We're just getting started.
GET UP
Alex opened his eyes with a gasp, groaning. "Ugh, what... What happened? Did I just hear something?"
He slowly stood up, finding himself in the same room where the Poppy doll was, only that it was missing, and the glass case was open thanks to him.
"You know what? I don't care where that doll went. Just let me out of here."
But as he was about to go back to the door from which he came, he found out it was now blocked by furniture. The only exit was a small secret door that Alex hadn't seen before.
He groaned, realizing that he had to keep going even deeper into the facility, and opened the door, behind it being the more familiar tiled hallway of the facility.
The long hallway was filled with worn out drawings of Huggy and Bron the Dinosaur, another toy created by the company, and Alex could see the end branched out into three different paths.
"This way..."
He froze in an instant. "Hello?" He shouted, looking around.
As there was no response, he shrugged and kept moving. "Must have imagined it."
He reached the end and tried going through the left hallway, only to find a closed down grated door with a pair of powered down GrabPack scanners.
"Great, more work! Am I exploring or training to become an electrician?"
He noticed another Boogie Bot toy laying in a puddle of what was hopefully that weird red oil, but tried not to think about it. After seeing Huggy, he didn't know what to believe anymore.
The middle passage was a vibrant red door with a plate that read 'Elliot Ludwig' that was locked, so there was only the right hallway to go.
Said hallway had collapsed, and there was now a pretty huge hole that wouldn't let him walk normally, and Alex didn't want to test the stability of the rest of the floor by trying to climb the wall.
"Keep going..."
Now he was sure he'd heard something. "Hey! Who's there?!" He shouted, only to get no response once again. "It's not funny, come on!"
Only silence. At least, he managed to see a handle fixed on the ceiling while he was whipping his head around. He had an idea, but wasn't too sure about it.
He fired both of his GrabPack hands at the handle, and saw how they both grabbed onto it. "This is going to end badly..." Alex sighed before he gave a few steps back and ran forward, grabbing onto the canons as hard as he could as he swung across the hole, landing on the other side with a thud.
"You know what? That was amazing!" He laughed.
The hallway didn't have much else, except the end door being covered by wooden planks, a Huggy cutout made of cardboard to the right. It was the toy wearing a GrabPack with a big smile, and there was a button that urged the reader to press it.
"Meh, I guess I've got time."
Alex pressed the button, and a hearty laugh came from the cutout. "Geez, that's not the voice of the Huggy I met."
Alex pressed the button again, hoping to see something change. "Does someone need a huuugg? " It said.
"I don't think it's me who you should be worried about, buddy."
"Gimme a big squueezzee. I promise I won't bite."
Ironic.
"Come closer, friend."
Alex pressed the button one last time. "I'll squeeze you until you-" The phrase cut midway and a loud static sound replaced it.
"I'm surprised that didn't happen any sooner."
Alex tried to press the button again, but the cutout's phrase simply rolled back to the initial laughter.
"Alright then, I suppose we're done with this."
After looking around some more, Alex saw a door behind a few metal barrels. He used his GrabPack to move them out of the way and opened it.
It was an empty closet with a key hanging at the end. It looked a lot like a trap, but there was no other way for Alex to go, so he walked inside as fast as possible, grabbed the key, and got out.
Thankfully nothing happened.
Maybe this key can open that red door from before...
Backtracking to where Alex was before, he tried his luck, and inserted the key in the lock. It clicked without any issue, and the door was open, revealing an office.
Elliot Ludwig's office.
It was just like any office, but the walls were full of children's drawings. It was clear that the CEO had a soft spot for children. There was also a small vent opened, and another bigger one that was closed.
Alex decided to inspect the office before continuing.
The drawings had nothing special, but he saw another TV, so that meant there was a VHS tape nearby. Sure enough, on top of the table, there was one of those things, followed by a piece of paper.
It was titled 'Experiment 814'.
"Another one of those 'experiments'... How many of those are there?" Alex exclaimed. "This says 814, and if I remember correctly, there was a tape saying something about 'experiment 1006'."
He decided to continue reading.
"Notes:
-This experiment utilized a live rat.
-Rat was fed 3 portions daily for 2 weeks.
-At the end of the two weeks, the rat was killed and submerged into a poppy flower and preservative gel mixture.
-1 week later, an electric shock was applied to the rat (still in the gel) in an attempt to revive it.
The rat remained unresponsive.
Analysis:
I still believe in the potential of the poppy flower. Its unusual properties lead me to believe that the proper mixture and procedure could have life altering properties. The poppy flower has for a long time carried heavy symbolism, and I don't believe that's for no reason. Perhaps something larger than a rat would yield different results."
Alex stared blankly at the paper.
"What the fuck?! Is this why I had to research that flower so damn hard? For them to test it on rats?!"
Still, there were a few parts of that report that were unnerving to him. 'Life altering effects' part, and the 'something larger than a rat' part. What does life altering effects mean? And what is something larger than a rat? A guinea pig? A dog maybe?
Alex shook his head. "What was I really doing while I worked here?"
Leaving that aside, he inserted the VHS tape into the player and watched it. It was simply Elliot Ludwig's biography. Nothing too interesting to note.
"Geez, that's some important information!" He said sarcastically. "What's next, a documentary on how the factory was built? Who is even leaving these tapes for me to find?"
