I just had to start my job on the day when everything went mad. That's just my luck, isn't it? It's either the worst bad luck, or the crappiest end of good luck. Never in between. It's like the great DM in the sky threw out the dice to roll for luck, got a couple of question marks instead of a number, and just shrugged and wrote it down.
I'm sorry, let me start over.
I was recently hired as a brand new secretary for Animal Kingdom, which is one of the four main parks in the Florida branch of Disney World. It's half zoo, and half mythology and archeology based rides, like Dinosaur and Expedition Everest. It's the one with the big tree in the middle, if that helps. They call it the Tree of Life, because it towers over everything in the park, and carved into the cement-pressed branches are hundreds of animals that stand sentry over all the guests. If Disney is good at anything, it's dressing up cement to look like nature, and boy, is the Tree pretty. Besides the Cinderella's Castle over in Magic Kingdom, I'd say it's the neatest landmark of all the parks at Disney World.
Because I was a secretary, I didn't wear a fancy outfit and wander around the park like most cast members. I was to work in the offices in the back of the park, accessed by those tunnels you need a golf cart to get through. You'd think that sounds magical until you're there. It's literally just a bunch of staff rooms situated under the park, and it looks like any other office, though it also comes with little snack bars and a tiny barber shop. Nice, but not extraordinary. If you pay for the Keys to the Kingdom tour, you can see most of the main tunnels running under Magic Kingdom and get all the mechanics of the pipeworks and electricity explained to you. It's fascinating. It's the first thing a Magic Kingdom cast member is going to learn on the job, because that's where all the break rooms are, and... wait.
Doesn't Animal Kingdom... not have tunnels running beneath it? That's just a Magic Kingdom thing, and... no. No, the Animal Kingdom must have those tunnels, because how else would I have been there to start my first day? I was definitely in the tunnels, and I was definitely at Animal Kingdom when this started, right?
I wasn't actually working-working that day. It was my initiation, and I was supposed to shadow my new boss to learn the ropes. Because I wasn't an official team member yet, that meant I didn't need to wear the uniform yet. In my excitement-how can I not be excited to work at Disney World, even as just a secretary?-I decided to celebrate by accessorizing. I wore a headband with little, pink Cheshire Cat ears and one of those tee-shirts with, "We're all mad here!" on the front and the Cheshire Cat's tail printed on the back. The shirt I got at Hot Topic, and the hairband was being sold by a craft artist at a ComicCon. I was pretty pumped to find it there. You can tell who my favorite character is.
I expected to see lots of sleepy worker's getting ready for the day, walking to and fro down the tunnels and talking on walkie-talkies. That's how it was during my tour at Magic Kingdom. However, as I made my way to the offices, the corridors were strangely empty. There wasn't a soul in sight. I knew I wasn't early; it was just after park opening. There should have been people there. But, I didn't run into anyone.
It made me a little uneasy. I had a map of the offices, so I wouldn't get lost, but it still would have been nice to see other cast members around. People I could ask for guidance, or at least, people whose presence made me feel like I was where I was supposed to be. When you go to work in the morning, you expect to see other people that you can say "good morning!" to, or grunt in tired sympathy due to a poor night's sleep, or ask how their week's going. I felt like I was intruding on something. Like I was being watched, but nobody was there.
There was a whirring noise that sounded distantly down the halls. Considering there was a whole network of pipes and wires above me, I expected the noise. It was a little odd that it came from the walls rather than the roof, but I didn't want to overthink it. I was already much too nervous about making a good impression for my initiation. Was my headband too much? Should I have worn something a little more business-casual than a tee and jeans? Before I left home, should I have focused more on tidying my hair and taming it down with spray than on digging through my drawer for my Stitch socks? This place might have been all about helping people have fun, but I was still supposed to be a Mature Adult now, getting my own job to pay for my own apartment. As much as I was proud of my Disney merchandise, I was also worried about seeming too childish, or worse, weirdly obsessed. I didn't have that much merchandise at home; that's why it had taken so long to find those darn socks. They were my only Disney pair. But, then, absolutely nobody was going to see my socks today, so why was I still thinking about this?
