Desolation Boulevard (24 page)

“
I don’t know. Maybe
fifteen. Why?”

“
I want you to stop at the
next town.”

“
But we’ve only been on the
road for twenty minutes. It’s too soon to stop. We need to push
on,” he said.

“
Please? I need to see
something.”

“
I guess so,” Dylan replied
unenthusiastically. “But just for five minutes, and then we get
moving.”

Bonnie looked at Sally and nodded
knowingly.

“
No problem,” she
replied.

She’d done the math as well.

-

When Dylan stopped the car in the main
street of Dennington he said to Sally, “Well, here we are. Do you
want to share your secret now?”

“
Not just yet, thanks,” she
said, as she stood surveying the deserted street.

“
What are you looking for?”
Dylan asked, obviously frustrated with her behaviour.

“
I’m not sure, but I think
I’ll know when I see it.”

Slowly she began wandering down the middle
of the road, looking right and left and up and down. There was
nothing unusual or out of the ordinary in Dennington that Dylan
could see.

“
This is just like every
other town we’ve seen so far. Can we go now? We’re wasting
time.”

“
Please, not just yet,” she
pleaded.

Then suddenly, as they crossed an
intersection, she stood and stared down a street on her right.
Bonnie and Dylan stopped beside her and followed her gaze. All they
could see was an apartment building, a mechanics shop, some vacant
lots and a boarded up warehouse.

“
There!” Sally said. “Maybe
that’s it. Let’s check it out.”

Dylan looked at her. “Check what out?”

“
The warehouse.”

Dylan grabbed her by the arm. “What are you
talking about? Check it out for what? Haven’t we been in enough
disgusting buildings for one day?”

It was Bonnie who answered. “Dylan, think
about it! Where do the migrating creatures go in the daytime? They
can’t stay outdoors, and this is probably about as far as they
could realistically travel in one night from Mount Edward. It’s
worth a quick look, isn’t it?”

He gave Sally a sharp glance. “Is that what
you’re thinking?”

“
Yes. I just had a hunch
and I want to see if I’m right.”

Dylan looked at them both and shook his
head. “You women and your intuition! Okay then, let’s have a quick
look, but then we get back on the road. I can’t see the point to
this.”

The women both nodded as they started
walking briskly towards the warehouse, as Dylan ambled along behind
them.

Upon closer inspection, it was clear why
Sally thought this could be a potential nest for large numbers of
sleeping zombies. Every single window had been boarded up with
heavy-duty plywood and the only access point seemed to be through a
broken roller door at the bottom of a concrete ramp that was below
street level.

“
What now?” asked Dylan.
“It looks like the only entrance is through that roller
door.”

“
Yeah,” said Sally. “I was
kind of hoping we could just peek through a window or
something.”

“
Let’s split up and see if
we can find another way in,” suggested Dylan, turning to Sally.
“You and Bonnie check down the far side; I’ll take the right side
and the back. Whether you find another way in or not, be back here
in a couple of minutes. It shouldn’t take long. And have your guns
ready. See you soon.”

Dylan headed off down the alleyway beside
the building and encountered neither open windows nor an accessible
doorway. The back of the building was equally impregnable, and
before he knew it he was standing at the front of the warehouse
again with the two women.

“
Okay, it looks like it’s
through the roller door then. Who wants to go first?”

Sally raised her hand. “This was my idea, so
I’ll go. Maybe I should just go alone. There’s no need for us all
to risk … you know.”

“
No way”, said Dylan.
“That’s just crazy! I’m coming with you, but I do think Bonnie
should wait outside. She can act as a lookout and if we don’t come
out she can at least try to get to Millfield on her
own.”

“
I’m okay with that. What
about you Bonnie? Is that okay?”

“
Only if you guys don’t
mind. I feel like I’m letting you down a bit, but I guess I’m
serving a purpose out her too, yeah?”

“
Absolutely! That’s settled
then. Let’s go.”

