Portal: Love as a Construct

Part Seventy-One. The Accident

Part Seventy-One. The Accident

"Dad! What're you doing here?"

Carrie and Alyx were both on the small bit of flat ground before the main entrance, where there were a few scattered weapons leaning against a table and small bags that possibly held ammunition or medicine. Carrie herself was sitting on the table. No wonder GLaDOS hadn't been able to find her; with the GPS down and no physical signal from Carrie, there was no way of knowing where she'd gone!

"Your mum sent me to get you," Wheatley said angrily, "and it seems she had good reason. What're you doing here, Carrie? You had express instructions to stay away from here!"

"Dad, it's not my fault!" Caroline protested, shaking her core and moving backward as best she could.

"She's right," Alyx said, holding up her hand and stopping Wheatley in his tracks. "I moved her. She wasn't safe. I've kept an eye on her."

"Why aren't you out there?" Wheatley asked, gesturing at the remains of the battlefield in front of them. The invaders had, for the most part, been forced to stay out of the facility, though Wheatley could hear gunfire and the distinct sound of the High Energy Pellets. It seemed the androids had done their job, and done it well. Even as he looked, an android fired pulse cannons at an advancing Strider until it collapsed into a smoking heap in the dust. "You're not able to fix the androids now so, so shouldn't you be, uh, be finishing things up?" He knew he was being a prat, getting angry with Alyx, but he'd been frightened about Carrie and knowing she was right next to the battlefield wasn't helping.

"I was, but Chell and Gordon are taking care of the rest of them," Alyx answered. "Chell asked me to get back here and make sure Caroline was all right."

"Are there many more of them out there?" Wheatley asked, nodding in understanding and doing his best to calm down. "I think uh, I think the cam'ras may still be blinded."

"Not too many," Alyx answered, laying a hand on the table next to Caroline and looking up through the ruined panels. "We don't know how many, exactly, but enough that the members of the Resistance who are out there, combined with Chell and Gordon, can take them out without too much trouble. We're not gonna lose anyone else."

Wheatley had a bad feeling as soon as he heard her say that.

Abruptly, the facility went completely dark, with Wheatley's internal system alerting him to the fact that he was now on battery power, and he looked around as best he could, since the control arm was no longer working. "What the –" Alyx gasped, Wheatley's slightly better low-light vision able to pick out the confusion on her face. "It's... not an EMP, is it?"

"No," Wheatley said, "Carrie and I are still, we're on. It's... something's happened. Something's happened to her." He tried to go back, to return to her chamber, but he couldn't move. He was frozen. Trapped.

"Oh my God," Caroline said in a panic, and Wheatley turned to face her. She was struggling to... well, he wasn't quite sure, but she was struggling. "It's Momma? Dad, you have to do something!"

"I can't, princess, I... I'm stuck here, just as you are." He tried to stay calm. He couldn't panic. Carrie needed him to be the adult in the situation. "Stay still, alright? You're only going to feel worse if you, if you tip yourself over. I'm sure she's fine. Rearranging things, or something, that's –"

"What's that?" Alyx asked in a faint voice, and Wheatley followed the dim outline of her arm and outstretched finger to see the lights in the facility returning to life, spreading outward from the centre. There was only the one hallway left ahead of them due to the holes on either side of Alyx's maintenance room, but far off in the distance Wheatley could see the increasing glow as the power travelled through the facility. As the lights continued to come back on, Wheatley realised the panels were also being blown off their racks and sparks were spraying in haphazard arcs as wires came writhing out of the ceiling. And Wheatley realised this destruction was heading right toward them.