“Yer could raise the alarm. That’d be a start.” Pickle said, whilst Jim still had his back to the former inmate. “Yer don’t have to be a tough guy to do this. Plus, guard duty gets yer outdoors and is good for yer mental health.”
The two men were silent after Pickle had finished his mini lecture, but Branston wasn’t finished there. Karen had asked him to do her a favour, and he hadn’t done it yet.
Pickle cleared his throat and began, “Some people have made remarks about yer behaviour.”
“Oh?” was Jim’s response, but he never looked Pickle in the eye.
“Nobody’s talking behind yer back as such.” Pickle held up his hands, but he had no idea why. Jim still had his back to Pickle and was still staring out onto the road.
“Sounds like it to me,” Jim scoffed.
“People are worried about yer mental well-being, worried about yer kids.”
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Jim snapped, and began to furiously scratch the back of his head with his left hand whilst still tightly clasping the wooden bat with his right. “People should keep their nose out, mind their own fucking business.”
“We hardly see yer kids.”
“So?”
“It’s not healthy for them, that’s what I’m saying.” Pickle took in a deep breath before suggesting, “Why don’t I or Karen take them out into the street every other day, yeah? It’d be good for them to get fresh air.”
“I shouldn’t be doing this pointless guard duty. I should be with my family.”
“Yer have to contribute,” Pickle spoke with obvious anger in his words now and couldn’t hold back. “Yer have done fuck all for months, but now things are changing. And as for yer family … at least yer still have one. Yer need to stop feeling sorry for yerself.”
Jim turned around, raising the bat a little, and snarled at Pickle, “Just fucking leave me alone, will you?”
“Fine.” Pickle nodded. “But let me say something before I leave yer in peace.”
“What?” Jim hissed.
“Yer ever raise that bat to me again,” Pickle stepped forwards and his head was almost touching Jim’s, “or anybody else for that matter. I’ll shove it so far up yer arse yer will have splinters in yer throat. Understand, sunshine?”
Jim gulped, lowered the bat, and turned around, hoping that Branston would walk away.
Pickle headed for the other side of the street, towards the concrete wall. His eyes briefly clocked Karen, who was now standing by the front door.
He heard Karen ask from the side, “How did it go?”
Pickle said, without looking at Karen, “Terrible.”
*
A rare appearance from Brenda Hatchet could be seen with Karen’s eyes and she took the opportunity to go over and see how she was. Brenda used to own a cake shop in Colwich and was hardly seen since Pickle and the rest had arrived at Colwyn Place.
Brenda was forty-two years old, had dark features. She was a plump woman, and she kind of reminded Karen of the singer Adele.
Karen waved at the woman and walked over to her. Brenda had been taking co-codamol for her bad back and wanted to up the dosage as she claimed that the tablets weren’t working as well as they once were.
With the amount that was left in 17 Colwyn Place, Karen didn’t want to make a massive dent in the supplies on one person, so she had to politely tell Brenda that upping the dosage wasn’t going to happen. Brenda had already moaned that she was also constipated and wanted Senna or Laxido to help out with her problem, but Karen explained to Brenda that it was the tablets that were making her constipated. Karen did offer paracetamol, but Brenda scoffed at this idea and told Bradley that the paracetamol wouldn’t even touch the pain and that she may as well take tic-tacs.
“How are you?” Brenda asked Karen as she made her way over.
Brenda was a little spiteful that she had been declined more co-codomal, but knew for her own sake that she needed to be nice to the individual that was in charge of the medical supplies. She also knew that Karen could turn nasty, so decided to hide her annoyance with the twenty-three-year-old and play it cool.
Karen smiled. “I’m good. Don’t see much of you about these days.”
“Never did anyway,” Brenda laughed. “My back has been playing up, so I spend most of my time in my bed.”
“Still bad, eh?”
Brenda nodded and her face winced. Karen thought she was exaggerating the pain and decided not to fall for the woman’s possible play-acting.
“Maybe if you got up more often and moved about a bit...” Karen could see Brenda giving her the evil eye and decided not to complete her sentence. Karen was no shrinking violet, but she didn’t want a blazing row if she could avoid it.
Brenda lowered her head, took in a deep breath, and said, “I’m not lazy, Karen. If that’s what you’re trying to get at.”
“Of course not,” Karen snickered falsely. “I’m just saying... It’d be better for your back if you moved once in a while. It’s not good for you, lying in bed all day.”
Brenda folded her arms, her saggy breasts drooping over them through her loose T-shirt. She looked cross, and said with her teeth clenched together, “I thought you were supposed to be a nurse.”
Karen gulped and could feel her blood simmering. “I am ... I was.”
“And is that the way you would have spoken to one of your patients?”
“I’m trying to be helpful, Brenda.”
“Well, you’re not.” She allowed her arms to fall to her side and walked into the house. In a matter of minutes their pleasant conversation had turned into something nasty.
“Fine. I’ll go.” Karen turned around and was pleased with herself that she hadn’t turned on the woman. “If you need anything…”
Karen began walking away, heading back to her own place. Karen had thought that Brenda had gone inside, but then she heard a voice from behind her. She couldn’t be sure, but she could have sworn that Brenda had called her a bitch.
