On one particular fourth of July several years ago, Mike and his folks had got together with some friends to light some fireworks. There was a whole box full of them, some with dubious legality. They had drove to the beach, set up their chairs and towels, and had enjoyed a barbeque before it grew dark.
As soon as it grew dark though, the sky was filled with lights and insanely loud explosions. People cheering and clapping at the brightest and most colorful ones. It was a dream come true for his younger, slightly pyromaniac mind.
Then there came a time where they were watching some other people's fireworks down the beach. A punk had been put on the edge of the box by someone and had rolled into the mess of fireworks. The next moments were a flurry of screams and his father pushing him to the ground as enormous explosions, colorful fountains and flying rockets spewed from the box into the crowd around it. The smoke that filled the air made it impossible to breathe without coughing.
That's how Mike felt now.
It had come out of nowhere, one second he was staring at the twitching animatronics wondering what was going on, the next it felt like he was trying to breath in jalapenos.
Granted you could hardly see any kind of smoke, but it bit the back of his throat like smoke would, only worse. And it felt like the harder he coughed, the worse it got. Besides him Alisha was coughing as well, her face framed by her bobbing red hair.
Mike hobbled over to the bed still hacking and ripped the sheet off the mattress. Fighting the urge to use it himself he bunched it up and pressed it to Alisha's face, hoping that it would block at least part of what was causing it. The animatronics were still twitching on the ground, and Mike realized that they wouldn't be any help right now.
He continued to cough as he led Alisha out of the room and down the stairs as best he could. If anything it got worse downstairs and Mike's nose and eyes burned. Through his teary eyes he could see Vincent coughing and hacking like him and Alisha while the toy animatronics and Foxy were on the ground twitching. There was a strange hissing that filled the air.
If anything it was worse down here and he fought the urge to take the sheet from Alisha. He brought his shirt over his mouth and nose to see if it would help.
What was going on? Why was it suddenly so hard to breathe? Where was Jeremy and Sarah? What happened to the animatronics?
"Mike!" He heard Jeremy shout. It was followed by a series of harsh, phlegm-clearing coughs.
Spotting him over by the huge garage doors. Mike limped over there with the cane and began to help him open the door. With a groan from its hinges the door began to open.
By now, Mike's eyes were watering so badly that he could hardly see and it felt like his nose was a small fountain. His lungs burned as he stumbled back into the room, Alisha still where he had left her. She was coughing and holding the bunched sheet up to her face. Grabbing her arm, he limped out into the open air sucking in eagerly.
He immediately rubbed his eyes harshly, trying to ride them of the burning sensation. It was nice that he could breathe out here.
The moment was short lived though as his senses were suddenly assaulted. The sounds of shouting and lots of boots could be heard. Water was dumped over his head, soaking him and instantly taking away the burning sensation. And he was pulled up to his feet by a pair of strong arms.
Things were happening so fast it was hard for Mike to take things in. Shaking his head, he looked around to see that there were at least a dozen Humvees pulling up around him, along with a strange large van.
Men dressed in camo were running around quiet and with a purpose. A burly man was holding him up, dressed in the same fashion and Mike began to get what was going on.
"Mike?!"
"Alisha!" Mike shouted. He twisted around in the man's grip trying to see her, but the man didn't budge an inch. "Let go of me!"
The man didn't respond and physically hauled him over to one of the Humvees. Remembering his first encounter with the military only made him struggle harder as he was unceremoniously shoved into the back of the vehicle.
"Alisha!" Mike shouted, scrambling as best he could with his hurt leg. He looked out the window to see Alisha put into a different Humvee, albeit more gently.
Taking a moment to get his bearings Mike watched as Jeremy was led towards one of the Humvees. He was having none of it though and promptly head-butted the man so hard that blood came flying out of the man's nose.
Twisting out of the hold Jeremy gave the man a hard haymaker and he was down on the ground.
Several other men instantly had their weapons trained on Jeremy and he slowly raised his hands. Mike watched as he was pushed to the ground and restrained. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Mike tried to keep a cool head. Jeremy was loaded up into a separate Humvee of his own sporting a bloody lip.
It was then that things got interesting.
Two of the men jumped into his Humvee to drive away and Mike watched an enormous semi-truck pull up. The back doors opened to show A number of people, some in camo and some in short white shirts. They were communicating almost frantically as they exited the vehicle and made their way into the firehouse. Several of them were carrying those strange handcuffs that Freddy had previously been cuffed in.
