Stephanie nodded.
“Can’t say I blame you.”
“What do you mean?”
Mildred smiled and shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.”
Stephanie raised her eyebrows and lifted her chin, urging Mildred to explain what she meant.
Mildred ran her fingers through her hair and groaned, “Okay. A month or so back...” She paused. “I met up with some guy. You’ll probably know yourself, when you’re on the road you tend to bump into people. Not all bad people.”
Stephanie nodded, and briefly thought about Elza and Ophelia.
“Anyway, me and this guy got picked up by a nice elderly couple. They were escaping their town of Tamworth and were on their way up north somewhere. I think they were heading to Warrington.”
“Why there?”
Mildred pulled a face and said, “Never asked. We told them that we were heading to Stafford and got into the back of their van. We tried to go for a sleep, but that didn’t last long.”
“Why, what happened?” Stephanie impatiently asked.
Mildred was reluctant to tell her female companion the rest of the story. Maybe it was a bad idea. She had been told that Stephanie was a warrior, but she was still only fourteen.
Stephanie persisted and Mildred told her a short summary of what happened. Mildred informed Stephanie that the pair of them had woken up and the vehicle came to a sudden halt and her head banged against the side. They could hear voices outside. An argument took place and it sounded like the elderly male, the driver, was refusing to leave his vehicle. Screams followed and then there was silence.
Mildred and her male companion remained still, too scared to move, and eventually they heard talking and footsteps. The doors to the van opened and four men could be seen.
A male, a large bald fellow, appeared to be the leader and addressed Mildred as sister and his gang members as brothers when speaking. He told the pair of them to exit the vehicle and no harm would be done to them. They wanted the van. The leader introduced himself as Hando and seemed to have his eye on the young woman. Right there, she knew she was in trouble.
She stepped out first and she could see the driver and his wife at the side of the road. Both had been stabbed to death, and Mildred made a decision right there to make a run for it. If she hadn’t, she would have ended the same way eventually. She was convinced of it.
She ran into the nearby field and took a look over her shoulder once. She was being chased by a guy wearing a Chelsea football shirt. She faced the front and ran as hard as she could, wincing once the screams of her male companion could be heard. She didn’t witness it, but she knew he was being knifed to death.
Mildred paused with her story and looked at Stephanie for a reaction. There wasn’t one.
“Do you think that was a selfish thing I did?” Mildred asked Stephanie.
The fourteen-year-old shrugged. “You had to do what you had to do. If you had stayed behind, you both would have been killed. You could have been beaten, raped, before they killed you. All three, and probably in that order.”
“Survival of the fittest,” said Mildred, followed by a nod. “Although I felt for Daniel, my pal for a while, and that nice old couple.”
The two girls remained silent and their bodies juddered when the van went over a bump.
Stephanie looked at Mildred in the dusky area of the van and Mildred asked what was wrong.
Stephanie began, “That story you just told me...”
“What about it?”
“That hasn’t helped with my nerves,” Stephanie sighed.
“Sorry.”
Chapter Three
Karen Bradley had had very few visitors since the clinic had been officially opened, but she wasn’t complaining. The lack of clients meant she had more time to roam, although, in truth, she was bored a lot of the time and also felt a little rejected that she wasn’t invited to the Amerton Farm trip.
She was aware that her trips out were going to be limited because she was a health professional, and thought that this was the beginning of the end for her, as far as going out on runs were concerned.
She went out of the clinic and told the guard by the door that she wouldn’t be long. She decided to visit Stephen Rowley. It had been five days since his ankle was caught in an animal trap and had damaged his skin and broken his ankle, and she wondered how he was doing. She went to the ward where he slept and found the place empty, so decided to head outside and get some air, seem as though nothing much was happening.
She walked by the large shed and looked up to see Findlay waving at her.
She waved back, was about to walk over and have a chat, but a voice to the side of her caught her attention. She turned and could see Darren walking over to her.
“How’s it going?” she asked him.
He hunched his shoulders with a smile and replied, “Okay, I guess.”
“I was looking for Stephen, I was wondering how he is.”
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” Darren chuckled. “He’s fine. Just seen him talking to Gerry by the greenhouse. Probably getting bored to death about cucumbers.”
“Sounds about right.” Karen smiled. “I bumped into him yesterday, and he stood and gave me a lecture on greenfly and how harmful they could be.”
“At least he cares.”
“I suppose.”
Darren winced and rubbed his belly.
Noticing this, Karen asked, “You okay?”
Darren smiled. “It comes and goes.”
“Are you sure? I can—”
“I’m fine,” Darren snapped. His face immediately looked apologetic and he flashed Karen a smile. “Nothing to worry about. Really.”
“If you say so.”
Karen heard her name being called out from behind and turned to see Joanne Hammett approaching. Darren told Karen that he would speak to her later and left her alone with Joanne.
Joanne ran her fingers through her blonde hair as she approached Karen, and seemed nervous, awkward.
“You okay?” Karen asked her.
Joanne nodded and looked behind her before she opened her mouth, suggesting to Karen that she had a private question to ask her.
