DEAD SWAMP - Chapter 5

.........................................................5.

Brian's fingers fell slack as he realized that he and Jess were not alone and the pudding cup fell to the polished floor. A shadow hiding in the corner--black on black--shifted and then two forms came forward. A squat, scruffy man sporting a grease-stained T-shirt stretched over an expansive gut moved into the light. Knives were held to his jeans with electrical tape and he had used the drawstrings of an apron to form a makeshift holster that hung diagonally under his armpit. In it hung a small, hand-held propane torch that looked like it was no stranger to flame. Its small, lethal-looking metal head was blackened from use.

"If you're gonna go through the trouble of taking a man's food, kid, the least you could do is not waste it."

Brian stared at the newcomer for an instant, the words taking a moment to sink in. In a flash, he realized what the fat man's intent was and he bent down to scoop up the pudding off the floor.

Brian shot a glance at Jess and decided to say something. "Sorry, Mister, we didn't mean to steal your food. I mean--"

A flash of silver sliced through the air and embedded itself in the wall behind Brian. "Get out. Now."

Jess spoke up. "Now, wait just a second, guy, there ain't exactly a welcoming committee out there. We need a place to hide out for a bit--"

"This ain't the place. Is it, Jules?"

A tall, thin reed of a man stepped out of the shadows, chewing tobacco. He spat a stream of juice through his teeth that made a sharp splat as it hit the floor.

Two belts criss-crossed his shoulders like bandoleers keeping various pieces of silverware ready for action and where they linked in the back, a tire iron hung. Jules smiled, revealing a jack o'lantern grin.

"Nope," was all he said and shifted a lump of chaw from one side of his mouth to the other.

"Look, guys, zombies are out there--" Jess shot a finger at the door--"and at any point they could be in here. The best thing right now is for all of us to shut up and figure out what the hell is going on around here."

The fat man strode across the darkened room and got up in Jess' face. His grimy finger waved frantically in front of Jess' nose.

"Look, son, I don't give a shit what's goin' on outside that door. Jules an' me's got ourselves a nice little hidey hole--an outta the way-type place, you might say. And while it's fine for Jules and me to hide out in, there ain't no room for visitors."

Jules spat on the floor again. "'specially no fuckin' Yanks."

Jess had come across Jules' type before--good ol' boys who waved the Confederate Flag and pissed on anything that was made above the Mason-Dixon line. There was a bad streak running through him and a simmering rage left just to boil under his skin. He was going to be trouble if and when Jess convinced the pair to let him and Brian stay, which looked like less and less of a certainty with each passing moment.

"Look, like I said, we're not looking for trouble. But there's a couple of hundred zombies headed this--"

The door burst open and zombies flooded into the room.

Jess took a second to count how many undead were stumbling over--stopped when he hit ten--and darted over to where Brian still sat on the counter. "Come on, kid, time to move."

Within an instant, the kitchen had become overrun with the dead and Jess knew that he and Brian had to split. But all of a sudden, time seemed to slow down and one single idea crystalized in his mind and a plan came together and gelled.

Jess dove onto the counter, reached behind the oven and, with a quick yank, pulled the gas line free. Immediately, a quiet hiss arose and the faint tang of gas hit Jess' nose. Brian knew what Jess was going for and headed for the door on the far side of the room.

"What the hellya doin'?" screamed the fat man, as Jess darted over to him and grabbed the propane tank hanging off his makeshift holster.

Jules had run over to the waves of the undead and started to swing the tire iron against them to little avail. Jess pushed Brian through the door into the next room. The fat man started hacking away at the dead with the knives in his bandoleers and flesh and blood started flying through the air as the two young men darted through the doorway.

The most unsettling thing Jess noticed was the utter silence in the room. The only sounds were the grunted workings of the two rednecks.

"Guys, unless you've got asbestos underwear, I'd be hustling to get out of there," he called through the doorway.

The gas had filled the entire room quickly; the industrial sized oven had had a larger hose than a standard oven. Jess could smell the strong odor of gas, even in the next room.

