Portal 100 Themes: 7 - Alley

Chell dragged herself out from behind the dumpster.
She was dirtier than she could ever remember herself being, caked in mud and grime. Why had she come here?

"Attention residents: Miscount detected in your sector. Cooperation with your local Civil Protection will result in full ration reward."

It was that voice again. The others had referred to it as the Overwatch. Chell didn't care. It was a computer voice, it was female, and it was coming from all around her. That was enough to dislike it.

Hell, it even sounded a bit like her.

Although for now that didn't matter. Chell was more worried but what it had said. That same message was given everywhere she went, normally preceded by being flashed by one of the strange floating scanners. One of the rebels had explained it to her.

They kept track of everyone in each sector, through a combination of thermal cameras and the floating scanners. Whenever there was one too many in the area, they would lock it down and send in the MetroCops.

Chell was always that one too many.

"Area lockdown in effect until miscount source is located."

Oh no… She hadn't even seen the scanner this time. It must have been during her sleep.
Chell wrenched the rest of her leg from behind the dumpster, and stumbled out of the alley, into the daylight.

The alarm went of in the distance, that same low tone that repeated three times.
What was that alarm signalling? A fight?

She looked around at the deserted street, and then started running down towards one end, before taking a left.

The streets were always empty. Over the weeks Chell had learnt why the hard way. Stun batons hurt.

She ducked into a doorway as a Combine ATV roared past, looking down at the small pistol given to her at one of the resistance safe houses. She had used a gun for many years, but not one like this.

Chell didn't think she would be able to kill anyone if push came to shove. It was to heartless a thing to do. Normally her quota of killing had been covered by GLaDOS.

Once the ATV was gone around the corner, Chell took off again, listening intently for one of the two sounds she dreaded.

Where was that safe-house? They would save her.

Chell looked around. From what she could gather, Petosky had once been a very nice city. Of course, after the Combine came it all changed drastically. One notable feature was trees. They were all dead.

Thump.

Chell stopped. Had she just heard-

Thump.

She had.

Chell took off in a dead sprint, trying to get as far away from the noise as possible.
She ran, but could still hear the thumps – getting closer. Of course, the buildings here now were low enough for the striders to walk straight over them.

Thump.

"STRIDER!!" Came the shout.

Chell's head turned slightly. There were people on the street now, wielding weapons, pointed up at the beetle-like body of a strider.

She watched in horror as one of the three long legs came around, slamming into one of the resistance members and throwing him through the window of a building.

It was still going after her.

The other men and women opened fire with their SMG's, striking up sparks all over the Strider's body. Over their clatter came a much deeper tone. The quick tone before the pulse cannon opens fire.
It opened fire.

Blue bolts of energy flew past her head, before tracking down towards the ground-

A trio of shots lanced through her leg, causing unbelievable pain as they ripped through the muscle tissue.

Chell fell forwards, face planting on the concrete sidewalk. She could feel the impact grazing skin off her forehead, as the Strider's cannon stopped.

With her incapacitated, it turned back to the rebels, taking them out methodically.

Bleeding, in pain, and crying, Chell dragged herself along the ground into another alley.

She curled up at the end, sobbing uncontrollably while trying to stem the flow of blood from her leg, when the sound of fighting stopped on the note of a woman shouting in pain.

Chell sobbed harder, still clutching her leg.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Chell cracked her eyes open as the thumps got closer, and watched as one leg came down on the ground right in the center of her blood trail, bending at the knee.

The body came into view, coming down into a hunch as it looked into the alley at her.

"RooooOOOOOU." It moaned, while the warble of the charging warp cannon started.