Chapter Text
Giggles echoed in the small house as red smoke curled around the tiny figures. Only one stood up straight, unmoving, unlaughing, unaffected by the smoke. It breathed in, the smoke curling up toward its mouth, then out. More red smoke tumbled out of the wide, gaping mouth onto the floor, sending the original fog spiraling upward toward the other figures.
The laughter continued, verging on insane until…a static screech and silence. The figure from which the fog originated was the only one standing, the rest of the small figures slumped to the ground, unmoving.
David’s eyes blinked open slowly, the dream about that t.v. show clinging to the edges of his consciousness with determined ferocity. It meant something, but the harder he thought the more his vision swam. David shut his eyes against the movement and flickering light. A metallic screech caused him to squeeze his eyes even further shut, the sound grating on his ears and causing his headache to worsen. He felt his body lift up from the ground and David pried his eyes open as he was unceremoniously tossed down a pipe. A flash of purple and light, glowing eyes were all that he saw before the door shut on the pipe. David reached up, protecting his already throbbing head from the rough descent as he slammed into the floor, which was only marginally softer than the metal pipe.
An alarm was blaring brokenly in the area and the sporadic flashing red light forced David to open his eyes and take in his surroundings. The painted walls and floor were rusted, giving the bright colors an ominous feeling while boxes and the blocks from the factory were scattered about the area. The far side was a wall made up of metal grates and David could see a faint light coming from the other side. He slowly moved his head to look around,
“Em?” No response. Shit. Emilee was not down in this room with him. David whipped his head around, groaning at the increase in pain, Emilee was definitely not down here with him. That meant she was alone, and most likely still unconscious near the train. The alarm grew louder and David rubbed his ears wishing it to stop. He squinted, looking around the space. Was it…smaller? The creaking of machinery reached his ears, yup the room was slowly collapsing. David panicked, looking around for an exit, he couldn’t die like this and leave Emilee to who-knows-what! A triangle shaped block was leaning against the wall toward the maintenance hatch, which conveniently had no door. David scrambled up the block, ignoring the ominous crunching sounds of the wood and blocks behind him.
Once through the hatch David climbed up a series of ladders that deposited him on another series of catwalks through the machinery. As he climbed up the air felt clearer somehow, and the alarm no longer shot spikes of pain through his skull. Only one door was available to enter through on the catwalks, and it was painted an odd orange color. The hallway beyond was dark with an emergency light just barely lighting up the space. The door led to a makeshift break room with a few working lights. An old t.v. sat in the corner under one of the working overhead lights. A V.H.S. sat inside the player, needing to be pushed in to start. David gently pushed the tape inside and allowed it to play as he puttered about the room looking for anything useful. The tape’s audio washed over him as a “Ms. Harper” told the interviewer about the children at Playcare and their odd behaviors. Nothing much of note.
The room, David saw, held the pipe that he had been dropped down earlier. He looked to the replacement parts section and noted a large battery, the size of a briefcase, glowing a sickly green color underneath the counter behind metal grating. He crouched down to slide the grate open, locked. David glanced over his shoulder, out of habit, before using his tools to break the locking mechanism. A few minutes went by as he slowly opened the grated cabinet and removed the battery. It was lighter than he expected, but it buzzed with a faint electrical current that made his arm tingle slightly. He stood up, battery in hand, and moved toward a door which he hoped led back toward the train tracks. On the right side of the door there was a place for the battery, which David placed inside. He jumped back when a few sparks erupted out of the wire leading to the opposite side of the door where a GrabPack scanner sat. The scanner lit up, blinking a few moments to load before settling on blue. David smiled, firing his GrabPack hand at the scanner and waited for it to open the door.
The door slid open with little fanfare and David quickly made his way through the hallway toward what he hoped was the exit to the train station. He rounded a corner, spying an elevator, and paused. A faint ringing echoed through the hallway. David raced through the maze of hallways following the ringing. He ended up in yet another maintenance room, this one stocked floor to ceiling with batteries, all unglowing. David stepped inside, and the door shut behind him, locking. He sighed, making his way toward the ringing phone on the wall, the door would be a problem for later.
“Hey, hey! Can you hear me?” David nodded, holding the phone closer to his ear,
“You look kinda lost, I don’t want you to die so I’m gonna help you!” The childish voice coming from the phone giggled, the phone speaker squeaking a bit with the high pitch.
“Check this out. Bah-boom!” An explosion rattled the area that sounded closer than David would have liked. He dusted the small bits of cement that had gotten on him off, “You can use that battery to open the door!” David looked around the room, watching a battery slowly light up on the charging wall. David hooked the phone onto the left side of his GrabPack and picked up the battery, inserting it into the slot near the door. The door lit up slightly and swung open, revealing the burning wreckage of the train.
