This is Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
It's twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. The building… In a word? Sturdy. It's been here for seven years already but every single thing around is new. You can tell with ease. The cottages outside the huge garden are clean and organized, and the interior of the restaurant is as neat as if it was new.
As I'm working I hear screams, battle cries and the pounding of countless paws and metal just from the outside. I perfectly know what's happening out there, so my head doesn't have to struggle to figure it out. Here, we have cooking, cleaning, and a charming view of the sunsets if you sleep in the cottages. Of course, we have problems, and the only problems are the problems. You see, most restaurants have mice, or mosquitoes, and compared to what we have around here, those things would a dream becoming true for anyone who works here. But no. We have...
I open the door to see people in the night shouting, running, helping each other and such. Then I see a dark, hulking shape almost completely hidden in the darkness that just stopped its chase; the thing was closely following a group of guys. I see a gleam of white eyes and the shape of certain blocky teeth, and I know what's there. I slam the entrance door shut with my back hurriedly before the thing can see me and attack.
...animatronics.
The toy animatronics, the new ones that were supposed to be the friendliest things in the world, are malfunctioning. They think we are all criminals and try to kill us all. It's not their fault at all, however. It's just their AI.
The scene outside is a chaos. A living nightmare that will give you shivers. All I see is people running with faces of fear and anger, torches waving and even flying in the air after being thrown, and the sound of wood and several other materials being destroyed by huge metallic monsters. Most people would leave. Not us. We accepted this job and we are going to keep it, so we have stubbornness issues as you can tell.
I dash out the building. Mechanical snarls, roars, warbles and hisses meet my ears as I run and look at every direction to avoid getting caught or trip on something in my way. The fight around me is terrifying, and sometimes I just want to go home and forget everything. Fear takes over me, knowing that if an animatronic sees me will kill me in the split of a second.
My name's Jeremy. Great name, I know. But, it's not the worst. Some names around here are ridiculous, but I try not to say it in front of certain people. Another huge shape, almost identical to the one that saw me seconds ago, barrels by, close to me. Too close. It almost catches me as I'm running, and in an attempt to dodge it I fall on the rough ground. A man, running after whatever was about to hit me, almost lands on top of me. He screams with insanity in my face, then says a cheery "Mornin'!", and takes off again, searching for anything undesirable to fight off and protect the rest of employees.
We can't help but be crazy whenever the animatronics go outside and destroy everything and everyone. In fact, when these things are out here, we lose several workers almost every time, so the rational people around – a very small part of the employees – try to keep their sanity and stay calm.
I run as fast as I can up the walkway that leads to a hill where a stall I work on is placed. It's there so the animatronics can't reach out for it; they have enough people to kill down there. As I pass, employees that know me a little bit too well run past me carrying various things (barrels, weapons…), and as they rush down the walkway they yell at me.
"What're you doing here?" and "Get inside!" and "Jeremy, get back inside!" is all I hear from them. They are way too busy fighting off the animatronics that they cant's top and drag me back to the restaurant. I doubt they would do it if the animatronics weren't out, anyways.
I run into one of the streets at the end of the walkway, and see that an animatronic is walking towards me. Before I can move and get out of the way to prevent an attack, a huge hand grabs the back of my shirt and drags me out of the way, as a deep voice yells my name.
"What is he doing out agai- What are you doing out?" the man that just grabbed me and probably just saved my life asks with anger. He shoves me towards the wooden walkway again, making me stumble, as he yells "Get inside!"
That's Raymond, owner of the restaurant. He's tall and vast, with a thick knotted beard of red hair, huge and powerful arms and green eyes full of fiery pride and overwhelming reliance. They say when he was a baby he popped an already forgotten animatronic's head clean off of its shoulders. I see Raymond picking up a wooden chair near him and throwing it with an angry grunt. The chair goes directly towards a passing animatronic, which I can notice is Toy Bonnie. It shatters against his tough body, and pieces of wood go flying on every direction. The blue bunny stumbles at the hit and hurries away.
Do I believe it? Yes I do. Who wouldn't?
