Snatchers (Book 7): The Dead Don't Yield

by Shaun Whittington

  Bentley asked Daniel, "Do you know where he's talking about?"

  Daniel nodded. "I know this school. I used to be a pupil here."

  "Then let's go."

  Both men headed for the main doors and approached the window at the side that the kids had climbed through earlier. Examining the size of the window, Bentley sighed, "I think I'll struggle trying to get through that."

  Daniel picked up a large rock from the garden and threw it at the glass at the main door. The glass shattered and Daniel snickered, "Problem solved."

  Both men stepped through the door and scanned the reception area.

  "I'll follow wherever you go," said Bentley. "I don't know where I'm going."

  They stepped into the eerie corridor and walked slowly, checking through every classroom as they went past. Daniel checked a couple of classrooms as they reached the bottom of the corridor and they were both open.

  "The janitor or the teachers should have locked these doors," Daniel said.

  "Did something happen here?"

  "I don't remember hearing about anything." Daniel scratched his head in thought. "I remember kids going to school on Friday 8th June, before the big announcement, as if it was a normal day."

  Bentley nodded. "Then a day later they announced it on TV. It had been going on for weeks before, but had been covered up or just wasn't being reported."

  They reached a set of wooden double doors and went through them, their knives still being grasped with their clammy right hands, and slowly went up the staircase to the first floor.

  They went through the double doors and Bentley held his hand up as if to say: I've got this.

  The pair off them could see a beast struggling towards them. His uniform suggested it was the janitor and Bentley paced towards it with confident steps. It snarled with its rotten face and Bentley rammed his knife into the left side of its cranium before it had a chance to reach out or lunge at him.

  As soon as it slumped to the floor, Bentley bent over and retrieved his blade. He looked at the keys attached to the trousers of the thing, looked over to Daniel and pointed at them. "Shall we take them?"

  "What for?" Daniel shook his head. "Let's just get out of here."

  "Okay."

  Daniel walked down the unlit corridor, getting closer to Bentley, and checked the classrooms.

  "Is it all clear?" Bentley asked, wiping both sides of the blade on the trousers of the janitor.

  "Yeah."

  "You mentioned a man called Jon Welsher," Bentley began. "I don't think I ever met anyone by that name."

  "And you never will."

  "Oh?"

  "He died during the second week."

  Bentley lowered his head and said with sadness, "Sorry about that. I hope it was quick."

  "Sure was. It was a heart attack."

  Bentley took a step back and noticed a double door near the male toilets. It was a strange looking door, and at first Bentley thought it was a built-in cupboard.

  "Come on." Daniel urged Bentley to follow him. "We'll give the other building of the school a quick once-over, then get back to the other side of the railings."

  The two men went to the other building and found that the main door was open. Daniel shook his head. "I thought we locked all the main outside doors."

  "Obviously not," said Bentley.

  They quickly strolled through the rest of the building, then entered a part of the place that looked to be full of computers. Bentley checked the inside of the main computer room, then quickly shut the door, and could see Daniel checking out the gym area.

  Bentley was going to check the library then head to the next floor. He took a quick peep into the gym and saw Daniel making his way back. The gym had a mobile climbing frame, basketball hoops and markings on the floor for football matches. Bentley left Daniel and opened the door to the library.

  "Jesus Christ!"

  Bentley dropped his knife in fright and fell backwards to the floor. A crowd of the dead poured out from the library and spilled out into the corridor, snarling, gnashing, and trying to grab at Bentley as they staggered through the area. It was clear that the dead were all, or used to be, pupils from the school. They were all in uniform, but their bloody rags were almost unrecognisable to what the Hagley Park High School attire should have been.

  Bentley picked up the knife, finally managed to get to his feet and ran into the gym to warn his companion. Daniel didn't have to ask what was wrong, when Bentley ran into the hall, as the dead were quickly moving behind him. He could see what was wrong.

