Chapter 7 – The Day Has Come

Sulley, abbreviating, wiped the forthcoming sweat from his furry brow. His muscles burned with an aching long ness to rest from the ordeal he had been put through. His breathing was unsettled and missing a few beats in some places. The giant monster was entirely beat. The serenading tune of the lunch bell was an absolute joy to here, and he could not wait to sit down with a lovely hot meal in his palms and gobble his troubles away, along with the rest of his questioning thoughts. He plodded next to his rather stout, olive friend over to the nearby lunchroom and plumped down onto the nearest bench he could get too. He sighed almost continuously and leaned his head down onto the table, entwining his arms around himself. Mike looked almost as tired as his giant furry friend, but kept himself calmer and awake, unlike his now snoozing roommate. He was also beginning to get a headache, and rubbed the top of his forehead violently, trying to rid of the annoying pain. They would sure climb to the top now! That unlocked a more sensitive thought inside Mike's rather tiny brain. Not that he really cared what was happening to him but anybody was always free to wonder why such a, if Mike could say the word truthfully he would, loyal employee would take such a massive amount of time off work. If anybody was to look at Mike's thoughts and compare them to the monster he was thinking about, people would think it looked odd to even be this bad to think about. The question was, where was Randall Boggs?

It had now been a full two days since the ball type monster had set eye upon the slick lizard. Before, except for the Sunday off of course and the holidays that Monsters Inc happened to give in generosity to it's employees, there had not been a day gone by that Mike had not seen Randall show up for work. Mike initially thought he would have jumped at the opportunity for Randall not to come to work and make their own work experience a lot easier, having no real competition itching to get at them to make themselves top or even try to reach out an achieve the all time scare record. Randall was the only other monster that was ever an enemy or real opposition against them. But now, Mike was just puzzled by the fact that Randall had not turned up at all. The more stranger to add to the equation was the fact that he had not even phoned up his own beloved girlfriend, Celia, to tell her that he was either sick or just not bothering to come into work for some stupid reason. Mike's more childish half was asking what the heck he was doing thinking about that 'lizard boy' in such a way, but the tinier half of Mike that had some sensible attitude enweaved within him, was shouting to do something and find out what had happened.

"Sul." He whispered loudly to his partner. Sulley murmured something before drifting back to sleep again. Mike was getting slightly annoyed. "Sul! Wake up!" Sulley snorted, making a few monsters twist to look at the intruder making the rude noise. Mike just rolled his one eye and shook his furry arm to try and wake him further. "Sul, do you think it's been odd that Randall hasn't been coming into work recently?" He asked so serious and thoughtful. Sulley raised one furry eyebrow and looked at him strangely. "What did I do!?" Mike raised his voice innocently.

"You." Sulley pointed out with curiosity. "For once, you're talking about Randall seriously. And… you didn't call him lizard boy either. And I thought you didn't care about him?" Sullivan plainly explained, confirming Mike's thoughts that his friend would answer in that composition.

"Well… it's good having some competition. It's just; it hasn't felt the same without him on the floor. I don't miss him or anything, I just want to know." Sulley's eyes narrowed at his side of the story, but in his own head, he agreed with Mike. He had been feeling the same as Mike had… wanting to know why Mr Never Miss A Day had not checked in, in two days.

"I think the only two people who would know would be Celia and Fungus." He suggested. "Or Waternoose." He added on quickly.

"Celia hasn't heard anything, so… do you think our best bet is to go and speak with Fungus about him?"

"Probably so… after all, Fungus IS Randall's loyalassistant." The 8foot tall monster arose from the bench, rubbing his forehead once again to rid of the residue still wetting his brow. Mike rose soon afterwards, and the pair set off on foot to try and find Fungus. "He's probably still down in the basement with the scream canisters." Sulley thought aloud, noticing that he had not seen Fungus in the lunch hall the whole time they had been there.

The steam from the pipes brought warmth to the winding basements of Monsters Incorporated, and the hisses that it bought with them sounded like a dozen snakes sounding off simultaneously. Workers plodded along, trundling with them large trolleys either completely empty, or stocked with heavy, yellow, clanging scream canisters. As Sulley and Mike rounded a bend in the tunnel, they took sight upon a red, jellybean shaped figure at the end of the corridor. Their faces brightened as they recognised that it was Fungus. They jogged the rest of the way up to the concentrating red blur, but worried looks still plagued their faces. Fungus looked to be unloading the contents of scream from the canisters, deeply focusing on his job.

