"Sorry guys. It's been a bit hectic, I completely overlooked keeping you guys in the loop."
"Yeah, when we didn't get a reply from the update we sent you, we figured you were pretty busy."
Mark felt awful as he also realised he hadn't even thought about how things were going back with the other groups after giving his big speech about staying in contact and being there for them if they had any problems.
Gaz’s smile was twisted on his left side where stitches surrounded his mouth. It occasionally turned into more of a grimace but looked well considering all the blood Mark had witnessed when the spiked zombie attacked. Mo had done a great job at keeping the wound looking neat.
“How’s Idris doing?” Mark asked.
Gaz’s face became sombre.
“He’s doing okay. Not talking much. He’s having trouble sleeping because of the pain so we’re leaving him to rest as much as we can.”
Mark didn’t know what to say. He felt helpless and wished there was something he could do to help.
“Liz says we have to keep on top of changing the bandages.” Gaz continued, “Idris knows how imperative it is that we do everything we can to prevent an infection. We try to be as careful as we can but it’s hard to see him in so much pain.”
Trying to steer the conversation towards something more upbeat, he asked Zack how Green team were getting on.
“We’ve doubled our raids and are still going strong.” Zack replied with a smile.
“Make sure you don’t overdo it. We’re relying on you now more than ever.”
“Don’t worry, we’re getting better every time we go out.”
Mark couldn’t help but worry about the added pressure he’d given them. He trusted Zack and Green team but worried that the extra workload might tire them out. Going on raids when your head wasn’t a hundred percent in it made you a liability to any team. He didn’t want their confidence to blind their judgement.
Mark could tell they wanted to know what they had found out about the other survivors so he gave them a brief overview of everything that Ishaq had told them. He saw how nervous they became when he mentioned finding the tracker in Ishaq’s hoody.
“Mark!” Luke came stumbling into the room an hour later. “Mark, the cameras are down.”
“How long?” Mark asked.
“We’ve played the footage back and they were taken out one at a time around fifteen minutes ago. They only tripped the cameras inside the living room, looks like they worked out the blindspots or took the others out from afar.”
“They?”
“We’ve seen two figures from the footage we’ve recovered.”
“Gather the others, we’ll head straight out.”
Luke nodded and headed back the way he had come in. Mark turned back to Gaz.
“Just passing through?” Gaz asked.
“Looks like it. You guys gonna be okay for a bit longer?”
“Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine. You worry about your team, I don’t like the sounds of these other people. Sounds too much like they’re trying to hunt you down.”
“I’m sick of feeling hunted.” Mark barked his feelings, clearly frustrated. “It’s time to find out who these people are and what they want, no more games.”
“I agree but you gotta be careful. No point rushing in and getting everyone killed over a misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? They’ve tracked down our safe house and taken out…”
Gaz gave Mark a look like a concerned parent. It stopped Mark mid-rant.
“Okay, okay. I get it. I’ll be careful. We’ll be careful.”
“That’s better. Now, go kick some ass.”
Mark grinned and headed out of the building, back towards his own house. If Luke had seen two people on the feed from the Safehouse, he would put money on there being more of them. He thought about what Ishaq had told them earlier. Could there be five or six of them? Or would they send a group of two to scope the place out first? If they hurried, they might be able to get there before any kind of backup arrived.
Helen, Ishaq and Luke were all ready to go when Mark got there. Concerned about them recognising Mark’s car, Mark decided to use Ryan’s car. It was one of the German saloons that Ryan was comfortable working on and had extensively modified. Mark liked using his own car and didn’t want the other group of survivors getting too familiar with it and spotting Mark before he spotted them in the future. They set off and the drive was quiet. Mark drove and he paused at the corner of the street.
There was no vehicle parked outside and they hadn’t noticed any new ones as they had approached.
“It’s quiet.” Mark commented.
“Too quiet…” Luke replied.
Everyone groaned and Ishaq gave him a light slap round the back of the head.
Mark crept up to the front of the house with the car and parked it outside. They all scanned the outside of the building, looking for any indication that someone was still inside. Luke had kept a feed open on his phone but all the cameras had been showing static since they left.
“Luke, I want you to wait in the car. At the first sign of trouble, I want you to go straight back to Ridgetown. We’ll deal with whatever gets thrown at us and make our own way back.”
Luke had been the ‘head back to base at the first sign of trouble’ guy before. He hated feeling like he was considered the weakest member of the group and wanted to be more useful. He had argued his point before and been shot down each time. This time, he knew better and simply nodded at his instructions.
“Helen, I want you to come inside with me and Ishaq. Wait in the entrance room when we go into the main house. If it sounds like we’re in trouble, signal to Luke and you guys bug-out.”
Helen nodded silently.
“Ishaq. When we get inside we’re gonna have to play it by ear a bit. If we find the friendly guy you spoke to…”
“Chris.” Ishaq interjected.
“Yeah, Chris. Then maybe it’ll be best if you do the talking. They’ve used our own tracker against us so I don’t think it will be a good idea to play dumb. It looks like it’s gonna be time to lay all our cards on the table and hopefully get some honest answers.”