  "Fuck!" was all that Daniel could muster. He pointed at the climbing frame that was against the wall. "Up, up!"

  Both men climbed the wooden contraption and never stopped until they were at the top. They were now twelve feet off the ground and panting hard. Both males wrapped their arms around the wooden beams, and looked down to see the dead teenagers approaching the climbing frame at the bottom and slapping their hands off against the thing.

  "I never checked the library in the first days," Daniel panted.

  "No shit." Bentley was more out of breath than Daniel. "Now what?"

  "They should work it out outside that something's amiss when we don't come back."

  "Isn't that putting others in danger?"

  "There's fuck all I can do about it now," Daniel said sharply, then clocked Bentley's stare and gulped as he noticed the large man glaring at him. "Sorry."

  Chapter Forty Eight

  Her feet waded through the dry bracken, and she told herself that she was going to walk for another ten minutes before taking a rest. Compared to the first week, when this whole thing exploded, this had been a quiet one. The woods was suffocating and she needed more hydration, being in the middle of Cannock Chase, but it was safer for her.

  She had had many near-misses over the weeks and knew that she was lucky to be alive.

  The trouble with this new world was that as the dead dwindled and the weeks passed by, the danger was now coming from people.

  Her trust in people, mainly men, had deteriorated, but she knew there was some good ones left. She had seen them. She had watched them. She had helped them sometimes. Good people deserved to live, she thought, and most of the people that she had helped never got the chance to meet her.

  She preferred to be alone. Being alone meant that she only needed to look out for herself. It also meant that she couldn't get close to anyone. She had already lost everyone that she loved, and didn't want to experience the process again. It was too hard.

  The fourteen-year-old female took her bow off of her back, then sat and put her hand in her bag. She ruffled through it, searching for her water bottle. She pulled it out and began to drink. She then emptied her bag and could see that she was running short on supplies. She had a crowbar, a packet of tampax, a tin opener, some cereal bars and a tin of mackerel. She huffed and put the stuff back into the bag. She shook the bottle and knew she needed to get to a stream soon. She had a water-filter bottle, but she needed water to put in it. What was left wasn't enough to quench her thirst.

  She leaned her head back and stared up at the murky heavens. Things just didn't seem to be getting any better, and she wasn't sure why she was still trying to survive. Human instinct? Maybe giving up, especially so soon, was insulting to the people that wanted to survive, but had perished.

  The young teenager took off her shades and placed them on top of her head, adjusted her blonde ponytail, then assessed her ammo situation. She had ten pine arrows left sitting in her bag. Originally she had twenty pine arrows, with a metal point at the end, and tried to retrieve as many as possible when they were fired, but that was easier said than done.

  She knew her best line of defence was to run, and had only shot them at the dead when she had no other choice. The crowbar had come in handy now and again, and back at the sports centre was the most she had used it to kill those things in one sitting.

  She closed her eyes and embraced the rare breeze which temporarily co
oled down her face. She began to lose herself, but her moment of peace had been disturbed as noises could be heard from a distance.

  She looked around. She couldn't see anything, but the noises were getting more audible and she could now hear, whoever it was, the individual walking in the greenery.

  She put her bag back over her shoulder, making sure her stuff was inside it, then grabbed her black Jaguar bow, pulled her shades down back over her eyes, and brought the black waterproof poncho's hood over her face.

  Her feet went through the greenery with quickness, hoping to avoid an unnecessary confrontation with the human, and turned her brisk walk into a jog. Two minutes had passed, and to her far left she now saw one of the creatures stumbling through the greenery. She knew that whatever she did this thing would do its utmost to follow her.

  Fuck it. It's just the one.

  She took off her bag with no rush, prepared her right-handed bow, and took out an arrow from her bag.

  She had an arm brace on, to avoid the bowstring skinning her when firing. Most women used a chest protector to avoid string burn, but she didn't bother. It was seldom that she used the bow anyway.

