Ridgetown: A zombie apocalypse novel (24 page)

The noise of the zombies sounded even louder from the height she was now at, Helen wasn't sure if it was the acoustics from where her head was or the excitement of the zombies as they were closer to a fresh meal. She shouted for Luke but knew that he wouldn't be able to hear over the noise. Not knowing when the power was going to come on was petrifying, with every kick of her legs she expected to feel a stabbing sensation followed by excruciating pain. Helen knew she was letting panic take control of the situation and she needed to stop it. Panicking would only make things worse, she needed to calm down and take her time.

Instead of kicking wildly, she coordinated her leg movements as if she was doing the breaststroke in a swimming pool. She pushed against the platform with her arms at the same time and felt more of her hips, which were still throbbing, inching towards the top of the platform. After a couple of kicks, the tops of her legs were touching the platform and she had enough of her body up to lift herself to safety. She tilted to her left and brought her right leg onto the platform, keeping her weight forward. As she brought her other leg up, Helen heard a loud crack followed by an even louder humming noise.

She quickly got to her feet and looked down at the horde, all of whom were jerking in place. The smell hit Helen before she noticed the smoke emitting from each of them, they were literally cooking in front of her. Helen thought she had gotten used to the smell of the undead but the cooking of their flesh magnified the stench a hundred times. She had to hold her breath to try to help her from being sick, the odor burning her nostrils without her being able to smell it. She didn't want to take any chances so she fulfilled her job of standing on the live cable, this time only with one foot and keeping her other foot apart a shoulder's width.

Although all the zombies stayed rooted to the spot, some twitched aggressively whilst others stood perfectly still. The humming noise had gotten quieter but there was still an occasional snap or popping sound. Helen watched eyeballs melting and congealed blood pouring from mouths and open wounds. Skin darkened as it sizzled and hair singed. A couple of the more decrepit corpses dropped to the ground and stopped twitching but most stayed up. Helen was memorized and hadn't noticed Luke reenter the playhouse.

"Is it working? Whoa..."

He stood next to Helen and watched the disturbing scene of corpses caught in a twisted dance. Helen felt sad as she watched them, almost being able to see the humanity in them again as they were frozen in place.

"I'll turn it off." Luke muttered somberly, either sensing Helen's emotion or feeling it himself.

The corpses twitched for a few more seconds until, all at once, they dropped to the floor. The humming had stopped and there were no noises coming from any of the zombies, Helen had expected at least a couple to survive. All that remained were the lifeless bodies, still being showered gently by the broken sprinklers and the stench of death that hung in the air. Seeing them all lay there made the scale of the outbreak and its casualties more real, a tiny visual representation of the magnitude of what had happened.

Helen stared at the bodies without speaking, lost in her own thoughts until she was startled out of them by Luke gently placing his hand on her shoulder.

"We need to check on the others."

Helen knew he was right, and that was all he needed to say for her to get her game face back on.

The climb over the corpses had been unsettling for Helen, the bodies moved under their weight, shifting and nearly sending Luke and Helen sprawling. Even though they had waited to see if any of the zombies moved before they climbed down, Helen still expected one to suddenly revive itself and grab at her, sinking its teeth into her ankle. The situation never materialized and they exited the building unharmed. Glad to be out, Helen decided she wasn't going to volunteer to clear the bodies out when it came time to clear up.

They had run down the street in silence, glad to see the lack of zombies on the street but worrying that the rest of them were inside Ridgetown. As they approached the gates, the piles of bodies that were lay inside was stomach-churning. It was impossible to tell which ones had been residents of Ridgetown and which had been zombies but the pockets of bodies told a story. Each pocket of bodies signaled a resident that had been overpowered or overrun, caught in a corner or found trying to hide. They had been attacked by a pack of zombies until another resident had killed the pack or become a victim themselves. It was entirely possible the original resident could have turned and reanimated, only to attack their attempted savior, something Helen had seen many times before. There were no other signs of life inside, no one moving around or sounds of anyone shouting for help. The lack of shouts was unnerving, making Helen wonder if there was anyone left.

