Author's Note: Damn, it's been almost 2 years since I've updated this fic!
For those of you who enjoyed the first chapter I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, but I just really fell onto the back burner with this story and last night a whole slew of ideas started pouring into my head.
Sadly, I don't know if this will just be a short-term thing, but I'll try to make the most out of what I can get.
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Chapter 2: And Hell Followed With Him
For 8 year old Katey Greene, stepping into the Wonderland Plaza was like stepping into Heaven.
Her mouth fell open in silent awe as she took in the indoor amusement park before her, the Space Rider zooming through the air above her, the giant inflatable rabbits swaying back and forth, the toy houses with all sorts of children her age running around…it was all so absolutely breathtaking for her.
"Daddy, can I go on the Space Rider before Bebop comes on?" she cried out excitedly in spite of the long line in front of it.
Chuck looked down to his digital watch to see that it was 1:25 in the afternoon. "Uh, I think that clown should be coming on at any minute now."
As if someone had heard him a voice called out over the loudspeakers.
"Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages!" a bombastic voice barked, "Bebop the Clown will be performing in exactly five minutes! Five minutes kiddies and grownups! Get yourselves over to the play land if you wish to get yourselves a front row seat for all the fun and excitement that is about to take place right here in Wonderland!" the unseen announcer said shouting out the plaza's name before the country western type 'muzak' resumed.
"Hurry Daddy! He's gonna start any minute now!" Katey excitedly shouted grabbing her father by the wrist and dragging him towards the play land made up of a small 'village' of brightly-colored toy houses and a windmill directly beneath the Space Rider, "C'mon! We need to get a front row seat!" she exclaimed pulling him towards the giant soccer ball at the center.
"Oh great," Chuck muttered to himself, feeling the ball of dread forming at the base of his stomach, the one he always got whenever he knew he was about to enter a scary situation.
"Get a grip Chuck! You're doing this for Katey!" the more logical side of his psyche called out to him, "You're doing this for her. What's the most some guy with a face covered in grease paint and some big stupid red nose can do to you?"
Chuck felt a little embarrassed sitting in front of a gigantic soccer ball surrounded by a bunch of little kids, knowing he would stick out like a sore thumb to the other parents present, but again he had to remind himself that he was doing this for his little girl, all she had left in the world.
The overhead lights dimmed and a drumroll filled the air before the same painfully cheery announcer called out.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, wayfarers and Willamettans alike! It is that time, time to be entertained by that kooky jokester himself…please give a warm round of applause for Bebop the Clown!"
A cheery carnival tune filled the air and a high-pitched voice soon followed, one that sounded like nails scratching against a chalkboard to the ex-motocross racer.
"Hey-Hey-Hey kiddies! It is I…Bebop the Clown!" the voice shouted as a multi-colored blur rolled into view and twirled like a tornado before coming to a halt directly in front of Chuck, causing him to gasp while the children began cheering wildly.
"Who's looking to have fun today?" the clown shouted to his audience, a grown man in a blue, yellow and green costume with different patterns that looked like it was crudely sewn together, big floppy red shoes that left Chuck amazed he was able to still remain upright, and the same bright red afro and matching nose as seen on the flier, topped off by a tiny black top hat.
A slew of various voices shouting "I am" and "Me! Me! Me!" nearly deafened the ex-motocross champ and he shut his eyes and clenched his jaw as a strident laughter came from the clown.
"Well then you've come to the right place!" Bebop shouted again before making a loud hiccupping noise, followed by a cluster of bubbles escaping from his throat, causing all of the children and even some of the adults to laugh.
Shouting out a loud 'Yee haw!' the glorified man-child again rolled backwards and performed a graceful back flip, landing atop a beach ball and balancing himself on it with the grace of a feline, rolling all around the play area and pulling out some hunting knives to juggle, much to the astonishment of those in attendance, many pulling out their camera phones to snap pictures of the spectacle taking place.
Eventually he made his way over to the nearby stairs and leapt high into the air, making his way over to a nearby cosmetics kiosk and swiping some of the lipstick props and proceeding to juggle three of them at once, making his way over to a redheaded little girl and giving her an opening to catch one of them. As she caught the prop, the clown quickly swiped out of the air and gently pressed it against her face, leaving a large pink circle that left her laughing and begging for more.
