by Mark Gordon
Chapter 41
The Migration
The night passed uneventfully for the travellers in Mount Edward and there were no more creature sightings, despite Dylan checking at the window every couple of hours. After a quick breakfast, eaten as dawn broke, they loaded their gear into the back of the fire-damaged car and took to the streets to see if they could find evidence of sleepers. They were armed with loaded weapons and prepared for trouble, but after an hour or so of fruitless searching they were convinced that the town was deserted, even though they found quite a few spaces inside buildings where the evidence of feeder habitation was obvious – excrement, food scraps (mostly meat) and piles of newspapers or rags hat had used as primitive bedding. In these lairs, the smell was horrific, and despite their faces being covered by bandannas soaked in perfume, there was plenty of gagging. Finally, in a dingy, putrid backroom behind a hamburger shop, Sally’s stomach conceded defeat when she discovered a rat’s nest that had been established in the stomach of one of the zombies’ victims. She hurried outside just in time to expel her breakfast, steaming onto the footpath outside. When Dylan and Bonnie joined her in the weak early morning sunlight they all agreed that it was time to move on.
“There’s nothing more to see here,” Dylan stated. “I reckon that one we saw last night was the last of them. I don’t know why it was left behind, but I guarantee it was on its way to try to catch up with the rest of them.”
“Where are they going?” asked Sally.
“I don’t know, but the straggler last night was heading west. So I’d say that’s where they’ve all gone.”
“The same direction as us,” Bonnie said.
They were back in the car and heading out of town when Dylan spoke to Bonnie, who was sitting beside him in the front seat. “How far is it to Millfield from here?”
“Only about three hours under normal circumstances,” she replied. “Why?”
“Well, I don’t think there’s any guarantee we can make it there today.”
“Why?” she asked, obviously surprised and upset.
“Because we don’t know what’s ahead. I looked at the map last night - this is the only route west, and it snakes down the side of the range through a valley that’s really narrow in parts. If the road’s blocked, there’s no alternative route. We’ll have to come all the way back up here and go a much longer way around. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up. We still might be days away, depending on what we find.”
“Oh,” she said, as she said, staring at the trees sliding past the window.
“The other thing we need to consider is where to stay tonight if we don’t make it to Millfield. Once we start heading down the range, the towns will be further apart. Finding somewhere safe to stay for the night might be harder than it has been up until now. If we get trapped outdoors after dark … well.”
“Let’s hope we make it then,” said Sally from the back seat, suddenly feeling more vulnerable than she had since this ordeal began.
As they headed west through the countryside at the top of the ranges, Sally had plenty of time to think as she watched the bush zip past. If the creatures were migrating in the same direction as they were, how far could they travel in one night? She crunched the numbers in her head and estimated that a normal walking speed for a person might be around five kilometres an hour. In other words, if the creatures walked five kilometres in one hour, they could cover around thirty kilometres in six hours. She didn’t know if the zombies were capable of that kind of physical endurance, but she wanted to test her theory as soon as the opportunity arose.
“Dylan, how far to the next town?”
“Dennington is about ten kilometres away. Why?”
“How far have we travelled this morning?”
“I don’t know. Maybe fifteen. Why?”
“I want you to stop there.”
“But we’ve only been on the road for twenty minutes. It’s too soon to stop. We need to push on,” he said.
“Please? I need to see something.”
“I guess so,” Dylan replied unenthusiastically. “But just for five minutes, and then we get moving.”
Bonnie looked at Sally and nodded approvingly.
She’d done the math as well.
-
Dylan stopped the car in the main street of Dennington and turned to Sally, “Well, here we are. Do you want to share your secret now?”
“Not just yet, thanks,” she said, as she stood surveying the deserted street.
“What are you looking for?” Dylan asked, frustrated.
“I’m not sure, but I think I’ll know when I see it.”
Slowly Sally began wandering down the middle of the road, looking right and left and up and down.
