As they trekked through the forest, looking for adventure, the first thing they found of any sign of civilization was ruins.

"It looks a hundred years old," Georgia marveled, adjusting her glasses.

"What's it doing out here?" Jon asked, fidgeting with his hair.

"I don't want to find out," Benny mumbled.

There was a fence in front of them. Behind it, vines grew on rubble. There were small fragments of floor tiles to humongous walls laying on their side. Glass glittered the ground, and metal fragments hung from wires.

"What do you think it is?" Jon inspected the fence. If it was electric, it probably wasn't on.

"Some old laboratory, maybe," Georgia guessed. "It would explain all the techy stuff."

Jon poked the fence, flinching. It was cold and grimy, but not on. There was some brown smudge where his finger touched. He wiped it off on his sweatshirt.

"What are you doing?" Benny asked nervously, swaying from Georgia to the forest behind them.

Jon rubbed his hands together, bracing himself, and leapt at the fence, curling his fingers around the barbed wire. He held strong, and fortunately so did the fence. He hoisted himself higher and higher until he was sitting on top, his butt being poked by the spiky wire poking up.

"Oh, my," Benny murmured, color draining from his face.

"Come on, it's not that hard," Jon waved them up and then touched down on the other side, immediately splashing in a murky puddle. Georgia went for the fence, but climbed slowly, grunting with effort. Benny stood awkwardly under her, his lips twitching with nervousness. Once Georgia made it to the top, Benny sighed and hefted his way up. By the time he made it to the other side, Jon was already picking through the rubble.

"Hey, look at this!" Benny squealed. "I found something!"

Jon glanced over his shoulder. Benny was holding a large tile with something in the middle. Jon jogged over to him to get a better look. There was a design on the front, a circle shaped with seven triangles with a large A on the right side.

"What the…" Jon trailed off.

Georgia gasped. "I know where we are."

She just stood there, staring at the logo.

"Well?" Jon finally asked.

"There was this big science company, umm," she scratched her chin. "Like, Arpa… Aperture! Aperture Laboratories." She stopped. "I think this is it."

They all stared at each other, the tile in Benny's hands, and the broken down remains of Aperture Laboratories.

Could we really be in the ruins of a two hundred year old laboratory, Jon thought. Creepy.

"We should get out of here," Benny finally said, dropping the tile like it was acid.

"But there's so many things to check out!" Jon smiled, looking for something to actually check out. Finally he found a closed door on a very small building. "Like that!" He immediately ran to it without checking if his friends were following him.

"I should really get back to my house," Benny called after him. "Um, I'll be late for dinner?"
"It's like, one o'clock, Benny," Georgia argued.

He sighed. "I'm coming."

Jon made it to the door, sliding his hands along the right side. A sign that read "DO NOT ENTER, DANGER" was attached to the top.

"Huh," Jon looked down for a doorknob, but the only thing there was a small hole. "Aw, man-"

"I got this," Georgia pushed him aside. She slid her hand around the door for a minute before stepping back and running at full force. The rusty lockset basically disintegrated when she slammed into it, and the door flew open.

"Wow," Benny's jaw dropped.

"Oh, hey, uh…" Jon put his hand on Georgia's shoulder and tried to sound as brave as possible. "I think, uh, I should go first."

Georgia sighed. "Don't get in trouble."

Jon gulped and stepped foot into the dark room. He felt the wall for a light switch. His hand hit one and he flicked it on. He didn't expect it to work, but the lights actually turned on, buzzing illuminating the room.

"Oh, wow," Jon managed before the door suddenly slammed shut. He cursed at himself for letting an audible squeal come out of his mouth. When he tried to open it, he found it locked.

"Guys, not funny!" he banged his fist at the door.

"We didn't do anything!" Benny's panicking voice yelled.

"Who else could?" he frowned.

"Me," a robotic voice announced. Another squeal. Yeesh, Jon. He turned around to survey the room. It was about six foot by six foot, the only things in there was a desk with a computer on it and a lot of yellowed papers scattering the tiled ground. A door that looked like a submarine hatch was mounted to the other side of the room, with a red light flickering around the middle. A camera was installed into the corner of the room, hanging limp.