The Humvee lurched with Mike inside and they began moving.
"Wait, where's Alisha?" Mike said. He knew that they wouldn't listen to him, but he couldn't bear the thought of abandoning Alisha, not again. "The little girl I was with – where is she? Hey I'm talking to you!"
The man barked out a harsh laugh. "You're all going the same place. And you're in no position to demand anything."
"What?" Mike said, He quickly sat down when the Humvee hit something making him bounce in his seat and jostle his hurt leg.
"He's as slow as he looks," The other man said, earning a chuckle from his counterpart.
"wait, where are we going?" Mike asked. Things were so out of control right now that he didn't know what to do.
The man didn't reply and Mike was forced to sit back and be silent. While they obviously were military, they weren't as bad as his first encounter with the military. He didn't know whether that was due to the fact that they were a different branch or what. Mike didn't want to push his luck though.
Maybe they were being rescued. There had to be at least some places where they weren't overrun by zombies.
He sat up sharply when they happened to pass by the Pizzeria. Several Humvees were parked outside the building.
An uneasy pit settled in his stomach as he bit his tongue. His earlier reassurance vanishing.
They drove for a while, passing though the city – running over a few zombies in the process – and passed the city limits. It wasn't the same way that Mike had come careening in, bleeding in the bed of a truck, but it was still just as unsettling.
Several minutes passed by. They were fast, and uncomfortably quiet.
Outside the scenery had changed back to the forest. Tall pines and deciduous trees rising all around them. Rocks jutted out of the earth here and there, ranging from small hand sized to some that were bigger than cars. Above the trees, dark clouds circled angrily, the sunlight from earlier was long gone.
They came to a stop at a chain-link fence blocking the road and disappearing into the forest on either side. Two men were waiting there and they opened up the gate, allowing them to pass through.
Mike got a quick glimpse behind them to see a trail of vehicles following them.
They drove for a while longer, the road staying nicely paved and smooth, like it had just recently been set. Before long they forest broke away into what looked like something straight out of a movie.
It was a single large, blue pastel colored building. Rows upon rows of windows ran across the front of it, while in the center sat a pillared doorway. A beautiful lawn was sprawled out in front of it. And farther to the right he could see the green grass disappeared far into the forest. He blinked at a small group of men in golf attire in the front lawn before the Humvee drove around the side to the back.
A ramp leading downwards appeared out of nowhere and the car was plunged into darkness. The headlights flicked on and they continued to drive. Thankfully the road straightened out, but Mike was rather surprised at how long the tunnel was, they were traveling at a pretty good speed to, not that he could see exactly how fast.
They slowed down to take a right turn and they dropped down what must have been a dozen feet. Mike grew nervous, glancing up at the roof of the Humvee. The image of tons of dirt and rocks falling on him was enough for him to break the silence. "How far down are we going to go?"
Chuckling the driver sped up making Mike grip the seat. "We've got about another three or four of those, buddy. Hope you aren't claustrophobic."
Mike didn't have a response to that and just focused on staying calm. Luckily he wasn't claustrophobic, but it was an uncomfortable idea, being crushed to death. He was going to get out of here with Alisha. Things weren't going to go badly for them. Who knew maybe, just maybe this was a place where they brought survivors.
In the back of his mind Mike knew that that was unlikely. And even if it was, what did that mean for the animatronics? If this was for a group of survivors the military presence made it pretty clear who was in control and Mike doubted that he could convince some paranoid general or whatever that the animatronics were harmless. So instead he chose to ignored it. He needed to think something good was going to come out of this. If only for his sanity.
Unable to see out of the back of the Humvee, Mike waited until they turned again to try and see if the trail of vehicles was still following them.
They were.
Time seemed to fly after that. With the knowledge that he couldn't do anything Mike just sat back and waited for their drive to end. He had no idea what happened to the animatronics, where he was, where Alisha was, where anybody was. It made him upset just how out of his hands everything was. And just after he had started to make some really good breakthroughs with the animatronics this had to happen. It was as if the universe had been watching and as soon as anything started working out for him it would flip things upside down.
They mad a total of six more right turns. Each had a substantial drop to them.
After the last one, the tunnel led on for far longer. A metallic archway suddenly cut away to a fairly open parking lot, brightly lit. Several military personnel were scattered throughout the subterranean room, while a rather large group of people seemed to be waiting their arrival. A good majority of them were either wearing clean lab coats, a nurse outfits.
