by Mark Gordon
Chapter 35
A Journey Begins
When Sally woke, Dylan was already in the kitchen, talking to Bonnie over a cup of coffee. It was dark outside and the weather had become cooler overnight as rain drizzled down outside the church’s stained glass windows. Sally walked over and sat beside Dylan, who had obviously been discussing plans for their trip to Millfield. Bonnie seemed much more relaxed now that she had a goal to pursue, and Sally sensed that there was a special friendship that had already formed between Dylan and the woman. As she watched them talk she wondered what mutual interests they could have had to help them bond so quickly. On the surface, they were very different people - Dylan was a young, energetic, no-nonsense male while Bonnie was a thirty-something mother whose only priority was to get back to her daughter.
Listening to their conversation, Sally was surprised to hear that they were planning on setting out from the church today. Dylan couldn’t see any point delaying the trip and Bonnie was desperate to get moving as soon as possible. After some discussion, it was decided that Sally and Bonnie would spend the morning gathering basic supplies and equipment while located a suitable vehicle. While they understood that many of the city’s roads were blocked, Dylan thought that driving would still be much faster than walking, even if they had to take indirect routes or swap cars if the congestion made streets impossible to navigate. After he had secured transport he would look for more suitable weapons than the lone shotgun he had been using. Now that the zombies were capable of coming out of their hibernation to attack, a more brutal approach to their eradication would be needed. He would try to source a semi-automatic weapon for himself, and versatile, compact guns for Sally and Bonnie. They didn’t like the idea at first, but Dylan convinced tham that it would be foolish not be as prepared as possible. Once they had agreed on a list of required items, Dylan gave both women a quick hug and headed back into the city to the sporting goods store where he had liberated his shotgun earlier in the week.
“Watch out for marauders,” said Sally, giving him another hug.
“I’ll be very cautious. See you back here in a couple of hours.”
As they watched him walking away, down a rain-swept Celebration Boulevard, Bonnie turned to Sally, “Right, we’ve got a lot to do. Let’s get moving!”
It was less than two hours before Dylan returned to St Jude’s, and the rain had eased. Sally and Bonnie were standing on the footpath outside the fence with neatly stacked piles of essential supplies when Dylan pulled up in a black, late model Toyota Landcruiser with a heavy-duty bull-bar, roof racks and a winch on the front. There was ample storage behind the back seats and it would give them a comfortable ride combined with reliability and off-road capabilities if needed.
“I had a felling you’d choose black," Sally joked. "Call it intuition.”
“Ha ha," he replied drily. "I asked the salesman for pink, but he said he'd have to order it in. I didn't want to wait. Did you get everything?”
“Yes," said Bonnie. "And if there's anything we've forgotten, we can grab it on the way. Let’s get this stuff in the car."
They loaded up the car, and few onlookers, including Mr Ash wandered out of the church to observe their preparations. Nobody tried to talk them out of their mission, but it was clear that most thought they were wasting their time. When Bonnie suggested to the spectators that helping to load the car might be a better use of their time than just gawking, they drifted away moodily, heading back into the church and their supposed salvation. Mr Ash stayed, though, and helped them put the last few things into the back.
“Don’t judge them too harshly,” he said. “Everybody here is just hanging on. We’re huddling together like cavemen, too scared to go out in the dark. Nobody has a family anymore. I think they are a little jealous that you have something to aim for, no matter how unlikely to succeed it may be.” He went over and took Bonnie’s hands. “Do you really think you have a chance?”
She looked him in the eyes and whispered, “Gabrielle is alive. Don’t ask me how I know, because I couldn’t explain it. Maybe only a mother could know. I just hope we can get to her in time.”
“Bonnie, we all hope you find your daughter. It would be the best thing any of us could imagine.”
Mr Ash hugged Bonnie as Dylan and Sally looked on silently. When he released her, Bonnie could see that this strong, compassionate man had been crying. “Thanks,” she said, before turning her back on him and walking to the car.
-
They cruised through the empty city streets and noticed that there were more people around than there had been in the previous few days - certainly not in large numbers yet, but enough to suggest that many survivors had stayed inside during the first few days after the event. Now, after almost a week of soul-destroying fear, they were beginning to venture out into the world once more. One time, about thirty minutes after they'd left the church, a man waved them down to ask for help. Dylan gave him directions to St Jude’s and suggested that he should get there as quickly as possible. The man thanked him and went on his way.
After consulting maps in the morning, Dylan thought the trip to Millfield in normal times (before the event) would have taken around six hours. In reality, though, it was impossible to tell how long the journey would take and what obstacles they might face. All they could do was drive until the sun started to set, then find a safe place to bunk down for the night.
For the first hour the trip was uneventful - they waved at the occasional survivor and took detours when they found the road blocked with cars. They did their best to ignore the corpses littering the streets, but their presence was a constant reminder of what had happened and how dangerous the world had become. As they cruised steadily west, getting deeper into the outskirts of the city, tall buildings gave way to the modern malaise that had been suburbia. Out here, an hour from the city, tens of thousands of homes spread in all directions behind a procession of petrol stations, fast food outlets and used car yards. Dylan couldn’t help but ask, “Do you think there are zombies asleep in all of those homes?”
Sally shuddered, “Probably only the stronger ones now.”
“That’s scary,” commented Bonnie.
“Yeah. I can’t wait to get out of the city,” said Dylan. “The country has to be better than this.” He looked at Bonnie in the rear view mirror. “What’s Millfield like?”
Bonnie smiled and began to answer, as the windscreen of the car exploded into a wall of flames.
“Marauders!” yelled Dylan as another Molotov cocktail slammed into the passenger window of the car, turning their world into a reasonable approximation of hell.