Luke and Helen raised their weapons as they entered the estate. A legless zombie crawled along the floor towards them, one arm outstretched as if begging for help, snarling and baring its teeth. Helen readied her axe and slowly walked to meet it, the zombie crawling faster as she got closer. Before she reached it, an arrow pierced the side of the zombie's skull and pinned it to the ground.

Helen looked for the source of the arrow and saw the older female archer she had seen earlier on. She was hanging out of the top window of the closest house on the street. She waved slowly with a sense of mournfulness, although pleased to see they were still alive. Helen looked round the houses and saw a few more people at windows, she didn't recognise any but could see from Luke's reaction that he did. Luke jogged over to the archer and called up to her.

"Eleanor, have you seen Mark or Liz?"

"Not since they went over the wall."

Luke was about to run back to Helen before stopping himself and shouting up to her again, "We'll go and find them, are you okay here?"

She smiled at him, again tinged with sadness. "We're fine, picking off the last couple of stragglers. You guys be careful."

"Where would they go?" Helen asked as he ran over to her.

"Let's just follow the bodies."

The bodies outside the wall of the estate made their pile of bodies in the playcentre look insignificant. More spread out but the numbers still dwarfed Helen and Luke's kill count. Across the road was a trail of bodies that branched off from the site in front of the gates, heading down the road opposite. Luke and Helen followed it to the big fields that Helen had followed Mark to the other day. They saw the wake of dead zombies trail off in three directions on the field and at the end of each trail were Mark, Liz and a third person Helen didn't recognise. It was a young man with a shaved head. He was tall and, despite wearing full armour, looked very slim. Helen suspected it was the armoured person she had seen earlier although he had now removed his helmet.

Each of them was tackling the last couple of remaining zombies and all of them looked exhausted. They were covered in blood and Helen hoped that none of it was their own. She'd never seen anyone infected simply by ingesting or inhaling zombie blood but she didn't like to think about how much they had been exposed to considering the sheer amount of corpses they had just run past.

Mark hacked slowly at his last two zombies, struggling to muster the strength to swing the pickaxes a final two times. The first one killed the zombie instantly but the second glanced off its shoulder as it darted forwards to close the gap between them. Mark let out a guttural roar as he kicked it in the chest and stepped forward. Before it could steady itself, he kicked it again sending it sprawling to the floor. Instantly it began to sit up only for its face to meet with Mark's boot, kicking it with as much force as he could manage. Its head snapped back and its shoulders thudded against the floor. Again, it instantly started to sit up but this time its forehead was met with the blade of Mark's pickaxe, having dropped one so he could swing the other with both arms. The axe went through the creature's forehead and poked out of the top of its skull, curving back towards Mark. He sandwiched its jaw down against the floor with his left foot and ripped the pickaxe free, bringing half of the zombie's skull and brains with it. It finally fell back down and stayed down. Mark dropped to his knees and rested his hands on the ground, Helen couldn't tell if he was going to be sick or about to pass out.

A loud grunt by Liz made Helen look over to see her stab through the skull of her final zombie, releasing the button on her wrist blade allowing it to retract itself and saving her from having to waste energy by pulling it free. Exhausted, she too dropped to the floor, laying on her back on the short grass.

The other survivor had killed his final zombie and was doubled over, leaning on his improvised sword that he had stuck into the ground to act as a post. He stood with his hands resting on the handle of the weapon, his feet far back and spread apart and his head hanging low between his arms. Occasionally he would look up to make sure he was safe before allowing his head to flop back down.

Luke crouched down next to Mark while Helen knelt next to Liz, neither of them spoke for a while, allowing everyone to rest.

It was Mark who spoke first, "Ridgetown?" He spat the word out between deep breaths, both syllables filled with hope and worry.

"It's okay. Looks like it's taken a beating but they've got it under control. We'll take you guys back and make sure it's empty of anything undead. We need to have you all checked over though, you look like you're about to have some kind of seizure."

