Desolation Boulevard

by Mark Gordon

  Chapter 49

  To the West

  The sun was still high in the sky as they drove west, heading away from the weirdness of Dennington. Bonnie sat quietly in the back seat of the charred Landcruiser, thinking only of finding Gabrielle. As she scanned the countryside, she wondered about the small group of survivors they had just encountered. Why were they so ambivalent about the zombies who had chosen to stop in their town for the night? She could understand that they wanted to avoid conflict, but their attitude seemed to be one of grudging acceptance, rather than revulsion or fear. Could it really be that some survivors would tolerate these savage creatures? Surely the human race wouldn’t learn to accept the beasts as having a right to live alongside them as equals, or even, worse, as superiors?  Bonnie shivered as these possibilities went through her mind, and almost didn’t notice as the car began to slow down.

  Dylan brought the car to a stop in the middle of the road and pointed at a large sign that towered above them. It had been erected to help motorists find a prominent tourist attraction. It said “Delano Caves 30 km. Turn left 3 km."

  "That’s where they’re going I reckon,” said Dylan.

  Sally nodded. “Yeah, it feels right, doesn’t it?”

  “They’re regrouping,” Bonnie added. “For those things to have a long term future, they’ll need to breed, for one thing. They haven’t morphed into zombies just to die out within a few weeks, that’s for sure. I think they’re following some kind of herding instinct so they get together and develop some kind of social pack, like wolves. Now that the initial frenzy is over, the ones in the country need to band together. The ones in the cities are probably already in big groups.”

  “I think you’re right,” said Sally. “That second night on my balcony convinced me they were becoming something more than just random killers. A kind of hierarchy was developing, even then. What do you think Dylan? Do you think the ones we burned were heading to the caves?”

  “Maybe. Let’s assume they are, anyway. Whatever the case, it doesn’t change our plans does it? So let’s get to Millfield and find Gabrielle.”

  As they climbed back into the car and Sally said, “Hey, Dylan. I’m starving. Can we stop somewhere for food soon?”

  “I’m hungry too,” agreed Bonnie. “Let’s stop at the next farmhouse and see what we can find, but not for long, okay? Gabby’s waiting.”

  “Sure,” said Dylan, as he put his foot on the accelerator and headed west.

  A couple of kilometres down the road they found a little farmhouse close to the road. Dylan pulled the car into the gravel driveway and stopped as close to the front door as he could. Without discussion, they grabbed their weapons, climbed out of the car, and headed to the the house. They paused and Dylan said, “I don’t expect to find any zombies in here, but let’s check the usual hiding spots anyway. Be careful.”

  Sally and Bonnie nodded and followed him inside, where they conducted their search quickly, confirming that the house was empty.

  “Right,” said Bonnie. “Let’s get into that kitchen and find some food.”

  Fifteen minutes later they were sitting on the back porch eating olives, cheese, crackers and tomatoes from the vegetable patch. Dylan had found some beers in a carton in the laundry, and they were cool enough to enjoy without having been refrigerated.

  “I’m going to miss beer,” he said, wistfully.

  “Why?” asked Sally. “There’s free beer everywhere.”

  “It won’t last, though. Within a few months it will start to go stale, like most other things I guess. All of the things we took for granted will start to fade away because there will be no more manufacturing, no more factories, no more shops. The golden age of wasteful consumption is over. We’re going to need new skills now; we’re going to have to learn how to fix things, how to grow our own food and how to fight.”

  Nobody responded as they chewed on their packaged crackers and bottled Italian olives.

  -

  Ten minutes later, they were back in the car and heading towards Carswell. The mood was sombre. The massacre of the zombies in the warehouse was beginning to take an emotional toll on all of them and the emptiness of the countryside seemed to mirror the way they felt. Within a few minutes, Bonnie was sleeping on the back seat as the car pushed on through the deserted farmland. Around ten kilometres from Carswell, Dylan stopped the car in the middle of the road, stepped out onto the warm bitumen, and walked towards a fenced paddock. Sally opened her door and followed him to see what had attracted his attention.

  “What are they?” she asked, putting her hand over her mouth.

  “Horses.”

  The scattered remains of maybe a dozen animals lay around the paddock. They were ripped apart, their soft underbellies hollowed out and glistening in the sunlight. Flies crawled over them like a shimmering army, and buzzed in small clouds above their carcasses. When the feeders had sprung on these animals, they wouldn’t have stood a chance. Dylan imagined how the hellish scene would have played out, then assigned it to his growing catalogue of post-apocalyptic nightmare visions.

  “How long ago did this happen?” Sally asked.

  “Last night, I’d say, from the freshness of the carcasses. They must have been passing through on their way to the caves and gotten hungry.”

  “How many of them would it take to do this?”

  “Mmm. Good question. One person couldn’t overpower a horse, could they? And even though these zombies, or whatever they are, seem to be getting stronger, I think there would need to be more than a hundred to kill all of these animals and eat this much in one night.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” she said. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

  As they climbed back into the car, Bonnie stirred. “Is everything okay?”

