Desolation Boulevard

by Mark Gordon

  Chapter 19

  Supplies

  The morning after Sally observed the nighttime feeding frenzy, she had no option but to leave her room and venture outdoors. She had run out of snacks from the minibar, the water supply had trickled to nothing and she needed to stock up on medical supplies, and despite feeling confident that the zombies wouldn’t come out in daylight, she knew that she needed to stay safe. She wasn’t going to leave her building until the sun had been up for at least two hours, and she would make sure that she was safely home well before dark. She considered moving to another building, but couldn’t really see any advantage and, besides, this place had served her well over the last couple of days. So when she felt that there was enough daylight outside, she strapped on her backpack and cautiously opened the door to the hallway. It was deserted. She paused and considered whether she needed some kind of weapon like a knife, but decided that her best chance of survival was to flee danger rather than face it, unless of course she could get her hands on a real weapon like a gun at some point in the future, even though she would have no idea how to use it. She could worry about that later. She closed the door and stepped into the carpeted corridor.

  Sally passed Room 13 and noticed that the door was open. She wondered about her attacker from the first night. If it could open the door to get out of its’ room, then it could also have opened the lobby door to let itself out of the hotel to join the others in their night of violence. Her stomach was clenched in knots of anxiety, but as she passed the darkened doorway nothing moved, and so she continued quickly and quietly down to the lobby. Her suspicion was confirmed; the front door had been opened after she had made sure it was locked the night before. That meant that the “once-humans” still had enough memory of their previous lives to perform simple tasks! They couldn’t speak, and they were more like animals than people, but they had retained vestiges of skills that would help them survive in an urban environment.

  She stepped out onto the street and surveyed the desolation around her. Bloody corpses dotted the city, like some extravagant Hollywood movie set, where the soundtrack was the incessant buzz of flies. Sally didn’t see any dogs, but she knew she would need to be careful because it wouldn’t take them long to revert to a feral state. She was also alert for other survivors as she remembered the encounter with the troubled man from her first day. She hoped, though, that not all survivors would be crazy, and she prayed that she would meet somebody who would be able to help. But for now she was alone.

  Her first stop was a 'Dollars and Sense', a store that was filled with all kinds of products that had been made in China and were very cheap (although today everything would be free). She peered in through the windows and, when she was sure there were no creatures in there, she went inside. She found the first item she was looking for near the front counter- a watch. She saw that the time was 10:13 and strapped it to her wrist.  In Aisle 2 she found a travel case with a retractable handle and wheels. Over the next ten minutes she loaded up the case with bottled water, energy bars, bulk packs of batteries, a portable CD/radio player, some very questionable CDs, toiletries and underwear. She stared at all of the goods on the shelves, untouched by looters. There were certainly enough resources to go around now, so that was one thing she wouldn’t need to worry about. She left the store, and walked a block further down to a chemist to find basic medical supplies so that she would be able to treat simple ailments if necessary. Into her suitcase went aspirins, codeine, eye drops, bandages, antiseptic ointment, tampons, insect repellent and sunscreen. In the dispensary she smashed open the locked cupboards and found antibiotics that she might need as the city became more disease-ridden from the rotting corpses and the vermin that would follow. When she considered this scenario she wondered if she might actually need to leave the city at some point. After all, she was alone and sharing the place with a couple of million night-dwelling monsters. Maybe the countryside would be safer. The only problem was that the bush was like a different planet to her. She had never spent any time there and didn’t know what she would find, even if she could make it there safely. Would resources be as plentiful? What about snakes and spiders, and all that emptiness? No. For the time being she would stay a city girl and take her chances with what she knew.

  When her suitcase was filled, she wheeled it back to the hotel, where she bumped it up the stairs, before dumping the contents into her room. Over the next few hours she made three more trips for food, clothes and camping equipment such as gas-powered camp-ovens, lights and a sleeping bag. On one of her trips she was startled by the unexpected sound of gunshots in the distance. She stopped and listened. The blasts sounded close, but it was difficult to tell because of the echoes reverberating around the otherwise quiet streets. There were no more shots for over a minute so she decided there was no immediate danger, and continued with her tasks. As she worked through the afternoon, though, she heard to the sounds of gunshots in the distance and understood that it meant that she wasn't alone. This should have pleased her, but she found it unnerving. Roaming gangs of trigger-happy survivors was the last thing she needed. She went back to work keeping a close eye on the street. She didn’t want to be surprised by the wrong people. She finished her supply gathering and headed back to the hotel. It was two o’clock and she was tired from making so many trips up and down the stairs. She went back down to the lobby, made sure the front and back doors were both locked, then went upstairs to her room and locked herself in for the night.

  Safely in her 'bunker', Sally set up her gas lamps, played some very average music on her battery-operated CD player (after wasting five minutes scanning for radio stations), cooked a can of chilli on her camp-stove and drank two glasses of champagne. Then, as night fell, she took up her position on the balcony to study the creatures. Again, their numbers were smaller than the first night, but Sally noticed that their behaviour had changed again since the previous evening. The two male creatures that had killed the nurse last night now appeared together in the darkening city, like a team. As others appeared on the street Sally realised, to her horror, that the beasts seemed to be developing a rudimentary pack mentality. As the two alpha males prowled the street looking for weaker creatures to prey upon, the others in the group followed them at a 'respectful' distance. Sally was shocked that they had begun to form social groups so quickly, but if that wasn’t scary enough, what happened next chilled Sally to her bones. As the pack loped along the street, below her vantage point on the balcony, the alpha male in the bloodied and torn business shirt paused and looked up, directly at her position. He seemed to be saying, “I know you’re there.” She shuddered violently and scurried inside, locking the door behind her.