Desolation Boulevard (57 page)

He stopped shooting for a second and looked
at the woman. The terror in her eyes was absolute. She nodded her
head as if to say, “do it”, and Matt realised that she was right.
All of these people had come to protect Gabby’s life, for reasons
that he didn’t fully comprehend, and Matt suddenly understood that
the farm would never be a viable option for survival in the long
term - his argument with the others earlier in the afternoon was
only ever going to delay the inevitable. The time to move on had
arrived. He gave Jean a thumbs-up sign, and scurried over to
Dylan’s position, as the woman resumed shooting.

Dylan had just cut a feeder in half with a
spray of bullets as Matt reached him. “We need to get Gabby out of
here!” he screamed in his ear over the barrage of gunfire.

“
Where?”

“
Back through the hills!
There’s no other way out!”

“
Okay!” Dylan screamed as a
particularly robust feeder hit the ground near their feet, riddled
with bullet holes.

“
Let’s go then!” urged
Matt. “We can’t wait!”

“
No! You go! I’m staying to
fight!”

“
What? You have to come! I
need you!”

“
No you don’t! You’ll be
fine!” he yelled, as he popped another creature between the eyes.
“I’ll catch up later! Diamond Creek, right?”

Matt stared at the man who had become his
closest friend. Leaving him behind would be like committing him to
a death sentence but there was no time for a discussion.

“
Okay! I’ll see you later!”
he said, giving him a thump on the back before moving away. He went
straight to Montana’s position and was proud to see that she was
holding her own in the battle, standing shoulder to shoulder with a
middle-aged man who was firing at the advancing creatures as
Montana reloaded her weapon.

“
Where have you been?” she
asked.

“
Never mind that,” he said,
“It’s time to go! We have to get Gabby out of here! The others will
stay and fight! It will give us a chance to get away through the
hills!”

“
What are you talking
about?” she shrieked, taking aim at another feeder.

“
We need to save Gabby! We
need to run!”

Montana drew a line of sight with her gun
and blasted one of the creatures into oblivion, as the man next to
her screamed, “Good girl!”

“
Montana! Come on!”
bellowed Matt desperately.

“
I’m not coming!” she
yelled. “They need me here!”

“
What?” screamed Matt,
before firing his weapon. “Are you serious?”

“
Matt, there are children
here. I won’t leave them!”

She turned and smiled at him, and in a flash
he realised that she had made her mind up and nothing he could say
would change it.

“
Get Gabby and the others,
and get out of here,” she yelled above the noise of the battle,
“We’ll be fine!”

Then suddenly, before Matt had a chance to
argue, a feeder that had somehow managed to dodge the reign of
bullets, was through the defensive line of the followers, and
racing towards the house. Matt turned and chased. Goodbyes would
have to wait.

-

Inside the house, Sally watched the flashes
of gunfire outside as Bonnie filled a large sports bag with as many
weapons as she could carry. She took the bag and threw it onto the
floor before grabbing the keys to the quad bike from its hook on
the wall.

“
Stay in the kitchen,
honey,” she told Gabby. “I’m just going to speak to Sally for a
minute.”

“
Mummy, I want to stay with
you! Please!”

“
No sweetie, stay here. I
won’t be long.”

Bonnie hugged her daughter, and sat her down
under the kitchen table with Elvis, before heading into the lounge
room, where Sally was keeping a vigil at the window.

“
Is it bad?” Bonnie
asked.

“
Yes! Of course it is!”
replied Sally, frantically. “What if they get through?”

“
If they do, we’re not
hanging around okay? We’re getting Gabby out of here. To do that,
though, I’m going to have to knock that fence down at the back,
just in case. We’re never going to get out the front
way.”

“
God! Are you sure? The
fence is protecting us!”

“
Not any more it isn’t.
It’s got us trapped here. I’m going to drive the truck through it.
Stay here with Gabby - she’s in the kitchen with Elvis. If you see
a feeder, shoot! I won’t be long.”