Raymond turns to one of his fellow employees and asks him softly, "Are all the toy animatronics out?"
"Yes, they all are!" the man answers frantically, looking around in case one of the animatronics was going to focus its attention on them and attack. Raymond looks around too, before asking, "Did that one appear?"
"Not so far."
Toy Freddy barrels by, shattering a couple of chairs into pieces. One of the parts lands on Raymond's shoulder. He brushes it off like it was a simple leaf, muttering "Good."
I run past broken structures, people screaming and rope tripwires. I slow down as I finally see the stall, a sight that makes me happy. A man is working there, sweating like everyone does a summer afternoon. He's missing an arm, a leg and a few teeth, and all sorts of things replace his limbs at any given time. For example, a heavy hammer is placed on what once was his hand right now.
As I run past him, directing towards the weapons we have placed on a wall, he looks up at me and says jokingly, "Oh, nice of you to join the party! I thought you'd been carried off."
I struggle to pick up a hammer head and put it on its peg. "No, me? Nah, come on, I'm way too muscular for their tastes. They wouldn't know what to do with all… this." As I speak, I flex my invisible biceps, just trying to act the tough way. The working man grins as he disengages the hammer and replaces it with a black hook.
"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?" he mocks as I run towards the window to get everyone's weapons and tools. That's my work here at night. The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Nick. I've been his apprentice every since I started working here.
He's blond and has an exaggeratedly long mustache. He says he wants it that long because it looks good on him, but I think it's ridiculous. He's a joker and always takes the most dangerous situations with unbeatable patience. Somewhat like me. That's why we understand each other pretty well.
Outside, I can hear Raymond's voice yelling, "We'll move to the lower defenses! We'll counterattack with the bola launchers!" Now that the guys hiding the views from the window are gone, I can see him and some employees running towards the bola launchers, and a small cottage being demolished as Toy Bonnie smashes right through it. See? Old restaurant, lots and lots of new things. It's the same cycle every time.
"Fire!"someone shouts, as he notices the cottage just started burning. It's then when I hear a young girl's voice yell, "All right, let's go!"
Five figures run past the window with water buckets and I watch them with curiosity and surprise. As the smoke clears out, I see them running away. That's Billy, Andrew, the twins, David and Jeanette, and...
Finally I have that loved opportunity to see her. The last person empties the bucket of water at the house. She elegantly turns around as the house explodes and baths her on reddish colors. A radiant smile grows on the girl's face as her blue eyes reflect her secure soul and her blond hair waves around.
...Avery.
You can't really be more perfect than Avery. She's everything: secure, optimistic, wants her job done perfectly… So many things I can't tell them all. She and the other guys run past my window again, rushing towards anywhere people need them. Oh, their job is so much cooler.
As I'm lost in thought, wondering how cool it would be to be out there and fight the animatronics, something grabs the back of my shirt and drags me back inside. "Oh, come on, let me out, please. I need to make my mark!" I tell Nick as he keeps me like three feet away from the floor.
He finally sets me down and gives me a prod with his hook thing, sending me a few steps back. "Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places!" he argues.
"Please, two minutes. I'll fight an animatronic, my life will get infinitelybetter- I might even get a date." It's actually pointless to argue with Nick. Not only because I always tell him the same, but because he takes everything as a joke and doesn't really care about what I truly want.
He gives me a frown, stares at me before finally saying, "You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe- you can't even throw one of these!" He holds up a rope with iron attached to the ends. These bolas are used to catch any animatronic they are thrown at. Outside, someone snatches it out of Nick's hand like he was offering it.
Nick and I watch out the window as the man spins the bola around above his head and hurls it at Toy Bonnie with an angry grunt. It entangles the rabbit's legs and part of his body and makes him crash down to the ground.
"Okay, fine, but this-" I say reliantly, backing up right next to my perfect invention: a bola launcher made all by myself. Compared to the ones we have around, this is tiny and may look like a heap of wood, but it works perfectly. "-will throw it for me."
