“This doesn’t feel right,” Holly said.
“I agree,” Marcus added, holding his thumb just over the button on the radio.
“Hello?” Trevor said through he radio.
“Come on, guys,” Dylan said.
Gabriel sighed. “Dylan, we can’t just—“
“Yes, we can. Something feels right with them.”
While it was hard to trust the instinct of the child, Will agreed with him. His vibe about the two men had changed.
“Let’s just do it,” Will said.
“Shit,” Marcus said. “Alright.”
Will had succumbed to the men’s demands, and only hoped that his newfound trust for them was warranted.
“Ready?” Will asked. Everyone nodded almost simultaneously, and Will looked over to Marcus.
Marcus pressed the button on the CB. “Here we go.”
And with Gabriel going first, the group raced to the ambulance as gunshots sounded all around them.
***
Jessica
No one was in the laundry room, and it made a perfect place for Jessica to go to gather her thoughts. She sat on the floor in the corner of the room, with her knees up to her chest.
The only thing she could think about was the creature in the back of the building. She didn’t understand it. For one, why was it even here? Yes, it was restrained and left inside a seemingly secure room, but she didn’t expect she would sleep easy knowing the thing was back there. And what did they know about it, if anything? The fact that no one had told her the creature was back there left her uneasy.
After a few minutes of thinking about the creature and questions she’d have for Lawrence whenever he made it back to the hospital, her thoughts returned to her parents. While Jessica knew that she would think about her mom and dad every day for the rest of her life, she hoped that the day would eventually come when she’d be able to remember her parents in more positive and loving thoughts. For the last few days, her mind had only flashed images of the two of them lying on the bed with blood all around them. And now, in a moment of quiet solitude, she was able to let it all out again, shedding tears down onto the tile floor beneath her. The thing that bothered her the most was why her parents had given up so quickly. Though the streets of her old neighborhood had been occupied with dozens of the creatures, the house had been clear of them. It’s almost like they’d seen what was going on outside and just decided not to even try. Like they maybe had other things hurting them in their lives that Jessica didn’t know about. And it hurt her all the same that she’d now never know.
Jessica looked up when she suddenly heard voices out in the main hallway of the hospital. She got to her feet and pushed through the double doors, into the small administrative area that the laundry room was a part of. As she reached the exit, the sound of footsteps on the tile floor became louder. She opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, and saw unfamiliar figures walking toward her room. Trevor was at the back of the group and looked over at her as she made her way toward him.
She saw Brandon leading the group into Melissa’s room and started to run over, but Trevor grabbed her. She looked at him with a confused glare.
“It’s okay,” he said.
“Who the hell are those people?”
“Oh, my God!” The voice was Melissa’s from inside the room.
Jessica pushed Trevor off of her and ran to the room.
She pushed through the group, including Brandon, who was standing just inside the doorway.
Jessica stood still as she entered the room and saw a man leaning over the bed and hugging Melissa. The widow was sobbing uncontrollably, holding onto him as tightly as she could. Melissa’s cheek pressed against the man’s chest, and her eyes met Jessica’s. Jessica could now see that she was smiling. Melissa pulled away from the man and wiped her runny nose, clearing the tears from her eyes.
For the first time, Jessica saw the man’s face. He looked around her age, was handsome with dark blondish hair and a scruffy beard, and he was also crying.
“Jessica,” Melissa said, grabbing the girl’s attention. “This is Will… my son.”
***
Will
Everyone was out of the room except the woman who’d barged in just after Will had entered. She had almost exited when Melissa stopped her.
“Jessica, please stay,” Will’s mother said.
Will watched the girl turn around and then just stand there. He hadn’t been expecting the girl who was with his mother to be so attractive, and he smiled at her.
“Please, close the door and sit down with us,” Melissa said.
Jessica closed the door and then sat in a chair at the foot of the bed, while he was sitting at the head of the bed, holding his mother’s hand.
Melissa looked down at Jessica and smiled. “Will, this is Jessica. Jessica, this is my son, Will.”
Though it was obvious at this point who Will was, the girl still smiled at him, a gesture which he returned.
“I asked Jessica to stay because her story is very important to telling you about your father.”
“What about Dad?” Will asked.
Melissa sighed. “Just listen, son.”
Will listened as his mother told him everything. She started from the time they checked into the hotel and met Jessica, told him about how his father had saved the girl when she was stuck in the hallway, and how he was bitten trying to get to the elevator. Every now and then, Jessica chimed in, and she ended up having to tell Will the majority of the story that came after his father had been bitten. While it wasn’t easy for Jessica, Melissa couldn’t make it through telling Will about the final moments at the gas station.
When the women were done, Will just sat there. He still had a hold of his mother’s hand, but he didn’t say anything. His eyes filled until he finally broke down, put his head to his mother’s hand, and sobbed.
His father was gone. Not only was he gone, but his mother had had to see him turned into an Empty. That was the most difficult part for him to grasp.
After a couple of minutes, he looked up and wiped his eyes. He looked over to Jessica, who had also been crying.
