13 – What's in a Name?
Faster and faster the elevator fell, and Subject 2905 was almost hopeless. In his mind, he had already crashed, so it was just a matter of catching up to that point in time. In those brief, limbo-like moments he did not see his life flash before his eyes, but found himself praying. 2905 had glimpsed no hope in his past, and science only quantified his ever increasing speed and diminishing time towards an impending death. But perhaps, just perhaps, what he had been told all those years ago in Church had some meaning.
He had been told that Jesus was God, and it was all that remained in his mind and spirit as a faint marker of far gone years, the only link to a life before Aperture. While he was still praying, the elevator crashed into something, making a deafening slam and loud scraping sounds, but, when 2905 expected the floor to open up and the ground to strike him, the elevator kept on falling.
Strike! Strike! Strike! The elevator slowed with each successive crash.
Finally, the last brought the elevator to a stop.
Bam! The door bowed inward from a strong blast and weakened just enough to be removed.
A little dark alcove was just outside. There was a bundle of blankets, a box or two of rations, and a note stuck to the top. Perceiving no one else nearby, 2905 exited the elevator in utter astonishment. What had happened?
The note read as follows:
Todd Berkeley (Subject 2905),
Hi, you don't know me yet, but all of this is for you. There are four of us planning an escape from Aperture, but we need your help. I told the Core to take care of you, and then started building this place to save you when GLaDOS was ready to move on to someone else.
I'm Missy, by the way. If you can read this, I assume you're in your right mind. Our friends have been less fortunate. Thomas Williams was the first. He was going to get married when his contract was up, and his heart is broken. But even in sorrow he's loyal. Drake Parnell was the second. He'll get away from you, if you let him, but if you lead by example he will follow well. Joshua Merritt was the third. He's strong, smart, and resilient. He's helped us a lot, but choose your words carefully around him.
It takes a while to get to you from where we are, and we're busy, so if I'm not there right away you'll have enough rations to stay well fed for a few days until we arrive. We're going to escape, the five of us, but Merritt discovered what's been going on in the outside world, and I don't have time, or room on this paper, to explain, but something went wrong in Black Mesa (yeah, those guys), and now humans are endangered and fighting a global enemy.
If I've made you scared to even go to the surface, I apologize, but here's the good news: There's enough people in cryostasis down here to support the resistance, and maybe even repopulate the world once all of this blows over (using that old Population model equation we were taught). So, if I have your allegiance, we are going to take our chance to turn things around, and reclaim the world we've longed to see.
'I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength.' - Philippians 4:13
Yours truly – Missy (2901)
Subject 2905, Todd, stared at the note. He hadn't been addressed by his name in so long, if not for the 2905 marked on the paper, he would have thought the note was for someone else. Suddenly everything had perspective, and he realized that not only that his prayer had been answered, but Missy's mantle had been passed on. It was daunting, and he wasn't sure he believed the severity of the situation.
The whole world in trouble? Could the reports be exaggerated? Or, were they accurate, but the world was already too far gone to save? The easiest solution was to stay put, dig into those sumptuous-looking boxes of rations, and wait out the entire ordeal. Whatever Dead Eyes—Merritt—planned on doing to Aperture, Todd figured there would be little trouble in escaping. What was the risk? Well, then again, apocalypse or not, it wasn't easy getting on completely alone in the world.
Then again, he had noticed the Black Mesa jacket on that girl in the control room. Right after she'd shot him…
And it would certainly require extraordinary circumstances for anyone from Aperture, especially as crazy and homicidal as Merritt, to willingly work with someone from Black Mesa.
[Meanwhile]
Dead Eyes, Anabelle, and Calculus had all entered the control room to find Jester and Regret already there. Jester was still circling the body of GLaDOS in quick erratic movements, like an insect. Regret stood sentinel nearby to Dead Eyes and Anabelle while they sought to use Calculus to find GLaDOS in the Aperture computer system.
Anabelle eyed Regret. He swayed like a tree in the wind, utterly exhausted, and hardly able to stand.
"Why don't we just forget Gladys and go?" Asked Anabelle, forgetting the name was GLaDOS. "Shelter for you guys is no problem. We don't have to bring her."
"No!" Retorted Dead Eyes. "She must be found. Tracked her to another level. Backdoor in source code leads to one terminal."
"What do you want with her?" Anabelle asked, sensing an ulterior motive.
"The last word." He replied, and then he produced a detonator from his lab coat pocket and showed it to her. "Then Aperture will die."
"What is that?"
"Rigged explosives to key foundational points. Aperture will collapse and die. No return."
"I have people waiting on the surface. All we have to do is go up."
They were interrupted by a sharp tone and an echo that reverberated through the room. Then came the fuzzy sound of an old recorded message.
"Hi sweetie, it's me. I hope everything is going well."
Anabelle heard a sharp gasp, and glanced over to see Regret standing straight on his feet; it was never apparent just how tall he was until this moment. Marissa's voice continued in gentle monologue.
"They won't let me talk to you directly, but they said I could make messages for you, so…I've got something I'd like to read to you from your Welcome-Home present. It's your favorite, from our first date."
Marissa cleared her throat, and there was the sound of pages being turned. Regret didn't move a muscle.
"'If you love for the sake of beauty, O never love me!
