Animatronics Awaken

Training the Mutt

Justin's POV

"Okay, so what's this big idea?" I asked Ellie, intrigued.

"Can we focus on my hand first, please?" Raymon cried in desperation and pain. "Oh, you'll be fine," Ellie shrugged him off. "It's not a major injury."

Raymon flashed her a glare but didn't complain again. "We can train Fang to be an attack dog," Ellie announced. "If it is true that Gabe commands the Nightmares, Fang will definitely keep him busy. Then it'll be easy for us to rescue the others."

"And if that isn't true?" Cheyanne mused. "What happens if we have Gabe distracted but still have to deal with the Nightmares?"

"We'd be screwed either way," I agreed. Ellie frowned. "We might just have to deal with that as we go."

"We'd need weapons for sure," Raymon said. He recovered from the bite on his hand and there was still blood visible, but it wasn't much and had stopped. The visible stuff was dried. "I'm not sure how weapons will do against the Nightmares, but it's better than nothing."

"Here, one second!" I said excitedly. I opened the door to go inside the house, planning to go into the basement but froze when I realized it opened easily. "Did nobody lock the door?"

Cheyanne shrugged. "We don't normally lock it."

I shook my head. "We need to start." Ignoring whatever she said after that, I stepped in and sprinted down the stairs to the basement. I switched on the light that was next to the stairs on the wall. I observed what I could see for a few moments, since it's been a hot minute since I've been down here, or anyone for that matter. It was what an old basement was expected to look like; dusty and dim, full of boxes and totes of who knows what. The lights flickered occasionally, having not been properly used in months, perhaps on the verge of burning out. "Where would they keep it...?" I muttered to myself. I knew for a fact that my parents kept a couple of swords down here, years ago. Mostly for protection, but a small part was that my dad wanted to hang them on the wall to look cool. After I was born, my mom made him put the swords down in the basement, claiming it was dangerous to have them on the wall with a child.

I searched along the wall on the ground, expecting the swords to be leaning against it somewhere. I wanted to find them fast, for this basement was getting creepier the longer I was down here. "Bingo!" I suddenly exclaimed. On a spot along the wall were two swords in sheaths lying there, just as I had expected. Right next to them on the floor was a strap system. Smiling, I picked all three of the items up - carefully, of course - and went back upstairs out the door where my friends were still waiting.

"Bam," I announced my arrival with a random noise and showed them the two weapons. "Weapons. And watch this." I attached the strap system to my back and slid the swords into the two pockets, creating an "X' with them on my back. It took a little longer than I thought since it's been a couple of years since I'd done this, but once I figured it out, it looked pretty sick.

Raymon whistled. "Damn Justin, looking fine there." He said in a joking flirty way. "But more seriously, that's sick. And definitely what we needed."

Cheyanne circled me once, observing and gently touching the swords. "These are actually so cool!" she said. "Got anything similar for the rest of us?"

"I don't think so, unfortunately," I answered. "I can share one of these with somebody and just hold onto both until needed."

"I'm claiming that offer," Raymon perked up. "I get to be a cool sword holder!"

"Well, the only other weapons we have are knives," Ellie suggested. "Maybe Cheyanne and I can just use one of those."

"Too bad we're too young to purchase guns," I said. "Now that would be even cooler than swords!"