Chapter 15:

Getting Started

Her hands were still trembling, and so were her legs. No matter how hard she tried to calm herself, the fact that she had just come across Freddy Fazbear himself along with the boy, whom she had recently befriended, in the middle of the woods had blown away the last fragments of the grey matter within her brain. If that wasn't enough to send her straight into an asylum, then perhaps listening to Gregory's talking about the bear's mind-boggling desire to free his friend from the Mega Pizzaplex would be the golden ticket for her to receive special treatment.

Seriously, what else did she not know about the true face of Fazbear Entertainment?

"You're still shocked?", asked her brother with the most relaxed voice of tone possible.

Lily turned to look at Daniel, the man bore a face similar to that of a typical blond-haired lifeguard dude in their early twenties who wouldn't stop bragging about his nonexistent achievement. Still, she had no clue as to why he was able to remain frighteningly calm and not moments from an emotional burst as well as the sanity to enjoy the mood with an animatronic bear by the lake. It was common sense for people to be scared out of their souls were things like these to ever occur. Since when he had already developed immunity towards them?

"O-Of course, I am!", she exclaimed in frustration. "How were you not shocked?"

The man blinked. "Oh. Just to let you know, I almost peed in my pants. Whoever didn't take that shit seriously should be punched in the face."

"But didn't you want to set up a camp with them?!"

"What's wrong with it? I don't see the reason why we shouldn't do it. Mom and dad wouldn't mind if I decided to play big, they got used to it anyways."

"N-No, I mean… I just…", words failed to describe her panicking sensations. So, she tried again, using simple sentence structures so that they wouldn't use up her remaining sense of the surroundings. "It's just that I didn't expect to… meet him in this place… I have never talked to him in person before. So how am I supposed to react in the first place, let alone striking a casual conversation with him? You could even see the awkwardness in his eyes back when we first stumbled upon him. Clearly, he didn't want to talk as well."

"Well, not that I didn't notice it...", said the man, hand scratching the chin as though he was in deep thought. "Sure, it's weird seeing him like that, being quiet and shy and all of that. And we are probably one of the first few to witness it. But hey, he seemed relaxed when talking to me. I think he even enjoyed it a lot. You should have been there, you know. He wouldn't stop asking questions about our country, so you could have used it to start a little chit chat with him. But no, you dragged the Gregory kid away and ran to the opposite side of the lake. What were you two even doing back then?"

Lily felt her throat choked with regret and shame. Hard as she tried to come up with excuses to justify her attempts to keep her distance from the bear, the sole reason remained firm and unchanging. She was sane and mature enough to confidently assume that any human being, including children at her age, would easily be frightened to death were they to come across a dirty animatronic bear in the middle of the forest. Except for her brother. Though she might not believe it, deep down at the bottom of her heart, where choices were made emotionally rather than rationally, fear and doubts were what had been keeping her from accepting the ultimate truth.

"I just… wanted to hear the whole story again without being distracted."

"And that took you an entire walk around the lake?"

Fear because of the whispers she had been told about: rumours of ill-fated children forever lost in the never-ending maze of the Pizzaplex; old stories of long-forgotten predecessors in the distant past, the time of when it became an infamous urban legend about a child stuffed in a robot bearing same the name of whom she so had admired. The so-called "the one and only Freddy Fazbear" didn't seem to work anymore, did it? And yet, here it was, being one of the most iconic phrases spoken by everyone across the world. But why should she care about it in the first place?

And thus, doubts began shaping themselves in form of selfish excuses to ease one ego. As a result, it made her mentally unstable, constantly balancing on the rope floating above the bottomless pit. The people were ignorant, and so was she. But now, she wasn't anymore. She was both ready and hesitated at the same time. And when the time came, she must either choose one or forever succumb to her own mistakes.

"Gregory told me that Freddy… that he wanted to help his friends escape from the Pizzaplex."

As expected, the man gave her a questioning brow as well as a pair of narrowed eyes, implying that an explanation was needed in order to be fully elucidated. "…What?"

