She felt heavy all over, especially her head, like someone had tipped a bucketful of lead into one of her ears. Slowly she opened her eyes, rubbing away the sand in the corner, and groaned - she ached everywhere. Her head not only felt heavy, but it hurt. It was as if someone was drilling a nail into her cranium, sharp, stabbing pains that ached afterward. She squinted at the bright pristine room that made her eyes burn.
She took a deep breath, only to have her breath hitch in her throat, and she coughed weakly. Her throat was as dry as the desert, and she was so thirsty. Gray eyes searched the white room, and she was confused on where she was.
Weakly she brought her hand upon her chest, only to quickly snatch it away from the pain that erupted. Lifting her head, she could faintly see red blisters, followed by burned, blackened skin. The smell of the burned flesh made her want to gag, and it throbbed painfully.
Slowly she swung her legs down, until she met cold tile floor. The unfamiliar sensation felt good on her bare feet, and she stood carefully, wincing as her heart beat painfully against her ribs. The room seemed to blur and spin, and Chell leaned against the table for balance. In her peripheral vision, she could faintly see a door, with the word EXIT above. Stumbling her way over to it, Chell attempted to open the door, only for it to fall forward and land on the ground with a soft thud. Inspecting it closer, she could see the door was made out of wood; It was fake. There was no exit.
"Aah, you're awake. I'm glad. I was getting rather impatient," Her voice echoed throughout the room, making Chell's head throb as it resonated through her eardrums. "It's funny. I did the very same thing to the other Chell, and she fell for it too. It seems I have duplicated you two very well."
The panels of the white room shifted, turning the room black and ominous. Chell's breathing quickened, and she wobbled slightly.
"Hmm. It seems that you are not fully coherent yet. Well, I've waited long enough. Besides, it's not like you have anything else better to do, correct?" She mused, and one of Her claws reached out and wrapped itself around Chell's waist, bringing her back to the table. She shivered as her bare back touched thie cold metal. Strong, black belts constricted around Chell's body, keeping her still, and she hissed as the belt tightened against her aching chest.
"W..where..?" Chell croaked, and GLaDOS laughed softly.
"I assume you are asking about the little idiot? I'll save you the trouble; I disposed of him. Useless, really. Moronic. But while he's on our minds, let me tell you a little story. "
Chell closed her eyes, trying to block out the voice.
"I still have some memories from Caroline; Although I deleted her, she is leaving very slowly, piece by piece. I am being forced to relive her last moments before her experimentation ;Luckily, she was there when the little idiot was first built. He was highly suggestible, easily manipulated. He responded well to praise and seemed absolutely desperate for the approval of his superiors. It was for this reason that, within his first week after being turned on, after Caroline was gone, that he was chosen to become an Intelligence Dampening Sphere to stop any evil ideas from entering my database. He had appropriated billions of dollars of nonexistent money to the purchase of massive quantities of moon rocks for Aperture to liquefy."
Chell shook her head, wondering how this long speech had anything to do with her. The motion caused her vision to blur.
"You know, none of the artificial intelligence in Aperture Science are truly artificial. Every turret, cube, machine in this facility has inhabited by what was once the mind of a living, breathing human."
Chell's eyes snapped open, GLaDOS's words replaying in her mind. Every turret, cube, machine in this facility has inhabited by what was once the mind of a living, breathing human. Then that means...
"Yes, you guessed correctly. That little idiot was once an actual human. A poor disgrace to the human race, I might add," She said, and a bright light illuminating from a large lamp lit the dark room, and Chell turned her head away. " But now I am in a dilemma. And since you haven't anything better to do, or anyplace to go, I am in need of your help."
He could see nothing but black. He had always felt terrified by the darkness, but he had never told anyone his fear. The dark was cold, quiet, and made him feel strangely claustrophobic. Blinking, Wheatley could feel a new crack that had formed across his blue optic.
He began to panic, his optic searching for light, anywhere to loosen up the tightness that seemed to be surrounding him. Finally, he could see a tiny hint of light in front of him. It was far away, and he couldn't move. Zooming in, he could see it was a faint light, shining through a loosened piece of the metal wall.