He pushed that aside. He couldn't distract himself. He had to remember what he needed to do. Restore the power to the scanners. Which usually meant that he would need to take a shortcut through the vents.
Since he wasn't small enough to enter the already opened one, he used his GrabPack to bring down the vent cover behind Elliot's desk.
"Alright, more walking inside vents. What's the worst that could happen?" Alex shuddered remembering that chase.
The vent was pretty long, and it connected the office to some sort of backrooms with yet another electrical puzzle, which meant that it was most likely what he was looking for.
He jumped down from the vent onto the ground, ready to start with the puzzle, until a box fell to the ground startling him, and making him turn towards the source of the sound.
"Oh! Uh, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Someone said.
Alex immediately widened his eyes when he saw the source of the voice. It was the same Poppy doll that was inside that case, but this time, it was just in front of the outlet, looking at Alex.
"Not another murderous toy! Stay back!" He yelled aiming both GrabPack canons at it.
"Nonono!" The doll immediately replied. "I was just... trying to get the power back on!" She explained, before moving to the side so Alex could launch the GrabPack hand at the outlet. "Here."
Alex stood a few seconds looking at the doll, something that made her giggle slightly. "Have you never seen a doll before?"
"Not one that walks and talks on its own!" Alex shot back. "Geez, that ad was being serious. Are you a robot too?"
"Robot?"
That made Alex stop. "Yeah? How else would you and Huggy be moving on your own?"
The doll stood silent for a while. "What's your name?" She asked.
"Alex, but what does that have to do with my question?"
"Alex... You can call me Poppy. And to answer your question, no, neither me, Huggy, nor any other toy you will find or have found here are robots." Poppy said.
"But then how-?" He stopped himself, the sudden realization hitting him. "Oh my god. You guys are..."
"Alive?" Poppy filled for him. "Yes, Alex. We are alive."
Alex raised a hand to his forehead. "Oh my god... You're telling me all of the toys I've found are alive? Even the broken ones?"
Poppy nodded. "So that means that the red thing near the broken toys was..."
Alex gagged. "How is this even scientifically possible...? Was that why I was hired here? To help and make toys be alive?"
Poppy's face seemed to darken. "Yes and no." She simply said.
"What? What does that mean?"
"Listen, I'll explain everything to you later, okay? But for now, you should focus on fixing the power and getting yourself out of here."
Alex took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "Okay... Alright. You're right. I'll get to it."
As Alex began doing his apparently new job, he thought about his previous encounter with Huggy. So he was alive. I didn't just save a robot from breaking apart. I saved an actual life. Not a human one, but still a life.
I don't even know what to think anymore.
Once Alex was done, he turned to look at Poppy again, who was now sitting patiently for him to finish.
"So, um... I wanted to thank you for freeing me. I was stuck in there for so long... Thank you."
"No problem. Thanks for not trying to kill me on sight."
The doll giggled again. "You're welcome, but I know words aren't strong on their own, so I'd like to pay you back!"
She stood up, walking towards the entrance where Alex had just come. "There is a train station nearby. It needs a code, and I have it. We're going to get out of here."
Alex widened his eyes. "Really? You're being serious?!"
Poppy nodded again, making Alex sigh with relief. "Thank you so much. I was starting to think there would be no way back out!" The human laughed.
"Come on, we can move as soon as you get up here! Hmph!" She said, waiting for him next to the entrance, where a smaller vent was located. Was there where she entered from?
Regardless, Alex noticed the handle next to the bigger vent and launched his GrabPack hands, lifting him up, much to his amazement. "Seriously, how strong are these things?" He said.
Walking back to Elliot's office, Alex found it was still the same as he had left it. Good news, since that meant nothing, or rather no one was after him, though he had the feeling that wasn't going to last long.
"Hey, I'm up here!" Poppy called out from the smaller vent, causing Alex's heart to skip a beat.
"Don't do that!"
"My bad!" The doll apologized. "I should be able to follow you through the vents. This way!" She said before disappearing again.
Exiting Elliot's office and heading back to the left hallway, Alex found out that the scanners were now lit and working.
He shot both hands at them, and after they were done with their thing, the door lifted slowly. Behind it, was nothing other than a seemingly bottomless pit with a handle for Alex to latch onto.
"I better not fall down..."
As he gazed down the pit, Alex could swear Poppy was humming some kind of melody, but decided to ignore her.
After a close call, he was now on the other side of the pit, and as he expected, it was another empty and long hallway with a pair of doors to the side and one at the end. Both side doors were locked, and so, Alex walked towards the last door, trying not to look at the broken toy in a puddle of now confirmed blood.
Though, it isn't just a broken toy, is it? More like a toy... corpse.
Alex shuddered at the thought.
The door was unlocked, and the other side was a simple room with three grated gates and Poppy standing next to a hole. She turned around when she heard Alex enter.
"Shouldn't you be careful near that?" Alex asked her, seeing how close she was to the hole.
"Thank you for the concern, but you should be more worried about yourself." She replied before taking a deep breath.
"Listen, I know you've been through a lot of stuff with Huggy, but I'm going to need you to trust me."
"I mean..." He had to admit he was still a bit reluctant to follow the doll, but what other option did he have? "Sure. What's next, Poppy?"
