Snatchers: Volume Two (The Zombie Apocalypse Series Box Set--Books 4-6) (25 page)

Chapter Forty Nine

His feet dragged so much that he was convinced he was going to fall down and never get back up again. His panting and sweating increased the further he ran, and he finally stopped running once he got to a field. He now had a road to go up and was dreading the climb.

Harry Branston bent over and put the palms of his hands on his knees, panting hard. Just looking at the hill made his knees buckle, and he wasn't too sure how much more he could take.

With his legs aching he decided to jog up to the peak of the road. He knew that the camp wasn't far away now, and had driven on this road before many years ago. His feet pounded the tarmac and it felt like he was going nowhere fast, like his legs were running through a stream. As he reached the top he cried out and fell to the floor. He had never ran so much in his life, and fighting with the beasts in the woods did nothing but deplete his energy.

He lay in the middle of the road, staring at the light blue sky, and allowed his body to get its breath back. He continued to gaze to the heavens, and watched as a lone cloud skated across and finally disappeared from his vision.

Snapping out of his hypnotic glare, he shook his head and quickly sat up. He reprimanded himself under his breath for his lapse of concentration, and knew that he was only a couple of miles away from the camp.

"Come on, Harry," he panted. "God gave you another chance, don't blow it."

Pickle was referring to being released by the two officers, Janine Perry and Jamie Thomson. Even though those two individuals were responsible for his and many other inmates' release, he was certain that God must have had some kind of influence on that situation. He knew what Karen would have said. She'd question that if it was God's doing, why were the other prisoners in the other houseblock left to starve to death. He smiled at her
glass is half empty
attitude and couldn't wait to see her again.

He looked down the road and a slow smile emerged on his features when he could see that it was literally downhill, and once he was at the bottom there was a field he could cut across.

His legs began the decline, and his body shook as the momentum was speeding his legs up. He looked to his right, as he reached the bottom, and saw the grassland. He climbed over the wooden fence and stumbled along the field. To his left, he could see The Ash Tree pub in the distance, and knew that once he was on the main road he was nearly there. He looked to the right and saw a long line of bushes. He was sure that behind the bushes was a small wood and a farm, but could not see it when he was climbing the road.

He looked up and winced at the burning sun. "Give me strength."

*

He turned the ignition and sighed once his eyes saw that the tank was almost on the red. "I told these pricks to fill it up." Vince slammed the palm of his hand against the wheel and took the parking brake off. "Honestly, some of these guys are about as useful as an ejector seat on a helicopter."

Vince's passenger, Jack Slade, was in no mood for Vince's jokes. He was worried for both girls, and he had a blinding headache.

"What are we gonna do when we get there?" asked Jack.

"What do you mean?" Vince pulled away from the barrier and checked in his rear-view mirror to see the HGV being reversed back to its original position. It used to be Claire that moved the HGV for vehicles leaving and arriving. God, he missed that girl.

"I mean, what is the actual protocol?" Jack queried.

"Protocol?" Vince laughed and slapped Jack on his thigh. "Have you been reading that thesaurus in the bedroom, Jackie Boy? When we get to the pub we'll see if there's any sign of the girls, and if there isn't, we go back. Simples."

Jack never responded to the driver's comment, and didn't speak to Vince for a few seconds before asking, "And there's definitely no chance of looking for them in town, with more of us?"

"And lose more people just because we were looking for another two?" Vince had now taken on a more serious tone. "Do the maths, Jack. If I have to break any more bad news to the residents, they'll demote me to dishwasher. There's been enough deaths for one week."

The truck pulled up by the pub on the right after the half-mile drive, and Jack told Vince he was going to take a step outside to see if he can get a better look. The truth was that he wanted some fresh air, and thought that there could be a danger of throwing up again. Throwing up on Vince was bad enough, but twice would have been testing his patience to the extreme.

Jack stood in front of the truck, and could see down the main road that it appeared to be clear. He could hear Vince turning the engine off, and thought that maybe he was going to join him on getting some air, but he was wrong. Jack turned around to see Vince sitting in the driver's seat, staring into nothingness. Jack was certain that most of Vince's bravado was false, and wondered what was going through his mind.

Jack took in a few gulps of air and surprisingly felt a little better, despite the headache. At least the nausea had gone away. As he usually did, he began to think about what had happened over the last four weeks. At one stage, after he had lost Thomas and was alone in the woods, he thought that he was losing it. He very nearly did lose his mind, but something had pulled him back to the real—or surreal—world. Maybe Jack was a lot stronger than he gave himself credit for.