“Thank you, Jessica, so much,” Will said.
“Your father saved my life. I’ll be forever grateful for that.”
Will nodded. “Yeah, but, you’ve been here for my mom. Doesn’t sound like she would have made it here if it weren’t for you.”
“Yeah, well, your mother was a big help to me, too.”
“Would you mind if we had a few minutes alone now, Jessica?” Melissa asked.
Jessica wiped her eyes. “No, of course not.” She got up and left the room.
Will leaned in and hugged his mother, and they both continued to cry as Jessica shut the door behind her.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
David
Two of Clint’s men loaded into the vehicle with David. The man in the camouflage cargo pants had instructed them go to the hospital with David to get the weapons that he claimed were hidden there somewhere. They patted David down, making sure he didn’t have any knives or firearms hidden somewhere on his body, and pushed him into the driver’s seat.
One of the men sat in the front seat, and the other sat in the back with a shotgun fixed at his hip, aimed directly at David. If David made one wrong move, the man could easily blow a hole through the back of the seat and kill him. The man in the front also held a gun, keeping his finger on the trigger of the pistol and the barrel pointed toward David. This man, who wore a white t-shirt and a pair of dirty jeans, and had a goatee and mustache on his face, whistled as he watched outside, glaring over at David from time to time.
“You know, you don’t have to keep those guns pointed at me,” David said.
The man in the back seat scoffed. “Yeah, okay.”
David shook his head.
“Just drive, asshole,” the man in the front seat added.
They were just a few miles from the hospital now, and David did just as the man aske
d and kept moving.
“Felt good to kill your friend back there,” the man in the back seat said. “I only wish I had got to do it instead of Clint.”
“I bet it did feel good,” David said, looking at the man in the rearview mirror.
“You’re not gonna fool us and try to make us think you’re on our side,” the man beside David said. “We know you were friends with that nigger.”
David chuckled. “You don’t know shit.” He waited for one of the men to hit him, but it never happened.
“You got a lot of balls for a dead man,” the man in the passenger seat continued. “What’s your name anyhow?”
“David.”
“Well, David, I’m Trent. And this fella back here, his name is Cody. You just do as we tell you, and we’ll make this whole experience a lot less painful for ya. You got that?’
David hesitated, not sure how to respond. He felt like his stiff attitude might be getting through to the men, so he kept it going.
“Yeah, whatever. You do what you gotta do. But, if you kill me, you’re making a grave fucking mistake.”
“Yeah?” Cody asked from the back seat. “And why’s that?”
“Because I can help you with more than getting you some fucking guns.”
“And how the fuck can you help us?” Trent asked.
David pointed outside. “I survived two days out there, alone. And that’s after being left to die in a fucking warehouse surrounded by those things outside. You got anyone who’s done that?”
Trent and Cody were silent.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. And, just so you know, I almost killed that piece of shit earlier today, but one of those things attacked me right before I could get the shot off. I was planning on taking over this damn hospital, soon. Guy you shot was a weak leader, not worth trusting for shit.”
“And you can be?” Trent asked.
“I didn’t say that, did I?”
“Well, what are you saying, then?”
“I’ll help you get the guns from this place, but before you kill me, you should let me have another chat with Clint.”
Trent looked back to Cody, and David saw Cody shrug in the rearview mirror. Then, Trent looked back over to David.
“You just get us what we need, okay?”
They passed over a hill and the top of the hospital came into view.
Trent pulled the two-way radio from his waistband. It would be the only way for him and Cody to communicate with their camp.
“Clint, you there?”
“Yeah,” the man said through the radio.
“We can see the hospital.”
***
Gabriel
While the others conversed in the break room, Gabriel sat up against a wall in the hallway. The group had decided to give Will some time alone with his mother, and the survivors in the hospital had offered food to Gabriel’s group. While he was hungry, he had too many things on his mind for him to want to be around the others right now.
He had Will’s cellphone in his pocket and pulled it out to try yet again to reach his family. Gabriel pressed down the power button and waited for it to turn on. When it did, he saw on the screen that there was no service, just like every other time he’d looked, but dialed anyway.
And like every other time, nothing happened.
Across from him was a welcome counter for people visiting the hospital. Gabriel stood up and walked to it. He saw a phone on the desk and picked it up, but the line was dead.
Gripping his hair with his fingers, Gabriel worked to hold in his frustration. When he closed his eyes, he saw his daughter as one of them, just as she had been in his dream earlier, and it set him over the edge.
Gabriel grabbed the phone with both hands and threw it against the wall. He then knocked the computer off of the desk, sending it crashing to the floor.
The group emerged from the kitchen, but Gabriel continued his enraged destruction of the desk, throwing all its contents off and onto the ground.
“Gabriel!” Marcus yelled.
He ran over to Gabriel and grabbed him. Gabriel pushed him off, and then just looked over to him, breathing heavy.
“Calm down, bro,” Marcus said in a more even tone. “What’s the matter, Gabriel? Talk to me.”
