“Great. So what are you telling me? Can these guys be a threat to this place?”
“Possibly.” Pickle turned to the side and spat. “I don’t wanna worry yer, but I just thought yer should know. A girl from the hospital came from Gnosall and said that these guys beat, raped, and even killed some folk. Just be on yer guard.”
Terry looked at Pickle with suspicion and could now see Vince entering the street from outside.
“What is it?” Pickle could see Terry’s suspicious stare.
“Is this your way of getting us to come with you?” he asked suspiciously. “By frightening us?”
“Not at all. I wouldn’t stoop that low.”
Vince raised his eyebrows as he approached the two sitting men, asking Pickle what the conversation was about.
“I was telling Terry about Marsden and his crew.”
Vince nodded. “Yep. They look a right bunch of dangerous cunts. Not too nice, from what we’ve been told.”
Terry released a short heavy sigh, and could feel his blood simmering. “If we get attacked by four or maybe more, we’re fucked.” He snapped at Pickle, “This is your fault.”
“What do yer mean?” Pickle asked.
“We’re low in numbers because you left us. We’re vulnerable.”
“Yer only vulnerable because yer pig headed and decided to stay behind. Yer had a choice, yer still have. If yer leave, the rest o’ this lot will follow. Yer know that, Terry.”
“Nah.” Terry shook his head and snapped. “I’m going nowhere with that Drake prick.”
Vince and Pickle looked at one another in defeat. Terry was going nowhere. Vince could see both sides of the argument. He could understand why Terry was so annoyed and felt Pickle and the rest had abandoned them for a better life, but he also agreed with Pickle that Terry did have an option and could have left with them. Terry was stubborn and Vince was convinced that it was fear that kept the rest behind, but would leave if Terry left.
“Okay.” Pickle sighed in defeat, slapped his knees and got to his feet. “I’ll get the chickens in and some o’ the food that they need.”
“Okay.” Terry nodded. “I’ll get some kind of set up for them in one of the back gardens. It’ll give the birds a bit of freedom.”
“I’ll help,” Vince spoke up.
“I would help as well,” Terry said, “but I don’t even want to look at that prick.”
Vince laughed, “We understand.”
Terry took a step back and watched as Pickle and Vince, one by one, carried in two individually caged chickens each, one in each hand. They were told by Terry to put them in his kitchen for now and he’d sort them out himself. Terry opened the main door of 1 Colwyn Place and shut the kitchen door once the ten birds were inside.
Minutes later, after the guys had made five trips to and from the van, the both rubbed their hands down their jeans and looked at Terry.
The man stroked his ginger beard and smiled thinly. “Thanks, guys. This means a lot.”
“Don’t mention it,” said Vince. “We might need a favour off you one day.”
Terry beamed. “No bother.”
Chapter Nine
Karen had stepped out of one of the portaloos with her T-shirt over her nose and saw a smiling Findlay looking over, standing by the large shed. She had no idea who had used it before her, but mentally told herself that the individual should be medically screened.
“They’re pretty bad today, aren’t they?” he called over, sniggering at the T-shirt over her nose.
“Fucking disgusting!” Karen pulled her T-shirt from her face and said, “Aren’t they supposed to be cleaned after being emptied?”
“We need the water.”
“Well, don’t you think we should be getting some? What the fuck is going on? We should really have a well set up by now.”
“We’re working on it.”
“You’re working on it?” Karen laughed. “I suggest you work a little harder. You can’t have a hundred people here and no running water. These trips to the river are gonna get harder when the petrol dries up.”
“Just relax,” Findlay laughed. “Drake and I have it all under control.”
“Vince had a well at his old camp, at the caravan park.”
“Like I said, we’re working on it.”
Findlay walked away, leaving Karen to gaze over at the shed. She had been at the place for a week, yet didn’t know what was in there. When she worked at the hospital it was used for storage, for beds and other equipment that was broken. Eventually the equipment would be picked up, taken away and fixed or taken to the dump.
