“Yes,” Dylan said through tears. Mary Beth muttered something that sounded like she at least knew what Jessica had demanded.
Jessica stood up and hurried over to the door. As she approached, she slowed down. Her heart seemed to be going a hundred miles per hour. She closed her eyes, not sure if she could look into the room.
When she was just by the door, the crying of the kids faded into sobbing coming from beyond the swinging doors.
Jessica pushed through and shined her light into the room.
Her hand went to her mouth.
Will sat against a wall, cradling Holly’s body in his hands as he sobbed. Blood puddled all around him, glistening off the light of the flashlight. Jessica quickly lowered the light, pointing it away from his eyes, and then ran over to him.
An Empty body lay nearby, its face unrecognizable. It was then that Jessica understood why so many gunshots had gone off.
She kneeled down next to Will. He had yet to acknowledge there being anyone else in the room. He focused his attention straightforward, quivering as he held Holly’s limp body in his arms. He had taken off his long sleeve shirt and placed it over her throat. The light blue shirt was now stained with blood.
“Will?” Jessica said.
He continued to gasp, breathing heavy and staring ahead.
Jessica reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder, and Will jerked, startling her. He breathed faster. Heavier. Almost as if there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air to fill his hungry lungs.
He looked at her with big empty eyes. Blood decorated his face.
She leaned back in toward him and put her hand on his shoulder again.
“Will,” she said.
He stared at her with his eyes wide for another moment before he grabbed onto her hand. Jessica could feel the wet blood on the top of her hand. He dropped his head onto her arm, and Jessica leaned in to hug him.
After several moments, Will pulled away and looked Jessica in the eyes.
“We can’t leave her like this.”
Jessica shook her head. “No, it’s okay. We can leave before she turns.”
“No,” Will said, almost shouting. “Would you want to become one of those things?”
Jessica didn’t have to think about it even for a second. Even though she’d be dead, there was no way she’d want to turn Empty. She avoided his gaze as she shook her head.
“Neither would she,” Will said.
“Take him out of here and I’ll do it,” Gabriel said.
“I can—”
“No,” Gabriel said, cutting Will off before he could volunteer to do what had to be done. “Go outside and I’ll do it.”
With heavy eyes, Will nodded. “Just let me tell her goodbye.”
Jessica ran her hand down Will’s cheek before she stood up and went to the other side of the room.
Will turned his attention down to Holly’s face, and he lowered his head to touch hers as he cried. Jessica looked away.
She went to the door to check on the kids. They both sat exactly where she’d left them, hugging each other on the ground and continuing to cry. Jessica went over to them and they both stood, each taking one side of her and hugging tight.
Will limped out of the room soon after, his shoulders slumped and a blank stare on his face. The double doors shut behind him, and he stood still. His posture made him look like an Empty. Like he was a lifeless creature, with nothing to live for. And Jessica wondered how much of that was true in his mind now. Will had suffered more loss than anyone in their group since The Fall. Even more than Jessica herself. Will had now lost both his parents and Holly. He’d been closer to Marcus than anyone else in the group. And even though he hadn’t died, Will had been looking after Dylan when he’d lost his arm due to the Empty bite. While no one had blamed Will for the accident, he still felt guilty, like he’d been the one who was ultimately responsible.
Jessica wanted to go to him. To hold him. But she resisted the urge, remembering how she had felt after finding her parents dead.
The doors swung open and Gabriel exited the rear of the warehouse. He let out a sigh. Jessica noticed his knife at his side, knowing full-well it was the weapon he’d used to end any chance that Holly would become Empty.
Gabriel approached Jessica.
“I think it’s best if you walk with him out of here.”
Holding back tears, Jessica nodded.
She approached Will, standing at his side.
“It’s time to go,” she said softly. “Come on.”
Jessica placed her hand on his back and Will moved his feet, barely picking them up off of the ground. She saw now in his walk just how much like one of the Empties he looked. He lumbered just like one.
They made it outside and were halfway back to the SUV when Will fell to the ground, nearly sending Jessica down with him. He landed on all fours and sobbed as he faced the concrete sidewalk.
Jessica had started to kneel next to him when he shot up and looked straight into the sky.
And he screamed.
Chapter 28
After Gabriel finished checking both buildings, but failed to find his wife and daughter, the group hit the road again.
As had been proven normal, what should’ve been no more than a three hour drive to the cabin was now going to take much longer. Not only had seeing Katie’s car led to a fatal detour, but the highways were nearly impossible to maneuver, only allowing them to drive thirty to forty miles per hour for most of the way.
At first, Jessica was worried about bringing up the idea to stop. They were only an hour away from the cabin, and she feared the idea to find a place to sleep for the evening might set Gabriel off. But they were almost out of sunlight, and from what Gabriel had said about the location of the cabin, it wasn’t somewhere they’d want to be traveling toward in the dark of night. Fortunately, Gabriel didn’t argue about camping for the night. After what had happened, the group needed rest.
