Night of the Living Dolls
-------------------------
by
Northern Chill
Author’s note: This is a serial that is a mixture of humor and horror that revolves around the “end of the world” idea. There are scenes of sexuality, profanity and
mild violence so if this bothers you, please move onto the nearest G rated story. Otherwise, enjoy!
Chapter 12: The world turns, turns, turns....
“That’s right, ladies. There are men in these tubes that are in a state of perfect cryogenic hibernation. I won’t try and explain the process to all of you. Frankly, I’m not sure of the mechanics myself beyond the rudimentary and those working on the project, well...” Lucy said calmly with her head turning slowly as if she was anticipating something.
Right on cue, Colleen rushed to one of the tubes and frantically rubbed the frosted glass on one. ”What are we waiting for? Let’s defrost these men right fucking NOW!!! ” she exclaimed as she looked around at the others in anticipation.
“ We can’t,” Lucy responded as she cast her gaze downwards slightly.
“CAN’T??!! What the hell do you mean by CAN’T??!! Do you know all the shit we’ve been through? We’ve ran from place to place, building to building. We’ve seen our friends turn into those, those damned dollies right before our eyes! Finally, we get an opportunity, a chance to have MEN around us for the first time since this insanity started and you say we can just fucking look? May I ask why?” Colleen shrieked as tears formed in her eyes and her hands balled into fists.
“We can’t due to the cryogenic program that all these men were put into prior to their current status. From what little I was told, the programs can only be shut down by the technicians responsible for the cryonics. Those workers had sixteen digit encrypted passwords for such access and cracking those would take, well, a very long time. Now, without the technicians logging in, the systems are supposed to unthaw the men after a predetermined amount of time. That time, though, is just under ten years and given the system is built to run off three manmade and four natural sources of power, the systems won’t be gong off line on their own,” Lucy intoned somberly.
“Ten...” Colleen moaned as she sank to her knees in despair.
“Years...” Debbie sputtered as she looked over the tubes before her and mentally saw her fleeting dreams vanish as it sank in.
“The only thing we can do for now is secure the building to prevent those dolls or anything else entering. If we do encounter any technicians that survived this, well, event, you can be certain that they’ll be sent here ASAP,” Lucy said somberly as she lifted the plastic cover off a computer sitting on a desk nearby.
“Wh, what if we want to stay and wait with them for the technicians to show up? I mean, they’re here and we can, can protect them until they thaw. I would, I know I could,” Debbie sputtered as she glanced over at the tubes with tears welling in her eyes.
Lucy shook her head. “I know what you’re saying, Debbie, but let me get into more details. We’re going to secure this building as best we can manage but there is a possibility that this island, no matter how deserted it is now, could be overrun by hostile forces at some point. Forces who may not give damn about us or these men. The best thing we can do is secure the windows and doors as best we can, make sure no unwanted individuals can detect we were here and move on,” Lucy said as she let the cover slip out of her hands and gestured around her for emphasis.
“I, I volunteer to stay behind and make sure nothing happens to the building and, ummm, them,” Debbie stammered as she tried to put on an air of self confidence though the other women saw through her words rather easily.
“Can’t do it, Debbie. We are only as strong as the numbers we have now. Leave one behind here, and that person could face certain death or worse....” Lucy intoned and trailed off. For all the women in the room, they were well aware of the doll threat that was still active.
Sighing, Debbie went over and picked up a discarded backpack under a nearby desk. “Well, let’s grab as much stuff as we need and can carry before we start locking doors and closing windows. I do want to come back here again when things have settled down. I want to make some introductions,” she said wishfully.
A few hours later......
“Well, that’s about it. Everything is locked and dead bolted and we’ve made sure that there’s no sign that we entered this place recently. Let’s get out of here before anything expected happens,” Lucy said and closed the padlock on the garage portion of the building.
“Nothing to do now, I guess, but figure out where to head next. I think we should try....OH FUCK!!!!” Jill started to say before screaming and pointing to a road leading into the base. On it, just coming around a distant turn, there looked to a large number of dolls headed towards them, with most wearing no clothing. One thing Lucy and the others did notice was that there were no flying inflation pumps near the latex menaces, which marked the first time they’d seen such a thing.
“So, what the fuck do we do now? Stand and fight, or the usual?” Lucy asked before turning and seeing that another road leading into the base had faint sounds of dolls on the march.
“Options are done. Let’s get this LAV going down the hill and away from these fuckers!!” Debbie exclaimed as she start tossing their knapsacks into the nearest vehicle.
“Fuck...one minute, she’s acting like she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown..the next, she’s more in charge than Lucy,” Jill thought to herself as she joined the others in piling into the vehicle with the others. Lucy started the motor and the LAV rumbled forward in a straight line towards the base’s front entrance.
PING!! PING!! PING!! suddenly reverberated through the interior of the LAV as it rolled along. The women looked frantically around to see if it was bullets ricocheting off the exterior but quickly dismissed that idea.
“Looks like those god damned pumps are trying to get into the LAV! Keep your eyes open and be ready to block any holes they try and make. The bastards shouldn’t get through ordinarily but the way things are today, I don’t, hmmm, think we can play it safe,” Lucy called out as she glanced at the LAV’s internal radar system and saw the dots that were swarming around them.
Driving in a series of S turns away from the dolls, Lucy managed to leave the pumps in her dust as she headed towards the marina and the boat they tied up there. Slowing down, Lucy pulled through the opening in the chain link fence surrounding the perimeter and motioned for one of the others to go out and close the gate behind them.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m on it,” Debbie responded as she climbed out and sprinted towards the gate. As she swung the gate closed, Debbie gazed up towards the road they had just been on and saw something that puzzled her. She saw that the dolls and flying inflation pumps were no longer advancing towards them and had, in fact, turned in the opposite direction.
