CHAPTER 2
"Welcome to the main power breaker room for all of Playcare. Or as we've taken to calling it, the bunker," the elephant explained.
Alex couldn't speak, his mind was still processing that the talker on the other end of the phone was not a human. He'd been hoping for once to hear a voice belonging to a human since at least another human might actually have his best interests in mind. The toys here certainly didn't seem to; they were more interested in eating him, using him as a tool or a mix of the two.
"You're… a toy," he said.
"Uh… yeah?" the elephant said slowly. "Is that a problem?"
"Well. no… but... I thought I'd be talking to… uh... another human."
"Hmmm," the elephant said slowly. "Poppy was right; you are still a bit angry with her."
"A bit, he says," Alex snorted sarcastically.
"She didn't mean to make you upset, Angel," said another voice.
Turning in regard to the owner of the voice, Alex looked down to see a paint splattered white and aqua unicorn walking up. Like the elephant, she had a wide toothless smile and wide black eyes. She looked away shyly as she spoke, in a very bashful manner.
"It's just… we need your help down here," she said. "We… we can't leave because of him."
"Uh…. hi…. Uh who are you? Uh, both of you?" Alex asked, looking at the two small child-sized toys. They seemed friendly enough. At least their voices didn't drip with forced sweetness like Mommy Long Legs.
"Oh, I'm Bubba," said the elephant. "And that's Craftycorn. And... uh Bobby should be around somewhere?"
"Did… did you like my letter? I tried to draw the poppy flower perfectly," she said.
Alex was about to ask when suddenly…
"WHAT?! You brought him here!?"
Turning in surprise, Alex saw a small red bear approach quickly. She immediately started to push at his legs, back towards the stairs.
"You need to get out! Get out and never return! He kills people like you! Get out! Get out!" she practically screamed, pushing with all her miniscule might.
"HEY! Bobby, stop it!" Bubba cried, leaping from his chair and wrestling the bear back.
"He's here to help!" Craftycorn said as she helped.
Alex just stood and stared as the frantic bear turned on the elephant and unicorn.
"Why did you do it?! Why?! Was what happened not enough for you? You had to bring him down here so he could be ripped apart and fed to those monsters?! And you, Crafty, how could you bring him here?! Hasn't everyone who ever came here suffered enough?" she cried, sobbing.
"Poppy said he could handle himself! He killed Mommy Long Legs and Huggy Wuggy! He shouldn't be that challenging!" Bubba explained.
"They are nothing alike! Mommy had rubber, Huggy had a bunch of teeth, Catnap has claws and smoke! He'll shred him apart! I know it!" Bobby argued.
"But he's Poppy's angel," Craftycorn said irreverently. "She brought him here to set us free."
"Against Catnap, he won't have a chance. You're both going to get him killed," Bobby whimpered. "I can't believe you two would do this to him!"
"Bobby, he made it through all that and lived! And remember, Huggy was the security system! He beat the security guard and lived! He'll make it through this, I know it!"
"But what if he doesn't?! What then, huh? What will you two do? Send another letter to another poor soul? Bring another person to their death?"
"Anyone who can beat two monster toys can beat Catnap. I know what I'm saying, Bobby. Who's the smartest critter of the group?"
The bear's breathing calmed down and she hung her head low, before looking at Alex. She slowly hugged herself as she turned back to Bubba.
"Promise me you won't send him to the toy store," she said in a quiet voice.
"Bu-"
"PROMISE ME!" she snapped in a more demanding tone.
The blue elephant brought his hands up in a placative gesture and sighed.
"Okay, I promise. I won't ask him to even step a foot in there."
Satisfied Bobby relaxed, then turned and toddled back towards where she'd come from. She took a seat upon a pile of pillows, and sadly laid down.
"I'm sorry you had to hear that," Bubba said. "She's not been right ever since that day."
"Too many bad memories," Craftycorn said, sadly looking away. "We all have them. But now that you're here, you'll make things right, I just know it. Poppy's angel… here at last…"
The little white unicorn turned and walked back to the corner of the room she'd come from. It was a mess of paper with crayons and colored pencils laid out all over. She sat in the middle of this mess and started to draw. Bubba meanwhile had returned back to his seat and regarded Alex fully.
"Anyways, back to the problem at hand. Looking at your grab pack, I think you should just take it off for the time being. No use lugging it around if you can't use it," he said.
