‘Norman Morgan from The Grange!’ said Ernie ‘Yes it certainly fits the bill. But I can't see why all the village wasn't infected, when he got them up there.’ They all stopped for a moment and wondered about this. Liz caught her breath. She had worked it out.
‘He gave us different food in the changing room, separate from the other guests. He told us we were to eat that. The other must have been fine.’
‘That would explain why there wasn't so many all at once. He would start it off slow, then he mean he would be able to turn them one by one, until he has enough to take over the village,’ Bob said nodding in agreement.
‘Sneaky wee bastard,’ Wee Renee snapped.
‘I haven't met this Norman,’ said Danny, ‘but surely if he is a foreigner, we might just be jumping to conclusions.’
‘Okay, so what if he wasn't a foreigner?' said Bob. ‘What if he was just an English man? Would we still think it was him? A stranger comes here and then weird things started to happen.’
They all agreed that they would still think the same thing. ‘Has anyone seen him in the day. Has he been round the village. He supposedly had a party to get to know everyone. His hospitality and friendliness seem to have ended there. Everyone who went there only saw him in the dark. How did he contact you Ernie? Did you see him in the daytime?'
‘No, lad. It was just over the phone. He paid Michael with a cheque, which he posted through my door the following evening.’
‘So, no. Physically, the only people that had contact with him were the ones that were ill, and that was in the dark. What was he like, Liz?' Bob finished, looking at Liz.
‘Very charming. I think he is European some way. Maybe Swiss, or something like that. He was a right flash Harry. He is just the type to do it, though. I really think you have hit the nail on the head, Bob. In fact, deep in my bowels, I know you have.'
‘So what are we going to do about it, now?' asked Andy.
‘Storm his house with a load of weapons in the daytime,’ said Bob. ‘My friend Adam will help us, as well. He has said he is really up for it.’ ‘What are we supposed to use? Wooden stakes and the like? Isn't that what you do? Or do you have to cut off the head from the body?’ questioned Freddie, very interested in this subject.
‘That’s zombies. The heads,’ said Bob, ‘but I reckon it would still work especially if you booted the head away from the body.’
‘You could always bash them in the teeth with a sledge hammer as well,’ added Gary helpfully, ‘then they couldn’t bite you.’ They all turned towards him, very impressed.
‘That’s not as stupid an idea, as you think,' said Pat, obviously thinking out loud.
‘I didn’t think it was stupid. I thought it was my best one.’ He looked at Pat shocked, but continued. ‘I am a handyman. Handy in many ways. I know what you could use but I don't have tools for everyone.’
‘You know who will have tons of knives. Proper good ones and great big long pokey things?’ asked Bob.
‘Ian!’ exclaimed Tony.
‘Yeah, Ian. What about that? Where is he anyway?’
‘He would've been here today, only he's got to open the shop,' said Ernie.
‘He will probably have some really good ideas of how you could kill them, as well, being a butcher,' said Bob, excitedly.
‘Yeah, he will be an asset to us. Well, if the mountain won’t come to us, and all that….’ said Gary, and stood up.
Ian’s Butchers shop was only ten shops away from the pub. The group of friends finished their drinks, then put their scarves, gloves and coats back on. The two older ladies picked up their string bags and off they went. A few of them were quite fired up and once they were outside they started to charge up the street. There was laughter and a slight hope of triumph over adversity. The snow didn’t matter, the struggles, the fear because they felt they had won already. What a strange collection of people they made. Old and young, smelling of garlic, determined and on a mission.
When they got to Ian's shop the blinds were down and the door was shut. The open sign was turned to closed.
‘This is strange,' said Sue, ‘Ian is usually open all hours.’
‘Yes and you think he would be cashing in on everyone only being able to get their meat off him. And not being able to get out to the large supermarkets,' said Ernie.
‘Trust you to think of that,’ said Pat.
‘It’s just good business sense,’ said Ernie. They had started to walk off when Andy decided to try the door, which opened into the dark.
‘Shit!’ he said.
