She watched cautiously, peering over the top of one of the numerous wheeled vehicles spread around the area; City 17, the voice over the speaker had called it. Stretched across the stone path was a metallic structure, blocking it, that she'd seen numerous times elsewhere. She saw two Helmets standing looking down the corridor toward her; for a second she froze wondering if they'd seen her. With the face covering they wore it was nearly impossible to figure out what they were looking at; it covered the entire head in a frightening, white mask. She breathed easier when they turned to each other.

She looked down at the device strapped to her right arm, the Portal Gun. If she had to think about it from the memories she had before, it was a pretty amazing device. One trigger fired a nebulous blue hole in the fabric of space, the other trigger fired an equally nebulous orange hole that linked to the first hole. Stepping through one, brought you instantly to the other one. This device was so incredibly useful, that she had used it through all of her time outside, while she tried to cross City 17 and avoid the Helmets. She pondered even further, putting her finger to her lips in concentration, I have no idea where I'm going, just going. Away from the facility. Away from the endless testing. Away from Her.

Now or never, she thought to herself and dashed across the stone path to the open doorway on the right. Halfway there, the Helmets spotted her and started firing their weapons. She dodged left and right, using the vehicles for protection, and finally darted inside the doorway. She spun around and looking up back across the stone path aimed her own gun and fired a blue portal; she knew all too well how these Helmets operated, one or both would be here in moments. Sure enough, as she watched through the doorway, she heard someone approaching. Just as the Helmet entered the doorway, she fired the orange portal under his feet and looked up to see him fall from the blue portal to the stone outside with a loud yell and a thud. She waited anxiously for the second one to appear, unwilling to even look outside the doorway until she had some idea.

Nothing happened for many minutes and she could wait no longer, the light was getting dimmer, she would have to rest soon. She peered around the corner of the doorway looking toward the metal wall; bullets pinged off the wall and ground near her and she ducked back inside the building. She took a deep breath thinking about how to do this; it was all too easy to mess up badly with the portals and either fall flat on her face, or send herself to some location that would be worse than here.

Finally, she decided what to do, and with a lengthy series of shooting portals in various spots, including firing at the last minute into the ground before she hit, she managed to not only avoid the remaining Helmet, but pin him beneath the large, cold storage unit she'd found in one of the rooms of the building she was in. Firing some more portals, she sailed over the top of the metal structure, ignoring the pinned Helmet and landed on the other side.

She glanced around, this side looked exactly like the other side; tall structures on either side of the stone pathway, wheeled vehicles scattered around, numerous open windows and doorways and no ceiling over her head. She was still very uncomfortable without the soothing calmness of a ceiling, even after so many months… outside. Further down the path on the left side, one of the structures was crumbling to ruins and spread across the pathway was a huge overturned vehicle. Looking up, she saw stretched across the stone path was a bridge at the top of the buildings. She headed toward an open doorway on the right to begin her search for somewhere to spend the night, holding her Portal Gun at the ready.

He jumped down off the crumbling wall, pulling the trigger on the Gravity Gun to pick up a large rock. He smiled remembering what Alyx had called the gun, Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator.

"You can call it that if you want to," she'd said, rolling her eyes like a teenager. The daughter of his good friend and far too young. He inadvertently let out a sigh, and then laughed at himself. She's probably moved on anyway.

A Combine soldier hearing the noise he'd made, started firing at him. Aiming carefully, he released the rock from the Gravity Gun, slamming it into the chest of the soldier. Where there was one there was always more; two of them popped up behind one of the abandoned cars. He fired into the side of the car, lifting it off the ground and rolling it over the two men; their life was crushed out of them with the characteristic static noise. He dipped behind the car and sat down, back against it to take a breath. Just once, he thought, I'd like to walk through the streets like a normal person and not have to deal with all of this.

He looked up to the sky. "I'd like to be able to use the Theoretical Physics I learned; is that too much to ask?" He smiled though, at the enormous debt from getting a PhD he no longer had to pay back; he had been able to defer the payment after he started at Black Mesa, and only made three payments before that whole bull-crap ordeal took place. Then of course, in stasis for twenty years after that was finished, and now, there is no indication he'd ever have to pay the hundred plus thousand back.

He took a deep breath, raised the weapon and stood up, spinning around. He didn't move, scanning the street for any sign of movement; so far so good, only the three of them. He looked down the road and saw piles of rubble from a destroyed building on the left, and an overturned, tanker truck lying across the pavement blocking all movement that way. He saw dimly beyond all that, one of their channeling walls.

