[A/N]

Compared to the somewhat more popular fanfics, this is probably quite a lousy accomplishment, but... Five whole followers! Again, probably not that big of number compared to the bigger ones, but it's certainly more people than I expected. Anyway, here's chapter seven. Enjoy!

She had to accept the thought. She had to come back to the underground facility of Aperture Science. Besides, what other choice did she have? Stay here and slowly become insane? She wasn't planning on going mad anytime soon.

She took another look outside. It was a few hours short of midnight, so she'd better get some sleep.

She made herself comfortable on the couch, and closed her eyes. She thought back at when she was first released. Maybe, she thought, the AI knew there was no one left. That's one way to get rid of someone. If this was the case, maybe she wouldn't be allowed back in.

She shuddered at the thought.

For now though, she thought, let's get some sleep.

She took out her Companion Bit, pressed it against her chest, and quickly descended into sleep.

(-)-(-)

The next morning, she woke up, feeling more sure of herself than ever. Once she got up, she decided to pack some supplies. She took another look at the four cans in her satchel, and got an idea.

She emptied the contents of the cans out of the window. She didn't trust that food anyway. It's Aperture's, after all. It'll probably give me cancer, anyway. After rinsing and washing the cans intensely, making sure that there was no trace of the beans left, she filled them with water.

The tap was old, and it took a while to completely fill the four of them. Once she was done though, she firmly pressed the lids back on, making sure nothing could leak out, and stuffed them in back in her satchel.

The rest of the berries didn't look so good anymore, so she threw those away, too. She decided to pluck those on her way back.

She climbed out of the window, and started her way back.

(-)-(-)

A good three-and-a-half hours later, she got to the edge of the forest again. Three out of the four cans had already been emptied, and some bushes had been raided of their berries along the way. She had replaced the piece of jumpsuit still wrapped around her arm, with the other sleeve. It was healing nicely, and it didn't ache as much as it did before. Her satchel was pushing down on her shoulder a bit too hard in the first hour, but that changed after drinking a bit, emptying the cans.

She had set up the fire again, as the weather hadn't stayed warm for long. That her jumpsuit was cut out of, didn't help either.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't deny that she started to… miss the place. She missed the no-nonsense white walls of Aperture. No wild animals attacking you, and not getting tired out.

She realised just how simple it would've been for GLaDOS to beat her, if she'd just turned off the adrenal vapour. Not that she'd tell her that, though. She'd think that the girl couldn't talk at all, but in reality she could. It was only her protest against the machines. She wouldn't give any AI the satisfaction of hearing her speak.

After a generously long rest, she got up. She almost continued her journey to the shack, until she remembered the road. The road disappeared into the ground, guarded by the rolling shutter, with the all too familiar logo on it. If she could enter here, there was no need to get all the way back to the shack. Besides, if she wasn't allowed in, the trip back would take considerably longer.

She approached the shutter, and tried the first thing that came to her mind; knocking. She knocked twice.

Nothing.

She knocked again, a lot harder.

She waited a few seconds, thinking there was no response. She lifted her hand, and right as she was about to knock one last time-

A hydraulic sound came from beside the entrance. It reminded her of the sound one of the cores would make when it moved its eye about.

She looked to her right, to see that a small panel in the wall had flipped, revealing a screen, and a keyboard that had flipped up, perpendicular to the screen. Above it, a camera, pointed directly at her.

On the screen it showed a graphically simple terminal, with some text in the upper-left corner.

[AS/Administrator/CentralCore/GLaDOS]: Oh hi.