Aperture Science Laboratories

The young scientist groggily woke. She blinked her eyes, seeing only darkness. "Where am I?" She asked herself aloud.

She tried to sit up, and hit her head on some kind of barrier just a few inches above her head. Surprised, she fell back against the faded cushion which had served as her pillow over the past year. The confused woman would have panicked, but she felt so tired. And hungry. She couldn't recall her last meal... She hadn't eaten since she'd put herself in this casket-like container. She couldn't recall why she'd put herself in it...

The female reached out, out of habit, and her hand grasped a small lever adjacent her hip. She gave a feeble tug. The lever didn't budge.

"Must have rusted." She muttered. The scientist, in her early twenties, mustered whatever strength she had left, and pulled the lever towards herself. It groaned loudly, and finally released a small mechanism with was holding the top of the casket down. She took a few deep breaths, exhausted just from that small amount of exertion. After a moment to recover, and pushed the lid of her container away from her. It swung open on a hinge.

Sitting up, several lights flickered on, and lit up the small, dark chamber. She felt a cold piece of metal slid against her neck, it was a dog tag. Was she part of the military? She wondered. It read:

Angelina Kame

With her name, memories flooded back to Angie. Memories of losing her family, and coming to Aperture to make something of herself. Then... something happened. "What happened?" She wondered aloud to herself.

She had met Pete, a towering man who could've been a football player. He had become her only friend. Even when Cave Johnson, the founder of Aperture Science put his trusted assistant into a computer. And Peter had put himself in suspended animation, with Angie... She looked to her right, and saw a rust covered container identical to her own, just the right size to be a coffin. She knew instantly that it contained her friend.

Angie swung her legs over the edge of her casket, and set her long-fall-boot-equipped feet on the ground. As soon as she set her full weight on her legs, they gave out, and she collapsed. Angie groaned, and struggled to get up. She got on her hands and knees to be more stable. Looked at her arms, she realized they were much thinner than they had been. She needed to eat something soon.

She crawled across the room to Pete's casket, and opened it. "Pete... I think we were right. Aperture is no more." She said in a weak voice.



Many floor above the two scientists, hundreds of test subjects slept peacefully. Well... the one who weren't dead, slept peacefully. The entirety of the Relaxation center groaned as it swung across empty air. The crash echoed for minutes, which seemed to carry on for hours. Ceilings collapsed, walls caved in, the beds, along with the bodies of test subjects sleeping in them were thrown through the air. Most of what used to be a temporary 'home' for the test subjects fell into the depths of a pit that knew no end.

One small section of the Relaxation Center was catapulted into a huge broken test chamber. It landed right side up, and managed to stop without much damage. The occupants were thrown around a bit, though they survived, having been rudely awakened.

There were three surviving rooms. And three surviving test subjects.

"All Test Subjects should vacate the Enrichment Center immediately. Please prepare for emergency evacuation."

It was perhaps the least pleasant wake up she had ever experienced.
Abigail's eyes blinked open, and she curled into her bed more tightly. Her arms and legs tingled with energy, the latent excitability of being asleep for so long. So long that the room had broken away, had lost all of its color and charm. The girl sat up as her cell shook, tossing the bed slightly from side to side. Her arms flew out to stabilize her as she took in the environment, so different.

There was an aching, and she leapt out of the bed, the sheets tangling momentarily around her too-long thighs. She stumbled against herself, vaulting to the door. It was shut tight. Rusted. Perhaps a greater person could have opened it but, being the small girl with the atrophied muscles, she was unable to shake the door open.

Her tiny hands grasped the handle, weakly holding the cold metal. She shook, pulled again. "Mommy!" Her cry rang out in the silence, her panic echoed by the muted alarms. "Mommy, get me out!" She slammed her palms against the door, the wood giving briefly but staying intact. The girl threw herself against the door as the center creaked violently once again.

It was a rush, a terrible switch of gravity that made her stumble. She could feel her cell moving, feel the pull towards one direction. Scrambling, she threw herself under the bed, screwing her eyes shut, bracing for the impact. There were huge fits of violence, where she could feel the reverberations of large objects hitting her room, cracking the dry plaster and tumbling her room around haphazardly. But she held, pushing herself to the floor in her terror, feeling drops of water slip through her tightly closed eyes and down her cheeks.

This is just a dream, right? Linnae forced herself to frown, meanwhile leaving her eyes closed. The room around her was rumbling slightly, from what, she didn't know.
She hoped it was just some sort of construction going on outside of her house.

