Ridgetown: A zombie apocalypse novel (16 page)

Helen looked at Luke who looked slightly uncomfortable again.

"Why?"

"I just had a feeling. There was something I trusted in you guys."

Helen turned to Mark, "How did you know I hadn't told him to send you that message?"

"We didn't, we had to take a risk ourselves. Plus we have a code-word for situations like that."

"Code-word?" Helen was intrigued.

"Yeah. When you guys came out, I asked if everything was alright."

"And I said it was retro." Luke grinned.

The word activated a memory in Helen's mind. The word had struck her as odd when he had said it. It seemed obvious thinking back on it now.

"Now that we've met you, we can see that Luke made the right call. At the time? I wasn't so sure and was tempted to hit and run you guys as soon as you walked out."

The thought was slightly scary to Helen. She hadn't considered it before but thinking about it now, from their perspective as they described it, it sounded perfectly legitimate to think that Dennis, Scott and herself were hostile. The four of them were silent for a few moments as the events of the past two days sank in and how differently things could have been.

Mark was the first to speak. "Anyway, enough about that. Can you get us online? I need to update my iPod."

Luke began by showing Helen exactly how he had set up their own network and what he wanted to be able to do. The more he showed Helen, the more respect she had for him. He had set up the computers to be their own individual terminals but also for them to use an Appliance, a piece of software allowing them to use a virtual computer across all of them. It meant that if one of the computers went down, the others would still be running the virtual computer. Any computer would be able to update the virtual computer in real time and multiple computers could work in different areas of the virtual computer at the same time.

Helen asked what would happen if there was a power failure and all the computers went down, that was when Luke puffed out his chest with pride and went on to explain the real beauty behind his design. While most of the computers were powered by the church, one had its power supplied by the pub as well as a back up generator in the pub's safe room. There was also a backup generator that was connected to one of the computers and the collection of towers on the back table.

If the power to the church went down, there would hopefully still be power coming from the pub. If all power went out, the petrol generator would come online and supply power to the single computer while the power was hopefully fixed to the others. In theory, the generator would keep going indefinitely as long as it didn't break and there was a continuous supply of petrol to keep it running. The next stage of Luke's plan was to create some kind of battery system that would act as another temporary lifeline if the generator failed. He said he'd seen some at a media company he had done some work for but they were the size of small filing cabinets and really heavy. Getting some would require time, effort and resources that could be better spent scavenging for food or medical supplies. He explained that if the online community proved to be worthwhile then batteries would be something that might be considered supplies.

As Helen listened, she realised how much hard work had been put into it and how ambitious the whole project was. The towers on the bench were to build their own servers so they didn't have to rely on external sources, again making them more self sufficient. The only thing they needed to get the project going was Internet access and Helen felt more compelled to help than ever. All she had been using it for was herself whereas Luke was trying to open it up to as many people as possible.

Luke showed her round the setup on one of the computers before she started working on one herself. They used the Appliance so they could see how each other worked. Hours went by as they tried different ways of remotely accessing Helen's workstation at the safe house but they kept running into reoccurring problems.

"I'm going to have to go back to the safe house, maybe even the substation. It shouldn't take long from there though, most of it's set up at this end."

"Oh." Luke almost sounded disappointed.

Allister and Mark had been watching them work, listening and learning without getting in the way. Mark stood up at Helen's summarisation.

"That's no problem. We can run you back there now and probably be back before it goes dark?"

"You're bringing me back?" Helen was surprised.

"Oh, sorry. I just assumed... Of course where you go is totally up to you. It's just I thought you might want to spend a bit longer here?" It hadn't occurred to Mark that Helen would want to go back to her group so soon.

"I hadn't thought about it, I do like it here. I'd come back again, but the guys are probably missing me. God knows what state they're in having to fend for themselves."

"Well let's start by heading to your place, we can meet up with Ishaq as well. Luke, is the transmitter here still working?"

