Portal 2: Lab Rat

Part 2

Doug ran back inside the building, throwing caution to the wind. This was so unlike him. His face was dark with urgency as he ran through the facility's buzzing skeleton, jumping over piles of rubble, and ducking through jagged holes in the normally white-washed walls. His legs and lungs burned as he ran, but there was no time for him to stop.

Not a moment for rest.

There was a small groan from his back, "I'm not feeling so good. Those pills you took... I think the medicine is starting to work." Her voice was soft and sweet as he ran. It faded, even softer, "Soon, you won't even need me anymore."

His voice came out in a panicked rush as he cried out, "I'll always need you!"

She coughed. Her voice came out faded, "I don't think you will."

There was no time to mourn her though. As her beautiful, melodic voice faded into oblivion, he stumbled upon the long-term cryo-suspension station. "No." His voice was filled with horror, "They've already put her in long-term relaxation!"

He stared into the small hotel-like room. She lie on the bed, like a child on the sacrifice alter of some pagan god. He turned around quickly, almost tripping over his feet in urgancy. That's exactly what she is. A sacrifice waiting for a dead 'god'.

He ran as fast as he could, his eyes searching the cracked metal walls, "I need to get up to Cryo-control, but turrets block the way!" He pulled open a fuse box on the wall. His voice was saturated with fear.

His mind reeled. Her cryo-chamber... something's wrong.

His eyes shot open in shock as he looked across the board. A terrifying realization exploded into reality.

"Life support has been compromised! The explosion blew the main grid... her chamber! It's off-line! All the cryo-chambers are off-line!"

For a moment he covered his mouth, worried something may have heard him. Is it really that? He asked himself. No. She was dead. Even though he felt like she was still watching him with blood lust, that wasn't it. His mind drew back to the surface.

"You're not a hero. Heroes die."

He sighed hugely. No, he wasn't a hero. He was a fearful, frail, schizophrenic scientist who had been trapped and terrorized by a computerized beast who was now dead. He had been running and hiding, letting Chell do all of the work.

But... maybe I can be. For her at least. His face filled with hero's resolve. She saved me. I owe her at least this. I can AT THE VERY LEAST save her life.

He ran down a million halls until he reached a ladder with light at the top.

Here I am.

Why isn't she talking to me? I can't do this by myself!

"I'm only gonna get one chance." His panted heavily, fearful tears pricking the corners of his eyes.

"I have to cross the room..." No answer

"Get past the turrets," She was silent.

"Jump the rail." He knew why, deep down... but he didn't want to admit it to himself.

"... Then dive left or right to avoid being shot." He waited for her to answer, but was only met with cold silence.

"Okay, do I dive left or right?" His voice had become more desperate.

"Hello? You still back there?" Nothing. He slumped over, giving one last attempt. "Left or right? Don't make me guess! I'm running out of time!" She lie silent.

You're not there, are you? So I'm alone. All... all alone.

He shook it off, trying to be brave. "Well, ready or not..." He charged out, feeling the slight glance of the deadly millitary turrets as he went. Their words were mush in his ears. He ran faster than he'd ever gone before, and then he felt it.

The bullet threw him off of his feet, tearing deep into his leg. A pitiful scream escaped his mouth as he hit the ground.

Far enough away from the turrets that he wouldn't be killed, in the very least.

He struggled to control his erratic breathing as invisible fire ran up and down his leg. He was paralyzed. Perhaps with fear, or maybe pain. He wasn't so sure at this point in time. He felt the blood seep out of the hole dangerously fast. Oh, no...

He felt himself slipping. He reached out for the only security he knew. The cube was just out of his reach as he painfully stretched, dragging his injured leg across the floor with a bloody streak.

His eyes were growing heavy, along with his body. Must.

Was he falling? Stay.

He was engulfed by the darkness, falling for miles and miles. There was no reality, no ground, no nothing. It was just nothing. He fought, holding onto the last thread of awareness he had in him. Conscious.

He barely felt it when he slipped under.

GLaDOS shifted slowly in her huge "body", looking for him. He could feel her deadly gaze everywhere.

"The enrichment center would like to announce a new employee initiative of forced voluntary participation." Her slightly monotone voice went on, in almost a cheerful matter, "If any Aperture Science employee would like to opt out of this new voluntary testing program, please remember, science rhymes with compliance." Her voice abruptly changed, from friendly to dark and sinister, "Do you know what doesn't rhyme with compliance? Neurotoxin."

