Chapter 4, everybody! In which we have a flashback….

Ignescent, thanks for the review! And thank you—glad you like it! :D Yes, when I was going through the characters, Wilson just fit too perfectly, and he is adorkable. :D I know—not too hyped about writing that (I've never written him in that sort of role before), so it'll be an experience.

Don't Starve © 2013 Klei Entertainment

Portal © 2007 Valve

Wilson had been beyond overjoyed to find Willow alive.

He was silently glad that he had woken up first, glad she hadn't seen—all those other doors he had tried….Nothing but skeletons on the bed…no way of identifying which one was which, deluding himself for as long as he could, not letting himself believe the worst until he tried every door….

But she was here. She was still alive.

Now to keep her that way.

But of course, she resisted any kind of coddling—she was like that. She was independent, she wouldn't break down into a sobbing heap at the perceived hopelessness of it all—she had tried to escape, multiple times, had helped him escape when it was clear that the one running it all had grown bored with them and was plotting to kill them off—

Wilson was quite soothed by the thought that that maniac was dead.

But now to flee this vale of horrors and escape to the real world—great scientists forgive him, he'd willingly give up science if it meant getting out of here.

But first, as he said, they would have to go the only way they could—forward—to start the process of escaping.

They made the short leap from the room to the glass floor—

Which shattered beneath them, depositing them in the room below. They landed on their feet, thank goodness—long-fall boots, an invention of the A part of KVAS, protected their soles from the glass. Unfortunately, the same protection wasn't afforded their hands, and he hissed in pain as a sliver of glass found its way through his thin gloves and into his skin.

"Are you all right?" Willow asked, concerned.

"I'm fine," he said absently, picking at the spot. No good—he pulled his gloves off and scraped at the offending sliver with his fingernail, pulling it out. No need to let it fester—he sucked at the wound and spat the blood out. Hopefully that would be enough to prevent an infection or blood poisoning—

He froze, as Willow had been for the past minute, recognizing the room.

It couldn't possibly be the same room.

It couldn't. KVAS had hundreds of testing rooms for hundreds of test subjects—

But it was the same. Right down to the clipboard—

He picked up the clipboard, hoping to find some clue as to why he was here instead of behind the glass supervising, why he had woken up in a test subject orientation compartment with a metallic male voice speaking to him….

Say, pal, you don't look so good.

That had been an understatement, he felt, waking up to find himself in a standard gray and black testing suit rather than his finely made trousers and vest, well-polished shoes replaced with long-fall boots. The voice had continued, telling him to get ready to test, but he was currently ignoring it in favor of the clipboard—but the clipboard had nothing of value on it—one of the bulletins on it was advice on how not to flush the clipboard down the toilet in the corner, for crying out loud!

As the man began to count down, Wilson tossed the clipboard aside carelessly. Whatever they were planning, he'd best get it over with—

He yelped in alarm as a hole rimmed in blue opened before him, revealing an open space and—

Another person!

He raised his arm, ready to hail him—

And the other person did so too.

Wilson blinked, recognized the spiky hair as his own—but how!?

He glanced about—

And spotted an orange-rimmed hole, with himself looking sideways.

He blinked. These were…portals.

He cautiously leaned forward, sticking his hand through the portal. When he met with no resistance or ill effects, he stuck his head out. Across the room, he saw the rest of his body—he had to fight a sudden feeling of revulsion and jerked his head back.

Wait—he had heard of these. Portals that could cut travel time in half. A lot of KVAS' scientific research had gone into developing these—

Say, pal, I don't have all day here.

Wilson glanced up, surprised at the irritation the voice had demonstrated. "I thought track test supervisors were supposed to remain neutral and impartial," he said.

And test subjects are actually supposed to get out there and test. Now get out there and start testing already before I…fire you.

So his supposition was right—he was playing test subject. Now that he thought about it, he had heard of one of the higher-ups passing down the regulation that employees would be subject to testing as well. Ugh.

Well, he had seen the test subjects perform these tests before. With his superior intellect, he could pass through the nineteen regulated tests with ease.

"I will conquer it all with the power of my mind," he whispered to himself, as he stepped through the portal.

"Wilson?"

Wilson blinked, snapping himself out of his reverie. A quick glance at Willow showed that she, too, had been locked in her memories of awakening in a test subject orientation compartment. He wondered if she had hesitated like he had, or if she had just demonstrated her grim determination and marched straight through, probably turning back for something like the radio when the emancipation grid had been explained.

"I'm all right," he said, glancing down at his hand before pulling his gloves back on. "Come on, let's go."