Desolation Boulevard (29 page)

“
I think you’re wrong
actually.”

Matt turned and looked at her, surprised.
Montana laughed.

“
What?” she asked, raising
her eyebrows. “Do you think everything you say is true?”

“
Well …”

“
Listen Matt, I might be
blonde and cute, but I’m not stupid. You’re right about some of the
things we’ve lost, but people will find a way to create a
civilisation. They always have. I remember learning about the
Holocaust in history class. Even in the horror of the concentration
camps, people still wrote poetry and sang songs. Gabby still wants
to read books, doesn’t she? Hey, maybe one day she’ll write one.
Who knows?”

Matt looked at Montana with a puzzled
expression on his face. “Do I know you?” he asked, smiling at her
with renewed affection.

“
Not yet,” she replied,
with a wink. “But you never know your luck, do you?”

-

A couple of hours later, as Matt lay in bed
listening to the hum of the generators outside, he analysed the
conversation he’d had with Montana earlier. Despite all of the
lights in the house being turned off, a faint glow suffused his
bedroom, giving everything a ghostly appearance. He thought about
Montana sleeping in his parent’s room nearby. Had he made too many
assumptions about her? Was his judgement of her true personality
clouded by his initial impression of her? Most of the girls he had
known seemed fairly one-dimensional to him. He had never connected
with any of them on anything other than a superficial level. But
maybe he was the shallow one, categorising people according to his
stereotyped expectations. How did he know what was in Montana’s
head? He was so confused. Was he genuinely attracted to her, or was
it simply a case of “the last girl on earth”? He felt so stupid for
going over these childish thoughts while Montana was probably sound
asleep in her bed, oblivious to his angst. He rolled over and
closed his eyes tightly as he tried to force himself to go to
sleep.

“
This is ridiculous!” he
thought, as he twisted back the other way to try and find a
position that might help him drift off. As he turned back towards
the door, though, he was shocked to see a silhouette framed in his
doorway staring at him.

“
I can’t sleep Matt. Can I
crawl in with you?”

“
Oh. Sure. Is everything
okay?

“
I need to hold somebody,”
she said wistfully, as Matt shuffled across in his bed to give her
room to climb in beside him.

“
Face the other way,” she
requested.

He did as he was asked and rolled over
towards the window once more. He felt her arm go around his waist
and when he sensed the silky smooth skin of her breasts on his back
he thought it was the most pleasant thing he’d ever felt in his
life.

“
Thanks Matt,” she said,
sighing intimately into his ear.

“
That’s okay,” he replied,
staring wide-eyed at the pale rectangle of the bedroom
window.

Outside in the dark, beyond the light, a
single pair of eyes watched the house.

Chapter 49

The sun was still high in the sky as they
drove west, heading away from the weirdness of Dennington. Bonnie
sat silently in the back seat of the charred Landcruiser, thinking
only of finding Gabrielle. As she scanned the countryside, she
wondered about the small group of survivors they had just
encountered. Why were they so ambivalent about the zombies who had
chosen to stop in their town for the night? She could understand
that they wanted to avoid conflict, but their attitude seemed to be
one of grudging acceptance, rather than revulsion or fear. Could it
really be that some survivors would tolerate these savage
creatures? Surely the human race wouldn’t learn to accept the
creatures as having a right to live alongside them as equals, or
even, worse, as superiors?  Bonnie shivered as these
possibilities went through her mind, and almost didn’t notice as
the car began to slow down.

Dylan brought the car to a stop in the
middle of the road and pointed at a large sign that towered above
them. Sally and Bonnie realised immediately what Dylan was
thinking. The sign, which had been erected to help motorists find a
prominent tourist attraction, said “Delano Caves 30 km”. Dylan
looked at the women, who were waiting for him to say it out
loud.

”
That’s where they’re going
I reckon.”

Sally nodded, “Yeah, it feels right, doesn’t
it?”

“
They’re regrouping,”
Bonnie added. “For those things to have a long term future, they’ll
need to breed, for one thing. They haven’t morphed into zombies
just to die out within a few weeks, that’s for sure. I think
they’re following some kind of herding instinct so they get
together and develop some kind of social pack, like wolves. Now
that the initial frenzy is over, the ones in the country need to
band together. The ones in the cities are probably already in big
groups.”

