"Awright," Rick said as he bounced uneasily on Chell's chest, "in a minute, yer gonna get in a position where they'll be able ta see ya. Shots gonna be flyin' soon, so whatcha gotta do is serpentine!"
Chell grunted, giving him a quick glance.
"Know what that means, baby? Ya gotta be all over this field, dodgin' right an' left an' throwin' 'em off! They're gonna do somethin' called 'leapfroggin', two runnin' two shootin'. They'll be chasin' ya, but they won't hit ya if ya run around. I'll tell ya when ta switch directions! Trust me, sweetheart, I've done this hundreds a' times!"
Somehow, Chell doubted that.
Regardless, she ran faster, the hard, dead wheat stalks piercing her bare feet. Adrenaline, her constant companion, allowed her to ignore all of it. As the sound of hissing radio static hit her ears, she leaned over, making her body a smaller target. Shots suddenly pelted the ground, blasting up chunks of dirt and dried grass. She resisted the urge to shield the back of her head with her hands,
Rick's dark green optic dartedto and fro along the ground. "Shootin' at yer feet? Honey, you better motor it! Kick it inta high gear!"
Panting already, Chell forced her legs to move faster. A slight sting formed in her side; she pushed it away, knowing there were much more pain in store if she slowed. She didn't even see the tin shed, but the birds flying above, only visible by their white harnesses, still pointed the way. Putting her faith in the strange birds, in the corrupted core, Chell suddenly realized one important thing:
She was going to die.
"Man, what'd you doto these guys, baby?" His optic flickered back and forth, still watching the impact of the pulse rounds at her feet. "They wanna take you alive!"
"Spaaa-aaaa-aaaaace jaaa-aaaaa-aaaail," Orion yelled haltingly as he bounced on Chell's wrist.
Rick's optic shifted in Orion's direction. "Yeah, you're not helping, Space Case!"
Actually, the threat of Nova Prospekt was an excellent motivator.
Chell moved to the left under Rick's command, taking only a few steps before swerving right. To his credit, Rick's advice was proving worthwhile; the blazing blue bolts from the pulse rifles scattered everywhere along the ground, tearing up the earth but missing Chell's agile legs entirely.
"Left!" Rick called, and Chell switched again. She smiled. Perhaps she wasn't so dead after all. As long as her body held out, she'd be able to make it.
"What are they doing? Division, what areyou doing? Turn around!"
GLaDOS wavered impatiently, seeing nothing but dead field and dark sky in her cameras. The birds obviously didn't care, as they made no effort to turn.
"
I said stop and turn around! Why is she running? Is there something else out there?"
"Maybe she's just excited." His wavering voice and nervous brush to the back of his head said otherwise. "There's nothing on the radar yet."
"Yet," she hissed. "Let's hope it stays that way."
"Go left, sweetie, left! Now right! Yeah, switch it up, leave 'em guessin'!"
Chell bounded through the field like a deer, keeping low under Rick's direction. They couldn't shoot what they couldn't see, and though it was an incredibly tiring way to run, it was a whole lot better than getting shot.
The birds were almost invisible now, soaring higher into the air until only specks of their white breastplates could be seen. Chell was having difficulty tracking them and following Rick's orders, and she was now fully certain that she was traveling the wrong direction.
"Go right!" Rick hollered, and Chell groaned miserably as she turned again. Her feet shuffled wearily, and it took great effort for her to pick them back up again. Adrenaline could only go so far, especially when it wasn't being artificially pumped into the air. Her lungs began to burn, a silver-hot flame that pierced through her chest with every breath.
"Come on, sweetheart! You ain't gonna let 'em get ya, are ya? Yer better'n that! Pick those long, sexy legs up! Let's go, sugar! Move that tight little butt of yours!"
"St-stop talking to h-her like th-that!" Orion peeped, his voice still wavering as Chell's arm swung up and down. He shuddered so hard that he almost threw off her balance, and she swerved to the right to compensate.
