*Thoughts*
"Speech"
".Plushtrap Speak."
Into the Woods, Part 4
Mangle burst from the trees, hacking.
Her companions--Chica and Plushtrap--did the same, coughing wildly and fanning the air around them.
"Why--is everything--on fire?!" Chica forced out between hacks.
"I--don't--know--either!!" Mangle replied, taking deep breaths.
Indeed, the fire had found them out, consuming everything in its path. It had grown immensly, covering more ground.
Plushtrap chirped, nudging them and pointing.
Smoke was beginning to pour in from the treetops.
Mangle screamed; Chica grabbed her and Plushtrap, and, throwing them under her arms, sprinted through more of the forest.
"Where are we supposed to go?!" She yelled, hearing the crackling of the flames catching the spot they were previously in.
"I don't know!!" Mangle wailed, gripping her own ears. "Who knows where--"
".SCREE!!."
But, alas, the warning was still too late; Chica ended up running directly over a hill, falling onto a bunch of trees that were so tightly knit together she rolled off of the tops.
After rolling a while, they fell again, hitting the ground.
Moans came from the three.
They shakily rolled away from each other, Mangle sitting up.
"You two okay...?"
Groaning, the yellow chicken sat up, rubbing her beak.
She kicked a leg in and out.
She tried with the other, wincing as she did so.
"I think I may have hurt my ankle, but I'm otherwise okay."
Plushtrap frowned.
She rubbed an arm and looked down.
".Cree ree, sree..."
Once the words registered in the other's brains, Chica reached out and patted the bunny's shoulder.
"Hey, it's not your fault, Plushtrap. I didn't stop in time, that's all."
The sound of sniffing caused them to turn to Mangle.
Said vixen was, in fact, sniffing at the air, ears twitching.
"Eh, Mangle...?"
She turned to them, eyes worried.
"Chica, can you walk?"
She kicked out her leg again.
Another wince.
"Maybe; I might need help."
The vixen nodded, she and Plushtrap helping her to her feet.
Her right foot hung slightly, causing a limp; Plushtrap gave her some support.
Mangle turned, twitching.
"Girls...I think we should probably brace ourselves for blood, or something..."
She shuddered.
"...Worse."
The other girls shared a look.
They carefully began down the path.
Nightmare's eyes slowly fluttered open.
Not even all the way; they were still slanted, and one eyes had practically been sealed shut.
He slowly let them close once more.
*Why am I cold...*
He attempted to move himself; unsure of what exactly he could move.
A wet, sticky substance was under him.
*Warm...*
Footsteps echoed, approaching fast.
*Huh?*
Someone--actually, several someones--screamed, prompting him to try and open his eyes again.
He found three figures looming over him.
Struggling, he managed to move his head upwards.
*...Am I dead already?*
Their voices sounded, but he couldn't understand at the moment.
Somebody crouched in front of his face.
A female voice spoke to him.
*Oh, is the Angel gonna carry me off now...??*
His eyes lowered shut again.
He felt something hitting the side of his face, the voice yelling at him.
His eyelids were forced open by foreign fingers, until another voice joined the panicking first, prompting the user to release his black flaps of skin.
He moaned slightly.
The bear felt his head gently being lifted, the two voices calling out to him.
The minutes passed, his distorted hearing gradually clearing.
Eventually, the words became clearer.
"--tmare? Ni...mare, can you...us...?"
He slowly lifted his eyelids once more, moaning again as he did so.
A green bunny held his face, chirping, and a white and pink fox next to her called him as well.
"--ushtrap, I think...wake!!" The vixen cried.
The bunny trilled.
The gears began to turn in his head.
*Wait...I...I know them...*
His vision slowly cleared further, still a bit messy from the blood in his eyes.
*...Mangle...Plushtrap?!*
Mangle dived behind him, helping him to sit up.
He groaned, trying to move his limbs and make sure they were all there.
They were heavy, but all there nonetheless.
He began to cough, small trickles of blood coming out and staining his arm.
"Chica!! Nightmare's awake!!" Mangle called to the yellow chicken behind her.
Said chicken was trying to steady her own breathing as she crouched over Bonnie's body.