Wait. Why hasn't anyone woken me up yet? Linnae's breath hitched as she remembered the past few events that had happened prior to her current state. But this room wasn't rumbling at all when I got in here... She attempted a groan, but only ended up with a weak hiss that grated against her throat. 'Might as well get up..' She mouthed as she rolled over the side of the bed, reaching the ground in an undignified heap that was contained in a tight roll of woman and blanket.
A groan finally managed to escape her lips as she struggled to disentangle herself and sit upright on top of the lumpy mattress that had caused an almost mind numbing pain in her lower back and right shoulder.

Finally perched atop the edge of the bed, she flexed her arm, watching as her hand slowly closed and opened, the tingling of long time dormancy slowly fading.
The room shook, stronger than the vibrations that Linnae felt. She flinched and forced herself to stand, and leaning on the wall beside her, she moved towards the drawers that stood across the room, most likely bolted down, as they were easily staying still against the wall instead of sliding around the room as it shook.
The room shook violently again, causing Lin to square her shoulders. This time, the shaking didn't stop, and she wasted no time in retreating to one side of the room, the side she had just started walking away from. Hanging onto one of the rusting wall lamps with a white knuckled grip, she held her other hand over her head, and kept her feet apart, fearing for the worst.

The worst came as Linnae was tossed mid-air as the chamber was flipped.
She hit the wall containing the empty closet with a loud thud, and all the air that she had been holding in her was released. Linn lied there stunned for a few seconds before noticing that the room had stopped moving.
She muttered obscenities under her breath as she pulled herself up, thanking whatever divine being that watched over her for not being injured, just slightly bruised, or at least, that's what Lin hoped, as she winced as her bony hand prodded where the impact hit her hardest.

"I really hope that there's someone else around that's alive." Lin croaked as she limped towards the door. Oh don't worry Hun, there's always me to talk to. An amused voice appeared in her head. "Oh. Joy. I'm hearing voices. Best. Day. Ever. Just shut up and let me concentrate on getting out, all right?" Lin paused, as she had just realized that she had actually replied to the voice. Shaking her head, she leaned on the door, it creaked slightly before giving out altogether and letting Lin fall to the floor gracelessly.

"As I have said earlier, best day ever." She sighed as she pushed herself up again and only sat cross legged on top of the door. Everything was either rotting and on the ground, or rotting and in the place it's supposed to be.
Lin remembered what Aperture used to look like, some kind of futuristic place that had one too many corny posters. Now, she noted, the place was in a state of disarray. I wouldn't expect this. Lin thought as she turned her head slowly, panning her surroundings...

"All Test Subjects should vacate the Enrichment Center immediately. Please prepare for emergency evacuation."

Dave was unexpectly awaken by the sound he kept hearing. "Not now," He said rolling over at his side. Dave kept hearing and hearing it and began slowly to stand up.

"Agh, My head," He said while touching his forehead. Dave looks around, seeing only darkness. He began to wonder if there is something wrong at Aperture Science and began to walk to the door.

He touched the door. creakkk, He heard, "This is rusty.." Dave said.

He grinned and rose his arm up to punch it. He strikes, but before it hit the door he began to wonder why the door was like that, He remebered someone giving him a rest in a clean white chamber.

He sat on the floor and began thinking the reason.

For a moment, silence fell over the cavern-like test chamber. The echoing groans from the catastrophic crash of the Relaxation Center finally faded away. For the moment, all was still. Three side of the enormous room were complete. But on one side the floor, walls, and ceiling ended, and a huge, endless area continued as far as the eye could see. Dust, or perhaps smoke hung in the air, lit up by lights on huge railed panels in the far distance.

About a third of the intact portion of the center hung off the edge of this gaping expanse which never seemed to end.

Light filtered through the ceiling of the test chamber. Vines crept down the walls through skylights in the ceiling. Pieces of the once immaculate testing area had fallen, and littered the area. Ceiling fragments, wall panels, and portal surfaces were all scattered, and misplaced.

A large, three foot wide red button sat in the far corner of the room. A large, cube shaped box covered in lichen sat on a high ledge, just big enough for it to sit on. The section of wall just behind it was made of a white material, on which a portal could be shot, given that a portal gun was present.

After another long moment, small sounds traveled to those ears that were listening. Sounds of small footsteps, and scuttling, and movement. As well as an indistinct voice muttering to itself. Sounds echoed, magnified by the unexplainable, cavernous, pit.




