Desolation Boulevard (48 page)

Montana shivered, “Yes.”

“
Tell me.”

“
It’s a person who has no
feelings of um, what’s the word? Is it empathy? For the problems of
other people.”

“
You’re right again. That’s
quite a rudimentary definition, but close enough.”

“
Can I ask a
question?”

“
Of course.”

“
How did you operate with
those hands?”

He paused, and Montana felt his eye boring
into hers. She wondered if she had thrown away the phony goodwill
that had just been established, but the man answered, setting her
mind at rest.

“
It wasn’t easy, that’s for
sure, but I have much more movement in these claws than it appears.
Most of the damage is only skin deep.”

He held up his hands and flexed his
disfigured fingers back and forth as if to prove the point.

“
What’s going to happen to
us?” asked Montana.

“
You’ll find out in due
time my dear. Aren’t you curious as to how a freak like me came to
lead this band of misfits, though?”

“
I guess, I’m just worried
about my friends, that’s all.”

“
I have very exciting plans
for your friends. You’ll find out about that later. First let me
finish my story.”

Montana watched in silence as he
continued.

“
When the world changed, I
was one of the lucky ones, like you. I got out of the city alive
and started heading west, like many others. But when I arrived here
in Carswell, something compelled me to stop. There was nobody else
living here at the time, just people passing through on the way
west, and so I had the place to myself. There was plenty of
evidence of previous zombie activity, however, and I even
discovered a couple of zombie bodies behind the petrol station.
They had been shot through the head. I wondered about that, but I
couldn’t understand it, so I just moved on. It didn’t take me long
to find the school, and I realised straight away that it would be a
perfect fortress, so I moved in. Then I got lucky. A group of
marauders came into the town while I was gathering supplies, and
they had an injured companion. He’d fallen off his motorcycle and
had a broken leg. If it weren’t treated, he would have died. I
brought him to the school and set his leg in a cast, so he
survived. They were grateful and decided to stay with me at the
school while he recovered.”

He paused, waiting for some kind of response
from Montana.

“
There must be more than
that to this story,” she said. “You wouldn’t achieve power over
these people just by fixing a busted leg.”

“
Very astute of you - of
course not. Over the next few days more marauders arrived at the
school. I can’t explain how they knew to come here, but come they
did. I considered locking them out, but I knew I couldn’t stop them
all, and besides, there is such a thing as safety in numbers, and I
knew they would protect me because of my skills as a doctor. Now,
there was no leader in the camp at that point; everyone was just
doing their own thing, living as a group of unruly individuals.
But, on the third day an argument started between a new arrival and
one of the original group. As the fight got physical, I could
visualise the whole situation turning bad, and anarchy developing,
which would ultimately force me to leave the school and the town. I
didn’t want that. I belong here, and I intended to
stay.”

Despite her distaste for the man before her,
Montana was interested in his story now. “What happened?”

“
I walked into the room
where the fight was taking place, and without warning or
hesitation, I shot one of the marauders in the head. The survivor
was so impressed with my ruthlessness that he became my protector.
Since then, I’ve just built on that concept of total loyalty to me,
or death. They love it, because they don’t have to think. I provide
shelter, medical care, food, entertainment and organisation, and
they can do whatever they like as long as they don’t challenge my
authority or the unity of the group. I’ve had two more problems
with troublemakers since then, and I had them both shot as a
warning to the others. So really it’s nothing more than a
dictatorship, but it works. Any questions?”

“
Can I see my
friends?”

“
Well, that depends. If
they’re chosen, they’ll be part of tonight’s entertainment, and
you’ll get to see them. But for now, I have things to do.
Guard!”

On that command, the door swung open and one
of Scarface’s goons entered the office. He took Montana roughly by
the arm and dragged her away before she had a chance to ask any
more questions. She was pushed unceremoniously into a dark
storeroom, and the door was locked immediately behind her. She
stared at the wall and wondered what Scarface had meant by
entertainment, and if Matt and Dylan were safe. She slumped to the
cold, hard floor and sobbed.

-

“
They’ll be here
soon.”

Dylan turned and looked at the woman sitting
next to him. Number Five. She had dark circles under her eyes and
it was impossible to tell whether she was thirty or sixty.

“
Not long now,” she said,
almost forlornly. “The waiting is almost worse than the idea of
dying, you know. Almost.”

“
Oh,” said Dylan. “What do
you think happens to the people who have their numbers
chosen?”

She looked at him with those dark, sad eyes
and answered without emotion. “They die.”

Almost on cue the door was thrust open and
Scarface entered, flanked by two armed marauders. Matt and Dylan
sensed the change in the room as everyone stood up, their backs to
the wall. The boys followed suit.

“
Good afternoon, ladies and
gentleman,” said Scarface. “It’s time to choose. I hope you’ve got
plenty of energy. My people expect a good performance tonight. I
have a special treat, too, because I’m in a good mood. We’re going
to have two contestants - it should make it all the more
fun.”

Matt and Dylan looked at each other. What
was this freak talking about? While they were both curious about
the game that was being played out, neither wanted to be chosen to
be part of some twisted amusement for a pack of marauders, because
if they got lucky, and survived the deadly draw, then they would
have another day to try to plan some kind of escape, no matter how
unlikely the prospect really was. If one or both of them were
picked out, however, escape would be virtually impossible. Scarface
took the black hat from his head and handed it to one of the
guards, who held it upside down like a cup. He then reached into
his pocket and withdrew a handful of makeshift tickets. He showed
the potential victims their number, with some sense of enjoyment it
seemed, before placing the piece of paper into his hat. After
shuffling the numbers around with his withered hand, he pulled one
out and held it up to his good eye. The room was silent and
everyone held their breath as they waited to learn their fate.

