This chapter is about twice as long in length as the previous two, as I wanted to shatter the picture of Chell simply sticking around the shack. She's determined, stubborn, someone that wants to get something done. Whilst I think it was definitely necessary to establish Chell's character without the distraction of following the story, nobody wants three chapters on someone arguing with a Cube! Anyway, thank you very much to all of you who have reviewed and added the story to your favourites. If you have written stories yourselves, I'm sure you'll know how great it is to read those emails coming through. Thanks

Moving Forward

By the time Chell had realigned her thoughts with her goals, the sun was beginning to touch the tops of the hills, cloud was filling the sky and being painted beautiful reds, golds and yellows. It was so silent. The Companion Cube was still not talking to her – not that it ever had – there was no message telling her that she should feel an emotional response to the scene, nor the birds that GLaDOS had so hated. It was wrong. Chell played it through in her head.

"This is a sunset. If you had enough intelligence to sustain an emotional response, you would feel a sense of elation. However, you do not have the capacity to understand such a feeling. This next test involves.."

That's what should be happening. It was wrong without the disembodied voice of GLaDOS relentlessly insulting every part of her being. There was no logical solution to the test that was coming.

By this time, the only remnants of the sunset that had plunged her into her emotionless wonderings were the fragments of light trapped in the clouds. Like memories, so beautiful, yet so soon chased away by the darkness of the night. The night was truly underway now, so there was no point in Chell making any move now. Best not to move too soon anyway. She might be summoned back into the Facility, maybe she was needed there.. Or not. Chell did not want to move away from the shack that represented the majority of her life so far, and she didn't even know how long that was.

The air was still warm, the golden wheat holding in the heat around the shack. Taking the companion cube, Chell tried the door of the shack again. It opened easily enough, but it was empty. There was no evidence of the lift that had left her here. There was a chair in the corner, along with a small table. Chell put the Companion Cube on the chair, and propped herself against the wall next to it. There was no point in staying awake. She took the cube off of the chair, slid it under the table and curled up around it. It seemed almost strange, the need for sleep. It hadn't occurred to her at all in the Facility. Nor had hunger, or thirst. Nothing mattered in there. It was blissful.

Chell woke with the first rays of the sun. GLaDOS had so often mocked her, telling her of the dawn chorus, and sunrises. There was nothing. The sun had risen, but no birds had heralded it. Sleeping was not like being in stasis, Chell woke up sore and stiff. Her toned muscles were cramped and painful. Automatically, Chell looked for the Portal Gun. It had kept her alive, she felt even less secure without it. It was next to her. Strange, that the gift from her antagonists was the most important thing to her.

The world outside the shack was unchanged. The wheat shone under the sun. The trees on the hilltop swayed in the breeze. The rubble of the town stood forlornly, away beyond the golden crop. It was her fault. During her first escape, she had violently destroyed a large portion of the Aperture Facility, which had exploded. Had any innocent people died of her selfish actions? Did her need to escape justify the ruination of the lives of those people? It was a question, and Chell wanted answers. She looked at the shack. It was only a cobbled wood lean-to, but it represented the gateway to the whole of her life. Chell turned away. That life was gone. GLaDOS left to test on those two robots. She didn't care anymore. She never had done – Caroline had, and she'd been deleted.

Chell took the Portal Gun, used it's grasp to pick up the Companion Cube, and set off towards the ruins. A large metal wall covered her view of most of the town – perhaps there was a thriving existence behind that wall. She would find out.

Pushing through the lush wheat was not difficult, but Chell disliked it. The fragile golden stems snapped at the weakest brush, and fell in a path behind her. She was forging a trail of destruction through the field. Much like the rest of her life she thought. "But it isn't my fault" she thought; more to the Companion Cube than to herself. She didn't know the answer, so she might as well ask her only friend.

Coming to the edge of the crop, Chell met a brown earthen path. The soil was packed solidly, but not cracked in the heat. A thick hedge divided her from the next field, beyond which the ruins lay. Directly behind the hedge was another path. Chell could barely see this path through the torny thorns of the hedge, but she needed to get there. Going through, or over the hedge was not an option. The part of Chell's brain that had solved countless tests whirred into action, and she looked down to the device in her hand. She could not imagine using it outside of the Facility, but there was no reason it would not work – the ground was a flat surface after all.

Chell put the cube down on the floor, releasing it from the pull of the gun. Or had Mr. Johnson stated that only moon rock conducted Portals? Chell fired the gun.

It worked. How, she did not know, but the eerie blue Portal opened onto the dirt floor, and for a fraction of a second, Chell glimpsed the Facility through the orange counterpart – or was that just wishful thinking? The Companion Cube held no answers. The shifting blue oval looked wrong, out of place in the beautiful countryside. Quickly, Chell fired the alternate portal through a hole in the hedge, threw the Cube through the portal at her feet. She jumped in after it, and felt a jolt of sickness as gravity reasserted itself upon her.

It felt good. The feeling reminded her of the Facility, the tests in which she had been forced to catapult herself through the portals to reach the exit. That was gone now though. She was on the other side of the hedge, and that's what mattered.

Chell shook the gun, and the portals disappeared. Better. Taking the Companion Cube – which had not offered her any congratulations – Chell began to hike towards her destination. Then she had an idea. Firing the portal gun at the large metal wall ahead, and the shifting blue portal opened up near the top of the wall. Turning back, Chell fired the counterpart portal onto the floor next to her. Sure enough, she was treated to the view from the wall, with herself in the distance gazing down. Carefully, she lowered the Companion Cube down into the portal, and watched it reappear, looking very small, half a mile away.

Chell had had no reason to test the portal – she'd never done it before. However, it didn't feel right to be using it away from its home. It was Aperture Science's most secret project – or had been. Chell did not know what technologies existed in the new world, or even how much time had passed since its first development.

Chell turned, and shook the gun. It wasn't right. She shouldn't use it to take shortcuts in the real world – it was a utility, for use when necessary, but not on a whim. The Companion Cube agreed, she thought. Turning, she began the hike towards the town. Her feet should serve her now. This was the real world.

Thank you! Have fun reading this latest instalment, and please keep the reviews coming.

~daT.

PS - Not my characters.