Insecurity (First Draft)

Chapter 1: The Arrival

10.04.2023, 22:38:27

I was tapping my fingers on the steering wheel as I drove onto the gigantic parking lot of Raymond Robotics. It was weird seeing the whole parking lot completely empty. Not a single car was standing here. The last time I was here, it was packed with cars of all kinds, ranging from luxury, high-end sports cars to more normal looking, everyday SUVs that you normally see on the streets.
But not this time, not a single car was standing here. There was nothing here, like every single car just miraculously disappeared. Well, okay, there are some cars here, scattered across the lot, but considering the sheer size of the parking lot, it was like grains of dust on a kitchen counter. Absolutely nothing.
God, I couldn't sit still, maybe I shouldn't have had that last coffee...
Or maybe it's just my nervousness on what I agreed to do. I don't really know anymore, it all felt distant and yet so near, like playing a video game or something...
I glanced at the radio. We broadcast twenty-four/seven my ass, they stopped playing music about an hour ago, I had to entertain myself by singing songs, and you can believe me; If my wife tells me to shut my shower singing, she got a very good reason for that.
I listened to the humming of the car engine, as I slowly hit the brakes and changed down into the second gear. I activated the turn signal and then turned left onto a parking spot. Why'd I indicate my turn anyway? There's not a single human soul anywhere in a 200-mile radius.

