Explorer (A MD Fanfic)

Prologue

On a cold, windy day, a worker drone named Penny was playing with her best friend Theo. They were playing tag, their favorite game. Theo was trailing behind Penny, who was way faster than him. Penny teased Theo as she zoomed past a tree and jumped onto it. Theo stopped, catching his breath.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Theo shouted. Penny giggled.

"There's no rules against climbing stuff!" Penny said. Theo ran to the tree and tried to climb it, but he fell down. Theo pouted as Penny laughed at him. She kicked some leaves, which fell onto his visor.

"You're mean." Theo mumbled rolling over.

"What? Sad cause I'm better than you?" Pennt teased.

"No you're not!" Theo sprang up and started jumping, trying to tag her. Suddenly, a human walked towards them, wearing a hazmat suit. They had a name tag that read Sage Smith.

"Get out of the tree Penny." Sage said crossing his arms.

"Aww." Penny whined kicking her feet. Theo jumped up and tapped her leg.

"Tag, your it!" Theo squealed.

"Oh, you're so dead!" Penny said jumping down. They both giggled as they chased each other.

"Wait Penny!" Sage said. The two worker drones stopped.

"Your parents and sister left work early today. Apparently, something was going on with Ember and she keeps telling me to bring you home."

"Awww ok." Penny said. She waved bye to Theo and Sage grabbed her hand. They walked over to a small building. This was the entrance to an underground base where all of the worker drones stay. Sage put in a code and the door opened. They went down a big flight of stairs until they reached the third floor. Sage held the door open for Penny. There was a dimly lit hallway that looked like it stretched for miles. The rooms were numbered from 100 - 150.

"I know my way from here." Penny said.

"Alright. Tell Ember I said hi!" Sage said. Penny nodded before running off. Her footsteps echoed through the hallway. Her room number was 124. She knocked on the door and pressed her head against it.

"Sissy, I'm home!" Penny said. There was no answer. She knocked again. No answer. After standing there for a few minutes, Penny jumped up and grabbed the door handle. The door slowly opened and Penny walked inside.

"Sissy, what's going o-" Penny suddenly stopped and froze in place.  Thick black oil was all over the walls and floor. In front of her were her two parents, dead. Their heads were cut clean off. Suddenly, her sister Ember came running from the hallway.

"Penny!" Ember yelled. Penny looked back and ran to her sister. Ember got to her knees and hugged her. Penny started bawling.

"What happened?!" Penny cried.

"I-" Ember hesitated.

"I don't even know." Ember stared at their parent's bodies.

"They can be repaired, right?" Penny asked. Ember shook her head. Penny cried even more.

"I'll get someone to clean this up." Ember said getting up.

"Stay right here." Ember ran away and out of sight. Penny got herself together and walked over to her parents. She examined their necks. It looked rough, not like a clean cut.

"They must've had their heads ripped off." Penny thought. She looked around. It was only that part of the room where the oil was. Everything else seemed perfectly intact. Suddenly, Ember came running back. Sage and one other human was with her. Penny ran back to her sister's side.

"Jeez." Sage said looking at the bodies.

"I haven't seen anything like that." The other human said.

"Do any of you know what happened?" Ember and Penny shook their heads.

"They must have killed themselves or another worker drone got jealous of their promotion." Sage suggested. The other human pulled out a trash bag and started to put the bodies in it.

"You two, go to the laboratory for now." The human said. Ember nodded and took Penny by the hand. They walked down the hallway as another human came by with cleaning supplies. Penny barely knew what was happening since she was so young, but she did know one thing.

"I will find out who did this. I promise."

Merry Christmas if you're reading this the same day it was published!