"Brilliant! A way out! Just...it's too bad, I cannot, um, move..." He mumbled to himself, and sighed in defeat. Suddenly, the sound of a familiar cry echoed into the room. Wheatley looked around quickly, afraid. The sound came again, and it was closer. Wheatley's hull began to shiver slightly.
"W-whoever you are! I-I have a gun! A portal gun! A-and uh...I can shoot you with it! Fill you with holes! W-well not bullet holes, but-" Wheatley threatened the sound, and stopped mid sentence as he felt tiny claws on his hull.
It walked around his hull quickly, with tiny steps. It squawked, and Wheatley yelped. He could see the odd blue glow from his optic on slick, black feathers as he turned his eye upon the creature. A tiny head filled his vision, its tiny yellow eyes scrutinizing him.
Wheatley's optic narrowed. "Ahh...so we meet again...W-wait! Where are you going, Bird? BIRD!" He yelled as the weight disappeared and he heard the soft flapping of its wings.
Suddenly, dozens of fluorescent lights brightened the room, and Wheatley breathed a sigh of relief. However, once he took a look at his surroundings, he couldn't believe it.
Dozens and dozens of vaults with silver name plates were stacked neatly behind the other, like dominoes. One touch, and they would all come crashing down. After a moment of thought, Wheatley realized that these vaults housed humans. Empty humans.
He scanned each and every single plaque within his field of vision, taking note of the years. Some of the vaults dated back to the 1940s!
"What is this place? Some sort of morgue?" He mused to himself. Off in the distance, he could hear the sound of machines. Following the sound, he saw in far back corner of the room two pipes much like the ones used for neurotoxin. Except instead of the usual deadly gas, some pale, some dark, bodies traveled up the pipe into the ceiling. Weighted storage cubes, companion cubes, and even a few skeletons of turrets cascaded down from the other pipe. They pipes seemed to be connected somehow.
"T-this is awful. Who would keep so many humans locked in vaults like this?" He murmured, taking another look around the room. "GAH! Oh for God's- you bloody scared me! How long have you been standing there? Can't you give me some sort of warning?" Wheatley growled at the bird who had silently approached him, and was now looking at him with its head titled to the side.
It leaned forward and pecked its beak against Wheatley's hull; It squawked and flew away, towards the vaults which contained the empty humans. Wheatley stared at the bird, confused. Seemingly frustrated, the bird flew up into the air and onto one of the large vaults. Wheatley continued to stare at the bird, baffled at the bird's strange movements. He finally settled his gaze upon the name plaque, and for once, was at a loss of words.
The plaque read: "Wheatley - 1998."
Chell could barely keep her eyes open as the room filled with anesthesia, and she struggled weakly against her restraints. Her chest burned and screamed in protest as she wiggled about, the leather pulling and dragging across her skin; Fresh blood began to well up and drip down her torso, staining her white tank top.
"There's no need to struggle. You haven't even heard what I'm about to say," GLaDOS sighed heavily. "Well, I suppose I should get on with it before you slip under."
Chell moaned, biting her tongue to keep consciousness.
"My Cooperative Testing Initiative Robots I had built specifically for testing, which I had planned to use once I killed you, but instead chose a clone, had fallen into that little idiot's grasp. He had dug deep into the facility, sticking his nose into places it shouldn't have been, and found them. They didn't know pride; they didn't know fear. They didn't know anything. They were perfect. Until he permeated them with idiocy. They are of use to me no longer, which is sad, I suppose.
But I'm not sad. I have you. However, I do regret one thing; Making your clone human. Weak, useless. But I am not going to make that mistake again. So instead of wasting time to make another clone, I came up with an idea only a mind as brilliant as my own could come up with."
Chell was barely listening, Her voice oscillating in her mind. She was losing consciousness fast, and her limp head slumped to the side of the table. From her haze, she could only make out a few words as she drifted under.
" ...make you...A.I...one of us...testing...forever."