Fun World

by Kirk Withrow

  Lila saw the strange light and immediately dropped to her knees. Only then did she realize that what she was seeing was a watch attached to the arm of a zombie who ‘d been crushed under the wheels of one of the cars. Judging by the small hand, it was clear that it was a child. Surprisingly, that fact didn’t seem to bother her as she set about loosening the band. “I promise we’ll take good care of it,” she said, as though the zombie understood what she was saying.

  When Eric had taken out three zombies, he heard Lila yell, “Daddy, I got it!” He immediately began falling back toward the track leading away from the loading platform. Although he couldn’t see any other zombies, the feral snarls told him they were out there. When he bumped into to Lila, he said, “Head up the walkway.”

  With nothing to block the walkway after him, he could only hope the darkness caused the zombies as much trouble as it did him. This proved true, as the angry snarls grew quieter with each passing step. When they’d moved a good distance up the path and he was satisfied the zombies weren’t pursuing them up the narrow catwalk, he switched places with Lila, putting her behind him once again. He pressed forward despite not knowing what lay ahead. The map had illustrated the park’s attractions as well as their relationship to one another, but it hadn’t provided any information about the rides’ interiors. Given that the only other time he’d been inside the Vortex was nearly twenty years ago and it had been dark then as well, he was flying blind. The walkway seemed to ascend for an eternity before giving way to a stairway that gradually curved to the right. To the left of the walkway near the bottom, Eric saw a momentary flash. The horizontal band of light was exceptionally bright but only lasted a fraction of a second. At the same time, he heard the loud rumble of an engine nearby. It took him only a second to realize that what he’d seen was a helicopter’s searchlight shining under an exterior door. Thank you, Uncle Sam. “Hold up,” he said.

  Freezing the image in his mind, he climbed over the rail before carefully lowering himself toward the ground. Considering that he could’ve been one or one hundred feet above the ground, he was relieved when his feet hit the concrete floor a few feet below the rail.

  “This way, Lila. Climb over the rail and give me your hand. The ground isn’t far.” Having no other choice but to take his word for it, she did as he asked. A moment later, she was in his arms and being lowered to the ground next to him. He turned, and with the image of the light still fresh in his mind, he started toward what he hoped was the way out. One hand held Lila’s hand tightly while the other held the pipe extended in front of him, investigating his surroundings like an insect’s antenna. Although he couldn’t see the door, he sensed he was getting close as a sound like that of an angry mob grew increasingly loud. A moment later, his pipe clanged against the metal door. He felt for a doorknob but found a push bar instead. Leaning in close, he pressed his ear to the door, hoping to get an idea about what was happening outside.

  The noise was chaotic, like the dull roar of a protesting crowd. Could they be other survivors who’d come up with the same plan? The sound of helicopters passing overhead was nearly constant. Considering he’d hoped to slip out of the park undetected, both the crowd and the helicopters made him exceptionally nervous. After all, he’d witnessed Apache helicopters employ their 30mm chain guns and hydra rockets with devastating efficiency, lighting up packs of zombies as well as taking down presumably uninfected individuals in order to prevent them from breeching the quarantine zone.

  Eric paused for a few moments as he listened to the whir of the helicopters’ rotors. When he heard one of the choppers pass by, he risked cracking the door to get a better read on the situation. The sound of the crowd grew substantially louder despite the fact that he still couldn’t see what was responsible for the noise. Without warning, one of the helicopters emerged from over the Deep Space Vortex before disappearing into the distance. As it passed, its searchlight cast a light on something that made his stomach drop. Like concertgoers in a mosh pit, hundreds of zombies pressed forward with hands raised in the air. If the zombies were like moshers, then the service entrance was the stage they were all trying to reach.

  Far more formidable than the one at the foot of Broadway, a barricade had been erected at the service entrance. He hadn’t seen any military personnel as the light swept past, and he couldn’t help but wonder if that had anything to do with the Fat Lady’s imminent reign of terror. Turning to Lila, he said, “Let me see the watch.” Although he needed to know how much time he had to work with, part of him didn’t want to know the answer.

  Lila rooted around in her pocket before producing the wristwatch. Eric fastened it around his wrist and activated the backlight. When he looked down at the watch, the fear that had been coursing through his veins was instantly supplanted by anger and disgust. Staring back at him was Larry the Lion’s contemptuous face; his arms bent at awkward angles as they dutifully marked the time. He knew intellectually that it was just a child’s watch, but he couldn’t help but see it as yet another mocking reminder that Fun World always seemed to find a way to fuck you in the end. The watch read 12:45 a.m. Discouraged and tired beyond belief, he hung his head, unsure of what to do next.

  He hadn’t noticed Lila poking her head out beside him, so he was startled when she spoke. Pointing to a drainage ditch to the left of the writhing sea of zombies, she said, “What about that?” He followed her finger to a thick black line running along the ground. Sensing his confusion, she added, “Maybe we could crawl through there?”

