Greeting: Good day for everyone. If today isn't so good for you, fear not. I'll give you something else to think. It is today's chapter of course. Enjoy!
( The bus. Nick and his animatronic friends with kids. Hours later)
The throttle was pushed down to the ground. They had stopped at a gas station to get some fuel.
Nick sighed in relief as the monsters were left behind. Those things had arrived too late, Nick had already taken off.
He had seen them coming from far away. He was happy to see them getting further away.
" Well, now we know how long it takes for the critters to arrive", Nick said to a girl beside him.
The girl was sitting on the seat, by the stairs. She had a watch in her hand and she peered at it.
After taking fuel, they had not left immediately. Nick had decided that it was the perfect time for a little test.
The girl had been measuring time with her watch.
" It took around three minutes for them to come", she showed it to Nick.
The expression on the man's face was not pleased by it.
" Yikes! That's not a lot. If we count in the time it took me to fuel this beast, it's around five minutes", he told the girl.
She put away her watch and stood up.
" I think I could get into a locked bus in that time", she estimated.
Nick chuckled at her.
" I bet you could. You're a clever girl. It reminds me of my sister. You are so alike. If you're as fast as her, you can do much in five minutes", Nick told her.
The girl thanked him and brushed her own hair with her hands.
Her fingers ran through the long ropes of keratin polymer that formed her hair. It meant that she was stressed.
Her mother would have known that.
It was not a wonder.
After all, they were not heading towards Freddy's.
Nick's bus had abandoned that road long ago. He would get back to it eventually but before that they needed to visit a certain town along the way.
" It was not fair", Ray told Doug and Rachel at the back.
The children had already woken up so they didn't have to whisper. The animatronics were sitting on the aisle, it was surprisingly wide.
They were in a tight circle on the floor. Doug was being petted by two girls above him. He was leaning into the right side of their seats.
" I swear it was not fair", Ray repeated.
Rachel tried to hide her giggling. Ray was so grumpy right then.
" We should be afraid, not you. Trust us, we are confident", Doug explained to him.
Ray rolled his eyes.
" Nick only agreed to let you save them because you're cuter. You are truly like children, you won't quiet down until you get what you want", he argued.
" Definitely", Rachel nodded to him.
" Don't be scared though. If Nick thought it was extremely dangerous, we wouldn't be here", she added.
Ray let out an angry sigh. Doug raised his eyebrows.
" I thought you would be happy about this. Popgoes is our friend nonetheless. I remember you and Stone having tons of fun with the teens.
You were so happy together. The teens loved you", he told Ray.
The raccoon looked down at the floor.
" Stone wouldn't want me to risk the lives of these kids for him. Even if it meant that he would be gone, he would insist that I take these kids to Freddy's.
He would never want us to do this", Ray revealed to the two others.
" Well we are going there. Trust Nick at least", Rachel tried to reason with him.
" I know. They have strong windows as well to stop robberies", Ray snorted and rolled his eyes.
" They also have no basement so they are still alive. The monsters can't get them", Rachel added.
" Should, Rachel! They are not still alive, they should be still alive. There is a huge difference", Ray corrected her claim.
The others said nothing until Doug got an idea.
" Think about the positive possibility. If they're alive, we will have saved more children. When this is over, they'll love you so much.
Pete and Bane are gone. Maybe Popgoes allows us to join his crew. Nick could manage the pizzeria with the other owner", he suggested.
" What was his name again?", Doug pondered by himself.
" Her! Her name was Lena Smith", Nick told them from the front.
The noise was easily emanating from the back to the front.
Rachel's eyes widened.
" Smith? Like that arsonist?", she asked Nick.
Doug patted her shoulder.
" Smith is a common surname. Surely she isn't an arsonist", he talked sense into Rachel.
" Actually, that arsonist was Lena's uncle. The Smiths..they have..problems in their family. Lena's grandparents did horrible things in their lives.
Her brother went missing. Her cousin or her second cousin, Fritz, suffered the same fate. Those happened along other weird things", Nick told Doug.
" You were saying?", Rachel told the shocked dog.
Doug had not seen it coming.