She sighed.

"You're not kidding, right?", continued the man, who remained doubtful.

"Why would I?", she replied. "Gregory had no reason to lie about it."

"Well, if so, then that is… really fucked up. Holy shit, I didn't expect he would even think of that. How corrupted was the company that even their own mascot started realizing how fucked up the situation and started revolting?" The reaction coming from her brother was the same as hers. Who would have thought? "Now that you mention it, back when I was talking with him about how rebellious robots and androids are portrayed in movies, he asked me what the term for the rebellious robots was. He even asked me whether he was one of them or not! I mean, why would he ask that question in the first place? Shouldn't he be fully aware that he is nothing like a deviant?"

"Deviants?", she rephrased. "Like deviancy? Isn't that word used for actions and behaviours being different from the social norm? What does that have to do with robots being rebellious?"

"Actually, it does. There's literally a game series dedicated to it."

"Whatever…"

Just then, her mind came to a halt.

Using the definition of the word "deviant" - someone whose behaviour is deviant, and "deviancy" - the quality of not being usual, and of being generally considered to be unacceptable, one could easily point out the apparent oddity within one's action and behaviour especially when those things were already programmed from the beginning. You acted out of bounds, you deviated from the standardized general, which was considered to be normal and ordinary. Clearly, judging from other people's commentary and her recent experience with the bear, the fact that even her brother didn't seem to notice the differences sent her mind straight to oblivion.

Clearly, Freddy was a deviant… or maybe overreacting was simply what she had been.

Freddy being sad? Well, the animatronics were implanted a personality chip, so it wouldn't be that surprising to see one of them expressing negative emotions.

Freddy being "rebellious" towards the company, a.k.a his creators perhaps, and wanted to free his friend from the so-called "solitary confinement"? Well, it could have been the decisive evidence to prove one's deviancy. On the other hand, such responses coming from the bear himself could be effortlessly justified by the company's controversial backstories. Likewise, how would one accept their fate as a plaything for a greedy and corrupted organization? How would one endure being confined within a cramped and tight space that prevented them from ever knowing what truly lied beyond those walls?

Which also begged the question: Did the other animatronics realize it as well?

Then again, how was she supposed to know? Would this information benefit her, nonetheless? She didn't know, not yet. Right now, a rest was what she definitely needed after a long trip around the forest, if she wanted to call it so. And perhaps, spend time contemplating whether she should go with her brother's crazy and outrageous plan or not. Frankly, she was rather expecting him and her to be given permission so that she could spend more time with the bear and the kid before never getting any chances to see them ever again. She just had to be patient and hoped that things would go smoothly for the man, despite parts of her feeling pessimistic about the outcome.

She couldn't believe it, Daniel actually managed to convince her parents. She didn't know how or when did he ask for permission because she was too busy practising sketching the environment on the hill nearby after having lunch. When she asked how he was able to persuade mom and dad to let them set up a camp at the empty campground nearby, his only reply was: "I just asked for their permission."

Well, that happened.

And now, here she was, taking a stroll among the white shelves placed with various items and magazines while her brother was looking for necessities such as canned food, snacks and water bottles. Those were not for them, but rather for Gregory and Freddy, of course. Daniel said that he wanted to provide the boy and the bear with a few things before they returned back on the road again. And since the two were literally runaways - with one running from their orphanage and one escaping from their "prison", with one being a property thief and one being a fugitive property - encountering problems and difficulties as hard as crossing a suspension bridge with a 4000-pound van would become so commonly confronted that none would pay attention whatsoever and casually walk pass them like a pebble to run over.

After a while, the man returned with a shopping basket filled with a handful of items.

"Do you think this would be enough?", he said.

Lily took a quick look inside, there were canned foods, packages of marshmallows, water bottles, and some other camping equipment… There wasn't much since they had already been provided with campaign supplies. So, they just needed to buy a few more things like snacks and drinks… or more marshmallows.

