Our first task, once we had healed enough, was to finish powering the gas production zone. Catnap followed the human back to the plant as he placed the battery into its socket. The machine to our left whirred and finished moving the red smoke around to clear our path. We flinched as the lights loudly clicked on above us.
"There's an elevator that takes us down to the Prototype's lair. Poppy said to meet her there." I reminded the group.
"That's right. It's this way." Catnap showed us to where we were supposed to go. Surprisingly, it was right near the gas machine. Seemingly next to us the entire time. We entered a room with a big machine in the middle. Four mechanical arms were attached to a circular base. "That's it right over there." Catnap assured us.
"That thing? That's the elevator?" The human said questioningly. Catnap nodded. "I've never seen anything like it.
"Good, you're here." Poppy said with a sigh. "The red smoke is diverted. Everything is falling into place, thanks to you." The arms of the machine raised the circular lid off the elevator as the doll spoke. "But if we're to keep going then you deserve to have the truth." Poppy emerged from a crawlspace to ledge above our heads. She was holding a red VCR cassette. "You came back because of your co-workers." The doll addressed the human. "You want to know what happened, and why. This… this is your answer." She proceeded to put the cassette into the player that was up on her level. The three of us crawled over to a TV screen that was down on our level. "We called it The Hour of Joy."
The black and white picture came to life. It showed me standing in my usual spot near the front of Playtime Co. I saw myself looking rather flustered and then lashed out at the humans passing by before running off to do more damage. The video then cut to a different camera within the building. This one was pointed at the Game Station where Mommy Long Legs would have been. We saw humans get picked up by her long limbs and then dropped from great heights, ultimately shattering their bodies. It then showed scenes of some of the smaller toys turning to madness as well. The video cut to the school house where Miss Delight and her sisters began to corner a group of humans as well. There was even a scene where Kissy lashed out at the humans, smacking them with her long arms. Boxy smashed his prey with his big mitts and chomped down on those less fortunate to be close by. The video then changed to show various shots of the hundreds of dead bodies scattered across Playtime Co. There was a particular scene where Catnap was seen patrolling around PlayCare, making sure all the bodies were dead. The screen then cut to black.
"I remember hearing every moment of it." Poppy said, her voice laced with sorrow. "It went on so long….so agonizingly long. They tried to hide, to run, anything to stay alive… I remember their cries: What's going on? Why is this happening? What are those things?" Poppy sniffed, trying to hold back tears. "Senseless slaughter, that's all it really was. They killed everyone." Catnap and I hung our heads in shame…because we knew that we were part of the 'they' that Poppy was talking about. "The guilty, the innocent, didn't matter. All that death….it didn't fix anything. And then, once it was all over, they dragged those corpses down below where they'd never be found. And they…. ate the bodies… the Prototype has to die. For this. For everything." Kissy emerged from a door just to the right of the elevator. She slowly made her way over toward Poppy. Her yellow hands reached up for Poppy to hitch a ride on. We watched as Kissy placed Poppy just inside the elevator's dome.
"Soon as we reach the bottom, we'll send the lift back up. Just hold tight, okay?" The doll said to Kissy. She then averted her attention to the human. "You and I are going first."
"Me? Okay…" He said and got down into the rectangular shaped elevator. "Guess I'll see the rest of you at the bottom."
"Good luck." I waved to him.
"Ready? Here we go." Kissy said as she flipped the lever to operate the lift externally. She huddled over with us as we watched the elevator descend down into darkness. We were all tense. None of us knew exactly what would be waiting for us down there. Would the Prototype ambush us again? I felt Kissy nudge my shoulder as our fingers locked with one another.