Looking skyward, she only saw the bright stars and the mostly-full moon. The birds were nowhere in sight. A cry rolled from her throat, and she quickly aimed to the right, hoping she had merely wandered a bit off-course.
Then she saw it. Far off in the distance, a mere speck of dull yellow light. Chell wasn't sure if it wasthe little tin shack, but at this point, any hint was a good hint. She started toward it, ignoring Rick's commands as he urged her to the left and right. She barely avoided a pulse round; it grazed the leg of her trousers, the mere force of it setting her out of kilter. Almost tripping to one side, her dexterous feet quickly recovered, and she shifted to the right just as Rick called it out.
All that testing came in handy after all. At the very least, her reflexes had been sharpened.
Inspired by that dim little light, she caught a second wind. Well, considering all the traveling she'd been doing today, however, it was probably more realistically her eighth or ninth. Regardless, she found her legs moving swifter, more easily through the prickly grass and slick mud toward the little glow.
"Stop!" Rick yelled after just a couple had already applied the brakes. She'd seen a reflective shimmer in the moonlight, blue and hazy. She put her hands out in front of her just in time to hit something hard. Mild electric pulses coursed through her open palms, much like the containment fields of City 04. As soon as she touched the electrostatic field, it lit up, revealing a web of blue beams the same color and design as a Hard Light Bridge, forming a dome with the little yellow light at its center. She pressed her hands into the field, and the buzz of electricity grew in intensity.
Locked out.
She saw it clearly now; a tiny sconce pinned to the side of the small shed, its glow flickering as though the light bulb itself was on the verge of death. She recognized the metal door, its faded yellow signs warning intruders of electric shocks and other horrible deterrent methods. Now she realized that door had closed to her forever, slammed shut without any intention of reopening. Pounding a fist against the field, she gave an aggravated cry.
Suddenly remembering the field frequency bracelet, she reached for her satchel, pulling at the latch. As if anticipating her actions, Orion piped up.
"No! It's a different f-f-frequency! W-won't work!"
"Keep goin', baby! They're catchin' up; you gotta run around it!"
She dashed to the side of the shield, wondering what sort of sick trick GLaDOS was trying to pull. If she knew Chell was coming – and the birds were a clear indicator of such knowledge – why hadn't she lowered the barrier? Did she want Chell to die? To bring her all this way, so close to hope, with no way to get to the sanctuary she'd long dreamed of?
That sounded about like GLaDOS, yes.
"How could you have forgotten the barrier?"
Her tinny voice, rife with irritation, reverberated through the small chamber. He winced, flying toward the nearest console keyboard.
"It's not my fault," he grumbled, his fingers flying over the keys. "Oh, for the love of – how many security layers did you need on this?"
"In my opinion, eight was the bare minimum. You never know what they're capable of doing. Come on, hurry it up!"
A screen above the keyboard, one of many small screens showing lines and lines of green code on a black field, suddenly displayed a red, flashing notification that one security layer had been disabled. He gritted his teeth as he typed faster, knowing exactly what was on the line.
"You can't blame me. Last time I went topside, we didn't even have a restriction field."
"Last time you went topside was to install the field. Honestly, you're getting senile."
He rolled his eyes, leaning over the keyboard to focus. "Just...let me do this. I coulduse an extra pair of hands, but since you're too stubborn-"
"I'm not going to tell you again. I will never allow myself to be put in a humanoid body. The mere thought makes me wish I was incapable of simulating nausea."
Another flashing screen. Another bit of the shield down. He was about to grumble about how she should've just password-protected the thing when the blare of alarms scattered his thoughts.
"Oh, God, no," he gasped, fingers suddenly flying faster across the keys. One of the three screens previously showing the birds'-eye view of the fields switched to a view from the camera perched on the shed's door. The glowing blue eyes of Overwatch soldiers stared back, bobbing in the dark as the troops advanced.
