100 theme Challenge 54. HOT

54. HOT.

Aperture was a strange place to wander through.
Everybody who ever worked there had done it: take a day off, come to Aperture anyway and just wander through the building aimlessly to watch all the wonders and surprises.

A few didn't come back to work the next day.
Cave always made it an effort to know when someone took a 'tour day' and called that person at home if he or she didn't surface within the next day.
Most of the time they were found a day later, having themselves locked up somewhere or just lost, running through abandoned wings or stuck in forgotten test chambers.
Only a very few were never found.
But most of the workers just had a ball and it usually made them even more enthusiastic about working in Aperture.

It was a totally different story though if you weren't supposed to be there, if Aperture had been abandoned for numerous years and you had an annoying talking potato with you that just wouldn't shut up.
Yes, life was great for Chell.
Except it was not.

"I don't think your body would have any problem getting up speed plummeting down but, giving your… mass, it could fling you over the target by miles."
Chell glared to the AI that was shoved into the potato which was currently pinned to her portal gun.
Oh how satisfying it would be to drop it into the acid or dip it in blue gel and let it bounce for all eternity.
But she promised to take her back up and even if GLaDOS didn't deserve it, Chell was going to keep her promise.
For now she was focusing on solving problems to get on without dieing or get covered in nasty stuff that would melt her bones.
This was not an easy task, not just because these tests were sadistic difficult sometimes, she had to deal with a growling stomach too since it had been days since she ate something.

GLaDOS heard the growling and started to tease her about it.
"That hideous sound you're making must mean you're hungry. Too bad there isn't any cake around here right? Perhaps you can catch yourself one of those ghastly birds and roast them that would solve two problems at once."
Chell made a grr-sound, one of the few sounds she was able to, and shook the portal gun fiercely, knowing GLaDOS hated that.
"Hey hey HEY! Quit it!"
That made Chell smile a bit and she shook one more time before she concentrated on the jump that was ahead.
She had found a portal-friendly surface somewhere high up from where she was.
Which was also high, up some scary elevator with some stairs going around it.
At some point this would have led to somewhere but the walkways were long gone, broken and down in the big acid lake below.
Every step she made caused the metal tower to winch and shiver but it had been the only way to get a shot at the ledge she needed to go.
If only the stairs would have led all the way down, but the last stairs were missing so she had to take the elevator up.

After shooting the portal somewhere at the ledge she walked down one floor and looked down the elevator shaft.
The bottom was portal-friendly.
A jump down the shaft would give her enough speed to launch her from the ledge towards the little control-room across the massive gap.
Perhaps.

It wasn't a jump she was looking forward to.
Sure, her long-fall boots would absorb most of the impact if the jump didn't work out, but if the jump towards the control-room failed she would dive into the acid and would be dead fairly soon.
Perhaps not soon enough.

While she hesitated GLaDOS kept taunting and insulting her for being scared, which didn't help at all.
She thought about shaking the gun some more, when suddenly she noticed some doors on the ledge she just put a portal at.
That made her think.
Even though control rooms usually had some kind of exit, those doors looked promising too.
It wouldn't hurt to check.
So Chell walked down using the stairs, jumping down the last floor quite safely, and shot a portal in a nearby wall, thus stepping through that on the ledge with ease.

"What are we doing here? There is no way you can jump over without a speed to start with. Why are you so scared? Perhaps I should get one of those birds to carry me out of here; it would be a lot safer."
Chell ignored it.
The three doors looked like they were closed tight, and they were.
The button that should open them didn't react, perhaps there was no power.
But then a familiar voice started to talk, it was that Cave-guy again.
"If you need to go the bathroom in this next series of tests, please let test associates know. Because in all likelihood, whatever comes out of you is going to be coal. Only temporary, so do not worry. If it persists for a week though, start worrying and come see us, because that's not supposed to happen. "

His voice always had a strange effect on GLaDOS and she was silent, something that Chell was pleased about.
Of course he was talking nonsense about tests and what could be the terrible outcome.
It made Chell make the hissing sound she made when she laughed.
All near-death experiences aside Aperture was a funny place.
Turning her excrement into coal which she would only notice at her next visit to the toilet?
That was hilarious; it made her curious to see what was behind the door, even if it was not a way out.
Still, all three doors were locked up tight, except this one which had a small crack between the door and the post, caused by a falling walkway that had crashed on it long ago.

Chell peeked inside and didn't see much, it was dark in there.
She aimed her portal gun through the crack and took a shot.
A blue circle was formed and illuminated a small portion of a long hallway.
She could get in!
Without any further thought she shot another portal outside the door and wanted to step through.

"Whoa there missy! Why don't you use your brain before you do something."
Chell looked at the potato.
"You have no idea what's behind this door! There is probably a very good reason this door is sealed. Do you remember what Mr. Johnson said earlier? About those praying mantis men? What if they are locked behind this door? Insects have the ability to survive for a very long time you know."
Chell shrugged.
Sure, she didn't know what was behind the door, but she didn't know what was going to happen every step she took down here anyway so what was the difference?
No, her mind was set on finding out what was back there and she was going to!
So she stepped through the portal.

