It was an instant success within Ridgetown and people were constantly using the chat client. It gave a sense of normality to the residents, a shadow of the days before the world changed when people would text each other or chat on social media all day.
Mark sent another message, this time in one of the more public chat sessions declaring that they were going to send two teams out the following morning in light of Scott’s message. He asked the two groups to meet up briefly at his house and he would go over a quick plan. Luke emerged from the vestry holding his mobile as Helen was reading the message.
“We’d better head over to Mark’s. It looks like we’re heading out with him tomorrow as Blue team.”
“Are you okay to go now? I’ve finished what I need to do.”
“Yeah, same here. I just need to log out and then we can go.”
They exited the church and stepped out onto the walkway on the roof. The night was cold and the street lights glistened on the ground giving it a dull orange glow. The roads were still clear of zombies and no noise travelled from Ridgetown. Luke noticed that Liz’s lab was still dark, she often worked late at night when the jobs for the day had been done so that her research didn’t disrupt the general maintenance of Ridgetown.
Helen and Luke used a counterweight in the Playhouse to get to the ground floor quickly. People had found climbing down the climbing wall trickier than climbing up, so much so that it often took twice as long to get down than get up. The counterweight lifts that some Ridgetowners had on their houses proved to be a popular addition and as more were constructed, the design was slightly improved with each incarnation.
By the time they arrived at Mark’s house, everyone else was already there. They entered from the rear of the house, using a ladder that was lay on the ground. They walked into the spare bedroom that had a door shaped hole in it and made their way straight onto the landing. From there they lowered themselves down the attic ladders that were already extended to reach the ground floor of the living room.
Red team consisted of Gaz, Mo and Idris, who were stood together looking at a map on the wall that was a blown up version of the map on the website, they were concentrating on the area where the store was located and pointing at the surrounding streets. Liz was talking to Mark by the door to the kitchen. When they noticed Helen and Luke, they joined Red team near the map on the wall and everyone greeted each other.
“Okay, you’ve all seen the message from Scott. There’s something that unnerves me about the vehicles they keep hearing. That area is full of flyers and graffiti advertising the website but they’ve not made any contact as far as we’re aware. That’s fine and that alone doesn’t worry me but it sounds like these vehicles are only moving at night as if they’s transporting something and they don’t want to be noticed.” Mark raised an eyebrow to the others, “Am I being paranoid or does anyone else share my concerns?”
A few moments of silence followed.
“I don’t think you’re being paranoid but maybe we should wait until we hear what Scott finds out before we form any opinions.” Idris answered.
“That’s fair enough. Red team, when you go out to the store in the morning I’m gonna go to The Outpost with Luke and Helen to find out what they know about these vehicles. Depending on what we find out, I’d like to rendezvous with you guys and possibly scout the area a bit more. If there’’s another camp near The Outpost we want to find out a little about their size and try to work out if they’re potentially hostile.” Mark replied. “We’ll go out as Blue team and we’ll all head out together at 09:00. I was speaking to Eleanor earlier who said that Jack is itching to get more involved with missions. It’s hard enough surviving in this world but we all remember how hard being a teenager is by itself. The kid’s fifteen and he’s desperate to feel like he’s doing more. Eleanor’s gonna work communications with him while we’re out so we’ll be speaking to him but Eleanor will be there as well. He’s a smart kid and will do fine, let’s just make sure we don’t give him as much grief as some comms operators get… Gaz.”
Gaz pretended to look offended, “Hey, when I’m getting chased by thirty zombies and comms direct me down a road that turns out to be blocked, my language can get a bit colourful.”
“Understandable. Keeping the insults flying for the next week however, is going over the top.”
Before Gaz could respond, Mark cut him off with a noise that sounded like an owner shouting at a dog, accompanied by Mark holding his finger to his lips in a gesture telling Gaz to be quiet.
“Before we get into that whole conversation again, I think we should call it a night and get some rest. I want everyone alert in the morning.”
Luke spoke as soon as Mark had finished. “Gaz, would you guys be able to set up a camera near the store? I’ll bring one with me in the morning. You’ve set one up before haven’t you?”
“No probs buddy. Connect to a power source and link to the network?”
“That’s the one.” said Luke, relieved he wouldn’t have to explain the procedure again.
“Okay then. I officially bring the meeting of the Sacred Elders to a close.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call us that.” Liz muttered.
“Now get out of my house!” Mark said loudly with a smile on his face.
“I’m one of the youngest out of all of us.” Liz continued to mutter to no one in particular.
“Get out of my house!” Mark repeated. “I mean it! You have two minutes until I release the dogs.”
The next morning, everyone met outside Mark’s house. Gaz had brought Red team’s car five door Japanese hatchback that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a street racing event in the post apocalyptic world.
