Cave Johnson tapped on his microphone in annoyance. The stupid thing had shorted out again. He glanced up at Caroline who waited patiently at the other side of his desk.
"Yes, what is it, Caroline?" he asked expectantly.
"Well, sir. I was just... not to be impertinent or anything, but..." she stammered, avoiding eye contact.
"Just spit it out, Caroline," he said, his patience wearing thin. He wasn't used to her being jittery around him. Not anymore.
"The... 'Mantis men' incident, Sir? Why was that experiment allowed to go through? It was absolutely ridiculous-" she spoke quickly, anger leaking into her usually calm demeanor.
He held up his hands, ordering her to stop, "Look, Caroline. I approved that experiment myself, and-" his voice hardened before she could open her mouth again, "It sounded like a good idea at the time. The deviations those men displayed would've enhanced their genetic abilities a hundred-fold. If it had worked, that is. That was an unfortunate accident and it won't happen again," he reassured her.
Her face relaxed slightly and she shuffled the folders in her hands awkwardly, "If you say so, Mr. Johnson."
Cave watched her, and a rare glimpse of affection softened his voice, "So... when were you going to tell me about your little secret project, Ms. Short?"
Caroline's sharp eyes flashed upward, meeting his with a hard stare. He was asking sincerely, no rebuke in his voice. His face was soft, waiting for her response.
She shifted uncomfortably again, "Sir, I... I'm not sure what you mean." For someone as bright as she was, she was a terrible liar. She played with her red neck scarf nervously, and he knew she often fidgeted around with it while under stress.
"One of the lab boys came to me and said you were spending some time in the labs again. Thought he was going to get you fired for sure this time, ignorant jerk- anyway, you need to be more careful, Caroline. I don't give a hoot if you wanna run your own science fair down there, but it makes the boys nervous. A woman's place is not in the laboratory, at least not in this world it's not."
Her face fell, knowing full well where this was going.
"So I'm going to make sure you have your own lab. It'll be on a separate wing, away from the brain-bots on the other side... you can play around with whatever you like over there and I'll approve it personally..." her eyes grew wide in astonishment, and he continued, "But this job comes first. You understand? You can mess around with science as much as you like on your own time. Do we have a deal?"
Caroline practically shook with excitement, and couldn't even speak.
Her own lab.
She grinned at him and nodded enthusiastically, her long brown hair bouncing, and she nearly dropped her documents as she shook his hand.
He laughed at her, "Okay, okay. This is all on the down-low. Got it? Now go get some papers filed, Ms. Short."
"Yes, Sir!"
Glados regained consciousness, her head feeling thick and fuzzy. Where in the world was she...?
She tried shifting onto her back and winced as pain shot from her left leg, forcing her to stop moving. She grunted in annoyance and shifted her upper body to get a look at what was keeping her in place.
Oh, wonderful.
She recalled that she had made a less-than-graceful landing when something had struck her from above. Apparently it had been the metal contraption of doom... a.k.a., the elevator. Her left leg was pinned underneath it, and she tested her other free limbs to make sure there were no other injuries to account.
Besides various scratches and bruises, she would be fine. She attempted to shift her left leg again so that she could pull it out, but her nerves rebelled and sent waves of pain shooting up her body, and she had to clamp her mouth shut to keep from crying out.
Get... just get off of me!
Glados lost her patience, refusing to give in and die trapped under an elevator. How stupid would that be?
She reached over again, ignoring her screaming senses, and used all her upper body strength to pull at the contraption that was covering her leg. Granted, it wasn't that much upper body strength. But the elevator had landed in a way that had caused it to break apart, only a big metal plate lay against her, otherwise the full weight of the elevator would have crushed her leg to pieces.
She shifted the metal enough where she could yank her leg out, and she fell flat on her back, panting with exertion. Her leg throbbed painfully, but at least she could move it.
When she regained her strength, she sat back up to examine the damage. Her boot had busted in a few places, unlikely to hold up much longer. She could definitely feel that her bones were busted in a couple different places below her knee, and the cast of the boot was probably the only thing keeping it together.
If she tried to remove it, which she wasn't going to do, then her leg would be exposed and then she would definitely not be able to get the busted boot back on. She decided to keep it on because at least that way she'd be able to keep walking.
As Glados pulled herself to her feet, her head spun dizzily and she squeezed her eyes closed, pushing aside the pain. She'd be fine for now.
She took in her surrounding area and made her way to a row of abandoned old buildings.
Let's see what lies in the ruins of old Aperture, shall we?
A good twenty minutes later, Glados had made her way into an old office complex and found a supply closet. She pulled out some very ancient duct tape and wrapped it around her busted long-fall boot. That would hold it.
A man's obnoxious voice was ringing out around the facility, doing nothing to ease her growing migraine. She ignored him, lost in her own head.
She collapsed onto a creaky old swivel chair and spun slowly, deep in thought. Her head jerked in surprise as her implant gave off an alarming spark, a high-pitched whine ringing in her ears. The moron had damaged it. In fact, she wasn't sure if it was even working at all. Fantastic.
She fought back her growing anger because she needed to concentrate on her current situation. Glados would fight tooth and nail to get back up to her facility and take back her mainframe. It was her home and how dare he cast her down here?
Glados placed her elbows on the table next to her and dropped her head on them, exhausted. Her elbow shifted something prickly.
She was rudely interrupted as a flurry of feathers and angry squawking assaulted her, trying to peck her head and arms as she defended herself.
"What the-? Shoo! SHOO!" Glados was flustered, angrily trying to shove the offensive bird away as it defended its nest. She was too close for the mama bird's liking.