"I think that's enough.", she replied. "But seriously though, marshmallows? Didn't mom give us like two or three packages of them already? Why are you so obsessed with eating them?"

"First of all, they are freaking tasty. Secondly, three bags of marshmallows wouldn't be enough for tonight's camping because I don't tend to leave anyone any of them when they don't have enough or eat too slow. Thirdly, I want to buy these as snacks for Gregory when he's hungry."

"Who would buy these as snacks?! You should give him others like Poca, Cheetos or Pringles, they are far more better than these squishy pillows. Besides, people easily tend to get more tired of eating sweets than sour and salt."

"…Okay? Then why don't you use your own money to buy them?"

Upon hearing that, she immediately stomped her feet towards the snack shelves and returned with two party-sized bags of nacho cheese flavoured Doritos and two cans of soda as she forcefully put them into the basket. Then, she turned to look at him with determined eyes.

The man blinked. "I'm just kidding.", he chuckled. "Okay, fine, princess, I'll pay for them. Although, I have a feeling that we haven't bought enough things for the kid to get ready when he goes back on the road."

"You mean we need more marshmallows?", she asked sarcastically.

"What? No. It's about Freddy. You know, the guy's literally a huge ass animatronic bear. So, in order not to be spotted by people, he needs a disguise, right? A cloak should do the job. Lucky for us, they are selling these on the other side of the store. We just need to buy the cheapest one and big enough to cover him."

"Why don't just buy a zipped hoodie? There's one with a size of extra extra extra large hanging over there. They are offering a discount so you might be able to buy it."

"Nah, it's still too expensive. And I doubt that he could fit in it anyways. I mean, he wears shoulder pads. Can you imagine walking pass a random person wearing a hoodie having their shoulders weirdly poking out? Not to mention, how are you even going to hide those big ass foot that creates an earthquake whenever he walks? Buying shoes that are bigger than a person's face? See? With a cloak, it can be used to hide from the top to the bottom, the only things left are a mask and some shades to cover his face and make it less obvious. Sadly, I don't think I would have enough to buy a scarf and dark shades."

Woah, what was that? Was she hearing it straight clear? Daniel was using logic and reasoning in his argument, which was a rare sight to behold. Usually, he would rather be airheaded when it came to these types of conversations, but at least he didn't lack common sense and wasn't broke yet. As much as she hated to admit it, he was totally right, a cloak would be the best option for the bear to hide from people, though she speculated that it wouldn't work when being inside a crowded place like cities or supermarkets… Then again, his seven-foot height and the mechanical sound he made might attract attention, so they still have to keep distant, especially from the polices.

Talking about cops, the fact that there hadn't been any article talking about or at least, mentioned the missing of the mascot of Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex had taken her by surprise. Considering one day had passed since the incident, the media should have been exploded with news and everyone would have been intensely discussing it across all platforms from YouTube to Twitter by now. And yet, all she could find was headlines tagged with Freddy malfunctioning during last weekends' onstage performance and that the building was closed for the following week to have constant maintenance for the animatronics before they could go back to performing again. Just those. No missing Freddy incidents.

What was the company up to? Why would they remain silent? What were their intentions? Shouldn't they inform the masses that there was currently an animatronic bear on the loose? And since this was Freddy Fazbear they were talking about, people would definitely lend more than just a hand and they wouldn't have had any difficulties retrieving the bear. Of course, this was only spoken through the perspective of the ones who hadn't known about their idol's desire for freedom, yet. Were she to give her opinion on this, she would actually support the bear's actions and even assist him in achieving it.

For example: what she had been doing now…

After deciding what to buy, she and her brother went to the cashier to pay for them, hoping that they had enough money. If not, the man had to leave his precious marshmallows behind, which was what she was expecting.

"A cloak? It's been ages since the last one was sold. We were about to take it off the shelves today but didn't expect you two to buy it.", said the clerk amusingly as she scanned the products to accumulate the final price. "What do you use it for in camping? Adding more atmosphere when telling scary stories by the fire?"

