Trapped in PlayTime

Make A Friend

Six
Make A Friend

The hallways turned into tunnels as Alli and Jansen kept moving deeper into the factory.
"This is probably what happened to the teens who came in here," Alli said, trying to keep her voice down but still trying to make sure Jansen could hear her. "They got lost in the hallways,"
"It isn't possible for a building to do that," Jansen muttered irritably, "I should have been on my way home by now,"
"Sorry," Alli said under her breath.
"My wife was making lasagna," he grumbled, "Then we were going to finish watching the fourth season of Weirder Things,"
"That sounds fun," Alli said, mostly distracted as they approached an open door and a dark tunnel.
"Yeah, it was supposed to be a good night," he eyed her as she shone her light down the maintenance tunnel. He sighed, "Do we have to?"
Alli looked at him, taking a breath, "No. Sorry, no. You're right, I should wait for SWAT-"
"Oh thank god-"
"I'm waiting for SWAT on the other end of the tunnel, though," She finished without giving him a chance to breathe and turned on her heels, starting down into the blackness.
"Oh- my god... Alli!" Jansen whined, obviously annoyed. "Come on, it's late- and we can always come back tomorrow!"
Alli followed the pipes and roots of wires that ran along the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. Light shining under the door at the other end. The pipes were live, pressure making them rattle, water dripping from loose joints. The wires were live, the ground wires humming at a pitch that apparently only Alli could hear.
Jansen followed her down the tunnel, muttering to himself, sighing deeply every chance he got.
She reached for the door, pushing it open, and there was a loud slam that rattled the pipes in the hall. Alli turned back slowly, Jansen's eyes were wide and his face was white. She looked past him, the door they had just come through was now closed behind them.
"Go through the door," Jansen whispered so light Alli couldn't hear him.
"What?" she asked, leaning closer to hear better.
"Open the damn door!" he said, practically shouting at her.
Alli jumped back and pushed the door open, light streaming into the hall, making the appearance of the pipes and wires official.
Both detectives stepped into the warehouse, looking around at the cracked and ragged crates and boxes. Dismembered toys were scattered around abandoned carts that were losing their chipping paint and dark color. There was what appeared to be something mimicking blood on the floor, but it was too red, and the room didn't smell like death.
"This is shipping," Jansen said, looking around at the cardboard boxes and strips of shipping labels.
"I suppose so," Alli agreed, "I've never been here-"
"That means we can get out from here," Jansen said, voice becoming hopeful, "If we can get the accordion doors open we can get out," he looked at Alli hopefully, "You can come eat dinner with me and my fami-"
"No, thanks," Alli interrupted him, "I- don't do... dinner. Thanks,"
"Everytime," Jansen sighed as Alli clicked off her flashlight and began to look around, "Everytime I invite you to meet my family you say it's because you don't eat dinner, but you have no problem eating dinner at the department,"
Alli was silent, "It's different,"
"How? I'm really trying here, kid, I don't really know how to be any nicer than this-"
"Who said you have to be nice to me?" she turned around, frowning at him, "You're a good friend to me, Cal, and I appreciate the lengths you go for me- but when I'm off the clock I'm not looking to connect with work outside of work. You know?"
He seemed to understand what she meant, his face clearing, "Then you should have said something, I wouldn't have pushed it so much,"
"I was hoping to change my mind someday... but I just never did," she glanced at the ground, having been ringing her hands together while she spoke, "Sorry,"
"You don't need to be sorry," he assured her, "I understand, I do,"
She looked up at him again, giving him a small smile, "Thanks for being so willing to-" she gave a small shrug, "To be there, I guess. It's been awhile since... I don't really have anyone else to be there anymore,"
"Anything, kid, you're my sister in the field, sister outta it," he gave her a reassuring smile, "I have your back, always,"
"And I got yours," she nodded, "So trust me when I say, I will get you out of here, by tomorrow morning."
He sighed, his smile falling but only slightly, "I've accepted my fate by this point,"
She nodded slightly, "Come on, the only way to go is up," she turned and started up a flight of corrugated metal stairs.
Jansen started to follow her, "So- can I ask about the stuffy that you were carrying around?"
"Kissy Missy?" Alli asked, looking out her shoulder at him when she reached the balcony.