She had each of her hands pressed on him, one on his chest and the other on his neck.
The bunny's stomach was ripped open, blood having been gushing from the open wound.
Various other scratches and bite marks littered his body.
*Come on...come on...*
She held her breath, praying for the unconscious rabbit to give her something, anything that would indicate that he was still alive.
"Guys, Bonnie's not responding at all. I'm trying for his heartbeat..."
Plushtrap's ears twitched.
".Chrir ree ree mrir?."
Chica's eyes widened, face emitting a blue hue.
"Whaddya mean,did I try mouth to mouth?!"
Mangle sniffed at the air.
"Uh, girls, I smell smoke again, so ya might wanna try something, Chica!!"
Chica looked back down at the unconscious blue bunny.
Heart pounding, she inhaled.
Clamping her eyes shut, she slammed her beak into his muzzle, spreading his jaws apart with her own.
She breathed out, shoving air into his lungs.
Hard.
She felt his body lurch upwards underneath her.
*Okay, maybe that was a little too hard...*
She sucked in through her nostrils and breathed out again, albeit a bit softer now.
His body lurched slightly, but not as much as before.
She continued for a couple of minutes before she felt him breath shakily on his own.
She left their mouths together, waiting to see if he would stop or not.
Luckily, while shaky, his breathing remained stable and constant.
She pulled up, gagging slightly at the bloody taste left in her mouth.
Wiping her beak off, she stood up, stepping to the side and pulling Bonnie up by his underarms.
She shifted to carrying him bridal style, as to balance his wound and not make it bleed more.
"Augh...what's going on...?"
Nightmare was managing to fully come to his senses now, rubbing the blood out of his eyes.
Plushtrap trilled, rubbing the bear's head and trying to get it to stop bleeding.
"We just found you guys..." Mangle replied, eyes shaking.
Nightmare blinked.
"Guy's'...?"
His eyes drifted around before landing on Chica.
More specifically, the bunny in her arms.
The memories came flooding back.
His arms shot up, hands gripping the sides of his head.
"Oh no, no no no no no no..."
He squeezed his eyes shut, hyperventilating.
".Nriri, scree, tiree...ree rea rae..."
Plushtrap rubbed his back.
Nightmare inhaled and exhaled at her command.
Still shaking, he lowered his arms and opened his eyes slowly.
"Th...thanks, Plushtrap..."
She nodded, giving him a small nuzzle.
Mangle looked around, ears lowering.
*I really don't wanna ask this...but...*
She inhaled.
"Nightmare, where's...where's Fredbear...?"
Nightmare's eyes widened, panic beginning to rise again.
The girls tensed up, awaiting the worst.
"Wait, he...he got away, I remember. I...I told him to run, I saw him...escape through the trees..."
The females exhaled...
"Wait, girls, um...why am I still alive? I...I'd'a thought they would have killed me by now..."
Said girls snapped to attention, eyes widening in remembrance.
"Nightmare, there's a fire," Chica filled him in. "We've been running from it--that's how we found you. I fell down some trees that were so hard they felt like rocks."
The bear's eyes widened once more.
"Wait, so...do you think that scared them off??"
"Probably."
Mangle and Plushtrap helped the bear to his feet.
He wobbled a bit, the two helping him balance.
"Chica, how's your ankle?" Mangle asked.
"It doesn't hurt as much; I can walk on my own now." She replied, kicking her foot in and out.
"Are you sure you can carry Bonnie, too??"
Chica met her gaze.
A determined look was burned into the chicken's eyes.
"Yes, I can."
Her three companions suddenly began sniffing the air.
"We better get outta here," Nightmare commented worriedly.
They did just that, Chica carrying Bonnie and Nightmare making it best he could, trailed by Mangle and Plushtrap to make sure he didn't fall.
The crew made their way through the forest, doing their best to put as much room between them and the fire as possible.
They broke through another cluster, into a large clearing with a hill on the far side.
It appeared to be covered in bushes.
The kids had to stop for a breather.
Mangle's eyes darted to the top of the hill.
"Hey guys...is...are those trees shaking?" She asked, confused.
