They jogged through the estate, their quickened pace gathering a few looks by people going about doing their jobs. Luke broke off to find Gaz and explain his part in the plan, Allister headed to his house that was apparently further down the street, to get his armour. The others arrived at Liz's house to find that Ryan had finished with the truck and had it parked outside. Mark had asked Helen to explain what they were going to do while he padded up.
As Helen explained the unanswered transmission from the church and the two possible situations, she appreciated how Liz and Ryan listened to her and accepted everything that she said, springing into action gathering their weapons as soon as she had finished. Helen wasn't sure what to do so she got into the truck and accustomed herself with it.
As she adjusted the driver's seat and mirrors, she wondered how she would have felt if one of their community had just turned up and started giving her orders. Liz and Ryan had simply listened and done as they were asked. Helen knew that Ishaq was a member of their team and they were obviously worried about him, but they hadn't thought twice about potentially risking their lives to go and save the others.
She pushed her foot down on the clutch to test her seat position, the pedal felt heavier than anything she was used to driving, she hoped that the steering wasn't as cumbersome.
She began to worry about Dennis and Scott. What if there was something wrong? She hadn't considered the possibility of losing both of them before and thought about the bond she had created with them. The only other people she knew left alive were these people she had spent the last two days with. She tried not to dwell on it too much and decided to head inside to see if she could help with anything.
As she walked round the side of Liz's house, she saw Mark descending wearing his armour. He looked a lot less friendly and a lot more imposing in the armour. The counterbalance gently lowered him to the ground and he stepped forward. He had a mask over the lower half of his face so only his eyes and hair were distinguishable.
"Are you ready?" His voice was recognisable but harsher than it usually sounded, it was as if Helen was speaking to someone different, a different Mark that was ready to go into battle.
"Yep, I'll go and start the truck. Are we taking Ryan or Liz?"
"We'll take Ryan, he can keep trying the radio in the cab while you're driving."
They walked around the front to find Ryan waiting for them outside the truck.
"I heard the other car start up, I'm guessing Allister and Luke are ready."
It wasn't long before the others pulled up next to them. Liz was driving, Allister was in the passenger seat with his armour on and Luke sat in the back, in the middle as he had been when Helen had first come to Ridgetown. Mark nodded towards the other car and Liz nodded back in response.
"Let's go."
As they drove out of the gates, Mark gave Helen directions from the back. She was pretty confident she could remember the way but let him navigate to be sure. Liz had held back to allow the gates to shut without incident but quickly caught up.
As Helen drove, she tried to imagine what she might find when she got to the safe house. She told herself that she had to be ready to react to whatever was waiting. If they had been attacked or overrun, the attackers could still be there and she would have to be ready to defend herself. She thought about what Mark had said earlier about killing people to defend themselves and wondered if she would be able to take someone else's life if she was face to face with them. She thought of herself as quite hard and liked to give other people that impression but in reality, she struggled with the morality of her actions sometimes. She hadn't felt guilty when she had set the alarm off at the substation because she felt like it was more of a deterrent than anything. Swinging an axe at a living person, intending to kill them was something completely different. It was something she had managed to avoid so far but wondered how long it would be before she would come face to face with.
As they drove, Ryan continued to try to contact the safe house on the radio. Every attempt yielded static and every attempt made the sick feeling in Helen's stomach slightly worse.
As they approached the area near the substation, Mark stopped giving directions and Helen drove in silence at a comfortable speed for Liz to follow. They closed the distance to the safe house quickly, eventually turning the corner onto the street and Helen slammed the brakes on. The street was filled with zombies, they shambled round the house and some of them wandered inside through the door that was wide open.
"Whoa!" Ryan gasped.
Helen didn't have time for an emotional response, some of the zombies had already turned their attention towards the truck. She put the truck into reverse and nearly backed straight into the other car. Liz reacted quickly, also changing direction and reversing back up the road they had driven down.
Mark shouted through the window to Helen, "We need to find out if they're still inside."
"There are too many of them. We'd never get near the house."
Mark hated the thought of not rushing in if they were trapped inside but he knew Helen was right. It would be suicide to try and fight their way through the mass of creatures in front of them, especially when they didn't know for certain if anyone was actually in there.
Helen began to drive towards the street again. Mark was about to ask her what she was doing until she took a sharp turn to the right. The barely noticeable opening was a pathway behind the houses. There were wheelie bins scattered round provoking Mark to assume it was used by the bin lorry. Helen stopped the truck and Mark summarised they were outside the rear of the house. The back door was wide open with a single zombie shuffling around just inside the house. Mark thought that Helen was going to suggest they go inside but instead, she reversed along the path and back onto the street. She stopped the truck in front of the other car and shouted to Mark through the window.
"The car's gone. They must have gotten overrun and escaped out of the back, taking the car somewhere."
"Where would they go?"
"My guess is the other place we needed to go while we were here."
"The substation?"
