Junkers Season Two

by Benjamin Wallace

  The dancing stopped. The singing stopped. Unfortunately, the music continued. The Bearberry Bears abandoned their marks and rushed the team.

  Jake and the others soon found themselves surrounded by loveable, huggable teddy bears pawing at them for affection. A blitz of cute and cuddly names came flying at the team as the Bearberry Bear bunch introduced themselves.

  Buttersnap, Gingerscotch, Bluster, Jojo, Tinkerfitz, Goldisocks, Lilypuff, Sniggles, Boo Bear and Baby Boo, Snugglefuff, Mufkin, Plixy, Scramp and the list went on and on.

  The team shook what paws were offered to them and for the most part it was a fairly orderly introduction.

  When Scramp had finally shaken his last hand, Brexbin giggled and announced, “Welcome to the Great Bearberry Tree where children of all ages can experience adventures as big as their imagination, TM!”

  “Where do you want to go today?” Bluster asked with a growing smile. “Do you want to fight dragons?” The purple bear jumped back and his plum arm turned into a blur as he acted out an epic fencing duel.

  “No, they want to visit the Chocolateer, TM, in the magical land of Desserts and Treats,” argued Sniggles as the bear donned a chef’s hat.

  “Let’s go to the beach,” said Buttersnap, who was suddenly in possession of a surfboard.

  “No, the mountains,” said Tinkerfitz as he stepped into a pair of teddy-sized lederhosen and draped a coil of rope over his shoulder.

  “Everyone! Everyone!” Brexbin called for calm. “It makes me sad but remember we can’t take them on any adventures. We don’t have any Bearberry Juice.”

  The collective sadness washed over the bears like an ill-fated wave from Buttersnap’s imagination.

  “How can you not have Bearberry Juice?” Glitch asked. “That’s what makes you Bearberry Bears!”

  Brexbin turned to face the giant cyborg.

  "We wish we did,” Brexbin explained. “Our whole purpose is to make Bearberry Juice so we can make children happy. But the Bearberries in the Great Bearberry Tree have gone bad. We try to juice them and they just crack.”

  A chorus of sobs rang through the Bearberry tree as all the Bearberry Bears expressed their sadness in dramatic accordance with their programming.

  “There’s got to be some other way,” Glitch said.

  “Glitch,” Savant said out of the corner of his mouth. “You realize this shit is all make believe, right?”

  Brexbin continued. “There is another way. But since the people stopped coming here there isn't a fresh supply of Bearberry Juice. They used to sell it here. They had buckets of it and they sold it from carts. The people loved it! But it was never as good as ours.”

  “No?” Glitch asked.

  Cuddlesnuff explained, “It's always better fresh."

  “Enough,” Jake interrupted. “Enough about juice and adventure.”

  “And dancing and singing,” Mason added. “Please include that, Jake.”

  Jake ignored Mason and continued. “We have to save Kat.”

  The Bearberry Bear they called Snugglefuff pushed his way to the front of the crowd. “You have a cat?!” He folded his hands and held them against his cheek. “I love cats, they’re so cuddly soft I just—”

  “No, Snugglefuff, TM,” Brexbin said. “Kat is their friend. She’s a person and she’s been taken by the Dinosty Warriors.”

  There was a collective gasp from the waist-high crowd of animated teddy bears, followed by some chatter about having to help, dinosaurs being scary, but it didn’t matter how scary they were because helping people was what Bearberry Bears did, but yes they were scary, especially the really big ones.

  Bluster raised a purple paw and spoke slowly. “I have a plan. We’ll all drink some Bearberry Juice and then use the super strength to rescue your cat.”

  Brexbin was all positivity. “That’s a great idea, Bluster, TM. Really good thinking. But remember, we don’t have any Bearberry Juice because the Bearberries have all gone bad and instead of giving off the rich, red and gooey Bearberry syrup, they crack and break like a fallen Christmas ornament.”

  Glitch released the wound on his arm and raised his own hand to speak. “I have an idea.”

  Sniggles gasped and pointed at the blood that began to run freely down Glitch’s arm. The little yellow bear squealed with delight, “He’s a Bearberry!”

  Glitch jumped back. “What?”

