Fun World Read online

  Eric cursed under his breath. “What the hell? When does that ever happen?” He was about to redial the number, when the path ahead shifted dramatically. Like a shark cutting through the ocean waters, something carved a track through the adjacent crowd. It moved perpendicular to Eric’s path and was on course to intercept him from the right side. Suddenly, a large, young man that looked like the center on a high school football team burst through the crowd ten feet ahead of them, scattering people in every direction as he did. The wild-eyed man didn’t register the disapproving scowls and angry threats of violence from those he’d just plowed through. For a brief moment, he locked eyes with Eric, who instantly recognized the young man’s terror-stricken look. Without consideration of what or who was in front of him, the young man continued barreling through the crowd. Eric could think of only one thing capable of inducing that degree of panic in such a big guy, and it filled him with a similar sense of dread.

  Eric’s worst fears were realized a moment later when bloodcurdling screams erupted from the direction the man had come. As if in confirmation of his previous concerns, the hysterical mass pressed forward, heedless of those around it. Like a herd of gazelles fleeing from a pack of predators, what followed could only be described as a human stampede. The closest human equivalent he could imagine was what occasionally happened at soccer stadiums when overzealous spectators stormed the field after a disappointing loss. More than one person was trampled underfoot as everyone fought to get away from whatever was behind them. Although he hadn’t yet seen or heard them, Eric had a pretty good idea what had sparked the uproar.

  People slammed into Eric and Lila from every direction, making it impossible to see a clear path forward. He struggled to maintain his tenuous grip on Lila’s hand in the midst of the surging crowd. As far as he was concerned, only death could pry her away from him. Although he didn’t think he’d soon forget the grisly, ravenous faces he’d seen, the close quarters made it difficult to tell who was infected and who wasn’t. He was thankful to see only frightened faces pushing past them—frightened, uninfected faces. That they were scared was evident, though he didn’t know if any of them actually knew what they were supposed to be scared of. Instead, he imagined they were merely displaying the herd mentality that had served to protect animals of all kinds throughout history. When the first esurient moans of the infected echoed in the distance, he feared they were about to receive a lesson that most of them wouldn’t survive.

  As the maelstrom brewing all around them spiraled out of control, Eric knew he and Lila had to find a way out or risk being dragged down by it. Ahead, the smallest of lanes opened amidst the park-goers fleeing for their lives. He didn’t hesitate, and with Lila in tow, he bolted forward to take advantage of his good fortune. Stick in hand and arm extended in front of him, he fended off anyone who stepped in his way. More than once he was forced to shoulder bump someone to keep the narrow corridor clear. The anger and confrontation people had displayed moments ago was all gone; now there was only panic and dread.

  Roughly fifty yards ahead, a woman who Eric assumed was infected violently pulled a much larger man to the ground. The man screamed in pain and called out to a God that clearly wasn’t listening. Blood spurted from his neck as his cries became gurgled and waterlogged. Impressive red plumes spewed forth, as he coughed and bucked the last vestiges of life out. In what seemed like no time at all, the lifeless man began to twitch. It was so subtle at first that Eric wondered if the movement caused by his running might be causing his eyes to deceive him. Soon the convulsions grew so intense that it appeared as though the man was in the throes of a grand mal seizure.

  Every fiber in Eric’s body screamed for him to alter his course and run away from the pair, but he saw no alternative. The mortifying din behind dared him to turn around. From the sound of it, the situation at his back was no less dangerous than the woman on her hands and knees tearing into the poor man. At least I can see what I’m dealing with up ahead. He glanced to the sides, hoping beyond hope to see a way out of the madness. Swallowing hard, he steeled his nerves and pressed forward through the tightening crowd.

