Desolation Boulevard (31 page)

Sally didn’t know what to say, but Bonnie
took the lead, much to the younger girl’s relief.

“
We’re just passing
through. We have no intention of staying here. Is that cool? Can we
keep moving on?”

Brock’s smile chilled them both to the bone
as he asked, almost to himself, “Is that cool? Is that cool? Mmm, I
may have to think about that. Is that cool?”

He looked intently at the women sitting
before him on the floor as he made a big show of thinking carefully
about his answer, “Well it depends, doesn’t it. Whether it’s cool,
I mean. You two are kind of hot, and my last girlfriend and I
…”

Bonnie and Sally waited for him to finish
the sentence, understanding instinctively that whatever he said
next would be either a lie or gibberish.

“
Yeah, my last girlfriend.
She was hot too, but I lost her.”

The unpleasant change that came over Brock’s
face was obvious as he spoke about his previous “girlfriend”. The
dark bitterness was like a mask of hate as he stared into space,
reliving momentarily his delusional relationship with Montana.

“
Oh, I’m sorry,” said
Bonnie, sympathetically, trying to seem reasonable. “Did the
zombies get her?”

Suddenly Brock’s eyes swam back into focus,
and he seemed surprised to see the women sitting before him.

“
What? Zombies? No the
zombies, as you call them, didn’t get her. A bad man took her from
me. But I’ll get her back. And I’ll get him too! They haven’t gone
far.”

Bonnie tried to keep the conversation going,
because she knew that while ever the crazy, fat man was talking he
wouldn’t be locking them into that dark cold vault, or worse.

“
Hey, maybe we can help
you. We have weapons. Where did the man take her? Do you know? We
could go together and find them and rescue her.”

“
No!” he snapped. “You need
to keep your mouth shut! I’ve been fucked over by liars enough
already. You two aren’t going anywhere. I’m all set up now and you
whores will make a nice addition to my little family.”

Bonnie and Sally looked at each other. What
was this guy talking about? Family? They had seen nobody. If he had
a “family”, where the hell were they?

-

Dylan’s heart was beating like some crazy
drum as he raced to the opposite side of the street. He took an
educated guess on the approximate direction he had seen the
movement, and sprinted down a side street just in time to see a
large male figure go into a two-storey brick building and close the
door behind him. He looked around cautiously, but there was nobody
else on the street. Keeping out of view as much as possible, Dylan
scurried over the road and carefully peeked through the barred
front windows and into the bank.

The male figure that he’d seen from the
street was standing with his back to Dylan, taking part in an
animated conversation, probably with Bonnie and Sally. He couldn’t
see the girls, but knew that they must be in there with him. He
thought about taking a shot at the figure, but ruled it out as
being too risky, especially since he would be shooting through a
closed window. He was also worried that a poor shot, and ensuing
ricochet, would endanger the lives of Sally and Bonnie. No, he
would need to find another solution. If only he could hear what
this man was saying to them.

-

Inside the bank Brock’s psychotic
conversation continued. “Yes that’s right ladies. I’m not alone!
You thought I was didn’t you. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you
why I’m not alone, but you’d be impressed, that’s for sure.”

“
Impressed with what?”
asked Bonnie, trying to sound as casual and as friendly as
possible.

He gave her a filthy look. “Wouldn’t you
like to know!” he snarled.

“
Only if you want to tell
us. It’s fine if you don’t.”

“
Well I don’t, so shut the
fuck up! Where did you come from anyway? Millfield, like the other
one?”

All of a sudden, Bonnie’s calm demeanour
evaporated, replaced by an adrenaline rush of hope. “What other one
in Millfield?” she blurted, just a little too excitedly.

Brock paused and studied her face. “What are
you so excited about, all of a sudden? Are you friends with that
cunt who stole my girlfriend? He was from Millfield.”

Bonnie’s optimism faded immediately as she
realised that this creep was talking about the “bad man” that had
taken his girlfriend, and not her daughter.

