Desolation Boulevard (17 page)

The big man went over to Matt and released
him as requested. Then he walked back over and sat on the bed,
glaring furiously at his betrayers. Matt stood up and stretched,
trying to get the kinks out of his back from sitting cuffed to the
heater for so long.

“
Now Montana and I are
getting out of this town. You will not leave this room until you
can’t hear my car any more. If I see you in my rearview mirror, I
will come back and shoot you myself. Okay?”

“
Fuck you!” barked Brock,
before slumping back onto his bed and staring up at the
ceiling.

“
Okay Montana, grab your
bag and let’s get going.”

She handed the shotgun to Matt, who kept it
trained on the prostrate, and somewhat tragic, figure of Brock, who
was sulking like a big deranged baby. She went quickly around the
room, gathering a few possessions and, after she’d stuffed them
into her bag, came over and stood by Matt. Together they backed out
of the door, then turned and headed to Matt’s truck as quickly as
they could. Brock didn’t try to follow them.

As they approached the truck, Matt was
almost frantic with anxiety. What if Gabby wasn’t in the car? It
had been almost two hours now, and she was only a child. Would she
have run away? He honestly didn’t know. As Matt got to the car with
Montana close behind, he hurriedly unlocked the passenger’s door
and there she was, curled up on the floor, sound asleep under his
jacket, just as he left her. He leaned down and shook her
gently.

“
Sweetie. It’s Matt. Wake
up honey. It’s time to go home.”

She looked up at him with red, tired eyes
through her scruffy blonde hair. “Hi Matt. I went to sleep. You
were gone a long time. Did you find my mummy?”

“
Sorry sweetheart. Not
today. We’ll keep looking though. This is Montana. She’s my friend.
Climb up in the middle so she can get in.”

Gabby did as she was asked and Montana
climbed in beside her, throwing her bag on the floor and smiling at
her new companion. Matt lifted Elvis up into the back of the truck,
then raced around to the driver’s door and climbed in. He turned
the car around, put his foot to the floor and gunned out of
Carswell with his two new travelling partners. He looked at the sky
and even though it was darkening slightly as the afternoon
encroached, he thought they would still be able make it back to the
farm before it got dark. Matt took a deep breath. Today had been an
ordeal that could have turned out much worse, but they were all
safe and heading home. As he zoomed past the corpses scattered on
the road here and there, he noticed that Montana had taken a
children’s book out of her bag and was distracting Gabby with it so
she wouldn’t see the horrors around them. He smiled at her and made
a silent vow that he would never set foot in this godforsaken town
again.

Chapter 31

Dylan and Sally stood arm in arm in the cold
basement car park as the two bloodthirsty creatures charged at
them. Their exit via the foyer stairwell was cut off and now they
could hear the footsteps of the other creature from the lower level
as it ran up the ramp. Sally wouldn’t have time get the pistol out
of her backpack so they both looked frantically around the empty
concrete structure for a way to escape into the daylight. “This is
the end”, Sally thought, as she contemplated the terror of being
eaten alive by these crazed hiders. Suddenly Dylan grabbed Sally’s
arm and pointed to a corner of the car park. “Look!”

“
Let’s go!” Sally
responded, realising that it was their only chance at
survival.

A small office-supplies truck that Dylan had
checked earlier for sleeping zombies was parked by a goods
lift with its back roller door open. They made their decision and
ran towards it as fast as they could, despite Dylan’s injured leg
slowing them down. She could hear the creatures converging on them,
their feet slapping rhythmically on the concrete floor as they ran.
Sally reached the open truck first and leaped up into the cargo
space. She turned and grabbed Dylan’s wrist, and helped him up into
the truck alongside her. The first creature was almost on them as
they both snatched desperately for the roller door and dragged it
down until it slammed closed with a metallic thump, plunging them
immediately into darkness. Sally switched on her flashlight, and as
they shot the internal sliding locks into position, the first
creature slammed violently against the outside of the door, shaking
the whole truck. Dylan and Sally moved to the back wall and slumped
to the floor.

