VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 07:12:55 12/06/03 Sat
Author: silver
Author Host/IP: cvg-65-27-246-32.cinci.rr.com / 65.27.246.32
Subject: as promised, here is "The Longest Night", volume 2. Or....is it still volume 1, just chapter 2? Meh...

anyway,


8 p.m.:


"Babes in Toyland"


by: silver





"All right," Beautyone admitted, "We're lost. But I really thought I could find my way to the mall from Heather's house!"

"This from the woman who walked out of the same building every day for three days in London and still never knew which way to go to get back to Kings Cross station," silver replied. Having said so, she pulled out the handy pop-up map of L.A. she'd bought when she and Beautyone arrived in the so-called city of angels. They hadn't figured on Heather's party being a bust at that time, but it was always best to be prepared. When it looked like qc and Doyle were going to be indefinitely detained, the whole group had broken up, agreeing to meet back later. Beautyone and silver had decided to get some Christmas shopping done, so they'd headed out to the local mall.

Now, silver scrutinized her map, looking up occasionally to identify a street or landmark. "It's all right," she said, "I think we're not far away."

"Why didn't you pull out your map a half hour ago?" Beautyone asked.

"Because you just looked so cute, walking around all befuddled and lost. I didn't want to interrupt."

Beautyone huffed, and turned as silver did to cross the street. "Watch out!" she cried suddenly, barring silver's path. "There's a hole in the street, here."

"What a stupid, random place for a hole," silver complained. The pair walked safely around it, and continued on their way in companionable silence.

A few minutes brisk walking brought them to the mall. Much to their surprise, they found Bracken aimlessly pacing back and forth outside the entrance, much like a caged animal will tread the same weathered path in front of the glass, day after day. "What are you doing here?" Beautyone asked.

"I might be shopping soon," Bracken said, still pacing. Noncomittally, she added, "but then again, I might not."

She stopped suddenly and looked hard at each of them. "You can't pigeon-hole me, you understand? I won't be crammed into your hour like spackle. Because then where would I be? I'd be left at 9 o'clock staring off in some damn department store in a mall, with no idea how I got there or where to go after that, and it would be all your fault, and I won't have it, damn you!"

She glared fiercely. Beautyone blinked. Finally, silver said "Dude, you are eight different kinds of fucked up at any given moment."

Trying to be nicer, Beautyone compromised, "Okay, Brack. You don't have to go Christmas shopping with us. You can do whatever you like...just don't pee on us."

"Why do I always have to be associated with urination?!" Bracken cried woefully, and wandered off.

Silver shook her head at Beautyone. "That was mean. You *know* she's sensitive about the peeing thing."

Beautyone's jaw dropped. "But your "eight different kinds of fucked up at any given moment" comment was *nice*?" Suddenly her attention was diverted by a Frederick's of Hollywood inside the mall. "Ooh, hold that thought. I'll be right back!"

With those words, she darted across the mall and into a store with scantily clad female mannequins in the windows. Silver was left alone in the middle of the mall. Moments later, a young man approached her carrying a clipboard. "Would you be willing to donate five minutes of your time to take a survey?" he asked.

"Fuck off," silver said, and started down the mall. God, but she hated those poll people! She looked at her watch. She knew they'd spent a lot of time wandering around; nevertheless, she was surprised to learn that it was nearly 8:45 already, and they'd all agreed to meet back at Heather's place at midnight.

"No cramming!" a voice cried from somewhere in the mall. A note of hysteria was present as the voice's pitch rose maniacally. "No cramming! I won't be pigeon-holed, I tell you! You can't tell me what to do!"

Silver couldn't see the origin of the cries, but knew it must be Bracken. A moment later she heard sirens, and watched as a bunch of men in white coats came barreling down the mall with a straight jacket.

"Hm," silver said to herself, briefly distracted by the struggle as the men in the white coats tackled the screamer. Though a brief part in the crowd, silver saw the men get Bracken into the straight jacket and bundled out the exit.

Silver shrugged, and detoured through a Dillard's. She didn't see much of anything she liked in there, other than a scarf that she fingered thoughtfully, wondering if Doyle would like one for Christmas.

"Nah," she said to herself. "It's freaking freezing out there, surely he's got one of his own."

She continued on, and came to the front of a Kay B Toy store just as Beautyone came running up. "Sorry I'm late," she said breathlessly, "but I got held up by a mall-poll guy."

"I hate those people," silver said automatically, and then noticed that Beautyone was carrying a shopping bag. "Ooh, what'd you get?" silver asked. "Anything for me?"

"Well, uh....actually," Beautyone stammered, trying unsuccessfully to hide the bag behind her, "I just saw this really sexy corset, and *had* to get it. It was really kind of a present-to-me thing, you know?"

She stopped suddenly, looking at silver again with a strange gleam in her eye. "But then again, if *you* were interested in wearing it..."

"Er," silver said, clearing her throat. She looked around quickly, and her gaze fell upon the toy store. "Ooh, I think we should go in there. In fact, I'm certain I can find something in there for....um....somebody, I'm sure. Let's go."

She propelled Beautyone into the toy store. Once inside, however, they immediately noticed that something was wrong. There were no people anywhere. They walked through the empy aisles, marveling at the quiet inside the toy store, which should have been bustling with shoppers at this time of year.

Finally, they heard a sound and went to investigate. In the back right corner of the store they found a young man cowering in the corner. The Kay B Toys nametag on his shirt read "Steve". Beautyone and silver glanced at each other worriedly, then scanned the store again. "Steve" looked terrified, and whatever had frightened him so badly might still be around.

