“Uh-oh!” said Pet Rock, who had been thrown during the thick of battle by Lefty and was now on the floor, right beside Ollie and Billy. “I think this might be a good time to shout the run-away word.”

Ollie couldn’t agree more. “RETREAT!” he commanded, though he needn’t have, as everyone was already retreating as fast as they could. Billy spied Pet Rock and grabbed him.

“Thank you, Mr. President,” said Pet Rock.

Ollie turned on his walkie-talkie and yelled instructions to Tinny. “Surface Chilly! Send in the cans! We’re escaping!”

Zozo struck at them with the scorpion tail. Ollie and Billy darted out of the way. The tail struck a wall behind them, and it began to crumble down. Billy and Ollie dashed toward the docks.

Zozo and his machine were close on their heels, knocking down walls and smashing through doorways that were too small. The Creeps swarmed right along with him, like an army of crazed spiders.

“Does retreating mean we aren’t brave anymore?” shouted Lefty, holding Keys while Clipper Greenfellow soared full speed toward safety.

As the Junks and toys scrabbled onto the dock of the Tunnel of Love, however, there was no sign of Chilly.

“Uh-oh!” Ollie looked anxiously from the swan boat to the surface of the water. “There’s not enough room on the swan boat for everybody.”

But at that instant, Chilly breached the surface like a giant cork, sending water splashing up as if a bomb had gone off.

“Hooray!” yelled Junk and toys alike. As Chilly settled, his door swung open and out sprang Tinny and his brigade of cans. And not a moment too soon, for the Creeps were spilling down toward them, determined to halt the escape.

Ollie shouted. “Tinny! You gotta hold ’em till we get the old toys aboard.”

Tinny and his cans—armed with their bows, spears, and swords—made a protective line, three cans deep, while Ollie and the rest of the Junkyard Gang helped the toys evacuate.

Once most were onboard, Ollie commanded, “Now, aim Keys toward the door!” The Junkyard Gang knew exactly what to do and were at the ready to feed the typewriter with an endless supply of tacks that would fire like Gatling guns from his keys.

The Creeps made a formidable mass of cheerful wickedness and were actually singing a gruesome sort of war chant, banging their weapons against their metal shields or chests or whatever part of them would make noise.

“Slash! Cut! Tear the toys up!

Off with the arms!

Off with the legs!

Off with the toys’ little bitty heads!”

Meanwhile, the last of the old toys were being hurried toward the swan boat. And Billy heard some sort of mutiny taking place.

“I want to fight!” said One-Eye Teddy, who appeared to be leading a group of teddy bears who refused to be evacuated. “We, of the League of the Bears of Teddy, demand the right to fight!” he yelled. He turned to Billy. “Mr. President! You have executive powers. Grant us a pardon. Let us do our duty!”

Billy had to remind himself of the little bit of history he knew about teddy bears. They were invented way back in horse times in honor of a real president of the US of America named Teddy Roosevelt, who was a soldier who went up a hill to fetch a pail of water or something, and there was a big fight, and so teddy bears were invented, and Billy thought they must be sort of soldiery too.

“Okay, teddies!” Billy agreed. “Get with the cans!”

“Yes, Mr. President!” They all saluted smartly and then joined the line. Billy saluted back. The battle was about to begin, and he needed a weapon. Then he spied it.

In the great clutter of carnival odds and ends that was scattered around the Tunnel of Love dock lay a flagpole from one of the old attractions. It wasn’t long, but it was long enough. And the tattered flag affixed to it was simple. Just one word, or rather, a name, was emblazoned across it: ZOZO. And on the end of the pole was a carefully carved head of a clown, its peaked hat making a sort of spear point. Billy snatched it up.

Meanwhile, Zozo’s mechanical monster, too big to fit through the doorway to the docks, began pounding the doorframe, its scorpion-like tail smashing the supports around it.

Then came a terrible, deafening crash. The walls around the door collapsed, and in crawled Zozo on his awful machine. The chanting Creeps let out a fearsome cheer, and they made ready to attack.

Billy gripped his pole-spear tightly. Then—yeowwwch!—something bit him on the ankle. Hard. He looked down. The Super Creep’s head was caught on his sock! It must have fallen there during all the craziness. Billy yanked it off and brought the battered head to eye level.

“You gotta stop Zozo, kid,” the Super Creep said, his voice raspy. “He’ll tear up everybody. He don’t care about anything but his hurt and hate.”

Billy was just tucking the poor Super Creep’s head into his pocket, about to reply, when Ollie broke past Tinny’s cans. Yelling “Charge!” once more, he plunged all by himself, toward Zozo and his army.