Chell's life had always been brutally unfair.
To summarize, she'd spent her entire life trapped underground. Away from sunlight, fresh air, and people. She was always trapped and alone. She was tested and taunted for as long as she could remember. There was no Before.
Against all odds she fought and won. Now she had overcome everything- twice- only to become a wreck the second she reached the surface. She didn't know how to explain it except to say that everything that had once been to her advantage seemed to suddenly turn on her.
Aperture maintained arctic temperatures that had always made Chell feel frigid and numb. The rays of sunlight that had felt blessedly warm (the only other time she'd felt so warm was when she'd nearly been cooked to death, but this was much different. This was nice.) just moments before now felt suffocatingly hot. The adrenal vapor soaked air her body had become so used to was suddenly replaced with something that filled her aching lungs (in a wonderful way she'd never experienced before) but left her stomach and her muscles throwing fits.
When she tried to run from the shadow of The Shed she nearly fell to her knees.
Chell slowly pressed onward, away from The Shed, but she was acutely aware that her legs were trembling beneath her. For the first time in a long time she began to truly worry over her condition. When was the last time she had eaten? The last time she had slept?
How badly was she hurt?
Chell couldn't see- and, truthfully, didn't want to see- the extent of her injuries. She had been burned, and shot, and cut, and under the heat of the midday sun dirt, and sweat, and blood ran together into her wounds in a mixture that burned like venom. Her muscles were so overused that every move she made hurt. The blinding the light of the sun (the likes of which she swore she'd never seen before) mixed with the pain made her vision blur until she could hardly see.
And what was This? This terrible thing that made her want to fall to the ground and cry like a child? Made her want to lie down and never get back up? This horrid weight that made her want to Give Up ('Never.')?
Life had been anything but fair, but This blew everything else out of the water. Chell was going to have beaten everything else only to die out here, alone.
'Yes,' She thought, suddenly viciously bitter, 'alone.'
She tried to tell herself that He would only be a weight. She had been unable to carry the Cube, try as she might. It sat solemnly in the dark patch of wheat beside the Shed, and though Chell wanted it badly she knew that lugging it through the field would be virtually impossible when she could hardly carry herself. He would have been no different. She would certainly drop Him, would have to leave Him behind and listen to Him cry for her, yell at her (but then, He had already done that, hadn't He?). He would not be what she wanted, not a reassuring voice, not a friend, only a problem. The only thing he had ever been. If He were capable of anything else He would be here with her instead of a taunting, traitorous voice inside her head. If He were capable of anything else than neither one of them would be miserable and lonely.
Now they both were.
Chell trudged on for hours. Through the pain, and the voices, and the heat, she trekked alone with the sun until it too began to leave her. She wondered if she should stop. Sleep would do her good, but she knew all too well that in her condition she might not wake. Chel could hardly see now, in the light. Could she manage in the dark? What was the point of moving onward when there was nothing to move towards? She was ready to stop.
And then there was something on the horizon.
And then she was ready to go.
It might be nothing, Chell reminded herself as she forced her legs to move faster, it might be a patch of trees, or abandoned buildings, or something else that would be equally heartwrenchingly disappointing, but it was Something, it was shade, it was shelter, it was not wheat. That was a start.
Chell began to think she might not see the finish.
Her vision was fading now. The blurs of color were slowly slipping to darkness, and 'Please, no,' She was so close to Something- she could make it, she really could, she could do it-
She got close enough to see It was a town. Silhouettes of houses could be seen against the melted sherbert colored mess of the sky. Soft, shiny music sounded from somewhere nearby and carried across the fields on the summer breeze.
It looked like heaven. It must have been.
On the outskirts of town, unnoticed, Chell fell and did not rise.
Author's Note:
This is a little something from the Pieces universe that I wanted to write after mentioning Chell's collapse in chapter 20. We may learn a bit more about my Chell's past as the fic progresses, but this was a really interesting topic that no one (that I've found) has discussed before. How does Chell adapt to conditions outside of Aperture after having lived there for so long? Everything would be different and I feel like this would take quite a toll on her.