Chapter Twenty Five
“You ready, shagger?” Vince called over to David and pointed over at the jeep, telling David to get in whilst he finished his chat with Pickle.
The young boy had been asked to accompany Vince on the short run to the warehouse where the three girls had gone, and he jumped at the chance. Not only was David MacDonald going out of the street again, but he knew he was in good hands with Vince Kindl. Plus, turning up to the girls’ rescue, who may have broken down as most had suspected, would be beneficial for the young boy if he wanted to impress Stephanie Perkins.
A paranoid David asked Vince if he thought that the jeep had enough gas for the journey, but Vince was adamant that even if the fuel gauge was in the red, they’d still be able to make the short journey there and back.
David entered the vehicle and waited patiently for Vince to appear. He looked over his shoulder and could see that the chat between Vince and Pickle had finished, and Vince was now heading to 2 Colwyn Place. It was the same place where the girls stayed, but the basement was also used to store weapons, which was John Lincoln’s idea.
Two minutes later, Vince Kindl exited the house with a machete in his hand. He already had one tucked in his belt, and David had guessed correctly that Vince had been down to the basement, where blades and bats were stashed, and had taken a weapon for the youngster.
Vince opened the driver’s door, sat down, and placed the large blade on David’s lap. He closed the door and said to David, nodding down at his lap, “Just in case.”
David nodded and leaned his head back as Vince pulled away, keeping the vehicle in first, and creeping to the gate where Jim Danson stood. Without exchanging words, Jim opened the gate. Vince went through, sarcastically saluting Jim as he went by him, and turned right onto the Wolseley Road.
“Shouldn’t take long to get there,” he said to the teenager. Vince looked to his passenger and asked if he was okay.
David never responded verbally; he just nodded. The
boy was becoming nervous, now that he was out on the open road. The only security he had was the sheet of metal around him and a man sitting next to him that was getting on for fifty.
“Do you think they’ll be some of the dead there?” David asked nervously.
Vince shrugged his shoulders. “No idea. But if we do come across some, use that machete, because I won’t be holding your dick for this short journey. If you’re so desperate to be out here, you’re gonna have to show me what you can do if you want to go out on regular runs.”
David never responded and Vince took the right bend a little too hastily, the wheels squealed until he straightened the car up.
“Perfect,” said Vince.
“What?” David looked ahead and could see a lone Snatcher shambling in the middle of the road with its back to them. This soon wasn’t the case once it could hear the sound of the jeep’s engine.
He pulled the jeep up and said to the youngster, “We don’t really have time for this, but it’s an opportunity for you. Kill the thing. It won’t take long, and then we can go and get the girls. Another two minutes isn’t going to harm them. They’re tough girls.”
“Um…” David looked hesitant.
“What are you waiting for, shagwit?”
David paused and looked down on his lap, down at the machete. He then looked up and through the windscreen and could see the thing approaching. It was around four car lengths away.
“Better hurry up,” Vince said.
David was now shaking and took a quick gape at Vince. Vince was convinced that the teenager wasn’t going to do it, and his eyes widened with surprise when David opened his passenger door and jumped out of the vehicle with the machete in his hand.
“Shit.” Vince didn’t want David to get too far ahead of him, just in case he froze and ended up getting bitten, but the youngster was yards away from the front of the vehicle before Vince had managed to get out.
As Vince exited the vehicle and stood to his feet, he could already see David MacDonald putting down the beast with four strikes to its head.
Vince walked over to the teenager and placed his arm around his shoulder; both males looked down at the defunct being. David was panting, but the smile on his face suggested that the youngster was pleased with himself. The stained blade was being held by his shaking right hand, hanging by the side of his leg.
“So, how did that feel?” Vince asked the teenager.
“Nerve wracking, to tell you the truth.”
Vince looked down to the left at David’s crotch area. “At least you didn’t piss yourself this time.”
David turned to the side and threw up. He stood up and wiped his mouth, his face white as a sheet.
Vince asked the youngster, “Is that it all up?”
David nodded. “I think so.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to get in that jeep and have you throwing up inside it.”
“I’m fine.” David held his hand up and pointed over at the vehicle. “Let’s go back to the jeep.”
“So, you wouldn’t say no to a nice runny egg served on a hot, fresh steaming dog turd?”
David doubled over and threw up on the grassy bank once more.
“That’s what I thought,” said Vince. “Get it all up, son.”
Once David was finished, he stood up straight and wiped the sweat off of his forehead.
Vince laughed and said, “Right, killer. Back to the vehicle. We’ve got some wenches to pick up.”
*
Two more minutes on the road, and the guys had passed a farm to their right, wondering if anybody lived there. The road then suddenly straightened up and Vince released a profanity before slowing the vehicle down.
The black jeep was eventually brought to a halt, and Vince pulled up the parking brake and gazed out of the windscreen in astonishment. David did the same.