"Okay. You need to-" She was cut off when a pink hand appeared from the hole and snatched her down and out of Alex's sight as she screamed loudly.
"POPPY!" Alex yelled.
What happened just now? Did she just get kidnapped in front of Alex?
"Argh, damnit!" He groaned, looking down the hole. He couldn't see the bottom too well, but he couldn't just stand there! Poppy was going to help him, and she just got snatched away!
Alex gave the hole one last, uncertain look. "Ugh, you owe me a big one, Poppy."
And he jumped down. He fell for a few seconds before he realized he was now sliding against something. Before he knew it, he was thrown out onto the ground.
"Ouch..."
He turned around to see a set of slides with a few names of executives. Unsurprisingly, the slide he just came from was Elliot Ludwig's.
"Geez, what kind of workplace is this?"
There were a few more names for other slides, like Leith Pierre and more. Seeing that there was no point in trying to go up a slide, he looked around the room.
To his right, an almost closed door. To the left, another power room connected to the middle door, which had a sign on top reading 'Game Station'.
He tried to open the door to his right, but it wouldn't budge.
"Alright then. Time for more work." Alex groaned, heading for the power room.
This puzzle didn't seem too out of the ordinary, only that it was on a catwalk instead of on ground. However, when Alex shot one hand at the outlet and wrapped the cable around one of the poles, a section of the catwalk suddenly sprung up and broke the connection of the hand before going back down.
"What the-?"
It turned out that whenever a pole was activated, a section of the catwalk would spring up, and if the cable of the GrabPack was crossing its path, the connection would break.
"Seriously, what kind of toy factory is this?" Alex commented with audible annoyance.
After a long while, he finally found a way to connect the cables in such a way that the sudden springing of the catwalk wouldn't affect it.
Once the power was restored, the door to the Game Station began opening, and Alex found yet another long hallway. However, this time, the ceiling wasn't visible, since darkness obscured the view.
He had a feeling something was about to go wrong.
Once he walked to the closed door with a red GrabPack hand scanner, he looked at it before he took a deep breath. "I'm coming for you, Poppy."
Alex launched the hand at the scanner, but before it could touch it, the hand was stopped by another hand.
Like the one that took Poppy.
"What?!" Alex exclaimed.
"A new playmate! It's been so long..." A feminine voice exclaimed.
The red hand was then taken away from Alex, who simply stood there, looking upwards.
"Hey! Who's there?" Alex yelled.
To answer his question, something began dropping from the ceiling. It was a pink creature that looked like a spider, but Alex knew it wasn't, since it had both a pair of hands and legs, which were stretched beyond what any elastic material should.
Alex had seen the toy before, but seeing a much bigger version of it was haunting.
It was Mommy Long Legs. And she didn't look too happy to see him, despite her cheery tone and expression.
"Isn't this exciting, Poppy?" To Alex's horror, Poppy was tangled in the bigger toy's arms, unable to move, or even speak. "Very exciting, Mommy! " Mommy said, imitating Poppy while she shook her slightly.
"Hey! Let her go!" Alex demanded.
"My, do you not know it's not okay to interrupt other people when they are speaking?" Mommy told him with a hint of anger.
"Anyway, Mommy heard that Miss Poppy was going to just give you the train code to escape. Now how is that fun? Instead, why don't we make a game out of it? The Game Station is still working. It'll be just like old times!"
"All of this is still working after all this time?" The human asked, slightly incredulous.
"You'd be surprised how durable all the equipment is..." Mommy muttered under her breath, looking away.
"And if you win all three games, Mommy will give you the code! " The toy said again, in 'Poppy's' voice. "Mommy loves that idea, Poppy! Ooo, you're going to have so much fun. Head to Musical Memory and Mommy will get things started!"
The toy then stretched her neck a bit more to get closer to Alex as her tone shifted. "Obey the rules, or I'll tear you apart and eat your insides..." Her face was just a few centimeters away from Alex's. "While you're still alive."
Alex gulped.
After seeing his reaction, Mommy began laughing and disappeared back into the darkness above, the cackling echoing for a long time.
The moment everything fell silent again, Alex sat down, sighing. "Why did I have to trust that letter..."
He stood there for a few seconds before getting on his feet, taking a few deep breaths. Alex didn't like how Poppy's face looked scared during that exchange. He feared the worst was going to happen to the doll if he didn't find a way to save her. Whether she deserved it or not was not something to think about at that moment.
"I'm going to save you, Poppy. None of us is going to die here."
After he uttered those words, the door in front of him began opening, revealing yet another smaller room with a few murals of most of Playtime Co.'s toys.
There was also another toy covered in blood, but Alex was not in the mood to check that.
He saw a lever, and used the GrabPack hand he still had to pull it down, opening the door in front of him.
What he saw next made him gasp. This was a huge playground-like area, capable of fitting tenths, if not hundreds of children. There were many things you'd find at any regular playground, like swings and monkey bars, and Alex had to admit that he was itching to try one of the slides, just as if he were a kid again. After all, who was gonna judge him?
He discarded that idea, since he was supposed to be saving Poppy, and not playing in a children's playground.
Despite that, he still couldn't shake the amazement fully. He was told what the Game Station was, sure, but they never got too into details, and he had never gone into or seen it by himself. In fact, this part of the factory was completely new for him. As far as he could remember, he never had to leave the first floor of the factory, and he had only heard of other areas of it, even considering some of them rumors.
