Chapter 36: The Examination.
Chell followed Chase trough the destroyed city streets hoping they could find someone who knew how to help Chase. Judging by his body language the pain seemed to be getting worse by the minute.
"Do you need to take a break from walking?" She asked.
"No," he answered, "I've taken way too many of those."
"Chase," she answered, her frustration becoming a little apparent. "You've taken three..."
"And that's three too many." He interrupted. "Let's keep moving. Who knows how long we've got."
Chell sighed, "Chase..." She said, "Give yourself five minutes, you've got a pretty serious injury. You don't need to aggravate it."
He turned and looked at her, "It doesn't matter how much walking I do, it's still getting worse from the shock wearing off. The more time we spend moving the faster we can get help. Now let's go." He said turning around and walking towards a nearby building.
Chell muttered to herself but still followed him. She wished he wouldn't push himself so much, he had a breaking point just like everyone else.
A few minutes later they were walking into a courtyard for what looked like a tenement building. Then, Chase froze for a second, got down on one knee, and pulled out his ridle into a firing position. Chell reflexively pulled out her shotgun and walked up behind him.
They scanned the surrounding area for the better part of five minutes before Chase stood up and slowly moved into the courtyard, his rifle still at the ready. Chell followed him until they got about halfway across the courtyard, then Chase stopped again. Chell looked at him to see where he was looking when she heard a gunshot and saw blood splatter from Chase's throat. He dropped to ground holding the spot he had been shot.
Chell dropped her gun and knelt down to help him when she heard someone yell from up above her, "Hold it! Get your hands where I can see them!"
Chell panicked and put her hands over her head. She looked around and noticed a group of rebels coming out from the building with guns pointed at her.
"Wait a second," one of them said, "you're not... Who are you?"
"Chell..." She answered still in shock from what had just happened.
"Shit..." The person who asked who she was said. "Hey you!" He said turning to a woman there with him, "Go get the medic, we're gonna get that guy inside."
"On it!" The woman said running back inside.
"Alright," he said turning back to Chell, "Help us get him inside. We might be able to save him yet."
"Ok." Chell said jumping to her feet and grabbing one of Chase's legs and helping carry him inside to a small room with a table and a couple chairs. They laid him out on the table and someone came in behind them carrying his weapons and her shotgun. "Thanks." Chell told the person who had brought the weapons.
"Alright I'm here." someone said barging in. Chell looked to see that it was a medic. After he'd looked around the room he walked over to Chase and began to try and patch the hole in his throat. At that point everyone else left leaving just the medic, Chase and her.
After a few minutes, (which felt like an eternity to Chell) the medic had Chase breathing again. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Well, I think he'll come to in a couple minutes." He said, "I'm gonna leave you two be."
"Hang on." Chell said before he left. "Can you stay for a little bit? There's something else I want you to take a look at when he wakes up."
"I guess so, it gets me out of defending for a little bit." The medic answered, "What's the problem?"
"There's a really bad burn mark on his back." Chell explained. "He said something about getting hit by an energy ball."
The medic looked at her suspiciously, "A combine energy ball?"
"Yes."
"And he lived?"
"He's right there, so... yes." Chell noticed that was starting to sound like Chase.
"I refuse to believe that." The medic said, "He's either lying or something screwed with his memory."
Chell didn't respond, she just got up and laid the back of her hand on the side of Chase's face. It was still warm, she hoped that he would wake back up soon.
"Is he your boyfriend or something?"
Chell thought for a moment about how she was going to respond. "Not exactly," she began as she brushed a strand of hair out of his face, "We've only known each other for almost two weeks." she paused for a moment, thinking about all that they'd done in the short time they'd been around each other, "but with everything we've done to get to this point," she added, "he might as well be." She took a moment to examine him, something she hadn't been able to do for fear of getting caught. "I mean hey, why would I complain if that were the case?" She thought to herself, "he's something else..."