Desolation Boulevard

by Mark Gordon

  Chapter 78

  Bedlam

  Gabby was tucked up in bed for the night, and Sally and Bonnie stood on the front porch watching the crowd that had doubled in size since morning. The smell of cooking filled the cold night air and the hubbub of many conversations drifted easily towards the house. After the conversation with the woman earlier in the day Bonnie felt somewhat relieved that the people outside the fence - Gabby’s followers - had turned out not to be a threat, but now she had a growing sense of unease about the confrontation that she felt was coming from elsewhere. Could this band of everyday people who had congregated at the farm really be any protection against a serious threat?

  “What are you thinking?” Sally asked, interrupting Bonnie’s thoughts.

  “Huh? Oh, I was just thinking that I feel trapped. I really feel like we should be moving.”

  “West?”

  “Probably. Not back to the city, that’s for sure.”

  “Don’t you feel better, knowing that we have others for protection now?”

  “Do you?” Bonnie asked, as she rubbed her hands together to keep warm.

  “Yes, a little,” answered Sally. “But I’m not sure how those people would perform in a fight. They look more like campers than soldiers.”

  “They do don’t they? You know something? If it weren’t for Matt and the others, I would have suggested we leave the farm days ago. The more time that passes, the more I think I should get Gabby to Diamond Creek. Maybe it’s because I can’t think of any reasonable alternative, but my intuition is telling me to go there. With or without the others.”

  Sally looked at Bonnie, her incredulity obvious even in the pale moonlight.

  “Are you serious?" she exclaimed. "We need them! What about Dylan and me? I can’t just leave my boyfriend behind!”

  “Relax, I just said my intuition is telling me to do that. I didn’t say I was ready to act on it. I think we can wait a little longer, but not forever. We need to be realistic.”

  “What about those people out there? They won’t just let us leave will they? They’ll want Gabby to stay with them.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that too, actually.”

  “And?”

  “I think we could take them with us.”

  “What? Are you crazy?”

  “Not at all,” Bonnie replied, as she turned to Sally and took her by the hand.

  “Listen, these people have been brought here for a reason - to protect Gabby. We can’t ignore that. If we run from them, they’ll just follow us, or another group will spring up in their place. We might as well accept the situation and deal with it. If the others aren’t back in the next day or so, I say we rally Gabby’s followers and head west to Diamond Creek. There’s safety in numbers after all. What do you say?”

  “I don’t know Bonnie. How can I leave here knowing that our friends are out there somewhere? It seems like we’d be deserting them, giving up! I don’t know if I could live with that.”

  Bonnie pulled Sally towards her and hugged her. “I think we’re all finding that there are a lot of crazy things we can live with now.”

  -

  “Wake up!”

  “What is it?” asked Matt, sitting up with a start.

  “We have to be ready. It could be anytime now.”

  Matt sat up and could see that some of his fellow prisoners had opened their eyes and were stirring from their sleep. Others were already awake and standing around the room, ready for action.

  Earlier that day, after Matt and Dylan had read the note, they decided to share the information with the five other captors, realising that everybody needed to understand what would be happening once Montana’s plan was put into action.

  “What time do you think it is?” asked a young man, who had just woken up.

  “I don’t know,” Dylan replied. “But I reckon we’re getting close to kick off.”

  “I can’t hear anything yet,” commented Matt. “Maybe she couldn’t get out.”

  “Well if she didn’t, we aren’t going anywhere either, so let’s just cross our fingers and stay alert.”

  -

  Montana desperately turned the key in the lock as the feeder raced towards her. It didn’t budge. She swore loudly as the snarling beast closed in. There would be no time to try another key, so she twisted it hard one more time as a last resort, and almost fainted with relief, as the shaft turned in the barrel, popping the lock open. She removed it from the bulky metal chain and let it drop to the ground, then slid back the large bolt that held the gates together. She took one last glance into the darkness down the road, and could see that other feeders were materialising now, in significant numbers. There wasn’t much time! She left the gates closed with the loose chain dangling limply around them, then turned and ran back towards the school. On the first floor someone had opened a window and was yelling at her to stop, but she kept running, focused with absolute clarity on her destination. She sprinted towards the front doors of the school. From behind she heard a loud clank and a metallic rattle as the first feeder hit the gates. She didn’t know if it was forceful enough to fling them open or not, but she wasn’t about to turn around to find out. She knew that within a few short moments the creatures would reach the gates en masse, and swarm into the school, looking for fresh bodies to feed on. Montana reached the front doors of the school and shoved them open, as marauders frantically screamed from upstairs, “Feeders! Feeders!”