" Yea. Lena doesn't talk to her relatives for that reason", Nick saw his face through the rear-view mirror.
Doug's voice became scared.
" I didn't know that. Maybe rescuing her isn't a good idea", he looked at his friends.
Nick felt bad for him and sighed.
" Lena is a nice lady. She loves her dear animatronics and takes care of them. I think they're the family she never had", Nick assured Doug.
That made Doug feel much better. Lena loved her animatronics, that kind of woman couldn't be evil or insane, could she?
Doug raised his head and smiled at Ray.
" Nick could be with her, then Lena would love us too. And maybe she could. You know, give Nick someone to like very much", Doug whispered to Ray.
It was hopeless, Nick was able to read his lips easily.
" Lena and me? Together? She is old, an old lady. I would like to get kids with someone younger.
Not like old women are worse or anything but..you know..she can't. She's..", he explained to Doug.
Then he fell silent for a second. Nick didn't know how to tell Doug why old women couldn't make kids anymore.
" Actually, I'll tell you when you're older", Nick finished the sentence.
Doug raised his other eyebrow and looked at Rachel in a suggestive manner.
" I think he likes her", he told Rachel.
The bunny was not sure if Doug was right about it. She just shrugged and yawned.
The animatronics weren't very happy about spending so much time in a tight space. They were created for fun and joy.
In the case of kids, it meant jumping around, playing, hugging and running.
Rachel loved running around and playing tag with children. It required a lot of space.
The bus had nothing except the aisle and a tiny area around the driver seat.
In there, they were always close to walls and the kids were bored. Sleeping was everything they could do in the bus.
Kids had started to complain, they were hungry.
Nick had checked out the compartment, under the bus. There had been nothing but empty suitcases along with too many balls of dust.
Hours went by as Rachel was chatting with her friends. She began to wonder if boredom ended up killing them.
Hunger was not that big of a problem. Surely, it sucked like an army of leeches but it was handleable... maybe.
The kids were complaining even though they weren't starving to death. Nick was hungry but he didn't complain at all.
When Doug was trying to calm the kids down, he brought that up many a time.
Rachel focused on the Popgoes animatronics to let go of their current situation. Popgoes the weasel was an old animatronic.
He had seen many animatronics and many owners. Rachel couldn't even guess how many kids he had been entertaining in his life.
He was a kind weasel. He seemed like that sort of a guy who'd read stories to kids in the evening.
Rachel had never heard his singing but Doug claimed he was good. The squirrel sisters were cute where as Stone and Blake were tougher.
Popgoes himself was somewhere in between. Little ones and teens loved him very much.
He had something for all of them. Sara and Saffron, the squirrels, had been playing songs with him for many years.
They were adorable, giggly girls with deep love for one another.
Rachel wanted to talk to them more, they were similar to her. The squirrels spent most of their time playing songs or talking to kids.
They loved toddlers almost as much as they loved each other. The squirrels were also known for finishing each other's sentences.
That's what Doug had told Rachel anyway.
Ray had told her about Blake the badger who was the perpetual favorite of the teens.
He knew how to use smartphones and his favorite topic to discuss was the Popgoes app. Rachel wasn't sure if that was what the teens needed.
They were already using phones all the time. She guessed that Blake had been built to entertain them, not to give them what they needed.
Ray had praised him and Rachel knew he loved the kids to death.
Blake had sounded like a nice guy based on what Ray had said.
It was just Rachel's own opinion, she liked the less technological kind of fun.
The Popgoes pizzeria had some weird and extraordinary solutions but it was alright.
Stone the crow was probably the weirdest of the five. He sounded like a crow and his singing voice was one way of obliterating your eardrums.
He wasn't even inside, he remained outside.
Rachel would have never had the guts to stand outside and hold a sign for hours.
Stone's name didn't give him much credit. He was everything but still. When kids came to the pizzeria, Stone was there to dance for them.
He sometimes even waved at random passers-by. Rachel thought it was nuts, completely nuts.
If Nick ever got an animatronic that did that, they would be bankrupt within a month.
" Maybe Stone is just so positive that everyone likes him", Rachel thought by herself.
