It had been later in the day than Doug had thought when he left town. When Aperture was finally in view on the horizon, the sun had set. The only light came from the stars and the crescent moon.

"We should probably sleep," Valentine said. "I'm so goddamn tired right now."

"You can sleep," Doug said. "I'll stay awake to watch out for anything."

"I'm too scared to sleep out here," she admitted. "I hate the dark and there could be—Oh shit!"

Valentine grabbed the baseball bat from Doug and swung it down on something that was crawling through the grass. There was a disgusting, squishy thump and a distorted chirping sound as Valentine hit her target. Doug stared wide-eyed at what was laying limp in the wheat. It appeared to be a mound of flesh with four sharp-looking, crab-like legs splayed out to all sides.

"What…was….?"

"It was one of those things I was telling you about," Valentine said, jabbing at it with the bat to make sure it was dead. "They latch onto your head and take control of your body. Since we found this one, there are probably more creeping around here."

"Are you still tired?" Doug asked, hoping she would get some rest if he promised to be on the lookout.

"Hell no!" Valentine said, resting the bat on her shoulder. "I've got too much adrenaline running through me now. I'll be fine."

They continued on their way, Valentine scanning the field while anxiety slowly seeped into Doug like sand. As Aperture became bigger and clearer, Doug couldn't help but have second thoughts about delving back in. He was scared; there was no doubt about that. There was always the risk of death in Aperture. However, there was someone new going in with him. A mother. A sister. A daughter. The love of his life. So many people's lives would be ruined if she never came back.

These upsetting thoughts were interrupted when Valentine suddenly veered off to the right, holding her bat up. She swung it down at something in the wheat, but the creature jumped around her. Doug only saw the top of its black form pop up over the wheat before it fell back to the ground and scuttled toward Doug.

He took a few steps back, terrified of what might happen if the thing so much as touched him. It continued to pursue him until he kicked the creature as hard as he could, sending it flying above the wheat. It looked like a very large black spider with only four legs.

Valentine took this opportunity to step toward it and whack it with her bat in mid-air. Viscous, greenish-yellow pus burst out of it from the impact, and the creature flew over Doug's head toward the forest to the left of the field.

"Aw man, you're lucky," Valentine said. "That was a poisonous one. If it bit you, I don't know if I could have dragged you back to town in time."

"Oh. Great," Doug said sarcastically, his foot hurting from kicking the little monster. "There are poisonous ones, too. Any other kinds I should know about?"

"Yeah, there's one that's really fast," Valentine said. "I don't think there are any other kinds, though. Just keep an eye out."

As they continued their trek, Doug decided not to let his worries distract him. He really didn't want one of those fleshy crab-things to get anywhere near his head. Luckily, the rest of the way to the facility was uneventful. They stopped at the chain-link fence where Doug collapsed on the ground.

"Doug?" Valentine asked anxiously. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm just exhausted," Doug said, sitting on the grass at the edge of the wheat. "I just need to rest for a while."

"Go ahead and take a nap," Valentine said. "I'll keep watch."

Doug didn't have to be told twice. He lied down in the grass—setting the Cup just a little way from him—and used his arm beneath him as a pillow. Valentine sat behind him with the metal bat laid across her crossed legs. It didn't take long for Doug to slip into a deep sleep.

"How bloody dare you!"

Doug woke up to a rough shove on his shoulder by a shoe. He scrambled to sit up and noticed Valentine had also been startled awake.

"Sorry, Doug," she mumbled. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."

Doug looked up at the person who had rudely woken him up. It was still dark out but he could barely make out Wheatley glaring down at Doug furiously.

"Why did you just leave without telling me?!"Wheatley demanded. "We were supposed to go back together!"

"Wheatley, don't push him!" Chell said, jogging to catch up with him. She looked down at Doug awkwardly. "Uh, hey, Doug."

