Back To You

7.

After a particularly long elevator ride and some confusion that was born from the layout of the chambers, you finally saw the management rail but it was cut along where there was a giant hole on the wall that was supposed to separate the rooms of the chamber. Oh, boy.

Through the broken wall, you saw the door to the elevator but it looked like it was malfunctioning. Sparks were coming out of it and frankly, you weren't excited about getting electrocuted. You were in no hurry to the broken door but you decided that you could just hoist yourself up and over the hole without actually going through the entire test like you did in some of the other chambers. The exposed metal frames of the panels were rough with rust but it did give you the support you needed as you pulled yourself up. You wondered where the heck was your "guide" as you threw your leg over the frame. You sat there, stable enough to let go of the metal—flakes of rust were stuck to your hands. You stayed there for a moment, feeling a bit dehydrated.

"Hey! You made it—well, not that I doubted you or anything," Wheatley slid out from one of the panels. "Why, thank you for believing in me," You chuckled as you put your hands on your hips.

He stopped directly above you. This was the closest you've been to him thanks to the elevation. The scratches on his metal shell looked like they've been there for a long time. You wondered how long he'd really been in this facility—how long has he been wandering along his management rails. He really must've memorized every turn by now and where everything led.

"What do you do for fun?" You blurted out. It wasn't an uncommon question but then you realized that it was indeed unexpected one when he replied, "What?" in a why-would-you-ask-that-now way rather than an I-didnt-hear-you way.

"Well, you've been here for how long? Surely you discovered some hobbies to pass the time," You swung you other leg over and almost toppled onto the floor. You were still getting the hang of the boots. Glad he didn't notice that hehe.

"You know, uhmm, I catch up on a bit of reading," he hesitated "Yeah, reading! Well... when I'm not taking care of the test subjects and you should know humans—ugh, very high maintenance so I don't really have a lot of time, y'know, busy." He nodded to himself. You wondered about the humans that he was supposed to take care of, did they die? Probably. You were curious but you were brought back to the big problem at hand.

"Well now, let's see here," he squinted his eye at the troubling sight and proceded to back up sightly. Both of you were looking for solutions in a silence you didn't realize.

"So you have hands, could you just...lift that piece there?" He referred to the other part of the rail that was lying on the floor. It was covered with concrete.

"I'll try," you walked over to the rail then bent over to try to lift it as per Wheatley's suggestion. You found out that you, indeed, couldn't lift the rail. It was stuck pretty good and on top of that, it was bent in a lot of places. It was useless anyway. Riiight, wasn't that obvious. You turned and shrugged in defeat at Wheatley.

"Can't you just pop out of that thing?" You asked, vaguely gesturing to the rail.

He closed his eye, "Okay, listen, let me lay something on you here. It's pretty heavy. They told me NEVER NEVER EVER to disengage from my Management Rail or–"

"You would die?" You cut him off, "It seems like there is a pattern here,"

"It is awfully repetitive, isn't it? I can probably make an itemized list of all the things that will kill me according to them." He rolled his eye thinking about how people often lied to him. "We don't really have an option here "

"Do you want to try the countdown again? Like the last time? I'll catch you," you said to him.

"You better."