He headed forward, towards a small raised platform in the distance, and he came across a cutout of Mommy, just like Huggy's. However, when he pressed the button, there was only static sounds and glitched audio, so he continued walking.
If the whole area he was in wasn't enough, he found out that there was also a whole train there, with its tracks and all. And it wasn't some sort of cart that was made to look like one. It was a real train.
"Jesus, what the hell have I been missing?!" Alex laughed.
Next to the train, was a small control panel with three levers, one of them beeping with a flashing red light. He supposed he had to pull that, but he instead focused on something that was just beside the train.
Another cutout, this time of what looked like Huggy, but pink and more feminine. If he remembered correctly, that was Kissy Missy, Huggy's 'better half' as they called her. She was exactly the same as Huggy, but pink and with eyelashes. On top of that she was wearing a train operator suit.
Alex was amazed at how crazy popular Kissy had become, despite her being almost exactly the same as Huggy, but in another color.
"Nobody ever went broke making the same toy but in pink, huh?" Alex sarcastically said. He wished he still had that employee orientation notebook he was given all that time ago. That phrase would have definitely been perfect for a witty note in Kissy's page of the book.
He pressed the button.
"Preparing for departure, in 3..2..1! Choo choo! " The cutout yelled.
"I have no time to listen to this." Alex groaned. He knew there were probably more lines, but he wasn't going to sit and listen to a cutout ramble about trains.
He instead pulled the lever and the flashing red light changed to a static green one, before some sort of music began to play.
"Hi kids!" A voice suddenly said. "Welcome to the Game Station! I'm Stella and we've got three super duper fun games to play! "
"Wait, Stella?!" Alex yelled. "Are you alive or is this a recording?"
"These little tests show us just how crazy, strong and smart you are! " Stella's voice kept talking, without acknowledging Alex.
"Yeah, just a recording. Didn't know you recorded phrases for the kids, heh."
"Follow Mommy Long Legs down the stairs and we'll start by playing Musical Memory! See you in a bit! "
And the recording cut. "Geez, I wish I didn't have to follow that toy at all!" Alex commented.
Suddenly, a set of lights in front of a sign lit up. It read 'Musical Memory', and there was another toy behind the text. It looked like a bunny with a birthday hat and cymbals.
"Bunzo Bunny..." Alex mumbled. "I've heard about you a lot. Kids really like you."
Just then, the floor below the sign began opening, revealing a secret passage that led to the minigame.
"Alright..." Alex took another deep breath. "Let's go. Hopefully I can find a replacement for the hand Mommy stole."
Walking down the stairs, he found out that the way forward was blocked by a broken metal door with a gap in the middle. He could see a cutout of Bunzo sitting on the other side, but before he tried to press the button using his GrabPack, he noticed something to the left side.
Below the poster with the smiling rabbit, there was a Bunzo toy that was absolutely soaked in blood, with its head ripped from the body andaying somewhere close to it.
Alex gagged. Somehow, this toy had been alive alive, and whoever killed it made the aftermath look as grotesque as possible.
Who even did this to you, guys?
He didn't know how the toys were alive in the first place, but he was pretty sure that they all didn't deserve to be dead in such ways...
...right?
Trying to get his mind off it, he looked at the Bunzo cutout and launched the only GrabPack hand he had at the button.
"I know when your birthday is! " The cutout declared.
"Pfft, yeah, su-"
"June 28th! " It said, laughing afterwards.
Alex stood bewildered at the piece of cardboard. How-? Why-?
He pressed the button again. "Make a wish."
"I wish for you not to know my personal info somehow?"
He pressed it again. "Happy birthday! "
He pressed it once again and the cutout proceeded to sing a birthday song to Alex.
He would have thought it was kind of cute if it weren't for the fact he had his birthday revealed to him by a supposedly inanimate object.
After the thought that paranormal activity may have been involved reached his brain, he decided to get moving. And quick.
He entered through a hole in the right wall, towards what seemed like some sort of maintenance hallway, which was a dead end.
Alex saw a hole on the ground, and just barely managed to fit him and the GrabPack into it, crawling through it until he reached yet another room.
He couldn't see anything, but he could hear something beeping. It was another lever with another flashing light. Pulling it, Alex caused the room's lights to suddenly begin working, blinding him for a second.
He could finally read the letters hanging from the ceiling. 'Molding room'.
"Wait, this is where they create the hands for these things!" Alex exclaimed, referring to the GrabPack. He was starting to feel a bit defenseless with just the left hand of the GrabPack, so he was happy to be able to make himself another one.
He heard something beeping once again, and when he looked at it, he saw another control panel with four buttons and a tape. He decided he would watch it once he was done with his work.
He pressed the button below the beeping light and saw how the leftmost machine began filling with some plastic balls that were then melted.
"Cool..." Alex mumbled before hitting the second button. The plastic began leaking from a bent pipe before stopping halfway.
Alex groaned and walked closer. "Will the GrabPack be able to fix it?" He thought before launching the hand at the pipe.
He didn't know how strong the pulley system was, but as long as it did the job, he didn't mind.
Once the pipe was fixed, Alex pressed the button again. The plastic went into another machine that began doing something, probably molding the plastic into a hand shape, for a while, before it stopped and a set of hands were left on the conveyor belt and began to move for a few seconds before they stopped below another machine.
