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gwenbrightly · 15 days

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(Re)Building the Future Chapter 8

“If I were an animatronic wolf with a horribly mangled kid, where would I go?” Gregory muses (ignoring the weird look the others give him for his graphic choice in words). He, Freddy, and Vanessa have arrived back in Roxy Raceway in record time, but there is no sign of Roxy or Cassie. Unless you count the occasional splatters of blood they keep finding, that is. Which tells them a lot while also telling them absolutely nothing.

“Roxanne is very smart,” Freddy says, “I am sure she will have found a first aid station and patched Cassie up by now.”

They locate the nearest first aid station and soon discover what Roxy has clearly already realized. It is completely empty of supplies. And so are all the others, upon further exploration.

“Wow. I guess Fazbear entertainment doesn’t care if people get hurt and die in here,” Gregory comments, kicking an empty cardboard box. When are they gonna find something that’s actually helpful? Cassie could be dead by now! (If the elevator didn’t kill her on impact). If they don’t find her in time, that just proves he’s a crappy friend.

“To be fair, no one is really supposed to be hanging around this place right now,” Vanessa points out, but it’s obvious she’s just as concerned by their lack of progress as he is.

“Perhaps she-” whatever Freddy is about to suggest is cut off by a crash somewhere nearby.

“Did anyone else hear that?” Gregory asks. Freddy and Vanessa nod. “Maybe it’s Roxy! We should totally check it out.”

She’ll be so distracted by Cassie being hurt that she’ll completely forget to hate me, Gregory tells himself. No need to worry about anything but the most important stuff. Which is Cassie not dying, obviously. (No matter how intimidating angry animatronics are)

As with many other things so far today, the crashing sound turns out to be a bit of a red herring. Nobody should be surprised to see Chica digging around in a garbage can. It’s one of her defining behaviors, after all. But to be honest, they’d kinda forgotten about her after not running into her at all on their way to the sinkhole.

“Chica?” Freddy says when they find the source of the noise. He’s not sure why it didn’t occur to him to seek her out sooner. Her caring nature will be a huge help, he can feel it!

“Um… hi?” Chica replies, looking a little unsure.

“You can talk?!” Gregory exclaims, partially hiding behind Freddy in case she decides to enact her revenge for that time he put her through a garbage compactor. And stole her voice box to get into restricted areas because Freddy’s lack of upgrades was lame. She looks way worse now, though. He has to resist the urge to puke at the sight of the rotten… cheese? And other bits of garbage caking her endoskeleton.

“Wait! I can!” Chica agrees, acting as though she’s only just noticed this, “Huh. That’s new. My new friend must have helped me with that! Ohmygosh, it has been so quiet and boring not being able to say anything! Not that there’s anyone to say things to, but still!”

“New friend?” Vanessa repeats. She ignores Chica’s rambling. “Did your new friend happen to be a little girl?”

“Yeah! I think so! It was pretty hard to tell the last time I saw her, let me tell ya. She looked kinda… broken.”

“Please tell me you saw where Roxy took her,” Gregory begs. Chica doesn’t seem interested in hurting him, so it’s probably safe(ish) to ask her for help.

Chica nods, which causes one of her eyes to jiggle unnaturally. Freaky.

“I did! I can totally show you if you want me to!”

“That would be great,” Vanessa tells her.

“Umm… this way! They went this way not too long ago! Follow me!” The animatronic speeds off through the maze of construction equipment that leads to what’s left of the main atrium. It’s dark and gloomy without the giant glowing holograms of Freddy and the rest of the Glamrocks that can usually be seen from pretty much anywhere in the room. The stage is completely blocked off by bright orange safety barriers, now, and half filled shipping crates and piles of debris make it just as difficult to navigate as everywhere else they’ve been. The stairs are missing steps. They remind Gregory of something out of one of those parkour challenge video where someone is always reading some over dramatic internet post in the background. The shutters for El Chip look like someone tried to drive a go cart through them… which is altogether possible, given some of the other crazy stuff that’s happened here. Nothing seems to have come out of the earthquake in one piece. Some of the graffiti is pretty impressive, though. Gregory is tempted to ask if Vanessa has any spray paint in that backpack of hers, but right now probably isn’t the best time for that.

They make it about halfway across the room before things start to get weird. Chica keeps making sharp turns and backtracking through the toughest areas. They lose sight of the darn chicken and spend upwards of half an hour searching before they finally spot her in the Cupcake Shoppe (of course). Is she leading them into a trap? Does she actually know where she’s going? Gregory isn’t sure which is more likely, but he’s beginning to get suspicious that something isn’t right.