“Is there something you want to ask me?” Karen chuckled.
“Yes, there is.”
“Well, I’m all ears.”
Joanne took in a deep breath and took a quick peep over her shoulder again. “I’m starting to see someone in here.”
“Oh, do tell.” Karen’s intrigue was strong, but she could tell by Joanne’s face that she didn’t want to reveal who her lover was. Joanne’s awkward silence continued and Karen decided to persist no more and asked, “What are you actually after? What can I do for you?”
“I know it wasn’t high on the list when it came to supply runs...” Joanne paused and her silence began to niggle at Karen. Before Karen could open her mouth and tell Joanne to hurry up, she continued. “I was wondering if there’re any condoms in this clinic thing you’ve set up.” Joanne immediately blushed.
“Yeah, there is.” Karen brushed her dark hair behind her ears and added, “It is not very professional of me to ask this, but … fuck it, I don’t really have a proper job anymore.” She giggled. “Who is it?”
“I’d rather not say,” Joanne responded, and Karen decided not to push anymore. It wasn’t any of her business.
“Okay,” said Karen. “I’ll grab a pack for you.”
“Thanks so much.”
“I take it you haven’t done anything yet.”
“Well, we tried. I already had one old condom on me, but he struggled.”
“Struggled. What do you mean?”
“Well.”
“Getting an erection? Maintaining one?”
“I don’t know,” Joanne huffed and didn’t want to elaborate. “He just struggled. Let’s leave it at that.”
Karen was confused and urged Joanne to follow her back to Ward 22, where the clinic was based. The two of them walked sid
e by side and Joanne decided that Karen deserved some kind of explanation.
“It’s not quite happening yet, and I don’t know why,” Joanne explained in short. “But it will.”
“Probably just nerves.” Karen smiled at Joanne and teased, “It’s been a while for a lot of people and, if you don’t mind me saying so, you’re a very attractive woman, Joanne, if the problem is premature ejaculation.”
Joanne smiled thinly, unsure how to respond to Karen’s remark.
“And you definitely don’t wanna tell me who it is?”
“I’d rather not say,” said Joanne, and then joked, “Anyway, being a health professional are you allowed to ask me that?”
“Health professional?” Karen scoffed. “It’s not as if I’m getting paid to do this anymore.”
“No perks at all from Drake?”
“Nope.” She shook her head. “It’s just something that’s stopping me from becoming bored out of my tits.”
Karen and Joanne waved at David MacDonald as he walked by, and both entered the outpatients building, heading for Ward 22.
Three minutes later, Joanne had left with condoms and Karen sat behind her desk and wondered what to do next. He had only been gone for a little while, but she was already missing Pickle.
“Christ, I’m so bored.”
Chapter Four
The van slowed down as it reached a set of broken traffic lights, and Drake instructed the driver to take a left down a country road.
“Another mile and we’ll be there,” said Drake.
Pickle looked to the side and could see an unusually quiet Vince Kindl staring into space. Pickle wasn’t sure if he was missing his son Brian, who had been killed a few years ago by Kevin ‘Knuckles’ Murphy, or Rosemary, his on and off lover, or was thinking about the people that they’d lost in general over the three camps that they had stayed in. Or was something else on his mind?
Pickle decided to have a word with Vincent once the two were alone together.
The van pulled up by the large wooden gate, which was the entrance to the farm, and Drake told the two of them that he would go out alone and talk to the elderly couple, as it would look less threatening.
Drake left the van, after squeezing past Vince, and headed over to the gate. Vince shut the passenger door that Drake had exited and both men sat in silence, watching Drake. Like most country lanes in the West Midlands area, the farm that used to be open to the public was surrounded by fields and fences, and not a single house could be seen near it.
“Never been here before,” Pickle spoke up, breaking the ice and hoping to get some chat out of Kindl.
“It’s a place that Lee used to take his kids to now and again,” Vince mumbled.
“Lee?”
“Lee James,” Vince sighed. “Forgot about him already?”
“O’ course not.”
“It has animals, but in the large barn there’s a play area for kids and a cafe. Or there used to be.”
“I better let out Stephanie and Mildred in the back,” said Pickle. “Give them some air and let them know what’s happening.”
Vince shook his head. “I completely forgot about them.”
“Back in a bit.”
Vince looked over at Drake and could see the man climbing over the gate and heading for the farmhouse. He heard the van doors open and Pickle speaking to the females. Vince yawned and could see Drake peering into the living room window. He went round the back and disappeared from Vince’s view.
Vince leaned his head back and thought about events from the past. He thought about his childhood and the way he was treated by his father, Wolfgang Kindl. His mother Grace was a loving mother, but not quite strong enough to stand up to her husband when he had a drink inside of him.
How they still remained together into their twilight years he’d never know. A smile stretched over Vince’s face as he thought about his parents and then Karen Bradley. She had killed the both of them. Technically, Grace was already dead when Karen and Pickle arrived at the cabin at the top of the hill on the common.
Her husband had had to tie the woman to a chair.