"Only ten?" GLaDOS chuckled, and a screen to her side indicated that external turrets were being activated. "We'll take them down in -"
"No!" His fingers slammed on the keys, deactivating the turrets' command. She swooped to face him.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Jaw set, he turned to her with a look of ferocious determination on his face. "The turrets don't know the difference between them and her. If they shoot her – GLaDOS, I swear, if they shoot her, I will kill you – or do my damnedest to try."
She recoiled slightly, somewhat impressed by his bravado. Of course, he wouldn't be able to lay a finger on her before she ended him – they both knew this – and the threat itself was almost enough to send her into a neurotoxin-emitting frenzy. She knew better, though. Quite honestly, she knew she couldn't fight off the Combine without his help. He had immunity, for now.
Still, she couldn't resist telling him exactly how wrong he was.
"For your information, they do know the difference. I've got her genetic code integrated into all of them. In fact, when she left here -"
GLaDOS stopped. No, there was absolutely no need to tell him of the musical gift she'd delivered to Chell on her departure.
"The codes," she snapped instead, reactivating the turrets. "Get that shield down, now."
Chell's heart froze as a loud mechanical whirr came from inside the field. A large metal port opened from the ground, and from it emerged a round, green-eyed sphere connected to a hinge. A panel to the side opened, and the green optic switched to yellow as it emitted a frenzied beeping.
She vaguely remembered these atrocious things. The rocket turrets that she'd once used to knock the cores off of GLaDOS's chassis. Several more of them appeared across the wheat field, regular sentry turrets popping up alongside them, cheerily chiming "Target Acquired" before opening their side panels.
She tripped over her feet, quickly collecting herself before falling, watching the sentries from the cover of her eye. The nearest rocket turret beeped frantically, its optic switching red, and a small projectile launched from it, a thick stream of smoke trailing. Chell winced...
"Aw, yeah! Go, Big Mama!"
...and gave a surprised grunt as it landed several yards away, careening toward the Combine troops. They scattered away from the small blast, but the high-pitched squeal of a radio told Chell at least one had taken the rocket's impact.
Rick let out a hearty laugh. "You got an angel somewhere, kid!"
Chell quickly put distance between herself and the soldiers as they struggled to recover. They began to fire again, shots clumsily missing her feet by miles. Still, it wouldn't do to skirt around the border of the field. She couldn't weave around, and eventually running in a straight line would end in disaster. Another rocket hit, bathing the soldiers in smoke, and Chell had an idea.
She looped back, running in a wide arc around her pursuers. They stood in place, firing uselessly at the spaces she used to occupy, and another rocket blast made short work of one of them before they had the idea to start running.
Finally, she ended up in front of the shed again. All of the turrets aimed for the Combine now, and Chell smirked as they got a taste of their own medicine. Turrets, however, were not as particular about where they shot. Two more radios screeched painfully as the bodies hit the ground.
The barrier suddenly fizzled out with a sharp crackle.
"Io!" Orion chirped.
"Now, baby!" Rick screamed. "Go for home plate! Go! Go! Go!"
She tore past the barrier's edge as a rocket zoomed past her, her breath catching in her throat and a painful stitch at her side. The barrier popped back up almost instantly when she'd passed a few turrets, blocking the Combine from pursuit. It did nothing to stop their bullets, however, and Chell kept dancing along, dodging and swerving at Rick's command.
Jumping away, she yelped as a turret next to her suddenly exploded. Pulse round fire focused on another one nearby, and it soon burst into a fiery blaze. They were on the defensive now.
Chell made a beeline for the shed, high wheat brushing her knees.
She was almost there. A confident grin flashed on her face. Almost home.
GLaDOS, turrets, cubes...she'd even test. She didn't care any more.
She was almost there.
'Man makes plans, and God laughs.'
Chell was in the midst of that thought when the first pulse round entered her upper thigh. As if the world slowed its turn and time itself gave a malicious pause, she felt every inch, every centimeter of the round as it bore through her flesh and muscle.
'Sucker's luck.'
Her only thought as the second round dug into her leg above her knee.
