The Stormy Retreat

Chell stood in shock. His best friend? Her stiff figure turned weak and she gave a smile. She had a best friend.

Chell sat down next to Wheatley and picked him up delicately. "No no, what are going to do with me? I'm sorry! I truly am!" He panicked. Chell brought him into another tight hug, happiness flowing through her. She had a best friend, some family and freedom. It was all she'd ever wanted.

"Okay, I'm confused," Cara-Mia sighed, sitting next to Chell. "Why are you happy now? What happened next?"

"To be honest with you, I have no idea why she's so happy," Wheatley laughed. "But- well, at least she's happy. That's all that matters right?"

"Um, yeah, I guess," Cara-Mia replied, agitated. "But I really want to know! What happens next? Why does she forgive you? How did you get to Black Mesa?"

"Uh, okay. Number one! What happens next, right? Well, um, she has, um, fell down a pit. And I get this... This itch to test. Oh, but just wow." Wheatley laughed. "The testing, when you do it, oh, it's tremendous! I can still remember that. Sorry, um, yeah. Back to the story. So, I made these robots as test subjects- genius inventions by the way, made by me- and, yup. Tested with them. They were, um, great. Except, put it this way. They - they can't actually solve a test." Wheatley nodded matter-of-factly.

"So what happened next?" Cara-Mia asked expectantly.

"Well, she returned! Somehow, she climbed out of the pit. And she's here now. I kind of got thrown into space and... yeah! A space ship came and got me, that's where you came in." Wheatley finished. "So what's your story? Where are we?"

"We're outside Aperture. We rescued you from Black Mesa but you shut down, and then She found us and dropped you into a pit," Cara-Mia explained, still confused at Chell's reaction. "We found this core who helped us restore something in Her files which stopped Her from trying to kill us, and then we got out and I don't really know what happened to you, I guess she just reassembled you or something."

"We-we're outside?" Wheatley stuttered. "I've never been outside before!" He looked around, marvelling the pale, morning sky above him.

"Well, we should get as far away from here as we can," Cara-Mia shuddered. "Let's go to my- oh no, my home!" Her eyes filled with tears. "I live at Black Mesa," she explained, roughly wiping her face with her sleeve. "What am I going to do? I don't have anywhere to go anymore."

Chell watched her sister sniff pitifully. Could she bring her back to stay in her apartment? There was not much space, but they had nowhere else to go.

Chell patted her sister on the shoulder comfortingly and pointed to the horizon, grabbing Cara-Mia's wrist.

"You- you want me to go with you?" She asked hopefully. Chell nodded triumphantly and the three strange characters started the long journey across the wheat field.

"Um- how long is left? Are we there yet?" Wheatley asked for the hundredth time, half an hour later. Chell shook her head, irritated. They had been travelling for miles and she wasn't sure if she was going in the right direction.

"Are we lost?" Wheatley wondered aloud. "It's getting a bit cold, isn't it? Maybe we should go inside."

"Where would we go? We're in the middle of a wheat field, there's no buildings in sight," Cara-Mia laughed in reply, optimistic despite being tired out from the long journey.

As they walked, exhausted, the sky darkened with threatening rain clouds. Wheatley watched in awe as they blew in the cold wind like wisps of smoke, glowering down at him.

Something cold and wet landed on his optic and he screamed in fright as he closed his shutters; "WATER! GET IT OFF ME!"

Chell jumped at his scream and hugged him closer to her protectively as she felt small speckles of rain scatter over her skin.

"We need to go somewhere, get shelter! Quick!" Wheatley panicked, as more droplets of rain hit his shell.

"A few drops of water won't hurt," Cara-Mia reassured him.

"It will if it gets in my circuits!" Wheatley replied shrilly.

As they pressed on, the storm built and the wind grew stronger, howling through the open field.

The large, cold raindrops stung Chell's face as she walked, Wheatley clutched tightly in her arms. Water was running down his tiny body, and he was shivering in the cold like a small animal, shutters tightly closed against the icy gale.

"I think we need to find a shelter," Cara-Mia shouted over the rushing wind, her hair dancing wildly behind her as she fought to keep up with Chell. "Are you two okay?"

"I think I'm okay!" Wheatley called in reply. "Just a bit- wet!"

"Are you sure your going the right way?" Cara-Mia asked her sister. In reply she shook her head.

Cara-Mia pushed her soaked hair out of her eyes. "Maybe we should find somewhere to stay until the storm passes!" She yelled over the deafening wind.

"Is that a house over there?" Wheatley shouted at the top of his voice, opening his shutters a fraction of a millimetre. "Can you see it?"

Chell squinted through the icy storm and spotted a building ahead. Gaining her confidence slightly, she trudged through the soaked, muddy field towards the dark silhouette of the house in the distance. Cara-Mia followed behind.

As they approached the building, it turned out to be an old, deserted house with ivy crawling up the walls. Most of the windows were smashed or cracked, and the old, once white-washed walls were crumbled and weatherworn.

Chell extended a numb hand and turned the door-handle. With a loud creak, just audible over the storm behind them, the door screeched open.

Gingerly, Chell stepped inside. The damp wooden floorboards sank slightly as she carefully rested her weight on them. A mouldy, moth-eaten rug lay in the middle of the floor, and damp curtains framed the grimy, broken windows, swaying in the wind. The remains of a shattered lightbulb swung back and forth on the ceiling, flickering feebly. Cobwebs clung to every corner and a thick layer of dust covered an old, broken TV in the far end of the room.

The smell of wet dust and mould filled Chell's nostrils, as well as the stench of a rotting body from the next room.

The house suddenly gave a shudder as the door behind them slammed shut.