Chapter Text
Ah my sweet warm bed. So soft, so comfortable, it feels like it’s molded specifically for my body.
Ah my phone, my sweet cold phone, screaming at me to look at it.
Why should I answer my phone?
The screen is already blinding me from the nightstand. There’s no mistaking it, that’s a work related call.
What time is it? 6:13, the morning staff should already be in.
Basically every technician there can make a quick fix, so if it’s bad enough for a mechanic then there’s no way it’s going to be fixed in time for opening.
I sit up and scrub my face. I’ll just answer the call and be nice or whatever but if they ask me to come in I’m hanging up. I took this job because I can sleep in till 7 for a reason.
“Hello you’ve reached Micah Helvin” I slur out.
“Did you hear what happened?” Someone asks excitedly.
“W— whut? Excuse me, is this Erin?”
“So you haven’t heard, and no this is Jenna can’t you tell? I’m not a guy, ugh, but he did ask me to to call you so there’s that”
“Ok? You know what, if Erin’s there then he can fix whatever is broken so I’ll skip to the point. Do I need to come in or not.”
“Ohohoh it depends on who you're asking. In my opinion you don’t need to be here until the firefighters leave”
I shoot up in bed at the same speed that my heart rate increases.
“FIREFIGHTERS!?”
“So you don’t know! Looks like I get the pleasure of telling you”
“What happened Jenna” I grit out.
“Well I think it would be obvious from the firefighter line, but there was a fire in the night. We don’t know where it started yet but we know where it ended. Turns out it took out not just one, but both basements! Sounds like the first first basement still has unburnt rooms so who knows, maybe you still have your parts and service.”
“M- My Parts And Service?! You don’t know? It’s a major room, I mean it literally has five elevators leading to it. There’s no way it collapsed”
My heart is actually racing now. Depending on who finished up Freddy was either left charging in his room or in the charging tank down there. For once that distinction actually mattered.
“Where’d you get that from, nothing’s collapsed. At least, not yet”
God I can hear her smile. I know she isn’t in the mechanical department but that’s a bit much.
“Ok, it didn’t collapse and maybe it didn’t catch fire, great. What about the main animatronics, are they still in their rooms? What about the endoskeletons in storage? Wait–wait–wait, that’s what you're calling me about, isn't it.”
It’ll take ages to sort and test everything that was packed back there, certainly starting an hour later wouldn’t make a difference. The option to hang up is looking very nice.
“Oooh yeah that’s what Erin wanted to call you about. He can’t find any of them”
“WHAT”
Welp I can say goodbye to my sleep-in time.
“Ah-ah-ah I’m not done. He doesn’t have his dumb watch on him so he wants you to use yours to find them. He— ah, one second”
I hear the babble of her voice and the hum of someone else.
“Erin just told me you have to come in, really a shame. They’re not letting anyone get close so— Oh! Oh they're doing something now. What are they yelling about? Oh they're bringing something out. Welp looks like an animatronic did burn up”
My heart drops. Was it Freddy? Chica? Roxy? Monty? Just a replaceable staff bot?
“Wait, wait that's not an animatronic. What is that… It— their covering it up with a blanket? Why would they- ey, that’s— I, that can’t be”
“What is it.” I huff. I’m done with these games, if it’s not an animatronic I don’t care
“Micah. They just brought up a body, like a full burnt corpse”
“You sure? Endoskeletons can really look like regular skeletons in the right lighting”
I’m not taking any shit, no way that’s a body. Nothing collapsed so it’s not like they were trapped. There’s fire exits, alarms, sprinklers, no way anyone could have died down there.
“I know you're not here right now so I’ll excuse that. But— Just get over here, ok.”
“Fine, give me 20”
“Honestly? Take your time. At this point, all we can do is watch”
Thirty minutes later I’m dressed in sweatpants and a NASA tee, standing on the cracked concrete right outside the building, my car parked far away from the fire trucks, police cars, and a singular ambulance.
The sirens are all off but the lights are still flashing. I look away as I hurry through the doors, all of them locked open like we're still expecting guests.
The office lights in the ceiling are on and the neon tube lights are off. Purple walls and black carpeting looking out of place.
It feels wide awake but also extremely tired, like in shock.
Funny, maybe it’s because of ventilation but I can’t smell any smoke, just the morning air. Maybe that’s why they locked the doors open.
