The dented pot above the fireplace was filled with a boiling stew, releasing warm steam into the house. Chell stuck a wooden spoon into the pot and stirred it thoroughly. She spent the past three hours gathering things to be put into this meal. It wasn't too hard to gather vegetables from the garden and prepare them. The hard part was finding the meat. Spring was still young, therefore the normally abundant animals of the forest haven't all returned. Hunting was probably the most difficult task to adjust to. Chell first had to accept the fact that the forest animals were real and not an illusion, and that took long enough on its own. After an hour of waiting for a rabbit to fall into a trap she'd set, Chell settled for a squirrel instead. The way the meat cooked was different compared to her usual rabbit (since it was thinner) but she didn't care. Meat was meat. She reached above the fireplace and grabbed a wooden bowl from a shelf, then scooped some stew into it.

Chell sat on the porch, watching the sun set behind the clouds, which were still clearing from the rain. Each color melted together in a flawless display as the sun sank deeper. She's seen it more times than she could count, but each time she saw a sunset it reminded her that this life she made for herself was real. She wasn't trapped in that place anymore with her. She no longer had to worry about what she had planned or what he was doing behind her. Those days were finally over. Now Chell was free to go wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted, to do whatever she wanted.

On a distant hill, bushes rustled and a deer marched across the grass.

"Maybe I'll tell you about the time I saw a deer again." GLaDOS' voice whispered faintly in the back of Chell's mind.

Chell pushed the voice away and watched the deer as it cautiously approached a tree. It began scraping the bark with its antlers, effectively tearing some of the bark from the tree. It was going about the task aggressively, but it was still an elegant sight. Chell set her empty stew bowl down and leaned back, taking in the whole picture. Her garden, the forest, the deer, and the sunset in the background to tie it all together. She closed her eyes and savored the moment. Nothing beats this.

Thud!

Chell's eyes flew open and she glanced around in alarm. The deer seemed to have the same idea. She caught slight movement in the bushes near the deer and sat up straight to get a better look. The rustling stopped. Was there a predator around? A bear maybe? A sudden bright streak of orange lashed out at the deer and tumbled into the undergrowth with it. Chell stood up and backed towards her front door. Another blurred figure dashed out of the bushes and into the path made by the previous one. For a moment e everything was completely silent. Chell froze.

Freezing up for that split second costed her. She saw a bit of orange at the edge of her yard from the corner of her eye, and took that as the signal to book it into the house. She flew down the short hallway and into her room. The door was slammed shut and she slid under her bed to grab her knife. Whoever lived her previously had left it in a drawer in the kitchen, and Chell kept it under her bed in case an intruder got ideas. She tucked herself under the bed and quieted her breathing. The door creaked open, and a pair of small white long-fall boots treaded carefully along the wood floor.

Chell recognized the boots immediately. The only problem was they weren't her boots. 1: They were too small and clean to be hers. 2: Hers were tucked safely away behind the couch. Whoever they belonged to, there was no doubt that the wearer was from that place.

The boots were followed by a second pair, and they both stopped in the middle of the room. Chell tightened her grip in the knife and positioned her legs so that her feet were braced against the wall.

In a flash, she kicked the wall and slid out from under her bed, startling the two androids. They reacted quick, but Chell was quicker. The knife dug deep into one of their legs and they let out a sharp cry of pain. Chell yanked out the knife, shoved the intruder over, and ran after the other one. She got a good look at the knife in her hand when she'd freed it from the intruder's leg, and it took a minute to register the sight. The knife was clean. There was no blood. So these weren't humans she was dealing with, and because they owned the boots they'd come from Aperture. Now Chell was twice as eager to get them out of her house.

The other android was just about to reach the front door when Chell tackled him to the ground and pinned him against the wall. Doing this wasn't too hard since he was quite small. She was just about to dig her knife into his chest when she was hit from behind. Her head hit the floor and her vision blurred.

She took a moment to regain her sight. A chair leg was on the floor next to her, and her assailant stood over her. The android glared down at her through blazing orange eyes. Chell grabbed the chair leg she'd been hit with and swung it against the intruder's arm, denting it. The other came to assist his friend, but was shoved out of the way and thrown back against the doorway as Chell made a mad dash for escape.

Chell ran as fast as she could, the desperate urge to survive fueled every stride, just as it had done seven years ago. She turned back for a second to see if the androids were following. They were gaining on her surprisingly fast. A blue bullet shot past her and the familiar sound of an opening portal greeted her just milliseconds before one of her legs gave out below her, sending her into a fall. All she saw was a hard grey and unforgiving ground rushing up to meet her, then the world going black.