Once all three were on the roof, Paul asked them to do whatever he said and follow his lead. He went back to his skylight the same way, across the spine of the roof, and reached his already-opened skylight and helped the girls in.
"Wait until Kyle sees you." Paul said to Lisa, feigning excitement and trying to lift her spirits.
Once they were all in, they made their way to the first floor of his house and Paul was relieved that Kyle was still playing in his room. Lisa looked around the pink bedroom and asked, "Where's Bell? Is she one of...them?"
"Lisa!" Daisy scolded her eldest daughter. "Don't be so rude."
"That's okay." Paul seemed unruffled by the girl's comment, and looked at Lisa. "As I've already told your mum, Julie and Bell went out shopping. They're hiding somewhere." Paul was lying; it was more hope than anything.
"Lisa!" Kyle squealed with excitement, not even asking his dad how the two females had got into the house. "Where's Jody?"
Paul looked at Daisy and told Kyle, "Jody won't be coming. She's with her daddy."
Unbothered by this remark, Kyle grabbed Lisa by the hand and asked her if she wanted to play Batman with him. She clearly didn't, but went with him anyway with dragging feet. She would rather listen to music and dance.
Kyle had had a little crush on Lisa for a year or so. Whenever Paul walked Kyle and Bell to school, Paul would tease, "Look, there's Lisa by the school gates. Maybe she's waiting for you. Shall we say hello?"
Kyle would always refuse to greet his neighbour, and kept his head down. He told his dad that whenever he spoke to Lisa, it made his face go red. But he didn't seem so shy on this day, and that was because he had been starved of young company for weeks.
Paul turned around and saw Daisy peering from the blinds in Bell's room. Paul called over, "You okay?"
Daisy shook her head and beckoned him over while Lisa and Kyle played in his room. She pointed outside. "Isn't that David, from four-doors down?"
Paul peered out and could see a solitary being, aimlessly stumbling around the street, blood covering his T-shirt and his chin. He had, without a doubt, turned, but how?
Paul moved from the blinds and gently pulled Daisy away. "Sandra and Harry are dead," said Paul.
"No," Daisy gasped.
"I managed to get in their house, and kind of hoped they'd have some food. They had killed themselves."
Daisy became lost in thought.
"Let's get you guys some water." Paul said, then turned to Daisy. "I need to talk to you about something."
Chapter Nineteen
Twenty-three-year-old Karen Bradley gazed up at the sky, and was relieved that the clouds had stopped releasing their saltwater for a while. Bored out of her mind, she took a stroll around the camp with her hands in the pockets of her blue jeans.
"Morning, Karen," a voice startled her.
She turned around and could see Henry Bowes. He was a tall man and had dark hair. Karen had surprised herself that she was attracted to the man, and she had no idea why.
"Morning, Henry." She smiled and brushed her hair behind her ears. "How are you?"
"Not bad." He felt uncomfortable in her company. She was attractive, and he would occasionally have sexual thoughts about the young woman, but guilt plagued his mind. In just the first days of the outbreak his wife had taken her own life. She was convinced that they were all going to die anyway, and wanted to be in control of her own demise, rather than experiencing the unimaginable death people had gone through. Henry went into the caravan to find that she had taken an overdose.
People taking their own lives wasn't so unusual in the first week, and because it was, for the most part, whole families that had decided to be away from this earth, there wasn't much protest when Vince suggested burning the bodies. Even Henry never objected. His wife had always wanted to be cremated, and always said that she'd never wanted to be stuck in a ground so she could be food for the worms. The only person that had been buried was Jack Slade.
Henry would occasionally guard the barrier for Vince, but he knew, and so did everybody else, that he didn't have the stomach for the fight. Some would say he was even a coward, and that if Henry hadn't been a resident of the caravan park for years Vince would have had him thrown out.
