A New Start
Chapter 8: The Mall

Aftera small while, Bonnie moved from his spot on the office floor andheaded into one of the party rooms. After collecting his guitar, heheavily sat down in one of the chairs. He put his elbows on thetable, sighing. Bonnie was terribly sad, sadder than he had ever beenin the few months since he was built.

Afew months plus ten years,anyway.

Hestill couldn't believe it. It really had been ten years, a decade,since he had been in this building. He wondered exactly how muchhadhappened while he was deactivated. Obviously, a new restaurant wasbuilt, with rebuilt animatronics. He wondered if people even stillremembered the oldrestaurant and the bots who performed there.

Bonniesighed again. It wasn't likely...

Athought then hit him – How would the others react to what he saw?This was some heavynews...

Bonniegroaned, covering his face with his hands. This was all so veryterrible...

Freddyand Chica, meanwhile, were only just entering the main room of therestaurant. They were inspecting and admiring the stage, among theother items in the main room, making sure that everything was inorder. In all, they were both happy to be finally home. And startingtomorrow, they'd be back to their old routine! Though, as Chica soonrealized, they were missing a few things around here...

“...Hey,Freddy?” Chica began, looking at the bear in question. Freddy, whohad been fiddling around with the carousel animals, looked at Chica.

“Yes,Chica?”, he replied.

“Where'sBB?”, the chicken asked.

“Hm?Oh, well, he's right over... there?”, Freddy replied, ending thesentence with an uncertain upward inflection as he realized that thebot in question was, in fact, absent! The bear slowly walkedover to where he could have sworn the Balloon Boy used to be,rubbing his head in confusion.

“I'm...not sure, Chica,” he replied. “Maybe Marion knows?”, heoffered, before setting course for the Prize Corner. “I'll go ask'im!”

Chicanodded in acknowledgement, watching as Freddy headed into the Corner.Chica, meanwhile, headed into Kid's Cove. Finding herself a littleunnerved by the balloon vendor's absence, she felt that she had tomake sure of something...

“Hey,Foxy! We're... We're home!”, Chica said uncertainly as she enteredthe room. “Have ya' missed us--... Foxy?”

Chicalooked all around the room, realizing it was empty of the bot she waslooking for. She knelt down, looking under the table.

“Foxy?You here?”

Nothing.

Chicastood back up, frowning. Where could Foxy possibly have gone? Itwasn't like her to simply disappear...

Shethen blinked, realizing something.

“Ah-ha!”,she exclaimed, looking up at the ceiling.

...Shethen frowned, realizing that her friend wasn't up there either.

Thechickenbot put her hands on her hips. This was becoming a veryperplexing situation. Not only is Balloon Boy gone, but Foxy too?What next, is Marion going to be absent as well?

Chicaturned around, making her way back into the Main Room just as Freddymade his way out of the Prize Corner.

“Hey,Freddy,” Chica began. “Foxy's... Foxy's gone!”

“Gone?”,Freddy repeated in surprise. “Her too...”, he saidquietly. Chica didn't like the sound of that.

“Freddy?Freddy, wha'd'you mean?”

“Marion'sgone too, Chica...”, Freddy lowly replied.

“Wh-What?”,Chica asked. “Well, where could he've gone?”

“I'mnot sure...”, Freddy said, putting his hand to his chin in thought.“Say, Chica, why don't'cha go replace Bonnie? I'm gonna try and get tothe bottom of this,” Freddy offered.

“A-Alright,sure,” Chica replied.

Freddynodded before making his way to the Parts & Services room. He,noticing the fact that the door was already open and the light wason.

“Hmm?”,he uttered as he peered inside. “Guys? Are you here?”, he asked,his gaze drifting around the room. He sighed, replaceing the room empty.

Chicawatched as Freddy headed down the hall toward the Parts room, beforewalking in the direction of the office. She figured that she didn'thave to search anywhere but this portion of the restaurant. It wasn'tlike Bonnie would be anywhere else! And just as she expected, shealmost immediately found the blue rabbit in one of the party rooms.

