It's Coming to Get You
It's Coming to Get You!
a short story by Relee the Squirrel
It came out of nowhere, looming twelve foot tall above you. It looked like a massive teddybear, and it was covered in baby-blue fur. You didn't know how something so huge could be so quiet. It grabbed your shoulders with its padded mitten-paws and lifted you effortlessly into the air. No struggling could stop its indominatable strength as it opened its smiling mouth and slid you down its satiny throat.
You landed with a WHUMP! inside it's soft belly. It was a hollow sphere but nothing you tried could cut or rip the soft blue fabric of the bear's belly. There was a muted light, like seeing the sun through a blanket, and there was enough fresh air to breath, but you were completely stuck.
The bear stood still for a few moments as you settled down in his tummy, then you felt him start to move. Left, right, left, right; the bear's belly swayed with each step, taking you along for the ride. Slowly you got used to the motion, but you wondered where this thing had come from, and where it was taking you.
As the hours wore on the belly started to get dark. Was night falling, or were you merely indoors now? You lost track of time and boredom had started to set in, despite your anxiety. How far had this bear traveled to get you? How could no-one have noticed it? Time wore on, and somehow you fell asleep.
You awoke with a start, still inside the bear's belly. You knew by feel but not by sight; it was pitch black. Something was different, the bear wasn't moving with its typical gait. You suddenly rolled forward, bouncing around the inside of the padded cavity. Was the bear laying down? No, it was still moving... It must be crawling, you reasoned. The crawling continued for several minutes, then you felt a strange shivery tingle run through your whole body. You curled up instinctively, defensively, but it was already over. The tummy started to move around again, and you were able to catch yourself before tumbling. The bear was walking again.
The walk lasted a short while longer, much shorter than the earlier trip. It was very strange, though. The sounds beyond the belly were nolonger the noises of home, instead you heard odd cheerful giggles and sing-song melodies in high-pitched voices. Light was starting to return to the belly of the bear, slowly. The light was muted however, and not bright like sunlight.
Suddenly, you heard a voice. It was muted through the bear's padding, you could only hear it because it was directed at you; or rather, directed at the bear. "Welcome back Big Blue! What have you brought for us today?" asked the voice, a squealy, high-pitched voice, like a children's cartoon character. The bear said nothing, it just reached down its own throat and grabbed you under your arms, lifting you out of its belly.
You emerged into a world of bright colours and cheerful song. The bright light hurt your eyes after having been in that dark belly for so long, and the nolonger muted sounds of cheerful singing and a strange ambient song of melodic clanging assaulted your ears. Even the smells were strange, with a powerful scent of cotton candy and machine oil mixing in the air.
Your eyes adjusted to the light and colour just as your captor set you down on the strange rubbery floor. You seemed to be in some sort of factory, but it was unlike anything you'd ever seen outside of a fun park. The floor was a swirl of rainbow colours, swishing in and out amongst eachother across a huge loading area. The walls were each a solid colour, one yellow, one blue, one red, and one green. Huge, shiny, and brightly coloured gears were turning along one wall, and a pastel purple conveyor belt led past a plastic curtain into another room. Around the edges of the room, small unfamiliar machines and large stationary pistons were all working in harmony, creating a strangely cheerful and constant melody that resonates through the whole building.
Looking forward you saw who spoke, a much smaller teddy bear. It could only be three or four feet tall, and its body was covered in short-pile green fur. Its belly was pure white, as was its muzzle, and its shiny green nose was shaped like a heart. Large blue cartoon eyes that were somehow alive looked back at you from atop a huge smile. Buckled under the chin and resting on top of its head was a shiny yellow hard-hat. Held in one of his mitten-like paws was a large clip-board, and in his other was something that looked like a blue plastic toy raygun.
Your lips moved to speak but before you could utter a word there was a flash of light, and a feeling of pins and needles overtook your body. You were paralyzed, and could not move an inch, though somehow you continued to stand up straight. The bear held his ray-gun against his hip and it seemed to stick there, then he began to walk around you slowly. He checked boxes here and there on his clipboard, and wrote a bit in other areas.
"This is good material Blue! We can do a lot with this one. Princess will be very pleased." said the green bear in his cutesy and overeager voice. You couldn't see the big blue bear behind you, but from the sounds and the look on the green bear's face you were sure he was dancing in celebration. The green bear spoke up again and said, "Put this one on the conveyor belt, and head out to get us another."
The huge blue bear reached his padded mitten-paws under your arms one more time, and laid you down on the conveyor belt. Still paralyzed you watched the rainbow ceiling roll away, and felt the plastic curtain slide over your body as you moved down the line.