"Hey, Fungus?" Sulley called out to him. Fungus shivered in shock and dropped the canister he had been holding. Luckily, no scream escaped the canister and he breathed a sigh of relief. He turned around to face the two different monsters face to face.

"Uh, hhhey you two. What are you doing down here?" He asked, bewildered by the monsters' presence in the depths of the factory. Mike raised his brow and decided to ask him confidently.

"We came to ask you about…" He paused for a few seconds, the hissing surrounding them all. "Randall. We came to ask you about Randall." He finished entirely. Fungus looked puzzled also at the eyeball's question.

"Uh, what about Randall? What do you want to know?"

"We've been, confused…" Sullivan proceeded, not knowing which right word to put in his sentence. "… about Randall's disappearance. We came to ask you to clear things up, to ask where he might by, or actually is, if that makes sense to you." He cleared his throat quietly afterwards, and Fungus' face fell.

"I think we should go some place, more uh, quieter to speak about this." Fungus suggested, and the two other monsters nodded. They followed in tow as Fungus exited the dooms of the undergrowth and strolled round into a quiet and unoccupied office block. Fungus took a deep breath and gulped a lump back down his throat. "I honestly, do not have the faintest idea where Randall has gone." Fungus confided in the pair with true honesty. Mike and Sulley turned each heads to stare each other right in the large, now almost bulging eyes. They were filled with the utmost of worry now, and a sick feeling to each other's stomachs arrived.

"You don't?" Mike managed to splutter out, before clearing his own throat.

Fungus could only shake his head through his own worry. "Well, what's going on? Where the heck could he have gone?"

"I don't have any idea. I even went to his, uh, own apartment and checked there. It looks like he hasn't been there for two whole days either!" Fungus exclaimed rather loudly.

"This has just got very serious and horribly wrong." Sullivan explained, knowing everyone else there agreed. Now he did not know what to think about Randall. Had something terrible happened to him, so that was how he was not able to contact? Anything could happen to a person so 'insecure' as Randall Boggs.

"Randall Boggs may no longer be a problem to any of you." A grandfather voice entered every body's ears and they all turned to see they're all time boss Henry J. Waternoose. Fungus became confused at Waternoose's words. 'No longer a problem?' Everybody was in a deathly silence for nearly a minute. Nobody could distrait this shock, coming from the mouth of their own boss who the threesome had thought was a kind and caring gentlemen. Now they were not so sure at all, for somebody needed to have a true grudge against another person to say something as sinister as that.

"Sir." Fungus began, stepping forward bravely, his stutter now fading into darkness. "Mr Boggs was never a problem to me. He is my scaring partner. I am loyal to him through this whole career. I would never put away any trust in him now. I need to know where he is sir, and it doesn't matter to me how far this is going to go. I just need to know that he is safe and coming back to Monsters Incorporated soon." Fungus finished with a hunger in his mind for the truth behind Randall's sudden disappearance. He knew for sure, that Waternoose knew where he was, and had put 100 percent of the truth into his speech to his boss.

Henry sighed through all the bother and tipped forward on his crabby legs, crustacean body crinkling and grinding all the way. The threesome listened intently to what the old CEO was going to tell them.

"The reason Randall Boggs is missing is because he did not listen to a word I told him. He disobeyed my direct orders and proceeded with a hinting curiosity that allowed him to enter a different world. Different to the world of the humans. Inhabited by god knows what. I was ordered to destroy this door, to my knowledge, I did not know that Boggs himself would dare go through the door when I told him to stay away and keep his rather large nose out of other people's business. The cunning scaly slipped through the door like an idiot and I shredded that door through orders yesterday. For I am glad to be rid of that outcast of a monster, you all should be aswell. He is no longer our problem and I bid for it to stay that way. Belay that." The crab leaned back onto his leg supports, a hidden darkness burning away in his eyes. The other monster in the room had never seen their boss to be this serious and this out of character. Waternoose turned tail and headed out of the room, his claws clicking incessantly against the floor. All the three monsters could do was stare transfixed.

CHAPTER NOT COMPLETE : (thought I'd update it by scenes as I go now so you won't have to keep waiting :))