STORIES OF THE BADLANDS
PART 1: The Mercenaries Five nights of Fright!
Chapter 2: The First Night
The building was poorly lit and had a musty smell to it. As Spy, Scout, and Soldier made it down the first hallway, the saw some posters with cartoon like characters the on walls which were worn down. There were also wires hanging from the ceiling and down the walls. Apart from that, though, there wasn't much of anything else to see in the corridor.
"See!" Scout was the first to speak. "I knew this place wasn't going to be scary!"
"Zhis is just zhe first corridor," Spy reminded the young man.
"So? That doesn't mean that the rest of the place is any scarier, hehe," Scout replied.
Spy sighed at him, and they continued toward the second corridor, which, unlike the first one, was much more lit, and more decorated.
This hallway had a bright light shinning through the eyes of what looked to be a mascot head of a chicken on the floor, and some presents in a corner at the other end of the hallway. The light coming from the head would turn on and off in a spastic fashion, probably to give of some feel that something might pop out in the dark.
"What zhe hell...?" Spy trailed off as he looked at the mascot head on the ground, eyebrows raised.
"Well, that's a little weird..."Scout said.
"Those...BASTARDS!" Soldier exclaimed as he took a knee near the head.
"Solly, it's just a mascot head," Scout tried to explain in an annoyed tone.
"They killed him!" Soldier went on, ignoring Scout's comments.
"Oh please..." Spy said, rolling his eyes.
"Shut up, Frenchie!" Soldier snapped. "Unlike you, always hiding and running away like a sissy from a battle, this chicken sacrificed it's life on the front lines!"
Soldier then stood up, saluted the chicken head and said, "You were good, son. Real good. Maybe even the best!"
"C'mon, I don't have all day," Spy said, continuing forward.
The three continued down the corridor and to the left of them next to a doorway there was a mask of some sort with what seemed to be streams of tears running down it's cheeks from it's eyes. Then through a doorway in front of them they saw what appeared to be an old style arcade game with a teddy bear on top of it. Through doorway to the left was just another empty, with more wires and posters, and what seemed to be children's drawings.
"Oh cool!" Scout said as he walked to the arcade game. "I used to play these all the time when I was a kid!"
"Fascinating," Spy said sarcastically. "Now can we please keep moving? Our shift starts in seven minutes, and we don't have time to stop in each hallway."
"Ya ya ya, gimme a second," Scout said. As the other two mercs started down the other hallway, Scout stood in front of the arcade game reminiscing about his childhood.
He then looked to his left and saw another arcade game at the other end of the hallway. This one was a little more beaten up with wires hanging from the panel where the joystick and buttons are and there was a blue flashing screen on it. Scout frowned at the damage of this machine, and thought that it would be fine if he let Engineer take a look at it.
He then took one last look at the game in front of him, when the black screen suddenly flickered on and flashed a black and white picture of a face staring at him, then turned back off. "Woah!" Scout yelled as he jumped back with his fist in front of his face. He then examined the machine closely, and when he knew the screen wouldn't come back on, he loosened up and went to catch up with his teammates.
As he passed through the empty hallway his friends went through, he looked at the children's drawings and noticed that some of the animal-like characters on them only had white dots for eyes, almost as if they were possessed. 'Oh man, those kids were some messed up kids,' Scout thought to himself.
He finally caught up to Spy and Soldier who went down another hallway, where, when they entered, they saw another animal-looking mascot to their left. This one was purple, and had a head and torso hanging off a stand, with a light flashing through it's right eye.
"Geez, another creepy animal mascot?" Scout asked with his face making an almost disgusted look.
"Yes, it seems to have been a rabbit of some sort," Spy pointed out.
"Oh ya, 'cause that totally looks like a rabbit," Scout said sarcastically.
"Dear God, they got another one!" Soldier exclaimed.
"Oh not zhis again..." Spy sighed. Soldier turned to Spy and was about to retort but Spy cut him off before he could and continued. "And I don't zhink we should be stopping in every hallway since we are going to be back here for next five nights."
"Grrr, look here maggot, if you don't want to respect these soldiers' deaths, fine. But anymore sassy remarks from you, Frenchie, and I will shove my foot so far up your ass that they'll have to hollow you out next! JUST TO GET IT OUT!" Soldier stated, almost spitting on Spy's face.
"Fine, have your little ceremony," Spy replied calmly. "I on zhe other hand will continue with what we were went here for."
With that remark, Spy continued to the office at the back of the building, leaving Scout and Soldier with the purple mascot.
There was a few moments of silence between the two of them before Scout spoke up.
"Yeah, this is boring," he said. "If ya need me, Solly, I'll be in the office with Spy." Scout then began to walk down the hallway towards the office.
"Fine maggots! Always leaving a man behind! Just means more communists for ME to kill!" Soldier retorted as he shook his fist in the air.