There must have been a few men and women out there, survivors, who had gone crazy. When he thought about Slick, and his sister, he thought that maybe they were normal, hard-working citizens, who used to have a family.

He laughed and shook his head.

Maybe not.

Maybe they were always bad, but since the rules of society had gone up in flames it gave them a license to cause havoc. He had no idea of what some people were like before the virus had happened.

He thought about Karen. Here was a nurse, with a normal life and fiancé. Now, she wouldn't even flinch if she had to take out a beast with a machete. And this was only week four! It was insane how people had to adapt, and those that didn't...

Jack turned on his heels and headed back to the truck. He sat on the seat and slammed the door shut, leaving the window down.

"Feeling better?" Vince asked.

"A little."

"You know what you need, don't you?"

Jack shook his head, certain that Vince was having fun with him because he was in a fragile state.

"You need a nice runny egg, served on pile of cow shit."

Jack looked at the driver, confusion aplenty on his face. "I don't get you. I threw up on you, and you go mad. Now you're trying to make me feel sick again. What's that all about?"

Vince shrugged and said with a serious tone to his voice, "Just trying to pass the time, that's all."

Jack blew out some breath and couldn't work Vince out. He had never met anyone like him before. "I hope they're okay." Jack looked longingly down the barren road.

"So do I." Vince nodded. "There ain't much to look at in the camp. It'd be good to have a bit of talent walking around the place."

Jack laughed and gawped at Vince. "They're hardly gonna want to sleep with someone like you. Karen's old enough to be your daughter, and she's gorgeous...and pregnant."

"A proper little confidence booster, aren't you?" Vince had lightened up and Jack could see he was full of mischief again. "Anyway, pregnant women can have sex, you know."

"I'm just saying," Jack spoke defensively.

"She is hot." Vince now had a daft smile on his face, as if he was concocting all kinds of sexual imagery in his head. "I wouldn't kick Shaz out of bed for pissing on the sheets either. I'm no weather man, but she'll be getting more than a few inches this week, if she plays her cards right."

Jack ignored him. He knew Vince was trying to get a reaction out of him. Jack stretched and pretended to yawn to make Vince think that his silly comments were not bothering him, but Vince could see straight through Jack.

In his mind, Vince wasn't being evil. He was bored, and he was having a little fun.

"Maybe you should stick to working on Karen." Jack said with gritted teeth.

Vince smiled, knowing that he had touched a nerve. "Maybe you're right. Karen's some girl. As long as I have a face, she'll have a place to sit."

Jack dropped his head in his hands and tried to stifle a laugh that was dying to be released. He was unsure whether Vince was trying to be funny, or that he was so deluded that he thought he had a chance with a woman more than half his age.

"Let's go back." Vince started up the truck.

"Now?"

"We'll come back in half an hour. Maybe they'll be a sign of them then." Vince slipped the truck into first and did a slow U-turn in the road. "Besides, I need to release the chocolate hostages."

"What?"

"I need a shit, Jack."

Chapter Fifty

Karen and Shaz were near The Ash Tree pub; to their right was the last street of Brereton. It was a newly-built place where middle-class people lived, and had only been built fifteen years ago.

"I've always wanted to live here," Shaz announced.

"It's nice," said Karen.

"You used to live at Draycott Park, on the other side of town. That's a really nice area, especially for a young chick like you."

"I know." Karen began inspecting her nostril with her forefinger. "Not bad for a twenty-three-year-old."

The banal small-talk had come to an abrupt end when a pair of screams widened the girls' eyes and increased their heartbeats.

Shaz gasped, "What's that?"

Shaz and Karen stopped walking.

At the right side of the main road was a cul-de-sac, and this was where the girls could hear the shrieks of terror. But it wasn't shrieks belonging to adults; it sounded like it was coming from two female children.

Both women drew their weapons and jogged into the street and turned right into the cul-de-sac, not knowing what was going to greet them. Two creatures were at the end of the road while the two young girls ran to the end of the street, towards Shaz and Karen. Their screams intensified once their young eyes clocked Shaz and Karen and had initially thought that they were also members of the dead.

Both women told them that they weren't creatures, and begged them to come with them. The two young girls, both blonde and both younger than eleven, went with them. They looked like sisters as they were similar in appearance, but one looked slightly younger.

All four ran back to the main road and turned right. Before Karen had a chance to ask the frightened girls where they lived, what had happened to their parents, and what were their names, Shaz yelled out, "Jesus! Give us a break!"

