Chapter 8. Red flag.
December 31, 2023 at 1:00 PM
Chica led Gregory by the hand through the kitchen rooms. They were walking pretty fast. The boy was also very pleased that he already had a security pass of the 2nd level. The boy gradually imagined how very soon he would get access to all the rooms of the PizzaPlex, and with this it would be easier to restore the whole situation in this institution.
«Yes! We’ll return them to normal life!» – Gregory's mind raced: «We’ll all deal with this virus together and, finally, all four of them will perform on stage!.. The four of them…»
His face became thoughtful. He was worried about something.
«But…» – thought Gregory: «Something is still missing here… There was someone else… wasn't there?» – 5 seconds of mental silence passed: «Precisely! Bunny!.. But what about him and who is he?»
He began to be very interested in this topic. At first, he hesitated a little on the move, but after 5 seconds of reflection, he started a conversation with Chica:
Gregory: «Listen, Chica!» – suddenly he uttered in a burst of interest.
Chica: «What happened?» – she reacted quickly and looked at the boy for a while.
Gregory: «Here I have such a question… Um…» – the guy hesitated a little uncertainly.
The boy was a little worried that she wouldn't react to it too emotionally, since he remembered the reaction of the Fazbear after indirectly reminding him of this animatronic.
Chica: «Speak. I’m listening», – she said encouragingly.
«Well…» – thought the boy: «I hope everything will be fine. All the more likely she knows more than Freddy?»
Gregory: «Well, generally speaking, I've heard that there used to be another animatronic and… he was a bunny, but I don't know anything more about him… Can you tell me more about him?»
Chica, a few seconds after the boy's question, slowly stopped. He wanted to ask her something like, «What happened?» – or: «Is everything all right?» – but it was as if a lump got into his throat, and no matter how much he would like to say something, the boy just looked at her in silence. After 5 seconds, she moved on and started talking:
Chica: «How did you know about him?» – she said in a low tone.
The boy felt uncomfortable from her voice, but he continued the topic:
Gregory: «Um… Freddy told me about it, but only about the fact that this animatronic was a rabbit. He didn't say his name», – he spoke in confusion.
Chica lowered her head a little and slowed down. The boy paid attention to this and yet finally decided to ask a question:
Gregory: «Chica, is everything all right? Did something bad happen to him?» – he asked her anxiously.
She was silent. The answer from her followed only after 5 seconds:
Chica: «It's hard to say…» – she said thoughtfully and sadly.
«Um, yeah… Things bad…» – the boy spoke in himself mind: «But since I've already started, I need to sort out this mess».
He began to act more decisively.
Gregory: «No, Chica, it won't work that way», – he spoke more seriously and confidently: «I feel like there's something wrong here. There's obviously something bothering you as much as Freddy. Let's talk about it anyway. What if I can help in some way? Let's analyze this situation», – he said at the end more gently.
Chica stopped and after 2 seconds turned to Gregory with her whole body. He saw indignation and sadness in her gaze. She was peering at the guy. The boy was determined. His eyes were burning with the desire to understand this situation and help his comrade. Apparently, she noticed it.
Chica: «Eh…» – she drawled and slightly lowered her head.
He could see the suffering in her eyes now.
Gregory: «Chica, well, suddenly not everything is as bad as you think? Please tell me about it», – the boy said with compassion.
Chica: «Okay…» – she said, after which she lowered herself to the level of the boy, putting her legs under her and putting her hands on his shoulders: «Since it is so important to you…» – before she could finish, the boy picked up her speech:
Gregory: «Of course! This is very important! Since we have taken up the restoration of the situation in the Mega PizzaPlex, then we must do it qualitatively! We can find him, right?» – he said with some joy, looking her straight in the eyes.
She turned away from him for a second, but literally after another second, she returned her gaze to the boy.
Chica: «The problem is that we don't know where he is…» – she spoke in a depressed tone: «We only know from the administration that he was turned off after the performance at night about a month ago. After that… no one saw him anymore…» – at the end, she directed her gaze to the floor.
Gregory: «What was his name at least?» – he asked her in bewilderment.
Chica: «Bonnie… Glamrock Bonnie…» – she spoke and turned her head to the side, and then, after a pause, continued: «Eh… If you only knew what a sweetheart, he was…» – she said and began to sob.
Gregory felt like he was electrocuted after that.
