Underground, in the old, long forgotten facility of Aperture Science, the two old doors of the elevator slid open with an automatic-sounding 'ding' as the man with an overly-sized cube at his feet peered nervously into the dark opening before him.

A moment of eerie silence passed, and from the darkness a small, malevolent red light flickered to life.

"Target acquired."
The quiet mechanical voice echoed throughout the small elevator.

"Duck!"

The voice pierced through the silence of the area as the man did what he was told to without a moment of hesitation, using his cube as cover while the explosive sound of bullets being fired rang in his ears.

"Goddamnit! I told you this wasn't a good idea!"

Bullets whizzed past him and dug themselves straight into the once lavishly cushioned wall of the elevator. Others made their impact on his already battered cube, loyally guarding the haggard man from whatever hazards befell him.
The man in question was fumbling with a small panel covered in various buttons and switches, a manual control panel for the elevator situated in the very back of the vehicle. Why it was there, nobody really knew. But then again, Aperture always had a knack for creating overly complicated and wholly unnecessary machines.

Down, down down down…
He repeated in his thoughts as he desperately searched for the right button to make the elevator move.

"I told you! I just knew this would happen!"

The elevator made an audible creak, its cushioned wooden walls cracking under the impact of the unrelentless rain of bullets.
It wasn't going to hold out for long.

"…I've got it!"
The man finally yelled, setting his finger down on a single, yellow button.

Almost immediately the elevator began to dip down, its speed gradually increasing as the elevator began its descent.
The doors stayed open as the lift continued down, the bullets of the turret flying frantically in all directions, as if trying to hit the entirety of its moving target.

In the cover of the companion cube, the man still hid, cautious as ever to avoid the last spray of bullets. Luckily for him, it wasn't long before the elevator had moved out of range from the turret's fire, and he could move again.

Controlling his urge to curse, the man massaged his temples in silence and waited for his heartbeat to slow down. Cautiously, thoroughly he assessed any damage done to him.

No injuries sustained. Good.

"I feel it's a little too early to think your safe."

The man squinted at his cube, a mix of confusion and slight fear twisting his lax expression.

"…What?" His voice wavered.
"Do you remember where we are? What type of elevator we're in?"
"Of course I do. We're in one of the old guest elevators, the ones our public 'Visitors' from the government used to use to get inside the mine."
"Exactly. We're in one of the old elevators."
"And what's the problem with that?"
"…Don't you remember? It was only the newest elevators, the ones accessible by Glados that were made to be controlled with air pressure."

An odd muffled sound of constant battering, not much unlike the sound of a mechanical drill going on without end rang through his head as realization finally hit him.

The man stifled a gasp and looked up at the elevator ceiling in panic.

Oh god no.

The old public elevators were created standard to their time, with none of the fancy air pressure controlled locomotion technology (That was reserved for the test subjects and testing area navigation, as many of the scientists were still skeptical about the 'Making an elevator float in a tube unsupported by ropes without falling to your death' concept) and a slightly more appropriate design for any average guest going into the facility. Even to Aperture standards at the time they were simple contraptions, just a large wooden box with buttons connected to a belt, a pulley, and some gears.

Yes, he remembered now. They were connected to a belt that suspended them in mid-air.
A flimsy, little rope, the only thing stopping them from crashing to a hard and painful death.

"…Doug."
"That turret hasn't stopped shooting."

The sound of countless bullets hacking at what remained of the belt rang through the man's head, and for a fleeting second he was reminded of the old prototype turrets, many of which lacked the ability to differentiate their targets, resulting to simply shoot everything that moved.
Over the muffled noise of the bullets the elevator gave a loud creak, jolting diagonally to the side. At this man and cube were both thrown off-balance, the man making a desperate grab for his companion cube as the already rapid descent of the opened elevator got faster with each second.

Somewhere in the distance, over the sound of endless bullets being fired, over the whooshing of the air around him, the man thought he heard subtle, quiet, Snap.

Freefall.

Even in the darkness, the man heard voices.