Jules and his companion flew through the doorway like bats out of hell and shut the door behind them. Pounding on the big wooden door ensued as Jess lit the propane burner on the end of its long neck. The dead wanted food. Jess was gonna cook for them. The fat man and Jules leaned against the door, holding it closed before the onslaught of the dead.

Jess nodded at the fat man and said, "Now."

The door was opened a scant few inches and Jess tossed the propane tank high over the zombies' heads. "Down!" he screamed.

The earth shook as the room next door went up in a giant ball of flame. The wooden door the zombies had been trying to get through mere seconds before blew out and dissolved into a cloud of splinters. The fireball from the explosion swept into the room and reached across the ceiling.

Jess tapped Brian on the shoulder and motioned for the exit door. The pair got up immediately and darted out of the building and into the night.

Around the corner, Jess could see the army of the dead milling about the main pathway. In moments, the dead could be upon them. He scanned the nearby buildings and realized that they were behind the attractions, where the employees all moved from attraction to attraction during their shift, keeping them away from the eyes of vacationing tourists.

"Where to now?" asked Brian.

Jess shook his head. He had no idea. He just wanted to get out of the damned park. Find Sheila. Go home.

"There." He pointed to a doorway across the pathway. "Let's head in there. Maybe we'll be able to find ourselves some weapons like Jules and his buddy did."

Brian nodded and took off. The pair slipped through the door and stood silent inside the building, just listening for a moment for any indication that the dead were among them. They found themselves in a long, carpeted hallway that ran on for a hundred yards in either direction. Small lights dotted the hallway. After a minute or two with no sound, they moved forward.

"This looks familiar, man," Brian said.

Jess shrugged. "I've been in too many places over the past few days for me to recognize it."

"Not me. I've been down this hallway a couple hundred times. This is the walkway up to 'Renegades of the Islands'."

"Ok, so what do we do? Head to the ride or head toward the exit?"

It was Brian's turn to shrug. "Let's head toward the ride, maybe there are a few more survivors who are more ... normal."

"Or we could run into Jules' cousins. Let's go."

They made their way down the empty hallway in silence, making sure to check all the narrow alcoves for anyone hiding from the monsters.

They came to the loading dock for the pirate ships that took riders into another world, a world of Caribbean plunder and wonder. Standing on the dock, Jess tried to see up through a window into the control booth. Maybe some of the employees were hiding up there.

"Hello!" he called.

And the lights went out, sending the two of them into complete darkness.

Jess called out again, "Hello!"

"What's that?" Brian whispered.

"What? I don't hear anything."

A low rumbling--so deep that Jess felt it in his toes-- vibrated the floorboards. All of a sudden, one of the attractions' pirate ships flew down the final drop and landed in the waterway beside the track. The resulting wave knocked Jess off the dock and into the water. "Shit," he sputtered in the darkness. "Brian, I could use a hand here."

The kid did not respond.

"Brian!" He called into the darkness.

Nothing.

In the darkness, Jess crouched low in the water and scanned the black void before him.

"Brian!" he called again.

And again, there was no response. Jess began to realize just how alone in this new world he could be.

DEAD SWAMP - Chapter 4

................................................4.

"You're dad?!?!"

"Yeah, it's my dad."

The thing on the ground began to rise. Jess' attack with the wrought iron chair had fractured some of its ribs and a thin, black liquid poured from its wounds. It made sounds as it got up, unholy sucking sounds, as if it had been mired in mud for ages. As Jess watched, some of its internal organs sluiced around and spilled to the ground.

Jess glanced around the courtyard. The pair of zombies--and now he couldn't help but think of them that way, it was indeed what they were--were closing in on them. They lumbered along the manicured paths, their arms outstretched, hungering for Brian and himself.

Jess thought fast. "Brian, I don't think there's any other way. We've got two choices: kill him or leave him. Either way, I could care less, but we've got to get out of here quickly."

Brian glanced at the thing that, until recently, had been his father. Memories flooded in and he was brought to tears. Jess glanced around at the pair of zombies closing the gap between themselves and Brian. "Kid," he prodded.

