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."
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