by Mark Gordon
Chapter 63
The Plan
They were sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner when Dylan shared his plan.
“Are you out of your mind?" Bonnie exclaimed. "Why on earth would you want to go hunting for feeders? We’re perfectly safe here. We have food and water and enough fuel to power the generator for years. Why risk your life on such a pointless pursuit? And what about Sally? Are you just going to wander off into the sunset and leave her behind to worry about you?”
Dylan looked at Sally, who was staring at her plate of half finished vegetables as a tear rolled down her cheek. “Look Sally, I’m sorry. I should have told you. I know that, but I had to make this decision on my own. This is my personal issue to deal with. I want to make a difference. I want to wipe out as many of these zombies, or feeders, or whatever you want to call them, as I can. I hate them, and I just can’t sit around on this farm knowing they’re getting more aggressive and more cunning. I need to try. I know it doesn’t make sense, but what does make sense any more?”
It was silent now, apart from the sound of Sally’s sniffling and the rain drumming on the roof as the storm outside intensified. Montana looked at Matt, who was giving nothing away, and then at Bonnie, who was shaking her head in disbelief. Finally she directed her attention at Dylan who looked as if he was getting ready to get up and leave the table.
“Well?” she challenged. “What’s your plan? You can’t just roam around the world on your own, killing zombies. That won’t make much of a difference, will it?”
“I won’t be on my own,” he stated, dropping his second bombshell for the evening. “Matt’s coming with me.”
“What?” Bonnie and Montana shouted in unison, scarcely able to believe their ears.
“You’re joking, I hope!” continued Montana. “Matt? You wouldn’t leave us would you? Tell me he’s just bullshitting.”
Matt took a deep breath and tried to compose himself before answering. He looked at his new family, comfortable in his parents’ home, and wondered what he had gotten himself into. He had thought that going with Dylan to the caves might help him achieve some sort of closure, where his parents were concerned, but now he was having second thoughts. The looks of concern, including Gabby's, who was quiet and letting the adults deal with their own affairs, made him think that he was being foolish. Despite his misgivings, though, he tried to explain his decision. “Listen, it’s not what you think, okay? We’re not going off into the wilderness forever to hunt the feeders like cowboys. We’ve given it some thought and we both think that we might be able to have an impact on the feeder population. We think we have to try anyway.”
“Okay, I’ll bite,” said Bonnie, sceptically, taking a sip of wine. “What’s your great plan?”
Before Matt had a chance to answer, though, Sally interjected sharply. “I can’t listen to any more of this. Come on Gabby, let’s go to bed. I’ll read you a story.”
After they had left the room, Montana got the conversation started again. “Well, let’s hear it boys. What are you thinking? I’m really curious. Is it a suicide mission?”
“Of course it’s not!” snapped Dylan. “That would be bloody stupid. I have no desire to die. I happen to like being alive, so don’t think this is some kind of death wish we have. If anything, we want to make a stand so that we have a world worth living in. Maybe if enough of us around the world fight back, we can drive these things into the dark forever, where they belong.”
“Hey Dylan, we get it okay?” chided Montana, “You hate the feeders. Fine. You want to wipe them out? Go your hardest. All I want to know is, what’s your plan?”
Matt could see that Dylan was getting too emotional to answer the question sensibly, so he took over. “I’m not sure that we have a plan as such; we just have an idea. Dylan thinks that the feeders might have established some kind of colony in the Delano Cave system.”
Montana scrutinised Matt’s face. “What do you think?”
He returned Montana’s gaze and thought carefully before answering. “Well, I think they went somewhere after the migration, so it’s a possibility, I guess.”
Bonnie spoke. “Let’s assume you two are right. Let’s agree, for argument’s sake, that the feeders migrated to dark, hidden places where they could regroup, or establish some kind of colony to breed, or rest or get stronger or whatever the hell feeders do. How does that help us? What can you do about it?”
“We can do what humans are so good at,” said Dylan.
“And what’s that?” asked Bonnie.
“We can destroy their habitat,” he said, matter-of-factly. “And we can do it while they’re still in it.”
-
The following morning dawned bright and clear and all of the talk on the farm was of the mission to wipe out the feeders at the Delano Caves. Sally was the only one who seemed to think that the idea was a ridiculous one, and she was avoiding further conversations about the topic by spending time with Gabby and doing chores around the house. Bonnie and Montana, on the other hand, had warmed to the idea overnight and were walking the boundary fence with Matt and Dylan, despite the fact that this was normally only a one-person job.