There’s a small crowd of people near rockstar row. All employees in their red uniforms, some have even pulled up chairs.
“ERIN” I call out, hoping that he sees me.
“MICAH!” He calls back, waving his hands.
I ran up to him. He’s dressed in a bright polo and his hair is done nice but he still looks like someone who’d rather be asleep.
“Hey hey it looks like you wore your pjs to work” he laughs with as much honesty he can muster. Poor guy, this is probably his first crisis he’s had to deal with at work. Hell this is the worst crisis I’ve ever seen too.
“Well if I have to watch this shit show I might as well be comfortable. There’s really nothing else we can do” I say with a frown.
“What? No, there's tons of things we have to do. We have to evaluate the endoskeleton, order new parts, find Freddy and the gang. Oh my god Micah what am I going to do about them?” he says frantically.
He starts to pace back and forth. “I’ve checked rockstar row and I want to check the attractions but I also need to be here to control the crowd if something goes wrong. Also what if emergency services need help with something like turning off the electricity or the water?”
I don't respond. What does he want me to say? That a skinny computer boy has no chance in hell controlling a crowd or that the firefighters wouldn't actually mind a burst pipe spewing water.
He takes a deep breath and collects himself.
“Here’s what I was thinking, you’ll look them up on your Faz-watch and then I can go get them. That way there’s at least one person here that can manage the building”
“Sounds like a plan, give me a sec to pull up their locations” I say.
Actually a solid plan, glad he’s on duty instead of me.
I hate the Faz-watch system. The use of them as security cards was fun and all but the screen is way too small and barely functional as a touch screen. I would rather carry around a tablet all day that strap this to my wrist but I do admit that all the functions are useful.
4th floor, office complex: no dot.
3rd floor, skylight observation: no dot.
2nd floor, shops: no dot.
1st floor, attractions: one dot
“Looks like Montgomery is on his stage in gator golf, that’s good”
“Let me see” Erin cries “Oh thank god at least one of them is safe”
“Bit weird he’s there, but whatever, it’s better than the basement” I shrug
“Where are the others?” He asks
“Monty's the only one I can find above ground”
“Fu–” Erin gets out before he can stop himself. I swear this guy takes the no swearing on company time rule too seriously.
“But what if, uh, they disconnected from the wifi. then their locations can’t be tracked” Erin says with a hopeful look in his eye, or maybe a look of denial.
“Let’s check the basement floors before we rule that as an option”
I switch to the second to last floor, the first basement. No dots.
Now that is confusing, I was expecting them to be in the first if they were in the basement. I’ve never seen an animatronic wandering deeper than the first, not even a staff bot. It’s all storage and spare rooms past a certain point.
I flip to the last floor.
“Huh” I blink.
“What is it? Show me”
“Roxy and Chica, so close their dots overlap, stuck on the stairwell trying to go up”
“What floor” he leans over and gets a look at the horrible truth.
“The second basement, why the second basement. That’s the one that burned fully oh god they're definitely destroyed. WE NEVER HEAT TESTED THE CIRCUITRY MICAH! It could be a molten mess!” He cries.
“Erin not to be mean but shut up you don’t know what you're talking about. A stairwell is probably the best place to be during a fire other than outside. That’s why the firefighters always tell you to take the stairs!”
“That’s because they don’t want you to take the elevator!”
“Well it’s also because stairwells are built to be inflamable to stop the fire from spreading to multiple floors, I don’t know how it spread to the first basement but we know that it couldn’t escape further so it didn’t take the stairs” I chuckle at my little pun.
“Anyways it’s highly likely that they didn’t burn up but I am worried about why they haven’t moved, you know more than I do about their code”
“Anyways you’ve said Monty, Chica, and Roxy, where’s Freddy?” Erin asks.
“No dot”
“No dot?”
“Maybe he really did lose connection” I offer.
“But where would he be? I know that you helped with maintenance with him last night, what happened before you left?”
“I think Lauren was the last person in there, she just leaves Freddy in parts and service, but it’s possible that he got up and moved around overnight”
“But I thought you changed his battery around, he can't restart until the battery is fully charged”
“Maybe he got up and left when it got to hot, if the fire was later in the night he could have gotten a full cycle in and restarted”
“If he walked away then where is he?”