Returning her attention to Steve, Beautone asked, "What happened here?"

Steve sniffed and hunched further into a ball. "The t-t-t-toys," he stuttered, "they're real."

"What do you mean, they're real? As opposed to being imaginary, you mean?"

"No!" Steve cried, his hands diving up to clench fists full of his hair in his frustration. "I mean they're real! I mean they come to life when you open the packages!"

Beautyone made a face. "He's on crack," she declared.

Silver, however, was looking around again. Slowly, her gaze travelled upwards, toward the ceiling. "Something tells me...he's not," she said. "B, I think we should get out of here."

Not seeing where silver was looking, Beautyone frowned. "But, I don't see why that would be so horrible, anyway. I mean, think of the possibilities!"

"Yeah, think about them," silver said, a look of extreme foreboding on her face as she remembered the director's edition of "Alien" that had been released that summer, and the action figures that would have followed in the toy stores shortly thereafter.

Beautyone finally followed silver's gaze up to the ceiling and saw great, ropy strands of a thick, dark substance stuck to the ceiling. They looked like big, slimy conduit pipes. "Oh, that can't be good," she said faintly.

"I have a hypothetical question for you, B," silver said.

Beautyone reluctantly dragged her eyes away from the horror on the ceiling and looked at her friend. "A hypothetical question? Now? Don't you think we should be running away?"

"In a minute," silver replied absently, then posed her question. "Suppose a friend wanted you to...oh, I don't know...write a story, or something. And in the story's parameters, it said specifically that you couldn't bring characters into it from other tv shows, movies, and the like. Do you think it would be breaking the rules if, in the story, the main characters encountered not the characters, but the toy versions of same, come to life?"

At just that moment, Steve started convulsing. Beautyone - incredulous - was looking at silver. "Are you crazy? This is not the time for postulating!"

"Hold on a second, B," silver said, holding up a hand to ward off Beautyone's argument. "I think we've got bigger troubles, just now." She quickly looked up at the sign above the aisle, which proclaimed all of the toys that could be found in that lane. Without a backward glance, she bolted down the center aisle, looking at the signs as she went. Beautyone was left standing alone.

On the floor, Steve was flopping to and fro, emitting a wavering, jibbering moan. "P-p-p-please," he whispered in between convulsions. "K-k-k-kill me!"

"Found one!" Beautyone heard silver cry from several aisles over. A moment later she came running up, a toy in her hands. She peeled the cardboard backing from the plastic bubble protecting the toy as she ran up, and the dark object inside fell out into her hand.

"What is that?" Beautyone started to ask, when suddenly the small dark object became a large, bulky, but extremely lethal-looking flame-thrower. Silver brought it up into position, and not a minute too soon.

Already a stain of bright red arterial blood had appeared on Steve's shirt, and both women could see that there was something inside him trying to burst out of his chest. Silver leveled the flamethrower and pulled the trigger; flames ten feet in length spewed out of its muzzle, bathing Steve and the alien parasite within him in fire.

The unfortunate toy store employee writhed on the floor aflame for a few minutes before he finally, blessedly, expired.

"Will there be more of them?" Beautyone asked, clutching her Frederick's of Hollywood bag.

Silver scanned the ceiling, then shook her head. "I don't think so. If anyone had opened up some drone packages, they'd have been all over us as soon as we torched that guy. Probably just one egg package got opened, and when it hatched the face-hugger alien came out and implanted a drone in his chest. Poor bastard."

"I wonder where everyone else is, then?" said Beautyone.

A moment later, almost in answer to her query, there came the sound of many running feet. Inhuman battle cries rang through the store as the horde of evil toys-made-real swarmed toward them. Quickly, silver dropped the flame thrower and pulled another package out of her pocket. Inside was a tiny toy replica of an uzi. She ripped open the package and the automatic weapon sprang to life-size in her hands. It was already at the ready when the horde came around the corner to face them.

"They're orcs!" Beautyone shouted.

"There must've been a value pack of them, damnit!" silver yelled back, and then the horde charged them. Silver squeezed the trigger and let the gun mow them down as she swept its muzzle back and forth across her field of fire. In scores the orcs fell, gushing blood from limbs amputated by the steady stream of bullets. Arms parted from torsos, heads parted from necks. There were several solid minutes of gunfire, and by the time she ran out of ammunition, all of the orcs lay decimated.

Grinning a self-satisfied smile, silver blew smoke out of the muzzle in a cocky gesture, turning toward Beautyone. "Well, that's got them," she started to say, only to realize that Beautyone wasn't beside her. At some point during the slaughter she must have slunk away.

Curious as to her whereabouts, silver raised the muzzle of the gun safely in the air and set about searching for her friend. She found her in the doll aisle, clad only in her newly purchased corset, playing doctor with both Barbie and Ken. "Oh my," silver said, quickly retreating, "sorry to interrupt. Go on about your business."

But Beautyone had given her an idea. With an even bigger grin on her face, silver headed toward the action figures and grabbed two packages, and then made for the back of the store.




One might wonder what the two packages were that silver chose out of the hundreds - if not thousands - displayed there. To satisfy the reader's curiosity, let it be revealed that the first package contained the action figure of Legolas, from The Lord of the Rings, and the second contained the action figure of Will Turner, from Pirates of the Carribean. It was nine o' clock, and she had, after all, three hours before she needed to be anywhere.



The End.






.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:





Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.