Subject 3281 woke with a start, and tried to identify the noise that had roused her. It was a low hissing—or perhaps buzzing—sound, and seemed to be coming from somewhere just behind the back wall. Her mouth suddenly felt so dry, she could barely swallow. After a night of inactivity, she had almost forgotten about the accursed back wall.
The night indeed had been rather uneventful, with the two partners going back to sleep shortly after Subject 3281's last statements on science and testing.
She looked to her partner now. He was stirring slightly, though not with much enthusiasm. She drew in a long, measured breath, and told herself to stay calm. She had faced turrets, Thermal Discouragement Beams, energy pellets, and other general nuisances and had come out on top, and in control. Why should this wall be any different?
The thought calmed her somewhat, though her head still ached whenever she heard that hissing-buzzing sound, or looked to the wall itself. She shook her head in an attempt to banish the headache that she could feel growing behind her temples. This is ridiculous, she thought, and began the process of strapping on her Longfall boots anew, swinging her feet off the side of her cot. It's only a wall. But it wasn't. It was something more than that, she could feel it. The girl shook her head again, and reached for her right boot.
She retrieved her left boot from the foot of her bed as well and, despite the slight discomfort remaining in her calves from the night before, began to put them on, straping them into place with satisfying clicks. Her movement seemed to rouse her partner fully, and she could hear him quickly begining to do the same.
After her Longfall boots had been sufficiently tightened, Subject 3281 inserted her arm into the circular port in her wall. Her brow relaxed as she was both injected with sustenance, and given her schedule for the day. When the process had been completed, she withdrew her arm, and gave it a routine rubbing-down. With that done, she looked to her schedule.
Subject 3281
800: Hygienic break
840: Begin training
2100: Hygienic break, sleep
Subject 3281's lips tightened in satisfaction. The schedule was the same as yesterday's; simple, and to the point. At least she knew what to expect. She looked from her schedule to her partner, who had completed his morning routine as well, and was standing before the door to their chamber with an air of expectancy. The girl gave him a slight nod, and joined him before the door, now just beginning to open.
The two stepped into the self-sealing hygienic facility, waked into their separate stalls, washed themselves to the best of their ability in the compact sinks, and waited again in the middle of the room for the door to open. It did with all of its usual alacrity, and the two deposited themselves back onto their cots in preparation of the movement their room would undergo.
They waited in silence as the room slowly obeyed the unspoken wishes of at least one of its occupants, and moved in a manner which suggested ascent. The two's ride was not long, though it would've provided ample time for thought if Subject 3281 had allowed herself the luxury. As it was, she knew that indulging her feelings on this matter would do no good in the long run, so she did her best to stem the trickle of thoughts making their way to her brain.
The task wasn't hard—she had performed it an immeasurable number of times before—and Subject 3281 felt the room stop sooner than she would have expected. She threw an involuntary glance in her partner's direction, and stood up in time with him. The lock on the door made its usual color change, and in a few seconds, the two partners were standing within their assigned chamber.
Subject 3281 made an almost imperceptible sound of dissent as she studied the room around her. Three dark gray walls, a dark gray floor, a speaker above the door, and an oddly textured wall to the far left who's color shifted slightly, ever so slightly, from moment to moment. She shuddered, and looked away with another fait sound of dissatisfaction. As before, there would be no testing today.
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Subject 3281; Chell's Story
FanfictionTest. That was what she did, and Subject 3281 did it well. She was the model subject, fit, strong, on time, and most of all... obedient. That's how she was, until one fateful day, when the higher-ups at Aperture Science figured that they could get m...
