Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation

by Bohannon, Zach

  “I know, David. But aside from bringing back a few sedatives, we didn’t find anything. We need to find gasoline. The vehicles are running low, and we have a small emergency generator that runs off fuel as well. Aside from that, I know there are people out there who need our help. That thing I shot that had its hands on you at the clinic... I knew that man. He was my friend, Ray, a great veterinarian. And I fucking shot him.”

  Lawrence stopped to gather himself.

  “We can’t let people who need help just die out there when we have a type of sanctuary here.”

  “Get one of those other guys to go.”

  Lawrence put his hand on David’s shoulder, and David looked down at it before glaring up at the man.

  “I saw what you did today. Truth is, I’m not a hundred percent sure that I can trust you yet. But, I need you out there with me. Besides, I think you owe me. Twice now, if I remember correct.”

  David threw the man’s hand off his shoulder. “I don’t owe you shit.” He glared at Lawrence until he’d passed him, and headed for the main part of the hospital they were staying in. “I’ll be in my room.”

  ***

  Jessica

  “No, that’s fine, I’ll just take water and something small to eat,” Melissa said.

  Jessica smiled. “Okay. I’ll be back in just a few minutes.”

  “Sounds great.”

  As Jessica stepped out into the hallway, Lawrence came walking toward her from her right. Though he was wearing long sleeves, Jessica could see the blood stains on his hands, which she hadn’t noticed before, and she thought back to her encounter with David in the break room.

  Lawrence nodded at her as he approached her. “Jessica.”

  Jessica smiled, and as he walked by her, she stopped him. “Wait.”

  Lawrence turned around. “Yes?”

  She stepped toward him, and looked down at his exposed wrists. He cleared his throat and pulled his sleeves down.

  “I want to help,” she said.

  “Well, you are helping. I heard you helped out with the laundry earlier, and you’re keeping an eye on Mrs. Kessler.”

  Jessica shook her head. “No, I want to go with you.”

  “Go with me?”

  “On a run.”

  Lawrence crossed his arms and smiled with a small laugh. “Jessica, it’s dangerous out there. You don’t…”

  “I know what it’s like out there,” Jessica said, cutting him off with frustration in her voice. “You have no idea what we went through, what we saw.”

  “Jessica, I almost got killed today.”

  “Yeah, and what’s it going to be like around here if that happens? And even if it doesn’t, do you think we can actually hold this place forever? Everyone in here needs to be prepared in case something happens and we have to leave, or if we have to defend this place. Does anyone else even know where the weapons are that you have?”

  “What I’m trying to do is give everyone here an idea of normalcy. Give them jobs, a purpose, so that they can live normal lives.”

  “All you’re doing is distracting them. Everyone needs to know what it’s like out there. The truth.”

  Lawrence sighed. “Look, let me think on taking you out on a run, okay?”

  Jessica put her hands on her waist and looked at the wall next to her, exhaling a deep breath. Without looking toward him, she nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Good,” he said, and turned around and walked away from her. “I’ll let you know.”

  Jessica took a deep breath and walked behind him, toward the lounge. Lawrence stopped to speak with Trevor in the hallway, and Jessica continued walking without looking over at them.

  ***

  Lawrence

  After speaking with Trevor for a few minutes about a couple of things he’d seen on his latest run, Lawrence retreated to his room. His entire body ached from the events at the animal hospital, and he was exhausted. He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge, kicking his shoes off right as he sat down. He then lay on the bed and felt relief in his back and in his legs.

  With his right hand resting on his stomach, Lawrence looked to the ceiling and breathed heavy. In his solitude, his mind naturally went back to his wife and their young son. He looked over at the table by the bed and grabbed the photograph of them at Six Flags.

  Lawrence held the photograph up in front of his face, ignoring the soreness in his bicep as he tried to hold the picture steady. It was the only physical photograph he had of them. As he looked into their faces and saw how happy all three of them had been, Lawrence began to cry.

  He clutched the photograph to his chest, closed his eyes, and wept.

  ***

  5 days earlier

  The scene at the park was mad. Lawrence had just watched his partner turn into some kind of creature and attack him. Somehow, he’d managed to get away from her. He wanted to try and help her, but when he looked around and saw people being eaten alive, and others running every direction, he decided it best to get the hell out of there.

  He ran through all the commotion and reached the ambulance, which they’d kept running. Luckily, no one had jumped inside and driven off with it. All he could think about was Bailey and Carter. He knew they were home, as Bailey was in between jobs, having recently been laid off, and Carter had taken the day off from school because he wasn’t feeling well. Lawrence picked up his cell phone and hit the preset number for home as he tried pulling out of the parking lot. People were running all around him, looking as if they didn’t know what to do or where to go. The phone rang and rang.

  “Come on, pick up the phone, Bailey!”

  Lawrence heard a bang on the passenger side door and saw a woman crying through the window. He hit the power locks to unlock the door, and she swung it open.

  “Get in!” he yelled.

