Snatchers: Volume Two (The Zombie Apocalypse Series Box Set--Books 4-6)
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Authors: Shaun Whittington
SNATCHERS: VOLUME TWO
By
Shaun Whittington
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2015
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The author uses UK English
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To my children, you are the sunshine of my life.
Author's Note
This is a work of fiction, and many of the events in the book occur in real places. However, in these areas I have taken the liberty of exaggerating certain things that suited the book. Other places that are mentioned may not be real at all, so if you are from the area that I have written about, try not to be too upset that I have twisted a few things.
This is a book about a zombie apocalypse, so it does contain tension, gore, and scenes that could upset individuals, especially scenes involving children. It needs to be as real as possible, and in reality nobody would be exempt from such an unforgiving world.
Very kind regards,
Shaun Whittington
SNATCHERS: VOLUME TWO
The fear of death is more dreaded than death itself.
Publilius Syrus
When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.
LUKE 21:5-28
Chapter One
June 30th
The blade went through the cranium, sending blood flying backwards, and the ghoul released one last moan before crashing to its knees and slamming face-down onto the hard floor, crushing its nose.
Vince Kindl then glared at his associates and announced, "Keep movin' guys. I haven't come all this way to be munched on by these fuckers."
The four individuals were all wearing a backpack, each full of medical supplies that had just been stolen. They ran down the long white corridor and knew there were many beasts behind, and that there could be many others around every corner they went past.
They were nearing the exit of the main building of the hospital and Vince Kindl, Jack Slade, Claire, and another fellow by the name of Paul, could see the signs to the accident and emergency department. Vince then barged through a set of double doors that led into a reception, forcing Jack to yell out, "A bit more stealth would be good, Vince."
"Fuck off, Jackie Boy," Vince slated. "If you hadn't have tried that staff room door, we wouldn't have about twenty dead doctors and nurses running after us."
"Running?"
"You know what I mean, I—oh fuck!"
All four reached the reception area of the accident and emergency department, and it appeared that the waiting room was awash with the dead. Twelve to be exact.
"Don't move," whispered Claire.
"Well, I was hardly going to start and do the Lambada," Vince retorted quietly.
All four stared at the horrific scene.
There were ghouls that used to be children, mothers, grandparents, that were moping around the waiting room area, and what baffled the four of them was that the main doors that led out onto the hospital's car park were open. So why were these things not outside?
Jack Slade then slapped Vince on the shoulder and pointed to the corner of the room. Sat in the corner was a bloody pile of...nobody knew, but they were certain that it used to be human. They looked closely and long enough and could see an ulna bone, intestines, and what was left of a human skull.
A kill had taken place; whether it was an escaping patient or a member of staff, they weren't sure. It was hard to tell from the bloody torn rags whether it used to be a uniform of some kind, or was normal civilian clothing. The clothes were torn and scattered along the floor in pieces, as if the clothing had been ripped from the individual's body—which was probably the case—to get at the flesh.
No one knew for definite what had really happened, but one thing was for certain: Vince, Jack, Claire and Paul were probably going to have to kill some of these man-eating freaks before reaching outside and going to their pick-up trucks that sat about a hundred yards away.
"Doesn't seem to be any other thing for it." Vince pulled out the shotgun that was strapped to his back, but Claire was the first to protest, in silence.
She placed her hand on the barrel and shook her head at the man she had every respect for, although his crude jokes and sometimes his spur-of-the-moment actions were hard to fathom. She then finished glaring at him, swung her head around, making her blonde ponytail swing like a pendulum, and pointed towards the main doors.
The group could now see their vehicles on the car park, but there was also three ghouls shambling around them, which meant there could be many more outside that they couldn't see until they reached the outdoors. This highlighted that removing the fiends in the waiting room, quietly,
was
necessary, because if they
did
make a run for it and were confronted by too many ghouls in the car park, they would also have to deal with the twelve in the waiting room that would, more than likely, follow them outside.
Claire watched Vince slowly put the shotgun away, and she said softly, "You use that thing and every one of those things will come our way. We've got about twenty behind us from that staff room, those twelve," she pointed in the waiting room, "and probably many others in the car park."
"We're wasting time." Jack lifted his machete, ready to strike. Paul pulled out his knife, whereas Vince and Claire were both carrying hatchets.
"Right, peeps. Blades at the ready." Vince turned around to make sure every member of his team were wearing goggles and nodded. "Let's make this quick. And whatever you do, don't lose your bags."
"Wow, you're so thoughtful," Jack quipped.
Vince had noticed that only two of the twelve creatures were aware of their presence and were now walking towards them. The other nine were walking around in their dead daze, with the other one sitting on the floor, chewing on some bloody meat from the earlier kill.