Just as the sun was going down, Gabriel pulled into a campground. They’d followed signs and found it next to a lake in a desolate area, just over two miles away from the interstate.
Jessica kept a keen eye out the windows, looking for any Empties or other survivors. A place as reclusive as this one would’ve been the perfect place for survivors to make camp—just as long as there’d been no Empties infesting it already.
When they didn’t see any immediate threat, Gabriel parked.
The area had old playground equipment and a barbecue grill which looked like it had been used several hundred times without being cleaned. Not that it mattered since they had nothing worth cooking on it. The kids had no interest in going and playing on the playground equipment. They’d sat in the back with Jessica in almost complete silence, other than some gentle whimpers that mainly came from Mary Beth. Jessica had given them their space, knowing they’d talk to her or hug her if they needed to.
Jessica had actually spent most of the trip staring at Will in the front seat. For the whole ride, he’d pretty much kept his eyes down toward the floor. No one had spoken to him. In fact, no one had spoken at all, aside from the discussion about stopping.
Gabriel exited the vehicle holding a pistol and a flashlight. He walked around the vehicle to meet Jessica.
“I’m gonna scour the area and make certain it’s secure. Stay here and keep an eye on everyone.” He clicked on the flashlight and looked around, then heading off into some nearby trees.
The kids stepped out of the SUV and Jessica led them over to a nearby picnic table. When she looked back to the vehicle, the passenger side door was still closed and Will remained inside, continuing to stare at the floor.
“Do you think he’ll come out?” Dylan asked.
“Eventually,” Jessica said. “We just have to give him some time.”
Gabriel returned soon after and said, “Looks good. I think we’ve got a place to sleep for the night. But I want to get up and get going first thing.”
Their attention was
drawn to the car when Will opened the door and got out. He shut it behind him and walked through the small campground, never looking at the others in the group. He sat down on a rock near the lake’s shore with his back turned to them.
“Should we go say something?” Mary Beth asked.
“No,” Gabriel said. “Just give him time.”
Dylan said, “But I don’t want him to—”
“He’s right, kids,” Jessica said. “I'll go grab some food out of the car so we can eat. Let Will have his space.”
Once they’d eaten, Gabriel gathered wood for a fire. While he and the kids piled it up in the middle of the campground, Jessica sat on the top of the picnic table and watched Will. It had been almost an hour and he still hadn’t moved.
“We’ve gotta go grab a little more wood; then we’ll come back and light this,” Gabriel said. “Going to take them both with me.”
“All right,” Jessica said. “Just be careful.”
Gabriel and the kids disappeared into the woods and she continued to stare at Will’s back.
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.
Jessica hopped off the picnic table and went to him.
In between the crickets chirping and the frogs croaking, it was eerily quiet. Will wasn’t crying. He just stared out over the water, completely silent and still. He had to know she was there, though, because her feet had made a lot of noise crunching the leaves beneath them.
Instead of saying anything, she simply took a seat on the ground next to him.
Will didn’t even look over to acknowledge her. He continued to stare into the horizon. Across the water was another campsite with more trees, and the sky above it was clear, making the stars visible. It was beautiful, and being on the edge of the water looking at it, Jessica felt a peace that she was no longer used to. The only interference in that feeling was that her friend sitting next to her was devastated. And even though she and Holly had never really gotten along, Jessica had lost someone she’d considered a friend. They had survived this long in the new world together, so she couldn’t help but consider her as such.
“Why?”
The sound was so faint, that Jessica almost wasn’t sure if it had come from Will’s mouth. She turned to him, her brow creased.
“What?” she asked.
Will repeated the word again, this time a little louder.
“Why?” He turned to face her. “Why is everyone around me dying, but I get to live?”
Jessica simply stared at him, unsure what to say. He eventually turned away, looking back out to the water and wiping his mouth with his fist. He’d started to tear up again.
“I just don’t understand,” Will said. “I’m losing everyone around me. It just keeps happening. Dylan would have both his arms still if it weren’t for me. All this shit keeps happening, and yet I get to live. But why? Why the hell did I get lucky enough to have Samuel around to save me, but everyone else around me keeps falling?”
“You just can’t think like that,” Jessica finally said. “We live in a cruel world, more now than ever. People are going to die. But you can’t blame yourself for that. And you sure as hell can’t blame yourself for Dylan getting hurt.”
“You weren’t even there,” Will said.
“I know, but Charlie and Holly were, and they both said you weren’t responsible. That you saved him. Everything happens for a—”
“Don’t say that,” he snapped, harshly enough for Jessica to jump back.
Will used both of his hands to wipe his face as he sighed.
“I’m sorry,” he said. He’d started to cry now. “I just can’t believe she’s gone, and I can’t help but to think it was my fault. I should’ve been there to keep that Empty away from her. I should be the one lying on the floor of that warehouse right now.”