"Ugh, no kidding," Alex mumbled as he took off the busted piece of equipment and sat it on the nearby table. Bubba pulled himself over to the table and began to look it over.
"Hmm gotta fix the hand cannons, and replace the cables too," he said, more to himself than anything else. "Hmmm, craft glue…. nope… duct tape…. nah…"
"Uh before we go any further, you need to answer my questions," Alex said.
"Huh?" Bubba asked, turning, as if he'd been lost in thought. "Oh! Right, sorry. Uh, what questions do you have?"
"Well... first, are you, uhhh Crafty and Bobby part of the Smiling Critters?"
"We are," Bubba said a bit proudly. "All of us were. You saw the statue of us, right?"
"Uh yeah. But if you are Smiling Critters, and so was Catnap… then how come he's as big as Huggy Wuggy and you three aren't?"
"Right… Well, when… uh they made us, they said they gave us this… um… size change ability. I don't know how it works though, so don't ask me. Basically, we have three sizes: child, adult and big size. This was to make us both appeal to the kids when we would play with them and be able to command respect in adult sizes when we would lead them in activities or help run the different locations of playcare. The larger size was meant to be more of a utility; you know for high places and stuff. But… for some reason most of us couldn't figure out how to activate that ability. I think one doctor said something about the process leaving gaps in our memory… I don't get it, but it's clearly not linked to intelligence."
"But why is Catnap bigger than you?"
"As I said, unlike the rest of us, Catnap learned how to change his scale. So did Dogday. The rest of us haven't had much luck yet. Besides, I find this size a little more useful. I mean, you see how little this room is, we wouldn't be able to fit. Maybe we'll figure it out. I don't know."
"Wait, Dogday? There are more of you?"
"They made all of the Smiling Critters. Me, Craftycorn, Bobby Bearhug, Dogday, Catnap, Kickin Chicken, Hoppy Hopscotch, and Picky Piggy," Bubba said, pausing as if something unfortunate crossed his mind. "But we lost Kickin and Hoppy. I don't know where they went. I… think Catnap had something to do with it. But… I don't really know. Picky… er… I don't know either. She might also be gone. I'm sure it wasn't Catnap who did it, though."
Alex grimaced as he thought of the idea of a large purple cat slaying some smaller toys that were child sized and meant to be his friends. Had things really gotten so bad down here that toys would just kill each other? Thinking back to Mommy Long Legs and the fates that befell Bunzo and the mini-Huggies, it probably would. For the time being, he just hoped these toys wouldn't be quick to stab him in the back.
"Anyways," Bubba said, disrupting his thoughts, "I think I can fix this. But I need replacement parts. I think there is some… somewhere."
The blue elephant paused to think before waving Alex to lean in closer. Alex did so, and watched as Bubba looked towards Bobby, then back before whispering in his ear.
"They would be near the toy store, in a room around the back of it," he said.
"But you promised Bobby-" Alex whispered back.
"I know. But this isn't inside the toy store, just in a room behind it. Where the workers would keep stuff like paint and other materials to fix the Playcare if something broke. Come, I'll show you," he whispered before pulling away and rolling the security monitors.
Alex followed and watched as the elephant grabbed a pen in each stumpy elephant hand and one in his trunk. He tapped at the keyboard before three of the images on the screens flicked to show what looked like a storage area. On one camera, sat on a dented workbench, was what looked like grab-pack hand cannons.
"That is what you are looking for. At the other end of the closet space," Bubba said.
"Oh great, so if something gets me, I'm trapped."
"I think it'll be okay. We locked that room so nothing should be in it. You can just close the door behind you for safety if you want to."
"Oh boy… this is gonna be fun," Alex said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, you'll need this," Bubba said quickly.
The blue elephant reached over to a drawer and opened it. He pulled a ring of keys out and unclipped the one he needed in his trunk. It was a plain looking key with a scratched gray grip. He handed it to Alex who took it.
"There. Now I should be able to follow you on cameras and keep you out of trouble. If Catnap does find you, run and hide if you can. Playcare is his church, his hunting ground… whatever he wants it to be," Bubba said, stressing the importance of this information.
"And I imagine none of you will be joining me, right?" Alex said.
"Well, I'm not letting any of the girls go out with you. Crafty is a sweet soul, but Catnap threatened to blind her because he didn't like how she saw his rules. And Bobby… she's not fit for that. And I have to be here to help guide you."