It took a while, but the smell of death finally assaulted their senses, and Paul turned around to throw up on the floor, just missing Jack's boots by inches. "Jesus."
At first, the group seemed hesitant, but Vince decided to lead the way and headed towards the waiting room. The other three followed with their weapons drawn.
Blow after blow was created, causing carnage and blood to fly and spill onto the walls and mainly the floor of the room. Many fell with massive injuries to their craniums. One ghoul, an elderly female, was struck in the side of the head and once a part of her head and face fell away, she dropped to the floor. The left side of her face, that was severely disfigured, dropped out a handful of maggots that wriggled excitedly once they hit the ground.
Jack struck out at his second victim and sliced through the head diagonally, the blade embedding itself from the left side of the head to the right side of the chin. The weapon eventually came free, temporarily staining the large blade almost black, and Jack turned around to see that Claire, Paul and Vince were still hacking away at these slow, but uncompromising creatures.
"Jack!" exclaimed Vince, as he rammed his blade through the skull of his latest conquest. "Hurry it up, will you. You're taking ages."
Vince was right. There were initially twelve beasts; four humans, and Jack had only just taken down his second.
There were two left, and Jack approached a ghoul that was no older than twelve years old when it was a living thing. He brought the blade down using a chopping method, and the blade went straight through the centre of the skull, right down to the top of its mouth. He didn't need to remove the blade, as once the young girl fell to the floor, the machete came free by itself.
Jack turned to see Claire removing the last fiend, and once she removed her weapon from its cranium, she wiped it on the cloth of a nearby chair and bent over, out of breath.
All four members of the group looked exhausted and glared at one another, then took a look to the floor where their victims lay, most were practically decapitated.
"I'm used to the odd one," admitted Vince, trying desperately to catch his breath. "But I'm not fit enough to take gangs of these things down."
"What's that noise?" asked Paul with heavy breath.
The three men glared at one another, and all three removed their goggles. Jack walked over to the double doors that Vince had recklessly crashed through earlier. He opened the doors by two inches and peered in the crack to see a horde of ghouls that were from the staff room that Jack had opened, stumbling through the corridor, heading in their direction.
"It's them." Jack looked at Vince and nodded towards the exit doors and said, "We're gonna have to get to those trucks right now."
"Easier said than done." Vince looked out into the car park and saw that the three deadheads that were by the pick-up trucks earlier had now turned into seven.
Claire also took a look out to the car park. "If we don't go now, there could be even more."
"True." Vince nodded.
Claire took a walk out to get a better look and carefully peered out. She came back and said, "There're a few more scattered about the car park, but they're a fair distance away. She then looked at Vince. "Maybe now you should get that shotgun ready."
"Yeah," Jack agreed. "I'm knackered, and these bags aren't helping either."
"Okay, okay," Vince mocked. "You bunch of pussies." He then pulled out his shotgun. "I'll make two blasts, then you three go in with your blades while I reload."
All three nodded in agreement.
"Right," Vince smiled, almost as if he was enjoying the situation. "Better make this quick, bitches. I'll be needing a shit soon."
Chapter Two
The rotting beast moaned as the machete sliced through its skull on its second attempt. It fell to the floor, and once she wiped the blade on the grass and spat at the corpse, she looked back over to her friend to see if she was okay.
She took another look at the ghoul that had spooked both women. They weren't expecting this little visitor. "Cocksucker," she moaned.
"I thought you said these woods were Snatcher-free." Sharon Bailey stepped out of the stream and quickly placed a towel around her shivering frame. Her hair and body had been washed, and had no idea what was going on until she saw Karen strike out.
"So did I, Shaz." Karen Bradley stood over the ghoul, naked, and was dripping wet after stepping out of the stream when the beast was spotted halfway through her wash. "That's the first time I've seen one in these neck of the woods."
Shaz looked through the trees and pointed at the hill where Wolf's cabin sat. "You're still confident they can't get up that hill?"
"Absolutely." Karen nodded and brushed her wet brown hair behind her ears. "I can just about get up the fucker myself."
Karen walked over to the bag that they had both taken with them and pulled out a towel. She gave it a sniff and screwed her face in disgust. "We're gonna have to get these washed after today."
"I wonder what's for dinner tonight?" Shaz asked, changing the subject.
"Probably soup again," Karen snickered, and dabbed her body with the towel, then started drying her hair the best she could.
She looked at the towel as if it had upset her in some way, and shook her head. It was amazing, even in the fourth week of this disaster, the little things that Karen Bradley missed.
