Back to Aperture

Summary: Chell has escaped from Aperture, but gets the opportunity to finally uncover the truth about her past. Unfortunately, the truth can only be revealed by her past AI enemy GLaDOS, who'd surly kill her if Chell ever returned. Will Chell choose a life of freedom and never find out the truth, or will she risk her life to gain the knowledge that she's entitled to?

Chapter 1: Fields of Gold

Beginning Authors Note: Don't get angry with me, but I changed the original story that I've been writing to this instead. Why? Because I'm a perfectionist and my own worst critique. I liked the idea of this story, so I hope you will all do as well. This is my own version of what I'd think would happen in Portal 3 (if it ever comes out, that is). Hope you all like it!

Fields of gold stretched on for what seemed like forever in the distance; Chell was now at last truly free. Her heart raced at the sight of the wide open sky and the first touch of the fresh air on her skin. She took deep breathes whilst stretching her arms out to her sides; wanting to relish in the moment as much as possible so she'd remember it for the rest of her life. From this day forward, she'd not waste a single moment of the amount of time she had left on this earth, as that was the day Chell would leave Aperture and never return.

Chell had never pictured her freedom quite like this, in fact she'd never really thought about a world outside of Aperture Laboratories. She'd been a test subject for as long as she could remember, and due to her case of serious brain damage, even if she had lived a life outside of testing then she'd forgotten all about it. But now she could forget about her testing-filled past, and finally live her life like she'd always dreamed. She could finally have every human experience, and even sleep under a blanket of stars in the wide open air.

The main question now though was where she was. The surrounding fields seemed to go on for miles and miles around her without anything else is sight. No buildings, no mountains, not even any trees—it was just Chell, the shed-like Aperture exist that she'd just come out of, and a very dirty looking companion cube. Her brain damage wasn't helping her in this moment in time either, as she hadn't the faintest idea of what country she could possibly be in as the surroundings all seemed totally alien to her.

Although Chell had no idea where she was, she decided that the best plan would be to try and find civilisation as soon as possible, as then not only would she be able to get some nourishment and rest, but she could also inform someone about everything that she'd been through—that is assuming of course that she'd actually find civilisation out here in the middle of nowhere. The sun was high in the sky; meaning that it was around afternoon which would give her plenty of time to begin walking and hopefully find something before sundown.

Gripping the companion cube tightly in her arms (deciding to take it with her, of course) and deciding to walk in a straight line away from the Aperture exist, she walked for what seemed like miles and miles through the golden fields until the little metallic shed that contained almost what seemed like a full life time of her past disappeared out of sight. Chell walked for hours with her eyes fixed on the horizon ahead of her; determined to see the first glimpse of a distant town so she knew that she' been going in the right direction, but the fields seemed to stretch on forever and the sun had now dropped in the sky. She knew that night would soon be upon her.

She decided that rest wasn't an option for her at this time; she could rest all she wanted when she found somewhere appropriate enough, right now her main goal was actually finding somewhere. The sun had now began setting in the sky, and soon she knew that she'd be faced with the problem of continuing to look for the nearest human dwelling area in the dark, which would possibly make her search even harder.

Suddenly, it seemed that Chell's prayers had been answered, as lying amongst the tall golden grass and deep red sky was a small white stone building in the very far distance. The building was lonesome, as no other buildings surrounded it or were even anywhere in sight. Her heart rate increased rapidly again, as a strong sense of achievement flooded through her when she realised she'd actually found a possible place to rest—whatever purpose the building held. The closer Chell got to the building, the more inviting it seemed. It was the perfect typical house shape with a dark slate roof, windows, and a front door with a brass letter box in it—which really puzzled Chell because the building would surely be unable to receive mail in the middle of nowhere. The house had no marked out garden; it was just surrounded with the same golden crops that covered the entire landscape, and there also wasn't any lights on inside. Actually, there didn't seem to be any signs of life at all, as the whole building looked terribly neglected, like it had been deserted for years and years.

When Chell arrived at the front door, she questioned if she should even knock on it before attempting to enter as it seemed highly possible that no one was inside, but she soon realized that the door was already slightly open—someone had already been here before her, but there was no way of knowing how long ago that could of been. She decided to knock quietly, just in case someone happened to be inside.

Knock, knock...No answer.

Just as she expected, no movement or sound came from inside of the house once she knocked on the door—the only sound audible was the gentle summer's breeze.