Bodies were everywhere, littering the floor like mice around poison. All but him. All of the scientists but Doug were dead.

She continued, her mechanical voice pitching and falling along the way. "Due to high mortality rates, you may be reluctant to participate in the new initiative. The Enrichment Center assures you that this is a strictly selfish impulse on your part, and why can't you love science like [INSERT CO-WORKER'S NAME HERE]?

Doug looked up from where he was hiding. He was scared, with good reason. He was hanging onto his sanity by a thread... one that was wearing dangerously thin.

"And now there's just you. All others are DEAD."

He looked up again, and started running.

"You've avoided capture for weeks. What makes you so different?" There was the sound of pages rustling softly throughout the facility. She let out a soft Ahh. "...Delusions of persecution, pathological paranoia; it's all right here in your file. Have you refilled your prescription lately?"

"Bite me." he growled harshly as he got ready to drop down off of a ledge.

"In technological societies, this manifests as delusions of surveillance and a belief that advanced technology is deployed against you, usually with some vague unseen "other" out to get you."

He dropped down, hitting the ground with a thump and a slight grunt, "You're not vague. You're pretty damn specific."

GLaDOS continued in a slightly threatening tone, "If you continue to selfishly evade me, it's not going to reflect well in your file."

He ran even faster, now with reason, "Of course! THE FILES!" He dashed down the hall, dropping through a vent. He landed in a room filled with filing cabinets and filing boxes.

"I can't see you, but I know you're in there. Is it just a coincidence that you've been diagnosed with schizophrenia and now believe a homicidal computer is out to get you? Come on! How likely is that?" She paused, but only for a moment, "I mean really, you're a scientist. What is more likely, that you're being chased by a homicidal computer, or that all this is just the paranoid delusion of an unstable mind?"

He rummaged through a drawer, looking for one file in specific. He let out a sharp hiss as his finger started to bleed, Ow, paper cut! He ignored the small annoyance as he went on.

"Why not come out of there, and you'll see. None of this is real."

He pulled out a file, flipping through the pages frantically.

"I'd ask you to think outside the box on this, but it's obvious your box is broken. And has schizophrenia. Speaking of boxes... do you know that experiment with the cat in the box with the poison? The theory requires the cat be both alive and dead until observed. Well, I actually preformed the experiment. Dozens of times. The bad news is that reality doesn't exist. The good news is that we have a new cat graveyard." an uneasy silence filled the building. "Why are you in the file room? What could you possibly be doing?"

His face lit up as he opened the file, a thin film of sweat covering his brow, " Yes! This is the one!" He sat down at the computer, holding the file gently between his teeth as he typed. It has to be her.

"In the event you don't survive the testing process, DNA may be harvested from your body – with your consent- and used to create clones in the furtherance of science. Failure to survive the testing process shall be viewed as granting consent." A short pause. She went on, a cruel tone to her voice, "Also, clones don't have souls. Just so you know... like twins."

He scrolled up and down the screen until he found her name, testing number 1498. Chell. Her last name was redacted, why even he couldn't guess. He moved her up, to spot number one.

This girl. She'll make a difference. She can stop this. She has to.

-Test subject order modified. 10%...52%...88%...

He felt the floor under him as his eyes opened slowly, very blurry. He moaned softly as he tried to move his leg. The pool of blood underneath him made him gasp. Oh, that's right. I got shot.

His eyes focused slowly, still blurry around the edges, taking in the scene. The cube lie across the room, silent. He reached out for her, feeling hopelessness hit him like a lead weight when he realized he was still alone.

He laid back down, once again feeling nothing. He fell back under.

"Sense the instillation of my new morality core, I've lost all interest in killing. Now I only crave science."

GLaDOS' cold voice worried Doug. He tried to fight a shiver that ran up his spine. Of course, his friend Henry couldn't be more pleased.

"I"m pleased to hear that." he tinkered with a few wires in her console, never letting go of a heavy look of concentration

"I find myself drawn to the study of consciousness. There's an experiment I'd like to preform during "Bring Your cat to Work day."

"Wonderful."It was almost dismissive, like allowing a child to talk to its self endlessly while you ignored them in irritation.

"I'll have the box and the cats. Now I just need one more thing. "

"What's that?"

"... a little neurotixin."

