I hung up the phone, apparently Fitzgerald was sick at home so he didn't show up to the meeting. I really wish he did, because he showed up to an empty pizzeria surrounded by malfunctioning electronics. Seriously, did nobody communicate to this guy? I just hope he can get through the night, then he can take care of that birthday party in a couple of days and I can hopefully work at Freddy's again, even if it is the night shift. Well, if the investigation is over anyways.
-The following morning-
We all went back to the pizzeria, despite what our manager told us, and as it turns out the investigation was already over.
"That's odd," I stated, "Didn't the boss say this investigation would take a while? Where are all the police?"
"That's a good question!" we all turned to see a smiling manager behind us. "Guess what gang? They caught the bastard! All the media is covering it right now, here come inside and take a look."
We were all ushered inside and the manager excitedly turned on the t.v.
"It seems the mystery of the kidnapped children can finally be put to a close as the police have just captured a suspect matching the exact descriptions found on the tape. We have yet to know the suspect's name, but at least now we can breathe a little easier knowing this nightmare may be sooner behind us than expected-"
Putting down the remote the manager turned back to us,"Isn't this great? I told you guys this would end sooner than expected, now Freddy's is back and better than ever!"
At this outburst there was a chorus of cheers from all of us, and eventually the pizzeria was back up and running again. Sure there wasn't nearly as many people as there used to be, but at least we were back in business once again. If only we weren't so optimistic.
"Excuse me sir, I need to talk to you," a customer said tapping me on the shoulder.
"Yes ma'am, how may I help you? Is there a problem?"
"Yes, a big one, there seems to be a foul smell coming from your electronics. And, I'm not sure if I saw this correctly, but I swear there was blood and some sort of mucus coming from out of their face."
I quickly blanched, if her claims were true we may face shutdown yet again, and maybe a more permanent closure.
"Don't worry miss, I'll get the manager and we'll look at it for you ok?"
A few minutes later, the manager, Brett, and I were busy clearing the children and their parents away from the stage area so we may have a closer look at the animatronics. When we turned around to finally get a good look at them, it was terrifying. When we were busy clearing out the kids we only barely noticed the smell, but when we put our attention on the robots themselves we were hit with a wave of the stench. Like a decaying corpse, and that was only the least of our worries. As it turns out the woman wasn't hallucinating, a large amount of blood and mucus was surrounding each of the animatronics eyes and mouths, and was already dribbling down onto the floor. Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and even Foxy were all a mess.
"No," whispered the manager. Then he turned to face us,"Alright, I want this mess taken care of. No police, and certainly no press. Take these animatronics to the back room and scrub them down, inside and out, and mind the electronics on the inside, I don't any malfunctions. Is that understood?"
Brett and I both nodded and then proceeded to drag each animatronic to the back room to clean them up. The manager, meanwhile, distracted the audience while some other employees rebooted the other copies of Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica and set them up onstage.
"I just hope those decommissioned toy versions can still work properly and long enough for us to fix this. We are having a birthday party tomorrow after all, and this child wants these animatronics in particular," Brett said,"Ah, man that reeks, I don't get paid enough for this."
"C'mon you big baby, just keeps scrubbing and maybe the stench will come off. How did this happen anyways? The police didn't say anything about finding the bodies, even when they did a thorough search of all the animatronics."
"Wait, are you saying the kidnapper/killer stuffed the five children into these animatronics?"
"How else can you explain the blood and horrible smell? I overheard one of the parents describing these as 'reanimated corpses'. It may be superstition, but I really can't think of any other explanation.
We then continued cleaning, but unbeknownst to me at the time, Brett was cleaning Foxy a bit too hard. When he reached the inside to do some careful scrubbing, it seems he pulled an already loose wire and at the time, it wouldn't have seemed so bad. At least at the time.
We eventually managed to clean up the animatronics, although the stench still lingered, but at least it wasn't as overpowering as it was before. However, this incident still drove away a few families, as it scared the kids immensely. This is starting to seem like the end of a good business, we can only hope that nothing else goes wrong.
