Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.
- Simon Sinek
Koa was still tense once she made it to the end of the hall. There, she found a cardboard cutout of Hoppy Hopscotch, one of the Smiling Critters. She found herself nervous to play the recordings, but she forced herself to. The recordings were of Hoppy trying to hop to the moon, but was unsuccessful every time. The last recording sent a chill down Koa's spine:
"JUMP! JUUUUUUU-"
Her voice cut out. Koa sighed remorsefully. She looked over and noticed an orange Grab-Pack hand in a broken locker. She grabbed it and looked it over. It was designed like a gun, two of the fingers were pointed forward and the ring finger and pinky were curled in, and the thumb was up like a hammer on a gun. It made her miss her own gun. She attached it to her Grab-Pack's right compartment, aimed it out an open door to her left, and tested the new hand. It fired a flare across the room.
"Yes!" Koa cheered. With a new way to defend herself she felt more confident to push forward.
She ventured through the open door, across an unstable catwalk and to another door across the chasm but saw she needed a battery to open it. She backed up and looked around, seeing a battery in a far corner. Using her Grab-Pack, she was able to retrieve the battery and plug it into its receptacle and the door opened. Once she was through she couldn't contain her amazement.
She was in underground caverns. Stalactites and stalagmites decorated the floors and ceilings of the caverns. On the ground, natural springs of water flowed along the rocks. It was a natural beauty and wonder. Though the beauty was tainted by man made catwalks, platforms and machines. Just ahead on the floor of a catwalk leading deeper into the caverns was an orange VHS tape. Koa played it on the nearby TV, but found little interest in it. It played an interaction between two employees Koa didn't recognize, except one: a man named 'Richie.' The same man who complained about a toy delivery being delayed. This time he was expressing his distrust toward Playcare to a fellow worker, 'Stu.' Stu then went on to say he was hoping to have Richie take his place in the factory once he retired.
"Well, Richie's suspicions were correct," Koa said out loud to herself.
Looking back to the catwalks, she knew this was the only way out. She mentally prayed for her to safely make it across, and she carefully crossed the catwalks. Along the way, she had to jump across large gaps and up to higher platforms with her Grab-Pack's launch hand. All the jumping and running made her feel like a traceur. Eventually, she came across another power grid. It was after guiding herself around it that she figured out it powered an elevator, and it was quick and easy to rearrange the power lines for the grid. Once it was all arranged, she stood near the elevator, and used her Grab-Pack to activate the power grid, and she hopped onto the elevator just before the elevator was charged, and the elevator rose up.
Once the elevator brought her up to the next platform, the air around her felt tense. She slowly and quietly walked along the platform, feeling she wasn't alone. She then heard faint metallic noises below her and caught a strong sent of lavender in the air. She looked down, then immediately ducked down low.
CatNap was right there. Before him was a large statue of sort. He stood up on his hind legs and brought his front paws up in worship. Koa watched as he stood there. She studied the statue and saw numerous toy parts of PJ Pug-a-Pillar, Mommy Long-Legs, Huggy Wuggy, and other various toys as well. She even saw a human skeleton with its hands binded together protruding from the PJ Pug-A-Pillar's mouth.
That's when it clicked.
'It's a shrine!' Koa immediately realized.
She got down to her belly and crawled as quietly as she could across the platform, hoping not to catch CatNap's unwanted attention. The rest of the catwalk ahead of her had collapsed, but still hung in sections for her to climb down. She carefully climbed down the unstable, broken platforms until she was on more stable ground. She looked back over to the shrine and ducked down again.
CatNap was gone.
Koa didn't dare move a muscle or make a sound. She watched her surroundings, listening for even the slightest sound of movement. After a few minutes, nothing happened. Realizing she hadn't been spotted, she relaxed and stood up slowly, still wanting to stay quiet. Looking back at the shrine, she felt angry. She climbed down to cavern grounds and approached it. She circled the hideous thing, feeling pity for the toys who's corpses were merged into it. She reached the back of the shrine and paused. There, she saw a pair of large toy legs that were torn from a body at the waist. They were orange and golden brown in color and had a tail that belonged to a dog. She immediately recognized the design of the legs and fell to her hands and knees in grief.
'DogDay! Not him too! Please, not him too!' Koa mentally cried.
Her anger returned tenfold. She stood up and pulled out her knife, bringing it up to hack the shrine to pieces.
'Don't!' A voice in her head sounded, making her pause. 'Not yet.'
She was confused. "Why 'not yet?'" she whispered quietly.
'Just not yet.'
She sighed, deciding to trust the voice and put her knife away. She walked away from the shrine and climbed back up the platforms as they would lead her to a way out.
Just ahead, she saw another door, but the sign above it made her pause: Playhouse. The very place Ollie warned her was the most dangerous place in Playcare. She backed up and looked around. All the platforms and catwalks led here and back to the school.
'No choice.' Koa realized.
Taking a deep breath, she braced herself for the danger about to come. She launched her Grab-Pack's blue hand to its receptacle and it charged the door. Once the door was open, she entered the Playhouse.
She was in a dark room, she looked to the right and saw a TV. Just then, she heard a giggle coming from the opposite side of the room. Looking in that direction, she saw a little toy unicorn coming her way. Knowing just how dangerous even the smallest toys were in the factory, she was about to draw her knife, but then remembered the flare gun for the Grab-Pack. She drew the flare gun and fired a flare, and the toy immediately retreated backwards into its hole, whimpering the whole time. She looked to her left and saw a cardboard cutout of Bobby Bearhug. Not wanting to find out what horrible fate the sweet Critter had met, she decided to focus on finding the VHS tape for the TV.