«What's it? Is she really crying?!» – the boy spoke in himself mind: «But how?! Damn! So, wait… Glamrock Bonnie… I've seen that name somewhere before… So… Bonnie Bowl? Yes! I saw him on the 3rd floor in the atrium! So, okay… He was turned off. He couldn't have been thrown away, could he? Well… What if he's still here somewhere? It should be written about somewhere in the archives…»
5 seconds of the boy's thoughtfulness passed. At this moment, Chica continued to tell the boy about animatronic through “tears”:
Chica: «If you only knew how much he loved everyone! He always took care of all of us! He supported us in difficult moments!» – she said and, after a short pause, continued: «I remember when the birthday boys scolded me for… I don't quite remember what… But I had a feeling that a little more and they would tear me apart because of this ill-fated ticket to the party… But Bonnie… He came up to us and began to find out what, in fact, we have a problem. They started complaining to him about something about me and so for about a minute they composted his brains… He listened to them calmly, and then began his speech. I would have liked to hear what he said, but the place was so noisy that I didn't hear anything. But after his words, these guys have already approached me with apologies and a sense of guilt. At the same time, please note that Bonnie did not even raise his tone at them! He just explained something to them calmly and steadily for 30 seconds. And here is the result itself – the children calmed down… After that, he looked at me with a smile and extended a thumbs up in my direction…» – she said all this through periodic “tears”.
She was silent for a moment. The boy had been standing there all this time, looking at her with compassion and surprise. Despite the abruptness of her speech, he took all her words and understood what she was leading to.
After 5 seconds, she continued:
Chica: «And that's not all! He behaved the same way with the others. And for Freddy, he was like a brother in general… Bonnie was a very nice guy…» – she said at the end in a low tone and continued to sob.
The boy stood for a while after these words, and then came up to her and put his palm to her cheek, after which he began to speak:
Gregory: «Chica, don’t cry…» – he said gently and at the same time sternly: «Crying isn't suitable for a kind and beautiful girl like you!»
The boy was a little taken aback by his own words. It wasn't like him, but after these words, Chica stopped sobbing and looked at him in surprise. Apparently, someone from above told him that it would be right. The boy continued:
Gregory: «We'll find him! He must be somewhere else in this institution. They couldn't just throw it away! Later it will be necessary to find archives with information about him. We'll turn it back on!» – he said encouragingly, stroking Chica's cheek with his thumb.
She stood in a stupor for about 5 seconds, shaking a little with excitement, but then put her head on the boy's left shoulder so quickly that he lowered his hand to its original position. At the same time, Chica's head landed on him shoulder quite gently, so the boy didn't feel anything particularly. After that, the animatronic said:
Chica: «You're just like Roxy…» – she said in a low tone, but without sobbing.
Here a cognitive dissonance hung over the boy.
Gregory: «Um… Like Roxy?» – he asked with great surprise.
Chica: «Yes… She calms me down in the same way», – she said, raising her head and giggling a little at his surprise.
Gregory: «S-she?..» – the boy stammered with the same surprise.
Chica: «Yes. After all, she's my best friend!» – she said and straightened up.
Gregory couldn't reconcile her words and his first encounter with the wolf through the ventilation. It was difficult for him to think about it now, so he decided to leave this topic for now.
Gregory: «Okay…» – he said when he returned to the real world: «Thanks for this information. This helped me a lot to make some plans for the future. Well, for now – let's go further to the atrium!»
Chica: «Okay!» – she said happily and got to her feet, taking Gregory's hand again.
They moved again through the kitchen rooms towards the atrium along the old route. So, the two walked for about 30 seconds. They were silent all this time and peered into the rooms. Meanwhile, Gregory noticed one of the doors in the dark, which was in a strange place: it was written “2” on it, which, as he could already hypothetically understand earlier, showed the minimum level of access for its opening.
«Level “2”?..» – the boy thought, glancing at the pocket with the pass: «Funny. Why is she exactly here?»
They went through another room, but he was haunted by that door in the mind. Something was pulling him there… Therefore, he started a conversation:
Gregory: «Chica, wait a second!» – he said quickly.
They stopped.
Chica: «What happened?» – she said and looked in his direction with surprise.
Gregory: «I saw something from behind… I have to go quickly and see what's there. There may be something useful there… You go on for now. I'll catch up with you», – the boy said, releasing her hand.
Chica: «Hm…» – she said and thoughtfully looked at the ceiling, then looked at him again and continued: «Okay. Just be careful, okay?» – and let go of his hand.
Gregory: «Alright! I’ll be back soon…» – he said and immediately ran towards that door.
Chica: «Fine. Just hurry up!» – she added after him and, after listening to the boy, went further.
Gregory ran through the hanging films in the doorway and got into the room with that door. He ran to it and opened that. After that, the boy carefully went inside this corridor behind the door. It was very dark. He was a little creepy from this dark, but still… he had to go. The boy was about to go further, but at that moment a bot with maps jumped out at him. He very persistently poked the boy's face with a map with the words:
Map bot: «Take a map! Take a map!» – as he spoke, he pushed the object he had just said closer and closer into his face.