Henry Bowes was thirty-three years old, an attractive man, but the last thing on Karen's mind was getting involved with a man like Henry—anyone for that matter. Gary had only been dead four weeks, she was pregnant, and Henry had tragedy of his own to come to terms with.
"So what's happening with you?" asked Karen, a smile emerged across her face. "You still guarding the barrier?"
"As well as feeding the animals and collecting water for the residents," Henry laughed. "I think Vince is going to be putting me on guard-duty half a mile away into Armitage," said Henry, "I don't think he's too happy with Trevor."
"Ah," Karen cackled a little. "I was at the barrier when Vince was reprimanding Trevor. It was a little cruel."
"I heard he fell asleep." Henry shook his head in disgust, and was perplexed about the way Vince had treated the man for making such a simple mistake. "We never used to have people scouting at all up until last week. I thought Vince was a little harsh on him."
"Have you known him long?"
Henry nodded just the once. "Oh yeah. Me and Vince were friends years ago, but he changed when Brian..." Henry paused and smiled thinly.
"Who's Brian?" asked Karen.
"Don't matter."
"Henry!" a voice yelled. Both Karen and Henry turned to face the voice. It was Karl Pearly, one of the farmers who absconded in the first week and joined the camp. "I need your help with something."
Henry gave Karen an apologetic look and sighed, "Looks like I'm needed elsewhere. I'll see you later, Karen."
"Indeed you will, Henry."
*
Another five minutes on the road and Vince had pulled up again.
"What now?' Shaz asked.
Vince pointed up ahead. "The hangar is not far from here, but that's a concern." He nodded towards the house that was a few hundred yards away.
"We should check it out before we go to the factory." Pickle agreed with Vince's concern comment.
"And potentially scare a hiding family?" Shaz was in disagreement with both men.
"We have no idea what's waiting for us at the hangar," Vince began. "It could be nothing, but I have a feeling that if this house is spoken for, then the same people probably have control over the hangar."
"Fine," Shaz sighed. "Only one way to find out. If the house and the hangar are occupied, does that mean we go back to the camp empty-handed, with our tails between our legs?"
Vince never answered, pulled away and told the group that he was going to park in a lay-by, fifty yards from the house. They all agreed, apart from Harry Beresford who remained silent, his knees clattering together due to his nerves.
Once the pick-up truck pulled into the lay-by, the group exited the vehicle. Apart from Harry Beresford, who was carrying a knife, all members of the group walked with machetes tucked into their belts, headed for the house and proceeded with caution. Vince told young Harry to stay by him, while Pickle and Shaz climbed over a small wooden fence to get into a field. They both went round the back of the house.
It was unusual for a house to be situated in the middle of nowhere, and Pickle guessed it was purposely built by someone with money. It looked reasonably big, with a huge back garden that also had a large shed in the left corner of the grounds that could be seen from outside the premises.
Once they reached the perimeter of the back garden, both Shaz and Pickle could see that there was a gate in the middle of the surrounding fence. The set-up reminded Pickle of the outside of Wolf's cabin.
He told Shaz to stay where she was for now and, with little hesitation, he climbed over the six-foot fence to get onto the premises. Once his feet landed on the lawn he took a quick look around. He was startled a little when he heard a click from behind him, and his face flushed
once Shaz walked through the gate.
"It's open," she giggled.
"God," Pickle could also see the funny side, "some burglar I'd make."
Soon, Vince and Harry had arrived into the back garden. "It's clear at the front," said Vince. "There're no cars outside and we looked in the downstairs room. They all seemed to be clear." Vince then twitched his nose and began sniffing the air. "Jesus, what's that smell?"
"You smell it too?" Pickle spoke.
Shaz turned around and pointed at the shed behind her. "I think the smell's coming from that shed."
"First thing's first," snapped Vince. "Let's get the house looked over, see if there's anything of value. We can check the shed before we go to the hangar."
After his embarrassing incident with the fence, Pickle approached the back door and tried the handle first. It was unlocked. They all stared at one another in surprise.
