Snatchers (Book 8): The Dead Don't Pray (30 page)

Chapter Fifty Seven

His back was against the wall, and had at last managed to stop the bleeding to his face. The cut on his right cheek wasn't as deep as first thought, and a simple sock from his foot with applied pressure seemed to have stopped more blood loss. The right side of his back was still smarting; it had been the most painful experience of his life. He was unaware if it was the right thing to do, but he had managed to pull the arrow out from his trapezius and had no idea how much he was bleeding, but he was still conscious, so maybe it wasn't as bad as he thought. He knew it was a long shot, but he needed go somewhere and get help, and he needed rest.

He staggered to his feet and walked into a side street. He was going to knock on every door of the homes until somebody appeared, but he saw a curtain twitch from a bedroom window, and went over to the house without delay. He looked behind him and snarled when he thought about that scarred man and his companion.

"Cunts! Fucking cunts!"

He knocked the door, turned and continued to talk to himself. "Camp? Once I'm back on my feet they won't have a fucking camp left. The bastards!"

Bear hammered the door this time, and a window opened above him. Before the old man had a chance to open his mouth, Bear demanded to be let in, and he told the man that he needed help and a place to rest. The old man seemed hesitant. Bear told him that if he didn't let him in, he'd come in anyway and would then kill him. A bloody Bear waited for two minutes, then the front door was opened by the frightened old man.

Against his wishes, the elderly gentleman, who lived alone, was going to look after Theodore Davidson for a few days until he was able to get some of his strength back. If the old man behaved and did what he was told, then he would be allowed to survive.

*

Vince had been on the bed for forty minutes, but hadn't slept. He immediately got off the bed and put his boots on. His mouth tasted funny and his teeth were in dire need of brushing. He walked over to the bedroom window and looked out onto the back gardens of Sandy Lane. It seemed peaceful, but he knew it was probably chaos in the first week.

He looked to the side of him and opened a drawer. In the drawer was two pairs of boxers shorts, a knife—just in case—and something that was given to him a week ago; a present from someone. Vince's eyes filled once he clocked the gift, picked it up and put it into his pocket. He released a long, slow breath out to compose himself, then left his room to go downstairs.

He entered the living room and went through the kitchen, where he could see Rosemary and Lisa, standing up and embracing in the corner. Rosemary looked over and flashed him a smile, and Vince pointed to the back door, telling Rosemary he was popping out. He didn't need to ask Rosemary what was wrong with Lisa. It was obvious. She was only nine years old, she had lost her family only weeks ago, abducted and abused by a vile man by the name of Kevin Murphy—the same man that was responsible for the death of Vince's son—and now young Kyle was dead.

How was a nine-year-old supposed to cope with that?

Fortunately, she had Rosemary. At least that was some kind of comfort.

Vincent Kindl was now outdoors and walked along the road with his head down. He turned left onto the grounds where the Lea Hall building was, looked to the right and could see the impressive tanker that they'd been talking about earlier. That was going to be a great help.

Before he had chance to walk past the building, he was greeted by a man called Jeffrey Maidstone. He was one of the farmers that was originally from Vince's camp, and seemed pleased that Vince had returned safely.

"I heard you were back," Jeffrey spoke up. "Can't believe you're still alive."

"Yep, I'm full of surprises." Vince smiled.

"Did you hear about what happened with Pickle?"

Vince shook his head.

"Remember when he lost it at your camp? Well this was a whole lot worse."

"I have no idea what you're mumbling on about."

"We had three intruders." Jeffrey looked over his shoulder, worried from eavesdroppers. "They took Jasmine hostage, but eventually they were taken off the site."

Vince nodded, unimpressed by Jeffrey's story. "Is that it?"

"Pickle walked them off the camp and cut the leader's throat to make a statement, to make sure they never came back."

"Good."

"Good? He killed the man in cold blood."

"They broke into the camp and took a young girl hostage." Vince shrugged his shoulders. "So ... fuck him."

"But what happens if Pickle starts lashing out at other folk in the camp?"

"You arse must be jealous of the shit that comes out of your mouth," Vince snapped. "This camp will need people like Pickle, especially..." Vince decided not to spread gossip about the huge man that nearly killed him. He didn't want to start a panic. He had already told Pickle and co about his run-in, but they didn't seem fazed.

Jeffrey screwed his face in confusion. "Especially what?"

"Forget it."

Vince's response wasn't the one that Jeffrey was after. Jeffrey walked away, shaking his head and cussing under his breath. He was convinced that Pickle was now a liability, and hoped that him staying wouldn't come back to haunt the camp.

Vince strolled over to the hut that was near the neglected bowling green, and became motionless when he reached Kyle Dickson's grave. He shook his head in disbelief, and slowly dropped to his knees to do something that he rarely did ... to pray.

The Lord's Prayer was mumbled under his breath, and once he got off his knees he walked over to the 'head' area of the shallow grave, and put his hand in his pocket. He took, out of his pocket, an action figure of Wonder Woman. It was the same figure that Kyle had given Vince.

A week ago, Kyle had told Vince that he was being bullied, and Vince told Kyle that he'd find a solution to stop it. Giving the gift to Vince was Kyle's way of thanking him.

Of course, the bullies, David McDonald and Charles Pilkington, had turned over a new leaf since the death of Kyle Dickson. They had been humbled by it, and also helped repair the damage to the grave after it had been vandalised. A story that Vince was told by Rosemary.