"I know it's name," he said, verbally rolling his eyes, "But- uhm... it came to life, Al, I don't think toys are supposed to do that,"
"I don't remember why they do that," she said, looking thoughtfully at the mess on the stairs, stepping on paper that was covered in footprints and meshed into the metal underfoot. "I just... knew that they did,"
"But- how is it possible?" he asked, following her through a door and into another storage room. "Like, are they robots? AI controlled?"
Alli shook her head slightly, trying to think, "I don't think so,"
"So then... what is it? Magic? Witchcraft? If you tell me Harry Potter is real I might believe that too if it explains what I just saw," Jansen said, starting to ramble, "I don't think I've ever experiences hallucinations before, so maybe I'm seeing things,"
"It's not a hallucination," Alli said mildly, pulling open a heavy metal door that had been painted yellow, "It's not magic,"
"Well you don't know that-"
"It's science," Alli looked back at him, "I don't know how... but it is. It was all just- experiments,"
"You're telling me that they Frankensteined those toys to come to life?" Jensan obviously didn't believe her, his eyes and the way his arms were crossed showed her as much.
She glanced away, doubting herself for a moment, unable to remember enough details to prove to herself that she hadn't made it all up, "Yeah," she said softly, looking up at him again, "They did,"
His body language changed, the air feeling more hostile, fear creeping towards them from the edges of the room. He sat back on his heels, studying her, trying to decide if she was making it up or not. "How?"
She shrugged lightly, "Don't know," she turned and went through the door, climbing onto another set of metal scaffolding, taking the stairs towards the floor.
"Why then? Do you know that at least?" he asked, following her, their footsteps echoing metallically around the room they were now in.
"No," she said, voice hollow as it bounced around the walls, carrying across the room, "I don't remember,"
"But you know they're giant animatronic-science-toy creations though," he said, stepping from the last stair and onto the tiled floor after her.
"Just because I know something for a fact, doesn't mean I know how it works," Alli said, beelining for a ring of light and podium in the middle of it.
"But you know for a fact that these things are... alive?" Jansen asked, coming up to stand next to her in the spotlight, looking at her with furrowed eyebrows and wide eyes.
She looked at him placidly, "Yes,"
He let out a heavy breath, putting a hand to his forehead, "I can't- oh my god,"
Alli looked back at the podium.
Make A Friend.
She eyed the large red button under the words, the other words around it blurry and faded. She reached forward, pressing the button with a flat hand; waiting.
The room flashed to life. Lights came on with large clicks, the hum of the bulbs making Alli feel like she was going deaf. The machines came to life, their large eyes opening and the conveyor belts starting to run. The eyes seemed to watch them. There was puffing and squeaking and grinding, metal on metal, plastic crunching. Bells rang and whistles were whistling, doors in the machines were banging, the trap doors of the toy-parts-tubes were slamming.
Both Alli and Jansen looked to their left, watching large clear tubes filled with toy parts. The tubes came to life, lights flashing, the inside corkscrew spinning, music starting to play low and slow.
"This is-" Jansen started, mouth open in wonder.
"Horrible," Alli finished in a whispered, lip trembling with grief. She could feel the sadness leaching off of the building, out of the walls. Everything here was so tired, it wanted to rest, it didn't want to make toys anymore. The things that came from this place, the experiments, it made the building feel alive. The factory wanted to die.
"Hey, can't I use this thing on these?" Jansen asked and Alli's gaze snapped to him, he was pointing at the levers next to the toy-parts-tubes with the Grab Pack.
"I mean during the factory tours I think they were supposed to-" Alli started, preparing in the next breath to tell him to not touch anything.
Jansen turned as she spoke and using the Grab Pack, pulled one of the levers of the machine.
Alli let her words fall into silence, shaking her head at herself for being so slow to warn him.
He pulled the next lever and started for the third.
"Cal-! maybe we shouldn't-" Alli started, reaching for him as she walked up behind him, but the Grab Pack's hand shot forward and Jansen pulled the final lever. "Nevermind," she muttered, drooping her hands as she watched the parts of the toy bounce along the conveyor belt.
"What?" Jansen turned to look at her, "Why not? We're here-"
"It's legally still theft," Alli eyed him with a look.
"I'm taking it as evidence," he gave her the flicker of a smirk, "Regular police business, nothing more,"
She blinked in exasperation and watched the machines do their work. They groaned, shuttered, squealed.