Gregory: «Well, my God! I asked to…» – he said, moving away from the shock.
The boy had already started to reach for this ill-fated map, but a voice was heard behind the bot:
Vanessa: «Outta my way…» – she said with extreme displeasure.
After that, the map bot was abruptly pulled back and a guard with a flashlight hovered in front of the boy's face.
Vanessa: «Gotcha!» – she said loudly and immediately grabbed the boy's arm with her free hand and led him deeper into the corridor.
Gregory: «Right now let go of me!» – he barely uttered and, kicking, tried to get out of her grip, but she only led him deeper into the corridor behind her.
After 5 seconds of this behavior of the boy, the guard could not stand it and knocked Gregory out with a blow to the head with her flashlight. The boy's eyes went dark. He was no longer able to see and hear anything. His body went limp.
Gregory came to himself already lying on T-shirts in a room locked from all sides. His head ached, and he felt weak. Despite this, the boy got to his feet and began to look around. He saw a table with a large number of monitors on top of each other, several other tables and boxes, a door that leads to the exit, and a ventilation grate near the floor. After 3 seconds, the boy ran up to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked from the outside.
Gregory: «Are you serious!» – he said loudly with displeasure, and then continued: «Where am I anyway?.. And what time is it?» – the boy spoke and looked at his watch.
They had “02:02" on them. The boy panicked a little.
«How long have I been out for?» – it ran through the boy's mind: «Well, Vanessa! And how to get out of here now? The ventilation is closed! Although… there are some screws visible there… I can open it if I find a screwdriver».
The boy started looking for a screwdriver on the tables. After 10 seconds of searching, he found it on a table in the corner of the room. The boy took it and ran up to the ventilation to start unscrewing the 4 screws from the grate.
Gregory: «So… the first went…» – he spoke and began to unscrew the lower right screw.
After 5 seconds, he was able to unscrew it and was already starting the next ones. Meanwhile, a video of Vanessa came from the monitors on the table. The boy was a little alarmed, and he looked sharply at the monitors, continuing to unscrew the screws after a short pause. And the security guard from the monitor started talking:
[Vanessa: «As I see you are a very smart boy, Gregory, but sooner or later there comes an end to all sorts of games and pranks. Now you’re in the lost and found office and will be here until the opening of the institution, since you aren’t in the database, and I dunno who to give you to. So that… Sit here quietly and don't shine while I look for your owners. I hope you've learned your lesson, Gregory»], – she said all this calmly with a certain shade of discontent.
Gregory, looking at the ventilation and monitor screens, had already unscrewed the 3rd screw by half. After that, small interference appeared on the monitors, and then the bunny with red eyes turned out to be on them. She looked straight into the soul and began to approach the screen, after which she said in a mechanical voice:
[Vanny: «Are you having fun yet?»] – and the monitors turned off.
The boy meanwhile unscrewed the 3rd screw and after the words:
Gregory: «Uh, my-my!» – started unscrewing the last one.
That bunny just appeared from the window near the door. She raised her hand and, moving her fingers, made a strange greeting sign. After that, Vanny went to the door. Well, how did she start go… In the dance, she began to approach the door. Her movements themselves were partly taken from ballet techniques. Nausea and weakness were approaching the boy… But in any case, Gregory has almost unscrewed the 4th screw.
Gregory: «Well, no! I'll not be taken by you so easy!» – he said and after 2 seconds completely unscrewed the last one.
After that, the boy threw the ventilation grate to the floor and put the screwdriver in his pocket next to the flashlight. There was the sound of a door opening behind him. Then he urgently climbed into the ventilation. The boy tried to crawl through it as quickly as possible. As he moved away from that place, he gradually returned to his senses.
After 15 seconds, the boy crawled out of the ventilation and again found himself in the foyer.
«Well… here I'm again…» – it flashed through Gregory's mind: «So… well. I need to find out where Freddy and Chica are…»
He tried to call them, but the connection wasn't established. It's just that every time the connection time exceeded its waiting time. So, the boy tried to connect with them 2 more times, but everything was in vain.
«Damn… What happened?» – he spoke in himself mind: «Um, yeah… Well! They're probably somewhere in the atrium».
The boy walked towards the escalators. Halfway to them, he began to feel nauseous again, and interference seemed to be in front of his eyes. Gregory began to look around in all directions, but he didn't notice the bunny. In any case, he understood that it was better to hurry to the elevator, so he switched to running. Fortunately, after these actions, all these feelings weakened. This meant that he was moving away from danger, which couldn't but please him. At least no one will stop him from going in search of his friends.