“Woah, did you do that?” The little voice squeaked out through the phone, and David didn’t question how it could see him. Emilee wasn’t on the tracks where they had rested. He looked around the area frantically as the little voice continued to talk to him about Poppy and how he was needed for their cause. He spied a blown-in door on the other side of the tracks. He slowly lowered himself down to the train tracks, which were covered in soot, most likely from the earlier explosion. As he moved closer he could see the unlit sign above the door claiming it as the security office. A number of screens inside were lit up, but static consumed them. David gently peered into the room. There, on the floor huddled underneath the desk was Emilee.
When Emilee woke up, her body didn’t hurt. That wouldn’t have been alarming except for the fact that she knew that she and her dad had somehow survived a huge train crash and explosion. Opening her eyes Emilee was met with the train wreck, which was now on fire, and the lingering wisps of a red gas curling around her body. She slowly sat up, the groggy feeling slowly easing as she moved away from the red gas. She followed the gas as it lazily crawled toward the fire, which popped sending an ember into the gas. The ember curled in on itself, fizzling out as the gas gained an orangish tint that slowly spread through the gas toward Emilee. She quickly stood up, the gas felt warm. She moved slowly, being careful not to jostle the gas up toward her airways as she climbed out of the track onto the train station platform using an emergency ladder. Just as she placed her feet onto the platform a popping sound drew her attention back to the gas, which had become bright orange and was slightly glowing. Emilee’s eyes widened and she hurried away from the edge as the gas seemed to expand and explode. Emilee turned away from the explosion, covering her head with her hands.
When the dust settled she turned back to the train and inhaled sharply. The same red gas was spilling out of an air vent at the collapsed end of the tunnel on the same side as the platform and was falling to the floor like smoke from a Halloween decoration. Emilee cautiously moved further down the tunnel, studying the gas. It was heavier than air, with the way it fell from the vent and bloomed across the floor and ultimately settled into the tracks of the train station. A wet-sounding cough echoed through the vent, starling Emilee. Bits of a viscous looking maroon liquid flew out of the vent, splattering on the pavement as the gas came out in larger quantities each time a cough sounded. Whatever the liquid was, Emilee could tell it wasn’t blood. It looked like a twisted version of Jell-o that oozed the same gas that flowed from the vent. Emilee leaned forward to look at the chunks of…whatever it was and got a face-full of the red gas. She reeled back, sputtering as her vision swam and her extremities buzzed. She stepped back a few feet, breathing in the marginally clearer air and watched as the gas poured out of the vent and slowly began filling the train tracks. It slowly crept closer to the fire and Emilee stilled, she wouldn’t be able to survive that kind of an explosion.
Emilee frantically began searching the area for a way to get as far as possible from the red gas. She found the security office, closer than she would have liked to the fire that was still raging on the train, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. She tried the doorknob, it turned and she rushed inside the office closing the door behind her. There wasn’t much inside. A few shelves that were bolted to the wall, a desk chair, some miscellaneous boxes that held nothing more than blank printer paper, and a wall of monitors. Some were off while a few showed video feeds of the train station and beyond. Emilee sucked in a breath at the tail on one of the cameras. Something was hunting them. She pushed the office chair to the door, shoving it under the doorknob, the gas was almost to the fire and it was slowly turning orange. Emilee shrugged off her backpack, grabbing a hoodie and a mask before flinging the backpack back on and shoving herself under the desk behind the cardboard boxes. She shoved the hoodie awkwardly over the GrabPack and hooked the mask around her ears. Barely a moment later Emilee could see the bright orange of the gas just before it exploded and her vision went white.
“Em! Emilee!” Emilee groaned, the ringing in her ears was slowly subsiding and she could faintly hear her dad calling for her. She slowly opened her eyes to look at him, smiling slightly when his face morphed out of panic into relief. David slowly helped Emilee out from under the desk and pack away her hoodie and mask back into her pack. David led Emilee out of the security office and over to the turnstiles where the two hopped over onto the stairs. The phone on David’s shoulder crackled to life,
“You’re okay! Playcare is straight ahead. It’s the home of CatNap…one of the Smiling Critters,” Emilee startled at the young voice coming from the phone, looking to her dad, who was listening intently.
