“Who?” Gabriel asked.
“The man who saved me,” Will said. “His body is in the back seat of the car.”
Everyone remained silent for a moment. Jessica thought to herself how she’d never seen anyone die in her life up until a week ago, and now it seemed routine. It sickened her to think she was almost immune to the look and the smell, though the sad, dark feeling of loss hadn’t seemed as if it would ever go away.
“What happened to Mary Beth?” Dylan asked.
“To who?” Gabriel asked.
“The girl that the bad people took away. Is she okay?”
Gabriel looked toward the others, apparently seeking help on how to respond.
“She ran away,” Will said honestly.
“But is she okay? We have to go find her!”
“We can’t go find her, buddy,” Gabriel said. “We don’t know where she went.”
The boy bowed his head, crossing his arms over his chest.
Jessica looked up and glanced over to the barn.
“I’m gonna go see if I can find a couple of shovels,” she said. “You wanna come with me, Dylan?”
“I don’t wanna go in there,” Dylan said.
“You sure?”
The boy kept his eyes to the dirt and didn’t respond.
Will finally looked up from Marcus’ body.
“I need to take a walk,” Will said.
“Let me go with you,” Holly said.
Will shook his head. “I need to be alone.” He leaned over and kissed Holly on the forehead, and walked toward the street.
Jessica looked off toward the barn and felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Take this with you,” Holly said, and she handed a handgun over to Jessica.
Jessica grasped the cold grip in her hand, then acknowledged Holly.
“Holly and I will go inside and see what we can find in the way of supplies,” Gabriel said. “You got the keys to the car so I can back it up to the porch, and we can just load stuff into the bed?”
“It’s dead,” Jessica replied. “Surprised it got us all the way back here to the farm, honestly.”
“We don’t have a vehicle?” Holly questioned, obvious worry in her voice.
“Dylan, you wanna come into the house with us?” Gabriel asked.
Dylan shook his head. “I don’t wanna go in there either. I just wanna go home.”
Gabriel placed his hand on Dylan’s shoulder. “Soon, buddy. We’re going home soon. Now, come on.”
“Yes, sir,” Dylan said, taking Gabriel’s hand.
Gabriel nodded at Jessica. Holding the gun tight in her hand, she walked toward the barn.
The door screamed as it swung forward on its hinges, echoing through the entire barn. Some of the light from above the outside of the door shone into the room, but it only stretched for a few feet before fading into shadows of nothingness.
A fowl smell permeated the air, and Jessica coughed.
What is that?
And the noise. Some kind of muffled noise. It didn’t sound threatening, but she had difficulty making it out. The handgun became sweaty in her palm. She held the weapon tight and it nearly slipped from her grasp. What had once been cold to the touch was now damp with a nervous woman’s perspiration.
Jessica reached above her head, looking for a way to turn on a light. She’d almost given up when her fingertips brushed over a thin chain and she pulled down.
The lighting came alive in the barn.
She gasped and stepped back.
There were three of them.
A trio of bodies swung from side to side in front of her, the tips of their toes just inches from brushing the scattered hay. Wrapped tightly around their necks, the chains that hung from the roof of the tall barn suspended them each less than a foot off of the ground.
They weren’t dead.
Yet, also not alive.
They were Empty.
“What happened here?” Jessica said, mumbling to herself. Her breath was heavy and her heart rate had increased.
As they writhed, the three creatures continued to swing. It happened in near unison, almost like a three-piece pendulum. Two of them alternated their hands between the chains around their throats and reaching out toward Jessica. The other didn’t bother with the choking hold, and instead outstretched its arms toward Jessica as if it might actually grab her. She realized that none of the things would be a threat to her, strung up the way they were, and she…
Gunshots. Four of them, all happening within seconds of each other.