"God, I wouldn't be surprised if that kid ends up having nightmares after this," Chuck thought with a loud sigh as the clown drew his head back and began blowing large balloons and sending them flying all over the plaza, drawing cheers and laughter from his audience before crafting a giraffe out of a blue balloon and presenting it to a little boy who sat on a bench with his mother and then presenting the young woman with a heart-shaped balloon.
"You think that's all kiddies, well you haven't seen nothing yet?" Bebop the Clown called out as he rolled along the floor towards a large storage chest covered in goofy designs and reached inside, tossing out a supposedly one-thousand pound barbell, a pogo stick, a live chicken and a few other miscellaneous items before pulling out two small blue handled chainsaws and proceeding to juggle them effortlessly, a stunt which left the kids gasping in awe and the adults, Chuck included, gripping their seats in suspense.
A collective gasp of horror rang out as the man tossed both running chainsaws high into the air, but then gasped in relief as he caught both of them and clapped at his astonishing feat as he took his bow.
"Daddy this guy's amazing! Thank you so much for bringing me here!" Chuck heard Katey call out next to him and feeling her squeezing her arms around him.
Chuck shot his eyes open to see the clown pulling out a lettuce, tomato and some onions and slicing them up with the chainsaw before somehow managing to catch them on a slice of bread and then putting another on top of the small tower of vegetables to take a large bite out of his new sandwich, again to the wild cheers of the young spectators in attendance.
"Well I guess things can't be too bad as long as Katey's enjoying herself," Chuck told himself as the clown rolled backwards and began pushing a large red and blue box wrapped up like a Christmas present towards the center of the floor.
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"Hey c'mon, we're gonna be late!" Taylor Nightinggale called out waiting impatiently outside the men's restroom for his best friend.
"Just a second man," Marvin Horner shouted back stumbling out of the stall and hastily making his way towards the sinks to wash his hands. That Stromboli he had eaten was already coming back to haunt him and he knew it was surely going to make them late for that double date they had set up with Rachel and her best friend Jolie. He knew without a shadow of a doubt Taylor would never let him hear the end of it if this were to mess up his chances with Rachel, if his best friend allowed him to make it out of this mall alive that is.
"You said that five minutes ago!" Taylor shouted back, waving a hand in front of him to dissipate the rancid odor emitted by his best friend's notoriously weak bowels.
"Man, I'm so gonna take a bat upside his head if he messes this up," the young man thought to himself.
Rachel Decker was an attractive young woman whom he had harbored a crush on for the past two years, entranced by her the second she walked into his office building for the very first time, and only recently had he finally gathered the courage to ask her out on a date.
Her best friend Jolie Wu was in town visiting from California and she didn't want her to be lonely, so it had been at her insistence it became a double date and he decided to bring along his best friend Marvin, hoping to help him get his mind off of things after his breakup with Sylvia.
"Damn it, I should've asked Rufus to come along instead," he thought while mentally kicking himself.
"Seriously man, I'm coming this time!" Marvin shouted back sticking his hands beneath the automatic hand drier, "I'm com-"
A loud drawn out moan cut the young man off, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"Marv, if you don't get your poky ass out here right now, I am going to come in there and shove your head in the toilet the same way-" Taylor shouted just before he was cut off.
"Dude, shut up I hear something!" Marvin called back slowly approaching the stall where he swore he could hear the moans coming from.
"Oh, what the hell is it now?" Taylor snapped finally making his way into the restroom, only to be halted by his friend raising a hand and shushing him.
"Shh, I think somebody's hurt in there," Marv hissed as he slowly crept towards the stall.
Sure enough, the young man spotted a pool of fresh blood slowly creeping out from underneath.
"Call 911!" he shouted back to his best friend and made his way over to the door, finding it slightly ajar and pulling it open.
"Don't worry mister, we're-" Marv was saying just before he found himself tackled to the tile floor, "What the hell?"
He looked up to find a man in soiled, tattered clothing on top of him bleeding from numerous wounds all over his body. Whoever he was he wasn't sick, no…he looked like he was one of the walking dead with his pale skin, soulless white eyes and the large portion of his cheek that had been torn away.
Taylor Nightinggale was in the process of reaching for his cell phone just as the mystery man in tattered clothes burst from the stall and tackled his best friend to the floor, clamping his jaws down into the man's collarbone and tearing away a large hunk of flesh.
"Get away from him!" Taylor shouted dropping his phone and rushing over to grab the man by his shoulders, gripping his shoulders and pulling him off of his best friend, tossing him to the floor hard enough he could hear the man's skull cracking open.
