A/N: Hey, an update! About time, right? I promise I didn't forget about this story. On top of life being life again, there was some major reorganizing that had to be done with this chapter (and the one to come). I'll explain more at the end. Happy reading!
THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2017, 3:27 AM
"You have no new messages."
Kendall ran back into the main room, nearly tripping over himself as he ran.
"Is it still after us?" he called back, hoping to hear a solid no, but nothing came. With eyes wide, he turned and saw that his sister was nowhere in sight. "'Liv?" he called out, hoping to see and hear her emerging from the room they had just left, but nothing. He took a step toward the room when a nearby door opened. Thinking and moving quicker than he ever had before, he dove underneath one of the nearby standing tables, moving as far back as possible to keep himself hidden in the shadow.
Emerging from the door to the back room were two adults dressed in lab coats. Even in the low light, Kendall immediately recognized them from the other day and the pictures he'd glimpsed in the office: they were the managers...both of them.
What? But I thought the one was-
"I'm still concerned," said Rebecca. "Children are much more agile than adults, especially these days."
"Relax, 'Becca," said Derek, waving a dismissive hand at her. "Those kids aren't smart enough to know how to get out. Besides, what we should be worried about are the other two."
"Chris and Josh?"
Derek nodded.
"I don't know. We already have some blood on our hands with the other kid with the cane, thanks to our witnesses. I don't want to add two more bodies to the mix. Besides, Josh is a good boy. I think we may still find a place for him in our operation."
"I wouldn't count on it."
"You don't think he'll be useful?" Rebecca asked.
"I'm having my doubts," said Derek. "Children are much easier to manipulate. Will knew that well. Those other two will just be a nuisance to us, especially Chris. All it takes is one wrong move for them to capitalize on and boom...they'll be out of here quicker than you can blink."
Rebecca thought about it for a moment, and nodded. "Yes, I suppose you're right. It's a pity about Josh. I really liked him."
"I did, too," said Derek, "but like you told him, he made a mistake coming here tonight. That's the problem with a world focused on ethics and morality. No one wants to make the sacrifice, even though it's necessary for the betterment of mankind. I just don't see either of them realizing that, and so...for the sake of our operation, we cannot allow them to leave."
"Absolutely," said Rebecca. "And with Chris being a wanted man, we have our perfect fall guy for both of them: one last murder followed by a suicide, all in one place."
Kendall's hand flew to his mouth to prevent himself from audibly gasping. It's them! They're the kidnappers! And they're going to kill Josh!
"Murder and suicide?" said Derek. "Not exactly an improvement for our restaurant's image."
"Well, our wandering eyewitnesses prevented the last phase from going as smoothly as it should have, so why bother? Besides, since when have we been the restaurant-manager type, anyway?" replied Rebecca, and they both laughed. "Well, I'm going to the security room to see if our little party-crashers will show up on the cameras."
"I'll be right with you," said Derek. "I need to grab something from my office."
They split up. Derek strode over to the front hallway while Rebecca disappeared back into the back area. Both doors were tightly shut behind them. Slowly, Kendall emerged from underneath the table.
Josh is in trouble, thought Kendall, his nerves beginning to rise as he fought back the urge to begin hyperventilating, which he hadn't done in years. I have to find him...and Olivia, wherever she is.
The silence was interrupted by a bizarre crunching noise coming from nearby, followed by the loud sound of something heavy falling over. He froze, praying that it was just a trick of the brain, but his stomach lurched when he heard a loud, deafening crack followed. He remained rooted on the spot, listening for a noise and hoping for silence. Now everything had gone quiet. He turned, expecting to see one of the kidnappers running toward the source of the noise, but they didn't.
This whole place must be soundproofed, he thought. How else could they not hear something like that from down a hallway?
As he moved forward, he made contact with something in the darkness and heard a chair fall to the ground with a loud thud. Something moved nearby, and in a blind panic, he took off across the room, not wanting to stick around to find out what it was. As he ran, he could hear footsteps somewhere behind him. Grabbing the knob, he quickly slipped inside the door to the back rooms, his heart still racing as he hoped that his pursuing didn't catch where he went and that he would find help somewhere in these rooms of mystery.
For a few long seconds, Olivia and the creature remained in direct eye contact standing motionless about ten feet apart. The pale face was as unsettling as ever to behold, but she couldn't look away, not after what she had already heard.
"Cameron?" she said, her voice almost a squeak. "Is-is that you?"
The creature said nothing. It just stared at her. Olivia took a step back.
"Wait," came the voice. "Don't leave us."
Us? Olivia thought. Who else is in there?
"W-who are you?" she asked.
"Jake," said the voice.
"Is Cameron in there?" she said.
"Olivia!" came the same helpless voice from before. "Help us!"
"Cameron?" She took a step closer, her hand almost reaching out. "Is that really you?"
"Help us! It hurts so much!"
"What hurts?" Olivia asked, her instincts kicking in. She remembered tending to his imaginary wounds during their games, but this wasn't a game. This was real, and she had no idea what to do.