"Fair enough."
"Okay, just head up those stairs and I'll keep an eye on you from here."
"Alright. But if something is nearby and I'm hiding, please don't call me cause you'll give away where I am."
"I won't. Promise. I don't want us to lose our one hope."
Alex nodded and headed back up the stairs. The door remained closed for a while before it hisssssed open. It closed again with the same silent pneumatic wheesh. It was then that he noticed the plaques around the base of the statue. Each was located under a concrete statue of the critter it was referring to. Each plaque had the critter's name as well as details of their character. He read through them and resisted the urge to press the buttons as he felt he'd run into their cutout sometime. But he learned enough to understand the toys he'd just met; Bubba was the smartest of the group, Crafty the artistic one, and Bobby was the caring one. From what he saw, they all had these traits. But looking at their plaques, he noticed something; all the critters wore small amulets, necklaces, pendants, or whatever was the proper term. He could remember seeing Bubba having one, but as for the others, he couldn't remember.
"Gotta make a note of that," he thought.
Turning away from the statues, he headed up a set of steps that lead to a middle landing of sidewalk that led to either the toy store or the school. The steps would continue up to the large mansion-style building. Turning left, he headed towards the toy shop, which didn't look inviting in the slightest. It was dark, filthy, and boarded up mostly. Some spikes with cruelly tortured toys on sticks stuck out through the gaps in the boards which Alex noted were put from the inside.
"Sheesh, it happened here too," he said, doubt starting to creep into his mind that any of his colleagues could still be alive.
Turning away from the toy store he saw a door in the side of the sky. It was decorated as if it was part of a door to a small countryside shed. A clear way to try and add to the illusion of this world being bigger than it really was. Using the key to unlock it, the door swung open.
Stepping inside the space, Alex was greeted with rows of shelves. Many near the front contained cans of house paint, but others contained boxes of stuff like nails and screws and fasteners. Finding this not useful, he shuffled through towards the back of the room over dropped boxes and cans of paint just left sitting on the floor. There was even a couple splatters of paint on the floor where cans had been tipped over and left to dry as some old dropped papers were now permanently fused to the floor.
"Wonder if Crafty left this mess behind," Alex said to himself, chuckling.
At the back of the room was where larger spare parts were left. Through disintegrating plastic bags that had long since dried out, he could see new fake bushes, boxes of fake flowers and fruits to decorate the trees with, spare Bron-shaped lampshades and other bits. But the room didn't end here. At the other end of the L-shaped room, Alex could see the workshop area. However, a tipped over shelf created an obstacle that would call for the former employee to crawl through.
"Ugh, nothing is EVER easy."
Slipping out around the shelf, Alex was hit with a strange feeling. The shadows at the back seemed to become darker here. He almost couldn't see what was on the shelf anymore. He put that down to the flickering buzzing lights above him just creeping him out and pressed on.
"Just get this damn thing and get out," he mumbled to himself.
His legs scissored rapidly over to the back of this room where some workbenches sat. He saw broken grab pack hands sitting on and around the tables. On the bench nearest the back was a neatly bundled pair of hand cannons, some extra rubber hoses and a coil of cable around them. Alex greatly appreciated that they'd keep these parts close together. He gathered them up and then noticed a purple VHS tape sate nearby, barely shoved back into its box. It was labeled "Grab Pack 2.0 Training."
"Hmmm if this is a new grab pack, I should probably take this with me. Hopefully there is a VHS player in the bunker."
Alex snatched it up and as he was turning, the light overhead gave a sharp buzz before the light finally gave up. The whole back of the room was plunged into darkness. Alex couldn't help but curse his luck. What were the odds that would happen, that right now these lights that had been humming their nightmarish hum buzz for years decided right now was the time to quit? Now things back here felt worse, the darkness drove him to flee fast as he could out of this pit.
Crawling along through the space under the tipped shelf, a clunk and clatter from behind him made him stop and turn back. It sounded like an empty paint can falling to the floor… in the darkness behind him.
Then a pair of lights flicked on. Then two more. then another…. and more… and more….
No. Not lights.
Eyes.
Panic gripped his heart and he nearly leaped out from behind the shelf, banging his shoulder into it, nearly making him drop the parts in his arms. Behind him he heard a child-like a scuttering sound… which was quickly followed by more of the same. Looking back the eyes started to come for him!
