“Why didn’t you do that with Jen or Franklin?” someone asked.
Will thought back to Jen, remembering how the creature had pounced on her face. He bit his lip.
“Jen was beyond saving,” he said, leaving out the gruesome details. “And Franklin refused to let us take his leg. He didn’t want to be crippled. That was his choice.”
Will waited a few more moments for more questions, but everyone stood in silence—just staring.
“All right, well, I appreciate you all giving me a few minutes. I’ve told you everything I know. I understand that you might have other questions, and you’re not alone. So do we, believe me. Hopefully, somehow, we can all find more answers. But for now, the important thing is to build a strong community here and to work together. You people have something really special here. You have an opportunity to do something few others do anymore: live a normal life. Hell, you get to live, and that’s more than what many others are offered now. So don’t take it for granted.”
As Will stepped aside, a few people clapped, but most were still just stunned from what they’d heard. Timothy raised his hands.
“Now, as Will said, we know you will have a lot more questions. What he said is all he and the others know about this ‘demon plague’. If you have any other questions, concerns, or ideas, please come to myself, Samantha, or Charlie. We’ll do our best to address them all. Thank you.”
As the meeting ended, Will stepped away and headed towards Jessica. She had moved to the edge of the crowd after she’d said what she’d needed to say, and she was now standing alone.
“Tough crowd,” Jessica said as he approached.
Will smiled. “Thanks for stepping in.”
“Well, it was just a little painful to watch you struggle like that.”
“Struggle?” Will laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
Jessica smiled.
“I’m really glad you’re not mad at me anymore,” Will said. “It’ll make tomorrow a lot easier.”
“I hope so,” Jessica said. “Speaking of which, we should probably go get some rest, huh?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“See you bright and early then, huh?”
“You will,” Will said.
Chapter 16
Will awoke in a fury, gasping for air.
The bed shook and Holly rolled over to face him.
“Baby, you all right?”
Will wiped a pool of sweat from his forehead. He took a deep breath, already starting to calm down.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Was it your mom again?”
Will looked over to her and shook his head. He licked his lips, hesitant to tell her. He finally muttered, “It was you.”
“Me? You had a nightmare about me?”
Will nodded. “We were in the woods, down by the water where we found Dylan and Mary Beth. You were standing at the shore when I approached you. But the closer I got, the more I realized it wasn’t you. That something was different.” He sighed, holding his face. “You turned around, and you were one of them. You were Empty.”
Holly stroked his neck before moving her hand up and running her fingers through his hair.
“It was just a dream,” she said.
“I know. It just felt real.”
Holly cupped his cheek, turning his face toward hers. She leaned in and kissed him, slowly pulling away with her lips tugging on his bottom lip as she separated.
“That was real. Whatever you thought of in that dream wasn’t. Everything is fine. You need to try and get some more rest, okay?”
Instead, Will threw the sheets off and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
“I can’t,” he said. “I’m gonna step outside for a few minutes and get some fresh air.”
“Will, you need to—”
“It’s okay, Holly. Go back to bed. Get your rest. I’ll be fine.”
Getting up, she came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him, kissing his neck. In truth, he was so overheated and stressed from his dream that he didn’t want to be touched, but he refused the urge to tell her that. He knew she was only doing it because she cared. Her hair covered his shoulder as she came around and kissed him on the cheek.
“Just try to come back here and get some rest in a little bit. You’re gonna need it, too.”
“I will,” Will lied, knowing there was no sleep ahead for him.
He leaned over to pick up his jeans and T-shirt off the ground, then stood and dressed.
“I love you,” Holly said.
Will grabbed onto the door handle and turned around. “I love you, too.”
He left the room and crept downstairs, careful not to wake anyone else in the house. The front door creaked as he opened it, and he slowly shut it behind him.
It was still pitch black outside, the sun at least a couple hours away from rising. A cool breeze blew through and he wished he’d brought a coat down with him, but it wasn’t such a big deal that he’d go back inside and risk waking people in the house. He took a seat on the top porch stair.
Sitting in silence, Will tried not to think of the dream he’d just had, but it proved impossible. There weren’t many positive things for him to think about. He was scared about leaving later that morning and hitting the open roads again. Tired of running, he was ready to find a place to settle with Holly—and, hopefully, Jessica, the kids, and Gabriel and his family. When they found Gabriel’s family, that’s what Will had to look forward to, and he forced himself to think about the day when they’d no longer have to run.
The front door opened, startling Will. He jerked around to see Dylan sneaking out of the house. Will furrowed his brow.
“What are you doing up? Did I wake you?”
Dylan shook his head. “I was already awake. But I heard you leave your room and decided to come down here. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” Will patted the concrete beside him.
Dylan sat down, leaning against the bannister.
“Couldn’t sleep either?” Will asked.
Shaking his head, Dylan said, “Had a nightmare.”
“Me, too,” Will said.