"Nice try, boys, I'm going over that one," he whispered. He looked up and saw a walkway had been erected across the street at roof height of the four story buildings. There was no open doorway on the ground to the left, but there was one on the right; he shrugged his shoulders, a little too obvious but that's what he'd come to expect from these people. He ran to the doorway and flattened himself against the wall; carefully peering around the edge, he saw an open atrium, a broken elevator and stairs going up. He dashed inside, heading for the stairs; as he reached the bottom step, a closed door that he foolishly hadn't noticed opened up behind him.

"I've got him," the radio voice shouted, "need assistance."

He stepped forward and fired into the man's stomach, sending him flying backwards; but the Combine flunky wasn't dead. He stepped up slinging the Gravity Gun on his back and pulled out the crow bar swinging it in a downward arc into his helmet, crushing the life out of him. He spun around and ran up the stairs two at a time, knowing they would be coming from the upstairs. Sure enough he heard the radio chatter and clumping of feet on the stairwell; you'd think with the technology to create some of these amazing devices, the Combine would be able to make radios silent and mask the sound of footsteps. Reluctantly, he slid the crowbar through his belt and took out the Pulse Rifle; probably better under the circumstances anyway.

The first one that poked his head around the corner of the stairwell got a bullet in his forehead sending him backward into the soldier too close behind; the dead man rolled down the stairs to the landing and the follower slipped on the steps and skittered to the floor on his rear end. The three soldiers behind him leapt over him, landing flawlessly, straddling the dead soldier, or on the landing; they ruined the awe inspiring precision they'd just displayed by holding the triggers of their sub-machine guns down, spraying bullets all over the stairwell, but above his head.

Smiling, he ducked back down the stairs and fired the Pulse Ball attachment; the large ball of energy ricocheted up the stairwell heading towards the four men. There followed some strong language and then radio static. He crept back up the stairs amidst the ruins of several human forms to see one man lying on the stairs still breathing, two bloody stumps where his legs had been. The soldier's helmet had been knocked off and he saw the face of his enemy; a blond boy staring at him with wide, terrified eyes. He sighed deeply and slung the Pulse Rifle.

"You're not going to make it," he said, softly. Tears welled up in the corner of the boy's eyes. "I can make it faster?" The boy nodded his head. He pulled out a knife and held the point over the boy's heart, "Ready?" Another nod and he pushed down on the knife quickly, ending the boy's life. He shook his head as he cleaned off the blade, and put it back at his belt. Taking the Gravity Gun, he kept going cautiously up the stairs.

He looked quickly around the next two floors for any signs of Combine soldiers. It seems they had gone over the area, but not looted it for anything. In fact, he found several pieces of what he affectionately called "Combie-Spoor"; wrappers from their disgusting energy bars and empty cans of the soda they drank which reminded him of piss mixed with vomit. He curled his lip looking at one of the cans, they're human, for crying out loud, why drink this crap?

He looked down at the bodies, unseeing. Now what? He pondered his existence, and those of the bodies at his feet. I'm hungry, that's what. These are all apartment buildings, there's gotta be something edible in them. He turned back to go down the stairs and begin a systematic search of each of the apartments to find something to eat, and perhaps something else useful. It was only after the second apartment that it dawned on him what he had just done.

I've become so immune to killing fellow human beings, that my first thought is food. But I don't understand how they could change sides like that. Are they brainwashed to obey? It doesn't seem like it. It seems like all of these people choose to oppress their fellow man. Why would they do that? Is the motivation to live just so strong in people that they would rather live as slaves to an alien race than as neighbors to their friends?

Morosely, he continued searching the apartments, suddenly only interested in sustaining his life because the alternative was too abhorrent. It had been long enough that a large amount of the food had spoiled. It had certainly been years since any of these buildings had had power going to them; the Combine diverted all of its energy grid to its own buildings, and those of the cross-street channeling walls. On the top floor he finally managed to find a can of green beans, and a bag of potato chips. The chips were ridiculously stale but surprisingly not that bad. It took him several tries to pound his knife through the top of the can, but eventually he managed it. He poured as much of the liquid out as he could, and then dumped a handful of beans in his hand at a time, eating them like he would a handful of mixed nuts from the long-gone days gone by.

He sat lost in his thoughts for how long, he didn't know. His mind wandered to his school years, learning Theoretical Physics. His first job at the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico. That was a complete disaster, and after it was all over some mystical freak apparently froze him for twenty years until he just recently woke up.

"Don't get me wrong," he said to the air, "I'm appreciative and all, but really. Wasn't there someone else that you could have gotten?"

