The employee rushed blindly into the room, red gas already creeping in the corner of their vision. The bittersweet, almost cherry-like smell was crawling on their tongue, slithering into their lungs. Their plastic-gloved hands gripped the piece of cloth they had found tighter, crushing it firmly against their closed lips. However, it was a gesture they knew was completely useless. Their protective gas mask had been ripped off, leaving only a jagged outline of torn yellow plastic around their neck. Their eyes were beginning to water, and a horrible itch was wriggling its way inside their nose. The employee cursed, the sound muffled by the dirty piece of cloth. It would be only be a matter of time before the gas kicked in; first the uncontrollable euphoria, then the eyelids, growing heavier and heavier. The brain would shut down, a veil of gray sleep would come over the eyes, and the body would simply stop to work. The employee knew too well the dreadful effects of the gas and thought, not without some guilt, about the children, lying dazedly in their beds, their faces still twisted with remains of artificially-induced laughter. They themselves would slump on the floor into a deep sleep, and the horrors crawling around would tear him apart, and they would perhaps never even realize that.
The employee looked wildly about, acid tears now running on their cheeks. They had apparently gone into one of many of the play areas designated for the youngest, a simple maze of slides, hidden corridors to play in, ball pits to jump into, with soft cushions and toys discarded about. The red gad curled languidly on the tiled floor as the employee crouched and crawled hurriedly into the infrastructure, one elbow scratching against the floor, their back hitting the low ceiling as they crept further into the shadows. They were too clumsy, too big, but they didn't care; the enclosed space was a true relief from the hell that had been unleashed outside. The employee stopped and turned around, the piece of cloth still glued to their face, sweat trickling down their forehead. The air was hot, thick with the bittersweet smell of the gas slowly lurking into the corners, and the lights flickered as the bloody mist slowly arose, the deadly fumes climbing the walls to reach the painted ceiling.
The employee couldn't hear anything. No more screams, screeching, growling. No more frenetic footsteps beating the floor. It was as if the whole factory had suddenly died, right then and there, and they were all blindly crawling inside the stony bowels of a huge corpse. The employee shifted a little, forcing themselves to breath calmly. The incident had taken place so quickly, so unexpectedly! They couldn't have really reacted. None of them could have done anything, they kept thinking to themselves. They weren't responsible. Again they thought with gut-wrenching distress about the children. The entirety of Playcare and the dorms were surely flooded with gas by now, its red waves licking the abandoned furniture, the fragile paper covering the walls, and the pictures of the orphans. The orphans… None of them had survived, they were sure of it, and deep inside they almost wished that they hadn't. A child wouldn't be able to live alone like this, and with the toys around…
Stifled footsteps softly entered the room, and the employee's head snapped toward the source of the sound, alarm breaking through their thoughts. Pointy triangular ears stood out in the red mist, soon followed by a grotesquely big purple head. The employee immediately dropped to the ground, their nose brushing past the tiled floor, their eyes locked fearfully on the feline shadow. A wave of strong, immeasurable hate mingled with absolute terror overcame them as the cat walked calmly among the scattered toys. Of all the toys in the factory CatNap was perhaps the one they hated the most. The dorms had been completely inaccessible to any human employee as soon as they had let him roam the shadows; the cat was territorial, despite the company assuring them of his shy and reserved character. They had especially retained that CatNap was silent, sneaky, and ugly beyond measure; none of them had been able to bond with him, or even wanting to, and his unlike friendship with the Prototype had ended any human attempt to try and talk to him. Seeing him walk without care in the factory sparked almost a righteous kind of anger inside the employee; they should never have let such monstrosities out of their cage. In the mist of hate blinding his mind they forgot the face of the boy that had been chosen for the Bigger Bodies Initiative; Theodore was a fragile, easily destroyable memory. To them CatNap was now the living embodiment of a system that had betrayed them, and its disproportionated features only fueled a fear hidden by desperate rage.