"Enough!" came a loud voice, causing Olivia to jump back and whimper. "Just get her!"
Olivia screamed as it came toward her. She ran over to the play structure and hopped onto the stairs. She heard it moving behind her. She tried to speed up, but tripped over one of the stairs. Turning around, she saw it towering over her.
"Wha-what do you want?" she said as tears began coming from her eyes.
"We want to help you," said the calmer voice that had identified itself as Jake. "Come with us. You don't have to be afraid. You can be with us. We'll be strong together!"
"But Cameron said he was hurting! Is he in pain?"
"Forget Cameron!" came the rough voice. "He's not used to it yet! Now come on! You're coming with us!"
"No!" Olivia cried. "Leave me alone!"
"Andrew, you're scaring her!" said Jake.
"I don't care!" Andrew shot back, while the face never changed expressions. "I've waited all these years for this moment and I've never felt better and more powerful than I do right now...and I'm not letting anyone take this away from me."
"No, don't hurt her!" cried the third, familiar voice.
"I'm not, Cameron," said Andrew. "I'm just taking her to her 'special' appointment. Don't worry...your little girlfriend will be with you soon enough."
"Olivia, run!" Cameron said.
Olivia tried to gasp, but her heart felt lodged in her throat. Turning, she saw a slide right next to her and scrambled toward it, feeling an arm grab at her ankle as she slid to the bottom front-first. She quickly got to her feet and took off running for the door. However, before she got too far, the creature landed in front of her. Whimpering, she backed away slowly, her movements mirrored by the creature, until she felt her back against the wall.
"You can't escape," said Andrew. "This room is sound-proofed and the door's too far away for anyone to hear you. You're mine, now."
"Stop it, Andrew," said Jake. "This isn't helping. She needs to trust us."
"Why?" said Andrew. "You know what trust is good for? Nothing! People always say they want to help you and then let you down, just like my father!"
"Why do you trust Rebecca and Derek, then?" asked Jake.
"Because they actually did what they promised they would do," said Andrew, "and look at us, Jake! We're strong, we're powerful. We can make bad things happen to all the bad people! I've never felt more alive!"
"Well, let's not scare the poor girl," said Jake, "otherwise she won't want to come with us."
"I don't want to go with you!" Olivia cried. "I want to go home."
"You are home, girl," said Andrew. "Don't make this difficult."
Without warning, the creature lunged at her again. She dropped to the floor and covered her head in fear as a loud crunch came from above her, followed by mechanical noises. Looking up, she saw the figure's hand trapped in the wall and trying to pull itself out.
A scream of anger came from the creature, followed by Cameron:
"Run!"
Olivia got sprang to her feet and stumbled her way over to the playscape, where she ducked underneath one of the slides. She heard a loud crash as the creature broke its hand through the wall and charged at the playscape. Olivia shrunk back as far as she could against the slide in a desperate attempt to evade capture. She gasped as metal fingers appeared over the sides of the slide above her. This was followed by a strained, crunching sound as the plastic above her began to break apart, the bolts being pulled from their proper places.
With eyes wide, Olivia began to crawl on her knees further beneath the playscape right as the slide behind her completely came off.
"Oh, come ON!" came Andrew's angry voice from behind her. "I'm getting really sick of this!"
"Perhaps you should try a different tactic," said Jake.
"Ok, fine," replied Andrew. "You want a different tactic? How's this?"
For a moment, there was silence, but then, Olivia heard a loud crunching sound coming from around her. Looking down, she saw the supports rising from the ground as the underside of the metal playscape above her likewise rose. Turning around, she saw the creature's hands forcefully pulling the entire structure out of the ground. In a sheer panic, she took off crawling toward the other side as fast as she could, desperate to get out, but she was too late.
The creature lifted the metal upward with a great thrust and tossed it to the side in an attempt to flip it over. The sudden movement caused the supports to topple. Olivia screamed as one of them landed beside her and fragments of metal fell around her. She covered her head and ears in fear, wanting nothing more than to wake up with her mother standing over her, stroking her face and telling her that everything was alright, but she knew deep down that it wasn't going to happen.
When the noise stopped, she opened her eyes and saw nothing but darkness. Moving around, she felt her foot hit something and she discovered that something was above her. One of the metal landings had fallen on top of her. Miraculously, it was leaning itself against the fallen support next to her, providing enough room to prevent her from being crushed but ultimately trapping her in near darkness, with only tiny beads of light shining through various cracks and holes.
"Good work, Andrew," said Jake from nearby, the voice slightly muffled through the debris. "You just killed her. Rebecca and Derek won't be happy."
"Rebecca and Derek are too busy with the others. Besides, I tried telling her nicely, but…"
They were interrupted by a noise from outside the room, sounding like something had been knocked over just outside the door. Immediately, loud footsteps took off running, leaving Olivia alone and trembling in her dark cocoon of what remained of the playscape.