  By the time they reached the fallen man, the woman who’d attacked him had moved on in search of other prey. The man’s eyes were closed, and Eric was sure he was dead or dying given the insane amount of blood blanketing the area and the gaping void that existed where his throat should have been. Eric nearly jumped out of his skin when the man’s eyes suddenly snapped open as Eric and Lila hurried past. Lacking any trace of humanity, the dark, callous orbs that had been hidden behind shuttered eyelids proved far more terrifying than the gore-covered corpse. Black gossamer lines emanated away from even blacker pupils in the lifeless eyes.

  It was the first time Eric had really seen up close someone become infected. He’d been so caught off guard by the brutality he’d witnessed on the ride and too preoccupied with staying alive to pay much attention to anything else. Additionally, the darkness within the Happy Little World had obscured many of the gory details that the sunlight put on gross display. While he knew he was likely to get way more education on the subject than he cared for, he was initially shocked by the speed with which the transformation took place. He resisted the urge to glance over his shoulder to see if the man was already climbing to his feet. There was far too much chaos in front of him to risk looking away for even a second.

  Eric’s legs burned and felt as though they weighed a ton as the lactic acid in his muscles reached a critical level. The pain in his lungs made him feel as if he were breathing pure fire. He’d heard that all of Fun World was roughly the same size as San Francisco, and he wondered how far the park’s exit was from their location. Given the hysterical crowd all around them, it might as well have been a thousand miles away. Even so, he knew he would run until his muscles tore away from his bones if it meant keeping Lila safe. Glancing down at his daughter, he saw she was breathing heavily but otherwise looked no worse for the wear. Youth is such a fickle bitch! Old Man Time is the real bastard!

  “Jump,” Eric shouted over the roar of the panicked crowd. An overturned stroller lay across their path, and he was thankful not to see a child strapped in it. Lila leapt and he pulled on her arm to give her extra lift as they hurdled over the obstacle.

  The path they were on merged with another to form a T intersection ahead. To one side was a large, raised planter filled with an impressive assortment of dense vegetation that likely required several full-time employees just to maintain it. It was the kind of gaudy excess that Eric hated about Fun World, but at that moment, he wanted to kiss the gardeners. The planter looked like an island sanctuary poking out of the human maelstrom churning all around. With the mob growing steadily more volatile by the second—and his legs more fatigued—the thought of even a momentary reprieve was alluring. Dragging Lila behind him, he made a beeline for the planter.

  Eric hoisted Lila onto the waist-high brick retaining wall before scrambling into the vegetation behind her. They easily disappeared into the center of the planter, which was nearly ten feet wide and blanketed by dense, broad-leaved foliage. Eric dropped to his knees as the merciless fire raging in his legs finally began to ebb. With the verdure obscuring the walkways on either side, it felt like they’d found a secret safe haven hidden in plain sight. In truth, he doubted that any safety they found would be anything more than temporary. The hectic sounds slicing through their cover with ease certainly supported that notion. Someone trapped in the human logjam must have noticed them disappear over the retaining wall, because they soon heard desperate voices yelling in their direction.

  “This way! Into the bushes!” one man cried.

  Another more frantic voice replied, “Maybe they found a way out!”

  Eric had no idea who they were or what kind of people they were, but he assumed they were bad news. At the very least, they meant that more people were likely to come crashing through the leafy cover at any moment, giving away the location of Eric and Lila’s temporary r
efuge. Some of them might even be infected. He also knew that desperate times caused men, even good men, to act desperately. Any way he looked at it, he felt that the safest place to be was away from everyone else. What was becoming all too apparent was how difficult it was going to be to achieve such isolation with tens of thousands of people running wildly in every direction.

  In response to the voices, Eric and Lila slipped further into the vegetation. Unfortunately, that also meant moving closer to the other side of the planter. When the walkway in front came into view, Eric was relieved to see that it wasn’t as crowded as the one they’d just escaped. He moved closer to the edge and risked poking his head out to assess the situation. There appeared to be a full-scale riot in progress to the right; the bedlam outside Fairy Land and the Happy Little World was intensifying and working its way toward their position. To the left loomed the Haunted Manor’s ominous outline. Given what they’d been through, he thought the creepy mansion looked more like a gingerbread house than anything to fear. Although the route past the haunted house was longer, heading in the other direction would be suicide. The sounds coming from behind them reminded him that they risked death if they stayed put, though he couldn’t say which option posed the greatest risk. At least out there is one step closer to getting the hell out of this nightmare… Scared, Lila pressed closer to him, and her contact infused him with strength.

