“Empties,” Holly added, glancing over at Will.
For the first time since arriving, Will smiled.
David glared back at Holly, who put her head down and took two steps back. Frustrated, he bit his lip, and started over.
“Next door is filled with Empties. We aren’t really sure how many, but it’s enough to have one of our men trapped.”
Diane Baldwin sat at the end of the table closest to Will. She pulled out a photograph of a black man in his forties and pushed it in front of Will.
“His name is Marcus Wright,” she said.
“He’s my best man,” David continued. “Yesterday, he went over there to scavenge the place and it was overrun. The girl with him, Claire, was killed.”
Will interrupted. “How do you know Marcus is still alive?”
David held up a two-way radio. He turned it on and put it to his mouth.
“Marcus?”
The radio buzzed and Will heard another voice come through.
“Yeah? When the hell are you coming to get me, man?” Marcus asked.
David smiled. “Soon. We’ll be sending someone soon. Just hang tight.”
He looked over to Will.
Will smiled. “You think I’m going to go over there, by myself, and save some asshole I don’t even know?” He snickered.
“Of course not.”
The two men who had dragged Will into the room grabbed Holly from behind as she let out a surprised yelp.
“Your girlfriend is going with you.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
JESSICA
For hours, not a word was spoken. The crying in the back seat had long ceased, turning into tired snores, while Jessica kept her eyes focused on the road.
The only things she could hear, aside from the old woman snoring in the back seat, were her own faint breaths and the echo of words she mumbled in her head as she thought about her parents. Since approaching the interstate, she’d come across both the living and the dead, though at times it was hard to tell them apart. She didn’t stop the van. A few times she almost did, as seemingly innocent people waved her down, but all she wanted was to get to her parents’ house. And she wanted to do so with a van full of water and food. She thought about her friend, Chris, who had been living in New Orleans during Katrina. Countless times, he’d told Jessica stories of how dangerous things had gotten when everyone in the city lost hope. No one was safe. The city of New Orleans had gone mad. And now, from what she could see, the entire world had gone mad, and there was no telling what someone might do to them if she stopped to help them.
An hour earlier, the radio had caught a signal and she was able to hear the message from the emergency broadcast system, warning people to stay inside. From what she could tell, most people were listening to the government mandate.
One thing that surprised her was how quickly she had become numb to the undead. There were stretches during the ride where she had to weave the van in and out of them as they moved with their arms swinging, down the open road. But they didn’t cause her to cry or to panic. It was like she had lived in this world for a year or more instead of just a day.
She looked in the back seat as she heard the woman begin to stir. Melissa appeared in the rear view mirror with her palm pressed against her forehead as she tried to open her eyes.
“How long was I out?”
Jessica smiled. “We’re only about thirty minutes from Knoxville.”
“Wow,” Melissa said, her eyes wide.
“You needed the rest, so I let you sleep.”
Melissa looked around outside. They were driving down an unpopulated stretch of empty road.
“Have you seen more of them?”
Jessica nodded. “And people, too.”
“And you didn’t stop?”
Jessica shook her head. “Too dangerous. We don’t know what people are like. I don’t have too much faith in them right now, especially after listening to the radio.”
“What did the radio say?”
Jessica reached down and turned the knob on the radio so that Melissa could hear the message.
This is the Emergency Broadcast System with an urgent message. The state of Tennessee has issued a house arrest for all residents until further notice. Please be advised that no one is allowed outside until the ban is lifted. Failure to abide by these laws will result in instant prosecution. Again, do not leave your home.
“And when we crossed into Tennessee, there wasn’t any resistance? No national guard or anything?” Melissa asked.
Again, Jessica shook her head. “Surprised me, too. I saw some military vehicles heading east about an hour ago. A whole line of ‘em. But they didn’t seem too concerned with us. Probably headed to Washington, if I had to guess.”
Melissa leaned back and rested her head against the seat, peeking outside with her hand to her chin.
Jessica’s eyes went to the dash.
“I need to pull over and put some gas in.”
***
While Jessica tipped the plastic red gas can into the tank of the van, Melissa squatted behind a nearby tree and relieved herself.
“You didn’t by chance grab any toilet paper at that gas station, did you?” Melissa asked.
Jessica laughed. “Wish I had.”
Over the hill in the distance, a Jeep was moving west down the interstate toward them.
Seeing the vehicle a half a mile in the distance, Jessica pulled the can back, put on the lid, and loaded it back into the van.
“Melissa,” she called out. “Melissa, we need to go. Someone is coming.”
It was almost as if the person driving the Jeep heard her, as it appeared to speed up.
Melissa came from behind the tree, buttoning her pants and scurrying to the van.
They weren’t going to get away in time. Jessica shut the back door to the van and decided to play it cool. Maybe the Jeep would keep going. And if they did stop, maybe they would be friendly.
The engine of the Jeep calmed as it slowed.
“Let’s just be cool,” Jessica said.