Angie stared down at her friend. Her legs trembled with the effort of standing. She was almost sure she saw him start to stir when suddenly it was too much. Her weakened body gave out, an she lost all strength in her limbs, falling to the cold floor. She tried to get up, but she lacked the physical power, and the will. Her stomach gnawed at her from the inside, as if trying to eat itself in the absence of food. She knew there was some dry food which she and Pete had stored with them in suspended animation.

She felt herself losing her grip in the world of the conscious, and fought to stay awake. She looked back at the isolated chamber that had kept her alive this past year. She managed to crawl on shaky limbs to it, and reach up, feeling blindly around the inside until her hand met an item. Not the food she was looking for... The dual portal gun. She knew it would be her key to escape. Holding it made her feel a little better...

She couldn't think on the subject any more as she collapsed like a house of cards, unconscious.

For a moment, Dave began slowly to stand up. He began walking to the door, his limbs shaken on thinking what happened while he was asleep. He shakes his head to forget the thoughts and began punching the door, it was bolted. Failed at first try, second, third, till the fourth. He looks on the damage on the door, he smiled to see he was still in shape. Dave fell, He has not eaten anything in the past months. His limbs are weak without energy he could not do anything. He was tired and he needed some rest.

"Someone! Help me!" He yelled several times. He began to crawl to the door and with his last energy. He bashed open the door. The door came flying outside the chamber making a huge noise.

"Heh, I've done it," He said with his last remaining energy. He fell asleep or worst..Died.

Pete woke up. Was he in a bathtub with sheets and a pillow? Why did he woke up in there? Trying to understand the situation, he moved his hands up, to meet what appeared to be a glass barrier, he then started searching the insides, finding a lever. He pulled it and the cover popped open.

"Well, guess aperture died" He muttered looking around the abandoned room, to find Angie lying on the floor. Pete got up and tried to see if Angie was alright, but he was still dizzy so he decided to lean against the bathtub shaped bed for a few moments. 'Well, I'm hungry' he thought as he regained his balance and walked up to Angie, he sat down and started poking her lightly to wake her up. "Time to wake up, this place could crumble." Pete said as he heard muffled noises of walls breaking and ceilings caving in above them.

"Installing Emergency Power Supply..30%....80%..Download Complete."

Dave looks around to see the door in pieces, he smiled. "It worked..Glados Emergency Life Supply worked..I guess being half-robot is a good thing," He said.

He looks around to see a hallway full of Chambers just like his. He walks through the Chambers, slowly to check if some are alive. As he walk through the hallway he hears a girl crying, he hears it in the chamber he is looking. He began to walk to the door and knocks on it.

"Hello? Anyone alive?" He asked. No answer, he begins to pull the door open with every strength he still has. Crack, he hears as the door came flying to his chest. He quickly dodged it and looks at the damage it caused, "Oops," He said.

He walks to the chamber to see a girl in bed he looks shock as it is the first time he sees a girl. He began to come closer, but thinking he would only scare her more.

"Are you okay, miss?" Dave asks.

Linnae jumped as she heard a loud crash, one that didn't relate to pieces of the ceiling falling to bits. "What in the..." She trailed off as she circled the chamber that she had just left.
Her short journey revealed a door blown to bits, causing Lin to involuntarily shiver. Please don't tell me they were breeding monsters in the same area I was sleeping... She took a step closer to the splinters as she heard a deep voice,

"Hello? Anyone there?"

Linnae hesitated to answer, slight paranoia enveloping her senses. In the short time frame that she had waited for the decision to answer or not, Lin heard another loud crash, and a door that resembled her own flew into a pile of debris. She coughed slightly, shielding her eyes from the large cloud of dust that rose and spread in the air.

"Are you okay, miss?" She barely heard the voice as Lin bent down to grab a small shard of glass that was on the ground, wielding it as if she could defend herself, she advanced towards,
"Oh gosh please don't kill me, please don't kill me, oh my gosh..." She trailed off as she closed her eyes slightly, leaving only small slits that she barely saw through as she advanced towards the door, shard of glass held out point first.

As she shuffled towards the gaping hole where the door was, she saw a large figure standing over a bed...

Angie's eyes fluttered open. Someone was poking her... She blinked a few times to clear her vision, and saw Pete looking down at her. She managed a small smile, being glad to see a familiar face.

"Time to wake up, this place could crumble." He told her. Angie looked down at her right hand, now equipped with the dual portal gun. She nodded to Pete, and managed to stand up on wobbly legs. Her long-fall boots helped her to stay balanced as she peered into her the encasing that had been her 'home' for nearly a year. She saw the small synthetic-leather satchel that held freeze dried food. She needed to eat something before she died of starvation. She opened the leather flap over the top, and pulled out a couple bags of trail mix. It looked like a three course meal to her.

