Desolation Boulevard (22 page)

When they arrived at the bottom of the hill
they could see the body of Kate’s ex-husband, still lying on the
road where it had been killed the night before.

“
It’s weird how they come
home,” Matt said, thinking about his father.

“
Yes,” Kate replied, “They
seem to have some memory of their previous lives don’t
they?”

“
One good thing, though,”
Matt said, pointing at the corpse, “He hasn’t been eaten by other
feeders, so I’m thinking he was the only one around. You might be
okay up in the hills, after all.”

“
When I kicked him out he
didn’t want to leave the area. He bought a caravan and found a
little spot about five kilometres away, near the creek. I hadn’t
seen him until the event. If I did I might have shot him
anyway.”

She smiled sadly and changed the course of
the conversation. “Matt, grab my chainsaw and get to work on that
tree; I’ll attach my winch to your car and get it out of the ditch.
Hopefully there’s no serious damage.”

She took a plastic tarpaulin out of the back
of the car and went and laid it over the body of her ex-husband.
“So Gabby doesn’t have to look at it,” she said softly.

It took Matt three hours to cut the tree
into enough pieces to clear a space for his car to get through.
After Kate had pulled the car from the ditch, Montana had helped
Kate dig a shallow grave, and the feeder, which had once been a
husband, was buried unceremoniously and in silence, while Gabby
played on the road with Elvis. Now they all stood together on the
sunlit bitumen not knowing how to say goodbye to each other.

“
Well, we should go,” Matt
started. “The chickens will be wondering what’s going
on.”

“
Yes. Go. I’ll be fine. You
know where I live now, so I expect a visit.”

“
Of course we’ll visit,”
said Montana. “How does every two weeks sound?”

“
That sounds terrific, but
you can come more often if you want. You know I’d love to see you
all. You’re my family now, aren’t you?”

“
Absolutely,” said Matt
through tears, hugging her tightly. “Thanks again, you know, for
saving me and everything.”

“
You’re a good man, Matt.
You look after those girls, okay?”

“
I’ll do my
best.”

“
I know you will.” She
released him and looked over at Montana and Gabby who were also
crying. “Get over here you two and give me some love!”

They hugged each other in silence, as Matt
and Elvis watched on. When they finally broke free, the tears had
stopped and they smiled at each other. A bond had been formed here
that would never be broken, Matt realised.

“
Okay Elvis! Let’s go!”
Matt commanded, as they all headed towards Matt’s car. He was about
to climb into the driver’s seat when he realised that Elvis hadn’t
moved from his position at the feet of Kate.

“
Come on boy! Get in the
back!” he yelled.

The dog whined and looked up at Kate.

“
Elvis, get in the car!”
she ordered, but the Labrador was going nowhere. He moved closer to
the woman and sat staring up at her with his big brown
eyes.

Gabby was the first to point out the
obvious. “He wants to stay. He loves Kate!”

“
I think he does,” agreed
Matt. “He’s not really my dog, Kate. Do you want him to
stay?”

“
Well, if you guys don’t
mind. He is a beautiful boy.”

They all nodded their heads in
agreement.

“
I think it’s a great
idea,” said Matt. “After all, we need to trust our intuition, don’t
we?”

“
Absolutely,” said Kate
smiling, as she rubbed the top of Elvis’s head.

Matt, Gabby and Montana walked to the ute
and squeezed into the front seat in silence.

“
Okay,” said Matt, as the
girls buckled up their seat belts beside him, “Let’s go
home.”

Chapter 39

It was three in the afternoon when Dylan
decided to stop for the night. They had spent the day travelling
cautiously on the main road that would take them over the Great
Dividing Range, but despite the absence of immediate danger, the
trip had been a slow one. Occasionally they found their way blocked
by cars that needed to be winched clear, and they were wary of
being ambushed again by marauders, so Dylan rarely drove above
fifty kilometres an hour. Bonnie and Sally took turns in the front
seat as lookouts, and their guns were loaded and ready to fire if
needed. They saw a few survivors wandering about forlornly, but
they kept to themselves, and Dylan didn’t slow down or try to make
contact with them. They knew that there would be clusters of people
springing and forming groups like the one at St Jude’s, but Dylan,
Sally and Bonnie had no need for them just yet. Maybe after they
found Bonnie’s daughter they could be part of a meaningful
community again, but at the moment they had a goal to pursue and
they needed to do it on their own.

