Into the Wilderness

"You idiot!" Clyde stormed to the front of the truck, glaring through the small window between the driver's cabin and the storage hold. "That's my friend you just left behind back there!"

Lidiya didn't respond directly. "Can someone get that synth under control? I'm trying to concentrate."

"'That synth' is talking to you, lady! Turn this thing around, we have to go back!"

"And be back in the clutches of that maniac? No, not happening." She ignored the red light ahead and sped on. "We need to put as much distance between us and that place as possible."

"Don't touch me!" Everyone looked around when Bonnie's heart wrenching cries met their ears. "They were coming! They were right behind me!"

"Bon, w-we had to do it." Hermana's voice was trembling. "We couldn't just leave-"

"I didn't ask you to help!" she snapped. "It was fine! If you hadn't been such an idiot, they would be here with us!"

Hermana's eyes flared. "Hey! Don't call me an idiot! You couldn't have made it through all of those bots!"

"You saying I'm weak? Huh? Is that what you're saying?"

"Now, now, you two." Theodore stood between them. "I think if we perhaps take a moment and calm-"

"Quit patronising me, Winston Churchill," she sneered. "You were just as keen to turn tail and run, but I guess since you were willing to let one of your own be abandoned before, that's a given."

"That is absolutely uncalled for, madam!" he retorted. "We simply did what we felt was best!"

Hermana stood next to him. "Yeah, leave him alone! Just because you're mad doesn't mean you get to be a bitch about it to us!"

Bonnie's eyes widened. Even Hermana seemed surprised at what came out of her mouth and clamped her hands over it. But the damage had been done. Bonnie's fists clenched, hands trembling while she fixed Hermana in a harsh gaze.

"Wanna say that again? I don't think I heard you right."

"I-I'm sorry, that just came out, I didn't mean to-"

"Don't apologise, Hermy." Clyde forcibly turned Bonnie around by her shoulder. "Nothing to apologise for if it's true, right purple princess?"

That did it. With a roar, she aimed a kick at Clyde's head. But he was expecting it, ducked and swept her legs out from under her. He pressed his knee down on top of her and held her arm in place behind her back.

"OH, YOU ARE SO DEAD, FAKER!"

"Shut up! You're not the only one who wound up having to leave someone behind back there, so get over yourself and just-!"

He was cut off when one of her legs smacked the back of his head, dislodging him. Bonnie rolled over, jumped back onto her feet and kicked Clyde into the side of the truck. The impact caused the whole thing to wobble and shake.

"Bonnie, stop!" Mike approached her, but didn't want to get too close. "This isn't helping, just calm down!"

"I'll calm down, once these three get what's coming to them!" She bounced from foot to foot. "Come on, round two. The forest was a fluke, I'll take you all on!"

"Alright, time out!" Jeremy bellowed. "Theodore, get Clyde! Hermana, you're on Bonnie!"

The two synths hurried to restrain their fellows. It still took some doing, with Bonnie especially. While Hermana was technically stronger than her being a newer model, she was still struggling with every ounce of her being. Clyde was too, trying to fix Theodore in his gaze.

"Just like you, toady! Let me go!"

"Enough!" Jeremy looked from one to the other. "You're angry. I get it, so am I. We almost had them and then everything fell apart. But turning on each other is not going to help. That's just what they want! One way or another, my brother's killer will get what's coming to him and if that means I have to stop you all from being at each other's throats, then fine. Just try it."

Mike's eyes moved between Bonnie and Clyde. After a long while, they stopped struggling. Even when Hermana and Theodore released them, they remained nearby just in case. Bonnie stalked away to the back of the truck and faced the wall, while Clyde propped himself against the side.

"Thank you, Jeremy." Mike had almost forgotten he was holding Goldie. "Now, while I may not be happy about the situation, we did the right thing. The longer we stayed, the more risk we ran of everyone being recaptured. This is for the best."

Bonnie laughed bitterly. "Oh yeah, you would say that. Just so long as your own skin got saved, that's all that matters, right?"

"I'm going to ignore that, Bonnie. For now, let's focus on making good on our escape. I'm looping camera images before we pass them so they can't track us that way. Lidiya, do we have a destination in mind?" she called.

"I…" She hesitated for a moment. "Not really. I'm taking us out past the city limits. The further we are from anything high tech, the better. That AI doesn't seem to be coming after us, but I'd rather not have us be somewhere it can easily find us."

"Good thinking. Right, everybody, give Bonnie your phones. There's a chance that either the Puppet or Spring could track us using them and if we make any calls, that would be a certainty."