The others turned their attention up there, to find that Mangle was right.
"Do you think it's those dog things?" Nightmare wondered, worried.
"I hope not," Chica growled. "I was hoping the fire scared 'em all off."
Nightmare sighed.
"Guess not. We better get outta here before--"
CREEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAK
One of the trees further in toppled over, causing a snapping and painful-sounding domino effect on the trees facing the hill.
But what really caught the kids' attention was the two blurs that were violently flung through the air, being sent through a painful number of branches and having several trees falling, knocking them every which way.
They eventually hit the ground, rolling down the hill.
The others rushed to them as fast as they could.
Mangle dropped to her knees, grabbing Foxy's head and lifting it to her face.
"Foxy?! Foxy?!"
She shook him slightly, elicting a moan from her cousin.
"Aye, aye, stop shakin'..."
She let out an "eep!" and dropped him.
She then let out another as she realized the problem with that and pulled him to his feet.
Her cousin staggered around, toppling forward as she tried to hold him up.
His eyes spun in different directions, him having to close them and shake his head back and forth to keep them in place.
"Aye, ow..."
Nightmarionne had been knocked out entirely; the bruise portruding on the side of its head swelling much worse now.
Once Foxy, while still leaning a bit, could stand on his own, Mangle unwrapped her arms from him and stood to the side, still holding his arm.
"What's going on up there?!" Chica asked, heart speeding up.
Foxy inhaled and exhaled, eventually getting enough breath to talk.
"Aye, they was...af'er us. Marion an' I wen' up a tree...eh, that happen'd afta."
His ears twitched.
"An' we had ta crawl through thern bushes..."
Plushtrap let out a terrified squeak.
Looking up, the 5 conscious kids found the predators, with their sick,twistedgrins slowly descending upon them.
"Aw shit..." Chica muttered.
"Agreed, unfortunately..." Nightmare replied.
The bear whispered to Foxy.
"We can't go back the other way, Foxy; there's a fire, and it's headed this way..."
Foxy's ears flattened, and he gulped.
Plustrap trilled worriedly.
"Plushie's right," Mangle whimpered. "We aren't exactly in fighting condition..."
The scent of smoke began to waft in, making the predators pause.
Nightmare bit his tongue, an idea forming in his brain.
His ears perked up, a grin plastering itself on his face.
"Hey Mangle."
The vixen's ears perked up at his change of volume.
"Hrm?"
"What was that weird game all you girls used to play where you mercilessly beat each other with wet sticks?"
"Uh...we had several."
"No, I mean the one where there was, like, a "Queen of the Stick-Beaters" or something like that, and she would mercilessly chase the others around with a wet stick...or something like that."
Mangle snapped her fingers.
"It was "Queen of the Stick-Smackers", yeah."
"Okay, wasn't there one time where Jack-o-Chica accidently lit the stick on fire?"
"Oh yeah! It was weird because it was already wet, too..."
Nightmare nodded vigorously, then winced slightly because of his wound.
However, his grin remained; and, with a glance at the the sniffing predators, his eye twitched with a flash of insanity.
He looked back at her, grin widening.
She then realized what exactly he was insinuating.
A grin spread on her face as well.
She carefully let Foxy go, him not wobbling as much anymore.
The confused fox tilted his head to the side.
"Lassie...?"
Mangle and Nightmare shot back the way they came, Mangle waving over her shoulder.
"WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK!!"
"What the--WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Chica screeched, flabbergasted.
However, the bear and the vixen had already dissapeared back beyond the trees.
Smoke had begun to pool in, signaling the fire getting closer.
The predators, after some snapping at each other and barking, seemed to have decided to kill the children and then run.
They came forward once more, the supposed leader moving the fastest.
It spotted the unconscious Bonnie in Chica's arms, grinning and licking it's twisted fangs.
The yellow chicken growled and stepped back.
Plustrap and Foxy bared their teeth and growled as well, attempting to be intimidating.
They were shaking, and injured for the most part, so it wasn't as effective as it could have been.
The first predator lunged--
--and was promptly hit in the face by a flaming branch.
