Desolation Boulevard (43 page)

Despite the bright sunlight outdoors, they
had only walked about twenty metres before they were in almost
complete darkness. The tunnel they were in was man-made, and
punched about thirty metres into the hillside before it reached the
cave system itself. When they reached the end of the tunnel, Matt
turned around to see how the others were doing, and was surprised
at how far away the entrance looked now. So great was the contrast
between the outside and the gloomy, damp interior of the cave, it
was as if the small rectangle of light behind them belonged to
another world, a world that already seemed intangible and
distant.

“
This is the main chamber I
think,” whispered Dylan, as the trio moved from the tunnel and into
the larger area.

Despite being one of the minor caves, it was
still an impressive sight, however. Hundreds of thousands of years
of water dripping through limestone had built up hundreds of
structures that resembled shiny termite colonies. The silence was
almost complete, broken only by the sound of water dripping from
the ceiling onto the stalagmites, continuing to build them up, one
tiny particle at a time. As the three adventurers swung their beams
around, however, it was becoming clear that there were no feeders
in this chamber.

“
Where are they?” asked
Montana.

“
I don’t know,” said Matt.
“This looks like it would be perfect for them.”

“
We need to go a little
deeper,” suggested Dylan. “Come on”.

Matt and Montana fell in behind Dylan as he
headed to the farthest point of the chamber. The walking was easy
because paths had been carved out of the uneven ground to make it
easy for tour groups to wander through with a guide. There was also
a rusty chain-link handrail to hold for extra safety. When Dylan
had almost reached the far side of the chamber he held up his hand
and motioned for the others to stop.

“
Can you smell that?” he
asked.

“
Oh god, that’s bad!”
exclaimed Montana. “Where’s it coming from?”

Dylan pointed to passage just off to his
right. “There’s a breeze blowing the stink down from up there
somewhere. Let’s have a look.”

“
I think I’ll puke if that
gets any worse,” said Matt, as the crept quietly up the narrow
passage.

Despite their three headlamps illuminating
the way forward, this passage seemed much darker than the one they
had entered the cave through. It was much more confined too, and in
some sections they needed to bend down quite low to keep moving
forward. The smell was also much stronger here, and they all knew
instinctively that it meant they were getting closer to a nest of
feeders. Then, without warning, and in one of the narrowest parts
of the tunnel, Dylan stopped suddenly, causing Matt and Montana to
bump into him from behind.

“
What is it?” asked Matt,
as he tried to peer past Dylan unsuccessfully.

“
Wait until you see this,”
he said. “It’s fucking unbelievable.”

Chapter 67

“
Can we see the
girl?”

Bonnie stared at the man and woman through
the gate, with her gun dangling by her side. “No, you can’t see the
girl. Nobody gets to see the girl. Like I told the others this
morning, you need to move along; head west or wherever, but you
can’t stay here.”

“
We’re not going west. We
just want to see her.”

“
Where are you going if
you’re not heading west?”

“
Going? We’re not going
anywhere. We came here to see the girl.”

“
Well that’s just not going
to happen folks, so I suggest you head back into Millfield and
decide where it is you’re going, because when the sun goes down and
the feeders come out, you’ll be dead meat if you haven’t holed up
somewhere safe.”

The man, who looked to be around forty with
a bushy grey beard and beady brown eyes, looked at the woman beside
him and smiled, before returning his attention to Bonnie, “Well,
actually, there is one safe place isn’t there?”

Bonnie was losing patience with the couple
now, and the shit-eating grin on their faces wasn’t helping
matters. “What are you talking about?”

The smile dropped from the man’s face and he
snarled at Bonnie, “This is a safe place isn’t it? Huh? I don’t see
any dead bodies around here. Word is the girl’s like some good-luck
charm! We’ve all met people who’ve had the dreams. Those fucking
creatures won’t go near her will they?”

Suddenly, Bonnie felt as though she’d been
punched in the stomach. How could people know about Gabby’s gift?
“You need to go”, she stammered, “I don’t know what you’re talking
about, but if you don’t leave soon there’ll be trouble.”

She wheeled around and started heading back
towards the farmhouse, where Sally and Gabby were waiting, but she
knew that her words were only empty threats unless Matt, Dylan and
Montana returned from the caves soon. From behind her the man
yelled, “You can’t keep us all away, you know! The girl belongs to
everyone, not just you! We won’t be the last!”

Bonnie opened the front door and lurched
inside, glad to be away from the hostile desperation of the people
at the gate. Sally was waiting for her, and when the front door was
closed and locked they went to the lounge room and peered through
the window, “They’re still there,” Bonnie said.

“
What do they want?” asked
Sally.

Bonnie stepped away from the window and
slumped down into the nearest armchair. “They want my
daughter.”

-

Dylan, Matt and Montana were standing behind
a stainless-steel guardrail, on a small ledge looking down into a
large cavern filled with sleeping feeders. They noticed that the
creatures were almost all completely naked now, their clothes
having rotted and fallen off over the last few months.

“
It’s unbelievable,”
murmured Matt, almost to himself, as the others observed the
bizarre sight before them in silence. “How many of them are there,
do you think?”

Dylan shook his head, “It’s hard to say,
maybe eight hundred. Are they asleep?”

“
No way,” answered Montana,
“Their hibernation is really different to the way we sleep. If they
were sleeping like humans do, there would be some kind of movement.
They look more like corpses.”

The pale bodies of the feeders below them
covered the uneven floor of the cave like a putrid carpet. There
was almost no space between each figure, and Matt wondered if it
was to help them maintain their body heat or if it was just an
aspect of their flocking behaviour.

“
We really should get the
bomb set up and get out of here quickly,” he said, unable to take
his eyes from the hellish scene before him.