She handed one of the bags to Pete, and opened the second for herself. She popped a handful of the dried fruits and nuts in her mouth, swallowing quickly. For all she cared, she had just eaten a full meal. Immediately she felt stronger, and more stable.

"Alright, we need to get moving before the ceiling collapses on us. I think something happened up there." She gestured to the ceiling, then shouldered the her small satchel. "If the elevator isn't out of commission we should be able to get out quickly." She said in a shaky voice.

Angie walked across the small office-like room. Old computers beyond repair sat in the corners of the room. Her feet crunched on old paper, broken glass, and porcelain. An old, stone stairway lead up into one of the more recent parts of Aperture Science. She took her first step up, and froze. She smelled something familiar, and deadly at that. "Neurotoxin..." She muttered quietly.

She climbed the steps, and arrived at the top of the stairway. Her eyes widened. Aperture was not what it used to be...

She found herself on a metal platform, about a hundred feet wide, and a hundred and fifty long. They were surrounded by a lake of muddy brown liquid. Neurotoxin. Around the edge of the platform was a railing. In some places the railing had had become so rusted that it had fallen into the lake. Angie decided not to trust these railings, or even go near them. "What do you make of this?" She asked Pete, gesturing to everything in sight.

Following Angie through the office and up the stairway Pete looked around the platform to find out they were above the deadliest pool they would ever come across. "Apparently they abandoned this place, somehow some neurotoxin tanks ruptured and flooded the room down there" He said, partly answering Angie's question "At least there are no sharks" he added jokingly before getting serious again and started to examine his surroundings.

Below them, a brown pool of deadly neurotoxin, above, a ceiling with a few cracks and broken light bulbs, showing the place's abandonment, with a few vines growing out of some of the cracks on the walls.

"We could try these out" He finally said, showing his portal gun. "This platform doesn't look really safe." he pointed to the rusty areas "We could create a portal on the ground below us and one in the ceiling at the end of the platform, and hope it doesn't break when we fall." Pete explained his quick plan then added "Unless you want to walk across."

Dave looks around the chamber in which he broke the door, Dave began to give up looking for the girl when he hears someone outside.

"Oh gosh please don't kill me, please don't kill me, oh my gosh..."

Dave looks around to see a girl with small shard of glass in her hand, in shock. "Hey now, I don't bite," Dave said. Dave begins to walk closer to her, but remebers he might scare her of his Robotic arms and leg. Dave hid in the shadow and said, "Who are you?". "Don't come any closer, It'll scare you," Dave added.

"Maybe, I should introduce you first," Dave said.
"My name is Dave Johnson," Dave added. "What's your name?".

No answer he thought. "Your still scared of that, are you?" Dave said pointing to the debris.
"Look, i'm not gonna hurt you." Dave said while walking to the light to make her see him clearly.

"Oh. You're human." Linnae paused as she studied the man, Dave, as he called himself. "That's kind of... Disappointing." She muttered, shrugging as she carelessly tossed the piece of glass over her shoulder.
She frowned, thinking of a way to introduce herself,

"Name's Linnae, I don't have a last name, as I threw any relations I had to my family, as they are all probably drug addicts and alcoholics." Her voice was flat as she ignored the memories of her family resurfacing in her mind. She looked past the towering man, curious to see who she had been talking to.

"Oh..." She breathed out as she found out who was underneath.

Underneath the bed was a small girl. Lin squatted to become almost eye level with the child as she smiled encouragingly,

"Hey there kiddo, seems you're in here with us too, wanna er, come out from under that bed? It'd be much easier to talk, and I wouldn't have to squat down so much... I mean, if you really want to." Lin frowned for a second before plastering on another smile, and continued, "I've never had a real little sister, just some bratty younger twin brothers. It'd be nice to talk with a younger girl for once. We can uh, find a way out?" Her monologue ended with a questioning lilt as she watched the child with a new found curiosity.

"Oh. You're human."

Dave snapped, "What do you mean by Human, do you want me to become a demon?" Dave said with a fake smile.

Dave noticed the girl under the bed, in which he didn't knew. "She's hiding from me?" He said with a frown. "I guess, everyone hates me." He added.