As soon as they came to a stop in front of the group Mike was pulled from the Humvee. He shivered at the sudden cooler temperature. A small portion of the group broke off and moved – more like carried – him towards a tunnel. Led down several brightly lit halls so fast that his head spun, he was thrust into a room that looked like an examination room at a doctor's office.
And examined he was.
Mike didn't even have time to get a word in edgewise. Before they started.
He could honestly say he had never been checked out so quickly and thoroughly in his lifetime. He was unceremoniously stripped of all of his clothes, quickly showered – more like sprayed down – and then put into a hospital gown. While his hair was still soaking wet, and his leg was on fire, he was moved back to the table and hooked up to several machines that were pushed into the room. Four or five needles were stuck into his arm, drawing blood, while doctors read the monitors to the machines hooked up to him.
"Where are we?" He tried asking.
The doctors completely ignored him and stuck him with another two or three needles. These injected him with something. The whole time they were talking to each other. About him, about his body, about his injuries, as if he wasn't there.
Whatever they injected into him became obvious as the fire in his leg faded away, along with whatever resolve he had to asking the doctors any questions. In fact, sleep started to sound really nice to his fogging brain.
Laying back he stared up at the ceiling feeling a tugging sensation on his leg. His vision started swimming and it took everything he had to keep his eyes open. Mike let it all happen. What was the point in fighting it? They would no doubt probably have just strapped him down or something. The pungent smell antiseptics and the bright lights helped him stay awake.
At one point he had tried to sit up. His limbs felt like logs attached to his body and his head spun as he did so. He was instantly pushed back down by several doctors. Their murmuring increased and one doctor grabbed another filled needle.
Mike sluggishly shook his head, thinking it might be a sedative. "No… I'll ssstay ssstill…"
The doctor ignored him.
It only took a few seconds for it to hit him, and no amount of determination or tenacity was going to help him stay awake. His head fell heavily to the table and he was out.
There was a soft glow that pulled him from his slumber. His mind instantly scrambled, remembering what had happened before he passed out, and he shot up. As if the light could tell that he was awake, it brightened and he quickly looked around the room.
It was tiny, maybe eight feet across both ways and completely bare besides the small bed he was on. The walls were a light gray and the light came from several panels in the ceiling and on the floor.
Mike checked himself over. He noted the clean sweatpants and white t-shirt, several cuts he had were dressed. His eyes settled on his sweatpants covered leg and he nervously grabbed the hem of the pants. He wasn't feeling any pain what-so-ever. Mike ripped his pants off, he pulled off the bandages sitting underneath to see a silver scar sitting where the bullet wound had rested just yesterday.
With shaking hands, he felt all along it, checking to see if there was any pain. Finding none he stood up, putting pressure on his leg slowly until it took his full weight. Unused to it he walked from one side to the other. There was absolutely no pain!
What had the doctors done? Did they have the animatronics and make them heal him? Did they have something that could do what the animatronics could do?
There was no way to tell how long he had been asleep and Mike looked all around the room. He tried to open the only door, checked the bed out, then the lights. Finding absolutely nothing, Mike cleared his throat.
"Hello?"
He glanced at the corners of the room looking for to see if there were cameras watching him.
"Is anyone there?" He called out again. Nervously sweat collected on his body as he shifting from one foot to the other. Mike found himself unconsciously limping slightly, his body's muscle memory not putting much weight onto his healed leg.
There was no answer for a while and Mike glanced around the room once more. He opened his mouth to say something again and the door suddenly clicked. Tensing he waited for a bunch of people to come rushing in, but instead a single man walked through the doorway.
The man that came in wore a pair of dress pants and a clean sky-blue button up shirt. His gray hair and creased face gave him a mature look.
Mike must have looked pretty surprised because the man gave what looked like a sincere smile, but Mike didn't trust it. "Hello Mike."
When Mike didn't respond the man shrugged. "Normally people reply out of courtecy, but with you I'm not surprised. You've been through a lot. My name is Mr. Vike. Come – I've got a couple of things to show you."
He walked out the door, and Mike hesitated for a moment before following the man. What surreal world was he in? In all honesty he just wanted to bolt, but he had no idea where he was, or how to get back to the surface. And there was no way he was going to leave Alisha here. Or the animatronics if they were here.
They walked down a hallway with identical doors on either side of them. Looking behind Mike could see that the hallway continued for a good while too.
