by Mark Gordon
Chapter 10
To Town
The night passed uneventfully for Matt and Elvis, who slept curled up together in Matt’s parents’ double bed. The next morning, as dawn’s light washed the dark from the room, Matt climbed out of bed and went outside. Elvis followed closely behind, as he went to the veranda and listened. Silence. Nothing had changed since the nightmare of the day before. There was still no traffic on the road; no tractors were ploughing the fields; and no planes were leaving white trails across the early morning sky. Matt wondered about his sighting of the jet from the previous evening. At the time, he assumed it was on a regular route, but after having time to think about it, he realised that the plane could have been on autopilot, and in the air for many hours. He tried to visual a scenario where everyone in the plane had been affected by the 'virus'. With nowhere for the passengers to hide, would they simply be sitting comatose in their seats? Or would they be piled up in the aisles, like the bodies he had found in the basement of the pub yesterday? Whatever the case, they would almost certainly end up falling from the sky once the plane’s fuel tanks emptied. He went back inside.
Matt had known all along what his plan for today would be - to find his parents. Even though it made him feel sick, he realised that they would probably be in the same state as the others he had found yesterday. He had no idea what he would do if he found them, other than bring them back to the farm and keep them comfortable, but that would be better than doing nothing at all.
As the sun started to lift above the eastern horizon, he made himself a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, which he shared with Elvis. He wasn’t particularly hungry, but he knew his body needed fuel for the difficult day ahead. It tasted like ash in his mouth as he forced it down. Matt had no idea what to expect in town today, and he fantasized that he might find that everybody was back to normal, but he knew that wasn't very likely.
For no reason other than it couldn’t do any harm, he grabbed his father’s shotgun and an extra box of shells from above the bedroom closet and took them to the car. He had no firm plan other than to look for his parents. Since they were in town last night at a party, he figured he would start his search at their friends’ houses. It would have been so much easier if he had known which friends had hosted the party, but he hadn’t thought to ask. If he couldn’t locate them, he wasn’t sure what he would do. For now though, he was confident that they would be 'hibernating' in one of a few regular haunts (not a good word, he thought to himself humourlessly) and would be able to bring them home. As Matt started the engine Elvis jumped up into the passenger seat of the truck. Matt took a deep breath, “Let’s go boy”.