Disclaimer: I do not own Furbies or any associated thingies, but late one night this happened, and I regret nothing.
It's taken a while to work out where to put this (you may also have seen it on the place where I like your shoelaces).
Enjoy, if you can stop screaming.
MOTHER TO US ALL: All Hail the Furby Monolith
~)0(~
What if we did a Documentary on Furbies in 'the wild', like in one of those open enclosures...
A smiling host introduces you to the senior Keeper and her chief volunteer after a brief montage of music and pictures of the documentary crew. Some facts about the little adorable things behind the glass are displayed as they talk...
Digital versions of Furbies from different species appear on screen, rotating and reverting to wireform, highlighting each little thing about them as it is discussed by the ever-charming host and the enthusiastic keeper. She even suggests allowing the Host to hold one of the smaller ones, stating it's perfectly safe, the babies are tame at the moment and the adults are wearing special collars that inhibit any dangerous behaviours.
They send a calming vibration through the Furby's body, the Keeper explains helpfully, keeping them civil to human and generally preventing them from eating each other -especially the offspring, who normally eat their mothers after the initial dependence phase is complete. The mothers already having eaten the fathers for sustenance to prepare for the eggs...
Someone, probably the camera guy based on the fact that the whole thing jiggled a second, snickered as the beaming Host somehow managed to maintain his expression of interest while going slightly green around the gills.
There were dozens in the enclosure, all casually lounging on different things, some splashing in a pool of purple liquid -water infused with some mineral or other that they enjoyed, normally only found deep under the Earth's surface, which is where these creatures originally came from. Nests on the ground or in the hollows of rocks were fully of smaller Furbys, all happily awaiting the arrival of food or just simply sleeping as the overhead heatlamps beamed down.
'They prefer to be crepuscular, active during the dusk and around dawn, but are naturally nocturnal...' the Keeper explains politely. You can see the tension rise in the Host's face, and the flash of an intern as she passes through to hold something for the sound guy shows nervousness...
It must be late where they are now, no other explanation for it; anyone would be nervous.
The Keeper notices apparently and smiles directly at the camera, by-passing the Host entirely, 'Not to worry,' she beams, we are perfectly safe, the collars were designed by the top minds in the world, and only ten or so Furbies exist in the wild... the remainder of this dying species live here. Unless you are a keen spelunker, it's unlikely to ever run across one in the wild!'
She gestured to the volunteer, who walked over to a nest full of tiny odd-coloured furballs that obviously knew him and petted the large Furby sitting nearby, obviously the mother. She made an odd purr in her throat and didn't react as he picked up a small green one out of the nest, bringing it back to the group.
The Host for once actually looks delighted, but waits to have it handed to him carefully... he flinches as the mother emits a low growl, but a small light on the collar it wears flashes purple for a moment, then she calms down. He holds it up and drones on for a short while about how amazing these creatures are, how exciting it was to have found these almost half a century ago...
All the standard nonsense, though when the volunteer carefully feeds it small strips of meat while it sits in his hand, the Host is obviously uneasy and seems relieved as he hands the baby Furby back over to the volunteer again. The younger man takes it back to the nest and repeats his original process in reverse, before handing out strips of meat to the nearest creatures...
Their eyes light up happily and some call out, 'I love you!' in that mildly frightening mimicry that they are so famed for. Slowly, the large group trails out of the open habitat area -which was inside a large facility, would you believe it? trills the Host as he banters with the Keeper, making up for the fact something smaller than his palm recently terrified him. The volunteer comes scooting up behind them, leaving a trail of chirping Furbies in his wake, all pleased and making declarations of happiness.
The crew steps through and out of the enclosure first, setting up again on the opposite side of the vault-like circular door, staring through the clear, see-through walls surrounding it. A nice panorama shot, you hear the camera guy mutter to someone beside him... possibly whoever was holding the boom...
There were no other animals in this area of the installation, but faint sounds came from other wings, and echoed in from the open outside doors. For a few minutes the camera panned about, a rag wiped at the lens once or twice and then swivelled past a long narrow corridor, a white wall, the opposing corridor and then back to the enclosure.
'Pans nicely...' is the only explanation.
.
Stepping through and maintaining a conversational tone with the Host, the Head Keeper casually taps on a nearby keypad and swipes a card attached to her belt. The pad flashes green and emits an electronic noise as the door starts to close, she begins to talk about the large metallic enclosure sealant and how the walls have been proven to take a grenade blast at close range...
