Desolation Boulevard (41 page)

“
That’s scary,” said
Bonnie. “Marauders in the city are one thing, but having to deal
with them out here is a problem we could do without. Do you think
they’ll stay in Carswell, or spread out further and end up here in
Millfield?”

Matt shook his head. “That’s impossible to
answer I think, because things seem to be changing on a daily
basis. I’ve got a real bad feeling that the survivors of the event
are choosing teams; good versus evil, or something like that. I
know how stupid that sounds, but everybody I’ve met heading west
seems really normal and genuine, and now we’ve got this Carswell
thing going on.”

Matt’s words trailed away as he waited for a
response.  Sally put a half-eaten chicken leg on her plate and
asked an obvious question, “How do the feeders fit into all of
this? I don’t get it. It’s one thing to share the world with a
bunch of crazy zombies trying to eat us when it gets dark, but on
top of that there’s all this other stuff like Gabby’s weird powers,
no offense Gabby, people heading west for no apparent reason,
marauders gathering together at Carswell, the migration. Are they
all connected somehow, or is the division between good and evil, if
that’s what it is, just something that happens when society falls
apart?”

“
We can’t say just yet,”
answered Bonnie. “But it’s obvious that we need to stick together,
watch for changes in the feeders’ behaviour and look after Gabby.
And on that note,” she said, turning to her daughter, “it’s time
for you to go to bed. Go and clean your teeth and put your pyjamas
on, I’ll tuck you in soon.”

After Gabby had done a lap of the kitchen
table to kiss everyone goodnight, conversation returned immediately
to their situation in light of the new information at hand.

“
I’ll tell you one thing,”
said Dylan. “We can sit around here forever and make guesses about
what’s going on over at Carswell, but I think it would be more
useful if we actually checked the place out for ourselves. You know
how people can bullshit when they want to make their story more
interesting. That guy Matt spoke to might have been
exaggerating.”

“
What do you suggest we
do?” asked Matt.

“
Well”, said Dylan, “I
think we should pay Carswell a quick visit on the way to the caves.
It’s pretty much on the way, and if it looks really dangerous, we
can take a detour on the way home and avoid it. What do you say
Matt?”

“
I had a bad feeling about
that place the first time I set foot in it, so I’m not real keen,
but I think we need to, given what we’ve been told. Do you think we
‘ll get through okay?”

“
Well, they’re not killing
everyone that passes through town, so I think we’ll be safe if
we’re cautious. We’ll also make sure we have very big guns in case
we’re wrong. When should we leave?”

“
I can’t see any point
putting it off,” said Matt, “but we probably need to spend a whole
day wiring up our explosives tomorrow. What do you say to the day
after that?”

“
I say it sounds like a
plan.”

“
Hey guys, I have a
question,” said Montana, as she pushed her empty plate away from
her.

“
What’s that?” asked
Matt.

“
What do you need me to
bring?”

-

The following morning was a busy and
stressful one for Matt, Dylan and Montana. They arrived at the
Council Depot an hour after sunrise and began the painstaking, and
very intimidating, task of piecing together multiple explosive
devices simply from information they had gleaned from workshop
technical manuals and handwritten notes. They realised that it was
probably a reasonably safe task if they took things slowly and
triple checked every step, but they still had a knot in their
stomachs for most of the day. For the first couple of hours, they
simply gathered materials and read and reread as much information
as they could. Then, when they could put it off no longer, they
constructed their devices, leaving the detonators disconnected
until later when they were at the caves. Matt’s background working
with machines and mechanical systems on the farm gave him the
confidence that he could piece the explosive puzzle together, but
it was Montana, surprisingly, who showed an aptitude for the logic
involved, and gave them confidence to push on with the project,
despite their trepidation. Whenever Matt or Dylan hesitated, she
simply urged them on with encouragement and sensible advice and
finally they had enough explosives to do some very serious damage,
although they really had no idea how big the ultimate blast would
be.

