Toy Story 3 (6 page)

Suddenly, Buzz leaped to his feet, knocking the toys off him. He strode forward, flipped open his wrist radio, and began speaking—in Spanish! He flashed his laser on Woody.
“¿Amigo o enemigo?”
he asked.

“Uh . . . amigos!” Woody said. That was one word he knew. It was Spanish for “friend.” “We’re all amigos!”

Buzz walked over and kissed Woody on both cheeks. Then he wandered off, continuing to mutter in Spanish.

A toy truck rumbled on the other side of the door.

“We don’t have time for this!” Woody hissed. “Come on, El Buzzo!” He grabbed Buzz by the hand and dragged him toward the playground door. They had to keep going. They would have to fix Buzz later!

J
essie, Bullseye, the Aliens, and Mrs. Potato Head were waiting on the playground when Woody and the rest of the gang finally caught up.

“What took you so long?” Jessie asked.

“Things got complicated,” Woody told her. “Where’s Potato Head?”

“We haven’t seen him!” Jessie was saying, when suddenly, Buzz fell to his knees in front of her, completely lovestruck. He started whispering romantically to her in Spanish.

Jessie stared at him. “Did you fix Buzz?” she murmured to her friends.

“Eh,” Hamm said with a shrug, “sort of.”

“Behind you!” Mrs. Potato Head whispered. “Someone’s coming!”

The toys turned. A tall figure loomed before them in the darkness. The toys saw that it had large eyes, wiry arms . . . and a familiar-looking mustache.

It was Mr. Potato Head. Except his parts weren’t attached to a potato—he was using a cucumber! “You would not believe what I’ve been through tonight!” he griped.

Mrs. Potato Head rushed over to her husband. “Darling! Are you okay?”

“I feel fresh! Healthy!” Mr. Cucumber Head groaned. “It’s terrible!”

“You’ve lost weight!” Mrs. Potato Head said, wrapping an arm around his tall, thin cucumber body.

Bullseye nudged Mr. Potato Head’s plastic body toward him. “Ah, you’re a sight for detachable eyes!” Mr. Potato Head said, putting himself back together again.

The toys began to make their way across the playground.

Dodging Lotso’s patrol trucks, they ducked from one piece of playground equipment to the next.

When they came to the swing set, they heard an eerie creak.

Big Baby was sitting on the last swing. He rocked slowly back and forth, looking up at the moon.

One by one, the toys crept behind Big Baby. They tried not to make a sound.

The toys had almost made it past Big Baby when one of the Aliens tripped. He landed with a
squeak!

Big Baby’s head spun around on his neck. Woody, Bullseye, and the Aliens cowered in the shadows. The giant baby doll got up and began to walk toward the sound.

At the last second, Woody and his friends dived beneath a plastic sand bucket that had been left on the ground. Big Baby reached the spot where they’d been standing. But there was no one there. He walked away.

Quickly Woody and the others raced to meet up with the rest of the toys.

“C’mon! We’re almost there!” Woody said.

They made a break for the trash chute. When they got there, Woody jumped for the handle, but he wasn’t tall enough.

Buzz stepped forward, brushing Woody aside. He pressed the button to activate his voice box.
“¡Buzz Lightyear al rescate!”
There was no mistaking what Buzz meant: “Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!”

Buzz stepped to the chute. In a series of flips, he jumped up toward the lid. He grabbed the handle and yanked it down.

“Way to go, Buzz!” Woody cheered. The toys boosted one another onto the lid of the trash chute. Below them, the chute disappeared into the darkness.

“Is it safe?” Jessie asked, peering down.

“I guess I’ll find out,” Woody said. He let go of the rim and started down. He slid faster and faster. At the bottom he stopped, teetering on the edge of a Dumpster. If he’d slid another inch, he would have fallen right in!

“Woody!” called Jessie. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Come on down,” Woody called up. “But not all at once!”

“What’d he say?” Mr. Potato Head asked.

“I think he said, ‘All at once,’” Hamm said.

“No!” Woody shouted.

But it was too late. The toys were already sliding down the chute. “Whoa! Watch out!” they cried as they tumbled together. At the bottom, they slammed into Woody, almost knocking him into the trash! At the last second, Jessie grabbed him and yanked him back from the edge.

The Dumpster in front of them had a two-sided lid. The side closer to Woody and his friends was open. All they had to do was get across and they would be free.

Woody thought hard. What they needed was a bridge.

“Slink? Think you can make it?” he asked the dog.

