Will stepped out into the parking lot to make sure there were no other creatures around. There weren’t. The rain had stopped some time during the night, leaving puddles scattered around the parking lot. But the sun coming out would soon dry them. With not a cloud in the sky, the day would be a good one for travel.
“Will!”
The voice was Holly’s, and Will turned and ran back inside, jumping over the fallen Empty.
Dylan lay on the ground, hyperventilating. Holly was over him, and Charlie stood across the room, hugging Mary Beth.
“Holly, give him some air,” Will said.
After a few moments, Dylan breathed easier. Will kneeled down to him.
“It’s all right, buddy. Just close your eyes and breathe.”
Dylan did as directed, shutting his eyes and drawing in long, deep breaths.
Will stood up and pulled Holly aside. “What happened?”
Crying and shaking her head, Holly said, “I don’t know. He just kinda had this blank stare on his face after you cut that thing’s arm off. He wouldn’t take his eyes off the arm after it fell on the ground. Then he just fell down and started breathing fast. That’s when I called for you.”
“P.T.S.D.,” Charlie said.
Holly looked confused.
“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” Will clarified. “He saw the Empty’s arm fall off, and he had a flashback.” He looked back over his shoulder to the arm still lying on the ground. Then he said to Charlie, “Come on, let’s go clean it up.”
Charlie ran to the storage room and came back with a box of latex gloves.
“Better than nothing,” he said, pulling a pair out and handing the box over to Will.
Will picked up the creature’s arm, wanting to get it out of Dylan’s sight. He walked around the side of the building and threw it on the ground. He’d dispose of it out back in a bit, but he wanted to help Charlie move the body first.
When he arrived back at the front of the building, Charlie was standing at the top of the Empty’s head.
“You get the legs,” Charlie said.
Will kneeled down and grabbed the Empty under its legs. It was hard to distinguish the thing’s age, though it had definitely been a male in its living days. But it was too far decomposed to tell how old the man had been. Based on its condition, Will figured its reanimation must’ve come early on. It had likely survived this long due to the scarce traffic in the area.
As they moved the creature around the side of the building, Will did his best to look away and ignore its face. The machete’s blade had shot straight through its skull and mangled what was left of it, leaving the top of its head open like a blooming flower. Charlie gagged.
“Don’t look at it,” Will said.
“I’m trying not to,” Charlie replied. “You’re not seeing what I’m seeing. You did a fucking number on this thing.”
“Let’s just take it all the way to the back.”
They walked down the side of the building until they reached the open parking lot in the rear. Shrubs lined the back of the property, and beyond them was nothing but undeveloped land.
Looking off in the distance, Will said, “Go to the curb and let’s see if we can toss this thing in the shrubs.”
Will startled when he almost lost his grip on his end because the weight changed after Charlie had almost dropped it. He looked up at Charlie and followed his gaze.
Together, they dropped the body.
In the middle of the back lot was a stack of bodies. There were six of them, all tangled together and stacked on top of one another like a small pyramid. Another ten feet past the stack was a single body, lying on its back. The man’s arms lay spread like an angel’s wings, and a handgun lay next to his right hand. A pool of blood had dried around what remained of his head. Several hundred flies hovered around the bodies.
Will covered his mouth, and Charlie looked off into the shrubs at the back of the property and vomited. The smell was unbearable. The bodies had been lying out here for an unknown amount of time, exposed to all the elements: the sun, the rain, rabid animals. Will had smelled something strange inside the convenience store the night before, but passed it off as something inside the store.
Will covered his mouth and nose and grabbed Charlie by the arm. They fled the scene, rushing back to the front of the building.
Even though Holly noticed something was off, Will and Charlie managed to keep what they’d seen behind the building to themselves. Holly and the children had no reason to know what they’d seen. Instead, Will and Charlie simply went back inside and told everyone it was time to leave. They packed up the SUV and left the gas station behind.
Will drove again, and Charlie sat in the front seat. Holly held her normal position in the back with the two children. Even after the incident with the Empty back at the gas station, Dylan was having his best day since before the accident. He and Mary Beth played a game where they’d try to spot certain words on billboards. They laughed together. Will was happy.
They passed a sign that told them they were now only seventeen miles from Roanoke. The scenery had started to become more urban. They began to drive by exits where there were more restaurants and retail stores. Likewise, they also came across more Empties.
“How are we going to find him?” Charlie asked.
Having answered the question in a way before that threw Charlie and Holly off guard, Will kept silent. He focused on the road, watching the scenery shift as the sun came up.
“Will, I know you said that ‘God will show us the way’, but come on, man. We gotta start thinking seriously about how we’re gonna find this Bartman. Otherwise, this whole trip is just going to be a waste.”
“Maybe we can find a phonebook or something at a gas station,” Holly suggested.
“Yeah, I looked for one last night and didn’t see one,” Charlie said. “But that’s likely going to be about our only shot, unless we run into some locals or something. And we know how dangerous that can be.”
“Then we should try to stop at a gas station somewhere.”
