Wheatley rubbed the back of his head with one broad hand as they began moving down the catwalk. He had passed the portal gun to Chell after she had spent a full minute stopping him from moving forwards and pointing at it. She had always seemed to know what she was doing with it anyway.
Seeing Chell again had been more than he hoped for. It almost made being a smelly human worthwhile. And seeing another human with her had been just as much of a shock. The new female had told him that her last name was Wheatley and she had seemed almost as perplexed as he was.
"Well luv, Wheatley is my only name," he frowned. He could just about remember trying to tell the scientists his name when they had first made him. But not one of them had taken the time to learn it. They had seemed happy with him, but had often left him on his own in a dark room at first. He shuddered involuntarily, those times were best left forgotten.
"Are you sure?" Beth had turned on him, pointing to the Aperture logo printed above his heart on the orange jumpsuit, "it's just that…" Chell grabbed her arm, pulling her away from him and forcing her to walk forwards again. She stumbled a little as she was turned back around, falling back into step behind Chell.
"The logo? Ah, what about it?" He asked curiously. But his train of thought was cut off as his stomach made that horrible growling noise again. He clutched at it, worry and fear settling in again, "oh god. It's doing it again! I don't want to die, I don't want to die…"
Chell looked over her shoulder and raised a brow at him. She slowed to a stop and Beth almost walked into her back.
"You're not going to die," Beth chuckled as she shook her head, "you're just hungry… you've never eaten before? How peculiar. Erm, Chell sweetie, where can we get something to eat? I'm starting to get hungry too."
Chell raised the portal gun towards what looked like another test chamber. One of the panels had been pulled back slightly, its arm twitched but didn't move from its position. Before Wheatley or Beth could respond Chell had ducked inside the gap.
"Ah, Chell, luv! Wait for us!" Wheatley cried, a little panicked that she had left him there. He ran to the hole and climbed inside.
"Ugh, again? I hate these small places," he heard Beth mutter behind him as he crawled through the gap. Again he saw hand-prints on the walls and, as he stood, he could see writing scrawled on the walls. It was mostly unintelligible, he was only able to read a few scratched equations, not that they made any sense to him. There was even a well drawn picture of a cake. Scattered around on the floor were various mugs, cans and large empty bottles. A few computers lay in a corner. The small room was dusty and it looked as if nothing had been in there for a while.
Chell was sat against a plain wall near a hole that let in white light. It gave the room a strange vibe and he shuddered a little, rubbing at his forearms in the chill air. She was holding a tin of something in her hand. Beth grumbled something behind him and walked around towards the other gap. She flopped onto the floor in front of Chell and Wheatley followed, dragging his feet a little.
"Beans?" Beth asked with uncertainty in her voice, "are they alright? I mean, do you know how long they've been here?"
Chell held a finger to her lips and motioned to the open gap besides her with the portal gun. Beth went quiet, glancing back at Wheatley with a frown. Chell held the tin out to Wheatley first. He took it cautiously and peered at its contents. Inside was just orange lumps with the same coloured thick liquid around them. He looked up to Chell and her friend to see that she was holding another can. He watched curiously as she dug her fingers in and held them to her open mouth. Wheatley noticed that her hand was empty but he copied the movements. He grimaced as he felt the small lumps on his fingers but lifted them to his mouth. Chell was doing something strange with her mouth, pretending to lick her fingers then move her cheeks around. Finally she pointed at him. Beth was giggling as she looked from one to the other. Wheatley gave the orange things a look before sticking them in his mouth and licking them from his fingers.
"Now chew," Beth said as she tried not to laugh.
He frowned at her and moved the things around his mouth. He cringed a little as his teeth crushed them and swallowed the gooey mess down quickly. He licked his lips.
"Ah, its strange. But not too bad. Do you have to do this everyday?"
He looked back into the tin and scooped out another handful of the little orange lumps. He caught Chell out of the corner of his eye as she gave a nod and saw Beth with her hand over her own mouth, with water forming in her eyes. He carried on eating, lowering himself to the ground and sitting with his back up against the painted wall.
Chell found and opened another tin, dropping the apparently empty one she had demonstrated to him with, this time offering it to Beth. She watched them for a few seconds as they ate and leaned across to the gap in the wall besides her, peering through.
"Aperture," started Beth and Wheatley looked over to her, "so this place is Aperture," she seemed to be staring at his logo again. Chell turned back around and stared at Beth, her face showed mild interest.
"That's right," Wheatley said through a mouthful of beans, stopping to swallow them and almost choking. He rubbed at his throat.
"You know, my dad worked in Aperture," Beth added as she stared into her tin.
Chell had an even stranger expression on her face now. She was looking at Beth and then at him with her eyebrows raised and mouth hanging open. Wheatley smiled at her as he awkwardly shoveled more sticky orange lumps into his mouth, not really understanding the implications of Beths' sentence.
"From what I do remember of him," the taller girl continued as she handed her unfinished food over to Chell, who took it uncertainly, "he never talked much about…"
"There you are. You know, I may not give you that surprise now. Running away is not reward-able behavior for a test subject." The voice of GLaDOS rang out, seemingly coming from the hole in the wall Chell sat by.