“
Give me the pistol,” Dylan
urged, wincing from the pain in his leg.

Sally took the gun from her backpack and
handed it to him. “Do you think they can get in here?” she asked
anxiously.

“
I don’t think so, but I
want to be ready if they do.”

They sat, breathing hard, with their backs
against the wall, while the hiders threw themselves at the roller
door outside, causing it to shudder violently each time they made
contact.

“
How long do you think they
can keep doing that?” Sally asked.

“
I don’t know, but they
can’t keep it up forever. They’ll probably go back into hibernation
when they realise that they can’t get to us.”

“
I hope so.”

Sally shone the flashlight onto Dylan’s
right leg. “That’s a lot of blood. What happened out there?”

“
The extermination was
going to plan, but just as I was about to shoot the fourth one,
another one came out of nowhere. Maybe it was in a car, I’m not
sure. It took me by surprise and we ended up on the ground. I think
the fucking thing bit me! I managed to kill it but then the other
one woke up and I had to run. I really need to get a more efficient
weapon.”

“
Let me look at your leg,”
Sally ordered, concern obvious on her face.

“
Its fine.”

“
Oh yeah, right!” Sally
challenged, almost in tears. “You’ve been bitten by a crazed freak
that’s been eating people for the last few days and you say you’re
fine!  I’m sure they’re not cleaning their teeth at night
before they go to bed! You could catch anything!”

Dylan looked at her for a second, and then
burst out laughing. Sally tried to keep a straight face, as felt
the tension and stress of the last few minutes drained away for
just a little while, she joined in. So as the beasts outside bashed
and thumped into the aluminium truck body, the laughter of the pair
rang out through the underground car park like a glorious
celebration of their enduring, yet fragile lives.

When they were sure that the feeders were
unable to get into the back of the truck, Sally checked Dylan’s
wound. While he trained the flashlight on his upper thigh, she used
his knife to cut the leg of his black jeans well above the knee.
The wound looked extremely nasty. These creatures displayed
overwhelming rage and Dylan had felt the full force of it. The deep
bite showed distinct teeth marks and was still leaking significant
amounts of blood. She needed to find a way to stop the bleeding,
and she needed to do it quickly. She scoured the inside of the
truck until she found a roll of paper towel, which she folded up
into a thick pad, which she could use staunch the flow of blood.
After she washed the wound with water from her drink bottle, she
tore strips from her shirt and tightly wrapped it around his thigh
to hold the paper pad in place. She could see Dylan watching her
intently when she looked up from her handiwork.

“
I think you’ll need
stitches when we get back to St Jude’s, but that bandage should
stop you from bleeding to death until then.”

Dylan was still staring at Sally with a look
that she couldn’t quite interpret. “What? What’s wrong? Why are you
staring at me like that?”

Dylan smiled, “I’m so impressed with you.
You’re so capable. I mean it, really. If you didn’t move so quickly
out there before, I think they would have got me. You’re
remarkable.”

“
Thanks. I guess almost
being killed by psychopathic zombies brings out the best in
me.”

“
And you have a sense of
humour.”

“
You forgot gorgeous” she
joked, flicking her dark hair dramatically.

“
I was getting there. You
are gorgeous. Very,” he said seriously.

Sally blushed and started cleaning up the
mess she’d made from her nursing duties. “Well, I guess I don’t
have much competition, do I? Most of the women in the world these
days aren’t you’re type, are they? They’re homicidal freaks who
want to eat you.”

As if on cue, the truck shook as a creature
tried unsuccessfully to break through the thin metal wall. Sally
looked at Dylan.

“
Don’t worry, they can’t
get in. We’ll be safe until they give up and go back to find a new
nest,” Dylan stated confidently.

He lay down on the hard floor of the truck
and stared at the ceiling as Sally self-consciously continued to
clean up.

“
If we’re going to be here
for hours I’m going to see if there’s something to make us more
comfortable. Give me the flashlight.”