Will slammed on the brakes. Charlie shot forward, the seatbelt catching him before his head hit the dash. Holly and the two children yelped in the back, and Will felt Mary Beth’s hands slam into the back of his seat. Charlie, leaning over, put his hands up.
“What the hell?”
“Will, what’s your problem?” Holly asked, frustration in her voice.
Will pointed to something.
After a moment, Charlie said, “Son of a bitch.” There was silence for a few seconds, and then he scoffed and laughed.
A billboard sat off to the side of the road, and on it was a man with his hands raised to the sky. An exaggerated smile stretched across his plump face. He wore a suit with a purple shirt underneath, and the little hair he did have on the top of his head was more salt than pepper. The man’s photo was aligned to the left of the billboard, and the rest of the sign read:
Ministry of Life Church
Pastor Philip Bartman
Take Exit 143, Mountain View Road, 9 Miles Ahead
Then, in big letters, was a single verse from the Bible.
Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He. - John 13:19
Will faced Charlie, then glanced back at Holly.
“I think we’ve been shown the way.”
Chapter 22
Gabriel Alexander opens his eyes, and the sun instantly blinds him. He tries to shade his face with his hand, but realizes he can’t. His hands are bound to the armrests of a wheelchair. He tries to wiggle them free, but it’s useless. He scans his surroundings, and finds he is familiar with where he is. The green turf still appears so alive while so much of the world is dead. From what he can tell, the stands are clear, and he is the only one around.
Then he hears them.
Though he can’t see the source through the sun’s blinding light, the snarls of the Empties are unmistakable.
&nbs
p; He thinks he can, perhaps, get onto his feet and run away, even though he is strapped to the chair.
That’s when he looks down to the ground and notices both his legs are gone. Each leg has been severed mid-thigh.
Gabriel screams.
He writhes in the chair, trying to break free. He rumbles the chair so hard that it tips over.
Falling down on his side positions him to where the top of the stadium blocks out the sun. No longer blinded, Gabriel can see the Empties lumbering along, twenty-five yards away from him.
One of the creatures has long auburn hair and wears a flowered sun dress. It looks to have been around Gabriel’s age when it was possessed.
The other creature is nearly half the size of the other, and was also a female when it breathed. It wears a t-shirt with a unicorn on it, and a pair of purple tights.
Two things strike Gabriel as strange.
One is that neither Empty has any blood on it. He would’ve assumed that they would have consumed their share of flesh by now.
The other is that, the closer the two creatures get to him, the more familiar they become.
It is when they cut their original distance in half that it hits Gabriel.
These two creatures are his wife and his daughter.
Tears slide down the sides of Gabriel’s face, falling onto the blades of grass he lays on. Katie and Sarah—his babies; he has failed them.
“No,” he cries. “Please, God, no.”
But it’s too late.
As he bathes in his failure as both a husband and a father, a certain peculiar calm falls over Gabriel.
He will soon be free. He will soon join them on the other side. Perhaps not right away, but eventually, when their bodies are released. But are their souls already standing in an afterlife waiting for him? Of that, he is unsure. He thinks he will be waiting, but hopefully, not long.
Just five yards away now, he looks at his wife.
“I love you.”
He looks down to his beautiful daughter, staring into her empty eyes.
“Baby.”
They snarl as he closes his eyes.
Gabriel’s wife and daughter fall on him.
Gabriel awoke in a cold sweat. While the room was dark, there were candles lit along the walls. He lay flat on a table, and when he went to wipe the sweat from his brow, he found he was unable to move his hands. He was strapped to the surface.
“Nice of you to join us.”
Gabriel looked over to see Ambrose sitting in a chair. From what Gabriel could tell, they were the only two people in the room.
Gabriel tried again to break free.
“You’re wasting your energy,” Ambrose said. “Now, let’s just relax and talk a bit.”
“Why the fuck do I wanna talk to you? You killed one of my friends.”
“And if you don’t want the others to end up the same way, I suggest you listen.”
Gabriel tried to break free again, and then he finally gave in. He relaxed, lying flat on his back and looking at the ceiling. The aroma from the candles helped calm him, and he closed his eyes and breathed in and out deeply.
Ambrose struck a match, and brought it to the cigar hanging out of his mouth.
“Don’t fucking smoke in here,” Gabriel said. He didn’t present it as a question.
Nathan snorted, waved the match in the air, and slipped the fresh cigar back into his pocket.
“Why?” Gabriel asked. “Why did you have to kill him?”
“I’m not so sure we saw the same thing,” Ambrose said. “Your friend had the same opportunity that all our other competitors have.”
Gabriel looked up and said, “Bullshit.”
“See it how you want, Mr. Alexander, but I killed no one. And I won’t allow you to throw such accusations my way.”
Gabriel rested his head on the flat, hard surface again. “What do you want?”
Ambrose stood up and circled the room as he spoke, his boots clicking on the hard floor. “I think that we can help each other, Gabriel. You want to stay alive. And I need a champion gladiator.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“These games we play aren’t just for fun, Mr. Alexander. The people you saw cheering in the stands weren’t just doing so because they wanted to. They were gambling.”