The town they decided to stop in was a
tourist village called Mount Edward at the top of the Dividing
Range. For over a hundred years it had served as a weekend escape
for city people who needed to unwind for a weekend and experience
the countryside, while still being able to get a cocktail and a
fine meal. The air was already quite brisk when they pulled into
town, and they could tell that the night would be a very cold one.
They didn’t want to risk being trapped outdoors once the sun began
to set, so they immediately looked for somewhere to stay for the
night. There were plenty of old, sturdy buildings in the main
street to choose from, and they eventually settled on a small
electronics store that had barred windows at the front and a metal
security door at the back. After a quick search they discovered
that it was free of sleeping zombies, and upstairs there was a
small apartment with two bedrooms, a lounge room and a compact
kitchen with a gas stove, where they could cook a proper meal.
After they had lugged their bags inside and claimed their personal
spaces, they ventured outdoors and explored the immediate
neighbourhood. Just as in the city, evidence of the initial zombie
ferocity was clear. Bodies in various states of mutilation were
scattered about the streets and many shop windows were smashed. The
smell that had been rampant in the city in the first few days after
the event had subsided somewhat as flies and birds had cleaned the
carcasses almost to the bone.

“
Why aren’t there any
people about?” Dylan asked, as they stood surveying the
destruction.

Bonnie looked about, then offered “This
village probably only has a population of around ten thousand. It’s
possible that nobody survived.”

Dylan frowned. “Nobody? Is that the survival
rate we’re looking at? No more than one in ten thousand? That can’t
be right. Across the country that would mean only a few thousand of
us survived!” He shook his head. “No. There are more survivors than
that. There has to be!”

Sally looked worriedly at Bonnie. “Do you
think he’s right?”

“
Not necessarily,” she
replied thoughtfully. “This town might be empty of survivors, but
statistics can be funny. I bet there are places where the survival
rate is much higher. Even in random events there are clusters of
larger numbers that don’t fit the normal pattern, as well as lower
numbers, like here. If I had to guess, I would say the survival
rate across the country is around five per cent, maybe a little bit
less.”

“
But we haven’t seen that
many people,” argued Dylan. “Not even close.”

“
No, because I think
they’re hiding in their houses. Look around. Would you spend very
much time outdoors with all these bodies lying around?”

“
I don’t know,” he said,
shaking his head.

“
Anyway, we’ll just have to
wait and see won’t we? Come on, there’s nothing here. Let’s go
inside and get some dinner started”.

After they went inside and made sure the
building was secure for the night, Bonnie sent Dylan and Sally off
to have a wash while she fired up the gas stove and began to
prepare a curry from canned ingredients they’d brought in from the
car. The sky was getting darker outside and it was cold in the
apartment, but Dylan discovered a gas heater in the lounge room and
was pleased when he was able to light it without any trouble. As
the room warmed and the smell of curry began to waft from the
kitchen, Dylan took Sally by the hand and led her to the window. He
pulled the curtains back and raised the sash. “Let’s check it
out.”

Sally stuck her head through the opening and
felt the cool evening breeze on her face. Just below the ledge of
the window there was a large, solid awning that had been built to
protect the shop’s doorway from rain.

“
It looks safe enough,”
Dylan said. “I want to see what the zombies are going to do. I
wonder if they’re still attacking each other?”

“
I’ve been wondering about
that too,” commented Sally. “It’s not sustainable is
it?”

“
I don’t think so. But
let’s watch and see what happens.”

They were standing together with their backs
to the wall when the first creature appeared on the street below.
It was a male, maybe seventeen years old and completely naked. It
paid them no attention at all.