"Well, something like that.", grinned Daniel.

The woman giggled. Shortly after, she put the products in a paper bag, while the cloak was put in another one. "That would be… 155 dollars and 96 cents."

The man said nothing and willingly handed over the cash. He didn't even flinch! One hundred and fifty-five. One hundred and fifty-five dollars and ninety-six cents! That amount of money was so much more than what she could ever handle. With pocket money like this at her age, she would be considered a rich kid in her school, effortlessly surpassing any other rich kids she knew. Imagine how many snacks and drinks she could buy in the canteen…

With that being done, the two said goodbye to the cashier as both headed out of the store. Incidentally, just when they exited the door, another man walked in.

The man was old as though he had experienced the fiftieth spring of his lifetime. Each strand of hair was short and lush with a salt and pepper tint, indicating that such colours as one had used to be would soon turn pale and become one with purity at the end of time. He must have stayed up reading books or documents until late at night because there were crow's feet under his eyes. With a time chiselled and weather-beaten face, he might seem a bit spiritless as if life and old age were getting the better of him, but at least the full beard made him a bit optimistic in life somehow.

The clothes he wore were ragged and threadbare also, as if he was giving in to the passage of time and is unconcerned about his appearance: thick brown cotton jacket shielding the coolness of the air around; inside was a red collar shirt checked with white squares and white lines in a pattern; simple navy-blue trousers; a pair of mud-brown boots specialized for hiking… Either the man or his clothes gave off a distinctive smell of cigarettes, and it was the kind of smell which she so passionately despised. Fortunately, her dad wasn't and had never been a smoker, such a great feature of a dad that one might find it rare among other dads.

The man stopped at the clerk, he dipped his right hand into his right pocket and took out a black leather wallet. "Just the usual, Samantha.", the man spoke with his deep and manly voice.

"You don't have to call me that. Sam is enough.", said the woman.

Since Daniel parked the car right in front of the store, she was able to hear their conversation while the man was filling up the gas. She saw the clerk handed the man a pack of cigarettes after taking the money from him. Then, the man proceeded to take out one of the cigs, used the lighter he had just taken out from his jacket's pocket, lit it up and smoked it as though there was no one stopping him from doing it. True to her assumptions, the woman didn't seem to be taken aback by his carefree attitude, just a bit annoyed.

"You can smoke in here but Jesus Christ, at least keep your distance so you don't accidentally suffocate me or explode this entire place up! This is a gas station, you know."

After hearing that, Lily felt as if she should encourage her brother to refill the car more quickly else both of them would win a chance to be sent to the afterlife before one could even notice. This man was a daredevil!

"Sorry…", said the man as he moved a bit away from the desk, barely an inch from the former position.

The woman could only sigh. "Well, how's your research so far? Found anything interesting yet?"

"Still the same, nothing new for the past few weeks. Not much of progress to be considered a breakthrough."

She paid deep attention to their conversation, and of course, she tried not to look like she was eavesdropping on the talking by pretending to use the camera to take pictures or just simply play with it. Their voice was rather muffled a little since a glass door was separating her and the interior of the store, but it didn't mean she couldn't hear them entirely, she was still able to make out words and form sentences just easily.

Also, since when she started prying into other people's private matters?

"Oh, that's sucks.", the woman stopped for a bit, then spoke again shortly after. "Are you sure that thing is even real or not? Like, this whole thing sounds like a Grimm's bedtime story shits and stuff…. Sorry, it's just that I find it hard to believe."

"It's okay. Not everyone believes in these things nowadays. But hey, back in the days, they were the peak of a golden age of urban legends and creepy stories on the internet."

"Creepy stories on the internet? Creepypastas? Oh man, you're giving me chills now. So nostalgic. But seriously, though, even if you tell me it's real, no matter how sincere you are, which I would know, I still won't believe it. Unless you show me pictures of it that is…"

"Fair enough.", remarked the man. "But this thing is smart. Traps won't work against it. I've tried before, the camera got destroyed. Money wasted."