Rebecca watched the monitors closely, her eyes scanning for any sign of a child scurrying across one of the screens. Prior to opening the restaurant, she'd never realized just how boring monitor duty was. Originally, it was part of the security guard's position, but when they saw Chris' application, they had to scurry to change the job description to prevent his prying eyes from wandering where they didn't belong. It was a necessary decision, but it did mean that they had to take on this excruciatingly boring duty themselves.
As she watched the creature move from the shattered remains of the playscape into the main room, her heart fluttered in eager delight. After nearly half of a century of work, their hard work had finally paid off. They'd managed to recreate and greatly enhance the power source of their late professor and continue his work. She wondered what he would say to them if he were here, how proud he was of them. She still remembered when he'd asked her and her two lab partners to come to his lab late one night to get a special glimpse of his work.
"It'll be a real sight to see. You won't be disappointed."
She closed her eyes, once again allowing the vision to take hold.
"Why are we here again?" she mentally heard her younger self ask as the familiar scene fully formed in her mind.
"Because I have something extraordinary to show you," said their professor whom they'd grown extremely fond of over the past year, Dr. Phineas Taggart, dressed in his usual lab coat and tie, his face smooth and his eyes wild with life. "Something that I have been secretly working on for years, and given how much of a love I know you three have for my class, I wanted you to be the first to see it."
"What is it?" asked Derek curiously. "Is it an advanced computer with voice recognition algorithms?"
"Oh no," replied their professor proudly. "It's something much, much, much greater than that."
"How can something be greater than algorithms?" asked Will, skeptical as always. "Numbers never fail."
"Oh, you'll see," said Taggart as he led them over to a mysterious figure in the corner of the room, covered by a large sheet. Taggart pulled the sheet, revealing a thin shiny endoskeleton. It had wires and pieces sticking out of it all over and thin metal hands. At its center was what appeared to be a battery of some kind and on its face was a thin white mask that looked like it was taken from a doll of some kind. One of its eyes was colored completely black while the other looked relatively normal, though slightly pale.
"This, my dear friends, is my latest project."
The trio looked at each other, unsure of what they were being shown.
"What, this thing?" said Derek. "What's so special about a...a...whatever it is?"
"What you are seeing," said Taggart, pride and glee in his voice, "is more than a mere collection of animatronic parts and scraps. This is a hub of my newest experiment, powered by something greater than any battery or generator."
"Like what?" Rebecca asked.
Taggart smiled. "Agony."
"Agony?" said Will.
"Yes. Agony." Taggart strode over to a small brown box sitting on a nearby table. "Do you remember what I taught you about human emotions?"
They all nodded.
"Well, let's just say I've made a breakthrough discovery. What happens when you take an object that is emotionally charged with the most aggressive emotion...agony...and combine it with many others like it?"
The trio of confused students looked at each other. Derek shook his head.
"What you get…" said Taggart, turning back to them with a large metal rod in his gloved hands, "is something that is so fueled by such raw, uncontained aggression that it can out-perform the impact of a shotgun."
"A shotgun?" said Will, his folded arms dropping to his sides. "I know that anger is powerful, but there's no way it can be more dangerous than a shotgun."
"Not anger, agony," Taggart corrected. "And don't be deceived. While a shotgun may have a more immediate and noticeable impact, agony flies under the radar and keeps itself hidden from attention until it eventually unleashes all of its fury in ways you cannot possibly imagine, unless you can somehow prove me wrong with all of your years of scientific research."*
Will said nothing, and Rebecca knew he was berating himself for asking a question that was sure to get a humbling answer from their professor.
"Do you see this?" said Taggart, holding up the rod. "This is the latest piece. After years of searching, I've finally got enough."
"You mean the stuff you've been collecting?" asked Derek.
"Precisely, but it's more than just 'stuff.' You see, every single piece that you're seeing here...every rod, bolt, nut, and screw...has one thing in common: agony." He watched his selected students carefully for any sign of mental enlightenment, but when he was met with more confused looks, he went on. "Emotions are infectious, they spread like a virus, like how laughter is contagious or a gloomy person affects everyone around them. Well, what if I told you that emotions can attach themselves to inanimate objects. These scraps are all infused with agony because they've 'witnessed' something tragic, so to speak. Whenever someone dies a painful, traumatizing death, their agony spreads and attaches itself to whatever's lying around. Take this mask, for example. It came from a doll that belonged to a young boy who lost his life to tuberculosis, poor fellow."
"What about the battery?" asked Rebecca.
"Belonged to a toy dog whose owner, a little girl, was hit by a car while walking it."
The trio gave each other confused glances again. This was more bizarre than they ever would've anticipated from the man they'd come to admire so much.
"And this," said Taggart, holding up the metal rod in his hands, "is the final piece. I had this shipped all the way from Germany. Do you know what this is?"
They shook their heads.
"This is taken from the remains of one of the old gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp."
The students' eyes went wide with shock.