She pushed the front door open slowly; not knowing what to expect inside. The door was heavy, and opened with a loud creak which echoed around the entire house (well I guess if someone was inside they'd now be aware of Chell's presents anyway), and Chell held her breath as she took a few small steps through the doorway, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

The first room that Chell walked into was about the same size as her old stasis chamber in Aperture, although it looked a lot more neglected and un-lived in. Every corner of the room was filled with horrid looking cobwebs, and every piece of furniture in sight was covered in thick layers of dust. The walls had moss growing up them, and there were even a few weeds growing through the multiple broken floor tiles and rotten ceiling beams. The large antique looking fireplace is what caught Chell's attention the most though, as it was covered in the most beautiful tiny white flowers which were growing up from the old damp ashes, and the frame of the fireplace had been delicately carved with the beautiful image of a forest scene; she'd never seen anything like it before in her life. The house was truly beautiful, even in the collapsed state that it was in, and the question of who it belonged to or who it once belonged to constantly came into Chell's head.

She decided to explore the house more, and she soon found the house also contained a tiny kitchen and dining area, an upstairs bathroom, a master bedroom, and another smaller bedroom; each of the rooms were in the same state as the lounge—covered in dust and cobwebs. It didn't take Chell long to decide that she'd spend the night there before setting off walking again in the morning, as the house seemed to have everything that she needed for now. The only problems she had with the house were that there wasn't any food in the kitchen, the electric appliances didn't seem to be working, and there also wasn't any running water, but Chell would try and make do without them for her short stay for the evening.

She also couldn't help but feel a strange attachment to the house, like shed almost been there before, but due to her case of brain damage it had all been erased from her memory. Night had now fallen, and Chell decided to sleep in the bedroom that seemed as though it once belonged to a child, as the room was cluttered with child-like looking ornaments, and there were even a few stuffed animals (although Chell didn't like looking around the room too much as she didn't want to look through someone else's belongings). The bed had been left perfectly made before she got into it, and it felt strangely too comfortable. She could barely see anything around the room with it being so dark, so nothing acted as a distraction to her before she fell asleep. She'd never slept so well before, but even though she'd finally escaped Aperture in reality, Chell still couldn't escape it in her dreams. That night, her nightmares were full of impossible testing, talking potatoes, portals, and corrupted cores...

When Chell opened her eyes, dawn had already arrived. She was almost blinded by the sun which was beaming through the little bedroom window. She turned her head towards the wall to shield her eyes from the blinding light, only to find herself face to face with a crudely done drawing of a companion cube on the wall in black crayon that she'd been unable to notice before with the room being so dark. Chell sat up and stared at the drawing, quickly noticing that the drawing of the companion cube wasn't the only drawing on the wall, and there were also words too.

It seemed as though someone had drawn her entire life in Aperture up on the wall, as the images included everything she'd had to deal with from Portals and Turrets, to cake and Wheatley. There were also a few small sketches of a girl who looked exactly like her, and in the centre of the wall was a huge crude sketch of GLaDOS, which gave Chell the creeps. The writing also interested Chell a lot, as most of it she'd already seen before when she was in Aperture. "The cake is a LIE", "She's watching you", and "Trapped behind these walls within walls" were some of the many familiar things written amongst the sketches, which lead Chell to question one thing; had the rat man been here? Chell looked around the child's room nervously. She had never seen the rat man, neither had she ever properly figured out who he was—she'd only ever found evidence of his existence in Aperture, but maybe he'd escaped like her, and he'd been living here in the middle of nowhere?

Not only did her theory make sense in her mind, but it also made her feel slightly uncomfortable. What if the rat man was still here in this building somewhere? She'd never seen him, so she had no idea if he'd take kindly to her being here; the only thing that she knew was that he seemed a little mentally unstable from his drawings. He obviously knew of Chell's existence, so it wasn't unlikely that he wasn't too far away.

Chell figured that it would probably be best if she left the house right away, she also needed to set off walking again anyway and hopefully find a village nearby. Chell quickly picked up the companion cube that she'd left in the corner of the bedroom while she slept, and walked down the upstairs corridor and down the stairs towards the lounge. There were still no signs of life through the house, and it appeared that the only person who'd visited recently was still herself.

On her way to the front door, Chell noticed something that she totally missed when she'd first arrived in the dark; a note was stuck to the wall in one of the dark corners of the room. It looked like the note had been stuck there for a while, as the thick cobwebs had been more recently made in front of it, and the letter was also covered in the same mould that had spread across the surrounding walls. Chell stopped in her tracks and placed the companion cube down on the ground before walking over to the note to get a better look at what it said. It was quite hard to read through all of the cobwebs and dirt, but most of the words were still readable.