‘Oh God!' said Pat. They all looked round at each other. ‘We will have to go in.’ Reluctantly they all agreed. Andy went first, as his hand was on the knob, with Gary, Danny and Tony right behind him.
‘Ian!’ they shouted. The noise came back to them from the tiled floors and walls of the butcher shop. Echoing, its emptiness. There was no one behind the counter but there was meat on the refrigerated cabinets.
‘Quick everybody come in. There’s no one here,' said Ernie quietly and they all shuffled in behind him, very quickly, covered in snow, and shut the door behind them. As they shut the door, they shut out the majority of the daylight. There was quite clearly no one in this part of the shop. Danny cleared his throat, and took a brief glance at the open doorway that led to the rear of the shop.
‘We are going to have to go further, aren’t we?’ said Danny. He walked a bit further and poked his head through the doorway. It was incredibly dark.
‘It smells weird.’ Said Andy.
‘It’s a butchers, it is full of dead creatures. Don’t tell me you have never noticed?’ Liz replied.
Danny fished in his pockets and pulled out his mobile phone, switching on the light to shine into the back room. Andy moved beside him and switched on his too. They both moved forward. Liz following right behind Andy, clutching hold of his shoulders, ready to pull him back in an instant from any danger.
‘Are you sensing anything?’ Liz asked quietly. ‘No, nothing,' he said, ‘There seems to be no presence in here at all.’
‘Well, that's alright then,’ said Ernie, ‘Lets be on our way.’
‘Shit…shit… shit….. what! What the hell!’ Danny jumped backwards towards the small congregation behind him. ‘Don't look, don't look!’ But of course everyone did. Andy shone his torch into the room, as did Danny. Above them Ian was hanging by a hook in his own refrigerator. From the looks of it he had quite clearly been dead a while and blood had dripped down onto the floor, in a pool below him. It now was a congealed brownish black goo. It was clear he had been ripped open and in this light, there were many shiny, pink, white and red shapes tumbling out of his stomach onto the floor. This looked like it had had been done with a knife that was now stuck in his chest. Another hook was deeply embedded in Ian’s abdomen for some reason. His internal organs clearly had bite marks too. In fact chunks had been taken out. The bite marks definitely had two prominent punctures in them. They were speechless for a long time. ‘I’ve seen my first dead body,' said Bob.
‘It’s my first dead body too,’ said his mother kindly, putting her arm round him.
‘Shine your torch on to this blood down here,’ said Liz. She stooped down and Andy came over with his phone to shine a light on it. ‘Round the edges,’ she said, ‘it looks weird.’ Gary came beside them both and looked too. ‘It looks like something has been licking round the edges.’ He pointed at the edges and they all could see it now he had told them what it was. You could see definite impressions of a tongue in the blood.
Luckily the light was so bad in there that no one could see very much. Out of the corner of Liz’s eye she saw the light pick a faint impression behind, and to the right of Ian.
‘Are those feet, sticking out on the floor inside that cupboard thing there? Is someone inside that?’ Liz stepped back, but indicated with her head where to look. No one else could see anything.
‘Has Andy been feeding you carrots? I can’t see a thing?’ E
rnie said under his breath.
‘Oh, it’s this vampire thingy, and I have better hearing too, so watch what you say to me.’
‘Noted!’ said Freddie.
Gary picked up one of the big meat cleaver’s that lay on a rack in the back of Ian’s shop.
He put both hands on the handle and weighed it up. Swinging it a couple of times. He walked two steps in front of everyone. The two men with lights on their phones, one step behind him.
‘Go. You are outnumbered.’
They all started shouting, each picking up something from Ian's butchers rack, even Bob. Gary moved forward suddenly, kicked one of the shoes and then jumped back. The group stood in silence. Nothing happened. He looked quickly back at the lot of them, his eyes darting this way and that down at their hands, then back to the shoe, in case it moved. Then he looked at Bob and said, ‘Lend me that, lad.’ Bob passed him the weapon he had chosen, which was a long silver sharpening rod. Gary took the rod and immediately poked it hard into the ankle of the foot. The figure still did not move. He whacked it on the leg really hard, and a dull crack echoed through the shop. ‘It’s as dead as a door nail,' he said confidently, handing back the rod to Bob. He breathed a sigh of relief.