“I might be old, but I still got a spring in my step!” Slinky backed up. He took a running leap off the edge of the trash chute. He sailed over the open part of the Dumpster and landed on the closed lid.

“He did it!” Rex squealed. Slinky’s back paws were still standing on the edge of the trash chute. His long, springy body now formed a bridge across the Dumpster.

Slinky looked back at his friends. “Okay, climb across!”

But before the toys could move, two furry pink legs suddenly stepped out of the darkness in front of Slinky. It was Lotso! And his gang was with him.

“You lost, li’l doggy?” Lotso sneered at Slinky. He gave Slinky a kick. The dog slipped, but his friends pulled him to safety.

Woody and the toys turned back to the trash chute. But just then Stretch the octopus came slithering down, blocking their exit. They couldn’t escape!

“What are you all doin’?” Lotso demanded. “Runnin’ back to your kid? He don’t want you no more!”

“That’s a lie!” Woody shouted.

“Is it?” asked Lotso. “Tell me this—if your kid loves you so much, why is he leaving? It’s the same for every toy! Used and abandoned,” Lotso went on. “You think you’re special? You were
made
to be thrown away!”

As if on cue, a garbage truck appeared in the alley. It rumbled toward them. Andy’s toys gasped.

“Now, we need toys in our Caterpillar Room,” Lotso said. “And you need to avoid that truck. Why don’t you come on back, join our family again?” He smiled, sure that he had Andy’s toys right where he wanted them.

Jessie stepped forward. “This isn’t a family, it’s a prison!” she shouted. “You’re a liar and a bully, and I’d rather rot in this Dumpster than join any family of yours!”

Barbie stood up next to her and declared fiercely, “Jessie’s right! Authority should derive from the consent of the governed! Not from the threat of force!”

Lotso shrugged. “Well, if that’s what you want.” He banged his cane, and Stretch began to push the toys toward the Dumpster.

Just then, Ken called out, “Barbie! Wait! Don’t do this, Lotso!”

“She’s a Barbie doll, Ken,” Lotso sneered. “There’s a hundred million just like her!”

“Not to me there’s not!” cried Ken. Barbie smiled at him, her heart melting.

“Fine!” Lotso snapped. “Then why don’t you join her?” Lotso shoved Ken over the edge of the Dumpster.

Andy’s toys caught Ken’s arms and pulled him to safety. Ken turned toward the rest of Lotso’s gang. “Everyone! Listen! Sunnyside could be cool and groovy if we treated each other fairly!” He pointed at Lotso. “It’s Lotso! He’s made us into a pyramid and he’s put himself on top! But we don’t have to take it anymore!”

The gang looked at one another. Andy’s toys could tell that they were weighing Ken’s words. Still, no one stepped forward.

“Anyone concur with Ken?” Lotso asked as the garbage truck rumbled closer. Lotso’s gang was silent.

“I didn’t throw you away,” Lotso snarled at Andy’s toys. “Your kid did. Ain’t one kid who ever loved a toy, really.” He started to turn—

“Wait!” Woody yelled. “What about Daisy?”

Lotso froze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said coldly.

“Daisy. You used to do everything with her!” Woody prompted.

“Yeah—then she threw us out!” Lotso growled. His voice was bitter.

“No, she
lost
you,” Woody corrected.

“She replaced us!” Lotso cried.

“She replaced you? You turned your back on her!”

Woody declared. “You lied to Big Baby, and you’ve been lying ever since.” Woody pulled out the pendant that Chuckles had given him. The one that read
MY HEART BELONGS TO DAISY
.

“Where’d you get that?” Lotso cried. His stony face was on the verge of cracking.

Lotso’s gang stared at him. They had never seen Lotso get so emotional.

Woody threw the pendant toward Big Baby. It landed at his feet.

Big Baby reached down and picked up the pendant. His lip quivered. “Mama!” he cried. A tear rolled down his cheek.

Lotso knocked the pendant out of his hands. “What— you want your mommy back? She never loved you! Don’t be such a baby!” He ground the pendant under the end of his cane. Then he turned to Stretch, shouting, “Push them in! Push them all in!”

But before Stretch could move, Big Baby suddenly grabbed Lotso. He raised the bear over his head. Everyone watched, stunned, as the baby doll toddled toward the edge of the Dumpster.

“Put me down, you idiot!” Lotso screeched, but Big Baby didn’t listen. His face was a hard mask of anger as he tossed the pink bear into the trash.

“No!” Lotso screamed. “No! Wait!”