"Chell"

Said the first words at the top of the page. The note had been addressed to her? Despite her feeling a little scared that the note had been written for her especially and placed out here in the middle of nowhere, she carried on reading:

"Welcome home"

"I'm dying, but I'm glad you're still alive. If you're reading this then that means that you've left Aperture, and that makes me very happy. I haven't got a lot of time left, so I can only write so much. I've been watching you ever scince you became a test subject, although you never saw me doing it. You do know who I am, you have just forgotten me. I wasn't able to ever talk to you because I had to hide; I am very chronically ill and I have been for a while, but I just wanted you to know that I've been looking out for you. Once SHE was killed, you had been put into long-term cryogenic relaxation, but you were almost killed too because your cryogenic supply was offline. I unplugged all the other online cryogenic relaxation chambers and plugged their cryogenic supply into your chamber so you'd survive. After doing that, I had to leave because I got badly injured, so I returned here to write this note for you."

"Turn over"

Chell immediately pushed her hand through the thick cobwebs and grabbed the note; ignoring all of the discussing dead flies and spiders that were now stuck to her hands. The person who had written this had saved her life without her even knowing it and she was determined to read more. She flipped over the page like the writing instructed, only to find the note continued on the other side.

"I used to work in Aperture as a scientist, but when SHE was first introduced into the vicinity she killed everyone. I was the only one that was able to get away. It's my fault that you were a test subject and nearly killed; I'm the one who put your name at the top of the test subjects roster, and I'm so sorry for what I've done, I really hope that you can forgive me. I have so much more to tell you, but I've ran out of time."

"SHE knows everything. But please don't go back to her."

"My name is Doug, please remember my name. Don't ever forget me, Chell."

The note ended there, and Chell suddenly felt like she'd got brain damage all over again. She'd never heard of a man called Doug before, unless "Doug" was the rat man's first name. She guessed that he was probably the rat man, as he wrote "I've been watching you ever since you first became a test subject, although you never saw me doing it", and she'd known the rat man had been somewhat following her due to the multiple "dens" that she'd found containing evidence that he'd been there, alongside his drawings of Chell that she'd occasionally come across. The note also mentioned that Doug was the one who caused her to become a test subject, but why did he do it? And where was he now? The note stated that he was dying and seriously injured, maybe he actually ended up dying after all? Chell was quite saddened by the thought that he'd probably be dead, as he had saved her life even if he'd caused her to become a test subject in the first place. And the words "Welcome home", what did that mean? Was Doug trying to say that Chell used to live in this house? If so, how would he know? Was he really following her for that long? Chell found her head buzzing with so many questions about Doug, that she'd almost forgotten about one of the most crucial parts in the note...

The word "SHE" was mentioned a lot by Doug in the note; and Chell figured that the "SHE" he was referring too was GLaDOS. Chell also guessed that when Doug wrote "SHE knows everything. But Please don't go back to her", he means that GLaDOS knows everything about Doug that could be important information to Chell, but he didn't want her to return to Aperture for obvious reasons (being that there's a high risk that GLaDOS would probably try and kill Chell again). If this was the case, Chell had to make a decision, and she had to make it now.

Either she'd continue her search for civilisation and never find out about her past, or she'd return to Aperture and attempt to ask GLaDOS about the information on Doug that he wasn't able to put into his note—the information that would probably complete her life.

Both options had there opportunities for her death. If she chose to go back to Aperture, then GLaDOS would most probably try to kill her, and if she continued her search for civilisation then there could be the possibility of her never finding any. Time was also going by while she was standing around thinking, and she'd grown awfully hungry as she hadn't eaten in 2 days. If she didn't choose what to do soon, she'd soon find herself dying before she'd even made up her mind!

Finally, Chell made her decision. She stuffed Doug's note into her jumpsuit pocket, grabbed the companion cube with both hands again, and strode out of the doorway- leaving the small, stone house behind, and returning back into the golden fields in which she came.

Her choice could lead to her death, but Chell wasn't going to give up easily until she found what she was looking for...

Ending Authors Note: I hope you all enjoyed that incredibly long first chapter, I assure you that there will be more to come! I'm having fun writing this so far, but I'm also probably over thinking at the same time because I want it to make sense. Please leave a review on whether you liked/disliked this chapter, and keep an eye out for the next chapter so you can find out whether Chell decided to return to Aperture or not!

Thank you for reading!

-SpinTown.