Those were the animatronics of Popgoes. They were owned by the niece of an arsonist.
It was hard to make that sound welcoming. Rachel knew that those guys might end up being the last animatronics they would ever see.
She was okay with that though. The whole group, if Stone and Blake weren't counted in, were pretty okay if so.
They were all friendly and kind, just like Rachel's group.
Both groups loved kids and the other members. She was going to be okay with them joining the escape.
Who was she to judge them? Stone would probably be a very funny crow.
Blake might end up making Rachel love phones.
She thought about the best possibility, like Doug had told Ray to do.
Rachel's crew, Freddy's crew and Popgoes' crew would surely be able to keep the kids happy.
That was three groups of animatronics.
" There's five of them and five of..no! Three of us", counted Rachel.
She stopped counting suddenly.
" There was five but now only three remain", she thought and wiped a tear, falling down her cheek.
Then she moved onto counting the animatronics of Freddy's.
" That's four. Wait! Five? Seven?", Rachel pondered.
She knew Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy. Then she thought about Springtrap. Suddenly Foxy's family joined her thoughts.
Rachel didn't actually know how many animatronics there were at Freddy's.
" There's a lot of them. I think they might be able to handle the kids on their own", Rachel thought by herself.
Then a freaky idea popped into her head.
" What if their pizzeria is full already? I doubt we are the only ones with an idea to go there. They have been in the news a lot lately.
Since they've got so many animatronics, perhaps there isn't enough space left", it was horrid in her head.
Rachel begged that was not going to happen. Where would they go in that case? Towards the ocean? Back to their pizzeria?
Rachel had no idea, Freddy's was the only place she could think of.
That and maybe Popgoes pizzeria. They may stay there if the defences were good enough.
All of the sudden, Rachel was too worried to keep her mouth shut.
She went to Ray who was with Nick right then. Rachel had sort of lost her bearings there. She had been thinking about Popgoes for at least two hours.
As she got closer, she heard what Nick was telling Ray.
" You push this pedal all the way down, it's the clutch. Got it? Do not push the throttle if this is down, it will just waste fuel.
You use these to control the gears. You can see the numbers", Nick was explaining to Ray.
Rachel was uncertain of what they were doing exactly.
" What are you doing in there?", Rachel asked them.
Ray was bending down towards Nick's shoes and his eyes seemed to be fixed on them. The raccoon didn't even notice that Rachel was there.
His bushy tail moved to the side as he turned his head.
" Hi, Rachel. We're figuring out how to drive this weird thing", Ray told her.
His greeting sounded weird to Rachel, something seemed off. Rachel let it be, it was just a thought that popped into her head.
" Are you going to drive now? Is this a driving school? Then it's probably the last driving school in the world", she joked.
Ray raised his other eyebrow.
" Nick's not a teacher. Isn't it obvious why we are doing this? We need another driver to drive the other bus. The one which Popgoes will use", he shrugged at her.
Rachel was surprised.
" Why though? Can't Lena drive the other bus?", Rachel asked him.
Nick didn't turn his head but heard her.
" Someone has to drive it from the bus station to the pizzeria", he pointed out.
Ray nodded towards Nick as a sign of approval.
" You really don't think things through, do you? We need to make a plan if we wish to save them", Ray bent down again to continue learning.
Rachel scratched the back of her head nervously. Ray and Nick were not going to like her idea.
" Yea. About that..", she said carefully.
Ray had been about to try the gear box but then he stopped in surprise. He hoped Rachel wasn't thinking was he thought she was thinking.
Ray's head turned slowly to look at her.
" You are not beginning to regret your decision! We have come so far, we are almost there. I can smell the pizzas in my snout already", Ray looked pleading.
Rachel was aware of that, they were so close to Popgoes pizzeria. Nick had just driven past a sign that told them there were less than eleven miles ahead.
Rachel looked down at the floor. The animatronics' feet were dirty, Rachel saw mud on them.
" I think that maybe we shouldn't get them out. Perhaps we should..", she started slowly.
Then her words got stuck in her throat, they were like goo in her mouth.
" Should what? Go ahead, tell me", insisted Ray.