"Yes. This has been witness to the horrible deaths of countless people. Its entire being is absolutely filled with agony. I can feel it." His gloved fingers curled around the rod.
"And what will it do?" said Derek.
Taggart smiled. "Give it life."
He walked over to the motionless creature and carefully placed the rod inside the torso area, acting like a makeshift backbone. Once it was in place, he applied an adhesive agent to the battery and attached it to the rod.
Immediately, a loud whirring sound began emanating from the creature. Taggart stepped back toward his students as they watched in silence.
At first, the machine before them did nothing to acknowledge the new part. It simply continued staring ahead with a blank, dead expression. However, as soon as Rebecca opened her mouth to ask something, the head jolted, causing them to jump back. The eye, which had begun to glow, was now moving back and forth between the four people in front of it. Taggart held his breath: this was the moment he'd worked for all his life, and so far, everything was perfect.
After a few moments of head and eye movements, the arms began to rise and its fingers clenched and trembled ever so slightly. Slowly, it inched its right foot forward. It paused for a moment, and then its left followed suit. It took another step with each foot and began gaining confidence in its walk.
"Unbelievable," said Will, standing with his mouth agape. "So, is it...alive?"
"More alive than ever before," said Dr. Taggart, watching his experiment with a large grin on his face.
"Can it...talk?" asked Rebecca. Her amazement was reaching its peak at this point as she watched the creature move toward them.
Taggart laughed. "No. It's only made of agony; it's not possessed by a living soul to give it personality, if such a theory is even possible, but that's something for a later generation to experiment with. No, its primary purpose right now is to channel raw, unfiltered agony into physical movement. That is my goal: to show just how powerful human emotions can be."
He took a step toward the creature, which stopped and looked at him. He smiled again and grabbed one of the arms. "Observe its-"
Without warning, the hand lunged forward and grabbed the doctor by the throat. Taggart let out a strangled groan as his hands flew to the metal one that was crushing his windpipe.
"Professor!" cried Derek, running forward to help, but before he could get far, the creature's other arm swung out and smacked him to the ground. He looked up at the other two with a long, ugly gash on his cheek. Rebecca and Will could do nothing but watch in fear as their professor was being manhandled by his own creation.
Taggart managed to give his students a final glance, one mixed with pride and sorrow, before he turned back to the robot that was staring back at him blankly as the cold, soulless fingers tightened around his throat. Rebecca watched in horror, tears pouring down her face, as Taggart gave one last laugh before a bright flash and loud crack filled the room. Taggart's body fell limp in the creature's grasp. His wide eyes, normally vivid and full of life, were now completely black.
The creature reared its arm back and forcefully launched Taggart across the room. In a split second, Rebecca saw the body flying straight for the tank of a mysterious chemical he'd been working with, which he'd stated was highly sensitive and reactive to air, and in an instant they were blasted to the ground by the thunderous force of the explosion as rubble fell on top of them.
The world was blurry and void of sound as the ringing blocked out any attempt to hear what was going on around them. For a moment, Rebecca was certain that she had died and was in a weird afterlife filled with dust and smoke, but then a hand grabbed onto hers. Turning, she saw Will lying next to her. He was saying something, though it was still muffled.
"W-what?" she said, the sound of her own voice surprising her.
"We're okay," said Will, his words just barely intelligible. "Derek's okay, too." He nodded off to his right, and Rebecca could make out the silhouette of Derek just feet away. He was propped up on one arm, coughing but alive. He gave her a smile and she smiled back.
"Are you okay?" Will asked.
Rebecca nodded. "Yeah, but I'll be much more okay when we get outta here. What do we do?"
"I don't know," said Will, "but did you see that thing...how powerful it is? I can't believe it."
"Yeah, it killed Dr. Taggart," said Rebecca shakily. "You think it's gonna kill us, too?"
"Guys?" came Derek's faint voice from nearby. "Look."
They saw an arm point into the distance. At first, neither knew what they were looking at, but then they saw it. Through an opening in the rubble, they saw a shadow moving swiftly through the smoke. It reached out and grabbed what they recognized as one of Taggart's old trench coats and threw it upon itself. As it made its exit, it turned toward them, and all they saw in that passing moment was a glowing eye before it had disappeared completely.
After what felt like days had passed, the campus' emergency crews were finally able to pull the dazed trio from the wreckage and they were taken to the nearby hospital for their injuries. None of them said a word to each other throughout the entire ordeal, and it wasn't until a local news crew was permitted to interview them that they finally exchanged knowing expressions, and the only response given was by Will, who vaguely stated that an experiment had gone wrong.
As distressed as they were to learn that their professor and mentor was indeed dead, deep down they knew that this is exactly how he would've wanted to die. In the time that they'd known him, he'd made it clear that his work was everything to him. He'd even told them that there was no place he'd rather die than in his lab or study. His entire life was his work. Everyone knew that. Dr. Phineas Taggart was not at all the man to expect a tearful funeral full of heartbroken associates. He was the man who expected his successors to pick up the torch where it had fallen and continue his work, and it was clear who his successors were: the hand-picked students to whom he'd entrusted his last project.
