Want You Gone

[Chapter Nineteen: The Part Where He Kills Us]

"Alright, still nothing." Wheatley muttered coldly when I had finished his latest test chamber. "Let's keep moving." The circular doors to the chamber slid open, though not to what I expected. There was no sanctuary of a lift waiting for me. The doors only opened to a broken down catwalk in a big open crevasse between chambers. 

"I'm sorry about the lift, it's... Out of service. Because it. Melted." He said, sounding a little ashamed, like maybe he was aware of what he was doing to GLaDOS's facility, and may have even been guilty about it. I assumed that wasn't the case, however. 

Another alarm began to buzz overhead as an excursion funnel activated and shot its way over the bottomless pit.

"Might as well, uh, you know, give you the tour." Wheatley said. I took it as a cue to hop in and ride the funnel to wherever it would take me. "Um, to your left, you'll see some.. lights! Of some kind... Uh... Dunno what they do, um, but very sciencey anyway." He dragged on, sounding a little distracted. GLaDOS, on the other hand, was amused by his dull 'tour.'

I smirked slightly, but it was replaced almost as quickly as it had formed by a frown when I saw a wall of the facility above us begin to crumble and shake, and descend in my direction. "And to your right... Um... Something huge hurtling toward- OH GOD RUN, THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!" He shouted, panicked. I thrashed my legs, but the excursion funnel wouldn't let me out of it's pull. "I can't run!" I screeched up at him. 

The wall began falling, and came slamming down into a thick metal rod; the only thing that kept it from hitting me. It made a large, crashing sound, and bits and pieces flew off into the abyss. I gasped, trying to shield myself with my arms. 

"Are you alright back there?" Wheatley called. "Here, I'll turn the beam off!" I felt a pressure overcome me-- the pressure of gravity-- as the funnel was deactivated and I went hurtling down toward a room below. "WAITWAITWAITWAIT- oh, no no no, that's not helpful, that- I- ARGHH! I don't know why I thought that would help!" He cried. 

Luckily, I was not left to fall into the abyss. Instead, I came crashing through the ceiling of what appeared to be a small office room. I huffed and looked up, angrily. 

"After seeing what he's done to my facility -- after we take over again -- is it alright if I kill him? " GLaDOS asked, only half-jokingly. I nodded to her, also only half-jokingly. I didn't really want to kill Wheatley, but nothing would have pleased me more than to see him get what he deserved. 

I walked through a pair of metal doors out onto a catwalk. Nearby, a few panels opened up on the ground, leading down into a small room. It looked to be a hallway in between chambers. I jumped down and through the door, into a new chamber, and back into the testing routine. 

"Ah-! You're alive! Great!" Wheatley chimed, but he sounded far from genuine. "Yeah, just- uhhh... Getting a test ready. For... you. Obviously. Who else would I be doing it for? No one." He rambled on, suspiciously. I looked around the half-finished test chamber, noting that there was no way out of it, then looked up to Wheatley's monitor, clearing my throat. 

"So, let's see here... exit exit exit... There is no exit." He noted. "Not a problem! I'll just- I'll make an exit. for your test." He hummed sweetly. A wall across another large pit began to crumble out of the way, and sure enough, on the other side of the chasm, there was the exit. 

"There! Ding! Good. Perfect. On you go. I'll be honest..." He began as I started looking for the test's solution. "After you told me to turn that beam off, I thought I'd lost you."  

"After I told you to turn it off?" I hissed up at him, mid testing. He carried on, ignoring me. "Went poking around for other test subjects, no luck there, everyone's still dead..." He said, though the tone in which he spoke led me to believe that there was something he wasn't telling me.