I shrug, why does he think I know?
“Oh this is bad, I know management was considering switching up the star role but not to the point where they wanted Freddy gone!”
“Yep, no sugar coating this” I slap him on the shoulder “welp do you want to go tell the firefighters to pull our favorite animatronics out or should I do it”
“Huh?”
“Well you did say you wanted to go get them”
“But each of them clock-ups around 700 pounds, how are they supposed to get them up the stairs?”
“You're right! It's almost like there's nothing we can do right now and I could have stayed home” I cheer.
“Micah” he scolds. “If you want something to do then can you please bring Monty over here. I want to check if he knows what happened”
“Yeah well I have my Fazwatch so you know what that means”
I comically point one finger and descend on the green monty call button. My finger connects with the screen, nothing happens.
I press it again, and again, again. Is it even registering my touch? I swear this thing has the sensitivity of a 3DS.
“Ok fine you win” I groan. “I'll go collect Monty”
“Thank you” he smirks
“I swear to god your spending to much time with Jenna”
“And you” he mutters
“Hey what's that supposed to mean”
“Nothing~”
“Ew, never do that again”
He laughs as I walk off.
Seriously, what's that supposed to mean? I’m full of sarcastic comedy, Jenna is full of annoying commentary. The difference is that I am actually funny.
Whatever, I got a job to do now or something.
Ah Monty, I like his design and his personality is perfect. I love a funny himbo lizard man. I think more people would like him if management didn't make it seem like he was just a replacement for Bonnie.
In reality Bonnie getting shelved and Monty getting the spotlight were two separate events, the difference being Monty's promotion was actually planned for. Then the Bonnie incident happened and now there actually was a spot that needed filling instead of the weird convoluted way we were originally going to insert Monty into the group.
I get why but the handling of the issue really fucked up my mans reputation and that bothers me to no end.
It doesn't bother him though, that's nice at least.
Huh, I can't smell the outside anymore, now it's just the usual artificial sweet smell of the plex.
And smoke
There's smoke
Strange, the pull down barrier is still down but the staff bot that collects party passes is still standing at attention. Usually the attraction is actually turned on before a staff bot is rolled out to manage guests.
I doubt someone went to Gator Golf before going downstairs and calling 911 which means that someone didn't close right, slackers.
I know it's only a low power staff bot which is an easy fix but it’s still sloppy work.
An image flashes in my head of a candle and an old PSA, even little flames can cause big fires.
If a whole staff bot could be left standing at attention all night then what else was forgotten.
Man if it comes out that some numbskull left an actual open flame burning alone in the basement I’m going to kill somebody.
Kill somebody
Fire
Jenna saw a body
Erin didn't say anything about it though. He would have told me, right?
Yeah he would have, it's not like he would forget something like that.
Yeah! I saw almost everyone that works in the basement in the crowd… but I doubt they were here when the fire started.
Who was on night guard duty last night? It's usually Vanessa but I heard she was feeling bad yesterday, I think she stayed home. Actually I think no one was scheduled to guard the whole night, I mean we literally have robots and cameras that do the same thing.
Oh.
Oh that's probably why the fire started. They’re not exactly programmed to put out fires.
Damn it now my department is also guilty, the staff bots should have been programmed to deal with every emergency, not just medical and security.
Well whatever, what’s done is done and I’m not going to be fired for it. At least they better not, I was only involved in maintaining, not designing them.
I move in to enter Gator Golf but the staff bot blocks my path with its scanner.
“Please present your party pass to enter Gator Golf” it translates from text to speech.
I wave my fazwatch underneath the scanner, “Hello? Staff here, let me in”.
It doesn't move. “Please present your party pass to enter Gator Golf”
Oh my god this thing is glitched. Do I really have to use my clearance, which already gives me access to every room in this damn place, to give myself a party pass, to gain access to a room I already have access to.
Yes, unfortunately.
I scan my watch again.
“Please enjoy Golf, remember to leave all phones in the security office” and then really quickly at the end “Fazbear entertainment not responsible for missing or damaged property.”
I will personally stop on the phones of anyone dumb enough to actually fork over their devices because a funny robot told them so.
The staff bot moves away but the pull down gate stays down.
Ah.
Why did I think that I had to scan a party pass to get in. I’m so dumb.