  The rest of the bears screamed. “Bearberry syrup!”

  "No,” Glitch said. “This is blood."

  The assembly of Bearberry Bears turned into a furry frenzy as they rushed forward chanting, “Bearberry Juice. Bearberry Juice.”

  "No!" Mason tried to pull his gun but was quickly swarmed by Plixy, Mufkin and a half dozen other bears whose names he had chosen not to learn.

  The Bearberry Bears continued to chant as they piled on Jake, Savant and Hailey. The three-foot tall machines were surprisingly heavy and brought each of them down before they could reach their guns.

  “Isn’t this great?” Jojo whispered in Jake’s ear as a camera hovered behind him. “Your friend is a Bearberry! Now we can make some Bearberry Juice, and you can become Bearberry Bears and we can all go save your cat.”

  It took more than a dozen of the bears to take down Glitch. The cyborg fought back against his childhood friends. Goldisocks went flying through the air and landed on top of Tinkerfitz. Boo Bear and Baby Boo had each sunk their teeth into Glitch’s mechanical arm. He flailed about until he shook the two bears free. They dropped to the ground with a fair amount of his forearm between them.

  Glitch held up his exposed robotic arm and yelled, “Stop!”

  And everything did.

  Except that damned music.

  The Bearberry Bears backed away and stood in awe staring at Glitch’s mechanical appendage.

  Gingerscotch’s mechanical eyes grew larger. He rubbed them each with a balled-up paw and then said, “He’s the one.”

  The Bearberry Bears gasped and repeated the phrase, “The one. The one. The one,” until Sniggles screamed, “Get him!”

  The army of half-sized bears rushed Glitch in a wave of pastel fur and the cyborg was tackled to the ground.

  Mason couldn’t see what was happening, but Glitch was screaming and it made him struggle even more against the bears that held him back. “Glitch! Glitch, speak to me!”

  Tinkerfitz pulled the coil of mountaineering rope from his shoulder and bound Mason’s hands and feet as Glitch continued to scream.

  The alpine enthusiast made his way from team member to team member and tied each of them up.

  All Mason could do was watch the pile of bears swarm over Glitch. Every now and then one would be sent sailing through the air. But it inevitably would land, right itself and scamper back into the dog pile.

  The madness eventually ended and the Bearberry Bears backed away from the man Mason sometimes called a friend. Glitch looked relatively unharmed but defeated. The cyborg sat upright covered in enough rope to climb Everest. But something looked off.

  Then Mufkin shouted, “I got it!”

  The other bears cheered as Mufkin raised Glitch’s enhanced arm above his head and proceeded to parade around the Great Bearberry Tree.

  “You son of a bitch,” Mason spat at the nearest Bearberry Bear.

  It was Baby Boo. Maybe. Who could tell, really?

  The bear looked at him curiously and stepped forward and extended a paw. He put the fur hand against Mason’s face for a moment and then held it up in the air to show the other bears the blood from Mason’s nose. “Dey’re all Bearbeywies!”

  Baby Boo leapt on top of Mason and started squeezing the man’s face.

  "Get off me, you crazy friggin’ bear."

  “It’s okay,” Baby Boo said in an extremely annoying baby voice. “Weel make Bearbeywie Juice and you can become BearBeywie Bears. Den weel all have wots of fun adventwures togefer.” With this said, the tiniest of the Bearberry Bears tried to juice Mason’s head.

  Ma
son screamed at the pain. His friends were screaming as well. Then the screams turned into a roar and the Great Bearberry Tree shuddered.

  The Bearberry Bears screamed and backed away from their prisoners as another roar shook the tree. The bears looked around in what had to be fear though it was difficult to tell with those stupid smiles plastered on their faces.

  The sound of shredding fiberglass filled the tree house as part of the ceiling crashed to the floor.

  The T-Rex stuck its snout into the tree and swung around, nipping at anything that happened to get in its way.

  Snufflefuff yelped as the beast snapped its jaws shut an inch away from his tail. He turned and slapped the T-Rex under a nostril.

  The dinosaur’s muzzle retreated through the hole in the roof.