She looked up and saw a man driving the Jeep, and that he was alone. He appeared to be in his early to mid thirties—not much older than her. As he pulled the Jeep in a few yards away from them, Jessica reached back and felt the cool handle of the pistol tucked into the back of her pants, assuring her it was still there.
The man opened the door and poked his head out over the roof, standing on the side rail of the Jeep. His eyes flashed to both of them.
“Everything okay?” He asked, the Southern drawl evident.
Jessica cleared her throat and faked a smile.
“Just fine,” she said. “Just stopped to check the tires.”
“And put some gas in?” He was pointing at the back cab of the van where she had put the can.
She cleared her throat and clenched her fists. Already, the stranger was making her nervous.
“Yeah. We got a little bit extra if you need some.”
He nodded, rubbing the hair on his chin with his thumb and index finger.
“I see,” he said. He looked over to Melissa and then back to Jessica. “This your mom?”
“Friends,” Melissa said. She walked to the passenger seat and opened the door. “And we’ve got to get going. So, if you will excuse us…”
He put his hands up, stepped off the side of the Jeep, and then started to creep toward them.
“Whoa, whoa. Hold on a second.” He moved closer to Jessica, who pretended to scratch the small of her back, though she had a firm grip on the gun.
He smiled at Jessica and said, “You told me I could have some gas.”
She brought her hand from behind her back and signaled to the rear of the van.
“Yeah, of course,” she said, faking a smile through a tremble in her voice.
He squinted his eyes at her. “What’s behind your back?”
A drop of sweat came down her face. “Nothing.”
He moved closer
to her. His smile turned perverted and he bit his lower lip.
“You’re pretty,” he said, winking.
Jessica backed all the way up until her back was flush with the van. She began to tremble as the stranger reached out and placed his hands firmly on her hips. She could smell the chewing tobacco on his breath as his mouth moved closer to her face.
“Leave us alone,” Melissa yelled, going to the back of the van.
He put the back of his hand up like he was about to slap her.
When he did this, Jessica pushed him away and pulled the pistol from her back, pointing it between his green eyes.
He put his hands in the air and flashed his toothless grin at her, again.
“Whoa. Put that down, sweetie. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“I’m not planning on it,” Jessica said. She pointed the gun toward his Jeep and blew out his passenger side front tire.
He looked back and dropped his jaw. Then he came at her.
“You stupid…”
The bullet entering his leg cut him off from finishing the sentence and he hit the ground. He rolled from side to side, clutching his right quadricep where the bullet had entered.
“You shot me! You fucking whore!”
She pointed the gun at him again.
“Quit being a bitch,” she said.
Melissa covered her mouth and let out a single, cupped giggle.
He writhed and watched Jessica walk to his Jeep. In the front seat lay a shotgun, a couple of boxes of shells, and a few unopened packs of beef jerky. She took the gun, the shells, and left him one pack of beef jerky. Before walking away, she looked on the back seat and noticed some paper towels sitting next to a couple of bottles of motor oil. She put those under her arm as well.
As she walked back to the van, she held the paper towels up for Melissa.
“Better than nothing,” she said, thinking about the next time one of them would have to use the restroom.
Over and over, the man yelled “Bitch!” and “Cunt!” while continuing to roll around in the dirt.
As she stepped into the van, Jessica turned and put her middle finger up to the man.
“Thanks for the gun.”
She blew him a kiss, shut the door, and kicked a cloud of dust into his lungs as she sped off toward Knoxville.
***
Just over forty-five minutes later, Jessica and Melissa arrived at the suburban neighborhood that Jessica’s parents lived in on the other side of Knoxville.
The sidewalks and the roads were lined with the undead—about thirty were on the first street she pulled onto—but Jessica was able to avoid them without having to run any over with the van.
The condition of the houses varied. Some of them had doors wide open and windows busted, and they knew that these homes were likely now either vacant or filled with the dead. Others had boarded up doors and windows with lights on inside. The beasts were attracted to these, gathering in front of the doors and windows and beating on them with their fists.
“Think there are survivors in there?” Melissa asked.
Jessica nodded.
“Oh my God,” Melissa added. The thought was in both their minds, that the fear they must feel while trapped inside their homes had to be driving them mad.
As they approached Ross Street where her parents’ house was, Jessica’s heart began to dance in her chest. It thudded against her ribcage like rising bread trying to burst out of a tight pan. She saw the name of the street on the green sign and turned the wheel to the left.
The Davies’ house sat one block down on the right, and tears began to well in Jessica’s eyes before the brick front home came into her vision.
Her mom’s SUV still sat in the driveway and the doors and windows still looked to be in tact. Ross Street was less crowded with the undead, and the front of their house was clear. In a way, it worried her more since many of the occupied homes they had passed had had beasts loitering in their yards. But she wouldn’t know if her parents were alive until she went inside and saw for herself.
Jessica pulled the van through the yard, running over a small garden gnome, and parked it right in front of the door.
