Rinsing and Flensing

Ted's blood ran cold, the machine ran colder as it effortlessly carried out its dark deed. Employee suspicions were already quite high about what exactly the cleaning and de-gunking process entailed, especially since a lot of the suits and animatronics that were being returned for cleaning weren't being shipped back out to the owners again, usually sent off in the trash.

There was a damn good reason.

Ted was working the day shift for security, as such he was usually present to see shipments come in, and go out when he was clocking out. The cleaned shipments would go out, but it was bothering him that the shipments out were so small, considering the speed at which the machines operated. It was lunch time when Ted was looking over the cameras at the small factory floor, one of the suits from one of the Freddy Fazbears' Pizzeria was moving a bit.

The camera view really only had a view of the mechanical things being loaded into the machine and then the room where the person waiting at the end of the factory line would set the suits and machinery up to be shipped back. There was a huge blind spot that wasn't part of security detail, that Ted noted as being exceptionally odd as he was making his way to the factory floor. Opening the heavy steel double doors, the rather diminutive guard peered into the factory floor, and was blinded a bit at first by the high noon light pouring in the sky lights and reflecting off the metal, when the smell hit him.

Cleaning chemicals, the smell of acid and bleach, the smell of sun-cooked meat and iron, all acrid enough as to be easily tasted. As Ted's eyes adjusted, he spotted the suit that had been moving, some fox pirate thing that had been loaded into the machinery already. Rusted hooks supporting the humanoid fox animatronic just under the arms, muffled sounds and slight movements coming from the machine sounding like someone clearing their throat of vomit.

None of the floor workers were in sight, seeing as it was their lunch hour, and the machines were still revved up but on stand by. Ted's curiosity was piqued as he called out to the costume, dangling a bit above him in the machine. He gave the suit a nudge with his nightstick, the suit wobbling a bit from the hooks as another guttural, gurgling sound came from the suit. Ted moved to the console to try and make the machine back up the queue of messy machines, flipping a few toggles and using the lever available.

To his horror, the factory machinery lurched forward, moving the suit to the first step, where the endoskeleton eyes are removed. There was a row of monitors humming with a low electric buzz of CRT, each one hooked up to a camera inside the machinery where the workers could see if something goes wrong. The arms moved to remove the plastic eyes, only to withdraw nothing, the next set of mechanical arms would move to the fox's eye sockets. Two arms, each with four hooks to spread the latex or rubber or fabric of the costume head to carefully remove the eyes, the hooks all bundled together as the gurgling grew louder and sounding more and more terrified.

Ted could only watch in horror as he saw the eyes within were human as the hooks punctured through the lenses to the back of the orbs as the sound inside the suit wailed in agony, the legs and arms feebly thrashing about like the limbs of an infant. The hooks then proceeded to spread the ruined eye wider and wider into more of a square shape. A fifth appendage on either arm moved into the open space to attempt to unscrew where the delicate, expensive optics would be located to be cleaned in a different part of the factory simply scraping the back of the eyeballs before withdrawing and the hooks letting go.

Ted was finally panicking and trying to find the kill switch to turn the machines off as the sprayers were moving in to hose the optics housing with bleach and CLR. The screams of suffering tore through Ted's mind as his wrinkled hand finally hit the switch, seconds after the hissing sound of high pressure fluids spraying had begun. Ted took a moment to adjust his glasses and wipe the tears from his eyes, his heart pounding as he opened up a panel on the machine to use the manual override crank to back the machine up.

As cold as Ted felt, the hot sun was beating down on him as he used the step ladder to pull the hooks down, to retrieve the suit with the human eyes inside. Setting it down, his whole body shook, his shirt sopping wet with sweat as he attempted to pull the mask off. Upon doing so, Ted realized eating lunch was going to be impossible today, to his horror inside was what appeared to be a mostly humanoid head and neck, dissolving from the chemicals sprayed onto it, most of the flesh peeled back and off to make it fit the head piece. Even at his small size, Ted's head would be far too large, the person inside had their head peeled down like an orange, mostly to the bone, and even the bones were cracked and crushed.

The voice of agony had whimpered out as the chemicals ate away through pulped temples and gouged lobes, Ted had fallen back as the image burned itself permanently into his mind. Turning over, crawling on all fours, Ted's stomach finally gave up and evacuated its contents onto the floor below, Ted gasping for breath and trembling as his mind tried to wrap around the horror of the unwrapped man. A million questions raced through his head as he wailed and sobbed.

Why was there someone in there? Who put them there? Why wasn't he briefed on this? Was this the reason not all the costumes return to the attractions? What was that smell, those chemicals? Why was there blood in that vomit? What would the superiors have to say about this? Should I call the cops?

A rubber gloved hand was reaching out to Ted. Looking up, the older worker saw one of the floor workers in a hazmat suit, Kim, offering a hand to help the smaller figure up. Kim guided Ted out of the sweltering hot room, to the security station, giving the older man a towel and telling him to stay put while he grabbed some things from the break room. Ted was still reeling and sobbing over what he'd just witnessed, a few minutes later, Kim had returned with some water, a sandwich, and the first aid kit.

Ted ate in silence and drank his water, shaking from low blood sugar and from the things he'd seen. Ted finally broke the silence as he started asking question after question before Kim held a hand up to silence Ted.

"What goes on in the day may be terrible, but we're just the cleanup. We're not responsible for what messes are brought here, you're not responsible for what just happened there on the floor. This is a company secret, and one you must take to the grave. A few of us have learned that first hand, haven't you wondered why we haven't seen Karen in over a year?"

"But...!" Ted weakly let out.

"Drop it and you'll be much happier. We don't usually hear back from those who ask too many questions." Kim started performing some basic medical tests with the first aid kit, taking Ted's temperature and wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Head home, Ted, get some rest. We'll get someone to cover you for the rest of today, you may want to see a doctor about what's going on inside of you."

Ted did so, keeping his mouth shut, all the way to the grave months later. Cause was internal hemorrhaging. His family had questions from the animatronics company, and as soon as they were satisfied, they returned to the factory to take Ted's name plaque off the wall and tossed it out with the rest of the dissolved rot.