Chapter 3

October 31, 2015

2:32 am

"Oswald, you awake?" Mickey hissed, poking at the fluff behind him. "Ozzy?"

Oswald slowly opened his eyes, surprise making him want to stand up only to realize he couldn't. He looked down at himself tied up in the chair only to feel another poke to his tail.

"Oswald!" Mickey hissed.

"Quit poking my tail." Oswald hissed back, finding his hands tied behind himself. "Did they seriously tie us to chairs?"

"Yap." Mickey said. "Took my EMP and your knife too."

"Lovely." Oswald rolled his eyes as his ears dropped.

"Well, at least I can see it all." Mickey pointed out.

"That's good, since they pointed me at a freakin' wall." Oswald growled, trying to keep his voice down but failing. "Any idea where we are?"

"No clue. Your phone's sitting next to the EMP." Mickey pointed out. "I'd say maybe office space?"

"What shocked us?" Oswald asked, his mind slowly filtering in what happened as his hands started moving around the ropes holding them behind his back.

"An animatronic me." Oswald froze as a shiver ran through the mouse, shaking his chair.

"These are human constructed animatronics, right?" Oswald asked.

"That's how Rick made them sound." Mickey shrugged. "Ep! Hey!"

"Sorry." Oswald moved his hands, realizing with a blush he had accidently pulled on Mickey's tail. "I didn't think these animatronics could come to life like Goofy and Donald in Wasteland."

"That's why they threw us to this island of a wasteland, hicyuck." Goofy's voice said strangely void of emotion. The two looked towards the doorway to see a rotting animatronic Goofy just inside the room. Oswald cursed himself for not noticing the door sooner as he released what little work he had done on the ropes that tied their hands.

"So what happened?" Mickey asked, hoping to get some understanding.

"Oswald will explain." Goofy said, his mouth barely moving. "Hickyuck."

Oswald raised his eyebrow, noticing the animatronic seemed to have the 'hickyuck' programed into his voice modulator as more of hiccups. "So what happened to the humans that came here today?"

The animatronic turned his head to face Oswald, but no sound came from him.

"Well, can you untie us?" Mickey asked, exasperation in his voice. "We won't run, we need answers. Even your processor should see that."

The animatronic stared at them, not moving.

Mickey sighed, realizing there was no reasoning with the robot.

"Goofy, you can go." Animatronic Oswald's metallic voice said as the robot limped into the room.

"Huyuck." Goofy's voice said as the robot bowed his head. He quickly left the room, closing the door behind himself.

Animatronic Oswald picked up the EMP from the table in front of Mickey and stepped over so both toons could see him, his pinky finger broken as he held onto the device. "Nice little device you created." Animatronic Oswald said, careful as he looked the device over. "For toons, that is."

"We get it, sorry for shutting down your systems." Oswald said, his voice showing no apology. "We want off your island but we need to find the two remaining teens, if you haven't killed them yet."

"Sorry about the human's deaths." Animatronic Oswald said, mocking Oswald's not so apologetic voice. He looked at his cartoon counterpart as his lower jaw swung, barely on its hinges. "I may have programed the other animatronics who call this wasteland home, but they get a little defensives of the place."

"A little!?" Mickey exclaimed in surprise. "They ripped the poor girl's head off!"

"As for the other two, I don't know." Animatronic Oswald continued, his broken jaw becoming his broken animatronic body. "I'd like to get them off my island."

"Well, untie us." Oswald offered. "I can repair your joints, we get the teens and leave you and your island alone."

"Can you make sure the humans never come back to the island?" Animatronic Oswald asked.

"If that's what you want, then yes." Mickey nodded his head.

Animatronic Oswald sat the EMP back on the table, as if processing the new information. The robot turned towards the two, though only able to see Mickey's face due to how they were sitting. "He can really fix me?" the animatronic asked.

"He created and maintained three animatronics for years." Mickey explained. "Ya, he can fix you. I wanna know how come you're alive."

"The humans wondered the same." Animatronic Oswald admitted. He looked towards the closed door and said. "Goofy."

The door opened, showing the animatronic standing there.

"Call in Mickey and Donald. Take Daisy and Pluto and find the two humans." Animatronic Oswald ordered.

Goofy closed the door, giving no acknowledgment. Leaving the three alone.

"How many animatronics are on this island?" Oswald asked.

"Eleven, but only six are functional." Animatronic Oswald admitted as he took the pocket knife off the table. He flicked it opened and limped over to the two before slicing the rope that held their hands behind themselves.

The two toons rubbed their wrists, glad to be able to move them again. They both leaned down to untie their feet as Animatronic Oswald pulled a tool box out from under the desk.

"As for how we came to life, an intern crossed some wires inside my suit. My first memory is of her." Animatronic Oswald admitted, his lower jaw swinging as he stopped moving to observe the two toons as they faught with the ropes holding their feet to the legs of the chairs. "September 10, 2012 I did what was done to me to the other animatronics in the warehouse."

