Then he let go.
Will hugged Gabriel, allowing all his emotion to come out. He cried in his friend’s arms. Gabriel held him close, running his hand up and down Will’s back.
Holly ran to them, and she wrapped her arms around the two of them, letting her own tears go.
Gabriel held them both, as if they were his younger siblings, while the rest of the group watched. He thought again of Dylan, and hoped that he’d have the chance to hug the boy soon.
Chapter 2
Jessica
After Holly had taken Will into his room and the rest of the group had settled, Jessica stole a moment to speak with Gabriel and Marcus. She invited them into her room and asked them to sit.
“What’s up?” Marcus asked.
“I know why those two things were out there,” Jessica started. “Will left me in a closet after those men arrived. I was actually just about to come and look for you all when I heard David and those other two guys come running down the hallway.”
“What the hell happened to them?” Gabriel asked.
“David shot them.”
“Son of a bitch,” Marcus said, sitting back in his chair. “Dude has gone totally off his rocker.”
“Well, he did shoot that nurse right in front of us and then throw a woman into a cage to be slaughtered by one of those things,” Gabriel added, then noticing the change in Jessica’s face when he brought up Melissa’s death. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “He was on the radio with someone when he killed them. He was lying, saying that you guys were the ones that shot them.”
“Shit,” Gabriel said. “He’s trying to pin this on us so they’ll come after us.”
“Why would he do that?” Jessica asked. “Why didn’t he just kill you all while he was here?”
“Because that’s too easy,” Marcus said. “We left him for dead in a warehouse. He doesn’t want us to go easy—especially Will.”
After a few moments of silence, Jessica continued. “The man on the other end of the radio gave David directions to where they are.”
This caught Gabriel’s attention. “You know where he went?”
Jessica nodded.
“And you remember the directions?” Marcus asked.
“We take I-40 West to the Waverly Road exit. We head down the road a couple of miles and we should find the place. It’s a farm. I think they said it was called Hopkins Farm.”
“It’s gotta be the same place Dylan is,” Gabriel said. He looked over to Marcus. “We’ve gotta go there.”
Marcus put his arms out with his palms up. “With what? A bunch of syringes and scalpels?”
“So, what? We just stay here and wait for them to come and slaughter us?”
“I didn’t say that,” Marcus said. “But you said yourself, we’ve gotta be level-headed and have a plan before we just march out of here and go all Rambo on them.”
“Maybe we should take all this to the rest of the group,” Jessica suggested. “Some of them are from the area, right? So, maybe one of them will have an idea of somewhere we can find some weapons.”
“Good idea,” Marcus said.
“We’ve gotta make sure we have a plan that’s not just going in there guns blazing. If we do that, they might hurt the kid,” Jessica said.
Jessica saw that Gabriel was clearly uncomfortable talking about the boy, and just as he looked like he might get upset, Marcus put his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.
“Agreed,” Marcus said. “Nothing is gonna happen to Dylan.”
Will
It was the first time that Will and Holly had been able to be alone together since they’d met. And even though Holly was there with him, Will felt the most alone he ever had in his entire life.
They lay in bed cuddled up next to each other. Holly’s head was nestled into Will’s bare chest, which she’d wet with tears. He lay on his back, staring at the ceiling and running his hand through her hair. The room still held the slightly humid air of the shower. When they’d first come into the room after Will had pummeled the Empty in the hallway, until its face had looked like tenderized meat, Holly had immediately stripped him down so he could take a shower. Later on, he’d probably be disappointed that this was the first time she’d seen him naked. She had thrown his clothes into a bag and then tossed it into the hallway, and that was the only time they’d opened the door since coming inside the room. He’d allowed her to stay in the bathroom with him while he’d showered, sensing that she was worried he may try to hurt himself if left alone. But he had no interest in hurting himself—only in killing David Ellis. And as he lay on the bed now, facing the ceiling, he continued to see David’s face everywhere he looked. It was as if it were painted as a mural across the popcorn texture above him.
Holly’s embrace did bring some comfort to him. She obviously didn’t want him to be in pain, and it hurt her to see him like this.
“Everything’s gonna be okay,” she said, breaking their extended mutual silence.
“Not until I kill him.”
She shifted onto her elbow, but continued to rub his chest and his stomach.
“I know you’re hurting inside. I do. But how are you so sure that killing him is going to make you feel any better?”
The question was enough to finally draw his attention away from the ceiling to look down to her.
“Do you want me to just let him stay out there and get off scot-free?”
“I’m not saying that, but—”
“But what, Holly? That piece of shit fed my mother to a goddamn monster right in front of me. Do you realize what I saw? I’ll never get that image out of my head. And until I kill that son of a bitch, I’m gonna see his smirking grin everywhere I look.”
Holly moved from her elbow to her back and started to cry again.
“I’m sorry, Holly,” Will said, lowering his voice. “I just don’t understand how you expect me to forget about him and not want to go after him.”
