Claire reached over and rubbed Charlie’s shoulder, as he fought off tears.
“My,” Charlie said, hesitating to start. He took a deep breath and started over. “I’d had the trip up here planned for months. It was supposed to be my wife and I’s ten-year anniversary getaway. I’d saved all my PTO over the last year and a half for this trip.” He stopped again to choke back tears.
“Man, you don’t have to talk about this,” Will said, feeling guilty that he’d ever even asked.
“Really,” Charlie replied. “It’s okay. I need to.”
Will rubbed the scruff on his face and nodded at Charlie through the mirror.
“That morning, we’d decided to go hiking. That was the main reason we came up here. Desiree grew up in these parts and had done a lot of hiking as a kid. We’re from Atlanta, and while it’s a real active town, it’s flat. Myself, I would have rather had gone to the beach, but I knew this is what D would have really wanted.
“Anyway, I got up and made her breakfast — french toast, her favorite. We sat out on the back porch of the cabin, sipping coffee, eating our weight in maple syrup and carbs, and looking out toward our mountain view. God, it was so beautiful. We spent a couple of hours just taking in the scenery. I work in I.T., so I sit in a cubicle most of the day and don’t exactly get to see these kinds of things.
“After that, we drove ten miles or so to Rabbit’s Run; it’s this really difficult hiking trail. God forbid D just want to do something casual and relaxing. I remember, we reached—”
Charlie had to stop in order to gather himself. The tears really came now, and Claire rubbed his shoulder again.
“Do you want me to drive?” Claire asked.
Charlie shook his head. “I’m almost done.”
He cleared his throat and continued.
“We hiked all the way to this waterfall. I’d never seen one in person, at least not like this. It scaled what had to be fifteen stories high. I just stood there next to her, basking in God’s amazement and wonder. I wrapped my arm around my wife, and we put our heads together. Neither of us said anything; we just looked at the water comin’ down and the mist it created.
“I smiled at her and turned around to leave. I said something to her, and at this point, I really don’t remember what. All I remember is hearing the thud behind me and the splash in the water.”
Charlie wiped his eyes and sniffled.
“When I turned back around to see what the noise was, Desiree was face-down in the water. I—”
Charlie bawled now. Nothing could keep him from crying his eyes out, and Claire hovered her hand over the steering wheel just in case Charlie had a lapse in judgement.
Will found himself at a loss for words.
“I’m so sorry, man.”
Charlie sniffled and forced a smile into the mirror. He shrugged and said, “Hey, we’ve all lost somebody, right?”
Yeah, Will thought. We have.
CHAPTER NINE
As they rode up the steep incline, all that surrounded them were trees. Birds flew overhead, and Gabriel even had to slow the van once to avoid running over a rabbit. For at least a few moments, the world felt like the world again, as opposed to a playground for undead, evil spirits.
A sign off to the side of the road read: Point View Cabins - Just Ahead.
Gabriel had driven quietly for most of the trip. He’d remained uneasy about following these people up here. For one, he was getting tired of detours, regardless of how necessary they were. Add on to that the fact that they’d just held these two people at gunpoint, going as far as physically assaulting Charlie, and Gabriel stirred in his head the distinct possibility that they were headed straight into a trap. The one upside was that neither Charlie or Claire had a way to alert the rest of their group that they’d be coming, so some kind of surprise ambush was, more than likely, out of the question.
After a sharp turn, the cabins came into view. Dylan shot up in the back, leaning in between the front seats.
“That’s where we’re going?” he asked, a kind of excitement in his voice that Gabriel hadn’t heard.
“That’s where we’re going,” Gabriel replied, matter of fact.
“Cool!”
