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She examined her bruises and jumped up and down a few times, testing her knees. Nothing was broken, but everything ached, and she winced a bit. This pain was worse than she was used to, but she could deal. She didn’t exactly have another option than to keep going, since she didn’t intend on dying all the way down here.
She noticed blood leaking from a cut on her arm and pursed her lips together. She spat into her hand and wiped it over the wound, not trusting any of the puddles near her. Her hand came away smeared red, and she frowned at the bits of rust and dirt she saw. She’d just have to hope it didn’t get infected.
She tore a bit of fabric from the sleeve of her jumpsuit and tied it around to cover it until she could find something better, glancing at her surroundings and blinking to adjust to the dimness. Old electric lights mingled with fires, and there was a haze of dust and smoke over everything. It smelled of rot, earth, and chemicals.
She picked her way over debris, cradling the portal gun to her chest like a lifeline and trying to ignore the dry cough building up in her throat. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had water, or food, but it must have been a while ago. Still, sitting around wouldn’t solve anything, so she had to keep moving.
This place, whatever it was, looked like it had been abandoned for centuries. Even GLaDOS’s reach didn’t extend down here, so she’d be safe from him. Hopefully.
She felt heat prickle behind her eyes and glared down at the rickety metal pipe she was walking across. She hadn’t cried in years, not since before Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. She didn’t want to start now.
But she’d been so close, just a short elevator ride from her freedom, and as much as she hated to admit it, she’d grown a little fond of her former ally. They weren’t friends, and she didn’t trust him much, but she’d trusted him a little, and this betrayal stung more than any of her wounds.
At least with GLaDOS, there had been no games. She knew where they stood, even if they never really said it. She’d rather have a clear enemy than a false partner.
She bit her chapped lips, an old habit she thought she’d left behind as a child. She felt the taste of blood fill her mouth as she gnawed away, letting her frustration get the better of her even as she wanted to suppress it.
An animalistic snarl tore its way through her, and she turned and kicked a concrete wall, thankful for the boots that protected her from breaking her foot. She screamed, the first noise she made since arriving at Aperture all those years ago, and though her voice broke with the hoarseness and disuse of her throat, it felt good.
Hot tears ran down her cheeks, and the space behind her eyes ached. The salt stung her bleeding lips but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
The sound echoed off of the cavernous walls and metal, warping until it no longer sounded human. Her throat grew raw and her voice cracked as she kicked the wall again and punched through a glass pane with her free hand. Her voice finally broke enough to stop the screaming, and she let out a final growl as she shook her hand, examining it for any bruising.
She let her shoulders sink, setting down the portal gun and undoing her ponytail to brush through her hair with her fingers. She redid the elastic and let the tears dry on her cheeks, licking the last of the blood from her lips and closing her eyes. She gave herself until the count of five to stand there, relaxing her muscles and breathing slowly, before she picked up the portal gun and continued onward.
She found her way through the maze, allowing the anger in her chest to be replaced with cold, heavy resolve. Offices and old lobbies replaced caves and junkyards, and she started checking for safe sources of water. Her head was beginning to pound and the dry feeling in her throat wasn’t going away, and she knew it would only get worse from there.
These areas would’ve been old even when she was young, before she’d been put to sleep for centuries, so she wasn’t hopeful. Still, she glanced in every office and ancient cupboard, finding nothing.
She considered the condensation on the cave walls, dripping in small rivulets, but decided she wasn’t quite that desperate yet. She remembered her lessons as a child, that there could be countless bacteria in places like this and any one of them could kill you. Besides, she didn’t trust the chemicals that Aperture had probably tainted this place with.
She found GLaDOS, and it only took her a minute to decide whether to bring her or not. Trapped in a potato, there wasn’t much she could do, and she preferred the devil she knew to the devil who betrayed her.
She didn’t know how long she’d been down there, but she was beginning to weaken even further. She stumbled in a chamber, nearly tipping over and falling head-first onto concrete. She knelt on the ground for a moment, screwing her eyes shut and beginning to count.
One.
Was her body temperature increasing? She felt feverish.
Two.
It didn’t matter. She couldn’t die here, not like this.
Thr-
“What’s wrong with you?” GLaDOS’s tiny voice rang from her speaker, one of the first times she’d spoken since her revelation. “You look worse than normal.”
Chell swung her legs under her so that she sat on them, resting the portal gun next to her and leaning forward to press her head into the cool floor. It helped, but not much. The pounding in her skull was only getting worse, and all of the lights made her wince.
“You’re paler than normal and you seem to have decreased puzzle solving abilities. I wouldn’t care, but you’re my ticket back up where I belong, so I can’t have you dying yet.”
Chell didn’t respond, pushing herself off the floor and grabbing the portal gun again. She took a few shaky steps toward the exit of the sphere and brought a hand to the railing to steady herself.
“You appear to have symptoms of severe dehydration,” GLaDOS continued, her voice changing slightly. “If you don’t find water soon, I estimate that with this level of activity you’ll be dead within a day at most.”
Chell continued her slow, determined walk.
“Take the hidden service exit out of here,” GLaDOS said suddenly. “It’s to your left. Go down the hallway and into the stairwell. A level down is a staff kitchen.”
She followed the directions wordlessly, every step seeming to take longer than the one before. Her vision blurred.
Just as promised, when she finally made her way down the stairs, a partially stocked kitchen greeted her.
“Boil it before you drink it. Just in case.”
Chell nodded, leaving her on a counter and using what felt like the last of her strength to pour a gallon into a pot and turn the heat on. She hadn’t expected the power to still work, but Aperture was nothing if not full of surprises.
After what felt like an eternity of waiting for it to heat up, and even longer for it to cool, she was able to slowly start sipping it, nearly crying again, though this time in relief.
“Don’t drink too fast,” GLaDOS said, and Chell shot her a look. After a few minutes of slowly rehydrating herself, she started boiling another pot.
As it heated up she used the remainder of the first one to clean her wounds, wiping the grime from her cuts and checking for any she’d missed earlier.
“There’s a first aid kit underneath the sink.”
She nodded in acknowledgement, grabbing it and examining the contents. Some of the things in there were certainly expired, but she could at least use the bandages and gauze.
There was a dry erase board on one side of the wall, covered in a thick layer of dust and with remnants of old staff instructions on it, but she didn’t know whether she wanted to write or not. A nod here and there wasn’t much, but to actually say anything felt like breaking a barrier. Maybe it was the hunger, exhaustion, or fear, but she wanted to communicate something.
She traced a message into the dust, moving her hand carefully through the unfamiliar movements and trying not to let it shake too much.
Thanks.
She picked up the portal gun and angled it so that GLaDOS could see.
All was silent for a moment before the speaker crackled to life again.
“You’re welcome.”
She finished the second pot of water once it had cooled, splashing some into her hair and on her face. It wasn’t much, and she was still hungry, but at least she felt a bit cleaner.
She waited longer to drink and rest more, but GLaDOS didn’t complain about the delay. It was nice to have a peaceful moment, until another explosion sounded from above, knocking bits of the ceiling loose.
She dusted her hands off, doing a final check before picking up the portal gun and returning to making her way through the spheres.