"Wait, no. I need to call my boyfriend, tell him what's going on and-"

"Miss Holland, I'm sorry, but you know what they're capable of. Anything with a wireless digital signal or electrical connection to the mains is something they can use. You know we can't risk that. I sympathise with you, but this is the only way."

Bonnie had already collected Mike's and Jeremy's. She went to the front and held her hand out. There was a loud thud on the ground. Lidiya had thrown hers. Bonnie placed the other phones next to it and stood on them. Mike couldn't help but feel a pang as his old Nokia brick was destroyed, something that countless drops hadn't managed.

"Thank you. For now, everybody take a moment. We're going to need all of our strength for what comes next."

"And what, pray tell, would that be?" asked Theodore.

"I don't know yet. I'm still working it out. Stay alert, but try to relax. We're not in any imminent danger, so let's hope it stays that way."

"I am brimming with confidence."

Silence followed Theodore's response. A sullen atmosphere descended upon them with nothing to fill the emptiness that followed. Mike suddenly realised how much his legs were shaking and he settled down onto the floor of the truck. Jeremy took a space opposite him. They made eye contact, but neither of them said anything. Nobody did.

Because of how late it was, they had little trouble in the way of traffic. Lidiya seemed to calm down in her driving when it became obvious nothing was going to happen, either from Spring or from anyone in the back, so slowed down. Their previous traffic infractions had apparently gone unnoticed. No sirens sounded and they didn't stop, except for lights. With no windows in the back, Mike had no way of knowing how far out of the city they were.

He was still processing all that had just happened. It was so fast. One moment, they'd been poised on the brink of actually seeing the plan through. The next, they only just managed to get out with their lives. Once again, Mike had been at the mercy of Spring Bonnie. He rubbed his throat in a bid to try and sooth the lingering pain. And Phil was still in there. If Spring was as against humans as he claimed…

After a while, the truck slowed to a stop and the engine switched off. He went to ask if Lidiya was okay, but she spoke before he could.

"I need a moment. The rest of you… I don't care, do what you like."

She opened the door and left the truck without another word.

"Yes, I think we could all do with stretching our legs," said Goldie. "Well, you all can. Mike, could I take advantage of yours, so to speak?"

"Sure. Let's not go too far though," he replied.

Bonnie had already opened the shutter and walked off. Mike followed her out, noting they were stopped in a layby. The grassy landscape stretched out in every direction, fading into the night. The only other signs of technology were some phone and power lines, along with street lights. The one they were in the glow of was flickering slightly, humming faintly.

The others got out as well. Clyde stayed at the truck's opening, legs dangling out of the back. Hermana had stayed with her legs curled up inside the truck while Theodore was pacing along the truck's length. Jeremy was leaning against it with a blank expression. There was no sign of Lidiya or Bonnie from what Mike could see.

"Take us a little further down the road," whispered Goldie.

Mike did so, doing his best to stay in the light where possible. With crickets chirping unseen and the stars shining overhead, it could almost be peaceful. If it wasn't for what they had just run from. A lingering worry in the back of Mike's mind was that something was going to come running out of the dark at them.

He stopped under another street light. He gazed up at it, counting the small flies buzzing near it before deciding not to bother. He looked down at Goldie, waiting for her to say something. But on a rare occasion for her, she didn't. Mike took a moment before saying the first thing on his mind.

"This is bad, isn't it?"

"An understatement, if I ever heard one," she murmured. "I'm sorry, Mike. This is all my fault."

"What? Why would you say that?"

"I thought we had him. I really did. All I needed was to take control of the Puppet. I knew there was a risk, of course there would be but I thought it was our best chance. If I'd just thought about it more, I might have figured out what they were doing, been able to plan for it." She sounded like she was trying to stop herself from crying. "Everything was on me, everyone was counting on me and I've let them down. They trusted me, they believed in me and now they're… they're all…"

"Goldie, no." Mike went to sit against the street light, sliding down the ground and patting the top of her detached head. "You did everything you could. We had know way of knowing what Sid was planning. That isn't on you."

"My friends… my f-family… they saved me, even after everything and I just… I left them. I left them… Phil put his life on the line for us, even though he was scared and now… he might…"

Sobbing came from the animatronics' speaker. Mike had no idea if this would help, but he wrapped up Goldie in a hug. It must have looked quite a sight, a man embracing the head of a cartoon bear from a kid's restaurant, crying like one of those children.

"You're… you're right," she sniffed. "Okay. Okay. I needed that. Thank you, Mike."

"Anytime, my best friend." He gave her head a few more pats for good measure. "Do you think the others are okay?"

