Will shrugged. “That’s what I started calling them. They aren’t really people. Their minds and their souls are gone. Not the people we know, not anymore. They’re just empty bodies. Empties.”
David laughed, and the toothpick moved up and down in his mouth.
“Clever! I love it,” David said, sarcastically clapping his hands, which made Will glare at him. “We could use more people like you around here.” He looked over to Holly. “Don’t you think so, darlin’?”
She blushed and stared at Will. “That actually makes a lot of sense. Considering the fall and all.”
Will looked confused. “The fall?”
Holly tilted her head at him. “Yeah, the fall. Didn’t you see it when it happened?”
Will shook his head.
“Never mind all that,” David said.
Holly blushed and ran her hands through her hair, a ritual she’d carried with her since high school and performed when nervous.
“So,” David continued, “if you want to be part of my community, you have to earn it.”
Will spit at David’s feet.
“What if I don’t wanna be a part of your gay little club?”
David brought the back of his hand across Will’s face as hard as he could.
Holly gasped and covered her mouth, stepping back. David looked back at her and gave her a stern look that told her to stop being dramatic.
Blood came out of the side of Will’s mouth and he leaned to his right to spit some of it on the floor, as it was quickly collecting in his mouth. He moved his tongue around to make sure he wasn’t missing any teeth. From what he could tell, the only one missing was the one he had lost when he was younger and playing ice hockey.
David grabbed Will by the jaw and came within inches of his face.
“You’ll do what I say when you’re in my house,” David said in a demonic whisper. “Way I see it, you don’t have much of a choice. See…” David pulled out a handgun and Holly gasped again. He looked back at her.
“Get the fuck out of here,” David told Holly, using the gun to point to the door.
She left the room in a hurry and David turned back to Will, laughing.
He pointed to Will with the gun. Will dodged his head to keep the barrel from pointing at him.
“I think she likes you there, squirt,” David said, smiling still.
“Fuck her and fuck you,” Will said.
David ignored him.
“So, what’s it gonna be? You gonna do as I ask, and earn your keep in this place?”
David pointed the gun right at Will’s head.
“Or am I gonna have to blow your fucking brains out all over this wall right now?”
David shut the lights off in the room and closed the door behind him.
Holly was there, sitting in a chair and trying to gather herself. There were two others, a man and a woman, sitting at the table, and two armed men standing on the other side of the room, leaned up against the wall.
David walked over to Holly and slammed his hands down on the table.
“What the hell was that in there?”
Holly began to cry.
David put his hand on her chin and lifted her face up.
“You need to straighten that shit up,” he told her. “We can’t show any signs of weakness.”
“Come on, David. Leave her alone. We’re all still adapting and grieving from what’s happened. Give the girl a break.”
The voice came from the woman at the table. Her name was Diane Baldwin; she was one of David’s higher-ups in his small community, primarily because she was one of the oldest members of the group made up of only about ten people.
David looked back at Holly, whose face was beet red. He gave her a soft slap on the cheek, then stood up and began to walk out of the room.
Holly looked up.
“Did you kill him?” she asked.
David looked back.
“Nah, darlin’. We need him.”
Less than an hour later, light came through the door as it opened. Will raised his head slowly, squinting his eyes to re-adjust to the light. The bleeding in his mouth had stopped, drying up around his lips and the stubble on his chin, and leaving him with a sick feeling.
Two men who Will hadn’t seen before approached him.
They leaned over and grabbed him, each taking one of his arms.
“Up you go,” one of the men said.
Will grimaced as he came to his feet. He hadn’t been on the ground that long, but it was solid concrete, and his hands were stuck behind his back. It made him feel as if he had been on that hard floor for days, and the joints in his knees and ankles popped as he stood.
They took Will into the next room, where he saw David, Holly, and a small group of others. In the middle of the room was a large, wooden table. The group sat around it, watching Will as he entered the room. David sat at the end of the table furthest away from Will. The two men sat Will down in a chair at the front of the room and then stood behind David.
Will looked to David with a blank stare on his face. He didn’t let his gaze leave the so-called leader’s eyes. David did the same, clasping his hands and leaning onto the table, never looking away from Will.
In fact, everyone in the room was staring at Will.
“So,” David began. “Have you decided to play nice and do as I say?”
Will just continued to stare at him. All he could think about was that he’d had a clear path out of the park when he’d seen Holly’s beautiful face as she waved to him from the dock, pleading for help. He was angry at himself for turning the truck around, wishing he had just kept driving, flat tire and all. Now, he was being held prisoner, forced to listen to some man pretend like he owned him.
“Let me just go ahead and tell you what I want,” David continued.
He cleared his throat.
“Next door, there is a warehouse, much like this one and much like the one you came from. And it’s overrun by those things.”
“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 scoffed.
“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 14
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 ha
rd 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 thigh 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 continu
ing 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 intact. 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.
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 10