When they jam. Halfway down, the circle of thick metal pauses. Impatiently, the Keeper sighs deeply and mutters about it 'happening again' and 'now of all times' but to the camera, she smiles ruefully and explains it's a minor electrical fault. Sometimes you just had to try the door twice before it will go down...
With an agonised screech, the door once again began to descend painfully slowly... certain members of the crew let out a deep breath and the host started as the camera's sights once again fell full on him, where the make-up person was carefully reapplying some foundation to his sweaty forehead.
She makes a startled yip and ducks out of frame, he smile, seemingly frozen for a minute, then continues; a clever maneuver that will make it easier to edit out later probably...
Once more, the door shrieks to a halt, at waist height, over two-thirds of the circular door-hole were occluded, but not enough to stop anything smaller than a young child from getting in or out. With a frustrated sigh, the Keeper strides three paces across the room and slams a fist into a large red button, filling the air with klaxons and flashing red lights.
'I'm sorry, it's rather overdramatic, but it's really the only way to summon the technical crew when something malfunctions... would you mind if we did the rest of the interview here, I cannot legally leave while the enclosure is 'open', as it were.' Her expression was that of an overwrought parent, exasperated by offspring that never did what they were told when company came around.
Nodding, the Host takes a second to shuffle through question-cards he had secreted in his breast pocket, then turns back with a smile, getting as close as possible so that his small lapel-microphone would pick them up clearly. The camera swings over to a guy with a small sound panel and headphones on, both the voices of the host and the keeper are heard, and the sound person gives a thumbs up.
They can be heard.
Whoever is holding the light seems to shift to the other side, behind the camera, catching the lights in the subjects's eyes; obviously this bit would end up edited out in the end, right?
A faint trundling can be heard down the corridor before two people in a pair of strange green overalls appear with a cart full of mechanical and janitorial items. They don't say a thing, but instead begin to examine the door...
The host motions for the camera guy to cut by making a slicing motion across his neck, and for a moment the camera lifts up, shifts, and faces the tiled floor... but something makes it jerk up again. a grunt as it's shouldered... must be a large camera, heavy.
The klaxons have stopped, suddenly and without warning. A quick pan over to the technicians or maintenance guys or whatever they are confirms that the pair are both as confused as the rest of them. The Keeper is looking quizzically, while the volunteer is just looking scared...
Something is definitely not right here, you can hear muttering as movement intensifies and people grab hold of equipment left, right and centre... shuffling away down the corridor as the Keeper tries to calm everyone down.
No sooner has the phrase, 'We'll be fine as long as the power remains on..." left her mouth... than the lights go off. Both in the enclosure, and outside, the corridor is thrown into pitch-darkness...
A female voice curses down the hallway, one of the techies most likely, sounds like she's banged her hand... given how the other one was laughing like a right tool about it. The laughter seems eerily all-consuming in the darkness; there's an odd scrabbling sound for a minute, and suddenly the camera shows the crew, keeper, volunteer and techies in stark, green, relief.
Nightvision. Very helpful...
The Keeper tries to herd them all out of there to 'let the techs get on with their job of fixing the door', but the urgency on her green-lit face seems to have something else to it. The Volunteer guy seems to be torn between acting nonchalant and shitting himself, it's not a pretty combination when it comes to facial expressions...
For an instant, the camera flashes past the walls of the enclosure, where nothing can be seen of the Furby's but an array of small lights indicating the adults. The offspring are crying out, ready to get up and do whatever it is they do at night when only the videofeed the Keeper pointed out on the way in, is watching...
But something is wrong.
With rising horror, almost palpable from the crew and guests, the camera watches as each of the collars's lights first flicker... then go out entirely...
The Furby are free...
.
Someone screams out half a warning to the technician-maintenance guys as something moves, en masse, within the shrouding darkness of the enclosure... but it's too late.
Far too late.
Shrill screams of panic, terror, confusion and pain echo loudly down the corridor and distort through the camera, registering too high and scaling into an odd sort of the camera guy turns to run with the rest of those still standing, the camera flashes past a scene of horror for the briefest of instants...
The techs are screaming, engulfed in the multi-bodied avalanche of carnivorous aggressive creatures that bite and tear at every inch they can reach. Sharp beaks tear at clothes, hair and flesh... a male voice calls out for help as the female one gives a final shriek before falling into an odd gurgling... then silence.
They couldn't be helped.
.
Flashes of ground, legs, other bodies all in shades of green are everywhere in this frantic rush to get out of there, slamming doors shut behind them. The crew stalks about this indoor place with trembling camera angles and ragged breathing for a long time, panic winding up and down like a rollercoaster...
