To prevent confusage, I will now explain a little something about the human brain, if you like confusage, ignore this and read the actual chapter:
The human brain does not store memories as a memory 'file' per say, instead, it puts a small date tag on all of the unparsed raw sensory data from that time and stores it in some neuron somewhere.
This means that every time you recall a memory, you are pretending that that time is this time and your brain finds the sensory data with the right tag, then it rebuilds the 'experience' that you recall as memory the way it builds the 'experience' from the current sensory data from your senses.
This also means that every time you remember something it will be ever so slightly different than what it actually was.
With patients who have lost all of their memory, something will occasionally trigger some leftover data in some random neuron and they will remember a small snippet of the memory they lost. Like a sound, a picture, a feeling, pain. All of those could be accidentally stuffed into the 'current' sensory data and you would have no idea that what is happening is actually a memory.
When you forget something, there will always be a little bit of leftover data that might accidentally be triggered by something else, similar to the way a hard disk fragments so if you delete something on it, because the data is all over the drive, something will be left over and NOT be deleted.
What happens with Wheatley's weird dream is that his subconscious found some of this 'meaningless', extra data and was going through it while he slept, instead of going through the other memories. Sort of like a system check.
I hope that makes sense, if not, then you can PM me and I will try to explain it better.
"...Reports are that this woman escaped police custody and is currently in hiding..."
What?
"...Be back after these-Do you have problems carrying things? Too many things to hold on your way to work? Well here's the solution: The Aperture Science Weighted Storage cube!..."
Wheatley sat up in his bed, and then noticed that the TV on ceiling was the source of the voices.
He had had the strangest dream. Ever. If it could be called a 'dream', it would be by the loosest stretch of the definition possible. And it made his head spin just thinking about the disorganised mess he had experience while unconscious.
It was just a collection of sounds, images, and feelings, seemingly out of order.
But they weren't.
At first, he could here himself talking to someone else, but all he could see was darkness.
Then, someone else was talking to him, the voice sounded very familiar, but that's all he could hear, a voice, no words.
Then, he saw what looked like a game board, with a claw next to it.
Then, he heard screaming. Everywhere.
Then pain.
Nothing but horrible, horrible pain.
The end.
"Oh! You're awake! Finally. You sleep for a long time, don't you? I reboot once a night but it never takes THAT long." She sounded relieved and happy.
Wheatley opened his mouth to talk, but was cut off by GLaDOS.
"We're going to have lots of fun today! I found a LOT of games we can play!" She said, as he heard the room's quantum entanglement reactor start.
Noticing the room was starting to shake, and realising what this meant, he quickly got up and charged the metal door.
And it would have hurt, too, if not for the fact that the hinges were so rusty a mouse could push the door out of its frame.
He landed safely onto the floor of the docking station the room was currently docked in.
"Where did you go? Did you fall? ARE YOU HURT?!" GLaDOS said, her voice sounding panicked and distressed.
Ignoring her for the moment, he walked over to the multi lift, and went to the only place he knew he had some sort of twisted authority over.
Division 7.
He always felt drawn to it, for reasons beyond him, it always felt... Right. Just to press that button and walk to his lab and open his terminal.
So right, in fact, the he almost didn't notice the elevator shaft in the middle of the room during his lapse of deja vu.
But when he DID notice it, man alive, he could jump for joy.
Why he came BACK to Aperture in the first place was beyond him.
He ran over to the elevator and checked the build log, realizing he should probably make sure it was safe.
##NANOBOT DIVISION 3 BUILD LOG##
FOREMAN: ID/1587BH9 ALIAS: JERRY
LOG:
THIS POSITION WAS CHOSEN DUE TO THE EASE OF DIGGING IN THE TOP MOST LAYERS, THE 'DIRT' WAS VERY FLUFFY AND FLAT.
THIS ELEVATOR HAS BEEN TESTED AND DEEMED SAFE BY THE TESTING COMMITTEE.
PLEASE USE WISELY. AND DO NOT BREAK
##END OF LOG##
Wheatley got into the empty elevator after reading the log, and used the touchscreen menu to tell the elevator to take him back up to the surface.
He waited for it to move.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited a little bit more.
And during his waiting, he eventually looked back at the control panel.
##ERROR! COULD NOT MOVE! SYSTEM ON LOCKDOWN.##
Dammit, GLaDOS. Why?
Running back to 'his' lab, he grabbed the portable terminal he left on 'his' desk the last time and stuffed it into his pocket.
He might need it later.
A./N.
Mehr, I think I've done enough, not really sure though.
Thanks for reading and please enjoy!