Wheatley and Chell dropped their tins simultaneously, sending beans all over the dusty floor. She jumped up, her face suddenly stern and the portal gun aimed at nothing from what he could tell. Wheatley sunk a little lower into the ground, swallowing down the last mouthful he had taken.
"Not falling for your tricks luv!" he shouted from his hunched position, before he had even realized what he was saying.
"What's going on..?" Beth whispered, half-pulling herself up and looking at both Chell and Wheatley in turn.
The room began to shake a bit and Wheatley jumped forwards as the wall he was leaning on suddenly lurched into his back. He dashed over to Chell and her friend and stared back at the moving panels. He hadn't even noticed that the wall had been made out of them and he groaned at his stupidity.
"I can easily send Blue and Orange to go in there and get you Moron. But I quite like the idea of you being flattened. Unless you. Come. Out. Now."
"OK luv, rather we weren't squashed personally. Can imagine that would hurt quite a lot actually," he answered. But the panels kept moving, blocking off the way they had come. They had gotten uncomfortably close and he felt something tugging his arms. He spun around to see the two women had grabbed an arm each and were pulling him through the gap.
"We?" GLaDOS questioned as they fell through the hole into another, rather simple, test chamber. A panel quickly blocked the hole, sliding neatly into its place. Wheatley groaned and looked up at a small camera watching them from the wall, before quickly glancing at the girls.
"What is this place?" Beth muttered quietly as she and Chell let go of his arms. Chell was staring up at the camera too, the determination he was used to seeing again on her face.
"Oh. Its you. You seem to have put on more weight in the last few days."
"Hey, she's not fat. You said so yourself when you were a… oh, ah, never mind!" he cut himself off, waving a hand at the camera. He knew better than to insult Her or bring up potatoes in Her presence.
"Erm, I don't understand! Been quite a lot to deal with for the last day or however long I've been here. Could someone please explain what's going on? Like who that woman speaking is and…"
"Moron, are you an amoeba, or did you and the mute… Breed?" GLaDOS said, cutting her off. There was a hint of disgust in Her voice, "although, I'm pretty certain human children don't outgrow their mother this quickly."
"I'm not a moron," Wheatley sighed then glanced at the two women. Chells' expression hadn't changed at all but Beth was rubbing a temple and looked more confused than ever, "you must be. Confusing an adult human for a child. Thought you were smarter than that luv."
"You must really love testing, but I know you also love destroying my facility. That is why I sent you away," She continued, ignoring Wheatley completely. The camera twitched a little and he knew She was watching Chell from Her chamber.
The smaller woman turned her back on the camera and shot a blue portal into the wall behind her. She turned sharply, shooting the orange gateway at a high ledge where a cube waited. Wheatley watched her as she stepped through the blue and came back with the cube held on the operational end of the ASHPD.
"What are you doing?" Beth asked as Chell carried the cube over to the large, super colliding super button at the other end of the chamber. She didn't answer as she dropped the box onto the button, but motioned for them to follow as a yellow tick appeared by the exit.
"Hmm. I already know you are capable of these tests," Her voice again rang out, "and I would put you all on the co-operative testing tracks. But they were built for two, not three people. And I am dealing with a mute lunatic and a complete moron here, perhaps I should separate you or I could just give you all a surprise."
Wheatleys' heart thudded in his chest. He didn't want to be separated from Chell again, now that he had finally found her. And he had a nasty feeling that the surprise was nothing more than neurotoxin or the rather deadly cake he had never actually seen.
Chell moved away from the exit and stood between Wheatley and Beth. She aimed the ASHPD straight at the camera and shot an orange portal at it. The camera fell through the blue portal with a clang and rolled a little on the floor. Wheatley smirked, this was obviously her way of saying 'no' without actually having to.
"And that thing… opens door ways? Its hurting my head just thinking about it," Beth piped up.
"To ensure performance of authorized activities, do not destroy vital testing apparatus," GLaDOS said, sounding rather bored. "Really, very mature," She added in a more sarcastic tone.
Chell again motioned for Wheatley and Beth to follow her as she strode towards the exit.
"Yeah, maybe someone can explain please?" Beth muttered as she and Wheatley ducked through the circular doorway behind Chell. "Ugh, what's that?!"
"An emancipation grill luv," Wheatley said as she stopped and stared at it, he pushed her forwards straight through it, "don't want to be left behind now do we?"
Chell waited by the glass elevator, motioning for them to hurry up. Wheatley smiled at her and went to step inside. Chell grabbed Beth and pulled her in, just as the door shut behind them. The elevator began to move and, with a sinking feeling in his gut, he realized it was going down. He interlaced his long fingers in front of him and stared down at them.
"Sorry luv…" he muttered. Again this was his fault, if he hadn't been hungry they wouldn't of ended up in another test chamber in Her sight. Chell reached out a hand and patted his arm, her eyes softening a little. He smiled as Beth leant on the glass to their side, her arms crossed in front of her.
"You want to do these dangerous tests together? All three of you? Well, I guess I can organize something. For science." GLaDOS spoke with a chuckle as the elevator continued its journey.