And with that, Bonnie was running back
towards the kitchen, intent on bringing down the fence that had
once been a symbol of their security.

“
Stay there!” she yelled at
Gabby, as she raced through the kitchen, pulling the door closed
behind her, as the gunshots continued to resound through the night
like the noise of a thousand drummers.

She ran to the big shed and climbed up into
the old truck and grabbed the keys that were kept under the sun
visor, before firing up the ignition. The old vehicle rumbled to
life in a huge cloud of blue smoke, and when Bonnie flipped on the
headlights, and reversed out of the shed, the effect was like
something from a third-rate rock concert. She stopped the truck as
close as she could to the farmhouse, and shifted into first gear.
She hoped desperately that she could get up enough speed to knock
the fence down in one go, but if it took multiple attempts, then
she was willing to do that. The headlights shone brightly across
grass as she revved the engine, dropped the clutch and put her foot
on the accelerator. The truck moved slowly at first, but as she
shifted up through the gears she picked up speed. She braced for
the impact as the truck slammed into the fence.

-

As Sally watched the chaos of the battle
outside, she couldn’t help but wonder how the feeders were able to
tolerate being in the same vicinity as Gabby all of a sudden. They
had never been this close to her before. What had changed? Had they
become stronger? Or had it just taken all this time to find her.
The strong lights that were illuminating the hellish scene outside
the fence weren’t even acting as a deterrent any more! She watched
as feeder after feeder entered the combat zone and wondered how it
would be possible to hold them all at bay. It seemed hopeless.
Then, as she was about to leave the window to check on Gabby, the
pale figure of a feeder burst away from the mayhem, seemingly
unnoticed, and began sprinting across the silvery grass towards the
house - fast and with an extreme sense of purpose. Sally grabbed
her shotgun, and ran to the front door, intent on confronting the
creature head on, before blasting it into the next world, but when
she opened the door it was nowhere to be seen. Where the hell had
it gone? Had they really gotten that fast? She turned and raced
back to the kitchen, but only arrived in time to see the creature
smash through the back door, before sliding under the table to
where Gabby lay curled up, screaming in horror. Everything was
moving too fast for Sally now, and before she realised what was
happening, the feeder had scooped Gabby up into its powerful,
sinewy arms and was heading back out of the door, as Elvis growled
furiously and tried to latch onto its legs. Sally raised her weapon
and fired at the creature’s back, but it was gone into the night
before the first bullet hit the wall.

“
Nooooo!” she screamed, as
she raced to the empty doorway.

Her mind was a torrent of fear, anger and
self-loathing as she considered all of the ways she had just failed
Gabby, but she ran after the beast anyway, knowing that she had no
other choice. Gabby was still screaming, so Sally locked onto that
sound and speared into the dark after it, knowing that she was
willing to die if that’s what it took. She sprinted around the side
of the house, and saw the creature running past Matt’s father’s
grave, only slowed a little by Gabby’s weight, towards the fence.
The shooting continued outside the fence and Sally knew that
everybody was so caught up in the battle that they hadn’t even
noticed the creature running towards the exit with the little girl
in its arms, despite her loud screaming. If it reached the gate, it
would disappear into the night with the girl and nobody would even
notice. She raised her gun, but it was pointless! The shot she
would need to make to hit a moving target from this distance was
almost impossible, and Gabby was in the firing line anyway. Then,
suddenly, just as the creature got closer to the gate, and Sally
thought that it was going to succeed in its brazen attempt to steal
the girl, a muzzle flash appeared out of nowhere and the feeder
stopped in its tracks, teetering, but upright, with Gabby still
held to its leathery chest.