The place was padlocked and she wondered if it still had old equipment in there, or had it been emptied and Drake was using it for something else. The food and drink were stored in a ward, under guard, near where Karen’s new clinic was based. So what else could be in the shed?
Karen could see an unhappy Joanne Hammett appear from around the corner of the old outpatients building. She called her over for a chat.
Joanne was finishing off a cigarette and threw it to the floor before she reached Karen.
“You okay?” Joanne asked her.
Karen nodded and added, “Was wondering what you were up to?”
Joanne started to laugh. “Are you bored as well?”
“Yes.” Karen smiled. “That obvious, huh? Was wondering what everybody else does.” Karen looked around and hardly a soul could be seen.
“It’s quiet without Drake, Pickle and Vince, isn’t it?” Joanne remarked.
“I know.” Karen agreed and looked around again. “I mean ... where is everybody? Where do they go?”
“Well, there’re people out on runs. Drake’s out with Pickle, Vince, Mildred and Stephanie. And two of his guys have gone out on mopeds.”
“They’ll be no petrol left if they’re not too careful.”
“There’s four guards on duty. Another two outside, Peter and Roger.”
Karen looked around again. “But where’re the others?”
“Some have jobs,” said Joanne. “Some are in the greenhouses, the nursery—”
“But what about the rest?”
Joanne smiled and hunched her shoulders. “Shagging?”
Karen raised her eyebrows and said with a smirk, “Speaking from experience, are we?”
“Of course not. But I have heard rumours that Ward 18 is like a whorehouse.”
“I suppose people still get the urge, even in these times.” Karen then smirked and said, “What about you?”
Joanne widened her eyes. “What about me?”
“Anyone caught your eye?” Karen giggled. “I hear Drake is an admirer.”
“Drake is an admirer of anything with a pulse.” Joanne smirked and said, “Those condoms weren’t for Drake, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.”
“If you say so.”
“Anyway, I...”
Karen waited for Joanne to finish her sentence, but the pause had been too long. “Yes. Do go on.”
“Nothing.” Joanne blushed and wanted to be away from Karen.
“Come on. Don’t leave me hanging.”
“Forget it.”
“Joanne?”
“I’ll see you later, Karen.” Joanne pecked Karen on the cheek.
“Okay,” Karen sighed in defeat.
Joanne walked away and Karen called after her, but she continued walking and disappeared around the corner of the building.
Karen thought that maybe she had pushed too hard and was going to apologise to Joanne the next time she saw her.
She decided to leave the grounds and have a word with Peter and Roger. She had hardly spoken to them since they all arrived at the hospital together, so she went to the ward where she slept and took her machete from the side of her bed and eventually exited the grounds.
Drake frowned upon residents going out of the grounds, even if it was around the perimeter of the wall, but the guard wouldn’t dare question Karen Bradley. He knew tryi
ng to prevent her from going out was pointless. She was a headstrong individual and Drake clearly liked the woman, which put the guard in two minds whether to act. He didn’t want anything to happen to her, because Drake and Pickle would be more than annoyed. But he also didn’t want to upset her by refusing to let her out.
Karen walked through the gate and could see the old blood stains of Jason Bailey on the ground. This individual had been eaten by a Snatcher after being thrown out when he tried to rape one of the women almost a week ago.
She went around the entrance and clocked Peter and Roger. The two brothers were walking towards Karen, and both had baseball bats in hand.
“You finishing up?” she asked them.
“No,” Peter was the first to speak up. “We decided it’d be better for the pair of us, both physically and mentally, if we walked around the perimeter, rather than standing in one spot.”
“Does Drake know?”
“Oh, fuck him,” Roger laughed. “What’s he going to do? Take us off a job that nobody else wants to do? It’s not as if we’re getting paid for this, is it?”
“Fair point?”