"These are a few of the housing units here," Vike said, gesturing his hands towards the doors. He made a sudden left turn down a hallway that almost blended in with the wall. Mike hurried to follow him, still keeping a little distance between them.
"It's not the most aesthetic place to stay, but it does its job. I suppose that when your country's back is to a wall, you shouldn't complain too much." Vike said. It took a second for Mike to realize that he had tried to make a joke. His voice sounded so… flat that the joke passed right over his head.
"Where are we?" Mike finally said. His voice sounded rough.
"Somewhere safe," Vike said. It was creepy how much the man seemed to mean by that and Mike shuddered.
Vike smiled as they came to a door with a keypad. Tapping something too fast for Mike to memorize. The door hissed open and they were hit with the sound of a busy croud.
Turns out it was only a hallway, but it was a heavily used hallway. People using it like cars would use a road. It sort of reminded Mike of his highschool days and how packed the hallways always became. There were people dressed in suits, lab coats, and mechanical work garb all going this way and that. The noise was intense after the quiet hallway behind them.
Before Mike could react Vike pulled him into the traffic and he was swept along.
"Sorry about the lunch traffic, it's usually not this busy," Vike stated.
Mike frowned, for the first time in a long time he was feeling self-conscious about how out of place he felt with his clothes and appearance. No one seemed to pay him any attention though, too busy with one thing or another. If Mike didn't know about the whole 'end of the world' thing, he would think he was just in some super busy subway, but he did know better and he knew that things were not all right.
"How? Where are… What's going on?!" Mike sputtered. Nothing making sense.
Vike gave Mike a contemplative look that instantly made Mike uncomfortable. "All in good time Mike. What I'm going to tell you might sound crazy, but your very important right now. More important than all of these people."
Mike couldn't stop the small incredulious chuckle. If it weren't for the fact that Vike seemed completely serious and he was in a hallway filled with strangers he would have busted out laughing. That, and his nerves were completely shot.
Vike didn't seem as amused with his statement and they continued walking in silence. The croud in the hallway began to dwindle the farther they went. Eventually they came to an intersection where everyone took a turn and they were the only ones that kept going forward. Not twenty feet past the intersection they came to what looked like a security stop
The two guards didn't even give them a glance as they walked through the scanners and continued on their way. Mike glanced back at them at the constant stream of people that went different ways.
The hallway stretched on for a while and the sound of people behind them faded. Mike shivered in the cold air and jumped when Vike spoke up.
"Your taking this pretty well all things considered."
"Yeah well…" Mike said he glanced behind them again at the distant security stop, distracted. "Um… A zombie apocolypse can help you with accepting things. Trying to understand it would make me go crazy." He left out the part about the animatronics. Not sure how Vike would react.
Mike couldn't see the man's face ahead of him, but he thought that there was a trace of a smile on his cheek. "Is that it?"
"Yes," Mike said slowly. His shot nerves helping fuel anger he didn't know he possessed. "Answers are actually amazing though. Do you happen to have any?"
"Yes."
"Any that you'll tell me right now?"
"Maybe…"
Mike waited for an answer. The hallway took a left towards a door with another pair of gaurds stood.
Nodding towards the gaurds and flashing something to fast for Mike to see Vike grabbed the door and smiled at Mike.
"The animatronics are in here."
Mike stood their, frozen for a moment. His brain proccessing what Vike had said. The man vanished into the room and the door half shut, the guards watching him. Then almost against his will, he all but stumbled after him into the brightly lit room.
A ceiling rose a dozen feet above them, giving the place a spacious feel while white flooring contrasted with gray walls. The importance of this room swept right over Mike as his eyes quickly scanned the room, going from the open amplitheatre look that the room had, to the wall of monitors, to the enormous pillar in the middle. It looked like someone had mashed together several CAT scan machines together along the side of this pillar. Wiring, tubing, and white metal giving it a slight futuristic look.
On those CAT scan beds, rested the animatronics. Darkened eyes, and slacked jawed they stared at the ceiling as several people fiddled with their wiring.
Almost everyone occupying the room turned and stared at Mike as he walked closer.
"What are they doing?" He demanded. He looked at Vike, a mixture of anger and fear running through him. "What are they doing to the animatronics?!"
Vike held up his hands in a passive manner, trying to calm him down. "Mike it's fine, they're just working-"
"We're just patching them up!"
Mike turned to look the the woman walking towards them from the animatronics. Well, it was more like run. Her black hair fanned behind her as she wiped a good amount of blackened fluid on her jumpsuit. She stopped almost directly in front of Mike, scruntinizing his face.
