What was that? Chell wondered as she squinted across the bottomless pit. It kind of looks like a robot or something. But before she could get a good look at it, it ran through the exit.
From then on, she tried to focus on the test but she almost felt paranoid about what she had just seen. What was it Wheatley had said just seconds before? Something about getting the test ready for her and no one else. Why had he felt the need to clarify that? Chell had a suspicious feeling about what she had seen by the exit. There was nothing she could do, though. She had to keep going.
Just as she jumped into a blue funnel that took her to the exit, Wheatley told her and GLaDOS that he had a surprise for them. He was very obvious with his intentions of this "surprise" when he said they'd love it to death. He was even more obvious when he said they'd love it until it kills them.
I know he's trying to be subtle, Chell thought, but nothing about him is subtle.
It especially wasn't very subtle when a pipe suddenly crashed through the hallway right before the next test, taking out a big chunk of the floor and getting white gel all over the remains of the corridor. Chell started to wonder if maybe Wheatley would just keep promising a surprise when he actually just hoped to "accidentally" kill them. That seemed like his style. Or maybe the robot-thing she saw earlier would kill them. That would be a little unexpected, Chell thought.
She breezed through this test too easily. She was getting so used to turrets that they barely made her nervous anymore. At the next test, Wheatley claimed that there were only two more chambers until the big surprise.
"I think I can break us out of here in the next chamber," GLaDOS said. "Just play along."
Chell was perfectly fine with this. And if they failed, they still had one more test after this one to escape. She entered the next test and just found a Cube bouncing on an Aerial Faith Plate in the middle of a pit of acid. There was another Aerial Faith Plate just before the pit. This test was all about timing.
Okay, easy enough, she thought. She waited for just the right time before she ran forward toward the Plate. But she didn't go in the expected direction. She was flung sideways toward another Plate.
"SURPRISE!" Wheatley shouted. "We're doing it now!"
It took a lot of effort for Chell to contain herself from erupting with laughter. Now that was a surprise! she thought. The second Aerial Faith Plate flung her toward a blue funnel.
"Wheatley, what are you doing?" Nora asked. "You're still testing with the woman. You said you would."
"Yeah. Had a thought about that. Decided I'd rather have the bots," Wheatley explained. "I don't think the bots will try to revolt against me since they love the testing."
"But you promised—"
"I'm going to have to stop you right there. I never said the words 'I promise.'"
Nora tried to protest, but Wheatley was quick to mute her.
"Sorry, love," he said. "I need to tell the test subject that I'm about to kill her. Figured it's only fair that I warn her just before I do it." When Chell landed on the platform he had prepared for her—complete with spikey plates made for crushing—he greeted her in a cheerful, pleasant tone. "Hello! This is the part where I kill you!" From here, he continued in the same satisfied tone to explain how he wanted to kill her.
"Gee whiz!" Kurt mumbled. "This guy likes to talk so much that he's explaining how he wants to kill this woman."
They were hiding very high up so that Wheatley couldn't see them. Charlie was leaning over the edge of the catwalk that they had found. He was trying to get a really good look at the lady before she was killed. He felt terrible that there was nothing he could do. What could he possibly try to do? Jump down to her? Then they would both be killed. The lady wasn't going down without a fight, though. She was quick to use her portal gun and make a way off of the platform she was on. She landed on a catwalk and looked back just as the spikey plates rushed toward the platform. Charlie was so excited that he leaned in more to see the disappointment on Wheatley's expression.
However, he wasn't paying attention to how far he was leaning out from the catwalk.
"Charlie!" Kurt cried out just as the boy's hand slipped out from underneath him.
"What on earth was that?" Wheatley said.
Nora barely recognized the falling figure as Charlie. She was just able to catch Charlie's shocked, terrified expression as he fell past Wheatley's monitor. She thrashed around in the stupid cage that she was trapped in as she tried to call out to anyone.
"Nora, what's wrong?" Wheatley asked, noticing her reaction to the falling object. He decided to mute the mic and unmute his friend. Nora cried out the first thing that came to her mind.
"Kurt!" she sobbed. "Run! Get away!"
"Kurt?!" Wheatley shouted. "KURT?! I told you not to say that name! Where is he?! Ugh! Nevermind! I have more important things to do!" He turned back to the mic and unmuted it. "Aw. Just thinking back to the old days when we were friends. Good old friends. Not enemies. And I'd say something like 'come back', and you'd be like 'no problem!' And you'd come back. What happened to those days?"
As Wheatley tried to get Chell to obey him, Nora sobbed quietly to herself. Charlie had fallen into the bottomless pit. Even with the Long Fall Boots, he was screwed. She wished that she could have prevented this in some possible way.
Suddenly, Nora felt the cage get yanked out from beneath her. It turned out to be a pretty flimsy cage. She looked down but whatever had taken the cage away was now gone. She looked back up at Wheatley, but he hadn't seemed to notice anything. While her gaze was on her tormentor, her savior yanked her off of her management rail and dashed toward a gap in the wall. It took a lot of willpower for her not to cry out. Her rescuer ran with her down a few hallways and into a hole in the tiled floor before they stopped in a sort of den. Doug then sat down and hugged her very close to him.
"Nora!" he said, tears breaking free from his eyes. His voice was very shaky. "I've been so worried about you! Where did you go? I was so afraid that I'd never see you again!"
"Doug!" Nora cried. She sobbed with relief. She'd never been more happy to see anyone ever. Her most loyal friend had her safely in his arms, and she wished that she could shed a few tears of her own to express her current gratitude. "Doug, I missed you so much! I-I didn't know what to do without you!"
The biggest smile spread across Doug's face as he looked down at her purple eye. "I missed you, too," he said as one of his tears fell upon her case. "I really did. I was worried about you the whole time. And Wheatley was, too."
"I don't want to hear about him!" Nora exclaimed.
"I know. I'm sorry I didn't get to you earlier. I had to wait until he was distracted."
"He's going to kill my friend Kurt!" Nora cried. "I just know it! He got jealous when I mentioned him!"
"Wait, hold on," Doug said. "Who is Kurt? How far down did you have to go?"