“
I think you’re right,”
said Sally. “That second night on my balcony convinced me they were
becoming something more than just random killers. A kind of
hierarchy was developing, even then. What do you think Dylan? Do
you think the ones we burned were heading to the caves?”

“
Maybe. Let’s assume they
are, anyway. Whatever the case, it doesn’t change our plans does
it? So let’s get to Millfield and find Gabrielle.”

As they climbed back into the car and
continued south, Sally said, “Hey, Dylan. I’m starving. Can we stop
somewhere for some food soon?”

“
I’m hungry too,” agreed
Bonnie. “Let’s stop at the next farmhouse and see what we can find,
but not for long, okay? Gabby’s waiting for me.”

“
Sure,” said Dylan, as he
put his foot on the accelerator and headed west.

A couple of kilometres further down the road
they found a little farmhouse close to the road that looked like an
ideal place to stop and eat. Dylan pulled the car into the gravel
driveway and brought the car to a stop as close to the front door
as he could. Without discussion, they grabbed their weapons and
climbed out of the car, before heading to the front door of the
house. They paused and Dylan said, “I don’t expect to find any
zombies in here, but let’s check the usual hiding spots anyway. Be
careful.”

Sally and Bonnie nodded and followed him
inside, where they conducted their search quickly, confirming that
the house was empty.

“
Right,” said Bonnie.
“Let’s get into that kitchen and find some food.”

Fifteen minutes later they were sitting on
the back porch eating olives, cheese, crackers and tomatoes from
the vegetable patch. Dylan had found some beers in a carton in the
laundry, and they were cool enough to enjoy without having been
refrigerated.

“
I’m going to miss beer,”
he said, smiling wistfully.

“
Why?” asked Sally.
“There’s free beer everywhere.”

“
It won’t last, though.
Within a few months it will start to go stale, like most other
things I guess. All of the things we took for granted will start to
fade away because there will be no more manufacturing, no more
factories, no more shops. The golden age of wasteful consumption is
over. We’re going to need new skills now; we’re going to have to
learn how to fix things, how to grow our own food and how to
fight.”

Nobody said a word as they chewed on their
packaged crackers and bottled olives from Italy.

-

Ten minutes later, they were back in the car
and heading towards Carswell. The mood was sombre and nobody was
speaking. The massacre of the zombies in the warehouse was
beginning to take an emotional toll on all of them and the
emptiness of the countryside seemed to mirror the way they felt
inside. Within a few minutes, Bonnie was sleeping on the back seat
as the car pushed forward through the deserted farmland. Around ten
kilometres from Carswell, Dylan stopped the car in the middle of
the road, stepped out onto the warm bitumen, and walked towards a
fenced paddock. Sally opened her door and followed him. She could
see immediately what had attracted his attention.

“
What are they?” she asked,
putting her hand over her mouth.

“
Horses.”

Scattered remains of maybe a dozen animals
lay around the paddock. They were ripped apart, their soft
underbellies hollowed out and glistening in the sunlight. Flies
crawled over them like a shimmering army, and buzzed in small
clouds above their carcasses. When the feeders had sprung on these
animals, they wouldn’t have stood a chance. Dylan briefly imagined
how the hellish scene would have played out, then assigned it to
his growing catalogue of post-apocalyptic nightmare visions.

“
How long ago did this
happen?” Sally asked.

“
Last night, I’d say, from
the freshness of the carcasses. They must have been passing through
on their way to the caves and gotten hungry.”

“
How many of them would it
take to do this?”

“
Mmm. Good question. One
person couldn’t overpower a horse, could they? And even though
these creatures seem to be getting stronger, I think there would
need to be almost a hundred of them to kill all of these animals
and eat this much in one night.”

“
Let’s get out of here,”
she said. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

“
Sure.”

As they climbed back into the car, Bonnie
stirred. “Is everything okay?”

“
Fine,” Dylan replied,
glancing at Sally in the front seat beside him. “Toilet break.
We’ll be in Carswell in about five minutes, then only an hour and a
half to Millfield.”

“
Excellent. Do we need to
stop in Carswell? I’m really eager to get to Gabby as quickly as
possible.”

“
I’ll need to stop for
fuel, but that shouldn’t take long. We should be in Millfield an
hour or so before the sun sets.”