Then he stopped, looked to his left and found another doorway leading to another hallway, and decided it would be best to give a quick look around.
As he poked his head through the doorway, he could see what looked like a fox's head on the wall to the left of the doorway with light shining through it's left eye. This one had an eye-patch on it's right eye, unlike the others.
Soldier gave a low chuckle as the fox head reminded him of his explosive friend and teammate Demolition Man, who also had an eye-patch, but on his right eye instead of his left.
After looking down the rest of the hallway and noticing that there was nothing for him to kill, he decided it would be best to join up with his fellow comrades in the security office.
Spy was turning the corner to a hallway where there was a window on the left side that looked into the office that the three mercs were going to be staying. He looked at his watch and noticed that it was two minutes until midnight and continued on his way to the office. As he looked through the window, he felt a sense of uneasyness; almost as if he knew something frightening might actually happen during their nights here.
These feelings quickly diminished as he rounded another corner to first see another animal mascot. Hanging on a stand like the purple one, but instead, this one was a yellow color and gave the distinct representation of a bear. Scoffing at the yellow bear, he also noticed that there was an exit not far from where the security office door was. 'Well, it's good to know zhere is a quick way out of zhis place in case zhings get too supernatural around here,' he thought to himself as he looked at his invisiwatch.
Spy suddenly heard approaching footsteps behind him. He turned to see Scout coming around the corner.
"Heyy..." Scout began.
"No,"Spy interrupted.
"But," Scout tried again.
"I said no," Spy continued.
"Fine," Scout said with a huff.
They both entered the office, looking around. Spy raised an eyebrow to the three little toys on the desk that sat in front of the window, reminding him of the mascots they saw on their way in. There was also an old rusty fan on the desk that was spinning. There was also a box of what looked to be parts and pieces of animatronics and toy versions of the mascot heads they saw. Spy also noticed a chair by the desk and decided to take a seat. As he sat down Scout began to whine.
"Hey, how come you get to sit the only chair in this dump," he complained.
"Maybe you should have been quicker," Spy said calmly, and obviously making fun of him. Scout was about to say something when he saw Soldier come across the window.
"Alright ladies, what's the situation?" Soldier demanded.
"There is no situation. This place sucks on ice. Not even remotely scary!" Scout replied, but then remembering the face he saw on the arcade game. Then the phone on the desk starts ringing.
"Shush, you imbeciles," Spy hissed. The two were about to say something when a male voice from a recorded message begins to talk.
"Hey hey! Welcome to your first night at Fazbear's Fright: House of Horrors!" the voice said.
"This guy sounds like a frat boy,"Scout snickered.
"He sounds like a hippie," Soldier growled.
"Both of you shut up!" Spy snapped. The voice contiued.
"As you can see, this place is full of vintage stuff that we could scavange from the restaurants..."
"What freakin' restaurants?" Scout asked.
"We found some – some crazy relics over the weekend. We're all tracking them down right now. So – uh lemme just update real quick, then you can get to work..." 'What work,' Scout thought amusingly.
"Like, the attraction opens, in like, a week. So we had to make sure everything works, and nothing catches on fire!"
Spy and Scout looked at each other with worried looks on their faces, while Soldier scoffs at the comment.
"HA! No amount of fire can scare this hardened man of war! That fire better watch out, or else it'll get a nice boot up it's ass!" Soldier said.
"Soldier, you can't beat up fire!" Scout pointed out.
"Says you, sissy-boy!" Soldier replied.
"SHHH!" Spy hushes them both as the voice continues.
"Uh-when the place opens, people will come in at the office and into the building, and work their way towards you, past you and out the exit. Uh-yeah, you've officially become part of the attraction. Uh-you'll be starring as...the security guard!"
"What!?" the three yelled in unison.
"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Scout exclaims
"If I have to crack some skulls, I will," Soldier states menacingly.
"So not only will you be monitoring the people on the cameras as they pass through, y'know, to make sure no one steals anything ot makes out in the sorner..." Spy rolls his eyes, "but you will also be part of the show. It'll make it feel really authentic I think. Uh-now let me tell you about what's new...
"We found another set of drawings, always nice. And a Foxy head! Which we think could be authentic, then again it could just be another crappy cosplay. And we found a desk fan, very old. Metal though. Watch the fingers..."
The three glanced at the fan on the desk, noting to keep their fingers away from it.
The voice continued, "Uh-hehe...uh...right now the place is basically just-you know...flashing lights, spooky props. Uh, I honestly thought we would have more by now. Uh, if we don't have something really cool by next week, we might have to suit you up in a furry suit, and make you walk around saying 'Boo,' hehe..."
"There ain't no way you're gonna shove me in a freakin' animal suit!" Scout protested.
"Listen up, city boy," Soldier begins to reply. "If you are needed to get into a fuzzy animal suit for the good of the mission, then you WILL!"
"Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do about it tough guy?" Scout replies tauntingly.
"Son if you do not get in that suit, then you will be eating a barrel full of bullets!" Soldier said threatening as he began to reach for his shot-gun.
"Oh hoho, ya real scary..." Scout replied giving a fake shiver.
"Zhat's enough!" Spy snapped. "Keep listening!"
The two looked at Spy, then looked at each other, still ready to fight if the time arose. For now they continued to listen to the recording.
"But you know, like I said, we're trying to track down a good lead right now. Uh, some guy who helped design one of the buildings says that there was, like, an extra room that got boarded up or something like that. So we're gonna take a peak and see what we can find. Uh, for now just get comfortable with the setup. Um, you can check the security cameras over to your right, just click on that blue button..."
Spy clicked on a blue button on the desk and a small monitor popped up on the right side of the table.
"You can toggle between hall cams and the vent cams..." Spy then proceeded to press a button on the screen that said 'Toggle Maps' and the screen switched from looking at the entrance to an empty vent. Every time he switched through the cameras, though, it would go from complete static and then fade into focus on whatever the camera was looking at, still with a bit of fuzz on the screen.
"Why is it all fuzzy like that?" Scout asked Spy.
"Who do I look like? Engineer?" Spy replied.
"Uh, then over to your left, uh, you can flip up your maintenance panel..." Spy then pressed a yellowish button and another small monitor popped up on the left side of the desk. "Y'now, use this to reboot any systems that might go offline . Heh...some of this equipment is barely functional. Yeah, I wasn't joking about the fire..." Scout's eyes grew wide, and Spy just raised an eyebrow. "Th-th-that's a real risk. Uh, the most of important thing you want to watch out for is the ventilation. Look, this place will give you the spooks, man. And if you let the ventilation go offline, then you'll start seeing some crazy stuff, man. Keep that air blowin'.
"Okay, keep an eye on things, and we'll try to have something new for ya tomorrow night," then the recording ended.
All three mercenaries were quiet for a moment, just staring at the machine. Then the silence was finally broken by Scout.
"Welp, I'm outta here," he said as he began to make his way out of the office.
"Wait, Scout..." Spy began to protest.
"Nope! Not gonna do it! I didn't sign up to be a permanent night guard at some crappy haunted house!" he continued. "Not to mention I don't feel like being burned to a crisp. If I did, I could just go to the base and let Pyro have a roast!"
"Scout, we have to at least finish zhis night. If we don't, we don't get paid," Spy pointed out.
"Miss Pauling said it would only be for five nights...not for the rest of my career!" Scout said, stopping in front of the window to the office.
"If we finish out zhe rest of zhe night, zhen we'll go talk to her when we get back to base," Spy said. "And somehow, I don't think she actually expected zhis to become a full time job, either.
Scout just stood there, looking at him with his arms crossed.
"Look here, maggot. Miss Pauling chose us specifically! To come here and kill communist scum!" Soldier stated patriotically. "But if you are too much of a milk-drinking, sissy hippie, then you can just run your happy ass back to momma!"
"I don't understand why you knuckleheads still wanna stay!" Scout replied.
"Because Soldier has a point," Spy admitted. Both Soldier and Scout looked at him, a bit surprised. "The secretary chose us to come here. Why, I'm not sure. And as much as I hate zhis pathetic excuse for a horror attraction, I love zhe zhought of getting paid more."
Scout thought for a moment. He sure didn't know why Miss Pauling would send them here without more detail, but he definitely didn't want to disappoint her. That, and he didn't want to leave empty handed.
"Ugh..." Scout sighed. "Fine, I'll stay for the rest of the night."
Spy leaned back in the chair, satisfied, while Soldier gave a big "HOORAH!" for Scout's decision. He looked at his watch and saw that it was already almost 2:30 AM. 'Well, at least most of zhe night was wasted by zhat loud-mouthed simpleton,' Spy thought to himself.
The rest of the night was pretty quiet, with Scout running around the building, taunting Soldier, and Spy sitting in the office, getting used to the controls of the camera and maintenance panel. 6:00 AM came and their shift ended, and as they boarded the bus that would take them home, Spy turned to the building, having a looming feeling that their next night wouldn't be so calm.
Hey guys hope you are enjoying my story so far. Real quick I want to mention that I will be posting stories every Saturday, because I write them out by hand, then type them for proof-reading. So I apologize for the wait. Also, sorry this one is so long, had to put in a lot of detail to make it accurate (or at least as close as possible). If you guys have any ideas or comments on what I should do, please don't be hesitant to ask! Thanks!
3/21/2015: Hey guys just wanted to give you a heads up, I might be a little late for the next chapter. This week has been a little hectic and I didn't get as much writing in as I would have liked, but it should be up within the next two days! It's got a bit more action in it, introducing more characters! So just bare with me a bit longer and I will have it out soon! Thanks!