Mark turned his attention to the other two, "Liz, Gaz, you alive?"

The two moaned in unison, unable to verbalise a response but it was good enough for Mark.

Luke had to help Mark get to his feet, the added weight of the armor making it twice as difficult. Liz and Gaz were able to walk unaided albeit very slowly, Helen walked between them just incase they needed help. Gaz had a limp that developed enough for him to need to use his weapon as a walking stick as they got closer to the estate.

As they approached the entrance to Ridgetown they saw the metal gates back up. The gap in the wall at the top where the mechanism had been attached to the bricks hinted that the gates weren't functional, it quickly became more apparent as they got closer and saw that a truck had been parked lengthways across the gates to keep them in place.

"Hey, can someone let us in?" Luke shouted as they got closer.

Excited voices came from the inside of the wall followed by the sound of someone getting in the truck. It started and reversed slightly revealing Scott and Dennis who were waiting on the other side. Dennis pulled one of the gates open to let them in while Scott looked frustrated at not being able to help, his leg heavily bandaged and a crutch under each arm to help him move around. No one spoke until everyone was inside and the truck was back in place blocking the gate.

"It's good to see you're okay." The voice from the truck belonged to Ishaq, he hopped out and went to help Luke carry the weight of Mark who removed his arm from around Luke and began to walk unaided. "I kept trying to get hold of Allister but I haven't had a response. I'll try again but it's not looking good."

"How many have we lost? Have we done a headcount?"

Mark stopped walking as he asked, wanting to know the answer before they got too close to other residents. He wanted to stay as positive as possible under the circumstances, knowing that people would be looking for a competent leader now more than ever.

"We've not done an official count but I don't think we've lost many. When all of you went over the wall, you took the majority of the horde with you. We managed to stay on top of what was left pretty well. Eleanor said Hannah and Joseph got grabbed from the platform, I've seen Ste, Kobe and Tom's bodies near the entrance."

"Tom got killed by a Leaper that was going to kill me."

Everyone looked at Helen.

"He saved my life without even hesitating."

"That the same Leaper that Liz saved me from?" Ishaq asked.

"Yeah, that one."

Liz gave a sorrowful smile to Ishaq acknowledging his thanks.

"Are we happy with the gate? I can tell it will take a lot of work to get it back to normal but is it secure for now?" Mark's leadership persona continued to shine through.

"Yeah, we can get straight back on it tomorrow but it's safe for today." Ishaq replied.

"Gather everyone together. We need to know exactly who we've lost, check the perimeter and tend to any injuries. We'll set up a field hospital type set up in the gardens between the houses, gather everyone there."

They all headed towards Liz's house with minimal conversation. They went to the garden area round the back and split up. Liz climbed the ladder into her house to get some water and some medical supplies, Ishaq, Luke and Gaz headed in different directions to spread the word that everyone was to meet in the centre section. Helen waited with Dennis and Scott, relaying to them what she and Luke had done and listening to what happened to them.

Despite the suggestion to take Scott to Liz's house, they had initially stayed in the transmission room with Ishaq armed with sword-like weapons. They had been told that it would be the safest place for them to be and allow Ishaq to concentrate on keeping communications going without having to worry about keeping his wits about him.

Dennis and Scott, being the people they are, quickly got itchy feet staying in one place when there was a war going on outside. Ishaq also felt like they could be more use outside and told them to help people on the wall, running spears and ammunition whilst staying close enough to be able to every-so-often check in on him for updates and to make sure he was okay. Scott had tried to be as useful as possible by checking if people needed anything and then passing the requests on to Dennis.

When Ishaq had heard the commotion from the Leaper coming over the wall, Dennis and Scott had been handing out ammunition. When they came back to check on him, the gate had been compromised and Ishaq was helping to fight back the horde pouring in. The zombies began to force the residents back despite the others going over the wall and leading most of them away, they fought as long as they could before Ishaq shouted for everyone to retreat upstairs in the closest houses, recognising the advantage it would give them.