And that was the last she would ever see of her. Her determination and her vigor...it couldn't be matched. It will never be matched, GLaDOS realized. She was one of a kind.

She had been a blessing and a curse. A shock to her silent system. The hairline fracture that finally made her realize that maybe she was not as invincible as she first thought. 'Stop it,' she told herself. 'She's a test subject. She can and will be replaced.'

But she knew this was false. Aperture Laboratories had come a long, long way from where they first started back in the 50's. 'With that idiot, Cave,' she thought.

She stopped herself.

She wasn't supposed to think about Cave. She had deleted the Caroline part of herself. Who was Caroline? Who was 'Cave'? It sounded like a place where a smelly human would live.

'Jesus, I'm starting to sound like Wheatley,' she realized. She chuckled, that little idiot had been such an annoyance, but in a way, she kind of missed his stupid brain. Well, his stupid core, considering he didn't really have a brain anymore. Although, she was sure he wasn't so much of an idiot when he was human...

She decided to try and think about something else. The Cooperative Testing Initiative, for instance, could be started now. Well, soon. As soon as she could figure out what made those robots so...so...cooperative. They were supposed to hate each other.

Stupid robots.

'Oh well, this way you won't get yourself killed,' she thought.
That made her laugh.


The sun was starting to set, and Chell had found a nice cosy spot outside the straw field. It was a cave with a shallow ceiling and creepy drawings on the walls, but it would have to do. She had stared at the drawings for awhile, watching them and wondering what their story was. However, how they were supposed to inform anyone about anything, apart from amusement, she didn't know.

As she gazed outside, at the sunset, she started to ponder what she was going to do. Frolicking in the fields was one thing, but she knew that if she wanted to survive outside the facility, she would have to start thinking with a new mindset.

The facility had given her- scratch that; GLaDOS had given her everything she needed... and also everything she didn't need, however she decided not to dwell on those events too much. 'I'm going to need to start finding everything myself,' she thought. Shelter, food, water. She wasn't just going to survive on happiness and the ability to gaze at sunsets.

While she was lost in thought, the sun set, and Chell fell asleep, filled with anticipation for the next day. She was hoping for a dreamless sleep, but unfortunately, there was one nightmare.


"...you have got to be kidding me! Well, I'm still in control, and I have NO IDEA how to fix this place. Oh, you had to play bloody cat and mouse, didn't you? While people wer-"

Ding.

Suddenly, the whole room Chell and Wheatley were in seemed to slow down, and then a portal underneath Wheatley opened, and she could hear his wires snapping.

'Uh oh,' she thought.

"Whhhaaaat the?! Aaaahhhh! Whoa, space!"

The rest of the events happened vividly, the Space Core, GLaDOS starting to pull her in, except, there was one problem. GLaDOS didn't pull her in.

She tried, but it didn't work, she was too late, the portal closed, and Chell could already feel the life rushing out of her.

'So, this is how I die,' she thought, before life rushed out of her lungs...

...and she woke up, in a cold sweat, frightened and breathing fast. She tried to calm down, but it was no use, the dream had affected her in multiple ways mentally. She knew calming down wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

She tried to remember something that GLaDOS did to calm her down, something she did...

and she fell back to sleep, her head still buzzing.


Chell woke up the next morning, feeling sleepy. She had been well-rested; judging by the suns position, it was mid-morning. However, she felt sluggish and even a little uninspired. 'This must be what waking up without GLaDOS feels like,' she thought.
'God damn that machine.'

She spent that day walking through the rest of Aperture's land and out of the lot. She found the parking lot where GLaDOS and her had ended up during their first encounter, and discovered that Aperture was located in Upper Michigan. 'At least I kind of know where I am,' she thought. She should know, she realized. This place was her childhood! Her dad's workplace! How could she forget it?

And then it hit her, a tidal wave of sorrow-filled memories. What happened on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day.
How she got trapped in the facility in the first place. (A/N: This fic doesn't necessarily take place in the same universe as my other fic, 'Bring Your Daughter To Work Day,' however it works either way)
Chell felt something she hadn't felt for a long, long time. Tears.
Chell sat on the cold asphalt-and-grassy-overgrown ground, and cried.