Corruption

Part 8- Problems

Chell awoke with a start. She could smell the dusty stench of a Relaxation Vault clogging up her nose. She rubbed her aching head and frowned as her fingers brushed along a thin scar. She got out of bed and stretched, stiff from cryogenic sleep. She tried the door, no luck. She looked for any way out, nothing. Frustrated, she pounded the wall, losing her composure for a second.

There was a low thud. She knocked again, another low, hollow thud. Throwing safety and logic out the window, she took a step back and ran shoulder first into the wall. The crumbling plaster gave way to a rusty catwalk. She took a tentative step, deemed it safe and jumped on. The metal creaked and groaned with age as Chell took ginger steps towards the door 5 feet away. Suddenly, the catwalk began to tremble, not able to take Chell's weight. She hurriedly sprinted the rest of the way and through the door. Seconds later, the catwalk fell into the abyss below.

Ten minutes of being lost later, Chell found an office. She looked through a cracked window to see one of the old chambers, still solved. Maybe she could find her way back if she got to the lift through the inviting open door. She smashed the glass and jumped down. She could smell the tangy scent of lunar rocks in the panels, the acrid smell of a laser and weirdly enough, gasoline. She shrugged it off and ran through the door, feeling the tingly familiar feeling of walking through an Emancipation Grill. She looked at the screens surrounding the decrepit lift. They all displayed the same blue error screen. She sighed at Wheatley's incompetence and stepped into the tube. The doors hissed shut with surprisingly little resistance and started to ascend. After about 30 seconds, the lift came to a halt. It was too dark to see what was outside. She banged once on the door. The bang echoed loudly. She was in a large room by the sound of it. She punched the glass again. It smashed, leaving her with a few cuts.

Wandering into the dark, she felt around blindly, trying to find something familiar when her head began to pound. Her head felt like it was tearing itself in two. She screamed and fell to the floor, clutching her head in agony. She couldn't take this torture! It felt like she was being torn to pieces. Her screaming dissolved into gross sobbing. She stayed like this until she felt a strong pair of arms pick her up and hold her. She breathed in the mystery man's metallic scent. He smelt like a forge and static. She fell numb, the throbbing in her head easing into a dull pain. She closed her eyes and slept.