Test Subject #00001 - 2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.0

"Welcome to Test Chamber One. Before you commence with the test, be sure to consider the warnings, hazards and most importantly, the testing equipment you will encounter. Complete the test efficiently and with the virtues of science. These virtues have been listed in the Testing Outline paper you will have no doubt read before leaving the relaxation unit."

I can't decide if I'm happy or scared to hear her voice again. One thing was for sure, I had no memory of any testing outline paper, so I might be screwed.

The elevator had stopped and the barriers had pulled apart. Before me, was another set of stairs. It seemed identical to the ones on the floor above. If it is in fact, on the floor above. Who knows? I stepped out and climbed up the staircase to another door, which opened up for me. I seemed to be in a hallway, with white panelled walls. As I walked in, something bright and blinding blinked to life. I shielded my eyes for a moment then took in the large neon white sign. On it, were some markings. A large number 01 prominently was displayed on the top half of the sign. Below it, were two smaller markings. Studying it, I noticed they were little hazard symbols, except I'd never seen them before. The first one had a square with an arrow underneath it, pointing to some kind of flat shape below it. The next had the same square impacting with a stick figure. This test may not be safe. I continued walking along, noticed a watching camera and came to another identical door, which also opened.

The room I was in was also panelled in white. Things were a little hard to make out at first, as I wasn't quite used to the transitions between light and dark areas yet, but I concentrated on several unique parts of the room. I saw that in some parts of the room, there were dark panels, such as around the door I had come through. The room itself was in the shape of a box, with the ceiling rising a few metres up. A window was positioned near the top of the ceiling, with white light poring through into the room. There were also beams of light lined along the walls and floor. I called them light beams. The one thing that my eyes were attracted to though was the large red circle on the ground. Small blue circles lead from the red circle on the floor, travelled up the wall until it came to a blue square with a an 'X' inside it. The X was located above what seemed to be the exit door.

I wondered why I was in this room. I'm definitely sure the people who run this place got the wrong person. Maybe I can call to the window or camera.

"Hey! Somebody help me!" I cried out as I walked to the window.

Then I heard a hiss, almost like a gasp of breath behind me, up above. And then in the next instant, a large CLANK! boomed from directly behind me. I screamed in surprise and spun around. Lying there, was a metal box, with an intricate shape, and a logo of some kind in the centre with a thick, blue ring of frosted light. And the thing wasn't tiny either, it's height went up to my knees, and had an equal width. I stared at the object in astonishment, then I noticed the small glowing white sign half peeking out from underneath the metal box. I recognised it as the second hazard on the testing the sign, the one in which the square impacts with the stick figure. Realising this, I slowly lifted my gaze to the ceiling, and for the first time, I noticed the tube sticking out from it. So this is where that box came from...

I looked back down at it with new understanding. This was the square in the hazard sign. But what about the red circle that is somehow linked to the door? I sidestepped the box and approached the circle. Looking at it, I noticed that the red circle actually seemed to be some kind of plate, so that when pressure is put on it, the plate would go down, which therefore unlocks the exit door. I then realised how much of a nerd I was. Moving right along...

I put my foot on the plate as a test. As it went down, I heard a strange gurgle and then the exit door clicked open. The dots were all orange now, as well as the square above the door, which now had a tick. Okay, so how do I get this to stay open as I walk through?

It was around about that moment when I saw the first hazard sign on the ground that the lightbulb above my head switched on.

Jubilantly, I bounded over to the metal box and grabbed a hold of it, and began to tug. To my utter surprise, the thing didn't budge. It was heavy, and I mean, really heavy. I got around the other side instead and began to push with all the force I had. The box shrieked as it scraped along the floor toward the plate, but it was moving. After two metres and five minutes, I had successfully placed the box on the plate. The door had reopened. I felt like a champion. I remembered my labelling game I had so I hailed the puzzle as the 'cube and button' challenge, in which in order to unlock a door, place the rather heavy cube on the red button. Even the camera looked proud.

I turned and walked through the door with satisfaction. Another white panelled hallway led me to the right and I came to another room like the one before. One button, one more exit door. But this time there was no cube or tube to deliver it. But there was a small white pole rising out of the floor, with a small red button on the top. I knew I couldn't go back for the other cube, because the door I had walked through would lock again. Having no option, I approached the small button and it made a squelching noise as I pressed it.

The sound that occurred next could only best be described as a short and rapid sneeze splattering against something else.

I couldn't help but laugh at what weird and wonderful thing I was going to see directly to my left. I slowly shifted my head toward the sound, and yelped in shock. There, on the white panelled wall was an orange oval, which somehow seemed to be moving. As I stared closer, I noticed that I could see the cube on the button from the previous room. Is it some kind of screen? I stepped up to it and reached out with my hand. It went right through the oval and straight out to the other side. As if the oval was actually a doorway. Cautiously, I stepped through it all. Now, I was back in the room I was in before. Without going through the door. I looked back and to my surprise, there was a blue oval. And the second room was beyond that. My mind struggled to take this in, I'd only woken up twenty minutes ago! But somehow, I seemed to understand that these ovals transferred me to different places in an instant. Like portals.

They are portals.

I froze when I realised this. I've just stepped through a portal. A portal, right there. Amazing. And apparently, these portals are part of the puzzle. So how do I use them? I looked back at the cube, then back at the blue portal.

Gotcha.

Excitedly, I moved the cube off the button, through the portal and onto the button in the second room. Okay, so it wasn't the simple, the cube was VERY hard to push. So when the last exit door unlocked, I collapsed in relief and exhaustion.

"Well done. You will have noticed the orange and blue holes appear as you completed the test. These holes are actually portals, and this is the subject of your testing. Please make your way to the elevator, to continue onto the next test."

I was right! Siri even said they were portals! I can't wait to do more of these tests.

Oh no.

This whole thing isn't one big mistake. I know what I'm doing here and the truth is terrible. I'm a test subject.

I got up slowly, trudging to the door as I pondered over this. These people could've done anything to me, put something inside of me. I'm just a number to them. But what are they testing for? It seems like portals.

Well, I'm going to show them that I'm a wild card. They can't do anything to me.

I don't have my name, I don't have any remembrance of my past life immediately before waking up in this place (apart from a few fragments), but I have my dignity. I'm going to show Siri and whoever else is here who they're dealing with.

If only I knew how to do that. It's a little hard when they have the upper-hand. But I will find a way, and they'll regret they ever used me for scientific testing.

And so it began. I marched out of the door, unphased as I passed through the blue grill and ignoring the tiny shock that is felt after passing through these grills, and made it to the elevator. Barriers closed. And the elevator fell.

As this happened, I formed a theory in my head. So I'm here as a test subject in this place called...Aperture? I think? And this computer voice which sounds somewhat like Siri is testing me with these puzzles, using these things called portals. But why? How many of these do I have to solve? What happens afterwards? Who is the computer voice? And most importantly, who am I and what happened before I got here?

And even as the elevator stopped and the barriers swished open, I knew with a sickening dread that these questions will be answered. I don't know when. I don't know how. But they will, and they might not be what I hoped for.

Another question came to mind. What's in this next test?