"Jon, oh my god, what was that?" Georgia called from the other side of the door.

"I don't-" Jon was interrupted by a deafening screech of metal while the ground shook. As soon as Jon found his balance again, the hatch light turned green, and the tiles of the floor started rising up row by row to force Jon through the hatch. Papers were falling over each other, and the desk tipped over with a loud crash.

"JON!" he heard Georgia and Benny scream at the same time. Before he could call to them, he was forced into the darkness of the other room.

It took him a while to regain consciousness. He didn't know how long he was out, but when he sat up, his chest screamed in pain. He winced and grabbed at it, but it did nothing to ease the pain, if anything it made it worse. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw very faint light through a hole in the ceiling almost covered by vines.

"Hello?" he called up. "Benny? Georgia?"

He heard shuffling and then a "Jon?"

"Georgia!" he smiled.

"Jon, where are you?" she called down, and Jon saw a silhouette of her through the vegetation.

"I don't really know," Jon squinted through the darkness. "Maybe I can feel around…"

"No, you might fall down a hole or something," Benny's voice echoed.

"Right," Jon realized. "I'll just wait, and you guys can get me?"

"Sounds like a plan," Georgia said. "A really bad plan, but a plan at the least."

"Yeah, don't worry, we'll-" Benny was interrupted by a loud screeching noise. The light became smaller until it was closed up completely, and Jon found himself in darkness.

"Benny? Georgia? HELLO?" Jon called up again, but no one responded.

"Oh, sorry about that," the robotic voice said again. "Were you talking to them?"

"Who are you? Where am I?" Jon demanded.

"Where do you think you are?" it asked. "The Enrichment Center of Aperture Laboratories. Well, at least, what is left of it."

The light flashed on, and Jon blinked multiple times while his eyes adjusted to the light. When his eyes finally calmed down, he found himself in a small room, rusted down with plants growing everywhere. Everything was just worn down and busted up. A tall screen next to him flickered on. On the top, there was a "01" and the corner had the words "Aperture Laboratories". On the bottom, there were multiple symbols, very faint, but the first one was darkened in, with a cube on it. The other side of the room had a circular door with a picture of a stickman-ish person running. Blue squares lined the walls, running from the door to a large red button installed into the floor, with a three-tall cube next to it. Jon realized the cube had the same symbol as the tile Benny found, except only triangles made up the circle, there was no A.

"This is probably the easiest chamber," the robot explained. "Although, I can't tell you how to do it."

"Why should I do this?" Jon asked.

"As soon as it starts up again, I can deploy my neurotoxin and in a couple minutes, you would never see the light of day again. It's much easier than running the entire place just for your testing data, but I'll let you decide."

Jon had no idea what neurotoxin was, but he didn't find out.

"Fine," he sighed. He picked up the cube-which was surprisingly heavy-and hefted it onto the button. The squares turned orange, and the door opened with a whoosh.

"Amazing," the robot said blandly. "Congratulations on placing a safety cube onto a button to open the door. Wow, do you know how tiring it is to congratulate all the countless test subjects on placing a safety cube onto a button to open a door? If you don't, I can compare it to congratulating anything to anyone multiple times."

"Wow," Jon said sarcastically. "Thank you for that, very obvious."

"You have no idea," it said ominously. "Please proceed to the chamberlock."

Jon walked through the door, a staircase leading down to a round elevator in the middle of a circular room.

"This going up?" Jon asked.

"Oh, no," the robot explained. "You have to complete the chambers before you can go."

"What?!" Jon screamed. "No!"

"Neurotoxin…" it reminded.

Jon grudgingly inched his way toward the elevator. The doors slid open and he stepped in, backing up to the edge.

"In case you were wondering," it explained. "It is my protocol to test everyone who comes here, so I am not deliberately holding you hostage. So sorry about that."

"Right," Jon jumped as the elevator started moving down. "I didn't catch your name."

"Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System," it said. "GLaDOS for short."

"Sounds like a plan," Georgia said. "A really bad plan, but a plan at the least."

"Yeah, don't worry, we'll-" Benny was interrupted by a loud screeching noise. Panels closed in from above wherever Jon was until it sealed shut, leaving them staring at it.

