Desolation Boulevard (6 page)

Chapter 12

Matt spent the morning searching the homes
of his parents’ friends, hoping to find them lying unconscious
under a bed like the Thompsons. He didn’t find them, but he did
find lots of other “hiders”. He found them under beds, in
wardrobes, in garages and even one in the trunk of a partly
restored ‘66 Mustang. Every single person in Millfield was in a
state of suspended animation and looked perfectly comfortable to
Matt, in a bizarre kind of way. Earlier in the day, in Mr and Mrs
Cleary’s house, Matt decided to poke one of the bodies to see what
would happen. He found a golf club in the garage, and gently
prodded Mr Cleary in his ample beer belly, but there was no
reaction.

Around midday he paused his searching and
forced himself to eat something. While looking for his parents was
not physically demanding, he could tell that it was taking an
emotional toll. He felt lethargic and was beginning to get a
headache. After his lunch, he continued the grim quest in more
unlikely places such as restaurants and shops, but he had no luck
there either. Wherever his parents were hiding, they certainly did
not want to be found. As the sun began to set, Matt started for
home. He had not found one single person who was conscious, yet
logic compelled him to believe there must be others like him
somewhere, who had not been affected by this event. Tomorrow he
would take his search for survivors further afield. The nearest
town was only thirty minutes away and almost twice as big as
Millfield. Surely somebody there would be conscious? As he thought
about the hiders, Matt worried about the long-term affects of their
suspended state. If they continued to hibernate indefinitely, it
was obvious that they would die from dehydration. Could nature
really play such a cruel and pointless trick? He thought that a
virus could cause a reaction like the one he had seen in the
victims, but surely after it had run its course, it too would die
out with the hosts. What would be the point of that? Even viruses
existed to prolong their existence as long as possible. If the
victims of this inexplicable event didn’t regain consciousness
soon, Matt knew that he would be dealing with a town full of
corpses.

He pulled the car into the farm’s driveway
and killed the engine. He grabbed his shotgun and trudged into the
house, Elvis following closely behind. The sun had dropped behind
the hills and the place was gloomy and depressing. He flicked on
some lights and that made him feel a little better, but he still
fretted for his missing parents. If he couldn’t find them he knew
they would probably die. He didn’t know exactly what he would do if
he did find them, but maybe they would have some chance of survival
if he could provide basic medical care until they regained
consciousness. As he was pondering that idea, Elvis started to
whine. Matt went to the kitchen to find him some food. There was
leftover spaghetti in the refrigerator (made by his mother two days
ago, he thought sadly), which the dog would probably eat, so he
took the plastic wrap from the bowl and took it out onto the
porch.

“
Here boy, eat this.” He
placed the bowl down on the floor, but Elvis paid it no
attention.

“
Come on boy, you should
eat. You must be starving.”

Elvis whined.

“
What’s wrong?” Matt
coaxed.

He followed the dog’s gaze through the murky
evening dusk towards town. He couldn’t see anything. The dog
probably smelt a roo or a rabbit out foraging for food in the dusk.
He sat down on the bench, where his father would normally be having
a well-earned beer, and looked towards town while Elvis continued
to whine. It was the only sound Matt could hear.

Until the scream.

Matt leapt to his feet and stared in the
direction of the noise. Suddenly Elvis became more animated and
looked at Matt, wagging his tail, as if to say “You hear it too
human?” If it weren’t for the dog’s reaction Matt would have
thought he imagined the cry, as the night became silent once more.
His heart was beating too fast as he waited to hear it again. A
scream that meant someone else in Millfield was conscious! He
thought it had sounded human - a woman maybe. He was cautious with
this line of reasoning, though, because he had heard possums and
even koalas make noises eerily similar to human vocalisations,
especially in the midst of mating. What had him convinced, in the
end though, was the sheer volume of the cry. Despite town being
around four kilometres away, the sound had travelled across the
still night air and assaulted his senses as if the person was in
the next room. Someone had regained consciousness down there. He
called Elvis, grabbed the shotgun and ran to the ute.

Chapter 13

Sally found what she was looking for as the
sun began to dip toward the western horizon - a small boutique
hotel with balconies that faced onto the street.  She entered
the unlocked lobby and called out. There was no answer. This would
be her home for the night. She went behind the front counter and
found the board that held the room keys. Most of the spaces were
empty, which meant that those rooms had probably been occupied
before the “event”, but there were two keys for rooms on the ground
floor. She ruled these out immediately for safety reasons, before
taking the key for Room 14, which was on the first floor. She hoped
it was one of the balcony rooms she had seen from the street. After
checking that the rear entrance to the building was locked, she
secured the lobby doors and headed upstairs to her room. The
stairwell was awfully gloomy in the late afternoon light, and Sally
felt a strong sense of relief once she was ensconced in her room
with the door locked behind her. She threw her bag on the bed and
collapsed beside it, suddenly realising how exhausted she was. “No
fucking wonder’“ she thought to herself. She’d had a day that was
quite probably unique in the history of humanity. She was still
crying when she fell asleep.

When she woke, the last remnants of light
were leeching from the room and the silence was overwhelming. She
tried the light switch but found it unresponsive. She went to
balcony and looked out at her new world, her new dark reality. A
little electricity was still functioning, however, she saw with
some surprise, because here and there light spilled from windows
and doors. But she also noticed that the streetlights weren’t
working, and neither was there any sign of human activity in the
city below. A cat strolled across the street toward her building,
but apart from that, nothing moved. She turned away from the
window, more depressed than she had ever felt in her life, as she
sat on the bed and removed the contents of her backpack, spreading
them out on the quilt - candles, a dead phone, a handful of
breakfast bars, a bottle of water, tampons, a purse, her journal, a
collection of pens and pencils, and the novel she had been reading
- “The Old Man and the Sea”.  After she lit one of the
candles, she ate two breakfast bars and drank half of her water,
before resuming her vigil on the balcony. The night had staked its’
claim on the city and the silence was claustrophobic. The breeze
that had given the day a little background noise had died down
completely, creating a bizarre and new experience for a girl who
had lived in the big, noisy city her whole life.

