Snatchers: Volume One (The Zombie Apocalypse Series Box Set--Books 1-3) (35 page)

"It's gonna be scary times ahead," Karen agreed. "But if we let these things terrify us, life won't be worth living."

"Are yer a religious person, Karen?" Pickle was still enjoying the fresh air and breathed in a large gulp of it, with his eyelids still firmly shut.

"Not really."

"I remember a passage in the book of Zechariah. It went something like this:
Their flesh will rot while they are still standing, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. On the day, men will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. Neighbours will engage in hand combat against each other.
That's what is happening now! Even if yer a non-believer, yer have to admit, that's some freaky shit."

Karen
was
a non-believer and changed the topic with a question. "Where are we going tomorrow?"

Pickle shrugged his shoulders, and waggled his head. "I want to go somewhere where I can be normal."

Karen said with a cheeky smirk, "Nowhere then."

Pickle smiled broadly and put his arm around her and kissed her on the head. His eyes produced more tears, tears for KP. "Let's see what tomorrow brings. Maybe one day we can
all
be normal again, whatever that means."

They both looked out and admired the view for another two minutes before deciding to rest for a while. It had only been days since the outbreak had been announced, and it had been days of sheer horror.

Unfortunately, the horror had just begun.

Book Two: The Dead Don't Sleep

Chapter One

June 16th

He ran for as long as his heavy legs and gasping lungs would allow him to. His clumsy, clownish feet slapped the hard concrete, and exhaustion forced the crippling pain across his chest to snowball; he felt as if he had been struck with a plank of wood across his upper body. He stopped running and bent over in a pathetic attempt to bring oxygen back into his lungs. He wished he was back at his flat, but those things were now trying to get in, and escaping from his place seemed to be the only option left.

He held out his arms in front of him and could see his uncontrollable shaking, as if he was an addict on his third day of being 'clean'. The shaking was down to the attack by two of the creatures earlier on that were waiting at the end of his street. He managed to swerve the two individuals, like a rugby player who had just received the ball, and managed to get away with a small bite to his left forearm as they continued to claw at him.

Their stumbling was no match for his running and they had soon disappeared from view. He exited his village and could still see the steep road ahead of him; he began to pass the football field to his right—to his left was the entrance gates to the fitness centre—and something caught his eye, but carried on running as he knew it was something that was horrific. In the background he could hear a tired cry from a dying human on a football pitch, just outside the village.

He didn't want to look behind, but he eventually did and saw the area where the cries were coming from. The poor man was in a pain that
he
couldn't imagine, and he was hoping that he wasn't going to experience this kind of anguish himself in the near future. He could also see a lone ghoul limping its way in another direction, completely ignoring the 'banquet' that was occurring.

He guessed at least seven of the things were on the football field, munching on the dying individual, and had to turn away when he saw the left arm being pulled away from the body. He looked at his watch and it had been fifteen minutes since he fled the village, and he hadn't gained much, considering he was supposed to be a cardio fitness fanatic. The hill had halted his progression.

He blew out his cheeks as if he was blowing out the candles of his birthday cake, and began running for a second time, away from the village where he had stayed all his life. He finally went past the fitness centre where he worked out three days a week. He was now at the top of the hill and at a crossroad; he was confused which way to go. It was either Rugeley or Heath Hayes, but each town was a couple of miles away. He could see on the road, what looked like, a car crash involving two vehicles, but there was no one to be seen, as it looked like the people involved in the crash had fled the scene.

He looked at the carnage once more and wondered if the people had casually walked away from the crash, or had fled from those things. Now, at the top of the hill, he looked down from the main road and could see the road leading into his village. Dozens of the things walked out of the place, slowly clambering towards his direction.

He desperately banged on the doors of the houses on the main road, but there was no answer, and he wondered what was going to be the next plan of action. He could have broken in, but he feared two things: being stabbed or shot by the frightened owner, or, breaking into a house that might have had a family that were infected who were just itching to escape into the new world, where everything that walked and had a pulse was a potential meal.

He decided to avoid the main road for the time being, and began to enter the small wooded area, which was about a tenth of the size of Cannock Chase.

