Poppy Playtime ~ An Angel's Bleeding Heart

Chapter 3 : Musical Bunnies

The Game station is utterly massive, much bigger than Gabe thought it would be.  It was like a warehouse that had been repurposed into a train station slash playground.  And there are indeed enough playground assemblies to keep a whole army of children happily preoccupied with fun.  Where tile met squishy foam floor, there were platforms, slides, and monkey bars of every shape and color all around.

Along the path there are also some benches with curved overhangs on top, just like those found in an actual train station.  And nearly everything all around him is colored from top to bottom with the same bright reds, blues, and yellows.

But strangely, despite all these colorful playgrounds and kid friendly activities, the Game station felt rather, hollow.  A cold shell that has just been painted with rainbows.  The roof was designed with little interest, with catwalks and iron bars lined all around.  And the only light within the room are the windows, but the term windows is a bit of an overstatement since it never shows any of the outside world, but rather shown through some of the broken glass they are just disguises for the fluorescents underneath.  They didn't even chose any warm colors to emulate sunlight, just the painfully stark glow of soulless white.

And as he made his way to the other side of the building, he found the one thing that will take him out of this strange nightmare, a train.  But not like any of those fake trains found in amusement parks and such where they're really just cars modeled like locomotives pulling a bunch of carts tied in a row.  This an actual, real working, steam powered locomotive.  Built on tracks and everything.

Which surprised Gabe, because he initially thought the train was actually going to be just a set of rail carts.  Built specifically to take kids, parents, and orphans down to the Playcare just a short ride below.  He didn't think that there would have been a real train just sitting here this whole time.  As a matter of fact, Poppy told him there is a whole fleet of these here!  It's almost no wonder the company fell into a financial crisis awhile back.

And to think, he always wanted to ride a train.  He didn't think taking one would mean the difference of life or death.  But right now the train is locked for now, however Mommy Long Legs did mention something about a train code, which she is willing to give if he participates in her games.

"Now which is it?"  Gabriel mumbled to himself.  After looking around for a moment he eventually finds it.  Musical Memory, that is where Mommy told him to go first.  But when he passed through there the entrance is blocked, so how is he going to get in?

Just then he hears something beeping, up on the platform where the train is.  Walking up the small flight of stairs he finds a control panel with three large levers on it, they have indicator lights near them, and one of them is flashing red.  He then pulled it, and on came the intercom with a prerecorded woman's voice sounding through.

"Hey kids, welcome to the Game Station!  I'm Stella!  And we have three super-duper fun games for you to play!"  The intercom blared with the woman's happy voice.  "These games will test how crazy strong and smart you are!  Follow Mommy Long Legs over to musical memory and let's get started!  See you a bit!"

After that he hears the large door blocking musical memory begin to open.  "Guess now there's no time like the present I guess."  He knew there is a chance he will get harmed in one of these games.  Or most likely worse.  Descending the stairs he finds the direct way forward blocked by rubble, guess he has to take a different route.

Moving along through he eventually finds himself in another room.  Left with no light on, he flips a switch and sees he is in some sort of molding room.  He then finds out that the machine creates new hands for the Grabpack.  Great news!  He can now replace the one Mommy took from him.