  With the ghoul in sight she took the correct stance, pointed the bow towards the ground and placed the shaft of the arrow on the arrow rest. She then attached the back of the arrow to the bow string with the nock––the small plastic component with a groove for this purpose. The young girl then used three fingers to lightly hold the arrow on the string, her index finger was held above the arrow and the middle and ring fingers below. She then held the bow arm outwards towards the target, her inner elbow parallel to the ground and the bow staying vertical. She then drew the string hand towards the face to what was sometimes called the anchor point.

  Once she released the arrow, by relaxing the fingers of her string hand, she saw the arrow pierce the left side of its forehead. It wasn't her best shot, but it was enough to force the creature to the floor, killing it instantly, the tip of the arrow sticking out at the other side of its head.

  She walked over and retrieved the arrow, wiping the metal tip that was covered in dark gunk on the tattered clothes of the deceased, then put it into her bag and walked away with the bow now in her left hand. She walked for a further five minutes and her face cracked a smile when her ears picked up the faint sound of running water.

  There was a stream up ahead.

  Chapter Forty Nine

  With a sawn-off in their right hand, Lee James and Sheryl Smith opted to go into the school to see what was keeping Daniel and Bentley who had been gone for half an hour. They both had a bad feeling, but the experience that Daniel and Bentley had was surely enough to put down just the one Waster. So what was the hold up?

  After they had climbed the railings to get onto the school grounds, they took the short walk to the entrance of the place and began to assess the size of the window they had to climb in. The kids had managed to get through a reception window, but the glass in the main door was now shattered.

  They carefully climbed in, trying to avoid some of the shards of glass that were still stuck in the frame, and went straight for the first floor where Charles Pilkington had told them where they had seen the janitor.

  They went up the staircase in silence and with caution, then opened the wooden double doors to see the first floor's corridor. A slumped body could be seen in the distance and Sheryl and Lee crept down the corridor, unsure whether the thing on the floor was actually defunct.

  They stood over the body; Lee gave it a kick and then inspected its wounds. "They were here."

  Sheryl ran her fingers through her short black hair and wondered aloud, "And why didn't they go back to the gates?"

  "Maybe they decided to check out the rest of the school." Lee's face suggested he was unsure.

  "Well, they're taking their fucking time about it."

  "Daniel was the main man that checked the place in the first days. He feels responsible. I know the kids shouldn't have broken into the school, but they could have all been killed."

  "Little cunts," Sheryl huffed.

  "True," Lee laughed, "But Charles and David are just fourteen. Remember being that age? Things are different and harder for them now."

  "Stop sticking up for them."

  "It's true. They've lost loved ones." Lee shook his head at the lack of empathy coming from Sheryl Smith. She was certainly a strange individual. "Now, there's nothing for them. There're no girls, no football, no computer games...no fun."

  "What are you trying to say?"

  "Well...they're probably just fucking bored."

  Sheryl remained silent. She didn't want to continue a pointless argument about the youth of today. Changing the subject, she asked, "So you think they're probably in the other building?"

  Lee nodded.

  "Let's go and get them."

  They went back down the staircase to the ground floor, sawn-offs ready, and exited the building, still with perplexity scrawled over their features. As soon as they entered the other building, baffled why this one was unlocked, they checked out the computer classrooms, one-by-one, and finally reached an open door that read 'Library'.

  They both hesitantly peered inside and immediately pulled their T-shirts over their noses as the recognisable stench of death hit them. Their eyes witnessed body parts strewn across the floor. Decapitated heads sat on the ground, and intestines were scattered about like spaghetti.

  No doubt, there had been a massacre here.

  "What's that noise?" Sheryl nudged Lee.

  Lee replied, "It sounds like groaning."

  They both turned around and peered down the corridor. They made small steps towards the sound, and could see that they were now approaching the school's gym.

