Snatchers 2: The Dead Don't Sleep

by Shaun Whittington

  My nineteen-year-old daughter had been born in only the second year of my marriage. And although our relationship is very close, it has become even closer four years ago when my wife, and her mother, had passed away.

  I've just bathed my wound in tepid water and gave it a good clean, but according to what I've been watching on the TV, I don't really fancy my chances. If I had been bitten, I probably would have just done myself in straight away, if I had the time. But a scratch still gives me hope. Our bodies have white blood cells to fight off infections, so I'm just going to have to play the waiting game. I have taken another look out of my window and the situation is still the same. There are many walking around the street; there are no signs of any police, army, or any vigilantism where the neighbourhood have come together to beat these ghouls.

  I think everyone is too scared. I don't know what's going to happen, but with one of my daughters safe, I can go to my bed with a more relaxed conscience. I will say a prayer for Karen and her fiancé, Gary—a man I've only met once, before I sleep.

  ***

  It's now twenty minutes since I last wrote anything. About ten minutes ago I felt a funny feeling in my stomach, and when I hobbled to the bathroom, I threw up a dark tar-like liquid from the pit of my stomach. I don't know what it is, but I have a feeling it's not good news. The headaches are as throbbing as ever, and my vision has come to the point where I'm almost seeing double. I'm starting to be afraid. I'm absolutely exhausted, but fear that if I go to sleep, I will not wake up again.

  I'm now going to log off once I've saved this; I'm giving in to my body and I'm going to try to sleep as I'm not feeling well at all. My headache has got worse and my cold sweats have increased.

  God willing, I'll get through the night and write a bit more if there's anything to tell.

  So for now, this is me signing off.

  James Bradley. 45 years old.

  Father of Karen and Kelly Bradley.

  For information on the release date of Snatchers 3: The Dead Don't Cry, or any other future releases, click or press here and follow me on Facebook.

  Author's Note

  First of all, I would like to thank you for downloading and reading Snatchers 2: The Dead Don't Sleep. I'm humbled that anyone has decided to part with their money and dedicated some of their time to read something that I have written.

  I hope that you think that this latest chapter is at least a welcome addition to the Snatchers series, which I intend to continue doing until I get tired of it, or if the readers get tired of it—I suppose it depends on the reviews and sales, and I promise that the third instalment will be bigger and better than the two you have already read so far, as this time I'm not going to put a deadline on myself. I'll release it once it's done, whenever that will be.

  Once I promised numerous people that the sequel to Snatchers would be out by a certain time, a lot of hiccups began to occur. For example, my laptop dying on me, being in bed with the flu, blah, blah, blah, so this time I'm keeping my mouth shut and will let you know in good time once it's near its completion. (Hopefully by the end of the year, there or thereabouts).

  With this book, it focuses on the relationship between Pickle and Karen. I keep on forgetting that these two main characters only met near the end of the first book—Chapter 41 to be exact—and I wanted to strengthen the friendship between these two people who, as far as their previous lives are concerned, are worlds apart and had met each other by chance, but now have been through so much in such a short space of time and have a general fondness for one another.

  This book also originally had more detail about the characters at the Longdon Village Hall, where numerous conversations and arguments occurred, but I felt this part of the book was bogging the story down and that there was enough characters for the reader to keep up with as it was. I think a handful of people were also unhappy with the first book because I had dedicated a lot of words to the Pointer family, only to kill them off by the end, so I decided not to go down this road with the people in the hall. I decided to remove 16,000 words from the novel that was based around these characters, and hoped that it would improve its 'flow', so to speak, as I don't really like to 'pad' out a novel just for the sake of extending its length.

  I made a decision to keep this one more action-packed than the last one. In the last book there was a climax at the end where they were all attacked and had to flee Stile Cop. In this book, I decided to give it three climatic episodes, one after the other. The first one: Escaping the house, after Jason Bonser had brought back a horde with him. The second one: After the van had a flat, and the group trying to get inside the premises of the sports centre. And the third: Trying to escape from the sports centre through the back, after the entrance gates giving way.

  I think one of the hardest things to write about with this kind of story (and something I'm not going to do from now on) is the affect this disaster would have on children. Being a father of two, I take no pleasure in writing about the death of children, but I was pulled to the side by someone and was told: "This isn't no Disney story. Just imagine it really is happening. If you want to make it as real as possible; you have to mention certain things that will be shocking and sickening."

  As for the first-person short story at the end; my original intentions was to write a novel from one person's point of view and release it on its own, but to be brutally honest, I got quickly tired of it and decided to put it at the end of this book. In the Snatchers' novels Karen Bradley mentions that her father and stepsister, Kelly, live in Glasgow, so I decided to write from the father's point of view and have him almost cross paths with Jack Slade as the narrator passes the same police station where members of the public were killed. In the original book, Jack Slade pulls up at the police station with the injured security guard, Robbie Owen, and sees the bodies of the public outside the police station.

  There is also a scene where James Bradley is at the Blu Radisson Hotel desperately looking for his daughter, and he sees two men under the bridge on Argyle Street armed with utensils, 'taking care of' two of the ghouls. Those two men are Jack Slade and Robbie Owen making their way to the NCP car park, something that they did in the original book.

  Snatchers 3 will be out at the end of the year (everything crossed). For the exact date feel free to follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Don't worry, I'm not one of those people that will bombard you with my inner thoughts, send you game invites, or beg you for positive reviews. You'll only hear from me when it's book related or if you've directly contacted me because of a query.

  All the best and kind regards,

  Shaun.

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