He was about to cry when he noticed his sunglasses fell revealing his left robotic eye, "Don't look!" He said hiding it with his hand. I need to hide this. I'm not ready for them to know. He thought. Dave picks his sunglasses and wears it again. "Sorry about that, it's just something you don't wanna know." He said while adjusting his sunglasses. Dave looks under the bed with Linnae and whispered something to her, "Should i drag her?" Dave asked.

Dave still looks at the young girl, which he thinks is cute. "This is my first time to see a young human." Dave said.

Dave Johnson

l

Dave Johnson has taken bla bla

Angie gave a short chuckle. At the moment, she didn't want to walk anywhere. "I like the portal idea." She said to Pete with a quick nod. Angie had never actually used a portal gun before... she had never even been in one of the tests she had helped to design. She stared down at the mechanism she'd seen work so many times. It couldn't be that hard... could it?

Angie aimed it at the dirty white surface below her feet, and with a single thought a blue wisp hit the ground, creating an oval shape, about six feet tall, and three feet wide. She stepped off of it, knowing that the moment she shot the second, orange portal, she would be able to fall through the blue opening, and come out of the orange oval. the concept made her head spin. But as she'd been told so many times before, when it came to portal technology, you didn't think about how it worked. You just did it.

A second later she directed the portal gun across the platform, and shot an orange wisp accurately, hitting the ceiling. A wide oval opened itself up. Peering across, through it, she could almost swear she could see herself within it. Angie shivered, and again told herself not to think about how it worked. Portal science had always been something that intrigued her. Just because... she couldn't figure it out. Every law of nature argued against it. And yet...

Angie took a deep breath, and looked down at the blue oval. Now she could see through it, as if she was standing right above the orange portal, looking down at the floor, from the ceiling. Before she could start thinking about it too hard, she jumped into it, and appeared a hundred feet away, falling the eight feet to the ground. With how undernourished she was, that fall would have jarred her, and possibly broken a bone. But luckily the flawlessly designed boots she was wearing took all the impact of the fall, and directed the energy elsewhere.

She heard the platform groan under her weight, but it seemed to hold steady. She waved Pete over, gesturing for him to follow.

Angie glanced around as she waited for her friend. Looking towards the center of the back wall, a circular door stood. Sparks flew from the jammed exit. Angie watched it curiously as it struggled to open and close, but the mechanism was broken. Through it was a dark passageway. This was the only exit unless the two were willing to cross the lake of neurotoxin.



Meanwhile, in decomposing test chamber, the voices of the test subjects filled the void silence. In the otherwise quite outside the small intact section of the Relaxation Center, a metal railway lead through an old door. Other than the bottomless pit, this appeared to be the only exit.

Pete looked at Angie as she walked into the portal, coming out of it on the other side. He walked to the edge of the portal on his side before shouting "Hey Angie, look up". As she saw him and stepped aside. This thing wasn't supposed to exist, it makes no sense, he thought as he looked at the portal. "This can't be that hard" Pete muttered to himself before closing his eyes and walking in as the world seemed to briefly disappear from under his feet, before they met the partly rusted metal platform, that made a terrible sounding noise, like it was screaming in pain because of Pete's weight.

"Well, i guess I'm still pretty heavy even after a year without eating real food" Pete said casually, as another grinding noise started. "This thing is going to break, let's get to the exit, move slowly." He said seriously, pointing at the only door out. "We'll try to open it if we ever get there." He said as he walked cautiously towards the malfunctioning door.

Abigail clutched the paltry tan carpet and the rotted insides of the bed, slowly spilling out to cover her in a light, silty dust. She watched the feet enter the room, and inched towards the edge of the bed to see better, listening as they talked. Then one pair grew closer, and a face appeared. She smiled tentatively, eyes wide, at the girl staring back at her. The girl seemed nice, although Abigail's insides were fluttering in nervousness. She extended a hand out to the woman, ready to be pulled out from under the bed, when a man's voice threatened to drag her out into the crushed room. The hand retracted. "Hey!" she yelped, coughing slightly and shrinking back under the mattress. Her eyes narrowed again, even as the man bent down to face her.

Linnae rolled her eyes as she turned to look at Dave,
"To answer you're earlier question, no, I was expecting some murderer, because gee, I don't know, we're in an abandoned, or what I believe is an abandoned building," She paused to give Dave another once over, "And I wouldn't expect that the only people that are here to be a young child and some ripped guy that overreacts at every little thing."

Sarcasm dripped from her voice as she stood up,
"And no, you don't go dragging helpless children from under a bed if they're scared." Lin shook her head as she patted the dust from her jumpsuit as she went back to a squatting position, but rethinking it, she sat down cross legged and sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry, I just woke up for who knows how long, and this isn't exactly human interaction at it's finest." She scowled and flopped onto her back, "Anyone have any food? Now that I think about it, I'm starved."