"Either that or back to Ridgetown."
"Let's check the substation first."
The mob was already starting to round the corner in front of them. Helen drove first, leading an alternate route towards the substation. The path could be accessed from the dual carriageway but Helen and the others had never used it because they were worried that using the main roads could draw attention to themselves from unwanted guests. Also, the route they were now taking took twice as long as going the other way. However, this time it was necessary due to the sheer number of zombies on the street.
Helen wondered what could have caused such a large crowd to descend on the house. She knew how careful Dennis and Scott were and didn't think that Mark would have allowed Ishaq to stay with them if he didn't have complete confidence in him.
The drive was short but tense, no one spoke. As they approached the building, Helen instantly recognised the car outside and felt a wave of relief wash over her. She accelerated up to the doorway before slamming the brakes on, bringing the vehicle to a sliding stop. Everyone jumped out of the truck as the other car pulled up behind them.
Helen was hurrying in front of Ryan and Mark until Mark shouted her.
"Wait!"
She turned around and he held his two pickaxes up. It was only then that it occurred to her she was running in unarmed. She pulled the knife from the sheath attached to her leg but allowed Mark to go first. It made sense for him to lead as he was the one in the armour, she silently scalded herself for once again rushing into the situation without thinking it through.
They quietly entered the building and it wasn't long before they could hear voices. One was moaning, painfully. The moan made Mark ready his axes for a fight, he relaxed slightly when he heard Ishaq's familiar voice.
"Don't be such a drama queen, it's barely a scratch."
"I think it's broken." The other v
oice was Scott's, although it was more of a whimper.
"It's not broken, let me have a look."
There was a pause before Ishaq spoke again.
"It's erm.... It looks.... I'm sure it'll be fine."
Mark shouted out as they got nearer to the control room.
"Ishaq? Is that you?"
Ishaq stepped out of the doorway. He had no top on but a large bandage had been wrapped around his midriff, padded on his left hand side. He held it with his right hand, clearly attempting to limit the pain.
"Man, am I glad to see you guys."
He turned back into the control room and Helen, Mark and Ryan followed him in. A few moments later, they were followed by Liz, Allister and Luke.
Ishaq walked over to a small table and picked up a roll of bandage which he continued to wrap round his chest, Scott was sat in a fold up chair with his right leg outstretched and Dennis was leaning against one of the consoles at the back of the room.
"Are you guys okay? We couldn't get you on the radio and then found the safe house overrun." Helen asked.
"They came out of nowhere. Me and Dennis are okay but Scott's broken his leg."
Scott bolted upright at Ishaq's revelation, "You said it wasn't broken?"
"Sorry mate, it's totally broken. I was trying to soften the blow for you."
Scott was speechless, he suddenly went very pale and Helen worried he was going to pass out despite sitting down.
Ishaq continued, "I was resting upstairs when Scott and Dennis heard a commotion outside."
He nodded to Scott who took up the story, "I looked though the spyglass on the door and saw an army of them. There was a Leaper stood at the front, staring at the door. It was as if it had led them to the house. I shouted for Dennis to help me secure the door and it charged. Both of us were behind it but it forced the door open, we pushed back and ended up in a stalemate situation for a few seconds."
"The shouting and the crash woke me up so I ran to the top of the stairs just in time to see the door pushed open and Dennis and Scott get sent sprawling to the floor. That thing looked down at Scott like it was sizing him up, when Scott started to back away from it, it stamped down hard on his leg. I swear it was toying with him or at least testing his pain threshold."
"How did you get out?" Helen was eager to know.
"Ishaq dropkicked it." Dennis joined the conversation, "I've never seen anything like it. He ran down the first couple of steps and jumped feet first towards it, hit it like a sledgehammer and sent it flying out of the doorway and tumbling down the steps. Could have broken his own bloody neck."
"He saved my life." Scott sounded humbled. He looked up at Ishaq. "Thanks man. I really mean it."
"Forget about it." He addressed Helen again. "Between Dennis and myself, we scooped Scott up and ran out of the back of the house. Bailed into the car and set off driving. Scott mentioned there were a few supplies here so we stopped off to bandage up and we were gonna head up to Ridgetown. I was okay when I had the adrenaline running through me but now, now my ribs are starting to hurt. I think I may have broken a couple."
"Didn't the Leaper attack again?" Mark asked.
"No." Dennis replied, "It stood and watched."
"So, it let you get away?"
"I'm not sure what exactly it was doing. The other zombies started shambling inside but that thing simply stood there, staring at us as we escaped."
"We've just been to the safe house and there are still a lot of zombies there. I didn't see any special zombies though." Helen tried to replay the image in her head but hadn't paid too much attention, she had seen the mass of zombies and reacted.
"Shall we head back to Ridgetown now?" Ishaq asked.
"I can bring up a feed from the house from here." Helen started to formulate a plan. "We can keep an eye on the cameras for them starting to disburse, once they do, we could go in and finish off any stragglers."