The car had been modified for speed and handling but a lot of effort had also gone into making the inside comfortable. The car sat on large wheels that filled the arches and the suspension had been lowered. The entire exhaust had been replaced including the exhaust manifold, originally it had been excessively loud but Mark had managed to get through to Gaz’s common sense and convinced him to fit some silencers that wouldn’t compromise the car’s speed. All the windows had been covered in sheets of metal that had slits cut into them to allow the driver and passengers to see out but protected the windows from being smashed. The front and rear bumpers had been replaced with aftermarket fibre glass designs that allowed better airflow to the engine and the large intercooler that sat behind a chickenwire grill. The bonnet had an air scoop fitted to force cooler air onto the engine block and the rear bumper had gaps for the twin big bore exhausts that stuck out of the back. A carbon fibre spoiler had been attached to the rear of the car that didn’t affect the handling in any way but Gaz liked the way it balanced the look of the car. The whole car had been sprayed a matte black colour including the metal panels over the windows. Not a lot of care had been taken with the paint job, just enough for it to look acceptable in Gaz’s opinion. Parked behind Mark’s car, that was modified strictly for practical reasons, it looked like a labour of love.
“I suppose I’m going in that thing with you guys?” Liz asked Mo.
“Hey, when we drive past in that, even the zombies are gonna be wishing we were picking them up.”
Gaz opened the boot of the car and Luke lowered a box of equipment in.
“I tested the camera last night so it definitely works. There’s a long power lead that I also tested that can be plugged into any socket. I’ve put a laptop in there to get the camera set up with, I tested the laptop and the connecting lead last night to make sure they both work and then charged the battery up overnight.”
“Not taking any chances are you?”
“Just making sure the whole thing is as quick and easy as it should be.” Luke said hesitantly, not sure if Gaz was making fun of him.
“Oh yeah, I appreciate it. The last thing I need to be doing is changing a fuse while the rest of the team is getting eaten.”
“Well, I’ll be out with Mark and Helen but if y
ou run into any problems send me a message.”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine. You guys make sure you look after yourselves.”
Luke nodded and walked off towards Mark’s car. He was nervous about going out but, as usual, was looking forward to spending more time with Helen. Going somewhere different gave them more to talk about, that was something Luke sometimes found difficult. He’d never considered himself as being awkward around women but sometimes found himself lost for words around Helen. As much as he enjoyed their programming sessions in the church, Luke felt like the stagnant surroundings sometimes stopped the conversation flowing. He found himself panicking when the conversation stopped and his head scrambled for topics. He’d never had issues forcing a conversation with women that he had found attractive before but, although he had thought his previous girlfriends had been beautiful, he thought that Helen was in a different league to all other women.
“Hey, Romeo. You’re staring again.” Mark whispered into Luke’s ear, making him jump.
“No I wasn’t! You were staring… With your big fat eyes!” Luke continued to struggle with retorts to Mark’s teasing.
Mark stared at Luke, not sure what to say. He blinked as he tried to make sense of Luke’s comeback. As he saw Luke begin to squirm at the realisation that his reply made no sense, Mark let out a single barking laugh and walked round to the driver’s seat.
Helen finished talking to Liz and joined Luke and Mark, getting into the back seat behind Mark.
“Luke, do you want to get in the back with…” He looked at Helen with his overbearing grin he always wore when he was in teasing mode. Helen was sat in the back seat scowling at him. It was a look she had given him a few times before when he teased her and Luke, Mark had a sudden flashback to the last time he had been victim to that look. The three of them had been using a paintball gun to test their aim when Mark had made a joke about Helen handling Luke’s paintballs. He had thought it was funny, but Luke had turned a brand new shade of red while Helen had given Mark the same look she was giving him now. Even now, Helen swore that she hadn’t touched the trigger of the paintball gun, she claimed it must have got stuck and fired twenty rounds into his thigh and backside while he was facing the other way.
Looking at the death stare Helen was giving him from the back seat, he absentmindedly rubbed the back of his leg, echoes of the pain suddenly appearing. “…Erm. Do you want to get in the back with Helen? You know, to talk about computers or something?”
Mark sounded nervous and that was enough to satisfy Helen. She watched him hold his butt cheek and thigh, thinking about how accurately she had aimed the paintball gun and held the trigger down firmly.
“No, I’m okay in the front.” Luke wrinkled his forehead, slightly confused.
“Never mind.” Mark tried to gloss over the exchange. “Let’s roll out.” He shouted to Gaz.
The two cars left the Ridgetown estate and headed in the direction of the store. It was a ten minute drive and everyone used the time to take note of the surrounding streets, making sure that the streets immediately around the estate were completely clear.
Mark had his phone sat in a cradle that stuck to the windscreen of the car. It was connected to the mobile network being transmitted from the nearby substation and allowed everyone to access the Internet from nearly any mobile phone. It was ironic that before the apocalypse Mark was constantly worried about going over the data limit his phone’s contract allowed him. Now he could stay connected all day everyday without worrying about being charged with a massive bill. Granted, now he had to worry about being eaten alive and the power suddenly disappearing as quickly as it had been restored but it was all swings and roundabouts in the end.