"Is this him?" She asked excitedly as she grabbed an arm bringing it away from his body and holding it out to the side. Dropping that she moved behind him forcibly making him stand straight.
"Yes. Miss Ling. Mike Schmidt, this is Miss Ling. She's one of the top engineers here."
"Hmm, not bad body, considering the circumstances. But you're shorter than I anticipated. I'll have to fix that quickly. You like orange right?"
It took Mike a moment to realize that she was talking to him and he shrugged. He wiped off a bit of the black fluid off of hand.
"Great! I wasn't sure, orange and brown are some of the most disliked colors by either gender." She continued to examine him as she spoke to Vike. "We've managed to fix a lot of the accumulated damage that they sustained over their freedom. We've also managed to fix the the neurologic cap that got fried. Have no idea how they did it, but thankfully their suppressors were still working."
She suddenly walked a pace or two ahead of Mike before bowing to him. "It was an honor to meet You Mr. Mike Schimdt. I hope that everything is successful and we'll be able to talk again."
She glanced at Vike. "Also I have a more detailed report waiting at your office."
"Very good," Vike said. His stance had changed over the course of her examining Mike, his hands rested behind his back, and his presence was dismissive. Almost like he was telling her to leave with his body language.
With that she turned and returned to the group of people that were working on the animatronics. All of them had stopped and were talking in hushed tones, glancing over at Mike. When Ling made her way back they swarmed her asking questions.
Bewildered Mike looked at the animatronics again and glanced at Vike. "You do know that the animatronics are…" He let the sentence trail off.
"Alive? Yes, they know. They're taking all the neccesary precautions."
"And you said that they're just patching them up?" Mike asked. He looked back at the group of engineers. "they aren't hurting them or anything?"
Vike busted out in a fit of laughter. "You worry too much Mike!" He gestured towards the bleacher set up with the monitors. There were several people going back and forth between the computers. "We've only got the best of the best in the country here and nothing is overlooked."
The man rested a hand on his shoulder and Mike instantly ducked out from under it. Something about this man was… off. He couldn't explain it or why he felt so strongly about it, but he wasn't about to toss out his intuition. Vike smiled and shrugged, he motioned towards the door that they had come through.
"I don't blame you for your skeptisicm, after everything you've been through you probably don't take anybody at their word. However, I do believe you'll want to give me a chance at explaining things before you make any dicisions." With that, Vike turned and walked towards the door.
Mike didn't instantly follow, instead choosing to look back at the animatronics. What were they going to do with them? What did Vike mean when he said 'after everything you've been through'? Did he know about his time at the pizzeria?
"Mike I thought you wanted answers!" Vike called from the doorway, the same smile resting on his face.
That alone was enough to pry Mike away from the spot and he reluctantly followed Vike. The door closed behind them and they started going back the way they came. "Are you sure that they're okay?" Mike asked. He knew that the guy could obviously be lying to him, but he wanted desperately to believe that everything was slowly turning for the better.
"Yes. We needed to shut them down temperarily to be able to perform some maintenance. As soon as Miss Ling and her collegues are done, the animatronics will be up and about I promise you that. I can even bring you to see them."
Mike didn't reply. They passed through the security gate again and quickly joined the traffic. The hallway wasn't quiet as busy has it had been just ten minutes ago.
"Now," Vike said rubbing his hands together. "I'm sure you're famished. I can arrange to have some food be brought to you."
"Where's Alisha?" Mike asked. It was true that he was at least a little hungry and tired, but he would take answers over both of those at the momnet. "Is she down here?"
"Why yes!" Vike sounded surprised that he asked the question. His smiled widened. "I could bring you to her right now if you like? You two seemed rather attached."
"Please?" Mike pleaded.
Vike smiled and continued walking down the hallway and with no other option Mike was forced to follow. They walked for far longer than Mike remembered before. Vike took a sudden right, then a left. Winding through the hallways like it was no deal. Mike had absolutely no idea where they were and wouldn't be able to retrace their steps if he tried.
They came to a set of stairs going down and Mike was surprised at the change, the lighting became instantly more bleak and the walls were concrete. A far cry from the smooth metal like walls behind them.
"Why is she down here?!" Mike asked. Anger swelling up as he imagined Alisha down here sitting on a cot by herself, crying.
Vike glanced over his shoulder. "Don't worry Mike we aren't inhumain she's just down here visiting someone."