However,to her surprise, he didn't seem like his usual, happy self. He wassilently sitting in the dark, looking down at the table in front ofhim.

“Bonnie?”,she curiously asked, standing in the room's doorway. The bunny slowlylooked up from the table, stared at Chica for a moment, thenwordlessly resumed staring down at the table.

Chicahesitated, then fully entered the room. She sat down next to Bonnie,placing one of her elbows on the table.

“Bonnie,what's wrong?”, she asked, tilting her head in concern. Bonnielooked away slightly, keeping silent. Chica frowned a little.

“Bonnie,c'mon,” Chica said. “You know you can tell me what's on yourmind. I mean, if it's about everyone being gone, Freddy's trying tofigure that out now. Worst case scenario's that everyone's just inthe Parts room. Y'know, like, in storage. Not much use for 'em if themain four aren't here, right?”

Shefrowned a bit more as she was met with continued silence, untilfinally...

“Iknow why everyone's gone...”,Bonnie eventually said, staring out into the hall.

“Wait– Y'do?”, Chica asked, surprised.

Bonnienodded before looking at Chica once again.

“A-Andyou're... not gonna like it,” he said.

Scottburst through the front doors of the first building he saw, with Foxyclose behind, in an effort to escape his pursuers. Scott stopped oncehe was inside, wiping his forehead with his arm and taking a momentto catch his breath. When he first bought the Toys from thatjunkyard, he did not envisionthat he would end up in this kind of situation...

Imean, Scott was neverone to run from the police! Hebegan to wonder if this would have any adverse effect on his record!He wouldn't be able to bear that!

Scottwas taken from his thoughts by the feeling of someone grabbing hisshoulders and shaking him. He flinched and turned about, halfwayexpecting it to be one of the policemen. He sighed in relief, seeingthat it was simply Foxy.

“W-W-We-e-eneed to g-g-g-go!”, she exclaimed, her voice barely decipherablethrough its own glitchiness.

“U-Uh,r-right, of course, let's!”, Scott replied, quickly remembering theinauspicious situation that he was still in. He grabbed the fox'shand, and began to run!

...However,he barely went one step before realizing exactly what sort ofbuilding he was in.

Therewere crowds upon crowds of people occupying almost every inch of thearea beyond the entrance where the pair was situated. As far as theeye could see, there were stores selling everything one could want,and more, there were escalators leading up to various floors, andescalators on thosefloors leading up to levels unseen! There was even a carsituated on one of the upper floors, displayed for everyone to see!Oh, yes, Scott and Foxy found themselves in...

Amall.

Scottgulped. He didn't think of which particular building he ran into. Hejust wanted to evade those policemen! But this was one of,nay, the worst possible placethat Scott would imagine he'd end up. For one thing, he hatedmalls. They were much toocrowded for his liking! Plus, he'd always get lost! Sure, there werethose maps on those signs, but they were never really useful!

AsScott looked at Foxy, one last thing came to mind...

Foxy'shead lurched from side to side as she looked left, then right,scanning the crowd ahead of her. As she slowly covered her teeth withone of her hands, Scott watched as she began to shiver.

Thiswas going to be difficult...

Scotttook one last look outside, already spying the glare of thosered-and-blue lights in the parking lot.

Okay,serious-time.

Scotttightened his hold on Foxy's hand, watching as the animatron almostjerked her arm away in surprise.

“Listen,Foxy...”, Scott began. “We need to try our best to get throughthis crowd, okay? Just stick close to me, and we'll be fine. I'llguide you through,” he said. Foxy slowly nodded, though was stillunwilling to remove her hand from her mouth. With a returning nodfrom Scott, they got going.

ToScott's surprise, things were going off without a hitch for the timebeing. As the two slowly weaved through the crowd of people enteringand exiting the mall, he occasionally glanced back at the bot that hewas leading. To his slight worry, Foxy was nervously looking at thecrowd around her, ever-fearful that someone, for some reason, wouldask about her teeth. Her sharp, dirty, and dreadful teeth!Scott could feel her tighten her grasp on his hand, and he took thatas his cue to hurry along. After a few more 'excuse me's, 'pardon's,and the like, Scott and Foxy finally made it to their destination.