In the days that followed the incident, a report came in that a child named Andrew had gone missing from a nearby elementary school. There was absolutely no evidence indicating what had happened, but deep down, the trio strongly suspected that this creature was directly responsible, and the fascination only grew. Will began talking about experimenting with other human emotions, such as trust, while Derek made proposals about using such creations as weapons of war. Though there were many possibilities, Rebecca's main point of interest was on the creature itself, how it was brought to life...or at least given such realistic lifelike qualities...by simple agony. It was a far-fetched theory that the potential was there for it to be true, and it was proven so by their late, ingenious professor, rest his soul, and his work was only the beginning.
Even though Will eventually fell out of touch when his wife Laura passed away in childbirth, Derek and Rebecca's desire to find that creature and study it further was all-consuming. They needed to unlock its secrets, continue Taggart's amazing work, and show the world the conquering potential that the new age had to offer. The time of living in the past and relying on fragile humanity was over. This is what had to be done, whatever the cost.
Rebecca was pulled from her memories by a tapping on her shoulder. Derek was standing there.
"Any luck, yet?" he asked.
"No," she said, "but it shouldn't be long. It looks like our friend just destroyed the playscape chasing one of them down."
Derek huffed. "Well, let me know when you find them. I'm going to see how the rest of the resurgence is coming along."
She nodded and turned back to the monitor. She sighed. We'll find you two troublemakers sooner or later. It's only a matter of time.
Time became a lost concept as Josh continued his vain struggle against the ropes that held him firmly to the chair. At first, he tried to remain calm, the logical part of his brain fighting to reason its way out of the circumstances.
It can't be that bad. Mad scientists taking over the world and a robot with superhuman strength? That only happens in movies. This is real life.
But his memories over what he had just witnessed not too long ago were still prevalent, and he knew that it really was that bad. As the minutes passed (though they felt like hours), his optimistic demeanor began to shift to panic, and his wrestling grew more aggressive...yet not fruitful.
"You're gonna dislocate something if you keep doing that," said Chris.
"Look who's talking," said Josh. "You've been struggling like that, too."
"I'm not the one with his hands bent awkwardly behind his back," said Chris.
"So what am I supposed to do, then?" said Josh bitterly. "Give up and pray that someone will save us?"
Chris grunted. "I don't know! I just don't think you're helping yourself by doing that. These people know what they're doing. They wouldn't make it easy for either of us to escape, so I don't think force is gonna get us out any faster."
Josh opened his mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Deep down, he knew Chris was right. He still couldn't believe how easily he and the others had been duped. Rebecca and Derek seemed like genuinely nice people, and he would've bet anything that they would never be the ones behind such a sinister plot. They were master actors and manipulators and practically had the world fooled...except for Chris.
A loud sigh came from nearby, sounding heavy with distress and emotion.
"Are you okay?"
"No," said Chris with another grunt. "I'm not okay. This is so much worse than I thought."
"What were you expecting?"
"I don't know!" Chris retorted angrily. "I just knew something bad was going on, I had no idea what!"
"What gave you that idea? You didn't trust them?"
"I never did. They seemed too perfect, too nice...like one of those commercials where they show you how happy everyone is to try to sell you their product. I've seen that fake smile so many times, you wouldn't believe it."
They sat in silence for a few seconds, looking at each other as though the answer would be found in each other's eyes.
"What about that stuff? Resurgence? What's that all about?" asked Josh.
"I have no idea," said Chris. "I'm nowhere near as mad as these people are...or my father."
"They mentioned something about 'remnant,'" said Josh.
Chris hesitated. He turned to Josh with searching eyes. "How much do you know?"
"About what?"
"About what happened with Freddy Fazbear's? Over in Utah?"
"Not much except what other people told me," said Josh. "The kidnappings and all that."
"My father had another dirty secret," said Chris. "I never saw it myself, but some close friends of mine told me about something else…"
"Close friends?"
"It was about a secret ingredient to his remnant, something that was primarily responsible for making him so powerful, like he was able to cheat death."
Josh had no idea what Chris was talking about. He began picking at the knots that kept his hands firmly tied behind his back. The people in the movies always made it seem so simple, but his hands could barely move and his fingers were just out of reach of the end of the rope. All he was doing was scratching at the knot, a futile effort, but he had to try. His thoughts turned once more to his siblings, by themselves in an unfamiliar building with an animatronic freakshow and its two insane creators pursuing them. His breathing quickened and his heart raced as he continued struggling with the knot. He had to get out. He just had to. He wasn't going to let his brother and sister suffer because of him.
But then something else occurred to him and he turned back to Chris, who was still putting up his own feeble attempts to escape.
"What's so special about us?"
"Hmm?" said Chris, looking up at him.
"You said you were keeping a close eye on us, me and my brother and sister. Why?"
