Desolation Boulevard (14 page)

Lord Vader spoke. “What do you want? What
are you doing here?”

Matt didn’t really understand the question,
but tried to give a response that wouldn’t upset this obviously
unbalanced person. “Um, I’m just looking for survivors. I was
hoping there might be people here in Carswell. I thought maybe we
could help each other.”

“
Why the fuck would I need
your help. Do I look like I need help? Well, do I?”

Matt thought that he’d never seen anyone in
his entire life that needed help more right now, but he didn’t want
to antagonise him. Gabby was his responsibility and he was willing
to temporarily eat shit from this clown if that’s what it took to
keep her safe.

“
No, I don’t think you need
help; I was just offering, that’s all. You guys look like you’ve
got everything under control. I can move on. No harm done and you
can get on with … whatever you want.”

Lord Vader glanced at the blonde girl beside
him, and at that moment Matt thought that he might have sensed some
uncertainty in the man’s body language. When the girl gave a little
shrug of her shoulders he realised that she was just a follower and
had no idea what she’d gotten herself into. Even though Matt
realised that he’d discovered two survivors who were doing little
more than playing “soldier”, he knew that they could still be a
danger to him and Gabby. People with low self-esteem, high stress
levels and loaded guns were not to be treated lightly. Despite that
though, Matt decided to push it just a little, to see where he
stood. “How about it, buddy? I’ll just get in my car and leave you
guys alone, what do you say?”

“
Don’t try and suck up to
me you prick. I’m not your buddy; I’m in charge here. I’ll say what
you can and can’t do. Tell me where you came from!”

“
I came from Millfield this
morning.”

“
Oh really?” The fat man
asked sarcastically, and then paused as if considering his next
question. Finally he asked, “What’s it like?” Matt thought that the
fat man might have been struggling a little to maintain the tough
guy image.

“
Well, it’s the same as
here really,” he replied. “Dead people everywhere and the ones that
aren’t dead have gone crazy or something. I’m the only one left I
think.” He didn’t mention Gabby who was still lying on the floor of
the car.

“
Everyone in Millfield has
changed into those feeders. It’s a nightmare.”

The fat man looked at him, “Feeders? Yeah
that’s a good name for them. They’re not zombies. Feeders.
Yeah.”

Suddenly the girl lowered her gun and spoke
for the first time, “Jesus Christ Brock, I can’t hold this thing up
forever! Stop being a dickhead and let him go! You’re not going to
shoot him for chrissake!”

Suddenly Brock lost his cool and started
screaming, “Shut the fuck up you little slut, this is my game.
Farmer Joe here is going to do whatever I tell him to. Now start
walking!” He waved his gun in the direction of a brick building
across the street and motioned for Matt to get moving.

All of a sudden “Blondie” let loose a
high-pitched squeal, causing both men to spin around to see what
was wrong. She was literally jumping up and down on the spot.

“
Oh my god! He’s so cute!
What’s his name?” Matt realised she’d spotted Elvis who’d been
sitting patiently in the back of the truck.

When he told her the dog’s name she
immediately started to call him as she headed over towards the car.
Matt knew that he needed to keep the girl away from Gabby so he
called Elvis who jumped from the tray of the vehicle and ran
straight to him. The girl went over to Elvis and hugged him. “Hello
boy! You’re a good boy Elvis, aren’t you? Good dog. Can we keep him
Brock?”

Brock looked at her and rolled his eyes.
““Sure. Whatever. What do I care? If it’ll make you happy.” He
pointed the gun at Matt again. “You! Get away from the mutt and
start walking before I use this fucking thing to put a hole in your
head!”

