Drake turned to Karen who was calmer now and said to the group, “I’m sorry about Stephen. He was an annoying cunt, like Small Chris, but he didn’t deserve that. Let’s get the body and burn him with the...” Drake paused, but Karen knew what he meant. He wanted to remove the sack full of heads from the large shed and placed alongside Stephen’s body and she agreed.
They all agreed.
*
Drake released a depressed breath and headed over to the reception building. He rubbed his head and could feel a swelling in his throat.
He looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was looking his way. He headed over to one of the portaloos and locked himself in.
He sat down on the toilet seat and dropped his head in his hands. He had seen many horrific sights over the last few months, but this had been the worst day since his guys had been killed at Colwyn Place.
He had seen people he knew being eaten before his eyes, but this was a different horror, something new to him.
He had sent his people to kill others for supplies and as an act of revenge, and he even kicked one of his own men to death in a fit of anger, but the sack incident unnerved him.
“What have I brought here?” he moaned. “Jesus Christ.”
He rubbed his eyes and the images of the heads from the sack polluted his mind, especially the two severed heads of the fourteen-year-olds. He thought about the brief conversations he had with young Stephanie. She was such a sweet girl and a mean shot with that bow of hers. She didn’t deserve this.
A small smile developed under his nose when he thought of her shooting that arrow that put Jason Bailey out of his misery. He released a short laugh once his mind replayed the incident, but as for young David MacDonald… He hardly conversed with the youngster and had no memory of him. He had hardly spoken to him since he had arrived.
Nevertheless, Drake was saddened by the deaths of the three individuals, who were all under the age of eighteen.
Seconds later, Drake broke down.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Stephen and the remains of Richard, Stephanie, David and the unknown individual were placed in a ditch, outside the hospital grounds, and set alight, then buried.
Hours had passed and Vince Kindl sat on the small brick wall that was situated near the reception building. He looked out over the main gate and could see a woman at the gate called Stacey Delta. She was a heavy woman and used to be a prison officer at Winson Green prison in Birmingham, so she was no pushover.
Vince dropped his head and could feel his eyes filling up when he thought about Stephanie’s demise and what she could have gone through. He wiped his eyes when he could feel a presence approaching him and looked up to see Joanne Hammett looking down on him, smiling thinly.
“Want to be left alone?” she asked him.
“I’m okay.” He nodded.
Joanne remained standing and looked up to the murky heavens. The evening was drawing in.
“I’m going to turn in,” Joanne told him. “Wanna join me?”
Vince smiled. “In a few minutes.”
She leaned over and kissed him on his head. “I’m really sorry about Stephanie. As well as the others.”
Joanne walked away and just as Vince thought he was being left alone, he could see Karen Bradley heading towards him. She sat down on the wall next to him and asked how he was.
“Numb,” he said honestly.
She rubbed his thigh and said, “I know this doesn’t help Stephanie and David, but we’ll get Pickle back. I’m sure of it.”
“I wish I had your confidence,” Vince groaned. “I hope you’re right, but ... I don’t know.”
“You’re usually a positive person, Vince,” said Karen.
Vince smiled thinly. “I know.”
“But you’ve just received a blow. It’s understandable.”
“He’s not gonna live.” Vince folded his arms and lifted his head up.
“Who, Pickle?”
Vince slowly moved his head side-to-side and responded, “No. I meant Marsden and that other long-haired sick prick that hangs about with him.”
“The main goal is to get Pickle out first.”
“Agreed.” Vince nodded. “But, even if it means going back on my own, I will return to Gnosall and I will kill those cunts and anyone that gets in the way.”
“Just as well we’re not going until Saturday. It may take you a few days to calm down.”
Vince rubbed his palms over his face and groaned, “I won’t change my mind. No chance.”
“Maybe,” said Karen. “Let’s pick Shelley’s brains over the next few days and see what would be the best way to get in and out of that place.”
There was no response from Vince, and Karen could see the man staring into space.
She stood up and patted the man on the shoulder and bid him farewell.
“Where’re you going?” he asked her.
“I’m turning in,” she said. “It’s been a stressful day.”
“You’re not kidding.”
Karen turned and then a thought came to her. “Before he died,” she began. “Stephen said something to you, and you told him that it didn't matter.”
Vince revealed a small smile, like a stitch sitting under his nose and said, “And you want to know what it was?”