“Anyway,” Peter began. “I wanted to have a word with you, now you have your little clinic set up.”
“Oh?” Karen elevated her eyebrows that desperately needed plucked.
Peter smiled. “It can wait.”
“Come with me now, if you want.”
Peter looked at Roger, and Roger said, “May as well go now. Fuck all happening here.”
“Okay,” Roger said to his brother. “Won’t be long.”
Chapter Ten
Ten birds had been removed from the van and placed in Terry’s kitchen at 1 Colwyn Place. Pickle and Vince accepted Terry’s offer of a drink, whilst Mildred and Stephanie were absent and talking to Brenda Hatchet, but told them all they weren’t going to stay long. Drake was still sitting in the van and Pickle didn’t want to hang around too long and piss him off, as it took some persuasion to allow ten of the chickens to be given to the remaining residents of Colwyn Place.
Vince and Pickle had been given a glass of water by Terry, and all three sat in the front lawn with the murky sky above them. The temperature was the lowest it had been for months. It was weather everybody welcomed. No more sunburn, sweating, soaked clothes, but it was also a reminder that winter wasn’t far away.
Ronnie stepped out of 9 Colwyn Place where Freddie Johnson and his mother used to live before Drake’s mob attacked and killed them. He made his way over and smiled.
“How’s this guy treating yer?” Pickle asked Ronnie, referring to Terry.
“Great.” Ronnie smiled and seemed a different young man. “How’s everything back at the place?”
“Not bad. John’s missing yer, and Jason Bailey was killed last week for rape.”
Ronnie smiled thinly. He didn’t know Jason Bailey well, although he had heard that he liked to try and charm the female population of Stafford Hospital. To Ronnie, he came across as desperate and a bit of a creep.
“I just wanna thank you for what you did,” Ronnie spoke to Pickle, and looked to be getting emotional. “It was a struggle getting here, but thankfully Terry let me in.”
Terry turned to Pickle and said, “Yesterday, he told me what he did to young David.”
“I had to tell him the truth,” Ronnie spoke with genuine regret in his voice. “I behaved like a dick.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Pickle smiled.
“I mean it. I don’t know why I behaved like I did.”
“Teenagers are hormonal, moody, and angry with the world. Now put them in an apocalyptic situation and yer get something worse.”
“Plus, I was sexually active when I was your age,” Vince intervened. “Can’t be easy not getting any, although I still think you were a prick to David.”
“I know.” Ronnie lowered his head. “Just glad to be away from that place and Drake.”
Pickle and Vince looked at one another and refrained from telling the youngster that Drake wasn’t actually that far away.
Ronnie continued to speak, referring to the treatment of David MacDonald, “I’m sorry about that. Anyway, I have things to do. I’ll see you later.”
“Things to do?” Pickle enquired.
“Ronnie and Paul Smith are taking a trip to the river to fill some jars,” Terry began to explain as Ronnie walked away, “I’m glad you sent him. That kid’s been an absolute godsend. A great addition to the place.”
“I’m glad it’s working out,” Pickle said. “I was worried what was going to happen to him.”
“On the way here he said he ran into a few Creepers ... Snatchers, as you call them,” Terry began. “But to be honest, I’m just glad we’ve got another body in the place.”
“I suppose the trouble is now, is that if yer and the rest do decide to come back with us, Ronnie would be on his own again. I think Drake would see taking him back as a sign o’ weakness, as daft as that may sound.”
Terry was lost in thought and pondered over what Pickle had just said, but he had no intention of leaving. He wanted to continue to live where his family died. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“Tell me more about this group of guys you bumped into,” said Terry.
Pickle could see the concern on his face and said, “A part o’ me wished I never told yer anything. Nothing may happen, but there’s nothing wrong keeping yer on high alert, just in case. And it’s definitely not a story to get yer to come with us.”
“I know that now,” Terry moaned and then looked at Vince. “Well? Tell me more about these guys.”