Mike wanted to ask why the hell she would be visiting someone in a place like this, but held his tongue. It felt like Vike gave him too convenient answers. They fit things too perfectly and Mike didn't like it. If things fit together someone was lying.
And there was only one person talking.
They passed through another security gate and entered what Mike could only describe looked like a bunch of interogation rooms.
They were more than that though, the hallway was lined with windows that peered into room that held a small toilet, a bed, and a desk. The rooms looked like nice jail cells and Mike's anger grew. Who could Alisha possibly meet in this places prison?!
A few of the rooms were occcupied and he could see men and woman reading, or laying on the cots sleeping. He came to a stop at one point, shocked to see Ty, the man who had nearly dunked Bonnie in water sitting comfortably in one of the rooms.
Looking up, Ty's eyes seemed to light up with a frenzied eagerness. He walked to the window making Mike take a step back. He never remembered Ty being so… twitchy. His eyes seemed to dart everywhere and his hands always seemed busy.
"Well if it isn't the robot boy. How's your head holding up?"
It was easy to hear him, and Mike could only stare for a moment, his brain trying to formulate a response. His fear of Ty ebbed as he realized that he wasn't going to be able to do anything to him or the animatronics and he shrugged, choosing not to respond.
Ty's smile twisted into a grimace as he looked around. "It seems you have friends. No less than anyone deserves, but you have more than you need."
"What?" Mike asked confused. What Ty had said made no sense!
"Mike!" Vike called from up ahead.
Mike gave one last glance at Ty before turning and walking back towards Vike. Ty's voice picked up behind him, until he was shouting. Mike shook his head. There was something wrong with that man, probably better that he was locked up in one of these rooms. Vike came to one room where a man and a little girl sat on the cot talking. There was a guard standing outside the door watching the interaction carefully.
"Alisha!" Mike exclaimed running over to the window. The red-headed girl beamed at Mike through the window and ran over to the door. The guard let her out and Mike scooped her up, glad that she was okay. A huge sense of relief filled him and he couldn't help but smile.
"Mike! They said that you were still sleeping!" Alisha said.
"Well, I'm not anymore," Mike laughed he set her down and noticed how her hair and face were cleaned. She had a clean pair of clothes that everyone else was wearing, but it made him happy to see that she'd been taken care of.
He looked past her into the room where the man was. His eyes narrowing at him slightly. Why in the world would she be talking to this ma-
Mike felt his breath hitch as he recognized the person in the room.
"Hello Mike, how'd your first night go?"
It was the one man he had come to hate almost more than the animatronics. The man who had been the sole reason he couldn't leave durring his first week working at Freddy's.
"So tell me Mike, why do you want to work here at Freddy's?"
Mr. Ryland. The owner.
The dull ache in his chest reminded him that he wasn't breathing and he took a shaky gasp of air.
"Are you feeling alright Mike?" Vike asked. His smile was almost gone, there was just a hint of it around the corners of his mouth. "If you need me to I can bring you to the nearest infirmery?"
"No… no." Mike muttered. His mind was grasping for some logical reason as to why everything was happening. Why was Mr. Ryland here?! How did the Vike and the others know about the animatronics being alive? Why in the world would Alisha be talking to Mr. Ryland? Why were all these people down here?!
"Why would you let her see him?!" Mike scowled pointing through the window. Alisha flinched at his sudden harsh tone.
"Now Mike I'm sure that you've had some unfortunate circumstances with Mr. Ryland, but I assure you that Alisha was in no danger talking to her f-"
Mike inturupted him. Gritting his teeth and glaring at Vike. "No danger? He made me risk my life for a week! How could you say that he's not dangerous?"
"Mike…" Alisha said softly. She looked like she was upset at his words. Feeling sorry for yelling, Mike knelted down giving her a quick hug, but she pushed out of it. Taking a few steps back from him, she gave him a tearful look.
"Alisha what's wrong?" Mike asked. A bad feeling was forming in the pit of his stomach. "I'm sorry for yelling. I didn't mean to seem so upset."
She shook her head and pointed towards Mr. Ryland. "He's not a bad man…"
"Alisha… He is. He did some horrible things to me. I'm just scared that he'll hurt you. How do you know that he won't? I just want to make sure that you're safe."
By now she was wiping her cheeks feircely. Squaring her shoulders, she frowned at Mike defiantly.
"I know he won't hurt me."
"How?" Mike asked bewildered at her sudden change in attitude. What had he said that was so bad?