Doug looked up in mixed shock and horror. Henry looked up too, Doug hoping it was him agreeing with his terror. A voice screamed in the back of his skull. One that was normally suppressed well by the powerful cocktail of anti-psychotic drugs he had to take.

You're going to die. You ARE going to DIE. SHE is going to kill you. Doug, don't you hear me? You're going to die! DIE! You're going to die. You need to get out, get away from here! Do you want to be killed? No, don't run away! DESTROY HER! KILL THAT THING... the voice screamed on, he had no hope of pushing it back down for now.

He looked at Henry with hope. Don't let me down. Tell her no. Tell her no.

Henry though for a second, and gave the huge, deadly computer a smile. Doug slunk away from the two of them as he answered, "Well, as long as it's for science!"

This time he flew out of his nightmares, catapulted into brilliant light by a sudden realization. Something he couldn't quite grasp...

A hushed mumble slipped from his sticky, chapped lips. "How long have I been out?"

He heard a small sigh of relief come from the cube next to him. "Long enough."

"You're back." his voice broke over the last word.

"I never left you."

He let out a small sob. She was right. She was always there when he needed her.

She coughed, uncomfortable at this unusual show. "There's something I wanted to ask."

She paused, letting the wounded man compose himself.

"How did you know about the Girl?"

"Know what?" He asked quietly, pushing himself off of the floor so he could see her better.

"That she was the one."

"It was something in her file."

"She had the highest IQ?"

"No, some were higher."

She was confused, "Then she was the fastest? The most athletic?"

He shook his head slowly, "No, nothing like that."

She was curious, "Then what?"

"A hunch."

He settled back down on the floor, just enjoying her company. I missed you. I'm so sorry I sent you away.

She suddenly interrupted his train of thought with a sharp gasp, "You might still be able to save her."

"What?" He pulled himself up again, looking at her with feverish intensity, "How? I can't get to her cryo-chamber"

The cube went on, her soft voice full of bitterness, "You can't free her, but you might save her." He nodded, at once in accord with his old friend. She went on, "You can patch her cryo-unit into the reserve grid." He pulled himself up onto the controls, typing with the quick precision only possessed by scientists,"You can reset the fuses and restart her life support.. if it's not too late already."

"But even if it works, there will be no wake-up date. She'll be in there indefinitely." He typed commands, digging though Aperture's mainframe, "So it's the long sleep..."

A window popped up on the monitor, showing the sleeping form of his defenseless savior.

"... or the long sleep. And... I don't know which is worse."

He gave the command.

"Forgive me."

There was a soft woosh as the systems came online, suddenly blowing her hair about like a soft spring breeze.

"It worked!" his moment of celebration was cut short as he thought about the gravity of her situation, but what was to be done? " Sleep well."

Both alive and dead, until someone opens the box. He nodded at the thought as he was hit with a wall of fatigue. He pulled his too heavy body over to a small cryo-chamber across the room, weakly leaning against the cool metal. "Maybe it's time I slept, too. I'm so tired now."

"You've earned a rest"

He pulled her closer, holding his wounded leg gently. He stepped up on her, crawling into the small pod. "You see, I told you I would always need you."

Pages tumbled out of the bag at his side, but he was too exhausted to care. The top shut with a purposeful whoosh, enclosing him in sleep.

For how long... it was hard to say.

The cube lie quiet by the pod, waiting patiently for him to wake up again some day. She would never die, waiting faithfully until even the end of time... listining to the quiet hum of the cryo-chamber.

Someday though, he would awaken again and bring her back to life. She was sure of this.

Someday, they would escape this place.

Someday... someday they would step into the warmth of the sun, and be free. The sun... that was the giant ball of light in the sky. The sky, that was that big blue thing full of birds and clouds. Birds... what were birds? Just another question to ask him when he woke up again. Soon, hopefully.

All she had to do for now was wait for her friend to come back. That, and to look at the papers settling around her.

Her name was Chell. She had no last name. The scientists had taken it away.

She was abnormal.

No, not because she was mute. It wasn't that she was incredibly smart or even incredibly strong. Her greatest weapon was her tenacity. Her inability to give up without fighting like hell.

She looked across the floor, at a page with a graph on it, her gaze falling on the words scribbled in the messy penmenship of her beloved friend;

'Test subject is abnormally stubborn. She never gives up. Ever.'

REJECTED. DO NOT TEST.

[ The End ]