“Playcare is his church, his hunting ground, whatever he wants it to be,” the little voice paused, heaving in a shuddering breath, “You’d better get moving, we’ll keep in touch. Oh, and by the way, my name is Ollie.” The phone clicked off and the duo were left in silence. David led the way up the stairs with Emilee trailing behind. She reached up to pat her plush, Patch, and sighed with disappointment. He had not survived the series of explosions and his lower half had been ripped clean off while the rest of him had been charred to a crisp. Emilee unclasped him from her shoulder strap and let him fall to the floor. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
The duo passed under an arch proclaiming to “See the world through the eyes of a child on Elliot’s Express!” A mural of the smiling critters decorated the platform, CatNap’s face had been scratched out.
“Go pull the lever on the right side.” David said, walking to the left and his own lever. Emilee nodded, pulling the lever down when David counted to three. The doors of the cable car opened and the overhead light flickered on.
“Get on.” The two entered into the rickety cable car and allowed the doors to shut behind them. Emilee breathed in shakily, standing near her dad, who was staring out the front windows resolute. An old t.v. screen in the corner crackled to life and a voice came over the old speakers.
“Hello! My name is Elliot Ludwig.” Emilee stilled, as the car began to move through a tunnel.
“When you look around at the world today, what one thing do you think it needs more of? I asked around, once. Money, I never have enough. Understanding, I can never get any. Faith, the common man has lost it. Each answer was different... and I could perhaps see some little truth in each. But I think each was also missing something.” The tunnel began to open up into a cave system with an ominous red light in the distance.
“Something simple. You see, not one of them could muster a smile. A smile is hope. A smile is love. A smile is understanding. And there is nothing more gratifying to my soul than being the reason for a child's smile. To be the spark that ignites all their hopes and dreams. For it is only through hopes and dreams that we may create a better world.” The cable car drew closer to the light and Emilee could see it was an opening into a large metal dome. She glanced down, the fog in the cave system was intermingled with the same red gas from earlier, giving the entire area a pink hue.
“One where our children need not be afraid. One where they are protected. After all, this company and its toys are nothing without them. These children deserve to smile, they deserve to love, and they deserve a safe home.” The cable car entered into the red light, passing through it with ease. Emilee flinched back from the doors in front of her as some of the light turned out to be the red gas that spilled into the cable car through the seam between the doors.
“That is why it is with enormous pleasure that as the founder of Playtime Co., I announce…” The music on the tape swelled, “PLAYCARE!” Emilee looked out the windows and gasped softly. An entire colorful city was built in the dome. Fake clouds dotted the sky that the cable car slid past as it moved around the area. A skylight lit the ground slightly and illuminated a statue in the middle of the area with a pinkish hue.
“Our very own onsite orphanage. But it's not only that. It's a school, a playhouse, a place to belong. Our very own ecosystem beneath the surface, dedicated in every inch and detail to ensuring a child's smile.” The cable car slowly spiraled downward into Playcare as Mr. Ludwig continued to speak. Emilee resisted the urge to press her face against the windows to see the area better. It was massive and she had no idea it was underneath the factory. She glanced over at her father, whose face was devoid of emotion. David crossed his arms, breathing out harshly.
“It's teachers and counselors, mothers and fathers, until such a time they have all of that in you. May Playcare bring joy, inspiration, and smiles to all who enter these doors. For what gives life its meaning, if not a smile?” The cable car slid harshly into the end point where the doors creaked open allowing David and Emilee to exit. She carefully hopped over the wobbly bricks onto the platform and looked out over Playcare.
The platform they were standing on descended to the main floor via a set of cement stairs that Emilee slowly walked down after her dad. The path was lined with plastic trees and party flags from archway to archway on each landing. The stairs clearly used to have a carpet or different color of some kind but had been stripped bare to the cement base at some point. Emille looked up at the painted blue sky and fake clouds that surrounded the skylight. The air tasted of plastic and medicine with an undercurrent of copper and rot. Emilee shuddered and hurried to catch up to her father who was talking lowly with the voice on the phone at the end of the stairs by what appeared to be a map of the entire place.
“Come on Emilee.” David began walking toward the center statue quickly, and Emilee followed, craning her neck to look up at the statue. It was of the Smiling Critters holding hands, but the statue furthest from the door, CatNap, had been toppled off the dais. Emilee could assume the plaque telling visitors about CatNap had been torn off, seeing as the other Smiling Critters’s plaques were in various states of disrepair. DogDay’s had been ripped right down the middle.
The door under the statue touted an “authorized personnel only” sign that David ignored, shoving his way into the area with extra aggression. The door swung open with little fanfare and David descended the stairs into the control room. Emilee looked downstairs nervously. The hair on the back of her neck prickled and she whipped around to look at the wide expanse behind her. Nothing.
