“Let’s get out of here!”
Shawna unloaded another couple of rounds before turning around and heading back to the van. Jen had started to turn around when she stopped suddenly. She seemed focused on a vehicle sitting in the middle of the road, some twenty yards away.
“Jen, come on!” Will yelled.
“What the hell is she doing?” Shawna asked as she got into the van.
“I think I see someone in that car,” Jen said.
“No,” Will said. “You need to—”
She took off toward the car.
“Oh, shit,” Will mumbled. He looked back to the van. “Stay inside!”
Jen reached the car and pulled on the handle, unable to open it. Just as Will approached, she ran around to the other side of the car, and Will watched as she yelled out and fell forward. She screamed.
“Jen!”
Will ran around to the opposite side of the car, where he saw two Empties on the ground tearing into Jen’s face. One of the creatures was missing its leg from below the knee, and the other only had half a foot at the end of one of its legs.
Without hesitation, Will drew his pistol. He pressed the barrel against the side of the head of one of the Empties and pulled the trigger. The other creature looked up from Jen’s face and snapped at Will, who just barely pulled his arm away in time.
Using the butt-end of the handgun, Will struck the Empty upside the head, knocking it back. He then pulled the trigger and unloaded a bullet into the thing’s brain.
He turned around and looked down at Jen. Her face was covered in blood. Her nose was gone, and he could see the innards of her cheeks. Eyes wide, she continued to scream as blood seeped from the wounds. Will kneeled down next to her and took her hand.
“Just hang in there, all right? We’re going to get you help.”
Jen continued to yell, and she squeezed Will’s hand tight.
“I promise, we’re going to—”
Jen’s big eyes looked past Will, and before he could turn around, he was startled by a gunshot. The bullet entered Jen’s cheek, splashing blood onto Will. Her eyes remained open, but she ceased all movement.
Will looked back to see Shawna standing there with her pistol aimed firmly down at Jen.
“What the fuck is your problem?” Will demanded, standing up.
“She was already dead and you know it.”
“It’s not your decision to choose who lives and dies,” Will said.
Shawna lowered the gun and moved closer to him. “It is when my life is on the line. Did you not see that girl? I put her out of her goddamn misery. She was going to suffer, bleed out from her face, and then turn into one of those motherfuckers. So don’t you tell me I don’t get to choose who dies, because she was already dead.”
“And what about Franklin, huh?” Will asked. “You gonna kill him, too?”
“He’s at least got a little bit longer to live,” Shawna said. “We don’t have to make that decision now. But you know as well as I do how things end with him. It’s just a matter of how it’s done.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw Charlie step out of the van.
“We’ve gotta go now.”
Will looked back to Shawna. Sticking his finger in her face, he said, “Don’t pull that shit again. You understand me?”
Shawna cracked a crooked smile. She then saluted Will in a mocking fashion and said, “Aye, Captain.”
Then she turned from him and headed back for the van.
Will looked back down at Jen for a moment before he averted his eyes. There was no way they could travel back with the body. Not in its condition, her face mangled and unrecognizable. She would have to lie here with the Empties and the humans who hadn’t made it out with the rest of the survivors from Adam’s group.
After he put aside the thought of taking her home to bury her, Will realized he was looking into the car. He narrowed his eyes.
There was a blanket laying across the back seat, but no sign of a body. Scanning the entire inside of the vehicle, there was nothing that he felt could’ve been mistaken for a person. What the hell had she seen to make her run over here?
Heading up the street, Empties snarled.
Will shook his head and hurried back to the van.
Chapter 12
Charlie sped through the front gates of the neighborhood as Franklin moaned in the back seat. Steve sat with him, applying pressure to the wound with a T-shirt. Between that and the makeshift tourniquet, they had stopped most of the bleeding. But Will knew it wasn’t going to save him.
He shot a glance over to Shawna, who was staring down at Franklin. She caught Will’s gaze and met his eyes. They remained looking at each other for a moment before Will looked back down to Franklin. His eyes were open and bloodshot, and his lips quivered as he bit back the pain.
“We’ve just about got the bleeding stopped,” Will said. “Just hang on.”
Franklin didn’t look at Will. He stared up at the roof of the van, taking in heavy breaths. Will had seen this look too many times before. Though Franklin was strong, his fate was inevitable. He would turn Empty in only a matter of time. There would be no stopping it.
“Will,” Charlie said.
Will looked up to the driver’s seat, where Charlie was gesturing for him to join him. Will got up from the seat behind Franklin and made his way up front. He didn’t have to look at Shawna to know she was staring at him.
When he arrived up front, he leaned in between the seats.
“What’s up?”
“What are we gonna do about him?” Charlie asked, whispering.
Will looked back. Steve was still focused on a groaning Franklin, and Shawna was looking up front, listening in.
“We can’t do anything here,” Will said. “We just need to get him home.”
“Who’s to say he’ll make it all the way back home?”
“We have to try,” Will said.
“Stop the van,” Steve said.
