Ridgetown: A zombie apocalypse novel (19 page)

He turned back to the other cars and signaled that they were all going to go straight ahead and crash through the zombies. Mark worried that his gestures could be interpreted as 'crash into the zombies and die' but he hoped that everyone would have more faith in his leadership than that. He got a confirmation nod from Liz and was pretty sure he got the same from Dennis, although it was hard to see.

"Let's go."

As Helen started moving forward, Mark clipped his belt to one of the straps connected to the truck. He held on to the bar that had been welded onto the roof as they drove, knowing he was also anchored to the truck should he let go was comforting. The strap was long enough to allow him to move to each side of the flat bed and strike a few zombies as they went past and short enough to make sure he wouldn't be pulled off if one grabbed an ankle.

The truck quickly approached the horde and earned the attention of a few zombies who stood still as they watched, turning themselves into stationary targets. Mark exhaled slowly as he saw the size of the group. It was definitely the same group they had seen earlier, he guessed at two or three hundred that were visible at that moment. There were definitely more because he couldn't see whatever had flipped the car, probably a Leaper.

He was holding one of his pickaxes in his right hand but he fed it back through a loop on his belt, deciding it would be a wiser idea to hold on with both hands. The width of the mob was a lot larger than he was expecting and he worried that they wouldn't make it through. If the truck came to a stop in the middle of them, they would get swarmed.

"Speed up" He shouted, stealth no longer applicable. "We need to hit them harder."

Helen was nervous about plowing into the horde. Even though she had desensitised herself to killing zombies, there was something unnatural about intentionally driving towards a group of figures and speeding up. She could feel her right foot wanting to pull off the accelerator and slam down hard on the brake but she resisted. She picked a route through the crowd and hoped there were no vehicles hidden behind the creatures. She felt the pressure of leading the other two cars and potentially being responsible for them getting trapped.

She gripped the steering wheel and held her breath as the truck impacted the crowd. Both her and Ryan jerked forwards, the seatbelts digging into them harshly to stop them flying too far forward. Helen heard a thud above her head and realised it was Mark hitting the roof of the cabin, she hoped he was okay and hadn't even thought about him flying over the top of the truck. The impact with the horde had made her right foot slip slightly but she kept it buried to the floor as hard as possible to keep the engine working and keep the momentum going.

Above them, Mark took short breaths as he tried to get his breath back from having his chest jolted straight into the very bar he was holding to keep him safe. The ride suddenly got very bumpy as the truck drove over the corpses of the first few zombies. Mark looked out, a gap surrounded them for a couple of seconds, the impact of the truck pushing zombies backwards and toppling the first few rows over. Mark was impressed with Helen's determination as she kept driving and kept the speed up, stopping them slowing down too much as they hit the next row of standing zombies. The noise of the truck crushing bodies was sickening and he looked over his shoulder to look for the other cars. Liz's car had just entered the crowd, following the path that had been created for it by Helen. Driving over the bodies was more of a struggle for Liz's car but only having to fight against a couple of standing zombies meant that it could cope. Behind that, the car being driven by Dennis was quickly approaching.

The creatures closest to the vehicles held out their arms in a pitiful attempt to grab the people inside. Helen's truck decimated any zombie that was unlucky enough to stand in front of it, any stood either side risked losing limbs or hunks of flesh. The cars following Helen also collected trophies of the zombies that got too close. Sharp edges on the vehicles cut into the soft flesh of the rotting corpses, peeling skin off fingers and tearing existing wounds and gaping sores. A zombie lunged into the path of Dennis's car and was rewarded with two shattered kneecaps, crumbling to the floor never to stand again.

Mark looked forwards again, noticing that they were rapidly slowing down. Mercifully there were only a few more zombies to break through before the only hazards on the road were abandoned and crashed cars. The bumpy ride that the truck was subject to suddenly became smoother and the last zombie's head struck against the side of the truck.

Once through the horde, Helen continued driving for a few moments to make sure they were clear before stopping for the others to catch up. She looked in the wing mirrors, seeing the opening they had made begin to start closing up with more of the undead. Blood was spattered all over the windscreen, she tried the wipers but was only successful in smearing the dark mucus like substance across the window.

"They're coming."

She heard Mark shout and activated the washer jets for the windscreen, turning the dark colour lighter as it slowly started to dilute and wash away. First she saw Liz's car emerge, the front painted in guts and tissue. A few seconds later, Dennis also emerged and Helen instantly set off, aware that some of the zombies were breaking away and following them. She maintained a constant speed that allowed them to keep in front of their pursuers whilst staying close enough to keep them chasing. When they reached the next junction, she waited as Mark shouted through the window.

"Wait for them to catch up a bit more then turn left here and floor it. If we can lose them they might end up shambling off harmlessly. Turn left again when you get to the minimarket and you'll soon see the church. Turn right at the church and you'll get to the gate we used earlier, we'll need to dump the cars as soon as we get in and warn everyone."

Mark had barely finished speaking when Helen decided it had been long enough. She turned the truck sharply and headed down the road, leading the convoy. Her adrenaline was still flowing from driving through the zombies and she knew that the day was only going to get more dangerous. She shared Mark's feeling that the horde was heading for Ridgetown and it concerned her how they were acting. They moved like they all had a single objective, just like they had when they had ambushed her and Mark at the pub the other day. The inhabitants of Ridgetown were going to have a fight on their doorstep and Helen was nervous about how strong the walls of their estate really were.

Helen pulled up to the gate at Ridgetown and waited as Ryan pressed the button on the dash to open the gate. As soon as the gap was wide enough, the three vehicles entered and pulled up outside Liz's house. Everyone emptied out onto the road and Mark instantly began giving people jobs to do, it was clear to Helen that he had been planning what to do in his head while they were on the way here.

