Chapter Text
Simon was done. He had done everything he possibly could and now all he could do was cradle the black box, a flimsy life jacket around it with his harness and what tape was left wrapped around the jacket in hopes to keep the black box inside the life jacket. The only thing he could do now was wait for the monster to finally finish him off.
Letting go of the black box so the thing wouldn't eat it along with him, he held the knife from his mom and the seed from Eden. He waited for the next, and likely last impact of the creature biting down on the sub. The sub suddenly jolts up, and there's a flash of light probably from what was left of the warning system. His body tensed up, bracing for the fall back into the blood, and maybe finally into the jaws of the creature to die.
Landing into what he thought was blood, his body went into shock and sank to the floor. Finding himself in a now cold liquid, he bolted upright and gasped for air out of pure reflex. His lungs were met with stale, but cold air. Everything was cold, which felt like heaven against his overly hot skin.
Bringing his hand to wipe his face from the now thickening blood, why was it thick now, and opened his eyes. He sucked in another breath of air as he realized that he was no longer on the Iron Lung, or even on the moon. He was inside a building, a huge one at that if the height of the ceiling was anything to go by.
Seeing that he was in some kind of red liquid that had washed away most of the blood, he quickly trudged to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out. Flopping onto the ground, all he could think was ‘I'm alive, I survived… how?’
Now don't get him wrong, he wanted to live, but he had given up hope after Ava died. He even had just resigned himself to his fate of becoming food for the monster lurking there. To just be taken from the sub about to die to being dumped into a pool of some kind of red liquid that was definitely NOT blood like he thought it would be was confusing to say at the very least. After getting his barring he realized that somehow his harness was in his hand with the knife now sheathed back inside.
‘Guess it's a good thing I used the rest of the tape, to make sure the black box would stay in the life jacket. I have no idea how my harness got into my hand but this can help with binding what's left of my arm and keep me from bleeding to death.’
Wrapping the harness tight enough so he wouldn’t bleed to death around the nub that was once arm was hard to do with only his mouth and one hand, but he managed. As soon as he finished, a wave of exhaustion overcame him and he just about passed out on the floor right there.
‘Don't fall asleep, not yet, I have no clue where I am.’
Pulling himself away from the pool and against a control panel, he felt another wave of exhaustion. He realized he wouldn't be able to go any farther, the adrenaline had finally worn off now that he was out of immediate danger. That combined with the fact that he hadn't slept for days on end, not counting when he passed out and saw the hallucinations, and it had finally caught up with him.
‘I guess I'm safe enough to sleep, when I wake up I'll look around and find help. If someone doesn't find me first.’
With that he finally passed out, right before a dark figure walked in. Looming over him sleeping, the figure went, grabbed him by his shirt, and dragged him away deeper into the building.
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Opening his eyes he realized he wasn't in the red liquid room anymore, but what looked like a prison cell. Panic hit him, was it the C.O.I.? Had they somehow saved him and they decided to not hold up the end of the deal? He felt his breath shortened as his ear began to ring. WHY? He did what they said, every single thing and it still wasn't enough?
“Hello? Is someone there?”
That was enough to snap him out of what was most likely the beginning of a panic attack, “Who's there. Why am I locked up? We had a DEAL! I did what you asked, you promised to let me go!”
“I don't know who you are, but I can assure you that I am not whoever you made a deal with.”
Looking around he realized that wherever he was locked up, it was clearly made for someone much bigger than he ever was. Going to stand up he found that his arm and legs were tied to the back of the cell wall.
“If you're not part of the C.O.I., where am I and who are you?”
“You don't know where you are?”
“No, I wouldn't have asked if I did.”
Whoever was talking to him went quiet, just as he was about to ask why they weren't saying anything, they spoke.
“You're in the Poppy Playtime Factory, you can call me DogDay. You probably want to get conformable, you're not getting out anytime soon. Probably better here than out there, at least hear they won't eat you, not unless CatNap says otherwise.”
He felt the blood drain from his face,”What do you mean by that, and who's CatNap?”
The voice sighed, “I have been in this cell for at least a year with little creatures known as the Smiling Critters eating away what was left of my legs. CatNap was the one who put you in here, same thing happened to me when I defied the prototype. He's also the one who tore off my legs when the prototype told him too. The only way you're leaving this place is to be brought to the prototype to do as he pleases with you, and that is a fate worse than death.”
Opening and closing his mouth, he couldn’t respond. How could he when he had just been told that whoever, whatever, he was talking to was in just as bad or worse of a situation as he had just been in. He was lucky enough to somehow manage to escape by some miracle.
Sitting back on the floor he decided it was only fair to introduce himself, “I'm Simon, nice to meet you, I guess.”
That caused the voice to chuckle, “Well, it's nice to meet you as well Simon, regardless of the circumstances.”
The conversation fell into silence as Simon thought. Realizing his knife might not be on him anymore he grabbed the sheath, only to find that it was no longer there. Tears welded up in his eyes as a sob escaped him. All he had left from his mom was the harness that held the blade. Curling in on himself he let himself cry, realization sinking in that he had gone from about to die in a sub surrounded by blood to being imprisoned with someone who had obviously given up escaping. Which meant he would not escape either, trapped here until he died.