All heads whipped around to find Nightmare and Mangle bursting from the smokey trees, unleashing demonic roars.
Both held an array of flaming ammunition between their claws, chucking them at the predators.
Several ended up burned, a couple getting flames in their eyes.
They howled and charged off, only the leader remaining.
It snapped its jaws, rising up again from the cowering position it had taken up to avoid the items of pain inflicted upon its pack members.
However, the angry bear and vixen were having none of it, and angrily charged the beast with their remaining ammuntion--two large branches.
Mangle lept forward, swung, and nailed it right in the eyes.
It toppled back, yelping, eyes forced shut.
"YOU CAN'T SEE ME!!" She screamed, smacking it in the face repeatedly, leaving several scars and burn marks.
Nightmare jumped on its back, smacking it in the back of the head.
"I--HOPE--YOU--DIE--IN--A--FIIIIIIIIIIRE!!!!"
Its fur then proceeded tocatchfire, it howling in pain and rage and taking off.
Nightmare fell off of its back, laughing his ass off as it ran into several trees, blinded.
"That's what you get for messing with us and our friends,jerk!!"
The others stared, mouths agape, before Chica voiced her opinion.
"THAT WAS AWESOME--"
Foxy smacked his hook and hand together in a clapping motion before staring down at them and trying to figure outhowexactly he was supposed to clap.
Plushtrap squealed, giving a thumbs up.
Nightmare laughed, Mangle helping him up.
"Thanks, guys. Now, where do we--"
Ka-WHOOOOOOOSH!!
A blinding grey light blasted through the woods, temporarily blinding everybody.
Blinking it away, Nightmare shakily finished his sentence.
"...go from here..."
The others, vision clearing, worriedly looked at him.
"Mates," Foxy began, glancing around at them all. "Di'...di' that feel loike somebo'y we knew, or was tha--"
"That wasn't just you, Foxy," Chica interrupted. "I felt it too."
Nightmare, Plushtrap, and Mangle all nodded.
In silent agreement, they began trecking west, towards where the light had come from.
Freddy's vision blurred again, before dissipating.
He was back in the forest, now lying on his back on the dead grass.
The pain in his back suggested he had fallen after his little explosion.
Groaning, the grizzly sat up, rubbing the back of his neck.
He tried to remember what he had seen in that moment.
There was a grey bear in some sort of electrical grey void, and he had grabbed its hand.
Or something like that.
And then he rememberedwhyhe exploded in the first place.
Forcing himself to stand, albeit tipped over a bit and limping, he attempted to make his way over to a bloody mound on the ground.
(A/N: imagine him tipped like Withered Freddy)
However, he collapsed to his knees with another groan of agony, the pain rising up in his entire body.
He reached up to rub his eyes, and felt several scratch marks around his muzzle.
*Ouch.* He though as they stung from his touch.
Glancing down and shifting, he found his legs bore similar scratches, blood trickling from them.
He reached around to his back, attempting to feel where his fall had damaged him.
Squirming around, he eventually felt a swelled up spot that spread for a good distance, sending absolute pain through the bear's veins.
He found himself slumped on his stomach, moaning.
Suddenly, footsteps made his ringing ears stand up, and he lifted his head.
He found 7 others appearing, two unconscious and being carried.
His eyes widened as they approached, and he tried to speak to them.
However, when he did, his throat pounded with pain, forcing him to wince and stop.
Nightmare and Mangle rushed over to him, carefully lifting him upright.
His head rolled slightly, but he managed to keep it stable.
Several Freddle's poked their heads out; upon finding it was just the others, returned to hiding.
"Freddy, did you see that weird explosion? Did it hurt you guys??"
Nightmare, as he spoke, eyes twitched towards the mound of blood, which the other 3 had identified as BB and were trying to wake up.
Freddy twitched, pointing at himself.
He made a sort-of-circle on his chest and grunted.
Mangle's eyes widened.
"That was you?!"
He nodded.
Nightmare's eyes widened as well.
"Wow..."
Their heads turned to the others, fear working into their veigns.
"Guys, is...is he...?"
" 'Es still 'live," Foxy exhaled. "We foun' a pulse."