The others looked round at each other, sizing up what they all thought of the idea. Helen continued.
"I needed to do some work from here or the safe house anyway. Plus, we've got decent numbers and two of you are armoured up. We can't just abandon the place, there's too much valuable stuff in there."
"It could have been destroyed." Mark pointed out.
"Destroying inanimate objects isn't really a zombie's behaviour, it might have been different if it had been a group of humans that had attacked. I can't imagine them taking much of an interest in anything after these guys had left. Plus, we have to try. It's a decent safe house and it's full of tech and supplies."
Mark thought about the proposal for a moment. She made a good argument and they did still need to finish setting up Ridgetown's Internet access.
"Okay then, sounds like as good a plan as any. Is there anything we can be doing while you work your magic?"
Everyone looked towards Helen and she suddenly felt like she'd been put on the spot, she didn't feel like much of a leader. There was an awkward silence as she didn't know what to say.
"I'll have a look at your injures." Liz started.
"I'll try to help you set up." Luke offered to Helen.
"I'll grab some more medical supplies out of the truck."
As Ryan headed back outside, Allister shouted to him.
"I'll come with you and arrange the vehicles a bit better. Ready for a quick getaway if we need to."
Mark walked over to the small table and rested his pickaxes on them. He started to ask Ishaq about what had happened more carefully.
Conversation was muted as everyone went about their jobs. Allister stayed out front to keep an eye on anyone or anything that could be approaching. Helen used the Notebook she'd stashed behind the main console to bring up a live feed of the area around the safe house. It already looked quieter than before, the zombies dispersing as they failed to find living food.
The cameras showed the streets surrounding the house but not inside, it had never occurred to Helen that she would need to look into the house from the outside for any reason. It made her nervous that the Leaper could be waiting inside for them and they wouldn't be able to see it. There was something unnerving about the way she had seen them act and the way Ishaq had described their attack. It sounded calculating and the thought scared her. The zombies had sheer numbers on their side. That combined with the relentless urge to feed and adversity to pain made them frightening enough. Humanity's main weapon against them was their ability to out think such a simple creature.
The idea that some of these things were capable of more than instinct multiplied their dangerousness tenfold.
Helen talked Luke through what she was doing so that he would have a good idea of what he needed to look for if he ever needed to troubleshoot. She showed him how she had learnt to use the system. Various manuals that she had found in the drawers of the substation had been a wealth of knowledge, most of which she had discarded and simply picked out the useful bits.
Luke followed what she was teaching him without her needing to slow down or simplify what she was saying. She had started off by dumbing down her language but he made it obvious that she didn't need to. He had more than a basic understanding of how to traverse databases and picked different user interfaces up quickly. She had seemed to find it refreshing when he explained that he had a degree in computer science and that she didn't have to go back to basics. His knowledge of systems that he had helped install assisted his understanding of how the overall substation worked and was controlled.
Helen explained how she had set up her own profile to use the systems and had set herself up as an administrator and then deleted all the other administrator profiles. It gave her total control and any changes had to go through her first.
"How did you manage to send a message to Mark when you were in the vent?" She was curious how he had gotten around what she thought was a closed system.
"I created a temporary guest account. It was an option in the diagnostics, for when technicians want to test if something is w
orking as if they were a member of the public rather than using their own account."
Luke could tell that he had impressed Helen, her only tell from an otherwise perfect poker face being a slight raise of her left eyebrow.
"That's clever."
Luke pointed at himself, "Not just a hat-rack."
Helen groaned and shook her head, Luke felt like he had projected a superstar image for a fraction of a moment before his nerdy self had pulled back the veil with a cheesy comment. He accepted his moment of triumph was over and went back to learning the new system.
Mark decided it would be best for the safe house team to stay and rest while he went to check the safe house with Helen. Luke offered to go along whilst the others waited at the substation. Although Mark wasn't keen at first, it did make sense if they needed to do more technical work. Mark wanted to keep the numbers down so that it would be easier to bail out if they were heading back into an ambush. The idea of those things setting a trap troubled him.
Helen resumed her role as the designated driver, the drive not as sombre as last time because they had the knowledge that their teammates were alive, this time their journey was filled with apprehension. Mark was armoured up and Luke had borrowed most of Allister's gear. There was a noticeable height and size difference between the two, Luke looking like he was wearing an older brother's hand-me-downs. Despite Luke looking out of place in the adopted gear, it would offer good protection should they need to fight back.
Helen didn't mind that she was going in wearing the clothes she had been wearing all day. Still wearing the leather jacket that Mark had leant her, she felt covered enough to protect herself from scratches and not weighed down by anything heavy. She had given Mark an overview of the layout of the house so he could lead going in. It wasn't so much a macho move, more of a human shield tactic with him wearing his armour and his experience clearing houses on raids with the others.
Ridgetown: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel Page 13