Karen nodded the once.
“Okay.” Vince took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Stephen told me that when he and Craig fell into the ditch, he pushed Craig into the dead to buy him some time and save himself.”
“The little—”
“What does it matter now?” Vince groaned. “He’s dead. They’re both dead. Stephen has always been a coward. He should never have gone out with Craig in the first place. Drake allowed that to happen.”
Karen raised her eyebrows and allowed a few seconds of silence to let the information sink in about Craig’s demise. She rubbed her forehead and asked Vince, “Anyway, are you okay?”
Vince smiled and said, “You know what?”
“What?”
“I do miss living at Colwyn Place.”
“Me too.” Karen leaned over and kissed Vince on the cheek. “Let’s get Pickle back first.”
Vince rubbed his hands over his head and gazed into nothingness. The day had been a bizarre and stressful one, and the consuming of booze as well as the brief meeting with the weird guy in the cabin with the dead lover didn’t help.
Vince stood up and brushed himself down. He took a look around the area and muttered, “We’re coming for you, Pickle.”
THE END
If you enjoyed reading SNATCHERS 14: The Dead Don't Hate, 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
Okay, so hands down that was the most brutal of the Snatchers books as far as human savagery is concerned. Excluding Richard, who was only introduced and briefly appeared in the previous book, the three that suffered, David, Stephanie and Stephen, have been with us for a while now. Stephanie was introduced to us as a lone survivor six books ago in Snatchers 8: The Dead Don’t Pray.
Only Karen, Vince, Pickle (so far) and Paul Dickson are still with us. If you haven’t read the Snatchers spin off series, Ghostland, set a year after the outbreak, then you can follow Paul Dickson’s journey along with some new characters here. The protagonist or villain of the Ghostland series is a guy called Hando, who is mentioned in Chapter Two when Mildred tells Stephanie a story when they are in the back of the van on the way to Amerton Farm.
Rowley was introduced in Snatchers 9: The Dead Don’t Scream, and provided some light entertainment in the series, especially the banter between him and Vince, but I was getting bored with the character and felt he needed to go, one way or another.
The settling down in the hospital hasn’t worked out for our survivors and was written so because I do miss our guys living in Colwyn Place
, plus it’s only two miles from Rugeley and I would like to visit the old town now and again if ever the Colwyn group needed to go out on a run.
Also, I’m not a big fan of having a large selection of characters in books or TV dramas. I don’t want the reader to be confused by the amount of names that need to be learned. The more the characters, the less development I can do on them.
A perfect example would be Quint. In book 12 we were introduced to Quint who was vulgar but funny. In this book I haven’t really used him well, to be honest, and will do so when the guys return to Colwyn where there are fewer characters.
Of all the camps, Spode Cottage caravan park, Sandy Lane, Colwyn was my favourite, but the conversation with Drake, stating that he and his guys could use the place as somewhere to stay if ever they were out on a supply run, suggests that we will still see Drake and some others from the hospital. As for Alan, Findlay and the other rebel members? Well, they have been banished and may or may not be seen again. I’ll see what happens in the next book.
Yes, these books are about surviving the dead, but I think it’s fair to say that the ugly side of mankind, especially when hundreds are ex inmates and released into the area, would occur and now Vince and the rest have a situation and have never come across men so brutal, especially ones that feel it is okay to behead minors. Even if Pickle doesn’t survive, we will be seeing our survivors going to Gnosall for revenge. Vince will make sure of that.
So do apocalyptic writers exaggerate about the way people behave in these kinds of books? I don’t think so. We’ve seen ourselves the way people react over a packet of toilet roll and pasta during the coronavirus, so imagine a zombie apocalypse where the food was running out, no electricity and eventually no petrol. Of course, violence would erupt if something this big occurred. No doubt. There would be some people that would pull together, whereas others would kill others if it benefited them.
As for book 15? I usually write these books in threes but not sure I want to wrap this particular story up as I’m enjoying the evilness of Marsden and especially his sidekick Manson. These are two characters I would like to explore a bit more, but I’ll see how I feel when I’m writing Snatchers 15: The Dead Don’t Hurt.
I should be working on 15 as you are reading this, and I’ll try and get it out for the late summer/early autumn.
All the best, stay healthy, and keep washing your hands.
Shaun
Snatchers (Book 14): The Dead Don't Hate Page 23