Before all of this had happened, he had spent over a week cooped up in his flat once the news broke out, and was pleased that the week had gone relatively well without a hitch.

From day one, his village back then was like a ghost town, but now it had escalated into something more sinister. There was dozens of them, and he wasn't sure if they were from his village or they had roamed from another place in desperate need of flesh. He wished he had made more of an attempt to flag the van down that went by a few days ago. He could see it from a distance from his bedroom window on the main road, only a hundred yards away from his flat.

With food getting short, he bravely ran into the dark and decided to try and hitch a ride, but once he was on the main road he found that the van was in no mood for stopping. He tried to wave his arms as it went by in case they thought he was one of 'them', but by then it was too late, and he headed back with sluggish and disappointed feet to the comfort of his home, and that was when he saw his first ghoul up close.

It stood in his street and glared at him from a distance. He tried a
hello
, to see if he was mistaken and the thing was actually human, but all it did was alert whatever senses it had left and it began to slumber in his direction. He then ran back into his flat, locked the door and began to pray, something he hadn't done in years.

He now looked around, and all he could see was trees. He didn't know whether it was shock, fear or confusion, but he had no idea where to go. He began to turn his walk into a gentle jog. His jogging only lasted another minute, and once again, he had to stop. Every time he turned around, he began to see black trails. He was becoming tired, agitated, and sure that he was now hallucinating.

He bent over and placed both hands on his stomach and felt unwell. Something was happening to him; something he couldn't explain. He then stood straight, which was painful, and began to rub his tender throat. When he was five years old, he had contracted mumps. It was something that took nearly two weeks to clear up, and this felt similar. He was only five years old at the time, but could still vividly remember the discomfort that he felt.

He was now feeling the tingling sensation of pins and needles in his left arm, as if he had just woken up after sleeping on it for an hour. He delicately placed his hand on the affected area and could hardly feel a thing, as if he was touching a limb that belonged to someone else.

His head spun and he half-sat and half-collapsed onto the grassy ground. He blew out his cheeks, like a blowfish, and released tension-filled air from his orifice. He rested his forehead on his hands and couldn't believe how hot he had become. He lifted his head straight up and cursed himself as tiredness was beginning to tease his senses.
Tired? With those things coming up the road, only a few hundred yards away from me? I must be mad.

He grabbed hold of a branch that was above him and attached to the nearest tree, and tried to pull himself up. Something was wrong. He felt awful, and it felt like every bone in his body ached and throbbed with pain. He managed to stand, but his legs throbbed as if he had been beaten with baseball bats. His legs felt dead, numb, and couldn't fathom why he felt so terrible. He came to the conclusion that if his 'admirers' were here, right now, he would probably find it hard to outrun the things, as he was now struggling to stand.

He sat back down, once again, and stared up at the sky. He glared at the shy sun—for maybe too long—that had reappeared from behind a cloud, and saw the sun spinning and spinning. He then looked away and saw the hexagonal red spots dance teasingly before his eyes, before eventually disappearing for good.

He felt a small pain in his stomach and without warning threw up onto the grass, most of it being blood. In any normal circumstances, he would have panicked, but this time there was no panic, just confusion. He looked at the lumpy pile of vomit and blood, and shook his head.

What was happening to him?

His eyes suddenly became so heavy that he struggled terribly to keep them open. He looked down on his T-shirt; there were now specks of blood on it from the vomiting, but he could still see the writing
Slightly Damaged Human
across the chest in dark blue letters as he looked down. It was the name of one of his favourite metal bands.

Still sitting, he looked at his small bite on his left forearm that had been received from an altercation with one of them, and rested his head against the trunk of the tree.

Trying to ignore the pain, he closed his eyes.

Chapter Two

He sat back in the van and began playing with the radio dial. It had been a while since he had heard anything, especially music, and knew that if he kept the volume at a low level, he wouldn’t be putting himself at risk.

He eventually found something. It was an interview on an unknown radio station.

Unknown Host:
"What is the cause of this outbreak, Dr Jones?"

