"Are you serious?" Judy blurted out, wide-eyed. The still-brown-furred doe looked up at the gaudy, brightly lit gate to what had to be the most out of date, cheaply built, disaster-in-waiting of an amusement park she'd ever seen. The late afternoon sun cast long shadows of a few sparse trees that dotted a gravel parking lot. She still held Nick's paw in her own as they both looked up at the sign. A third of the lights were broken or burned out, but it was supposed to just be blinking the word Fun, one on top of another, three times. Skye crossed her arms in front of her, flitting her tail about wildly, grinning.
The vixen chimed, "I know! Great, huh? After all these years, it's still here!" Jack stepped up behind her, hands limp by his sides.
"Against all odds. I've never even seen this. Is this even allowed?" The buck indicated razor-wire on top of the fence which made it look like an off-limits testing facility. It was impossible to see inside because boards were put in front of the chain-link fence. It made it look even more shady. Carnival music emanated from inside.
Nick spoke softly. "Wow... I haven't been here since I was a kit." Judy looked back at her partner. She felt like he was lucky to be alive at all if he came to this place as a helpless little kit.
Skye clapped her paws together excitedly. "Nothing you could have seen in that room could be worse than this! This will make you forget all about it!" Judy looked incredulously at the white fox, cupping a paw over her muzzle. This was entirely in the wrong direction. This wasn't what Nick needed!
"It's perfect!" Nick laughed. He pulled Judy toward the gate. "I'm buyin'."
"Hell yeah!" Skye barked gleefully.
"What?!" Jack cried. "No, really? I don't think this..." He followed along, despite his obvious reluctance. Judy huddled against Nick a little shyly. It was against her nature to be so shy, but the largest bear she'd ever seen leaned over them as soon as they came to the gate. He snorted and held out a paw the size of Nick's entire body. Nick mashed eighty bucks into it and the claw-laden paw closed as if it were a machine, the money going away.
A low, dull, horrible booming voice rose from the bear with a thick accent of some sort. "A happy welcome to Fun-Fun-Fun, you play all day till day is done. Lose your cares to the setting sun, much too tired, too tired to run." Skye gave a gleeful squeak at what had to be a memorable saying to her.
Jack went suddenly stiff, the vixen literally dragging him behind her. "Wait, the last part, what did he say? What was the last part?" Judy looked with concern to Nick, but his ears were up, eyes wide and nose quivering with excitement as he led the bunny through the gate behind Skye. Judy was sure her partner would never willingly take her somewhere he knew was dangerous, so she was relieved by that. Jack, however, seemed to trust Skye a little less. His ears were straight up and nose on the perma-wiggle.
Judy was immediately overwhelmed by the festive if cheap atmosphere. The boards seemed to be for noise control more than anything, as it was much louder inside. There was smoke or fog or something hanging near the ground everywhere, and the music sounded like it was coming from broken speakers, broken instruments, or both. The place felt like the combined representation of every horror movie amusement park Judy had ever seen or imagined.
The truly surprising part was not the mood so much as it was the crowd. With as run-down and hazardous as the place looked, Judy had expected it to be a near ghost town, but it was as busy as the Carrot Days celebrations while she was growing up. She also noticed right away that she and Jack were likely to be the only bunnies in the place, and might well be the only prey species. Wolves, dholes, foxes, lions, cougars, stoats, ferrets... the crowd was very diverse with the exception of prey. And Judy and Jack were definitely noticed.
