Teddy Bear Town

Teddy Bear Town

Cpl. Louise Gunsalvas adjusted the rake of her service cap then calmly shot herself in the foot as the words to that kids' song, Teddy Bear Town, echoed through her brain.

Well I'm going down

To Teddy Bear Town

Gonna squeeze that lumpy hunk of love again He is my friend

Yeah I'm going down

To Teddy Bear Town

I'm gonna haul that wad of stuffing from his den

Beneath my head

Beneath my bed

If I am sad

Or I get mad

He's scratchy, but he seems as smooth as silk

My Teddy bear

Will always care

With love to share

Down in his lair

My mom tells me he smells like sour milk

Well I'm going down

To Teddy Bear Town

Gonna squeeze that lumpy hunk of love again He is my friend

Yeah I'm going down

To Teddy Bear Town

I'm gonna haul that wad of stuffing from his den

The pain brought her to her senses, but the autodoc was already at work removing her boot. She turned to the corner where her friends and companions, her whole platoon, were stacked like cordwood. Some of them were twitching. Johnny, dear sweet Johnny was starting to crawl for the door.

With tears welling again in her eyes Louise pulled out her stunner. God, those things hurt. She had been on the fringe of a field in the Oslo riots of 36 and thought it was killing her. The bodies twitched and writhed. Johnny almost seemed about to speak.

She made another course correction. They were almost there, but the gungon went so slowly. She thought it was a wise choice on the part of her superiors to abandon this planet. There was no defence against the Cutie Pies that left any quality of life for the humans that had established the beach head here, and besides, the equipment was needed to fight the Gloaven.

Gramma, she heard her Gramma calling. I remember Gramma's sun room, hot chocolate in a miniture service. The old lace dolls. The smell of ginger snaps. Oh Gramma, you made my favourites. I'm coming Gramma. My poor ailing Gramma needs me.

Her hand, her disgusting, traitorous hand was actually on the door open lever. She shot off three fingers, and was able to bring herself back from the edge. She readjusted the course of the gun wagon as the autodoc fussed. That had been close.

The Cutie Pies were the sweetest looking little critters she had ever seen, like idealized walking teddy bears, something she had seen in a movie as a child, Ebocks? Something like that. They called to your mind, "Come to play, come to play, be one of us, You'll be so happy, Come, Come to play." And the scariest thing was that it was true, all true. She recalled the look on Sgt. Gereau's face as she burned him behind the tractor shed where he lay holding hands with one of the little monsters. It had been an expression of pure bliss. She knew that's how they multiply, they grew right into a person, then the person is, depending on his size, two or three more of them.

A bit came back to her from another old story, Alice, The Mad Hatter, The Dormouse. Then another old poem, Tea Party, made her smile again.

It's the mad tea party with Mr. Bear

The stuffies and the Barbies will be there

The plates are margarine carton lids

The finest ones for all the kids

The pie's made out of mud

G.I. Joe's my bud

We sit around the cellar way

And sip pretending tea all the day

The cats will take tea too

Would you like green, or blue

At the mad tea party

The party hearty

It's the mad tea party with Mr. Bear

And friends

Si, it was a mad tea party all right. She wanted to play. Damn, her gun was empty. The ship's bosun was giving her last minute corrections to get on the beam for the autopilot, no time to spaz out now. She drew her Rambo knife across her left thigh and the happies receded. Here came that infernal autodoc again.

Beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, she was on the beam. The autopilot would take the wagon the rest of the way. She would awaken in hyper space, somewhere where she would never see another teddy bear again, she hoped.

She pointed the stunner at her head and pressed the firing stud.