Occasionally a thump is heard as someone crashes into something, solid or otherwise, and the others scrabble for them, but not once do they seem to drop equipment. At least the camera guy doesn't...
All throughout the mad dash, in amongst the panting comes the incredulous, shocked voice of the Keeper, muttering things like, 'Shouldn't have happened... how did this happen?' and 'Why didn't the back-up come one? Where is the emergency power...?'
Apparently no one has any answers, because all that remains on the tape for the next few minutes is frantic, ragged breathing and skittish exclamations of terror each time something makes an unexpected noise.
At some point they stop and pause, breathing heavily, someone in a skirt appears to be hobbling, ankle an odd direction, someone else in the green-tinged frame is shaking... skinny-jean clad legs trembling as they slowly wander about.
Someone calls out names softly, an air of desperation fueling this sudden need to be quietly hysterical; but it seems everyone is there, all accountable and correct. They crowd in together, all jostling to not be on the outside and stay moving in case they had to run at any time, like an excited bunch of year eights on their first day of high school.
The host and the lights guy are conferring with a frantic-looking Keeper up ahead, just out of proper auditory range. That is, until the guy with the boom gets closer...
Voices chatter over each other, all frantically increasing in speed as they attempt to work out how to best escape. Then the Boom guy frowns and asks, 'Hey, where's the sound guy?' startling everyone out of their heightened senses of complacency. The camera swings around wildly, but there seems no sign of the headphoned fellow from earlier, nor the weird audio-box he carried...
Obviously, this sends everyone in the camera's focus to a whole new level of tension, and the group's cohesion seems to break down. First the lights guy drops the pole he carried, bulb shattering ear-splittingly in the silence as he takes off in a blind panic.
The Host curses under his breath and shouts at the rest to 'Stay There' before taking off after him into the gloom, but the young make-up woman from earlier flashes a steel-tinged gaze about the group, sighs in frustration and runs after them in an odd hobbling manner, calling out their names, demanding they come back to the group.
Something thuds in the darkness, even the camera can't make it out but there's every chance one of the three have slammed into something. As one, the remainder of the crew, the Keeper and her Chief Volunteer cautiously follow across what feels like the giant expanse of the atrium adjoining one of the main entrance pavilions.
They shuffled at speed, but it was evident everyone was highly cautious now and on guard against the soft pattering of tiny Furby feet that echoed off every surface. From the inky blackness a large, dark shape appeared, slamming into at least two of those assembled, taking out the volunteer and the boom guy, swearing and apologising profusely in the same breath. When the camera flashed in the thing's face, even with the fear-filled expression filling it, it became obvious that the person staring back at the lens was the missing sound guy from earlier, sans equipment.
'We have to go, they're coming...' he repeats over and over, scrabbling to his feet and yanking the others upright without particular gentleness. The words put those in focus on edge and the camera swivels first one way, then the other, in an almost 360 degree arc, trying to discern the creatures in the dark using the night vision where eyes failed. Silence fell, breathing was once again the only sound filling the area as they scanned carefully in concern.
'We have to keep going, I'm sorry, there's only one exit and it's out there... we have to go, NOW,' insisted the Keeper breathlessly, face looking to the camera and then pointing out towards something in the dark, once she was certain the camera guy could see where she was pointing. 'They're smart, like Velociraptors actually, damn clever... the collars don't just suppress their violent, carnivorous and cannibalistic tendencies... it also knocks them back a peg on the intelligence scale too. Otherwise the collar wouldn't work on them, they'd find a way to short-circuit it, which is what happened to the previous prototype...' it seemed that babbling was helping keep the Keeper focused, and none of the crew said anything about it, but they jogged forwards lightly.
The Sound and Boom guys were out front, cautiously fending forwards with great sweeps of the boom microphone, checking for walls, doors, other people or Furbys... twice the group had to stop and turn, having found only wall where they supposed the door should be, but finally a small door came into view on halfway along the room. The camera jostled and was handed to the volunteer for a minute as the burly camera guy took two steps forward to stand at the ready, take a deep breath and fling the door open... only to have chunks of The Host, Make-Up Lady and Lights Guy fall out, along with the remaining corpses... faces contorted horrifically. They leer into the now-shaking camera like ghouls.
Several Furbys sat in there, still chewing and obviously content to ignore the newcomers in lieu of the meal before them. But one decides otherwise, sitting up straight and letting out an odd keening as it stares directly at the camera... the eyes are full of sheer malice and predatory instinct. The volunteer is freaking out, his voice broken into small bursts of, 'Oh my god' and '...this can't be happening...'