The three creatures continued to swing and snarl, looking toward the rear of the barn where the gunshots had originated from. Jessica had started to turn and run out of the barn for help when a figure came out of the shadows in front of her. It was a woman with strung-out hair. Blood had splashed onto her clothes, and she held a gun squarely aimed toward Jessica.
“Drop it,” the woman said, “and don’t you fuckin’ move.”
The gun at her side, Jessica did as the woman said and dropped the gun into a collection of hay on the ground beside her.
“Now put your hands up,” she demanded.
Slowly, Jessica pointed both her hands to the roof. For having a gun aimed directly at her, Jessica had managed to remain fairly calm, so as to not show her the fear riding up inside her.
“Do you live here?” Jessica asked.
“Shut up!”
The woman took two steps toward Jessica, who jumped back a hair. The woman’s eyes lit aflame, and her cheeks were flushed, too. She appeared to have been crying.
“Okay, okay,” Jessica said. “Can you at least tell me your name?”
“Ah, I guess that don’t matter at this point. My name’s Cindy.”
“Hi, Cindy,” Jessica said. “Why don’t you put down the gun and we can talk? I’m sure there’s just a misunderstanding here.”
Cindy laughed, but just as she was about to reply, her gaze fell over Jessica’s shoulder and to the large entrance.
“Don’t move, or I’ll shoot ‘er!”
“Jessica, what’s going on?” Will asked.
“Put down the gun, unless you want me to drop ‘er right now!”
“Don’t do it, Will,” Jessica said.
The crazed woman loaded a bullet into the chamber as she took two steps toward Jessica. Even with the screaming beasts hanging in the barn, the click seemed to ring inside of Jessica’s head.
“Alright, I’m dropping it,” Will said, and Jessica heard his weapon hit the ground.
“Now, I’ll tell you what’s goin’ on,” Cindy said. “What’s goin’ on is that y’all kilt my family. Now, I’ma kill all you. One by one. Each one’a you gonna watch it.”
“But, we didn’t—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Cindy said, cutting Will off mid-sentence. “The hell you didn’t. You think I’m stupid? I saw y’all. You should’ve just stayed away. Got yourself in some kinda trouble now, I think. You think I won’t kill y’all? Go on and look at the back of the barn. I just kilt four children.”
“Oh my God,” Jessica said, thinking back to the gunshots she’d heard moments earlier.
“Clint thought we could survive. That we’d be just fine in this hellhole. I wanted to take their pain away. Take them away from this miserable world. I couldn’t let them continue to live here and grow up like this. They off in a better place now.”
Even with the Autumn breeze, sweat glistened off of Cindy’s hand under the lights. Jessica could see perspiration dancing with the freckles on the woman’s cheek. She was uneasy—nervous.
“There was a man here who killed my mother,” Will said. “And one of our own, a child, was kidnapped. We couldn’t just stay away. I’m really sorry your family was killed; I am. I’ve lost both my parents over the last few days. But we can stop that trend of killing now.”
Again, Cindy just laughed. “You ain’t sorry for shit. Only thing you gonna be sorry about before you die is that you left me here to fi
nish y’all off… something that idiot Clint couldn’t do.”
Cindy pointed the gun toward the ground. “Put your hands behind your head and get on your knees,” Cindy said to Jessica.
Jessica looked down to the dirt. “Please, don’t—”
A gunshot sputtered off the ground right next to her.
“Stop it!” Will demanded.
Cindy ignored him, keeping her eyes locked onto Jessica.
“On your knees, or the next bullet goes right into one of ‘em.”
Jessica abided, weeping more heavily now. She placed her hands behind her head and slowly lowered to her knees, one at a time. The nearest Empty swung in front of her, reaching out and trying so desperately to break free. For the first time since Melissa Kessler had urged her to keep fighting, to continue living, she wished she’d offed herself on the bed her parents had taken their own lives on. It would have been quick and painless, as opposed to having had to endure the eventual fate from the hands of a deranged backwoods woman.