  “Come on. We can’t stay here,” Eric said more confidently than he felt. His body ached, and the thought of fighting through yet another crowd wasn’t appealing. Even so, they moved to the edge of the planter’s retaining wall and dropped down onto the path below. It was less congested than the one they’d come from, and they moved with relative ease. Unfortunately it didn’t last, as the walkway narrowed and they soon found themselves so tightly packed that it was hard to move at all. Eric cursed under his breath, knowing that being stuck in such a human traffic jam meant certain death. Not wanting Lila to see his concern, he fought to keep his burgeoning panic from reaching his eyes.

  Roughly ten feet ahead on the path sat an abandoned souvenir stand. Jutting out like a deserted island in the river of people, it was big and had undoubtedly been the scourge of countless parents who’d tried to usher their kids past before being snared by its unabashed commercial onslaught of trinkets and novelties. Now, it seemed wholly out of place amidst the madness—a surreal beacon within a raging storm. Bubbles still spewed into the air from Larry the Lion bubble guns hanging from its side. Multicolored lights flashed and flickered on every kind of trinket imaginable as the cart rocked violently under the force of the surging crowd. A jovial melody reminiscent of the ice cream truck Eric remembered from his childhood could be heard, vying for a piece of the crowded soundscape.

  “This way,” he shouted over the noise of the crowd.

  Eric and Lila pushed through the mob, heading toward the deserted kiosk. Hoping to get a better read on the situation, Eric climbed onto one of the large faux rocks that lined the walkway’s edge. He hefted Lila up beside him before turning to survey the scene. His heart sank as he gazed out over the endless sea of faces. He was instantly thankful that Lila wasn’t tall enough to see what he saw. All manner of unbridled emotions were on full display—pain, fear, shock, and rage—as was the monsters’ savage hunger. The latter was by far the worst; such ravenous need and primal brutality didn’t even seem human. Perhaps the only saving grace was the sparsity of the monsters scattered throughout the group. Unfortunately, he had a feeling that wasn’t going to be the case for much longer.

  Eric and Lila hopped from rock to rock before coming to a stop directly across from the abandoned kiosk. The blood coating its side made it apparent that it wasn’t the happy little oasis of lights and bubbles that Lila had hoped for. She did her best not to think about the red smears and the heinous story they told.

  Suddenly, a pair of desperate hands clamped around Lila’s ankle, nearly pulling her down into the human vortex. She screamed as she fought to keep her balance. Eric had seen the hands the moment they started moving toward his little girl. Overcome with rage, he didn’t even bother looking to see whom the hands belonged to. He whirled his club around with startling speed and brought it down hard on the person’s forearms. The crunching noise made him worry his stick had splintered; it had not. If the hands’ owner made any sound at all, it was lost in the din of the crowd. Eric pulled Lila close to him as the devastated hands fell away. Almost immediately, more frantic hands reached in their direction.

  Without hesitation, Eric leapt over the small gap to the kiosk. It creaked under his weight but held fast as he scrambled onto the roof. He steadied himself as the structure shuddered with the impacts of so many fleeing tourists. Just ahead, maybe five feet away, was the roof of another small building. We can make it! Maybe that’s our way out of this madness. Turning back to Lila, he reached out to signal that he was ready to catch her.

  “You have to jump, sweetie. You can do it,” he said encouragingly.