Will looked back. “What?”
“Just stop the fucking van.”
Charlie pulled off onto the shoulder and stepped out as Will made his way back to where the others were. He took a peek outside to make sure no Empties were around. It appeared to be clear. The side panel door opened and Charlie leaned into the van.
“What’s going on?” Will said.
“He wants to tell us something,” Steve said, looking down at Franklin.
Franklin’s eyes were barely open. What Will could see was totally bloodshot. One arm dangled off the side of the seat, nearly touching the ground, while the other lay over his chest. Everyone was silent as they waited for him to speak, but the only thing they could hear was his troubled breathing.
“You have to leave me,” Franklin said before he started coughing.
“Leave you?” Steve said. “We can’t just leave you out here. We at least need to get your body back to camp.”
Franklin nodded. “It won’t be long.”
“I can do it,” Shawna said. She pulled out her pistol.
Shaking his head, Franklin mumbled, “No. That’s not how I want to die.” He looked back up to Will. “Please, just take me out of here and leave me.”
Will looked to Steve and then back to Charlie. Sighing, Charlie stepped into the van.
“Let’s take him out,” Charlie mumbled.
Looking back to Franklin again, Will said, “This is what you want?”
Franklin nodded.
“All right,” Will said to the others. “Just be careful with him.”
The three men picked Franklin up and carried him outside. Shawna was waiting to help carry him.
“Take me to that tree over there,” Franklin said.
They carried him to the tree he was speaking of, just off the road. They set him down into the overgrown grass, leaning his back against the tree. Franklin groaned at they set him down, reaching for his leg. When he was all the way down, the group stood and looked over him.
&nbs
p; “Is this good?” Shawna asked.
Franklin nodded. “When I was a boy, my Pappy used to bring me to a tree like this one and tell me stories. He’d tell me about when my father was younger and how I was so much like him.” Franklin scoffed, which caused him to cough. “That turned out to be bullshit, but I loved my Pappy very much.”
Steve had tears in his eyes when he kneeled down next to his friend and patted him on the shoulder.
“You’ll see him soon, brother,” Steve said.
Franklin smiled and he nodded. “You take care yourself, man. And take care that wife and boy of yours. I don’t want to see you again anytime soon, all right?”
The two men hugged, Steve holding on tight. When they were done, Franklin looked past his friend to Will, Shawna, and Charlie.
“Thank you,” he said.
Neither Will nor Charlie had words. Will simply nodded.
“Now go,” Franklin said. “I don’t want you to be here when I turn into one of those bastards.”
Steve was still crying when Will grabbed his shoulder, urging him to stand.
Franklin gave his friend one last look, then stared straight forward, off into the distance. At first Will thought that he had passed right then, until he saw him blink. Steve continued to stare down at his friend.
“Come on,” Will said, grabbing his shoulder again.
With his arm wrapped around Steve, Will headed back for the van. The group loaded back inside and Charlie started the engine.
Staring outside, Will took one last look at Franklin. He sat against the tree, still looking off into the woods. Will had remembered what it was like when he had been infested by one of the demons. He had begun to hallucinate, losing his mind before the full turn. He pictured Franklin now, imagining himself sitting there with his Pappy. Perhaps even seeing his grandfather, and speaking to him right now. At least all this was what Will hoped. That Franklin was spending his last moments alive in peace.
In the back seat, Steve cried, and in a rare moment of compassion, Shawna sat next to him and wrapped her arm around him.
Charlie put the van into drive and eased off the brake. Will watched Franklin until he could see him no more.
Another good person lost, he thought.
Chapter 13
Several people were outside when Charlie rounded the corner to the cul-de-sac. The guards opened the newly reinforced gate, allowing him to pull through.
Kids playing in the middle of the road shouted and ran toward Timothy’s house, calling out that Will and the others had come home.
Charlie pulled into the driveway straight ahead where the van had been parked before they’d left. He then threw the van into park and looked at Will.
“You all right, man?”
Will was looking down at his hands as he tied his fingers around one another, nervously distracting himself.
“Just not looking forward to this.”
People had began to gather around the van. In the back, Shawna slid open the panel door and stepped out.
Will opened his own door and followed suit.
At the edge of the crowd was Steve’s wife and son, and he pushed through the people to get to them. His wife was crying, covering her mouth, as he brought both of them in for a hug.
“Where’s Jen and Franklin?” someone asked, sparking a murmur through the gathering crowd.
Will pushed his way past people, looking for Timothy. He found him in the road, making his way toward the van with Samantha at his side. Charlie made it to him before Will, stopping him.
“Jesus,” Timothy said, looking at the blood all over the two of them. “What the hell happened?”
“Can we go somewhere and talk about it?” Will asked Timothy.
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible,” Samantha said, looking past Will.
The volume in the crowd increased as people continued to voice their curiosity about the whereabouts of Jen and Franklin.
“You’re gonna have to tell everyone at once,” Charlie said to Will.