With a small amount of nervousness and hesitancy, all four individuals crept through the house. Pickle and Shaz went straight upstairs, whilst Vince checked out the ground floor more thoroughly. One thing for sure, the house looked like it had been lived in, and Vince was convinced that the house was being used by an individual or individuals.
"What shall I do?" Harry Beresford asked, while standing outside the living room entrance, feeling like a spare part. "Shall I stand here?"
"No." Vince pointed a yard to Harry's left. "Stand there."
Being unfamiliar with Vince Kindl's sense of humour, Harry did what he was told and took a side step to where Vince had pointed. Vince looked at him with a blank expression and shook his head.
"Vince!" Pickle called from the first floor. "Yer need to see this."
Vince ran upstairs and went into the first bedroom where Pickle and Shaz stood, and Harry followed with little steps. The room was packed full of tins, water bottles and other edible goods.
"That's not all." Pickle motioned with his head. "Go and check out the other room."
With Harry remaining motionless on the landing, Vince walked to the other room to see that the scene was similar. The house had two large bedrooms rammed full of food and drink.
"Are yer thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Pickle asked Vince.
Vince nodded. "Probably."
"Whoever is staying in this house is also occupying the hangar. And there's more than one o' them. Where else could this food come from?"
"But are they friendly, or not?"
"Maybe we could do some kind o' deal."
"I doubt it." Vince wasn't convinced.
Pickle asked, "So what do we do? Do we attack these people and steal what they have, or do we leave them alone?"
Shaz said, "They could be good people, Vince. They could be just normal survivors, like ourselves. We're not that desperate to resort to that, are we?"
"Maybe not."
"We need to make a decision, quick." Pickle spoke up. "We can't be hanging around here for too long."
"I say we just go back," said Shaz.
"Me too," came a rare comment from young Harry.
Vince had other ideas. "I say we spy on the hangar for a while. Then just go in and take the stuff. If we have to kill people, then so be it."
"That's ridiculous." Shaz huffed, "I'm not being a part of this. These could be good people."
Vince then remembered the familiar smell that assaulted his nose when he first walked into the back garden. Without saying a word to the other members of the group, he walked away and headed downstairs. They called after him, wondering what the hell he was doing, and followed him outside to the back garden.
He went over to the large shed, where the smell became stronger, and could see that there was a large padlock keeping it secure. Vince took out his machete and used it to prise open the shed's door. Once it swung open he placed his T-shirt over his nose. Flies buzzed manically in his face and he slapped at the winged pests.
Vince turned to Shaz. "Good people, did you say? Go and take a look."
Shaz could smell the unmistakeable pong of death and could hear the endless amount of flies, but she wasn't quite prepared for what she was about to see.
She stared into the shed to see four individuals tied up and dumped on the floor. A man and a woman—man and wife, Shaz assumed, and two little brown-haired girls were also tied up. The little girls looked like twins, no older than six. Each one had been shot in the chest.
"I've seen enough," Shaz said with tears in her eyes. "Close the door."
Pickle gaped and snarled, "Bastards! That's an execution." He dropped his head for a short prayer, then stepped away from the scene.
"Whoever did this is now staying here." Vince had stated the obvious. He closed the shed door and said, "And are probably occupying the hangar."
"And they have guns," Shaz said, remembering the wounds on each family member. "This is dangerous. We should just go back to our camp."
Before anyone could respond, young Harry came running out of the back door with fear scrawled over his face. Pickle was the first to ask, "What is it?"
"Some people are arriving," cried Harry.
"Right, fuckers." Vince clapped his hand to rally the troops. "If we run now, they could see us." He pointed at the house. "Time to hide."
Chapter Twenty
Paul had told Daisy about his idea about raiding the gym. She seemed concerned, but knew the positive outcome could be more weeks of survival, and who knows after that? Maybe there would be some government control by then.
Wishful thinking?