Thanks to her short nap. Sally was
wide-awake and in need of some comfort. In the times when her
mother would let her down (like the time she forgot her birthday),
Sally found solace in her own thoughts. By logically analysing a
situation and writing about it, Sally found she could depersonalise
it, taking away some of the pain brought on by her emotions. She
needed to evaluate the situation she was in now so she went back
into the room, grabbed her journal and a pen, and then sat down at
the small desk to make a list:

1. Everybody
gone.

She crossed that out and started again.

1. Almost everybody
gone (I saw that one crazy guy earlier today), therefore there are
people who were left behind (of which I am one).

2. Is it possible to
evacuate 2 million people overnight in silence? NO!

3. People must be
somewhere. Where? Still in city? Yes. Where? ... Hiding?
Ridiculous!!!

4. Mental illness. Am I
crazy? Have to assume not! Only option.

5. Am I in danger? Yes.
Illness, accident, crime, water? food etc.

6. How long before
there is no electricity? Days? Hours? Minutes? Use it before it
shuts down? How? For information!!!! Internet may still be online.
Find others!!

7. Short term strategy:
get information, stay out of trouble, don’t get sick, don’t get
into dangerous situations, and wait.

7. Wait for what? Wait
for things to return to normal! Where should I wait? In the city.
Why? Because that’s all I know. How long will I wait? Until I can’t
stand it any more!

8. Then
what???????

Sally read her list and realised that it
hadn’t really answered any of the big questions, but it certainly
made her feel a little better seeing her situation written down in
black and white. It felt as if she owned the problem now and could
somehow cultivate a small measure of control. She couldn’t believe
that she hadn’t thought of the Internet before! She decided to make
a plan to get her through the next few days. If nothing had changed
by then she would develop a more long-term plan. She started a new
page in her journal.

The
Plan

1. Make this room my
base (it feels pretty secure).

2. Assume there is
danger (until proven otherwise).

3. Don’t go out at
night, if possible.

4. Gather supplies
(food, water, medical).

5. Get information
(find Internet somewhere).

6. Hide until safety is
guaranteed (I am rescued?)

Sally read her new list. Not much of a plan
at all really, but if she stuck to it, she felt that she might
increase her chances of survival until “normal service was
resumed”. She went back out onto the balcony and peered up and down
the deserted street. She wondered about the lights. There was
strong possibility that there would be a computer somewhere with
Internet access. Sally thought that she had read somewhere that the
Internet had been established by the US Defence Department to have
reliable communications in the event of a major electricity
disruption or in times of war. That’s why telephone lines were
used; they didn’t require very much electricity to send data. A
computer, however, did require electricity, and Sally would only be
able to access the Internet with a computer while the electricity
was still on. She became furious with herself that she hadn’t
thought of electricity before she decided to stay in this hotel.
Why didn’t she pick somewhere with power? It didn’t matter now. She
had made her choice based on safety, and she was going to stick
with it. She did need to try to find information, however, by going
down to one of the lit-up buildings, to try and find a computer
with Internet access. Then she thought of the rule she had just
written, about not going out at night. On the surface that rule
certainly made sense, but what would happen if all of the
electricity went out while she slept? The Internet would probably
be lost to her forever. She looked once more into the street and
analysed her choices. Based on the fact that she had only seen one
person all day (almost eight hours ago) she decided that a short
trip to find a working computer was a chance worth taking,
especially if she was vigilant. The street looked deserted and
harmless. She headed back downstairs. In the lobby she stood at the
locked glass doors and surveyed the street outside. Nothing moved.
She unlocked the door and stepped outside. She pulled the door
closed but did not lock it behind her in case she needed to get
back inside quickly. As she headed south towards a real estate
office she had noticed earlier, she kept to the shadows and tried
to make as little noise as possible. It was funny how the night
made you feel so much more vulnerable, she thought.

Chapter 14

As Matt gunned the ute
towards town with Elvis by his side, he noticed that there were no
lights in the town at all. That would make searching for the source
of the scream much harder, but it would also provide him with some
cover if he needed it. He knew that he might be on a wild goose
chase but at least he was doing
something
. He had no reason to
begin his search anywhere in particular, so he decided to head
straight into the centre of town, and then cruise outwards, much as
he had done earlier, in the fruitless search for his parents. When
he arrived at his starting point he stopped the car and looked
around while the engine idled. He couldn’t see anything that looked
different from his earlier search, so he began to drive. In first
gear he rolled along the empty streets with both windows down,
scanning the night through the windscreen and driver’s side window,
while Elvis kept watch from the passenger’s seat. A couple of times
Matt was startled by a sudden movement in the darkness, but it just
turned out to be dogs roaming the streets, freed from the need to
be pets. This whole experience was eerie. Thinking about all of
these people, lying unconscious in their homes, made Matt feel very
uncomfortable. Usually at night these dwellings would be filled
with the smells of cooking, the sounds of family conversations and
the warm glow of the television.  His friends would be on
their computers doing homework, or updating Facebook, while their
little brothers or sisters would be tucked up in bed for the night,
while their parents relaxed in front of a TV show or a DVD. Matt’s
anxiety was palpable as he peered into every street, house and yard
trying to catch any sign of human activity.