"No, no, no, no, no," she whispered. "Jon…"

"Don't worry," he put on his best fake smile. "We can find him. Yep. Totally doable." He turned around to the small building that actually looked like a shed now, as Benny examined. "We just follow him from there."

"But remember we already tried to open the door again?" she shook her head, sitting back to hold her one leg up to her chest. "It was closed shut."

"We try again!" he fake smiled again. His motto was something along the lines of "If people think you're happy, they will be."

"Try again?" she squinted at him.

"Yeah," he started walking over to the door. "Maybe whoever closed it left, and we can open it now." He stuck his finger in the hole, curled it around, and heaved at the door. It didn't budge.

"It opens the other way, genius," Georgia barked. He flinched.

"Sorry, yeah," he pushed it instead, but again, it didn't open.

"Jon," Georgia whined.

"We'll get him," Benny promised.

"How?" she had tears pooling in her eyes. "He's probably going to be missing forever. Or worse."

"No," he said. "We just need to find another way. Search around for something that could be useful!"

They spent half an hour burying in the trash around them until they found something they thought was a robot. It was white, spherical, with a large black dot on it and slender bars coming from around the top and bottom in the shape of a half square.

"How do you turn it on?" Benny asked, trying to lift it. It weighed about eighty pounds, so he didn't try to carry it after the first lift.

"I don't know," Georgia studied it from all angles. "Maybe it's just dead."

Benny looked around for any power sources. In the distance, under a tall beam that had fallen, he saw some sort of tray coming out of the ground that looked like it could work.

"There," he pointed at it. "Let's carry it over."

They both heaved the ball over to the tray. After a hot minute of dropping it on each others' toes, they reached the black tray. It had a small pipe-like plug coming out of it with two slits and the corner had the circle-triangle logo, except the A extended into Aperture and below it it said Laboratories.

"It's on the back," Georgia pointed at the back of the ball, two bars were coming out like a cord without the wire.

"Perfect," Benny took the robot into his arms, a breath escaping his lungs. "Now we just have to hope the tray is on."

"Right," she gazed at it blankly.

Benny turned the robot to plug it in. He pushed the bars into the slits and stepped back immediately. They waited a few moments but nothing happened. Benny frowned.

"No," he started searching the podium the tray was positioned on. "It has to work."

"Benny…" Georgia grabbed his arm.

"Wait," he pulled it away. "There's probably something off, if we can just-" He cut himself off when he found a nearby panel on a busted wall of which looked like an office cubicle, out in the middle of nowhere.

"There," Benny gasped and scrambled up to work it. He wouldn't stop until he got Jon. A lever was positioned on it. He heaved at it, and it slid up with a spark. A tiny light next to it flickered on green, and he heard Georgia gasp. He spun around. The robot started to make a whirring sound and a spinning dark yellow loading circle was shown in the black spot.

"It's turning on?" Benny almost yelled with excitement.

"Yes!" Georgia also looked like she was about to blow up.

Benny ran over and squatted next to Georgia, waiting for it to turn on. After a minute, it announced its successful power on by screaming.

"GLaDOS, you get away from her! I, um, well… oh," A yellow circle in the middle of it looked at Benny to Georgia to Benny to Georgia again. "You're not GLaDOS. Are you test subjects?" it asked nervously.

"Test subjects?" Georgia squinted.

"Yeah, are you testing?" it repeated.

"No, we were just looking around here, and then our friend Jon got taken to some place, then we found you, then we turned you on, and now…" Benny waved his arms around to show their setting.

"Oh no, where are we?" the robot's eye darted across the junkyard.

"What used to be Aperture Laboratories," Georgia answered. "I assume you worked here once?"

"Oh, yeah, of course," The small ball where its eye was on bobbed up and down in a nod. "I'm a personality construct core, there were a lot of us. We were all over the place, testing the subjects, running the place, you know. Oh, sorry, I didn't even introduce myself. My name's Randal, and you are…?"

"I'm Benny, this is Georgia," Benny pointed at her. "We were wondering if you could help us with getting our friend back."
Randal considered it for a moment before nodding again. "Okay, but two things. One, you need to trust me, although a lot of people don't even listen to me. Oh, and, uh, two, we're gonna need to get two special devices to get him back. But it is crazy dangerous, and I see if you don't want to do that, because I certainly-"

"We'll do it," Georgia said firmly.

