Desolation Boulevard

by Mark Gordon

  Chapter 69

  The Explosion

  Bonnie gazed through the curtains at the couple she’d argued with just an hour earlier. Now a third man, was pointing at the house, and was gesturing back in the direction of Millfield. She couldn’t make out what was being said, but there was something about their expressions and the way they were waving their arms about that seemed openly hostile and threatening. Bonnie wished that Matt and the others would hurry up and come home, because she was starting to feel like she was living in a goldfish bowl. It had been a slight inconvenience when strangers began arriving at the farm to see Gabby for themselves, but this new development was much more disturbing. The electrified fence that Matt had constructed was providing them with a basic level of security, but Bonnie knew that a determined and desperate group of people would be able to break down their defenses simply by driving a car through. She looked at her watch and prayed that the others would be back soon.

  -

  “That’s it!” barked Montana,  “Our five minutes are well and truly up! Let’s get out of here!”

  They were standing at the furthest point from where they entered the cavern and they had still hadn’t seen any evidence of feeders. They could see two narrow passages that went further into the hillside, but they all agreed that there was no time to explore any further.

  “Okay,” said Matt, “ Let’s go. We'll just plant the last bomb at the entrance on the way out."

  They started to retrace their steps to the small tunnel, where a glow stick, wedged into a crevice, signalled their entry point into the cavern. But as they passed the waterfall that cascaded noisily from a stream high above them, Matt had a niggling feeling that there was something in this cave that they had missed. He peered around, trying to spot some significant detail amongst the darkness that might help them to strike a crucial blow against the feeders, but there was nothing. Damn! What was it? Then, as he felt the ghost of an idea beginning to manifest itself somewhere deep in his subconscious, a thunderous boom reverberated through the caves, shaking the foundations of their world.

  They screamed and grabbed for each other desperately, and tumbled onto the hard ground as chunks of rock rained down from the ceiling. They covered their heads and closed their eyes, laying huddled together like frightened animals until the vibrations subsided, and eventually stopped.

  “Fuck! What the hell just happened?” asked Dylan. “Did one of our bombs just go off?”

  Matt didn’t answer and Montana was crying, which made Dylan think they were probably both in shock, but he stood up, and dragged them from the floor one at a time, their ears still ringing from the explosion.

  “Okay, that was fucking close, but we’re fine I think. Is anyone hurt?”

  Matt and Montana stared blankly at Dylan and shook their heads, still unable to speak. They didn’t look injured, but he knew that even if they were, they couldn’t afford to stay in the cave. The blast would have awakened the feeders and they would be looking to defend themselves from this new threat. He grabbed his friends roughly by the arms and barked instructions.

  “Listen! We need to get out of here! Now! Follow me! Don’t look back, and don’t stop!”

  With that, Dylan started running towards the exit of the cave, turning around now and then to check on the progress of Matt and Montana. They were struggling, he thought, but he knew that their spirit for survival was strong, and they were managing to keep up with him, despite the rubble that littered the ground. They reached the end of the cavern and Dylan located the glow stick that signalled their exit point (now lying on the ground), and they plunged headlong into the tighter space like rabbits into a burrow. As they half-ran, half-crouched, through the dark, rock-strewn passageway, Dylan expected they might find their escape route blocked by fallen rocks, but as they negotiated a slight bend in the tunnel, the rectangle of light up ahead signalled the exit and became a beacon for them. They ran towards it, realising that they had only just been spared from being buried alive. They lurched into the daylight and shielded their eyes from the sun.

  “Shit!” said Matt as they stood outside the cave’s entrance, sucking in huge breaths. “I really lost it in there.”

  “Don’t worry about it," said Dylan. "But we can’t afford to hang around, the feeders are going to be pissed! We need to get to the car and get out of here.” He looked at Montana, who was being consoled by Matt. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded her head, “Yeah, I think so. I’m glad to be out of those caves. Can we go home please?” she asked as tears welled up in her eyes again.

  “Sure. Let’s get to the car. I’ll drive.”

  Matt wiggled his fingers in his ears to try to relieve the ringing sensation as they lurched to the car.

  “Lucky limestone’s stable,” he said, “If that was a coalmine, we’d all be dead. I can’t understand why there were no feeders in that one cave, though. It’s weird.”

  “Well,” answered Dylan. “It doesn’t matter now does it? We just need to...”

  He looked down the road that led away from the caves.

  “What’s up?” Matt asked, as Dylan held up one finger.

  “Do you hear that?” he asked, nervously.

  Before they could answer, however, Dylan screamed, “Run!” and wheeled around, pushing his friends back in the direction of the cave they had just left.

  Matt couldn’t move. He stared down the road in shock, as a large group of feeders, maybe twenty in number, raced towards them down the middle of the road, the wrath of the damned in their eyes. Matt looked up. The sun was till in the sky! This group of feeders was out of hibernation and functioning in daylight! From somewhere far away, he heard his name being called.

  “Matt! Matt! Move it!”

  Dylan and Montana were standing by the entrance of the cave from which they had just escaped. Montana was clutching Dylan’s arm as he yelled, “Come on man! Move your ass!”

