Author's Note:
And so it begins – or ends, if you will. The second alternate ending for Toy Story 3, once again featuring Michael Ryan. This will comprise multiple chapters rather than being a one-shot like the first alternate ending, So Long, Partner. I'd just like to remind people that this was thought up – not written – far back before the movie came out after only seeing a couple of trailers.
This story begins as the toys are on their way to the dump in the garbage truck. A huge note: Do not imagine for yourself the dump you saw in the movie. The layout is different, perhaps slightly more like the one in the video game (except not as complex, of course). In terms of vision and inspiration, all I had for my imagination was that Lego set released before the movie even came out.
Enjoy, and if you like what you read here, don't hesitate to visit my profile page or the main Michael Ryan website; the link's in the profile.
Darkness would have consumed the frightened toys if not for Buzz Lightyear's glow-in-the-dark space suit. But that slim amount of light did not bring comfort to them as they waited in silence for something; anything to offer up a chance to escape the fate they all worried about.
Suddenly, the garbage truck jolted, nearly knocking them off their feet, and began to tip. Frantic, they noticed light growing from the back end of the truck.
Woody held on to a piece of cardboard just before the trash they stood in began to slide towards the light. "Hold on, we're going in!" he shouted as the toys tumbled down several feet against their will with the rest of the refuse.
It was when the truck drove away that Woody hastily pushed away the trash that blocked him from the surface. Catching his breath, he looked around. "Guys?" he cried. "Can you hear me?"
He was relieved to see, one by one, the toys poking out from beneath the waste. Mr. Potato Head was assisting his wife to her feet as Rex managed to roll himself over from his back. Before long, they were all accounted for.
"What do we do?" Slinky asked, shaking off the bubble gum wrap stuck on his tail.
"There's no way we're climbing up there," Hamm affirmed, looking up at the edge of the high cliff from where they had been discarded.
Through a quick look-around, Jessie noticed the trash compactor site in the distance. "Look, y'all! Over there!"
Mr. Potato Head was less than impressed. "You want us to go towards certain death?"
"No, she's right," Woody concurred. "The people run that place during the day. There's gotta be skywalks and everything. It's our safest bet."
"Let's move," Buzz instructed, leading the way.
Determinedly, they hiked down the mountain of trash and across the landfill under the cover of nightfall. They stumbled over anything from empty spray bottle cans to used clothing. After mistakenly stepping on something hard, Rex recoiled at the sight of the broken toy train he remembered seeing at the daycare centre.
It took a while, but the toys eventually reached the large building. To ensure the true vacancy of the area, Woody made them hide behind one of the lined-up bulldozers before they proceeded forward.
"Over here," Buzz announced. He ran up a concrete ramp towards a steel door, the others following close behind.
Hamm turned to Mr. Potato Head. "I'll bet you that flattened soda can over there that it's locked."
Able to get to the door handle through impressive manoeuvring between the wall and a nearby generator, Buzz attempted to twist the knob several times before confirming Hamm's prediction. "Blast," he muttered.
"'Told you."
"What now?" Mrs. Potato Head asked.
The toys heard those familiar squeaking noises, and they turned to where the Little Green Aliens were standing on ground level by the large roll-up door. "The mystic portal," one of them declared as the other two stared up at it in awe.
At the bottom, they perceived a gap not nearly large enough for a human to pass through, but almost certainly enough for toys.
"Those are my boys," Mr. Potato Head proclaimed proudly. They all climbed down from the high-rising pavement and joined the Aliens.
Woody turned to his friends. "Now no matter what's on the other side, remember to stay together."
"We got it, Woody," Jessie proclaimed.
Without a final word to each other in the eagerness to get back to their home, they all ducked through the breach simultaneously, a bit of a struggle for Rex's much more complex build, and into the factory.
Hamm was the first to speak when they got on the other side. "So, can anybody else see anything?"
"Watch your step, guys," Woody reminded them.
After a few more seconds, their eyes were eventually able to adjust to what once seemed like jet-black darkness. They were soon, thanks to some windows installed and the light illuminating through the roll-up garage door, able to see inside the massive industrial unit.
"Whoa, Nelly," Slinky mumbled, stepping forward. "How're we gonna- Whoa!"