A couple of kilometres before reaching the
outskirts of Carswell, they passed the turnoff for the Delano
Caves. There was no need for words as the travellers each imagined
the same scenario at the caves – a complex and ancient limestone
cave system that was now, very possibly, a lair for thousands of
primal, ultra-violent, killing machines. Their individual visions
were all slightly different, but the overall concept was identical
– an overcrowded, dark, damp space filled with near-naked beasts,
sleeping until nightfall, when they would awake and continue the
process of establishing primitive social groups, rutting savagely
like dogs, and leaving the caves at night to find whatever they
could to eat. In the car, nobody spoke of his or her thoughts. It
was as if saying such things out loud might bring them bad
luck.

When they arrived at Carswell, Dylan stopped
the car in front of a used car lot and headed into the
prefabricated office to find the keys to a car from which he might
be able to siphon fuel. Bonnie and Sally waited outside, weapons
sitting on the hood of the car just in case.

“
This place seems deserted,
doesn’t it?” Sally observed.

“
Yes … maybe. I’m not sure.
Does something seem wrong to you?”

Sally looked around the streets. She saw
abandoned shops, rundown houses, and the omnipresent rotting
corpses strewn here and there. “You mean apart from
everything?”

Bonnie smiled, “No, I don’t mean the usual
kind of “wrong”. I have a really weird feeling about this place.
Can you hear anything?”

Sally stood and listened carefully. “No.
Nothing.”

“
Exactly.
Listen.”

“
Oh my god. You’re right.
Nothing. No birds, no dogs barking. It’s really obvious once you
notice it. Its’ freaky, isn’t it?”

Bonnie nodded. “Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve
heard the sounds of birds and the occasional dog barking, but
nothing like this.”

Sally looked over to the office. “I wish
Dylan would hurry up. Where is he?”

Inside, Dylan had found the board with the
keys for the cars in the lot, and was getting ready to head back
outside when he noticed something through a tiny back window that
piqued his interest. In a junk-filled yard behind the car lot he
noticed a large metal cage that looked as if it had once been a
kennel for a number of dogs. There were no animals visible now, but
Dylan could just see something on the floor of the cage that didn’t
seem right to his eyes. He cupped his hands to the glass to shut
out the glare of the sun, and stared as intently as his eyes would
allow, but it was no use – he couldn’t quite make out what he was
looking at. He would need to make a closer inspection. He went back
out through the only door of the office and help up the palm of his
hand to Bonnie and Sally, signalling for them to wait. This was
followed immediately by a one-finger gesture – “one minute”.

“
Where’s he going?” Sally
asked.

“
No idea. But I hope he’s
careful and doesn’t take too long”.

-

Behind the office, Dylan walked through long
grass and stepped over a small wire fence that separated the car
yard from the property behind it. The grass was obstructing the
view of the cage, but he could see that the strong metal gate had
been padlocked to keep the dogs inside. As he got close, the smell
that assaulted his nostrils gave him a clue as to what he would
find in the cage. He had smelt it many times before, after all. He
took his bandanna from the pocket of his jeans and placed it over
his mouth. As he stood and looked inside the cage he felt the bile
rising in his throat as the olives and crackers he had eaten
earlier rumbled around queasily. The floor of the metal cage was a
bloody mess of bones and gore. Trying to identify what the bones
had once belonged to, however, was a difficult task. It was like a
Picasso abstract from hell; a kangaroo’s leg bone, part of a cow
skull, and there was definitely a cat there somewhere. Dylan’s
revulsion was such that he was about to turn around and go back to
refuel the car when he realized that he was missing something.
Where were the dogs that had been fed this mess? He looked across
into the darkness of the open kennel door, but could see only
shadows. He needed to get closer. He walked around to the opposite
end of the cage and put his eyes up to a gap in the back wall, as
he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. As the gloom
receded from his vision, shapes on the floor of the kennel began to
come into focus and Dylan’s face bore a puzzled expression as he
tried to identify the breed of dog he could see lying on the timber
floor. Then suddenly, he stepped back in shock, as he realized what
he was looking at. These weren’t dogs! They were zombies! Sleeping
zombies! Some crazy fucker had locked these things up and was
keeping them like some kind of macabre pet. Holy shit! He needed to
get back to the girls and get them out of here.