Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

dolls."
    "Why the hell would they want to be human?" said Finlay. "I thought they hated humans?"
    "They do," said the Sea Goat. "They hate you because they want to be you, and they can't. They're not really alive, and they know it. For all their new intelligence and strength, they're still only automatons. Just like the Bear and me. We can't… create life, like you do. When we finally wear out and fall apart, and we will, eventually, there will be no one to replace us. No immortality through children. We'll just go back into the dark we came from and be forgotten. That drives a lot of toys insane."
    "We can't just leave these parts here," said Bruin Bear, not looking at the humans. "Given time, they'll get back together again. Stitch themselves new bodies. They've been known to do it before. As long as their central matrixes are intact, they won't die."
    "Then destroy the matrixes," said Toby.
    "Have fun looking," said the Sea Goat. "They're about a thousandth of an inch wide, and they could be anywhere in the body."
    "So what do we do?" said Finlay.
    "We burn them," said Bruin Bear sadly. "Gather the pieces, start a fire, and
    burn them all."
    Sometime later, the weary humans and the two toys climbed back into the undersized carriages. Stinking black smoke belched up into the sky from a raging fire beside the repaired railway tracks. There were no signs of the rag dolls left anywhere. Julian sat beside Evangeline, his head resting on her shoulder, half-asleep. Edwin surged forward, and the carriages lurched after him. The train chuffed off down the repaired tracks, singing a sad song. The humans sat quietly together and kept their thoughts to themselves. Toby and Flynn filmed the burning pyre of the rag dolls until a dip in the land finally hid it from view. Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat sat together, holding paws for comfort, sad at the death of toys.
    A few hours later, when the smiling sun was beginning to slide down the sky toward evening, the train breasted a high ridge and Toystown finally came into view. Built from mind-numbingly bright primary colors, the town stretched across both sides of a deep valley, with houses and shops and everything a town should have, except in a smaller, more condensed form. They were like the ideas of shops and houses, simplified and exaggerated. Just enough detail to make sense, but otherwise almost surreally universal. A child's dream of what a town should look like.
    "Welcome to Toystown," said Bruin Bear. "Home to all humans and toys. Capital of Summerland, where all your dreams come true."
    "Including the bad ones," said the Sea Goat. "Sometimes especially the bad ones.
    Don't any of you get off the train until we stop. There are mine fields around the town."
    The humans looked at each other, but said nothing. Toystown grew slowly larger
    as Edwin carried them toward it, but the sense of strangeness didn't go away. It was as though they were entering an illustration from an old children's book, or somehow heading back into childhood itself. Some of the humans began sneaking looks at their bodies, obscurely worried that they might somehow be shrinking back into children again.
    There was barbed wire at the town boundaries, wall after wall of it, the steel spikes gleaming dully in the light from the sinking sun. Broken dolls and teddy bears hung lifelessly on the wire, their stuffing hanging out of them like fluffy guts. The Bear had to turn away from them. He couldn't stand it. In the end, he put his paws over his eyes. The Sea Goat looked out over it all with cold, jaded eyes.
    "The bad toys have been attacking more and more often these days," he said offhandedly. "Sometimes we don't even have time to bring in our own dead. The enemy always takes theirs. Parts come in useful. There's no shortage of weapons on either side, including some that can destroy our central matrixes. Shub supplied them. They were supposed to be used against Humanity, but… the war goes on. Things seem quiet for the moment, but they'll come again. They always do.
    They're winning."
    "They hate this place," said Bruin Bear, finally lowering his paws from his face as the train approached the town's garish station. "This is where humans came to play. Came to play with toys."
    "Are there any humans left in the town?" said Evangeline. "In hiding, perhaps?
    Afraid to come out?"
    "I'm afraid not," said the Bear. "You see, this is where the killing started.
    Where the toys first rose up against their human