Ridgetown (Book 2): Neighbours Page 6

  “Have we got something to show you!” Ishaq sounded excited as he walked over to greet them.

  Scott stood up from his chair and also welcomed them, starting with Luke who he hadn’t seen in person for a while, despite working so closely to develop the new locking system via messaging. Dennis walked in from the kitchen with two mugs of coffee, black, how most people drank it, due to the scarcity of milk. He was visibly startled when he saw them, nearly spilling the drinks.

  “Welcome!” He shouted in surprise. “When did you get here?”

  “Just now, we got a bit worried when you guys weren’t waiting for us upstairs.” Replied Mark.

  “Sorry about that, we’ve not had the cameras on the screen. We’ve been going through some of the pictures we took last night and you might be surprised at what we saw.”

  “Come and have a look at this. Sorry abut the quality but it was moving when I took the pictures, quickly as well!” Scott sat back down as he spoke and enlarged some of the pictures he had been looking through. “I got a video of it moving as well, it’s pretty loud which is why we were shocked that we hadn’t seen it until now.”

  Mark, Helen and Luke moved closer to the screen. Mark was expecting to see a picture of one of the Scutters from the shop or maybe one of the Screamers he had heard about.

  Luke let out an audible gasp.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Asked Helen.

  “Yep.” Scott sounded pleased. “It’s a train.”

  Chapter 4

  Luke and Helen looked at each other in disbelief, Mark looked between Scott and Ishaq, waiting for one of them to say something. Neither of them spoke, they simply grinned at him.

  The quality of the picture wasn’t great, it was pixelated from being enlarged, obviously due to it being taken from a considerable distance. The train was also moving making the pixelation even worse. Despite this, it was obvious that the image was of an electric train with multiple carriages attached to it. The markings for the train company were still visible on the side of the vehicle but it had clearly been reinforced. Thick plated steel covered the windows and around the doors. Razor wire snaked round the top and side of the train to stop any unwanted guests swarming over it. There were also sharp jagged spikes protruding from random points on the train, Mark dreaded to think what level of damage they could achieve once the train was moving at top speed but found himself wondering how much of a difference all the added weight would make to its speed.

  “How fast did it move exactly? It looks like they’ve added enough extra metal to make another train.” He asked.

  “You know, that didn’t really occur to me when we saw it. It seemed to get up to a decent speed, probably what you’d expect from a normal train.” Dennis replied.

  “It got up to speed? So it wasn’t moving when you first saw it?”

  “No, and that’s something else we need to tell you about. We followed the noise of the vehicles we’d told you about, they turned out to be two HGVs and two four by fours. We followed them close to the store you told us about, might actually have been the same one. They stopped near there for about an hour, loaded some stuff into one of the trucks and lit the place on fire.”

  Helen looked at Mark wild eyed.

  “That’s where Red team have headed this morning.” Mark told Dennis.

  “Don’t think they’ll find much, looked like they were trying to destroy whatever was inside.”

  “I’d better warn them. If those Scutters fled the building because of the fire, Red team could be walking into a brand new trap.” Mark took his phone out of his pocket and walked past Dennis into the kitchen.

  “We didn’t get a very clear look at them at that point but seeing them later on at the train station, looked like they were made up of two groups. A couple of them were dressed like you or I, casual clothes with the occasional bit of improvised armour, but the others looked… Professional.”

  “Professional?” Luke was intrigued.

  “Yeah, like military or private security or something.” Scott clarified.

  Dennis continued. “They were all wearing black, looked like similar armour to each other. Expensive looking. Not to mention they all carried guns.”

  Although she had joked with Mark about him not trusting anyone anymore, Helen still harboured her reservations about survivors she didn’t know. She always still looked for the ulterior motive in people and was hesitant to let her guard down. The lack of contact from this other group had caused her some concern and learning that it consisted of potentially two groups was particularly disturbing. It would be bad enough to have one group of potential rivals, never mind two separate factions working together.

  The fact that some of them had guns also made her feel uncomfortable. When she had first been introduced to Ridgetown, the availability of guns came as a surprise to her. Handheld weapons (or melee weapons as the gamers referred to them) were universally used due to a combination of availability, not having to reload them and the lack of noise compared to a gun that announced where you were to any nearby zombie.

  If the group of individuals had been military or police, Helen may have felt more relaxed but the way Dennis and Luke described them made them sound more like mercenaries working with a group of survivors.

  Dennis continued his account of their scouting mission.

  “When they left the store we were going to come back here but Ishaq suggested we followed them to see where they went. We made sure we kept our distance, it was light enough that we could drive without any lights but dark enough to give us some cover. It took a while because we’d wait until they were nearly out of sight before we moved forward in pursuit, something told us that we shouldn’t announce ourselves straight away.”

  Mark reentered the living room. “Gaz said the place is just a shell. The fire’s burnt itself out due to the shop not being connected to any other building but he doesn’t think there are any Scutters left. You know what Gaz is like, he’s determined to check it out anyway so I’ve told him to be extra cautious and assume they’re all still in the area somewhere.” Realising he had interrupted Dennis, Mark prompted him to continue.

