Snatchers 2: The Dead Don't Sleep by Shaun Whittington Page B

few occasions.
    Yoler wasn't upset about the situation. She missed her mummy. She had been told that she was dead, but Yoler wasn't aware that being dead was such a bad thing. When her daddy told her tearfully that her mummy was now in heaven, she nodded her head in agreement and then turned around and asked, "What's for dinner?"
    Jack remembered when Ian told him that story about his wife and Yoler. Jack knew he had lost family members, like cousins, uncles and aunts, although he couldn't be completely sure, for all they knew, he was also dead. Jack thought that Ian Jenson telling his daughter that her mummy had died must have been incredibly tough for him.
    Jack couldn't believe how tough Ian had been in the last few days that he knew him, as he thought that if that was his beloved that had been killed, he wouldn't be able to cope. Ian informed him that when you have children, you have to cope; you don't have a choice in the matter.
    Even Kerry seemed to be cold, considering that she had lost her mother only a few days ago. The subject had only materialised once when Kerry and Jack were reunited for the first time. He asked where she was, and she told him coldly that she was dead, and that she had been buried in the woods. She didn't cry, although her face was filled with sadness, but her mother had lived till the age of sixty-seven and had died of natural causes, which these days was a comfort considering the way people were dying now.
    To a certain degree, he envied her mother. She had managed to live a full life—although sixty-seven wasn't deemed that old in the civilized world they used to live in—and had died a relatively painless death. And although it was the beginning of the 'new world' that had put stress on her mother's heart and had helped her to an early grave, at least her frail old mother didn't have to witness any kinds of barbarism that could involve her family members or even herself.
    Thomas lay on his side, and Jack lay next to him and tried to remember some of the stories that he used to read him on a night when Thomas was a baby. There was a rigid rule set on a night by Kerry: He was allowed two stories and two songs.
    Jack stroked his boy's head and begun telling a made-up story about Postman Pat who got stuck in the mud in his bright red van. This short story was followed by a story he used to be told by his parents, called Peepo. Once he finished Peepo, he noticed that his boy had fallen asleep, but he decided to sing him the two songs anyway.
    After he sang Bananas in Pyjamas and The Rainbow Song—he still didn't understand the lyric 'listen with your eyes' even now, but he sang them anyway—he continued stroking his son's head, and after he had finished the last song, he fell asleep as well.

Chapter Twelve
     
    After thinking of nothing but the poor family who lay above them, both individuals knew that it was going to be a restless night for the pair of them until they removed the bodies the next day. Pickle had waited for this night for days, and now he had found a house that finally provided a bed with reasonably safe surroundings, his moment was going to be ruined by the knowing that a dead family lay above him. He thought at first that it wouldn't bother him, but it was.
    They thought about trying the next house, but they both seemed content to stay where they were, despite the corpses that lay above them. It was nearly ten in the evening, and both individuals planned on sleeping together in the same bed as a security measure. Although each one was grateful for the company, neither one of them would admit it.
    Pickle lay on his back, fully clothed, and glared at the ceiling. Karen had her back to him trying to force herself to sleep, but she was wide-awake. Every time she closed her eyes, flashbacks of the previous week ambushed her. She thought about going home to Gary and finding him in such a state, seeing Shirley Henderson eaten to death, being carjacked, meeting Oliver Bellshaw,