Chris paused for a moment. He could easily say something simple, like 'because you're different' or 'because I had nothing better to do all day,' but he knew such an answer wouldn't fly with this young man whose curiosity was part of what caused him to take notice. It was true, Josh and his family were different. Unlike other employees, who typically worked for their next paycheck and avoided the restricted area like the plague simply because they were told to, Josh possessed a keen mind that Chris hadn't seen in a young man for a long time, not since he looked in the mirror at that age.
And then there were his younger siblings, both of which possessed their own courage and curiosity. As Chris had watched the pair playing that day, he remembered feeling his heart warming. It was really touching, and it reminded him of a saying he'd heard often in recent years.
"Josh," he finally said. "Let me tell you something. You see, people like me don't really have the luxury of having siblings to look after. Given her divorce, I only had my mother, whom I love more than you know, but there was always a sense that something was missing growing up. I never met my older sister, but I would have loved to have a younger brother or sister to look after, to take care of, to help raise to be a wise, strong person, anything to bring whatever redemption I could to my family's name."
"Is that what all this is about?" said Josh.
Chris nodded. "Yes. I mean, it's not like I was ever really ridiculed by anyone, since nobody really knew or cared about my secret, but ever since I found out the truth about my father, I've been tormented by guilt like you wouldn't believe. The fact that I'm the son of someone who caused so much pain and misery for so many people...all in the name of 'science.'" He made a face of incredulous disgust. "When I heard that this new restaurant was opening...hoping to give the franchise a fresh start, I knew that something was wrong. That's why I'm here, to do whatever I can to protect people from having to go through any more of that pain, but in the end…" He gave a long, heavy sigh as a tear began to fall from his eye. "...I still failed."
"I failed, too," said Josh, thinking back to that horrible image of Cameron's mutilated body in the creature's arms. "My mom asked me if there was anything suspicious going on, and I told her 'no' to get her off my back. I was gonna tell her about you."
"Yeah, I don't blame you," said Chris with a small chuckle. "I guess I did kind of give off that vibe."
Josh laughed, too.
"Well, it doesn't matter. We need to get outta here and stop this madness before we all end up dead."
"These ropes are tight," said Josh as he struggled against his bonds. "How are yours?"
"About what you'd expect from our newest safety straps," said Chris. "If only…"
Suddenly, the door flew open. The pair instantly turned their heads, fully expecting one of their gloating, psychotic bosses, but were surprised to see a much younger face instead
"Kendall!" cried Josh, smiling widely. He'd never been happier to see his brother. "What happened?"
"Running…" Kendall wheezed. "...from that…"
"Where's Olivia?"
Kendall's face went somber. "I don't know. We got separated."
Josh's heart sank. "Well, quick! Get us outta here!"
Kendall ran over to him and began picking at the ropes binding him to the chair. They were a little too expertly tied for his knowledge.
"You have to find the end in the knot," said Josh, grinning slightly. Unlike Kendall, he'd been a boy scout. Finally...something he's not that good at.
Finally, Kendall located the end of the rope and struggled to remove it from within the knot. His fingers fumbled as he felt Josh's body lurch.
"Sorry," said Josh. "Nervous energy."
After a few minutes, Kendall was able to get the end of the rope through the knot and began untying the rope as best as he could. He cursed himself for never reading any books on knots, it would've been so helpful.
After the knot was about halfway undone, Josh began twisting and bending his arm until he was finally able to remove his arm.
"Yes!" he cried triumphantly as he freed his other arm. He turned to his brother and beamed. "Thanks, bro!"
Kendall smiled and nodded.
"Come on, let's help him." Josh gestured to Chris, who was still bound on the table. They ran over and began examining the straps.
"I overheard your bosses say they were gonna kill you," said Kendall.
Chris snorted. "Yeah, I wouldn't put it past them at this point. We're just lucky you got here when you did, Mr. Bookworm." He gave Kendall a wink. Kendall wasn't sure whether to interpret it as a compliment or a tease but set to help his brother.
The straps were extraordinarily tight. Josh and Kendall both had trouble locating the release latch until Kendall felt one underneath the table.
"Here!" he called, and they set about undoing the straps.
"Yeah, the kids definitely won't get hurt with these," said Josh with a snort as he fiddled with the latch before eventually releasing it. A similar snap came from the strap Kendall was working on.
Chris attempted to move but was still welded to the table, only granted slightly more mobility. "Keep going," he said. "These straps weren't meant to break easily. I'm beginning to think that those two only really bought these to keep me outta the way."
"Oh, do you?"
Josh and Kendall jumped as they turned to the hole in the wall, where Derek stood leaning against the wall, arms folded in a particularly smug way.
"Going somewhere, are we?" he said, smiling creepily. "I don't think so. No one's leaving...not until all is ready to be unveiled to the world."
"What do you mean 'unveiled?'" said Josh as Chris began thrashing once more.