Have you given up?
Does it feel like a trial?
A third round entered her calf at its thickest part. Rick was yelling. Orion was calling her name. She barely heard either of them.
The shed in front of her – so close to her – blurred and shifted to the side as the final round struck the outside edge of her calf. The pulse itself grazed her skin, but the resonance shockwave blasted a large chunk of flesh away.
Disappearing as she fell into the ocean of dying wheat, she felt no pain.
Only vicious disappointment.
"Camera five!" GLaDOS cried, thrusting her body so fervently toward the screens that her base clattered resentfully. "Switch cameras! Findher!"
"Camera five's gone. Blown up. Camera three is – augh!"
Camera three's view turned to static as soon as he pulled it up. Systems indicated that eight turrets – three rocket and five standard – were all that remained. Not a single one held a camera close enough to the area where she'd fallen. Even the camera mounted to the shed had been blown off. The only view of her was from a turret some distance off, and that screen only showed the thick, black, moldy wheat. This scene was stuck on the monitor before GLaDOS's swaying body, her optic glued to it as though looking away meant certain death for the former test subject.
"Get up," she growled.
He looked at her, body swinging anxiously while her head remained still. Frowning, he glanced at the monitor, studying the wheat stalks for any sign of movement. Several tense moments passed, and not a single stalk moved out of place.
"Get up," she uttered again, her voice less angry and more pleading, rising in nervous pitch.
"GLaDOS," he whispered.
"No. She's alive. She doesn't die. I know; I've tried fruitlessly on several occasions to end her life. Now, get up, you stubborn meatsack..."
He bit his lip, looking again at the screen with the motionless wheat. "GLaDOS, she's..."
GLaDOS roared, rocking faster side-to-side, her voice furiously desperate. "Shut up. Shut up! You're the outlier! You're not supposed to die! Nowget up!"
"GLaDOS, she's not going to get up!"
He'd always considered himself a logical man, one capable of holding back his emotions in favor of an informed decision. That Chell had been shot – that she was dead or as good as such – was a heartwrenchingly indisputable fact. He wished he could deny it, claim it all an illusion and simply trust that she'd magically appear in the elevator.
Evidence, paired with brutish, horrible logic, forced him to believe otherwise.
The spray of blood.
Her fall.
The still wheat.
The supercomputer, being a machine built upon logic, could readily analyze her situation just as well as he could. But sometimes she didn't. Sometimes, her emotions – emotions that any other computer wouldn't even have – took charge.
As she turned to face him, he immediately knew which was in control.
The inset of her optic stuck out from the faceplate, splitting into three separate pieces. The lone optic, like an eyeball on a stalk, bobbed madly, showing only a tiny speck of light in a black void. It froze him, pinned him into place, filled him with a fear he'd assumed had long ago vanished.
He didn't see her claw until it slammed into him, knocking him into the wall and embedding itself in the panel, trapping himagainst it. She leaned down, optic boring into him as though it was shredding into his soul. Bits and shards from around her head popped out, whirring and spinning uselessly as they hung on small rods. Along her body, pieces shifted and moved, giving her whole chassis the appearance of an angry cat, fur riled, ready for a tooth-and-claw battle.
The entirety of her body moved in on him, and he found himself truly trembling for the first time in years. Granted, her chassis had taken extensive damage and did not resemble the flawless, white construct he'd known years ago, but he had never recalled seeing her so unspeakably enraged.
He backed against the wall, the pinning claw offering only a small bit of breathing room. Her faceplate was inches from his face. The yellow speck in her optic blazed fiercely, accusingly, as though he were responsible for more than his words.
His mouth opened to speak her name, perhaps to pull her out of her maddened delusion, but the fear gripped his throat, putting his heart there in place of a voice.
The cheerful chime of a bell rang through the air. GLaDOS's dilated optic suddenly widened, her madness quickly forgotten. His eyes widened, too, as the sound's meaning tore through his brain, planting new seeds of hope. He gasped.
"The elevator!"