The looks from everyone else suggested they agreed with him. Moments like these were when Mark questioned his leadership abilities the most. These people were listening to what he was saying and ready to walk in to a completely unknown situation with only what he’d told them for guidance. With Ishaq and Helen, it wasn’t so much the worry that his advice would get them killed, it was more that his advice would be completely useless and they would lose faith in his decision making.
“Okay guys, let’s play this cautiously and stay safe.”
There was a feeling of dread that came with dealing with survivors that weren’t part of their group. Zombies were dangerous enough and they couldn’t set traps or deceive people.
Mark, Helen and Ishaq carefully made their way over to the safe house entrance, each of them only carrying an axe. Luke climbed into the driver’s seat of the car, watching the others leave and propping his phone on the dashboard of the car incase any of the cameras suddenly came back online.
Mark scaled the front of the house to the open window that was the entrance to the Safehouse. He hesitated when he reached the window ledge and had a good look inside before entering. Ishaq and Helen waited nervously below for him to reappear. Satisfied he was alone, Mark stuck his head out of the window and signalled for them to come up.
Helen scaled the height quickly and Ishaq was close behind. When each of them entered the room, Mark signalled for them to be quiet. He hadn't heard any noises coming from the other building but wasn’t going to assume that the intruders had left. He also didn’t want to advertise their arrival, although he had a horrible feeling that they already knew they were there. At they very least, their arrival was expected.
Mark opened the door as slowly and carefully as he could. The house was pretty well maint
ained and the door opened without much noise, he also knew they didn’t have to worry about creaky floorboards when they stepped onto the landing.
Again, Mark paused while he surveyed the area. The lack of noises was disturbing to him, he’d hoped to have been able to hear people talking even though he hadn’t really expected to. He hadn’t expected this level of silence though, he was beginning to wonder if anyone was actually inside any more.
Helen waited at the door as they went through and closed it, leaving it slightly ajar so she could listen in on any conversation. She wanted to go with them but agreed that if it was a trap, there was no point in all of them walking straight into it.
Mark took the lead down the stairs, descending as slowly as possible, still listening for any noises from the living room. He hesitated at the bottom, not sure whether to stride into the room confidently or peak around the wall, staying behind cover.
“You might as well come in.”
The voice came from the living room. Mark looked behind him at Ishaq who looked as surprised as he was. Ishaq shrugged, not knowing what the best course of action was.
“We’ve been waiting for you.”
Mark decided that it would be better to show confidence than fear. Hoping Ishaq would take his lead, he stood up straight and confidently strode into the room. He held his axe out to his side, not in a threatening way, but enough to show that he was armed incase these people tried anything.
He was slightly startled when he walked into the living room to find a man sat in one of the armchairs facing him, obviously tall despite sitting down, and another man leaning against the wall directly to his right. Both men looked like they were wearing fatigues of some sort but not military, more like an armed Police response outfit. The protective gear was similar to what Mark was wearing but looked more professional, dark grey one piece overalls that were covered in foam plates. The plates didn’t look very thick although they were enough to stop teeth getting through. The plates covered the forearms, shins and calfs, shoulders and neck and torso. They wore padded gloves that reminded Mark of protective gloves from paintball and they wore rugged looking black boots.
The man sat in the chair had a balaclava pulled down around his neck, his hair scruffy from being covered. Although the man to Mark’s right looked equally relaxed with his posture, leaning with his back to the wall and one leg bent, foot flat on the wall, he seemed intimidating with his face completely covered by a mask, similar to a paintball visor. Adding to the intimidation was the submachine gun that he held across his body. The man in the armchair was resting his right arm on the chair, holding a handgun which was currently pointing towards the floor.
“Hello again Ishaq, I hope you don’t mind us dropping by?”
Ishaq stepped in front of Mark. “Mark, this is Chris. The guy who I spoke to yesterday.” He turned to the figure against the wall, “Is that you Adam?”.
The figure shook their head.
“No,” Chris spoke on the person’s behalf, “That’s Sharky.”
“What do yo want?” Mark cut straight to the point. He stepped towards Chris as he spoke trying not to be aggressive but asserting some dominance. The movement obviously appeared more aggressive than it was meant to be because Chris and Sharky both straightened up and tightened the grip on their guns without raising them.
“Mark? You the leader of the group?”
“We don’t really have a leader, we agree on decisions together.”
Chris tilted his head to the left and pressed a button on his collar, “Adam, Dan?”
It was only then that Mark noticed Chris was wearing an earpiece, he suddenly worried about Helen and Luke’s safety instead of his own.
Outside, a figure stood up out of the bushes next to the car that Luke sat in. He physically jumped as the figure tapped on the glass with an assault rifle. His mind raced with panic and all he could think to do was put his hands up.
“Open the window.” The figure said.
Luke could only see the man’s eyes through the balaclava although most of his attention was fixed on the barrel of the gun.
“Open the window, now.”
Luke was physically shaking and couldn’t stop, his voice quivered as he spoke, “I need to put my hands down.”