It was too late, the damage had been done.
"Oh god Marv!" he said kneeling down beside his fallen friend, "Speak to me!" he said reaching for a nearby cloth and pressing it hard against the man's fresh wounds.
Marvin Horner tried to reply to his best friend, but all that could come out was a strained, throaty gurgle. The fear in his brown eyes was all his closest friend since childhood needed to tell him that he knew he wasn't going to make it.
"C'mon man, you've gotta pull through this," Taylor Nightinggale said to his dying friend, his voice cracking and the tears streaming freely down his face. A more logical side to his mind told him that he knew it was hopeless and that his best friend was going to die right here and now, yet a more idealistic side told him that there could be hope, the hope that somebody else would come through, maybe possessing the medical treatment necessary to save his friend's life.
It had to be a possibility, couldn't it?
A low moan came from behind him, followed by the same kind of rancid odor which wafted off of his best friend's killer, only amplified by a hundred.
He turned around to see another sick-looking man come staggering into the bathroom, his red and black checkered shirt drenched in the blood of a fresh kill, followed by a gray-skinned man in a tattered black tank top and a green beanie resting atop his head, followed by a police officer, yes a police officer of all people, someone who should have been able to help him, someone who should have been there to arrest the bastard who murdered his best friend.
"No…not like this…not like this…" Taylor Nightinggale muttered to himself as he backed away from the flood of sickly looking people piling into the bathroom, drooling over him as if he were a gigantic steak calling out to them.
"No…this is all some really fucked up nightmare," he grumbled, squeezing his eyes shut and hoping that he would wake up in his bed and that he would be bolting up a second later, having experienced yet another nightmare like the kind that would leave him bolting up in bed crying out for his parents like he had when he was little.
And then he felt a sharp stinging in his left calf and looked down to see his best friend in the entire world had somehow come back to life and was tearing into his warm flesh as if he were a midnight snack.
Taylor struggled to free himself from his friend's gasp and then felt the cold hand upon his shoulder, looking forward to see the plaid-shirted man pulling him closer towards his chipped yellow teeth and those soulless white eyes…
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"Now what could your buddy Bebop have brought you today?" the clown laughed aloud, placing his ear against the large gift box acting as if he were trying to listen for what was inside, wanting to build up the anticipation and leave the children clamoring for him to open it, "What could it be? Just what could it be?"
"Do I even want to know?" Chuck Greene muttered to himself shaking his head and rubbing at his left temple and feeling the dread creeping back into his stomach, yet another surprise that was probably going to leave him on the verge of either shitting his pants or having a massive coronary.
"Just what's it going to be?" Bebop asked the crowd before again looking towards the giant box, "Maybe we need to have ourselves a little countdown," he said before knocking on its side, "On the count of three, say it with me…One!"
The children and a few of the adults cried out one in unison.
"Two!"
Chuck's nerves tensed and he could feel his heart racing.
"Three!"
A loud explosion rang out and the giant box collapsed from all sides, revealing a diminutive blue-haired figure with a 'hat' that looked like a melted ice cream cone, a blue top, purple baggy pants with matching floppy shoes and a pair of stilts that made the man more than seven feet tall.
"Well lookee here kiddies! It's my very own baby brother Stilts the Clown here to join in on all the fun!" Bebop the Clown triumphantly proclaimed.
"Oh great…two of them…" Chuck sighed as the smaller man began tossing ice cream bars to the children.
"Ice cream! Come on out everyone! Come on! Get your ice cream!" Stilts the Clown shouted, 'accidentally' bonking his older brother in the back of the head with a large cone that resulted in a bell ringing sound effect that left the children laughing and his redheaded brother pretending to get mad.
The two painted brothers then pulled out squirt guns and began spraying each other, catching several of their youthful spectators in the crossfire, before Stilts pulled out a cream pie and tossed it at his brother, who ducked beneath the projectile, sending it splattering into the face of a dark-haired mall employee.
"Oopsy daisy!" Bebop gasped aloud playing a gloved hand over his opened mouth, "Mr. Greg was just in the wrong place at the wrong time kiddies, here let me help you with that," the clown said reaching into his pocket to pull out a white handkerchief, which was then followed by a red one, then a blue one, then a yellow, and a green and an orange, all shades of the rainbow tied together before he finally reached the end and handed the long line of tissue to the mall worker to wipe his face off.
