All Winds Blow Away Eventually

The Rescue

I crawled though the padded tunnels and corridors in the Playhouse, not for the first time thinking just how much bigger this place used to feel.

I was both relieved and suspicious that I hadn't seen any of the small Smiling Critters about. The little crawling stuffies were little more than animals now and with every day that passed, I had more and more trouble thinking of them as anything but.

Maybe that was for the best. I would have gone mad long ago if I was always wondering which of the little toys attacking me had once been my friends, my mentors, my coworkers...

There was no time to think about that. I hadn't heard from DogDay in nearly five days--that was the longest he'd ever been out of touch. I couldn't help but think CatNap or perhaps even the Prototype himself may have been behind it this time.

As I went round a corner, I finally saw him...and it was so much worse than I'd feared.

DogDay lay in front of a metal shutter door, torn in half and being picked over by the little Smiling Critters who, despite their cute and cuddly appearance as a variety of adorable and market tested animals, were little more than grinning vultures now. Their eerie grins faded only long enough for them to bite at him and pull at the plush "flesh" of his toy-like body. But there was nothing toy-like about the blood that oozed from his wounds, staining the once bright and cheerful padding of the play tunnels.

One of the CatNap Critters hissed at me, and for a brief moment I hesitated as I realised there was about two dozen of the little things.

But a canine yelp of pain as one of them pulled on DogDay's ear caused me to go from cautious to enraged before I could even realise what I was about to do.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I snarled, firing a few flares from my GrabPack.

The Critters hissed and whimpered as they scrambled back from the bright light, but I didn't wait for them to fully clear off as I dashed forward, kicking the stragglers off DogDay. I heard a crack as my foot collided with a CraftyCorn's horn, and the creature let out a pathetic whine and scurried off.

Whatever sympathy I had for the wretched things was gone for the moment. It had been impossible to see them as anything but mindless monsters as they had crawled over DogDay's limp form, gleefully biting at him. Torturing him.

Once the Critters had scattered and hid, I crouched beside DogDay.

"DogDay? DogDay!!" I cried, fighting back tears as his dark, empty eyes stared blankly upwards, his permanent smile looking lopsided and slack.

I gently stroked the fur on his head, scratching behind one of his ears to try to wake him. I tried not to think about how I never could reliably get a pulse or measure the breathing of the Bigger Bodies, how I had no idea how much blood he could afford to lose, what being torn in half could have--

His voice box let out a staticky crackle, almost like a half-digitised cough, and at last I saw the white pupils in his eyes flicker faintly back to life as he mumbled my name.

"Yes! Yes, DogDay, I'm here, I'm right here. Come on...let's get you out of here..." I said.

"I...I don't think I can..." he mumbled, his eyes unfocused as they seemed to wander around the room. Finally his gaze settled on me, and he lifted a hand, resting his thumb against my cheek, gentle as always. "I-I'm...glad I got to see you again..."

The sentiment was like an icicle in my heart. "D-Don't say things like that...w-we'll see each other plenty. N-Now, come on, hold onto the GrabPack hand..." I said, angling one of the hands towards him.

He took it, and I launched the other hand down the hall, letting it grab onto one of the plastic beams that enclosed the tunnels. I retracted the cables, allowing the GrabPack to do the work of pulling DogDay.