  Realizing what he was looking at and what she was suggesting, his dour expression became decidedly optimistic. “Lila, you’re brilliant,” he said earnestly. As impressed as he was with her ingenuity, he couldn’t help feeling a little ashamed of the fact that he’d allowed the situation to get the best of him.

  19

  Eric and Lila scanned the sky and waited until there were no helicopters nearby before exiting the Deep Space Vortex. Given the stark contrast between their filthy clothes and the dome’s brilliant white walls, they pressed close to a nearby row of shrubs as they crept toward the drainage ditch. Peering over the edge, they saw that the bottom of the six-foot gully was filled with water. Aside from the moon’s reflection, the oil-black surface was as dark and smooth as onyx. The ditch meandered off, disappearing into the shadows like a black snake slithering into the woods.

  Eric held a cautionary finger to his lips as he motioned for her to slip into the ditch. He kept a watchful eye for any danger lurking close by. Considering the tumult of the zombie horde less than fifty feet away, he wasn’t sure he would hear anything until it was directly upon them. The ripples propagating over the water’s glassy surface told him she’d made it to the bottom. Without hesitation, he slipped into the murky water directly behind her.

  Crouching low and moving slowly to avoid making a splash, Eric trudged forward with Lila close on his heels. After traveling roughly fifteen feet, an even blacker void materialized directly ahead. As they inched closer, the opening of a large culvert slowly took shape. When he reached the mouth of the pipe, he stopped and signaled for Lila to wait just outside. Not knowing what dangers might lay hidden inside, he wanted to be certain he wasn’t leading his daughter into a death trap. Leaning in close, he whispered, “Don’t come in until you hear me tap three times.”

  Eric didn’t think he would ever experience darkness more absolute than what he’d endured inside the Vortex, but he was wrong. He wouldn’t have been all that surprised if he would’ve fallen into a bottomless ravine the moment he stepped inside the dark tunnel. As terrifying as the darkness was, he rationalized that if it prevented him from seeing any nearby zombies, it would likely make it hard for them to see him as well. Besides, with time ticking away, he saw no other choice. Before he had a chance to psych himself out, he disappeared into the culvert.

  After what seemed like fifteen yards, Eric heard the dull, reverberating thuds of what sounded like footsteps above. He paused to listen; hoping that
whoever was passing overhead would do so without incident. When he heard the unintelligible murmur of voices, he quickly tapped on the wall three times. The miniscule sound echoed down the culvert only to be drowned out by the soldiers’ voices.

  Lila tried to watch him but saw nothing beyond his first step. Despite the fact that he was out of sight, she found comfort in the soft, sloshing sound of his footfalls. When that vanished a short time later, she felt incredibly alone. The world was deathly quiet. Even the din of the zombies at the service entrance seemed almost imperceptible from where she stood in the ditch. Not even the insects made any sounds. Needless to say, when the first hint of a human voice reached her ear, it came with a mix of excitement and fear. With each increasingly loud syllable, however, Lila’s panic rose.

  “Look, all I’m saying is that Martin is full of shit. There ain’t no cure for this thing. That’s probably just what they’re telling us grunts to keep us from deserting our post before they have a chance to wrap this thing up. I got a buddy working with biological, and he says nobody even has a clue what it is much less how to cure it,” a soldier with a thick Hispanic accent said. His voice grew louder as they neared the mouth of the drainage pipe.

  A tiny splash sounded in the darkness. Although Lila couldn’t see what had caused the noise, the shadows and reflections of moonlight provided her imagination with plenty of fodder. Naturally, it stopped on one of the things she most feared: snakes.

  A high pitched, nasally voice called out from the road above, “You hear that, Gomez?”

  “Man, I didn’t hear shit, Jiwalski,” the soldier named Gomez replied. “Let’s just keep moving toward the FOB. I don’t want to miss our ride out of here. You know Uncle Sam don’t give a shit if we’re in here or not when he nukes the place.”

  Ignoring the other soldier, Jiwalski switched on his weapon-mounted light and panned it around in search of the source of the noise. He swept the area, stopping when something in the bottom of the ditch caught his eye.

  Seeing the light, Lila inched farther into the drainage pipe. When the beam stopped a few feet away, she couldn’t immediately tell what had captured the soldier’s attention. Glistening under the high-powered light, the thing floating on the water’s surface looked like a piece of driftwood. That is until the light shifted and she saw the ominous pair of red glowing orbs hovering at the waterline. Unbridled fear accompanied the realization that she wasn’t alone in the drainage ditch. With danger above as well as directly across from her, she didn’t know whether to run screaming or stay absolutely still. In the end, the decision was made for her when she found herself paralyzed by the terrifying pair of unblinking eyes.

  Above, Gomez said, “Dude, don’t shoot! Alligators are like bulletproof, man. You’ll probably just piss it off. Besides, the captain will lose his shit if he finds out we were wasting ammo on a damn lizard.”

  Miffed but not lowering his rifle, Jiwalski said, “Bulletproof? Yeah, whatever. What the hell do you know about…”

  The brash soldier fell silent at the rustling sound in the woods on the far side of the ditch. Shifting his rifle toward the noise, he panned his light over the trees.

