Ridgetown (Book 2): Neighbours

by Philip Radford

  Chapter 9

  “Keep your speed steady and keep focused on your surroundings.”

  Gaz kept repeating a steady mantra of positive statements and advice to keep Jack calm and alert while he was driving.

  Jack knew how to drive and had been capable of driving before the world changed. As far back as he could remember, Jack had memories of watching Formula One with his dad. He liked watching the cars going fast and he liked how excited his dad got when something unexpected happened.

  Only too happy to feed his son’s interest in motorsport, Jack’s dad bought him a toy car that he could be pushed around in before he could walk properly. That was replaced with one that had pedals when he got a bit older. When he was too big for that, Jack got a proper go-cart. As he got older and beginning to enjoy Formula One himself, Jack asked more and more questions about how the cars were so fast and how they could stop so quickly. When his dad couldn’t answer, they would look together using the internet. On a seaside holiday one year, an eight year old Jack had a go on a petrol go-cart and fell in love with the speed. He pestered his father to get him one but they were both told no by Jack’s mother who was horrified at the thought of her son with a petrol powered engine.

  Eager to help his son continue his passion, Jack’s dad found the world of banger racing, named after the state of the cars used. People could bring whatever car they wanted that fitted into the specifics of the category, and race them round an improvised track. Needless to say, cars got bashed, rules were quite relaxed and because it was always held on private land, drivers weren’t required to hold a full driving licence. Jack and his dad became regulars to the events, watching as many as they could and getting to know the people on the circuit.

  There was a minimum age bracket of 12 years old and as soon as Jack reached it, he was pestering his dad for a car of their own. They bought a second-hand, two door, small engined hatchback (which were usually already fourth or fifth hand by that point) and Jack’s dad taught him how to drive. They found a club that taught young people how to race rather than how to drive and Jack did his best to become a professional racer. He was rubbish and consistently came near the back but he enjoyed every minute of it and so was his dad.

  The streets of Ridgetown were very different to the tracks of banger racing and the van felt different to the tiny hatchback he was used to driving. Jack was driving slowly, something that didn’t come come naturally. Each time he changed gears, the shift was quite jerky because he was used to changing gear at high revs. Gaz tried to stifle a smirk at the speed Jack grabbed the gear stick to change gears and then snapped it back onto the steering wheel, something that was obviously burned into his memory. Since leaving the Ridgetown estate, Jack was starting to relax and the driving was becoming smoother but being in unfamiliar territory in such a big vehicle made it hard for Jack to fully calm down.

  “Rubber duck, this is hotdog. Are you receiving?”

  The voice coming over the radio startled Jack and he swerved the van slightly. He immediately felt foolish and cursed under his breath.

  “Don’t worry,” said Gaz. “I’ll get it. You just concentrate on driving.”

  Jack nodded without taking his eyes off the road, still annoyed at himself for being surprised by the radio.

  Gaz leaned forward and picked up the handset, flopping back into his seat and putting a foot up on the dashboard. He pressed the button to reply to Ridgetown. “This is the Enterprise. Please stick to appropriate protocol while we teach the rookie.” He lowered the handset and addressed Jack, “No offence.”

  “None taken.” He replied, still keeping his eyes on the road.

  “Apologies Enterprise. This is Ridgetown, we’ve just had contact with Blue team and they say the surrounding area is clear for your arrival.”

  “That’s received Ridgetown.”

  Gaz put the receiver back on the radio and looked at Jack. He still gripped the steering wheel tightly and sat forward in his seat.

  “Follow this road around and turn right at the end. We’re nearly there.”

  Jack nodded his head, eyes still wide as he looked around for any potential threats.

