"But?"
Added Pickle, "Some grabbed him, and the last thing I saw was Vince falling in and disappearing down the river."
"So he could still be alive?" Karen was saddened by the story. Over the weeks Vince had grown on her, albeit very slowly. She didn't want anything bad to happen to him.
"He could be. But he could be anywhere."
"If he's alive," said Bentley. "He'll come to us."
Most individuals from the crowd nodded in agreement, and seemed positive despite Pickle's story.
"Did you have any other trouble?" asked Lee.
Pickle nodded. "Some. A few Snatchers. A few people. Me and Vince had a weird moment before we got separated."
"Weird?" Bentley enquired.
"One creature was behind us and an arrow came out o' nowhere."
"It's a young girl that's out there." Bentley informed Pickle and revealed a smile. "She has a bow."
"How do yer know?"
"Because she saved my life. She's no older than fourteen. I wanted to bring her back with me, but I think she prefers being alone."
Rosemary was now heading towards the crowd and was with Lisa and Kyle.
Karen saw Pickle's leg buckle a little and grabbed him by the arm. "Let's get you to bed. You can talk later."
"I could sleep for a week," moaned Pickle. "What about yer guys? Anything exciting happen in this sleepy place?"
"Actually, we did have an incident in the school," Paul Dickson spoke up.
Karen chipped in, "We can tell you all about it after you've rested."
There was a look of concern on Pickle's face, and he had a look that told the group that he wanted to hear more of the school story.
"Don't worry." Karen pecked him on the cheek, and the pair of them slowly made their way back to their digs. "Nobody died."
Lee looked over his shoulder and saw Rosemary approaching in the distance, with Kyle and Lisa by her side. "I better tell her the news about Vince." Lee gazed at Bentley, Rick Morgan and Daniel and said, "Right, guys. Back to your watch. Who knows? Maybe Vince will come down that road in a few hours."
"One more thing." Pickle stopped walking and his announcement stopped other people in their tracks. He turned around and said, "I was followed by a few of the dead when I was on the road."
"Okay." Lee nodded. "We'll keep an eye out for them." Lee turned and looked at the three guys that were on watch. "They might have dispersed elsewhere by now, but if a few come to the barrier, we'd be better taking them out with our blades. I'll stay here and wait and see if they come."
Sheryl Smith said, "I'll stay as well."
Lee looked over at Nicholas Burgess and told him to go to the Lea Hall building and get a couple of shotguns anyway, just in case many more turned up. He also told him to alert the guards on barrier watch by the Globe Island that there could be trouble. "The place is on high alert as from today."
With the help of Paul Dickson, Karen took Pickle back to their Sandy Lane house and put him to bed. He was filthy and stunk, but he could clean himself up once he had the energy to do so. Once they plonked him on the bed, they both stared at the man.
"I hope Vince's okay," said Paul.
Karen smiled, but looked unsure. "I think he'll be fine."
Pickle wasn't so sure. She could tell by his face.
They left the room, leaving Pickle in peace, and went downstairs for a drink.
With Pickle back, Karen was going to sleep well tonight.
Pickle sat up once they left and rubbed his stubbly face. He sat at the edge of the bed, rubbed his eyes and could feel the dry skin. His thoughts then went to Vince.
He had only known the man for a matter of weeks, but felt sad for his disappearance. With the exhaustion and sleep deprivation Vincent Kindl was suffering with, before the Snatchers showed up, Pickle was unsure how it was possible to survive. How could Vince have the energy to swim and keep afloat in a river with such a vicious current?
If it was lacking a current or if it was a pond, and Pickle could see Vince go under and not rise to the surface, then at least Pickle would be sure that Vince was dead. But he couldn't be sure, because in this situation he didn't see Vince die. He just saw him being swept away.
Vince had been dragged away and could easily have ended up on a bank somewhere, or he could have managed to grab an overhanging tree branch and pulled himself to safety with the very last ounce of energy in his body.
The more macabre scenario, and possibly more realistic one, was that he had died. He could have perished by being dragged under. His weak state and the river's strong current should really only have one result. Even if he did survive the current, what Pickle had to remember was that some of the dead fell in after him, and the dead can't drown, so they could have attacked him as they were all being swept along.
Maybe he was bit as their bodies glided down the water. Maybe he simply drowned. Maybe he wasn't dead at all. Maybe he was now a Snatcher.
One thing Pickle did know: They weren't going to go out and look for him.
What would be the point?
The River Trent was the third longest river in the UK. It would be madness—and pointless—to go along the banks of the river and search for him. If he had drowned, and they did look for him, the best they could hope for was a body. If he was still alive, then he'd be up on his feet and making his way back to the camp. Hopefully.
Pickle finally kicked off his black dirty boots and stretched his aching feet. As soon as he bent his toes forward, some cracked. He then made a satisfied sigh once he took his dirty socks off. He had the socks scrunched up in his hand and threw them across the bedroom.
It was good to finally get some air to them, despite the fact that he could smell their pong. He leaned back, put his hands behind his head, and a vision of Vince being swept away skated across his mind once again.