Third button pressed. The machine made a sound before text appeared on a screen. 'No paint in machine.'
"God damnit!" Alex groaned. "Now where could that paint be..."
Alex walked around the room, finding a set of metal stairs that led to a catwalk. He found that the paint bucket was just next to the machine, so he grabbed it and inserted it.
"Alright, that should do."
Alex went back to the panel and pressed the third button again. The machine began spraying green paint on the set of hands before it once again displayed the message to insert more paint.
He pressed the last button, and the hands moved towards the end of the conveyor belt, ready to be picked up.
Alex walked closer and took a look at them. The paint seemed to have dried already, so he picked one of the hands and attached it to the GrabPack.
He tested this newly crafted green hand, and sure enough, it worked perfectly.
Walking to the TV, he inserted the tape and watched. It was simply another Playtime Co. training video, showing how to use the green hand.
Apparently, shooting it at green power outlets let the hand store an electrical charge for ten seconds before it dissipated, and shooting the hand at green power receivers powered large doors or systems. It also warned that the receivers were on the same time limit as the hand, and that the user should be careful with that to avoid injury, all accompanied by the same depressing music as the first training tape.
Alex wasn't keen on getting crushed by a door, so he took very good note of that.
He then realized there was both an outlet and a receiver next to a door similar to the ones that blocked the entrance to the vents to try out the hand, and seeing that there was no other way, he had to take that one.
He shot the hand at the outlet and it immediately grabbed onto it, causing the hand to glow. He retracted it and took a look.
This could be perfect to electrocute any toy that was trying to kill him in the future.
For now, he launched it at the receiver, and saw how the door to yet another ventilation system opened.
He quickly entered the door before it closed and made his way through the ducts, finding the exit pretty quickly.
It was a room with yet another hole in it, so he went through it and found out he was in the same hallway where he pressed that Bunzo cutout, mostly because he was on the other side of the door now.
He frowned at the cardboard for a second before walking towards where he was supposed to go.
Musical Memory.
The room was big, and there were two very big screens that were turned off. There was also a big window in front of him, probably an observation room, though Alex wasn't sure why there was one in the first place.
A noise startled him, causing him to look back. The way from which he came was now being lowered. He had no way out now, considering the fall from the platform would most likely hurt him quite a lot.
Before he realized, the screens lit up and there was another video instructing him how to play.
The screen showed the platform he was in, with four buttons, red, blue, yellow and green, and the familiar yellow figure representing the person playing.
The recording went on to explain how the game was an "advanced memory and cognitive recognition test" that was "designed to simulate several segments of the brain". It apparently allowed "us" to see how quickly and efficiently the player's brain worked.
Alex guessed that "us" referred to whoever was looking through that window, though the purpose still wasn't clear to him.
The video went on to explain the rules. "A sequence of colors will be shown, and you must recreate the exact sequence using the buttons around you."
"Alright, that seems easy. Just like Simon Says. What could go wrong?"
"Bunzo will slowly lower towards you."
"Bunzo?"
Alex immediately looked up. There, hanging from a string, was the one and only Bunzo Bunny, clashing his cymbals with eager anticipation. "Shit."
"When you complete a color pattern correctly, Bunzo will rise back up. When you input a pattern incorrectly, Bunzo will lower towards you faster. If Bunzo reaches you, your test is over."
Judging by the toy bunny's expression, the test wouldn't be the only thing that would be over.
"The test will become more difficult as it continues, with longer patterns, and quicker succession."
"Oh great..."
"That's all. Good luck! "
"I'm gonna need that."
The moment the tape ended, the lights shut off, with only the glow inside the observation room shining through the window, casting a shadow on a familiar figure.
"Oh, isn't it amazing? Mommy hasn't seen this place up and running in years! Mommy can only imagine how excited Bunzo must be." Mommy began saying. Alex looked up, only to see the bunny slowly lowering towards him.
"It's been such a long time since he's been able to play. To cheer. To eat." At this point Bunzo was just barely in front of his face.
"Does that mean what I think it means?"
The only response was a chuckle from Mommy.
Bunzo then let out an evil smile as he clapped his cymbals before laughing and rising back up.
"Oh! That's the dinner bell! Good luck." Mommy said before four buttons were raised in front of Alex and the screens lit up once again.
Red.
"Huh. This looks easy."
He pressed the button.
Red, blue.
Alex repeated the sequence, hearing Bunzo's cymbals clashing.
Red, blue, blue.
Repeat.
Red, blue, blue, yellow.
Repeat.
Red, blue, blue, yellow, blue.
Repeat.
A sound of what Alex supposed was the end of the round played, making him sigh.
"That's it? That was easier than I-"
"Round 2" The speakers announced.
"Okay, that makes more sense."
Green.
Repeat.
Green, red.
Again.
Green, red, red.
Repeat.
Green, red, red, yellow.
Repeat.
Green, red, red, yellow, blue.
Again.
Green, red, red, yellow, blue, violet.
"Violet?!"
There wasn't a violet button anywhere! Panicking, Alex looked around him and saw that there was another button behind him. Violet.
"Sneaky bastard."
He proceeded to repeat the sequence.
"Round 3" The speaker said after the chime.
