When Dib Found Wheatley: Part 5

When Dib Found Wheatley: Part 5
The Meeting

For a few moments, there was a silence. Dib stared at Chell, dumb with excitement and amazement. This was the person Wheatley was searching for, the person he was so desperate to meet again and apologize to, for a reason unknown to Dib. Questions he wanted to ask Chell raced through Dib's mind, but for some reason, the first question he blurted out in his excitement was:

"Chell? You're Chell? But….but I thought Wheatley said you couldn't speak?"

At the mention of Wheatley, Chell's eyes lit up in joy. "Wheat…ley?" she said, dragging out each syllable of his name, "You know him? He's….back? He….came back?"

"Yeah, I know him. I accidentally pulled him back onto Earth with my magnetic field device. He's somewhere in this facility right now. He's looking for you, and wants to see you to apologize….for something….."

"Wheatley," repeated Chell, "Yes, I'll meet him. I forgive him." she stood up with a smile on her face, then she stopped, turned to Dib and helped him up. "Before that, I should help you first. Come. I'll get you something to eat." she led Dib down a dimly lit corridor that, for some reason, had strange drawings and murals drawn on the walls, and took him into a little nook. Dib turned back just before he entered the nook and caught a glimpse of ATLAS and P-body. The two androids did not follow them, and seemed to be arguing over something in some kind of robotic language.

"This…..is where I stayed," explained Chell, "ever since…..I came back to Aperture….I came back without GLaDOS knowing…."

"You came back here? Why?" asked Dib, glancing around the nook. It was evident that Chell had been staying there for some time already. In one corner was a stack of food in tins or packets and bottled water. Opposite to that stack was a pile of empty tins, boxes, packets and plastic bottles. Beside one of the walls, old jumpsuits and cardboard boxes were laid out on the floor as a makeshift bed. Chell's precious weighted companion cube stood beside the makeshift bed.

Chell took a tin of red beans from the pile of food supply. "GLaDOS sent me out, away from Aperture. She….said that killing me will be too……troublesome…...so she sent me out. But," she paused for a few moments, "I had to come back. I…had nowhere to go, out there. No food. No place to…..shelter. I sneaked back in. And…..she let me go in a field of wheat. I…didn't want to be there. Whenever I looked at the wheat…..whenever I looked at the sky…….I would think of Wheatley……."

"Oh, I….I see." Dib felt a feeling of pity for Chell. He accepted the tin from her. "Erm, Chell, I'm just asking, but is this food safe to eat? I mean, shouldn't it have expired or something?"

"They are…..invented by Aperture Laboratories, they can last for decades. I've been eating this kind of food…..ever since I began…testing here."

"And how long ago was that?" asked Dib, opening the tin.

"For……decades, I think. I was taken here when I was…..a teenager, I think, I was in my late teens. I was put into cryo-sleep for a few years….and woken up…..and tested. Then, they put me in cryo-sleep again….for decades, I think. I…..haven't spoken to a person since I first came here……"

Dib noticed that whenever Chell talked, she would speak slowly and drag out her words. Sometimes she paused between words, as if trying to find the right word to say after that. "I guess that's what happens to people who don't talk for decades." he mumbled to himself.

While he was being tested on, he hadn't realized how hungry he was. He ate up the tin of red beans ravenously, using his hand to scoop out the beans. As he ate, he looked around the nook and the corridor. The place seemed more rundown than the clean, new-looking test chambers he had been to. This was one of those 'in-between' places in the facility, as in secret paths and shortcuts behind the walls of the test chambers and main halls, places used to get around quickly during emergencies and for repairmen to get to the machinery that needed fixing. GLaDOS cared nothing about these sorts of places. That was why it seemed so rundown and why Chell could hide here without GLaDOS knowing.

What interested Dib very much were the drawings on the wall. The murals on the walls of the nook were drawn by Chell herself. They were vague drawings, with vivid and bright colors. Chell had used paints, marker pens and colored chalk she found around the facility to draw the murals. One of the drawings showed a field of wheat and a blue sky. Another one showed a test chamber with turrets. There was a drawing just above Chells' makeshift bed, showing a night sky full of stars, and a caricature of Wheatley. Above the drawing of Wheatley Chell had written the words, "Come back, Wheatley." Dib also noticed that the drawing of Wheatley was much more detailed than other drawings on the walls.

Dib turned to look at the drawings in the corridor. The murals here were different. They were less colorful and vibrant, but more detailed and less vague compared to Chell's drawings. Some of them looked rather twisted and strange, illustrating some rather disturbing scenes. "Are those drawings yours too?" asked Dib.

Chell shook her head. "Someone called…..Douglas Rattmann. He was…..a scientist and a test subject here. I…..read through his profile…..in one of the offices."

"You mean there are still other people here being, in this facility, besides us."

"No. He's….gone, he's been gone for many years….."

"Do you mean that he escaped?"

Chell looked rather grave and solemn, "He's……dead….."