"And now kiddies, Stilts and I are going to need a volunteer for our next trick," Bebop called out, which had the children jumping up with their hands extended, wanting to be the aforementioned volunteer.
Bebop's painted grin quickly curved downward into a frown as he stared to the children, "Aw, I'm sorry, but we're going to need a bigger person for this next trick…someone like YOU!" he called out.
All eyes were drawn towards Chuck and he looked up to notice the clown was pointing directly at him, causing the color to drain from his face.
"Daddy, he wants you!" Katey said eagerly pushing him forth.
"No, sorry I can't do it," Chuck protested, only to be met by the typical 'sad puppy dog' expression from his daughter and a bunch of the little kids staring to boo him over his refusal.
"C'mon Daddy, you can do it!" she said trying to pull him along by the arm.
"Aww c'mon Gramps, you can't be that scared of a little fun now, can you?" Bebop playfully taunted, a motion Stilts seconded with a horn, a bit too close to Chuck's left ear and leaving it ringing.
The children were goading him on and after one final push from Katey the ex-motocross champion was on his feet and standing alongside the two clowns to the applause of everybody in attendance.
"Hooray! He's decided not to be a Debbie Downer! Let's give our new friend here a warm round of applause!" Bebop called out as Stilts again tooted his horn happily as the children cheered him on.
All suddenly fell silent as another drum roll filled the air and Chuck could once again feel his stomach tighten. However, when the chainsaws began revving behind him he could nearly feel it trying to force its way out through his rectum.
"Alright boys and girls, now it's time for the grand finale!" Bebop managed to shout over the cacophony. "Stilts, please be so kind as to lead our adoring public in the countdown!"
"Countdown to extinction," Chuck told himself as his eyes clenched shut.
"One!"
The revving of the twin chainsaws seemed to amplify in volume, the only thing the ex-motocross champion could hear.
"Two!"
"Oh god...poor Katey's going to be an orphan!"
"Three!"
A blood-curdling shriek filled the air, drowning out the whirr of both chainsaws.
Chuck shot his eyes open to find a woman pinned on the ground, struggling with some sick looking man before having her throat torn out.
More screams followed and he looked towards the upper mezzanine to find more people being attacked by more sick-looking people.
"Daddy!"
Chuck's attention was brought back towards his little girl, one of those 'people' having made their way into the enclosure and making a play for the children. It was then he got a good look at one of the perpetrators.
It was a lanky man who had been in his early 30's, his once stringy black hair now falling out in large clumps and exposing his rotting face underneath, most of the right side torn away while his eyeball hung by a thread, the remaining patches a sickly gray color that made him look like he had already been buried for many years.
Right now, he had his sights set on Katey Greene, something her doting father would not stand for.
Chuck looked around desperately for something he could use to take the man out, yet in a play area aimed at entertaining small children this would be the absolute last place he could expect to find a shotgun, an assault rifle, anything that goes boom or even some kind of bladed object he could use to take the man's head off.
Then his foot brushed against something and he looked down to see a soccer ball rolling around aimlessly. With no other alternative it was time for him to remember those skills which had helped his team win their regional championship back in junior high and he lined up his shot, drawing his leg back and kicking the ball as hard as he could, sending it flying into the sickly man's face and sending him falling flat on his back.
"Katey!" he cried running over and scooping the little girl into his arms.
"Daddy, I'm scared!" the child sobbed squeezing him tightly.
Chuck took a deep breath and kissed her on top of her head.
"Don't worry sweetheart. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you," he told her, trying to keep his tone as soothing as possible in spite of all the carnage occurring around them.
He looked up to see more of those gray-skinned people piling in at an alarming rate and tearing into any person unfortunate enough to cross their path. He looked down to see several children had fallen to those freaks, the bastards tearing into them like a five star gourmet.
It was enough to make Chuck sick to his stomach, yet he knew he had to maintain his composure if he wanted to get both himself and his daughter out of this mess alive.
"C'mon Chuck, think damn it!" he told himself looking around for any means of escape.
To his left he spotted a stairwell leading out of the play area, but his hopes were dashed as a woman attempted to flee, tripping and breaking her leg before she was dog piled and torn into by a group of ravenous cannibals.
Chuck cursed silently to himself before spotting another entrance to his right and quickly climbing the stairs, finding himself on higher ground yet surrounded by dead bodies and large pools of blood that he knew would make his escape all the more hazardous.