"What did you expect to do? Did you really think you could escape this hell?"
"You're a goner now. There's no way you'll get out of this here."
"You lost that chance a long time ago."
"From the moment you saved that girl, you'd killed yourself."
"…You were always a disappointment…"

Laughter accompanied their voices, each sound growing louder than the last, and they resonated throughout the man's head, over and over again. Their simultaneous words came like dull blows to him, each voice hitting on old scar, dark thoughts he had tried to put past him.

Even if he wanted to shut his ears, he couldn't. Even if he wanted to scream, his mouth wouldn't utter any sound. It wouldn't move. He couldn't make it move. Still the voices continued, laughing, jeering, relentlessly attacking him as he lay vulnerable.
Silence wasn't a mercy meant for him, it seemed.

It was then he heard the voice.

"…Doug…"

It was a new voice, one he hadn't heard before. Faintly it whispered to him, fading in and out of his hearing as if it were coming from far away.

"…Doug Rattmann…"

It was an oddly familiar voice, a voice he recognized, yet couldn't place. Maybe a voice from the distant past, belonging to a man he had known once in his past life.

"…Stop…."

Did this voice come to hurt him too?

"Stop sleeping on the job."

Unconsciously the man gave a start, reacting to the words as if it had slapped him straight in the face.
Or in this case, whacked him on the head with a rolled up magazine.

Distant memories flooded the man's head, and finally, the voice clicked.

~oOo~

It was around 3:00 p.m., considerably late into the average working hours and he was huddled up by the desk at his cubicle, his arms folded underneath his head as he lay there quietly, fast asleep by the time the man crept up behind him. On the slightly balding, middle-aged man was a stark white lab gown he always wore with pride, and in his right hand a poorly concealed, rolled up magazine.
The man grinned as he looked down on the sleeping man. He always enjoyed this part of the day.

"Doug Rattmann, I implore you to stop sleeping on the job!"
He boomed as he hit the unconscious young man once on his head with his magazine.

At that the man shot up with a start, his uneven blue eyes searching frantically around for danger before they finally set on him.

"Oh." The man said with irritation (and slight relief) in his voice. "Henry."
"Mr. Cave Johnson didn't hire you to sleep! He hired you to work!" Henry continued on with a childish grin.
"..." The man stayed silent.
"But if you do insist on sleeping, the go ahead. I'm not going to be the one fired because of my laziness." Henry said sarcastically.
"…Jesus Henry," The man groaned quietly. "You know that's not something to joke about."
"Yeah, yeah. I know." Henry grinned sheepishly. "But really, do you get any sleep at night? It's like you're asleep here every time."
"…I'm a little busy at night." The man quietly replied. "You know that, right? The DOS can't manage themselves, and now that George's gone I'm the only one around here who knows anything about the Aperture image formatting system."
"Well. That makes sense, I guess." Henry looked away, momentarily befuddled by the man's words. Though he came past as a well-renowned engineer to his colleagues, he knew little to nothing about current I.T. technology and programs, especially if the systems were created by Aperture.

"So, have you gone out of the mine recently?" Henry asked, subtly averting the focus of the conversation to a slightly more 'general' topic.
"No. Have you?"
"Yes I have, actually. Around three weeks ago."

In silence the man stared at Henry, his face twisting into an odd, confused frown as he thought quietly to himself.

"What?"
"…You must really love your job." He finally said.
"Well of course I do." Henry grinned with pride. "I earned it, and I'm lucky to be here. In fact, we're all lucky to be here. I wouldn't have had it any other way-"
"I know. I got it." The man cut him off mid-sentence. Knowing Henry and his never-ceasing love of the Aperture corporation and science in general, he quickly caught on to the fact that he was about to launch into another one of his long and winding speeches of praise.
Praise for Aperture. Praise for its advances in science and its discoveries in the field of artificial intelligence.

The Genetic Life form and Disk Operating System.

Even with his usual dose of anti-paranoiac medication, that robot still gave him the chills.

"…I'm sorry Henry, I've got to go back to work." The man faced away from Henry, his fingers settling comfortably on the keyboard in front of him.
"See you, and thanks for stopping by, I guess."

Henry, still slightly taken aback by the man's curt reaction to his speech, quietly took a step back, figuring it might be better to leave him alone.

