Snatchers: Volume Two (The Zombie Apocalypse Series Box Set--Books 4-6) Read Free Page A

continued the conversation that Jack was keen to avoid. "I noticed she's been spending a bit of time in your caravan, so I just thought I'd ask."
    "We're just getting to know each other," Jack spoke honestly. "I do like her, if that's what you're getting at."
    "Well, I noticed that from day one." Vince huffed, "It's hard to come by ever since all this shit started, as well as beer."
    "Sex?"
    "Uh-huh."
    "So you was a bit of a lady-killer, back in the day, eh?" Jack tried to tease.
    "Oh yeah." Vince looked slightly above, reminiscing, his eyes temporarily off the road. "I got my fair share of the ladies, I can tell you."
    Jack took a look at the state of Vince's scarred face and thought that he was either bullshitting, or he must have had the gift of the gab.
    Continued Vince, "I actually made a woman scream once."
    Jack bit his bottom lip, trying to stifle a laugh that was aching to get out. "You made a woman...scream?"
    Vince looked at Jack, his face deadly-serious. "Oh yeah."
    "And how did you manage that? Did you put the light on?"
    Ignoring Jack's ribbing, Vince shook his head. "No, what happened was that I went down on her—"
    "And you forgot to take the cigarette out of your mouth?"
    "For fuck's sake, Jackie Boy. Are you gonna let me finish this story, or what?"
    Jack Slade pointed up ahead, and both men saw five ghouls around some kind of kill that both men couldn't make out. They were coming to the perimeter of the woods, and it appeared that the lane they needed had been temporarily blocked off by the dead.
    "I could probably ram them," said Vince. "but I have no idea what that...thing is they're munching on."
    "I thought it was a person."
    Vince shook his head. "Nah; it's too big to be human. A cow, maybe. I've seen it before. These fuckers will eat anything warm."
    Jack already knew this. He had witnessed a group of the dead taking down two pitbulls when he and Johnny Jefferson were hiding on top of that garage. He then thought about Johnny. That guy wasn't cut out for this world, but Jack appreciated him for bringing him into the factory when he was ready to collapse from dehydration and starvation. He then looked at the driver of the pick-up truck, Vince, the same man that had killed Johnny after he had been bitten.
    Jack blamed Vince for Johnny's demise. If he hadn't introduced the initiation test of having to kill three of the things, maybe Johnny would still be alive now. Jack had despised Vince since that incident, but once Vince and Claire went back for him, when he was slumped unconscious in his vehicle after the collision at the crossroads, he had forgiven him to a certain degree.
    "Fuck it." Vince dropped a gear. "I'll try and go round them." He then looked into the rear-view mirror again to see if the other truck was still following them. It was.
    The truck swerved around the small gathering and not one of those things took an interest as they were too occupied with their feed, stuffing anything they could get in their mouths.
    "I don't get it." Vince shook his head. "They're dead—"
    "Don't even go there. It'll drive you crazy." Jack knew exactly where Vince was coming from. "I've asked that question a hundred times. Me and a friend of mine, Gary, used to talk about this stuff. If they're dead, and their stomachs and digestive system doesn't work, then why do they eat?"
    "Is it instinct?" Vince looked bemused, and added, "I've noticed a lot of bloated Rotters these days."
    "That's something to do with the gases—"
    "And the fact that there's nowhere for the food to go once it's been eaten. So they just eat and eat, until their stomachs burst open. I've seen it once."
    "Seriously?"
    Vince nodded. "A couple of days before you and that wimp turned up, I was on a run and saw one in the middle of the road. It had its stomach torn open. That was probably due to overeating." Vince then laughed at the sentence that had just left his mouth. It sounded ridiculous.
    The truck continued through the windy lanes and