He'd been called into the medical bay early that morning. 'Room 2056', they'd said. He took deep breaths wondering what Cave would tell him, it had been a long time since he'd been called to his room to chat. Perhaps he'd heard about the incident in the lunchroom with his mental breakdown. He rarely forgot his medication! That day he'd taken them too, but the medication was the wrong prescription and it hadn't helped him at all.
Doug started chewing at his nails as he walked past the nurses lined up whispering in the hall. They didn't give Cave that much time, he was very close to the end and everyone was worried about him. They quietly motioned to Doug, confirming it was alright for him to enter the room. Doug just nodded in response. He quietly marched into the darkroom and approached the bed.
"Mr-" He broke off into a nervous cough, eyeing the darkened room's walls skeptically. "Mr. Johnson, you wanted to speak to me, sir?"
A scrawny pale figure appeared under the bedsheets glancing up to Doug, meeting his stare. Doug took a step back. Mr. Johnson had gotten a whole lot worse.
"Doug! Hey! You made it. Good for you-" Cave greeted, his now small figure trembling from the simple action. "Glad you made it, I need you to do something for me." The old man gasped.
"Anything." Replied Doug.
Cave gently nodded tiredly.
"Take this list to Henry." Motioning towards a piece of paper lying upside down on a bedside table. "Take it, and give it to him."
Doug nodded. Walking towards it and picking up the paper. He looked over it.
It was a list of names. A long list of them too. Doug looked through them.
"Why's my name on this list?" He turned to Cave who'd closed his eyes and settled in under his sheets.
"It's so Henry knows..."
"Knows...?"
"Knows who is getting the opportunity that I will never get." Coughed Cave.
Doug glanced around the darkened room. Wrinkling his nose, he could smell wilted flowers somewhere in the dark.
"What opportunity, sir?" Doug asked again.
Cave rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.
"That's not too important Doug, what's important is you'll receive it. Hopefully...when all the research is done…" Cave closed his eyes. "Can you ask one of the nurses to bring me my pain pills?"
Doug's hands trembled.
"Yes, sir."
Doug stepped out of the darkened room and into the light, leaving behind the withered form of what used to be a thriving man. He looked worriedly at one of the nurses who caught his glance. Doug gestured to her nervously, she quickly hurried into the room with pills in hand.
Doug slowly paced into the main hall. Going over the names on the list.
Doug Rattman.
A chill ran down his spine. What opportunity? Research? What was Cave planning?
Doug continued to walk with the list in hand but he was starting to question what Cave meant. He looked back at the list, at the uneasy handwriting that formed his name. He didn't want the so-called "opportunity" if they weren't going to tell him.
Doug looked about him unnerved as he broke into a run down the hall passing multiple lab rooms. One of them was open and there didn't seem to be much activity inside. Doug jogged through the doorway towards a desk. Doug hadn't noticed it was occupied but rather was focused on the pens spread before him. He quickly plucked one of the pens off the desk and began to scribble his name forcefully off the paper he'd been given.
The young man who was occupying the desk frowned awkwardly. Eventually, after several seconds both men met glances.
Doug gulped.
He hadn't walked into some confidential office, had he?
The young man read Doug's face of worry and smiled back, reassuring him that he'd done nothing wrong. Doug tried to reply but was unable to say much. In response, the young man quietly picked up the pen Doug had placed back worriedly on the desk and gently handed it back to him. He nodded with a smile, then returned his attention to the blueprints, busily working away. Doug couldn't help but smile nervously back, fidgeting with the pen in hand. He looked at the man's lab coat searching for their name ID as he slowly headed back towards the hall. Maybe he'd send his thanks later when he could find words to talk to the stranger.
Finley Wheat.
Doug nearly fell over as he walked towards the door. He stopped and clenched the paper and the pen in both hands.
This man's name was on the list too!
Doug looked back towards Finley working silently at his desk. At peace. Unknowing.
Doug glanced one more time at the list.
What were these names for? What were they planning on doing with these people? Doug clenched his jaw as he got one last glance at Finley working silently at his desk, something he probably did day after day, week after month. Something he expected to do when he got up in the morning to go to work, what he expected to get paid for. One day he would come in the morning and everything would be different, something would change. His life would change and all because his name was jotted down on a worn piece of notebook paper!
Doug clenched the paper harder. He needed to get rid of this thing! He bolted into a full run when he crashed into someone coming down the hall, losing his grip on the paper and tumbling to the floor.
Doug looked about him and froze.
It was Henry.
"Doug, you alright?" He asked offering him a hand. Doug closed his eyes, lying on his back on the cold linoleum.
This couldn't have gotten any worse.
"Oh, you dropped-something…" Henry reached out and picked up the paper from the floor looking over it. He looked back to Doug who at this point had unwillingly gotten up from the floor.
"Cave, gave you the list?"