"Because he's my dad!"
Her dad, Mike thought numbly as he watched them through the window.
The sudden exclamation from the girl had stunned him to the point that he had just watched her walk into the room with Mr. Ryland. So, this whole time he had been taking care of the daughter of Mr. Ryland!? The owner of Freddy Fazebears?
Some impulsive part of him was upset about it. In the back of his mind he had always harborded a grudge against the man. He had forced him to stay, played him like a broken record, then threw him out when the week was out.
He bit the inside of his cheek angrily, watching as Ryland comfort Alisha as she cried.
As much as he tried, he couldn't hate her. She had become to important to him in the past few weeks. True that he hadn't truly shown that these past few days, to self-absorbed in his own stupid problems to take care of her. But he loved her. He thought of her like he would a sister.
He had tried to apologize to the girl, but she was having none of it. She plugged her ears whenever he spoke, and refused to even look at him.
It felt like he had just burned an invisible bridge that Alisha had placed between them. Something that had shifted their relationship permanently. He knew that he had been a little self-absorbed lately, but this…
"Mike, are you feeling alright?" Vike asked.
Realizing that he was just standing there staring at Alisha, Mike forced himself to turn away. He relaxed his jaw tasting the coppery taste of blood. "I'm fine," He said quietly.
"Are you sure? If need be there's an infirmery just a moment away."
"I'm fine," Mike reaffirmed. He waited a moment collecting himself, trying to – unsuccesfully – quell the bitter feeling in his chest. "If you really want to help me. Give me answers. About me, the animatronics, this!" He gestured around him.
"I'm sick and tired of being left in the dark, and when I get an answer it opens up to a dozen more questions. All I want is straightforward answers. All I want to do is understand what is going on."
Vike didn't answer and stared at Mike, as if assessing him. In reponse he stared right back, his defiant edge not giving for a second. The man seemed to find whatever he was searching for with Mike and nodded. "Very well. You want answers, and I will not withhold that informations from you. However, I feel like heavy matters should be discussed over a cup of something warm… and maybe some food."
With that, Vike began walking away. Mike glanced one last time at Alisha before following Vike.
They climbed the stairs, back into the more brightly lit hallways and corridors. The main hallway was still busy with people going about their business. Mike was struck with the thought of ants. They were underground, in a bunch of tunnels, and all these people looked like they had a one-track mind to go and do their job.
He didn't have long to dwell on the thought as Vike led him into a cafeteria. The walls were the same metalic gray and it was starting to irritate Mike's eyes. Vike told him he could get anything he wanted, but Mike was only to fill his plate halfway. A lot of the food just didn't look appetizing. And besides, he was so on edge it felt like he could hardly down anything. The one thing he did look forward to was the cup of coffee clutched in his right hand.
Vike let him off to the side, seating himself at a table for two, and Mike followed.
Vike watched Mike pick at a chicken leg for a moment before speaking. "To understand everything, your going to have to disregard what the animatronics have told you. About you, about their past. It might be true for them, but to comprehend, you have to ignore what they said."
There was a pregnant pause where Vike seemed to be collecting his thoughts, his gaze thoughtful. Even then, he still had a wisp of a smile on his face.
"How much do you believe in the supernatural?"
Not expecting that kind of question, Mike shrugged. "After being around the animatronics, I'm pretty open to the idea." He thought about all the times he had seen 'Golden Freddy'.
Vike nodded taking a moment to sip of his drink. "And what do you think of the animatronics. What are they?"
"I don't know," Mike answered honestly. He wanted answers, but he was willing to divulge some information if he was going to get some. "I don't think that they're like an AI or anything, they're too human-like. I really don't know."
The smile grew on Vike's face. "What if I told you that they're a combination of machine and human?"
"Like a cyborg?" Mike blanched.
"No, no. That's a crude way to think of it," Vike laughed. "What I'm saying is that they definatly are robots, but with human minds."
Mike didn't respond for a moment, wrapping his mind around it. In all honest he hadn't thought about what they were. "So are you saying that they have human brains in that body?" Vike shook his head and Mike sucked in a breath. "Or are you saying that you've been able to… copy a human brain into the robots… if that makes sense."
"Not at all," Vike chuckled. "Ah, as much fun as it is to watch you struggle to grasp this. I'll be blunt. We've been able to create a machine that can merge humans minds and robots. It's called the Human And Machine Mind Intergration System, or HAMMIS for short."