"Crap!" he hissed as he took off running.
The skittering seemed to get louder, meaning whatever it was was right on his tail! His run was more of a hurried and frantic set of leaps and baby steps as he shuffled between all the stuff on the floor! All he could think was that if he fell, he wouldn't get back up again!
Clunk!
His foot caught the top of a can of paint which tipped it over. He heard the telltale clunk-plunk sound of the top popping and the paint spilling out. No time to look or care, Alex ran for the door. He grabbed the handle, twisted it, and pushed through the door and out into Playcare. Quickly dropping the items in his arms, he spun around, grabbed the door and slammed it shut, and pressed his weight into it, bracing for the thing on the other side to attempt to push through. He heard a series of light thumps on the other side of the door, as if whatever it was was small and weak. The thumping didn't last long before it stopped and everything went quiet, the only thing he could hear was the thudding of his heart, his ragged breathing, and the sound of the electronic bird sounds of the speakers around him.
Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed the key and quickly locked the door. No matter what, it paid to be safe. He hadn't seen what had been behind him, but honestly, he didn't care to find out.
"I gotta get back to the bunker. Quick," he murmured to himself.
Reaching down he gathered the parts he'd dropped and quickly ran back to the statue. It took him everything in his being to not knock on the door like a mad man. The door hissed open and hissed closed as he was coming down the stairs. Bubba shuffled himself and his chair over to his workbench looking up to meet him.
"I thought you said it was safe," Alex said accusingly.
"It was, it should have been! I don't know how they got in," Bubba said.
"What even was that?" Alex grumped.
"Catnap's flock. They live in the toy store, and they never leave. That's why I thought nothing would happen, I didn't think they had access to that room," Bubba said apologetically.
Alex sighed, he sounded genuinely sorry. He came up and dropped the contents in his arms onto the workbench, much to Bubba's joy.
"Great! I can fix this. Give me a couple minutes," he said, turning to the grab pack.
As he waited, Alex decided to content himself with the surroundings of the small bunker area. He'd not had time to look it over yet and felt that would be a good idea. Behind the security booth was a pile of pillows all spread out on the floor to make a large comfortable area. Alex guessed this was where the three slept. To the back of the room, behind the staircase, was a large computer screen that showed the status of power in the main areas of Playcare, all were blacked out except the Toy Store which indicated it was disconnected. A large bundle of cable was also there with some wires and plugs coming out of it to the left of this status screen.
Circling around, he approached what was decidedly the little areas for each critter. With Craftycorn's area being located towards the back, Bobby's area of pillows in the middle, and Bubba's workbench area at the front of the room. Craftycorn's area looked like the art room of a school with paintings and drawings all over. The artist in question was busily drawing, humming a little broken tune. Looking he saw pictures of plants, flowers, clouds and sunny skies. And some that were all in red or black or purple that seemed to show the monstrous feline in clouds of red smoke. Looking close, one picture looked like it was of a human. A pencil drawing with a large dark red splat on it.
"AHH!" came a shrill cry from nearby that made Alex leap back, and fall.
Looking up, he saw the paint splattered unicorn had been so lost in her art, she'd only noticed him after the fact and made her jump.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you," he said, slowly.
"Oh, uh... it's okay. I just didn't hear you coming," she said in a sweet, shy voice.
Alex looked at the art piece she'd been working on. It was of a bright sunny day with a little white unicorn prancing through a field.
"This is a very nice picture. Is it of you?" he asked.
"Y-yes, I did," she said, her voice rising with pride.
"It's very beautiful."
"Thank you. I…it's a… a dream I keep having," she said.
"Oh? What happens in this dream?"
"It starts with me walking through the grass and the grass is really soft. It's nothing like the grass in Playcare. I feel the wind on my face, and I look and… all I can see is green hills that go forever. Beyond what I can see. And I see flowers, real flowers. I give one a smell and it smells so wonderful… I… I don't know what a flower smells like but… but I think it's nice. The counselors… the… the ladies sometimes smelled very nice. I think that's what flowers smell like…is it?" she asked nervously as she got to a topic, she wasn't too familiar with.
"Mmm it's possible. Lots of women do wear perfume that's flowery," Alex said.
This made the little unicorn smile and give Alex a gentle hug. He smiled and noted a really flowery scent coming from her "fur". It was subtle, but very nice. Nothing more was said before Crafty said softly.