Doug shrugged, not knowing what to expect.
"What is the list for?" He asked, hoping it was for the better and not the worst.
Henry smiled at Doug.
"Well everyone on this list will be getting rewarded-"
Doug frowned.
"-with science! Who doesn't like that Doug?" Henry replied, amused.
"Oh, some of these names I didn't expect to see here. I honestly expected to see yours on the list, Doug."
A chill ran down Doug's back.
"Don't worry, plenty of science to go around." Henry smiled, patting Doug on the shoulder. "You shouldn't have worried about getting the list to me in a hurry though. You took quite a fall there. Go to the medical bay and ask for an ice pack. That should help." Henry suggested, motioning for him to go.
Doug nodded quietly and headed down the hall regretful, daunted that his name had almost remained on the list.
Finley Wheat.
Yet,
many others,
- remained.
~~~~Chell was snuggled in her warm bed. Curled up under her plush blanket and quilt. Dreamily thinking about a nice day under the stars. She loved it when her dreams took to the sky or the outdoors. She savored her good dreams and wished life was much like them. Just maybe a right amount of complex, confusing and amusing, but not threatening and griefed.
She continued to contemplate her dream when the phone began to ring in an unfavorable timed manner outside her bedroom.
She groaned, unsettled about who would call her at such a late hour. Then as she got up, her mind starting to kick into high gear, she realized the call was probably important. It was rare around here to get late-night calls for emergency egg deliveries.
She was quick to barge out her bedroom door and into her small living room. Picking up the receiver and listening to the voice of the perturbed woman on the other end.
"Hello? Chell?! Oh, sorry for waking you up. The thing is we have a little issue here at the hospital and I'd like - we'd like it if you could maybe assist us. Chell, you there?"
"Yes." Chell, mumbled, feeling cold.
"Chell, listen. I think we found another - another survivor." The woman cautioned.
Chell went pale. Her mind raced over the idea that someone else had gotten out of Aperture and escaped with their life from 'her'. Chell was anxious. What if...the survivor was her...paren-
She stopped. Clenching her fist.
She shouldn't get ahead of herself.
Possibilities were grim, besides she'd known forever that she'd been taken into Aperture as an orphan. She'd grown basically in the facility as a test subject all her life, even into her young adult life. She hadn't known what 'family' meant or what it was supposed to look like. She just new 'test', 'scientist', and 'GLaDOS.'
'Scientist.' She thought.
She closed her eyes and thought about 'her' scientist. The one she'd bumped into one late night while she tried to find a way to escape the facility before GlaDOS's take over. She found the solution, of course, his ID tag but she'd felt - guilty, afterward. He just wasn't like the rest and for the first time, she met a real friend. She smiled calmly, making her worries fade to dust as she thought about 'her' scientist and hung on to one of her dearest memories.
She'd been a young woman then, despite it she looked very childlike, something the scientist took into account whenever the inspectors asked about her age. There was no need for her to leave if she was a 'minor' and she never got a say on the issue. Under their 'care' she was Aperture's test subject forever, or so they'd all thought.
She smiled into the receiver.
"I'm coming." She replied, resourcefully. Smacking the receiver into the phone and running into her bedroom to get a new change of clothes.
She needed to know who'd they'd found. She was excited and nervous. Maybe they'd remember her? Maybe it was 'her' scientist.
She cringed, to think so many years later [possibly centuries later] she'd still had feelings for him. Of course, it wasn't 'her' scientist. She winced a little, saddened.
She wished she could have done more for him.
She squeezed her car keys as she ran out the door.
She couldn't help but laugh as a shower of pleasant memories played in her head as she drove back to town. She couldn't help but think he'd somehow bettered her life in Aperture, at least for some time before his loss. She hadn't been a complete loner like GlaDOS had said, or at least hadn't been completely unlikable.
Now, she thought to herself, she'd better the life of whoever was at the hospital. She'd be empathetic with them to her fullest. Yes! She'd try to do that.
Chell couldn't stop smiling out of sheer determination.
She was going to make this work.
~~~~WARNING: Emergency Power Efficiency Protocol Can No Longer Be Sustained!
CAUTION: Power levels are dangerously low!
Wheatley felt debilitated. He twitched a little as his system's groaned and blared.
He could barely speak or think.
He watched the blurry rectangular lights pass him over and over again.
"I think It's safe enough to travel by the moonlight." He'd said...maybe. Probably. Who even knew now?
Wheatley carefully rotated in his shell feeling the pain vibrate through his hull. He could faintly make out Doug being probed and poked by people in uniforms. His eyes were closed.
Wheatley wasn't sure what had happened, but Doug had lost it at some point while they'd treaded through the field. After talking nonsense about some bloody list, and walking erratically, he'd tripped. Having fallen, they'd began tumbling, crushing Wheatley repeatedly in the process as they made it to the bottom of a ditch.