Seeing a room ahead of her, she looked in and saw the tape under a book on the floor. Grabbing the tape and placing it in the player, she flinched when CatNap's face, his white irises glowing, appeared on the screen. The voice of Leith Pierre, the Head of Innovations of the factory, spoke up. And by the tone of his voice, it sounded like he'd rather be doing anything else at the moment.
"Okay… this is… CatNap. Uhhh… experiment number 1188… What's his real name again?" After a pause, he continued, "ah! Okay," he cleared his throat before continuing, "Heya Theo! How ya doin' bud? Normally, I'd have Dr. Sawyer do this but he's uhhh… out, let's say. So you got me until they find his replacement. First off: congrats! This is officially your fourth year in your new body. And you've made some real progress pal. I was told that when you and the other Smiling Critters, y'know, DogDay, PickyPiggy, yadda yadda yadda, were added into Playcare, that you weren't really getting along too well with the kids like everybody else was. But look at you now! The kids love ya, and that red smoke. I mean - That's fantastic isn't it?!"
He paused, waiting for an answer. When he got none, he asked, "Is his uh, voice thingy still broken-"
"The Prototype... will save us," a deep, raspy and strained voice whispered sinisterly, making Koa shudder. It was as if talking alone took a lot of energy and effort for CatNap.
"Theo… Nobody's gonna save you! This prison is where you belong. We'll let you out here and there to go see the kids in Playcare, but your home is here. And as for 'The Prototype', his home is in the labs. THIS is your life now! Get used to it!" Leith replied angrily and mockingly.
The screen then went black. She felt pity grow in her chest.
'Poor CatNap.' She sighed. 'He was a victim, too.'
Then she thought about everything Ollie said about CatNap and the experiences she had with him. He still wanted her dead. And, based on what she witnessed in the caverns, he wasn't going to stop or change sides. She sighed again and decided to move forward.
She ventured deeper into the Playhouse and found out just how dangerous the place really was. No wonder Ollie warned her not to come in here. The place was crawling with little toys, who Koa realized were miniature versions of the Smiling Critters: DogDay, CraftyCorn, Hoppy Hopscotch, KickinChicken, Bubba Bubbaphant, PickyPiggy, Bobby BearHug, and CatNap.
There were hordes of them. Koa could smell them all around her, and the smells were giving her a mild headache and making her slightly nauseous, as the Critters scents blended with each other. They giggled and snarled loudly all around her, making her jump every time she turned a corner or went through a tunnel. Every time she managed to get some to back off, another group of them managed to get close. After sliding down a slide to get away from a small horde of Ruined Critters after running out of flares and waiting for the flare gun to reload, she found herself in a huge maze of tunnels and slides. A few Ruined Critters came out of a hole in the wall and Koa fired another flare to get them to back off now that her gun had reloaded.
She looked up and saw a catwalk above her. She made her way to the catwalk through the tunnels of the Playhouse while warding off the Ruined Critters at the same time. Upon making it to the catwalk, she noticed a button in a small corner. She tried the button but it didn't work. She looked to the right and noticed a larger button the floor nearby, and a large block on a platform next to it. She looked to the left and saw another button and another block.
Jumping down after firing a few flares to ward off more Ruined Critters, she made it to the first button and pulled the block down to hold the button down, them she made it to the second button and did the same. She heard the catwalk power up and felt relieved, only to flinch when a loud snarling was heard. She fired a flare in that direction and the Critter retreated, actually running past her in fear, which made her jump up as if trying to avoid stepping on a giant rat. More snarling was heard, and she quickly made her way back to the catwalk.
Once she made it back up, she used her Grab-Pack to push the button, which made the catwalk rotate to the right. Looking around, she saw a door not too far from her. Making the catwalk rotate to more times, she managed to reach the door and she shut it behind her once she was inside.
Sighing in huge relief, and to clear her nostrils from the obnoxious blend of smells, she turned around and found herself standing on a flight of curved stairs. The stairs leading up were damaged, meaning the only way out was down. Once she was at the bottom, there was a door that led to an indoor swimming pool. The pool was drained, but large pool floats that were shaped like rubber ducks were still there in the pool. Dripping water from broken pipes echoed in the empty room. Reaching the doors on the other side of the room, she noticed a blood trail on the floor. It was old, but still, something bad happened here. Once the doors were opened, Koa was shocked to find jail cells in the back of the Playhouse.
'This place really was a prison, wasn't it. Why didn't I notice? Why didn't I realize this?' Koa thought to herself angrily.
Walking further into the cells, she noticed there were candles burning along the walls and in the corners. The place reeked of decaying blood and old death and...
She stopped briefly. 'Wait...'
Sniff, sniff...
'Vanilla?'
There was a strong smell of vanilla in the air, and it got stronger the farther down the hall she went. Koa sniffed the air again, but the odors of decay and rot were so strong in this part of the hall that they overpowered the vanilla and it took everything in her to not vomit. Once she reached the end of the hall…
"You, you're Poppy's angel."
Panic is highly contagious, especially in situations when nothing is known and everything is in flux.
- Stephen King