Ridgetown (Book 2): Neighbours

by Philip Radford

“Its feet are covered in ash. Wouldn’t that mean it had walked through the store after the fire was out?”

  Even though no one else was talking, the room seemed to fall even more silent than before. No one took their eyes off the creature on the table.

  “It is dead…” Mark slowly began to draw his ice axe, “isn’t it?”

  Mo flicked his eyes at the rest of Red team before returning his gaze to the creature and reaching for his own axe that was on another table next to him. Idris reached behind his back for a hunting knife that he kept in a sheath on his belt and Liz glanced over to the wall where she had hung her arm blades, removing them to allow herself more dexterity for the autopsy.

  Gaz, standing near the creature’s head, stepped forward and glanced at the others, making sure they were ready to attack if the creature moved. He stared into its eyes, trying to determine if there was any sign of life, or afterlife, in them.

  “Poke it in its eye.” Luke whispered.

  Slightly startled, Gaz jerked and gave Luke an annoyed stare. With his head less than a foot away from the creature’s face, he slowly moved from side to side as if scanning its face with his own. When the creature didn’t move its head, Gaz leaned in closer and focused on what he thought could be the pupil behind the layer of white that hid the rest of the eyeball.

  As he stared, the pupil contracted.

  “Oh shi…” Gaz shouted and whipped his head back as quickly as he could.

  Time slowed for everyone in the room. In an instant, the creature rolled on to its left side and thrust its right arm above its head towards Gaz. A couple of the jagged bones punctured his face and tore the skin along his cheek.

  At the same time the creature moved, Idris lunged towards it and dug his knife into the back of its neck. The blade initially hit bone around the shoulder blade and glanced upwards, Idris kept pressure on it and it scraped along the bone until it found flesh and plunged into the side of its neck, he let go of the blade and left it sticking out of the creature as it moved.

  The creature let out a scream and turned to face Idris, its bony face splattered with Gaz’s blood. It shifted its weight from its left side onto its right and attempted to stab Idris in the same way it had attacked Gaz.

  Seeing its spiked hand rushing towards him, Idris instinctively clapped his hands together to stop it. He grabbed the creature’s razor sharp appendage with both hands and the pain was instant as his hands were pierced by multiple ragged points. Idris howled in agony, holding on as tightly as he could, stopping the creature from thrusting its hand any further towards him.

  Mark swung his ice axe down as hard as he could, connecting with the elbow joint of the creature’s left arm. The axe’s point dug into the wooden table and the blade cut deep into the creature’s arm pinning it down and rolling the creature onto its front with its right arm sticking out above its head.

  Idris let out another shout of pain as the creature’s arm was pulled downwards sharply by the axe, working the sharp bones into his hands but staying embedded.

  Mo hacked at its armpit in an effort to hinder its strength, noting that it was an area without any bone to protect it.

  “Keep it on the table!” Mark shouted. He wanted to keep the creature contained so that it did as little damage as possible. The more it moved its left arm, the more severe trauma would be done to Idris’s hands. Mark wanted the creature dead as quickly as possible.

  Rather than try to attach her arm blades, Liz opted for urgency by grabbing a spear that was propped against the wall behind her and thrust it towards the creature’s head in an effort to kill it. The spear scraped along the thick cheek bone of the creature and slid off, causing Liz to jerk forward and accidentally thrust the spear towards Gaz who was holding his cheek, desperately trying to stem the bleeding but becoming nauseous from feeling the flaps of skin that were hanging from his face. He stumbled backwards away from the spear and backed into the wall. Becoming light headed, he allowed his back to slide down the wall and dropped to a seated position knowing he was no good to anyone if he passed out. He began to slow his breathing in an effort to stop himself going into shock.