  She plunged into the foyer and raced through the corridor towards her salvation. Scores of creatures would be flowing in through the main gates now, and the marauders were emerging from their rooms to protect their domain. When Montana heard the main building's glass doors shatter behind her, she turned and saw the creatures streaming through them towards her. They were only seconds behind her now, but Montana had almost reached her destination. She hysterically pushed open the door to the storeroom that had been her prison only yesterday, and slammed it closed, before engaging the lock, as the feeders thudded heavily against it, just behind her.

  -

  The seven captives stood motionless, listening, to the sounds of bedlam breaking loose outside.

  “My god! She did it!” said one of the female prisoners. “She really fucking did it!”

  “Don’t get too excited just yet!” Dylan reminded them, moving to the door. “If the next part doesn’t work, we might be locked in here forever!”

  Screams and gunshots rang out through the corridors outside, while Matt, Dylan and the survivors waited as planned, for their chance to escape this nightmare. Most of the group huddled together and held hands, but Matt and Dylan stood just inside the door, waiting for the signal that would give them their opportunity to strike. Montana’s note had told them to expect pandemonium to erupt in the middle of the night, because she was going to try to let the feeders into the school, knowing it would be the only way to overpower the marauders. She also informed the boys that they were locked in one of the only truly secure rooms in the school, and that it might be seen as a refuge for marauders once the carnage began. Matt and Dylan stared at the inside of the metal door, almost willing someone to try to enter from outside, but all they could hear was breaking glass, gunshots and screaming.

  “This isn’t going to work, is it?” wailed one of the captives. "We're going to be trapped in here!"

  Dylan yelled at her to shut up, and just when it seemed like the plan was going to fail, a clattering sound at the door indicated that someone was trying to get into the room. Matt and Dylan took up their positions on either side of the door, as the other captives formed a group of five, not too far behind them.

  The marauder plunged into the room and Matt and Dylan leapt onto him and pounded his head with their fists, while the other prisoners rushed to the door and pushed it shut before sliding the latch, locking the door from inside. The marauder tried to fight back, but he had no chance once they all joined in the assault. Finally, the marauder became still, and the prisoners
stood back, panting from the exertion and rush of adrenaline that had kicked in. For a moment, nobody was sure if the man on the floor was dead or not, but a prod from Dylan’s boot drew a low moan from the victim, indicating that he would probably live. One of the men who had helped to subdue the marauder looked to Dylan. “What now?”

  “We wait. As soon as it gets light outside, we find Montana, then get to the nearest vehicles we can find and get the fuck out of here.”

  “What about the marauders?” the man asked.

  “We’ll have to wait until morning to find out. With any luck, the feeders will kill them all. It sounds like a bloodbath out there.”

  They paused and listened as the screams continued, punctuated now and then by the occasional blast of a weapon.

  “Do less gunshots mean there are less feeders to shoot, or less marauders to do the shooting?” asked one of the women.

  “Good question,” Dylan replied, as another bloodcurdling scream ripped through the night.

  -

  Montana shivered in the corner of the dark storeroom, as she listened to the sounds of battle raging outside. She would have no idea if her plan was a success until the sun rose in a few hours, but at least she had given herself a slim chance of survival. She hoped that the boys would somehow manage to get through the night, and she would find them in the morning, but until then, all she could do was wait. She also thought about The Doctor and whether his cronies would have gone to his aide as soon as the alarm went up. Probably not, she thought. These mindless psychopaths would be thinking only of themselves once everything went to shit, and The Doctor would be left to fend for himself. He would stand no chance, surely. Montana curled up on the floor and tried to keep warm as another gunshot blasted just outside the door.