“
No, I’m not friends with
him. I don’t know anyone in Millfield,” she lied, as her mood
slumped.

“
Well that’s just as well
then, because any friend of that prick is an enemy of mine, and I
don’t want us to be enemies. I want us to be very, very, good
friends. All three of us.”

He smiled at the two women and motioned for
them to stand up.

“
Okay, girls. I need to put
you away for a little while. There’s some stuff I need to do before
it gets dark. Get in the vault.”

“
No! You can’t!” pleaded
Bonnie, as Sally looked at her in terror. “We’ll suffocate in
there.”

“
For fuck’s sake! Relax!
It’s only for twenty minutes, while I go feed my pretties. You’ll
be fine. I’ll even give you a flashlight each so you won’t be
scared of the dark. And when I come back, I have a really big night
planned for us all. We’re going to get to know each other a little
better. I might even introduce you to the rest of the
family.”

“
Please don’t do this!”
begged Bonnie. “What if something happens to you out there and you
never come back? We’ll starve to death!”

“
Now listen,” said the big
man, trying to maintain control of the situation. “I said you will
be fine, and you will be. So shut the fuck up AND GET IN THAT
VAULT!”

The violence of his outburst and the gun
that was trembling in his hands convinced Bonnie that there was
nothing they could do right now. She grabbed Sally’s hand and led
her to the foreboding steel door of the vault. “It’ll be okay,” she
whispered. “We’ll get our chance. Be cool.”

Once they were inside, Brock tossed in two
flashlights and the girls quickly picked them up from the floor and
turned them on before the door swung shut with a booming metallic
thump. They looked at each other, terror writ large on their
faces.

“
This is bad, isn’t it?”
asked Sally.

Bonnie looked at her grimly and nodded, “The
worst.”

-

Dylan watched the whole scene through the
window with growing dread, but before he’d had a chance to react,
the obese kidnapper had bundled the girls into the vault and closed
the door. He considered storming the front door and overpowering
the girls’ captor, but realised if something went wrong and the fat
man was killed, Dylan might never be able to open the vault door,
and they would be trapped inside forever. After all, you couldn’t
call the police for help any more, could you? He watched in fear
and uncertainty as the man inside the building picked up a large,
heavy looking bag and headed for the front door. Dylan ran quickly
across the street and hid behind a parked car as the man stepped
out through the front door with a big smile on his face. He looked
up and down, and then headed down the street back towards the car
yard, whistling happily the whole time. Dylan knew exactly where he
was heading. He followed.

Chapter 52

Matt climbed out of the car. He was in town
to pick up supplies before they perished or were taken by other
survivors. His concern was that if circumstances changed in the
near future, canned or dried food would become a valuable
commodity, and while they hadn’t encountered any looters yet, he
had to assume that they were out there somewhere and may eventually
arrive in more isolated towns as the cities became more and more
inhospitable. He stood outside the supermarket and surveyed the
street. It was a ghost town, inhabited by corpses. As he studied
the decaying human remains he meditated on his own survival. Why
had he not succumbed to the virus, or whatever it was, that had
caused this change in humanity? Whatever the reason, he was glad.
Not because other people had perished, but that he had gone on
living. Just days ago he was ready to give up the fight and would
have been okay with joining the roll call of the dead, but things
had changed. He had found Gabby and then Montana, and all of a
sudden his life seemed to have a purpose. There would be no more
days spent just filling in time or wasting valuable seconds. Even
the most mundane jobs were now imbued with a crucial significance.
He had not become a feeder and he had not died! His life was
precious and he needed to make it count, for his parents and for
Gabby and Montana, his new family. He walked into the
supermarket.