‘That doesn't mean it won't jump up and run after us!’ said Bob.
‘Clever lad. You take after my side,’ Tony said.
‘Enough of this, lets go for it. Come on lads, if we don’t do something soon, I will need to shave again,’ Danny said this whilst giving his phone to Laura. ‘Point it at him.’ She did.
Danny, Andy, Tony and Gary walked forward and grabbed the figure by the ankles. They sharply pulled it out six feet into the open and it was revealed to be Adrian. He was one of their tuba players, who they had never suspected was a vampire. But quite obviously, had been turned by Norman.
‘Aidy, No!’ exclaimed Tony. Adrian had been one of his best friends.
‘Ian made short work of him, make no mistake,’ said Freddie, who seemed very impressed. There was a meat cleaver embedded in his cheek and it had gone nearly straight through to the other side parting his upper and lower sets of teeth so his head was on a pivot from his left cheek.
‘Shit!’ said Danny, ‘Shit it is Aidy. Look at his teeth. Aidy’s teeth were nothing like this. I mean, where have his other ones gone? This is the first one we have seen. If nothing else it confirms that we now know we are dealing with vampires?’ Gary was stooping down looking at his head closely.
‘Look at the state of him as well! He isn't just dead,’ Gary remarked, ‘He isn’t human anymore. Look at him, the insides of him are already green. Now look at Ian, who has got chopped up at the exact same time. He isn’t anywhere near it. The insides of him looks like they're already bad. Plus they are really dry. Where’s all his blood?’
They all looked between Adrian and Ian. Ian and Adrian. Bob walked up and poked Ian gently with his rod a couple of times.
‘Sorry Ian, mate,’ he said. He then walked over to Adrian and poked him in the same places. ‘Someone do what I have just done and tell me what you think, so I know it isn’t me.’
‘I will!’ said Freddie, very willingly. It was if he had been waiting to be asked.
He poked Ian, a little harder than Bob about ten times and nodded, as if memorising the feel of it. He then walked over and poked Adrian in the same way. Even with the first poke his head darted up, surprised and looked straight at Bob.
‘Well, bugger me!’ he said surprised. He carried on poking away and with the fifth poke, he pierced the hand of Adrian, and stopped.
‘What is it, are you getting a wee fetid smell? I certainly am.' Wee Renee twitched her nostrils.
‘That’s probably me, to be fair Rene. You know my IBS flares up when I get scared.’
‘Oh aye, Pat. I forgot.’
‘No he’s kind of really soft inside, but kind of empty, with a thin skin,’ Freddie said. He knew there was an easier explanation, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
‘An inflatable paddling pool on it’s way down!’ said Bob.
‘That’s it! Excellent work lad.’
‘Thank you, I’m here all week.’ He smiled at them. 'Ian, was like poking a person, or a piece of meat. Yeah, it’s soft, but then, the rod stops, and you would have to put in a lot of force to pierce the skin and the fat and muscles underneath. But Aidy was like a really thin piece of plastic or nylon with air underneath. But it isn’t air. It just looks like soft powder.’
‘We know now we are not dealing with normal people and can fight them with whatever we want to. Surely this is 100% proof now. What I don’t understand is, how they got to him? He wasn’t one of the original ten piece band,’ said Danny
‘No, he wasn’t. It doesn’t fit,’ said Ernie, but then as afterthought said, ‘But he did drink some of that wine that Maurice bought over, last week.’
‘Who else drank some?’ asked Sue.
‘I don’t know. Someone had a small glass when I was in the looking the back door. Because, when I came back Adrian said, who is for some more, there is only one glass gone out of this bottle. And I said it is only you, so he tipped into a big squash glass and drank it straight down. He burped, then said, waste not, want not, to me, then walked out the door.’
‘Well it is him who has been wasted now,’ said Gary.