I jingle through my keys and unlock the barrier.
and pull up
And get hit with a blast of humidity.
“Ack, wet” I spit. “Why is it wet”
Seriously I know it can get humid in there with all the water but that's during the peak of summer, not early fall.
I hear a gator call echoing down the hall
Oh my fucking god Gator Golf is still running.
I lock the gate up and run inside.
Ok, the top lights are off, that's good.
The path and atmospheric lights are on, thats ok.
I can hear water running. The fountains were left on, that's bad.
I can hear the growth of Gators, how did no one realize those were still playing? It's not like they couldn't hear it.
What
What is that?
All this damn plastic foliage is making it hard to see but I think the spill bucket is angled.
I hope it's not tipped, the temporary scaffolding hasn't been removed. If that thing did a full spill then whole steel catwalks would come down all over the main show stage.
Holy fuck I hope that the only reason I can't see the scaffolding around the bucket is because of the leaves.
I check my fazwatch again, Monty hasn't moved off the stage.
Maybe his battery died, maybe the whole attraction staying on throughout the night messed with him and he never went back to his room to charge.
Yeah, maybe that's it. Now to just confirm my theories. And disprove all of the other, worse explanations.
I walk through the brown concrete path and over a bridge. A big plastic alligator jumps out from underneath it, letting out a menacing growl.
I slap its nose as I walk by. Not even this guy got turned off for the night huh.
I keep walking around the minigolf and the shallow pools of water, slowly watching as the main stage comes into view.
My foot kicks something.
A small plastic ball bounces into the fake grass.
It's the same generic ball used to fill the spill bucket.
The spill bucket that under no circumstances should be used.
I start running.
My legs almost pop off my body as I round the corner and finally get a full view of the main stage.
“Holy shit” I yell. Rules be damned, I need to curse at this.
The catwalk is down, holy shit the catwalk is down. on the stage. in pieces.
Shards of metal poke up from the rats nest that used to be an organized structure that, without a doubt, also stabs into the wooden floor.
Holy shit Holy shit is Monty under that?!
Fuck the stairs I’m climbing straight onto this stage.
I manage to get my torso up when I see him. Thick shards of green plastic surrounding only half an animatronic.
HALF an animatronic.
The BOTTOM half.
Of ALL the half's, why the bottom. I can't do shit with the bottom, it's just pipes and supports. If I had the top no problem, just slap a new pair of legs on the guy but nooooo I ONLY have the legs.
My own legs finally get on the stage with the rest of me.
I walk over to the destruction, and sit, right next to what's left of Montgomery Gator.
There's a small puddle of translucent hydraulic fluid surrounding him. A great spiderwebs of cracks breaks up the gator skin pattern on his thighs. Most of the plastic had fallen off, free thanks to the cracks, left abandoned on the floor.
“Oh god what the hell happened to you” I slip out, giving myself a moment to mourn.
I pick up a piece of plastic on the ground and flip it between my fingers, trying to figure out where it came from. If I can figure that out, then maybe I can put him back together again, reassembling his shell like puzzle pieces.
I can't fix this.
At least, not today, not with what I currently have available.
I can, given time and effort.
The piece of plastic slips in between my fingers.
This place smells like chlorine, out there smells like smoke, home smells like something that I’m so used to I can't even smell it anymore.
I want to go home.
There's nothing I can do here. My arms aren't strong enough to move the scaffolding, I don't know a thing about fire fighting and I can't fix Monty.
I stand up, the resignation soaking in.
I navigate around the wreckage and to the control panel hidden behind a curtain. First the noisy ambiance, then the bubbling fountain, next the animatronic alligator, and last, the few lights that were left on.
It's dark and quiet, like my room just an hour ago, it's peaceful. I hope Monty feels what I felt and can sleep until all this is sorted out.
I suppose thats a bit weird given how only his legs are there but fuck it, lets get poetic.
My flashlight blinks on, illuminating far out into the course.
Huh, that's weird, did Monty's leg move? I swear it was farther away than that.
No that's impossible, the main hydraulic tank is held within the torso, the only thing that could possibly move was the toes.
Maybe it was the toes, I’ll have to inform everyone that there might be spare charge in Monty.
I avoid the scaffolding and walk back through the winding path of Gator Golf.
When I get to the door I hesitate, but just for a second,
before pulling the gate down.