Brian shook his head.

"OK," Jess said and pulled Brian by the sleeve. "Decision made for us. We're outta here."

Brian didn't move for a moment and, for a second, the briefest of moments, Jess thought they were doomed. In his mind, he saw a swarm of those things overtaking them, dragging them to the ground, eating their flesh and tearing them to pieces. The scene played out in his mind's eye and Jess did not like it.

Tears fell from Brian's cheeks to the ground below.

The corpse that once was Brian's father rose to its knees a few feet away. It leaned forward, it's arms reaching for the young boy.

Jess beat it to the punch.

He grabbed Brian, scooped him up and the two of them took off into the night. The two zombies met up with Brian's dad and the three of them lumbered after the escaping food.

"Where are we going, Brian?" Jess half-carried, half-led them out of the courtyard and back onto one of the more main footpaths that joined the various "lands" that made up The Happy Kingdom.

Brian sniffed through his tears and muttered, "How the hell should I know? You're leading us."

"I meant, which way should we be heading?"

Another sniffle. "You don't have a plan?"

Jess dropped him on the pavement. "Of course I don't have a plan! One second I'm with my fiance, enjoying vacation, trying to blow off some of the steam that's been clogging up my life lately and the next, she's gone--eaten, killed, a fucking zombie herself, I don't know. Of course I don't have a plan. I should be out there--" he waved an arm wildly--"trying to find her, trying to put my life back in order--"

"Order? Order!?!?!" Brian's voice cracked as it launched a handful of octaves. "Fuck you and your order! My entire family's toast! You saw what happened with my dad! My kid brother's gone--torn apart by those ... those things!! You want your life back in order!?!? I want my life back in order!! I want my parents alive and my brother alive and I want to be back home!!"

They stared at each other for a moment. Brian's screams echoed off the surrounding buildings.

Finally, a snicker escaped from Jess' mouth and a thin smile came to his lips. "Guess we're both fucked."

A low moan caught their attention. A group of zombies--Jess couldn't tell how many there were but there were a lot--were blocking off the path that led back to "Old Fashioned Town", the only way back to the main gates and, consequently, the only escape route out of the park.

One woman, wearing only her panties and the tattered remains of a jumper, ambled toward them, her stomach ripped open, as if by dull blades, a single rope of intestines dangled and dragged behind her, glistening in the lamps overhead. She led the mob that blocked their escape route. More zombies spilled forth from every doorway, every pathway, surging forward, seeking the flesh that still lived.

Jess started heading in the opposition. "OK, let's just say we're both royally screwed right now and we need to be on the move. OK? Good." He nodded over his shoulder. "Prairieland or Thrillworld?"

Brian's father's corpse rounded the corner with the other two zombies in tow. Brian stared at his father's ruined eye hung loosely against the flap of skin that had once been his cheek. He wiped his nose and sniffled. "Thrillworld. Now."

They jogged down the concrete footpath, under a large, futuristic-looking banner that read THRILLWORLD in neon red electric letters and quickly slipped between shiny steel buildings.

The boy banked to the right and came to a large fence, that ordinarily provided a quick exit for any of the cartoon characters as they milled about the crowds, signing "autographs" and taking pictures with the children--and occasionally with their parents. The cruel temperatures of the Florida sun caused the Frisby folks to initiate a policy limiting the costumed actors' time outside and erect the tall, privacy-inducing fences, which allowed for the actors to hastily remove themselves from the crowds before shedding their overheated costumed heads.

Brian cracked a gate open and peered through. The corridor beyond was empty. "Hey, Mister. In here." And he ducked behind the tall, wooden gate. Jess was halfway to the next building before skidding to a halt, his Chuck Taylors screeching on the concrete. Spinning on his heel, he followed Brian through the gate and found himself in a quiet corridor devoid of the dead.

For the first time in the past half hour, Jess felt himself relax--allowed himself the luxury of relaxing. The two of them moved down the corridor until they came to the first door.

Jess quietly turned the knob and slowly opened the door. It was dark inside but no sound of monsters came from the shadows within.

