Chapter 10

Flight of Insight

Ty ran with all he had. He didn't know where he could go, or if escape was even possible. He just needed to get away. Getting out of the factory, to whatever was out there, was his only hope. Ty made a sharp turn, heading for the front door, surprised that he remembered where to go.

As he got farther from San's office, the halls slowly became more crowded with plush creatures. Seeing the fear and panic in the boy's eyes, everyone he came into contact with broke and ran as if he carried some sort of plague. That reaction bothered him before, but now he was seeing it and reaping the advantages. Without it, getting out of there would have been a nightmare and nearly impossible.

He arrived at the end of a hall, turned, and if he was right he should be—yes! The giant entrance hall and the equally as large front door loomed just ahead. Ty bent his head down a little, and ran faster than he ever had in his life.

The entrance hall was filled with stuffed animals coming in and out, turning here and there, and going about their business in a very orderly manner. When this calm and cheerful mass of bodies caught sight of Ty, chaos broke out and they all parted like the Red Sea, making room for his mad dash to freedom.

Ty saw face after terrified face, leaving each behind as he whizzed by. But he suddenly remembered something very important: the front door. Was it open, or would he smack directly into its tightly closed, splinter-filled wood?

He looked up in time to make eye contact with the two door-holders who figured something was up, and started to close the giant doors, struggling with the sheer size and weight.

For better or worse, he couldn't stop running. He lowered his head again, kept up his alarming speed, and prayed that things would not turn out skull-breaking horrible.

Ty shot between the closing doors like a cork from a bottle with mere centimeters and milliseconds to spare. The doors slammed shut behind him, and he found himself unable to stop. He watched in horror as he cleared the stairs and fell the distance to the cemented Town Square. Ty felt his skin scrapping off as he slid across the ground.

His body came to a stop at last, and Ty wasn't sure he wanted to sit up to check his wounds. Upon further inspection, he found that his body wasn't in a cooperative mood anyway, even small movements brought stabs of pain. Well, that's settled, he thought as he halted all his efforts as though just the thought would bring more agony. He laid on the ground as still as he could.

“Oi!” Something called from behind him, making Ty tense, his body screaming. He gave a little whimper. “What are you doing, boy?” The voice continued as sounds of its approach grew louder and closer. “You got a whole factory to run around in, filled to the brim with toys and games, and you choose to run off the stairs?”

“You mental?” Said another, crazier voice who sounded in no position to be calling someone else mental.

By that time the owners of the voices walked around him to a stand still right in his line of sight. They were sock monkeys and, like all the rest he'd seen in the factory, armed with spears. The similarities ended there.

One of the monkeys was abnormally large and long. It wasn’t quite up to San or the Elves’ heights, but it towered over the length of its spear, the normal height of its kind. The other was just the opposite of its partner. Its height didn't even reach the middle of its weapon. It walked hunched down, dwarfing itself even more. It hopped from foot to foot, unable to keep still. Its left eye—a sort of googly eye Ty used for arts and crafts in kindergarten—rolled around in its socket as it bounced.

“Huh, are you, are you?” The small one chanted as it poked Ty's face. Seeing the boy's pain and discomfort, the creature cackled at him. “What should we do with it?” It asked the tall one when it settled down.

“Well,” it said, leaning casually against its spear, looking like a person who was having a good think. “We should probably take it straight to San. I doubt he would want this one getting hurt.”

Ty knew that was coming, but it frightened him nonetheless. They were going to drag him back to San… would he go up on his office wall next?

“But he’s already hurt. See?” The small monkey poked Ty with its spear tip and laughed when he groaned.

“Hmm… You are most correct about that. That begs the question: what would San do if we brought it to him? It is injured, broken even. Will he be angry? Will he punish us? Will he listen to our explanation, that its wounds were self-inflicted and we had nothing to do with them? Will he forgive us?” The sock monkey walked circles around its spear as it continued to ponder, its arguments mimicking its movements by going 'round and 'round.

Ty took that time to prepare his body for movement. No matter if he fought or ran, he was going to need to be in moving condition… whether his body liked it or not. He flexed his muscles ever so slightly, and to his surprise the pain was nowhere near as bad as before, though it was enough to keep him grounded. He continued, each time the pain less, and the movement stronger.

“I think,” said the smaller creature, interrupting the other's train (wreck) of thought, “we should eat it.”

Ty stopped moving and turned his head so both of his captors were in sight again. The tall one, mouth open in mid-speech, looked at its friend and then at Ty.

“Eat… it,” it said, intrigued by this newest of new revelations.

“Yes,” the other cackled.

“Eat it,” it said again, leaning on its spear and beginning to ponder. “How, I ask you, would we eat it? Look at it!” It leaned down and waggled its arms in Ty's general direction. “It is big, and you,” it waggled its arms at its partner, pointing out its smaller stature, “you are little. And your mouth… why, that's even smaller!”

Ty, not feeling at all comfortable in the presence of these two fellows, began working his way to his feet, ignoring the pain and still refusing to look at the extent of his injuries.

The small one cackled even louder than before.

“I'm not going to eat it raw,” it said as if it had never heard of a more ridiculous idea. “I want to cut it, shred it, and rip it into little pieces.” Ty moved faster, he was on his feet now, preparing for the sprint. “And cook it. Then we can eat it.”

“Hmm… I suppose this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If we let this go we may never get another chance to taste a human.”

Ty took off and was halfway across the square before they noticed a thing. He heard them shouting from behind, but he refused to look back as he slipped into an alley.

Ty would have been disturbed to know how fast the sock monkeys followed after him, and how little of a lead he really had on them.

Overhead on a rooftop, a pair of shining eyes watched the boy and his pursuers run through the dark maze of twists and turns below. A second later the lights vanished into a shadow, and dashed along the rooftops after the trio.