From the Ash Tree car park, they could see an assortment of dead beasts lumbering out onto the main road. Men, women and children of all ages headed towards the four of them

"Where do they come from?" Shaz stared at the eleven ghouls.

"I don't know, but I don't think the screams helped." Karen looked at the two frightened girls, both were shivering with fear. "Whatever happens, you girls stay behind us."

Both nodded, and the youngest one tugged on Shaz's shirt and pointed. Both women looked in the direction where she was pointing and could see that there was another seven behind them, and the two ghouls from the cul-de-sac were making their way to the main road as well.

"I'm scared," the eldest of the girls sobbed.

"Look, what's your name?" asked Karen.

"Mandy," she pointed to the younger girl. "This is my sister, Heather. My mum and dad were attacked—"

"I'm sorry, we don't have time for a story. Mandy and Heather, you stay behind us; we're gonna get past these things up ahead and go to a place we know that's safe."

The girls nodded, tears streaming down their cheeks. Karen beckoned Shaz next to her and whispered, "Try not to get any blood in your eyes."

Shaz and Karen drew their weapons back and headed closer towards the eleven by the car park, moving further away from the others behind. There were two Snatchers in front of the other nine, both were heavy-looking things, and the girls were unsure whether it was due to obesity in their human life or the gasses produced once they were dead. The two members, of the group of eleven, then galloped a little faster than Shaz and Karen thought was possible.

Shaz swung her weapon and took half of the skull away, her first victim of the morning fell with a slump, the brains spilling out onto the road. Simultaneously, Karen stabbed her weapon forward at number two, penetrating the skull enough to damage its brain. Its eyes rolled back, moaned, then dropped to its knees and hit the floor face down, causing the two young girls to scream out.

"You're gonna have to knock that shit off!" Karen reprimanded them. "Keep your mouths closed."

Shaz bolted ahead of Karen and headed to the remaining nine and rammed her blade into a female ghoul, blood spitting out as she pulled it, and front-kicked another, making it fall into two others, knocking all three over. This had given the women some respite, and Karen swung her own, like a baseball bat, at a beast that was still in primary school a month ago. She sliced away the head diagonally, from the left side of the head to the right side of its neck.

They both looked around and could see that the ones from behind were gaining on them. Shaz and Karen then looked ahead at the remaining ones. Shaz called out, "We could run through them. We could make it, but I don't think the girls will."

Karen sighed, "So much for taking a step back."

Another approached, and this one looked to have already been involved in some kind of battle. Its stomach was sliced open, intestines still hung from it, and its left hand was missing. It was taken down with one strike by Shaz, but by this time the ones behind were becoming more of a problem than the ones in front.

"What's that noise?" Shaz called over the groans of the dead.

Karen was unsure and twisted her face. "Sounds like a car."

Shaz looked ahead and saw a truck coming over the brow of the hill from a distance. "It's Vince! It must be."

Ignoring her, Karen took another peep behind her and now could see about twenty of the things, and they were only a matter of yards away. She grabbed the eldest girl by the hand, and Shaz did the same with the youngest, knowing that they had no choice now, and ran at the remaining ghouls in front, despite the dangers.

Shaz and Karen kicked them down, one-by-one. Karen front-kicked one over and the final one was also front-kicked by Shaz, but her foot went straight through its middle, into its stomach. Both creature and Shaz fell to the floor. The little girl screamed, and had let go of Shaz's hand and was immediately covered by dozens of grubby hands belonging to the dead. Her eldest sister screamed as she could see eight-year-old Heather having her throat torn out by many of them, the skin on her face being peeled away, then the head was finally removed.

Karen told the sister to stay where she was and went back for Shaz. Putting the machete back into her belt, Karen grabbed Shaz under the arms and pulled her, removing the foot from inside the ghoul's stomach as the large horde were just a few feet away.

Both women were on the floor, and suddenly guns blasted from behind them and heads exploded, while Karen and Shaz struggled to get to their feet. Four ghouls fell and Karen could hear the unmistakeable sound of Vince's voice. "Let's move it, girlies."

Karen grabbed the young, distraught girl, and put her in the back of the truck, she soon followed while Vince and Jack reloaded their old shotguns with two more shells each.

Vince and Jack were standing outside the truck and both fired the rounds quickly, putting down two more and taking half the face of another that continued to move. Shaz was on her feet and was quickly grabbed by a teenage-Snatcher wearing a Nirvana T-shirt. Shaz was pulled to the ground and Jack dropped the gun and went after her while dozens began quickly encircling them. Vince and Karen looked on helplessly, knowing that if they went to help, they'd be finished. Miraculously, just as they were giving up hope, Jack and Shaz burst through the crowd.