Half a minute later, he called the right elevator to his floor. Fortunately, after another 20 seconds, the elevator doors opened and the boy didn't feel nausea. He jumped in there and pressed the button on the second floor, after which the doors closed, and Gregory, as last time, start went upstairs to the main musical theme of the mascots.
Just at this time, some bell was heard from his watch. It was Freddy. The boy reacted very sharply to this and brought his watch to his face and after taking the call, he began a conversation:
Gregory: «Freddy?» – he asked softly.
[Freddy: «Gregory, are you hear me?»]
Gregory: «Yes! It’s me! Where are you?!» – the boy spoke with great interest and concern.
[Freddy: «So… something is blocking my connection… Gregory, if you are hearing this message, then please go towards Roxy Raceway. On the way to them there will be a lot of materials for construction and it is there that you will have to see the ladder of boxes that I built for you. Go there as soon as possible»], – he spoke extremely dryly through some interference.
The boy began to be alarmed by all this, and he wanted to ask Fazbear about what had happened, but instead quickly answered:
Gregory: «Okay! I'm coming to you!» – the boy said and cut the connection.
Just after this conversation, the doors opened, and the boy ran out of the elevator, then ran to the 2nd floor in the direction of Roxy Raceway. He tried to run as fast as possible to the place where Fazbear told him to go. The boy did not pay attention to fatigue and possible danger when he moved so openly around the atrium, but he didn't care about it, because it seemed to the boy now that something was wrong with his friend and, perhaps, if he didn't hurry, something even worse could happen to him.
A minute later, he reached the Roxy Raceway and ran through the vertical gate that leads into them. There really was a lot of construction debris. Clearly the construction wasn't finished yet.
After another 10 seconds, he found the same ladder from the boxes and deftly climbed it, after which he found himself behind the boards covering this construction site. Behind them there was a dark staircase down and, finally, after it there was a large room in which the bear was lying. The boy immediately ran down the stairs towards the Fazbear. Gregory got to him in 10 seconds. He was afraid of such a state of animatronic. The bear kept his right hand on his stomach, and his head occasionally twitched either in convulsions, or else because of something else.
Gregory: «Freddy! What happened to you?!» – he said dumbfounded.
Freddy: «Gregory… I've been waiting for you… Something very strange is happening in the PizzaPlex. We are going to have to sort this out. But first I will need to go to the parts and service department, and for this I will need your help», – he spoke glitchy with a fixed jaw, periodically twitching in convulsions.
Gregory: «Okay! How to help?» – the boy said excitedly.
Freddy: «There is a door behind me that leads to the Rockstar Row. Your security access level is enough to get through there. Next in the Rockstar Row you will need to go through the door, behind which there is a technical staircase leading up. From above you will meet a security office with a large number of control panels, and it is in this office that you will need to find something similar to a stage control device in the atrium. There may also be another security pass. So, you can increase the level of access».
Gregory: «And why do we need a stage at all if you need to go to the parts and service department?» – he asked, not understanding the logical chain.
Freddy: «It is under the stage – in the basements – that the department is located. We usually use it to go down there. At least I know that this is the most reliable way to get there. Moreover, as far as I remember, my technical elevator leading to the spare parts and maintenance department was turned off in my room after my last performance, so… this is the only way to get there so far».
Gregory: «Understood. I'll help you», – the boy said decisively.
Freddy: «Thank you. I will switch to rest mode for now so as not to waste energy», – he spoke more calmly.
Gregory: «Right! I'll wake you up later when I've done everything, but in the meantime, rest», – the boy said and patted Fazbear on the shoulder.
The bear smiled a little, and then switched to the above mode, collapsing his whole body on the floor. At the same time, his blue cornea eyes were still glowing. This meant that he was still working.
The boy headed towards the door leading to Rockstar Row. After he reached this huge room, passing through the counters and vertical iron gates, he immediately went in search of a door to the technical rooms, in which the same security office was supposed to be located.
Gregory had a feeling of nostalgia, since it was in this place that he met all the animatronics closer for the first time, though through ventilation grilles, but still it was the very first time. He was only annoyed by the fact that now he did not quite understand who or what had brought Freddy to such a state. Also, the boy didn't know where Chica was and what was wrong with her… All this slightly spoiled his pleasant feeling of nostalgia. He was very worried about it, but the boy tried to keep a positive attitude. It seemed to him that he would be able to get everything back to normal soon and, at least, he already had one of the tasks that would help his friend. Generally speaking… No time to worry!.. Time to act!
«I'll figure it all out! We can get everything back to normal!» – it flashed through Gregory's mind.
With this attitude, the boy more cheerfully continued his search for that door in the Rockstar Row. He hoped very much that everything would be fine. And in the meantime… he must to complete this task…