Anescalator.

Scottfigured that, if he and Foxy were to ride one of the mall'sescalator's up to another floor, they'd have an easier time evadingthe cops for the time being! From there, they could formulate a planfor a more permanent escape. Simple, right?

...Well,it didn't quite go asScott planned, as you will soon see.

“Alright,Foxy, we have to get up there,”Scott said, pointing at the next floor up. “And to get up there, wegotta use one of those escalators. D'you understand?”, he asked.Foxy nodded. It seemed simple enough to her! Smiling, Scott led thebot toward the escalator, pausing for a moment at the bottom of it.Escalators were another thing he didn't like about malls. It alwaysfelt weird, standing on stairs that moved you up with them.He would always nearly fall backwards when standing on them.

“C'mon,move it already!”, exclaimed a voice behind the two. Scott quicklydiverted his gaze, again almost expecting one of those cops to bestanding there.

Luckily,it was just a disgruntled employee.

Avery disgruntled customer, as Scott could infer as the mantapped his feet, crossing his arms. He seemed to have a red and whitestriped uniform, with a rather silly hat – topped with a peanutattached to a spring.

Scottcould definitely see why the person was so frustrated...

“R-Right!Right away! C'mon, Foxy,” Scott hurriedly said, pulling the botwith him as he stepped on the escalator. He tightly gripped themachine's rubber railing, determined not to lose his balance.

However,Foxy didn't know about that...

Itstarted out as static, a low growling bout of static, that graduallyevolved into a full-on scream as Foxy slowly, then quickly, began tofall backwards. Scott was forcibly turned around as Foxy, trying toreplace something to grab on besides just his hand, grabbed the man'sshirt. Scott winced at the sound it made as it tore a bit from thebot's weight. That was his favoriteshirt!

Asidefrom his old Freddy's T-Shirt, that is.

“Foxy!Foxy, are you alright?!”, Scott exclaimed.

“Hey,mind askin' her if she's alright afteryou've lifted her off'a me?!”, shouteda familiar voice from behind the animatron.

Scottleaned to the side a little, so's to see past the partially-fallenbot, noticing that very same disgruntled employee from before! Heseemed to be struggling as he tried to push the fox off of him.

“O-Oh,of course! Sorry, sorry, sorry!”, Scott exclaimed, grabbing hiscompanion's other arm and slowly pulling her back onto her feet, withmuch help from the very person she fell on. Once that task wasthrough, both people took a moment to catch her breath as theyreached the top of the escalator.

Uprightinga 200 pound robotic fox whilst going up an escalator takes a lotoutta you, y'know?

“H-Hey,uh, thanks,” Scott said, stepping aside to let the other personwalk past.

“Yeah,whatever,” the patron grumbled, giving Scott and Foxy a nonchalantwave as he walked farther and farther away from the two. Scott thensighed, taking a moment to inspect the damage to his shirt.

“Andnow, I need a new shirt...”, Scott muttered to himself. He foundthat tonight was growing more and more troublesome by the minute.

“Foxy,you're okay, right?”, he inquired, turning and looking at theaforementioned bot. To his relief, she nodded.

“Y-Y-Yep!”,she exclaimed.

“Alright,great, great! Now, let's go a little further so we're sure we're inthe clear. Then, we'll think of a plan to get outta here, alright?”he asked.

“O-O-Oka-ay!”,Foxy replied. Scott took that as his cue to get moving, and Foxyfollowed closely behind as usual.

Andnot a moment too soon.

Steven,followed by Horace and Roy, entered the mall at a rapid pace. Hepushed his way past most of the crowd, nearly losing his colleaguesin the process. He was absolutely bent on catching Scott andFoxy.

For,you see, Steven Pulaski always catches his man.

...Rather,he catches his man as well as that man's accompanyingrobotic-fox-roleplayer... thing.

“Steve!”,exclaimed Horace, holding out his hand toward the other officer. “Doyou have to run so fast?!”,he loudly asked, panting as he followed Steven up one of theescalators.