Now, the Combine had apparently taken over the world; planet Earth was officially and totalitarian-ly controlled by aliens. Who would have seen that coming, he said to himself sardonically. How long did I spend on that weird ass alien planet, which I'm sure is how they got here? Hey, go ahead and push that button. No, don't worry about it; I mean, sure it's possible that the Earth will be taken over by hostile aliens, but the chances are less than one in a hundred. Come on! It's in the interest of scientific discovery!

He came out of his reverie and looked out the window, it was getting dark, time to bed down. As he watched, he saw very dimly, a person move across a doorway; it did not look like a Combine soldier. Sighing softly, he pulled out his favorite weapon, the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator. Yes, Alyx, I think I will call it that until I see you again, thank you very much. He slowly made his way toward the doorway that opened up to the walkway that spanned the street between the two buildings. As he got closer, he noticed a faint blue glow from outside the building, but couldn't figure out what it might be and was unwilling to stick his head out the door to look. He pushed himself against the wall and peered through the open door frame. He saw a bright orange flash and almost immediately, he heard the scream, right next to this doorway, of a Combine soldier falling to his death. What the hell was that? He tightened his grip on the Gravity Gun and waited, too frightened of the unknown to cross the walkway.

After the Helmet fell from the portal, she leaned back against the wall, listening for more of them. Her mind drifted off, thinking about where she was. What would it have been like to be this close to so many people? All I'd have to do is step out and open another door, to have a conversation; a meaningful, real conversation, not some sarcastic rhetoric about what a horrible person I am from Her.

She came back to the present and with an unnatural and probably overly sadistic glee she giggled as she looked at the orange portal. Okay, so She had a really negative impact on my life, she laughed, thinking about Her again.

The corridor ended about two feet after the doorway, so she turned around and headed back toward the stairwell to a lower floor, and an apartment to spend the night in. She had already cleared all of these floors, so she quickly made her way to the second floor, picking it at random from her four choices, and turned into the third apartment off the stairwell, also picked at random.

She looked around the empty apartment recognizing a lot of the contents from her previous exploration and headed toward the doorway that opened on a further wall. She walked into the new room, smiling. I'll bet this was the person's bedroom, she thought, relishing the word on her tongue. She had never had a 'bedroom' so to speak. She had only had a room to sleep in, assigned by Her, which coincidentally was right next to the toilet; food was pushed in through a slot under one of the walls, periodically. She took immense joy in looking around at this person's bedroom; a nice comfy if moth-eaten bed, a bookshelf with the remains of books, another storage device which she couldn't remember the name of, and another doorway which went into the bathroom. She looked at the storage device and pulled open one of the drawers. There were clothes in it. A dresser, that's what it was called because you 'got dressed from it.'

She looked back toward the bed that was also in the room; it seemed to be a fairly large and comfortable item but obviously quite worn with age. She lay carefully down on it, stretching her arms underneath her head. The Portal Gun was attached to her arm, she was so used to it by now, that it never occurred to her to remove it, until it was bumping into the back of her head. She pulled her arm back, and pushed the release buttons for the straps and pulled it off. She rubbed her arm gently, savoring the touch of raw flesh, even her own and looked at the gun lying between her knees.

Suddenly she was drawn to the first thing she ever remembered, from before She had started testing her, when she was a young girl, standing proudly next to the potato battery she had made for her father's 'Bring Your Daughter To Work Day.' Her father's assistant, Caroline, had helped her make it telling her, her father would be so proud of what she had done. She stood for hours, long after the other kids had gone on to do other things, waiting for him to come but he never did. Caroline had always taken such good care of her, like the mother she never knew. Then, nothing; no memories, no events, until she woke up as an adult in that sealed room, marked just as 00. An adult with all of the adult feelings but absolutely no way to reference them, to understand them.

What happened after that was a confusing, horrible experience. But it ended knowing that her own father had put her in the Testing Facility; she had never been anything more to him than a science experiment. Even worse, was the fact that Caroline, the person she was closest to, had been put into the computer; the voice of Her was a disembodied Caroline. Caroline was equally as horrified to learn what had happened, and unable to reconcile Her current feelings with those of the past, She pushed her out of the Testing Facility into an open field in the middle of nowhere.

After being stuck inside for as long as she could remember, being outside was... terrifying. She leaned back against the door she'd been thrown out and cried; something she hadn't done in years. When she was finally back in control, she looked around and seeing a column of smoke in the far distance, she thought, where there's smoke, there's usually people. Without any idea of how she knew that, she started walking toward the smoke.