"How does that even work?" Mike asked. His mind going through several sci-fi images of a machine that could do something like that. "Are you saying that the animatronics are people. Do they even know that they're people?"
"Before I explain anything, your going to have to realize that this has been going on for far longer than you can possibly imagine. We started this before you were born, before your parents were born. Several decades have been going into creating and perfecting this machine. It was a small something that the government has put a small amount of resources into. It was around the same time as our beloved area 51 came into being."
Vike took a moment to take another sip of his cup, and Mike found that he had already drained his coffee. His hands idly playing with the styrofoam cup.
"So this HAMMIS machine. It can put human minds into robots?"
"In a manner of speaking. It's much more intricate than that, and a lot more… paranormal."
"It's true we've been able to accomplish the impossible. Melding human and machine together. But like all of humanities creations there have been some side effects."
"It started a good several years after we got government funding. We managed to create the the machine, and it showed promise with the animals that we tested on, we were ready to try the HAMMIS on people. Of course, we kept this in the dark from the public, human testing and all that ethical inhibitors."
Vike paused again, and for the first time his smile truly vanished. His age instantly became more apparent, like he had just taken off a mask.
"We had both volunteers and prisoners with a death penalty. The science was all there. The machine could scan the brain then fundamentally copy it into the robot. No pain on the person, and a high chance of success. However, it failed spectacularly. Somewhere along the procedure the brain scan would always get corrupted. 9 out of 10 times and the one time we got a complete scan, the robot remained inactive no matter what we did."
Mike felt his stomach twist slightly. This sounded like something straight out of some science-horror film. Too crazy to be true, but here he was. Sitting in a cafeteria deep underground, that held a machine that could copy brain into a machine. The history was fascinating, but he wanted to get to the part about himself and the animatronics.
"We reworked how the HAMMIS functioned. A more 'blunt' way of going about it. You had to be in the robot durring the scan, maybe the brain scan got corrupted because of the time it took to transfer. We succeeded and failed. The brain scans were able to complete, and some of the robots did react, but every single test subject died."
Mike's stomach twisted harder, the bitter taste of coffee in his mouth making him feel nauseous.
"We had no explanation for it either. It was supposed to work. They weren't supposed to die. It was a simple brain scan, but no matter how the science backed it up, we failed. Desperate to show results, we put all morals aside and did something that I still regret to this day."
"We tested on a child."
This was too surreal. Mike wanted to get up, to throw up, to run away. He wanted to punch this man, and he wanted him to continue. Here he was in a zombie apocolypse, in an underground bunker, where a man was telling him that they had tested a sci-fi machine on children.
Vike waited, eyeing Mike, as if judging whether or not to continue.
Clearing his throat Mike dry swallowed and clapsed his shaking hands together. He felt sick just for asking the question. "Did it work?"
"Too perfectly," Vike answered. "A complete transfer. The robot instantly became self-aware. But the girl's body died instantly. Heart stopped, brain activity ceased. It caught us by surprised. Her consciousness in the robot body, she was limited in movement and speech, but she knew what she was supposed to be, and what she wasn't. Her mind rejected the body that she was now in, and she soon shut down, never waking again."
"It changed the face of our research. It became abundantly clear that there was something that happened to our brain when we age that made it impossible for the HAMMIS to work on them. In order for the HAMMIS to work, it needed to be done to children."
Vike stopped and began eating, seeming unaffected with the fact that they had killed for results. Killed children. Mike could only gape at him. A vile concoction of hatred, disgust, morbid curiosity, and worry were mixing in his chest as he realized just what had to have happen to the animatronics.
It came out of nowhere, the revelation that the animatronics were children. And it made Mike's blood boil.
"That's what the animatronics are, aren't they?" Mike stated. Not questioned, not asked. It was a fact that had made itself abundantly clear. Mike didn't know where the anger came from. He hadn't really felt this way when Vike had told him about the other test subjects, but he knew the animatronics. Knew their personalities and their likes and dislikes. It was like someone telling him that they had just decided to test the machine out on Alisha.
"They're just kids. You killed children to get results. You son of a bitch!" Mike went to punch him, but found himself suddenly pressed against the table as a guard restrained him.
"Why didn't they die?!" Mike shouted. "You said the girl died, so why didn't my animatronics die?"
"Sit down Mike. We're having a civilized conversation." Vike answered calmly.
With a huff Mike was more or less forced to sit. The guard didn't take off the restraints though. Standing just behind Mike.
Suddenly the place felt a lot less safe.