I sighed loudly as I parked my car and pulled the handbrake. I turned the rearview mirror towards me.
<I should've showered> I noticed. My black hair was messy and dirty, with small grey strains forming... I'm getting old.
My slightly wrinkled face was dirty as well, looking like I just lost a fight against a dust storm. Well, when you consider the age of my car and the condition of the AC, you could really say I had a fight against dust.
I should have slept as well, though. I had deep dark eyebags beneath my blue eyes, which now looked more like a greyish color rather than this sky-blue color that people called it. But all in all, I looked perfect for this job, like a corpse.
I reached for the door handle of the car door and got out, and immediately, a cold night breeze hit my face. It smelled like wet trees and a tiny bit of smoke from the industrial chimneys. It smelled like Montana.
I looked around: The rain had stopped mostly, but there were still a few droplets falling from the sky and merging with the puddles on the parking lot floor. The dim light of the street lanterns reflected in these puddles, making the whole parking lot seem like an ocean of light, with only a few desolated cars breaking the waves of light as the trees rustled as the wind broke through their leaves and branches.
But other than that, it was silent. A complete change from the city I lived in, where there were car noises every time of the day, or the ocean of conversations right beneath the windows in my apartment. This lack of humanity in this isolation gave me goosebumps, it just seemed unnatural...
I took a deep breath and tried focusing on nice things, like my wife that awaits me back in the city, as well as my little boy Chris, waiting for me to come back and play cars with him... I smiled at that thought.
But no time to get sentimental. I opened my eyes again and scanned the shadowy walls of the facility. Well, I scanned the walls of construction framework around the walls, until I found the entrance; A giant glass window in the middle of the smooth wall, with a crane standing next to it, and construction fences surrounding it.
<Why did I park so far away from the facilities entrance?> I thought to myself as I took out my phone and dialed his number. The phone rang.
As it rang, I looked at the giant facility complex, with multiple cooling towers, huge buildings, and industrial chimneys looming at the end of the dimly lit parking lot, like someone let their toddler let loose on some building blocks. Buildings of varying sizes were looming amidst the smaller ones, like in an unorganized crowd of people, with everyone trying to get the most attention by emerging from the others.
Chimneys were towering out of this mess, like someone still had a couple building blocks left and just placed them where they fitted, so he was finally rid of them, no matter whether they were standing directly next to each other, or standing on the opposite end of the facility. You know, I think my 2-year-old son built exactly this structure in the living room, I thought while chuckling softly.
But, despite the seemingly blocky and random appearance, it all seemed carefully planned. Each chimney, tower and building looked perfectly planned, not in the means of looks, the facility still looked like a toddlers first house, but rather in a practical sense. Each part of the facility was in a place where it had to be, like some sort of puzzle. The picture you may create looks ugly, but every single piece fits perfectly.
But there still was something beautiful in this mess of blocks: The massive, elegantly curved glass tower in the middle of the facility. It looked like a taut bow made of pure silver; The engineers went all out on this. Not a single inch of the tower is not glass, and even now, in the darkness of the night, it was shining, like it was reflecting the light of stars millions of miles away.
The offices, and especially the owner's office in the top floor, were in there. That tower, with its stunning beauty contrasts heavily with the ugly facility, like a tulip emerging amidst the rubble.
Last time I was here, about 3 years ago, the tower was only a bunch of equipment lying around, and a plan on a blue piece of paper. I personally like the idea that they want to make this facility look more modern, even though it is situated in the middle of nowhere, I can't imagine the workers liked the idea of working in this mishap of a Lego build.
Other than that there were multiple cranes scattered around and on top the main facility, like bugs taking apart the sad corpse of the facility, so that something new, something better can stand in its place.
They told me that they were in the middle of renovating the facade and outside in general to fit the modern and beautiful look of the new tower, but due to the facilities lockdown they just threw everything to the ground and ran, making this place look like a giant, desolated construction site.
Huh, I never thought about this, but now I understand why he built this facility in the middle of nothingness, somewhere in the middle of a gigantic forest here in Montana. You'd have to tear down cities to have enough space to build this, and even if he would have built it next and not in a city, no-one would want to have a grey, smoking accumulation of towers and blocky buildings right in front of their doorstep. But hey, if they eventually finish the renovations to adapt to modern architecture, making this place hopefully look more beautiful than before, which to be fair, isn't hard with the current aesthetic, then maybe a blooming city could emerge here... Maybe I could buy a house with a big garden here for my wife and son to live in, not this small apartment we live in right now...
"Hello, Michael Raymond here." I suddenly heard a voice chime from the phone, like some corporate news reporter.
I cleared my throat before answering: "Hey Mike, it's me. I arrived at the facility."
"Oh." His voice quickly changed to the more anxious and careful way of speech he had in private. A voice that I found way more bearable to listen to than that corporate voice he puts on when it comes to official meetings or speeches.
He continued muttering anxiously: "You remember what we talked about yesterday, Tim?"
I sighed. "Sadly, yes." It chilled me to the bones just thinking about entering this giant facility complex, let alone entering it alone.
"Get in, find out why the facility went into lockdown, retrieve these files, and hopefully don't get lost in this labyrinth of a facility," I continued.
"You don't have to do this, Tim." I heard his apologetic voice sound from the speakers of my phone, but we both knew that it was too late to turn back.
"No, no, it's fine, I made a promise, and I'll keep it." I took a deep breath before sighing loudly: "It's just that I wish I didn't have to do this alone. Even though I know where I must go, the one time I was here it took half an hour to get to your office, and I think half of that time was me trying to find my way through the labyrinth-like hallways."
"I know, Tim, I'll try to guide you the best I can, I mean... I planned this entire facility, so I should know where you need to go." Mike chuckled before taking a deep breath: "And about you being alone, I'm sorry for that, but since the Fazbear Funtime Company started spreading rumors about my company, nobody is really willing to work for us. Except for the employees that are already here, I mean, they know that none of the rumors are true."
"Yeah, I guess that's true."
I looked at the sign above the facility entrance. One part of it was hanging in the air, tied to a crane just standing there, like a giant frozen in time. The other half of the sign was still stuck to the facility, somehow still being powered, since the floodlights still lighted it up, like the sun lights up the moon: "That sign reminds me an awful lot of the one they have hanging at the Fazbear Funtime headquarters... I don't like that."
Mike mumbled something so quietly that I couldn't have possibly understood it.
"What'd you say?" I asked Mike, but he only answered:
"We tried to get rid of it..." He sounded like he wanted to disappear in the ground.
And I can't blame him. I wanted to disappear as well, but something seemed off... I didn't understand what he mumbled, but it was definitely not that; I could feel it...
I sighed and looked at my watch: 10:46 P.M.
It took longer to get here than I expected. I thought I'd be done till now, yet here I am.
"Tim, it's late. You should rest now and start tomorrow morning. Somewhere near the parking lot should be a hotel for the employees. You should stay there for the night, " Mike advised me through the phone. But as much as I embraced the idea of sleeping in a soft bed, I knew that just wasn't possible.
"Thanks for the offer, but I promised my wife that I'll be back on Monday. Also, this operation is important. We have to be as fast as possible before more people lose their lives." This week alone, five people, three of them still kids, went missing in one of Fazbear Funtime's locations. I worked there; I've seen what these... Things can do. I burnt one of the locations down, but there are still hundred more out there. I don't know whether the Fazbear Funtime Company has planned all this or if they just turn a blind eye towards all this pain they cause. Whatever it is. They are in a too high position, and they are way too good in hiding evidence for anyone to even try and stop this bullshit.