"Hi," Doug mumbled. "Wheatley, I didn't mean to run off without you—"

"But you did!" Wheatley shouted. "What made you suddenly bugger off back to Aperture? And Valentine, your brother wants you to go back home!"

"Well, I'm not going to," Valentine said, standing up and brushing dirt off her skirt. "I think that should have been pretty clear when I gave him a bloody nose."

"Wait, what?" Doug asked, standing up, as well. "Why did you give him a bloody nose?"

"He was trying to restrain me!" she shouted. "He….I don't like to be physically restrained! It makes me uncomfortable!"

Doug couldn't argue with this. He didn't think it was a good idea for her to have hit her brother, but at the same time, he could understand why she did it.

"Well, let's go in!" Wheatley said. "Come on! Why are you wasting time sleeping?"

"I don't want to go in there exhausted, Wheatley," Doug said. "I need to be aware and ready. Aren't you tired? Do you really want to go in there and possibly face GLaDOS without resting first?"

Wheatley wanted to argue more, but he did have to admit that he was pretty tired.

"I agree with Doug on this," Chell chimed in. "The only sleep that I got in Aperture was being put in stasis and being knocked out from falling down that pit."

"Well, I suppose a quick nap would be a good idea," he admitted. "We should get our rest in now while we can."

He sat down on the grass and lied on his back with his hands folded on his stomach. Doug sighed heavily and lied back down. Valentine hesitantly decided to lie down with him, abandoning her job as lookout. Chell sat down awkwardly, her Long Fall Boots making it a little difficult.

"Aren't you going to get some sleep?" Wheatley asked.

"I don't know," Chell said. "I'm too nervous right now."

"This might be your last chance at getting some rest for a while," Doug pointed out.

Chell gave in and lied down next to Wheatley. She put enough distance between them, though, so that there wasn't a chance of them making physical contact. Wheatley didn't seem to notice.

Doug woke up, once again, to someone shaking him awake. This time, it was Valentine.

"I think I hear people in the woods," she said quietly.

Doug sat up anxiously and looked toward the trees. He could vaguely hear voices, too. The sun was finally up and everything was wet with dew.

"Uh, hey, Chell," Doug said, gently tapping her shoulder. "Wake up. There are people nearby."

Chell slowly woke up and looked around. "Hm? Where?" she asked groggily.

"In the trees."

They woke Wheatley and convinced him to keep quiet as they listened carefully to the voices. Soon, they could make out words that were being said.

"It's so nice out!" a male said. "Look at the trees! I haven't seen a tree in so long!"

"Jon, look at the little flowers in the grass!" a female said excitedly. "They're so cute!"

"They are kinda cute," the male replied. "Want me to make a flower crown for you?"

"What about me?" a male with a slightly deeper voice asked playfully. "I want to be a flower princess, too."

"Amelia, can't we just take a minute to soak this all in?" a man with a friendly Southern accent asked. "I just want a minute to look around and enjoy the smells of outside."

"I want to get to Aperture first," a young woman—supposedly Amelia—said. "Then we can take a minute to look around. I've never been to the Midwest before so the scenery is new to me."

"Hey, guys," Wheatley whispered in a not-so-quiet voice. "I think they're also wanting to get into Aperture. What should we do?"

There was a silent pause of uncertainty among them before Chell decided to be the one to speak up.

"I think our best course of action would be to just talk to them. They might have useful equipment that we don't have."

"I guess so," Doug mumbled warily. He just didn't want to have to talk to new people.

Chell led them toward the gate of the chain-link fence. If the people in the woods were going to enter Aperture, they would surely try the gate first.

When they were only a few yards away from the gate, the other group suddenly emerged from the trees. Their leader seemed to be a very young woman with creamy skin and brown hair tied up in a bun. In fact, they were all pretty young except for the large blonde man in their group who appeared to be at least ten years older. A fairly short young man with messy, dark hair and matching facial hair closely followed behind their leader. There were two other young men—one a bit slimmer with light brown hair that fell straight down to his shoulders; the other was more heavy-set with a thick black beard that was trimmed and black curly hair. Standing close to the heavy-set guy was another young woman with long, light brown hair, and freckles all over her cheeks and nose.