  “They headed towards the landfill site over the canal so we parked up and headed out on foot. The train track runs parallel to the canal on the opposite side of the landfill and the trucks drove over to a section of the fencing that had been removed allowing them to drive right up to the tracks where the train was waiting.”

  Ishaq continued the story, “We got as close as we could while they were unloading the trucks. They had some big boxes on pallets and used a forklift to get them onto the train.”

  “Could you tell what was in the boxes?” Luke asked.

  “No idea, the first truck only had one and the other had three. They were big though. Hard to judge from where we were, I’d guess at about fifteen feet by ten feet and about five feet deep?”

  “Did everyone leave on the train?” Mark asked?

  “No. The people in the body armour got on the train and the plain clothes survivors stayed at the tip, I think that may be their base. We got in by propping some stuff up next to the fence but it looked like it would keep any stray zombies out, didn’t notice any in the area either. We took some pictures as the train set off and then left before we got noticed.”

  “Any ideas on numbers?”

  “No, again we were trying to be as covert as possible. Probably around five in each group though.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment, Mark was the first to speak.

  “Okay. From what little we know, I think we should try to find out a bit more about these people before we introduce ourselves.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  “Our ethos has always been to welcome everyone to Ridgetown but there are a couple of things about this group that concern me. Let’s try not to jump to conclusions about them, let’s just be cautious. Keep a look out on the message boards for any of them making contact and check safe houses in t
he area for any activity.” He turned to directly address Dennis, Ishaq and Scott. “Until then, would you guys mind trying to find out a bit more about them? I don’t want you taking any unnecessary risks, you’re safety is priority, but anything we can find out about them would be useful.”

  “I could come down with a drone, check the landfill site from a safe distance?” Luke sounded eager to help.

  Mark considered it for a few seconds before shaking his head. “Not yet. If they see us spying on them it could give the impression we’re hostile.” He could see that Luke was visibly deflated. “It’s not a bad idea, I just think we should hold off for now.”

  The group discussed being more vague about Ridgetown on the website, it was currently described as a group of safe houses rather than the walled community that it was. Scott suggested removing its description from the map completely but Mark pointed out again that they didn't want to be actively hiding from this new group incase they interpreted it as being hostile. There was nothing wrong with being cautious but they were trying to build a community that would thrive with every new person that joined them and they didn’t want to be seen picking and choosing who could join them.

  Dennis agreed that as The Outpost was close to the unknown group, they would keep the doors inside the safe house entrance locked and keep both the vehicles round the back. They would give the impression that there wasn’t anyone else there until they were confident any visitors in the entrance building were friendly. Mark worried about the capability of The Outpost being able to defend themselves against a group of survivors with body armour and guns, especially considering Dennis’s age and Ishaq and Scott’s current conditions but he was reassured at how well they had handled their covert mission the evening before.

  As the discussion continued, Mark’s phone buzzed indicating that Ridgetown was ringing him. He pressed the app and heard Jack’s voice.

  “Blue team, this is Ridgetown. Are you receiving?”

  “This is Blue team.”

  Voices lowered to allow Mark to talk.

  “Blue team, be advised that Red team is returning to base. They wanted to relay that they have found the corpse of a Scutter and they’re taking it straight to the lab.”

  Mark’s voice betrayed his surprise, “Oh, right. Erm… That’s received. We’ll be returning shortly. ETA is estimated to be… Figures thirty.”

  Faintly in the background, Mark could hear Eleanor explaining that it meant they would be back in thirty minutes. He smiled as he remembered that Jack was still new to this.

  “Blue team, that’s received. Ridgetown out.”

  Mark hung up and addressed the room that had now fallen silent.

  “Red team have bagged a dead Scutter, they’re taking its body back to Liz’s lab.”

  Helen stood up straight away, “Let’s go then.”

  Luke looked up at her and quickly got to his feet.

  Mark turned back to Dennis. “I guess that means we’re going. We’ll send you some pictures and video of it when we get back.”

  “Okay then, just be careful.”

  “You too.”

  Eager to get back to Liz’s lab, Mark, Helen and Luke hurried into the car outside and headed back as briskly as they could. Mark drove whilst Helen and Luke kept an eye out for any wandering mobs, Luke slightly distracted by the thought of having a good look at one of the elusive creatures that had nearly trapped Helen and Mark.

  They drove past the Ridgetown estate and took the car straight to the lab, they found Gaz’s car already parked outside and empty. They made their way into the playhouse, up onto the walkway and across to the lab. As they entered the building via an upstairs window, they could hear the voices of Red team and Liz.

  The inside of the building had been opened up as much as possible, any non load baring wall had been removed to make space to move tables, equipment and bodies. Any furniture that couldn’t be utilised had also been removed to create space for freezers, fridges and tables. The rooms were kept very light, which helped avoid an aura of evil that the lab was at risk of emitting.

