She thought she imagined that there were less zombies than before, that the tiredness was making her delusional, shaking her head to concentrate again. She pushed towards the zombie, driving it backwards and raised herself onto her tiptoes. The slight increase in elevation allowed her to see further than before.
There was a commotion at the back of the horde. There were definitely less than before and some at the back were actually turning around. She noticed that there was less noise than before and she could hear Mark shouting her. Adrenaline gave her a burst of strength and she pulled the axe away from the zombie's chest, she sidestepped and it fell flat on its face. Helen kicked the kneecap of the zombie directly behind and it collapsed to the floor, tripping two zombies behind it as the tried to move forward. She looked at Mark as she drove the axe deep into the back of the first zombie's skull.
"They're here!" He shouted, "Keep fighting!"
Helen felt another surge of adrenaline, she thought her heart was going to explode. Her ears thumped as the blood pounded in her eardrums. She could see the unmistakable movement of living people behind the closest zombies. She felt like she was nearly safe, like she was moments from being able to stop. She saw the faces of the people that were hacking down zombies, one of them was Luke. It looked like he was using a machete, his expression betrayed how uncomfortable he was, a mixture of fear and disgust with each blow.
The group of survivors charged closer to Helen and Mark who found new energy and drove forwards to meet them. The joint attack allowed Mark and Helen to focus on the immediate threats in front of them instead of worrying about exhausting themselves.
A short while later, it was over. Helen took deep breaths, finally allowing fatigue to set in. The air felt cool as a gentle breeze blew, her whole body burning and covered in sweat, feeling hotter now she had stopped moving. She looked at Mark who looked in a similar condition.
The group that stood in front of her looked at the pair of them, Helen could tell they were trying to see if either of them had been bitten. Luke was the first to approach them, choosing to speak to Helen.
"Are you guys okay? We weren't sure where you were but the crowd of zombies turned out to be a bit of a giveaway."
Mark gave Helen a puzzled expression, "Did you tell them exactly what I said over the radio?"
"Yeah, Swarm at the Gate!" Helen felt offended that he didn't even trust her to do that right.
Luke swapped his attention between them like a child watching their parents fighting, "Oh yeah, we got the message loud and clear. We just didn't know what the hell you were on about. Is that some kind of code you've made up?"
"What?" Helen was furious, "you mean you made that up? I thought I'd said something wrong when they couldn't understand me when I transmitted."
Mark suddenly appeared sheepish, "Well, I just kinda thought you guys would know what I was on about."
Helen made an effort to lunge towards him but Luke stepped forward and blocked her path.
"Listen, you're both okay. That's the main thing. Let's get back to the streets, I want to look at the drone footage we got. I think I heard that big one roaring again."
Mark's attention was piqued, "Did you see it on the drone?"
"I don't know. I was looking for you guys but might have picked it up as I was panning. Do you think it was the one we heard Scarlet talking about?"
"No idea, it sounded big though."
Helen was too angry to ask what they were on about. Angry and tired.
"Let me throw my backpack in the entrance so I can restock the church later."
As Mark headed back into the playcentre, Helen followed the group back towards the road she had walked down with Mark. She hung back with Luke in front of the pub so that Mark could catch up. He seemed to take a while but she didn't blame him, all she could think about doing was resting, she couldn't imagine climbing that wall again.
As they made their way back to the gated community, Luke was excitedly telling Helen about the drone and how they were using it to gather as much information about the behaviour of zombies as possible. She barely even responded to what he was saying, too tired to feign interest but absorbing what he was telling her.
He explained how he'd modified it himself and, with a bit of help, was in the process of connecting it to an old mobile phone using the Bluetooth connection, allowing it to follow him round without him having to guide it. He started to explain how he was hoping to implement a few of them, if they could get a reliable network set up with Helen's help. He mentioned the possibility of adding weapons to them and how it would revolutionise their fight back but he quickly got the impression that Helen didn't want to talk.
They spent the rest of the walk in silence, allowing Helen to realise just how close she had come to dying, not just in the car park but also earlier on when she had allowed her attention to slip. She felt like she was being too reckless with her safety, she was normally so careful with Scott and Dennis. At that moment, she couldn't wait to give them the Internet access they wanted and get back to her small group. If she spent much longer with these people, they were going to get her killed.
Chapter Five
They used the same gates they had driven through earlier to get back into the compound, Helen wondered if the procedures earlier had been exaggerated to make her feel like they were more security conscious than they actually were.
"Liz, do you have any spare clothes Helen here could have?"
The only female in the group turned around to address Mark's question, "Sure." She changed her attention to Helen directly, "You can get cleaned up at mine. I don't exactly have a warm shower but it's warmer than freezing."
Helen felt that the woman's words sounded friendly enough but her face didn't give any emotion away. She was hard to read which was something Helen didn't like, ironic as she considered herself hard to read.
"Thank you."
Mark continued, "Luke, you come back to mine and we'll go through the drone footage. Helen, have a bit of a rest and something to eat. Come over to mine when you're ready."