Another small voice was echoing the sentiment just beside the volunteer as the Keeper, and the Boom and Sound guys reeled back and away from the shrilling Furby. The burly camera fellow practically wresting it out of the iron grip of the volunteer as nicely as he could, then perching it back on his shoulder; the volunteer immediately cast about and clung to the nearest person... a young intern with the crew who looked just as scared as he was.
The Keeper reacted first, 'It's summoning the others!' she said officiously in a harassed tone of voice, flipping her head one way then the other trying to spot an immediate escape route. Everyone appeared to be attempting to ignore the fact that the squelching that could be heard was the sound of shoes on what was most likely still-warm human remains. Only the volunteer paused a second long enough to shudder on camera before the Boom guy appeared and shoved him in the back, an incentive to keep going... before he stood out the front and swung the boom in low arcs to dispel anything ahead of them.
.
It came into contact with something solid, with the sound of tapping glass... and it became apparent that the group had reached the front doors. The Keeper strode into frame and frowned, hands flailing all over in blind panic, 'This isn't right, I didn't lock this door... and security wouldn't until after I leave in an hour's time...' she appeared to luminesce in the green flare of the camera as blood drained from her face, 'I didn't think they knew how but... I think this is a trap. The Furbies shut the door, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!'
At great speed, those remaining turn and dash into the darkness regardless of any walls or obstacles in the way. The sound of approaching Furby feet is palpable by this point in time, almost like a theme tune in the background of an action sequence... they're very close, shrill cries echo from all sides as they run in a circle, no one seems to have a plan. The small diminished crew seem to strike a wall then turn and veer off, the camera whipping about furiously in the sudden stop and change of directions every few moments, it was impossible to gauge where they were in the darkness.
It is only when the intern lets out a small scream and slides, dragging down the volunteer with her, that anyone pauses and the shaking camera stills as both Sound and Boom crew pick them up out of... the camera immediately is drawn down to the mess on the floor caking the intern's once nice shoes, and jerks back up quickly. It's the remains of the two maintenance technicians, if that's what the goopy mess of fat, fluids and bones can be referred to...
The crew has ended up circumventing the creatures and now were back at the original enclosure... the camera guy swore darkly, but the Keeper seemed to think this was a good thing, as she spoke hushedly right into the camera. 'There is every chance that our odds of surviving have just risen significantly... there are two doors to this enclosure, one here, one across the other side of the enclosure. It's not like this one, but camouflaged, a quick exit if something ever did go wrong and they tried to herd whoever was stuck in there with them at the time... they have never found it so far. If we can just sneak in there, I can get us outside the installation...'
'Yeah, but...' issued a voice off camera, most likely the Boom guy, '...isn't this where they live? Little buggers are waiting for us in there...'
The camera swung up to focus sharply on the Keeper's face as she scrunched her expression, 'No...' she said at last, 'No, I don't think so. Furbies are intensely clever, but they show low levels of strategising without collars, it's mostly predatorial instinct to herd the prey into a canyon or cavern, somewhere they can't escape so that the entire pack can attack and devour them. It is highly doubtful that any were even left on guard over the offspring, they simply wouldn't have the forethought to plan in the event they DIDN'T get us. We should be safe. Now everyone stick behind me, we'll go in one by one, and then creep across the enclosure carefully to the hidden door...' the Keeper's voice gained confidence as she spoke, becoming clear and audible though the camera was over an arm's length away.
It followed her jerky movements as the woman crouched, ducked under the gap of the door and stood up on the other side somewhere in the dark; her hand reappears in the green camera frame to beckon at them all. Wordlessly, the Boom guy crouches, shoves the boom through before him and slinks through after her, followed quickly by the female intern, then the camera is passed off to the volunteer as the camera guy presumably goes through. A brief close-up of the floor, the metal door and then rocks, sand, darkness... and then the view slide back up to the original hight, on the camera man's shoulder again.
The volunteer scrabbled through swiftly hands splayed awkwardly directly afterwards, and the Boom guy was forced to snatch his collar and yank him forwards out of camera-frame for a minute so that the Sound guy could start his journey through the gory mess on the other side to freedom. The camera jerked sharply at the sound of scratching feet, tacking and ticking in their direction...
Scrabbling in the slick ghastly green mess, the Sound Guy rushed to get through and out of the way; but in that moment the lights flickered on for no more than a second at most, and the large metallic door gave a mild lurch and fell another foot or so, trapping the guy, but not exactly rending him in two or killing him. The camera got jerky for a moment as it was passed off to the nearest hands, before solidifying on Boom guy and Camera man doing their best to yank the Sound tech out from under the door, one pulling on his spindly arms and the other heaving at the unbudging door.