"Slink!" Woody shouted, leaping forward to catch Slinky's bottom half as his top half disappeared over the edge of the ground they stood on. Buzz instinctively did the same.
Slinky quickly came to a sudden halt from sliding down a metal shaft and was dangling from his spring. He shook his head, ears flopping around with him, until he was able to see the immense layer of garbage only feet below him.
"Slinky," Woody called. "'You okay?"
"Yeah. Pull me up."
They were quick to comply; together, Buzz and Woody pulled him back up to them. "What part of 'watch where you step' didn't you understand?" Woody asked him, rubbing the dog's head, undoubtedly relieved.
"Hey, look," Rex pointed his little arm at a long, metal catwalk that led farther into the factory. "Could we follow that out?"
Contemplating over the seemingly simple idea, it was not until they noticed the vast amount of free space between where they stood and the suspended walkway that they began to give it second thoughts.
"Great, Rex. And how do you propose we get there? Jump?"
"Now, now, we'll think of something."
"We're going to need some sort of bridge, or a rope even."
Bullseye, from the back of the group, suddenly perked his head up as though recollecting something. He snuck back out through the gap to the outside.
"Bullseye?" Jessie noticed.
The others waited inquisitively. Before long, the toy horse returned with an unkempt spool of nylon cordage clenched between his teeth.
"Good job, boy," Woody proclaimed.
Bullseye beamed in satisfaction. Jessie rubbed his mane.
~ O ~
"Way to go, Woodster!" Hamm cheered alongside the others when Woody successfully managed to swing the thick, rusty fish hook tied to the end of the long stretch of rope and catch it onto the criss-cross skywalk's floor.
"The key is," Woody said to Buzz distractedly as he pulled at the string tighter, "that you don't jolt around too much. Otherwise that thing's slipping right off."
Buzz nodded. "Will do."
As Woody tied the other end to a slightly protruding nail in the wall near the edge of the roll-up garage door, adjusting for maximum tension, Jessie came up next to the preparing space ranger. "Good luck, Buzz," she said to him.
"Oh, ahem, thank you."
Woody clutched the rope and looked down at Buzz. "'You ready?"
He nodded his head again and pressed the button to close his helmet. Woody moved out of the way for him to grab onto the rope with both hands. Leaning towards the edge, he heaved up his legs and crossed them over the rope for support. The toys' stress levels gradually lowered – but remained nevertheless – when he began his steady pace towards the steel skywalk.
After what felt like several minutes, Buzz neared the end of his journey, quickening his pace in motivation. The rope was jerking more now. But he kept his eyes on the hook just in case, which seemed strong and secure.
"Buzz!"
Woody's cry came too late. Buzz suddenly felt the tightness of the rope give way as he began to fall. The drop was short, however; he swung back and forth, keeping a firm grip on the rope still attached from the opposite end of the break.
Jessie and Mr. Potato Head had had to leap forward to catch Woody, who had attempted to grasp the breaking rope he had only noticed not a second before.
Buzz did not have to climb far, but he did have to climb careful, knowing that the rope he was hanging on to was the only rope they'd had left. He managed to pull himself up onto the skywalk, much to the toys' excitement.
"What happened?" he called back to them as he pulled the now-shorter rope up.
"It must've been rubbing up against the edges," Woody replied, referring to the nail he had tied the rope onto.
"So how are we supposed to get across now?"
Buzz unhooked the rope from the skywalk. "Here, I'll just toss it back-"
"It won't be long enough now. We won't be able to secure it right."
"What, then, genius?"
Woody stared down over the edge at the thick layer of trash that covered the unfamiliar grounds below them. He glanced back up at the skywalk farther down, then back to the litter below. "Follow my lead." With that, he sat down on the edge and began his descent down the metal shaft.
Startled, the rest of the toys watched him as he landed at the bottom. Woody looked up. "Come on," he called to them.
After a moment of hesitation shared with her friends, Jessie was the first to comply. She too slid down the shaft, assisted by Woody in her landing. The others eventually complied as well. "You heard the guy," Hamm uttered heedlessly before taking his turn.
Mr. Potato Head landed in something squidgy that he avoided looking down at. "Ugh. Swell idea," he muttered.