  Helen had been drawing her axe when the creature had moved. After Liz’s attempt with the spear didn’t stop it, she decided to follow Mark’s lead by pinning it to the table. Standing nearest the legs, she swung the axe down as hard as she could at an angle, successfully piercing the table and pinning the creature’s legs by it’s shins. The thick bones covering its lower legs looked like shin pads and stopped the axe digging into its legs but they were held in place for the moment, scraping against the sharpened blade with each movement. Leaving the axe in place, Helen spun around, frantically searching for another weapon. From against the wall where Liz grabbed her spear, another spear had fallen to the ground. Helen grabbed it and drove it deep into the stomach of the zombie, the thin skin that was stretched from the bottom of the rib cage gave no resistance as the spear dug through the soft innards of the creature with little muscle to fight against. Helen felt a thud as it hit the table and kept her weight pressed down on it to keep it pinned.

  Luke had been stabbing at the creature’s skull with a knife but, as with Liz and her spear, the thick bone proved too resistant for the thin blade. He looked up as Liz shouted him.

  “Luke, use this.”

  She threw a mallet through the air that looked like a meat tenderiser. It was solid metal and had short spikes on one side. Luke caught it and without hesitation began pounding at the skull of the creature. on the third strike he heard a cracking sound and on the fourth the skull begin to fracture. He didn’t slow as he continued with his barrage of blows, barely noticing the cracks spreading across the skull like a spider web.

  Mark had drawn his other ice axe and was pinning the creature’s other arm down with it. Rather than strike the arm as he had done with the first one, he used the arched blade to hold the right arm down and dropped to his knees hanging as much weight as he could through the handle of the axe. He tried not to move as he limited the arm’s movements, close enough to Idris to hear him grunting and breathing so fast he was nearly hyperventilating. He could hear Luke hammering and prayed that it was working, the zombie’s strength didn’t seem to be wavering.

  Mo had now retrieved his axe from the armpit of the zombie and dashed round to where Luke was stood. He turned the axe around and used the blunt end of it to join Luke in bashing the skull. Nearly instantly, the cracks joined up with each other and bits of skull started to splinter away. Pieces began to fall off and the two continued to hammer at it. Soon they were being spattered by a dark coloured fluid, indicating they were getting close. The sign drove them harder and the sound of metal and bone began to be replaced by metal on something softer. Each strike began to bring away more and more brain matter and the creature became visibly less animated.

  Liz, who had been pressing the spear into the chin of the zombie to keep its head in place while Mo and Luke hammered at it, allowed herself to relax slightly and both Helen and Mark realised they didn’t need to hold it in place with as much effort as they had been doing.

  The zombie suddenly became lifeless and all of the fight left its body. Its arm that was still piercing Idris’s hands became limp and Idris dropped to his knees, trying his best not to cry despite the searing pain that was running through both of his hands. The persistent burning felt as painful as the moment it had first happened.

  “Idris, stay clam. It’s gonna be alright.”

  Idris didn’t acknowledge Mark, he simply stared at his hands and took quick shallow breaths.

  Mark looked closer at where the bones had impaled Idris’s hands, he noticed that a few of the bones were protruding through to the other side and tried not to look alarmed as he noticed.

  Liz jumped straight into action. “Idris, I need you to stay calm okay? Mo, I know you can stitch. If I give you the equipment, can you take care of Gaz’s injuries?”

  Mo nodded confidently, concentrating on th
e task he had been given. He turned his attention to Gaz who looked like he was managing to keep himself calm.

  Mark looked eager to help. “What can I do?”

  “Take this bone saw. Helen, I want you to help me hold the creature’s arm still while Mark cuts through it. We can’t remove the spikes while the creature’s still attached so we need to remove as much as it as possible while keeping it as still as possible for Idris’s sake.”

  She handed the saw to Mark as she held on to the creatures arm. She had to hold it near the elbow where the bone plates were flat because any further down the forearm was peppered with the razor sharp spikes, pointing in all directions. Helen stood on the other side between Mark and the table, pressing down on the tricep of the creature, also plated with thick bone.