"If… if you… leave… can… can we come with you?" she asked shyly.
Alex wasn't sure. He was here to figure out what happened to the other employees. Poppy said he could save them, Bubba was convinced he could, but… saving these living toys? Could he do that too? What would he say? He wasn't intending to be a caretaker to anyone but himself. That was just how life went. But… these toys were trapped down here. And from all the broken and bloody toys, it seemed only the strong could survive. Huggy Wuggy, Mommy Long Legs, Bunzo, those mini-Huggies and that darn pugapillar were still alive, but… they were mad… mad with hunger. They had survived off of those who couldn't. And sooner or later, they'd also lose the fight. If they stayed here, that was a certainty. If he left them here…
"I… I don't know. Could you give me time to think that over?" Alex asked.
"Oh. Okay," Crafty said, her ears folding down sadly. "I understand. Angels do need to think about these matters."
She parted the hug and went back to her drawing. Feeling a little guilty, Alex wanted to say something else, but nothing came to him. He rose to his feet and moved over to Bobby's part of the room. Here the small bear was hugging one of the pillows tightly and was quietly crying just letting her tears roll down her cheeks.
"Bobby?" he asked quietly.
Bobby didn't respond, just looked up at him before looking back down into the pillow she was hugging.
"Hey, it's okay," Alex said, and he reached to give the bear's shoulder a rub.
Bobby just shuffled away in fear as if his hand was poisonous. Alex was confused and wondered why; if she was anything like those character cards on the statue, she was supposed to be the affectionate and loving critter.
"Don't get too close," she mumbled in a guilty tone, "I…. I'm dangerous…."
Alex almost laughed; she and the others were tiny little things. The only real dangerous things were usually bigger than he was; Huggy, Mommy, and now this Catnap thing. Looking closer, though it was difficult to see almost with the pillow in the way, Alex noticed the ragged red bear was missing her heart amulet or whatever it was.
"Hey, where's your heart?" he asked.
"Gone," she said, whimpering, "Lost it. Not that I deserve it… I'm a monster."
Alex sighed and he reached out and placed his hand over hers. She froze as he did so, staring at his hand.
"No you're not," he said.
A moment of silence passed before Bobby dragged her hand a way and scootched herself further into the pillow mound behind her.
"Yes… I am…." she insisted.
"And done! It's ready," called Bubba.
Alex looked up at Bubba, then back at Bobby who buried her face into the pillow she was hugging. Feeling he'd get no more out of her, Alex rose and walked over to Bubba. The repaired grab pack looked good as new. The cannons looked bulkier and stronger, and some strange hoses snaked from the sides of the pack making it look like a jet pack. The biggest difference was the right hand's cannon was more open, allowing him to see the springs inside, which looked bigger and stronger. Hefting it back on, the comfortable weight returned to him.
"Huh… who'd have thought I missed this heavy thing on my shoulders?" he said.
"I saw you brought a tape, put it in the VCR and we'll see what features this thing has. I installed all the parts you gave me on it, but I don't know what they do," Bubba said as he pushed himself and his chair to the security camera monitors.
Alex followed and inserted the tape into the VCR offered. The tape was a standard training tape with no dialog outside of that weird droning track. It explained that the new pack had longer wires and the ability to swap out hands, which was news to Alex that this pack had other hands. As to the jets on the back, they were to make long falls more survivable. Alex was pleased with this; having seen the vast spaces of the cavern, long falls were certainly a possibility. Of course, the tape warned that not all ground was safe to land on which made him chuckle at the early CGI example of an all-yellow stick figure landing on a bed of spikes that looked straight out of a video game.
"Feh, I've yet to see any spike pits in this place so I think I'll be safe," he said to himself.
"You've seen spike pits before?" Bubba asked.
"Well, yeh. But only in video games."
"A…. video game?" Bubba asked, curiously. "How does that work?"
"Whoa, they really have been down here for many years," Alex thought.
"Uhh… I'll explain some other time. It's kinda confusing and I don't claim to know everything. Now, you said there is an exit through here?" he asked.
"Oh, uh right. The exit. Well… that's going to be a bit tricky."
"How tricky?"
Bubba hesitated for a moment before he sighed, turned back to the drawer, and pulled out another key.
"It's hard to explain without seeing it, it'll be better to see it for yourself," he said.