“Do it.” The voice replied.
Without taking his eyes off the gun, Luke fumbled around next to him for the window button. The window lowered and the man with the gun took a step back.
“Good. Now, let’s not do anything stupid and let our friends talk things out in there. No one needs to get hurt.”
Luke nodded slowly, clenching his jaw tightly so that his lip didn’t wobble.
Helen heard the voice outside and dashed to the window. She was alarmed to see Luke being held at gun point, all she could think to do was shout.
“Hey!”
The figure next to the car glanced up without taking his gun off Luke, Helen wasn’t sure whether to be worried or relieved for her own safety.
Another figure suddenly appeared at the window, zipping down on a line from above. This figure also had an assault rifle and this one was very definitely aimed at her. The figure hung outside the window, suspended from the waist wearing the same overalls and balaclava as the one threatening Luke.
“Don’t move.”
Helen dropped her axe and held her hands up. She had backed away from the figure and stood in the centre of the room.
“That’s far enough.” Said the figure.
Helen froze. She was quick but didn’t fancy her chances against a bullet if she made a break for cover.
Mark waited nervously, hearing a shout from upstairs. He glanced at Ishaq who was also looking worried.
“Your friends, one outside in a car and the other upstairs. They won’t be harmed as long as they don’t try to attack my friends. Are there any more we should know about?”
Mark shook his head slowly, furious with the man sat in a chair in their safe house holding his friends hostage. He was equally angry at himself for bringing Helen and Luke along and putting them in this position.
“Okay then, back to business. We know you tracked us, why?”
“Because we saw you and we don’t trust you.” Mark spat the words. “Looks like that was good judgement on our part.”
“You don’t trust us?” Chris stood up. “You planted a tracker on our train and sent one of your men to scout us out, lying about what he was doing there, and you don’t trust us?”
“If you found the tracker, why didn’t you say anything when I came to see you?” Ishaq asked.
“We wanted to make sure you weren’t a threat to us.”
“I’d say holding us all at gunpoint is pretty threatening. Are you going to kill us when you’ve interrogated us?” Mark’s anger replaced any fear or apprehension he had about the situation.
“Please, if we wanted to kill you, we would have done it when you first entered the printing warehouse.”
Mark and Ishaq were taken aback.
“What? You think we didn’t know you were there?” Chris asked smugly. “We knew the second you stepped foot in that warehouse. When you came back on your own and walked straight up to the front door we thought you guys weren’t going to be an issue. That, or you were suicidal and stupid.”
Mark felt embarrassed that he had been so sure they had been undetected.
“So you’ll understand why I think it’s rich that you don’t trust us! Especially when we come to your little hideout to find you’ve all bailed in a hurry.”
Mark wasn’t sure how to respond. He realised how bad it looked but wanted to explain that it was okay because they were good people.
Outside, Luke kept his eyes on the gun still pointed at him. The masked person stared ahead, not taking their eyes off Luke.
The focus stopped them paying attention to their surroundings. Even Luke was surprised when a zombie charged out of the bushes behind the figure and clasped one arm over their shoulder, the the other
round their waist. The zombie pulled them back and the figure fell backwards, beneath the view of the window. The grunt of the zombie was drowned out by a few loud shots from the gun, the figure firing wildly through shock.
Luke scrambled across to the passenger seat and looked down to see the figure holding his gun out in front of himself, pressing it into the zombie’s chest and holding it back. It towered over him, looking hungrily at him upside down. Luke wondered what to do, he saw a female zombie emerging from the bushes towards the front of the car so he took his opportunity to get out of the driver’s side and scramble around the back of the vehicle.
The figure hanging in front of the window turned at the sound of his partner’s gunfire. He looked back at Helen who was staring down at the car, trying to see if Luke was still okay. She looked at the figure outside the window and they both paused, waiting to see what the other person was going to do.
The figure at the window released his gun, allowing it to hang around his body and held onto the rope that he hung from. He dropped out of sight in an instant and Helen dashed to the window just in time to see him reach the ground and feed the rope out of the descender.
As he readied his gun and briskly walked towards the car with it raised, Helen made her way down the wall of the house, more hastily than she had ever done before. She leapt the last few feet, drawing the attention of the armoured figure who was now feet from the car. As quickly as he had turned to look at her, he turned back towards the car and fired. A zombie that had stumbled around the front of the car dropped to the floor and stopped moving. He scanned from side to side along the bushes and fired once more, seemingly at nothing until Helen saw another zombie fall to the ground out from the leaves. It began to crawl forwards but the man fired again and blood flew from the zombie’s skull in the same direction that its head snapped back.
“Luke!” Helen shouted. She had lost sight of him since climbing down the wall and feared the worst. She saw his head pop up from the other side of the car, he looked for her as he stumbled backwards, dragging the body of one of the armoured people. She thought the person was dead until she saw him holding a handgun and firing it into the bushes. As she got closer, she could see the figure was injured and there was a lot of blood coming from their leg.
Ridgetown (Book 2): Neighbours Page 14