CHAPTER 16

The next day came and so did the potion in the mail to Jacob's delight. He called Sammy into his office so he could give further instructions.

Sammy, blissfully unaware beforehand not sure what to expect, delightfully entered Jacob's office. "What can I do for ya?" He said before witnessing the bottle of purple substance on in the corked beaker on the table. "Uh..." He remembered what he had to do that day.

"Today's the day Sammy! Take this stuff with you out to the forest, these bandages as well." Jacob handed Sammy a roll of bandage. "Bandage first, potion second – and make sure you revive them in the trailer so they don't get away!"

"Yeah, sure thing."

Sammy was about to turn around and leave, but Jacob interrupted him. "Hey, I was expecting you to be more enthusiastic about this sort of thing, what's wrong dear?"

Sammy gulped, "Don't take this personally but, It's just, I don't really enjoy looking at, well, dead people all the time. Its pretty gross..." This only scratched the surface of his discomfort.

"Hmm..." Jacob leaned back in his chair, fingers interlocked. "Sammy, as much as I care about your wellbeing, you need to do this for me, it's very very important. You don't want people thinking I'm gay, do you?"

"Wh..What?"

"Nevermind. Just do this for me, okay? Your presence means a lot to this company." He grabbed Sammy's hand and shook it, and placed the potion in his hands.

"Okay..." Sammy waddled away to the truck.

Sammy loved Jacob, but he wondered just when he would reach his limit with him. He, and pretty much everybody that had worked there, had been in a position where it was either death or their job. It was never like this before – Of course, it was still a confusing case of a company when 'Mugman' was still being worked on, but even then there were some very malicious activities going on that everybody had been paying the price for in the long run, events that Jacob hadn't even forseen but eventually led to happen under his power. A man out of sync with his own program.

Sammy had felt a horrid sense of anxiety as he drove back to the forest. In fact, he felt as if he had all sorts of mental problems ever since the he hid in the forest that day, and since he really started thinking about his mental state, he often thought, what caused this? Was it waking up from the coma? Was it the interaction with Jacob? The people he killed? The loved ones he killed…?

At this point his mental state was the least of his priorities, as he was only set on taking this chance to get his daughter back, no matter how rebellious of an action it seemed.

The final track of Korn's album 'Follow the Leader' played on the CD player in the truck.

'Your throat, I take grasp, Then your, eyes roll back, love racing through my veins...'

It was giving Sammy ideas that he probably shouldn't be thinking about while keeping his eyes on the road. Nonetheless, he kept the track on repeat as he felt he could relate all too well to it.

He parked next to his deteriorated mobile home and tread towards the forest. He dragged Necky & Plancy to the trailer, but lugged Maggie over his shoulder with an arm supporting her.

After bandaging them up, he placed the three in the trailer and only placed a drop of potion on Necky and Plancy, as he knew Maggie would take a lot of mechanical work to bring her back to her former glory, considering she was a part robot alien thing. But Sammy didn't consider her a thing, he considered her his pride and joy, and felt awful he let Jacob get into his head.

Just as the two started to wake up, he immediately shut the door without a word, leaving them in darkness as he drove back to the company.

Once he parked in the parking lot, he opened the door and the two immediately screamed as they noticed Maggie's corpse next to them.

"SHUT UP!" Sammy yelled at them, walking into the trailer, "I'll get back to you two later, you better be grateful you're even alive again. Right now I need to focus on Maggie, I'll let Jacob know you're in here."

"How the hell ARE we alive?!" Plancy's flower snapped back at him. "Last thing I remember you pointed a gun at our face!"

"Shut up asshole!" Sammy carried Maggie out of the trailer, "At this point I couldn't give a shit if you're alive or not! Jacob needed me to do this for you, so you better be fuckin' thanking me!"

"But-"

Before Plancy's flower could say anything, Sammy closed the door to the trailer, leaving them in total darkness once again.

Sammy put Maggie in a drawstring bag from the truck and carried her to Jacob's office.

"Hiya Sammy!" Jacob was delighted, "Did you get the task done that I asked of you?"