The place wasn’t exactly what Gabriel had expected. When he and Katie had gone on a cabin vacation a few years ago in Vermont, they’d gone to a more remote location — a single cabin with a hot tub and a gorgeous view. This place was more like a campground. There were two rows of identical cabins, each with its own gravel pathway leading up to a short set of stairs connected to a small front porch. The cabins themselves looked big enough to only hold a small family in each one. It was the kinda place you’d come if you didn’t want to spend a lot of money renting a place more secluded, especially if you planned on spending more time outside of the cabin than inside. The recreation area surrounding the cabins gave plenty of reason to be out in the open air. Picnic tables sat in the open, along with enough charcoal grills to make the entire area smell fabulous on a summer’s evening. A few people who sat at the tables stood up, and appeared to be calling to others. This made Gabriel at least slightly anxious, and he took hold of the gun at his side.
As they approached the campground, Gabriel noticed something that finally took him away from the mirage of a vacation dreamland.
The blood.
Where the dirt ended and the dying grass began, the earth was blood-stained. He followed the trail off into the trees, where it became indistinguishable. There’d been a battle here, that much was certain.
The car in front of them veered right to a parking area where a collection of other vehicles sat. As Gabriel pulled forward and parked the van behind Charlie’s car, the others in his group had all come outside and approached them. Gabriel noticed one of the men holding a rifle at his side, and he bit his lip. He looked to Jessica in the middle row of seats and said, “Grab a gun, now.”
Gabriel unlocked the door and swung it open, his sweaty palm holding a firm grasp on his sidearm. Just as he was about to draw, Charlie cut the two groups off, facing the approaching people with his palms toward them.
“Hold up, guys,” Charlie said. “Everything is cool, these are good people.”
The group stopped, and the man, a handsome fellow in his mid-forties, nodded toward Gabriel.
“Why’s he got his hand on a gun, then?”
“Why you pointing that rifle our way?” Gabriel spat back.
He felt a presence at his side and glanced into his peripheral to see Will approaching.
“Lay cool, man,” Will said.
“You, too,” Charlie said to his guy.
Gabriel stared at the man, who returned the favor. After a few moments, Gabriel finally gave in and released the grip on his gun. The other man did the same, letting the rifle slide around to his back, out of sight but still there, just in case. Claire appeared at his side and grabbed the man by the arm.
“It’s cool, Thomas,” she said. “They’re alright.”
Thomas looked up from Claire to Gabriel again, then gave a hesitant nod. Gabriel returned it.
Gabriel scanned the rest of the group standing before him. The chances that most of these people had known each other before The Fall seemed slim to none. The only ones who he guessed might have were an older couple, appearing to be in their 70s, standing on the outer edge of the group. There was a gangly-looking guy with a sad excuse for a beard on his face, likely in his early 20s, and a boy, probably slightly older than Mary Beth or Dylan, who rounded out the group.
Behind Gabriel, the other doors to the van opened, and Holly, Jessica, Mary Beth, and Dylan all exited.
Charlie turned to Gabriel and the others and smiled. “Let me introduce you to everyone.”
He pointed to the older couple first. “This is Larry and Marie. They came up here for their 45th anniversary.” The two smiled, and Larry waved to Gabriel and the others.
Charlie pointed to Sad Beard next. “This is Scott.”
“Hey,” Scott mumbled.
“This here is Reece,” Charlie said, signaling to the young boy, who waved.
“And I’m Thomas.”
Thomas approached Will and Gabriel, reaching his hand out. Gabriel accepted it, and the two men gripped each other’s hands tight, in almost another battle of masculinity.
“Welcome,” Thomas said. “If my sister says you’re alright, then I guess that’ll do.” He looked back to Claire and smiled.
“You guys want to shower?” Charlie asked. “We’ve got well water up here.”
“Yes,” Holly said, raising her hand.
“Come on,” Charlie said. “We’ll show you guys around a bit.”
***
At the far end of the campground sat a playground. Swings, slides, and monkey bars completed the set-up. It was separated from the woods by only twenty yards, meaning that the children had to be supervised by an adult, so Jessica and Scott stood watching for Empties while Dylan, Mary Beth, and even the slightly older boy, Reece, swung, slid, and hung on the monkey bars.