When Vince had been given this gift by young Kyle he was extremely touched by the gesture, and had put it into his drawer for safe-keeping, just in case Kyle wanted it back, for whatever reason. He bent over and stood Wonder Woman into the dirt and made sure that it was in deep so that a gust of wind wouldn't take it away or blow it over.

He blew the grave a kiss and said with a tremor in his voice, "Sleep tight, little man."

Vince looked to the dreary heavens and could feel the first spots of rain hitting his face. He smiled, allowing the saltwater to hit his features and stood there for a few minutes. He thought about Kyle's demise, his own brush with death when he fell into the river, and nearly being choked to death. It seemed that every week there was never a dull moment, and the only reason he was still breathing today was because of other people and luck.

The world was a shitty place, but he was thankful that he was still alive.

For now.

THE END

If you've enjoyed reading SNATCHERS 8:
The Dead Don't Pray
, feel free to email me your thoughts on
facebook
and/or leave a review where you've downloaded the book.

Very kind regards,

Shaun Whittington

Author's Notes

Once again, thanks for purchasing another book in the Snatchers series. A lot of people claim that the zombie story is old hat, tired, and a subject that has been done to death. But because of the sheer volume of Z books out there, I believe that it has its own genre now, instead of being listed under the title of horror or apocalyptic, "zombie" should have its own category.

Book seven and this one are basically getting to know the new characters from the Sandy Lane camp, book seven especially. Books seven and eight are quite tame, compared to others I've written in the series. Book eight is mostly about getting to know the characters more and about the death of Kyle Dickson.

The death of the young boy was something I wasn't sure about. The Paul Dickson character is quite cowardly and doesn't get involved in battles as such, and I wanted to change him. In the next episode(s) I want to make him darker, on the edge and more psychotic. Losing everything that he had loved was the only way I could do this.

There is a reason for seven and eight being reasonably tame. They are building to what will happen in the ninth episode in the series. The first draft of book nine is halfway to being finished, (I'm writing this on the 3rd Jan 2016) and it is going to be the most brutal one yet, almost from start to finish. And you'll also be reading more about Elza and Ophelia in book nine.

Going back to the book, I had a conversation on Facebook with a Neil Berrigan (I hope you're reading this, mate) back in February 2015, who wondered if I could do a story that involved a toddler from book two being saved. I can be brutal in some of the books, but I decided to give this particular life a reprieve. That's why I introduced the Beverley character from John Lincoln's camp in Little Haywood, who was originally from Milford. She tells Vince a story about Jenny and a man leaving her house (escaped inmate, Jason Bonser, from book one and two), and that she eventually broke into Jenny's house, found her dead, but managed to save the toddler, the same toddler that Jason Bonser left after killing his mummy in book two.

So six books later, it's now clear what happened after Jason Bonser left the house in Milford. Beverley also tells us in Chapter Forty Five that a few days before, she saw a woman mowing down the dead in her jeep. Of course, we all know that that was Karen in the first book after fleeing from a reanimated Gary in her Cherokee Jeep, although Vince is unaware that she's actually talking about Karen.

As far as the Vince character is concerned ... I'd like to think that you've warmed to the man. He is one of my favourites. In book three and four he was quite obnoxious and vulgar, but I think the first half of this book missed him. I was originally going to have the whole of book eight without him, leaving readers hanging, but decided that it was too cruel. So you had to wait until Chapter Thirty Six for him to finally make an appearance, so to speak.

Occasionally, I do like to revisit the old books—like the toddler from book two—and throw in reminders, as it could have been a year or so since you guys have read them. Shaz's bracelet (made for her by her son, Spencer) gets a few mentions, as well as characters reminiscing.

Another example of going back to the old books can be found in Chapter Twenty Eight of this one. I wrote the following sentence: "Theodore Davidson drove slowly to the Ash Tree pub and turned left at the roundabout. He went down a road, passing an abandoned vehicle to his left that was stuck in a ditch." That very same vehicle in the ditch was the one from book two. Jack Slade had drove it into a ditch as he and Paul Parker left the supermarket, shell-shocked, after the brutal death of Gary Jenson, and were making their way back to the village hall. And then there was the shopkeeper that Vince had robbed in book three that had now turned. He was reanimated when Vince and Stephanie returned to Spode Cottage.

I have had the odd email, asking me when this series is going to end. What I'm going to do, with the ninth book in the series, is wrap it up. I'm going to make sure that I finish the book with no cliffhanger and very little, if any, loose ends, and create some kind of ending. So if you are one of those individuals who wants this series to finally end, then
Snatchers 9: The Dead Don't Scream
is your last book and I thank you for sticking by it. And unless I get hit by a bus, it should be out in the Spring/Summer of 2016.

But for everybody else, the series
WILL
continue.

As well as releasing stand-alone books inbetween, I have managed to release eight Snatcher books since September 2013 which isn't bad going. The first one was 115,000 words, but the rest have all been between 85-95,000 words), and according to Amazon’s great Text Stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.

I know the books are not perfect, I'll be the first to admit that, and it's also the reason why I make them so cheap. But I hope you have enjoyed the stories so far, and hope you stick with the series. And also, thank you for your patience inbetween waiting for the books.

Very kind regards,

Shaun.

SNATCHERS 9: The Dead Don't Scream
will be out in Spring/Summer 2016.

For more information message me on
FB