Ridgetown: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel

by Philip Radford

  "You're a pair of morons!"

  He heard Allister and Mark laugh like school kids as Allister started the truck. They set off and Luke sat on the bed of the truck, clicking a makeshift seatbelt around his waist and holding onto an old drawer handle that had been screwed on to the body of the truck. Luke grinned to himself as he thought about what Ishaq had told Allister, he grinned because it was true.

  They headed out to one of the first areas they had been to that morning. It was around ten minutes drive at a reasonably slow pace meaning that Luke didn't have to hold on too tightly. As they drove Luke looked down as many side streets as he could, constantly on the look out for trouble, never taking his eyes off the pile of bodies for too long. One thing Luke had learned from Mark was never to take the safety of your surroundings for granted, 'No-where's ever really safe', something that had been proven time and time again.

  The truck bounced as it went over debris in the road, or a body, causing one of the corpse's arms to fall free and dangle off the side of the flat bed. Luke stared at it, making sure that the only movement was coming from the vibration of the truck.

  Staying mindful of his surroundings, he looked up the next side street to his left. As they passed he saw a woman running down the street towards them, at first he thought she was a zombie but there was something human about the way she moved. He was so used to seeing figures shambling or stumbling around the streets that someone moving quickly and staying upright stood out as different.

  Luke banged on the glass window of the truck behind him, "Hey, there was someone back there! We need to go back!" He shouted loudly so they would hear him.

  Without questioning Luke, Allister slammed the brakes on and brought the truck to a halt. He instantly threw it into reverse and started backing up, leaning out of the driver's window to give himself a better view due to Luke blocking most of the rearview mirror.

  As they approached the side street, Luke called for Allister to slow down. The figure was quite far away but it was definitely human, she saw the truck and continued running. The three of them stared from the truck, Luke was about to shout before he was cut off by a gun shot. Mark and Luke ducked at the sound, Allister instinctively shifted the truck into first gear ready to make a getaway if the shots were aimed towards them. It wouldn't be the first time they had been lured into helping someone only to find it was a trap. This however, seemed different.

  The woman cried as she ran and at the sound of the gunshot, looked towards one of the houses she passed. Another two gunshots sounded in quick succession and the woman let out a scream. Luke surmised that someone she knew was inside battling zombies while she fled. He unfastened himself and held out his arms in a gesture so she understood he would help her aboard the truck.

  Suddenly, a window from the house exploded into hundreds of fragments of glass and a shape leapt out onto the road. The woman screamed again, clearly aware of what was behind her, she ran faster towards the truck without looking back.

  The zombie that had landed on the street was big, really big. Luke wondered if the human had been an obsessed bodybuilder who had been injecting himself with steroids or human growth hormones, he had never seen anyone as muscular, never mind a zombie in such shape. Both its clothing and flesh were torn, the clothing ragged and the skin ripped, exposing the muscle tissue bursting through. Even from the other end of the street, the creature was the unmistakable dark red colour of something that had been feeding and clawing through flesh.

  "Run!" Luke wasn't sure why he even shouted. The woman was running as quickly as she could and clearly knew the thing was behind her.

  The zombie stood still as it watched her run, it hunched forward as if its large shoulders altered its centre of balance. The outwards movement of its arms exaggerated its slow heavy breathing. Luke had never seen a zombie pause before when it could see a human, they were always like liquid, constantly moving trying to reach their meal. Seeing this one stand still sent a shiver down Luke's spine, it was like the creature was thinking about what it was going to do next and that was a terrifying notion.

  After a couple of seconds watching, the zombie took two slow, heavy steps towards the woman before launching itself into the air. Luke watched in a horrified awe as it rose what looked like twenty feet in the air, covering the distance between itself and the woman. It sailed back towards the ground and Luke knew exactly where it was going to land.

  The woman noticed the shadow growing round her and looked up over her shoulder. The creature landed on her with such force that her body crumpled beneath it like she had been hit by a train.

  Luke felt sick and wasn't sure whether he had actually heard the crunch of her bones beneath the zombie's feet or whether he had imagined it.

  The zombie pinned the woman's corpse down with its hands and feet and drove its face into what was left of the neck of its victim. It looked like a wolf or a lion as it tore strips from its kill and chewed on what it tore off. It looked up at the truck, which was a distance equal to what it had just jumped, and stared just as it had done before it had leapt at the woman.

  "Go." Luke didn't take his eyes off the zombie as he whispered to Allister. He slowly backed up towards where he sat, feeling behind him for the seatbelt instead of taking his eyes off the zombie.

  Allister slowly disengaged the handbrake and waited for Luke to get close to his seat. He didn't want to speed off and have Luke fall over the edge, something told him that they were about to start driving very quickly. As he saw Luke sit down, he slowly feathered the throttle and released the clutch hoping the smooth movement wouldn't attract too much attention from the creature. Having reversed down the road moments ago, Allister knew there was nothing in front of him so felt comfortable keeping his eyes on the zombie as they set off. He felt like the zombie would make a move towards them as soon as he took his eyes off it, comparing it to tigers he had seen in nature programs who would attack a human if they turned their back on it.