"Hey, look!" Jansen said excitedly, holding his phone out to Alli, "I have service,"
Alli blinked at the phone then reached for her own, pulling it out and checking. "How-?"
"I haven't had service since I got in this place," Jansen said, putting the phone up to his ear, "Let me call Laura real quick, I need to tell her I'll be home late," he turned and stepped away, waiting for his wife to pick-up the call.
Alli turned away from him and walked towards the machines, watching them as they produced what looked like a colorless cat. She stepped around a machine, watching through the foggy glass windows, but her attention was caught by something else. She wandered further into the mass of machinery, ducking under a large tube and coming face to space with a large void.
She stepped back, pressing her back to the machine as she looked down at the void. Lines with swinging baskets, rails with carts, conveyor belts, assembly lines, were all visible in the pitch grayness of the hole. Her eyes were wide and she felt sick at the height, wondering how on earth it was possible for something to go so deep and still be considered a safe and ethical workplace. She looked up, the same situation meeting her, lines and rails and conveyors for as far as she could see up. She felt herself going pale. She and Jansen had just run up at least six flights of stairs, they should have been at the top of the factory, but now here she was, staring at a drop she could only assume was infinite up and down.
She backed up slowly, not wanting to trip and fall into the unknown abyss. She crawled out from the tubes and glass and wires, emerging once again into the Maker Space. She was shaky, hands clammy, cold sweating. She was in a daze, unable to believe what she saw, but also not surprised that the factory had broken so many safety codes. It wasn't like they hadn't been doing it before.
"Hey, Al? Where'd you go?"
"I'm here!" Alli called back to Jansen, belly crawling her way under a conveyor belt and into the light again.
"What were you doing back there?" Jansen asked, turning and spotting her.
"I was... watching the toy," she said, turning and looking for which machine the toy was now in.
"Anything else back there?" he asked, coming up to her and bobbing his head to look past the tubes and wires behind her.
"No," Alli said, brushing off her front, "Just a lot of dust,"
"Hm," Jansen hummed, almost sounding disappointed.
Alli turned as the machines went quiet, the cat the Alli had seen had been colored, its finish shiny. Cat-Bee stood on the conveyor belt, waiting as it made its way out of the plastic tubing and down the rollers into the collection bin.
Jansen grabbed it, turning it in his hands to look at it. "Is this one alive?" he asked, holding out in Alli's direction.
Alli looked at it in a daze, "No," she said lightly, "We should be clear,"
Jansen gave Cat-Bee a crooked smile, "My wife is gonna love this,"
Alli smiled a little at this. She had always found her partner's dedication to his wife sweet. He'd call her before she went to bed when he worked an overnight shift. Would stop by on his breaks to see her, grab food, or give her flowers he picked up while shopping for the department. He'd save all his Paid-Time-Off to take her on trips and to fancy restaurants. He talked about her all the time and often brought her ceramics into the department as gifts for his co-workers.
His eagerness to give her this small thing, something that he had also been so passionate about, made Alli a little sorry she had forced him to stay with her in the factory for so long.
"Hey," Alli said, "Since we've gotten this far, we should try and head out,"
Jansen looked up at her, "Like- out of the factory?"
Alli nodded, "I haven't seen any signs of the teens, they probably didn't come this far... we should get going. It's late,"
Jansen nodded, "That's a good idea," he glanced around, "But are you sure you want to leave?"
Alli took a breath, "I'll come back later with SWAT, like you said I should,"
He eyed her, "You're not going to come back with SWAT," he stated, giving her a knowing look.
She tried to feign innocence, furrowing her eyebrows slightly, "Of course I will-"
"No-! you won't," he said, holding up a hand to stop her, "I know you well enough by now, you're going to come back alone if I don't stay... so I'll just stay,"
Alli started to shake her head, "I don't-"
"I already told Laura I'm going to be home late, and I let the Chief know where we are and if he doesn't hear from us in the next two hours to send Search and Rescue," Jansen shrugged one shoulder, "This- this is important to you," he said, softening his voice, "I know how much you need this- this closure. I'm not going to be the one to take that away from you-"
"But it's not that important," Alli said, her words coming out forceful and almost as a humorless laugh, "I don't need closure I need-" she paused, trying to figure out what she really wanted, "I want to know what happened, sure, but- that isn't as important as your family,"
He blinked at her slowly, unconvinced, "It's just one dinner, Laura will be fine, she knows how the job works,"
"But this isn't our job," Alli muttered, "Is it? I dragged you here-"
"Can we stop with the self-blame, it'll be fine," he was watching her sternly, "I'm more into figuring out what's going on here than I am getting home, at the moment,"
Alli was chewing on the inside of her cheek, "Yeah, alright," she looked down at her hands, once again picking at her nails, "As long as you're sure-"
"Very! Now let's go!" he said, pointing a hand in the air and turning on his heels, "Where to next?"