When they got to the bottom of the ramp
Dylan tried to raise the broken roller door but it was well and
truly jammed, with a gap they would barely be ably to crawl
through. He looked at Sally and asked, “Are you sure you want to do
this?”

“
I think I have to now. If
they’re migrating and hibernating in large numbers won’t that
knowledge help us to find a way to defeat them in the
future?”

“
I suppose so. Let’s do it
then.”

Sally got down on all fours and put her ear
to the dark space that was the only way in or out of the warehouse.
“I can’t hear anything. If they’re in there, they’re oblivious to
us.”

Next she reached into her backpack and
pulled out her flashlight. Lying on her stomach, she shone the
light into the gloomy interior. “I can’t see a damned thing.
There’s a concrete wall or something in the way.”

After giving Bonnie a wink, she reached
around, took her gun from the back of her belt, slid it along the
concrete into the silent building, and before Dylan had a chance to
say anything to her, she had squirmed under the roller door after
it, disappearing into the darkness beyond.

Dylan looked at Bonnie and shrugged his
shoulders. “If you don’t hear anything after a while, just get out
of here okay?”

“
Sure. Just be careful
okay?” she said, hugging him fiercely.

And with that, Dylan slithered into the
shadowy building and Bonnie was left standing alone in the sunshine
wondering if this knowledge they sought was really worth the
enormous risk they were taking.

Chapter 42

Matt raced the quad bike down the hill as
fast as he could. Gravel spewed from the tyres and every bump he
hit sent the bike flying into the air. He could hear the screaming
more clearly now that he was closer to the bottom of the hill, and
as the bike hit another pothole it almost sent him flying over the
handlebars. Matt couldn’t help but imagine the scene he would find
when he got to the girls. His thoughts had immediately gone to the
feeders, and he assumed that they were the cause for their
hysteria. Why had he left them alone? He should never have expected
that they were safe just because it was daylight! If either of them
were killed or even injured because of his lack of care he would
never forgive himself. He prayed for a miracle and gave the
throttle more power.

As the bike reached the bottom of the hill
behind the farmhouse Matt realised he was almost there. The trip
from the top of the hill had only taken a minute or two, but he
knew it might still be too late. He was close now and as he steered
the bike around the corner of the house to the source of the
screams, he prepared himself for the worst. The sight that greeted
him, however, was not the one he expected. There were no feeders in
sight. Instead, Montana was standing with her back to the fence
beside the vegetable patch, swinging a garden spade at a pack of
three ferocious dogs that were trying to find a way to get their
teeth into her and Gabby.

Matt brought the quad bike to a sudden,
skidding stop on the grass and leaped off as he swung his shotgun
around in one fluid motion. Gabby was screaming as she held onto
the back of Montana’s t-shirt, while the dogs worked to find an
opening to attack the younger girl. Matt raised his gun at the dogs
but realised that a shot at the pack would surely hit the girls as
well. He advanced toward the savage animals yelling and waving the
gun around in an effort to scare them off, but they paid him no
attention whatsoever and continued their coordinated assault. As
Matt raised his gun to fire a warning shot, that he hoped would
scare the beasts away, the lead dog, an emaciated Rottweiler, got
around behind Montana and lunged at Gabby’s legs. Montana spun
around and swung her spade savagely at the animal, but it jumped
out of the way and the blow missed its target. Immediately the
other two dogs sensed an opening, and struck at Montana’s legs from
behind, causing her to scream as blood poured from a wound in her
upper leg. Despite the pain she must have felt though, she
maintained her defence of Gabby and continued to swing the spade at
the Rottweiler as it crouched and prepared for another assault.
Matt watched all of this happen, in just a few chaotic seconds,
then fired his first warning shot into the air.