Orange.
Alex looked around again. There were two new buttons. Orange and white. Perfect. Just what he needed.
He pressed the orange button.
Orange, yellow.
Repeat. The cymbals were starting to annoy Alex.
Orange, yellow, green.
Repeat.
Orange, yellow, green, white.
Again.
Orange, yellow, green, white, white.
Repeat.
Orange, yellow, green, white, white, violet.
Repeat.
Another round done. How many were left?
"Round 4" He guessed he would find out soon.
Blue. Despite the text, the screens were yellow, and the voice spoke fast. This was starting to become hard. Hopefully there weren't anymore colors to add.
Alex pressed the button.
Blue, pi.
"Pi?! Is this a math lesson now?"
He looked around. There were five more buttons. J, pi, a question mark, a heart, and a smiley face.
On the bright side, they weren't colors.
Alex repeated the sequence.
Blue, pi, question mark.
Repeat.
Blue, pi, question mark, yellow.
Again.
Blue, pi, question mark, yellow, violet.
Repeat.
Blue, pi, question mark, yellow, violet, orange.
Alex got the pattern wrong, causing Bunzo to lower.
"Shit!" He exclaimed, rushing to get the pattern right.
Thankfully, he managed to do it right that time. This stupid game is getting complicated.
Blue, pi, question mark, yellow, violet, orange, red.
"When does this end?!"
Repeat, but just barely. Despite not looking up, he could feel Bunzo smiling. Why?
He soon found out. There were already more than enough buttons, but what he saw next was something that would haunt him forever.
At least 12 more buttons appeared from the ceiling and the bottom of the platform, with different colors and symbols he had barely seen, despite him being a scientist.
Theta, violet, red, blue, yellow, orange, massacre, pi, lambda, white-
The screen began blurting colors and symbols nonstop, without giving Alex even a chance to remember, or even press the buttons. However, Bunzo was still lowering himself more and more, clashing his cymbals faster and faster as the distance between him and his soon to be dinner became smaller.
Alex was desperate, but there was nothing he could do. He had lost, and now that rabbit was going to eat him.
It was then that Alex saw a circling button with a caution sign on it.
An emergency shutdown.
Without thinking twice, and feeling Bunzo's breath on his neck, he fired both of the GrabPack hands at the button and closed his eyes.
The hands hit it and caused every light and sound to immediately cease. Alex slowly dared to open his eyes and look up. Bunzo was just a few centimeters away from his head, his face stuck in a look of horror.
Something that caused Alex to frown in confusion. He expected the toy to be frustrated, or even angry for not managing to catch his prey, but horrified?
He didn't have too much time to dwell on it. "Oh. It broke. That's no fun..." Mommy said after a while from the observation window as Bunzo raised back to his maximum height.
"I thought this was a kid's game! " Alex yelled. "Did they seriously make children go through that or did you simply crank it up to eleven to try and get Bunzo to kill me?!"
The bigger toy looked at him with a look between disgust, offense and confusion, though the former was a lot more visible than the rest. "As if you wouldn't know." She groaned.
"What?"
And then silence for some time.
"For doing such a splendid job, Mommy has decided to give you part of the code for the train." Mommy suddenly said again. "Look up."
From the tube where Bunzo was, a pink hand descended, a piece of paper on it. "Take it."
Alex did that and looked at it. It was a ripped piece of paper with images of four toys. How was that a code? Alex didn't know, but he guessed it would become clear once he got more parts.
The hand went back into the tube. "Mommy was hoping the game could last a little longer... It's okay though. Mommy knows other ways to play with you."
After saying that, the bigger toy began walking away from the window. "Wait!" Alex suddenly exclaimed, but Mommy didn't stop.
"Seriously, whenever I find a toy that can talk, it's like the universe itself doesn't want to let them tell me anything!" Alex groaned, realizing he could now go back, as the bridge was raised back up.
But just before he took a step, he heard a sound coming from above. Bunzo was thrashing violently, trying his hardest to break free from the string that forced him to stay there.
He looked actually scared.
Alex had a feeling of what could cause him to be like that, and he didn't like it. He had seen people getting punished for failing to do things they were tasked to do, and considering the situation and Bunzo's reaction, that punishment didn't look or sound good at all.
"Hey! Bunzo!" Alex called, making the rabbit stop and look at him. "What's wrong?"
Bunzo didn't reply, instead going back to trying to free himself once again. He didn't even look interested in Alex anymore.
"You can't talk either, huh..." The human mumbled. "Bunzo, listen!"
This time, the toy didn't stop, but Alex knew he was hearing him. "I know that you guys dislike me... for some reason, but do you mind if I ask you something?"
The toy didn't stop this time either, so Alex continued. "Is something going to happen to you if I leave you alone?"
This time, Bunzo did stop moving and looked at him again, with an uncertain look, as if considering if telling Alex was going to worsen the situation.
Finally, after a long while, Bunzo reluctantly nodded. "Alright. Is that something, let's say, getting hurt? Like, really hurt?"
Bunzo nodded again, fearfully looking inside the tube where he was. It seemed to be connected to some sort of ventilation system, otherwise, Mommy wouldn't have been able to give Alex the code.
And then it clicked.
"It's about Mommy, isn't it? She's going to do something to you for not killing me?"
