{~The first fic I'm posting that isn't either completely finished or close to finishing, I just really wanted to get a fic up for Bendy's birthday~}

Chapter 1 "Leaving the studio"

Henry smiled as he felt the sun hitting his skin. After so long wandering in the studio, he was starting to question if he was going to get trapped like everyone else, but thankfully that didn't appear to be the case. Instead, he managed to revert everyone to human again and separate the cartoons from their human hosts, so now all of the previously trapped employees were free again.

He felt Sammy hide his face in his shoulder. The musician was a different case than most, even though he was one of the few people with legs when inked, he didn't actually have feet anymore, so Henry was carrying him on his back on the way back to the van, which he was very happy he drove now. Even though Sammy couldn't see at the moment, Henry guessed the light still burned after so long in the darkness.

As for everyone else, everyone who were searchers were still getting used to having legs again, all wobbling a little as they walked. Norman was getting used to being alive again, seeing as he was basically a walking corpse before. And Susie and Alison were now closer than they had been while working at the studio, but that was because they were literally fused together.

They arrived at the van and Henry felt a ping of dread as he looked at it. His van could seat up to maybe nine people at the most, and there were ten people and six toons to fit in the van. There toons had taken the forms of animals to fit in with the world outside the studio better, Bendy and Alice being cats and Boris as a small dog, the Butcher Gang remained as themselves.

Three could share the back row, three in the middle, he was obviously going to drive, he was thinking that Susie and Alison could be up front with him away from the main group of men, which meant someone was sharing seats with someone else. Out of all the men, Sammy was probably the smallest, so he could probably share a seat with someone, maybe Norman?

"Norman, can you take Sammy?" he asked, looking over towards said man.

"Sure," Norman answered, walking over and gently lifting Sammy off Henry's back. The entire time, he whispered what exactly he was doing to him so he wouldn't be surprised since he couldn't see it.

"Susie, Alison, you wanna take the front?" Henry called to the two ladies as he pulled out his keys. "Sammy can hold Alice for you if you want."

"Okay," they both agreed in unison.

"Norman, I'm gonna put you and Sammy in the middle row," Henry explained, speaking his thoughts aloud. He felt that the middle row was easier to get into if you were carrying someone, so it made sense to him. "Whoever wants to sit in the back, go ahead and climb in," he added.

Shawn, Thomas, and Grant all piled into the back seat. Norman took a window seat with Sammy, Wally said he wanted to be next to do those two, and Joey thought his leg wouldn't handle climbing in the back, so those four got the middle row. Susie and Alison both climbed into the front seats. The main three toons also chose the middle row, Alice held by Sammy, Boris by Wally, and Bendy was with Joey, the Butcher gang picked the back with Shawn, Grant, and Thomas.

.~.~.~.

The drive back to Henry's house was going to be a long one. A long ride in a car of ten people and six cartoon characters. Just thinking about it sounded exhausting.

A few hours later, it had reached nightfall and the van finally grew quiet as people started drifting to sleep and the talking ceased. The toons fell asleep first, Wally, Sammy, and Shawn soon followed, Thomas, Norman, and Grant managed to stay awake longer but soon also fell asleep.

"Out like lights," Joey commented with a quiet laugh as he looked at the group of sleeping men and toons. "I suppose that's a good thing. In all our years in the studio, I've never seen these three sleep."

"We have," Susie stated, gesturing to Alison as she said 'we'. "It's less noticeable when you become a puddle when sleeping, but after a while you get used to finding the signs. Did you sleep?"

"I was stuck in the Ink Machine, I had years to sleep," Joey explained. "The only way I could keep up with everyone else was basically telepathically talking to Sammy as Bendy and watching through Bendy cutouts." He sighed and looked over at the sleeping former-prophet. "This is the first time in so long I've seen him so relaxed. The last time wasn't such a good time," he added with remorse in his voice. "God, I'm a monster."

"Hey, you weren't fully with it back then," Henry told him. "You mind was constantly being corrupted by your occult fascination and ink. I know you didn't meant to do all these things."

Joey seemed to pretend to accept that, but it was obvious he was still blaming himself for everything that had happened. And really, he wasn't wrong, it was just that it wouldn't help to constantly feel bad for what happened and Henry hoped that one day he'd get passed that.

The four people who were still awake talked quietly amongst themselves, speaking mostly in hushed voices as not to awaken the others. Henry was getting quite caught up on what all happened while he was and catching Joey, Susie, and Alison up on what was going on in the world outside of the studio.

He told them all about the big events that had taken place, the natural disasters, local elections, the presidential election, which had taken place a couple years ago, a bit about famous people, as much as he could tell them to get them somewhat prepared to meet the world again.

After a while, he had to stop driving for a break, as well as to fill the tank and get food. Luckily, there was a town not even a mile away. He was starting to regret moving so far from the studio, but he still wondered if maybe that was for the best still, now that he was bringing so many people away with him.

He soon pulled the van into a gas station and parked it. "I'm gonna fill up the tank then go in for some snacks," he explained to the three still awake. "Anyone have any allergies I need to know about or anything they need to pick up? Anyone wanna come in with me?"

"It's been a long ride, I think we all need to stretch our legs a bit," Susie stated. "I'd be happy to join you on this trip."

"Me, too," Alison agreed.

Henry nodded. "Joey, can you wake the others and see if any of them want to join us?"

"Sure," Joey replied. He turned to Wally and began tapping his shoulder, only to be met with some snoring. He let out a sigh and gently poke Sammy's leg, which seemed to startling him fairly quickly. "We're taking a quick stop," he explained when Sammy started to shift a bit. "Can you see if you can wake these two up while I try the back?"

Sammy nodded, still moving like a zombie to an extent. His moving, in turn, started to wake Norman up as he started trying to wake Wally. Meanwhile, Joey managed to wake up Grant, who in turn and woke up Thomas, who was the unlucky person to have to wake up Shawn.

Thomas reached over and gave Shawn shoulder a light shake. "Hey, Shawn, get up," he said, shaking a little more when the Irish man refused to listen. He shook a little harder, only to nearly get hit in the face when Shawn awoke in a sudden jump.

"I'm awake!" Shawn cried, eyes flying open and body nearly flying in the air. That was what ended up waking Wally.

"What is goin' on?" Wally groaned, groggily bringing a hand up to his face.

"Mornin'," Sammy greeted.

"It's pitch black, where the heck is in morning?" Wally said, turning to give him a look.

"Oh, it's dark? I didn't notice," Sammy replied with a laugh.

{~Probably England, Wally. Also headcannon that Sammy and Grant are light sleepers while Wally and Shawn are heavy sleepers.~}