She would love, even if it was just for one day, to step into a hot shower; soap up her body with her un-perfumed soap, followed by her L'Oreal shampoo and conditioner. After the shower, in the old world, she'd then brush her hair and blow-dry it with her Revlon hair dryer, on the warm setting, of course. and then use her GHD hair straighteners.
Snapping out of her daydream and going back to the subject of dinner, Karen added with a smirk, "Yesterday, Wolf and Pickle spent most of the day picking berries and mushrooms, so I've got a feeling it could be mushroom soup."
"Listen to us moaning." Shaz shook her head and looked up at the sky with her big blue eyes. She then closed them, enjoying the wind lick her features. "We should be ashamed of ourselves."
"I know," agreed Karen. "People are dead; some starving, and here we are moaning that the food is crap."
"We?"
Karen gave Shaz a feigned-scowling look, then burst into laughter. "Okay. Just me then. But, to be fair, you were whingeing that the water tasted a bit funny from the sink."
"It did."
"Well, Pickle went to the stream where Wolf gets the water and said that it was clear."
"Maybe I'm just paranoid." Shaz began putting her underwear on, despite the fact that she wasn't properly dry. "Once I thought it tasted funny, I had this vision of one of
them
," she pointed at the beast Karen had just killed, "lying in the stream, polluting the crap out of it."
"You're getting worse than Wolf. We're not gonna have to boil the water for you now as well, are we?"
"No. A waste of gas, if you ask me." Thirty-year-old Sharon Bailey put on her black combat trousers and her grey T-shirt. "Those canisters aren't gonna last long the rate he's using them."
"We'll get more. We haven't been to the Pear Tree Estate for days, but I'm sure there could be more goodies down there once we run out of stuff."
Shaz then looked up in thought and a smile emerged on her face.
Noticing the daft smirk on her friend's features, Karen asked, "What is it?"
She snapped out of her short daydream and shook her head, and glanced over to Karen with the smile disappearing from her face. "In the old days," Shaz began. "I used to be a bit of a fitness freak, but right now I could kill for a Big Mac, fries and a McFlurry with a full-fat coke."
"Don't even think about that. You're just torturing yourself," Karen said while putting her knickers on.
"Spencer used to love a McFlurry." Shaz lowered her head as soon as she mentioned the name of her deceased son.
"What do you miss the most, apart from family members?"
Shaz shrugged her shoulders. She had no definitive answer and said, "Off the top of my head...I miss my Kindle, my iPhone, and especially my waxing machine."
"Tell me about it." Karen ran her fingers across her legs. "Give me another month and I'll be hairier than Pickle."
There was a silence between both women. Before Karen had a chance to put the rest of her dark clothing on, that sat in a crumpled heap by the bank of the stream, Shaz queried, "You still think about that...?" Shaz stopped herself from asking the question.
As if Karen could read her mind, she said, "Sniper?"
Sharon nodded.
"Every day. That individual saved our arses that day. Still bugs me that I don't know who it is."
Shaz suddenly blurted out, "Shit."
Karen looked at Shaz's face. She looked angry more than frightened, and Karen asked, "What is it?" and then looked over her shoulder to see for herself.
"Another one." Shaz pointed into the trees and could see that the being was fifty yards away and speeding up, now it had spotted two potential meals. "Where're they coming from?"
"I have no idea." Karen picked up her machete that was lying by the bank of the stream and walked over to the Snatcher, still just wearing her knickers. She waited until the fiend got nearer, and once the decomposing creature, that was wearing a blood and dirt-stained yellow skirt and a dirty T-shirt, came into Karen's striking range, the twenty-three-year-old former nurse struck the beast with a two-handed strike, taking its head clean off from the neck.
She stepped over the headless body and walked over to the head that still continued to snarl and gnash its teeth, despite the fact that it had no stomach for the meat to dwell, and its movements ceased when Karen rammed her weapon through its skull.
Once she removed her weapon, she looked down onto her body, noticing that there were a few specks of dark blood on her breasts, and she shook her head.
Karen angrily drove the blade into the dirt and muttered to no one in particular, "Two of them. What the fuck is going on?"
"Maybe there's been a kill not too far away from here." Shaz was unsure with her theory, but continued anyway. "It probably attracted a horde of the things, then once the food was no more, they dispersed, or..." Shaz laughed and playfully slapped herself across the face, gently. "I ain't got a clue really."
"I think you could be right." Karen nodded her head.
"Anyway. We should be okay staying up that." Shaz pointed through the trees, up at the hill.
"Yes we will." Karen looked back down at her breasts once again. "Give me that flannel," Karen called over to Shaz.
"What is it?"
Karen pointed at the small specks of dark blood on her body. "Looks like I'm gonna need another quick wash."