  Jojo was quick to pat Snufflefuff on the back. “Hooray for Snufflefuff!” he said and the cheer went up throughout the tree. “Hooray for Snufflefuff! Dinosaur fighter!”

  The celebration was silenced by another roar and more than a few grunts. The white-haired apes howled as they dropped in through the hole in the roof.

  Bearberry Bears scattered and screamed as the gorillas encircled Jake and his team.

  “Oh my God!” yelled Savant. “You all had fucked up childhoods!”

  A rope fell from the hole in the roof and a woman with dark skin, dark hair and a leopard skin bikini rappelled to the floor and landed in a crouch. One of the cameras centered on her as she stood before them and pulled a stone knife from her belt.

  “Holy shit,” Mason whispered.

  Hailey didn’t hold back her surprise either. “Kat?!”

  10

  “Is that Kat?” asked Savant, struggling to sit up in his bindings. “She looks hot.”

  Hair flowing and bikini bottom billowing, Kat set to work with the knife against the ropes that bound her friends.

  Propelled by robotic gorillas, the Bearberry Bears screamed as they flew about the tree house, crashing into the props that had once been used to entertain parkgoers. Tiddlysmirks crashed through a table. Fizzlybub collided with Hankysmank and the two rolled across the floor until they smashed into a wall.

  The white apes roared and beat their chests as they did their best to hold back the superior numbers of the Bearberry Bears from Jake and his team.

  “Kat, what the hell?” Hailey asked as the mechanic sliced through the ropes binding her wrists. She sat up and worked on the ropes binding her ankles.

  “It’s going to be fine,” Kat said as she turned to work on Jake’s ropes. “We’re here to rescue you.”

  “We?” Savant asked as he offered his own wrists.

  The cry was primal. An undulating scream full of rage and hope. It reverberated off the walls and for a moment the action inside the tree house stopped. The Bearberry Bears halted their advance and backed away, plush heads spinning, searching. Even the cameras twirled about, looking for the source of the call.

  He dropped like a streak of bronze lightning into the center of the fray and landed in a crouch with one hand on the floor and the other grasping a primitive spear. The stranger stood slowly, dressed in nothing but a loincloth and flowing locks of blonde hair that fell past his muscular shoulders.

  The army of Bearberry Bears took a step back. All eyes were locked on this new arrival that stood silently before them, glaring through dark eyes from beneath a furled brow.

  Kat didn’t hesitate. She moved quickly among her friends, slashing their ropes with the stone knife.

  Smiddlefits, known and marketed as an unflinching optimist, broke the gaze first and charged the intruder. The peach-colored teddy dropped his head and ran toward him, letting loose the most frightening scream a 4-foot, peach-colored teddy bear could muster.

  The intruder moved like water, silent, smooth and powerful. Flowing over the Animatomatonic bear, the stranger was instantly behind the machine and swept his attacker into the air using the butt of the spear.

  “Whee!” Smiddlefits exclaimed as he rose toward the ceiling.

  The stranger calmly stepped aside as Smiddlefits began his descent.

  The spear entered the bear’s lower back and emerged from under its left eye. The machine twitched violently twice before it stopped moving all together.

  The Bearberry Bears gasped in unison at the sight of their impaled brother, the loveable Smiddlefits.

  “Brexbin,” the savage stranger spoke with perfect diction. “You foul creature. Release these good people at once.”

  Brexbin stepped forward, giggled and spoke. “Thorne, it’s so good to see you. We had heard terrible things. It’s great to see they’re not true.” Brexbin hugged himself and wiggled as he said this. “It makes me feel warm all over.”

  “Spare me your false concern, monster.”

  “No, really.” Brexbin looked around at the other bears. “We were all so worried about you.”

  “I need no empathy from the likes of you.” Thorne slammed the butt of his spear into the ground. Smiddlefits sank another few inches down the shaft. “Let these people go.”

  Kat cut Glitch free of the ropes. “Are you okay, Glitch?”

  “I think so. Is jungle guy with you, Kat?” the cyborg asked.

  Kat blushed and nodded as she helped Glitch to his feet.

  “That’s good. Can you ask him to ask for my arm back?” he wiggled the mechanics that protruded from his shoulder to indicate exactly which arm he was talking about.