“I know you’re frustrated and angry, I just don’t want you to get hurt,” she said through a series of sniffs and gasps as she tried to stop crying.
Will rolled over toward her and wiped the tears away from her cheeks. Then he leaned down and kissed her on the lips, running his hands through her hair.
“I’m not going to get hurt. Neither are you, or Marcus, or anybody here.”
She rubbed the stubble on his face and then leaned up far enough to kiss his mouth, running her fingertips on her other hand down his stomach.
A familiar feeling returned to Will. One that he hadn’t even thought about since before he’d woken up in that tiny office at Element just days ago as the world had been turning to shit. Now, of all times, the slight burn came to him, and he couldn’t think of a better way to rid his tensions in this moment.
He rolled over onto Holly and pulled the covers on top of them.
About an hour later, Will stepped out of the room.
Sarah, one of the nurses who worked at the hospital, was sitting in a chair just across the hall and looked up when he came out of the room.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hey.”
“Gabriel asked if someone could hang outside of your room.”
“In case I ran away?”
She blushed. “To let them know when you came out.”
“Right,” he said, cracking a little smile. “I can go let them know myself. Where are they?”
She pointed down the hall to his left. “Just down there and through that open door. There’s a break room back there, and everyone should be waiting.”
“You want to walk with me down there and join us?” Will offered.
Sarah shook her head. “I’ve seen a lot of messed up stuff today, even for a nurse. I think I just need to lie down for a little while.”
“I understand.” He smiled at her and then started toward the break room.
“I’m really sorry about your mother,” Sarah mumbled.
Will stopped and stood still for a moment before he turned around. “Thank you.” He nodded and then continued, down the hall and through the open door.
Chapter 3
Jessica
It had been a while since Jessica had eaten anything, and she finally felt hungry again. Everyone else in the hospital seemed to be just waiting on Will to come out of his room, and she had retreated to her own space to rest for a while. Now, she walked out of her room into an empty corridor and headed for the break room.
When she walked into the break room, she was surprised to see everyone sitting inside, Will included.
“Oh, hey,” she said. “Sorry.”
She started to turn around until a voice stopped her.
“Where’re you going?”
Jessica turned around and saw that Gabriel was the one who’d asked the question.
“I was hoping you’d stay,” he told her. “You’re part of this group now, so your input is important to the decisions we make.”
“Oh,” Jessica said. “Okay.”
She was still shy around the group. One would have thought that a hotel’s front desk clerk would have no problem being social and bonding with new people, but that wasn’t the case with Jessica. She was an introvert, and like most introverts, she gained energy when she was alone as opposed to being around other people. The job at the hotel had been just that: a job. The same way introverted lead singers of rock bands could jump on stage without missing a lyric or throwing up from nervousness, Jessica had been able to act her way through her job on most days.
There was an open seat next to Will, and she took it.
“We’re discussing what our next move is gonna be,” Marcus informed her.
She felt a tap on her arm and looked over to Will.
“They told me that you know where David went. That you overheard directions on his radio. That true?”
Jessica nodded.
“And he really killed those other two guys?” Sam asked.
Again, Jessica nodded. “I didn’t see it, but I heard the gunshots.”
“The guy must have no soul,” Brandon added.
“He doesn’t,” Will said sternly.
“So,” Jessica began, “what are you guys thinking about doing?”
Gabriel pointed his thumb toward Brandon. “Brandon’s parents live only a thirty minute drive from here.”
“And that’s in five o’clock traffic. Not sure we’ll be hitting that,” Brandon said, smirking.
“So, we’re gonna go stay there?” Jessica asked.
Brandon shook his head. “My old man has a small arsenal there. He’s real into his guns. Almost obsessively.”
“If he lives so close to here, why isn’t he here with us?” Jessica asked. “I’d have figured you guys would’ve hooked up by now.”
Holly came into the room, and Jessica saw her smile at Will. He offered her his chair since there wasn’t an open one, but she declined, telling him she’d rather stand.
“He’s down in Florida spending time with some woman who’s probably gonna become my step-mom. Well, I assume she still might be. Given how everything has gone to shit, who knows?”
“We just gotta hope the neighbors or someone else hasn’t already raided his stash,” Marcus said.
“We’re gonna go there; then we’re gonna go to that farm,” Will added.
“Well, not right to the farm,” Gabriel corrected, “but that’s the plan. We’ve got to be well-equipped so we can get Dylan back here safely.”
“Who all’s going to that house?” Jessica asked.
“Just Will and I,” Brandon told her.
“Just the two of you?” Jessica asked. “That’s crazy. How much time have you guys spent out there? Do you know how nuts it is?”
Holly, who’d been quiet up until now, scowled at Jessica. “Do we know how nuts it is? We’ve spent plenty of goddamn time out there. You think we’ve just been sittin’ in here on our thumbs?”