As everyone looked on, Gabriel walked over and hugged Marcus, crying into his shoulder.
***
“Are you sure this is what you want, man?” Will asked Gabriel. He’d come out of his mother’s room when he heard the crash down the hallway.
“It’s what I want,” Gabriel replied.
Marcus, Holly, and Rachel, one of the survivors from the hospital, were there as well.
“What about Dylan? Can you keep him safe by yourself?” Holly asked.
“I did before I met you guys. I don’t see why I can’t now.”
“D.C. is a long way to go,” Marcus said.
“I know. But I have to try.”
“Don’t you wanna wait here a little bit longer? Get your head straight and make sure it’s the right decision?” Holly asked.
Before Gabriel could answer, Will did for him.
“No,” Will said. “He has to go, and he has to take Dylan. If anyone here gets it, it’s me. I know the feeling of finding someone you love in all this mess.” Will looked at Gabriel. “I get it, man. You gotta go.”
Gabriel nodded.
“We should be able to spare a vehicle for you,” Rachel said. “Also, I’ll throw you some food. I can’t let that boy go without knowing he’ll have something to eat.”
“Thank you,” Gabriel said. He stood up. “I’m going to go let Dylan know so that you guys can say your goodbyes.”
“You’re leaving now?” Holly asked.
Gabriel nodded, and headed for the kitchen to get the boy.
***
David
Across the street from the hospital, David Ellis came to a stop.
“Go ahead and pull up in there,” Trent said.
David could feel the fire creep up inside him and he couldn’t believe his eyes. Parked at the entrance to the multi-level parking garage was the fire truck he’d seen at the gas station earlier. He could see the number “14” emblazoned on its sides, and knew for sure that it was the same one. He swallowed the lump in his throat and gripped the steering wheel tightly, his palms beginning to sweat.
“We can’t,” David mumbled.
“What the fuck you mean ‘we can’t’?”
David pointed toward the fire truck. “I know those people. They’re the ones who left me for dead back in Nashville.”
“So the fuck what?” Cody said from the back seat. “All the more reason for us to go in there and fuck ‘em up.”
Shaking his head, David said, “It’s not that simple. I wish it was, ‘cause I’d blow every one of their God damned brains out. But, they’ll be armed.”
The two men looked at each other, and David looked in the rearview mirror to see Cody nod at Trent.
Trent pulled his gun back out and pressed it right against David’s temple.
“You playin’ us here?”
“What?” David asked.
Trent leaned toward David and punched his face. David spat toward the window and held his mouth. When he pulled his hand away, blood was on his palm. Trent pressed the barrel back against David’s head. In the back seat, Cody had the shotgun pointed toward David again.
“Did you set this shit up? Tell them to come here?”
David laughed. He touched his hand to his mouth again, feeling the wet blood around his lips. When he saw Trent take his eyes off of him again to look back at Cody, he saw his chance.
David swiped the handgun out of Trent’s hand and grabbed the man’s arm, holding him in the best armlock he could in the small space. It was effective, as Trent cried out. David pressed the gun against Trent’s temple and looked back at Cody, who was trembling there with the shotgun in his hands.
“Put it down!” David demanded.
David cocked the hammer. “Put the God damn shotgun down, or I swear to Christ, I’ll blow his brains out!”
Out of the corner of his eye, David could see Trent nodding toward Cody.
“Put it the fuck down!” Trent pleaded with a tremble in his voice.
The redneck abided, setting the shotgun down in the floorboard behind the passenger seat.
“Now, listen to me you East Tennessee hillbilly fucks,” David started. “I’ve about had it with your shit, okay? I can’t begin to tell you how bad I want to kill the assholes who, by the looks of it, I can assume are inside that hospital. I’m not sure how many ways I can tell you that. I’m going to put down this gun, but here is what I want. Are you going to listen?”
David waited for each man to acknowledge that they heard him, then continued.
“We’re going to do this smart. We can’t barge in there with the few weapons we’ve got. I know what they are packin’, and it’s not light. So, we’re going to drive a mile or so away and think this through. Probably gonna need to get on that radio and get some back-up.”
He cleared his throat before he continued.
“When we’re done with all this, I want a meeting with Clint. I’m not gonna wander around out here alone anymore and I’m sure as fuck not gonna let you pricks kill me. I want to become a part of your community, and help you survive. Understand?”
“Y-y-yes,” Trent said.
Cody nodded.
“Alright, then,” David said. He pulled the pistol away from Trent’s head. The man gasped, catching his breath. David turned the gun around, holding it by the barrel, and handed it back to Trent.
Reluctantly, Trent put out his hand and took the weapon. It was a risk for David, but he knew that he’d gotten his point across and felt that he had gained their trust.
“So, what are we gonna do?” Cody asked.
Before David could answer, he looked over toward the parking garage. A red Ford Escape was pulling out and appeared to have two figures inside. When he squinted his eyes, he saw a man and what looked like a child in the front seat.
A smile came across David Ellis’ face.
He put the car into drive, and followed the small red SUV.
Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation Page 12
