Word Challenge: Shed - Happiness - Sneak

So this was it.  

All she had worked for.  All she had fought for.  All she had lost.

For this.

Chell's breath slowed to silence as her eyes slowly, carefully scanned the horizon.  The warm, gentle heat of the sun high above her, engulfing all senses and enveloping her in its comfort as a dull, but persistent breeze slipped and mingled through the wheat field and cooled her skin.  A vast and golden wheat field spanned for miles before her, making her analytical mind reel from the thought of judging the distance.  The sea of bright golden stocks, swaying peacefully in the gentle breeze with a rhythm that seemed nothing like the man-made or machine choreographed world she had known so well.  

She breathed in carefully, savoring the new and nearly sweet taste of fresh air, and allowing her lungs to stretch further than ever before in an attempt to grasp as much as possible.  The vastness of the atmosphere was unimaginable.  The pale blue sky, showing thick white clouds in the distance and unimaginably massive; the stretch of land before her, making her eyes nearly ache as she tried to see it's limits; the very oxygen filling her lungs as she breathed in deep and heavy.  

Vast.  Open.  Free.

And empty.  

Her chocolate brown eyes shimmered with an emotion she wasn't very familiar with as her gaze hesitantly traveled back to the shed behind her.  The structure built of what seemed to be a thin metal, and it held together sturdier than expected, considering the old and neglected look to it.  Rust and dirt lined the corrugated tin and warning signs placed on the front where nearly indiscernible from sun exposure and grime.  Scrap metal and beams laid discarded and corroded beside it, adding to the poor and ill conditioned look to it.   Although shabby and unimpressive, the metal shed seemed to sit like a beacon of civilization in the vastness of nature.  The only thing man-made for miles. Possibly forever.

Possibly the only man-made object left on the world.

Chell's eyes drifted back to the wheat field, her eyes seeming to search the open space as if it would offer her advice.  She swallowed hard and allowed another deep breath of fresh air to fill her lungs as her mind seemed to stop in its thoughts for the first time.  She felt torn -- torn between the instinct to be free and the pull of familiarity.

This is it.

With the thought resonating in her mind, a sudden throb in her chest made her gasp.  An unexpected and dreadfully painful sinking feeling in her chest; pooling in her stomach and threatening to bubble up like the bile in her throat as the thought seemed to echo mercilessly in her head.

This is it.

Was this wrong?  Had she made the wrong choice?  

What had she done?  She didn't know anything up here.  All she knew was to test. Aperture was all she had.  

And she abandoned it.

Her dark eyes, shimmering with vulnerability, darted back to the shed.

It wasn't too late.

But wait.  

What good was experience and familiarity, when it was a prison? Was it worth being a caged animal - a plaything - as long as it felt normal? If she went back now, all she could hope for is if GLaDOS decided to take her back - use her for testing.  

No.  No, Chell had already been replaced.  Those two robots had already taken her place.  She wasn't needed any longer. She had no place.  GLaDOS would kill her if she returned.  She had no where.

Her breaths came quick with the sudden emotion that rose inside her.  Panic and fear flooding through her as the feeling overwhelmed her -- a feeling she had never embraced, never entertained, but what was the point?  What was the point of pushing away her emotions and focusing if there was nothing to focus on?  

Her legs trembled underneath her and her vision suddenly swam before her, forcing her to stumble backwards as her own body revolted on her.  Her hand darted out instinctively to catch her balance, but only met air as the metal heels of her long-fall boots clicked dully against the concrete slab under her feet.  The small slab made of familiar material separating her from nature.  Her hand met something solid and gripped desperately at the companion cube as she crumbled beside it.

No where to go.

No where.

She was all alone.  With no hope, no future, no promise of success or even survival.

No where to go.

But forward.

Terror suddenly froze inside her; her breath catching in her throat as the thought rang in her mind, repeating and echoing as it consumed all other priorities.  Clarity springing forth in her mind the more it rang.  

Forward.

Slowly, her eyes morphed from their look of alarm.  Slowly, stability spread through the dark color of her iris' as she slowly brought her gaze up to the wheat field stretching in front of her.  The stocks of golden wheat swayed peacefully in the wind, seeming unaffected by her turmoil.

She was a stranger to this world.  With nothing to offer.  

But did it matter?

She was a tester.  An experiment in every sense of the word.  Was this so different from the tests deep in the bowels of Aperture Science?  The surroundings, the colors and atmosphere was different than she had known, but wasn't also the cave?  

It was an experiment, just like any other. It was new, but it was freedom.  

Her eyes flashed with intrigue as another thought occurred.  She would control her own tests.  She didn't need to sneak along the dark corners of Aperture's crumbling facility.  She was free.  

No turrets.

No acid.

No betrayal.

Just her.  And her companion cube.

Her gaze traveled to the charred and dirtied cube resting beside her.  Slowly, almost experimentally, her fingertips moved carefully across the skin of the cube, feeling the smooth plastic of the shell as well as the rough and coarse spots where fire had tarnished it.

That's all she needed.  The companion cube was her one familiar face, her one tie to the place she called home.  The one creation in that hole that was always loyal.  It was all she needed.

The beating, choking panic that rose in her chest and tightened around her lungs began to lessen.  Slowly, the throbbing began to loosen from its hold around her heart and gently eased away. Changing and soothing into something else.  

Hope?

Happiness?

Chell breathed in another deep breath of the sweet and fresh air, allowing her lungs to stretch and indulge in the refreshing feeling as her heart expounded in the vastness of the open space.

She didn't push away the emotion.  She didn't hush away the feeling that rose inside her.  She let it spread through her body and enjoyed the sensation it left.

The undeniable sense of freedom.