  “Fine,” Dylan replied, glancing at Sally in the front seat beside him. “Toilet break. We’ll be in Carswell in about five minutes, then only an hour and a half to Millfield.”

  “Excellent. Do we need to stop in Carswell? I’m really eager to get to Gabby as quickly as possible.”

  “I’ll need to stop for fuel, but that shouldn’t take long. We should be in Millfield an hour or so before the sun sets.”

  A couple of kilometres before reaching the outskirts of Carswell, they passed the turnoff for the Delano Caves. There was no need for words as the travellers each imagined the same scenario – a complex and ancient limestone cave system that was now, very possibly, a lair for thousands of primal, ultra-violent, killing machines. Their individual visions were all slightly different, but the overall concept was identical – an overcrowded, dark, damp space filled with near-naked beasts, sleeping until nightfall, when they would awake and continue the process of establishing primitive social groups, rutting savagely like dogs, and leaving the caves at night to find whatever they could to eat. In the car, nobody spoke of his or her thoughts. It was as if talking about such things might bring them bad luck.

  -

  Dylan stopped the car in front of a derelict used car lot. A faded sign over the office suggested that 'Big Jim' was someone you could trust.

  "Here we are," said Dylan. "Beautiful Carswell. Don't go far. I'll go and find some fuel."

  He headed into the prefabricated office to look for the keys to a car from which he might be able to siphon fuel. Bonnie and Sally waited outside, weapons sitting on the hood of the car just in case.

  “This place seems deserted, doesn’t it?” Sally observed.

  “Yes … maybe. I’m not sure. Does something seem wrong to you?”

  Sally looked around the streets. She saw abandoned shops, rundown houses, and the omnipresent rotting corpses strewn here and there. “You mean apart from everything?”

  Bonnie smiled, “No, I don’t mean the usual kind of 'wrong'. I'm picking up a weird vibe from this place. Can you hear anything?”

  Sally shook her head. “No. Nothing.”

  “Exactly. Listen again.”

  “Oh my g
od. You’re right. Nothing. No birds, no dogs barking. It’s really obvious once you notice it. It's freaky.”

  Bonnie nodded. “Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve heard the sounds of birds and the occasional dog barking, but nothing like this.”

  Sally looked over to the office. “I wish Dylan would hurry up. Where is he?”

  Inside, Dylan had found the board with the keys, and was getting about to head back outside when he noticed something through a tiny back window that piqued his interest. In a junk-filled yard behind the car lot there a large metal cage that looked as if it had once been a kennel for a number of dogs. There were no animals visible now, but something on the floor of the cage that didn’t seem right to him. He cupped his hands to the glass to shut out the glare of the sun, but it was no use – he couldn’t quite make out what he was looking at. He wanted to take a closer look. He went back out through the only door of the office and help up the palm of his hand to Bonnie and Sally, signalling for them to wait where they were. This was followed immediately by a one-finger gesture – 'one minute'.

  “Where’s he going?” Sally asked.

  “No idea. But I hope he doesn’t take too long”.

  -

  Behind the office, Dylan waded through long grass and stepped over a small wire fence that separated the car yard from the property behind it. Tall weeds obstructing his view of the cage, but he could see that the strong metal gate had been padlocked to keep the dogs inside. As he got closer, the smell of rotten meat gave him a clue as to what he might find - he had smelt it many times before, after all. He took the bandanna from the pocket of his jeans and placed it over his mouth. He went to the cage and looked inside, then felt the bile rising in his throat as the olives and crackers he had eaten earlier rumbled around queasily. The floor of the metal cage was a bloody mess of animal body parts. Trying to identify the origins of the gore, however, was a difficult task. It was like a Picasso abstract from hell; a kangaroo’s leg bone, part of a cow skull, and chunks of cat as well.

  Where were the dogs that had been fed this mess? He looked across into the darkness of the open kennel door, but could see only shadows. He needed to get closer. He walked around to the opposite end of the cage and put his eyes up to a gap in the back wall, as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The gloom receded from his vision, and shapes on the floor of the kennel began to come into focus. Dylan’s face bore a puzzled expression as he tried to identify the breed of dog he could see lying on the timber floor. Then he stepped back in shock, as he realized what he was looking at. These weren’t dogs! They were zombies! Sleeping zombies! Some crazy fucker had locked these things up and was keeping them as if they were pets. Holy shit!

  He needed to get back to the girls and get out of here.

  -

  Bonnie and Sally waited impatiently at the car as Dylan scouted behind the office.

  “What do you think he’s doing back there?” asked Sally.

  “Who knows? Probably taking a leak. I wish he’d hurry up, though. I want to get to Gabby. This place gives me the creeps.”

  Sally felt the same way, and was worried about Dylan being out of sight and alone for any length of time. The thought of something bad happening to him was almost too much to bear. She’d somehow managed to find a man she cared about in this nightmare world, and she couldn’t imagine losing him now. She was about to suggest that they go and find him, when a voice spoke behind them.

  They spun around and found themselves face to face with a chubby, greasy-haired man pointing a semi-automatic weapon at them.

  “Hi ladies. I’m Brock. What can I do you for?”