“Sooo… uh, Chica, where exactly did Roxy and Cassie go?” Gregory asks when they find her again. Chica ignores him and continues weaving between pieces of abandoned baking equipment. Well, that’s just rude, Gregory thinks. She seemed so sweet and thoughtful earlier!

“Hey! Wait up!” Gregory shouts, out of breath. Man, he really needs to start exercising more and sitting around playing video games less… the stupid chicken speeds up. It’s like she doesn’t want them to catch up with her.

“Is everything alright, Chica?” Freddy calls after her. He stops trying to weave his way between objects delicately and shoves a rolling cart out of the way so he can get to her more quickly. She is not acting like herself. What if she hurts herself again?

“Will you quit it?!” Chica snaps, finally turning around.

“Quit what?” Freddy asks, confused. What have they done to offend his friend so deeply?

“Following me! I don’t even know you!” She exclaims.

“But… we are your friends…” Freddy protests. This is wrong, all wrong.

““Friends,” Chica repeats. “I don’t have any friends. Unless you count that guy,” she jerks her head towards the giant Mr, Cupcake, whose eyes glow ominously. Gregory doesn’t understand what she sees in the creepy thing. He’s pretty sure it’s not even sentient enough to hold a conversation with.

“Chica…” Freddy isn’t sure what to say to that.

“You said you knew where Cassie and Roxy were!” Gregory butts in. Involving the dumb chicken has been nothing but a waste of time.

“Cassie and Roxy.? Hm…” Chica thinks for a moment, “Cassie and Roxy! They went this way!” She points in a direction that is vaguely southeast.

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Gregory demands to know. After all, she told them the same thing earlier and then led them on a wild goose (or chicken) chase.

“I…” Chica trails off.

“If this is a joke, it’s not funny! Someone could die because of you!”

“It’s not. I know it’s not funny. I am so, so, SOO sorry!” Chica tells them, looking beyond guilty.

Freddy, Vanessa, and Gregory glance at each other. No one is quite sure what to do with her bizarre behavior.

“I, um, might kinda sorta have… short term memory confusion?” She continues.

“Don’t you mean short term memory loss?” Gregory corrects. He’s 110% positive that ‘short term memory confusion’ isn’t a thing. Though, with the way that garbage compactor squashed her, he’d be surprised if she didn’t have some issues.

“That too!” Chica agrees.

“You’ve been having trouble with your memory?” Vanessa asks, feeling a little guilty. Why didn’t she think to demand that the techs try to repair the Glamrocks before everything went to heck and Corporate decided to abandon the Pizzaplex? If Chica is this bad off, she dreads seeing what the others are like.

“Yup! Sometimes those darn memories just go poof!” Chica waves exaggeratedly.

“That sounds dreadful,” Freddy comments. His poor friend.

“It sure is!” Chica announces before a look of confusion crosses her face. “Anywho - wait, what were we talking about, again?”

“Seriously?” Gregory facepalms. This is just sad. Vanessa frowns at him in disapproval, no doubt thinking he isn’t helping the situation - which, to be fair, he isn’t.

“You were just telling us about your short term memory loss,” she reminds Chica with way more patience than Gregory would be able to manage.

“Riiiight!”

“As much as I hate to say it,” Gregory turns to Freddy and whispers, “I don’t think Chica is gonna be much help with finding Roxy and Cassie.”

“I don’t know who that is, but you’re probably right,” Chica agrees, also whispering. She’s still not really sure what’s going on, but she likes feeling included.

“Sorry, Chica,” Vanessa says, but the chicken doesn’t seem to mind.

“I have been thinking about that and am wondering if, perhaps, Roxy traveled to the Superstar Daycare after Chica lost track of her,” Freddy tells them, changing the subject to avoid embarrassing Chica further. While she is welcome to join them on their venture, he knows the others are right. It would be difficult to get a coherent or accurate answer from her about where the pair were headed when she last saw them.

“The daycare? Why?” Gregory questions. He gives the bear a weird look. He’s still a little unnerved by both Sun and Moon after everything he’s been through.

“Well, as he works with the youngest children in the facility, the Daycare Attendant has more extensive first aid programming than the rest of the Glamrock animatronics,” Freddy explains, “it makes sense that Roxy would seek his guidance.”

“Not to mention the daycare is on the southeast side of the Pizzaplex, which seemed like the same direction Chica thought they were going,” Vanessa adds in agreement.

“I guess that makes sense,” Gregory decides, although the daycare is on his list of places he’d rather not revisit. Oh, well. He’s visited a lot of other places on that list today already. What’s one more?

“It is settled, then. We will go to Superstar Daycare and see if they are there,” Freddy announces. It is time to begin their journey once again.

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