Finally, I made it to the office I had seen on my tour (of Animal Kingdom? Right?). It was a smaller one, tucked away in a corner of the facility, quiet and unimportant. I wasn't working in a bigger capacity, like customer service or maintenance supervision; I was a backup center when people got put on hold too long and needed to be switched over. I was also going to send out emails and do a bit of data entry. Nothing special, but it was mine, and I was happy to have it.
I stepped inside, eager to get away from the weird emptiness of the halls. I hoped my boss could explain where everyone was. Maybe they were having a big meeting above ground. If that was the case, though, my boss might be there, too. That would mean an awkward period of sitting and waiting alone for her to come back. There should have been an office phone line, though, connected to the park's network, and failing that, a set of walkie-talkies in the desks. So, if nobody was there, then I could still contact somebody and figure out what I was supposed to do next.
To my relief, my boss was there, crouched behind her desk and looking very tense. What was she so focused on? Cleaning a mess, maybe, or fixing an adapter cable on her computer tower? There wasn't a whole lot to do from the foot of a desk, but whatever she was doing, she sure looked cross about it. I was happy to see her, but now even more nervous. If she was busy, I didn't want to make a bad impression by interrupting. Now I was starting to feel silly for wearing my cat ears. It wasn't very professional.
When she saw me, though, she didn't comment on it. Her eyes widened and she sucked in a breath. I halted uncertainly. What had I done wrong? Was I not supposed to be here?
"You - you're here!" She gasped, running over and grabbing my arm. Her fingers dug into my skin like a lifeline, painfully desperate. I flinched, my excitement draining away and replaced by dread. "How did you get here?"
"I, I just walked in." My voice trembled. "I'm sorry, what did I do wrong?"
My boss shook her head like that didn't make sense. "You mean you didn't see them? You got past them? How - what door did you use?"
I shook my head. "Got past who? I have a pass to get through security, if that's what you mean, but I haven't seen anyone down here." The whirring sound, which should have been blocked by the office walls, was getting louder. I wondered if it was my anxiety inflating it. I wondered if I had somehow gotten myself disciplined, or possibly fired, before I could even work one shift.
"Of course you haven't!" She shook me a little. I yelped and squirmed to get loose. There was a look in her eyes that I didn't like, something worse than panic. "They, they're all-" She stopped talking, twisting to look at the door with something terrible dawning on her face. "Do you hear that?" I opened my mouth to ask what, but then I knew. The whirring was getting louder. It was getting closer. It wasn't just whirring. There were clicks in it, and odd creaks and scrapes. Like something heavy and metallic was slowly dragging itself down the halls.
Suddenly, the tunnels didn't feel so ordinary or fascinating anymore.
My boss spun around, gripping me so hard it hurt, and threw me at a desk on the side. The desk that was going to be mine today. I hit it hard, trying to catch myself with my arms, but only succeeding in bruising both my side and my funny-bone.
"Hide!" The woman hissed at me, then she dove for her own desk, crawling under it. Something sharp scratched at the door, sounding like nails on a chalkboard. I blanched and swung myself under my desk, squeezing behind the long side of it and hoping I was blocking myself from the unknown assailant's view. My headband slid against the underside of the desk, but didn't come off. I could see my boss's terrified face peering at me across the room.
My arms were trembling so hard that I had to hug myself keep from rattling the furniture. This couldn't be real. Things like this didn't happen at Disney World. The security at this place was like that of an independent city, practically a police force, including canine units. They had backup systems upon backup systems. An attack like this shouldn't have been possible. Where were all the people? Where were all the cast members, the staff?
My boss's voice repeated in my head. "They, they're all..." All what? What happened to them? They couldn't be all dead, there were hundreds of them. But, then, there were hundreds of them, so why hadn't I run into anyone since I parked in the staff lot that morning? Where were they? Why didn't I see any security when I went through... through the staff door... I had come in through the staff door, hadn't I?
The door scraped, scraped, cracked. A slit that grew larger, shattering in gentle ripples around the metal. Sharp tools poked through like fingers prying the door open. The blades curled around the metal rip and pushed, and with a defeated creak, the door was pried from its hinges and fell to the floor. The thud echoed in my ears, but I didn't hear it, too horrified by what I saw.
The blades were fingers. The thing in the hall wasn't human. And, this couldn't be real.
What stood in the doorway looked like it was supposed to be one of the animatronics from the rides. Supposed to be.
