Inside Job (FNAF: SB Rewrite)

Chapter 21 - Gator Prey

On the way back to Mazercise, I tried to forget about what I'd just witnessed, but I couldn't stop my mind from racing with thoughts and theories. When I first came to the pizzaplex, I thought I'd find information about some hidden crime scheme involving the franchise. Never would I imagine talk of immortality and remnant. What even is remnant? What happened to Michael after the tape? Normally I wouldn't believe in something as fantastical as eternal life, but after seeing Michael withstand two deadly situations and still manage to walk away afterwards, I was seriously reconsidering.

So what made Michael un-killable? Most likely it was whatever remnant was, but that's so undescriptive. How did it all work?

I was so lost in thought that I felt a little dizzy when going through the elevator. I shook it off and prepared to continue my search through the facility.

Mazercise was just as I'd left it. I thought about stealing another snack from the counter, but decided against it. I can eat later. When I entered the maintenance room, I pressed the control key to the scanner, and I was given access to move the panels around. The only problem was, they were very confusing. I assumed the lettering stood for a color, and the arrow for which direction to move them in, either horizontally or vertically, but when I tried to move one specific color, it always moved another. So the lettering didn't stand for the color after all. I tried going by the names of the design patterns, but that didn't work either. I just had to move each one by one and memorize what each color was attached too.

I found where the vent was. It was by the wall across the maze on the far left. If I could move these correctly, I could make a practically straight path right to it. It took a bit of time, but I eventually managed to move the panels near the door to make a road that led to the vent. A blue panel stood like an island between the path from the door and from the rest of the maze, but if I could squeeze between it then I'd make it through just fine.

I walked into the maze and followed the path. If I was correct, then the way the monitor displayed was in the same direction from the door. I eventually came across the blue panel and looked behind it. I pushed myself through, and with a bit of a tussle I made it through the other side.

I pushed aside the vent's grate and crawled through. I've been in vents way more often during this journey than I had originally anticipated. It was like all the others, filled with dust and hard metal that scraped against my knees as I crawled through. The only difference were noticeable claw marks that were scratched into the surface of the metal. When I reached the end, I pushed the grate off and climbed out.

The vent connected to a small platform with a fake shooter gun to my right. Everything was dark and hard to see, so I'd have to get a closer look to really examine it all. There were several layers, there were more crossroads above and below me. To my left was a ladder down to what looked like another maze of twists and turns. It was supposed to be an area that employees could walk on to stand over Gator Golf, where they'd fix and clean equipment and decorations. It reminded me of the walkways that were above large stages, where the stagehands would lower props for the performers.

I wasn't really sure why there were shooters, though. This was clearly meant to be off limits. It didn't look safe for non-trained workers. Maybe it was originally going to be a mini-game, but was deemed too dangerous and was scrapped. One way or another, I was going to have to continue my trek, so I climbed down the ladder and looked around at all the corners.

There were shooters at every corner and middle path. The walls had targets strewed about and there was a sign pointing into a comically large bucket. The targets must be where the shooters are intended to shoot at, and the bucket must be part of the prize.

I could see Gator Golf below me. I listened to the distant bellowing growls from the alligator props and the whirls of the smoke machines. I was over one of the holes, though I wasn't sure which one. It was green, though this whole place felt like an overwhelming amount of limes and greens.