“Go now!” he yelled again.
He shot the gun again, using this bullet to take out one of the nearby creatures, and he waved again at his friends to leave.
Jessica jumped into the vehicle, and Gabriel punched the gas, kicking gravel up behind him. The vehicle fishtailed as it turned around, taking out two lingering Empties.
Then it shot down the driveway, and Will’s friends were gone.
It was just Will and the horde now. He shot a look toward the cabin and considered making a run for it. But the horde was too thick. He’d never make it.
Gasping for air, he instead turned and headed into the trees.
The burns in both his side and his shoulder were intensifying. The gunshot wound had mostly stopped bleeding, but his stomach hadn’t. It wouldn’t be long now until the beast was inside his head, taking over his brain. He would be Empty, just like the creatures chasing him through the woods. It was almost as if he could feel the thing crawling around inside him.
Will ran until a sharp pain burned his stomach, and he fell to the ground. It hurt so bad that he cried, writhing on the ground. Behind him, he could hear the Empties snarling, and he crawled away, dragging the dirt and using all his strength to pull himself.
He made it to a tree and used everything he had left to pull himself up. Leaning his back against the trunk, he clutched his stomach, trying desperately to stop the pain.
His vision began to fade, and he could barely keep his eyes open. He could sense the creature inside now, working to dig into his brain.
The snarls of the creatures on the outside became muffled, and he started to see bright white lights. Within those lights, three figures appeared.
His father.
His mother.
And Holly.
He was so far gone at this point that he didn’t know he was hallucinating. Holly stepped forward wearing a white gown, a smile across her face.
“Come to us, Will,” she said. “I’m ready to see you.”
“I’m ready to see you, too,” Will said.
“Come.”
Just as fast as they were there, the three figures disappeared, and he found himself in the woods again. His sight had mostly returned, though it was still slightly blurred and fading. But he could see the creatures only ten yards away from him now.
All his strength was gone, and there was no running.
Will looked down and saw the Glock resting in his hand at his side. He gripped the weapon with his clammy palms.
Looking up to the sky, he could see clouds in the dark through the gaps in the trees. What a beautiful sight they were. Even within all the hell that the world had become, it still held certain overlooked beauties that no demon plague could take away. The world had a chance—Will just knew he wouldn’t be a part of the fight any longer.
Come to us, Will heard Holly say in his head again. I’m ready to see you.
And as the creatures lunged, a wide smile stretched across Will’s face.
He had one more bullet.
EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
Nothing felt better than quiet walks on the beach in the mornings. The sand surfacing up between her toes and the breeze coming off the ocean provided a certain calm. The rolling waves and the birds in the sky were the only noises she could hear.
With all the world had become, Jessica cherished these moments.
She had even grown used to carrying the Glock on her morning walks. That, too, was just part of the world now.
Jessica used these walks each morning to remember. She thought of how simple her life had been before the moment she’d taken the elevator up to the 8th floor of the hotel and been thrust into the chaos. She had always taken that job for granted, but now wished she was still spending her days greeting strangers and pointing them toward their luxurious rooms.
But all that was gone now.
She thought of everyone she’d lost after The Fall, too.
All the people at the hospital.
Charlie’s friends from the campground.
Thomas and Claire.
Marcus.
Walt and Melissa Kessler.
Holly.
Her own parents.
And, of course, Will.
It was no surprise, Jessica thought the most of Will. They all did. He was a hero, and she knew if it hadn’t been for him that they would’ve never made it to the beach. Hell, they’d have never made it to the East Coast and rescued Gabriel’s daughter. Without Will, Jessica and Gabriel would’ve died in the prison that had been the school, being held captive by Nathan Ambrose. And through all that, if they had made it to the cabin without him, somehow, Will wouldn’t have been there to sacrifice himself for young Sarah.
But Jessica no longer cried when she thought of Will Kessler.
He wouldn’t have wanted that.
This morning, she had gone down the beach and only seen one other person walking. Forty-seven people lived on the island, and they had all come to know each other quite well. She’d only briefly spoken with Monica, the fifty-something year old widow she’d passed that morning, before continuing on her walk.
As she approached their own house, the kids came into view. They were playing in the sand while Gabriel sat in one of the chairs they left outside, watching the kids dig in the sand and splash water. She smiled as she got closer and the kids waved.
“What are you guys up to this morning?” Jessica asked.
“Dylan said he can make a better sand castle than either of us, even with one hand,” Sarah said.
“Is that right?”
“It’s true,” Dylan said. “And I’m gonna prove it.”