"Once the world sees our beautiful creations in action, it will understand why these machines are the future, but until then...any word to the outside will have the police crashing the party and every single tearful parent and human rights activist crying out against our supposed 'crimes against humanity.'"
The police, thought Josh, his mind flashing back to something Rebecca had told him about during his interview.
Chris stopped thrashing and looked up at his former boss. "I don't believe you," he said.
Derek raised his eyebrows. "Oh, you don't?"
"No," said Chris. "There is no possible way your resurgence can be that powerful."
"You just don't understand its capabilities," said Derek. "You're just like we were at your age, naive and foolish, too clouded by doubt to see the miracle happening right in front of you."
"I believe in miracles," said Chris, "but this is anything but."
"Nonsense. We are creating a new, better start for mankind, one free of all injury and ailment, as we've already told you."
"Is your 'resurgence' really that strong?" said Josh.
"You'd better believe it is, Josh. Fueled by pure agony and anguish, it will change the world."
"Agony? Like pain?" said Josh.
"Yes, Josh. Pain may be unpleasant, but it is more powerful than any other sensation known to man. Pain is the driving force behind every major accomplishment in history. It pushes people past their weaknesses and inferiorities for the betterment of themselves. It's really quite a fascinating thing."
Chris stopped struggling. He remembered something he'd been told before.
"I don't think it's really powerful enough," he said.
"Well, then, you're a very naive fool!" said Derek ferociously, startling them. "This is exactly why you're in this position right now! You see, once we're done, there will only be two kinds of people in this world, those who accept and embrace this new reality and those who will be swept away and forgotten. You've made your choice, so stop whining and accept your fate!"
"I've seen a lot of drug addicts where I come from," said Chris, "and I just don't see how something that has to be injected like that can possibly make you stronger, especially considering where it originally came from!"
Derek made a low noise that sounded very close to a growl as he turned and grabbed something from the nearby table. He turned back, holding up a syringe of what appeared to be more of the glowing substance: resurgence.
"This is what powers everything. This is what kept me alive when you tried to kill me, and it's only going to make me stronger. With this flowing through the veins of all healthy individuals and within the heart of our creation, this world is on its way to being a much better place."
"Then prove it," said Chris. "I refuse to believe a word of it."
Derek's eyebrows raised and his mouth curled into a snarl. With the syringe still in his hand, he set to unbuttoning the shirt beneath his lab coat, revealing his thin torso, which still contained the gash from where he'd been impaled. Josh turned nervously to Chris, who only gave him a knowing look. Kendall watched everything that was going on nervously, not having the faintest idea of what to make of anything.
Derek held up the syringe, in which the substance inside began to bubble.
"Observe, you pitiful unbelievers," he said before sticking the needle straight into the center of his chest. Kendall looked away, cringing. He'd always hated needles; they made him want to vomit. Josh glanced back and forth between his former boss injecting himself and Chris' bizarre look of reassurance.
Once the final drop of resurgence was inserted, Derek placed the empty syringe on the table and stared at his soon-to-be victims, with a large smile on his face.
"Now, you'll see," said Derek. "In fact, it's the last thing the three of you will ever see. Observe, as the resurgence flows through my body and gives me even more strength, I'll be more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
As he spoke, his body began to shake. His muscles clenched and his eyes lit up in wild lust. His mouth twisted into a sadistic smile and he let out a crazed chuckle. Josh took a step back, his hand grabbing Kendall's arm to pull him away, too. Kendall's breathing was so intense that his vision began to fade. He felt like passing out.
"Let this image be forever burned into your little unbelieving minds," said Derek as his body's shuddering became even more violent. "As I'm breaking your necks, remember what you saw. This is what you asked for, Chris."
Josh turned back to Chris, expecting to see the same fear in his eyes, but instead, Chris continued watching with a strange, calm look on his face.
"And once I'm finished, we're going to find that bratty little girl…"
"You're not touching Olivia!" Josh screamed, anger rising alongside the fear.
"Oh, but Josh," sneered Derek, "she's going to be the newest addition to our beautiful creation. You should be proud!"
Josh wanted nothing more than to scream, but Derek's body was now twitching so violently that it appeared downright impossible to take him on in a fight.
"And once everything is said and done," Derek announced proudly, "the world will finally see the genius that Dr. Taggart truly was, and it will regret spitting in his face with its insults. This is the moment we've been waiting for for years, and now it's finally come! What do you have to say to that, Chris?"
"How do you feel?" said Chris.
Had Josh not been so terrified, he would have raged. How could Chris be so calm and collected right now? It didn't make sense, unless…
"Oh, I'm feeling like a new man," said Derek with another laugh. "I'm feeling strong, powerful, dizzy."
Chris raised his eyebrows. "Dizzy?"
"Yes, my body isn't used to such energy," said Derek, his eyes beginning to wander. "It must be...from the heat."
He took a step toward them, and though it appeared to be menacing, there was a noticeable lack of balance when his foot made contact with the floor.