Jessica looked up, ready for Cindy to press the tip of the gun against her head and pull the trigger, but it didn’t happen. Instead, Cindy raised the weapon toward Will.
“Come closer,” Cindy demanded.
Will made his way to the middle of the barn, leaving his gun on the ground behind him. He came forward until he was instructed to stop, which was still at a good ten feet away from Jessica. Her hands shook, and she held a tight grasp on the hair on the back of her head, as if to try and calm her nerves.
Cindy kept the gun pointed at Will, and she began to step backward. Again, Jessica had expected the woman to execute her, but she was doing something else now. Cindy walked into the shadows, and when she re-appeared, she held something in her hand.
A controller.
“I’m sorry it has to be like this,” Cindy said, and she held it up and pressed down on a button.
Machinery ground and shifted above, and the Empty in the middle started to lower. Its toes touched the ground, and Jessica swore she could almost see a gleam of relief or victory in the creature’s expression.
“Don’t do this!” Will shouted.
Jessica screamed.
The Empty’s feet hit the ground, and it took its first step toward her, the chain still restraining it for the moment. But Cindy continued to press down on the button, and with that, the beast received more and more slack from the chain with every second.
Saliva hit her face. More and more as it became closer. Behind her, she could hear Will pleading with Cindy to stop. To let her go, put him there in her stead. But none of it worked. The Empty continued to approach her, getting so close now.
Jessica closed her eyes.
She thought of her parents. Of Walt and Melissa.
I’ll see you soon.
There was a different scream, a gasp, and then a type of slurping sound. Jessica looked up, and she was still just out of the Empty’s reach... it had stopped. She looked behind her and saw Cindy’s back facing her, but something was different.
Blood spouted from three holes in Cindy’s back. Both the gun and the remote fell from her hands, hitting the ground as she turned. Jessica saw her hands clasped onto the long handle of a pitch fork. Blood pooled from her mouth. Her eyes widened and puffed, as if she wanted to cry.
Jessica covered her mouth.
A young girl, perhaps not any taller than Dylan, stood on the other side of Cindy.
Cindy slumped down onto her side, and her head slammed against the dirt as she fell.
Her eyes were vacant.
Cindy was dead.
In shock, Jessica still hadn’t moved. She looked to the girl and noticed it was the same girl who’d been strapped to the table.
Will hurried over to Jessica. He took her under her arms and picked her up. She turned and hugged him, shuddering into his shoulder.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Will said.
They both jumped when they heard the gunshot.
The girl stood over Cindy’s body, staring down at her, the gun still pointed and her hand trembling. She looked up at Will and Jessica.
“I didn’t want her to turn into one of them.” She said it with a sort of apologetic innocence.
They heard someone else enter the barn, and turned to see Dylan.
“Mary Beth!” Dylan shouted, and he ran to the girl.
As he hugged Mary Beth, she cried, and clutched him back. She dropped the gun to the ground.
“It’s okay,” Dylan said, running his hand up and down her back.
Jessica turned when she heard others approach, and Gabriel and Holly appeared in the doorway.
“What the hell happened?” Gabriel asked.
Epilogue
They buried their friends in the dead of night. Every now and again, they’d hear something howl off in the distance—likely a pack of coyotes or wolves. It was a sound they all agreed they would take gladly over the guttural snarls from a horde of Empty bodies.
Before digging the holes, Will had explained to Holly and Gabriel what had happened inside the barn. He’d been surprised that neither of them had heard the gunshots from inside the house, but Gabriel had told him that the HVAC in the house had been rumbling, and the gunshots had sounded like they had come from far off in the distance; gunshots were becoming more and more common, so it hadn’t even fazed them.
The three holes had been dug near the large tree where the men who owned the land had been fighting back against the group. Jessica had briefly mentioned to the others the idea of digging graves for the four children inside the barn, but when no one had responded, she didn’t bring it up again. Unless someone else stumbled across this property and decided to do something about the children, they’d be left to nourish the ground inside of the barn for the rest of the time that the world turned.