  Sheryl was now leading the way and slowly poked her head around the corner and looked into the gym hall. At least twenty of the dead, all pupils in bloody uniforms, were in the corner of the place, trying to get at Bentley and Daniel who were at the top of a wooden climbing frame. She then turned back to Lee.

  "Well?" whispered Lee.

  "They're in there, but we don't need sawn-offs," she said quietly. "It's an Uzi we need."

  "What?"

  "Go take a look."

  Lee did just that, and the groaning coming from the dead sounded worse because it was occurring inside a gym hall that provided lots of echo. Once he stopped looking he stood face-to-face with Sheryl. His features quivered with fright, but it was abundantly clear that he was desperately trying to put on a brave face. He was fighting a losing battle.

  "So...what we're gonna do," Sheryl explained, taking control of the situation, "is shoot as many of these things as we can. As soon as we do that, most of them should disperse away from Bentley and Daniel and head for us, which should make it easier for Bentley and Daniel to escape. They could probably take some of them down from behind, and we also can use the butt of the guns if we get desperate enough."

  "Okay." Lee was in agreement. "He put his hand in his pocket, feeling for more cartridges.

  Sheryl nodded, then walked into the gym with Lee by her side. Both of them were now holding their sawn-offs with both hands, and once Bentley and Daniel clocked their presence, the relief on their faces was self-evident as their grins almost stretched from ear-to-ear.

  Both Lee and Sheryl looked at one another and she said, "Let's kill some cunts."

  "They're just children," Lee sighed at Sheryl's choice of words.

  "Not anymore."

  With the dead pupils still with their backs to Sheryl and Lee, the pair of them walked a few more steps. They both raised their sawn-offs and started to open fire.

  Two heads took a pounding, and the crowd slowly turned around whilst Sheryl and Lee reloaded. They snapped their guns shut, then put down another three as the dead began to shamble forwards.

  "One more reload," Sheryl announced. "Then we'll need to leave."

  With all the dead now a matter of yards away, most with their arms outstretched, Shery
l and Lee put another four down that were in front, their dark mushy brains exploding and decorating the faces of the dead that were behind them.

  There was eleven left and all headed out of the gym, following Sheryl and Lee.

  "I'm out of cartridges," announced Lee.

  "I've got one left," said Sheryl.

  Lee looked behind them. "They're actually gaining on us. Let's pick up the pace."

  As they managed to get round the corner, Bentley and Daniel appeared from behind the crowd, now that Sheryl and Lee's distraction had cleared the gym hall, and began to put them down with their blades. There was only three left when Sheryl and Lee turned the butts of their guns round and began smacking at the heads of the remaining creatures.

  They had did it. All twenty had been put down.

  All out of breath, Daniel and Bentley thanked Sheryl and Lee.

  "I'm sorry, guys." Daniel held his hands up. "I really did think that the place was cleared. I can't believe I forgot to check the library."

  "No matter now," said Sheryl. "Nobody got hurt. That's the main thing."

  "Still..."

  "Let's just get out of here." Bentley was still panting and added, "I'm bursting for a piss."

  "Me too," said Sheryl with a smile.

  "Are we gonna get rid of these bodies?" Daniel gazed at the bloody carnage around them; the odour was its usual powerful and awful self, and the hallway was covered in large pools of thick diseased blood.

  "Later," said Lee.

  "Oops." Daniel pointed at a ghoul that was dressed like the rest of the dead: black trousers and a blue shirt. "That one's still moving."

  Sheryl turned her gun around and released her last cartridge into the back of its head, its dead brains smearing the floor like a crushed grape. "Was."

  Chapter Fifty

  "It's getting dark," said Vince, looking up to the dreary sky.

  "Tired?" Pickle threw off his bag and sat down.

  "Well...obviously. I ain't slept in a day."

  "Then yer better get yer head down first." Pickle looked over at Vince's watch. "If I wake you at three, yer will be getting at least five hours."