Desolation Boulevard (5 page)

Matt had known all along what his plan for
today would be - to find his parents. Even though the thought of it
made him feel sick, he realised that they would probably be in the
same state as the other people he had found yesterday. He had no
idea what he would if he found them, other than bring them back to
the farm and keep them comfortable, but that would be better than
doing nothing at all. As the sun started to lift above the eastern
horizon, he made himself a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs and
toast, which he shared with Elvis. He wasn’t particularly hungry,
but he knew his body needed fuel for the difficult day ahead. It
tasted like ash in his mouth as he forced it down.

Matt had no idea what to expect in town
today; he might find everybody back to normal, but he didn’t think
so. If there were any chance of that he would have heard from
somebody by now, and he had heard nothing. For no reason other than
it couldn’t do any harm, he grabbed his father’s shotgun and an
extra box of shells from above the bedroom closet and headed to the
car. He had no firm plan other than to look for his parents. Since
they were in town last night at a party, he figured he would start
his search at their friends’ houses. It would have been so much
easier if he had known which friends had hosted the party, but he
hadn’t thought to ask. If he couldn’t locate them that way, he
would branch out and search some other likely hiding spots. After
that, he wasn’t sure what he would do. For now though, he was
confident that they would be “hibernating” in one of a few regular
haunts (not a good word, he thought to himself humourlessly) and
would be able to bring them home. As Matt started the engine Elvis
jumped up into the passenger seat of the truck. Matt took a deep
breath, “Let’s go boy”.

Chapter 11

Sally remained on the floor of the balcony
with her arms over her head in the classic protective position. As
the noise from the plane’s initial impact began to fade away it was
replaced by the sounds of small explosions. Sally knew very little
about air disasters but she had a strong feeling that these blasts,
while frightening, were just a precursor to what would be one final
almighty explosion, as the plane’s fuel tanks burst and turned the
whole aircraft into a massive incendiary bomb. Without rising to
her feet, Sally starting scrambling toward the relative safety of
her apartment, as occasional burning lumps of metal started to ping
down around her. When she reached the open doorway she rolled into
the apartment and slammed the door shut behind her with her foot.
“Ohmigod! Ohmigod!” she screamed as she lay on the floor with her
hands over her ears. Seconds later came the real explosion, and the
noise seemed to suck all of the air out of the apartment, as the
glass in the balcony doors blew in. She was peppered with tiny
fragments of safety glass, as the heat poured in on a wave of oily
smoke and embers. She heard thousands of pieces of rubble and metal
raining down onto the world outside her windows, as she felt
herself going into shock, before passing out.

Sally had no idea how long she had blacked
out for, but when she regained consciousness her head was
throbbing, she was coughing uncontrollably and she thought that she
was blind. After a terrifying moment she became aware of a
rectangle of light that was her door to the balcony. The smoke in
the room had reduced visibility to almost zero, making her think
that she’d lost her sight. Now she cried with relief. At least she
would be facing this nightmare with vision! She might go crazy, but
at least she could watch herself do it. She stood up gingerly and
headed quickly to the balcony for fresh air, but as she stepped
through the broken French doors she almost fell headlong to her
death two stories below because her balcony no longer existed. Had
she been in more of a hurry, she would have stepped into thin air
and plummeted to the rubble-strewn street below. As it was, she was
saved by a jagged section of concrete no more the thirty
centimetres wide. She retreated one step back into the apartment
and kicked what was left of the doors open to let the smoke escape.
Then she stuck her head through the doorway so that she could
breathe properly, and surveyed the damage outside, as the smoke
cleared from inside the apartment. A westerly breeze was blowing
most of the toxic plume from the burning airliner away from her
towards the coast, and she could see that the buildings across the
street had taken the full force of the blast. Every window had been
blown in, and one building was already in an advanced state of
conflagration. Sally knew it would only be a matter of time before
the fire spread to neighbouring buildings, and then to hers. No
fire services would be coming to help, and she realised, with an
overwhelming sense of grief and trepidation, that she would need to
get out of her apartment and find somewhere safe for the night. She
got moving.

In her bedroom she grabbed her backpack, a
change of clothes, her phone and charger, and her journal. She put
on a sturdy pair of trainers, took one look around her apartment
and headed outside. She had no real thoughts on which direction she
should go, so she just headed away from the blaze that was
spreading with every minute that passed. She knew that she had to
put some distance between her and the fire, and once she did, she
could look for somewhere safe to stay for the night. She realised,
suddenly, and with a real jolt of panic, that now she was living
purely in the moment, like a wild animal. Her safe, normal life had
been snatched from her, and all she could do was to try to stay
alive and safe, until some kind of order was restored. As she
headed away from her home, she saw that most of the streets had
become much like her own. Closed shops and empty cars provided the
backdrop to her nightmare, and she saw no one. Occasionally a cat
would scurry into the shadows, and she saw many unchaperoned dogs
roaming the streets, but they mostly avoided her. She had never
been a dog person anyway.

After walking for half an hour Sally stopped
in a shady shopping arcade to rest. She was thirsty and needed to
find something to drink. Inside a 24 hour convenience store she
found a fully stocked refrigerator and helped herself to a couple
of lukewarm energy drinks. At the counter she grabbed some
chocolate bars and a box of crackers and went outside to eat. She
didn’t realise how hungry she was until she began to wolf down the
chocolate. She ate one bar and finished one of the drinks in two
long swallows. After eating, she felt a little better and decided
to rest for a few more minutes before resuming her journey. There
was a park bench nearby, so she lay down in the early afternoon sun
to rest. Within seconds of closing her eyes, though, she slipped
into a deep sleep. When she woke up, she realised that the light
looked very different, so she checked her watch to find that she
had slept for almost two hours. It was now almost three in the
afternoon. She thought that she had read in one of her books that
shock could cause people to sleep, to help the brain to recover
more quickly, and she realised that it had just happened to
her.

