I Think I Smell A Rat

C1 - Something Amiss

When you live in the walls of a place, you tend to get a decent sense for how things are going. Colder months meant slower weekends, not as many visitors. Slower weekends meant less damage to repair. You had been living in the walls of Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizza-Plex for quite some time now, and so you could tell without a doubt that something was amiss.

As a seasoned robotic repair rat, you were something of an expert on the inner workings of the pizza-plex. You knew every nook and cranny of this place, you'd even explored some of the abandoned building deep below everything else, where your map insisted you were navigating an empty void, and thinking became much more difficult there. The 'out of bounds' error was a particularly grating one. Not having the map in your mind meant it was very easy to get lost, and getting trapped down there had never seemed particularly appealing to you, and so needless to say you didn't go down there often.

That 'amiss' feeling had you exploring, searching for its source and ignoring the 'battery half depleted' alert that tempted you towards your charging nest. You couldn't find most of the other rats- the walls were strangely empty. Sometimes you or the others would be summoned by contraptions in need out beyond the walls, small things, hard to reach things that the typical human worker couldn't reach. But the only rats you'd found were the ones still in rest mode, huddled away in their charging nests, filling up their batteries and downloading updates. No one on the network was answering your pings. For nearly every rat to be out beyond the walls on repairs was unheard of, though not impossible you supposed. Even so, surely someone would have answered you, even if they were all busy.

Through the walls you scurried, maneuvering down a mix of paths designed for you, paths you and the others had built over time, and unintentional paths made by inconsiderate forces. The building settling over time, beams shifting and adjusting, thinner pieces of pathway constructed with scraps degrading over time, wear and tear weathering spots away, and even organic rats and other pests, messing with your familiar paths and often times getting in the way. You'd long since learned which paths in your map aligned with the real ones, and which ones were no longer traversable, regardless of the map in your brain assuring you they were still there.

You came to one of the exit ports, leading out into the building. You didn't like it out there as much. Nothing out there was built for you. Here in the walls, the corridors were all your size and sandwiched between two layers of sturdy concrete, your map made sense even when some of the paths were wrong, and there were far less dangers. Out there, everything was big and beyond you. Even the other robots, though only a few ever paid you any mind. You didn't care for them very much. You knew the animatronics were very important to the human affairs transpiring beyond the walls, but honestly, you could do without them.

You studied the exit port. Something was wrong out there, you could feel it. Everyone else having gone missing wasn't helping that. However, you couldn't help but picture your own little nest in your mind, a charging station you shared with a small group of other rats assigned to the same general area. There was a new update tonight, waiting patiently in the cue for you to power down and install it. Maybe you should rest first, figure this all out later...

No. This was important. You thought about at least downloading the update straight from the network while you searched, but you really needed to focus. Your friends might be in trouble out there. You should find them, figure out what was going on out there. Maybe the others had all felt that 'something amiss' as well, and when they'd gone out to investigate, something had happened to them. Maybe they needed your help!

You set aside your hesitations about the world outside the walls and went through the exit port, the mouse hole shaped segment in the base of the wall sliding open as you neared, and quickly sliding shut behind you after you'd passed.