Helen nodded. When she turned her attention back to the woman whose house she was going to, the woman was already picking up an old wooden set of ladders that had been lay on the driveway of the house right in front of them. Helen sighed as she realised she would have to do a bit more climbing before she was in a position to relax.
She climbed the ladder to an improvised platform at the bottom of the roof that circled round to the back of the house. Even climbing the rungs of the ladder was hard work after her battle. Her calves screamed in protest with every step and the tips of her fingers were sore from grabbing on to clothing. As she reached the top she felt light headed for a second and had to pause to steady herself, she hoped the woman who was following her didn't notice. The adrenaline surge from earlier had now subsided and left her feeling physically and emotionally exhausted. She tried to remember the last time she had eaten something, struggling to think clearly.
Without needing to be told, she followed the boards around the edge of the roof to an opening at the rear of the building, nearly identical to the one she had seen in Mark's house. The layout seemed to make sense, standardised.
Helen waited at the opening as if waiting for the owner of a house to open the door for her or tell her she had permission to enter, Liz caught up and invited her in. Helen followed Liz inside and was surprised to see a tent inside the empty room. Liz must have noticed her looking because she addressed it.
"I like staying in here incase I need to bug out for any reason. Makes me feel a bit safer knowing that I'm so close to an exit.
"My name's Liz, by the way. I haven't formally introduced myself" She extended her hand, Helen was taken aback by the formality of her introduction.
Helen shook it, "I'm Helen. Did you say I could I could get a shower here?" Her question sounded more abrupt than she meant it to be.
"Sure, I should have a spare towel you could use. Follow me."
&nb
sp; As Helen followed Liz through the hallway to the bathroom, she noted how similar the layout was to Mark's house. They walked past a set of metal dropdown steps similar to the ones in Mark's house, in a similar spot where a set of real stairs had been ripped out. It may have been identical, which wouldn't have been surprising considering they were both recently new builds on the same estate. She wondered if every house had the same layout, it would definitely make defending the estate easier.
She also noticed how different the feel of the two houses was. When she had been in Mark's house, there was a distinct impression that it was a base of operations, purely functional. There was no decoration or personalisation, the only things pinned to the walls were maps and plans.
Liz's house was different. Helen looked down into the living area below and saw comfy chairs. There were four individual chairs and a grey two seater sofa. Two armchairs were from a brown set and the other two were completely mismatched, one being stripe patterned whilst the other had a bright green floral pattern. In the centre of the chairs were two coffee tables, one of which had a kettle and three mugs on it. It looked like Liz had people round to socialise whereas Mark used his house as a base.
Like the other rooms she had seen, Helen found the bathroom to be basic but bright. The tiled walls reflected the light that came in through the frosted window.
"The shower's electric so it'll get warm but the water pressure has slowly been getting worse. I suppose it was going to happen some time, we're going to try to locate the closest water treatment plant. Someone must have kept it going to keep a supply running for this long, we're hoping we'll be able to keep it going with as little bother as possible."
Helen took that as a polite request to keep her shower as brief as she could. Liz gave her a large towel that had been hung on the towel rail and left her alone. As Helen showered, she tried to remember the last time she had had one. She had grown so accustomed to cleaning herself with a small bowl of cold water that even a brief, mildly warm shower seemed like a luxury spa break. She dried herself as quickly as possible so that Liz would know she hadn't been long in the shower.
Washed and changed, Helen found the metal steps extended to the ground floor. She climbed down and collapsed on the couch, her body melting into it like the two were destined to be together. She heard Liz's voice faintly in the background but she didn't have the energy to open her eyes, within seconds she was asleep.
The hours passed as she slept, it was light when she awoke. She realised her head was resting on a pillow that wasn't there when she went to sleep, she was also covered by a blanket. Morning light shone through the overhead window, lighting up the room. She stood up and walked around, stretching her aching muscles that had cramped up after getting the chance to relax.
Liz walked into the room whilst Helen was looking round.
"You're awake? You've been asleep for nearly twelve hours."
Helen was shocked, she knew it had been more than a light sleep but she hadn't realised it had been so long. Her right arm was sore when she bent it, her ribs hurt and she'd already noticed the area turning red when she was in the shower. She knew now there would be a huge bruise on there.
"I can't believe I slept for so long. I bet Mark is wondering where I am."
"He went out earlier with Luke and Allister. I think they were going to move some of the bodies. It looked like a pretty large job that'll probably take a couple of days."
"Why do you move them?"
"Mainly for hygiene reasons, we can't leave them to rot so close to where we live. Plus, such a large collection of bodies could attract others. We've seen similar behavior before, I'd like to do some research into it if I can. I want to see if it's anything similar to ants."
Helen frowned and tilted her head, Liz took it as a sign she didn't know what she was talking about.
"When an ant dies, it gives off a hormone to alert other ants that it has died. It's thought to be a warning to other ants to stay away from that area, but in the case of zombies I want to see if it attracts them. Maybe a dead zombie indicates a living person has killed it, lots of dead zombies could mean more living people. I'd like to see if there's any correlation between the amount of dead zombies in one area and the speed or amount of zombies it attracts."
