Despite Chell's few attempts to wake her, Glados had remained unconscious for a few hours, completely dead weight on Chell's back. The only sign of life was her shallow breathing and constant shivering. Attempting to put her coat on Glados hadn't worked, so she had finally been forced to ditch the heavy thing. The coat, that was.

Chell trudged on, desperate to reach the upper facilities. She tried to think of what she would do once she got there, but her mind was a blank. She was so tired...

Chell stumbled and tightened her grip on Glados before she could drop her. Glados didn't stir, and Chell continued on.

"Target acquired."

Chell jumped out of her skin, scrambling to unhook her portal gun to aim it at the offending voice.

"Ha ha, fooled ya!"

She turned around and found herself face to face with an old defective turret sitting on a large crate. Down here?

No... the turret had the same voice mannerisms as the defective turret, but it was a much older model. That would make sense, considering that they were in Old Aperture. Chell relaxed slightly, and ignoring the turret, walked away.

"Hey, wait, lady. Come back! I jus' wanna have a nice conversation with ya! Hey, lady! Lady!" the turret was calling after her.

I don't have time for this... gotta get out of here.

Chell dragged on, step by step by step.


"That's odd," Virgil muttered to himself, looking at one of many devices he stored in his coat.

"Hmm?" Chuck wasn't all that interested. He was more invested in eating spoonfuls of honey and keeping the jar away from Big Dipper.

"Chester picked up some movement out there. He said they were coming our way." Virgil got up from the table to grab their make-shift weapons and Deviant-Negating laser.

"What? Somebody's out there?" Big Dipper looked up excitedly.

"It could be an animal," shrugged Craig.

"Here, go find Rick and look for the intruders," Virgil tossed the stuff on the table.

"What are you doing then?" Hugo's eyes slanted.

"Staying here to see if they or it comes this way. Last time Chester picked up something it ended up being a crow. Didn't you guys want a little excitement anyway?" Virgil replied, already walking away.


Rick came back after getting a summons on his walkie talkie, and was joined by Ray, Craig, Big Dipper, and Chuck on the search for Chester the Turret's so-called 'Intruders'. None of them actually expected to find anything, but Virgil was right as always. It brought them a little bit of excitement.

"I hope it's an alien!" Big Dipper exclaimed in a hushed, yet still very loud voice.

"I hope it's a nice juicy deer so we can eat it," Rick muttered.

Big Dipper gasped, but closed his mouth after Craig shushed him.

After a moment of silence, Rick spoke up again, "Actually, I hope it's a lady."

They all made a face at him, "Ew, girls are gross, Rick." Big Dipper stuck his tongue out.

Rick smacked him lightly over the head, careful not to use any of his deviation, "When's the last time you ever saw a lady, little boy?"

Craig whispered, "For the sake of all our sanities, let's hope it was only Chester pulling a prank."

"I told you, the turret needs some more turret friends," Ray broke in.

"He's a turret. He doesn't need friends."

"Fact-"

"Shush."

"Don't-"

"SHUSH."

They all fell quiet again, listening.

The tell-tale sound of long fall boots resonated around the corner where they were currently hiding, causing all five to jump out of their skins.

"Oh mercy me, there's actually somebody there," Ray's eyes filled with terror.

"Somebody look, the suspense is killing me," Chuck groaned quietly.

"Okay fine, you babies... HOLY-" Rick spun around, his eyes as wide as saucers. "It is a lady," he hissed with barely restrained excitement.

Craig yanked Rick backwards and took a look for himself, "Stars, he's right." He looked disturbed. All five of them made no moves, waiting for someone else to make the first move.

Craig finally huffed, lifted his handmade taser gun, and jumped out to face the fire.


Chell surprised herself by not reacting when five men, no, four men and one boy, jumped out at her from behind a corner, all bearing weapons. Well, more like holding onto them half-heartedly. The asian one was the only one pointing an actual weapon at her, attempting to make himself look threatening.

To be honest, Chell was dead on her feet and half-believed she was hallucinating the whole thing.

The catwalk made a wrenching noise as the men made their way forward, knocking her back to her senses.

Her eyes widened and she put one hand on her portal gun in alarm. This was real. There were people down here...

"Hey, hey! Don't point that thing at her! Look, she's carrying somebody," the one with the stetson scolded the other man, slapping the device away.

"Glados."

Chell shrunk backward a little bit, tightening her grip on Glados.

"Glados...? That's Glados?" the man with the stetson exclaimed, and suddenly they were all pointing their weapons at her.

The overweight security officer growled and slapped the stetson guy's weapon down, "No, she's not Glados. She's obviously just a test subject. The person she's carrying is Glados," he clarified.

Chell took another step backward.

The asian man frowned, "Which begs the question... who are you? What are you doing down here? And why do you have... her with you?"

She stared blankly at them, unsure if she could broadcast her thoughts to more than one person at a time. She had never had the opportunity to try.

The stetson man dropped his weapon on the ground and walked toward her slowly, his hands raised and his voice sickeningly sweet, "Hey, hey... you know who that is you have there, right? We can help you. Just drop her and come this way. Now that Glados is out of the way we can all escape. Doesn't that sound nice?" he smiled at her patronizingly.

Chell scrunched up her face and glared at him, 'I'm not an invalid, and I'm not letting you touch her!' She clutched Glados with a protectiveness that surprised even her.

All five of them flinched, which answered her broadcasting question.

"Lady! You can talk into our minds!" the red-headed kid shouted with enthusiasm.

The stetson man faltered and lowered his hands again. "Okay, sorry... I guess you never know what you're going to get with a test subject. But still... why protect her? Don't you know what she's done?"

Chell grit her teeth, 'Of course I do, and I'm just as surprised as you are that I'm doing this. But she's under my protection, so you won't lay a finger on her, understand?'

No one made a move, everyone calculating and deciding what to say or do next. The men didn't seem to know what to make of Chell.

Chell's eyes drooped again and she felt her adrenaline rush running out. Great...

'Look, I'm tired. She's in need of medical assistance. Just point me in the direction of an infirmary and we'll be out of your hair,' Chell told them tiredly.

Before they could respond, her knees buckled and she landed on the catwalk, nearly dropping Glados in the process.

The stetson man rushed over and steadied her, keeping them from toppling over the side. "Heavens, lady, forget all that. We're being incredibly rude... let us help you," he gave her a dazzling smile and reached for Glados.

Chell shrank back, still wary of the strange man.

He held up his hands again, "I promise I won't hurt her... you have Rick's word," he winked and she let him take the burden off her shoulders.

Before she knew it, somebody was supporting her and helping her walk as she stumbled in a daze.

Ha... maybe I'll finally get a good night's rest.

And she let her worries go.


Sorry, I know this one's pretty short... :) I've been very busy and I have a lot of stuff coming up for the next few months, so updating will be much slower for awhile. I'm still writing, but I don't have much free time right now... ;) In addition, my computer was knocked over by my dog last week and completely broke (Surface Pros are not super resilient... ugh). So I am currently borrowing someone else's computer and I can't figure out what writing program to use. I used OpenOffice on my last Pro, but when I downloaded it here it's completely different and absolutely terrible. I hate it, haha. Sooo... we'll see if I can find a better program (Free. I'm broke). Anyway, sorry to complain! Thanks for your patience and have a fantastic week all!

-Moe