He drove with the website loaded up in a browser, taking note of any areas that were marked as dangerous and making sure they weren’t going too close to any. After a couple of minutes, he hit the home button on his phone and pressed the icon named Comms on his home screen.
Everyone had the icon installed on their phones for when they left Ridgetown so they could stay in contact with the estate. It opened up an Internet based connection with a computer in the Communications building in Ridgetown allowing whoever used it to talk with the person sat at the computer like they were having a phone call. They kept the calls audio only so that it was more reliable than video calling which could suffer from buffering issues while the caller was on the move. It was the Ridgetown resident’s version of an emergency contact number whenever they were off site.
Within seconds of pressing the icon, Mark’s call was answered by Jack who had obviously been eagerly expecting the call.
“This is Ridgetown.” Jack’s voice sounded scripted as he followed the transmission protocol carefully.
“This is Blue team, currently in transit with Red team.”
“Blue team your signal is good.”
Mark could faintly hear Eleanor’s voice in the background relaying what to say next.
“Blue team do you require any help?”
“No thank you Ridgetown. We’re going to split to our separate objectives shortly. We’ll contact again when we arrive at The Outpost.”
“That’s received.”
Mark cancelled the call and addressed Helen and Luke. “Sound’s like he’s gonna do well. I think he really needed to feel like he was more involved with what’s going on outside the estate.”
“Eleanor will be a good mentor for him.” Helen replied. “I’ve noticed that she has a lot of time for him when he gets a bit hormonal and ratty at everyone. Can’t be easy for him, poor kid. Did he have any parents with him when he arrived at Ridgetown?”
“No. We knew someone was using the safe house near the pub for a couple of days but they were never there when we went over. Turns out he would hear us setting the ladder up against the window and climb out of the back window of the house onto the conservatory roof. We didn’t have a clue but he said he was there every time we went and dropped supplies off.” Luke sounded melancholic, imagining how scared he must have been on his own.
“He can definitely look after himself when he has to but I worry what it did to his state of mind. I’d rather he gets frustrated at spending a lot of time inside the estate than be out on supply runs every day. He needs a bit of time to get used to being safe, he went really quiet after Ridgetown got breached by the horde and I was worried he might take off somewhere.”
Helen agreed with Mark. She had heard Jack complain about being inside the estate a lot of the time but he wasn’t being held there against his will. He could go out any time he wanted but was always persuaded to stay inside the walls by whoever he spoke to. Helen wondered whether he really wanted to go out or whether he was just saying it so that he didn’t look scared of the outside. She had seen how easy it was to convince him to stay behind when they went out on raids and thought that if he really wanted to go out, he’d take a bit more convincing.
“It’s time for us to turn off.” Mark flicked his indicator on to take the next turning and lowered his window, sticking his arm out to wave to Gaz behind them.
Gaz’s car flashed its headlights in acknowledgement and continued going straight towards the store.
Mark felt a pang of concern for Red team. He knew they could handle themselves but worried that they underestimated what they were heading in to. He knew how lucky Helen and himself had been to escape those things unharmed and was nervous that the others had taken their lack of injuries for granted.
Before long they had arrived at The Outpost. The surrounding roads were still clear of zombies and Mark hoped that it was a sign that Ishaq and the others were back from their scouting mission and were maintaining the area. Mark, Luke and Helen left the car parked out front and entered the house next door as Helen and Mark had done the previous day. This time, the door to the hallway was unlocked and the door to the bathroom was open. Helen used the key she kept with her to open the door to the master bedroom again but whereas they had been met by Scott and
the others through the adjoining gap last time, this time they were met by an empty hole in the wall.
Mark armed himself with a pickaxe, Helen and Luke following his lead. The others should have seen them approach on the cameras and knew to expect them, their lack of welcoming party was uncharacteristic for them.
Helen heard a noise from somewhere inside The Outpost, she immediately looked at Luke and Mark to make sure they had heard it as well. Luke jolted his head to look at her, clearly intending to do the same as Helen. Mark continued to look forward, listening for the sound to repeat itself. When it didn’t, he motioned for them to move forward. Mark led the way, followed by Luke with Helen at the back, deciding to leave the door unlocked behind them in the event of them needing to escape quickly.
Another bang came from the ground floor and Mark immediately focused in on where it had come from. He carefully negotiated the stairs without taking his eyes away from a moving shadow coming from what was once a living room.
As they proceeded down the stairs, the recognisable voice of Ishaq began to speak in an animated tone.
“I just don’t understand how none of us have seen or heard it before. It’s not like it’s subtle or anything.”
Mark visibly relaxed and fed his axe back through the loop on his belt. Luke gave Helen a relieved look as he did the same. They hurried down the last few stairs, stealthy intentions cast aside.
Scott was sat at the computer they kept downstairs at the table and Ishaq was leaning over him looking at the monitor. They both turned when they heard Mark enter the room.
Ridgetown (Book 2): Neighbours Page 5