“I won’t ask what about, because I don’t want to talk about mine.”
Will smiled. “That sounds good to me.”
“So we’re really leaving, huh?”
“We are,” Will said. “Probably sometime just after the sun comes up.”
“I’m sad we have to go. I really like it here.”
“I know, buddy. I wish we didn’t have to keep dragging you guys from place to place, but that’s just the way things are now.”
“No, I understand,” Dylan said. “I really want Gabriel to find his family.”
“Me, too.”
“Are you still mad at him?” Dylan asked.
Will looked at Dylan. “Where did you get the idea that I was mad at him?”
“Come on,” Dylan said. “I know I’m a kid, but I’m not stupid.”
Will chuckled. “I didn’t say you were.”
“I heard Jessica and Gabriel talking about it. He didn’t sound happy with you, and it didn’t sound like you were happy with him.”
“We’ve spent a lot of time around each other, and Gabriel is really stressed right now. The only thing he can think about is his wife and his little girl. Unfortunately, we’re going to have fights. But everything will be all right. I promise.”
“Yeah,” Dylan said. “I guess I’d be pretty upset too if I was trying to get to my family.”
Will noticed a certain somberness in the boy’s voice. “Dylan, we need to go find your family while we’re in Alexandria; you know that, right?”
“We can’t,” Dylan said. “I told you that.”
“But why? They’ve gotta be missing you.”
“They’re not.”
“How can you say that? I know if I was your dad that—”
“Because they’re just not, okay?” His voice was much more defensive now, sta
rtling Will.
“Whoa, all right,” Will said. “I’m sorry.”
Dylan looked off in silence. His eyebrows furrowed, he frowned.
“They beat me up,” he mumbled.
Will looked down at the boy ducking his head, a few tears coming out of his eyes and dripping down his cheek. More followed.
“I never told anybody. Not even my grandma. I never wanted to leave her house in Texas and go home, but I couldn’t tell her.” He continued looking down and said, “Honestly, when the plane was going down, part of me was happy.”
“Oh, buddy,” Will said. He scooted closer to Dylan and wrapped his arm around him.
The boy cried harder.
“I love you guys and want you to be my family now,” he said. “I don’t even want to know if my parents are still alive.”
“Okay,” Will said, continuing to hold the boy. “Okay,” he repeated.
Will was at a loss for what else to say. Growing up, he’d had a friend who’d been abused by his father. Lucas would show up to school with black marks on his arms. He never talked about it, and it wasn’t until later on that Will came to realize where the bruises had come from. He hadn’t talked to Lucas in years, but he’d heard that he’d gotten into some trouble with the law in his early 20s, making Will wonder if he had turned out the way he had due to that abuse.
Dylan looked up at Will. “Do you have to tell the others?”
“They have the same questions I have,” Will said. “We’ve talked about how we need to go find your parents. But they’d understand if they knew why you don’t want to.”
The boy bowed his head again and said, “All right. But do they have to talk to me about it after?”
“Of course not,” Will said. “I’ll tell them not to ask you about it.”
“You promise?”
“I promise,” Will said. “But I want you to know that, if you need to talk about it, you can come to any of us. You know that, right?”
Dylan looked back up to Will again and nodded, wiping the tears from his cheek.
“I don’t want Mary Beth to know,” Dylan said.
“She won’t unless you tell her. I’m only going to let Gabriel, Jessica, and Holly know.”
“Thank you,” Dylan said. He stood up. “I’m going to try and get some sleep now. You should, too.”
Will smiled. “I’ll think about it.”
The boy turned and headed for the door.
“Hey,” Will said.
Dylan looked back.
“You really can talk to any of us if you need to, all right? Please don’t forget that.”
Letting go of the doorknob, Dylan went to Will and hugged him, wrapping his arm around Will’s neck.
“I love you,” Dylan said.
Squeezing the boy tight, Will said, “I love you, too, buddy.”
Will didn’t sleep anymore that morning. He didn’t even try to.
In lieu of sleep, he walked around the cul-de-sac, no longer keeping count of his laps after he’d circled it five times. The secret Dylan had just revealed to him weighed heavily on his mind. It made him angry. How could anyone harm such a sweet child? The boy had become like a son to him, and it pissed Will off to even think about it.
Working to turn his mind away from Dylan’s abusive parents, Will thought of what the days ahead would be like, while trying to put himself in Gabriel’s shoes to understand how he would be feeling right now. The journey to his wife and daughter had been going on for several weeks, and now that he was only hours away from reaching them, Will knew the anxiety had to be weighing on him.
Out of Gabriel’s shoes, it was easier to imagine what things would be like if they traveled to Gabriel’s house and found that his wife and daughter weren’t there, or worse, had died or been turned Empty. Will knew he had to be prepared in case this happened, though he had no idea how he would help Gabriel cope through something like that. As much as Will wanted to set aside that scenario and have faith they would find them, he couldn’t.
