4-Unfortunate Circumstance

Having spent over a week on the run, the animatronics had come across a multitude of potential shelters. Potential places to call home.

Thus far every would-be shelter had turned into a bitter disappointment. The places that were genuinely empty had been left in an uninhabitable condition. Even by robotic standards.

A home which threatened to topple down and crush its inhabitants was not one worth claiming. What's more, these abandoned places were also in such a poor state that keeping themselves functioning would prove difficult. Finding enough consumable matter would grow more and more dangerous as time went on. They would have to travel further and further away with passing days to collect what was needed to keep their bodies running. The two problems combined in such a way that a shelter could only be deemed habitable for a small amount of time.

In a way, it was both a blessing and a curse to encounter so few man-made structures. The lack of humans assured that the two were unlikely to be found. Unfortunately that lack of people also meant that any structures that they encountered had either been long abandoned, or that they were guaranteed to be inhabited.

Naturally, any inhabited space was off limits and best avoided.

For many of the long abandoned structures that they found, nature had taken root and ruined their integrity. Still, the pair could contently settle in these mangled corpses of long forgotten buildings. At least for a time.

Sun, the more docile of the two animatronics, remained content to hide and rest within the confines of these abandoned structures.

Moon became the primary explorer as a result. His standards for what would provide a suitable home were stricter. They needed a means of reliably keeping themselves fueled. Their shelter needed to provide them protection from the elements, because extreme weather conditions could still pose potential risk. Ergo, their ideal sort of shelter would be far from humans, and recently abandoned.

"Recently abandoned" meaning that the building would still be in a state worth living in. In an area with enough access to edible matter that they need not need to worry about roaming too far from home.

The space that they currently inhabited had already achieved one of those goals. They had reached a distance from the city that could be defined as "Deep Rural". There were houses, but they were few and far between. It would take a few hours by motorized vehicle to reach anywhere of importance. Technically there were plenty of things around for the animatronics to consume for fuel.

Really the only major issue was finding agreeable shelter. The sort that they could take cover in in the event of a serious storm.

Namely something that could protect them from something along the lines of lightning. Electricity was good for them, but one good strike from the skies and chances were their bodies would be damaged beyond repair.

Luckily for them it seemed as though they had fled at an optimal time of year. The time of year where it was easy to avoid storms. So the poor quality shelter that they had managed to find would suit them well enough for the time being.

Moon would be free to set out in search of greener pastures.

Sun was free to stay behind. He spent his time absorbing every new experience as it came. He studied how the different animals all neatly fit into some role in their environment. What creatures ate what. Which plants provided for which animals. In a way it became a game to him. He created stories to explain why it was that certain animals behaved the way that they did. A flawed nature documentary observed in real time.

Moon happily engaged in the silliness, even if he could rationalize that Sun was equally as unsure as he was. Neither knew what these animals were. Not in specifics at least. Neither was able to understand why some animals behaved differently than others. The game was just some means of creating an explanation for things that they could not understand.

"Did anything interesting happen with the animals today?" Moon inquired, having returned from another night of searching for their ideal home. He could tell that his twin had kept themselves quite busy throughout the day. A small pile of fruit and nuts had been established not far from where the two would idle.

"Well... The nestlings lost their mother today." Sun replied, sitting with his face fixated in the direction of a birds nest that resided in a nearby tree. His tone was glum. He was naturally sad to have witnessed such an unfortunate event.

"Are you sure? Sometimes she takes longer to come back with food." Moon responded, taking a seat next to his twin. Something of a sigh escaped the other, who rotated their head ever so slightly, their solar rays retracting partway into their head as a show of sadness.

"She's gone. A bigger bird came when she was feeding her babies… One moment she was there, and the next she was gone. There were a lot of feathers. The wind took them away... I can't tell if the babies are alright or not." Sun explained, finally turning away to look to his sibling.

"I couldn't find much, but I was able to collect food today. The fruit is really sour, though." He added, having seemingly decided to change the subject of conversation. He never was the sort to want to linger upon the sad notes of the day. He was an optimist by nature.

"It probably isn't ripe." Moon murmured in turn, having already reached to pick up a piece of the fruit that lay beside him. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but he was relatively certain that it wasn't ripe. Whatever it was, it was still green. He knew it wasn't an apple. The size and shape didn't match. Still, he consumed it. Ripe or not, it had value as fuel. The fruit could be poisonous to humans and he would still eat it. That poison would hold no negative impact on him.

"Moony?..." Sun inquired, his voice leaving him in a hushed tone. Not quite a whisper. Loud enough to be heard, but not quite as loud as usual.

"Yes, Sun?" Moon replied in turn, speaking at an equal level of volume.

"If the father doesn't come back, will you help them rest?... I don't want them to suffer..." Sun requested tentatively, a clear level of guilt present in his tone. The inquiry only coaxed a sort of sigh from Moon in turn.

"If the father doesn't return before it's time for me to leave, then I'll make sure they sleep." Moon replied, an almost bitter tone creeping into his voice as he spoke. He wasn't angry. Cross with his situation if anything. Like his twin, he did not wish for the creatures around him to suffer a slow demise. He had grown so tired of watching the struggle while trapped within the confines of the Pizza Plex.

At the same time, he did not ask to be the one who had to end the suffering. But it was either him or no one. He would not allow Sun to dirty their hands with innocent blood. If Sun even had the capability of doing so. As cruel as it was for him to have to be the beast that came to feast upon the weak, it was a role that he had already resigned himself to. As the nightmare in the darkness which guarded the light.