The hot sun hung directly in the sky above us. The four cores sat next to each other a few feet away from me. My empty stomach roared, I knew we had to leave here soon. I sat in front of the cores as I thought about what to do with them.
"Space! It's gone! I wanna go back! To space!"
"Will somebody shut him up?" Rick complained.
"If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19,"
"So, um, now what? Are we just going to stay in this ditch?" Wheatley asked me innocently. I looked around, observing the ruins around us. The structure nearest to me had the numbers 694 printed clearly on its wall. The building seemed so familiar. I rose to my feet and walked up to the shelter. "W-wait where are you going?"
I kicked down the door and walked into the small space. Inside the room were two beds and a sink, toilet and a small table. It resembled the enrichment center dwellings, except the entire room was covered in a blanket of dust and debris. Scanning the room, my eyes fixed on a small blanket dappled with faded balloons on the smaller of the two beds. I daintily picked it up, sending a cascade of dust to the floor. I rubbed its rough texture between my fingers. Then memories of this room flooded into my mind. My mother and father. I gasped and dropped the blanket. To prevent from falling, I balanced myself on a nearby table, it collapsed and I fell to the ground. A slip of paper fluttered to the floor.
"You alright angel?"
"Yea," my voice was shaky. The paper came to rest in my lap. I picked it up with a trembling hand. It read,
'Residence of the Aperture Science Generations Of Testing shelters,
We are forced to inform you that one of our main propulsion gel pipes has burst underneath the heart of the community. You must evacuate the facility immediately. Grab a portal gun and follow the eastern tunnel. But don't worry, your children are the future! So leave them behind and our Aperture Science dedicated Child Harvesters will get your children as fast as possible before the pressure of the pipe blows the place sky high.
Thank you for your cooperation!
Cave Johnson.'
I swallowed hard and stood up. My entire life spilled out on a single piece of paper. My parents, their faces reflected off my vision. Dust from the room found its way into my lungs, I coughed frantically trying to dislodge the particles. Tears developed in my eyes and felt my way out the door, returning to the cores.
"Woa, are you ok?" Wheatley looked up at me.
"My parents," I wheezed, "They lived here, I lived here." I sunk to my knees and leaned up against a stray wall.
"Oh," his eyes widened. "Are you ok?" I didn't reply, instead I crumpled the note and threw it over their heads.
"Don't cry, Darlin'," Rick said sympathetically. He rose and walked over to me. "We need to find a way out of here, and fast!" he looked back at his companions."...How do we get out of here?" I looked around nervously. I wanted to leave, this place was beginning to scare me.
"Ooh! Ooh!" The space core jumped up and ran toward the wall of the ditch. He shoveled a thick layer of mud away to reveal a door. It was grimy and old. I got up and went after him. The small rectangular windows were dull. But I managed to peer through them. Inside them was a staircase leading to the surface.
"Rick," I summoned the Adventurous core. "You're strong, can you open this door?"
"Anything for you," He cracked his knuckles and attempted to pry open the door. Ten minutes passed and the door remained shut. "Uhhh..." He cleared his throat and glanced around him. "I was just warming up!"
Wheatley walked next to us with the Fact core in tow. "Let's all ram into it, maybe we can break through," He pushed up his sleeves.
"An object at rest stays at rest unless four people decide to break into it," The fact core said, arrogantly.
"...Alright, then let's do it," The three cores backed away from the door, preparing to slam into it. I stood several feet away with the Space core. We watched as the three broke through the door with an over estimated amount of force and fall into a heap on the inside of it.
"Well," I said stepping over them, making my way to the stairs. "We can get out of here now," I ran up the staircase with the Space core behind me. The other three lay dazed at the bottom of the stairs before finally joining us at the surface.

