Voodootown

Chapter 36

"You caught some of it?   Good." Blink said.

"What are you talking about?" Twister asked. 

Blink looked at the other dolls.  Flow was propped against a box again, and everyone else was all around him.  Each wore a small Mobius strip on a chain and held the larger one in their hands.  They were all staring at him.  "Midnight has the portal working in some way that he doesn't have to go through.  He can just send those thralls through on their own.  They were loaded down with collars.  Camo said he'd been sending out hundreds at a time."

No one answered.  Blink knew that they were probably all thinking the same thing.

"You were thinking of the scene where Scarecrow, Lion and the Tin Woodsman see the Winkies go into the castle, right?" Ash asked.  Blink hadn't been quite right.  At least his human hadn't been thinking about the implications of Midnight invading other Voodootowns.

Ash sat down next to them, closer to eye level.  He touched at his nose and looked like a thought had come to him.  "But it wasn't like that.  It was more like the orcs pouring out of Minas Morgul.  Wasn't it?"

"From The Two Towers?" Flow asked.

Blink pointed at Ash.  "See.  We read."

Squat nodded.  "That's not good.  Too bad that thing with the guy's ring didn't work like in the book, huh?  I would have been Isildur."  He chuckled as he walked back under the stairs.

Twister, Ju Ju, Root and Sticks were staring at them.  "Are you talking movie stuff again?" Ju Ju asked.

"Duh," Squat said as he lay back down.

"Those sound scary.  Danica doesn't watch scary movies," she said.

Blink looked up, saw Ash already looking at him.  The word weirdo seemed to come from Ash's mind.   Blink nodded slowly.  "Anyway.  Our plan is screwed, right?"

He waited, watched Twister most of all.  After a moment, she nodded.  "They could be going anywhere," she said.

"Yeah," Blink said.

"So we can't go to a nearby city and try to use their portal to get reinforcements.  They could already be overrun."

"Yeah," Blink said.

"And we can't just wait.  They'll find us soon.  These charms won't protect our humans a bit if we have collars around our necks," she said.

Blink didn't answer.  No one did.  He had offered to go out alone to warn other towns, but had been vetoed.  Both Twister and Ju Ju had pointed out that they needed to stick together and that he had no quick way of bringing back reinforcements.  Squat had pointed out that no doll in its right mind would listen to Blink anyway.

Twister folded her arms.  Blink watched her look down and take a long moment.  Then, she nodded, looked at everyone, even Ash.  "We're out of time.  Help won't come."  She looked around again.  "We have to shut that portal down."

Squat laughed from his place under the stairs.  "Awesome.  Great plan."  He sat up.  "Any of you guys remember last night?  Remember the beating he handed us?"

"So we don't meet him head on," Twister said.  "Some of us distract him while the others shut down the portal."

Root looked out one of the short basement windows.  Blink did the same and saw the sun was starting to slant in.  "It'll be hours before our humans are asleep," Root said.  "How many will Midnight send out in that time?"

"We don't wait.  We go now," Twister said.

All the dolls stared at her.  Ash looked confused for a moment, but Blink saw him figure out the problem.  "None of you will stand a chance if your human is awake.  You'll be too weak," he said.

"Maybe the wimp isn't an idiot," Squat said.  "Congratulations."

Blink glared back at Squat.  The doll had been especially moody since Doctor Midnight had kicked him through a building.  It seemed pretty understandable, but his insults were starting to wear through Blink's cloth skin.

When Twister spoke, Blink turned back, saw her looking up at Ash.  "That's why you and Blink have to get those charms on all of our humans.  Fast."

The window creaked and all the dolls turned, pins held ready to fight.  Blink saw the empty window inch open more.  "It's Camo," he said.

She turned off her power, appeared in the window and jumped down to the floor.  She jogged over, head still nodding.

"You guys need passwords," Ash said.

"No.  We need cell phones, or walkie talkies or something like that.  Walkie talkies," Camo said.  "If we had those, I could have called.  He's got the portal working, over.  Do you copy?"  She started to make one of those squelchy walkie talkie noises and Flow reached out, pulled the java charm off of her shoulder.

Camo blinked, then sat down on the floor without another word.

"Hey, Camo," Squat said as he stood up and rejoined the group.  "You got here just in time to volunteer for the suicidal bait mission."

Blink groaned when he saw the look on Camo's face.  "What?" she asked.

"No, wait," Squat said.  "Somebody's already been picked for that one, right?"

Ju Ju smiled.  "You do have a talent for pissing people off."

"It's not about talent, it's about hard work," Squat said.  "Practice is everything."

Sticks held up a hand and the others quieted.  "I'll go with him."

With a nod, Twister turned to Flow.  "What can you make to shut the portal down?"

"No idea.  I've never destroyed a portal before.  No one has.  I'd have to look at it, build something on the fly," Flow said as he shrugged.  Then he looked up at Ash.  "You'd better get Curtis to put that charm on.  I'm not good for much more like this."

Ash stood, grabbed his backpack and opened it up for Blink.  "Root and Ribbon with us, right?" Blink asked.  He knew they'd have the safest job of all, and they needed to keep Root away from Midnight.  None of them knew exactly who he wanted to find using Root's power, but they didn't want to take the risk of giving him something he wanted.

"And Camo too," Twister said.  "She's wiped."

Blink made room in the backpack for the other dolls.  It was crowded, but they were all fairly squishy, so it was still comfortable.

As Ash reached down to zip the pack partway shut, Twister spoke again.  "Just don't tell the humans anything.  Not if you don't have to."  Ash shared a small smile with Blink as they started up the stairs.