Chapter Text
“Jeez you're heavy-!”
“Shh! Be quiet!”
Jack huffed, he couldn't believe they were actually doing this- dragging the robot all the way back to the forest, this was by far the worst idea they've ever had.
And even worse, they were doing it at night! The worst time to go into a forest with a literal serial killer on the loose mind you, but hey, he guesses it won't be so bad. Miko's got two arms so she can crawl if she gets seperated from them, sure one arm is still a bit stiff but it works.
“So, how are we going to get to where we need to go?” He questioned. Raf stood still as he seemed to admire the forest looming above them.
Raf shrugs. “Well we can try and see if Miko remembers anything. Miko?” He turns to the robot, which lays in the wagon they found in Raf's garage. The robot peeked its head up, distracted by her own clawed hands as she turns her head with a click, her lone eye staring at them in the dark.
“?” She tilts her head and points forward. The two boys share a look with each other, doubtful, but with no other choice they venture out.
And onward they went.
_______________
Jack tripped over yet another branch, letting out a small yelp when he almost fell to the ground. “Shit- are you sure she knows where she's going?” He calls out.
The youngest looks back, “she seems certain enough, I haven't seen this part of the woods before, looks untouched..” he sighs as he touches the nearby branches, almost hitting jack with one when he pulled it with him.
“Hey, watch it!-” he shouts, but stops at a sudden hiss. Miko.
The robot had held her hand up in a pause, looking around her and making small whirring clacks at the slightest noise.
“What is it Miko?” Raf whispers, he walks forward to get a good look at her face when his foot hits something with a snap!
They froze, the only one who didn't was Miko as she looked down at Raf's foot.
There on the ground was… A pencil?
Miko gently grabbed a piece of it from under Raf's boot. Jack leaned in. “And uh, remind me why we're here again? Alone?” He hums at the evidence.
Raf rolls his eyes as he grabs the other piece. “Because we don't want the police to see a giant robot in our hands that can move on its own, especially if they find out she's a lead towards the case” he stuffs the pencil in his pocket.
“We never know what they'll do with her, might determine her as evidence to be destroyed if they can’t find anything.. Or lock her up for some sort of test..” He shivered.
Jack pats him on the shoulder. “I'm sure it won't come to that. Alright? Let's just look a bit further and if anything happens we leave.” Raf nods at his words and turns to grab the handle of the wagon-
“Miko?” Jack knew that tone, the ‘Miko is no longer within our line of sight’ tone. He looks up and yup. She's gone.
“Shit!” He shouts with a jump and dashes around the wagon to try and find a trail.
Thankfully since she was crawling, the trail she left was obvious, marks leading through grass that had been squashed from the movement and loose blood from her body. The teen turns on his phone flashlight and examines the trail, somehow she had left without them hearing her which is… frankly quite concerning. He bends down and that's when he takes in another sight.
There, next to the torn trail from Miko, was blood.
Dried blood.
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Oh she just knew he was going to kill her when he found her, Miko understood that.
She grumbled as she heaved herself down the hill, somehow she had gotten away from the two. But it's okay, she wasn't far and she could still hear them if she needed to run back- turns out she was pretty quick on her arms.
She didn't mean to crawl off, truly she didn't but a part of her felt it was the correct action, she didn't know what brought her down here but she could feel it was something that would help her. Help them.
So with a huff she jumped down with the best of her ability. Finally finding what she was looking for.
It was a lake, well not the lake specifically. But she noticed it looked oddly familiar, like she'd been there before despite never setting foot near it.
But no, what she wanted to see was the weird hand hanging off the side of some of the rocks nearby, the water splashing up against the stones and body - she hoped it wasn't that - like a flash flood.
'Freaky..’ She shivered as much as her robot body could and crawled forward.
The closer she got, the more she realized she was not looking at a body, well.. Not a human body. But..
Another robot body, one that held an odd resemblance to a beaver- A Beaver!!
‘Scottie!!’ She wanted to cheer, despite lacking a voice she could still stomp her paws in excitement and click her ears back as she climbed up the rocks, careful to dodge as much water as possible.
When she reaches the body, it's obvious that the killer was more attentive to detail to this one, the patterns on it more than just blank colors in certain areas.
Scottie had patterns that could barely be seen in the mangy fur, but they were there. Even under all the muddy water.
Miko turns the body over and nudges it. ‘Come on, get up!’ she pushed the body softly to try and get a rise, but remembering what they talked about before made her stop.
Only she could go into the water, to them it was like drowning.. Maybe like a second death… but what did she do to make it possible-
A scream ran out through the forest, the crickets in bushes seemed to stop as all Miko could hear was the yelling of two male voices. She froze, but quickly broke into a tuen and dash.
'Jack! Raf!’ She panicked.
Back with the other body, she didn't notice that she had cut her shoulder on a sharp rock when she ran off. Leaving a small few drops of blood on Scottie's head, the animatronic's head was damaged on one side which the blueish blood seemed to absorb into.