David returned with a key in hand and grumbling under his breath about how stupid the layout of this place was even back in the day. Emilee’s eyes widened, her dad had been down here before? She followed silently as David returned back up near where the cable car had let them off. Instead of staying on the cement platform he took a sharp right onto the artificial grass toward a blue door with a red light above it. The door opened into a concrete hallway that led to a large room, Emilee sucked in a breath at what was inside.
Within the room was a set of large glass tubes. The one on the far left has silver vapors swirling around inside, catching the dim lighting just right to look like simmering glitter had been suspended within. The one on the far right had the same swirling red gas from earlier near the train. Tubes of both colors wound around the large area sending the gases out into the factory and beyond. A monitor on the machine blinked slowly, flashing the Playtime Co. logo every few seconds.
“Welcome to the Gas Production Zone, the beating heart of the whole evil Playcare system.” The phone on David’s shoulder crackled to life, Emilee eyed it warily, “All that gas you see coming from the machine is made right here in the factory. We call it “The Red Smoke.”’ A bright light flashed overhead illuminating the area, and the machine. The screen on the machine switched from its lazy blinking to what appeared to be a main menu before glitching out to a black screen with red text declaring there was no power to the system.
“Right now it’s all headed off to the right. WE need to make that Red Smoke go left instead. That's how we can get to him. The machine will probably have a few dumb safeguards for you to work around. But I think you can do it! I’ll call you once it's done.” The phone clicked off leaving the father-daughter duo in silence.
“I’ll, uh, start looking around for a battery.” David nodded to himself, walking off into the dimly lit surrounding area, leaving Emilee to watch his retreating form suspiciously. She rolled her eyes and slowly approached the hulking machine in the center of the room. The newly named “red smoke” swirled ominously in the same way that the silvery vapors on the other side of the machine sparkled brightly in the light. Emilee looked up, tracing the supply routes of the red smoke that led into various areas of the factory based on their labels, she shuddered remembering how disorienting it was to be knocked out by the gas. A warning popped up on screen and flickered away just as fast, forcing Emilee to cringe back from the red smoke vial as more seemed to spill inside from the bottom forcing the older smoke to swirl upward.
Emilee shuddered, moving away from the machine. She didn’t want to be anywhere near that if it cracked or worse, exploded. An ajar door caught her attention and she slipped inside into what appeared to be a maintenance room. The room didn’t look like any of the previous maintenance areas Emilee had seen in the factory, instead it looked more like the first room she and her dad had entered upon arrival at the factory, the one where the GrabPacks were stored. The room was lined with shelves upon shelves of GrabPacks, and as Emilee looked closer they differed from the one that was currently strapped to her back. Emilee’s eyes swept the room, noting how…pristine it was for being in such a ransacked part of the factory. The GrabPacks were lined up nicely and a good portion of them seemed to be in decent contention and the opposite wall, which was lined with upgraded GrabPack hands, was not lacking in resources. An old T.V. in the corner with a tape caught Emilee’s eye. Upon further inspection the tape declared itself a training module for the GrabPack 2.0 and all its functions. Emilee popped the tape into the player and stood in front of the monitor. The familiar melody that accompanied all the training tapes gently filtered out of the speakers.
“Welcome to your GrabPack 2.0 training module, my name is Leith Pierre, and I am the head of Innovation at Playtime Co. Our new GrabPack is a prototype similar to the one used in our factory tours but built for the work you all do in Playcare!” Emille rolled her eyes at the chipper tone Leith Pierre used, as if the GrabPack was a new toy he was selling to the workers.
“The GrabPack 2.0 boasts many new features you’re sure to find useful including extended wire length!” The visuals cut away from the basic outline of the GrabPack to show an animation of longer wires, “The ability to automatically swap hands!” Again, the animation reflected the words showing how the new hands neatly folded into a slightly larger tube than the one on Emilee’s current pack. Emilee smiled, counting the number of slots in the revolver-like chamber, it added up to 3 on each side for 6 total hand options. The diagram moved to show which side the hands would work best on.
“This prototype has air jets to break long falls, but watch where you land...not all ground is safe to touch.” The ominous warning echoed in Emilee’s mind as the ending message flashed on screen as the tape reached its end. Emilee sighed, rewinding the tape and stripping off her old GrabPack. She walked to the new, updated version, testing its weight. It was heavier than the previous, the wires were more durable and the pack had more of a brace for her shoulders and back.