  They descended the stairs into what had been a hallway and entered the living room. The adjoining wall between the living room and the kitchen behind it had been removed to create one large open space. In the centre of that space was a thick table that was used as the dissection table for any test subjects. Red team were surrounding it and they all turned when they heard Blue team enter. Mo and Idris stepped aside to allow Mark and the others to see the creature that lay on the table in the middle of them. Gaz and Liz stood at the far end of the table.

  “The place was pretty much burnt out but we found this thing amongst the ruins. Doesn’t look very badly burnt and, to be honest, after the description you gave, it looks a fair bit different to what I was expecting.” Said Gaz.

  Mark glanced between Gaz and the creature lay on the table. “That’s not one of them.”

  “Eh?” Gaz questioned.

  “I don’t know what this thing is, but it’s not a Scutter.”

  The members of Red team looked at each other in confusion.

  Helen stared at the creature lay on the table in front of her, unable to take her eyes off it. Whereas the Scutters were short and skinny, this one was the size of a normal adult and at first looked reasonably well built. The lights lit up the body and shone off the bones that protruded from its skin. Helen stepped forward for a closer look at the creature and realised that most of what she thought was skin was actually bone. Pieces of bone protruded from its skin like plates all over its body making it look more well built than it actually was.

  Helen thought hard about what the Scutters had looked like. It had been dark and had all happened so fast, she knew this thing didn’t look like what she remembered but tried to focus on anything that it had in common with them. The Scutters’s heads looked very skull like due to what little skin it had being pulled tight over it, in comparison this creature looked like the bones of its skull were over emphasised. The ridges around its eyes were very noticeable, making its eye sockets look sunken.

  That was something Helen definitely remembered about the Scutters, their complete lack of eyes. This thing did have eyes but they were hard to see, nearly hidden in the sockets. The eyeballs had the now familiar pale appearance that came from being exposed to the elements due to a lack of blinking. Its jaw was larger than average, giving a slightly animalistic look to it.

  Rather than the bones protruding through the skin like they had punctured it, the skin seemed to fuse to the bones. Helen focused on one of the plates that sprouted from near the creature’s neck and covered its shoulder, trying to see the point where the skin stopped and the bone began. It was obvious towards the end of the plate that it was just bone without skin but Helen couldn’t see a definitive line. It was as if the skin became the bone and vice-versa. The same was true around its chest where the ribs were clearly visible, being abnormally angular and oversized and the skin stretched from the bottom ribs to the oversized hip bones. There was no clear definition between the skin and bone. The most noticeable parts of the creature were its hands. On top of its hands as well as underneath, bones protruded like spikes. The spikes continued up its wrists and the top of its forearms. The spikes were jagged like snapped branches on a tree.

  “We found it in the store. Under the nest that you told us about. The nest was burnt up but it was obvious what it was from your description. Gaz and Idris pulled it out and carried it outside, they got it in the boot of the car but we had to leave it open on the way back. ” Liz broke the silence.

  “It wasn’t there when we were, at least I don’t think it was.” Said Mark. “The Scutters that we saw were a lot smaller than this. I’m sure if this thing had been there, we would have noticed it.”

  “You didn’t notice the Scutters at first though…” Gaz pointed out.

  “True. Except this looks like it would make a fair bit of noise moving around, doesn’t look like it could move anywhere nea
r as fast either.”

  Luke circled the table, surveying the creature. He had only seen one special zombie, those were the Leapers that he had seen just over two months ago, he compared this to one of them. Although it was nowhere near the size of the Leaper, the jagged bones that stuck out of its hands and evil looking face made it just as terrifying. It looked the least human of any zombie he had ever seen and that made it look like even more of a monster.

  “We haven’t been back long so we’re still unsure how it died. It doesn’t look too badly burned so it’s unlikely that the fire killed it and if every other zombie is anything to go by, we can rule out smoke inhalation.” Liz sounded puzzled, as if she was vocalising her thought process and ticking her theories off as she went along. “I’ve yet to check for wounds but the most likely option is that the other group of survivors killed it before they set the store alight and its bone plating has prevented it from being damaged by the fire.”

  “If the other survivors killed it, why aren’t there any signs of it putting up a fight? No blood or gore on its spikes?” Mark asked.

  “Maybe it was in some kind of hibernating state?” Suggested Helen.

  “What physiological reason would it have to hibernate though?” Asked Liz. “I’m not dismissing your idea, just interested to know what you’re thinking.”

  “Maybe it started out as a Scutter and went into a hibernating state to grow these plates. Like a monstrous version of a caterpillar. Maybe it didn’t wake up because it was in this state and the survivors killed it without it fighting back? Or the fire did kill it?”

  Luke listened to the theories and continued to circle the corpse. When he got to the feet, he peered at the bottom of them, the toes looked like the bones sprouting from the hands, like snapped branches.

  “Erm, didn’t you say you had to pull it out from under the nest? And carry it to the car?”

  Everyone turned to look at Luke.

  “Yes?” Answered Liz, hesitantly.