‘Yes, Ian definitely could be proud of himself. He defended himself well and took one down. But who got him after he had killed Aidy?’ asked Tony.
‘More than one person I would say. Lets face it, Ian wasn't the smallest man you would ever meet, and he was handy with them knives,’ Gary remarked.
‘And they had to lift him right up, to get him on that hook. I know I couldn't do it,’ said Danny.
‘I don't think three or four people could do it together. I would say Ian was over twenty stone.’ Gary was weighing him up in this mind. ‘Mmmm…..I wonder how many there are, all in all, and how many tried to come and overpower Ian.
‘Well thanks to Ian there is one less,' Bob declared.
‘Yeah and thanks to Ian we have got a load of weapons and we also know that it doesn't have to be wooden stakes,' remarked Tony.
‘I am not being funny or anything,' Wee Renee said, ‘but number one, it is going to get dark in a couple of hours and I would like to be locked away in my house by then. And number two, there is a load of meat that will go bad here if we don't take it home. It has been refrigerated but won't last forever. So who's for filling their freezer.’ A few of them agreed and they took some carrier bags from behind Ian's shop counter. They all agreed that he wouldn't mind and took as much meat as they could carry and as many bags full of weapons. As they shut the door behind them, they looked sadly at the closed sign, all ready to go their separate ways.
‘I think, it was probably how he would have wanted to go,’ Wee Renee said in a peaceful way. They all looked at her in shock. She carried on by saying, ‘In his own shop, with all his bits and bobs around him,' she said gently and walked away with Pat. The rest of them watched her go. That was Wee Renee all over.
‘Strung up like a pig, and gutted! I doubt that very much,' said Ernie, shaking his head.
20 – Sausage Roll
When the morning dawned on Sunday, it was still snowing outside. It was as quiet as death. If you opened your door you could hear the snow settling. Each flake falling on layer after layer already accumulated.
Bob had woken up excited and also forlorn. Whilst the prospect of no school tomorrow was great, he also wanted to go to a party tonight and it looked like there was going to be no chance of that. Adam's Mum, Julie, was having a birthday party for herself and her friends at their house. These were always riotous affairs with lots of drink and party food that she cooked up in the afternoon, from the local freezer shop. She had told Adam that he could have a friend over, and he had chosen Bob. The plan would be that he could come over, have some food and keep Adam company in his room. They would play video games and have a laugh. Ad
am also thought they would manage to go down and sneak two cans of lager back upstairs. Generally they thought they would have a whale of a time, after which he could sleep over. However, with the current snow situation, and everything else of course, Sue had said the previous night that there wasn't a cat in hell's chance of him going there.
‘What if the snow stopped?’ he asked.
‘It would have to stop and then all the snow would have to melt, before you got to go, Bob. So, wish for a heat wave.’ He had then tried his luck with his Father by putting on his most mournful expression.
‘Dad could you take me in the Land Rover?' Tony looked round to check that they were alone.
‘I am not going against your Mum it is more than my life's worth. Remember that when you are married son.’ So that was it.
Sue couldn't have been more relieved that it was still snowing. After all, what was going on in Friarmere was worrying enough, if he was with her she knew he was safe. She looked out into the snow from her bedroom window at the house opposite. Hmmm, she hadn’t seen Vincent’s mother, Alice for a while. Maybe she should call in on her later. She might need some groceries from the village. Switching her thoughts back to Bob, she would not have allowed him to go to the party anyway, but would have had to think of another excuse. Of course she knew at the moment that most of the people infected were in the ten-piece band. After Aidy though, what did she know? Tony had tried to speak up for Bob about this party. Persuade Sue, that their son would be fine.
‘Adam’s mother isn’t in the band, so he is perfectly safe.’
‘You can never know what might go on and they are being very crafty. There is no way that one of us is splitting off, and getting picked off. You can’t gamble with his life.’ Whilst Tony did want to stick up for Bob, and let the lad have some fun, he did agree with her.
Sticky Valves: Book 1 of the Saddleworth Vampire Series Page 17