He motioned Brian to follow him.

The darkness within was soothingly cool, the air conditioning still running to fight with the previous warm October afternoon.

"Where are we?" Brian peered into the darkness.

"I think we're in the kitchen of the Skyway Cafe."

"OK. Why aren't there any zombies in here?"

"I'm not sure. The cafe closes at eight ... If the place was shut up tight when things went bad, there won't have been anyone in here to here to change. We should be relatively safe."

The two made their way to the massive refrigerators that lined the back wall. Brian swung one of the doors open and the room was flooded with light. He reached in and grabbed a container of pudding. Leaving the door open, he went over to one of the dishwashers and pulled a spoon from the large plastic bins of utensils. He hopped up on one of the counters and ate a scoop of chocolate pudding.

"Not half bad."

It was then that the voice growled from the darkness, "Good, kid. 'Cuz it's probably gonna be your last meal."

DEAD SWAMP - Chapter 3

................................................3.

Ground was broken for The Happy Kingdom on October 3rd, 1971 and work quickly moved forward. Animation mogul Paul Frisby, whose empire was built on a plethora of extremely popular short animated films featuring his most popular creation, Clarence the Cow.

The Happy Kingdom had been a dream for Frisby, a devoted family man who always wanted to create a wonderful place for families to share fun and create vacation memories together.

It had thrived for decades, building the popularity of central Florida, making it clear that it was the destination spot of choice on the east coast of the United States. It had become so popular, in fact, that Frisby had laid plans to create three more Kingdoms in the Florida swamplands before his death in 1978.

Those that took over the Frisby empire moved forward with those plans and added four star resorts to the mix, creating an entire world where families could spend their vacations, riding thrilling coasters, visiting foreign lands and experiencing new entertainment venues, all without ever leaving Frisby property.

Four hundred square acres of Florida swamplands surrounded The Happy Kingdom and it was the sole responsibility of an elite team of seven wranglers to protect the property and families vacationing to remove the native occupants of this swampland. Outfitted with electric prods, protective gear and, occasionally when necessary, rifles and shotguns, these wranglers did their job quietly and thoroughly, often removing two or three alligators from the property each day. Through their efforts, the vacationing families were able to enjoy the thrills and spills of The Happy Kingdom without ever knowing how close danger came to them each and every day, oblivious to the danger, they continued to spend their hard-earned money throughout the park.

Until today.

Today the danger welled up from within. Today the most dangerous predator in The Happy Kingdom wasn't the predatory animals.

It was the vacationers themselves. Quicker than any of the scientists would have guessed, something spread from one vacationer to another, ate its way through their body and transformed them from smiling, fun-seeking humans to flesh-eating undead.

A former family of three, who had been visiting The Happy Kingdom from Ohio, hoping to have one final family vacation together before their daughter went off to college, shuffled across the main boulevard of "Old Fashioned Town", their arms reaching out for Jess. He ignored them for the time being, realizing that it would take them several moments to make their way from Cavanaugh's Old Time Theatre to the doorway where he and the kid now stood.

"You were saying?", he prodded the kid.

"Nice. How long you think he's going to stay down?" the kid said, nodding towards the prone form on the street.

Jess looked back at the zombie family to mark their progress and stole a glance at the corpse on the ground. "What makes you think that he's not staying down?"

The kid shrugged, turned and headed into the building. "No reason."

With that, Jess heard a low moan. "Uhhhnnnnnnn ..."

Ice poured through his veins when he heard that and the world seemed to slow down to a grinding halt. Slowly, he turned back towards the corpse in the street just in time to see the zombie he'd just bashed into pulp sit up and rise from the ground. It seemed like it was a marionette, being pulled up by invisible strings that rose up to the clear black night above.

Black-stained ragged fingernails scraped the asphalt, seeking purchase as the corpse pulled itself up to a sitting position. Muscle poked through torn tissue and slithered beneath the soft, gray leg flesh as the corpse rose and lumbered forth yet again.

He was joined by the family of three and the small group moved towards them. Jess tensed, ready for another fight, ready to take out more anger on the corpses shuffling towards them.

