by Mark Gordon
Chapter 57
Sickness
Bill looked at Gabby as she began to stir from her sleep in the passenger seat of Matt’s mother’s Daihatsu. As the car buzzed along through the pre-dawn gloom towards Carswell, he was still amazed at how easy it had been to take the girl. After putting some crushed-up pills into everyone’s hot chocolate after dinner, they were all sleeping like zombies. Bill chuckled to himself over his little joke; despite the nausea he’d been feeling since arriving at 'Two Hills' the day before. He wondered if he had picked up a disease from the dead bodies that were everywhere now. It certainly would make sense, given the state the world was in. He made a mental note to find a chemist at the next town and begin a course of antibiotics, just in case. Gabby moaned and stretched beside Bill. He looked at the little girl and realised that he was going to throw up. He stopped the car in the middle of the road and opened his door just before heaving the contents of last night’s dinner onto the road. He wiped his mouth with the back of hand and realised that he was sweating like a pig. Yes, he’d definitely caught something and that was bad, because he had a task to fulfill. It was the most important thing in the world to him right now, but the weird thing was, he had no earthly idea why the duty had fallen to him. His irrational, but compulsive impulse to kidnap the girl and deliver her to 'them' was his only priority. It drove him forward with a thrill and anticipation that only the genuinely obsessed can ever experience. Somehow, deep down, he knew there would be a reward beyond imagination once his mission was complete, but now this illness was putting everything in jeopardy.
He climbed back into the car Gabby as opened her eyes, looking around in confusion. It took a few seconds before she realised that she wasn’t in her bed with Montana. She looked at Bill, who was mopping his sweaty brow with his sleeve. “Where are we?” she asked, concerned now, and aware that things weren’t as they should be. “Where are Matt and Montana? Where are we going?”
Bill looked at her, and despite his wretched state, smiled and tried to appear as friendly as possible. “It’s okay, honey, don’t worry about them. We have a very important job to do. I have to take you somewhere very special. You’ll have lots of new friends once we get there.”
He grimaced and swallowed hard as he felt the bile rising once more in his throat.
“I don’t want new friends,” she said firmly. “I like Matt and Montana. They’re my friends. And they’re going to find my mummy.”
“I know. We’ll see them soon,” he lied. “And your mother.”
Gabby may have only been six-years-old, but she knew without a doubt that Bill was lying. She also knew that it was bad manners to contradict adults, so sat silently beside him, accepting his explanation, despite the ball of fear growing inside her.
As the dawn began to creep over the eastern horizon, Gabby looked over at Bill and could tell that there was something wrong with him because he kept sweating and had gone a really funny colour. Every now and then he looked at Gabby in a way that bothered her. It was not a nice look, but because she was only six, she didn’t have the vocabulary to know the word she needed to describe that gaze. Bill knew it, though, because he was living it more and more with each passing second. The word was “revulsion”. Bill was starting to realise that being near this girl was making him sick - very sick. It was taking every molecule of his will to resist pulling the car over and dumping her out onto the roadside. The only thing that stopped him from doing so was his blinding desire to complete the task that he had been called upon to do. He thought back to when it had all started, just a couple of days after the event.
Like everyone else in the world, the first few days for Bill after the event had been a nightmare. His town had been turned into “sleepers” and on the second night he had witnessed the rampage of the creatures from the safety of the local high school’s roof as they came out to feed. He managed to survive the initial chaos, and over the next couple of days developed a simple routine that kept him away from the zombies and relatively safe. On the third night, though, the dreams began; so vivid that he could remember every single detail after he woke up. They were very simple in theme - Bill saw himself offering a girl to a group of the creatures - a very large group of creatures - in a large, dark, damp space. Then, after the girl was handed over, they swarmed over her and she disappeared into their midst. The most compelling part of the dream, though, was the exhilaration that he felt once the girl was given over. It was a joy that was indescribable to him. If there was a heaven, it would feel this way, he thought. Over the next few days the dreams became more vivid and more regular and then, bizarrely, they started to intrude on his waking hours. In the middle of everyday tasks, he would find himself being transported to the large dark space where he would repeat the ritual of handing the girl over. Each time the climax was exactly the same, as the feeling of ecstasy surged through his entire being. Then, after the vision had played itself out, he would return to reality, often minutes later, wondering what had happened, and feeling extremely depressed. Eventually, the visions became so all-consuming that Bill didn’t think he would be able to continue living, and actually considered ending his own life to escape the torture. But, as he teetered on the brink of insanity and self-destruction, an extraordinary thing happened - he woke from one of his visions knowing that the girl from his dreams was real, and where he could find her. He couldn’t comprehend how such a thing was possible, but in that moment an enormous weight was lifted from his soul, and he realised that it would be possible for his vision to become a reality and for him to actually experience a joy that would be limitless and beyond words. He had headed straight to 'Two Hills' with absolutely no doubt nor hesitation. Now, though, as he stood on the side of the road once more retching onto the bitumen, he knew that his dream was at risk.