The two groups stopped and stared at each other for a few tense seconds. Neither group was at all sure of the intentions of the other. The people who had emerged from the woods even looked a little scared.

"Hello!" Wheatley said, being the first to step forward. "My name is Wheatley. This is Chell, Doug, and Valentine. What brings you all to Aperture?"

The other group just stared at him for a few seconds.

"Uh, hi," their leader said. "My name is Amelia. This is Mikey, Arin, Jon, Natalie, and Nate." She gestured toward each person as she introduced them. "Um, we're just here to explore the facility to see if there's anything we can do to help here."

"We heard about something happening in Aperture that caused it to be locked down," Mikey chimed in. "Do you guys know anything about that?"

"Do we!" Wheatley exclaimed. "This is your lucky day! Absolutely lucky! I used to be a Personality Construct in the facility!"

"A construct?" Arin asked skeptically. "Like a machine?"

"I know it may be hard to believe," Wheatley went on. "But it's completely true. And this young woman here used to be a test subject that was trapped inside. She was forced to perform tests by GLaDOS."

"GLaDOS?" Amelia echoed. "GLaDOS…..Oh! You mean the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System?"

"Yeah! That's her!" Wheatley said.

"You're well-researched in the facility," Doug said, slightly impressed.

"We've been waiting for evidence that there's someone still alive in the facility for such a long time," Amelia said. "We still don't have any, but we decided to come out here anyway. We're from a compound deep underground where we have a community of the families of Black Mesa workers."

"Black Mesa?" Doug asked, his eyebrows rising. "That's pretty far away."

"Yes, it is," Amelia said. "But this is what my mother wanted." She turned back to Wheatley. "So you used to be a machine? How did you become human?"

"Or did Aperture come up with a very convincing android?" Arin asked.

"It's….You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Wheatley said. "But as I used to watch over humans in the facility, I found Chell alive in there and guided her around until we accidentally reactivated GLaDOS. See, GLaDOS killed everyone with neurotoxin years ago. Everyone but Doug here."

Amelia looked back to Doug. He was so scrawny and constantly looked on-edge. It made her wonder what was in Aperture that made him look this way.

"You used to work here?" she asked Doug, gesturing toward the facility.

"Yeah," Doug said uncomfortably. "I used to be a programmer here. I was trapped in this forsaken place for years. I helped Chell a little, too."

"More than a little," Chell added.

"Huh." Amelia then turned to Valentine. "What about you? What are your ties to this place?"

"I'm just here to cling to this guy," Valentine said, linking arms with Doug who smiled bashfully.

"You know, this actually works out pretty well," Arin said. "I mean, we don't really know how to navigate inside the facility."

"If they escaped Aperture, what makes you think they want to go back?" Mikey asked Arin. There seemed to be a hint of tension between the two.

"Actually, that's why we're here," Wheatley said. "See, when I was put in charge of the facility for a while, I was monstrously awful to my friend Nora. She was my absolute best friend. Such a sweet girl. And she's still in there with GLaDOS. Doug left to find help but decided to try to sneak back without me—"

"Wheatley, that's enough," Chell said. "They don't need to know every little detail."

"Well, this is extremely convenient," Amelia said. "Would you like to share our equipment if you help us get through the facility? It would be great to help get someone out of there."

It occurred to Doug that this group of people hadn't quite caught on that Nora wasn't a human, but he didn't bring this up out of fear that they wouldn't want to help save a machine.

"Before we go in, though," Jon said, "I really want to climb a tree. Can we take a break before we go inside?"

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt," Amelia said. "Fifteen minutes, then we need to get going while we're all still refreshed."

The group from underground took their time marveling at the plants, climbing trees, or just staring up at the sky. Doug and Chell were so empathetic toward this, and they couldn't stop smiling.