Inside Job (FNAF: SB Rewrite)

Chapter 24 - Inner Panic

"Gregory!" I heard Monty yell out. I had landed on my feet, kind of. The moment I felt the impact, I fell over onto my back, which pushed the wind out of me. It was probably better for my feet to take the heavy blow.

The ceiling above me shook as Monty rushed over. "Gregory! Are you okay?" he yelled down. I could see traces of him leaning in from the entrance.

I pushed myself up and sat up, but my head felt like it was swirling around, even if I couldn't see anything. Everything was dark. "Yeah, I'm fine," I said meekly. I wasn't sure if he heard me, but then he sighed with relief. My ankles and back hurt like hell, I couldn't see anything, and I felt like throwing up, but I was alive.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he yelled from above. He sounded angry and distant, but it also echoed through the tunnel downwards, so it was plenty loud enough.

I reached into my pockets, trying to find that flashlight I had used all those days ago, but they were empty. I tripled checked, but each time they came out with nothing.

"Did you take my flashlight from me?" I yelled up at Monty.

"What?" Monty sounded surprised, probably because I was ignoring his insults.

"It's dark down here, I need a light!"

"Christ, kid! You're just gonna fall into the abyss and move on like that?"

I crossed my arms, though there's no way Monty could see me. I couldn't even see myself. "Oh, boo hoo, sorry that I took initiative!" I said, my words oozing with sarcasm. "You're not the one who just fell down a seemingly bottomless pit! Just get me a light!" I may have gotten a bit angry, but I am in a massive amount of pain that I was trying to ignore.

He groaned, but I heard him turn around and leave, his steps slowly becoming distant. While I waited, I let my breath catch up to me and tried to slow my beating heart. I looked around, everything was pitch black, except for some glowing red lights that reminded me of Moon's eyes. I kept my eyes on them, in fear that they could be endoskeletons. They were crawling from inside here, after all. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if there were a few stragglers left behind.

When Monty came back, he warned me he was dropping a flashlight down. I dragged myself a bit to the side, and I heard the flashlight crash next to me. The sound echoed through the room, and I covered my ears. I hadn't expected it to be so loud. I reached out, touching the floor with my hand trying to find it. Eventually my hand landed upon it and I tried to turn it on. It flickered a bit, most likely damaged from the fall, but it still worked.

"What do you see?" Monty asked. I looked around. I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. First, the obvious; there were rows of bots that were attached to the floor. They looked different from the S.T.A.F.F. security ones that roamed the pizzaplex. They shared the same body shape, but they were shorter, and they didn't have heads. Rather, their arms were long and skinny. The one closest to me reached out and tried to grab one of my legs, but I handed it one of the pins that I'd fallen down with. It took it and placed it into a circular contraption. It pulled down on a string, and the wheel slowly brought the pin back to the top. There was a long pipeline where they'd insert the bowling ball for each respective alley. I could hear the strong air blowing inside.

This is possibly the most complicated way they could have decided to build these bowling alleys. It feels incredibly inefficient. Surely modern technology allows for no technical assistance like this? I always thought that the ball would fall to the side while the pins would fall farther back.

The glowing red eyes I saw earlier were indeed an endoskeleton, but it was already broken. It had a missing arm, but just in case it could still attack me, I kicked its chest and watched it fall to the floor. I crushed it some more, to be safe. It was a bit therapeutic, both destroying this endoskeleton and the ones that were emerging earlier from the alleyways.