by Mark Gordon
Chapter 67
The Pilgrims
“Can we see the girl?”
Bonnie stared at the man and woman through the gate, with her gun dangling by her side. “No, you can’t see the girl. Nobody gets to see the girl. Like I told the others this morning, you need to move along. Keep heading west or wherever, but you can’t stay here.”
“We’re not going west. We just want to see her.”
“Where are you going if you’re not heading west?”
“Going? We’re not going anywhere. We came here to see the girl.”
“Well that’s just not going to happen folks, so I suggest you head back into Millfield and decide where it is you’re going, because when the sun goes down and the feeders come out, you’ll be dead meat if you haven’t holed up somewhere safe for the night.”
The man, who looked to be around forty with a bushy grey beard and beady brown eyes, looked at the woman beside him and smiled, before returning his attention to Bonnie, “Well, actually, there is one safe place isn’t there?”
Bonnie was losing patience with the couple now, and the shit-eating grin on their faces wasn’t helping matters. “What are you talking about?”
The smile dropped from the man’s face and he snarled at Bonnie, “This is a safe place isn’t it? Huh? I don’t see any dead bodies around here. Word is the girl’s like some good-luck charm! We’ve all met people who’ve had the dreams. Those fucking creatures won’t go near her will they?”
Suddenly, Bonnie felt as though she’d been punched in the stomach. How could people know about Gabby’s gift? “You need to go”, she stammered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you don’t leave soon there’ll be trouble.”
She wheeled around and headed back towards the farmhouse, where Sally and Gabby were waiting, knowing that her words were only empty threats unless Matt, Dylan and Montana returned from the caves soon. From behind her the man yelled, “You can’t keep us all away, you know! The girl belongs to everyone, not just you! We won’t be the last!”
Bonnie opened the front door and lurched inside, glad to be away from the hostile desperation of the man at the gate. Sally was waiting for her, and when the front door was closed and locked they went to the lounge room and peered through the window. “They’re still there,” Bonnie said.
“What do they want?” asked Sally.
Bonnie stepped away from the window and slumped down into the nearest armchair. “They want my daughter.”
-
Dylan, Matt and Montana were standing behind a stainless-steel guardrail, on a small ledge looking down into a large cavern filled with sleeping feeders. The creatures were almost all completely naked now, their clothes having rotted and fallen off over the last few months.
“It’s unbelievable,” murmured Matt, almost to himself, as the others observed the bizarre sight before them in silence. “How many of them are there, do you think?”
Dylan shook his head, “It’s hard to say, maybe eight hundred. Are they asleep?”
“No way,” answered Montana, “Their hibernation is really different to the way we sleep. If they were sleeping like humans do, there would be some kind of movement. They look more like corpses.”
The pale bodies of the feeders below them covered the uneven floor of the cave like a putrid carpet. There was no space between each figure, and Matt wondered if it was to help them maintain their body heat or if it was just an aspect of their flocking behaviour.
“We really should get the bomb set up and get out of here quickly,” he said, unable to take his eyes from the hellish scene before him.
“Sure," agreed Montana. “The smell’s about to make me puke anyway. Just one thing before we go, though.”
“What’s that?” asked Dylan.
“Do some of those feeders look pregnant to you?”
Matt and Dylan craned forward and directed their headlamp beams at a couple of the closest female creatures.
“Shit!” exclaimed Matt, “I think you’re right. They definitely look like 'baby bumps' as my mum used to call them.”
“God man, that is really creepy!” said Dylan. “Let’s get this device set up and get to the next cave. I seriously need to get out of here.”
Matt took off the backpack that was attached to his front, and placed it gently on the floor of the cave. Montana shone her flashlight onto the device as Matt pulled it carefully from the pack while Dylan kept his beam trained over the feeders in case they came out of their suspended sleep state. Once the timer and detonator were attached to the explosives, Matt set the timer for three hours, giving them plenty of time to place the additional bombs in the other five caves.