  Lila looked far less certain about the prospect of her clearing the void, and her father’s pleading eyes did little to bolster her confidence. The panicked voices and outstretched hands, however, provided just enough motivation. She took a running step and jumped with everything she had. Even then, she barely reached the cart’s roof. Eric snagged her arm and hung on for dear life. Had she been any heavier, they would’ve both tumbled into the seething mass of people below. As she dangled precariously over the edge, an arm shot up out of the crowd and latched onto Lila’s right leg. She screamed and Eric immediately swung in the direction of the rogue hand. There was another sickening crack as the heavy stick connected with bone. This hand, like the last, disappeared into the writhing carpet of bodies as he pulled her to safety.

  Spurred to even greater frenzy by some unseen force, the weight of the rushing crowd slammed into the cart. Before Eric had a chance to catch his breath, his entire world began to list dangerously to the side. Disorientation and confusion quickly gave way to understanding. There was no doubt they were going over; the only question was where they would land. Unwilling to leave it to chance, he scooped Lila into his arms and leapt toward the edge of the crowd. The momentum garnered by the toppling kiosk propelled them the extra distance to the retaining wall bordering the walkway. They landed hard, rolling headlong into the vegetation. With Lila in his arms, he’d been unable to use his hands to break his fall, and his face slammed into the ground. Coughing, he spit out dirt and blood as he pulled himself into a low crouch. For the second time that day, he found himself hunkered down in an overgrown planter in the middle of Fun World as hell raged all around. The combined assaults his body had endured were definitely starting to pile up as every part of him ached simultaneously.

  Looking over to Lila, he asked, “Are you hurt?” He was relieved when she shook her head in reply.

  While Eric couldn’t say the same, he was thankful not to have sustained anything more serious than a few bumps and bruises. The day hadn’t started out on his side and had been steadily going to shit ever since. Given the rate at which the situation was deteriorating, he couldn’t help but wonder if he and Lila would ever make it out of the park alive. Stealing a glance at Lila, he forced that thought from his mind. Despite everything that had happened, she didn’t look much worse for the wear, and for that he has grateful. Most remarkable of all was the little sparkle her eyes still possessed, shimmering like diamonds of hope. I WILL get her out of this shit or die trying.

  Once again, Eric found himself peering out from behind thick leaves at yet another walkway swarming with hysterical vacationers. To his right was another intersection. The path they’d been on merged with another, creating a massive collision of bodies. While some people were crushed in the resulting stampede, most swirled and eddied around one another as they were propelled past Eric’s position by the force of those crowding in behind them.

  Although he couldn’t clearly see where the path led, he could see that it widened. He cl
osed his eyes and tried to visualize the park’s layout in his head. When he reopened them, he was fairly certain the path ahead emptied into the central corridor of the Old Western Frontier—one of Fun World’s many themed areas. If that’s true, then which way is out from there? He tried repeatedly to retrace the route they’d taken that morning, but each time he came to a mental dead end at Larry the Lion. The anger generated by that experience had been so intense that it had seemingly overwritten many of the morning’s details prior to that point. Eric grunted in frustration. Screwed by that dirty feline bastard once again! Whoever said that this is the most wonderful place in the world is a real asshole!

  Remembering the folded map lying on the hotel dresser, Eric cursed himself for stubbornly proclaiming that he had no need for it. When Melanie told him to take it, he’d argued that signs posted at every turn pointed visitors in the right direction. The only problem was that he couldn’t see any of the signs from where he was hiding in the planter. In the end, he didn’t think it much mattered. They could travel only a short distance within the safety of the planter’s cover before they would be forced back into the crowd. At that point, they would be at the mercy of the human current and wherever it saw fit to take them.

  Moving stealthily, Eric and Lila crept to the far end of the planter. Indeed, the path spilled into the wide central hub of the Old Western Frontier like a river flowing into a delta. Much like a river’s sediment, some people simply ceased moving once they were no longer being driven downstream by the surge of bodies behind them. Paralyzed by confusion, many of them were pulled to the ground by the infected, whose numbers were clearly increasing.