  As the crying woman tried to get into the ambulance, she screamed and was pulled back onto the ground. Someone was on top of her and Lawrence saw the blood begin to squirt from either side. Soon, someone else was on the woman. He looked on with his eyes wide, as one of the sick men came into view and tried to climb into the ambulance. The man’s eyes had gone pale and he was spitting toward Lawrence.

  Lawrence pressed the gas and watched the man fall away onto the concrete.

  All around him, people were screaming. Other cars were leaving, some running into one another and causing wrecks, but Lawrence had avoided having an accident so far.

  He made it out onto the road and headed for his house, which was only a couple of miles away from the park.

  ***

  All the way home, the scene was much the same: lots of panic, screaming, wrecks, and lurking sick people. Lawrence continued to try and call home with no luck. He’d also tried to get through to anyone on his CB radio, finally getting through to a fellow paramedic, Chase, who was reporting to him a lot of the same things he was seeing. Lawrence heard a loud crash come through the radio just before losing contact with Chase.

  He threw down the radio and focused on getting home.

  A few minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex and weaved his way back to Building 12 where their second-story apartment was.

  People out in the parking lot yelled and tried to wave him down, pleading for him to come and help them.

  “Oh my God, my child! He’s sick!” a woman yelled

  “Something bit my mom!” a little boy screamed.

  “Please, help me!” another woman pleaded, holding her arm where one of the things had presumably attacked her.

  It was difficult, but Lawrence had to ignore all of the requests. Even if he’d wanted to, he couldn’t help everyone, and he had his own family to get to.

  When Lawrence finally reached Building 12, he shut off the engine and pulled the key out. Before getting out of the ambulance, he reached over to the glove box and pulled out a 9mm he left in there for emergencies.

  When his feet hit the parking lot, one of the things immediately r
eached for him. His eyes went wide as he tried to push it away. It grabbed onto his shoulders and pinned him against the side of the ambulance. Behind it, he watched a woman run by screaming, not even trying to help him. He watched as she ran into one of the creatures, and it took her down to the ground and tore into her.

  The thing in front of him was chomping its jaws at him. He finally got the upper hand and turned to pin it against the side of the vehicle.

  It worked to try and bite at his fingers, and he was finally able to release its grasp, step back, and draw the gun.

  Lawrence fired two shots into the thing’s chest, which didn’t faze it. The creature came at him again, arms outstretched as if nothing had happened.

  Just before it reached him, Lawrence raised the gun and shot at the thing’s head. It let out one last snarl as it fell to the ground and went still.

  Lawrence turned around and his eyes fixed to the woman who was being eaten on the ground near him. The thing didn’t even look away to face him. Though she was long dead, the woman didn’t deserve to have her body mutilated any further. He pointed the gun at the back of the head of the beast and pulled the trigger before racing up the stairs to his apartment.

  ***

  Lawrence fumbled with his keys when he reached his apartment. Screams came from his neighbors’ units on either side of his, as he finally got the key in the lock and entered his apartment.

  When he walked in, the screaming from either wall became more apparent. He could hear banging on the wall from inside of the Davis’ place. Mostly drowned out by the screams and the crashing on the walls, John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” played through a small radio on top of their entertainment center. The living room was exactly as he’d left it that morning, and neither Bailey nor Carter were in there.

  “Bailey? Carter?”

  He didn’t get a response.

  As he moved through the large, three-bedroom apartment, he could hear indistinct vocalizing coming from a far room. He passed the kitchen and headed back toward Carter’s room. The sound of the quartet coming from the speakers faded, and Lawrence heard some type of groan coming from his son’s room.

  He approached the door, the gun raised and his heart thudding.

  Lawrence lowered the gun as he reached the room. He put his ear to the door and heard the confused noises from the other side. He was trembling and already starting to cry when he reached for the door handle.

  He turned. Pulled.

  As he looked into the room, his worst nightmare was came to fruition.

  Bailey and Carter were both standing in the middle of the room, but it wasn’t them at all. They were bumping into each other when they looked up toward Lawrence with ghostly eyes. Drool had collected around their mouths and they spat as they lumbered toward him. Lawrence nearly fell down to the ground.

  As they had almost made it to the door, Lawrence somehow gathered himself and he slammed the door and put his back to it, sliding down its wooden frame.

  Banging erupted behind him, and Lawrence put his head into his knees as he cried out and screamed through the empty apartment.

  ***

  David

  After going to check on Joanne, David stopped by the lounge to make himself a quick lunch, heating up a frozen dinner with a small chicken breast, corn, and green beans. He wanted nothing more than to go to his favorite steakhouse back home in St. Louis, but figured that the frozen dinner was maybe a better option than he’d have outside.

  He’d come back to his room shortly after, stripped down to his briefs, and decided to lie down for a nap.

  Just as David was about to fall asleep, a knock came at the door, and it opened, bringing light from the hallway into the room. What the fuck?

  He looked up and saw Lawrence in the doorway.

  “Ready?”

  “Is this your idea of later? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “We need to get this done. I wanna go out while we’ve got plenty of daylight.”

  David sighed. “Give me a few minutes.”

  “I’ll be in the garage.”

