The Funhouse

Leona".”
        
        * * *
        
        Amy, Liz, and Buzz were deep in the funhouse when a string of lights came on above the track. They had turned several sharp bends, had edged nervously down a couple of long, dark straightaways, and had just started up a steep slope, past wax dummies of monsters from various science fiction movies. The lights didn't completely dispel the darkness. Deep shadows lay close by. But any light at all was welcome, for Amy had only one match left.
        “What's happening?” Liz asked anxiously. She was frightened of any change in their situation, even if that change meant light instead of darkness.
        “I don't know,' Amy said uneasily.
        “It's turned the lights on so it can look for us more easily,” Liz said. “That's what's happening, and you know it.”
        “Well, if that is the case,” Amy said, “we'll be a lot harder to find if we keep moving.”
        “Right,” Buzz said. “Let's don't just stand here. Let's find a way out.”
        “There isn't one,” Liz said. But she moved uphill with them.
        When they reached the top of the rise, they found a large display featuring six man-sized, tentacled, bug-eyed monsters. The aliens were disembarking from a flying saucer, absurd shapes frozen in the frost-pale backwash from the lights above the tracks.
        “That saucer's pretty damned big,” Buzz said. “I'll bet we could all three hide in it.”
        “They'd be sure to look in there,” Amy said. “We can't stand still, and we can't hide. We have to get out.”
        Just as she finished speaking, the drive chain in the center of the tracks started to move.
        They all jumped, startled.
        In the distance an approaching gondola rattled noisily along the rails- clatter-clunk-clatter-clunk -a hard, sharp sound, audible above the music and the recorded laughter, growing louder by the second.
        “It's coming for us,” Liz said. “Oh, Jesus, Jesus, that freak is coming to get us!”
        The dull, rusty knife that Amy had taken off one of the monster models now seemed like a laughable weapon.
         Clatter-clunk -clatter-clunk…
         “ Quick,” Buzz said. “Get off the tracks.”
        They clambered onto the wide ledge where the six aliens were coming out of the flying saucer.
         Clatter-clunk-clatter-clunk…
         “ You two go over by the spaceship,” Buzz said. Make yourselves visible. Make sure his attention is on you.”
        “What are you going to do?” Amy asked.
        Buzz grinned. It was a strained, frightened, utterly humorless grin. He was struggling to maintain his macho image. He pointed to a papier-mâché boulder and said, “I'm going to stand over there by that rock. When the car comes up the hill… when the bastard in it sees - the two of you, I'm going to chop him before he has a chance to jump out onto the tracks.”
        “It might work,” Amy said.
        Sure,” Buzz said. “I'll split him wide open.”
         Clatter-clunk-clatter-clunk…
        The gondola turned the nearest corner and ~ started up the slope toward them.
        Liz tried to run and hide.
        Amy grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her over to the flying saucer, where the occupant of the gondola would spot them just as he reached the crest of the hill.
        Buzz positioned himself beside the rock, completely visible to Liz and Amy, but hidden from the oncoming car. He held the ax in both hands.
         Clatter-clunk… clatter-clunk… clatter… clunk…
        The car was slowing down as the grade of the tracks increased.
        Buzz lifted the ax over his head.
        Amy saw the front of the gaily painted car move into sight.
        “Jesus, let me go, let me go, Amy,” Liz said.
        Amy held her wrist even more firmly.
        The first seat of the car was visible now. It appeared to be empty.
         Clatter… clunk… clatter…
        Very slowly now.
        Hardly moving now.
        Finally the rear seat came into view.
        Amy squinted. If the lights had been just a fraction dimmer than they were, she wouldn't have been able to see the thing in the backseat of the gondola. But she did see it. Just a lump. A formless shadow. It was crouched on the floor of the car, trying to deceive them.
        Buzz saw it, too. With a karate-like yell of fury, he stepped out from behind the boulder and swung the ax down, below the level of his feet,