Clang!
Baby slammed the lid closed.

The toys stared, wide-eyed. “He’s gone!” gasped Rex.

Big Baby blew a raspberry at the closed Dumpster lid. Then he gurgled and cooed . . . and, for the first time since Andy’s toys had met him, Big Baby smiled.

Vroom!
The garbage truck pulled up to a Dumpster nearby. Theirs was next!

“Come on!” Woody cried. “Hurry!”

The toys raced across the Dumpster lid to the outside wall of the trash area.

Squeak!

At the sound, Woody turned. One of the Aliens was stuck! He was struggling to free himself from the crack between the two sides of the Dumpster’s lid. Woody hurried to help him.

Woody yanked the Alien free, and the three-eyed space creature dashed after the rest of Andy’s toys. Woody started to follow, but now
his
foot was caught. He looked down and saw a pink paw clutching his leg!

Woody’s friends watched in horror as Lotso pulled Woody into the Dumpster.

Just then, the truck arrived. It picked up the Dumpster.

Jessie gasped. She had to save Woody! She and Buzz leaped on as the truck lifted the Dumpster into the air. The other toys followed to help. Barbie tried to go, too, but Ken pulled her back. The truck turned the Dumpster upside down. The lids swung open, and the garbage spilled into the back of the truck. The toys couldn’t hold on. They all fell in!

They landed inside the dark truck, surrounded by garbage. The toys coughed and groaned.

“Is everyone okay?” Woody called out.

“Of course not, you imbecile!” Mr. Potato Head snapped. “We’re doomed!”

Buzz sat up. Because he glowed in the dark, he was easy to see. All of Andy’s toys clustered around him. Just then, the truck lurched to a stop. The toys could hear another Dumpster being lifted up outside. It was about to drop in more trash!

“Against the wall, everybody! Quick!” Woody yelled.

The toys pressed themselves against the wall of the truck so they wouldn’t be crushed by the incoming garbage.

But Jessie’s foot was stuck. She couldn’t move.

“Jessie!” Buzz called.
“¿Donde estás?”

“Buzz!” Jessie yelled.

Following the sound of her voice, Buzz leaped over to her and pushed aside the trash that was pinning her down.

He picked Jessie up and carried her out of harm’s way as garbage rained down from above.

“Look out!” Mrs. Potato Head shouted suddenly. A giant TV set fell toward them. Buzz lunged forward and tossed Jessie out of the way. But he couldn’t save himself. The TV crashed down on top of him.

“Buzz!” Jessie screamed.

The flow of garbage had finally stopped. Jessie and the other toys rushed forward. They began to dig through the rubble.

“I found him!” Slinky said at last.

They dragged Buzz from the pile. Buzz’s eyes were closed. He was perfectly still.

“Buzz, are you okay? Buzz!” Jessie shook him.

Buzz didn’t move. The toys looked fearfully at one another. Had they lost him?

Beep!
Suddenly, Buzz sat up. He opened his eyes and sniffed. He noticed everyone staring at him. “That wasn’t me, was it?” he asked sheepishly. He wasn’t speaking Spanish anymore.

“Oh, Buzz! You’re back!” Jessie cried, throwing her arms around him.

Everyone shouted, clapping Buzz on the back and cheering. They were so happy that their friend was himself again.

“So where are we now?” Buzz asked.

“In a garbage truck on the way to the dump!” Rex cried.

Buzz’s face fell. That wasn’t exactly the news he’d been expecting.

B
eep, beep, beep
. The garbage truck was backing up. It lurched to a halt, and the trash bay began to tilt. The back flap opened. Andy’s toys yelled as they tumbled end over end, raining down with the rest of the trash.

Woody landed with a thud and struggled to sit up. A plastic bag blew past his face. Turning, he realized that he was atop a mountain of garbage at the center of a vast landfill. His friends surrounded him. They were all winded but okay.

Just then, the Aliens spotted a large crane in the distance. “The Claw!” they cried, toddling toward it.

“Guys, no!” Woody shouted. They had to stick together! Woody tried to go after them.

Suddenly, the three Aliens were bathed in light. A huge bulldozer was heading for them! Mrs. Potato Head screamed as the Aliens disappeared under an oncoming wave of garbage.

Another bulldozer came toward the rest of the toys, blinding them with its headlights. The toys found themselves swept up in a towering hill of garbage. The bulldozer surged forward.

“Hang on!” Woody cried as the toys tumbled in the wave of trash. They were dragged under and banged around, came to the surface, then went back under again.