  “Sorry.” Mark said as he bumped in to Helen, having to stand up against her in order to get the perfect angle to saw through the elbow joint. It was a bit too much human contact for Helen but her comfort wasn’t the priority at that moment.

  Luke was helping support Gaz over to a chair while Mo searched for stitching equipment. The gashes on his cheek looked really deep, Gaz had pressed his hand tightly against his face which helped stem some of the bleeding but Luke was still worried about the amount of blood he had lost.

  Mark began to saw through the creature’s elbow as carefully as he could. He saw Idris wince at the slightest movement but the groaning noises he had been making were reduced to an occasional grunt. The saw cut through the patch of skin easily but when it hit bone, he realised how thick the creature’s bones actually were. Being slow was going to take forever so Mark gradually began to speed up. The noises from Idris began to increase but he never complained or asked Mark to slow down.

  When the saw finally cut through the last part of the arm and it fell free, Liz instantly supported the weight of the rest of the arm to stop it from pulling on Idris’s hands. She led him over to another table in the corner of the room and gently rested the forearm on it. Idris stood perfectly still for a moment while she got him a chair.

  She glanced over at Mo who had already administered a local anaesthetic via injection and started to stitch Gaz’s face back together. She looked at Mark, Luke and Helen who were all expectantly staring at her, wanting to know what they could do to help.

  “Helen, can you help me with Idris. It’s going to take a while and I’ll need your help fetching instruments and holding things if you don’t mind?”

  “Of course!” Helen walked over to Idris, wanting to place a hand on his shoulder to reassure him things were going to be okay but scared of jarring him.

  “Guys, I know you’re not gonna like this but there isn’t a lot you can do. There’s not a lot of room here and you’re limited to how much you can help. I’d suggest heading back to Ridgetown for now and we’ll message we need anything.”

  Mark was clearly uncomfortable with leaving when people were injured but couldn’t think of anything he could do to help.

  “We could go to the church? That way we’re still nearby if you want us and there are a decent amount of medical supplies in there.” Luke suggested.

  “That’s a good idea.” Liz replied.

  Mark was still reluctant to leave so Luke touched his back to lead him away, “Come on, let these guys do their magic.”

  Mark and Luke waited in the church, hours passed without any contact from the lab. Luke used the time to update the website, keeping the area around the store marked as dangerous but updating it to say there had been a sighting of a possible new special zombie.

  He began to update the special zombies page, sticking to the description and how it had seemed dead but had suddenly burst into animation and attacked. Luke thought about what Helen had said about it being an evolved version of a Scutter and from what she and Mark had said about them, it seemed plausible. That raised the question whether the creature had been in a catatonic state as part of the evolutionary process when they had found it or whether, more disturbingly, it had been playing dead.

  “When you first went into the store, do you really think those Scutter things had led you in there? Set a trap?” Luke asked after a few hours of minimal conversation and Mark continuously pacing up and down the church.

  “I think so, yeah. Even though they were hidden away in that corner near the entrance, I’m pretty sure we would have noticed them when we first went in. I’m certain they lured us into the store and then doubled back to block off our exit.”

  “We’ve always had enough to worry about without these things showing any kind of cognitive function…”

  “That’s exactly what worries me. How long is it going to be before they start climbing ladders or scaffolding?” Mark hesitated for a moment before he continued, unsure whether to say what had been playing on his mind. “You don’t think we’re being targeted, do you?”

  Luke was taken aback, “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, that first horde was big. okay, we’ve seen big mobs before but with that one, it was as if they were being led here by the Leapers. The one that survived the car bomb even scaled the wall to open up our gate.” He watched Luke process what he was saying. “And now this one… Playing dead? It’s as if brute force didn’t work so they’re trying something more devious.”

  “When you say they, do you mean the zombies?”

  “That’s just the thing, I’m not even sure. I think we need to find out as much as possible about this other group.”

  “You think they could be involved?” Luke asked.

  “Like I said to the others, I don’t want to jump to any conclusions.”