They ended up in a loon unlit hallway.
Chell had dealt with this more often and did the same she did before, keep shooting portals ahead so the light from the portal outside would shine inside, showing her what lie ahead.
Two corners later she was standing in front of a huge room, another big open space inside Aperture, that had lots of control rooms along the side.
That looked promising; control rooms usually had an exit.
The fact that there were so many control rooms however was a bad sign, it meant that whatever was going on in this room was dangerous.
"I laugh in the face of danger." thought Chell bravely, making her hissing sound, and stepped inside.

"Cave Johnson here.  The thing we do in this particular test is all about food. Sure, food is good for you and keeps you going, but don't you just hate it when you've had a nice hearty meal and want do all kinds of activities afterwards, like swimming? But no, you have to wait an hour or you get cramps or feel nausea. Or it just makes you fat! We at Aperture think that's a lot of baloney. So why not make something that speeds up this digestion? This test contains radioactive walls that will speed up things in your guts.
You're welcome.
Cave out."

Chell shook her head in disbelief.
Radioactive walls? Really?
She realized these tests were made in the 60's or 70's and it was now… well, later, but even back then they knew about the risks of radioactivity.
With a smile she turned around.
There was no way she was gonna…
A door shut behind her, blocking the way out.
No chickening out, Aperture always made sure testers had only one way to go: forward.

"This place is going to be the death of me" Chell thought for the hundredth time since she was down here.
She looked around to see what the test room was expecting from her, which was a bit hard since half the lights were broken, making the room a bit dim.
It did involve the use of portals but nothing to do with gels, thank goodness.
The exit was somewhere up high, but a greenish see-through wall prevented her to portal straight to it.
There was going to be some heavy jumping.
Not that Chell cared, she was very good at it, but the greenish wall, no doubt the radioactive shield Cave was talking about, had her worried.
Then again, she did survive everything Aperture threw at her so far.

Chell portaled herself to a ledge that was full of cabinets.
A short inspection revealed hundreds of cans of food.
That made her very happy, she was starving.
She quickly wolfed down two cans of fruit and a can of dried meat and full but satisfied she moved on.
The food was probably part of the test.

"All that food isn't gonna do your weight any good you know"
Chell grinded her teeth.
She almost forgot the annoying AI.
"I know you humans need to eat, but this is pushing it."

A lot Chell could have said to that but instead she used some portals to get to the walkway that passed through the green wall.
There were more cabinets here and the voice of Cave Johnson started to echo through the room again.
"A brief reminder to all of you testers, going through this wall without eating did result in some nasty gut-problems in the past. No pressure, but it might be healthy, if not life-saving, to eat now if you didn't yet."
Chell looked at the cabinets.
These were packed with even more cans of food and se even found some canned fruit!
She almost drooled.

"I know what you're thinking but as a good… eh… acquaintance of yours I feel it only fair to say you don't need it. In fact I think you don't need to eat for a couple of days. It might do you good."
In answer to that Chell opened a can of fruit, gulped it down and decided to take some cans of food with her since there was no telling when she would find food again.
Of course this wasn't in the liking of GLaDOS, but she didn't care.
After stuffing her pockets Chell stepped through the green wall.

Stepping through Chell felt a warm tingle on her skin that wasn't all unpleasant.
Actually, it felt good.
But when she tried to take the next step, she noticed she couldn't!
Her feet were stuck!

A bit alarmed she looked down to see if she stepped into something sticky but she couldn't lift her feet to check.
"Magnetic field on, movement starting in 10… 9… 8…"
Ah, magnets.
Her long-fall boots had metal in them, that must be the case.
"…5…4…3…"
Wait, what movement was the mechanical voice…
"… 2… 1… go!"

The floor on which she was standing started to shiver and slide back, taking her through the wall again.
It stopped and went into the other direction, once more taking her through the green radioactive field.
And again, and again, faster and faster, until she thought her spine would snap from the sudden movements.

Without warning it stopped ten seconds later and she felt her feet freed again.
Chell took a few wobbly steps and expected to see her lunch again but instead she felt fine, next to a little dizziness.
She just was very hot, but that was to be expected.
When she shook the dizziness off she picked up the portal gun which she dropped after the first trip through the wall moved on through the chamber.
Aperture sure was a strange place.

Whilst moving towards the exit of the room, far more easy as she suspected it would be, Chell started to notice a couple of strange things.
First thing, she was hungry.
That was kind of weird, since she just ate a great amount of food.
But she remembered what Cave said at the entrance, the green shield was a way to speed up digestion so she figured that was exactly what happened.

The next thing she noticed was a warm feeling in her pockets.
When she checked them she noticed the cans of food in there were very hot and when she shook them they made a rattling sound.
On opening she found nothing but ash and bits of coal-like black lumps.
Exactly as Cave said would happen to food.
She wasn't looking forward to the next visit to the toilet.
It also meant that all the spare food she dragged along was useless now.

The third thing she noticed was a strangely familiar smell.
Like someone was making dinner!
The smell had been in her nose for a while now and she couldn't quite figure out where it came from.
It wasn't the cans of food, they just smelled burned.
She was wondering if GLaDOS noticed it too when a fourth thing came to her mind.
GLaDOS had been very very quiet!

Chell looked at the AI and immediately understood where the smell came from.
The potato on the end of her portal gun had been through the green wall once before Chell dropped it and it was thoroughly baked!
The small yellow optic was sparkling and all the wires were melted and smoking.

Chell sniffed at the potato and smiled.
Dinner was going to be good today.