Dib kept silent, he was not sure how to respond to that statement. He put down his empty tin and walked down the corridor, glancing through Rattmann's murals, trying to understand what the message Rattmann was attempting to convey through his strange drawings. When he came to one of the murals, he stopped, and looked closely at the drawing with a very mystified and bewildered expression on his face.

He voiced out his thoughts to Chell, "This drawing, over here, it looks really weird. This one, Chell, the one showing a boy reaching out towards something that looks like a grey circle with a round blue light in the middle of it. Well, erm, the boy looks like me. He's wearing glasses and has a scythe-shaped tuft in his black hair. And look at his clothes, he's wearing my blue T-shirt and my black jacket. That round thing he's reaching out to, I think….I think….it looks like Wheatley….."

Chell came close to him to look at the drawing. "This……" she began, looking as puzzled as Dib, "This drawing……was never here before….."

"So, it was just drawn on not too long ago?" asked Dib, "Wait, didn't you say that Rattmann, or whatever his name was, has been….erm…..dead for many years?" Dib felt a chill in the air. He was a firm believer in the paranormal, and the thought of someone dead still leaving drawing on the walls of an old, abandoned facility made him feel rather uncomfortable.

He looked at the drawing again, suddenly catching sight of a detail he didn't notice before. A black hand with claws instead of fingers, drawn in black marker pen, was gripping onto the back of the caricature of Wheatley. The hand was attached to a long black arm that had bright red paint smeared on it, representing blood. Written with the same bright red paint above the arm was the word "CORRUPT".

However, Dib had no time to wonder about the drawing. A loud voice echoed down the corridor, interrupting his train of thought and making him jump, "Membrane!? Membrane!? Respond. I know you are down there, alive, in fact. Come to the surface, immediately! We have more testing to do."

"It's GLaDOS." a look of fear filled Dib's eyes, "She's found me. I…I have to go, Chell."

"Wait." Chell turned to Dib, "You're name…..is Membrane?"

"Yes, that's my name."

Chell grabbed hold of his arm, "Don't…..go, I……"

Dib shook Chell's hand off his arm, "Look, Chell, I have to go out there alone. You can't come with me, GLaDOS will see you, and after hearing what you've said, I don't think she'll be very happy to see you, either."

Chell nodded, but her expression showed sadness, and she seemed to be silently pleading for Dib to stay.

"I'm…..I'm sorry, Chell." Dib said softly as he reluctantly turned and walked back towards the open space below the pit he had fallen through, "Goodbye."

ATLAS and P-body were still there. With them now, however, was another robot. Dib recognized it as the same type of robot that had captured him and brought him to Aperture.

"What took you so long, Membrane?" GLaDOS' voice echoed down the pit, "Take your portal gun and get back up here. The hover turret will take you back to the test chamber."

ATLAS and P-body came up to Dib. P-body gave him a pat on the back, as if silently comforting him, while ATLAS shyly handed him his portal gun he had dropped while falling down the pit.

"Thanks, you two." Dib gave them both a grateful smile. The hover turret hovered over him and wrapped its three, flexible legs around him. As the hover turret glided upwards, Dib looked down, and could just see ATLAS and P-body waving and giving a thumbs-up towards him, wishing him the best of luck.

It only took a while for the hover turret to bring him back to the fourteenth test chamber. The hover turret dropped him off at the entrance of the chamber and flew out through a panel in the wall, which swung shut as soon as it was out.

"It's evident that you're as tough as her, Membrane," GLaDOS commented, "considering you are able to survive a fall like that. Let's hope you are not as revengeful and as insane as her, though. I do not wish to be killed again, it is rather…..unpleasant…..to be dead. Sometimes, I feel that you humans are lucky to be able to only die once."

" 'Her'," echoed Dib, thinking hard, "By 'her', do you happen to mean a certain…erm…..lady known as Chell?"

"Why, yes, Membrane, finally you remember her. I thought you were very close with her and should know her very well."

"I'm….not. I'm not close to her at all. I don't even know her, actually."

"Don't know her? If anyone were to know of that murderous woman, it should be you. And I should know that, because of…." GLaDOS' voice suddenly faded into static and computerized gibberish again. The noises stopped almost immediately and GLaDOS continued "….well, let's….let's not talk about that. You have more testing to do." This was the first time Dib had ever heard GLaDOS stammering. He felt puzzled, it didn't seemed to be her nature to stammer at all.

Dib did not think too much about that, he had learnt his lesson about being distracted by other things while completing a test. He looked around the chamber, trying to find something he could use to block off or destroy the turret.

"And, Membrane." came GLaDOS' voice again, "Beware of that turret, will you? I do not wish to have to look for you under the test chambers again, it wastes a lot of time that can be used for solving more tests."

Despite of her snarky comment, Dib could almost hear a concerned undertone in GLaDOS' voice. It seemed that GLaDOS genuinely didn't want Dib to be shot at by the turret again. But why would she……

Dib shook the thought out of his head. He would think about that later. For now he had to focus his mind on completing this test and find a way to get past the turret perched on the alcove above the pit.