"Yeah, and I've got one for you as well!" Sammy opened up the bag and rested Maggie on the desk, "You're gonna fix her!"

"Me? Fix her? Ohoh Sammy, I appreciate your suggestions for the company, but this is far too much of a task I can handle at the moment!"

"It's not a suggestion, Jacob, It's a demand! I love her! I put your love above my love for her and look what happened! Can you imagine how this makes me feel?!"

Jacob looked at Maggie's corpse on the desk, then back at Sammy, who had been in visible distress. "Oh, I hate to see you upset, Sammy, and seeming that you cared about her…"

"Please! I don't care about anybody else that works here just as much, b-besides you, and, please oh please!"

Jacob thought about it. "...Alright. Consider her a work in progress." he filed Maggie away into a drawer.

Sammy wiped a tear. "Th-thank you, sir."

Before he left, Jacob halted him, "Wait! Before you go, be sure to let people know that along with Gay Paq, we have another androgynous actor named Emery!"

"Uh, what does 'Androdgeness' mean?"

"It means to be neither male or female."

Sammy was confused, he was so sure Gay Pac Man was a transgender woman, that's why he hated her so much, and he never recalled anybody calling her Gay Paq. "Um...Okay." He then turned around and walked to the rec room.

The rec room was where the actors would hang out if they weren't going on about their lives or working on something. Currently, Derby was hanging out there playing pool.

Derby, just like everybody else, knew about Sammy's bigotry, but talked to him anyway as she was just a naturally conversational person, despite the fact she recognized him as unbearable scum, as she just knew how to fake her emotions very well around people she just can't tolerate. "Hey Sammy!" She greeted him as she grabbed a pool cube, "What's new with you?"

"Did ya know we've got two androgynous actors now?"

"Ohh, I should have figured you'd bring that up with me."

"What?"

"You know Terice is still a trans woman, right?"

"Huh? Terice?"

"Ohh! I forgot, of course you were never told her actual name! It's okay though, it wouldn't be like me to judge the blind!"

Sammy wanted to roll his eyes, but he couldn't help but feel bad. "O-oh. Well, why is Jacob saying she's neither?"

"He's on the same boat as you Sammy, he just couldn't stand having a trans person as an actor, so not knowing that androgynous people are still trans, he dumbfoundedly goes and calls her that now out of spite!"

"Why doesn't he just fire her?"

"Nobody can find her! Last time anybody saw her was at the convenience store, but, well, when a bunch of certain stuff started happening, she took off somewhere. You didn't happen to see her, did you?"

"Um..No?"

"Pfshh, of course not, stupid! If you did she would have been dead by now, right?"

Sammy was silent.

"Say," Derby added, "If you're really a bigot, how come you're using her preferred pronouns?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, for somebody that goes out of their way to hate those people so much I would at least expect you to use her assigned pronouns at birth, or do what Jacob does and refer to her as they/them out of spite."

"Oh, well, I guess I'm just sorta...nice?"

Derby wasn't buying it, but still had her theories. "I'm starting to think you don't really like Jacob, do ya?"

"What?! Of course I do, he's the best!"

"Suuure, sure. How many things have you disagreed with him about in the past week? Be honest."

"Well-"

"-Cause if you're so honest about hating minorities, what's the hurt in being honest about everything else, Y'know?"

"Alright alright! Um...Disagreements, hm...If we're talking like, unknown to him, quite a few things, actually."

"Ahh. Now Sammy, I'm not saying you should go and tell him he's an idiot, but with me being a people person, I can tell you from experience he's probably not going to get better!"

"Oh whatever! I'm sure he's got some great things planned for the company!"

"For us too?"

"I'm leaving!"

"Okay! Just know, if you try to kill me, you'll be dead before you even see me!"

"Whatever! Stupid girl..."

Sammy knew she was right, infact he was a little intimidated by how perfect she was, and was certain if he even tried to do anything she'd for sure have him begging for mercy. Jacob probably knew this too, hence why she was still around. She also had a reputable fanbase too, though likely for reasons more explicit than just her athleticism and confidence.