...then Sound guy started to scream. Dozens of Furbies were outside, looking in through the transparent walls, eyes glowing horrifyingly... some of them were apparently starting to tear Sound guy apart from the outside... and others could be seen wiggling in through free spaces left by man and door; whoever held the camera seemed to be shaking their head and backing away, given the swift panning going on.
Another flicker of electricity, the intern and volunteer screamed as the electronic door lurched once more and effectively crushed the man beneath it; his body crushed almost in half... Sound guy gurgled for a few more minutes, a horrifying green mess through the camera, then hit the dirt with a death rattle emptying his lungs a final time. The same sick tearing noises came from outside making the corpse jerk grotesquely as the camera focused in horrified fascination upon the sight...
A sharp clap from behind the camera made it swing around to face the Keeper. 'Come on, we have to go now... standing here waiting for them to finish with him isn't going to help anyone...' she turned and strode away quickly, right across the enclosure, past the nests full of alert little 'furblings' that stared intently at the camera and chirped happily as the Volunteer who was presumably wielding it, walked past. She hit the far wall and began to feel along it, tapping here and there while Boom guy swung into the darkness behind them just in case...
For a minute, the camera jiggled uncontrollably and ended up again on Camera Man's shoulders, the volunteer now visible again. The intern was not far off, she had lost a shoe somehow, and was holding the other one aloft as if to bash the next small furry thing she saw in the head with the heel and hope that worked... her face was determined in the green glow.
.
The Keeper gave a low cry of relief that had the camera panning back to her quite fast. She'd located the door and was unhooking the hidden latch from the top when her foot sank into the wall a way and she screamed... the furblings behind became agitated and started to echo the noise; which would no doubt rouse the adults to come bursting through the door any second now. Panning down as the door swung open and the Keeper freed her foot, she swore loudly...
'So that's why the power went down...' she whispered almost to herself with a horrified expression, staring at the roughly Furby-shaped hole in the bottom of the door, '...no doubt they took out the generator too...'
'I thought the collars prevented this sort of thing?' the Volunteer gasped, looking terrifyingly pale in the night-vision, darting eyes looking for all the world like an animal caught in the headlights of a truck.
The Keeper frowned but didn't answer, instead shoving them all through one by one, then the sound of a slamming door, and she was again in the lead. 'We can get outside now, call for help, I left my phone in the Keeper's Station,' she explained, surprisingly calm now despite it all, 'if we can get there we can call for help... though at this point we may have to nuke the area, or they'll escape and kill everything in their path. The only consolation is that the emergency failsafe must have activated when power went down and locked the other animals in their enclosures. So far as we know, they can't chew through metal... or the walls, trust us we tested it all first...'
.
In silence, they traipse down a long twisting corridor, camera occasionally catching something moving in the darkness behind them as it panned about... the Boom guy was carefully deterring followers by swinging his oddly-shaped weapon about low to the ground. There came an odd gurgling noise, then a clatter... and finally, nothing... the Keeper skidded to a halt but shoved both the volunteer and intern ahead of her, motioning to keep going as the camera swung past them to face behind.
Of the Boom guy there was no sign... but puddles of viscous, shimmering liquid were sprayed across the room and up one of the walls; the camera jerked a bit as the man tripped up on something that was quickly discovered to be the boom pole itself. High chirping began in the darkness just beyond, just as the sickening sound of feasting began, but there were no screams this time, no calls for help...
The camera whirls about at around the same moment that the Keeper does, view jiggling up and down as the pair jogged wholeheartedly towards what was rapidly appearing in the night-vision as an open door leading out to night.
'This way, come this way...' hissed the volunteer from a few feet away in the dark and out of range for the camera to sense him; what followed was much jostling of the view, some mild curses about the insanity of the situation and the exhausted exhalations of a group of weary people. The volunteer hit the door before he saw it, eliciting a small, quickly-stifled laugh from the intern; the Keeper smiled grimly but also darted out a hand to turn the knob quickly, bustling them all inside in a frantic jostling of motion. Flashes of clothes, legs, arms, faces, walls, the ceiling and finally the Keeper again came into view.
'Can't risk a light, somewhere in here is my phone, let me just find it...' she whispered, wandering out of vision with arms outstretched looking for a table in this small hut. The place couldn't have been more than five metres wide in total, and there wasn't much there, but the intern and the volunteer had already taken to stumbling about cursing, trying their best to locate furniture to barricade against the door.