Dr Jones:
"Well, we think it's a rabies-type virus. You can get it the same way an animal can give it to you, by saliva into the bloodstream, and in some cases, even from a scratch. Then your CNS is affected. Remember we're calling this a rabies-type infection, but it is slightly different to the original rabies. This spreads a lot quicker. Rabies sufferers become hydrophobic, but there are reports of these things in lakes and all sorts. We also believe that their blood getting into a healthy human's cut or eye could also prove fatal."

Unknown Host:
"Why has it spread so fast? It's not even an airborne virus, or is it?"

Dr Jones:
"It has spread so fast because the general public didn't know about it. It's not airborne. If it was, there would very little survivors. The only way it could go airborne is if the virus borrowed traits from another to make it an influenza-style disease. But two radically different viruses can't do this, as they are so different. At first, there were isolated incidents of biting, but when someone is injured, what happens? They get sent to hospitals, and are looked after by families. We had an incident where a person was taken to the GP's clinic. He collapsed and then awoke within an hour in the GP's nursing room. He then began to attack the waiting patients and staff. They, in turn, eventually spilled out onto the streets themselves once they reanimated, and began attacking fellow shoppers on the main street and you can guess the rest."

Unknown Host:
"So you've known for a while? But the government didn't want an 'unnecessary' national panic?"

Dr Jones:
"We were aware of isolated incidents, and the Prime Minister felt that these 'isolated' problems could be quashed. It only started to get out of hand on Saturday 9th June. Even though technically it has been around for a few weeks, we're calling Saturday 9th June officially as Day One of the outbreak. There was an attack that occurred on the Glasgow train to London from Central Station and by the time the carriage reached King's Cross, a lot of the victims had died and reanimated by the time it reached London. The whole train was infected, and don't forget the previous stops where some of them had maybe spilled out onto the platforms of Manchester, Birmingham, etc. There were also four reported incidents across the UK in hospitals as well."

Unknown Host:
"Why hospitals?"

Dr Jones:
"As I said before, if someone is bit, they might have been driven to hospital by a worried relative."

Unknown Host:
"Which hospitals has this occurred at?"

Dr Jones:
"There should be many affected, but the main four we're aware of are, The Southern General in Glasgow, where a supposed psychotic patient walked into casualty and attacked staff. You can imagine the chain reaction of that, especially as patients are lying helplessly in their beds. Stafford Hospital reported a few junior doctors being attacked. Birmingham's Children Hospital had to be closed off at parts because of a problem with admissions. The worst case that was reported was the incident in Burnley Hospital."

Unknown Host:
"Is it true that when a person is infected, it takes an hour for them to turn?"

Dr Jones:
"Roughly. Although there are reports that in some cases it has taken a lot longer. We had one incident in our lab only yards away from your studio where it took half a day for reanimation with one subject."

Unknown Host:
"Subject? Are you guys studying these things while this…carnage is happening?"

Dr Jones: (silence)

Unknown Host:
"What about armed police or the armed forces? Couldn't they contain the problem?"

Dr Jones:
"Nope. The problem was too big. Here's a classic example: On June 8th, an armed unit had stormed an office in Watford that was awash with the things. The two teams went in, and eight of the unit were taken down."

Unknown Host:
"How did that happen?"

Dr Jones:
"I'm guessing that there was too many of them, and it was unknown then that headshots were the only way to kill them. They probably had to find out the hard way, like most units around the UK probably did. Imagine the panic when open firing at these things and they're not going down and the crowd are just progressing forward without dropping or showing signs of pain when being hit. Then maybe a headshot occurs, and then suddenly the penny drops. Then after—"

He switched the radio off and sighed. It was an interview he had heard numerous times and didn't understand why the radio station insisted on repeating it. The only conclusion he could come to was that there was no one there and the radio station was on some kind of loop—something that would only be stopped once electricity ceased to exist.

It was Saturday; it had been a week since the outbreak had been officially announced. On that terrible Saturday evening, only seven days ago, the world—the UK at least—had changed for the worse, but that week had felt like months.

He looked at the digital clock on the dashboard of the van.

11.25am.

He hated waiting around.

Harry Branston sighed and looked out into the woods where he could see, in the distance, the back of his female friend who was making her way to the brook. "Hurry up, Karen."