Each time Will threw a punch, Gabriel laughed harder. It was almost as if he were letting Will hit him now. Like he was enjoying it.
After Will had gotten in five shots, a gunshot went off, and Will jerked his head around.
Jessica and Holly each had a gun in their hands. Smoke rose from the barrel of Jessica’s and both women glared at the two men as they made their way toward them. Jessica had hers aimed at Will, and Holly stood with hers fixed on Gabriel.
“You guys have to stop this right now,” Jessica said. “We can’t afford to have this kind of divide among us.”
“You’ve seen what happens out here,” Holly said. “How the hell do either of you idiots think we’re gonna survive if you’re acting like teenage boys?”
Still pinned under Will, Gabriel continued to laugh, blood pooling around his mouth.
“You think this is funny?” Holly asked Gabriel, extending her arm and aiming the gun straight at his head.
He lifted his hands. “Whoa. Really think you’ve gotta point that gun at me like that?”
“Shut up,” Will said to him.
“Both you shut up,” Jessica said. “We aren’t going to do this anymore. You want to get home or not, Gabriel?”
Neither man responded.
“Then we have to—”
Jessica turned around and Will looked past her to see the two children sprinting toward one of the buildings.
“Stop them,” Will said, pushing himself up and off of Gabriel.
“Come back!” Jessica shouted at the two children as she and Holly ran for them.
But the two children were too fast. They reached the building before the two women could catch up to them, Will several paces behind them.
“Just leave us alone,” Mary Beth shouted as they reached the door.
She pulled open the double doors and screamed as she fell backward, knocking into Dylan and sending him to the ground with her. Three Empties poured out of the doorway, snarling at the children.
Will’s heart raced. Without hesitating, he drew the handgun from his side, clasping both hands on the grip and aiming at the creatures.
He fired two shots, missing with the first and connecting with the head of an Empty on the second. Holly shot one of the other creatures, hitting it in the neck with enough force to knock it down.
Mary Beth managed to work herself backward on her hands, but Dylan had frozen. With only one arm, it was much more difficult for him to maneuver on the ground.
When the last Empty was about to fall down onto Will, Jessica dived into the creature, tackling it to the ground.
“Jessica!” Will yelled.
As Jessica fought with the creature, Holly dragged Dylan out of the way. Will arrived to where Jessica lay struggling with the beast, pointing the gun down and trying to find a shot. When he couldn’t find it, he kicked the creature in the side, knocking it off of her. It chomped its jaws, trying to bite her, but Jessica pressed the barrel of her gun against the Empty’s head and pulled the trigger. The gun remained in her hand, the metal clicking against a ring on her finger as she trembled. Will reached over and touched her shoulder, but she jerked away.
Jessica stared at him with large eyes, blood splattered on her face. She stood, making it to her feet before Will could help her.
She looked back and forth between Will and Gabriel.
Will said, “Jessica, are you—”
“Am I what?” she said, cutting him off. She slammed the double doors shut. “Am I all right? No, not exactly, Will.”
Will could feel his face heat up, his cheeks turning red. Her eyes remained big, going back and forth between he and Gabriel.
“Do you see what the two of you have done?” Jessica continued. “Do you?” She pointed past Will. “Look at them.”
Will couldn’t move his eyes off of Jessica. She was such a quiet woman, and he’d never seen her act like this. It was almost as if she’d held in all of her emotions since The Fall and since she’d found her parents, and now it was all coming to a head.
“Look at them!”
Will turned to Dylan and Mary Beth. Dylan was still on the ground, Holly kneeling behind him with her hands wrapped around his body. Mary Beth stood nearby, eyes flooded with tears. Will frowned, the muscles in his face aching. He was so tired of seeing the two children cry. All he wanted was to get them somewhere safe where the group could try to start a normal life together.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when Jessica continued.
“I want both of you to realize that it’s you who are making them feel like this. It’s your fault they’re crying. You think they don’t know you’ve been down each other’s throats ever since we got out of that school?”
Dylan was looking right at Will, who couldn’t force himself to look away. Jessica was right. He needed to see it. To feel what the children were going through.
Jessica turned her attention to Gabriel. “I know you hurt, Gabriel. These others don’t understand the hell we went through and they never will. But you’ve got to let it go. I know you want nothing more than to get to your family, but remember that these people are your family, too. If it wasn’t for them, then we wouldn’t be here. They came and got us out of that hell.”
She looked at Will. “You have to stop making decisions without talking it over with the rest of us. We’re all in this together. I know that you’ve put a lot of the burden on your shoulders, and we all love you for that. We really do, and maybe we don’t tell you that enough. But you’ve got to stop putting all the pressure on yourself. Lean on us a little bit.”
Keeping her eyes on Will, she pointed to Gabriel. “Now we’re going to do everything we can to get to his wife and daughter, and it’s happening today. Not tomorrow. Okay?”
Everyone in the group nodded, even Holly.
“All right,” Jessica said. “Now you two do whatever the hell it is you have to do to make up and let’s forget about all this crap.”