Matt had expected it to smell bad, and he
wasn’t disappointed. He pushed his shopping trolley past the low
open refrigerators, which once housed fresh meat, but were now
simply vessels of corruption and stench. As he passed them by he
could see grey lumps of flesh, wrapped in plastic packaging that
had once been living cows, sheep and pigs. He held his breath and
moved quickly to the aisle containing canned goods, pasta and rice.
Without much thought, and as quickly as he was able, he filled his
trolley to the brim, then wheeled it to his ute, where he unloaded
it into the tray before going back into the store to repeat the
process. By the time he had finished, Matt had completed almost
twenty trips and the back of his truck was filled with essential
supplies that would last almost indefinitely without going stale.
After he had loaded his last trolley of goods into the truck, he
was about to go home to the girls when he thought he heard an
unusual sound coming from around the corner. He grabbed his gun
from the front seat of the truck and stood quietly with his head
tilted, as he tried to identify the sound.

Surprisingly, his curiosity was satisfied
just a few seconds later, when the source of the whistling came
strolling around the corner as large as life. Matt stared,
open-mouthed as the man stopped, studied Matt in shock, then doffed
his baseball cap and bowed at the waist, “Good morning sir. Doing
some shopping, I see.”

“
Um. Yes, I am.
Hi?”

“
Oh, hello, hello!” he
said, as if running into Matt was the most normal thing in the
world. He walked closer and offered his hand. “My name’s Bill. It’s
very nice to meet you. I’m surprised, though. I thought the town
was deserted.”

Matt quickly took in the man’s features. He
was around fifty years old and wearing a pair of jeans and one of
the ugliest sweaters Matt had ever seen - was that a reindeer on
the front? Under his Yankees cap the man had an unruly mop of grey
hair that seemed to have a mind of its own. Matt moved his gun to
his left hand, and shook his hand.

“
Hello. I’m Matt. Where the
hell did you come from?” he asked.

“
Just passing through. Yes,
I’m on my way to the city and thought I’d stop here for the night.
No demons about I noticed.”

“
No, no, um, demons. They
all seemed to have left town. Where have you come from? Have you
seen any other people in your travels?”

“
I’ve come from out west
and yes, I’ve seen some survivors. Not as many as I’d like, though.
There seems to be a bit of a gathering over in Diamond Creek. Do
you know it?”

“
Yes, about four hours west
of here. You were there? What’s it like?” Matt asked, eager for
information about survivors.

“
Yes, I stayed there for a
few days. Word seems to be getting around that it’s a good place to
go. More people were turning up every day. The survivors have
buried all of the corpses, and new arrivals are staking claims to
empty houses. Someone might as well use them I guess. It’s becoming
like a real town, I suppose.”

“
Why Diamond Creek? What’s
so special about there? There are bigger and better places to build
a town, surely?”

“
Well that’s a really good
question. The town has electricity, but nobody knew that before
they turned up there. People just came out of the blue and couldn’t
explain why. Pretty weird, I’d say!”

“
Yeah, absolutely. Why
didn’t you stay there?”

“
I have relatives in the
city. They’re probably dead or have turned into demons, but I feel
like I have to make an effort.”

“
I guess so. I don’t think
the city will be a very safe place, though. There must still be a
lot of feeders there, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Bill gave Matt a look that was difficult to
read. “Well, I don’t know. I guess it’s probably not a very good
idea is it? But what else can I do? I need to do something. I can’t
just sit still and wait. I didn’t feel like Diamond Creek was for
me.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what to do really. I’m just
moving.”

Something about the man’s pleasant manner
and ludicrous plan to travel into the city to look aimlessly for
relatives touched Matt’s heart, and before he realised what he was
doing he had made him an offer.

“
Why don’t you come out to
my place and stay for a while? We could use some help around the
farm.”

Bill studied Matt intently, as if he
suspected a trick, then spoke deliberately, “Oh no, I don’t think
so. I should keep moving. You don’t want me hanging around, getting
in the way. I don’t have any useful skills. I’m an accountant for
goodness sake! I mean I was an accountant. The world has no use for
that job any more does it?”