He climbed slowly back into the car and stared at Gabby. The sun had risen and they were only about twenty minutes from Carswell. Bill knew that once he passed through the town it was then only a relatively short distance to reach his final goal. He didn’t know the name of his destination, but just as he knew where the girl would be, he knew instinctively in which direction to travel. In some ways he felt as if an invisible string was tugging him along. He could no more resist its force than could a drowning man resist the hand of his rescuer. The girl didn’t say a word as he started the car and pushed on with his mission, but as he glanced at her in the passenger seat, he knew instinctively that she was the cause of his pain and inner turmoil.
“What are you?” he asked, swallowing noticeably.
Gabby looked at him and considered her response, before stating, “You don’t look good. Mum makes me lie down when I feel sick.”
“You got that right. I feel like shit, and I think I know why. You’re a fucking demon, aren’t you? Sent to destroy me and steal my happiness.”
Gabby, shocked by this grown-up’s bad language, looked back to the road and didn’t respond. She really had no idea what he was talking about, and besides, her mother had taught her to ignore people when they were disrespectful. Ignoring her silence, Bill tried again, more frantically this time.
“You're making me sick! What are you? Answer me!”
Gabby maintained her silence but she knew she was well out her depth with this strange man. Then tears began as she realised that she a very long way from Matt and Montana and that nobody was going to come to her rescue. Bill coughed violently next to her, doubling up in pain, and as he steered onto the gravel verge for just a second, she wondered if she actually was making him sick. She didn’t think it sounded right, but perhaps it was true. There were lots of strange things happening in the world now, and maybe it was possible for a little girl like her to make a man sick. She’d never felt so alone and confused in her short life, not even after all the people went away and she was home alone for two days. So, in a childish attempt to make all the bad things go away, Gabby closed her eyes and tried to shut everything out. Almost immediately, however, she was jerked back
to reality when Bill slammed on the car’s brakes and pulled over to the side of the road.
“Get out demon!” he ordered, as he climbed out of the driver’s side.
Sobbing freely now, Gabby did as she was told and stepped out of the car onto the gravel verge. Bill came around to her side of the car and pointed to a large eucalypt a few metres from the edge of the road. Gabby could see that he had a gun in his hand, like the ones cowboys used.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, looking at him through a film of tears.
“Get over there,” he said. “To that tree.”
When Gabby didn’t move, he raised the gun and pointed it at her face. “Get over to that tree now, or I’ll blow your face clean off. Move it!”
Gabby turned and started walking to the tree, as Bill started puking again. She turned to look. He was doubled over in pain, but was still able to point the gun at her from his crouched position. “Keep moving!” he barked. Then, almost to himself, Bill mumbled something under his breath that Gabby didn’t really understand at all. He said, “They won’t like this.”
Gabby reached the base of the tree and turned to her tormentor. Even through the tears, she could see that this man was extremely unwell. His skin had gone the colour of cold porridge and he had black circles under his eyes that looked like smudges of charcoal. He continued to point the gun at her face, despite the trembling in his arms.
“Turn around.”
“Why?” Gabby asked, almost hysterical now. “What are you going to do?”
Bill brandished the pistol weakly at her. “I said turn around. Hurry up!”
Gabby did as she was told and faced the tree. The smooth bark of the grand, old eucalypt was only centimetres from her face as she felt the cold metal of the gun’s barrel pressed against the base of her skull. As she waited for her young life to be extinguished, Gabby took in every single detail of the restricted view she now had of the world; the mottled beauty of the tree’s bark, the clean smell and the shine of its leaves, the vibrant blue of the sky, and the lonely caw of a crow somewhere in the distance. She cherished all of these things in a segment of a moment, and let them fill her up like a tall glass of cold water on a very hot day. Then she closed her eyes as she heard the cold click of the gun’s hammer being cocked behind her.