“Whydon't you just hurryup?!”, Steven called back, continuing to weave and push his waythrough the crowd. “I know they're in this mall, and they're gonnaface justice!”

“Butyou don't even know where they arein this mall!”, exclaimed Roy. “This place's huge! They could beanywhere in here! D'you think that, maybe, you should stop and askaround?!”

Stevenskidded to a halt, realizing that that's... not a bad idea.

“...Yeah,I guess I could do that,” he quietly said, waiting for the othertwo to catch up. Once they did, he looked around for someone to ask.

“Hey,you!”, he shouted, pointing at a random lady. The confused andnervous person looked around, before her eyes landed on the cop. Shepointed at herself, making a 'who, me?' type of gesture. Stevennodded.

“Yes,you!”, he said. “Come over here for a second!” He watched asthe lady shakily made her way toward the group of officers.

“Wh-Whatis it, sir?”, she asked.

“Haveyou seen a man with a black shirt, and brown hair, accompanied by apink-colored fox, walking around here, Miss...”, he paused,squinting to read the woman's nametag. “...Madge?”

“...Err,no. No, I haven't,” she curtly replied. A fox? Is thissome sort'a joke?, Madge thoughtto herself. Steven huffed, before giving her a card.

“Well,if you or anyone you know see the suspects I have just described,please be sure to call this number,” he said. Madge nodded.

“Yeah,sure, officer,” she replied, her previous nervousness having allbut faded.

“That'llbe all,” he simply said, nodding.

Madgethen wordlessly turned around, quickly heading on her way. After abit, she looked at the card she was given. It was a typical CityvillePolice tipcard, with Steven's name at the bottom.

“...Whata weirdo,” Madge muttered, before throwing the card into thenearest garbage can.

Steventhen turned to see his colleagues still panting and catching theirbreath.

“Bunch'asissies...”, Steven mumbled tohimself. He then cleared his throat, garnering the two's attention.

“Alright,listen. Here's the plan as I see it,” he said. “We'll split up.Should cover more ground that way. Roy, you take the north part ofthe mall. Horace, you take the east. And I, I'll take the west.We'll use our radios tocommunicate.” Steven said.

“Yeah,sure, whatever,” Roy said. Anything to be away from you,he thought to himself.

“Alright,alright. I just hope this'll all be worth it in the end,” Horacereplied. Steven nodded.

“Right!Fan out!”

Scottlooked back every few minutes, making sure that he wasn't beingfollowed. He and Foxy had been running, then walking for the pastfifteen minutes. He looked back one last time, before sighing inrelief.

Hehad finally lost them.

“...Aaalright!”,Scott exclaimed, feeling quite accomplished. He felt as if a weightwas lifted from his shoulders, at least for the time being. “Thisis good. This is reallygood. Now, we should replace a less crowded place so we can figure outhow to get outta here,” he said, before looking down at his tornshirt. He was gonna stand out like a sore thumb like this.

“Butfirst... Let's replace a clothing store.”

Andso, they set off in search of a place Scott could replace a replacementfor his shirt. It proved to be rather difficult, owing to how vastthe mall was and its wide variety of stores. Eventually, however,they found what they were looking for.

“Alright,Foxy, this'll be quick. We'll get in, buy a shirt my size, then getright out,” he said. Foxy nodded.

“Ri-Ri-Right!”,Foxy simply replied.

Asthe two walked into the store, Scott found it appropriate to asksomething that had been bugging him all night.

Well,amongst the other things that were bugging him that night.

“Foxy,I know that you're probably really... shaken up, but... youhaven't really been speaking much tonight. Is it because of yourvoicebox? Or, well, is it something else?”, he asked, looking athis companion with a concerned expression.

Foxydidn't immediately respond, mostly because she wasn't sure howto respond. Like before, her mind still felt like a mess, and she wasstill in the progress of putting the pieces back together. She atleast knew that she, and Scott, were in the process of evading thepolice.

Eventhough, she could have sworn that policemen were the good guys...

Didshe do something? Did Scottdo something? Did she help?Was all of this because of that one, terrible thing she did?...

