Junky Westworld

A theme park, long abandoned, turned into a landfill or dump. It forms a kind of ecosystem of bits and pieces: a swamp of toxic runoff dotted here and there with atolls and islets of junk piled up around vehicles and show houses.

A strata above has developed in the catwalks and rigging of the old place. Vents and service tunnels connect the upper levels to the lower, and in those limited spaces are hidden caches and clusters of the creatures here.

Beneath the detritus, the substrate, are occasional pockets: caves formed from advantageous jungle gyms and upturned garbage trucks just big enough to shelter in; or reinforced buildings like park infirmaries or maintenance closets that survived the various collapses and neglect of years.

The “flora” here is algae, moss, fungus, lichen, and young trees. Huge fake trees pop up here and there, each supporting its own cluster of plant & animal life.

The “fauna” is a mix of real animal scavengers - rats, raccoons, birds, and every kind of insect- and animatronic megafauna. Some is after the design of ‘real’ wildlife, such as fake elephants, dragons, or what-have-you. Other fauna is actually the adapted remnants of buses and backhoes, infected with AI or running ancient routines.

Wanderers, some animatronic and some lost (intentionally or not) live here as well. The animatronics pursue their programming as well as they’re able: cowboys, jungle explorers, samurai, spies, and astronauts wander the grounds singly or in packs. Runaways, criminals, and hermits - humans - form small clans or make their way alone through the swamp. They hunt raccoons and feral pigs to supplement diets of wild rice and mushrooms, cobbling together junked technology to survive.

After the park’s acquisition it was abandoned and mothballed for a time, and what parts could be repurposed were scavenged and reassigned elsewhere. What remained slowly moldered until the space was condemned and converted into a storage facility and, eventually, a dump. A million tons of paper cups, industrial waste, shredded fabric, gravel, food waste, and all the gunk of an operating park the size of a small town were funneled into the space.