Gabriel looked on, happy to see Dylan being able to play with other children and act somewhat like a normal kid for a change. It brought a smile to his tired face as he sat with Will, Charlie, Thomas, and Claire. Holly had hurried to one of the cabins to shower, while the elderly couple of Larry and Marie had retreated to their own cabin for a nap.
“Sorry ‘bout jumpin’ your ass back there, man,” Thomas said to Gabriel.
Gabriel chuckled. “It’s alright. I wouldn’t exactly say that I was Mr. Rogers back there.”
“We all gotta stay on our toes with all the shit that’s happened,” Will said.
“So, why exactly y’all headed to D.C.?” Thomas asked.
“That’s where me and the boy are from,” Gabriel said, nodding toward Dylan, who was seeing how high he could get before jumping out of a swing. “He isn’t mine, but I’m trying to get him home. I’ve got a little girl of my own and a wife I’m trying to get back to.”
“Hmm,” Thomas said, looking down at the rock he was tossing in his hand.
“What about you?” Will asked. “Where are you from, Thomas?”
“Really small town at the South Carolina-Georgia border called Hardeeville. It’s just about a half hour drive from Hilton Head, and damn close to Savannah. I own a little auto garage down there. This was the first vacation I’ve taken that wasn’t to the beach since I was a kid. Hardeeville’s one of those places where everyone knows everyone, which means everybody thinks they’re entitled to your business. Thought it’d be nice to get away.”
“Worse places you could be stuck than up here,” Gabriel said.
“Yeah,” Thomas said, short and concise.
“So, there’s seven of you now,” Will said, “but how many of you were up here to begin with?”
There was an awkward pause. Thomas’s face went pale in an instant. He rubbed his forehead. “Excuse me,” he mumbled, pushing himself off the top of the picnic table and heading for one of the cabins.
Claire rubbed her eyes and looked to the rest of the group. “Sorry,” she said, and she stood up from the picnic table and jogged after her brother.
“I’m sorry,” Will said.
Charlie sighed and put his hand over his mouth, running it over the growing beard on his face and ending at his chin.
“This is the first time we’ve had other people up here,” Charlie said. “We’ve been through a lot, ya know? A lot of shit went down up here.”
Gabriel found it hard to believe that anyone had been through as much as Will since The Fall, and mentally commended Will on his restraint, to not reply with something sharp and cold.
“Maybe it’d be best if we just got what we came up here for and hit the road,” Gabriel said.
“You don’t want to stay for a little while?” Charlie asked.
Gabriel looked over to the playground. Dylan half-hung off a merry-go-round while Mary Beth and Reece stood on either side of it, spinning it around faster and faster. Dylan’s hair blew in the wind, and Gabriel hadn’t seen him smile like this at all in the short time that he’d known him. His heart sank with the reality that he’d have to pull the boy out of this, but knew it would happen sooner or later.
“We really need to get going,” Gabriel said. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we appreciate your generosity and trusting us enough to bring us up here, especially with how things went down back at the store, but I should’ve been in Washington a week ago.”
Charlie bowed his head and nodded. “Yeah, I understand.”
Thunder sounded in the distance and Gabriel turned back to see dark clouds gathering in the sky. He looked up and could see the sun about to be overtaken by a gunmetal portrait directly above their heads. Within moments, the campground was overshadowed and Gabriel felt the first rain drop.
“Alright, we gotta get goin’ so we don’t get caught in this,” Gabriel said.
Charlie chuckled. “The sky’s about to open, man. You don’t wanna be caught dead driving back down to the main roads in the rain, believe me. Especially in that minivan.”
Gabriel sighed and started to speak again, but Will cut in.
“He’s right,” Will said. “We need to just wait this out up here.”
A thunder clap roared in the sky again, and Jessica hurried over to the men gathered at the picnic table.
“Got somewhere we can go before it starts pouring?” she asked Charlie.
Charlie nodded. “I’ve got the keys to most these places in my cabin.”
As Charlie hopped up off the picnic table and jogged to his cabin, Gabriel drew in a deep breath and shook his head.
“We need to get going. We can’t waste anymore time.”