“This is just like every other town we’ve seen so far," said Dylan. "Can we go now? We’re wasting time.”
“Please, not just yet,” she pleaded. "One more minute.
Then, as they crossed an intersection, Sally stared down a street on her right. Bonnie and Dylan stopped beside her and followed her gaze. All they could see was an apartment building, a mechanics shop, some vacant lots and a boarded up warehouse.
“There!” Sally said. “Maybe that. Let’s check it out.”
Dylan looked at her. “Check what out?”
“The warehouse.”
Dylan grabbed her by the arm. “What are you talking about? Check it out for what? Haven’t we been in enough disgusting buildings for one day?”
Bonnie answered. “Dylan, think about it for a moment! Where do the migrating zombies go in the daytime? They can’t stay outdoors, and this is probably about as far as they could realistically travel in one night from Mount Edward. It’s worth a quick look, isn’t it?”
He gave Sally a sharp glance. “Is that what you’re thinking?”
“Yes. I just had a hunch and I want to see if I’m right.”
Dylan looked at them both and shook his head. “Okay then, let’s have a quick look, but then we get back on the road. I can’t really see the point to this.”
The women nodded and started walked briskly to the warehouse, as Dylan ambled along behind them. Upon closer inspection, it was clear why Sally thought this could be a potential nest for large numbers of sleeping zombies. Every single window had been boarded up with heavy-duty plywood and the only access point seemed to be through a broken roller door at the bottom of a concrete ramp that was below street level.
“What now?” asked Dylan. “It looks like the only entrance is through that roller door.”
“Yeah,” said Sally. “I was kind of hoping we could just peek through a window or something.”
“Let’s split up and see if we can find another way in,” suggested Dylan, turning to Sally. “You and Bonnie check down the far side; I’ll take the right side and the back. Whether you find another way in or not, be back here in a couple of minutes. It shouldn’t take long. And have your guns ready. See you soon.”
Dylan headed off down the alleyway beside the building and encountered neither open windows nor an accessible doorway. The back of the building was equally impregnable, and before he knew it he was standing at the front of the warehouse again with the Bonnie and Sally.
“Okay, it looks like it’s through the roller door then. Who wants to go first?”
Sally raised her hand. “This was my idea, so I’ll go. Maybe I should just go alone. There’s no need for us all to risk … you know.”
“No way”, said Dylan. “That’s crazy. I’m coming with you, but I do think Bonnie should wait outside. She can act as a lookout and if we don’t come out she can at least try to get to Millfield on her own.”
“I’m okay with that. What about you Bonnie? Is that okay?”
“Only if you guys don’t mind. I feel like I’m letting you down a bit, but I guess I’m serving a purpose out her too, yeah?”
“Absolutely! That’s settled then. Let’s go.”
They walked to the bottom of the ramp and
Dylan tried to raise the broken roller door, but it was well and truly jammed, with a gap they would just be able to crawl through. He looked at Sally and asked, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I think I have to now. If they’re migrating and hibernating in large numbers won’t that knowledge help us to find a way to defeat them in the future?”
“I suppose so. Let’s do it then.”
Sally got down on all fours and put her ear to the dark space.
“I can’t hear anything. If they’re in there, they’re oblivious to us.”
She reached into her backpack and pulled out her flashlight. She lay on her stomach, and shone the light into the gloomy interior. “I can’t see a damned thing in there. There’s a concrete wall or something in the way.”
She turned and winked at Bonnie, before reaching around for her gun. She slid it along the concrete floor into the silent building, and before Dylan had a chance to say anything, she had squirmed under the roller door after it, disappearing into the darkness.
Dylan looked at Bonnie and shrugged his shoulders. “If you don’t hear anything after a while, just get out of here okay?”
“Sure. Just be careful okay?” she said, hugging him fiercely.
Dylan slithered into the shadowy building and as Bonnie stood alone in the sunshine, she wondered if this knowledge they sought was really worth the risk they were taking.