“No way,” Mary Beth said. “And you’re making a mistake by betting your favorite Batman comic on it.”
“Ha! You don’t even like Batman,” Dylan said.
“Yeah, but I’ll love to see your face when I’m reading it in front of you, pretending I like it.”
Jessica shook her head and smiled. “Well, you kids have fun.”
She went up toward the house and took the empty seat next to Gabriel. He was looking through the photo album he’d recovered from his house, but put it away once he saw her coming toward him. He had always been secretive with Jessica regarding the album, but she’d never asked him about it.
“How was your walk?” Gabriel asked.
“Nice,” Jessica said. “Very quiet.”
“Weird, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“The quiet.”
Jessica nodded. “Yeah, it is.”
“I mean, at this point we’ve been here longer than we were traveling the roads and in the thick of everything, and I still can’t seem to get used to it. It’s almost like it’s not fair.”
“Yeah, well, I just thank God everyday that we found this place,” Jessica said.
“Amen to that,” Gabriel said.
Jessica looked on as the kids continued to play. They were throwing sand on one another, running around. They ended up in the water where Dylan started splashing water on the two girls. He smiled, and Jessica did as well as she watched him.
“It’s so hard to look at him and not think of Will,” Jessica said.
“Believe me, I understand. I see Katie’s face every time I look at Sarah.”
“How’s she doing with that? I haven't asked in a while.”
“Much better,” Gabriel said. “She rarely cries now. Sometimes she wakes up with nightmares, but that hasn’t happened in a couple of weeks.”
“That’s great,” Jessica said.
“I’ve gotta be at the bridge in a couple of hours for my shift,” Gabriel said. “Do they have you gathering food today, or are you gonna be able to stay with the kids?”
“I told Deborah that you had a watch today, so she told me not to worry about coming in.”
“That’s good,” Gabriel said. “They don’t mind going to daycare, but I know they’d much rather hang with you.”
“When was
the last time you shot anything?” Jessica asked.
“Two Empties came over the bridge during one of my shifts last week,” Gabriel said. “In my two shifts since, I haven’t seen shit.”
“You think that’ll keep up?” Jessica asked.
Gabriel shrugged. “I hope so. But we’ve got more than enough ammunition to handle an army of those things. We should be good here for a long time, especially since there’s only that one way onto the island. It’ll be easy to ward off any threat, the Empties being so slow.”
Jessica hesitated, then asked, “And what if they aren’t Empties? What if they fire back?”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to hope that there’s more of us than them and that we can keep ‘em from getting over that bridge.”
After that, they sat in silence, watching the kids play and the waves turn in the ocean. The sun was coming up, and it already felt several degrees warmer than it had when Jessica had started her walk.
“You think the world will ever go back to normal, and that everyone will find peace like us?” Gabriel asked.
Jessica looked over to see Gabriel staring out into the ocean, not bothering to turn and look at her. She followed his gaze and looked into the horizon, too.
“I don’t know,” Jessica said. “Hard to think so with how bad everything got. And what the hell is ‘normal’ anyway?”
Gabriel laughed. “I guess you’re right.”
They were silent for another few moments, and then Gabriel stood up.
“I’m gonna head up to the house and try to grab a bite before I gotta head out for my shift. You all right with me handing the kids off to you?”
“Not a problem,” Jessica said.
He patted her on the shoulder and said, “Thanks.”
Gabriel let go and then walked away. Jessica remained focused on the horizon, watching the sun rise fully.
“Hey, Gabe,” she said, turning around.
He stopped and looked back to her.
“We’re gonna make it,” she said. “We’re gonna survive.”
A smile formed on Gabriel’s face. He looked past her as the kids cackled, rolling around together in the sand. He shrugged, a warm smile gliding ear to ear.
“We already have.”
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.
Revelation 7:1
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
Revelation 20:12
There is a wound that's always bleeding
There is a road I'm always walking
And I know you'll never return to this place
From the song Harvest by Opeth
AUTHOR’S NOTE (WITH SPOILERS)
The ending of Empty Bodies has been in my head since around the time I started writing Deliverance, the third book in the series.
Like so many of my ideas, this one came to me in the bath tub. Yes, I take baths. Don’t judge me. Though, to be fair, more of my ideas come to me while showering. Anyway, moving on… I had just finished reading a book and was relaxing as I brainstormed story ideas. For some reason I was thinking about how I’d end Empty Bodies and I had this vision of Will trapped against a wall with one bullet left in his gun as a large horde of Empties encroached on him. I knew he would suffer a lot of loss throughout the whole series and it would be hard for him to go on. The original scene was much different, and the end had a twist that would’ve only opened more loops to answer, and I didn’t feel that was fair in the last book of a series. Thus, we arrived at the simple ending that you just read.
