Old Scars
Doug ran silently with great agility down the corridoor, and in comparison to him the two sisters stumbled clumsily behind him. Wheatley was grumbling to Chell; "Why does he have to come with us? He's mad, he'll probably ruin my plan, and then we'll all bloody die! Can we just run away? There's no point in taking him, as soon as I get anywhere near him the bloody maniac tries to kill me!"
Chell glared down at him, and Cara-Mia replied in a whisper; "You're just going to have to put it behind you, okay? We need to escape, and even if he's mad, he could still help us."
"How, exactly?" Wheatley asked angrily.
"It looks like he's been here a long time, obviously a bit too long-" Cara-Mia began.
"He's been alive too long," Wheatley interrupted bitterly.
Cara-Mia ignored him. "If he's been here so long, he should probably know his way around this place, and maybe he knows a few other ways out. But... but he can't get out because She's watching him."
Chell shuddered at the thought. If She was watching him then it was certain She could see them now, and was probably going to try and kill them.
"She probably isn't though, She- She's probably just got her eye on the exits," Cara-Mia added, seeing Chell's expression. "Let's get on, anyway."
Up ahead, Doug beckoned to them, standing next to a podium. With a grubby sleeve, he wiped the grime off some old panels to show sketchy paintings and rantings scribbled across the walls. Chell cringed as she saw a painting of herself in a jumpsuit, running past a row of turrets.
"It's you," He smiled earnestly, pointing to the picture on the wall, like a small child searching for approval. Chell nodded, trying not to read the scrawling writing that surrounded her.
"The portal gun's wet," He exclaimed angrily, picking up an old, rusting portal device and shaking the murky water off it. Chell took it gingerly in one hand, holding Wheatley in the other.
"You can't carry both," Doug told her as she struggled to support the weightly device on one arm. Despite his insanity he seemed able to think straight... to a point.
"Don't give me to him!" Wheatley panicked, alarmed, not bothering to talk quietly. "He'll just drop me in the water!"
Chell looked at both objects in her arms. She knew she was the best with portals out of the three of them, but she definately didn't trust Doug with Wheatley, and was hesitant to give him to Cara-Mia; what if they got split up?
"Doug's right," Cara-Mia told Chell. "Look at you, you can't run around like that if we're trying to escape."
"Try to use the tractor beam! Anything!" Wheatley almost shouted in his fear.
Chell held Wheatley in a hand in front of her, and activated the tractor beam. But the faulty portal device wouldn't hold his weight and he almost rolled out of her hand.
"Give the moron to me," Doug commanded, leering down at the little core who was struggling to keep his balance in Chell's arms. Wheatley glared back at him.
"I'm not a moron! And- and don't give me to him! Um- uh... I know! Keep me, and... and give the portal gun to her! Then we can run around... and she can shoot the portals!" Wheatley exclaimed happily at his idea.
"I have no idea how to use the portal device," Cara-Mia replied flatly. "I can carry him if you want though," She added to Chell. "I'll stay right by your side, whatever happens." She held out her arms. Chell looked at her hesitantly.
"Yeah, that's okay, just not him!" Wheatley told Chell shrilly. "You can give me to her if you want."
Doug scowled at him angrily as Chell placed him gently in Cara-Mia's arms. "You'll be safe with me," She reassured him.
"Let's go," Wheatley said, squirming slightly under Doug's glare. "Um... let's escape! Adventure voice, I- I was using an adventure voice, there. Incase any of you didn't notice." He added in an undertone.
Chell rolled her eyes and smiled slightly at Wheatley's pathetic attempts to keep everyone in an 'adventurous mood'. Raising her eyes to the cieling she spotted a broken catwalk above her.
She pulled a faded blue trigger on her portal device and it gave a voilent shudder as burning sparks flew from the rusty mechanism. A loud crackle sounded from it's flickering blue light, but finally a shining, startlingly pale blue portal was opened on the wall next to the catwalk.
Pulling another trigger, Chell watched, surprised, as a darker blue portal appeared on the wall oposite her. Discarding the strange difference in her portal device she walked carefully through the portal. Perhaps something was wrong with the colours because of the amount of time it had spent in the water.
Chell stepped cautiosly onto the old, worn catwalk. It wobbled dangerously under her weight as she picked her way along it. Cara-Mia followed behind, Wheatley's optic shifting as he tried not to look down.
The catwalk swayed alarmingly as Cara-Mia strode along it as fast as she could, but it suddenly gave way and Wheatley slipped from her arms as she tried to grasp onto something to hold her up-
"Catch me, catch me!" Wheatley cried, hurtling down the slanting catwalk. Spinning off the rusting metal surface, he shot through the air and collided with the wall with a torrent of sparks-
Doug stood below him helplessly, arguing aloud with himself whether to catch him or not-
Chell watched, frozen, as he landed onto a pile of scrap metal, missing the water by inches-
"Ow!" He shouted in pain. "Ow... that really hurt." His optic swivelled to the man who stood over him. "You couldn't have caught me, could you?" Wheatley spat angrily at him. "Couldn't have- just-just held your arms out, could you? Or... or are you too weak or something?"
Doug's look of loss turned into a grimace of rage as he glowered threateningly down at Wheatley. He raised his foot as if about to stamp on him-
"I- I didn't mean it!" Wheatley's optic shrank in fear as he struggled to move on the floor. "Ummm... look! Everyone's still stuck up there. Maybe we should go and- and help them!"
Gasping in fear, Cara-Mia grasped desperately at a railing, swinging back and forth helplessly. Heart pounding in her ears, Chell rushed forward, holding out her hand, but her long-fall boots slipped, screeching loudly down the rusting metal-
Pulse racing, Cara-Mia grabbed her sister's hand, her legs dangling below her-