“You kidding?” Jessica asked. “It’s about to pour and we’re in a minivan. We’ll slide right off that road on the way down.”
And then the sky opened.
CHAPTER TEN
Instead of all six of them cramming into one of the small cabins together, the group ended up in two units — Will, Holly, and Mary Beth in one. Two doors down, Gabriel, Jessica, and Dylan settled into another.
As rain pattered on the roof and beat against the gravel outside, Will looked around the living area of the small cabin. A half-empty water bottle sat on a coffee table next to an open entertainment magazine. In the small dining area, a jacket hung over one of the chairs pushed under the hand-built, wood table, large enough to seat six people.
Mary Beth and Holly appeared from a doorway on the other side of the room.
“Someone’s clothes are on the bed,” Mary Beth said. “Does someone live here?”
Will could see in Holly’s face that she had figured out exactly the same thing he had. Someone had been staying here before the cabin suddenly became vacant.
“We’ll check and see if they’re Mr. Charlie’s or one of the others’ here, sweetie,” Holly said, making up something to keep the child’s head from spinning. “Why don’t you go sit over there on the couch?”
Mary Beth skipped over to the loveseat and grabbed the magazine off the coffee table, rapidly thumbing through he pages to try and find something that interested her.
Will walked to the bedroom, grabbing Holly’s arm to take her with him.
An open suitcase lay on the bed, a man’s clothes neatly packed inside. On the floor at the other side of the bed lay another suitcase. It was closed, but a man’s button-up plaid shirt lay on top of it, next to a pair of boots. The bed itself was unmade, its sheets and comforter tossed. Will walked to the bathroom and saw the toiletries neatly placed on either side of the twin vanity. He emerged from the restroom, coming to where Holly stood looking at the bed.
“This is just creepy,” Holly said.
“I don’t know,” Will said. “When I was at the hospital, I lay in that bed wondering how many people had died in it.”
“Yeah, but their crap wasn’t still scattered all over the place.”
Will looked to the side table and noticed an open condom wrapper on the ground. He narrowed his eyes and said, “Yeah, you’ve got a point.”
Holly came over to him and wrapped her arms around him, nestling her head into his chest. After a few moments, she pulled away and looked up into his eyes.
“I did a lot of thinking while I was in the shower,” she said.
There was an awkward silence, and finally Will said, “And?”
“I mean,” she said, stumbling her words. “Do we really want to leave?”
Will furrowed his brow.
“Look at this place, Will. We’ve got everything we need up here. There’s shelter, water, endless firewood. And Charlie said they haven’t seen any Empties up here since after The Fall. It’s almost like a sort of utopia. It’s even better than the hospital.”
Will nodded, not able to help himself but agree, but there was still the one big, obvious issue.
“Okay, but what about Gabriel?” Will asked.
“Did you see how happy Dylan was? You think he didn’t notice that?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Will said, shaking his head. “All that guy can think about is his wife and daughter. That’s not to say he doesn’t want Dylan to be happy, because he sure as hell cares for him. But he’s not gonna stop until he gets home.”
Holly looked toward the window, frustration in her face, then looked back up to Will. “You think they’re alive?”
“Who?”
“His wife and daughter,” Holly clarified.
Will allowed that question to just hang in the air. He let it sit long enough that, by the time he was ready to say something, a knock came at the front door. He put his hand on Holly’s shoulder.
“You mind? It’s probably just Gabriel or Jessica. I’ll be there in just a sec.”
“No problem.” Holly left the room.
Will looked down at the suitcase on the bed and pulled out a navy blue long-sleeve tee. He opened it and sized it up in front of him. From the front of the cabin, he heard Charlie greeting Holly.
As Will walked over to the bathroom, he took off his shirt. He looked in the mirror and observed the various scratches on his body, not even sure at this point which had originated with which incident. Turning on the faucet, he leaned over and splashed water onto his face, rubbing away at the grime and dirt. When he picked his head back up, Charlie’s face appeared in the mirror, standing in the room behind him. Will jumped.
Empty Bodies (Book 4): Open Roads Page 6