(:]-(o)-[:)

Night fell after we reached Chell's campsite with her cube and the door to the facility. I never thought the entrance to Aperture was a tiny little shack. Chell built up the fire and laid down to rest, staring up at the stars. The four of us scattered on the ground and intended to rest as well. They were all in sleep mode accept me. I laid with my back to the group, watching the dark field sway in the wind through tired eyes.
"You can't sleep, Angel?" Rick whispered rather loudly. He was talking to Chell. I listened to their conversation, appearing to be asleep.
"Ya," she replied.
"Me either. I just had a dream I was up against a wild elephant! I won of course..." there was silence. "So, why can't you sleep?"
"I just can't get those ruins out of my head, and the fact I used to live there. When I went down there, I saw a big tunnel leading that way. It seemed like it went on for a while. And the note in the building said that the city had evacuated,"
"Oh, well, maybe your parents went through that tunnel!"
"That's what I thought," she whispered. "There was a note I found that said everyone there evacuated. I think they went into that tunnel. But the only way you can enter the tunnel is with a portal gun... I have to go back and get mine," couldn't believe what I just heard!
"Wait," the Adventure Core said, "Didn't we just get out of there?"
"I have to find my parents," she stressed. "If going back to get the tool I need is what it takes, I'll do it,"
"Alright, but I'm not coming with you, you beautiful adventurer, you,"
"Fine by me," she let out a yawn.
"Get some beauty sleep, gorgeous," my tiredness overcame me and I too fell into a deep sleep mode.

The next morning was quiet. I opened my eyes and saw the fire's coals emitting a small stream of smoke into the air. The others were still asleep it looked like. I looked across from me expecting to see Chell still asleep. But she wasn't there. I stood and looked about. She was still nowhere in sight. All that remained was the companion cube and flattened grasses where she laid last night.
"Wake up!" I stood over to the other cores. "Chell's gone!" The Fact Core was the first to wake.
"The possibility of her death is 12.34 percent. The other 87.66 percent states she has sprouted wings and flown south,"
"What? No! She was talking to him last night about..." then it hit me, "Oh no..."
The other two woke up shortly after. "Good morning space! Sun! Your awake!" the Space Core stretched and yawned.
"She's gone!" I growled.
"Who?" Rick said groggily.
"Well who do you think?" I motioned behind me. "She's gone. Chell's gone! And it's all your fault!"
Rick looked shocked. "What do ya mean 'my fault'?"
"I heard you talking to her last night about getting the portal gun back!" I was furious now. "And did you try to stop her? No you just let her leave!"
"She didn't do that..." the green eyed core said nervously, "Naw she's just... Hiding..."
"No! She went back there and she's probably dead!"
"Calm down," he said. The other two were listening intently.
"We have to go get her," I said at last.
"What?" The green core raised his voice. "Oh no, I don't want to go back there!" he looked at me quizzically. "Why are you so interested about getting her back? She's a big girl she can handle it,"
"I feel like I need to redeem her trust somehow. I feel awful for what I did. I feel like this is a way to make her trust me again, go get her and bring her back!" I looked and the worn down shack. Beneath it was an underground prison that Chell was lost in. "S-so if you're not going, then, I'll go alone," I walked over to the front of the battered structure. Its door was wide open. A thick, cold atmosphere hung around its maw.
"What if she doesn't want to come back?" Rick came up behind me and stared into the darkness. "She seemed pretty determined last night," I didn't consider that.
"Well, if she doesn't want to come back, I'll help her anyways, just like old times," I faced the Adventure core. "So are you coming or not?" the question was also to the other cores who huddled together by the companion cube.
"Space! I might lose space!" The Space Core looked into the sky.
"The likelihood of surviving is 0.34 percent. The likelihood of me joining your quest is- ERROR," the purple core flopped onto his back.
"Ok... I'll take that as a no," I turned back to Rick. "So, are you coming or not?"
"Fine," he said dramatically. "But I'm not doing this because you wanted me to," he stepped past me and into the small room of the shack. "Well what are we waiting for?" Rick leaped out and disappeared down the shaft.

This is my own imagination thinking about what happened to her parents. I don't know if there's a real factual story about what happened to them, but, ya. :/ If there is, I'm sorry, but I'm still continuing!