“
What’s it eating?” asked
Sally.

“
I’m not sure, but I think
it might be a chicken.”

“
Yeah, that’s it! A whole
raw chicken! That is disgusting! Won’t that be full of
bacteria?”

Dylan looked at her and frowned, “I guess
so. I wouldn’t eat it, that’s for sure. What’s it doing?”

“
Just standing. Is it
waiting for something?”

“
I’m not sure.”

As they pondered the strange behaviour of
the zombie, Bonnie called them in for dinner from the kitchen, and
they climbed back inside to the warmth of the apartment, locking
the window behind them.

“
That smells great,” Dylan
said. “I’m starving, and it certainly smells a lot better than what
that freak was eating on the street.”

“
Yeah, this apocalypse
living really gives you an appetite, doesn’t it?” joked Sally, as
she scrubbed her hands with sanitising gel.

“
Are there many of them out
there?” Bonnie asked, as she directed them to sit at the small
dining table.

“
No. Just one at the
moment, but I’ll check again as soon as we’ve eaten. There must be
more out there somewhere, surely?”

As they tucked into their curry, Dylan
looked at Bonnie with a mouthful of food and smiled, “You know,
this is awesome, but a cold beer would make it unbelievably
awesome.”

Bonnie jumped up from her chair, “Oh, I
nearly forgot! Wait there!” and she went to the kitchen and
returned with three icy cold beers as if by magic.

Sally looked at the woman and commented,
“Wow! Aren’t you full of tricks? How the hell did you do that?”

“
I’m a mother! We have all
kinds of skills and supernatural powers,” she laughed, as she
passed around the drinks. But before anybody had a chance to take a
sip of the surprise beers, Bonnie held her bottle up and said,
“Before you drink I want to say thanks to my new young friends for
saving my life today, and for helping me to find my baby girl. I
know you probably think I’m just being ridiculous, but I know she’s
alive somewhere and I really appreciate the way you’re helping me.
So thanks, and let’s drink to a future with friends, whatever it
holds.”

And with that, they clinked their beer
bottles together and drank.

-

When they had finished their curries they
all went to the window to see what was happening on the street
below. After Dylan had grabbed his gun and established that it was
safe, they climbed out onto the awning and surveyed the scene below
them.

“
Where are they?” asked
Sally.

Dylan shook his head. “I can’t even see the
one from before.”

“
There!” Bonnie exclaimed,
pointing down the street. “Is that it? Heading out of
town?”

In the distance, towards the end of the
darkening street, they could see the pale, naked figure of the
zombie they had seen earlier, walking away from them slowly, as if
it wasn’t sure what it should be doing.

“
Is he the last one left in
town?” asked Bonnie.

“
I don’t know, but if I had
to guess, I’d say yes, or at the very least, one of just a
handful,” observed Dylan.

“
But they were here, lots
of them!” stated Sally. “You only have to look at the bodies around
town to know that.”

“
So where are they?” asked
Bonnie.

Dylan watched as the lone figure in the
distance shambled off into the obscurity of the night. “I think
they’ve moved on.”

“
What about that one?”
asked Sally. “Why it he still here?”

“
I think he’s just a
straggler. The others have left him behind.”

-

After they had cleaned up their dinner mess,
they sat on the couch in the tiny lounge room and tried to analyse
this new information. Despite the obvious logic of the earlier
explanation - that the creatures had gone elsewhere - it didn’t
help them to understand where they had gone, or why. Bonnie
suggested that maybe they had moved on to search for better feeding
grounds, but Dylan didn’t think that idea rang true. He reminded
them that the straggler they’d seen before dinner had been chowing
down on a whole chicken, which implied that they had access to food
in town if they wanted it. Sally put forward a theory that was as
unlikely as it was desirable when she suggested that they had all
died from natural causes. Dylan conceded that it was possible, but
didn’t think it was likely. Their experiences over the last few
days seemed to indicate that the creatures were actually becoming
stronger.