  ***

  Ten minutes later, David walked through the door into the parking garage. Lawrence was waiting on him inside a four-door sedan that he’d pulled up near the door. He looked over at the ambulance, which was sitting where they’d parked it earlier.

  “Not taking the ambulance?” David asked.

  Lawrence shook his head. “Nah. Brandon and Trevor are going on a run a little later. Thought I’d let them take it, in case they pick anyone up.”

  David nodded, opened the door, and got into the car.

  Once inside, he peeked into the back seat and saw two rifles sitting on it, as well as four handguns, along with four gas cans each of which would hold five gallons.

  Lawrence pulled the vehicle up to the gate and nodded at Sam and Trevor to open it.

  As they did, three creatures appeared. Trevor shot two of them with a small handgun, while Sam took down the other with a shotgun.

  Lawrence hit the gas, and David looked in the rearview mirror, watching the gate close behind them as they headed out into the world again.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Will

  When they finally came to the sign that said “Welcome to Knoxville”, Will felt as if he could have cried. After fighting their way down the highway for days, they’d made it. Will only hoped that his parents were still around and that they were safe.

  “Just keep your eyes peeled,” Will said. “Assuming they still have their vehicle, we’re looking for a white minivan with South Carolina plates and a bumper sticker that says ‘Blessed’.”

  “Aren’t we all?” Marcus asked jokingly, apparently referring to the irony in the bumper sticker.

  Will let out a short laugh and then continued to look outside.

  Knoxville was the first metro area they’d been in since Nashville, and it amazed him how vacant it was. While there were more abandoned automobiles and Empties out on the road, he’d expected to maybe see more survivors around. It made him wonder just how many people had actually made it.

  “We’re gonna need to try and get some gas for this thing soon. We should be good for a while longer, but we’ll need some sooner than later,” Marcus said. The group had found a couple of gas cans at the quick lube shop they stayed at once they escaped Ellis Metals, but they’d already used their contents and refilled them with unleaded fuel; the fire truck ran on diesel.

  Will looked back to check on everyone else. The fire truck had enough seats for eight people in the back, and an open space on the floor between the seats. Holly was still lying on the floor, unconscious. Dylan was beside her, patiently waiting for her to wake up. Will could see that, over the past few days, Holly had taken Dylan in like he was her little brother, and that the boy had taken to her fairly quickly. Will knew that Dylan was hurting just as much as he was, wanting her so desperately to awaken.

  Gabriel sat upright in one of the seats, rubbing his forehead with his hand.

  “How you feeling?” Will asked.

  “How do you think? Like shit. My whole body hurts.”

  “Well, just rest, man. Hopefully we’ll find my parents soon and we can figure out what we’re gonna do next.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  Gabriel was looking outside, and Will could tell that he had other things on his mind. Instead of digging deeper to see what was going on, he found it best just to leave him alone.

  He put his focus back onto the road and finding his parents.

  ***

  Lawrence

  Like David, Lawrence was exhausted. He didn’t want to go out on another run, but he also couldn’t sit around the hospital just thinking about his dead family. Going back out into the world and keeping his mind occupied had won out.

  They were heading west on I-40 now looking for gasoline. The ambulance was running low, and they also wanted to fill up a couple of containers they had. Lawrence had already checked many of the g
as stations, having made this trip many times over the last few days, and thought they might have a better shot of finding gasoline if they reached the outskirts of town.

  “You have family?” Lawrence asked David.

  Lawrence took his eyes off the road a couple of times, glancing over and waiting on David to respond. The man was simply staring out the passenger side window with his hand to his chin, rubbing the stubble on his beard.

  “Why do you hide the weapons?” David asked, ignoring Lawrence’s previous question.

  Lawrence cleared his throat. “Well, I’m trying to keep everyone’s lives normal. How do you think those nurses would feel if everyone was walking around the hospital carrying a gun? That’s not exactly normal.”

  David looked over to him. “And how do you think those nurses are going to feel when enough of those fucking monsters come up to that shitty gate, bust through, and come inside your little sanctuary?” He looked away from Lawrence again, and went back to scanning the highway.

  Lawrence swallowed. This was the second time within a couple of hours that one of the outsiders had questioned his motives. Questioned how he was running things at the hospital.

  “The others who have been at the hospital from the beginning know where we keep them. Not everyone needs to know.”

  Instead of responding, David just stared back out his window.

  “I respect you, Mr. Ellis, and I’m trying to trust you. I need to know that you believe in what I’m doing and how I’m running things.”

  David looked at him again. “I don’t. Not yet.”

  Lawrence shook his head and refocused on the road. They were near the outskirts of town in an area where Lawrence hadn’t traveled since everything fell. He pulled off onto an exit ramp.

  “This is as good a place as any to start.”

  David kept quiet and to himself as Lawrence turned at the end of the ramp and headed toward a small gas station.

  ***

  David

  It was your typical exit off of an interstate in the South. The gas station was surrounded by various fast food joints and a few hotels. There were a few Empties in the parking lot of one of the fast food places across the street from the gas station, but he couldn’t see any other creatures lurking. As they pulled into the gas station parking lot, David felt a pang reach up into his stomach and he sighed. Fucking microwave dinner.