The cat walked about, skeletal limbs supporting a monstrously thin purple frame. Dead, round silver eyes locked in a head seemingly too big for its own body to bear looked here and there, bottomless pupils searching for any survivors. The lips were stretched in an impossible wide smile, like some sick parody of a Cheshire Cat. The cat's back was arched in an unnatural, freakish shape that reminded the employee of a sick question mark, with bulging vertebrae ready to burst out of the furry skin. The belly was almost nonexistent, and the long, skinny tail swished questioningly from side to side. A golden crescent moon was hanging around the neck, swaying helplessly in the air while CatNap looked around. The creature looked ready to collapse and die at any moment, with the signs of an incurable illness carved all over his hideous body, yet CatNap kept on walking. A smell of rotten lavender and fresh poppies always accompanied him wherever he went, mingling with the cherry taste of the gas. More tears blurred the employee's eyes as both putrid smells reached their nose, and they retreated further into the shadows. Their tongue was tingling, and with each breath taken their lungs burned more inside them. They watched, almost jealously, as CatNap stopped and lovingly inhaledthe gas, then playfully breathed it out through the gaping void that was his mouth. The red mist was his friend, and the creature knew it.
The cat was in no hurry and continued strolling around the room, swaying his massive head to listen, watch anything that might be out of the ordinary. The employee repressed back a burning, acidic cough, the piece of cloth dirtied with sweat and tears pressed tightly against their lips. They wouldn't last long here; the cat was getting dangerously close. They quietly moved away, their eyes still locked on CatNap, but the creature hadn't noticed them yet.
The child-sized corridor seemed endless and progressively more unreal as tears flooded the employee's vision. Their throat was now burning with the need to cough the red gas out, and a wave of suppressed giggles almost threw them off balance. They stopped a while, then continued again, their head dizzy with the interwoven smell of poppies and lavender.
The corridor opened on a small maze, at child's size, all plastered in bright yellow and blue colors, now drowned out by the creeping mist. The employee could barely see the serpentine walls anymore; the exit was lost somewhere in this nightmarish, otherworldly fog that the cat kept breathing as though it were normal oxygen. Their lungs were drowned in acid, and their mind was so heavy with despair, so full of restrained contempt, that the giggles they had been holding in suddenly broke out into a mad fit of laughter which echoed loudly in the room. CatNap's head immediately snapped toward them, the glassy silver eyes locking on the fragile human figure. The giant cat leapt toward them, his tail triumphantly raised as the mouse-human crawled back into its hole, leaving behind a trail of mad laughter. CatNap easily followed it as it desperately limped in the corridor; a long purple paw flew into the tunnel and sharp claws dug into the human's foot. A pained scream broke through the laughter, and CatNap dragged the miserable thing back, tearing through the yellow suit, before releasing it. The human was out of breath, and its eyes were bulging in its reddening face as it kept laughing and laughing. CatNap breathed another swirl of gas into its face, and the employee curled up; the laughter was out of control, echoing against the walls. Yet the human hadn't given up; it started crawling back toward its hole, and CatNap patiently watched it, before playfully dragging it back as soon as it reached the entrance. They played like this once or twice; the employee felt their strength slowly dripping out, overcome by the artificial sleep they feared so much. The illusory safety of the corridor was so close, yet completely unreachable. The pain in his foot was unbearable, and so was the burning of the gas eating the inside of their lungs. They couldn't even distinguish CatNap anymore; only two silver dots remained of his lanky body. The employee's hatred was drowned in laughter as suddenly the cat got fed up of the game, his tail slashing through the air, and a paw crashed against the human's side, sending them flying against the infrastructure. The room flew wildly before their eyes, and they collapsed limply against the wall, images blurring into a whirlwind of indistinct colors. The pain slowly faded, replaced by blissful unconsciousness.
CatNap eagerly followed the human, his paws softly beating the playground, his tail raised in anticipation, and poked the body with his skeletal paw, softly at first, then more roughly. The cat circled it several times, bewildered, before realizing the human had died. CatNap watched it a moment longer and turned away, his tail swishing behind him. He was content; he had rooted out yet another heretic.
The Prototype would be happy. The Hour of Joy had finally come, and it was his duty to protect it.
A/N: Small fic for the upcoming chapter 3 of Poppy Playtime!