Snatchers (Book 3): The Dead Don't Cry by Shaun Whittington Read Free Book Online

canteen."
    "Nah; I want the jeep. I'm off to the first floor, boardroom." Jack then stopped and picked some corrugated cardboard, ripped a piece off, and tucked it down the front of his overalls like a bib. He could see that Johnny was giving him a look as if he had lost his mind. Jack laughed and then explained, "Don't wanna be messing up my new overalls so soon."
     
    *
     
    Jack got to the first floor and the first thing he clocked was the supervisor, whose name he didn't know. Through the blood-smeared boardroom window, he looked at the thing inside. It was just what Jack expected; it was rotten, diseased and...dead!
    Jack sauntered over to one of the windows that looked out onto the car park. He really wanted that jeep. From a safety purpose, this vehicle was the best option compared to the rest of the cars that sat on the car park.
    Then he saw it!
    There were two of the things loitering around the main gates to the factory. "Shit!"
    Jack knew that where there was one, or in this case, two, more could follow. He didn't want to wake up in a few days to be surrounded, but he also didn't want to leave now and drive off into the early evening. It was hours away from becoming dark and he knew it would be suicide to go now. He decided not to release this information to an already-nervous Johnny, as he thought it might keep Johnny inside due to fear.
    He turned around to gawp at the thing in the boardroom once again, and clenched the crowbar in his other hand.
    He prised open the door, adjusted his goggles and walked in. He shut the door behind him, and now it was just him and the contaminated supervisor in the room. Jack snarled at the ghoul that was ten yards away from him.
    Man, he fucking hated these things.
    He grabbed the goggles that still sat on top of his head, and as the excited ghoul stumbled towards Jack Slade, he put the goggles over his eyes and walked forwards, away from a desk and a screen that was probably used for power-point presentations.
    With no hesitation from Slade, the crowbar came crashing down; blow after blow was used, until there was nothing left of the head. Twelve strikes had managed to decimate the creature, and there wasn't much left from the neck up.
    Ignoring the debris scattered all around the office's walls and carpet, Jack took the car keys from its pocket and placed them in his own. He glared at the headless corpse and spat at it before walking away. He left the boardroom, removed his 'bib' from the overalls and glared outside once again.
    His eyes looked lost, gone.
    The old Jack had been replaced with something a lot more sinister, fearless even. Some who had known him for years may have come to the conclusion that he had now lost his mind. Had the new world finally made something snap inside his head? Had he past caring? He was still trying to live, so that was something, wasn't it?
    Jack puffed out his cheeks, then went back downstairs. If they didn't leave in the morning, in a few days the whole factory was going to be surrounded sooner or later. And if that happened, if escape was an impossibility, the only thing they would have to look forward to would be dehydration and starvation.

Chapter Nine
     
    The pick-up truck came to an eventual stop, and unless the couple floored the gas pedal and rammed its way past the two Ford Focus cars that blocked the road, they were going nowhere for now.
    In front of the blocking cars that were parked adjacent to one another, were four men, all stood with their arms folded. Pickle was the first to peer from the back of the truck and could see from left to right, a tall man, wearing glasses; another tall and skinny gentleman that looked like a nervous wreck and didn't want to be there, followed by a man of average height who seemed to be the leader of this rabble. At the far right was a rough, dirty-looking man; his hair was almost black, long, tied back in a greasy ponytail, and he had a scruffy dark beard covering half of his face.
    Pickle had