Oswald finally freed himself, standing up with a stretch. "It's cool that you were able to come to life, I'm just trying to figure out something."

Animatronic Oswald stared at him as if expecting him to continue as Mickey finally stood up.

"How come everything on this island's still here?" Oswald asked. "Wasteland was built to give unused toons and attractions life."

"Wasteland?" Animatronic Oswald asked, not sure of the word to mean anything more than where he was at the moment.

"Animatronics didn't normally come to life until they made their way to Wasteland." Oswald explained, eyeing the animatronic. He shook his head to clear it before looking into to the tool box to find what he needed to fix the animatronic.

The sound of heavy footsteps got the toons attentions to the door just in time to see animatronic Mickey bang open the door. His strangely human shaped eyes not fitting in the toon shaped eye holes. It eyed the toons, a frown on its face as crackling of electricity sounded in its throat.

"Mickey, stop." Animatronic Oswald ordered, ending the crackling growl. "Where's Donald?"

"Goofy is still looking for him." Animatronic Mickey replied, keeping his human eyes on the toons.

"Go up to the second floor and stay there until the humans are gone." Animatronic Oswald ordered.

The robot left the room, following his orders.

"What happened to his eyes?" Mickey asked.

"His first pair were destroyed." Animatronic Oswald explained, keeping still as Oswald worked on his jaw. "I replaced them."

"So do you repair the other animatronics?" Oswald asked, tightening the robot's lower aw so the animatronic could close it.

"Yes."

Oswald tightened once more and took a step back. "There, try that out."

Animatronic Oswald opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before sliding the jaw back and forth.

"I'll need you to sit down so I can fix your limp." Oswald said, looking for the right tools in the box.

Animatronic Oswald limped over to the chair Mickey had been tied to and dropped down.

"Why did you tie us up?" Mickey asked, leaning against the desk.

"Mickey and Goofy considered you two a threat." Animatronic Oswald admitted as his eyes followed his cartoon counterpart kneeling down in front of him. "Goofy is more level headed, preventing Mickey from killing you."

"Well, thank Goofy." Mickey said, surprised it had to be his counterpart. "Hopefully he'll be able to find the last two teens."

"Hey Mic, pass me that nut I put on the table." Oswald asked, holding out a hand towards the mouse as the other held something in place in the animatronic's leg.

Mickey did as he was asked, handing Oswald the small nut.

Oswald twisted the nut into place and smiled. "There, try it out."

Animatronic Oswald stood up as Oswald pushed himself backwards to give the robot space. The robot took a few steps, the limp no longer evident.

Animatronic Oswald turned to look at Oswald only for a high pitched scream followed by a sharp electrical crackle hit the air. Animatronic Oswald froze as the surge of electricity flowed through his body before he dropped to the ground.

"Get off my island!" a new metallic voice ordered just outside the office.

Mickey quickly grabbed his EMP off the table and followed Oswald out of the office only for a teen to screech to a halt with his arms covering his face.

"Kid, calm down!" Mickey ordered, yelling over the teen's screams.

The teen dropped his arms slowly and looked down at the toons. "You're not robots?"

"Great deduction, Sherlock." Oswald sneered.

"Get off!" the metallic voice ordered, startling the teen into a jump.

The three turned to see a disfigured Donald animatronic, a leg replaced with a plank of wood giving him a distinct thumping limp as his glowing red eyes stared them down.

"I hope this thing's got another charge!" Mickey hoped as he stepped in front of the teen with the EMP pointed directly at the robot and hit the switch.

Animatronic Donald froze in his jaunt before collapsing to the floor.

"Any idea where the other dude is?" Oswald asked as he led the two around Animatronic Donald's body and out the building.

"He went into the lake." The teen recalled with a shiver. "I…I think a gader got him."

"What's your name?" Mickey asked, hoping to comfort him as he noticed Oswald looking around, unsure.

"Harley. Harley Davis."

"And you work at the park?" Mickey asked, noticing the teen's outfit to be a vender's uniform.

"Ya, Luke came up with the idea and..and.." Harley's voice trailed off.

"Who all came out here?" Oswald asked, putting on a brave face as he hoped he led them back to the dock.

"Luke, me, Amanda, and Aleta." Harley listed, "Have you found the girls?"

"Aleta made it back to the main land, Amanda wasn't so lucky." Mickey admitted.

A moment of silence fell between the three before Harley asked, "Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"Yap." Oswald lied, wishing he still had his phone but knew it wouldn't work still, after being so close to two electromagnetic pulses. They took a right on what was left off the path only for the sound of water lapping at a shore to come to them a second before the dock appeared. Oswald took a sigh of relief before saying, "See, here's the boat. Let's get off this island."