The woman chuckled. "Well, if it's smart like you, then good luck catching it."

The man said nothing, he then sucked up the entire cig in one breath and threw it into the trash bin nearby. After that, he went to the toilet.

Okay… that was confusing… At first, she thought it was her fault when figuring out which word was which as all of them were slightly muffled and unclear. So, she tried to sneak closer by pretending to take a shot near the glass door, where she was able to receive the sound somewhat clearer. It was when the conversation suddenly took a twist, and everything became so baffling to her that she had no clue what they were talking about whatsoever. Mentioned words such as "urban legends" and "creepypastas" caught her attention. It was rather strange when hearing these words in a conversation between two adults who would most likely talk about their daily life rather than… this particular topic.

When she was in deep thought, her brother called out to her. "Lily, hop in. Let's get back to our campground."

Upon hearing that, she quickly bolted to the car and closed the door before her brother drove it away from the gas station.

"Put the cloak in your bag. Don't let anyone find out that we have just bought a hundred-buck cloak just for us to not use it but rather for an animatronic bear."

"Why mine?"

"I would have asked you back that same question."

She huffed in annoyance. Without further saying, she carefully stuffed the giant piece of cloth into her backpack. She couldn't believe she was doing this for a robot bear who she would likely never get a chance to meet again. But hey, at least she was the first to be able to go on a camping trip with him. Who would have thought? Besides, she couldn't wait to see him in this cloak, that would be so hilarious and amusing.

Gregory watched Freddy taking another deep breath, as though an animatronic could even breathe in the first place.

"Let me get this straight and clear once again…", said the bear, sounding desperate for some reason. "A crocodile kidnaps a child promises the parent that their child will be returned if and only if they correctly predict what the crocodile will do next…"

"Mhm..."

Finding and collecting dead branches, tossing them on a pile of dirt, and setting them ablaze was pure joy. As those dry, withered boughs slowly released years and years of energy soaked up from the sun, the air, and the ground around it, out came bright lights, whispering hisses, sizzling pops, and a thick, intoxicating smell of Musky Smoke N' Pine Needles. He could close his eyes and let his eyelids painted yellow and orange kaleidoscopes as the heat washes over him, rosing up his cheeks and giving him that nice, warm hot face effect. In that afternoon light shone the evergreen forest, on that cosy, bright picnic bench, besides that cool, crystal blue lake, his ears and nose perked up, as he called on some of his primal, caveman instincts to focus on every little sound and smell around him.

"…if the parent guesses that the child will be returned, there will be two unpredictable outcomes: either the crocodile will return the child or will not return the child. This part is understandable."

"Mhm… Go on."

When the time came, he must eat his fill. So, Gregory and Freddy went to look for a river nearby to catch some fish and grilled them over the fire. It didn't take long for him to find one since it was situated near the campground. Lucky. And as usual, the bear only needed a single attempt to catch one big fish while still bearing an innocent smile which made him want to pinch it so badly… as though metal could even be pinched.

"Alright… But a dilemma arises for the crocodile if the parent guesses that the child will not be returned. The outcome in which the crocodile chooses to keep the child, he violates his terms: the parent's prediction has been validated, and thus, the child should be returned… H-However, the case in which the crocodile chooses not to keep the child, he still violates his terms. Why? Because the parent's prediction has been falsified, which means the child should not be returned, which means he has to return the child…"

"You're getting there…"

Anyhow, long story short, he prepared the fish while the bear fetched some dried boughs and leaves in order to create a campfire. During the moment when the fish was being cooked and when he was eating it, he would continue to teach Freddy and answer his questions regarding the outside world; and the bear would continue to be enlightened and had his mind blown and his jaws almost fell off whenever an interesting knowledge was learned.

