Back To You

4.

The halls echoed with Wheatley's voice as he rambled on about the past co-workers he had worked with, all of them—as he said—were mental in one way or another. Accompanying Wheatley's endless blabbering are the taps of your Long Fall Boots, which you recently got as well a set of test subject's uniform which felt less airy than your default bodysuit, in the room next to the one you woke up in as per Wheatley's direction. You skimmed through the hefty folder that you've acquired half an hour ago, not really paying attention to the details of his little spiel.

The contents of the folder were divided into the existing versions of the Human Alternative Android models, you looked through their features and compared them to yourself but none of them were matching up so far.

In you periphery, you noticed that there was a large glass window were the decrepit white walls stopped and was overlooking another room. It has now fully caught your attention, you wandered over for a closer look. Like most parts of the facility you've seen so far, the walls of the lower room were falling apart and—contrasting the decay around it—lush vines were hanging on sections of the ceiling, some had even partially blocked the window from the other side. Moss were thriving along parts of the wall that were damp.
What you assumed was sunlight gently caressed parts of the foliage and gave it a cheerier color to what you've seen around. A small pool of murky liquid on the uneven tile floor was lit up by a ray of light and reflected patterns on the wall. It was beautiful how nature found a way to reclaim a place where human beings once invaded and claimed as their own. The place that was probably dead for a long time held new life within it, the kind of life that didn't make a fuss about anything or anyone, just there—happy to exist. You wondered if the outside world held more captivating scenes like this one.

The outside world.

"Ah, that," Wheatley noticed how you were practically pressed against the glass window. "That's one of the old testing tracks—used to be immaculate, now it's just looks terrible." He squinted his eye at the chamber.
In another life, you would be running around in one of those again and again. You would have been testing until you were nothing more than a pile of broken skin-like material and metal, then revived for more mind-numbing tests. It was a cycle that you were glad to not be a part of but at the same time, it was what you were made for. You were built so that humans wouldn't have die, it was your purpose. Well, there weren't any human lives to save now as far as you knew, so what is your purpose now?

"I think it looks nice, more lively than what I've seen," you smiled, not taking your eyes off of the strangely scenic ruin. "Well, I guess it kind of is," Wheatley nodded.

He has been very agreeable with you, maybe it was in his nature or coding or whatever that made him dislike disagreements, no matter how small it may be. You knew he hated at least one thing about most of the people he worked with but, as far as his stories told, he hadn't actually fought anyone. Was he a docile optimist, who found something he liked in everyone thus outweighing the mildly annoying traits that someone has or is he just a spineless pushover, who can't stand up for himself? Either way it wasn't your business to speculate, what was real to you is the Wheatley you met: friendly, cheery, chatty, and sometimes a bit dramatic. He was pleasant company despite his inability to take hints, it was part of his charm.

Before you could continue to walk, the dim florescent lights in the halls had fully went dark. The background noises of fans and machinery went silent and all that was left was the light from the glass window and the ruined sections of the wall. It was dead silent.

"Great, that's just what we needed," Wheatley attempted to use a rather sarcastic tone.

"What was that?" You turned to him.

"That was the power, it ran out a bit sooner than I expected," he chuckled nervously. "I've been trying to figure out more ways to make it last longer but hmm, I guess it didn't help much. Don't worry, I am positive that we're going to be fine." He watched you clutch the folder in you hands.

Don't worry? You did worry. A lot