Bunzo's eyes widened as he began looking around even more frantically. It seemed Alex had nailed it.
"Geez, that's not good, is it?" Alex hummed, glancing around.
The ceiling seemed to be made of tiles that could be easily removed if he hit them from his side of the room. Maybe he could find a way to get where Bunzo was being held prisoner.
Just barely, he saw a ledge that could work as a point for the GrabPack to latch onto, and then maybe he could break the ventilation rack that the tube had to gain access to its interior.
He had a plan.
"Listen, I'm going to break the string that's keeping you there, okay?" Alex called out. Bunzo widened his eyes again and narrowed his eyes in suspicion before he saw Alex launching his GrabPack towards the ceiling and pulling himself upwards.
This was one of those moments that he hoped the GrabPack would withstand the force of his weight.
The grating was just above where Bunzo was located, but when Alex stopped his ascent to try and open the grating, he found out it wasn't going to budge that easily.
"As if a rusty piece of metal was going to stop me."
Making sure the GrabPack hands were perfectly secure and he wouldn't fall, he prepared to make a little jump to gain momentum.
"Grab the walls tight, Bunzo. This junk may shake a little."
The small swing worked perfectly, as the moment Alex's foot made contact with the grating, it broke completely, falling down to the platform from before with a loud metallic sound.
Alex didn't know how in the world he was doing it, but he felt the GrabPack wouldn't hold on for much longer. He opened his pouch and took out his swiss knife and flashlight, peeking his head and arms inside the tube.
Bunzo looked at him both curious and worried.
"Alright, I'm going to cut the rope! Hold tight or you'll fall, okay?"
Bunzo looked down and nodded eagerly. It was clear he didn't understand why Alex was saving him after he tried to kill him, but he didn't care as long as he could get out of there.
It wasn't easy to cut a rope when the only source of light was him holding a flashlight with his teeth and he was trying to move as little as possible, considering the infrastructure could fall at any moment, but after a few tries, Alex managed to separate Bunzo from the pulley system and he heard him let out a yelp as the gravity acted and he began slowly sliding down the walls of the tube.
Sighing, Alex got back out of the tube and let the cable of his GrabPack let him down. Just when he retracted the hands, the place where they were latched onto broke, making a piece of rubble fall down out of the platform.
A single second more and I would have hurt myself pretty bad... Alex thought, putting his things in the pouch again.
He then realized that despite the success of the mission, Bunzo was nowhere to be seen. "Bunzo?" Alex called.
He heard a small groan coming from above, and found that Bunzo was just at the end of the tube, using his arms and shaking as he tried not to let himself fall.
"Hey, it's okay. You can jump down onto the ground. It's safe." Alex told the toy.
He still didn't move. Wait, was he...?
"Bunzo, are you afraid of heights?"
Bunzo nodded.
"Christ, and to think you were stuck there for who knows how long..."
Alex placed himself below the toy and reached out to the rabbit. "I'll catch you, okay?"
Bunzo widened his eyes once again, obviously not expecting that from Alex. "Listen, I know you're reluctant, because you tried to kill me and it wouldn't make sense for me to help you, and all that stuff, but I can assure you that I'm not going to hurt you, or let you fall, okay?"
Bunzo still didn't like the idea.
Alex let out a sigh. "Listen, you can either let yourself fall voluntarily so I can catch you, or wait there until your arms give up, which, considering you have cymbals on your hands, I'm surprised it hasn't happened by now."
Bunzo realized he was right and gave him a last look of uncertainty before opening his mouth. "Pr-Promise?" He shakily asked.
So you can actually talk...
"Promise."
Bunzo took a deep breath before finally letting go. Alex immediately caught the toy, feeling how he was shaking.
"Seriously, what's with you guys not revealing you can talk until the last moment?" Alex joked, trying to lighten the mood while letting Bunzo onto the ground.
"Mommy always says not to talk to strangers."
Alex looked at the rabbit, confused. "Jesus, you're just a kid, aren't you?" He muttered.
A kid with a big and intimidating set of teeth, ugh...
"Why?"
Alex looked down at Bunzo. "Why what?"
"Why did you get me down?"
"What do you- Why wouldn't I help you down?"
Bunzo looked away, to the observation window. "Mommy always says that humans are scum, and that we should never trust any of them because they would never be kind to any of us."
"Do you know why?"
"..."
Bunzo didn't seem comfortable talking about it. "Alright, don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
Alex opened his pouch and looked inside. There were still a few cracker packs in between the larger foods and his water bottle. He took out one pack of crackers, remembering how it had worked with Huggy, and the bottle.
"Want some?" He asked, offering the pack to Bunzo.
The toy looked at Alex as if he just offered him a thousand dollars. "What? But I've already eaten today."
"Are you hungry?"
"...Yeah."
"Then why not eat?"
That idea seemed to sound alien to the toy. "I'm going to guess that food's not something common here."
"Nuh uh." The bunny confirmed.
"Well, it's your lucky day then."
Bunzo hesitated to take the pack, but his hunger was stronger than his will. He opened the envelope and sniffed the food. His eyes opened up like plates and, just like Huggy, began devouring the crackers. At least Bunzo took them out of the envelope before eating them.
Meanwhile, Alex watched the toy drinking some water from the bottle. It was as if he hadn't eaten in a long time. And what he said before still weighed in Alex's mind.