Alli looked up at him, surprised by his readiness to go, "Uhm, I imagine back to where we came," she said, trotting to catch up to him, pointing, "That door should take us back to the lobby, and from there we should be able to find another way to the Game Station,"
"Right-o! Let's go," he said, reaching forward and putting Cat-Bee on the little platform by the door that said, Quality Control.
They were quiet as the accordion door rolled up into the ceiling, revealing another drab hallway.
"I'm getting sick and tired of these hallways," Jansen said, taking Cat-Bee back off the podium and starting into the hall.
"Yeah," Alli agreed, "I don't remember there being this many when I was a kid,"
They stopped respectably to check the doors on either side of the hall, but froze when another accordion door in front of them started to rise.
"Did you-?" Jansen started.
"No," Alli said, watching the door.
Light from the Make A Friend station filtered from the hall and under the crack of the accordion door.
Alli didn't see anything at first, but then large yellow feet shuffled into view and a soft bang rattled the door. Alli's heart jumped into her throat and she looked at Jansen, who was looking confused and a bit alarmed at the feet as well. "Jan-" Alli started slowly, keeping her voice low.
A yellow hand reached under the accordion door, pulling it up faster.
"Go!" Alli shouted, waving for Jansen to run and he did. They both ran out of the hall and back into the Make A Friend station, looking around for an exit.
"There!" Jansen said, pointing at the stairs of the metal scaffolding, but the moment he said it the entrance was blocked by a roll-out metal gate. "Shit-"
"That way!" Alli said, pointing to the open door of the conveyor belt, "We need to get down to Shipping!"
Jansen bolted and Alli followed, footsteps sounding behind them from the hall.
Jansen climbed onto the conveyor belt, reaching back for Alli. "Allison let's go!" he shouted, watching as she stood in between him and the large, mutant, Huggy Wuggy.
"Go ahead!" Alli called back to him, not taking her eyes off of the Huggy Wuggy in front of her, "I'll be right behind you!"
"I'm not leaving you-!" he started, but slipped as he had tried to turn and step down, falling down the rolling conveyor and crashing at the bottom. "Allison!" he called, voice echoing.
Alli heard Jansen fall but didn't dare take her eyes off of Huggy Wuggy, "Do you know who I am?" she asked, running towards the opposite end of the room, leading the Huggy away from the conveyor belt. "I was here- during The Project,"
Huggy didn't seem to care. With black glassy eyes and a wide gaping mouth, he hissed at Ally, sharp teeth glinting at her in the light. He trotted after her, swatting at her with big meaty paws, his legs looking like jelly.
"You're the Sentinel!" Alli said, "Kingsley spoke about you- Ezra Kingsley!"
Huggy faltered, his steps uneven, pupils dilating.
"Ezra Kingsley made it out alive that day!" Alli continued, feeling sick in knowing that it could understand her, that it had memories, "He talked about you- since you were always his favorite!"
Huggy sagged, arms falling to its sides, but it didn't stop chasing her. It moaned, the sound almost a scream, but desperate and grieving.
"He said- he said you'd remember," Alli stuttered, starting to lie now, "That you had been friends!"
Huggy wailed, putting its head back and screaming into the darkness coating the ceiling.
Alli bolted for the conveyor belt, jumping up and sliding through the door. She hit the bottom feet first and ran into Jansen.
He grabbed her, "I thought you were- you're insane!" he shouted, shaking her shoulders in his irritation.
"Less talking!" she said shrilly, "More moving!"
The conveyor and walls around them rattled, Huggy's wailing becoming louder.
"Shit," Jansen spat.
"Move!" Alli said, pushing him along the rolling belts.
They ran, slipping and sliding, following the words that would lead them to their exit.
No. Don't. Shipping. Go back. Danger. Authorized Personnel Only! Danger! DANGER!