Tonight, he was going to pray for him.
THE END
If you enjoyed reading SNATCHERS 7: The Dead Don't Yield, feel free to mail me your thoughts on facebook or Twitter, or leave a review where you've downloaded the book.
Very kind regards,
Shaun Whittington
Author's Notes
Once more, another big thank you for purchasing the latest book in the Snatchers series. The fact that the series is still continuing is because YOU guys are still buying the stories. Right now I really have no idea when this will end.
Originally, I wanted to turn it into a trilogy, then I thought maybe I could stretch it out to five books and see what happened. At the moment I have a Snatchers: Volume One out, which is the first three books. Eventually I'll have a Volume Two out which will be (obviously) books four to six. So my latest idea is to go up to book nine, at least then I can still have my trilogy in the form of volumes by 2017: Volume One (Books 1-3), Volume Two (Books 4-6) and Volume Three (Books 7-8 or 9). So there will be EIGHT or NINE books in this series, at least.
For me, this seventh book felt like a first book: New camp, new characters and new enemies were introduced, so it is probably slower-paced than the ones that you have read in the past. I don't think we get our first zombie kill until chapter ten, by the archer, and even then there's hardly a resistance as they are killed with ease by her crowbar.
Speaking of which, in this latest addition we have a new character, nameless at the moment, and is a young female survivor that has a bow and carries a crowbar. In chapter ten we re-visit scenes from Book Two as she walks through the sports centre that Pickle and co stayed, the same sports centre where Thomas Slade had died and where Kerry Evans took her life. In Book Two the Snatchers invaded the centre and the new character was now walking and looking at the aftermath from what happened four or five weeks ago. The creatures in the swimming pool, that she destroyed with the crowbar, were the same ones that fell in after Jack Slade over a month ago, once he fell in after unsuccessfully hanging himself.
Other stuff that was mentioned was the almost headless ghoul in the sports c
entre who was wearing the 'Slightly Damaged Human' T-shirt, which was the same person that Pickle refused to pick up in the prison van at the end of Book One, and the same person who was infected in the opening chapter of Book Two who was eventually decapitated by Jack with a kettle-bell whilst trying to escape at the end of Book Two.
Wolf's cabin from Book Three and Four was also revisited as The Bear and his companions briefly stayed at the cabin, and the young boy—that attacked Pickle but was soon put in his place in Book Four—had also made a small appearance before being mistaken for the dead at the Sandy Lane barrier and taken out after Bear had removed his hand.
In Book Four there was an episode where Vince and Jack were lost in the woods, and it was part of the book that I really loved. There was good banter between the pair of them, and it showed the reader that Vince wasn't all that bad. I decided to re-visit this scenario with Vince and Pickle being lost and I hoped these pair provided some humorous moments for you readers.
In this one, like the last book, Karen is taking a backseat when it comes to the action. She has to. But I do have plans for her in the next instalment, and I would really like to try and pair her up in a situation, somehow, where it's just her and Sheryl.
Since Shaz's demise, I had to bring in another strong female character, not because I wanted to even things up or that I was afraid that some female readers would be put-off by a male dominated book where all the MCs were men, but in real life females are just as strong as men. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I used to be a prison guard and seen many female officers take down a violent inmate while other male guards stood around pissing their pants, so why would it be so different in an apocalyptic situation?
Sheryl's character is definitely somebody who is psychologically damaged and has an edge that no other character has about them. The sexual incident with Lee only a day after she was attacked by Ben and Cal proved what an unbalanced and unpredictable individual she is. Near the end we see one of the reasons why Sheryl Smith is a damaged human being, and I'll be digging deeper into her psyche over the next couple of books. Like Vince, maybe she'll be a character that some may grow to like...eventually.
I really do wish I could write at breakneck speed, but the harsh reality is that I usually get a book out three or four months after the last one. I released the first Snatchers book in September 2013, and now we're onto book seven. I suppose seven books in two years isn't that bad. The fact that some people are willing to wait and continue to purchase the next one makes me put the Snatchers series as my top priority when it comes to writing, but it is going to end eventually, I just don't know when.
Finally, even though I'm not a fan of cliff-hangers, I admit I was a little cruel with this book. What's happened to Vince? Will The Bear get his comeuppance? Will the camp be safe? And who is the mysterious archer in the woods?
All will be revealed in the next book.
Very kind regards,
Shaun.
Snatchers 8: The Dead Don't Pray
The next book in the Snatchers series will be out late 2015/early 2016
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty One
Chapter Thirty Two
Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Four
Chapter Thirty Five
Chapter Thirty Six
Chapter Thirty Seven
Chapter Thirty Eight
Chapter Thirty Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty One
Chapter Forty Two
Chapter Forty Three
Chapter Forty Four
Chapter Forty Five
Chapter Forty Six
Chapter Forty Seven
Chapter Forty Eight
Chapter Forty Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty One
Chapter Fifty Two
Chapter Fifty Three
Chapter Fifty Four
Chapter Fifty Five
Chapter Fifty Six
Snatchers (Book 7): The Dead Don't Yield Page 25