Ridgetown: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel

by Philip Radford

  Helen turned in her chair to find Dennis stood behind her. The pang of guilt returned for a moment, wondering how long he'd been stood there and if he had been judging her. Again, it quickly disappeared, replaced with a firm resolve that she was doing what needed to be done.

  Dennis was a lot older than Helen, she guessed he was in his mid-to-late fifties. He seemed physically fit but his face betrayed his age with its wrinkles and his hair was a dark grey colour, kept short in an effort to make it look less grey. Helen hadn't known Dennis before any of this and she hadn't found out much about him in the short time she had known him but he had come to her aid when she needed him. It didn't mean she trusted him, she didn't trust anyone, but he had gained her respect.

  "I think so. I haven't seen anyone else on the cameras and he doesn't seem to be shouting for anyone."

  "Is it too late for us to help him?" The inflection in the tone of Dennis' voice hinted that he was disappointed at Helen's decision not to let the stranger go. It made Helen feel lousy, like a scalded child being told that their parents weren't angry with them, just disappointed.

  "There are only two zombies so far. But even if we left now, I don't know how long he could fight them off. He doesn't look like much of a survivor."

  "We have to try Helen, he didn't look very dangerous and he mentioned friends. We're all survivors whether we look like it or not." Helen was intentionally avoiding his eyeline by staring at the floor, making Dennis feel like he was talking to her fringe. "We need all the help we can get and we're only going to do that by making friends."

  Helen felt like she was back at school being told off by a teacher. A few times, she had wondered whether Dennis had been a teacher before any of this. At first she thought he had been in the army because of how he took charge of situations and seemed to command respect, but there was an empathy there that didn't quite have a military feel.

  "I'll get Scott to drive, you get some weapons."

  Helen looked directly at him, "I'm not going as well?" What was meant to come out as a statement, came out as a question.

  Dennis smiled, "Of course you are. You've tried to kill the man, the least you can do is apologise."

  Helen was shocked at the idea of going to rescue someone she had just sprung a trap for, especially at the idea of apologising to him. Despite this, she knew that Dennis was serious about trying to save him and she supposed it made sense. She strode across the landing of the house to the second bedroom where they kept their makeshift weapons. Being in charge of getting weapons, she wanted to make sure they were prepared. Even though this was now a rescue mission, Helen still didn't trust this mystery man and she wanted to make sure that they were ready incase this man's 'friends' didn't turn out to be friendly at all.

  She clicked the button to transmit again and sighed very loudly, "Try to stay alive, we're coming."

  Chapter Two

  Scott was eager to get out on the roads again. It sounded strange that he wanted to be outside rather than being in the relative safety of the house. Although it had proved quite safe, whenever Scott spent any extended period inside the house, he began to feel restless, nearly claustrophobic. At least when he was outside, he got an idea of what the situation was like and how bad the area had got.

  The house was well barricaded, he couldn't deny that, but it worried him that anything could be happening outside and he wouldn't know about it apart from what they saw on the cameras. There could be streets filled with zombies but it could look like they were pretty clear from the cameras. By being outside, he also felt free to escape to wherever he wanted, not tied down to one place he had to defend.

  Scott had always thought of himself as an outside type of person. He loved playing outside when he was a kid, going for walks with his parents and going camping with his friends when he was older. As he grew up, that passion for being outside turned into a sense of exploration. He travelled whenever he could and loved to hike and climb mountains. He never really considered himself a loner, he had some great friends, but he definitely had no problem with only having himself for company.

  When things started to change and the population of the country was suddenly eating each other, things he had learnt whilst camping and hiking suddenly turned into essential survival skills. He'd found himself climbing whatever he could to get out of the reach of extended arms. He'd hidden in an abandoned farm building and slept in the rafters of an old shed, securing himself on a beam using some old rope he had scavenged, something he had done a couple of times whilst rock climbing.

  These things had kept him alive on his own and he couldn't help but feel that being on his own was something else that had kept him alive. He didn't currently have a partner and his father had died a couple of years ago, his mum a year before that. He had a few relatives that he wasn't too close to, same with friends and colleagues from work. He obviously tried contacting people when things started to go wrong but didn't have any luck. Quickly, he had to concentrate on surviving rather than trying to track down other people.

  He'd met Helen and Dennis when they had spent a night in the old barn. He awoke to their hushed voices. They hadn't seen him, he didn't really blame them because he'd chosen the darkest corner to hide in and he was quite high up. They had seemed pretty approachable the moment he'd noticed them but he stayed quiet and listened to them for half an hour before announcing his presence. Helen had become aggressive but Dennis had been more open and invited Scott to join them for something to eat. More than an invite, they needed Scott's help to start a fire, something that was easy for Scott but was proving impossible for Dennis and Helen who only had a broken lighter between them.