______________
Okay, so maybe they roamed a bit too far, they tried to find Miko but instead Jack had tripped on a rock and Raf had watched as he embarrassingly rolled into a bush.
That would have been it, truly it would.
But when the two of them find that the bush was fake. Well.. Who would stop them from peeking?
But Jack had to admit, it was weird to look at. The bush had hidden a beaten path that when followed, it brought the two into an open area. Raf hollered him over.
“Look at this!” He yelled, poking at a broken piece of a sign.
“What is it?” Jack wondered. Raf shrugged.
“Must be some kind of business sign? Look around us, this place is just one big abandoned facility.” He rubbed his head in confusion, walking further in.
Jack kicked the sign away. “Well, what's left of it.”
“Hey come look at this!” Jack lifted his head at Raf's voice, oozing curiosity as he followed his lead. He finds Raf staring at a small shed-like structure. “Must be the last piece standing of this place” Raf nods in agreement, standing oddly for a moment before running up and slowly opening the door to the shed. “Hey!” Jack whispered. “You trying to get us killed!?” He pulled Raf behind him and pushed him as far from the door as he could.
The doors creaking echoed in their ears, opening just enough to see papers on a desk. Raf looks up at Jack and nudges him forward, eager to look.
The older eyes Raf, praying he won't regret it as he scoots closer to the door and pushes it open. Inside shared to them was some sort of storage room, or a parts and service room like back at the abandoned factory. “Huh.” Jack was stumped, what was this?
Slowly the two earned the courage to peak further in, before long the two nodded and broke apart to investigate.
“Look at all this.. Letters, they're all burned or destroyed from ink.” Raf groaned, grabbing his bag to pull any useful notes inside.
Meanwhile, Jack had taken in the sight of the board on the wall, all of it looking like hundreds of papers from various dates, places and people, each one connected through pins and string and not a single one left un-noted.
“Woah..” He gasped, some of these papers dated back years ago, some reaching the 50s or 60s.
All of it filled his mind with questions when a few papers caught his eyes, these ones seeming more recent.
“Hey Raf, come check this out.” he hummed, reaching a hand out to grace the paper.
“What is it?” The boy asked, stuffing some kind of blueprint into the front of his bag before eyeing the board.
And staring right back at them, was Miko.
But not just their friend, their sister, their family- no.
But all the other missing people who were last seen entered the forest.
“oh my-”
Bang!
The two jumped in surprise at a loud thud outside, the slight sound of a distant mumbling and footsteps. And without another word, Jack and Raf grabbed anything else they could, including Jack ripping off some papers from the board before bursting out the door in a dash.
“Hey!!” A loud voice and a bang shot out. A bullet barely missing Jack'a head
A gun. The killer had a gun!
“Run!!” All Jack felt was a sudden rush of adrenaline as he lobbed Raf onto him in a piggyback before sprinting off, a loud voice screaming from behind.
They ran as fast as they could, sparing no time to look back as they ran through the secret entrance.
Of course that's when Jack nearly gets killed tripping over Miko, who ran into their path in a panic, her paws clawing the earth from her speed. “We have to get out of here!” Jack screamed.
Miko wasted no time in nodding and dashed off beside Jack, careful to make sure she didn't mess him up.
But the end of the forest was getting closer, there it was-
And One last bang shot out. Three bodies hit the pavement as they stumble out of the forest.
But one remains still.
___________
Somewhere deep in the dark dead trees, Scottie sat on a stone, watching as Bat and Dino tried and failed to play cards with dead leaves.
Time didn't pass properly in this world, so he struggled not knowing how much time passed since Miko left, he hoped nothing had happened. That kid has spirit, all of the kids do. Something he prays won't completely die out.
As he sniffed, a weird humming noise filled his ears he thought was just his injury acting up, but nothing worked when he patted at it.
“What the hell..” He mumbled, scratching his ear as the humming got louder.
At this point the kids noticed and stared, watching on in concern as Scottie squirmed in pain. “Are you okay Bea-..Scottie?” Bat stumbled over his name, still getting used to it.
Scottie sighed. “Yes, I just- need to leave for a minute..” He rolled off the rock and bounced off to the mud lake. Here the humming got duller, now a distant noise at the back of his head. He laid down.
“What's going on out there..” His ear flicked. A pop of water below him caught his attention, he leaned over and tilted his head.
“What now? Better not be another new person-”
Suddenly, the humming returned but instead it was yelling, screaming with every inch of its life(?). Scottie covered his ears, it seemed the noise was coming from the water.
He winced as he tried to get away, but a part of him wouldn't move no matter how hard he tried.
When he finally didn get his chance to handle the noise, he got up to distance himself from the lake. But a slip from the rocks made him reel back, falling straight into the water.
Now one would think that falling into something making loud noise would make it unbearable. But no… hitting the water, Scottie felt… calm…
He felt safe.. Like he was sleeping.
In fact, until now, it was like he was always asleep- almost like he could see the bright light beaming down at him from the trees, and the windy waters splashing up against the rocks, and with a moment of peace-
He could finally open his eyes