"Riffer"
"No, no, almost! You need a more of a 'v' sound, pretend you're an overheating computer."
"vvv, riffer, river, RIVER!"
"Yes, you said it!" congratulated Wheatley, his blue optic shimmering up at Chell, but she was otherwise engaged in hopping across rocks and dry patches in said river, like stepping stones. Wheatley wasn't too troubled by the thought of her slipping into the waters, with him dying as a consequence, and he knew her boots had a grippy outsole and balance-aiding synthetic auxiliary heel, so the probability of that happening was slim. Chell had spotted a silvery building amidst the trees that grew in rows by them, and that spurred her onwards as she repeated her new word. She babbled it in the way a child would, but she was only doing it so so that she may be able to lose her dependence on the keyboard. Nearing the grey mass, Chell leapt on to the side, across the plant roots to crunchy gravel, to better examine the dwelling better. There were only around 29 houses all in rows round the building (that resembled a mill, but was too dishevelled to know for sure) lined up like dominoes, but that wasn't what they were drawn to. There was a vast electronic billboard, semi-obscured by an error message, that read:
'As simple minded beings, you must feel compelled to do something with your (short) lives. So come to Aperture Science, where you can test to achieve.
Note; if you do not want to test, you must stop by for some Free Cake Sampling.'
Chell pursed her lips and glared at the sign as if GLaDOS could see her doing so. The liar. She felt tempted to think that She wouldn't stoop that low, but was wrong. The little village was deserted, they must have all ran to Aperture like magpies to tinfoil. Paint flaked off each sign and abandoned home, settling down on the walkways like snow. She began to wander round each house and peer through each window, balefully staring at each dusty photograph, each smiling face that must have...No, it was worse to think about it. Some houses had children in the photographs, all grinning, all must have left their homes for a ghost of cake, never to return. Quite often a photograph would look oh so familiar, names just lurking in the dark recesses of her mind, causing her to tremble and feel terrible for not being able to remember them truly. One house held a picture of a young girl, same coffee hair, same eyes... Chell wasn't even certain that the picture was indeed of her, but burst through the front door anyway, the lock rusted and crumbling since long ago.
Disoriented, Chell stumbled along the hallway and into the living room, collapsing on the aged sofa. Lint puffed up and swirled around her. She didn't understand how such a machine could be so heartless to lure people away to trap them. Who knows how many people had died before she woke up in the Enrichment Centre and took Her down. Testing had always seemed an eerily solitary task, so lots may have perished out of misery through the trials. A dark thought had latched itself onto Chell; without Her to run the facility, how many people had died because of Chell?
"Ah, can you, um, stop dripping water on me. I'm not sure if you can help it, but, um, I could malfunction..."
Maybe the test subjects had freed themselves and only she was dragged back in? No, that wasn't how things worked, either way Chell had lives on her hands, lives she hadn't even thought of before now. If they were still there, still in suspension, perhaps she could help them. Unless...
"Oh, is this the crying I've heard of? Oh, that's a sadness indicator, isn't it? Are you okay?"
"n-n-no."
"Right, right, well try not to be sad if possible, uh, just breathe, in case you weren't doing so already..."
Chell curled up, Wheatley pressed against neck as he tried his best to assure her, over and over again, as the tears riveted down her face as she attempted to decide what to do, thoughts manic and confusing. Eventually they sunk to the bottom, and and her mind was clear.