Just then, slow movement caught his eye.

"Oh, shit," he muttered.

The main gates--off to the right and previously deserted--swarmed with the dead. Jess could see that it wasn't a handful or even a group that was now heading towards him.

They were legion.

What had to be thousands of zombies moved through the gates and flooded the boulevard, knocking over vending carts and garbage cans.

The crowd spilled onto the usually well-maintained streets, creating chaos where once there had been order. They stumbled over corpses, bumped into each other, knocked the iron gates aside and continued to invade "Old Fashioned Town".

"Kid ..." His eyes fixed on the zombies, Jess darted into the store.

Inside, the lights were still on and the kid remained silent as they made their way past displays laden with sweatshirts with cartoon dogs on them and cartoon mouse salt and pepper shakers.

"What's your name?" Jess asked as they moved deeper into the store.

"Brian. Now, shhh! One of those things is going to hear you. If they hear you, they're gonna follow you. If they follow you, they're following me. If they follow me, I'm leaving you somewhere and you can ask them if they liked the 'Renegades of the Islands' ride."

"Now, wait a second ..."

Brian spun on his heels and threw a pointed finger in Jess' face. His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. "What the hell do you not understand about 'shut up or we die' do you not understand?"

Jess blanched. The kid was impressively fierce when he was serious. He mouthed 'ok' and held his hands up in a sign of 'I surrender'. Brian spun back around and marched through the Sports department and moved past a rack full of hockey jerseys with Clarence Cow swinging a hockey stick on them and headed towards a door marked 'Employees Only'.

The pair disappeared behind the door and Jess found himself in a small storeroom filled with cardboard boxes, some filled with Frisby paraphernalia, some empty. A hallway led north, following the layout of the stores outside. No zombies lay in wait. With what felt like a surge of relief, Jess pushed forward and led the way down the hall. He motioned Brian to stay behind him and the pair made their way deeper down the winding hallway, past shelves lined with clothing, toys and DVD's.

They came to a pair of doors that led out onto a courtyard in the park. Most of the courtyards in the park, like this one, played host to restrooms and changing rooms. Jess dropped to a crouch by one of the doors and motioned Brian to do the same.

Outside, they could see a pair of zombies shuffling around the walkway. Bodies lay strewn about the white metal tables. Well, that wasn't the exact truth. Parts of bodies lay strewn about. The zombies had eaten the rest and must have cast off what Jess' eyes now scanned. A man wearing a Boston Celtics shirt and jeans stumbled around the manicured flower beds and bumped into a discarded baby carriage. It flipped on its side and blocked his path; the zombie continued its laboring walk but stayed in place.

Jess saw no other zombies.

"Ok, Brian," he whispered. "We're going out there. Stick close to me and we'll do fine."

Brian nodded.

That was when the glass door shattered. Gray hands, slick with blood, grasped Brian and pulled him through the shattered doorway. Jess just stared for an instant as the kid disappeared through the cracked glass.

"Brian!" Jess shouted and bolted through the door.

Brian was being carried away by a large man whose skin hung off his arms in long strips and dragged along the concrete beneath his feet. The kid howled and kicked and punched at the lumbering beast.

Jess darted after the pair, thought enough ahead to grab one of the period cast iron chairs that usually accompanied the ice cream scoop tables that lined the courtyard and leaped at the large zombie.

He swung the chair and with a gut-wrenching crunch, knocked the thing's head to a sickening angle. It continued forward, despite the realignment of its vertebrae.

"NO!!!" Screamed Brian. "Don't!!!"

Jess ignored him and swung again. The chair connected with the thing's back and the pair fell to the ground from the force of the impact. Brian scrambled to his feet and launched himself at Jess. "NO!!!"

Jess paused mid-swing. "Why?"

"Because it's my dad."

DEAD SWAMP - Chapter 2

..................................................2.

"Hey, Mister."

Blackness slowly grayed out, turned to fog. The fog dissolved away until it became the melted ice cream puddle Jess' ear was stuck in.

"Mister. Hey, man. Come on, wake up."