"Yes, you brats are as...good as dead...now," said Derek, though his voice was growing hoarse with each word. His eyes were growing increasingly unfocused as he stared back and forth between them. "Once I...ugh...get through with you, I'll...ugh!"
His hand flew to his chest and his eyes clenched shut. If Kendall wasn't so petrified and confused, he would've guessed the man was having a heart attack. His breathing was becoming louder and more frantic, and his eyes, full of confidence just moments before, were now wide with fear. He grunted and locked eyes with Chris, who only smiled in response.
"What...have you done?" Derek gasped.
"I must say I didn't think it was possible for you idiots to make that stuff any more dangerous," said Chris in a very knowing tone, "but you did it."
Derek reached a threatening hand out but his knees gave out and he dropped to the floor. His body began to spasm violently and he writhed like he was in extreme agony. His mouth was agape; he looked like was trying to scream but lacked the willpower and energy.
Kendall buried his face in his hands. He thought back to Rise of the Sentients, in which a particular scene involved one of the human villains moving very similarly after being infected by something toxic. It had always made him very squirmish as he imagined toxins moving through the body, poisoning every organ it passed.
Josh couldn't look away as the man who only days ago had been one of his bosses, calm, collected, and in control, was now being reduced to a squirming mess on the ground. As he watched, he began to notice that Derek's body seemed to be growing thinner by the second. He turned back to Chris, who was still watching with the same expectant look.
Finally, Derek managed to give one last dirty look to Chris, eyes burning with fire and murder with a glint of awareness that he'd been tricked. His entire face now looked hollow and horribly emasculated, like the life was being sucked from his body like a vacuum. He practically looked like a zombie. He opened his mouth and spoke in a labored, raspy voice.
"I...hate...YOU!"
With a final gasp of pain, Derek's eyes slammed shut and he rolled onto his back, completely still and void of life, his face permanently contorted with his agony.
Kendall and Josh stood frozen on the spot, their brains making whatever vain attempts they could to process what had just happened, until Chris' snarky voice broke them from their trance.
"And that's the end of Derek Brody. He loved his work so much, it just killed him."
"What-?" stammered Josh. "What just happened?"
Chris finally turned back to Josh, satisfaction still illuminating from his smile. "I'm assuming Rebecca told you about my little vacation right before you started? The one where I got this bump on my head?"
"Yeah," said Josh. "She said you were trying to keep secret about it, but she and Derek found out."
"Of course they did," said Chris. "They were pretty much the ones who goaded me into it in the first place by having that fake conversation for me to hear, saying that they 'finally found it.' I was an idiot for believing them, really."
"Finally found what?" Kendall piped up, still staring horrified at Derek's frail, lifeless body.
"The one thing that their precious resurgence was missing," said Chris. "The stuff I was telling you about earlier, hidden in the remains of one of my dad's old buildings in Utah. I thought if I could get to it first, it'd be safe from them, but like I said, that was their plan. I led them right to it." His smile faltered into a scowl for a brief moment. "But whatever. It doesn't matter now. Come on. Get me outta here."
Josh and Kendall set about wrestling with the straps some more. Once they finally were able to free one arm, the entire process began to speed up since Chris was able to help out. After a few minutes, he was finally free.
"Oh, that feels so good," said Chris as he flexed his fingers and rubbed his body where he'd been held down. "I was worried my blood flow would get completely cut off."
"So what was it they were looking for?" asked Josh, still as confused as ever as he found himself staring once more at the body on the ground. "At your dad's place?"
"Honestly, I have no idea what it is, but I was told that it has some risky side effects. Since they no doubt used it in their resurgence, I had a strong feeling that whatever they did to make their resurgence so powerful probably made the side effects a million times worse, though I must say I'm still surprised it happened that quickly." Despite Chris' relief that he was right, he too was a little shaken up at the effects. He remembered his father's demise being described to him so vividly, but he had no clue what it would look like firsthand. He shook his head, deciding that his curiosity was officially settled and he wanted to look at it no more. "Now come on. We have to find your sister and get outta here."
"What about Rebecca?" said Josh. "What's she gonna say when she finds out about her partner?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," said Chris, "but it's probably best not to be here when she does."
They nodded in agreement and stepped over the skeletonized corpse to the hallway.
REFERENCE:
*Fazbear's Frights #3: 1:35 AM, p. 248 (epilogue p. 6)
A/N: Hope it was worth the wait. Those of you who followed me during the writing of this story's predecessor, The Nightmare House, probably remember that I have a tendency to sometimes underestimate how long (and how many chapters) it actually takes me to fully flesh out my ideas, which in and of themselves can take a while to get just right (you have no idea how long the flashback sequence took!). I initially had every intention of finishing the major action of the story in this chapter but came to realize that there was too much to fit in a single chapter, so I had to push some of it back for the next chapter. But hey, since the next chapter's already partially written, here's to hoping it won't be another two-and-a-half months before my next update!
Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Stay safe out there, and as always..happy reading!