While it didn’t have the effect he’d hoped
for, it gave him a fraction of a second to seize his chance as the
dogs flinched from the explosive sound. He singled out the
emaciated cattle-dog that had released its’ grip on Montana’s leg
and fired his second and final shell. Unlike his shot at the feeder
in the forest the day before, though, this one was on target and
the animal took the full force of the shot in its’ chest. It
collapsed onto the ground in a bloody mess and was no longer a
threat. The other two were, however, and Matt knew that the only
chance he had was to strike before they had an opportunity to
regroup. He took his shotgun’s grip in both hands and brought the
barrel down like a club into the middle of the Rottweiler’s back as
it was about to plunge its teeth into Gabby’s neck. Matt heard a
crack as the dog’s spine snapped and it fell to the grass in a
useless heap. By this time, the third dog had retreated a few steps
from the fray and seemed to realise that it had been defeated by a
stronger and braver pack. It gave one last yelp and bounded away
into the forest as Montana threw her spade tiredly at its
retreating flanks. As Matt went to Gabby to check that she was
okay, Montana looked at Matt and said, “I think I need to sit …”
before collapsing onto the ground unconscious.

-

When Montana regained consciousness a few
minutes later she was on the couch in the farmhouse and Matt was
washing her face with a cool washer.

“
Ooh. I’m
woozy.”

“
Just lay there and relax,
we’re okay; Gabby’s in the bedroom reading. That was too close,
though. I’m so sorry I left you alone. I should have known
better.”

She looked at him and smiled weakly. “Matt;
it’s fine. You can’t be with us all the time. It’s just one of
those things. How’s Gabby?”

“
She’s fine. She’s so
tough. She was actually worried about the dog that ran away; not
scared, just wondering if it could survive on its own.”

“
Oh my god, does anything
upset that girl?”

“
I don’t know. She’s pretty
resilient, isn’t she? Maybe Kate was right about her. Being special
I mean.”

“
We’ve been trying to tell
you!” she said smiling.

“
Mmm. Anyway, on a
different subject, I really need to look at that leg. It’s bleeding
a lot.”

“
Yeah, it’s really
throbbing too. Let me get these off.”

Matt turned his back while Montana wriggled
painfully out of her jeans, and when he saw them drop to the floor,
he passed Montana a towel and said, “Hold that to the wound while I
get the first aid kit.”

When he returned, Montana was sitting up,
holding the towel firmly against the wound while a cushion from the
couch was resting on her lap to protect her dignity - an act he
found touching and endearing at the same time.

“
Okay, I need to see that
bite,” he said. “I really hope it doesn’t need stitches because I
have no idea how to do that.”

“
Go right ahead,” she
instructed, sounding much braver than she actually felt.

Matt gave her a half-hearted smile and
lifted the towel from her pale leg. After a quick glance, he
replaced the towel and looked at Montana.

“
Well?” she said, “How bad
is it?”

“
I’m no doctor, but it
looks pretty ugly. There’s a lot of blood and some pretty deep
teeth marks, but I don’t know if it needs stitches. A doctor
probably would stitch it, but maybe with a really good bandage we
can make do.”

“
Okay, let’s do that then.
We don’t really have much of a choice do we?”

“
I guess not. Let me just
check on Gabby quickly, then I’ll fix you up.”

Thirty minutes later Montana’s leg was
wrapped in a clean, tight bandage and she was napping in her bed
while Matt and Gabby made preparations for dinner. When Matt had
cleaned Montana’s wound he was a little surprised to see how deep
the bite marks were, and as he bathed the area in antiseptic
solution, he could see that Montana was in a lot of pain. After
he’d packed the wound with a thick gauze pad and wrapped the
bandage tightly around it, he gave her some strong painkillers and
made her swallow some antibiotics that he’d found in the kitchen
from a flu he’d had earlier in the year. Tomorrow in town he would
raid a chemist for fresher supplies of medicine and first aid
supplies.

As Matt supervised Gabby while she washed
the lettuce and tomatoes he marvelled at her outlook.

“
Is Montana hurt a lot?”
the little girl asked.

“
Just a little bit,” he
said. “But she’ll be okay I think. Were you scared when the dogs
attacked you sweetheart?”