Robotic Night

Chapter Ten: The Daycare

"So, what do we do now?" Gregory asked. I didn't say anything to the boy. I continued rubbing my chin with the index finger and thumb of my left hand, trying to figure out what our next course of action should be.

We had been standing in front of the security doors for the last 5 minutes, and not too long ago that I fully composed myself after what Freddy said had fully sunken in. I was frustrated and afraid at the same time. Frustrated at the damn setback of having to keep Gregory safe until 6 AM. Afraid of what might happen over the next 6 hours. A lot of things could go badly if we're not careful. And it doesn't help that we possibly have Montgomery, Chica, and Roxanne looking for us, along with Vanessa, if she doesn't know that we were trapped in here.

As I thought about our next course of action, my thoughts landed on Freddy. In all honesty, our best chances of survival were with Freddy, and we were going to need as much of his help as possible. I had no idea if he was still in that charging station down at the utility tunnels or not, but our best bet would be to rendezvous with him. The only issue would be finding out how to do so.

"Mihael, can you hear me?" Gregory asked, sounding annoyed, his voice snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned my attention to him, the boy looking at me with annoyance.

"I'm not deaf," I retorted. "I was trying to figure out what we should do."

"And have you?" he asked.

I sighed. Although I knew he didn't trust me and I didn't want him slowing me down to find Lisa, if we were going to make it through the night, find Lisa, and get him out of here, we were going to have to work together as a team. He only followed my lead due to certain circumstances. I had a feeling he wasn't going to like the idea, but there was no other way.

"Look," I began. "I know you don't trust me and you only followed my lead due to there being no other choice. But deep down, you know this to be true. If we're going to get out of this intact, we will have to work together."

Gregory looked at me as if he had swallowed a piece of lemon. I resisted the urge to groan. From that face alone, I knew he wasn't on board with the idea, confirming that the boy still didn't trust me. I raised a hand to prevent him from saying anything.

"I know what you're going to say," I said. "I don't like the idea either as I feel like it will slow down on me trying to find Lisa. However, you and I both know that our chances of getting out of this safely are higher if we work together. Whether we like it or not, we both have to swallow our pride, put aside the mistrust, and form an alliance."

Gregory crossed his arms and went into deep thought. I waited for what he would do next. I could only hope he wasn't the prideful type of kid. As I waited, I watched the expression on his face change a good number of times. From disgust to thoughtfulness. From 'screw that' to 'however'. The list could go on. I could tell he was thinking it through, even when he clearly wasn't on board with it.

After what felt like an eternity, he closed his eyes and sighed. He remained like that for a moment before he opened his eyes and made eye contact.

"Fine," he said, sounding defeated. I didn't let myself breathe a sigh of relief at that. "But just remember, I'll be watching you. Try anything funny and this whole 'alliance' thing is off."

"Good enough for me," I said. "Now, first things first, we have to rendezvous with Freddy. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have gotten as far as we did."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" he asked snarkily. "He's down in the utility tunnels and the only way down is through the doors we went through. But, that's where Chica, Monty, and Roxy are and I have no plans on bumping into them again."