“Okay, that’s done,” said Matt, rubbing his hands together.
“You’re not just going to leave it here are you?” asked Montana.
“Why not?” Matt asked.
“Wouldn’t it be more effective down on the floor with them?”
Matt looked at Dylan and asked, “What do you think?”
“I think she’s right. I’ll take it down. I think I saw a ladder.”
Matt carefully returned the device to the pack and placed it gingerly on Dylan’s back.
“It’s armed, so I wouldn’t bump it if I were you,” he said, giving Dylan a forced smile.
“Hey man, thanks for the heads up, I would never have thought of that.”
“Please be careful,” said Montana, as Dylan unlatched the gate that would give him access to the ladder.
“Sure. See you in a minute.”
Matt and Montana leaned over the barrier and shone their lamp beams down to give Dylan as much light as possible. The metal ladder looked old but sturdy, and was attached to the rock wall with solid looking brackets; but there were still butterflies in their stomachs as they watched Dylan descend into the realm of the feeders. Down below, there was no sign of movement from the creatures, and even after Dylan had stepped from the last rung onto the floor beside the beasts, they appeared more like cadavers than living beings. Dylan looked up to his friends, which caused them to shield their eyes from his headlamp’s glare, but they saw him give the thumbs-up sign before getting back to the job at hand.
Dylan reached around and took the pack from his back and placed in on the floor. He unzipped it and lifted the device out, but instead of placing it on the floor beside him, he put it back in the pack and stood up, looking around at the feeders that surrounded him like a fetid swamp.
“What’s he looking for?” asked Montana.
“I don’t know,” answered Matt. He leaned over the rail and hissed at Dylan. “What’s up?”
Dylan gazed up at Matt, wrinkled up his nose and fanned his face with his hand, as if to illustrate how bad the smell was.
“What’s he playing at?” asked Montana, more anxious now.
“I have no idea, but he’s pissing me off. We need to get moving.”
Then, Matt and Montana understood exactly what Dylan was doing. They watched as he stepped over the closest feeder and began to carefully pick out a route to the centre of the cave, right into the midst of the sleeping swarm.
“God! He’s going to put it right in the middle of them! Idiot!” said Montana, furious that she had to spend one second longer in this cave than she needed to.
Dylan pushed on, though, despite the concern of his friends on the ledge above. If he could plant the device at the centre of the nest, then destruction would be complete and he would wipe out almost a thousand feeders, beyond doubt, in a fraction of a second. When he had started to climb down, there had been no intention of doing anything other than placing the bomb at the foot of the ladder, but there was something about seeing the pregnant female feeders up close that had filled him with a hatred so all consuming that he started to wade into their midst before he realised what he was doing.
The task was difficult, though, because the creatures were packed close together and the rock floor under him was slick with water, urine and shit.
Despite the awkwardness of the footing, however, he made it almost halfway to the centre of the nest and thought he would be able to make it if he was very careful. His mind harked back to his earlier experience with Sally in the underground car park, and he knew that if these creatures were disturbed, they had the capability of waking suddenly and defending themselves with extreme violence for short periods of time. He forced himself take it slow, even though he wanted to get out of that cave with every fibre of his being.
“He’s almost there,” said Montana, as she gripped Matt on the arm.
“Yeah, but he has to get out too, don’t forget”.
A couple of seconds later, the two watched as Dylan’s light stopped bobbing around in the dark, signalling his arrival at the centre of the feeder horde. Dylan raised the backpack above his head in triumph, before placing it carefully in a tiny, available space between two oblivious feeders.
“Okay mate, now get out of there,” Matt whispered to himself, nervously.
Dylan started to tiptoe back through the prostrate figures of the feeders, as Matt put his arm around Montana’s waist and pulled her close. “It’s okay. He’s going to make it. We’ll be out of here soon.”
As the words were leaving Matt’s mouth, though, Montana let out a strangled squeal as Dylan lost his balance and lurched forward, directly into the mass of sleeping creatures.
