Bogleech.com's 2018 Horror Write-off:

Amusement Park Employee No. 9488575

Submitted by aceotaku (email)

The Park was dark, empty and cold, with not even a single person visiting the park in years. But even so, without any customers, the employees still went about their day.

Employee No. 9488575 trudged along one of the dark, dank, dirty passageways underneath the main park. The smell didn’t bother them, for all employees lost their ability to have any physical sensations, so as to not distract them from anything not pertaining to their job. A long time ago, that would’ve bothered Employee No. 9488575, but that was a long time ago and now they weren’t even bothered by the idea of walking around what had more or less become a sewer...no, closer to a garbage dump.



Filth, decay and abandoned trash and refuse greeted Employee No. 9488575. Most of it discarded prizes from lost attraction, some of it scrap from broken down rides, and much, much more was the forgotten belongings of past customers. Thankfully, no customers ever came to the park, not in however long it had been. Thank god.

Employee No. 9488575 no longer remembered how long time had passed since the Park opened. The thought chilled them to the bone, and at that passing realisation Employee No. 9488575 lit a cigarette and put it to...well, they would hesitate to call what they had as a face, let alone contain a mouth. Still, they took a long drag from the piece of poison, hoping to sate their long dissatisfied  Vice.

All Employees had a Vice. A side effect of their...employment. It was all they had to keep them going, and for many...well, Employee No. 9488575 didn’t like seeing their co-workers on the best of days, and most of them were pretty much always on their worst.

As they walked, they spotted three of said co-workers standing together. Their bodies resembled pure white, fur-less teddy bears with round white ears atop their round heads, sporting stubby rounded limbs, lacking any distinguishing features or marks on their bodies...save for one.  Instead of a face, they instead had a square, steel grate ‘decorated’ with a pattern of tiny holes. A speaker with poor sound quality with which to speak to customers. That was the only feature these employees had. Surrounding the speaker was a mess of bright red, a leftover from when they had tried to sate their own Vice.

The employees had gathered around a former customer that had found its way down here. The customer was lying still and lifeless on the ground, and no longer had what these employees desired.

They didn’t move or react to anything as they stood there, waiting to find what wasn’t there to be found, and paid Employee No. 9488575 no mind as even as Employee No. 9488575 walked past. Of course, why should they? As far as they were concerned, other Employees didn’t have what they wanted.

“The time is now midnight. The park will now close down some of its attractions for maintenance.”

Employee No. 9488575 growled in disdain. There was no point to maintain anything, no point to the continued prescence of the Employees, of the Supervisors in charge of the park’s many areas nor of the Management in charge of everything. Noone came to the park anymore, no customers were left, all that remained were the Employees.

Employee No. 9488575 took another drag from a fresh cancer stick. And that was the moment when something, after so long changed.

The clang of metal on metal. A scream. The harsh ravenous snarl of an Employee. Someone yelling.

Employee No. 9488575 froze. Oh no. Those noises. It couldn’t be.

Those were the sounds of customers.

Suddenly the other nearby Employees jerked and arched their bodies back and started running towards the noises.

“Flesh. Flesh. Flesh.” Their tinny voices echoed in unison as they dashed, their Vice the only thing they had in them anymore. Their one driving force.

Employee No. 9488575 ran after them, following the noises as well, horror gripping what constituted as a heart within them. They knew what a customer being in the park meant.

Madness.

Savagery.


Cruelty.

Death.

Employee No. 9488575 came upon the scene they dreaded. 

A man was holding a large, rusty wrench. He had managed to bring down one of the Employees that had attacked him earlier, the thing’s head caved in, its speaker dislodged and allowing blood and viscera to spill out. The man panted as he looked around, seeing more Employees converging towards him, their bloodstained heads twitching and jerking being their only movement aside from their steady approach, many holding a pipe, a knife, a crowbar, anything they could get their hands on.

“Flesh. Flesh. Flesh. Flesh.” They droned in unison.

The man screamed as he ran towards the collection of Employees, slamming his wrench into the ‘face’ of one of them. He didn’t even see an employee dive down from a hole in the ceiling and grab him before tearing him to pieces, his scream of pain, terror and horror drowning out as Employees converged onto him, ripping the flesh from his bones with all their strength, shattering his bones and especially his skull while messily mashing the flesh into their faces futilely, fresh blood and viscera staining them.

A girl, couldn’t have been older than 11, and a young man came bolting out from nearby as several more Employees trudged after them, droning their deranged mantra of Vice.

“Flesh. Flesh. Flesh. Flesh.”

The child whimpered and cried as the young man held her close, neither having nearly the combat capability of the customer who had met his end earlier.

Gunshots rang out, silencing the mantra of Vice. Several Employees fell with an explosion of blood and gore from their heads as they were shot down, the others turning in confusion to the source of the attack before they too were gunned down.

The girl and young man stared wide at the carnage as their attackers fell, only one left standing, holding a still smoking handgun in what could charitably be called a ‘hand’.

“You kids chose a bad place to visit.” Employee No. 9488575 said, taking a drag from a cigarette lodged in one of the centrally placed holes lining its speaker. “But fortunately for you two...I know a way out. I’m Employee No. 9488575, and I’m the only one here who ISN’T going to kill you. Probably.”