More than once throughout the day Matt or
Dylan thought how lucky they were to have Montana with them.
Something about her calm approach rubbed off on them, and helped
them to complete tasks without getting too frustrated. The night
before, though, was a different story. Everybody had expressed
apprehension about Montana joining the Delano Caves expedition, and
there was a heated debate, which lasted for almost an hour.
Finally, though, doubts had been overcome and they realised that
having a native of Carswell who knew the layout of the town could
be an advantage when they passed through, if things went wrong.
Bonnie, in particular, was concerned that as an attractive, young
female, Montana would be a potential target for rampant marauders
in the town. In the end though, everyone had to agree that she was
as capable of protecting herself as Matt and Dylan were, and so she
became the third member of the cave team.

So, as the late afternoon sun dropped
rapidly toward the horizon, Matt, Dylan and Montana locked the
gates to the depot where the means to exterminate many thousands of
feeders would wait in safety until the morning. Their mood was
sombre and nobody spoke as they climbed into the ute and started
the journey back to “Two Hills”. Matt wasn’t sure if their subdued
mood was an indication of tiredness or because of Gabby’s
premonition that one of them wouldn’t return from the caves, but he
knew one thing for sure - the first blow in the war against the
feeders would be struck tomorrow. He revved the engine and headed
for home.

Chapter 65

Sally burrowed in closer to Dylan and put
her arm around his waist. “I don’t want you to go tomorrow,” she
whispered.

“
I know,” he said, as he
stared at the ceiling.

“
Can’t you let Matt and
Montana handle it?”

“
You know I can’t,” he
replied. “It was my idea, remember?”

“
Yes, but I’m so scared,
especially after what Gabby said about someone not coming
home.”

“
Hey, listen Gabby doesn’t
read the future. She just has really strong intuition or something.
Just because she says something, it doesn’t mean it will come true.
Even Bonnie said that.”

“
But it’s still dangerous,
isn’t it? The trip to the caves, I mean. Something bad could
happen. The feeders aren’t as docile when they’re asleep like they
used to be.”

“
Look, we may not even find
them. That cave system is huge and we only have one day. It might
be a wild goose chase.”

Sally sat up in bed and stared at Dylan’s
face, which was glowing like a ghost’s in the moonlight.

“
You don’t really believe
that do you?”

“
No, not really. I think
we’re going to find them.”

“
Dylan, do you love
me?”

“
Hey babe, of course I do,
but let’s not talk about that now,” he said. “It might bring us bad
luck.”

He reached up and cupped her naked breast.
“I think you’re as sexy as hell, come here.”

Sally embraced him desperately, and they
made love in the dark to the sound of dogs howling in the distance
beyond the fence. After Dylan had gone to sleep, Sally lay awake
for a long time listening to the house creak and wondering if
tonight would be their last together, and if they would ever make
love again. She also wondered briefly what Matt was doing in the
room opposite, and if he ever thought about her, as she drifted
uncomfortably off to sleep.

-

The next day saw everyone except Gabby rise
in the dark to prepare for the critical and dangerous day ahead.
After a quick breakfast of oats and strong coffee, Matt, Dylan and
Montana hugged Bonnie and Sally in the warmth of the farm kitchen,
before heading out into the cold morning to begin their journey to
the Delano Caves. It had been a clear, still night and the ground
was covered in prickly, white frost that crunched under their feet
as they walked to the car. Matt couldn’t help thinking that it
sounded like the crunching of bones, and he thought back to the
skeletons of the children he had seen in Millfield the day after
the feeders had risen for the first time. Exterminating them as
they lay in the cave today would be his way of doing something to
avenge many cruel and pointless deaths. When he reached the car he
paused and looked at his two friends, who were breathing out
spectral plumes of warm air. “Let’s do this,” he said, as they
climbed into the car.

