Chapter 9 - Humanity
Wheatley POV - It was only a short ride to the surface. I didn't think anything could go wrong. But, of course it did. The lift stopped at floor '-1'. The doors didn't open. She had stopped us.
"Quick," I half shouted to Chell. "Plug me into the lift. I should be able to hack into the lift operating system and get us out!" Chell did as I asked, a little reluctantly. I don't think she liked the idea of letting me go. I nearly got it. Almost there. Yes! The lift started moving upwards again. But then I started to feel a little tingly feeling. At first it was nothing, but soon it had spread through me, which was weird because I was a core. This sort of thing doesn't happen to cores. It just doesn't.
Chell POV - I watched as Wheatley seemed to start to vibrate. A little at first, and then a lot. I could hardly see him; he was just a little ball of blurry blue. And through all this we just kept going up. We reached the top pretty quickly, and the lift doors opened. I looked out at freedom, something I could hardly remember. I knew I had been free once, but that was in a different time. A different world. Now I'm free. Then I remembered Wheatley. I turned back towards him, but the little metal ball was no longer there. In it's place was a human. A fully functioning, tall, male. He stood up.
"Turn around. I've seen too much," I said to Wheatley. A look of shock spread across his face. I kept my eyes on his face to avoid seeing his naked body. Thats when I realised. I hadn't spoken in a very long time. Wheatley thought I was a mute. So did GLaDOS. No one had even guessed that I had the ability to speak.
"You..." Wheatley stammered. "You...can speak?" He could hardly talk with the shock of the idea.
"Yes," I said to him gently. It was so nice to hear my own voice again. "Wheatley, my name is Chell," I told him. Just as I said this, the lift which we had just left spat out some clothes. It seemed that even GLaDOS couldn't bear the thought of a naked, human Wheatley standing outside the entrance to Aperture. It was only a white T-shirt, blue jeans and white boxers. Nothing special. Wheatley looked at them with a confused expression.
"How do I get these things on?" Wheatley said, looking curiously at the boxers.
"You see the holes?" I asked him. "Put one of your legs through each of them and pull them up. Do the same for the trousers." He did as he was told and within 5 minutes I could look at the front of him again. His human body had skin of shiny golden brown, and he looked strong but not muscular. His short, sandy-blonde hair bounced around on his head, and his fringe was to one side, the left.
"Is it ok if I leave the shirt for the moment?" He asked me hesitanty, questioning whether it was appropriate.
"I should think so," I said. Then we turned and started walking. There had to be a town around here somewhere.
Wheatley POV - We started walking. I had no idea where we were going but my gir- I mean Chell seemed to have a plan, so I just followed. We had got about 50 metres away from the entrance to that awful place when I heard a rustle in the grass behind me. Tammy stood up and looked at me. Thats when I remembered Grace.
"Where is she?" Tammy shouted at me. At my side, Chell seemed to realise what was going on. "Who are you?" Of course she wouldn't recognise me as a human.
"It's me, Wheatley. GLaDOS turned me human. Tammy I'm sorry," I shouted gently back, unsure of what else to say to her.
"GLaDOS killed her didn't she?" Tammy asked, as a horrified expression crossed her face. I couldn't answer. Then, with a determined expression, Tammy turned and entered Aperture.