The Keeper made a triumphant noise and lifted up her glowing phone, appearing back in visual range; her expression fell, muttering about the lack of bars and disappeared into the gloom, heard pressing buttons of the landline then cursing and tossing something.
.
'Look, we just have to outlast them... they don't do well in daylight hours, their metabolism basically shuts them down unless they are wearing the collars which augmented the affect of the sun on their biology, and made them diurnal. Everyone just calm down, stay away from the windows and try not to let them know we're here and we will survive. Alright?' stated the Keeper, disappearing again to the sound of a chair being pulled out.
The Camera moved about a bit, almost coming right on top of both the intern and the volunteer, who had simply sat down on a rug in the middle of the small floor. Footsteps became muffled as the camera man trod over the top of the rug, panning left and right before slowly approaching the small-ish window set in the wooden wall.
Staring out the window, even the night-vision doesn't really pierce the veil of darkness outside; there are shapes of trees, bushes, the sky evident between the gaps but that is it. Nothing else is visible outside.
.
A movement catches the attention of the Camera man, as it quickly pans and zooms in on the source.
The trees outside are still, windless, but something shifts in the bushes...
Several small, evil somethings can be depicteded toddling closer and closer in and out of range of the camera's night-vision... but even without it, the luminous intensity of their tiny, beady glowing eyes flash as the camera pans, stumbling is heard, a patch of shadowed ceiling is blurred into focus rapidly...
The camera guy has tripped over something in his haste to get out of there, you hear the string of terrified cussing he lets out under his breath, the only other voices are those of the keeper trying to reassure, one of her volunteers, and the slightly younger voice of an intern who'd been introduced in the opening credits as part of the crew that you had completely forgotten about until just now.
'Keep quiet...'
'We'll be fine, calm down...'
'I want my mum, please, please...'
'Oh god the fucking phones are dead! We're gonna die!'
'shitshitshitshitshitshit...'
It's just a babble of sound, words repeated over and over, then lost; but all in terrified, high-pitched whispers that echoed around the room, full of palpable fear and just a hint of hysteria. It was clear they were trapped, no alternate way out of this little building could be found no matter how hard the camera pans about in search of one...
.
The camera is unsteady, the hand that holds it on the man's large shoulder is probably shaking involuntarily as several little muffled 'thuds' can be heard from outside. Windows and doors shift a little under the onslaught, the tiny hut's structure groaning angrily; voices can be heard whispering to each other from the other end of the room. Volunteer frantically questioning why they never built a door between the hut and small veterinary practice building it was attached to.
.
'Plaaaaaaaay with meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'
'I'm huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuungrrrrrrry'
.
Eerily the furbies can be heard trying to tempt the remaining contingent of the documentary crew outside with their hypnotic suggestions, but the Keeper manages to snap them out of any notions of going to 'play' by snapping her fingers and demanding they all focus. She gets caught quietly admonishing the young man who is the senior volunteer, something along the lines of '...should know better...' it can't really be heard as the most gods-awful wailing is taken up outside...
As the camera seems to drop in height, it becomes apparent the camera man is crouching and shuffling forwards to avoid attention; the Keeper, Intern and Volunteer come into focus quickly and sharply. They jerk at the sound of the approach, but relax minutely in the green glow as they seem to realise it is friendly rather than a Furby.
The make-shift barricade seems to be holding up for now, furniture rattling slightly as furry bodies thumped over and over again outside with little accuracy, but soon when the numbers rose there was no doubt they would be able to force it open.
Something seemed to strike the volunteer quite hard, he gulped and turned a whole new shade of luminescent green under the camera's scrutiny, 'Er... P-Professor?' he addressed the Keeper, 'W-What was the back wall of the furby enclosure made of, exactly?' he asked with wide eyes.
She frowned in response, 'For the most part, the specially designed plastic, except for the door, that was...' she trailed off, following his darting eyes in the gloom and finally understanding his meaning. 'That was wood...' she whispered almost to herself, head turning away from the camera and staring straight at the door. It panned to follow her line of sight, and jerked back as the camera guy recoiled in shock...
Already the beak-like mouths, full of razor sharp glistening teeth, of dozens of Furbies were breaking through the door in many places along the bottom and up to waist high. The Volunteer freaked, leaping back and dragging the Intern out of frame, the table creaked ominously as bare feet padded atop it; from the sounds it could be assumed that he'd helped her up onto the dinky kitchen table in the middle of the room. She was whispering back, trying to convince him to get up too... but he made it clear that he'd be fine, and in any case wouldn't fit; the table was too small to hold one person, let alone two...