Nick was listening to her as well.
" ..should get ourselves in and stay there", Rachel vomited the words out.
She had to force it out and tolerate the pain of saying it out loud. Ray's expression was as calm as Rachel would have expected.
In other words, it was everything but that.
" Are you bloody insane?", he asked her.
" Perhaps the Fazbears are gone. If not, then they must have lots of things to do even without us. They have a lot of animatronics, I recall it now.
We would just make life harder for them. If the Popgoes pizzeria is safe, then we might survive there as well", Rachel tried to explain it well.
She failed miserably and her voice was stuttering like a broken VHS.
The raccoon had not expected that from Rachel.
" They could offer protection. We don't know if the Popgoes pizzeria is safe. They have strong windows and protected vents but those might fail.
If they are still alive, we must get them out before they end up like Jason", Ray reasoned with her.
Rachel's ears drooped.
" I have a bad feeling about the Fazbears. They are so far away. It makes sense why they would refuse to take us in. Their pizzeria is full, Ray", Rachel told him.
The raccoon's eyes told her that he understood her point. Ray's hand fell to the back of his revolver.
He was measuring the outcomes of different possibilities. The shocking fact was that death was always a possible outcome.
No matter what they did, death would always be lurking around the corner. There was no way of making sure they'd come out alive.
Ray knew the odds weren't good. There was a high chance that Rachel's idea would kill them all.
Their previous idea was good until they they would reach the Fazbears.
If they abandoned their friends, Rachel and Doug's crew would die along the Popgoes crew.
It was hard to imagine that staying with Popgoes would end in a smile.
Their pizzerias were tiny forts compared to what pizzerias usually were, Ray thought about it.
The monsters were not to be underestimated either. It would be a mistake that Ray was not going to make.
The problem was that Ray didn't know which one was safer.
Both choices included at least a 50 percent chance of death.
" Rachel, listen. Your suggestion makes me shiver from the inside. If it's up to me, I won't stay there.
I will leave if you force the others to join your idea. I won't stay there and die even if it means leaving you all", Ray was straight with her.
It touched Rachel's tiny heart, which made her hug him.
" Trust me. I'm your friend. We have known each other for a long time", she begged of him.
Ray petted her arms.
" Rachel. I can't. Your idea has ´suicide´ written all over it. If you stay there, I will leave", he looked at her pleading eyes.
" Okay. I'm scared of the outcome. The Fazbears won't let us in", Rachel glanced at the sleeping kids.
Ray held Rachel for a moment, his hand was touching her back tenderly.
" We need a compromise. I wish you had agreed with me", Rachel told Ray silently.
Ray let go of her and looked into her eyes.
" I can't agree with you all the time. I accept new ideas most of the time but this is pure madness.
Even I can be persistent sometimes", Ray told her and patted her on the back.
" Why can't we ask them?", a small voice asked the two animatronics.
They looked towards the bus door. The brave girl was there and she was staring at them. She had most likely heard it all.
" Who, sweet one?", Rachel asked her.
The girl nodded towards the town, looming in the distance.
" Popgoes and his friends. They can tell if their pizzeria is safe or not. They live there, you don't. Can't you ask them for their opinion?", she answered.
Nick chuckled on the driver seat.
" The little one is right. I vote for her suggestion", he put his hand up.
Ray smiled at Rachel who responded by smiling back.
" I think that sounds good. Kids are so smart, aren't they?", Ray asked Rachel.
" Yea. They are our smart sweeties", she nodded to him.
The road was getting wider around them. The town was five miles away. Rachel glanced outside and the field, in front of her, was starting to get brown.
The town was near and so were the other animatronics.
" I'm sure they'll agree with me, their pizzeria is safe", thought Rachel.
" I'm sure they agree with me, their pizzeria is crumbling like a house of cards", thought Ray.
The two animatronics were certain of their own ideas.
Which one would be the better one? In that case, there was only one way to find out.
Farewell: The Popgoes pizzeria is getting near already. There was suppose to be things in between but I took them away.
Funny that this conversation was suppose to be in chapter 10. That is how the world comes around.
THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE IS TO WRITE.