He handed it to her, and then watched as she
unpacked boxes until she’d found enough packing materials to make a
rudimentary mattress. “Here, lie on this” she said. “It’ll be nicer
than that hard floor.”

After Dylan had made himself comfortable she
asked, “Why do you hate them so much?”

“
Who? The
zombies?”

“
Yes.”

“
Because they’re dangerous.
They need to be wiped out. Why do you think?”

“
I don’t know. It just
seems more than that. I hate them too and want them gone, but with
you it seems personal or something.”

“
I really don’t want to get
into that with you right now.”

“
Why?” Sally
pushed.

“
Because. Just leave it
okay? It’s been a hard morning and we nearly died. We have a long
wait ahead of us. Lie down and take it easy.”

“
Are you hungry? I have
some energy bars in my pack.”

“
I’m starving,” he replied
gratefully.

There was another thump on the side of the
truck, this time less forceful. “They’re getting bored.” Dylan
explained.

Sally sat down next to him and unwrapped two
energy bars. She handed him one and they ate in silence. When they
were finished Sally asked, “Do you think we can ever have normal
lives?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Well, we have our whole
lives ahead of us, if we survive that is. Can we ever just be happy
and feel ordinary?” Sally began to cry. “Will people have things to
look forward to? Can we make a world worth living in?”

“
We can try,” Dylan said,
taking her into his arms and holding her closely as the flashlight
batteries died and its beam faded away to nothing.

An hour later, as they lay together in the
dark on their makeshift bed of bubble-wrap and shredded paper, the
last feeble thumps of the creatures ceased and silence descended,
absolute and perfect.

Soon it would be time to move on.

Chapter 32

As Matt drove into the setting sun towards
Millfield, the girls beside him chatted as if they were simply
being driven home after a shopping trip. He knew that Montana was
purposely keeping the conversation upbeat for Gabby’s sake, but he
got the impression that she was also enjoying the simple
conversation about favourite TV shows, music and clothes. The last
few days spent with the socially challenged Brock couldn’t have
been easy, and Matt dreaded to think what would have happened to
Montana’s personality if she were forced to spend any longer in his
presence, without the regular perspective that came from more
normal companions. She might even have become as malicious and
twisted as her delusional kidnapper. Matt also wondered what
Montana had meant when she said that Brock had been “playing with
the bodies”. Did she mean like toys, or something more intimate?
Either way, the idea disturbed Matt greatly and despite his
curiosity, he didn’t want to raise these dark issues with Montana
while Gabby was in earshot. He actually wasn’t even sure whether he
wanted to know at all. A world with feeders was distressing enough
without needing to dwell on the horrors that the human mind was
capable of as well.

Montana turned to Matt. “How long before we
get to your place? It’ll be dark soon.”

“
Don’t worry,” he
responded, squinting into the setting sun. “It’s only another half
an hour and I reckon there’s almost an hour of daylight. What do
you two feel like for dinner? I’m a pretty good cook.”

“
Boys can’t cook!”
challenged Gabby.

“
Gabby, that’s terrible!”
Montana exclaimed, laughing. “Where on earth did you learn such
old-fashioned ideas? Men can cook and women can be doctors and
truck drivers if they want to.”

The little girl looked sadly down into her
lap, thinking she had said something wrong. Montana reached over
and gave her a hug. “Honey, don’t be sad. It’s okay, but just
remember that girls can do anything boys can do, and boys can do
anything that girls can.”

Matt smiled at the exchange between the
blonde girl in the “Bitch” t-shirt and the six year old.

“
Boys can’t have babies!”
stated Gabby, victoriously; as Matt slowed the car down to begin
the descent through the National Park forest.

This was the slowest part of the journey,
but it was also the most scenic. The road curved through dense,
luxuriant rainforest that was dappled in late afternoon sunlight.
Montana wound down her window and stuck her head out. “Smell that,
Gabby!” she said. “It’s beautiful.”