Will and Gabriel looked at each other. Gabriel swiped his hand across his nearly unrecognizable face again to wipe more of the blood off.
He stuck his hand out to Will.
Will lowered his eyes, staring at the hand for a moment. Then he raised his eyes back to Gabriel’s and accepted the handshake. After a moment, he pulled Gabriel in and the two men hugged.
“Sorry, brother,” Will said.
“It’s all good,” Gabriel said. “I wish I’d just gotten in such good licks on you.”
Will smiled and snorted.
He looked down to Dylan. The boy was smiling and he gave Will a thumbs up.
Will winked at him and gave him the same gesture back.
Jessica grabbed a towel out of the vehicle and went off by herself on the other side of the parking lot. She wiped her face with the towel and, when she pulled it away, was shocked by how much blood had come from her face. She knew she’d shot the Empty point-blank, but there’d been so much adrenaline that she hadn’t even felt the blood splash onto her face. It was a relief, getting the creature’s gore off of her.
She looked back to the group standing around the vehicle. They stood together, cleaning up and taking turns hugging the children. Jessica turned back toward the wall of the building in front of her and cried.
It was the closest she’d come to dying. Not only since The Fall, but in her whole life. The Empty had managed to get its teeth only inches from her arm before Will kicked it off, giving her the opportunity to shoot it. She looked down to her hands now to see them trembling, and the sensation and realization only made her cry more. She drew in deep breaths and closed her eyes.
“You’re okay,” she mumbled to herself. “Everything is okay. Just breathe, Jessica.”
Her tears had started to dry when she heard footsteps behind her. She peeked over her shoulder to see Holly approaching.
“Crap,” she said under her breath, turning back around and clearing the remaining tears in her eyes.
“Hi,” Holly said.
Jessica, knowing her face was still red, forced a smile and turned around. “Hey.”
“You got a minute?”
“Sure,” Jessica said, secretly wishing she could be left alone.
“Thanks for what you did back there with those two,” Holly said. “Everything you said was right. We aren’t going to make it unless we stay together.”
“I just want them to get along. There’s no need for all that.”
Holly took a deep breath and moved her bangs from in front of her face. “Yeah, I agree.”
There was an awkward moment of silence. Jessica was going to speak, but Holly beat her to it.
“Look, I know I’ve been a bitch to you. And I’m sorry about that. It’s just that I really love Will, and I know all this must be hard for you. You got close to his parents, you lost your own parents, and you’re around him all the time. Then all the stuff at the school... I can’t even imagine how hard that was.”
“No,” Jessica said. “You can’t.”
Holly lowered her eyes. “I know. Believe me.”
“So what do you want?” Jessica asked.
Looking up again, Holly said, “I just want to tell you that I’m sorry for threatening you. It was wrong of me to attack you about Will. For all I know, you might not have a thing for him anyway. So I’m sorry.”
Jessica stared into Holly’s eyes, curious to see if she was telling the truth. When it came to Will, Jessica didn’t trust her. But from what she could tell, Holly seemed sincere.
“It’s all right,” Jessica said. “I understand. And just for the record, you were right about it.”
Holly furrowed her brow. “About what?”
“Will,” Jessica said. “I do love him. Enough to where I respect what the two of you have. So there’s no reason for you to start some kind of catfight with me or hold a grudge. We’re all family, and as I said to them, we all have to be in this together.”
Holly lowered her eyes again, then nodded.
“I’ll see you back at the car,” Holly said.
“All right.”
Jessica turned back around, facing the building again.
She closed her eyes.
“Just breathe, Jessica.”
Chapter 20
Gabriel looked out the window, gazing into the fields as Will pulled back onto the interstate.
Dylan was back to normal, talking in the back seat with Mary Beth, Holly, and Jessica. Together they laughed, playing the billboard game they used to pass the time.
But Gabriel just continued to look out the window at the familiar scene. He’d been down this road many times. The closer they got to Alexandria, the more his mind raced and the more he nervously trembled. He remembered driving down this same interstate, his smiling wife and laughing daughter in tow. He found himself able to crack his own smile, even as he continued to tremble.
“How far out are we?” Will asked, pulling Gabriel out of his thoughts.
Eyes hazy, Gabriel looked over at Will.
“Sorry, man,” Will said. “I didn’t realize you were sleeping.”
“No, I wasn’t. I was just thinking and I zoned out for a while.” Gabriel looked out the window and tried to use the scenery to judge how far they were from Alexandria. “Not long at all. Probably less than an hour.”
“Been running across way more Empties,” Will said as he slowed and swerved to avoid a small herd. “I figured we had to be getting close. A couple of military vehicles even cruised by on the other side of the median.”
“I can’t even imagine what things in Washington must be like,” Gabriel said. “We’ve just gotta get my family and head South.”
Dead air filled the space, and Gabriel could see Will out of the corner of his eye, looking back and forth between him and the road.
“Look, man,” Will said. “I really am sorry about what I did: making those decisions without coming to you guys first. It was really selfish of me.”
“Let’s just not even talk about it anymore,” Gabriel said. “It’s over. And I was just as dumb as you were.”