Lord Vader, formerly known as Brock,
directed Matt at gunpoint into a building that was clearly an old,
disused bank. Matt studied it and realised that they’d actually
picked a pretty good fortress to defend themselves from the
feeders. The front door was solid steel and the small front windows
had thick steel bars bolted to them. He couldn’t see what was at
the back of the building, but he assumed that it was equally as
fortified. Internal stairs led to an upper storey. Brock took Matt
to the back corner of the room and sat him down on the floor while
keeping the gun aimed at him. Matt looked over at the girl who was
now sitting on a bed (one of two singles, Matted noted with
interest) playing happily with Elvis. She’d removed her sunglasses
and baseball cap and he could see that she was a very attractive
girl, despite the trashy shopping mall outfit. She would have been
one of the more popular girls in school, he guessed, and now the
only companion she had was a highly-strung, socially awkward
lard-ass who had no practical skills, no charisma and no idea.

Without taking his eyes off Matt, Brock
called to the girl, “Montana, get over here with the
handcuffs.”

She stopped playing with Elvis, picked up a
pair of police-issue restraints from a shelf near her head and
hurled them at the pudgy kidnapper who had to duck to avoid being
struck in the head.

“
You fucking bitch!” he
yelled as he picked up the cuffs from the floor angrily. He
tethered one cuff to Matt’s wrist and the other to an ancient oil
heater that was attached solidly to the brick wall. Matt leaned
back and waited for the next instalment in this pointless but
deadly farce. Brock went over and lay on the second single bed.
Montana was lying on her bed with Elvis by her side, ignoring her
partner in crime. They looked like a couple of bored teenagers,
hanging around with nothing better to do. Matt noticed dozens of
melted candle stubs littering the room. These morons didn’t even
have enough common sense to go and find a generator to give
themselves some electricity! The empty chip packets and soft drink
bottles spoke for themselves. The world, as they knew it had ended,
yet all these two could find to do was hang out eating junk food
and playing gangsters. He shook his head.

Even though Matt was shackled and couldn’t
move, he felt safer now than he had when he first encountered his
captors. He knew that if this loser were going to kill him, he
probably would have done it out on the street earlier. On the other
hand, Matt had more than himself to worry about. Gabby was
(hopefully) still out in his truck and if Matt couldn’t get out of
this situation in the next couple of hours he would have to tell
Brock about the girl, and hope that he would be allowed to bring
her inside before it got dark and the feeders came out. That wasn’t
Matt’s first option, though. He would much rather get out of here
with Gabby, and get back to Millfield; because despite feeling
relatively safe at the moment, he was worried about Brock’s
stability. The big man was obviously well out of his depth and
probably only took Matt hostage in a pathetic attempt to impress
the feisty Montana. Men with infatuations were prone to irrational
behaviour, and without the constraints of civilised society, they
might be capable of anything. Matt leaned his head back against the
cool brick wall, closed his eyes and tried to think of a way out of
this mess. Within minutes he was dozing restlessly.

Chapter 27

Sally was woken by a warm, soft hand gently
caressing her back. She smiled and turned over.

“
That’s nice,” she
purred.

When she realised it wasn’t a dream, she
quickly sat up in her bed with a start.

“
Who’s that?”

“
Shhh … it’s me,
Dylan.”

Sally looked around the dark church and saw
that almost everybody was still asleep. She rubbed her eyes and
looked at Dylan who was sitting on the edge of her bed dressed in
his usual black outfit. “God, what time is it?” she whispered.

“
It’s 5:30 am. Get up, I
want to show you something.”

“
What’s wrong? It’s the
middle of the night.”

“
No it’s not,” he replied
with a smile. “Come on, get dressed. I’ll meet you out the front.”
And with that, he left.

After she had pulled on some clothes and
cleaned her teeth, she went to the front of the church where Dylan
was waiting on the steps.

“
I was having a lovely
sleep, until you ruined it.”

“
I could tell. Who was
he?”

“
How long were you watching
me?” she asked, as her cheeks flushed from
embarrassment.

“
Long enough to tell that
you’ve got a thing for a boy somewhere.”

“
Alright, that’s enough,”
she said, trying to change the subject. “What have you got me out
here for anyway?”

“
Okay, I want you to see
this so you’ll know what we’re up against when you come out with me
today.”