"I've already eaten today."
"Hey Bunzo?"
"Hm?"
"What do you eat?"
"Meat." He replied immediately.
"Meat? From where?"
"From where else? The smaller toys, of course! It's kill or be killed here."
Alex choked on the water he was drinking.
"Excuse me, from the smaller toys? You mean the tenths of bloody toy corpses I've seen are your food?"
The bunny shrugged. "It's not that bad once you get used to it."
Alex felt a bit sick. Ten whole years, eating other toys, eating once a day, just to survive.
"Is that why you follow what Mommy says?"
Bunzo tensed, and nodded. "There's no one stronger than the bigger toys. Huggy, Mommy, and the 'crazy cat' she sometimes talks about. Some of the toys simply form a sort of... alliance with them."
"Just to survive?"
"Just to survive. Though, I know she cares about us."
Alex saddened a bit. "Then why did you fear what Mommy would do to you?"
Bunzo nodded again. "I've already messed up a lot of times before, and not getting to you was the final straw. If you hadn't gotten me down, she'd-" The words died in his mouth, as tears formed in his eyes.
"I don't want to die."
Alex was just stuck there, watching as the toy that wanted to kill him just minutes ago was about to cry. He just wanted to survive. To see another day. Every day.
"Why not simply leave the factory then? There's nothing blocking you from doing that."
That only made Bunzo tense up more. Alex sighed. "Let me guess, there is something blocking you from doing that."
Bunzo nodded. "There have already been toys that tried to escape this place. To see the outside world. But I've never heard of them again. There's someone that's forcing everyone to stay, from what I've heard from Mommy."
He looked at Alex. "And that someone is not anyone's friend. Not ours, let alone yours."
After saying that, he gasped. "I-I shouldn't have said that." The bunny began breathing heavily as he started panicking. "Nonono, if he finds out about this, he's going to kill me!"
"Hey, hey!" Alex yelled. "No one is going to die on my watch, you hear me?"
Bunzo looked at Alex. "I don't care who that someone is. He's forcing you all to kill each other because whoever he is, he doesn't feel like letting you guys leave? Well, that's not something I agree with. I already promised Huggy that I'd go back for him, and I promise, no, I swear to whoever is up there that I will find a way to get you all out of here."
The bunny stood a few seconds looking at Alex in shock, before ultimately jumping onto him and giving him a hug. "You're nothing like Mommy said humans are."
"Great! Now the next step is convincing her so that I don't have to play anymore blatantly obvious rigged games!"
Bunzo chuckled. "Yeah, I heard Mommy say something about 'cranking the difficulty up to eleven' before you arrived."
Alex rolled his eyes.
After some more time of resting, Alex stood up, readjusting his GrabPack. "Alright, I have to keep going. Don't want to make that crazed out toy wait."
He looked at Bunzo. "What are you going to do?"
"I..."
It was clear he never thought about it. Alex thought really hard about what he was about to say. "If you want, you can come with me? Having someone that knows how to navigate around would be of great help... if you do, of course. It doesn't matter, anyway."
Bunzo looked flabbergasted. "You really want me to go with you?"
The human shrugged. "Why not? But promise you aren't going to kill me while I'm not looking."
"Of course not! It wouldn't be fun if you aren't looking!" He laughed.
Once he saw Alex's expression, he frowned. "I was joking, I swear!" He laughed again, clapping his cymbals.
Alex only sighed. "Come on. I'm starting to hate being in this place."
The moment the two stepped on the bridge connecting the way out, it collapsed, causing them both to fall.
They groaned as they looked upwards. The door was inaccessible now.
"Ow! What now?" Bunzo asked.
Alex looked around and saw a vent with a light on top of it. "I hope you don't mind crawling." Alex said.
"That vent?" Bunzo questioned him. "How are you going to open it? I've heard that other toys tried to open it and-"
He stopped when he saw Alex use his GrabPack to get the vent cover out of its hinges. "How strong is that thing you have?" He asked.
"Enough to dismember coworkers, apparently." Alex simply said. "Come on, let's move."
The vent was pretty small, and Alex barely managed to fit, all the while Bunzo only needed to crawl. He went in first in case it was necessary to use the GrabPack for some reason.
"Can't you move faster?" The toy urged him.
"Not everyone is as small as you!" Alex replied.
"Hey, I never messed with your height!"
"It wasn't something bad. Come on, let's not make too much noise, just in case that-"
"WHERE DID THAT BUNNY GO?!" A screech pierced the silence. It was Mommy's voice.
"Quiet." Alex whispered.
"HE HAD ONE TASK, AND HE COULDN'T EVEN DO IT! HE'S SO LUCKY HE ISN'T HANGING FROM THAT STRING, OR HE'D HAVE GOTTEN WHAT HE DESERVED!" That was accompanied by the sound of something breaking.
Bunzo was barely managing to hold his tears back.
"He'd better not be walking around with that human, or I swear that what I was going to do to him before is going to be nothing compared to what I'll do now!"
More sounds of things smashing and angry groans before everything went quiet again.
Bunzo was letting out quiet whimpers, and Alex couldn't help but feel pity for him. "Come on. Let's move before she decides to check the vents."
It was then when he realized, that he had now saved two lives. And he didn't regret it. Not one bit.