  Dennis had offered to share some of their food, much to Helen's displeasure. Scott had politely refused and got out some of his own. They scavenged together the next day and used the barn as a place to stay for the night again, climbing hay bales to use as elevated beds. That pattern continued for a couple of days and when Dennis and Helen decided to move on and look for somewhere warmer to stay, Dennis had asked Scott if he wanted to join them. Helen hadn't sounded enthusiastic about him joining them but her lack of hostility had been as good as a blessing. That had been a couple of months ago and they had bonded as a trio with Scott realising how much he did actually enjoy company when he had it as well as how much safer he felt.

  He grabbed the keys to the truck and headed upstairs to check the cameras for any activity around the building.

  The substation wasn't far from the house, they could walk there reasonably quickly but they didn't know how many zombies would have been attracted by the alarm so they needed to be prepared for anything. The house was the last in a block of terraced houses that bordered fields leading up to a canal. It was quite unassuming and out of the way, making it perfect for them to hide relatively under the radar of any hostile groups roaming the area.

  The road that the house was on ended abruptly and became a dirt road that led to more fields. It looked like the surrounding area was going to be used for housing development, something that was never going to happen in this new world. The surrounding fields allowed them to see relatively far into the distance in that direction allowing them to assess whether it was a good direction to head if they had to quickly evacuate.

  They had two vehicles outside, a small Japanese hatchback and a larger pick-up truck. They loaded into the truck, Scott and Helen getting in the front while Dennis sat in the back. Helen always offered to ride in the back but Dennis insisted on her going in the front, she couldn't tell if it was an act of chivalry or simply that he preferred to ride in the back.

  Scott had welded two seats onto the back of the pickup so that two people could strap themselves in safely should they need to drive quickly or over rugged terrain. It also meant they could unclip themselves and exit the vehicle without having to compromise opening the driver or passenger door.

  The truck was for runs like this. It was what they used if they wanted something tough that they could drive
over and through things as well as being able to make a quick getaway. The hatchback was for more stealthy missions. Scott had added insulation to the engine bay of it and an extra section to the silencer making it as quiet as possible. It had been stripped out for convenience and extra room but was still quite slow. The hatchback was used when they wanted to be quiet and its slowness was due to the small engine that made it economical. Petrol was something that no one wanted to be relying on too much.

  The group barely spoke as they got into the truck. They'd briefly discussed the plan as they were getting ready but they wouldn't know how bad things were until they got there. The plan was to rescue the stranger if he was still okay, if not, they were going to secure the substation as best they could. It was still valuable to them as they attempted to make contact with other survivors and assess the scale of what was going on.

  As they set off, Dennis thought about what they were heading into. He didn't blame Helen for what she had done but it was something he considered an overreaction. He could tell that she still had real problems trusting people and it made him sad. He could see that Scott was a trustworthy person but Helen was still quite guarded around him. He felt flattered that she trusted him but also an overwhelming responsibility for her. He felt like it was his job to show her that she could trust people and knew just how delicate her trust in him was. He wondered whether some of her skepticism about trusting random people was rubbing off on him because he didn't necessarily think that sounding the alarm was the wrong thing to do, just maybe something that had been blown out of proportion on this occasion.

  It was for precisely that reason that he had decided they needed to try and save this man. He needed to show Helen that they had to care about other people and that other people were important. He prayed that this person turned out to be friendly. If they were, maybe they could all be introduced to more likeminded people. They could only survive as a trio for so long, they needed other people to survive. Dennis couldn't explain why he had a positive feeling about this random survivor, he just did. He'd had the same feeling about Helen and Scott and he hadn't been wrong. Maybe he was doing this for himself as much as Helen but he felt that whoever it was for, it was important that he did it.

  They saw the first zombie before they saw the substation, it was badly decomposed and struggling to walk. It wasn't even clear whether it used to be male or female. Scott slowed down and drove as close to the zombie as possible, Dennis unbuckled himself and leant slightly over the side of the truck. The creature raised its arms slowly towards him in a pitiful attempt at grabbing him, Dennis held a short handled axe in his right arm and with one swoop, dispatched it with a sickening blow to the skull.

  Scott sped up slightly and followed the path stopping at the peak of the hill. From here they could see the building, a few figures shambling around outside but otherwise quiet. Dennis hopped out from the back of the truck and cursed silently at the pain in his knees when he landed, his body reminding him that he wasn't as young as he felt anymore. He tapped on the driver's window and Scott wound it down.

  "Turn the truck around and make sure it's ready for a quick getaway if we need it."

  Scott nodded and wound the window back up. He turned the truck round and pulled up on the edge of the path where it ended and the adjoining field began. He and Helen got out and put their backpacks on.

  They all went out with the same gear so that it didn't matter who picked up which stuff. Each of them took a backpack and an identical, short handled axe that had been taken from a DIY store when they had been collecting supplies for reinforcing the house's defences. Despite being described on the shelf as a short handled axe, the handle was long enough for a person to hold with two hands and wield like an Olympic hammer throw. The backpacks were practically empty. They each had a torch, a bottle of water, a pozi head screwdriver and a roll of duct tape. Each item from the eclectic mix had proved its usefulness more than once on previous missions although the main reason for the backpacks was for collecting supplies. Even though they weren't expecting to find anything useful, due to them leaving the substation bare from their previous visit, there was still the possibility of finding some useful things and being able to carry supplies hands-free could quite literally save lives.

