Chapter 6

"I will," you said as you left the room.

As much as you'd like to find a way out, you will continue to test cautiously and look for a chance she's distracted, somehow.

You continued down the catwalk as the door closed behind you.

You turned to the right and followed along the path to the door up ahead to the left.

You were about to enter the door when you heard GLaDOS' voice again.

"By the way," she began. "When you were up on the surface, have you seen a deer? I haven't seen her today."

You hoped and prayed GLaDOS didn't see your face light up in shock.

"Uh…" you started.

Oh stupid, stupid! Now she'll know that's suspicious!

You chided yourself for your verbal indecision.

You quickly said, "Do you mean a buck or a doe?"

"It was a doe."

"Oh, nope," you lied.

Nice recovery.

"Hmm," GLaDOS droned.

"I usually see her with a little fawn in a meadow from time to time, not too far from the fields of wheat.

Now that poor fawn is out there in the meadow, and I don't see the deer.

She was my favorite."

You just now noticed GLaDOS' usage of the past tense 'was'.

It must be either an error or a Freudian slip, because it gave you an eerie sense of suspicion that she may already know you killed a deer up there.

"Never mind, proceed to the next test. I'll update you on the deer later.

Meanwhile, I'm boosting the adrenal vapor to your oxygen supply to prevent exhaustion again." She sounds slightly wary.

"Ok," was all you managed to say without your voice giving away your true feelings.

You felt guilty for lying to her, but heavens know what she'll do to you if she knows you killed 'her' deer.

Also, what the hell is adrenal vapor?

Just as you entered the testing chamber, she said, "Remember when I said I'll repay you in as many bullets as I'd like?

I regret to inform you, that this test contains a live fire course. Try not to get shot."

The hairs on the back of your neck stood on end. You have to find a way out soon, or you're as good as dead.

She KNOWS.

You noticed a red line laid horizontal at near eye level ahead of you.

As you rounded the corner of the short walkway inside the test chamber, you see an oval-shaped structure with a single red eye with the whole 'body' sitting on tripod-style legs.

"Deploying," was what the robot said in a cutesy voice.

Its sides opened out and started to aim towards you. You duck back behind as you hear, "Searching…Sleep mode activated."

You inhaled deeply and sighed. "H-hey robot, can you not shoot me, thanks," you shouted trying not to sound fearful.

You also noticed that you can portal just about anywhere from what you can see of the test chamber.

There was a hallway behind the robot, but you didn't pay too much attention to whether you can portal there or not.

You looked back to see if you can portal above it or below it, with it coming online with, "There you are."

You narrowly missed a few bullets flying your way as you ducked your head back around the corner.

"I said don't shoot me, robot!" You watched the red beam of light dart around the room.

"Are you still there? Goodnight." Good, the beam stopped moving.

Then you got an idea. You placed a blue portal right where the beam is facing, and very quickly turned the corner to place a portal beneath the sentry robot.

It popped out of the portal behind you as it flailed about shooting, saying, "Ow ow ow ow owww."

"Oh gosh, are you okay?" you called to the flailing robot.

Once it stopped shooting, it powered down saying, "I don't hate you."

Maybe they're programmed to say that, but you still felt bad.

You went into the hallway, which is colored brown, and you see another narrow passage to your right, but there's another red beam.

You remember that GLaDOS said portals work on white surfaces.

You turned the corner and immediately ducked back as you hear, "Target lost. Nap time."

Since you already have portals up, may as well portal underneath this one too.

You darted quickly around the corner only to find that the floor was brown!

You quickly got back behind the wall as it became active again.

"Dang!", you cursed under your breath.

Once the robot was idle again, you peeked around the corner to view the ceiling. There was a portal-able surface behind the robot, but not above or below.

You ducked around the corner as it detected you again. Once it became idle again, you placed an orange portal on the ceiling behind it, and then dashed away.

You walked back to where you placed the blue portal before and looked through.

There's another red beam directly in the middle of the portal!

If you jumped down, you'd get immediately shot at.

Luckily, there's a bit of an alcove in the wall to the right, and you can see a corner of what appears to be a weighted cube.

You took a deep breath, and jumped through, instantly dodging to the right the second you landed.

"Could you come over here?"

"No thank you," you called out as you watched the beam go idle.

"Resting." At least the robot ahead of you seems incapable of turning around, which is great news.

From the looks of this hallway from what you can see without being spotted, there are no surfaces to portal on.

You deduced that you'd need to carry this cube as a shield all the way down then.

You turned around to see that the cube has pink hearts at the center of its faces this time.

As if right on cue, GLaDOS spoke. "This is the Weighted Companion Cube. You will take it with you for the duration of this test.

Treat it as through it were your best friend that will eat a bullet or a hundred for you."

You always wondered what the third button was in between the portal buttons were, because it didn't do anything in the tight room with you and GLaDOS in it.

You pressed it and behold: it picks up the cube for you!

"Just a reminder: The Weighted Companion Cube, unlike you, cannot speak."

You dropped the cube in surprise before picking it back up. You crouched and held up the cube to proceed the hallway.

"Gotcha." The sound of bullets firing off startled you a bit, but you kept going until you bumped into it, tipping it over.

"Malfunctioning. Critical error."

You got a curious idea, as you went back down the hallway to pick up the other turret.

"Hey," said the turret. "Hey, hey, hey. Put me down."

Surprised, you put it back down carefully. "Searching," the turret responded.

Frowning, you asked it, "Are you sentient?" The turret didn't respond.

You walked carefully to its side and as soon as it sees you opened out. You retreated a bit back to where it can't shoot you, but still can see you, and waved.

It 'waved' its right side back at you by tilting it forward and backward.

You pick it back up and carried off with it, all the while it says, "Who are you? Hey. Please put me down. Help."

You ignore it and walked until you saw another red beam and placed it down behind you.

You proceeded to alternate between picking up the cube moving forward and picking up the turret while crouching and inching it closer until you were able to just get up and ran behind the turret at the end of the hall, holding the other turret.

You knocked the turret you're holding onto the other one and the one you're holding said, "Sorry."

The turret fell over and said, "Self test error. Whyyy?"

You then placed the other turret down and knocked it over. "Aaaah. I don't blame you."

You hate how they're getting to your emotions.

On one hand, they're shooting you. On another, they sound like children.

Maybe they are sentient after all, and you've been killing them.

At least GLaDOS isn't saying anything. One long puzzle later with the Companion Cube, you made it to the exit without any more run-ins with turrets.

GLaDOS then said, "Now that you've completed this test with the Companion Cube, it cannot journey with you.

Say goodbye to your only friend."

And with that it fizzled into nothing. You stood mouth agape at what just happened.

"Whoops, you should have spoken when you had the chance.

Anyway, did you know that people with guilty consciences are more easily startled by loud noise―"

GLaDOS was interrupted by the sound of a train horn, to which you jumped at with a startled yelp.

She continued, "I'm sorry, I don't know why that went off.

Anyway, just an interesting science fact.

If you were feeling bad about the turrets, don't worry. They're as much a part of this test as you are, and just as sentient."

You went through the door and GLaDOS continued to speak.

"I also have an update on the deer.

Turns out she was on her way to the meadow, when suddenly, she collapsed on the ground."

Bile rose to your throat as you fought the urge to pass out.

"Oh…is that so?" you said quietly as you walked slowly in the chamberlock.

"I didn't know why at first, then an image of a person came into view."

Oh no, the shed, you thought dreadfully as you made your way down the steps.

There must have been a camera on it somewhere.

On the last step, it gave way and you fell down yelling below, gripping the portal gun.

Turn to page 16.