Man, I am SO sorry about how late this chapter is! My laptop crashed. I'm very very very unhappy with this chapter; It's so difficult to make it interesting enough to where it's not just a game walkthrough. I tried to churn more of his personality into this, but yeah, it was hard. So any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm so glad this story got reviewed twice-I thought no one would even read it xD
So yeah, Even though I'M not happy with it, I hope it keeps your interest. Enjoy!
"Unbelievable. You, 'subject name here' must be the pride of 'subject hometown here'."
The man glared up at the ceiling. He still had no idea where the computer's voice was coming from-there were no speakers anywhere. But after five tests or so, he reasoned it came from somewhere around that area.
The tests had been mindlessly easy so far; after acquiring what the voice called an 'Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device' it'd been as simple as going into one 'portal' and coming out the other. Something had been bothering him, though: There were frosted glass windows everywhere, overlooking everything..and yet he could see no one behind them. There were computers, chairs, tables-But no people. After he'd seen the first window, he'd hoped to be able to somehow contact whoever was behind it, but there was no one there...It gave him a very bad feeling in his gut, and raised questions that he had no answers for.
And although the dizziness he'd experienced from before had subsided, his suspicion over waking up in this strange place had only gotten stronger. The computer refused to answer any of his queries, even though it'd already been established that she-it, could hear him. Not to mention this place had yet to be any 'fun' and he wasn't 'learning' anything...
He glanced up at the large sign as it flickered to life, signifying this test as number eight.
"Keep in mind that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record..."
He snorted.
"Followed by death."
His eyes widened and his head snapped up to glare at the ceiling.
"Death?! Wh-"
"Good luck." The computer's voice crackled and was gone.
He closed his eyes, taking a few steps out onto the railing. The floor below him wasn't even solid-it was a pool of greenish-brown liquid, from which clouds of...steam? Smoke? Swirled up from. He didn't even know what it WAS. Acid, maybe? He'd never seen real acid..or he couldn't remember seeing it, anyway.
The test itself wasn't so much of a puzzle as a challenge of aim and perception. He finished and got to the other railing easily.
"Very impressive. Please note that any appearance of danger is merely a device to enhance your testing experience."
Yeah, right. It was surprising how much he was adapting to this environment-or his brain, was, anyway. It took him only a second of looking at his surroundings to figure out what he needed to do to get to succeed. It was...nice...or, no!
Disturbing!
He had a life outside of this, didn't he?
He bit his lip as he stepped into the elevator. "Do I get to take a break, at some point?"
No answer. He could assume from the signs that there were 19 tests total, and if they got harder and harder-as appeared to be the pattern-then think about how longthat'd take. When would he eat? Or bathe? He knew the human body could survive solely on water alone for quite a bit, but he hadn't seen any water (that was drinkable, anyway) and he couldn't remember when he'd last eaten. Would he even survive through these tests? Would he die here, alone and forgotten?
No, he thought. I will survive. And I'll get out of this place and find out-
His train of thought was cut off by the swish of the elevator opening.
"The Enrichment Center regrets to inform you that this next test, is impossible. Make no attempt to solve it."
He stepped into the main chamber, blinking and gazing around. "No it isn't."
The voice didn't answer.
Shrugging, he shot a portal behind the cube that fell to the ground, headed through it, set the cube down on the platform...
"The Enrichment Center apologizes for this clearly broken test chamber."
..Headed back through the portal, pulled the cube through, set it on the button.
"Fantastic! You remained resolute and resourceful in an atmosphere of extreme pessimism."
He couldn't help but feel a little bit of triumph from this, and shook his head quickly.
"You will now be transported back to your Relaxation Chamber for a brief stay."