Emilee slipped on the new pack experimentally, although the new pack was heavier, it felt lighter. The weight distribution and the harness design was made to wear for longer periods of time, she could tell. The shoulder braces had cushions and the back brace made her stand a bit taller, but was flexible enough to move around in. The tubes where the hands were stored were slightly bigger, but instead of Emilee having to hold them up, they were set in the out position with an inner structure. All Emilee had to do to use the appliance was aim and pull the trigger, a fine upgrade from the tour version. Emilee nodded to herself, adjusting all the straps and clips of the new pack and adjusting her own backpack to sit comfortably before turning to the opposite wall full of new hands. Each hand had a description as to what they did.
The Dark Blue hand functioned the same as the previous blue hand, sitting on the left side to open doors and provide weight balance when using the more specialized hands. The Dark Red hand was the same as the red hand, however that section of hands was locked, and no hands were strewn about for her to pick up. She sighed, leaving one of the hand chambers on her left open in the hopes of getting a Dark Red hand later. The right side of her pack seemed to have the most amount of gadgets. A new green electrical hand, with better insulation and circuits, found its way into the chamber as well as a bright purple hand that was reinforced with something. The description for the purple hand had a mini tutorial told in pictures that showed how to use the purple hand to propel oneself up and over obstacles. A bright yellow caution sign reminded workers to use the purple hand on the designated launch pads and that they were liable if the hand broke when using it in other undesignated areas. Emilee slipped another purple hand into her backpack, just in case. Fully suited up, Emilee left the relative safety of the room, David was nowhere in sight.
David was not having a good time. He knew that batteries had to be kept down here, just where exactly they were stored was escaping his mind at the moment. He wandered through a maze, idly noting dull purple hands on the floor every now and again, more often when a platform was above him. At the end of the maze David halted. There in the back halls of the Playcare maintenance area was a sunken level filled with a red liquid. Silvery vapors drifted up off of the gently flowing river lazily up into the air. David sneezed, the medicinal smell was overwhelming and he felt his vision swim slightly. Warm saliva flooded his mouth and David slammed to his knees, retching.
“K̸͇̪͒̏e̶̝̊ĕ̵̓ͅp̷͉͗̅ ̵̯̤̂͋G̵̬̉̃ͅo̴͠ͅī̵̦̬̽n̶͙̾̿ǵ̶̞.”
A staticky voice crackled out of the phone on his shoulder. David nodded to himself, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He had to get them out of here, and if turning on the production line for the Red Smoke was how they’d leave, so be it. David fumbled around in the area a while longer before busting through a door that led to the observation room. Its large wall of windows looking into the production zone cast eerie shadows into the other room. David couldn’t see Emilee inside. He shrugged, moving toward the gently glowing battery case like before. He picked it up, this one was slightly lighter than the previous battery. Its coloring was lighter too, a scratched information label declared it as a new and improved model from before. David really didn’t care, he just wanted a battery.
David unlocked the door leading to the production zone and walked the battery over to the main console. Emilee came out of a room behind him, she looked exhausted.
“Got what we need?” She asked, eyeing him warily. He nodded, holding up the battery before plugging it into the console. The console chimed happily, the large screen lighting up green and showing where the vapors resided. Emilee gently pressed a button in the middle of the console, slowly the red gas moved from the far right into the middle cylinder. As soon as about half of the gas had been moved the lights flickered before shutting off. The mechanical whirring of the machines cut off leaving the room in uncomfortable silence.
“What.” Emilee said flatly, turning her flashlight on. The console monitor blinked a message: NO POWER. OFFLINE. FULL RESTART REQUIRED. Emilee sighed frustratedly.
“Oh no! Someone killed the power.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” She huffed under her breath as Ollie’s youthful voice echoed in the silent room.
“Listen, I’ve sent you another key. Use it to get into Home Sweet Home.” David nodded, starting to walk out of the production zone,
“Once you’re inside, find the building’s backup generator. Good luck.”
“Dude, one moment.” Emilee grabbed Daivd’s arm, dragging him toward the room she had exited from. David’s eyes narrowed, he knew those GrabPacks. And now that he could see Emilee in slightly better lighting, the upgraded GrabPack on her shoulders was obvious. David nodded at her,
“Grab the hands I need.” He shrugged off his backpack and previous GrabPack and began to strap into the GrabPack 2.0 as Emilee gathered the hands available. David glanced at Emilee once he was all strapped in, cringing.
“Em, c’mere sweetheart. You’re not properly strapped in.” Emilee took off her backpack and allowed David to help her into a new GrabPack, one that had the proper harness that was reminiscent of a full body climbing harness.
“With the upgrade in hands and wires we need the extra support.” David explained, cinching the straps properly. Emilee nodded, gently folding the extra GrabPack hands like she’d been doing it for years. Once both were properly suited up David led them out of the production zone toward the main area of Playcare.
Neither noticed the cylinder on the right had filled up with red smoke again, and had begun to crack.