By the time they reached the Council Depot
to load the explosives into the back of the Landcruiser, the sun
was just starting to peek over the eastern horizon, and light was
leeching into the town, illuminating fresh evidence of feeder
activity from the night just gone. Not far from the council gates,
the mutilated corpse of a traveller was lying on the side of the
road, reduced to a chaotic jumble of bones and gore. There was no
way to tell if it had been a man or a woman, such was the state of
the body. It was obvious, though, thatthis person had stopped for
the night and assumed they would be safe, locked in their car on
the road’s verge. They were wrong, however, and the feeders had
found a way to break through the front windscreen and drag the
traveller from their sleeping bag, and out of the car. It would not
have been a fair fight in any sense, and the creatures certainly
wouldn’t have bothered to kill the victim before devouring them on
the spot. It was a horrific way to die, thought Matt, as he
unlocked the gates of the depot. They would need to exercise
extreme caution at the caves today.

-

When the trio arrived at the outskirts of
Carswell, it was just after eight, and the sun had risen in the
eastern sky. They had passed one car heading west ten minutes
earlier, but apart from a cursory wave, no contact was made. It
seemed like survivors were becoming more cautious with each passing
day and strangers were being treated as potential threats as much
as prospective comrades. Matt slowed the car down to walking speed
so they wouldn’t miss any clues as to what was going on in the
town, and Dylan and Montana cradled their guns in their laps, in
case they encountered marauders. It was strange for Matt to be back
in the town where he had first encountered Montana, and it was odd
to think that the evil Brock was no longer a presence here, but
there was still something about the vibe of this place that felt
very wrong.

“
What do you think?” he
asked finally, breaking the tense silence.

“
It’s bloody quiet,”
offered Dylan. “Maybe the marauders are still sleeping.”

“
That would be okay with
me,” said Montana. “This place is creepy. Let’s just get out of
here.”

“
Hey Montana,” asked Dylan.
“If you had to hole up with a big group of people in this town;
somewhere that was safe from feeders, where would you
go?”

“
Gee, I’m not sure. Let me
think.”

Matt and Dylan peered left and right as the
car cruised through the silent streets, and as they waited for
Montana’s answer, it seemed that Carswell had become a virtual
ghost town. There was no evidence of activity, other than one very
skittish, scrawny dog, and the sound of their own car as it rolled
through the streets looking for signs of life. Suddenly Montana
sparked to life. “Hey! I think I know where I’d go!”

Matt eased his foot onto the brake and
stopped the car. “Where?”

Montana leaned over the seat between the
boys and said, “The high school! A few years ago they put up a big
security fence to keep vandals out. And there’s plenty of space. It
would be perfect. There’s no way the feeders could get in.”

“
Okay then,” said Dylan,
“let’s check it out.”

“
We’ll almost drive right
past it on the way out of town anyway,” said Montana.

“
Cool,” agreed Matt. “It
can’t hurt to take a peek. Let’s go.”

They parked the car in an unlocked garage,
two blocks from the school, and started walking. They all agreed
that driving right up to the school, when they didn’t know what
they would find, would be unnecessarily foolish. Montana had
suggested that they approach the school from behind, where there
was some vacant land that would provide them with cover from any
observant marauders.

“
Some of my favourite math
lessons were spent in that vacant lot,” she explained with a
nervous laugh. “It will also give us a good view of the sunniest
part of the playground. If anyone’s staying at the school, and
they’re awake, that’s where they’ll be.”

As they crept through the vacant lot and
climbed to the top of the small incline, the school gradually
appeared before them through the scrabbly trees. The building was
an older brick structure, and had probably been constructed around
the turn of the twentieth century and would have been designed to
appear grand and important. Now, though, with the early morning sun
glinting off the windows, it merely looked blank and utilitarian,
like a psychiatric institution. As the trio peered through the
trees, it was obvious that the place was the base for a large group
of marauders. The school’s large concrete quadrangle, which was
once used as a place for children to congregate with their peers,
now looked like a parking lot. Around thirty cars (mostly large
SUVs), and almost as many motorcycles were parked inside the fence,
and behind them, closer to the main building was a group of around
a dozen people sitting in the sun, smoking, laughing and
eating.