"Allister, I want you and Ryan to go back out and head towards the park. Decide between you if you'd be better going in armour or on bikes, choose whichever you'd feel more comfortable doing. If that horde is on its way here, that's where they'll be coming from. What traps have we got down there?"

"We've got the car bomb." Allister replied.

"Good, that should take a few out. Make sure you take a radio and keep us updated of how many there are and any specials that are with them. If we're lucky, I'm wrong about them heading here and you'll have nothing to report."

Luke stepped forward. "Don't you want me to send the drone out so you can keep Allister and Ryan here?"

"No, we need someone to set up the car bomb and stop as many of them reaching here as possible. From what we saw of the size of that horde, they'd break down the gates too quickly. Luke, I want you and Liz to get the word out to everyone what's going on and tell them to prepare for a siege. We've talked over siege plans at meetings before and we made those checklist things for people. People should know where they're reinforcing and where their defensive points are."

"I'll help Dennis get Scott somewhere safe and then get the guns out of the lock up." Ishaq was slightly hunched as he spoke, clearly still suffering from his rib injury.

"Scott will be safe in my house, he won't have to be moved too much either." Liz added.

"Okay, thanks Liz, that sounds good. Ishaq, I don't want you running round injured."

"I'm fine."

"Now's not the time for heroics Ishaq, you need to be careful. Otherwise you could end up getting yourself and/or someone else into trouble and no one wants that."

Ishaq sighed and nodded slowly, not liking what Mark was saying but agreeing with his logic.

"Instead, I want you in constant contact with Ryan and Allister as well as me. You're gonna be our contact point, constant communication with all of us."

Ishaq nodded more enthusiastically, still unhappy not to have a more hands on role but glad to be doing something useful.

"Helen, you come with me to the lock up for the guns. Have you ever fired a rifle before?"

Helen shook her head.

"We have more guns than people who have used them and I think you would be a good candidate to use one. Firearms are going to be the next line of defence, stopping the horde before it reaches the gates so we need to have as many guns being used as possible. Luke and Liz, you guys take radios as well to keep in contact. Does everybody know what they are going?"

Everyone gave a positive response either by nodding or verbally saying yes, each person looked concerned or scared but they all looked ready to go.

"Okay guys. We can do this. No horde of shambling corpses is going to ruin our community. We've worked hard to get Ridgetown to where it is today and we're not letting these things undo that. Stay safe everyone, let's go. Helen, come with me."

Everyone split up in their separate directions, Helen followed Mark in the direction of his house. The adrenaline was building again. She'd never fired a gun before in her life, she'd played paintball but doubted it was very similar. Despite her reservations, the idea of going hand to hand with a horde that size terrified her. The other night had been too much of a close call and that had been a fraction of the size. Keeping her distance was something she was keen to do but she refused to run and hide, she was needed in this fight and she was determined to make a difference to the outcome.

"I don't suppose you know how to use a bow and arrow?"

The question caught Helen off guard, "No, sorry."

"We've got a couple of sets, people have been learning how to use them but I was kind of hoping you'd be a champion archer."

"Do you think I look like a champion archer?"

"You don't not look like one." Unsure if his response made sense, Mark laughed aloud.

Helen took it as a compliment and smiled, partly smiling because of his idiotic laugh. She admired Mark's ability to deal with the stress of the situation, keeping a sense of humour in such a desperate situation. Less than an hour ago, she had been incensed by him after the teasing but it was nearly impossible to stay mad at him. His upbeat personality was infectious and in times like this, that was exactly what people needed.

They walked briskly and Mark told anyone he saw that there was an incoming horde, not to panic and to find Luke or Liz for more information. Helen respected how he kept the people calm when he told them by keeping calm himself. He was very matter of fact with what he said, not giving false hope and telling people it would be fine, giving them clear instructions and giving them an objective.

"How long would supplies last if they get through the gates?" Helen asked.

"If they made it inside and we were forced to wait it out, we'd probably be good for a couple of days. But we aren't going to let it get that far. Our whole ethos revolves around not underestimating these creatures or becoming complacent with them, if we let them inside people would assume they were safe by staying upstairs in their houses."

"They would, wouldn't they? I thought that was the reason you'd modified these houses like you have."

"Think how much harder it would be to get rid of them once they were inside the estate. You've seen those jumping ones before, a broken set of stairs wouldn't do much to stop one of those. The sheer numbers would destroy property and force people into making deadly mistakes. Also, if they made it inside and we cleared them out without many problems, then the next time they attacked, people here wouldn't be as worried. They'd be defending the walls thinking that it didn't matter if the zombies broke through because it had happened before. That's where the complacency comes in and we can't afford to let it."

They had reached what Helen assumed was Ishaq's house. As with every other house in Ridgetown, they headed round the back. Unlike the other houses, Ishaq's entrance consisted of blocks of wood that had been screwed into the wall, leading up to the standard gaping hole that served as the entrance. Instantly Mark began climbing, using each block as a hand grip and then a foot grip. He had reached the top in a matter of seconds and was lifting himself into the building before Helen had even started climbing. Once inside, he turned to look at her progress and was surprised to see her still standing at the bottom.

"You okay climbing up?"

"Yeah, sorry. I just wasn't sure if you wanted me to come up."

"Of course, I'm going to need your help with the guns."

Hearing the word guns made Helen feel nervous. It was funny how she associated them with something violent considering how her skills with an axe had developed over the last few months. Guns still seemed something illegal, something she could get into trouble for being involved with, despite the world turning on its head.

Hesitantly, she began to climb the house. She grew more confident the higher she climbed and nearly threw herself into the room at the top. Instinctively she strode through the only door in the room and onto the landing. The door at the far end of the hall was now open and she could here Mark inside. She walked in and was surprised by what she saw.