"Yeah. This one just uses radio, no need for Internet. For situations exactly like this." He grinned smugly and pointed towards his head, "This guy, this guy right here isn't just a beautiful face, you know?"

Helen rolled her eyes and Allister walked away.

"Just get hold of Ishaq and tell him we're coming."

Luke strode over to the front of the church confidently, whistling as he did, leaving Helen and Mark stood by the computers.

"Listen, I hope you didn't think we were going to bring you back here without making sure it was okay with you first? I just didn't realise how eager you were to get back to your group."

Mark felt compelled to explain himself. Helen had seemed very abrupt when he had first met her, bordering on hostility, which was understandable given the situation, but he had seen a change in her attitude and didn't want her to revert back to closing herself off. He liked her and thought that she would be a good addition to Ridgetown. It was an early assumption but Mark considered himself to be good at assessing people's character and the others trusted his judgment about such things. He'd check with Ishaq, but the other two seemed like decent people as well, it definitely sounded like Ishaq had bonded well with Scott. Whether this new group would want to become part of Ridgetown was only their own decision and Mark wanted to make sure they knew that and would join because they wanted to, not because they felt like they had to.

"No, I understand. I admit, when Dennis originally suggested I came here, I was totally against the idea. I came because it seemed like the most beneficial idea for everyone and Dennis believed you guys. He trusted you and I trusted him."

"And now? Do you trust us now?" He asked.

"I wouldn't use the word trust yet. I don't throw trust around easily, but I'd be willing to sit in a room with you without a weapon. Or maybe just a small knife."

Mark wasn't sure what to say.

"I'm not sure what to say."

"You're welcome." Helen smiled, enjoying the confused expression on his face.

The two stood in silence for a moment before Luke came jogging over.

"Guys, I can't get hold of Ishaq." Concern was clearly painted across his face.

"Were you using the right frequency? Maybe they left it on the second one?" Mark asked.

"No, I tried all of our frequencies, including emergency ones."

"What does that mean? Are they in trouble?" Helen's heart started to race.

"It could be something simple, like their radio's broken. But I don't like it, it was fine earlier on." He scanned the church for Allister, who was carrying broken lengths of wood through one of the small rooms at the front of the church. "Allister, the others aren't answering their radio."

"Let's go." Without hesitating, he dropped what he was carrying and headed towards the rope ladder.

"Luke, is your mobile still connected to the net?"

"I haven't tried it since we left the substation but I would have thought so."

"See if you and Helen can contact them. Dennis mentioned something about having messaging at your safe house?"

"Yeah, we use a messaging client if we need to split up for any reason." Helen knew Dennis wasn't comfortable using it but he knew how to if he needed to.

"Keep trying until we get there, let's go."

Together they traversed their way back to the pub and down the climbing wall. They jogged back to Ridgetown, constantly looking out for any roaming zombies but not seeing any. As they jogged, Mark had gone over a plan.

As long as Ryan wasn't working on the truck, they'd take that and one of the cars from the other day, they'd kit up and head out as they had arrived at the substation. Mark and Allister would wear their armour and Luke and Helen would be drivers. They'd also take Ryan and Liz as extra numbers. Due to not knowing if anything was wrong, they'd brief another raid team leader, Gaz, on the situation and ask him to ready another three person team incase they were needed. If it turned out nothing was wrong, Ryan, Liz and Allister could come back with Ishaq and Mark, Luke and Helen could bring the others back utilising the back of the pickup.

It was a rushed plan but it would hopefully cover the two major possibilities of something being wrong or nothing being wrong. They reached the wall where they had dropped down earlier. Allister used a prop that was leaning against a nearby tree to hook a rope ladder from the other side of the wall, it was one of the simple security measures that Helen had noticed since Mark had mentioned how open and accessible the community was. If you didn't know about the rope ladder before hand, there was no possible way of knowing it was there or that the unassuming piece of wood next to the tree was a tool to be used to retrieve it.

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.