"That sounds..... Kinda like something a mad scientist would say." Helen hoped she didn't sound too harsh, Liz seemed like a nice woman, but her idea sounded dangerous.
Liz paused for a moment before she spoke, blinking rapidly, visibly taken aback by what Helen had said.
"Well, I..... I don't...." She pursed her lips, "I suppose it does."
Liz laughed, which surprised Helen, making her laugh in return. Liz wasn't sure why it was so funny but it felt good to laugh, it had been so long. Her laugh evolved into a cackle, a cackle so harsh and sharp that it made Helen laugh harder. The two sounded hysterical as they laughed at each other laughing. Any tension that lingered in the room evaporated with the laughing. Helen was laughing so hard she was no longer making a noise, Liz wiped tears from her eyes as her cackle receded into a grunt.
"I'm sorry." Helen took a deep breath as she stood up straight, "I didn't mean it to sound like that. I just think that any gathering of those things is a bad idea, whether it's for an experiment or not."
"Don't worry. I understand the risk involved, it probably won't come to fruition. If it did, I'd make sure to do it somewhere far away from here and take plenty of steps to be as cautious as possible." She twisted her body towards the door behind her, "Come in to the kitchen and get something to eat, we'll see if Mark's back. I hear you're here to help us with our Internet connection, I can't tell you how thankful we'd be if you could fix it."
Helen felt a pang of guilt as she realised Liz didn't know that it was her that had booted their connection.
"I'm sure the guys have already been lecturing you on how much of a lifeline it would be for us, so thanks in advance. Anyway, what do you fancy? I've got plenty of tinned stuff for you to choose from."
Mark felt exposed without his body armour on, especially after last night. Lifting another body onto the back of the flat bed was difficult enough, he knew it would be twice as difficult in the armor. Still, it didn't make him feel any less vulnerable.
They had been shifting corpses for nearly three hours and had cleared a decent amount in that time. They had dumped the bodies at different locations, ever since Liz had shared her theory about the bodies alerting other zombies to their location they had been careful to scatter them around. Liz had pointed out it was only a theory but Mark didn't want to take any chances.
Varying their routes also gave them an opportunity to scope out the surrounding area. There were plenty of streets and estates they hadn't explored and they were always looking for possible raiding locations. Allister hated it when Mark used the term 'raiding', he said it made them sound like looters. In reality, it was just a throwback to Mark's video gaming days when he and his friends would arrange 'raid nights', all meeting up online to complete particular missions. The raids they did now weren't that different. They would pick somewhere and scope it out. Then would be the planning stage where they would decide exactly who was going to do what. Each person had their own preparations to do before they would group together and set off to their objective. However, with these raids, the stakes were higher and there was no respawning if someone got bit.
"Are we doing another run after this one?" Allister helped Mark lift another corpse onto the flatbed where Luke dragged it onto the pile and went about attaching the ratchet straps to hold them down. It wasn't very dignified but it was convenient and made transporting them a lot easier.
"No, that's enough for today. I don't want to put off work on our network any more than we have already. "
He looked over towards the estate as he spoke, wondering if Helen was up yet. He had called round at Liz's but Liz had told him she was asleep. Mark had found Helen hard to judge at the best of times in the short time he'd known
her, he didn't think waking her up from a much needed sleep would put her in the best mood, especially to do something she had already made clear she didn't want to do.
"I hope she's okay."
Luke's voice interrupted Mark's train of thought, he looked up at Luke who was gazing towards the estate still holding a half tightened ratchet strap.
"Cool it Romeo, you can go see her after." Mark grinned as he spoke, he loved teasing Luke and could tell that Luke had a crush on Helen. He couldn't blame him, Helen was good looking, but it meant Mark barely had to put any effort in to winding him up.
Predictably, Luke began to turn bright red.
"What do you mean?" His defensiveness gave away the fact that Mark had hit a nerve.
"Please, your tongue's been hanging out since you met her."
"When I met her, she was trying to kill me!"
"Well, you were all doughy-eyed when we turned up."
"I was not!"
"The lady doth protest too much." Allister shouted from the front of the truck, jumping on the opportunity to tease Luke.
"What do you know? You weren't even there!"
"I spoke to Ishaq on the radio this morning. He said you were holding your stomach in whenever she looked at you."
"I was not!" Luke's eyes widened as if he'd been caught stealing from an old lady's purse.
Mark laughed and walked towards the passenger seat of the truck.
"Mark, tell him the truth! I wasn't" Luke sounded flustered.
"Which do you want? The truth? Or to say you weren't?"
Allister laughed and got in the driver's side.
Luke muttered to himself as he tightened the ratchet straps as tight as they would go. He hated it when they were being idiots. He couldn't hear what they were saying but one of them, probably Mark, was talking in a fake high pitched female voice while the other one was putting on a fake deep voice. Luke simmered as the high pitched voice giggled and they both made erotic groaning noises. He started laughing himself, which made him even angrier.
Ridgetown: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel Page 8
