chell knew it wouldn't last long. This things were programmed to kill, and only to kill.

She used that moment to her advantage and lunged forward, switching Wheatley to her other, stronger, arm and used him as a battering ram to knock the turret into the railing, and then fall helplessly into endlessness.

"There you are." The next one said, and Chell bounded forward, the bullets bouncing off of Wheatley and plummeting back against the front of the turrets. Being upgraded, they stop shooting, and Chell uses that time to knock them off of the catwalk as well.

Wheatley screamed immensely in her grip, being swung back and forth and clattering against turrets, bullets, and railing. One last turret remained, and Chell ran towards it, and it started to spray her with bullets, but she blocked it with Wheatley.

Except for one lucky bullet that somehow managed to veer around Wheatley and collide with Chell's shoulder, making her lose her grip of him. Thankfully, he fell towards the turret and caused it to fall off the railing.

As Chell fell to the cold metal of the catwalk, she watched as Wheatley bounced off the railing and tumbled towards the same fate that the turrets had just gone through.

Things began to go dark as the front of her white shirt drenched itself in dark red, and pain like no other sliced venomously through her wounds. With one last chance, she reached for Wheatley in a fatal attempt, her vision darkening, she couldn't see where he was, but she felt something metal touch her fingertips and she clenched her hand, praying that it was him.

Then she hit the catwalk, and it was over.