It was ten feet tall and canine in shape, and only parts of it were covered in the Disney standard faux fur. The rest were harsh metal; chunky joints, rusted bolts, and wickedly sharp digits. The face was the worst of it. Its jaw was full of broken, metal teeth, and the lower jaw hung limp against its neck. Its eyes glowed yellow, and its snout was lifted in an imitation of a sniff.
My head hurt when I looked at it. It couldn't be real. This was a nightmare, something produced by my anxious brain before my real first work day. Things like this only happened in cheap Five Nights at Freddy's knockoffs, not real life. I needed to get a grip and wake up.
I pressed myself to the wall and my hands over my eyes. I had to wake up, I just had to wake up.
My head hurt worse. My bedsheets did not appear around me. This couldn't be real.
A horrible noise punctured my panic. It rattled with an electric screech. It almost sounded like a cackle.
I uncovered my eyes. Large, metal legs were walking past my desk, each step a whir-thunk, whir-thunk. They were so close, within a foot or two. They made my head ache, like my eyes were struggling to see them right. The colors were fluctuating between rusty gray and a brighter hue I couldn't place.
"I see you."
The voice was deep and smug. I almost screamed. My boss did scream, her voice cutting off in a strangled gasp when the monster reached under her desk and plucked her out by her neck. All I could see now were her feet dangling in the air. She struggled to shout, but no words would come out. She swung and kicked her legs with fevered enthusiasm, an enthusiasm which slowly waned into stilted swaying.
"Don't look so afraid." The thing chuckled again in that horrible, robotic way. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just making sure you join your friends. You don't want to miss the party."
Until that moment, I had been frozen in abject fear. Now, I was still afraid, but I was extremely aware that I did not want to join the party, whatever that meant. Right then, it looked like it just meant dying.
Her legs were going limp. She was dying, and I didn't know how to help her. I couldn't wrestle a big, killer robot. Maybe I could get help, but I still didn't know where anyone was, and I wouldn't be able to before my boss was dead. I didn't think I could sneak past without the monster noticing me. Tears flooded my eyes. I was watching someone die. I was so useless.
"Run."
The word was barely distinguishable among her dying breaths, but it was enough for the wolf-bot to stop chuckling. I forced myself to peek under the table; the monster apparently had eyelids, because they were squinted at my boss in suspicion. Her eyes were bugging out in a way that would haunt me for life. They flicked to look at me. Then, so did the robot.
For a split second, I was frozen again. Then the monster began to turn to fully face me, and I screamed, flinging myself out from under the desk and towards the door. Behind me, there was a sickening crack. My only ally in this was gone. I was alone.
I skidded into the hall, almost falling over and trying not to lose my momentum. Heavy footfalls crashed against the cement behind me. I didn't dare turn to look at my pursuer, pushing my legs to run faster than I ever had before, the feet to stretch further for each step. I felt like a long-jumper in an Olympic marathon; it was like my mind couldn't handle the surreal danger it was in.
Instead of running the route I took to get to the office, I took the way I knew would lead directly into the park. Maybe I could find some security up there. I might also lead the monster directly to the guests, but it would turn around and hunt them anyway if I ran to the parking lot and got killed. I needed help.
For some reason, the thudding behind me didn't grow closer as I ran. The thing was cackling again. It was toying with me. There was no way I was running as fast as it felt like I was. My muscles were already burning, and unless the robot was more decrepit than it looked, it should have caught me easily. It was just waiting for me to stumble, or to wear out and give up. I couldn't let myself give it the satisfaction.
Stairs came into view, materializing in a hall to my right, and I skidded again to run up them. Claws raked the back of my shirt, and I screamed, pain lancing up my spine. I stumbled and threw myself up the steps, desperately climbing my way to freedom.
The footsteps stopped behind me. So did the cackling, replaced by a louder whirring that might have equated to a "hmm." I didn't bother to check and see why.
The door at the top flung open at my weight, slamming into the outer wall. I emerged in the cement roots of the Tree of Life, just around the corner from the queue for A Bug's Life. No guests turned to look at me in surprise, because no one was there. Not a soul. A Disney World park was completely empty at opening hours. The wrongness hit me like a slap to the face.
Something crunched under my feet.
Despite my terrified rush, I glanced down to see what I stepped on. It was a discarded pair of sunglasses. I kicked the shards away, hoping I got no glass in the sole of my shoe. My eyes followed the shards as they slid away, catching on another object down the path
A kid's sandal. Small and pink, left and forgotten.