As the last toy landed at the bottom, Woody, who had been ambling around through the debris, looked back up at Buzz, who waited atop the skywalk. "Buzz, throw it down."
Buzz hurriedly detached the hook from the floor and, keeping a firm hold of one end, tossed the other end down to his friends. With the help of what used to be an old bookshelf protruding nearby from the trash, the rope was just long enough for them to reach.
"Okay, Buzz," Woody said. "'You got it?"
Buzz made sure to grasp the rope with both hands and kneeled down, securing his position. "I've got it."
"All right. Bullseye, come over here."
Woody and Jessie worked together to tie the rope around Bullseye's plush girth. They then assisted the Little Green Aliens onto his back in a position where they could hold on tightly either to horse or the rope.
"Now don't be scared, boys," Mrs. Potato Head said to them. "Mommy and daddy are down here, okay?"
The Aliens exchanged three-eyed glances.
"Pull 'em up," Woody called up to the space ranger, who complied. Slowly but surely, Bullseye and the Aliens were hoisted up to the skywalk by Buzz's strong hands. From high up, the Aliens looked down at the other toys and waved to them. Mrs. Potato Head waved back nervously.
They reached the top in no time. Buzz untied the rope from Bullseye's girth and tossed it back down. "Next."
And so, one by one, inside the factory walls, the toys were pulled up to the safety of the steel skywalk suspended above the thick layer of garbage destined for compaction. "Boy," Mr. Potato Head said during his turn as he gradually neared the top, "this is like the chicken's elevator shaft."
"Only smellier," Hamm added from Buzz's side.
It was Rex's turn once all but Jessie and Woody were on the skywalk with Buzz. Rex, anxious, kept as still as he could as Buzz, with assistance from the other toys, pulled him up.
"Hang on, Rex," Woody said.
Rex yelped quietly to himself, resisting the temptation to look down. His tiny hands held on as tightly as they could, the thick knot they had created at the end of it coming in use. Relief overwhelmed him when he reached the top; the moment he was pulled aboard the walkway, he immediately collapsed on his side in great appreciation for solid land. An impossibly loud echo followed afterwards.
The toys atop the skywalk quickly turned their gaze forward down the long, narrow bridge, both puzzled and petrified by metal clatter in the distance. Jessie and Woody looked deeper into the factory.
"What was that?" Jessie asked.
Before anybody could think up a possible answer, all of a sudden, the factory lights switched on, temporarily blinding the toys. The sound of machines starting up and gears shifting startled them all.
But their true horror began the moment Jessie and Woody felt the littered ground they stood in began to tip downwards to what appeared to them from their height as a dark, unending pit. They felt the waste below their feet slowly begin to move towards it.
"Oh, no," Jessie gasped.
"Guys," Buzz shouted out, throwing the rope back down right away. He lay down on his stomach over the edge of the skywalk in order to achieve maximum distance end to end.
But it was too little too late as Woody realized the shelf they were standing on was already beginning to slip. Jessie was desperately struggling to reach for the rope. Intuitively, Woody situated his hands under Jessie's boot and heaved her up as hard as he could.
Jessie caught the rope just in time as the bookshelf was now beginning its fast descent down the steepening ground. "Woody!" she cried, reaching back for him. The last she saw of him was him reaching back before he disappeared within the falling debris out of sight. "No!"
"Jessie! Hold on!" Buzz yelled over the deafening noise.
The cowgirl grabbed on with both hands and looked over her shoulder at the immense amount of trash rapidly coming her way. She pulled herself closed to the rope. In the meantime, Buzz was frenetically pulling at the rope as quick as he could to raise her out of harm's way. Fortunately, she barely managed to elude it.
Things quieted down by the time Buzz had pulled her to the top, almost all of the trash having slipped off the newly-formed gradient. The others watched this in horrified silence. When Buzz hauled Jessie up over the edge, she was frantic. "Buzz, he-"
"We'll find him," he assured her.
"How're we gonna do that?" Slinky asked, just as anxious but also forlornly doubtful.
Despite the distressing uncertainty he shared with the rest of the toys, who stared at him with large, despondent, expectant eyes, Buzz did not drop the confidence from his voice. "By not giving up."
Chapter 2 should be up fairly soon.