It was horrible.
Wheatley had gotten a sticky feeling, and it didn't take long enough to realize his power supply was spilling fluid. He was also fully panicking as Doug did not attempt to get up. Despite it all, Wheatley's uncontrollable yelling and screaming had caught the attention of several passersby who were harvesting wheat early in the morning.
They'd rushed Doug to the hospital and Wheatley had tagged along.
Of course, now, Wheatley was dying himself. He watched as the nurses mouthed words to Doug and he watched the man weakly attempt to communicate back, but it all fell on deaf "ears". There wasn't enough power for his senses to function and he had to settle with sight. He tried to speak but he felt a breathless feeling overtake him. He had no lungs but what he felt was akin to drowning. He wanted to gasp. He tried to gasp. Nothing. He only wished Doug realized.
The lights above were becoming blinding and the figures slowly began to pixel up.
WARNING: Forced shut down imminent!
Engaging Prevention of file Corruption Protocol:
Emergency System Recollection of Vital Data and Files at ...30%...43%...58%...65%...
Wheatley felt a cold hand befall on his hull. He only caught a partial glance at Doug's panicked face. He'd awoken and looked more or less attentive. He was mouthing at him but Wheatley didn't understand. He was relieved that Doug was alive though.
His lids were becoming heavier and heavier and he couldn't help but close them. He felt a rush of memories swirling around him and opening his lids, he saw…..
He saw Chell-
-struggling to open the door. His ID card! Where was it!? He'd had it just now when he'd open the door for both of them!? He must have dropped it! He was trapped in the main hall and she was on the other side of the door in the maintenance areas where she would be mostly safe from the neurotoxin. He tried to pry the door open but couldn't. It was locked. He was on his knees and hands searching and coughing badly, he could barely breathe. He watched helplessly as Chell ran away from the door's small window and vanished from view. He closed his eyes. She hadn't abandoned him, had she?
She hadn't.
He faintly heard the portal gun firing as everything turned dark green and a hard landing on a metallic catwalk on the other side of the door. He barely managed to catch the sound of the card swiping and a beep from the door as it swung forward.
He barely managed to open his eyes a sliver. Chell was dragging him the best she could into fresher air. He weakly spoke to her.
"You...came back."
She looked down at him with her cool grey eyes. She was trembling.
Fin closed his eyes, completely relaxing in her grip.
She had come back for him, she hadn't given up...
-And he...he…
-he'd repaid her by dropping her down a deadly pit. ...
Wheatley felt a rush of energy drain from him and fled to the deepest part of his small spherical form. The pain left. A huge shadow had overtaken his systems and with a painless whirr, it all came to a stop.
~~~~Doug was struggling in his hospital bed. The staff had torn Wheatley from his arms and he'd helplessly watched as a trial of dark fluid dropped to the floor. Wheatley wasn't responding and his gaze looked off into the distance.
The staff tried to keep Doug steady as he attempted to reach Wheatley but they just didn't seem to understand the situation. He needed to do something but how? Doug was no expert on cores but he wasn't going to stand around arms crossed.
Apparently, the staff wasn't either. They kept holding Doug down, he was injured and needed medical attention immediately. Wheatley would have to wait.
Someone exited the room with the otherwise injured core. Having left Doug's sight, he came to realize that he was alone. He couldn't help the feeling of dread rising and he started to scream. He was terrified. He had fallen into a deep ditch only to have awakened among strangers. His only sense of familiarity had been wrenched away. His bag and his spherical companion were missing.
He wanted to leave and go on his way. He didn't want to be under the bright examining lights. He didn't want them probing or poking him. He wanted out.
Doug continued to struggle against them.
Then he'd seen her.
She walked in frightened and wide-mouthed.
Doug instantly stopped. He couldn't believe it, she still bore the determination from the last time he'd seen her, asleep in the relaxation vault. Now she looked healthy and grown. He couldn't help but tear up. He rubbed at his face, was she even real?
"Chell?!" He gasped.
She twitched, stepping back and looking over at him alarmed.
Doug couldn't help but laugh, it couldn't be.
"You're alive! You're here!" Doug reached towards her, he just couldn't believe what he was seeing. The nurses loosened their grip on his arms.
Chell took a nervous step forward.
Doug looked her over, the simple fact she was coming towards him completely amused him. He was finally getting to meet her.
She inched forward.
Doug chuckled.
"It's me! The artist! I drew you the signs! I helped you!" He laughed, hysterically.
"I'm your friend!"
Unexpectedly, Chell ran to him and embraced him in a hug. Tears streaming down her face and Doug laughing hysterically.
He'd found her! He'd finally found her! And she was safe and free! Doug had made it just like her! And now they could talk about the past without fear and think of yesterday as a shared history.
Doug couldn't help but cry too. He'd made it back to the test subject!