...Ohdear.

Scottwatched in worry as the fox stared blankly ahead, then began to grabher teeth once again.

“...S-Say,Foxy, d-don't worry about what I asked you, alright? How about youwait here for a moment while I get myself a new shirt. You can watchout for our, y'know... pursuers,” he offered, ending hislast sentence with a whisper. Foxy twitched slightly, breaking out ofher daze and looking at Scott. She stared for a moment, then nodded.

Scottlet go of the fox's hand, then got to shopping while the animatronstared out the window. Soon, Scott approached the store's counter,placing a new black shirt on it.

“I'lltake this one,” Scott said simply. The cashier nodded.

“And,will that be all?”, she asked. Scott nodded.

“Yep!”,he replied, handing her the money.

“Alright,cool,” she said, taking the money and placing it in the register.Her expression hardened slightly as she noticed Foxy on the far sideof the store, staring blankly at a mannequin. Every few seconds, thefox would cock her head to the side a little, as if enamored by theplastic thing.

“...Isyour friend alright there?”, the cashier asked, concerned. Scottturned a little, grabbing his new shirt.

“Yeah,she's just a little... eccentric,” Scott lied.

“Heh,yeah, I can see that,”the cashier said, chuckling.

Atthat moment, a door opened next to the cashier, and out came anotheremployee, carrying a tall stack of boxes.

“H-Hey,you know you're not supposed to carry that many boxes at once,Sam!”, exclaimed the cashier. The other employee scoffed as hewalked.

“Ohh,calm down, Laura,” he said. “It's just some boxes full'a clothes.S'not like I'm gonna throw out my back from this,” he saidin a mocking tone.

And,fortunately, he didn't throw out his back.

But,unfortunately, something much worse happened.

Atone moment, Sam was walking across the store with those boxes of his.The next moment, he was looking back at Laura, explaining how he wasperfectly capable of carrying those boxes.

Buthe wasn't watching where he was going.

ToScott, it all seemed to happen in slow motion. Sam had walked rightinto Foxy, who was still standing near the window and watching outfor the police. Both the man and the animatron began to fall whileFoxy screamed in surprise. The two fell onto the mannequin that wasalso situated near the window, before hitting the window itself. Theglass held for only a moment, before cracking and shattering undertheir combined weight.

Foxylooked about frantically, seeing a crowd beginning to form around thescene. Everyone wanted to have a look at what happened.

Andworst of all, some were looking right at her.

Foxy'seyes widened as she began to panic. She wriggled about under Sam,signalling the stunned man to get up. He got to his feet and wipedhimself down, looking around with a flabbergasted expression. Boxeswere everywhere, with their contents strewn about much of the floor.Fragments of glass also littered the floor, and the mannequin laidoff to the side. Sam could have sworn that the mannequin had a headjust a moment ago...

But,why would he care about that right now?

“Oh--Oh my gosh, I am so... so fired”, he shakily said to himself.

Foxyslowly got to her feet, shivering and shaking as she continued tostare at the crowd. Some people gasped, others covered theirchildren's eyes. Even with her limited state of mind, Foxy knew thatthis was absolutely horrible.

Butthe worst was yet to come.

Hergaze diverted downward slightly as she realized her jaw was stuckopen. To her, it felt as if something was inside of her mouth. Shejerkily opened her jaw just a bit more as she tried to grab whateverwas in her mouth. Once she got a grip on the unknown object, shequickly pulled it out and took a look at it.

Itwas the mannequin's head, riddled with bite-marks.

Foxyfroze. Her shaking and rattling from before returning as shepractically stared holes into the plastic head with a horrifiedexpression. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It reminded herof something she dearly, dearly wanted to forget.

Shemeekly squeaked, dropping the head and taking a step back.

Then,she ran.

Scottwatched all of this, absolutely stunned. He looked at Laura. Then, atSam, who reached out his hand toward the running fox, but ultimatelygave up. Then, Scott looked toward the crowd while Sam began to cleanup the mess.

Andin the crowd, Scott saw the top of a policeman's hat weaving his waytoward him.