Sally ran to where the feeder was standing,
as Matt appeared out of the shadows, breathing heavily, his face
filled with terror. The top part of the feeder’s head had been
blown off by Matt’s shot, but still the beast stood, determined to
hang on to its prize. Sally ran to the feeder as Gabby fainted,
while Matt held the barrel of his gun up to what was left of the
creature’s head. Sally pulled Gabby from the clutches of the beast
as Matt pulled the trigger once more, sending pieces of white flesh
and bone on a short, lonely journey through the cold night air.

“
Is she okay?” he asked,
realising that Gabby was not moving.

“
Yes, I think she’s just
fainted.”

“
Good!” he yelled, glancing
over at the followers, who were still engaged in a brutal conflict
outside the fence, trying to save the life of Gabby, for a reason
that was as fundamental as it was unfathomable. The cause seemed
hopeless as bullets ripped into the relentless hordes of advancing
feeders, but for the briefest of moments, amongst the confusion,
Matt thought he saw Montana’s face, as she looked over in his
direction. Then, just as suddenly, she was gone again, lost amongst
the commotion of the battle.

“
It’s time to leave!” he
roared, turning his back on the struggle.

He grabbed Sally by the arm and they ran
together back up to the house and into the kitchen, where they
found Bonnie looking frantically for Gabby.

“
Oh my god!” she cried, “I
thought they had her!”

“
No!” said Matt, snatching
the keys of his father’s motorbike from the hook on the wall. “We
have her! Now let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 84

Extract From Sally’s Journal:

“We stood on the top of
the hill and gazed down in silence at the nightmare that was “Two
Hills”. Gunshots boomed out across the night, and flashes of orange
in the distance punctuated the dark like grotesque fireworks.
Occasionally we could hear a spine-chilling scream above the
pandemonium, but they were becoming less frequent as the battle
continued.

When the feeder burst
into the kitchen, I thought we’d lost our precious Gabby. The
revulsion and terror I felt when that mutated freak took her was
almost too much for me to handle. The snarl that I glimpsed as it
snatched Gabby away was more devil than animal, and I truly wonder
if we will ever be able to defeat these things! If it weren’t for
Matt’s quick thinking, I think Gabby would have been spirited away
into the night, and the feeders would have won right then. We
certainly would never have seen her again.

But we did get her
back, and knew that we needed to leave the farm as soon as we
could. Gabby was just regaining consciousness, so while Bonnie
tried to wake her, Matt and I frantically raced around the house as
quickly as we could, grabbing warm jackets, and the sports bag that
Bonnie had loaded with weapons. Then, when Gabby was fully
conscious, we left the house for the last time.

It took us about
fifteen minutes to get to the top paddock - Bonnie was riding the
all-terrain vehicle with Gabby latched on from behind with Elvis in
the tray, while Matt and I rode on his father’s motorbike that he
loved so much. It was a bumpy and slow trip, but eventually we
reached the top of the hill safely. No feeders had followed us, so
we can only assume that the defensive line (which included our
Dylan and Montana) was holding its' own down there. Regardless of
that, however, we knew we couldn’t stay where we
were.

Matt’s beloved Angus
cattle were huddled together in a paddock nearby, and obviously
distressed, so he opened their gate, realising that he would
probably never be returning to the farm. “Might as well give them a
chance,” he said, sadly, as he watched them gallop off into the
night in a panic.

Then we climbed back
onto our bikes and made our way slowly down the other side of the
hill. As we got closer to the bottom of the valley, and further
away from the farm, the sounds of the gunshots became fainter and
fainter until they were just a popping sound in the distance. I
couldn’t stop thinking about Dylan and Montana, still engaged in
combat, hoping to make a difference. If I’m honest, I don’t expect
to see them again.

The track we had been
following was very narrow and dangerous - full of potholes, exposed
rocks and overhanging branches. It was extremely slow going, so
when we reached a small ravine that we couldn’t get the bikes
across, it wasn’t a very difficult decision to ditch them and
continue on foot. So we climbed from our bikes, and left them there
and followed Matt through the dense bush, hoping that he knew where
he was going.