Freddy felt relief wash over him, shoulders relaxing.
And then he smelled smoke.
Looking at Nightmare, he gave tried to speak again, only for that blasted pain to return; so, in compensation, he grunted questioningly.
"There's a fire," the black bear explained. "We've been running from it."
Freddy's ears folded down, eyes widening.
"Exactly."
"How are we supposed to keep running from this dumb thing?!" Chica finally snapped. "It's like, the longer we do, it just gets worse!!"
"She's right," Mangle moaned.
Nightmare's ears folded down.
"What could have caused it, though? There's nothing that could have..."
And then a thought hit him.
"...The Twins..."
Everyone stared at him, confused.
"What if something happened to them, and they somehow started the fire? BB did say--"
"Their powers are fire," Chica finished for him, making the bear nod.
Plushtrap felt an idea form in her head.
"...Scree mrire ree ree, triii trii scree, mrir mrir recree??"
"Ye think t'ey coul' stop it, lass??"
She shrugged, expressing that it was a thought, at least.
Nightmare inhaled, then exhaled.
"It may be a thought, Plushtrap...but thoughts are all we've got right now, so we may as well try it."
And with that, they began their treck to not only escape the flames, but to find their other members.
The search dragged and dragged.
They searched everywhere, eventually having to loop back around the forest because the search was taking them out too far west.
Once looped back to the the east, the children continued to trek, the smoke getting thicker and the burnt places getting more prominent.
And then they found the sinkhole.
Something clicked within Nightmare, and he bolted to the edge of it, crouching down and looking in.
He found an unconscious orange bunny sticking out from under some rubble.
Eyes widening, he jumped down in.
The others called to him until they saw what he was running to.
He pushed the rubble off of her as best he could, pulling the bunny up into his arms as he sat down.
"Jack-o-Bonnie?! Jack-o-Bonnie!!"
Slowly, the bunny's eye sockets blinked open.
Her head rolled, pointing her face up at him.
"Huller..."
Her words were slurred. Badly.
That gigantic bulg on the side of her head probably had something to do with it.
Crud.
"Bonnie, what happened?"
Her head rolled again, and she giggled.
"Hehe...Chica an' I ran from wulfies, hehehe..."
He worriedly looked around.
*Where is she...?*
"Heehee, one of 'em bite Chica, I lit it on faare, hehehe...giant hole made nastay fall, hehe..."
Nightmare's eyes widened.
*Plushtrap was right!!*
"Gonna burn 'em," the bunny slurred. "Gonna burn 'em all, hurt Chica. Gonna burn 'em all, hehehe..."
And when she said that, the heat intensified.
Nightmare's breathing quickened, and he forced himself not to panic.
"Bonnie," he began, "You already burned them."
"Burn...burn...eh?"
"That's right," He said softly, the heat causing him to begin sweating a bit. "The fire got everywhere, and they're gone now. And earlier, Mangle and I used it to beat up some mean ones that hurt Foxy and Nightmarionne."
"Eh?"
"Yep, they're all gone now. You can...if you can...turn off the fire, now."
The bunny blinked, head rolling again and laying on Nightmare's chest.
"Hmmmmmmm..."
He placed his hand on her shoulder and began to rub it.
"Chica's gonna be fine, Bonnie. And so are you. We're all together again, so you don't have to be scared anymore."
She blinked again.
"Saaaaaaaaaafe...friends..."
He felt the heat start to get a little less unbearable.
Hope sparked in his chest.
*Wait...no wonder the fire was following us!!!*
"See, Jack-o-Bonnie? Your fire found us, and we found you. The things are gone, and they cn't hurt us anymore. So you can turn it off now."
She twitched, still laying on him.
"We're safe now, Bonnie. Chica's safe. We'll be fine. You can rest without worry, for now."
Jack-o-Bonnie closed her eyes.
"Safe..."
And with that, the fire was lifted from the forest, dissipating into smoke.
Welp, that ends our Into the Woods Saga!! Next we'll see if Fredbear made it. And, soon, we'll be seeing a familiar (to those who read the original) location...
Welp, see ya next chappie!!