This series has been so much fun to write. It’s my first finished book series, and for that alone I am proud. A few years ago, the idea of finishing a single book seemed like only a pipe dream. Now, having completed an entire six book series feels pretty amazing.
It’s going to be very strange not revisiting these characters. Will especially was a ton of fun to write, and I know there’s no coming back to him now. I do have some ideas for spin-offs taking place in the Empty Bodies world, but for now I think it’s time for me to move on and write something else. But, maybe in the future I’ll come back and tell more stories in this world I’ve built.
I can’t thank the readers enough for taking this trip with me. The last two years of my life have been pretty surreal and I can’t tell you how amazing it is that stories I conjured up in my own head about zombies have helped support my family. It’s pretty awesome, and I have you to thank for it.
I’m really excited for what the future holds. My next series will be a post-apocalyptic trilogy, and I can’t wait to get it out there for people to read. If you’d like to be the first to know when it comes out, please consider signing up for my mailing list if you haven’t yet. It’s the best way to know when I have new books available.
Thanks you so much, again. I truly appreciate every single one of you reading this.
Zach
COMING SOON…
Dawn: Final Awakening Trilogy (Book One)
A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
A new collaborative series from bestselling authors J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon
Want to know when Dawn is coming out? Get Updates - http://bit.ly/zbblist
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF REVELATION?
For independent authors like myself, reviews are very important. You won’t see my books at the grocery store or on some famous television personality’s book list. Reviews help new readers discover our work so that they can enjoy our stories and we can write more books.
If you enjoyed this book, I would be forever grateful if you would take the time to click the link below and just leave a few words about what you thought about Empty Bodies 6 on Amazon. This link will take you right there:
http://bit.ly/eb6reviews
And if you have any questions or comments regarding this title, or anything else for that matter, I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]. I personally respond to every e-mail.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to all the readers who’ve come along this journey with me! Especially those of you who finished it.
Thank you to Jennifer Collins. I’ve learned so much about writing by working with you and I’m thankful for the relationship we’ve built.
Thank you to Johnny Digges for the amazing covers and 20+ years of friendship. Go Stars!
Thank you to Mason, Adrian, and Jimmy who were instrumental as beta readers for this book. You guys rock!
Thank you to The Empties!
Thanks to J. Thorn for the friendship and always being there for someone to bounce ideas off of. It’s time for Dawn!
Thanks to all my other writer friends. There are too many of you to name, but you know who you are.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Something about the dark side of life has always appealed to me. Whether I experience it through reading and watching horror or listening to my favorite heavy metal bands, I have been forever fascinated with the shadow of human emotion.
While in my 20's, I discovered my passion to create through playing drums in two heavy metal bands: Kerygma and Twelve Winters. While playing in Twelve Winters (a power metal band with a thrash edge fronted by my now wife Kathryn), I was able to indulge myself in my love of writing by penning the lyrics for all our music. My love of telling a story started here, as many of the songs became connected to the same concept and characters in one way or another.
Now in my 30's, my creative passion is being passed to willing readers through the art of stories. While I have a particular fascination for real life scenarios, I also love dark fantasy. So, you'll find a little bit of everything in my stories, from zombies to serial killers, angels and demons to mindless psychopaths, a
nd even ghosts and parallel dimensions.
My influences as a writer come primarily from the works of Clive Barker, Stephen King, and Blake Crouch in the written form; the beautifully dark, rich lyrics of Mikael Akerfeldt from the band Opeth; and an array of movies, going back to the root of my fascination at a young age with 70's and 80's slasher films such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I live in Nashville, Tennessee with my wife Kathryn, our daughter Haley, and our German Shepherd Guinness. When I'm not writing, I enjoy playing hockey, watching hockey and football, cycling, watching some of my favorite television shows and movies, and, of course, reading.
Connect with me online:
Website: www.zachbohannon.com
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/zbblist
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/zbbwrites
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/zbbwrites
Twitter: @zachbohannon32
Instagram: @zachbohannon
OTHER BOOKS BY ZACH BOHANNON
For a complete list of Zach Bohannon’s books on Amazon, please click or visit:
http://bit.ly/zachbohannonbooks
Empty Bodies 6: Revelation (Empty Bodies Series Book 6) Page 17