  The gator stirred slightly when the light moved away, and Lila felt the subtle ripple of water against her leg. No longer able to see the gigantic reptile, her fear of being devoured by the massive alligator finally surpassed that of being discovered by the soldiers, and she lurched backward, hoping to distance herself from the gator. Water sloshed noisily, but she didn’t care.

  At roughly the same time, a mangled zombie staggered out of the trees. Focused only on the soldiers, it shambled forward before tumbling headlong into the ditch. Like a fat guy doing a belly flop, it hit the water with a loud splash that easily masked the sound of Lila’s retreat. If the alligator had been about to attack the little girl, it found a new target when the heedless zombie landed directly in its path. The gator surged forward with startling speed, its powerful jaws snapping shut on the undead fiend. Flexing its muscular tail, it rolled to the side, dragging the zombie beneath the shallow water’s surface in an effort to drown and dismember the thing. When it resurfaced, the reptile had a significant chunk of the zombie’s midsection still in its maw. Awestruck, the soldiers watched as the wretched corpse tried to scramble up the bank in their direction, oblivious of the fact that its intestines were trailing behind like wedding streamers after a zombie wedding.

  “HO-LY SHIT,” Jiwalski said. “That was fuckin’ awesome! Did you see that shit, Gomez?”

  Gomez shot Jiwalski an incredulous look and said, “Nah, man. What shit you talkin’ ’bout?”

  Several loops of the zombie intestines hooked on an exposed tree root jutting out of the bank. Like a tether, they pulled the zombie backward, once again sending it toppling into the water with a big splash. The alligator happily went in for another bite.

  “Gomez, I just got a brilliant idea!” Jiwalski said excitedly, his face awash with amusement. Gomez gave the stocky man a look that said he seriously doubted he’d ever had an idea remotely close to brilliant. “When we get out of here, we can set up a show like Man vs. Wild, except it will be Zombie vs. Wild. People would pay good money to see this shit! We could get lions, bears, sharks…”

  “With frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads?” Gomez added mockingly. “You’re outta your damn mind, Jiwalski. I don’t want nothing to do these things once I get out of here. Now can we just go?”

  Gomez was already walking away. Jiwalski took one last long look at the one-sided zombie vs. alligator battle going on in the ditch below before jogging off to catch up with his partner.

  The alligator hissed and bellowed while the zombie snarled. In the background, the soldier’s nasally laugh made everything feel more frightening. The terrifying sounds echoed down the pipe behind Lila, making it sound as though all of the monsters were coming after her. She slogged forward in the pitch black, pressing her legs for every ounce of energy they had.

  Thwack!

  Lila’s world was suddenly knocked off axis when she slammed into something inside the drainage pipe. Although she couldn’t see what she’d run into, it groaned in response to the collision. Fear shot through her despite the fact that the moan sounded more like it was rooted in pain than feral hunger.

  “Who’s there? Daddy?” she cried, uncertain of who or what was with her now.

  There was no response as she was hauled her up by the arm and roughly dragged through the culvert. Cool air struck her a moment later as the terror-laden soundtrack dissipated. Too exhausted to fight, she collapsed into the water with a splash.

  “Quiet,” Eric whispered, crouching near the spot where Lila sat in the water.

  Breathing too hard to speak, she risked a quick glance over her shoulder. Aside from her heart feeling like it would explode if it were to beat any faster, she was otherwise unscathed. The sound of the zombie and the alligator, which had been so loud inside the tunnel, now sounded as distant as if it had been in another world.

  Eric stared after the pair of soldiers, watching them vanish into the darkness as they continued their patrol. As he peered into the jet-black abyss, he couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that washed over him. Everything was completely still, almost peaceful. Not even the leaves on the trees moved. Considering the chaotic hell he and Lila had endured since the Happy Little World came crashing down around them, the contrast was strangely surreal. There wasn’t a single zombie in sight. Are we outside the quarantine zone? He looked for the park’s perimeter fence but was unable to see much of anything in the inky blackness. Were it not for the distant sound of the half-eaten zombie on the other end of the drainpipe, he could’ve convinced himself that they were alone—that it had all been a terrible nightmare. Indeed, staring into the darkness, he saw nothing, not even the lone figure watching them from the shadows. Shielding the watch from view, he activated the backlight.

  1:30 a.m.

  When he was satisfied that the soldiers had
moved on, Eric turned to face Lila. Lips quivering, her pale face was silhouetted in the dim moonlight. “You okay, sweetie? Are you hurt?” he asked, knowing the question was as ridiculous as it sounded.

  Lila stared past him, as if there was something that she alone could see in the gloom. She sat quietly for a moment before responding flatly, “I’m not hurt, Daddy.”

  He couldn’t help noticing that she hadn’t answered his first question. Given the circumstances, he decided not to press her for an answer. Besides, her voice told him everything he needed to know. She was being pushed beyond her limit; he only prayed she could hold out for just a little longer. With that in mind, he said, “Let’s go find your mother.”