Five Night's at Freddy's - The Horrific Remains

Chapter 15

Charlie, John, Jason, Lucia, and Kanani all stopped. About ten feet ahead of them, a maintenance ladder rested against the old brick. Charlie grinned and hurried to the ladder, waving for John to follow. They both got to the ladder and, sure enough, there was a square trapdoor, big enough for an adult to pass through, its edges barely visible in the darkness. Without speaking, John climbed up as the group watched. At the top of the ladder, John fiddled with something on the ceiling that the others could not see, making little mutters of frustration.

"Is it locked?" Jason called up.
"No, it's not," John said. "The bolt is just stuck. I need—ha!" A dull snapping sound rang out.

"Got it!" he cried. He raised her hands over her head and pressed upward, and slowly the door opened above him until it tipped over and fell with a thud. Then, John began to navigate his way up through the door. He braced her arms on either side of the space and pushed up off the ladder. It swayed dangerously, and John and Kanani, trying to stabilize it, but it was not necessary. John was already up and through, on the roof. The group waited for him to say something.

"John, are you ok?" Lucia called finally.
"Yeah, I'm fine," John replied.
"What do you see?" Charlie called. John turned on his flashlight and swept it in a circle around her, revealing a sprawling void in all directions. It was the roof of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

"What do you see?" Charlie called again.
"It's the space from before," John called. "The one that leads to the skylight."
"Alright," Jason said. "Stay there, John; we're coming up."
"Me next," Charlie said, stepping forward. The ladder wasn't too rusty, but it still made some squeaking complaints as she climbed, protesting her weight as she moved from step to step. But it felt sturdy, and quickly she reached the trapdoor and did as John had done. She stood on the top step, so she was head and shoulders through the door, braced her arms on either side, and pushed off the ladder, almost jumping, to land on Freddy's roof. There was not room to stand, scarcely room to sit—the space between the restaurant's roof and the Pizzaplex's roof above it was less than a yard. She wiped her palms on her jeans; the shingles of the roof were wet, and her hands were covered in grit, dust, and something slick and more unpleasant. Then, she looked toward John, who was a few feet away.
"Come on, honey," John said. "Get out of their way," He motioned Charlie over, and she hurried on her hands and knees. Kanani's head appeared in the trapdoor next, and, carefully, she made her way up into the crawl space. Safely on the roof, Kanani looked over at Charlie and John before walking over to them. A moment later Lucia was next to them. Then, last but not least, Jason scrambled up into the crawl space—and something banged loudly beneath them, the sound repeating. Everyone but Jason startled at the sound.

"Sorry," he said. "That was the ladder." Lucia looked over to Charlie.
"Charlie, John, which way?" she asked. Charlie closed her eyes again, retraced her steps as she had years ago.

"Straight across," she said. "As long as we get to the far side, we'll find it." Without waiting for responses, she started crawling in the direction she thought was right. A second later, light appeared ahead of her.

"Thanks, sweetie," she called back softly to John, who was steadying the flashlight, trying to anticipate where Charlie would go.
"I don't have anything else to do," he whispered.

The crawl space was wide. It should have felt spacious, but there were support beams and pipes strewn at random, intersecting the space or running across the roof below them so that it was a little like navigating a very cramped forest, ducking vines and climbing over fallen trees. The roof of Freddy's had a shallow upward slope; they would have to go down again once they reached the middle. The shingles beneath their hands and feet were soggy in a deep, swollen way that suggested they had not been truly dry in years, and a moldy smell rose from them. Every once in a while, Charlie wiped her hands on her pants, knowing they would only be clean for a moment. From time to time, she thought she heard something skitter by, sounds a little too far away to be coming from their group, but she ignored them.