Gabriel scoffed. “Gambling? What the hell good is money anymore?”
Ambrose stopped next to Gabriel and stared down at him, smiling. “Not money. We use food and ammunition as currency.”
Gabriel then thought back to when he’d walked into the stadium. He had noticed the box beside the ticket collector that had been filled with canned food and ammunition.
“And what do I have to do with your gambling ring?”
“You, Mr. Alexander,” Ambrose said, “could be my guaranteed winning ticket. I see something in you. Something strong. I read about it in that journal. You’ve been out in the world, fighting these things one at a time. You’re strong, the strongest I’ve seen.”
“You just let a stronger man die,” Gabriel said.
“Considering he had but one foot to stand on, I seriously doubt that.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Gabriel said.
“No, it doesn’t. Now, are you ready to listen, or not?”
Gabriel stared up at Ambrose, and didn’t say a word.
“Good,” Ambrose said. He paced back and forth in the same line, a distance of only about ten feet beside Gabriel. “I know that the chances of you dying if I trot you out onto that field are much less than other competitors that we’ve had. The others are weak. Most of them have given up, including your friend Thomas. He lost his family, and he gave up. I could see it in his eyes, whether you want to believe it or not.
“You, Gabriel, are quite the opposite. You’ve kept moving forward, and you can’t lose hope. To lose hope would mean to give up on your family, to assume that they are gone.” Ambrose waved his index finger. “You haven’t done that. And I don’t think you will.”
Gabriel still didn’t respond; he only continued to listen.
“I want you to fight for me, to be my main attraction. We’ll put you up against the other fighters, and they will be favored, but you will win. Hopefully, most of the crowd will bet against you, because they do not know you yet. We’ll take advantage of that for as long as we can.”
“And then?” Gabriel asked.
Ambrose shrugged. “And then we let you go. You and both your friends.”
“And why am I supposed to trust you?”
Ambrose smiled and moved closer to Gabriel. “Son, I don’t think you have much of a choice.”
Though he didn’t want to admit it, Ambrose was right. Gabriel didn’t have much of a choice. He’d seen what Ambrose was willing to do, as Gabriel had watched Thomas die. Ambrose could claim all day long that they’d had nothing to do with that, but that was bullshit and Gabriel knew it. Gabriel knew that going along with Nathan’s plan was likely his only chance of survival.
“If I agree to do this, I want to make sure a couple of things happen,” Gabriel said.
“You’re not exactly in a place to make demands,” Ambrose said.
“I want to be put with Jessica and Claire in the same room. I want to know that they’re safe. I’ve seen a lot of sick fucks around here, and I don’t want anything happening to those girls.”
“And how am I supposed to feel safe with the three of you being together?” Ambrose asked.
Gabriel chuckled and tried to lift his arms. “You kidding me? We have no firearms, and it’s apparently quite easy for you to restrain me whenever you want.”
Ambrose put his hands on his hips, and then he nodded. “All right. You’ve got a deal.”
“I also want a decent meal for us, and beds,” Gabriel said. “I think it’s the least you can do for a guy that’s gonna earn you a whole lot of goddamn food and firearms.”
Ambrose snorted, but he nodded again.
“All right, so, when do
I start?”
Nathan Ambrose walked to the door and knocked three times. The door swung open, and two guards—not the same two assholes who’d been handling Gabriel before—entered the room and unfastened the leather straps around Gabriel’s wrists and ankles. With the straps loose, Gabriel sat up slowly, so as to not throw his back out. He could already feel the dull ache near the small of his back. Though it hurt, he managed to make it upright, and he sat with his legs over the side of the table. He massaged his wrists and drew circles with his toes, the joints in his ankles popping. After he’d only been comforting his wrists for a moment, one of the guards grabbed his hands and cuffed them.
“Are you serious?” Gabriel asked, looking to Ambrose.
Ambrose shook his head. “Don’t flatter yourself. Just because we made a couple of deals doesn’t mean you’re not still a prisoner here.”
The two guards stood Gabriel up, and Gabriel asked, “Where am I going?”
Leaving the room and walking into the hall, Ambrose turned back.
“Training.”
If Claire hadn’t been given a drug to make her fall asleep, Jessica presumed that the woman would have still been crying. Instead, Claire lay silent, strapped to a gurney that two of the guards had affixed her to.
It had to have been two hours since they’d watched Thomas die on the football field. Jessica hadn’t known Thomas long, but he’d become a friend, and she was sick of watching her friends die. Many questions ran through her head. Why had they taken them out there to see that happen? Was it just some kind of cruel, torturous joke? And why had Gabriel been separated from them?
Sitting against the wall with her arms folded over her knees, Jessica looked toward the door when she heard footsteps from down the hall. The door clicked, then swung open, and Lance and Derek entered the room. Derek walked over to Claire, first checking her pulse. Then he grabbed on to the back of the stretcher. Lance moved to the middle of the room and looked down at Jessica.
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 76