Randal froze in place, staring at her. "Oh, boy," he sighed. "This is gonna be… something."

Georgia tried to keep a mental list of all the things Randal said. It's not like it was a complicated plan, pretty easy, actually. There were just a lot of aspects and steps. Randal seemed smarter than her assistant robot back at home. It even seemed like Randal was sentient, in a way. All in all, Georgia was interested and intrigued by this bot.

"The entrance has got to be around here somewhere," Benny picked through the rubble. They've already scanned a good ten square acres of the place already trying to find the direct entrance to the lab Randal described.

"Should be here somewhere," Randal called down from a broken wall they put him on. Georgia wished he had legs after carrying him up there.

"We've been searching for two hours now," she threw her hands in the air. "It's not anywhere!"

"Hey, don't give up hope!" Benny turned around. "I'm sure we're so close."

Georgia sighed and sat on a boulder. She wanted to find Jon, save him. But it was nearly impossible. This place was huge. It would take them days to find an entrance. And by that time Jon could be…

She shook the thought out of her head and went over the plan to keep her from thinking too much. First, find the entrance. Second, find our way to the "old labs". Third, pick up some equipment. Fourth, find Jon. They had to go to the old lab for equipment because the "GLaDOS" person Randal kept talking about would have definitely destroyed all the modern stuff, on account of something another human did. Twice. Georgia wondered who that might've been. Maybe the same person Randal was yelling about when he first turned on.

"Hey!" Benny called. "Look! Is this it?" Georgia whipped around and saw Benny on his hands and knees trying to brush dirt off something. She ran over to investigate with him. A thin white ceramic tile was half buried under rubble. Georgia gasped as she saw a small crack in it.

"Hey, anyone gonna show me?" Georgia half heard Randal call down. She peeked into the crack and could barely make out a dark room. Her heart leapt into her throat. They could finally save Jon! She sat up to let Benny look, but he wasn't there. She scanned the huge lot. "Benny?" she called. Suddenly, she heard something roll down the hill behind her. As she turned around, she saw Randal rolling down from his wall.

"HEEEEEEELLLPPPPPP!" He yelled as he plummeted down the hill. Georgia leaped out of his way as he made it to the bottom of the hill. He crashed through the tile and fell into the dim room. Georgia immediately bolted towards the new hole in the ground and crouched to look in. "Randal!" She called.

"Ow," he groaned. It was too dark to see him.

"Randal?" Georgia heard Benny call from the top of the hill. He was standing behind the wall.

"Benny? What happened?" Georgia called up.

"Randal wanted to get down," Benny scratched the back of his head nervously. "But I dropped him. He's really heavy."

Georgia sighed. "Are you okay?" She called down.

"Probably," Randal said. "Checking circuitry… okay, we're good."

Georgia sighed again, but this time in relief. They're able to save Jon! She wanted to get to him as soon as possible.

"Benny, look around for a rope," Georgia started digging through the rocks and dirt frantically. She heard Benny behind her rummaging as well.

"It's kinda dark down here," Georgia heard Randal start talking to himself as she searched. "If I had a light of some kind, I'll probably be able to see. Wait, do I have a light? Let me check. Hmm. Hardware files. Okay, password. Password. Password. What is the password? How 'bout… A-B-C-D? No. A-B-C-A? No. Is it five digits? A-B-C-D-E? No. Hmm. Tricky. Is there a password file somewhere? No. Okay… history files. Why not. Mm hm. Okay. Passwords! There we are. Password search. Passwords… hardware. Okay nothing. Passwords… light? Hmm. Passwords… general. Ah there. Search light. Yes! Got it! Copy. Go to hardware files. Paste. There, I'm in! Okay, search: light. Oh, turns out I do have a light!" Georgia was almost tuned out of the sound of Randal's droning when a beacon of light beamed out of the hole. It startled her a little, and she let out a little yelp.

"Got it!" Randal cheered. The light disappeared into the hole. Georgia shook her head and kept looking. After a minute or two more of looking, she found a twenty five foot cord.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Benny asked as she tied one end around his waist.