Finally, the toys landed on a conveyor belt. Ahead of them was a dark tunnel.

“Woody! What do we do?” Mrs. Potato Head cried.

Woody took a deep breath. “We’ll be okay if we stay—”

Whoosh!
Suddenly, Slinky Dog was pulled straight up into the air. He stuck to a fast-moving conveyor belt that ran overhead.

“Slinky!” Woody cried as his friend was carried away.

A hammer near Woody’s feet went shooting up. It stuck to the conveyor belt next to Slinky.

“It’s a magnet!” Jessie cried. “Watch out!” All around the toys, bits of metal were pulled up to the magnetic ceiling belt.

“Don’t worry, Slink!” Woody ran after him. “We’ll get you down!”

From high up, Slinky could see what Woody couldn’t. On the conveyor belt below, Woody and his friends were moving toward a shredder! He yelled a warning to his friends.

“Quick! Grab something metal!” Buzz yelled. He grabbed hold of a lunch box. The magnet immediately pulled Buzz and the lunch box upward.

The other toys grabbed on to whatever metal they could find, and soon they were zooming along the upper conveyor belt. They were safe!

Just then, someone cried out. “Help!” The toys looked down. Below them, Lotso was pinned under a golf bag. “I’m stuck!” he yelled. “Please help!”

Woody looked at the shredder. Lotso would get sucked in at any minute. Woody quickly made a decision.

He dropped back down onto the conveyor belt and ran to help Lotso. He tried to lift the golf bag, but it was too heavy. Buzz raced to help him. Finally, the two friends managed to get the bag off Lotso. They were inches from the shredder when Woody took Lotso’s paw. Buzz grabbed a golf club with one hand and Woody with the other. The magnet sucked all three toys into the air as the shredder chewed up the golf bag.

“Thank you, Sheriff!” Lotso said gratefully.

Woody nodded. “We’re all in this together.”

The toys let go of their metal objects. They dropped down to another conveyor belt.

“Woody! Look!” Rex cried. “I can see daylight!”

The conveyor belt they were on was headed toward an opening. At the end, a yellow light glowed.

The toys stepped forward eagerly. But as they moved closer to the light, their faces fell.

“Uh, Rex,” Woody said, “I don’t think that’s daylight.”

It was the glow of a huge incinerator! And the toys were headed right for it!

“Run!” Woody screamed. They tried to run, but the conveyor belt moved faster. It was pulling them toward the fire.

Lotso spotted an emergency stop button overhead. There was a ladder leading up. Lotso grabbed the bottom rung. He struggled to pull himself up.

“Sheriff!” he called. “The button! Help me!”

Woody, Buzz, and Jessie ran back to him. They boosted him up. Lotso began to scramble up the ladder.

Below on the conveyor belt, Andy’s toys were beginning to get tired. They couldn’t outrun the belt much longer.

Lotso reached the top and turned. But he didn’t push the button. He looked down coldly at Andy’s toys.

“Just push it!” Woody cried. “Push it!”

“Where’s your Andy now?” Lotso smirked. Then he ran away.

“No!” Woody shouted as the toys tumbled over the edge of the conveyor belt.

They landed on a sloping hill of garbage, sliding toward the giant pool of fire. The toys tried to climb out, but it was impossible. They were sliding downward to the flames.

“Buzz!” Jessie cried. “What do we do?”

Buzz had no answer. He took her hand. Jessie understood then. There was no way out. She put her other arm around Bullseye. Slinky reached for Hamm, who took Rex’s hand. The Potato Heads held each other, and Mr. Potato Head held Rex’s other hand.

Woody looked over at his best friend. Buzz’s face was grim. He reached for Woody. The friends were joined together, linked in a circle, as heat blasted their faces.

In moments, they would meet their end . . . together.

Suddenly, bright lights flooded Woody’s face. He looked up. A giant metal claw was lowering toward them.

The claw plunged into the trash around the toys. It lifted them high into the air.

“The Claw!” cried the Aliens. They were in the crane driver’s booth. They used the crane’s controls to steer their friends to safety.

The claw set the toys safely on the ground. They coughed and groaned, but no one was hurt. Mr. Potato Head stared up at the sky. “You know all that bad stuff I said about Andy’s attic? I take it all back.”

The other toys agreed.

The Aliens scampered over from the crane. “You saved our lives!” Mrs. Potato Head told them.

“And we . . . are eternally grateful!” Mr. Potato Head added, scooping them up in a proud hug.