"Woah, Calm down girl. I am here to help sorry about that." Dave said to the girl under the bed. "And I don't got any food at me. I'm already hungry when i woke up." Dave said looking at Linnae. Dave extened his arm to the Abigail, "Come now, I won't bite." Dave helped Abigail and began heading outside. "I'm going to see the other chambers," He said while heading outside. Crash! Boom! Dave hears when he breaks down the other chamber's door. "Oops! Sorry! Oh man this Door are pathetic!" He shouts. As he looks inside the other chambers, all he see is the same thing, a Bed,Toilet, and a Radio. Dave heads back to Abigail's Chamber and looks at them, "What? I don't know how to open those doors, they got no handle." Dave said.

Dave looks around the hallway. "How do we get out, I am not a genius." He said strenching his arms from the punches he did to the broken doors.

Angie heard her friend warn her as he got ready to portal jump. She moved out from underneath the orange portal, and watched as Pete dropped through, seeming to appear from through the ceiling. Again telling her scientist brain not to think about how portals worked, she quietly agreed that they had to be careful.

She nodded, as Pete gestured to the door struggling to open and close. She pursed her lips, seeing sparks fly out of it in different directions. Angie gingerly walked towards it. She could feel the stability of the platform beneath her increasing as the got closer to the walls. "It's more steady here." She said quietly, fearing that if they stood in one place for too long she or Pete would break through and fall into a lake of deadly poison. Dying of neurotoxin... Not her favorite pass-time.

She cautiously reached the door. Angie figured her best bet was to prop the door open. She examined the floor, and found a suitable candidate; a three foot long pipe. She picked it up in frail hands, and jammed it in between the two electronic sliding doors. The mechanism whirred, no longer able to move. Angie gave a small smile of satisfaction, then started walking through the doors. She suddenly froze. She knew this portion of Aperture like the back of her hand. Through these doors was a huge dome, that seemed the descend endlessly down. Metal railways spanned through empty air, and trailed off like spiderwebs to different sections of Aperture.

She stood back from the door, knowing that there would be a small tube-like lift which, if it was still operational, could bring them higher, where they would need to go if they wanted to get out. But to do that, the acrophobic young scientist would need to cross the railway which lead over the bottomless expanse.

Angie told herself she was being ridiculous. Living and working at Aperture had required her to cross the bridge ways multiple times a day. Even then she had struggled with it. Angie steeled herself to get across it, and grit her teeth. She stepped through the complaining door, and paled at the sight before her. She shut her eyes, and tried not to listen to the echoing creaks, and groans of the decomposing center. The grate she was standing on felt stable enough. She was sure she would be safe to cross. But her paralyzing fear would stop her. She knew it.

She dared to crack an eyelid open, and immediately backed up, and felt for the wall behind her to know she was safe. Angie chastised herself for well-known phobia (In truth she suffered from three). She told herself she was being ridiculous. That didn't stop her from looking anywhere but where she could fall.

Angie forced her fear away, and took her first step out onto the rail that would lead her to the lift. She moved stiffly, then froze completely. On shaky limbs she walked back. "I can't do it." She said, almost angry with herself.

~

While the recently awakened test subjects began to interact, a small mechanical whir echoed through the cavern. The sound reached the ears of Abigail, though the other two, older test subjects remain unaware of it. The sound of metal joints moving against each other also echo out. Again, this is for the most part, unnoticed.

Underneath the old, decomposing bed where Abigail hid. A small red light glowed.

"Hello." The turret's animated voice said clearly.

Abigail jumped, the ruby-red light gleaming suddenly from the darkness as the mechanical voice chirped. She scampered towards the other side of the bed, directly opposite from the turret. "...hi?" she offered up tentatively. It was simply a red light, shining a bit brightly into eyes that had adapted to darkness. She blinked, keeping to the opposite side of the bed, but eager to figure out the source of the new noise.

The new friend? It seemed friendly enough, and quite like the animated nurse-machines that had puttered in on occasion. She reached forward, scuttling under the grime and the broken springs to rest a small hand on the metal. The red light buzzed to life again, and a lazer focused, dimly visible through the dust, on her throat.

The child flew to the side, pulling herself out from under the bed in a frenetic scurry. She stood, her clothes hanging off of her nearly emaciated form, staring wide-eyed at the intruders.