"No, but it's better than just jumping down, right?" she responded as she attached the other end around a tall boulder. "If you find anything that could be dangerous, tug once and I'll pull you up. If not, untie the rope and give two tugs, alright?"

Benny sighed nervously. "Alright." He crouched down on the edge of the hole and peered down at the ominous room. Randal's light had illuminated it, and Georgia could see lots of thick vegetation lining the walls of the room.

"Here goes nothing," Benny started adjusting to slip down. "You're holding on, right?"

"Holding on tight," Georgia assured, grabbing the rope and preparing herself. Benny nodded, let out a little whine, and slid down. Benny was pretty light, but the initial tug of his weight was so much force that the cord slid out of Georgia's hands. She gasped as she saw the cord get tighter and tighter as Benny fell. In a blink of an eye, she dove for the cord, snatched it, and pulled with all her might. She felt it jerk as Benny came to a quick stop. His scream turned into an audible huff as the wind got knocked out of him. Georgia panted and made sure to hold on tighter this time. After a few seconds, Benny called to her that he was fine and she started slowly releasing the cord so he would have a safer and slower ride down. Finally, she heard his feet hit the ground. A minute of silence, and then she felt the rope get tugged twice. She wrapped the cord around her shoulder until the end came out of the hole. She had spent the summer at a camp out in Wisconsin, where there were tons of rock climbing and cliff scaling activities. Good thing I retained all that, she thought to herself as she copied what she did those couple months ago, first throwing the other end down the hole, then wrapped the other around the same rock she used with Benny. She then grabbed on tight and started backing up slowly into the hole. It was conveniently right next to the wall of the room, so she found her footing on that. There was moss and vines that felt weird under her feet, but she ignored it and kept scaling. When she made it to the bottom, she kicked off the wall and rolled to a stop on the floor, which was cold and mildewy. She wiped the icky liquids off her forearms and scanned the room illuminated by Randal and the small beam of light coming from the hole in the roof.

It was mostly just white and black tiles, with a frame for a glass pane fallen down, with the glass cracked and shattered in bits on the floor. There were two circular doors on either side of the room, one with a stickman running shown on it. There were multiple ledges and square holes all around the room. There was a big red button on the floor, and a glass and metal cylinder on the ceiling. The entire room gave off a creepy and abandoned vibe.

"Okay," Benny looked around. "How do we get out?

"Don't worry," Randal piped up. "I know this entire place like the back of my circuits! Plus, there's always a secret way out!" He added mischievously. His eye darted around searching every nook and cranny of the place, probably doing some calculations, until the little ball inside him bobbed in a nod again. "Yep, over on that wall." He looked at the wall with the frame next to it. "Hold on, let me show you something cool!" He sat there for a minute, staring at the wall, until it sparked with life, giving both Georgia and Benny a jump. Some tiles folded out and revealed a panel like the one they first plugged Randal into. "Plug me in and I'll open the exit!" They both heaved him over and slid him into place.

"Alright! Getting jacked in!" Randal announced. "That's a tech phrase for you. Pretty cool, if you ask me."

"Just get on with it," Benny said uncharacteristically.

"Yeesh, just trying to spark up some banter," Randal retaliated, sounding hurt. It felt weird to Georgia to hear such emotion from a robot. Of course, her assistant robot back at home had some human qualities, but this robot felt like a human was piloting it. It was even weirder to think about how this was old technology.

"Um, I can't do it while you're looking," Randal announced a couple seconds later.

"What?" Georgia frowned.

"You need to turn around," Randal said. Georgia sighed and turned around along with Benny. They both glanced at each other and shrugged. She heard some beeping before hearing a whoosh and grating noise.

"Okay, you can look now!" Randal called. They both turned around and saw a section of the wall swinging open to reveal a dark hallway. "One last thing…" Randal added. The tray slid back into the wall and the tiles closed shut. Georgia and Benny stood there for a minute, waiting. As soon as she thought he wasn't coming back, a part of the ceiling opened up to reveal Randal attached to a rail on the roof. "A management rail! Now you guys don't need to carry me!"

"That's the best news I heard all day," Georgia said as she followed him into the hallway.