"Quick! Run to safety!" a security guard shouted to the former motocross racer before raising his gun and firing everything he had into an oncoming horde before they too would overwhelm him and make him their next meal. Not much further away another man had gotten his hands on a baseball bat and was attempting to fight off some of those people before he was tackled from behind and had the back of his neck torn into. Elsewhere a burly man attempted to protect a young woman from two of those monsters, yet found both his arms savagely torn into for his efforts while the woman would run away and disappear into another mass.
They were horrifying sights, yet they made Chuck wonder.
"Who are these people? What is wrong with them? Where did they come from? When did this start? Why is it happening? How did it spread so fast?"
Chuck would quickly be snapped from his train of thought as more of those sick people began taking notice of him and his daughter. He had to get them out of there fast.
He jolted to the left to avoid an overweight man lunging at them and then spun his body to avoid a swipe from some guy in a bloodied Hawaiian shirt who somehow managed to hold onto a hunting knife. The evasive maneuver left him in a tight squeeze between a cosmetics kiosk and a small group that had been feasting on an unfortunate soul, only to spring to life as they heard the ex-motocross champ sprinting past them.
"Not today!" Chuck shouted to the horde, ducking low and tightening his grip on his beloved daughter as he forced his way through the mass of rotting flesh, plowing his way through and then bringing his foot up to knock away a woman whose intestines had been dangling from a deep rend in her abdomen.
Eventually he found himself approaching a set of doors leading out, the 'Food Court' according to the letters above.
"My only chance," Chuck told himself as he stole another peek around to see those 'people' pouring out of the woodwork from all angles.
Making another mad dash he barely managed to avoid another person who had been pushing around a dolly with a gas tank chained to it. Approaching the doors he through himself against them back first, ignoring the fresh waves of pain as the metal bar connected with his lower spinal column. He had a daughter to protect and couldn't let some small thing slow him down.
The food court was another wide open space with some Wild West motif, further emphasized by the cheery cartoon character who greeted patrons with a six-shooter in one hand and a mug of beer in the other. There was no time to stop and admire the scenery as more of those people took notice of the new arrivals and began shuffling in their direction with arms outstretched.
To his right was an entrance to Leisure Park, yet he looked out to see more innocent people being slaughtered left and right by those 'things,' and ahead of him was another set of doors leading to the 'Al Fresca Plaza.'
Again Chuck ran towards the doors and slammed into them back first, knocking a sick person out of the way as he nearly stumbled through.
He immediately found himself near some large fountain where a young man was in the middle of being pulled from his bicycle and torn into whereas another man in a blue track suit could be seen trying to fight off some of those strange people outside of the Flexin' gym armed with only a barbell, trying in vain to protect some short cowardly bald guy in a forest green jacket, the stocky man fleeing in the opposite direction as his savior was tackled to the cobblestone tarmac and overwhelmed.
The boom of a shotgun blast suddenly filled the air, followed by the panicked screams of two women.
There were other survivors nearby, but he had to wonder if they would be on his side. Hugging his back to a nearby wall he inched towards the corner and looked around to see some man in a red and black flannel shirt armed with a shotgun taking down a pack of those people who had been menacing two women.
"Quick, get over here!" called out spectacled mall employee waving the two women forth.
"Hey, there's two more people over there! Quick, over here!" the shotgun-toting man called out waving them forth, just as a man in a blue jacket and black beanie emerged from behind him armed with a lead pipe.
Chuck said nothing and could only hope for the best as he ran towards the survivors, only to again find himself nearly knocked from his feet as another one of those gray-skinned creeps emerged from McHandy's Hardware. Thankfully the pipe-wielding survivor was there to cover him and delivered a home run that splattered the monster's brains all over the nearest window.
With the threat out of the way, Chuck bolted inside and safely lowered Katey to her feet before dropping to his knees and taking the time to catch his breath.
"Damn it..." he spat out struggling not to fall onto his stomach. He was about to utter another string of curses until he remembered his daughter was standing next to him.
"Is this everybody?" he heard a man's voice call out, "Lower the gate!"
Chuck rolled over onto his bottom and watched quietly as the gate lowered, more of those sick people still approaching and clawing away at the glass, wanting to get in and get at the fresh meat inside. Once again he could only sit back and ask himself the same questions as he did earlier.
"Who are these people? What is wrong with them? Where did they come from? When did this start? Why is it happening? How did it spread so fast?"