She had been bitten, turned, and he couldn’t bring himself to kill her. Karen eventually did, with a sharpened handle from a wooden spoon, and her and Pickle had buried the woman on the common. Karen then shot Wolfgang Kindl, Vince’s father, when he was seconds away from being ripped apart after an automobile accident.
“I love the shit out of that woman, yet she killed both my parents,” Vince chuckled to himself, almost in disbelief. “What a fucked up world we’re all living in.”
Vince snapped out of his daydreaming when Pickle, Mildred and Stephanie appeared round the front of the vehicle.
He got out of the van and Pickle asked Vince what was taking Drake so long.
“I think he’s talking to the couple who own the farm,” said Vince.
“But he’s been gone nearly ten minutes,” Pickle groaned, looking at his Omega watch.
“Shall I go and see what’s happening?” Vince asked him. “He might have ran into some trouble.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Pickle spoke, and then pointed up ahead, adding, “Oh, there he is.”
They watched as a flustered-looking Drake returned from the back of the house and had his machete still tucked under his belt.
“Everything okay?” Mildred was the first to ask. “Where’re the owners?”
“They’re dead,” Drake said abruptly. “The door was open round the back.”
“Dead?” Pickle rubbed his chin. “Are yer sure?”
Drake nodded. “Thugs must have gotten in. Shame. My guys were speaking to them a few days back, about coming here, and this happens.”
“That is rotten luck,” said Pickle.
“Had a quick look round the back and the idiots that came here never took the chickens. They’re round the back and all caged up, which will make transporting them easier for us.”
“Caged up?” Stephanie queried.
“Don’t worry,” Drake laughed. “They’ll roam in a pen once we get back to the hospital. Don’t want you lefties peeing your knickers over the treatment of our feathered friends.”
“Why didn’t they steal the chickens?” Mildred narrowed her eyes in confusion. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“No idea.” Drake hunched his shoulders. “Looks like they were just after what was in the house. Maybe they were on foot. What are you gonna do with a bunch of birds if you don’t have a vehicle?”
“Stay at the farmhouse,” was Mildred’s reply.
“Anyway,” Drake looked annoyed with Mildred’s response and added, “We’ll take a look around, see if there’s anything else, and then grab the birds. No need to check out the farmhouse. Follow me.”
Drake walked away and everyone followed but Vince. He decided that it would be foolish to leave the vehicle unattended and told them so.
Pickle, Stephanie and Mildred were yards behind Drake and could see he was heading for a barn that was past the house, to the left of it. Pickle asked where Mildred was going as she began to veer to the right and was heading to the farmhouse.
“I’ll catch you up,” she told him. “I really need to go and pee.”
Her walk turned into a gentle jog and slowed down once she was at the side of the house.
Mildred reached the back of the house, and looked to the side of her before pulling down her pants and squatting. Once she was finished, she had a quick look round and then peered into the living room. The curtains were open. She could see two bodies lying in the living room.
Both of them were face down and Mildred felt for them.
To come this far and be killed by vagrants was terrible luck.
She was seconds from moving away and joining the rest, but suddenly gasped when she saw movement. The female of the two moved her arm and looked to be making a desperate attempt to crawl along the carpet, but was making little progress, and then turned over onto her back.
> Mildred opened the back door and stepped inside. The male was motionless, but the female was breathing shallow and gurgling.
Mildred bent down and knelt next to the woman. Their eyes met and Mildred asked her what happened.
The woman was barely conscious and Mildred noticed that the woman was bleeding from her stomach. She said something, but Mildred couldn’t make out what she was trying to say.
Mildred turned her head and put her ear near the woman’s lips and the woman spoke once again.
Mildred’s eyes widened in shock and asked the woman, “Are you sure about this?”
The elderly woman never answered and had taken her last breath.
Chapter Five
David MacDonald had passed by the doorway of the clinic and had a peep in. Karen looked up and could see the fourteen-year-old.
She told Dave the guard that it was okay and to let him in. Karen was about to leave the area, but the presence of David had halted that temporarily.
“You lost?” Karen questioned the youngster.
“Bored, to be honest,” was his response.
“Missing Stephanie then.”
Karen told the youngster to sit down and sat opposite him, at the other side of the table, and asked how he was getting on.
“Better than last week,” he said with a smile.
Karen had noticed an improvement in David’s mood and had put this down to the removal of Ronnie Price, who had made his life a misery for the first week.
“How are you getting on with the locals?” she asked.
“It gets better day by day,” David replied. “Starting to get to know more people, which is good.”
“There’re a lot of people here. And I think Drake wants to increase the numbers, providing they’re decent people.
“I wonder where Ronnie is now?” David rubbed his face and added, “Despite what he did, I wouldn’t want him to die out there.”
Karen leaned back in her chair and looked over to the guard and asked David if he wanted to know a secret.
“A secret?”
Karen smiled and spoke with a hushed tone. “Pickle told him to go to Colwyn Place.”
Snatchers Box Set | Vol. 5 | Books 13-15 Page 25