  Gaz could see how highly strung he was and wondered wether he’d made the correct decision to bring him along. He then thought about how much the world had changed and that keeping people in comfortable situations was a luxury no-one could afford anymore. Jack had survived the attack on Ridgetown and was handling being outside for the first time since then quite well. Keeping him inside the walls might have been doing him more harm than good in the long run. Gaz wondered how many more people in the estate would be suffering from the same problem, staying on the estate to stay safe but becoming reliant on it. He wondered how healthy that actually was for the community and decided it was something he needed to speak to Mark about when they got back.

  “Okay, there’s The Outpost. Instead of parking outside…”

  “Turn around first so that we’re already facing the direction we would want to go if we needed to leave in a hurry.” Jack cut Gaz off, reciting the advice he had heard so many times before.

  Gaz smiled, satisfied that people were listening to advice and it wasn’t just falling on deaf ears.

  By the time they had turned round, Mark and the others were making their way down the outside of the building. Gaz noted the surprise on Mark’s face when he saw Jack driving. Jack was grinning. Gaz decided the trip out had been good for him.

  “I didn’t expect to see you out here.” Said Mark. He sounded pleased but gave Gaz a questionable stare.

  “Gaz let me come out. Said it would be a good way to ease me into some field experience.”

  Mark raised his eyebrows and stuck his bottom lip out. Gaz liked it when he did that. It usually meant he was stumped for an answer.

  “Can’t argue with that.” He said.

  Gaz felt smug.

  Ishaq opened the back doors to the van and climbed in, closely followed by Luke and Helen.

  The back of the van was constantly being renovated. Its current state was quite bare. It had recently been used by Red team to clear out a group of zombies about half a mile North of the gates. Luke had been keeping an eye on them with his drone for a couple of days and the group didn’t seem to be moving on. It became more of a concern as the group began to increase in size. The decision was made to wipe them out before the mob grew any bigger.

  Red team jumped at the chance. Every so often, they enjoyed taking their anger out on a group of zombies without having to balance it with stealth. Raiding was so important to Ridgetown’s survival that instances like this were rare. There was also a difference between being on the receiving end of a swarm and going out looking for a fight.

  As well as helping Red team burn off a few calories, the thought of a mob growing to the size of the last attack was making people on the estate nervous. People were scared. Luke followed Red team with his drone and filmed their attack. It was a nice piece of positive publicity. Something hard to come by in the circumstances.

  Mark had been the driver so that all of Red team could concentrate on fighting. The three men had sat in the back of the van on two benches that had been crudely welded onto the floorpan. Mo and Gaz sat on one side facing Idris who took up most of the space on the other. The three of them were wearing full body armour that enhanced their already menacing physiques.

  The van was one of the vehicles fitted with a 2-meter band amateur radios before the phones had been able to make online phone calls. It was reliable which made it something that stayed even with the progress being made.

  Picking the group up from The Outpost, the van managed to fit everyone in relatively comfortably. Mark was able to stand behind the two front seats and talk to Gaz and Jack. He held onto the headrests tightly, ready to sit back down if the road looked like it could get turbulent.

  He relayed the events at The Outpost in more detail than he had earlier. He talked through his perspective, giving a balanced view of
the mercenaries. Gaz could hear the indecisiveness in his voice as he described the other survivors.

  “You sound like you’re defending them.” Said Gaz.

  “I’m not defending them.” Mark hesitated. “I’m just not any wiser as to what they’re up to or whether they’re a threat to us.”

  “Even though they held you all at gunpoint?”

  “It wasn’t like that.” Mark protested.

  “It definitely was like that.” Said Helen.

  Mark turned and gave her a look of frustration.

  “At the end of the day, we went looking for them. We tracked them. Sent Ishaq in to investigate and blatantly lied to them. They knew Ishaq was lying but treated him fairly and let him go unharmed. Then they lost a member of their team while they were trying to get answers from us.”

  “And holding us at gunpoint.” Said Helen.

  “Forget the whole gunpoint thing!” Mark snapped, looking back over his shoulder at her but not making eye contact.

  Helen stood up and pushed him from behind. “No I will not!”