Jess blinked and tried to turn his head. Pain coursed through his temple and pounded in his ears. He managed a low moan and immediately wished he hadn't made a sound--it reverberated in his head and brought fresh pounding with each beat.

"Hey, Mister. You need to get up. Now."

"Unnnnnnn..."

Jess couldn't move his head. He found that his fingers moved slightly, whether of their own volition or of his, he couldn't tell.

"Unnnnnnnn ..."

Jess found the strength to push himself off the ground and rise to an almost sitting position. Slowly, he began to get his bearings. He was still in the middle of the street. It was dark. It had been dark before, when he and Sheila were going to see the parade.

Sheila! He bolted to his feet, his head swimming in a sea of red, and scoured his surroundings. Desperate to find his fiance, he bounded from one mound of dead bodies to the next, searching through the bodies, looking for her trademark Skechers and cargo pants.

"Mister! If we don't move, we're gonna be dinner."

The boulevard was devoid of life. At least devoid of current life--dead bodies littered the street and sidewalks, small piles of the dead strewn about the asphalt. Most of the dead looked as if they'd been mauled--arms and legs gnawed on, any flesh exposed had been torn from the meat and bones beneath.

"Mister!"

He looked over to see a boy, maybe fifteen years old, hidden in the shadow of a doorway, not ten feet away. Jess could barely make him out but what he could see was distressing. The kid's clothes were filthy and, from what Jess could tell, the kid was shaking like a leaf. He bent down to sift through another pile of bodies and body parts.

"Uhhnnnnnnn..."

"Wha--", thunder blossomed in his ears. "What's that noise, son?"

The kid in the doorway slowly raised his arm and pointed behind Jess.

Jess turned his head.

And suddenly wished he hadn't.

The most vile sight of his life was shuffling down the boulevard, heading directly towards him. It was a man--at least Jess thought it used to be a man, he wasn't exactly sure. The thing shuffling towards him had no face--and no jaw for that matter--its palate hung down into the shredded remains of its mouth. Somewhere along the line, it had also lost all flesh below the knee and tattered strips of clothing clung to its decaying flesh, molding to it. One of its feet was completely gone, so it dragged its left leg behind it, scraping bone against asphalt. A dark trail of blood, shiny in the lights that lined the boulevard, scribbled along the asphalt behind it. Its face hung, sloughed off half the skull and the empty sockets within seemed to stare ahead, unseeing.

"Uhhhnnnnnnnnn..."

It was close now. Jess felt his guts turn to ice as he watched this monstrosity amble towards him and the boy. He pushed himself up to a standing position and nearly fell forward. He was not stable.

"Dude!" the boy hissed insistently. "We are so on the menu."

Jess lurched towards the doorway then looked back at where he had lain in the street. Dead bodies lay strewn around where he'd been knocked unconscious but Sheila was not among them.

He pointed towards the street. "The girl I was with ... you see her?"

The kid shook his head and grabbed Jess' hand. "Come on, that thing's gonna be here in a second, so we'd better not be."

But Jess wasn't listening. His thoughts were focused.

Sheila.

He called her name. It echoed off the deserted facades that lined the street. "Sheila!"

The shambling creature stumbled closer still. Movement across the street caught Jess' eye. From the shadows ambled forth a small group of people but none of them looked particularly human anymore. Jess knew in his guts they were zombies--straight out of a horror movie--but still had some small part of him argue that it couldn't possibly be so. This was reality, not some cheesy, low budget movie.

"Sheila!" He screamed again.

In a brief instant, all became clear. Sheila was gone. Jess didn't know if she was dead or if she'd escaped the park but he had to find her and right now, this creature, these ... things were the reason she was gone.

With no warning whatsoever, rage filled Jess' heart. All his love for Sheila poured forth and fueled the anger that boiled up within him.

And this creature ... all of them were the reason why.

Jess let out a primitive howl and launched himself at the shambling thing making its way down the boulevard. His sanity argued with him even as his legs pumped and brought him to the shuffling spectre of death before him.