I pat the machine, but this makes out a bad-sounding squeal and it springs to life. It throws a bola directly at Nick. His eyes open wide as he sees the rope spinning towards his face, and he gets out of the way. The out of control weapon goes out the window and hits a guy right in the head. He falls backwards, a dazed expression on his face. Nick turns and advances on me, with that angry face I always hate seeing. "See? Now this right here is what I'm talking about!" he yells as I back away a little.
I start mumbling, and make out a disheartened, "But -mild calibration issues-"
"No, Jeremy," Nick then cuts off firmly. "If you ever want to get out there, fight animatronics, you need to stop all... this." With both hands, he gestures at me, glancing at me like he thought I was crazy.
"You just gestured to all of me." I say indignantly as I frown, extending my arms. Nick then says, "Yes, that's it! Stop being all of you!" with unfitting reliance.
I nod as I mutter, "Ooooh-"
He just imitates me, like the game he thinks life is. "Ooooh, yeah."
I start to get angered. Sometimes Nick's jokes just go out their railings. "You- you sir are playing a dangerous game- keeping this much raw fighter-ness contained- there will be consequences!" I proclaim as I wave my finger in his face to let him know perfectly that I'm pretty content with what I'm saying.
"I'll take my chances," Nick says dryly, eyes narrowed. He turns around and continues his work, like I never existed here and our words were never spoken. I sigh, frustrated, before blankly turning around and leaning into the window. I let the soft wind stroke my face and wave my hair. It's so relaxing. One day I'll get out there. I always have this thought in my head, and it will never go away.
I have a chance to see the animatronics' doings tonight. On the roofs of the cottages I see a particular yellow figure hopping from one to another. Fighting Toy Chica is sure to get me at least noticed. She is nimble and lighter than the rest, and very sneaky. She's balanced and graceful, like an actual bird – even though, without her beak, she doesn't look like one at all.
I hear deep raspy and mechanical vocalizing noises near the beakless and eyeless chicken. Toy Bonnie is tough, very tough. Taking him down would definitely get me a girlfriend. His covering is like a rock armor, almost unbeatable. He's not as fast as Toy Chica, but he's still hard to catch, and he always manages to break the bolas.
I see an amount of smoke around a cottage, probably coming from the fire that started on another one of them. I see a strange figure hidden there. Unmistakable. Mangle? Exotic. Two heads, twice the status. Yes, two heads. Sounds crazy, but that's what Mangle is: crazy. Both heads are independent and their elongated necks are flexible. It's definitely the weirdest thing anyone has ever seen, and dangerous too.
I see something moving around the bola launchers with great stealth. Raymond knows that something is near him and his men. Then, there's Toy Freddy. Only the best and veteran employees try and go after him. He has this... nasty habit of stalking you. I watch with wide eyes as Toy Freddy bursts through the wooden walkway that leads to the bola launcher. Raymond looks at his glossy black eyes, muttering, "I'll take care of this."
He spins his hammer around, and greets the bear with two hard hits on either side of his head. Toy Freddy growls disdainfully and tries to bite the hammer out of Raymond's hand, when a sound distracts him and makes him go away.
My eyes widen even more when I hear that damned sound. I look all around, focusing on the dark environment. Everyone knows this sound. A faint, low and smooth whine. It's quiet at a beginning, but then it rises all around until its deafening. Now, the ultimate prize is the animatronic no one's ever seen. The piercing whine is truly deafening at this point. It gets closer. And closer. We call that thing the-
"Puppet!" someone atop of the bola launcher's towers yells out.
"Get down!" another man follows the warn. The employees gasp and crouch and take cover, as the subsonic whine becomes glitchy as it nears. One of the bola launchers shatters into lots of tiny pieces of broken wood, like an explosion just hit it with perfect accuracy. I can hear something fast swooping through the flying wood, but it's just a black blur what I get to see.
"Jump!" Raymond yells as the wood, converted into dangerously sharp stakes, rushes down towards the ground from high upon the sky where pieces have been thrown. This thing never steals anything, never shows itself, and-
The poor and broken remains of the weapon go flying again as the thing smashes through it once more at an outstanding speed.
-never misses.