"For the moment. Like Spring said, he isn't looking to hurt them. His grievance is with humans and anyone who stands with them. They've survived for a long time in similar circumstances. I have no doubt they will with this. Especially Chica."

"Yeah…" The thought of her smile and her quiet bravery gave Mike some strength of his own. "What about Phil?"

"We can hope. Spring mentioned that he was only out of commission temporarily and I wouldn't be surprised if he's placed Spring under the same kind of control as the Puppet. If he regains control, Phil might have a chance."

"And if not?"

"I think you know the answer to that." She sighed through the speakers. "The one thing I can't work out is what Sid's end goal was. What was he getting out of this?"

"A synth body." Lidiya had joined them. There were signs she'd been crying and she was fiddling with her fingers while she looked down at Mike. "There was this hidden room in his office. He was in there and there was a synth… it looked just like him. He was lying there, twitching with something attached to his head. Like he was putting himself into it."

"But that doesn't make any sense. You can't directly transfer a person's consciousness into a synthetic body. Unless… of course!" she cried. "That's why he needed the fragments! That's why he took them!"

Lidiya frowned. "Fragments? What-?"

"Pieces of the children's minds, carried over during the brain mapping process. Separately, they're just that: bits and pieces, but if you were to take them together, the data on their transferrals could… oh, that is devious and horrendous. I almost admire it."

"Goldie, those were kids," protested Mike.

"That's why I said almost." Her voice took on a derisive tone. "Five young lives, snuffed out so that Sid could have a shot at immortality. As if your boss using them as templates for the minds of his vanity project wasn't bad enough. I knew he was ambitious and ruthless, but this..."

"Stop saying that! Mr Hawthorne had nothing to do with what happened to those children!"

"Do you honestly believe that?" Goldie sighed impatiently. "I don't have time for this. If you're unwilling to face the truth, even after all this time, I'll just do it for you."

The speaker in Goldie's head crackled, like an old fashioned radio tuning to the right station. The voice that came out made Mike tense up, even though it was speaking words he'd already heard. It was the exchange between Goldie and Sid. Lidiya's face seemed to lose more colour with every word he spoke.

"Their deaths were unfortunate, I'll agree. But ultimately necessary in the grand scheme of things."

"What… what is this?" she asked.

"…Robert Fitzgerald… served as the basis for the synth Clyde… especially troublesome, little brats… served his purpose in the end… sacrifices must be made for progress…"

"The Puppet isn't the only one who record and playback," answered Goldie. "Sid Hawthorne was responsible for what happened to the missing children. Gordon may have kidnapped them and Fritz may have been set up to take the fall, but he is the one who engineered the circumstances. No doubt he worked hard to keep that hidden from you, but it's the truth."

"No. No! No, that isn't… that can't be…"

"And that's not all. Mike didn't just wind up in prison by unfortunate circumstance."

Sid's voice rang out of the speaker again.

"A lonely, reclusive, socially inept man… thought perhaps there might be some value to you… even hired Miss Holland on that basis originally… proved useful in another capacity… nothing personal…"

"No… no, he recognised my… he said it was… th-that can't be-"

"Did you really think that your job just fell out of the sky for you? The one that saw you meet again with someone you knew, who also happened to be working for your boss's main competitor and safeguarded the synthetics your boss wanted so much to get his hands on?"

Lidiya's hands were trembling, her breathing growing more rapid. "It's out of… out of context. You're just trying to make him look bad, make me-"

"Oh do be quiet, you stupid girl," said Goldie. "Your boss, driven by greed and ambition that is all too common in humans, caused the deaths of those children. Then he manipulated events that undermined our home and put the man sat before you in prison. You can continue to try and perform mental gymnastics and make excuses or you can accept it. I honestly don't care which."

She didn't even manage a coherent response. She was hyperventilating and her legs had given way completely, collapsing her to the asphalt road. Even despite everything, Mike couldn't help but feel sympathy for her.

"Goldie, that's enough. She obviously didn't have anything to do with this and she's in the same boat as us now." He set her head down and moved to Lidiya's side. "Are you okay?"

"N-No…" Her voice was faltering and her breaths were ragged. "Just… just go. I'm sorry…"

Though he didn't want to leave her in this state, Mike did as she asked. He picked up Goldie and started to head back for the truck.

"You could have told her in a better way than that," he said.

Goldie snorted. "She doesn't even regard me, or any of the others, as people. Why should I extend any courtesy towards her?"

"Because she's still a person, like all of you are. Even if she doesn't think the same about you, that isn't exactly fair on her either. We almost died, Goldie. You should have an understanding of that."