With a leap, he was upon the zombie in the street, beating the creature with a flurry of fists. The zombie raised its arms and grabbed Jess with ragged fingertips. The fingers were cold like ice and greasy with slick blood and they clenched his legs like a vise.

Jess swung his fists and clubbed the creature about his ruined face but to no avail. The thing still fought him, attempting to force his exposed flesh towards the gaping, ruined maw, oblivious to the fact that it would be virtually impossible to consume him or any other victim.

Realizing his legs were impossible to move, Jess decided on a different tactic. The group slowly moving towards the struggling pair made up his mind for him. Using his body weight, Jess threw the two of them to the ground. With a battle cry, he grabbed the zombie's ruined skull in both his hands and smashed it into the ground over and over and over. The anger at his fiance's disappearance or death--the unknown outcome either way--poured forth from him and he used that anger to bash this creature's brains in.

With a final shout, Jess smashed the zombie's head into the ground. A black, brackish liquid pooled on the ground and the zombie moved no more.

Slowly, Jess stood up, suddenly realizing that the group that had been moving towards them was almost upon him. He backed up quickly and made his way back towards the doorway where the kid still stood.

He paused there a moment and stared the kid in the eye.

"You were saying?"

DEAD SWAMP - Chapter 1

......................................................1.

They were surrounded by the dead and it was all Jess' fault. If he'd been paying attention, the shuffling creatures would never have been able to circle them. But the truth of the matter was he hadn't been paying attention. He'd let his mind slip for the briefest of seconds and that was all it had taken. The creatures had circled around them and Jess and Sheila were as good as dead.

He quickly glanced around and realized that four of the creatures were ambling towards them. The closest of them had his hand stuck in the shattered remains of its rib cage and couldn't pull it free. Another, trailing what used to be her own intestines, hissed at Jess; gore bubbled from her mouth and spattered the ground below. Jess grabbed Sheila's elbow and pulled her back towards him.

She looked up from the folded paper she held in her hands--her park map he noted--saw the undead creatures shambling towards them and sighed loudly. "Come on, Jess, I'm tired of this. Now, hurry up or we're going to miss the nighttime parade going on in Old-Fashioned Town."

Sheila grabbed Jess by the wrist and led him through the throng of the undead towards the lights of Old-Fashioned Town. The four zombies shuffled off towards a family of four sitting down to dinner at the turkey leg stand and began accosting them. Through it all, thousands of other vacationers made their way around the actors in make up and around other families looking to enjoy themselves at the Happy Kingdom--Florida's premier vacation resort. Tonight was the first night of the resort's famous October Horrorfest--a two-week stint before Halloween where every type of ghoul you could imagine stalked through the park, horrifying and delighting the patrons as they toured between the roller coasters and attractions.

Jess and Sheila had decided to come to Florida for a long weekend, putting aside the events of the past couple of months and trying to decompress from the growing stress at home.

The pair made their way down a path past the Colonial-style shops, past the vendors with armfuls of balloons adorned with the various cartoon characters that populated the Happy Kingdom and over a concrete bridge. Up ahead, "Old-Fashioned Town" was a popular tourist attraction, housing a slew of shops that made up what appeared like a main street from the early 1900's. It was also the main boulevard into and out of the Happy Kingdom. The gates leading to the parking lot and transportation beyond lay at the southernmost point of the boulevard. And tonight it was packed with vacationers awaiting the Night Time Extravaganza Parade where all their favorite cartoon characters would march down the main boulevard decked out in all sorts of lights and sparklers.

Jess was unthrilled.

He'd been looking forward to the time away from work and while this vacation qualified, he really hadn't wanted to come to this kid's place to relax. That had been Sheila's idea. They'd needed the time away together and she thought that there would be no better place for the pair of them to get away than the Happy Kingdom. Jess just thought they needed some well-deserved pool time and some fun in the sun.

A werewolf decked out in a baseball uniform sauntered by, paired up with a robot that squawked ominously at the passersby as it clomped down the boulevard.