“
Number five,” he
announced, holding the stub out for all to see.

Matt and Dylan breathed a sigh of relief,
but the woman that Matt had spoken to earlier screamed as her
number was called. One of the guards stepped forward and slapped
her hard across the face, which caused her to fall to the floor in
a heap. No one moved to help her as Scarface began to stir the
remaining tickets. They watched as his hand withdrew another number
from the hat. He squinted at the piece of paper.

“
The second contestant is
number...”

Chapter 73

Extract from Sally’s Journal:

“I am barely able to
put pen to paper at the moment because Matt, Dylan and Montana
haven’t come home. They should have been back before dark, but
they’re not. I know that they might just be holed up somewhere
waiting for the daylight, but I can’t get out of my mind that they
might be dead already. I feel like I am betraying them by writing
that down, but it’s the way I feel, so it goes into my
journal.

Gabby senses that
something is wrong, and Bonnie and I have tried to keep her spirits
high, but it’s really difficult under the circumstances. Tonight we
cooked dinner like we always do, but because the others weren’t
with us it was very quiet and sad. We tried to act as if everything
was okay, but I think Gabby saw right through our charade. We made
her drink a hot chocolate and then put her to bed early, thinking
that if she slept, then she wouldn’t be worrying. I wish I could do
the same.

We can still see the
fire outside the fence, and it looks as if the people there aren’t
going anywhere in a hurry. I’m very concerned that they will just
keep arriving, and then one day they will just decide to come in
and take Gabby by sheer force of numbers. If that was the case then
I don’t know what Bonnie and I could do to stop them. I miss the
boys so much! If they were here (and Montana), I would feel so much
better about things. Together we could probably come up with some
plan to get rid of those people. I can only imagine it being done
through violent means, though. Not a pleasant
thought!

I’ve tried not to think
about it too much, but I think we may have to leave the farm soon.
If that crowd outside the gate keeps growing, we’ll have no choice.
It may be better to leave before it all gets out of control. I know
Matt won’t want to leave, but I can’t see an alternative. I don’t
know where we would go either, to be honest. I thought that maybe
we could go to Kate’s house in the hills, but surely these people
would just follow us up there. I don’t think going back to the city
is an option either. I have visions of the streets swarming with
feeders after dark, and so that’s obviously not a very desirable
scenario. The only place left to go, then, is further into the
countryside. Many people are heading west and it just might be that
there is some salvation that way, but how do we know? And what if
Gabby’s “followers” do exactly that, and follow us? I don’t see a
bright future for us right now.

Bonnie just came in to
say goodnight. She told me to “hang in there”. That’s easier said
than done I’m afraid! I feel guilty, too, on top of everything
else, because of my feelings for Matt. Both boys are in danger, but
all I can think about is Matt coming home safely. Am I a bitch, for
thinking that way? I think most people would say yes, but I can’t
help the way I feel. If they come home safely I think I’ll have to
share my secret with him. I can’t go on pretending to love Dylan
when it’s not the truth. God I hope they’re safe.

Chapter
74

Montana was woken from her fitful nap by the
sound of the storeroom door being flung open.

“
Get up,” ordered the
shadowy figure. “The Doctor wants to see you. I’ll take you to the
bathroom first.”

“
Some doctor,” she thought
cynically, as she scrambled to her feet and squeezed past the guard
whose filthy, fat figure filled the doorframe.

There was nobody else in the corridors,
marauder or otherwise, and she wondered if it had something to do
with the “entertainment” that Scarface had mentioned earlier. Her
escort gave her a not-so-gentle push in the back, and then followed
her closely, giving one-word directions until they arrived at a
door that read “Female”.

“
You got three minutes!” he
snarled.

The bathroom comprised nothing more than a
toilet, a hand basin and a single shower stall. The windows to the
outside were barred, and Montana could tell by the dusky light
penetrating the frosted glass, that the sun was getting low in the
sky. She used the toilet, and then washed her face and hands in the
basin. Running water? The school must have had rainwater tanks
installed at some point in the past. She’d never considered where
the school’s water came from while she was a student, but now she
couldn’t stop thinking about things like that. As she looked in the
mirror she realised that she’d aged since the event. Her face,
while still beautiful, was harder now, and her eyes looked as if
they were keeping some kind of dark secret, but there was no doubt
Scarface had chosen her for her desirability. He obviously had
plans for her, but she wasn’t very enthusiastic about imagining
what those plans might be. She tried to think of a way out of this
mess, but only disheartening questions sprung up in her mind, like
weeds, as she ran her hands through her hair. How could she ever
hope to escape from this predicament? Were the boys safe? Would she
ever see “Two Hills” again? Were Gabby, Bonnie and Sally safe?
There were no answers to these questions, she realised sadly, as a
hard thump rattled the door, and she was brought back to the cold
hard reality of her current predicament.

No more than a minute later she was back in
the Principal’s office with Doctor Scarface (as she now thought of
him) listening to his crazy rationalisation of the upcoming
show.

“
You see, my dear, it’s not
enough that I rule by fear and intellect - I have to give my
followers something to keep them amused while our legion grows. I
came up with the idea while I was watching a stranded survivor
being devoured by feeders outside the school fence a few weeks ago.
It was quite a spectacle; but, rather than being repulsed by the
whole grotesque scene, my band of misfits actually enjoyed it, and
the more the victim fought and screamed, the more they laughed and
cheered. Then, after a few minutes, when the massacre was over,
everybody seemed to be in a rather good mood.”