  The zombie watched the truck hesitantly start to move down the road and stood upright as it did. Luke's eyes widened as he watched it take two slow and heavy steps towards them, just as it had done moments earlier.

  "Go! Go! Go!" He shouted, not caring about attracting attention anymore.

  Allister was already flooring the accelerator, recognising the methodical steps forward just as Luke had done. The tires screeched as the truck struggled to get traction before jerking the truck forwards.

  As the truck sped up, the zombie launched itself into the air again. It howled as it did and Mark instantly recognised it as the sound he had heard the night before when he had been making a stand against the horde with Helen.

  Luke's eyes widened as he watched the zombie soar towards him in the air and realised it was going to hit the truck. Time seemed to slow as it came closer, its arms outstretched with its fingers bent like claws. Luke noticed how prominent its veins were, creating a pattern of black and dark blue lines all over what he could see of its skin. Its tatty clothes were little more than a short sleeved shirt and long shorts that came below the creature's knees.

  As it came within a few feet of landing on the truck, Luke was jerked back into reality as Allister violently swerved the truck. Luke grabbed onto the seatbelt that he had hastily connected around his waist and before he could adjust his weight properly, the truck violently swerved again, further in the same direction. Luke watched as the zombie crashed into the road where the truck had been and ragdolled into a car that had been abandoned at the side of the road. The impact crumpled the car's door inwards and for a second the zombie didn't move.

  Before Luke could wonder if it was dead, it hopped to its feet and instantly began running towards the truck. The speed of it was mind blowing to Luke. He guessed they were doing at least thirty miles an hour and the creature was matching their speed. He heard noise behind him to his right and looked through the window to see Mark winding down his passenger window and readying a rifle he carried with him. He leaned bac
kwards out of the window and gave Luke a smug grin.

  "Don't worry," he shouted over the noise of the truck and the wind rushing over him, "I got this!" He gave Luke the biggest smile he could and brought the rifle up, looking through the scope.

  Luke had seen Mark practice with a few different rifles, BB-Guns and paintball guns they had found over the months. Whenever he was lining up what seemed to be an impossible shot, a wave of calmness would come over him. Mark would enter a zone where nothing could distract him, Luke had seen Allister and the others try to put him off by shouting or dropping things to try to divert his attention but it never worked. Luke thought he did it by concentrating on his breathing, noticing how he would slow it down to the point of holding his breath. Now he watched Mark hanging out of a moving truck, focusing on some kind of super zombie with his rifle and he looked calmer than ever. For a few seconds, Mark was completely rigid apart from the wind blowing his hair.

  Mark fired and the recoil from the rifle jerked his shoulder. Luke's attention switched from Mark to the zombie at the sound of the gunshot. He looked just in time to see the bullet tear through an area around its neck and jaw. Blood and chunks of mouth flew into the air and the creature was thrown completely off balance, spinning it three hundred and sixty degrees. Without missing a beat and now missing half of its face, the creature continued running towards them. Then it began to speed up.

  Luke shot his glance back to Mark whose grin had turned into a stunned expression. Mark blinked repeatedly and looked between Luke and the zombie that was still chasing them.

  "Faster!" He shouted, practically singing each syllable. "We need to go faster..." He quickly shuffled back into the truck and Luke heard him saying something to Allister in a hurried and panicked voice. The truck began to speed up but as it did, so did the zombie.

  Luke didn't know what to do but felt like sitting there and doing nothing would end with him getting eaten. He looked at the pile of corpses in front of him and decided a bad idea was better than no idea.

  He unfastened his belt and got up from his seat, instantly deciding it would be safer if he crawled on his hands and knees. He could hear Mark shouting something from the front of the truck but couldn't make out what he was saying. Luke was terrified of falling off the truck and breaking his legs, lying on the road unable to move while that thing got closer to him. He shook the thought from his head and concentrated on his current task, Mark had told him multiple times that it was okay to get scared. Being scared kept you alert as long as you didn't let it control you and the best way to do that was to concentrate on the task at hand. Mark said that the bravest people got scared but headed into danger anyway, that was what made them brave. At that moment, Luke would have traded being the bravest person in the world to stop feeling so terrified.

  Luke crawled towards the corpses and looked for the strap furthest from him. He knew he was going to have to crawl over the bodies and looked at the arm that had fallen free earlier. He started to panic as he imagined crawling over them and one not being dead, grabbing at him and biting him. He tried not to think about it, he looked at the zombie that was still matching the speed of the truck and didn't look like it was getting tired.

  Luke's breathing got quicker and shallower, he was panicking and it was going to get him killed. Before he could think about it any further, he forced himself to climb over the bodies. Almost instantly, he could reach the strap that was furthest from him. He grabbed the brass handle and squeezed it, loosening the strap and pulled it back to release it fully.

  He let out a yelp as the corpses beneath him shifted at the release of tension holding them down, suddenly panicking they would release and he would fall off with them. He quickly backed up onto the bed of the truck and grabbed the handle for the second strap that held the bodies down. He had barely released the tension when the first corpse fell free from the truck, hitting the road and bouncing a couple of times. The zombie chasing them managed to sidestep it without falling but slowed down doing so.