“I don’t know anything.” Vince hunched his shoulders. “They used to be in Pickle’s prison. Some of them do look a bit mental, to be honest.”
“There were four o’ them,” Pickle began. “I know the four, but with them at this village and the apocalypse being nearly four months old—”
“Has it been four months?” Terry interrupted.
“It’s now September,” Vince joined in.
“I thought it was around October.”
“Anyway,” Pickle puffed, slightly annoyed that he had been interrupted. “The concern I have, and this was the point I was going to make before I was interrupted, is that these four inmates may have added a bit o’ muscle to their crew. There could be more than four o’ them. Whether it was from when they were on the road or more recently, or from this village they’re staying at, yer could have more than four guys to take care o’ if ever they were to attack, which they could. Those four are bad enough.”
“Well, that makes me feel better,” Terry spoke with a mocking tone, making Vince giggle to the side of him.
“Sorry.” Pickle threw his hands up. “Just explaining what the worst case scenario could be.”
“Ah,” Vince began. “Don’t you just miss the good old days when the places were full of the dead, ripping people to pieces, and that was all you needed to worry about?”
“I don’t think anything will happen.” Pickle slapped Terry on the shoulder and stood up, hinting that it was time to leave. “Just want you prepared for the worst case scenario.”
Terry and Vince also stood and Pickle could see the concern on Terry’s features. “If I thought there was a chance it could happen, I’d be dragging yer to Stafford with us, or even staying back here temporarily.”
Pickle could see the girls leaving the house and said to Mildred and Stephanie, “Good timing. We’re heading back before Drake gets annoyed.”
Pickle and Vince shook Terry’s hand and waved to Paul Smith, who was standing outside his house. Kelly and his wife must be indoors, Pickle thought, and even Old Tom managed a wave from his living room window.
Pickle took a nostalgic look around the street and said his farewells to Terry, the obvious leader of the small group.
“Don’t be a stranger,” he said to Pickle.
Pickle nodded. “We’ll pop in whenever we can. Drake hates using up the fuel and...” Pickle didn’t need to
go on.
Terry said, “I understand.”
“Hopefully Karen will be with us next time.”
“Kelly will like that.”
Terry watched as they began to leave, but couldn’t bear to wave them off. That would include stepping out of the street and clocking the face of the man he despised, the man that killed some of the residents here weeks ago.
He stayed in the street and shut the gate once everybody was out.
Chapter Eleven
Karen walked around the building where the reception was based and her thoughts went back to that terrible night shift, where a series of bite victims had been rushed into the A and E department. It was bedlam, and it didn’t help matters that some members of staff had called in sick. The only thing that got her through the ordeal was the thought of going back to Draycott Park, to her home, to Gary, and crashing on the bed and experiencing one of his foot rubs.
She didn’t realise at the time that this shift would be her last one.
Karen walked by two guards, of name she didn’t know, and ignored their leers as she reached the front of the hospital. She strolled across the staff car park and revealed a sad smile when she reached the area where she would normally park her jeep. Only consultants had their own private parking space, but Karen always managed to park in the same area whenever she started her shift, night or day.
She looked at some of the spaces where the consultants used to park, and thought about two guys that hadn’t entered her mind since this shit started happening.
“Derek Fleming,” she said softly. “I wonder how you’re doing?”
Karen greatly respected Dr Fleming. Unlike some of the doctors and consultants, Fleming treated the rest of the staff with respect. Even the cleaners received a ‘good morning’ from Dr Fleming, and whenever the pressure was increasing he never seemed to crumble underneath it. He was a man in his forties, bald with hair at the sides, and although not Karen’s cup of tea, his kind nature made him an attractive man to Bradley. The only time she had seen him lose his temper was when paramedic Jason Bamford was caught having a cigarette outside his ambulance. He received a verbal warning for this misdemeanour.
Snatchers Box Set | Vol. 5 | Books 13-15 Page 27