The outside, as normal, had been quiet—a far cry from what it was like during the first few days of the outbreak. The noises of screams, sirens, car alarms and shouting was something of the norm in the first week, but now it had quietened down after over a month.
Lisa and Kyle were in Bell's room, playing with her dolls. Paul could see that the rules on the blackboard for Kyle had been rubbed out, and Lisa was now trying to teach Kyle to play Hangman, but Kyle was clearly not getting it, and Lisa was becoming more and more impatient with the seven-year-old.
Paul went back downstairs and could see Daisy, sitting on the sofa, staring into oblivion. Paul cleared his throat, which helped Daisy to snap out of her self-hypnosis.
He announced, "It seems clear outside, so I'm going to put the wheels on the car in a minute, then fill the tank."
She nodded and asked, "Are you sure about this?"
"Not really," Paul guffawed falsely. "The only noise I'll make is when I start the engine, but I'll soon be gone. I don't want to do it, but Kyle is my priority."
"Why don't you raid some houses?"
Paul shook his head. "I've already thought of that. I don't know if the houses are empty until I go in, and if they're not, I could be greeted by either irate people, or those freaks. And anyway, after a month, how many of the houses will have a decent amount of food supply left inside them? Sandra and Harry had food only because they had killed themselves early. It's too risky."
"I suppose. But how do you know if the gym hasn't been raided already?"
"I don't. Just gonna try it, and maybe a few of the shops on the way back. I have no idea what it's like outside this street; it could be quiet or it could be heaving with those things. At least now, with you here, I can leave without leaving Kyle on his own."
"Just be careful."
Paul nodded and got up to start setting the car up. Daisy nervously watched from the living room as Paul began putting on the tyres and refilling it back up with the petrol he had siphoned weeks earlier. She looked out into the street and saw that there wasn't a soul around. Paul walked back into the house, and Daisy asked if there was anything wrong.
"Just wanted to kiss Kyle..." Paul then paused and cleared his throat. "Just in case."
Daisy stood up and gave Paul a hug. "You'll be fine. It might even be clear. But if it's not, don't be a hero."
Paul nodded in agreement. "I won't. If it's really bad, I'll come back and we'll think of something else."
Dai
sy kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks for everything. You didn't have to come round. Everyone else in the neighbourhood has kept a low profile."
"Maybe there's a good reason for that." Paul thought of what had happened to Sandra and Harry. Incidents like that could have happened in many more households in their area.
He ran upstairs to see his boy playing with Lisa. He walked over to the little man who was sitting on the floor in his sister's room, watching Lisa writing on the chalk board, and leaned over to kiss him on the head. Kyle never flinched. He remained sitting on the rug, watching Lisa, with his cheeks flushed red.
Paul took one more look outside from Bell's room, grabbed a knife and the claw hammer from the upstairs cupboard, then ran down to the ground floor and asked Daisy to lock the door behind him.
He went out the front, quickly jumped into his Mazda and shut the driver's door. He looked into the rear-view mirror and then craned his neck to look out the back himself, to get a better view. It seemed clear.
Not wanting to attract unnecessary attention towards his house, the plan was to start the engine and reverse out of the drive and flee the street. The last thing he or the rest of the people in the house needed was for a car to be sitting with its engine running.
He held out his hands on the steering wheel and couldn't stop them from shaking. What he was doing was for the benefit of his son, and now others, but he was struggling with his nerves, and this angered him. He took a deep breath out and fired the engine, slipped it into reverse, and the car shot backwards out of the drive.
Once the vehicle reached the end of his street, he stopped at the junction, made some observations, and then pulled the car forward. He was now exiting his road, and entered an area he hadn't been to in over a month. As soon as he progressed a further five hundred yards, he came across a roundabout and immediately saw two cars that appeared to be abandoned. He had no understanding why this had happened, and continued with the short drive and could now see a dead body lying on the path to the right of him.
Snatchers: Volume Two (The Zombie Apocalypse Series Box Set--Books 4-6) Page 34