  Matt took one look back at the feeders, who were halfway to him now, and regained enough composure to realise that there was only one option available. He turned and ran to his friends as quickly as his legs would take him, stumbling into their arms as Dylan yelled, “What now?”

  “Follow me!” ordered Matt frantically; as he headed back towards the dark maw of the cave they had emerged from just minutes earlier. Montana looked at Dylan in panic, but when he simply shrugged his shoulders, she realised that they had no choice but to follow Matt into the mountain once more, despite the likelihood that it would become their tomb.

  Matt raced back towards the largest cavern, as the feeders got closer, and any mistake he made would probably prove to be a fatal one for the whole group. If he tripped, Dylan and Montana would collapse on top of him and the beasts would rip them apart. He was operating purely on instinct now, and his actions in the next few seconds would either save their lives or condemn them to death, depending on the strength of his convictions and a whole lot of luck. He heard Montana squeal behind him and he realised that the feeders were closer than ever, and that they were only seconds away from catching her. With one final surge of adrenalin, and hoping desperately that his friends were still with him, he burst out of the narrow passageway and into the cathedral like space of the main cavern. From the grunting of the feeders, Matt could tell that they were only a few metres behind Montana now. He had reached the point of no return. He raced across the floor of the cavern towards the far wall, but just when it seemed as if he was heading for the two tunnels they had seen earlier, he veered sharply to the right and leapt directly into the middle of the small lake that was fed by the waterfall above.

  The cold water was like electricity as it engulfed Matt and sucked his breath away. He went under, and sensed bodies hitting the water above him, and all he could do was hope that Montana and Dylan had followed him in. The shock of being submerged in almost freezing water, combined with the exertion of his recent sprint from the feeders, was causing him to panic, and he needed to get to the surfa
ce to take a breath, even though the feeders might be waiting for him. Then his feet hit bottom, and he pushed up as hard as he could, breaking through the surface of the pool with a frenetic splash. He swung around, blind from terror, as a body lunged from the depths beside him. He flailed his arms at it, but before he had even landed a blow, he realised it was Dylan emerging from the water alongside him. Montana’s head appeared next, almost simultaneously, and as they wiped the water from their eyes, they waded back from the edge of the lake, towards the waterfall, as they scanned the cave for the feeders.

  “Shit! Look at that!” exclaimed Montana, who was already shivering as she pointed to the entrance tunnel. “Those things won’t come near the water!”

  The feeders had entered the cave close behind the trio, but as Matt led his friends into the safety of the large pool, the creatures had baulked at the edge, eventually retreating to the back wall of the cavern, where they now crouched, just visible in the weak light of a glow stick, watching the humans, with hatred and frustration in their eyes.

  “Fuck me Matt! What made you think of that?” quizzed Dylan, “Absolute genius, man! I would have just run up those tunnels we saw before. They would have caught us and killed us for sure!”

  “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this when we were in here before”, he said, as he put his arm around Montana. “All this water and no feeders. They hate it! As long as we stay here we’re safe!”

  “I hate to burst your bubble,” interjected Montana, “But if those feeders don’t go away soon, we’re screwed anyway because we’ll die of hypothermia. I’m freezing already.”

  “Shit!” said Dylan, “You’re right! We have to get out of this water or we’re screwed. Any ideas?”

  The group of feeders sat quietly together, on their haunches, balancing with their knuckles, and seemed quite content to sit and wait for them to come out of the water. Their hateful gaze was directed straight at the trio and Matt had the feeling that if it came down to a contest between freezing to death and trying their luck against the feeders, they would have no choice but to fight. He shivered violently as the waterfall splashed down around them from the rocks above.

  -

  As the sun fell behind the hills, Gabby came and stood beside Sally at the front window. Sally had been watching and listening for any sign of the Landcruiser, and with each minute that passed, she was becoming more pessimistic about the safe return of her friends.

  “Hi honey. What’s up?”

  “They’re not coming home tonight, are they?” Gabby asked, sadly.

  “I don’t think so sweetie.”

  “Are they dead?”

  Sally was shocked, “Gabby, no! Of course not.”

  She knelt down and hugged the girl to her chest, and looked into her eyes as she held her tiny hands. “Listen, Matt and Dylan and Montana are very clever and very tough. I won’t lie to you, though, because I am worried about them, but maybe they just needed to stop somewhere on the way home because it was getting too dark. It could even be something simple like the car breaking down. Try not to worry okay?”

  “Okay, I’ll try not to, but I don’t think I can.”

  They hugged again, and shared a tear, and when Sally stood up, Gabby asked, “Are those people still out there?”

  Sally knew they were still there, but checked again anyway. There were five of them now. A young woman and a boy, who looked to be around twelve, had joined the other three. The temperature outside was dropping rapidly as darkness descended, and Sally could see that they were rugged up in warm coats and blankets. They’d also found an oil drum somewhere, and a fire was raging inside it to keep the cold at bay.

  “Yes sweetheart, they’re still there”.

  “How many?”

  “Five now.”

  “Do they want me?”

  Sally had always tried to be honest with Gabby, but now, out of love, she lied, “No darling, they don’t want you. How about we go find mum and get dinner started”.