  Ishaq closed his eyes. An argument between Helen and Mark could get heated at the best of times. An enclosed space was not the ideal setting for one.

  “Listen, you might get guns pointed in your face all the time so maybe its no big deal. But I literally spent the entire time staring at the barrel thinking I was going to die. Right then. At any moment. So maybe you can forget about it but I can’t.”

  Mark didn’t attempt to argue back. He looked at Luke’s solemn face and knew that she had just described how he felt as well. He’d been so bothered about what these other people thought about them that he hadn’t thought about how the rest of his team felt. Empathy was important to Mark. He felt like it made him a good person. A good leader. His guilt burned inside him as the silence hung in the van like a mist.

  “I’m sorry.” He said. “Sometimes I overlook how you guys are doing and that’s not fair.”

  “It’s okay.” Luke said quietly.

  “No, it’s not. I need to get back to who’s important.” He shook his head. “I’ve not even asked how things are going back at the estate.”

  Jack spoke up, eager to change the mood in the van. “We’re doing good. Green team have been doing great on their raids. They’ve been going out as much as they can, couple of times a day.”

  “Yeah, Zack mentioned they were busy. Any injuries?” Mark asked.

  “No.” said Gaz. “I was worried they were gonna tire themselves out but they’ve been fine. They’re being really careful as well. They’re actually going to check out the store that you told Zack about.”

  Mark twitched like he’d been pinched awake from a daydream. “What?”

  “Zack said you’d told him about a store that hadn’t been looted so they were going to recon the area and bring some stuff back.”

  Mark thought it was a conversation he’d forgotten about for a minute. “I never mentioned a store to him.”

  Gaz was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of dread. Zack hadn’t talked like he’d been mistaken and Gaz had never known him to lie before. “He said it was towards the industrial estate where you found the train but said they’d give that side a clear birth.”

  Mark’s brow became more prominent and Gaz got the feeling that something was very wrong.

  Gaz grabbed his phone from his pocket and Mark did the same, sitting in the back next to Luke. They both tried calling different members of Green team but neither of them got a response.

  “No one’s answering.” Gaz called to Mark.

  “I’m sending messages to contact one of us immediately, you keep trying to call.”

  “What’s going on?” Asked Luke.

  “I don’t know but I don’t like it. We should be able to get a response from someone, wherever they are.”

  “Why don’t you try tracking their vehicle?” Jack asked.

  Mark stood back up. “That’s a good idea.” He turned to Luke. “Can you do that before we get back to Ridgetown?”

  “Yeah, all the vehicles are LoJacked.” Luke responded whilst digging his own phone out of his pocket.

  “Good thinking.” Mark said to Jack. “This field trip might be doing more good than I thought.”

  “Oh, it’s not being out here. I got the idea from Eleanor. She showed me how to do it earlier.”

  “She was born to be a teacher, that woman.” Ishaq commented.

  “Yeah, she showed me while she was looking for Ryan’s old car.”

  Everyone in the car stopped what they were doing and looked at each other.

  Gaz sat up in his seat. “Jack. When was this?”

  Jack suddenly looked sheepish, worried he had gotten Eleanor into trouble.

  “It was just before Green team left on their raid.” He said.

  The realisation hit everyone immediately.

  “Jack, when you reach the dual carriageway, I want you to turn left instead of right.” Said Mark.

  Jack nodded quickly. He sucked on his bottom lip with a concerned look on his face. Mark was about to speak to Luke when he noticed.

  “Hey, don’t worry. You’ve not done anything wrong. I’ve just got a feeling that Eleanor and the others are going to try and help us but might make things worse. They’re doing what they thinks right but they could get hurt.”

  “She didn’t tell me it was a secret.”

  “No, she probably didn’t want you to worry about getting them into trouble. They don’t know the whole situation, you might have just saved their lives.”

  Not convinced he had made Jack feel any better but hoping he had, Mark addressed Luke. “How long will it take you to find their location?”