“I used to go to the caves with my parents,” said Matt. “It’s about a three hour drive. If we planned it properly, we could get there and back in a day. Theoretically, anyway.”
“I think that’s the least of our problems,” stated Dylan. “How do we actually destroy them? I mean, obviously an explosion of some sort is the best way to go, but how do we make a bomb big enough to destroy a cave system, or even a part of it?”
There was an awkward pause, as they realised nobody was experienced in building explosive devices.
“Damn!” spat Dylan. “This is ridiculous! Does anybody even know where we would find enough explosives to make this work? If we knew how to make a bomb, that is.”
“Maybe,” replied Matt, as he pulled on a section of the wire fence to test its strength.
They looked at him with surprise and anticipation.
“Well?” prompted Dylan. “Are you going to tell us, or keep it a secret?”
“Okay, keep your shirt on,” Matt replied with a grin on his face. "There’s a whole bunch of explosives locked up down at the council works depot.”
“Where you got Gabby’s bookmobile?” asked Montana.
“Exactly. There’s a whole storeroom full of the things you need to blow stuff up.”
“I haven’t seen that storeroom,” Dylan challenged, “and I’ve been down to the depot with you heaps of times.”
“I found it not long after I started plundering from the depot. I didn’t think I’d ever need explosives, so I never went into that storeroom again. I just locked it up and ignored it, but it should all still be there.”
“So,” said Bonnie. “This crazy plan might actually work. How are we going to find out how to build our device, though? It’s not like we can just Google it.”
They started walking the fence line again. “I’ve been thinking about this all night," Matt responded, "and I reckon we might just be able to work it out for ourselves, if we’re very cautious and very sensible.”
“I don’t think anything about this idea is sensible,” Montana interjected, “but go on, let’s hear it.”
“The Millfield Council has a stockpile of explosives right? They probably used them for road construction or up at the gravel quarry. Somebody at the council must have been trained in how to use them, so in one of the offices somewhere, there's probably a pile of manuals or notes or files that can give us enough information to put all the pieces together into some sort of bomb that will destroy the caves and thousands of feeders at the same time.”
They had reached the end of their circuit. Dylan spat on the ground and looked at Matt as if evaluating his friend, almost as much as he was the plan. “You know what country boy? I think you might be on to something. We’ve got some research to do.”
-
In the clas
sroom, Sally closed the book and smiled at Gabby. “Did you like that one?”
“It was great,” she said. “You’re a good reader.”
Sally laughed, “Thanks honey. That’s very sweet of you to say. I love reading, especially to someone who loves to listen. If you keep practicing, you’ll be a good reader like me one day too.”
“Really?” she asked, amazed that her future might hold the ability to read as well as Sally. “That would be nice. I could read to you then.”
“I’d love that. Hey I’ve got an idea. Let’s go outside and do our number work in the sun today. It’s lovely perfect out there.”
“Okay,” said Gabby, as they climbed out of their beanbags. They stepped from the classroom and could see the others standing by the main gate near the fence, deep in discussion.
“Are they really going to try to kill the feeders?” asked Gabby, serious now.
Sally looked down at Gabby. It seemed pointless to lie. “Yes sweetheart, I think so. Sometimes grown-ups have to fight for things that are important, even when they don’t really want to.”
“I know,” Gabby replied. “I don’t like the feeders. I wish they never happened. They hate us. People, I mean. They want all of us gone. They want the world to themselves.”
Sally wasn’t surprised by Gabby’s response. They all understood now that Gabby seemed to have some kind of sixth sense that gave her an insight into the psyche of the feeders. She took the little girl’s hand and looked down into her blue eyes. “Well, we don’t want them to have the world, so that’s why Matt and Dylan are going to try to kill the feeders at the caves. If that’s where they are, of course.”
“That is where they are,” said Gabby. “They like it there. It’s dark and they feel safe. It’s an awful place. I would never want to go there.”
“You never will sweetheart. Only Matt and Dylan are going. They’ll only be gone for a day, then they’ll come back to us.”
Gabby began to cry. Sally crouched down and looked into her perfect face. “Don’t cry sweetheart. It’s okay. The boys will be very careful and on the day they go they’ll be back in time for dinner. You shouldn’t worry.”
Gabby’s tear-filled eyes stared back at Sally. “How can’t I worry when I know someone’s not coming home?