  The only difference between them was that Helen always carried a small, four inch knife in a sheath above her ankle. She had never used it, always managing to stay out of situations that required anything more than the axe she carried, but Helen had been carrying it for so long that she felt vulnerable without it. There was something reassuring about knowing that if she had to drop everything and run, she would still have something to defend herself with.

  They slowly headed down the crest of the hill towards the building. They left the truck pointing in the direction they would be leaving for speed incase a quick getaway was needed. They left it unlocked for the same reason.

  It was strange how unnatural it felt to walk away from a vehicle knowing that it had been left unlocked but it was something that Dennis had rationalised to the others as being the best thing to do. He had argued that the world was a different place now, that people didn't follow the same rules that they did before. There weren't a lot of people left walking around to worry about stealing their truck anyway, but anyone who wanted it wouldn't be put off by a locked door anymore. They themselves had taken vehicles by simply smashing windows to gain entry, locks didn't have the same gravitas as they did before. A locked door used to mean, 'keep out or you will be in trouble' but now it meant 'whatever is behind here could save your life'. Also, they had yet to witness a zombie opening a car door and getting inside. Dennis had summed up by hypothesising a scenario that had been in so many horror films; A person is being chased, they make it to the relative safety of their car, in their panicked state they fumble with the car keys and drop them on the floor, maybe even knocking them under the vehicle. Person gets eaten.

  It was hard to argue the logic, even though he was citing low budget horror movies, so now they always left it open, for safety's sake.

  They practically sneaked up on the closest zombie to them, Scott being only a few feet away as it eventually turned round. Before it could make a sound, he dashed the last few feet between them and buried the axe in the top of its head. The zombie was more decomposed than Scott was expecting and the axe caved its skull in easily, fragmenting like a shell being cracked on the rim of a mug. It fell to the ground without having let out a moan.

  The three of them sped up and covered the last twenty metres to the building quickly. They could hear the occasional moan coming from inside, travelling through the doorless corridors but nothing that indicated too many creatures. They stayed cautious and quiet, sticking to a routine they had used many times before. Dennis motioned with his hand for Scott to go inside, keeping his eyes peeled as best he could. Helen kept her back to the pair, looking out for anything trying to sneak up on them.

  Scott was only out of sight for half a minute before appearing at the doorway, waving them to come in. As they huddled together he held up three fingers clearly to both of them, he held his hand out in front of him in a handshake position with his fingers together indicating he meant straight down the corridor. He then bent his fingers at a right angle to indicate the room to the left of the corridor.

  Dennis and Helen nodded that they understood; Three zombies in the room down the corridor on the left.

  The building was quiet apart from an eerie methodic banging against thin metal and the occasional moan. The three moved as silently as they could towards the room, Scott dashed to the other side of the doorway while Dennis and Helen stayed on the near side. They all peeked inside where three zombies had gathered around an air vent and one was slapping his hands against it.

  Dennis pointed at himself and the middle zombie, then at Helen and the zombie to its left and at Scott and the zombie on the right. They all nodded and stared at each other to indicate they understood. Dennis held his fist up between t
hem and counted.

  On three they dashed inside, Helen and Scott bashing each of their zombies in the head with their respective weapons. The third zombie turned around, distracted by the commotion. It had barely rotated all the way before Dennis smashed the handle of his axe into its temple. It crumpled to the floor and Dennis bent down, bringing the blade of the axe down with him and driving it into the zombie's skull. The kills were quick and clean, the axes cutting cleanly into the brains of the zombies and causing severe trauma. None of the three zombies would be getting up again.

  The three survivors turned their attention to the vent that the zombies had been drawn to. Dennis and Helen stepped back, raising their weapons while Scott took a cautious step forward. The vent had a cover over it that was large enough for a human to squeeze into, although not very comfortably.

  The lack of blood around the control room and the zombie's interest in the vent made it likely that their new friend was packed inside like a sardine. Scott dug his fingers behind a corner of the vent cover and steadied himself. He looked at Dennis, who nodded, and tore the vent off.

  Revealing nothing inside.

  The three of them stared at the empty vent confused, there was nowhere else the intruder could have been. He definitely wasn't dead because none of the zombies had been feeding, there was no body, plus they were definitely interested in the vent.

  The cover to the vent was actually the end of the ventilation system, designed to blow cooling air onto the surrounding hardware. It didn't stretch below ground and the only other direction was straight up.

  Helen had trouble believing that the slightly chubby gentleman on the camera had managed to squeeze into the vent to begin with, there was no way he could crawl vertically up an aluminium vent and into the maze of air conditioning that snaked around the ceiling.

  Scott had taken his torch out of his bag and hesitantly approached the opening, illuminating the way with the powerful beam. He dipped his head inside and instantly pulled it back out, waiting to see or hear if anything moved. After a few moments of silence, he stuck his head into the opening again, this time shining the torch upwards and leaning in to investigate properly. He looked back at Dennis and Helen and shrugged his shoulders. They both looked as mystified as he did.