“Hey! Where’s that furball Lotso?” Hamm asked. He looked around, but the pink bear was nowhere in sight.

“Forget it, guys,” Woody said. “He’s not worth it.”

The toys didn’t know it, but a garbage truck driver had found Lotso in the trash and had fastened him to the front of his truck as an ornament. Being stuck to the grille of a truck, where he would get splattered with mud and bugs, was worse than being a toy in the Caterpillar Room. The hard-hearted bear had finally gotten what he deserved.

“Come on, Woody!” Jessie said suddenly. “We gotta get you home!”

“But what about you guys?” Woody said, hesitating. “I mean . . . maybe the attic’s not such a great idea.” He glanced at them uneasily. Before, he had been sure that the toys belonged where Andy wanted them. But now, he just wanted them to do what was right for them. They deserved to be happy.

“We’re Andy’s toys,” Jessie reassured him.

“We’ll be there for him,” Buzz added. “Together.”

Woody smiled. “I just hope he hasn’t left yet,” he said.

Mrs. Potato Head covered her eye. She concentrated hard, so that her other eye—the one still in Andy’s room— could see what was happening. “Andy’s still packing!” she announced. “But he’s almost done!”

The toys looked at one another in despair. “He lives halfway across town,” Hamm pointed out.

“We’ll never get there in time!” Rex wailed.

Rock music sounded faintly on the morning air. The toys looked around. The garbageman who worked on Andy’s street was playing a little air guitar before he climbed into his truck.

The toys smiled. This was their ticket home!

Andy was loading boxes into the car when the toys arrived. This was the toys’ last chance! If they didn’t get into a box soon, they’d never make it into the attic!

The toys quickly showered off with the garden hose. Then Slinky jumped up to the garage roof. The other toys climbed his springy body like a ladder and ran across the roof to Andy’s window.

They scrambled to the sill and jumped down onto the floor, hurrying across the room. Quickly, Mrs. Potato Head found her eye under the bed and popped it back into place. Then the toys climbed into a box marked
ATTIC
. Buzz helped everyone get inside.

Everyone except Woody. He headed toward the box marked
COLLEGE
, then stopped to look back at his friends. He knew that this might be the last time he would ever see them. “Buzz . . .”

Buzz turned toward his good friend. Woody stretched out his hand, and Buzz shook it warmly. “This isn’t goodbye,” Woody said, although he feared that it was.

“Hey, Woody, ” Slinky called from the
ATTIC
box. “Have fun at college!”

“Woody, take care of Andy,” Rex added.

“Sure thing.” Woody reached a hand toward Jessie.

“Jessie—you’ll be okay in the attic?”

“Course I will,” Jessie said.

Woody turned back to Buzz. There was so little time left. He was suddenly overwhelmed by how much he would miss his friends.

“You know where to find us, cowboy,” Buzz told him. He climbed into the attic box.

Woody hopped into the
COLLEGE
box. He lowered himself inside just as Andy and his mom walked into the room.

Andy’s mom looked around the empty room. Suddenly, her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Andy! I wish I could always be with you.” She pulled him into a hug.

“You will be, Mom,” Andy told her, hugging her back.

Woody stood up and peered through the box’s handhold. Then he noticed a photo packed along with everything else. It was the picture of ten-year-old Andy, playing with all his toys. Andy had said that his mother would always be with him. Woody knew what Andy meant—he meant that she would always be in his heart. All this time, Woody had thought that the toys needed to be there for Andy, waiting in the attic. But really, they
would
always be there for him, no matter where they were. They would be in his heart, and in his memories.

“Hey,” Molly said as she poked her head into the room. “Aren’t you gonna say goodbye to Buster?”

“Of course I am!” Andy stepped into the hall to pet the dog. “Who’s a good doggie? I’m gonna miss you!”

While Andy was gone, Woody scrambled out of the box. He picked up a pen and scribbled on a sticky note. He stuck it on the
ATTIC
box.

Woody slipped out of sight just as Andy came back into the room.

“Okay, Buster, now don’t let Molly near my stuff,” Andy said. He crouched down to pick up the
ATTIC
box and noticed the sticky note. “Hey!” He opened the box. He was surprised—and happy—to see all his toys.

Andy reread the note. “Hey, Mom,” he called over his shoulder. “So you really think I should donate these?”

“It’s up to you, honey,” his mom called from the hall. “Whatever you want to do.”

Woody held his breath. He didn’t know what Andy would do. Maybe he’d still keep everyone in the attic.

All Woody could do was hope. . . .