Alli kept a hand on Jansen's back, holding the flashlight up for them to counteract the red emergency lights. They twisted and squeezed down the conveyor, the walls being banged and slammed into around them. There were vents in the walls and occasionally Ally would see an eye or blue fur, and she would push Jansen to move faster.
Eventually Jansen fell, sliding down a length of rolling belts and Alli, despite also not trying to fall, slid down after him. They got up together and ran from the conveyors, along more metal scaffolding that seemed suspended by nothing, looking past it and into a void a lot like the one Alli had seen behind the Make A Friend space earlier.
Jansen turned as Alli looked around the maze of mental pathways. "What is-?" she started, before a loud banging made her look back.
Huggy Wuggy slithered out of the tunnel, his limbs floppy. He stood slowly, tall and menacing, but when he looked up at them he looked normal. His smile was closed and his eyes were no longer black abysses on his face.
Alli's eyes went wide. "Huggy-" she started, stepping forward past Jansen, and the plushy stepped forward too.
"Don't-" Jansen started, grabbing her arm and pulling her back, making her stumble. Using the Grab Pack he reached forward, a large crate hanging from another set of metal pathways, was right over the middle section between them and Huggy.
"Wait-!" Alli said frantically, gripping the railing of the pathway, but Jansen pulled on the crate.
Huggy stepped forward again at the same moment, both the crate and the metal scaffolding coming down right on top of him.
"No!" Alli shouted, stepping forward, but the pathway they were on shook, then the pieces started coming apart.
Jansen pulled her back as the pieces fell away and they both watched as the crate, Huggy, and the pathway fell towards the abyss, before crashing onto a pathway far below them.
Alli put a hand to her mouth, regret washing over her. "Wh- why the hell would you do that?" she asked, turning to Jansen with horrified eyes.
He gawked at her, "It was going to kill us-"
"We don't know that!" Alli shouted, pushing him out of her way as she stalked past him, "He understood me, he knew what I was saying- he remembered Kingsley!"
"I don't give a flying fuck what it does or does not pretend to know! That thing was out to get us!" Jansen shouted back, fists balled by his sides.
"Because that's it's job!" Alli yelled, "Its sole purpose was to protect that factory! That's what Kingsley kept going on and on and on about! I didn't know what he meant until now, but then I did! It wasn't going to hurt us- but you still killed him anyway!"
"You're acting like it's human!"
"It was human!" she screamed, putting a hand to her mouth a slight gasp, eyes wide.
"What the hell are you going on about?" Jansen asked, his voice low as he stepped up to her. He looked down at her, eyebrows furrowed, chest heaving. "Tell me what the fuck is going on,"
"I don't remem-"
"Bullshit," he spat, voice dangerous, "How do you know things you can possibly seem to remember?"
"Be-because I..." her voice broke, "I blocked it all... and I can know things happened here, without having to relive them every time I have to think about it," she looked up at him, eyes watery, "I didn't know this was here- I didn't believe Kingsley either,"
He searched her face, eyes stony, "I don't believe you,"
Her face crumpled, "I'm sorry," she said, voice shaking, "I really really didn't know-"
"But you knew enough to drag me down here," he said, stepping even closer to her, "You knew enough to say that you needed to find out what happened- because you indeed knew something happened," he took a deep breath, "You knew people died here, I knew people died here, but you didn't have the decency to tell me the toys were alive,"
"I didn't remember-"
"Then start remembering!" he shouted and she jumped back, "I trusted you, Allison. I've stuck by you through everything, and this- this is where I'm going to die? All because you can't bring yourself to remember something that happened–what?-twenty years ago?"
"It wasn't twenty years ago," Alli muttered, trying to keep him from becoming angrier with her, "I was sixteen when I got out-"
"I don't need that sort of information from you!" he said forcefully, "What is the Game Station? Why are we going there? Are there other things like that thing? Should we be worried?" he was counting off his questions on his fingers, "Are we going to die? Should I start writing my obituary? What's so important in the Game Station? Are we going anywhere else after that? How do you know the information you're looking for will be there? When will this all be over?" he took a breath, dropping his hands, "Al, I'm sorry- but we almost died,"
She swallowed, "I don't-" she started softly, "I'm sorry,"
He shook his head in response, "I know people died, people you cared about, but what happens after you find out what happened to them? There's no one we can arrest, no one you can sue... what's the point of all this?"
"Because I need to know what happened to my sister," Alli said softly, looking up at him, "I need to know which toy they made her into,"