It brought her to City 17 and seeing the Helmet People for the first time. She had no idea what to do in City 17; the place was in ruins. All she could think to do was wander around, looking for food, and think. Think too much about her past and the one person who had any meaning to her; now stuck inside a computer and not wanting her around any more. She strapped the Portal Gun back to her arm and rolled on to her side to sleep. She whispered to herself, "it'll be better in the morning."

He waited for several more minutes before he finally got up the courage to cross the walkway. He poked his head out of the doorway and looked carefully around and then, taking a deep breath, rushed across to make a leap into the doorway on the other side. He managed to catch his foot on the door sill and tumbled into the hallway, crashing loudly into a wall on the far side.

Good going, you idiot. Why don't I just shoot myself in the face so the Combine soldiers don't have to waste their ammunition, he admonished himself. He stood back up and slowly went down the hallway, opening each of the apartments as he went by. Searching each apartment thoroughly, it took him over two hours to make his way to the third apartment off the stairwell on the second floor.

He opened the door carefully, like he'd done at all of the other apartments, and crept in. He searched through the living room area, and then made his way to the open door which he assumed was the bedroom. As he walked into the bedroom he was greeted by a loud shriek and a flash of blue under his feet. He instinctively rolled backward to get off the glowing blue object and shouted out.

"Stop! I'm not one of them!"

She woke with a start to see the silhouette of a man in the bedroom doorway. With a loud shriek, she fired the blue portal on the ground under his feet. Unfortunately, she had neglected to fire an orange portal; when only a single portal was in use, it was a solid glowing surface. The man quickly rolled backwards, off the blue portal and out of the doorway, and she heard him shout.

"Stop! I'm not one of them!"

He didn't sound like one of the Helmets, she could clearly hear his voice for one. For another thing, there was no staticy chatter going on around him; the Helmets were always talking to each other. Leaving the blue portal where it was, she fired the orange one on to the ceiling.

"Who are you, then?" she called out.

From his vantage point on the ground, he saw her shoot the orange hole onto the ceiling and could dimly see through it… to see the ceiling?

"What are those things? Why can I see through that orange one?" he called.

"They are called Portals. How do you not know what a Portal is?"

Did she just say a 'portal'? Wasn't that what one of Black Mesa's rivals were working on? "Did you say a Portal? Where are you from?"

It was getting difficult for her to fear this man anymore. He seemed truly curious, he did not know what a Portal was, and if he had wanted to shoot her, he certainly could have done it by now. She pressed the release button on her Gun which caused both Portals to disappear.

"It's okay now, you can come in and we can talk," she said.

"Do you mind if I turn on a light? It's really dark in here," he asked.

"No, I don't mind, but there is no power to these buildings. The Helmets use it all for themselves."

He started laughing, "Helmets, what a perfect name for them." He flicked on his flashlight and walked into the bedroom to see her for the first time. She was a young woman with dark hair and pale blue eyes possibly of Hispanic descent. She was wearing an orange jumpsuit with the top folded down, and a white tank-top. He couldn't make out the company's logo on her shirt. He adjusted the setting on his flashlight so it was more diffuse and didn't blind her.

"My name is Gordon," he said to her, "Gordon Freeman. What's your name?"

"It is good to meet you, Gordon-Gordon-Freeman. My name is..."

"No, no. It's just Gordon. Gordon Freeman."

She looked at him again, frowning deeply, not understanding the context of the conversation. "Yes, that is what I said, it is good to meet you, Gordon-Gordon-Freeman. My name is Chell."

Gordon sighed deeply completely unsure how far along this conversation could go, and if it was even worth it to correct her.

"Nice meeting you, Chell. It's a good thing you're so cute," he told her, offering his hand.

She knew what the hand shaking was, Caroline had taught her that. She reached out and took his hand, shaking it once firmly, and then dropping it. Puzzled, she looked at him again. "What does 'cute' mean in regards to me?"

Gordon blushed, "Um... it's nothing. I just... it's just a joke. You know what a joke is, right?"

Her face cleared, "Ah, so it's a joke that I'm cute. Okay, I understand."

"What?!" Gordon exclaimed, suddenly alarmed that she might have the wrong idea. "No, not at all, you're very... um... cute. That is... uh..." He put his hand on the back of his neck uncomfortably, "What I mean is, you are... uh... very nice to... that is, you're pleasing to the eye." How the hell do I get out of this conversation?

She squinted her eyes looking at him closely, I think he thinks that I'm attractive. What do I do with that information? Does it matter? Maybe it's just as well that I only lived alone; people are extremely confusing.

"Perhaps, Gordon-Gordon-Freeman, we should talk about something else."

"Um… yeah, good idea." He pointed at her arm, the one with the Portal Gun. "Is that the thing that makes those… portals?"