"Come on, Jess. It's just about going to start." She wound him through the crowds of on-lookers and found a spot near an antique mailbox just as the PA system began to blare shrill notes of fanfare. Sheila pressed in close to him as they leaned against the mailbox and wrapped her arms around him.

"Isn't this fun?" she asked.

Why ruin it for her? he thought and nodded. "Sure. What do you want to do next?"

She looked up at him with a crooked smile on her face. "I thought we'd head back to the room." She closed her eyes and stood on her tiptoes, lips parted, ready for a kiss.

Maybe this vacation wasn't so bad, after all. It was beginning to look up--

Screams. Over the horns and cymbals on the PA system.

Jess looked through the crowd. The parade had started and a pair of floats was cruising down the boulevard--two water globes strung with lights and strobes slowly motored from one end of the street to the other.

All of a sudden, one of the Horrorfest actors lurched through the opening between the two floats. It was another zombie. With a smirk, Jess shook his head and bent down to kiss Sheila.

As they kissed, something about the creature stumbling through the crowd wouldn't leave Jess alone. He couldn't place it ...

Another scream, this time a wailing screech. It sounded like a woman's.

Jess whipped his head around. The actor was shuffling through the street towards the crowd. A crowd of people gathered on the other side of the street, their focus not on the street, not on the parade, but on something on the ground. A park employee stood with the crowd asking something over and over that Jess couldn't make out. Finally, one of the men in the crowd pointed across the street, at the actor.

"Stop that man!" he shouted.

The actor's mouth, chin and chest dripped gore. Murmurs drifted through the crowd, rose in volume to almost drown out the PA system.

"...what is that man shouting about?"

"...I think he's ..."

"--crazy. Says he killed--"

"What?"

Sheila looked up at Jess, a furrow of confusion on her brow. "What's going on, Jess?"

"I don't know. I think someone was hurt."

The actor crossed the street, again in that shambling walk, and made as if to grab someone.

Jess kept a hand on Sheila's shoulder. "I think we might be better off if we leave."

The actor grabbed an older man by the head and bit into his neck, blood streaking over a nearby woman. The older man shrieked in pain and collapsed to the ground. The woman cried out his name and bent down to help her husband.

"Oh, God," Jess blurted as the crowds around him began to realize something wasn't right. "Let's go--"

Someone elbowed him in the gut, pushed him to the ground.

"What the hell?" Jess grabbed hold of the mailbox and tried to pull himself up. More screams throughout the crowd now, shrieks pierced the night now and the PA system suddenly fell silent. He straightened up and turned to Sheila, but she was gone. Jess looked towards the entrance to the park, scanning the crowd for his fiance but she wasn't among the crowd. Throngs of people rushed by as they made their way for the park exit, rushing past Jess. He scanned the other side of the street and could find no trace of Sheila.

"JESS!!!"

Two stores up, Sheila was being crushed against the doorway by the swelling of the crowd. Jess moved slowly through the waves of panicked vacationers towards Sheila.

They had to get out of the park before something happ--

Pale hands reached out from within the store and grabbed at Sheila's long brown hair. She shrieked and stepped away. Jess broke into a run as he saw her assailant.

A tall, young man ambled towards her, sunken eye sockets hidden behind long hair and his Foo Fighters T-shirt soaked with blood. He grinned with gore-streaked teeth, reached for her and lunged forward.

Jess got there just in time. He yanked her hard and the two of them fell in step with the rest of the crowd as it surged forward towards the entrance gates.

The security guards--usually there to help inspect bags for any weapons or dangerous contraband--stood near the entrance and waved the crowds towards the now wide-open gates.

Suddenly, Sheila tripped and fell. Someone stomped on her hand. Another set of feet tripped over her sprawled legs. "Ow!"

"Sheila!" Jess bent over and wrapped an arm around her waist, helping her up.

"Outta my way, Fuckhead!" Jess was knocked to the ground as well. The crowd surged over them both. A woman tripped over Jess and fell on top of him. His head bounced off the sidewalk and red pain blossomed behind his eyes. The woman tumbled head over heels and kicked his head against the concrete.

With thousands of people crushing forward to get out of the park, Jess's world went black.