Will went back to the van, pushing through the crowd again as they tried to pry answers out of him. He went to the front of the vehicle and climbed up the hood, all the way to the roof. Looking down over everyone, he scanned the crowd. Most people had gathered near the van while some others were in the yards. On a nearby porch, he spotted Jessica, Gabriel, and the kids. Dylan waved, and Will smiled. He then looked to the house he’d been staying in just in time to see Holly walk outside. She covered her mouth, waving to him with her other hand.
Looking at her, he mouthed the words, I told you I’d come back.
“You gonna tell us what the hell happened to our friends?” a man in the crowd demanded.
Will gestured with his hands for everyone to be quiet, and those in the crowd who paid attention and died down urged the others to hush.
“Thank you,” Will said. He looked down at all the blood on his clothes and skin. “I know you’re all wondering what happened.”
Everyone went silent, and so Will told the story. Occasionally, people would gasp and begin talking amongst themselves, and he’d have to stop. This happened when he told them about the fires, about what Adam’s street had looked like when they got there, about what he and Jen had seen inside Adam’s house, and then finally what had happened to both her and Franklin. Many people in the crowd cried, and their neighbors comforted them with hugs.
“You couldn’t bring their bodies back?” someone asked.
“No,” Will said. “I’m sorry.”
Someone else shouted, “I bet if it had been one of your people you would’ve brought them back.”
When Will tried to respond, he couldn’t because of the commotion in the crowd.
A gunshot sent a gasp through everyone and nearly startled Will enough to send him off the top of the van. He looked back to see that Shawna had joined him on top of the vehicle. She holstered her weapon and looked over those who were gathered around them.
“How dare any of you question the integrity of this man?” she said, gesturing toward Will. “He didn’t have to leave here and go try to find medicine for us. He could’ve left today and gone to help his friend find his family. But instead, he stayed here another day so that he could go out and try to find supplies we need. And I watched him almost die in the process.
“Now I know you’re upset that we don’t get to bury our friends, but that’s not the world we live in anymore. We live in a bubble here. Nothing has happened on our land. But if you would’ve seen what I saw today, you’d understand that we aren’t promised that we will be able to keep this place protected. I don’t think Adam’s group thought it would happen to them, but now their homes are on fire and their streets are crawling with the dead.
“If we had tried to load Jen’s body into the van to bring it back, it’s possible that none of us would’ve returned. And we tried to bring Franklin back, but he wouldn’t let us. Because he didn’t want to turn into one of those dead creatures and become a threat to us.”
The crowd was silent aside from some people crying.
Pointing at Will, Shawna said, “This man tried to help them both. He risked his own life to try and save Jen, but she died because she went crazy and thought she saw something that wasn’t there.”
There were more murmurs and gasps among the crowd.
“I was right there, and I’m telling you the truth,” Shawna said. “We saw what can happen to a community if enough of those things infest it. We have to build stronger walls, train more of you to use weapons, map out escape routes and learn them by heart. We need to be ready for any situation. Any threat.”
Among the horde of the community, people began nodding their heads in agreement. A woman near the front started clapping, and others followed.
Will found Timothy among the crowd and passed him a smile. His gaze then shifted to Holly and he hopped off the van.
People in the crowd patted him on the back and several tried to stop him to talk o
r ask questions. He brushed them off, saying he could talk later, and continued to push himself through the sea of people.
When he finally reached the edge, Holly was there waiting for him and threw her arms around him. He held her tight, sinking his head into her shoulder. She didn’t seem to be bothered by the healing gunshot wound in her other shoulder as she squeezed Will hard. She then let her feet go, allowing them back to the ground, and kissed him.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” Holly said. “I had such a bad feeling.”
“I promised you I’d come back, didn’t I?” He smiled and kissed her again.
“Will!”
His name had come from both of the kids simultaneously as they ran up from behind him. Will turned and smiled. He hadn’t intended to open his arms to the kids since he still had blood covering his front, but neither kid seemed to care as they ran into him, hugging him.
“I missed you guys so much,” he said.
Dylan pulled away and said, “You weren’t gone that long.”
Will smiled. “I know, buddy. But it felt like I was, believe me.”
Beyond the two kids he saw Jessica. She’d stopped around fifteen yards away, her arms crossed, looking on.
Will stood up, patting Dylan on the head, and looked back to Holly.
“Be back in a second.”
As he approached her, Jessica averted her eyes from him, nervously running her hands up and down her arms.
“Hey,” Will said.
She looked up. “Hi.”
Jessica didn’t really seem interested in talking but, trying to show her he’d put everything in the past, Will asked, “How were the kids while I was gone?”
“Will, look, I’m sorry about—”
“It’s fine,” Will said, cutting her sentence off.
“But I was such a jerk,” Jessica said.
Will shook his head. “No, you were right. I shouldn’t have made that decision without talking to everyone. Do I feel like it was the right one? Yes, I do. But that doesn’t mean I should’ve acted like I had the right to make an executive decision. That’s not the kind of family I want all of us to be.”
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 93