  “We can’t let them go, Thorne,” Brexbin continued. “We’re going to help them. We need to help them.”

  Now free of their ropes, Jake and the team gathered together in the protective circle formed by the gorillas. The creatures stood tall and grunted at any bear that approached them.

  “They need no help from the likes of you, Brexbin,” Thorne replied.

  “But they’re our friends,” Jojo protested while keeping one eye on the ape nearest him.

  Thorne scowled at the bear. “And we see how you’ve treated your friends, demon bear.”

  “Now, now,” Bluster stepped forward. “Calling people names is not nice.”

  Kat whispered to the team, “Stay close.”

  Jake nodded. “You want to tell us what’s happening, Kat?”

  Thorne pointed a finger at the little blue ringleader. “You will allow us leave of this horrid place, Brexbin.”

  Brexbin tilted his head and his smile grew. “Why don’t you go back to your smelly jungle, Thorne? And let us do what we do best. Make Bearberry Juice.”

  The bears giggled together and resumed their attack.

  Thorne grabbed his spear and launched the corpse of Smiddlefits into the rising throng. The peach-colored bear landed with a crunch on the fiberglass floor of the tree house but the Bearberry mob didn’t seem to care. Showing no remorse, no reverence in the least for the fallen, they stomped on and swarmed over their friend, giggling as they went.

  The jungle man became a blur of motion as he used the Stone Age spear to beat back the wall of fur. But the wall was growing. Bearberry Bears came from nowhere to reinforce those that had fallen. For every Smiddlefits he struck down, a Gingerscotch or Buttersnap popped up to take its place. Dozens filled the tree now, giggling, overwhelming and tearing at the gorilla sentries.

  Jake and the others drew their guns and fired into the crowd of bears, but for every one that dropped, two more popped up with a gleeful smile like some magical woodland nightmare.

  Bluster and Baby Boo launched Brexbin into the air. The furry, blue bear let out a gleeful scream as he flew across the tree house toward the jungle savage.

  The tip of Thorne’s spear pierced Brexbin’s side and the bear fell to the ground with the spearhead embedded in his waist. He looked at the spear protruding from his side and chuckled. “That tickles.”

  A door in the back of the factory crashed open and more Bearberry Bears poured into the room. The tree itself shook under the rapidly shifting weight of a hundred machines.

  Thorne ripped the
head off a nearby bear and yelled to the apes. “Fengali! Hole!”

  With this command, two of the gorillas broke off from the fray and beat on the floor. Their fists pounded like sledgehammers against the faux wooden planks. The tree shook more violently as they struck the ground and within a minute they had torn a large hole through the bottom of the tree. An ape grunted at Kat and waved her over to the hole.

  “Let’s go,” Kat said and rushed over to the gorilla’s side.

  “I’m so confused by all of this,” Savant said. “What was this show about again?”

  “Just move,” Jake said, and he shoved the computer scientist toward the hole.

  “Ugnh,” said the gorilla and pointed to the hole.

  “What?” Savant asked.

  “He said jump,” Kat explained. “Probably.”

  “No,” Savant said as he backed away from the hole.

  The gorilla grunted again.

  Savant shouted back. “I don’t care what you say, monkey. I’m not jumping.”

  Mason shoved him forward. “Jump, you coward!”

  “I’m not a coward. Do you have any idea how high up we are? Because I don’t. And I don’t know what’s down there.”

  The gorillas were losing in their effort to hold back the bears. Thorne was being swallowed by the mass of pastel colored fur. “Go!” The savage warrior shouted from beneath a pile of bears. “Go, my queen!”

  “My queen?!” Hailey asked.

  “I’ll explain later. Just trust me.” With this Kat dropped through the hole into the darkness below.

  The team watched her go. They watched the gorillas begin to retreat up the rope that had brought Thorne into the fight.

  “Go, friends of Kat!” Thorne yelled as he freed himself from a tangle of Bearberry Bears.

  Hailey closed her eyes and stepped into the darkness.

  Jake fell to the ground and peered after her. “Hailey!”

  Her voice was distant but sounded unharmed. “Come on.”

  Jake stood and put his arms on Glitch’s shoulders. “Go, Glitch. It’s okay.”