“
Sure’“ agreed Montana.
“The smell’s about to make me puke anyway. But just one thing
before we go, though.”

“
What’s that?” asked
Dylan.

“
Do some of those feeders
look pregnant to you?”

Matt and Dylan craned forward and directed
their headlamp beams at a couple of the closest female
creatures.

“
Shit!” exclaimed Matt, “I
think you’re right. They definitely look like “baby bumps” as my
mum used to call them.”

“
God man, that is really
creepy!” said Dylan. “Let’s get this device set up and get to the
next cave. I seriously need to get out of here.”

Matt took off the backpack that was attached
to his front, and placed it gently on the floor of the cave.
Montana shone her flashlight onto the device as Matt pulled it
carefully from the pack, while Dylan kept his beam trained over the
feeders in case they came out of their suspended sleep state. Once
the timer and detonator were attached to the explosives, Matt set
the timer for three hours, which would give them plenty of time to
place the additional bombs in the other five caves, before getting
out of the area with plenty of time to spare.

“
Okay, that’s done,” said
Matt, rubbing his hands together.

“
You’re not just going to
leave it here are you?” asked Montana.

“
Why not?” Matt
asked.

“
Wouldn’t it be more
effective down on the floor with them?”

Matt looked at Dylan and asked, “What do you
think?”

“
I think she’s right. I’ll
take it down. I think I saw a ladder.”

Matt carefully returned the device to the
pack and placed it gingerly on Dylan’s back.

“
It’s armed, so I wouldn’t
bump it if I were you,” he said, giving Dylan a forced
smile.

“
Hey man, thanks for the
heads up, I would never have thought of that.”

“
Please be careful,” said
Montana, as Dylan unlatched the gate that would give him access to
the ladder.

“
Sure. See you in a
minute.”

Matt and Montana leaned over the barrier and
shone their lamp beams down to give Dylan as much light as
possible. The metal ladder looked old but sturdy, and was attached
to the rock wall with solid looking brackets; but there were still
butterflies in their stomachs as they watched Dylan descend into
the realm of the feeders. Down below, there was no sign of movement
from the creatures, and even after Dylan had stepped off the last
rung onto the floor beside the beasts, they appeared more like
cadavers than living beings. Dylan looked up to his friends, which
caused them to shield their eyes from his headlamp’s glare, but
they saw him give the thumbs up sign before getting back to the job
at hand.

Matt and Montana watched as he reached
around and took the pack from his back and placed in on the floor.
He unzipped the top of it and lifted out the device, but instead of
placing the device on the floor beside him, Dylan put it back in
the pack and stood up, looking around at the feeders that
surrounded him like a fetid swamp.

“
What’s he looking for?”
asked Montana.

“
I don’t know,” answered
Matt, before leaning over the rail and whispering, “What’s
up?”

Dylan simply gazed up at Matt and wrinkled
up his nose and fanned his face with his hand, as if to illustrate
how bad the smell was.

“
What’s he playing at?”
asked Montana, more anxious now.

“
I have no idea, but he’s
pissing me off. We need to get moving.”

Then, suddenly, Matt and Montana understood
exactly what Dylan was doing, as they watched him step over the
closest feeder and begin to carefully pick out a route to the
centre of the cave, right into the midst of the sleeping swarm.

“
God! He’s going to put it
right in the middle of them! Idiot!” said Montana, furious that she
had to spend one second longer in this cave than she needed
to.

Dylan pushed on, though, despite the concern
of his friends on the ledge above. He knew that if he could plant
the device at the centre of the nest, then destruction would be
complete and he would wipe out almost a thousand feeders, beyond
doubt, in a fraction of a second. When he had started to climb
down, there had been no intention of doing anything other than
placing the bomb at the foot of the ladder, but there was something
about seeing the pregnant female feeders up close that had filled
him with a hatred so all consuming that he started to move into
their midst before he realised what he was doing. The task was more
difficult than he had thought it would be, however, because the
creatures were packed closer than he thought, and the rock floor
under him was slick with water, urine and shit. Despite the slow
going, however, he was almost halfway to the centre of the nest
now, and as he cautiously stepped over another creature he though
he would be able to make it if he was very careful. His mind harked
back to his earlier experience with Sally in the underground car
park, and he knew that if these creatures were disturbed, they had
the capability of waking suddenly and defending themselves with
extreme violence for short periods of time; so he forced himself
take it slow, even though he wanted to get out of that cave with
every fibre of his being.

“
He’s almost there,” said
Montana, as she gripped Matt on the arm.

“
Yeah, but he has to get
out too, don’t forget”.

A couple of seconds later, the two watched
as Dylan’s light stopped bobbing around in the dark, signalling his
arrival at the centre of the feeder horde. Then Dylan raised the
backpack above his head in triumph, before placing it carefully in
a tiny, available space between two oblivious feeders.

“
Okay mate, now get out of
there,” Matt whispered to himself, nervously.

As Dylan started to tiptoe back through the
prostrate figures of the feeders, Matt put his arm around Montana’s
waist and pulled her close, “It’s okay. He’s going to make it.
We’ll be out of here soon.”

As the words were leaving
Matt’s mouth, however, Montana let out a strangled squeal as Dylan
lost his balance and lurched forward
suddenly
, directly into the mass of
sleeping creatures.

Chapter 68

Sally and Bonnie were in the kitchen
clearing up the dishes after lunch, while Gabby watched “The Lion
King” in the lounge-room. It was almost one o’clock, and they knew
that if everything had gone well at the caves, they could start
listening for sound of Matt’s truck coming up the drive. While they
had no idea what ordeals their friends would be facing, or how long
it would take to plant the devices, they knew that the trio would
need to be back at the farm before dark, or risk facing the brutal
and merciless feeders as they emerged from their nests to hunt.