Her mind raced as the lumbering core-on-legs came steadily closer. The thing was strong, there was no doubt about that, but she was not going down without a fight. Not in a million years. Chell took a deep breath, steeled her nerves, and ran to the far left of the hulking machine. If she could get past it to the chamberlock, or even just evade it for enough time then maybe—
Her thoughts were interrupted as the robot appeared in front of her, seemingly out of thin air. The girl jerked away, and began to run in the opposite direction. That thing was more agile than it looked. This was going to be a challenge. The tramp of metal on tile increased in volume as both Chell and her pursuer put on some speed. It was fast, too. Fast and agile.
Not good.
"Please assume the Aperture Science Party Escort Submission Position to receive your mandatory cake reward and grief counseling." Her voice was even, level, and unreadable as always, and yet Chell knew that She was taunting her. She could feel it.
'You may be fast,' She seemed to be saying, 'but Science is faster.'
Sure enough, as the girl reached the door she and her partner had entered at the beginning of the whole horrible episode, she turned to find the robot nearly on top of her. The Party Escort Robot reached out to Chell with one massive, pistoned arm, but the girl ducked away, and smashed her gun into the core in the middle of its body, hoping to dent it or at least slow it down. Instead of affecting her assailant, however, all the girl succeeded in doing was destroying her portal gun. She threw down the pieces of the broken device, and began to run.
Not fast enough.
Just as Chell had taken her first few strides, something heavy hit the back of her head, and she blacked out.
~ — — — — — — — — — — — — ~
Hisssssssssss
Chell woke with a start. What— and then it all came back to her. The elevator, the turrets, blood... so much blood... and Forrest... and... and... ah yes, she was hit on the head. Upon remembering this fact, a veil of terror began to descend upon the recumbent figure. She had been taken. Where had she been taken?
She started to raise her head, but almost immediately encountered a wall of glass that felt thick enough to stop the bullets of an army of turrets. Worried now, she tried to roll onto her side, but found that she was encased from head to toe in some sort of pod. Chell's breath quickened, and she could feel her heart rate rise, but she forced herself to remain calm. You're alive, she told herself, you're alive, which means they need you. You're not going to die, you're not going to... she stopped. That sound. The sound that woke her. It was still there, she could hear it.
Hisssssssssss
Chell's eyes grew wide, and she began to writhe, beating at the glass and yelling as though her life depended on in. Which of course, it did. Because this could only be some form of deadly neurotoxin, right? Right?
No, why move her and then kill her? Wouldn't it have been easier to... to...
Her arms fell to her sides. She was so... so tired all of the sudden, so drowsy. It was getting hard to think straight.
I'm falling asleep, she thought, I'm falling... I have to remember... escape... Forrest...
A tear fell from the girl's eye, and was absorbed by the padding beneath her. She was so, so tired.
I'll remember,
Chell closed her eyes.
I'm sorry.
THE END
YOU ARE READING
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...