Love the sun, which has bright golden hair.
If you love for the sake of youth, O never love me!
Love the spring, which is reborn every year.'"
Marissa continued on, and Regret—Thomas—fell to his knees and began to weep. Soundlessly, at first, and then he tore his mask and covered his face with his hands. The last two lines of the poem he murmured aloud.
"'If you love for the sake of love, O yes, then love me!
Love me as I love you—forever!'"
Jester snarled. "What's the big idea getting Tommy to bawl his eyes out who's up there?"
"It's Weird Eyes, Drake. Todd, if you prefer." Came the reply over the loudspeaker. "Finally got discarded. Kinda. There's something you guys need to know."
Jester stared, and looked around. "Did he call me that he didn't say 'Drake'…is his name really Todd?"
Anabelle kept her hand hovering over her weapon and gulped. Dead Eyes stared across the room with an intangible yet very real hatred.
Todd dropped down from an open shaft on the other side of the room.
"LOOK WHO'S BACK I'VE GOT SOMETHIN FOR YOU-"
Thomas jerked away and wrenched the turret off and smashed it angrily to the ground.
Todd drew closer, his hands in the air. In the left, he held a small data drive.
Jester held two gel grenades at ready. "Spit it out Weird Eyes I may like you but I don't trust you that much you still like her."
"First: these are all of Marissa's letters. They were a part of your file, Thomas." Todd slid the cartridge to Thomas who claimed it eagerly.
"Next: gun lady?"
Anabelle's eyes widened. "Me?"
"Did Joshua…" He pointed to Dead Eyes. "…tell you there's enough people in cryo down here to repopulate the world?"
Anabelle's brow furrowed, and her stomach turned. Had she been right about Dead Eyes from the first? He had seemed like her only hope, despite every bad feeling that had come to her at their first meeting. Dead Eyes distanced himself from all of them with small steps.
"He said they were the last ones…apart from you, I guess."
"I thought so."
Jester stepped closer, still armed and itching to fight. "What's your point, Weird- Todd?"
"Joshua has been lying to all of you. He's the one who killed Missy, not the core."
Todd twisted at the sudden and forceful smack of a grenade across his face. Another shattered across his shoulder, tearing his suit and then an uppercut from Jester put him on the ground.
"What kind of con game are you playing Weird Todd trying to break up the band that's cold even for you."
"He told me himself."
"Liar!"
Jester raised his arm again and clenched his fist. Todd held his breath, and then the loudspeakers erupted again, this time with Missy's voice.
"Joshua, we have to trust him."
Calculus was still plugged in to the system, and played the full recording of Merritt's horrible act and Missy's final words. They all listened in silence. Jester shook, and couldn't bring himself to strike Todd again.
Thomas remained on his knees, enraged eyes red with tears running down his dirty, stubble-covered face. A long, square jaw, strong cheekbones and a near bald head were clear in the bright room.
Jester stood, and clenched his fists, towering over Todd menacingly.
"It was you!" He screamed, and twisted around, hurling a grenade that shattered against Dead Eyes on the chest.
Jester reached down and helped Todd to his feet, and then Thomas rose also.
"You're gonna die for this Dead Eyes I'm gonna tear you limb from-"
"Look out!" Anabelle cried.
There was the whipping of a cord, and then the muffled puncture of thick fabric. Drake gasped, gargled, and hunched forward. Todd took hold of his limp body and looked past his shoulder. Dead Eyes' grapnel line was stuck in Drake's back, stretching near twenty feet between the two of them.
"No!" Todd shouted. "What are you doing!?"
Dead Eyes detached the line and fled, disappearing almost instantly like a shadow.
Drake gasped laboriously for air, and Todd carefully undid the straps to remove his mask. His face was dirty, with smears across a strong, crooked nose, beady eyes blinked repeatedly against the brightness of the room, and sweat dripped from his shortly cut beard.
"It's t-too bad you never met her, Weird Todd. I wish to God you had. Really pretty…in a weird way. Just your type, I guess. If you had, we might've seen through Dead Eyes sooner…"
Todd dimmed his mask and nodded. "She left me a letter. Funny you mention it, but I think God used her to save my life. You were right: she was the best of us."
"I told you. Always looked out for the other guy even if he was a ~ cough ~ crook like me…"
Todd removed Missy's letter from his breast pocket, and showed him the signature with the Bible verse, "Looks like she had help."
Tears flowed from Drake's eyes. "D'you think she's u-up there? I wanna see her again. If Jesus'll still take me…"
Drake became weak and his voice faltered, and his face turned chalky.
Anabelle held her tongue, and watched as Drake whispered a few sentences to Todd. She couldn't make out what was said, but with those final quiet words Drake breathed his last, and his spirit departed in peace. Todd closed Drake's eyes, and Thomas clicked off the lights on Drake's mask.
After this, Thomas unhooked his portal gun, which had been resting on the small of his back, and held it for Todd to take. Suddenly he remembered! Dead Eyes had tossed him into the discard elevator without his portal gun. Todd took the weapon and nodded gratefully.
"Don't let him have the last word." Warned Thomas.
"He's got a detonator." Anabelle informed. "He can take down Aperture whenever he wants."
"That's not going to happen." Said Todd.