Will also tried to imagine what it had been like being a captive in that school. From the way it had looked when he’d gone there, and the way Gabriel and Jessica had described the experience, Will had trouble even pretending he could understand what it had been like. He’d been taken by David Ellis right after The Fall and held against his own will, but believed that had been nothing compared to what Gabriel and Jessica had gone through. Especially considering they’d been imprisoned much longer than he had.
He decided he was done walking as the sun was just starting to come up. He went to his room and made two trips to grab he and Holly’s things, all without waking her. When they were loaded, he sneaked into Dylan and Mary Beth’s room. Lying on his back, Dylan was fast asleep, snoring with his mouth wide open. Will smiled, happy that the boy had been able to fall back asleep and get some rest. Will left a change of clothes out for each child, stuffed the rest of their things into their bags, and carried them out to the car.
When he arrived back at the SUV, Timothy was leaning against the back of it with his arms crossed.
“You’re up early,” Will said, tossing the bags into the rear cargo hold of the SUV.
“Nah,” Timothy said. “I wake up every morning just as the sun’s coming out. I like to get out here and take a walk before others wake up. Helps me free my mind.”
“I can understand that,” Will said honestly.
Timothy patted the side of the vehicle and looked inside. “Looks like you’ve got ‘er about all packed up.”
“Just about. Missing a few warm bodies, that’s all.”
Timothy sighed and looked to the end of the cul-de-sac. “We really are lucky here, aren’t we?”
“More than I think you know,” Will said.
Lowering his eyes to the ground, Timothy said, “I don’t envy anyone who has to be out there.”
Will knew what was coming next: one final plea for him to stay.
Timothy said, “You know, you can—”
“No,” Will said. “I’m sorry, Timothy, but we have to leave.”
Smiling, Timothy said, “Actually, I was going to say that you could come back here once you get Gabriel’s family.”
“The possibility is in my mind,” Will said. “But what are you going to do in a few weeks when it starts to get colder? And what’ll you do when the temperatures go below freezing, and there’s snow and ice? You don’t have enough gas to run those generators for—”
“I know,” Timothy said, cutting him off. “I know we don’t.”
Will awaited an answer, but Timothy stared off, nervously scratching the scruff on his face.
“I’m sorry,” Will finally said. “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. But you know you need to be thinking about it.”
“It’s all I think about,” Timothy said, looking at Will. “But I don’t know what the answer is. I can’t just take all these people and head south like we’re on the Oregon Trail. We’d lose probably half our damn population, except instead of dying from dysentery, it’d be those monsters biting them. Most of these people aren’t made to be out there like you, Will.”
“I’ve just done what I had to do to stay alive. An unimaginable series of events led us here, but I can see the light at the end of that tunnel now.”
“Florida?” Timothy asked.
Will nodded. “God willing.”
Timothy lowered his head and nodded. He stepped away from the SUV.
“I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for us, Timothy. Your medical expertise saved Dylan and Holly, and you put yourself and others on the line to help us get to Gabriel and Jessica. I wish I could stay, but I also really wish you’d leave and come South with us.”
“This is my home, Will. And I’ll be here to defend it until the day I die.”
Will put his hand on Timothy’s shoulder. “I know.”
“All right, well, I’m gonna let you finish getting things together. I’ll be sure to see you off,
eh?”
“Sounds good,” Will said. “And, Timothy...” Will stuck his hand out, and the doctor accepted it. “Thank you.”
Timothy smiled, shaking Will’s hand, and then let go and walked away.
Chapter 17
When Will returned to his room, Holly was lying on her side, still wrapped up in the covers. She shifted her glance from the window to the door when he opened it, and both of them smiled.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Morning, baby,” Holly replied as she stretched, adding a slight moan to her voice.
Will got into the bed, sitting up against the headboard as Holly grabbed his hand and kissed it.
“How long’ve you been up?” she asked.
Will chuckled. “A better question would be, ‘when are you going to sleep?’”
“You didn’t sleep at all after you got up?”
Will shook his head, and Holly squeezed his hand.
“The dreams will end eventually.”
“I know,” Will replied, looking down toward his feet.
He couldn’t look at her because he knew he was lying. The nightmares would never end. He’d seen enough shit over the previous weeks to give a horror film director enough material for an entire career. Bad dreams would be the same as breathing for Will.
“I’ve got the car packed up,” Will said. “Already got yours and the kids’ stuff in there.”
“Good,” Holly said. “Thank you.” She looked over to the wall their room shared with Dylan and Mary Beth’s. “Are they awake yet?”
“I don’t think so.”
She smiled, took an even firmer grip on his hand, and pulled him over to her. She kissed him, moving a hand to his face and running the back of her fingers down his cheek.
“Then I’d say we have a little time, right?” she said.
As she kissed him again, Holly unbuttoned his pants and pulled them off. She was already naked from the waist down when she rolled over on top of him, straddling him.
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 95
