Ridgetown: A zombie apocalypse novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

frown. Before she could verbalise a response the shape in the vent moved slightly. It wasn't a significant movement, it could have just been a transfer of weight from one tired limb to another but it was enough to shift extra weight onto one of the wires that hung from the ceiling via a hook. A hook which had been supporting half of the weight inside the vent for the last twenty minutes and had slowly worked its way free with every slight movement, a hook that couldn't hold on anymore and fell from the ceiling.

    Luke felt the vent give way around him. His stomach lurched as gravity took control of his body and he hit the ground hard, the flimsy metal offering no protection from the collision. He had been lying on his back and trying to turn onto his side when the vent fell, his outstretched body had spread the force of the impact. Unfortunately, it also knocked the wind out of him and he struggled to breathe.
    With his breath taken out of him and the vent wrapped tightly around him, Luke began to panic. He tried desperately to breathe in but each attempt resulted in him opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water, his arms were extended above his head with no room between his body and the thin metal. He couldn't move and he couldn't breathe, only his legs protruded from the vent, which he kicked wildly in a vain hope that it would help. He heard voices and suddenly remembered that he wasn't alone. Still struggling to breathe, his body allowed him short, shallow breaths that burned with each gasp and made a raspy noise like each gasp was his last.
    "Scott, help me lift him up."
    Scott and Dennis each held a side of the vent and lifted it to a vertical position. As soon as the vent was stood up, Luke collapsed to his knees and the vent would have tipped over again if Scott hadn't stopped it from falling. They peered inside to see Luke with his hands still outstretched above him, looking up at them and taking quick, shallow breaths.
    They each grabbed an arm and pulled him up, holding the vent in place with their other arms. Once he was stood they helped lift him out of the vent and allowed him to stumble forward a few steps, doubled over but breathing deeper and slower. Helen fidgeted with her weapon, fighting the urge to raise it and brandish it at this stranger but she knew that Dennis was trying to build bridges and start afresh, she didn't agree but she respected his decision.
    Once Luke had regained control of his breathing he looked at the three people stood around him. One of the men looked considerably older than the other but looked relatively friendly. The other guy looked a similar age to Luke but was hard to read, his face gave no indication to what he was thinking. The woman looked a few years younger than Luke, he suddenly felt embarrassed because he found her really attractive but, more importantly, she looked really mean. Couple that with the fact that she tried to kill him and Luke was pretty sure she was the least friendly of the three.
    The old guy stepped forward and held out a hand, "I'm Dennis."
    Luke couldn't help but notice that the other two were giving each other hesitant looks in the background. He knew that he needed to make a confident introduction so he stepped forward and shook Dennis's hand.
    "I'm Luke."
    "Luke, I understand you're probably feeling uneasy about us at the minute but I can assure you, you're not in any danger. Setting the alarm off was a mistake, we shouldn't have done that, but I hope you can see that we came straight over here to help you out. Surely that suggests that we wanted to correct that mistake?"
    As Dennis talked, Luke noticed the woman walking over to the workstation. He kept an eye on her in his peripheral vision and watched her typing on a small laptop. She stared intently at the screen, angrily tapping the keys and frowning before turning back to Luke and marching over.
    "He's hacked into the Wifi." she said accusingly.
    "Hey, you tried to kill me and I