She took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and opened the door to head into the house.
***
The Davies’ home was dark and still as Jessica and Melissa entered. The smell of lavender still lingered throughout the house. It was a scent that Jessica always remembered well from her childhood, as it traveled the air from the potent oils her mom loved to burn. Her mom burned so much of it, in fact, that the oils had left a permanent stench on the walls and the furniture.
Jessica looked around and noticed that the house looked untouched. To her right, the furniture in the living room sat in its same respective places, not turned over and ravaged like she had feared. The kitchen to her left was spotless, aside from a small stack of dishes left in the sink.
Melissa reached over and flipped the light switch by the doorway, but nothing happened. Jessica heard the click and turned to look, as Melissa shook her head. The old woman hugged herself as the cold air hit her. She shivered.
“Mom?” Jessica called out. “Dad?”
No reply.
She walked through the kitchen and into the laundry room. The door next to the dryer led out into the garage, and she opened it. Her dad’s red sedan still sat in the garage. Her heart began to race.
Melissa checked the living room, noticing all the photographs on the wall and on the tables. One in particular caught her eye. It was a picture of Jessica wearing a ballet outfit and laughing as her mom wrapped her arms around her from behind and tickled her. The picture made Melissa think of her son. She wanted so badly to get to him, and hoped soon that they would reunite. Though, she wasn’t sure how she was going to tell him that his father had died. At least he would be proud knowing why Walt died.
Jessica entered the living room and a startled Melissa looked away from the photo on the wall.
“Anything?” Jessica asked.
Melissa shook her head.
“Did you check the downstairs bedroom yet?”
“No. Just in here.”
Jessica passed the couch and hurried to the guest bedroom. Like everywhere else downstairs, it was empty.
“I’m gonna check upstairs,” Jessica said. “Can you stay down here and be on the lookout?”
“For what?”
Jessica handed the pistol to Melissa.
Banging began at the front door.
“Shit,” Jessica said.
She ran to the stairs as the howl from outside rang through the foyer.
***
The sweet scent of lavender faded into a musky overtone as Jessica climbed the stairs. Dying sunlight from outside shined in enough light for Jessica to see the faded fruit drink stain she had caused when she was nine years old, still embedded in the worn carpet on the fourth stair. The same pictures from her childhood remained nailed to the wall, unchanged and unmoved for years.
As she got closer to the top of the stairs, the scent got stronger. It stung Jessica’s nostrils and began to make her nauseous. Her heart drummed with the beat of the door, as the beast continued to pound its fist against the wood.
Her parents’ room was just to the right as she reached the top of the stairs. A nervous Melissa Kessler took turns looking to the front door and watching Jessica creep to her parents’ room. She knew that the young girl needed to hurry, but she couldn’t bring herself to push the issue. Not with everything that she had gone through herself today and how Jessica had been there for her through the whole ordeal. Grieving for her husband was something that would have to come in time. There was no place for it now, and Melissa feared for Jessica that she might experience similar tragedy.
And as Jessica turned the cold handle to enter her parents room, her exact fear was realized.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
WILL
Will and Holly stood, side by side, in front of the large met
al bay door of the loading dock. They could hear the Empties on the other side, spitting through their decrepit teeth and scratching at the door. Will felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around.
David held up a radio, offering it to him.
“Keep this on channel one,” David said. “Marcus is stuck in a room near the back of the building, but this will help you get to him and stay in touch with us. He should be able to help guide you to where he is once you get inside.”
Will took the radio and clipped it to his belt. He stared down at the rifle in his hands, thinking again about how he’d gotten into this situation. Wishing he had ignored the beautiful, and now scared, girl that stood shoulder to shoulder with him, about to take on a horde of Empties. And for what? To save some guy he didn’t even know.
The rifle felt natural in his hands. One thing that he was thankful for was all the hunting trips that his father had taken him on when he was younger. His father had a friend who owned a plot of land near Manchester, a town about an hour and a half east of Nashville known only for hosting Bonnaroo each June, and from the time Will could fire a gun until he was seventeen years old, they had gone out there multiple times a year to hunt. Will had been raised with a gun in his hand and would have no issues taking down anything, or anyone, that threatened him.
He looked over to Holly.
“Are you ready for this?” He asked her.
She looked over at him. Her face was worn from crying and beginning to turn from a blush red to a pale nothing. She had a pistol in her hand that she hardly knew how to use and a knife holstered at her side. Holly was scared for her life, and Will tried his best to calm her nerves, even though he too was scared for their lives.
“We are gonna be fine. We will be in and out in no time. Just point and shoot like I showed you.”
Holly took a look at the ground and then stared straight ahead again, waiting for the large door to slide up and reveal the dangers of the outer world. While being under the control of another person—especially a dictator like David Ellis—was not an enjoyable life to live, the place they were in did provide a certain comfort. It had kept Holly and the rest of the group safe over the past two days. But now she was being put into a situation that she wasn’t sure she would survive.
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