Left Behind

Chapter 10

Sun watched Roxanne quietly as she attempted to sit up into a more comfortable position, drumming their fingers on their crossed legs as they waited patiently for her to situate herself. Any attempts at helping her only resulting in her growling insults at them with a snarl. Finally, after a few more minutes of frustration and struggle, she managed to sit somewhat upright and cleared the film of static from her voicebox. Sun leaned forward curiously, stiff as a board as they waited impatiently for her to explain.

"...I only really ever saw the white one," She began "It would run around the Pizzaplex like it owned the place during the after-hours. Sometimes repeating things to itself in this weird trance while staring at a wall or something. But no one else would mention anything about it, so I just assumed it was some new attraction tech was trying to fix up for showtime that no one had bothered to mention to me. But then..." Roxy went quiet, and Sun felt a split second of panic when she didn't continue, worried that she'd already used up the bit of battery life she'd had left. "It got a kid to follow it somewhere." She continued, "I didn't think much of it at the time but..." Roxanne's ears twitched back slightly, and her snout scrunched slightly, "The kid was never found, even I don't know where it took him..."

Roxane sat straighter, ears perking again a bit forcefully as her mouth set into a thin line, "I told Bonnie about it, he always had a way with people, y'know? Everyone loved him, so I thought, if anyone could get some help finding the kid, it'd be him, right? But then he had his 'accident'... and I'm not too sure if it was an accident at all anymore..."

Sun looked to Bonnie now, taking in the crooked limbs and broken joints. Some of his plating looked to have almost been crushed. Dented and splintered in ways that could've only formed from great amounts of force. There were more cracks along the backs of his joints, some of his limbs partially disconnected, similar to Sun's own arm. All in all, nothing about it seemed like an accident and the technicians would've easily known that. So then why hide it?

"...What about the other one, the golden rabbit? Can you tell me about it?" Sun asked after a moment of thought, turning back to Roxanne solemnly. She nodded slightly, though it may just as well have been her jerking herself back from her thoughts. "The golden one was... strange. It was never there but was always everywhere at the same time. The best you'd see of it is a shadow, but even then, it looked a lot more like Bonnie than the white rabbit. The only real way I could tell it wasn't Bonnie was that its shadow is missing part of its ear." Roxanne frowned a bit in thought, "It comes in other forms too, I think. Corruption, like a virus, but it doesn't just affect robots, it can spread to humans too." She looked to Sun as best she could without her vision, movements slowing into short, jerky bursts of power as her battery life drained. "When you see the purple, don't let it out of your sight. Because when you can't see it anymore, it's already too late." And with that final warning, she went silent, body slumping over with one final twitch.

Sun stared at her, frozen. A purple virus that could infect humans as well as animatronics, rabbits that existed but also didn't, cover-ups for robotic murders, and missing children. It all sounded crazy, like the plot of a mystery novel or some kind of twisted horror game. By all means, there was no way it could be true.

And yet, Sun already knew for a fact that it was.

They looked at their Moon plush numbly, staring at its permanent grin and lifeless eyes. "It was her." Sun accused in a breathy wheeze, chest constricting as emotions began to flood in. "She did this to you..." a sob ripped from their throat as they confirmed it to themself. Steeling their resolve, Sun squeezed the plush a bit tighter, holding it closer to themself. "I'll find a way, I'll get you back..." They stood silently, staring ahead blankly. "No matter what it takes."