  “Already got it.” Luke beamed. “This close to the transmitter, the signal’s nice and strong. Looks like the vehicle is stopped by the side of the road past the turning for the industrial estate where the train ended up.”

  “Maybe they did go to a store after all?” Jack said optimistically.

  “Maybe.” replied Mark, more to calm him rather than agreeing with him. He turned to Ishaq, Luke and Helen. “You guys ready for this?”

  “Definitely.” confirmed Ishaq.

  Helen and Luke both nodded silently. Mark couldn’t judge whether any hesitance was due to worrying about Green team or at the thought of facing Chris and his group again.

  “Jack, we’re gonna stick to the dual carriageway and keep an eye out for their truck. Once we see it, I want you to pull over and let us out. When we’re out, turn the van around and you and Gaz wait for our signal. It will either be to pick us up or go back to Ridgetown without us.”

  “I’ll go with you.” said Gaz.

  “We can all go.” answered Jack

  “No.” Mark interrupted. “We need someone to stay with the van and be ready to leave incase it’s a bit of a hot extraction. Plus Gaz, I’d prefer someone stayed with Jack while he’s not familiar with coming out here.”

  “I can look after myself.”

  Mark sighed, he’d expected a response like that. “I didn’t say you couldn’t. I just want you to be able to concentrate on being ready to go and being in contact with us while Gaz can keep an eye on your surroundings. He knows the kind of things to look out for and what to be aware of.” He re-addressed the others. “What equipment do we have?”

  “Just what we came out with. Phones, weapons and you guys with your armour.” Replied Helen.

  “There are a couple of bows in the back under the seats.” Gaz shouted from the front.

  Luke reached under his seat and pulled out a modern looking compound bow and quiver of arrows. Ishaq found a similar looking but slightly more worn bow under his own.

  “That’s good but there’s only really Helen who can use one properly.”

  “I can shoot.” said Jack, “Eleanor taught me how.”

  “We need you to stay with the van.”

  “I’ve had a few lessons.” Said Luke hesitantly.

  “Confide
nt enough to use it in a live fire situation?” Mark asked.

  Luke looked at the ground, “Probably not.”

  “Helen, take one with you incase we need a ranged fighter. Jack, you keep the other one to protect yourselves and the van with.”

  The suggestion seemed to lighten Jack’s mood, making him feel a more important part of the plan. His shoulders loosened as he kept his eyes on the road.

  “I’m still not getting an answer from anyone’s phones.” Luke added.

  “Okay, we’re gonna have to play this by ear. Let’s look at what we know. Or what we think we know.” He corrected. “Luke, instead of tracking Green team, try to track the vehicle that Chris and the others took earlier. We have to assume that they’ve gone rogue and are trying to get Ryan’s vehicle back. Hopefully we’ll spot their vehicle from the road and we’ll be able to follow the most direct route from their vehicle to Ryan’s. If we’re lucky, they’ll be taking their time and we won’t be far behind them.”

  “What do we do when we find them?” Ishaq asked.

  “That’ll depend on the situation we find them in. If the other group don’t know they’re there, we’ll try to meet up with them and get everyone back to the main road without being seen. We’ll have a chat about the whole thing when we get back to Ridgetown.”

  “And if they’re already… busy?” Asked Gaz.

  Mark looked round at Gaz and up to the road through the windscreen. “We’ll just have to see when we get there.”

  “The vehicle’s parked just inside the compound, we’ll need to get over the fence.” Zack kept his voice low despite the group not seeing any signs of life, or walking death, since leaving the main road.

  Green team were concealed in the bushes at the edge of the tree line. A group of buildings lay in front of them.

  “Let’s go into this one. See if we can get a decent view from overhead.” Zack gestured towards the warehouse that towered over them. The red brick building was dark inside and it was impossible to see what lay in wait for them but a sign above the double doors at the rear stated it belonged to a printing company.