"Hey, Doug." Henry paused for one last time as he headed towards the door.
"Hmm?" The man replied, feigning disinterest.
"I'll talk with the boss and see if they can give you a day out around next Sunday." Henry said quietly. "I doubt it'd be too much of a problem to get it, you've been working hard for the past several months on the artificial intelligence project, and we're close to completion, anyway."
"So when you do get the day off…" His voice trailed to momentary silence.
"Go outside. See what you can and go back to greet your family or something. Don't try to stay here all the time, living underground like a rodent for the rest of your life. Just go outside - enjoy the sky."

"...Because you never know Doug, that might be the last time to you'll ever see the light of day."

~oOo~

Lights.

The man's vision slowly blurred into focus as he tiredly stared up at the large, worn out Aperture logo above him.
A hole where the elevator should've been hanging.

Idly he noted the various aches and bruises in his body, and the wet, moving sludge of water that consumed the bottom part of his trousers and his shoes. Slowly, painfully, he pushed himself up to a sitting position.

In front of him lay a rather deep pool of water, (Non-toxic, thank god) and floating above it where various pieces of what was once the wooden elevator, now reduced to shards of rubble and scrap. Feeling around his body for injuries, he was relieved to find that he had less bruises than he initially expected, and that he had come out pretty much unharmed, spare his soaked clothes and his still-sore head.

With a start, he realized that he was missing something. His companion cube.

"I'm still here you know."

The man turned quickly to his right, finding with a sigh of relief, his pink, glowing companion cube as it seemed to bob underwater, just a little outside of the small mound of an island he was on.

"…What happened?" He asked, tongue still heavy.
"We fell. The turret's bullets cut right through the rope." The voice paused as if in doubt. "I'm not exactly sure what happened after that."

"The elevator broke through the ceiling above us, and I'm guessing that it splintered before we could reach the ground. We're not that hurt, so the fall must've been shorter than it seemed."
"But then again, this isn't the first time we got lucky."

The man stared glumly ahead, unable to appreciate that knowledge.
Luck meant nothing if it couldn't get you out of Aperture.

He sighed quietly.
They had failed again.

"Don't be like that." The voice chirped. "At least we're still alive."
"And as long as you're alive, there's still hope. Remember?"

"…I remember." The man replied with a whisper.

Unconsciously he fumbled with his I.D., slipping the thin plastic card out of its case as he blankly examined it.
Beside the large Aperture Science logo was a picture of a clean-shaven young man, his blue unbalanced eyes staring blankly, directly into his own. It was the face of a man that knew no true worries, no true fear or suffering. Even though he was paranoid, with a tendency of schizophrenia, he was still an average man. No voice or ghostly fear could ever compare to the real thing.

Slowly, almost clumsily, he recited his name.

"Doug Rattmann."

It was the only sense of identity he had left.
But maybe, he would have no need for it anymore.

"…No." The man- Doug steeled himself at the realization of his own thoughts.
"I will not give up." He seethed and clenched his fists, as if readying himself for battle. "I will never give up."

If the girl had escaped, then so would he. She had never given up, and he would follow in her footsteps.

"…That's the spirit." The cube said quietly to him.
"But if we really want to escape then we need to hurry. We don't have much time left."

"I know."
Doug stood and dusted himself off as he hoisted the cube on his back.

"Don't worry." Doug mumbled to the cube. "This time, we will find the exit."

It had barely been 13 hours since Glados had let Chell leave.

Though she was back on top, regaining her control over the now extensively broken down facility had been a slow and difficult task. It seemed the moron had destroyed more than she had anticipated, and her connections with several areas of the facility had been cut.
At this rate, it would take days before she regained complete control.

Glados growled inwardly, considering for a nanosecond to bring the idiot core back to earth and torture him for what he'd done.

Even her cameras weren't fully functional, (A majority of her cameras had been replaced and re-wired to the large displays which covered only a very limited number of test chambers) and she couldn't see much of what was happening inside her facility.

But even if she couldn't see it, she could still feel it.

"…Oh my." Glados whispered to herself.

What had come to her was completely unexpected, and for a second she was too surprised to immediately react. She thought she had taken care of that problem.

In the old office section of the Aperture facility, a certain room had burst into flames.