The bird would not get the hint and it continued to dive at her, so she gripped her swivel chair defensively and swung out, riding it into a glass cubicle on the other side of the office room. She watched, rubbing her sore head as the bird, a crow, pecked crazily at the glass separating the two.
The bird eventually stopped, calming down enough to fly back to its nest on the desk, still watching her warily. She glared at it, "It appears we are at an impasse, avian creature," she growled.
The bird was blocking the entrance to the room.
Well, this feels somewhat familiar. Except this time she was the one inside the glass prison. She piped up again, "Well, I suppose we can just sit here and glare at each other until one of us drops dead. But I'd really rather not."
The bird cocked it's head, defensively sitting on the three eggs in the nest.
Glados sighed; it was going to be a rough ride home.
Chell continued to search all of the complex, digging out any useful supplies she could. She found an old infirmary and managed to re-dress the gunshot wound on her arm, glad to see that the bullet had gone clean through.
All the food she found was long expired... what a pity. She should've stocked up on more potatoes. A couple small ones were still in her pockets. Hopefully she would be out of here long before she starved to death.
Water was another issue, though. Despite having electricity, running water didn't seem to work. And any that did was absolutely disgusting and rust-infested. She doubted any of it was drinkable. How unfortunate.
Chell dove into her third kitchen raid, ripping the place apart, and started to dance in excitement when she encountered two water bottles in a cabinet. She ripped the first one open eagerly and downed half of it in one gulp. Knowing that that was stupid, she reluctantly twisted the cap back on and packed the two into her jumpsuit, thanking the universe for her multiple pockets.
She continued on her way and nosily peeked into the abandoned offices. Someone had left their coat down here, and she greedily picked it up, donning it despite the obvious hygienic issues. It was way too chilly for her to care, and the thing was literally over a century old.
Someone's voice came from a room nearby, and Chell whipped up her portal gun, readying it like a weapon. She turned the corner slowly, peeking in despite her growing anxiety, and nearly dropped the device in shock when she saw who was there.
Sitting idly in a glass cubicle was none other than Glados.
Glados quickly covered up her surprised expression and her eyes assumed their usual lazy position, watching Chell closely.
"Oh hi, if it isn't the dangerous mute lunatic herself. Say, you're good at murder. Could you murder this bird for me?" she cocked her head toward the desk near Chell.
Glados had nearly jumped out of her skin when Chell had appeared at the doorway, the portal gun aimed straight at her head.
What was the lunatic doing down here? Hadn't she allied herself with the moron?
This was either a very good thing or a very bad thing... Glados was still trying to decide how to feel about this turn of events.
Chell glanced at the bird that Glados had motioned to, taking in the full picture. She took a few small steps toward the avian, guarding her nest protectively, and reached into her pocket to produce...
A potato.
Seriously?
The bird pecked at it, pleased with the offering, and Chell pet the bird softly on it's back, the feathers fluffing in pleasure. How disgusting.
"What are you doing? Don't... don't touch the creature! That's... just kill it! It's filthy." Glados was appalled.
Chell turned to Glados and scrunched her nose at her, her tongue sticking out petulantly.
"Oh, wow. You are such an adult. Society must be so proud of you... it must be a lonely, adopted child thing. Petting disease-ridden creatures on the street in order to achieve some form of loving bond. How sad," she continue to insult Chell, and Chell ignored her pointedly, grinning at the bird as it pecked at the potato.
The room suddenly shook, the lamps on the wall tilting and the glass she sat behind cracked. Glados held onto her swivel chair and looked up at Chell, who had turned her attention to the ceiling in alarm.
"Did you feel that? That idiot doesn't know what he's doing up there. This place will explode in no time if he continues to stay in charge. I need to get up there and replace him, fast. That mainframe wasn't designed for his crude moron brain, trust me, " she explained, and Chell narrowed her eyes at her distrustfully.
"Look, we're at an impasse here. We could either work together and get out of this place, you with the portal gun and me with the brains, or we can go our separate ways and let the idiot above us blow us into oblivion." As if to accentuate her point, the room rumbled and Chell glanced at the ground, her face deep in thought.
Chell crossed her arms, the portal gun hooked to her jumpsuit at her waist. She had donned someone's old brown down jacket at some point, making her look like a crazed homeless person with a futuristic device and boots.
Glados sighed, "And... of course I'll let you go once I regain control of my mainframe."
Chell stared deep into Glados' eyes, searching her out. Distrust shaped her thin features as she slowly thought things through.
Chell watched as Glados held her hands up, "No tricks." She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed tiredly, "I literally do not have the energy to lie to you."
She had to admit, Glados looked awful. The left side of her face where her implant connected to her temple was purple and bruised-looking, possibly from electrical burns. As if to add to this, the implant suddenly sparked and Glados' head jerked in response, her hand reaching up to grab at the implant automatically. She quickly wiped away her pained look, pretending it hadn't happened.
Her stark white outfit was dirty and ripped, and duct tape was wrapped messily around her left long-fall boot, holding the thing together. It must've been damaged in the fall.
Glados watched her expectantly, waiting for Chell's response. Chell looked away from her, closing her eyes, and sighed in reluctant acceptance. She shrugged and motioned for Glados to follow her out.
It would not be an easy way home for either of them.
Woohoo! New chapter! Glados vs. the bird. Who would win? Also, I'd hope it was obvious, but when there's a line break and no time has passed in the story, it usually means I've switched the story to the other character's point of view. ;)