"Um… But then, he would still violate his terms since the parent's prediction that the child will not be returned, he will not return the child. B-But then again, he would still violate his terms since the parent's prediction that the child will not be returned, which has been validated, he has to return the child… B-But if he returns the child then it still violates his terms since the parent's prediction was the child will not be returned… I… he will not return the child…"

"So, what will the crocodile do in that situation?"

"I… I… I do not know. G-Gregory… I f-feel like my head is falling into an unending regression…", the bear exclaimed in panic, his eyes were literally twitching. "What are these kinds of problems?! My processing unit cannot even handle them normally as usual! What is happening?"

"W-Woah! Okay, let's stop for now. Guess you are allergic to paradoxes..."

He would do this until the siblings return… or not. But he hoped that the former assumption came true so that he would have more friends for tonight's camping party.

Much to his surprise, they actually did.

"Hey, you two, look who's back!", the man waved from afar as he and his sister emerged from the walls of bushes.

"Daniel? Lily? You guys actually came!? How did you guys even ask for permission?", he asked, too stunned to even pace forward and give them a welcoming greeting.

"Let's just say me and my parents had made some terms for a contract to be made.", the man winked. "Or you can ask Lily, she can explain it to you."

He diverted his gaze at the girl, who rolled her eyes after that. "I literally had to take a fifteen-minute lecture on what to do and what not to do when going on a camping with a 'wild' brother. Some of them were even repeated a few times to make sure that I wouldn't forget."

"Anyways, since we were allowed to set a camp here, we first drove to the gas station nearby to buy some stuff. For you guys, of course!" Daniel placed his backpack on the table, unzipped it and took out a white shopping bag.

Gregory looked into the bag, hand scrambling to see what was inside. His eyes widened. "Two bags of Doritos? Two cans of coke? Four canned foods!? Six water bottles!?", his hand continue scrambling until it touched a rather squishy thing. "… and uh, marshmallows?"

"You will need those when you're back on the road again. I bought the marshmallows. Lily accounted for the rest. You should thank her for that."

Too speechless, he was at a loss for words. The people whom he had just met today and yesterday had already been willing to use their money to do whatever they can to help him before saying goodbye and perhaps never had a chance to ever see them again. If, lucky enough, then he might be able to come across the siblings someday, or maybe not since they came from the UK, and he would have to wait until summer next year for them to return again. Or maybe he could ask for their phone number, and then he would try to find a way to communicate with them.

"W-Wow… I don't know what to say… Thank you so much for your help. H-How do I even repay you guys?"

"Oh, it's nothing but a handful of cash. I can earn them back in no time. Oh, I almost forgot. I have a surprise to give to my guy Freddy Fazbear over here as well."

Upon hearing that, the bear raised both of his ears up high. "A surprise? F-For me?"

The man excitedly grinned as he signalled the girl to hand over the bag she had been holding by her side the entire time. At first, she flinched, hesitated to walk to Freddy. Soon after, she took a deep breath and slowly approach the bear, hands straightening out for him to take it. "H-Here… y-your gift, from us."

The bear blinked. "Thank you."

"Come on, take a look!", insisted Daniel.

Freddy looked inside, and pulled out a long , earth-brown piece of fabric.

"A… cloak?", said Gregory.

"Correct! A cloak! Freddy can use it to disguise himself! Pretty awesome, am I right?"

The boy almost dropped his lower jaw upon hearing that. "W-What!?"

The bear intently scanned the cloak with thoughtful eyes.

"Try it on!", the man insisted again. "Here, I'll help you."

Did as he was instructed, the bear put on the cloak with the help of the man. When the knot had been tied, the man backed away, examining the look with astonishment and pure joy. In fact, everyone was looking at the bear with the exact same gaze.

"Hm… Now put on the hood."

Freddy put the hood on.

All widened their shocked eyes, too stunned to utter a single word.

"Oh my god. Fucking perfection!"

"Oh my god. Fucking perfection!"

A/N:

Sorry for the one-week delay, during that time I was writing a one-shot for my upcoming project when I finish with this one. I recommend you guys to check it out! Also, exams are coming back… *sigh*