  Luke leant back in his seat, letting the idea sink in. He let out a long whistle as he breathed out, like a cartoon sound effect of something being thrown off a cliff. “Zombies being controlled by humans?”

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions…”

  “Maybe they’re making the special ones?”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea to…” Mark didn’t even finish his sentence.

  Luke stood up sharply, knocking his chair over backwards. “What if they started this whole thing? What if it’s not just this small group with a train? What if the people with the guns are working for the government and this whole thing was a plot to take over the world?”

  Mark allowed his eyes to glaze over as he waited for Luke to tire himself out, wishing he hadn’t said anything.

  “How are we going to stop them? We can’t fight an entire government with a zombie army, especially one that can make super zombies to infiltrate our community. What’s next? Zombies that look like humans? How will we fight them if we can’t even tell who’s a zombie and who’s a human? Then what? Would we have to pretend to be zombies? Not able to sleep, constantly staggering round chasing survivors? I can’t spend the rest of my life pretending to be a zombie!” As Luke got more distressed, he marched towards the front of the church as if looking to escape a room that was closing in on him. He leant on the alter with his head down, breathing heavily and in danger of hyperventilating.

  Mark walked over and patted his back gently. “Slow down there champ.”

  Luke began to regulate his breathing and calmness began to return. He straightened up and cleared his throat. “Sorry mate, nearly went a bit over the top then.”

  Mark raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, we’re lucky you didn’t eh?”

  Back at the table where the two had been sat, Mark’s phone lit up and his message alert went off. He hurried over to see what it said, Luke leaning against the alter, waiting expectantly.

  “It’s Liz. She says Gaz and Idris are okay but wants us to help get Idris out of the lab, apparently he’s in no fit state to use his hands.”

  Chapter 5

  When Luke and Mark joined the group in the lab, they did their best to hide their shock at seeing what the creature had done to Gaz and Idris. Gaz had stitches that ran from between his chin and his lip all the way up to his forehead, branching off into two other lines around h
is cheek. Idris was sat on one of the tables, both hands bound in gauze and bandages. He looked pale and beads of sweat ran down his face. He stared at the floor and didn’t look up to acknowledge Luke or Mark.

  “I lost two fingers.” He said, completely void of emotion as if he was telling them it had started raining. “Liz tried her best, but they were too mangled.” His voice was slightly slurred although it wasn’t clear whether it was due to the anaesthetic or shock. Mark decided it was probably both.

  Mark looked at Liz who appeared to be fighting back tears. He couldn’t think of anything that would sound comforting without risking sounding patronising so he stayed silent.

  “Because we don’t have any functioning doors, we’re going to have to use the lift to get Idris out of the building. Something we didn’t consider when we were fortifying this place.”

  “We had no idea..” Luke allowed his sentence to filter out.

  “Let’s just do it, I feel useless enough as it is.” Idris sounded like his voice was faltering, he was such a reliable member of the community that having him out of action for even a short amount of time would have a massive impact. He stood slowly, stumbling as he did nearly causing him to fall.

  Helen dived forward and linked him under one of his armpits to support him.

  “I’ve given both of them some strong painkillers, especially Idris. More than the recommended amount but we don’t know how effective these tablets are. We’re not even sure how old they are.”

  Liz would never be reckless with medication, understanding both how dangerous it could be as well as understanding the scarcity of the more powerful drugs. Mark was confident that she would have only given them what she thought they could handle and if that was more than recommended, she must have thought they really needed it.

  Although a little lethargic, with Mo in front of him and Liz behind, Gaz managed to successfully negotiate the scaffolding outside to get to the ground. Helen, Luke and Mark carefully strapped the harness around Idris and hoisted him outside the building, lowering him to the road with only a couple of winces from him. They all loaded into the two vehicles with Mark and Liz driving and drove back to the Ridgetown estate. They went straight to Red team’s shared house and parked both cars in the ample sized double garage that connected to the house.