No words were spoken between the two males. Both could see the top half of the RV, but around the vehicle was a swarm of Snatchers, all with their arms outstretched. The ones by the vehicle were clawing to get in, whereas the dead that were behind were clawing at thin air.
The jeep was parked around thirty yards from the RV, and Vince decided to switch the engine off whilst trying to think what to do next.
“We need to get rid of those dead bastards,” Vince moaned.
“And how are we supposed to do that?” David asked nervously.
“Not sure.”
“We don’t even know if anyone is inside.”
Vince looked at David strangely after making his comment, and Vince then asked, “Then how did the RV get there?”
Both males looked ahead, staring at the crowd of the dead around the large vehicle, and Vince thought that maybe David could have a point. The RV was on the grassy bank and looked stuck. Maybe the girls had decided to ditch the vehicle, whether it had supplies or not, and went back to Colwyn on foot and the dead turned up afterwards. Maybe he hadn’t seen them because they had decided to avoid the main roads and cut through the fields. But they would have been at Colwyn by now. It wasn’t that much of a walk.
“How are we going to remove all of those things?” David asked.
“I think you had a good point earlier, so I’m not removing any until I know someone is inside,” said Vince. “No point going to all that effort if the RV is empty.”
“But what do we do if we find out that the girls are in there?”
Vince shook his head and ran the palm of his hand over his mouth as he tried to think. “Sounding the horn and allowing the dead to follow us is the only thing I can think of. There’s too many to kill. Even if I used this jeep to plough into them, I’d be lucky to kill six or seven, and then we’d be surrounded.”
“So what now?”
“Don’t know. Wait till we see a glimpse of life.”
Thankfully, not one single creature had spotted the vehicle and decided to shamble over and investigate, and Vince was certain that if the pair of them left the jeep for a short time it’d be okay.
“You know what?” said Vince. “Fuck it. Let’s just remove those fuckers anyway. Of course the girls are inside. Where else could they be?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I’ve got an idea,” said Vince. Before young David had a chance to ask Vince about the idea, Vincent Kindl added, “We’ll go to the farm and see if there’s anything there that can help us. If not, we come back and use my horn idea. It’s desperate, but what else can we do? Unless...”
David shifted in his seat uncomfortably and had a bad feeling about the other idea Vince had. He asked, “Unless what?”
“Unless you get your arse over that field, over there, distract them by waving your arms like a loony, and let them follow you. After that, you run off and I’ll meet you at the end of the road once we’ve freed the girls inside the motorhome.”
David gulped and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m not doing that.”
“I thought you’d say that,” sighed Vince. “The farm it is.”
“And you think there’s someone in the RV to save?”
The two males could see somebody in the front and could now see the individual frantically waving with both arms.
Vince smiled. “I do now.”
Vince and David exited the vehicle and both turned around, now heading to the farm.
*
Stephanie had miraculously managed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep. She had woken up but had no idea what the time was. For a minute she had forgot about the predicament she was in, but once her ears picked up the groaning from outside, it soon brought her back to reality.
She clambered over the boxes of tins, and decided to get to the front of the vehicle and check out what was happening. She could see that the dead were still there, and some of them became a little excited when a few at the front had seen her. But the dead didn’t concern her.
She produced a wide smile when she could see a familiar black jeep up ahead. She had no idea who was in it, but she was
convinced it was from the camp.
An excited Stephanie began to wave her arms. The doors to the jeep opened and her smile widened as she could see Vince Kindl and David MacDonald step out of the vehicle. She waved her arms at the two men again, but they weren’t heading to the RV; they were going in the opposite direction.
She had no idea what they were doing and what they had planned, and was in two minds whether just to sound the horn to let them know that somebody was definitely inside the RV. Maybe they had a plan, she thought. After all, they had left on their feet, but the jeep was still there. So they had planned to come back at some time or another.
Her smile slowly evaporated and she muttered, “Where are you guys going?”
Chapter Twenty Six
Pickle was walking along the road of Colwyn Place, looked at his Omega Speedmaster watch to check the time, and looked up and could see Danny Gosling sitting on his doorstep. Pickle whistled over at Danny and gestured with his head for him to come over.
Danny did what he was told and Pickle said, “How are yer feeling? Yer look a bit better.”
“Not a hundred percent, but I’m bored out of my nut, to be honest with you. At least I managed to get a few hours.”
“Fancy a quick run outdoors?”
“Always.” Danny smiled.
“Promise that yer won’t throw up on me.”
“It’s okay,” Danny laughed. “I just had a little nap and the first thing to eat in a while.”
“So yer good to go?”
“Absolutely.” Danny smiled and asked Pickle, “Where’re we going?”
“Didn’t I mention this earlier?”
Danny hunched his shoulders and screwed his face in confusion.
“Remember where we went to about two weeks ago?” Pickle stroked his chin, awaiting an answer.
“The place where I thought you were being attacked and I ran away?”
Pickle shook his head. “The one after that. The one with the guy and two kids. Was going to ask him if he wanted to join us.”
Danny’s eyes moved away from Pickle’s, and he suddenly became distant and looked around the street and gazed over at number 3 Colwyn Place.
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