It was another busy day in the Pizzaplex, an ocean of children to entertain, a mountain of pizzas to feed guests, it was absolute chaos. But a chaos that was familiar.
For Evan, it was just another stressful workday, running like a chicken with his head cut off, trying to keep the pizza's the Staff bots in the kitchen mass produced moving.
After serving a dozen more tables, he would have to quickly change gears, manning one of the activity sections: Monty Golf.
"Making sure everything went smoothly" that was what he always described his role at the pizzaplex as, he had originally signed up to be an attraction attendant, but due to the sheer popularity of the place, he found that his duties expanded far and wide.
Another employee rushed over to him, "Hey, I'll take it from here, you're needed up in the maze."
Evan nodded, and quickly set off for the third floor. As he passed through the showroom, he couldn't help but sneak a glimpse of the current show going on, an animatronic performance in full swing.
The holograms projected way larger than life versions of the animatronics that could be viewed from anywhere in the atrium. But right now, he was close enough to see the real deal, the four members jumping around, rocking their hearts out.
Evan smirked, the way they moved was truly impressive, they were so incredibly fluid that it almost looked like they were alive. Evan had always thought the animatronics were a technological wonder, able to move around fluidly and interact with guests. He thought about how if he was a child coming here, his little mind would have been blown. Robot rock stars? He would've just had to go talk to them.
Evan made it up to Mazercise, and maneuvered past the staff bots manning the front. Inside he saw an exacerbated mother shouting at one of the employees.
"You have to get him out of there right this instant!" She shouted at him. "My little Benny is claustrophobic!"
As I walked past the two, the employee shot me a sideways look of panic. I took that as my cue to quickly take to the control room. I didn't like to brag, but I had a knack for the maze machine. With a few quick button presses, I had visuals on the stuck child.
A small blond boy in a red shirt had managed to get into a small area of the maze that led to neither exit. He didn't look particularly distressed, but nevertheless I began to maneuver the section he was on towards a connecting area.
He gasped in amazement, holding onto a nearby wall as I freed him. He laughed as he began running through the passageways, quickly finding another dead end.
He waited in anticipation as I rotated the dead end he was in to connect to a passage to the left exit. He sprinted out into the arms of his relieved mother.
As I stretched my arms above my head and sighed, the employee from outside walked in, closing the door behind him and letting out a deep sigh.
"I swear, it's every other day some kid gets lost and the parents think I can just magic up their child!" He said, flailing his arms around at the word 'magic.'
"Well, to be fair, this place is fairly magical." Evan replied.
"Eating food while walking a maze as a diet plan? That's magical alright. Next time I'm going to let that lady yell at Chica for a while."
Evan rolled his eyes, the mental image of a lady yelling at one of the mascots was highly entertaining. He imagined the it would be like yelling at a brick wall.
Nodding at the employee and walking out of attraction, Evan could see the show wrapping up, and the glamrock animatronics thanking the audience. It was weird, they did this every day, almost every hour.
But this time…
…He could almost swear the chicken animatronic was staring up at him.
The vibrations of his phone in his pocket snapped him out of it, as he checked it, he saw that it was time for him to go to break.
As he looked back down at the descending stage, he figured that he was just seeing things, they were far away anyways, and he was tired. His mind was probably just playing tricks on him.
Taking the escalators back to the ground floor, he pushed his way past several giddy children, and several pizza wielding servers, making his way through the bustling kitchen and into a service elevator.
Riding the elevator down, Evan breathed a sigh of relief, it was quiet at last. He liked to come down here for his breaks, he knew a special place that almost nobody ever seemed to go into down here.
Once the elevator doors opened, he began walking through the utilidors until he came to a door to a small hallway, walking inside he was met with a familiar mural of an endoskeleton bringing a sake to a birthday party.
This was the place where they stored the extra endoskeletons. He sat himself down on a stopped conveyor belt, and enjoyed the sound of distant movement coming from above.
He let himself lean back onto the hard rubber belt, legs dangling just above the ground. There was one other reason he liked to come back here, aside from the quiet.
He sat up as he heard the familiar knocking from behind the mural. "You there? I thought I heard you come in."
Evan chuckled. "And I was trying to be quiet too." He never saw who was behind the wall, but he figured it was a mechanic or someone who worked on the endoskeletons.
"Well, I have pretty good hearing. So, how's your day been?" The voice asked.
"Oh, y'know, incredibly busy, as usual… If it isn't one child getting lost or crying, it's like 50 more."
"Heheh, yeah… Same old same old down here too. Say, how are Freddy and the others?" He asked.
"They're operating well, no glitches, and the kids absolutely adore them." Evan fiddled with his phone as he spoke.
"That's good… And how are you? You remember what I told you about working too hard." His voice got a bit more concerned.
"Hey, don't worry about it, I can handle it." Evan tried to veer away from the subject, to no avail.
"Evan, you told me yourself that this place doesn't run half as smoothly without you, so we don't need you exhausting yourself again. Remember what happened last time?"
Evan winced, a couple weeks ago, he was working an extended shift, and passed out near the lazer blast attraction. When he woke up next, he was in Freddy's green room, he never did figure out who brought him there, everyone just told him the same joke that Freddy did.
"Yeah… I know, I'm not going to be doing that again, trust me. The chewing out I got afterwards was more than enough." Evan said, shrugging
"Good, good. I know Freddy got really worried about you. Have you spoken to him recently?"
I stifle a chuckle. "Man, you guys are not going to give up with that. Nah, anytime he's out on the floor, he's always surrounded by his fans. I couldn't get a word in edgewise if I tried."
"That's a shame, I-" The voice is cut off by Evan's phone alarm.
"Ah, looks like I gotta get back out there, I'll see you around." Evan stood back up and waved to the mural, imagining the mechanic would probably be waving back if he knew.
"Till next time." The voice replied.
Evan ran out of the room, making his way back to the service elevator. As he got there, another familiar face was waiting there as well.
The blond haired woman gave Evan a wave "Hey Evan, how are you doing today?"
"Oh hey Vanessa, I'm good, how are you? You're here a bit early." Evan recognized the woman as one of the night-time workers, a new hire named Vanessa.
Vanessa shrugged as the elevator doors opened. "I wanted to make a good first impression."
The elevator doors opened, and the two walked in, Evan pressing the button for the ground floor. "Haven't you been here for a week already?" Evan joked.
"Hey, I'm still learning the ropes, it's a big place!" She smiled, lightly elbowing Evan. "Oh, did you hear?"
"Hear what?" Evan asked, crossing his arms.
"There's a staff party tomorrow night, we're all going to have a Fazer blast tournament. You in?"
"Really? That… Actually sounds pretty awesome. Not to brag but I'm pretty good at laser tag. But what's the catch?" Evan smiled.
"The catch is we gotta get in teams of 3 to compete. And it just so happens that I need one more. You in?" She holds out her hand.
"You got here early to recruit me? Dang, how can I say no?" Evan shakes her hand, and she pulls him into a noogie. "Ah, hey!"
"Of course I had to get to you first, you came highly recommended! Our third member demanded that I had to recruit you."
Evan escaped her grasp, and the two of them shared a laugh.
"Oh really? Who is it? Marcy from parts and service?" Evan joked.
"I'm afraid it's a surprise." She said, putting a finger to her lips. "Shhh."
The elevator doors open, and the two step out. "Alright then, keep your secrets."
Before they can try to maneuver through the manic kitchen again, another employee runs up to them, out of breath.
"Evan… Vanessa…*huff* You two… Come quick…We have a situation!"