There were another few moments of silence before Will said, “I do just need to ask you one question.”
Gabriel looked to him and raised his eyebrows.
“Why did you lay there and let me hit you?”
Gabriel sat for a moment, choosing his words. When he found them, he smiled. “Because it’s what you needed. And I think, in a strange way, it’s what I needed.”
Will raised one eyebrow and laughed. “You’re messed up, man. You’re like Mel Gibson’s character in Lethal Weapon.”
Gabriel laughed, but only for a moment before his face flared up. It burned all over from the beating he’d taken. He held his cheeks and stopped laughing.
“Everything okay up there?” Jessica asked.
“Yeah,” Gabriel said. He grinned at Will. “Everything’s fine.”
Chapter 21
The place looked nothing like Gabriel remembered it. He had driven through the entrance of his neighborhood more times than he could count. He’d pictured this moment ever since waking up after the plane wreck. And now that he was here, it was almost as if he’d led them to the wrong place.
The wrought-iron gate at the front of the community had been knocked down and now lay on the ground. A car was flipped over in a ditch on the side of the road. The grass had overgrown, covering the flowers and well-manicured landscaping that would usually have been seen when entering Bellingham Estates. Bodies lay on the ground and in the grass—a scene he’d become accustomed to, but it had never been scarier now that he was only a couple of blocks away from his own home. The place where he’d hoped to find his family waiting on him.
Will pulled through the entrance, driving over the fallen gate. Everyone looked around in silence. The toxic aroma of smoke was so strong that it bled into the vehicle, and the children covered their faces with the collars of their shirts.
So many houses on fire, Gabriel thought, begging that his wasn’t one of them.
“Where do I go, Gabe?” Will asked.
His throat dry and his mind wandering, Gabriel almost didn’t hear the question. It might not have been the first time Will had asked it. He slowly rose his arm and pointed ahead.
“Two streets up, you’ll take a right onto Lowry.”
As they moved into the neighborhood, the scene worsened. Doors and windows had been smashed in on several of the houses. Cars were parked in yards. Bodies lay on the grass, sidewalks, and in the road. Will drove carefully, so as not to run over any of the corpses.
He took a right turn onto Lowry, then said, “All right, where next?”
Gabriel swallowed the dry lump in his throat. “You’ll take a left up here on Steeplechase Drive. That’s my street.”
On Lowry, they passed Ben and Rachel Moore’s house, and it was on fire. Their daughter, Chelsea, was one of Sarah’s best friends. He shuddered to think whether they had escaped, or if their corpses lay trapped inside the house.
Across the street were two empty lots where houses had already burned to the ground. One of them belonged to his friend, Don. Gabriel had spent many summer evenings in that backyard, sipping brews and talking about the Redskins, Capitals, and politics.
But none of these thoughts distracted him from the fact that Will was about to make the left turn onto Steeplechase Drive. Once they turned the corner, Gabriel would see his house down on the right. At least, he hoped he’d see it.
He drew in a deep breath as Will made the turn.
“It’s still there,” he mumbled.
“Which one?” Will asked.
Gabriel pointed to the brick home that was four doors from the house on the corner. There were two vehicles in the yard, neither of which belonged to Gabriel. Several houses down was a car on fire in another yard, and Empties loitered in the streets.
Gabriel’s eyes went wide as he saw his house still standing.
Will said, “I’ll pull into the—”
&nb
sp; Without waiting, Gabriel unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door.
“Wait, Gabriel,” Jessica said front he back seat.
“Hold up,” Will said to him.
But Gabriel ignored them both. He looked to the concrete, ready to jump out of the moving vehicle.
“Stop the car, Will,” Holly demanded. “He’s gonna jump out.”
Will hit the brakes and Gabriel nearly flew out of the vehicle. He managed to say on his feet as he jumped out and ran for his house. An Empty came from his right, and he drew a knife from his side and buried it into the thing’s skull, quickly pulling the blade back out. He then refocused on the front door of his home, jogging through his yard.
Another Empty came at him and he shoved it down onto the grass.
All he could think of was getting through the front door.
Seeing his wife and his daughter.
He hurried up the patio and turned the knob.
The door opened, and Gabriel was finally home.
Chapter 22
“Katie? Katie, are you here?”
Gabriel hurried into the living room. The sofa had been moved and the television lay on the ground, broken. Statues and ornaments that had long decorated the mantle now lay scattered, some in pieces, in front of the fireplace. Even though his house had been raided, he refused to believe his wife and daughter weren’t there.
Gabriel jogged past the front door again just as Will and Jessica entered. He ignored them, checking the downstairs bedroom and bathroom.
Nothing.
He headed back to the front of the house.
“Gabriel, where do we need to look?” Jessica asked.
Still ignoring them, Gabriel hurried upstairs. Will and Jessica followed behind him.
“Katie? Sarah?”
Gabriel ran to his daughter’s room first, rushing through the door.
“Sarah? Baby, where are you?”
He looked everywhere, even checking under her bed and in the closet. His daughter was nowhere to be seen. He left the room, and both Will and Jessica were standing in the hallway.
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 97