“That’s not what—”
“We had to scratch and claw our way here,” Holly continued. She pointed at Jessica as she spoke, her tone turning increasingly dark. “We lost people out there and we had a shit ton of other close calls. So, yeah, I think you could say we know how ‘nuts’ it is out there.”
“Holly, calm down,” Will said. “This isn’t helping the situation. Jessica hasn’t had a chance to really get to know us yet and hear our stories.”
“No shit,” Holly added.
“Seriously, Holly. Will is right—you’re not helping us get any closer to finding Dylan,” Marcus added.
“So now you want to gang up on me?” Holly said. She turned around and stormed out of the room.
Will called after her, but she disappeared.
“Just let her go,” Marcus said. “I’ve known that girl a long time, she’ll be fine.”
“I’m sorry,” Jessica mumbled. “I wasn’t trying to offend anyone.”
“It’s okay. She just doesn’t want me going out there right now,” Will said.
“You can’t go with just the two of you,” Jessica reiterated.
“I’ll go,” Sam said.
Will nodded. “I want Gabriel and Marcus to stay behind and help look after the hospital. Just in case anyone shows up here who could be a threat.”
“I understand,” Jessica said. “But I still want to go with you.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Gabriel asked.
“I want to contribute to your group. I’m the newest one here, and I want to pull my weight.”
“You can contribute here at the hospital,” Marcus said.
“Oh yeah, how? Want me to do some laundry? Cook some food? Or sit out in the hallway like that nurse did to make sure no one tries to run away to off themselves?”
Immediately, she regretted that last line and she looked over to Will. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.” He looked over to Gabriel and Marcus. “We’ll take her with us.”
Gabriel looked surprised. “You sure that’s a good idea?”
Will nodded. “She helped get my mother here, and my father saw something in her enough to risk his own life for her. If she wants to go with us, I think she should be able to make that decision herself.” He looked over to her and smiled. “Clearly, she can hold her own.”
Jessica returned the smile. “Thank you.”
Marcus clapped his hands together one time and looked to Will. “Alright, so when y’all headed out?”
Before he could answer, Sarah came rushing into the room.
“I need to show you guys something,” Sarah said. “Please, come quick, it’s important.”
Gabriel
The group stood on the bridge that separated the main corridor from the parking garage. To either side of them, the large windows showed that the sun had almost disappeared for the night, but there was still just enough light to see about a half dozen Empties lumbering along on the road below.
Everyone looked on in silence.
Pummeling sounded from the door in front of them; it was the exit that led out into the parking garage. And through the small window in the solid metal frame, a group of Empties fought to have their faces seen.
“I was just going to go out to get some fresh air, and I heard the banging as soon as I walked onto the bridge,” Sarah explained.
Gabriel walked to the door as the rest of the group remained silent behind him. The window was filled with faces. The most prominent had been a male—the bushy beard, once gray but now stained with human blood, still prominent on its face. Though the creatures filled the space of the small window, they kept pushing each other out of the way enough for him to be able to see past them in quick glimpses. Not only was the makeshift gate the group had built open, but it had been crashed through. Gabriel could see shards of the boards scattered over the concrete.
“Looks like David didn’t bother to close the gate behind him,” Will said. “Don’t think we’ll be repairing it anytime soon
.”
“Shit,” Marcus grumbled. “How in the hell are we supposed to get them out of here now?”
The Empties seemed to be banging and growling louder now that they could see human flesh, and that combined with the commotion of a few members of the group prevented Gabriel from thinking properly. He put his hands behind his head and bowed it, crushing his eyes shut.
“Everyone, shut up!”
Gabriel looked up and noticed Will’s scowl. He was also looking toward Gabriel, clearly seeing that they were equally frustrated.
“Let’s take this shit inside where we can actually think straight without these things about to punch that damn door down, and we’ll come up with a plan,” Will said. He turned around and headed back inside, the rest of the group following.
Gabriel took one last look back toward the door, staring into the starving faces of the undead. Outside, the sky had only minutes of daylight left. Below, the street was empty, and Gabriel wondered if the beasts who had been there were now headed upstairs to join their friends.
When Gabriel walked back inside the hospital, the rest of the group had already gathered near the nurses’ station to discuss what their next action should be.
“The staircase over there is the one we hauled the bodies into,” Brandon said, pointing to a door just a few doors down from the break room. “We put them all the way down at the bottom and blocked the door, so even if we wanted to try getting past all the dead bodies without getting sick to our stomachs, that door is still blocked. And I don’t think anyone is touching those things.”
“So, our only option is to use the staircase down by the elevators then, right?” Will asked. He was thinking of the story he’d been told earlier about how one of the survivors at the hospital had been killed the last time they’d tried to go downstairs.
Brandon nodded. “That’s the closest to the garage, no doubt.” He pointed down the long hallway toward the elevators. “We’re still gonna have a nice little run for it to the garage. Luckily, the general layout of the floor is about the same, so we should have a basic idea about how far we’ll have to go.”
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 33