She lifted her arm and looked at it herself, "Yes." She fired the blue portal on the wall next to Gordon, making him jump, and then fired the orange one on the wall next to the bathroom. "Walk through that blue portal."

He looked at her like she had gone insane, but seeing no reaction he looked at the blue portal. He could see through it to see her sitting on the bed. Unable to control himself in excitement, he stepped through and was instantly right next to her, in front of the bathroom door.

"Holy crap! That is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I'd heard someone was trying to perfect that. Who makes that? Can I see it?"

"Makes it? I don't know," she answered puzzled. "How would I know that?"

"It… uh… looks like the company logo is on the device," he said with a shrug, walking closer to her. He read the logo and as he turned to tell her saw that her shirt had the same logo. "Aperture Science. Did you work for them?"

"I think yes but also no," she said.

He stared at her for a moment wondering if she would elaborate, "Um… okay then." He looked around the room, suddenly wanting to sit down. "There's no chair in here, do you mind if I sit on the bed?"

She raised her eyebrows, unsure of why he would be asking that question. If he wanted to sit, she thought, how would I stop him? She nodded her head and gestured at the bed.

Gordon sat, suddenly weary from the past several days' exertions. "So… Chell. What brings you to City 17?"

"I was forced to leave the Testing Facility and I saw smoke in the distance so I headed toward it. The smoke was from this city, so that is why I'm here."

"I see. You're not much on conversation, huh? That's fine, it's been a long day anyway."

"No, Gordon-Gordon-Freeman, I have been alone for many, many years. I don't really understand people, except for what I was shown by Her… I mean, by the computer."

"That makes sense, but what Testing Facility?"

She sat silently trying to think, she had no idea where it was, what it was for, "I don't know, but it must have been established by Aperture Science?" He nodded his head, but didn't say anything. Chell looked at him, while he was looking at the floor. He had some uncomfortable looking, heavy clothing on that covered from his neck to his feet. She poked at it and found that it was made of some hard material.

He laughed, looking at her finger. He took her hand and guided it toward the piece that was around his neck, much harder than where she was poking before. "It's called an HEV suit and, Jesus, has it come in handy. It stops a lot of their bullets."

She took her hand away, holding it in her other hand; his fingers were much softer and more gentle than she thought. Very pleasant, she thought, I like the way they feel.

She went back to examining him, and he was now watching her face. He had dark hair and eyes, wore glasses and had facial hair. This last was so odd to her that she reached up and touched it, scrunching it between her fingers.

He laughed again, "Never seen a beard before?" He took her hand in both of his, "I suspect, Chell, that you've seen both a huge amount and not a lot."

She pulled her hand away quickly. He was churning up feelings she did not want to face, did not even understand. How is he doing that? I don't know him.

"Gordon-Gordon-Freeman, you look very tired. I imagine fighting the Helmets has exhausted you."

He sighed deeply, "Yeah, that's true. Do you mind if I… um… lay down? I won't try anything, I promise. I think I just need to sleep."

Oddly comforted but not understanding what 'try anything' meant, she nodded.

"Perhaps you would be more comfortable if you took off this HEV suit?" She gestured at it, "I promise I will not try anything either." Honestly, I don't know what I would be trying though.

He smiled and nodded, standing up, "Thanks, I wouldn't be of any use to you anyway; I'm so tired."

He took off his hard outer clothing revealing a black T-shirt with the words 'Black Mesa' in yellowish-orange, faded blue jeans and comfortable looking shoes. When he saw her looking at his shirt, he looked down at it himself.

"I've had this shirt for over twenty years now. I used to work there."

He lay down, putting his arms underneath his head. Softly, his breathing slowed as he started to fall asleep.

Chell watched him for a few moments, and inched a bit closer, feeling the heat radiating off of him. It was getting cooler in the evenings, and it felt comfortable being next to him. She lay on her side facing him, one arm crooked under her head as a pillow.

"You are very warm, do you mind if I lay close to you?" He grumbled something which she took as assent.

Chell fell asleep, one leg lay on top of Gordon's leg, her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat.

She awoke just as the sun peaked over the building next door. She stretched, and sat up looking at her sleeping partner. Leaning over, she very softly kissed his cheek, "Goodbye, Gordon-Gordon-Freeman. I wish you well in your journeys. Maybe we'll meet again, I would like that."

He woke up when the sun was well in the sky, he was alone in the bed. Slowly, he put his HEV suit back on. Just before he left, he looked back toward the bed.

"Goodbye, Chell. I hope you make it, I want to see how well you've done."

He hefted the Gravity Gun and walked back down to the streets of City 17.