Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6
Page 1
Empty Bodies
The Complete Series
Zach Bohannon
Zellwood Press
Contents
Stay Informed
Zach Bohannon
Empty Bodies
1. Will
2. Gabriel
3. Jessica
4. Gabriel
5. Will
6. Jessica
7. Gabriel
8. Jessica
9. Gabriel
10. Will
11. Gabriel
12. Jessica
13. Will
14. Jessica
15. Will
16. Gabriel
17. Will
18. Jessica
19. Will
20. Gabriel
21. Will
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
24. Will
Epilogue
Zach Bohannon
Adaptation
Prologue
1. Lawrence
2. Will
3. Jessica
4. David
5. Will
6. Lawrence
7. Will
8. Jessica
9. Lawrence
10. Will
11. Lawrence
12. Will
13. David
14. Will
15. Will
16. Jessica
17. David
18. David
19. Dylan
20. David
21. Will
22. David
Epilogue
Zach Bohannon
Deliverance
Prologue
1. Gabriel
2. Jessica
3. Jessica
4. Jessica
5. Will
6. Will
7. Gabriel
8. Will
9. Will
10. Dylan
11. Will
12. Dylan
13. Jessica
14. Dylan
15. David
16. David
17. Jessica
18. Gabriel
19. David
20. David
21. Jessica
22. Gabriel
Epilogue
Zach Bohannon
Open Roads
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Zach Bohannon
Damnation
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Zach Bohannon
Revelation
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
Stay Informed
Empty World
About Zach Bohannon
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Empty Bodies
Empty Bodies Series Book One
Zach Bohannon
Zach Bohannon
www.zachbohannon.com
Copyright © 2015 by Zach Bohannon. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction of this publication in whole or in part without express written consent is strictly prohibited.
Edited by Jennifer Collins
Proofread by Christy McGuire
Cover design by Symmetric Design
www.symmetricdesign.co
For my girls:
Kathryn and Haley
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 17:8
Chapter 1
Will
Nashville, TN
The warehouse sat at the end of a long line of almost identical facilities; the last building on the left side of a single, inclined, dead-end road that was sixty yards wide and parted two rows of buildings. They were large, brick-front structures with foundations five feet tall—just high enough to keep them out.
On a normal weekday in the industrial park, the road would be a fury of semi-trucks backing up to loading docks, as blue-collar Americans inside the warehouses pushed boxes and drove forklifts, all in hopes of making a buck to live off of.
But things had changed.
Now, all the vehicles were vacant and still. Rows of cars sat where their owners had left them, parked to the top of the hill. Eighteen-wheel trucks remained backed into many of the docks along the street, but their cabs were empty, just like the cars.
And while the automobiles lay idle and the workdays were over, plenty of shadows still crept along the dead-end road. They walked up and down the street all day and all night, sometimes bumping into each other, but unaware of doing so. No life was left inside them, only the ability to make inarticulate noises and to hunt.
At the top
of the hill, a large group of them loitered in front of Element Distributors; the company occupying the last building on the left. They gathered around it like it was a famous person, clawing at the cracked, brick walls.
Inside, Will Kessler looked out of a peephole that he’d made in one of the four aluminum, garage-style doors. He watched as hundreds of the creatures fought to get inside. They knew he was in there. He sensed that they could smell him. But Will wasn’t worried. Standing over five feet tall, the loading dock seemed to make a good barrier between him and the things outside, as they had shown no ability to climb. His main concern was that he would run out of food, as he had very little.
Element was one of the country’s top distributors of musical instruments. Since the late 1960’s, their parent company in Belgium had been producing guitars and percussion instruments all around the world and, ten years ago, had opened a distribution office in Nashville, Tennessee. The facility consisted of a 30,000-square-foot warehouse with rows upon rows of metal uprights, crossed with matching beams, holding pallets of merchandise in each slot. Additionally, the building had an 8,000-square-foot office where twenty employees spent their days running the small company.
But Will was alone now.
Leaving the decrepit howls of the dead behind, he backed away from the doors, turned, and made his way back into the office.
Earlier that day…
Nearly every day, Will Kessler spent his lunches the same way: he’d go to the lunch room, make a turkey and cheese sandwich in the toaster oven, scarf it down, and then go to the vacant office across the hall and take a forty-five minute power nap. He was young, just shy of twenty-five, but working in the warehouse was hard work. Unloading forty-foot containers by hand and lifting boxes onto pallets all day wore him down. He’d often go home sore from head to toe, but because he was a night owl and suffered from regular bouts of insomnia, often sat in his room and played guitar. So, he was glad that the company had left one of the offices vacant when they moved into the newly-built office two months ago. The only thing in the room was a small desk with a computer for employees to use on their lunch breaks. Other than that, there was plenty of floor space for Will to snooze.
