Chapter Two: The Devil You Know
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
The world outside was a harsh and unforgiving wasteland.
Chell found that things had changed since the last time she left the building.
She wandered in circles for days and days, until she found buildings. Yet every homestead she passed by was deserted, thick layers of dust coating long-abandoned possessions. She scarfed down cans of old food, noting how these houses seemed frozen in time. Something had happened on Earth. Something bad.
Eventually she stumbled across the bombed-out shell of a city. This one had more recent signs of life—as if it had been abandoned more recently. From there she simply followed the trail of destruction until she had made it to another city. A real city with real people. She could hardly believe it—after all of this time, she wasn’t going to be alone anymore. These people were going to help her. These people would help her get her life back on track.
As she had approached the city's fortified entrance, she was greeted by two men in black uniforms with guns in their hands. Guns pointed at her. She immediately lifted her hands in surrender. She was tough, but she wasn't bulletproof. The two men escorted her into the city—City 23, as she would later learn—shoving her inside the large gate.
"You're out of uniform," one of them said. Shove.
Chell had so much to say. First, that she didn’t have a uniform. Second, that she needed to speak to their superior and warn them about the danger in the shed in the wheat fields. Third, she needed to ask what had happened. Who were these people? What happened to Earth?
"Who are you?" one of them barked.
Chell opened her mouth to speak, moving her lips, but nothing came out.
"Let me jog your memory," one of them said. He raised his bat and before Chell could even react, he slammed it across her chest.
Chell recoiled, hot pain flaring in her chest. She wheezed but nothing else came out.
The officer repeated his demand. His buddy pulled out his bat and struck her across the back with a loud crack. Chell saw stars and stumbled forward and onto one knee, palms scraping against the gravel.
She pointed to her lips and shook her head no. She couldn't talk. She wasn't trying to resist. These people—they were supposed to be helping her. They were supposed to be on her side.
"No?" said the Combine Overwatch officer. "Excuse me?"
Chell felt her heart sink, instinctively pulling her arms over her head to protect herself.
He called over his buddy and they took turns, their bats cracking across Chell's body until they'd beat her with an inch of her life.
As the bystanders just watched, Chell felt more alone on the surface than she had ever felt at Aperture.
Now, she was in the middle of endless, probably irradiated grain. All it did was remind her of how hungry she was. She hadn't eaten since she left City 23. Though she'd been lucky enough to find water once, the skies were bone dry. There wasn’t much time left before she got too dehydrated to continue on her mission.
Chell stood there for hours before she knocked.
She leaned on the door, forehead touching the dirty, mud-stained metal. She agonized over her options. She could walk away. Take her chances on finding another city. Maybe she could go back to City 23.
No, she couldn’t. Not after the way she’d left. If she’d returned, she’d most likely be shot on sight.
Her side panged with pain, and Chell winced. Right. The shrapnel in her side. Her mind flashed back to the moments of her escape from the City, of a tossed grenade, blinding flash, and a quick explosion. Then, before she knew it, she had a bit of metal in her side. From what she’d seen in the City, this wasn’t a life-ending injury. An as she’d discovered, a person could go a long ways with bits of metal embedded inside of them. But if she tried to remove it without the proper medical care, she would die. She needed medical attention.
She winced again, keeping her breathing steady. Sharp breaths just made it hurt more. Chell pressed a few delicate fingertips to her side, on top of the bandages, knowing that they were probably bloody after all of the walking that she had done today. She leaned down on to one knee, unable to support herself on both legs anymore. She was close. So close. All that was left in the way was her pride.
Could she do it? Could she throw away her pride just to save her life?
There was someone outside.
There was never anyone outside.
GLaDOS checked the camera again. There was someone outside. But they weren't trying to break down the door. They were just standing there, and they continued to stand there for hours.
GLaDOS refocused the surface camera, trying to get a better idea of what she was looking at. The human in the picture looked terrible, even from the grainy camera feed. They were dressed in the standard blue citizen garb that she'd heard that the Combine dressed humans in. These clothes looked dirty and ripped and grimy.
The person shifted, going down onto their knees. It wasn't until the camera got a good look at the face that GLaDOS felt a surge of electricity spark through her circuits.
It was her.
Chell took a deep, pained breath. Well, it was either take her chances out here (which she had tried) or take her chances down there. At least down there had some sort of medical care and some sort of food. Chell reached up a hand and tried the door. Locked. Of course. Why would it be unlocked? It wouldn't be as if GLaDOS just wanted humans from the surface to come and get involved in Aperture's business. Unless they wanted to become a test subject.
She banged on the door with as much strength as she could muster.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
She hesitated. What was she doing? This was stupid. There was no way that the door would open. She took a deep breath, shifting back onto her feet. The world went silent, a soft breeze tickling the stalks of wheat. Then, she heard a deep rumbling—first faint, then growing louder and louder until it stopped altogether.
Click.
The door unlocked and Chell reached and pulled, the metal creaking and dust puffing out from it. The last time it had been opened was probably when she had opened it.
A white and clear elevator was waiting for her, softly humming.
The ride was tortuously slow. Chell watched as the layers of the facility disintegrated and faded from chaos and ruin into clear-cut and sterile environments. New looking floors. Shining walls. The bustle of activity, of artificial life. The elevator went faster and faster past these newer sections, even more than she remembered seeing during her last elevator trip. Eventually the elevator slowed and Chell's stomach dropped lower than the facility.
What was she going to say? She hadn't thought this far ahead. She fumbled for the right words before remembering that she didn't need to say anything. She would let her actions speak for herself.
GLaDOS watched, curious, as the elevator descended and opened into her chamber. The woman in front of her looked half-dead. GLaDOS did not say anything at first, just watched.
Chell did not look up, instead just held a hand pressed into her side.
"Well, well, well. Look at what the metaphorical cat dragged in." GLaDOS paused. "After everything you did to escape, you're back? You must really be desperate for something."
Chell said nothing, giving a pained inhale and a shudder.
"So what did you think? Was the outside world everything that you had hoped it to be?"
Chell leaned back against the elevator back, sliding onto the floor. The doors stayed open, but Chell was finding it hard to pay attention. Everything was fuzzy, and she was hungry, so hungry.
"I see you made friends with the Combine. Specifically, their guns.”
Chell just glared back. She didn’t have time to get into the question of how GLaDOS knew about the Combine—and why she hadn’t warned Chell about them.
“How many times did you get shot, anyway? Did you know that getting shot tends to kill most people?"
Chell just shook her head. No. No bullets, thankfully.
"Blue, Orange. Get her out of the elevator."
The two robots came from an antechamber attached to the main AI chamber. P-body was the first one to reach in, leaning down and extending forward a primitive hand. Chell took it and P-body hauled her to her feet, using an arm to help support Chell. Chell leaned against the robot as they stood. ATLAS took her other arm.
"Let me get a look at you,” said GLaDOS.
She kept her head low, wheezing, staring at her feet. She felt the robot stare at her, feeling her skin crawl. She was definitely completing some sort of medical scan on Chell.
"You're looking terrible, as always," said GLaDOS. "Especially today. And I expect you think I can help with that.” She gestured her head toward Chell’s side.
Chell just looked at the robot. Please, she thought, pleading with her eyes. I need your help.
“Well, maybe there’s something I can do,” she said with a slight hum.
Before she could agree, though, a wave of blackness descended upon her and she collapsed into the arms of the robots.