"Go, go, go!" Jack screamed.

After picking up the gun off the floor, Jack and Shaz jumped in the back with Karen and the young girl, while Vince reversed the truck and did a one-eighty turn.

The truck travelled along the main road, and eventually went over the brow of the hill. Karen peered out from the back and saw that the HGV trucks were blocking the road, and the selection of caravans were to the right. The only thing that would have improved its destination was if it was on a hill, rather than at the bottom of the hill. Karen thought that being at the bottom of the hill made the camp a little vulnerable, but had a cheek to begin complaining.

At least the place had a bit of muscle. It wasn't enough to scare off a gang of well-trained individuals, but it was better than nothing. Pickle would have made a difference to this place. She raised a sad smile.

Vince stopped the truck by the barrier and went round the back of it and said to Shaz and Karen, "From now on we're gonna have a man on the brow of the hill, just in case more turn up. Should have done it sooner. Any Rotters that we see in the distance, we'll now get rid of, rather than waiting for them to come to the blockade."

He then told the two men standing on top of the HGV to help the people into the camp. "Put them in Jack's caravan. It should be clean now." He looked at the distraught girl. "Take her to Margaret; she's good with grief and shit like that."

Karen refrained from going to the caravan and decided that she needed some air. She sat on the grass and threw her head back. She lost herself for a minute, but her daydreaming came to an end once Vince returned with two men. Vince then began discussing a topic with the two men in private, and they nodded in unison. Vince went back into the truck with the men in the passenger seat, and Karen yelled over, "Where the hell are you going?"

"I'm gonna run the rest of them down, finish them off before they get to the barrier." He then giggled, "Fuck knows what state this truck's gonna be in when we get back. So long, sugar muffin."

"I'll come with you."

"No chance, not in your condition." He cackled, "You go indoors and put your feet up. Those ankles are looking a little swollen."

She gave him the finger as he waited for the HGV to reverse back to allow them out. Once it did, he drove away, heading for the peak of the road.

Karen could hear the words of Shaz swirling around her head like cigar smoke.
Take a step back
.

*

Vince drove so fast over the brow of the hill that the wheels left the tarmac. As the vehicle began to pick up speed the remaining ghouls could be seen up ahead. Vince laughed and pressed his foot harder on the gas pedal, the truck seconds away from causing carnage. "Put your seatbelts on, lads."

They did as they were instructed and the truck ploughed into the remaining dead. All three men jolted forward as the windscreen was decorated in dark gunk and rotten brains. Vince panicked once the windscreen was impossible to see through and he shouted out, "Shit!" before slowing the vehicle down. He hit the windscreen wipers, but all they did was smear the blood. "Okay," he laughed falsely. "I didn't think this through properly."

He pulled his window down and slipped the gear stick into reverse. He peered out the driver's window, seeing that there was two of them still on their feet, and pressed down the gas pedal. Once the truck smacked the two beings, Vince brought the truck to a stop. "Out!"

Vince and his men exited the vehicle and could see blood and limbs everywhere. They counted that four were still moving, the others were probably crushed from the wheels. Vince pointed over to two already on the floor.

His men took out their blades to take care of them, while Vince walked over to a Rotter that had lost its legs. It dragged itself across the tarmac through the blood and guts from the dead that had been destroyed, and snarled at Vince, still desperate to take a chunk from his warm body.

Vince casually walked over to the being and rammed his knife into the top of its cranium. He looked over to see his men had finished stabbing at the skulls of the other two, and Vince Kindl went over to a fourth beast that he had noticed. This one had been cut in half by the impact of the truck. It was easy to tell which ones they had just killed, and the ones that had been destroyed earlier on. All the ones with head wounds, big or small, were done by Shaz, Karen, Vince and Jack earlier on. The ones that had heads crushed and had missing limbs, had been hit by the truck.

He walked over to the creature that had lost its body from the breast bone, and as he looked at its milky eyes, its gnashing yellow teeth, and catching a whiff of the awful smell, he began to pity it. He put his knife away and crouched down, just yards away from the thing.

"What the fuck is happening in this world?" He stood back up and brought the heel of his boot down on its skull. Three blows it took before the boot went straight through the head and its teeth stopped gnashing.

Vince looked over to the two men. The witnessing of the last Rotter had affected him, but he tried to laugh it off. "Well, that was fun."