He was twenty minutes into a nap when he was suddenly awoken by a scream down the hall. He was sitting up before he knew he was even awake, and shot a sour look toward the door. The company consisted of thirty guys and no women—not on purpose, it’s just that women never applied to work there—so there was always a lot of joking going on.
“Assholes,” Will mumbled as he curled back up on the ground and closed his eyes.
Then he heard another scream. Much closer this time.
He opened his eyes and shot to his feet, just as he caught a flash of something going by the window at the front of the tiny office.
Will crept over to the window and, right as he was about to press his face against it, saw Dean, one of the guys who’d worked with him in the warehouse, hit the floor on the other side of the door. Will looked down and saw blood spraying into the air, out of Dean’s arm.
As Will put his hand on the handle and started to rush to Dean’s side, two figures pounced on Dean, who was only able to get a single yell out before one of the things tore his throat out.
Will thought quickly. While the two things were distracted, ending his friend’s life in the worst way he could imagine, Will grabbed the desk from the middle of the room and put it in front of the door, making as little noise as possible. Then he stood in the dark corner, behind the door and out of sight.
His whole body quivered, his lips danced, and he waited. The silent air between the screams and the howls was filled with echoes of his heart beating in his chest.
Then he heard a slam against the window. He kept himself hidden in the corner behind the door. One of the things pressed against the window, trying to see into the room. Will heard it but couldn’t see it. The snarl went into his ears and made him cringe.
Banging continued on the door. It sensed that something was inside the room. With nothing to defend himself with, Will’s mind began to race about what he might do if the thing broke through the door. He looked to the exterior window on the opposite wall. There was no way of opening it, but if he had to, he could throw the chair through it and escape that way. But he decided that should be a last resort.
Then the banging stopped. He heard a voice down the hall.
“What the fuck?” the male voice demanded.
Will couldn’t quite make out who it was, but from the Northeastern accent, it sounded like Mel, one of the sales representatives who traveled to the New England area on a regular basis, selling Element’s products to local music shops. He was supposed to be on a sales trip, but had canceled it at the last minute, which now appeared to be the biggest mistake of his life.
Will heard a howl from the same voice and the sound of heavy footsteps moving down the hall, away from him and toward the voice.
He poked his head around the door to look out the window. It was clear. He walked over to the desk and opened the top drawer. There has to be something in here to defend myself with, he thought. There was nothing in the top drawer that would do any harm to anyone or anything.
In the second drawer, he found a Phillips-head screwdriver. That’ll have to do.
The only plan he could think of was to try and make it to his boss’ office near the front of the building. He knew there was a gun in there because his boss, a forty-year old outdoorsman named Andrew, was a card-toting member of the NRA, and had often bragged about keeping a gun at the office. If Will could make it there, he would at least have something tangible to defend himself with, assuming it was still there. If he could make it.
Will slid the desk away from the door, making as little noise as he possibly could. Andrew’s office was only about thirty yards away, but Will had no idea what he might encounter when he left the small office.
He closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. Put his hand on the door handle, pushed down, and pulled it toward him.
When he poked his head out the door, he looked to the right first and immediately brought his hand over his mouth to keep from yelling out.
Two more of his co-workers were on the ground with their entrails pouring out and hanging over their ribs.
He turned back into the room and emptied his stomach all over the carpet. After a few moments, he gained back his composure. Wiping the vomit from his lips, Will stood, hinged at the hips, facing the ground for a few moments before he remembered he needed to move.
His eyes went straight to Dean, his friend whom he’d watched get eaten alive just minutes before.
For a moment, he stood over him. Stared into his eyes. They were still open, even though he knew that Dean’s soul had left.
Will picked his head up and stepped over Dean.
As he did, he heard the snarl and stopped.
A hand grabbed a hold of his ankle and he fell face first to the ground, letting loose of his screwdriver in the process. He clawed his hands against the floor and looked back to see Dean resurrected. Only it wasn’t really Dean. His eyes had grayed, and intangible noises came out of his mouth. He squeezed Will’s leg, chomping his jaws.
Will kicked his legs and turned back to look for the screwdriver. He could feel Dean spitting at him. He saw the screwdriver, but it was just out of his reach. Stretching as far as he could, he still couldn’t quite reach it.
He felt his shoe come off and looked back to see Dean trying to pull his foot toward his mouth. In a panic, sweat dripping down his cheek, Will kicked his feet as hard as he could toward Dean. The grip on his ankle tightened.