Not knowing what else to say or do, Jessica scooted over next to him and put her arm around him. He could’ve either pushed her away or embraced it. He chose the latter, leaning into her and resting his head on her shoulder.
She let him cry for a while before she spoke his name and he looked up.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
They stared into each other’s eyes. Jessica could see every bit of his pain. It hurt her to look at him.
She’d started to turn away when he took hold of her face, and then leaned in and kissed her.
The move caught Jessica off guard, and her eyes went wide for a moment before closing. She cupped his face in her hand, deeply kissing him back as her heart raced.
When they were done, their foreheads met and they looked into each other’s eyes. Will tilted his head to kiss her again, but Jessica backed away. He looked at her, eyes narrowed.
“I’m sorry,” Jessica said. “I can’t do this.”
She turned when she heard footsteps approaching. It was Dylan.
“We’re about to start a fire,” he said. “Are you going to join us?”
Jessica stood up and said, “Sure.”
“Um, I’ll be there in just a few minutes,” Will said.
Jessica turned to look at him, and he glanced up at her for a moment before turning back toward the water.
“Just give me a minute, please,” he mumbled.
Jessica could tell from the tone in his voice how embarrassed he was. She understood because she was, too. Will’s girlfriend hadn’t been dead for more than three hours and they’d already kissed.
She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get past the guilt.
Curled up in a ball on the ground, Will opened his eyes and sat up. He mopped the sweat off his forehead and looked around the room, squinting. It was a tiny space with a desk and a couple chairs. A window let in no light. In fact, it looked like there was nothing outside at all.
When he looked back to the front of the office and saw through the window that looked into the hallway, it came to him just how familiar the place was.
He was back at the warehouse and office he had once worked at.
This was where it had all started after The Fall.
He got to his feet and patted his legs down. He looked down to see himself wearing a neatly pressed pair of khakis and a clean white button-up shirt. He had forgotten how nice it felt to wear fresh clothes. It was a luxury he’d never thought he would know again.
Will reached for the door, then hesitated.
Flashbacks came to him about the last time he had been there. He’d witnessed several of his coworkers being devoured by monsters created from other people he had known and worked with. He’d woken up in this same office he stood in now to a pure nightmare. Literal hell on earth.
He stood still, listening for the shrieking snarls of Empties.
But he heard nothing.
He slowly reached for the handle and pulled the door open.
Will stepped into the middle of the hallway, activating the motion sensor which turned the lights on. He glanced both ways down the corridor. Though the layout of this building looked exactly like Element, there were other subtle differences he noticed. All the pictures Element had had hanging on the walls, of professional musicians playing their product, were gone. The walls themselves were pure white as opposed to the pale tan color he remembered. Also gone were the bodies and the blood stains that had come after The Fall.
He headed down the hall toward the front of the building. As he passed each of the offices, he looked through the adjacent windows and saw they were vacant. The room he’d woken up in had been furnished exactly as he’d remembered it, but the desks, computers, shelves, and all else had been removed from the other offices.
Will stepped into the large front room of the building to see the same thing. There had once been several desks in the room, where the company’s traveling sales staff had worked on the days they were working in the office instead of out on the road. Now the room was just white walls and carpeting.
He took a peek into the office of his old boss, Andrew, to see th
e same thing.
Turning back around, he was able to see through the windows and out into the warehouse. He squinted his eyes to make sure he was seeing things right as he made his way over to the door leading out there.
Will stepped into the huge warehouse and looked around.
The concrete floor had a glow to it like someone had waxed it. The dull lighting Will had once worked in had been replaced by stark white lights, making it the brightest room Will had ever seen. Stranger still was that all the racking was gone, and with it all their inventory. The warehouse was 30,000 square feet of nothing.
He took several steps into the humungous space, glancing up and around.
When he turned around to look back through the office windows, there was nothing but a white wall there. The windows and the door were gone.
He narrowed his eyes and ran to the wall. He slammed against it, spreading his palms wide and running them along the wall.
“Hey!” he yelled, banging on the wall. The reverb was big as his voice carried through the room. “Let me out of here!”
Will moved down the wall, continuing to knock and looking for the door.
“Will,” a familiar female voice said.
Will quit banging on the wall and stared into it, getting lost in the white. He felt his eyes fill up as he slowly turned his head.
“Mom?”
His mother stood there in a dress as white as the walls. Her dark hair was down and curled, flowing and beautiful. She had a smile stretched across her face.
“Hey, sweetie.”
Will pushed off the wall and ran into his mother’s open arms.
He cried into her shoulder. “You’re really here,” he said. “This is all real.”
They pulled apart and his mother was shaking her head.
“No, baby, it’s not. You’re dreaming.”
“But I can feel this. You’re not real?”
She shrugged. “Perhaps I am. It is possible that you’re talking to my spirit, yes, but you’re still dreaming. Soon you’ll wake up in the middle of the woods with your friends.”
“Then why am I here?”
Empty Bodies Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 100