  Encouraged by the effect of one falling corpse, Luke pulled hard on the handle and released the second strap. The movement of the truck caused the bodies to slowly move closer to the edge of the flat bed and Luke barely had to push the top few bodies to create a chain reaction that saw them all tumble off the back.

  Each corpse acted independently and erratically, bouncing in different directions and at different speeds onto the road. The chasing zombie jumped over the first two but caught its leg on another. It stumbled before being struck by another and was spun around, not even seeing another corpse strike it square in the back, sending it sprawling onto the ground. It became indistinguishable amongst the pile of corpses as the truck sped away. Luke assumed Allister and Mark had seen what had happened but was happy to sit back in his seat on the back of the truck and put some distance between them and the super zombie before they discussed what exactly that thing was and where the hell it had come from. Relief temporarily washed over him as he slumped down and Luke couldn't help but feel proud of himself. His plan had just potentially saved all their lives. He thought about how he would tell Helen later, or even better, let the others tell Helen about his bravery. No one needed to know just how scared he really was.

  Chapter Six

  Liz watched Helen as she opened the air filter housing on one of the cars outside the house. She was less than gentle as she threw the old one away and started pulling out bits of plastic, dumping them just as unceremoniously.

  After Helen had mentioned working on cars to Mark, the rumor mill had worked quickly. Mark had mentioned it to Liz who mentioned it to Ryan. Ryan had the most experience with anything car related even though he wasn't a mechanic. He was self taught when it came to fixing things and cars had been something he found fun and challenging.

  Before the outbreak, Ryan had played around fixing his own cars when something went wrong because he hated paying for a garage to fix it. After coming home one day and giving his wife a list of reasons how the garage had ripped him off this time, she had finally told him to stop moaning and do it himself next time. Seeing it as a challenge, Ryan had told her he would. Sure enough, when his ten years old German saloon had started sputtering and coughing when he was driving it one day, he bought an owner's manual and got on the Internet to work out what was wrong himself. After a couple of hours research and a few attempts replacing the parts he thought were broken, he finally fixed it. It had taken a lot longer than a garage would have taken and it had cost him more in parts that he hadn't needed to buy, a new socket set and a manual but the sense of satisfaction Ryan got from fixing the car made everything worth it. From that moment on, he was hooked.

  When the exhaust fell off his wife's car, Ryan fixed it. When the heaters stopped working in his neighbour's car, Ryan fixed it. People started bringing their problem cars to him to fix and Ryan loved it. He only ever charged whatever the part or materials cost but people would pay for any tools he needed as a thank you, allowing him to build up quite a substantial array of tools.

  When cars didn't need fixing, he began to look for ways to improve them. He'd customise the interiors of people's cars if they wanted something practical adding to it like a phone charger fabricating into the glove compartment or monitors putting in the headrests so a colleague's kids could watch DVDs when they went on long drives. He began to look at ways to make his car faster, admitting defeat when he learned about getting his car's ECU chipped and realising he couldn't do everything himself. As his car got faster, he felt it was important to make sure it braked faster. Then he looked at its handling and the effect different styles of suspension had on cars.

  In the space of four years, Ryan had gone from a complete novice regarding the inner workings of cars, to an oracle whose opinions and advice were sought after by people on the Internet. If the dead hadn't started coming back to life, Ryan might have evolved his hobby into a business. However, as the world became a place where people were forced into fending for themselves in order
to survive, Ryan's skills had become invaluable. He and his wife had literally collapsed on the doorstep of the church in Ridgetown and been taken in by Mark and the others. His wife hadn't survived because they didn't have the right equipment to treat her, it wasn't the community's fault and Ryan had never held it against them. What he did do was to make sure that Ridgetown stayed stocked up with as many supplies and pieces of equipment as they could store and to do that, they needed vehicles, vehicles that needed to be tough and reliable. He made sure they were tough by constantly customising them as best he could, implementing as many new innovations as he could think of. Making them reliable meant constantly keeping them well serviced, so when he heard that Helen knew her way round an engine, he jumped at the chance to get some help.

  Ryan had given Helen a set of spark plugs, an oil filter, an air filter and a bottle of oil and pointed at one of two cars outside Liz's. He didn't even give her any verbal instructions, wanting to know if she'd understand what he wanted her to do just by looking at what she was given. It was obvious that she did and she was quick at doing it as well. She didn't worry about carefully unfastening parts that she knew she could rip out and cast aside, that was something Ryan admired.

  Helen was removing the grill from the front bumper when Mark, Luke and Allister returned in the flat bed truck. It was obvious from the look on their faces that something had happened. They pulled up outside Liz's house and disembarked. Helen stopped what she was doing and walked over with Liz and Ryan, Mark addressed her first.

  "Hey, how are you feeling?"

  "I'm okay, no injuries. Not bitten if that's what you were thinking?"

  "No," Mark shook his head apologetically, "I wasn't implying..."

  "Don't worry, it's fine. Liz and Ryan have been telling me about this place, it seems like you all look out for each other."