She looked around. Back in the direction of
her house the smoke from the burning city looked more extensive
than before. Because there was no fire service to control the fire
it was raging out of control, spreading outwards from the original
plane crash site. She needed to keep moving. She had walked almost
ten blocks when she realised that she could make much better time
if she had a bicycle. A car was out of the question. She had never
had the inclination to learn how to drive, and didn’t have the
first clue as to how cars functioned. Also, the streets were
clogged with abandoned vehicles, which would have made driving
almost impossible anyway. She kept her eyes peeled for a bicycle
store and after walking for a few more blocks Sally realised with a
start that she would need to find one pretty quickly. It was clear
from the ever-increasing column of black smoke blotting out the sun
that the fire had changed direction and was moving faster than she
was. If she didn’t pick up her pace it was going to catch her. She
changed tactics. She got away from the main road and headed into
the residential streets behind the businesses and stores. She
figured she would find a serviceable bike in somebody’s backyard or
garage. As she strolled through the laneways behind the houses she
tried to keep her mind open to the idea that she might find
somebody else to help her. She was struggling hard with the concept
that everybody had simply vanished.

After checking the yards of around a dozen
houses, Sally finally saw what she needed - a mountain bike leaning
up against the wall of a house. She pushed open the gate and
stepped into the small backyard. Sally felt it was wrong to steal
somebody else’s possessions, so she decided that she should at
least go through the motions of getting permission from the owner
before she took the bike. She also realised that candles would be
good to have tonight if the electricity went out all over the city.
She knocked on the back door of the house. As expected, there was
no answer.

“
Hello?” There was no
response.

On a whim, she tried the handle. It was
unlocked. She pushed the door open and stuck her head inside.
“Hello? Is anybody home?”

She noticed that her heart was starting to
beat a little faster.

“
Hello?” she tried again.
Nothing.

“
Oh well. It can’t hurt to
have a look,” she thought, as she stepped into the semi-dark
kitchen.

The blinds had been drawn and the cool air
inside the house wrapped her like a shroud. She looked around the
unlit, shadowy room. Only the humming of a refrigerator broke the
gloomy feel of the unoccupied house. “Electricity’s on,” she said
to herself. She couldn’t deny that she was finding this experience
very creepy. It was the first home she had entered since she left
her own apartment this morning, and she felt like an intruder.
Hell, she was an intruder! She decided that she needed to check the
whole house to satisfy her curiosity, then get out of there. After
all, she still had the encroaching fire to worry about. She started
her impromptu search downstairs. The kitchen, obviously, was empty
- nothing out of the ordinary to see there. She went through
another door and found herself in a small lounge room, where the
television was issuing a noiseless stream of visual static. She
hadn’t really given much thought to the electricity situation, but
obviously parts of the grid were still operational and running on
some kind of automatic mode. If things remained as they were, she
knew it would not last for long though, as the coal burned itself
out in the power stations. On a hunch she went back to the kitchen
and looked in the cupboard under the sink. Bingo! Among the
detritus of kitchen junk - light globes, garbage bags and washing
up liquid - she found what she was looking for - a box of candles
and a cigarette lighter. She stuffed them into her backpack. Each
second that passed seemed to give Sally a little more confidence
that she was not in danger so she decided to check upstairs before
leaving. When she reached the top of the stairs, she could see that
she was dealing with two bedrooms off a small landing. She quickly
looked inside both rooms and noticed nothing out of the ordinary,
simply two unmade beds. Somewhat relieved, Sally quickly made her
way back downstairs, climbed onto the bike, and began to cycle away
from the city.

The ride was non-eventful for the most part.
Occasionally she found herself making a short detour from her main
route, as parked cars blocked her path, but she made good time, and
eventually felt that the fire was going to be no threat to her. She
could see some smoke in the distance and guessed that the inferno
was burning itself out, or had changed direction on the breeze. If
she could find a high enough vantage point, she would be able get a
clear view and make sure that she was out of danger. It was now
late in the afternoon and she really needed to find somewhere to
stay for the night. By now she was resigned to the fact that she
wouldn’t be going home any time soon, and that the fire would have
consumed her house. She wondered what had happened to her mother
and if she would ever see her again, but when she felt as if she
was about to cry, she forced her eyes shut hard and did her best to
put it out of her mind, until she was safe, and could analyse the
whole situation less emotionally.

With around thirty minutes of daylight left,
Sally spotted a three-storey block of flats that was bounded by
smaller homes, which would give her a decent vantage point if she
could get inside. The roof of the apartment block looked flat and
she could see a clothesline up there, so she knew that access was a
possibility. She walked over to the building and found that her
first potential barrier, the communal front door, was no problem -
it was closed but not locked. She went inside. Security had
obviously not been a big concern for the residents of this
building, because she found the roof access door was also unlocked.
She went quickly up the dark staircase and stepped through another
unlocked door and out into a huge expanse of clear blue sky. From
the edge of the roof she had an unobstructed view across the
rooftops, back in the direction she had travelled from. In the
distance, an oily, black column of smoke rose into the sky, but it
had lost most of its ferocity. She had put enough distance between
herself and the fire to relax from that particular threat. Now her
immediate concern was to find somewhere to hole up for the night,
but after being inside the house where she had found the bike, she
knew that staying in someone’s home was too creepy to contemplate,
and she felt that she wouldn’t be safe outdoors. She knew what was
desired - an unoccupied motel room. She went downstairs, climbed on
her bike and began her search.