The Keeper looked at the camera and motioned to move back, get away from the door as quietly as possible; and the camera was then trained on the door as both Camera man and Keeper shuffled backwards and looked for something or other to use as a weapon.
.
Of course, it wasn't only the door that was made of wood... the entire hut was... the expression the Keeper wore as dozens of small, furry, barely-visible bodies of all colours streamed in from behind, the left and the front of the pair on the floor. The Intern screamed in shock, camera immediately panning up to see things falling from the roof onto her, scrabbling and biting for purchase, tearing flesh off as they went...
The Volunteer tried his best to pull them off, or brush them off but nothing was working; she was being torn to shreds. With a groan and an almighty crash, the weight of both the Intern and several dozen Furbies pushed the table to it's breaking point and the legs brokes, dumping the teenager sideways onto the floor and into the milling sea of furry creatures. Her screaming echoed for another minute or so as the camera was dropped to the floor, and dim images of both the Keeper and the Camera Man tried valiantly to wrench the little blighters off her as the Volunteer was being herded into a corner by the others in the room.
It was apparent that it was just too late to do anything to save the intern, her cries ceased as a rattling gurgle filled the room before fading to silence... the only remaining noises were feasting Furbies, and the high, frightened whine of the volunteer who was pressed against a wall close by, lower half of the body still visible and green. Hundreds of furry bodies lined in a semi-circle about his feet...
.
'H-Help?' the Volunteer whispered quietly.
The Keeper stood up really slowly, trying not to disturb any of the Furby who were feasting on the Intern, or any of those milling about the volunteer's sneakered feet; some of the smaller ones nibbled at his shoes almost playfully, but for the most part they just stood there and stared up at him. The expression of terror was clear on his face, 'Please... help...'
'Calm down' she whispered back, 'they know us, we're family... remember? We raised the first ones, then the next, we're family... believe they won't hurt you... take a step this way, that's it, you can do it...' The lie was obvious, but it comforted the near hysterical teen as he stepped once in a shuffle, then twice, the furby politely, eerily watching and making no move. He flinched as the last step became a skip-jump...
The camera raised itself up again, staring down on the creatures, who were intently watching the volunteer.
But, as he stepped free, something seemed to change... the Furbies looked up at the Keeper with glowing eyes, she visibly flinched, but forced a smile to her face, 'Hello... my little ones, my haven't you been busy tonight?' she said in a soft sing-song voice they obviously knew, because some closed their eyes and rocked side to side.
She pushed the volunteer out of the way, out of frame and towards the camera man.
They all watched her now, even those who had been tearing flesh off of the intern's corpse now still to look or respond with that odd dance; all intoning at the same time, 'Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummy'... which obviously shocked the Keeper, but she nodded with a tight smile.
'Looooooooooooove Muuuuuuuuuuuuuummy' they said, some cooing and acting incredibly kitten like, rubbing their heads against her legs; others making a low purr. Something was very drastically wrong here, that was plainly written all over the volunteer's face.
'Grown uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup, Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy' one of them stated, the others joining in, repeating it over, and over again... choruses of voices saying it over and over again. The penny apparently dropped, as both expressions changed instantly; one to horror, the other to a resigned sort of fear.
.
They began to circle, chirruping, round and round at surprising speed for such tiny things; their eyes never left hers as they chanted, 'Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummy', the Keeper seemed to be kneeling for some reason, eyes unfocused as the Volunteer tried his best to snap her out of it. The camera man had started forwards to intervene or some such feat as the volunteer called, 'Please, help, they've hypnotised her... you've got to-... they think she's their MUM and-... they... they EAT...' he lost it then; still the camera drew closer as if with great, purposeful strides being taken, but the moment for intervention was already gone...
With her arms spread wide and glazed eyes staring at the ceiling, the Keeper offered herself up to the dozens of her small, furry 'children'; she didn't scream once, but laughed as if in the middle of the most intense pillow fight of her life. After a moment, one of them leapt up and tore open her throat... and she was gone.
.
'We have to get out of here,' the volunteer whispered, so ashen-faced that he appeared as nothing more than a blur of luminescent green on the camera; he turned slightly and taking in the sight of the camera, growled. 'Shut it off, why do you still have that? They're already in here... everyone's dead, what the point anymore!' Ignoring the Furbies surrounding, the late teen dropped to the floor on his knees, head in hands, rocking and muttering.