Past that was a baseball cap. An autograph book. A Mickey-shaped ice cream bar melting into the sidewalk.
Whirs and clicks filled the air. Realization dawned on me, then horror; my face probably looked like my boss's had when she was still alive. A look worse than panic.
I ran for one of the shrubberies lining the queue and jumped into a bush, pulling the branches and leaves around me for cover. Twigs jabbed at my skin and buried themselves in my hair, scraping sharply against my aching back. There were a lot of sounds coming from the Bug's Life theater entrance around the corner, and I did not want to see what the source was.
The door to the tunnels was still open, and now I could see the wolf-bot standing there, sniffing the air. My head hurt so much; needles of pain were shooting inwards from behind my eyes, getting hotter every second. I braced one hand on my temple like I could hold my skull together, and another on my mouth to stifle my breaths. The needles seemed to travel down my skull and into my spine where the monster had struck me. I had to be bleeding, but I couldn't check.
Slowly, the thing stepped out onto the sidewalk, nose wavering back and forth before aiming at my bush. It walked towards me, gradually and with purpose. I took my hand off my head and put it over my other hand, pressing on my mouth hard to keep from screaming again.
It lowered its head and looked directly at me. Right at me. It saw right through the leaves around me and stared straight into my eyes. The pain in my head turned white-hot, and I thought that passing out would at least keep me from feeling my death. A small mercy.
Then its eyes drifted upwards, looking at the top of my head instead. Its lids narrowed. It hummed.
Then... I don't know how to put this.
It was like my eyes glitched. Like when you press your hands too hard against them and see spots and flashes everywhere. Except, instead of everywhere, it was just on the robot. Fiery pain laced up my eye sockets. I almost blacked out then and there, but somehow, the fear kept me awake. The wolf sparked like the sky on the Fourth of July, and I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing. Its colors were shifting again, fluctuating between metallic and something like... Technicolor. I closed my eyes and grit my teeth against the pain. When I opened them, the robot was gone.
In its place was a cartoonish wolf in red overalls, a shiny, black tophat on his head to match his black fur. Real fur, not the animatronic stuff. This was no animatronic, not with the way his face moved, not with the way the skin creased under his newly-irised eyes, and not with the way his chest moved in and out with his breaths.
He was still looking just above my head, eyes narrowed and mouth quirked in confusion. Yellowed teeth poked out under his lips, no longer metal or uneven. He scratched his head, then shrugged. "Guess I don't need to get you to join the party. You're already here."
For some reason, those words scared me more than anything else that had happened.
I recognized him now, without the metal and rust disguising him. He was the Big Bad Wolf from the old Disney cartoons. That didn't make any sense. He was an extremely obscure character. He never came out for parades or holiday events. Even on Halloween, when they played a bit of his theme song during the fireworks display, he didn't come out to meet guests. There wasn't any ride in Disney with him in it, either, so why was his animatronic here?
I couldn't begin to address the transformation. It had to be a head injury, or a hallucination brought on by fear, I didn't know. With how much my head had been hurting, I could very well see having a serious concussion.
Oddly enough, though my head wasn't hurting so bad now that the colors had stopped shifting.
Even odder, the wolf have me another confused look, then turned and walked away. After all that cat-and-mouse, after killing someone in front of me and making it clear he would do the same to me... he just left.
I stayed frozen in the bush for a while. No other monsters came down the path, though the noises from the theater didn't get any quieter. No guests came by either. I was alone. My boss was dead. There were monsters in the park, in real life. Everyone was gone. My eye sockets were still sore. I rubbed my temples and the tears from my eyes, then reached up to pull the headband off, hoping for some relief.
When my fingers brushed the fabric of the cat ears, I felt fur instead. I snatched my hand away. Then, I cautiously brought it back to touch again. Nerves that shouldn't have existed broadcast messages into my brain, telling me the ears were being touched.
That wasn't possible.
I gripped the ear and yanked. More pain shot down my skull, and the headband wouldn't come off. I grabbed other ear and tried again. More pain, and it wouldn't come off.
That. Wasn't. Possible.
None of this was possible. None of this could be real. And yet, here I was, hiding for my life in a bush, chased by monsters, my boss dead, and I had four ears.