She didn't respond to that. Mike started to think he'd gone too far, but dismissed the thought. The way he saw it, everybody was in a bad way right now. It didn't help to exacerbate the problem with stuff like this.

Everybody was in much the same way when they got back. There was still no sign of Bonnie. When Jeremy met Mike part way back, he told her she was in the driver's canopy of the truck.

"That sounds like her. She always did prefer closed spaces," said Mike. "You don't think she's going to drive off?"

Jeremy looked surprised. "Wait, do you think she would?"

"Honestly, I wouldn't put it past her," he said in a low voice. "Wouldn't be the first time she's gone off without thinking."

"Well don't worry about that. Lidiya took the keys out of the ignition." Jeremy looked past Mike down the road at her. "Probably didn't want us doing the same thing with her."

"Can't say I'd really blame her. You okay?"

"Sort of. I mean, we're alive but…" He kicked a nearby stone into the dark. "I really thought we had him, that this was the end of it. I guess not."

Mike nodded. "I know what you mean. I guess Sid had a point, about possibly finding a different job."

"You might be right there. You think Phil's okay?"

"Hopefully."

Jeremy didn't look like he believed him. Mike wasn't certain he did either. But was better than the alternative.

"That bastard…" Jeremy's expression darkened. "The hell kind of progress means you need to kill kids for it?" Mike relayed to him Goldie's conclusions from what Lidiya told them. "Fucker! So he lives forever and all it costs him is my brother's life, along with all the rest?! Jesus fucking…"

"I know," murmured Mike. "Christ, I still can't quite believe it."

"Believe it, he more or less said so. And that Spring guy. I know you told me about how crazy he was, but still…" Fear flashed in Jeremy's eyes. "I get why you didn't want to go back to that place, Mike."

"Yeah…"

Jeremy looked down the road. "What about her? She was in deep with Sid before all this went down."

"Not anymore. As far as Spring is concerned, she's just another human. The fact she worked for Sid probably just makes her even worse to him."

"She's still the reason everyone else got left behind."

"Because there were swarms of bots, about to kill us. You can't blame her for being scared, she didn't sign up for this like we did."

"We still don't know how deep she was involved in this."

"She didn't have anything to do with the kids, Jeremy."

"And you heard that from her? Of course she'd say that. I know you and her have a past, Mike, but you can't let that get in the way of the facts."

"I… look, we're all here now. We can keep an eye on her, but she's in danger too so long as Spring is around. That's a fact." Mike nodded towards the truck. "How are they holding up?"

"About as well as we are, I expect. I mean, I think Billy had pretty much become the new leader for his group." Jeremy suddenly laughed. "Sorry, I just remembered… Balloon Buddies."

Mike couldn't help but laugh too. "Yeah, Billy was definitely in charge if they were calling themselves that."

"Not sure it was a unanimous agreement on the name, but still. Bonnie though… I know how she usually is, but I didn't think she'd get that bad."

"She doesn't mean it. She's just angry and she doesn't know what to do."

"We all are. Doesn't make what she was saying okay though." Jeremy peered at Goldie. "You've been pretty quiet. Not like you."

"I've got a lot on my mind," she replied.

"Any of that an idea on what we do next? I'm guessing the Fun Palace is out of the question."

"You'd be correct. With everything that's happened, it just isn't secure anymore. The same with the Fredabear Diner. Ideally, we'd need a location like that one. Somewhere away from the major population centres where we can regroup, where they aren't likely to find us and that, ideally, has something we can utilise for a potential counterattack."

"I think I might know a place." They looked around at Lidiya. She still didn't look in the best way and her voice was lifeless. "It's a fair ways out. Pretty isolated and off the grid, generates its own power supply. They shouldn't be able to detect us there."

"I see." Goldie's tone was neutral, but she sounded sceptical. "And it has resources we can use?"

"It should do. It was where Mr Hawthorne's synths were created."

Alanuki: I hope this chapter gave some clarity, but in case it didn't: Clyde, Hermana, Theodore, Bonnie, Mike, Jeremy and Lidiya got away. Freddy, Foxy, Chica, Billy, Vevina and Phil didn't.

Vyrhys: Lidiya is going to have a fun time of things XD As for the others, you will see. And yes, I do enjoy writing Spring. His erratic behaviour makes him fun in a villanous way.

Yellowscar1: Thanks very much.

Arc of Carona: Oh just you wait...

Guest: Don't worry, there are plans for them.

Monkey999Boy: Glad you're enjoying his inclusion and I hope you enjoy what I have in store for him.