'C'mon mate, we have to get out of here... while they're uh... distracted.' came the gruff voice of the camera man, camera being taken off a shoulder and held under an arm as the other hand extended to pull the kid up. The volunteer shook his head, continuing to rock. A sigh was heard from behind the camera, almost an acknowledgement that the teen was a lost cause, and it began to move back, step by step.
At all times it was aimed at the swirling mass of flesh-tearing Furbies in front, more streaming in as the seconds drew on, like some kind of furry hourglass, once it panned furtively behind and found nothing but a small camper's cot. A gentle jolt to the camera said that the man holding it had bumped into the edge of the cot.
So far, none of the Furby were paying attention to the camera, or the camera man; but it could be clearly seen that they had started to take note of the Volunteer, some of the smaller ones coming and pressing against him, purring. Forcing the teen to look at them, to reach out, touch, pet, pick up... he was smiling oddly, but the eyes were clear.
The Camera took a step forwards, as if the man holding it wanted to intervene, but gave an odd, strangled cry and in that instant the camera was sent flying...
The world spun in that instant, flashes of floor and ceiling swam into view and again out of it, for a split-second the camera focused on the image of the burly camera man being dragged underneath the cot by a horde of the largest Furbies with their teeth in his legs, and then it completed a final revolution before bouncing once upon the rug and tilting over to it's right side.
A few moments of gruff shouting, then a strangled yell... and silence...
.
In the small pool of night-vision focus emitted by the battered camera, though slightly skewed so that parts of his body were missing, was the Volunteer.
He was shaking violently, obviously terrified, but something was slowly changing... the Furby were surrounding him, but not threateningly.
'We liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike yoooooooooooooooooooooooou' they sang, chanting almost, swaying back and forth soothingly. They purred and keened at him, enticing him to look at them, play with them, feed them and he responded as if having a conversation with the small creatures.
His eyes were bright, trapped on their own and obviously entranced; but yet, somehow differently to what had happened to the Keeper. And he smiled broadly when those closest chorused, 'We loooooooooooooooooooove yoooooooooooooooooooooou!' at him, like a personal mantra that the teenager swayed to for a moment before responding.
'Y-yes... I suppose you do...'
Some of them nuzzled closer, looking pointedly away at something just behind him.
'We are huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuungry' they said, one after the other, and something under the volunteer's eye twitched, as if this was an epiphany to him; and he nodded.
'I-I suppose you are...' he slurred, rising slowly, jerkily, to take a few shuffled steps behind and kneel once more by the body of the intern; mostly torn up, but certain large parts of flesh remained. He proceeded to tear bits off and feed them carefully to each proffered beaky-mouth with a smile. When those surrounding him seemed sated, ignoring those finishing off the corpse of the Keeper, he returned to the original position of kneeling...
Awaiting orders, as it were.
'We loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove yooooooooooooooooooooou, staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeveeeeeeer!' one of them said, and so it was repeated a thousand times in earnest by those of all sizes surrounding him; the flesh of those he knew still trapped in their tiny, sharp teeth. The volunteer smiled but said nothing.
A smaller Furby hopped over with a strip of flesh in it's mouth and deposited it on his lap. 'Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamilyyyyyyyyyyyyy' it intoned. With a smile, the volunteer lifted the strip up and ate it slowly, like a delectable chocolate as the small creatures made approving noises. The small one nuzzled under his hand and caught his eyes with it's own...
'You're... right... we should... go now...' he said, rising jerkily.
.
Something shuffled the camera slightly, picture fuzzed as scrabbling could be heard, and tiny sharp teeth bit and scratched at it.
'No goooooooooooo, no goooooooooooooo yet!' pealed an unseen Furby from beside the camera, drawing the volunteer's attention immediately like an overprotective she-wolf.
'Nasty eye, nasty eye!' they chanted, over and over as the teenager strode over as if sleepwalking, and picked up the camera, green face filling the screen as he smiled into it and said, 'My... children and I... are going now... no follow us... goodbye...'
So saying, he flung the camera down to the floor, where it bounced once, picture fading in and out...
.
The Volunteer then strode away as the video feed cut in and out... the last seen of him was as he knelt down to grab the intern's corpse's wrist and drag it out into the night... surrounded by his Furby 'children'...
And then the camera finally gives out, screen flickering to black...
The Volunteer has not been seen since.
~)0(~
Nighty-Night...
Sleep Tight
Watch for Glowing
Eyes in the Night...
.
~*SailorSilvanesti/Phoenix Fire*~