He took Sally by the hand and led her
through the big arched door and into the front garden of the
church. The only sound was the hum of the generators as they
powered the arc lights that had been set up inside the perimeter
fence. Next to each light a man or woman with a weapon was standing
guard. The front of the church had been built to face straight down
Celebration Boulevard so that as soon as you entered the grand
street, the church would be the first thing you saw. The lights
were very effective, and threw a small ocean of light out into the
darkness, making the whole scene look ghostly and surreal. But even
these powerful lights only illuminated the early morning for about
fifty metres before everything faded to black. Objects that were
close stood out in high definition, like a permanent flash
photograph, but further down the street it was as if a huge black
curtain had been lowered. Dylan leaned closer to Sally and pointed
into the darkness. “Check it out.”

Sally peered into the distance, but shook
her head. “I can’t see anything. What am I supposed to be looking
at?”

“
Look into the dark. Once
you see it, you’ll know what it is.”

Sally squinted her eyes. “No. All I can see
is … oh my god! Are they? …”

“
Yeah. Pretty insane
huh?”

In the darkness, beyond the light, was a
wall of the creatures. They were standing silently, staring at the
church. If it weren’t for the occasional movement as one jostled
another Sally didn’t think she would be able see them at all.
Shocked, she turned to Dylan. “How many of them are there?”

“
We can’t be sure, but we
think it’s in the thousands all around the church. There are
probably five hundred or so in that group we’re looking
at.”

Sally was horrified. She knew that the
“normal” human population would be well and truly dwarfed by these
zombie-like creatures, but she never really understood what that
meant in sheer weight of numbers. The church, which had felt so
secure when she first arrived here, now seemed like a tiny desert
island surrounded by a tide that was rising inexorably every
day.

“
Do they ever try to get
in?” she asked, worried now.

“
Not since we set the
lights up. The first night was terrible. There were only a few of
us and we locked ourselves in here before dark, but as soon as the
sun went down they came from everywhere. A lot of them turned on
each other, but most of them swarmed around the fence. Quite a few
tried to climb over, but it’s not a very easy task, so only two of
them were able to make it to the top. Luckily a couple of us had
guns, so we shot them. We had to stand guard all through the night.
The next day we went out and got the lights. I think we’d be in
trouble without them.”

Sally shuddered, as she imagined the lights
going out. “How long will they stay out there?”

“
You’re about to find out.
Look.” He pointed to the east where Sally could see the slightest
pink tinge to the sky. “As soon as the sky starts to lighten up a
bit they get moving. They don’t all go at once though. Some seem to
be braver than the others and leave it until the last minute.
Others will start to go soon.”

Sally looked at the group of creatures, now
slightly more visible in the improving light, and sure enough; some
were already creeping off into the dark, deserted streets.

“
In fifteen minutes they’ll
all be gone.” Dylan stated as he walked her back inside to help
begin preparing breakfast.

At the breakfast table peopled talked about
the jobs that needed to be done for the day ahead. Dylan wasn’t the
only one systematically exterminating the creatures; there were two
other groups going about the same grisly task in designated areas.
Sally learned that when they cleaned out a building, they would
mark the front of it with a big pink, spray-painted symbol -
“NZSJ”, which meant “No Zombies. St Jude’s”. It was to save other
groups of exterminators from wasting time searching in places that
had already been cleared. It was also a signal for the second part
of the clean-up team, who would eventually arrive and remove the
bodies. Sally was amazed that this tiny band of survivors was
prepared to take on such an overwhelming task, but as she listened
she realised that they loved their city and they weren’t prepared
to surrender the night to these violent monsters. They argued that
if all of the groups like theirs around the city joined in and did
their part, then one day they might be able to rebuild their little
part of the world into a safe and productive community. Apart from
the zombie crews, other people in the church were rostered on to
clean, cook, wash clothes, look after smaller children or scavenge
in the shops for supplies. As they talked through their chores for
the day, Sally noticed two distinct types within the group. One lot
was talkative, active and wanted to get things done, despite the
horrors they had lived through, while the other group was
struggling publicly with their grief. They barely spoke, didn’t
want to eat, and spent most of the day lying on their beds. Looking
at them, Sally wondered how many survivors around the city had
committed suicide in the days after the event.