Portal 100 Themes 31-35

31. Numbers
---

Chell  took in a breath as she explored the offices in Aperture. After almost being baked back there, she'd made it into the behind-the-scenes part of the lab, with the computerized voice taunting her every so often.

The girl was nervous about her whole ordeal, but didn't show it as she noticed a specific computer was turned on. There were a bunch of numbers on it that Chell couldn't understand at first glance.

01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100101 00101110 00001101 00001010 01000100 01101111 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 00101110 00100000 00001101 00001010 01001111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01100001 01101110 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100011 01110101 01100010 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100101 01100001 01101011 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01110010 01110101 01110100 01101000 00101110 00100000 00001101 00001010 01010100 01101111 00100000 01101011 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101111 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110010 01100101 01110011 00101110 00100000 00001101 00001010 01000111 01000101 01010100 00100000 01001111 01010101 01010100 00100000 01010011 01000001 01000110 01000101 01001100 01011001 00101100 00100000 01001101 01011001 00100000 01000011 01001000 01000101 01001100 01001100 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01001011 01001110 01001111 01010111 00100000 01011001 01001111 01010101 00100000 01000011 01000001 01001110 00100000 01000100 01001111 00100000 01010100 01001000 01001001 01010011 00100001 00001101 00001010 00101101 01000100 01100001 01100100 01100100 01111001 00100000

"…" A smile threatened her lips as she remembered how her father had tried to teach her binary code, and how she'd fake through it using a computer program to translate the lessons. If only she'd paid more attention then.

She moved on, after giving up on decoding the numbers with a conveniently placed book.

32. Dying Fire
---

Chell's tears had dried up miles ago. She could see smoke coming from where the 'shooting star' she had been following for hours now had landed.

As the distance shortened, Chell could see the small crater caused by the impact. Some metal parts were lying around.

The girl held back a noise when she noticed a very familiar handlebar lying in front of her, unattached to it's owner. She almost dared not look into the hole, but curiosity got the better of her.

"… Wheatley?" she whispered, walking forward to the inanimate ball of metal that glowed faintly, his plates shut over his optic.

There was no response for a moment and Chell couldn't understand why she shook slightly at the idea of her only friend and second enemy's death.

Secretly, she'd always hoped that at some point, Wheatley would realize he'd been wrong.

That was why she'd refused to let GLaDOS know that she very well could speak, why she never offered to say the paradox for the A.I, and why had launched him to Space. It saved her from having to kill him and from the worse torture that GLaDOS would surely give him.

The girl collapsed on her knees before the heated robot, feeling her chest constricting. "W-Wheatley…I should have caught you…"

Chell knew that was nonsensical to say, but what else could she say as tears threatened to flood?

"Y-You…re…. for…given…luv…"  

The noise made Chell jump in shock.

The little ball's plates shifted, opening up to reveal the familiar blue eye that the ex-test subject had missed so much.

Her fist clenched as she looked away, giving Wheatley a kick with her boots. "Wheatley, you moron!"

"AGGGHHHH, THAT HURTS--! OH GOD, YOU CAN SPEAK--!? DON'T KILL ME! I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!" The core pathetically alternated between groveling for forgiveness and begging for his life.

"…" Chell bent over, picking up the core into a hug, effectively shutting him up. She would soon drop him and yelp.

"Hot, hot, hot!" She hissed, fanning herself.

"I-I could have told you that…" Wheatley mumbled shyly, still a little wary that Chell would try and get revenge on him.



33. Breaking Point
---

The day Chell had stopped speaking was that day.

It had all started with fun and games in her father's workplace. Everyone had happened to use potatoes for their projects, sans a blonde girl who hadn't gotten the memo and had brought a vinegar volcano.

As a kid, she'd been stubborn and annoyed easily. She'd gone an extra mile and taken some ingredients from her father's work for her project, but somehow, the volcano had won. The girls had all tested on tracks designed for children as part of the events too. Chell thought the ASHPD was amazing to use.

And then it happened. Right when they were all about to cut the cake for Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, somebody had flipped the switch on GLaDOS.  That day was the first time she'd seen people die and she witnessed the death of the only girl there who'd tried to be her friend.

They always say to give a moment of silence- Chell gave years of silence for every soul, including her father whom she believed was most likely dead.

The girl had been put into a stasis pod that only induced a coma-like state by her father when trying to help her escape death, and she woke up years later as not a girl, but a woman.

Yet she had no choice but to move forward in her broken life.

34. Fish

"Oooooh, what's that?" Wheatley asked as Chell fastened a pole with string and a bent piece of metal at the end.

"It's a fishing rod." The former test subject replied, smiling at her creation. She'd noticed a while ago a pond that was still swarming with fish, and wanted something other than salvaged meals to eat. She wanted meat for once.

Running the makeshift hook through a cracker, the girl soon cast her line and waited.

"… Catch anything yet?" Wheatley asked after a minute. Chell shook her head.

"How about now?" He asked a few minutes later.

"Be patient and quiet." Chell brought a finger to her lips, shushing him.

"As quiet as a mouse…" Wheatley promised in a hushed voice.

Half an hour passed.

"… Now?" Wheatley asked, just as Chell felt a tug.

She pulled and yanked, not answering the personality sphere as she brought in her catch, accidentally smacking Wheatley with it. He screamed. "FISH, FISH, FISH!"

Wheatley later added fish next to birds on creatures he'd rather never interact with.

35. Trapped

Chell knew it was a trap, but it was the only door in that small room. She had no choice.

GLaDOs, practically over her victory, mentioned a turkey leg (Chell wondered if this was another fat joke).

The test subject wondered where Wheatley was. She was alone, trapped in that relaxation vault with no portal to conveniently open and help her this time.

Then the crap turrets showed up. Chell might have been trapped, but she was trapped by somebody who had no weapons at all now.

And it got even better when Wheatley crashed into the room instead of GLaDOS' signature weapon, breaking Chell free.

She had hoped this would be the last time she was trapped. She was wrong.