Will had wanted to assist in preparing the graves, but Gabriel had insisted that he rest. In truth, Gabriel still had trouble even believing the story of Will’s survival, and likely wouldn’t have at all if it weren’t for the bite marks not having fully healed on Will’s arm. He doubted he’d even have believed that Will had been bitten by David at all if it wasn’t for the torn flesh. But trying to reason that a prayer had exorcised the demon out of him? Gabriel just didn’t have the faith for that.
Either way, he and the ladies could handle preparing the burial ground. Gabriel had suggested that Jessica rest, as well, having been nearly executed by a psychotic woman, but she insisted on helping, telling him that it would be more beneficial for her to do something productive rather than sit and watch him and Holly.
Dylan sat on the porch with Mary Beth, doing his best to console the young girl. He seemed to be doing fine on his own, and the adults left them alone. The boy had matured so fast.
Will had remained close by, sitting against the tree. He’d stared over at the table, now flipped over, and had wondered how many people had been put to death over the last week on it. Thankfully, they’d been able to save young Mary Beth.
Will, Gabriel, Jessica, Dylan, and Mary Beth now stood under the almost full moon, staring down into the three holes—three more innocent people vanished prematurely from their legion.
The preacher, Samuel.
Sarah.
Marcus.
Death was never easy; even in the case of someone as evil as David Ellis, it was still a human life ending. And while the group would mourn Sarah for weeks and months to come, it was especially hard for Will, Gabriel, Holly, and Dylan to say goodbye to Marcus. He’d become such an intricate part of their group, and had been a friend and co-worker of Holly’s for years. Her boss, in fact, and the best one she’d ever had. Now, he was nothing but a memory.
Will was especially distraught, as two of the dead had helped him escape death. Marcus had sacrificed his own life in order to save him, diving in front of the speeding pickup truck to push him out of the way. The crash of the truck into Marcus’ body was a sound that would play over in Will’s mind for years to come,
if he had years left in his life.
And the preacher, Samuel, had quite literally, brought Will back to life.
Will couldn’t speak.
Nothing needed to be said. All five of them were exhausted, and they were tired of burying friends.
In lieu of eulogies, they stood in silence.
The following morning arrived, and they’d all slept until the sun began to shine through the windows. Jessica was the first to awaken. She, Holly, and Mary Beth had stayed in one of the upstairs bedrooms, while the two men and Dylan had stayed in the other. The two rooms were side by side and shared a door, so, barring their all crowding into one room, it had seemed like the safest thing to do in case someone, or something, got into the house.
Jessica stood and stared out the window as she stretched, arching her back and clasping her hands together as they reached for the ceiling. It was strange—sleeping in the house, having known the type of people who had lived there, but she was thankful just to have a real bed to sleep in. After leaving the hospital, she hadn’t been sure when she’d see the luxury of a bed again.
Holly still rested in a nearby bed, lying on her side and clutching a pillow. Jessica had taken the larger bed, and Mary Beth had cuddled with her all night. The young girl still rested.
The floor creaked as Jessica crept toward the door. The hinges sounded even worse, and she was surprised the whole house didn’t wake up. She shut the door behind her, and turned around just as a toilet flushed across the hall. The bathroom door swung open and Will appeared.
“Oh, good morning,” Will said as he trudged out of the bathroom.
“Morning.”
“How are the ladies?”
“Sleeping like babies in there. Holly’s holding some dead person’s pillow tight,” Jessica said with a soft smile.
Will narrowed his eyes.
“Sorry,” Jessica said, looking away in slight embarrassment. “That’s a little weird.”
Cracking a smile, Will said, “No, it’s okay. In a strange way, it was kinda funny.”
Part of Jessica’s smile returned, and she looked back to Will.
“Do we really have to leave?” she asked.
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 46