“What the fuck...better see what’s going on...HEYY!!” Debbie thought as she briefly raised a pair of binoculars to her eyes before being pulled away by a frantic Lucy.
Minutes later, the boat was untied and the women set out with the few provisions that were brought aboard the vessel. As Lucy plotted a point where they could disembark briefly for supplies and figure out their next destination, Colleen and Debbie stood together near the rear of the boat and stared at the receding island in the distance.
“Ummm, Debbie, you’re a bit quiet. What did you see as we were getting the hell out of there?” Colleen said softly as the boat slowly made its way along towards its destination.
“It’s, it’s hard to describe. It may be nothing, just my eyes playing tricks on me,” Debbie responded as she leaned on a nearby boat rail and stared out at the tranquil waters.
Colleen moved closer to her friend and put an arm around Debbie. “Look, if you don’t say what you saw, it may start bothering you on some level. No matter how wild it sounds, we can deal with it. We WILL deal with it,” she said quietly.
“Ok, ok. When I looked back with my binoculars, I saw the pumps and dolls had stopped moving towards us. It looked like they were attacking something behind them,” Debbie said calmly but her lower lip started to quiver noticeably with every word.
Colleen nodded slightly after a few seconds of silence. “Those things probably honed in on Juanita and the others. I’m pretty sure they’re immune to everything that can...” she started to say before Debbie wrenched free and started to sob.
“You, you don’t understand!! The dolls, the pumps, they weren’t after Juanita and the others!! They were attacking what looked to be plastic dummies, mannequins AND THEY WERE FIGHTING BACK!! THEY WERE FIGHTING BACK!!!!!!” Debbie shrieked in a voice that startled Lucy in the steering away.
A shriek of hysteria...or an observance of the future....
Elsewhere......
It had been twenty four hours since the gathering of the fleshies for Dollica and her dolls had ended somewhat abruptly. Despite this, Dollica was determined to make the one called Fleshie an example for her dolls and in a manner they would never forget. Dollica had spent much of the time since she claimed power growing to know the history of the fleshies. She found it amusing that they showed a wide of range of emotions as seen in their history and for some, what seemed to be a pronounced fear of the unknown. Her own past was a bit hazy to her but she knew there would never be a day where fleshies ruled the world and relegated her kind to the darkness of cardboard and glass cases. The dolls dominated now and Dollica was determined to see it never changed.
“Can you imagine? The fleshies used to pose for pictures next to what they considered their ’toys’ in paper books for other fleshies to look at. Shiny cars, metal sticks of fire and even our, mmm, our predecessors,” Dollica mused as the doll queen lobbed aside a tattered copy of MEN’S WORLD.
“Are, are the rumors true? That before the time of great change, fleshies ruled this world and we were nothing more than pleasure giving objects? I, I don’t think I can handle such a thing,” Tina replied as she brushed a lock of black hair away from her mouth in a show of stress and inner turmoil.
Dollica set aside the mask she was going to use and moved over to where Tina stood. Cradling the doll’s head in her shiny hands, Dollica looked into the doll’s smooth, glossy face. “Don’t be troubled by the times that came before. The dolls now control the world and the few fleshies that were not converted to our thinking are either hiding far from us or, well, serve other purposes,” the doll ruler said with an odd emphasis on her final words.
“What, what do you mean? What purposes besides the event at the stadium in front of your subjects?” Tina asked hesitatingly.
“All in due time, my dear. In due time,” Dollica said as she grasped Tina’s right hand and steered towards the royal bedchamber.
At that moment...in the country formerly known as England before the event....
Diane coughed as she was pushed and shoved forwards by the figures behind her. The dark haired woman thought that by hiding in the country and away from the main cities like London, she would escape detection by the hunters. Alas, it was not to be and now, in tattered clothing and on her knees, Diane faced judgment by the entity she had never seen but feared.
“You stand accused of inflicting harm upon my people. Do you acknowledge this?” a voice called out from behind a red curtain at the far end of room.
“Yes,”Diane said in a voice that indicated she was broken, mentally and physically.
“You are guilty of these crimes. Your sentence is impalement and display for six thousand vps. Take the convict for processing,” the voice commanded and gestured against the curtain briefly for emphasis.
“NOOOO!! PLEASE, NO!! NOT THAT!! ANYTHING BUT THAT!!” Diane screamed as two nude female mannequins grasped her and carried her away with strength that belied their artificial appearances.
After Diane left the chamber, a mannequin dressed in black satin lingerie walked somewhat stiffly over to the curtain. “Empress, we have reports that the granite ones are moving across the water and are approaching several areas where your subjects are located. Do you have any orders regarding this?” the figure said as it placed its left hand on its hip and right hand behind its head.
A moment or so later, a voluptuous mannequin dressed in a one piece red and silver swimsuit with gold high heels stepped out from behind the curtain. “June, stop doing that pose as if it was before the event. As for the granites, tell the subjects to begin walking towards the area the biologicals used to call Canterbury. Once there, we shall group into formation, use the biological conveyance to access the continent and see what transpires. We won this world from the biologicals and we will not give it back to, to ROCKS!!” the empress said even as she she gestured out a nearby window.
Outside that window, in what was downtown London, large numbers of female mannequins walked stiffly about...
And no sign of a human...anywhere....